We all know the world is changing faster than ever.  A lot of that change is being driven by technology and social media.  I just came across this new “Did You Know” video about social media. Some interesting and surprising tidbits!

Definitely worth 4 minutes and 19 seconds of your time.

A colleague recently sent me a link to Ben Zander’s TED talk from 2008. I’d heard of Zander, a talented conductor famous for his inspiring pre-concert speeches. I’d even read and recommended his book (The Art of Possibility) some years ago. Zander is always fun and inspiring to watch so I knew I’d enjoy the TED clip. What really struck me in watching this video this time around was a concept that Zander shares near the end. Watch the whole video if you can. If you are short on time, fast-forward to around 17:30 for some fabulous thinking on what it means to be a leader.

To me, Zander’s points illustrate exactly what it means to be an Energizing Leader. Imagine the impact we would all have if we remembered and lived by his three simple points:

• The conductor of an orchestra (leader) doesn’t make a sound. He depends for his power on his ability to make other people powerful.

One of my favorite authors on leadership is Bob Sutton, professor at Stanford University.  Sutton is the author of numerous books, including Good Boss, Bad Boss and The No Asshole Rule.   One of the most memorable concepts Sutton talks about is something he calls the Toxic Tandem.

According to Sutton, research confirms what many of us have long suspected: People who gain authority over others tend to become more self-centered and less mindful of what others need, do, and say. That would be bad enough, but the problem is compounded because a boss’s self-absorbed words and deeds are scrutinized so closely by his or her followers. Combined, these tendencies make for a toxic tandem.

Check out this video of Sutton describing the Toxic Tandem and other concepts in a presentation at Google:

I’m curious . . . if you are a leader have you learned to  avoid the toxic tandem?

If you deliver presentations and are looking for ways to involve your audiences, you need to know about a technique known as sculpting.

I learned about sculpting from fellow speaker and writer,  Scott Q Marcus.  Basically, sculpting involves getting volunteers from your audience to depict concepts and ideas using their bodies.   Sculpting can be hard to describe in writing, so check out this video from Scott to hear his description and see some sculpting in action:

A few weeks ago I had the good fortune to participate in a sculpting workshop with Scott at NSA-Colorado.  Scott helped me design a sculpt to depict the main roles people may play in a planned change.  My NSA peers helped me test and refine the sculpt.  As we played and experimented, we came across some terrific insights about how the harder the leader pulls, the more resistance he/she encounters and about how easy it is for lines of communication to break when one person gets too far ahead of the others.

In their recent book Switch, Chip and Dan Heath explored the reasons for why behavior change can be so difficult. One of their hypotheses was that behavior change requires self-control and that self-control is itself, an exhaustible resource.

Check out this video to learn more:

For leaders, the critical point to absorb is that piling on too many changes at once can backfire. As the Heath’s say, “Change wears people out—even well-intentioned people will simply run out of fuel.” To lead change successfully, we need to pay attention to how many changes we are asking people to make simultaneously and be on the lookout for burnout and overload. Help your people focus on what is most important now. Once one behavior becomes ingrained and automatic, you can move on to the next.

Marshall Goldsmith is one of my favorite authors and leadership gurus.  I’ve shared his “feedforward”  concept with leaders for years and recently wrote about the idea in this article.

Feedfoward means giving people suggestions in advance about how to behave rather than waiting for them to fail and beating them up afterwards.  Anyone can give feedforward when they have an idea that may help someone else succeed.  For example, years ago my husband was about to present to his company’s executive leadership team for the first time. His boss gave him great feed-forward about how to dress, when to speak, how much detail to go into, etc.

While I usually talk about giving feedforward, Goldsmith also makes the great point that we can and should ask for feedforward.  If you have a behavior you want to change, try asking others for ideas and suggestions about how to succeed.   Most people who try this technique find that it is fun and they get great ideas.

Imagine ethics and compliance training so compelling that your employees hack in to your computer system to see episodes before they are released!

This isn’t a fantasy.  One company actually made it happen by making it’s mandatory training funny, relevant,  and educational through the use of video.

Steve Mack, executive producer for Impact Video Production, just released this video blog showing how several companies have made training more engaging by creating video parodies of the TV series, “The Office”.

A few days ago I published a post about communicating with people, not to them.  Just today I came across a terrific video slideshow from Les Landes that reinforces this point.  Landes is an expert in marketing communications, employee engagement and alignment.  Check out his video: Closing the Distance below.

Corporate communicators have been using video to share messages for decades.  But in just the past year or two, more and more companies are recognizing that employees are more actively engaged when they create the video themselves.  Here is a great example of this approach.

Hospital Video Contest: Washing Hands

Rather than creating a corporate Wash Your Hands campaign, one hospital asked employees to create and submit their own videos.  Here’s a compilation of results:

Consider inviting your people to create your next important message themselves!

Another great way to influence people’s behavior – make it fun!

In addition to the fun factor, I think this video illustrates another powerful point.  People are curious.  In Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath demonstrate how powerful it can be to start a talk or a class by using a question or a mystery:

Today’s takeaway:  Are you leveraging fun and curiosity to interest people in your change effort?