Benefiting at work from Brain Based Insights

My wise old Dad used to say to me. Change is inevitable in business life. If you spend energy resisting it then you will lose out during the change process. It is better to sit down and think of 5 ways this change could be good for you, challenge yourself to make this "inevtiable" change something that will enhance you as a person. Then spend the energy on making that happen. The off shoot is that bosses will like your positive stance, include you more in the change management process. This leads to more personal success and a greater chance of influencing the change program. This has helped me, you can always find the time to look for the positive....because you could have found the time to complain!

Thanks for this refreshing insight Anna, which appears to be a lovely mix of your Dad's best and yours! Your notion of time intrigues me here as does the fact that what we do influences who we become in the change process.

In MITA Brain Based Certification we end with what is called a "Celebration of Knowledge" and in that event Certification candidates invite participants to take part in the change process they create and demionstrate.

It's amazing to see the solutions that arise to take care of problems that persisted. Change tends to follow when energy goes into creating brain based tactics to solve a firm's problems.

What do you think?

Ellen: Your article flowed so nicely that it made perfect sense. It appealed to the left brain in me. I simply asked myself "what's missing from this picture?" and drew on my own experience of helping others to deal with change. Perhaps it shows how we can build on the ideas of others.

In my experience, discontinuity always plays a big part of any change process because we are dealing with change in human beings and a human system is always somewhat chaotic.

I think another benefit of taking a second look is that it helps those of us who are seeking to help people to change to check whether the meaning that we've attached to the other person's behaviour in the first instance is correct. Your two-footed questions will be a very powerful tool in this endeavour.

In other words, to help people to change, we have to remain as open minded as possible. That's where Emotional Intelligence helps. Here's an example.

The world that I live in is a product of my belief system. The world of the people that I'm trying to help change is based on their own belief system. If I can cultivate my social awareness (a key Emotional Intelligence competency) I can do a better job of trying to understand the other person.

Anna, I enjoyed your comment. I agree that people who position themselves positively in relation to change will be welcomed by people who are trying to achieve organisational change. The person who responds positively to change has basically re-framed their reality. Their positive thought process brings them better outcomes. Ellen shows us that we are capable of doing this one step at a time.

Thank you Ellen for continuing to set such a fantastic forum for presenting cutting edge information in such an accessible and entertaining way.

Your approach has helped me immensely and thanks so much for your $m donation (i.e. your link) :). If anyone wants to explore these ideas further, they can read the chapter "How To Successfully Lead Change From The Inside Out" which is in my free Tune Up Your Emotional Intelligence Workbook.