How to Stop Worrying and Embrace Work’s Surprises

“Surprise!”

That’s a fun word when it launches an unexpected party. It’s not so fun when it launches your work day. Yet for more and more of us, the exponential acceleration of change in the world translates into surprises at work.

Fortunately, Chris Nolan and Mike Schindler—our podcast guests and creators of the It’s VUCA documentary—have already developed practical tools to keep your cool while you navigate life’s inevitable changes.

First, recognize your Micro Wins.

You’ve probably heard this advice before as some variation of “Celebrate the small stuff.” But most of us are so focused on the problems we face that we have difficulty seeing those little wins in the first place. So each day, before you check e-mail or glance at Slack, take just five minutes of quiet time to jot down a list of things that went right yesterday. It could be as simple as not spilling coffee on your brand-new slacks or as complex as your team finding and debugging one line of troublesome code—a win is a win. See it, then celebrate it.

Second, build your Three Disciplines.

Now it gets a wee bit harder as you grow into new habits, starting with Structural Discipline. Here, the focus is physical. You’re finding habits and routines that promote health: exercise, adequate sleep, good nutrition, and the like. This has double the impact, because what’s good for your body also tends to be good for your mind, which benefits the next step:

Reactive Discipline. Here, you’re learning to manage your responses to unexpected challenges by maintaining calm as they emerge. Think of pilot Sully Sullenberger who ditched his US Airways jet in New York’s Hudson River when the plane’s engines died. His calmness ensured no fatalities for the passengers. With mindfulness, deep breathing, and other techniques, you too can develop that calm, and make thoughtful decisions rather than reacting impulsively to surprises.

Rounding out this troika is Expansive Discipline. Now, you’re growing your mind in general—becoming a lifelong learner. Listening to podcasts (like ours!), reading books, taking classes: you let your curiosity fly, embracing both personal and professional growth. As the workplace continues to change, old skill sets may not be as useful, but continual curiosity keeps you current and better able to absorb whatever new skills and knowledge your team requires.

Third, Bring It On!

With those foundations underway, it’s time to embrace change instead of just facing it. Mike and Chris call this the Bring It On Tool. At its core, you visualize challenges: those looming now, and those you’d like to see in the future. As you picture those challenges, also see yourself embracing them, tackling them, solving them—and think of the benefits those wins will bring. Think of how you’ll celebrate them, too! This technique helps you overcome fear, anxiety, and avoidance as you move into proactive engagement.

Like all good things, these tools take time to kick in automatically when unexpected challenges arise. But with patience and practice, you’ll be turning every exclamation of “Surprise!” into “Success!” instead.

Many workplace surprises can be serious, but some of the biggest workplace surprises are pretty darn funny in hindsight. What’s the funniest surprise you’ve faced at work? Brighten our day by sharing your story in the comments.

This article was adapted by Dan Mushalko from our podcast episode How Leaders Thrive through Rapid Change.

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