Five Tips for Effective Change

1. Introduction: Hello everyone. I am so glad you're here. This course is about five tips for effective change. I know that we are all going through changes all the time and change is not easy. It hits us from every angle, whether it's personal, professional, whether we've chosen the change or the change has been chosen for us. It is something that we have to navigate on a regular basis. My name is Glen HashMap and I have spent my career focused on helping individuals unlock their potential and navigate the changes that come their way. I have a master's in organizational leadership. I'm currently pursuing a doctorate degree in education, and I'm a pro size certified change practitioner. Today's tips will help you figure out how to unlock your potential. And I can't wait to get started. Let's dive in. 2. Tip 1: Know Your Why: Okay, time for tip number one. First and foremost, you must know your why. I know this seems like, of course, of course I know why I'm going through the change that I'm going through. But let me give you a common example. I know many people and I'm sure that you do too, who are focused on making a change regarding their health, fitness, wellness, right? It's a common problem where an individual decides that it's time to make a change. They may say to me, I want to exercise or eat better so that I can be healthier. So that I can be healthier. Now, I always wanted to ask someone who maybe is thinking in those terms, what is the deeper why? What does being healthier afford you? What does that give you in your life? And for whatever change that you may be making, maybe it's similar to this. I would ask you to really think deeply about the more intangible why, the emotional, why. What are the things that pull at your heartstrings that help you to recognize that this is more important than the alternative. So in this particular situation, perhaps that individual wants to be healthier so that they have a long healthy life where they can play with their grandchildren. Maybe it so they can tackle a challenge or go on a long hike or do something that's more true to their values. So thinking about the why doesn't mean just thinking about that surface level y. One tactic that you can use to discover your y is the Five Whys method. This is actually used in root cause analysis where individuals trying to determine why something happened, maybe a system stopped working or an assembly line failed, may use this method. In that situation, we start at the top with what we know and we ask why. We keep asking why until we get deep enough to a level that there's no additional information to uncover. If you're struggling to come up with your deeper why that true and tangible emotional y that will get you through this change. I encourage you to ask yourself why, and then ask yourself why again, until you get all the way down to that internal level that you can't deny. That really speaks to your heart and encourages you to make the change in a sustainable way. It will be the compass. It will be the destination that you are striving for. That y will keep you focused. And that's an important part of change because we are going to be challenged as we learned in the future tips today. When you get challenged, when you find yourself facing resistance or turmoil or old behaviors that just won't go away. It's time to remember your why. I encourage you to think not just about that surface level, but really uncover what will make it undeniable for you to continue your journey. 3. Tip 2: Know Yourself: Now we're on to tip number two, know yourself and know your why I touched a little bit on your values. When we think about how you have to know yourself, times have changed, are going to call into question your sense of identity. Are you still at your core, who you want to be as you're going through a transformation. And I want the answer to that to be yes. You have to know what are your core values? What are the things that really drive you? What motivates you? Because those are going to be essential in determining the right ways for you to develop habits that align with your sense of identity, with the change that you're making. It's also important that you understand your own key behaviors. What are the things that you do today that are either will enable the change that you're seeking or maybe they hinder the change that you're looking for. And what can you do about the ones that hinder your change so that you can adjust and adapt. One thing that may help in this situation are called action triggers. So an action trigger is something that you do on a regular basis that's going to trigger you as a reminder to do a new thing. So to conduct your new behavior, whatever that might be. So in the event of working out, because that's the easy one of an example that everyone understands. Maybe you want to start running first thing in the morning. So upon waking up, you have your running shoes right next to your bed. That is a trigger. You wake up and you see your running shoes, they're available to you. And it's the first thing you do is you start to uncover your path to change. It's important to understand yourself and what the things are that are going to set you up for success. A personal example I have is a terrible attempt at taking vitamins and supplements. And I could not figure out what is it that keeps getting in my way. At the time I had all these bottles in my kitchen cabinet with individual different vitamins. One might be a multivitamin. Maybe I was taking some vitamin C, fish oil, you know, a full suite of vitamins. But something always stopped me. I had great intentions. I would start the day thinking that I would take all of these vitamins. But it really took time to open up each of these individual bottles to remember to go to the kitchen. I had nothing else that drew me to that cabinet to remind me to take those supplements. And so I started to really think about my barrier. What is my current behavior and what's my barrier for making this change? Lo and behold, I switched to vitamins that come in a packet. All those same things that I was attempting to take before I leave them in a basket on my nightstand. And as soon as I wake up, I don't have to think twice. What do I do? I have water and I have vitamins and I take it right then. So start thinking about what your barriers look like. What are your behaviors and habits? How do they support or detract from your change? And what can you do to set yourself up for success. 4. Tip 3: Plan Milestones & Celebrate: Things start to ramp up with tip number three. So in change, it's important to have milestones that we can celebrate. As you're thinking about a large change, how can you break that down into small wins? This comes from a concept written by John Kotter in his book Leading Change. Where we can't just expect these milestones to occur and be able to magically build momentum and either organizational change or individual change. We have to deliberately planned for them. As you're thinking about your big transformation, big change, whether it's personal or professional. How can you, at the very beginning, think about the milestones that you can conquer in shorter timeframes that are going to make you feel successful, that are going to give you the opportunity to celebrate that you're moving in the right direction. And in all honesty, they are already changing. This looks a little bit different for everyone, right? It depends on the direction that you're going. It depends a little bit on your why and the destination that you've set for yourself. How will you know you've started to build a new habit? How will you see small indications that you're moving in that direction? That's why we want to think about these milestones in advance and plan for them. We went to celebrate those different achievements as we reach them. It's important that our celebrations don't detract from our goal. So often we see individuals that will be dieting e.g. and their celebration will be like a splurge meal, right? But that's actually pretty counterproductive to the goal that they're looking for. Instead, let's celebrate with the same intention that we're moving towards our transformation with. Let's make sure that we honor our sense of identity and that we recognize and remember are very important, meaningful why? That way we can stay true to who we are and why we started this change, both in the creation of our milestones and in our celebrations. Often in this particular tip, it's important to have people in your life that can hold you accountable. Maybe you let others know about your milestones, makes sure that your support system is aware of what you're searching for and they can celebrate with you. I never want to dismiss how important the words are of the people that we really care about. So when I have someone in my life or in my support system that recognizes how hard I'm working and recognizes that a small win is actually a very big victory for me. They're words of encouragement, their words of affirmation can be such an incredible way to celebrate the achievements that we're reaching on the way to our goals. So plan for your milestones. Know what those small wins look like. And then decide how will you celebrate with yourself with good self-talk and good self affirmations with things that are authentic to the change that you're making and with others that care about you and want to support you through the change. 5. Tip 4: Be Humble: Remember in the introduction when I mentioned that changes hard. Well, one of the reasons change is hard is that it forces us back to the beginning. It forces us to be beginners, to potentially learn something new, to adapt, to identify new skills and grow those new skills. And because of that, tip number four is to be humble. To find it in yourself to recognize that it's okay that you don't know all of the answers. Okay? If you stumble and have to get back on track. So humility during change allows us to have perspective and allows us to think more clearly and identify that this isn't just about me failing, it's about me stumbling, perhaps. It's about me identifying that I need to course-correct. I need to change direction. I need to learn something I didn't know before. Many times, change requires new skills and identifying tools for success. As you're on your road to your goal, you may identify that you are lacking in one of those areas. You didn't have the tool that you needed. That is, okay, Be humble, except that it's not about perfection, it is about progress. And find your way back to your path. Develop that skill, find that tool. Identify a new method for reaching your goals. But don't give up and don't shame yourself. Identify that you are going through something bigger than yourself and your ability to be humble, to be willing to learn and adapt and adjust is part of your road to success and will help you find your way to effective change. 6. Tip 5: Keep Going: We've made it to tip number five. So this one is going to challenge you. I'm simply going to remind you, do not give up. Do not stop. Tip number five is keep going. Change is inherently hard. Throughout change, you're going to experience different emotions. You may feel a loss of control. You may feel a lack of confidence as you learn new skills. As you go through this, it's important to remember the stake in the ground that you put in. Way back at step number one, your why, your focus, your center. Anytime you are faced with doubt or a roadblock or a new barrier, you go back to your why and remind yourself of how important this changes in order to achieve that Y, to achieve that purpose. It may sound silly for me after going through all of these tips to simply tell you to not stop. But there will be a moment when you will be challenged enough that in your mind, you may think this changes it for you. But change takes time, changes hard. We are creatures of habit, but we are also resilient. As you've finished this course today, I want to remind you of your resilience to take the time to always remember your why and to keep going. Good luck. 7. Recap: You've made it to the end of the course. So let's recap. Tip number one. Know your why that deep why that meaningful? Why? Tip number to know yourself. Take the time to recognize your sense of identity, your values, and your behaviors that are going to help you get through this change successfully. Tip number three, plan your milestones and celebrate them. Get others involved with that celebration and makes sure that it's authentic to the change that you're making. Tip number four, be humble, be willing to learn except what you do not know and find ways to be a beginner and be okay with that. And finally, tip number five. Don't give up, keep going. You are resilient and you can do this. I wish you the best of luck as you go through your transformation. I know you can do it. Thank you for watching.