An Action Plan For Embracing Change

A few months ago brought the new book, Build For Tomorrow, by Jason Feifer, Editor in chief of Entrepreneur magazine and host of the podcasts Build For Tomorrow and Problem Solvers. 

“My new book is for anyone facing down an uncertain future, as well as a practical guide for every entrepreneur and aspiring entrepreneur,” says Feifer. 

Organized around the four phases of change, Feifer shares personal insights and learnings from his interviews with success entrepreneurs and changemakers who have experienced tectonic shifts in work, culture, and life. 

The four phases of change are:

1. Panic
2. Adapt
3. New Normal
4. Wouldn’t Go Back – When we gain something so new and great that we wouldn’t want to go back to a time before we had it. 

“Change is coming. It’s here. It cannot be stopped! And when it comes for us, we really only two choices – to embrace it, or to fight a losing fight,” explains Feifer. 

Therefore, Feifer teaches that:

• When in the Panic phase of change, pause when other panic.
• Next, in Adaptation, change first or, better yet, before you have to.
• Within the New Normal phase, lead the charge to change.
• And, finally, in the Wouldn’t Go Back phase, seize new opportunities. 

By reading the book, you’ll learn in great detail how to accelerate the change process—lessen your panic, adapt faster, define the new normal, and thrive going forward. 

Jason Feifer

Feifer answers these questions for us: 

Question: Of the four phases of change, which is typically the most difficult for people to work through and why? 

Feifer: You'd think it would be Panic, but here's the thing about that phase: Everyone knows that panic feels terrible, so they'll do whatever they can to stop feeling that way. That's why I think the hardest phase is really New Normal — because that's where we get comfortable again, and people love comfort. A lot of people stop evolving at New Normal; they don't push themselves to make that extra step, and really challenge the way they work and live.   

Question: Change is one of the most difficult things for people. Do you believe the pandemic helped demonstrate to people that change can be good? And, will that learning carry forward? 

Feifer: It definitely demonstrated that. I don't mean to discount loss and tragedy, which of course happened, but it is also true that many people and companies experienced tremendous growth. So, what happens next time these people confront change? I hope they'll remember this moment and feel more empowered, but they'll also have to be careful not to fall into the "This Time Is Different" mindset. It happens all the time — we know that change helped us before, but now we see a new change and we think this time is different. But it's not. Yes, every change looks and feels a little different, but the experience and potential are ultimately the same. 

Question: What is your biggest piece of advice to readers who want to be more forward thinking?

Feifer: Consider why change is so hard. Here's my theory: We often equate it with loss, and loss is so much easier to see than to see gain. We know what we're comfortable with, and therefore we know what we'll lose -- and because we want to see the future, we start to extrapolate that loss? We think: "I'll lose this, and then I'll lose this, and then I'll lose that..."

But, that's not how it works. Change leads to gain too, and that's much harder to see. So we need to start training ourselves to not only trust that there's gain, but also to start extrapolating the gain: To say, "this could lead to that, which will provide me with that, which will..."

Thank you to the book’s publisher for sending me an advance copy of the book.