13 Aug Training to be a boxer
This newsletter was inspired by a conversation I had this morning with Allon Shevat (our speaker at next week’s OD Talk), we were talking about resilience and he told me how his grandfather, who was a boxing coach, trained him when he was small and how his dad got upset when his grandfather would punch him as part of the training.
“Son, you can’t train to be a boxer if you don’t learn to take the punches, you can’t just practice giving punches!”
This is so true, and I guess how we are thinking about resilience, teaching our people to take the punches. In this crazy world we cannot just protect and help, we have to train, and train hard, to take the punches!
There are so many other metaphors from the boxing ring that rings true currently: boxed into a corner, boxing clever, rolling with the punches, bow-by-blow account, decisive blow, down but not out, floored, killer blow, etc. How are you feeling? I feel like the appropriate metaphor is changing almost hourly, and the reality is that the leader might have just received a ‘killer blow’ when all they feel they need to do is ‘box clever’ and protect their people, but who is taking care of our leaders?
I want to invite you to a ringside seat for our conversation with Allon next week Wednesday, believe me, he holds no punches (see what I did there, twice?) when it comes to an honest conversation about the ugly truth about this crisis and the difficult role of OD in supporting our leaders. The link to register for this not to be missed, free event is at the bottom of this mail.
Here are some ways we believe we can help your people to roll with the punches
Teams that Talk: Customised from a simple short 2.5 hour workshop that helps team members to get to know each other and how to work together better to more specifically targeted workshops like the popular ‘Energy and Resilience’ team coaching workshops.
Fundamentals of Organisation Development and Change Management: we make it practical and enable our students to use change frameworks in different levels of complexity, 5 x 6-hour online sessions over 3 weeks, starting on the 22nd of September
Leadershift: Making the shift from team member to team leader, empowering team leaders to have difficult conversations, to develop their teams and to lead change effectively, 6 x half days over 3 weeks, starting on the 21st of September.
Change Champions Workshop: understand the basics of change, how to navigate it and how to work with resistance, 4-hours online, 9 September.
Send me an e-mail if you would like to chat about any of these and hear more about how we work with empowering and building resilience.
OD Talk with Allon Shevat
OD in impossible times!
Don’t miss our next OD Talk on 18 August 2021, we have invited our friend, master OD practitioner and provocateur Allon Shevat, (all the way from Israel) to share his insight with us.
Sign up and come for an hour and a half of no-nonsense straight talk about OD and leadership in impossible times. Join the discussion on Wednesday 18 August from 09h00 – 10h30.
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