Monthly Archives: December 2015

TNF #014: Change – how the force awakens

Welcome Professionals…

…we are beginning a new year tomorrow. As usual at this point in time, many of us will craft new year resolutions. Resolutions that shall change something in our lifes for the better. But what makes the difference between halfhearted wishful thinking and a rigorous change effort?

It is the case for change! When change fails for individuals or for organizations, it is often due to underestimating the case for change.

Change is expensive, change is an effort. Nobody changes just because he or she feels like it in that moment when glasses are raised on New Year’s Eve. We need to take a conscious decision and we have to attach a strong motivation to our effort. Motivation works best if there is not only a rational reason, but also a strong emotional trigger attached.

It is just a matter of our human brain that avoiding pain is a much stronger motivator than seeking pleasure. So if we are seeking for change to the better, it helps to formulate the pain we are facing if we stay where we are.

In summary, a strong case for change consists of:

Conscious decision to act now
Rationale for change
Emotional motivator of avoiding pain in the future

Phrased in an example, the case for change could be: “If we do not bring our production cost down to USD 75 per piece in 2016, we will loose a market share of 20% and eventually be pushed out of buisiness in 2020. We will loose everthing we worked for in our company history over the last 50 years.” This would be a strong case for change, wouldn’t it? Now try and fill this exemplary case with your own resolution!

Happy New Year!

Malte

Thursday Night Flight is brought to you by Malte Müller Professionals. Sharing best practices for top management consultants on topics like communication, client handling, problem solving, appearance, and fitness. Check out www.mm-professionals.com for more material and free resources!

TNF #013: Christmas sickness

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Welcome Professionals…

…today’s edition of Thursday Night Flight falls on Christmas Eve. For a couple of years in a row, I have felt sick on every Christmas break. I am not talking about all the social tension that typically occurs during that time of the year while sticking together with family members, in-laws and some distant relatives. I was feeling physically sick. I had a strong flu with headaches, fatigue, muscular aches and pains, and all the other sympthoms that typcially go toghether with a cold. I remember one night on Christmas Eve when I found myself lying under the Christmas tree at around 9 p.m. freezing and feeling terrible.

This was a classical state of “leisure sickness”. The phenomenon has been first described by two Dutch psychologists in 2001. They discovered that especially people with an “inability to transition from the work to the non-work environment, a high need for achievement and a high sense of responsibility” are suffering from this state.

If you discover symptoms of leisure sickness as well, take it as a warning signal. Do not underestimate the effect or even glamorize it as the typical working hero phenomenon like I did for a while. This is in most cases related to a high degree of perfectionism combined with deprivation of sleep. Two subjects that I have been dealing with in Thursday Night Flight as well. Check out these two editions if you ever had a case of leisure sickness:

I am wishing you all a healthy, merry Christmas! Take care of yourself and your loved ones and have a good rest!

Malte

TNF #012: Be your own gym – part 2

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Welcome Professionals…

…how to find your perfect exercise? In “Be your own gym – part 1” I postulated four principles for a management consultant’s workout:

Have equipment with you anytime!
Independent of weather and day light conditions!
Independent of other people!
Perform on a fixed schedule!

But how can you stick to all these principles in order to make your exercise a sustainable habit that fits your work schedule? I used to go running, but it is quite limited on cardio training and it is certainly not independent of weather, day light and other surroundings. The build-in gym of hotels I stayed in usually costs to much time for me getting familiar with the equipment or would not be open at the time I wanted to work out.

I found a solution. A friend made me aware of this. It is called “You Are Your Own Gym”. This is a bodyweight exercise by Mark Lauren who developed the program for US SpecOps soldiers. He transferred it to the civil life. All you need is your own body. For some of the exercises you will need a table, a chair or the door frame – available in every hotel room. It is the perfect allround fitness program for the consultant, matching all principles.

Bodyweight fitness is as old as mankind, everyone knows the classic push-up and pull-up. There are many variations of the same idea and thousands of programs available. Great about Mark Lauren’s program is that he offers an app for your smart phone that leads you through it. You do not have to read books, remember exercises or even configure your own set. The app leads you through the workout like a personal trainer. 150 different exercises are varied in ladders, interval sets, supersets, stappers and tabatas. This variation and periodization stimulates your body for continuous development.

Go and try it! You can download the app on www.marklauren.com.

Let me know how this works out for you

Malte

TNF #011: Be your own gym – part 1

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Welcome Professionals…

…we all know, we should exercise! There are so many good reasons for regularly practicing sports:

sustaining your health
being in good shape
balancing mental work by physical activity
vitalising your mind and your body
and many more

There are many further benefits and positive side effects. I do not need to make a case for exercise here. The key point is: it takes time and it takes discipline. Both are not abundant for a consultant because we put all our time into our work and spend all our rigorous mental power on our clients.

The key is to make exercise as easy and convenient as it can be and to make it a habit, so you do not have to spend precious will power on it.

Your exercise should not require any equipment that you cannot take with you at all times on business travel. Take your sports gear with you at all times!
Your exercise must be independent of weather and day light conditions!
Your exercise should be independent of other people!
You should have fixed time slots that you are able to follow at least most of the time. You should not have to decide from time to time if today is a good day for exercise.

How can you achieve that? Any ideas? Let me know! In part 2 I will share with you what I found for myself.

Stay tuned!

Malte

TNF #010: Keeping principles under pressure

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Welcome Professionals…

…this week is one under pressure. I thought about writing the next topic for TNF over the weekend, but I had other priorities. As we approach the end of the year, my days are packed from waking up until falling to bed.

We just had an important client presentation which came in short notice on top of all the other “year-end-project-termination-speed-run”. Now I have 15 minutes to write and publish this week’s edition of TNF.

In order to prepare for today’s presentation, I had to set priorities very strictly. I allocated close to all my working time to this one project and left everything else aside. I told other clients to call me later and I shifted some other scheduled meetings away.

What I am actually proud of: I kept my principals under pressure. These are:

My loved ones matter most. My wife was able to take her night out with the other ladies and I cared for my kids.
Get enough sleep. Even though it was only 5 hours, I had a decent amount of sleep to get rested to the presentation.
Stay positive. I kept a positive attitude to my surrounding instead of getting hectic.
And finally: I kept my plan of writing a new edition every Thursday!

What do you think about this? Let me know about your own principles and how you operate under pressure.

Malte