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Reset and Reconnect to Increase our Connectedness

GUEST POST from Janet Sernack

In our second blog in the Reconnect and Reset series of three blogs, we stated that now is not the time to panic. Nor is it a time to languish from change fatigue, pain, and emotional lethargy. It is a significant moment in time to focus, rehabilitate, rebuild, repair, regrow and reset to increase our connectedness through linking human touchpoints that increase people-power in the fourth industrial revolution.

In the current environment, where chaos and order are constantly polarizing, it’s crucial to touch people with empathy, reignite their social skills, and enable them to become healthily self-compassionate and more self-caring to:

Patiently support, lead, manage, mentor, and coach them towards finding their own balance to flow with mitigating the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution.
Take advantage of new technologies, networks, and ecosystems to re-engage and collaborate with others and with civil society in positive ways that contribute to the whole.
Do the good work that creates a more compelling, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable future, that serves the common good.

The Landscape Has Changed and So Have the Solutions

As the fourth industrial revolution continues to implode, we need to zoom out and consider the bigger picture. Where a recent Harvard Review article What Will Management Look Like in the Next 100 Years?” states that we are entering an era, which is fundamentally transforming the way we operate. Which is defined by the disruptive growth in blockchain technology, robotics, artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, and other core digital capabilities.

All of which, in some way, is dependent on linking the key human touchpoints that increase people’s power and our connectedness.

An era of empathy

In the same article, management scholar Rita Gunther McGrath argued that management practices based on command and control, and expertise would ultimately make way for empathy.

Where work is centred around value creation conducted through networks and collaboration, that rely on increasing the connectedness between machines and humans rather than through rigid structures and relationships to thrive through increasing people-power in the fourth industrial revolution.

Capable of better

The Qualtrics 2022 Employee Experience Trends Report also states that the landscape has changed. Where people are choosing to work flexibly, to work in the places that work best for them, and to take time for their own well-being, families, and friends.

Where people are demanding change because they care, about their leaders and their organizations, and want to be capable of developing better ideas; better innovations; and delivering better performances.

The report outlines the four things your people need you to know:

There will be an exodus of leaders – and women will be the first out the door.
People will demand better physical and digital workspaces.
The lack of progress in diversity, inclusion, and belonging won’t be accepted.

People don’t want to become irrelevant, nor do they want their managers, leaders, and organizations to become irrelevant. People know that they can’t, and won’t go back to the old ways of doing things. People also know that they are already living in the new normal and that they need to start working there, too and to do that, we need to increase our connectedness.

Which is especially important for building people’s power and mitigating the challenges emerging in the fourth industrial revolution.

A transformative moment for employees and employers

Businessolver’s Eighth Annual Report on the State of Workplace Empathy describes how the pandemic has impacted on employees’ personal lives, the labor market, and the economy, and states that “we are living through a renegotiation of the social contract between employees and employers”.

Their data shows that amid the return to the office, fewer employees view their organizations as empathetic, and that workplace empathy has clear implications for employee well-being, talent retention, business results, and increases people-power:

About 70% of employees and HR professionals believe that empathetic organizations drive higher employee motivation.
While 94% of employees value flexible work hours as empathetic, the option is only offered in 38% of organizations.
92% of CEOs say their response to returning to in-person work is satisfactory, compared to 78% of employees.
82% of employees say their managers are empathetic, compared to 69% who say the same about their organization’s chief executive.

Yet, there seems to be a true lack of understanding, especially in the corporate sector, of what it means to be empathetic, and a shortage of time and energy to develop the mindsets, behaviors, and skills to practice it and make it a habit.

It is also a fundamental way of being to increase our connectedness and building peoples-power.

Make a Fundamental Choice to Increase our Connectedness

Even though each person is a distinct physical being, we are all connected to each other and to nature, not only through our language but also by having a deeper sense of being.

Human connectedness is a powerful human need that occurs when an individual is aware and actively engaged with another person, activity, object or environment, group, team, organization, or natural environment.

It results in a sense of well-being.

The concept is applied in psychology as a sensation or perception where a person does not operate as a single entity – we are all formed together to make another, individual unit, which is often described as wholeness.

Which is especially important for our well-being and people power in the face of the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution.

Strategies for Developing Quality Connections

Be grounded, mindful and conscious

Being grounded and mindful enables people to become fully present to both themselves and to others. It is a generous gift to unconditionally bestow on others. Especially at this moment in time, where the pandemic-induced social isolation, has caused many people to become unconsciously and unintentionally self-absorbed.

There is an opening to become aware of, and to cultivate our attending and observing skillsets, to sense and see the signals people are sending, at the moment they are sending them. To help people identify the source of their issues to re-establish a sense of influence and control that reduces their autonomic nervous system reactions and help them restore their calmness.

This is the basis to increase our connectedness, by attuning and becoming empathetic as to what thoughts and feelings lay behind their behaviours and actions, with detachment, allowing and acceptance.

Be open-hearted and open-minded

Being curious about what others are feeling and thinking, without evaluating, judging, and opposing what they are saying. By knowing how to listen deeply for openings and doorways that allow possibilities and opportunities to emerge, to generate great questions that clarify and confirm what is being both said and unsaid.

To support people by creating a safe and collective holding space, that reduces their automatic unconscious defensive responses. To defuse situations by being empathic and humble and increase our connectedness by asking how you might help or support them, and gaining their permission and trust to do so.

Increase our connectedness through being vulnerable in offering options so they make the best choice for themselves, to reduce their dependence, help them identify and activate their circles of influence and control and sustain their autonomy.

Help people regenerate

Now is the moment in time to focus on building workforce capabilities and shifting mindsets for generating a successful culture or digital transformation initiative by harnessing, igniting, and mobilizing people’s motivation and collective intelligence and building people power.

It is crucial to acknowledge and leverage the impact of technology through increasing people-power by developing new mindsets, behaviors, skills, and new roles, which are already emerging as fast as other roles change.

Be willing to invest in the deep learning challenges that build people’s readiness and receptivity to change, so they can embrace rather than resist it, and be willing to unlearn, and relearn, differently, by collaborating with other people, leaders, teams, and organizations across the world.

Ultimately, it all depends on being daring and willing to increase our connectedness, through adapting, innovating, and collectively co-creating strategies, systems, structures that serve the common good, and contribute to the well-being of people, deliver profits and nurture a sustainable planet.

Find out more about our work at ImagineNation™

Find out about our collective, learning products and tools, including The Coach for Innovators, Leaders, and Teams Certified Program, a collaborative, intimate, and deeply personalized innovation coaching and learning program, supported by a global group of peers over 9-weeks, starting Tuesday, February 7, 2023.

It is a blended and transformational change and learning program that will give you a deep understanding of the language, principles, and applications of an ecosystem focus, human-centric approach, and emergent structure (Theory U) to innovation, and increase people-power, upskill people and teams and develop their future fitness, within your unique context. Find out more about our products and tools.

This is the final in a series of three blogs on the theme of reconnecting and resetting, to create, invent and innovate in an increasingly chaotic world.

You can also check out the recording of our 45-minute masterclass, to discover new ways of re-connecting through the complexity and chaos of dis-connection to create, invent and innovate in the future! Find out more.

Image credit: Pixabay

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Reset and Reconnect to Transform your World

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Reset and Reconnect to Transform your World

GUEST POST from Janet Sernack

Our blog, Reset and Reconnect in a Chaotic World was the first in a series of three, on the theme of reconnecting and resetting, to create, invent and innovate in an increasingly chaotic world. In this blog, we described how we have opportunities, to focus on being kinder to both ourselves and to others we interact with. To help us shift our mental states to transition effectively through the shock and pain of the pandemic, and rehabilitate in ways that transform our worlds.

We also outlined the range of key reasons as to why it is critical to take personal responsibility for understanding, helping, and supporting those we depend upon, and who depend upon us, to respond in ways that are respectful and compassionate, creative and courageous.

That enables and empowers people to recover and rehabilitate from the shock and pain they are experiencing from their elevated levels of stress, discomfort, and anxiety, occurring in our relentlessly uncertain and chaotic environments, through allowing, accepting, and acknowledging where people are at – and that it’s OK to not be OK!

Neither a time to panic nor languish

Right now, it is neither a time to panic, stall nor to languish in the face of change fatigue and mental lethargy.

It is a time to shift from making binary (either/or) judgements towards making linear (both/and) judgements to re-think and create a mental state, that is open and receptive to emerging possibilities and embraces change in ways that are fair and inclusive.

To transform your world through:

Choosing a range of constructive and positive responses to the rising levels of global economic, civic, and social uncertainty and unrest in our own local environments.
Generously and kindly demonstrating care, respect, and appreciation for the value everyone brings, and by being collaborative, appreciative, helpful, and supportive.
Being unconditionally willing to take the “sacred pause” that allows ourselves, teams, organizations, and to reconnect and reset, through intentionally using constraints and developing a mental state that supports them to become adaptive, creative, inventive, and innovative.

Transforming your world involves co-creating a deeper sense of belonging and a more optimistic outlook, to enhance our collective intelligence toward discovering and navigating new ways of thriving, flourishing, and flowing in the face of ongoing disruption.

Integrating and balancing chaos and rigidity

Dr. Dan Siegal, in Mindsight, applies the emerging principles of interpersonal neurobiology to promote compassion, kindness, resilience, and well-being in our personal lives, our relationships, and our communities.

In our global coaching practice at ImagineNation™ we have observed that many of our clients are experiencing mental states that embody varying levels of discord, dissonance, and dis-order, which are deeply unconscious and are impacting them neurologically.

Dr. Dan Siegal states:

“At the heart of both interpersonal neurobiology and the mindsight approach is the concept of ‘integration’ which entails the linkage of different aspects of a system – whether they exist within a single person or a collection of individuals. Integration is seen as the essential mechanism of health as it promotes a flexible and adaptive way of being that is filled with vitality and creativity.

The ultimate outcome of integration is harmony. The absence of integration leads to chaos and rigidity—a finding that enables us to re-envision our understanding of mental disorders and how we can work together in the fields of mental health, education, and other disciplines, to create a healthier, more integrated world.”

We have seen a vast range of evidence of peoples’ internal and external, mental chaos, and self-imposed internal rigidity in many of our clients’ coaching sessions.

Knowing that when chaos and rigidity are prolonged – it creates unproductive or dysfunctional mental states and inflexible thought processing.

This makes people non-adaptive and mostly inflexible because their natural well-being is impaired (dis-order).

Our approach is to partner with clients to co-create a relationship, that supports and helps facilitate a set of more integrated mental states. This entails each person’s being respected for his or her autonomy and differentiated self through deep empathic communication, which creates the space and an opening for shifting mindsets and behaviors, to ultimately pull them towards a new possibility that may transform their world.

Allowing, accepting, and acknowledging

When we allow, accept, acknowledge and support people to recover and rehabilitate from the shock and pain they are experiencing as a result of recent global events and conflicts, including feelings of overwhelm, isolation, loneliness, and disconnection, we can enable them to initiate making these shifts.

According to Gallops Global Emotions 2022 Report – these are considered “negative emotions – the aggregate of the stress, sadness, anger, worry and physical pain that people feel every day” and have reached a new record in the history of their tracking.

Jon Clifton, CEO of Gallop stated in the report that their data reveals that unhappiness has been rising for more than a decade and that the world is also struggling from a silent pandemic – loneliness.

“Gallup finds that 330 million adults go at least two weeks without talking to a single friend or family member. And just because some people have friends, it doesn’t mean they have good friends. One‑fifth of all adults do not have a single person they can count on for help.”

No emotion or mental state is permanent!

It’s time to focus on exploring how to better help ourselves, our clients, people, and teams by paying deep attention and being intentional as to how we might experiment and collaborate, with three key steps, to make these shifts:

Co-create relationships focused on supporting integration, by being respectful and empathic in all communications, to open space of possibility, and pull people towards what creative ideas and breakthroughs might transform their world.
Artfully and masterfully generatively listen, inquire, question, and disagree, to evoke, provoke and create ideas for thinking and acting differently both today and in the future.
Maximize people’s strengths, differences, and diversity, to sense, see and solve problems and be creative and inventive in delivering breakthrough ideas and innovative solutions that add value to the quality of people’s lives, in ways they appreciate and cherish.

Rehabilitate with intention

At the same time, paradoxically, extending options and choices that help them shift and transition through the shock and pain of the past two and half years.

Enabling and empowering people to rehabilitate, with intention rather than regret, adopting a systemic lens through:

Creating safe collective holding spaces, that embrace presence, empathy, and compassion.
Helping people get grounded, become mindful, and fully present, enables them to make quality connections, rebuild their confidence and recreate a sense of belonging.
Enabling, equipping, and empowering people with new mindsets, behaviors, and skills through unlearning, learning, and relearning so they can adapt, grow and be resourceful and resilient in the face of the range of emerging problems, opportunities, and challenges.
Amplifying people’s strengths, reinforcing positive emotions, mitigating and reducing the way they filter information to re-ignite their intrinsic motivation and re-engage them in what they can control, what care deeply about value, or need, to survive and thrive.

A decade of both transformation and disruption

As most of us are aware, we are currently experiencing a decade of both transformation and disruption, where chaos and order are constantly polarizing, making it imperative to support, mentor, and coach people to integrate and find their balance.

To help them become more flexible and open to being adaptive, and effectively “dance in dis-equilibrium” between the constant and consistent states of chaos and order.

To enable people to see themselves as the cause in actively unlearning and letting go of old mental models, unresourceful mental states, and thinking patterns, to reimagine and redesign how they work to transform their world and create a more compelling, inclusive, and sustainable future.

Find out more about our work at ImagineNation™

Find out about our collective, learning products and tools, including The Coach for Innovators, Leaders, and Teams Certified Program, presented by Janet Sernack, is a collaborative, intimate, and deeply personalized innovation coaching and learning program, supported by a global group of peers over 9-weeks, starting Tuesday, February 7, 2023.

It is a blended and transformational change and learning program that will give you a deep understanding of the language, principles, and applications of an ecosystem focus, human-centric approach, and emergent structure (Theory U) to innovation, and upskill people and teams and develop their future fitness, within your unique context. Find out more about our products and tools.

This is the second in a series of three blogs on the theme of reconnecting and resetting, to create, invent and innovate in an increasingly chaotic world.

Image credit: Unsplash

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Reset and Reconnect in a Chaotic World

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Reset and Reconnect in a Chaotic World

GUEST POST from Janet Sernack

Meeting face to face, for a lovely lunch recently, with a coaching colleague, we were both shocked to discover how stressed and anxious we were feeling about being asked to deliver live workshops and face-to-face coaching to clients once again.

We shared how emotionally, mentally, and physically overwhelmed we felt, despite having decades of knowledge, experience, and skills in being able to deliver deep learning programs and face-to-face coaching sessions, about doing live gigs again! We also agreed, that despite the range of largely effective emotionally intelligent coping strategies we developed to help ourselves and our clients self-regulate, self-manage, to better adapt to the pandemic-imposed work-from-home restrictions that the past two and half years of working, alone, and in isolation, online, had taken its toll.

We acknowledged and accepted that we along with many of our clients were all suffering from elevated levels of stress, discomfort, and anxiety. We then agreed that it was time to focus on exploring how to better help ourselves and our clients reconnect and reset by enabling them to create states of well-being, emotional agility, and mental fitness, where they can feel good, can function well, and be effective and innovative in an increasingly chaotic world.

To seek new ways of enabling ourselves and our clients to deal effectively with a range of unresourceful feelings including helplessness, powerlessness, and fearfulness about an uncertain future.

We noticed that these feelings often caused many of our clients to contract and freeze, and become immobilised as a result of what we describe as a “bubble” of self-induced silo-based behaviours. That often evolved into extreme self-centeredness, and unconscious selfishness, which ultimately increased their feelings of isolation and loneliness, and lack of belonging, resulting in defensive and avoidant behaviours, in what is becoming an increasingly chaotic world.

How are these ways of being and acting impacting organisations?

Partnering in a wide range of online global coaching sessions, we noticed that a number of common trends emerged as to how our client’s teams and organisations, are being impacted at the cultural level:

Immobilization – many people are unable to self-manage their work from home workloads and are quietly burning out, through being overly task-focused and busy, whilst others are preferring to work autonomously, and not waste hours commuting.
Lacking safety and trust – many organisations are freezing all of their change initiatives, learning programs, and projects, causing people to fear loss and overall job insecurity, where many people are contracting more deeply within their “bubbles” and become even more distrustful of leadership and even more passively defensive and avoidant.
Lacking clarity and foresight – many organisations have slipped into being so reactive, focussing only on delivering short-term results, and are not communicating a clear strategy for leading the way forwards.

Resulting in:

Increased resistance to change and going back to the office adds to people’s inertia, and to their sense of disconnection and lack of belonging.
Increased risk adversity and conventional (cost cutting), tactical and short-term focus, inhibits any investment in Research and Development or the skills development required in developing and executing a future innovation strategy.
People have become even more fearful of failure, and are not stretching themselves to adapt, grow, learn and innovate with disruption, and often choosing to merely change jobs, in a competitive job marketplace, driven by scarcity, as a perceived short term solution.

A unique moment in time

This has created an opportunity, in this unique moment in time, to focus on being kinder to ourselves and to others by helping and supporting each other, respectfully and compassionately, creatively and courageously, to reconnect and reset. Despite rising levels of economic, civic, and social uncertainty and unrest.

What made sense yesterday may not make so much sense today.

Many of the mental models we applied yesterday may not be relevant for tomorrow because corporate culture, civic and social structures have drastically changed and digitalization has become commonplace, noting that we are shifting from a VUCA to BANI world where:

Brittle has replaced Volatility.
Anxiety reflects Uncertainty.
Non-linearity is an addition to Complexity.
Incomprehensibility is ultimately the consequence of our non-linear world and goes one step further than Ambiguity.

Paradoxically, this has created new openings to genuinely explore and discover new thresholds to adapt, generate new mindsets, develop skill sets, and power up our toolkits to keep pace with the effects of the emerging BANI world and capture complex systems by asking a key generative or catalytic question:

How might you support and enable others to think and act differently in such a world, where old patterns seem to crumble while new ideas and systems still need to be created, invented, innovated, and established?

As the world of work changes, so does the need for everyone to consider how to be more open-hearted, minded, and willed with one another.

A final word from Gallop CEO Jon Preston in the Gallop Global Emotions Report:

“All over the world, people are trying to understand the rise of violence, hatred, and increased radicalization. They will continue to argue over what the best policy responses should be and what role social media plays in fueling negative emotions.

However, policymakers must understand why so many more people are experiencing unprecedented negative emotions and focus on the drivers of a great life.

Our shared humanity and wellbeing depend on it”.

When we generously and kindly demonstrate care, respect, and appreciation for the value everyone brings, we can also demonstrate helpfulness and support, through our unconditional willingness to reconnect and reset.

Resulting in an ability to co-create a better sense of belonging and a more optimistic outlook, through enhancing our emotional intelligence. To effectively self-regulation and self-manage the superpowers and strategies required to thrive, flourish and flow, and make transformational changes in the face of relentless uncertainty, disruption, and a chaotic world.

This is the first in a series of three blogs on the theme of reconnecting and resetting, to create, invent and innovate in an increasingly chaotic world. You can also register for our free 45-minute masterclass on Thursday, 25^th August, to discover new ways of re-connecting through the complexity and chaos of dis-connection to create, invent and innovate in the future! Find out more.

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Taking Personal Responsibility – Back to Leadership Basics

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Taking Personal Responsibility – Back to Leadership Basics

GUEST POST from Janet Sernack

I was first introduced to the principle of Taking Personal Responsibility when I attended a number of experiential workshops facilitated by Robert Kiyosaki who is now well known globally as the successful entrepreneurial author of the “Rich Dad Poor Dad” book series. At that time, in the late 1980s, the concept simply involved taking personal responsibility for your role in getting the results you get, in both challenging and problematic situations.

This principle has since evolved as the most crucial foundation for developing our emotionally intelligent, conscious, and transformational leadership capabilities. Largely through focusing on the development of self-awareness and self-regulation skillsets, which are especially important skills to cultivate in times of extreme uncertainty.

Blaming, Justifying, and Denying

Taking personal responsibility involves encouraging people to step up and out of blaming themselves or others, out of justifying their position or denying what is really going on to largely avoid the cognitive, emotional, and visceral results and consequences of their actions.

Which are essentially, largely unconscious defensive reactions to the problem or situation. So, it sounds quite simple, yet, even now, it’s still largely a countercultural principle, and a neurologically challenging one, because we are wired to survive (fight/flight/freeze) in the face of what we perceive as danger!

Especially when many of us are living in an oppositional blaming and shaming political environment, or within a passively or aggressively defensive organizational culture. Where a large section of the community, has been forced by the constraints of the pandemic, into fearing that their security and survival needs will not be met. Alternately, the great resignation and the nature of the virtual hybrid workplace have increased some people’s fears about even being able to get their jobs done!

All of this creates distorted thoughts and language that focus on “scarcity” where many people are fearing that they are not “enough” and do not have “enough” to deal with their current circumstances. Rather than leaning towards exploring and eliciting the possibilities and opportunities available in our abundant world. As there is no clear playbook about how people can effectively and responsibly lead and manage in this unique 21st-century context, many people are floundering, languishing into largely emotionally overwhelmed states.

Where it is easier, and sometimes safer, to be a victim, blame and shame others for their helpless or powerless situation, or to justify and deny any need to change their perspective about it, never mind their role in causing their own anxious and unresourceful emotional states.

Back to Leadership Basics

Yet, it is more important than ever, for leaders and managers to help people:

Take ownership of their consequences and be responsible for the emotional, cognitive, and visceral results of their actions,
Authentically connect, empower, and enable people and communities to flourish,
Provide safe, transparent, trusted environments and interdependence where people can dare to think differently and potentially thrive.

This means that the range of crises, uncertainty, and disruptions we are experiencing now is forcing us to go back to basic 101 management and leadership principles.

According to McKinsey & Co in a recent article “A Leaders Guide – communicating with teams, stakeholders and communities during Covid 19” – “Crises come in different intensities. As a “landscape-scale” event, the coronavirus has created great uncertainty, elevated stress and anxiety, and prompted tunnel vision, in which people focus only on the present rather than toward the future. During such a crisis, when information is unavailable or inconsistent, and when people feel unsure about what they know (or anyone knows), behavioral science points to an increased human desire for transparency, guidance, and making sense out of what has happened”.

The Maturity Continuum – Shifting to I and We

The principle of taking personal responsibility has evolved and been enhanced significantly through the work of Steve Covey, in the “Seven Habits of Effective People” and provides the core foundations for transformational and conscious leadership through the “Maturity Continuum”:

Dependence is the paradigm of you – you take care of me; you come through for me; you didn’t come through for me; I blame you for the results. Dependent and approval-seeking people need others to get what they want.
Independence is the paradigm of I – I can do it; I am responsible; I am self-reliant; I can choose. Independent people get what they want through their own efforts.
Interdependence is the paradigm of we – we can do it; we can cooperate; we can combine our talents and abilities and create something greater together. Interdependent people combine their efforts with the efforts of others to achieve their greatest success.

Putting the Maturity Continuum to Work

In the early 2000s I was an associate of Corporate Vision, Australia’s first culture change and transformation consultancy, now the globally successful Walking the Talk organisation, for fourteen years.

Where every culture, leadership, team development, or change program we designed and presented, introduced taking personal responsibility, as a fundamental, core learning principle. Aligning it with the principle of – For things to change first I must change, which deeply challenged and disrupted people’s belief systems, habitual mindsets, thinking styles, and ways of acting.

As a seasoned coach of twenty years, these two core principles seem to still profoundly challenge the majority of my coaching clients across the world, no matter how senior their role or position is, or how knowledgeable, skilled, and experienced they are!

Where many managers and leaders have failed to self-regulate, lack self-awareness, and have unconsciously slipped into feeling victimized, powerless, helpless, and in some instances, even hopeless about their futures where some are:

Feeling frozen, inert, paralyzed, overwhelmed, and immobilized in their abilities to affect any kind of positive change in both their work and home environments.
Unconsciously slipping into blaming and shaming others for their situations,
Justifying their inertia through a range of “reasonable reasons” and “elaborate stories” about how it’s “not their fault” or it’s not “up to them” to make any change.
Simply denying their current consequences, or the importance of needing to take positive actions, and make changes.
Unmotivated, lack any desire for control, or have the personal power to affect change in their situation.

Initiating Taking Personal Responsibility

To accept and share responsibility starts with being bravely willing to courageously connect with our whole selves and consciously stepping back to hit our internal pause button, retreat into silence and stillness, and compassionately ask:

What happened?
What can I/we learn from it?
What can I/we then do to create it?

Taking personal responsibility becomes a compassionate, creative, and courageous exercise in continuous learning, self-awareness, and emotional self-regulation in ways that safely disrupt people’s defensiveness and awaken them to the possibility of being personally powerful in tough situations.

It is also the basis for taking intelligent actions catalyze and cause positive outcomes, that deliver real solutions to crises, complex situations, and difficult business problems.

This is the first in a series of three blogs on the theme of taking responsibility – going back to leadership basics.

Find out more about our work at ImagineNation™

Find out about our learning products and tools, including The Coach for Innovators, Leaders, and Teams Certified Program, a collaborative, intimate, and deeply personalized innovation coaching and learning program, supported by a global group of peers over 9-weeks, starting Tuesday, October 18, 2022. It is a blended and transformational change and learning program that will give you a deep understanding of the language, principles, and applications of an ecosystem focus, human-centric approach, and emergent structure (Theory U) to innovation, and upskill people and teams and develop their future fitness, within your unique context. Find out more about our products and tools.

Image credit: Pixabay

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A How To Guide for Overcoming Procrastination

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A How To Guide for Overcoming Procrastination

GUEST POST from Janet Sernack

I often wonder why some people procrastinate by delaying, postponing, or avoiding solving problems, or by withdrawing from making smart decisions, taking calculated risks, or taking intelligent actions?

Why do they become paralyzed and unable to take the actions necessary to solve some of their key problems?
Why do they often resist making even the most necessary changes to support the delivery of their creative solutions?
Why do so many also avoid taking personal responsibility and being accountable towards achieving their desired outcomes and goals?
Why do people disengage, even when the situation or problem may be critical to their own, their teams, or their organizations success?

Despite knowing that there may be a range of negative consequences for procrastinating, involving a crippling, overwhelming, and paralyzing combination of reactive responses?

Which then typically impacts negatively on people’s self-efficacy and self-belief, self-worth, and self-esteem and diminishes their motivation, disengages them and immobilizes their ability to take the necessary actions and as a result, spiral downwards?

How do we help people overcome procrastination?

Why is this important?

It seems that procrastination is a challenge we and many others have faced at one point or another, where we struggle with being indecisive, delaying, ignoring, avoiding taking actions to initiate, progress, or completing tasks that may be important to us, as well as on issues that really matter to us, our teams, partners and organizations.

Ultimately leading to failures, and an inability to mitigate risks, or be creative and inventive and decreasing possibilities for innovation and increasing engagement, productivity, and improving performance.

Also potentially leading to feelings of loss, insecurity, inadequacy, frustration, disengagement, and depression and in extreme cases, client, project failures and job losses, and even burnout!

Why do people procrastinate?

The need for security and self-protection is the key root causes of procrastination

Procrastination is most often a self-protection strategy, a way of defending ourselves, rooted in fears that result in anxieties around feeling unsafe, vulnerable, and being judged or punished, especially in times of uncertainty, unpredictability, uncontrollability, and when feeling overwhelmed.

In most organizational contexts, procrastinators are likely to respond be risk-averse by:

Being apprehensive and even withdrawing energetically (dis-engaging) from people as well as from the creative conversation, coupled with a lack of commitment to the change process or towards achieving the agreed goal (lacking conviction and being worried about the future).
Not showing up and spending a lot of time and energy zigzagging around and away from what they feel is consuming them or making them feel threatened or uncomfortable (avoidance).
Blaming external people and factors for not “allowing” them to participate or succeed (time, workload, culture, or environment).
Denying that achieving the goal really matters, bringing up excuses, and reasonable reasons about why having the goal doesn’t really matter to them, as well as a willingness to take risks (non-committal).
Being fearful of the future, dreading what might be the range of possible negative and overwhelming events and situations (pessimism).

What are the key signals of an effective procrastinator?

The first step in noticing the key signals is to tune into our own, and peoples’ effective avoidance default pattern as to what is really going on from a systemic perspective.

By paying deep attention, and being non -judgmental and non evaluative to the range of signals outlined as follows:

Behavior Signals

“Playing it safe” or “being nice” by being unwilling to challenge and be challenged.
Resisting any change efforts, disengaging, and being reluctant to disclose and share authentically what is really going on for them.
Unwillingness to take risks.
Shying away from engaging with their partners, families, colleagues, group activities, and from having candid conversations.
Being overtly indecisive and non-committal.

Neurological State Signals

Increased anxiety and “attention deficit” syndrome.
Low motivation and self-confidence.
Diminished ability to self-regulate and self-control.
Diminished self-efficacy and self-concept.
Onslaught of the creeping doubts and the imposter syndrome.

Extrinsic or Environmental Signals Occur When Fearful of Perception of Others

Performing poorly, making mistakes, or failing.
Fearful of doing too well, or in being too successful.
Losing control, status, or role.
Looking stupid, or being disapproved of.
Avoids conflict situations.

Fear of Success Signals

Some of us are unconsciously afraid of success, because irrationally we secretly believe that we are not worthy of it and don’t deserve it, and then self-sabotage our chances of success!

Being shy, introverted, and uncomfortable in the spotlight.
Being publicly successful brings social or emotional isolation.
Alienating peers as a result of achievement.
People may think you’re self-promoting.
Being perceived as a “tall poppy”.
Believing that success may not be all it’s cracked up to be, and that it might change you, but not for the better.

Fear of Failure Signals

Some people’s motivation to avoid failure often exceeds their motivation to succeed, which can cause them to unconsciously sabotage their chances of success.

Cognitive biases or irrational beliefs act as filters distorting reality.
Past pains felt from being vulnerable, abandoned, punished, blamed, or shamed in front of others, or of being disapproved of, envied, rejected, or disliked by others.
Fearful of looking “bad” or incompetent, in front of others.
Feeling threatened, a sense of danger or potential punishment, causing them to move away (freeze, fight, take flight) from confronting dangerous, painful situations as threatening.

Overcoming Procrastination Tips

Co-create a safe, compassionate, and collaborative relationship

As most people find safety in procrastination at some point in time, to be an effective leader, manager, or coach in these situations, it’s important to be empathic and compassionate and “work with” where they may be coming from in terms of underlying self-beliefs:

“I don’t want to get hurt”.
“I don’t want to expose myself to risk”.

As well as respond constructively to their thoughts about how others may see them including:

Lacking confidence,
Hesitant.

Noticing how they may perceive themselves:

“I am nowhere near as good as I should be”.
“I am inadequate.”

Then by paying deep attention, and being intentional in co-creating a safe creative, and collaborative conversation that builds safety, permission, rapport, and trust by being:

Gentle and non-threatening, being both kind and courageous,
Aware of being both too direct, fast, and too laid back.
Providing gentle guiding, assurance, and lots of patience.
Focused on encouraging engagement, commitment, and confidence towards setting and achieving the desired outcome.

Ultimately enabling and equipping people to overcome procrastination creates openings and thresholds for learning and growth, to become the best person, to themselves and others, they can possibly be, and achieve the changes they wish to make in the world.

Find out about The Coach for Innovators Certified Program, a collaborative, intimate, and deep personalized innovation coaching and learning program, supported by a global group of peers over 8-weeks, starting May 2022. It is a blended learning program that will give you a deep understanding of the language, principles, and applications of a human-centered approach to innovation, within your unique context. Find out more.

Contact us now at mailto:janet@imaginenation.com.au to find out how we can partner with you to learn, adapt, and grow your business, team and organisation through disruption.

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My Advice on Giving Advice

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My Advice on Giving Advice

GUEST POST from Arlen Meyers

One way to put a toe in the water of physician entrepreneurship is to become an advisor to a startup founder or client or simply someone who wants your opinion. However, being an advisor that creates value means you have to deliver the 7Ms. You will have to deliver the value that startup CEOs are looking for: money, marketing, making something, management, manpower, mentors, monitoring the environment and mergers and acquisitions.

The same is true if someone asks you to be their mentor. The problem is often that people don’t know how to find a mentor, be a mentor or establish a relationship. The following eight steps can help.

When you get that gig, though, you will have to learn when and how to give advice and how much to give. You also have to deal with founders who have founders syndrome and those who suffer from other entrepreneurial syndromes. In short, many won’t take your advice and you will be left with the feeling that you have wasted your time.

Here’s some advice on giving advice:

When you sign on, clarify expectations about when, how and how often are the best ways to communicate-face to face, email, text or phone, videochat?

Have an agenda focusing on the next critical success factor you need to help achieve. Is it finding money? How about helping to recruit talent to execute the plan and scale?

Avoid having to spend time giving the same advice over and over again by authoring a blog, post or eBook, like this one. Like the flipped classroom, read the assignment and then let’s discuss in class.

If you get ghosted (you haven’t heard from the person who hired you in a while), don’t take it personally. Instead, talk about whether there is a problem, recalibrating your advisory role and whether it should be changed or eliminated.

Use technology to block your time and synchronize schedules

Understand your role as an advisor v a mentor, coach or sponsor. The expectations are different for each.

Don’t work with people you can’t trust, like those who don’t pay you what and when they promised to do so, those who bad mouth you behind your back or those who make you feel unappreciated or ignored or won’t lead when there is inevitable team conflict.

Focus on adding continuous value and delivering results

Assign as much credit for results to others on the team

Here are some tips on how to give advice.

At some point, you have probably noticed that you’re wiser when giving advice to others than you are in making decisions for yourself. You’re not alone. In psychology, it’s called Solomon’s paradox, and it often happens because we have more distance from other people’s problems than our own.

Both the advisee and the advisor have responsibilities so be careful how you pick someone’s brain.

Remember Socrates who said “I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.” By it’s very nature, advice is just that and can be accepted or ignored. Make it personal, just don’t take it personally when it’s the latter.

Image credit: Pixabay

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Change Leadership and the Benefits of a Coaching Style

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Change Leadership and the Benefits of a Coaching Style

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

When organizations and companies need to adapt to new technology, regulations, or customer demands, they need strong leadership to guide them through the change. Change leadership is about inspiring, leading and managing employees through temporary or permanent changes with minimal disruption and maximum success. A coaching style of leadership is an effective way to ensure employees are engaged and empowered to make changes happen.

What are the Benefits of Change Leadership Coaching?

Change leadership coaching centers around two core concepts: building relationships and encouraging individual growth. The leader takes on the role of a mentor or coach, while the person in transition (or team in transition) becomes the learner. A coach helps employees learn, develop, and take ownership of their new roles, avoiding any issues that arise during the transition. It’s not just about direction and training, but also about helping the individual or team provide solutions.

The benefits of change leadership coaching are endless. It increases employee engagement and morale, improves relationships between team members, and reduces stress and resistance. A successful change requires personal and organizational commitment, and coaching fosters that. Employees are more likely to take on new roles and responsibilities when they know they have the support of their coach.

Case Study 1 – A Fortune 500 Company

A Fortune 500 company had been struggling with low levels of employee engagement. They were having a difficult time implementing new technology and processes and weren’t seeing results. The company appointed a new change leader who implemented a coaching approach. The leader set up one-on-one meetings with each team member to discuss their specific needs and goals. They also conducted team building activities to help foster emotional intelligence and better relationships between departments.

The result? The company saw a dramatic increase in employee engagement and satisfaction. It also saw a drop in resistance to change and an improved ability to communicate and collaborate.

Case Study 2 – A Non-Profit Organization

A non-profit organization was facing a challenging transition. They needed to transition to a new operating model, implement new technology and processes, and change the way they served their customers. The organization appointed a change leader who adopted a coaching approach. The leader began by empowering employees to take ownership of the changes and helping them embrace the new opportunities they had to lead the organization into the future.

The result? The organization was able to successfully implement the new operating model and processes, and saw a dramatic increase in customer satisfaction. Employees also reported feeling more engaged, empowered, and capable of fulfilling their roles.

Conclusion

Change leadership is an essential part of any organization’s success. A coaching approach helps employees become empowered and engaged, investing in their roles and the changes required to move forward. Change leadership coaching has proven itself to be an effective tool in helping companies and organizations adjust to new demands, regulations, and technology with less disruption and more success.

Image credit: Pixabay

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Change Coaching for Middle Managers

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LAST UPDATED: April 7, 2026 at 12:26 PM

Change Coaching for Middle Managers

GUEST POST from Chateau G Pato

The Strategic Middle

In the world of organizational transformation, middle managers are often unfairly labeled as the “permafrost” — the cold, impenetrable layer where executive vision stalls and frontline enthusiasm withers. However, from a human-centered design perspective, this layer isn’t a barrier by choice; it is a pressurized environment where the demand for stability (Business as Usual) crashes directly into the demand for agility (Change).

The Middle Manager Paradox

Middle managers occupy a unique and often exhausting space. They are the primary bridge between high-level strategy and ground-level execution. While executives focus on the destination, middle managers are tasked with building the vehicle, fueling it, and keeping the passengers from jumping out — all while driving at full speed.

Why Change Fails at the Core

To innovate effectively, we must move beyond the lazy trope of “managerial resistance.” Most failure at this level isn’t due to a lack of will, but a lack of psychological and structural support. When a manager is measured on legacy KPIs while being asked to champion a disruptive future, the friction becomes untenable. True change design requires us to solve for the manager’s experience as much as the customer’s.

The Thesis: Change Isn’t Managed; It’s Coached

We must shift the paradigm from directive oversight — which relies on compliance — to supportive facilitation. Coaching provides middle managers with the tools to navigate the emotional landscape of their teams, surface hidden obstacles early, and translate abstract corporate goals into meaningful local action. By coaching the middle, we turn a potential bottleneck into a powerful catalyst for sustained innovation.

The Human-Centered Change Framework

Change initiatives fail when we treat people like components in an engine — replaceable, logical, and purely functional. To truly innovate how we approach change coaching for middle managers, we must adopt a human-centered methodology. This framework is not about managing a checklist of tasks; it’s about understanding and designing for the entire experience of the manager navigating the transition.

Empathy as a Business Tool

The cornerstone of human-centered design is empathy. When applied to middle managers, this means proactively seeking to understand their specific friction points, fears, and motivations. The coaching relationship should begin with an **empathy mapping session** designed to explore the manager’s perspective:

What are they hearing from their teams (resistance, fear) vs. their leaders (pressure, urgency)?
What are they seeing in the organization (fragmented systems, siloed efforts)?
What are their deepest pains (fear of failure, workload overload) and potential gains (career growth, successful innovation)?

This exercise provides the raw data needed to tailor the coaching experience and create a plan that addresses their actual challenges rather than perceived ones.

The Experience of Change

Every change initiative is a journey. We often design the endpoint (the new system, the new structure) but fail to design the path. Change coaches must help middle managers view this journey as a critical **user experience (UX)**. A human-centered approach requires us to answer key questions about that journey:

Does the current workload allow space for adoption and experimentation? (Or are they working a “second shift”?)
Is the environment psychologically safe? Is failure during the learning curve accepted or penalized?
How does this change impact the manager’s professional identity and long-term goals?

By intentionally designing for these experience factors, we ensure the manager is equipped, mentally and structurally, to adopt and champion the change.

Visualizing the Impact: The Change Planning Toolkit™

Complexity is the enemy of adoption. In human-centered design, visualization is crucial for clarity. In my work developing the Change Planning Toolkit™, I emphasized the need for managers to move beyond abstract spreadsheets. Coaching middle managers involves helping them use visual canvases and tools to:

Map the specific impacts of the change on every stakeholder group within their influence.
Identify hidden dependencies that might cause bottlenecks.
Co-create adoption strategies *with* their teams, rather than dictating them.

Visual tools reduce cognitive load, foster collaboration, and make complex organizational changes manageable, providing a shared language for the manager, their team, and the coach.

Core Coaching Competencies for the “Middle”

To effectively coach through change, middle managers must evolve from “task masters” into facilitative leaders. This shift requires a specific set of competencies designed to bridge the gap between high-level vision and the human reality of the workplace.

Translating Strategy into Action

One of the greatest points of failure in change initiatives is the “Meaning Gap.” Executives speak in terms of EBITDA, market share, and digital transformation, but frontline employees care about their daily workflows and job security. A coached middle manager acts as a strategic translator.

Coaching helps managers identify the “why” that resonates specifically with their teams. Instead of simply repeating corporate talking points, they learn to frame the change in ways that highlight local benefits, solve immediate frustrations, and align with the team’s values.

Active Listening & Feedback Loops

Traditional management often relies on a “broadcast” model — pushing information down the hierarchy. Human-centered coaching flips this. Managers must become experts in active listening to surface the “ground truth” of the organization.

Surfacing Obstacles: Learning to ask open-ended questions that reveal hidden technical or emotional barriers before they become crises.
The Two-Way Dialogue: Moving from “Do you have any questions?” to “What part of this new process feels most difficult for you?”
Feedback as Fuel: Treating team feedback not as “resistance,” but as valuable data that can be used to refine the change design.

Developing Resilience and Modeling Behavior

In times of transition, the team looks to the manager for cues on how to react. If the manager is anxious or cynical, the team will follow suit. Coaching provides managers with the emotional intelligence tools to navigate their own uncertainty first.

By developing personal resilience, managers can model adaptable behavior. This includes “working in the open,” admitting when they don’t have all the answers, and demonstrating a growth mindset. When a manager can stay grounded in the face of ambiguity, they create a “containment vessel” that allows their team to feel safe enough to take risks and learn new ways of working.

Moving from Gatekeeper to Catalyst

In many traditional hierarchies, the middle manager acts as a gatekeeper — protecting resources, mitigating risk, and ensuring strict adherence to established protocols. However, in a rapidly evolving business landscape, this defensive posture can stifle innovation. Coaching empowers managers to shift their identity toward becoming a catalyst: someone who accelerates the change process by removing friction and empowering others.

Relinquishing Control and Embracing Empowerment

The most difficult hurdle for many managers during change is the fear of losing control. When processes are in flux, the instinct is to micromanage to prevent errors. A human-centered coaching approach helps managers understand that agility requires distributed authority.

Coaches work with managers to identify tasks and decisions that can be delegated to the team. By shifting from “command and control” to “clear intent and support,” managers free themselves to focus on higher-level strategic alignment while giving their team the autonomy to find the best way forward.

Identifying and Amplifying “Positive Deviants”

Change rarely happens all at once. In every team, there are individuals who naturally gravitate toward the new way of working — the positive deviants. These are people who find better ways to succeed despite the challenges of the transition.

Coaching teaches managers how to spot these early adopters and, instead of seeing them as “outliers,” use them as partners in the transformation. By amplifying their successes and sharing their methods, the manager allows the change to spread organically through peer influence rather than top-down mandates.

The Power of Recognition and Small Wins

Large-scale transformation can feel like an endless marathon. Without visible progress, fatigue sets in quickly. Middle managers must be coached to become “detectives of the good,” constantly looking for small wins that validate the new direction.

Micro-Recognitions: Celebrating the first time a team member uses a new tool, even if they aren’t perfect yet.
Process Wins: Highlighting when a new workflow saves time, even if the overall project isn’t finished.
Emotional Validation: Acknowledging the effort and courage it takes to unlearn old habits.

By consistently recognizing these moments, the manager builds the collective confidence of the team, proving that the “new” is not only possible but beneficial.

Overcoming the “Permafrost” (Common Challenges)

The “permafrost” layer isn’t a sign of bad management; it’s a sign of a system in conflict. Middle managers are often buried under the weight of legacy expectations while being told to sprint toward a new horizon. Coaching at this level requires specific interventions to thaw this layer and allow the seeds of change to take root.

The Resource Crunch: Managing the “Second Shift”

One of the primary reasons change fails is that it is treated as an “add-on” to an already full 40-hour week. Coaches must work with managers to perform a brutal prioritization of their current commitments. This involves:

Identifying “Stop-Doing” Lists: What legacy reports or meetings can be paused to create capacity for the change initiative?
Integrating Change into Routine: Moving change tasks from “special projects” into the daily flow of work.
Protecting White Space: Ensuring the manager has the cognitive breathing room to think strategically rather than just reacting to fires.

Managing Up and Down: The Shield and the Sword

Middle managers often feel squeezed between unrealistic executive deadlines and team burnout. A human-centered coach helps the manager master the art of boundary setting.

The manager learns to act as a shield for their team — protecting them from “initiative overload” and shifting priorities — while acting as a sword (or advocate) to the leadership, providing honest data on what is actually achievable. Coaching provides the scripts and the confidence to say, “We can do X, but we must delay Y to ensure the quality of the transition.”

Identifying and Healing “Change Fatigue”

Continuous change is the new normal, but human biology isn’t designed for perpetual high-alert states. Coaches must train managers to recognize the subtle signs of change fatigue before they turn into full-blown burnout:

Cynicism: When “we’ve tried this before” becomes the default response.
Disengagement: Silence in meetings or a lack of voluntary participation.
Reduced Productivity: Even in tasks unrelated to the change.

The coaching intervention here isn’t to “push harder,” but to pause and re-calibrate. This might mean celebrating a plateau, acknowledging the emotional toll of the work, or temporarily slowing the pace of implementation to allow the team’s resilience to recover.

Measuring Success Beyond the Spreadsheet

The true impact of change coaching for middle managers cannot be captured solely by “go-live” dates or budget adherence. To understand if the transformation is sticking, we must look at the human metrics of the organization. Human-centered innovation requires a more nuanced approach to measuring success — one that values the health of the culture as much as the speed of the output.

Qualitative Milestones: The Pulse of the Team

Coaches should help managers look for leading indicators of success that traditional reporting often misses. These qualitative milestones demonstrate that the “permafrost” is thawing and a new culture is emerging:

Shift in Sentiment: Moving from “Why is this happening to us?” to “How can we make this work for us?”
Increased Collaboration: A visible rise in cross-functional problem-solving without the need for managerial intervention.
Proactive Problem-Solving: Team members identifying and fixing bottlenecks in the new process independently.

The Innovation Connection

Effective change coaching creates a powerful side effect: a safer environment for continuous improvement and experimentation. We measure this by observing the frequency and quality of new ideas originating from the middle and frontline. When a manager is coached to be a catalyst, the team stops fearing mistakes and starts seeing them as data points. Success is defined by a team that no longer waits for a “Change Initiative” to improve their own workflows.

Long-Term ROI: Sustainability and Retention

The ultimate return on investment for coaching middle managers is sustainability. Anyone can force a temporary change through sheer willpower, but it won’t last. We measure long-term success through:

Reduced Turnover: Managers who feel supported and coached are less likely to leave, and their teams are less likely to experience burnout.
Knowledge Retention: How much of the “new way” remains standard practice six or twelve months after the formal project has ended.
Adaptive Capacity: The speed at which the team can pivot to the next change. A coached team builds “change muscles” that make future transformations progressively easier.

Conclusion: Building a Culture of Continuous Change

The success of any innovation or change initiative ultimately rests on the shoulders of the middle. They are the operational engine of the organization, and if that engine is stalled by fear, overwhelm, or lack of clarity, the entire enterprise remains stationary regardless of the vision at the top.

Designing the Manager Experience

We must stop viewing middle management as a problem to be solved and start seeing it as a design opportunity. When we apply human-centered principles to the coaching of these leaders, we aren’t just checking off project milestones; we are building organizational resilience. When we design the change experience for the manager, they are finally empowered to design a thriving future for the organization.

The Call to Action

It is time to move beyond the “one-and-done” training workshops. Investing in sustained coaching programs treats middle managers as the strategic partners they truly are. This investment yields dividends far beyond the current project — it creates a leadership tier that is comfortable with ambiguity, empathetic to their teams, and ready to lead through the next wave of disruption.

Final Thought

Innovation is not a destination; it is a capability. By thawing the “permafrost” through coaching, you transform your middle managers from defenders of the status quo into the architects of your future.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is the “Middle Manager” often the point of failure for change?

It’s rarely about personal resistance. Middle managers are often measured on legacy KPIs (stability) while being tasked with driving transformation (instability). This creates a “structural friction” where they are forced to prioritize current operations over future innovation just to meet their immediate performance goals.

How does coaching differ from traditional change management training?

Training is usually a one-way transfer of information or “how-to” steps. Coaching is a facilitative process that addresses the emotional and psychological barriers of the manager. It provides a safe space to navigate uncertainty, practice new behaviors, and develop the empathy required to lead a team through transition.

What is the first step in implementing a human-centered coaching approach?

The first step is conducting an Empathy Mapping exercise. Before deploying tools or timelines, you must understand the manager’s current reality — what they are hearing, seeing, feeling, and doing. This ensures the coaching intervention solves for their actual pain points rather than a generic set of assumptions.

Image credits: Gemini

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Now Available – Charting Change™ Facilitated Change and Project Kickoffs

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Help Yourself to Successful Projects and Change Initiatives

Too often change management is seen as a subset of project management, causing the people side of change to be an afterthought. Stop it!

Architecting the Organization for Change

Successful organizations plan for change, and so I am extremely excited to announce that people can now get help powering their project or change initiative to a strong start with a facilitated Charting Change™ kickoff event requiring only a very small financial investment that will deliver a large return.

Charting Change™ Facilitated Change and Project Kickoffs include a package of products and services, valued at up to $460,600, for a deeply discounted introductory price:
(contact us for pricing)

Change Readiness Audit (part of Day 1 of 3 on-site) – $5,000 value
Change Saturation Heatmap (part of Day 1 of 3 on-site) – $5,000 value
20 autographed copies of Charting Change – $600 value

Two-Day Guided Change Planning Session (Days 2&3 of 3) – $25,000 value

Day 1 – Introduction to the Change Planning Toolkit™
Day 1 – Set up the room
Day 2 – Conduct the change planning session
Day 2 – Change Planning Toolkit™ Q&A
Day 2 – Wrapup

Certification of Change Planning Toolkit™ instructors (post-event certification exam)
Change Planning Toolkit™ license (free for six months) – Up to a $425,000 value

TOTAL VALUE = Up to $460,600 for a deeply discounted introductory price
(contact us for pricing)

As part of the package I will fly to your location, work with you to facilitate a change planning or project planning session using the tools from the Change Planning Toolkit™ introduced in my latest book Charting Change, so that your next project or change initiative can be a roaring success and you and your team can become certified Change Planning Toolkit™ practitioners (if desired). If you’d like additional help with your project or change initiative beyond the Charting Change™ Facilitated Kickoff, we can stick with you to provide additional assistance via on-site or virtual support.

FOLLOW-UP SERVICE OFFERINGS

Additional on-site support – by the week
100 virtual hour support package

Can choose a 1-day on-site for the equivalent of 30hrs

Certification Exam

So invest a little in taking a more visual, more collaborative, and well, human, approach to planning your next successful project or change initiative and contact us.

Accelerate your change and transformation success

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Every Company Needs an Innovation Coach

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Retained Innovation Innovation is not a solo activity. While the rare lone genius may be able to invent something on their own (although still always inspired by others), nobody can innovate by themselves. Innovation, by its very nature, requires collaboration.

Companies are like brains. The brain is composed of two hemispheres. The left brain is typically described as the home to math and logic skills, while the right brain is described as the domain of creativity. Of course people need to develop both hemispheres to be successful, and companies are the same. Achieving operational excellence is the goal of the left brain side of the organization and innovation excellence should be the goal of the right side of the organization. Unfortunately, most organizations over-invest in operational excellence to the point that the organization fights off innovation excellence efforts like a virus.

So, what’s the cure?

Not to get sick in the first place of course!

To achieve that, consider putting an innovation wellness program in place. And what does that look like?

An innovation wellness program has at its center, an organization that is willing to reach outside its four walls for a constant stream of new inspiration. Because it is inspiration in combination with curiosity that will give the organization a fighting chance of identifying ongoing sources of unique and differentiated insights that will allow the organization to continuously reinvent itself and stay in resonance with its customers.

A couple tangible examples of innovation wellness program components include:

Embedding elements of so-called Open Innovation into the core of the organization’s innovation approach rather than existing as a periodic guest

Continuous reinforcement of a curiosity culture

Employment of a part-time innovation coach on an ongoing basis

Robert F Brands What does an innovation coach look like?

Well, one good example was the late Robert F. Brands, who was lost to the global innovation community far too soon. He was a friend, a colleague, a mentor, a partner on work we did for the United States Navy, and he helped me get the book deal for my first five-star book – Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire.

A good innovation coach helps you avoid the ten signs of innovation sickness:

Nobody can articulate your definition of innovation (or you don’t have one)
Nobody can articulate your innovation vision/strategy/goals (or you don’t have them)
People struggle to tell the story of one or more innovations launched to wide adoption by the organization
Most of what passes as innovation inside the organization would actually be classified as improvements (not innovation) by people outside the organization
The organization no longer makes external innovation perspectives available to a wide audience
Nobody takes the time to participate in our innovation efforts anymore
Your organization is unable to accept insights and ideas from outside the organization and develop them into concepts that can be scaled to wide adoption
Innovation program leadership has difficulty getting time on the CEO’s calendar any more
Your innovation team is trying to do all of the innovating instead of helping to accelerate the innovation efforts of others
Your pace of innovation is slower than the organizations you compete with for market share, donations, votes, etc.

A good innovation coach can help you:

1. Perform an innovation assessment

I developed a 50 question innovation audit and made it available in support of my first book Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire, so that people can do a self-evaluation of their innovation maturity here on my web site. Or if you would like to dig a little deeper into the dynamics of innovation in your organization, I can work with you to do an innovation diagnostic across your organization and/or help you establish a baseline so you can track your innovation maturity progress over time.

2. Establish a Continuous Innovation Infrastructure

Many companies confuse having a New Product Development (NPD) program or a Research & Development (R&D) program with having an innovation program, or are stuck in an ‘innovation as a project’ approach to innovation. A good innovation coach can help you define what innovation can and should mean to your organization, build a common language of innovation, create an innovation vision, establish an innovation strategy that dovetails with your organization’s overall strategy, and develop innovation goals that will help focus the organization’s efforts to realize its innovation vision and strategy.

3. Teach You Some New Innovation Tools, Methods, and Frameworks

A good innovation coach is also a skilled facilitator and can help facilitate innovation off-sites, an effective trainer who can develop the custom courses you need to teach people in the organization new tools, methods, or frameworks to improve or accelerate your innovation capabilities, and is capable of delivering inspirational keynotes to large groups inside your organization to help shift mindsets and help people feel empowered to participate in the innovation efforts of the organization. The best innovation coaches are capable not just of bringing in the tools, methods and frameworks of others, but are also capable of understanding your innovation gaps and creating new innovation tools, methods and frameworks to help you.

4. Help You Identify Insights and Opportunities

Innovation begins with inspiration, and your curiosity and exploration should lead you to identify some good insights to build on and opportunities to pursue. But, because most ideas are really idea fragments, sometimes an innovation coach or other external perspectives can help you identify the gaps in your idea fragment or opportunity identification that might make them more compelling, especially if you aren’t making a conscious use of The Nine Innovation Roles as part of your innovation process to help you avoid innovation blind spots. A good innovation coach can also help you go beyond ideas and help you focus on not just one, but all three keys to innovation success:

Value Creation
Value Access
Value Translation

Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire will help you learn more about each, or you can check out my previous article ‘Innovation is All About Value‘.

5. Tell You Honestly When You’re Going Off Course

A good innovation coach will have the courage to be honest with you and tell you when you’ve lost your way. Over time, many innovation teams tend to come down with shiny object syndrome or its equally evil cousin, launch fever. A competent innovation coach will be able to recognize the change and help you course correct before you pass the point of no return, and put the very existence of your innovation program at risk. A good innovation coach is able to provide a consistent external perspective, a sanity check, and may be able to also help you build external connections to invite in other external perspectives as well.

Wrapping it Up

It is easy to fall in love with the innovation process and program you’ve created. It is equally simple to form attachments to your innovation projects and artifacts and think that you’ve cracked the code, and maybe you have, but wouldn’t you like to keep one toe in the pond outside your organization just to make sure?

Creating and maintaining a part-time relationship with an innovation coach you trust is a great way to do that. Smart organizations keep a pulse on their level of innovation maturity over time. They’re continuously evolving their innovation infrastructure, building new capabilities, and seeking out external perspectives as a sanity check on their program evolutions over time. So what are you waiting for?