Rock.Paper.Scissors.Blog » change management

Four funny change management resources related to ‘Switch – how to change things when change is hard,’ by the Heath brothers

Lee-Anne Ragan — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 02:00:24 +0000

In this month’s Rock.Paper.Scissors’ newsletter I review the Heath brothers book ‘Switch – how to change things when change is hard’. It’s a keeper. Check out the blog post where I review the book, see the blog post for resources related to the theme of change &/or keep reading for four funny resources related to the theme of change.

Regardless be introduced to the elephant that is living within you (& which plays a huge role in all your change efforts).

Read the entire newsletter here or download a hard copy of the article. Not already receiving our free monthly newsletters? Whatsamatter you? Sign up here.

The following resources, with tongue firmly planted in cheek, build on the themes in the book review.

Because as the Heath brothers say ‘we’re all loophole-exploiting lawyers when it comes to our own self-control’ watch these kids in the famous (& hilarious) marshmallow experiment try to exert their self-control (watch for the kid at minute 2:48).

Or see what adults look like when they try to do the same (watch the guy at 1:33 min).

Speaking of elephants (our emotional side that needs to be motivated), watch this ‘who’s on first’ type video talking about the elephant in the room (2:06 min). Even robots have a hard time with them.

People will do almost anything not to change. Even pay money (33 seconds).

Training & development learning well January blog post round up

Lee-Anne Ragan — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 03:00:20 +0000

The first month of the new year is about to slip by. Sit up, take notice & look back before looking forward. If you didn’t catch all the posts this month simply usher yourself down to the well & click as you wish.

Learn well in the training & development learning well.

Dive deep into the learning well or take a small sip. Shower yourself in training & development or just get your big toe wet.

Refresh & refreshing.

As you wish.

Freedom for creativity? Freedom from creativity? Is this a playground or a jail?

The Rock.Paper.Scissors newsletter is out:

A ludicrously easy, perspective changing way to better tie your shoes

What is culture? 5 ways people from different countries learn differently (& 5 ways we all learn the same)

Fresh perspective = creativity + words that dance

Learning enhancing yogurt

It’s IS (not) my job & other reasons (not) TO change (or learn)

We all have n.u.t.s (nagging, underlying to’dos) but don’t let them drive you nuts

Spontaneous heartfelt Jen Louden shoots from the hip AND the heart

It’s not my job & other reasons not to change (or learn)

Training & development interests, skills & opportunities a la Scott Belsky

It’s IS (not) my job & other reasons (not) TO change (or learn)

Lee-Anne Ragan — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 03:00:42 +0000

Image from Doug Ragan's facebook page

I recently wrote a post called It’s not my job & other reasons not to change (or learn). I thought I’d turn it around for this post. Won’t you join me?

Here are my reasons to change. My goal is to hit 50. I’ll add more as time goes on. What are yours? Feel free to add them in the comment section.

You have to ask? Really?
My environment demands it. I live in Africa. I’m constantly assessing, reassessing, changing & learning.
It’s my job.
How can I ask others to change & learn if I won’t?
It keeps things interesting
To shake things up
To build on what’s working & make it better
It’s exciting
I’m ambitious
It’s in my DNA (& yours)
To keep up
To catch up
To be on the cusp
To explore
For the adventure
The adrenaline learning brings is brain candy to me
It keeps me creative
I can always do better
Because I can
Because I should
Because I want to
It keeps my brain young
To stimulate my brain
It’s mandatory being a parent
It’s mandatory being a woman
It’s mandatory being human
It’s how learning happens
It’s necessary for human development
It beats back resistance (mine included)
It beats back boredom (mine especially)

Over to you change agent. What would you add?

It’s not my job & other reasons not to change (or learn)

Lee-Anne Ragan — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 03:00:30 +0000

I come across a lot of resistant folk in my line of work (training & development). This graphic, which I found on Doug Ragan’s facebook page, encapsulates resistance perfectly.

I call resistance the ‘yes but, no but, rabbit’. As in:

yes, but marketing will never go for it
no, we don’t have enough time for that
that’s all well & good but … (the but negates everything that comes before it)

Acknowledging resistance is key to overcoming it.

I appreciate that it’s not everyone’s first choice to be in a workshop. Acknowledging that to the group is key to getting people onside for learning. Because to learn is to make oneself vulnerable, and allowing oneself to be vulnerable takes guts.

What stands in your way of learning? Of changing?

Training & development learning well November blog post round up

Lee-Anne Ragan — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 03:00:15 +0000

November has wrapped her winds around the last of the leaves, making way for December and all its celebrations. If you didn’t catch all the posts this month simply blow through the list below and click as you wish.

Learn well in the training & development learning well.

Dive deep into the learning well or take a small sip. Shower yourself in training & development or just get your big toe wet.

Refresh & refreshing.

As you wish.

A social media training treasure hunt

10 things that go into picking a great team building icebreaker

How mountains & cantaloupes go together when it comes to the high view

The Rock.Paper.Scissors newsletter is out:

Resources for matching how our brains work with how business & boardrooms could work
Rethinking cubicles & classrooms: matching how our brains work with how business & boardrooms could work

Fun & funny resources for using social media in training

Push or pull – stubborn, damn doors are an insight into our conflict resolution psyche

How to walk in another’s shoes or rather horseshoes

What do brown M&M’s & technical requirements for training have in common?

Oceans of opportunities open up with perspective game changer

Are you ready to transform workplace learning through social media? If so, join me

Training & development learning well October blog post round up

Lee-Anne Ragan — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 02:00:51 +0000

October has come and gone with goblins galore. If you didn’t catch all the posts this month simply cast a spell and click below.

Here they are – laid out like a well carved pumpkin for your perusing – here’s the Rock.Paper.Scissors’ monthly training & development round up. You’ll find all the blog posts for the month of October below.

Learn well in the training & development learning well.

Dive deep into the learning well or take a small sip. Shower yourself in training & development or just get your big toe wet.

Refresh & refreshing.

As you wish.

The Rock.Paper.Scissors newsletter is out:

How about a bedtime story a million miles away?

You can make a difference. Will you?

How far away is the moon? It’s not what you think

Learning curve: how do you know when you’ve ‘got it’? When your participants have got it?

Perspective and mamahood; how does your perspective affect your training?

What type of change are you trying to effect? Does it line up with your core purpose & power relationships?

A pirate’s guide to engaging training & development workshops

Borrowed husbands = more money, more wine

What ironing underwear can teach you about learning

How NOT to teach someone to swim (mis-match your learning domains)

Can you sum up resilience in a song? Bella can – listen up.

Lee-Anne Ragan — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 02:00:08 +0000

I had a stroke two years ago, my memory’s not so good. When I get down I simply sing…

And with that I was introduced to the remarkable, resilient woman that is Mrs. Bella Kelly.

I met Bella while working in a tiny Northern Ontario community where she’s currently living, though she originally hails from Newfoundland. Her daughter, Cathy Ann does community engagement work and there’s nothing so engaging as watching the two of them together.

Cathy Ann leaves a note with Bella’s schedule on the kitchen counter when she’s out to help prevent confusion. A sample: 2:00 – 4:00 – Mom relaxes, 4:00 Cathy Ann will be home, 4:30 Mom goes to the community Feast

And so it goes, with a sometimes shaky grasp on the wispy bits of lived memories that forms a person’s life, Bella stays anchored in the present. If you ever get the chance to meet her, pull up a chair. She has a smile for everyone who crosses her path. You won’t have to wait long until she breaks out into song. If that’s not resilience in action I don’t know what is.

If only we were all so wise. A little faith, one day at a time, makes a big difference in how you approach challenges and obstacles.

Whether I’m cursing the GPS in my new home of Nairobi (it’s take on where I wanted to drive to yesterday wasn’t anywhere near reality), facing a challenging workshop participant or being dogged by difficult training content I imagine Bella singing.

And yes, she really is that charming in person.

Train the trainer – training & development wise words from Seth Godin

Lee-Anne Ragan — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 16:00:14 +0000

Seth Godin & me, Lee-Anne Ragan, post Seattle talk (check out his Little Miss Matched socks).

How dare you waste the revolution! says Seth Godin, who is nothing if not evocative and provocative.

At a recent event he gave in Seattle I tuned into his thoughts on forward motion. It’s not about finding the right answer, we need to keep moving forward for how to ‘be’ in this revolution, this wave upon wave of momentous change.

Here are 7 tips I took away, which I’ve adapted for training and development:

1. Many of us are oriented to look for problems. There’s a whole other universe in looking for opportunities. When it comes to training and development this is gold. When participants are receptive opportunity strikes. Creating receptivity, through paying attention to access and inclusion issues, is a large part of training and development.

2. Factories are about doing what you did yesterday only a little faster and a little cheaper. Factories aren’t made for learning. Mass approaches (think 800 students in an undergrad class) aren’t about learning, they’re about the commodification of education. Great training and development is an art. A customized, one of a kind art.

3. What was once scarce is now abundant and what was once abundant is now scarce. Attention is the new scarcity. Getting attention is tough. Especially when being open to learning means being vulnerable (for to learn is to be vulnerable). Great training and development makes getting attention look easy. And a good chunk of getting attention is paying attention.

4. It’s not about finding strangers it’s about finding and serving your tribe. The goal for musicians is not to find new listeners but rather to create new music for listeners. Like 12 year old girls who want funky socks – a.k.a. Little Miss Matched who sell mismatched socks. Check out their goods on Seth’s feet above. Find and serve your training and development tribe.

5. Revolutions don’t bring maps with them, you have to draw your own map. If you say failure is not an option what you’re really saying is success is not an option. Sometimes the map will be wrong. Sometimes we’ll blow it in our trainings. How we react to mistakes, ours and others, says volumes about our map making skills and our attitude towards learning.

6. In the age of massive amounts of free content, people will continue to pay. People pay: to get to the front of the line, for concierge services, for status, for connection and to get inside the (finite) circle. How can you be a concierge of learning?

7. Only put one number on the whiteboard. Amazon’s key measurement is the number of paying customers. People pay attention and alignment is created when the number is clear, simple and known. How do you measure your training and development success?

My mind continues to reel with possibilities and ideas. I know I need to keep that forward motion, and take it one day at a time. In the words of Fivacious, who opened the event, one day at a time I’m gonna change my world….

Storytelling as a culture builder – how feather dusters & snow globes can help

Lee-Anne Ragan — Wed, 18 May 2011 16:00:43 +0000

‘Tell me a story’ are words to make most people’s blood pressure increase. Just as North American corporate audiences don’t tend to sing or draw in public, we don’t tend to tell stories either.

Or do we?

The background story

We all tell stories and we tell them all the time. We just may not call it storytelling. Fact is storytelling is powerful. Storytelling is an agent for: increasing employee engagement, managing change, training and development, interviewing, evaluation, operations, marketing, building corporate culture and more.

Social media rests on our powerful urge to tell and be told stories. The recent popularity of infographics (depicting information, knowledge or data visually) is all about making information more interesting by making it tell a story.

Our brains are wired for storytelling. Stories live in long-term memory, while facts tend to live in short-term memory. Author Daniel Pink, in Whole New Mind, says facts are widely available, it’s putting them into context that makes a connection. Stories increase retention.

Putting stories in the forefront

Curious but unsure how to go about telling or gathering stories? Here’s a nine point storytelling checklist.

1. What’s your muse?

Examples of inspiration for storytelling are all around you. Just take a look. I noticed a client’s receptionist desk was full of snow globes. Curious, I asked about them. Turns out the receptionist was a fan of said snowy pieces and staff would bring her back one from their various travels. What a great jumping off point for a story. Globes could be pictured in the company newsletter with a story of the staff’s travels. Easy? Yes. A tool for employee engagement? Yes.

2. Check your story to make sure it has a beginning, middle and end.

Daniel Pink calls this ‘departure, initiation and return’. Collect or create stories that have this rhythm.

3. Make sure you know the purpose of your story.

Be clear about what are you trying to achieve before you start collecting or creating stories. Are you dealing with a large-scale change? Trying to increase employee engagement? Beef up your corporate culture? Once you know what you’re trying to achieve the stories will flow more easily.

I once worked with a multi-national client where some employees had been active on Facebook telling negative stories about the company. I was called in to help. Essentially I gathered stories that focused on building the corporate culture. The effect was dramatic. Staff felt heard and changes were made.

4. Make sure your story has people + problem (or characters + conflict).

Good stories have a problem or conflict plus a cast of people or characters. The resolution of the conflict is what makes those who are listening curious and engaged. What conflict or problem are you dealing with that could benefit from storytelling?

5. Map your story for ways to leverage curiousity.

‘Ah ha is most powerful when preceded by huh?!’ say the Heath brothers in Made to Stick. Curiousity is gold. Our brains not only love curiosity but more importantly, love to resolve curiosity. Find a story that makes listeners curious and you’ve got gold.

6. Use a feather duster to brush off uninvited guests – a.k.a. check the organizational conditions for storytelling conduciveness.

Stories bypass negativity and judgments. Stories have the power to suspend disbelief BUT organizational conditions have to be conducive for the magic to unfold. Have someone who repeatedly rolls his or her eyes? Does someone else tend towards snippy comments like ‘this will never work’? Or perhaps folks are nervous and you’re hearing things like ‘this is too hard, I can’t do this.’

The solution to these storytelling squashers? Imagine a feather duster brushing off your and/or their shoulder while saying ‘uninvited guest’. Setting the ground rules with an imaginary (or real) feather duster makes a huge difference to people’s receptivity. If the organization isn’t receptive or isn’t prepped properly stories tend to fall flat.

7. Add texture & details.

Good stories transport you and this happens in good part because of adding texture and details. What’s happening to the character’s body while they’re experiencing conflict – for example ‘her throat felt like someone had reached inside and squeezed’ is more transporting than ‘she was nervous.’

8. What’s your message?

What message are you trying to convey? A helpful way to think about your message is to base it on an archetype – for example Nike portrays itself as the brave hero while Virgin is the adventurer. Lego is the creator while M&M’s is the joker.[1] What’s yours?

9. What values does your story portray?

Make sure the values of your story match what values you want to be portraying. I was told a story about a VP who has to approve all company tweets before they get posted. If the company is trying to convey transparency and openness this is not a good story to be making the rounds!

The moral of the story

Storytelling is a powerful medium that can be used in a wide variety of ways to effect positive organizational change. Grab your feather duster and your version of a snow globe and get story gathering and telling.

Want to know more? Check out the storytelling resources listed in Rock.Paper.Scissors Inc.’s latest e-newsletter.

[1] Source: Sam Reynolds, Echo Memoirs

Two types of small intentional acts that lead to success (via Leapzone TV)

Lee-Anne Ragan — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 16:00:20 +0000

Intentional questions are a great guide to managing change and development.

Here are some I’ve gleaned from Isabelle Mercier of Leapzone who says small, consistent intentional actions lead to massive results.

Isabelle is a pioneer brand builder and performance catalyst. She works with small businesses to amp up their strategy and growth.

Not a small business owner? Not a problem. I’ve taken information from a cross-section of some of her Leapzone TV online shows and applied it below.

Intentional question #1:

What is something small and consistent that, done with intention, will lead you towards building your business, trying out a new training format, applying for a new job or reaching another goal?

Here are some suggestions:

go to Amazon and google your topic. Order the highest rated book and read away.
search LinkedIn for someone new to connect with on your topic.
twist the format on YouLookFab, where readers post pictures of themselves wearing an outfit that they want advice on, for your own purposes. Video yourself making your pitch, teaching a portion of a new workshop etc. and upload it to Youtube. Make it private and share it with folks you trust for feedback.

Intentional question #2:

Evolution is disruptive. Change happens period.

At the same time we can stand in our own way of our success. How have you been your own expansion prevention machine? Here are some suggestions, again, for small intentional acts, that make a big difference:

Isabelle says It’s easier to do it than dwell on it. If procrastination is holding you back, find an accountability buddy and commit to one action item this week and the day and time you’ll touch base to follow-up.
Stuck in analysis paralysis? Taking yourself too seriously? I prescribe a giggle or two. Watch the outtakes at the end of each of Isabelle’s very well produced Leapzone TV issues.

So go ahead. Be intentional. Be bold. Your small acts may very well lead to big payoffs.