What REALLY Makes People Change

In “Getting Emotional about Social Marketing: Why and How People Change Behaviour” they argued that “fear and facts” did not create change; ingrained habits were more likely to respond to an emotional connection with another human being or community. See the full article HERE.

This is something that constantly comes up in relationships - personal relationships, work relationships, relationships like counseling and therapy. We have all been lectured "at" too much. We immediately set up barriers when someone is trying to intimidate or scare us.

What works? An emotional connection with another human being, and that means having emotional intelligence.

Want to learn more? Take my EQ Course. It's on the Internet, interactive, and you can include coaching for exponential growth. Email me at sdunn@susandunn.cc .

Inspiration for Hard Times

The tiniest changes yield massive results. Tony Robbins.

How to Manage Change in Hard Times: Don't Micro-Manage

Micro-Managing breeds more distrust ...

On the Project Management blog, Jonathan Gilbert, PMP, director of client solutions for ESI International talks about Managing Change Through a Downturn:

“Trust needs to be the underlying environment in any change initiative,” advises Gilbert. “Currently, there is a paucity of trust in organisations, as organisational members question the need for downsizing, and organisation leaders wonder how hard everyone is really working. My experience tells me that when times get tough, leaders tend to deal with the massive disequilibrium of tough times by micro-managing, which breeds even more distrust.”

Read the article for Gilbert's three steps for successful change initiatives.

Gilbert then lists his four top skills for improving your abilities to manage change successfully:

1. Deep listening: the ability to hear and empathise with the people being impacted by the change
2. Emotional intelligence: a facility to understand the physiological, neurological and emotional responses that we all have to change in our lives
3. Questioning: the ability to ask questions that allow people to have their own insights about what the change really means (as a leader, you cannot tell people what insights they should have – they have to arrive at them on their own)
4. Patience: an ability to suspend urgency for a time while people work through their responses to change because everyone will adapt to change at different rates.

Good words. To improve your emotional intelligence, take The EQ Course.

Darwin, on who survives

I don't know anyone who hasn't been affected by the events of the past year. I find this quote pertinent, especially because Darwin has so often been MISquoted.

It is not the strongest of the species that survive,

nor the most intelligent,
but the one most responsive to change.
~ Charles Darwin

Emotional Intelligence includes the capacity to be resilient, flexible and creative. When you have these tools, you can react positively to change -- and change is always stressful.

If things in your life have changed drastically, you may find yourself feeling like a dinosaur in the age of mammals. It's time to "adapt." Positive action and changing to meet the changing time are part of being "responsive to change."

Any major life event ushers in a "transition" - retirement, career or job loss, change in marital status, kids leaving home, loss of retirement fund and having to go back to work ...

Let me know if I can help you with coaching.

Coping with Change

SirsiDynix OneSource: Change – Arrghhhhh!

On the blog, Stephen Abram, MLS, talks about change and the emotional intelligence it requires.

Stephen is vice president, Innovation, for SirsiDynix, and the chief strategist for the SirsiDynix Institute (http://www.sirsidynixinstitute.com/). He is an SLA Fellow, president-elect of SLA, and the past president of the Ontario Library Association and the Canadian Library Association.

What he's really talking about is the emotional intelligence competency of RESILIENCE.

Wnat to learn more? My ebook "Resilience" is available here.