Not only would I like the weather to change, to start getting back to normal without being sidetracked into sledging or making snowmen, but I would like to change some other things.

Be like a penguin

I was recently lent a book “Our Iceberg is Melting”, by John Kotter, (no, I’m not trying to be funny!), to show me how similar the penguin characters situation was to the church I’m involved in. There were 2 Methodist Churches in Chorley (Trinity and Park Road) and in October we became one on paper. The challenge now is physically become one church, so a major change management process is needed to intregrate congregations, activities, buildings and look at developing our community work.

The book is fab. It’s sub-titled “Changing and Succeeding under any conditions”, and I’ve started planning in my head how we can go about affecting change within the Redevelopment Group that is leading the process at church. It sets out through the story of penguins on a melting iceberg how they go about looking for somewhere new to live. The eight step process to successful change is clear, concise and makes total sense in my community setting:

Set the stage

• Create a Sense of Urgency
• Pull together the Guiding Team

Decide what to do

• Develop the Change Vision and Strategy

Make it happen

• Communicate for Understanding and Buy In
• Empower Others to Act
• Produce Short Term Wins
• Don’t Let Up

Make it Stick

• Create a New Culture

It was only this week though, with the change of plans to my work schedule (should have been away running training courses and been stuck playing snow with my boys!), that I actually thought that this is what I need to follow for my business as well.

I know, I’m not very clever am I? I hadn’t put the scenario and list of things I need to do together with my business objectives for this year! But as @mumstheboss said recently “If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got” <I’ve used this a lot in my training courses over the years, but it’s so true!

I’m starting a 10 month Leadership course, LEAD, on Monday with UCLAN, funded by NWDA. I wasn’t looking forward to being a trainee instead of a trainer – it’s not always easy as you can see the techniques the trainers are using, or you know the games they’re playing as you’ve used them yourself in sessions. But I need to change the way I’m thinking.

1. I’ve created a sense of urgency in my business with knowing that I need to focus and do things differently if I’m going to survive this next year
2. As an owner/manager with one employee I haven’t really got a team. But, I identified LEAD with the use of Action Learning Sets as my Guiding Team
3. I’m working on developing the change vision and strategy which to be honest is another area I’m looking for support from LEAD via the business coaches that we’re allocated. But I have started on my SEO work that is vital to keeping my websites in the forefront of people’s minds. (I’m using SEO Training Club with @alisonrothwell).

So, with my Penguin head on, I’m now looking forward to the start of a course in a different way, and I’m going to focus on this 8 point list to implement the change I need in my business, as well as in my church. All that will be left to do is change at home with my family! We did start by doing our list of what we’d like to do and how we’d like to do it in 2010 as per a few people’s suggestions, including @JennyFlintoft.

Wish me luck. I hope this helps you as well. I haven’t used them yet, but there are further tools to support the book online: www.ouricebergismelting.com. I’m sure I’ll keep you updated of progress during the year! Any comments or suggestions you have for church, business or family change management would be great!