Two actions teams should take right now

Not despite geopolitical chaos*, but because of it, there are two key actions teams should take now to prepare for the future.

We’re all powerless when it comes to controlling geopolitical events. But we are all powerful when it comes to controlling our own future.

Don’t give this power away waiting to see what happens — when you can be deciding NOW what will happen in your world. For example, if you are waiting to see the impact of AI on your industry, it’s too late already.

Two actions to help prepare for whatever comes up:

1. GET IN SYNC. The best prepared teams have parts working as one. Over a period of five months, 60,000 termites with a clear vision and constant interaction eat one foot of a 2x4 beam. If they can do that without a leader, what could a human team do if they held on to the same vision, with the same motivation, in were in constant contact?

   Don’t tolerate being ‘siloed,’ where  each sector deals with their issues in isolation. Call, write, check in, visit, set common goals.

2. WEED OUT PESSIMISTS. A recent Gallop poll found that 83% of business leaders report workplace pessimism / negativity their #1 problem.

   Listen to the pessimist’s ideas, of course, but if all you hear is: “ain’t broke don’t fix it, always done it that way, that’ll never work,” it’s time to limit their power.

   Only with optimism can possibilities be seen and a future be invented. Our own research shows that over a three-month period, pessimism can be replaced with either neutral or optimistic thinking.

You can choose: to be the fear or be the courage, to fight the future or feel the promise, to wait for the worst or prepare for the best. Get in sync and weed out pessimists now.

* Collins Dictionary word of the year was “Permacrisis” and the WEF Global Risks Report outlines our “polycrisis” and knowledge is now doubling every nine months

3 Workplace Fatal Flaws

Three practices that appear minor, but create enormous drag.

1. Time Wastes. CEOs blame middle management for bad execution but Sutton and Rao found many CEO’s were the ones who held wasteful meetings and were unclear with priorities and end results wanted. If you’re not efficient with time, your employees won’t be, and they’ll waste customer time.

2. Friction Fights. Instead of fighting friction and snags, appoint everyone as a ‘friction-fighter.’ Ask: “What can I get rid of that wastes time and effort?” Find pointless practices and blocks to action, and get rid of them. In your personal life, if you spend time looking for your keys or your phone, get a system or an Airtag! Time is your enemy or ally.

3. Connect Neglect. Stop fixating on your own part of the company or just your own job, and look at the spaces that connect jobs and departments. Every organism from a ragworm to your company is intelligent to the extent that there is high communication among divisions. More neurons or brain cells won’t make you smarter, more glial cells that connect neurons, will. No time for silos: connect!   

Get top management to do time audits of their wasteful meeting practices (or forward this message), formally remove friction points, and set up more systems that connect groups of people. These three changes alone will help power your future.

"If it Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix it"

How do you budge your employee’s belief systems - when they’re detached from reality?

What if their ‘wrong’ belief will lead to their demise? For example, “AI is a fad, it will blow up, I don’t need to learn anything about it.”

Forget trying to convince them with facts and evidence. Their system is closed, the horse has left the barn on that one.

This is a high fear time. For safety, people can dig in to their belief systems, right or wrong.

Here are 3 steps to budging other people’s beliefs:

1. Assume they’re scared (because they are). They fear losing their belief in case a. they will look stupid b. their house of cards will tumble down or c. there will be a vacuum where the old belief was. You might ask “assume for a minute, what would happen if this wasn’t true?” You might expose one of their fears that you would then be able to clear up.

2. Show them where and when their belief made or makes sense. And how wise they are (or were) for holding it. There is (was) protective wisdom in the belief, after all. One of my 60+ year old clients wouldn’t invest in his business for fear of another depression such as impacted his parents during the 1930’s. I told him that that fear made sense in the 1930’s.

3. However, you tell them, “because x has changed, y might also make sense these days, given this …” Then give them an option to consider it; ask them if it makes sense. If they come back and say “yes that kind of makes sense,” affirm their good decision-making skills. The decision needs to have come from them.

First and foremost, recognize that their dug-in resistance derives from anxiety. You can move them only with an appeal to their emotional/safety system, not with evidence and facts.

THREE MYTHS ABOUT AI TAKING YOUR JOB

….and what careers AI IS targeting and changes you can make now.

MYTH: “I’ve spent my life becoming highly skilled and I’m at the top of my game; I’ll be hard to replace.”

REALITY: Soon, much of the content knowledge you have can be replaced by AI bots. Flexibility means being open to learning new skills and technologies. Lifelong learning is more important than ever. Nobody is exempt.

Develop a range of skills peripheral to your core skillset, that you can use in different roles in your industry.

Develop skills that require human creativity, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence, such as leadership, problem-solving, and communication.  Authenticity, empathy and self-awareness are future skills, develop these and teach others. You might need to take course, they often don’t come naturally.

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MYTH “If I don’t think about AI it won’t impact me.”

REALITY: Don’t avoid thinking about AI believing that if you avoid it, it will avoid you. Keep up with AI and how your profession can use it. If you can master using AI to increase your proficiency, you’ll still be in demand.

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MYTH: “If I keep my head down I won’t be targeted for replacement. Besides, I’m a one-person show.”

REALITY: Develop stronger relationships with colleagues, clients, and other professionals. Collaboration is the future.

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Check your job/profession for a summary of actions to take now:

• Accounting - Because AI struggles to understand mathematical processes and makes up data to cover up mistakes, you’ll be needed to oversee the system. For that, you’ll need to understand it :). Focus on financial analysis and strategic consulting, or specialize in managing AI-driven accounting systems, digital banking solutions and cybersecurity. AI software is more efficient than humans at managing financial and administrative records so bookkeeping is replaceable. Data entry is phased out but data scientists will be in demand. Take a course in data analysis.

• Agriculture: Automated machines can monitor and manage crops more efficiently than humans, replacing agricultural jobs. In any area of agriculture, digital literacy is key. Invest in training programs to make sure that audit, credit review, and appraisal workers are digitally literate and can effectively use new technologies. Increase focus on a customer-centric culture to understand the evolving needs of farmers and agribusinesses. Improve customer experiences  by creating user-friendly digital platforms. Foster collaborations with agri-tech startups, research institutions, and government agencies. Partnerships give you access to tech insights that will help with risk assessment and credit appraisal.

• Assembly Line: Robots perform repetitive assembly line tasks faster and more consistently than humans. Workers should take courses in robotics maintenance and programming, quality control, or logistics management.

• Customer Service: AI-chatbots handle routine customer interactions, so take courses to prepare you to handle difficult and complex interactions with empathy. Customer success managers and relationship managers will be in demand; and start to study how you can increase your customer’s success.

• Digital marketing: Human touch is needed for creative content development and strategy, even though AI can automate some aspects of digital marketing, such as data analysis and advertising optimization.

• Drivers/transportation: Self-driving cars and delivery drones will replace jobs in transportation and logistics. Drivers should learn to be fleet managers and logistics coordinators and learn to maintain autonomous vehicle technologies.

• Healthcare: AI is less likely to replace jobs in healthcare, such as nursing and physical therapy, although psychologists jobs are on the block. :( Jobs that require empathy, social interaction, and complex decision-making, can’t be replaced by AI - yet. But other professional are more replaceable such as Radiologists, who should focus on complex cases and patient consultations or begin to specialize in interventional radiology and minimally invasive procedures.

• Legal: AI gathers information and conducts legal analyses. Paralegals should focus on case strategy development and client communication, or specialize in areas where human judgment and interpretation are needed.

• Librarians can curate digital collections, give higher-level research guidance, or specialize in information management and data organization.

• Market research analysts can re-focus on consumer behavior analysis, computing and information sciences, competitive intelligence, or strategic planning.

• Telemarketers will be phased out but development of customer relationship strategies and sales strategies or high-end customer service careers will be kept.

HOME FREE FOR NOW

• Environmental science: Companies and governments both predict job growth in environmental science. Fields such as renewable energy and waste management will grow.

• Cybersecurity: Professionals with skills in data security, encryption, and threat intelligence will be in demand pretty much until singularity.

Remember, it’s never too late, you’re never too old, and nothing is possible. Adapt, learn and grow- you’ll stay young forever.

4 PATHS TO WORKPLACE OPTIMISM

1.YOU START

Start with yourself. If you’re struggling being optimistic, others will too. You can’t give what you don’t have. How you treat yourself will be how you automatically treat others. :)

Morning: “I will notice what’s right today.”

Afternoon: Write a note to one person who did something well.

Night: Note a positive thing that happened, or a success you had.

The three above seem so simple - how can they work? P.S. If you are not doing them consistently now, why not give it a try.

2. SET LANGUAGE BEST PRACTICES

a. Switch statements from passive to active. Don’t accept people saying: “It’s hot here” or “HR is slow” (passive, ineffectual, damaging).

Require an active solution. “Turn down the heat.” “Let’s call up HR and work this out.”

b. Change

“we have to” ……. to ………. “we get to”

“we need to” ……. to ………. “we want to”

“we can’t” ……. to ……….  “what if we could?"

3. A REWARD SYSTEM THAT WORKS

Save money. An Immediate - Unpredicted - Meaningful and Sincere thank you is worth more than a plaque. Say as often as you can.

4. A ZERO-EXCUSES POLICY

This is a fast and easy way to dig up excuses people have so you can dispel them.

• Have people list three things “we could do that would make a huge impact, that we are now not doing.”

• Then ask them to write down “why not?” Why are you not doing them?

  There are your excuses right there.

Never say Never. The 4 Futures to Plan.

Collins Dictionary 2022 Word of the Year was permacrisis, or “an extended period of instability and insecurity.”  World Economic Forum’s 2023 Global Risks Report describes a “polycrisis."

CEO Daily’s Alan Murray, writing for Fortune, asked Indra Nooyi, ex-CEO of PepsiCo how to lead others through these times. She replied: “Rather than articulate a vision, talk about alternatives and scenarios. That way your team will look for changes in the environment that could impact your direction.”

Follower’s of Dan Burrus know to their spend time on future scenarios, but most spend their time putting out current fires precisely because they didn't plan for the future.

There are four futures worth 10% of your time, in descending order. They are your:

1. Preferable Future. “What do we want and expect to happen?”   

2. Probable Future. “What probably might happen?”

3. Plausible Future. “It’s not probable, but it could be."

4. Possible Future. “It’s a stretch, and nobody thinks it will happen, but yes, it is possible.”

It’s in the plausible and possible futures (“nah, that won’t scale up”) that you can be caught short. Those tiny blips on the horizon that your 1990’s brain tells you will never be? Well, yes they might, and it’s a good idea to plan for them.

Never say never.

Help me! I'm stuck in an echo chamber.

Do you have friends/family members/co-workers stuck in a belief system that has nothing to do with reality? How do you get through to them? [subtext = get them to see the error of their ways].

The place where NOT to start is flooding them with facts, evidence, or data. They will either convert this information to their belief system, throw it out, or stop listening. Probably all three. That’s what Confirmation Bias is about (see diagram).

Their beliefs are as valid for their world as your beliefs are for your world. Beliefs help organize a chaotic world. Have a conversation only if their beliefs are posing a real danger to themselves or others.

Suggestions:

1. Don’t go in with the intention of changing their thinking.

2. If you can tolerate it, ask them about their belief system and truly listen. [see #1, above]. You must have a sincere desire to find out, and they must sense you do, or they’ll clam up. Have them explain their beliefs. Sometimes listening to themselves out loud and scrambling to find evidence for their beliefs is enough to shake the beliefs just a bit. That’s good.

3. To uncover fears contributing to the echo chamber, say something like “a lot of people are afraid that the American Dream will never be possible for them. Can you relate to that?” Or “I hear a lot on TV that immigrants are taking over America, displacing the rest of us. Are you hearing that?” There are so many [ungrounded] fears out there that you might not hit the exact ones, but if you’re open and accepting, you might hear what fears ARE adding to the chamber. That’s a great start; talking about one’s fears loosens them up.

The power of 1-2-3 above can be amazing. Last year, I coached an executive team at a West Coast Winery who was stuck between generations: the 70’ish founders, and the 40-something kids poised to take over. No amount of evidence could convince the founders to invest in new technology.

When the 70’ish pair finally agreed to see me, in a gentle-but-direct clinical style, I asked about their past, their upbringing, their parents. It turned out that they were stuck in a depression-era fear capsule, that money would run out with this investment, and their family thrown into despair. A bit of socratic dialogue later, they exposed their fears themselves and could only then move ahead.

You don’t need a clinical degree for this process, as long as you follow #1 - don’t try to change people. Just listen. They might just change themselves.

Don’t try to change people.

Just listen. They might just change themselves.

Tell Me a Story

Storytelling helps create a triple win for all three leadership skills of empathy, authenticity and self-awareness. A recent HBR article “Storytelling That Drives Bold Change” describes how storytelling creates organizational momentum.

So too, your personal stories that describe how you have worked through tough times and climbed out the other side, can be deeply connecting.

Here are 4 steps to creating personal short stories. Create your stories with the intention of encouraging others, not of highlighting your own success.

1. What was it like at the beginning? “When I got this job, I was scared of messing up the new relationships I had with clients.”

2. What did you go through? “I don’t think I slept for two weeks.”

3. How did you dig out? “Then one day I lost an account. Nothing terrible happened. Nobody canned me, they were super supportive.”

4. How does this relate to others, right now? “So with all these changes, some of you might be feeling that way too. I learned that the fear of blowing it was worse than actually blowing it. So do your best, be careful but if it goes down, we talk about it and move on.”

Tell your own story. A few years ago, I watched CEO Warner Thomas, formerly of Ochsner Health System and currently of Sutter Health sit on a bar stool describing to his people the personal challenges he’d had, and how he’d worked them through. His intention from the stage was clear, real, honest and vulnerable.

Warner is not only well-loved, but inspires courage in others.

Vulnerability is the new courage.

You’re kinder than you think. Why that’s important.

Yeah we all know kindness matters. But we don’t know how MUCH it matters! If your budget is low for employee recognition, you might be downplaying the most effective and the least expensive strategy: a small kindness.

Micro-kindnesses (a recognition, a thank-you, a noticing, a remembering) go further than we think in not just recipients’ well-being, but in workplace culture. Employees who receive micro-kindnesses stay at their employs significantly longer, report higher levels of well-being and are more productive.

Recent research has shown that we underestimate the power of reaching out to friends, family and colleagues. For example, if we rate our own action as, say, a 4/10 in importance, recipients would rate the same action would rate it 8/10. Even a short call makes a big difference.

Researchers found that knowing one's positive impact on others increases acts of kindness. Prosocial behavior can lower stress levels, and even an occasional text means more than we think.

Even witnessing acts of kindness can increase our levels of oxytocin, which can increase optimism and improve health.

Why not reach out right now and make someone’s day; it’s good for your health too. PS Good job for reading this. :) Here’s a pdf download.

STUCK IN THE MIDDLE

In the echo chamber of Confirmation Bias (the dark blue part in the middle), we accept only what we already believe, what we want to believe and what doesn’t stir up our fears. Cognitive dissonance allows us to live in an upside-down world and believe that everyone else is wrong. Many people would prefer to change facts rather than their belief systems. 

Why do people get stuck here? In sum, because they feel defenseless in the presence of a perceived danger. What to do?

Here’s a challenge for you: Supposing a colleague was trapped in the chamber where facts and data were filtered by his fears and beliefs. He’s missing opportunities and failing to take needed action. What should be done?

1. He needs to leave, his denial makes him a danger to the company.

2. Just provide data that he agrees with to keep conflict down.

3. Work around him to get things done.

4. Knowing he feels defenseless in the face of perceived danger, find out his ‘perceived’ danger and what his fears and beliefs were about it, and gently help him work through them.

Guessed right! #4 it is.

PS Confirmation Bias is a serious thinking fault. Help us research it by sending me your experiences with someone’s ‘Echo Chamber.’ Don’t use real names or company locations. I’ll respond to every message.

Can't Decide?

The sheer volume of work + unprecedented instability = an overwhelming number of decisions to make each day. Too much!

A 2023 Oracle Survey of 14,000 leaders in 17 countries found that 86% are less confident making decisions, 85% suffer from decision distress and 72% are too paralyzed to make decisions at all.

Generative A.I. compounds the overwhelm. The number of decisions every day has increased tenfold over the last three years (74%), 78% are bombarded with more data than ever, and 86% say the volume of data is making decisions much more complicated.

Avoid decision distress. Brains are cognitive misers. They avoid decisions when they can, because decision-making takes a lot of energy. Willpower and decision-making ability deteriorate with the number and complexity of decisions. After time, caution goes down and decisions become more impulsive. That’s why impulse items are at grocery checkouts.

• The brain can tolerate just so much before it goes into rest cycle.

• The demand for decision-making is increasing daily, but our capacity to make them is not.

• After we have peaked our capacity, more data only overwhelms.

Don’t think you can power through with last year’s strategies. Make these changes:

1. Make important decisions earlier in the day before brain fatigue sets in.

2. Cut down on unimportant decisions. Streamline your life to avoid low-level decision making. Monitor and control the number of decisions you make daily.

3. Give your brain a rest. Get into nature. Go for a run. Take a shower. Meditate. Stare at a blank wall.

4. Think about doing less. If your brain is shouting that you’re doing too much, you’re doing too much.

Slow down + do less = better decisions.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF A WINNING QUARTERBACK

Patrick Mahomes, KC Quarterback

Patrick Mahomes was asked- “How do you perform at maximum capability while knowing that just one small mistake — like, say, fumbling for a turnover in the biggest game of the season — will be seen by hundreds of millions and locked on film forever?”

Some would say that a paycheck of $45 million a year helps but money doesn’t buy MVP status.

Here’s his secret: Mahomes picked up from his Texas Tech intro psych class what psychologist George Miller claimed over 50 years ago: short-term memory capacity is about +/- 7 items.

Fast forward to Mahomes’ mental skills coach Paddy Steinfort observation: “I was struck by how vulnerable he was. He would do whatever it took to get the clearest mind possible going into the game and whatever it took to make himself better.”

Mahomes attributes his extraordinary focus to two elements:

1. His consistent mind-clearing daily practice of meditation and

2. his ability to let in only the top 3-4 things he needs to know at a given time.

Though the mind is capable of holding up to nine items, under stress in a complex environment, the number can reduce to two or three items. Mahomes does not focus on the crowd, the noise, how big the game is, what coverage the cornerbacks are playing. He calls the play, takes the snap, throws, finds completions downfield, maybe runs the ball …. 4-5 max.

If you haven’t yet trained for the mental game of getting to the top of your world, why not start with 5-minutes of quiet twice a day? Let unwanted thoughts float through your mind and evaporate out. Gradually increase the time until about 20 minutes. When your 20 minutes is up, gently let the top 1-3 items that would make the most difference in your life at that moment float to the top.

The uncanny focus you will bring to these items will bring MVP status to whatever you are doing.

HOW TO GET THROUGH TO THEM

“Standing firm with tough conversations” is a top wish/need of over 86% of the workplace. And it’s needed! Avoidance of these conversations wastes energy and inhibits the whole system.

BASIC GROUND RULES FOR TOUGH CONVERSATIONS

1. Move from right-wrong to win-win. That attitude will help you be calm.

2. Learn how to listen before trying to use this system.

3. Blaming and labeling are forbidden (i.e attacking the other person with what’s wrong with them). You’re allowed a statement of their behavior (without judgment), a description of how you are reacting and what you request. Period.

If you can handle that, here is an almost guaranteed formula for effective communication with anyone.

The 7-Step Formula for Everything

1. Describe their behavior: “When you …………..” “When you’re late for meetings …”

2. State consequences: “We/I ……………………” “Other people’s time is impacted.”

3. Your request:“I would like you to  ……………..…” “I would like you to be on time.”

4. Wait for resistance* (click link Manipulations)(blame, pout, yell)

5. Call out resistance: “I can see that ……….” “I see you’re blaming your schedule.”

6. Re-center your request:“However, I’d like you to …….” “However, I would like you to be on time.”

7. Clarify and Compromise: “Work for you? Problems?” (you might decide she doesn’t need to attend, can dial in, send a report etc.).

• Re #4 above: Because of fear of conflict, most people will avoid or attack. Both are ineffective. The ONLY effective method is to stay calm, be clear, stand firm and follow through.

Easy? No, but nothing worthwhile is at first.

• *what will resistance probably look like? What can you prepare for? In another blog is a list of behaviors that people use to try to sidetrack others. They’re called Manipulations, and they are often effective.

• Your job is to stand firm and not be sidetracked by them. Finish your conversation and get a result that works.

IS YOUR TEAM AGILE? TAKE THE QUIZ.

Though agility is reactionary, not proactive - a lateral move, not a forward one … it IS a required foothold for innovative change.

ARE YOU AGILE? Circle your current area or department from 1 (not at all true) to 5 (very true) and add up.

1  2  3  4  5 Meetings are sparse and well organized.

1  2  3  4  5 We have little to no unneeded paperwork.

1  2  3  4  5 Our priorities are super clear.

1  2  3  4  5 ‘Analysis paralysis’ doesn’t affect us.

1  2  3  4  5 We make decisions quickly and efficiently.

1  2  3  4  5 Speed / agility are high; we can move on a dime.

1  2  3  4  5 We are good at follow through and execution.

1  2  3  4  5 Communication and cooperation is excellent.

Scores over 25 reflect agility sufficient to form a basis for innovation. Areas receiving 1, 2 or even 3 ratings deserve intervention.

Subscribe to my blog and newsletters for strategies to shore up each area.

Why the big deal with optimism?

Isn’t optimism just naive idealism? The pessimists even think that if you could only grasp what’s going on, you wouldn’t be so optimistic. Let’s take a look.

The test-tube represents reality. However, optimism has benefit and pessimism has no useful benefit. In the end, optimism is a simple choice to interpret at the higher end of the spectrum.

Without optimism, or looking for what’s possible, there is no innovation and creativity. Optimism is the basis of hope and survival. Optimism surpasses other known predictors as a measure of sales performance. Those most pessimistic about the future are at greater risk of early death, while optimists live longer.  

“In the end, optimism is a choice.” 

Here are simple, everyday methods of increasing optimism, both individually and in the workplace:

1. For both individual and groups, keep a record of events and actions that you feel positive about and write down supportive comments from others. Review successes and positive events regularly with the team.

2. Switch to an Optimistic Mindset. Both pessimism and optimism build on reactions to small everyday events. Pessimism can be coached toward optimism by changing reactions to events: Pessimists respond to unwanted events with a permanent “it will always be this way” and complete “this terrible failure affects all of them” reaction, for example: “Why me? This happens all the time! I’m no good at anything! I never will be. It’ll never get better. The world’s a mess. People are terrible. It’s hopeless. Might as well give up.” All events are then filtered through this pessimistic screen, and hope is virtually impossible.

   To build optimism, know that change does not happen TO YOU, it happens FOR YOU. Pessimists believe the world is out to get them; optimists believe that events conspire on their behalf.

   Avoid all-or-nothing thinking; rather, think in percentages: “This happens only x% of the time, not all the time.” “This involves only x% of me, not all of me.” 

3. Change your language. Change “we have to, we need to” into “we get to, we want to.” Small actions practiced consistently lead to big changes. Practice new automatic responses that focus on reality and action. When unwanted events happen, say: “OK, I’m handling this.” “This is here to teach me, looking for the lesson.” “I didn’t want that to happen, but now that it has, what can I do?”

4. Each morning, create the intention to focus that day only on what’s right, what is working. Send out messages to remind others, such as these postcards (shown at bottom). At end of day, review what was positive, what worked out. Optimism results from daily practice. You can build any given skill or capacity the same way as physical muscle grows.

   The word for the highest form of love in Greek: agape, translates as “look for the good.” Looking for the good in yourself and others is a high form of consciousness.  

   Your perception of yourself and your environment is your reality. You put huge mirrors out there in the universe that reflect back to you what you’re thinking. You act on the basis of your perceptions of yourself. If you change your perceptions, you change the way you think and feel about yourself and your future. 

   Optimism spreads almost as quickly as pessimism. It takes only one determined optimist to help change the workplace atmosphere. Change in group optimism can result from the actions of one person entraining a group. One optimistic person can change a nation, indeed the world. Why not a department or a company?

   Check out more about optimism on pages 122-124 in this free chapter in The Four Elements book.

Stay positive and focused

Lead through Change: The 10 Steps Most Forgotten by Change Leaders

1. Where are we headed? Though there are no maps, there are compasses. Paint a clear and visual image of the future as you see it and future opportunities that might open up. Do you see a new vision? Or just more, better, faster? If the former, don’t assume that others know it.

2. Accentuate the Positive. Publicize and repeatedly underscore the positives about the current and proposed changes. Most companies neglect or underplay this. Just because senior management gets it doesn’t mean it filters down.

3. Share what you’re thinking and what’s going on in a way they can hear and understand.  Other species communicate constantly during change through touch, smell, sight and sound. Humans need to hear from you on a regular basis on at least one of those dimensions. And make sure there’s an open line back up to you.

4. Go on a Listening Tour. Tell people where you’re going and ask them how to get there and what roadblocks they foresee. Take action on their suggestions when possible. When not possible, and you forget to give feedback on why not, disengagement is sure to follow. This one step will salvage your change effort. 

One Wisconsin Health Care system kicked off a system-wide lab scheduling software without consulting the individual labs. Needs were so different among the labs that bookings decreased over 45% within a month. If they had checked-in, they could have tweaked the software before implementation and saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost bookings.

5. Find and keep cultural beats. Surprisingly, people can be more afraid of losing important elements of their culture than they are their status or position. Relationships with others are a central part of the glue that holds them to your company. Find out what parts of the culture are important to your people. You’ll be surprised at how easy it is to safeguard and enhance these. 

One real estate brokerage learned that Friday lunches were sacred. For an aerospace company, blue-shirtTuesday was important (who knew?). A large pharma had appointed rotating volunteer ‘cheerleaders’ to cheer up the workforce. An efficiency expert recommended removing the post, resulting in cries of protest. The cheerleader had become a central part of their culture.  

6. Appoint Change Agents from mid-management levels around the organization who monitor, unblock and expedite change. They get silos talking and working together, push vision through blocks to the first line, identify triangles and tangles (explained later), open up blocked communication lines. These should be objective, honored and rewarded leadership training posts.

7. Follow through. Don’t make any decision without detailing who, exactly when, and how you’ll follow up and then follow up. Don’t blow this part; the start-stop nature of change efforts is how cynicism develops. Schedule follow up alerts and pop-ups in the software system. Post the people or departments responsible for action on public boards and highlight those who complete on time. Program screen savers with prompts, rewards and punishments. Execution is everything. 

8. Take the lead on getting agile and efficient. How are your meetings? Long-winded and report based? That’s more ego than activity. Things happening fast enough? Anyone being tolerated who’s not up to it? People in lead positions who you wouldn’t fight for if they wanted to quit? When you play the game “Put Us Out of Business” do you always win?

9. If you are starting a new way of working, show them you mean it. They’ve been here before, are jaded and don’t believe you. Do something dramatic as a kickoff. One company starting an open door policy, burned down some manager’s doors in a parking lot (not recommended). Senior leaders who declared they were starting a Servant Leadership attitude served employees in the cafeteria with white gloves. These might not work for you, but think of something that screams: “This time is different.”

10. Establish leadership best practices and hold people’s feet to the fire to develop them. These are well documented in other areas; the point is to decide on a few that are central to you and make them happen! Many leaders write down a few practices and assume they’ll stick. They won’t.

GROW WITH CHANGE: A ‘WILLPOWER’ WORKAROUND

With a crush of distractions and a continual onslaught of chaotic change, are you tempted to get off track? You’re not alone, and no, you probably don’t have ADHD. Over 57% of adults feel that they lack the discipline to “get the important things done.”

If your ‘will-power’ is letting you down, it might not be something you’re ‘lacking.’ In fact, let’s drop the term ‘willpower’ because it implies you can will yourself through impossible situations, and most people can’t.

Check your Goals. Maybe the issue isn’t a lack of ‘willpower;’ maybe you’re following goals that don’t belong to you. It just isn’t that important or relevant to you. There is nothing wrong with dropping the goal if it isn’t yours.

However … if you are sure that you want to do this thing, here are two suggestions and a handy reference.

First, set up iron-clad commitment devices that stop you from procrastinating, or giving in to temptation or distraction. Willpower and self-discipline are not built-in human traits, so your reliance on self-discipline alone probably won’t work. Until you’ve created a solid habit, willpower will never cut it. More about these devices here.

Second, make rewards more immediate and interesting. The limbic system, or your emotional control center, has to find this goal attractive. The immediate rewards of procrastination and distraction often win. Distant-future rewards like completing an advanced degree aren’t enough to motivate you, especially in a distracting, addictive environment. Create more immediate and stronger rewards for early steps.

Thirdly, refuse to put yourself down when you think you are falling short. Recent studies (Biological Psychology, Vol 172, July 2022) confirm that cortisol is released when we disapprove of/punish/put ourselves down and that this substance can be addictive, such that we become attached to the shame associated with our punishing thoughts. This circular process makes it virtually impossible to move forward.

Try these three tips - then check out more info in this free chapter.

“Change is a force to be feared or an opportunity to be seized,

and the choice is our.” J.Lapp

GROW WITH CHANGE: Drop these 5 Emotional Habits

There are five emotional habits that cause energy loss and that don’t serve you in moving forward. Note that they are HABITS, which means they are a part of your definition of SELF. During change you need all the energy you can muster, so if you can’t change these habits right away, it will be helpful to be more aware of them.

HABIT #1 Doing anything for anyone over the age of 18 that they should be doing for themselves. This behavior weakens the person you’re trying to help and makes you resentful. If you’re rescuing anyone over 18, you’re not helping them. Rather, you are trying to meet other unmet needs and it is time to meet those from other sources.

HABIT #2 Fixing other people. Like #1 above, this habit is a well-meaning one, a genuine effort to keep others safe. You have the answer to other people’s problems and if only they would listen, their lives would be better. Unfortunately, you create only resentment in both them, and in you: “after all you have done for them!” People don’t want to be told what to do. Your greatest gift would be to accept them the way they are. It’s not your path. Let them live their lives. Honestly, it’s more loving.  

HABIT #3 Reacting to other people's bad behavior. Take nothing personally, it’s never about you. People run their own script and their own movie. Other people’s behaviors are not directed at you; they are acting the way they are acting because that is how they act. Stop being injured over the injustices that people do to you, because they are not doing it to you. They are just doing it. 

When you can get this, you free up energy to help others learn how to behave in your presence, and what minimum standards you expect.  

HABIT #4 Comparing yourself to others. Comparing yourself to others, either in a positive or negative way, is doomed to fail. Instead, measure your growth as a percentage of change from the past to the present.“Am I a percentage better at this than I was last year? Six months ago? 20% better?” If so, your goals are being met. The only comparing to do is with your former self, and the only projection to do is to your future self.

Others will always have more or less than you have, because they are walking on a different path. Is the path better than yours? No, it’s just different. You label it as better. Comparing yourself is a low self-image activity, one that you no longer need. It is energy not well spent, because it doesn’t change where you are and move you toward where you want to be. 

HABIT #5 Getting Impatient. You are wasting energy wishing/demanding people would do things differently, wishing they would get out of your way, wanting them to be different than they are. Will hitting the elevator button repeatedly and yelling “Hurry up!” bring the elevator any faster? Will fuming at the grocery store  make the line go faster?

Impatience is a factor in Type A Behavior. The hostility that accompanies impatience can kill you by causing a huge sympathetic nervous system spike and depositing plaque in arteries. Choose where you spend energy. Discipline yourself to ‘let it go.’ When you’re tempted to hurry people up, take a big breath, and repeat this sentence: “Accept what I can’t change, change the things I can, let this go.”

Lack of patience can result from a belief that the world should not interfere with you. People should do things your way because you know better. If everyone did what they were supposed to do, the world would be a better place and you would be much happier.

When you can see that this thinking isn’t paying off, you’re half way there!

 1 M. Friedman and R.H. Rosenman’s concept and measured by various assessments such as the Bortner Rating Scale Type, the Framingham Type A Scale, the Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS) and the Structured Interview (SI).

UNSURE WHERE TO GO NEXT? FOLLOW THE YELLOW ARROWS

World in upheaval? Nothing certain? Unsure what the future holds? The built-in tendency across species is to hold back, hide, or wait and see. As you’ve heard many times, this is usually the wrong strategy. If you are feeling stuck and not sure what to do next:

1. Start where you are and move. Your starting point will be the situation you are in right now. Do not wait for another situation to show up, because it won’t. There will never be another right one, because now is the right one. When you are finished using this staring point, you will arrive at the next starting point. Then, you will use that one.

If you are needing certainty about where to walk, that is, you already know the path, then you only can go where you have already been. Just start out with small actions in the direction that your heart is trending toward. What feels right? Where are all the signs pointing?

The best way will be revealed to you as you are moving. Last month I was at a crossroads on the Camino Portugues and I was unsure of where to go next. Late afternoon, nobody around. I started out in a random direction, and within a few minutes a yellow arrow (Camino directional reference) appeared on a wall. The universe showed up and gave a sign. It always does.

“If you are 100% certain of the outcome of an action, what do you learn from taking that action? Not a thing. If you do not expose yourself to risk, you cannot possibly learn anything; if you risk nothing you learn nothing.” Gifford Pinchot, Intrepreneuring

2. Start Now. Some people look, but don’t see. Some listen, but don’t hear. Many know, but don’t do. If you know it, do it. How often have you had a really good idea and later found that other people had ‘stolen’ it? The difference between your idea, and the idea that made it to market, is only one thing: action. Somebody else took the idea that was available to everyone, and moved forward for a long enough period until it worked.   

When the Italian film director Frederico Fellini was asked where he got his ideas for films, he replied, “The film already exists, it is a matter of waiting for it to show up and bring it to reality.”

• Before taking action, if you have intention, wish, or thought, your action is already half complete. When you take action on your thought, it just serves to complete it, or to give it form.

• Quantum Mechanics predicts that it is already done, you just need to “polish it off.” Your thoughts crystallize the already existing matter in the universe.

• Whatever you dream or wish to do, consider it already enroute. Just take action, any action, just keep moving in the direction of your dream.

• “Life becomes real at the point of action.” Plato

3. The Five Year Test

Consider the cost of not doing. Five years from now, as you reach out from the other side and greet yourself coming through the door, will you be proud of what you have done? Will you be able to shake your hand, pat yourself on the back and tell yourself that you did your very best? Or will you regret the missed opportunities, the things you did not do, the people to whom you did not reach out in love? Do it now.

Does your brain still feel overloaded? Click here to cut down on Decision Fatigue.