relationships

Luke, I Am Your Training Department!

Posted on by Janet Webb

Do you have a training department? You might have a finance arm, or a marketing team or even an HR department. But how do you get your staff developed?

You have a team of staff. Your organisation is growing. You’re navigating through change and you are thriving – or at least surviving.  But you are not yet big enough to have a team of in-house trainers.

And yet…

…to keep your staff working effectively, feeling engaged and able to deal with change, they still need skills development.

That’s where I come in.

Who Is Janet Webb?

Janet training a group on critical thinking and problem solving. She's sat on a desk and her banners are to the right. Thet read - working with your brain the way your brain works.
Janet training – her happy place.

As a trained and experienced trainer, facilitator, mentor and coach I can offer you the skills that you need, when you need them. I have managed training and development functions; this means that I have managed the whole process from learning needs analysis, through the development and project management phase, through to delivery and evaluation.

So if you or your staff need training but you have no learning and development team, then give me a call.

  • Assertiveness
  • Emotional Intelligence
  • Presentation Skills
  • Creative Thinking
  • Problem Solving and Critical Thinking
  • Management Skills
  • Train the Trainer

And I am good at it. Have a look at others’ testimonies about me, at the bottom of my LinkedIn page.

Why Are We Feeling Anxious During Lock-down?

Posted on by Janet Webb
Waves crashing against a groyne
Change can feel turbulent, which may be why are we feeling anxious during lock-down

I was speaking to a friend over the weekend who was feeling vulnerable at work before the lock-down and is feeling anxious during lock-down now that she is furloughed and out of any normal communication channels.  The management style in her organisation is pretty aggressive (and sulky) and she’s had no communication from her manager in a month. She’s had two standard letters from HR; the last one arriving to say that she would not be going back to work in two days time as indicated in her previous letter. She feels like she is being crashed about by waves that she can’t see.

This article is based on the e-mail that I sent her; if your work place feels threatening at the moment, and you are feeling anxious, then this is for you too.

 

E-mail to a friend who is feeling anxious during lock-down and shouldn’t be.

According to various pieces of research, there are a number of factors that have an impact on how we respond to situations (for example see anything by David Rock, Amy Brann, Prof Steve Peters, Jan Hills)

David Rock’s SCARF model gives us a structure for thinking about what is happening to us during change.  We respond either with a threat response or a reward response; we either like what is happening and get positive hormones or we feel threatened and we send out fear hormones, preparing us for our imminent death! This is all influenced by our own circumstance and how we view things. Nevertheless, organisations have a responsibility to not harm their staff; mentally and physically.

Status – our sense of personal worth

Questions to ask – How does this affect my status? Does this impact on my credibility? Where am I on the pecking order? How do I compare to others?

Certainty – our sense of the future

Questions to ask – How well can I predict the future? Do I know what is likely to happen next? Do I have the information that will help me predict the future?

Autonomy – our sense of control over our life

Questions to ask – To what degree can I make decisions and choices? What control do I have? What input do I have over the things that affect me?

Relatedness – our sense of safety with others

Questions to ask – Am I safe with other people? How much do I trust others? How connected do I feel? Am I in or out of the “in” group?

Fairness – our sense of fairness in the system

Questions to ask – Is what’s happening fair? Am I experiencing fair connections and exchanges with others? Is the system intrinsically fair?

Looking at this and asking the questions, you can see that almost every aspect of the current situation is likely to generate a threat response in you at the moment. Each of the areas is likely to trigger stress hormones. If you were on a battle field you could use that to beat everyone up; you would be invincible.  The trouble is that you can’t! So you are left with a mental soup of hormones telling you to run or fight but you can’t use those hormones up. It is no wonder that you are struggling – anyone would! You are in a constant state of alarm which needs turning down.

But there is good news here – what to do about it.

 

Twitter – Five Levels and Counting

Posted on by Janet Webb

People use Twitter to achieve different things and in different ways.  However, I’ve noticed that there appears to be a sort of hierarchy and, like most hierarchies, it’s unhelpful, especially to those on the lower rungs.

The Monarchy – the celebrities who Tweet about their meal choices. Why? Because they think their fans want it, not because this is a normal thing to do in real life. They have to ignore the overwhelming flood of response.  They could of course just not Tweet but that’s not the point.

Drawing of a ladder demonstrating the rungs of Twitter
Which Twitter rung are you on?

 

The Aristocracy – they Tweet to share their world view, opinions and experience. They expect to get a response; they just aren’t really interested in what that response is.  Their connections are in place – they don’t need to make any more through Twitter.  And let’s be clear, if they had to meet you in real life they would be frankly appalled.

The Gentry – they Tweet and generously respond and engage with their audience. They aren’t really interested in anyone on a lower rung but it looks like they are. After all, those people on the lower rungs may actually be unidentified Aristocracy.  If they met you in real life they wouldn’t recognize you, despite communicating with you for years!

The Yeomanry – they Tweet to share and receive. They want to use the process to build relationships with other people.  Sadly, when they engage with the Gentry they think that they are engaging on their own rung, but they’re not. They want to meet you in real life – that is the point.

The Artisans – they have no idea what the fuss is all about and are just getting on with real life.

Please note:

This is just my opinion. None of this is true about anyone all of the time.  People who describe themselves as thought leaders have a special rung all of their own.

Working With Fear and Intent

Posted on by Janet Webb

I work in fear. I don’t mean I’m frightened, I mean I work in arenas where anxiety stops people performing to their best. Also, I work with intent; both my intent and the intent of those I am working with. I’ve discovered over the years that being clear about your intent and challenging your fears are pretty good ways to start dealing with things.

New Managers – what stops them excelling in supporting their staff or sorting out problems? Fear of getting it wrong, or being seen as weak and so being unclear about what they are trying to achieve.

Middle and Senior Managers – what stops them being great leaders? Facing the pressure from both directions; juggling expectations coming up and demands coming down. This leads to worrying that they might not be cutting it and even imposter syndrome.

Communications – what stops people being effective in their communications? Not deciding what outcome they are after, fear of what others are thinking and fear of stuffing it up.

Dealing with change – what stops people handling this well? Fear of the unknown, not facing those fears, not exploring what choices they have available and not reaching for a positive future state.

In many situations asking two questions of ourselves and others can open up a new perspective and so move things along swimmingly:

  • what are you frightened of?
  • what are you hoping to achieve?

I’ll spend my days helping people to answer these two questions. I didn’t set out to do this work; it came and found me when I started to address my fears and wonder what my purpose was.

SoMe, So What? Why Bother With Social Media?

Posted on by Janet Webb

Social Media does a whole host of stuff – acts as a shop window, gives you access to lots of other shop windows and begins the process of building relationships, both with customers and colleagues. On its own it has its limits; relationships are built much better and faster face-to-face and building relationships is very important to me. (see here) But Social Media can be the beginning of something fabulous and valuable. Here are just a few people (and their Twitter handles) I’ve met first through SoMe, then in real life and what they mean to me.

 

Sarah Harvey – @SavvySarahSPM

When I first set up my business I knew that the isolation could be damaging, both in terms of my mental well being but also through working in a very small silo. I put out a call on LinkedIn for some like minded people to form an action learning set and Savvy Sarah responded straight away.  Meeting her for the first time I was a bit daunted; she’s rather an impressive character.  I soon discovered that she is generous, intelligent, action orientated, supportive and gently challenging.  She’s clever, there are no two ways about it, and she does this in such a warm and engaging way that I love to spend time with her.

 

Jo Turner – @JoodlesJo

A few years ago I went through a particularly stressful time.  I had been freelance for a while and the initial excitement had worn off but the business was not exactly flooding in.  I had a couple of things on my mind that were spinning around and around and seriously starting to affect my waking and sleeping life.  I noticed on Twitter a course on Zen Doodling – a mindfulness technique taught by the delightful Jo Joodles.  A morning in her company, with two other similarly stressed women, gave me a strategy for completely emptying my mind and relaxing.  She welcomed us into her home and gave generously of herself.  Wonderful.

 

Niall Gavin – @niallgavinuk

I met Niall at a networking event where he was doing a talk on using Social Media as a learning resource.  He had been popping up in my Twitter timeline and was obviously well respected by my peers.  He had also recently faced a major health scare and so his perspective on life and getting the most from it is fascinating.  I have spent time with him on a number of occasions. He is someone that I am happy to chat through ideas with; he has a wise and gentle way about him, along with an infectious humour and a certain spark that gives rather than drains.

 

Jo Cook – @LightbulbJo

Jo, or rather Lightbulb Jo, kept popping up in my timeline and seemed to be universally respected by my network.  I then met her at a launch for a book on webinars, one of Jo’s specialisms.  From the first moment of meeting her she was generous with her time, with offers of help and with praise.  She recently held my hand through the techy bit of being part of a webinar panel and did it with such grace and encouragement that it was easy to admit when I had been a bit numptyish.

 

Tony Jackson – @JacksonT0ny

I posted on Twitter a few years ago that I had signed up to a Tweet-up and that I had no idea what that meant.  Tony replied that he was in the same boat and looked forward to seeing me there.  Two years later I have a friend that I can discuss great big issues with – like the meaning of life and such – or have a giggly lunch with, chatting about some of the crappy stuff.  He writes intelligently, takes beautiful photographs and lives life with passion.  Whatever he does he does well.  He’s also incredibly loyal; I’m very privileged to have him in my corner.

 

Doug Shaw – @dougshaw1

I bumped into Doug at a conference; we had an interesting discussion about colour and decorating ourselves (I had just dyed my fringe blue.)  Doug is an artist and uses art to help organisations and individuals to get a different perspective on change, learning, the world etc.  We met recently for coffee for the sole reason of getting to know each other better, having chatted remotely via Twitter. Doug brings a different view point and for that reason always adds to any discussion.  He is also charming to spend time with.

 

All of these (and others) are important to me.  They keep me sane, on track, engaged, curious and content – and I wouldn’t have met them if it hadn’t been for social media.

 

When The Tech Is Not What’s Needed

Posted on by Janet Webb

Three humans blasted into space today. They were flying on one of the most complex pieces of kit ever designed, on their way to the pinnacle* of human achievement so far; the International Space Station.

These three men (they happened to be men – this is not a post about women in STEM) have undergone the most extensive and intensive training of anyone on our plant. Collectively they have the latest understanding on how to do the most technologically advanced job in history. And what did they have in their hands? Tricorders? iPads? Other technological widgets designed by NASA for the mission? No. Pads of paper with step by step instructions. Also, they had pointy sticks so that they could reach the controls whilst being pushed back into their seats.

soyuz

Tweet from Spaceflight Now, photo copyright NASA – obvs!

 

Why the low tech solution? Because these things work. They are utterly reliable, easy to use and cheap. They are exactly the right tool for the job. Sometimes tech is not what is needed.

Yesterday I met up with the wise and gentle Niall Gavin. We chatted about life, work, family etc over breakfast. We challenged each other over current ideas and helped get new perspectives. We also discussed trust. In particular the trust that you need to let the mask down, to be a bit un-professional and raw, and to be confident that this won’t cause a problem. Your Venn diagram has to have a really good overlap to get to that point of trust. This doesn’t happen via e-mail and social media.

Sometimes face to face is better. Tech solutions open up all sorts of amazing opportunities for meeting people – see next blog post. But there is no tech in the world that builds a relationship anywhere near as well as chatting with someone over a cup (or glass) of something comforting.

So, if you can, go and meet your personal network, your client, your supplier, your delegates. Because that’s what works.
* in my opinion – happy to debate this. (Unless you think that the pinnacle of human achievement has anything to do with a sport! Or the Kardashians.)