Training & Coaching News from Smart Coaching Training

08/09/2014 By Isla Baliszewska

Positivity Ratios, Flourishing and Languishing

To flourish : definitions –

“to grow or develop in a healthy or vigorous way, especially as the result of a particularly congenial environment”
“to develop rapidly or successfully”
“to be in a period of highest productivity, excellence of influence”.

and the one we like best…..

“to grow luxuriantly, to thrive”.

Here’s a great title – ‘Positive Affect and the Complex Dynamics of Human Flourishing’. In this publication Barbara Fredrickson and Marcial Losada produced the result of their research in the field of positive psychology to demonstrate a magic ratio of positive to negative emotions. And it is 3:1. If you have more than 3 times the positive strokes to negatives you are flourishing. If you have less than 2:1 you are entering the languishing arena. In between you are pretty much at normal.

Whether or not you agree with the research, and there is a whole lot of other data out there aiming at the same ideas, (Gottman’s work with married couples for example), we can assume that having good, positive emotions is a pretty good start for making people feel successful and achieving.

In the workplace, positive emotions benefit the individuals and the organisation, and those engaging with the organisation be they customers, service-users or other. We associate emotions with particular circumstances or events and they can affect how we behave, our mood and our attitudes. An organisation staffed by people who feel optimistic, personally resilient, pleasant and purposeful will not only have a high sense of efficacy and possibility but can build a culture of co-operation, collaboration and collective wellbeing. The knock-on effect is heightened productivity, better bottom line achievements and a generally nicer place to be and to work.

So getting the balance right and looking to raise the ration of positive to negative is probably not a bad thing to be aiming for.

Want to improve your flourishing possibilities? Contact us at Smart Coaching & Training.

by Isla Baliszewska

08/07/2014 By Isla Baliszewska

The Viability Test

The Financial Reporting Council has come up with another small headache for business owners. In an attempt to improve on the current ‘going concern’ statement that Directors must tick in current year end accounts, the FRC has hit on the idea of getting Directors to commit to saying how long they think their organisation will stay viable. Under the proposed new code a company board will have to state that the company is viable for ‘the foreseeable future’ and to identify how long that ‘forseeable future’ is.

What we are looking at here is accountability. How accountable Directors and Boards should be. To mix metaphors the waters here are a bit muddy and a thesaurian battle of words; to what extent should company Directors be making assertions, declarations, affirmations or committed statements about the future solvency of their business? The FRC started this review last year in an attempt to clarify what ‘going concern’ actually means, and the distinction between the assessment of the company’s health when preparing the accounts and the assessment of the risks affecting its continued trading. The consultation has been through several rounds so far and has been less than enthused about by the Institute of Directors, whose corporate governance advisor Oliver Parry said ” It would be difficult and unrealistic to think that a company could predict the future beyond 12 months.”

It goes without saying that there should be clear lines of accountability in organisations, however as yet no-one seems to be agreeing on how this accountability should be worded. Accountability is about integrity and ownership of our actions, being responsible for the decisions we make. This is relatively simple when it only involves us, the one person, but it is much harder when taken to an organisational level.

25/04/2014 By David Rigby

Growing your business in the dark

Now that I am ensconced in Riyadh thoughts naturally gravitated to Yorkshire and the Rhubarb industry – prompted by BBC Radio 4’s On Your Farm programme on Rhubarb .

Rhubarb is fashionable again today after a major decline after world war two. . Appearing in many guises in the most up-scale restaurants as well as in the greengrocers and yogurt pots. However it likely that the younger generations don’t know what it is in the greengrocers or what to do with it. It is virtually unknown in the rest of the world, though there are Rhubarb festivals in various parts of US and Canada as well as Wakefield, Yorkshire. Just 1,809 acres are planted across the United States

In studies that compare rhubarb to cranberries, rhubarb offers far more potassium and folate, as well as significantly higher levels of lutein, zeaxanthin, vitamin A, calcium, vitamin K, beta-carotene and magnesium. Rhubarb is also a good source of dietary fibre and vitamin C. It is low in fat and has been shown to have cholesterol-lowering effects. Most recent findings place rhubarb in the anti-cancer food group as it contains ample amounts of polyphenols: powerful antioxidants known for stopping and preventing the growth of cancer cells. Rhubarb is a viable product for health conscious consumers.

It can grow in your garden but a speciality is forced rhubarb which appears earlier in the spring and is much sweeter. It appears to be unique to the UK.

Forced rhubarb is a crop not quite like any other. The plants spend two years out in the fields without being harvested, allowing the roots to store energy. They’re then transferred into heated sheds, where they’re kept in complete darkness. In the warmth, the plants begin to grow, looking for light. The process results in distinctive pink stalks, which – unlike rhubarb grown outdoors – are white inside, and sweeter than the unforced variety. To avoid letting light near the plants, the crop is harvested by candlelight.

With soil and a microclimate well suited to rhubarb, the area between Leeds, Bradford and Wakefield became known as the ‘rhubarb triangle’. Production of forced rhubarb began here in 1877, and at its peak, in the years leading up to World War Two, rhubarb production covered an area of around 30 square miles. By the 1940s there were 200 tonnes leaving Yorkshire by train every day on the Rhubarb Express, much of it bound for Covent Garden in London. But with its connotations of wartime rationing and school dinners, rhubarb declined in popularity after the war, as new tropical fruits arrived on the shelves. From a peak of more than 200 forced rhubarb producers in area, there are now just eleven. And they can obtain premium prices

So – how did the eleven suppliers survive when the others fell by the wayside?

They had to be committed and devoted to their product
Recognising that foods go in and out of fashion – what ever happened to ‘chicken in a basket’, prawn cocktail and black forest gateau? They may be ‘out’ now – but they will come back in.
To survive the long dip in popularity the suppliers diversified , developing other products to subsidise the Rhubarb business.
They turned Rhubarb into a tourist business – Tours of the Rhubarb forcing sheds are big business.
The process was automated as much as possible – to an industrial scale – without losing sight of the traditions – using candle light for example.

What is not happening is that Rhubarb is not being marketed yet as a Superfood. It is expensive now in the shops, just wait until it is and prices will be sky high – so get your rhubarb patch in your garden and be ready to rake it in – until then enjoy the fruits (or vegetables) of your labour.

Smart Coaching & Training coaches live in the real world and encourage you to do so to. We will encourage you to undertake ‘out-of-the box’ thinking on your business just as the Rhubarb growers ensured their survival by doing just that

09/04/2014 By Isla Baliszewska

Growth Vouchers – explained…..

In January this year the £30m Growth Vouchers Scheme was launched by Lord Young giving small businesses the opportunity to apply for up to £2000 of funded business support. Qualifying UK businesses much have fewer than 49 employees, been trading for less than a year and not have paid for business advice in the last 3 years. The funding, which the business must match, can cover

• [i type=”icon-ok” color=”icon-green” bg=””]Finance and cashflow.

• [i type=”icon-ok” color=”icon-green” bg=””]Recruiting and developing staff.

• [i type=”icon-ok” color=”icon-green” bg=””]Improving leadership and management skills.

• [i type=”icon-ok” color=”icon-green” bg=””]Marketing, attracting and keeping customers.

• [i type=”icon-ok” color=”icon-green” bg=””]Making the most of digital technology.

Small businesses apply through the Enterprise Nation website and connect with an approved Business Advisor. As of 6th March, Enterprise Nation logged 1400 applications with 598 vouchers allocated with a value in excess of £1m. Companies have invested in support to boost marketing and customer sales, leadership and management development, staff development, managing finance and cashflow and using digital technology effectively.

So what are the downsides? Well it is a random trial so not everyone gets the voucher. If you are selected you may have to work with the Cabinet Office’s Behavioural Insights Team who are measuring how the funding will work. That is no bad thing as it is always good to know that there is accountability and measurement in funded schemes. If you don’t get the voucher you can still use the Enterprise Nation Marketplace to find a good and registered Growth Advisor. You do have to pay up front for the advice, which is designed to ensure commitment and to protect the integrity of the offering from abuse.

The scheme is only running for a limited period so it is definitely worth applying if you are keen on growing your business and getting good business support. If you want to know more, contact Isla who is our approved Growth Vouchers Advisor.

23/11/2013 By David Rigby

The wolf in sheeps clothing: the ‘soft’ side of change is really the ‘hard’ side

While it is sometimes called the “soft” side of change, managing the people side of a change is often the most challenging and critical component of an organizational transformation. But, it is getting people on board and participating in the change that will make the difference. Individuals will have to do their jobs differently, and it is the degree to which they change their behaviours and work processes that will make or break the merger or acquisition. The “soft” side of change is many times actually the “harder” side of change. Change management is taking care of the people side of change. It does little good to create a new organization, design new work processes or implement new technologies if you leave the people behind. Financial success of these changes will be more dependent on how individuals in the organization embrace the change than how well you draw organization charts or process diagrams.

Change management is the process, tools and techniques to manage the people-side of change to achieve the required business outcomes It is the systematic management of employee engagement and adoption when the organization changes how work will be done. Ultimately, change management focuses on how to help employees embrace, adopt and utilize a change in their day-to-day work.

Change management is both a process and a competency.

· From a process perspective, it is the set of steps followed by a team member on a particular project or initiative. For the given transformational effort, it is the strategy and set of plans focused on moving people through the change. Preparing for change (where readiness assessments help guide the formulation of a strategy), Managing change (where five change management plans are created and integrated into the project plan) and Reinforcing change (where compliance is audited and mechanisms are deployed to cement the change).

· From a competency perspective, it is a leader or manager’s ability to “effectively lead my people through change.” The notion of a leadership competency is universal, but what that competency entails depends on a person’s relationship to change. While the competency varies based on one’s relationship to change, organizations are more effective and successful when they build change management competencies throughout their ranks.

Change management is not just communication or training. It is not just managing hardware or software versions (although it has been used in this context). It is not just managing resistance. Effective change management follows a structured process and uses a holistic set of tools to drive successful individual and organizational change.

There are numerous reasons to employ effective change management on both large and small scale efforts. Here, three main cases for change management are made.

1. Organizational change happens one person at a time

2. Poorly managing change has costs

3. Effective change management increases the likelihood of success

1. Organizational change happens one person at a time: It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking about change exclusively from an organizational perspective. However, organizational change of any kind actually occurs one person at a time. Success of an organization effort only occurs when each individual does their jobs differently. Organizations don’t change – people within organizations change. It is the cumulative impact of successful individual change that results in an organizational change being successful.

2. Poorly managing change has costs: There are countless consequences of ignoring the people side of a change. Productivity declines become much larger and longer in duration than they could have been. Managers are unwilling to devote the time or resources needed to support the change.. In some cases, the project itself is completely abandoned after large investments of capital and time. All of these consequences have tangible and real financial impact on the health of the organization and the project.

3. Effective change management increases the likelihood of success: There is a growing body of data that shows the impact that effective change management has on the probability that a project meets its objectives. Research shows that projects with excellent change management were six times more likely to meet objectives than those with poor change management. A 2002 McKinsey Quarterly article by LaClair and Rao found that projects with excellent change management delivered 143% of the expected Return on Investment, while those with poor change management delivered only 35% of expected ROI. Regardless of the change at hand – focusing on the people side of change increases the likelihood of being successful.

Effectively managing change requires two perspectives: an individual perspective and an organizational perspective.

The individual perspective is an understanding of how people experience change. Change is successful, when an individual has:

Awareness of the need for change
Desire to participate and support the change
Knowledge on how to change
Ability to implement required skills and behaviours
Reinforcement to sustain the change.

If an individual is missing any of the five building blocks, then the change will not be successful. The goal, then, in leading the people side of change is ensuring that individuals have Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement

While the change management resource on a project can work to develop the strategy and plans, much of the work of change management is done by senior leaders, managers and supervisors throughout the organization. Benchmarking data shows that in times of change, employees have two preferred senders of change messages: someone at the top of their organization and the person they report to. Change management practitioners are enablers of these employee-facing roles. And, in times of change, it is the effectiveness of senior leaders as sponsors of change, and of managers and supervisors as coaches of change that will determine if a project succeeds or fails.

So what can you do to become a more effective change leader? The bottom line is this: begin applying change management on your projects and begin building change management competencies in your organization. These are the first steps to ensuring projects deliver their intended results by taking care of the people side of change.

The people side of change is not the “soft” side of change; in reality it is the “harder” side of change. Investing the time and energy to manage the people side of your organizational efforts pays off in the end – in terms of success of the effort and avoidance of the numerous costs that plague poorly managed change.

Positivity Ratios, Flourishing and Languishing

The Viability Test

Growing your business in the dark

Growth Vouchers – explained…..

The wolf in sheeps clothing: the ‘soft’ side of change is really the ‘hard’ side

Contact Info

Recent Featured Posts click on pic to see title and connect to article

Papa had a rolling schedule: Sietar Valencia International Congress June 2026

Including All Your Diverse Audience

Social Media

We mostly post to David Rigby’s Linked In and Facebook

Instagram

Facebook