August News

This month we are exploring questions around Change, whether it is a change in your personal life or a business change brought about by a reorganisation, a new project, operational excellence or something else. 

It seems that the 'Making an Impact' questions featured last month really did help you to make an impact. 

They were particularly useful for one Pelican newletter subscriber who had to present a particularly difficult proposal at a senior meeting. The question about 'visualising the outcome you want' was the trigger to success for her.

Featured Topic: Dealing with Change

Here are 20 questions to ask yourself about how you deal with this change. If you can begin to answer these questions you will be able to better lead yourself and others through periods of change and uncertainty.

If you find these questions useful do forward them onto a friend or colleague.

20 questions for Dealing with Change in Life and Business

1. When was the last time I went through a period of change like this?
2. What is my typical reaction to change? 
3. Am I most like Hem, Haw, Sniff or Scurry? (...if these names mean nothing it maybe time to read or re-read 'Who moved my cheese?' by Dr. Spencer Johnson)
4. How long does it usually take me to 'settle down' after a change? - how long will I give myself this time
5. What emotions am I familiar with in myself when I think about change ?
6. What emotions have I seen in others?
7. What exactly is changing for me at the moment?
8. What will be different as a result of this change/these changes?
9. What do I need to let go of?
10. What are the opportunities for me in this change?
11. What am I feeling about the changes I'm experiencing right now?
12. What do I most need, now? - Who can I turn to for support?
13. How can I support myself ? What do I do that I know keeps me strong in situations like this?
14. How can I keep telling myself that it is normal to feel this way?
15. How can I make this change fit with my values or sense of purpose?
16. What is my ideal outcome from this change?
17. What actions can I take now and later?
18. What new skills or expertise can I develop?
19. How will I begin to know that I'm moving through the change process?
20. Can I visualise myself in 3 years time when this change has happened? - looking back, what one thing most helped me through the process?

Activities last month

Elisabeth Goodman and I have been working on our Team Effectiveness Workout.

We are going to offer a one or two day 'workout' for teams covering the following; a 'warm-up', looking at success for your team, focusing on what is important, building your team 'fitness', sharpening your performance and 'cooling down'. We are quite excited about these workouts/workshops which pull together ideas from NLP, Knowledge Working and Lean Sigma. For more information on the workout click here. If you would like to be one of the first to run one of these workouts in your organisation please contact us.

What is coming next month?

I will be working on my next booklet in our 'Being...............' series, this one is called 'Being Effective' and dovetails very nicely with our new workout (mentioned above). The booklet will look at Personal Effectiveness in a creative way in a style similar to the 'Being Resilient' booklet. More on this next month.

For more information on any of the topics mentioned in this newsletter please contact us.

More next month, when the Featured Topic will be Leadership.

Warm wishes