Change Makers Vs. Change Resisters

For many of us, dinner table talk usually invites questions surrounding how your day was and invites us to divulge the good aspects, but imagine growing up having your parents asking, “What did you fail at today kids?” Ok, so you may be thinking that sounds rather negative - but have you considered it might just be your attitude towards the question that is evoking this association?

If you’re curious about how your attitude is affecting your ability to be innovative, check out this i4 Tales taster, as we meet Human Resources Expert & Speaker, Blythe Rowe, who believes attitude is “absolutely critical” in the development of innovation.

From a background in various Leadership Development and Human Resources roles within the corporate world, including the likes of McDonald’s and Bunnings, Rowe has since gone on to follow her ambition after taking a break for a couple of bambinos, and founded her own business, Human Incite, which focuses on people and culture in business.

Attitude plays a key role in life, at both a professional and personal level, but it seems that it’s all to easy to fall into the practice of being a ‘change resister’ when things don’t go according to plan and take the easy road. So what does it take to flip that coin and become a ‘change maker’?

Rowe believes characteristics identifiable with these ‘innovators’ or ‘change makers’ include: having a resilient mindset; a try & try again approach; a collaborative attitude (versus a ‘me, me, me’ focus), and responsibility that requires ownership over your actions, even when things do go pear-shaped.

3 Simple Steps To Improve Your Attitude:

1. Self awareness
   Take time to reflect, after all “we don’t know what we don’t know.”
2. Focus
   Choose one or two small things to change and focus on actioning these rather than undertaking something huge.
3. Model someone
   Find someone who is really good at what you want to do and model their behaviours & attitudes.

Toxic Workplaces

Having a healthy culture within a business plays a significant role in the generation of innovative ideas, but all too often, businesses overlook the toxic behaviours and attitudes that arise.

Rowe says such attitudes include “blamers”, who focus on blaming others when things go wrong, which can quickly turn a culture into an ‘under the radar’ style, where employees prefer to maintain status quo rather than to rock the boat and innovate.

Dealing with an array of clientele from differing levels within businesses, Rowe explores the need to ‘shift focus’ to improve attitudes – iterating that it’s about “changing to the ‘what if?’ and ‘why are we doing this’…it can help inspire from within”.

Living by these values in both her professional and personal life, Rowe attributes some of her positivity and drive to the friendships she keeps, saying, “I choose to be around great people, I don’t choose to be around people who drain my energy, and if they do – I tolerate them and then move on. It’s a choice, we only live once.”

Blythe Rowe at i4 Tales 2015