For several years now there has been a movement toward resilience in the workplace to deal with the many stresses that are part of a fast paced environment and many changes that are quick and sometimes difficult to absorb and to implement.

Now it becomes evident that rather than resilience or recovery we want to make a new commitment to greater strength and openness to take the opportunity for growth and learning that is being presented now.

Antifragility has become a concept that has been brought forward and that demands some new capabilities that can bring happiness and success in the workplace as well as personal life. 

This  overview involves the Growth Mindset of Anti-fragility and 4 behaviors that can be altered to allow a shift to a greater impact within and outside of your business.   

The study and teaching of the aspect of Antifragility can exponentially increase the impetus for stated outcomes. 

As we begin to Scale Forward it is important to know that now is the time for new thought and an altered mindset.

Antifragile Mindset:

Rather than view stress as negative or something to avoid,  look for the opportunity of stress as something positive to be embraced.

We do not look for resilience and recovery, but to welcome and embrace stress as a muscle builder for strength. The question to ask is: 

Am I operating from a FIXED or a GROWTH mindset?

FIXED MINDSET

• Avoid challenges
• Give up easily with obstacles
• Effort uncomfortable
• Avoid or ignore useful negative feedback
• Threatened by success of others
• Look smart

GROWTH MINDSET

• Embrace challenges
• Persist in face of setbacks
• Effort path to mastery
• Solicit criticism for learning
• Inspiration in success of others
• Desire to learn

To begin this process for yourself think of these four behaviors that you can foster and track.

Pause – when an e-mail or a conversation creates irritation or upset, pause and do not react in the moment.  Learn to use breathing as a way to Pause and set that intention so that when you feel irritation the first reaction is to breathe.  This gives you time to respond rather than to react.

Daily Bold Action – As you create an essential Goal take a daily bold action in that direction.

Difficult Conversation Opportunity – think of the conversations you might be avoiding and create an opportunity to have one.  

Invite Feedback (Criticism) – seek criticism for improvement and to have the challenge of hearing criticism which we often avoid

This will be an opportunity to have some interaction about these concepts.  You can Reply to the blog and reach me for any conversation you wish to have including Antifragility as a sustainable growth tool for sustainable growth.

References:

Eric Partaker,  The Three Alarms

Kelly McGonegal, The Upside of Stress, audio book

Nassim Nicolas Taleb,  Antifragile—things that gain from disorder

We encourage you to read the entire series on Antifragility to set up a schedule of the behaviors below to enhance your development of antifragility which includes:

• A Growth mindset vs. a fixed mindset
• Show up as a Professional, not as an amateur
• Summon your most courageous self to step into your fears
• 3 Power phrases:  

I’m excited

Bring it on

That’s like me (Winning)

  4 Essential Behaviors to become essential habits for success. 

1. The Pause—when a stimulus occurs we can monitor the response by using the Pause so that our response is not a reaction but a thoughtful choice
2. Daily Bold Action— take bold action by stepping into the fear to build confidence
3. Difficult Conversation Opportunity—Take the opportunity to have difficult conversations you are avoiding.
4. Invite Feedback (Criticism)—create opportunities to receive feedback and welcome criticism for learning and greater success 

Daily Bold Action Rule

• We build confidence by taking Bold Action
• We take Bold Action by Stepping into Fear
• Identify your fear: 
• Examples:
• Loss, 
• Difficulty 
• Uncertainty

Do’s and Don’ts and Obstacles

1. Regularly ask yourself if you are operating from a Fixed or Growth Mindset.
2. Don’t think that Antifragile confidence can’t be built.
3. Obstacles:  Where to start

The Pause                             Daily Bold Action

Daily Bold Action is a behavior that supports the creation and achievement of  big goals. 

An exercise you can do to create and achieve a goal that is large and may seem difficult is to use the WOOP. 

  Each letter of the WOOP is significant.

1. Wish—What do you Want?

2. Outcomes—What benefits will you experience?
3. Obstacles –What reality might get in the way?
4. Plan—How will you overcome each obstacle?

Stick to the plan of one Daily Bold Action a day and keep track with a weekly review of each part of the WOOP.

Please let me know if you have questions or would like to discuss.  You can respond to the blog and we can have a conversation.

Below are the links on the Bridging Associates Website for each blog.

Links for Series 

Antifragility: https://bridgingassociates.com/2021/05/29/mindset-and-4-new-behaviors/

The Pause That Refreshes:  https://bridgingassociates.com/2021/06/22/the-pause-that-refreshes/

Daily Bold Action:

            or

               You can view all of the blogs together on the Scalingup website with this link.

References: 

Eric Partaker,  The Three Alarms

Kelly McGonegal, The Upside of Stress, audio book

Nassim Nicolas Taleb,  Antifragile—things that gain from disorder

In previous articles we have introduced the concept of Antifragility with an overall look at Mindset and the power of Mindset

Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset

When we commit to  a Growth Mindset we are committing to Learning as a central goal in every situation.  The learning means that we know we don’t know everything and new information is needed to achieve. The fifth behavior to discuss in this series for Antifragility is to Seek Criticism as a tool for learning.

Ask for feedback:

• How can I improve?
• How would you improve on this?

As we ask these questions we can invite thoughtful feedback even if it is deemed critical.  It gives us the opportunity to receive information that we may never get otherwise, that can lead to great accomplishment.

So often we see criticism as proof of our lack of value as a person and that is a mistake which holds us back.

One place to see examples of seeking criticism is in the Athletic World just demonstrated by the Olympics in Tokyo.  Criticism is key to the accomplishments of an athlete as well as any of us who want to grow and succeed in our chosen work.  

There are many examples of this which are enumerated in the Mindset, a new psychology of success by Carol Dweck.(references)

The Antifragility Journey For Success

• • Reframe your view of stress
  • Fortify Self Belief
  • Provide Tools to Turn Stress into Strength 

• Begin your journey to become antifragile increasing your courage and confidence

Tools for Antifragility

• Mindset—growth vs. fixed
• Show up as a Professional vs. Amateur-  A Professional acts whether they feel like it or not and an Amateur does things if they feel like it.
• 4 Behaviors or Habits to solidify the Antifragile Mindset

The Pause, 

Daily Bold Action

Difficult Conversations 

Seek Criticism

Like Difficult Conversations we often avoid Criticism rather than seek it out.  It is a new habit/behavior that will build confidence and strength and give you information about how to improve something that will make a huge difference in your success.

 As we “flip the script” we see that doing something that feels scary actually creates strength rather than trying to build strength first, before we take risks.

Links to review all previous blogs.

Antifragility

The Pause

Daily Bold Action

Difficult conversations 

Seek Criticism

References:
Eric Partaker,  The Three Alarms
Kelly McGonegal, The Upside of Stress, audio book
Nassim Nicolas Taleb,  Antifragile—things that gain from disorder
Mindset, by Carol Dweck

Welcome to #4 of the Series on Antifragility

Difficult Conversations

Previously we discussed the Mindset of Antifragility which is basic to changing behavior.  The Antifragility Mindset is  Open as Opposed to  Fixed. (link for first antifragility article)

The 4 Behavior Habits that build and assist Antifragility are

• The Pause
• Daily Bold Action
• Difficult Conversation
• Seek Criticism

In Antifragility the script is flipped whereby we see Stress as a strength and a confidence builder.  In other words, to be sought out rather than avoided.

Another Basic tenet of Antifragility is that we show up as a professional rather than as an amateur.  The definition of this state of being is:

The Amateur—I do things if I feel like doing them.  Feeling generates action.

The Professional takes action whether they feel like it or not.  They know that action generates feelings.

Summon your most courageous self.  Spend some time thinking about that version of you and ask yourself, “What does that version of me look like?”

 What are my fears, how would my most courageous self handle those.

The first two behaviors, the Pause and Daily Bold Action are individual or personal.  We do them ourselves to enhance Antifragility. 

Difficult conversations are social rather than personal behaviors.  They involve interaction with others.

The previous Script often says that we build our confidence to handle our fears. 

The flipped Script  says that confidence is built by walking into fears and a means to building confidence.  

Difficult conversations are often handled with avoidance.  Therefore they can  take too long to happen.  The conversation can change a situation for the better but when delayed time is wasted in the old dysfunctional way of being.  As a business professional who is concerned with the People Decision for growth and an A Player culture, the Difficult Conversation is essential.

Often the external or internal conversation about having the Difficult Conversation  is:

“Did you have that difficult conversation? 

“No, I’m not ready yet.”

Too often difficult conversations take way too long to happen, or never happen at all, with everyone suffering in the process.

It’s time to flip the script on when and how you should step into life’s ‘tough talks’.   

1. We do not need to build confidence in order to have difficult conversation,  we gain confidence by having the conversation.
2. It is essential to express what you feel and want and this aspect is often where agreement can be had if the expression is about a situation rather than blaming the person you are talking with.
3. As a step forward, Determine, what are the conversations you are avoiding?
4. Summon your most courageous self

5. Use a Framework  that includes Discussion of the Situation, Complication and Resolution

The first two items, situation and complication can often be agreed upon.  Beginning with the agreement gives the time  to see that agreement is possible in the situation definition as well as the complication or difficulty.

Resolution:  What can we do to resolve?   This can include a set of choices one of which may not seem ideal,  but is necessary for resolution if other ways cannot be achieved.

This Behavior that can become a habit can be an extremely effective way to affect success.

Links to review all previous blogs.

Antifragility

The Pause

Daily Bold Action

Difficult conversations 

Seek Criticism

Thank you for reading.  

Patricia

References:
Eric Partaker,  The Three Alarms
Kelly McGonegal, The Upside of Stress, audio book
Nassim Nicolas Taleb,  Antifragile—things that gain from disorder
Mindset, by Carol Dweck

As we move forward into a new paradigm in business and life we want to develop some new patterns that allow for the unexpected and new opportunities to be used to the highest advantage.  Antifragility enhances vision so we can see opportunities that may be missed otherwise.

Below is the list of the enhancing behaviors included in this Antifragility Series.

The Pause – when an e-mail or a conversation creates irritation or upset, pause and do not react in the moment.  Learn to use breathing as a way to Pause and set that intention so that when you feel irritation the first reaction is to breathe.  This gives you time to respond rather than to react.

Daily Bold Action – As you create an essential Goal take a daily bold action in that direction.

Difficult Conversation Opportunity – think of the conversations you might be avoiding and create an opportunity to have one.  

Invite Feedback (Criticism) – seek criticism for improvement and to have the challenge of hearing criticism which we often avoid

   The Pause

The Pause creates the opportunity to develop breathing as an automatic response to reactiveness especially where there is upset or distraction.

The breathing is a clear opportunity to move into the present which takes away reactiveness coming from past experience.  The breathing process eliminates the fear that comes from concern for the future.  

Breathing Exercise

1. Stop and close your eyes
2. Set the intention to relax
3. Inhale counting to five and exhale counting to 7 for three sets
4. Set intention to forget the past
5. Inhale and exhale as above for three sets
6. Set intention to stop thinking about the future
7. Inhale and exhale as above for three sets
8. Set the intention to “take a vacation in the present” and Be Here Now.  
9. Inhale and exhale as above for three sets

The Pause is extremely valuable as it lessens the outcome that comes when we respond too quickly in the moment.  We want to respond from the strength of our  best self rather than react without the pause that creates clarity.  What you will find through this practice is that there are new ways of looking at the situation.  This will create a thoughtful intelligent response rather than a reaction.  

You can Reply to the blog and reach me for any conversation you wish to have including Antifragility as a growth tool for sustainable growth.  patricia@bridgingassociates.com

References: 

Eric Partaker,  The Three Alarms

Kelly McGonegal, The Upside of Stress, audio book

Nassim Nicolas Taleb,  Antifragile—things that gain from disorder

As I have worked with teams to engage and align it has become clear that Communication, Accountability and Solution create the Essential Tripod for organizational team development. In today’s new normal, this tripod is now more important than ever but how does it translate into remote working?

Here are a few tips for addressing these challenges. 

Structure: Working remotely doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to abandon the normal avenues of relationship and collaboration. What worked well in-person can still be applied remotely. For example, Meeting Rhythms can be held intact with a few changes.

Meetings are held daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually. These can and should still take place virtually. The challenge in holding virtual meetings is that you don’t get the same “energy” exchange when sharing ideas, problems and solutions. I have found that upping the frequency and shortening meetings can be a key to keeping everyone involved. The daily huddle helps to keep people engaged, focused and accountable. Try holding a daily huddle at the beginning and end of each day. These huddles should focus on how each person is doing, what the daily priority is and where they are stuck. While it’s important to be flexible, consistency is the most important thing to remember.

Get creative – a lot can be said for the business lunch – it builds rapport, trust and presents an opportunity for colleagues to get to know each other better. So why stop? Hold virtual lunch meetings instead. There are lots of ways to make this fun and interactive. If you want to take someone to lunch have it delivered to their home. Hold virtual lunch and learn meetings with a group and a guest speaker. These are just a few examples. I encourage you to think outside the box as much as possible. Another option is to have the Leadership team members alternate to have a monthly lunch with sign-ups for up to three people.

Get personal – ask your team and colleagues how they are doing? How are they coping? What are their challenges in working remotely? In order to build and maintain a high-performing team during this unprecedented time in history, you must understand what their challenges are. The importance of the human connection cannot be overstated. Taking the time to understand your colleagues/employees on the personal level in this time is essential.

Every business has its own unique set of challenges. Regardless of your situation, these are relatively simple and practical things you can do today to help keep your organization aligned, motivated and performing.

Do you have a particular challenge working remotely that you’d like to share? Please be sure to leave a comment. We would enjoy hearing from you.

“Good to Great” author Jim Collins feels that People are the most critical of the Rockefeller Four Decisions as a means to successfully grow a business. Collins said, “First who, then what.” The results of having the right people “on the bus” can be seen throughout many dimensions of a business, yet it’s most easily recognized in the fulfillment of the team, the resonance of company culture and in how happy people are to come to work.

As the quote above states, the What in your business is secondary to the Who. This refers to individual accountability and performance, as well as the willingness to be accountable to the team and to the business as a whole. The Four Decision Scaling Up Methodology uses alignment and team health, along with strategic actions that can be taken to move toward stated goals. In fact, team alignment and strategy are fashioned together and work in tandem.

Here are some beginning questions to ask yourself and your leadership team to determine if you have the right people in place who are aligned, accountable and performing:

• Do you (and key members around you) enjoy the people with whom you work?
• Are your teammates invested in performance and the success of the company?
• Do they share a passion for your company’s key purpose?

Identifying core values will cast light on what is important and valued within the company. From there, leaders can begin to witness and evaluate which team members’ core values align with the company’s – and which do not. This will be made evident via individuals’ dedication and commitment. How you might ask? Committed and aligned team members often volunteer for projects or work late, of their own accord. If an employee is bolting for the door as the clock chimes five, then odds are good that it’s not a great fit.

I’ve talked in depth about the importance of communication in real time and the development of meeting rhythms as actions that support the communication. Once you have the right people in place it’s vital that you keep the team health; aligned, engaged and motivated. An important aspect of the focus on People is making the Purpose and the Core Values of the organization important and a subject that is addressed on a regular basis through meeting rhythms. It is vital that leaders understand the importance of managing results by making effective meetings a first priority.

I’m currently working with a communications company that has been in the Scaling Up process for six months and is making the bridge to honest and forthright communication leading to alignment. An interesting example was brought up recently by the CEO – one of the teams within the organization is not having meetings, and the mistrust and neglect of important issues is becoming severe. When a weekly or daily meeting is neglected because of a client meeting, or any other reason, it becomes an issue that will continually sabotage success. A meeting with a client, he said, does not replace the staff meeting because their mistrust and poor communication continue. And, the effectiveness of meeting with clients is increased by over 100% when the team meets effectively themselves. Often processes with the clients take longer when staffs are not in communication except in client meetings. The communication ability of the team with each other is enacted with clients.

Are you experiencing a similar challenge with your team(s)? The most important first step you can take is to make communication a top priority. The second is to establish meeting rhythms – schedule regular meeting times instead of impromptu as a result of a problem or a crisis. Regular meetings help you create processes, review progress, and get in front of problems before they become a crisis. For more information on Meeting Rhythms be sure to read my previous article: “How Can You, And Your Teams, Create Growth, Accountability and Alignment.”

As always, if you have a question, challenge, or success story you would like to share, please be sure to leave a comment. Also, if you are interested in an opportunity to experience this methodology, please let me know. I would enjoy hearing from you! – Patricia

Today’s post focuses on the leadership barrier because “as goes the leadership team so goes the rest of the company”.  If you lack alignment and cohesion in your executive team you won’t get very far even if you have a strong operational infrastructure and a clear understanding of your industry’s market dynamics. Most challenges a company faces are traced back to lack of leadership team alignment.

There are three key skills leaders need to embrace to create a cohesive team and to support company growth:

Prediction – as companies grow, senior leadership tends to become more removed from their customers and frontline employees and less aware of the nuances. Leaders must have regular interaction with customers, competitors and employees to stay current and relevant.

Delegation – the ability to let go and trust others is key to successful company growth and to having more than a handful of employees.  It is the most important skill for leaders to master or they will run themselves into the ground. Here are few tips to delegate successfully:

• Make sure you’re delegating to the right person(s) – do they have the skill set or ability to learn quickly?
• Pinpoint the priorities – what does the person/team need to accomplish?
• Have a progress measurement system in place
• Provide feedback to the delegate.
• Give recognition and rewards.

Repetition  – Consistency, consistency, consistency. As a senior leader it is vital that you clearly define your core values, purpose, goals and priorities and deliver them regularly and consistently to your employees and customers to create a culture of growth. This will keep your organization on track and everyone heading in the right direction.

When you have the right leadership in place almost anything can be accomplished or any challenge overcome. Stay tuned for our next article which will focus on the challenge of creating scalable infrastructure and understanding your market dynamics.

The above leadership tips are taken from Verne Harnish’s book  “Scaling Up; How a Few Companies Make It..and Why Some Don’t and part of the Scaling-Up process.  I am a certified Scaling Up coach, and use this powerful work with clients. For more information on this topic, be sure to read Scaling-Up, or contact me directly to see how we might work together using the Scaling up model.

As always, if you have a question or would like to share a challenge or success, please be sure to leave a comment. I would enjoy hearing from you!

~Patricia

We were laughing because the transition between working on operations and moving up to strategic accountability can resemble a Spring storm, with dramatic and unexpected turns. But mastering and implementing The Four Decisions; People, Strategy, Execution and Cash, certainly helped him implement the transition with much greater ease and lasting results.

Leadership teams often need direction on how to collaborate effectively to create processes and systems throughout the organization which ideally can be duplicated throughout the company. And Scaling up larger businesses, with units that do not duplicate every process over and over, can be an added challenge.

My client and I started our work with the People decision. Fostering employee trust, communicating company values and goals, welcoming contributions, and making them more accountable were important first steps in the shift to an environment of Team Success. Probably the most important tool we used to accomplish this was Meeting Rhythms, which are a vital part of the Execution decision.

Your willingness to develop meeting rhythms in your organization is a crucial step toward creating accountability and alignment.

The Execution Decision:
• Meeting Rhythms
• Priorities
• Metrics to measure the success of KPI’s that are created to meet strategic goals.

The team approach to success requires meetings that are daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly as well as annual so that everyone is aware of and understands what the important long term goals are, and how their activities on a daily basis can contribute to success.

Often it seems that everyone is so busy that adding meetings to the schedule seems problematic. I can tell you that once the commitment is made, and the process is followed step-by-step, the priorities and accomplishments become easier and on target.

The daily meeting is called a Huddle and can be done via Telephone or Skype or if you are all in the same location can be done standing up. It is a short meeting with a very specific agenda.
• What’s Up
• Priority for today
• Am I stuck

The purpose is to have everyone from the top leadership team, and throughout the organization, meet team by team, for the connection and opportunity to communicate in real time, as things are going on. If someone is stuck, take it off line rather than handle it in the meeting unless it can be quickly answered. The huddle is no longer than 20 minutes depending on the size of the team. A team of six or less can easily do within 10 to 15 minutes.

The weekly meeting is for focus and collaboration and can be up to 90 minutes, although an hour is often enough time. It is important, however, to allow enough time for everyone to talk about wins, challenges and how goals are progressing both individually and for the team. The senior leadership team is looking at the organization as a whole so the old format of reporting, in detail, what is going on in each unit is shortened to wins, challenges and progress on priorities set in the last meeting. This meeting allows time for problem solving and new tactics for moving forward toward the strategic goals as well as execution goals for the quarter and the year. This is a time for the team to focus its collective intelligence on an important topic to the whole business.

I’ll review the Monthly, Quarterly and Annual meetings next month. There are good descriptions in Verne Harnish’s book, Scaling Up, as a beginning look at this.

There is a direct and indirect correlation between Meeting Rhythms and success. Directly there is more communication, reaching across functional lines for ideas and support, open willingness to share the stuck places and a sense of everyone being engaged in the whole business rather than just their piece.

Indirectly things work better and ideas get implemented and forward progress is easier.

As always, if you have a question, challenge, or success story you would like to share, please be sure to leave a comment. Also, if you are interested in an opportunity to experience this methodology, please let me know. I would enjoy hearing from you! – Patricia