The secret of planning, priorities and beer

One of Jersey's top CEOs and Change Leader has a jar of rocks on his desk. This story explains why, and his approach to managing change.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the rocks. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous ‘yes.’

The professor then produced two Beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand.The students laughed.

‘Now,’ said the professor as the laughter subsided, ‘I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The rocks are the important things, your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions, and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car. The sand is everything else, the small stuff.

‘If you put the sand into the jar first,’ he continued, ‘there is no room for the pebbles or the rocks. The same goes for life.

If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.

Spend time with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and mow the lawn.

Take care of the rocks first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the Beer represented. The professor smiled and said, ‘I’m glad you asked.’ The Beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of Beers with a friend.

How to get into the magic circle of change managers and leaders.

INTRODUCTION

There are many theories and models to communication and motivation. This document focuses on  Circles Of Influence and the approach and tools which can be used to overcome resistance to change.

PROBLEM

When it comes to the future, there are three kinds of people: those who let it happen, those who make it happen, and those who wonder what happened.   How do you effect organisational change when so few are in the make it happen category? Or potentially more are in the stop it happening group!

APPROACH

There is a prayer  Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.  In life, it is so easy to focus on our circle of concern –things that we cannot control. Proactive people, the other hand, keep their thoughts and actions within their circle of influence or the things they can control, and by doing so make a difference.

http://www.businesscolab.com/images/thjr_circlesofinfluence.GIF
The old adage its not what you know, but who you know is key to Circles Of Influence. Sometimes the best way to persuade Fred will be to ask Mary to talk to him, rather than to talk direct. Not because it isn’t better to talk face to face, but because trust is essential to communication and if Fred doesn’t know you, but does trust Mary then that may be the best route for dialogue. Recognising the key influencers and building a coalition with them can be key to communication and motivation.

http://www.businesscolab.com/images/thjr_newton.GIF

HAVE A MAP OR A PLAN

A map of all your stakeholders, who knows who, and their level of interest and influence will give you have a clear picture of communication and motivation. This provides a good base from which to plan your actions.

http://www.businesscolab.com/images/thjr_stakeholdermap.GIF

Success in managing change is not to turn everyone into evangelists but to move people one step along until you reach tipping point. When you have reached the tipping point then you have momentum and change can happen quite quickly. It is important to identify the key people who will bring their followers and tip the balance: Politicians do this all the time by focusing on key marginal groups or topics which they believe will swing consensus in their favour.

http://www.businesscolab.com/images/thjr_seesaw.GIF

NEXT STEPS

Eight Ways to Expand Your Circle of Influence…

1.    Don’t ask why, ask how – ask yourself the right questions in order to expand your circle of influence. How can I turn this situation around? How can I improve my relationships? How can I help and inspire the people around me?

2.    Believe, Achieve, Succeed - Believe in yourself even in the face of naysayers. In order to expand your circle the influence, you’ll have to be bulletproof to criticism. Most criticism is intended to hold you back - to maintain status quo. Don’t let negative criticism influence you. Instead hold your vision strong and concentrate on the desired end result.

3.    Turn off the news - Put yourself on a news diet because most news is intended to create and stimulate fears in order to increase ratings. The daily news focuses our attention on our circle of concern or those things that are outside our control.

4.    Increase your value through education – Read and educate yourself on the areas that you want to expand. If you want to improve your job situation, read books on your area or take classes. If you want to improve your business, get a mentor or visit a successful business owner.

5.    Fine tune your skills –In our lives, repetition is the mother of skill. Constantly work on mastering skills. For example, your marriage is something that we must constantly work on. Like a bank account, we must make positive daily deposits for a rich relationship.

6.    Turn problems into opportunities – Many times problems are blessing in disguise with hidden opportunities.

7.    Volunteer to help – Volunteering is a great way to provide a valuable service to other people. But it is also a great way to network with like minded individuals that is ripe with opportunities.

8.    Be upbeat and enthusiastic – Upbeat and enthusiastic people attract people and situations that expand their influence. It’s natural to want to be around someone with a magnetic personality. By becoming magnetic, you will attract the opportunities like a compass pointing north.

Acknowledgements: Sensei Tim Rosanelli - John M. Richardson, Jr. - Reinhold Niebuhr (1892 – 1971) – Stephen Covey

Going native. Is it good? Or a threat to success (for the consultant or the client)?

From a cultural perspective, a certain level of conformity with client culture at the outset is smart. In order to be accepted by the "tribe", wearing the "beads and feathers", and participating in a rain dance or two will likely result in a more receptive audience when it comes to affecting change.

There are two aspects to objectivity that are equally important: the consulting firm’s objectivity and the client's "perception of objectivity"  the balance between the two types of objectivity is the key. There are many consultants who follow the path laid in the fable of “the emperor’s new clothes” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor%27s_New_Clothes) and simply tell the client what they want to hear. This may win friends and influence people, but is it right?

By “going native” you could to lose objectivity, and to start to identify too much with a company.  A key question is at what point after being immersed in a client organization does a consultant begin to lose objectivity, independence and effectiveness. Is it then they join the client organisation for a drink on a Friday night, go to the office party or start spending weekends or holidays together?

I believe there is a link between “going native” and Groupthink, when you start believing the voodoo. This occurs within groups of people, in which the desire for harmony overrides a realistic appraisal of issues. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative ideas or viewpoints.

There are eight symptoms of groupthink:

1.       Illusion of invulnerability –Creates excessive optimism that encourages taking extreme risks.

2.       Collective rationalization – Members discount warnings and do not reconsider their assumptions.

3.       Belief in inherent morality – Members believe in the rightness of their cause and therefore ignore the ethical or moral consequences of their decisions.

4.       Stereotyped views of out-groups – Negative views of “enemy” make effective responses to conflict seem unnecessary.

5.       Direct pressure on dissenters – Members are under pressure not to express arguments against any of the group’s views.

6.       Self-censorship – Doubts and deviations from the perceived group consensus are not expressed.

7.       Illusion of unanimity – The majority view and judgments are assumed to be unanimous.

8.       Self-appointed ‘mindguards’ – Members protect the group and the leader from information that is problematic or contradictory to the group’s cohesiveness, view, and/or decisions.

Avoid “going native” by remembering If by Rudyard Kipling

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;

Where are you stuck?

With what models and perspective you define your environment, your situation?
Where are you blocked?
What makes you prisoner?

We grow and build our beliefs.
Thanks to them, in the past we have survived, we have achieved goals, we have succeeded.
From there we have built our opinions, our references, our logic. We have defined what we think, how we think, how we do things, what we should or should not do ...

Do these beliefs work for you today? Or is it time to review and renew them?

Which of your knowledge, skills and beliefs are still useful to you?
Which no longer help?
Which do you need to unlearn and forget? Which do you need to strengthen or initiate?

How to take away these rigidities that have grown on you and no longer serve you?
Would you accept getting rid of them?
Do you dare?


Acknowledgement marc@autenticoach.com, Skype MarcDcoach

Leave me alone - I know what I'm doing!

Kimi Raikkonen pulled no punches on Lotus team radio in Abu Dhabi F1 when he said “.. Just leave me alone I know what I'm doing ..”  http://bit.ly/RCadOu

How often are you focussed (or possibly expert)  in what you are doing and yet you get suggestions and distractions which take you from your path? The problem is that sometimes success is not about what you do, but how you do it. Allowing yourself to take time to talk and listen to people may be as important to your success as staying detached and focussed on the outcome.

In Kimi Raikkonen’s case he clearly felt that banter on the team radio was likely to impact rather than help the outcome, and for sure Lotus’ priority is to win races.

So how do you strike the balance between action and talk, thinking and communicating, delivering and sharing? Here are some ideas from my own experience.

Step 1 -Spend some quiet time alone thinking about the factors, outcome and key people to be involved. Be clear about your SMART Objective.

Step 2 - Prepare your own thoughts and invite relevant people to contribute their ideas. Having done Step1 you’ll already have some criteria against which to evaluate other people’s suggestions.

Step 3 -Share your proposals, combining your original thoughts and those contributions from others which have added value, and then invite people to final comment and/or sign-off

Step 4 –Finalise your proposal/project. Hopefully with consensus, but failing that note any dissent or follow-on actions or further work required. Don’t ride roughshod over difference, but don’t fail to complete your task because you are looking for unanimity.

I would be very interested in other people’s experiences and ideas.

Tim

Linked-In http://www.linkedin.com/groups/CI-Change-4301853
Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/CIChange
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ciChange
Blog http://projectspeoplechange.blogspot.com/
Web http://www.cichange.org

The Pyramid Principal for Business Writing

Background

I was asked to read and write a review on The Pyramid Principal. The purpose of this document is to summarise the 180 page book in 420 words, using the tips recommended in the book.

Have a structure that is easy to follow

• Open with an Introduction and if it's going to be a long document signpost the key headings. This one is so short there is no need for text which says 'I have used the following headings...'
• Use easy to follow headings and format. Use of bold, bullets and numbering really help group ideas into bite-size chunks that can easily be understood.

Explain the situation, complication and considerations

• Explain the purpose of a document so they know the aim of the document and their reason (and reward) for reading it.
• Open with a succinct introduction that the reader will agree so as to engage them on common ground.
• Pose a challenge, question or complication which will provoke interest or questioning.
• Put forward your ideas and reasoning in a structured way, answering one question at a time.

Make an impact, then follow with the detail, one point at a time.

• Too many documents start with lots of waffle before they get to the point. Structure the document so that they could get the point only if they read the headlines
• Give answers to questions as they arise, making it easy to see the problem and resolution within a couple of lines of each-other.
• Use additional bullets only to offer detail to support the headline. If a different point needs to be made, start a new headline.

Avoid conclusions, and use Next Steps instead.

• If the document is so long and complex that it needs a conclusion to explain what has just been said, then you need to re-think your document!
• However it can be useful, having presented your proposal, to suggest immediate steps which the reader can implement in order to achieve this goal.

Next Steps.

• Most of Project Management documents are excellent, principally because we do use structure and logic.

• Our Proposals use a SPIN (Situation, Problem, Implication and Need) approach.

• Our Project Management approach uses all sort of tools to group and analyse data; 4Ds (Data, Diagnosis, Decision and Do), or 4Ps (Problem, Prognosis, Possibilities and Plan), or AIDA ( Attention, Interest, Desire and Action).

• There is however always room for improvement, and perhaps more of these techniques could be build into future documentation.

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pyramid-Principle-Logic-Writing-Thinking/dp/0273710516/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1321002006&sr=1-1

Unity of purpose, Ownership of outcome

My experience of some organisations is that where leadership and processes are dis-organised or weak. Two things happen...

1. People may be confused, upset and defensive about the silos within the organization.

2. Few feel empowered (able or responsible) to make the necessary changes for the better.

Without unity of purpose, ownership of outcome and responsibility for process the organisation is bound to be sub-optimal.

I have become a fan of the FIRO model, because this notes the processes and benefits toward team building as a means of gaining commitment and channeling resources to achieve the organisational goals.

MORE TO FOLLOW SOON....