233: Champion your Change

The Corporate Yogi Podcast

INTRO:

Hey, thanks for tuning in to the Corporate Yogi podcast, I’m your host Julie Zuzek. This pod is YOUR dedicated time for growth, developing practical tools to use with your team and other relationships and to learning deeply about who you are and what makes you tick! Because you are a brilliant and powerful being and I want you to invest more time reflecting on WHO are being, not just WHAT you are doing. Doing is awesome, but BEING, well that is where the magic happens and what makes you truly feel fulfilled. You’re going to love this episode on change and discovering how it impacts you. So, here’s a look at what you’re going to learn today

1 – In the first segment I’ll explain the difference between inner and outer change

2 – Then in the second segment you’ll learn how to lean into change

3 – And in the last segment you’ll learn about the change adoption curve

So get out of your head, into your heart and let’s dive right in, shall we.

SEGMENT 1

You either love change or hate it. There’s no in between. I learned this years ago doing my personality workshops – some of us are just wired for change and things to be different. We embrace it and it comes naturally to us. To best understand change we need to learn the difference between inner and outer change. Inner change is change we initiate on our own, for example a change in job, a change in where we live, whereas outer change is change that happens to us, that we didn’t sign on for. For example losing a loved one that’s a shock losing your job having to move halfway across the world losing money unexpectedly, losing your health losing a friend these are types of change that are unexpected and we don’t adapt well to them because like I said they happened to us not us initiating them that’s the biggest difference here is whether we initiate a change or the change happens to us. It’s important to understand that there are these two different types of changes, and if we don’t do well with change to start, external change can be really, really hard. So really think about external change in terms of your life and I want you to right now think of three changes that you didn’t initiat, three internal changes. Can you think of them??? _____ How did they come about? How did you handle them? Did you feel in control or not? Now I want you to think of 3 internal changes, things you chose and quite simply three changes that you initiated. Can you think of 3? ____ Was it easier to come up with these ones? Those in the internal changes versus the external changes or the changes that happened to you that were initiated by someone else or were outside of your control. Not that you initiated so go ahead right now and think of three things got it OK all right now we’re gonna think about the extra time to think about the external changes and what are the changes that you had happened to you. over you it’s not change you initiate it’s typically not change that you want but sometimes it ends up being we usually are able to look over our shoulder after we’re through a lesson and see that the change was actually good for us…… but let’s be honest there are some changes that just are really crappy and stay crappy like the loss of I loved one is a really good example of an external change,

However, let’s not get carried away and make these two types of changes mutually exclusive. Sometimes external changes are exactly what we need for a kick in the but, or to deal with our analysis paralysis and we have to trust the process, bc we wouldn’t have made the change ourselves. This concept has been named by my clients as the trampoline effect. I love this term and wish I had come up with it. Let me share a story where it all happened. I was working with this awesome team at RBC, and they started to notice a pattern with an exercise they were doing. As they plotted out a retrospective of their lives and all the positive and the negatives they had been through, it was a common theme that a really low, low was followed by a high high, even higher than they were before. Many people had this pattern and they started to name it the Trampoline Effect, bc they knew they had to journey through a hard time to boost them to an even higher place. I love it, and I’ve been using this term, Trampoline Effect ever since. So while some external changes like the unexpected loss of a loved one can be very painful. They can also be very positive, bc they take us somewhere we might not have pushed ourselves to. Ok that wraps segment 1 and learning about internal Vs external change.

SEGMENT 2

In this segment I’ll share 2 great ways to use change as a tool with your team. The most important thing to remember is that not everyone will respond like you will to change. You may love change, but your team member may not. There is no right or wrong here, just awareness. There are many different change curves, I like to use a visual one with triangles. So take a second to visualize this with me and I’ll teach it to you so you can use it with your team. If you can, start to visualize three sides of a triangle and the space between the left and the right. Let’s label the left side and right side. For clarity, primary is the place on the left and then secondary is a place on the right. This is like having a starting point before the change on the left, and an end point on the right. The right, is where we are headed. If the triangle is narrow it indicates that the change happens quickly, meaning there is a small gap between primary and secondary. However if the gap is wide it means the change happens over a longer period of time. This is relevant bc it helps us understand why in most instances quicker changes with less space between primary and secondary are harder and have a steeper trajectory. Think of the incline of a treadmill. This isn’t always the case, but it really mostly is. Wider triangles at the bottom mean the change takes longer, and is easier bc we have time to prepare. So recognizing different shapes of triangles can help you understand and normalize the change that your team members are going through. For the 2nd part of the model, we start to think about the many different ways to cross over that triangle or go through the change from primary to secondary and so again come back to our visual of a triangle and we’re starting at the left which is today your present reality so that’s our primary and then we’re moving over to the right which is the secondary the future state of where we want to be so you can think of it as primary secondary current state future state however you want to have that frame of reference it’s fine but what I want you to remember is that there are many different ways to get from your primary state to your future state and I’m gonna give you a few of those examples right now. The first one is to visualize, imagine what the secondary will be like, which can encourage us. The second one is to talk to someone who’s already been there so if you’re thinking about a more senior job going to have a conversation with a mentor or someone you admire who is doing what you want to do that’s a great way to find out what it’s like over in that secondary state. This is an education or research strategy. Another way is to map out baby steps and break things down, which makes it more manageable. Another more high risk, leaper way is to take a big leap like a Hail Mary and just take a deep breath and jump over and do it right away like rip the Band-Aid off. OK so there you have some different ways you can use change as a leader. The first example I shared is to understand the change adoption curve and 5 categories. You need to know what each of your team members are. And this 2nd tool I just taught can help you understand the change they’re going through and give them a frame of reference. That wraps up the 2 leadership change resources you can use with your team.

SEGMENT 2

And lastly - I really Can’t talk about change without talking about growth hangovers because they are the epidome of CHANGE. A growth hangover is when you make a grand gesture or spend a disproportionately amt of time outside of your comfort zone. For example and grand gesture could be asking for a raise or giving hard feedback. It’s a single action and that is exactly what change can feel like too. it requires us to exert a large amount of energy either because we are doing something new or because we are doing something that is intimidating to us. The other type of growth hangovers is when we spend a large quantity of time outside our comfort zone, like at an offsite, team meeting, or sometimes even multiple days like a big conference, say working a booth. Growth hangovers are very real, and they affect us physically and emotionally, and most importantly I want you to be compassionate with yourself when you have one. Think about what happens when you have a food hangover, or a hangover from drinking too much, what happens to you physically? You’re likely tired, you’re not at peak performance. So you might take it easy that day, rehydrate and take it easy on your body. And the same thing applies to a growth hangover. You need to acknowledge what you’ve gone through and then to give yourself the chance to recover. To take it easy, to relax and recognize what you’ve just gone through. If it is something really intense that you’ve just gone through, then once the adrenaline leaves your body, you’re going to feel pretty tired. When we’re doing things that are new or that challenge us we use up more energy, a simple task we do normally might expend 2 units of energy, but something new that we’ve never done before might require 10 units of energy. Because there’s new elements to the task, we might require more focus and attention. And if you’re doing anything that is outside of our comfort zone, well – get ready for a really big growth hangover. Because your sneaky little Saboteurs (aka the negative, disruptive voices inside your head that tell you you’re not good enough) will always show up the most and THE loudest when you are on the cusp of big growth. And growth is always present when change happens. Our Saboteurs always show up the most and THE loudest when you are on the cusp of leaving your comfort zone and heading into your growth zone. So not only are you doing something new, but you’re battling your Saboteurs while you’re doing it. They’re like gatekeepers, that challenge you, and question you and try to negotiate all these reasons WHY you should just relax and play it safe and stay small. So, a growth hangover happens when we spend a disproportionate amount of time outside of our comfort zone, requiring us to exert a large amount of energy either because we’re doing something new or something that is intimidating to us. OK so that wraps up the refresher on growth hangovers. Remember, whenever you are going through a change, you are most likely going to be left with a big old growth hangover, so do yourself a favour and be prepared for it.

WRAP UP

OK it’s time to wrap up this episode on Change. As always, if you’re inspired by the content today, please share this episode with a friend, colleague or on social media. You can also subscribe to this podcast on my website at thecorporateyogi.com. If you want to book a chat with me directly to discuss change or coaching in general you can find my booking link on LinkedIn or Instagram @thecorporateyogi. And as always, remember, that any fear or resistance you hold inside of you, is simply just your greatness in disguise.