pivot Archives - Page 4 of 10 - Dennis E. Gilbert

07
May 20
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Workplace Contributions Change Everything

Tags : change choice contributions engagement pivot

Are you a good contributor? What about your team? When we think of workplace contributions it is largely about the behaviors you model.

Role models are valuable. Essentially role models create, shape, and reflect what the future will look like.

They do it in a compelling and convincing way. They create more pull and give less push.

You have a decision to make. You can be a positive contributor and help lead the way to a better path, or you can model less than desirable behaviors.

Which one is for you?

Workplace Contributions

What you contribute today will have an impact for tomorrow.

Good contributions can help someone think deeper, appreciate more and gossip less. There is a choice to value teammates, build trust, or recklessly undermine necessary change.

Co-workers or customers may not be able to avoid the exposure. They are in the vicinity, passing by, or standing beside. Once seen, they cannot forget it or pretend that it didn’t occur.

What the group looks like to others, their perceptions and their expectations, creates what many believe is the cultural norm. The filters used or the ones forgotten are both contributing factors.

Learning often occurs and innovation might follow, or it may all get swept away with a slip of the tongue, a harsh look, or an obscene gesture.

Every day people are building a brand. Their brand, and perhaps yours.

If you want to change anything, remember that your contributions change everything.

Make good choices about what you’ll contribute.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

06
May 20
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Traveling Forward Is Your Only Path

Tags : change choices fear normal pivot

It’s your only path because you cannot go backwards. When you recognize traveling forward is your only route, embracing it becomes less difficult.

You can’t freeze time. It doesn’t stop. Fix a telescope on the constellation Orion and it keeps moving. In our view of the sky, so does the Sun and the Moon.

Returning to Normal, or Not?

There are certainly many lessons being learned during the spring of 2020.

One that perhaps hasn’t been fully considered is that there is only one path forward. You can’t stay exactly the same because you can’t freeze time. You can’t go back either.

There is not going to be a return to normal. A new normal perhaps, but not a return to the old normal. Things are different now.

Changed for a long time, if not forever, people will think differently about social gatherings. Commerce will be different. Certain fears are new or older ones rekindled or solidified.

Will there be an “all clear?”

Even if there is, or when there is, many people still won’t believe it. Some don’t believe it now, and some won’t believe it later.

Fear will impact the quality of decisions. There will be fear of a virus, fear of legal issues, and fear of the unknown.

Fear is always a motivator. Unfortunately, being fearful isn’t the design of the most successful organizational cultures.

Traveling Forward

Forward is your only choice. The cause and effect of decisions you make will affect today and tomorrow, but not yesterday.

Expecting that there will be a return to normal is thoughtless. It’s an assumption based on desire not on practicality.

Tomorrow will be different from today. Even if you tried to stop tomorrow from happening it’s still coming.

When you accept that traveling forward is the only path you should also consider asking yourself what you’ll change.

You have a chance every day to make tomorrow better than the day before. Assumptions about normal are simply a state of right now.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

01
May 20
-

Unexpected Choices Spark a Pivot.

Tags : change choices decisions pivot

Decisions sometimes need to be made even when it is undesirable. Have you encountered unexpected choices during adverse conditions?

If you have, then you’ve probably recognized that freezing, seizing up, or having a reluctance to consider alternatives may result in poor choices.

People deal with the stress of the unexpected in different ways. Some immediately want to explore while others just want everything to go back to what they considered normal.

In many cases, there is not a back to normal option. The status quo is no longer available. There becomes a new normal.

People often believe that a persons environment shapes who they are and who they become. Others believe that people are who they are, regardless of any environmental observation or stimulus. There is even a psychology based term for this, it is known as the Fundamental Attribution Error.

Our environment is powerful. Situations and circumstances are powerful. Your habits, ethics, and integrity are also powerful.

What do you do or assume during adverse conditions? Are you looking for new options or do you find yourself restricted to known paths?

Innovators seek new options.

Unexpected Choices

You may discover that it is time to pivot. Time to explore the unexplored and discover a different direction.

What do you do when the store is out of your favorite brand?

How do you get to work when your normal route is blocked?

What happens when you don’t have the right tool for the job?

You improvise. Discovery of options and choices provide an opportunity to keep moving.

Everyday decisions always have an outcome. Decisions that you make under pressure or adverse conditions also have an outcome.

Certainly a decision or choice to do nothing is still a decision but the opportunity to pivot gets new things started.

It may be the unexpected choices or options which require you to go in a new direction that yield the best results.

Consider alternatives.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

28
Apr 20
-

Ideal Working Conditions Don’t Always Exist

Tags : adapt change ideal pivot working conditions

What environment brings out your best work? What circumstances or situations encourage you to try harder, give more, and be efficient? If you are always waiting for ideal working conditions, you’re probably wasting time.

The past two months have created some interesting environments for some. Working from home to help flatten the curve has been a widely adopted approach.

Certainly, it doesn’t pertain to all jobs, some are battling it out on the front lines. Others in certain occupations or business sectors have largely continued on, they’re helping to keep some form of survival alive.

Many, for a few moments believe they stumbled upon their dream job. A job that allows them to work from home. Yet, it doesn’t take long for them to realize that working from home, while different, isn’t always better.

Absolutely there are pros and cons. For some, efficiencies go up, and for others it goes down. Motivation may be different and distractions may be more, or less.

Ideal Working Conditions

Everyone has an idea of their best or most favorable working conditions. Some insist that they cannot work in certain environments. It may be true that the tolerance is out of bounds.

Survivors find a way. They find a path and they walk it. Some might even choose to run it.

Are you adaptable?

Life is always about change. As much as we often don’t like to be kicked out of our norm, we have a way of adapting and surviving. It’s often about the pivot, the shift, and discovering ways for navigation.

Sometimes you create ideal, sometimes it just seems to happen.

You can choose to make the most of any situation.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

17
Apr 20
-

Drama Decisions Are Not Productive

Tags : choices decisions drama pivot productivity

Each day you have a responsibility. The responsibility to make decisions. Are you making drama decisions, or good decisions?

When your job, at least in part, is to make good decisions have you considered the information that guides those decisions?

Obstacles and Validity

It’s common that workplace leaders hear and see a lot. People run to bosses, especially middle managers, seeking an opportunity to have a voice.

They voice their opinions. Opinions that sound like facts, but are not facts. Some may be valid and reliable. Others may be nothing more than hearsay.

Your best decisions may come from careful analysis. It may mean examining the data, asking more questions, and even having the patience to allow things to unfold a little before jumping.

Some workplace leaders find themselves sandwiched between a variety of stories with little data. These stories are often embellished versions of the real story, and unfortunately an easy management trap is to listen to a few and then the last presentation seems to win.

These are drama decisions.

Drama Decisions

Drama decisions are fueled with unproductive emotions. Often arising from jealously, envy, or spite.

Voices get loud. Frequencies increase, and the outcomes feed the drama even more.

If part of your job is being responsible for making good decisions then it may be very important to consider the characteristics of the source.

Are you listening for facts and not reacting to opinions?

Is there any data to back up the message?

What is really the root cause of the scenario being presented?

You didn’t achieve a position responsible for making good decisions by often making bad ones, but could you still do better?

Have you considered the value of thinking more critically and making better decisions?

It may be a worthwhile exercise.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

09
Apr 20
-

Big Changes Start with Small Pivots

Tags : change future new normal pandemic pivot

Do big changes start with small, almost invisible pivots? Often, they do, unless of course there is large scale disruption. Yet even after a large disruption, small pivots still lead to big changes.

People often identify drastic changes in their life as being connected to a significant event.

After my car accident I changed my driving habits.

When I watched the safety video, I realized the importance of safety equipment.

Seeing what happened to my friend made me stop the bad behavior.

The events seem big and the impact lasting. It is the event that sparked the change, or in some cases solidified the need for it.

Big Changes

Many may suggest that their change happened in a moment. That very second that the impact registered, change occurred.

It is true for some things. Yet for other things, such as daily habits, or how we communicate, who we trust and when, and even the giving of responsibility or respect, it happens across time.

Our World has entered a giant disruption. We could argue for a long time about media hype, medical research practices, or even conspiracy theories, but the disruption has happened.

This disruption may be the event that sparks significant change.

If the future of physical gatherings calls for more distance, it may mean fewer people can attend. If work spaces need to be more spread out, then fewer can enter the building. The sign on the elevator with a capacity limit may change, not because of weight, but because of space.

It seems like it is a time for technology to make another leap forward. Not because of a new invention but because more people will adopt its use.

Small Pivots

Each moment that someone tries something new a change is born. Every day a problem presents and a solution or work around is likely to follow.

It is all like a bad habit.

Some things start to change in a moment. Some of those moments will result in long-term change that creates the new normal.

People suggest, “I can’t wait to get back to normal.”

What they don’t realize is that there will be a new normal. The new normal will develop as people adapt to change. Small pivots will get them there.

People are permanently impacted by what they saw or experienced with the car accident, the image on the safety video, or the punishment of an act of wrong-doing.

They develop a new normal.

The 2020 pandemic disruption is a change maker.

What do you see for the new normal?

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

03
Apr 20
-

Stuck Waiting Won’t Get You Very Far

Tags : career change future pivot waiting

Needless to say, it is a very interesting time. Many people feel like they are stuck waiting.

Stuck waiting for what?

People are stuck waiting for the virus to clear, the stay in your home to be lifted, or for the government to do something about it.

Others are healing, trying to quell their nerves and stop the worry.

Still others are working, some are working harder and with more dedication than they ever realized they had.

For everyone who feels like life is on a timeout, what will you do? If you are career minded what are you doing now? If you’re running a small business that is temporarily disabled what is most effective right now?

Perhaps you take a break for a day, maybe two, but then you don’t stop. A shut down doesn’t mean you’re knocked out. Even if the business you worked for or the business you owned may not reopen it isn’t over.

How will you spend your time, right now?

Stuck Waiting

Spending time to worry isn’t going to change anything. What is your alternative?

The alternative is to start focusing on the future. Make no mistake, things are going to change. The future will be different, a new normal.

Your thought pattern shouldn’t be focused on getting back to normal it should be focused on what does the new normal look like?

Consider all of your life experiences, your knowledge, your skills, and your abilities. How will you put them to use in the future? What strengths do you have and how can you build on those?

Today may be the first day of something new.

How are you going to arrive?

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

01
Apr 20
-

Disruptive Change Establishes New Directions

Tags : change disruptive future pivot

No one will argue that there is a significant disruption. What will be different for you after this disruptive change?

Will there be what we will call the, new economy? How will social behavior change? How will businesses evolve, pivot, or die?

I’ve done a fair amount of work in understanding the psychology and social behavior associated with the generations.

In a general sense, there is behavior based solely on age. Older people and younger people do different things. This is not a generational difference. It is a difference in age.

However, the challenge for working across the generations is connected to values and beliefs, not so much about age.

There is a difference between these two aspects. That fundamental difference is important to understand as you consider your future.

Disruptive Change

What is going to change about your values and beliefs now? What will change about them for people who are different in age?

For the workplace, for business and commerce, things are going to be different. For education, hospitality, and sectors connected to travel and vacationing, things are going to change.

In fact, they already have, we just haven’t seen exactly how everything will fall into place. Every sector has reactions and connectivity to the other, things will be different tomorrow.

Those taking proactive approaches will gamble, steer, and lead the shape of future directions.

For your career or your business, the key will be to design it around what tomorrow will look like, and not to design it around what it once was.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

10
Mar 20
-

Changing Now Has Never Been Harder or Easier

Tags : challenges change commitment effort pivot

What if you were forced to change right now? Changing now, in the moment, at this place in time requires a special effort.

Do you feel like the World around you is changing? It is easy to get people to agree that everything is changing. Are you changing or staying about the same?

Look at a picture of you from half of your lifetime ago. You’ll notice change.

The process of change, which is otherwise known as transition is an emotional reaction to the feeling you experience during change.

It is a struggle because part of you wants to stay exactly the same and part of you either feels forced or desires to do something different.

There are emotions involved. It could be anything from denial, to fear, to shock and disbelief. You might feel panicked, angry, or scared. Most of all, you probably feel stressed about a change you didn’t see coming, or one you feel challenged to adopt.

Controlling your emotions and staying cool under pressure are just a small part of navigating change. Recognizing the pinch of the stress you’re feeling sometimes prompts panic. Yet likely, panic will not result in any kind of positive outcome.

Changing Now

Remember the thought of that picture from half a lifetime ago?

Considering that there was not a significant life altering event that changed your physical appearance you probably barely felt the change on day-to-day basis.

You were and have been, just living. Making your way through each day, week, month, and year.

Changing now is really about tiny milestones consistently applied across time.

Sure, big leaps are sometimes preferred and sometimes they are even required. Mostly though, it is a day-to-day application across time.

Every decision you make, every conscious thought about change, it feels like the right path in that moment you decide. It’s the best choice. What happens next isn’t always up to you.

Many decisions or choices aren’t easy. Change is sometimes difficult.

Changing now has never been easier.

-DEG

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Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

14
Feb 20
-

Does Your Team Sprint at the Beginning?

Tags : accelerate pivot sprint team effectiveness workplace

We’re always running against the clock. When is the best time for a team sprint?

A glance at the clock often feels counter intuitive for effectiveness.

If we are hurried, we’re going to give up something in quality. The notion is that corners will be cut to allow the box to get checked in the same amount of time.

Makes sense. There is a good chance this is often true.

It is also often true that we coast into the project. Then we only sprint if we must. Ultimately, we often end up hurried at the end.

Motivation Comes from Sprinting

Some people may argue that a sprint motivates, energizes, and excites.

You may hear:

I do my best work under pressure.

Why worry, there is still lots of time.

If we get in a jam, we’ll bring on some part-timers or interns.

Have you heard any of these arguments?

Team Sprint

Let’s assume for a moment that you buy into the concept that sprinting works for motivation, increased energy, and more excitement.

Shouldn’t we sprint at the beginning not at the end?

This may not apply for the runner’s marathon, but in your workplace imagine if you sprinted at the beginning, walked at the end, and finished before the project is due?

Is that a better position to be in?

Imagine if you didn’t have much to worry about as the deadline approached? What if you didn’t have to hire more help or could save on overtime costs?

Is that a healthier workplace culture?

When do you prefer to sprint?

If there is going to be a sprint, I suggest you get a good start.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Tag Archives: pivot

May 20

-

Workplace Contributions

May 20

-

Returning to Normal, or Not?

Traveling Forward

May 20

-

Unexpected Choices

Apr 20

-

Ideal Working Conditions

Apr 20

-

Obstacles and Validity

Drama Decisions

Apr 20

-

Big Changes

Small Pivots

Apr 20

-

Stuck Waiting

Apr 20

-

Disruptive Change

Mar 20

-

Changing Now

Feb 20

-

Motivation Comes from Sprinting

Team Sprint

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