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MaST Business Forums – Conventional to Great Influencing
16 July 2010
NHS News
18 June 2010
MaST Business Forum - The Value of Values in Turbulent Times
16 March 2010
MaST’s Business Forums in 2010
21 December 2009
Business Forums
16 November 2009
MaST Business Forums – Conventional to Great Influencing
16 July 2010
MaST Business Forums – What are they?
Opportunities for leaders in business learning to get together to share ideas and explore real challenges individuals and organisations face.
Nick and Maria: Locked in conflict: “You will change your tune” - “...No I won’t!”
Everyone has witnessed high achieving individuals locked in conflict in their workplace. Actor facilitators brought this to life as everyone watched the sparks fly.
Don’t you dare criticise me
Ever feel that rush of blood to the head, and clenching of fists as your ideas are undermined by someone else in a meeting?
MaST Film
Use modern Audio Visual approaches to make a sustainable impact on your team - think outside of the box.
Does “IT” have you, or do you have “IT”?
When we are not aware of our Mindsets, they control us and our emotions without us having any sense of another alternative.
Groundhog day! Can an actor’s perspective change this?
Have you ever had a conversation with someone at work which went ‘as expected’?
Hidden beliefs - holding us back from success
Do beliefs, mindsets and habits of thought really have an impact on us, our relationships and our results?
Mindset for influencing
I WANT to win! I want you to lose. Sound familiar? When instigating change, most people tell others what to do, and expect compliance. We keep repeating and shouting our message and get more and more artful at doing it.
Programmes to make a big difference
You can’t teach an old dog new tricks… or can you?
Push, push, - it’s the only way
Sometimes it feels like the only way to be heard and to influence is to persist and force my idea on others.
The fight to communicate and be heard
In our work we often hear ‘They don’t listen. They don’t understand. What is the point, I have tried to speak up for the past 5 years and have given up, It’s just a fight to get anything heard.’ Sound familiar?
“Great selling is a matter of great influencing”
TARGETS are due for the end of the month. Should a salesman go all out to get a deal at all costs, or go for the long term relationship? Richard Phillips advocates an interesting stance.
MaST Business Forums – What are they?
Opportunities for leaders in business learning to get together to share ideas and explore real challenges individuals and organisations face.
MaST offers the Forums as a place to exchange ideas and a practical intervention relating to change, learning and transformation.
Past topics have included:
• The Value of Values in Turbulent times
• Leadership Evolution: Innovating for the 21st Century
• Transforming Organisations through Leadership
• Expanding Influencing Potential from Conventional to Great
MaST together with MaST Theatre and Film create a unique environment that maximises both practical learning, and creates the possibility of deeper transformational change individually and organisationally.
Nick and Maria: Locked in conflict: “You will change your tune” - “...No I won’t!”
Everyone has witnessed high achieving individuals locked in conflict in their workplace. Actor facilitators brought this to life as everyone watched the sparks fly.
Maria:
A high performing individual intent on achieving a deal at all costs.
Have you come across a “Maria” today….?
Nick:
A new manager intent on asserting his expertise, authority and control on his team.
Have you come across a “Nick” today….?
Maria and Nick are both high performers and both operating at a conventional level of influencing
Maria de Caldas and Nick Deal are part of the MaST Theatre & Film Team. Prior to joining MaST, Maria was an economist and Nick a barrister. They bring learning to life through the technique
The forum demonstrated part of a larger programme delivered to AIG.
Maria’s Conventional Mindset Approach:
• Speaks her mind, independent of consequences
• Relationships are subservient to the bottom line
• Tells and pushes ideas frequently and louder
• Denies problems
• Protects identify as a high performer
• Scared of losing control in a real dialogue
• Fearful of change
Nick’s Conventional Mindset Approach:
• Asserts authority at all costs
• Empathy only where empathy is due
• “I am right, she is wrong”
• Will listen if it ‘makes sense’
• ‘I will win the battle of messages’
• Enforces appropriate behaviours in my team
• Controls meetings/processes ‘as I am in charge’
• ‘I expect others to do as I say’
• Resists change
At the recent Business Forum, actor facilitators from the MaST Theatre and Film team provided a context for identifying and shifting to alternative mindsets.
Nick played a controlling manager trying to coerce the highest performing member of his team to change her attitude towards her internal clients. Maria played a highly successful and technically competent sales executive who did not see the need for change. And so the conflict began.
Delegates coached Nick and Maria to adopt a learning mindset using a technique called stop start. In doing so the delegates got to practice their own influencing and the application of new behaviours. As a result of their efforts Nick began to change his approach, be open to influence and be more influential, and Maria finally accepted his constructive criticism and dialogue and change began.
If you would like to find out more please visit the MaST Theatre & Film website or phone: 0800 316 9090
Don’t you dare criticise me
Ever feel that rush of blood to the head, and clenching of fists as your ideas are undermined by someone else in a meeting?
Why all the irrational anger, disappointment or frustration when someone gives you feedback? What is happening here? Surely this is just business isn’t it? Or is it? Why does it feel so personal?
Security, safety, self worth, being liked, competence and a sense of achievement are all important foundational values. If and when these are at risk in conversations we can get high–jacked. Without awareness, we are mostly ignorant of their impact, and then it hits us.
When we get emotionally high–jacked we often feel disempowered, our amygdala (our primal brain) takes over any rational thought or action. Fight or flight are now in charge and great dialogue is out of the question.
It is possible and extremely challenging to make a shift from feeling threatened when people are giving you feedback to being open and learning from each other.
We can help you to help yourself. We would love to talk 01628 784 062
MaST Film
Use modern Audio Visual approaches to make a sustainable impact on your team - think outside of the box.
MaST Film has delivered interactive dramas, promotional and identity films along with animated sequences to clients within all business sectors.
The interactive dramas are created by filming a ‘branching script’ where at specific points in the unfolding story the viewer must make a choice and by doing so triggers a scene; the viewer interacts with the story and is able to see and experience the results of his or her decision making process.
Promotional and identity films effectively communicate change. These are produced for clients who wish to communicate an existing message to a wider, perhaps external audience or who need to communicate and reinforce cultural changes within their own organisation. We have produced films for banks, insurance companies healthcare and even media companies.
We also work with clients who require media training in order to hone their communication skills in front of a news camera, when meeting journalists or on down-the-line interview situations.
With animation we can truly get out of the box and illustrate processes, bring data to life and create personalities that parallel and organisational culture to truly make learning memorable and … turn values into behaviour.
Does “IT” have you, or do you have “IT”?
When we are not aware of our mindsets, they control us and our emotions without us having any sense of another alternative.
When we are aware that we are viewing a situation with a certain mindset, we have more choice about how we react and more options to resolve any conflict.
Challenge: Notice what your mindset is right now.
What is a mindset?
A lens through which you see the world. For example if you have been given the promotion of your dreams, you will probably have a mindset of optimism, and see the good in everything.
However if you are unfortunate to be made redundant, you could have a mindset of pessimism.
Do you know that you do have a choice?
Please call MaST to find out more….
Groundhog day! Can an actor’s perspective change this?
Have you ever had a conversation with someone at work which went ‘as expected’? Did you want to change the person’s mind, but soon felt trapped again in the same old familiar battle?
People describe this happening to me everyday. According to Einstein the definition of insanity is ‘doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results’. Yet it may only take a shift of mindset to become sane!
Actor facilitator Maria offers an insight into her world. Every time we visit different organisations we see the same scenarios played out; people with what may seem like conflicting interests and different points of view struggling to communicate with each other. Both feel they are not being heard.
Preconceptions get in the way. A common one is “the fear that I am interpreted as weak when I express my feelings...” Other actors in the team, as well as myself, experienced the same when we worked in business before becoming actors. Now we help delegates look at conventional conversations or conflict even, from a fresh perspective and experience a change, a break from a recurring pattern.
How? Amongst other things, by adopting the mindsets and re-producing the behaviours of real people in the delegate’s workplace.
What is the link between acting on stage or film and this? To play a character like Macbeth convincingly, an actor needs to identify with the drivers, fears and aspirations of Macbeth. He needs to feel Macbeth’s world and viewpoint. Where is the internal struggle? What is keeping my character in conventional? How aware am I as Macbeth of these limitations?
An actor’s success rests on being able to analyse the conventional from a great perspective (even though we may use different words for this when we train!). Only then will my Macbeth come across as a human being.
When we are in a conventional mindset, we are looking at the world either through one or a limited number of lenses. The lens is our filter, the way we give meaning to the ever changing input of data in the system that is our identity. We can not look at the world through another lens unless we realise that the initial lens is there in the first place; that there is not but one way of looking at the world i.e. ‘my way’ of looking at ‘my truth’...
Yet there are unlimited lenses to choose from and this necessarily means that there are unlimited stories rather than one truth.
Part of moving to great dialogue is becoming aware that the other will be looking at the world through another lens. This difference may be causing a breach in communication. In great dialogue we try to share that lens with the other. My story, my truth, my life is as fictional as that of Macbeth. This is why the world is a stage and at any work place we are all actors!
For further information, contact MaST: 01628 784 062 or email learningsolutions@mast.co.uk
Hidden beliefs - holding us back from success
Do beliefs, mindsets and habits of thought really have an impact on us, our relationships and our results?
Have you noticed how sometimes you can go through life with wonderful resourceful energy and everything seems so easy. And yet at other times everything seems so difficult as if all you can see are barriers and problems. What is happening here?
Innovative research has identified that when we are learning, we feel we are inherently worthwhile and secure regardless of results, competence and pleasing other people. We are able to operate from a creative stance.
Our identity is grounded and we can focus on what we want, with vision and purpose and take action with resourceful energy. Because we feel safe and secure feelings of fear and anxiety are seen as resources and information rather than something to react to. As a result the creative stance leads to greater success in all areas of life, especially leadership.
So how can we begin to move to this creative stance? Beliefs, mindsets and habits of thought hold the key that enables us to spend more time with a creative stance.
We can help you to build awareness of your own beliefs and open up greater opportunities for success.
If you are interested in this, come and join us at the next open workshop on expanding your influencing potential on 28th July in Taplow, Maidenhead. Call 01628 784 062
We need to recognise that these statements are not actually true, but our perception based on experience in the past. The simple act of NOTICING these beliefs in the moment can transform performance.
To find out more, come and join us at the next Workshop on Influencing on 28th July in Taplow, Maidenhead. Call 01628 784 062
Mindset for influencing
I WANT to win! I want you to lose. Sound familiar? When instigating change, most people tell others what to do, and expect compliance. We keep repeating and shouting our message and get more and more artful at doing it.
Often the culture around you reinforces this approach.
Is this true for you or the people around you?
In this case the mindset is that for me to be influential, I need to be ASSERTIVE and LOGICAL. However if it is only about me, then the end result will only ever be COMPLIANCE.
Unless you shift your paradigm and fundamental assumption about how to get others to do what you want through asserting POWER and CONTROL, the end result will never be the best for both parties.
RECOGNISING mindsets is the key that makes a difference.
Have you ever watched for signs of a mindset that you or a colleague have?
MINDSET 1: I’m upset by what you did to me. I am going to blame/punish you as it was a threat to my image as a competent manager.
MINDSET 2: This situation is all messed up and we need to put it right. I feel angry or upset by what you said/did, but that does not mean you intended to hurt me and I am going to keep an open mind.
Which mindset would you see most often in your team?
The first mindset looks back.
The second looks forward.
The first takes a stance that the other person intended to hurt, and operates at a highly charged emotional level.
If you or somebody around you gets stuck here, this is a sign of a conventional mindset.
In the second mindset, a person can step back and view the situation in perspective. Thinking and emotions work together to create a great outcome.
By reflecting on mindsets, individuals can make a choice about how they approach situations.
Jonathan Chalstrey offers his views based on experience from his Management programmes
Book a Mindset MOT for you and your team now! 01628 784062
Programmes to make a big difference
YOU can’t teach an old dog new tricks… or can you?
By getting behind surface behaviours and addressing deeper fears, values and mindsets, research has proven that people can make transformational changes.
MaST can help you influence internally and externally as individuals and through collective action.
We have a wide range of workshops from our rich experience that will help you be more influential and be open to influence. We will creatively work with you to pull out the nuggets from each of these, to create interventions that have a sustainable impact.
Influencing Programmes:
• Strategies for Influencing and Persuading Others
• Political Savvy
• Positive Power and Influence
• Expanding your influencing potential - from Conventional to Great
To find out more please visit our website: www.mast.co.uk
Push, push, - it’s the only way
Sometimes it feels like the only way to be heard and to influence is to persist and force my idea on others.
In real life, MaST are going through a learning journey. We are struggling to change the way we influence each other. So often what starts off with great intentions ends up being a battle of messages.
In recent months we have started to see shifts, small signs of something different beginning to emerge. We are beginning to be more open with each other and learning to value our differences. We have started to create a system where change is possible. It is not easy and it is a worthwhile struggle.
At MaST, when we work with you, we will strive to create a context for rich meaningful dialogue right from the start and in our interventions with you.
We look forward to the challenge and would love to share our learning with you.
Question: What are the secrets of great influencing?
Examine the flips to see if you can work out an answer…
Conventional
Battle of messages
• I am right, you are wrong
• Accusations of bad intent
• Blame
• Express feelings through silence or violence
Conventional
Identity threatened
Worth and safety through others
Great
Learning conversation
• Different stones
• Disentangle intent from impact
• My contribution and your contribution
• Aware of own and express feelings without judgement
Great
Identity grounded
Worth and safety given
Answers:
It is not that simple…!
To find out more, please contact Mark and Richard to find out more about their journey of transformation.
The fight to communicate and be heard
In our work with you, we often hear ‘They don’t listen. They don’t understand. What is the point, I have tried to speak up for the past 5 years and have given up, It is just a fight to get anything heard.’ Sound familiar?
Conventional organisational life is tough. How often do you feel demoralised by people not hearing your point of view? How often do you keep quiet, not bothering to say anything?
Who does this apply to? We all seem to be looking up the organisational pyramid and saying that they don’t listen. The odd thing is that the top of an organisation are often also saying ‘they don’t listen’. Maybe the way we are all approaching influencing has some inherent limitations.
Richard Phillips and Mark Mercer, specialists in skills development and transformational change at MaST, are challenging our thinking and beliefs about influencing.
The conventional or most common paradigm for influencing is that “to influence I need to be influential”. I therefore need to hone my skills, be an artful communicator, and build my credibility. These are all useful and make a difference. This paradigm also has limits. It seems that it often results in people pushing, prevailing, resisting and insisting until people come around to my way of looking at things.
So what would a different paradigm look like? We believe the next step towards great influencing is to change the way you see influencing from ‘Being influential is important’ to ‘Being influenced is as important as being influential’. We believe this shift makes a transformational difference and… it is not easy.
We would love to explore these ideas with you so that you too can discover the difference that makes the difference.
“Great selling is a matter of great influencing”
TARGETS are due for the end of the month. Should a salesman go all out to get a deal at all costs, or go for the long term relationship?
Richard Phillips presented an interesting stance, built from Mitch Anthony’s perspectives on emotionally intelligent selling. This made a great impact on David Marshall, who offers the following thoughts.
Questions that influence
When asking questions to get more information or build a relationship we tend to use the conventional “4 N” approach:
Conventional sales questions often are purely transactional:
Numbers – how many?
Names – who is involved?
Needs – what are your needs?
Negotiate- what about price?
Whilst this is easy to remember, it has a downside. Are we paying attention to what really counts?
Great questioning technique sees the problem from a completely different angle. The focus here is to build a relationship with the person by focussing on them.
Great questions are relational:
History:
How did you get to where you are today?
Goals:
Where do you see yourself going? What are your goals?
Values:
What values do you live by? bring to work?
Using these questions opens up the possibility of creating a meaningful, honest relationship where both parties value each other. You can not fake it!
Ask yourself
• How can I be a resource for this person?
• How can they be a resource for me?
David Marshall
was impacted by a new style of sales technique
Richard Phillips
has been exploring the relationship between selling and influencing
Richard or David would love to talk to you more about this. Please call 01628 784062
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