David Rigby, Author at Smart Coaching and Training | Business Support, Consultancy, Mentoring

May 15, 2020 By David Rigby

I kept my promise, please keep your distance

“I kept my promise – don’t keep your distance” is the final plea from the song ‘Don’t cry for me Argentina’, originally a UK no 1 by Julie Covington from the play Evita and later a hit from the film by Madonna.

How times change! During lockdown and particularly as lockdown is loosening, the plea is ‘Keep your distance’. Known as ‘social distancing’ but it is really ‘physical distancing’ and nothing to do with ‘social’.

One of the more interesting features of the ‘two metres’, is just how different it is from social practice with different nationalities.

The Spanish who live with many people in small flats and frequently gather in cafés to socialise and exchange two kisses with even virtual strangers, are having a great challenge. By contrast, the Swedes who typically live alone, are used to keeping distance even with people they know, ins and so they are less likely to find this a problem.

Extrovert or Introvert?

To make life more complicated, some people have been happy (working) at home during lockdown, others who have the constant need to communicate face to face with others all the time, are desperate to go out and are suffering from Zoom overkill, but they cannot give it up. Of course, it depends whether you are at home alone, or with a group of other people.

Your propensity for remote working will depend upon your Behavioral Preference Profile. Everyone has individual characteristics as to how they actually are, and for each person there are suggestions as to how you may get better at it. You can learn about

Remote working – How can we be more productive & manage frustrations?
Resilient strengths – How can we play to our real strengths?
Handling setbacks – How can we manage challenges?
Role agility – How do we react to change?
Enabling engagement – How can we stay motivated?

We would love to help you explore this further so do get in touch.

I kept my distance –

you keep your promise.

“There is nothing more I can think of to say to you.

But all you have to do is look at me to know that every word is true”

Written by David Rigby

Lyrics courtesy Webber/Rice and article inspired by discussion with journalist Lekko Saunders (instagram: artea2010)

April 12, 2020 By David Rigby

Deportment 2020: Know how to ‘talk the talk’ and ‘Zoom the Zoom’

In these days of COVID-19 you not only have to ‘talk the talk’ and ‘walk the walk’ but you have to appear good on Zoom. Not only do you have to sound good you have to look good too, And not just you – you are most likely to be working and broadcasting from home – so the view of your home must also give the right impression. I notice every one judging what you look like when you have not been able to go to the beauty salon, nail stylist, or hairdresser for weeks and having to do your own cleaning due to lockdown. Tolerance of shady presentation skills won’t be accepted for long either – so brush up those skills too!.

While you are practicing your body posture and setting up the appropriate lighting and soundscape for your broadcast, whether a serious business meeting or a chat with a distant neighbour take a look at the article below I wrote for Al Arabiya News about deportment training for some stars in the 1960’s. And note how much still applies today. Below is one of many of these articles as published in 2015.

Deportment: Know how to ‘talk the talk’ and ‘walk the walk’

It’s now the winter holiday season, and just like in the UK and USA, here in the UAE you see the girls dressed in impossible heels and wearing designers while staggering to various social venues. One difference here is that, in general, they are not freezing to death on the way to their chosen location.

They may have the designer frocks, but few of them know how to walk elegantly or indeed talk elegantly. There is an old British expression “You can take a girl out of Essex, but you can never take Essex out of the girl.”

This is because they don’t know about Deportment.

Way back in the early 1960s there was a developing record business called Motown. Based out of a house called “Hitsville USA” in Detroit. In those early days one of several vocal groups was called The Supremes. They were often known as the ‘no-hits’ Supremes as at the time every record had flopped.

But like everyone else in the Motown roster, they went to American etiquette instructor and talent agent Miss Maxine Powell to learn about deportment.

And this is what The Supremes learnt
• Perform in front of the mirror – see how you look
• Sing with a smile – not like you are in pain
• Learn how to sit on a barstool elegantly, walk stairs, get out of cars
• Always introduce yourself first, then the visitor introduce themselves
• Never see anyone for 20 minutes after a show
• Continue to grow until there is no breath in your body

In England you were taught how to handle a dazzling array of cutlery in case you went to an exclusive dinner. But the main message in all of this that you will know what to do when you meet the Queen of England.

And this is the message.

That group of three lean individuals from low grade subsidised government housing in The Brewster Projects went on to become worldwide stars. 12 number one hits in USA in three years. That was just the start.

And in 1965 they performed at Britain’s prestigious Royal Variety performance and indeed met the Queen of England.

And they knew how to conduct themselves! Years of lessons about deportment both on and off stage meant they knew exactly what to do. As did many other stars in the Motown roster which included Martha & The Vandellas, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder – all megastars in their own right. I first saw Stevie Wonder perform when he was 14.

For those who don’t remember The Supremes you may know their lead singer, Diana Ross. In a recording career spanning almost 50 years she sold over 140 million records and is still performing to great reviews today while in her seventies.

But what distinguished them from the rest? In many cases they were the first black girl groups to break into the largely white supper clubs and TV shows. Sure, they can sing, but they could also put on a good show, deal with the audience and not be scared of anyone.

Why could they do this? Because they had deportment.

In the old days in Britain, the rich girls ‘came out’ (different meaning today!) after going to finishing school. They learnt how to walk in heels with a set of books balanced on their heads. These days you can record yourself, take selfies, and video yourself moving around. So observe and improve – sometimes you can’t see it yourself but a coach can help you.

Just putting someone in a posh frock and high heels doesn’t work. To again quote Margaret Thatcher: “If you have to tell people you are a lady – then you aren’t”.And all this applies in a slightly different way to the guys too!

Both need to both ‘talk the talk’ and ‘walk the walk!’

Learn all the skills before it really matters – and when time comes you can walk into the audition or job interview an unknown and come out a star!

David Rigby is a founding director of Smart Coaching & Training. He is based in Europe as an international keynote speaker, trainer, consultant, and executive coach. He developed a training practice focusing on Behavioural Preference Profiling and Signature Corporate Training suite.

April 8, 2020 By David Rigby

The games people play

It’s party time – what is a party without games?

But nowadays games aren’t confined to parties. Games appear in the workplace too.

Employee engagement and customer engagement can be low, learning from books can be difficult. Engagement is also easy to lose and difficult to inspire. Gallup’s 2016 The Worldwide Employee Engagement Crisis report found that only 32 percent of US workers are engaged with their jobs daily; less than half that number, 13 percent, are engaged worldwide. Disengaged employees are less productive and have lower morale because they tend to think negatively about their jobs. Disengaged employees tend to bring their colleagues and teammates down with them,

It is proven that playing motivates people and enhances learning. Recruitment training and being in the office can actually be fun and social Gamification is a technique for applying game mechanics to non-game context, to make it fun and thus increase engagement.

To successfully gamify you need four steps

interactive challenges
constant/instant feedbacks
competition and social
rewards and redemptions.

Gamification taps on everyone’s intrinsic motivations to have fun in enterprises. Banks and telephone companies use gamification as a rewards and motivation platform to use employees using game psychology. Community engagement to motivate target behaviours for various purposes such as in employee’s training/performance management or consumer marketing/sales advocacy.

Why is gamification relevant to me?

You will almost certainly been subject to gamification whether you know it or not. Those who no longer have the concentration to read a book and resort to little quizzes in FaceBook have been ‘gamified’. But it’s not only you, its everyone you communicate with. It is relatively easy to build the software (we can recommend an organisation) but what can you use if for is more the challenge? The more you develop your soft and mindfulness skills the more likely you are to recognise ways of harnessing the stickiness of gamification to bring the waifs and strays back into the fold for good. Simple badges, levels and points which appear in normal software games can be used to develop continuing engagement.

What kind of games are YOU likely to want to play?

Do you like games which are strictly logical or prefer those which appeal to your emotions?
Do you like to get into the real nitty-gritty, into great detail – or just want to skim the surface?

Your behavioural profiling preferences will tell you whether you are engaged with this – the detail you may or may not need the appeal to the emotions or lack thereof.

Any manager will need to know what social behaviours she may be trying to enhance, which target behaviours will help hit the goals, what extrinsic rewards to offer to get intrinsic motivation, and which tribes and communities she need to engage.

And engagement doesn’t just affect employees. Holding consumers’ attention through the continuous noise of competing marketing messages represents another avenue where engagement is critical to success. Modern consumers are fickle. Unless something truly intrigues them, they move on.

David Rigby – davidr@smartcoachingtraining.com

April 25, 2014 By David Rigby

Growing your business in the dark

Now that I am ensconced in Riyadh thoughts naturally gravitated to Yorkshire and the Rhubarb industry – prompted by BBC Radio 4’s On Your Farm programme on Rhubarb .

Rhubarb is fashionable again today after a major decline after world war two. . Appearing in many guises in the most up-scale restaurants as well as in the greengrocers and yogurt pots. However it likely that the younger generations don’t know what it is in the greengrocers or what to do with it. It is virtually unknown in the rest of the world, though there are Rhubarb festivals in various parts of US and Canada as well as Wakefield, Yorkshire. Just 1,809 acres are planted across the United States

In studies that compare rhubarb to cranberries, rhubarb offers far more potassium and folate, as well as significantly higher levels of lutein, zeaxanthin, vitamin A, calcium, vitamin K, beta-carotene and magnesium. Rhubarb is also a good source of dietary fibre and vitamin C. It is low in fat and has been shown to have cholesterol-lowering effects. Most recent findings place rhubarb in the anti-cancer food group as it contains ample amounts of polyphenols: powerful antioxidants known for stopping and preventing the growth of cancer cells. Rhubarb is a viable product for health conscious consumers.

It can grow in your garden but a speciality is forced rhubarb which appears earlier in the spring and is much sweeter. It appears to be unique to the UK.

Forced rhubarb is a crop not quite like any other. The plants spend two years out in the fields without being harvested, allowing the roots to store energy. They’re then transferred into heated sheds, where they’re kept in complete darkness. In the warmth, the plants begin to grow, looking for light. The process results in distinctive pink stalks, which – unlike rhubarb grown outdoors – are white inside, and sweeter than the unforced variety. To avoid letting light near the plants, the crop is harvested by candlelight.

With soil and a microclimate well suited to rhubarb, the area between Leeds, Bradford and Wakefield became known as the ‘rhubarb triangle’. Production of forced rhubarb began here in 1877, and at its peak, in the years leading up to World War Two, rhubarb production covered an area of around 30 square miles. By the 1940s there were 200 tonnes leaving Yorkshire by train every day on the Rhubarb Express, much of it bound for Covent Garden in London. But with its connotations of wartime rationing and school dinners, rhubarb declined in popularity after the war, as new tropical fruits arrived on the shelves. From a peak of more than 200 forced rhubarb producers in area, there are now just eleven. And they can obtain premium prices

So – how did the eleven suppliers survive when the others fell by the wayside?

They had to be committed and devoted to their product
Recognising that foods go in and out of fashion – what ever happened to ‘chicken in a basket’, prawn cocktail and black forest gateau? They may be ‘out’ now – but they will come back in.
To survive the long dip in popularity the suppliers diversified , developing other products to subsidise the Rhubarb business.
They turned Rhubarb into a tourist business – Tours of the Rhubarb forcing sheds are big business.
The process was automated as much as possible – to an industrial scale – without losing sight of the traditions – using candle light for example.

What is not happening is that Rhubarb is not being marketed yet as a Superfood. It is expensive now in the shops, just wait until it is and prices will be sky high – so get your rhubarb patch in your garden and be ready to rake it in – until then enjoy the fruits (or vegetables) of your labour.

Smart Coaching & Training coaches live in the real world and encourage you to do so to. We will encourage you to undertake ‘out-of-the box’ thinking on your business just as the Rhubarb growers ensured their survival by doing just that

November 23, 2013 By David Rigby

The wolf in sheeps clothing: the ‘soft’ side of change is really the ‘hard’ side

While it is sometimes called the “soft” side of change, managing the people side of a change is often the most challenging and critical component of an organizational transformation. But, it is getting people on board and participating in the change that will make the difference. Individuals will have to do their jobs differently, and it is the degree to which they change their behaviours and work processes that will make or break the merger or acquisition. The “soft” side of change is many times actually the “harder” side of change. Change management is taking care of the people side of change. It does little good to create a new organization, design new work processes or implement new technologies if you leave the people behind. Financial success of these changes will be more dependent on how individuals in the organization embrace the change than how well you draw organization charts or process diagrams.

Change management is the process, tools and techniques to manage the people-side of change to achieve the required business outcomes It is the systematic management of employee engagement and adoption when the organization changes how work will be done. Ultimately, change management focuses on how to help employees embrace, adopt and utilize a change in their day-to-day work.

Change management is both a process and a competency.

· From a process perspective, it is the set of steps followed by a team member on a particular project or initiative. For the given transformational effort, it is the strategy and set of plans focused on moving people through the change. Preparing for change (where readiness assessments help guide the formulation of a strategy), Managing change (where five change management plans are created and integrated into the project plan) and Reinforcing change (where compliance is audited and mechanisms are deployed to cement the change).

· From a competency perspective, it is a leader or manager’s ability to “effectively lead my people through change.” The notion of a leadership competency is universal, but what that competency entails depends on a person’s relationship to change. While the competency varies based on one’s relationship to change, organizations are more effective and successful when they build change management competencies throughout their ranks.

Change management is not just communication or training. It is not just managing hardware or software versions (although it has been used in this context). It is not just managing resistance. Effective change management follows a structured process and uses a holistic set of tools to drive successful individual and organizational change.

There are numerous reasons to employ effective change management on both large and small scale efforts. Here, three main cases for change management are made.

1. Organizational change happens one person at a time

2. Poorly managing change has costs

3. Effective change management increases the likelihood of success

1. Organizational change happens one person at a time: It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking about change exclusively from an organizational perspective. However, organizational change of any kind actually occurs one person at a time. Success of an organization effort only occurs when each individual does their jobs differently. Organizations don’t change – people within organizations change. It is the cumulative impact of successful individual change that results in an organizational change being successful.

2. Poorly managing change has costs: There are countless consequences of ignoring the people side of a change. Productivity declines become much larger and longer in duration than they could have been. Managers are unwilling to devote the time or resources needed to support the change.. In some cases, the project itself is completely abandoned after large investments of capital and time. All of these consequences have tangible and real financial impact on the health of the organization and the project.

3. Effective change management increases the likelihood of success: There is a growing body of data that shows the impact that effective change management has on the probability that a project meets its objectives. Research shows that projects with excellent change management were six times more likely to meet objectives than those with poor change management. A 2002 McKinsey Quarterly article by LaClair and Rao found that projects with excellent change management delivered 143% of the expected Return on Investment, while those with poor change management delivered only 35% of expected ROI. Regardless of the change at hand – focusing on the people side of change increases the likelihood of being successful.

Effectively managing change requires two perspectives: an individual perspective and an organizational perspective.

The individual perspective is an understanding of how people experience change. Change is successful, when an individual has:

Awareness of the need for change
Desire to participate and support the change
Knowledge on how to change
Ability to implement required skills and behaviours
Reinforcement to sustain the change.

If an individual is missing any of the five building blocks, then the change will not be successful. The goal, then, in leading the people side of change is ensuring that individuals have Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement

While the change management resource on a project can work to develop the strategy and plans, much of the work of change management is done by senior leaders, managers and supervisors throughout the organization. Benchmarking data shows that in times of change, employees have two preferred senders of change messages: someone at the top of their organization and the person they report to. Change management practitioners are enablers of these employee-facing roles. And, in times of change, it is the effectiveness of senior leaders as sponsors of change, and of managers and supervisors as coaches of change that will determine if a project succeeds or fails.

So what can you do to become a more effective change leader? The bottom line is this: begin applying change management on your projects and begin building change management competencies in your organization. These are the first steps to ensuring projects deliver their intended results by taking care of the people side of change.

The people side of change is not the “soft” side of change; in reality it is the “harder” side of change. Investing the time and energy to manage the people side of your organizational efforts pays off in the end – in terms of success of the effort and avoidance of the numerous costs that plague poorly managed change.

Deportment 2020: Know how to ‘talk the talk’ and ‘Zoom the Zoom’

Deportment: Know how to ‘talk the talk’ and ‘walk the walk’

The games people play

Why is gamification relevant to me?

What kind of games are YOU likely to want to play?

Growing your business in the dark

The wolf in sheeps clothing: the ‘soft’ side of change is really the ‘hard’ side

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