Improved Well-being = Healthier and Happier World

Simple Idea

Our Well-being Check-up iPad app is a tool to help individuals and teams reflect on their well-being. It is a simple idea. Reflect on your well-being, focus on your well-being, improve your well-being and the world will be healthier.  According to Corporate Wellness Magazine, every $1 invested in employee wellness programs yields roughly $4 in savings through reduced sick days, higher productivity and decreased overall health costs. Healthier People = Healthier Business Results. 

As an Executive Coach and Management Consultant I have had the privilege of working with thousands of leaders. In my experience, Leaders with positive well-being are more energized, innovative, approachable and more fulfilled.  There is a huge payback to society, business and our communities when people are healthier and happier.  The burden on our healthcare system would reduce. Our schools will be filled with healthier children. More energized people are more creative and can positively impact our economy.  Parents with high well-being have children who are happier and more confident to learn.  In line with reducing school and workplace bullying healthy human beings need to be developed.

When I was a little girl I remember thinking that if every person had peace in their heart the world would be at peace. It is another simple idea. As Nelson Mandela said – It starts with us.  Our Vision is that our simple idea will help focus and improve individual well-being and this will help us have a healthier and happier world.

This need spurs us to continue our development in spreading the message through our Well-being Check-up app.  The Well-being Check-up helps people stop, pause and reflect on their life balance.  The well-being wheel has 10 dimensions; these 10 dimensions are not exhaustive, but are a good place to start.  The check-up gives you a baseline against the 10 dimensions.  The dimensions include Work, Health, Mind, Adventure and Money. The iPhone app allows you to focus on the dimensions in your life that are most important for you and develop an action plan.  The iPhone app also provides tips and hints to improve each of the 10 dimensions.

Crossing the Chasm into Software Development

To make the Well-being Check-up more accessible we are about to launch our iPhone version.  Android phone and tablet development are in the pipeline.  The iPad development lessons learnt was a fantastic process we reviewed features and functionality of the app based on user feedback and overall development process. We had a lot of feedback on the design aspects of the app this became our starting point for the iPhone development.  We wanted the iPhone app to be a more positive experience aesthetically and functionally.  We called in help from Designers and we experimented with the harmonizing of design, functionality and costs.

 I am still a novice and what I thought would be a small development process moving from an iPad app to an iPhone app has proven to be much bigger than anticipated. I am now entering the black box of software development; I am a positive person so I will rename this to the rainbow box of software development. In this world there are native languages that can only be used with certain tribes at certain times. There is a universal HTML language that can cross chasms between Android and Apple, but beware there are dangers… If we use the universal language; design and colours are comprised.  HTML provides leverage and the ability to create Apple and Android devices at the same time. For our new Well-being Check-up iPhone app we have decided to program in native language and visually the app is 1000 times better than the HTML iPad version. Ongoing we will continue to explore the dilemma of leverage v design, when to do native or universal development. 

We are fortunate to have an-in house partner locally in our office who is leading the app software development.  We are also looking at broadening our capability to access more resources locally and abroad.  The risk management aspects of building the right software development capability are becoming apparent and we are now actively looking at deepening our capability and spreading the risk.

Crossing the Chasm into Social Marketing

As my previous blogs have highlighted we are light on in the social marketing space.  My research has me discovering some wonderful Social Marketing sites.  I was blessed to meet Rhiannon Colarossi founder of the Well-being Web.  She has amazing resources on her fantastic website and Facebook pages –

http://www.wellbeingweb.com.au/

https://www.facebook.com/WellbeingWeb?ref=hl

We have agreed to form an alliance to support the cause and spread the well-being message.  I am going to continue to explore wonderful social marketing partners to spread the word.

Vision for Product Development

Now that we have had a taste of app development we are broadening our vision for product development.  We have always used technology as an enabler to support effective learning, organisational development and business improvement.  Our technology powered solutions include global on-line surveys, knowledge portals and information dashboards.  We are now adding mobile app development to that suite to support in the moment access to knowledge and learning.  We are talking to clients right now about how blended solutions can in particular reinforce learning on the job. Watch this space for updates! 

Please look out for our iPhone app, it will be out in the next couple of weeks. Spread the well-being message and  keep well!

Trials, Tribulations and Triumphs of Launching an App

The weather in Melbourne has been fantastic, sunshine, blue sky and warm balmy nights.  It is much harder to be grumpy when the sun shines on you.

It has been nearly three weeks since we launched our Well-being Check-up iPad App and we are gaining some interesting insights from our new development.

STAGE 1 FEAR & TREPIDATION

 

When launching a new product and service there is some fear and trepidation. Will our baby, I mean app be noticed, accepted, supported, rejected or just ignored?  Once 10 people in the world purchased the app, my fear subsided.  Totally illogical I know, but subconsciously I just needed 10 people to validate the app and suddenly the fear dissipated.

STAGE 2 SOCIAL MARKETING

    
Well, this is an area I sort of know not a lot about!  I certainly didn’t want to have anti-social marketing this just didn’t seem nice.
We had done the research; all good apps are supported by effective social marketing.  This included a website that links to the app, a blog that talks about the app, a Facebook page where people could share their stories and experiences and access more knowledge. There was also talk of Twitter.  The social marketing needs to be relaxed and personable and give people an opportunity to socialize.  Apps that go ‘viral’ are the ones that really are successful, it is funny in other contexts viral could be the last thing you would hope for…

There were also the traditional marketing techniques, including media releases, sending free trials to Connectors and Mavens, and hoping and praying!

One of the biggest dilemmas we experienced was getting our App rated which means people need to review and provide a rating of their experience of the app.  We had been waiting for the magic 5 reviews as this then triggered an overall rating. It was a triumph when we hit 5 reviews and ratings, it did put a smile on all our faces.

If you really enjoy using an app I would encourage you to spend the extra 2 minutes providing a review. Your feedback is worth a lot more than you realize.
So our social marketing has been poor to average. We did do the Internet page, blogs (obviously), we did pre-launches and launches on LinkedIn. We still need to do a lot more work on getting the right strategy and content for a Facebook page – so I’ll keep you posted on how this progresses.

STAGE 3 FEEDBACK SO FAR

Thank you to our colleagues, friends and family who have invested the $2.99 and cared enough to give us feedback; we really appreciate this.  The other part of releasing something new, it is always interesting to see who cares and who doesn’t.  There are always surprises in who you can reach, when people in Switzerland, Canada, Columbia, Brazil and China purchased our app – it was kind of cool and amazing.

The feedback we have received has been consistent.  There are small enhancements that can help such as an action plan and more tips to improve, a get results button…we will prioritize all the feedback in our lessons learnt session next week. There were obvious things we forgot, like a link back to our website and the ability to email us for further assistance. We are aware that an iPhone and Android versions are in demand, all part of our future development plan.  Here are some comments we received:

Great to see where I’m going well. It’s great to be able to pinpoint exactly where your improvements should be. It’s like you know there are things missing but you don’t know where or what.  Gotta go, got some thinking to do.
You have been busy what a fun idea well done
I never really thought about some of the life aspects highlighted by this app.  Now that I do, I can take action in those areas.

There are more comments on the app review page, if you are curious.

STAGE 4 NEXT STEPS

 

 

We have a lot of learning and development to continue doing.   The best part is that I am working with fun, smart people and we are in it together.  I look forward to sharing more of the trials, tribulations and triumphs after our lessons learnt session.
By the way if you still haven’t seen our Well-being Check-up App – here it is (you need an iPad):

 https://itunes.apple.com/app/well-being-check-up/id589563823?ls=1&mt=8

STOP living busy START living fully – Well-being Check-up now released

Here it is our first iPad App - Well-being Check-up!  Our intention for this App is to learn and share a quick snapshot tool to help people focus on their Well-being. We hope the App gives you time to reflect and focus on your whole life. 

We wish you more enhanced Well-being and a more fulfilling life.

To view and purchase the App for $2.99 you will need an iPad and click on this link:
https://itunes.apple.com/app/well-being-check-up/id589563823?ls=1&mt=8

Official Media Release:

Busy professionals juggle and struggle with doing and being everything… our lives have become too busy. We have coached many successful people on how to move from living busy lives to living more fulfilling lives and achieving their definition of Well-being. We have designed the Well-being Check-up iPad App to help people stop, pause and reflect on their whole life and get a snapshot of their Well-being. The App offers a Well-Being Wheel Assessment with 10 Dimensions, so you can gain insight into areas like family, health, adventure, work and money. Working professionals are surprised when they discover their scores on these 10 dimensions.  Convenient and affordable at only AUD$2.99, the engage Well-being Check-up App tracks where you are now, where you would like to be and how to get there – perfect for serious New Year resolution-makers.

“The engage Well-being Check-Up App is the culmination of my team’s experience in getting people – and their businesses – to flourish in every area,” says Sarina Sorrenti Co-Creater of the App, engage consulting group.

 “It will take you from living busy to living fully. It’s your own coach on your iPad!

STOP living busy START living fully

January 2013

Busy professionals juggle and struggle with doing and being everything…our lives have become too busy.  We have coached many successful people on how to move from living busy lives to living more fulfilling lives and achieving their full potential.

Many of our clients are grappling with increased responsibilities, global roles and time zones, balancing family and work, keeping healthy, keeping wise and feeling fulfilled. We of course do not have a magic bullet, even though it wouldn’t be a bad R&D opportunity…we do though have a new Well-being Check-up App to increase awareness and focus in this area.

On New Year’s Eve, in between drinks, great food and a lot of laughs a number of my friends lamented their current life balance experiences.  There were common themes - busy lives, feeling tired and not feeling on top of the day to day. On my reflections for 2012 I felt the structure and routine I had put into my life to be extremely efficient and effective and tiring all at the same time.  There were many weeks where I would feel I have given my best to my clients, business and there was little left for my daughter, husband and my dog, let alone myself.  On reflecting on my own well-being over the last 4 weeks of holidays I remembered I could choose to reset my focus and consciously work on my own well-being.  Yes, practicing what I preach does come to mind…

I have a few busy addiction confessions:

-          I like being busy it stops that chatter in my mind (my ego loves creating noise)

-          I was conditioned to work hard and long and put work above all else

-          My identity is strongly linked to achieving and doing not necessarily thinking or being

I am not asking for forgiveness I am just acknowledging these are some of the reasons I have put my own well-being on the back burner.  Another assumption I have is the importance of credibility and being a good role model. So rather than set some goals and plans we developed an iPad Well-being Check- up App.

The Well-being Check-up helps people stop, pause and reflect on their life balance.  The well-being wheel has 10 dimensions; these 10 dimensions are not exhaustive, but are a good place to start.  The check-up gives you a baseline against the 10 dimensions.  The dimensions include Work, Health, Mind, Adventure and Money.

The personal changes I have experienced from focusing on my own well-being so far include giving myself permission to having a well-being day, zip lining 20 metres above the ground in a rain forest, becoming an Apple App developer,  increased health and vitality and more quality times with my family. 

If you are curious about your own well-being and finding out your scores on the well-being wheel our App is being released on January 29^th.  Let us know if you would like us to send you link to the app once it is released.

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Make sure 2013 brings lots of opportunities to live fully.

Reflections for Another Year November 2012

Insight 1: Trust your gut feel
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then stop treating it like a Swan – it’s a duck! When it is too hard to work with someone or a situation and a pattern of behaviour and disappointment continues to repeat itself, well then it is a good time to stop and get out of the land of denial and confront the situation. You can’t work with everyone, even with the greatest intentions. This year I had to confront a number of situations where I had to see things as they are and extract myself out of situations that just were not working for me anymore. Great learning for an optimist like myself, who always wants to see the positive in a situation and is always hopeful that things will improve - sometimes they don’t!

Insight 2: Don’t be afraid of your own success
Sometimes I have played too small (for myself, never for my clients). Maybe I should practice what I preach? My Partner has always encouraged me to play bigger. I like my clients to shine and to work behind or beside them. This year we have experienced amazing growth and I am now allowing myself to be OK with our own success… I think I have been hinging too much on my client’s success… I have recently joined a Board with amazing people and I told myself that I would just observe and sit quiet. At my first strategy session I had an outer body experience where I saw myself driving and leading and challenging, the part that was observing this side of me wanted to gag me and tell me just to shut up! One of the other Directors commented “I should hide my light under a bushel”, this very much reinforced my natural inclination to play hard or not at all! So to all my client’s, family and friends yes I can be perceived as intense at times and please know it is coming from an intense passion to get the best out of each other. I am going to continue to be happy with other’s success and now allow myself to be OK with my own.

Insight 3: Surround yourself with exceptional people
I am blessed with exceptional Partners, Associates, Mentors, Colleagues, Developers and Office Managers. Our recently appointed Office Manager is our Office Angel, she just gets everything done with a smile on her face! I have people around me who are better than me at a lot of things – and together we create magic. I am letting go of that whole control freak issue and working collaboratively with likeminded and aligned value people. Life just works so much better now!

Insight 4: Constantly reinvent
We have dabbled with Applications and now are registered Developers with Apple. We have been part of a team that has commercialized a business to business app and now have a number of developments in the pipeline. The Applications support our core business to get the best out of people and business. It is giving us a vehicle for innovation, experimentation and learning. It is also fun to play out of our comfort zone. Always be open to reinvent and redevelop your business offerings it brings a new lease of life to the business.

Insight 5: Lifecycle – Born, Live and Die
We are born, live and die. We lost one of our Grandmothers this year after 94 years of life – she has left an amazing legacy 17 Grandchildren and 18 Great Grandchildren. As the Matriarch of the family she was a powerful influence right to her dying day. Another reminder to live fully and not complain or put off anything you really desire. So brush off your bucket list. Make sure 2013 brings lots of opportunities to live fully.

New Skin
We have been in our own business for over 12 years and each year there are new discoveries, new opportunities, new insights. Each year as we evolve we seem to shed products, services and replenish them with a new skin. There are of course our constants – our values, our purpose and our core offerings.
The act of renewal is cleansing.
Renewal is a natural part of our ecosystem, we see it in our body every day through our in-going and out-going breaths and our scaly, exfoliating skin.
Nature constantly renews itself, each brand new day we are reminded of this by the sunrises, leaves changing and flowers blooming.
We have recently shed our home office into our ‘real’ office (5 minutes walk from home) and we were amazed with the business clutter that had taken over our home. Clearing the clutter has created open space. Our rooms even have an unusual echo to remind us of the cushioning we once had to pad out our existence.
Our homes and offices like businesses need a refresh and renewal on a regular basis. What clutter have you built up in your business that perhaps is weighing you down and preventing you from moving in a new direction?
Where is the white space in your business to allow new ideas, opportunities or challenges to be identified?
My recommendation at the start of a new year is to shed, let go and see how it feels. Who knows what you will uncover and discover.

Winter Moments

Instead of hibernating like a bear, I have used my winter moments to do some winter reflections. I hope this provides some warmth for you today.
A Best Day
Every day is a new beginning to live life fully and allow potential to flow and be fulfilled.
One of my favourite sayings from my 5 year old daughter is ‘today is the best day of my life’, she says this at least a couple of times a week. I retort ‘of course it is, because today is all that matters’.
What if we did live each day as the best day of our lives, what would it look like, how different would it be from each and every other day. Would I experience less groundhog days, days that feel they are a repeat of the previous? Would I get more done, or less done? Would it be a faster or slower?
What if every day was framed to be the best and get the best from one another, how would our work places look, how would our families behave? If we are not framing our lives this way, how are we framing them? Are our intentions to create mediocre or stressful work days? Do we design our work flow and teams for people to step up and use their talents or do we just assume people will thrive and achieve in any situation.
Please try this experiment - frame every day for a whole week as the best day of our lives, I wonder what we will discover…

Acknowledgement
I have recently been running focus groups with the intention of discovering customer’s real experiences and using this as research to learn and improve my client’s offerings. What I am discovering is that you can put 7 people in one room and they all have their own stories. The variation of experiences is quite extraordinary even though they were supposed to have experienced the same offering.
Their interpretation of reality needs to be heard and acknowledged and not judged. People’s body language and presence changes when they are heard, their faces soften up, their body opens up and they seem to have a weight taken from their shoulders.
Validation of the experiences we have in life is an important aspect of our being heard and being alive. I often hear people say ‘I don’t understand XYZ’s view, how could they think this way’. Many times I think people should be saying ‘I don’t agree with XYZ’s view’, understanding and acknowledging someone’s view is sometimes all people require. We don’t have to agree with what they are saying, we can just validate what we are hearing. I think this helps with creating more harmony and less conflict in our communication and relationships. Try acknowledging people around you, see what happens next…

I Am Aware

I Am present for this Blog.
I Am aware of my laptop’s churning sound.
I Am aware of how my fingers lightly tap the keyboard.
I Am present and aware of my physical state, creaky knee and all
I Am AWARE.
In my life roles of Coach, Advisor, Facilitator, Strategist, Mum, Wife, Partner, Daughter, Friend, Aunt, Colleague I am not always so AWARE.
In the roles of Coach and Mum I am most AWARE. I think I might have a bias for these particular roles in my life as the more AWARE and present I am the greater value I experience and create.
When working with Business Executives a lot of energy goes into helping professionals become AWARE of their stories, barriers and strengths and co-creating better ways of being. It seems that in the business of life we forget to pause and remember what state we are actually in. We then allow questionable habits to dominate our life and negative language to restrict our potential. Have you ever heard yourself saying ‘I am too busy’ , ‘I have too much on my plate to look at innovation’, ‘I will get to that when I have a quiet time’…
These scripts play out in reality every day and translate into back to back meetings, task orientation, urgency addiction and working extraordinarily long days. Does this approach to working translate into value and success? For some organisations it does and some it doesn’t. My question for you today is to be Aware of your state - your thoughts, language, physicality, being and then ask yourself this is the most constructive way of being to fulfill your potential and the potential of your organisation, team and colleagues.
Where our attention goes energy flows. Be AWARE of where you are putting your attention and ensure that its focus is what is most important to supporting your success and the success of your organisation. Remember it is OK to pause and reflect and be AWARE, it may only take a few seconds…

Creating Meaning

Which Life Will You Create – Pleasant, Good or Meaningful
Holidays bring with them time to reflect, time at the beach and time to catch up with my TED talks. A couple of the TED talks that stood out for me included Martin Seligman’s State of Psychology and Brene Brown’s Power of Vulnerability.
As a recovering control freak and an eternal optimist both of these talks resonated with me. The Power of Vulnerability highlighted to fully live and reach your potential you need to stop controlling everything. You need to be OK with a bit of mess. You need to be OK with the uncertainty of life. You need to acknowledge your own vulnerability and let it breathe and flow. By doing this you can take risks, be OK with things not working out and therefore know that you can get through any situation. Exercising your vulnerability allows you to step up and grow in different ways that you could not imagine compared to trying to fully control a situation. Being vulnerable for me is exposing myself to failure. Without risking failure how can we fully succeed? We have had many great ideas that sizzled and then fizzled. That has not stopped us from creating new ideas, we don’t know which idea will work. All previous ideas were great practice experiences to help us really appreciate when an idea actually does work!
Allow yourselves in 2011 to be a little risky – create a little mess, trial new experiences seek new adventures and allow your teams and families to play too.
Martin Seligman spoke about the more positive lives we could live and categorized them into 3 types: Pleasant, Good and Meaningful.
Pleasant lives – emotionally feel positive in the moment, but the feeling dissipates quickly. For example the feeling you have when you watch a funny movie, or buy a new pair of shoes or new clothes. Allowing ourselves to be fully present and mindful to savour our lives can make a pleasant life even more enduring.
Good lives – when time stops and you are in the flow/zone and you are immersed in whatever you are doing. You are so into your experience you do not recognise anything that is going on around you. For example athletes, musicians, artists are totally immersed in their experiences and nothing else exists. When I am coaching, dancing and writing I am in this zone – it feels like time just stops. At these times we are generally working with our strengths and allowing them to shine.
Meaningful lives – ability to use your strengths to contribute to something bigger than yourself. Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jnr and Nelson Mandela are examples of leaders who have led meaningful lives. Becoming a parent definitely added a new dimension of meaning to my life and any work that we provide to charities and community groups definitely has a long lasting positive impact on me. The challenge is to find your own meaning in your life.
Which life are you living?
In our work lives what environments are we creating for ourselves and colleagues – are we amplifying the work stage to allow vulnerabilities to be tested and shine? Are we creating pleasant work environments, where people love to come to work? Are we encouraging people to work in their zones playing to their strengths? Are we creating meaning in our workplace where people can contribute to a greater cause?
If we truly want our businesses to be innovative, rise to the new technological and environmental challenges we need to take risks and create meaning. Live fully in 2011.

Choose to create and not complain
I love working with strong, visionary, creative leaders. These leaders are inspiring to work with and have an amazing ability to help others work in the zone and achieve. I work with men and women who display these characteristics. I also work with men and women who do not display these characteristics. Why do we have such variation in our leaders? Surely the thousands of books on leadership and management and the thousand more leadership courses available have improved our leaders? I have recently attracted a lot of information on women in business. I have never felt being a woman a hindrance in the corporate world, if anything it is an advantage. I am extremely fortunate to work at the highest levels in corporations and lowest levels. A couple of my favourite CEOs refer to me as ‘fair but firm’ and ‘the feather coated sledge hammer’. I would love to hear the saying – ‘Women are their greatest advocates’ and never want to hear again ‘Women are their worst enemies’. As a woman or man in business I truly believe that our mindset, self confidence, capabilities and drive can take us wherever we want to go. It is ultimately our choice, something I learnt very young in my life. I am constantly reassessing and evolving my leadership role in business, family, community and society. For me remembering where I have come from and my evolutionary stages is useful in reminding me of the power of choice.

Quiet, Shy, Afraid Stage
Yes for those of you who know me this is hard to believe. For the first 12 years of my life I was quiet, conforming, studious and tried to do the ‘right thing’ all the time. The bullying I experienced at Primary school between the ages of 10 and 11 pushed me deeper into my shell. I was not even a follower, let alone a leader. I was paralyzed like a deer in headlights, too afraid to move. I would say my leadership skills were close to zero.

Awakening and Wonder Stage
I am not sure why, but when I transitioned to high school I wanted a fresh start. I was no longer a push over, I found my voice and my new teenage body was not going to take any ‘%^&#@’ from any anyone. I chose to assert myself. My awakening happened when I was 16 and a fabulous teacher took the time out to Mentor me. At 16, I thought my life was predetermined, be a good Australian/Italian girl, get married and have children. My wonderful teacher – Mr Quinn gave me the greatest gift of self awareness and choice. I could choose my life, I could have a vocation. I didn’t have to be stuck in the country. Being a woman was not a hindrance, it was a blessing in disguise. He gave me books such as I’m OK Your OK to give me tools to help process my thinking and interpret the world. I was hopeful and ready to spread my wings. I was the first Australian/Italian girl to leave my country town and go to University. I chose the big City.

Ambition and Drive Stage
I was hungry for life and wanted everything to happen as quickly as can be ( sort of sounds familiar to Y gens?). I completed my undergraduate degrees in record time, accelerated through a Graduate program and was promoted every 12 to 18 months in my first 9 years of my career. I was flying. I was married by 23, had my first home at 21. Travelled around Europe by 25. I went out and made my opportunities; I was planned, driven and rewarded. I was a very busy bee and about to embark on another week of work travel, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth when my husband had an acute asthma attack and rushed to ICU. Then my world stopped. That life changing week made me realize that I was spending very little time with my best friend – my husband. I then spent the next 18 months redesigning my life so I could spend more quality time with the people I love. I also realized what was the hurry? What am I rushing for? What am I rushing to – death? I also had a crisis of confidence, my employers and clients believed a lot in me – but was I any good at practicing what I preached, could I create my own viable business? I chose to leave the security of a full time job and take on a contract role and start our first business.

Credibility and Flexibility Stage
We formed our first business 11 years ago. Our businesses have changed and evolved, our business gives me the space to be credible and have flexibility. I choose to work with clients that are innovative, smart and have aligned values. I choose to coach and mentor others to fully utilise their potential. I choose the clients that I can best help to support and grow. I get a lot of joy in seeing clients grow personally and professionally. I love my vocation and I am continuously learning.
I also choose to be a good mum and good partner. Spending quality time with my family is joyous. I have been blessed with one daughter who teaches me a lot every day. I continue to work with my best friend who is my husband – when it is good it is amazing and when it is bad it is horrid…
I have chosen to work flexible hours to be there for my clients and my family and of course myself.

What choices are you making and what stage are you evolving from and to?

We are a product of our choices – some are quite conscious and others unconscious. We can spend our lives complaining about what is not working or we can devote that energy into making our lives better. Great leaders do this, they don’t complain they create.
Our businesses, our families, our communities and our planet need more great female and male leaders
Choose to create and not complain.

Spring Growth App

Instinct or ‘gut feel’ as more commonly termed is an interesting phenomena which is underrated at work and home at times. When we have so much going on in life and work, we become distracted with the action and task at hand and lose our connection with our inner wisdom.
Malcolm Gladwell reinforced the importance of first impressions in his book Blink a refreshing reminder that no matter how easy it is to access global knowledge, lets not forget our own inner knowledge and wisdom.
It is a little ironic that we can Google anything that we are not sure about, a good eatery, best coffee place, stages of grief, comparisons between iPhone 4 and HTC Desire (just to give you a couple of my latest Google searches) and yet stopping and listening to our natural instincts can be a novel activity.
I recently experienced a rude awakening from my own body, I obviously wasn’t listening or aware of my state of being and found myself in hospital, having surgery and off my feet for a month. I pride myself on reading others so well, yet I forgot about myself. My gut feel turned from a hunch to a major ache! My intuition radar for myself was way off, I am now recalibrating it to be more aware.
My own winter remedy that I hope will be helpful to others:
• Stop and breathe and become centred
• Stop doing everything
• Take help – good help, surround yourself with people who have better skills than you and welcome them into your lives
• Create space to pause and go outdoors
• Hug someone you love
• Surround yourself with people that give you energy and joy
• Book a holiday
• Stop taking yourself so seriously, life is to be lived and not endured
• Stop the instant messaging and go for a walk in the park and reconnect with yourself
As I am getting back into my zone I know I have more clarity, clearer intentions and have less distracting noise at work and home.
I am slowly reconnecting with my inner core, holding on to this as Spring emerges will be not a challenge, but a great springboard into my favourite season abundant with new growth.
Celebrate and embrace our own inner wisdom and allow ourselves to keep this app (application) permanently switched on…maybe we should develop a widget for it?

Understanding Your S Curve

I recently read Jim Collins book – ‘How The Mighty Fall’ which was a suspiciously thin book compared to his previous classics. It was an interesting reminder of what goes wrong when companies capitulate into decline. I have worked in two organisations that experienced significant decline. I remember seeing the significant changes in technology, government support and new emerging client needs. I also remember the blindness of those companies in addressing these changes and leading indicators.

Collins highlights 5 stages of Decline:
1. Huburis Born of Success – here you are at your peak, arrogance emerges
2. Undisciplined Pursuit of More – greed
3. Denial of Risk Peril – blinkers are on and excuses emerge
4. Grasping of Salvation – clear that the business model has fundamental flaws
5. Capitulation to Irrelevance – death of the business

Collins makes an interesting observation that you do not know when you will decline, everything on the outside looks good but there is a disease forming on the inside.

Things to avoid:
-People with too much vested interest in the old ways of doing things
-Poor succession planning, leaders forget to build the capabilities of the future
- Arrogance
- Not believing in luck
-Stop learning
-Stop focusing on core strengths and capabilities
- Working in isolation to market trends
- Believing your own ‘BS’

I do believe organisations can extend their S curve lifecycles if they keep humble, open to their market, competitors and substitutes, deal with uncertainty in a constructive manner, keep learning and benchmarking their performance and develop future scenarios and contingencies. Organisations need to be prepared to stop investing in dying businesses and reinvest in future business opportunities. Keeping an active business and client portfolio is a key success factor for extending growth – companies such as Wesfarmers, Siemens, GE practice this very well.

In our own strategic planning process we religiously review external forces that impact our success and the success of our clients, suppliers and partners. The Leading Indicators that we monitor include changes to government legislation, new technologies particularly around web/social networking and connectivity, tax reforms, unemployment, % of companies experiencing bankruptcies, ageing population and implementation of carbon taxes.

In our own scenario planning we see the ageing population, energy transition/environmental impacts and healthcare needs as key areas that will impact growth and create new opportunities for us and our clients. We also anticipate X factors – things that just happen like Volcanoes, 9/11 and other natural or manmade traumas. We just don’t know what the X factors will be and in preparing for these we know we should have a cash flow base to ride us through these events.

It is OK not to know about the future, but it is not OK not to be open to it and prepared.

The reality is there is a lot of luck associated with reinventing and extending your business life. Being open and aware helps you attract and realise these opportunities.

Untold Stories

I have worked with the Lominger Leadership competencies for nearly 12 months now and there is a lot for me to learn. The comprehensive Leadership Architecture outlines the 67 ideal competencies for talent and career development. I am now accredited in the Voices360 assessment which is one of the most comprehensive 360 tools on the market.

The breadth of the research highlights a lot of untold stories such as the Big 8 competencies most Leaders struggle in and the skills required to be politically savvy, another understated competency that is essential for career development.

Insight 1: Big 8
Through Lominger’s extensive research conducted globally over the last 15 years they have discovered the Big 8 competencies that are the most challenging, less practiced and super essential. The Big 8 are - Dealing with Ambiguity, Creativity, Innovation Management, Motivating Others, Planning, Strategic Agility, Building Effective Teams and Managing Vision and Purpose. The insight I gained from this is that these big 8 are the areas that keep me most employed. I would probably add a ninth, which would be Political Savvy. Most of my clients engage me for one or more of these nine competencies and the realization that there is a world wide need in this area, highlights the great challenges and opportunities available to make a positive difference to leadership and talent management.

Insight 2: Political Savvy
Lominger’s 48th competency is Political Savvy, which is the capability to maneuver through complex political situations effectively and quietly to achieve goals. It is refreshing to see Political Savvy written down and assessed as a real competency, because in practice it is not often spoken about openly. Lominger provides tips on how to develop this skill in a very constructive and ethical manner. By combining Political Savvy (No. 48), Comfort Around Higher Management (No. 8) and Interpersonal Savvy (No. 31), suddenly you have a palette of behaviours that supports managing up and other key stakeholders. This combination of skills strongly supports effective stakeholder management and enables Leaders to know who to influence in the best way possible. I’d like to express a different take on the old phrase ‘It’s not what you know, but who you know’ to ‘It’s important to know what you know, who to know and how to access both expediently’.

Insight 3: Connecting Business and People
Helping others to find their light, purpose and reach their potential and their business’s potential is most motivating for me. The Lominger Competencies provides me with another colour to add to my palette of paints to share at the appropriate times with the right clients. I look forward to creating rainbows and creating greater insights to achieve sustainable personal and business results.

Presence

Presence

Having the space to read and reflect is an indulging experience for me. These holidays I was very indulgent and I immersed myself in 5 books which were sitting on my book shelf pleading with me to be opened.

My 5 books were:
Power of 2 How to Use the Most of Your Partnerships at work and life – Rodd Wagner and Gale Muller
Our Iceberg Is Melting – John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber
Coaching to the Human Soul Vol II Ontological Coaching and Deep Change – Alan Sieler
Blink – Malcolm Gladwell
The Art of the Idea – John Hunt

I also watched Ekhard Tolle’s Purpose of Your Life DVD, a deeply inspiring piece about living fully in the present.

Insight 1 Trust Your Instincts
The universe has a funny way of presenting itself; it seemed to me that all that was being presented to me was about being PRESENT. Malcolm Gladwell reinforced the importance of trusting your instinct and allowing and working from a deep inner zone where insights emerge. Gladwell, Hunt and Kotter reinforced the danger of over thinking and intellectualizing and advocated allowing insights to emerge from within. A part of me relates to this and of course my logical side wants to argue aggressively the importance of facts and data…
‘Trust your instincts, or they will Go AWAY, Logic is KRYPTONITE’ – John Hunt

Insight 2 Admired and Trusted Simpletons Catalyst for Change
John Kotter and Eckhard Tolle both reinforced the great value of ‘simpletons’ e.g. Lord of the Rings Hobbits, the little people that were not the brightest or the bravest, but had good intentions. They advocated that simple people should be entrusted with great tasks as they are easily trusted and admired by all. Simple people do not use management jargon, they speak from the heart and communicate in a way that all can relate. This was a really important reminder for me when helping organisations go through change, the change team needs a simple well admired team member who can relate to people and is admired by all and communicate stories in a simple way. Too many times we work with the high profile drivers of change only, we need to ensure the right mix of people are collaborating to implement change.
‘Embrace DIVERSITY it’ll HUG you back’ – John Hunt

Insight 3 Moods Even More Important Than Emotions
Sieler, Kotter, Hunt and Gladwell all highlighted the importance of emotions and moods and how these impact our thinking and actions. Sieler in particular reinforced the awareness of moods that can underpin our emotions and being for extended periods of time. These moods can support our effectiveness or significantly impede our effectiveness:

Resentment – opposition to the world, ‘I am treated unfairly – I want revenge’
Acceptance – accepting of the world, ‘That is how it is – I am open’
Grieving – opposition to loss,’ I do not accept my loss – Lack of engagement with the present’
Sadness – accepting of loss, ‘I accept my loss – More engaged with the present’
Resignation – opposition to possibilities, ‘Nothing will make a difference – Do nothing’
Ambition – accepting to the possibilities, ‘Things can be different – Take action to bring about a different future’
Anxiety – opposition to uncertainty, ‘The world is threatening – Avoid and withdraw’
Wonder/Curiosity – acceptance of uncertainty – ‘I’m not sure about future and interested in finding out – Exploring’

Moods impact our physicality, thinking and actions. Most people do not know their underpinning moods. When dealing with change we rarely address the underpinning emotions and moods of people, Sieler’s work is a powerful model to help effect deep change and self awareness. Moods come from a very deep place within us, probably created years ago in our childhood. The importance of helping others work in the present and acknowledge their moods and their effects can be a very empowering process to support human growth and unleashing human potential.
‘You get sunrise or sunset people and Ideas have MOODS’ – John Hunt

Insight 4 Playing to Your Strengths and Partnering with Others
Wagner and Muller reinforced that one of the key success factors of great partnerships is when people work with others who have complimentary strengths.
Understanding your own strengths and those of your team members is a fantastic way to get yourself and team performing at their best. Sporting teams, musical bands and artists have known this secret for a long time, work and corporate environments are a lot slower to engage with this principle. We like to clone people and employ people like us – very dangerous. Firstly be OK with not being the best at everything – there is only one Leonardo da Vinci. Secondly acknowledge what you are great at and get in a vocation which amplifies these strengths. Thirdly partner and align with others that compliment your strengths and let your ego off the hook, it is OK to be surrounded with people better than you, in fact this is a great way of succeeding.

2010 is the year to: TRUST our instincts, entrust Simple People to implement change, Manage Moods, Play to our strengths and partner others with complimentary strengths – and to be fully PRESENT. Happy New Year

Taking A Different View

In our busy lives strategic thinking – seeing the patterns and taking a helicopter perspective of our world can be challenging. I bring a helicopter with me to all my workshops as a reminder for us to allow ourselves to change our view on a situation. At times when we are so close to something, our vision can be myopic. Practicing our ability to think strategically can be difficult when a short term view is generally demanded and rewarded.

The dilemma I am exploring is:
Present V Future

The spirituality perspective of life is to live in the ‘present’ and savour every moment.
The strategic thinking perspective is to discover and create the future and what is possible.

The art of reflective thinking and deep conversations enable to us to be more present and authentic with our awareness and intentions and these same practices aid us in thinking of the future.

We have recently built a decking; I have christened it the SKYDECK. I notice so much more when I am up there, the detailed skyline, the fluttering feathered brigade, the leaves emerging on the trees, the fruit ripening, the warmth of the sun and the harshness of the wind. This elevated space enables me to be present and experience a variety of sensations I hadn’t experienced in my home. When I am in this zone I start to see patterns in the world that I hadn’t seen before. I start to contemplate -what ifs and allow alternative assumptions to enter my thinking.

My dilemma is no longer two opposing truths, but two collaborating truths. Perhaps it is simply the ‘AND’ factor once again, be in the present and explore and create the future…

Co-creating

This week I had a private Meditation class and commenced Coaching with my Coach, I was inspired by my new Teachers. I just completed reading Happier Than God by Neale Donald Walsch- which gave me a few tips to live more fully.

First Insight: Give others every experience you seek. This resonates well with me, time and time again I am moved by stranger's kindness and how the universe mirrors back your intentions and actions in practice. My 3 year old constantly gets free gifts from strangers ranging from flowers, balloons, stamps and confectionary. I keep telling her how special and lucky she is and the virtual cycle continues. Experiencing Coaching for myself again is wonderful, I had forgotten how great it feels to be coached, yet I coach people daily through my vocation. It is wonderful to receive.

Second Insight: When things really go wrong - embrace the issue and heal it. We have the power to heal ourselves - taking help from others is very handy too. This is a lovely reminder of what we resist persists. When you give up on something or push it to happen too much - it seems to pull away from you. The delicate and humble acknowledgement that not everything happens when you want it to and timing, that is divine timing is a blessing. We tried to have children for 5 years it was only after we let the need go and worked on our own peace of mind through karate and herbal medicine that we were able to conceive and bring a child into the world.

Third Insight: Trying v Allowing - I can be quite pushy at times and creating the space for answers, ideas to emerge and not rushing to solutions is another one of my areas for improvement. Trusting in myself and my amazing partners/colleagues/clients to co-create is very important to me. I am a life long learner and learning collaboratively and growing collaboratively is a path worth travelling. We are updating our FACT - survey administration system and have come up with some innovative ideas with our partners on how to share the investment. I am open to co-creating and collaborative learning.

Savouring life

What world are we leaving our children? Sharif Abdullah at the 2007 ICFA conference asked us to visualise a world that valued children first. This world would be nurturing, joyful, playful and teaching and caring would be highly valued vocations. Visualise a world where art and music are most valued, what would it be like? There would be colour, beauty, harmony and less struggling artists. Visualise a world that values money more than anything else and we have our current reality. We have bigger homes with smaller families, more personal debt, more personal consumer gadgets, more pollution and less clean air and less biodiversity to experience. Economically we are the best we have ever been. Yet suicide and depression rates are the highest on record.

It is difficult to know what to do, will our actions make the planet better or worse? Reducing our carbon emissions, recycling water, investing in renewable energies - will this make the planet better or worse? When living in a complex open system where the consequences of our actions are uncertain and future, it makes it more difficult to understand the effects of our choices. Very few people intentionally want to leave a depleted planet for our future generations. These same people are unable to comprehend the consequences associated with their high consumerism. Collectively we are continuing to deplete our earth's natural resources and eating ourselves out of this planet. Sure buying new things feels good, the feeling only lasts temporarily. If we understood the cradle to grave resources and processes that our consumerism creates we would all be more careful of our credit card purchases.

Are we overcompensating on consumerism to make up for the spirit less, disconnected lives we are living? Remember what gives us real joy,e.g. sunsets, nature, children's smiles, friendships, live music, aromas of fresh baking, playing our favourite sport - savouring life and being in the moment. Spirituality is feeling fully energised and connected to each other - all aspects of the planet.

What about another way of being? Imagine slowing down our day, our 24 hours are not rushing by, we are present and feeling the moments. We greet the day, we savour our food, we nurture and take care of our physical body and soul, we connect with nature, we exercise because we want to extend and experience the capability of our bodies, we speak to our neighbours, we create sustainable value in our vocations, we have deep conversations with our partners and friends, we contribute to our community, we exercise our passions and purposes and feel connected to the planet... We have more savouring experiences and less obsessions. We have less activities in our day and more heightened moments. We are full human 'beings' rather than human 'doings'. We are sampling and savouring life. Our challenge is to create connected organisations where all employees can exercise passion, purpose and can create sustainable value for all stakeholders including our biodiversity and future generations.

‘Work from the level you are at’

I recently had a catch up coffee with a long term colleague and he gave me some feedback which I found invaluable. He reminded me that my journey on environmental and social issues has been long, nearly 15 years and that I shouldn’t expect people to understand my perspective as most people haven’t even commenced their environmental and social awareness.

This was a great reminder for me. One of the most profound models I took out of Stephen Covey’s book ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’, is that you need to work at the level people are at and not from where you are at. If you are working from a mental model say at level 7 and your audience is at level 3 you need to connect back with them at level 3. Covey’s theory proposes that people can’t skip learning and awareness levels they need to work through each of the levels themselves.

My message for all of us is to work from the environmental and social awareness level to help restore the balance in our planet.

In 1993 I first heard David Suzuki speak live at a conference. I did not know who he was and what his message was about. When he started to explain the facts about exponential population growth and consumption and limits to our finite resources, his message awoke a part of me that I didn’t know existed. At that forum my head was spinning ‘What do you mean the earth has finite resources? Why are species being eradicated faster in our life time than ever before? Why wasn’t I told about our integral relationship with the earth and mother nature, why wasn’t this covered in my geography or biology class…’

We Westerners pride ourselves on our intellect and ability to provide a better lifestyle for ourselves and families. In our attempt to achieve better lifestyles we are working longer hours, experiencing higher rates of divorce, spending less time with our children, having less contact with nature and are experiencing higher rates of depression. Our inability to understand the consequences of our day to day consumerism and the impact on our earth and lifestyle frightens me.

Here are some questions that I hope will make an appropriate connection with your own life:

What is most important to you today?

What gives you the most joy?

What are you most passionate about?

If money wasn’t an issue how would you be spending your time on earth?

Life is not a rehearsal, how much of your day to day time is dedicated to your passions and what gives you the most joy?

When was the last time you walked in the park and really noticed your surroundings?

How do you feel when you are close to nature e.g. mountains, rivers, bushland, oceans, forests, deserts etc?

What gives you the most energy?

In answering some of these questions I hope that a level of environmental and social awareness has been rekindled.

I am not a ‘radical greenie’, I drive a car, enjoy my share of consumerism AND reduce, reuse, recycle and renew. I believe you can have your life comforts AND make a positive difference to our environment and society. I support animal adoptions to maintain our biodiversity, tree planting to offset carbon emissions, global and local social charities and ethical business investments. We compost our food waste, have a water tank, recycle water, subscribe to green energy and are investigating a solar energy solution. I shop locally and support my local community. I am not perfect and I still catch myself purchasing something ‘made in China’ and then having pangs of regret. None of us are perfect. Yin and Yang philosophy reminds us of the balance we all try to seek in our finite life.

My message today is to become aware and then start small changes in our life to restore the balance in our planet. As Nelson Mandela says – ‘it starts with us’.

Turn over a new LEAF

Do you want to make a difference and don’t know how?

At our last holiday my partner had a brilliant idea on how to make a positive impact on the environment. The tipping point has taken place and now the masses understand the need for renewable energies, reduction of emissions/pollutions, conserving water and saving our biodiversity. Most people know why, they just don't know how to make a positive personal contribution. We shouldn't wait for Government and Business to lead the way, we all can make a positive change in our world today. If we only knew how... Thats where we come in, we are going to make it so easy for people to make a positive difference today.
We came up with LEAFTM. LEAFTM provides a way for people who care about the environment to leave behind a better world for our children. LEAFTM stands for LIFE ENVIRONMENT ASSURANCE FOUNDATION, pay it forward for a better future. LEAFTM helps us to exercise choices to invest in our children’s future in practical ways including:
-Improving energy usage and reducing greenhouse emissions in the home
-Conserving the world’s biological natural diversity
-Investing in ethical companies that support sustainable business practices

Our role is to package practical home and lifestyle services for you - it is as easy as filling in one form and we will do the rest
LEAFTM is a membership based service and our aim is to make it easy and practical for you to implement change. There are two levels, Green Forest and Blue Sky, each offering a range of services and subscriptions from engage consulting group and our alliance partners. Membership Options
Green Forest membership provides:
Information and tips on saving energy and reducing greenhouse emissions at home to save money
·Membership to Greenfleet, a program that plants trees to reduce car emissions (tax deductible)
·Adoption of an animal through WWF Australia (tax deductible)
·Access to Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) Fact Sheets, events and programs
·A 1hr consultation with a Financial Adviser on Ethical Investing
Blue Sky membership provides all Green Forest membership benefits plus the following options:
·A one hour consultation with a Home Sustainability Consultant from Going Solar or Neco on practical home water and energy savings OR
A ‘Home Sustainability' Product Pack for kitchen, bathroom and around the house OR
If you wish, you can save up your points to the value of the above packages and services and use them for a larger purchase, for example 3 years membership points will provide you with approximately $300 value towards home sustainability products and services.

If you want more information please visit our website: http://www.engageconsulting.com.au/LEAF.html

If each of us made positive environmental changes to our home and lifestyle, we would solve our green house gas problems and provide a better future for our children. As Nelson Mandela said - 'it starts with me'. Be the change in your world.

Finding your voice

I am currently immersing myself in a creative venture in writing a book with a colleague. To be able to write something that is moving,evokes emotion, creates tension, provides reflection and some type of learning in a fun and practical way is our challenge. The ability to go to that place where characters emerge, plots unravel and heros are created is an amazing zone.

My 9 month daughter articulated her first babble, of course she said 'Da-da'. To hear her husky,sweet voice for the first time was wonderful. The power of voice and use of language are talents that we underestimate and under utilise. We carelessly uses these senses and forget how much can be said with such few words...
Sarina