Change Sucks (Even When It’s for the Better)

TL;DR? The process of change comes with chaos and complexity – sometimes more than what you started with. You get through the process by maintaining vision while tolerating the chaos and complexity. (Even when the end result isn’t perfectly defined.)

Change Sucks.

Even when it’s for the better.

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I rearranged my kitchen yesterday.

It took hours. And more than one garbage bag.

I know the new arrangement will better support me using my kitchen in the future, not only for eating, but also for cooking, baking, and other general kitchen area stuff.

Dishes and bowls have been moved around in line with easier access and regular usage (a.k.a. structural support for the processes I want to promote). I don’t find it as aesthetically pleasing as I used to, but it was easier to plate dinner tonight.

Spices have been consolidated – and categorized – into their own cabinet space (a.k.a. consolidating resources). There’s a soup we make weekly that uses a variety of spices; these have been separated onto their own section of a shelf. Things that are primarily for savory or sweet/dessert things have also been grouped. As needed, labels were moved so I could open a cabinet and immediately read what’s what.

Dried goods – oats, flour, sugar, lentils, etc. – are in see-through containers (a.k.a. better inventory management).

You get the picture.

Motivation, Easier Wins, and Temptations

What motivated this change? Frustration with how things weren’t functioning. A breaking point.

A realization that our recent changes had been focused on adding and expanding, but what we really needed was a reassessment, a culling, a realignment.

I knew what my biggest pain points were – like the spices – but I didn’t start there.

I started with an easier win – the funky corner cabinet – a place I knew I’d accumulated things that could be obviously pitched or moved, freeing space for better utilization immediately. And giving me a glimpse of what this rearrangement truly had to offer.

Things I’d removed that needed to be reviewed with someone else, or that didn’t have a new home yet, stayed on a countertop while I moved on to my next easy win. And so on.

As I worked, the biggest struggle was resisting a Tetris mentality of filling spaces instead of foregrounding functionality – especially during times when counter space (and the dining table) were completely filled with things I had unpacked from their previous locations and I wasn’t quite sure where it was all going to end up.

Which actually worked out really well, because new opportunities arose as I went along, sometimes changing how I thought I was going to use some spaces when I started this rearrangement.

The Business Lessons in the Kitchen Analogy

There’s a broader takeaway here that I see in my work with clients, especially the foundational brand identity work and related realignment, and the struggle from “things have always been this way” to more effective and vision-aligned processes.

Here it is: Change comes with chaos and complexity – sometimes more than what you started with. You get through the process by maintaining vision while tolerating the chaos and complexity.

Where People Get Stuck (and Give Up)

Sometimes you have to start before you know quite what the end result is going to look like. That’s not the same as not having criteria/vision for a successful outcome. It’s completely possible to define deal breakers (e.g., spices are still scattered) and goals (e.g., not having to unpack other stuff to get to the mixing bowls) that you stay true to even when the exact implementation is in flux.

The Tetris mentality feels productive. It fills the gaps and makes things tidy again – but it’s surface level only. You’re kicking the can down the road. Start with an “easier win” that helps set the foundation for moving forward in a proactive way, and know that the immediate result won’t look like smooth sailing. (Because, among other reasons, old habits are hard to overcome.) But smoother sailing is definitely in the forecast.

The Reality Check

But tonight?

Tonight I’m making a cherry crisp.

And I can’t find an effing thing.