If you’ve run out of ideas for solving a complex, intractable problem, try this exercise, drawn from the Appreciative Inquiry approach. It works by finding what’s already working well and building on it, rather than trying to analyse the causes of problems. Get solution-focused! Decide what you want instead of the problem, and turn it
Ideas for eliminating ‘us and them’ thinking and damaging rivalries between teams and divisions within the same organisation. (Note: this article does not deal with worker/management mistrust, as the power relations involved add a whole other dimension, although some of the remedies proposed may still be useful in those situations.) Do you find yourself at
There are two kinds of motivation, ‘Towards’ (something you want) and ‘Away-From’ (something you don’t want). Both have their uses, but which is better for helping you to achieve your goals? Anger, irritation, fear, or frustration with your current situation can be a great motivator to get you going, providing an initial kick in the pants to
You may have heard of the ‘burning platform’ metaphor for corporate change. The idea is that people won’t change unless current conditions are sufficiently scary to make them take the leap into change, whether they want to or not. Here’s a useful short video from Dr Peter Fuda that illustrates the limitations of this metaphor: “While some urgency
How to stop co-presenting disasters – the one thing you need to know from improv comedy If you’re presenting or training with someone else, there’s one thing that both you and your co-trainer need to know to stop your training session or presentation ending in failure. I’ve been a co-trainer with a number of different
You also need to know this if you use (or teach) self-hypnosis, or use affirmations. We now know that it makes a difference if you tell yourself “You can do it” or “I can do it”. A recent study by Sanda Dolcos at the Neuroscience Lab at the University of Illinois tested whether motivational self-talk
Note: This article follows on from these others in the series: Questions in Coaching (1): Solution-focused or problem focused? Questions in Coaching (2): Presuppositions Questions in Coaching (3): Open versus closed questions Another important distinction in coaching questions is whether the question takes the learner’s attention ‘upwards’, towards the big picture, similarities, and the abstract
Following on from previous articles about rapport and how to improve it, here are some ways you can develop your sensory acuity and rapport skills. Remember, it’s one thing to read about NLP and to know about it intellectually, quite another to be able to do it. That takes constant practice. With sensory acuity, there’s
If you’re a consultant, or a freelance professional like a web designer, independent trainer or graphic designer, you will have encountered your share of ‘difficult’ clients. Here are some tips for dealing with them and getting problems resolved. 1. Deal with client problems face to face Email is a terrible medium for dealing with issues
My new e-book, Leadership EQ: How To Lead With Emotional Intelligence, is now out. It’s the first in the ‘Quick Personal Development’ series, designed to provide no-frills, no-fluff answers for specific problems or challenges you may be facing. Here’s what the book is about: How do you get better results from your team by being
Very often in books and articles about goal-setting, one of the questions the author suggests you ask yourself is “What would you have to give up to achieve your goal?” This is a great question, as it reconnects you with the ‘real world’ of hard choices, opportunity costs, and reminds you that achieving a goal
Recently I had some firewood delivered. I live in rural France and our main heat source is our woodburning stoves. Getting good quality firewood is a big deal out here. Last month, with winter getting started, we were running low. So I asked around our usual suppliers, and to my dismay they had all sold
