The Consultant School

Would you like to learn more about the characteristics of serious players? Today, we're continuing with our series about the concept of serious play. In this series, we have been talking about what it means to be a serious player and we've been looking at the different elements that are associated with it. In today's episode, we will be covering the fifth element of serious play, so listen in, to find out more.

The fifth element that is common to all serious players is what Ray calls the positive self-fulfilling prophecy. Ray and Brenda named this element when reflecting on the more than thirty interviews that they did over the course of three to four years, with people who described themselves as serious players. These serious players all loved what they did, and what they did really made a positive difference in other people's lives, and also in an economic sense. Tune in today, to learn about the positive self-fulfilling prophecy, and to hear the stories that go along with it.

Show Highlights:

• Ray and Brenda identified that serious players had positive things that kept happening to them and that they could almost predict that these things were going to happen.
• The serious players were very positive in what they saw and in many ways they felt they could predict it.
• These people felt like prophets because they could almost speak what they saw into existence.
• How the idea of positive self-fulfilling prophecies connects with the work that Ray does around vision.
• Ray saw that serious players believed that if they could see something, they could create it.
• The serious players all had high self-esteem and they believed in themselves.
• Does our future create us or do we create our future?
• Ray believes that there is a serious player in every one of us.
• Why the serious player remains locked inside some people.
• You're never too old for the serious player to emerge from within you.
• Why you need to have people who believe in you.
• Why serious players cannot become victimized.
• What it means to be an adult.
• How we can create self-fulfilling prophecies within ourselves.

Resources:

http://thegenysysgroup.com

Are you a risk-taker? If so, have you found that you become energized by taking increasingly larger risks? Today, we're continuing with our discussion about the six characteristics of serious players that Ray and Brenda discovered after years of interviewing individuals who all self-identified as serious players. In today's episode, we're looking at the sixth and final of these characteristics, called The Third Law of Thermodynamics. Listen in, to find out more.

One of the common denominators that Ray and Brenda noticed in the stories told to them by the serious players they interviewed was that they involved taking risks. And all the serious players seemed to become increasingly energized by taking larger and larger risks. Tune in today, to hear what Ray has to say about the Third Law of Thermodynamics, and find out how you can use it in your own life.

Show Highlights:

• Ray talks about his first foray into quantum physics and the relationship between quantum physics and change.
• The lay-interpretation of the first law of physics is that you can neither create energy nor can you destroy it. You can only change its form.
• The second law of physics came later. It states that when you change the form of energy, you lose some of it.
• The second law of physics gave rise to the conservation movement.
• Ray explains the Law of Entropy.
• Ray noticed that as people got more into their serious play, their energy increased.
• As the people became more energized, they were able to take on bigger and bigger risks.
• Ray uses the example of salmon swimming upstream to explain the effect of the increase in energy on a life-force.
• Ray explains what he coined as the Third Law of Thermodynamics. It is the ability to swim upstream and/or against the tide.
• Ray gives a personal example of his Third Law of Thermodynamics.
• The story of John Miller, one of the serious players that Ray and Brenda interviewed, who was paraplegic.
• Ray explains how you can increase the element of the Third Law of Thermodynamics within yourself.
• Accessing the support that you have available to you.

Links and resources:

Books mentioned:

The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra

Leadership And The New Science by Margaret J. Wheatley

Did you know that serious players have very high self-esteem? Today we're continuing with our series about serious play, where Ray has been sharing the various characteristics of serious players. Today, we will be looking at characteristic number four, positive paranoia, which is one of Ray's favorite topics. Listen in, to find out what Ray has to share about positive paranoia and serious players.

What Ray and Brenda discovered, while doing their interviews and research over four years about serious players, is that serious players assume that if people really understood them, they would value them. So serious players believe that all the things that people are saying about them behind their backs are positive. And all the people who Ray and Brenda interviewed, who described themselves as serious players, had really high self-esteem. Tune in now, to find out about the kind self-confidence that serious players all have.

Show Highlights:

• All the people who described themselves as serious players had very high self-esteem and they saw themselves as truly having value.
• The serious players all had self-confidence and they didn't have doubts.
• The serious players that Ray and Brenda interviewed were people who all looked at the glass as three-quarters full, not half full, particularly as it related to them.
• Serious players tend to get criticized for being arrogant and overly self-confident.
• Serious players don't take the criticism that's leveled at them very seriously.
• Ray tells the story of Willy Brown.
• Because of their positivity, serious players believe in themselves and they can go into places that other people are very fearful of going.
• Serious players are authentic, they are comfortable in their own skins, they have a high degree of personal integrity, and they enjoy being themselves.
• Serious players are very happy and they're self-contained.
• Ray talks about his grandfather, who helped Ray discover his own positive paranoia.
• How to start tapping into your own authenticity.
• How learning to accept compliments allows us to discover and appreciate our value.
• The more we lose and give, the more we will have.
• Most times, our value is hidden in plain sight and we just don't recognize it.

Links:

How would you like to have more abundance and prosperity in your life? Today, we continue with our series about serious players. Serious players are people who are doing what they really love to do - and they're getting paid for it! Listen in, to find out what it takes to increase your independent wealth.

Serious players get to do what they love. That's why it's called playing. And it's serious because there's value in what they are doing, and there's a market for it. In this series, we are working through the six different characteristics of serious players that Ray discovered after interviewing more than thirty people who identified themselves as serious players. In today's episode, we're talking about the third characteristic, which is independent wealth. Tune in now, for more!

Show Highlights:

• The way that independently wealthy serious players access what they need.
• What serious players' relationships are like, with people and with money.
• An interesting story about a serious player in Bolivia, in the 1970s.
• It takes emotional intelligence to build serious players' kind of relationships.
• The power of authenticity.
• Why people tend to trust serious players.
• Serious players have an abundance mindset.
• What you can do to increase your wealth.
• Some questions you can ask as you move towards becoming a serious player in your life and increasing your independently wealthy status.
• Human development happens in the balance between challenge and support.
• Finding the right support by reaching out to people who know.
• Your wealth is out there. Go discover it!

We're continuing our conversation about the really interesting concept of serious play today. This concept has so much depth and value for all of us, whether we already are serious players or reluctant workers working towards becoming serious players. Tune in now, to find out more!

In today's episode, we will be talking about Psychological Self-Employment. This is the second of the six characteristics of serious players that Ray and Brenda identified when reflecting on the results of the interviews they conducted with more than thirty individuals who described themselves as serious players. These individuals were all people who really loved what they did and who essentially got paid just for being who they are. Today, Ray will be sharing some stories about serious players with this characteristic and he will explain how we can develop Psychological Self-Employment in our own lives. Listen in, to find out what Ray has to say about becoming psychologically self-employed.

Show Highlights:

• These individuals, whether or not they were self-employed, described what they did as being in business for themselves.
• These people talked about working with, rather than working for the people in supervisory positions. They all operated as if they were self-employed.
• Ray tells the story of Mort Cooke, one of the serious players that he and Brenda interviewed, who was the bell captain at a hotel in San Francisco.
• The positions of these serious players may have reported to somebody, however, they didn't report to anybody. They reported to themselves.
• Ray explains what happened when the Dean of the university asked him to become the chair of the department.
• The kind of relationship that Ray had with the Dean was unlike any other reporting relationship.
• How Ray's consulting experience changed the way that he saw himself.
• Serious players know themselves, they understand who they are, and they are committed to being who they are. They are not arrogant, they are just confident.
• Serious players are flexible up to a point but they cannot compromise who they are.
• Serious players are comfortable in their own skin and they generally don't try to dominate other people.
• Some ways to develop the characteristic of Psychological Self-Employment.
• The two basic questions of life are: 'Who am I?' and 'What am I going to do with who I am?'.
• Ray gives a key exercise to help you to find out what to do with your life.
• Serious players think about how they can be of service and benefit to others.

Links:

www.thegenysysgroup.com

We're concentrating right now on a concept that Ray developed many years ago, called serious play. Serious play looks at the characteristics of dynamic people, or serious players, who really get things done in the workplace. Today, we have the third part in the series about serious play. In the first and second parts, we gave an overview of serious play, and we spoke about how Ray came to discover it. Tune in now, to find out more!

Over the following six episodes, we will be examining the six characteristics of serious players that Ray has identified, and we will be diving deeply into each characteristic. Ray will give us a detailed description of what each characteristic is, he will share a story about someone who has lived out that characteristic, and then he will explain how others can develop those characteristics in their own lives. In today's episode, Ray talks about the Energizing Principle of Serious Play and he explains the four different ways to manage your energy. Listen in, to find out what Ray learned from serious players about the principle of being energized and energizing other people.

Show Highlights:

• Ray discusses the first characteristic of serious players.
• All of Ray's interviewees spent at least 60 percent of their time doing what they loved to do.
• Doing what they loved to do gave the serious players the surplus energy that they needed to do the things they didn't necessarily like to do but they had to do.
• Ray discovered that serious players were not only energized people, but they also energized the people around them. That's why they called it the Energizing Principle of Serious Play.
• An example of the Energizing Principle of Serious Play.
• People can develop the serious player within themselves.
• Some people actually shifted from reluctant work to serious play.
• Ray talks about the gentle art of mismatch reduction.
• Ray tells a story about changing positions within an organization.
• Ray found that there are four ways to do mismatch reduction, to move into an energizing place.
• An example of how Ray used stress management as a way to do mismatch reduction.
• The serious player exists within everybody.

Links:

www.thegenysysgroup.com

Would you like to know more about what it means to be a serious player? In our last episode, we introduced the idea of serious play. In today's episode, Ray and Amy continue with their previous conversation, where Ray started discussing the four-year series of interviews that he and Brenda conducted with people around the notion of serious play. Listen in, to learn more.

The concept of serious play is about the way that people approach their life and work as serious players. Today, to create a deeper understanding of what serious play means, Ray and Amy have a discussion about the common themes, patterns, and characteristics of serious players. Tune in now, and be introduced to the six powerful characteristics of serious players.

Show Highlights:

• Using the process of phenomenological research to unpack the stories of various serious players, in order to postulate a theory of serious play.
• It took Ray and Brenda four years to interview a minimum of thirty people who defined themselves as serious players.
• Their first interview was with Frank and Mike, two morning hosts, from a radio station in San Francisco.
• Serious players love to talk about themselves and their lives.
• They ended every interview by asking for suggestions for between one and three serious players that they should talk to next."
• Ray talks about his experience talking to Richard Symmons, the really eccentric exercise guy.
• They even talked to Hobie Alter, the inventor of the Hobie Cat.
• Ray shares the six common denominators that he and Brenda identified and named, that were the characteristics of all the serious players they interviewed.
• Serious players energize the other people in their presence.
• The key to serious players is that they are committed to being in a place where they are energized with what they are doing.
• Serious players are really in charge of their lives.
• Ray talks about his principal of Psychological Self-Employment.
• Serious players are independently wealthy.
• Ray talks about the attitude behind serious players being independently wealthy.
• Serious players have high self-esteem. They have high internal confidence and very little fear. Ray and Brenda called this characteristic Positive Paranoia.
• Serious players are prepared to swim against the tide. Ray and Brenda termed that principal The Third Law of Thermal Dynamics.
• Good things continue to happen to serious players. Ray and Brenda called this principal The Positive Self-Fulfilling Prophecies and this relates to visualization.
• When we believe that we can work around the obstacles, we will work around the obstacles.

Links and Resources:

If you'd like to learn more, visit www.thegenysysgroup.com.

Are you familiar with the concept of serious play? Today, we're shifting gears and moving into another element of transformation. We will be introducing the idea of serious play, which has become a hallmark of Ray's approach to his work. Listen in today, to find out how serious play relates to transformation.

There's a lot of depth to the characteristics and key principles of the story of serious play. In today's episode, we unpack this concept and we look at the way that it relates to transformation. Today, Ray also explains how he came up with the idea of serious play, and how he started to bring this whole concept together. Tune in now, to find out how creative energy fuels transformation.

Show Highlights:

• The story of serious play is Ray's philosophy of work.
• Ray explains how he started to bring the concept of serious play together.
• Ray explains what caused him to became disillusioned, as a student teacher, when he was working with gifted kids.
• Ray and his friend, Gary, concluded, after two years of conversation, that the majority of the teachers were not expressing who they were, in and through what they were doing.
• Ray talks about the course that he and his friend developed, called The Development of the Creative Teaching Personality.
• Most people don't understand that teaching is a creative kind of endeavor.
• Ray shares the questions that he would always ask his students at the beginning of his course, and what he would tell them after hearing their response.
• Ray explains why he postulates that the most creative person in our society is the four-year-old.
• School provides children with very little opportunity to use their imagination.
• Ray explains what he spoke about in his course, which was designed to help people discover their own creativity.
• What Ray's students would discover about the creative process, in his course.
• Where the whole idea of serious play emerged.
• Serious players know that they are creative.
• Ray discusses the key class-session that he taught in his course.
• Ray talks about what he discovered about the connection between tapping into the imagination and creativity, and between serious play and authenticity.
• The creative energy that comes out of serious players is what fuels transformation.

Resources:

For more information about The Art of Facilitation or any of the Genysys products or services, follow us, The Genysys Group, on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter.

Our website: www.thegenysysgroup.com

Would you like to know why organizations need to use assessments? Lately, Ray and Amy have been talking about the new products that the Genysys Group is releasing and they recently did an episode about the Organizational Health Assessment. There is still one more assessment that they are preparing to launch, called The Change Readiness Assessment. Listen in to find out more about it.

In today's episode, Ray and Amy will explain what the Change Readiness Assessment is. They will also talk about why organizations need assessments and why they are such useful tools when it comes to organizational health and organizational transformation. Tune in now, for more.

Show Highlights:

• Ray explains why we need assessments and why these tools are helpful when it comes to organizational transformation.
• An assessment shows how strong the foundation is for change within an organization.
• A lot of good ideas fail because we are not ready for them and we don't know how to determine if we are ready, or what we need to do in order to become ready.
• A good assessment is a catalyst for a conversation about reality.
• An assessment gives us a basis for where we are before any kind of change takes place.
• A post-assessment shows us where we are as a result of a change.
• What the Change Readiness Assessment that the Genysys Group has developed measures, and what sort of feedback could be expected from using it.
• Ray talks about the eight dimensions of the Change Readiness Assessment.
• The first dimension is the dimension of catalytic leadership.
• Ray gives a recap of what catalytic leadership is.
• Without good catalytic leadership, good ideas may never get off the ground.
• What the dimension of Opportunity For Change deals with.
• The fourth area deals with transformational leadership, the kind of leadership that is able to sustain change.
• The fifth area is the area of lead energy.
• The sixth area is planning. Choosing our focus and having clear, outcome-related roles.
• The seventh area deals with partnering, or who we know that we need to partner with.
• The eighth area deals with generative leadership. It looks at keeping the mission in play. Generative leadership is about the long term.
• The difference between a river organization and a puddle organization.
• Generative leadership is essential for sustained change.
• The value of the Change Readiness Assessment.
• The relationship between the Organizational Health Assessment and the Change Readiness Assessment, and the kinds of needs that each one fulfills.
• Ray has found that one of the key elements for being able to have meaningful transformational change is tied to the extent to which the organization is healthy, to begin with.
• The Organizational Health Assessment uncovered significant organizational dysfunction.
• Organizational health is foundational to organizational transformation.
• To find more information about the Change Readiness Assessment, go to www.thegenysysgroup.com.
• Assessments help us deal with the reality and they help us to challenge some of the assumptions that we are acting upon before clarifying the reality.

Links:

For more information, go to www.thegenysysgroup.com

Or follow us on social media at Genysys Group on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Welcome to another episode of How to Transform. Today our guide Ray Rood talks about the art of facilitation and the key elements of being a successful facilitator. Your host, Amy Hoppock, and Ray discuss how to find your role within a group, sustaining engagement, utilizing awareness, and how to integrate appropriate challenge. To learn how you can balance support and challenge while implementing lucrative facilitating skills join Amy and Ray in this episode of How to Transform.

Show Highlights:

• Why the facilitation course is a good investment
• Helping individuals find their own solutions and to identify what they know
• Developing a productive sense of harmony
• Balancing challenge and support
• The importance of continually asking questions
• Setting up expectations and a flow
• Leaving room for people to have their own dialogue and freedom
• How to facilitate different types of personalities
• Personality types that are more inclined to be facilitators
• Why being directive isn't quite as effective as facilitating
• Getting people to do things willfully and not out of obligation

Links:

https://thegenysysgroup.com

https://thegenysysgroup.com/category/podcast-how-to-transform/