We are living in an era of unprecedented change. Technology has connected us into a 24-7 non-stop global community, business cycles are faster than ever and stakeholders require instant responses in the midst of turbulent market conditions. This is all happening against a backdrop of profound structural change at all levels in society, politics and economics.
According to global surveys conducted by authors Jeanne C. Meister and Karie Willyerd, and Futurist Graeme Codrington’s research, the following key trends will have a dramatic effect on workplaces for the decade ahead:
Shifting workforce demographics. People will stay longer in the workforce, meaning that five generations of employees, from vastly different backgrounds will need to work together in collaborative teams.
Globalisation/virtual workplaces. By 2020 experts forecast that BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) will be leading the world economically, and there will be a migration of talent to these parts of the world.
The digital workplace. The realm of digital information is constantly growing. There will be an increased demand for employees who can manage vast amounts of data, whilst keeping it secure.
Use of mobile technology. Moving beyond communication, mobile phones will also be used extensively as training and educational devices.
Hyperconnectivity. The current Facebook, and instant messaging trend will continue, keeping people constantly in touch.
Knowledge economy. Knowledge is now doubling every 3 – 5 years. The demand for communication and relationship building skills, as well as technical skills will increase.
Participation society. Consumers and employees will collaborate via online collaborative groups to improve products, services and business.
Social atmosphere. A highly engaging social atmosphere will dominate future workplaces. 2010-2020 is also the decade for social networking, social media and social learning.
Corporate Social Responsibility. CSR, already a key trend in large companies will be even more important in 2020.
Millenials in the workplace. Wired since birth, the Millenial Generation (people born between 1977 and 1997) will make up nearly half of the workforce by 2014.
Blended lifestyle and flexible working arrangements. We will continue to see the breakdown of the traditional office with ‘normal’ 9 – 5 office hours. There will be more flexibility and work-life flexibility will replace work-life balance.
Buckle up for the ride!
Each of these trends, and many others will shape our world in the next few years, bringing both threats and opportunities. The key is to be prepared. By 2020 the global talent shortage will be acute, and employees will expect their workplaces to reflect the following:
Opportunities for lifelong, virtual learning. Tailor made career paths, and lifelong learning in emotional competencies as well as technical skills will be the norm. ‘What learning opportunities are provided?’ may well be one of the key questions job applicants pose in 2020.
Honesty and dishonesty. There will be a greater demand for transparency, and honesty and dishonesty will be quickly noticed in the social media environment.
Innovation. In a rapidly changing world, innovation is the key to survival.
Social connection and collaboration. The 2020 workplace will be characterised by sharing and the forming of communities at all levels. Social media tools will be leveraged to network, collaborate and brainstorm concepts.
It was Peter Drucker, the management author who said: ‘The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence, it is to act with yesterday’s logic.” The most important first step in responding to these changes is to change how we think, and to explore the many exciting opportunities these workplace trends present. Brace yourself for an exciting journey!
Are you in Perth, Western Australia and looking for a group of like minded people to practice NLP with? Have you done a Practitioner or Master Practitioner Course yet still want a chance to get more experience with the various techniques? Are you totally new to NLP, Hypnosis and Time Line Therapy and you just want to learn more about it? Then the Perth NLP Practice Group is for you!
In January 2011 we started getting together as a small group of just 3~5 members and since then we now regularly attract 7+ members. Our meetings are informal and happen on a monthly basis. It is totally free and hosted in Bull Creek, a short walk from the Murdoch Train Station. If you are reading this and you are interested then you are most welcome to join us at our next evening! For full information about the next event it is easiest to join the Perth NLP Practice Group on Facebook: » Find the Perth NLP Practice Group on Facebook
So far we have covered topics including:
Hypnosis Inductions
Chaining Anchors
Clare Graves Values Levels (Spiral Dynamics)
Parts Integration (Also known as Visual Squash)
And much, much more!
So what are you waiting for? If you are interested in NLP or Hypnosis and you live in Perth then join the Facebook group and join us for our next event!
If you have any questions or would just like to have a chat with someone before you come along then feel free to give the organisers a quick call:
Alana: 0415 879 100
Lloyd: 0427 384 547
In Neuro-Linguistic Programming it is important to begin everything by working out exactly what you want. In finding out what exactly you want it is important to make sure the outcome is achievable. An achievable outcome is important in situations such as with goals, meetings and even business relationships to name but a few.
Begin by asking yourself: “How is it possible that they don’t have it now?”
Then make sure that the outcome is:
Stated in the positive.
“What specifically do you want?”
Specify present situation.
“Where are you now?” (Associated)
Specify outcome.
“What will you see, hear, feel, etc., when you have it?”
As if now
Make compelling
Insert in future. Be sure future picture is dissociated.
Specify evidence procedure.
“How will you know when you have it?”
Is it congruently desirable?
“What will this outcome get for you or allow you to do?”
Is it self-initiated and self-maintained?
“Is it only for you?”
Is it appropriately contextualized?
“Where, when, how, and with whom do you want it?”
What resources are needed?
“What do you have now, and what do you need to get your outcome?”
Flow is one of the few theoretical concepts that I have fallen in love with recently. It has been written about extensively by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, a Russian Psychologist with a particularly long and hard to pronounce name – try and say that name ten times fast! In a nut-shell Flow is the experience of optimal human experience. That feelings where you get so absorbed in what you do that you totally lose track of everything else. All that seems to exist is the experience itself and you totally get into it. Athletes also commonly call this “the zone” so I thought it followed on nicely from my last article about Sports Hypnosis and Self Talk.
Personally I tend to experience it through my sport, when I’m writing, when I’m teaching and normally when I’m with clients. I’ve also experienced it in the past when playing computer games, doing timed tests and while with friends over a coffee. What gives me a heads up that I am experiencing Flow is when I notice a distortion of time (Things moving much faster/slower than I realised) and losing track of my basic needs like eating, drinking or going to the bathroom.
Mihály Csíkszentmihályi suggests that there are ten factors that are likely to accompany an experience of flow:
Clear goals (expectations and rules are discernible and goals are attainable and align appropriately with one’s skill set and abilities). Moreover, the challenge level and skill level should both be high.
Concentrating, a high degree of concentration on a limited field of attention (a person engaged in the activity will have the opportunity to focus and to delve deeply into it).
A loss of the feeling of self-consciousness, the merging of action and awareness.
Distorted sense of time, one’s subjective experience of time is altered.
Direct and immediate feedback (successes and failures in the course of the activity are apparent, so that behavior can be adjusted as needed).
Balance between ability level and challenge (the activity is neither too easy nor too difficult).
A sense of personal control over the situation or activity.
The activity is intrinsically rewarding, so there is an effortlessness of action.
A lack of awareness of bodily needs (to the extent that one can reach a point of great hunger or fatigue without realizing it).
People become absorbed in their activity, and focus of awareness is narrowed down to the activity itself, action awareness merging.
Interestingly, not all of these factors are needed for flow to be experienced.
Mihály also suggests that fundamentally there are certain areas of life that people are likely to most easily achieve Flow:
Sports or competitions where you are playing to win.
Gambling or situations where there exists a high degree of chance/risk.
Mind Altered States, especially those induced by drugs.
Escapism, such as through drama, the theatre, TV, DVDs or a good novel.
Early this year when I was explaining this to a client they summed it up nicely by saying, “So basically shouldn’t we try and spend as much of our life in Flow as we can then?”. And I tend to agree. The more of my life I spend in Flow, the happier I tend to be. And if you think about it, Flow is the exact opposite of Anxiety or Worry.
In what areas of your life do you find yourself experiencing Flow? How could you increase the feeling of Flow in your life through slight changes to what you already do but by applying these factors?
On Saturday I was lucky enough to spend an afternoon with Dr Srikumar Rao at the London Business School. It was at an event organised by Chris Morris and I turned up to explore Dr Srikumar’s ideas in relation to authentic happiness. Below are a couple of the pertinent points that I was mindful enough to write down at the time and some I didn’t write down but have stuck with me.
The event opened with the interesting idea: If you are not finding moments to be grateful constantly throughout your days then you are wasting your life!
Dr Srikumar Rao opened by sharing a lot of his background. He has had a really varied set of experiences that have brought him in contact with many high level executives and he has witnessed first hand how few of them are really happy. He currently runs a highly successful course called Creativity and Personal Mastery (CPM) as part of a MBA program.
Then he started sharing several of the core concepts to his approach. He believes that our lives are made up of Mental Chatter and Mental Models. Srikumar suggests that Mental Chatter is there all of the time for each of us and that the chatter that goes on inside our heads is responsible for dictating our lives. Mental Models are the constructs we have in our mind for everything, all of the processes and associations that go on without us thinking about it. The problem with Mental Models is that people don’t realise that they have models – this seemed very similar to the NLP idea that the map is not the territory. And why is all of this important? Because it is a combination of your Mental Chatter and your Mental Models that create your reality.
One thought that really stuck with me was: Anytime you are in a situation and you find it unpleasant AND it persists you are using a bad Mental Model.
One of the key themes of Dr Rao’s presentation was that happiness is found through changing the focus from yourself and placing it onto others. He calls our natural desire to focus on ourselves a ‘Me Centered Universe’ and, to use his words, “A Me Centered Universe guarantees a mediocre existence of depression and unhappiness”. That is a pretty powerful thought… In way of expansion Srikumar made the point that every modest move away from living in a Me Centered Universe will have a huge impact on your happiness. He goes on to say that the path to happiness is to find a way to be part of a cause that is greater than yourself, for the greater good of the greater community. A pretty straight forward idea really. Lot’s of what he said seemed to draw quite heavily on eastern philosophies, including placing the focus onto the journey rather than trying to see happiness as a destination.
Then we had a chance to do an exercise in small groups. Our group had three people in it and the task was quite simple. We had to share a situation in our life that is of concern to us. Then, with the help of the group, we had to construct a different reality, or a new Mental Model, that is both better AND plausibly believable. This took about 10~15 minutes of discussion per group member. Then our homework was to start living as if my new reality were the reality. We had to ignore any evidence that disproved it while also writing down the evidence that proves it and to continue to do that for 7-10 weeks. Dr Rao suggested you should only work on one alternate reality at a time.
Quite simply, this exercise has been amazing for me. The problem I discussed with the group came up with some great ideas but the problem we worked on isn’t a huge deal for me right now. So instead I’ve ended up using a generic Alternate Reality he threw out during his presentation of: “Today I am going to experience amazing moments of wonder and joy”. So yes, stuff that isn’t ‘amazing’ has happened but I have been ignoring it and focusing on the amazing moments. It has been a great experience hunting them out and what I’ve found is that so far (Only 6 days in) I’m yet to have a day without multiple of these moments… The funny thing is that the more I look for them, the more I am finding them. This whole idea is just another approach to “You get what you focus on” from NLP, but once again I am reminded of the power of implementing the concepts in my day to day behavior.
From this point forward the discussion seemed to get a bit more interesting and Dr Rao was responding to our questions, rather than sharing the generic info about what he does. An idea that rang true for me is that people are inherently happy. He had us remember a time when we saw something so beautiful that the whole world sort of stopped still (Such as looking at a beautiful scene in nature, or a new born child) – he suggested that this will come every time we accept the world totally and completely, exactly as it is.
He talked about how so many people are running the If, Then Mental Model. The “I have to get something so I can do something so I can be happy” Mental Model, aka conditional happiness. Dr Rao’s approach is that we are always in the perfect place for what you need right now, a pretty cool Mental Model. Instead of focusing on this If, Then model he talked about investing in the process, not the goal. By investing in the process the probability of you doing it will go up and the journey will bless you. Ultimately the mindset we need to adopt to be happy is “If you reach your goal… then life is wonderful” along with “If you don’t reach your goal… then life is wonderful”. By detaching ourselves from an emotional investment in the outcome, and fully investing in the journey, happiness can result.
From this point on the afternoon turned into more of a discussion so I will share the main points of note:
The only place you can ever start from is where you are now
Nobody can judge whether you are in a Me Centered Universe or Others Centered Universe from the outside
All of man’s problems are caused because Man cannot be left in a room by himself
All Mental Models crumble under enough scrutiny – the question is will it serve you better than your current Mental Model?
An exercise for moving towards an Others Centered Universe: Stop using I, me and why in your conversation. This leads to you starting to genuinely listening. Having tried this it is easier said than done!
Each day set out to make somebodies day. Do it consciously and deliberately.
Happiness is the by-product of living for others.
Behavioral change by a method of will is doing violence to yourself (I really liked that one).
That’s it. Then some of us headed down the nearest pub and that conversation is best saved for somewhere more private. I hope these notes have been of some interest – if you have any questions then feel free to comment or drop me an email.
The 5 Love Languages is a set of generalisations that help explain why certain people don’t feel loved in certain situations while others do. It is based on a book written by Gary Chapman called “The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate”.
It works on the idea that people receive and show love in five generalised ways. The five ways suggested in the book are:
Compliments (i.e. having nice things said to you)
Gifts (i.e. being given presents)
Acts of Service (i.e. when someone makes the bed, mows the lawn or generally does something for you)
Quality Time (i.e. when someone gives you their undivided attention and spends time with you)
Touch (i.e. being held/touched)
So for example if someone feels most loved when they receive gifts then they may not feel totally loved in a relationship where they aren’t given gifts, even if they are touched in loving way and spend lots of quality time with their partner. If their partner was to begin giving gifts, even if they reduced quality time and the time spent touching then they would still feel more loved.
At the end of the day it is just another system of generalisation so take it with a grain of salt, but I have found it to be a really useful model when working on improving relationships with couples.
Recently I found this online test that is a quick and easy way to get a bit of insight into your primary love language. Well worth doing if you have a spare few minutes:
I’m very excited to share that the book I have been working on is well on its way to being ready. Right now it is over two thirds of the way there, but it is yet to edited so who knows how long that process could take! Please excuse the lack of updates over the last week or so. In between focusing on the book I have also been traveling and I am now in the not-so-sunny UK for the next few months. Updates on the blog will be back to normal before to long.
This post re-iterates something that Tony Robbins is famous for sharing in his books and seminars. Tony talks about humans as having six fundamental needs. In our day to day lives we need these six things and, if they are ever missing, we change our behaviour until we get them. He goes so far as to say that all human behaviour is driven by the instinct to fulfill one or more of these six fundamental human needs.
Certainty/Comfort
Certainty and comfort are things that nearly all humans move towards. You get cold? You do something to warm up. You feel like you might lose your job? You either lift your performance or find a job that is more secure. Because the truth is that we all want comfort. And the easiest source of comfort is certainty. Certainty about what we can expect, certainty that the sun will rise tomorrow, certainty that we have a job to go to and certainty that there will be food in the fridge. If you stop for a moment and imagine those things not being true for you… it may not feel very comfortable. If you didn’t feel certain there would be food in the fridge tomorrow do you think you would be doing something about that? Yes, that is because certainty/comfort is a strong human need!
Variety
So the flip side to certainty is variety, and we need variety to feel alive. Without variety we feel dead inside. Humans can get variety by doing drugs, we can get variety by eating (Eating gives comfort AND variety.. interesting!). You can also introduce variety by setting goals, working towards challenges, starting a new job. Without variety in our lives we lack a source of adventure in our lives and things get boring and humans HATE being bored.
Significance
We all have a need to feel significant, important, special, unique – the feeling of being needed. Every single human has this need, the difference is how we go about it. Some of us pursue it by chasing material wealth, others pursue it through their spirituality while others gets significance from having more tattoos and piercings than anybody else they know! You can get significance in a positive, neutral or negative way. Some people even gain significance through being sick or having a major illness, while others fulfill their need through becoming a politician or leader of a local club. If you’ve ever heard someone say “They would never be able to cope without me” they are likely to be fulfilling their need for significance through their involvement.
Connection/Love
There is a fundamental need for people to feel part of a community. Even though there is a difference between connection and love, most people just (sadly) settle for connection. Connection is so much safer, you’re putting so much less at risk. But ideally we need love, and if we knew that we could have love without risks or dangers then we would grab it with both hands and embrace it. Not only do we want to be cared for, we have a need to care for those that are important for us too.
Growth
Humans have a need to feel like they are growing, like they are getting better and like they are advancing. This ties in beautifully with our need for variety as growth is a great source of variety. In fact, through gradually increasing the challenges involved in what we are doing, in order to grow, humans are most likely to experience the optimal human experience, flow. Anybody who has ever trained to win a sporting event, or indulged their competitive streak, has experienced the joy of fulfilling our need for growth and the challenges that brings.
Contribution
When humans feel like they are contributing it adds immensely to their experience. Whether they are contributing financially to a charity, by volunteering their time with a community group or even doing paid work for a worthwhile organisation the intangible feeling of ‘contributing’ can be so rewarding. The need to feel like they are a part of making the world a better place can be found in all of us.
So why is all this important?
Most people will pick one or two of these that are much more important to them than the others.You can probably think of someone who has a focus on Growth and Variety – maybe they are a sportsman constantly changing from one sport to another? Or someone who has a focus on Contribution and Certainty/Comfort that never really pushes their comfort zone yet gives a huge amount to their community… There are lots of combinations, but regardless of the combination, people are fulfilling some of these basic human needs with pretty much everything that they do.
When you look at that list can you think of the two that are most important to you? And, although prioritisng those two things will be getting you mainly what you want, is it possible that if you were to prioritise other needs you may open yourself up to a greater experience?
It is, by any measure, a thoroughly rotten experiment. Here is this beautiful German shepherd, lying in one corner of a metal box, whimpering. He is receiving painful electric shocks, stimuli that should leave him howling in pain. Oddly enough, the dog could easily get out. The other side of the box is perfectly insulated from shocks, and only a low barrier separates the two sides. Though the dog could jump over to safety when the whim strikes him, the whim doesn’t strike him. Ever. He just lies down in the corner of the electric side, whimpering with each jarring jolt. He must be physically removed by the experimenter to be relived of the experience.
What happened to that dog?
A few days before entering the box, the animal was strapped to a restraining harness rigged with electric wires, inescapably receiving the same painful shock day and night. And at first he didn’t just stand there taking it, he reacted. He howled in pain. He urinated. He strained mightily against his harness in an increasingly desperate attempt to link some behaviour of his with the cessation of the pain. But it was no use. As the hours and even days ticked by, his resistance eventually subsided. Why? The dog began to receive a very clear message: There was no way out. Even after the dog had been released from the harness and placed into the metal box with escape route, he could no longer understand his options. Indeed, most learning had been shut down, and that’s probably the worst part of all.
Source:Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home and School, 2008, J. Medina
Learned Helplessness is a term coined by Martin Seligman to describe both the perception of inesapability and its associated cognitive collapse. Or, in simple terms, how when you perceive you can’t escape you lose the ability to behave as if you have options – or learnt helplessness. These experiments were started in the late 1960’s and the results are similar with most animals, including humans.
Earlier I came upon this excellent modern day experiment on YouTube. It was conducted live on a class room of students and the results are discussed with them. Quite remarkable and well worth the time to watch:
What areas of your life could you have learnt to be helpless? Is it possible that you have limiting beliefs that are holding you back from exercising options? Or have you made limiting decisions because you felt you couldn’t do anything else? Now that you’ve read this post it could be a good time to do a bit of navel gazing and consider areas of your life where you’ve been limiting you behaviour. When would now be a good time to start re-exploring your options?
In March I was sent by Red Cross to Queensland to assist with the floods. This was my first time being activated interstate and it was into a new role, as Field Debriefing Officer. While in Queensland I was flown in and out of flood affect towns, sat for hours in airports both briefing and debriefing teams of volunteers and in between I spent as much time as I could on the phone debriefing volunteers who had returned home. This was the first time this role had been used and it meant that we could actively make improvements DURING the activation to make things easier for volunteers.
This role was incredibly rewarding. On one hand there was the visible destruction left by the floods, the destroyed homes and the emotional citizens. On the other hand there were the heart warming volunteers stories about the people they had helped, the amazing strength shown by the people affected and that warm fuzzy feeling of being part of something like the Red Cross in a situation like that. The days were long, sometimes needing to be at the airport before sunrise, and the mosquitos were vicious but the experience was overall very humbling – I wasn’t expecting such an emotional rollercoaster.
If offered the opportunity to assist again with the Red Cross I will be saying a loud YES. It blew me away just how well everything operated, and being part of such a strong team has left me with an experience I’ll remember for a very long time.
Want to learn more? Then get in touch! We regularly teach NLP, Hypnosis and Time Line TherapyTM Techniques around the world. The best way to learn more is to get in touch with us by email:
