| I’ve heard it twice today (from different people):“I’m just too old to change my ways”and “It’s too hard –I am over 50″–normally followed by “dear”indicating that I’m too young to understand! POPPYCOCK! (to put it politely). I usually counter with some good old reframes:“At what age,specifically,did you become too old to change your ways…now”or “Just suppose,for a minute,you were 49. What would have been the very first small step?”or “At what age did you decide to change your belief that you could not not change to one that you could not change easily”(that one tends to tie them in knots!). Nevertheless,it seems to be a widespread myth,and can be a paralysing belief for an older person to have. I hope you’ll join me in stamping it out! martin-wright.com <a href=”_http://www.martin-wright.com_ (http://www.martin-wright.com/) “>From Change Management to Spontaneous Change</a> www.martin-wright.com From Change Management to Spontaneous Change For people and organisations that don’t like to change,a good way to get them into appreciating the value of change is to play the “change game”–and it’s quite a good opener as a brainstorming session. Firstly,you get people to complete the sentence:“If nothing ever changed,there’d be no…”,e.g. butterflies,seasons,flowers,humans! –it doesn’t really matter,but it helps if it’s reasonably quick-fire. After the second or third wave of ideas dries-up,you then quickly flip the instruction to complete the sentence “If our business never changed,there’d be no…”,pushing them for quick-fire answers. It’s often surprising,the ideas that come out…and even if they don’t come up with anything directly usable for the future,you’ve helped their subconscious appreciate the value of change and that change is happening all of the time! www.martin-wright.com How do you change spontaneously? If you’re thinking about changing,then it’s not really spontaneous,is it? That’s the ‘Be Spontaneous’paradox. Spontaneous change requires more set-up. It requires not just knowing your overall direction –how you want to be as a person/organisation –but also having a genuine,deep-down desire to succeed. It also requires action –this is not The Secret! The spontaneous bit comes in the unconscious feedback loop of taking ‘the next smallest step’,re-assessing the situation,and then taking the next smallest step. You’re probably saying to yourself:“We do this all the time” - and you’re right –that’s the point. If you’re changing/adapting all the time and always moving towards being the person/ organisation you want to be (potentially at high speed:just because it’s comfortable,doesn’t mean it’s slow),you don’t really need SMART goals and detailed project plans to change an organisation,or yourself. Of course,that’s a big leap of faith for some,and a culture change most businesses would find difficult to grasp. And how do you measure results? And how does the stock market,or your family,measure results? That’s for another time. In the meantime…..be spontaneous…..NOW! www.martin-wright.com Today,I’d like to recommend a book:Maverick! by Ricardo Semler. Before you get to excited,this has nothing to do with the film starring Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster or,for the older ones amongst us,the Western series starring James Garner! It’s about a man who changed his business model in a way no-one would have thought possible. It’s a great book. Have a look on amazon,or at your local bookshop. For those of you that really get carried away with the author’s ideas,the sequel:The Seven-day Weekend – A Better Way to Work in the 21st Century,is also worth a read. For those of you who are really busy at the moment…now’s the time to put it on your Xmas list! www.martin-wright.com “If you don’t like something change it;if you can’t change it,change the way you think about it.” Mary Engelbreit Let me be clear. I am not against change. I’m not afraid of change. In fact I like change! I make a decent living from change –transforming businesses and coaching individuals. And I’m all for self-improvement! I just think we don’t make the most of our natural ability to learn and adapt and progress second by second,minute by minute and hour by hour. Instead we wait …and we wait …and we wait …until massive change and effort IS required –like a super-tanker waiting until it’s far enough off course to decide to do something about it,rather than making tiny frequent adjustments to keep itself on track. At some point,we’re not changing course,we’re just driving the ship. That’s the point! ‘Til next time. www.martin-wright.com “All change is a miracle to contemplate;but it is a miracle which is taking place every second.” Henry David Thoreau Google ‘Change Management’and you’ll get about 235 million hits. Millions of people are change-managing thousands of businesses every day all over the world. Thousands of self-improvement gurus,life coaches,therapists and psychiatrists are helping thousands of people to ‘change’. And yet… All of us are changing all of the time. Businesses and individuals become older and wiser with every successive microsecond. Surely with all this experience and practice we wouldn’t need so many people telling us how to do it! And yet… The need is there…people and businesses want to change,want ‘more’,want ‘better’,want ‘faster’(except for you-know-what)! The only trouble is,it’s often 2 steps forward and then 2 steps back (at least) at a later date. Consultants love radical change –transformation,downsizing,upscaling, rightsizing,restructuring,repositioning (most of these apply to both businesses and individuals) –because one radical change out of choice leads to another out of necessity. What if we could adapt our businesses and ourselves to be continually changing for more,better,faster etc all the time,but imperceptably –just living and growing,rather than changing and changing again? This blog is about just that! Here’s my starter-for-10 blog –at 1.34am! Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it,then start blogging! | Wright Time
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