INTENSE

Fast pace.

"I am so sorry, I feel so scattered today, I am leading my organization through a huge organizational change and there are so many things happening my head is spinning with thoughts."

"I am excited we just got this new client and so much is happening, we need to recruit more people, I also need to find a person that can handle the new area I mentioned last time. Things are moving fast, and I want to take the time today to focus on…I love how change makes me so laser-focused"

What is your experience when your company is growing so fast? Does it feel as you always need to catch up? Or do you feel like your head is spinning with the excitement of what else you can tackle?

Leading in an organization that the pace is beyond intense is called by some "the messy middle." In this phase E V E R Y T H I N G is changing; the culture, the people, the clients, every day you come to the office, the decisions and vision you made are not relevant anymore. People join, and people leave, people are being promoted or move to new roles, clients come, and clients go processes that worked today won't work tomorrow. Your head is spinning with opportunities or frustration trying to catching up with so much!

The big challenge is that the intensity of non-stop doing can take away from the opportunity to lean back, create some space, and pay attention to where we are. But who has time to reflect when everything is happening so fast?

This is how I came up with the following formula:

Why? Let me explain the parts of the formula I designed:

DOING aND BEING ENERGIES

I believe we all have two energies within:

The Doing Energy is the energy of actions, everything we need to do, the constant planning of moving forward – the just do it.

We all know how to do; we actually learned to focus on doing as kids when we heard the adults telling us: "Be a good boy clean up your room," or "be a good girl do your schoolwork." We learned early on that actions are what makes us seen as good, so we act. Let's face it; doers are the ones who are being seen, and mostly the ones who are promoted.

But! There is a certain point that actions alone are not working for us anymore.

This is where we need to pay attention to the Being Energy.

The Being energy consists of our mindset, emotions, thoughts, hopes, dreams, and concerns.

The Doing and Being energies don't compete with each other –– I see them as two energies that complete each other. Paying attention to the Being while doing create new actions that can take us up to the sky or slow us down, and even make us feel stuck. I like to explain that through sports. You can have two Tennis players with the same set of skills; the one who wins the game is the one that engages knows how to use to their advantage the being energy. They practice a mindset that manages non-serving thoughts and emotions and utilizes those that can help them win.

C H A N G E

Whether it is positive or negative, the deal with change is that change brings a flow of emotions and thoughts – why? The feelings and thoughts all come from the same inner want we have in a time of change – the need to redefine ourselves in the new situation or reality – we need clarity:

Who am I going to be in this change?
What will happen to me?
What will happen to my organization?
Am I going to lose?
Am I going to win?
Am I going to be forgotten?
Am I going to be seen?
Now there are expectations from me – what if I fail?
Why do others leave? Should I be concerned?
Why is there so much uncertainty and change? Does that mean that our organization/leadership is not stable enough?
Is this time the change is going to be different?
And for some, it is just a simple hope: maybe this will be the last change?

** Note – The same need to define ourselves in a new situation shows up when you are promoted from a team member to team lead when you get married or get divorced when you move to another country or start a new job.

Back to the formula round #2:

I found that the formula is a more straightforward tool to help teams and individuals redefine their way of being and doing in a time of change and what is missing for them to feel different.

So let's look at the formula again:

Do – our actions

Be^3 – I broke the being energy into three main e’s

- emotions

Do we experience negative emotions?
Do we experience positive emotions?
Do we feel overwhelmed with our feelings?
Do we feel excited?

Our emotions impact our energy, thoughts, and mindset that will affect how we show up with our actions.

- expectations

Our high or low expectations will influence our emotions and our actions.

- energy

Is your energy is high or low?
- Suppose your energy is high good news! You have momentum, and my recommendation for you is to go! Influence and inspire others to join your vision.
- If your energy is low, you don't inspire. Inspiration comes from the phrase – in spirit, in light. When you don't inspire, you are missing the spark. Mostly it is because you lack connection and clarity with your purpose and vision, which makes it hard for people to follow or feel inspired by you. If you identify that this is your experience, ask help from your manager, a mentor, or a coach to better understand your why.

As with driving a car, each component in the formula –– from the gas handle to how much gas you have in the tank can impact how far the car can go.

Back to the formula round #3:

Doing - When we push firmly with our actions, it doesn't mean that we will see the change we want faster. While we focus on activities, some people would feel that we run too fast; it could be that their emotions and/or expectations are not aligned with our vision, and therefore their energy is low. In this situation, the more people share the same energy, expectations, and emotions, the more chances they will slow us down. It will be helpful to address the Being of the system as I call it.

Being – when as a group of individuals we all share the same emotions about the change, we can move closer to drama or low energy, and this way, our ability to move into actions can be scarce.

When we understand the formula, it can create a language for us to share where we are and invite courageous conversations with each other.

Creating Awareness through Courageous Conversations:

People slow you down or trying to stop you when you lead a change?
Invite a conversation to understand where they see a gap or have concerns, don't ignore their being energy.

Have you noticed most of the team thinking and slow to make decisions?
This formula can give you the language and opportunity to invite the team to see that we are in our thoughts and being, and there is no much conversation to move to action.
A great place to start is asking the team: "What is one first step we can take with the data we already have?"

Have you noticed your team running fast, maybe even too quickly? Do you feel that it is hard for you to catch up with all the planning?
Take a moment to invite the team to lean back – doers don't like to slow down, but they like the invitation to take a moment and think through. Let me tell you a secret, even if it will be hard to admit - they love it, and I know because I am a doer ;-)

Remember, in each meeting and moment of the day, the room is filled with different emotions, thoughts, expectations, and energy; even from one meeting to another, you can find yourself being and doing differently.

To learn more about the change formula and how you can establish courageous conversations at your organization reach out to Noa Ronen. Noa enCourages leaders and their teams in companies that experience constant growth to challenge the way they think and communicate in the reality of constant change.