Coast to Coast Cycle Ride for Foodbank
17 July 2010
As a Director of the crisis intervention charity, Swindon Foodbank I'm committed to raise around £75,000 each year to enable the organisation to function. Foodbank uses a ground-breaking concept to help individuals and families in crisis by providing free emergency food until the appropriate agencies are in a position to assist.
If you can donate £3 or more please follow this link
Since early 2009 we have been seeing over 300 applicants each month, back in 2007 this was only 80 each momth. The referrals are from the Professional Care Agencies in the town to ensure they are genuine cases of hardship. Foodbank provides those referred with food until the State Benefit kicks which can take between 7 and 33 days; Foodbank fills that void where there are no family or friends to help. The financial crisis really hit many parts of the UK badly - poverty is right on your door step - there are now over 55 Foodbanks in the UK with more planned because they are very much needed...
To help with the 2010 fund raising we are organising a series of events next up is...
The Coast to Coast Cycle Ride
A short peddle around 102 miles along
Full route is as follows
If you can afford to donate £3 or more to Foodbank please donate here
If you want to help collect more Sponsorship download the form here
Thanks in advance...
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Not the Change Curve again..!
5 July 2010
The Change Curve- oh no not that again..!At the recent Teneo Conference on Excellence in Internal Communication (23rd – 24th June 2010) were some great speakers, from organisations like ROYAL SUN ALLIANCE, RWE nPower, AIRBUS, UBS, HM Revenue & Customs and CADBURY to name a few. Each their to provide insights into best practise from their own experience and organisations.
Often Internal Communication is the phrase given to the broadcast of key messages across a whole organisation. It is meant to be the direct two-way communications between employers and their staff. Downward, upward and horizontal and is a vital means of addressing organisational concerns of all stakeholders. Too often it is a top-down broadcast from the Leadership who genuinely want to bring the rest of the organisation with them. Unfortunately when “a few” broadcast to “many” the “many” tend to duck...
At this conference the consistent theme was the "Change Curve" - the psychological chasm we all have to negotiate as we undergo some form of change in our life; in the case studies presented
at this conference it meant a change in the culture or practices at work in those organisations.
For a change programme to stick - we have to get a critical mass of people (some say as little as 20% - some say as much as 49%) to buy-in to the new world order. Depending which model of the change curve you pick there are various landmarks on the journey that people in an organisation go through. Being a simple bloke I prefer simple models so my favourite has four stages.
- Deny the need to change
- Fight / Argue against the change
- Explore the change, both positive and negative aspects
- Accept the change.
As there is no short cut - you can't go straight from Stage One = Deny to Stage Four = Accept.
In organisations those who've already made it through the curve, often the Leadership who've come up with this new idea, tend only to see the bright new future and have already forgotten the pain they went through at the bottom of the curve. The peeps still to make the journey can only see down... Only see the pain and surprise surprise many resist...
While each speaker mentioned the Change Curve - each brought a new insight into how they addressed it so personally I enjoyed both the feeling of - oh OK it's not only me that faces this - as well as the myriad of ways an old chestnut like the change curve can be applied.
Overall I am convinced more than ever that “internal communication” - has to mean the internalisation of an idea within the hearts and minds of everyone in our organisation because we have to get everyone as an individual through their own change curve – internal communication can no longer be a broadcast – it has to engage each and every person in thinking, talking and working on that idea; on creating that new reality in each person's mind - partly as their own idea - so they take "ownership"
Imagine a calibration of understanding and ownership across a critical mass of your people in your organisation...
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How do you handle criticism?
2 July 2010
How do you deal with criticism..?
Here are three ways you might consider....
1. Expect it
When spectators watch a football match, where do they focus their attention? On the players naturally. Someone once said - “if you want to avoid criticism it is very easy; by saying nothing, doing nothing and being nothing. If you are going to step out from the observer role into a doing role – you are likely, highly likely to attract attention and you guessed it criticism... Expect it.
2.Evaluate it
When people say things like ~ can I tell you something for your own good..? ~ they is really much good about to descend from their lips; worse is “may I give you some constructive criticism..?” ~ What you want my permission to tear down parts of me while building something else up..?
Instead of going into defence mode – go into explore mode
- Who is speaking? Have they earned the right? How well do they know me and the topic in question?
- Why are they providing this feedback..? Intentions are more important than the content in most situations ~ “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.”
So evaluate it.
3.Outlive it
Sometimes even those that know us well are thinking more of protecting us than projection us, many a close advisor will say “don't” when you know in your heart that you must. That is when it is vital you know yourself and your mission or the call on your life and business better than anyone else.
So sometimes you have to listen to the wise words from others, adjust if necessary and then carry on regardless – outlive it.
How do you handle criticism..?
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