Seeing Red Cars: Driving Yourself, Your Team, and Your Organization to a Positive Future - Softcover

Goodrich, Laura

 
9781605097275: Seeing Red Cars: Driving Yourself, Your Team, and Your Organization to a Positive Future
Softcover
ISBN 10: 1605097276 ISBN 13: 9781605097275
Verlag: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2011

Inhaltsangabe

“Through story after mind-bending story, Laura shows how choices to focus on winning endpoints generates neuron pathways to innovative answers.” —Forbes
 
Surely you’ve experienced something like this: you buy a red car, and suddenly red cars appear everywhere. Why? Because you’re focusing on red cars—and you get more of whatever you focus on. But much of the time, consciously and unconsciously, we dwell on what we don’t want, and that’s what we get. Drawing on the latest scientific research, Laura Goodrich shows you how to stop fixating on negatives and rewire your brain to focus on positive outcomes. Unique and practical exercises—including a free online toolkit—and dozens of enlightening real-life stories help you identify what you truly want so that it drives everything you do. And Goodrich shows how Seeing Red Cars can build organizational cultures in which employees are playing to their passions and strengths, focusing on what they want, and achieving breakthrough results.
 
“A powerful catalyst for personal, team, and organizational transformation. In this important new book, Laura has masterfully captured the critical element of success and failure: the focus of our attention.” —David Chard, President, Engaging Minds, Hong Kong
 
“A practical guide for managers and leaders seeking to lead change more effectively. It has a range of easy-to-use tools that can be leveraged by both individuals and teams seeking to adopt a more positive mind-set. The Seeing Red Cars concept is also fun, which is an important element in getting people to buy into a new approach.” —Tony Ritchie, Vice President for Technology, Asia Pacific Region, for a Fortune 100 company

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Laura Goodrich is co-owner of On Impact Productions, an integrated content company that produces books, digital stories, and worldwide speaking and production tours. She is also a radio, television, and film host.

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INTRODUCTION


Focus on What You Want

You could be getting more of what you want—more new ideas, more teamwork in your department, and a more positive attitude in the company. I believe that people want to succeed in their jobs, in their relationships, and throughout their communities. I believe that people want to build the lives they want and be a part of something productive and positive. Too often, it doesn’t work out that way.

Through my experiences in workplace dynamics, change, and the future, I have learned one overriding truth: You get more of whatever you focus on. Let me repeat: You get more of whatever you focus on. I call it Seeing Red Cars because the metaphor is one that everyone can relate to. Here is the premise:

Say you recently bought your dream car—custom wheels, full chrome bumpers, and it’s red. Driving it home for the first time, you start noticing something. It seems like there are a lot of red cars out there. The next day, what do you notice? There are definitely more red cars on the road. By the end of the first week, you’re thinking, “Is everyone driving a red car?” You’re seeing red cars because that’s what you’re focused on.

Or how about this: It’s every golfer’s nightmare. You’re standing at the signature hole, elevated T to a large green, a short par 3, only 130 yards over water— lots of water. You take out your pitching wedge and stare at the water. You take a last look at your ball and you’re thinking, “Don’t hit it in the water. Don’t hit it in the water!” Finally, you hit the ball. Where does it go? Splat—straight into the water.

One more example to make the point: One of your coworkers is really getting on your nerves. To make matters worse, you keep running into this person in every meeting, in the hallway, at lunch, in the parking lot. You can’t escape.

Who’s putting all these thoughts of “red cars,” “don’t hit it in the water,” and “I can’t get away from this person” into your head? You are, of course. It’s what you’re focused on. And remember what I said: Whether good or bad, you always get more of what you focus on.

Even when someone’s intentions are genuinely positive, their actual behaviors can come across as negative without their knowledge. Here is an example:

Several years ago, I received a call from a client in desperate need of answers (we’ll call him Ted). Ted was managing a high-profile project. The stakes were high, and the project was off track; timelines were slipping, budgets were busting, and the dynamics of the group were strained. He proceeded to describe his observations. Team members were avoiding him at all costs. In meetings, tensions were so high that he didn’t know what was worse: the angry outbursts or the deafening silence that followed. People were blaming others, and without conscious intention, they were coming to meetings late or not at all. Ted was chasing the excuses without success and was at his wit’s end. We decided I would shadow him to see if we could flush out the culprit for the unproductive behaviors.

I followed Ted for a day. I stood next to him through his team one-to-ones and meetings large and small. It didn’t take long to see what was going on. I watched him begin each conversation and meeting with statements like these: “You know, we don’t want to miss this timeline, we don’t want to seem uncooperative, we don’t want to go over budget, we don’t want to fail.” When I share this story, people always ask, “Was he clueless? What was wrong with him?” To this I say, “There was nothing wrong with him. He was doing something that was unconscious. He had the best intentions for the team and the project. He had seen projects fail and was committed to avoiding the pitfalls. He had a laundry list of things he did not want to have happen, and he was quick to make others aware of them. He thought he was being helpful.”

In actuality, his team worked hard. As a result, they had missed family gatherings and their kids’ games and had taken little time to rest and rejuvenate. When Ted began each interaction with a reminder of what he did not want to happen, he inadvertently sucked the energy, motivation, and spirit out of each person.

I talked to Ted about the Seeing Red Cars mind-set: Focus on what you do want to happen. Once he became aware, he suddenly got it. He met with each team member to share his learning. The discussion was telling, as they described how his focus had made them feel frustrated, unappreciated, and unmotivated.

Together, Ted and his team members wrote personal and project “I want” statements (an intentional action step from Seeing Red Cars). He coached the team to share their “I want” statements, the status of each, and their strategy for moving the project along in one-to-one and project meetings. Team members were asked to align their professional “I want” statements with those of the project, and before long, they were back on track, working collaboratively, and producing the daily, weekly, and monthly actions needed to succeed.

As they adopted a positive-outcomes mind-set at both the individual and team levels, it eventually spread to other areas of the company and affected the division’s overall performance.

You Must Consciously Break the Pattern

Focusing on what we don’t want has a reach far greater than we realize. It is our natural tendency, and it’s been going on a long time.

Do you remember third-grade reading class? Most people I talk to remember the same thing. You’re sitting with your group at the reading table, and everyone has to take turns reading. Pretty soon it’s your turn. Chances are, while your classmates were reading, you weren’t even listening. You were mentally counting how many more students before it’s your turn. Your fear builds, your heart pounds, your hands tremble, and you can’t stop thinking how hard it is. Finally, it’s your turn. One agonizing word at a time, you finally get through the paragraph. And you make it through the day, and you make it through third grade. And it doesn’t ever really go away.

Now you’ve moved from the classroom to the conference room. They’re not your classmates, they’re your colleagues. You’re all supposed to give your reports. And you’re doing it again—wondering which direction they’re going to go around the table. You’re still focused on not wanting to make a mistake, on not wanting to look foolish, and your heart pounds. Why does this happen? Why do we spend time and energy dealing with fear and obstacles instead of taking action to move in the right direction? It’s so simple we can recognize it in others, and yet it’s so subtle we don’t see it in ourselves. That’s the problem. We don’t realize that we’re focused on what we don’t want.

Raising your consciousness will help you begin moving in the opposite direction. One small shift makes a big difference. It may sound easy, but it’s not. The hard work is focusing on what you want to happen and not on what you are trying to avoid.

Think It

Similar to the Law of Attraction, start by making a commitment to focus your thoughts on what you want, not on what you don’t want. Write down specifically what you want. Make a contract with yourself.

See It

Now picture it in your mind. The more vividly you can picture the desired outcome, with every detail, the better. Many people find and display...

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Verlag
Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Erscheinungsdatum
2011
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1605097276
ISBN 13 
9781605097275
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
192
Kontakt zum Hersteller
eucomplyOÜ
hello@eucompliancepartner.com

Pärnu mnt. 139b-14
Tallinn
11317
Estland

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