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| | Featured Tool | 50 Activities for Achieving Change
These activities will prepare your organization for change thinking: - Change in the workplace
- Developing goals for change
- Change and self-development
- Accepting change
- Understanding change
$139.95 Purchase Now!
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| | Book Report | Are You Indispensible?
Author Seth Godin has given us some of the more thought provoking and entertaining business books over the last 5 years (See Tribe, Purple Cow, Meatball Sundae, etc.). His insight, humor, and plainly spoken style continue with his latest effort, Linchpin (Portfolio, 2010). Linchpin looks to turn your career on its ear. Godin’s argument is that where once an employee sought to fit in, the focus –and NEED – is now on differentiation. The new key employee, The Linchpin, is one who creates what Godin terms as “art”, and in the process breaking out of a black-and-white corporate world into something far more colorful. Passion for your work, and an altruistic desire for the betterment of your organization, can create the art that the author speaks about – and it is the sharing of this passion in creative ways that can help you to become indispensable. The only unfortunate note is that those who pick up this book and are captivated enough to read it are likely to already be “Linchpin” types. As usual with Godin’s work, Linchpin was a quick read complete with smile rendering anecdotes and enough fresh new thought to keep you eager for the next page.
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| The Shortcut to Driving Change
 | How do organizations typically roll out major changes to their employees? They typically start by enlisting the power of persuasion. Most of you have either attended or presented a "Change Speech" at some point. They are meant to be persuasive, inspirational, and help the company "press the reset button," right? As long as the audience is already willing to accept change, then those speeches can be a great beginning. Without a certain latitude of acceptance though, they are as good as speaking to an empty room. In essence, you can convince people to endorse an idea that they generally accept, but it's when you are talking them into an idea that they currently reject, that you really have your work cut out for you. Here is the startling conclusion: Persuasion and other typical communication tactics are unlikely to work when instigating high stakes change. So what can you do?
Since persuasion is a weak tool for getting resisters to change what they are doing, consider activation. It is the "try it, you'll like it" method. It promotes early positive experiences, so change within the ranks can gain its footing, right from the start.
Here are the key aspects of activation:
- Start with baby steps. Imagine a car dealer that sees you are looking at a sports car. You may not intend to buy, but hey, why not just sit inside, or take it for a spin? Before you know it, you are driving away in a yellow Mustang.
- Catch them in the act. At the beginning stages of change, reward employees who are giving it a try, when they are still grappling with uncertainty.
- It's okay to make mistakes! When making change, insecurities rise to the surface. So make it safe. What's the harm in taking that Mustang for a quick spin around the block?
- Make it easy. The path of change can be greased by making it easy to take the first few steps, encouraging involvement, and offering training, right from the beginning.
Get started adding Activation to your Change Toolbox by working through the Action Steps below.
| | | |  | | Leverage Stress for Success
 | No matter who they are or what they're doing, every person and organization experiences problems, difficulties, unexpected reversals and crises that knock them off balance. Organizations are threatened by loss of sales, new competitors and economic conditions. Our lives are affected by personal, financial or health crises. However, what differentiates us from each other is how we handle those situations. So how can you make sure you are on the right side of the fence? Here are three steps you can take to gain composure, relieve stress, and move ahead: Stay Calm and Move Forward Reacting (or overreacting!) to stress negatively is a sure fire way of shutting down your brain. It has been said before, but bears repeating: When you are in the moment, start by taking a deep breath and then thinking carefully about your next words and actions. Take Control Make better decisions by accepting 100% responsibility for yourself and for everything that happens from this minute forward. Refuse to blame anyone for anything. Your mind will become clear as soon as the anger and blame dissipates, and clarity of thought leads to clarity of purpose. Simplify During times of stress or crisis, we are often swamped with more tasks than we can realistically handle. In order to garner the calmness and self-control you need, simplify everything you can, both from a personal and business standpoint. Conserve Follow in the footsteps of professional athletes, who eat the right foods, do the right exercise, and get plenty of rest. The food-exercise-sleep combination creates the perfect trifecta for clear thought. Next time you are faced with crisis or stress, leverage it by utilizing the tools here, and turn your stress into success!
| | | | | | Situation Room
Jeff is the production manager for a parts plant in the auto industry. Recent union disputes have caused a number of disgruntled employees to leave the company and take jobs with a competing employer on the other side of town. With a skeleton crew on the production floor, each member has to do more work than ever. Jeff is confident that the remaining employees are up to the task, but right now they are angry about the situation, and a few have even threatened to quit. What would you do?
| | | | | | Author Interview: Michael Mauboussin, Part II
 | Our interview this time is the second part of a conversation with Michael Mauboussin, asset manager and author of three books, including his latest title, Think Twice: Harnessing the Power of Counter Intuition (Harvard Press, 2009). Read and enjoy! Overall, do you predict any growth or change in how people make decisions? I’m not overly optimistic about this prospect. On the one hand, there’s no doubt that most people have an interest in improving the quality of their decisions. And books about decision making have become very popular. On the other hand, very few people take the time to really learn the lessons and apply the techniques to offset poor decisions. The challenge is that our minds naturally work one way, so changing requires an enormous amount of effort. It’s possible, but hard. Now that you have developed these concepts, you must use them in most parts of your life. Can you give us a practical, daily example that our readers could relate to? Sure. One example is that I’ve become much more aware of the relative contributions of skill and luck in the outcomes I observe. What is interesting is that the relative contribution of the two varies from activity to activity. For instance, if you play someone in chess, the better player is highly likely to win—it’s basically skill. But if you play the roulette wheel in Las Vegas, the outcome is pure luck. Almost all other activities are a mix. And understanding where an activity sits on the skill-luck continuum is very helpful I also try to keep in mind that all activities that combine skill and luck exhibit reversion to the mean—extreme outcomes are followed by outcomes that are more likely to be closer to the average. That’s been an important learning for me and is something I try to be very alert to. Are there any other points you would like to add about decision making? I finish by noting that this idea has a lot of significance for evaluation performance. For instance, a lot of employee reviews are based on outcomes. But if the outcome reflects a heavy dose of luck, you’re not helping the employee with praise or criticism. The feedback you provide should deal only with what an employee can control. I think that insight gets overlooked a lot. Thanks so much, Michael. When he isn't writing books or working as an asset manager, you can find Michael reading or spending time with his wife and five kids.
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 | This Month's Featured Tool |  |
| 50 Activities for Achieving Change
 These activities will prepare your organization for change thinking! Training Objectives Outline the process of accepting change Demonstrate the need for change Reduce conflict Improve communication skills Activities Cover - Change in the workplace
- Developing goals for change
- Change and self-development
- Accepting changeUnderstanding change
Training Methods - 25 activities involve group discussions
- 13 questionnaires and instruments highlight current perceptions and identify resistance to change
- 6 role-play scenarios aid the transfer of learning from the workshop to the workplace
- 6 written exercises provide an opportunity to express personal thoughts, and reactions to change
$139.95
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