How engaged, innovative, and resilient is your organization? Are your teams feeling like victims of change? Do you find yourself trying to rescue people? In our experience, how people respond to change impacts their ability to deliver greatness. We can choose to change, or change can be forced upon us—in either case, we can focus on the outcomes we wish to create as a result of the change. Have you discovered your teams’ power to become great?   Nobody is the villain in their own story, and yet many teams get in their own way. The stories we tell ourselves have the ability to hold us back or propel us forward. Whether it’s folklore, gossip, or coffee talk, what gets said can perpetuate the ways things are. Focusing on problems can drive reactive behaviors. And in organizational transformations, the key to change lies in communication.   Allison and Michael will share a model to recognize what kind of stories your teams are telling themselves in their everyday conversations. Noticing the current perspective teams are speaking from enables us to help them shift into more proactive, empowered, and creative thinking. Join this interactive workshop to learn how to listen to a team and coach them to become greater through the words they use. Amplify the positive results of an organizational transformation by becoming a co-creator or coach for your teams.

1. Everyday Beliefs Come True
Creating Greatness through the
Stories We Tell

2. When might a team be a victim?

3. Allison Pollard
• Helps people discover
their agile instincts and
develop their coaching
abilities
• Certified Professional
Co-Active Coach
• Proud glasses wearer

4. Michael Jesse
• Works with teams to
embrace agile and
DevOps practices to
deliver awesome results
• Leader of the DFW
Scrum: Agile Dev Team
user group
• Passionate about health
and fitness

5. Overview
• Victim and other roles
in the Drama Triangle
• Positive roles of the
Empowerment Dynamic
• Shifting from the Drama
Triangle to the
Empowerment Dynamic

6. Let’s dive in

7. Drama
Triangle
Victim
Rescuer Persecutor
Feels powerless and at
the mercy of life’s events
and may avoid taking
responsibility for their
actions.
Can be either people or
conditions (such as a
health condition) or a
situation (such as a
natural disaster).
Often are quick to jump-
in and save the day, even
when others are
responsible.

8. Drama Triangle – Self Reflection
What role do you typically fall into?
How do you behave in that role?
What would happen if we stay in this
triangle?

9. Challenger Coach
Creator
Empowerment
Dynamic
Taps into their inner
state of passion.
Directed by intention
and focused on a
desired outcome, this
person is propelled to
take action.
Focused on another
person’s learning and
growth; holding
accountability while
encouraging learning,
action, and next steps.
Helps another person
develop a vision and
action plan. Provides
encouragement and
support using
compassion and
questions.

10. What Might Empowerment Sound Like?
Match the Quote to the Role
• I see this is taking you a while to
figure this out. How’s it going
for you?
• How else might you do this?
• Where do you see yourself in
the future?
• If you knew you couldn’t fail,
what would you try?
• Each time I attempt something,
I see new opportunities to grow.
• I am excited to learn and take
on this new challenge.
• I create my own destiny.
• I will no longer allow things
around me to hold me back.
• I want you to try something
different to increase efficiency
in our delivery process.
• Today is the deadline and the
tasks assigned to you are not
completed. Keep going and let’s
review this afternoon.
• We have this new tool and you
are the best person on the team
to figure out how we can use it.
• We will be moving you to a new
team and I want you to lead it.

11. Empowerment Dynamic – Group
Reflection
What role is most appealing or the most
challenging for you?
If someone approaches you from a Drama
Triangle role, how might you respond?

12. What TED role is the most attractive and most challenging?
Your Personal Cheat Sheet – Shifting from the
Drama Triangle to the Empowerment Dynamic

13. Contact Us
Allison Pollard
@allison_pollard
Allison.Pollard@improving.com
Michael Jesse
@michaeljesse73
Michael.Jesse@improving.com