Change and the orb webs

Check out this ...what we can learn from the spider and creating a strong foundation for change.

Change and the orb webs

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Change by Aiming to Improve

Resistance to change is often highly over rated, particularly when you think about the amount of natural change that we all embrace from cradle to grave. I don't believe that we outwardly resist change, but I do believe that we can express resistance in our behaviours that are manifested through a lack of awareness and thus desire to change. Of course, change is much easier when it takes a natural flow. However, a dramatic change in lifestyle as a result of a heart attack can be forced on recovering patients. Yet, statistics prove, that very many heart attack victims return to their old habits within a year of recovery. The prospect of death does not drive them to change!

This is in interesting phenomenon because it shows just how hard it can be to change if you don't have the correct mindset. Acknowledging that you need to do something about your life and make changes can come as a violent thought process for many of us and the inertia to make the first step so unbearable that we simply withdraw and hope that circumstances will change for us. They do...in fact...but not necessarily for the better...things just get worse.

Rather than setting out to change, perhaps we would be better off working to improve the way we perform and how we do things. It can take far more energy to improve from incompetence to mediocrity than to improve from first-rate performance to excellence. This is why we must continually prepare and grow through the steps of change. This is exemplified by the fact that there is one prerequisite for managing the second half of life...you must begin doing so long before you enter it.

In order to improve anything, you must first understand it. To improve yourself, first undertake a self analysis and understand your self. Begin this by answering some simple questions:

1. What are my strengths?

2. How do I work?

3. What are my values?

4. Where do I belong?

5. What can I contribute?

Remember that what one does well...even very well and successfully...may not fit with one's value system. Aim to improve and change will follow naturally.

http://thechangesamurai.blogspot.com/

Change...not chance!

"You must constantly ask yourself these questions: 
Who am I around? What are they doing to me? 
What have they got me reading? What have they got me saying? Where do they have me going? What do they have me thinking? And most important, what do they have me becoming? Then ask yourself the big question: Is that okay? Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change."

Jim Rohn, 1930-2009, Author and Speaker
http://thechangesamurai.blogspot.com/

The Art of Social Infection

Dr Herrero's new book is entitled Homo Imitans, the art of social infection. Viral Change^TM in action.
In his new book, Dr Herrero addresses Viral Change^TM in action, breaking it down in several sections to show that:

•  the more primal 'Homo Imitans' is still a powerful force behind the more accepted     'Homo Sapiens'
•   we are surrounded by examples of behavioural and social infections
•  the confusion between the world of communications and the world of behaviours is largely  the cause of the high failure rate of so-called 'change management programmes'

 "Understanding how social, behavioural infection works is the basis for   the orchestration of any 'epidemic of success', be it a successful change inside a firm or a counter-social epidemic to tackle negative socio-macro phenomena". 

http://thechangesamurai.blogspot.com/

Communication as a Social Construction

Communication is very important in the change cycle, but it often takes on generic processes that fail to deliver the message with the problem compounded through a lack of engagement that does not build a desire to support the change.

As technology overpowers natural communication channels and weakens our skills, it is no wonder that engagement has not become any easier with stakeholders. The tribal communication methods of dialogue and conversation have been misplaced and in some regards lost. History and record were once only defined through stories passed down from generation to generation. It was this skill to create dialogue that forms the foundations of our communities because we not only converse, but most important of all, we listen and we understand.

Once again a simple process has been taken and manipulated creating communication models that in themselves are difficult to communicate, less understand. Fortunately, pioneers like Ken and Mary Gergen of the Taos Institute are making communication easier through social construction. Social construction is a way of looking at how people build a common understanding and negotiate their way into the future.

So keep communication simple and focus on the five core principles:

1. The ways we come to understand the world and ourselves are created in relationships.

2. We do not all interpret the world in the same way.

3. Our shared interpretations of the world survive only if they are useful to us as individuals.

4. Our understandings influence the ways we behave and possibilities for our future.

5. reflection on our assumptions - what we take for granted - is vital to improving performance.

I a nutshell we just need to talk to each other and listen to each other much more than we do now.

http://thechangesamurai.blogspot.com/

:59 Seconds, Lesson #10

One intervention in change management is 'brainstorming' where we get a group of people together and basically thrash out idea's or talk through a situation. This idea was born from an advertising executive, Alex Osborn, in the early 1940s. Organisations all around the globe now use this method. But is there true value in this? Professor Richard Wiseman now challenges this as research suggests that group brainstorming may fail, in part, because of a phenomenon known as 'social loafing'! (see S.J.Karau and K.D.Williams (1993). 'Social Loafing: A Meta-Analytic Review and Theoretical Integration).

Studies conducted by Brian Mullen from the University of Kent at Canterbury (see B.Mullen, C.Johnson and E.Salas (1991). 'Productivity Loss in Brainstorming Groups: A Meta-Analytic Integration') proved that participants working on their own produced a higher quantity and quality of ideas than those working in groups. You've seen it all before in any large group and I'm sure you have felt it. The more people involved the less energy you need to exert...because the people around you act as some kind of crutch and you just don't need to work as hard. While the others are 'appearing; to be focused you are thinking about your own problems and the calls you need to make. The truth is that as the numbers of people increase in a situation the more you think that someone else will sort it out. How many times have you heard a neighbours house alarm ring? You pull back the curtain peer out of your window and if the world is still intact you assume some other sucker is taking care of it! Am I right?

Think about this....a large body of research now suggests that for more than seventy years, people using group brainstorming may have inadvertently been stifling, not stimulating, their creative juices!

Want some ideas...for generating ideas? Here are some quick tips, but I advise you study Professor Wiseman for a more in-depth appreciation.

1. Study modern art...but the right stuff, to use the power of visual priming.

2. Lay down when you are thinking. When you are lying down blood is not drained away from the locus coeruleus and thus the stress hormone noradrenaline is reduced.

3. Practice Wu Wei and do nothing. That is, just as in the 'The Secret', acknowledge your problem, give it a little thought, then hand it over to the cosmic forces and go and do something else. Your subconscious will have worked on the problem and coming back to it later will bring you closer to a solution.

4. Put a plant on your desk. The colour green inspires creativity.

5.Study Professor Wiseman's book 'Did You Spot the Gorilla?' and the techniques: Priming; Perspective; Play; Perceive.

So...change your mind...then change your thinking!

http://thechangesamurai.blogspot.com/

Code of the Change Manager - Modern Day Samurai

The new Samurai are corporate change agents that understand that the new profession of change is already changing itself.  It is unfortunate that as the profession grows the old guard change professionals are creating bureaucracy's and complex models that are not aligned with the needs of the future global market. In the new change World, complicated situations do not require complicated solutions. It is the work of Professor Richard Wiseman and the Heath brothers who are making change exciting and encouraging people to be radical change evangelists and Change Samurai rather than just change managers!

The organisational change manager does not wear armour or wield a sharp sword edge upon an unprepared enemy.

Aligned with the code of the Samurai is a new code for the Change Samurai.

The Change Samurai is not one who goes to war or kills people, but one who is dedicated to the creation of a more vivid disruptive peace to create positive change.

The Change Samurai honours the traditional samurai virtues:  loyalty, integrity, dignity, courtesy, courage, prudence, and benevolence.

The Change Samurai seeks to prevent negativity of every type or, should negativity occur, to transform it into harmony.

The Change Samurai takes full responsibility for his or her actions.

The Change Samurai pursues self-mastery through will, patience, and diligent practice.

The Change Samurai respects and values the human individual and the entire web of life on this planet.  To serve others is of the highest good.  To freely give and accept nourishment from life is the warrior's challenge.

The Change Samurai seeks the inner freedom that comes from the study of people, culture, and the wisdom of the ages.

The Change Samurai reveres the spiritual realm that lies beyond appetites and appearances.

The Change Samurai aims to achieve control and act with abandon.

The Change Samurai is willing to take calculated risks to realise his or her potential and further the common good.

The Change Samurai realises that being a warrior doesn't mean winning or even succeeding.  It does mean putting your career on the line.  It means risking and failing and risking again, as long as you live.

The Change Samurai cherishes life and thus conducts his or her affairs in such a manner as to be prepared at every moment.

Who said being a Change Samurai was easy...but do you want to be the best? Can you risk being different?

http://thechangesamurai.blogspot.com/