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

For many problems and with many managers, there isn’t a lack of information. They are amply equipped with more than enough theories, processes, tools, principles, techniques, and reference guides to deal with the situation. And yet they don’t. The challenge isn’t in providing more know-how. It’s inspiring people to apply what they’ve already learned.

Here’s an example. I offer a workshop on meeting facilitation skills. In it I describe all the best practices that effective meeting facilitators use to create positive results. People shake their heads in agreement. Many of the ideas they tell me they already knew. And yet, they fess up that they don’t use these techniques, and many of their meetings go off the tracks. Why? The usual suspects are lack of time, support and self-discipline.

So what’s the right question? For most of us there are two questions.

1. Why don’t I use what I’ve learned?
2. What would help me start using what I know?

While these questions are primarily meant for work, they apply in other aspects of our lives too. Is there anyone trying to lose weight that doesn’t know the secret is decreasing calories and increasing exercise? If we already know this, why do we keep pursuing the next “big idea” in weight loss? Again, lack of information isn’t the problem.

I don’t pretend to know the answers to the two questions I’ve posed. Perhaps I can start by working on myself. If you think these questions are worth answering, ask them now. And when you’ve discovered (or perhaps already have) something worth sharing, I hope you will add your insights in the comments below.

Photo by CarbonNYC

• inspire results, rather than try to force them?
• prevent problems, instead of always just reacting to them?
• look for and implement better ways of getting things done?
• model courageousness, helping others follow their example?
• develop the people around them, strengthening the organization?

Leadership isn’t defined by salary, size of office, or title on a business card. It’s defined by one’s ability to make things happen through others.

In today’s complex organizations, where work is as likely to be accomplished in project teams as it is through traditional workgroups, leadership has become a highly valued but often scarce resource. An organization’s success depends on its ability to discover and nurture leadership potential in every part of the organization.

Since 1998, LaForce Teamwork Services has offered a program called The Leadership Expedition, tailored to meet the needs of emerging leaders. These may be people who have been recently promoted. It could be a new project manager. It might be somebody who already demonstrates outstanding leadership qualities.

The Leadership Expedition takes participants on a journey to explore the meaning of leadership in their lives. The major goal is to help participants uncover answers to four key leadership questions:

• What’s good leadership look like?
• How do my leadership skills compare to those found in outstanding leaders?
• What kind of leader do I want to be?
• What will I need to do to become the kind of leader I want to be?

The Leadership Expedition is a series of six hour sessions spread over seven months. The participants meet with the facilitator every other month. Between meetings, they work on individual and group projects.

The group project gives participants the perfect opportunity to try out the new leadership concepts they’ve been exploring. The project typically takes the group 2-3 months to complete. If successful, the group learns a lot more about leadership and the organization benefits from the project’s outcome.

By the end of the journey, the participants will have explored the meaning of leadership, had a taste of leadership, and been left with a desire to undertake another leadership expedition on their own.

Want to discuss developing emerging leaders in your organization, click on the contact tab and let’s talk.

There are plenty of times when employees should be learning skills that the managers have already mastered, or at least should have mastered at some point along the way. Here’s the problem, employees don’t see it or believe it. Sometimes being a good manager means going first, even if it’s something you’ve already seen.

As a trainer I sometimes show a video. Trainers rule #1 when showing a video: Watch along with the participants. It helps create the impression that this is an interesting and worthwhile video. Also know that I’ve seen some of these videos more than 100 times…I could be the understudy for any of the actors. And still I watch because it supports the learning process.

If you are a manager, be aware of your actions. Your employees are watching and what you do (or don’t do) makes a difference.

It’s tough being in charge.

Dear manager,

Here’s a little secret I want to let you in on…just between us.  When you hire me to do a workshop so that your employees get along better with each other, they almost always ask me this question.  “Do the managers have to attend one of these workshops?”

They don’t usually fill me in on all the background that has led them to ask the question (although sometimes they do), but it’s obvious that some of the participants think their managers are not walking the talk.  Now I’m not in any position to know if that’s true or not, but I can report that the perception of managers pulling the old “Do as I say, not as I do” act does not make it any easier for me to convince employees that they ought to treat each other with more respect.

So here’s my bit of advice.  Even if you’ve learned everything there is to know about delivering an “I statement,” and you are clear as a bell about the differences between passivity, assertiveness, and aggressiveness; I wouldn’t start a new training initiative without the managers attending it first.  If I can tell people that you’re learning the same skills they’re learning, they will be more open to my message.  And a little refresher is always, well, refreshing.

And one more thing…It helps if you practice what you’ve learned and even better if employees can connect the dots between what they are learning and what they see you doing.  Your modeling of the behaviors means a lot to them

All the best,

Your trainer