Change…Can be a stepping stone instead of a stumbling block

By Mark Gorkin

Feeling overextended? Here's how to survive “survivor shock.”

In this era of downsizing in which everything from the size of your workforce to the annual budget comes under the ax – arts-related programs and agencies are straining to meet the expanding needs of patrons, members, and the community. Diminished human and financial resources often mean that overextended staff is left behind to pick up the emotional pieces and unfinished projects. Turbulent transitions can easily induce a state of "survivor shock."

Are you or is your organization heroically still trying to be all things to all people? Or has your personal or group battle cry at work become: "Do your eight and hit the gate, nine-to-five and stay alive?" Consider these questions to assess your potential for exhaustion, apathy, cynicism, or callousness in these lean and mean times.

Are you:

• Servicing a greater number of people or projects than ever before?
  
• Grappling with an ever-expanding or changing base of data, policies, or procedures?
  
• Feeling like a slave to deadlines or frustrated from an apparent lack of time?
  

Beware. The challenge in coping with stress is both to go with the flow and know when to say "no" to taking on too much work. And, believe it or not, there are some simple things you can do to survive, if not thrive, in these turbulent times.

Psychological Hardiness
In the early eighties, as AT&T went through its much publicized break-up, a group of psychologists studied a number of the company's executives. The researchers discovered that certain executives were susceptible to physical and emotional illness or disruption while other execs demonstrated "psychological hardiness." Despite the transitional trauma, these hardy souls displayed what I call the "4C’s" of masterful coping, which are crucial to survival in any professional field, especially the arts.

Commitment
While invested in the company's reorganization, the hardy executives were also committed to and nurtured by family, friends, religious practice, recreation, and hobbies. As I like to say: Fireproof your life with variety.

Control
The psychologically hardy had a realistic and less rigid need for control; they were able to let go temporarily of turf and status to reassess shifting organizational players and overt and covert rules and boundaries. Not only did these hardy executives create a valuable vantage point for surveying the overall changes, but their patience and flexibility were eventually rewarded with solid positions.

Change
Flexible and visionary executives did not harbor false hopes or illusions about the future. They quickly grieved their sense of loss and were ready to exploit the unknown. This allowed them to see change as a stepping stone, not a stumbling block.

Conditioning
Finally, the most psychologically hardy individuals engaged in regular physical exercise, which enhances mental sharpness and endurance as well as releasing hormones called endorphins, the body's natural pain killers and mood relaxers.

Mark Gorkin, "The Stress Doc," is a licensed Clinical Social Worker and a national speaker and trainer on stress, communications, team building, creativity and HUMOR. He is the "Online Psychohumorist" (TM) for the major AOL mental health resource, Online Psych, and for AOL's Business Know How. Check his Web site, recently featured as a USA Today Online "Hot Site," at www.stressdoc.com or email StressDoc@aol.com.

Published in Networking Today, June 2002.