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CPA Series: Tips for Managing [More] Change

By Elise May, Communications Coordinator – Indiana CPA Society

Dec 7, 2022

At this point, a lot of us likely feel we have reached our limit with change.

You might have found yourself wishing things at work or in life could be what you expected for just an hour, a day, week, month or maybe even a year. Although our threshold for change feels at capacity, it’s also fair to say our ability to accept and manage change successfully has grown.

It might not have been pretty getting here—maybe some of us had an off-camera meltdown or two along the way—but we seem to have unwittingly gotten better at taking changes in stride after being forced again and again over the past two years to learn how to “pivot” as individuals and within our organizations.

However, those were mostly reactive responses to sudden change—how do we now move back into proactive change at work, when people are so tired already? Why are we doing this extra thing? Why are you dreaming up different projects that tax our workload and mental bandwidth? Why is this necessary? How will it affect us?

For teams to successfully embrace planned changes, they need to be part of the discussions. They need to understand why change is needed and be able to volunteer input on a realistic and reasonable way to get there.

In part 2 of our CPA series below, INCPAS members and experts share their tips on what it takes to successfully drive change in organizations. See part 1 about talent trends and investing in your team.

“The level of buy in and acceptance to change that people feel is often a function of how early, how often, and how meaningfully they have been engaged in the change management process.”
—Mark Volpatti, CPA, Ed.D., Valparaiso University