A special workshop focusing on how members can achieve personal change and high performance took place in Preston in January.
The morning was enthusiastically led by Simon Clarkson, managing director of ThinkWorks, in a joint venture by the insurance institutes covering Blackburn, Blackpool, Burnley and Preston. The workshop discussed the principles of 'thinking strong' and encouraged delegates to apply their own personal context to the exercises.
The morning opened with some basic brain training to help members read between the lines in situations, showing how important to truly listen to colleagues customers, not just take in information clouded by their own perceptions. This enabled delegates overcome 'confirmation bias', which refers to operating in a way as to prove what one already believes.
The session moved on to explaining, in a very simplistic way, how the human brain builds skills and forms habits by repeated use of the same neuron connections. Delegates were then able to understand why it is difficult to break habits and how they can tackle changing their habits going forward.
Tips from the session to motivate staff on change projects included:
- Always give timeframes with actions
- Use emotions to achieve 'buy-in'
- Pitch it at the edge of their comfort zone but still achievable
- Help visualise the end goal. More than 50 members who attended the session were able to claim four hours of CPD.
â For details on future workshops in the area, visit: www.cii.co.uk/ blackburn or www.cii.co.uk/preston or follow @IIBandB or @CIIPreston