In truth, it doesn't happen to us, we choose it.  Even the choice to be at a specific place and at a specific time contributes to events that happen there and then, good or bad.  It's all about choice.

Our businesses, the organizations / companies we choose to work for, are created by those who work there.  Your contribution, no matter however grand or seemingly insignificant you might judge it, is a part of that company and all it touches.  After all, the organization is really nothing more than the sum of its parts - the people who make it up.  It's nothing with just its machinery and plant.  It's nothing with just money.  All of what it is amounts to nothing without people - including you.  Your choices are reflected in the business and your choices can change it.

For example, you might be completely happy with your job, your company and its impact on society.  But then again, you might not.  According to a recent survey only about 27% of Americans really enjoy their jobs, 53% are content and 20% really hate it.  I've chosen to do what I love - have you?  Would you feel comfortable flying in an air-plane piloted by someone who hates his job?  Would you want to eat a meal prepared by a chef who hates his work?  If you aren't happy, then ask yourself "why am I choosing this?"  You can always choose differently.  Find another job, start your own company, go back to school, move, retire...   Why stay where you aren't happy?  Why choose those circumstances through the combination of your past and present choices?  Inaction, failing to choose, is a choice after all.

You are creating the roots of your own unhappiness.  Blaming circumstances or others is not valid.  After all, you chose them too.  And you can change it all - through choice.  Yet so many of us hold ourselves back.  We stay in that uncomfortable place where we are now rather than choosing something different.  Why?

Answer: Fear.  We are afraid of the unknown that comes with the new choice.  One of my friends considers FEAR an acronym for "Future Events that Aren't Real".  We don't know if we'll like it.  We don't know a lot about the consequences of our choices until we experience them.  Just as you don't know what SCUBA diving is like until you try it.  It can be perfectly safe but it can also end in tragedy - the consequences depend on the choices you make along the path of choosing to SCUBA dive.  We create the circumstances of our own existence. 

You might be unhappy with the results you are getting at work - your maintenance isn't keeping up with demand for repairs, uptime isn't what your company needs, you're being blamed for a lack of equipment performance, etc.  Recognize that your choices combined with the choices of others (your co-workers, management team, contractors, etc.) are all contributing to that present reality.  If you want to change it you'll need to shift a lot of choices.  And it begins with your own.

Have you ever noticed how those around you are a lot like you?  Even people and their dogs often look alike.  If you start changing aspects of your life so too will those around you.  For example, if you join a service club or take music lessons and you'll form new friendships with like-minded people.  You'll drift away from those who don't share your interests.  My family and I have drifted apart because we don't all share the same interests - after many years we are almost like old school chums having a reunion whenever we get together.  We catch up, share stories and then drift apart again.  People with similar interests are closer together.  I spend more time with my friends in Toastmasters International than I do with my brothers and sisters - and one brother lives only a few blocks away.  If you shift the way you are, things around you will shift.  It just happens naturally.

There's a saying that "management gets the unions they deserve".  Another is, "people will follow the way that they are led".  If the leader changes the situation changes.  Notice when someone in a senior role moves on and is replaced how everything shifts.  Similarly, if you just shift yourself, you create a shift around you.  Shift from being reactive to being proactive and your department will begin to shift too.  If you are the official leader it may shift faster, if you are not, then it may take longer.  But sustain your shift in yourself, and it will begin to happen.  It doesn't need to be forced.

To speed it up, get more people on board with your ideas and get them to shift too.  Every tree grows from a small seed.  You create that reality around you.  "Existence is but an extension of yourself" is a quote from The Wonders.  Recognize the reality of what it means and you can change everything.