“Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” George Bernard Shaw
When car park becomes cardio park
Photo: Shiraaz Mohamed
NEW PROGRAMME
A holistic, life changing health and wellness course for you and your clients combining the latest research with conventional wisdom. Are you interested in coaching health and wellness? We will provide you with the first steps in getting there. This course will challenge you to engage and apply basic health psychology and health promotion theories and best practices. During this learning journey, you will not only gain practical knowledge and skills but will be part of a transformative process of change within yourself, and leading change for others.
Recommended reading
Surviving to Thriving – Mental Toughness (Steve Harris)
Chapter 2. SURVIVING TO THRIVING GUIDE
Blue Oceans Strategy
I am using Chan Kim’s book, Blue Ocean Strategy (2005), as the framework for a surviving to thriving guide. Kim’s blue oceans’ metaphor defines a blue ocean as a less contested market space. In this space, the opposition is not as relevant, and you thrive (Kim, 2005). I believe one can apply blue ocean strategies at an individual level as well as a business one.
Kim explains that we mostly operate in highly contested Red Oceans, whereas in Blue Oceans there is less competitor activity. He uses four quadrants to categorise what action we can take to take to exit Red Oceans and enter Blue Oceans. I will give some of my examples of each.
The first category to get out of red oceans – eliminate
What must you eliminate to get out of red oceans? I suggest start with energy leaks from poor wellness. Then eliminate poor customer experiences. Try treating customers like VIP’s – which means, treat them as they would like to be treated as opposed to the old mantra – treat them like you would like to be treated. This requires of you to eliminate bureaucracy by reducing red tape and providing more red carpet.
The second category to get out of red oceans – reduce
I firstly suggest reducing judging, complaining, blaming, and gossiping. For the second point, I want to draw on the potential hazards of social media acting as an energy leak. I gleaned this from the movie “The social Dilemma” I believe if we become aware of this concern associated with social media we can save a lot of energy floundering around in red oceans and spend more accessing blue oceans. In the movie Tristian Harris explains how our energy could get drained by the attention model used by social media sites. They use these to keep us on their site and in so doing improve their advertising revues.
Note, there is nothing intrinsically sinister with their approach, the problem lies in our lack of awareness of their ever refining, personalized algorithm aimed at keeping us mesmerised and spending more time on their social media site.
The next point to become aware of is that social media inevitably blurs facts because it has little if no editorial integrity nor sanction like an official newspaper or news channel has – of course, I acknowledge there is bias in everything we are presented in all domains including official news outlets. They are however subject to rules. Therefore, know that when you are on social media sites an algorithm is monitoring what you are interested in so that it can feed to you reports or videos that follow a similar theme. Most things you view on say U tube are suggested by the algorithm and not something you looked for in the first instance.
Once you are caught up in the flow of the algorithm – or dare I say caught up by our addictive nature, you probably experience increased anxiety, hostility, and nostalgia. You may even lose trust in science, as you reinforce your confirmation bias with “evidence” from half-truths fed to you by an algorithm that has got to know more about you than your closet friends and family know.
After a while it is equally likely you feel enlightened, and emboldened by this evidence whilst you will start considering others “sheeples” who are under the influence of an enemy like a world government, Bill Gates or any others uncovered by your social media journey.
Finally and hopefully you become aware that it is you who may have been mind-captured and are increasingly suspending your critical thinking, whilst wandering into a polarised cognitive bubble of intolerance – even willing to alienate friends, as the boundaries of your issues harden.
The third category to get to blue oceans – raise
What must you raise to enter blue oceans? My first suggestion is to improve teamwork, partnerships, and communication. Secondly express more thankfulness, inspiration, empathy, and mental toughness. Finally, develop new knowledge and skills e.g. including multiple perspectives and critical thinking. Innovating and improvising to do more things faster and better; becoming techno smart and managing the mess – not limited to your own.
The fourth category to get to blue oceans – create
To enter blue oceans, I suggest you create a strategy for surviving to thriving e.g. one that; aligns with national priorities, research, stakeholders’ problems, and brings your values to life. In addition, it bonds staff into an organizational culture through its shared mission, and values. It embraces multiple bottom lines; helps you flow around VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) and adapt faster than the opposition to a changing context in this way we adjust to the reality of ever-increasing instability. It has a plan B that aims to give you global sustainability and risk plans that cater for black swan shock events. In addition, you identify how to create stakeholder commitment to the strategic plan, accountability for results and ethical behaviour. It maintains current value (what we should do) plus imagines then researches new ideas from which you invent new value (what we could do) with differentiators that yield new competitive advantages.
It has a plan B that aims to give you global sustainability and risk plans that cater for black swan shock events. In addition, you identify how to create stakeholder commitment to the strategic plan, accountability for results and ethical behaviour. It maintains current value (what we should do) plus imagines then researches new ideas from which you invent new value (what we could do) with differentiators that yield new competitive advantages.
Write to us and let us know if you have been mind-captured by social media feeds.
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When the going gets tough, the tough get going.
And the going has got very tough, so let’s get going. I see some light at the end of the tunnel and if we are tough our coaching can get going even better than at the beginning of 2020.
As a dad who has two sports-mad kids we had to be creative in keeping them active, so they didn’t lose their love for being out in the fresh air. Participating in sport with friends is what they missed the most. At eta College, we had to adapt but thankfully, through foresight over the last two years, we were able to continue with our programmes quite successfully.
In the process we have identified many new opportunities within further and online education, eta College staff are working hard to bring many more of these ideas to light in the future.
One of these is the continued development of sports coaches, we explored what would be exciting, interesting, and suitable programs and workshops for this space in our college.
We need your help though, as current students and alumni of eta College, please give input on what you would like us to focus on as we prepare to launch this sector within our bigger programme offering. Below you will find a link to a list of online; one (1) to three (3) hour programme ideas we have pre-designed and will bring to market in early March 2021.
Driven by Wessel Dippenaar (eta College)
Are you our next PT? By Virgin Active
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