It was 9
pm on a Friday and I was at work, my spouse called asking when I’d be home, my
boss was all over me.
I had been working on a proposal for 5 months and couldn’t get team, vendor and client’s buy in!
I became insufferable, even Ron, my best friend, declined our traditional
Wednesday beer date.
I changed jobs frequently, feeling disengaged (my ‘record’ was 4 hours) until I
became physically ill.
After a third round of antibiotics,
I decided to quit another position and start working for myself.
Remarkably, my feeling of disengagement was not unique. According to the Gallup
engagement study – nearly 70% of employees suffer from work place
disengagement- a true epidemic! Disengagement hits the bottom line, it
inflicts pain and unhappiness, reduces
profit per share, and leads to high turnover!
For over 20 years, my personal transformation journey as a consultant and later
as a leadership agile coach taught me to look for patterns in
organizations. I have recognized recurring behaviours that plague unsuccessful disengaged organizations.
The overarching problem is the traditional approach to organizational
power/influence which I named vertical
influencing. Unsuccessful
organizations suffer from high employee disengagement since they adopt vertical influence patterns. This is
true in for profit, government and non-profit organizations as well
Vertical influencing originates from viewing power/influence as a zero-sum game
– a win lose proposition. Where one idea is a winner and the other a loser, one
side is right and the other is wrong; In unsuccessful
organizations everyone competes to be the influencer, the winner, breaking support communities & leading
to disengagement.
On the other hand, I discovered that successful
organizations adopt a fresh paradigm of horizontal influencing. Presently,
these horizontal influencing
structures manifest themselves in lean
agile approaches. Horizontal influencing
radically changes the way people interact creating engaged communities.
The know how to horizontal influencing
includes a set of skills fundamental to building Dyad and Triad relationships; creating a true win-win environment at the individual, team and organizational
level. Through this prism, Influence is
communication at a deep level, where we relate to each other
compassionately and look actively for commonalities and shared goals.
Experience how to create engaged
communities together, through building Horizontal influencing.
We’ll discover:
§ Influencing patterns by exploring relevant best practice protocols
§ Collaborative community engagement building approaches through recreating and re-running real interpersonal situations
§ Specific behavioural patterns relate to them and learn how to influence without authority.
Michael’s model of the 4 components to Influence without Authority:(Based on OODA loop framework, developed by John Boyd)
Situation
(Observe)
Perception (Orient)
Decision (Decide)
Strategy (Act)
Each component is presented, discussed and synthesized through a hands-on pair
or team activity.
The workshop includes the famous Radical influencing exercise – how to free your hostage!
It was 9
pm on a Friday and I was at work, my spouse called asking when I’d be home, my
boss was all over me.
I had been working on a proposal for 5 months and couldn’t get team, vendor and client’s buy in!
I became insufferable, even Ron, my best friend, declined our traditional
Wednesday beer date.
I changed jobs frequently, feeling disengaged (my ‘record’ was 4 hours) until I
became physically ill.
After a third round of antibiotics,
I decided to quit another position and start working for myself.
Remarkably, my feeling of disengagement was not unique. According to the Gallup
engagement study – nearly 70% of employees suffer from work place
disengagement- a true epidemic! Disengagement hits the bottom line, it
inflicts pain and unhappiness, reduces
profit per share, and leads to high turnover!
For over 20 years, my personal transformation journey as a consultant and later
as a leadership agile coach taught me to look for patterns in
organizations. I have recognized recurring behaviours that plague unsuccessful disengaged organizations.
The overarching problem is the traditional approach to organizational
power/influence which I named vertical
influencing. Unsuccessful
organizations suffer from high employee disengagement since they adopt vertical influence patterns. This is
true in for profit, government and non-profit organizations as well
Vertical influencing originates from viewing power/influence as a zero-sum game
– a win lose proposition. Where one idea is a winner and the other a loser, one
side is right and the other is wrong; In unsuccessful
organizations everyone competes to be the influencer, the winner, breaking support communities & leading
to disengagement.
On the other hand, I discovered that successful
organizations adopt a fresh paradigm of horizontal influencing. Presently,
these horizontal influencing
structures manifest themselves in lean
agile approaches. Horizontal influencing
radically changes the way people interact creating engaged communities.
The know how to horizontal influencing
includes a set of skills fundamental to building Dyad and Triad relationships; creating a true win-win environment at the individual, team and organizational
level. Through this prism, Influence is
communication at a deep level, where we relate to each other
compassionately and look actively for commonalities and shared goals.
Experience how to create engaged
communities together, through building Horizontal influencing.
We’ll discover:
§ Influencing patterns by exploring relevant best practice protocols
§ Collaborative community engagement building approaches through recreating and re-running real interpersonal situations
§ Specific behavioural patterns relate to them and learn how to influence without authority.
Michael’s model of the 4 components to Influence without Authority:(Based on OODA loop framework, developed by John Boyd)
Situation
(Observe)
Perception (Orient)
Decision (Decide)
Strategy (Act)
Each component is presented, discussed and synthesized through a hands-on pair
or team activity.
Workshop objectives:
· Learn best practices for leading and influencing without authority;
· Identify skills you need to create Horizontal Influencing;
· Explore the persuading and influencing scale;
· Practice energy/style/behaviors of influencing – push, pull and reduce;
· Learn the power levers of influencing;
· Experiment with the formula to saying NO!;
Who should attend?
§ Engineers and developers, architects and business analysts required to persuade others in teams and in business;
§ Project, Program and portfolio managers who need to gain support from business and development;
§ Product owners, Scrum masters and teams looking to further their ideas in a collaborative environment;
§ Generally – those wishing to learn how to perform their job better by enlisting the support of others
What do participants receive?
·
Michael Nir, President Sapir Consulting US, is an enterprise lean-agile expert; known for his passion, creativity and innovation;
His Masters in Engineering, certification in Project Management and training in Gestalt balance his technical know-how with emotional intelligence. He inspires people and teams to change, experientially and emotionally, while climbing the hill AND reaching the summit.
Michael draws on unique personal experiences that provide him with valuable insight. During college in Israel, he led groups of adolescents on excursions through the desert, observing natural leadership behaviors in team settings. Later, on a hike to Alaska, he had to face down a 250 lb Grizzly Bear – giving him a dramatic taste of what it’s like to influence a powerful and threatening personality using wits alone.
A passionate guide and mentor for organizations undergoing change, he has developed Persuading the Bear – Influence without Authority workshop and delivery program as well as gestalt team-building and leadership workshops.