by Lesley Lyle | February, 2023 | Change, Lesley Lyle
You might wonder how Disney could turn your dreams into reality but the Disney Creativity Planning Strategy is a problem-solving and creative thinking technique developed by Robert Dilts and Todd Epstein based on the process used by Walt Disney and his team. Here is what you need to do. First of all, come up with a dream. It could be anything you want to achieve, a personal change or a professional goal. Once you have your dream in mind, set up three locations. Pick three spots in your room or outdoors, and assign a role to each location. For instance, you could use three chairs or put 3 labels on the ground. The Dreamer Location The first location is for the dreamer, this is where you let your imagination run wild and visualise the benefits of achieving your dream. The Planner Location The second location is for the planner, where you create a plan of action to make your dream a reality. The Constructive Critic The third location is for the constructive critic, where you look for weaknesses and loopholes in your plan. To help you get in the right state of mind for each location, think about moments in your life when you were in the same mindset. For example, in the dreamer location, think of times when you were daydreaming, fantasizing, or allowing your imagination to run free and relive those moments for a few minutes. Then do the same for the other two. Once you feel ready, it’s time to walk through the Disney Creativity Strategy. Step One Start by stepping into...
by Sarah Monk | September, 2020 | Change, Sarah Monk
A change is as good as a rest? The old adage suggests “a change is as good as a rest?”. In this blog, I take a look at how Positive Psychology (PP) views the idea that both novelty and adaptation are important factors in well-being and what that might mean for us as individuals. In addition, I consider how current social changes associated with the global pandemic relate to this. The hedonic treadmill The hedonic treadmill refers to the idea that we are evolutionarily primed to respond and adapt to change. That is, when something good happens we are initially very positively impacted by it, but before too long we become used to the new conditions and return to some sort of equilibrium or set point. The classic example of this is the person who wins the lottery and is initially very happy but over time tends to revert to their pre winning level of life satisfaction as they become used to the big house, car and lifestyle. The flip side of this is that when bad things happen, such as a loss or failure, while we may be initially devastated, before too long we tend towards our previous level of emotional functioning. The advantage of this recalibration effect is that it allows us to respond more effectively to changes in our environment which need our focus while the “normal” fades into the background. The disadvantage of this is that we can, in a goal-driven society, end up never really being satisfied with what we have and always striving for the next big thing to make us happy, not...
by Monique Zahav | August, 2019 | Change, Monique Zahavi
There are few certainties in our human existence, aside from the understanding that our experience of life constantly changes. Much has been written about how we manage and think about our journey of change and whilst inevitable, change can be experienced as either exhilarating or debilitating, depending on how we perceive or respond to the event. Positive and negative change is all ‘life’ Life is a constant ebb and flow of happenings, some which we might perceive as ‘bad’ and some as ‘good’. Changes can be welcome, gradual and beautiful, creeping up on us slowly, like the change of seasons, our children growing from babyhood to adulthood, achieving our goals and moving from life stage to life stage. Sometimes change involves taking new steps, reminding ourselves that there is no ‘best time’ to try something we have never tried, and relishing taking risks. Yet positive change often fills our world with richness, joy, a sense of achievement and increased levels of happiness. Change can also be sudden, undesirable and unexpected, such as bereavement, serious illness, loss of income and career challenges. What we perceive as negative change often impacts on our sense of wellbeing and psychological safety, though as many psychological studies have found, the events and experiences which call on us to overcome difficulties are often the catalysts for personal growth and the development of resilient behaviours and resources that we didn’t know we had. Hal Hershfield, Susanne Scheibe and Tamara Sims’ 2013 longitudinal study on the effects of a mix of positive and negative emotions over a ten year period, suggests that not only is it good...
by Janette Kirk Willis | February, 2019 | Change, Janette Kirk-Willis
Are there any organisations that aren’t changing in some way? Are organisations ever stable anymore? Whether the change comes from external drivers such as Brexit or technology or internal factors such as restructuring – change is omnipresent. And maybe it’s no bad thing. We need to progress. Life would be really dull without progress and development and there’s no denying that organisations that remain static in today’s challenging marketplace simply don’t survive. In this context what do you think is the most important element of the change to focus on? Where should we really focus our time, attention and money? Technological advances? Process improvement? Organisational structure? Streamlining? What do you think will happen if we don’t put our most important asset – our people – at the forefront of our thoughts when planning our next change programme?… Here’s what will happen if you don’t put your people first… You’ll see sickness absence rise sharply, some of the absence cases will stray into the mental health arena. You’ll see ‘Anxiety’ and ‘Depression’ on self-certification forms, eventually confirmed by GPs. If you measure it you’ll see a drop in productivity and if you don’t measure it you’ll get a feeling that ‘things aren’t running like they were’. People will be spending more time chatting in huddles and emailing each other in a quest for some semblance of support whilst you think they’re responding to customers. Your organisational health check or employee survey will be significantly worse than you thought it would be and you’ll spend an inordinate amount of time running workshops around the theme of ‘How to improve morale’ You’ll...
by Helen Golstein | February, 2019 | Change
No one day creates such a drive to make changes as New Year’s day. Smoking will cease, sugar and chocolate ditched, gyms and various exercise plans developed as well as other types of changes decided on for this special day. Invariably for many, in spite of the sincerity of the intentions, come this time of the year, no change has occurred and the resolve to change has diminished with the passing of the first month of the new year. Let’s get curious Have you ever stopped and wondered, why? Probably, if you do, the reality is that you will make it all about you, in a way that is not very kind. You may tell yourself, it’s because you have no will power, you never succeed at anything, you never stick to anything and other unkind reasons you make up for not having kept to your resolution. You may even have attempted the resolution more than once, and hope that this time it will be different… only to find you end up in exactly the same place all over again. Now, let’s imagine for a minute that all the reasons you may have made up, actually have nothing to do with you not achieving your goals, yet. Did you know that having a resolution is only step one? What is needed next is a plan, one that is rich in detail, is flexible and underpinned with some magic ingredients. You do already know how to plan I know that you know how to plan, you are doing it all day. You plan what you are wearing, what to eat, how to travel to...
by Inge Beckers | January, 2019 | Change, Inge Beckers
A new year is always a good opportunity to reflect on the previous one. To look back and review what you have learned and how you handled the challenges life gave you. It is also an opportunity to set intentions for the coming year. And maybe this year, you can really achieve them! I know that is not so easy. Once life gets going again, in the usual treadmill, it is hard to keep up the good work and stick to your new habits. This is what Brené Brown says about good intentions: January 1: This is going to be cool! January 5: This is not easy….. January 10: This has failed January 15: I have failed Recognise this? I do. At some point I even stopped making good intentions. If you feel that way, and you can totally understand what Brené means, then my wish for you is that the new year will bring you less perfectionism and more self-compassion. To be honest, that is what I wish for myself too. If we would all have more empathy and compassion for each other, life would be so much more comfortable. This might seem simple, but it requires a change in mind set. We need to recognise and replace our limiting beliefs. We need to change the way we think about ourselves. It might need some soul searching, but I am sure it will be worthwhile. Difficult change To achieve our intentions, we need to change something. As Stephen Covey said: if we keep doing what we are doing, we are going to keep getting what we are...
