Personal Development

Use the Force

3rd September 20204th September 2020 jocando Leave a comment

two lego stormtroopers pushing on opposite sides of an egg

Whether you’re trying to make a change as an individual, or trying to lead a team or organisation through a change, you want to know what you’re up against. You want to know how easy or difficult it’s going to be, and how you can put the odds in favour of making the change.

There are a couple of tools that may be helpful here. The first is Force Field Analysis, which developed from Kurt Lewin’s work in the 1940s and ‘50s.

Lewin posited that our current situation (the status quo) is maintained by the forces acting on us, and any change in our behaviour stems from changes in these forces. Our environment is constantly changing, so the forces acting on us are constantly changing and we adapt.

Lewin suggested that if you could establish what these forces were, you could understand what forces needed to be diminished or strengthened to bring about change.

Diagram showing visual representation of force field analysis. — ©2020 Joanna Candler

So a force field analysis is a way of visually representing the forces that support or act as obstacles to any proposed change.

Here’s what to do:

Identify the change you’re proposing. Then,
Brainstorm/list all forces that are pushing for the change (the driving forces) or preventing the change (the restraining forces)
Draw a diagram like the one above. On the left side side list the driving forces, on the right the restraining forces.
Consider the strength of each of the forces. You can either represent this visually, by drawing larger or smaller arrows (as above). Or another way is to give each force a value from 1 (low) to 5 (high)
Look at the balance for each side. If using scores, add up the score for each side to get a total.

You should have something like this:

If the forces for change are higher than the forces against the change, you are likely to be successful in making the change. The change above looks likely to succeed, as 16>12. However, if the forces against are higher, you’re likely to struggle.

So this tool is often used for decision making – is it worth trying to make the change at all? Are the forces against too strong to make the attempt?

Now comes the important part.

Brainstorm how you can either increase the driving forces, or decrease the restraining forces, so you have a better chance of the change being successful. (NB Focus on reducing the restraining forces. If you increase the driving forces, the restraining forces may also increase, thereby maintaining the equilibrium. The more you push someone to do something, the more they may resist!)

Now you have some practical actions to take before you make the change, to give you a better chance of making the change successfully.

So this is a handy tool before you start on any change journey to help you see the forces acting on you, and to give you ideas on how to push the odds in favour of the change. You’ve probably noticed that it’s not particularly scientific. Unless you’ve done some market research, you’re relying on brainstorming and guesswork. That said, like any tool, it makes you stop, think and plan, and for teams it helps stimulate discussion.

Give it a try when you’re next planning to make a change, and see what you think.

Focus on Strengths

27th August 202027th August 2020 jocando Leave a comment

man in front of blackboard showing strong arms clenching muscles

So you’ve done a SWOT analysis and you’ve got a snapshot of where you are now – your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. And that should be giving you ideas of where you want to go and how to get there.

But beware! We know that the brain has a negativity bias. I’ve already explained that the brain’s threat response is stronger than the reward response. We tend to focus on the bad and overlook the good. (That’s why bad news dominates TV and newspapers – we’re drawn to focus on the negative.)

So when we’re thinking about our own personal development, or we get feedback from others, we often pay more attention to our weaknesses or the gaps in our knowledge, and focus all our energy on fixing them. (I’m sure you’ve experienced this when doing tests. When you get the result, you soon forget that you got an amazing 90%, and you focus on the few bits you got wrong.)

But rather than using a deficit approach and trying to fix your weaknesses, you may gain more from discovering and focussing on your strengths.

Our strengths energise us

Gallup has done a lot of research into this and developed its own character strengths assessment. They have found that you’ll grow more and be more productive and engaged by focussing on your strengths than by improving your weaknesses.

It’s important to say that a strength is not necessarily the same thing as something you’re good at. A strength energises you. You might be good at something (admin, for example) but feel totally drained doing it, so that it is not really a strength for you.

So focussing on strengths with this definition makes sense – you’ll be more positive and energised if you get more opportunity to use your strengths in work and life.

Marcus Buckingham explains this idea in this video:

That’s not to say if there’s a glaring gap in your knowledge or skills that is holding you back, you shouldn’t do something about it. This is not about ignoring your weaknesses completely. But you will be more inspired to do the work to get to where you want to go if you’re able to use your strengths.

So don’t rush past the ‘strengths’ section of your SWOT analysis. Take the time to dig deep and consider how you can build on your unique strengths.

Resources:

Try a free online questionnaire to discover your strengths:

What a SWOT!

29th July 202029th July 2020 jocando Leave a comment

woman sitting at a train station looking at a map

I mentioned previously that a lot of traditional change management models seem to boil down to how to move from A (where we are now) to B (where we want to be).

diagram showing current state transitioning to new state

In order to know where we want to go, we first have to understand where we are now. What’s our current situation, and how then might we need to change to have a better future?

A well-known tool for getting a better understanding of where you, your team, or your organisation is now, is a SWOT analysis. You’ve probably already heard of this, or completed one in your workplace. This is where you brainstorm your current Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

Your strengths and weaknesses are internal factors A useful starting point is to ask yourself questions for each section. For example, if you were doing this for your own personal development you could ask:

Strengths – What am I good at? What do I find easy? What knowledge do I have? What do people praise me for?

Weaknesses – What do I struggle with? What do I hate doing? Where are gaps in my knowledge?

Opportunities and threats are external factors I’ve already talked about using PEST to analyse your current environment, and the outcome of your PEST analysis can help you complete the Opportunities and Threats sections of your SWOT analysis.

Beware subjectivity!

We are often unaware of our real strengths and weaknesses. Perhaps because we find something easy, we don’t realise that it’s a strength. Or we have blind spots and we don’t realise the things we are doing that may be holding us back.

So it’s important to gather data for your SWOT to become more aware of what’s really going on. What evidence do you already have, and where might you need more data?

If you’re brave, you can ask friends, family and/or colleagues for feedback to discover how other people view your strengths and weaknesses. You can also take diagnostic tests or complete questionnaires (eg a personality test) to discover more about what you are like. This is where a coach can help, and a programme of coaching or personal development often starts with diagnostic tools or exercises to help you discover more about yourself.

So what?

Like any tool, just completing a SWOT doesn’t give you the answers. But taking the time to think through each of these areas should not only give you a better understanding of your current position (A), it should also start to give you ideas about where you need to go (B). How you can capitalise on your strengths, overcome some of your weaknesses, make the most of any opportunities, and try and minimise the threats?

Further resources:

CIPD (2020) SWOT Analysis
Mind Tools – SWOT Analysis

References

Bassot, B. (2016) The Reflective Practice Guide: an interdisciplinary approach to critical reflection, London: Routledge

Easy vs Hard Change

24th July 202019th July 2020 jocando Leave a comment

I’ve talked about change being hard and the brain being hardwired against change, but humans cope with change all the time – we are pretty good at adapting to change and learning new things.

But some things do seem to be more difficult. Losing weight, perhaps. Or getting up early.

I’ve recently read Michael Bungay-Stanier’s book “The Advice Trap” where he distinguishes between Easy Change and Hard Change. I love his flow diagrams for these so I’ll share them here.

Easy Change is straightforward. You start out not knowing something, understand what you need to learn, practise it, and improve. All you need is access to some knowledge (a book, a teacher, a YouTube video) and then you try it.

flow diagram for easy change — © 2020 Michael Bungay-Stanier

Hard change is much more of an effort. You think you know what you have to do, but you fail, try again, fail again, and keep coming back to it. Knowing how to do something is not enough. You need to shift your mindset and behaviour, but something’s stopping you from making progress.

flow diagram for hard change — © 2020 Michael Bungay-Stanier

What’s easy or hard depends on the individual and their previous experience. What is easy for you might be hard for me. Some people have no trouble losing weight or getting up early.

This idea of hard and easy change is actually based on what Heifetz and Linsky (2002) refer to as adaptive change vs technical change in organisations.

Technical problems, while challenging, can be solved by applying existing know-how.

Adaptive problems, however, require transformational change, with all individuals within the organisation shifting their behaviour. This is uncomfortable and will likely be met with resistance and difficulty.

The danger is that people may try to respond to an adaptive (hard) problem with a technical (easy) solution – doing what they’ve done before. Alternatively, you can waste a lot of time, money and effort thinking something is an adaptive challenge, when really it just requires a technical solution.

Knowing whether you’re dealing with a hard or easy change is an important step in making the change.

References:

Bungay-Stanier, M. (2020) The Advice Trap: Be Humble, Stay Curious and Change the Way you Lead Forever” Toronto: Box of Crayons Press

Heifetz, R. and Linsky, M. (2002) “A Survival Guide for Leaders”, Harvard Business Review, June 2002

Why We Need to Change

9th July 20209th July 2020 jocando Leave a comment

taking a picture of an old woman on a smartphone

As humans we are constantly adapting to our environment. But it’s clear from what I’ve said about the brain that changing just one person (ourselves) can be scary and difficult. So what about if an entire team, organisation or society needs to change? That means every single person in that group needs to shift.

There’s a vast array of literature on ‘change management’ and a whole industry built on it. We’re regularly told that between 50 and 75% of organisational change initiatives fail. The cost of making changes and the cost of failure can be immense. No wonder, then, that companies spend a vast amount of money on change management consultancy (around $10 billion a year according to the Boston Consultancy Group).

So what’s going on? Why do we have to keep ‘changing’ and how do you decide what needs to change, if anything?

Change is inevitable

Like it or not, our environment is changing all the time. Managers talk about leading in a VUCA world – one that’s Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous – and there’s debate about whether the pace of change is increasing, but it certainly feels that way. We’ve all seen big changes in our lifetime.

Changes in Technology

Just think about how we listen to music. I grew up with vinyl records, then tapes and Walkmans and Ghetto blasters, then CDs and portable CDs, then mini-disks, now MP3 players, and now it’s on my mobile phone or tablet with wireless headphones. Social media didn’t exist 20 years ago and now it’s ubiquitous. How did we manage without it? The rate of technological change seems to be increasing and every time there’s a change, we have to adapt and learn something new.

Changes in Society

We’re living longer. Improvements in medicine and living conditions mean that half of babies born now will live to be over 100.

But many companies and governments are still working on a 3-stage life model. We get educated when we’re young, we work for 45 years, then we retire. But that’s unsustainable if we’re all living longer. We can’t afford to retire at 65 if we’re going to live to 100, and we will need to re-skill and shift careers more often. This is causing tension.

And the makeup of the workforce has changed. There are more women in work and dual-income couples with children. For many the Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 model doesn’t work well. Employees are demanding more flexibility, and a more educated workforce want more meaning in their work lives.

All this has a big influence on how we live and work. Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott identify we are now shifting into a multi-stage life. This means more change, more transitions, more breaks, education across the lifespan and more flexibility:

3 stage model of 'education-work-retirement' moving to a multi-stage model — Image from: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-corporate-implications-of-longer-lives/

Changes in Work

Whole industries are being disrupted as new competitors emerge. Just think about Uber disrupting the taxi industry, or AirBnB disrupting the hotel industry. And AI is threatening to remove jobs currently done by humans. This has knock-on effects with people being pushed out of jobs and having to retrain.

Technological changes allow many of us to work from anywhere, anytime. The rise of the gig economy has brought flexibility and autonomy for many but also financial insecurity.

Even in a ‘stable’ career like medicine there is constant change, with a need for re-education and learning as new techniques and medicines appear.

Managing and Leading Change

So the need for change is clear as we have to adapt to the inevitable changes going on in our environment. The human brain is designed for survival – to avoid threats and seek rewards. And organisations and societies, too, need to constantly adapt in order to survive and thrive.

Managing or leading change in organisations has huge implications for the individuals working in those organisations. Over the next few posts I’ll introduce some tools and models used in managing planned change. But we should always remember that at a basic level, organisations and teams are made up of individual human beings and knowing how individual humans work will make all the difference.

References

Gratton, L. and Scott, A. (2016) The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity, London: Bloomsbury

Changing Habits

4th July 20201st July 2020 jocando Leave a comment

In the previous post I explained how the brain develops ‘habit loops’ to conserve energy. A habit loop consists of 3 steps: a cue, the routine, and a reward. Being aware of what is triggering your habits and routines is the first step to making a change.

A habit develops when you repeat the same choices. So in order to change the habit we need to make different choices until a new or different habit is formed.

In the example below, every morning after you arrive at work you go to the cafeteria first, buy a coffee and take it back to your desk. But this is getting expensive, and you’re trying to cut down on caffeine. You want to change the habit, but it’s automatic.

Cues

If you want to change a habit, you need to identify the cue. What is triggering this behaviour? Research suggests that there are five possible categories for the cue, which are:

Location – where are you when the urge hits? What can you see?
Time – does it happen at a regular time?
Emotional State – does it happen when you are tired? Angry? Sad?
Other People – who else is around?
Immediately preceding action – do you always do this after something else?

So in the current example, you can see several possible cues. You always go to the cafeteria for a coffee:

at work (location)
when you arrive (immediately preceding action), which is usually
at 8.30am (time)

So if you want to change your habit, you need to look at these more closely. Do you go for a coffee if you don’t arrive till later in the day? What happens at the weekend or if you work from home? Is it time or location?

Reward

It’s also worth experimenting with the reward. What is the actual reward you’re getting? What happens if you still go to the café but buy a green tea instead? Or what if you bring in a flask of coffee, avoid the café and go direct to your desk. Are you trying to avoid starting work? Do you want to chat to colleagues in the café before you start? Is it the taste of the coffee? Or something else?

Once you better understand the cue and reward, try keeping the cue, but changing the routine or reward.

Have a look at this video to see how Charles Duhigg changed his afternoon cookie habit.

Starting a new habit.

You can also use the idea of cues and rewards to create a new, good habit.

Set the cue and reward and make a plan. For example:

At 9am (cue)
I will put on my trainers and go for a 20-minute run (routine).
When I get back I’ll have a piece of chocolate (reward).

And actually, you only need the chocolate reward while you’re developing the habit. After lots of repetitions, the chocolate reward will no longer be needed. The routine is reward itself.

Your turn

Give it a try. Think of one thing you’d like to change, or a new habit you’d like to start. Let me know how you get on!

Further Reading

How Habits Work – excerpt from the book ‘The Power of Habit’ by Charles Duhigg

It’s just habit

29th June 20204th July 2020 jocando Leave a comment

In the previous post I explained that, in order to conserve energy, the brain turns things we do repeatedly into habits, so we can do the actions without having to think.

It’s worth pausing here and learning a bit more about habits, as so much individual and organisational change involves us changing our behaviour and habits in some way.

Researchers have shown that 40-45% of the decisions we make every day are actually habits – we don’t make a conscious decision at all. And anyone who’s tried to start a new positive habit (like exercising, healthy eating or meditating) or change an existing habit, will know just how easily we can slip back into our usual way of doing things.

Charles Duhigg in his book The Power of Habit explains how researchers have identified the habit process as a 3-step loop:

A cue, that tells the brain to go into automatic mode, and which habit to use
The routine – which can be physical, mental or emotional
A reward – which helps the brain decide if this particular loop is worth remembering for the future.

Diagram showing loop of cue, habit and reward — © Charles Duhigg

In this example, the cue could be ‘arriving at work’, the routine is you ‘go to the cafeteria to get a coffee’, and the reward is you get to chat to your colleagues in the cafe before you start the working day. (In the brain, the actual reward is the dopamine that is released.)

Over time, and with repetition, the loop becomes more and more automatic. And over time, the brain begins to anticipate the reward, releasing dopamine at the thought of it, and therefore there is a craving for the reward, which keeps the habit going.

Change requires people to concentrate until they have adapted to new cues and routines, and this takes energy. So knowing about habit loops can help us change our habits or develop new ones.

Training + coaching

6th June 20196th June 2019 jocando Leave a comment

I was reminded recently of an advertising campaign I saw when I was a student in Edinburgh. As you descended the steps into Waverley station, there was a huge banner that read “TRAINING BEATS COACHING” – a succinct way to persuade you that trains were a better way to get you from A to B than taking the coach.

I’ve been thinking recently about the two elements of my work – training and coaching – and how they might work best together.

Attending the workshop is just the beginning…

How often have you been on a training course, been really enthusiastic and come back with best of intentions to use your new-found knowledge in your work, only to put away your notes and never look at them again. Or more recently I’ve been on several workshops where I’ve been assured that “you don’t need to take notes; we’ll send you the slides” and after 3 weeks without receiving anything I’ve given up and moved on.

I don’t think I’ve ever been to a training session or workshop and had someone follow up 3 or 6 months later to find out if/how I was using the knowledge to improve my performance. It amazes me that companies invest in sending their people on training courses and think that’s the end of it. It takes a great deal of personal discipline, and often the support of other colleagues, to put that new knowledge into practise and change your way of working.

(One study found that managers who had been on ‘Manager as Coach’ training took on average three days to revert ‘back to normal’ after the training.)

Having someone who will check in with you, support you to make changes, and hold you accountable for doing something, will help you maintain motivation and embed the learning.

Of course, ideally the person who checks in with you and ensures the company’s investment is bearing fruit would be your line manager. But unfortunately we know that, at least currently, it rarely happens.

This is where coaching can help. Coaching or mentoring can help employees embed the learning in their work and improve their performance. That’s why coaching is often part of a leadership development programme – because including coaching has been shown to be more effective than just the training alone. Otherwise the learning is soon forgotten.

So if you’ve had some learning (you’ve attended a workshop, enrolled on a MOOC, read a book etc.) and want to make changes to help your performance at work, make sure you schedule in review, reflection, and/or coaching or check-ins with a study buddy, to give yourself the best chance of success.

So no, training doesn’t beat coaching. But perhaps the two in combination is the answer.

Coaching for all – not just for the higher-ups

22nd February 201922nd February 2019 jocando Leave a comment

Coaching is gaining in popularity, as more organisations recognise the benefits they can gain from improved employee performance through coaching.

However, it seems to me that there is still a perception that coaching is for ‘higher-ups’. The assumption is that coaching is expensive, both in terms of money and time. So, the argument goes, investment in coaching to help develop people should be aimed at those where the results will have most impact, usually assumed to be those in senior positions.

I think we need to challenge some of those assumptions. Let’s start with cost.

A ‘good’ coach is expensive

I talked to an HR person recently. She gave me a lot of information about how her company worked with external coaches. But without asking me any questions, she assumed that the company could not afford me as a coach for ‘ordinary’ employees. She assumed that she’d have to pay £300 for an hour of coaching. This fee was based on what her company was paying for the executive coaches, but also on other assumptions – that there were no coaches close by, that you’d have to hire someone from London, pay their expenses, bring them down to the company for half a day etc.

It didn’t cross this HR person’s mind that they could invest in a whole course of coaching – say, 6 sessions, plus introductory session and evaluation session – for the same price. Yet they had internal coaches who were doing just that for a similar cost. And at that same company, they’d think nothing of signing off £300 to send someone to a training event or conference, regardless of level. But although the employee might get a few hours of valuable ‘input’, it’s unlikely there’d be any follow-up to see if the investment in training had made any real difference to the employee or company.

It has to be face-to-face

The assumption is that the coach or coachee has to travel to be at a coaching session in person. But this takes time and has an opportunity cost – you could be working instead of travelling. I’ve mentioned before that I do a lot of work online – training and coaching online via telephone and video calls. This has significantly reduced the costs I need to charge to clients. In addition, both parties can choose a comfortable environment for themselves. Don’t get me wrong – coaching in person is the ideal solution for many. But many clients find a session can be just as effective online.

And not only does technology mean you don’t have to travel, it also opens up the range of coaches you have access to, meaning you can find one that suits your needs, rather than having one that’s conveniently close-by.

We have too many employees

Employees won’t need a coach all the time. But it may be appropriate for specific times or challenges in their career, for example when:

you’ve been newly promoted
you are going through a transition or period of change
you are looking to develop skills and behaviours to get you to the next level or take you in a new direction

So let’s start challenging this idea that coaches are just for the C-suite and open it up to all.