Melanie Taylor Consulting

So much to do. Not enough time. Ugh, I forgot about… Oh no, I don’t have time for this… Really? That’s your opinion?! I’m not sure I can handle this today… No matter the season, your role, or your life situation, things can and often do feel overwhelming. Remember to breathe. When you breathe deeply, it sends a message to your brain to calm down and relax, counteracting the stress response. It’s a tool you always have at your disposal; the key is remembering to use it. There are a variety of breathing exercises and techniques, but a simple one can often do the trick. Inhale and exhale as slowly and deeply as you can, making sure your exhales are longer than your inhales. 1.     Pay attention to your breathing. 2.     Inhale, counting slowly 1 – 2 – 3 (or more). 3.     Exhale, counting slowly 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 (longer than you inhale). 4.     Repeat. Whether it’s in bed at 3 am, at the kitchen table with the extended family, or braving the stores on a weekend in December, you can do a lot to relax if you remember to breathe.  --- I help senior leadership teams increase the effectiveness of their organization. One way to become more effective is to learn how to respond rather than react. Training yourself to pause and breathe deeply can go a long way in helping you get the individual and organizational outcomes you’re looking for.

Is Your Thinking Creating Silos or Success? Some of the greatest barriers to success are the stories we tell ourselves. The good news? By changing our thinking, we can uncover solutions we didn’t even know were possible. Consider the Production Manager who, when encouraged to reflect on their emotions, realized their anger stemmed from a sense of blame. Acting on that blame, as they usually did, would only deepen divisions. By shifting their mindset and choosing curiosity over finger-pointing, they were able to foster a productive conversation that built common ground and led to a collaborative solution. Or take the ownership team members who, when asked to examine whether their perceptions were rooted in fact or merely the stories they were telling themselves, quickly recognized how misguided their "truths" were. Their assumptions had trapped them in conflict and growing frustration. By committing to listen to one another and question their narratives, they uncovered the assumptions holding them back, broke free from their silos, and alleviated the stress that had plagued them for years. Then there’s the Director of Engineering who when asked whether the Director of Sales felt like a teammate or an obstacle, they admitted: “An obstacle, definitely. I try to avoid Sales and treat every meeting like a battle to be won.” But by reframing the Director of Sales as a partner rather than a problem, they began approaching conversations with openness and collaboration, overcoming avoidance and improving team dynamics. By challenging our thinking, we can dismantle silos and pave the way for success. What stories are you and your team telling yourself—and are they helping or holding you back? ---- I help senior leadership teams fundamentally change the way they think about improving their business. By focusing on mindset first, I guide leaders to create a more effective workplace—enhancing communication, accountability, alignment, and goal achievement, while reducing stress, frustration, and persistent challenges. My work begins with owners and executives who are ready to uncover and address the root causes of their organization’s biggest obstacles.

Is it time to compare your letters to Santa? Dear Santa, All I really want for Christmas is for the stress and frustration to go away. I want my team to meet their goals without the need for micromanaging. Why is it so hard to get people to do what they’re supposed to? I’m tired of my team members complaining about each other while their direct reports underperform. Are alignment, effective communication, openness and honesty too much to ask for? Sincerely, Exhausted leader who is really looking forward to some downtime over the holidays. Dear Santa, We’ve tried to be good this year—working long hours, saying “yes” to everything, and juggling it all. But we’re stressed and frustrated. We’d like clear objectives and for our leader to facilitate the hard conversations that lead to cross-departmental alignment. We want to feel like a team working together, not a group of people fighting each other for resources.  We feel like we’re wasting hours and energy trying to guess people’s expectations, and admittedly, we don’t always get it right. We want clear expectations and feedback when we succeed – not just criticism when we fail – and supportive guidance when we get it wrong. We’d love to have proactive, productive conversations about our goals with our leader and the team we’re on. We want to avoid trying to read people’s minds, better understand how to overcome obstacles, and get feedback to ensure we’re heading in the right direction. We’d love to adjust our thinking before we’ve inadvertently veered so far off course that it’ll take a miracle to get things back on track. And we know that change is necessary, and we’re not trying to be malicious with our resistance. We just wish we could discuss barriers without being labelled resistant or incompetent. Santa, all we really want for Christmas is for the stress and frustration to go away. Is alignment, effective communication, and an environment that allows us to be open and honest too much to ask for? Sincerely, Exhausted employees who are really looking forward to some downtime over the holidays. ------------------ I speak with so many good, well-intentioned people who are afraid to be open and honest and tell their frustrated leader what they really need to be successful. I often hear “Can’t you tell them that if their mindset changed, we’d all be less stressed and frustrated?” If you’re an owner or executive ready to deeply understand and address the roots of your organization’s stress and frustration and build a more effective workplace, let’s talk.  

Who has a good workplace pizza party meme to share? Almost every intelligent, well-intentioned leader I’ve met has, at some point, attempted to solve a morale, motivation, or engagement problem with a pizza party. In our linear-thinking world, when faced with a problem, we often respond immediately with “we need more ____.” We need more people We need more time We need more money We need more pizza… We come up with an answer to a problem we don’t fully understand and jump into action, applying our thinking to the symptoms of the problem, not the root. This approach is fast but rarely effective and often results in repetition and escalation of the problems. If you’ve attempted to solve a morale issue with pizza, you may have already discovered that free pizza can create an attitude change, but it rarely lasts. And unfortunately, it often worsens the problem. Reacting to the symptoms, we then buy better pizza and maybe switch to steak. Well-intentioned, our frustration and pizza budget continue to grow. Pizza doesn’t work because low morale and lack of motivation and engagement aren’t a result of a lack of pizza. They’re symptoms of a deeper problem. For example, people may be frustrated because they don’t feel that senior leaders understand them or involve them in solving problems. In this case, the pizza party has simply reinforced the problem and perpetuated the morale and motivation issues. To solve a problem properly, we need to get to the root of the problem before implementing a solution.  First, we need to understand what is causing the symptoms. Then we can focus on solving those underlying issues. This does take time and effort – an investment that will pay off in the long run.   In the case of morale, motivation, and engagement, we need to understand people and the systems in which they work. We need to ask educated questions to understand the thoughts and feelings behind their behaviour and the barriers they face. We need to partner with them to create an environment that enables them to do their best work. That doesn’t mean there’s no place for pizza. You can throw the biggest and best pizza party in company history to celebrate the improved and sustained morale, motivation, and engagement resulting from your effective problem-solving efforts.   --- I work with owners and CEOs who want a roadmap and support to quickly improve communication, accountability, alignment, and effectiveness and reduce stress, frustration, and persistent problems - without micromanaging. Curious? Reach out.

There are a few events in my life that have significantly shaped my thinking and become stories that have stayed with me – here’s one of them… The St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital (STEGH) is and has consistently been one of the best performing hospitals in Ontario for Emergency Department wait times. I was fortunate to have joined the STEGH Board in 2009, just as the hospital was embarking on a Lean transformation journey. ER wait times were a key area of focus. During a Board learning event we explored the ways the hospital had been using Lean principles and thinking to positively impact wait times. Interestingly, the biggest changes were not made within the ER, as one might expect. Much to everyone’s surprise, they were made in Housekeeping. Through process mapping and root cause analysis, the team realized that it was the discharge process in the hospital, not the intake process in the ER, that was slowing things down.  When a patient was discharged from the main hospital, their bed/room needed to be cleaned before someone else could be admitted. The Housekeeping norms at the time resulted in beds sitting empty and uncleaned for an extended period. With no clean beds to admit patients to, people waiting to be admitted were kept in the ER and there was no space to see new patients. While the impact was felt in the Emergency Department, the real bottleneck was Housekeeping. And when improvement initiatives were made in Housekeeping – notifications, pagers, etc. - ER wait times declined. Significantly. We later heard a story of a hospital taking a different approach to managing ER wait times. The solution was to hire more ER doctors. And then fill the halls of the ER with temporary beds. This solution was not only more expensive, but it was also much less effective, making little to no impact on wait times. The problem was that they didn’t understand or fix the real problem. This example always reinforces for me the importance and value of using systems thinking over linear thinking. And highlights that even the smartest people don’t solve their problems despite their best efforts because they aren’t even aware systems thinking exists. Systems thinking involves looking at a complex system and considering its interdependencies, not just its isolated components. It is an effective problem-solving mindset that requires having an open mind, being curious, finding root causes, asking good questions, and being a good listener. These are all skills that can be learned, and by learning and applying them, we can make drastic improvements in alleviating the real issues in our organizations, often for much less than it costs to implement an ineffective linear-thinking solution. It's stories like these that leave me inspired to help organizations learn about, understand, and apply systems thinking – to create more effective solutions, often for less money, and alleviate a lot of stress and frustration along the way.

When there’s a gap. Between what we want and what exists. Our instinct often says Close it by force. Telling. Yelling. Pointing. Punish. Insult. Blame. Shame. Guilt. And the gap widens. Why?!   We say. Exasperated. We’re asking the right thing. We’re asking the wrong way. Why?  With curiosity has power. Why?  With a desire to dig deeper creates clarity. Why?  With the ability to put oneself in the other person’s feet, to understand their fears, brings knowledge. Why? Offers the ability to build trust, influence, unite, and align. It’s not aggressiveness, but assertiveness, we need to close the gap. ----------- I help executive and extended leadership teams develop a shared understanding of how to lead change within their organization. By learning how to identify and meet the needs of each individual, we develop the ability to influence and motivate rather than force and be frustrated.

How much time do you invest in thinking about your thinking? In my experience: 🎯 Most organizations and leaders spend time talking about results and behaviours. 💡 Few organizations and leaders invest time talking about thinking.  🤔 And even less actively make time to think about thinking. “Thinking about thinking?!  What?!  We don’t have time for this nonsense…” That thinking is impacting results… Our thoughts, feelings, behaviour, and results are all connected. The results we get come from how we behave, that behaviour is influenced by our feelings, and when it comes down to it, how we act and the results we get are related to what we believe and think. For example, if we believe the meeting will be a waste of time, we can usually do a good job of proving ourselves right. If we believe the meeting has merit, we may not be correct, but we have a much better chance of setting ourselves up for success. We can expand that thinking-result connection to organizational systems. The Iceberg Model is a systems thinking tool that reminds us that the behaviours we see are “just the tip of the iceberg,” and are a symptom of the structures and mental models (thoughts and beliefs) within the system. In other words, what we think leads us to create structures (policies, performance management practices, leadership and communication approaches, etc.) and those structures create patterns of behaviour. The Iceberg Model can be used to better understand the concept of culture. Culture is often described as “how we do things around here” – the patterns of behaviour we come to know as the norm. But if those patterns of behaviour come from our mental models, culture is as much about “how we think around here” as is it about behaviour. So, behavioural science and systems thinking helps us understand that to influence our results, we need to understand and adapt our thinking and choose mental models that will positively impact our results. The leaders, teams, and organizations that try to change behaviour and results without considering the root thinking tend to spend a lot of time talking about persistent and escalating problems like firefighting, repeated errors, and morale issues. And those that invest time into thinking about their thinking will create learning organizations that understand how to adapt, improve, and enhance to get better results. --- I help owners and executive teams have the right conversations about the right topics at the right time. Through coaching, consulting, and facilitation, we infuse innovative thinking and leadership approaches into your discussions to ensure your leadership teams have the mindset, skill set, and habits that attract, retain, and get results in today’s world.

I’m doing one of my programs as a participant rather than a facilitator. And I’ve gotta tell you, it kind of sucks. Not the program itself, the program is excellent 😊 But answering the questions, rather than just asking them – my goodness. The Humaning Made Easier team of Partner Facilitators - Jenny Barkan, ACC, Kristina Schmitt, Murray G. Smith, and me - decided to meet regularly to go through the Professional Selling Foundations program that Murray and I created this year.  In a recent session, we talked about how it was hard to answer some of the questions and that we often struggled to come up with an answer. Murray pointed out that that realization is one of the most valuable things you can take from the question – the realization that you don’t know – that until now, this topic had never been on your radar, and now that it is, you can start to search for answers. The challenge is, not knowing creates discomfort. It’s a struggle. It makes you want to go “this sucks” and probably convince yourself to give up. One of my biggest takeaways from that session was Murray saying, “The struggle is the point.” I shared my experience and that line with a group doing the Delving Into Difficult Discussions program. In response to someone sharing they realized they needed to make some changes but kept putting it off because it felt uncomfortable. When I shared my story, another participant said, “I think ‘the struggle is the point’ is exactly what I needed to hear to actually take the time to work through the questions in this program.” And hopefully, it resonates with you, too. If you think you want to learn, grow, and develop but find yourself resisting because it feels hard, remember that “the struggle is the point.” 

Only 2 spots left! ❓ Interested in taking some of the stress and frustration out of leadership? ❓ Want a safe place to challenge your thinking and turn good intentions into action? ❓ Looking for innovative ways to elevate your organization? THRIVE: A Leadership Journey starts November 7.  

Sadly, Linear Company has been losing its top talent and customers. The executive team gathers. The conversation sounds something like this: 💥 “The salespeople need to do better!” 💥 “Production is too slow.” 💥 “I guess we need to pay more.” 💥 “We need leadership training for the middle managers!” 💥 “Recognition ceremonies!” 💥 “Sweatshirts!” 💥 “Pizza parties!” Systems Company has not only been retaining its top talent, it has also slowly attracted people and customers from Linear Company. Their executive meetings tend to sound more like this: ❓ “How are we understanding and meeting the needs of our people?” ❓  “What barriers have we created that prevent sales and production from operating like a team?” ❓ “What are the roots of these issues?” ❓ “Are we making enough time to listen?” ❓ “How much time, energy, and attention are we giving to the top performers versus the underperformers?” ❓ “How can we support people to grow and develop?” ❓ “What do our people need from us?” ❓ “What could our executive team be doing better?” Most people and organizations use linear thinking. With linear thinking, we stay at the surface and focus on the symptoms. We say, “We should do…” and tend to slowly compound our problems. With systems thinking, we seek to go deeper and uncover and address the reasons for the symptoms. We say, “We should seek to understand…” and slowly understand and fix our problems. With linear thinking, we tend to react, blame, and bandaid.   With systems thinking, we respond, solve, learn, and improve. Systems thinking organizations understand the value of understanding – and they make time for it. They attract and retain people because they know they need to spend time understanding people. So which organization (or team or leader) are you? And which do you want to be? I help executive teams bring innovative thinking and leadership approaches to their boardroom and ensure organizations have the mindset, skill set, and habits that attract, retain, and get results in today’s world. Please reach out if you’re looking for innovative ways to strengthen your executive team and organization.