Sometimes I wonder how little has really changed since our species evolved out of Africa in tribal groups to populate the four corners of the earth.

Our instinctive nature, to create communities or ‘tribes’ has been the foundation of our success. From the dawn of our evolution, our desire to cohabit and find safety [...]]]>  

Sometimes I wonder how little has really changed since our species evolved out of Africa in tribal groups to populate the four corners of the earth.

Our instinctive nature, to create communities or ‘tribes’ has been the foundation of our success. From the dawn of our evolution, our desire to cohabit and find safety in groups has been fundamental to our survival.  Think about it from a logical perspective there are many benefits to be had from pooling knowledge and skills, plus within a tribe individuals have a sense of safety, kinship and a shared vision/hope for the future.

However the reality is that tribes are commonly suspicious of other tribes who can be perceived as a threat. Our ancestors fought on a daily basis to protect territory, resources and tribal members, so is it any wonder that we sometimes observe workplace cultures and discover hostility between departments and work functions, or even individuals?

One of the key aspects to a tribe is that we need to recognise who is in ours and who isn’t. This is the very basis of the idea of culture. Tribal members create their own culture in terms of how to recognise each other through language, behaviours, artefacts, symbols and so forth. In the past this might have meant wearing animal skins or decorating certain body parts. These days modern tribal members carry the latest smart phones, drive a certain type of car or wear a designer brand as symbols of the ‘gang’ they belong to. The artefacts may have changed but our human instinct to fit in hasn’t!

The question I will explore over the next few weeks in this blog is how culture is created within organisations and what impacts upon it.  Extending these ideas I will also look at what to do if you want to change or tweak your culture. So lots to look out for.

For now your fieldwork is to look for evidence of the culture at your place of work. What are the clues can you see and hear, seek out the tangible and the intangibles. In other words when you or your colleagues state ‘we don’t do things that way around here’ – what is it that you are saying and noticing about the culture of your cave and tribal attitudes?

Next time: What really shapes business culture?

What do I mean?

Well, like lasagne life is multi layered and should come with a surprise every now and again – my mum puts sliced boiled egg in her recipe, try it.

My surprise this week has been [...]]]> It’s been a fab week, a ‘great big lush lasagne’ week here at Workshops Work Ltd!

What do I mean?

Well, like lasagne life is multi layered and should come with a surprise every now and again – my mum puts sliced boiled egg in her recipe, try it.

My surprise this week has been to be appointed as a non-executive director for a client, which is a great honour and will be so much fun. I am looking forward to a new challenge, although just for a day or two a month – the rest of the time I will be focussed on my clients, helping them develop their people to grow their business.

Getting back to lasagne though! The way I see it is that life is full of layers. Every week we pack together (like sheets of pasta) different roles and tasks. Many of us have to juggle responsibilities in life; being a parent, a partner, a sibling, work or maybe we belong to a club or have many friendships – all of these roles create demands on our time and energy. Sometimes it can be easy to forget who we really are and we lose touch with what we want from life.

It helps me to reflect on the idea that life is like a lasagne – mutli-layered. When we view our life as a whole we can see that all of our roles, when melded together form who we are. And so like lasagne, it is the layers of ‘what we do’ and ‘who we are’ that make us so.

Here’s the thing – when we make lasagne it is important to put enough sauce in between the layers to stop the pasta sticking together. The challenge is to make sure that also in our life we add enough ‘sauce’ in between our roles so that we can enjoy our life to the full.

What creates sauce in life? Think about taking time out, a treat, breathing in the air, stopping to say hi or a smile, small things that help to remind us to stay present and enjoy life more.

My lasagne life this week has been made up of many aspects: some learning for, always good; I’ve spent time with people I care about and celebrated, very important; I’ve worked hard and delivered some ‘great’ work (client’s words) plus I’ve managed to fit in exercise as well. So today I’m feeling pretty good about my portion of lasagne.

The thing with lasagne is that its layers are of equal importance. It’s when combined they are combined together that the meal is so satisfying.

Hence lasagne is my metaphor for life this week. To my mind like life, it’s best when it’s freshly made, with love and hot from the oven!

So why not make your own lasagne this weekend as you consider what your life next week will look like!

Make sure your put enough sauce in between your layers! enjoy

There is no doubt that running any business takes time, dedication and a whole lot more energy than most of us ever imagined. [...]]]> When we ask business owners about their current challenges they cite problems such as ‘finding new customers’, ‘developing a marketing strategy’, ‘keeping cash flowing’ or simply ‘finding the energy to keep going’!

There is no doubt that running any business takes time, dedication and a whole lot more energy than most of us ever imagined. There are countless books (and experts) out there trying to tell us ‘how to do it better’, with plenty of promises to help us become an overnight success if we simply buy into the latest hype (or book).

We believe that business takes time to grow, good business that is, sustainable business. At first glance there seems to be plenty of ‘providers’ offering to support businesses and teach people how to ‘balance a balance sheet’ or ‘create a social marketing campaign’. However, when it comes to growing a business, few seem to address a vital aspect which growing any business depends upon – that of the actual mindset or thinking of the business owner (s).

Look here’s the problem:  In today’s tough market conditions businesses that survive the start-up phase tend to dive straight into survival mode! They miss out the growth stage altogether and stop thinking like they did as a start-up. In other words they think small. They get tied up with the many reasons as to why they cannot grow and place obstacles in their path. The truth is that often business owners are fearful of acknowledging that they simply don’t believe they can do it. They have the skills and the ability, however they lack motivation, drive or energy to break through to the next level. The fact is that if we look hard enough for reasons as to why something cannot be done (and our brains are good at this) then we lower our expectations and in turn limit our potential.

So just imagine what may be possible if instead business owners started to understand and practice the thinking, belief patterns and behaviours that promote growth?

Our proposition is this: to grow, business owners first need to rethink their thinking. This means being willing and open to changing their mindset. They need to develop what we call a ‘GROWTH MINDSET’ one which is focussed on new possibilities. They need to align this with new behaviours and actions. In other words to get different results they need to do different, starting with how they think.

The question is what does might this mean for you and your business?

The good news is that help is at hand just contact us to find out more about what Workshops Work can do to help grow your business.

The first step is dead easy, costs nothing and takes seconds, simply mail caroline@workshopswork.co.uk – what have you got to lose?

We have lots of examples of how we have helped businesses, people and teams to grow.

We might just be the nudge you need!

Coaches can help support growth and change, by helping business owners to think [...]]]> A key to being successful in business is asking the question, ‘what is the return on my investment?’ Whether time or money, (coaching is both), business owners need to be crystal clear about what they hope the coaching will help them achieve.

Coaches can help support growth and change, by helping business owners to think through their options. Return on investment is not always easy to express directly in monetary terms, however the value that it can add to anyone considering a new course of action is invaluable.

There are many reasons as to ‘why hire a coach’. The business owner may recognise that they need additional skills outside of their area of knowledge to grow. This is particularly important when it comes to stages of business maturity.

A fresh pair of eyes is a great way to spot what needs to change and often as the owner it’s hard to see things differently when it’s your own work you need to critique.

A Coach can help owners see things from a fresh perspective as long as they are willing and open to receive the feedback.

Finally it’s worth pointing out that being a business owner can be lonely at times. It’s important you behave as a leader and your workforce will want to see you as one. The question is who do YOU talk to when you are not sure of what you need to do next?

A Coach will provide a very welcome and safe sounding board for you to explore possibilities without having to commit to action before you are sure it’s a direction you want to travel in.

Coaching is about enabling individuals to achieve their potential and make changes through a [...]]]> Coaching is an accepted form of personal development. It is a bespoke form of learning and is it becoming more common for business owners to hire a coach in much the same way that they would hire a lawyer or accountant.

Coaching is about enabling individuals to achieve their potential and make changes through a process of enquiry, reflection and action. Coaching can take many forms and whilst both Coaching and Mentoring share some similarities there are a few differences.

Mentors usually have specific first-hand experience of the position that their Mentee holds which is in contrast to Coaches who do not necessarily need be an expert in the field concerned. Coaching tends to be focussed on a specific short term goal e.g. transition into a new role or introducing change – whereas mentoring often takes place in the longer term.

In practice an effective Coach aims to widen the perception of their Coachee by helping them explore their needs, motivations, desire and thinking processes. In terms of skills both Coaches and Mentors use very similar tools and techniques, all of which are aimed at facilitating learning and development within the learner.

As with Mentoring both Coaches and Mentors should be aware of projecting their views and experiences upon others. It is important that there is a distinction made between sharing experiences and offering advice.

A Coach will encourage others to explore problems from a wide range of perspectives before choosing and committing to a goal or course of action.

Coachees are often expected to report back the outcomes of any ‘fieldwork’ and new goals are agreed. This results in a very focussed and dynamic form of development which can be geared around business needs as required.

Coaching styles range from forms which may be almost passive in their delivery to more provocative approaches.

Why is it that as adults we often lose the [...]]]> OK – so it’s snowing here in the UK. Why is that so special? well believe me  if are you were a child and now on your way to  school then that makes the whole experience turn from being a drag to a new adventure.

Why is it that as adults we often lose the ability to see the brighter picture? Is it our over interest in being safe and secure or perhaps wanting to control things that we actually have little control over? or maybe  it’s because we we feel as adults that we should know the answers and that anything which upsets our ‘status quo’ can be a little uncomfortable.

Take the economic climate weren’t we all aware that things can and do sometimes go down as well as up? Why did we all believe that the money markets would continue as they were? Perhaps that’s one example of not seeing the whole picture but being blind to reality!

In any case in my opinion I think that for today at least I’m going to  think like a child, be grateful for what I have and focus on only one thing at a time. Doing this will make life a little easier to swallow and will keep my focus sharper.

What do you need to focus on today? be sure that you don’t get distracted from that goal – unless it’s to stop and watch snowflakes softly fall.

Have a good one!

Like the rest of the world I am pretty fed up with the doom and gloom that is in plentiful supply at the moment. This whole economic crisis is a stunning example of how ‘those who think they know’ probably [...]]]> What’s up? I’ve been thinking about what to say in this my first ‘proper’ blog!

Like the rest of the world I am pretty fed up with the doom and gloom that is in plentiful supply at the moment. This whole economic crisis is a stunning example of how ‘those who think they know’ probably don’t know anymore than the rest of us

I work with hundreds of people every year who feel that they have missed out in some way. That they feel they are not as clever or academic as someone else, as pretty or as strong. They look out at the world thinking ‘I can’t’ rather than ‘I can’.

This downturn will bring us all many challenges the biggest of which will be to change our thinking from ‘it’ll never end’ to ‘the end is on its way’. Try and change your thinking over the next few weeks and notice what changes for you. Better still mail me and I’ll share it on this site’

An old friend once told me ‘look up, not down, look out, not in!’ Look for change and good things and you will find them. I promise.

Enjoy

Caroline