Engaging People

I haven't yet met a CEO that doesn't want someone, somewhere in their organisation to change. No matter how big or small the enterprise, tucked away in their organisational landscape will be a team, a division, a leader or a silo that's either underperforming, resisting change, or seem to be on a different path. As someone who's worked in a variety of leadership roles, and as a parent, I can strongly relate to wanting people to behave differently - often without delay! 😩 When our change goals apply to a group of people ("the team" or "the kids"), however, it's easy to forget that what we're talking about is 𝐚 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐬. And here's the rub: 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞. Team outcomes are the collective result of individual outcomes. It's the same in workshops. As a facilitator, I have to remember that whatever collective result I want from a group of people, the 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥. The awareness, the willingness to talk, to challenge or ask questions, to participate - it's individuals in the room who do that. It's been such a good exercise for me recently to work with people 1 on 1 instead of in a group setting with The Emotional Culture Deck from riders&elephants. I've learnt so much from observing the different ways in which people answer the same questions and 𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑝 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝑎𝑡 𝑎𝑛 𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑑𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑙𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑙. Because it's inherently an empowering process, it builds trust - not necessarily in their leaders or their organisations, but in themselves, which is where all leadership and change begins. If your unspoken thoughts often start with "𝐼 𝑤𝑖𝑠ℎ [𝑋] 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑏𝑒ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑙𝑦..." - as long as [X] isn't a politician, I can probably help. --------------------------------------------- Don't keep your cards close to your chest! At Engaging People we use The Emotional Culture Deck to help people navigate change at an individual, team and organisational level. Download it for free here https://lnkd.in/gWZE--dm or get in touch if you'd like to try a pack out and see where it takes you.

One month into the second quarter for 2024 and we're in the middle of my favourite season. 🍂 While my northern hemisphere friends and family are eagerly lapping up longer and warmer days, my corner of the world is a blaze of colour, the days are still warm(ish), and the firewood is all stacked and ready for winter. At the same time, favourite season or not, it's still possible to feel like the year's going too fast (again), you're not convinced everything you're working on is actually making a difference, you're wondering if it's too early to feel burnt out, and it would be nice to feel less alone. These were some of the sentiments in the room recently when I led a group of student leaders through a 𝑅𝑒𝑓𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑡 workshop. A long Term 1 and a short Term 4 means they've actually completed 𝑎 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑟𝑑 of the total weeks that they'll be 'hands on' in their leadership role! 😲 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐩𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐡𝐮𝐠𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬. 𝐈𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫, 𝐫𝐞𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐨𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐚𝐝𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 - 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧. To evaluate Term 1 we used a slightly modified Core Values Canvas from Fearless Culture to identify actions and behaviours which had either inflated or deflated their emotional culture during the term. 🎈Recognising Inflators ↗️ and Deflators ↙️ is such an easy and effective way of taking stock. To reset for Term 2 we needed a picture of the collective priorities and potential stressors for everyone in the room. If you know what your own big ticket items are, but no one else's, how can you possibly connect and support each other as a team?! Using one of my favourite digital tools, Mentimeter, we generated a spectacular word cloud that brought this to life.  With two quick and clear pictures of both the past and the future, we were able to reset the present. Taking an hour to do this created confidence and connection. It beats ploughing through the year without stopping at all. 𝑺𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒖𝒑. 🚀 ---------------------------------------------------------- At Engaging People we use The Emotional Culture Deck by riders&elephants to help people reflect and evaluate the past so they can be even more effective in the future. Download it for free here https://lnkd.in/esHFE8cF or get in touch if you'd like to try a pack out and see where it takes you.

𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐮𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐚𝐲 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟, 𝐢𝐭'𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐬𝐚𝐲 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮. 💬 𝐼𝑡'𝑠 𝑏𝑢𝑖𝑙𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑡'𝑠 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛. That's literally all there is to it. Do something enough times and people will start noticing, and then talking about you to others. What they say depends largely on the experience you give them. And that experience will be defined and remembered by how you made them feel. In the context of sport, it's easy to think that your reputation is built during game time and that how you make people feel depends entirely on the scoreboard, but that's about as helpful as thinking that in a corporate setting your reputation is built through your Inbox. It's certainly one aspect but it's not the 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 place you give people an experience of you. Similarly, there are a whole lot of minutes outside of game time when sports teams build their reputations, consciously or unconsciously. Looking at some of these touchpoints was one of the activities in a recent workshop I delivered for a group of athletes preparing for a hockey tournament in Hamilton next week. 🏑 Given the intensity of their time together, the environment is fertile ground for emotion contagion - the spontaneous spread of emotions and behaviours that can happen in any sized group. To reduce the risk of an unwanted emotion contagion, we used The Emotional Culture Deck by riders&elephants to identify the top 5 emotions people wanted to spread within the squad, and the top 5 emotions they 𝑑𝑖𝑑𝑛'𝑡 want to spread. Having done that, we then used Fearless Culture's 𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛 𝑎 𝑇𝑒𝑎𝑚 𝑅𝑖𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝐶𝑎𝑛𝑣𝑎𝑠 by Gustavo Razzetti to come up with a few simple rituals that would trigger the desired emotional rewards and galvanise the team through to the end of the tournament. It was an action-packed workshop designed specifically for this group in their context. If you're leading a team that needs to be at the top of their game for a particular challenge and you're not sure where to start, drop me a line. I'd love to help. #ConnectionMastery #PeakPerformance #trust ---------------------------------------------------------- At Engaging People we use The Emotional Culture Deck to help people work better together, whatever their context. Download it for free here https://lnkd.in/esHFE8cF or get in touch if you'd like to try a pack out and see where it takes you.

We have a kōwhai tree in our garden which is on a permanent lean because we didn't give it adequate support when it was younger. Instead of a tall straight tree in the corner we have a permanent reminder of the importance of taking a little bit of time to shape saplings. In part two of my Pre-season Emotional Fitness Training for a small group of senior rugby players, we focused on community, guided by the Māori whakataukī (proverb): 𝗞𝗼 𝘁𝗲 𝗽𝗶𝗸𝗼 𝗼 𝘁𝗲 𝗺ā𝗵𝘂𝗿𝗶, 𝘁ē𝗿ā 𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝘂𝗽𝘂 𝗼 𝘁𝗲 𝗿ā𝗸𝗮𝘂. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑠 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑒𝑑 𝑑𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠 ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑒 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑤𝑠. These players are in Year 13, which in New Zealand is the final year of high school. While they're still saplings in the grand scheme of life, in the school context they're the older trees guiding the younger saplings coming through. With this in mind, we talked about the phenomenon of Emotion Contagion and how quickly and easily we 'catch' the vibe that others bring to a team environment. The Emotional Culture Deck made it easy to identify the emotions that the players do and don't want to spread throughout the team, and they came up with simple actions they can do to reinforce this. A principle that I'm guided by, which I first heard from Jeremy Dean, is that 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞. It would have been far more efficient for me to spell out what these players need to do (and not do) to help create the culture they want for the coming season. But it wouldn't have been as effective. It might have even had 𝑧𝑒𝑟𝑜 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑡 compared to them coming up with their own solutions. This is the art of facilitation and I absolutely love it 😍 #teamwork #leadership #PeakPerformance #ConnectionMastery ---------------------------------------------------------- At Engaging People we help people tap into the power of emotions to build healthy, human, and high performing teams. Our secret weapon is The Emotional Culture Deck by riders&elephants. In any context, this little pack of cards can support leaders and teams by stimulating conversations about things that matter. Download it for free here https://lnkd.in/esHFE8cF or get in touch if you'd like to try a pack out and see where it takes you.

The notion of pre-season training is well embedded in competitive sports - it allows athletes to gradually get their bodies accustomed to the physical workload their sport demands of them. But what about pre-season training for the mind? Veteran high performance manager and coach John Haggart knows all about this, and it's an absolute thrill to be working with him and a group of Year 13 rugby players at St Andrew's College, New Zealand in a specially designed four week programme to help them build mental and emotional fitness as they prepare themselves for selection in their final year of high school rugby. Our first session yesterday focussed on legacy and reputation, with a bit of a twist. After a warm up using The Emotional Culture Deck, this lunchtime 'workout' asked players to think about the reputation they wanted the First XV to have... but instead of being known for achievements or athletic prowess, I asked them what emotions they wanted people in the future to feel - and not feel - when they remembered this year's team. It was a big ask. They had to propel themselves into a future where they were no longer at school but looking back on a team (which doesn't exist yet but which they're hoping to be part of!), and then imagine what they wanted OTHER PEOPLE to be saying about the team - all in the context of a human experience rather than the scoreboard. Reputations are built through consistent, repeated actions. And if you want to be known for something in the future, the best time to start repeating those actions is always now. The parting wero (challenge) for these players was to come up with a single, small action they could easily repeat during the week which would give others the experience they want to be known for in the future. I can't wait to see where these 1 degree shifts take them. #trust #leadership #SelfAwareness #reputation #BehaviourChange ---------------------------------------------------------- At Engaging People we help people tap into the power of emotions to build healthy, human, and high performing teams. Our secret weapon is The Emotional Culture Deck by riders&elephants. In any context, this little pack of cards can support leaders and teams by stimulating conversations about things that matter. Download it for free here https://lnkd.in/esHFE8cF or get in touch if you'd like to try a pack out and see where it takes you.

Q: How many people leaders does it take to change a lightbulb? 💡 🤔 A: None if you have floor to ceiling windows like this room in the Novotel at Christchurch Airport! 😎 I was thrilled to be booked to run a workshop with Christchurch International Airport Limited's people leaders recently, as part of an all day Leadership Hui. Because everyone was from different teams with correspondingly different leadership contexts and challenges, we used the Emotional Culture Deck by riders&elephants to complete a carefully designed sequence of exercises which increased emotional awareness and agility - the building blocks of becoming more empathetic and emotionally intelligent leaders. You can do a version of these exercises yourself at home if you have an Emotional Culture Deck by riders&elephants in hand. Download it for free here https://lnkd.in/dU-Zqvp or get in touch if you'd like to try a pack out and see where it takes you. #emotionalintelligence #leadership #SelfAwareness ---------------------------------------------------------- In any context, The Emotional Culture Deck can support your leadership development by stimulating conversations about things that matter. Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/esHFE8cF

It can be really daunting trying to find your way around a new workplace, team, or school. Making new friends and figuring out the routines, norms and rituals that bind people together takes a huge amount of mental and emotional energy. The end result is often a new or updated sense of identity. This is especially true of school students in New Zealand where school uniform literally brands you as belonging somewhere, whether you feel like you belong or not. Periods of intense change, even if we've sought out the change and want it to happen (like a new school or job), can result in a rollercoaster of welcome and unwelcome emotions, particularly as we try to make new connections. University of Houston Research Professor Brené Brown says that to form meaningful connections with others, we must first connect with ourselves. With this in mind, I recently facilitated a 'Know Yourself' workshop at an offsite camp for a small group of mixed level senior high school students who had changed schools for their last 1-3 years of education. By identifying the top five emotions which are either going to power their success or create some headwinds (desired and undesired feelings), these students were then able to think about the range of situations where these feelings might come about for them this year. With a clearer picture of when and how these emotions turn up, they could come up with some simple and practical actions that will both generate the feelings they want and help them manage the ones they don't. It might seem counter intuitive to start with a feeling that you want to have and work your way backwards to an action, but it works. Give it a go - in the coming week, how do you want to feel and not feel? What small actions can you take to give yourself the best chance of experiencing that? This exercise is a lot easier with the Emotional Culture Deck by riders&elephants in hand. You can download it for free here https://lnkd.in/dU-Zqvp or get in touch if you'd like to try a pack out and see where it takes you. #emotionalintelligence #leadership #SelfAwareness #DesignYourLife ---------------------------------------------------------- In any context, The Emotional Culture Deck can support you through change and transition by stimulating conversations about what matters. Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/esHFE8cF

In the world of sport, rituals are an expected part of high performance athletes and teams (anyone watching Season 2 of Break Point at the moment? 🎾). They're often relatively simple acts that are performed before, during, or after a game. They can have a staggering impact on the mental and emotional condition of players and therefore directly influence their performance. In contrast to habits and routines, rituals are infused with symbolism and meaning, performed with intent and awareness. They can function as an emotional anchor in highly stressful situations, providing a sense of control and increasing focus. I recently ran a workshop with a group of student leaders to explore the behaviours, actions, and rituals that would help them succeed in their new leadership roles. These are simple, zero-cost actions which they can all participate in and which they can put into practice immediately. For rituals to be helpful, it's important not to overengineer them - their power is in the meaning you give them and what they symbolise. A smile and a wave across the quad might not mean anything to an onlooker, but if you're part of a team that has decided this simple action will help you feel more connected, then averting your eyes and looking away is no longer an option - there's meaning behind the standard and when you do that tiny action, you belong. This group isn't signing up to these rituals for the rest of the year - they're experimenting this term with a critical few actions that will generate the top five emotions that will power their success this term, building on work we started last year. So before diving headfirst into designing new rituals to improve your own or your team's performance, spend some time with the following questions: 💡 How do you want to feel at work? 💡 How do you NOT want to feel (but you might from time to time)? This exercise is a lot easier with the Emotional Culture Deck by riders&elephants in hand. You can download it for free here https://lnkd.in/dU-Zqvp or get in touch if you'd like to try a pack out and see where it takes you. #rituals #EmotionalIntelligence #leadership ______________________________ The Emotional Culture Deck is changing how people and teams master their emotional cultures - see for yourself by visiting: https://lnkd.in/esHFE8cF