The worst thing you can do when stuck is to focus on how stuck you are! It's best to use your brain and energy on devising and carrying out a plan to get unstuck.
Focusing only on all the reasons why something doesn't work sucks away every body’s energy and doesn't help to move things forward.
Here are seven behaviors that I teach my clients for gaining momentum and getting unstuck.
I’m often called to help when individuals or organizations are trying to change something but feel they are stuck. You know the feeling. It’s like those nightmares where you want to run but your feet can’t move.
They know what needs to change. They have a plan for change. They have a clear vision about how it will look after the change is implemented. But nothing is happening. Are you stuck?
What do neurons, chemistry, electricity and leadership have in common? While attending the annual conference of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy I learned some new fascinating things from social neuroscience about the brain and change.
Drawing from old and new research findings of more than 20 interdisciplinary scholars, I want to share a few basic things to remember about the brain, leadership, and change.
The Creative Power of Dialogue and Collaboration. This past Saturday I visited Williamsburg, Virginia, the town that was home to some of the most important architects of the USA. Men like General Washington, Governor Jefferson, and Governor Henry. While walking the Colonial living history site, hearing the stories, and remembering the struggles of a small colonial community, I found myself meditating in the creative power of dialogue and collaboration.
In was in conversation and deep dialogue that a group of the funding fathers of our nation came up with the beginning of deeply democratic principles, which had the power to ignite a revolution and birth a nation. Standing in the historic room of the Capitol, the place where the Virginia Convention Unanimously adopted in June 12, 1776 “A Declaration of Rights” which was the seedling for our Constitution, was a very moving experience.
Fears are proliferating in people’s lives and in workplaces around the world today, with very detrimental results. As a psychologist I know the impact of positive and negative "affect," or mood on people and organizations.
Studies show that positive affect pumps up creativity and productivity, while negative affect (like fear) stifles it and leads to mistrust, cynicism, isolation, and competition. Not exactly the stuff we want in our high-performance organizations! No wonder Edmund Burke said: "No passion so effectively robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as does fear."
How Dialogue and Collaboration can Help Accelerate Change.- In his State of the State Address, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland talked about what the state has been able to do and continues doing through dialogue and collaboration. Especially compelling is what Ohio’s public education system is doing to "reconceive" their educational system.
It is time to Stand for Change! As I write this, Barack Obama is four days away from his inauguration as president of the United States. He ran on a platform of Change and Hope. Today’s leaders also need to think about hope, action, and change.
Today, as reported in the New York Times, he again talked about change, returning to the now familiar theme. “It’s not too late to change course, but only if we take dramatic action as soon as possible,” Mr. Obama said, speaking to workers in a suburb of Cleveland, pitching his economic recovery plan.
