Making Business Matter (MBM)

Grocery Guru Ep #35: Become a Supermarket Supplier with S.E.L.L.I.N.G

Join Andrew Grant and Darren A. Smith in the thirty-fifth episode of the Grocery Guru. They discuss how to become a supplier to a UK/European Supermarket using their acronym of SELLING which helps you to get 'a foot in the door'.

You Can View the Full S.E.L.L.I.N.G Transcript Below

Darren A. Smith:

Welcome to episode 35 of the Grocery Guru. We are here with that guru. Andrew Grant, how are you?

Andrew Grant:

Morning Das, yes, very good, thank you.

Darren A. Smith:

All right. Good, good. You're off to buy a house soon. So we're going to make it snappy and grab a bit of your time.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah, maybe we should do negotiate. I think whether it's all about selling, maybe you should do negotiation based on what I'm up to today.

Darren A. Smith:

All right. You and I were together yesterday at the Algerian trade conference. How was that?

Andrew Grant:

Well, virtually. I don't think we were actually in Algeria. I didn't notice, but yeah.

Darren A. Smith:

We were. We were. And what came out of that was there was an audience of about 200. There was the minister of trade on the top table. You and I were virtually there as well, offering advice on suppliers who want to become suppliers to UK and European supermarkets. And you and I found a whole bunch coming out of that from the questions they asked. So I'm going to drill into your head and see if we can bring some of that back for viewers today.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. Well, what struck me was just how desperately keen overseas buyers are to get into Brexit Britain.

Darren A. Smith:

Yes.

Andrew Grant:

They really see us as a land of new opportunity and yeah, they're desperate to do trade with the UK.

Darren A. Smith:

So thinking about your years in supermarkets, what made you want to select this supplier as a supplier and not this one?

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. Now that's a good question. Because I still remember. Particularly when I did produce and a lot of those Algerian suppliers were produce suppliers. I'd get faxes every week with, "Oh, we can supply your melons for X." And it was always half what I was currently paying, but I never did business with them. Because you've got to be able to trust the supplier. And you've got to know that they do the basics in terms of technical and logistics. So can they get the stuff to you? And is it not going to be full of harmful chemicals and stuff when it gets out? Are the two most important things. But what always struck me and I know I've used the analogy before is very often new suppliers, particularly those from abroad would just not do their homework.

Darren A. Smith:

Yeah.

Andrew Grant:

And I would sit there thinking I was almost like a travel agent. "How may I help you today? Yes. Let me guide you through the process of S.E.L.L.I.N.G to me and let me write the tickets out for you and the itinerary. And here's your seat number. And would you like a drink before your meal?" Honestly, it was... Some of the basics they didn't do was scary.

Use S.E.L.L.I.N.G. to help you become a supermarket supplier

 

Darren A. Smith:

It was. And when we work with current clients and some are suppliers... Who want to become suppliers to supermarkets. One of the things we're trying to share with them is they've got to do their homework. And that's blindingly obvious, yet we are still surprised by how many that don't. How many that don't know how many depots Tesco have or Sainsbury's have and how the supply chain works.

Andrew Grant:

Well. That's... I think it's common courtesy, especially in this day of the internet, to know how many stores a supermarket group has, what fascias they operate on, what their advertising timeline is. That is really basic stuff. If you or I have gone for an interview, you actually bother to find out who your prospective employer is, what they make, how they operate. And it just stick in me because effectively a new supplier is going for an interview when they're meeting a buyer.

Darren A. Smith:

Right.

Andrew Grant:

So I think that's common courtesy. And if they don't even know how many stores a retail has, they should be shown the door instantly. But then another level down, one of the common things I find particularly in chilled food, is they don't understand just how sophisticated and just in time the chilled supply chain is in the UK.

Darren A. Smith:

Yeah.

Andrew Grant:

They're staggered when you say you'll get day one for day one orders. "What do you mean day one for day one?" "Well, you get an order at 8:00 AM and you'll have to be in [RDTC 00:04:21] by 4:00 PM that afternoon. Oh, and by the way, they've got 28 of them."

Darren A. Smith:

Yes.

Andrew Grant:

And you can see their heads just exploding.

Darren A. Smith:

And the other point I heard came out of the conference yesterday, you made a very good point around adding value or a USP. Would you just share more with these guys around what you were talking about at the Algerian-

Andrew Grant:

Yes. That's probably the third level for me. So level one, common courtesy know how many... Yeah, know who you're S.E.L.L.I.N.G to. Level two, get the technicalities right. So can you deliver, do you know what safety standards and hygiene standards they insist on? Do you know what the logistics operation is? But then it is about how can you add value to their business? And that's the sophisticated way of selling that we train, it's needs based selling. So who are their shoppers? What do their shoppers want? What are the needs that they're trying to deliver for their shoppers? So on a really basic level, are they going to need to go up market, are they going to need to go down market? Are they value driven? How important are promotions?

But on a much more sophisticated level that we spend a lot of time with UK suppliers on, it is what is the biggest strategic challenge facing an Asda at the moment or a Tesco at the moment? How do they stop the erosion of their shoppers to the likes of Aldi and Lidl? That's probably the biggest strategic challenge for the big four is how do we range, price and promote to stop the inexorable bleed to Aldi and Lidl.

Darren A. Smith:

You just reminded me of a wonderful story. I think his name was Ronnie [Owlback 00:06:08] , but I'll have to check that, the founder of Goo. And he said that he created some packaging or his design team created some packaging, he put it on a shelf in Waitrose, it was just a piece of packaging. There's nothing in it but you wouldn't know. And he checked from up to the aisle to see how many people picked it up to see whether he might be able to sell it. And every time he put it there, it got picked up within 10 seconds. When he put it back, it obviously went to the customer, it's fake pizza packaging. Put it back in, someone else picked it up. And he thought, "Actually, I've got a good business there."

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. Yeah. [crosstalk 00:06:40] yeah. In terms of standout and impact. Yeah. So it was at different levels with different suppliers, but as far as the very busy people, they've got their own businesses to run, but it does often surprise me. But they don't treat it like it's a personal job interview. Anybody that goes for a job interview, that's a big thing in your life or your career. You spend a lot of time prepping and covering the questions you may get asked, the challenges that may get thrown at you. And yet, you and I have both been staggered over the years at the lack of prep and almost the ignorance that is sometimes shown.

Darren A. Smith:

Yeah, it is shown. Just finishing up, we've come up with this mnemonic S.E.L.L.L.I.N.G with seven parts, just going to start two seconds on that. And then we'll let you go and negotiate with the state agents.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. Well, it's a seven-step pneumonic, is it? Is that what you call it?

Darren A. Smith:

Mnemonic, yeah.

Andrew Grant:

Pneumonic. I call it an acronym. But anyway, acronyms, you, mnemonics, me. Yeah. It's a seven step and I'm sure you'll put a link on the end of this webinar. But the seven things you need to do to prepare to effectively sell. I won't go through each of them, we've covered the most important ones, which is shopping knowledge, educate yourself about the customer. What insights have you got that will differentiate you from the rest of the pack? Legislation, do you know how [G Scott 00:08:25] can protect you? And if you do get into a contractual discussion with a retailer, you need to know what supply agreement is written. Supplier agreement and ensure it is drafted correctly. So a nice, simple mnemonic as you call it. But actually if you are planning a meeting with a retailer in the next week or so, that'd be a really good starting point.

Darren A. Smith:

All right, Andrew, thank you very much for your guruness. Best of luck buying a house. I will talk to you next week.

Andrew Grant:

Okay. Take care.

Darren A. Smith:

Take care. Bye.

Take a look at the S.E.L.L.I.N.G video on our YouTube Channel. Also, check out our award-winning blog.

Sticky Learning Lunch#61: How to Give Feedback Part #4

Need to have ‘That’ conversation but don’t know how, worried how it’ll be received, or just believe that if you ignore it for long enough it’ll go away? This 4-day training will dispel every belief you have about feedback, that you’ve been previously taught or learned by yourself along your leadership journey. Here's How to Give Feedback Part 4.

Learn how to give effective feedback with this sticky lunch

Transcript

Nathan Simmonds:

Get the camera up. Where are we? There we are. Blurry of activity to get here on time. Gentlemen, good to see you all. Slightly dramatic morning, getting things done. I'm here. We're in. Colin, thanks for being here. Garrett, good to see you. Thank you, Martin. Bonjour. Tim, good to see you. Where are we at? Phones over there. Let's get the phone, and make sure we're switched off. Give it a moment for people to arrive.

It's only just gone one o'clock. Let's get the little aeroplane lit up. So for those of you who haven't already, mobile phones, hold them high and turn that little aeroplane on. Zero out all the distractions. A hundred per cent attention. See there's a little bit of hair just outta place. Just give it one more moment.

Nathan Simmonds:

I'll see where we get to. Question for all of you that are here now, because all of you have attended most of this week, if not all of this week. What has been useful so far from what we have covered? Having had a chance to reflect on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and we're now on Thursday for the last part of this session, what have you started to see differently? Oh, I could have done that differently in this situation.

Oh, that's useful actually for that approach. What things are coming up for you now before we dive into number three? Number four. Sorry. What's been useful? Just looking at the time. Sed model and removing the you from feedback. Good. We're gonna go into that even further today. The Sed structure is very helpful. Good.

Nathan Simmonds:

Like I say, the preparation piece. Great to see you Claire. The question I just thrown into everybody right now is as this is session four, we are moving through this work and into this last stage is level two. What's been useful so far for you and what you've taken away from this training and what can you see differently or how can you use it differently for the future? Making it non-emotional. Good. One of the key things about making it non-emotional, was when I started picking up, and I shared this with other people before. Good to see you again, Cindy.

Is asking questions that don't begin with why. So it's really important we understand. It's not saying never ask questions beginning with why. It's about making sure that we get intelligent with the use of our questions and the intelligent use of this question. So in order for us to increase the level of objectivity about what we're doing, we ask questions beginning with what as. I'm not asking that, but the question, beginning with the word what. Okay.

Nathan Simmonds:

This just helps us to just take the emotion out. Just helps us to remove the sense of attack sometimes. Because when people ask us questions beginning with why often we feel we have to justify it. You ask a child a question beginning with why. Why didn't you do that? What do they do? They make a lot of excuses. Billy did it. The dog ate it. That happened. It wasn't me. It was so and so, da, da da. Yet as we grow up, we still do that.

We just make it more complicated with the choice of words that we use or nuance it or make it appear more complicated with the choice of words. But in truth we're just making excuses and defending and justifying what we did or didn't do. So it's important we understand it. So use as many questions as you can that begin with the word what rather than why did you do that? What was the thinking that led up to that? What were the actions that happened before? So I can completely understand. Remember, seek first to understand before making yourself understood.

Nathan Simmonds:

Ah, we are in. I've already done kind of the little bit of the setup, but went and dived in because I was conscious of time. Welcome to today's Sticky Learning Lunch with me. Nathan Simmons, senior leadership coach and trainer for MBM making Business Matter, the home of sticky learning. We are the leadership development and soft skills provider to the grocery and manufacturing industry. The idea of these sessions is to help you be the best version of you in the work that you do.

Whether that's from home if you're still working from home. Yes or no, are you still working from home? I'd like to know. Or if it's preparing you to return to the workspace so that you can join in with earlier conversations, face-to-face conversations with your team. Where are we going today? Feedback level two. What do we need to include in this? Recap on Monday. It's all about helping people make the decisions themselves.

Nathan Simmonds:

That's all feedback is. No one enjoys being told what to do unless it's them telling themselves. I know this is a reiteration, but I wanna really make sure this thinking stays in. It's about helping to kind of put a spotlight on things so they can have a look at it and then take responsibility for the actions that need to be taken so they can start to move forward. Otherwise, they just feel like they're being told, told, told and they'll stop coming up with solutions and stop actually do, do, do for themselves.

So it's important we understand that. Then as we got into looking at the Sed model yesterday, it's then about understanding that there's a time to tell, which is if it's dangerous or urgent. We can tell people to stop doing things or to do certain things because it's critical. But we still always give them that option at the other end. If it carries on, it looks like this, if you change it, it looks like this, what would you like to do?

Nathan Simmonds:

We still give that person the opportunity to do that. So level one when we looked at it yesterday is often we use that for people that have not been in the business very long and maybe don't know the job very well or they're not aware of a certain situation and there needs to be an intervention directly. When we get into level two, let's have a look at level two. This is for when we're talking to people that have potentially been in the business for a while.

They know what they're doing and you're having a more coaching conversation and you're asking a lot more questions to help people answer them themselves. So I'm just gonna move my camera over my video player over a little bit just so I can see. Because I've got some questions here that I'm gonna ask and share with you as we go through this.

Nathan Simmonds:

So the key element is, is yes, one is is tell, tell, tell. I'm sorry, tell me when you need to. But still giving the option when we get down here the first part. The second stage is asking questions because in the majority, everybody knows when they're doing something that isn't right or isn't appropriate or everyone knows when they're in the car and they're driving too quickly that they're driving too quickly and that they shouldn't be doing it.

If you are on the motorway here in the UK and the speed limit is 70 and you are doing 78 and the policeman pulls you over, in the majority, nine times outta 10, who does the person speeding get annoyed at? Open question to you. You are speeding on the motorway and the policeman pulls you over nine times out of, it's the cop. Absolutely. Whose fault was it really?

Nathan Simmonds:

But what happens is we know when we are doing things that we know in our heart of hearts, we know if it's working or not working. We can completely comprehend that and feel that. Who here as a child—and it's gonna be a bit of a strange one—did something like get their head stuck between the bannisters or get their hands stuck in a tube or any of those sorts of things? Yes or no? I was one of those. I was a curious child. I was always putting my hands into things that probably couldn't.

Then, you know. Park railings. Yeah, amazing. But it's that sensation and we've all done it as children at some point. It's that hot flush you get where you go. I've now got to own up to the fact that I've got my head stuck in these park railings. Yes or no? Has anyone? I'm presuming everyone is. Yes or no. Have you had that sensation at some point in your life? That hot flush that comes up and you're going? Yes. Yes. It's not just me then. I know we all know when we're doing these things.

Nathan Simmonds:

Yes, more than I like. But I protracted across the light bulb connector. Put up a tractor across the light bulb connector. Yes. I actually got blown across. Good work. Nice job. Someone putting something metal in a light bulb connector. Yeah, you've definitely got more than a hot flush on that one. Everybody knows this is the trick so I'm getting you all to understand. Everybody knows when they do or do not do something, we get frustrated at other people rather than take the ownership ourselves. So we then have a go at the cop for pulling us over for speeding.

Who was driving the car? The policeman. Did the policeman tell you to go fast and then arrest you? No. So it's about ownership. So I'm gonna give you kind of a super easy example of how we do this with people. Lateness is the easiest example to use. Now you start at nine o'clock, the person arrives at 10 past nine, they're late. So we can start asking questions. We can start to say, well again, lots of questions beginning with what? So now we're gonna say, what's the conversation gonna be about?

Nathan Simmonds:

What's this conversation going to be about? What does this conversation need to be about? Because you're sitting there at 10, past nine, it's kind of obvious. What is the company's expectation? If they're not, again,...

Sticky Learning Lunches #60: How to Give Feedback Part #3

Need to have ‘That’ conversation but don’t know how, worried how it’ll be received, or just believe that if you ignore it for long enough it’ll go away? This 4-day training will dispel every belief you have about feedback, that you’ve been previously taught or learned by yourself along your leadership journey. Here's How to Give Feedback Part 3.

Learn how to give effective feedback with this sticky lunch

 

You Can Read the Full Transcript Below:

Nathan Simmonds:

Good afternoon. Sticky lunches he says, I forgot to get slideshow. There we are, we're in. Welcome to today, it's Wednesday. Colin's in. Tim's in. You know what? It's an interesting thing that we see with, um, with our webinars and the sticky learning lunches and how they often start really high with the volumes of people in on a Monday and it kind of stays out and then it dips down Wednesday and then comes back up for Thursday. It's a very purely a pattern. I have no idea if this is just us and my content or if this is the world over, especially Covid 19. But Wednesdays is always a quieter day. So what that means in terms of people that are attending, whether they're here now or whether you know, or just about to arrive, is this will be a much more one-to-one. I'm looking backwards and forwards just taking this, you know, um, whether there's questions coming in. Gareth, good to see you. Thanks for being here, coming in.

Nathan Simmonds:

Claire’s with us as well. Thank you for being here. Again, Claire. Absolute pleasure. I was just saying Wednesday's pattern of people attending tends to dip down quite significantly in comparison to other days. Monday and Tuesday's always really busy, like with lots of people. Wednesday dips right off and then Thursday, Friday comes back up. Very strange kind of pattern of how things fall in GoToWebinar when we're delivering this content. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to make this as individual as possible. So you have an absolute open book here. Open opportunity to ask as many questions as you like about giving feedback. Okay? So I'm going to fly through some of the key content that we're going to look at today, but if you have specific questions about feedback that you want to deliver or a scenario, so let's make sure that we're not including names or we're changing the names to protect the innocent as we always need to in an in open environment. And this will be shared on our YouTube channel.

Nathan Simmonds:

Any questions you've got in got for me about specific scenarios, specific cases, structuring, this is the time to do it because there's a handful of us and we're going to make this really detailed and in depth for you. Is everyone good with this? Yes or no? But hope the answer. Will be. Positive. Good, good, good. So I remember and remember on the earlier sessions I said the question, is there a feedback that you need to be giving to someone? Is there a piece of, uh, information that you need to be providing to someone to. Help them bear with me working. Microphones not working. Or I might be quieter than normal. There we go, using new . So is having that person in mind, having that, you know, that piece of feedback that you want to deliver, have that in your head and have that ready to build this structure up.

Nathan Simmonds:

Everyone good? Everyone ready to go? I am finished my tea. Let's get everyone set up for success before we do anything. One is, so mobile phones, hold 'em high. Let's light up that little airplane. Let's make sure we've got, we zero out the distraction, a hundred percent attention on what we're doing here. Making sure that you have a drink. So making sure that you're keeping yourself hydrated and your brain lubricated to make sure this learning sticks. And finally, as always, third key piece of information, fresh page, fresh thinking. Let's make sure that you've got something you can reread that's going to remind you and reignite that thinking as you go back to keep the thinking expanding. What are we covering day three of feedback day ones? Well, let's do a super fast recap. Day one. Day one was all about them taking action.

Nathan Simmonds:

It's all about also, um, what else did we have down there? The difference between it being constructive and destructive, but that's all about the delivery. It's not about the content. There is no such thing as good or bad feedback. It's always a gift. And it's always what you think, what you think of someone is how you treat them. And what you think of a situation is what it becomes. They too. So yesterday, what are we having here? Make it specific. So when we're thinking about that person, that feedback that we need to be giving, let's make sure it's specific about a thing. Okay? It's also timely. It's being dealt with in the right way or it's being parked so that it can support you in delivering that conversation later.

Nathan Simmonds:

And then the third part we started looking at was the said model. Everyone remember what they said? Everyone's squabbling through their notes right now to have a look at what they are. So remember, it's the standard, the situation and it's the distance or gap between them. It's the action. We want to talk about the impact and a desired outcome. Flying recap. Everyone good? Everyone good with this? What we covered everyone, everyone remember what we've looked at day one and day two? cause it's important we understand this and we've got this in place as we start to go into the next stage. So the next stage as we move into this then is, as I've said before, no one likes being told what to do, Okay?

Nathan Simmonds:

No one in their right mind enjoys being told what to do unless it's them telling them to do it. Okay? We as human beings, we, we are very strange creatures for some reason I don't like being told what to do unless it's me telling me to do it. And that's okay. What's the different? If it's good for me, then it should be should be okay for someone else to tell me what I need to do. When it comes to giving feedback, the idea is that we ask more questions. As I started breaking that down yesterday, to help that person come up with their own realizations and be able to take the responsibility for their own behaviours and what they need to do. And then it's them telling them, it's them making that decision. It's them going, I'm going to do this instead and going in a different direction.

Nathan Simmonds:

And when we go back over previous sessions and when we're looking at influencing skills, asking questions to help people understand the world in a, in a better way is actually the key to influencing. You have no right to tell anyone what to do. And you remember me saying this, you have no right to tell anyone what to do. You only have the, you're going to only do two things. Be the example and be the invitation. What they want to do. That's up to them. When we're giving feedback, there is a time and a place to tell people what to do. And that's based on two things, whether it's dangerous, I can hope you can see the red on there. Just about the only time that you tell people what to do when you're giving feedback is if it's dangerous or urgent. Okay?

Nathan Simmonds:

So if you are working in a factory and they've got, you know, wearing machines and um, blades and whatever, and you see someone mucking around with a, with a meat slicer and they haven't got the protective gloves on, or they're mucking around with a knife or doing whatever, or they're putting a screwdriver in a live socket, you know, now is not the time to ask questions. Okay? That would be like getting to the end of an episode of 24 with Jack Bauer, for those of us that remember that and he's sitting there with the bomb and it's ticking down and he is got eight seconds left before the bomb's going to explode and wipe out the whole of New York City. And you come over and go, what, what? Why do you think you would prefer to cut right now in this current situation?

Nathan Simmonds:

And before you've even got to the end of the question, half of the east coast of America's just been wiped out by nuclear bomb. There is a time and a place for the questions. This is not it, okay? This is the time that you have to be super clear with people and super direct. You can still use the said model and we're going to bring that back up on the board here. No, because we already know what the standard is, but if we sit there and discuss what the standard is with that person, they're likely to lose a finger. Right Now. This thing, this sort of behaviour, this action, this situation needs to stop. We need to have a con as soon as you stopped it, that that stopped, this needs to stop right now. This is dangerous. Okay, let's have a conversation about the actions.

Nathan Simmonds:

What's caused this current behaviour? What's caused this current situation? What is it about this, um, these current actions is acceptable. So we're starting to question into this space here. So we're starting to say I need to have a conversation about the current choice of behaviour. So we stop them about the current choice of behaviour and what's the impact of that. So we jump in here, the impact is that if this continues to happen, someone may lose their finger. So, which is why this has had to have stopped. We have two choice. The cost is if this continues to happen, the finger will be lost and potentially someone dies because that can happen in factory environments. We wish it, we know, we hope it doesn't, it can happen. The other option that we have when we provide an alternative in our desired outcome here, the alternative is if this behaviour changes and is, you know, is amended to this or is changed in this way, this will be the benefit of that. As in the work will get done.

Nathan Simmonds:

We'll meet quota, everyone goes home with all their bodily parts and everything continues....

Sticky Learning Lunches #59: How to Give Feedback Part #2

Need to have ‘That’ conversation but don’t know how, worried how it’ll be received, or just believe that if you ignore it for long enough it’ll go away? This 4-day training will dispel every belief you have about feedback, that you’ve been previously taught or learned by yourself along your leadership journey. Here's How to Give Feedback Part 2.

You Can Read the Full Transcript Below:

Nathan Simmonds:

Good afternoon, sticky lunches. Just making sure my screen is straight. How are we all today? I've actually joined in early just to make sure we're getting people in the room. On a scale of one to 10, one being terrible, 10 being phenomenal, how are we feeling today? 10. Straight in there with the tens. Good. Lots of positivity. Just a few more minutes while people are arriving. Colin, good to see you. Just doing a quick check in center. Check how everyone's feeling. One to 10, one at one at the bottom, 10 at the top. Where are you? Yeah. How are you feeling today?

Nathan Simmonds:

Good. I think I'm on the downward curve though, of one of the emotional slides of COVID-19 right now. I feel like we're getting to the end of all this. I feel like we're going back to normal. It is challenging. Martin, good to see you. Bonjour. We are in a little bit early. We've got 30 seconds. We're just waiting for people to arrive. Now he's going with the Portuguese. Now he's coming at me, right? Where are we? One minute past people still arriving. Just waiting for those to get into the room. Darren, good to see you.

Nathan Simmonds:

Let's just give it a moment while we're getting everyone in the room. Let's make sure we're all set up for success. Mobile phones, hold 'em higher. Let's get the little airplane lit up. My one is good to go already. Just checking that. Making sure that you've got a drink available. You want to keep yourself hydrated. Keep the brain lubricated and keep this learning sticking. Okay, and then finally, as always, fresh sheet, fresh thinking.

Nathan Simmonds:

Get yourself a nice clean page in that book in your notepad to make sure that you can get those things down that you want to remember and reread so you can reignite that thinking when you go back to it. You wanna keep that learning, expanding and moving and growing. So these, these are the three key elements just to set these sessions up, to keep that, that learning live. Last mouth of tea.

Learn to give better feedback

 

Nathan Simmonds:

Gareth, good to see you, Claire. Great to see you again. Thanks for being there. Last handful of people, right? Grab my pens. Let's fly with this. So, one thing we talked about yesterday, and I said I would share the link with you, which I've got down here, gonna get this now, is about the pigmalian effect. I hope I spelled that right.

Nathan Simmonds:

We talked about this briefly yesterday. I've just dropped a v No, I didn't. I just put it in there to everyone else but you. So you can't see it. Over audience. Let's try that. There we go. So I talked about this briefly yesterday, which was the Pygmalion effect. So it's the, the core idea or the, the science behind the statement of what you think of people is how you treat them. So that video's there, it's about six minutes long, not for watching now.

Nathan Simmonds:

It's definitely for watching later. Okay. And then I'm gonna copy this in just while I'm thinking about, and it's fresh in my thinking. If you have not registered for tomorrow's session or any of the other future sessions, the link is now in the chat box for you. Make sure that you are signing up for tomorrow's session immediately. 'cause That's gonna be part three of this feedback training.

Nathan Simmonds:

And these trainings are gonna stack up, yes, they'll help you individually, but they're gonna stack up in over the four parts in their entirety to support you delivering feedback in a much clearer, holistic and thoughtful way to support you getting the best results for your people. So you've got the link in there for the video for the Pigmalian effect, and you've also got the link in there for tomorrow's training sessions in the future sessions. All right,

Nathan Simmonds:

So let's go. Welcome to today's Sticky Learning lunch with me, Nathan Simmons, senior leadership coach and trainer for MBM, making Business Matter, the home of Sticky Learning. We are the leadership development and soft skills provider to the grocery and manufacturing industry. And the idea of these sessions, it's to help you be the best version of you in the work that you do right now from home, or preparing you to return back to work as well. This is day two of feedback. So where are we going today?

Nathan Simmonds:

Quick recap on yesterday. So the first thing that we covered on day one, we looked at what it is, which is about helping other people to understand what they do to take action. We also looked at the difference between good and bad. And also the fact there is no such thing as good or bad. All feedback is a gift. And it's only based on purely whether it's constructive or destructive, which is all about the delivery. And the last part, which I just talked about, which was the Pygmalion effect. In short, what you think of people is how you treat them,

Nathan Simmonds:

But also what you think of a situation is what it becomes. So if I think that this sit conversation's gonna be difficult, I'm gonna make it difficult. If I think this feedback is gonna be negative or bad, I will start to make it negative or bad. Why? Because you are judging the thing, the person, the situation, and the moment you judge someone, you cannot influence it. I said this yesterday and I'm saying it again now because it's super important. The moment that you judge someone or something, you cannot influence them or it, okay? Really important. We understand this.

Nathan Simmonds:

Hope this is useful. Hope you picked up some gems from yesterday that are gonna help change the dynamic of the conversation that you are already having. Where are we going to today? Day two, open. Question to you all, what needs to be included in feedback to make it work? What do you think as a group attending this session right now? What do you need to include when you are delivering feedback in order to make it work?

Nathan Simmonds:

There's some core bits that definitely need to absolutely good. There's one, I'm not gonna share these as they're coming through. I wanna see what comes through, first of all, from everyone rather than biasing and, and stunting other people's thinking by sharing their ideas too early. What else have we got? I've got one response in what else needs to be included? Care, honesty, vision for that. Good. Nice. Good seeing that one coming through. Yeah. Good. What else?

Nathan Simmonds:

Good. Good, good, good. So good. We've got some key things in here. Let's go into these. We've got facts. Absolutely. So when we are giving feedback, we need to have facts available. It needs to be irrefutable. So for example, if someone's being late, no, you, you, if you've got documentation to show when they were being late, then you can have a conversation about that. If you're saying, oh, you were late three times last month, and that person says, well, when, and you're saying, well, I'm not sure, but I know it was three times.

Nathan Simmonds:

You haven't got enough evidence, you can't have the conversation. We've got care, honesty and vision. Colin's hit the nail at like three nails on the head there. Honesty, we picked up as well. Reminder the vision. Again, what good looks like, the goal, the outcome. So it needs to be done with care. And we're gonna look a little bit at that in in session four when we look at the feedback. And we're gonna give you a framework to structure or a checklist, more like a checklist that you can work with to support when you're giving feedback. Some of the key things that we need to be including is it needs to be specific.

Nathan Simmonds:

So when we look at those facts, we need to be talking about specific events. We need to be talking about specific moments that we can have a conversation about. I've said to many people that I've worked with in organizations, you know, I could stand at the front door at five 30 or whatever time the shift finishes and everyone could walk out the door, you know, 1200, 1400 people and I could shake everyone's hand. Thank you very much for the day. Thank you very much for the day.

Nathan Simmonds:

Thank you very much for the day. And by the time they've got to the car, they won't even remember who I was or what I'd even said because I'd already checked three different WhatsApp messages and you know, responded to Twitter because I'm not actually telling them what I saw in them and wasn't specific enough about what I'm celebrating with them.

Nathan Simmonds:

So it has to be specific. Now the idea is that you catch people getting it right As Ken b Blanchard, author of the One Minute Manager suggests in there, phenomenal read, super short, super easy, listen, catch them getting it right. Look for reasons to celebrate them getting no, getting it it right and doing good things so that you can talk about that thing you did there, which was really helpful, which was really useful. Please keep doing that tomorrow so you've got one less thing almost to remind them about the next day.

Nathan Simmonds:

Because after a period of time you're doing that, it becomes habit. It becomes the norm if you don't take time to catch them getting it right. You know, what do children do if they don't get enough attention? Open question to everyone. Everyone who's got children, and I know a lot of you have, what do children do when they don't get enough attention? Steely silence. They play up. Go feral. Seek it.

Nathan Simmonds:

And yeah, absolutely. Has anyone seen that picture of the two small children with a tub of E

Sticky Learning Lunches #58: How to Give Feedback Part #1

Need to have ‘That’ conversation but don’t know how, worried how it’ll be received, or just believe that if you ignore it for long enough it’ll go away? This 4-day training will dispel every belief you have about feedback, that you’ve been previously taught or learned by yourself along your leadership journey. Here's How to Give Feedback Part 1.

You Can Read the Full Kantar Market Share Transcript Below:

Nathan Simmonds:

Good afternoon, sticky lunches. Bear with me slideshow from the beginning. Vicki, it is great to see you. Thanks very much for being here, right? We are good. We are live. We're just gonna give it a couple of minutes while I wait for the last couple of people to arrive in the room. Victoria wasn't due to be here. It's great to see her. Good to see you, Tim, as always. Thanks for Martin. I owe you an apology. I'm looking over here at the list, which is why I'm looking down. I put two and two together and came up with seven. Um, Darren reminded me 'cause I didn't recognize the surname and I don't think, just didn't add up.

Our first segment on how to give feedback

 

Nathan Simmonds:

So Martin, thanks very much for being here. Me Masu. Uh, Gareth, thank you very much for being here. Fabian, good to see you. Colin. Good to see you. Last couple of people just arriving maybe 'cause it's glorious sunshine. Everyone's gone out for lunch. Where are we today? Pens at the red aim. He says, on a scale of one to 10, how was your weekend? One being for rubbish, 10 being phenomenal. Where are we and how are we facing into the week? Got some 10. Got some. Nice, nice, good weekends in everyone. Claire, great to see you. Thanks for being here. Just gonna give it 30 more seconds. Eight. Ready for the week. Nice. 10 for the weekend. Eight for today. Ah, that's still good.

Nathan Simmonds:

Just letting everyone get warmed up, getting in their seats, getting comfortable, making sure I've got the right pens. I've forgotten which pens run out. So we might find out that in a minute. He says, let's make sure we get everyone set up for success before we dive into this. First of all, mobile phones. Hold 'em higher. Let's turn 'em on. Let's turn the little airplane on. Let's zero out the distraction a hundred percent, but a hundred percent attention on what we're doing here today.

Nathan Simmonds:

Also, making sure you've got a drink available. We wanna keep, make sure that you are hydrated and keep your brain lubricated to help this learning stick. And finally, as always, you want a fresh page for fresh thinking so that you can take note of those things that you want to remember and remind yourself about so you can reignite that thinking and help keep expanding the ideas and the concepts we're sharing.

Nathan Simmonds:

Still a couple more people just arriving as we're facing into this on their way slowly. What are we covering today? Feedback and giving feedback. And you know, in part also receiving feedback. 'cause you know, if you can't, it's like breathing when we're giving feedback. If you can't breathe in fully, you can't breathe out fully. Hope this makes sense. If you're not able to receive feedback, you're never gonna be able to give the feedback.

Nathan Simmonds:

So we're, we're gonna be covering that over the next four days. We're gonna be looking at the mindset behind feedback and what makes it work. We're gonna be looking at the structures that we can peg our conversations on, and we're gonna be looking at some foundational and advanced ways of delivering that feedback, using that structure and maintaining that mindset. Hope this is gonna be useful.

Nathan Simmonds:

Let's do this. Chelsea, good to see you Lana. Thanks for being here. Amazing. So welcome to today's sticky learning with me. Nathan Simmons, senior leadership coach and trainer for M B M Making Business Matter, the home of Sticky learning. And the idea of these sessions is to help you be the best version of you in the work that you do. Whether that's from home or whether that's returning back to the office, it doesn't matter.

Nathan Simmonds:

We are M B M, making business matter and the providers of leadership development and soft skills to the grocery and manufacturing industry. Question for all you, love you people right now. Then, if we are gonna be talking about feedback for the next four days, including today, what is it you want to get out of, to out, out of these sessions?

Nathan Simmonds:

What is it you want to achieve at the end of these four days? Let me know in the question box right now as just as I have another mouthful of tea. What is it you want to get from learning about feedback? Thinking about how you deliver it, getting others to be honest. Nice. That's good. Definitely gonna cover some of that this week for sure. Any more for anymore. Be more concise and constructive.

Nathan Simmonds:

Nice. How to take the emotion of it, how to take the emotion of it out or keep the emotion in it. Constructive. And how to deliver and measure results. Absolutely faab. And we can definitely do this. Um, is there a structure that can be used when giving feedback? Yes, there absolutely is. We're gonna cover that. Amazing. We've got some good stuff in here.

Nathan Simmonds:

And we're gonna find, I'm gonna answer actually a lot of these as we go through the next four days. Some of it today, um, some of it more over as we go into the rest of the week. So we're definitely looking at this. What is feedback? So we've got some ideas of what you would like to get from these sessions. Phenomenal. Personal. Yeah, personal, personalized, but not emotional. Absolutely. The phrase that I use, is it with this when I'm talking to leaders, is to personalize your work and not take it personally.

Nathan Simmonds:

Uh, some people out there like to look at Picassos, not my thing. Some people like a Rembrandt, you know, or some people, uh, Salvador Dali. When we look at pieces of work, different things resonate for different reasons. And when we come as a leader, um, as a HR professional or l and d professional, whatever, it's when we are delivering feedback or coaching, we're not always designed to work with all those individuals.

Nathan Simmonds:

At the same time, we have to put all our heart and soul into what we do. If someone doesn't like it, and as long as heart and soul and we've done everything that we possibly could hand on heart that you know is, is, is down to them and we still come for the best possible reasons to show up, be present, and deliver the best possible results for those individuals, this is what leading is about. So yes, but not emotional, you know, actually coming back into that, it's important as human beings that we are emotional, but we don't get lost in the emotions. So I use that to kind of underpin that. Personalize your work. Don't take it personally.

Nathan Simmonds:

Hope this is helping so far. Where are we going? What is feedback? Let me throw this question into all of you right now. What do you think feedback is? I'm gonna tell you what we refer to as what is, what does feedback mean to you? Speedy silence. There's a lot of thinking going on. What's happening out there. Helps me get better. Avoid making mistakes. Absolutely. A formal way to, to say what we think about someone. Yeah. Can be as well. Good. Got some good stuff in there. And again, it comes back to this kind of mindset of how we think about things. You know, is it a way that helps me get better?

Nathan Simmonds:

So when I'm giving feedback to someone else, do they see it as a way that helps them get better? Sharing your perception of an event focused on them or me improving? Absolutely. And it might be an individual event, it might be a certain action or, or choice of behavior. Um, that has had several moments a time where we've got evidence of that situation. So how we refer to it. Allison, um, Kathy, one of the trainers from the team at M B M shared this meeting.

Nathan Simmonds:

What do you think it is? Feedback is helping others maximize their potential. Raise awareness of strengths, areas for improvements and identify actions to be taken. Okay? So the key thing in here is also understanding when we say this is feedback is helping others identify actions to be taken. So it's not me coming over and giving you a list of things to do based on something I may have observed that may not be the truth or the reality.

Nathan Simmonds:

And expecting that person to take action, yes or no. Who here likes being told what to do? Yes or no? I know I've asked this question before to some of you previously got a couple of got a no and a yes and a no one does. In truth, when we're in a working environment, no one likes being told what to do unless we are working in very specific jobs and mostly those are the military. But when we're in, um, production or organizations and it's constantly tell, tell, tell.

Nathan Simmonds:

Eventually, our creativity and our innovative thinking starts to depreciate. 'cause we're always waiting for someone else to give us that piece of information. And when we run out of work, we'll stand there waiting until that person turns up to give us more work rather than taking the, the initiative to do that thing. Now the interesting thing when it comes to being told what to do is we don't like being told what to do unless it's us telling us hope.

Nathan Simmonds:

Makes sense? How many people here when they were 14, um, and their dad told them to do something, their mom or dad told them to do something, uh, and that they, you knew they were right, but you didn't want to let them know they were right. How many people yes or no have done this? No. You are a young teenager. Mom or dad tells you to do something like, nope, not gonna do it. I'm not gonna do it because you are 40 and I'm 14 and I know better than you everyone.

Nathan Simmonds:

Yes. Oh,...

Sticky Learning Lunch #57 - HBDI Model & Whole Brain Thinking #3

In this HBDI model #3, find out more about the HBDI Whole Brain Thinking ®. Do you want to understand more about the way you prefer to think, communicate, and make decisions using the HBDI ® assessment?

Using the HBDI ® assessment, understand how you can use your profile to help adapt your thinking, decision-making, and communication style to improve audience engagement. Identify how to improve team effectiveness, through better problem-solving and effective feedback.

How well do you know HBDI?

 

You Can Read the Full Transcript Below:

Nathan Simmonds:

Good afternoon. Sticky lunch, as he says. Where's that from? The beginning slide. There we are. Boom. We're in. Welcome to today's session, part four of HBDI. I am getting, I'm getting better with this now. Uh, I keep getting confused in my acronyms. Who have we got in? We're just waiting for the last few people to arrive. Gareth, good to see you, Howard. Thanks for being here. Cindy, thanks for being here Again, Colin Martin, Victoria, Fabian, wonderful. Thanks for being here.

Nathan Simmonds:

Last people coming into the room as always, let's get, make sure we're getting everyone set up for success. Mobile phones, little airplane lit up, zero out. Distraction, a hundred percent attention on what we're doing here. Making sure that you've got a drink. Keep yourself hydrated and your brain lubricated to make sure this learning sticks. And finally, as the third part of this is always get a fresh page for fresh thinking. And these are the things that you wanna remember, that you want to reread and reignite that thinking so that you can keep this learning expanding. Uh, I say we dive in, Andy, we see where this goes. And if people are late, so be it.

Nathan Simmonds:

That's their loss. So welcome to today's sticky learning with me, Nathan Simmons, senior leadership coach and trainer for MBM Making Business Matter, home of Sticky Learning. We are the leadership development and soft skills provider to the grocery and manufacturing industry. And the idea of these sessions is to help you be the best version of you in the work that you do, whether that's from home or returning back to the office. Right now we're hitting what day four is it? Day? No, it's day three of HB di and we're looking at practical ways to make your work easier. Where are we going? Andy.

Andy:

That's good. I was just looking at that photo of me in the, uh, in the slide deck. I reckon I've been trading off that for about five years.

Nathan Simmonds:

We need to update that.

Andy:

Indeed. Uh, okay. Good. Uh, afternoon everyone. Where we're going. We're gonna build off the last two days with some further application of the HBDI, um, and brain dominance instrument model. So, day one we talked about what is it and getting into the backgrounds using our, um, our words up here today. We're gonna look into, uh, some areas around giving feedback. I know that's gonna link nicely to what you've got going on next week, Nathan.

Andy:

Um, how to recognize styles, because I think that came up as a question yesterday. Um, and then I've got some other areas that we can dip into depending upon time. The other bit I'm really keen to do today is, um, almost that kinda live q and a. Um, we've hopefully kind of intrigued you over the last couple of days, so you may well have generated some questions or some thoughts.

Andy:

Um, I'd like to spend some time going through that today, making sure that you feel very comfortable. Um, you're getting a good understanding of this. And then, uh, allowing you to springboard off and, um, kind of make it your own as appropriate. Um, and to that point, thank you again, um, to all those people that have purchased profiles already. We'll be getting those, um, instructions and the online questionnaire out to you in the next, uh, few hours. Thanks again and reminder to those, if you do want to buy your own profile, 10% off for this week. So Nathan, uh, we're get a link dropped in there for those that continue to be interested.

Nathan Simmonds:

I was gonna say, you know, you're not gonna get it cheaper anywhere. Uh, any other point at this as you are gonna get it now. So if you haven't got a copy, if you haven't got your own profile and you are looking to get that deeper insight into yourself, which supports the leadership model that we've already covered, which supports how we're delivering feedback next week, now it's time to do it for sure.

Andy:

Perfect. Alright, Nathan, I'm gonna ask you to jump straight to slide 16, if you wouldn't mind. Um, question came out. Gonna say, I think it was from Mohamed, correct me if I'm wrong. Apologies if I am. We were talking about, um, famous people through history. We might have to come down. One more, Nathan.

Nathan Simmonds:

There we go.

Andy:

There we go. Perfect. Um, so we're talking about famous people through history, um, and where they would potentially sit on, uh, on our model. I say potentially because of course I wasn't able to get these guys to all complete their home and profiles in the last 24 hours. Uh, reached out to a few of them, a couple of them weren't available. Um, but have a good look around that. You'll start to get a sense of, uh, where people w would sit within this model. Um, likes of Bertram Russell up there, philosopher and mathematician sits nicely up in the blue. Come down into green.

Andy:

Let's pull out. Uh, Susan b Antony. Um, I think she was social reformist for women's rights and you know, the steps and the stages that she went through to, uh, to make that happen. Up into the yellow, the likes of Jeff Bezos, uh, entrepreneur, Amazon Blue Horizon, you know, lots of things that he's got going on there. We see Steve Jobs up there as well. Another big entrepreneur and big visionary thinker coming down into the reds. We've got people there such as, um, Louis Armstrong. Just going to prove it really is a wonderful world. See what I did there.

Nathan Simmonds:

I gotta say. I see what you did there. Um, my question to people watching this is, is are there any people on there that you are surprised that they're in those quadrants? Anyone you want to call out as to why, you know, doesn't quite fit or you are surprised to see them while they're coming in? Good. The question that I've got already that comes off that is Abraham Lincoln's right in the middle there. What's going on with that?

Andy:

Abraham Lincoln. So Deante, was he, I think he came back the other day. It was a question on day one. You know, can you be equal across all those quadrants? Um, understanding and considering the things that he did and how he did them, um, they believe that he sits in that middle so he could have a a square across all those quadrants. That half worked to my finger sending to a bit of a weather person.

Nathan Simmonds:

Yeah, it's nice. Here's your backdrop.

Andy:

Yeah, so he maybe sits in the middle and has a, an equal preference to all of those, uh, those quadrants.

Nathan Simmonds:

Nice, nice. That's good to see some of the people in there to start to see, start to understand how their thinking is or where they focus their thinking in order for them to achieve what they've done.

Andy:

Absolutely. Did, did we get questions or thoughts coming in or has everyone gone yet? That makes sense?

Nathan Simmonds:

Nothing. I think everyone's quite happy with that. If there's no answers, we'll take that as a confirmation they're comfortable with where everyone is on there.

Andy:

Fine. Fantastic. Um, let's go down another slide please, Nathan. I'm gonna introduce, um, topic around giving feedback. Um, feedback is that free gift that can just absolutely improve people. And if delivered in the right way, it becomes a super powerful thing. I know you're gonna get into this, uh, in a lot more detail next week. Nathan, you've got particular, um, area of expertise on this. I wanted to link it in nicely because actually we can also use the, the Herman profile to deliver feedback in a way that will be more comfortably and easily more received depending upon the audience and who they are.

Andy:

So we're gonna talk around feedback in a minute and I'm gonna share some slides on how you can recognize styles. 'cause appreciate we can't go in or we could, but we, we can't and we don't always know other people's thinking, decision making, communicating preferences. But I've got a few slides that can hopefully give those little tells and give those indicators. Um, that said, and very similar to yesterday when we were talking about expectations of the audience, if unsure, let's get a tick in each of those boxes. Again, spot those things that resonate with people and they're kind of, oh, I guess that that's, that's kind of going in and making sense. We start to really build on those particular areas.

Andy:

So giving feedback, if we would start up in our a quadrant or blue quadrant, if we're giving feedback to someone that has a high preference here, it's gotta be about precise, logical facts and detail. It's sticking to the data and ensuring that it's delivered in a way that is absolutely clear cut. When I talked yesterday about the blue quadrant being kind of very black and white, they don't want too much ambiguity. They just want to know what it was and being very precise and very logical in delivering that set of feedback. That makes sense. It makes sense to, and I think that's good. Coming down into our green quadrant people here, they're gonna need to see the structure and the organization and the feedback.

Andy:

They're not gonna want it too wooly. They're not gonna want it delivered in a way that um, um, it's gonna be hard for them to interpret. So we need to have that sequential approach. Again, paying attention to the detail. It's that whole left brain thing going on. So it's gotta be done in a very safe risk adverse way to ensure tha

Sticky Learning Lunch #56 - HBDI Model & Whole Brain Thinking #2

In this HBDI model #2, find out more about the HBDI Whole Brain Thinking ®. Do you want to understand more about the way you prefer to think, communicate, and make decisions using the HBDI ® assessment? Using the HBDI ® assessment, understand how you can use your profile to help adapt your thinking, decision-making, and communication style to improve audience engagement. Identify how to improve team effectiveness, through better problem-solving and effective feedback.

 

How well do you know HBDI?

 

You Can Read the Full Transcript Below:

Nathan Simmonds:

Good afternoon, sticky lunches. Welcome to Crikey. What day are we on now? Wednesday. Wonderful. Wednesday grand. We're just waiting for the last few people to arrive in the room. As always. Let's give it a few moments to see who is appearing. Good afternoon, Colin. Fabian, great to see you, Martin. Thank you very much for being here, Mohammed. Thanks for being there again, Tim, great to see you. More people arriving. Ah, so as always, before we dive in to make sure the mobile phones hold 'em high, get the little airplane lit up, let's get the distraction zeroed out.

Nathan Simmonds:

A hundred percent attention on what we're doing here and making sure that we're focused on this. Making sure you've got a drink available. Let's keep yourselves hydrated. Keep your brain lubricated, making sure this learning is sticking. And then finally, making sure that you've got a fresh page for fresh thinking.

Nathan Simmonds:

It's about making sure that you can get down those things that you want to remember, that you want to reread, so you can reignite that thinking and help, that help expand those ideas that are coming into this, this new learning that you are gonna experience today. So, new faces and some friendly faces. I'm not saying the new friendly faces aren't friendly, but it's good to see you all. Cindy, thanks for being here, Victoria. Thank you, Gareth, wonderful to see you again. Uh, I think we are good to go. So welcome to today's Sticky Learning lunch with me, Nathan Simmons, senior leadership coach and trainer for MBM, the Home of Sticky Learning.

Nathan Simmonds:

And we are the leadership development and soft skills provider to the grocery and manufacturing industry. Idea of these sessions is to help you be the best version of you in the work that you do wherever you are, whether that's working from home or whether that's in the office or returning to the office, doesn't matter. It's about giving you some new skills, new mindset that's gonna help improve what you are doing on a daily basis. Andy, Andy Palmer, resident expert, HBDI. How are you? Where are we going today?

Andy Palmer:

Doing well, Nathan rocking shirt, by the way.

Nathan Simmonds:

Thank you very much.

Andy Palmer:

Wait for the comment boxes to fill up on it. So I've thought a pre-emp it. And

Nathan Simmonds:

The funny thing is, I'm looking at this on the camera, and actually it's, you see it is, the color has been muted on my cam on my camera. It's even brighter than that in real life. And there's some hidden flamingos in there.

Andy Palmer:

Good stuff. Excellent. Okay, where we're going today, we are going to build on what we talked about yesterday of what is the HBDI Hermann Brain Dominance Instrument, um, bring it further to life with practical application. So we're gonna spend some time today looking at that a little bit more time tomorrow. And at the same time, we're very keen to have those questions popping up in the chat box as and when you think of them, and we'll deal with those, uh, in the moment. So yeah, today's really about bringing this further to life yesterday, and there's a quick recap.

Andy Palmer:

We talked about this as a psychometric protocol to help you understand how you prefer to think, communicate, and make decisions. And again, coming back to that point of once you can understand yourself, you can start to really value others around you, whether that's in your team, your professional, your personal life. So yesterday we talked, um, about the four quadrants of the brain are cerebral mode, our limbic mode, our left and right hemispheres, and understanding that as a metaphoric model, they're responsible for different thinking, communicating, decision making processes, um, none of which become limited.

Andy Palmer:

It is about self-awareness, and it is about your preferences to allow you to adapt yourself or be mindful of others in given situations. So, yes, so we talked around our four Fs of our blue quadrant being around facts, very logical, very analytical, our green quadrant around form being structured and controlled. Red quadrants about feelings, our interpersonal skills, communicating skills and yellows for futures, holistic and conceptual thinking. We're gonna go at that just once more in a in another way. I'm gonna use four P's this time. He says, as he drops something on the floor, four P's to bring it life a little bit further.

Andy Palmer:

First one payoff. It's the blues. Asking that question of what, what's in it for me? What's gonna happen? And it's about that detail and coming into that. So gonna leave that first p uplift payoff. Second one is about plan for our green. What's the plan? How are we gonna make this happen? What are the steps? What's the sequential order that, uh, we need to take for our red quadrant? It's about people who's involved. How's it going to impact, impact them? Who do we need to get involved?

Andy Palmer:

How do I feel about this? How are they gonna feel about this? And then come around to last but not least, our fourth p around possibilities. And as we talked about yesterday, that yellow quadrant being about ideas and vision and the future and considering what possibilities thought that was worth as, uh, building on my four Fs, bringing in some four P's before we go, any, uh, we get into some good stuff. Make sense, Nathan?

Nathan Simmonds:

Absolute sense. And there's a part, I think there's an element of, there's a, there's like you say, it's not that we aren't any of all or we aren't, we don't have elements of all of those things. We are, we have shades of them. And it's understanding now, if I'm a yellow, you know, it's all about possibilities and it's all about the future. Great. And it's just kind of turning up the dial. Well, what's the payoff for those other people? What's the plan that someone else needs? And what do I need to think about for people in order to make that possibility happen?

Andy Palmer:

Absolutely. From a very blue perspective, and I shared my profile yesterday, um, I look at kind of return on investment, but it doesn't necessarily have to be that. It could be return on ideas or return on interpersonal or return on the, you know, return on the structure. Uh, and we start to understand that people just see things in very different ways and measure outputs in very different ways. Neither, right? Neither wrong. It's just about being mindful and that word I use just around tolerance, that people see the world in, uh, very different ways.

Nathan Simmonds:

Agreed. How are we gonna write the most of this in?

Andy Palmer:

Okay, so, um, brief recap. Done moving into, uh, practical application, all one and good. That once you understand yourself, you can then maybe consider different things. Um, and here's a really powerful way of doing that. We all make presentations. Um, it doesn't necessarily have to be something by a PowerPoint. It could be a presentation, which could just be a one-to-one piece of communication, or it could be a one-page document, or it could indeed be that big PowerPoint deck we're presenting to small or huge groups of people. Key bit to note is we will develop that piece of communication, whether it's written or verbal, whatever medium, um, in a way that we'd want to receive it ourselves.

Andy Palmer:

So by default, as a blue, I would want to receive a presentation in a very blue way. I would want to see the detail and the facts and get down into the absolute detail. But my audience isn't always blues. So I kind of top tip for one of a better word, is let's try and get a tick in each of these boxes when we're putting together a, a, a piece of communication and trying to best limit our risk of it not being as effective as it could be if we don't know who our audience is. And at the same time, it just as allows us some pushes and challenges us to consider different options. So Nathan, I'm gonna ask you to bring up, uh, let's go to slide number 11.

Nathan Simmonds:

Lemme know if you can see that. There it goes. There we go.

Andy Palmer:

Alright, let's go slide number 12 then, because that's not the right one. There we go. Fun animation as well. Alright, so this is about putting a tick in each of these boxes when we're doing that piece of communication. So for our blue quadrant, they want the precise facts and it is all about the what, it's well articulated ideas, but put into a very logical format. So we're talking about data and charts and all the supporting evidence that validates that idea. Blue people also want kind of that critical analysis.

Andy Palmer:

They want that good debate and they want time to be spent wisely. It's very much about the here and now. So if we can answer the what we're on a good starter, we then come down into our green quadrant. This is about the how. So it's about that structure. The people with a high preference to the green want to see a story that unfolds in a very logical way.

Andy Palmer:

They want to nce consistency across the presentation. Um, and they wanna ensure that it's low risk. This quadrant here, often seen as a little bit foot on the brake and certainly risk adverse. So we wanna make sure we're not making anyone feel comfortable by pushing them too quickly into a place that they don't want to go to....

Sticky Learning Lunch #55 - HBDI Model & Whole Brain Thinking #1

In this HBDI model #1, find out more about the HBDI Whole Brain Thinking ®. Do you want to understand more about the way you prefer to think, communicate, and make decisions using the HBDI ® assessment? Using the HBDI ® assessment, understand how you can use your profile to help adapt your thinking, decision-making, and communication style to improve audience engagement. Identify how to improve team effectiveness, through better problem-solving and effective feedback.

How well do you know HBDI?

 

You Can Read the Full Transcript Below:

Nathan Simmonds:

Good afternoon, sticky learners. Hello. Sticky learners. Maybe that's a thing. Maybe my, I think hi sticky learners. Hey, welcome to Tuesday. Uh, we are just gonna give it a few more minutes while we're waiting for the last people to arrive. Just coming into the room. Hope everyone is well today. Hope everyone is enjoying the sunshine on this fine Tuesday. Let's have a bit of a roll call. Angelique, good to see you. I, I believe this is the first time. Apologies if I've got that wrong. Really great to have you here, Cameron. Good to see you again. Colin, Darren, Fabian, Howard, Martin, Victoria. Thank you everyone for being here. It's very appreciated.

Nathan Simmonds:

I know there's a handful of people still yet to come in on their way. He says, let's get everyone set up for success as we're just starting this day. Let's make sure mobile phones hold 'em high. Let's make sure the little airplane is lit up. And let's zero out the distraction. A hundred percent attention on what you are doing here today. Also, making sure that you've got a drink available. Let's keep the brain hydrated and lubricated and make the learning stick.

Nathan Simmonds:

And then also making sure you've got a fresh sheet for fresh thinking. So making sure you've got a clean sheet there, ready to get down your notes. No, it's not Sate Night fever. This is just a change of color scheme, Darren, um, The fresh sheet. Fresh thinking. As always, it's about making sure that you are taking notes. We're gonna be some, sharing some different ideas from different perspectives on how you can approach how you interact and interate with people. So it's gonna be absolutely vital that you are getting down some of these ideas that you want to remember, that you want to reread so you can reignite that thinking when you come back to it later.

Nathan Simmonds:

Keep the ideas expanding. I think we are pretty much good to go. So welcome to Sticky Learning Lunch with me, Nathan Simmons, senior leadership coach and trainer for MBM and with Andy Palmer, resident expert in HBD. I always get the initials wrong. H remind me Andy, HBDI. No, you're right. HBD. Yeah, HB DI was right. I got confused at the last bit. Let's going a smooth thought. I like it.

Nathan Simmonds:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. HBDI From MBM, the Homo Stick learning. This is where it gets confusing is 'cause there's too many, you know, too many initials and acronyms going on. So now the idea of these sessions is to help you be the best version of you in the work that you do and preparing you for that return back to the office. And we wanna share these ideas which are gonna help you to expand what it is you do and how you interact. The reason we do that is because MBM is the home of leadership development and soft skills provider to the grocery and manufacturing industries. We understand how important it's that we do interact and relate with you, with each other at the highest possible level. So, Andy, what are we covering today?

Andy Palmer:

HBDI, we're gonna come profile. So, um, lots of psychometric tests out there. You will have come across some of them I'm sure in your, uh, careers. Me Briggs be being five B insights, discs. There is a whole host of them and they're all particularly good in their own individual ways. Um, today, tomorrow and the next day, we're gonna be talking about the HBDI, the Herman profile. Um, we're selecting this one because one, it's a personal favorite of mine 'cause I'm absolutely confident and can guarantee within about the next 20 minutes, you're gonna go, you know what, I get that. I can see how I can use it.

Andy Palmer:

And then we're gonna spend the next couple of days really getting into how you can practically use it, different parts of the application, how you can make this thing live and breathe if you so wish, uh, in your businesses or in your personal life. So yes, we're talking about the Herman profile. I'm gonna refer to it as the Herman profile just 'cause it's less of a mouthful. Um, but HBDI stands for Hermann Brain Dominance Instruments. So that's the mouthful bit. Let's refer to it as, uh, the Hermann profile. That's what we're covering next three days. Nathan,

Nathan Simmonds:

Want me on mute? So there, I'm on back in the room. So where are we going to, first of all, for day one then?

Andy Palmer:

Yeah, so today is just, um, no, it's not just anything today is an introduction to what actually is this, uh, profile, what is this assessment? Um, and helping our audience today to go, oh, that's interesting. I want to know more about that. And, and hopefully then the next couple of days really builds on that. So yeah, today is about an introduction to the Herman profile. Bring it to life. What are the colors, um, what does it mean, how can I use it? And uh, yeah, we'll see where it takes us in terms of individual's questions. So if you've got them, get them in that chat window. Nathan will feed them through to me. Uh, test me, challenge me, question it. Let's, uh, let's see if we can really bring this, uh, this to life.

Nathan Simmonds:

I'm smiling now because

Andy Palmer:

No.

Nathan Simmonds:

I'm just smiling because Mohammad's comes training. Is it like six hats? What was I mentioning literally 30 seconds ago?

Andy Palmer:

Brilliant. Um, is it like six hats? Um, oh, . I've got four hats. Okay. Um, different topic, different way of approaching different situations. So, um, I'm, I'm gonna suspend, um, kind of thoughts on that and I'll allow him happy to kind of make his own decision over the next 20 minutes. So, amazing. Brilliant. One thing. Go,

Nathan Simmonds:

One thing I was gonna say, Andy, was, you know, before we dive into that, this is gonna be a three part miniseries that we're doing. So we're gonna cover some of different elements over the next three days. I have put in the chat box already there, down the bottom, he says, bear with me the link there for tomorrow's session. So if you have not already registered, now is the time to make sure you click through that and get yourself onto the future sessions, um, and get yourself a, a seat in the room. So, Andy Floor's yours.

Andy Palmer:

Brilliant, thanks Nathan. Okay, background to this, uh, Herman profile called, so because it was developed by a gentleman called Ned Herman. Ned Herman worked for General Electric over in America in the fifties and sixties. Uh, he was part of their l and d function at the time. Uh, they knew there was a, a left hand and a right hand side of the brain. And he hypothesized that coupled with the upper and lower quadrants of the brain. And they were responsible for different thinking preferences.

Andy Palmer:

So he went to his boss as you could back in the day and said, Hey, got this idea what said fascinating. I want you to go off and explore it. So he did. So he tested it, developed it, and he's come up with what we know is today as the Herman HBDI profile. What effectively it does is give you and the people around you a better understanding of how you prefer to think, communicate, and make decisions.

Andy Palmer:

This is based on preferences that you have and how you see the world. Okay? What it isn't is something that limits you by going, oh, I'm only this, or I'm only this. I can't possibly do the other things. It's really about whole brain thinking and understanding where your true preferences actually sit to allow you then to adapt yourself to certain situations, be more tolerant and understanding of others, and then really get into the, the core of this, which is that about challenging yourself to, to kind of do things differently, do things better, and absolutely bring to life yourself and those around you.

Andy Palmer:

And I think it absolutely summed up perfectly, and I'll quote there on that slide there, by understanding yourself, you can learn to value and understand others once you've got that rock and roll, the world your oyster. So how does this work? Um, I'm gonna refer to, um, our different quadrants in the colors. Um, but what effectively we've got is a left hand and the right hand side of our brain. Effectively, our brain's about that big, um, no relation to the size of your hand. So don't worry if you've got particularly small hands, but you've got a left hand and a right hand side of your brain. What you've also got is an upper and lower part of your brain. At the top half. You've got your cerebral mode, which is our, um, uh, the part of the brain we developed over the majority of species on the planet.

Andy Palmer:

Uh, it's our cerebral mode that almost differentiates us apart from the majority of other, uh, species around there. Uh, some of the grapes have this as well, just not as developed as ourselves. So our cerebral mode at the top, we've then got our limbic mode, bottom half of our brain, bottom half, but more bottom half up here, our limbic mode. And that's taking into account these two quadrants at the bottom below that, there is something called the reptilian brain. Sits right at the top of your spinal column. That's the part of the brain that, uh, takes care of our basic functions. Respiratory, it tells us when we're hungry, tells us when we're thirsty. Um, some of the flight fights or freeze mechanisms also sits in there.

Andy Palmer:

...

Sticky Learning Lunches #54: The Leadership Upgrade #4

"Worried if you change you won’t know what to expect? – Part #4 of the Unique Leadership Coaching model ‘EVOC’ Create. Reflected, dreamed, seen the problems now it’s time to Create actions. In this episode of The Leadership Upgrade #4.

You Can Read the Full Transcript Below:

Nathan Simmonds:

Good afternoon, sticky learning lunches. Welcome to Monday. We are just gonna give it a minute for people to arrive. Just been having a wonderful conversation with Sarah, catching up on the weekend. And the one question I didn't ask is if I've got her support completely for the whole of this session. 'cause if I haven't, I haven't got any of the links ready, but we'll find out about that in a minute. Just giving it a minute. Hello, Colin. Fabian. Good to see you. Howard. Thanks for Martin. Thank you for being here as well. Tim Victoria, thanks very much. Happy Monday to you too. Yes, Sarah is with us all session to support and help.

Sarah:

Thank you all.

Nathan Simmonds:

Wanna make sure I've got pens handy? Now it's a little bit of a lazy start for people today. A few people arriving. Let's just give it 30 more seconds and then we're gonna do the roundup. Hello, Matt Brown. Good to see you. Making sure we're supporting ourselves, delivering the best possible results here. Good afternoon, Lana. Good to see you. And by the way, do you know what we need to make this a little bit of a routine. Everyone, you can say hello to me. It is. Okay. Good afternoon to all of you. Let's get ready on this.

Nathan Simmonds:

On a scale of one's 10, how are you feeling about today and this week? One being terrible, 10 being phenomenal. How are you feeling about today, this week? Where you are going, what you are up to? Positive starts, nines, tens, nine's. Got an eight. Okay, we can work on that. Eight's good. Last mouthful of tea. Ask me after the playoffs. Let's dive in as people arrive. Hello V. Good to see you again. Mobile phones. Let's do this. Light up that little airplane, zero out the distraction, a hundred percent attention on what you are about to be doing here.

Nathan Simmonds:

Also, making sure you've got a drink. Let's keep you hydrated. Keep your brain lubricated. So let's make this learning stick. Just run out of tea. This could be a problem. Third piece as always, fresh page, fresh thinking. So let's make sure you've got a nice clean sheet in that notepad. At the top of that, you're gonna write keepers. And these are the things that you want to remember, you want to remind yourself about. And when you reread it, it's gonna reignite that thinking. It's gonna help you keep those new ideas fresh and expanding as you start to reapply them.

Nathan Simmonds:

Good. Let's go. Welcome to today's Sticky Learning lunch with me, Nathan Simmons, senior leadership coach and trainer for MBM Making Business Matter, the home of Sticky Learning. We are the leadership development soft skills provider to the grocery and manufacturing industry. And the idea of these micro learnings is to help you be the best version of you in the work that you do right now. Whether that's from home in the office, or just preparing you to return back to whatever normality is gonna look like in the next couple of weeks. What are we covering today?

Leadership is our focus today!

 

Nathan Simmonds:

The fourth part of the EVOC leadership model. So we are looking at create, so we're looking at the final stage of this model in the C for how we are creating and using and actualizing solutions to our obstacles. But before I get into that tomorrow, for the next three days after this, we're gonna be looking at HBDI profiling. So when you look at things like the grow coaching model, when you look at the mind coaching model for mental health conversations, when you look at the leadership coaching model, the elements that I'm taking you through in here through in this

Nathan Simmonds:

Give your real clear framework of the questions to ask yourself to make those parts happen. Great. The HBDI profile is another tool that just gave, gives you a deeper view on yourself. It really works on this evaluation piece. Eve evaluation

Nathan Simmonds:

In number one, it starts to show you how you work. It starts to show you how you work with others. You start to see certain behavior patterns by doing this sort of analysis. And over the next three days, we're gonna be going through that profiling mechanism, the Herman profiles with Andy Palmer again, and he's gonna take us through all the quadrants in there. It's gonna give you a really deep view on this evaluation piece. If you have not already signed up for that, the link is in the chat box below right now. Call to action, make sure you are registered for the next three sessions so you can get that deeper view. Also shows you the previous session.

Nathan Simmonds:

So this is the, if this is the first time you are watching this session and you want to catch up on the other three parts of this model, you can also click on that link and it will take you and show you the older ones as well. So the first part was self-evaluation, and we're gonna be going deeper into that in the next three sessions. The second part is then vision. Where you want to get to. Number three, obstacles, the challenges along the way to making things happen. With part four being all about creation. That we do is requiring an action to be taken. You know, it's, you cannot meditate your way out of a tiger attack. You cannot sit and wait for a million dollar check to come through your letterbox without actually doing something to make that thing happen.

Nathan Simmonds:

So the idea of this phase when we get into the solutions is about asking the right questions so that when you understand where your obstacles are, that you can overcome them. The way this model works, and it's the same way as how success thinking works, is quite on a simple timeline. Right at the beginning. Here is where you are doing your evaluation. Where you want to get to over here is your vision by understanding these two elements like sat nav, again, you know, you've gotta understand where you are in the current moment and also where you want to get to.

Nathan Simmonds:

When I then start looking to see what the obstacles, rather than me having this simplistic, naive view that the journey's gonna be simple, straightforward, and there's gonna be no hiccups, I have to understand that those challenges are gonna come downstream in order for me to perceive them, embrace them, mitigate them, and resolve them before they cause me any challenge. And even if they do arrive so that I enjoy the process of going through them. So rather than thinking it's gonna be like this, it's gonna be more like this.

Nathan Simmonds:

Put a big tree in the way there. We put another pit in there with spikes so that when we understand the journey looks like this, we can start to prepare and understand, well what are the tools I need here? What are the tools I need here? How do I climb this tree? How do I jump over the pit of, you know, nasty, um, spikes at the bottom? Because when we start to understand this and it's not about lingering in the problem, we can then start to put the solutions in place, which is why these four stages exist. So how do we do this? We wanna create a little bit of disruptive thinking.

Nathan Simmonds:

We want to embrace all of the problems and all of the challenges that we have on a daily basis. Moham just put in here for every action there is a reaction. Absolutely. And then we have to understand, as I've said before, action creates traction. The moment you take one step, you are almost compelled to take the next one in whatever direction it takes or whatever direction it's pulling you in. So when we start to see all of the problems, we can then come up with solutions. So there's an interesting technique that you can use here. Question to you all. How many of you, and it is 10 past one now have mentally or verbally, and I mean out loud as well, as well as inside your own head, complained about something in your day, yes or no? Got me good.

Nathan Simmonds:

No good? Yes, yes, yes, yes. With an explanation mark. Good, good. Interesting technique. So is gentleman by the name of Jay's Summit, I think, I believe it is. He wrote a book called, uh, disrupt You. And his suggestion was for 30 days, write down three problems you've got. So it might be anything from the person cutting you up in traffic at the traffic lights on the way to work. It might be the patch of sweat that your slicer toast left on the, on the countertop when you put it on there by accident. Um, anything, what problems have you got? Think about any challenges or problems you've got or things that have irritated you a day that you wish you had a solution for.

Nathan Simmonds:

Fire 'em in the question box. Anything that comes up. His suggestion is, and this is an activity for you to take away in this, okay, is you write down three challenges that you've got, physical challenges, things that you know have you know, really frustrated you or you know, annoyed you and then you've grumbled about them and then just carried on with the day. How many other people do you think have the same challenges that you have with that thing? And if you actually solve that problem in one way, shape, or form, how many people do you think would then potentially buy your service or buy your product to overcome that thing? Everyone with me? Does that make sense? Those questions.

Nathan Simmonds:

So the idea that what we're doing is we're starting to activate, as I referred to it before, that solution thinking rather than looking at, oh, that's a pain in the backside. Oh I can't, I can't do anything about that. Actually what I'm suggesting is you start to ask some better questions to help you start coming over, overcoming that to help you move beyond that so that actu

Sticky Learning Lunches #53: The Leadership Upgrade #3

Today's topic, The Leadership Upgrade part 3. "Worried if you change you won’t know what to expect? Part #3 of the Unique Leadership Coaching model ‘EVOC’ Obstacles, If you always did what you’ve always done. You’ll always get what you always got. Get prepared, get aware and plan for a better future.

You Can Read the Full Transcript Below:

Nathan Simmonds:

Uh, go green and we are live. Hello everyone. Good afternoon. Welcome to Thursday. Let's just give it 30 seconds. Let the last people just get into the room. A few more people still arriving by the sounds of it. My neighbors are actually trying to get into the room as well, but physically, so if you hear any loud banging, that's not us. Apologies. Good afternoon Cameron. Good to see you. Colin. Good to see you again. Thank you. Fabian, Howard, Martin, Matt, Petra, Stewart, Tim. Thank you everyone for being here. Let's just give it 30 seconds. Give it a moment. Oops. Excuse me. Mobile phones. My one hiding across the other side of the desk. Wow.

Nathan Simmonds:

Right. Let's get everyone set up for success. Let's make sure that we have got that little airplane lit. Zero out the distraction, a hundred percent attention on exactly what we're doing here today. Making sure you've got a drink. Let's make sure we stay hydrated. Get the brain lubricated and let's make sure we keep this learning sticky. Dry brain equals dry session.

Nathan Simmonds:

And then finally, fresh sheet, fresh thinking. So we wanna make sure we've got a clean notepad in front of us. At the top of that page, you are gonna write keepers and these are the things that you wanna remember, that you want to reread, that you want to use to reignite that thinking, to help keep these ideas expanding and flowing into the work that you are doing. I think we are here. I think we're all good. Good afternoon, Victoria. Good. See you Ivy. Thanks for being here again.

Part #3 of the Unique Leadership Coaching Model

 

Nathan Simmonds:

Let's do this. Welcome to today's Sticky Learning lunch with me, Nathan Simmons, senior leadership coach and trainer for MBM Making Business Matter, the home of Sticky Learning. We are the leadership development and soft skills provider to the grocery and manufacturing industry. And the idea of these micro learnings is to help you be the best version of you in the work that you do. Whether that's while you're at home or whether it is helping you to return back to the office. Let's dive into today's session. Good afternoon Vonne. Good to see you again. And Lana, thanks for being here. Really appreciate it.

Nathan Simmonds:

So we've already covered evaluation, we've already covered a bit of the vision. So we've taken time to look at ourselves. We're looking at 360 feedback, whether we do this once a year, but actually ideally, ideally, as this idea came to me as we were doing the session, two days going, breaking it up into bite-sized chunks. So maybe you're asking smaller numbers of questions about a very specific part of your leadership, coaching, communication or feedback, whatever it might be, and getting some input on that on a regular basis, maybe once a quarter. Then taking the time to build the vision.

Nathan Simmonds:

Where do you want to get to? And I use the analogy a lot. It, it's the same as sat nav. Where am I now? Where do I want to get to? Where am I now? Where am I going to and making sure I've got the right information that's gonna help me get where I need to be. And this pen is now departing. Let's see. That'll do. And today we're gonna be looking at obstacles. We're gonna be looking at those things that hold us back. And before I do that,

Nathan Simmonds:

I'm just gonna drop in the link for the future sessions and rightfully reminded, come off the full screen. So in the chat box you can see the link there. It's got the previous sessions. If you haven't seen them, they're on there already. You can click onto them and rewatch 'em. And also, if you haven't signed up for Monday's session where we're gonna be looking at the last part of this framework, which is around how to create the actions, now's the time to do that.

Nathan Simmonds:

You've got the link there, click through, sign up, get yourself registered so you're live in the room. And also if you know people that are gonna get value from this, share it with them. Really important that we get some of this information into more leaders so that more leaders are thinking this way and approaching life differently rather than thinking they're already perfect, rather than having no idea where they're going and actually just end up complaining about the problems as they come downstream.

Nathan Simmonds:

'cause they haven't prepared for them. 'cause they didn't expect them. And actually most of the time, 99% of the problems that come downstream, we know they're gonna happen if we ask the right questions. And not enough people are doing this. This is why we have challenges in leadership. This is why we have challenges, um, in certain teams because we are not self-evaluating. We, we don't have our own vision and we're too reliant on someone else telling us what to do.

Nathan Simmonds:

And actually the obstacles are the things that we need to embrace and, and see before they come downstream so that we can line up the challenges in front of us in a chronological strategic order and overcome them now gradually improving our skillset as we step over each one of them. Hope this is making sense. So where are we going first? Number one, it's all about how we frame it.

Nathan Simmonds:

So it is how we, it's the labels that we apply to this. And I talked about this a bit before, um, in regards to ourselves, when we're doing personal development and when we're doing goal setting and also when we're doing negotiation. It, it's different ways that we focus our brand. When we're looking at, at feedback, which we're gonna look at in a couple of weeks, and you're looking at personal development. So what you think of someone is how you treat them. So what you think up here, the content of your head dictates the content of your math. And when you're doing your own personal development, the phrase I use is, is what you think of yourself is what you will achieve.

Nathan Simmonds:

And you may remember me hearing this or if you've worked one to one way that you would've heard me say this. So the moment we start thinking that we are not capable or no, it is beyond us, we'll find reasons and excuses to make sure it is beyond us and it stays that way. When we have a situation, actually it is the way that we think about the thing that turns it into actually what we believe it is. So what we think of a situation is what it becomes. So especially when we're working in feedback or we're looking in these um, looking at these challenges coming downstream, the moment you think it's going to be a problem, it becomes a problem.

Nathan Simmonds:

Everyone with me, this makes sense. Gimme some yeses on those. Show me you're alive. Yes, I've got some yeses. Good. So let me say this again. What you think of a situation is what it becomes. Let me hit you with a couple of key quotes that, you know, ring true on this one Marcus, or really know things. Things are neither good or bad. It's the thinking that makes them. So I have no idea how many thousands of years he said that it was right then. And it's right now when we see these obstacles, we'll use a little bit of drunk logic. The problem isn't the problem, it's your attitude to the problem. That is the problem.

Nathan Simmonds:

Captain Jack Sparrow on rum and even he was getting it right. The challenge is though, when we frame it and we hang these labels on things and we see them as issues or we see them as problems, that's what we turn them into. So when we're delivering feedback or even to a leader or someone in our team and we say this is going to be a difficult conversation, what are we saying that the conversation is going to be? What are we actually saying about the person that we're actually going to talk to? How, what, how are we actually labeling that individual before we even get to them? So are we making it more or less difficult for ourselves before we even go into it?

Nathan Simmonds:

And I've got my notes here, I'm just gonna make sure, because the moment that you judge someone, you cannot influence them. Remember this, when we do feedback, I will repeat this again. At the same time, the moment we judge a situation, we deem ourselves as incapable of influencing it or changing it. So we have to address how we are looking at it. Now, common error. Common error or or belief. Fake news. That crisis in Chinese means two things. Someone said the crisis, the word crisis means, um, no danger or, and or opportunity. I did some research on this.

Nathan Simmonds:

It's a misnomer. What it actually means is there's a tipping point. We've got a a a moment in there where we can change and go in different directions. Something could happen, but we've got an opportunity to look at what else is going to happen. Questions come in here, but how can you control your feelings? Example, somebody I, I do not like for example, you have the option to the choice to respond or react whether you like them or not.

Nathan Simmonds:

Whether they've done something to upset you or not, you still have a choice of how you wish to respond to them. Guaranteed though what you think of someone is how you treat them. So if I'm thinking no, they're an idiot or you know, I don't want 'em around them, my words will change shape. And the conversation and the outcome of that conversation will also change as well.

Nathan Simmonds:

So when we go back into this is, okay, well what's this person asking for? How can I help this person right now? How can I change my responsibility? Oh sorry, my, my ability to respond,...