Responding to Change

Mac did not have a good day on Monday. He is used to being the boss of the house when it comes to dogs. On Monday, we had company and that included three new dogs into his world. He welcomed the people, but the dogs, not so much.

Poor Mac, these dogs did not take direction, wanted equal shares of the patting and in general interrupted the even tenor of his ways. Unable to figure it out he went into retreat mode, crawled under a chair and stayed there. Never was a dog so happy as he was when the company left.

In my years of work I have witnessed that behaviour on many occasions. A new employee joins the group and not knowing the pecking order makes the “mistake” of not seeking assistance or not agreeing with someone who is used to thinking of themselves as the group leader. This is generally not the manager, but one of the employee group.

The response will generally take one of two directions, ignore and deflect (the Mac approach) or commence hostilities. Neither is useful and both arise from our fight or flight responses.

I wonder what would have been different for Mac if he had chosen to engage and ended up with three new friends to play with? I wonder what would happen if we suppressed our natural responses? Would we end up with an interesting and enjoyable new collegue?