Make Fitness A Lifesstyle

You don't need an expensive club membership or a cross-country ski machine to maintain a body that exudes vitality. Forget the spandex, stopwatches, and ankle warmers, for instance, and just:






* Walk up and down the stairs to your high-rise office or apartment.

* Ride a bike to the neighborhood convenience store to pick up that quart of nonfat milk.

* Skip the cart and get some real exercise while golfing.

* Take a nature hike instead of watching a nature film on television.

* Got a friend you meet with regularly to shoot the breeze? Get in your chat while walking around the neighborhood instead of over a cup of coffee or a beer. You'll both be better off.

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Dealing With Difficult Customers

It is easy to work with people you like, and it is even easier to work with people who like you. But that's not always the case. Sooner or later, you'll have to deal with a difficult customer.

Difficult customers come in a wide variety. There are those whose personality rubs you the wrong way. They may not be difficult for someone else, but they are for you. And then there are those who are difficult for everyone: Picky people, know-it-alls, egocentrics, fault-finders, constant complainers, etc. Every salesperson can list a number of the types.

But perhaps the most difficult for everyone is the angry customer. This is someone who feels that he or she has been wronged, and is upset and emotional about it. These customers complain, and they are angry about something you or your company did.

There are some sound business reasons to become adept in handling an angry customer. Research indicates that customers who complain are likely to continue doing business with your company if they feel that they were treated properly. It's estimated that as many as 90% of customers who perceive themselves as having been wronged never complain, they just take their business elsewhere. So, angry, complaining customers care enough to talk to you, and have not yet decided to take their business to the competition. They are customers worth saving.

Not only are there benefits to your company, but you personally gain as well. Become adept at handling angry customers, and you’ll feel much more confident in your own abilities. If you can handle this, you can handle anything. While any one can work with the easy people, it takes a real professional to be successful with the difficult customers. Your confidence will grow, your poise will increase, and your self-esteem will intensify.

On the other hand, if you mishandle it, and you'll watch the situation dissolve into lost business and upset people. You may find yourself upset for days.

So, how do you handle an angry, complaining customer? Let's begin with a couple tools you can use in these situations.

1. RESPECT. It can be difficult to respect a person who may be yelling, swearing or behaving like a two-year-old. I'm not suggesting you respect the behavior, only that you respect the person. Keep in mind that 99 times out of 100 you are not the object of the customer's anger. You are like a small tree in the path of a swirling tornado. But unlike the small tree, you have the power to withstand the wind.

What is the source of your power? Unlike the customer, you are not angry, you are in control, and your only problem at the moment is helping him with his problem. If you step out of this positioning, and start reacting to the customer in an emotional way, you'll lose control, you’ll lose your power, and the situation will be likely to escalate into a lose-lose for everyone. So, begin with a mindset that says, "No matter what, I will respect the customer."

2. EMPATHY. Put yourself in the customer's shoes, and try to see the situation from his/her perspective. Don't try and cut him off, don't urge him to calm down. Instead, listen carefully. If someone is angry or upset, it is because that person feels injured in some way. Your job is to let the customer vent and to listen attentively in order to understand the source of that frustration. When you do that, you send a powerful unspoken message that you care about him and his situation.

Often, as the customer comes to realize that you really do care and that you are going to attempt to help him resolve the problem, the customer will calm down on his own, and begin to interact with you in a positive way.

Here's how you can use these two tools in an easily-remembered process for dealing with angry customers.

CRACK THE EGG

Imagine that you have a hard-boiled egg. The rich yellow yolk at the center of the egg represents the solution to the customer's problem, the hardened white which surrounds the yolk represents the details of the customer's situation, and the hard shell represents his/her anger.

In order to get to the yolk, and resolve the situation, you must first crack the shell. In other words, you have got to penetrate the customer’s anger. Then you've got to cut through the congealed egg white. That means that you understand the details of the customer’s situation. Finally, you're at the heart of the situation, where you can offer a solution to the customer's problem.

So, handling an angry customer is like cutting through a hard-boiled egg. Here's a four-step process to help you do so.

1. LISTEN.
Let's say you stop to see one of your regular customers. He doesn't even give you time to finish your greeting before he launches into a tirade.

At this point, about all you can do is LISTEN. And that's what you do. You don't try and cut him off, you don't urge him to calm down. Not just yet. Instead, you listen carefully. And as you listen, you begin to piece together his story. He ordered a piece of equipment three weeks ago. You quoted him X price and delivery by last Friday for a project that's starting this week. Not only is the equipment not there, but he received an invoice for it at a different price than was quoted.

"What kind of shoddy operation is this?" he wants to know. Do you understand how important his project is? Do you know how much time and money is at stake? If he doesn't get his equipment and something happens to this project, you're going to pay for it. He knew, he just knew he should have ordered the equipment from your competitor. What are you going do about it?

Now you have the basic story. Hopefully, after this gush of frustration, there will be a pause while he comes up for air.

More often than not, once the customer has had an initial chance to vent his rage, it's going to die down a little, and that's your opportunity to take step in.

Even if he has started calming down on his own, there comes a moment - and I can almost guarantee you'll sense it - to help calm him down. Try something along the lines of: "It sounds like something has gone wrong, and I can understand your frustration. I'm sorry you're experiencing this problem. Let's take a look at the next step."

Try to calm yourself first, and then to acknowledge his feelings. Say, "I can tell you're upset..." or, "It sounds like you're angry..." then connect to the customer by apologizing, or empathizing. When you say something like "I'm sorry that happened. If I were you, I'd be frustrated, too." It's amazing how much of a calming effect that can have.

Remember, anger is a natural, self-defensive reaction to a perceived wrong. If there is a problem with your company’s product or service, some frustration and disappointment is justified.

This is so important, let me repeat it. First you listen carefully and completely to the customer. Then you empathize with what the customer is feeling, and let him or her know that you understand. This will almost always calm the customer down. You've cracked the shell of the egg. Now, you can proceed to deal with the problem

2. IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM.
Sometimes while the angry customer is venting, you'll be able to latch right on to the problem because it's clear-cut. Something is broken. Or late. Or he thinks a promise has been broken.
But sometimes in the middle of all that rage, it's tough to comprehend the bottom-line issue. This is a good place for some specific questions. Ask the customer to give you some details. "What day did he order it, when exactly was it promised. What is his situation at the moment?" These kind of questions force the customer to think about facts instead of his/her feelings about those facts. So, you interject a more rational kind of conversation. Think of this step of the process as cutting through the white of the egg to get to the yolk at the center.

It's important, when you think you understand the details, to restate the problem. You can say, "Let me see if I have this right. You were promised delivery last Friday, because you need it for an important project this coming week. But you haven't received our product yet. Is that correct?"

He will probably acknowledge that you've sized up the situation correctly. Or, he may say, "No, that's not right" and then proceed to explain further. In either case the outcome is good, because you will eventually understand his situation correctly, and have him tell you that "Yes, that's right."

And at that point you can apologize. Some people believe that an apology is an acknowledgment of wrongdoing. But you can appreciate and apologize for the customer's inconvenience without pointing fingers. Just say, "Mr. Brady, I'm sorry this has happened." Or "Mr. Brady. I understand this must be very frustrating. Let's just see what we can do fix it, OK?"

3. AVOID BLAME.
You don't want to blame the customer by saying something like "Are you sure you understood the price and delivery date correctly?" This will just ignite his anger all over again because you are questioning his credibility and truth-telling.

And you don't want to blame your company or your suppliers Never say, "I’m not surprised your invoice was wrong. It's been happening a lot." Or, "Yes, our backorders are way behind."

In general, you AVOID BLAME. Which is different than acknowledging responsibility. For example, if you know, for a fact, a mistake has been made, you can acknowledge it and apologize for it. "Mr. Brady, clearly there's a problem here with our performance. I can't change that, but let me see what I can do to help you out because I understand how important your project is."

4. RESOLVE THE PROBLEM.
Now you’re at the heart of the egg. You won't always be able to fix the problem perfectly. And you may need more time than a single phone call. But it's critical to leave the irate customer with the understanding that your goal is to resolve the problem. You may need to say, "I'm going to need to make some phone calls." If you do, give the customer an idea of when you’ll get back to him: "Later this afternoon." Or "First thing in the morning."

Then do it. Make the phone calls. Get the information. Find out what you can do for this customer and do it. Then follow up with the customer when you said you would. Even if you don't have all the information you need, call when you said you would and at least let him know what you've done, what you're working on and what your next step will be. Let the customer know that he and his business are important to you, that you understand his frustration, and that you're working hard to get things fixed.

Use the tools of respect and empathy, and the "crack the egg" process, and you'll move your professionalism up a notch.

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SUBCONSCIOUS CLEANSING

Sebuah tempat sampah yang berisi sampah dan selalu diisi sampah
setiap hari, tentu saja suatu waktu akan busuk. Sampah dari tempat
sampah tersebut haruslah dibuang ke tempat pembuangan sampah akhir
atau diambil oleh mobil pengangkut sampah.
Kadang bila sampah itu masih bisa ditekan-tekan, kita menekan-nekan
sampah itu biar padat ke bawah. Kita menginjak-injak biar kita bisa memasukkan sampah baru ke tempat sampah kita. Tanpa sadar, bahwa sampah yang berada di bawah sudah membusuk!

Pikiran kita tanpa kita sadari menjadi seperti tempat sampah tersebut..

Kita memasukkan sampah dan berulangkali memasukkan sampah dengan menekan sampah-sampah yang di bawah sampai padat dan benar-benar padat..

Hypnoterapi dengan membikin Anchor bukanlah subconscious cleansing... dengan di- hypnotis dan masuk dalam keadaan trans juga bukanlah subconscious cleansing. Keadaan-keadaan itu kita sedang membuat mainan baru bagi pikiran. Pikiran sampah yang bergejolak sedang ditenangkan dan membuat mainan baru sehingga kita lupa dengan pikiran yang bergejolak tersebut.

Subconscious cleansing? Apa gunanya?

Hampir semua dari kita ingin pikiran kita tenang, punya jiwa yang tenang dan hati yang jernih. Tetapi tenang itu tidak sama dengan menenang-nenangkan diri. Sabar itu tidak sama dengan menyabar-nyabarkan diri.

Yang terjadi selama ini adalah kita memanipulasi pikiran kita sendiri untuk menjadi sabar, sedangkan kekacauan mengendap jauh di bawah sadar. Memang tidak kelihatan dalam waktu dekat, bahkan bisa tahunan mengendapnya. Semakin mahir sang manipulator untuk memanipulasi pikiran, semakin mahir sang peng-hypnotis untuk mengendapkan kekacauan di jauh bawah sadar sana..... kita tidak terasa dan 'merasa' bahwa kita sudah menjadi tenang dan 'merasa' pikiran kita tidak bergejolak..... kita sebenarnya hanya'merasa'.....

Dimana kekacauan itu? Dimana gejolak itu? Dimana sampah-sampah itu?
Mereka semua masih ada dan mengendap di bawah sadar manusia.....

Subconscious cleansing adalah sebuah kegiatan membuang sampah bawah sadar yang tidak berguna dengan cara melakukan tindakan dengan active mengeluarkan emosi-emosi yang 'terarah'.

Salah satunya adalah metode yang dipopulerkan oleh Osho, seorang guru spiritual yang dikenal ahli psikoanalisa ( http://www.osho.com ). Serangkaian teknik dari Osho ini adalah sebagian besar adalah subconscious cleansing. Karena menurut Osho, sebelum kita tenang dan sampah pikiran habis, kita belum 'layak' untuk belajar hal-hal baru. Sayangnya buku-buku dari Osho ini tidak bisa ditemukan di Indonesia karena bahasanya yang terkenal sangat vulgar. Saya mengoleksi tulisan Osho dari pencarian saya di toko buku Melbourne dan Sydney Austalia.

Subconscious cleansing tentu saja akan membuat kita menjadi kreatif dan inspiratif karena akan dengan mudah menerima ide-ide dari semesta. Metode dari Osho ini bernama 'Gibberish' meditation.

Sederhana sebetulnya.
Mau mencoba?

Metode ini adalah metode 'mengoceh'. Silahkan mengoceh dengan kalimat yang tidak boleh putus selama 30 menit. Tetapi dengan syarat, yaitu mengoceh dengan bahasa yang tidak kita ketahui. Kalau kita bisa bahasa Indonesia dan Inggris, kita tidak boleh mengoceh dengan bahasa tersebut. Unik bukan?

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Increase Your Income 1000%

Here's an exercise for you; imagine that it's possible for you to earn 10 times your current annual wage. If you're earning $25,000, imagine for a moment that it's possible for you to earn $250,000, a 1,000 percent increase.

Believe in Yourself
The first reaction of most people to that exercise is to smile briefly and then to begin thinking about why it isn't possible. One man said to me, "If you knew how many years it's taken for me to get to what I'm earning today you wouldn't be suggesting that I could earn 10 times as much."

There Are No Excuses
Mark Twain once wrote that there are a thousand excuses for every failure but never a good reason. The tragedy of the average American is that whereas his or her main preoccupation seems to be money, or the lack thereof, the average person has the inherent potential to earn far more than he or she is earning currently.

Can Someone Be 10x Better?
Is the manager earning $250,000 per year ten times as smart as the manager earning $25,000? Ten times as experienced? Does he or she work 10 times harder? Of course not. None of these are physically or mentally possible, but there are people in every business earning many times more than others with the same average age, experience and intelligence.

I.Q. Doesn't Really Matter
In fact, a few years ago in New York, a thousand men and women were selected at random and tested for I.Q. Between the one having the highest I.Q. in this sample and the one with the lowest, there was a difference of only two and a half times. But between the person earning the most, who by the way, was not the one with the highest I.Q. and the one earning the least, who was not the one with the lowest I.Q., there was a difference of 100 times in income.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to start increasing your income.

First, identify the highest earning, most successful people in your field and find out what it is that they are doing differently from others who aren't doing as well. Copy them every day.

Second, set a goal to double your income over the next two or three years and then figure out what you'll have to do to achieve it. Get started!

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Everyone is Important

Everyone has critical skills and knowledge that are important to many other people in the company.

Use Better Titles for Each Person
Some years ago, when I started in business, the job of the receptionist was to answer the telephone and direct the callers to the appropriate people. Today, however, her job is far more complicated and, therefore, more important. Since she is the first contact that most customers have with our business, her personality and temperament are extremely important.

Think About Your Customers
The prospective client who telephones begins forming an impression of us the instant that the telephone is answered. Then, because our companies are doing so many things, she must tactfully ascertain exactly how the caller may be best served and who is the best person in the company to direct the telephone call to.

One Person Can Make the Difference
In many cases, there are requests for further information, and follow-up telephone calls go through our front-office manager. Her ability to handle these calls effectively, to direct calls to the right people, to take accurate messages, and to act as the core person in a network of communications makes her job so important that it is essential that she sit in on all staff meetings and be aware of everything that is going on.

Keep Yourself Informed
Your job in your company also requires that you know a lot about what is going on everywhere else, as well as being thoroughly conversant with what you do. And the fastest and most accurate way of keeping current with what is going on is to develop and maintain a network of contacts, an informal team of people within your workplace who keep you informed and who you keep informed in turn.

Encourage Participation and Involvement
The old methods of command and control now exist only at the old-line companies, many of which are fighting for their very survival. Today, men and women want a high degree of participation and involvement in their work. They want an opportunity to discuss and thoroughly understand what they are doing and why they are doing it. People are no longer satisfied to be cogs in a big machine. They want to have an integral role in achieving goals that they participated in setting in the first place.

Build a Top Team
Being a team player is no longer something that is optional. Today, it is mandatory. If you want to achieve anything of consequence, you will need the help and cooperation of lots of people. Your main objective is to structure everything you do in such a way that, because you are constantly cooperating and working well with others, they are continually open to helping you achieve your goals.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, recognize that every person in the company is essential to the smooth functioning of the organization. Take time regularly to discuss their jobs with them and understand what they do.

Second, identify the things that you do that can really affect the work of others. Then, look for ways to do your job so that you help others in every way possible.

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Teaching the Teacher

Lessons in engaging multiple intelligences

The arbiter of knowledge and skills, the teacher, is a revered figure around the world. In India, the teacher is known as the guru, the wise one who can be trusted to lead the knowledge-blind and shine the light of competence and skills in the darkness of ignorance and incompetence.

Over time it has been realized that the wise one is not necessarily the most skilled teacher. Learning proficiently and transferring the learning just as well is not really as simple as it seems. It takes far more skill to teach than to learn.

The teacher has not only to have a full and wholesome appreciation of the subject but also know how best to transfer this in its entirety in a useful manner to the learner considering the learning styles and needs of each individual learner.

Whilst studies have been popularized concerning learning styles, and suitable adaptation of knowledge transference has been undertaken to match the varied learning styles of participants, the newer platform of transference has to do with the multiple intelligences that seem to be far more effective in reaching across to the learner.

The theory of multiple intelligences was developed in 1983 by Dr. Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University. It suggests that the traditional notion of intelligence, based on IQ testing, is far too limited. Instead, Dr. Gardner proposes several different intelligences to account for a broader range of human potential in children and adults. These intelligences are:

• Linguistic intelligence (word smart)
• Logical-mathematical intelligence (number/reasoning smart)
• Spatial intelligence (picture smart)
• Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence (body smart)
• Musical intelligence (music smart)
• Interpersonal intelligence (people smart)
• Intrapersonal intelligence (self smart)
• Naturalist intelligence (nature smart)

How does this affect us learning facilitators and trainers and our participants?

The theory of multiple intelligences has strong implications for adult learning and development. Many adults and young professionals seeking to make their mark in life often find themselves in jobs that do not make optimal use of their most highly developed intelligences. For example, the highly bodily-kinesthetic individual may be stuck in a linguistic or logical desk-job like customer care when he or she would be much happier in a job where they could move around, such as in front-line sales.

The theory of multiple intelligences gives adults a whole new way to look at their lives, examining potentials that they left behind in their childhood (such as a love for art or drama) but now have the opportunity to develop through courses, hobbies, or other programs of self-development.

This is another way of chasing away the boredom with the routine or the mundane work one becomes habituated to accept and live with, lowering the levels of enthusiasm, responsiveness and creativity – some of the essential ingredients for success in these competitive times.

What we must recognize is that these multiple intelligences offer choices to (a) trainers/teachers/learning & development facilitators to use varied methods and practices of transferring and processing learning deliverables and to (b) participants to acquire and learn varied methods of addressing work itself, using creative methods to address work issues through the favoured and more developed intelligences

Let’s look at the eight intelligences and how training or learning methods can be matched against them.

Linguistic intelligence (word smart): Reference reading material, reference books, well scripted program handbooks.

Logical-mathematical intelligence (number/reasoning smart) Case studies, problem solving models & techniques, inventory/ questionnaire/ response form/ instrument evaluation & analysis.

Spatial intelligence (picture smart): Use of graphs, charts, pictures and diagrams.

Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence (body smart): Role plays, projects, structured training games/activities.

Musical intelligence (music smart): Music with learning deliverable lyrics. Participants create musical learning summaries using popular tunes, leveraging nursery rhymes to advanced learning songs & anthems.

Interpersonal intelligence (people smart): Team exercises that need the identification and use of the varied resources of team members.

Intrapersonal intelligence (self smart): Presentations by participants on processed learning, role-reversals. Participants study and deliver (teach) selected modules in the program itself, participants are asked to create learning models/modules

Naturalist intelligence (nature smart): Learning from real world experiences, interpretations and guiding principles that emerge from such experiences.

Dr. Howard Gardner says that other than areas of developed expertise, most of us react or process and infer learning outcomes in all other areas in the manner we used to do as 5-year-old kids – the earliest levels of cognitive intelligence.

Implications of this are as follows for trainers/facilitators/teachers and our corporate participants:

1. As trainers/teachers/facilitators we need to be experts at what we teach else we are simply transferring our own 5-year-old childish reasoning and logic to the participants, who receive it believing it is the word of the expert. The snowballing consequences are nightmarish!

2. To be experts, demands more than average attention and learning in the area of study.

3. Extensive reading (to replace extensive research and study) is the minimal effort one has to undertake to raise the levels of personal awareness, knowledge/content and competence/understanding.

4. Participants are unlikely to react in the ‘expected’ manner in either receiving, processing or understanding the learning deliverables, as they are most likely to be at a level of ‘non-expert’ in these areas and therefore would have learning conclusions matching their own 5-year-old level of logic and belief.

Concluding remarks

This exercise leads us to some interesting conclusions in the training-learning process:

a. Content transference is easily possible at an adult learning level. Summarising received content at the end of the program is not an indication of learning or understanding as pointed out by Dr. Gardner.

b. Understanding can only be ascertained when participants apply the learning in simulated real world experiences that are necessarily different from the experience created when delivering the concept. For example, participants can offer each other their own past experiences and ask others how they would use the learning to have handled the situation, or offer their own new approaches to the old

c. Training videos, role plays, case study experiments, training exercises, need to be processed with ‘understanding’ in mind – not a simple analysis of what happened in the experiment or video or exercise, which is what participants tend to explain, but how this learning can be applied at work/back in real life.

d. Similarly hoping that the video/exercise or experiment is ‘self-explanatory’ is not constructive as the learning derived by participants is likely to be unprocessed content management and learning summaries are derived from the 5-year-old child-like ‘theories of life’. The ‘expert’ must anchor the learning rather than leave loose ends to be automatically tied.

e. Understanding can be investigated only by moving from basic questions like what, why, how to the more advance ‘aesthetic’ level questioning skills/questions that ask participants to offer personally processed input that has direct bearing on their work practices or behavior.

f. This points to program design and delivery process. Program designs which are packed almost like a school time table leave very little processing and understanding time. The program flow is often ‘impaired’ by handling lack of understanding or processing by participants and therefore participants learn to respond by cleverly managing the showcasing of content to represent learning and understanding, in order to release the program flow and time which tends to be the casualty, in a concept-crowded program.

g. The facilitator has to be equipped to deal with the following learning hurdles which participants will unconsciously throw up.

* Misconceptions: Based on their past experiences, pet theories and assumptions
* Rigid algorithms/formulas: Formed from their earlier explanations of how the world works; input to output formulas that worked or seemed to work; expert opinions of others they consider experts, information in magazines/MIS data (tabulated and charted data tends to overwhelm the thinking and understanding process).
* Stereotyping and world views held by participants to diagnose and judge the rest of the world , in order to make decisions, are usually based on earlier formed assumptions and perceptions which without confrontation or validity checks, often script the guide book of their current life.

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Change & Resistance

Change often engenders perceptions of ambiguity and insecurity, leading to feelings of anxiety and fear. These feelings underlie the numerous cases of resistance encountered in organizations when change is introduced.

Most instances of change in an organization have both a technical and a social aspect. Having studied the phenomenon of resistance to change, behavioral scientists have come to propound that people do not resist technical change as much as the accompanying social change.

Resistance to change is likely to occur when:
Those who are affected by the change have not been involved in the planning of the change;
The nature of the change is not clearly explained;
The purpose of the change is not made clear to the people affected by the change;
The change disrupts, or threatens to disrupt, the established relationships with peers and/or superiors.

What can be done to implement change without or with little resistance? Well, first of all ensure that the proposed change is necessary. A change would be called for where there is dissatisfaction with the status quo. Be clear about the objective(s) and the desired impact of the change. Then let the people who are going to be affected by the change have a say in the planning; explain to them the technical aspects involved in the change in terms easily understood by them; ensure that the change does not entail radical changes in the social relationships of people who are to adopt the change. Explain also the anticipated benefits.

When you have done all that, if you still notice some resistance, do not attempt to quell it straight away. It is worthwhile to view the resistance as a signal that something is wrong. Review and re-examine the situation so as to identify the cause, which may be some technical imperfection or social disruption.

The following propositions, gleaned from elsewhere, are useful guidelines for one who plans to introduce any change in an organization:

Change is more acceptable if it has been planned than if it is "experimental";

Change is more acceptable when it is understood than when it is not;

Change is more acceptable when it does not threaten security than when it does;

Change is more acceptable when those affected have helped create it than when it has been externally imposed;

Change is more acceptable when it results from an application of previously established impersonal principles than when it is dictated by a personal order;

Change is more acceptable when it follows a series of successful changes than when it follows a series of failures;

Change is more acceptable when it is inaugurated after prior change has been assimilated than when it is inaugurated during the confusion of other major change(s);

Change is more acceptable to people new on the job than to people old in the job;

Change is more acceptable to people who share in the benefits of change than to those who do not;

Change is more acceptable if the organization has been trained to accept change.

In attempting to introduce any change in your organization, therefore, it is in order and indeed wise to bear in mind the foregoing considerations and carry out a force-field analysis of the situation: Choose the objective, locate the status quo, identify the facilitating & hindering forces and work out ways to strengthen the former and remove or weaken the latter.

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