Saturday, November 21, 2009

Why Pay Attention to the Cost of Fear in your Organization?

Ladies and Gentlemen

It is a non-debatable fact that Fear is interrupting and costing American organizations and individuals billions of dollars in wellness and production loss. These Fear based responses have resulted in safety accidents, risk-aversion, indecisiveness, a misdirected focus, an attitude of blame, lack of awareness, service, and effectiveness which results in a culture of separation, dissatisfaction, increased stress and a loss in time and money.

When humans are filled with fear and stress, deals tumble, humans fumble and projects crumble. No magic pill or wand exists to fix these human complexities.Human factors such as fear are not solved by quantifying numbers. To unravel fear courageous action must be applied to dive deeper inside the organization past all facades to identify the root cause of the problem. Once identified, an opportunity to direct change can take place.

The main key to significant change is to learn to let go of fear. We are meant to thrive instead of only survive. We cannot return back to start a new beginning, yet we can start today and create a new ending. In doing so, organizations improve their profitability, effectiveness, efficiencies, safety performance, quality, customer satisfaction, cultural cohesion and wellness.

It takes a daily practice of courage and paying attention to replace unproductive practices with new productive behaviors. The new behavior absolutely needs to be aligned with the organizations identity, values, vision and mission to be beneficial; otherwise new direction will be a constant struggle.

Strategic Organizational Change and Adaptation is an ongoing daily evolution. Yet too often the daily practice is forgotten. Fear, managing stress and optimal human effectiveness in most organizations has been an ongoing challenge for all layers of leadership, management and human resource professionals.

John Kotter, who is an industry expert in leading change, has written many publications on explaining why many change efforts fail. Kotter states the first mistake organizations make is failing to establish a sense of urgency. Most organizations have acted latent with fear and other human factor difficulties and have failed to create a sense of urgency to address the cost of fear. I am inviting you to be different, to be the exception. Fear is a real COST that affects wellness, time, safety, productivity and the bottom-line. It is time to develop genuine courage and the power to STOP FEAR guiding you and the organization. The time is now to Master Fear.

On Tuesday January 19, 2010, you are invited to an online training series titled, “How to Master Fear in Challenging Times”. My approach is unique and is a highly practical perspective on how to strategize past Fear. You will depart the training with easy concepts to apply immediately to your conditions.

Questions: What is social health and advocacy worth? What are you worth? What is your Human Capital Worth?

For product details and value-added benefits: http://cli.gs/JWLX2

Remember your participation counts: http://cli.gs/JWLX2

Thank you.

In Genuineness,

Christine M. West, PhD-C

TheBusinessMD

GO WEST!!! Serendipitous Wisdom …Republish from TNNW

Sunday, October 25, 2009
GO WEST!!! Serendipitous Wisdom …



Go West!!! with Christine West

I often wonder how much we as a society really learn from both the wisdom and the lessons of the past. It seems that as a society we find the miracle or serendipity we have searched for and we end up finding ways to make a mess out of the beauty because of greed, poor decisions or in decision, fear and arrogance. In my life experience, I have never heard anyone admit out loud they want their life to be filled with more complex difficulties, stressors, disease and to experience more hardship. Yet today we hear endless stories that reflect what we do not want to experience. The news is filled with never-ending stories, debates and updates on an unattractive healthcare plan, economic hardship, industry downturn, bombings, shootings, assault victims, death, disease, and natural disasters. We keep spreading the word about what we do not want – Why? We rarely align our beliefs, our words and behavior with what we truly want, Why? Why are we so attracted to hearing about devastation instead of stories that are about building our prosperity and our true power?

As I remember the story of Easter Island, the hardy Polynesians who discovered the island found the discovery to be miraculous. This was their serendipitous moment. They brought tools and food, plants and animals to begin a new life. The island they discovered was not a typical Polynesian paradise with tropics, rivers or protective reefs. This island had other resources such a forest of large palms and other trees, with drinking water held by creators. Tools and weapons were created from obsidian and lapilli for constructing statues.

The islanders, once settled, gradually spread across the island, occupying nearly all the available areas. To plant their crops, they resorted to slash and burn agriculture to remove the forest cover. Eventually this caused topsoil to erode during storms and, overtime, the productivity of the land declined.

They built houses and shrines, and carved enormous statues. As statue making increased, the supplies of timber and rope gradually became scarce. The lack of trees meant that canoes could no longer be built, restricting offshore fishing. Without canoes, they could not set off for another island. The islanders found themselves trapped in a degrading environment and a self created prison.

The population of Easter Island reached its peak at 10,000, which far exceeded the capabilities of the small island's ecosystem. Resources became scarce, and the once lush forest was destroyed and the people became competitive, greedy and destructive. Thereafter, a thriving and advanced social order began to decline into bloody civil war and, evidently, cannibalism. Eventually, all of the Moai statues standing along the coast were torn down by the islanders themselves. Then of course Western civilization entered into the picture, which brought more disaster with introducing the islanders to slavery and disease.

Easter Island has become, for many, a metaphor for ecological disaster.

In a larger space we are duplicating the model for ecological disaster when we promote, listen and reward negative destructive acts in our society. For our very survival, when we need to remember we cannot survive in isolation or utilize resources for symbolic falsification. We need to begin to feed our Hearts and Souls instead of our EGO. The EGO forces things to happen, whereas our heart and soul allows things to happen. And we need to become skilled enough to know the difference between the two because our true power resides in the heart and soul of every human being. We all have access to this power yet only a small part of our population uses it.

We need to broaden our awareness to the very decisions we are making. Organizational leaders and those who influence need to “read more before they lead.” Meaning read the environment and people before making decisions that create more hardship or the unwanted turmoil. We need to be able to communicate honestly about where we are, how we feel and how to align our behaviors with our goals. We need to learn how to appropriately ask for help in some situations. We need to admit where we made mistakes and regroup in different direction quickly if needed.

We need to be reminded of our core values as a society. To create social health and advocacy it is every person’s responsibility to be accountable for our choices and our social creation. Many have been taught to build yourself up is by destroying another. I see this behavior constantly with competing groups and corporations. We are constantly trained to bash the competition instead of looking at ways to create mutual value and win-win. Does it really feel good when someone else is suffering?

Many have be taught to harbor negativity. I tell you, the burden you carry because of this decision blocks a piece of your potential. Forgiveness is a very powerful tool. It frees you up from holding on to unwanted behaviors of another. It gives us a place to excuse another instead of focusing on the wrong doings. It does not me you need to be in contact with group or person. It means you have opened space inside yourself to bring in something better. It also allows you to leave people in great shape while you let them go.

When we focus our energies on the greater good of mankind while functioning from our heart and soul serendipitous opportunities begin daily. I have found magical doors open easily in my business and personal life because of these principles. I encourage you to give Serendipitous Wisdom a try …

Genuinely,

Christine

Author: Christine M. West, TheBusinessMD, 2240 E. Tudor Rd. #976, Anchorage, Alaska, USA 99507. Phone 1-907-223-8403. Email: info@thebusinessmd.net, http://www.businessmd.net/ http://thebusinessmd.blogspot.com/ Christine West is an industrial organizational psychology practitioner and is in private practice as TheBusinessMD which helps organizations and individuals overcome fear and explore the power of change. Ms. West is also a Featured Columnist for the National Networker http://www.thenationalnetworker.com/

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Remember to Be Humble (Re-publish)

REMEMBER TO BE HUMBLE

Originally Published in TNNW blog
http://thenationalnetworker.blogspot.com/2009/09/go-west-remember-to-be-humble.html

Friday, September 25, 2009
GO WEST !!! Remember to be Humble


Go West! with Christine M. West, MS, CMHT

One of the most powerful lessons that I have ever learned as a business professional and especially as a speaker for hire is the power behind humbleness. I was reminded of this valuable lesson recently. This invisible power within humbleness was well illustrated recently at a conference that I was an attendee at.

One speaker, who I would rate as stupendous and presented exceptionally well, acted out some key behaviors for all of us to be reminded of. This presenter, who I will name for this article as Credible-Chris, understood the power behind humbleness. Credible-Chris provided value and maintained rapport with his audience because of the following:

1. He demonstrated topic expertise by providing substance, value and practicality.
2. His presentation naturally flowed and 90 minutes flew by fast.
3. He had excellent professional boundaries. When he was outside of his own expertise he identified what expert would be needed.
4. He promoted his services by “walking the talk” instead of behaving arrogantly and telling the audience of his greatness.
5. He involved his audience by engaging in activity that created awareness to identifying the problem to be solved and offering basic solution orientated strategies.
6. He spoke the language of the audience.
7. He gave creditability to ideas in his lecture that stemmed from a different originator.
8. He lived up who he said he was in his bio.
9. He indirectly sold his value proposition by demonstrating it.
10. (By the way his presentation was on Organizational Value, he clearly provided value.)



Another speaker at the conference that stood out for me acted professionally ridiculous. He was an excellent reminder of what NOT to do. I will name him Ridiculous-Ramon. Ridiculous-Ramon, made some very costly mistakes and obviously did NOT remember that GREATNESS comes from a state of being,NOT from a state of telling.


One of the saddest parts for Ridiculous-Ramon was claiming his expertise to be in Psychophysiology of Linguistics. That states he is a communication expert. His bio stated that he worked in the personal growth industry for the past 20 years. These are awesome credentials yet by not truly being able to communicate and engage your audience when you claim you can ------ is Pathetic for any professional.

The story gets worse. The list of mistakes was incredible. The following was my observation:

1. He did not take into account that others in the audience, such as me have an expertise that can validate the credibility of his message.
2. He forgot that I knew him prior to writing a book and I knew him as a salesman, not as a personal growth expert.
3. He lacked professional boundaries, integrity and ethics. He claimed a professional expertise that he did not have. When an audience participant asked who else has done research on what he claims is factual, he said he is the only person on the planet.


(Ridiculous-Ramon did not invent Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) Bandler and Grinder did or Neuro-Associative Conditioning Systems this was Anthony Robbins. Ridiculous-Ramon holds a Master of ART in Counseling not a PhD in Linguistics or Psychology or Sociology or even Anthropology) He created an application to teach the layman how to communicate easier and is using concepts from Anthony Robbins. Anthony Robbins work is based off of concepts in NLP, and NLP is based off of concepts of Social Learning Theory and Cognitive Learning Theory which are the work of Albert Bandura who is a Psychologist who expanded other psychological change theories.

Validity and Reliability of your message are very important claims to professionalism and holding credibility.

A concept is far more credible if you can share with you audience the building blocks of your concept as Credible-Chris did so eloquently.

4. He was arrogant and made the presentation a sales pitch of his greatness and all about him.

5. He was scheduled to lecture for 90 minutes and completed his lecture in 30 minutes. He asked the room moderator how much time he had after 30 minutes, then after 45 minutes, and then after 60 minutes…... This was painful to watch. Pacing is part of communication.

6. He had difficulty engaging with his audience, this skill is called rapport and is a major part of communication.

7. He lacked substance and did not tailor his material toward the industry he was speaking with and claimed his material would transform their specific industry culture. He provided no evidence of how or evidence of where he transformed a culture with this method before. He only gave examples on how to apply his concept to increase sales.

He knows a lot about sales because when I met him he was a sales professional five years ago. And by the way this was not a sales conference, it was a safety conference.

8. He put me on the spot by introducing me as a friend instead of as a professional colleague or acquaintance with a certain expertise. He asked me if he always walks his talk. I stated to the audience I need to be ethical and be honest. I said most of the time yet we are all human and are subject to human error. The audience actually for the first time started to laugh. Life did exist in this audience. Ridiculous-Ramon then grew defensive and illustrated that defense with his audience.

9. After the audience exited the room, Ridiculous-Ramon said to me “that was a tough audience, I could not get them engaged.” I replied “I noticed and least you did too something for you to think about” and I exited.



In conclusion, both speakers I learned something from. When I think about Credible-Chris he is an expert I would like to develop a professional relationship with. When I think of Ridiculous-Ramon, I smile, giggle out loud for a moment and Remember to Be Humble.

Genuinely,

Christine

Author: Christine M. West, TheBusinessMD, 2240 E. Tudor Rd. #976, Anchorage, Alaska, USA 99507. Phone 1-907-223-8403. Email: info@thebusinessmd.net, http://www.businessmd.net/ http://thebusinessmd.blogspot.com/ Christine West is an industrial organizational psychology practitioner and is in private practice as TheBusinessMD which helps organizations and individuals overcome fear and explore the power of change. Ms. West is also a Featured Columnist for the National Networker http://www.thenationalnetworker.com/

For more information, please visit Christine's TNNW Bio.

Published by THE NATIONAL NETWORKER Newsletter. All rights reserved. Subscribe Free




Posted by TheBusinessMD at 11:31 PM

Labels: Christine West, go west, speaker, the national networker, TNNW

5 comments:

Margo said...

Christine, good article written from the heart!

One of the books on my reading list is Facing the Dragon by Robert L Moore that deals explicity with this very subject. A very worthwile read for anyone wondering why they are in the nonprofit business, or personal development business. Maybe you have seen it already. I came across this after ministerial school and was at a point in my ministry where I was wondering what I was doing there. The book forced me to look at which ego-needs were running the show as opposed to really serving humanity. Ethically, I had to change or get out....I'm still here.:)

Margo Ruark in Chicagoland
10/20/2009 08:10:00 PM
Sileah said...

Hi Christine, I have to say the same that was a good article. I am currently a student at Kaplan University and my future plan is to be a Psychologist. One day I hope to be able to give a speach like chris you made him sound like the humble person I am working on becoming. I believe that without humbleness you become self servant.
10/22/2009 10:37:00 PM
Bilal J said...

I am bit confused. It seems that the first speaker did the same as the 2nd yet you had a positive bias towards the first speaker?

Yet the first speaker did brief in regards to his bio but you never went into it like you did with the 2nd one. I am just trying to understand what were the specific differences so that I can learn to be more like #1 and #2.

Like others who are reading this article.
10/23/2009 03:38:00 PM
caroline said...

This would be an encredible world if everyone would live with a little humility. I am a firm believer in humility practice.
Conscious humility brings you to a better place and puts life into perspective. Getting caught up in believing you are the end-all be-all leads to justifying any means to the end you desire.
Operating from a place of humility keeps you grounded, which allows you to focus on the true values (ethics being one of those).
When you feel yourself getting a little "too big for your britches" try a little humility practice or just practice it on a regular basis.
Watch the world become a better place.
10/24/2009 12:30:00 AM
Bill Brent said...

This is a wonderful and useful article. One can apply the same principles to writing a how to book, for example.
10/25/2009 12:13:00 AM

Finding Courage in Frightening Times

Dear Friends/Colleagues

Fear is a pressing issue in our businesses, our culture and in our organizational systems and is re-shaping the way we work, live and play.

It is a non-debatable fact that Fear is interrupting and costing American organizations and individuals billions of dollars in wellness and production loss. These Fear based responses have resulted in safety accidents, risk-aversion, indecisiveness, a misdirected focus, an attitude of blame, lack of awareness, service, and effectiveness which results in a culture of separation, dissatisfaction and a loss in time and money.

The key to change is to learn to let go of fear. We cannot return back to start a new beginning, yet we can start today and create a new ending.
I am personally inviting all to join me, Christine M. West, PhD-C, the principal of The Business MD on Tuesday January 19, 2010 for a guided 5-part webinar series. You are invited to listen to a unique and highly practical perspective on how to strategize past Fear, which has become a pressing and costly issue faced by business organizations and individuals today.

Questions: What is social health and advocacy worth? What are you worth?

For product details and value-added benefits: http://cli.gs/JWLX2

Remember your participation counts: http://cli.gs/JWLX2

Thank you.

In Genuineness,

Christine