Change

IF YOU'RE GOING TO WORRY, DO IT EFFECTIVELY

You might not be able to stop worry completely, but you can get better at it :)

‘Worrying’ is expensive both in individual cost, and the cost of lost time and productivity. One recent study in which subjects were given random alerts to write down current thoughts showed that 47-55% were worrying. Worry is not a good strategy unless done correctly. 

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Telling yourself to stop worrying makes it worse because of psychological reactance. Ordering yourself to do something can set up the opposite result. If you instruct yourself to “just not think about it”, your thinking will be invaded more. People remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed tasks. The Zeigarnik Effect suggests that incomplete tasks, such as dismissing worry, will intrude until they are completed.

THREE STEPS:

  1. When your worry shows up, don't get annoyed. Write it on a ‘worry pad’ that you keep nearby. Writing the worry down is the first step in helping to loosen its grip.

  2. Get back to work, writing down the worry as often as you need.

  3. Later, say on a 3:00 pm break, take your Worry Pad to a quiet corner and review all your worries. Worry about them as intently as you can.

Result? At some point you will be able to release what is on your Worry Pad because:

a) you’ll be able to see the futility of those worries and that will loosen their grasp on you, and 

b) because you are giving your worries 100% attention, you just might get to a solution. 

Either way, this is more efficient than letting worry drain your attention and energy. If you’re going to worry, might as well do it right.

Boomers: Five Steps to Bridging the Gap

If like me, you grew up before computer and video games, fMRI and PET studies show that you might be missing a part of your brain that Millenials have.

The exercise in this post, similar to the Stroop color-word test, seems to discriminate among Boomers and Millenials. It demands fast mental switching. Millenials zip through to the end with almost zero error; their brains are future-fit and ready to go. Most of us boomers, high achievers that we are, start strong but then fizz out near the middle. By the end, we have entered that-part-of-our-brain-where-there-is-nothing. Try reading the color not the words and see if you can get to the end with 90-100% accuracy in 25 seconds or less. 

Are you Stuck by these Five Change Myths?

If you or your team are stuck on any of these outdated myths, you’ll spin your wheels no matter how hard you push on the gas!

Myth #1:  “People don’t like change.” It’s not change that’s the problem; we’re born to change and adapt. It’s natural. People resist losing self-esteem, resulting from looking foolish, losing face, feeling like a failure. If these factors are shored up and protected in your people, change will be less of an issue.

Triangles, Tangles and Blocks - Oh No! (Part One)

Many organizations don’t recognize them. Those that do spot them don’t do well at fixing them. Triangles, Tangles and Blocks side-swipe energy, blur focus, and strangle change.

If they take a stranglehold on your company, you won’t move. They grow with vague, un-prioritized goals, fuzzy communication, and an overwhelmed workforce. Best is to fix the root cause, but in the meantime, these steps can help to clear things up and create a healthier workplace.