Monday

People Hate Change.

Helping people work their way through change has been a big part of my career.

And people just hate change - there's a whole process to go through before you can even think clearly when change hits you unprepared.

One workshop I did on change had a thirty men in roles from management to operational from the same unit in a training room.  I started my workshop with a question:  What is stress?

A man got up and said: "I'll tell you what stress is - stress is having a heart attack and nearly dying, Stress is coming to work every day and having to deal with a B....d like you..."  and he threw himself at
his manager and started throwing punches.  The whole room erupted and men were either throwing punches or trying to break it up.

Somehow I got the room to quieten down and everyone back in their seats.  Thankfully there was nothing broken in the room...just some blood splatters on the carpet.

We then had a conversation...the like of which you couldn't have with all that withheld anger in the room - the riot opened a door which we all went through that day.  Authentic, direct, honest.  Extraordinary men having an extraordinary conversation.

Nobody got hurt, no charges were made, the air was cleared and everyone moved forward in the change process. 

Sometimes the training process is like that.  You have to skid along the edge of what is considered acceptable in order to cut through the polite silent suffering that we endure.  I'm pretty comfortable with a certain amount of chaos in the room.  I have met many trainers who don't allow chaos to show her face in the room.  They have a name for boring workshops that don't make a difference.

There's a popular coaching story about a business coach who was coaching an owner of a fish farm who was having difficulty getting  his fish to the right weight and muscle mass.  The coach said: "Put a predator in there with them."  The owner reluctantly complied and within a week, the fish's stats started to improve.  They were wary and moved around a lot more.  They got fitter, happier and well toned.  They might have been a bit more nervous around the predator, but that little bit of risk made all the difference to their quality of their lives.

Sometimes you just gotta go outside your comfort zone!

Sometimes argy-bargy, even though it's scarey, is the price to resolution, enlightenment and freedom...and that enables you to think your way through change.

Thanks for visiting us here. Want to know clarity in your life?
Want to live on the edge of your comfort zone?
Email me, Mike Kennedy...

No comments: