Check this out and sign up or forward to a friend. It will be great!
Dave Butler
President
WorkLife Performance Consulting, LLC
860-460-7575
www.worklifeonline.com
From: Laura Butler [mailto:laurabutler@worklifeonline.com]
Sent: Friday, October 29, 2010 4:51 PM
To: laurabutler@worklifeonline.com
Subject: Worklife For Women ME Webinar – Register and/or Forward to a Friend
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Laura Butler, President
614-242-9865 Office
614-832-0377 Cell
A Children's Book Every Child Should Read
2010/09/09
Scuppers the dog meets challenges headon and continually makes lemonade out of lemons while always creating opportunities to search for his future goals
Branding is the key
2010/09/01
A Powerful Transition
Change is on the outside, transition is on the inside. Change is observable and quantifiable, transition tends to be hidden and hard to pin down. Change has a beginning and an end whereas transition is an ongoing process. Change and even the implication of change initiates the transition process. We see this everyday in our own and others’ lives when a decision at work causes a shift in reporting structure for example. The memo goes out and the information is announced, the office location is re-assigned and the group meeting is scheduled. All of this is observable and quantifiable. What is not seen are the myriad transitions that everyone directly and indirectly involved are now going through. There are several excellent management models for facilitating change but few for transition. This internal and invivsble process is at the heart of failed change, stress related diseases in organizations and no end of problems facing organizations daily. The key to understanding transition is that it almost universally produces isolation. The isolation stems from fear – feaar of showing emotion, fear of the unknown, fear of losing a job, etc. The core answer to better mangement of transition is exploration and sharing. The stories of people “going postal” after change or even the suggestion of impending changes, is directly attributable to isolation that has been allowed to festaer out of control. In our Change and Transition seminars, we equip individuals and managers with the tools to not only implement change but to also effectively help themselves and their people manage the transitions. Next post – how anticipating transition can help to initiate change!
post
2010/07/31
This great! Dr. Squish just showed me how to email a post to the worklifeonline blog!
Dave Butler
President
WorkLife Performance Consulting, LLC
860-460-7575
www.worklifeonline.com
Audio Post
2010/07/31
"Hey, Wait a minute!"
We are here today for an interview in the WorkLifeRadio series on Staying Up in Down Times. We asked the eminent Dr. Squish to share his research on the downturn with us. He is a noted researcher and guest speaker on the importance having fun in the workplace and the role that feeling good has on productivity. He has several dubnious awards and honorary degrees from unknown institutions and most recently received his doctorate in Phunology from his own organization, the noted Squish Institoot where we spent a lovely morning in the Solarium.
Reporter: Hello Dr. Squish and thank you for taking the time to meet with us today.
Dr. S: Who did you say you were? You’re not from city hall are you?
Rep: No, no Dr., we are from WorkLifeRadio, the voice of Worklife. You’ve appeared several times with Dave Butler, our president.
Dr. S: Who? Look I just want to make sure you aren’t here about the water bill.
Rep: We’d love to hear about your recent research and award winning white paper on the current Downturn.
Dr.S. Oh, right! The Downturn – one of my favorite subjects! We here at the Squish Institoot have researched the effects of a downturn for many years.
Rep. But the current Downturn is only a few yeaqrs old – how can you have researched it for many years? I guess I’m not clear on your approach.
Dr.S. That’s fine – we aren’t very clear either! Being clear on anything today is a dangerous thing – most things change so quickly that being clear means that you are probably looking at something that no longer exists anyway! But we digress – the downturn we have researched is the downturn at the corners of your mouth! The simple act of allowing your mouth to produce a downturn – also known by the average person as a frown – can significantly alter a person’s state of mind and attitude! In fact, we have shown conclusively that in over 94% of cases, the downturn or frown precedes the negative outlook on life by several seconds. We in the Squish scientific community call those seconds the “turning points”.
Rep. Wow! I had no idea that a frown could be that powerful! You mean that your research shows that by simply allowing a frown to creep onto my face, I will have a negative emotional reaction?
Dr. S. Precisely! We have even measured and calculated the degree of downward arch and correlated that to the intensity of the negative feelings! The scientific term is “angle of curvature”. We have several major categories of downturn-itis angles - they range from “crestfallen” to “down in the dumps” and may at times even approach “miserable”. We have also shown that it can be contagious! If you are with someone who is approaching the ”Dumps” phase, you will find yourself inexplicably depressed and unhappy.
Rep. well, I don’t want to seem presuumptious, but does that also mean that by simply producing an upturn on my face it would create a positive emotional response?
Dr. S. Hey, wait a minute….have you been looking at our secret research! No one is supposed to have access to those secret files in the bathroom! Did you peek or something? This is all part of a top secret, government funded project on “Upsidedownalism”! We may have to induce a hynotic trance in you to ensure that you don’t let the cat out of the bag! In fact, where is my cat? I haven’t seen him all day!
Rep. Don’t worry doctor, your secrets are safe with me. Nobody reads my blog anyway! What can you share on your early findings on “upsidedownalism”? Oh, and by the way – your cat is in the bathroom using the litter box.
Dr. S. What? What litter box? The only box in there has my secret research!
Resilience – Currency of the 21st Century
2010/06/21
Resilience has become the key measurable of success in a world of continuous turmoil and change. The simple definition of the word is “the ability to bounce back quickly in the face of adversity”. A more comprehensive definition in the context of the 24/7 world would need to point out that the simultaneity of multiple major changes and challenges has set the bar at a whole new level. Building Resilience is possible (we already do it without knowing) and practicing our approach can make us even more able to repond earlier to the situation. In other words, combining resilience skills with preparation and anticipation can produce a new level of resilient response.
A prime example of poor corporate resilience is the tepid ability of BP to deal with the oil disaster in the Gulf. The resilience of our financial system is in the midst of a major test. Nature may be the best example of resilience – consider the speed of new growth after a forest fire or the trees that are still standing after a hurricane has taken away everything else in its path. Imagine the importance of the cultural resilience of the British in WW2 and their resurgence in post war Europe.
Focus for a moment on your own resilience in times of tragedy and challenge and how much you have learned from the most difficult of situations. This personal resilience is expandable and usable in career change, physical recovery, emotional stress and psychological anxiety. We all posess a wellspring of resilience that has its depth in our experiences both triumphant and catastrophic.
John F. Kennedy presents it well withour naming it in his 1962 speech at RICE University (click here for download) announcing the mission to the moon. Outward Bound has created an entire program around harnessing resilience to survive. Martin Seligman writes about it in “Learned Optimism” and stories of success are replete with examples of resilient behavior. The US Army has decided to send all 1.5 million members through resiliency training to combat PTSD and to increase readiness and effectiveness under fire.
Stay tuned for more info and opinion or contact me at dave@worklifeonline.com to discuss our new program – “Building Resilience”.
MOJO Musings
2009/07/25
With the extended slump in business and the stalling of most career plans, MOJO is at an all time premium. MOJO – what do I mean? I see MOJO as a combination of motivation and engagement – M+E =ME. Motivation comes from the outside – challenges, opportunities and the ability to do the things we are most passionate about. Engagement comes from the inside – our values, our hopes and dreams. You can have one without the other or have them in a variety of mixes but overall MOJO will be at its height when both are abundant and integrated. In fact, the highest MOJO is more than the sum of the parts – it is the Synergy of the integration of the outside and inside – creating a spce for the whole person to excel. There are 10 ME factors of behavioral preference that are a measure of what MOJO is for each of of us – 5 in each category, outer and inner. Motivation is described in Sensitivity, Organization, Spontaneity, Momentum & Reward. Engagement is seen in Sociability, Dominance, Trust, Independence & Deliberation. These behavioral factors have a range of difference in application and can be combined in several ways to predict (and therefore manage) how much potential MOJO a given situation may or may not offer to us. Recognizing high levels of MOJO can encourage us to grasp the moment whereas low indicators can give us insight into how we might compensate in order to increase our “mojovation”.
Yikes! It’s frightening!
2009/07/11
the way we used to see the World
Just watched an enlightening video on Seth Godin’s blog by a Google guy doing a “man on the street” type interview. He asked random passersby what an internet browser was and only 8% could answer. No one could explain the difference between a browser and a search engine! Yikes! It can be hard to describe the difference but certainly the easy answer would be that they are both software programs but with different functions. I use both a hundred+ times a day – doesn’t everyone? This is a great example of what I mean in my title about getting ready for the 21st century. We are here already and most people haven.t even left the station of the 20th century, let alone the 19th! I’m not by any means a genius in anything and certainly not in gigabyte theory but I can turn on the computer and get to where I need to be to get to the next step. The frightening thing is that no one seems to care that we are nearing a far distant shore and we have no idea how we got here (Buckminster Fuller said this in the 1960′s about computers). What can I do to be prepared? This is what everyone should ask everyday. It is essential that we all create an IDP (Individual Development Plan) that helps to get us ready. My work and the foundation of Worklifeonline’s programs has always been to address this basic need. Here’s my question – what prevents us/deters us from doing this most important work? We make financial plans (some of us, anyway) and we make business plans, strategic palns and meal plans. We are more apt to make vacation plans than we are to make plans for our own growth and development Of course, as a result we are always “surprised” when we lose a job or go out of business. It is a fact that not only is change moving ever faster but that obsolescence moves right along with it. Bob Dylan (greatest poet of the late 20th century) not only said “the times they are a-changin’” but also pointed out that “those that aren’t a-busy growin’ are a-busy dyin’!
