On the morning of December 5, 1983, I woke up in my childhood bedroom in Santa Ana, California. 24 hours later, I awoke to bright lights, shouting, and the sound of a galvanized steel garbage can crashing against the floor. Life for me changed overnight. I was now in the United States Navy.
The purpose of basic training is to transform civilians into members of the military. The process is the same for every branch. Strip away all vestiges of civilian life. Implement strict rules. Operate from a place of fear. Stress strict obedience. Break down the individual.
About halfway through boot camp, the process changes. Those who make it that far begin operating as a unit rather than a bunch of individuals. New norms are instilled. Confidence is restored and bolstered with a new sense of pride. Upon graduation, most parents can’t believe they’re greeting the same daughters and sons they said goodbye to a few months earlier.
Even though I didn’t find boot camp all that challenging (I was used to the physical training and the mind games from playing four years of high school football), it did transform me into a different person. And it only took nine weeks. Sometimes the most profound changes don’t take all that long to happen.
The changes we fear the most are the ones that completely rock our worlds. Experts call these types of changes re-creations. Re-creations are quick, profound, and completely transformative. We experienced these at the airport right after 9/11. And in every area of society during COVID. Nothing is the same after a re-creation. How do we survive it?
In our management training programs, we talk about our 3-Legged Stool of Great Performance™. Great performance in individuals is a combination of skill (what you know), will (your motivation), and focus (the direction and focus to make it happen). In dealing with change, I prefer to consider the Gears of Change.
When I was in the process of enlisting in the Navy, I had to take the ASVAB vocational assessment to see if I had enough brains to make it in. I remember one of the questions having a series of gears and we had to draw arrows as to which direction each of the gears would turn. This is the inspiration behind the Gears of Change. What you know, what drives you, and what focuses you could shift the direction. Here’s my suggestions for a re-creation change:
Skill: Learn as much as you can about the change, what led to the change, and the goal of the change. Then find out what skills you need to survive it. With the 9/11 TSA changes, I learned very quickly how to navigate the airport and how to pack.
Will: Accept it. Let go of the past and embrace the new. I realized about two years after 9/11 that airport security headaches were just going to be part of the routine. In a re-creation, realize the change is much bigger than you. Accept it and move on.
Focus: Channel your fear and anxiety into meaningful action. If the Will gear is turning, use focus to direct the energy. Do your research into the change but think about how you will leverage it. When I traveled through airports, I designed my carry-ons to be as efficient as possible, purchased TSA Pre-Check and CLEAR, and chose to travel at off peak times.
If the Gears of Change don’t turn, nothing happens except you get left behind or steamrolled through the change. If re-creation is happening to you, turn into it and accept it as soon as you can.