Category Archives: Transition

Failure 101

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Is there one thing that you have been unable to achieve, the one goal that you have been haunted by year after year?

Here are some ways we can continue to fail to achieve that elusive goal:

Have a fuzzy picture of where you want to go

When we have a goal that we want to achieve yet fail to achieve time and time again often we can’t visualise how that change looks in our life – really, what would I look like 40 kilograms lighter? What would I look like and act like when I am a CEO? What do I look like with the career of my dreams?

To succeed, we need to get a vision of our ‘future state’ as clear as possible. Here are some ways we can do it:

  • Create a vision board / book

Clip pictures, Photoshop images, take any image you can and manipulate them to fit the exact image you see in your mind. Add to these images as your picture becomes clearer. Revisit your vision board as often as possible – if not daily, weekly. To experience the power or visualisation you should picture your goal first thing in the morning and last thing at night.

Imagine if you made a little A5 vision booklet that you carried with you that you could pull out at any time. Now that’s do-able!

  • Break it down

Goals can just seem so big and overwhelming. Losing 40 kilos or becoming a CEO can be achieved in small baby steps. Once you have broken that goal into smaller more achievable chunks, get a picture in your mind (or in your vision booklet) of what it would look like to achieve that smaller goal. Set to achieve that goal.

  • Write down and clarify your vision

Sometimes goals cannot be easily represented in pictures. Write down what you feel and see when you achieve your goal. Write as if you have achieved that goal. Write with emotion and colour. Continue writing for as long as you can. Keep that with you in your wallet and pull it out when you can and read it. Re-write it at intervals when you feel that you need to focus your vision some more.

Scatter your focus

When we neglect to focus on a goal it is just like we expect that it will happen regardless of how much or little effort we put into it.

Um, no – it doesn’t quite work that way! And we know it!

Achieving a goal takes effort and a tremendous amount of focus. If you are not focused and become tired on your quest you will fail.

Here are some ways to remain focused:

  • Plan

Plan, plan, plan. Plan for those times when you will be tired. Plan for how you can move through life when life wants to get in the way of your goals. If you do not plan, your good efforts can be derailed by little things.You loose your balance and fall away from your goal.

  • Review your vision

As mentioned earlier, frequent review of your vision board / booklet and your written vision can pay real dividends. Images are incredibly powerful and really do speak 1000 words.

  • Indulge in what gets you inspired

It might be music (Katy Perry’s song ‘Firework’ is a great one), videos, or walking on the beach. There are so many things which can inspire us to keep striving for our goals and refocusing us on what is important.

Lack desire

Lack of passion and desire to change is the biggest killer. If you have no desire to achieve your goal examine why you wanted to achieve it in the first place. Was it something that someone else wanted you to change? Has the goal changed?

Some ways you can get the desire and passion back:

  • Revisit the goal

You may simply need to redefine the goal and create a vision which is appropriate. Once we refine the goal and create an appropriate vision we may get renewed passion.

  • Turn it around

If you have to achieve a goal for negative reasons (such as if you don’t lose weight you will die) you have to connect the goal to something positive that you truly want. Turn it to the positive – negative, fear based motivators very rarely work. It might be hard work but put some effort into making it positive – write a list of all the reasons to achieve the goal – do that until you find a reason which resonates with your soul and brings tears to your eyes. Once you have that reason, create a vision and get it going.

  • Throw it away

Throw the goal away if it does not fit the vision that you see for yourself. This is not a bad thing – it frees you to pursue your true passion.

No reason for change

So if you don’t know why you should change, why should you change?

Sometimes we need to change but we don’t know why we should change. Why should I give up smoking when I enjoy it? We know we should give up smoking because it causes cancer, but hey, I might be one of the lucky ones…

You need to find your own compelling reason to change. I am an ex-smoker. It wasn’t cancer, strokes or any other of the revolting things that smoking does to your health that got me to give up smoking. It wasn’t the cost of cigarettes either. It was the smell of cigarettes on my body and clothes that I couldn’t bear. When I had my baby I didn’t want him to smell like smoke. I gave up cold turkey the day he was born – 5 years ago.

Again, I recommend here exploring the reason, the true reason to change. You really need to explore this: write, draw, talk – do absolutely everything you can to find that cracking reason to change!

Continue to not know how to change

Knowing how to change and not having the ability to change are different things. Knowing is the theory about how to do something, ability is the application of that knowledge. You need both to make a change.

Most people who look to lose weight know what they need to do – eat less, exercise more. But it is not that simple. You need to be able to apply that knowledge – How do you cook low-fat? How do you exercise to maximise results?

So how can we do that?

  • Seek the knowledge

Read, search the net, talk to others. More often that not you will be able to find information on how to learn that new language, become a tri-athelete, or master that software. Be like a sponge, soak up the information you need.

  • Find resources or people who can help you apply that knowledge

Sometimes this can be a little tough. Honestly I don’t know how we did it before we had the internet! Any one remember those days????!! Wow!

Use social media, put the message out there you will be surprise at who will step up to help you apply that knowledge you have researched. Use LinkedIn, twitter, YouTube just to name a couple!

Do it on your own

You are not alone. You don’t have to do this on your own. As I mentioned above there are so many people out there ready to help and want to be involved in your mission. They want to help you!

Having someone assist you on your journey can keep you focused, support and they can give you ways and methods for achieving your goals. Your life and successes should be shared. Experiences are so much better when experienced with another. Reach out.

What goal is behaving like your nemesis? Can you see some things which you can apply from the list above? Is there anything that you would like to add to the list?

Personal vs Business change

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I believe they are one and the same.

I primarily established this blog to focus on business related change management – that is what I do and what I am passionate about. As I have worked more and more with people from small to large groups I have found that the methodology and tools that I use can be employed for both personal and business change.

Defining, refining and change

In business it is my job to go in define what the business does, refine the process, and then identify and facilitate the change. In our personal life we need to define our values, mission and vision, refine our goals according to what we want to be doing and then facilitate the change through a series of steps.

You will find that the way the content has been written on this blog has changed since I first started writing. Initially I had that real business focus. Now, you will find that there is not such a blunt focus on business change management – this doesn’t mean that I am moving from that focus, but I am introducing more observation and thoughts about personal change.

Understanding personal change can truly help you with business related transitions and changes – it makes the transformation much more powerful. Using tried and tested business change tools can accelerate your personal transformation!

I am looking forward to sharing this new direction with you!

Anna Bligh – a change leader?

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She is not a superhero, but I believe that Anna Bligh (Queensland’s Premier) has saved many lives during the period of torrid weather which has hit the state over the past couple of months.

Many of you may not know who Anna Bligh is. What I want to focus on is her amazing ability to lead a state of people through a turbulent time (the actual flood and cyclone) and give a picture of an expected outcome.

Often, in business, the change is not welcome but it is necessary to move to a future state which may be fraught with uncertainty and fragility. This is the case with personal change as well – we know that we have to change, it will be painful and we can’t always see what the future state will be. Anna was able to move people through an incredibly uncomfortable time – preparing them, reassuring them, and supporting them on the other side of change.

Preparing

I was amazed at the language that Anna used throughout the floods and cyclone. I had never heard a politician use honest and real communication like Anna did. She told people what to expect. She gave all the information that people needed and warned people appropriately. She did not over-exaggerate or under-exaggerate – and I believe that this is what saved lives. People actually listened. They prepared accordingly. Their lives were saved.

She stirred the Queensland spirit and unified people.

Reassuring

While she was preparing people – telling them to expect to lose property and belongings, she was reassuring people that every step of the way they would have help through volunteer organisations, cash handouts and emergency services.

Support

Things moved quickly after the floods and cyclone. People worked together. Anna praised the efforts of all involved and supported the clean up. Her promises of services jumping to the aid of people were kept.

Anna was a change leader. I think people who are in the role of change leaders can model Anna’s behaviour by:

  • Understanding the change: know what is coming and how it is expected to impact people.
  • Get information from the experts and interpret that information in a meaningful way to your audience
  • Show empathy and genuine caring: remind them that you are with them and do not be afraid to show your emotion.
  • Be honest: tell them what is expected and what work is ahead – don’t sugar coat it but balance it out with reassurance.
  • Reassure: explain what will be provided and what they will need to do, but be sure to explain where support will be and how it can be accessed.
  • Stir the spirit: if you can do this, people will band together during turbulent times and provide support to others creating a ground-swell of activity and people working towards a common goal.
  • Deliver what is promised:this really comes back to the honesty in your communications – if you promise something and you do not deliver, it will unravel all the good work that you have done – be vigilant!
  • Communicate regularly: It blew me away that Anna had consistently regular media conferences regardless of how busy/tired/overwhelmed she may have been. She, and the experts she brought with her to the conferences, always answered questions and took the time necessary to get information out. Flawless.
  • Repeat: Repeat these methods and behaviours over and over again.

Have you seen change leaders who have performed in exceptionally difficult situations? What behaviours did you feel warrant emulating?

Making excuses

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Just a little nudge can do the world of good...

As change practitioners we have heard a million excuses, over and over we have tried to come up with rational reasons to combat people’s excuses.

Excuse making is not always rational or reasonable!  We can remove all the obstacles and there will still be excuses. Sometimes people just need that little push to propel them forward into the change.

How can we provide that nudge? Here are some suggestions:

  1. Get them involved or doing something associated with the change – and provide them with sincere positive reinforcement when they do get involved.
  2. Focus on others who want to be part of the change – a little positive peer pressure can do wonders. 
  3. Listen – check whether the excuse is an actual excuse or actually an objection to the change – if it is an objection deal with the objection not the excuse.

We won’t ever be able to get rid of excuses but we can become better at handling objections.

What have you done to successfully move people through their excuses?

Conscious change

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Reinforce change through constant conscious techniques

I think that a good percentage of why consistent and sustainable change does not occur is that we expect that change will just happen and once people are shown / trained in the new change.

The thing is, people can be shown the change (knowledge) and even have the ability to succeed in the change but it has to become a habit.

How is a habit formed? Through constant conscious effort – then, after time it becomes unconscious and sustainable.

Reinforcement of a change is an aspect of the change process which is often overlooked. Projects often overlook the need to include reinforcement of the change in their overall plan. The project needs to continue (and not be considered finished) until the change is automatic for the people involved.

Think about a personal project that you may have on the go at the moment – new years resolutions are a good one. Let’s say that we want to drink more water. We ‘expect’ that this will be easy to implement during our day, but generally after a couple of days we have already forgotten or become inattentive on our quest. We need to accept that anything that we change must be at first conscious – set alarms or put up reminders to drink water…after a period of time those reminders will not be needed – the change becomes unconsciously managed.

What are some techniques for achieving sustained change that you have played with or use on a regular basis?

If you want to make changes, you have to make changes

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I think that personal change is the most difficult type of change.

We come up with the best excuses and reasons for not doing things and don’t seem to get that if we want to make changes we have to truly make changes. That saying is easy to understand but it can be insanely difficult to apply!

Let say we want to improve our health: we quickly make the effort to start or increase our exercise and cut out all our junk food – but how long does it stick? We try to fit it into our current lifestyle with no other changes.

A change needs an assessment and a plan – where can we support ourselves? Where do we sabotage ourselves? Is working those long hours making us reach for the quick takeaway meal at the end of the day? How can we change that?

Planning is paramount – think of the changes that we implement at work – we know that the more planning effort we put into all aspects the better the change will stick. It is not any different to a personal change.

It is time that we put ourselves first – your lifestyle is meant to support you and your goals – if it doesn’t, something has to change. Commitments may need to be dropped, time management may need to be increased. We can’t do everything all at once. We have to make changes in every area of our lives in order to support the change that we want to introduce.

Making a change when everything is against you

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It’s interesting. People focus on the end product – the ultimate change – where they want to be. The frustration sets in, they have bills to pay so they can’t make that big leap, quitting one job and getting that dream job or they want to lose that weight NOW!

The power is in the transition to the change – not necessarily in the change itself. It is amazing the mindset changes which occur when a decision to change is set in motion and that is where the power is – it is the everyday actions and activities which fundamentally get you to where you want to be.

Think about a situation that you want to change at the moment where it is not possible to perform the end goal – the change. Take the opportunity to focus on what needs to occur, what you can do everyday, to achieve that change. It is amazing how the transition phase can give you power and control, your day becomes more focused and that fire in your belly grows. Those daily steps are just as important as the destination.

So, what are you going to do today?