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Over the past few days, I’ve read some material that has gotten me thinking about the single moment in time when we make a choice to change.

LindaF recently commented on my Putting It All Together post:

A major turning point in my life was when I decided to quit my job as an assistant coach for a community college athletic team.

It was a rapid change rather than a gradual one. The head coach I worked for was emotionally unstable and verbally abusive. It had come to a point where I found that I spent a lot of my time and energy as a mediator, smoothing over situations where she had acted out of line with players, parents and coaches.

Sometimes I feel like I could have handled my resignation in a more “professional” manner (I packed up at an out of town tournament and got a flight out), but I don’t regret my decision to leave at all.

That was definitely a rapid change and reminded me of the guy who left AmeriCorps in the middle of the night. Then I read the Threshold of Tolerance thread over at Steve Pavlina’s forums which discusses ways to reach the “threshold” where a situation just isn’t tolerable anymore to hurry change along. I began to consider the idea that more uncomfortable a situation is, the quicker we will change it. It’s a bit like the old story of the frog in a pot of boiling water. In the version I’ve heard, if you put a frog in a pot of cool water and gradually heat it up, the frog will just stay there until it cooks. However, if you put a frog in a pot of water that is already boiling, it will jump out right away.

The moments in my life where I have been only vaguely unhappy (like when I suffered through confirmation class in 8th grade) have been easy to get used to. When I have been truly upset or miserable (like when a potential employer hit on me in a job interview!) I have been able to act quickly and decisively.

This leads to an interesting conclusion. Maybe, in order to be at our most efficient and effective when it comes to change, we need to suffer more!

Huh.

Now that we’ve explored the three sets of sliders in a change process - Change vs. Accept It As It Is; Rapid vs. Gradual Change; and Creative Destruction vs. Creative Recombination - it’s time to put the concepts into practice. I thought a personal example would best illustrate how to do this, so I will use my experience with choosing to terminate my service with AmeriCorps.

Background
Immediately after completing my undergraduate degree, I joined the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps. This program is designed as 10 months of community service within the United States. The NCCC is modeled after the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps and when I was a member it was directed by a retired Army general. Our work was pretty varied, and during my service I provided disaster relief, tutored elementary school students, and gleaned spinach, among lots of other stuff.

I enjoyed the service work, but the structure of the program was quite military. All the Corps members were assigned to teams of 12-15 people, with one team leader. We lived together, worked together, and socialized together. Our rules of conduct were pretty strict. We had weekly living quarters inspections, there were many limits on drinking alcohol and dating other Corps members (these were widely ignored), and we had to wear a uniform that consisted of some very unflattering cargo pants and grey t-shirts.

Now, I’ve never been one for following orders, and I found the structure of the program quite restrictive. At the time I was 22 years old, had lived on my own for a few years, and knew how to take care of myself. I wasn’t very receptive to someone telling me how to make my bed or what to drink. Did I mention I got paid $75 a week and food stamps? And we had to travel everywhere in a 15 passenger Chevy van? After 4 or 5 months of that, I was pretty unhappy and began to seriously consider leaving.

Change vs. Accept It As It Is
For me the hardest point in the change process is deciding to make a change. I sat at that dreaded 5 for several weeks. Part of me wanted to honor my commitment to serve and do whatever good I was able to during the few months of service I had left. Another part of me was tired, stressed out and physically run down. I also had to opportunity to leave the Corps and almost immediately start a reasonably well paying job, which only increased my inner conflict.

I did everything I could think of to avoid making a decision. My friends received long, whiny phone calls and emails asking for advice. I made Pros & Cons lists. I took long walks and paced a lot.

Finally I made the leap and decided to leave. Once I was at a 10 it was time to start strategizing how to implement the change.

Rapid vs. Gradual Change
When I made my decision, my team was in the middle of a 6 week project. It just happened that the project would be finished just before Easter. While other people had suddenly quit and left the Corps (one guy left literally in the middle of the night), I didn’t want to be unfair to my teammates. I also needed to contact my future employer and make sure my job was still available.

I decided to be more gradual (I’d say a 4 on a 1-10 scale with 1 being slow as mud) in my approach. I told my teammates and the program directors that I would be leaving with plenty of notice. While many people tried to persuade me to stick around, my mind was made up. AmeriCorps has a lot of paper work involved with terminating service early, so I took care of all that. I got the oil changed in my car, packed up, and left on Good Friday.

I drove about 12 hours through pouring rain. When I was 30 miles from home, the sky cleared and a rainbow appeared over the highway. I felt better than I had in a looong time.

Creative Destruction vs. Creative Recombination
While my time in AmeriCorps was far from ideal, I took a lot of good away from my experiences. I could have quit the Corps, gotten a job making tons of money, and never helped anyone again. But I didn’t do that.

My community service experience really helped me solidify some values that had been half-formed already. Those values led me into a career that provides service in a less direct way (I don’t tear down drywall much anymore), but still stays true to my experiences. In a way, I guess I’ve recombined elements that were already within me to serve a new purpose.

Conclusion
As I hope my example illustrates, change is a process, not a single moment in time. There are many decision points in any change process - many more than the three steps I’ve outlined. Whether you are working at a personal level, or implementing change in a Fortune 500, it is important to be strategic in a change process and use the many options and tools available to reach the best possible outcome.

I welcome any examples of changes that anyone would like to share in the comments.