Georgia Coach Association

Hi, Everyone!

This past Saturday, Linda and I were thrilled to present a ChangeWorks Explorientation for members of the Georgia Coach Association in Atlanta. It was wonderful to reconnect with many of our existing ChangeWorks professionals, including: Augusta Nash, Betsy Pickren, Kimberly Jackson, Peggy Titus-Hall, Mark Meredith, Gene Gallivan —  as well as Susan Brown, VP of Programming for GCA and Jodie Charlop, who gave me the singularly most amazing and touching introduction of my career!

With nearly 60 coaches in attendance, we also had a remarkable opportunity to meet dozens of new coaches and introduce them to the principles of tension management and show them how it impacts the work they do with their clients as well as their success at attracting more clients to their practices. Several of them have enrolled in the upcoming ChangeWorks Practitioner training programs and we look forward to welcoming them to our community.

THANK YOU to the GCA for inviting us to share our work with their members!

-T-

ChangeWorks Tuition Increase Coming

Hi, Everyone!

We want to let all of you know that several major changes will be coming to the ChangeWorks community in January 2011. Among them, we will be increasing the tuition for ChangeWorks Practitioner training by $500-$1,000 depending on the format chosen.

Since we’ve spoken with so many coaching, consulting and training professionals in recent months who are planning to enroll in the program this fall, we want to make sure that everyone has plenty of opportunity to complete their training before the fees increase.

We will be offering two ChangeWorks Practitioner 6-week webinar series and two ChangeWorks Practitioner 3-day weekend intensives in the months to come.

The 6-week webinar series begin on September 29th and November 10th.  The webinars are held on Wednesdays from 11AM to 1PM EST. The 3-day weekend intensives are scheduled for October 21-23 and December 2-4 from 9AM to 5PM EST each day. For full information, please review this briefing:

— Fall 2010 ChangeWorks Practitioner Webinar and Weekend Intensive Briefing —

If you believe any of your colleagues would be interested in ChangeWorks training, please encourage them to get involved NOW.

For more information, please speak with Linda at 704-987-6500.

-T-

2011 ChangeWorks Cruise

Hi, Everyone!

As most of you already know, we’ve scheduled a cruise for the ChangeWorks Community departing in less than 150 days.

Over a dozen ChangeWorks professionals have already confirmed their reservations — and many more have indicated their interest in joining us.  We want you all to know that prices are going up and you need to make your reservations soon if you want to get the best choice of rooms and rates.

We’ll be sailing aboard the Carnival Freedom from Ft. Lauderdale on January 9th, 2011 for 6 nights of fun and friendship.  Our voyage includes stops in Key West, Grand Cayman and Ocho Rios and two glorious days at sea.

For full details, visit the Carnival website:

Carnival Freedom, January 9-15, 2011

For reservations information, please work ONLY with our Carnival Personal Vacation Planner, Raul. Raul can be reached at 800-819-3902 extension 85772. You can also reach him on his cell phone at 305-710-1421. Raul will be happy to answer all of your questions and help you pick out a room! If someone else answers the phone, just tell them you’re calling for Raul and that our group has been arranged by Linda Napier. It’s absolutely critical that your reservations are made through Raul so that your reservation can be linked to our group.

We are really looking forward to the cruise — and we are hoping you will be joining us!

Here are 7 GREAT Reasons to BOOK NOW!

* Early Booking pricing is still available, but rates have already gone up since we made our original reservations — and as the ship hits certain booking levels, they raise the prices again!

* Early Booking means that if you see that Carnival has lowered the prices up to two days before the cruise, just let Raul know and he will adjust to the lower price for you and give you an onboard credit for the difference.

* You only pay a deposit of $250 to reserve a room. Nothing more is due until October 26th!

* If you are worried you may have to cancel just tell Raul, and he can set up that contingency for you.

* When it comes to choosing a stateroom, it’s location, location, location. You definitely don’t want to be above the disco or below the galley!

* Want to share a room? Let Raul know or send Linda a note and she will put it in her next email update.  You can also leave a comment here so you can contact others who want to go.

* Families are more than welcome!!! The ship is a fabulous place for the kids to have fun!

While we know that everyone wants to get away for a few days, get to know one another better and basically enjoy their cruise, we will be offering an optional daily learning event and sharing dinner as a group every evening.  The topics for the learning events will be decided closer to our departure date and will be based on the requests made by the ChangeWorks professionals who will be on the cruise.

If you have any questions, please give us a call at 704-987-6500.

There’s a fabulous group of people going along, so don’t delay!

-T-

Updated “Fundamentals” Page

Hi, Everyone!

We’ve just updated the “Fundamentals” page, which you can access by following the link in the upper navigation bar of this blog.

We added a 6-page introduction and overview of the ChangeWorks® System as well as links to the three orientation videos you can also find on the Tension Management Institute website.

These resources have been placed here to make it easier for you all to find them, as well as visitors to the blog.

Let me know if there are any other documents you’d like us to add to the Fundamentals page.

-T-

“Oracle of the Self” Project – MMH and MHH

Hi, Everyone!

On our last ChangeWorks Analyst call, we continued our exploration of the nine basic areas on the ChangeGrid for the interactive tool we’re developing. Our focus was on the Moderate Ability/High Challenge and Moderate Ability/Moderate Challenge sections.

I also presented a concept for what  the tool could become — the “Oracle of the Self” — a fast, fun and free way for people to experience the ChangeGrid.  This could take the form of a small booklet, an online mini-application and/or an app for smart phones. By clicking on the Oracle of the Self logo, the user is invited to “Discover the Wisdom Within.”

"Discover the Wisdom Within"

Users area asked to begin by thinking about a specific situation they’re currently experiencing where they would like to gain insight. Next, they are asked to rate their levels of Ability and Challenge as “Low,” “Moderate” or “High.” Based on their answers, they are directed to one of nine pages that provides them with a few paragraphs of information about the upside and downside of that area. They are also provided with a list of recommendations offered by ChangeWorks professionals.  Each recommendation takes the form of a quote, with the name of the professional and a link to learn more about him or her.

Participation is open to all Gold Team members.  To participate, we ask you to submit a well-written sentence or two explaining the upside and downside the area we’re exploring, insight into the sorts of activities the area is ideally suited for and recommendations for the user.

Here’s what we came up with on last week’s call:

MODERATE ABILITY — MODERATE CHALLENGE — HIGH IMPORTANCE

What is the Upside of this area?

I am IN the world, but not OF it. I let the winds of heaven dance around me. I know that I cannot push the river nor pull the sprout. (T)

I believe that I am fully in control of all elements of the task at hand. (Steve Snyder)

This is the place of non-attachment and stillness with whatever you encounter. (Thornton Prayer)

I am at peace, balanced, secure and whole, feeling fully, thinking with clarity, and self sufficient.  (Daniel Latch)

Feel safe and secure. (Sairamesh Govindaraj)

Here you will find a sense of peace, calm, and true balance. (Paul Plamondon)

My commitment to the task is not in question. I am able to “walk the talk.” (Steve Snyder)

I am open and ready to receive information about the world around me. (T)

I am developing a deeper understanding of what I need to do. (Steve Snyder)

What is this area a great place for?

Simply “being” (T)

Recharging my batteries. (T)

Practicing the art of caring detachment. (T)

I am not my ego, nor the expectations of others, and I trust my intuition. (Daniel Latch)

Asking myself what’s next? What is all this reflection, planning and prep leading me to do? (Steve Snyder)

The center is a great place for being in the flow – “doing without doing” and “working without having to work”. (Thornton Prayer)

Reflection & Exploration. (Sairamesh Govindaraj)

This is a great place to operate from and to return to in order to maintain balance and harmony in my life and efforts. (Daniel Latch)

This is a great place for engaging in heart-felt activities, relationship-building, empathy, and connecting with others. (Paul Plamondon)

This is a great place where you can be still and know. (Thornton Prayer)

This is a great place for being deeply in touch with yourself and aligned with the world around you. (Paul Plamondon)

This is a great place to let go and just BE. (Daniel Latch)

This is a great place for noticing what’s good about other people. (Paul Plamondon)

This is a great place to practice the power of attraction. (Daniel Latch)

What is the Downside of this area?

There is insufficient disturbance to compel you to change or grow. (T)

I may confuse planning and reflecting with acting. (Steve Snyder)

You may not act or even notice the need to act when necessary. (Thornton Prayer)

Beware being too at ease to move out and DO. (Daniel Latch)

May experience a sense of containment & routine. (Sairamesh Govindaraj)

If productivity is important, this is not the place to be. (Paul Plamondon)

I may lose the support of those on my team who are ready to get moving on the task. (Steve Snyder)

You may linger too long or unnecessarily in a state of calmness. (Thornton Prayer)

Lest circumstances disrupt your bubble of harmony, make things happen. Take control. (Daniel Latch)

Downside: Your slow movement may annoy others, especially if they want to make progress. (Paul Plamondon)

While you are very much in control of yourself, remember that not much real work gets done here. (Steve Snyder)

What recommendations would you give the individual plotting in this area?

I need to think about getting out of the driving lane and into the passing lane. (Steve Snyder)

Make sure you consciously center yourself when you want and consciously take actions when needed. (Thornton Prayer)

Limit your reflections and start acting on those that call your attention, here and now. (Sairamesh Govindaraj)

Look both ways one more time and then step off the curb! (Steve Snyder)

Reach out to challenge yourself more and remember to return to this place to recharge and prepare for your next excursion. (Daniel Latch)

If your task is important and needs to get done, light a fire under yourself by accelerating the due date. (Paul Plamondon)

MODERATE ABILITY — HIGH CHALLENGE — HIGH IMPORTANCE

What is the Upside of this area?

Urgency to act decisively is likely and high. (Thornton Prayer)

The upside of this location is that it is a place of fast action and intense skill development (Paul Plamondon)

A place which would test your abilities to the best. (Sairamesh Govindaraj)

I am confident, eager and enthusiastic about the task at hand. (Steve Snyder

I am ready to go now! (Steve Snyder)

The upside of this location is that it has you tap into your own resourcefulness to take action and get the job done. (Paul Plamondon)

This is the area where you know it’s time to get moving! (Thornton Prayer)

Your energy is well placed to collaborate with others from a leadership or facilitative role where your abilitiy to communicate, sense of adventure, and initiative will prove infectious and emboldening of others.  (Daniel Latch)

Upside: I feel a lot of energy around accomplishing this task and I’m eager to stretch my skills. (Paul Plamondon)

What is this area a great place for?

Influencing, persuading, convincing (T)

Taking risks — having an adventure (T)

Romance (T)

A great place for putting your people skills to effective use. (Sairamesh Govindaraj)

Sink my teeth into a new project (Steve Snyder)

Infect others with my enthusiasm for the task (Steve Snyder)

Making important changes as soon as possible (Thornton Prayer)

Convincing others to contribute to making important changes together. (Thornton Prayer)

This is a great place for taking bold action. Paul Plamondon

This is a great place for starting a new venture.  (Daniel Latch)

Great place for team work. (Sairamesh Govindaraj)

This is a great place for creating a team or getting your team aligned on challenging objectives. (Daniel Latch)

What is the Downside of this area?

Impulsive actions may lead you astray. (Thornton Prayer)

Need for people sensitivity. (Sairamesh Govindaraj)

The sense of urgency I’m feeling could lead me to impulsive decisions and rash actions. (T)

I may be too aggressive and confrontational with those not sharing my eagerness. (Steve Snyder)

I may have a tolerance for risk that makes others uncomfortable. (Steve Snyder)

People may perceive you to be manipulative. (Sairamesh Govindaraj)

Beware of being too full of yourself or you may put off those you need to succeed.(Daniel Latch)

You may take necessary action before you have developed the appropriate skills to succeed. (Thornton Prayer)

Resources could be misplaced (T)

You are more likely to “fire, ready, aim” which may put others off. (Paul Plamondon)

What recommendations would you give the individual plotting in this area?

Go for it and trust yourself to know when it is time to add resources. Everything will come together if you stretch. Be careful not to over extend. (Daniel Latch)

This is a place to trust your intuition and go for it. Your charisma and charm will offset any deficiencies you may feel. (Daniel Latch)

Before you launch the attack, do some recon to confirm you’re doing the right thing. (T)

I need to fully evaluate the risk factors associated with the task. (Steve Snyder

I need to seek cooperative rather than competitive strategies to pursue the task. (Steve Snyder)

Develop a set of alternatives to demonstrate quick & small victories for people to experience and believe. (Sairamesh Govindaraj)

Make sure you differentiate clearly between the desire for immediate action and your desired outcome and results. (Thornton Prayer)

Be willing to listen to alternatives from others. (Sairamesh Govindaraj)

Engage in bold action, but be sure to counter-balance it by carefully evaluating what you’ve accomplished and adjusting your approach, if needed. (Paul Plamondon)

Take a deep breath and get clear on your purpose so you don’t go off half-cocked and shoot yourself in the foot. (Daniel Latch)

Again, participation in this project is open to all Gold Team members.  If you aren’t able to join us for our regular Tuesday 12N EST calls, you can still be a part of the project. Just send me an email with your answers to the four questions — and be sure your answers are stated in FULL SENTENCES followed by your name in parentheses (saves me mucho tiempo!) Also, if you’ve already contributed your insights and would like to expand upon or edit what you’ve provided, just send me an email with your revisions.

So what would YOU like to add? Do you agree with the statements that have been contributed? Are there any changes you’d like to suggest?

-T-

Campaign Feature Enhancement

Hi, Everyone!

We’re pleased to announce that our software developers are getting ready to deploy an enhancement to the campaign feature that many of you requested.  You will SOON be able to specify whether or not you would like to receive email notifications whenever someone completes one of your campaign profiles.

The developers have told us that they plan to complete this upgrade on Thursday, May 20th — so unless and until they tell us otherwise, we will expect things to happen on that date.

PLEASE BE AWARE that once this feature is activated, it will be necessary for you to access each of your active campaigns, indicate your email choice, then capture and use the NEW campaign link — the old ones will no longer work.  Fear not — it’s a VERY easy update to make and Steven will be thrilled to help you.

Let us know if you have any questions.

-T-

Updated Professionals List

Hi, Everyone!

We have updated and uploaded the list of ChangeWorks and MasterStream  professionals.  You can access it by clicking on the “Professionals” link in the upper navigation bar of this blog.

Please let us know if you have any contact information you’d like us to change, any typos we need to correct or if you prefer to NOT be listed and would like us to remove you.

Have a great weekend —

-T-

Updated Professionals List

Hi, Everyone!

We have updated and uploaded the list of ChangeWorks and MasterStream  professionals.  You can access it by clicking on the “Professionals” link in the upper navigation bar of this blog.

Please let us know if you have any contact information you’d like us to change, any typos we need to correct or if you prefer to NOT be listed and would like us to remove you.

Have a great weekend —

-T-

List of CW/MS Professionals

Hi, Everyone!

I just created a new page here on the blog (next to my bio) entitled “Professionals” — and I’m curious to get your input.

My intention is to provide all of the ChangeWorks & MasterStream Professionals with an easy way to contact one another — BUT I don’t want to put it up in a format that Internet spiders (worms? creepy-crawlers?) could use to harvest your contact information.  So I put it up as a PDF document without email hyperlinks. When you click on the link, it will download the latest edition of the list to your computer.

So I’m curious, do you like having the list here?

While you’re looking it over, if you notice any mistakes, want different contact information used or prefer to be removed from the list altogether, just let me know.

For those of you who are NOT listed, it just means that you haven’t graduated yet or haven’t told us which support package you want. Just give us a call at 704-987-6500 and we can finish things up.

-T-

NEW ChangeWorks Certification Requirements

Hi, Everyone!

Before you read any further, please note that the following information DOES NOT apply to anyone who became a Certified ChangeWorks Practitioner prior to October 15th, 2009. Since that date is still a few days away, NOTHING is changing for ANY of you.

As we have continued to present and refine the training for ChangeWorks Professionals, we’ve recognized the need to offer a choice in the level of “seriousness” with which students pursue the program.

In large part, this is an accommodation for corporate students — managers and executives who want to gain basic knowledge and practical skill in the use of the ChangeGrid with their employees, but who are NOT interested in meeting the training and testing requirements for certification.

With that in mind, our new curriculum, beginning with the upcoming program in San Francisco October 22-24, has been split into two parts: Practitioner Training and Practitioner Certification.

ChangeWorks Practitioner Training:

We will continue to offer ChangeWorks Practitioner training in both a webinar series and live workshop format.

The webinar series has been expanded from 6 weeks to 8 weeks in order to provide more time for Group Profiling and Marketing Profiles to be explored.

The 3-day workshop will cover most of the same material, with a few adjustments to free up more time for exercises in designing, administering and interpreting ChangeGrids.

Our intention over the next few months is to migrate several sections of the training to pre-work assignments, ultimately offering a self-paced, web-based option for completing the program.

ChangeWorks Practitioner Certification:

After their Practitioner training, graduates will have the opportunity to pursue the “Certified ChangeWorks Practitioner” designation. There will be a separate testing fee for Bronze and Silver Team members, which will be waived for members of the Gold Team.

The certification process should be completed in 90 days or less following the completion of the ChangeWorks Practitioner training program.  There are 3 steps:

Step 1: Pass a written exam.

The exam is 100 questions, covering core concepts presented over the course of the training program.

Step 2: Complete 10 ChangeWorks Profiles.

Next, Candidates design, administer and interpret 10 customized ChangeWorks profiles for a combination of Certified ChangeWorks Practitioners and other human development professionals, each of whom is asked to complete a brief feedback report.  The sessions are also recorded and reviewed by a ChangeWorks Certifier.

Step 3: Pass an oral exam.

Once all 10 feedback reports have been received, the Candidate’s certifier conducts a final oral exam, asking the Candidate a series of questions based on the ChangeWorks profiles submitted during Step 2.

Candidates who complete and pass all three steps will be awarded the “Certified ChangeWorks Practitioner” designation.

We are open to any ideas you may have about ways to make the certification process more valuable and meaningful for everyone involved.

If you have any questions or suggestions, we’d love to chat!

– T –