Why do we think of so many great ideas in the shower?
Four conditions are generally in play:
- Our brain is relatively quiet with minimal electrical activity.
- We’re internally focused, letting our mind wander rather than being stimulated by external activity, such as digital screens.
- We’re in a positive mindset.
- We’re not directly working on any problems, especially work challenges.
As Dr. David Rock explained in his book Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long, it’s not the water that helps you get insights. It’s that you break the impasse in the way you’ve been thinking.
You’re lathering up while your subconscious brain works in the background. It taps into your stored memories and experiences and connects neurons in new ways for you.
And all of a sudden—as it seems to your conscious brain that has been taking a break from logical thinking—you have that “aha” moment. You’ve reached a great insight! (This is multi-tasking in a powerful, efficient way!)
Now contrast your experiences like this in the shower with what frequently happens at work.
Your prefrontal cortex—commonly referred to as the “executive function” of your brain—is often on overload. You’re trying to juggle a number of thoughts, you’re keeping an eye on your phone as well as the room you’re in, you’re listening to colleagues talking over one another, you all are on deadline to solve a new problem creatively, and you’re anxious about it and several other topics, especially since your boss just scared you about the consequences of last quarter’s performance on your department’s budget. Oh, and you’re hungry.
No wonder that only 10% say they do their best thinking at work, according to David.
What can you do to improve your focus and your thinking at work?
Short of constructing a shower in your cube, start small with some tiny steps.
First embrace the concept of “will, skill and hill.”
The “will” refers to your motivation to take control of your mind and thoughts. In other words, resolve not to play the victim, letting yourself and your thoughts be hijacked by others. Granted this is easier said than done; however, if you’re willing to become more mindful and more self-aware about what distracts you, you’ve taken a large leap forward.
The “skill” is to learn and adopt new behaviors that will help you clear your mind, improve your focus and think more creatively. Consider starting with Tiny Habits®,the innovative program designed by Dr. BJ Fogg.
This past week, as a certified Tiny Habits® coach I coached people in a pilot program of Tiny Habits for Work. We designed many of these habits to improve mindfulness, productivity and satisfaction with work.
For example, some effective Tiny Habits for Work are taking three deep breaths, affirming what a great day it will be and walking around the office.
“Hill” is all about taking steps in your environment to reduce or remove the barriers so you can get over the hill that’s in your way and be more productive. You may not be able to shrink a mountain into a mole hill, but you should be able to start building a path that’s easier to go across.
How can you set yourself up for success to think more clearly and creatively?
Some ideas that work for others include: Set an alarm so you’ll take breaks every 60 minutes or so to stretch or even better, walk outdoors. Keep a file of cartoons that will make you laugh. Have flowers on your desk. (Or walk to the reception area and smell the flowers.) Spend a few minutes doodling or drawing.
Next, you need to experiment to find out what works best for you.
To help you do so, join me for the webinar Stop Your Stinking Thinking: 7 Ways To Use Neuroscience To Sharpen Your Mind and Be a More Powerful Communicator and Leader on Wednesday, May 21 at 12 noon ET (9 am Central). The webinar sponsor Communitelligence is offering $50 off when you use the code connect50. Many of the ideas I’ll talk about on the webinar will help you improve your focus and your thinking as well as be more influential.
By the way, if you’re interested in diving into some of the research on this topic, check out the work of Dr. Mark Beeman at Northwestern University who’s an expert on the neuroscience of insights. Also look at the research of Dr. Stellan Ohlsson at the University of Illinois who studies the “impasse experience.”
Meanwhile, if you want any help becoming a “showerhead,” contact me. Who says showerheads should be limited to devices that control the spray of water in a shower?
Showerheads also can be those of us who think creatively in and out of the shower. What do you think?
By Liz Guthridge, Connect Consulting Group LLC
I’ve been doing a lot of intranet/portal governance work lately. It reminds me how important process analysis skills are for the communication professional. How many times have you been asked to “fix” a situation with communication, only to realize it is actually a broken business process that is the culprit?
When you set out to analyze a process, there are two steps to take first:
- Identify the start of the process
- Identify the end of the process, either where all activity stops or where another process takes over
Sounds simple, but the second one is sometimes challenging to determine. Once you’ve identified these, you can map the functions involved, what they are supposed to do and at what stage. Then, there are several key questions to ask yourself:
- How many different things can be in the process flow at one time (e.g., how many different pieces of content can be in the approval process at one time)? To find the answer, it is usually best to ask this question for each individual step in the process. Different steps may have different capacities.
- Where are the bottlenecks? Look for places where the process slows down or becomes less efficient.
- What is the cause of the bottleneck? Look for underlying causes such as inadequate information, availability of people, or people assigned to the wrong role.
- What can be done to eliminate the bottlenecks?
- What other people, processes, or groups depend upon this process?
These questions help you identify solutions and figure out how important the process is based on who relies on the process. If your organization has people dedicated to process improvement, try to spend some time learning from them. Process skills will be very useful in your communication career.
Stacy Wilson, ABC, is president of Eloquor Consulting, Inc., in Lakewood, Colorado
The second most frequently asked question I receive is “Where can I find good humorous material?” (The most frequent question I’m asked is “May I please see your driver’s license, sir?”)
Anyway, my answer used to be a list of books, magazines and newspapers. It was a long list that required a trip to the library unless you wanted to spend a fortune on subscriptions to a lot of publications. Then the Internet came along and almost changed the situation. Instead of recommending a long list of periodicals, I started recommending a longer list of web sites.
The problem was that if you liked a site, then you’d bookmark it. And that was the kiss of death. Because how often have you gone back to view the sites in your bookmarks? Be honest now. Not too often, right? In fact, if you’re like most web surfers, you’ve got a bookmark full of sites that you’ve never looked at since book-marking them. Let’s face it. Book-marking a website has become the high-tech version of taping something on your VCR. (But I really am going to watch that tape of the C-SPAN special on the history of politics some day. Uh-huh.)
Here’s the good news. As an old motivational guru once said, “When faced with a problem, make it into problemonade.” So here’s what I’ve done. As a special service to anyone interested in using humor in oral or written communication, I’ve created a super site. (Not the polluted kind!) It’s a web site packed with thousands of links to incredibly great sources of funny material. Here’s a guided tour.
Start by surfing to http://www.museumofhumor.com. That’s the homepage. Along the bottom of the page you’ll see a button labeled “For Clergy.” This section of the museum contains over 700 links to sermons about laughter, joy, humor and happiness, as well as links to humorous material appropriate for use in sermons. If you’re worried about finding material that’s in good taste, it doesn’t get more appropriate than this. Click on some of the sermons to see how clergy have used quips and jokes to make various points. You may be able to adapt them for your own purposes.
Now go back to the homepage. Along the left side of the page, you’ll find a button labeled “Resources.” Click on that and you’ll come to a page divided into three sections: News, Tools and Material. Under “News” you’ll find links to offbeat news stories. These can provide fabulous topical material, especially if you look at them on the day that you’re scheduled to give a speech. They’re great for developing a humorous opening to your presentation.
The “Tools” section provides links to variety of web sites that can provide material for your presentation or help you write it. For example, “Today In History” and “Those Were The Days” give you lists of events, birthdays and other things that occurred on the day that you’re speaking. The “Lexical Freenet” is a great word association tool for brainstorming ideas and phrases to use in your presentation.
The “Material” section is what you want to see especially if you can’t tell a joke. Instead of dividing material by subject-matter (the traditional way), it groups material by type of humor. Categories include “Anecdotes & Jokes,” “Carnac,” “Definitions,” “Goofups,” “Insults & Comebacks,” “Laws & Lists,” “One Liners,” “Quotes,” and “Topical Humor.” Click on the type of humor that you feel comfortable using. You’ll be transported to a page with lots of links to your desired humor type.
Below the “Material” section is a section labeled “Cartoons.” Cartoons are a fantastic and yet overlooked form of oral humor. Why? Because even if you can’t tell a joke, you can probably describe a cartoon. (I’ve never met anyone who couldn’t.) That means you can make a point by describing a cartoon, just as you would make a point by telling a joke. The links provided will allow you to peruse thousands of cartoons until you find one that makes your point. (Tip: look for one that’s easy for your audience to visualize as you say it.)
OK, let’s go back to the homepage. On the left you’ll see a button labeled “Library.” Clicking it takes you to – here’s a big surprise – the library. You will be most interested in the middle section labeled “How To.” It includes links to a wide variety of how to articles ranging from “How to Make Meetings Fun” to “How to Write a Humorous Speech.”
Let’s return to the homepage one more time. On the left you’ll see a button for “Exhibits.” Click on it. Then click on “Talk Culture” and then click on “Talk Wine (New Style).” What you’ll find is a funny analogy generator. Although I’ve set it up to generate analogies for wine, you can use the analogies to describe anything. For example, I just clicked the button and got: This wine is like “watching Gilligan’s Island for the first time, not quite humbling but close.” Well, that’s a good analogy for lots of other things you might be writing or speaking about. Just keep hitting the button on the analogy generator until you get something you can use. They’re not prewritten. The computer combines phrases to keep generating new ones.
Want to help support the museum? Visit the gift shop and buy someone a present. Or become a museum member.
And that’s no joke!
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Malcolm Kushner, “America’s Favorite Humor Consultant,” is an internationally acclaimed expert on humor and communication. A co-creator of the humor exhibit at The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Kushner is the author of several books including Public Speaking For Dummies which has sold over 100,000 copies. He has been profiled in Time Magazine, USA Today, The New York Times, The Washington Post and numerous other publications. His television and radio appearances include CNN, National Public Radio, CNBC, “Voice of America” and “The Larry King Show.” Prior to becoming a humor consultant, he practiced law with a major San Francisco law firm. A popular speaker at corporate and association meetings, Kushner is based in Santa Cruz, California. For more information, and lots of humor you can use in your next presentation, check out http://www.museumofhumor.com.
Now that “doing more with less” is the universal business mantra, managers are scrambling to develop the innovative capacity of their teams. If you are looking to increase your team’s creative output here’s a review of a classic technique and an introduction to some strategies you may not have tried before.
Linus Pauling once said: “If you want great ideas, you need to have lots of ideas.” Brainstorming is the most popular technique for producing lots of ideas. But, although it is widely practiced, it is seldom utilized to its full potential. If your group uses brainstorming, check to be sure these fundamentals are in place:
- Start with a warm-up exercise – especially if the group doesn’t brainstorm frequently or when the group seems distracted by outside issues. Use word games or puzzles or humor to set an atmosphere that is relaxed, fun and freewheeling.
- Encourage everyone to participate, either with original ideas or “piggybacking” (adding on to) other people’s input.
- Focus initially on quantity, not quality of ideas. Write all ideas on a white board or large sheets of paper and number them to help motivate participants and to jump back and forth between ideas without losing track of where you are.
- Urge participants to say anything that occurs to them, no matter how wild or “far out” those ideas may seem.
- Realize that brainstorming sessions tend to follow a series of steep energy curves. When the momentum starts to plateau, the facilitator needs to build on what’s been stated (“That’s a great idea; now what are some other ways to _____________?”) or to jump to another point (“Let’s switch gears and consider _____________.”)
Ideally, the brainstorming session should be broken into two parts: the first for idea generation and the second for evaluation. During the idea generation phase, no one should be allowed to judge, criticize, or squelch any of the ideas presented.
- Stay alert for nonproductive comments such as, “We tried that last year,” “I don’t think that will work,” etc.
- Counter premature judgment with, “This isn’t the time for evaluation yet.”
And, as effective as brainstorming can be, remember there are many other collaborative techniques that stimulate creativity. Here are just a few:
Metaphorical thinking is a great tool for breaking out of current patterns of perception. By comparing your situation to another more well-understood system or process you may spot similarities and come up with an unexpected idea. The exercise asks: What can I learn from this comparison?
A classic example of this technique from my book Creativity in Business is of a defense contractor that developed a missile that had to fit so closely within its silo it couldn’t be pushed in. Comparing the situation to a horse that refuses to be pushed into a stall, the solution was to lead the horse in. The solution for the defense company: pull the missile in with a cable.
Forced connections is a technique for finding commonalities between two or more seemingly unrelated concepts or items. One practical exercise is to examine an industry that is very different from yours and look for things you can successfully imitate. Another is to bring “show and tell” items that help you visualize the wide variety of options and materials that could be applied to the session’s topic.
Back to the future starts with an image of the completed goal. Team members compare their answers to a series of questions: What does the ideal end result look like? How is the ideal different from what we have now? What changes are necessary for us to achieve the ideal? How can we make those changes?
Get visual. The most productive creative-thinking sessions are extremely visual. They include mind mapping, sketching, diagrams, cartoons and stick figures. Images stimulate emotion. Emotion opens creative channels that pure logic can’t budge.
Get physical. Get up and move around. Have your team stand rather than sit when grouping around white boards or easels. Act out the problem you are working on. A popular technique used by design firms is “bodystorming” where people act out current behavior and usage patterns to see how they might be altered.
Get fired. My favorite way to end a creativity session is to ask participants to take the last few minutes and contribute ideas that would probably work, but are so outrageous they could get the group fired. (Obviously, the task then becomes to tone-down the potential solutions so that the problem can be solved without risking any jobs.)
And, of course, you want to make sure that you are trying to solve the right problem. The European operation of a business started losing money after many years of outstanding profitability. Worried, the management team initially discussed ways to reduce costs in Europe in order to improve profitability. When the cost-cutting did little to stop the downward slide, the team finally faced the real issue: the geographical distribution of customers had changed drastically. The problem was then redefined as “How do we serve our customers more profitably on a global basis?” Hundreds of ideas were generated around this challenge that resulted in a customer focused business restructuring that not only cut costs in Europe but also added resources in other parts of the world.
By Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D. delivers keynote speeches and seminars on collaborative creativity to association, government, 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.
We know intuitively that Mr. Strasberg’s reasoning is sound, but leaders seldom apply it in the workplace. Instead, most workers report that they are singled out for notice only when there is a problem with their performance. Here is a question I often ask my audiences: If your boss told you that she noticed something about your performance and wanted you to come to her office to discuss it, would you assume that she had noticed an area of your special competence and wanted to bring it to your attention? Among the majority of audience members who respond with nervous laughter, only a few hands raise.
Bosses tend to notice and comment on weaknesses and mistakes more than they comment on talents and strengths. While continuous learning and self-improvement are valid concepts for future success, focusing solely on what is lacking leads to an unbalanced evaluation of employees’ worth and potential. It is no wonder then that most workers have problems taking risks and confronting uncertain situations.
Certainly, if you manage people or lead a team, a powerful change-management strategy is to help people focus on their strengths and find ways to build on them that is congruent with the direction the organization is taking. It’s the same thing in change communication. Approaches (such as Appreciate Inquiry) that look at what an organization already does well – and builds on those accomplishments to be even better – energizes and stimulates people to change because it is based on talents already possessed.
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.
Your workplace is filled with liars! How do I know?
I’ve got this straight from one of the foremost authorities on body language in business, Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D. Carol conducted an extensive survey to research her new book, The Truth About Lies in the Workplace (Berrett-Koehler).
Here are a few of the startling facts she uncovered:
- · 67% of workers don’t trust senior leadership
- · 53% said their immediate supervisor regularly lied to them
- · 51% believe their co-workers regularly lied
- · 53% admitted lying themselves
Lies and deception are running rampant in the workplace. Fortunately, Carol’s terrific new book explains in easy to understand language:
- · How to spot a liar and what to do about it
- · How men and women lie differently
- · How to deal with liars whether the liar is above, below, or on the same level as you
- · The one lie you better not tell your manager
- · How to NOT look like a liar when you’re telling the truth
- · Ways to foster candor and decrease deception in your organization
Carol’s advice applies whether the liar is a co-worker, boss, customer, prospect or board member. Her tips will help you defend yourself and your company from backstabbers, credit taking colleagues, lying bosses, gossips, and cheating job applicants.
I recommend that you read The Truth About Lies in the Workplace. When you order your copy now, you will also receive over $500 worth of career-building bonus gifts from Carol’s friends (including Communitelligence). And that’s no lie.
P.S. If you think you are too sharp to be taken in by a con man like Bernie Madoff, you had better read Chapter 3: Why We Believe Liars and How We Play Into Their Hands twice. Get your copy now.
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.
Your workplace is filled with liars! How do I know?
I’ve got this straight from one of the foremost authorities on body language in business, Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D. Carol conducted an extensive survey to research her new book, The Truth About Lies in the Workplace (Berrett-Koehler).
Here are a few of the startling facts she uncovered:
- · 67% of workers don’t trust senior leadership
- · 53% said their immediate supervisor regularly lied to them
- · 51% believe their co-workers regularly lied
- · 53% admitted lying themselves
Lies and deception are running rampant in the workplace. Fortunately, Carol’s terrific new book explains in easy to understand language:
- · How to spot a liar and what to do about it
- · How men and women lie differently
- · How to deal with liars whether the liar is above, below, or on the same level as you
- · The one lie you better not tell your manager
- · How to NOT look like a liar when you’re telling the truth
- · Ways to foster candor and decrease deception in your organization
Carol’s advice applies whether the liar is a co-worker, boss, customer, prospect or board member. Her tips will help you defend yourself and your company from backstabbers, credit taking colleagues, lying bosses, gossips, and cheating job applicants.
I recommend that you read The Truth About Lies in the Workplace. When you order your copy now, you will also receive over $500 worth of career-building bonus gifts from Carol’s friends (including Communitelligence). And that’s no lie.
P.S. If you think you are too sharp to be taken in by a con man like Bernie Madoff, you had better read Chapter 3: Why We Believe Liars and How We Play Into Their Hands twice. Get your copy now.
My friend and colleague, Richard Barrett, wrote a book several years ago called “Liberating the Corporate Soul.” It’s exceptional on many levels, as I wrote in a review that is posted on Amazon.com. One remarkable quality about Richard’s book is how it is both wonderfully inspiring and technically rigorous. Marcello Palazzi, Co-Founder and Chair of the Progessio Foundation said that “Liberating the Corporate Soul achieves the impossible: it integrates the intangibles of ethics, vision, and consciousness into a tangible measurement system.”Much of Richard’s work is rooted in his experiences from when he worked at the World Bank. During his years there, he developed a strong conviction that the institution needed to focus more of its attention on the issue of human rights in its monetary policies and decision-making. Since he was a mid-level manager with limited influence, he decided that he would need to take a less conventional approach if he wanted to reach the ears – and hearts – of senior management.
Les Landes, Landes & Associates
Buy Les’s webinar replay: Getting to the Heart of Employee Engagement
Regardless of your particular discipline, I believe that there’s much about communications – applicable to today – that we can learn from Mr. Lincoln:
1. Getting to the point – The Gettysburg Address is one of the most famous speeches ever delivered. It consisted of 10 sentences and took a little more than two minutes to deliver (by way of comparison, President Obama’s recent State of the Union address lasted well over an hour including the applause breaks). In the time he spoke, Lincoln invoked the principles of human equality as set forth by the Declaration of Independence and redefined the Civil War as a struggle not merely for the Union, but as “a new birth of freedom” that would bring true equality to all of its citizens, and that would also create a unified nation.
All of President Lincoln’s hopes to end the Civil War and the entire future of his presidency and, for that matter, the entire nation, rested on his shoulders at that moment. Yet he did not allow the importance of the moment to complicate his message, and that speaks volumes about Lincoln’s gift as a communicator.
By now, it is widely known that Mr. Lincoln labored mightily with this speech as opposed to the commonly-held belief that it was hurriedly written on the back of envelop in ten minutes. In choosing his words carefully, Mr. Lincoln delivered his messages cogently and succinctly (and, of course, without the aid of PowerPoint).
2. Listening – How often do we forget that listening is an important part of the communications process? Clearly Mr. Lincoln was a listener and this trait informed his opinions and shaped his understanding of the people he was elected to govern. He spent hours sitting and talking with people, asking questions and getting to know others. He talked with soldiers, widows of fallen soldiers, common people and more. Although known as a great storyteller, he was also known to take the time to hear complaints from people and listen to their stories. It’s hard for leaders of significant importance to take the time to slow down and listen, but it’s critically important.
3. Crisis communications – Given that Mr. Lincoln presided over a war torn country, he came to be an expert at crisis communications. More than telling the American public why the war was worth fighting, he gave them a sense of hope during a time when hundreds of thousands were dying in the Civil War. And he gave Americans a sense of purpose, that it was their duty to honor the dead by ensuring government “of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Read full article by Gene Marback at ThereforeIAM
Stop and LISTEN. To be a successful communications professional means you are an exceptional listener. The more you listen, the more you learn. The less you listen, the less you learn.
When you consider the role of a communications professional, we better be doing a lot of real listening. We need to be aware of and understand the needs and goals of our internal clients and each employee audience subgroup — different generations, different functions, management vs. non-management, c-level and more.
From one-on-one meetings to interviews, focus groups to department meetings or townhall to board meetings, listening is key. So how much listening are you doing? Media guru Roger Ailes, author of You Are The Message, says people should strive to listen 60 to 70 percent of the time and talk 30 to 40 percent.
Here’s Roger Ailes’ tips for becoming a better listener:
- Relax and clear your mind so that you’re receptive to what’s being said.
- Never assume that you’ve heard correctly just because the first few words have taken you in a certain direction.
- Don’t overreact emotionally to speakers’ words or ideas, especially those that are contrary to your views.
- Before forming a conclusion, let the speaker complete his or her thoughts.
- Listen for intent as well as content.
- Try to listen without overanalyzing.
- Remember that human communication goes through three phases: reception (listening), processing (analyzing), and transmission (speaking).
- Being a good communicator is a natural skill for only a few people. Most of us have to work at being good communicators and learn to observe not only how we speak and listen, but also what kinds of unspoken messages we send to our colleagues.
My tip. The next time you meet with someone, make a mental note of how many times you’re silent. Remember, silence is golden.
- YouTube Video made in a HAAGA-HELIA course to show the cultural differences in the workplace through gestures.
A young communicator interested in consulting asked me recently “how do you know what to charge?” It occurred to me that this is an important skill for all communicators, not just those in consulting or freelancing. If you don’t know how long it takes to do things, setting the expectations of internal clients may be impossible.
Paying attention to how long it takes to get things done is your first step. Even before I became a consultant, my team and I would track how much time we spent on certain activities. How many hours does it take to get the mid-year series of six focus groups done? How many hours does it take to draft content for the newsletter? The more you track, the more you learn.
Some go so far as to document the hours so they can look them up from an old project next time they get a similar request. Planning and scoping projects for your internal clients becomes much easier.
There are two important reasons to do such documentation of hours. Knowing how long it takes to do communication tasks
- Helps you plan a schedule and calendar for projects, making it easier to set timing expectations with clients
- Provides insight into the value of your team’s time and effort as compared to external resources
You know you and your team offer tremendous value to the organization, but can you prove that ROI to company leaders? Can you point to what it would cost if they went outside for help? Track the time, document it, and you’ll find yourself better able to plan, communicate, anticipate and prove your value.
Stacy Wilson, ABC, is president of Eloquor Consulting, Inc., in Lakewood, Colorado
Great communicators employ many different skills as they pursue success. Many of us focus on continual improvement in the tactical skills that carry our role — particularly true early in one’s career. Later, leadership, analysis and relationship skills help us become trusted advisors and strategic contributors.
One of the most important skills we can employ is giving unsought counsel – having difficult conversations with executives and clients where you disagree or offer an alternate view from theirs. I recently found myself in such a situation. The client is a new client and we don’t know each other well. She and her team are very interested in intranet governance and social media.
It is my practice to review current business and communication goals and objectives to better understand what drives the organization. The communication goals and objectives in place in this client organization are not strategic, not focused on behavior, and not likely to successfully position communication as the trusted advisor it should be. They also aren’t contributing to a strategic view of communication that drives the business.
Improving intranet governance and using social technologies may result in some successes, but couched in a flawed communication strategy, these things won’t have near the impact they could if the communication strategy itself were sound. Can you say “time for a tough conversation”?
What this requires most is courage – courage to think along a different line, to be observant of issues for which we’re not responsible, to speak up without prompting or expectation. Courage is in short supply in communication circles.
The best thing you can do is to prepare. Ask yourself the right questions first, and you’ll be better able to deliver clear messages and ask appropriate questions of the client. Consider:
1. What’s my relationship with the person and how might the conversation affect that relationship?
2. What would be the outcome if I never have the conversation? Bad enough to warrant intervention?
3. What are the two messages on which I can focus to get at the heart of the matter?
4. What is the balance to those two messages that helps to persuade and also lighten the negativity?
5. What examples can I offer in support of my concern?
6. What questions can I ask to get the client thinking along my lines of thought?
7. What solutions will I offer?
8. How will I wrap up the discussion in a positive and productive way?
What other tips do you have for giving unsought counsel? Share those and examples of a time when you worked through such a situation successfully.
Stacy Wilson, ABC, is president of Eloquor Consulting, Inc., in Lakewood, Colorado
A client recently asked me if I had a tool that would help her track and collect measurement data during the course of a project. “Have you got a tool for that?”
It made me realize that when it comes to measurement we really harp on the planning skills. Which is crucial. But the collection, tracking, analysis and reporting are equally important. How many of us have planned our measurement, but never carried through?
So, here are some tips that will get your measurement skills up to speed across the entire measurement lifeline.
- Planning
- Target metrics that connect to business goals and prove communication success
- Find out what the organization is already collecting
- Determine the frequency of collection, approach of collection (e.g., survey, interview, electronic) and owner for each metric
- Collection and tracking
- Identify due dates for all the collection activity
- Determine all the collection logistics in advance so you don’t miss anything
- Automate what you can (e.g., invitations, reminders, electronic data reports)
- For longer-term efforts with multiple measurement points, document key data points and findings as they come in
- Analysis
- Identify the three most relevant findings
- Identify the most surprising finding
- Identify the findings that require additional follow up
- Categorize, count and analyze open-ended comments
- Consider the benefits of cross-tabulating some of your quantitative data
- Assess what worked well in the data collection process and what did not
- Reporting
- Understand the expectations and interests of the stakeholders to whom you are reporting
- Break out recommendations by short-term and long-term timing
- Identify those findings that best connect to goals
- Be realistic about how much you can present in the given time
- Determine which visuals and which words will be most useful to incorporate
- Identify the final call to action
- Anticipate questions and prepare a response
If you approach items two through four with the same diligence communicators typically approach item one, you’ll be more apt to follow through. And follow through means having more and better data, and more and better data means proving our value.
Proving our value through great measurement is one ingredient in the recipe for becoming a trusted advisor. Thinking strategically throughout the measurement lifeline is another. And, yes, we have tools for every step of the way.
Stacy Wilson, ABC, is president of Eloquor Consulting, Inc., in Lakewood, Colorado
Seek first to understand, then be understood is habit five of Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. “What training have you had that enables you to listen so you really, deeply understand another human being? Probably none, right?”
Lolly Daskal, author of the Lead from Within blog and hostess of a Twitter chat with the same name, touched on this concept this week in her post, The Art of Listening.
Most people listen with the goal of responding, but listening is really about silence, Lolly wrote.
I often find myself wanting to respond. I have to remind myself to be silent.
Lolly also reminded her readers that listening means not judging, questioning or attempting to fix.
Listening, and truly understanding, is a difficult skill learned only through active practice. It’s also a skill that’s critical for journalists to master.
The essence of listening is in silence:
- Do not judge
- Do not question
- Do not fix
As people who write, make presentations, sell our services, review employees, and communicate in one way or another every day, we’ve probably been told to “know your audience” more than once. As a lifelong writer, I’ve been given this sage advice more times that I can count. As a writing coach, I repeat it to my clients. Often. Usually with a funny little story about me, my husband, his coworker, and a hot intern. (Email me and I’ll tell you the whole sordid story!)
But, it might just be time to give “know your audience” a rest.
Not because audiences are no longer important. Not at all. They are not just important, they are required. Without them you are just talking to yourself, and people will cross the street avoid contact with you when that happens.
And certainly not because there is nothing to “know.” You cannot safely assume that everyone on the receiving end of your content fits nicely into a single, generic mold. Not even close.
It’s because audiences aren’t really just audiences anymore, not in the passive, we’ll-eat-up-this-content-clap-politely-and-be-on-our-way tradition of audiences. Audiences are really, as Wikinomics coauthor Anthony Williams put it when I heard him speak earlier this year, participants. (You can read John Gerstner’s coverage of the presentation). Or “users” as The New York Times now refers to people formerly known as readers. In some instances we can rightfully call them hecklers. They comment on, tweet about, write argumentative blog posts against and create parody videos on YouTube about your content. They are hardly just sitting by and listening quietly.
Communication has always implied a two-way exchange of information; it’s just that most of our tools used to be skewed to one-way delivery. That hasn’t been true for a while, so if you haven’t yet retired your image of your audience as passive information consumers, now’s the time. What you call them, be it “users” or “participants” or “co-conspirators” or “crazy hecklers,” is not as important as how you treat them – as participants in the flow of the information who can bring their unique perspective to the discussion and make it richer.
That also means you have to make peace with the fact that some people are going to be pleasant, some people are going to be professional and some people are going to be snarky. You can’t take a rant personally, and if you can read through the hyperbole, you might just find an excellent point.
So, my co-conspirators in communication, how are you changing the paradigm from “know your audience” to “know your participant?”
Barbara Govednik launched 423 Communication in 2001 to helps its clients tell their stories through freelance writing services, coaching and editing services, and employee communication consulting and implementation. Read Barbara’s Being Well Said Blog.
In the last issue of Inside Out (Proof for the profitability of engagement), I talked about what it takes to get employees engaged in systematic continuous improvement. I also cited recent research that proves the huge bottom line impact you can produce from doing it effectively.
After 15 years of benchmarking and refining a process that’s been used by several Baldrige Award winning companies, we’ve found that some of the “tried-and-true” principles for accomplishing that goal aren’t really so true after all. In fact, what actually works – what makes an improvement process a fully integrated system instead of a one-off activity – is somewhat counterintuitive.
“Bigger” isn’t always “better.”
One classic flaw in most suggestion programs is the emphasis on hitting “home runs.” It seems like it makes sense to focus on the big wins at first glance, but there are two problems with that notion. First, big things are hard to plan and implement, and not many employees are equipped to take them on. So it limits participation. Second, when employees get bigger incentives for bigger improvements, that’s where they tend to focus their attention – and they wind up walking right past hundreds of smaller ideas – the “base hits” – along the way.
The counterintuitive key is to set up the incentive structure to value every idea equally regardless of its size and impact. In our “Un-Suggestion System,” we use a random drawing to accomplish that goal. For every approved improvement that an employee implements (not just suggests), his or her name is entered once into a bi-weekly drawing. Depending on the size of the organization, approximately 10%-20% of the names are pulled each time. Importantly, the value of the awards is very modest – usually no more than $50 – regardless of whether the idea saved $100 or $10,000. The value of the award has absolutely nothing to do with the value of the improvement.
That approach works for several reasons:
- People aren’t wasting time trying to cost-justify a lot of small improvements that any well-trained supervisor can see right away will make things work better, faster, cheaper, cleaner, easier or safer.
- It keeps employees focused on the little things that they have control over.
- It emphasizes the intrinsic merits of the improvements and the inherent motivation that everyone has to make things work better rather than the “prize money.”
- In the end, the most motivating factor for employees is that someone is actually taking their ideas seriously, helping them get those ideas implemented, and thanking them for their contributions.
Committees aren’t close enough to the action.
If you want to make sure that employee suggestions get evaluated and implemented, set up a suggestion committee to review and approve everything – right? Wrong! Dilbert would have a field day with that notion. Setting aside all the jokes about committees in general, let’s look at how that process typically works.
An employee comes up with an improvement idea and submits a suggestion. After going to the supervisor and probably to a manager, the idea eventually works its way to the suggestion committee. That “team” gets together maybe once every month or so to review a slug of suggestions. Of course, they’re doing double-duty. Not only do they have their own jobs to do, now they have to take on another load. What’s more, they often don’t know much about the improvements that are being proposed, so they have to do some research. By the time they finally make a decision, it’s been weeks or even months. Employees lose interest, and they aren’t very motivated to submit additional ideas.
So what’s the alternative? Keep it local – focusing most decision-making where the improvements will be implemented. You make it the job of every supervisor to review, evaluate and approve or decline the vast majority of improvement ideas. You also make it the responsibility of employees to get their ideas implemented. If they need help from their supervisor or someone else, they can get it – but they “own” it.
Here’s another benefit of that approach. It bolsters the role of the supervisor as a coach. To optimize that role, supervisors need the right kind of skills, of course. They have to learn how to evaluate improvement ideas, lead process improvement meetings, encourage employee participation, help people get their ideas implemented and acknowledge them for their contributions. Those duties also need to be included in the supervisor’s job description and assessed as part of their performance reviews.
While the principles are basic, making the shift from a “suggestion program” to a more viable and vital “improvement system” is not easy or “intuitive” for most people. But when that system produces dramatically more implemented improvements than a traditional program, the rewards far outweigh the effort.
Les Landes, Landes & Associates
Buy Les’s webinar replay: Getting to the Heart of Employee Engagement
You may never find yourself in the high-stakes, high-pressure world of a presidential debate. But if you are addressing an employee audience, meeting with your team, or even interviewing for a job, you are constantly communicating. You’re doing that through body language, and the key is to know whether the way you stand, your facial expressions, gestures, touch, and use of space are expressing enthusiasm, warmth, and confidence – or arrogance, indifference, and displeasure.
Whether you are a business executive promoting a vision for the company or a politician promoting a vision for the country, people interpret what you say to them only partially from the words you use. They are picking up most of your message (and all of the emotional nuance behind the words) from your nonverbal signals.
Understanding body language is critical whether you are a chief executive officer, a first-line supervisor, or a candidate for president of the United States. But unlike political candidates, most business people are oblivious to the impact of the nonverbal signals they send.
Which can be a big problem.
The female manager who constantly flips her hair as she speaks or smiles too much when discussing a critical business issue probably doesn’t realize that she has minimized her chances of being taken seriously. The team leader who reserves head nods, forward leans and direct eye contact for only a few members of his team may not know that he is demoralizing the rest of the team.
The first step to gaining a nonverbal advantage is awareness – and one way to increase awareness is to learn from experience. The good news is that it doesn’t always have to be your own experience.
If you were not watching the political debates, you missed an opportunity to learn from some body language dos and don’ts. Here are five tips from the debates that would apply to leaders in any kind of organization.
Tip One: With nonverbal communication, it’s not how the sender feels that’s most important; it’s how the observer perceives how the sender feels.
Body language interpretations are often made deep in the subconscious mind, based on a primitive emotional reaction that hasn’t changed much since humans began interacting with one another. Because reading body language is an ancient and primarily process, your audience may not always know why they get that “something just isn’t right,” or “I trust this person” feeling – but most often it has nothing at all to do with a critical analysis of the statements you make. Instead, it has everything to do with what the audience believes you really mean.
A famous debate signal occurred in 1992 when incumbent President George H.W. Bush looked at his watch while his opponent, Bill Clinton, who would win the election, spoke.
Why did he look at his watch? It doesn’t matter. What does matter, is that to the viewing audience, President Bush’s gesture conveyed boredom – as if he had better things to do with his time and was wondering when this annoying inconvenience would end.
This is a common problem with body language: often your nonverbal signals don’t convey what you intended them to. You may be slouching because you’re tired, but your team will most likely read it as a sign of disinterest. You may be more comfortable standing with your arms folded across your chest (or you may be cold), but others see you as resistant and unapproachable. And keeping your hands stiffly by your side or stuck in your pockets can give the impression that you’re insecure or hiding something – whether you are or not.
Tip Two: Watch those facial expressions.
Have you ever interviewed for a job? Ever been interviewed in a group setting? If you have, then you probably did your best to come across as qualified, confident, and likable.
Let’s suppose the interviewer asked you a question that you hoped wouldn’t come up. Did you clench your jaw, raise your eyebrows in amazement, and grimace to show your annoyance? Or did you sigh, smile condescendingly, and shake your head?
Can you imagine the impression you’d make if you did any of those things in an interview? Do you think you’d get the job? Do you think you’d even make the next round?
Job interviews are often as much about body language and impressions as they are about issues and substance. If you think of the debates as a super-sized job interview – and in many ways they are – you can begin to see why facial expressions have such an impact.
Both candidates made facial expression errors. In most of the debates, Senator Obama minimized his emotional reactions and reinforced the impression that he is remote and “cold.” Senator McCain’s forced grins and eye rolling in the third debate sent a negative signal that was reflected instantly in polls rating likeability: Obama scored 70% to McCain’s 22%.
Tip Three: Don’t underestimate the power of touch.
While Senator Obama shook hands with audience members after the debates, only Senator McCain touched anyone during a debate. Toward the end of the second debate, McCain walked into the audience and patted a U.S. military veteran on the back and then shook his hand, which produced a genuine smile from the veteran. McCain’s gesture was exquisitely done and worked very much in his favor.
Usually considered to be the most primitive and essential form of communication, we are programmed to feel closer to someone who’s touched us. The person who touches also feels more connected. It’s a compelling force and even momentary touching can create a human bond. A touch on the forearm that lasts a mere 1/40 of a second can make the receiver not only feel better but also see the giver as being kinder and warmer.
Touch is so powerful and effective that clinical studies at the Mayo Clinic show that premature babies who are stroked grow 40 percent faster than those who do not receive the same amount of touching. And touch retains its power — even with adults in business settings. A study on handshakes by the Income Center for Trade Shows showed that people are twice as likely to remember you if you shake hands with them.
Tip Four: When your body language is out of sync with your words, people believe what they see.
Anytime Senator McCain was speaking in the first debate, Senator Obama oriented his body toward McCain and looked directly at him. In doing so, he sent a nonverbal signal of interest and respect. McCain’s decision to avoid looking at Obama during that debate, was not only dismissive, it was counter to McCain’s stated position that Democrats and Republicans need to work together on behalf of the American people. In fact, his failure to look at Obama was so off-message that if I had been coaching McCain, I would never have allowed it. To me, it was the biggest nonverbal stumble – and the one most significantly against-message – that I saw in all the presidential debates.
In the same way, a business leader who stands in front of a thousand employees – and talks about how much he welcomes their input – derails that message if he hides behind a lectern, or leans back away from his audience, or shoves his hands in his pockets. All of those send closed nonverbal signals – when the intended message is really about openness.
It is crucial to communicate congruently – that is, to align your body to support (instead of sabotage) an intended message. Mixed signals have a negative effect on performance and make it almost impossible to build relationships of trust. Whenever your nonverbal signals contradict your words, the people you are addressing — employees, customers, voters — become confused. And, if forced to choose, they will discount your words and believe what your body said.
Tip Five: Remember – you are never “off camera.”
When the second debate was over, and their wives were on stage, Senator McCain tapped his rival on the back. Senator Obama turned around to offer his hand, but it was not reciprocated. McCain, instead, pointed to his wife, Cindy – an action that many viewers took for a nonverbal brush-off.
As a leader, you are always communicating. People are unrelenting leader-watchers, and your “off-record” behaviors are being closely monitored. In the words of one savvy executive, “What I do in the hallway is more powerful than anything I say in the meeting room.”
So there you are — five body-language tips that can play a positive role in your professional communication. Even if you never find yourself in the midst of a presidential debate.
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.
As I am doing a lot of presenting and training this month and next, let’s consider some fundamentals. First, when putting together a presentation, don’t pack in too many slides. Figure on half to a third the number of minutes you have to present. Presenting for 45 minutes? Shoot for roughly 15-22 slides. Don’t forget to pull out your Q&A time separately.
Second, stay focused on your purpose. If you’re trying to persuade the boss to fund a new project, focus on what he or she needs to know to make a decision. Don’t get side tracked with less important tactical content.
Third, avoid wordsmithing in committee over a presentation. You’ll find yourself spending more time fussing over the individual words and you won’t get the presentation done. When you present, chances are the stakeholders won’t pay enough attention to notice individual words.
Fourth, rehearsal is crucial. I don’t always do enough of this, but you can’t really get enough. Spending the time to really know your content proves to be valuable, in more ways than just being able to present and not look stupid.
And, finally five, the more you do it, the better you get. I talked with my daughter about this when she was preparing for her big dance recital. We practice so we can commit the routine to memory. But practice also makes us generally more comfortable with performing. No matter the type of performance. The more we’re in the spotlight, the more it feels like the light isn’t on us anymore.
Stacy Wilson, ABC, is president of Eloquor Consulting, Inc., in Lakewood, Colorado
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