It is that time again... New Year means New Year’s Resolutions. Of course we are all concerned to put the major challenges of 2020 behind us and hopeful of recovery and rebuilding in the year ahead. However the reason most New Year’s Resolutions falter after a few weeks is because they are based on the premise that we can force personal change on ourselves from the ‘outside-in’. Focusing on the intended behaviours alone, such as learning yoga or eating less, is a limited strategy. These examples tackle the challenge by looking mainly at behaviours or the DO in our KNOWCANWILLDO framework. However behaviours are simply the output of several contributory factors.
KNOW - Knowledge is often the starting point in a learning process. Such as having the knowledge to start a new diet. Knowledge is cheap - Googling ‘New Year Diet’ returned me 3,930,000,000 results in 0.42 seconds. What I do with my knowledge is more of a challenge than acquiring it.
CAN - This is about developing the skill or ability to apply knowledge. It usually takes longer and is more challenging to develop the skills than to acquire the knowledge. I may know the theory and principles of certain yoga exercises, and maybe I have seen the teacher demonstrating them on YouTube, but that is a far cry from being able to apply them myself. I need to progress through the stages of unconscious incompetence and conscious incompetence towards conscious competence.
WILL - Having knowledge and skill does not guarantee success. I need the motivation or will-power to make sure I practise my yoga daily. This means moving my mindset beyond the the analytical and externally defined knowledge and skills. So I have to imagine myself as competent, using methods such as visualisation and self-assertion statements which challenge my current self-image. In this way I work on the change from the 'inside-out’. Eventually if I stick with it, my behaviour will fall in line with my thinking and feelings.
DO - There is no learning without action, so I need to put in place mechanisms to ensure I take action over time. For me this could be working through a 30 day yoga programme and involving members of my family and friends to create some healthy peer pressure to keep at it.
So whatever your New Year’s Resolution is you might check you are setting yourself up for success:
Have you got the baseline knowledge, if not how can you acquire it?
How do you build the core skills be they technical, professional, interpersonal or psychological?
How can you maintain your motivation and willpower?
What action do you need to take and who can help you maintain momentum?
The KNOWCANWILLDO approach underpins all of our development programmes and work with client organisations seeking to make lasting change and transformation.
In future blogs on our www.knowcanwilldo.com site we will share some of the key concepts relating to developing your Impact & Influence in work. These provide a taste of our public and in-company Impact & Influence programmes.
