Do you have to enjoy work?
It’s been an area of conversation at the moment. Many of my friends don’t like their jobs, however they are not leaving
They don’t want to change, risk in changing jobs and what would they do – unsure what would make them happy.
It’s been an area of conversation at the moment. Many of my friends don’t like their jobs, however they are not leaving…
They don’t want to change, risk in changing jobs and what would they do – unsure what would make them happy.
I know that I am a bit strange, I really enjoy work. Yes there are days I don’t enjoy or periods of my career I haven’t enjoyed however overall I love working. It gives me energy, joy and I love to learn. I love interacting with people and helping businesses. I really enjoy the variety of consulting - different businesses, industries and different work. Ability to manage my own hours and workload etc and get to work with a great team.
However, I am surprised the number of people that;
• Don’t enjoy work
• Won’t move because hate change or
• Don’t know what to do
• Happy with pay and don’t want to get pay cut
I always say that there are aspects of everyone job they don’t enjoy – let’s say 20% max. But you need to live with this – and that’s normal but you need to enjoy the rest.
If you are not happy going to work every day, how long do you stay stuck in this role? Life is short. With perspective being miserable at work is not good for the quality of your life and you need to think about what you enjoy and what you want to get from your work and then make a plan.
You spend a lot of time at work, so if you don’t enjoy it that is a big chunk of your life that you don’t like. It flows through other elements of your work.
• Be honest on what is going to make you happy
• Do you need to make a change?
• Is the organisation you work for have other roles you can do?
• What makes you happy?
• What are your 3 non negotiables for a new role?
Be bold, brave and be clear with yourself on what you want and then go and get it.
Appreciate you need financials to pay your bills, but working in a job that makes you miserable is not a good use of your time and energy and finding that right role, will make you so much happier, you will wish you had done this earlier.
I always encourage my employees to look for a new job, if they are not happy. Seriously, then people find a new job and they are back to being themselves and happy.
If you are miserable, why?
• Do you need to change your job?
• Why not now?
• What are your 3 non negotiables.
Examples of non negotiables
• $xxxk annual salary
• Learning opportunity
• Certain industry
• Certain level
• Great boss / leader
• Small size company
• Large size company
Do you have any other non- negotiables?
Be honest with yourself about what you want from life and then pursue it wholeheartedly.
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What has covid taught me about working effectively
Time management has become more complex today and we must adapt to the changing environment.
Hybrid working – we need some help right?
• Video calls for 89 hours a day!
• Spend min 30 mins on each video call, that could have been a quick 5-10 min conversation.
Time management has become more complex today and we must adapt to the changing environment.
Hybrid working – we need some help right?
• Video calls for 89 hours a day!
• Spend min 30 mins on each video call, that could have been a quick 5-10 min conversation.
No longer phone calls that are 5 mins.
• You try and do video calls and do your emails or work, so don’t do a good job at anything.
• Group calls, easy to be distracted with emails and other work, projects to deliver change. But then you get to delivery, things fail.
It’s true that:
• Having back-to-back meetings, is not productive.
• You disengage in video calls when they are on all day back-to-back.
• You miss the social of work (if you are extravert).
• It’s hard to get work done.
So what does this all mean:
• Being very clear on your 34 priorities for the week and then broken down by days
• Having times blocked out to do work, real work is important. Whatever works for you – morning 34 hours or afternoon 34 hours.
• Email reading only twice per day, people will call if urgent.
• Turn off notifications so you can focus on the priorities.
You need to get back to basics:
• Being clear on your priorities (34 per week)
• Time block time to get work done
• Don’t do any more than 3 video calls per day
• Call someone for 5 min thing, not video call or too many emails
Being productive at work, means that you can maximise time for other things and feel engaged at work, because you can achieve goals. Understanding and aligning on your priorities is critical to ensure that you know what success looks like.
I’m not perfect, but always trying to find better way to improve my effectiveness at work, some days I win and others not so much!
If you want to read more articles by Jo Hands, please see Whiteark Thought Leadership
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Reach out for a no obligation chat to Jo Hands on 0459826221, or jo.hands@whiteark.com.au
Article by Jo Hands, Whiteark Founder
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Why companies fail at executing change?
Why companies fail at executing change?
And what you can do about it….
Yes, it’s harsh but the data doesn’t lie. More than 80% of projects don’t deliver. That’s a terrible statistic.
Think about how many money businesses spend on projects & the projects don’t deliver….hmmm if only something could be done.
Why companies fail at executing change?
And what you can do about it….
Yes, it’s harsh but the data doesn’t lie. More than 80% of projects don’t deliver. That’s a terrible statistic.
Think about how many money businesses spend on projects & the projects don’t deliver….hmmm if only something could be done.
There are 5 main reasons companies fail at making change, through major projects:
1. No executive sponsorship
2. Insufficient budget
3. Change resistant culture
4. Only using internal resources, who have a day job
5. The business case doesn’t explain the why in a way that people buy in to the change
So, for a bit more detail on the 5 reasons that companies fail to make change, through major projects:
No executive sponsorship
If you don’t have Executive Sponsorship, you are doomed. When money gets cut, and projects get reprioritised your project will be removed or cut first up. If change is required from the change, you will need Executive approval to drive the change through, if you don’t have it you are doomed.
So what….
You should have an Executive Sponsor, but also 2-3 other influential Executive Sponsors that can help you navigate the politics of getting things done and ensure they have your back when shit hits the fan.
Insufficient Budget
You know the budget processes where everyone bids and they give everyone their projects but just cut the top off the 20% of all projects, so no projects are funded correctly. Without the right level of funding you need to cut corners and what you started as the plan is now in the toilet and you are making things up to hit all the metrics to ensure that the project is not cut further.
So what…..
Fight for your budget. Have a detailed budget prepared and if they cut it show them what they are not going to get and the financial implications so you have an ROI story. If they still don’t give it to you, adjust your business case for the new funding to ensure that you adjust people’s expectations on what will be delivered.
Change Resistant Culture
Have you ever worked in a company, where the company just couldn’t do change, it wasn’t that they didn’t want to, but they didn’t. They were paralysed. They had tried so many times and failed that they were all cynical about making change that when a new person came in they convinced them that they wouldn’t be able to change either, and not to bother. And so the cycle of a change resistant culture is bred. It’s really sad. It’s possible to make change, but you will need to make people uncomfortable and if you have change resistant HR you will likely get yourself into all sorts of trouble.
So what…..
But for people like me I see this as a challenge and opportunity to show people change can be done. However, for the normal person, this is incredibly sad and depressing and really does making change and successfully implemented projects hard, if not impossible. You’ll find the PMO in these organisations is full of people that are stopping people from actually delivering on anything as well. My only solution is they need Collin Ellis – he can actually help organisations with the culture change.
Internal Resources – who have a day job
Internal resources are great! Actually, a combination of internal and external resources is a great mix for any successful project but need to take internal people off their day job to implement the project and backfill them. Find strong leaders, change leaders and SME’s and put them on the project, and backfill them and give them a budget to hire some other people to support. But empower them. I kinda of answered the so what about on this one.
The Business Case doesn’t explain the Why
Do you know why you are making the change? Have you articulated to the people that need to buy in? Does it make sense? Have you communicated it, and then communicated it and then again? You need to be clear on the why and everyone else needs too, so when people get fed up, they remember why they are doing this project.
At Whiteark we love to work with businesses to help them deliver exceptional projects, that deliver results and financial outcomes. We get our hands dirty to implement with your teams. We will force the hard conversations, will challenge the team to think bigger, will make people a tad uncomfortable – but will make the project be successful.
Our approach and team are tailored to what you need, so reach out and have a conversation if you have a project you want to be successful or you need help on a project that needs to be restored or project portfolio reprioritised and reviewed
Reach out for a no obligation chat to Jo Hands on 0459826221, or jo.hands@whiteark.com.au
Article by Jo Hands, Whiteark Founder
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The secret sauce of change
❝ Change is hard at first, messy in the middle, and gorgeous at the end❞
- Robin Sharma -
Love this quote on change. It’s a good reminder that change is hard. That is why people are good at change
“Change is hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end”
Love this quote on change. It’s a good reminder that change is hard. That is why people are good at change.
Data doesn’t lie
80% transformation (change) programs don’t deliver the required outcome.
78% of people in organisations (generalisation) don’t want to make change
Organisations that effectively make change, have an improved customer and employee experience & a better financial outcome.
Every organisation is working to make change – new product, new sales strategy, new investment, new plan, new operating model, new ways of doing things. Change is what continues to add value to organisations.
Organisations that effectively make changes are more customer centric, employees like working at these organisations and have a better financial outcome. So, it’s a no brainer. We need to create an environment in an organisation for change to occur and for it to be celebrated.
While nothing I have said above is really revolutionary or something you didn’t know, why is making change so hard? What is the secret sauce to make meaningful change?
SECRET INGREDIENTS TO SUCCESS
Culture – if you don’t have the right culture in the organisation, you will not be able to make the change. Culture takes time to develop and when done well, is co-developed with the organisation to get their buy in and create the culture they want in an organisation. The person I have seen do this the best is Collin Ellis.
Leadership – strong Executive leadership, where people are not scared to fight for what is important, to have challenging conversations and to take the job of navigating teams and organisations through change, as their number 1 priority. If you don’t have this, you are not going to success.
Why – being clear on the why. Why are we making change. What is it going to improve – for our customers, employees and the way the brand / product is perceived in the market?
Linking the activity with the why is critical to get buy-in.
Champions – build a strong champion network across the organisation that have Executive team support to implement a change agenda. Strong personalities to push through the hard bit and resistance piece and drive the change agenda.
Agility – as you are making change, your plans might change and you need to pivot quickly, not a 6 month review but on a day by day basis to ensure that the change doesn’t lose momentum and people don’t give up that the change will occur.
Celebrate change – making change however small should be celebrated by the CEO and leadership team. People should be encouraged to make changes in their teams, roles and outcomes. Saying change is important, is one thing but then celebrating or recognising people for change is another.
Time & money – without time and money, nothing happens. Time (resources) need to be allocated to make change. Giving people time out of their day-to-day work to do the change journey. The structure might be dedicated resource on change program or space in role(s) to have time to work on the change, not getting too lost in the business as usual.
Money makes the world go round. Funding needs to be allocated to change programs. Doesn’t need to millions of dollars, but flexible funding to make incremental changes or a larger change program is critical.
When I think about change, sometimes we overcomplicate things.
That is where the concept of continuous improvement works well. What is the key changes an organisation, department or team need to make to improve the customer experience, product, operational efficiency or to stay ahead of the market.
Having a funding model that is aligned with your planning, ensures that small, incremental changes (continuous improvement) can get done in an organisation.
Not all projects need to be large big bang, sometimes small incremental changes will have the biggest impact. See articles and documents written by Whiteark around Continuous improvement and Simplification that you might find interesting / helpful / inspiring.
If you have some other ingredients for secret sauce, please post a comment, DM me or reach out, I would be interested to chat further.
Article by Jo Hands, Whiteark Founder
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Having a good people strategy is key, how hard can it be?
In all companies, people are the assets of the business. Without employees the company doesn’t run – things actually stop. You can definitely give me examples where I am wrong, however as a general rule it’s true. So we agree people are important – right.
It’s easy right …