What happens to us when facing challenge and change.
With our amazing team of co-facilitators we “do” leadership with groups of people all over Australia. And I love it. Have I mentioned that before I wonder?
“Do” means long programs, short programs, day sessions. And, we also assist organisations to understand their value and ensure efficient teams.
We encourage and support change and assist in building confidence to take on challenges. When we “do” leadership we are constantly observing how people respond and act.
What is Affectus’ Philosophy?
Affectus’ philosophy commences with encouraging people to find and step into their leadership space. We also incorporate the knowledge that people all learn differently, our minds work and our perception are different.
Essentially, however, each of us tends to prefer one of the following ways of learning – visual, written, listening, doing ( the VARK model). Affectus ensures that these four preferences are woven into our learning events.
It is important to know Affectus’ philosophy because…
When we ask people to move into their leadership space we understand the above but we expect people to change.
We ask them to challenge their thinking and implement change…at that moment. And we encourage attendees to see the leadership space and step into it. We support and coach them as they do, But we ask them to move from their current position and find a new place to demonstrate leadership.
Some questions about change and challenge to consider
What do you know about your responses to challenges? And to date, how have you have engaged with the change in your life? What do you know about yourself?
Affectus' 9 Stage Change Pathway.
During our strategic thinking workshop, we use a change model that I have developed. We help people understand their responses to change. When you are in your leadership space responding to change, it is valuable to understand where your greatest leadership impact can be.
7 Phases of Change
- Awareness
- Immobilisation
- Denial
- Acceptance
- Incompetence
- Application
- Confidence
- Meaning
- Mobilisation
The 3 pathway steps and what goes on in our brain
- Immobilisation – our logical brain stops working and our more primitive (reptilian brain) pushes us to thinking about survival.
- Denial – our logical brain regains some control over our response but our primitive brain is still saying “run-away this is scary”
From our observations, it is important to assist people during to breath (sometimes literally) and acknowledge the concern and confusion. And to also understand they can move beyond these first two phases and beyond the concern and confusion.
- Incompetence – our brain feels scrambled (no better way to explain it). Often there is a feeling of I can’t really understand this change, I know it is happening but what is really going on. I don’t have the skills to deal with this.
In our experience, incompetence is where the greatest leadership impact occurs. For leaders to step away or hope something will happen is reneging on the position they have stepped into. It is here that leadership “rubber hits the road”.
What can you do when change is upon you and your team and the challenge is real?
What can you do when you are seeing the immobilisation and denial and you are hearing the words “I don’t know how to deal with this”? You assist people to feel confident and develop competency.
How do you assist people?
- Talk with them about their ability to understand the challenge and respond positively to change.
- Build their self-awareness of their own capacity to take on new concepts.
- Reassure them that you are in this too and that a solution will be found.
- Discuss how they could enhance their skills or knowledge to better embrace the challenge.
Think back to a previous article imagine if, when facing change and challenge, we also had a deep understanding that if we bring ourselves, all of our talent and knowledge and self-awareness, to a challenge how we could embrace it and respond.