JULY 16TH 2019 - EMPHASIS: Immunity to Change - the real reason people won’t change
The HBR article by Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey that outlines the impact of ‘competing commitments’ on changing ourselves and influencing change in others
The Immunity to Change mapping process that you can do for yourself to identify what are the competing commitments, worries and assumptions that prevent you from making progress on goals that seem very clear on the surface
JULY 30TH 2019 - EMPHASIS: Becoming aware and then masterfully utilizing our “Left Hand Column’ thoughts, ideas, emotions to upgrade our conversational impact
Chris Argyris’s work is key to understanding how we can become more conversationally impactful and savvy, while also increasing our authenticity capital.
A first step is to become much more aware of our own Left Hand Column ‘noise’. i.e. the thoughts and emotions that run in the background while we are having a conversation (the verbal exchange in our metaphoric Right Hand Column) to influence or guide another person. We all believe that those hidden thoughts and emotions are safely stored away in our Left Hand Column and that the other person is not aware of them. 9 times out of 10 our Left Hand Columns leak through, especially in high stakes situations, in the form of word choices, tone, or engagement level.
A second step is to skillfully bring out our Left Hand Column content as appropriate, once we become more aware of how we sabotage our impact with all the energy we spend keeping our Left Hand Columns ‘quiet’ and once we learn how to be discerning about what to bring out.
This Left Hand Column overview document will help you practice writing up some simple Left Hand Column ‘cases’ as a way of becoming more familiar with habitual ‘chatter’ (be they thoughts or emotions) that may be getting in the way of conversational effectiveness.
Judith Glaser’s Arc of Engagement - it is helpful to self-assess where you stand in your initial interactions and where you think the individuals you are engaging with may stand vis-a-vis the Arc of Engagement.
FOR THE FUTURE - How to build a high performance team
Amy Edmondson’s Ted Talk on Trust, Motivation, Stretch goals and High Performance