Steven Covey had the right idea. There are discreet skills and attitudes, habits if you will, that can elevate your conflict practice to a new level. This article shares a selection of habits and attitudes that can transform a good conflict resolver into a highly effective one. By that I mean someone who facilitates productive, meaningful discussion between others that results in deeper self-awareness, mutual understanding and workable solutions.
I have used the term ‘conflict resolver’ intentionally to reienforce the idea that human resource professionals and managers are instrumental in ending disputes, regardless of whether they are also mediators. These conflict management techniques are life skills that are useful in whatever setting you find yourself. With these skills, you can create environments that are respectful, collaborative and conducive to problem-solving. And, you’ll teach your employees to be proactive, by modeling successful conflict management behaviors
Understand the Employee’s Needs
Since you’re the ‘go to person’ in your organization, it’s natural for you to jump right in to handle conflict. When an employee visits you to discuss a personality conflict, you assess a situation, determine the next steps and proceed until the problem is solved. But is that helpful?
When you take charge, the employee is relieved of his or her responsibility to find a solution. That leaves you to do the work around finding alternatives. And while you want to do what’s best for this person (and the organization), it’s important to ask what the employee wants first— whether it’s to vent, brainstorm solutions or get some coaching. Understand what the person entering your door wants by asking questions:
- · How can I be most helpful to you?
- · What are you hoping I will do?
- · What do you see my role as in this matter?
- Engage in Collaborative Listening
By now everyone has taken at least one active listening course so I won’t address the basic skills. Collaborative Listening takes those attending and discerning skills one step further. It recognizes that in listening each person has a job that supports the work of the other. The speaker’s job is to clearly express his or her thoughts, feelings and goals. The listener’s job is facilitating clarity; understanding and make the employee feel heard.
So what’s the difference? The distinction is acknowledgement. Your role is to help the employee gain a deeper understanding of her own interests and needs; to define concepts and words in a way that expresses her values (i.e. respect means something different to each one of us); and to make her feel acknowledged—someone sees things from her point of view.
Making an acknowledgement is tricky in corporate settings. Understandably, you want to help the employee but are mindful of the issues of corporate liability. You can acknowledge the employee even while safeguarding your company.
Simply put, acknowledgement does not mean agreement. It means letting the employee know that you can see how he got to his truth. It doesn’t mean taking sides with the employee or abandoning your corporate responsibilities. Acknowledgement can be the bridge across misperceptions. Engage in Collaborative Listening by:
- · Help the employee to explore and be clear about his interests and goals
- · Acknowledge her perspective
o I can see how you might see it that way.
o That must be difficult for you.
o I understand that you feel _______ about this.
- · Ask questions that probe for deeper understanding on both your parts:
o When you said x, what did you mean by that?
o If y happens, what’s significant about that for you?
o What am I missing in understanding this from your perspective?
- Be a Good Transmitter
Messages transmitted from one person to the next are very powerful. Sometimes people have to hear it ‘from the horse’s mouth’. Other times, you’ll have to be the transmitter of good thoughts and feelings. Pick up those ‘gems’, those positive messages that flow when employees feel safe and heard in mediation, and present them to the other employee. Your progress will improve.
We’re all human. You know how easy it is to hold a grudge, or assign blame. Sharing gems appropriately can help each employee begin to shift their perceptions of the situation, and more importantly, of each other. To deliver polished gems, try to:
- · Act soon after hearing the gem
- · Paraphrase accurately so the words aren’t distorted
- · Ask the listener if this is new information and if changes her stance
- · Avoid expecting the employees to visibly demonstrate a ‘shift in stance’ (it happens internally and on their timetable, not ours)
- Recognize Power
Power is a dominant factor in mediation that raises many questions: What is it? Who has it? How to do you balance power? Assumptions about who is the ‘powerful one’ are easy to make and sometimes wrong. Skillful conflict resolvers recognize power dynamics in conflicts and are mindful about how to authentically manage them. You can recognize power by being aware that:
- · Power is fluid and exchangeable
- · Employees possess power over the content and their process (think of employees concerns as the water flowing into and being held by the container)
- · Resolvers possess power over the mediation process ( their knowledge, wisdom, experience, and commitment form the container)
- · Your roles as an HR professional and resolver will have a significant impact on power dynamics
- Be Optimistic & Resilient
Agreeing to participate in mediation is an act of courage and hope. By participating, employees are conveying their belief in value of the relationship. They are also expressing their trust in you to be responsive to and supportive of our efforts. Employees may first communicate their anger, frustration, suffering, righteousness, regret, not their best hopes. You can inspire them to continue by being optimistic:
- · Be positive about your experiences with mediation
- · Hold their best wishes and hopes for the future
- · Encourage them to work towards their hopes
Be Resilient. Remember the last time you were stuck in a conflict? You probably replayed the conversation in your mind over and over, thinking about different endings and scolding yourself. Employees get stuck, too. In fact, employees can become so worn down and apathetic about their conflict, especially a long-standing dispute; they’d do anything to end it. Yes, even agree with each other prematurely. Don’t let them settle. Mediation is about each employee getting their interest met. Be resilient:
- · Be prepared to move yourself and the employees though productive and less productive cycles of the mediation
- · Help the employees see their movement and progress
- · Be mindful and appreciative of the hard work you all are doing
Hopefully, you’ve discovered that these are your own habits in one form or another and that your organization is benefiting from your knowledge. You can learn more about workplace mediation and mediation in general from these books and websites:
The Power of Mediation
Bringing Peace into the Room
Difficult Conversation: How to Say What Matters Most
http://www.ne-acr.org (The New England Association of Conflict Resolvers)
http://www.mediate.com (mediation portal site)
http://www.workwelltogether.com (conflict management toolkit)
“Mediation is based on a belief in the fundamental honesty of human beings. Which is another way of saying we all want to be treated justly – that is according to our unique situation and viewpoint on the world. And we cannot expect to be treated justly if we do not honestly reveal ourselves.” ~ the Honourable Neville Chamberlain, British Prime Minister 1937
Dina Beach Lynch, Esq. was formerly the Ombudsman for Fleet Bank and is currently CEO of WorkWellTogether.com, an online conflict management toolkit. Dina can be reached at Dina@workwelltogether.com
My class at HBS is structured to help my students understand what good management theory is and how it is built. To that backbone I attach different models or theories that help students think about the various dimensions of a general manager’s job in stimulating innovation and growth. In each session we look at one company through the lenses of those theories—using them to explain how the company got into its situation and to examine what managerial actions will yield the needed results.
On the last day of class, I ask my students to turn those theoretical lenses on themselves, to find cogent answers to three questions: First, how can I be sure that I’ll be happy in my career? Second, how can I be sure that my relationships with my spouse and my family become an enduring source of happiness? Third, how can I be sure I’ll stay out of jail? Though the last question sounds lighthearted, it’s not. Two of the 32 people in my Rhodes scholar class spent time in jail. Jeff Skilling of Enron fame was a classmate of mine at HBS. These were good guys—but something in their lives sent them off in the wrong direction.
Management is the most noble of professions if it’s practiced well. No other occupation offers as many ways to help others learn and grow, take responsibility and be recognized for achievement, and contribute to the success of a team. More and more MBA students come to school thinking that a career in business means buying, selling, and investing in companies. That’s unfortunate. Doing deals doesn’t yield the deep rewards that come from building up people.
I want students to leave my classroom knowing that.
Create a Strategy for Your Life
A theory that is helpful in answering the second question—How can I ensure that my relationship with my family proves to be an enduring source of happiness?—concerns how strategy is defined and implemented. Its primary insight is that a company’s strategy is determined by the types of initiatives that management invests in. If a company’s resource allocation process is not managed masterfully, what emerges from it can be very different from what management intended. Because companies’ decision-making systems are designed to steer investments to initiatives that offer the most tangible and immediate returns, companies shortchange investments in initiatives that are crucial to their long-term strategies.
Over the years I’ve watched the fates of my HBS classmates from 1979 unfold; I’ve seen more and more of them come to reunions unhappy, divorced, and alienated from their children. I can guarantee you that not a single one of them graduated with the deliberate strategy of getting divorced and raising children who would become estranged from them. And yet a shocking number of them implemented that strategy. The reason? They didn’t keep the purpose of their lives front and center as they decided how to spend their time, talents, and energy.
It’s quite startling that a significant fraction of the 900 students that HBS draws each year from the world’s best have given little thought to the purpose of their lives. I tell the students that HBS might be one of their last chances to reflect deeply on that question. If they think that they’ll have more time and energy to reflect later, they’re nuts, because life only gets more demanding: You take on a mortgage; you’re working 70 hours a week; you have a spouse and children.
For me, having a clear purpose in my life has been essential. But it was something I had to think long and hard about before I understood it. When I was a Rhodes scholar, I was in a very demanding academic program, trying to cram an extra year’s worth of work into my time at Oxford. I decided to spend an hour every night reading, thinking, and praying about why God put me on this earth. That was a very challenging commitment to keep, because every hour I spent doing that, I wasn’t studying applied econometrics. I was conflicted about whether I could really afford to take that time away from my studies, but I stuck with it—and ultimately figured out the purpose of my life.
Had I instead spent that hour each day learning the latest techniques for mastering the problems of autocorrelation in regression analysis, I would have badly misspent my life. I apply the tools of econometrics a few times a year, but I apply my knowledge of the purpose of my life every day. It’s the single most useful thing I’ve ever learned. I promise my students that if they take the time to figure out their life purpose, they’ll look back on it as the most important thing they discovered at HBS. If they don’t figure it out, they will just sail off without a rudder and get buffeted in the very rough seas of life. Clarity about their purpose will trump knowledge of activity-based costing, balanced scorecards, core competence, disruptive innovation, the four Ps, and the five forces.
My purpose grew out of my religious faith, but faith isn’t the only thing that gives people direction.
These three tips gave me a big lift in energy (and overall performance):
- Commit to an hour of exercise a day: In the book Younger Next Year, I read about a plan calling for an hour per day of exercise, six days per week. I started this plan a year ago, and the payoff has been an extra one and a half to two hours of peak energy per day, which keeps me focused and productive.
- Set your priorities: You’re a leader; you know how to get things done. So decide what your real priorities are, and then make sure you make time for those–and skip the less important stuff.
- Eat better, whenever you can: You may not always eat well, but you probably know already which eating choices you should change. The trick is to avoid the “all or none” mental trap. If you can’t sustain an eating regimen for the rest of your life, then by default it is a fad diet for you. Better to make better choices that you can make forever.
Read full article via inc.com
Good little inspirational reminder that it’s way to easy to stay busy doing good work. But good work only keeps you in the game. It takes great work to change the game, so focus and take some risks. Watch video
Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D. is an executive coach, leadership consultant, and international keynote speaker at corporate, government, and association events. She’s a expert contributor for The Washington Post’s “On Leadership” column, a leadership blogger on Forbes.com, a business body language columnist for “the Market” magazine, and the author of “THE SILENT LANGUAGE OF LEADERS: How Body Language Can help – or Hurt – How You Lead.” To contact Carol about speaking or coaching, call 510-526-172 or email CGoman@CKG.com. To more information or to view videos, visit Carol’s website: http://www.SilentLanguageOfLeaders.com.
4. Walking the stage
Jobs is famous for “prowling” the stage, and it is an effective communication strategy because the human brain is programmed to pay attention to movement, and it keeps an audience from becoming bored.
You can expect Cook to also walk the stage while speaking. But notice if he moves constantly. He shouldn’t. He’ll be most effective combining movement with physical pauses in which he stands absolutely still to highlight a key point.
5. Showing passion
Like all great speakers, Jobs uses hand gestures to underscore what’s important and to express feelings, needs and convictions. And he keeps most of his gesture between the waist and shoulders.
7. Keeping it visual
Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D. is an executive coach, change-management consultant, and international keynote speaker at corporate, government, and association events. She’s an expert contributor for The Washington Post’s “On Leadership” column, a leadership blogger on Forbes.com, a columnist for “the Market” magazine, and the author of “THE SILENT LANGUAGE OF LEADERS: How Body Language Can help – or Hurt – How You Lead.”
There has been some lamentation of late for the apparent “decline of the internal communicator”, a mere decade since the “rise and rise” of said species was proclaimed in London headhunter Nick Helsby’s “The Rise of the Internal Communicator.” Indeed, with a supine employment market and an increasing preference for junior or implementational practitioners for organisation-wide IC roles, one could get a sense that the profession is in a state of inexorable decline.
But such a view belies both the role of the “social media revolution” and greater sophistication within organisations about the relative value of specific internal and external audiences.
What we are starting to see in organisations is a shift in strategic emphasis from one-size-fits-all internal and external messaging towards communication approaches that target and engage smaller but higher-value audiences. On the external side, instead of focusing on 10 reporters, the focus is beginning to shift towards, perhaps, 100 or 1000 decision-makers and high impact stakeholders. Communication is becoming more direct, and also more mediated. But the mediation is less through broadcast sources, and more through individuals who have social or peer credibility within these higher value audiences.
In truth, this has been how many internal comms practitioners have been operating for years, perhaps even while seemingly maintaining their channel mixes as their “day jobs”. Certainly, change communicators ignore the existence of smaller, higher-value, “tribal” audiences at their own peril as these are the main constituencies capable of giving change velocity and credibility. While social media did not by any means invent the smaller, higher-value, tribal constituency, social tools now make those audiences far easier to identify, reach and mobilise today than before.
Indeed, the application of social tools make clear that external audiences behave much more like internal “tribes” than traditionally thought – with complex interrelationships, clearly acknowledged leaders, and common interests, values and ambitions.
If we are moving from an emphasis on audience spread (broadcasting) towards one on audience value (narrowcasting, targeting and relationship building), then the future actually augurs better for more sophisticated and even more mature internal communicators than some currently think.
For internal communicators have had both the opportunity to analyse and prioritise elements of their employee masses through stakeholder mapping exercises, and have held a variety of formal and informal tools with which to engage their stakeholders directly. Even if those skills are less part of the job definition for a “Head of Internal Communication” today (a role which is likely to become more general and tactical), they will become more in demand for roles dealing with specific internal and external agendas – change communication roles internally, social communication roles internally and externally, and external stakeholder management.
At the same time, recruiters are often the last people to get the memo on such things, which is why the market may well trail these trends for a while. But the trend towards a focus on audience value is borne out both by what is happening in the industry and by the adoption of social communication technologies – focusing on fewer people who have greater impact. Those who can do this are those most likely to succeed, and it’s an area where internal communication pros have the edge.
Mike Klein is Communication Partner at Maersk Oil in Copenhagen and is the author of From Lincoln to LinkedIn – The 55 Minute Guide to Social Communication. His thoughts are his own and not necessarily that of his employer.
You are brought into a room to play a computer game. On the screen you see your avatar, a computerized graphic that represents you in this virtual environment. You also spot the avatars for two other players, both of whom you assume are physically located with their own computers in similar rooms.
At first it is fun and easy – a simple ball-tossing game over the Internet. Then about half way through the game, you notice something odd. It seems as though the other players are excluding you. In fact, soon they completely stop throwing the ball to you and are interacting only with each other. You don’t know why it’s happening, but you know you are being rejected.
Later you are told that there were no other human players, only a software program designed to exclude the test subject (you!) at some point. But even when you learn the truth, you can’t shake the feeling of being snubbed. You still feel as if you were left out of the game for some personal reason . . .
At least that is how you respond if you are typical of the subjects in this experiment by social neuroscientists at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). The research project was designed to make people experience rejection, and then to find out what goes in the brain as a result.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) equipment, researchers tracked the blood flow in the brains of “rejected” subjects and made a surprising discovery: When someone feels excluded there is corresponding activity in the dorsal portion of the anterior cingulate cortex — the neural region involved in the “suffering” component of pain. In other words, they found that the feeling of being excluded provokes the same sort of reaction in the brain that physical pain might cause. It was also found that both physical and emotional suffering respond positively to Tylenol.
For business leaders this research is meaningful, as the experiment shows that it really doesn’t take much to make people left out.
This finding is especially interesting to me as an executive coach and body language expert. As I’ve often told leaders, the nonverbal signals that make someone feel excluded or unimportant are often slight: letting your gaze wander while he or she is talking, leaning back, crossing your arms, or angling your torso even a quarter turn away (in essence, giving someone “the cold shoulder”).
If you were my client, I’d also let you know that an occasional lapse won’t demoralize your team. But if you are continually off-handed, neglectful or unresponsive to certain individuals, your nonverbal behavior could be seriously destructive to the trust and collaboration you are seeking to foster.
I’ve seen how team spirit can disintegrate as those individuals who feel that they are being discounted simply withdraw. The sense of unease created by that withdrawal then broadcasts itself subliminally (by a processes called “emotional contagion”) to the whole group. And there goes the leader’s hopes for high morale, collaboration, and productivity.
So think about the UCLA research the next time you lead a meeting. Realize that when you appear to play favorites by using more positive nonverbal signals — smiles, eye contact, forward leans, etc. — with some people than with others or when your body language actually excludes some individuals, those behaviors can result in “hurt” feelings that are, actually, painful.
If all else fails – remember to pass around the Tylenol.
Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D., is an executive coach, consultant, speaker, and author of “The Nonverbal Advantage: Secrets and Science of Body Language at Work .Her new book, “The Silent Language of Leaders: How Body Language Can Help – or Hurt – How You lead” will be published by Jossey-Bass in April. To inquire about Carol speaking at your event, call 510-526-1727, email CGoman@CKG.com. For more information, visit http://www.NonverbalAdvantage.com and http://www.CKG.com.
As for the nice behavior, I want to compliment:
-
Several participants of my fall Strategic Communication Action Group who challenged themselves, got out of their comfort zones, and tried new things in the spirit of professional development and continuous improvement. One is ending the year in a new and bigger job, which is a much better fit for her talents.
-
The volunteers, including board members, of our professional associations who spend a lot of hours, brain power, and energy trying to help the rest of us improve our skills, network effectively, and maintain our professional standards.
3. Mark Schumann, past chair of the IABC Executive Board, for his 2010 carol for communicators. This is a great example of a fearless communicator in action!
Liz Guthridge is a consultant, author, and trainer specializing in strategic change communications. Department leaders of Fortune 1000 companies hire Liz and her firm Connect Consulting Group LLC when they need their people—who are confused, angry or in denial—to adopt complex new initiatives so they can quickly change the way they work. After working with Liz, leaders reach their goals and employees have clarity, become committed, and take action. For more information, contact Liz, liz.guthridge@connectconsultinggroup.com or 510-527-1213. Follow Liz on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/lizguthridge.
You’re at a business event and the colleague you’ve been having an intense conversation with begins to shift her gaze from your face to look around the room. Ever wonder why that makes you feel as if she has stopped listening? You know it’s not logical. A person doesn’t have to look at you to hear you. People don’t listen with their eyes.
Or do they?
The impact of eye contact is so powerful because it is instinctive and connected with humans’ early survival patterns. Children who could attract and maintain eye contact, and therefore increase attention, had the best chance of being fed and cared for.
And eye contact retains its power with adults. We gaze intently at one another, unconsciously monitoring the wide eyes of surprise or pleasure and the narrowed eyes of suspicion or dislike. We respond (positively or negatively) to dilated pupils that signal attraction, increased blink rates caused by stress, and darting eyes that underscore discomfort or defensiveness.
Over the course of a conversation, eye contact is made through a series of glances – by the speaker, to make sure the other person has understood or to gage reactions, and by the listener to indicate interest in either the other person or what’s being said. It is also used as a synchronizing signal. People tend to look up at the end of utterances, which gives their listeners warning that the speaker is about to stop talking. There is often mutual eye contact during attempted interruptions, laughing, and when answering short questions.
Eye contact is most effective when both parties feel its intensity is appropriate for the situation (and this may differ with introverts/extroverts, men/women, or between different cultures). But greater eye contact, especially in intervals lasting four to five seconds, almost always leads to greater liking. As long as people are looking at us, we believe we have their interest. If they meet our gaze more than two-thirds of the time, we sense that they find us appealing or fascinating.
In fact, the only kind increased eye contact that does not increase liking is staring – which most of us consider to be rude or even threatening. This kind of over-done eye contact generally communicates a desire to dominate, a feeling of superiority, a lack of respect, or a wish to insult.
In the Western world, too little eye contact is interpreted as being impolite, insincere, or even dishonest. One hospital, analyzing letters of complaints from patients, reported that 90 percent of the complaints had to do with poor doctor eye contact, which was perceived as a “lack of caring.”
But people decrease or avoid eye contact for many reasons – when they are discussing something intimate or difficult, when they are not interested in the other person’s reactions, when they don’t like the other person, when they are insecure or shy and when they are ashamed, embarrassed, depressed or sad.
Waiters in restaurants tend to avoid eye contact with their customers to send the message, “I’m too busy to deal with you right now.” Employees avoid eye contact when the boss poses a difficult question or asks for volunteers. (The general rule here is to look down and shuffle through notes as if searching for the answer or engaged in a much more important pursuit.) And when pedestrians or drivers want to ensure their own right of way, one strategy is to avoid meeting the other’s eyes in order to avoid cooperation.
In intense or intimate conversations people naturally look at one another more often and hold that focus for longer periods of time. A sure sign that a conversation is lagging is when one of the participants begins looking away to pay more attention to other people or objects in the vicinity.
So when your business colleague stopped looking at you and began to gaze blankly into the distance or visually scan the room, she was “saying” with her eyes that she had, in effect, stopped listening.
Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D. is an executive coach and international keynote speaker at corporate, government, and association events. She’s the author of “The Nonverbal Advantage: Secrets and Science of Body Language at Work.” Her new book, “THE SILENT LANGUAGE OF LEADERS: How Body Language Can Help – or Hurt How You Lead” will be released in April 2011. To contact Carol about speaking or coaching, call 510-526-1727, email CGoman@CKG.com. Carol’s website is http://www.NonverbalAdvantage.com. You can also follow Carol on Twitter: http://twitter.com/CGoman.
1. California schoolchildren who met with the Dalai Lama in October.
When radio reporters asked some of the 300 children who had seen the spiritual leader of Tibet at their school what they enjoyed most about his visit, the kids responded: “Having him answer questions from other kids.”
So kudos to the spiritual leader of Tibet for structuring his visit this way. According to the news reports, the Dalai Lama sat in an overstuffed chair in an East Palo Alto school auditorium and answered questions from 11 students who won the privilege by writing winning essays. He shared his wisdom, advice and history lessons in a format that resonated with kids. His bite-size chunks of information about their key topics made for an engaging exchange.
2. Luis Urzua, the shift supervisor and leader of “Los 33, ″ the Chilean miners who spent about three months underground.
His situational leadership actions provide three key lessons:
First, speak the truth.
Second, let the majority decide.
Third, follow the Vegas rule, what “What happens in the mine, stays in the mine.”
While not everyone—including the men stuck in the mine with him— may approve of this foreman’s actions throughout the ordeal, we have to acknowledge the amazing results: the safe return of all 33 men.
3. Delegates who refused to be bullied during a national conference.
More seasoned alternate delegates asked a couple of delegates to take actions, which the junior delegates initially agreed to do. However, after thinking about the requests, they independently decided that the demands either were not in the best interest of the organization or were in conflict with their personal values.
These undecided delegates then asked me, as one of the meeting facilitators, if they could say “no.” I said “yes.” So they stood up for their principles to the dismay of some of their colleagues. In their boldness, they reminded me of Howard Beale in the 1976 movie Network yelling, “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!”
The rest of the delegation backed them up and voted along with them.
* * *
Liz Guthridge is a consultant, author, and trainer specializing in strategic change communications. Department leaders of Fortune 1000 companies hire Liz and her firm Connect Consulting Group LLC when they need their people—who are confused, angry or in denial—to adopt complex new initiatives so they can quickly change the way they work. For more information, contact Liz, liz.guthridge@connectconsultinggroup.com or 510-527-1213. Follow Liz on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/lizguthridge.
If you watch any college or professional football games this season, you’ll probably see at least one team running out the clock. It’s an effective strategic play. (For those who aren’t familiar with it, if you’re leading toward the end of the game, you can try to keep possession of the ball and use delay tactics to keep the opposition from getting another chance on offense.)
- Analyzing issues over and over in multiple meetings without moving to take any action. These groups define “analysis/paralysis” mode of operating.
- Deciding to take action in one meeting and then revisiting their decisions the next meeting, leaving them and their teams not sure of who’s in charge or what’s going on.
- Debating inconsequential matters while devoting no to minimal time on the big strategic issues that affect their future fate. One group I recently worked with followed a “Let’s fiddle while Rome burns” meeting agenda. They had asked a task force to start work on a conference for 2013 yet were not addressing the fact that they were hemorrhaging cash so fast they’d expire by 2012.
Liz Guthridge is a consultant, author, and trainer specializing in strategic change communications. Department leaders of Fortune 1000 companies hire Liz and her firm Connect Consulting Group LLC when they need their people—who are confused, angry or in denial—to adopt complex new initiatives so they can quickly change the way they work. For more information, contact Liz, liz.guthridge@connectconsultinggroup.com or 510-527-1213. Follow Liz on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/lizguthridge.
So even if the information coming at us is clear, we often don’t take the time receive and decipher it accurately. And as a result, we misunderstand, miss handoffs, and have to spend valuable time trying to get projects and relationships back on track.
As part of the project or team kick-off, include a segment on communication guidelines. For example, as a team, decide on the best way to communicate with each other, including the subject lines to use in email messages, project terms, and names, any abbreviations or acronyms that are okay versus off limits, and other rules of the road. And next determine how the team and the leaders communicate with the rest of the organization.
Liz Guthridge is a consultant, author, and trainer specializing in strategic change communications. Department leaders of Fortune 1000 companies hire Liz and her firm Connect Consulting Group LLC when they need their people—who are confused, angry or in denial—to adopt complex new initiatives so they can quickly change the way they work. For more information, contact Liz, liz.guthridge@connectconsultinggroup.com or 510-527-1213. Follow Liz on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/lizguthridge.
-
How are the actual results achieved to date tracking against predicted outcomes?
-
What surprised me?
-
What challenged me?
-
What bored me that I want to avoid next time if I can?
-
What inspired me?
-
What touched me?
-
What turned out especially well? Not so well? Why?
-
What would I/we have done differently?
-
What do I want to be sure to do next time?
-
What are the biggest lessons I have learned?
-
What actions am I going to take now, based on this reflection?
Mike Klein is a Brussels-based communications pro, and long-time member of IABC boards at the country and regional level, and can be reached athttp://intersectionblog.wordpress.com.
What are you doing to add to the “Year of the Communicator”?
Right after the Super Bowl, CBS will air it’s new show, “Undercover Boss.” But earlier this week Oprah featured “cast members” – executives and employees from the first two companies (Waste Management and 7-11). At the end, executives gave “prizes” to participating employees. A 7-11 truck driver received the keys to his own franchise (without having to pay the regular set-up fees), a Waste Management office worker got a promotion and a pay raise, etc.
You can imagine the reaction from employees of those companies who weren’t on the series, but who watched Oprah: Why did that person get singled out? Why did one person in the same company get a much more lucrative reward than another? What about the rest of us who work here? We work hard too!
“Undercover Boss” is a British import and I assumed that the Brits probably handled things a bit differently. But to make sure, I checked with Stephen Martin, the Clugston CEO (and participant in the UK version of the show) whom I’d interviewed for the Washington Post article, “Would YOU be an Undercover Boss?”
Here is his reply:
Hi Carol,
Wow – as you say things are certainly bigger over there in the US!The UK version of ‘Undercover Boss’ could be described as very low budget in comparison.
However, I would comment as follows, as one with experience in the process.
I feel that there is a potential underlying friction between what the program makers want to produce i.e. an entertaining television show that guarantees great ratings and what I, as a company boss, want i.e. genuine feedback from employees on what is and is not working within my business so that I can make positive improvements.
And here’s the rub – what makes great telly does not necessarily make great business and vice versa!
Indeed, the producers of the program wanted me to give out great rewards at the end of the program after the televised ‘reveals’. I, however, resisted on the basis that it would be grossly unfair to single out individuals for treatment over and above what I could realistically achieve with the rest of our workforce.
Furthermore, I went undercover soon after I had made over 100 employees redundant and I felt that it would have been in poor taste to throw money around in such a sensitive business environment.
In terms of ‘rewards and recognition’ for the three individuals singled out by me for the televised ‘reveals’, this is what I did:
1) Leon Bever – I gave him the opportunity to move to a bigger project where he had the potential to earn more money, as he would be site based and, consequently, have to travel further and work longer hours. I also gave every single person at his work site the same opportunity – some accepted and were moved, whilst others did not want to travel and accepted that they would earn less money but get home earlier every evening.
2) Les Parker – I moved him from a temporary contract to a permanent contract. His wages and terms of conditions of employment remained exactly the same. This turned out to be a great morale booster for all temporary employees as they could see that if they worked hard they had the potential of gaining a permanent position with Clugston and all of our permanent workers were delighted that Les gained a place on our apprenticeship programme. There was no pay rise or promotion.
3) ****** Sutton – I asked ******, alongside his normal duties, to undertake a mentoring role with our less experienced workers so that he could pass on his valuable skills to our next generation of workers. There was no pay rise or promotion.
So, the joy of these three individuals cannot be measured in monetary terms – but in terms of being the people I chose to be representative of the hundreds of hard working individuals we employ up and down the length and breadth of the UK and deserving of praise directly from the top.
As I mentioned to you previously, I also personally visited everyone I met during my two weeks undercover afterwards for their own personal ‘reveal’ – the only difference being that this time the cameras were not rolling.
In terms of ‘rewards and recognition’ for our workforce in general, I threw a party for our entire workforce at a local hotel to celebrate and recognize their invaluable support and hard work for Clugston over many years. This was the first time in our 73 year history that operatives had ever been invited to a party and was incredibly well received by all employees – so much so, in fact, that in December I threw the first ever Christmas party for our operatives too!
What you say is correct in that I actually published what I learned from my undercover experience in the form of my “Top Ten Tips” which have been put onto our website for all employees to read and I also published extracts from the diary I kept while I was undercover so that employees, who were not directly involved, could learn more about what happened.
So to ultimately answer your question, what I learned was indeed transferred into corporate-wide policy and not just individual reward for 3 individuals who became the focus of a TV program.
I think my response poses a further question though – how do you make compelling reality television while remaining true to both your own personal and company values?
Best regards,
Stephen
Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D. is the author of nine books including CREATIVITY IN BUSINESS and “THIS ISN’T THE COMPANY I JOINED” — How to Lead in a Business Turned Upside Down. She delivers keynote speeches and seminars to association and business audiences around the world. For more information or to book Carol as a speaker at one of your events, please call: 510-526-1727, email: CGoman@CKG.com, or visit her website: http://www.CKG.com.