The best way to bring about change is to bring everyone along with you. But how does that work in practice? In business, change is a necessity; the status quo is never an option.

Stop moving and you die. There are many phrases that express this sentiment, but how do we prepare for the inevitable times of change? Do we look to maintain the skills we need to manage change as an essential part of our skill set?

In fact, we probably don’t prepare well at all. We focus on the clinical skills we need for patient care and possibly the business skills that are useful to help us manage the day to day. As a result, we let change just happen. Sometimes we fight it, but usually we don’t act to take the control that is needed for change to happen with the least stress or in order to gain the most benefit.

Take a look around you. Change is happening everywhere – the coronavirus has sped everything up. Primary care has changed significantly. Our patients and customers have changed their attitudes and expectations of us, sometimes at the expense of basic courtesy and civility. Aside from the pandemic, the national pharmacy contracts have changed significantly – NHS expectations have increased. If we fail to recognise and respond, at best we put ourselves at a disadvantage. At worst, we could find that we don’t have a business.

In a storm, the flexible trees bend with the wind, but trees that can’t bend get up-rooted. Perhaps we should choose to change when faced with it, because we will put more energy into it – whether it is reorienting retail space to allow for social distancing, increasing services for shielded patients or sourcing new product categories – when we feel we have a choice. When change is forced upon us, it’s more difficult.

If change is happening whether we like it or not, there is little point in trying to hold back the tide. It wastes time and energy, increases stress and decreases effectiveness. So the first thing to consider when change occurs is our attitude to it and how we can exercise as much choice as possible.

We can choose our reactions. We can also choose, to some degree, how we implement the change. However limited our scope for choice, we will see an imposed change as more positive if we have an element of control.

Pause to reflect

Think about the last time you went through a period of change. It could be something at work, or from outside work.

• Do you recognise the stages of your emotional reaction to the change?
• What could you have done to improve your response to the change and become more resilient?