Once upon a time, there was a stream, tumbling over stones and winding slowly through the fields and hedgerows. A storm came and the heavy rain washed off the hills. The stream changed. How could it not? The once placid and predictable stream, where you could see the fish and the plants waving gently
I was talking with a friend about his plans to get fit, lose weight, run a marathon and lots of other laudable stuff. It sounded good until I asked... "What are you doing today to make a change to achieve your goals?" Nothing. He was all talk and not yet committed. In your working
Conventional wisdom refers to the commonly held beliefs, ideas and assumptions that a community or population has about an issue. These lead to a set of expectations, interpretations and explanations that people assume are true. As a result, the ideas embedded in conventional wisdom are rarely challenged. Even if people acknowledge there is a
When talking about humanity's ability to change, a character in the Westworld series said... "Strange new light can be just as frightening as the dark" Dolores Abernathy, Westworld Season 2.2 Did that hit you like it did me? When I look back I see many things I regret not doing because I was scared,
We use fear as a signal to move away from things that are dangerous and scary. But we can get confused. Some things can be scary but not dangerous. When we avoid change, it is often because it is scary, even if it is not dangerous. What is a change you are thinking about
Creating a new habitual behaviour... At first, it's easy. It's different, new and you are focussed on it. Maybe you are doing it as the result of something that inspired you. Inspiration makes light work of any task. Then it gets tougher. The inspiration seems a distant memory, the changes seem slow, the old
Wine does not agree with me, but I was told organic wine may not have the same rather uncomfortable side effects. So, I drank organic wine... It reminded me that we fall into patterns of behaviour which we don't update as our life and opportunities around us change. Often, those patterns serve us well, but
"Without change, something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper MUST awaken!" Frank Herbert (From the novel Dune) Change means we need to think, and act, differently to deal with the change. And yes, with too much change, we can become overwhelmed. But without change, we atrophy, and we cease to grow. What change
So you want some people to change the way they do things? The biggest barrier to that change is their environment. It is like quicksand that inexorably draws people back down to their old way of being and stifles the change. Escaping quicksand is not easy, but it is possible. Here is how Bear Grylls
Ever tried to stop someone, even yourself, doing something? Tough, isn't it. Stopping something leaves a vacuum, and the thing that fits that vacuum perfectly, is (you guessed it) the old behaviour. Instead, create a new behaviour. Ideally, design the new behaviour so that doing it means the old one cannot also be done. So
Sometimes, don't be authentic – article by Paul Matthews published in the March edition of Better Business Focus "I couldn't possibly do that. It would feel wrong. It would not be 'me'. It would be inauthentic, and we are told we should always be authentic and true to ourselves." Guess what; if you believe that, you have stopped yourself from growing. Read
Behaviour Change at eLN Conference - Beyond 'click next'…digital learning solutions come of age on 11th November 2015 - London We are happy to announce that Paul Matthews, MD, has been invited to speak at a session at the first eLearning Network (eLN) one day conference. The eLN wanted to create an event that has a friendly and informal feel and one that
According to BJ Fogg, a professor at Stanford University and expert in behavioural change, there are only three things that will lead to reliable long term behaviour change. Find out the 3 routes to behaviour change, and what won't work in Paul Matthews' article in the Better Business Focus Magazine August 2015 (page 18).