Roger Federer has blasted Novak Djokovic 6:0 in the first set of the Cincinnati final.
Why did this happen? One of the reasons is Nole’s unusual number of double faults. The second serve is the tennis stroke most exposed to pressure. Let’s have a look to the methods used by the pros to deal with stress situations and develop some ideas on how to work in Social BPM mode on projects.
Many club players including top women players (e.g. ex pro Jelena Dementjeva) are anxious to deliver
expand »a second serve. The main reason is usually the fear to commit a double fault due to this thought popping up automatically. Indeed it is possible and quite easy to replace a disturbing thinking pattern by another thought without consulting any specialised doctor.
CBT helps to unlearn unwanted reactions and to learn a new way of reacting. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is based on the idea that our thoughts cause our feelings and behaviors, not external things, like people, situations, and events. The benefit of this fact is that we can change the way we think to feel / act better even if the situation does not change.
http://www.nelsonbinggeli.net/NB/CBT-CR.html
Example of ‘mental reprogramming’
• Activating event : second serve
• Beliefs : fear or expect double fault
• Consequences : stress, unaccurate toss, incomplete movement
• New behaviour : replace the double fault fear thought by another automatic thought, think to push with the legs if you feel the second serve fear stress
Below a few examples of real life situations at work. By the nature of things, the team working on strategic projects is exposed to a tremendous external pressure to meet expectations. A CBT-like Social BPM behavioural pattern would avoid stress and improve productivity.
All-or-nothing thinking: Looking at things in absolute, black-and-white categories, instead of on a continuum. For example, if something is less than perfect, one sees it as a total failure.
Example : Escalation to the Project Board that a project is at risk due to minor issues
Social BPM view : Put things in perspective, building cathedrals and pyramids usually takes longer than expected
Mental filter: Focusing on a single negative detail and dwelling it on it exclusively until one’s vision of reality becomes darkened.
Example : Focus on complex and rare scenarios difficult to cover by systems logic
Social BPM view : the operational colleagues might prefer a simple solution and manage the complexity without an even more complex systems logic
Discounting the positive: Telling oneself that one’s positive experiences, deeds, or personal qualities don’t count in order to maintain a negative belief about oneself. Or doing this to someone else.
Example : Constant pressure applied by tracking the smallest deviations gives the impression that whatever we do on projects it is never enough
Social BPM view : looking back to what we have achieved, ask the Customer for feedback, usually it is more positive than our perception
Unfair judgments: Holding oneself personally responsible for events that aren't (or aren’t entirely) under one’s control, or blaming other people and overlooking ways in which one might have also contributed to the problem.
Example : Self-defence patterns might either lead to be overly concerned or to pass the blame
Social BPM view : like we say in French ‘il n’y pas de fumée sans feu’, no smoke without fire, take a break, analyse the situation thoroughly, identify and acknowledge your own contribution to the problem with objectivity
Name-calling: Putting an extremely negative and emotionally-loaded label on oneself or others. It is an extreme form of magnification and minimization, and also represents a gross overgeneralization.
Example : We are all failing e-mails
Social BPM view : work more frequently as a team with transparent information flow helps to ensure enough interaction happens
