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Emergency Maneuvers as a Metaphor for Transformation

June 13, 2009 by 2 Comments

Through a rather strange sequence of events, I began thinking about how an emergency maneuvers clinic for paragliding can actually be a metaphor for transformation. This post is partly about flying, partly about life, and partly about professional coaching.

When I started paragliding, I was instantaneously in love with the sport. Literally, within the first 15 seconds of flight, I knew that I was in grave danger of spending $3-5,000 getting deeply into a new passion, and that’s exactly what happened.

At some point, however, I encountered some very large turbulence, and it frightened me something fierce. As we know, the air is invisible, but I found myself wanting AWAY from whatever it was that scared me so badly. Except that after 30 seconds, I knew that despite my fear, that I had to learn to deal with that environment if I was ever going to be a better pilot. So I tried returning to where my wing went all haywire, and soon found the turbulence again. This time, being ready meant that I would not be as surprised, but in truth, that did little to make the turbulence any less scary. I experienced an asymmetric collapse or two and my adrenaline was maxed out, so I left. I was willing, eager, and motivated to get past my fear, but at that moment, my fear won out and I returned to lower, more comfortable air.

So here’s the first parallel to making a major change in life. Things may be going along as normal, then through circumstance you get an idea to do something new, bold, and adventurous. Perhaps its starting a new business, or revitalizing the one you are in. Perhaps it’s changing careers, or changing the dynamics that suck the life out of the one you have. Perhaps it’s a renewed sense of personal commitment to taking better care of yourself, or re-connecting with deeper spiritual beliefs. The particulars are entirely unique to each of us, but the commonality is that something happens that triggers the need to make a significant shift in life, and we start out with all the enthusiasm of a new pilot hooked on the passion of flight.

But then we run into more serious challenges with our resolve (turbulence). We get scared, we begin to doubt ourselves, and we question our earlier motives. All too often we turn away from something that not long ago held great promise and meaning for us. That earlier goal may still hold all the appeal of climbing to cloud-base or of traveling to a distant point on a cross-country trip, but between here and there the obstacles suddenly seem too big, our skills too light, or the risks too great. Whether that’s actually true or not is hard to say, but the fear is real, and so we turn away from our earlier goals, even if just for a while.

In my case, I recognized the need to take an emergency maneuvers course. I knew what it was, and my peers had all spoken highly of its value. In that course, I experienced things far worse than what I had ever encountered on my own. The fact that most of it was self-imposed through my participation in the course was secondary. The fear was still every bit as real, and the consequences of failure only partly reduced. So although the dangers were still present, I gained the confidence to risk and to try new things from the comfort provided by the safety net of flying over water, from the emergency reserve inside my harness, and from my coach on the radio. With those in place, I performed maneuvers that I would not dare contemplate under different circumstances, and which would have incapacitated me had I run into them “in the wild.” As a result, my skills improved and I became a better pilot.

Moving back to major changes in life, where does one go to find the personal or professional development equivalent of an emergency maneuvers course? To whom does one turn upon recognizing the need to learn new responses to present and future dangers in one’s career or life? How does one find the support and coaching to navigate through or around major turbulence rather than having its presence disproportionately limit or control one’s options to fly through life? In a nutshell, this is precisely the service that I provide through personal and professional coaching. I help people focus on achieving their primary goals in life, whatever they may be.

My background is in adventure education (outward bound), psychology (B.A.), and applied behavioral science (M.A.). I’ve worked with the King County Crisis line, and the King County Dispute Resolution Center (mediation work). I work with clients by meeting them wherever they are in life and charting a path towards personal achievement, accountability, and authenticity. The lenses I typically look through focus on play, relationships, creativity, teaching and learning. If you or someone you know is interested in making significant progress toward achieving their primary goals, then contact me for a free introductory coaching session to see for yourself the value that professional coaching can create for you.

disproportionately

Filed Under: coaching, training

Vision, Cookies, and Marshmallows

March 18, 2009 by Leave a Comment

At first glance, it’s hard to see any connection between the vision one may have for a corporation, department or one’s self, and Cookies or Marshmallows. I have to admit, it was a strange set of circumstances that tied these three together, but it actually makes for an interesting story.

Earlier this evening, myself and two of my peers were in a training session for some volunteer work. On the corner of the supervisor’s desk was a box of Girl Scout cookies (Thin Mint), and a paper plate with two large chocolate chip cookies. This training lasted well over two hours, and took place during what would normally be dinner time. My peers and I were silent about the cookies, paying appropriate attention to what we needed to learn. Yet I would be lying if I said those cookies were not a distraction. Eventually, one of us spoke up and asked “Are you going to eat those cookies? Because if not, you’ve got to take them out of sight before I do them grave harm.”


As soon as she spoke up, we all laughed upon realizing that the three of us had been thinking the same thing. We were all dealing with a mix of desire, hunger, distraction, and self control. It just so happened that one of us eventually spoke up because it became too hard to focus. It was at that moment that I knew what dogs must go through when their owners put cookies on their noses and tell them to “stay.”

It’s the ability to delay gratification that brings me to Marshmallows. In the 1960′s, a psychologist named Walter Mischel studied delayed gratification in 4-year-old children by placing them in a room with a marshmallow and leaving them alone to see what happened. He told them that they could eat the marshmallow, but that if they waited until he got back, they could have two of them. The story describes in great detail the level of pain and anguish on the children’s faces as they devise ways of delaying their desire to simply eat the marshmallow. One key factor in a child’s ability to to delay gratification was their ability to focus on the second marshmallow – the vision. Also, even for those that were initially unable to delay gratification, it was found that by teaching them certain visualization techniques, that increased their ability to wait longer before they succumbed to the power of the marshmallow.

Now, at last, we come back to the notion of vision. As a general rule, we can safely assume that people want good things from their work and their life. Those might include success, bonuses, promotions, pride, accomplishment, satisfaction, achievement, realizing lofty goals, or any number of other motivational factors (marshmallows). Further, to win most of these benefits one has to overcome a number obstacles, such as time, effort, challenges, competition, politics, ambiguity, uncertainty, fears, pressures and demands (delays). So maybe if the marshmallow experiment has anything to teach us as adults, it is that a clear vision for the future goes a long way towards increasing our ability to endure delays and challenges in our quest for satisfaction.

So how about you — either personally, or within your company — do you have a clear and motivating vision for your future sufficient to overcome the real-life obstacles that will invariably come between you and success? Take this test to find out. Then contact Primary Goals and we’ll walk through the building blocks of creating a vision that will get you all the marshmallows you want.

Filed Under: mission, training, vision

Don’t Read This!

February 26, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Too late… you already read the title, didn’t you? Well, there’s actually a deeper point here and it involves reading the signs within our organizations.

The peculiar thing about learning to read is that once we know how, it becomes very difficult to look at printed words without actually reading them. It’s one of the reasons billboards and newspaper headlines work. We see letters, and we read words and ideas almost without thinking.

However, for the vast number of Americans looking at a foreign language such as the Japanese phrase below, the story is a bit different. We may be able to look at the signs, symbols, or characters quite intently, and perhaps even reproduce them if we are careful. But when we see the image on the screen, or on paper, it simply fails to register with meaning.

これを読んではいけない

But what if I told you that there was another “language” being spoken in organizations all over the globe, and that despite its full structure and rich meaning, that it is still as foreign to most of us as that Japanese phrase above?

What I’m referring to are the patterns and practices of group dynamics and organizational behavior that take place in companies everywhere. The amazing thing about these behaviors is that they take place right under our noses, and in most cases we are actually participating in these behaviors ourselves. Yet more often than not, we still fail to see the deeper meaning that people are making as they try to understand their immediate world around them.

In some ways, it’s akin to trying to see the forest through the trees because each person within a group sees and acts out the expectations of their individual role. At the same time, however, there are larger patterns that repeatedly and systematically emerge which all too often sap an organization of it’s productivity, drive, efficiency, health, and direction. Would you like the ability to read these signals more rapidly and reliably? Would you like the ability use this information to make more effective decisions within your organization? I bet you would!

Admittedly, comparing the ability to read organizational behavior to reading Japanese is a bit far fetched, mainly because these behaviors are more familiar to us than Japanese. Further, many managers have either learned or been taught various skills to make reading the organizational tea-leaves a bit less cryptic. And yet, even with these foundational skills, organizations still encounter the same myriad of problem behaviors that allow them to get “stuck” in ineffective practices. Why is it that merely being in possession of these fundamental skills is not enough to bring about the corresponding change in organizational behaviors?

Let me explain by way of a story.

Recently, I was traveling on the island of Oahu, where most of the street-signs have Hawaiian names. Despite the fact that the signs used the roman alphabet, I still found them hard to read. While driving, my navigator told me that we were looking for the “Kalanianoale Highway” on the left. I was zipping along the road and a distant road-sign came into view. I knew what to look for, yet the word was so foreign to me that even while staring right at the sign, I still didn’t recognize the pattern in the letters. By the time I sounded it out and recognized the sign, it was too late — I had already missed my turn-off.

Something similar happens in organizations, even when people “know” the signs that they are looking for. When we are looking for signs of health and we find ourselves in a healthy organization, we are happy and productive, but often fail to pay much attention to the navigation that got us there. Practices like Appreciative Inquiry, on the other hand, have us focus on how we got there so that we get there more often.

On the other extreme, when we experience symptoms of a dysfunctional organization, that is akin to having just missed our turn-off (or many of them), and the next exit on the freeway is not for many miles. Even when we can point to one or more recent wrong turns, we may already be so far off track that nothing short of stopping to ask for directions will put us back on track again. Even then, what we really need is not better directions, but greater skill in reading the signs so that we make fewer wrong turns in the first place.

That’s where an Organizational Development consultant really shines — by teaching you to read the signs so you get lost less often. A good OD practitioner is like installing a GPS system inside your management team. This is because once you learn to read the recurring signs and patterns of organizational behavior, it is almost as difficult to ignore them as it is to look at a headline without reading it. This does not mean that you have to act on all of the signs that you see, but it does mean that you will have a greater ability to choose your route based on the added information that will become available to you.

When you are ready to learn more about the language of organizational development and to uncover the hidden meaning behind the recurring patterns you experience in your organization, contact Primary Goals. The language is much easier to learn than you might think, and a new tools can open up an expanded world of communication within your organization.

Filed Under: Appreciative Inquiry, team, training

What distinguishes between Coach, Mentor, and Friend?

June 24, 2008 by Leave a Comment

I’ve been pondering the relationship between a coach, a mentor, and a friend. All three roles overlap in three intertwined circles (Venn diagram), but I’m not sure how.What I’m wondering is the defining characteristics of each role that distinguish it from the others. Is one a subset of the other? Can one be all three? One but not another? It’s easy for me to see things that a coach, mentor, or friend could all do. But what about items that a coach would do that a mentor would not? Is one of the roles predicated on subject-matter expertise? Which one?

I suspect that all of us can come up with examples of relationships that we have had with others where one or more of these roles came into play, and also that a given relationship may focus on different roles over time.

There is also the issue of reciprocity. For example, one party may see mentorship, where the other sees friendship. Again, these are not mutually exclusive.I am interested in your thoughts on the relationships between these roles, as well as any reference sources you might draw upon for how you see these roles.

A diagram of some relationships between these roles can be found here:
http://www.primarygoals.org/diagrams/MentorCoachFriend.html

Useful reference material:

Filed Under: coaching, training

Competence-based training

October 19, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Marcello Tobar asked about
Competence-based training on LinkedIn:

“Competence-based training is popular nowadays. I wonder if there is enough evidence to state that competence-based training is better for increasing performance of trainees as compared with more traditional training forms (competence understood as a combination of knowledge, skills and attitude). If so, what are key elements to perform successful competence-based training?”

The response from Mr. Lewandowski did an excellent job of identifying most of the key components of various forms of training. An additional resources on training that I have found useful is:
• Training for Impact. How to link training to the business needs and measure the results.
By Cana Gaines Robinson & James C. Robinson

Also, Mr. Fornal was correct in pointing out that beyond the actual training method chosen, that the learning style of the participant is equally important. There is a relatively straight forward instrument called the Kolb Learning Style Inventory (LSI) that focuses on the differences between those who learn from concrete experience (do it), reflective observation (see it), abstract conceptualization (think about it), or active experimentation (trial & error).
Learning Styles Inventory

Prior to embarking on any significant training endeavor in the corporate environment, it helps to step back and evaluate whether the barriers to effective performance are really about the need for training at all. For example, looking at the “Skill vs. Will” matrix can help the individual responsible for performance to evaluate whether the employees need more direction, guidance, responsibility, or motivation in order to be more effective.
Cf.: Skill vs. Will Matrix

Back to the core question of whether training is the solution at all, you may wish to look at the Blumberg Model, which identifies three primary barriers to effective performance: Capacity (skills, ability, knowledge, training), Willingness, and Opportunity. In that model, “Opportunity” is identified as the most commonly missing component to performance. For example, in a customer service call center, suppose that the operators are failing to resolve customer’s issues. Therefore, additional training is provided to address this problem, but resolution rates are still poor. Then it turns out that the operators know exactly what it would take to resolve customer issues, except that they are rewarded on how quickly they end the call, or the number of calls that they take. Operators may even be penalized for taking more time, even if that is what it would take to resolve the issues. Thus, despite now having the skill and will to resolve customer issues, as well as the competence to do so, if the manager insists on keeping the call volume high even at the expense of quality of service, then the operators lack the opportunity to really make use of the capacity that they now possess. In situations where there are other factors that limit effective performance, no amount of training will address the core problem.
Cf.: Blumberg Model

The short answer to whether there is evidence that competence based training outperforms others types would thus be very difficult prove. The truth is probably that it depends a great deal on the environment, and on whether lack of competence is really the core issue to be addressed.

Links:

Filed Under: LinkedIn, training