My very first Senior Leader Connection write-up! I am going to be honest that I have been thinking a lot about what I should write about… and then it dawned on me: Change. In my lifetime I can’t possibly think of all of the times that I’ve navigated through changes. Whether it be a change at my workplace, change of where I lived, change of new friends or drifting away from old friends, changes at home such as adding a child or pet to the family or saying goodbye to a loved one; simply put, we all navigate the many different changes that occur in our day-to-day lives. Some of the changes are exciting and welcomed and others are not so much. Regardless of the type of change occurring in your life, change helps you grow. It can help you learn, be more flexible, maybe be more understanding, and it might just prepare you for the future.
Sometimes with a change, it is easy to fall back into the way things were before a change occurred. I have a great example from my personal life to share in regard to this. I have two boys – Coleman who is 9 and Corbin who is 7. They have separate rooms and always have, but they have continued to want to sleep with each other. They usually sleep in Coleman’s full-sized bed, but they somehow on occasion will squeeze into Corbin’s twin-sized bed – not sure how that is comfortable! For Christmas this year they each got a new comforter set with some of their favorite characters, and I was hoping this would be helpful in getting them transitioned to their own beds. It worked…for approximately 5 nights. They are now back to sleeping with each other, and frankly it’s just not something worth fretting over at this point because some day they may not want anything to do with each other! While this might not be a change worth fretting over right now, there are some changes in life that ARE worth it. The same thing can very well be applied to our work lives.
Change is inevitable and while in the moment it may be challenging and there may be unknowns, many times change produces growth. Growth helps us push ourselves to do things or offer services that benefit our communities and our world. I continue to be amazed at Iowa Specialty Hospitals and Clinics and how this organization continues to move forward, adapt to change and new service lines and value its employees at the same time. You do not find this at any organization, and ISH is successful because of the staff who continue to engage in their work and know we all have a PURPOSE in the work that we do. Thank you to all of you who embrace change and make this a great place!
