3D Juggling 423: Snow Days

March 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Lynn says “Like many people, once I had overcome the frustration and guilt over thwarted trips to work during February’s arctic weather, I enjoyed several days of uninterrupted play with my children. One session on a local steep hill I watched as many kids sledged in pristine, early morning, snow. The snow, whilst beautiful, was not ripe for sledges and many were frustrated by slow trips or getting stuck. I watched as they all pooled resources, pushing each other, scraping some deep snow out of the way, and trampling the snow run until they were all able to speed happily and rapidly to the bottom.

As Henry Ford said, “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”

  • How can we use our individual ideas and strengths to work together?
  • Do we know what our outcome is?
  • Do we maximise our efficiency by using each other?”

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© 2009 3D Coaching Ltd May be distributed freely. Please retain contact details: http://www.3dcoaching.com/ and send a copy/ link to info@3dcoaching.com

Filed Under: teams Tagged With: ,

3D Juggling 422: Whirlpools

March 23, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Claire writes: “How often do we get in the way when we are listening to other people at work? As soon as we start thinking ‘Oh really’, ‘Oh dear’, ‘Oh no…’, we begin to get hooked into the story which we are hearing. And if the teller is feeling in a whirlpool, there’s a high risk that we’ll jump into the whirlpool as well!

Using a coaching approach at work means keeping out of the whirlpool. Keeping out! Because once we jump in, we both start to thrash about looking for a solution and a way forward. The coaches ability to help their colleague explore the situation from a new perspective is dependent on them being objective. And when the temptation is to dive in and rescue your colleague, consider what will happen next time they find a similar problem. Unless this is an emergency, it is usually far more productive to work with your colleague to come to a good solution themselves. The skill is to help them to see a way forward – by listening and helping them to see their situation differently.”

Love this? Do us a favour and send it to five people. Who thinks like you? You could send it to someone who dives in!

Discuss this week’s juggling at http://www.3dcoaching.blogspot.com/

© 2009 3D Coaching Ltd May be distributed freely. Please retain contact details: www.3dcoaching.com and send a copy/ link to info@3dcoaching.com

Filed Under: 4 Coaching Presence, 6 Powerful Questionning Tagged With:

3D Juggling 421: Silos or salaries

March 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Clare writes: “I made a change to my career about 5 months ago; I left the comfort of a career I had been in for about 18 years. It was a stressful job, but safe in terms of salary. I am now doing a job I enjoy significantly more, using skills I gained volunteering! This part time option is also providing me with time and money to stretch and develop my coaching skills. The majority of the coaching work is currently for no fee (I am a bit of a rookie!). The paid job is a means to filling the gap while the children need me around. It provides the pennies we need to pay the mortgage, swimming and tennis lessons, and the other usual household bills. Although the coaching I am doing isn’t filling the moneybox, it is adding to my skills, experience and contacts.

Making changes can require some sacrifices, but maybe we need to start looking at work as more than a way of filling the money silo. The time spent building up the skills silo can provide the springboard from which a salary can come in the future. That’s how Claire started out, too.

Are there skills or strengths that you could be working on now from which you can harvest benefit in the future when time, money or circumstances allow you to be more flexible to make a change? Could your volunteering choices be part of a strategy to gain the skills needed to make a change? Are you just working for a salary silo or to build up the silos from which your future will come?”

Love this? Do us a favour and send it to five people. Who thinks like you? You could send it to someone who is living in a gap.

© 2009 3D Coaching Ltd May be distributed freely. Please retain contact details: www.3dcoaching.com and send a copy/ link to info@3dcoaching.com

Filed Under: 6 Do The Maths Tagged With:

3D Juggling 420: Change of scene

March 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Claire writes: ‘One of the most remarkable things about sleeping under the stars in the desert is that the panorama in the sky when you fall asleep is totally different from the one you see on waking in the night. As you sleep, everything moves! That’s how it felt last Wednesday to hear from www.stopthetraffik.org , our charity for this year. They left a message to say that Cadbury’s are going to make Dairy Milk fair trade. Now that one of the major producers has made that commitment, it seems much more hopeful that the others will follow. Once the change is made later in the year, it will take time to get used to buying Cadbury’s again!

Often we chip at change with seemingly few results. And then something happens and change comes in like a pile of dominoes falling over. I spoke to someone who wrote a letter a week in an attempt to find a more fulfilling job. After two years, her mission was successful and someone commented that the job had ‘landed in her lap’. That’s what it looked like! But it was a response to a long term mission. And when the change comes, however much it has been hoped for, it can take time to catch up with where we are now.’

© 2009 3D Coaching Ltd May be distributed freely. Please retain contact details: www.3dcoaching.com and send a copy/ link to info@3dcoaching.com

Filed Under: Change and transition Tagged With: