Posts Tagged ‘Culture Transformation’

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

Monday, March 8th, 2010

* Transcription

Thank God it’s Monday!™ I recently heard a great analogy at a conference about how to bring great wisdom into our lives. I just have to share it with you. Remember the song: Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream, merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream? I’m really glad I didn’t have to sing for you. Now, I KNOW this doesn’t sound like rocket science but actually, it’s better than rocket science. Let’s dissect it.

Row YOUR boat… not somebody else’s. In other words, keep your nose clean out of other people’s business. If you stay solidly focused on YOUR boat, you can achieve greatness with sanity.

Gently down the stream…

It doesn’t say create a battle… It doesn’t say go up the stream… so stop making things so hard. Choose ease and grace.

Merrily… yes, that is a choice. You can encounter mosquitoes to swat, rapids, and all of life’s speed bumps, but YOU get to choose to meet each one MERRILY—but that is a choice and that choice is YOURS. You get to make it and it is a dream, it is your dream. You get to create as much joy, abundance, and love as you want in your dream or as much heart ache, pain, and struggle. Just by changing your attitude, the ride down the stream turns to a beautiful experience.

Enjoy YOUR trip.

Have a great Monday!

Roxanne

Roxanne Emmerich’s Thank God It’s Monday! How to Create a Workplace You and Your Customers Love climbed to #1 on Amazon’s bestseller list and made the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists—all in the first week of its release. Roxanne is renowned for her ability to transform “ho-hum” workplaces into dynamic, results-oriented, “bring-it-on” cultures. If you are not currently receiving the Thank God It’s Monday e-zine and weekly audios, subscribe today at www.ThankGoditsMonday.com.

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The Terrible Trio—Vampires, Victims, and Whiners (oh my!)

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
© Rinderart | Dreamstime.com

© Rinderart | Dreamstime.com

Part 3:  The Whiner

Ah, whiners.  Instead of telling you what can be done, whiners spend hours vividly outlining what can’t be done and why. Had whiners ruled the world, we’d still be sitting in our caves, huddled around the fire complaining that we can’t find the remote control.

Whining is an attempt to “one-up” others by dismissing all possibilities before anyone has a chance to make a suggestion. Oddly enough, while a whiner’s statement may sound definite, the bluster is actually born of insecurity. Although they have enough mental sharpness to point out problems, they don’t have enough confidence to work at resolving them.  Many people who grow up to be whiners learned early on in life that they could get more attention and by voicing a complaint than by trying to correct a situation.

There isn’t much room for someone like that in a workplace where team members want to rock or in an office where everyone is willing to carry their weight and then some.

Of course, this is not to say that there will never be any whining again, ever. Sometimes it goes with the human condition.  And if we’re honest with ourselves, we have to admit that we’ve ALL have had our moments of whining.

We all have our occasional pity parties or bouts of attention seeking. Despite our knowing how whining can negatively impact others and render us ineffective, there’s a remote chance we might once again choose to uncork that bottle of whine. We’re only human.

Although the ugly truth is that there’s nothing attractive about whining, there are ways to prevent and avoid the condition in ourselves AND in others.  The key is to name it, to make it public, to give ourselves and others permission to laugh it away.

Forge an agreement in your workplace to drive whining away once and for all by flashing the “W” sign—three fingers extended—whenever anyone starts to whine, moan, or groan.  It’s a humorous, non-threatening reminder to stop whining and start creating a solution.

Whenever someone gets the sign, they must agree to stop IMMEDIATELY.  The usual result is a good-natured laugh.  Make sure you distribute the sign evenly around the office—don’t gang up on a single person—and be sure to handle your own occasional dips into Whine Country with good humor and honesty.

The Chat that Launched a Thousand Transformations

Thursday, February 11th, 2010
© Nruboc | Dreamstime.com

© Nruboc | Dreamstime.com

Of all the transformative tools in all the coffee joints in the world—search ye in vain for anything more effective than The Conversation.

The Conversation is not an hour-long lecture.  It isn’t a debate.  It isn’t complicated to learn or deliver.  In about 15 seconds, The Conversation can take someone with a crummy, destructive workplace attitude and turn them completely around.

Say you’ve got a co-worker who never misses an opportunity to grouse about management, or peers, or underlings, or the furniture, lights, weather, health plan, the pattern in the break room floor tiles…I can see by your expression that you know who I’m talking about.

If I’m right, and you DO know someone like this, a pure vortex of energy-sucking dark matter who seeks only to derail any hope of progress, then it’s time for YOU to engage this person in The Conversation.

Here’s how it goes:

“I’m so excited about where our team is going. And I could be wrong, but my sense is you don’t share that excitement.  That’s okay, because maybe this isn’t your thing.  But if this isn’t your thing, you have to go find your thing!”

That’s it.  That’s the whole thing.  But take a moment to see what’s packed into that tiny paragraph.  You’re excited, and you’ve noticed she isn’t.  You validate that (“That’s okay”), then invite the person to find her bliss—wherever it is!

You don’t need to be the boss or even in the same department with this person to have The Conversation. It is extremely direct yet exceptionally loving because it demonstrates that you care enough to get them to make a choice between bringing their whole heart to their current situation or going to find a new situation that makes them happy.

Delivered well, The Conversation has transformed a lot of people from being miserable blamers to on-fire contributors. And the beauty is that it works in an instant.  Ninety percent of the time, the bad apple person says, in these or other words, “You’re right. I’ve been a jerk”—and then becomes a star performer because the boundless energy they were using to manipulate their coworkers into joining them in their misery is now channeled to productive use.

As for the other ten percent—well, anyone who refuses to respond to an intervention that gentle and reasonable has essentially fired himself.  The pink slip is just a formality.

How You Do Anything is How You Do Everything

Monday, February 1st, 2010

* Transcription

Thank God it’s Monday!™ Have you ever noticed that people are consistent? People who are late to work are late for projects. People who hate their boss leave to hate the next boss. People who can’t get along with coworkers can’t get along with their spouses and kids. People who leave right before being fired due to performance problems jump into the next job, only to be found out again in about the same amount of time.

Now, we ALL have some of these issues and they’re in all of us. We have to swallow the honesty pill.

And yet, if we simply understand that we are humans with patterns, we can finally begin to break the patterns. Awareness is the first step to recovery. Let me repeat that. Awareness is the first step to recovery.

So, first of all, stop right there. Don’t spend your time identifying your coworker’s patterns. Instead, take a look in the mirror and perhaps even put it under the microscope. Then, forgive yourself everything so you can move beyond the guilt.

And then commit. I mean really commit. And, if your break a commitment, realize you need to get right back on the commitment because it still is YOUR commitment.

Break those patterns and enjoy the fruits of your powerful breakthrough because how you do anything is how you do everything.

Have a great Monday!

Roxanne

Roxanne Emmerich’s Thank God It’s Monday! How to Create a Workplace You and Your Customers Love climbed to #1 on Amazon’s bestseller list and made the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists—all in the first week of its release. Roxanne is renowned for her ability to transform “ho-hum” workplaces into dynamic, results-oriented, “bring-it-on” cultures. If you are not currently receiving the Thank God It’s Monday e-zine and weekly audios, subscribe today at www.ThankGoditsMonday.com.

Love this audio message? You may also download the MP3 version and PDF transcript below:



Download Instructions: Right-click the download button(s) and
choose ‘save link as…’ to save the file to your computer.

Seven Secrets of a “Thank God It’s Monday” Workplace

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
© Vgstudio | Dreamstime.com

© Vgstudio | Dreamstime.com

What accounts for the difference between “Oh crap, it’s Monday” and “Thank God it’s Monday”?  It all boils down to seven habits that can change everything about the culture of your workplace:

1. Show up fully and commit with all your heart
At work, we think of home.  At home, we think of work.  Time to stop that.  The first step toward a TGIM workplace is being present and accounted for at work.  Thinking about being elsewhere leads to resenting where you are. 

While you are at work, commit to work with all your heart.  This is what I call throwing your heart over the bar—committing 100 percent to the moment and task before you.
 
2. Communicate clearly
Use powerful and positive language about what you will do and the attitude you expect from others.  If a TGIM workplace is your goal, take the time to make your communications clear on every level.

3. Go beyond the job description
Going beyond the job description happens when you pitch in and help others at work without expecting reward. Willingly share the load. If you’re caught up on your tasks, help someone else who is crunching for a deadline.  Instead of an extra burden, you actually feel more a part of things than ever.

4. Don’t tolerate dysfunctional behaviors
Establish a zero-tolerance policy for talking behind another person’s back, then give each other permission to address conflict head-on, out loud, courageously and honestly. Create a trusting and open environment and watch the dysfunction ebb away.

5. Clean up your messes
Relationships are built on trust. Without that foundation, there is no basis for a relationship.  We breach the trust each time we don’t do what we said we would do.  But here’s the thing—that breach can be healed quickly IF you come back and clean up the mess.  Acknowledge that the results are not okay, then make a commitment to put things right and prevent a recurrence.

6. Live a life of profound service
Once you place yourself in the service of those around you—your family, your colleagues, your customers—every moment becomes imbued with purpose and significance, and you feel GOOD. 
As you drive to work, begin thinking about how the work you do is serving others, contributing to their success and happiness.  This is the essence of true service, and the key to a workplace that draws you happily back, Monday after Monday after Monday.

7.  Celebrate
Every project consists of little steps, little victories along the way.  Recognize and celebrate them in ways large and small.  Build a system of celebrations and rewards—quarterly, weekly, daily—and follow through like your company’s life depends on it.  Because (psst) it does.

Acquire these seven habits and spread them through your workplace, then be sure to notice the first Monday your hand reaches for the alarm—and you smile.