The simple truth is that achieving consistent high performance is all about the relationship between people and work.Sustainable change comes from an integrated perspective of employees as people and work as an expression of service.Performance explodes as organizations reinvent themselves with fresh ideas about how to engage people, promote communication, engender trust, inspire purpose and empower action.Harnessing the creativity and productivity of all employees in concrete ways generates prosperity for all.Employees are seen as vital assets in the performance and profitability equation.
Building mastery of your managerial art requires that you first examine your own thoughts and actions.You must intentionally step out of your comfort zone and attempt new behaviors that will feel uncomfortable at first.Next, examine how your actions enhance your ability to motivate yourself and inspire your people to perform at the highest levels.It all comes down to this simple truth: If you want your organization to be better, the first step is for you to manage better.The challenge we place before you, and the one to which you must fully commit, is your own learning.Our approach is all about you learning more about yourself.It is what Timothy Gallwey calls the "inner game" (2000).Your savvy skills are there, ready for you to utilize.You’ll need to awaken them, sharpen them with practice, and let them direct your actions.
Chapter 4: Embracing Change
Rarely do you move through a day without experiencing some type of change.Every change you encounter requires a shift in your thinking, and your increased awareness of how you think is the focus of our coaching.The greater the change and the more it affects you at a core level, the more you will have to shift your thoughts, address any accompanying emotions, and steady your course of action.A change in the color of paper or ink used on invoices might only give you a momentary pause.However, revamping departments and shifting personnel will require more reflection and adjustment.Thought you might agree conceptually and see the value of a new process, restructuring plan, or business strategy, leaving the comfort of what you know and do well is difficult.Changes, even those you truly desire and embrace, tug at your emotions and your physical well being. Sustainable change is change that endures.It roots itself deeply into your core, causing what was once new to become familiar and comfortable habit.Sustainable change restores stability and balance around new actions, beliefs, or ideas.Reaching that place of balance (from a fleeting variance to a long term, sustainable change) requires the cohesion and alignment of all three domains of language (thoughts), emotions (feelings) and body (physical).Once sustained, these new actions and processes become the platform from which future changes will take shape.It’s continuous process improvement theory put to the test every day.Nothing lasts forever!
Dynamic Change Model
The model below depicts the sustainable change process. The process starts with you in balance, comfortable with how things are.Then something occurs and your story gets jolted.The significance of any event determines what happens next.If the event requires a minor change, you move easily through it with only slight adjustments.If it is a major change, the event will trigger your emotions to a higher degree.During your emotional turmoil, you will feel uncertain and out of balance and experience disrupted thoughts, conflicting inner dialogue, anger, and frustration.Some people get stuck in this place, labeled as a reactive loop, and never fully adjust to the change.This might be due to their discomfort with the change, fears of loss, or resentment.This downward cycle, intensifies with each iteration, and becomes a place where some people spend their whole lives.
Your alternate path is to choose a response that helps you to embrace the change, which is represented by the responsive track shown below.You engage all your savvy skills.You reflect and assess the emotional triggers being energized by the new requirements.You self-manage and control impulsive energy that does not really serve you, your team or the situation at hand.You respond deliberately, without reacting, which opens your internal action generation center. You reflect further on options and the outcomes that might be possible from each one.You expand your thinking using the savvy skills to explore what is happening, as well as what is needed, from different vantage points and through a variety of filters.You act consciously as thoughts and ideas move from possibilities to conception to execution.You transform yourself; build a new story and image around the change that puts you back in balance.Your results are sustainable change.
