How Not to Change – 11 Strategies for Staying Stuck
21 January 2011 in Books/Articles review Write by Paolo Terni
Photo courtesy of @NiniBaseema http://theformofbeauty.tumblr.com/
More often than not, Solution-Focused Brief Coaching boils down to helping clients getting unstuck.
Bill O’Hanlon’s latest book, Change 101 – A Practical Guide to Creating Change in Life or Therapy offers a very useful overview of change strategies for life, therapy and coaching.
As a change facilitator, I do have my ideas about which change strategies work best.
Having said that, I did find amusing Bill O’Hanlon’s list of 11 strategies for staying stuck, which you can find at the end of his book.
Whenever we feel change is hard, it is very often because we are “trapped” in one or more of these useless behaviors:
- DON’T LISTEN TO ANYBODY
- LISTEN TO EVERYBODY
- ENDLESSLY ANALYZE AND DON’T MAKE ANY CHANGES
- BLAME OTHERS FOR YOUR ACTIONS OR PROBLEMS
- BLAME YOURSELF OR PUT YOURSELF DOWN REGULARLY
- KEEP DOING THE SAME THING THAT DOESN’T WORK
- KEEP FOCUSING ON THE SAME THINGS WHEN THAT FOCUS DOESN’T HELP
- KEPP THINKING THE SAME THOUGHTS WHEN THOSE THOUGHTS DO NOT HELP
- KEEP PUTTING YOURSELF IN THE SAME UNHELPFUL ENVIRONMENT
- KEEP RELATING TO THE SAME UNHELPFUL PEOPLE
- PUT MORE IMPORTANCE ON BEING RIGHT THAT ON CHANGING
Got change? :-)
Update: On the “getting unstuck” side of the equation, Bill O’Hanlon also sends out each week a free email with tips about how to create positive change. Just send a blank email to: PossiBill0228-192380@autocontactor.com
8 Comments to: How Not to Change – 11 Strategies for Staying Stuck
What do you think?
WHAT'S IN A NAME?
A friend of mine asked me why I chose the name briefcoachingsolutions for my website.
Easy: it is the shortest description for what I do.
Solutions: that is what my clients arrive at: solutions. For their goals, their needs, their problems. They arrive at better solutions. Faster. With less effort. Solutions sustainable in the long run because they are based on what is already working in the clients' situations
it is also the description of my approach: solution-focused.
Coaching: that is the tool I use to help clients...
Read more
I love short posts like that! They are – to me- the most influencial ones because people actually read them and find them helpful!
Thx for putting this together, it could be – to some – a real life changer to read this! ;-)))
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Katri Kytöpuu, Sandra Niehaus and Innovation Junkies, Nini. Nini said: How Not to Change – 11 Strategies for Staying Stuck http://bit.ly/ebc5Pk by the ever so lovely Paolo! ;) –> @solsurfersUSA [...]
@ Nini: thank you, glad you enjoyed my brief post.
You are right – the longer the post, the less likely it is that people read it.
I do hope this list is somehow useful to someone…
thanks to Bill O’Hanlon for putting it together in his book “Change 101″!! :-)
And again, thank you for letting me use your pic! :-)
Ahh, anytime!!! I think it fits really nicely to the post too, as I was speaking in the original post that it belongs to about perfectionism that doesn’t lead to anything but a great waste of time!
@ Nini: Yes! I chose the pic because it is about movement… about getting UNstuck… you might not know exactly how to change, you might not have a “perfect” picture but if you wait for perfection, as you say, you never get anywhere! :)
So I liked it because it is blurred, but there is movement, there are different attempts, and in those attempts you might stumble upon what works :-)
I’m famous. I made it onto Paolo’s site. Yeah!
Thanks Paolo. Glad you got something out of Change 101.
Just to let you and your readers know, I have a series of free email tips they can sign up for on small changes they can make each week to create positive change:
Just send a blank email to:
PossiBill0228-192380@autocontactor.com
You can stop them at any time.
Best to you, Paolo.
@ Bill: Now *I* am famous, Bill left a comment on my website! :-)
Thanks for the additional info, I am signing up right away!
Tips about positive change are always, always welcome!
And thanks for putting together a very clear and useful summary of change strategies in “Change 101″ …
[...] a Manager, an Executive or anyone in a Leadership position. Whenever you need to facilitate change, Solution-Focus is the quickest evidence-based technology we [...]