Yesterday was a very different type of session. It was a change management session but was posed in a very different kind of way. After all, change is not a word that everyone is comfortable with. The word is often misinterpreted as a need to change ourselves because we are ‘not fine the way we currently are’. This can easily take our already low self-esteem plummeting down even further!

So what did we do? We simply called the session a self-development session, where we were going to take participants to the next level. Smart move, eh;) What all we have to do to get past our defensive minds!!!

So coming to the session. We were training participants who were at the very bottom of the pyramid. People who were not well educated and with many of them being unable to even write. I must say they actually gave us good practice of writing in regional languages and I myself learned quite a bit of their local language! The participants were rowdy and unruly and keeping them under control was quite a task. It was most definitely a good test of our assertiveness as well as patience levels. I really had to put in every ounce of energy that I had to ensure that the audience participated and remained connected till the end of the session. No matter how challenging the session was, seeing the participants smile at the end of the session made it all worth it!

Understanding yourself

You’ll have difficulty believing it, but we actually made the participants do a SWOT analysis during the session. Yup, it was tough but was worth every bit of the effort. Getting them to start was a challenge in itself. While a few of them were quick and started filling in the details, most of them sat staring at the sheet. They didn’t know where to start from. Never in their entire lives had someone asked them what their strengths and weaknesses were. Nobody was ever interested in their opportunities and dreams and just being asked the question reduced some of them to tears. In fact, each time we tried to ask them what they wanted to become in life, some of them answered back with ‘what’s the point’ and ‘dreams never come true anyway.’ It was definitely a task getting them to even write their dreams, leave alone trying to make them believe that it was possible to fulfil them!

 

Changing Your Mind

It was heart-warming to see the smiles on their faces after what we did with them next. What did we do? We showed them the power of positive thinking and how it was possible to fulfil their dreams. It frankly doesn’t take a very high level of intelligence to understand how our thought processes are negative and how it affects our lives, stopping us from growing. How it makes the world look like a ‘not so great place with not so good people’ in it.

 

Change Management can change your negative thoughts

Negative Thought Patterns

 

We made them realise that how by focussing on their own thought processes they could change their inner world and with it, what they felt towards their outer world.

At times it was difficult to convince them that the focus needed to be kept on themselves at all points of time. They kept going back to blaming their circumstances and the people around them. After all, the critical mind always points fingers outwards and hates to have to put in effort to change its focus towards itself.

 

Positive Affirmations

So which change management technique did we teach them to change their negative wiring? Positive affirmations. Am sure many of you would have tried these before. If you havn’t I urge you to. Positive affirmations have changed the lives of many people and they could really work well for you too.

Wondering how they work? You all know how we get into a bad habit by repeatedly doing the same negative thing. Like how people get into the habit of smoking, by doing it again and again. Similarly, we get into a habit of negative thinking by thinking negative again and again.

Now that we are aware of how it happens, what can we do to change this habit? Yup, simply think positively again and again. Sounds easy doesn’t it? That’s exactly what positive affirmations are. They are positive thoughts that you keep repeating again and again to create a positive thought pattern in your brain. This slowly changes your entire way of thinking by forming new positive neural pathways in your brain. Once this happens, you can easily follow these new positive paths in your transformed brain and move through life in a positive way.

Interesting? Well it is. If you want us to help you change your way of thinking and have a more positive approach towards life, you can definitely get in touch with us. We will suggest a method suited to you, just as we did for this group of participants. You see, every method doesn’t work on everyone. We are all unique in our wiring and hence what will work for us may also be different. To know more about how we can help you, visit our website www.theyellowspot.com.

Always happy to help you with your change management initiatives:)

"A different type of Change Management" - By The Yellow Spot - - No Comments