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
As summer arrives you may you’re the one who gets burned when planning summer vacation schedules. See what you can do to prevent fighting over those prime dates like Memorial Day.
Everyone loves summer, especially employees who are looking forward to their summer vacation. The problem is that everyone wants to go on vacation at the same time. You know, Memorial Day, Labor Day and the 4th of July. Or, they want time in August to get the kids ready for school. And, not everyone can be accomodated. Here are five strategies that will make your summer planning like a day at the beach:
- Do the Work-Flow Planning. Examining the work-flow, or knowing the busiest times for your business, is critical both as you develop the policy, and, later, as you begin to consider requests. The more you know, the more you’ll be able to anticipate problems and spend time finding creative solutions.
- Create a Vacation Policy Set a policy for employees to follow when asking for a vacation, that examines when you need your staff the most, what your criteria is for selecting schedules and includes any exceptions. One of the biggest employee complaints is perceived favoritism. Be specific and fair. In fact, if you really want to get your employee’s buy-in, ask them for feedback as you develop the policy.
- Communicate your Vacation Policy. To paraphrase an old saying, communicate your policy ‘early and often’. Let employees know and ask questions about the policy early long before summer arrives. That way they will have time to adjust their plans if necessary. Present a written policy and discuss it at your next meeting.Repeat or reference the policy often to avoid misunderstanding(you know people rarely pay attention the first time.)
- Schedule a vacation request period. That way everyone has an equal shot of getting their prefered time.
- Look for creative solutions. So everyone wants to be gone for the last two weeks of July and you can’t do it. Be creative. Offer a special bonus for those who volunteer to postpone or switch their vacation. Expand the lunch hour. Buy lunch more often. Just make sure you have some options that let people really enjoy the laid-back summer vibe.
Think your shop is too small to fight over vacation scheduling? Think again. It’s even more important to plan for a small shop where everybody wheres multiple hats. Follow these strategies and this summer you’ll have it made in the shade.
If you want to be a better communicator, take a moment to consider these five tips, then give them a try.
1.) Be Concise: Don’t use 100 words to say something you can say in 50 words. It’s easy to become enamored of your own voice, which may cause you to drone on and lessen your effectiveness as a communicator. I’ll leave it at that.
2.) Have A Point: Don’t speak for the sake of speaking. Have a point, especially when you’re trying to be persuasive or explain something. It’s one thing if you’re having a coffee or a beer with a friend; the importance of having a point in such a scenario is diminished. In a business or teaching situation on the other hand, it’s very important to have a point in mind before you start talking.
3.) Don’t Have Too Many Points: It’s tough for most people to remember long lists. It’s even tougher if the list is comprised of complex points. Many memory experts say stick to a list of seven or fewer points, if you want your audience to remember them. Based on my experience, I’d suggest having a maximum of three key points you’d like your audience to remember. Better yet, have just one and hit it from a bunch of different angles. Obviously, this is not one size fits all, but in most instances, you’ll want to stick to a small number key points, or you will confuse your audience.
4.) Use Words And Metaphors That Will Resonate With Your Audience: If you’re speaking to a Board of Directors, a CEO group, or a bunch of Marketing Vice Presidents, the words you’ll use will be completely different than those you’ll use when speaking to a group of politicians or museum curators. This is true if you are speaking to individual people from groups such as these as well. Each audience has its own buzzwords and hot buttons. It’s key to use examples, phrasing and metaphors that resonate with your audience. If not, you will not pass the Ethos, Pathos, Logos test and you will be far less likely to effectively get your point across.
Read full article in Company Founder
Last week I facilitated two long days of review and planning sessions for a client. From 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days our small group of about six focused on business and HR strategy and process relative to their employee portal. We did process mapping, role identification, metrics planning and more. By the end of the two days the conference room was papered with flip charts, the whiteboard completely covered, and my camera full of earlier images from the whiteboard.
Our client is really excited about the content and work that came out of this session. I debriefed my team and during that discussion had several aha’s:
- So much of facilitation success is about the planning you put in before — a well-planned agenda, with exercises and techniques identified makes all the difference
- Planning to the group size, the setting, the desired outcomes is crucial — a small group in a small room can succeed with less formal approaches
- Adjusting to the ebb and flow of such a session is important — judge the value of the tangential conversation before redirecting
The last one proved to be really important last week. We didn’t use every approach I planned to use and we didn’t stay exactly on the agenda. Sometimes, the group wandered into valuable discussion and I let them go for a while. The results were really useful decisions and information that we may not have reached if I’d been too strict to the agenda.
Sometimes this is a tough call. Is what we’ve arrived at for this moment more important than what we’d planned to address? Can we still get to everything on our agenda? In anticipation of such a situation, I usually plan in some wiggle room. Using a parking lot also ensures you can move off the irrelevant topics fast.
What techniques do you use to keep your facilitation flexible?
Stacy Wilson, ABC, is president of Eloquor Consulting, Inc., in Lakewood, Colorado
Whether you’re writing creatively, for academia, or blogs, one of the most important aspects of writing is often overlooked: the ability to give and receive constructive criticism.
If you know providing such constructive feedback isn’t your forte, you’re not sure if you’re doing it well, or you just want a refresher, you’re in luck! I have some tips and examples for you.
Giving Constructive Criticism
- Please never just say “it’s good” or “I liked it.” Okay, I’m glad… but what made it good? Why did you like it? I need a little bit more feedback. And that includes what you didn’t like. In fact…
- What you don’t like is probably the most valuable information. What is it about this piece that you don’t like? For example, “the voice didn’t seem very authentic,” or “I just don’t feel like this part fits in with the rest of the post.” Help me see where I can improve. That’s important, so let me say it again.
- Help the writer see where he or she can improve. There is no such thing as a perfect first draft. Even thoroughly edited final drafts are often not without their faults. Speak up and let the writer know what you think.
Receiving Constructive Criticism
- Remember that you are not your work. Just because I don’t like your outfit or your taste in music doesn’t mean that I don’t like you as a person. Likewise, just because someone doesn’t like something you’ve written, it doesn’t mean they don’t like you.
- Prompt the critic. When you ask for someone’s opinion, they might not always know how to give constructive criticism. If they say something like, “that’s good,” ask them why they liked it. Ask them where they think you can improve or what they found confusing. The more you prompt them, the more likely you’ll get the information you need (and the more likely they are to provide this information to you up front in the future since they know what you’re looking for).
- Remember that you are the author. In the end, it’s your work. You need to be happy with it. So while you can consider all of the feedback and constructive criticism you receive, you’re ultimately the one who decides whether or not to accept it.
Search engine optimization is often about making small modifications to parts of your website.
So we thought it’d be useful to create a compact guide that lists some best practices that teams within Google and external webmasters alike can follow that could improve their sites’ crawlability and indexing.
View Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide (pdf)
As I prepare to head west for this year’s IABC World Conference and then east for the Communitelligence conference, I am thinking a lot about networking and follow up. At this stage of my career, networking is the main reason I attend conferences.
Networking also continues to be a primary reason people join associations and other groups and attend conferences. Yes, the programming is important and recognition of excellence is good. But, finding colleagues who know stuff – well, that’s the real prize.
Where I sometimes, like others, fall short is in the follow through. So, here are some tips for those of us heading off to conferences in the next few weeks.
- Get their business card – don’t rely on the other person to follow up with you to acquire their contact information
- Ask if they are using Twitter or LinkedIn or another networking tool where you can connect
- If you decide to add them to your contact list, add a note about where you met and what you discussed in that first meeting
- If you send them an invitation to connect from something like LinkedIn, customize the message – you won’t appear to have tried very hard if you use the default message alone
- If they are on Twitter, follow them for a while – maybe they’ll follow you back
- Send a personal note (handwritten is very nice but uncommon, making e-mail the preferred choice these days) about how much you enjoyed meeting them
- Include a link to an interesting article in your note
- If you committed when you met to call (“I’ll give you a call…”) then call – don’t commit and then bail out
- If you committed to follow up at some time in the future, put a tickler in your calendar so you don’t forget
Networking is important for communicators at every career stage. Obviously, right now it is really important if you’ve lost, or are at risk of losing, your job. But we should always be looking out for those new great connections. Always building our catalog of talent we can turn to in a pinch.
If you’re a consultant or independent, you know these chance meetings can turn into new clients. If you hire sub-contractors, that new acquaintance may be the next perfect person to add to your team. If you work in an organization, you might have just met your future boss, or a future co-worker, or a consultant who can help make your next project shine.
Last tip: never go anywhere without a couple of business cards in your pocket. I even hike with them.
Stacy Wilson, ABC, is president of Eloquor Consulting, Inc., in Lakewood, Colorado
Comments |
RE: Great networking is all about diligence |
Great comments! Agree that you should always have business cards on you. For example, in a casual conversation with one of the humans at the dog park, I learned that her best friend worked for Great Places to Work. At the time, I was wanting to connect with someone there. The dog bond, aided by a card, made it very easy! |
Posted on Sunday, Jun 07, 2009 – 05:58:00 AM CST lizguthridge |
Another thought |
One thing I should have added to this is that new contacts often turn into great resources of information. This just happened to me last week. A new contact turns out to have just the information I need for a client project. If it hadn’t been for all the networking last month at the Council of Communication Management conference, I wouldn’t have all the information I really wanted. Stacy |
There are many people against it, as they find it disrespectful to the speaker, distracting to others in the audience and just plain wrong that an audience member would do anything but listen attentively during a presentation (other than taking notes, which still seems acceptable if done with a pen and paper.) I, however, see value in twittering a conference speaker.
- You get to follow an event even if you’re not there.
Budget cuts kept you from this conference or IABC this year? Not cool enough to swing a TED invite? Search the hash tags for these conferences read what the people who were there were hearing in real time. (Respectively, #commtell09, #IABC09, #TED) - It’s an instant feedback tool for presenters.
Moments after she finished her presentation, Stacy Wilson twittered “… tell me how I can improve my preso, what is missing, or what I should remove. Thanks for feedback!” Immediacy like that can result in actionable feedback. Even if you’re not that direct, reviewing what resonated with listeners is a valuable tool. - It’s a connection point at a conference.
Even at small conferences it can be tough to meet everyone. Seeking out fellow twitterers can give you a starting point. I noticed that some attendees I hadn’t met yet started to follow me on Twitter during the conference, so it was natural for us to seek each other out. In other instances, you get a chance to meet live people you’ve only followed in the Twitter world. - It’s an opportunity to spread a good idea.
I love to give a shout out to services, businesses and ideas that I think are worthwhile and deserve to be known. If I’m clicking with what a speaker is saying, I’m naturally inclined to do a little word of mouth marketing on their behalf. - It helps maintain focus as an audience member.
Yes, this seems counterintuitive but let’s be honest. We all multitask and, for better or worse, it is the default state for some of us. I found that composing a tweet now and then gave the part of my brain that was screaming for action something to do while I was listening and it actually improved my focus on the presentation. Rather like taking notes. Did I miss some words while I was typing? Yes. Would I have missed some words if I weren’t typing? Yes. This is not a commentary on the speakers and their abilities, it’s just human nature.
I asked Clara Shih, author of The Facebook Era and presenter at the conference, what she thought about audiences twittering her presentation. She shrugged, almost as if I had asked her what she thought about audiences breathing during her presentation. She told me that when she can, she often projects a live feed of tweets while she talks.
We started this project about four years ago, and what this book is all about is about an organization that is full of conversation. If you think about what organization is all about, it’s just basically a bunch of conversations that are happening at the same time. And what leaders do to facilitate the conversations that actually produce value, and actually engage employees, is that what distinguished some of the best corporations that we studied.
So if you think about what makes conversations among friends to be really productive is that it has all the attributes. It’s interactive. It’s intimate. It’s inclusive. It’s actually intentional. And if you think about it, when you place that conversation inside organizations, many of those great attributes actually disappear.
So the book is, how do you actually have productive conversations in an organization? And the reason why it’s actually more important now in the 21st century than before is that, if you think about what’s going on around us, we’re a knowledge-based economy. Our source of competitive advantage are actually people who are working for us, working for our corporation. And the more engaged they are, the more productive they’re going to be.
So I think having right conversations [INAUDIBLE] 21st century is more important than 20 or 25 years ago. I think the speed of change, how industries are changing, how products are changing, is much, much faster than it used to be. So staying close to customers, staying close to your employees, that’s becoming more and more important.
Many companies nowadays are global companies, so you actually have to not only engage employees here locally, but you have to engage them across the board. And so communication, being able to be in touch with employees, is becoming more and more important.
An interview with Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind, authors of Talk, Inc.: How Trusted Leaders Use Conversation to Power Their Organizations. For more, read the article Leadership Is a Conversation.
You can complain “I don’t have any leverage; I can’t change the cubicles, I can’t rewrite the reward system. And the answer is “No you can’t; don’t even try.” But simply through your own thinking, and getting other people to think differently as well, you can have enormous impact without changing any of that stuff even if you are not a member of the board.
The simple fact is “smart is smart,” and we’re talking about you offering up an additional way of viewing problems. You’ll never get in real trouble for doing that, especially if you do it gently by saying “can we think about this in another way?”
With that throat clearing complete, here are seven proven steps you can take in introducing new ideas in your, or any, organization:
1. Link what you want to do to a business imperative. This is just about always fatal if it is overlooked—and it generally is. That’s a shame since it is so easily addressed. Yes, of course, the idea of the rocket backpack that will allow us to fly to work is exciting, but if you work for a company that makes ball bearings it is hard to see the fit. You want to begin the conversation by being able to say something like, “you know, the organization has the business goals of A, B, and C. (You can talk about organizational goals—such as improving team work—as well, but odds are you will find a more receptive audience if you start with business goals.) I’ve got an idea that I think will fit perfectly.”
2. Produce obvious, “local” business results. Don’t focus on organizational or cultural change. Prove the efficacy of your idea in the vocabulary and currency of your organization. Sure, it would be nice if you could change your organization into “the next Google” overnight, a firm that is willing to go wherever the market takes it. But if your boss’ goal is to have the highest performing region in the company, that (a la point number 1) is the place to focus your attention.
3. Make sure there is sufficient autonomy. The unit(s) or individuals working on the new idea must have enough freedom to be different and protected from the “restorative forces” the organization will impose (even in spite of itself.) What this means for you and your project is this. Don’t worry about getting everyone committed. You don’t need to! There are four postures people can adopt: keep it from happening, let it happen, help it happen and make it happen. Obviously, you don’t want anyone in the “keep it from happening mode” if you can avoid it. But most people simply have to “let it happen.” You and (and maybe a few others) have to “make it happen.” Your boss (and maybe a few others) have to “help it happen” and create a buffer around you. So, rather than asking “how do I get everybody committed to my idea” keep asking yourself: “What is the least amount of commitment I need to move forward.”
Throwing chairs, tossing zingers and misusing the English language are probably not the best tactics to ensure your message is heard
If you want people to hear what you have to say, give them something worth listening to.
Sounds simple, right? If that’s the case, why does effectively communicating a viewpoint seem to be such a lost art these days?
We are living in the age of Jerry Springer, the TV talk-show host who delights in chair-throwing, bleep-inducing confrontations between people who need serious sedation and anger-management training. Not surprisingly, this kind of in-your-face entertainment has spilled over to more “serious” news programs on formerly respectable networks.
Look at what’s happening. There’s the weird rant of Tom Cruise in a “Today” show interview (which really wasn’t news except that Cruise apparently invented a new meaning for the word “glib”). There’s the printed gripe session in my hometown newspaper in which the same five people seem to be bickering endlessly. There are town-hall meetings – both in the public arena and in company auditoriums all over America – in which the greatest applause is reserved for the person who tosses the best zinger. And now there are blogs, online journals where freedom of expression is pushed to the extreme (I can’t wait for the inevitable tests of this freedom in future court cases).
As someone who makes a living out of trying to help people communicate effectively, all of this is frequently disheartening. As the volume increases, it is more difficult to hear what people are really trying to say.
Listening to different viewpoints is fun. I learn a lot from hearing people talk about what is important to them. Businesses can learn and grow, too, by listening to employees, customers, suppliers and other important groups. But good information gets lost when it’s wrapped in anything that detracts from the message.
Here are some ways to make sure your message isn’t lost:
Know how to use the language. For some people, all the rules of grammar and spelling are enough to cause hyperventilation. (I feel the same way about math.) But let’s face it: communication depends on knowing how to use the tools correctly. If you’re writing a letter to the editor, committing a grammatical error like “your an idiot” will detract from your message. There is little excuse for poor grammar and misspelling in these days of dictionaries and computerized spell-check.
Don’t let pure emotion take over. It is OK to be emotional when speaking on a subject about which you feel strongly. But when emotion is so strong that it overpowers the message, your audience will remember the outburst and forget what brought it on.
Keep your message simple. Whether you are speaking or writing, the person on the other end will remember only so much. (Think about how much information overload you have in your own life.) Rather than drift off into a half-dozen tangents, stick to the central message you want your audience to remember.
Keep your sense of humor. Humor is a wonderful weapon for defusing tense situations. Use it carefully, however, and aim it mostly toward yourself. Be willing to recognize when someone else is attempting to use humor and don’t take yourself so seriously.
Kill them with kindness. You can attract more bees with honey than you can with vinegar. My career has included a fair amount of communicating strong opinions, but I learned long ago that you can be opinionated and kind at the same time.
Not likely.
Elephants are those forbidden subjects and hard questions that lurk in the back of everyone’s mind – and which senior management hopes will go unnoticed.
Every organization has its own elephants. But if you listed them, you’d be surprised at how the same themes exist in company after company. Here are some verbatim examples from email surveys and focus groups at various organizations I’ve worked with.
* Senior leadership paints a picture of Utopia. What world are they in?
* I’ve met with the mayor of this city more times than I’ve met with our company leaders.
* We have managers, not leaders.
* How can our executives say “we’re all in this together” when they get all the benefits and we get all the cuts?
* Our best people are leaving and the “dead wood” is staying.
* No one cares how hard we work.
* Loyalty is a one-way street here.
* They talk about collaboration, but we don’t get rewarded for it.
* The wrong people get promoted into leadership positions.
* Leaders don’t tell us the whole story.
What if, at the next all-hands meeting, leaders talked about the elephants in the room? What if they used that opportunity to set a tone of transparency and candor? How do you think employees would react?
Well, in my experience, a well-planned session around these unspeakable issues builds employee engagement better than all the “rah-rah” motivational speeches ever could. It breaks down barriers, creates equity between leadership and workers, and jolts people out of their usually complacent or skeptical mindsets.
Here’s how I’d design it:
1. Use email and focus groups to uncover key issues. Capture exact words and phrases.
2. Create a “Top 10 Elephants” list.
3. Prepare executives for the process, but don’t let them see the list beforehand.
4. Bring in an outside moderator to ask pointed questions and push for real answers.
Sound risky? Sure. But how risky is it to think employees can focus on work while surrounded by a herd of elephants?
7. Spend time with time wasters.
The classic business plan imposes efficiency on an inefficient market. Where there is waste, there is opportunity. Dispatch the engineers, route around the problem, and boom—opportunity seized.
That’s a great way to make money, but it’s not necessarily a way to find the future. A better signal, perhaps, is to look at where people—individuals—are being consciously, deliberately, enthusiastically inefficient. In other words, where are they spending their precious time doing something that they don’t have to do? Where are they fiddling with tools, coining new lingo, swapping new techniques? That’s where culture is created. The classic example, of course, is the Homebrew Computer Club—the group of Silicon Valley hobbyists who traded circuits and advice in the 1970s, long before the actual utility of personal computers was evident. Out of this hacker collective grew the first portable PC and, most famously, Apple itself.
This same phenomenon—people playing—has spurred various industries, from videogames (thank you, game modders) to the social web (thank you, oversharers). Today, inspired dissipation is everywhere. The maker movement is merging bits with atoms, combining new tools (3-D printing) with old ones (soldering irons). The DIY bio crowd is using off-the-shelf techniques and bargain-basement lab equipment, along with a dose of PhD know-how, to put biology into garage lab experiments. And the Quantified Self movement is no longer just Bay Area self-tracking geeks. It has exploded into a worldwide phenomenon, as millions of people turn their daily lives into measurable experiments.
The phenomenon of hackathons, meanwhile, converts free time into a development platform. Hackathons harness the natural enthusiasm of code junkies, aim it at a target, and create a partylike competition atmosphere to make innovation fun. (And increasingly hackathons are drawing folks other than coders.) No doubt there will be more such eruptions of excitement, as the tools become easier, cheaper, and more available.
These rules don’t create the future, and they don’t guarantee success for those who use them. But they do give us a glimpse around the corner, a way to recognize that in this idea or that person, there might be something big.
With his team, Saku Tuominen, founder and creative director at the Idealist Group in Finland, interviewed and followed 1,500 workers at Finnish and global firms to study how people feel and respond to issues in the workplace. Tuominen’s findings are easy to understand — 40 percent of those surveyed said their inboxes are out of control, 60 percent noted that they attend too many meetings, and 70 percent don’t plan their weeks in advance. Overall, employees said they lacked a sense of meaning, control, and achievement in the workplace. Sound familiar?
Based on the study and the insights of Teresa Amabile, a professor at Harvard Business School, Tuominen recommends new approaches to changing our work processes that all tap into our unconscious:
- Think about one question/idea that needs insight and keep this thought in your subconscious mind.
- Clear your conscious mind by using this two-step system: move your thought(s) from your mind to a list and then clear your list when you have a short break (if your meeting is canceled, for instance, or your flight is delayed).
- Plan your week and month by listing three priorities you would like to accomplish.
- Make certain you have at least four consecutive, uninterrupted hours a day dedicated to the three priorities you identified.
This last point is key. Tuominen deduced that if you can schedule four hours with continuous flow and concentration, you could accomplish a lot and improve the quality of your thinking. As Tuominen aptly states, “you can’t manage people if you can’t manage yourself.”
With his team, Saku Tuominen, founder and creative director at the Idealist Group in Finland, interviewed and followed 1,500 workers at Finnish and global firms to study how people feel and respond to issues in the workplace. Tuominen’s findings are easy to understand — 40 percent of those surveyed said their inboxes are out of control, 60 percent noted that they attend too many meetings, and 70 percent don’t plan their weeks in advance. Overall, employees said they lacked a sense of meaning, control, and achievement in the workplace. Sound familiar?
Based on the study and the insights of Teresa Amabile, a professor at Harvard Business School, Tuominen recommends new approaches to changing our work processes that all tap into our unconscious:
- Think about one question/idea that needs insight and keep this thought in your subconscious mind.
- Clear your conscious mind by using this two-step system: move your thought(s) from your mind to a list and then clear your list when you have a short break (if your meeting is canceled, for instance, or your flight is delayed).
- Plan your week and month by listing three priorities you would like to accomplish.
- Make certain you have at least four consecutive, uninterrupted hours a day dedicated to the three priorities you identified.
This last point is key. Tuominen deduced that if you can schedule four hours with continuous flow and concentration, you could accomplish a lot and improve the quality of your thinking. As Tuominen aptly states, “you can’t manage people if you can’t manage yourself.”
In this interview, Paul talks about how to use storytelling as a leadership tool, ways that storytelling can make leaders more effective, why storytelling it important, and more.
How do companies make storytelling part of their leadership practices?
Some of the most successful companies in the world use storytelling very intentionally as a leadership tool. Organizations like Microsoft, Motorola, Berkshire Hathaway, Saatchi & Saatchi, Procter & Gamble, NASA, and the World Bank are among them. They do this in several ways.
Some have a high level corporate storyteller who’s job it is to capture and share their most important stories. At Nike, in fact, all the senior executives are designated corporate storytellers.
Other companies teach storytelling skills to their executives (because they certainly aren’t learning it in business school). Kimberly-Clark, for example, provides two-day seminars to teach its 13-step program for crafting stories and giving presentations with them. 3M banned bullet points and replaced them with a process of writing “strategic narratives.” P&G has hired Hollywood movie directors to teach its senior executives how to lead better with storytelling. And some of the storytellers at Motorola belong to outside improvisational or theater groups to hone their story skills.
In what ways can storytelling help leaders be more effective?
The short answer is that storytelling is useful in far more situations than most leaders realize. The five most commonly used are probably these: inspiring the organization, setting a vision, teaching important lessons, defining culture and values, and explaining who you are and what you believe.
But there are so many more. In my research for the book, I interviewed over 75 CEOs and executives at dozens of companies around the world and found them using stories in a much wider range of leadership challenges than I ever expected. For example, storytelling is useful when heavy influence is required like leading change, or making recommendations to the boss. But it’s also good for delicate issues like managing diversity and inclusion, or giving people coaching and feedback in a way that will be received as a welcome gift. It can help bring out more of people’s creativity, or help them rekindle the passion for their work. In all, I identified 21 common leadership challenges where storytelling can help.
So you don’t think I’m naïve or overzealous about the topic, I’m not suggesting storytelling should be used in every situation. For example, if you’re trying to decide what your five-year strategy should be, what you need is a good strategist. Or if you’re trying to decide how much money to pay to acquire your biggest competitor, what you need is a good financial advisor.
But once you’ve decided what your five-year strategy is going to be, and you need the 15,000 people that work at your company to line up behind it and deliver it, now you need a good story. Or once you’ve acquired your biggest competitor, and you need the 5,000 people that work there to stay, and not quit, now you need a good story. In short, storytelling isn’t always the right tool to help you manage things; but it’s exceptional at helping you lead people.
Mission statements don’t have to be dumb. In fact, they can be very valuable, if they articulate real targets. The first thing I’d do is forget the exact words and remember the reason for a statement in the first place. In 2006, Wilson Learning surveyed 25,000 employees from the finance and tech industries. Respondents said they wanted a leader who could “convey clearly what the work unit is trying to do.” The same applies to mission state-ments, which set the tone. Employees, vendors, and clients don’t get stoked by fuzzy mission statements. They will line up behind concrete goals.
Email Nancy Lublin, the CEO of Do Something, with your nominees for best and worst mission statement.
The grapevine – Webster’s “informal person-to-person means of circulating information or gossip” – is the unsanctioned communication network found in every organization. In my recent research, based on responses from more than 800 individuals in a wide variety of companies and industry, I learned just how the grapevine compares with more formal sources of organizational information.
I’ll share some thoughts on how communicators can harness the power of the grapevine. But first, let me share what I heard from some of those 837 individuals about how the grapevine poses a significant challenge for senior management – and for the formal communication channels employed by today’s communicators.
I asked, for example, if there were big differences in the message delivered in a speech from a company leader or the one heard over the grapevine, which would you tend to believe. Some 47% said they would put more credence in the grapevine. Another 11% would believe a blend of elements from both messages, meaning only 42% would believe senior leadership.
Leaders are “too PC” and “too positive,” I was told. “Senior leadership’s ‘advertising’ statements are not always trustworthy,” and “I tend to discount official speeches – they’re too carefully crafted. I prefer the truth.” Also: “Too often they paint a picture of Utopia. What world are they in?”
One individual had her own formula. “If senior leaders don’t trust you or aren’t confident enough to let you in, only believe 70% of what is said and get the other 30% from the grapevine so you’ll be prepared.”
I also asked which you would tend to believe if there were big differences in a message delivered in an official newsletter (online or print) or the grapevine. This time the majority (51%) favored the newsletter, with only 40% putting more faith in the grapevine. Putting something in writing, it seems, tends to carry more weight than the spoken word.
“This,” I was told, “is the official word everyone waits for. When something is in writing, it is likely to be quoted and displayed as evidence. At least here there is a paper trail.” On the other hand, there was the concern that “online or print means it’s already been filtered to be PC in the corporate culture. I don’t believe it.” And one caution to editors everywhere: “I believe what the newsletter says, except for those pictures of smiling employees. I’ve never seen any of them!”
I wanted to see how much of a credibility gap there was in message delivered over the grapevine vs. those heard directly from a direct supervisor. Not surprisingly, 74% told me they would believe their supervisor. But – everything depends on the relationship employees have with their supervisors. “I’d trust my current supervisor,” said one individual. “My old supervisor, no.”
People tended to give supervisors higher marks because of the more personal relationship that often exists. Said one individual, “I would believe my supervisor if I could also challenge him. Since your boss can fire you he should also be able to answer all your questions.”
I also wanted to know whether you would believe the grapevine or your most trusted co-worker if there were big differences in the messages from each. Personal relationships were again a crucial factor, with 89% reporting they would believe their co-worker. Here again, trust was the key, as with the individual who replied, “I don’t gossip with co-workers I don’t trust.”
So much for whom you believe. When all is said and done, it comes down to accuracy, which led me to ask people just how accurate they have found the grapevine?
Fifty-seven percent gave it favorable ratings. They supported their response with such comments as “Management communication usually confirms what the grapevine already knows,” and “The grapevine may not be wholly accurate, but it is a very reliable indicator that something is going on,” and “I believe the grapevine, but I validate it by checking versions from multiple sources.”
On the other hand, how did people rate the accuracy of formal communication? Given the tendency cited earlier to believe what they saw in writing, 67% had a favorable response to the accuracy of formal communication.
Communicators can take heart in hearing, for example, that “Formal communication is generally always accurate. There are seldom any mistakes in it, and people spend a long time crafting messages. But belief or trust in a message is based not just on accuracy. It also factors in completeness, disclosure, transparency, perceived intent, durability of the information, and of course, interpretation. Not to mention perceptions about and experiences with the sender. I think the mantra for today is ‘Trust, but verify.'”
As with all of the questions, there was a small percentage of people who indicated that they believed a “blend” of what they heard, rather than choose from among the formal communication channel and the grapevine. This, of course, is what really happens most of the time, which makes it incumbent for communicators to find ways to provide both formal and informal channels for their messages.
One individual reinforced this idea by noting that “Both channels have elements of truth that need to be synthesized.” Said another: “The grapevine is distorted, the formal is edited, and the truth lies between.” And a third: “Formal communication doesn’t tell the whole story. The grapevine has all the gory details.”
Others indicated that the nature of the message was important in deciding which source to believe more. “If the message relates to major changes and controversial issues,” said one individual, “the grapevine has more credibility. In the case of small and administrative changes, the formal methods are reliable. It’s all about skepticism.”
Another individual echoed a similar belief: “For information of a general nature (financial results, product news, etc.), I trust the formal channels. However, if the news relates to an ongoing investigation, regulatory action or product crisis – then I tend to believe the grapevine.”
Employees do, indeed, tend to believe the grapevine – an inevitable part of organizational life, a communication channel very much alive within organizations but not sanctioned by them, a natural (and healthy) consequence of people interacting.
Research suggests that up to 70% of all organization communication comes through the grapevine, yet many senior leaders are unaware that it exists or how it operates. One study, in fact, found that while 92% of lower-level managers knew the grapevine was active, only 70% of upper-level managers knew about it. In the same study, 88% of supervisors said they understood that the absence of formal communication increased activity through informal channels – but only 54% of executives understood this correlation.
Even with those numbers, one challenge today is for management to avoid overestimating the grapevine’s potential. As one of my interviewees explained, “A recent organizational change came as a complete shock. Senior leadership believed that the grapevine was more active than it really was – and that we would have some advance warning as a result of that activity.”
Research also finds that 80% of organizational rumor proves to be true. There may be a need for more research here, since this seems incredibly high, given what we know about how information gets distorted. Remember the child’s game of “telephone,” for example, where a whispered message is whispered and changes along the way from child to child.
But even if that figure is accurate – even if the rumor mill were 90% accurate – that small percentage of distorted or fabricated information can be devastating. And, remember, the grapevine is not responsible for errors.
Regardless of its accuracy, of whether it’s underestimated or overestimated, the grapevine cannot be eliminated or uprooted. You can’t kill it. You can’t stop it. But you can learn to understand it – and ideally even influence it. Here are some conditions when you can expect the rumor mill to kick into high gear:
1. When there is a lack of formal communication.
2. When the situation is ambiguous or uncertain.
3. When employees feel threatened, insecure, and highly stressed.
4. When there is an impending large-scale change.
5. When the subject matter is of importance to employees.
I think this response from my survey sums it up perfectly: “Formal communication focuses on messages the company wants to deliver, with a scope management feels is appropriate, and at a time management feels is right. The reason the grapevine plays such an important role is that it delivers the information employees care about, provides the details employees think they should know, and is delivered at the time employees are interested.”
The knowledge economy operates on the complexities of connections and networks. Companies are a combination of formal hierarchy and informal networks, but most communication strategies take into account only the formal organization. (Cascade communication is a classic example of “rolling out” a message from top to bottom of the organization chart.)
We will always need authentic speeches from senior leaders, well-written and well-researched articles in newsletters, and first-line supervisors who are first-rate communicators. It’s just that none of these strategies was created to deal with the complex web of social interactions and informal networks that grace today’s organizations.
In many of them, the grapevine is the major informal communication medium. It is a naturally occurring force. The question becomes: How do we tap into that force?
Malcolm Gladwell showed us one place to start in The Tipping Point: “If your want effective, sustainable communication in an organization, you need to reach a tiny minority of exceptional individuals who are responsible for the majority of the dialogue.”
His recommendation is keyed to the reality that gossip moves through groups that are split into factions (like separate departments and divisions) through people who gravitate into an intermediate position, making connections between the factions. They control the gossip flow and hold a lot of power.
Influencing the grapevine, then, begins with identifying “the influentials” who operate within it. Use a tool like Social Network Analysis to create a visual map of the informal organization and see who and where your connectors are. Find out about their attitudes toward the company, inform them in advance, train them to be even more skillful communicators, solicit their opinions. And ask their advice.
In conducting my research, there was no doubt as to which communication vehicle is the quickest. Some 99% chose the grapevine, which means that communicators are not going to be able to beat it to the punch. The challenge, instead, is to understand how the grapevine works within your organization – and how you can influence it.
Here are a few highlights from that presentation:
The Grapevine is the informal, but powerful communication medium in every organization. The grapevine is pervasive and, according to my research, highly persuasive.
We can’t stop the grapevine. And we can’t outrun it. Word spreads like wildfire from person to person. And now blogs have become the “grapevine on steroids.”
While formal communications are important and effective, informal channels should not be ignored. Understood and optimized, the grapevine can be a powerful vehicle to align the company around important messages.
There is a perception gap between senior and lower management. Lower managers are more likely to recognize the existence, the conditions under which the rumor mill accelerates, and the benefits of tapping into the grapevine.
* Some information that people can only get from the grapevine. “If you want to see what insurance coverage is offered, check the brochure or intranet. But if you want to know what it really takes to be successful around here, ask the grapevine.”
One study found that employees receive 70% of their information from informal networks vs. only 30% from formal communications. Yet, most employee communications programs (even those employing first-line supervisors) focus almost exclusively on the formal communications and hierarchy, ignoring informal interactions within networks. What would happen if we looked at the grapevine not as a problem, but as an additional communication channel to be optimized?
In any organization, there are a small number of people whose opinions are highly sought and respected. Identified in a number of ways, these “influencers” can be a communicator’s biggest asset.
Is busyness bad for business?
The answer isn’t a simple “yes” or “no”. While Kreider argues that we need bout of idleness to get inspired and work more effectively, there is evidence that workers benefit from busyness. Take one experiment conducted in 2010 by professor Christopher Hsee at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Hsee’s team found that people who kept themselves occupied rather than waiting idly after a test felt happier. Interestingly, participants in the study were not likely to busy themselves unless they could justify the activity; they weren’t interested in what Hsee and his colleagues call “futile busyness”. But the results showed that even futile busyness is better than idleness.
In my organization’s own recent research with a global firm, we discovered that a common characteristic among the company’s great leaders was their recognition of the importance of busyness. They knew idle employees would suffer, and so pushed to instead create a stimulating work environment. For example, one leader responded to a downturn in work by encouraging team members to look for novel projects that interested them and might generate opportunities. Not only did this keep the group engaged, but some of the projects also eventually bore fruit. This wasn’t futile busyness, of course. “Creative busyness” might be more appropriate.
Indeed, busyness seems to be most productive when the tasks we busy ourselves with are also meaningful. In a 2008 MIT study, researchers investigated meaning by asking participants to build Lego models. Finished models were either kept, or they were disassembled in front of the participant and handed back for rebuilding. (This was called the “Sisyphus condition”, after the mythical figure condemned to repeatedly push a boulder up a mountain only to watch it roll back down again). Even though the two conditions involved exactly the same type of work, participants in the “meaningful” condition were willing to produce more models (and built them more efficiently, for a lower median wage) than those who mimicked Sisyphus. Surely Michael, who attends one meeting only to have another scheduled, and completes one spreadsheet only to be presented with new figures, is starting to feel like he’s pushing that boulder.
Perhaps we are not so much caught in a “busy trap”, as a “meaning trap”. A meaningful life involves pursuing what we truly value, a sense of contribution in our work, as well as time outside of work to relax, enjoy hobbies, and spend time with loved ones. It’s perhaps no surprise that the great leaders in our study were also expert at modeling work-life integration; they valued not only busyness but also meaning. How did their emphasis on both impact the bottom line? Positively. Their teams were more engaged, their revenues were higher and their turnover was lower than other groups’.
Maybe it’s the first time you’re standing in the doorway to a room of people you don’t know—swallowing hard because there’s no saliva in your mouth, and clutching your business cards in a sweaty hand. Or maybe you’ve been in that doorway many times (but chances are, you’re still exhibiting a milder form of both symptoms).
They don’t call it “NetWORKING” for nothing!
Looking for a new take on this standard business tactic, I attended “The Wonders of Intentional Networking” at the Wright Business Institute in Chicago (http://www.wrightexcellence.com). Here are three of my lessons learned—and some new tactics you and I should both be using.
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Trick #1: Walk In with a Goal. It probably shouldn’t be one of these: 1) the number of business cards you give out or get, 2) finding a new client or employer, or 3) closing a sale. This is tough. Most of the time we (force ourselves to) network because we’ve got a business need and we want to create an opportunity.
Experience taught me this kind of desperation leaks out your pores—turning off any chance of a meaningful exchange with someone who could be interested. And I’ve also walked into plenty of rooms with no real notion why I’m there (besides I should be) and come away disappointed.
So set a realistic goal. If you’re a new networker or shy, that could be speaking with at least two new people (rather than finding a friend or one person you meet and attaching yourself to him or her all night). If you’re a regular networker, your goal could be to locate someone you’d like to add to your “life team”—people you can cultivate and count on for good advice and support.
It’s that law of attraction: going in knowing what you want increases the chances that you’ll get it. Take an extra minute to do this before you arrive.
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Trick #2: Be Unselfish. Having cut my teeth in networking at Business Networking International (BNI), I’m a true believer in the “givers gain” philosophy. Enter a room ready to make connections to help the people you meet. This means you have to listen. It also requires you to ask non-directional questions: letting the person talk about what he or she wants—rather than what you want.
This is hard for me. I interview people for a living. My tendency is to “gather information.” Often my questions are targeted at learning about something that speaks to me. Now I’m trying out a new tack. More often, my questions and comments will include these: “How’s it going? Tell me more about that. Go on. That’s interesting. How so?”
Let the other person talk about what interests her or him. This actually leads to a deeper level of conversation, where you can learn more about a person’s issues or needs. And if you can connect the person to someone else who can help—or provide the help yourself—you’ve done a service that will be remembered.
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Trick #3: Be Selfish. There’s one person who comes to every networking event. Verbally and in body language, she screams “me-Me-ME!” She only wishes to speak about herself, her business, her family, her activities. She hands you her card before she asks your name. If she takes your card, you’ll find she’s left it on the table after departing—or has enrolled you in her e-newsletter the next day without having asked your permission.
When faced with her, remember your goal for this networking event. If listening to and assisting her will help reach your goal, then stay in the conversation. If it won’t (which usually is the case), then find a polite way to disengage (“Thanks for telling me about what you do. I’m sure there are other people you want to meet, too, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening.”). Then shake hands and move on. Trick #2’s being unselfish doesn’t mean being a doormat—so watch out for yourself.
Think about it: your best networking experiences happen when you have meaningful conversations on subjects people care about. And when you find ways to help others get to their goals, they’ll want to do the same for you. Then it becomes “Networking.”
Lynn Franklin says she started Lynne Franklin Wordsmith 16 years ago because …”I was in danger of being made a partner at the world’s largest investor relations agency. Or because a tarot card reader told me to. Or because I wanted to prove my theory that wearing pantyhose didn’t make me more productive. All of those would be true.”