Have You Ever Attempted or Considered Giving Up Anything?

Updated July 25th 2023

Ever heard ‘it takes 21 days to change a habit’?

I think I can safely say, that for most of us, most of the time, when we endeavour to do the 21 days, to cut out the unwanted or adopt the new healthier behaviour, we generally give up as quickly as we started! Never mind 21 days, we usually stop after just a few days. It is so difficult for us to change a habit, and even the most committed, focused and disciplined of us struggle.

For those of you who are about to embark on a change of habit I have some harsh news for you. It actually takes on average 66 days for new behaviours to become unchangingly automatic. Worse than that, research shows that it can take some people up to 245 days to change a habit!

The good news is that change is possible, when you know how! Recent discoveries in neuroscience have made some amazing discoveries about the ability to learn, change and adapt.

Ever heard the saying ‘“neurons that fire together, wire together”? This refers to the fact that we have cells called neurons within our brains and nervous systems, that are responsible for everything we do. Neurons link up with each other and form strong bonds based on your experiences, emotions, thoughts, interactions with your environment, etc.

Think of it like this; ever hear a piece of music and it reminds you of a certain time in your life, certain person/people, certain clothes, smells, sensations etc? This happens because there was some bit of neuronal wiring, that when the music activated one area of your brain, there was a cascade of electrical impulses to the surrounding neurons. Due to proximity of the neurons, the memories were triggered.

The term ‘brain plasticity’, refers to the lifelong ability of the brain to re-organize neural pathways based on new experiences. We can actually re-wire our brain by choosing what we expose ourselves to. And therefore, habits are possible to break.

Tune in next week if you’d like to learn how to change habits. But before you do that have a think about this; when we think of habits, we think of smoking, couch hogging (i.e. not exercising), eating unhealthily, gambling, checking and re-checking emails or social media pages, to name a few. If you are one of the lucky ones who has none of these vices, do you think you might have other habits that are not serving you well?

For example, how about not recognising the efforts of your colleagues, or not responding to phonecalls, or not implementing the step-by-step instructions you learnt at that staff training you attended?

Ah yes! Light bulb moment?

As I say, have a think and tune in next week.

Interested in Preventing Memory Loss as You Age?

Updated July 25 2023

In last week’s blog, I talked about how the brain has been shaped by evolution to adapt and readapt to an everchanging world (Cozolino & Sprokay, 2006). The thing is, that when things become too comfortable the brain gets lazy.

In one of my favourite books ever ‘The Brain That Changes Itself’, Norman Doidge, states that the way to stave off memory loss into old age is to keep learning new things ‘learning new physical activities that require concentration, solving challenging puzzles, or making a career change that requires that you master new skills and materials.” i.e you have to want to learn and grow, you have to actively make an effort to do so. You have to want to find new things to learn and then focus on these if you want to hold off old-age memory loss.

Likewise, it is also true that you have to want to find other ways of being, to avoid accepting mediocrity and habitual behaviours.

If you send a child to piano lessons and they don’t like learning the piano, it is highly unlikely that they will learn anything past what they are being set by their teachers for exams. On the other hand, if a child has begged to be able to attend piano lessons, and they really want to learn, then they will want to be great, and they will want to learn to play every song they hear on the radio. And this knowledge will remain with them for years to come, perhaps their whole lives, because they have a passion for learning and they are having fun!

Experts and researchers (e.g. Cozolino & Sprokay, Caine & Caine, and those listed above) all over the world insist that brains grow best in the context of interactive discovery and through co-creation of stories that shape and support memories of what is being learned.

Our focus at Adaptas™, when designing and delivering staff training, is to encourage people to learn new things about themselves, through real active experience and sharing of this experience.

How can you find ways for yourself and your colleagues to want to learn so that everyone will actually learn when attending staff training? How can you make it attractive to learn?

Well I would suggest, firstly, recognize the importance of learning for the longevity of your memory (reading Norman Doidge’s book will inspire you, I promise!). Secondly, think back to when you were a child, and you like making up stories and playing games and generally using your imagination…this is how we learnt as children, and believe it or not, this is how we learn as adults…learning needs to be engaging, fun and full of imagining the possibilities!

Let us know if you and your colleagues are ready to play, and in doing so learn, grow and keep your brain fresh and alive!

For Norman Doidge’s truly inspiring book, see: http://www.normandoidge.com/normandoidge.com/ABOUT_THE_BOOK.html

Quick Tips for Developing Empathy – Incorporating Them Into Staff Training Yields Rewards!

Empathy is an emotional and thinking muscle that becomes stronger the more we use it. Here are a few practical tips to consider. You can use them during communication skills training, or share them with your colleagues to lend them a hand!

• Listen – truly listen to people. Listen with your ears, eyes and heart. Pay attention to others’ body language, to their tone of voice, to the hidden emotions behind what they are saying to you, and to the context.

• Don’t interrupt people. Don’t dismiss their concerns offhand. Don’t rush to give advice. Don’t change the subject. Allow people to have their moment.

• Tune in to non-verbal communication. This is the way that people often communicate what they think or feel, even when their verbal communication says something quite different.

• Embrace the “93% rule” in your communication. According to a renowned study by Professor Emeritus, Albert Mehrabian of UCLA, when expressing emotions and attitudes, the words we use only contribute to 7% of the overall message received by people. The remaining 93% is conveyed through our tone of voice and body language. Therefore, it’s crucial to take the time to grasp how we present ourselves while communicating our feelings and attitudes to others.

• Make an effort to learn and use people’s name. Also remember the names of people’s spouse and children so that you can refer to them by name.

• Be fully present when you are with people. Don’t check your email, look at your watch or take phone calls when a direct report drops into your office to talk to you. Put yourself in their shoes. How would you feel if someone did that to you?

• Smile at people. This will also boost your own self-esteem and your immune system!

• Encourage people, particularly the quiet ones, when they speak up in meetings. A simple thing like an attentive nod can boost people’s confidence.

• Give genuine recognition and praise. Pay attention to what people are doing and catch them doing the right things. When you give praise, spend a little effort to make your genuine words memorable: “You are an asset to this team because..”; “This was pure genius”; “I would have missed this if you hadn’t picked it up.”

• Take a personal interest in people. Show people that you care, and genuine curiosity about their lives. Ask them questions about their hobbies, their challenges, their families, their aspirations.

Empathy, Diversity and Staff Training

Updated July 24th 2023

When we see other people getting hurt, our brain responds in a characteristic way. The same neural circuits that process first-hand experiences of pain are also activated by images of pain in others. This phenomenon can be described as empathy – the ability to share and understand another person’s feelings. For instance, if I accidentally slam a door, hurting my finger, I wince in pain. Similarly, my colleague, who witnesses the incident, experiences distress on seeing my discomfort.

But there is more to human empathy than merely sharing another creature’s pain. Neuroscientists Jean Decety and Philip L. Jackson argue that human empathy requires several components (Decety and Jackson, 2004). Apart from experiencing shared feelings, an empathic person should also possess the ability to:

• A sense of self-awareness and the ability to distinguish one’s own feelings from the feelings of others: When my colleague sees me wince, she feels my pain. But does she understand the source of her discomfort? If my colleague lacks self-reflection, she might not recognize that I am the one in real trouble.

• Having the capacity to regulate one’s own emotional reactions is crucial. Observing someone else’s distress can be unsettling, and if empathy solely involved “sharing feelings,” empathetic individuals might tend to distance themselves from those in distress, so as not to experience such negative emotions. However, to demonstrate empathic concern or sympathy, my friend must be able to manage her own responses to my pain, showing understanding and support instead.

• Considering another person’s perspective is essential in understanding their emotions and experiences. For instance, while I enjoy attending conferences and events overseas, my colleague has had a fear of flying since childhood. Now, suppose we discover that both of us are required to attend an event abroad that involves flying. To comprehend how my colleague feels upon hearing about this necessity, given her role’s requirements, it becomes crucial for me to empathize and grasp her viewpoint. Without such understanding, it could be challenging for me to recognize and relate to her feelings accurately.

Several other factors also influence the likelihood of people demonstrating empathy, such as:
• Being on familiar terms with the person
• Recognising similarities between themselves and the person
• Having personally experienced the circumstances of the individual

Our willingness to show empathic concern is ruled by our moral, societal and political beliefs. Who deserves our empathic concern? Societies offer different answers to this question. Very often, the answers are about who’s considered “one of us.” A recent survey of preindustrial societies found that people who feel strong loyalty to their own social group are more willing to consider violence against outsiders. (Cohen et al 2006).

What implications does this have in multicultural workplaces and societies? Much of the time, we give less time and attention to others based on them belonging to another group, race, gender. The frightening thing is, that we are often not aware that we are doing this. Therefore it is essential that as part of every organisation’s staff training, awareness is brought to everyone’s own biases, and beliefs, so that we consciously treat everyone equally and fairly.

Enabling people to examine their own beliefs, biases, attitudes and how these might be blocking relationships and productivity is a very important aspect of all our staff training. See some of our Open Courses for examples.

Unleashing Personal Growth: The Power of Experiential Learning

Updated July 5th 2023

Research and theory conducted worldwide on human learning repeatedly indicates there are a range of learning styles. According to psychologist and educational theorist, David Kolb (1984), we all have different preferences in how we learn. Kolb has spent much of his adult life studying adult learning, and has drawn heavily on the work of John Dewey, Kurt Lewin, and Jean Piaget. Most of us are not even aware of what our own learning style is. Any group of people will be made up of individuals with different learning styles, making it difficult for each and every person in a group training to learn effectively. To have a significant impact, training programs should consider individual learning styles.

When learning, some people need to know the facts and figures and models, others need to experience what they are learning about in practice, yet others need to observe others doing what is required, in order to learn. Another way of putting it, is that we all have preferences in the sensory experience of how we learn, some prefer to watch, others to listen, other to feel and experience and others to talk through or be talked through step by step how something works. Either way, whichever way we learn, the most important thing is that once we’ve learnt we need to practice for it to stick long-term. Hence our focus, at Adaptas™, is on finding a mixture between allowing people to observe, to be presented with the models and the facts as we know them, and ultimately all our trainings involve a focus on practicing and ‘doing’ everything that is being learnt about. Our focus, in other words, is on experiential learning.

Experiential learning is the process of making meaning from direct experience. Simply put, experiential learning is learning from experience.

There is a famous saying by Confucius (551-479 BC) “Tell me and I will forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I will understand”. We at adaptas™ know that ‘involve me’ requires presenting the information in a variety of ways so as to target all learning styles and personalities within one group of people.

When it comes to learning how to effectively communicate, a person could read every book ever published telling them how to be a good communicator. However communication is only necessary when another person if involved, so all the books in the world or traditional classroom learning is never going to be effective in teaching somebody, for example, how to sell or influence customers, or how to work effectively in a team.

Furthermore, we all operate from a place of habits and patterns, most of which are learnt early in life, and which no longer serve us. Yet again most of us are unaware of these patterns, and how many of the patterns are effecting how we interact with everyone; family, friends, colleagues, and customers etc.

Experiential learning engages the learner at a more personal level by addressing the needs and wants of the individual, even when learning as one of a group. By developing people as individuals, rather than simply transferring arbitrary capabilities, we develop people’s confidence, self-esteem, personal strengths, and crucially a rounded sense of purpose and fulfillment, which fundamentally improve attitude, life-balance and emotional well-being. These immensely important outcomes are just as important for sustainable productive work as the essential skills and knowledge typically represented in conventional education and work-related hard skills training.

Experiential learning can be thought of as growing a person from the inside, whereas conventional teaching and training is the transfer of capability into a person from the outside. In work and society most problems stem from people feeling unhappy or being unfulfilled. Conventional training/teaching does little to counter these effects. Individual growth – via experiential learning – offers ways to address personal feelings of confidence, fulfilment, sense of purpose, etc. Experiential learning engages the learner at a more personal level by addressing the needs and wants of the individual. Experiential learning allows one to learn new skills, new attitudes or even entirely new ways of thinking.

Let’s face it; we at Adaptas™ could choose easier ways to deliver training! Conventional approaches to training would require less energy and time in preparation and delivery for us, and likewise, would be less challenging for our trainers and trainees. However, we believe so much in experiential learning at Adaptas™, that we have sought out and brought the most effective approaches to experiential learning and a variety of other psychologically deep reaching techniques together, to create effective interactive training services, which create new habits and patterns in communication. Hopefully you will get to experience the difference with us one day soon.

‘What’ Vs. ‘How’ In Staff Training And Development

(Figure: Kolb and Fry's Learning Process)

Updated: July 5th 2023

Frequently, there exists a disconnect between the content and delivery of staff training and development programs. The focus is often on the theoretical “what” aspects, rather than the practical “how” elements that should be emphasized. This raises a crucial question: How can trainees truly grasp new knowledge if they are not provided with the necessary tools and guidance to effectively apply the concepts covered in the training room?

The ancient Chinese philosopher, Confucius stated, “tell me and I will forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I will understand.”

For staff training and development to be effective, one must identify the most critical skills to teach, and then allow learners to use the skills under realistic usage conditions. Staff training must be so compelling as to absorb participants in its realism in a way that engages more than the intellect. It must be practical so that participants may actively use it. It must be relevant to the complexities of the work life of participants, and most importantly, it must provide a memorable, lasting experience.

Many approaches to staff training and development do not address what is difficult about applying the knowledge or skills in the right ways. They make it difficult to remember or use the information appropriately once the training is over. Most of what we really know how to do we learn by ‘doing’, so any training must involve ‘doing’!

For example, when it comes to learning how to effectively communicate, a person could read every book ever published telling them how to be a good communicator. However communication is only necessary when another person is involved. Therefore, all the books in the world or classroom learning where someone imparts theories and models on how to communicate is never going to be effective in teaching somebody to sell or influence customers, or how to work effectively in a team. Furthermore, we all operate from a place of habits and patterns, most of which are learnt early in life, and which no longer serve us. Most of us are unaware of these patterns and how many of the patterns are effecting how we interact with everyone; family, friends, colleagues, and customers etc. Sitting in a room, talking about how it should all be done will not bring our awareness to these patterns of behaviour.

Staff training and development should be enjoyable but it should also have a significant impact on the learners and give them simulated experiences they can rely on when they need to deploy them in real life.

This is why Adaptas™ have brought the most experiential learning and deep reaching techniques together to create effective Interactive Training Services, which create new habits and patterns in communication. Experiential learning engages the learner at a more personal level by addressing the needs and wants of the individual, even when learning as one of a group. By developing people as individuals, rather than simply transferring arbitrary capabilities, we develop people’s confidence, self-esteem, personal strengths, and crucially a rounded sense of purpose and fulfillment, which fundamentally improve attitude, life-balance and emotional well-being. These immensely important outcomes are just as important for sustainable productive work as the essential skills and knowledge typically represented in conventional education and work-related training.

In our view, the purpose of staff training and development, is to make staff significantly happier and more productive, to increase profits as customers return over and over, and to improve staff retention so, less budget is spent on recruitment and training of new recruits. Did you know that to hire one new person costs approximately the equivalent of one year of their annual salary? Something to consider!

At Adaptas™, we aim to save each organisation we work with money and time by making everyone more effective at what they do. Our objective is to ensure the value we bring to your organisation is, by a significant margin, larger than costs associated. For this reason we insist on agreeing at an early stage, the desired results and how to measure them. Adaptas™ in association with RPCM (www.consultrpcm.com) will bring experience and ideas to ensure the measurement agreed is appropriate for all.

How Empathy Impacts Business

Updated July 3rd 2023

After being invited to provide a psychologist’s perspective on empathy at a business event last year, I began to reflect on something that I had previously taken for granted. I realised that the concept of empathy is becoming increasingly relevant in the business world, yet there are still many individuals who either overlook its importance or lack the knowledge of how to cultivate empathy with their colleagues and clients. Exploring this topic in depth would require multiple blog posts, but for now, I encourage you to contemplate both your own and your colleagues’ capacity for empathy. Do you truly grasp the essence of empathy?

Empathy can be formally defined as the aptitude to recognise and comprehend the circumstances, emotions, and motivations of others. It entails our ability to acknowledge and understand the worries and concerns that others may have. Empathy can be described as “putting yourself in the other person’s shoes” or “viewing situations from someone else’s perspective.”

There are now numerous studies that link empathy to business results, making it no longer a touchy feely topic to discuss in business. At its core, empathy is the oil that keeps relationships running smoothly. Studies correlate empathy with increased sales, with the performance of the best managers of product development teams and with enhanced performance in an increasingly diverse workforce. When it comes to staff training and client retention or customer service training courses, an understanding and development of empathy is imperative. If you are interested in reading into this topic further all the studies mentioned can be viewed here (http://www.eiconsortium.org/).

Empathy allows us to create bonds of trust, it gives us insights into what others may be feeling or thinking; it helps us understand how or why others are reacting to situations, it sharpens our “people acumen” and informs our decisions.

Bestselling author, Daniel Pink (A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age) predicts that power will reside with those who have strong right-brain (interpersonal) qualities such as inventiveness, empathy, and meaning. He cites three forces that are causing this change: Abundance, Asia and Automation. “Abundance” refers to our increasing demand for products or services that are aesthetically pleasing; “Asia” refers to the growing trend of outsourcing; “Automation” is self-explanatory. In order to compete in the new economy market, Pink suggests six areas that are vital to our success. One of which is Empathy; the ability to imagine yourself in someone else’s position, to imagine what they are feeling, to understand what makes people tick, to create relationships and to be caring of others: All of which is very difficult to outsource or automate, and yet is increasingly important to business.

Dr. Daniel Goleman isolates three reasons why empathy is so important in business today: the increasing use of teams, (which he refers to as “cauldrons of bubbling emotions”), the rapid pace of globalization (with cross cultural communication easily leading to misunderstandings) and the growing need to retain talent. “Leaders with empathy,” states Goleman, “do more than sympathize with people around them: they use their knowledge to improve their companies in subtle, but important ways.” This doesn’t mean that they agree with everyone’s view or try to please everybody. Rather, they “thoughtfully consider employees’ feelings – along with other factors – in the process of making intelligent decisions.”

We recently developed some trademarked processes which we use in our staff training and in particular our customer service training courses take “putting yourself in the other person’s shoes” to a whole new level. Let’s have a chat to see how you and your team can work out who’s shoe it is anyway!!.

Is Communication Skills Training “Fluffy”?

Updated July 3rd 2023

Recently a colleague of mine referred to staff training and development and communication skills training as being ‘fluffy’. This got me thinking, isn’t it funny the approach that is taken to learning about improving communication and behaviour in society? At school we learn all sorts of subjects. In history class we learn about all the war and destruction the world has seen but not about how ineffective communication has lead to much of this destruction. We study language, our own mother tongue, and if we are lucky, the languages of other countries. We are not, however taught how to communicate effectively, in our own or other languages, with our friends, family, and people in general. Some of us learn about business organisation at school, but how much of the syllabus talks about how important an understanding of each other’s needs is in making organisations work effectively? And even my colleague, who is an extremely successful management consultant, working with leaders and managers on a daily basis, calls staff training and development and communication skills training ‘fluffy’.

Fluffy is a term used to describe cotton wool, teddy bears, bunny rabbits and woolly sweaters and in an online dictionary I just looked up as ‘sentimental or over-romantic; not very intelligent’. To taking a positive swirl on this, when people refer to staff training and development and communication skills training as fluffy they perhaps see effective communication as an impossible dream. We are perhaps looking to do something that is idealized, because in a results-based society the impact of training is often difficult to measure. Many decision makers can’t align results with training, yet all success depends on the growth and communication of individuals.

I cannot tell you how many times recently, coming up to Christmas I walked into stores to buy gifts for family and friends, just as quickly to turn around and walk out to go to one of their competitors. Why did I turn around and walk out? Well a whole range of things. Absolutely nothing to do with what was on the shelves or how glitzy and eye-grabbing the branding was. My exit was solely related to the people on the floor, the lack of interest, enthusiasm or willingness to help. On one day there may be five particular stores that I would have spent money in. But my money was spent in other stores where I received the interest, enthusiasm or willingness that I expected or at least a glimpse of what I expected to be honest!

I am only one person; How many other people out there did the same as me coming up to Christmas? How many of those businesses I walked out of might in the coming year go into liquidation or similar because their staff on the cold face with customers do not know how to make the best of their personalities, to make the shopping experience an enjoyable one. How many of those customer will leave knowing that next time they need to buy a similar product they will be returning to this store to see the same smiling face or a similar smiling face to greet them an assist them with their purchase?

If we are not taught how to communicate effectively or how to recognize the impact of our behaviours in school, or by our parents, or by our peers or through the media, and we can’t lick it off the ground, then where are we supposed to learn it?

Communication and behavior change is simple really, yes maybe it is ‘fluffy’, but it is THE MOST IMPORTANT thing to get right if a business wants to be successful in the long-term. Any business I have interacted with and that I have been impressed by continually spend on effective staff training and development and communication skills training, and it is generally clearly obvious to me, based on the interactions I have with those organisations, those who do and those who don’t. But then maybe I expect to much?!

If you haven’t already, check out some testimonials given by our clients… You can hear from others just how fluffy adaptas™ can be.

Have You Ever Attempted or Considered Giving Up Anything?