The next time you are in need of a trainer or speaker to do a session for your organization, I’d suggest you consider these questions:

• What results are you hoping to affect, by what degree, and by when?
• What behaviors and processes have the greatest impact on those results?

Here’s the secret to your project’s success. Approach it as a process, not just a single event.

Behaviors don’t change easily. People need information, encouragement, coaching, practice, time, and incentives. It’s unlikely they will get most of these from a single event or as people in my line of work like to call it, intervention. There are a series of things that should be done to start making progress towards the goals.

Here’s an example. Imagine you’ve got employees engaging in malicious gossip that is hurting the team, and naturally you want it to stop. So what should be done? I can think of many things that collectively could help.

• You ought to tell the group what you’ve noticed and share with them the impact that it’s having.
• Someone should dig into what the gossip is about and try to make a determination about why it’s happening.
• The group ought to be let in on the findings of this investigatory work.
• The group can then engage around the question, “What should we do to change this behavior?”
• Maybe the group needs some skill development in the areas of assertiveness and listening.
• Maybe they need practice at working through conflicts.
• They could probably benefit from establishing group behavioral norms.
• Some individuals might need more hands-on coaching.
• A monitoring system should be established.
• Follow-up needs to happen.

And the list could go on and on. The point is that real change rarely happens with a single speech, workshop, or team building event. Change comes as a result of a purposeful process that addresses the true concerns and provides the support that people need to move from points A to B.

If you want to tweak people’s interest and get them thinking, a single intervention often will accomplish that goal. If you want to make major change, you’ll need a plan that includes a series of interventions to start moving people towards the goal. And in the perfect world, you take it one step further by creating a system that sustains the organizational culture you are working to create.

Photo by John-Morgan

In the early 90′s I worked for a national computer services company that had a problem we needed to solve. Our usual approach would have been to pull together some of the honchos to develop a plan and then get the front-line employees to make it happen. This time we went a radically different direction, we decided to try to change the culture using an experiment we called MASH which stood for Making Alternative Solutions Happen. Here’s the story.

The problem

The beginning of the story was passed on to me from others since I was on vacation, but apparently it began with our largest customer sharing some serious complaints about our service. And when the honchos from our three major functional units attempted to go into emergency mode, they ran into scheduling problems. The delay in getting together to talk about the problem became the new problem. Having your biggest customer mad at you is bad. Not being able to get together to talk about your biggest customer being mad at you is worse.

Upon my return from vacation, my boss told me to pack my cube because we were moving to the other building. Can’t say I was crazy about the idea because this move would add 10-15 minutes to my commute. Also, I was moving from the headquarters building out to what I thought of as our support building. It seemed like I was moving away from where the action was, and that didn’t strike me as a good career move. Little did I know how wrong I would be.

First impressions

On the day of the move, I arrived at our new location and could immediately see I was in for something different. Instead of the usual sea of cubes, I saw a large room with a big open space in the middle. In that space were several conference tables. The space was surrounded by cube pods each containing 4 work spaces without walls. Not only was I losing privacy and space, I was mixed in with people from the other functions who I didn’t know. The most interesting thing I noticed was that while there were some private offices beyond the cubes, they were empty. The honchos would be sitting in the pods.

While I wasn’t crazy about the physical layout, my interest and excitement ramped up quickly when I heard the vision for what we were trying to accomplish with this experiment. We were taking people who normally worked independently in pursuit of their own goals and putting them together to work on common goals. We were going to win together or lose together. We were no longer going to point fingers and blame others for problems. As the co-leaders responsible for MASH introduced their ideas, we all had a chance to start making the room our own.

Operating principles

Over time, the key operating principles began to emerge.

1. We were all going to focus on just three key metrics, those most important to our customer and those related to the health of the business.
2. We were all going to play an equal role in taking great care of this customer, symbolized by everyone sharing the same (extremely small) work spaces.
3. The room was equipped with two stop lights. If anyone saw a serious problem they were told they had the power to change the light and call a “Red light meeting.” We were making problems extremely visible.
4. Meetings were going to be held in the center of the room, where even those not in the meeting could easily overhear the conversation. Secrecy was out. Candor and transparency were in.
5. We would all meet every Friday morning to report progress and problems. It would also be a time to celebrate our successes together. And if customers were visiting, we would let them see this meeting, even if we had warts to expose.

Hindsight

I remember feeling proud to be part of this new group and this new way of doing business. It was fresh and exciting. We had some big wins around process and service. A reporter stopped by to hear the story. We also had plenty of challenges, some of which we just couldn’t solve.

MASH wasn’t some sort of organizational nirvana, but it was very different. And that was the point, doing something different to generate different results. Sometimes incremental changes just aren’t going to cut it. You need to get people’s attention. Interestingly after about a year, it all started feeling normal and routine. It had become the new business as usual. Maybe another change was in order. It was for me, as I moved to another job within the company.

Your turn

What constraints are keeping your organization stuck in place? How might you do something radically different to break free and create a new set of results? The only limits we have are the ones we have put on ourselves. Maybe it’s time to release ourselves from those limitations and try a new approach.

Image credit: © Can Stock Photo

The number of people losing their jobs is staggering. It’s unnerving to hear big name employers in town like Target, Best Buy, Ameriprise, and the StarTribune; all laying off workers.

Each week I receive calls and emails from friends and acquaintances who are “reconnecting,” only to then casually mention that they are doing a job search. I’m glad when they reach out, even if I have few ideas about how to help them find work. What I do offer is perspective from someone who has lost a job due to a merger. It was long ago, but these things don’t easily get forgotten.

When I got a phone call one Thursday with instructions to attend a meeting at 4:00 for an undefined purpose, I was pretty sure I knew what was about to happen. My company had been acquired, and it was common knowledge that there were going to be significant jobs consolidations.

Once I was given the news and met with the HR person, I packed my boxes and headed for home with a strange feeling of disorientation. Things looked and felt different than they had on prior days.

At 3:00 a.m. I suddenly awoke with an overwhelming need to get up, unpack those boxes and get on with my life. For a couple of years prior to this moment, I had been thinking I might one day want to start my own consulting business. In the wee hours of that morning I was convinced it had to be up and running before the sun rose.

In the days that followed, I remember reaching out to as many of my now former co-workers as possible. In previous layoffs I noticed that those who were let go were treated as if they died. We stopped talking about them and didn’t call them. Based on that experience, I knew that if relationships were going to continue, I was going to have to take the initiative. In this process of calling people, I almost immediately had the recognition that networking is important. Along with this came the awareness that my previous lack of effort in this arena was a huge mistake.

When I did connect with people, they talked to me like a bereaved family member at a wake, offering sad expressions of sympathy. But one day I ran into a woman I knew who when she saw me, smiled, and greeted me enthusiastically saying, “Tom, I heard a whole new world of opportunities opened up for you last week.” This got me thinking about what those opportunities were, and what I was going to do with them.

First up was the decision I had to make about starting a consulting business. I thought I’d be good at it, but still it had always seemed risky. I just couldn’t imagine quitting a good paying job to try something on my own. Luckily, the job quit me, so that barrier no longer stood in my way. After all these years of running my own business, that was one opportunity I’m glad to have recognized.

Next, the layoff helped me gain more self-understanding. Prior to this my introductions usually included my name, company and job. With two of three now off the table; it forced me to figure out who I was, what I valued, and how I was going to spend my life. Can’t say these questions got much attention when I had a job.

Finally, living through a layoff made me a less fearful person. Maybe you’ve had the experience of dreading a trip to the doctor for some unwanted procedure. Once it was over, you wondered why you were ever so worried because it wasn’t that bad. Getting laid off helped me see that I had far less to fear than I thought. After some time to process the emotions and deal with the practical needs, losing my job resulted in me feeling stronger and more confident.

I have no idea how things are going to come out for people losing their jobs right now. My guess is that there will be some hard times and then things will start to improve, and finally it will be back to business as usual. Many will find themselves in a better situation than the ones they left behind. The big question for most people isn’t the what, but rather the how long.

As people work their way through their transitions, my hope is that they recognize the opportunities they’ve been given. They didn’t ask for this, but it is what they are now facing. May they seize this moment and take from it all that it offers. For many, they may never have this opportunity again.

The summer solstice was this week. The longest day of the year. Plenty of sunlight so that we can enjoy the warm summer evenings. In Minnesota this is usually a cause for great celebration. So how come my main thought is that we’ve peaked and are now racing towards cold and darkness?

Don’t know if others do this, but I often catch myself creating significance out of crossing half-way points. In the past five years, I’ve crossed many of these imaginary lines.

Sometimes reaching the milestone feels like a cause for celebration. In recent years I gained a sense of stability when realizing that I had lived in my current city longer than I had in my childhood hometown. Also felt proud when I was married for more than half of my life.

At other times I feel a sense of sadness. When a nephew turned 16, I told him that according to inchworm math, his next big milestone is 32. That reminded me that I’m about halfway between his next milestone and the inchworm’s next number, 64. Doing a few more calculations, I know I’ve probably crossed the mid-life line, unless I somehow manage to live past 96. Actuaries are betting that I will not. They get paid to be right more times than not.

WARNING. WARNING. Crisis approaching…

…or maybe not. Here’s the thing that I know for sure. These milestones are only important because I give them significance. The meaning I give them is up to me. Therefore, how I feel about them is also up to me.

Take for example another half-way line I’ve probably crossed, my career. It started 25 years ago, and most would agree a 50 year total span is a good long time to be working. What meaning should I give to this milestone? Here are a few that I know won’t be helpful:

• If I haven’t made it yet, I’ll never make it.
• I’m already slowing down. I’ll never be able to keep up with those coming behind me.
• Well I’ve been doing this so long, I can’t possibly change midstream and do something else. I’m stuck.
• Time to start the countdown to retirement.

The challenge for me and those of us who tend to live in the future is to create thoughts and interpretations that inspire and energize. Try these on to see how they feel:

• I can’t believe how much I’ve learned over the years and how much I can still learn.
• Man, do I feel competent. It’s great knowing how to get things done and solve challenging problems.
• I’ve been doing this work for a long time. I wonder what else I could try.
• How can I change things up so that I stay engaged in what I do?

Half-way points. Are they good or bad? They are neither. Since most of us don’t know the end points, they are in all likelihood not even accurate. What those milestones mean is completely up to you and me. So what advice should we give to those who want to continue noting them? Interpret wisely.

Photo by Glen Edelson

How do you keep people calm when work is pure chaos and the stress levels are high?

The good news is that you are not alone.  Almost all organizations seem to be experiencing extreme change.  The bad news is that knowing this probably does not make you feel any better.

For most people, change means uncertainty and stress.  As the stress intensifies, we become more uncomfortable. While you may not be able to do much about the change, you can act on the stress.  Here are three general approaches that will help you deal with the change.

• Gather information. While much may be unknown, one strategy is to uncover as much of the mystery as possible.  Most people want to know four things.  (1)  Why are we changing?  (2)  What does the change look like?  (3)  How will things work leading up to and after the change?  (4)  What do I need to do?  If you lead a team, share as much as you can.  If you are a team member, keep your eyes and ears open, and start asking questions.

• Take action. During change, much of the stress comes from the feeling of being out of control.  Find things that you do control and take action.  Serving your customers, improving the way you do your work, and jumping on board with the implementation will help you regain your sense of control.

• Practice effective coping. Sometimes you will be in the dark, and you will not have reasonable options.  In these cases, coping is your best strategy.  Take care of your body.  Take your mind off the situation by engaging in hobbies or other fun pursuits.  Use your support system to discuss your concerns.  Be good to yourself.

You can’t keep things from changing, but you can manage your way through it.  Pick your strategy and go for it.

And yet many organizations treat it like a simple solution to a wide range of problems. They are constantly redrawing lines and putting new names in the boxes.

In some cases, these changes are the right solution. In others, it masks an underlying problem that people either haven’t yet identified or do not wish to address.

Whether appropriate or not, these changes cause stress. Leaders have new responsibilities and new employees. Employees have new bosses, coworkers, and tasks. With people not comfortable with what they are doing and with whom they are doing it, productivity and team spirit may decline in the short-run. The question for you to consider is what needs doing to prevent turning this into a long-run result.

Here are seven questions you may want to consider prior to doing a reorganization.

1. What’s the root cause for the problem you are trying to address and will a reorganization correct it?
2. What will individuals perceive they have lost (Status, turf, relationships, competency, security, etc.) if you make this change?
3. Who will be the perceived winners in this change and what impact will that have on morale and trust?
4. How might you gain input from people prior to making this change so that it doesn’t come as a surprise?
5. What’s your plan for communicating the reason for the change?
6. How can you involve people during the implementation of the change so they feel more part of it?
7. How will you handle people who aren’t happy about this?

Making the change will never be easy or without consequence. Still, by thinking carefully about these questions and acting appropriately on the answers, you’ll raise the odds that your change, after some adjustment period, will produce better results.

Photo by commanderjaygold

Powerful employees are successful employees.  And it’s successful employees that create organizations that thrive, even in tough times. Imagine your organization filled with people who…

• Take an active interest in the organization and are able to voice their thoughts, concerns, and ideas in a manner that is timely, effective and respectful.
• Are filled with confidence that they will complete the tasks and goals they have been assigned.
• Are connected to others who can provide the support they need when it is needed.
• Can respectfully and quickly work through disagreements with coworkers.
• Manage their stress when times are tough.
• Remain productive during workplace transitions.

If you want employees who behave in this way, you’ll need to use a multi-pronged approach.  The first involves increasing skills for employees.  This is usually accomplished with workshops and webinars.  The second is changing the environment in a way that allows the desired behaviors to flourish.

For years the past 13 years I’ve presented thousands of seminars focused on developing skills in employees.  Recently I completed a new series of management workshops focused on changing the environment.

Currently there are six workshops in the series.  Each can be delivered as a two hour mini workshop for leaders in your organization or expanded into a more robust organizational improvement planning sessions.   Here’s a brief summary of the topics.

Speak Up:  Helping Employees Say What Needs Saying

How many employees see problems that could create serious issues for the organization, but say nothing because they don’t want to be viewed as complainers?  How many employees are angry about a coworker’s comments but don’t talk to that person about their concerns because the conversation might get ugly?  And what about all the great ideas that are going unmentioned because of the perception that nobody listens?  Powerful employees speak up.  In this workshop we will explore ways to help employees with a passive communication style be more assertive with coworkers and managers to improve organizational effectiveness.

Mission Accomplished:  Increasing Confidence with Productivity

Think about how good it feels to go home at the end of a long day knowing you accomplished some important work, contributing to your organization’s success.  Do this day after day, and your confidence and self-esteem will rise.  You will not only feel like, but also become a powerful employee.  Today many employees report that they have too much to do and not enough time to get it all done.  As a result they often end their day filled with frustration at how little they have to show for their efforts.  The purpose of this workshop is to identify strategies employers can use to help employees feel more productive and confident in their ability to accomplish their goals and recognize the contributions they make to the organization.

Making Connections:  Building a Networked Organization

If you believe the adage “It’s not what you know but who you know,” than it follows that helping employees know more people is good for the organization and the individual.  Powerful employees build strong networks of people both in and out of the organization that they can draw on for support and ideas.  We all need people we can lean on when faced with tough obstacles, unfortunately most people don’t think about developing this support network until they actually need it.  This workshop will show employers ways they can encourage employees to build networks and help them develop the skills necessary for effectively networking.

Working it Out:  Making the Most of Interpersonal Conflict

Conflict doesn’t have to be a bad thing.  Unfortunately too many organizations treat it as a problem rather than an opportunity.  Unresolved or poorly managed conflicts are a huge source employee stress.  Organizations cannot and should not eliminate conflicts, but they can become great at managing them.  This workshop will explore ways organizations can help people become powerful employees by more successfully working through their differences at work.

Stress Busters:  Working Through Crazy Times

The pressure is building and employees aren’t handling it well.  People are behaving badly and it’s affecting the results.  While we want to tell everyone to chill, that isn’t likely to help much.  When things are tough at work, powerful employees know what they can do to manage their own stress so that they can remain effective in spite of the less than ideal situation.  In this workshops we will look at the three major stress management strategies and explore specific actions the employer can take to help employees implement these strategies in their lives at work.

Navigating Change:  Succeeding During Workplace Transitions

Organizations are always changing, and from the employee’s perspective, these changes often viewed negatively.  The negativity surrounding the change increases stress and lowers productivity throughout the organization.  There are plenty of ways an employer can make transitions easier for employees.  There are also skills and ideas that when introduced into the organization will create powerful employees who are resilient, flexible, and optimistic about the future.  This workshop can’t stop change from occurring, but it can help your organization be more equipped to deal with it.

How do you create change in the organization when your boss doesn’t help you move your ideas up the chain of command?

This is a common complaint voiced by frontline departments, project teams, and just about any other group that needs the approval of somebody up the chain of command prior to taking action.  By the way, this ends up being just about everyone.

Frustration stems from the perception that nobody is listening to you.  This is a problem because many of us equate listening with respect.  Chances are their listening skills are just fine.  It is more likely that they do not agree with or do not want to implement your idea, and are not good at saying so.

If you want a better response to your proposals, I would consider the following suggestions.

Tune into the needs. Your proposal may be a wonderful idea.  It might, however, address a problem that the senior leaders do not presently care about.  You may have solved an important problem, but if the bosses do not know it is important, they probably are focused on something else right now.  How can you focus your creative energy on problems the leaders are currently facing?

Build a business case. Most of us have heard that we must make a business case argument if our ideas are going to get some attention.  The problem is that this is not always easy to do.  Imagine your idea will cost $20,000 to implement, and it is guaranteed to significantly increase employee satisfaction.  Somebody should jump at that, right?  Well not so fast.  A manager is going to want to know what kind of financial return the $20K will generate.  You are going to have to translate employee satisfaction into a financial return.  You will also need to do it in a way that sounds realistic.  Not always easy, but critical in building support for your idea.

Avoid creating more work. Ideas are the life blood of any organization.  They are also relatively easy to come by.  The hard part is figuring out how to implement them and then push them through the system.  Leaders always have plenty of people to tell them what ought to happen.  They have far fewer people willing to step up and make it happen.  Whether this is true or not in your situation, it is possible that your ideas are falling on deaf ears because the leaders are assuming your great ideas are going to mean more work for them.  What can you do to pitch your idea in a way that sounds like a gift, rather than a new burden?

Photo by shashiBellamkonda

When changes are in the air, the morale of a team often begins to slide.  Team members feel worried or are angry about the change.  In these situations, what’s a manager to do?

Helping people manage change effectively is one of the most important jobs a team leader has.  Do it well and the team can deal with anything thrown its way.  Do it poorly and the team will bog down on even the smallest of changes.

The biggest mistake team leaders make is assuming that people will not care about the change.  They think it is just a little thing and later on are surprised to discover everyone is upset about what is happening to them.

Change is never easy.  Most people will experience some negative feelings about it, even for the changes that seem good!  You can help ease the process.  Here are three broad strategies that will help your team more effectively deal with change.

Communicate. Change is scary for people because it involves lots of mystery.  You should tell people everything you know and are able to share.  There are at least four questions you must be prepared to answer:

• Why is this change necessary?
• What is it going to look like/involve?
• How are we going to make the transition?
• How will this specifically affect me (good/bad)?

Problem Solve. When you look at your team as a whole, you will likely notice some people are handling the change better than others.  Some will really struggle.  They might disengage from their work or show lots of anger.  Remember that behaviors are just symptoms.  The trick is to work with the person to discover the real problem and develop a plan for overcoming the issue.

Patience. Ultimately most people do just fine if given a little time to adjust to changes.  The amount of time varies from person to person.  You can help people during the transition by being empathetic and giving them some time to work through the emotional and practical challenges associated with the change.

I don’t like to quit groups. Once I’ve joined, it just seems wrong to give up and walk away. I also don’t like to be part of groups that I do not enjoy. That is a waste of my time.

These two preferences create uncomfortable consequences in my life. First, I don’t easily join groups because I’m afraid I may not like them and later have to quit. The second is that I stick with groups longer than my heart and brain tell me makes sense.

One time my wife and I joined a group that was working on housing issues. Although there were early signs of trouble, we continued to justify our participation on the team.

Finally, it became obvious we no longer wanted to be part of this project. Still, making the decision wasn’t easy. The arguments for staying included the importance of the issue and the bond we felt with our teammates. The arguments for leaving included our loss of interest and our lack of optimism about the results. We finally decided to resign from the team.

So why is quitting difficult? Why does there seem to be such negative attitudes about it? Imagine the upside if quitting was more socially acceptable.

• We could explore new interests without as much risk.
• We would all be happier, since we wouldn’t feel stuck in bad situations.
• Our energy and commitment levels would rise, as we were only working on projects to which we were committed.
• Teams wouldn’t have to deal with people who have quit but haven’t left.

We all have limited time and energy. Quitting can be a useful strategy to keep from wasting it.