Change Management During Uncertain Times

Change Management During Uncertain Times

by | April 17, 2020 | Business, Communication, COVID-19, Executive Coaching, Mindful Leadership, Training

Change Management During Uncertain Times

Grant Ian GambleBy Grant Ian Gamble | April 17, 2020

Grant Ian Gamble is a business growth consultant, executive coach, author and keynote speaker. He works in a broad array of industries helping companies build teams, navigate change and drive growth.

I first experienced the joy of sailing as a cadet at the Royal Australian Naval College. Harnessing the power of the wind was both challenging and exhilarating. Since those days of sailing Bosun’s Dinghies around Jervis Bay, I’ve sailed everything from windsurfers and kiteboards all the way up to a 48-foot catamaran on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. 

The one indelible constant in sailing is the ever-changing conditions that demand continuous course corrections and adjustments to the sails and rigging. The wind constantly shifts direction or speed, demanding ongoing course corrections. Currents and tides under the boat influence its path and again demand regular adjustments from the skipper.

Grant Ian Gamble Business Consulting | Author | Speaker | The Affinity Principle | Change Management Appraisal

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Constant Change & Mindful Communication

This volatility very much reminds me of the current state of the world. As information regardig COVID streams in from hundreds of countries across the globe, the ever changing trajectory, path and profile of this crisis demand constant adjustments to our course.

So how do we approach the ebb and flow of information and the constantly shifting parameters we’re faced with today?

As with the sailing analogy, this is an inexact process.

It requires trial and error and the ability to adjust course or expectations constantly. It may even require many companies to pivot in directions that they would have never contemplated. 

Managing change at this rate is incredibly stressful and difficult. More than ever, it demands great communications between your team, customers, the community and stakeholders.

In times of turmoil developing and maintaining regular, relevant and rhythmic communications with your communities will bring many benefits:

1. Routine and rhythm will help establish a sense of trust with your constituencies. 

2. These communication rhythms will bring awareness around issues and will help develop solutions and facilitate change.

3. These rhythmic communications give you opportunities to recognize your team and simultaneously better understand the challenges that they are facing in this new world order. 

NOTE: Communications should not be limited to work and professional issues. It helps for your team and constituencies to discuss the personal and sometimes unique circumstances they’re facing.

4. Given that many of your team members may be working remotely for the first time, these regular communication opportunities may reduce a feeling of isolation and keep those team members more in touch.

5. Sharing of information and knowledge through regular conversations and briefings can also enhance relationships between teams and creating a variety of groups and forums will help solidify your team and company in these turbulent times.

Constant Change & Clarity

Beyond collaborative communications are the strategic elements of navigating these treacherous waters. Much like Jack Sparrow on “Pirates of the Caribbean,” you need a compass that points toward that which you desire to accomplish.

My point is that you really need to have clarity about where you’re headed. And I don’t mean those rocks that appear all around you! I mean what is the ultimate destination you seek when this crisis resolves itself? 

Regaining clarity around your ultimate destination beyond this crisis will inform the course corrections you need to make now. As information comes to hand and options appear and disappear, you will need to maintain clarity around your final destination in order to navigate the many challenges that stand between where you are today and where you want to be at the end of this crisis.

Constant Change & Strategy Adjustments

In order to redefine the goal/s for your company in the face of these turbulent times, I recommend engaging your stakeholders in the conversation. It also makes sense to engage thought leaders in this dialogue. By bringing in talented third parties that have helped companies navigate crises and re-births, you improve your chance of weathering this storm.

There will be a level of attrition in business that occurs as a function of this pandemic. There will also be opportunities that are inevitably a by-product of chaos. If you beef up the depth and rhythm of your communications and develop and maintain clarity around what you want to achieve at the end of this mess, you stand a much higher likelihood of coming out the other end intact.

I wish you clear skies and an open ocean . . . 

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Overcoming F.E.A.R. During COVID Uncertainty

Overcoming F.E.A.R. During COVID Uncertainty

by | April 15, 2020 | Business, Communication, COVID-19, Executive Coaching, Mindful Leadership, Training

Overcoming F.E.A.R. During COVID Uncertainty

Grant Ian GambleBy Grant Ian Gamble | April 15, 2020

Grant Ian Gamble is a speaker, author, and business coach. He works in a broad array of industries helping companies build teams, navigate change, and drive growth.

 

Grant Ian Gamble Business Consulting | Blog | Virtual Training During and Beyond the COVID PandemicThe acronym for F.E.A.R. is False Evidence Appearing Real. 

 

When you’re dealing with the unknown, facts are changing daily, experts are predicting very different outcomes, and the media, politicians and your own predilections are distorting the information you’re processing. This makes it really difficult to discern false evidence from real facts.

In defense of all the stakeholders in the distribution of information, no one has an incredibly clear picture of what reality is right now, and they certainly have no idea about what the outcome will be in the future.

When we’re facing a very real threat to ourselves, our families and indeed our way of life, fear can rise up pretty quickly.

On top of these very personal threats to their wellbeing, my consulting clients are faced with additional fears. Fears for their team members’ wellbeing, fear of their loss of ability to serve their customers, and fear for their businesses and livelihoods. 

These are seriously stressful times!

As I’m working with my clients in these uncertain times, one of the most important roles I fulfill is to try and sift through the fear-based information and the fact-based information.

That might seem really straight forward, but often it is not. 

Fear creeps in when things change. Change in and of itself creates fear.

Very often, the fear change generates is misplaced and never comes to fruition. But that’s easy to say, harder to determine and very hard to convey when people’s backs are against the wall.

Fear Paralysis

Recently, I was working through options with a senior manager for a company I am working with and I kept hearing his mind’s projections into the future where he was re-inventing and re-experiencing realities that did not and might never exist. He was telling me why we couldn’t shift to virtual training and why we had to hunker down and hope that this all goes away really quickly. And that the best we could hope for is that this would someday seem like a bad dream.

He was completely paralyzed by fear and couldn’t see his way through it. As a result, he shut down and refused to think creatively.

Wishing and hoping this crisis away is a lot like playing the lottery. You know it’s not likely (in fact it’s damn near impossible) but you hope anyway.

What we need to do in times like these is look at the unvarnished truth as we know it today: 

  1. This thing is not going away anytime soon
  2. Everyone’s in the same boat
  3. Hunkering down and not taking affirmative action is foolish
  4. Assuming the worst is also a fool’s errand
  5. Not preparing for the worst is even more foolish

The truth is that we need to tackle this crisis on an hour by hour, day by day, and month by month basis.

We can’t project an end to the suffering, but we can plot a course that allows for a number of potential end points and work towards those with focus and determination.

As some of those endpoints pass us by and we are still in crisis mode, we need to realign our next set of projections and focus once again.

There is no predicting the likely outcome of this spiraling mass of chaos, but as with the Chaos Theory, very small changes can have far reaching impacts.

Chaos Theory

In the Chaos Theory, initial conditions are considered extremely important. If you look at the response by countries and states across the globe, you can see that where early and affirmative action was taken, outcomes improved more quickly.

This is a great lesson: early and affirmative action. 

A second element of the Chaos Theory is unpredictability. One thing we know with certainty is that the ultimate outcome of this global event cannot possibly be predicted accurately. If for no other reason, the sheer magnitude of variables in a global event like this make predicting an outcome impossible.

The lesson in this is to focus on the things you can change and don’t get distracted by all the variables that are out of your control.

It is easy to get consumed by the what ifs and let the overwhelming amount of information cloud our view. Fear stalks us all in these challenging times and channeling your focus, time and energy into productive pursuits is tough.

If you’re struggling to see any light at the end of this long tunnel, I would suggest you focus on the process and not the outcome. Take action where and when you can.

And don’t get caught up in the things that remain unknown or out of your control.

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Virtual Training During and Beyond COVID-19

Virtual Training During and Beyond COVID-19

by | April 7, 2020 | Business, COVID-19, Executive Coaching, Mindful Leadership, Training

Virtual Training During and Beyond the COVID Pandemic

Grant Ian GambleBy Grant Ian Gamble | April 7, 2020

Grant Ian Gamble is a business growth consultant, executive coach, author and keynote speaker. He works in a broad array of industries helping companies build teams, navigate change and drive growth.

Grant Ian Gamble Business Consulting | Blog | Virtual Training During and Beyond the COVID Pandemic | StudioI have spent a great deal of time in front of teams and audiences presenting training, workshops and information. I truly enjoy the visceral experience and connection this creates for me and my audiences.

With the onset of the Coronavirus, scheduled trainings and conferences started dropping off everyone’s calendars and huge holes emerged in ongoing education and training programs. What a strange turn of events and yet a great opportunity to embrace the many benefits of virtual training.

I have worked with several online training platforms in the past and was familiar with the efficiencies and conveniences afforded by virtual modalities.

Now, I find myself having to truly embrace these options and schedule virtual trainings for clients to continue programs that were already in motion, or to add new programs.

As I started building more online resources, fitted up a sound recording studio, and tried various platforms, I became acutely aware of the many acknowledged and unacknowledged virtues on virtual training.

 

1. Scalability

Virtual Training allows the number of participants to increase or decrease without causing logistical challenges. In a classroom or auditorium, obvious physical limits exist. Virtual training can work for 2-3 attendees, or thousands.

2. Accessibility

Whether your participants are in Charleston or Sydney, they can participate in a virtual training session. This is hugely beneficial to companies with team members scattered over the country, or the globe. 

3. Affordability

There are many financial benefits to virtual training, including savings on travel costs and venue related expenses. Depending on the type of training, adding additional participants represents incremental cost increases.

4. Convenience

When the training is being delivered in real-time, the participants can log in from home, onsite, or a remote location. When the training is pre-packaged, participants can take part at a time that’s convenient for their schedule.

5. Improved Retention

When the training is being recorded, or when it is prepackaged, the participant can review the content at their convenience and this can help improve their retention of the information. This asynchronous format can provide time for participants to absorb and review that they wouldn’t have in a real-time scenario. This format also allows for smaller bites to be consumed and for microlearning to make more financial sense in this forum.

6. Increased Participation and Engagement

Online training platforms allow for chat forums, rating tools, pop quizzes, and other participation tools. For those participants that are less likely to interact in a classroom situation, the virtual realm can be less intimidating. There are also tools for participation monitoring that can ensure the participant is engaged.

7. Immediate Feedback

Online training platforms can provide immediate feedback to participants and facilitators to ensure that course content is being absorbed. This real-time feedback helps comprehension and course development.

8. Blending Facilitators

With virtual training, facilitators can contribute from other cities, states or countries. This can add perspectives to training that may not be easily replicable under normal circumstances.

9. Customization

The virtual training platform allows for customized content, just the same as in-person delivery. And because of feedback mechanisms, real-time content can be melded to meet the participant’s needs equally as well.

NOTE: Rarely do I deliver ‘packaged content’ and the discovery process with a client allows me to customize content to get the optimal outcomes. Custom virtual training should also be preceded by virtual meetings with stakeholders to ensure the content is on point and relatable.

As with all things, there are also some drawbacks with a virtual interface and here’s a couple to be aware of: 

  1. This learning experience may feel less personal for some participants. 
  2. Interfaces can be problematic, bandwidth can cause problems, tech is not always seamless.
  3. There is a reduced direct interaction between participants which is good during a pandemic, not so good for shared learning under normal circumstances.
  4. There are very limited opportunities for team building exercises. 
  5. Poor quality sound or visuals can make the experience lackluster.

I am always going to enjoy the opportunity to interact with my audiences in person, but virtual training is a very real part of our lives these days and can offer many advantages. 

As a member of the business community, you’re likely reconsidering how you do business and what training and education might look like in this new era. Those of us that provide training and education are also needing to consider our options and will no doubt have to invest in more virtual training offerings as the Coronavirus pandemic unfolds. 

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The Upside of the Downside – 24 Things To Do During COVID Lockdown

The Upside of the Downside – 24 Things To Do During COVID Lockdown

by | April 2, 2020 | COVID-19, Lifestyle

The Upside of the Downside – 24 Things To Do During COVID Lockdown

Grant Ian GambleBy Grant Ian Gamble | April 2, 2020

Grant Ian Gamble is a business growth consultant, executive coach, author and keynote speaker. He works in a broad array of industries helping companies build teams, navigate change and drive growth.

Grant Ian Gamble Business Consulting | The Upside of the Downside - 24 Things To Do During COVID Lockdown | Paddleboarding

On one hand, the COVID pandemic is forcing us to isolate ourselves. On the other, it is bringing families back together and getting people outside.

My wife and I typically get outside whenever and wherever we can. Sometimes it’s for a mountain bike ride or run, sometimes paddle boarding, sometimes just for a walk.

Our motivation is to get some exercise, a little Vitamin D, and to diversify our microbiome.

Whenever possible, we take the kids with us and involve them. 

Since COVID restrictions have been ramping up, we’ve seen more and more families out and about with their kids. The bike trails have been more heavily populated than ever and the reservoir we paddle on has been a lot busier than usual.

I am sure many of these people and families would normally be going to the gym, or maybe doing something at home. Others may not normally do regular exercise or get outside, but as cabin fever sets in people are looking for any opportunity to get out of the house and do something.

To me, this is the upside of the downside.

This pandemic is a very real crisis for our communities and to increase our isolation in an increasingly digitally (dis)connected world is not good.

Being thrust back into our family units and rediscovering the joys of doing things together is a very real benefit.

Kids that were at school during the day are back in the household and as boredom sets in, creativity starts to blossom. There is a limit to how many movies or shows we can watch and I am starting to see and hear of creative ways people are trying to break the boredom.

Here are some assorted suggestions and thoughts: 

 

  1. Get out in the garden, pull some weeds and get set for Spring.
  2. Clear out the basement, or that junk room, it’s way overdue!
  3. Refurbish something, maybe that old chair or lamp?
  4. Redecorate, simplify, rearrange.
  5. Tackle your winter closet and get set for Spring.
  6. Go walking or hiking, off the beaten track.
  7. Do an online family yoga class in the living room.
  8. Begin that meditation practice you have been thinking about forever.
  9. Reach back out to long lost friends, maybe even write a letter or two?
  10. Do some online learning!
  11. Play video games with your kids.
  12. Phone a friend, or three (FaceTime is even better).
  13. Play music! Take turns, and listen to everyone’s music.
  14. Begin a pushup challenge with a friend. Send your pushup video daily!
  15. Read a book!
  16. Have a TED Talk afternoon.
  17. Rotate cooking responsibilities with everyone and try some new recipes.
  18. Put together your goals and wish list for post-Coronavirus!
  19. Begin journaling.
  20. Have picnics in the front yard, or backyard, or both!
  21. Go for a drive somewhere new and scenic.
  22. Get those bikes dusted off and go for a pedal.
  23. Go for a walk down memory lane with your old photos and videos.
  24. Get your paint brushes out. Paint a wall or a masterpiece.

Whatever you do, treat this as a time to reconnect with your family, friends, and Mother Nature. Try something new or get back into something you used to love and have not had time to do.

This can be a time of reflection and renewal. Opportunity abounds in the adversity our community is facing at present.

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Virtual Stand-Up: A Simple Communication Tool for You and Your Team During COVID

Virtual Stand-Up: A Simple Communication Tool for You and Your Team During COVID

by | March 31, 2020 | Business, Communication, COVID-19, Executive Coaching, Mindful Leadership

Virtual Stand-Up: A Simple & Effective Communication Tool for You and Your Team During COVID-19

Grant Ian GambleBy Grant Ian Gamble | April 17, 2020

Grant Ian Gamble is a business growth consultant, executive coach, author and keynote speaker. He works in a broad array of industries helping companies build teams, navigate change and drive growth.

Grant Ian Gamble Business Consulting Blog | Virtual Stand-Up: A Simple Communication Tool for Your and Your Team During COVIDMonday through Friday every week, first thing in the morning, I facilitate a Virtual Stand Up with a management team I am consulting with. This helps the department heads stay connected, even though they’re not in the same physical work environment at the moment.

This daily Virtual Stand-Up reduces miscommunication, increases camaraderie, helps keep team members focused, and ultimately provides a community for people who are getting more and more disconnected as this pandemic expands its grip on our world.

Getting your team together for a daily Virtual Stand-Up can be fun, fulfilling and emotionally fortifying.

Daily virtual huddles might seem a bit much, but can be incredibly productive when you have the right guidelines in place.

Verne Harnish has championed a huddle concept he calls the “Daily Stand-Up”. The Stand-Up model covers three basic things:

What did you do yesterday? 

What are you planning to do today? 

Do you have any unique challenges you are currently facing?

The real beauty of this model is that each participant only has 60 seconds to download those three update items. This means that if you have 10 people on your team, the meeting should take no longer than 10 minutes.

From my experience, the most productive element of this format is declaring what we’re up to today. Some team members approach the day with plans in place, but most just wing it. This format asks those team members to be more proactive and less reactive.

Because of the nature of this format, it is very efficient. It needs a facilitator to manage people’s time and keep things on track, but from my experience, after a few meetings team members pick up the protocol really well and find it incredibly valuable. 

 

» Here are some simple tips to ensure a successful Virtual Stand-Up:

  • VIDEO CONFERENCE
  • 60 SECONDS PER PERSON: 

     What did you do yesterday? 

     What are you planning to do today? 

     Do you have any unique challenges you are currently facing?

1. RELEVANT TOPICS

Ensure the topics team members present are relevant to the group. If they need to inform another team member of something, or have a discussion with them one-on-one, this is not the forum. Instead, encourage them to have the conversation independently.

2. HIGHLIGHTS ONLY

When team members review what they did yesterday, they need to focus on highlights only. The same applies to their plans for today. NOTE: When reviewing yesterday on a Monday, we refer back to Friday’s events.

3. SHARING UNIQUE CHALLENGES

When reviewing any unique challenges they are facing, these should be things that are impeding progress or causing them undue angst. This does not include things that apply to everyone like the weather, or this pandemic. An example would be, “My internet is down at home.” This is good for others to know and obviously is a relevant issue given the current lockdowns.

4. USE A TIMER

Initially, use a timer. This won’t be necessary for the long term, but people will initially give more detail than needed and when the buzzer goes off it is a good reminder to keep it short.

5. ENCOURAGE OFFLINE CONVERSATIONS

If a team member goes off on a tangent or a conversation starts up between two people, the facilitator needs to interject and suggest they take the conversation offline after the call. They can even stay on the call after everyone else drops off, or schedule a separate call or meeting.

6. ALWAYS START ON TIME

Always start the meeting on time. Team members will learn that this is a short, sharp and functional opportunity to stay connected and dialing in on time is expected.

7. USE A RELIABLE VIDEO CONFERENCING TOOL

Use a reliable conferencing tool. I usually use Google Hangouts and put the meeting on repeat so that people have it on their calendar and can dial in easily. There are lots of free conferencing tools out there, so take your pick. 

8. REDUCE BACKGROUND NOISE

Encourage team members to mute their devices when they’re not talking in order to reduce background noise.

9. VIDEO, VIDEO, VIDEO!

As often as possible, I suggest doing a video call instead of a phone call. Some teams do a video call every time. This leaves less room for distractions and miscommunication as it’s much easier for people to read each other’s emotions when they can see each other.

If you limit each team member to 60 seconds and stick to this routine, you’ll quickly experience the benefits. These meetings can be critical in keeping your team on track and maintaining your work community. 

I have used this format in many scenarios, but never quite as beneficially as today.

We need each other more than ever, and having simple and productive rituals like Virtual Stand Ups will help your team stay aligned, productive and connected.

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The Affinity Principle™ by Grant Gamble presents a formula for business success through a people-centric, mindful leadership approach.

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PEOPLE FIRST, ALWAYS.