embracing and leading change
TRANSCRIPT
Bret L. Simmons, Ph.D.
www.bretlsimmons.com
NV WealthCounsel Forum
May 6, 2015
Embracing and
Leading Change
The Process of Leadership
Assume responsibility for the choice to
engage with others and use your influence
to pursue substantive changes that
advance a shared purpose
The Process of Leadership
Assume responsibility for the choice to
engage with others and use your influence
to pursue substantive changes that
advance a shared purpose
What is the hardest choice you have to make
when you participate in this process?
With all that’s changing in
the world and in our
customer’s lives, what
business are we really in?
Berger, 2014
Law of Change
• “Change happens only as a result of
insurmountable market pressure”
Coine & Babbitt, 2014
• Are you applying the pressure or
reacting to it?
Discipline of The Second Curve
“..always assume that we are
near the peak of the first curve
and should therefore be starting
to prepare for the second” (p.57)
For anything to change, someone has to start
acting differently. Can you get people to start
behaving differently? (p.4)
Rider - Rational – Deliberates, analyzes,
looks into the future
– Provides planning and
direction
Elephant – Emotional– Feels pain and pleasure
– Provides the energy
Destination
postcards:Shows the Rider
where you are
headed and the
Elephant why the
journey is worthwhile
Change is easier
when you know where
you are going and why
it is worth it
Direct the Rider
• What looks like resistance is
often a lack of clarity
• Clarity dissolves resistance
Motivate the Elephant
Find the feeling
Motivation comes from
confidence. The
Elephant has to believe
that it’s capable of
conquering the change
Shrink the change:
Break down the change until it
no longer spooks the Elephant
Sense of progress is critical
Make change a matter of identity, not consequences
Who am I? What kind of situation is this? What
would someone like me do in this situation?
Growth Mindset
• Talent is NOT fixed unless you
believe that it is. Treat talent as
something almost everyone can
earn, not that just a few people
own.
• Everyone can learn to work
smarter
33
Motivate the Elephant
Change is hard because people wear
themselves out. What looks like
laziness is often exhaustion
Action Triggers: Decisions you make to execute a
certain action when you encounter a certain situation
Shape the path
What looks like a people problem is
often a situation problem. When you
shape the path, you make the change
more likely, no matter what’s happening
with the Rider and the Elephant
Application
• Identify a change that needs to happen right
now in your life or work. What are you going
to do about it tomorrow?
• Tell someone about your decision to change
• Think of ways to apply the
Rider/Elephant/Path metaphor to enable the
change