It is interesting how I get many requests from corporates and MBA students to incorporate ‘yoga’ in my sessions. They find it relaxing, relieving, and it helps them concentrate with clarity. Since I help them experience ‘yogaofthemind” which does not necessarily include any physical postures, I help them see that yoga truly means ‘union’ or ‘connection’, versus ‘viyoga’ which means ‘disconnection’. To illustrate, if I am currently thirsty and am thinking about water, then, technically speaking, I am in yoga with water. Since we are always in yoga with something or another, each of us are ‘constantyogis’. Yoga is indeed powerful. If I hold a few elevated thoughts about the self, such as: ‘I am worthy’ or ‘I can do it’, then I am in yoga with that state, and as a result, I feel and become that. If I am constantly creating thoughts of doubt, misfortune, and regret then I cause a great deal of damage. This yoga is not very helpful; in fact, it is detrimental. Hence my fellow yogis, let us not wait for June 21, International Day of Yoga to do what is fashionably right, but begin from this very moment. Forge the right connections with your thoughts and be at your best right now!”
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USD 125 billion was the estimated health and wellness food market size in 2023, reflecting a substantial investment in sustaining a healthy body. Wonder if we are paying equal attention to healthy food for the mind? An alert, active, and energetic mind that is calm and stable is an asset and must be fed appropriately. It is a no-brainer that thoughts make up the diet of the mind. I am reminded of a fable where the old Cherokee teaches his grandson about life. “Inside all of us are two wolves constantly fighting with each other,” he told the boy. “One is evil, full of lust, anger, greed, attachment, and arrogance.” He continued, “The other is good, filled with peace, love, positivity, truth, and happiness.” The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked curiously, “Grandpa, which wolf will win?” The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.” We are served a variety of diets through our phones every moment. Firstly, we must avoid overeating and tame ourselves to consume information only when needed; additionally, we must refrain from junk, i.e. information that may seem exciting but takes away valuable time from performing important activities. The cost of losing valuable opportunities is immense, besides, there are plenty of dis-eases of the mind that creep in due to the consumption of information that is negative. A takeaway – to the extent that we look after our physical diet, let us pay equal attention to our mental diet and enjoy a healthy mind. The key word here is ‘attention’, and that will take care of the rest; where attention goes, energy flows, where energy flows, and life grows.
Timing of any change is a very essential thing. It can turn one’s organizational image upside down, and if valued and taken care of while making decisions, can help you skyrocket with the change of circumstances. While given a scenario of being the head supervisor of any organization, many of us even, being skilled enough, struggle with the execution of it at the wrong time. When you react spontaneously to the problem at hand, the results are very overwhelming.
While changes are an integral part of an organization, they tend to bring along the most disruption. They can put you through the scenario of reconstruction where you might question every decision you’ve ever made. The changes might spin the heads of the ones at higher power in such a way that they forget their staple patience, and instead of answering the questions at hand, they might try to escape the problem by weeding them out. But as their flight responds little do they know it is no one but themselves who’ll have to render the loss later.
An organization mainly goes through the following phases of change – reinforcement, mobilization, and sustenance. But the initial two phases take a lot of time for a company, and they’re usually unable to witness the last stage. This is very remorseful because the third stage is actually the stage where we try to conquer the change and ingrain it.
Although making the changes might come with a cliche. Employees might be disinterested in the beginning- but this is where the actual brainstorming lies. And when so many people ponder over-improving something, those efforts never go in vain. For all we know, is without bringing in every single member of the team the mission can’t be achieved.
So, here is a road map of all the stages and getting the entire work with the same zeal:
AWARENESS – This stage involves the process of creation of understanding by the superiors in making things understandable to them in the best way possible.
INTEREST – Along with understanding, it is important to note how they perceive the idea. If they don’t do it nicely, hear from them what possible modifications can be made, and lend an ear to hear their take on it.
And lastly, the stage of :
Trying – Trying out the changes and accepting them mindfully. It is important to note that no member should be denied of their right to go through these steps because, in the end, all of them are an asset.
Ecube Training & Consulting has been at the forefront in guiding, sharing, and training individuals and corporates to perform their better. Want to know more about us or are you looking for capable guidance for the process further? Drop us a message. We will connect with you soonest.
Bringing new changes in any organization can unleash a very tough time, mainly for the one who decided to do so. The problems discussed so far might just be the tip of an iceberg for the decision-making members of any company. Where the game is all about watching details, it can teach an organization some things that’ll be beneficial for it in the long run. Let us now have a sneak-peek into the heads of a major influence for an organization.
When we talk about the state of a CEO’s mind or any other significant figure’s mind through the process, we initially sense that there is an existence of an objective, but it is a fact that a plan might always stay a plan if not executed right. Thus, a change can come out to be a true test of how they cater to the responsibilities they own. But, they might have a lot of pressure and tension upon their heads, for they need to bring along as many followers and agreement givers as they can. And deciding how to go about it becomes tough.
Secondly, it is observed that scenarios take some major tolls on a person’s mental health. They can have a lot of confusion regarding plenty of things. The reason being obvious, it is their first time too with the alteration they’re trying to make. The confusion is mainly regarding the scenarios that involve careful decision-making. Deciding between the credibility of the change versus the modification insisted by their adopters becomes tough.
Trying to comprehend someone’s already existing beliefs is something that requires some conventional psychological techniques, the ones that are just apt for the incoming change. Also known as ‘levers’ these are nothing but ways of trying to communicate the qualities that one wants to trigger in others. Hence, choosing which lever to pull first, or selecting that one optimum lever that’ll influence the resistors in the way possible is simply a game of applying common sense. Moreover, it is about analyzing which of the most we’ll have to make.
While change management is a staircase of procedures like bringing in awareness, building networks, coalition, and communication, it is also a time taking process. Nevertheless, one can make it to the final step of acceptance, they’ve achieved their end goal.
An organization is nothing without its leader, especially the one who is the bedrock of its decisions. The leader’s course of action determines the future of a company, as he or she is indeed, a facet or an ambassador of the goods or services the company might provide, and being a leader can come at the cost of sacrificing your entire self for the brand image, here are a few essentials that mark the true aura of a good leader.
HUMBLENESS
A good leader is always a very down to earth person, as they are the people who are looked upon and can even be frowned upon by others if turn out to be boastful or egoistic. Hence, a progressive company requires a leader who’s humble enough to be accessible by all.
CONFIDENCE
Imagine if the tables are turned around, and it isn’t you but the ones below you being hesitant. In such a scenario, it is nothing but your negotiation skills that can pull the strings together, and these come with nothing but sheer confidence.
Remarkably, a trait that determines one’s entire picture of life, confidence is something that complements one’s field of knowledge or expertise and is the key to attaining wellness in almost every field of life. Hence, taking note of the respect and responsibility that comes along the name of a good leader, a lack of confidence can fiddle with your entire image.
JUDGEMENTS
A good leader must always be unbiased towards their employees and must be observant enough to be able to pin-point the focus areas of any project their organization might be a part of and must be well-put, enough to give the required guidance too. These qualities not only help in their sales acceleration but also help them develop a sense of trust and credibility with and within their employees, thereby ensuring workplace wellness. Hence, a good leader can turn the setbacks into comebacks for an organization, and with the right qualities and skill-set, they’ll not only be able to do so but will indeed be a face full of resilience to remember even in the future.
E-cube Training & Consulting has always been at the forefront of guiding, sharing, and educating individuals and businesses to do better. Do you want to know more about us or are you looking for competent guidance to guide you through the process? Please send us a message. We will contact you soon.
There’s no doubt that the phase of change is a time of pressure and lack of motivation for any organization. However, if we dissect the change as it comes along our way by asking why and what comes along with it, the rest that we will witness will not seem so distressing. Hence now let us try to look at the WHY of a change through the dimension of our harbingers of change, the superlatives of any organization.
So, if looked from the viewpoint of change-makers, they try to see it happening in two different attitudes:
Reactive attitude :
Being reactive to change highlights the effects from the world around the organization, all the external worries like the sliding share prices, missing market predictions, and scattered priorities might take one into the fire- flight mode, and hence through this attitude, the urgency to become a part of the fuss of the world becomes important for the organization. Hence, with such an attitude changes happen as the need of the hour, a need which is already understood by every employee. As a result, such an attitude, although might be helpful in emergencies or inter-personal crisis, they take a toll on workplace wellness, as any worry outside might force and not motivate the employees to work for it.
Such an attitude is highly inefficient, and unhealthy to have on a regular basis.
Proactive attitude :
On the other hand, a proactive attitude towards change is all about the motivation and need to change that comes from within, it is a self-driven mode of urgency that stays unaffected by the external factors, and as a matter of fact comes along with all the three- an initiative, a plan to execute in the present and another plan of similar potential for the organization’s future endeavors. And in this case, the motivation to do all of these comes from within, as in a way of the constant hustle towards outshining the rest of the world ahead. In a way, this mode is more cost efficient as everything here is already sketched out.
As a result, the employees are less stressed, more efficient, and the expenditure is less. Additionally, the turnover risk of the organization is reduced, the return on investment is high and adoption ease is increased because your staff understands why and how the change will affect them.
E-cube Training & Consulting has always been at the forefront of guiding, sharing, and educating individuals and businesses to become better people. Would you like to know more about us or are you looking for competent guidance to help you through the process? Please send us a message.
The death spiral is a do-or-die condition for an organization. We call it the spiral of death, mainly because, it can result in a complete downfall for a company. If done without the right tactics of effective negotiations and in the absence of resilient leaders. The loss of life spiral is a long, drawn-out procedure. People often talk about these kinds of death spirals, the first being the end of a company`s life cycle. At this moment, humanity is desperately looking for a way out. Secondly, the situation where a person is disoriented and can blindly obey everything he sees or hears. The thinking here is nihilistic, like following the world around you without even thinking twice about the consequences.
Stages involved in the death spiral:
SECURITY AND DURATION
This is the period where industry collapses and workplace wellness suffers. In this round, the company loses its position of public responsibility. As a result, it refuses to maintain transparency and tends to show a lack of acceptance of current issues; issues such as high costs, poor product quality, internal conflict, organizational vulnerabilities, etc come into the picture and destroy the wellness at the workplace.
BLAME AND CONTEMPT
It is also observed that there is a constant blame game occurring among different teams. All these happen regardless of the quality of their leaders’ negotiation skills. For project failures, sales blame sourcing and delivery, they blame sales, and so on. There may also be a persistent lack of resources during this period.
PROTECTING BUT DESTROYING TRUST
During the avoidance phase, departments are a means of protecting their employees. Failure to partner with departments below on effectiveness programs, are the moment where each department may initially apply. But declines during eventual participation.
PASSIVE & EFFECTIVE
This is the final stage of the death spiral that most entities are unable to pull out off. During this period, employees lose hope following rumors of takeovers by other industry players. At the same time, it has been observed that losing their own company’s expectations causes employees to leave their organizations and merge with competitors. Employees do all these for lack of an essential work ethic and motivation. And while this is something that can be easily overcome with leadership and negotiation skills, it is a difficult step to take.
E-cube Training & Consulting is at the forefront of guiding, sharing, and educating individuals and companies to become better people. Would you like to know more about us or are you looking for a competent advice to help you in this process? Please send us a message. We would get in touch with you soon
A conversation about values always leaves one empathetic, inspired, with lots of experience and reflections as well. The reflection of a person’s qualities is a look-alike of our own. We tend to relate, trying to find more similarities and more often, gain a sense of reassurance from that particular person about having an understanding of what we’ve gone through. This reassurance comes in phases- and those mainly the phases of appreciation.
Now, it is rightly said that anything one appreciates or feels motivated by, they tend to repeat it. Be it a habit of any other person, or the existing behaviors of themselves. If it is a wave of inspiration from others, you want to find a way to adapt it, but if it is an experience of you from the past, you’d want more of what was there. This appreciation indeed solidifies facts and qualities and further helps you bring more clarity to yourself.
Then there comes the part when it is not just you but others recognizing and appreciating you for adapting that value. You feel more motivated, already present, and will become even more empowered. All of these, in a way, is driving you to give your best and hence, helping you take a step forward in positive directions of your growth.
Since we’ve had discussed enough conversation, we now are going to look at one of the aspects that invoke successful conversations. It is nothing but the art of storytelling. We’ll look at how this particular skill is crucial not just for the authors out there, but also relevant to use in common communications. In accordance, we’ll understand how it is a fruit of growth for our corporate society as well.
It is rightfully said that ‘ If one wants to make success, they’d first have to enact success in front of others. They’ll have to be a good example first.’ By this we mean if you want people to demonstrate certain values the way you’d like, you first show them what it is exactly you like, or your way.
You share stories about you doing things in a different way to make them get along with your perspective first. Share a simple story about you enacting that value. This will affirm your credibility.
If one can build credibility, that means you give them an insight and if that comes out well, people start to know you not just from your position in the company or your educational qualifications, but even from the character point of view.
Now that we’re familiar with the process of change and its outcomes, we shall now talk about the HOW’s and WHY’s of any change that one might go through. The process of bringing in changes involves mankind, and where there’s an involvement of mankind there comes a need for step-by-step procedures. And if by mistake any of these steps go wrong, we are made to go through unwanted aftermath. So, in order to avoid that we’ll try to carefully rectify these ‘how’s’ and ‘why’s’ in business organizations.
Since we’re diving into more and more technicalities now, we might now look at the process of Cognitive redefinition – which is nothing but the art of handling changes within organizations. It was given by Kurt Lewin and came into action by the efforts of Edward Garschien. It revolves around three basic steps, which are illustrated as follows:
Unfreezing – This process answers the question of ‘why the change’ within an organization. It is nothing but creating motivation among individuals, explaining to them how vital the coming change can be, and making them understand the need of the moment. It is mainly about showing them the importance or urgency of the change.
Changing – This is the ‘ACTION’ step for any organization, when they finally adapt to the attributes of the change, meaning by the previous act of cognitive redefinition they tend to develop new habits and attitudes.
Redefinition – Now that you’ve finally reached the state of mind you wanted to get the organization into, there comes a need of stabilizing those changes. It is about firstly, building the momentum for change, building the organizational capacity for it, and then finally anchoring it by stabilization.
But as we said, the change in masses happens through the change in individuals, it is crucial to take note of the following method of adoption of the change in a single member. They go through the following stages before a change:
Awareness- The stage of adoption is where they are made aware of the obvious.
Interest – This is the task of the superiors of the team to awaken a sense of excitement about the change within its members.
Trial – The process of prior experimentation or hit and trial, so that the impact of it doesn’t shock them.
Adoption – This is the step where the grind of change begins, it is where they are made to go through the final execution of it.
This, in a way, is similar to the ADKAR model, which takes us through the steps of awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, and reinforcement. All of these phases for an organization of mobilization, movement, and sustenance might come as setbacks or challenges at worse, but only that extra effort takes one to heights. Ecube Training & Consulting has been revealing such tricks and training individuals for a decade now. Facing challenges at work? Drop us a message or book a session. We’ll be glad to take you forward successfully.
Trying to change something that is already engraved into your fabric, is like trying to disposition bones from your skin. It is seemingly difficult, but not unachievable. Well, if only one masters the art of unlearning something already present more than learning new skills, only then the desired change is set to happen.
‘What is change?’, ‘Is it more about bringing new ideas or rectifying the old ones?’ And many of such questions pop into our human heads. Although talking about changes enthralls their spirits, human beings are wired to resist change, no matter how much it might excite them. In the process of change, they fail to understand how welcoming something new in one’s life requires one to make room for it. Thus, you have to bid goodbyes to the things you currently have, the joys you currently own, the phase you’re currently in. It may it be a skill, be a quality of your nature, or anything that you’re trying to harness or even a relationship with new people.
Though the change might exactly have one of two faces; i.e, the phase of destruction and rejuvenation, it may require you to unlearn something or the other. And being humans, after all, this art of unlearning comes difficult to humans. It already exists in the circuits of your system, and if you think with a click of your fingers it can come off- it really can’t. It is exactly like trying to induce the mindset of adults into teens nowadays.
But when we precisely talk about the changing process in organizations, it is when an organization might realize they lack a particular skill set, or maybe, if they want to chip in new ideas or methodologies into themselves.
At first, it is important to note that organizations are nothing but associations of like-minded individuals. Hence, the changes in an organization are mediated through individual changes.
It is vital for enterprises to identify their key contributors and how the process of change can initiate from them. so that they can further pass on the modifications to their peers. In this step, you will have people who wouldn’t want a change at all. But then only these people will challenge you. Alas! It is only how you combat such battles that lead you to greatness.
Consequently, bringing the imprint of newness on other people’s minds is a battle with their emotional well being too. A change might trigger their considerable fears and imbalances. Thus, the emotional intelligence of an organization is at play during the process of change.
And lastly, change is a multistage cycle. All the changes must be negotiated for a stable one. In this respect, we have a cycle of ‘unfreezing, which means if there’s no motivation, then no change. Then comes the step of adapting the changes based on cognitive redefinition and lastly, the step of stabilization of these changes.