What is the best piece of advice you would give?

In this special edition, one-hundredth episode of the podcast we explore the four key topics, Productivity, Change, Culture and Leadership to see if we can get each of them down to one piece of wisdom, well one piece each from Ricky, Rob, Rich and Paul.

Without creating any spoilers, you may have guessed that we did not get it down to one, or one per topic! However, we did come up with some real nuggets for each of the areas, so listen in for a quick grounding in how to get things done in your organisation, department or team.

Posted On December 1, 2022 By Paul Hutchinson In Change, Culture, Leadership, Podcasts, Productivity, The question is /

How People Respond to Workplace Change

Are you a change agent or a manager responsible for helping people through workplace change – I imagine that means all of you!

We all respond differently to change; our attitudes and behaviours will depend on many factors. This video shares four labels to help you identify change behaviours and attitudes.

Check out this video, too; it will give you practical ways that will help you to help your people through change.

Posted On August 17, 2022 By Ricky Muddimer In Change, Engagement, High Performing Teams, Leadership, Management, Mindset, Productivity, Video /

How to help people through workplace change in three easy steps.

Change in the workplace can be traumatic; most of us are pre-programmed to dislike change, but in the workplace, somehow, the stakes are even higher.

Change in the workplace needs managing, and having access to powerful change tools is a great start when helping people navigate change in the workplace.

In this video, Rob walks you through three simple steps to help anyone, including themselves, navigate change in the workplace.

Change at work, how to deal with it, navigating workplace change, accepting change at work,k adapting to workplace change, modern workplace change

Do you know how much Change is costing your business?

The cost of business change is huge!

An HBR article suggests that 70% of change fails to achieve its intended outcomes.

Of course, change is a cost; the question is – when we embark on change, do we help our people to come on the journey, or do we add to the cost by creating disengagement – a sense of unfairness, lack of control, build-up of resistance, these all add up to a hidden cost of change, that will never appear on your balance sheet. You are losing valuable time that will escalate if not managed correctly. What’s your cost of change, and more importantly, what’s your cost of doing nothing?

How much is your current or most recent change costing you?

Add your numbers to the calculator to determine how much change has cost you so far and how much it will cost if it goes unresolved:

Cost of Change Calculator

How many employees are affected by the change?: How many hours of non-productive time is lost per person per week?: How long has this been going on for? (in weeks): How long will it take to resolve this? (in weeks): What is the average hourly rate per employee?: Select Currency:

This is not a scientific calculation, just a quick indicator. It may not be the total you arrive at, but it won’t be zero either; your instinct and judgment will tell you where you believe it to be on the scale.

Want to talk about how to reduce your cost of change?

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When you’ve worked out the cost of change for your business, call us, and we’ll help you cut the cost whilst engaging your people as you go. Download the Change Blueprint for our take on organisational change and how you take people on the journey.

How do I re-engage my people?

This time on the podcast, we ask a very relevant question for the last quarter of 2021, as we work through this strange lull in the pandemic, trying to act like it is over yet without being really sure that it is.

This leads to a feeling that we should be getting back to normal, yet for many going back to what they were doing still feels a way off. As leaders, how do we engage people who have lost their sense of purpose, or are having to do something slightly different as their organisation adjusts and repositions?

However, this is not just an issue that is pandemic related. Any time an organisation experiences significant change, a high proportion of people will find their purpose, their reason for being there, impacted. It may be put on hold, or changed completely, and it is the leaders who need to engage them back into the business, helping them find new meaning and motivation so that they can continue to perform.

Posted On September 27, 2021 By Paul Hutchinson In Change, Culture, Leadership, Podcasts, Productivity, The question is /

Are poor behaviours holding your organisation back?

Want behaviour change in your company?

At Thinking Focus, we believe teams and business units underperform not by choice but because of self-imposed and organisational constraints.

We help people adopt a growth mindset that unlocks interference and accelerates the adoption of new behaviours, which leads to greater organisational performance.

Posted On March 11, 2021 By Ricky Muddimer In Change, Culture, High Performing Teams, Leadership, Mindset, Productivity, Video /

Why does this lockdown feel harder?

As lockdowns continue in many countries around the world, we wondered why this time feels so much harder than the first lockdown back in March.

With their change management heads on, Ricky, Richard and Paul talk about the factors that are causing us to struggle.

We cannot promise any answers but hopefully can shed a little light on why we might all be feeling it a little more right now.

Posted On February 4, 2021 By Paul Hutchinson In Change, Podcasts, Resilience, The question is /

Why do the people I am working with not get that we need to step up?

At some point in our career, probably when we feel like we are giving everything we have, someone above us in the organisation tells us that now is the time to step. This has never been more true than this year where all of our plans have gone awry, yet we still need to close out the year and get things back on track.

Maybe you are that manager, being asked to have the difficult ‘stepping up’ conversation with your team, yet sensing that they don’t see the situation quite the same way you do.

In this podcast, Ricky and Paul explore why we all react differently when being asked to give more at work, and how as managers we can communicate better with the people around us so that they do not interpret stepping up as secret code for longer hours.

Photo by Jaz King on Unsplash.com

Posted On November 25, 2020 By Paul Hutchinson In Change, Leadership, Podcasts, The question is /

How do you lead out of confusion?

When things change we become a little uncertain for a while. With large scale organisational change, this uncertainty can become almost paralysing for some people, and right now we are all experiencing more change than any of us are used to. There is change both at work and at home, and it is impacted on almost every aspect of our lives.

We look to leaders to help us create certainty and stability, but how do you lead out of so much confusion?

Paul and Rob explore how leaders can bring people together and create the certainty that we need to move forward together.

Photo by Matt Botsford on Unsplash

Posted On October 15, 2020 By Paul Hutchinson In Change, Leadership, Podcasts, The question is /

Who wins (at work) when we when find new ways of working?

The way we work has changed more in the last few months than any other time in our working lives. Who will be the winners?

Political styles that might have worked well in the office may not be as effective when working remotely. However, ignoring the politics is equally as bad.

Rob and Paul explore political styles during change, asking how do we find a balance between doing the right thing and getting what we want?

Photo by Jaz King on Unsplash

Posted On September 23, 2020 By Paul Hutchinson In Change, Culture, Leadership, Podcasts, The question is /