fearlessstories.com

You can take it with you. Your comfort zone, that is. You know, that cozy place that all these books and seminars and gurus keep telling you to leave. Leaving is scary, so sometimes even if you claim to be seeking “discomfort” (oof), maybe you really aren’t. But see, a zone is like a territory, or like a country. And the thing about leaving your comfort zone is that you’re not a tourist, visiting these risky new places for a little while and then retreating back home. No, you’re an imperialist, putting forth a considerable effort to extend your borders over an area that wasn’t always yours. There’s a reason that board game is called Risk. But once that happens, your zone is bigger, and you are comfortable doing more things. You can survive job interviews. Extreme sports. Awkward social situations. What I find people forget to tell you about leaving your comfort zone is that you’re not supposed to return to it, wipe your sweaty brow and say “phew, well that was ultimately healthy, I’m sure. Now to never do it again.” The idea is to make the uncharted realm the newest part of your zone and say “I don’t necessarily have to come back here again, but at least I know I probably can if I want to.” Always making an effort to test yourself is important, but don’t forget to take stock of where you are, and how your recently contested comforts are developing. fearlessstories.com

This post is a continuation in a series of weekly posts about my thoughts and learnings with regards to Tom Peter’s “The Future Shape of the Winner” Model and the “Excellence Audit” .  I am in week 2 of a distance learning course to become an accredited user of the Excellence Audit.  Please feel free to comment and/or add to my thoughts below.

Please note, these comments are based on what I have read before, the conversations I have had with Madeleine at Tom Peters Company, and of course from our first session.  I may have some different thoughts after I read the materials tonight!

Future Shape of the Winner Model:  What it is?

The Future Shape of the Winner is…

• A way to describe an organization that revolves around it’s people, understanding that they are nothing without them, and that if we stop moving and changing and moving forward in order to support our people, we will topple over and fail.
• Based around Tom Peter’s work over 20+ years, built around his professional services model.
• A way for organizations to put words around the challenges they are facing today.

How can it fit into my practice?

• This is something Madeleine and I talked about months ago.  Measurement is paramount in my practice.  I want to not only be able to show results, but also be able to confidently identify and prioritize areas the organization should target as areas for improvement.
• Although I always conduct some time of assessment when working with a client, this will be the first time I use a tool as thorough and as credible as I believe the FSW Model and Excellence Audit to be.
• Helping an organization conduct an Excellence Audit will not only help me better assist the executives in creating their change agenda, but it will provide a baseline for any other work I do from that point on, as well as provide me with the breadth and depth of context I need about the organization in order to do my work well.
• It’s just a darn good tool to have in my toolbox.

The Kinds of Situations Where it Might Add Value to My Clients…

• Performance Issues, low morale, and/or culture issues with no real diagnosis
• Lots of perceived “problem areas” with no way to prioritize
• Lack of baseline information and feedback from employees about the state of the organization
• Organization who wants to think ahead strategically, for the long term, vs. just putting out fires
• Organization tight on budget who wants to target their dollars for development in the most efficient way

Topic 1:  In the first discussion, we want to find out what has attracted your interest in Future Shape of the Winner and the Excellence Audit and how you see this approach helping your business. How do you envisage it providing you with extra impetus in your and/or your clients’ organisations?

First and foremost, I have been a fan of Tom Peter’s work from Day 1 as a Change Management Consultant at Andersen Consulting in the early 90′s.  I have used his work as a guide my entire career.

When I started my own practice 3 years ago, I focused on the individual (life) coaching aspect of my work, and merely maintained my relationships with corporate clients I had been working with over the years.  This year, as my practice grew, I wanted to revive my corporate work by building a bridge between the work I was doing with individuals and the work I can do with (the individuals within an) organization.

When I came across this model, I read the core philosophies and felt like I was reading my own personal change manifesto.  The talent-centric model, based on learnings from professional service organizations, is focused on building that bridge between the individual and the corporation that I desire to do in my work: “The leader’s #1 job is to conduct the business such that people (employees, partners and associates) see fulfilling the ambitions of the business as being consistent with realizing their personal ambitions.”

Additionally, having a model that can assist me in the needs assessment process, providing quantifiable data that can help executives develop thier organization’s change priorities, or change agenda, is a gift.  The first step in my process is to conduct an assessment, and I’ve used different tools over the years to do so, but often it is done from scratch and developed based on the organization’s needs.  I’m excited to have a model/tool that I can offer my clients that is backed by years of research from a leader in the field.

In the second discussion, we want to explore the world in which clients are operating.  Think about your work in recent years as an organisation development/HR professional supporting others in their work. What have been the major influences that have challenged your clients to adapt and change? How easy or hard have these changes been for them to make? How would you summarise those challenges which continue to be on your clients’ agendas? Write a short description (up to 500 words) of your thoughts about the forces at work in your clients’ world.

As noted above, I’ve not been as active in the organizational consulting world in the past few years as I plan to be this year and beyond.  However, working with individuals outside of the corporation and recent discussions has helped me form some conclusions about the current challenges:

1) The organization model is changing.  In Seth Godin’s book, Linchpin, he talks about how the old system is broken.  We have created a “race to the bottom” where everyone is trying to make the “thing” faster and cheaper than the next company, adding no extra value and the only differentiator is price.  This creates a culture of sameness, both in product and employees, that encourages a “cog in the wheel” mentality which is not only uninspiring but ultimately, unsuccessful.  The challenge is to create an environment in which individual creativity can thrive on every level and value becomes the differentiator to lead to success in an organization and engagement in the individual.

2)  Budget: When budgets are tight, and it’s hard to measure “people-focused” programs, those programs tend to be left on the budget-cut floor.  The key is to find quantifiable reasons to focus on talent that will enable leadership to prioritize those things that will engage, inspire and enable their workforce to add their highest value.

3)  A Changing Workforce:  our workforce today has varying and sometimes conflicting priorities.  Whether they are taking care of an aging parent, their own children, or believe that they don’t want a lifetime behind a desk, today’s workforce is desiring more from their employers.  Organizations that can develop a culture that honors the individual’s life as a whole will win at developing an engaged and loyal workforce.  This is difficult in practice because it means challenging the way we have traditionally done work, and potentially redefining what it means to be a “good employee”.

4) Fatigue:  This work is hard.  Years of “surviving” through a recession and operating by boot-straps can create a culture of fatigue.  To introduce a change, especially one as large as changing the culture by which we do work, can be met with a resistance from both executives and employees alike, that is impossible to overcome.  Often an organization will quit before it begins to make a change that just seems to big to take on at this time.  The challenge is to understand the organization’s capacity for change, and develop a change agenda that’s not only correct in need, but is sensitive to the ability of the employees to actually participate in a change effort.

This isn’t to say I won’t be providing more content in the shape of books, toolkits, webinars, etc., but my focus is really on my message, not the exact “map” as Seth calls it.  I have known all along that a foundation of a process is good, but every individual needs to have their own way of getting there.  I, as their coach, help provide the insight, thought, reflection, support, cheer-leading, you name it, to make sure that they are granted the best chance of success possible.

Thank you, Seth, for reminding me why I do what I do.

A quick update on my fitness progress:  I conducted my “Equifit” with the trainer at the gym – a lovely, engaged (Linchpin) named Ryan, who told me a few things:  1) my weight and body fat %, slightly sobering but not off base from what I assumed 2) what program I should conduct in order to work towards my goal of consistently showing up — I need to do things I like!  I said I like yoga and cardio, and he said then do that!  Love him!  But, he did say that having strength training as part of my fitness plan is really the most effective way to obtain fitness and that it will give me more structure when I show up at the gym.  With those words and the body fat % rolling around in my brain, I decided that I was going to hire him to to help me put that program together. I have been “good” – meeting the minimum of workouts (3) but am looking forward to a real program that I can put in my calendar and execute, vs. willy-nilly working out with no real intention around what, when or why.

Next post:  Discipline or “Shipping It Out!”

Ariane de Bonoisin, Chief Change Optimist (how much do I love THAT title?), author of The First 30 Days and founder of first30days.com says “Despite the change — be it unpredictable or self-propelled — the first few days and weeks are often the hardest, most emotional time. It’s when we have the most questions, emotions, doubts and fears, and when decisions need to be made. This is also the time when we are most in need of direction, information and support. Thirty days is enough to get started in the right way…”

However, is it enough to create sustained behavior change?

Some would argue that the prospect of changing, in and of itself, is enough to cause one to fail.  Robert Mauer, Ph.D, author of The Kaizen Way, says “all changes, even positive ones, are scary.  Attempts to reach goals through radical or revolutionary means often fail because they heighten fear.”  He proposes the use of the “kaizen” technique, taking small, comfortable steps towards improvement to make long-term, sustainable changes.  He describes our typical approach to change as “innovation” strategy, defined as a “drastic process of change.  It occurs in a very short period of time, yielding a dynamic turnaround.  Innovation is fast and big and flashy;  it reaches for the largest result in the shortest amount of time.”  He believes this strategy will very likely cause you to fail, because the size and energy around the change effort will alert your “lizard” brain and light up your flight or fight response.  And usually, unless we have willpower of champions, we take flight (go sit on the couch with a bag of Doritos). He notes that this strategy CAN work, but sees that many people are crippled by the belief that it’s the only way to make a change.

Ariane embraces change and encourages us to “change our view of change” through her nine principles.  Robert says change is scary, so do the smallest change possible to not wake up the sleeping giant, the lizard brain, so you can still move forward.  I say it’s a combination…change can be approached through a proven process, but sometimes the key to long-term success is to create small changes that are easy to accomplish that will lead towards great improvement.  I believe that depending on the person, and the change, that you need to create the plan that will work for you.  And the first plan might fail!

So, tomorrow, I am officially piloting my change process publically with a client I know well:  me.  As a Change Agent AND Change Optimist (thanks Ariane!) I am interested in sharing my journey through a change process with you.  I will take 30 days of April to (begin) to tackle one behavior change.  And if all goes well, I’ll be signing up for another in May.  I hope you’ll follow along in my journey — as you know, one of the principles of success is your support network!  Tune in tomorrow to see what I plan on changing in my life.

But today my daughter defeated me.  My little, one year old daughter reminded me how hard it is to make someone else change.  My pediatrician, who I adore because of his straightforward,  non-wishy washy style, told me in no uncertain terms that my daughter needed to be off her bottle (drinking from a cup) and no pacifier by her 15 month visit.

No problem, I thought!  My son picked it up in no time, and she seems a bit more advanced in the motor skills than he was at this age.  I was additionally bolstered by her ability to drink out of a straw the first time I gave it to her!  So proud I was!

So the first day, we tried.  She refused.  I stubbornly did not let her have a bottle, thinking that if she knew she threw a fit and got the bottle, she would just throw a fit every time.

Second day, same deal.  Nerves were wearing thin.

Third day, I gave up.  I gave her the bottle and she gobbled it up with grateful slurps.  Back to square one.

During my frustration I kept thinking that if I just held out, I would win.  But her blatant stubbornness (sometimes batting the cup to the ground in refusal) reminded me of rule #1 of change:  you can’t make someone change if they don’t really want to, or at a minimum, don’t understand the negative consequences of not changing.  My daughter doesn’t understand why she needs to change.  She just knows what she knows and likes it that way.

I will eventually have to fight this battle but I am hoping that in a month her little independent spirit will egg her on to wanting to use a cup like her brother.  Pretty hard to communicate consequences to a one year old.  An amazing reminder that knowing what happens whether or not you change actually changes the game.