If you want the most up-to-date research on how to manage change successfully, you need to take a look at IBM’s Closing the Change Gap report (2009), which is based on the results of surveys and interviews with more than 1500 change practitioners from 15 nations across the globe between 2006 and 2008.

Not surprisingly, project success isn’t evenly spread across these companies: the pareto rule applies, where 20% of the change practitioners (the so-called Change Masters) are responsible for 80% of the successful projects. In contrast, the bottom 20% (the Change Novices) report a success rate of merely 8%.

So what is the key to the Change Masters’ success? IBM’s summarises the key facets in a Change Diamond as follows:

• Real insights, real actions

• Solid methods, solid benefits

• Better skills, better change

• Right investment, right impact

Now you’ll be forgiven for thinking that this is all a little obvious. It’s perhaps where the IBM model falls down. In their haste to create something which looks well-balanced and compact, persuasive and acceptable to business, I think that the IBM team has glossed over the real gems of the research, which means that you have to dig a little deeper into the report to find them.

What are the real gems?

Although it’s been recognised for years in management theory that project success is due to people and not to technology, it seems that the vast majority of the organisations which took part in IBM’s research have been a bit slow on the uptake. Either that or they’re companies which believed that technology really is superior. So the main strength of the Closing the Change Gap report is the acknowledgement that “…the ‘soft stuff’ is the hardest to get right”. In fact the top 6 of the top 10 factors which make the difference to the success of a change project are soft:

1. Senior management sponsorship 92%
2. Employee involvement 72%
3. Honest & timely communication 70%
4. Culture which motivates and promotes change 65%
5. Pioneers of change 55%
6. Change supported by culture 48%
7. Efficient training programmes 38%
8. Adjustment of performance measures 36%
9. Efficient organisation structure 33%
10. Monetary & non-monetary incentives 19%.

The role of Positive Psychology

And where does positive psychology come into all this? For me the big ticket items are the two Rs: resistance and resilience. IBM mentions the first but oddly enough, not the second. So even though ‘for its very survival, the Enterprise of the Future must better prepare itself as the pace, variety and pervasiveness of change continue to increase’, nothing is really said about how organisations should be preparing their staff from a psychological perspective to cope with this. It’s assumed that understanding and implementing a robust change management process which covers all four facets of the Change Diamond will suffice. Hmmmm, I’m not so sure!

Fortunately there is a great deal organisations can do to increase the resilience of their staff, including developing optimism, taking control of emotions, understanding the impact of beliefs on behaviour, and how to manage unhelpful thinking patterns, as well as actively managing stress levels. All of these things can help employees get back in the driving seat with renewed energy, engagement, sense of purpose and focus. Which is exactly what organisations need to meet the challenge of continual, complex change head on. And be successful.

Thanks to Paul Barrett for the link

It won’t surprise many of you who work in business that if you use the same approach to setting personal goals that you use at work for annual objectives, you’re far more likely to succeed.

This BBC article covers many of the key elements, which are often referred to in business by the SMART acronym: i.e. your goals should be:

S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Achievable
R - Realistic
T – Time-based

So for personal goals:

i) make sure they’re well-defined rather than vague,
ii) make sure you can measure your progress towards the goal and tell when you’ve achieved it
iii) minimise the conflict between achieving this goal and other areas in your life. Take small steps.
iv) are you willing and able? Make sure you have enough resources (e.g. time, money etc) to achieve the goal
v) set a time for starting and finishing, and give yourself enough but not too much..

It’s interesting to see that, according to research by Professor Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire, men are 22% more likely to succeed when they set well-defined goals, such as losing a pound a week rather than just saying they wanted to lose weight.

Women, on the other hand, can increase their chances of success if they tell other people what their goals are. Sharing your goals publicly has really taken off in the US, with websites such as Caroline Miller’s your100things.com.

And if you want to take part in Professor Wiseman’s New Year’s Resolution Experiment for 2008, sign up here.

Good luck!

It won’t surprise many of you who work in business that if you use the same approach to setting personal goals that you use at work for annual objectives, you’re far more likely to succeed.

This BBC article covers many of the key elements, which are often referred to in business by the SMART acronym: i.e. your goals should be:

S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Achievable
R - Realistic
T – Time-based

So for personal goals:

i) make sure they’re well-defined rather than vague,
ii) make sure you can measure your progress towards the goal and tell when you’ve achieved it
iii) minimise the conflict between achieving this goal and other areas in your life. Take small steps.
iv) are you willing and able? Make sure you have enough resources (e.g. time, money etc) to achieve the goal
v) set a time for starting and finishing, and give yourself enough but not too much..

It’s interesting to see that, according to research by Professor Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire, men are 22% more likely to succeed when they set well-defined goals, such as losing a pound a week rather than just saying they wanted to lose weight.

Women, on the other hand, can increase their chances of success if they tell other people what their goals are. Sharing your goals publicly has really taken off in the US, with websites such as Caroline Miller’s your100things.com.

And if you want to take part in Professor Wiseman’s New Year’s Resolution Experiment for 2008, sign up here.

Good luck!

It won’t surprise many of you who work in business that if you use the same approach to setting personal goals that you use at work for annual objectives, you’re far more likely to succeed.

This BBC article covers many of the key elements, which are often referred to in business by the SMART acronym: i.e. your goals should be:

S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Achievable
R - Realistic
T – Time-based

So for personal goals:

i) make sure they’re well-defined rather than vague,
ii) make sure you can measure your progress towards the goal and tell when you’ve achieved it
iii) minimise the conflict between achieving this goal and other areas in your life. Take small steps.
iv) are you willing and able? Make sure you have enough resources (e.g. time, money etc) to achieve the goal
v) set a time for starting and finishing, and give yourself enough but not too much..

It’s interesting to see that, according to research by Professor Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire, men are 22% more likely to succeed when they set well-defined goals, such as losing a pound a week rather than just saying they wanted to lose weight.

Women, on the other hand, can increase their chances of success if they tell other people what their goals are. Sharing your goals publicly has really taken off in the US, with websites such as Caroline Miller’s your100things.com.

And if you want to take part in Professor Wiseman’s New Year’s Resolution Experiment for 2008, sign up here.

Good luck!

If you read the Sunday Times last week you’d be forgiven for thinking that you probably need to offer a few more employee benefits. According to this article, positive psychology at work is all about whether you provide foot massages during office hours or organise awards ceremonies so you can pat your staff on the back once a year. It’s an easy mistake to make, especially when referred to as ‘employee well-being’. Organisations want tangible measures and quantifying how many employee benefits they offer, as well as how much they’re worth, is a relatively straightforward exercise.

Using positive psychology in the workplace is very little to do with the value of employee benefits though, which means that charities and not-for-profit organisations can apply the principles, in many cases doing a better job than cash-rich companies. And it’s not about providing 24/7 counselling to those who might need it either. So what is positive psychology at work, you might be wondering?

In short it’s about enabling all employees to flourish, play to their strengths and reach their full potential. Sounds great but why would you want to do this? Well, there is growing research* which shows that it’s good news for the bottom line, as well as an increasing number of forward-thinking companies (e.g. Ikea, Norwich Union, Royal & SunAlliance, Microsoft) who are using strengths-based approaches. It’s not about being problem-focused, but neither is it about being solution-focused. It’s about trust, respect and honesty, and developing an organisational culture where

i) the espoused values are the same as the values in use,
ii) leaders are role-models of confidence, optimism and resilience
iii) leaders inspire their teams to action
iv) leaders are transparent about their weaknesses, and open to being questioned and challenged about the direction in which they’re heading
v) leaders see the task being accomplished and developing their people to lead as equally important.

So you can see that having a positive psychology approach at work is a million miles away from whether you have a company gym or not. And as with most organisation change, there are no short-cuts. You need vision, commitment and courage to create a positive organisation. So, as a business leader, are you up for the challenge?

Thanks to Hilary Jeanes for the ST article

* e.g. Lyobomirsky, King & Diener (2005)

There’s increasing research to show that focusing on your strengths at work rather than on your weaknesses brings huge benefits, not just to yourself but also to your organisation. As mentioned in one of our previous posts, companies like Norwich Union are using strengths-based approaches successfully in the business, for example in recruitment. Other organisations are focusing on strengths for personal development, using them as the basis for the Annual Appraisal, for example. It gives employees a boost of confidence and really helps them feel good about themselves, in a way that leads to further performance improvements.

In the last couple of posts we’ve looked at new ways of applying strengths (from the VIA-IS online survey, not from the Clifton StrengthsFinder, which actually measures talents). Today we continue on this theme with six more strengths. Try picking one activity from one of your Top 5, and stick with it for a couple of weeks. If you find it isn’t working after a day or so, try something else.

LEADERSHIP:
i) Organise a social get-together for your team or department
ii) Go out of your way to make a new colleague feel welcome
iii) Take responsibility for an unpleasant task at work and make sure it gets done

GRATITUDE:
i) At the end of the day write down three things that went well
ii) Write and send a gratitude letter
iii) Keep track of how many times you say thank you during the day and increase the number every day for a week.

PERSPECTIVE / WISDOM:
i) Think of the wisest person you know and try to live one day as if you were them
ii) Resolve a dispute between two work colleagues, or two family members
iii) Don’t give advice unless asked, and then do so as thoughtfully as possible

FORGIVENESS:
i) Let a grudge go every day
ii) Write a forgiveness letter, do not send it, but read it every day for a week.
iii) When someone does something you don’t understand, stand in their shoes and try to work out their positive intention

TEAMWORK / CITIZENSHIP:
i) Pick up litter that you see on the ground
ii) Volunteer your time to a charity, community group, Parent-Teacher Association, Parish Council etc
iii) Organize a team / department dinner
iv) Act as a facilitator

BRAVERY:
i) Speak up for an unpopular idea in a group
ii) Stand up for someone even if you disagree with them
iii) Protest to the appropriate authorities about an injustice that you observe

These are just some examples of activities, you can of course adapt them to suit your circumstances.

We’d be delighted to hear your experience of using some of these activities in practice, or if you have any ideas for new ones, so please send us your comments.

We’ll cover the remaining 7 Character Strengths in future posts.

Thanks to Professor Jonathan Haidt , author of The Happiness Hypothesis, and the students in his psychology class at the University of Virginia and Chris Peterson for many of the suggested activities.

In your annual appraisal / personal development meeting, does your boss focus on how to use your strengths more effectively, or how to improve your weaknesses (or ‘development areas’ if you’re being PC)?

According to Positive Psychologists Chris Peterson and Martin Seligman, using your strengths every day is one of the most effective ways to increase your level of satisfaction. And according to Marcus Buckingham and the late Donald Clifton , authors of ‘Now Discover Your Strengths‘ it’s a tried and tested way to increase staff engagement, moral and motivation, as well as improve productivity and profitability. Seems to good to be true doesn’t it?

Well, hopefully you have found 30 minutes or so to fill in the VIA-IS online character strengths survey. This is a free strengths survey, from which you get immediate results in the form of a report listing the 24 character strengths in order. As we mentioned in previous posts, you can do the CliftonStrengthsFinder* survey online too, but it’s not free. We’ll discuss applications of the Clifton StrengthsFinder in other posts.

Having identified their strengths, many people think ‘What do I do with them now?’. in Wednesday’s post we looked at ways of applying Fairness, Kindness, Open-Mindedness, Curiosity, Love of Learning and Creativity day-to-day. In today’s post we look 5 new strengths:

INTEGRITY:
i) Refrain from telling white lies to friends, including insincere compliments
ii) At the end of the day, identify something you did that was attempting to impress people, or put on a show. Resolve not to do it again
iii) Monitor yourself and make a list of every time you tell a lie. Try to make your list shorter everyday
iv) Think about your most important values and do something every day which is consistent with them
v) When explaining your motives to someone, do so in a genuine and honest way

LOVE:
i) Tell a boyfriend/girlfriend/sibling/parent that you love them
ii) Send a loved one a card/e-card to say you were thinking about them
iii) Give loved ones a big hug and a kiss
iv) Write a nice post-it to a colleague and leave it on their desk
v) Accept a compliment, just say “thank you”
vi) Do something with your kids that they really enjoy doing

HUMOUR:
i) Make someone laugh or smile every day
ii) Learn a joke and tell it to all your friends
iii) Watch a funny film
iv) Visit a Comedy Club
v) Learn a magic trick and perform it for all your friends
vi) Make fun of yourself, if only by saying, “there I go again”

APPRECIATION OF BEAUTY:
i) Keep a journal and record something you saw during the day that was beautiful
ii) Go outside and take time to notice something of beauty
iii) Go to a museum or art gallery and find something that inspires you or touches you because of its beauty
iv) Attend a concert and savour the sound

SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE:
i) Meet one new person every day at work – chat to the person next to you in the restaurant queue or at the coffee machine for example
ii) Encounter someone by themselves and by being friendly, include them in your group
iii) When someone at work annoys you, try to understand their motives and concerns
iv) Go into a new social situation and try to fit in – if you’re the boss, for example, join a group of your staff for lunch and focus on making them feel at ease.
v) Notice when a colleague does something that is difficult for them, and compliment them

These are just some examples of activities, you can of course adapt them to suit your circumstances. Try picking one and stick with it for a couple of weeks. If you find it isn’t working after a day or so, just try something else.

We’d love to hear your experience of using some of these activities in practice, so please send us your comments. We’ll cover the remaining Character Strengths in future posts.

NB Despite the name, the Clifton StrengthsFinder doesn’t actually tell you your strengths. It tells you your Top 5 categories of talent, which you can then develop into strengths by applying skill and knowledge.

Thanks to Professor Jonathan Haidt , author of The Happiness Hypothesis, and the students in his psychology class at the University of Virginia for many of the suggested activities.

Before you start, just a word of caution. As with all assessments of this kind, we would urge you to use the results as the starting point for a discussion about further personal development work, either for yourself or your team, rather than as an end in themselves. This is how we use them in coaching, to begin the process of Personal Development Planning.

The VIA-IS tool lists your strengths in rank order. You can access the it for free here . It is a very comprehensive assessment designed for adults, based on 24 character strengths . The full version contains 240 questions and takes about 30 minutes to complete.

You get a report of your Top 5 strengths immediately, which you can print out and/or save. If you want more information about character strengths, see Martin Seligman’s book, Authentic Happiness.

In order to improve work and life satisfaction and well-being, use your Top 5 strengths every day, both inside and outside work.

There is a shorter version (Brief Strengths Test – only 24 questions) as well which you can access here. If you work with children, there is also a young persons version (for age 10-17).

“Step inside your comfort zone  -  there are no prizes for being uncomfortable”.

Hmmmm…..It’s well known in the world of personal development and coaching that if you want to grow and develop, you have to take small steps outside your comfort zone from time to time. By doing this you expand your capabilities and come to the realisation that, yes, actually, you can achieve more than you have done in the past. You need not be bound by your limiting beliefs.

In our coaching we see far greater results from those people who do stretch themselves out of their comfort zones. Coaching gives you the time and space to reflect, to learn, it increases your self-awareness, and gives you the confidence and support to take positive action that you would never have dreamed of doing before.

For a coach to claim that it’s fine to stay where you’re comfortable seems to me to be quite crazy…On the other hand, perhaps I’m just taking it all too seriously…

Prior to the session starting I got chatting to some of the other delegates about coaching in general, about the difference between directive and non-directive practice and about coaching principles, one of which is that the client / coachee already has all the resources they need themselves. Martyn Stainer, co-incidentally a Resource Group Manager at BAE Systems and I were considering what you do as a coach when you ask your client/coachee a question and they respond with ‘I don’t know’. How do you help them without giving them an answer on a plate?

Curly neatly addressed this issue during a concise and effective demonstration of life coaching with a volunteer from the audience. One of the questions Curly asked was, ‘And what action are you going to take?’ The answer came back, ‘I’ve been thinking about it, but I don’t know.Curly wasn’t fazed by this at all, she didn’t make a suggestion or give advice. What she then asked was, ‘Well, if you did know, what would it be?’  This is a very useful little NLP question, which works by getting the client/coachee out of an I-don’t-know-the-answer rut for a few seconds, which is often long enough for a creative solution to emerge.

Other ways of tackling the I-don’t-know-the-answer response are:

1. Ask your client / coachee to think of someone they know whose skills, abilities or qualities they admire. Once they have someone in mind, ask them what this person would do in their situation.

2. Disney Creativity Strategy (Robert Dilts)
This is another NLP technique which allows the client / coachee to look at an issue from different angles. It involves anchoring four spaces on the floor, one for ‘Realist’ one for the ‘Dreamer’, one for the ‘Critic’ and a Meta position. Have your client / coachee step between the Meta position and the first three, considering their issue from that point of view. This technique enables people to identify other courses of action (as well as other potential downsides!).

3. Cartesian Logic questions -  these are particularly useful when your client / coachee is stuck for an answer or is unsure about something. They help to test the boundaries of normal thinking, and loosen up limiting beliefs. You ask:

Q What would happen if you did XYZ?
Q What would happen if you didn’t?
Q What wouldn’tt happen if you did?
Q What wouldntt happen if you didntt?

The questions allow your client / coachee to consider something from all possible angles, and might enable them to see both possibilities and limitations that they wouldn’t have otherwise.

4. Even as a non-directive coach it is OK to make a suggestion as long as you ask the client / coachee’s permission to do so first. Even better if you create an anecdote (‘I know someone in a similar position and they found XYZ helpful’), thus leaving the client / coachee free to decide whether they take it on board or not.

Finally, it really is worth persevering with your questioning in order to help the client / coachee come to their own decision about what action they’ll take, because they are far more likely to be committed to it. Having said that, if you test the level of their commitment (using a simple scale of 1-10) and they’re not on 10, remember to ask, ‘And what would it take to get you up to 10?’.

After all, people are far more likely to take action that they have thought of, and that they are fully committed to.