Matt Cartwright, consulting, coaching, facilitation - Professional Facilitator - Matt Cartwright

SHIFT HAPPENS...JOB CUTS and More...

29/8/2012

SHIFT HAPPENS

“If we don’t shift our intention, direction and action we will end up where we are headed”

SHIFT HAPPENS. So… start accepting it. Let go of trying to stop the change or slow it down. There are likely to be 7 billion other similar stories just like yours, they just have different characters and plots but the same underlying message. Everyone you talk to is sick of change. One approach is to be more effective rather than be affected by it.

Are you working in a stuck or non-stuck environment? If not….get yourself into a Teflon Team. Stop sticking to old habits, old processes, old teams, old whining and shift. There is a lot of bad press around the economy, job cuts, poverty, famine and war. It is serious, so get serious and SHIFT into gear.

Use all the gears to leverage your mindset and workplace to where it needs to shift.

In many facilitation exercises we talk about the current and future state, the important bits are in the middle…”the action state”…or the “shifting state.” The shifting state delivers targeted action, lots of it and regularly. Guess what? SHIFT happens. Most if it starts within the mind then shifts into behaviour.

“SHIFTING” is what I coined some time ago. It’s a deliberate process of shifting thoughts, behaviours, attitudes to develop a more adaptable, resilient and optimistic view in a shifting world. It’s a holistic process that deals with complex systems and aims to understand and respond to them with more agility and sustainability.

STRAINING…..Have you noticed how workplaces over-process, over-engineer, over-produce, over-change and over strain? It’s time to get over it…don’t you think?

UNDERSTANDING YOUR SHIFT

Whenever we change one type of behaviour or situation, we are losing as well as gaining something. In order to sustain real and lasting change in the workplace we need to change ourselves first. Everyone can shift. Shifting is challenging and requires effort but not straining. The juggling act is “knowing,” that is, knowing not to get caught up in everyone’s emergency, urgency or dramas. Of course we must balance what’s important and necessary. How you view or feel about a situation is always your choice.

So…SHIFT YOURSELF to think and do what matters most. Be more effective, be lateral, be creative, be a SHIFTER. Don’t get caught up in the change, we have limited influence and control over what people decide to change in the workplace but we can shift our focus.

Journey well,
Matt Cartwright
Inspiring People, Inspiring Business, Inspiring Results
© Copyright 2008 -12

Make Today Count and Make Decisions to Act on Important Things

9/4/2012

Make today count and make decisions to act on important things

Time is an equal opportunity employer, but how we treat time is not equal.

Many people will up wake today in a box, eat breakfast from a box, get to work in a box, turn on the box when they get to work, sit in a box, got to meetings in a box, go home in a box, sit down in front of a box, get dinner out of a box and maybe open a cylinder.    Does it sound familiar to you or others around you?

If something is vitally missing for you at work then I challenge you to make today count. Good decisions make a better today and a better tomorrow. From my blogs you have probably gathered I like to keep it simple. Simple is often hardest.   For example:

What are you avoiding at work?
Who are you avoiding at work?
Why are you avoiding these people or tasks?
What’s the payoff for you?

Elite performers, don’t avoid pain, they strengthen their will, their bodies and their intentions. They ask more powerful questions, seek inspiring answers and make every training session count.

Remember pay now, play later, or play now, pay later.

The truth is we all pay at some stage, there are no free lunches in the work place.

Here are three questions to focus your decisions

If you are really serious about improving team performance or your own performance ask the following:

What is required of me?
What gives me the greatest return?
What gives me the greatest reward?

These questions may help you focus on what areas to overlook for a while.

It’s not selfish, it’s life. People perform best when they focus on their preferred work preferences and their personal priorities.

How to motivate people is the perennial question of many supervisors. I always suggest you start with yourself. Set an example, model the way, enable others to do the same, start with better recruitment processes, onboarding and performance reviews.

Good talent leave an organisation for many factors but it comes down to the core truths that many of us know. Consider these actions to retain your top talent, otherwise you may be counting how many people walk out the door.

Discuss their career development
Reduce red tape and bureaucracy
Review, recognise, reward, and refocus
Mobilise top talent to mix with other top talent
Stop shifting sands focus them on strategic priorities.
Find a project for the talent that inspires their passion
Conduct quarterly, midterm and annual performance reviews
Back off, empower accountability and stop telling them how to do their Jobs

Remember the secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda, what’s on your priority list?

Journey well
Matt Cartwright
Inspiring People, Inspiring Business, Inspiring Results
© Copyright 2008 -12

“Hang on... one thing at a time….”

14/3/2012

“Hang on... one thing at a time….”

”huh…” says the multitasker and drama queen who just loves 12 hour working days.

We are busier than ever. Thanks technology and consumerism. Okay it’s great, it just increases my choices and decisions. Of course I love being productive and doing work that is meaningful and purposeful.

So here are some useful strategies for your organisation or your work team. These strategies are likely to increase productivity and more innovative thinking if you model and encourage set periods to focus, as well as shorter periods to renew.

As a past manager, here are three guidelines I’d like to share with you, there are more, but I Iike these 3, they are easy and effective.

1. Manage meeting boundaries

Schedule meetings for 30-45 minutes, rather than an hour or longer, so people can stay focused, take time afterward to reflect on what's been discussed, and recover before the next task.

NO meetings straight after lunch. That’s’ known in the facilitation world as the lullaby period. Avoid it if you can.

Start all meetings at a precise time, end at a precise time, and insist that all phone calls not be taken, unless they have an urgent family matter.

Meetings must have an agenda, purpose, and a clear intended outcome.

Record minutes only if really, really needed. Seriously do you need them??

Another meeting process I like to use is team huddles, (or cuddles, if you get along real well) They are short sharp 5 -10 minutes focused on an issue and then disband. I pick a time near meal breaks so not to disrupt the flow of other work. Then say, what are you doing for lunch????

Team socialisation opportunity….!

2. Stop demanding or expecting instant actions of others

I ask people to get back to me by generally by COB, (close of business) rather than in 2 hours. I find the quality is better and the resistance is lower. If I say 2 hours it puts me under pressure as well. The goal is to get your people out of the pressure cooker, release the valve a bit, stop being reactive. Maybe you could be more organised and forecast some the issues. On the odd occasion there will be the odd pressured moment, why, that’s because someone upstream is reactive or disorganised or there is a real emergency (well….you would like to think so wouldn’t you?)

Reactivity is not flow time or engaged time, it fragments focus, and makes it difficult for people to sustain focus on their priorities. In Lean Thinking we call this waste.

My tip to all people is if it’s urgent, please call me, don’t email me, call me.

Next….Stop harassing people and being an urgent drama queen. You’ll survive, the more urgent orientated that you are, the less time you will have…trust me.

3. Encourage Breaks

Create at least one break time during the day when you encourage your people to stop working and take a break, in fact I do it twice a day. It forces me to stop to. I’ve read and heard about others taking a group walk or workout, relax, or take a nap. Personally I've never napped. I do however go for walks. Many years ago I worked with two men who routinely slept at morning tea and they always woke up…amazing.

Okay…you have their backs covered what about yours?

Consider these four behaviours for yourself, you are not superman or superwoman you know.

1. Do the most important things first in the morning or whatever time your work day starts, preferably without interruption, for 60 to 90 minutes, with a clear start and stop time.

2. Establish regular, scheduled times to think more long term, creatively, or strategically. If you don't, you'll constantly enter the world of the the urgent.   Visit my blog on email use.

3. Take mini breaks, breakations, real and regular holidays. Real means that when you're off, you're truly switched off from work...now that's a test for many of us….. Hmmm, I think I might plan one of these breakations right now…

4. Delegate it, defer it, dump it, do something that you ought to do... I think that will help, don't you? There will always be problems to solve as long as we keep changing, that's business.
When you're fully engaged at work for defined periods you’re happier and more productive. Some people refer to it as flow. It makes sense and saves the business bottom line and your stress levels

Stop working and living in the crazy time zone

Go for a walk, smell the roses, see the sky and breathe the fresh air.   In my case it’s taking the stairs, walking past a tropical garden, crossing a busy road, chatting to the barista and getting a decent coffee. Then I re-engage fully in what matters.

7 Coaching Challenges

What are you tolerating at work that reduces your productivity?
What behaviours do you need to change to get more focused time?
Who do you need to start saying "no" to?
What do you need to stop doing and delegate?
What meetings need to be more focused and how will you achieve and do that?
What obstacles might get in your road?
How will you overcome them?

If you need help please feel free to drop me a line. Our job is to inspire people, inspire business and inspire results.

Journey well,
Matt Cartwright
Inspiring People, Inspiring Business, Inspiring Results
© Copyright 2008 -12

7 Things Great Employees Do

6/3/2012

7 Things Great Employees Do

A great read......This definitely isn't the first time somebody's written about what makes employees special. But it may very well be the first time someone's telling you what will genuinely get your management excited about you and ultimately get you promoted. No kidding. Read More
Journey well,
Matt Cartwright

Partnerships, Get Less Pain and More Pleasure

29/2/2012

Partnerships, Get Less Pain and More Pleasure

As you probably already know, the wrong partnership whether it is professional or personal can be far worse than no partnership at all.

There are a few important points to consider when starting a partnership. Firstly, you must decide if it is right for you, your business or project.

If the members of a partnership essentially do the same thing, it's almost inevitable that one will be hard-working and have more commitment than the other. Often, that party becomes resentful for the additional time they put in. I know this because I have experienced it for over two decades. It becomes a push/pull relationship and unfortunately this results in tensions.

The key is that the partnership must be something that you both need and couldn’t be done by yourself.

As we operate in the Brave New World paradigm, partnerships will need to be built on solid foundations to withstand the changing values in our workforce and global economics,

Our projects, our business and production will be outsourced to more competitive players eager to take on the big companies. Remember all big companies start out small. The smaller ones have fewer overheads, less risk, have lower to fall and are more flexible in structure.

Consider your real partnerships in your business. Consider the stakeholder partnerships, customer partnerships, supplier partnerships, training and industry partnerships.

Are these partnerships operating based on common values, principles, vision and goals?

Are they developed on the mutually beneficial relationships, is your success their success?

Healthy partnerships work hard to help the other party succeed. They give without hidden agendas.

In the project management space it’s challenging. New start up teams, tight scope, schedule, high risk, low cost and performance driven leaders expect on time, faster, better, cheaper.

Be warned this may work, but the wisdom to lead a project to build partnerships will increase your future sustainability and ability sustain outcomes. There is a big difference between output and outcome.

It’s simple, think of compounding interest, that’s what your projects should be like. Build them into projects where the outcomes of the partnership are long term, not short term.

Alliancing is another matter especially on large scale multibillion dollar projects. Whilst facilitating an alliance between a number of multinational construction companies it was clear that the fundamentals were not addressed at start up. However, the Program Manager did have the foresight to get me into address some of the issues. The reality is, when the tender is won, the work gets started. Then I'm hired because the fundamentals were not addressed correctly.

If however you do decide to form a partnership or alliance, give me a call and we can meet to discuss what might best work for your project or business.

One of the keys is to have a neutral party facilitate the partnership. Let's face it..... It is more risky when you don’t have someone helping you to get it right.

A major risk if you don’t partner, you will lose your staff quickly to your competitor, (your customers…your profit).

People jump ship due to pleasure or pain, I know which one I prefer in a partnership….

Give away time of the week!!! Generosity is one of my business virtues so here I go…

Free consultation questions I’m giving you. I only ask that your give me credit for my blogs and refer people back to it. Or just go hire me……learn what your competitors are finding out.

1.      What is it that motivates our business to partner?

2.      Whose benefit is it really for?

3.      What is the problem that needs to be addressed?

4.      What is the opportunity that can be harnessed?

5.      What can we offer them?

6.      What can they offer us?

7.      What are the foundations or cornerstone of a mutually beneficial partnership?

8.      What are the shared values, principles, goals and responsibilities?

9.      How will we define, monitor and measure our partnership success?

10.   What do we stand to lose if a partnership is not developed?

So if you need help thinking through a partnership, an alliance, a collaborative or a network, please contact me.

Journey well….partner,
Matt Cartwright
Inspiring People, Inspiring Business, Inspiring Results
© Copyright 2008 -12

Self-Awareness and Leadership: Have a look in the Mirror

23/2/2012

Self Awareness and Leadership: Have a look in the Mirror

I was with a long term client today. We had just finished a quick lunch. He was being head hunted by another firm which was what we were hoping would happen. His current company was sealing his potential.

I was thinking how fortunate he had been to be potentially moving to another more prestigious organization. He was keen to leave due to the CIO poor people skills.

A man got in the lift at the 25th floor. There I was confronted by a gruff man. It was the very person my client was talking about. One thing that struck me was the man had no idea what vibes he was giving off.

Whilst on his mobile phone, he was aggressive, using expletives and then went on criticizing his PA for his appointment scheduling. He finished the call, looked at my client (his colleague) and said, “God I work with some idiots in this place” enough said. Spooky…. I guess we had just spoken about him at lunch.

My observation was he had no idea what reactions he was giving off, nor did he seem to care.

So this is an easy blog today, because what I know about many leaders especially the ones that go and have 360 degree assessment, is that their drive, direction and self-belief is high, but their self-awareness is often low.

You guessed it. Many suffer from a lack of self-awareness. If this is you or you’re not sure, go start looking in the mirror more often. Go to the bathroom really look hard at yourself, and say “is the organistional leader that people aspire to, or even want to follow?”

Okay the narcissist or psychopath will always say “yes." So here is a gentle reminder if you or someone needs a top up.

Here it is for this week.

This task goes for anyone who has power or influence over people at work.

Self-awareness

If you're self-aware, you always know how you feel. As a result you know how you’re emotions, and your actions, and how they can affect the people around you. Being self-aware means having a clear picture of your strengths and weaknesses. And it means having humility.

So, what can you do to improve your self-awareness?

Keep a mental journal spend just a five minutes each day reviewing your thoughts about the day’s events, behaviour and attitude. Good chance, this will move you to a higher degree of self-awareness. Challenge do it repeatedly for 2 weeks 6 days week. Guaranteed harder than you think.

If you succeed do it for a month, then 3 months. By then you should start doing this habitually.

Slow down – ahhh what….. did you say? Yes, I know, I’m trying to as well. So much to do, so little time and so many opportunities. When you experience anger or other strong emotions, slow down to examine why. Remember, no matter what the situation, you can always choose how you react to it. Your emotions, your reactions, your leadership.

Mindfulness -

Mindfulness is a form of self-awareness training adapted from Buddhist mindfulness meditation. This is an area with a vast following because of its proven benefits. I try do it most mornings before I start my work. It has been described as a state of being in the present, accepting things for what they are. It was originally developed to assist with mood regulation and relapse prevention in depression and has been found to have considerable health benefits. I have been fortunate to be a mental health practitioner for over decade and personally meditated with Buddhist monks and nuns. This stuff is very powerful and gives greater insights into yourself, others and processes. You gain enormous clarity. Innovation compounds and problems are lessened.

With a good understanding of how we relate to others, we can adjust our behaviour so that we deal with issues positively. By understanding our weaknesses, we can learn how to manage them, and reach our goals despite them.

However, it's difficult to be objective when we think about ourselves. How others actually see us can be quite different from what we think they see. There are ways in which people can develop self-awareness on their own. However, coaching can be a better way of viewing your own actions and reactions objectively. I definitely give feedback on what I observe with my clients… firm but fair. After all, I aim to get superior performance from my clients.

Challenge:

Ask your team these questions:

How is my leadership/management style getting people onboard with their work?
How is my leadership/management style getting people offside?
What do I need to change about myself?

I know when I first did this exercise, it was strange, on the flip side, it was incredibly liberating.

Nothing like a good dose of feedback to make a few personal changes.

By the way, my client, sacked his boss, that is....resigned that afternoon. He took the promotion.

Journey well,
Matt Cartwright
Inspiring People, Inspiring Business, Inspiring Results
© Copyright 2008 -12

Team Management Work Preferences Profile in Brief

22/2/2012

Team Management Work Preferences Profile in Brief- Get you and your team assessed.

I just wanted to mention that I use and recommend the Team Managements Systems Preference Profile as a robust and accurate instrument to measure work preferences and ways of relating with others, how decisions are made, how things are organised and how pepole like to receive give and receive information.

The personal Team Management Profile (TMP) highlights an individual's major and two related areas of work preferences on the Margerison-McCann Team Management Wheel.

Here is an outline

Reporter-Adviser- Supporter, helper, tolerant; A collector of information; Dislikes being rushed; Knowledgeable; Flexible
Creator-Innovator - Imaginative; Future-oriented; Enjoys complexity; Creative; Likes research work
Explorer-Promoter - Persuader, "seller"; Likes varied, exciting, stimulating work; Easily bored; Influential and outgoing
Assessor-Developer - Analytical and objective; Developer of ideas; Enjoys prototype or project work; Experimenter
Thruster-Organizer - Organizes and implements; Quick to decide; Results-oriented; Sets up systems; Analytical
Concluder-Producer - Practical; Production-oriented; Likes schedules and plans; Pride in reproducing goods and services; Values effectiveness and efficiency
Controller-Inspector - Strong on control; Detail-oriented; Low need for people contact; An inspector of standards and procedures
Upholder-Maintainer - Conservative, loyal, supportive; Personal values important; Strong sense of right and wrong; Work motivation based on purpose

This tool is not like a Belbin, DISC, MBTI or an IQ test

The assessment only takes about 20-30 minutes and is done online.

It is a proven fast and accurate way of assessing and predicting work preferences. It benefits you by understanding your preferences, or lack of, to choose more suitable types of work, modify your own expectations or by sharing results across a team to get a better fit. People, perform better at what they prefer. The data can be used to get a group dialogue occurring and to make team changes.

TMS is used by over a million people in leading organisations (ANZ, Sony, Mobil Oil, American Express, BHP Billiton to name a few), Benefits include:

Translated into 20 languages
Applied by people from over 160 countries worldwide
Extensively researched, and research and translation programs are ongoing
A simple, practical and research-based system to:
Improve the productivity of any team
Identify and manage critical tasks
Generate engagement and harness the talent of the team
Create a common language that can cut through inherent differences

RELEVANT Developed with and for leaders and their teams
FOCUSED Helps individuals and teams to maximise their potential
PROVEN Twenty years ongoing validated research into what makes high-performing
teams
IMMEDIATE Can be understood and used by everyone straight away
MEMORABLE Sophisticated information presented in simple visual models
POSITIVE Non-threatening: all about strengths, mutual respect and constructive
relationships
FLEXIBLE For individuals, teams and organisations

After completing the assessment online, the client receives a 5000 word report outling preferences and areas that assist them to be more aware of their own communication styles and that of others. It often becomes the way of breaking down barriers and deepening emotional intelligence in a team.

For more information please email me. See the resources page.

Journey well.
Matt Cartwright
Inspiring People, Inspiring Business, Inspiring Results
© Copyright 2008 -12

Tips for dealing with the present, the past and the future

16/2/2012

Tips for Dealing with the Present, the Past and the Future

This simple but very powerful review process is used to shift your thinking, behaviour and attitudes.

I have counselled, coached and mentored with thousands of people. The most common theme, I find is people find reasons (excuses) to make changes until sometime in the future, and yes I have been guilty as well. Living in the Now or Present, needs to opened up and needs regular check-ins...

So....Be in the present: When you want to be happy and successful

Focus on what is right, meaningful or purposeful now
Use your purpose to respond to what is important now
The present is all that you have, make the the most of today, who knows if tomorrow exists, do you really know????
Work and live as if today were the last, confronting I know.... but it will shift your attention onto action, if it doesn't then you need to go back to the first point

Now...Learn from the past: When you want to make the present better than the past

Look at what happened in the past, don't over-analyse yourself or your business, its not an autopsy
Learn something valuable from it, ask what can I learn from that experience
Let go, it only really appears in memory, don't hold regrets, if you do, you're in victim mode
Do things differently in the present, take responsibility, be accountable, be authentic

And...Plan for the future: When you want to make the future better than the present

Visualize what a desired future would look like at work, home, social, family,etc get it clear
Make very specific plans to make it happen, it must be targeted, realistic and achievable
Put massive amounts of action into the plan for today, not tomorrow, remember, we are in the present
If you start procrastinating, you operate in the fear paradigm, its real in your head I know, but it may not be in reality, most fear is created in our lives and in our business. Trust me I've done it.....

Have you got it yet? Good.

The future is not tomorrow its here. Too many pepole stil haven't got that important nugget.

Enjoy this small coaching present and pass it on. Giving is a great way to improve business and the world we live in.

Journey well,
Matt Cartwright
Inspiring People, Inspiring Business, Inspiring Results
© Copyright 2008 -12

Enlarge your leadership to a higher level…..

16/2/2012

Enlarge your leadership to a higher level…..

Leadership…..so much is written about it, so much is reported about it, so many courses offered about it, so many types of 360 degree assessments, so many training courses, so many leaders and still a lack of workplace followers. Well leaders keep us in and out business, but that is not the point. We are all learners and leaders in our own right. We are not perfect and we make mistakes, some learn better from them.

Ask yourself this. Is the leader of your organisation, the leader you love to follow?
or,
If you are the Leader. Is your organisation following your vision passionately?

This week is a reminder, don’t be complacent in your leadership development, we never stop learning to be better leaders. This week it’s about the enlarging leader.

Just a few thoughts....one of my best leaders that come to mind was a very quiet woman who was psychologist by background. She never really managed me, she let me manage myself, it frustrated the hell out of me big time…until I got used to it. My career blossomed and I thank her for that. She was a catalyst in reversing my leadership thinking.

My mother, another great leader, used to work in a bookshop and found this tiny little book, it has many pearls of wisdom in it. Here are just a few nuggets from John C. Maxwell Book, Equipping 101, What every Leader Needs to Know.

How to become an Enlarger

Believe in others first before they believe in you
Serve others before they serve you
Add value to others before they add value to you.

Enlarge your Leadership behaviours, attitudes and skills by

Valuing the team members
Valuing what team members value
Adding value to the team members
Making yourself more valuable

Our company provides a range services to leaders, new leaders and emerging leaders. See our website for more information. Or, you could start by having me coach you. Find out how through the resources link or contact page.

Journey well,
Matt Cartwright
Inspiring People, Inspiring Business, Inspiring Results
© Copyright 2008 -12

Secrets and 10 Tips for Managing Team Resistance

16/2/2012

10 Secrets and Tips for Managing Team Resistance

“If we do not change direction, we are liable to end up where we are headed” (Whitmore, 2006)

In my experience I’ve seen resistance, I’ve been resistant…….it always manifests with two forces at play, pain and pleasure and not much in between, except all the collisions between getting on board and getting off the boat.

We all know that resistance may be a sign of a loss, not enough information, lack readiness for change, therefore allow more time.

Two reasons for employee resistance, well there are more than 2, but they can be summarised here.

A lack of awareness about the change
Comfort with the ways things are and fear of the unknown.

Change is difficult…. Whenever we change one type of behaviour or situation to another we are losing something as well as gaining.

My research shows this loss can be difficult to cope with, no matter how unhelpful or productive the behaviour we are leaving behind. In order to sustain real and lasting change in the workplace we need to change our thoughts, feelings and behaviour. That is the challenge and resistance may be a symptom of it. Good news…there is a treatment for most anyway.

12 Reasons why employees resist change, in case you forgot

Past experience of change management failure
Lack of leadership
The individual's personal predisposition to change
Surprise and fear of the unknown
Climate of mistrust
Fear of failure
Loss of status and/or job security
Peer pressure
Disruption of cultural traditions and/or group relationships.
Personality conflicts
Lack of tact and/or poor timing
Not seeing the benefits

10 Tips to Manage Resistance
I’ll get to the point, as I know that you are eager to know the secret to managing team resistance.

Do change management right the first time
Expect it and plan for it
Address it formally and informally
Identify the root causes and remove, transfer or accept them
Engage the “right” resistance managers
Accept and understand it's about information, do not make it personal
Engage on matters of importance and significance to them and you
Make a change management plan, don’t make it up as you go
Engage the right leaders
Understand and prepare that people go through phases of change and resistance

BIG POINT, don’t label people resistant, you may not have provided them with enough information…..

Journey well,
Matt Cartwright
Inspiring People, Inspiring Business, Inspiring Results
© Copyright 2008 -12