IGROW - A problem solving and decision making methodology

Do you find problem solving or decision making difficult?  Do you delay making decisions because you're not quite sure if it's the right decision? 

In this chat, I share a problem solving and decision making methodology called IGROW.

I - Issue - What is the current issue, what is the problem?

G - Goal - What would you like to achieve if you could solve this problem or make this decision?

R - Reality - What is the reality of the situation.  What are the facts?  What is the context?  

O - Options - What are the possible solutions, options, or alternatives?

W - Will - What will you commit to do?  And when?

#problemsolving #decisionmaking #problem #decision #IGROW #GROW #issue #goal #reality #options #Will #commit #commitment

Priorities - It's not that you don't have enough time, it's that you don't have clear priorities.

Do you ever feel like there just isn't enough time in the day to get everything done.  If you've ever said to yourself, "I just don't have enough time"... my guess is that the real problem is that "you don't have clear priorities".

There is always enough time to do the next right thing.

In this chat, I explore how to distinguish between things that are important or not important and things that are urgent and not urgent.

I'll close with some tips on how you can break the cycle of constant fire fighting and being in reactive mode to being able to identify and set your priorities based on things that are important to you.  This will put you in a more proactive mode where you think more clearly, your efforts have a higher impact, you start making progress towards your long-term goals, and you have more positive energy in your life.

#priorities #prioritization #priority #important #notimportant #urgent #noturgent #eisenhowermatrix #timemanagement #positivevibes #positiveenergy #positivethoughts #takecontrol

The Five Stages of Grief

There is a lot going on in the world right now. A lot of people are hurting.

In today's chat, I wanted to talk about recognizing that grieving is a process and if you can recognize where you are in this process, you just may be able to move through it faster and with less pain. By getting to the point where you have more good days than bad ones, you can get to the point where you are doing things to give yourself a more positive future.
While there are many models on grieving, today I'll talk about one called "The Five Stages of Grief", or simply "The Five Stages". This model has it's foundation in work done by a Swiss-American psychiatrist named Elizabeth Kubler-Ross. Hence, some also call this the Kubler-Ross curve.

Before we jump into the five stages, it is important to note that this is not a linear model. Meaning, people don't necessarily experience it in steps 1 through 5. In fact, it is quite common for people to move back and forth across the 5 stages, and for some, some may never experience all five stages on a particular loss. Grief is different for everyone. That is the first step though in helping you to move through all stages. Understand that there is a process and recognizing where you are in that process and what the end of that process looks like.

The five stages are:
Denial
Anger
Bargaining
Depression
Acceptance

My goal for this chat it to hopefully help anyone grieving for any reason to help you to get through your grief by sharing the 5 stages.
In doing so, if you can recognize what stage you are in, that is the beginning of you moving toward acceptance and hopes for a more positive future.

#denial #anger #bargaining #depression #acceptance #thefivestages #grief

Purpose - When you do things with purpose, you show up differently in many positive ways.

Since it's the New Year, I thought I'd start the new year off by talking about "Purpose".  But why is "purpose" so important.

A friend of mine, Shannon, had a meme on her Instagram a few days ago.  It read - If you do things with purpose, you show up differently.  And that's the key here.  How does having purpose get you to show up differently and ultimately for the better.

Dictionary definition -  the reason for which something is done or created  or the reason for with something exists - hint hint, that includes organizations at work, and even your job or even a specific activity.

If we know what purpose is, What's then is the opposite of purpose?  If you reverse the definition, then that would be doing things for no reason or at a minimum doing things that you cannot connect back to a purpose.

To illustrate this, think about someone or even you yourself saying when asked, "How's it going?" and the reply is "Oh, I'm just so busy!"  That to me is something to watch out for.  

Alfred Montapert, author of "The Supreme Philosophy of Man: The Laws of Life", may have described it best in his quote "Don't confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but doesn't make any progress."

Whether you are working toward a personal goal or working for someone else at work, just like I mentioned my podcast about your New Year's Resolution, everything starts with some purpose, some outcome you are trying to achieve.

If you are the leader and you tell someone, "Hey go into the jungle and get some wood".  You won't really know what you'll get when that person comes back and I am sure that person is also confused and probably a little demotivated because they were told to go do something without being told why.  But, instead, of you give someone a purpose, something like, "We need to build a fire and have it continually burning and never go out", now this person has a purpose. 

A couple of great things happen at this point.  First, you've unlocked Innovation because there are probably a million ways to accomplish this purpose and this person get to figure that out.

Secondly, it unlocks motivation.  Now they can feel like they are really contributing and most importantly, they can connect their work to the good over the overall team.

Third, it unlocks accountability.  If there is no fire or the fire goes out, that person agreed to be accountable for the purpose, so they can be held accountable.  Chances are they will hold themselves accountable long before you do.  But now as the leader, it is easier for you to hold them accountable for the overall purpose.

Had you told them to do into the jungle to get some wood and they bring back a freshly felled tree that won't burn and then you yell at them telling them that won't work, all you get is resentment for not providing specific instructions, being viewed as a bad leader, and someone who is now demotivated.

When someone does things with purpose, they do show up differently in many positive ways.

Overall, your life will become more fulfilling.

You will be able understand why you are here and how you can add value.

You will be able to focus more, knowing the ultimate direction you are heading.

You will be able to prioritize what is important.

You will manage your time better.

You will be more resilient, viewing setbacks are learning opportunities not failures.

When working with others with the same purpose, you will build better relationships and even find new ones giving you a better sense of comradery and team.

So when someone has a purpose, they do show up differently in many positive ways.

#purpose #focus #team #commitment #priorities #clarity #innovation #empowerment

New Year's Resolution - How to create one and stick with it.

Well it's that time of year. The ritual of setting our New Year's resolution. We all view the New Year as a "fresh start" to try to give us that boost to get back to something important to us, something we value.

That can be anything from losing weight, to eating healthier, to exercising regularly, to making better financial choices, or quitting smoking, or even spending more time with our loved ones.

Here are six things you can do to help you to make and stick to your New Year's resolution.
Step 1. Make your resolutions outcomes not activities. This outcome is your vision statement if you will. It's a set of words that describe some future state. It's the "why".
Step 2. Make that resolution measurable. Set a specific but attainable goal that you can use to measure progress to you attaining your resolution.
Step 3. Think of the things (activities) you can do that contribute to you achieving your overall resolution goal and also set goals for these activities as well.
Step 4. Measure your progress toward these activity goals every day or whatever frequency you set that makes sense for your activity and overall resolution goals.
Step 5. If you find that you are not on track in step 4, then you must do something different. If you need to get back on track, try to figure out what caused you to go off track in the first place. The idea is to find the reason you went off track and find a solution to not having that happen again. Learn from your mistakes and put corrective action in place so you don't make the same mistake again.
Step 6. Celebrate small wins.

Every year we go through this ritual of resolution setting. One parting thought is not to think about this as a yearly "event", but think about this more as a lifestyle change. If you "fail", then don't quit and wait till next year. Pick up where you left off, maybe reset to a new goal, and keep going. This could be all the difference between a lifetime success or failure. Changing something about yourself is all about visualizing a positive outcome that you can continually focus on - the why - this helps with keeping your desire to keep doing the contributing activities. It's about setting daily or appropriate attainable goals that you can measure, and then a process to make sure you know if you are on track of not and if not, a commitment to resolve the thing that caused you to go off track. Celebrate your successes and progress along the way.
It's not just the end goal that matters, but also how you take that journey along the way.

#newyear

#newyear2021

#newyears

#resolution

#purpose

#commitment

#focus

#freshstart

#newbeginning

#newbeginnings

#beginning

#2021year

Build better relationships by improving your EQ (Emotional Intelligence)

Hello everyone, I hope you are having an amazing day. Welcome to Chang Chats with Stu Chang and I'm Stu Chang. Today we are going to talk about EQ, or Emotional Intelligence (emotional quotient).

What it is, why it is important and what you can do to improve yours. I've got a special guest today, my dear friend Megan Bradley. Megan is a local leader who has been elected to numerous local government positions.

She's in the government so she needs all the EQ she can muster! In a nutshell it's the ability to understand, manage, and use your own emotions in a positive way to communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict and in the end build better relationships. It includes being able to do the following 4 things when interacting with others.

Self-awareness – You recognize your own emotions and how they affect your thoughts and behavior. You know your strengths and weaknesses, and have self-confidence.

Self-management – You’re able to control impulsive feelings and behaviors, manage your emotions in healthy ways, take initiative, follow through on commitments, and adapt to changing circumstances.

Social awareness – You have empathy. You can understand the emotions, needs, and concerns of other people, pick up on emotional cues, feel comfortable socially, and recognize the power dynamics in a group or organization. 

Relationship management – You know how to develop and maintain good relationships, communicate clearly, inspire and influence others, work well in a team, and manage conflict.

#eq #emotionalintelligence #selfawareness #selfmanagement #socialawareness #relationshipmanagement #empathy 

Growing Up Black in America - A Perspective.

Today I chat with my good friend India on her perspective on growing up black in America.

We explore her experiences and influences in her life growing up in Englewood Chicago, having and raising a black son, and eventually moving into a predominantly white neighborhood.

We chat about her views on what is like being black in America today and her view on what the future holds.

#blm #blacklivesmatter #positivechange

How to Change Someone's Behavior

Whether it's the Nation's leaders wanting everyone to wear a mask, or it's you as a parent wanting your kids to clean their rooms, or you as a manager at work wanting your team members to follow a new process, how do you get someone to change their behavior to ultimately achieve a different outcome or fulfill a purpose. 

In this Chang Chat we explore How to Change Someone's Behavior. 

Do they know what you want them to change, why it is important, and most importantly, what's in it for them? 

Do they want to change their behavior?  You can't sustainably "make" someone do something they don't want to do. 

Do they know how to change their behavior?  If it is a new process at work, have they been taught how to effectively do the new process? 

Are they actually performing the new behavior consistently and effectively?  Are you measuring that and how do you measure that? 

What are you doing to reinforce the new behavior? These are all the things we will explore in this chat. In this chat I reference some of the things 

#moc #managementofchange #changemanagement #why #what #how #ability #reinforcement 

Joy and Happiness - How you can get more in your life.

We all want happiness.  The Founding Fathers of the United States even declared that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

During the Holiday season we see the words Happiness and Joy everywhere.  But what is the difference.

In this chat, I explore the difference between joy and happiness, and talk about ten things things you can do to get more joy and happiness in your life.

Appreciate the people who enrich your life. Focus on the simple pleasures in life. Don't judge yourself harshly when things go wrong. Show empathy and compassion to others, even strangers. Make time for yourself. Surround yourself with positive people. Laugh. Focus on experiences, not stuff. Plan your happy moments. Stop worrying about outcomes you don't control.

Listen in to hear an in-depth perspective of these ten suggestions.

#joy #happiness #family #values #focus #positivevibes #positivethinking #positivemindset 

Want to influence someone... understand what they value and what they believe

The Holidays are the time of the year where we get together with friends and families over Thanksgiving dinner or other events.  You may be dreading that because there is a friend or family member who you just don't see eye-to-eye about a particular topic.  That could be anything from whether there is a need to wear a mask or not, or whether the new Playstation is better than the Xbox.

In this episode. I talk about why someone values and believes what they do, and in knowing that, how you can in turn have a better conversation with them by digging into "why" they value and believe what they believe by learning more about their Ladder of Inference.  I also talk about how you can get them to open up by listening empathetically and non-judgmentally, and then when it's your turn to be heard, how you can assert your position in a manner that the other person may be more apt to listen to you as opposed to you both butting heads by asserting what you both believe is the "truth".

This concept applies to any area of disagreement or even if you are not in a disagreement, how you can simply influence someone more effectively, but doing so in a productive manner.

#influence #values #beliefs #value #believe #ladderofinference #inference #listening #understanding #activelistening #empathy #assertive

Chang Chats with Stu Chang Trailer

Hi, I'm Stu Chang and I've spent 34 years as a leader in a large Multi-National corporation. In that time, I've held numerous roles such as operations, product development, marketing, and Senior leadership positions. In the last 7 years I had the privilege to be a personal and professional coach.

I wanted to give back what I have learned over the lifetime of my career in hopes that it will help you to be the best version of yourself.

#coach #lifecoach #personalcoach #lifegoals