pivot Archives - Page 8 of 10 - Dennis E. Gilbert

26
Jun 18
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Accelerating Change Starts With Belief

Tags : accelerating belief change pivot rapid

There is a conundrum, is change too fast or too slow? It really may depend on the circumstances and who you ask. Are you or your team accelerating change, or are you playing catch up while chasing the front runners?

Historical Perspective

Throughout history our current mainstream belief is that it took a long time to get here.

Planet Earth at 4.5 billion years old, dinosaurs lived a couple hundred million years ago, but the most rapid advancements in technology are less than a couple of hundred years old. Some may suggest that the most significant have happened in the most recent one hundred to one hundred and fifty years.

It once took a long time to get anywhere. A twenty, thirty, or fifty-mile journey, was in fact, a small journey. A trip to town wasn’t an everyday experience for many, likely once a week or less.

Technology Changes Everything

Today, communication and information are shared around the World in seconds. Artificial intelligence is claiming a stake in what we do, how we do it, and how many humans are involved.

What about the present day at your work, are you keeping up? Is the pace of change appropriate, is your team a component of making the business a front runner?

Awareness can occur in a moment, and often it does. Deciding to act can take more time. Belief in a future fate or reality is the trigger for action, or often, a lack of it.

Accelerating Change

When you are interested in accelerating change the mechanics on the timeline are important. However, perhaps most important and often taken for granted are the requirements of the people.

Convincing the people involved that the timing is right, the pace is appropriate, and that the future outcomes are both necessary and achievable may be the slowest moving part.

Considering the most recent two hundred years, creating belief in change seems far more important than the possibility.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

14
Jun 18
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Do You Fear Change or Fear Success?

Tags : change failure fear pivot success

We know change is happening, sometimes to our liking, and sometimes not so much. Fear change or fear success, which one do you fear, or is it both? What causes you to think twice about your next move?

Growth is Success

Years ago, I planted one hundred tiny twigs (Ligustrum amurense) in a row across the front of my property. It was going to change the front of my property. Privacy, beauty, and a lot of work.

Successful growth of the plants meant change. Cutting, trimming, care along the bottom, and care on the top. A great place for leaves to pile up in the fall.

Was there some fear of success? Certainly, I had an idea what was coming. There was going to be a lot of work and care involved. I planted them, it worked, things changed.

Fear Change

Any time we start something new, any time someone suggests a change, the fear of success may be just as important to consider as the fear of failure.

Most people blame the fear of failure as the reason people don’t like change. Certainly, failure is a possible outcome, but so is success.

The status quo is comfortable. People know and understand the workload. Groups have normalized (Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, Bruce W. Tuckman) and are performing. The outcome is generally known, the atmosphere feels stable. There is a sense of safety.

When a change is about to occur, the stability is threatened. There is new risk with an unknown outcome. Of course, if the change fails, not much will really be different.

Considering that change you see coming, do you fear success?

Fear Success

Vinyl, imitation clapboard, is popular for modern suburban home siding. It doesn’t change as often as the wooden clapboard of yesteryear. There is less fear of maintenance. A change that is desirable, no fear of more work, things stay stable longer.

The kids want a new puppy, with a new puppy comes change. Sure, who doesn’t love a cute puppy, but with the puppy comes a lot of care.

A house with a bigger yard, an apple tree, and a swimming pool would be nice. Well, on second thought, that seems like a lot of work.

Change is scary, it is really scary when it works.

-DEG

Originally posted on June 14, 2018, last updated on December 4, 2019.

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.

25
May 18
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Good Difference, Are You Making One?

Tags : change choice difference pivot status quo

Monday through Friday is a popular schedule for many workers, others are six or even seven days nearly every week. People and businesses are often trying to make a difference. The question may be, is it a good difference?

When you ask around, most people will probably quickly agree that the World around us is changing. Are you changing, is your organization changing, or should changes be happening?

Status Quo

Choice conditions whether we change. Change is a decision. It is easy to fall in love with the status quo. In the status quo the risk feels much less. People believe, “I know this works and I’m sticking with it.”

Many people approach their Monday through Friday doing what works. Doing it over and over again, week after week, as the World changes. Change doesn’t always need to happen, but is it happening enough? Enough for you, your career, or your business?

We often pick the low hanging fruit. That is the easy fruit, reachable, achievable, and enjoyable. Life is easy, just pick what you can and move on to the next. It feels comfortable to fall in love with easy.

If nothing ever changes, easy may continue to work for a long time, or theoretically forever. In a World that is stuck or standing still there isn’t much need for change.

Good Difference

Is there a requirement for something different? Is there a requirement for change? When you recognize that the World isn’t standing still you may also realize you need to make a difference. A good difference, not a bad choice.

Choice is scary because it comes without a warranty or guarantee. What you do next may not work. It may have bugs, kinks, and turn off the people you’ve worked hard to please.

Getting a ladder to pick the fruit others are skipping, the fruit we’ve never reached for, has an unknown level of success. There is choice and risk involved. Will it be a good difference?

If nothing is changing, then I guess it makes sense to just keep doing the same thing. No need for different.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

02
Apr 18
-

Things Will Change. Will You, Are You?

Tags : change future leadership pivot time

Many people just want to move forward, yet they compare and contrast everything to the past. Often people are looking for differences and identifying that the unknown may not work. Things will change, the biggest question may be, “Will you?”

My cell phone failed a drop test last week. I knew immediately that there really wasn’t a choice, but to replace it. Two and a half years is a long time in the technology world. I didn’t really want any change, but I felt that I had no choice. Things have changed, and so have I.

Better Future

There could be lots of argument about technology or society. The big question often is, “Will the future be better?”

We are on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence (AI) and while that has many scary aspects, especially those connected to privacy or jobs, it is our future. It is not even likely, it is a given. AI is happening and it is happening without a stop sign.

Our future won’t be the same. Some things will work, some will delight, and others will cause fear, hesitation, and distrust.

All of this is likely not much different from a first ride at 35 mph in an automobile. Not really different from the introduction of the motorized bicycle, or to be flying several thousand feet high in a winged motorized vehicle.

There were people who likely scoffed at the idea. Said it won’t work, wouldn’t last, wouldn’t stick, and was dangerous. In the early 1990’s some proclaimed the pending emergence of the internet was a fad, it wouldn’t last, and people largely would not be interested to join.

Things Will Change

Many predictors of the future base their predictions on the past. This is often true for individual behavior. It is not so true for society or world cultures.

Things will change if you allow it to happen. Your workplace can become better, more prosperous, and successful. The way you did it three or five years ago may still work, but if you’re not eager about what is next, it is time to start looking.

The question is not about when, because the timing is now. The only question remaining is, “Will you?”

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

09
Mar 18
-

Simulation Experience, It Is Not The Real Thing

Tags : change leadership pivot simulation training

Are simulations and real life experiences the same thing? When we want to change or transform an organizational culture, can we do it through simulation? Do you have simulation experience or the real thing?

Real or Simulation

In our organizations, we can experience safety training, productivity training, or be warned of what is, or is not, harassment.

We may also get training about culture, leadership, and the importance of delivering exceptional service.

I can play a fifty-nine minute video on my sixty-inch television that looks like a fireplace burning. This is a simulation. Sure I can turn up the heat and put on some ambiance music and make it all seem pretty cool. Is this the same as the real deal? What have I just experienced?

Is the video game, the scary movie, or reality TV show the same as real-life experiences? We sometimes like to think so, it gives us an experience but that experience exists within a safety zone. It is not real. The consequences are different and as a result so are the experiences.

Simulation Experience

When people have had a close call, a near to the real experience, experience, it may be enough to alter behaviors. It seems that the key may be to simulate as much as possible to create the feeling of reality. This is still, always, simulation experience.

So when we want to transform an organization. When we want to deliver a better sales experience, better customer service, and have a culture of growth and inspiration. A simulation may not be enough.

We can’t live within the comfort of safety that is provided by the simulation. The real thing has to occur. Sure, we may get inspired or motivated to attempt a positive change, but until we actually experience it, it is just a simulation.

The simulation experience provides safety. It shields us psychologically from the real thing.

That makes it pretty easy to turn off the transformation and go back to the comfort of our safety zone.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

01
Dec 17
-

How to Manage People Who Resist Change

Tags : change management people pivot resist

Change is happening all around us. Despite any opposition, despite feelings and emotions, change is happening. In the workplace, how do you manage the people who resist change?

Announce the new marketing plan, a strategic direction, or personnel changes, and people will disagree. It isn’t the exception, it is the norm.

Listen and Learn

The people who resist change can tell us a lot. First, they self-identify, which is a management bonus right up front. Second, we have to listen carefully. They may have some good points. When properly managed, they can actually help strengthen the change.

What often happens is that those responsible to manage, or those responsible to engage with the naysayers attempt to smooth over the change, make everyone happy, and find some neutral ground, compromise.

Will Compromise Work

Compromise seems logical. It feels like the right thing to do. Until no matter how hard or how much you bend, shape, and twist the change there always seems to be another argument about why it isn’t the right direction.

Of course, there is always the possibility that they are correct. Maybe it is a bad move. Perhaps, but when you work around the naysayers long enough you may discover that it is the same people regardless of the change.

It is a pattern. Goals aren’t being achieved, problems are occurring, measurements are accurate but the indications are clear that something needs to change. Still, the naysayers find a reason to resist. Management tries to find a way to appease.

People Who Resist Change

So how can you make everyone happy? It could be that what really makes the naysayers happy is to express that they aren’t happy. They want a voice. They want to be heard. Objections and criticism give them a platform.

The dynamics of any change are situational and circumstantial. However, sometimes the best way to make the naysayers happy is to give them their platform and keep moving forward.

Certainly, it is a delicate balance of knowing, understanding, and making good decisions when you are responsible for the outcomes. Listen carefully and learn, sometimes though you just need to keep moving.

– DEG

Originally posted on December 1, 2017, last updated on October 22, 2018.

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

02
Aug 17
-

Can You Make Your Change Stick?

Tags : change persistence pivot professional growth tenacity

We sometimes over estimate what can be accomplished short term, but underestimate what our daily effort will produce across time. People who want to change their life or career often make this mistake. It might be important to have the correct frame for making your change stick.

Technology has made many things faster. We can travel faster, communicate faster, and even get our food faster.

Expectations and Frame

Have you ever watched a plant grow, what about a tree? It might be hard to notice the changes each second, every minute, or during an entire day. Across time, there is significant change.

Our reference of time might have a lot to do with our progress and making your change stick. Persistence is important and although it might be hard to measure the result from day-to-day or even month-to-month, there might be positive change.

How we frame, what we see and feel, will have consequences on what we accomplish. Our expectations might be different, our motivation might change, and our habits for success might be more tenacious.

It might be hard to see the growth sometimes but that growth has much to do with our frame. Our frame has much to do with our expectations.

We shouldn’t judge the speed of McDonalds with the speed of a gourmet meal. The expectations should be quite different.

Just because we don’t see a tree growing each day doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. Across time there is significant change.

The same thing might be true for your personal changes or for your career. It might be hard to notice each day, but across time, there is big change.

What if your career lasted only 180 days, or what if it lasted 16,425? What you accomplish in 3,000 days will be different from what you accomplish in 30.

Making Your Change Stick

Yes, it might be about patience, and patience is important, but it is really about your motivation and tenacity.

What is your frame? How do you view your change? What are the expectations?

Too many people use the wrong frame. They expect the tree to bear fruit the first season.

Have the right expectations, be careful how you frame.

Make your change stick.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a four-time author and some of his work includes, Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce and Pivot and Accelerate, The Next Move Is Yours! Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

27
Jul 17
-

Should You Join The Club, Any Club?

Tags : change grow learn pivot teach

Technology has rapidly expanded everyone’s opportunities to learn. It has also expanded opportunities to teach. What is stopping you? Do you want to join the club?

So Many Clubs

On social media platforms alone, there are nearly unlimited opportunities to join groups or open chats. Traditionally, in our communities and around the world there are opportunities to join trade associations and likeminded professionals in nearly every discipline.

Have you joined? What have you found?

Some join because they want to learn. Upon arrival, they determine (or believe) that the group has nothing to offer them. They might believe that they are above the crowd and there is nothing for them to learn. So then, why not teach?

The opposite might also be true. They join the group, or they think about joining the group. Upon exploration, they believe the group is too advanced, they’re not ready, and they retreat. Why not jump in and learn?

Instead, in either case people often avoid the join. What do they learn, not much, either way, right?

Proponents of Change

I am always amazed at the people who claim to be proponents of change but only when change is their way. We see it in all circles of society. We see it in politics, we see it with religion, and we often see it in business.

Not joining the club probably means you are not learning. You might believe that you have maxed out, you are the absolute expert and the world revolves around your principles and philosophies.

Others, those engaged in the groups, they’re growing, changing, and shifting. They are changing the framework, moving the needle, and raising the bar. They are learning or teaching, but there is change.

Everyone else might just be hiding. They aren’t stabilized, they’re declining, declining because as the world continues on, they are standing still.

Join the Club

You have an opportunity to be part of something, to build something, grow something, or learn something.

Not joining means you’ll probably be left behind.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a four-time author and some of his work includes, Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce and Pivot and Accelerate, The Next Move Is Yours! Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

23
Jun 17
-

done through culture appreciative strategies

Getting Things Done Through Culture

Tags : culture legacy pivot quality workplace

Teamwork and teambuilding were once popular words and so were TQM (Total Quality Management) and TIM (Total Improvement Management). Some of the names may have changed but many organizations continue the search for getting things done through culture.

Organizations want to have a dynamic, engaging, and productive culture. Sometimes however, the cultural norms lead to their own destruction.

People

Cultures have symbols, espoused values, and even their own language. Everyone knows what they are and most abide by the rules of the game.

Workplace culture might be one of the most powerful tools of the organization. It might be considered full of peer pressure, pride, and for many thriving within it, motivation. Workplace culture might also be the catalyst for change. Exist within it, follow or you’re out.

Most workplace cultures aren’t about fear though. In fact, they’re probably about the opposite. They hold the comfort and energy that keeps things going. It is what everyone believes in and how they keep the faith during the toughest times. It is people getting things done through culture.

History

Cultures branch out, they change, they grow and move along. Some cultures succeed while others might fail.

History tells of Khufu, Tutankhamen, and Ramesses the Great in Egyptian history. We also know of Easter Island and the Mayan civilization.

In American management, we might recognize names like Henry Ford, Peter Drucker, or Jack Welch.

Pyramids, cars, or other outputs they all got things done through people. Your workplace culture might be the only way to pivot, create lasting positive change, or during challenging times stop the bleeding.

Done Through Culture

It might not matter what you call it or even who the legacy belongs to. I don’t see anything great happening without culture.

Getting anything done, or nothing, probably has something to do with the people, the people who form the culture.

The best question though might not be about who. It might be about why.

What is your pyramid?

Why will it get built?

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a four-time author and some of his work includes, Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce and Pivot and Accelerate, The Next Move Is Yours! Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

21
Jun 17
-

Getting Comfortable With Change

Tags : change habits pivot traditions

Did your January 1st start out with a vow to change something? As I write this, it is nearing the end of June. How has change worked for you? Are you comfortable with change?

Habits and Traditions

Most of our life is spent getting comfortable. It seems we are always working to improve our skill and to replicate what worked well and call it a habit. It might be the way that we do things and those things might become known as traditions.

Yet, for most of us, we also recognize that if we want different results we have to do things differently. Even then, we sometimes can’t just do things differently, we must consider how to do different things. This is change.

When our concept of progress is to become so highly skilled that we feel comfortable, everything else is uncomfortable. Change is often hard, it is different, not the same. Change might take all that we know and all that we’ve done and turn it upside down and inside out.

Business leaders want to improve the product, find new revenue streams, or completely change the company. Their opposition might not be the competition but more about the habits and traditions they’ve worked so hard to perfect. It is a paradox.

Comfortable with Change

Perhaps mastering change is to learn a new skill, the skill of becoming comfortable with the uncomfortable.

The emergency room at the local hospital never knows what to expect. They plan for the unplanned and adapt as things change. Certainly, they might not always change their policies, procedures, or medicine, but they also don’t know what will happen next.

Technology, shifts in socio-economic conditions, and the values and beliefs of consumers will all have an impact on what happens next.

It seems that the best way to get comfortable with change is to expect it.

You’re going to have to give something up though. A habit, a tradition, or the way you’ve always done it. It will mean learning something different and developing a new skill.

Get comfortable with that too.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a four-time author and some of his work includes, Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce and Pivot and Accelerate, The Next Move Is Yours! Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

Tag Archives: pivot

Jun 18

-

Historical Perspective

Technology Changes Everything

Accelerating Change

Jun 18

-

Growth is Success

Fear Change

Fear Success

May 18

-

Status Quo

Good Difference

Apr 18

-

Better Future

Things Will Change

Mar 18

-

Real or Simulation

Simulation Experience

Dec 17

-

Listen and Learn

Will Compromise Work

People Who Resist Change

Aug 17

-

Expectations and Frame

Making Your Change Stick

Jul 17

-

So Many Clubs

Proponents of Change

Join the Club

Jun 17

-

People

History

Done Through Culture

Jun 17

-

Habits and Traditions

Comfortable with Change

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