There are many possible intervention strategies from which to choose. Several assumptions about the nature and functioning of organizations are made in the choice of a particular strategy. Richard Beckhard, an early organizational development pioneer, lists six such assumptions:

1. The basic building blocks of an organization are groups (teams). Therefore, the basic units of change are groups, not individuals.

2. An always relevant change goal is the reduction of inappropriate competition between parts of the organization and the development of a more collaborative condition.

3. Decision making in a healthy organization is located where the information sources are, rather than in a particular role or level of hierarchy.

4. Organizations, subunits of organizations, and individuals continuously manage their affairs against goals. Controls are interim measurements, not the basis of managerial strategy.

5. One goal of a healthy organization is to develop generally open communication, mutual trust, and confidence between and across levels.

6. People support what they help create. People affected by a change must be allowed active participation and a sense of ownership in the planning and conduct of the change.

Interventions range from those designed to improve the effectiveness of individuals through those designed to deal with teams and groups, intergroup relations, and the total organization. There are interventions that focus on task issues (what people do), and those that focus on process issues (how people go about doing it). Finally, interventions may be classified according to which change mechanism they tend to emphasize: for example, feedback, awareness of changing cultural norms, interaction and communication, conflict, and education through either new knowledge or skill practice.

One of the most difficult tasks confronting the change agent is to help create in the client system a safe climate for learning and change. In a favorable climate, human learning builds on itself and continues indefinitely during man's lifetime. Out of new behavior, new dilemmas and problems emerge as the spiral continues upward to new levels. In an unfavorable climate, in contrast, learning is far less certain, and in an atmosphere of psychological threat, it often stops altogether. Unfreezing old ways can be inhibited in organizations because the climate makes employees feel that it is inappropriate to reveal true feelings, even though such revelations could be constructive. In an inhibited atmosphere, therefore, necessary feedback is not available. Also, trying out new ways may be viewed as risky because it violates established norms. Such an organization may also be constrained because of the law of systems: If one part changes, other parts will become involved. Hence, it is easier to maintain the status quo. Hierarchical authority, specialization, span of control, and other characteristics of formal systems also discourage experimentation.

The change agent must address all of these hazards and obstacles. Some of the things which will help them are:

1. A real need in the client system to change
2. Genuine support from management
3. Setting a personal example: listening, supporting behavior
4. A sound background in the behavioral sciences
5. A working knowledge of systems theory
6. A belief in man as a rational, self-educating being fully capable of learning better ways to do things.

A few examples of interventions include team building, coaching, Large Group Interventions, mentoring, performance appraisal, downsizing, TQM, and leadership development.

Figure 1: Systems Model of Action-Research Process

The Action-Research Process involves three steps of change:

"Unfreezing": Faced with a dilemma or disconfirmation, the individual or group becomes aware of a need to change.

"Changing": The situation is diagnosed and new models of behavior are explored and tested.

"Refreezing": Application of new behavior is evaluated, and if reinforcing, adopted.

Action research is depicted as a cyclical process of change. The cycle begins with a series of planning actions initiated by the client and the change agent working together. The principal elements of this stage include a preliminary diagnosis, data gathering, feedback of results, and joint action planning. In the language of systems theory, this is the input phase, in which the client system becomes aware of problems as yet unidentified, realizes it may need outside help to effect changes, and shares with the consultant the process of problem diagnosis.

The second stage of action research is the action, or transformation, phase. This stage includes actions relating to learning processes (perhaps in the form of role analysis) and to planning and executing behavioral changes in the client organization. As shown in Figure 1, feedback at this stage would move via Feedback Loop A and would have the effect of altering previous planning to bring the learning activities of the client system into better alignment with change objectives. Included in this stage is action-planning activity carried out jointly by the consultant and members of the client system. Following the workshop or learning sessions, these action steps are carried out on the job as part of the transformation stage.

The third stage of action research is the output, or results, phase. This stage includes actual changes in behavior (if any) resulting from corrective action steps taken following the second stage. Data are again gathered from the client system so that progress can be determined and necessary adjustments in learning activities can be made. Minor adjustments of this nature can be made in learning activities via Feedback Loop B (see Figure 1). Major adjustments and reevaluations would return the OD project to the first, or planning, stage for basic changes in the program. As indicated in the diagram, the planning stage is a period of unfreezing, or problem awareness. The action stage is a period of changing or trying out new forms of behavior in an effort to understand and cope with the system's problems. (There is inevitable overlap between the stages, since the boundaries are not clear-cut and cannot be in a continuous process). The results stage is a period of refreezing, in which new behaviors are tried out on the job and, if successful and reinforcing, become a part of the system's repertoire of problem-solving behavior.

Action research is problem centered, client centered, and action oriented. It involves the client system in a diagnostic, active-learning, problem-finding, and problem-solving process. Data are not simply returned in the form of a written report but instead are fed back in open joint sessions, and the client and the change agent collaborate in identifying and ranking specific problems, in devising methods for finding their real causes, and in developing plans for coping with them realistically and practically. Scientific method in the form of data gathering, forming hypotheses, testing hypotheses, and measuring results, although not pursued as rigorously as in the laboratory, is nevertheless an integral part of the process. Action research also sets in motion a long-range, cyclical, self-correcting mechanism for maintaining and enhancing the effectiveness of the client's system by leaving the system with practical and useful tools for self-analysis and self-renewal. Organization Development (OD) helps in development of the total organization.

Next up, Organizational Development Interventions

1. Purposes: The organization’s members are clear about the organization’s mission and purpose and goal agreements. The key factor here is whether members support the organization’s purpose.

2. Structure: How does an organization divide up the work? The question is whether there is an adequate fit between the purpose and the internal structure. Does the structure support achievement of the organization’s mission?

3. Relationship: Relationship here is critical! It must be defined between individuals, between units or departments that perform different tasks, and between the people and requirements of their job. Are the relationships healthy relationships?

4. Rewards: The Organizational Development (OD) professional should diagnose the similarities between what the organization formally rewards or punishes its members for doing. Is the organization sending mixed messages? Is the organization rewarding less useful behaviors?

5. Leadership: Leadership here means to watch for blips among the other boxes and maintain balance among them. How effective is the organization in providing leadership for its members? Is the organization active or passive in leadership?

6. Helpful Mechanism: These are the tools that organizations must attend to in order to survive such as planning, control, budgeting, and other information systems that help organization member accomplish the organization’s mission. Does the organization have helpful mechanisms in place? If so, how effective are those mechanisms in assisting the organizational members achieve the organization’s mission?

This six step model enables the Organizational Development (OD) professional to clearly understand and define the organization as it truly exists today, before any Action Research or Organizational Development (OD) interventions are performed on the organization.

Next we cover Action Research and Organizational Development (OD) interventions.

Improved Organizational Performance
The objective of Organizational development (OD) is to improve the organization's capacity to handle its internal and external functioning and relationships. This would include such things as improved interpersonal and group processes, more effective communication, enhanced ability to cope with organizational problems of all kinds, more effective decision processes, more appropriate leadership style, improved skill in dealing with destructive conflict, and higher levels of trust and cooperation among organizational members. These objectives stem from a value system based on an optimistic view of the nature of man — that man in a supportive environment is capable of achieving higher levels of development and accomplishment. Essential to organization development and effectiveness is the scientific method — inquiry, a rigorous search for causes, experimental testing of hypotheses, and review of results. The organization is only as effective as the sum of its parts. Each part supports itself and its interdependent parts and the larger system, the organization.

Organizational Self-Renewal
The ultimate aim of Organizational Development (O)D practitioners is to "work themselves out of a job" by leaving the client organization with a set of tools, behaviors, attitudes, and an action plan with which to monitor its own state of health and to take corrective steps toward its own renewal and development. This is consistent with the systems concept of feedback as a regulatory and corrective mechanism. The objective is to leave the organization more effective and educated on how to continuously measure, review, and correct itself so it maintains peak levels of effectiveness through continuous self-renewal.

Next, we cover six (6) steps to understanding the organization

Organizational Development is typically a long range effort in an organizations problem solving, collaborative management, or renewal processes through the use of a change agent and the application of theory while applying behavioral sciences. Here, change agent means a leader who is engaged in the application of the holistic transformative process as opposed to managing an incremental or efficiency based change methodology. That said, there is a particular structure Organizational Development (OD) typically takes within and organization. Here are the main players and the key structure an organization needs in order to start Organizational Development (OD) strategy.

Change Agent: A change agent is not a technical expert in a particular area such as accounting, information technology, finance, or production etc. Here a change agent is a behavioral scientist who knows how to engage people within an organization so they are involved in solving their own problems. Their main strength lies in understanding human behavior and then applying various intervention techniques in order to engage individuals within the organization in the Organizational Development (OD) strategy. The change agent may be external or internal to the organization. IN either case, a "contractual relationship" should be clearly defined. A “contractual relationship” is an agreement that should probably be explicit with respect to all of the conditions involved except the fee.

Sponsoring Organization: The sponsoring Organization is the organization that has the problem. This means that top management or an individual assigned by top management recognizes an issue exists and is committed to taking appropriate action to resolve the issue. It is implied here that the organization MUST be actively involved in solving its own issues!

Contractual Relationship: A document defining the relationship between the sponsoring organization and the change agent regardless if the change agent is internal or external to the organization. Although neither the sponsoring organization nor the change agent can be sure of the exact nature of the problem or problems to be dealt with (if not previously define) or how long the change agents' help will be needed, it is essential that some agreement be reached. The sponsoring organization needs to know generally what the change agent's preliminary plan will be, what its own commitments are in relation to personal commitments and responsibility for the program, and what the change agent's fee will be. The change agent must assure himself that the organization’s (particularly the top executives) commitment to change is strong enough to support the kind of self-analysis and personal involvement required for success of the strategy. A termination agreement permitting either side to withdraw at any time is usually included especially if there are a large number or unknowns involved.

This structure is essential to forming a firm foundation for the Organizational Development (OD) strategy. Both the change agent and the sponsoring organization must have a high comfort level of trust with the other party’s commitment to the process and the terms under which both parties will operate. Additionally, this structure provides the clarity for the initiative itself. Is the initiative to determine the nature of the problem or problems to be dealt with or is it the strategy in eliminating the problems being dealt with by the organization? In either case it is essential to form the solid foundation on which the Organizational Development strategy is built upon. To fail to do so will lead to almost assuredly lead to failure!

Next, we cover systems context, organizational self renewal, and improved organizational performance. Until then, we wish all of our readers a GREAT day!

The simple answer to the question is no, they are not the same thing. Each has its specific use and place within the strategies an organization is utilizing for growing a successful business.

Let’s start by defining each of the terms for clarity sake:

Organization development (OD) is a planned, organization-wide effort to increase an organization's effectiveness and viability. Warren Bennis (an American scholar, organizational consultant and author, widely regarded as a pioneer of the contemporary field of Leadership studies is a Distinguished Professor of Business Administration and Founding Chairman of The Leadership Institute at the University of Southern California) has referred to Organizational Development (OD) as a response to change, a complex educational strategy intended to change the beliefs, attitudes, values, and structure of organization so that they can better adapt to new technologies, marketing and challenges, and the dizzying rate of change itself. Organizational Development (OD) is neither "anything done to better an organization" nor is it "the training function of the organization"; it is a particular kind of change process designed to bring about a particular kind of end result. Organizational Development (OD) can involve interventions in the organization's "processes," using behavioral science knowledge as well as organizational reflection, system improvement, planning, and self-analysis.

Talent Management refers to the process of developing and integrating new workers, developing and retaining current workers, and attracting highly skilled workers to work for a company. The term was coined by David Watkins of Softscape[ published in an article in 1998. The process of attracting and retaining profitable employees, as it is increasingly more competitive between firms and of strategic importance, has come to be known as "the war for talent." Talent management is a process that emerged in the 1990s and continues to be adopted, as more companies come to realize that their employees’ talents and skills drive their business success. Companies that have put into practice talent management have done so to solve an employee retention problem. The issue with many companies today is that their organizations put tremendous effort into attracting employees to their company, but spend little time into retaining and developing talent. A talent management system must be worked into the business strategy and implemented in daily processes throughout the company as a whole, NOT just by Human Resources!

Notice the differential between these two definitions. Organizational Development (OD) is applied to the larger structure (aka the organization) in order to produce a specific desired result. Talent Management is applied to an asset within the larger structure or to attracting and integrating the asset to the structure! Two very different strategies to say the least!

Although these two are very different strategies, they do have one very big thing in common. In order for an organization to successfully implement either or both strategies, it MUST be done through the business strategy, implemented in the daily processes, and driven by the organization as a WHOLE not just by Human Resources! This means it STARTS at the top of the organization with commitment through action not words! An organization must live it, breathe it, and be it on a consistent basis always measuring its progress (or lack thereof) in order to be successful implementing either or both of these strategies.

I will provide details for each of these strategies in the blog posts that follow.

Stay tuned to learn more, leave a comment, or contact me by completing the form at http://www.timothymcginty.com/contact.html

The first step in getting there is taking responsibility for your own success! No one is going to grab and lead you by the hand and make it happen for you. YOU must make it happen for you! You must take responsibility for your transition to authenticity and your success.

In order to make your transition a reality, the vast majority of individuals will need assistance. They will require someone to hold them accountable for achieving their success. They need someone to hold their feet to the fire. They need someone to tell them what they need to hear, NOT what they want to hear! Most individuals are unable to hold themselves accountable for their own transition. It is hard work and requires much reflection and honesty with one’s self. The majority of the population will not hold themselves accountable but rather let themselves off the hook. This reason is to do so is human nature. Change is hard! Our self-talk (that little voice in the back of your head) wants to keep us safe and secure at all times. Yet in order to get what you want, you must get outside of your comfort zone. When we get outside our comfort zone we learn and grow.

The person whom you select to assist you in holding you accountable goes by many names Accountability Partner, Coach, Mentor, etc. Although the names may be familiar to you, the roles for each are vastly different. Here is a simple definition of each:

1. Accountability Partner: An individual with whom you share your prioritized list of actions to be taken who will hold you accountable for completing each action item.

2. Coach: An individual with specific training whom you share your prioritized list of actions to be taken who will hold you accountable but can also assist you in discovering;
a. other actions that may need to be taken
b. the strategies you must employ in order to overcome obstacles
c. teach you new strategies where necessary depending on their
training and expertise

3. Mentor: An individual with whom you share your actions to be taken however this individual has already been where you want to go. They act as your guide and lead you as they walk in front of you through the process or processes they utilized in order to achieve their success. They have been where you want to go and assist you in avoiding miss steps along the way.

Note that differential between the three different types of individuals you can choose to assist you in your transition. Which one is the right one for you? Each type of individual has specific advantages and disadvantages. Be honest with yourself. No one knows you better than you!

Be open, be honest, and take responsibility for your accountability so you achieve your success! You determine your success or not!

To date we have focused more on what individuals need to do in order to achieve higher levels of performance. While we will re-visit this from time to time however we are now going to start to focus on what organizations need to do to attract, develop, and support its greatest asset in performing at a higher level so the organization performs at a higher level.

When Jay started his own company his father gave him a card with a simple message scribbled on it. It was a rather famous quote by Henry David Thoreau that reads, “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined.” He still has this card in his desk and it does inspire him to continue to drive towards his dreams, not just settle for what he gets. His hope is that in these pages you’ve taken a journey. I hope that you have evolved and that you’ve re-learned something about yourself that has always been there and discovered the self-respect and courage to admire and respect that Genius. Finally, it is my sincerest hope that you now know who you are and what unique and great potential you possess, and that you will use this knowledge to confidently head towards the direction of your dreams.

To that end, we’ll leave you with one last suggestion. We’ll keep this as simple as possible:

• Just do what is you and don’t do what isn’t you
• Just follow your quiet path and don’t blindly follow the path of others
• Just do what comes naturally to you and refuse to do what doesn’t
• Just accept the best for yourself – never settle

Originally this conclusion was five pages long. In it Jay summarized pretty much everything we’ve talked about from the first post, trying to create a nice simple flow from beginning to end, but when he looked at it he decided what was really needed, what he thought was the ultimate benefit of any conclusion, was a simplified message that was so salient and cutting that you would be able to state it in a single sentence. He decided that to best serve its purpose, the conclusion had to be something simple that, like the natural talents this book is about, would allow you to benefit from it almost effortlessly.

After reading through the entire work, that message jumped out at him. Simply put, to conclude, the single message you the reader should take away from these posts is:

Just Do You!

Role Flexibility

When we start talking about making changes to your role, this assumes you have a certain amount of flexibility in your role. If you work for someone else, or have a job in a company where your role is not completely your own to modify and change as you see fit, you need to achieve some level of role flexibility. Role flexibility is simply the level of ability you have for changing your role, what responsibilities you have, the tasks and duties that you are expected to perform. Entrepreneurs have high levels of role flexibility, and the higher up you get in management the more flexible your role typically becomes as well. Even if you don’t have as much flexibility in your role as you might like, there are things you can do to change your roles to make them more authentic.

If you don’t have much role flexibility, and you can’t make much change to your role, one of the best ways to convince your manager or organization that doing so would be in their best interests as well is to share a copy of Jay’s book (What’s Your Genius) with them. It’s imperative that you get some flexibility in your role because unless you are already in the most authentic role possible, if you can’t remove responsibilities that rely on your non-talents you wont reach higher levels of performance and definitely won’t reach the 5th level.

Of course, as Michael Lorelli said earlier, it really is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, so if you need to move some things around, lean on someone else, swap tasks (where someone else picks up some aspect of your work and you help them out with things they aren’t as good at) do it! If you don’t think your company will let you modify your role, don’t ask – just give it a try. Why are we suggesting you do something without permission? Because you are your own SEO! You are the one responsible for your success – no one else. Of course if you have flexibility use it, but if something in your role depends on one of your non-talents, and you can’t get “permission” to offload that responsibility somehow, it is better to offload it without permission and improve your performance than continue to depend on it and give up performance. Trust me, if you take initiative and figure out a better way to get results, and when you deliver those results, any problem management would have with how you did it shouldn’t be an issue. If it is, than it may be time to ask yourself if the role is the right one for you.

Remember, geniuses refuse to settle, and everyone Jay interviewed agreed that sometimes you just have to leave a role if it is too far from what you need it to be. Michael Lorelli represents these geniuses well when he states, “If your role is just too inauthentic you either have to suffer through or change roles because you can’t change your DNA.”

Just Do the Math

To reach the point where you are truly authentic, where you fill a roal, you have to modify your existing role. You do this by stripping away, slowly, your dependence on non-talents one at a time, and increasing your dependence on your talents, one at a time. It’s really as simple as addition and subtraction. Add dependence on one talent – subtract dependence on one non-talent. Your journey to authenticity, and the 5th level of performance, is a matter of adding and subtracting, adding and subtracting, until you are sufficiently authentic and there are no more talents to become dependent on or no non-talents to stop depending on. I guess you could argue that the formula for becoming an authentic genius would be:

((+1)(-1))∞ = 5th level performance

• Add one talent
• Subtract one non-talent
• Repeat

We talked about shedding responsibilities or tasks from your role if they don’t rely on your talents, but sometimes you might have to add new responsibilities or duties that do rely on your talents. If it possible that your role was created without considering your natural talents and non-talents, it is just as likely that it doesn’t allow you to maximize all of your talents as it is that it expects you to rely on your non-talents. These new duties or responsibilities might need to be created and this is one of the ways in which you can create a more authentic role for yourself. The same three C’s of becoming authentic apply in this aspect as well. Through complimentary collaborations, being the one who a responsibility is delegated to or changing the way the role is done, you can add new opportunities for you to be a genius too.

~ Starting now, set to making these changes in your current roles ~

Do whatever you can to shed your reliability on that first non-talent you just wrote down above (your minimizer), and do whatever it takes to increase how much you rely on that one talent you just selected (your maximizer). I say “first” non-talent and talent because once you manage to add and subtract to your current role, your task will be to return to your report and select another talent and non-talent to repeat the process with.

As I said, it is actually that simple. At least the objective is. I wish I could help you specifically with what actual changes to make, and how to shed reliance on non-talents and add reliance on your talents, but the specifics of your job will dictate how you do that. In a blog or book form, unfortunately, there is no way I can hold all the information I need to suggest how you do that, but with what you’ve learned so far you should have everything you need to determine that for yourself.

While a blog or book won’t be able to interact with you enough to help you with some of the specifics of changing your life to become more authentic, we have created some programs where you can get that level of individualized, interactive help. Check out the additional resources page at http://www.whatsyourgenius.com for links to where you can get this level of personal help.

Unleashing Your Genius

“Deep within man dwell those slumbering powers, powers that would astonish him, that he never dreamed of possessing; forces that would revolutionize his life if aroused and put into action.”~ Orison Swett Marden

So, how do you jump? How do you take the work you’ve done so far in these posts to change your perspective on success and your role in it, and actually pull the trigger? It is a surprisingly simple process actually. It’s simple because you have already done the bulk of the work, and it’s simple because when you align your job with your talents better your performance will increase almost by itself. It does this because these are your natural talents. You don’t have to work as hard to be better when you rely on what your brain already does well. This is what we have been talking about all along.

It came to you with little to no effort because that’s how your subconscious mind works. Before any change can take place in the world, it has to take place in your mind, and hopefully by now you have experienced a change in how you think about yourself, your value, your talents, your path and your success/happiness. Taking that first step in the real world involves using the exercises you have already completed as fuel for the practical steps you are about to start taking. You will need to have your Genius profile (you should have this if you worked through the previous posts. If not, get this at http://www.whatsyourgenius.com) handy for this next step.

To start unleashing your genius I want you to look at pages six & seven in your Genius profile. There you will find the lists of “strength areas” and “specific strengths or talents.” In my prior posts I had you circle those talents that you were dependent on in your current role. Pick just one of the talents that you did not circle and this will be the one you will work to maximize your dependence on first. On the same pages you will see “weakness areas” and “specific weaknesses or non-talents.” I also had you circle those non-talents or weaknesses, which you were dependent on. I want you to select just one of those that you did circle, as this will become the first non-talent you will work equally as hard to minimize your dependence on. I recommend you select these talents and non-talents based on which ones are most relevant to the roles you fill right now. Go ahead and look at your Genius profile and select these items right now (i.e., one talent and one non-talent), and write them down in the space provided below.

Write the title of those two items down in the appropriate spaces below, then add a definition for each in your own words.

My Maximizer (Talent):

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

My Minimizer (Non-talent):
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

While it didn't show up anywhere in the hard data, there is one trait which showed up time and time again in the interviews we conducted. One of the questions I asked each interviewee was, “how do you define success and what is one of your greatest successes in life?” In almost every single case, every person gave me a very different answer than I expected. I was expecting to hear that they defined success as the achievement of business goals, or the money they had made, or fame, or power, or some other worldly manifestation and typical definition of success. What I heard, however, was that they defined success as “being happy”. When I asked them what they were happy about I was equally surprised. Again the happiness they described didn’t have anything to do with fame, power, money or what some might expect. What they were happy with was the relationship with their family and friends, or the feeling the got from helping others, or the satisfaction they received from their ability to give back, or the passion they felt for what they did, or the lack of stress and general contentment they had with their roles in life. These were how they defined their happiness.

Were they happy because they were successful, or were their happiness a key component to their success? In the end I decided it was the latter, and that their happiness was the driver of their success, not the result of it. I say this because from a pure logical perspective I can think of lots of people who have loads of money, tons of fame, piles of achievements and tremendous power and authority – but who are still not happy. However, all of the people I know who consider themselves truly happy also consider themselves truly successful. Therefore, happiness must be the key ingredient in defining your success, not the result of it.

It seems that happiness is the DNA of success. All roads branch out from this and all lead back to it. Think about it. You desire success so you can have lots of money so you can be financially secure - which will make you happy (you hope). You want to win the competition because you feel the need to prove yourself and others will admire you, which will make you feel better about yourself - which will make you happy (again, you hope). You have a desire to be in charge, on top, the big boss, which gives you control and prestige, which proves your worth – which will make you really happy. There are those who seek to serve others or improve the world, which satisfies their need to help and love others – which makes them happy. The key is, everything is really driven by happiness, and so success at its most basic elemental level is built on being happy, not on being “successful” in and of itself. The trick is figuring out what will really make you happy because when you know this, only then do you really know what success means to you.

~ Happiness is the DNA of success ~

Many of us, however, get caught up in chasing the means to an end, spending a life pursuing the trappings of success, not the happiness that makes up its true spirit. We get easily confused about what the true end point is and many times end up sacrificing our happiness in pursuit of some objective that was supposed to deliver our happiness in the first place. When we forget that the ultimate goal of being successful is to be happy, we can lose sight of that happiness and become fixated on achieving the means to that end.

In such cases the means actually becomes the end itself; and the end of our happiness as well. One person might get so focused on winning manager of the year that she ends up hurting others, even those she loves – which ultimately makes her unhappy. Another person might get so wrapped up in rising high in the organization that the ballast he jettisons to achieve such altitude ends up being his personal life – which ultimately makes him unhappy. Still another person might get lost in the race to acquire so much wealth and security that by the time they have it, they have alienated all those they would like to share it with - and they are unhappy.

I knew a guy once whom most would view as very successful, at least by the more traditional definition of the word. He had all the traditional trappings of success. He started his own business and as CEO he had the power and control most assume is tied to success. His company went international and was a financial success so he had all the money anyone could ever need, which should have made him successful according to the traditional definition. He had something of a public fame, albeit within a niche community, but still thousands followed his advice and praised his work, which qualified him as successful. But was this man really successful? From the outside absolutely, but from the inside he wasn’t at all. To achieve his businesses success, he had sacrificed that which the geniuses we talked with consider true success. He had sacrificed his happiness. I’ve never known an “unhappier” successful person in my life actually. Sure, he put on a good front in public, but when you got behind the curtain he was angry, volatile, hostile, explosive, insecure and fearful that all he had built would somehow be taken away and based on his profile his only real value of himself was that which he had built – his company. He had sacrificed his relationship with his children and wives. He had sacrificed his health. He had sacrificed his closest friendships and eventually he came to run his company through intimidation and fear. In the end, he had fallen into the trap of chasing the means, not the end. To the world, he was a shining example of success. To himself, however, as he admitted one time during a private discussion late one night, he was a miserable wreck of a man who felt hollow and unhappy deep inside.

For a great many (all too many unfortunately) they fight so hard to get the trappings of success that they damage or destroy that which would really make them happy, like family, friends or even their health. The vital lesson that I think we can take from the geniuses around us is to not get caught up in the means to the end. To be successful means to be happy. So figure out what will really make you happy, then chase that end – always. Chase the end, not the means.

Action Step:
To help you define what success means to you, what is your definition of happiness?

My happiness is:

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

This realization of happiness as the DNA of success has marked the beginning of a transition in the lives of thousands of individuals. When it hits, they begin to see, perhaps for the very first time, why they have not been as happy as they wished to be, and once they make this realization, it is nearly impossible to ignore it and continues to be untrue to who they are and what they do best. I have witnessed a great many people, when they come to this point, decide this is the information they needed to give them permission to change their role, or even change their career and change their lives.

I often suffer a fair amount of good-natured ribbing from the executives of the companies I work with because they give me grief as being the guy who got paid to convince their people to leave. I say “good-natured” because in the end they understand and appreciate that it is in no one’s best interest to have an employee who isn’t a good match for the job.

Unless both sides of the equation are fully satisfied the job is unhappy with the individual and the individual is unhappy with the job and no one wins in the end.

Courage to Change
Management theorist W. Edward Deming once said, “It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.” Change requires courage because change is scary. The best way to overcome this fear of change is to make the fear of not changing even greater. I tell my clients, “If you make it easier to fail than to succeed, the only thing you will likely succeed at is failing.” By this I mean, you have to risk something significant enough to make it scarier to fail than to succeed at changing.

In the 8th through 11th centuries, Viking sailors were an acquisitive lot. They had expended their Scandinavian empire to include most of the North Atlantic European coastal areas, reaching south to North Africa, east to Russia and even the Middle East at Constantinople. When it came to invading new lands, the Vikings are rumored to have adopted an interesting and effective means of motivating themselves to succeed. When the Vikings would land on a foreign coast to conquer its lands, to ensure that is wasn’t easier to fail in battle and return to the safety of their boats and the sea, they would burn their boats. This meant that failure wasn’t much of an option because there was no real ability to retreat. Talk about not having an exit strategy.

Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.~ James Baldwin

While we don’t recommend to our clients that they risk their lives as motivation to succeed in becoming more authentic, we think we can take inspiration from the Vikings by creating on sequences to not changing, not getting out of our comfort zone, that are sever enough to help us face our fears, overcome the obstacles we will encounter and endure in our evolution from dissatisfaction and frustration to genius success at something.

To share Jay's own examples of how he have made it harder (i.e., more painful) to fail than to succeed, when he joined the Navy he signed on to become a Search and Rescue Swimmer. As an enlisted person he signed a contract that meant for the next six years the US Navy owned him - literally. In return, they would provide him with the opportunity to attend all the special schools required to become a SAR Swimmer. This did not, however, guarantee he would pass these schools, just that they would allow him to enter. If he did fail to pass, the Navy still owned him, and since he couldn’t take on the role he had signed on for this meant they would assign me to another role. The assignments for those who fail their schooling, unfortunately, are usually all the jobs that no one volunteered for in the first place (like chocking chains on a carrier deck, which involves running under a jet or helo, often with engines running, and tying her down – which is also one of the most dangerous jobs in the military by the way).

Knowing going in that the program had one of the highest attrition rates of all military training programs, approximately 64% of students fail to graduate due to medical injuries or voluntarily dropping on request, he figured the results of failing to graduate were severe enough that doing so simply wasn’t an option. He viewed this as my way or burning my boat so to speak. If he failed he was the property of the US Navy for six long years, likely filling the worst role they had to offer.

There were many times, as he lay there unable to feel most of the muscles in his body, and wishing he couldn’t feel those he could because they hurt like hell, that he contemplated dropping out. He watched a good many classmates hit their wall and give up. As they stood up from whatever abuse they felt was too much, and walked to the brass ship’s bell and gave it three rings, there were plenty of times where he was tempted to follow suit. He remembers one time where, if he thought he could have walked that far, he might have actually done it. In the end, though, his desire to win, along with the dread of sticking his head under a blur of moving rotors on a rolling and pitching flight deck some 18 feet from the edge, was enough to keep him still. Had he been in a situation where quitting was easier than persevering, had quitting meant he would have been let out to returned home to a safe and average civilian job, perhaps the temptation would have been too great, but he made sure it wasn’t easier to fail than to succeed, so he did.

~ If you make it easier to fail than to succeed, the only thing you will likely succeed at is failing ~

The great contributors in life are those who, though afraid of the knock at the door, still answer it.~ Stephen Covey

Some years later Jay did the same thing when he started his own consulting company. Having a nice job at Johnson and Johnson meant security, great benefits, a company car and all the advancement one could ask for with over 172 sister companies at the time. Such security is incredibly important to a young guy with two kids and a stay-at-home wife. But when he walked away from that to start his own business it meant he had to succeed. If you think the attrition rate for SAR School is bad, try starting your own small business. At the time, over 50% of all new businesses failed to survive past the first twelve months and 95% failed to make it past the five-year mark. When he quit he walked away from a steady six-figure income. He invested everything last bit of savings, took out a second mortgage on the house and created significant credit card debt to start the business. If he failed, they would lose their house, and probably have to claim bankruptcy. If the business didn’t take off how would he pay for food, or the boy’s college? Failing to succeed would definitely be harder than succeeding and so with that firmly in mind he stepped off to burn his second boat. Jay quit J&J and put it all on the line. Thankfully, ten years later, the business is still alive and growing.

These are just two personal examples of what we mean when we say, “If you make it easier to fail than to succeed, the only thing you will likely succeed in is failing.” Having a dream is great, and being tired of where you are is important, but what boat will you burn to ensure that you become the authentic genius you deserve to be?

For some it might be a personal boat, like the public embarrassment of telling everyone they are going to change, but then having to admit to them that they failed to do so. For others it might be a financial boat, as in throwing off the golden handcuffs that bind them to their current role to pursue their dream job, or even create their own dream company. What will you put on the line to ensure that you succeed in becoming the genius that you know you can be?
Action Step: What is your boat? What will you put at stake to help motivate you to change and become more authentic?

My Boats: _____________________________________________________________
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“Create the self you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny spark of possibility into flames of achievement”
~ Foster McClellan

Congratulations, you are almost done! In truth, you’re only getting started because being authentic is a never-ending process of maintaining your authenticity by being ever vigilant and adapting to new duties, new goals and new direction in which life constantly takes you. For now, though, you have evolved from being blind to any inauthenticity in your life, and subject to a legacy of dependence, to the realization that you must be authentic, that you must become your own SEO, and that you can’t fear making mistakes on your journey to creating the you that you want to be. You have evolved in your self-awareness to gain greater understanding for your true genius, and you have evolved your self-concept to create an image of that authentic self you want to become.

Now here’s a riddle for you. If there are three frogs sitting on a log and one decides to jump into the water, how many frogs are left on the log? The answer is three, because deciding to jump and actually jumping are two very different things. So far you have been working in your mind. You have been considering attitudes, beliefs and gaining new knowledge. And hopefully by now you have decided to jump, but your final evolution is to leave the world of your mind and move into your reality, to actually make the changes in your life that you now believe are needed and possible. To achieve this final evolution, and finish your journey (or start it perhaps) you must actually create your authentic self – you must jump!

Comfort Zones

“You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover will be yourself.”
~ Alan Alda

One of the biggest things that prevent my clients from leaving the world of dreams and actually becoming more authentic in real life is that they fail to get out of their comfort zones. The comfort zone includes all the things we do often enough to feel comfortable doing. It is much like the querencia - a term in bullfighting that refers to the spot in the ring where the bull always returns for comfort. Former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Carly Fiorina, describes it this way, “Each bull has a different querencia, but as the bullfight continues, and the animal becomes more threatened, it returns more and more often to his spot. As he returns to his querencia, he becomes more predictable. And so, in the end, the matador is able to kill the bull because instead of trying something new, the bull returns to what is familiar - his comfort zone.”

It is the comfort zone's job to keep us in our place - doing what we've always done, the way we've always done it. And if we try to stretch out and entertain thoughts of doing something differently, like moving forward on that life dream we have, or doing anything that involves taking a step into the unknown, the comfort zone immediately spins into overdrive and begins looking for the consequences - mostly the negative ones.

The bottom-line results of these negative consequences are fear, guilt, anger, hurt feelings or unworthiness - the primary tools of the comfort zone. Early in life, these tools begin to shape our sense of right and wrong and form themselves into limiting beliefs that keep us in our own private querencia. If we dare to step outside the bounds of the comfort zone, these tools are used swiftly and with precision.

The weird thing is that you may have become comfortable being inauthentic, when being authentic should be more comfortable. In other words, you have become comfortable with being uncomfortable. To be authentic, this must change. You will have to get uncomfortable before you get really comfortable, and this takes courage.

“Comfort zones are plush lined coffins” Stan Dale

Cognitive scripts: the subconscious “self-talk” that we generate the themes or schemata we habitually apply to ourselves.

A cognitive script is the psychological term given to any messages we tell ourselves, about ourselves, all day long. These scripts can be described as tapes that we play repeatedly in our heads – those things we tell ourselves over and over again, often without conscious awareness. These scripts can influence our emotions and our behavior. They can also be positive or negative, and support our beliefs about ourselves, or create self-limiting beliefs and self-doubt. Some examples of cognitive scripts might include:
“I am a failure”, “I can’t do anything right”, “I will overcome any obstacle and I always do well on tests”. These messages are built from our experiences in life and eventually, through repeating these messages (scripts) enough times, they can become embedded in our subconscious and habitual enough that they develop their own power and are repeated even without justification from our environment anymore. People who suffer from a lack of self-belief often suffer, in actuality, from the problem of negative cognitive scripts. Regardless of why the scripts were developed, they have become habitual and now repeat frequently enough that they influence our reality and outcomes.

The good news is that cognitive scripts can be changed. Though you cannot stop the habit of playing any scripts in your head, you can replace the script that is played. One of the best ways to do this is simply through repetition or positive affirmation statements. Regardless of the fun that is poked at such “therapy” it actually does work. There are lots of examples throughout history of things once thought ineffective eventually turning out to actually work. In most cases it has had less to do with the thing in question not being effective, and more to do with our understanding not being advanced enough to actually understand why it is effective. The medical world offers up two of the easiest examples of things long practiced but only recently understood and approved.

Positive affirmations are another example of something practiced throughout the history of mankind, but because science has not formerly understood the science behind it, it has been much maligned in popular culture. Such work has been the fodder of many a comedian, and the majority of scientists have tended to view affirmations as a fanciful but ineffective way to pacify someone’s need to feel like they have some control over something they really don’t. Recent scientific advances, however, say that we actually do have more control than perhaps they once thought.

Modern day treatments like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) provide a means to replace irrational or negative scripts with rational or positive ones. CBT is practiced all over the world by the majority of clinical psychologists and psychiatrists, and it has been proven to be an effective tool in helping to change habitual opinions or beliefs. This serves as a good example that repetitive thinking activities are an effective way to replace old scripts with new ones.

Habits are either the best of servants or the worst of masters. ~ N. Emmons

When we talk about your level of self-belief, we’re talking about how you see yourself (i.e., what do you say in your mind about yourself). It is unlikely that you give it much thought, but a significant influence over how you feel about yourself is due to the cognitive scripts you play in your mind. To develop your self-belief you have to change these scripts. As so many of us have heard, you can’t get rid of a habit, you can only replace with it with another one. Practice replacing any negative scripts you have with positive ones. This exercise will be an ongoing part of your personal development in maintaining a positive self-belief.