One of the benefits of being a part of a community like twitter, linkedin or any other face-to-face and/or internet community is that you have the ability to meet and interact with people that you would otherwise not. You have a chance to change your own typical routine and better show and witness the similarities people share, rather than the differences we tend to notice on a daily basis.

In these times of change we all have a decision to make!

In my own experiences, I have found it hard to handle the choices and changes I have faced. I have my own weaknesses that can sometimes blatantly make themselves more evident, as apposed to the strengths’ that I would rather have others see. However, I believe that a person’s greatest strength can be realizing and understanding the weaknesses they currently possess and then making an effort to become better. I could say that we do not have weaknesses, just strengths that could really become stronger. But then again that thought is always subjective.

Many of us are faced with a choice.

We can back away from the transitions that we are faced with or we can embrace the transitions head on and do our best to make things better for ourselves and the people around us. This, in and of itself is not easy. In fact, it is rather painful. It takes persistence and practice for us to address the habits that we want to change and the ones we’d like to build to become better as a company.

People have their own ideas of change. I am well aware that we have had our share. I like to think of change more as transitions. Our business, our people, and our lives all face a cycle of these transitions. In order to make the transitions better and easier we all need a few things.

• We need to ensure that we better communicate to and help others understand why a transition occurs and how it is important to us.
• We need to realize that we all have strengths, rather than weaknesses, and we can make those strengths stronger.
• We need to leverage the expertise and wisdom of the workforce we currently have, while preparing for and building the knowledge of those that will lead us towards the future.
• We need to show empathy for those facing the transitions and be mindful of our judgments and realize that we are all different and handle transitions in distinct ways.

Nothing will happen over night, whether personally or in business. So I, like many of the people you directly work with, always ask for assistance and patience. This past year has brought difficult decisions and situations. The outlook for 2010 is not bleak yet it is not filled with sunshine. This year will be a long and tedious process. This time of transition will be at times easy and other times frustrating. However, it will always take the effort and engaged involvement. I do believe that through concerted efforts from every person in the community. We can and have helped each other to become better people.