All right yeah and for folks that are just joining us please go ahead and drop in the chat uh where you're joining us from we'd love to this is a global community so it's always super great to see where where folks are coming in from all right all right good deal well let's go ahead and uh get started I'm sure we're going to have folks continue to roll in but I want to thank you for joining uh learn it for our community events uh the wonderful um expert panel uh not panel expert leader I'm James jeffly joining us today leading change through uncertain times.
My name is Mickey Fitch Collins I am one of the instructors here at learn it but I am super excited to be joined by my colleague James dafley today who's going to be leading us through today's session um to those of you who are new to these events um or unfamiliar with our off-site platform I'm super happy to have you here learn it is a Learning and Development organization based out of San Francisco California here in the United States but we are located Nationwide um super committed to helping individuals learn skills and thrive in.
The workplace we also work with organizations to improve company culture build scalable training programs to those of us who have been here before I'm recognizing some names even from some sessions I've LED recently thank you so much for coming back we love having these sessions uh every couple of weeks so speaking of that on how the how does this work we host these events every other Friday at 8 30 Pacific Standard time so thank you so much uh for people joining us I realize there's folks in all sorts of different time zones so it's uh happy to have folks.
Here we are on a mission to make professional development resources and learning more accessible to everybody which is why we have these wonderful free events it's a way for us to connect in community with one another a way for you to get a flavor for our content our instructors the full-length workshops they're always led by one of our subject matter experts our friends and colleagues our trusted guest speakers we're our instructors a couple of housekeeping items before I pass the mic over to James um this session is being recorded um and will be available over on off-site which.
Thousands of adults across the globe improve their skills Elevate their Consciousness to achieve better results today he's going to be sharing some insights and strategies for how to lead change through uncertain times so I'm going to go ahead and stop sharing my screen and pass it over to James I will be here moderating the chat on the side so if we have anything that you know folks bring up any comments or questions or anything like that I will be sure to bring that over to James so please take it away James thank you so much Mickey.
Great to be here with you let me get my screen set up here uh and if we could turn on the chat function that would be super because I'm sure people want to be able to participate share some thoughts and whatnot all right let me do that get everybody see my slides and can you hear and see me all right welcome thank you all for being here once again on Friday at off-site by learn it welcome to Leading.
Change through uncertain times uh is it just me or does anybody else feel like the world is on fire you could just drop a yes or do a reactions with a hand or something like that uh I think Mickey's working on enabling the chat right now yep I am struggling to do that but we will get that done sorry yeah there's a lot going on right now and actually that's not a figurative statement only it's a literal statement.
If you look at the uh NASA Earth data fire map uh these are hot spots where things are actually on fire right now around the planet and there's a lot especially here in my part of the world in Northern California uh according to the Center for research on the epidemiology of disasters uh this is not an isolated thing this is an actual Trend where we have seen more fires happening around the globe uh in the last few years since 2000 actually since 1980 that we have at any point prior to that uh and uh one expert Mark these.
Endorphin associate professor at the New South Wales in Australia says climate change is producing heat waves droughts which in turn create dry vegetation let's use large fires and so we have that going on but wait there's more uncertainty we have experience so much change in the last two years alone two years plus from the world disrupting covid-19 pandemic and now we have the threat of monkey pox uh we've got threats to democracy from insurrectionists and conspiracy.
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Theorists we've got uh the ever increasing impact of climate change we have the war in Ukraine which is still
Going on and Wars elsewhere uh we have Global inflation it's not just a U.S thing it's a worldwide thing uh we've got mass shootings we're still dealing with especially here in the U.S attack on women's rights continued fight for civil rights we are living at a time of Rapid significant unprecedented change and uncertainty you feel me.And it's affecting us all directly indirectly and small to large ways so what does any of that have to do with leading change in our organizations all of those are highly disruptive events and trends that are creating stress anxiety in our physical environmental our social our business environments and we're trying to do things in the midst of all of this.
And all of this creates that level of stress and anxiety and uncertainty and and some of us some of us are trying to navigate as though things are normal they're not some of us are trying to navigate as though everybody's well we're not now I don't want to be a downer here and be the doobsayer I'm just trying to add an appropriate amount of reality and do a reality check with you because it's not just leading people through.
Uncertain times it's leading people through significant major uncertain times this is the reality in which we're trying to lead our organizations our teams our businesses our families our communities Etc and so we cannot afford to ignore what is happening to us and all around us or the impact of those things and we cannot refuse to act now is the time for leadership so here are two fundamental truths.
Change is period regardless of whether you think change is Scary or change is wonderful or change is constant change is fact of life period and we must lead we've got to step up now can everyone see the chat now just type something in it if you can yay thank you so much Mickey for making that work so are you all with me so far okay so now is not the time for us to just sort of sit in the background and wait.
For someone else to lead well you know I'm not the manager I'm not the director I'm not the vice president I'm not the senior Vice doesn't matter what your title is leadership is not a function of a title it is a function of your attitude it is a function of your mindset and it is a function of your desire to make your world better that doesn't mean you have to go out and put all the fires out or save all the whales or cure all the diseases or or fix all of the social or political unrest it means that you me we Mickey all of us.
Have a responsibility to try to make some little corner of our world better to try it out a little bit of certainty to the extent we can to our world Fairfax Virginia thank you so much Gary right what we can where we are with what we have don't wait until you achieve a certain level don't wait until you have done this or you've crossed that or all your ducks in a row right you may be duckless right now but when I get my oh where are my ducks.
I'm missing Ducks right so start where you are with what you have and try to make some little corner of your world a little better a little less stressful and have a little more certainty to it all right so where to begin where do I begin this process of leading change or leading through uncertainty well uh with you it begins with you I'm going to drop a link in the chat box and this is to.
A fun little deal it's not actually not that fun uh don't do this right now just save it for later but click on it and save it download it this is called the Holmes Rahi or Rahi or raw life stress inventory if any of you ever done this these psychologists got together they put together a scale of significant life events and they attached a stress rating to each of these life events and so I'm going to zoom in oh no no that one.
Where's my mouse here we go I'm going to zoom in here a little bit so if you have this life event going on death of a
Spouse that's a that's a hundred points uh divorce 73 points marital Separation 65 points detention in jail 63 death of a close family member like these are significant things right uh if you if you look a little bit further down the list here uh major change in responsibilities at work changing to a.Different line of work major business Readjustment right things that have happened to many of us in the last couple of years right because of covet anyway you go through the list there's 43 Things on the list you check off which ones are true for you which ones have happened to you in the last year right and then you you add up all of the points and you get a total now what do the points mean according to their scale if you get 150 points or less you have a relatively low amount of stress and change in your life and a lower susceptibility to stress-induced health.
Issues if you got 150 to 300 points you got a 50 chance according to them of a major health breakdown in the next two years if you got 300 points or more that raises your odds to about 80 percent of a major health breakdown in the next two years so if you're going to lead anybody through anything what I would humbly suggest you do is start by Leading yourself to a better level of uh of.
Existence less stress less anxiety less physical mental emotional uh challenges Etc is that does that make sense folks who started to do this and you realize you're already at like 300 points or you're like no the goal here is not to score the high the goal here is not to get the high score you you want the lowest possible score on this scale right so anyway do this see where you are right and what.
Does this have to do with leading change and uncertainty well anybody remember Abraham Maslow psychologist he did the uh hierarchy of needs he says all healthy human beings have the same basic needs physiological needs air food Waters sleep right clothing shelter whatever we need to keep the biological thing called us alive right once we have those needs met that he says we start focusing on safety personal security employment because we've tied employment to income and income we have tied to the things we need to live like food clothing shelter Etc once we feel safe.
Then we start focusing on love and belonging friendship relationships do I belong to something do I feel connected up to something team tribe organization Community those kinds of things once I feel connected then I start worrying about esteem am I liked am I trusting am I respected am I accomplishing things that sort of thing once we have all that done then we start focusing on the big ticket items Mission Vision Values self-actualization be all you can be you.
With me if you're really stressed what are you prioritizing on the hierarchy of needs if you're really stressed out if you're really anxious if you're uncertain about what's going on if you're not in great physical mental emotional health Etc where are you focusing on the hierarchy are you up here at the highest level or are you down here somewhere.
Mickey has identified a thing a sleep is that it you need more safety needs right right so where are you on this level on this hierarchy right now you don't have to answer but just for your if you feel like answering just drop it in the chat box if you know that's fine but just for yourself where do you think you are most of the time these days given everything else that's going on in the world are you playing around up here at the higher levels or are you down here at.
The lower levels safety safety safety the bottom safety wow I'm seeing a trend here well if you're down towards the bottom where do you think most of your team members or employees are if I were you I would have a conver a Maslow conversation with your team members and ask show them this explain it to them and say hey where are you right now right where are you because if you're.
Trying to lead employees through uncertainty if you're trying to focus on the mission and vision and values of your organization it's not impossible but it's really hard to do that if people are down here worried about are they going to have a roof over their heads or make enough money or have you know benefits are they going to be able to take care of themselves or their families if this is uncertain if your physiological needs and your safety needs are uncertain you're not really.
Focusing on anything above that your focus is at least not well right your focus is on just trying to make sure that you are okay you want to be up here this is where your organization wants you to be but if you've got some stress you're probably down here somewhere so what do I do James what do I do uh prioritize self-care remember when we were flying all the time some of you might be flying right.
What did the flight attendants say in the event of sudden Capital pressure loss oxygen mass will drop down for the compartment above you and what do you do with the mask put it on yourself first because you can't help others if you're passed out right so here are my suggestions this is not medical advice please consult a licensed qualified professional about your health situation in general if you want to prioritize self-care and Mickey said this earlier get more sleep how do you know right now.
You need to sleep more the other half hour hour a night two hours a night if you're getting less than six hours a night there are a number of health studies that say that's just not good for anybody now I haven't read any study that said how much anybody should get but less than six hours is just not not good Kelly says I need more sleep less than six hours for sure yeah so whatever you need to do to make that happen Kelly you know go to bed earlier log off of social media earlier set a bedtime uh Gary gets seven hours is seven hours.
Enough for you Gary or do you function just a little better on eight Kelly stop my mind yeah oh that's a thing so here's the thing if you're trying to uh get to sleep but your mind is like hey let's think about things we did 20 years ago ah a journal get a journal and just record whatever the stream of Consciousness is is going on in your mind just all the random stuff just write it down whether it's to-do list items or just random thoughts write it down.
If you've written it down for many of us the Mind goes oh I see you've recorded that so I don't have to keep uh Kelly up at night worrying about this just a thought right Dave gets six to seven hours Marissa gets seven good uh eat better I mean I'm guilty of this I know that I like my chips I like my snacks right but I can't make that my regular meals how many of you know you need to eat better as you get older you sleep less yeah you're right now but I also know what works uh for me and what doesn't right.
Yeah so just work a salad in there or just you know some fruit or something try to lay off the sugar in the processed things do appropriate exercise for you or movement whether that's something light likes just stretching or yoga or whatever consult a position about what the right kind of exercise is for you but many of us work desk jobs right at walk the dog yeah I don't have a dog get a dog do whatever you can just to get yourself moving a little bit because many of us have desk jobs and you know we're not.
Getting as much movement as we might need to consult a position engage in calming activities I've got friends who have that calm app on their phone you know that you know what I'm talking about and you just there's probably a bunch of free ones out there just download that just have it play relaxing music or ocean waves or that kind of thing uh meditation is a common activity taking a few minutes out to just breathe deeply and sit still every day is a calming activity so find some activities that are calming to you drop them in the.
Chat box if you have good suggestions for calming activities short walk every morning at lunch clears the mind and body thank you Michael that's great right you don't have to like do an Olympic level thing just hey I'm just going to walk down the street I'm gonna walk to my you know to the end of the block whatever walk back just walk up and down the stairs whatever you whatever you can do just a little something uh if your company has an employee assistance program and you feel like you need some additional resources or support contact them.
Great Mickey does a walk over the lunch hour super uh uh Taylor I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly walks every morning super uh if there's something that's really bugging you and you you haven't resolved it yet in your life make a plan and take action on whatever it is that's causing you stress who's got some part of their physical environment that's a little cluttered anybody got some clutter going on that closet that junk drawer in the.
Kitchen that room that garage that uh right that desk that work area right okay if you have that what if what if you just took like five minutes put on your favorite song three to four minutes and say just for the length of this song I'm going to clean as much as I can in this area don't even worry about trying to clean the entire thing just for the length of your favorite song say I'm gonna I'm gonna work on this this area and do what you can if you feel good at the end of that yay stop.
Pat yourself on the back if you feel like you can do a little bit more do a little bit more let's pronounce Taylor okay thank you so much thank you Taylor here's another thing that you can do to manage uncertainty and it's it's called triage if you work in a healthcare field especially emergency care they do a thing with major accidents where they triage in other words they bring the patients in they go uh who needs immediate medical attention that we can save that's our number one priority who.
Needs light medical attention but they don't need it right now like they need a Band-Aid or something like that okay put them over here that's the second priority who is too far gone for us to save there's no chance of saving them uh okay we move them over there that's triage of the medical sense I do a similar kind of thing with things that stress me out or I have uncertainty around Kelly says I do like that you mentioned to spend the whole time wanting to solve the whole thing clean the whole thing you can't always do yeah absolutely kill you don't always have time to clean the.
Whole thing maybe it's a huge thing and that's why we're not cleaning it in the first place it's overwhelming but if you just take a piece of it just a little chunk of it I'm going to clean you know two square inches of this right then you're making progress and maybe that progress can lead to momentum and that momentum can lead to you cleaning a little more a little more a little more until eventually done so here's what I mean by triage I look at whatever I have uncertainty about in my life and I ask myself well what do I.
Know about that and if I know something about that and it's causing me some amount of stress what action what specific action can I take on that thing to have an impact that might lower my stress or increase my certainty so think about something in your life that's bugging you it's like oh I want to change that I want to it's causing me some stress some anxiety some uncertainty think about some part of your life is there anything that you can do take.
Direct action on to impact that part of your life yeah I love thank you Katie I love that for me music is a motivator so if I put on like one of my different playlists for things in fact one of my motivating playlist like when I need to do stuff I just put that on it's like hey the beat is there and then I'm not really focused on cleaning the bathroom I'm listening to the music while I clean what did Snow White say whistle while you work is that what you said right anyway so as a subpart of your life where it's.
Bugging you there's some uncertainty and you could make an impact if so what can you do that part of your desk is messy okay clean it if that thing over there needs to oh my email my inbox is so much in there okay just set aside some time and work on your inbox you don't have to get them all done but just some right what can you do where you can have impact if I have some part of my life where there's uncertainty or doubt or stress I.
Look at I go well what can I do if I can't do anything about it to have the impact that I want maybe maybe it belongs in the influence category and in the influence category I can't directly impact it but maybe I can influence it a little bit maybe I have to work with someone else maybe I have to ask for help maybe I have to delegate get allies right some things aren't meant to be tackled by yourself even The Lone Ranger had Tonto.
And the two horses right so what's something that you can make some influence with have some influence with maybe by working with others maybe that's where you put that thing that's causing you some stress or anxiety the last category is what I call stimum stuff that makes you mad he can't change it you can't impact it you can't influence you're like oh the weather the weather can you change the weather you may want to it might make you mad I.
Wanted to go out today but it's raining you know you can't change the weather all you can do is just accept is what I call radical acceptance accept the fact that you know what it's raining I can't change that what can I do I can accept it and I can adapt if I still have to go out umbrella rain boots right whatever I need to because they can't change that but I can make it a little less uh uncomfortable for me am I making sense folks.