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Overview: Prepare for the Change Journey

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WOops!!ait!

How can you prepare for the journey when you haven’t yet planned it?

The truth is, you can’t…at least not fully.

At the same time, if you begin by planning, it’s likely that the only things you will prepare for are what you have planned…and I have seen that have disastrous results. Preparation and planning are highly intertwined; my recommendation is to always start with some very specific elements of preparation. Then when you get into the planning (which we will discuss next week), it becomes a much more effective process. [Read more…]

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Overview: Create Your Change Story

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Back to school. Blank notepad book, pen on wooden background

While a well-developed change story cannot guarantee the success of a change, a poorly developed one almost always ensures a less-than-optimum outcome if not outright failure.

We know the power of story; we create stories for ourselves all the time, and we often share them with others. There’s the story about that important conversation you’re going to have with a significant other, or your boss, or a co-worker, or a client later today. You’ve probably replayed it in your head a dozen times or more, and in the retelling you have felt more and more prepared, or more and more scared. There’s the story about what you’re going to do to relax this coming weekend, or on the next vacation. That one gets retold every time you feel over-worked or over-stressed; it lets you catch your breath and puts a smile on your face, at least for a moment. There is (or was) the story of “happily ever after,” the first draft appearing before the emotion of the first kiss wore off. Stories have power.

So what is a change story, why is it important, who writes it, when is it written, and how is it used? [Read more…]

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Every Big Change Needs a Roadmap

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Exclamation maze

The best way to successfully get from here to there is to know where “there” is, to prepare for and plan the journey, and to get on the road while anticipating you may encounter delays and detours along the way.

Your change journey is the same. While every change is different, there exists a universal set of patterns underlying change that allows us to remove a great deal of the mystery, and significantly increase the probability of success.

This post addresses the high-level roadmap that I apply to every change journey; the next five posts will go into more detail on each leg of the trip.

(I should begin by noting that while I call the elements out as separate, they are highly inter-connected; depending on the specific change, there will be times that you may be working on one, two, or more of them simultaneously.)

Every major change is a hero’s journey; as a transformational coach, my role is to guide others on that journey. In order to do so, I have developed a model that is based on Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey.” There are five modules to the model, five legs to the journey. [Read more…]

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A Few Reminders: Key Change Principles

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Abstract blueWith 93 posts focused on successfully executing your most difficult changes, a lot of territory has been covered in this blog. For an old student of change like me, keeping track of all the insights is in my DNA, but for most of my readers and those I work with, it can get overwhelming. To provide you with a quick reference, the next several posts are going to focus on providing an overview of the change journey, as well offering some critical reminders for each aspect of the trip. You can use the search function (or contact me) for additional information on any of the topics I cover.

Today I will focus on some key principles underlying every major change. Starting next week, we will review a model for the change journey. [Read more…]

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Celebrate!

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iStock_000000428622XSmallWhen was the last time you celebrated?

Not a birthday bash, or a holiday party… An “I did it,” or “we did it” celebration.

I celebrated this Saturday. I’m a morning person; I get up at 4:30 weekdays, 5:30 on the weekends. It’s what my body and mind want, and it works for me. This past Friday night I turned off the alarm clock, and found myself waking up at 6:30 the next morning…for me, a celebration!

What was I celebrating, what should you celebrate, how should we celebrate, and why is celebration so important? [Read more…]

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Cultivating Presence: The Heart

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balance between heart and mind

Your heart just isn’t in it.

Have you ever heard those words in a performance review? Whether or not they have shown up there, it is likely they have shown up in other areas of your life. Perhaps you thought them to yourself…about yourself or your partner in a relationship. Maybe it was a reflection on yet another too draining and totally unrewarding week at work. Or, you might be thinking it as you leave early Monday morning for the weekly business trip away from the family.

Your heart isn’t in it.

I can tell when a client’s heart isn’t in it. Rarely do they have to tell me. The low energy, the tonality in which they speak, the lack of vibrancy of their words all say, My heart isn’t in it.

Whether in our professional or our personal lives, heart shows up–or doesn’t–in many ways. [Read more…]

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