Small Can Be Big

Some time ago I came across an article (European Heart Journal, March 2011) in which it is stated that little movements can make a big difference. Recent American-Australian research shows that people putting up their arm while sitting at their desk or standing up while they’re making a phone call score lower on a variety of risk factors for heart diseases as compared to people who sit still. A possible explanation is that every brief exertion of the skeletal muscles counts in enhancing blood circulation. In another study (PNAS, Feb. 2011) American researchers showed that the usual age-related shrinking of the hippocampus (crucial for learning and memory) can be decreased by moving more.

This is no commercial for fitness or any other sports. I’d just like to remind you that not only moving is healthy, but, above all, that a small change can bring about a big result or change which is, of course, not at all limited to putting up your arm while sitting behind your desk. I do believe in small things making a big difference, one person and act at a time.

Four small suggestions for big gains:

·         When starting your work day, decide on the desired outcome of the day. Describe two or three specific results. Keep it short and simple, attainable and attractive. You (big) gain: it will focus you, help you redirect during the day, and evaluate at the end of the day.

·         Arrive a few minutes early for your meeting to brush of the previous activity or meeting and prepare for this one so that you actually see, hear, and sense what’s going on rather than being caught up in thoughts and to-do’s that belong elsewhere. These few minutes won’t help you get rid of the daunting amount of things still to do and it will help you achieve more each meeting.

·         Give someone a compliment, let a colleague or subordinate know what you appreciate in them. Small effort, little time, great pleasure and for sure an energy boost for the receiver.

·         Take a few minutes extra to really listen to your conversation partner, to ask that extra question that otherwise would go unasked and that starts a whole different line of thinking.

But it’s not about my suggestions. It’s about making you aware that small can be big. In addition to dreaming big I invite you to add your own small ideas for big and valuable results. If you hesitate, please remember how long it takes to smile at yourself and the world. Makes a big difference if you ask me.

The value of being nonjudgmental

We do it all the time. We form opinions, we put people and situations in boxes, we decide on right and wrong, we categorize, we judge. Judging is a necessary activity. Without the skill to judge it would be an unpredictable, threatening, unsafe, and difficult world to live in, or more than it already is at times and more than it needs to be. Think of situations like when to cross the street, what sitter to trust with your children, which route to take when you're lost, what job offer (the good old days) to choose, what university to look into, how to best negotiate your benefits package and on and on and on.

The title of this post clearly gave me away. There is a time to judge and there is a time to not judge. And what many of us have great difficulty with is knowing which of the two to do when. Take for example hearing criticism (call it the truth or not). As Jerry Hirshberg, founder and retired president of Nissan Design International in California stated: "Even people who don't mind telling the truth have mixed feelings (at best) about hearing the truth. It's like a chemical reaction: Your face goes red, your temperature rises, you want to strike back. Those are signs of the two D's: defending and debating. Try to fight back with the two L's: listening and learning."

The best way to shut down communication and stifle honest feedback is to punish people who speak up candidly. To snap at them, to quiet them, to publicly ignore input, and to dismiss their ideas by judging them prematurely as impossible, not in line with company policy, too difficult / expensive / out of the ordinary or whatever the judgment is. This quick judging instills fear, demoralization, and apathy at best, and rebellion and couter-productive attitudes and practices at worst.

My suggestion: postpone judgment (excluding crisis situations, of course), listen and learn, inquire by asking questions, see the value of differences and variety, and give people and ideas a chance before you prematurely judge them into the world of the 'weird, the unwanted, and the impossible'.

Always have a Dream

This poem by Amanda Bradley was on the front page of our son’s end-of-year fifth grade brochure, and it seems to me it fits right in with a blog on Personal Development, Leadership, and Change.

Always have a Dream

Forget about the days when it’s been cloudy,

                but don’t forget your hours in the sun…

Forget about the times you’ve been defeated,

                but don’t forget the victories you’ve won…

Forget about mistakes you can’t change now,

                but don’t forget the lessons that you’ve learned…

Forget about the misfortunes you’ve encountered,

                but don’t forget the times your luck has turned…

Forget about the days when you’ve been lonely,

                but don’t forget the friendly smiles you’ve seen…

Forget about the plans that didn’t seem to work out right,

                but don’t forget to always have a dream!

By poet and novelist Amanda Bradley

Dr. Warren Bennis on Change Management

This post concerns part of an interview of a couple of years ago, in which David Wright speaks with Warren Bennis, best-selling author of numerous books on Leadership, presidential advisor, consultant to many Fortune 500 companies, and top speaker on management. I choose the piece below because it reminds us of the importance of three crucial change processes: involving, informing, and educating the people involved. Nothing shocking, nothing complicated, but so often overlooked and underestimated by change makers.

Warren Bennis: “Change isn’t necessarily something that is resisted at all times by all people. I think, in some cases, there are people who really anticipate, look forward to and thrive on change. And in this world, if they don’t, they’re going to miss the train. There’s not an institution that I know, not a profession that I’m aware of, that isn’t undergoing constant and spastic change. Change is now the constant. Even though it may not be a natural act for certain people, I think it’s something that everyone has got to understand. Take education, for example. It’s no longer just four years of college. Education is really turning into a process of lifelong learning. Universities are going to have to take responsibility not just for their alumni but for people in much older age groups, who have to keep learning because the half-life of professions is shrinking every day.

The way organizations must deal with change is by helping people realize that in the process of changing they’re going to benefit from all sorts of educational programs and opportunities. The people have to be involved in the change, because if they are part of the process, they’re much less threatened by change. There are a lot of reasons why most people resist change, but among the most important is their reliance on old habits, especially the ones that have been successful. Related to that is self-esteem. If you’re doing something extremely well, are pretty successful at it, getting a lot of rewards for it and your sense of self-esteem is based on your competence, it’s got to be difficult if you’re put into a totally different and new situation. Organizations have to help people get into a safe “holding pattern” where -they can learn new skills without it being a threat to their self-esteem. So to summarize, people have got to be involved in the change, they have got to be informed of the change, and they have got to be educated and put into a safe holding area where they’re not going to be overly threatened by change”.

From "Taking Charge - Lessons in Leadership" by Insight Publishing Company

Book review: Our Iceberg is Melting – Changing and succeeding under any conditions

Authors: John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber, 2005

An eight step model that is explained through a fable about an emperor penguin colony in Antarctica and how they deal with problems and change. I recommend reading and passing on this book. It’s fun, easy, informative, and thought provoking. What character or style do I identify with? How do I/do we try and bring about change? and more. The eight-step model to change is divided into four sections. I will briefly mention the sections and steps. For the real meat you’ll have to read the book, like many leaders and complete groups of employees have done.

Set the stage

Step 1: Reduce complacency and increase the sense of urgency. Help others see the need for change and the importance of acting immediately.

Step 2: Pull together a team to guide the needed change. Make sure it is a powerful group, one with leadership skills, credibility, communications ability, authority, analytical skills and a sense of urgency.

Decide what to do

Step 3: Create a vision of a new future, a change vision and strategy. Clarify how the future will be different from the past, and how you can make that future a reality.

Make it happen

Step 4: Communicate the new vision in many different ways and repeatedly – communicate for understanding and buy-in. Make sure as many others as possible understand and accept the vision and the strategy.

Step 5: Empower others to act. Remove as many barriers as possible so that those who want to make the vision a reality can do so.

Step 6: Produce short-term wins. Create some invisible, unambiguous successes as soon as possible.

Step 7: Don’t let up. Press harder and faster after the first successes. Be relentless with initiating change after change until the vision is reality.

Make it Stick

Step 8: Create a new culture. Hold on the new ways of behaving and make sure they succeed until they become strong enough to replace old traditions.

This is a very brief description of Kotter’s eight step model, but it provides you with the main idea on his model for bringing about change. Also highlighted in this book: The role of thinking and feeling:

Thinking differently can help change behavior and lead to better results.

-       Collect data, analyze it.

-       Present the information logically to change people’s thinking.

-       Changed thinking, in turn, can change behavior.

Feeling differently can change behavior more and lead to even better results.

-       Create surprising, compelling, and if possible visual experiences.

-       The experiences change how people feel about a situation.  

-       A change in feelings can lead to a significant change in behavior.

The question you may ask yourself after reading the book or this summary: “What is my ‘iceberg’ and how can I use what I discover in this story?”.

Let’s Play

Play is often thought of as the domain of children and animals. Playing is good when you’re young, but in our fast-paced, rapidly developing, over-competitive world play is often considered a waste of time. In addition, many think it’s foolish to play and fool around. You just don’t do that. Well, that’s a real waste of precious activity. Because play is crucial to our lives, our health, our liveliness, our resilience and innovation and so much more. And play is so much. It’s joking, rough-housing, playing sports, playing with the dog, board games, music, theater… You get the picture.

Inspired by a May 2011 lecture on play at the University of Minnesota by Stuart Brown, I am  happy to list some characteristics and benefits of play. For more reading I refer you to Brown’s book “Play – How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul”.  

Play

Ingredient for creativity and innovation, tool to rejuvenate, and a way to let go and have fun.

Play

Is a state of mind, rather than an activity. Sometimes running is play, sometimes it’s not, like when you’re afraid and running to escape, or when you’re running away angrily.

Play

A great way to stumble upon new behaviors, thoughts, strategies, movements, or ways of being.

Play

Frees you from established patterns.

Play

Teaches you to make sound judgments.

Play

Lets you learn about the environment and the rules of engagement with friend and foe.

Play

Lets you imagine and experience situations you have never encountered before and learn from them.

Play

Lets you create possibilities that have never existed but may in the future. You make new cognitive connections that find their way into your everyday life.

Play

Creates an arena for social interaction and learning. It allows you to learn lessons and skills without being directly at risk.

Play

Has you create imaginative new cognitive combinations and in creating those novel combinations you find what works.

Play

Creates new neural connections and tests them.

As Stuart Brown states so clearly: “If we stop playing, we share the fate of all animals that grow out of play. Our behavior becomes fixed. We are not interested in new and different things. We find fewer opportunities to take pleasure in the world around us. My family and I love to play, in many different ways. I hope you do too, and otherwise: you’re never too old to start something new.

The Questions We Ask Ourselves and Others

The importance and power of questions – I like to think, talk, and write about this relevant topic because asking the right questions is in many situations more important than finding the right answers. What kind of questions do you tend to ask yourself and others? Look at the examples below and reflect on your questions. What kind of assumptions and line of thinking are they based on? What kind of dialogue are your questions really meant to elicit? What is the added value of the conversation that stems from your questions? Below you will find two types of questions that are related to accountability:

Do you tend to ask …	Or do you tend to ask …
Why is this happening to me? à	What part did I possibly play in it all?
Who dropped the ball? à	How can I contribute to a solution?
Why don’t they get it? à	What else do I need to share, explain etc.?
Why do we have to go through all this change? à	How can I better adapt to this ever changing world?
What’s wrong with these people? à	What could I be doing differently?
When will I finally be supported? à	What first steps can I take to get support?
When will department X fix this problem?	What can I start doing to solve the problem

Which questions get you furthest? Which questions empower you? 
Which questions promote your creativity? Which questions inspire others? 
Which questions present you with new perspectives and with energy to act?