Farrar's Faucet

Not your average consultants!

2011-02-20T12:15:00.000-06:00

Every day we come to work energized for two simple reasons:

* We love what we do

* We love helping our clients improve what matters most to their businesses

We run a leadership development and change management consultancy. That means we help leaders who are changing their business and changing themselves.

Our clients are business owners and senior executives who want to address people issues in their organizations and lead their businesses with integrity. Our work includes speaking, training, coaching and good old-fashioned, roll up your sleeves consulting. We combine the skills of a trained psychologist with pratical expertise in how people really behave in organizations and across cultures.

Many of our clients have experienced some kind of pain, change or challenge in the people side of their business, but not necessarily. Some just want to improve the performance of a management team, build better relationships with their customers or provide professional development for their senior executives.

All of our solutions are based on our deep understanding of the people side of business.

We are down to earth consultants. We measure our success by improving the four key drivers of our clients’ success: Customer Satisfaction, Employee Well-Being, Productivity and Profitability.

Really.

We are very good.

We are not your average consultants.

The King's Speech

2011-01-30T18:57:00.002-06:00

We have just seen "The King's Speech", a movie about George VI and an Australian speech therapist, the man who helps him find his confidence and ability to rally the English during the second world war.

It's a great drama about the royal family and their crisis as Edward VIII abdicated and the shy Prince Albert found himself the leader of what the film describes as "a quarter of the world's population."

Here's what I took away from the movie: If you are having difficulties dealing with the demands of your position you can do a lot worse than getting yourself an Australian coach!

Ok, that's a little tongue-in-cheek and a more than a little self-serving, but what the heck.

Geoffrey Rush captures the Australian archetype really well. Faced with a prince and heir apparent to the British crown he nevertheless insists he's Lionel, and the prince will go by Bertie, just as he does with his close friends and family.

When Prince Albert argues about the course of the therapy Lionel insists "my castle, my rules." And when Prince Albert and the future Queen Elizabeth, (The current Queen Elizabeth's mother), doubt Lionel's effectiveness he lets his results recorded on a gramophone record speak for themselves.

Despite the professional chasm between the worlds the two individuals inhabit they come together as equals in the coaching process. Lionel and Bertie struggle through ups and downs together, but one thing the future king never has to doubt is that Lionel is definitely on his side.

The speech therapist's one mis-step in the movie comes when he oversteps the boundaries of their relationship and presumes to give advice on the throne and how to run the kingdom.

I work with partners in big city law firms, CEOs, senior executives and very successful entrepreneurs: I know my stuff, but I sincerely hope they never think I believe I can run their business better than they can!

I really liked the Lionel Logue character. I almost wish every management consultant and coach had to watch this film and critically compare their practice with the trusted Lionel Logue…I wonder how many would fall short.

Life lessons from a boxer's life

2011-01-23T19:09:00.000-06:00

Last night we went to a boxing gym to support a mate of ours in his first big bout. Genevieve didn’t think she would enjoy it, but she got caught up in the moment. I didn’t expect to still be interested, and yet I got totally absorbed in all the matches and couldn’t wait for Andy’s turn in the ring. When I was younger my father taught me how to box, and I was surprised how much of it came back to me.

My Dad boxed in the British Army. I guess that would be back in the late 1940’s and after. He was a child of the depression, and I think he had a tough childhood. I think fathers take their children to sports, (or science fairs, or libraries or whatever), because they want to pass some life lessons on to their children and it’s often hard to put those lessons into words. A friend of mine recently showed me a list of life lessons learned from playing ice hockey. I suspect the parents who are taking their children along to hockey, (or whatever), want them to learn those lessons, even if they can’t articulate what they are or expect their children to listen to them if they tried.

My father has a million opinions on life, but he could never get them across to me in words in a way that would engage me to listen. (Probably as much my fault as his.) However, through boxing as a young kid and early teenager I absorbed a lot of what he thought was important.

Appearances can be deceptive. My Dad is a little guy. He's 4'11". That's him in the photo with Mum and I on a recent trip. I don't think size ever stopped him from doing any thing. All my life he has always been faster and feistier than me. Never underestimate anyone and always look out for the little guy who is hungrier than you. No matter your size never be afraid to step in to the ring, and never let anything hold you back from doing what you want to do.

Ok…that may be more than one lesson.

Keep your head down and hands up. Sport is supposed to be fun, but anything worthwhile is usually hard work as well. Once you start you need to focus, and keep your gloves up and ready for what’s next. No looking up, looking around, daydreaming or dozing. Work hard, play hard.

And while you’re at it…

Turn up for training. You might think you just get into a ring and belt the heck out of the other guy. You’d be wrong. There’s an art and a science to boxing well. You need to practice enough that it comes naturally, and you need to study enough that you get the form and execution right. You can’t do that if you don’t turn up because you have a case of the sniffles, or you had a late night, or it’s cold out. I tried all those: they didn’t work. My Dad was the original “just do it” man long before Nike’s ad campaign.

Get on the front foot. Unless you really, really need to back off and regroup, the best strategy is always to take the game to the opposition. Sometimes you can be tempted to ignore a problem and hope it will go away. Many people have a problem with procrastination, and sometimes that includes me, but no-one ever got into a ring and won by hiding in the corner. You have to tackle life head on.

And speaking of corners.

You need good people in your corner. After you’ve done a few rounds with your personal demons everybody needs to get back into their corner for a while and take a rest. When that happens you need supporters. Don’t piss off your mates, don’t look down on people whose role is different from yours, and never forget you don’t get anywhere without a lot of help from a lot of people. When someone has just watched you go toe to toe with your opposition and they have good advice…take it.

Once you’re in the ring you’re all alone. Make sure you’ve prepared, and believe in yourself, because once the rumpus starts you have to rely on yourself. I think as a kid boxing built tremendous self-confidence in me. Some people think boxing does that because it makes you a better fighter, like you go around thinking “I could take him”, and “I could beat him up”. That isn’t it at all. It builds confidence because you develop self-reliance. It’s just you and your opponent and a pair of gloves and a roped in ring. You can’t call for your mummy and you can’t wait for anyone else to help you out. If it’s going to happen it’s going to happen because of you.

Few are fooled by fancy footwork. I’ve worked with some people who have amazing moves. When you try to hold them accountable for something or plan something solid for the future they have a dozen excuses for why it didn’t get done, it’s not their fault and anyway, “look at this great shiny object I have here”. Some people think they can avoid you looking at their results by distracting you with their moves, (or their fancy marketing, “blue sky plans”, smart clothes or latest electronic gadgets). At the end of the bout, results count.

You’re only as good as your opposition. Boxers are matched up according to weight and experience. If you’re good, you can expect your opponents are going to get better, just as you will by being matched up with them. If it’s all too easy chances are you’ve rigged the system somehow and you’re not progressing. Seek out worthy opponents that stretch you.

You don’t win them all. Sooner or later you’ll be counted out of a match by a technical knock out, (like a cut lip, bloodied eye or other injury that prevents you from going on), or perhaps you’ll get beaten by someone bigger, meaner and faster than you who scores more points on you. Maybe one time you’ll miss a move and cop a blow to the head and need to get taken out of the fight. Maybe you actually get knocked out. Tough! Life happens. It’s not about the match you’ve lost, it’s about whether or not you come back. Suck it up and train for the next time.

While you’re at it.

Be magnanimous in victory. When you do win remember what we said about only being as good as your opponent. Be gracious, be civil, be a good sport. We always had to stand together at the end of every fight, and if you lost you congratulated the other. Thank him for a good fight. Hold the ropes open for the loser, and let him leave the ring with dignity. There’s always plenty of time to celebrate later.

And finally, don't be afraid to show your emotions. In the picture my parents are holding hands. They've held each other's hands when they go out walking all their lives. Whether I won or lost, did well or did poorly, I could always tell what my father thought of my efforts. He lives life large and encouraged me to do the same.

Our friend Andy won his bout, was a great sport, and afterward we all went out for a few drinks and celebrations. Well done. He got knocked around a bit but I’m sure he enjoyed it.

I’m fifty now, and I can’t even imagine what it would be like to get into a boxing ring at my age. I equally can’t remember my father ever sitting down and trying to give me life lessons. My Dad’s still around, in his 80’s, just as feisty and opinionated as he ever was. I believe he still thinks of himself as a boxer, although he's obviously thinking of how he lived his life, not his ability to get back in a ring. I have never had a very close relationship with my father. Perhaps that was just the way of his generation. Maybe, even though I would have resisted it furiously, just maybe, some of those lessons that got him through his life rubbed off on me. Maybe that’s what he wanted all along.

Disagreeing without being disagreeable

2011-01-16T15:27:00.000-06:00

We are currently working on three projects that involve significantly changing workplace cultures. The projects are proceeding at different speeds, and I think it’s largely due to the ability of the staff to disagree without being disagreeable.

I’m not discounting the technology and infrastructure required to make change. You need a certain level of each…things like email systems, time for group meetings, and appropriate pay and incentive structures. All things being equal these provide the background for the human factors of change: the ability of people to understand the need for change and make it happen.

Workplaces are full of friction. There are disagreements about accountabilities, customer requirements, the rate of change…the need for change! Because workplaces are full of people they are also often full of the things people disagree about when they’re not at work: religion, politics, sport, relationships and so on.

Things go more slowly when more time that is spent disagreeing on a action before taking action. Things go less effectively when disagreeing gets in the way of choosing a right course of action. Disagreements about non-work issues can spill over and get into the way of work. Being able to disagree in an agreeable, effective way is central to being able to manage work and change.

In every change project we undertake we first establish a set of ground rules for how people should treat each other. Organizations don’t have to use our ground rules, but if they don’t have anything better we think they should at least have something like these. We call them the Basic Interpersonal Skills:

1. Treat everyone as you want to be treated
•    With dignity
•    And respect
2. Maintain and enhance other people’s well-being
•    Be specific,
•    Be sincere
3. Always make an effort to make things better
•    Be firm with the facts, and fair with the people
•    Ask for help and engage other people to bring their time, talent and trust

I have written about the Basic Interpersonal Skills before, and you can see some of the context for the skills here.

In the workplaces where change is moving quickest the leaders have a vision of the future and have established a set of values with all the staff that determine common standards of behavior along the way. One organization calls theirs “The Golden Rules Of [workplace X]”, and they had mouse pads and other supporting materials put up so everybody knew the rules. Another organization called theirs “Our Mission, Vision and Guiding Principles”.

In most places the behavior standards look a lot like my Basic Interpersonal Skills, and that’s because there are good, frequently repeated studies showing the power of the three skills.

The Basic Interpersonal Skills enable people to disagree without being disagreeable. In the workplace it is an implicit condition of everyone’s employment contract that they speak up when they see opportunities for things to be changed for the better, and don’t feel they have to keep quiet when they see something they feel is wrong. The Basic Interpersonal Skills make it safer for people to speak and and more effective when they do.

In the organization where the changes are occurring slowest we are going to work with the leaders and staff to have them come up with behavior guidelines and bottom line values. We think this will make their workplace a better place to work, and help them with the changes and improvements they want to make.

Workplaces where the Basic Interpersonal Skills are taken for granted provide an environment where that can happen.

Earning the Attention of a Prehistoric Brain

2011-01-10T16:44:00.000-06:00

One of my colleagues recently created a blog posting with this title. You can see Terri's article here. Her point, from a trainer's perspective, is that brains are wired to ignore the repetitive and regular and pay attention to the unexpected and irregular.

Psychologists call ignoring the background sensations habituation, and paying attention to what is new and different vigilance. Our brains are quite primitive this way…they work much the way a dinosaur's brain worked.

How does knowing this help a principled leader?

I'm currently working with a client where we are half way through an 18 month culture change project across their organization. One of the ways we are making the culture change stick is to use habituation and vigilance to our advantage.

When we first introduced the change we used as many different communication channels as we could. We also had as many different customizations as possible for each of the audiences. Each time the managers and staff saw the themes from the change process pop up in a memo, staff meeting or handout they thought "Ah, here's that thing again." With every twist in the communication they looked at the changes and thought about what it meant for them.

Once the change was successfully introduced we started finding a common language and reinforcing a common mindset among the staff by repeating the same materials. Over time the managers and staff no longer thought of what we were doing as "change", it just became "the way we do things around here".

We got the staff and managers to be vigilant about the changes coming their way, and habituated to the idea that change is natural.

Terri's article is a great look at the concept for improving training outcomes. I also use the concept with my clients as one of the ways to help them make meaningful changes stick.

(You can also make people hyper-vigilant. That's when the changes and novelty are coming so quickly, and the anxiety level is raised so high that people pay too much attention to paying attention, and become frozen into inaction).

There are principles that underlie each of the states of vigilance, habituation and hyper-vigilance.

When we work with someone responsible for making a change initiative work we help them answer the question: "When do I need to be novel and different with this message, when do I need to make sure it's more of the same, and when is enough, enough?"

One tip to make your New Year resolutions achievable.

2011-01-02T22:49:00.002-06:00

Hopefully you are celebrating the successful achievement of your 2010 goals. And hopefully you are looking forward to setting new goals for yourself and maybe your department, organization or community. You have probably heard it's a good idea to write them down and tell other people about them.

Most people think it is about record keeping. Good record keeping is no small thing in itself when it comes to September and you are trying to remember what you promised to do. However, that is not the main reason why writing a resolution down and telling other people about it makes it more achievable.

It's nothing "new age" or anything mystical about the universe. It's a simple insight we have into the psychology of how our minds work. There is indeed a power to writing things down and telling others: it's the psychological power of cognitive dissonance.

Consider two statements: "I am a good person" and "I tell the truth". Most of us would believe both of these to be true about ourselves. Now say you write down your resolution and you achieve it. Ta dah! You are a good person and you tell the truth.

However, let's say you wrote down your resolution and you are maybe not going to achieve it. Cognitive dissonance kicks in. Perhaps "I am a good person" and yet "I don't tell the truth". This is unlikely and your mind rejects it. Instead, your conscious and subconscious mind works on the the idea that "I am a good person" and "I tell the truth" therefore … "I should/I must achieve my resolution".

The act of writing down your resolution means you have taken more effort with your resolution and the harder is it for your mind to think you went to that effort, you're a good person but you didn't tell the truth.

The power of cognitive dissonance says the more effort you put into writing down your resolution the more your unconscious will motivate you to make it true. Buy an expensive note book, use fancy calligraphy and give a copy to all your friends.

Of course, you could argue that telling other people just means you will get shamed into having to complete your resolution, but it is really the same thing. If you are a good person and you tell the truth and you look like you are not going to achieve your resolution…either you have to put a lot of mental and social effort into explaining to yourself and others why…or you just put extra effort into achieving the resolution!

If you are a manager or leader get the people you work with to write down their resolutions, goals and promises for the coming year. Join them, and be the first one prepared to share your resolutions publicly. Watch how the more effort is put into writing down the resolution, and the more publicly it is shared, the harder people will work at all levels to make it come true.

Cognitive dissonance was one of the first things I learned as a psychologist about counseling people and I was stunned by how well it works in almost every case.

01 01 11

2011-01-01T17:11:00.005-06:00

This is a link to our Facebook page, with a music clip to start off the new year.

The music is from M People, the song is “Search For The Hero Inside Yourself” and “Genessis8” has put up some inspiring words and pictures to go with the uplifting lyrics.

This came out in the 80’s when I was at University. It was like the Rocky anthem for non-Americans of my generation. We sung it at parties and I’ve seen it performed live at sports arenas with tens of thousands of fans singing along.

This morning I did the Polar Dash, a three mile run in 3F/-16C temperatures. I wore two pairs of pants, a shirt, a hoodie, two jackets and two pairs of gloves. Genevieve took this photo of me with the “Dead End” sign disappearing into the distance. I like the symbolism of that.

To keep me going through the run I listened to some of my favorite music, including the clip on the Facebook page. I hope you enjoy the music, and have a fabulous start to your New Year.

What Five Questions Help Me Chose An Executive Coach?

2010-11-29T13:45:00.005-06:00

Choosing a good coach is likely to be the best thing you could do for your professional development because the return on good coaching is higher than for any comparable form of development.

Coaching used to be just for boardroom executives, but now senior executives, family business owners and many mid-level managers wanting to develop an edge on their peers are turning to an external coach. As the business of coaching business leaders grows larger each year it is becoming more important to chose wisely from the many coaches marketing their services.

The greater number of coaches available makes it more difficult to find a truly exceptional coach. A great coach will provide returns worth many times the investment of time and money. The following questions cover the range of issues needed to establish a good coaching relationship, and are designed to help you make a smart choice.

1: What are my goals?

Decide if you are looking to achieve personal or business goals. Some “life coaches” specialize in personal goals, while many executive coaches focus on business and commercial objectives. You can talk through with the coach whether you are looking to overcome a current challenge, find professional growth, compensate for a perceived weakness or identify ways to capitalize on your strengths. Do you need help identifying goals? This can be a good place to start with the potential coach.

2: What standards and qualifications does the coach have?

Many people say they have had “coaching training” when they are really a speaker, trainer or consultant. Unfortunately, there are many short courses certifying people who claim to be coaches after a few days or weeks of training. Most of these courses do not require either training in psychology or executive experience.

One way to identify a credible professional is to look for membership of the International Coach Federation, the Worldwide Association of Business Coaches, American Psychological Society or a similar professional body in your area. These organizations provide certification for members and require adherence to strict ethical and professional practices.

3: Does the coach have common sense, and practical business experience?

Find out what relevant pre-coaching background and experiences the coach has that you can relate to. Knowing what they did before they became a coach will help you determine if you will feel comfortable that you can discuss your issues freely with a coach who will be supportive and understanding.

An indication that the coach will have practical business sense is their experience as an executive. Coaching is a special relationship that relies heavily on trust. Perspective and feedback are part of the coach’s role, so you need to feel their judgment is sound and you can value their perspective on your business issues.

4: Do we have rapport?

Coaching is a very personal interaction. Not every coach will be right for you, even if their qualifications, experience and credentials look ideal. Make sure the “chemistry” is right so you have the basis for a lasting relationship.

5: What are the deliverables?

A credible coach should be able to explain a process that shows they have a high concern for both task issues and people issues. A typical process will involve a warm up, an assessment of your situation, focused action planning, and opportunities for feedback, self-learning and teachable moments as you follow through on your development.

The personal benefits of good coaching are threefold:

1. Focus on achieving what matters most to you and your organization

2. Growth toward personal and organizational goals

3. Relationships to provide mutual support, resources and opportunities

And if you wonder about the “hard” return on investment, I’ll leave the last word to an old article from Fortune magazine, (19^th Feb, 2001, Executive Coaching - With Returns a CFO Could Love): (you can do the math to get the current value)

“Asked for a conservative estimate of the monetary payoff from the coaching they got, managers described an average return of more than $100,000, or about six times what the coaching had cost their companies."

You can make a difference in the life of a homeless person

2010-11-08T22:09:00.001-06:00

This coming Saturday 13th November I will be donating my time to MC a charity event for At Home Group.

Let me quote from the press release:

‘“On a Monday I got hired. I rejoiced then panicked! I didn’t have the required clothes or bus fare. I would have to turn the job down,” said Sarah Brown, Twin Cities resident. “Being homeless and unemployed for over a year, I just sobbed – my chance to get my kids a home again was gone.”

“Tuesday, I found At Home Group. Everything changed. By Wednesday, Kathy Olson, At Home Group director, showed up with everything! I started work Wednesday afternoon. She probably saved our lives!” Brown said. “Now, I want to help others like myself.”

On November 13, At Home Group clients like Sarah are teaming up to help raise funds for those who are still homeless at the Restoring Hope Gala.

Here are the event details:

Restoring Hope Gala
First Unitarian Society
900 Mount Curve Avenue
(One block behind the Walker Art Center)
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55403
5:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Formal event tickets: $50 individual/$400 table of eight/$500 table of ten
Reservations online at www.athomegroup.org or call 612.235.0154

Kathy Olson says "Homeless clients like Brown prove they are homeless not helpless. We buy trade tools, uniforms, and bus fare so clients can go to work and afford housing again. Clients are able to return to jobs as carpenters, beauticians, chefs, waiters, and welders. We are the only organization, we know of, in Minnesota that does this type of work as its sole mission. Before clients even leave my office, they ask how they can help others in their predicament. The Gala is giving them that opportunity.”

This is a great organization that I literally ran into while acting as a charity auctioneer at another function. I really like what they do and the difference they make in people's lives by providing opportunities with dignity. I love that the clients are able to share their stories and be part of giving it forward to the next group of people in need.

At Home Group is a nonprofit organization committed to eradicating homelessness in Minnesota by facilitating individuals becoming employed, self-sufficient and financially independent.

If you can come please take this opportunity. Get a jump on this year’s season of giving and help provide permanent solutions to homelessness for displaced workers. Be someone’s hero, change a life, save a family, and strengthen your community. Make your reservation today!

Because 26.3 would be crazy!

2010-10-08T11:24:00.004-05:00

This weekend I ran my 10th or 11th marathon, the third since my open heart surgery last year. (If you don't know how I came to be on the operating table you can see the story here.)

The distance you run in a marathon is 26.2 miles, or around 42 kilometers. That's once around the Twin Cities from the Metrodome to the Cathedral via Nokomis and the Mississippi.

(For my Australian friends, that's the equivalent of from Flinders St to Frankston)

It's a long way!

Running has helped me with my health and fitness, and I think it keeps me sane. It also helps me with my clients. When I start the run I know that, barring unforeseen or extreme circumstances, I'm going to finish strong. That's how I work with my clients: when we start together they know that, all things being equal, we're going to get over the finish line and it's going to be good.

It's called being "consciously competent".

When I started running I was all over the place. Sometimes I would put on the wrong socks and get a blister. Sometimes I would have the wrong shoes. Sometimes I would have a great run but because I didn't know what made it great I would be surprised when my next run was terrible.

Over time I became better. As I became better I started to understand how I was becoming better. I started "incompetent", I became "unconsciously competent" and eventually I've ended up "consciously competent".

I was quite deliberate above when I said I know I'm going to finish barring "unforeseen or extreme circumstances". I purposefully plan my run so that if I start to dehydrate I know where I can get water, if I run out of energy I know what I can eat, and if I fall and break a finger, (like a friend of mine did), I know how to get medical aid and keep going.

A lot of my clients are really good at what they do but sometimes they're "unconsciously competent". By getting them to be more self-aware and more planful about what they do they become better able to repeat their successes, better able to handle set backs, and more confident about their ability to take risks…like setting out on a 26.2 mile run and knowing they'll be able to finish well.

Once you're consciously competent you just go out and get it done. You don't have to prove anything to anyone. And 26.2 is enough, because 26.3 would be crazy!

The Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Awards

2010-09-11T16:12:00.000-05:00

I am always on the look out for examples of the Basic Interpersonal Skills in action. Finding a cross-cultural example is even better, so I was very pleased by the Native American award ceremony we went to last night.

It was put on by First People’s Fund and sponsored by a wide range of philanthropic associations including a friend of ours through the Howe Family Foundation, (thank you Carol for the invite). Please support their work where you can.

Here are the Basic Interpersonal Skills in a nutshell:

1. Treat everyone as you want to be treated
•    With dignity
•    And respect
2. Maintain and enhance other people’s well-being
•    Be specific,
•    Be sincere
3. Always make an effort to make things better
•    Be firm with the facts, and fair with the people
•    Ask for help and engage other people to bring their time, talent and trust

Last night was at the Stepping Stone Theatre in Saint Paul, and the ceremonies were here for the first time after being presented in past years in various cities throughout the US. The ceremony honors Native American culture bearers: people whose work gives back to their communities and represents the spirit and culture of their people.

Now I have been lucky enough to see indigenous people performing in lots of places around the world, and last night was different. I’ve seen Australian aborigines in the Northern Territory, Kecak singers in Indonesia, Japanese Odori, Ndebele and Zulu performances in Africa and even Morris dancing in England. Sometimes the ceremonies and performances are excellent, but too often they are either semi-cheesy shows aimed at tourists, or occasionally an exclusive privilege few outsiders get to share.

Last night was very inclusive. The whole aim of the awards and the performances was to showcase Native Americans preserving their heritage and passing it forward. Some people had brought along extravagant costumes, others looked as if they had just stepped off the street. In each case the award was for a person who had become part of their wider community by generously sharing their skills and culture.

Lots of award ceremonies honor the recipient as an individual. Here the emphasis was on their contributions to others, the family and tribe they were part of, and how they exemplified the “spirit of community”. In each case the vignettes of the person illustrated their work, and I kept thinking of the Basic Interpersonal Skills. What made these people exceptional was not only their unique culture, but how they worked to pass their culture on to others. They treated everyone with dignity and respect, they were focused on improving the well-being of everyone in their community, and they always made an effort to make things better.

In fact, if you looked at the last skill closely and listened to the stories of the recipients’ social justice activities you frequently heard how they were firm with facts and fair with people, and made significant efforts to engage others in their work rather than trying to do it all alone.

The Basic Interpersonal Skills really are basic, and universal as well. I thought as I watched how much nicer the world would be if we could all find a spirit of community, and want to be recognized not for what we have, but for what we give.

Update on the Tour De France...

2010-07-21T18:34:00.000-05:00

It's Tour De France time. I love cycling. A year ago I wrote an article on the tour and how success in professional cycling and success in business is very similar. The article is just as relevant today, so here it is again...

This isn’t a post just for cycling lovers. As you can see on the left, I enjoy getting out on two wheels whenever I can. However, I’ve just spent three weeks watching the biggest international event in professional cycling, and I have some thoughts on what I saw and how it relates to the world of business. Here are my (slightly) random thoughts.

It’s about teamwork. The cyclists cover thousands of miles across France, and at the end of the race there can only be one winner. However, it’s impossible to imagine anyone being successful over such a long trial without the backing of their team. Wheels need to be changed; drinks need to be brought up. Sometimes a rider sacrifices their own bike to pass it to another member of their team whose bike has crashed and who has a better chance of winning. If you can’t maintain the support of your team you will never win.

Respect differences. The Tour De France is a race for all types. Some of the racers are lean little whippets who excel at sprinting away on the flat. Some cyclists are powerhouses of muscle who get away from the pack on the long hills. Each team has a balance of people who are best at different things, and they had better understand and respect each other for their different contributions.

The journey is the prize. If you don’t make one of the top three placings or win a special jersey for King of the Mountain or similar the financial rewards aren’t that great for three weeks spent pedaling around 3,500 kilometers, (or more than 2,000 miles). I read that the prize for the fourth place winner is 70,000 Euros, (about $US100,000), and that tails down to the rider that finishes 19th earning just 1,000 Euros. Even the winner, Alberto Contador, isn’t that well rewarded. He gets 450,000 Euros, but that has to go toward paying for the team, (and there are nine riders in a team), the support vehicles, the team managers and cooks and buses and everything else. I’m not saying the ones at the top don’t get enough in support and endorsements to make it worthwhile. I do think it’s not the money that motivates the average participant. You can bet they “get in the flow” when they get on their bike, and they get a reward from what they do that isn’t just financial.

Team results? Team rewards. Even if you only want to maximize the performance of the best rider, you had still better make sure you reward the whole team for their effort. We know that there can only be one winner, and you would think the way to ensure that everyone puts in their best effort is to focus on rewarding individual achievement. Instead, the teams and the organizers ensure there are prizes, jerseys and accolades enough to reward everyone. Not every rider can be number one. When you have to get the best out of more than a hundred cyclists you have to ensure that everyone has a stake in making it a great race.

Knocked over? Get up again. Every day someone “hits the wall” and falls behind, or literally hits a wall or something else and falls over. Every day they get up and start over again. When I was a kid I had tremendous resilience. If I fell over I’d just dust myself off, get a band aid or two and carry on. As we get older we lose that, and yet here are people riding with broken collar bones, bruises, cuts and all sorts of damage. Most of what we think hurts us isn’t really that bad, and if we just get back on our bikes we are surprised by how far we can go.

The link to business? I love the Tour De France. There’s something wonderful about watching athletes of the highest caliber competing in any sport. I think that if any of these cyclists have the inclination to participate in business they have the temperament to do pretty well.

Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever ...

2010-06-24T00:30:00.003-05:00

I have written before about the Basic Interpersonal Skills. The third one is "Always make the effort to make things better".

If you put the emphasis on the word "always" you can think of another way of saying this. Never give up.

Never give up on your friends, never give up on your commitments, never give up and accept defeat before the game is over.

I tuned into the World Cup today expecting to see an example of this from my beloved Socceroos. It was highly unlikely they would go through to the next round, but it was possible if they managed to win against Serbia, and the goal difference worked out OK in the Germany v Ghana match.

Australia played their hearts out and secured a close fought win. Unfortunately for us it wasn't enough to grab a place in the final sixteen.

On the next screen at our local watering hole we could see history in the making at the Wimbledon Tennis tournament. I have seen matches go to 8/6 in the final set, 9/7, 10/8 and even 11 and 12 all before being finalized. Izner vs Mahut was still going at 59 all in the final set before bad light called off play for the evening.

Whatever happens in the game I have new example and a new rephrasing of my third Basic Interpersonal Skill.

Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever give up!

The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization

2010-06-20T11:58:00.006-05:00

Peter Drucker, King of management gurus, has five essential questions for every organization. This book includes content from five of today’s thought leaders, to supplement Drucker's questions and bring them up to date.

You can use this book as a tool for self-assessment. In the words of one reviewer "...answering these five questions will fundamentally change the way you work, helping you lead your organization to an exceptional level of performance."

Peter Drucker’s five questions are:

What is our Mission? with Jim Collins

Who is our Customer? with Phil Kotler

What does the Customer Value? with Jim Kouzes

What are our Results? with Judith Rodin

What is our Plan? with V.Kasturi Rangan

I have recently worked with a couple of organizations who have looked at themselves closely in terms of the five questions and who are entering the new decade with a completely reshaped vision of themselves.

One large non-profit had to ask the hard question: Who are we here to serve? Their customers were not only the members of society served by their community impact delivery, but also the donors, volunteers and others who had to be engaged by the organization's mission. In these difficult times this non-profit is providing real leadership on the new "business as usual" and managing to maintain their donor and volunteer base.

Another client is a project team leading a significant ERP implementation across a 3,000 employee organization. Over the last six months or so they have been looking very carefully at what their (internal) customers value, and the results they are really there to deliver. As a result their "go-lives" are customer focused and the departments they work with are partners in ensuring everything goes smoothly.

The five questions could be obvious, (see my Monty Python article), but the depth of analysis enables this book to be a real breakthrough framework for many.

Do you want to be a high performing team?

2010-06-17T10:31:00.009-05:00

When I was younger I heard a Monty Python sketch that reminds me of many leadership and management articles.

I make sure my articles aren’t like the sketch, and here’s the difference…

The sketch was on a Monty Python record I bought, and I think it was called “Do you want to play the piccolo?” There are two breathlessly excited announcers telling the audience that in this week’s show they will learn how to play the piccolo. “Really?” says the first announcer. “Yes” the second one confidently asserts.

“Here we go. First you blow in one end, then you move your fingers up and down on the outside”. “Wow, brilliant” the first announcer responds. Then they excitedly tell you how to solve the problem of world hunger, (“Go to school and become really brainy. Then invent a marvelous new way of growing food and distribute it to all the world’s poor”), followed by how to win a Noble prize, cure cancer and live happily ever after.

A lot of leadership articles are the same. They repeat the banal and obvious without giving you any further information on how to actually do or recognize the things they write about. Pretty useless. Which brings me back to the title of this article, “Do you want to be a high performing team?”. I have seen many articles on high performance and they repeat the same things: have a vision, communicate values, set goals and so on. However, they don’t give you much information on what kind of vision works, or how to recognize the right kinds of values when you see them.

Here is my quick list of high performing team characteristics. Next to each one I have put a few adjectives that take them a little beyond Monty Python thinking. I have used these with teams who aspire to be high performing and they quickly realize whether or not what they are doing is enough.

Vision: An articulated and inspirational vision and mission.
Values: Clearly articulated in a way that ethically guides discretionary behavior
Goals: Aggressive, concrete, measurable targets that raise expectations and minimize ambiguity.
Structure: Flat and nimble
Performance Management: Regularly monitored with rapid, transparent feedback.
Recognition: Visible, quick and clear.
Talent: A mindset that expects and attracts the best and enlists their support
Community: Connected in a deep intimate way that demonstrates a desire to achieve stakeholder success.

In most cases my adjectives following each one help the team see the standard they have to achieve. Do they have a vision that is articulated to each employee and inspirational? Do the team’s values guide behavior when the rules aren’t clear? Are the goals they set aggressive, concrete, and measurable in a way that raises expectations and minimizes ambiguity? You get the idea.

When I put the eight criteria to most teams who aspire to be high performing they usually see opportunities for improvement. As a simple checklist it gets them back on the road to a realistic appraisal of their team development and away from Monty Pythonesque surrealism.

Working overseas for Upsher Smith

2010-06-04T22:11:00.000-05:00

Presented this afternoon with Genevieve at Upsher-Smith Laboratories in Maple Grove on doing business overseas.

They have a big conference coming up in Greece and I was part of a panel with experts from Spain, Belgium, Germany, Israel, Russia, and Poland helping them prepare.

Beautiful offices, (this is their lobby), fun panel and good discussion.

Why your 360 appraisal shouldn’t suck!

2010-05-28T10:40:00.008-05:00

In various places around the world there are probably more than 20,000 professionals doing some kind of 360 degree performance review that I helped their employers design.

Obviously, I like multi-rater appraisals. But, just like the airline employee that is told everyone’s travel woes, I am told all the time about 360 processes that suck. They shouldn’t.

When I hear 360’s aren’t going well I know it’s one of two things: either there’s something flawed in the process, or the culture of the organization isn’t supportive of candid, constructive feedback. This article is about what you can do to fix each of these.

A 360 Degree review is when someone gets structured feedback on their performance from the variety of sources all around them…peers, internal and external customers, their managers, people they have worked with on projects, and their direct reports, just to name a few different groups who can be involved. Let’s call them the 3Cs: Customers, Colleagues and Community. All of these have a vested interest in recognizing the person’s strengths and helping them improve their performance.

Ideally there are only two questions you need to ask: “What does the person do well?” and “What are the person’s opportunities for improvement?”

That’s it. Why? Because the aim of the exercise is to find out what the person does well so we can recognize and reward good behavior, along with what the person could do better so we can help them improve to meet the reasonable expectations of the 3Cs.

Sometimes the raters find it hard to structure their feedback in a way that is specific and relevant. It can be useful to ask more guided questions to help the feedback be more useful and easy for raters and person being evaluated. Sometimes an organization will have a leadership model, management competencies, or specific promises that have been made to the 3Cs, (like a “customer service pledge”). If that’s the case it makes sense to ask specifically if these are things the person is doing well, or if they are examples of things the person can usefully improve.

Basically though it will still come down to two questions: “What does the person do well?” and “What are the person’s opportunities for improvement?”

In terms of process it’s now possible to identify a few things that can make 360s suck. If there a bunch of questions that are onerous, intrusive or irrelevant to the raters, then the process sucks. If it isn’t easy for the person rated to translate the feedback into actionable, meaningful performance improvements, then the process sucks. If the person being rated is more concerned with the salary, bonus or promotion impacts of the process than the opportunity to meet the reasonable expectations of their customers, colleagues and community, then the process sucks.

The other big problem with many 360 programs is that they are embedded in a culture that doesn’t support candid, constructive feedback. The most common reason is that they are inappropriately tied to performance and/or salary reviews, so let’s deal with this first.

If I’m designing an ideal performance review there are only two questions I would add to the two 360 review questions. The first is “How did the person do compared to what they promised to do?”   The answer could be in the form of sales results, budget variations, project milestones or whatever. The issue is “here’s what you said you would do, and here’s what you actually did”. If your goals and reviews aren’t that specific they’re probably useless.

Armed with the variance between promised and actual performance you can now sit down with the person to review their results and look at consequences. First, let’s hear what the person has to say, both about their actual versus promised performance, and about what they think they do well. Let’s confirm what they think where we can with the feedback from the 3Cs. Then let’s talk about opportunities for improvement using the 360 feedback and the person’s own views.

Now it is time to move on to the second question you can add to the 360 input at performance review time: “Is this how you want your career to go, and what can we do about it?” With input that’s objectively sourced from all around the person, and a respectful consideration of what they want to get out of their job and career, it’s relatively easy to look at what kinds of training, development activities, rewards and recognition will best suit the individual and the organization.

That sounds like a lot of work, but it isn’t and even if it is, it’s worth it. Lack of effort is one of the biggest problems with 360 feedback or any kind of performance review. There are few things more debilitating for an employee than knowing there is a great, big review coming up only for it to be a one off event followed by “business as usual”.

I have seen a lot of carefully thought out review processes undone by the fact that once the feedback has been received the notes, commitments and details go into a drawer.   They don’t get looked at again for twelve months or the next anxiety producing review session.

Another big organizational killer of 360 feedback, (or any kind of performance review), is the tendency to personalize the material. This takes two forms. One is where the providers of feedback don’t get confidentiality. It should always be possible to give and take candid feedback. It should go without saying that when you solicit feedback anonymously the people providing the feedback should be confident that their input will be kept confidential and there will be no adverse consequences. Without confidentiality where appropriate the feedback becomes self-serving.

The second kind of personalization that kills feedback is when the input from the raters focuses on the person rated rather than their performance or abilities. Sometimes people use the review process to “get back” at the person rated, or use the opportunity to make the rated person look worse thinking it makes the rater look better.

If the process is being run internally the solution for both of these is for someone outside the feedback loop to moderate the input. This can be done by merging/purging the data so that it doesn’t easily carry identifying material, or by going back to the rater and asking them to be less personal and more performance focused with their comments.

This sort of process moderation is often carried out by functions such as HR or Quality Assurance. Similarly, HR or the person’s manager should ensure that the person being rated doesn’t take the feedback personally, or disrespect the input by devaluing the people it comes from. If an external coach or consultant is running the process this is one of their essential functions.

In summary then, here are the keys to ensuring your 360 doesn’t suck:

•    One questionnaire to the person’s customers, colleagues and community with as few as two questions, or as many as are specific, relevant and easy for raters to handle.
•    Confidentiality for raters.
•    One review at the end of each significant time period, achievement or milestone that adds a comparison of actual and promised performance, identification of what’s going well and what can be improved, and a discussion of career and job development.

•    Feedback formatted in a way that is actionable for the person rated.
•    Developmental 360 feedback separated from salary, bonus or promotion consequences so that the focus is on…development.
•    Accountability placed on the rated person to come up with an action plan, and follow up sessions to ensure that what is promised becomes what is delivered.

A good 360 degree performance review process focuses attention on what matters most for the person to meet the performance expectations of their customers, colleagues and community, and provides a supportive environment for that to happen. That's what performance reviews should be all about.

Feign Some Fear

2010-05-24T19:50:00.002-05:00

Here's a quick fun follow up to last week's "Flight or Fight" post.

Some animals have learned the right thing to do is to "Feign Some Fear".

Fight Or Flight? What About The Other Five F's?

2010-05-13T18:14:00.006-05:00

This is a short summary of the presentation I made to the Twin Cities Human Resources Association’s Spring Conference. The turnout was excellent. As a speaker I really appreciated the organization and audience interest.

The conference theme was “Leveraging Human Capital During the Economic Recovery”. I promised the audience my perspective on what it takes to successfully get the best out of people during times of change, stress and opportunity.

Here are the three key slides from my presentation:

Here is the first key to successfully helping people with change and challenges: Understand the level at which you are operating. We talked about how many people are brought in to be “Change Managers” without clear, shared expectations about roles and responsibilities.

The slide at the top of this post outlines the three sets of change management skills, (content, people and roadmap), and the three sets of change analysis, (organization, group and individual).

One side-bar discussion centered on the change management skills. On most change projects there is a name for the person with the content knowledge. They are called the Subject Matter Expert, (SMI). There’s also a name for the road map expert. They’re called the Project Manager, (PM).

Unfortunately there isn’t a commonly used name for the “people expert”, which means the role is often overlooked or undervalued. In line with the theme of the conference we proposed calling them the “Human Capital Partner”, (HCP).

All significant change projects that require more than one person should have someone who fulfills the roles of SMI, PM and HCP, and there should be clear expectations around the level at which they are expected to operate and manage change.

Here is the second key to successfully helping people with change and challenges: Acknowledge and respond appropriately to people’s reactions. This sounds obvious, but the truth is that some people have no understanding of how people respond to change or challenges.

Sometimes change leaders assume everyone responds the way they do, or they assume everyone should respond the way they do. Other times change leaders are sucked into believing that people will react to a stressor or significant change with the classic “fight or flight” response, and the only thing to do is let them get over it and move on.

There are actually at least five other typical responses, including freeze, faint, fumble and fidget. In the presentation I talked about the classic freeze response, which is where someone is so overcome with the impact of the change that they are incapable of producing a sensible response, and end up doing nothing until they are forced into action. Faint, fumble and fidget can be equally ineffective, yet you see examples of them all the time in people’s immediate responses to stressors and change.

The appropriate response is to use the Basic Interpersonal Skills, and help them over time to the fifth F: Focus. The right response in almost every circumstance is to focus on the few things with the most impact on a better future and the path to get there.

This is the third key to successfully helping people with change and challenges: Systematically guide them through the change process.

Here’s a dirty little secret. Some consultants and experts want to sell you their unique perspective on human behavior and their “patented change model”. This is going to make me unpopular with some of those people. Here is the truth we know from many studies and much practical experience: people generally follow a predictable path when dealing with change and transitions.

You can see the path in the diagram. There is a “Flight or Fight” zone, (which we know actually includes the other five F’s), a process of acceptance with the change, which involves self-concern and a search for meaning and options, and finally an internalization period, which involves testing and exploration, and finally ownership of the changed state.

If you understand the change process you can guide people through it successfully. For example, don’t bother trying to train people or get them to take ownership of a change until you have dealt with the issues of self-concern and anxiety. At a deeper level, there is a right time for broadcast emails from the CEO and roadshows of the new system, and a right time for process training and the introduction of job-aids. You had better know which is which!

Many thanks to the Twin Cities Human Resources Association for hosting the event and the invitation to speak; Jason Kujanen and Kathy Kacher, (Conference Chair Lead and Conference Co-Chair), for their excellent organization skills; SueLynn Junkert for being a great master of ceremonies for my session, (she introduced me in a very flattering way, and she asked about my dogs!), and the engaged and involved audience for coming along and offering their insights and challenging questions.

The New Global Market: Panel discussion at Carslon School of Management

2010-04-27T17:11:00.015-05:00

This is a quick update to the recent panel discussion I participated in at Carlson School of Management. Each of the participants had a unique point of view on The New Global Market, but there was also a lot in common among the four of us.

(L to R: Brett Schockley, David Farrar, James Thomas, Amit Gupta)

Our moderator was Dileep Rao, Ph.D., Carlson School of Management: three-time Outstanding MBA Teacher of the Year; international entrepreneur and author of the book "Bootstrap to Billions."

In his opening remarks Dileep talked about some of the causes of the global economic crisis. Having started us at such a high level of analysis he went on to talk about individuals and how they can best succeed in an international market. Two of his best pieces of advice were "do your passion" and "jump on a trend". If you want to know what some of the trends were that he mentioned you'll have to buy his book!

Amit Gupta
Chairman, Amsum & Ash, Inc
• Co-founder and chairman of TAB India, a Jaipur-based quarrier, processor and marketer of granite, marble, slate and sandstone sold around the world.

Here is the one best piece of advice I took from Amit's talk: "Take a non-business business trip." Amit told us how he has built his business from a standing start to a major global player in the stone business. Whenever he entered a new market he has always invested in a non-business trip first for himself and his key sales people. Although you might think stone is stone, Amit talked about how every market he works in is different. His non--business business trips enable him and his team to understand how each market differs culturally in the way they do business in general, and in his industry in particular.

For example, we think our kitchen industry is pretty advanced in America. I was surprised to hear Amit talk about just how long people in Europe have been working and living with stone in their kitchens. While we think of marble bench tops as the latest things our European colleagues have had stone and marble countertops for hundreds of years. To work in that market you had better be sure you have an open mind and are prepared to see things differently.

Brett Schockley
Vice President of Emerging Products & Technology, Avaya
• Co-founder of Spanlink Communications
• Leads Avaya’s global professional services team for Contact Center and Unified Communications
• MBA, Carlson School of Management

Brett has seen and done amazing things in the IT industry. You might think his presentation would have been all about the technology but in fact one of the first things Brett said to our audience was "invest in relationships". Brett talked about how international business is a lot like local business: you have to add value and you have to be able to demonstrate how you can serve the customer.

Brett also talked ethics and principles. Although many markets vary in their views of what is right and proper, Brett emphasized principles of doing business that he held fast to regardless of the market he was in.

Brett's summary was that at the end of the day it's all about how you get on with your customers, your colleagues and your community.

James Thomas
Vice President of International Sales, Mate Precision Tooling in Anoka
• New sales channels in Mexico, Eastern Europe and Brazil
• Former President of Colder Products International
• MBA Thunderbird-Garvin School of International Management

Jim took a very pragmatic approach. He himself describes his business as putting holes in pieces of metal. He has built an extensive business around the world and a lot of it is based upon finding the right salespeople for the right market. Jim talked about putting effort into finding good salespeople and setting them up with the right tools. One of Jim's key points was that international business is not one market, it's 135 markets or more. You have to market globally, and sell locally. Perhaps not surprisingly, most of the lessons learned that Jim talked about were people lessons.

And then there was me...

Dr. David Farrar
International Business Consultant
• Former head of human resources in Southeast Asia and Global Organization Effectiveness Manager at Cargill.
• Speaker and consulting roles in Australia, Belgium, Germany, Malaysia, South Africa, Singapore, Switzerland, UK and U.S.

This was a really high-powered panel. Each of the previous presenters has built a significant global business and made a real contribution to the local and international business community. Most of my working life has been spent inside organizations. It is only in the last five years that I've worked for myself, built up my own business, and worked on my own behalf with clients here and overseas, although on a much smaller scale than my fellow panelists.

My perspective was a little different, but it had a lot in common with the others. I talked about having to keep an open mind to different ways of doing business, but making sure you stayed true to yourself and your principles. I mentioned some of the tools I have used with my clients, such as the Freedom Scale for understanding how much delegation you can afford to give your international partners, and the Loose/Tight analysis that can help you decide just what principles you need to hold on to and which practices you can afford to let go.

Afterward there were plenty of questions from an enthusiastic audience of sales and marketing professionals, MBA students and budding entrepreneurs. Here's my take on three points I think we all converged on In our answers:

Be open to different cultural perspectives
Provide value as seen from your customer's point of view
Be trustworthy and principled

As we were leaving I noticed something that none of us had commented on, but each of us had taken for granted.

We all talked about getting out there, connecting in person, and building relationships face-to-face. Nothing beats a personal connection, and when you're doing business internationally it's so easy for things to go wrong, and so necessary to have a personal relationship. We all assumed you have to be able to build personal relationships with people. In a modern world full of video conferences, virtual meetings and...blogs...it's nice to think the personal touch is still all important.

Many thanks to Duane Roemmich of Mercuri International, and Roger Hokansen of Predictable Performance for arranging our event, Dileep Rao and the Carlson School of Management for hosting, (check out his book "Bootstrap To Billions"), the audience for their excellent and often challenging questions, and my fellow panelists for their fine contributions.

A little entrepreneur in every business traveler

2010-04-22T09:34:00.003-05:00

One of my clients just sent me this link. (Thanks Craig).

It resonated with me just as I'm about to go speak at the Carlson Business School this afternoon on doing business globally.

Even if you're not a business owning entrepreneur, going overseas to do business requires some of the risk-taking mindset in this article.... You have to be able to let go of the status quo, and open yourself up to new and different ways of doing things.

From Columbus in the Americas to Google in China, whether a business owner or advance party for a large corporate, everyone who sets off to do business in a new world has to have a little of the entrepreneur in them.

Discover Your Inner Entrepreneur - Dan Pallotta - Harvard Business Review

blogs.hbr.org

David to speak at Carlson School of Management

2010-04-16T17:14:00.016-05:00

I'm on a panel to speak at the Carlson School of Management next week on "Selling, Marketing and Management Tools In The New Global Market." If you're local and you can come along I'll be glad to look out for you and introduce you around.   It should be a good evening. They have a great panel of speakers which I'm pleased to have been invited to join. I'm looking forward to hearing what they have to say!

You can find details of the event below and: here.

SMEI Minnesota Presents

The New Global Market
Selling, marketing and management challenges in the new global market

Carlson School of Mgmt 3M Auditorium, Minneapolis
Thursday, April 22, 2010 (4:30 PM - 6:30 PM)

Moderated by Dileep Rao, Ph.D., Carlson School of Management. Three-time Outstanding MBA Teacher of the Year; International entrepreneur and book author, Bootstrap to Billions.

Amit Gupta
Chairman, Amsum & Ash, Inc
• Co-founder and chairman of TAB India, a Jaipur-based quarrier, processor and marketer of granite, marble, slate and sandstone sold around the world.

Brett Schockley
Vice President of Emerging Products & Technology, Avaya
• Co-founder of Spanlink Communications
• Leads Avaya’s global professional services team for Contact Center and Unified Communications
• MBA, Carlson School of Management

James Thomas
Vice President of International Sales, Mate Precision Tooling in Anoka
• New sales channels in Mexico, Eastern Europe and Brazil
• Former President of Colder Products International
• MBA Thunderbird-Garvin School of International Management

Dr. David Farrar
International Business Consultant
• Former head of human resources in Southeast Asia and global effectiveness manager at Cargill.
• Speaker and consulting roles in Australia, Belgium, Germany, Malaysia, South Africa, Singapore, Switzerland, UK and U.S.

This event is FREE

Advance registration is required. If you prefer to register by phone please call 800-999-1414 ext 202.

And you can go to our new Facebook Business Page if you would like to let me know you're coming.

I'll look forward to seeing you!

My work with clients is like the first run of spring!

2010-03-18T22:03:00.008-05:00

If you know anything at all about me you probably know I’m a runner. My parents remember me heading out for a run in my neighborhood from the time I was around eleven. At fifteen I got a part time after school job in a supermarket about three miles away, and I would walk home, change, run to work, pack bags and stock shelves until store closing, then run home again.

I’ve been running for a long time. Today my running broke through to a new level and it reminded me of my client work. Here’s how.

This is me just before my first outdoor run of the spring season. It’s a beautiful change of seasons day in Minnesota. The temperature is a relatively balmy 45F but the lakes are still crisp and white with winter’s ice. The trees are still bare yet the snow cover has melted and the first blades of grass are coming through.

I approach my running the way I approach much of my consulting and coaching work.

First, you had better enjoy what you do.

Every now and again I run into a prospective client or an employee in one of my clients who just doesn’t enjoy their work. When I was fifteen I never imagined being able to run a marathon. Now I’m going to be fifty this year and I can’t imagine the sprints and splits I used to do when I was younger. Nevertheless, at each time in my life I’ve matched my expectations to what’s practical and enjoyed the ride. Life’s too short not to enjoy what you do, so a good starting point for everyone is to make sure you love what you’re doing.

So...I enjoy running. I’m heading outdoors for the first time in three or four months when I’ve been avoiding the depths of winter. While it’s been cold and dark I have been running indoors on a treadmill. Since my operation last year I’ve been slowly building back up, grateful that it was probably my fitness that pulled me through the surgery in the first place.

Over the course of winter I have changed my technique quite dramatically. For those of you who are runners, I’ve moved from being a heel strike/toe liftoff runner to a midsole runner. That means I am no longer landing on my heel and rolling forward through my stride until I push off from my toe. Instead, I’m landing on my midfoot and pulling up on my heel to move forward. That’s a very big difference and not at all intuitive, but it’s the way most long distance runners run.

Learning any fundamentally new skill is hard but there are three stages and they apply equally to running or learning a new management competency. The starting point for me was form. First I had to focus on the new way of moving my legs and feet, and I had to practice it over and over until I was doing it right. In the early stage of developing any skill it’s all about technique. I knew getting the motion right from the beginning would mean I had less to “unlearn” as time went on.

The second stage in my transition was range. I started off barely able to maintain my form for more than a few hundred meters. I slowly extended my limit, being able to maintain form for longer and longer. Once I could do that I worked on the other part of my range, the ability to move uphill and down, to maintain my form when I was fresh and when I was tired, and finally, to maintain my form through the whole running repertoire of sprints, jogs and fast walks. All the while I was gradually growing my abilities while still focusing on my technique.

Finally, I could pull it all together and see the effect on my enjoyment, endurance and speed. Speed is the last thing a runner should concentrate on. All things being equal I know I can maintain my form over any distance or type of terrain in front of me. The only thing that varies is the speed and how long it will take. Once I’m thinking about speed I start to see how everything relates together, how little changes here and there improve performance, the fun I get out of my running and how my new technique works successfully across all environments.

Working with businesses and senior executives is exactly the same. First, focus on technique and the few things with the most impact. Second, grow skills and range, developing capacity and confidence. Finally, look at how everything relates and how to maximize results. Focus, Grow, Relate.

I cruised around the lake today at my fastest speed for a couple of years. Excellent. And yes, I really enjoy my work too.

David presents to the Sales and Marketing Executives International

2010-02-16T13:27:00.002-06:00

If you are interested in doing business overseas you should come along to this presentation on February 25th. I will be talking about "The Differences That Make A Difference" when it comes to doing business in another culture. I'll cover one attitude, one rule and three tools that will make your overseas experience a lot easier, and you will get to network with a great group of experienced sales and marketing professionals.

Registration details are below:

(Note: This event has now passed. If you attended and you would like a copy of the slides you can access them by clicking here.)

SMEI Minnesota Presents

The Differences that Make A Difference: Cultural Issues In
International Sales & Marketing

Fort Snelling Officer’s Club, Highway 5 and Post Rd, St. Paul
Thursday, February 25, 2010 (7:30 AM - 9:30 AM)

Dr. David Farrar will explore the issues and pitfalls that confront American sales and marketing executives when going international. His experience in global business, with a special emphasis on Asian business, will provide cultural awareness and powerful insights.

Attend this presentation for a pragmatic and humorous session on how to go international and survive in radically different cultures.

Dr. David Farrar, Former Head of Human Resources in SE Asia and Global Organization Effectiveness Manager, Cargill

David studied at the Royal Military College of Australia, (MUR), University of Melbourne, and Northwestern University, (Kellogg Business School). He has degrees in economics and psychology, completed his graduate work with honors, and was accredited as a psychologist in the Commonwealth of Australia.

His speaking and consulting roles have taken him around the world including Australia, Belgium, Germany, Malaysia, South Africa, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

He has also been an adjunct and visiting professor at various universities, where he taught classes in Ethics, Leadership and Conflict Management for MBA and other graduate programs. David is the President and CEO of FGRassociates, LLC.

Click Here To Register

You are receiving this communication as a valued member or subscriber. If you no longer wish to receive email notices about upcoming events, please reply with "unsubscribe SMEI Minnesota" in the subject line. SMEI Minnesota is a chapter of Sales & Marketing Executives International, Inc., the worldwide professional association for sales & marketing. More information at http://www.smeiminnesota.org

Five tips for better team building events

2009-12-20T19:09:00.003-06:00

I do not like team building events. It’s not because I don’t like building teams, it’s just that so many of the so-called “team building” strategies I see are divorced from the everyday realities of the team’s life. As a result, the team feels more demotivated by the non-related event than if they had been left alone to get their work done.

People form into teams naturally under situations of group opportunity or stress. A team is a group of people who function cooperatively as a group toward a common goal. Under the wrong conditions teams can form that don’t have the same goals as the organizations they work in. Conditions such as resistance to change, coping with stress and punishing people they see as outside their group. Managers and leaders want to promote teams where the cooperative work is aligned to the organization’s purpose, and the teams productivity is greater than the sum of the individual parts. Here are five steps for planning a positive team building event.

1. Make sure that the team is a team. Too often, the team is really a group of people who happen to work in the same department or in the same function. They don’t have common goals, they don’t share rewards or work on projects together. They just sit together, report to the same manager, or work on the same project. Pulling a “team" like this together for team building that is separate from the group’s normal way of doing business just builds cynicism. Send people to a team building event when all the rewards in the group are based on individual goals will have no lasting impact.

2. Let the team plan the event. I know this sounds dangerous! The success of the team building event begins a long time before the event occurs. Wouldn’t it be a little ironic to try to build team behaviors without letting the team exhibit those behaviors? Let the team model the behaviors you are trying to instill, and coach and guide them along the way. Delegate the task properly and the team building event will give the team the sense of empowerment and collaboration you want them demonstrate.

3. Plan the event around a meaningful business purpose. I won’t lead events that are out of context for the team or divorced from their regular work. Perhaps the meaningful business purpose is celebrating a recent success, or working as a group to set team norms. It doesn’t matter in a big sense if the business purpose might otherwise be a downer for the team…I have seen successful events built around the theme of recovering from losing a major account or building bridges with a client after a serious project misstep. Don’t have a team event just to build an overall sense of teamwork. I once worked with a VP who took her team out to Paint A Plate for a day. It was a waste of time because the event was just a fun day with no link to anything the team did back in their cubicles. If someone had linked painting plates with good team behaviors it might have worked. (My example was probably made worse by the fact that she didn't attend the second half of the event at the local theme park: what message did that send to her people?) We might just as well have been throwing balloons around or going boating. Try selling those to a team that’s going through a work slump.

4. Follow up with meaningful activities back at the work place. Probably as part of the event the team will learn something about each other’s strengths and development opportunities, or someone will come up with a new strategy for cross-functional co-operation. Make sure that there is a visible process that everyone contributes to that brings the team building event back to work. Make it an agenda item at a coming management meeting to debrief the event for What Went Well, What Opportunities Were Uncovered, and What Commitments Were Made.

5. Finally, if you want the event to build good team behavior you had better know what good team behavior looks like. If you don’t already know what good team behavior looks like you need to get a list together so you monitor, recognize and reward the right behavior when it occurs at the event, and back at the work place. If you want a quick checklist you could do a lot worse than use Patrick Lencioni’s model. He describes Five Dysfunctions of a Team, but to make it easier to see the positive side of his model I will rephrase it to make Five Functional Behaviors of a High Performing Team. Simply put they are: Trust Each Other; Embrace Conflict Positively; Commit To The Team’s Goals; Ensure and Accept Accountability, and Focus on the Team’s Stakeholders’ Results.

Using what’s above you can plan an event that will build your staff into a positive team. First, make sure they really are a team with common goals, work processes and rewards. Let them plan some team building together. Make sure they build the event around a meaningful business purpose. Make sure they follow up by bringing the learnings of the event back to the workplace. And finally, make sure you have set clear expectations with them for what good team behavior is.

Now, do you trust them enough to let them loose with your team building objective and a budget?

Are you an Apple, or are you AT&T?

2009-12-16T20:53:00.005-06:00

Let me tell you a tale of two very different customer experiences. At this time of year many of us are heavily involved in holiday shopping, or else we are doing new contracts for services or reviewing our budgets at work. It got me thinking about what sort of customer experiences we want to have, and how can we identify a couple of rules that make the difference. These two customer experiences really happened to me this weekend…and they provide a good model to review the customer experiences we receive and want to give every day.

We decided for Christmas to gift my mother-in-law with an iPhone. She is pretty up to date with modern technology, and it was both a useful and fun present for someone who likes geeky things and can use it in her business. At the same time, Genevieve decided to gift me with one of the same new iPhone 3Gs’s and we decided to update her from her Blackberry to an iPhone and put us all on an AT&T contract.

The Apple store was packed with people, both shoppers and staff. As soon as we walked in we were warmly greeted by an easily identifiable Apple “Genius” in a red top. (By the way, it takes a certain self-confidence to call your sales associates and technical support people Geniuses). We outlined what we were after and in a few moments we were seated comfortably at a table with a bright, young associate eager to demonstrate how the iPhone worked. (Luke: Thank you, you truly are a Genius.) However we still had one question: we had an iPhone already and wanted to know how we could get it onto a family calling plan. Luke explained that he could put iPhones purchased in the store onto an AT&T plan, but could not connect the existing phone to a plan. He suggested we talk directly with AT&T, and showed us where we could find a representative.

Here is where our troubles started.

The AT&T staff were standing around talking with each other, dressed in a wide variety of clothes, and hardly interacting at all with customers who came to their store. When we did get someone’s attention we were shown through a dizzying assortment of plans and prices. On more than one occasion I had to stop the associate to confirm what we were being told. An example: “So this thing is ‘free’ provided we pay more for this other thing?” Many of the plans and handsets were discounted or on special. We left the store once we had got a specific answer to our specific question about putting an existing iPhone onto an AT&T plan, (or so we thought).

We purchased our two new iPhones and returned to the AT&T store to put them onto a new family plan along with our existing iPhone. Here’s where the trouble started. It turned out we had been given incorrect information about the plan, and to put our existing phone with AT&T and change after twelve months as we wished was going to cost us about $115 more than we had been told. No-one in the store denied we had been given the wrong information, (about an hour before). They just apologized and said we could at least get our money back on the iPhones…not so helpful if you’ve just cancelled your previous plan. We talked with a manager, who didn’t seem to have any authority to fix what one of his staff had cost us, and eventually after about half an hour of discussion and various phone calls to their ‘customer service’ line we were given a credit to our account of $115. During that time we were offered free phones we didn’t want, (and obviously didn’t need), and we weren’t told some obvious things about our plans which we obviously did need, (like overseas access since we had told them the iPhone was an early Christmas present because Camille was just about to fly to France).

Meantime, I have since returned a headset that didn’t work to the Apple store. They looked up my account, (on the spot), confirmed the date of purchase, told me the piece was out of warranty, helped me get the supplier's address, and gave me a new, (free), replacement headphone while they took on the responsibility of sending the faulty headset back to the manufacturer.

We were extremely happy with Apple, not so much with AT&T. I should emphasize that it wasn’t so much about the individuals who served us. I believe each of them were well-intentioned and ably trained. It was more about the way the organizations approached their market and empowered their staff to live their brand. Everyone makes mistakes with their customers sometimes, so what was so different about Apple’s approach? Here are a couple of things that spring to mind.

1: Pricing. Apple has a good product and tries to price it fairly and simply. When they make a mistake, as they did with the original iPhone pricing, they admit it. (They gave the original purchasers of iPhones a rebate. Given these people must have known they were paying a premium for being the first to own the new devices the rebate sounds like a smart marketing move when it transpired that Apple weren’t selling enough phones at the original price.) Meantime, Apple have no confusing specials, sweet deals or “free” add-ons that cost money. Personally, I would rather give my service away to someone if they genuinely want to try out what I do than cheapen my product by discounts and concessions.

2: Quality. When you have a good product you don’t need to compensate. Customers of all kinds are pleased to get what they pay for, and usually appreciative whenever their expectations are exceeded. In the Apple store my mother-in-law was giggling like a little girl whenever the sales associate showed her something her ‘smart phone’ could do. It wasn’t just the apps, it was the voice recognition built in, the tagged voicemails, the compass and lots of other things that served as surprise and delight items.

3: Service. The Apple associates genuinely came across as loving their jobs and proud of their product. The demonstrations were enthusiastic without coming across as sales pitches. When something went wrong, like my faulty headset, they were empowered to make it right on the spot. When they didn’t know the answer to a question they said so, and went and discovered where the answer could be found.

Price, quality, service: my marketing professors used to tell us to “pick any two”. Apple shows you that it’s possible to optimize all three without sacrificing profitability. Without dwelling too much on AT&T’s strategy let’s focus on the positive aspects of Apple’s go-to-market philosophy. You can easily sum up their brand as leading edge technology that’s easy to use. You get quality and service and you know you’re paying something of a premium in terms of price. I'm not sure what AT&T's branding is and I'm sure I don't know what they stand for to their consumers, (at least these consumers).

Principled businesses try to make the experience for their customers satisfying in each area while being candid about needing the relationship to be profitable. Principled leaders try equally hard to ensure they have a “leadership brand” and they are transparent about what they stand for and what people can expect from them. Not so all businesses and not so all leaders.

So in your business, do you follow Apple’s strategy, or are you an AT&T?

Greetings from Australia

2009-11-19T03:40:00.001-06:00

At the moment Genevieve and I are in Australia, enjoying some well-earned rest and recreation as well as catching up with friends and former clients and possibly some new clients for the future. It’s fantastic to be able to combine work and leisure, and there’s no better country on earth to find people who know how to work hard and play hard.

Over the next few weeks we are going to update this site with some of our observations of social and business life in Oz. We have already noticed just how busy Melbourne is, with new buildings, new universities and new business opportunities going up everywhere. Our property in Daylesford is part of Victoria’s new tourism boom, and in Brisbane we have seen restaurants and beaches everywhere filled with locals and holiday makers who look as if the Global Financial Crisis never happened.

Some of this is definitely the way the two recent governments in Australia have managed the economy and some of it is the happy circumstance that makes Australia’s minerals, weather and social climate some of the most sought after commodities on earth. Probably of most interest to us is the extent to which Australia’s current good fortune is a result of the way it is branded overseas, and the way business is done between Australians and with people from other countries.

We are looking forward to being back in the US soon with Thanksgiving and the holidays to look forward to. You can catch us on our usual email and telephone contact numbers.

Summit on leading in crisis

2009-09-27T21:05:00.004-05:00

Recently I was lucky enough to score an invitation to the Summit On Leading In Crisis hosted by Bill George, former CEO of Medtronic, and now Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School. George gathered four very experienced panelists to discuss their “personal stories from the trenches”.

Bill George began the discussions with observations from his new book, “7 Lessons for Leading In Crisis”. I’ve read the book since the forum, and it’s a good read. George sees crises as opportunities for excellent leaders to show what they’re worth. He calls crisis “The Ultimate Test of Leadership”. The seven lessons range from “Face Reality Starting With Yourself” to “Go On The Offense, Focus On Winning Now”. The seven lessons are the basis for a useful discussion with your managers and leaders about how they face crises and where they have opportunities for improvement. Earlier posts by George had slightly different lessons, and these look as if they have changed to make them more useful to a general audience, (as opposed to an earlier post by George on the Wall Street Journal site where one of the lessons was "Build a mountain of cash, and get to the highest hill.").

At the summit the book was sold with a study guide that I think was just as useful as the book. It provided each of the lessons with a set of questions and conversation starters that many leadership teams and coaches could include in their regular after action reviews.

George’s opening remarks mainly centered on our current economic crisis. His point was that it wasn’t a failure of mortgage lenders, economic policies or government regulation. The current crisis is a failure of leadership. Each of the speakers following Bill took up his theme, followed by some of their personal illustrations. Here are a couple that stuck with me…

Mary Carlson Nelson, Chair and former CEO of Carlson Companies was the first to speak after Bill. She made the valuable point that it can be easy to blame leadership without recognizing that there are many great leaders in great organizations who have been caught up in the current economic cycle and are weathering the crisis as best they can.

David Gergen, Director of the Center for Pulblic Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School, talked widely across politics and the economy. Overall he came down on the side that it’s not just great leadership that will get us out of this…it also takes the light hand of appropriate regulation to stop the worst excesses of a free for all economic market. I liked his philosophy. Life is rarely a case of either this or that, most things are usually a case of both this and that.

Anne Mulcahy, Chair and former CEO of Xerox, talked about how most of the recovery in our economy will actually be driven by small nimble organizations rather than large multinationals and conglomerates. Many of the books and theories of leadership look as if they are written for CEOs and super-executives. In reality, the millions of actions of regular people and small to mid-sized organizations acting with integrity in their own best interests drive most of business and most of our economy.

Finally, John Donahoe, Chair and CEO of eBay. Donahoe was what you would expect from a West Coast high tech executive…relaxed in chinos and an open shirt, engaging and personally humorous. (I wonder what he was like before eBay as a high-powered consultant from the east coast). The story that I remembered most of Donahoe’s was his description of his son’s job search post college. You might imagine that Donahoe could call up any one of his network and find a “job” for his son. I’ve even known CEO’s in large public organizations who have found “internships” for their children, knowing full well the positions their children are getting are nothing like a real job in terms of the way they are treated or experiences they will be given. Donahoe’s boy is looking out for his own future like any other college grad. Apparently he sat at home for a long time with no job until he eventually volunteered to work for free at something he loves.

I liked that story best of all the summit tales. Taking personal responsibility, acting with integrity and finding a way of making a valuable contribution to others are real markers of leadership.

The summit will be televised on TPT and local public television stations in the near future. The audio is available from Minnesota Public Radio and I imagine it will soon be broadcast nationally. Check it out for some very interesting reflections on leadership from some very heavy hitters in business.

Some of my most popular presentations and workshops

2009-09-13T19:42:00.006-05:00

In the past few years I have done dozens of presentations and workshops for clients in addition to my regular consulting work. It's important to be both informative and entertaining. I find people learn better when they get involved in something interesting that they haven't seen before, so all my materials involve a lot of interaction, novelty and humor.

Here's a sample of some of the most popular...

...and if you would like to see some of the client feedback click here.

What Matters Most…
It is not about being task focused or people focused. It is about being both task focused and people focused … and having the integrity to do both all the time.

Fight or Flight? What About The Other Five F’s?
An entertaining look at what people really do when confronted with change, (and how best to deal with them.)

If The World Is Flat, What’s With All The Spikes?
People are bombarded daily with messages and technologies that go unnoticed. What makes a few so successful?

Complex Sales In A Sound-Bite Market.
Who can you trust in a world gone mad? Cutting through the hype to make the complex sale.

What Really Makes A Senior Executive?
Insights from coaching and providing feedback for over 200 VPs, CEOs and other “interesting” people.

Reviewing The Non-Financials Makes Good Business Sense.
Many mergers and acquisitions provide little improvement in performance or value. A cultural due diligence improves the chances of success.

Finding The Right Direction Shouldn’t Be Hard.
Getting strategy right is not as complicated as consultants make it out to be. It certainly shouldn’t be as complicated as they want you to believe.

Five Questions For Your Executive Coach.
A good coach is probably the best thing you can do for your professional development.

Competent, Reliable, OPEN and Principled

2009-08-23T15:01:00.001-05:00

My speaking agent recently brought to me an opportunity to do a presentation for a well known manufacturer and installer of communications and IT solutions. It should have been a great chance to work with a leader in IT, and an industry I know and like from doing many other presentations and consulting projects. Unfortunately I had to tell her I wouldn’t work with this organization.

Some time ago I sat with the regional manager of the company to discuss a market research project he was starting up. He wanted to find out what his biggest clients were saying about his business, and he wanted to invite their local general managers in for a series of informal “focus groups”. I had been called in to discuss with him how to connect with the clients and get them engaged in the project.

Things were going well until we started to discuss the records we would keep. Our plan was to take notes, anonymize the feedback, and present it to the client in a grouped report with the major themes highlighted and recommendations for action. The client wanted the verbatim feedback. We pointed out that taping and transcribing would be time consuming, and besides, people often aren’t as candid when they know they are being recorded.

To our astonishment the regional manager said we didn’t have to tell them they were being recorded!

I think he had watched one too many episodes of “Law and Order” or something similar. He thought he could set up a room with a two-way mirror, watch and record the proceedings, and use the material as feedback for his staff…

I’ve written before on trust, and how important it is to maintaining any relationship. There are four key elements to trust. People who are trustworthy are:

Capable: Can do what they say
Reliable: Will do what they say
Open: Will say what they do
Principled: Will do what they should

When it comes to trust, like a crop, you reap what you sow.

Unfortunately, when it came to being trustworthy this regional manager badly failed the third criteria. He wasn’t open…he wouldn’t say what he was going to do. The most generous interpretation of what happens when people don’t say what they do is that they run the risk of being misunderstood, which doesn’t build trust. The least generous view of people who are closed, guarded or subtly misleading is that they won’t say what they do because you wouldn’t approve. Certainly there are times when we are less than open because we are preserving a confidentiality, or being sensitive to over communicating what others are not interested in. Generally though, it’s better to err on the side of being overly open rather than overly closed.

In this case I wouldn’t be a part of what I considered to be lying to those clients who came in to participate in the focus group. Sure, if we were being technical we could have set things up so that the clients would never know they were being recorded, and provided we never promised we weren’t going to record them…nevertheless, this sort of thing leaves a very bad impression with me. People should say what they do.

In my ethics classes with graduate students I often express this a different way: What would you be proud to see widely reported in the papers or on the internet? What would you be ashamed to see reported? I don’t think the regional manager would be proud to see his actions widely reported. I don’t think it would build a sense of community with his customers.

Life is too short to spend with people you’re not proud to spend time with. I’m glad I’m not pursuing this particular speaking opportunity.

Birthday thoughts

2009-08-17T16:55:00.001-05:00

Today is my birthday, hence the somewhat goofy photo, thanks to a favorite cousin who has had this picture of me from when I was four. Cheerful looking little soul aren’t I! Being my birthday it got me thinking about what I’m grateful for, and one of my favorite topics: character.

Whether in work, our families or our communities, we're all leaders. At various times we help others get things done, just as they help us get things done. Leaders have to master three key principles: they have to have the right task focus, the right people focus, and the right character focus.

There are lots of leadership theories about how to have the right task focus and people focus, but relatively little about the right character focus. I often say that champion leaders realize that good leadership is not about task focus or people focus, it’s about being both task focused and people focused, and having the character to do both with integrity.

Recently psychologist Martin Seligman and his associates have put a lot of effort into identifying character strengths. Seligman is one of my favorite psychologists, and I often use his work on optimism and attitude with my clients. His latest research shows that we each have personal strengths that can be classified into six groups of “virtues”. It’s these virtues and personality strengths that enable us to get things done with integrity.

One of Seligman’s groups of virtues is Transcendence, which includes Gratitude, Optimism and Future-Mindedness. On my birthday I’m taking a little time out to feel thankful for all the people past and present who have helped that little boy become the man I am today, and a little time to think positively about what the next forty-five years might hold.

The Virtuous Cycle

2009-08-02T19:26:00.003-05:00

I am going to tell you about one of the most powerful influences on human behavior. I call it the Virtuous Cycle of Goodness. You see this dressed up in all sorts of different terms. Basically, it’s the idea that when we receive something we feel obliged to respond in kind. People with the most successful and principled relationships are masters of the Virtuous Cycle.

Numerous studies in psychology, sociology, anthropology and neuroscience show that humans are in some way “wired” to respond to social acts in a way that is proportional and similar to the original act. It works for positive acts, (think of the Golden Rule, and Do unto others…), and negative acts, (think of An Eye For An Eye.) When the act is negative it often leads to the better-known Vicious Cycle. Once Vicious Cycles of behavior start they are hard to stop. Luckily, the same is true of a Virtuous Cycle.

New Agers refer to “Random Acts of Kindness”, “What Goes Around Comes Around”, “Pay It Forward” and similar. Sometimes they talk as if the universe acts in a mystical way to ensure we all get what we should, and one kind deed will be rewarded by another. In fact, there is nothing mystical about it. It’s biology and the social psychology of groups.

Let’s say you do somebody a favor. It can be something as small as getting a coke or a coffee for them when you get one for yourself. It can be something as meaningful as a thank you or congratulations card for a special occasion. Whatever it is, the person receiving it will feel something more than just gratitude or appreciation. Chances are they will feel a mild sense of obligation to do something positive and approximately equivalent for you.

If something that is done for you is appropriate and thoughtful three things usually follow. You will probably feel good about the giver; you will probably feel you should do something equivalent for them; and you will probably feel that you like them a little more than you did before. These three things are what set up the Virtuous Cycle. You will start to do little things for them, and over time, as they respond, you build a closer and more productive relationship with each other.

Anthropologists have observed this in groups throughout the animal world, including in monkey packs. That's why reciprocity and the Virtuous Cycle is sometimes identified as the power of “You Scratch My Back And I’ll Scratch Yours”…literally. Imagine the monkeys grooming each other and "scratching each others' backs". It's a very bonding experience, and it builds a cohesive group. When something is difficult for us to do we often find that it’s easier for someone else, and they are happy to do it for us in the reasonable expectation that when it’s their turn for help we’ll step up.

You see the Virtuous Cycle at work most in groups or organizations where the formal power structure is least obvious, or not yet sorted out. Collaborative, high performing teams use a lot of reciprocity. So do organizations with flat hierarchies, or groups who haven’t yet sorted out how people work best together.

The good thing about Virtuous Cycles is that they tend to grow, and spin off other Virtuous Cycles. People are highly influence by their social surroundings. Even if the acts of goodness aren’t directly benefiting them people will tend to model their behavior on what they see around them, and so another’s Virtuous Cycles of good behavior often prompt others to spontaneously begin their own.

Beginning Virtuous Cycles are a prime way of kick starting and maintaining productive relationships. Whenever I work with an executive or senior leadership team who want to extend their influence in a positive principled way, we work on setting up Virtuous Cycles of Good.

A psychologist's thoughts on the Tour De France

2009-07-27T20:05:00.000-05:00

This isn’t a post just for cycling lovers. As you can see on the left, I enjoy getting out on two wheels whenever I can. However, I’ve just spent three weeks watching the biggest international event in professional cycling, and I have some thoughts on what I saw and how it relates to the world of business. Here are my (slightly) random thoughts.

A lesson in presence from The Next Food Network Star

2009-07-20T18:24:00.002-05:00

Developing presence is one of the most common coaching requests from middle and senior executives. It’s rare that someone comes out and says “I need more presence”, but it’s common for people to review their 360 feedback or reflect on their career progression and decide they need a better ability to engage others and generate respect and support.

The Next Food Network Star is a reality program where a season’s worth of contestants come together to compete for the prize of their own show on the Food Network. Culinary challenges are thrown at the contestants each week with the aim of finding out two things: do they have cooking expertise, and do they have the presence to become a television star.

Something that makes the show different is that the judges’ panel includes two food network executives who provide real feedback and coaching. They want to select the finalist with the most presence who will generate ratings for them next season. Along the way they want to develop the finalists with the best potential to maximize their presence for the home audience.

This week, we got a lesson in developing presence from Melissa, (Season Five, Episode Seven if you want to Google it and see the show highlights). In this episode the network deliberately messes with the finalists, putting them on a live breakfast show with various technical faults they can’t anticipate and have to deal with on-air. The host gets Melissa’s name wrong repeatedly, and in various other ways gets her totally flustered on live television.

We see Melissa panic. Her delivery quickens, the tone of her voice goes up, and her facial expressions give away that hunted look that communicates “get me out of here”. After, the judges tell her what they saw, and give her advice on how to improve.

Here are the three things she does to improve her presence:

Incorporate stakeholder feedback
Communicate to connect
Get in flow and enjoy the work

Incorporate stakeholder feedback. I have written before about what many people do when faced with negative feedback. Usually it’s one of four things. They claim it wasn’t really a problem, they provide reasons why they really aren't unhappy with the outcome, they blame something or someone else, or they act like what we know happened didn’t really happen. We can call these the Justify, Rationalize, Excuse and Deny strategies. The trouble is, trying to Justify, Rationalize, Excuse or Deny when we know something went wrong just makes things worse. It makes people want to argue with you so that you “get it”, or it makes them want to punish you so that you “get what’s coming to you”.

Melissa takes the opposite and better tactic. She acknowledges feedback and shows respect for her stakeholders by demonstrating to them how she has incorporated it into her behavior. Note: she doesn’t always have to agree, but she always at least acknowledges feedback and shows how it will affect what she does next time. In almost every case responding positively to audience feedback builds presence. It makes your audience invested in your success because they feel a part of what’s going on with you. In this case the judges panel are a proxy for the real at-home TV audience. Nevertheless, in a strange way watching Melissa take on the panel’s feedback engages our attention and commands our respect and support. (Or at least it did with me…your results may differ).

Communicate to connect. There are many aspects of communicating with presence. In this episode Melissa loses her audience when she is seen to mildly panic in front of them. The judges advise her to be more commanding with her communication. Melissa focuses on what she feels she can control, and we hear her tell herself that she is going to slow down her delivery to be more impactful. “When I slow down my speech my mind and body follow” she says. This is actually great advice for anyone. Call it gravitas, purpose or presence; we know that people with slower and more deliberate communication generally command more audience attention and respect. Speed of delivery is something concrete and actionable that most people can control.

Get in the flow and enjoy the work. You have to “read between the lines” to see this one in the episode. When people are given pep talks before going out to perform they are often told to “just go out there and enjoy yourself”. It’s easier said than done. However, I believe that’s because the advice often misses one vital aspect. You have to “get in the flow” and go enjoy yourself. Think of getting in the flow as being totally immersed and carried along by the work.

Flow is a concept popularized by one of my favorite psychologists, Mihály Csíkszentmihályi. The big implication for presence is that audiences tend to mirror the emotions and behaviors of their presenters. Humans are wired for empathy and imitation. If we see someone enjoying themselves and fully engaged in their work we tend to be more interested and enjoy ourselves more as well. In her final challenge of the episode Melissa lets go of her anxieties, slows down her communication and visibly enjoys being fully engaged in her cooking. (And as an added bonus her better performance comes out in her meal!)

Presence is an elusive concept. Having an impressive appearance or bearing, commanding respect and attention, enlisting others sympathies and support….who wouldn’t want these things?

In this episode we see someone take on three highly actionable behaviors and improve their presence. Whenever I have clients who want to improve their presence here’s my three part program:

Actively solicit stakeholder feedback and visibly incorporate it into your behavior
Communicate to connect, (we often need to look at just what is being done to lose the audience)
Get in the flow and enjoy your work

What's in a word, (or a title)?

2009-07-12T21:08:00.004-05:00

There's a lot in a word, or the titles you chose for your programs! I’ve written before on the importance of paying close attention to the words used in an organization to get a feeling for what the organization holds important. A recent article in Newsweek shows it’s not only the actual words that are used; it’s also how the words are used.

The article quotes Lera Boroditsky, a psychologist at Stanford. She has done a series of experiments showing that people who use words from different cultures and languages actually see the world differently according to the words they use and how they use them.

We have known for a long time that having a word for something enables you think about the thing in a more sophisticated way. The best example is the way Eskimos are supposed to have many words for snow, so they are able to recognize many types of snow. Closer to home, my father was an interior designer. He had many words for “red”. Consequently, he could accurately remember different colors, match different patterns, and tell you if someone’s dress was really “red” or perhaps scarlet, carmine, crimson, pink, burgundy, cherry, or even madder lake.

Boroditsky also shows how the language used to describe an event can affect not only what you see and remember, but how you think about what you saw.

To quote the article,

“English says "she broke the bowl" even if it smashed accidentally (she dropped something on it, say), Spanish and Japanese describe the same event more like "the bowl broke itself." "When we show people video of the same event," says Boroditsky, "English speakers remember who was to blame even in an accident, but Spanish and Japanese speakers remember it less well than they do intentional actions. It raises questions about whether language affects even something as basic as how we construct our ideas of causality."

So when you chose the language that is acceptable in your organization one thing you are doing is enabling everyone to share a common meaning more accurately. For example, calling something “red” could be open to many interpretations, but calling it “scarlet” is likely to lead to more accurate color matching.

You could go further and say that if you chose the right words not only can you ensure more accuracy, you can positively influence how people think about the thing you are describing.

I’m about to head off to plan a workshop on performance for a high performing group of professionals in the legal industry. Do you think it matters if we call it “Performance Calibration and Consensus Planning” or “Raising the Bar on Results”?

Top Chef Masters: The Good, The Bad and The Guilty

2009-06-21T19:56:00.005-05:00

I noticed on a recent episode of “Top Chef: Masters” that there is a significant difference between the way these seasoned, successful chefs treat failure and the way the normal reality show contestant acts when faced with the judges’ panel. It’s a good lesson for most executives, (whether they watch reality TV or not).

In most cases when someone goes before the judges on a reality show they do one of four things. They claim it wasn’t really a problem, they provide reasons why they really aren't unhappy with the outcome, they blame something or someone else, or they act like what we know happened didn’t really happen. We can call these the Justify, Rationalize, Excuse and Deny strategies. The trouble is, trying to Justify, Rationalize, Excuse or Deny when we know something went wrong just makes things worse. It makes people want to argue with you so that you “get it”, or it makes them want to punish you so that you “get what’s coming to you”.

A key issue that many executives don’t know how to deal with well is the presence of regret. Regret is when you think something like “how much better this would have been if it had turned out another way.” It's OK to feel and express regret. Regret isn’t the same as guilt. Guilt is when you not only regret something, but feel morally responsible or worthy of punishment. For example, if you hit a child who runs out from between parked cars you would naturally feel regret…but if you were speeding or driving under the influence you should probably feel guilty as well.

When people feel guilty they should ‘fess up and face the consequences. When people feel guilty and don’t want to take responsibility, or feel the consequences exceed what they are prepared to face, they Justify, Rationalize, Excuse and Deny.

The Top Chef Masters certainly made mistakes and did things the judges might have found questionable. One very well known chef cooked his pasta in the bathroom, (you have to see the episode). Another froze all his fresh produce before the contest started. However, although both chefs expressed regret, in the sense that they would have preferred things to have happened differently, neither acted guilty. Consequently, the judges didn’t feel the need to argue with them, or punish them.

Most of us make mistakes, and when we do we should be prepared to face consequences without attracting undue argument or punishment. We should regret what happened, and accept the consequences without acting guilty. The way the master chefs acted was exactly the way to do this.

First, they acknowledged what happened without shrugging it off. Again, think of our driver who has hit a child in the road. We would be shocked and angry if the driver’s response was too glib, or didn’t appropriately acknowledge that we all would rather the child weren’t hit. Imagine if the driver said something like “well it’s really too bad but it’s not my fault…it’s not like it was my responsibility not to drive in the road rather than that negligent child or parents’ fault.” Ouch! Instead, our top chefs admitted what they had done and definitely didn’t downplay what happened or shrug it off.

Secondly, they agreed it would have been better otherwise, and expressed appropriate regret. In Top Chef Masters the chefs come before a panel of judges who have eaten their food and sat among their customers. If something the chefs have done affected the judges personally, they apologize, and express regret. A simple “I’m sorry about that” goes a long way to disarm the Argue/Punish response.

Finally, if you watch the episode carefully you see the third element of the chefs’ way of handling their mistakes. They remain quietly optimistic about the future. Either they say they learned from their mistake, (that chef will check the fridge again before he risks freezing his produce), or they put the mistake in context, (obviously the chef who cooked in the bathroom did so because of the extreme circumstances of the setting, not because he thought it was a good place to cook).

I have often seen successful executives take this one step further if they are going to have an ongoing relationship with the “judge”. Sometimes we make a mistake and the person we end up discussing it with is our boss, our colleague or our customer. When that happens it’s good to take the approach of “how can we make this better”. This ONLY works once you’ve gone through the first three steps, (Acknowledge, Express Regret and Behave Optimistically), otherwise you just set off the Argue/Punish response. Note also the “we”. I describe it as mentally getting you both on the same side of the table. Adopt the attitude that you’re going to sit side-by-side with this person and figure out what will improve the situation.

Good executives make mistakes. If they don’t they’re probably not trying hard enough. When they do it’s important they NEVER resort to one of the guilty behaviors, (Justify, Rationalize, Excuse and Deny). Instead, it’s OK to express what's appropriate in the circumstances, (Acknowledge the situation without shrugging it off; Express regret with an apology where appropriate; Be quietly optimistic about the future). Where an ongoing relationship is involved, the good executive knows the importance of engaging the other in making the situation better.

Aristotle and corporate coaching: An unlikely mix?

2009-06-15T11:55:00.003-05:00

I’m often asked at parties and business gatherings what it is exactly that I do. My work has a broad scope that makes it difficult to summarize. I trained for six years to become a psychologist, and had a career after that as a corporate executive for over fifteen years before striking out on my own. It’s hard to summarize my work for my clients in a simple sentence. The hardest thing to describe is the leadership coaching work I do. I have tried different formulations: at the end of this article is what I think is a neat sentence summarizing the work of the corporate coach.

I was reading one of my journals recently and came across some material on Aristotle and his philosophy. I’m going to suggest that Aristotle fits the bill as the first example of the work of a corporate coach. He was a simple man who served as teacher and guide to three kings, including Alexander The Great. He had to make his advice straightforward, serve it up with humility, and make sure it worked. That sounds a lot like the work of a corporate coach. So how might Aristotle sum up his role?

Let’s start with this idea: The role of the leader is to create the environment in which everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential. This is not some new age philosophy. You want people to do their best, and to do their best they have to reach their full potential.

Aristotle isn’t talking about businesses or corporate organizations, he’s talking about the role of the leader to develop the citizens in their state, but the basic idea is the same. “Help people reach their full potential”. The bottom line is that this is as good a formulation of the role of the leader as you’re likely to see anywhere. It’s simple, it’s timeless, and it beats “people are our most important asset”.

Ok…so here’s the second big idea. Aristotle’s “clients” were the leaders and future kings of Athens and ancient Greece. He saw his role as helping them reach their full potential. What’s more, he wanted them to be able to do the same for their people. So Aristotle had a simple “three step program” to help someone reach their potential.

Step one: Help them become a person of practical wisdom. Aristotle called practical wisdom “the happy medium between two extremes”. A simple example can illustrate what he meant. I occasionally have clients who have become quite senior, but who still have time management issues. They struggle to maintain a good calendar, projects can be derailed because significant milestones are missed, and it’s harder for them than it should be to keep track of their various obligations.

To begin to correct this I help them learn about the extremes of time management, understanding what happens when too little effort is made, and the consequences of becoming overly burdened by an inflexible set of obligations. In the middle is a happy medium. Between being completely locked into a calendar or totally out of control there is a happy place where you have a simple system to prioritize obligations with enough flexibility to meet every day circumstances. If you study the fundamentals it’s easier to see the pay-offs for just the right amount of effort.

Step two: Find a good role model. Aristotle called these people phronemos. They’re not the same as a coach or teacher or mentor. They are people who have achieved success in a particular field, or practice a skill well. They provide an opportunity to study practical wisdom in practice by observing their success.
For my time management challenged clients good role models often include many of their peers and colleagues, and even some of their clients. They could certainly just passively observe how these people juggle their obligations successfully. More often I suggest they kill two birds with one stone. I recommend they approach these role models directly and asks them how they do it. My clients learn something valuable and build stronger relationships at the same time.

Step three: Learn from experience. Aristotle is no armchair philosopher. He completely believed in observation, evidence, and the role of experience. I often tell clients that “people don’t learn from experience”. What I go on to add is that people only learn from reflecting on their experience. To do anything well you need to practice, reflect on what happened, and build your learning into your next trial so that you continuously improve.

In a nutshell, these three steps are 90% of the work of the corporate coach: Help your clients see the fundamentals in a situation, point them in the direction of good role models, and get them to practice, practice, practice.

60 Second Guide to Performance Agreement Meetings

2009-06-07T16:11:00.004-05:00

Organizations are emphasizing the importance of multiple sources of information when doing performance reviews and giving performance ratings to your employees. A great source of information that will help you understand your team’s performance and help them to improve is an open discussion about your employees' performance with your manager and peers. Over the next 60 seconds, we'll bring you up to speed with the latest way to help your employees reach their maximum potential.

0:60: What is a Performance Agreement meeting?

A Performance Agreement Meeting is the formal name for a discussion between a manager and one or more of their supervisors where they come to an agreement about performance ratings before the supervisor meets with their employees. They are also called One-Up Meetings, Performance Calibration Meetings and Performance Consensus Meetings.

0:54: Why bother?

We know that one of the things that is most important to employees is a sense they are being treated equally and fairly in the workplace. Performance ratings have such a huge impact on career development, job opportunities and work distribution. It’s important that every employee feels they are being judged by the same standards.

0:48: You mean it’s like diversity?

Exactly. We’re used to diversity requirements that ensure we treat employees equally and without fear or favor based on their race, gender or age. Ensuring performance ratings are applied equally by different supervisors is just an extension of the same principle.

0:42: Don’t I already have enough information?

Perhaps. The truth is supervisors don’t always get it right. There are at least three reasons why you might not have the right information to rate your employee alone. Sometimes other people see different things you do…we all know employees who behave differently around their boss, for better and worse. Sometimes you have a different “yardstick” to everyone else…what you call unreasonable may be OK by the rest of the group, and vice versa. Finally, sometimes supervisors are just wrong. Our own judgments aren’t always right and it’s wise to have a second, or even a third and fourth opinion to take into account.
0:36: Won’t it take too long? It doesn’t sound very practical…
The key is to focus on short, practical discussions without lengthy procedures and processes.

0:30: Does this mean my managers don’t trust me? Don’t I know my employees best?

The process works best when there is openness and trust. It’s about helping, supporting and developing supervisors so they can do their job more easily and develop their careers. Managers know supervisors have the best knowledge of their employees’ performance. That’s why they want to be involved through the process. They don’t just want to know when there is a problem, they also want to know when people do well.

0:24: OK, but how do we get the conversations going?

First, the ground rules: there has to be confidentiality and trust. Be open to hearing what others say about your employees, and be prepared to share your view of their performance. Use the discussion as an opportunity to get more input and prepare better feedback for your employees.

0:18: So what are some good discussion starters?

Use these simple starting points for your discussions:

The Start-Up Test: Who would you take with you to start up a new role, department, or company.
Riding, or Pulling the Wagon: Talk about who you think the employees would judge is pulling their fair share, and who is “riding in the wagon”.
The Incredible Shrinking Job: Some people seem like perfectly good performers, but we make allowances for them so that their job shrinks each year. Maybe they don’t know how to use the latest technology, or they’ve been here a long time and no-one wants to rock the boat by asking them to stretch themselves. Which of our employees has an Incredible Shrinking Job?

These three exercises give an opportunity to explore the manager’s view, the peer view and the market view respectively. With the first test, really look closely at identifying the top two or three. With the wagon test review 360 feedback where available and other data to support the “riding or pulling” decision. Finally, really look at your employees and decide if they are still as valuable as we thought they were when we hired them, and how would the market value them today.

0:12: What happens next?

At the end of the day the final rating the employee gets is still the responsibility of the supervisor. After an open One-Up Meeting with your manager and your peers you will have good feedback to know that your ratings are fair and consistent with how others in your group are evaluated.

0:01: How do I arrange a Performance Agreement meeting to help me rate my employees?

Performance Agreement Meetings should be just a normal part of managing your staff. You can probably arrange discussions for a couple of hours two or three times a year with your manager to make sure your evaluations of your staff are fair and consistent. Get in touch with your manager, or if you would like to arrange meetings with your peers contact them or anyone in your Human Resources Department.

Feel free to download a copy to keep or distribute here. You can email me here with comments or leave a question or reaction below.

Change Management Milestones

2009-06-01T15:43:00.007-05:00

"We are embarking on a major change management project. Our implementation consultants are helping us with all the technical aspects of getting this done. We have project milestones for each of the major decision points. Are there some specific change management milestones we should build into our project plan?"

Yes! Many times the implementation team will focus on Go/No Go decisions that give special emphasis to executing the change in a way as technically efficiently as possible, without necessarily considering the effects on the people involved.

We know that people generally follow a predictable path when dealing with change and transitions. You can see the path in the diagram here, (click on the picture for a larger version). The stages are Denial, Anger, Self-Concern, Search For Meaning, Testing and Internalization. With small variations depending on methodology and circumstances we see these same stages in studies of people dealing with death and dying, dealing with workplace change, and dealing with divorce and marriage.

From corporate mergers to IT software implementations, it is often quoted that around 70% of change initiatives fail to meet their stated objectives. The top three reasons: Resistance to Change; Inadequate Sponsorship; and Unrealistic Expectations. A good change management or project implementation plan builds in milestones that specifically address the stages of change and reasons for failure.

Here are six milestones that help the Change Management team ensure that people make the transitions that will make the change easier and more likely to succeed.

We have adequately communicated the reasons for the project so that everyone is AWARE of the need for change.
We have created and communicated an engaging vision of the future so that people DESIRE the change.
We have identified legitimate concerns from everyone involved, and provided everyone with the KNOWLEDGE to address their concerns and contribute to project.
We have given people the ABILITY to participate, test and explore the options in the project and maximize its potential.
We have provided REINFORCEMENT and rewards so that people can own, internalize and celebrate the success of the project.

Think of these as Go/No Go statements where the team should only move on to the next step in the project if they can comfortably agree with the milestone statement.

The model known as ADKAR, (Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement), is well researched and has been around for a long time. You can see from the diagram how the milestones fit in with the different stages of peoples’ reactions to change.

The vast majority of projects inadequately deal with resistance, lack of support and poor expectations. I worked on an HR project where we successfully changed the way 22,000 employees worldwide were given performance appraisals, and another where an Enterprise Requirements Planning system was implemented so successfully it became a case study at the vendors’ customer council. The milestones are practical, and provide structure to the planning team. Planning for the people side of change enables the technical side of change to occur effectively.

(Incidentally, the Return On Investment for engaging a change management expert and putting these milestones into place is enormous. Apart from minimizing the risk that the project will go wrong, you will maximize the speed and success of the project far in excess of the cost of any reasonable person you bring in to help.)

Feel free to download a copy to keep or distribute here. You can email me here with comments or leave a question or reaction below.

Memorial Day

2009-05-25T13:52:00.003-05:00

In the US today is Memorial Day, a national holiday commemorating US men and women who died while on military service. While it was moved from its original date to accommodate a three day weekend, and it’s traditionally the start of summer and the day of the Indianapolis 500, Memorial Day is still observed as a day of gratitude for those who sacrifice their all on our behalf.

Memorial Day is something commemorated in one form or another in many places around the world. In the United Kingdom there is Armistice Day, specifically remembering the day on which World War One officially ended. Where I come from in Australia we have Anzac Day, recognizing the members of the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps who fought and died during a particularly bloody defeat in the Dardanelles during “the war to end all wars”.

What most of these days have in common is coming together to express thankfulness, honor and respect. The original Memorial Day was to honor the fallen Union troops of the Civil War. Over time we have come to extend our days of remembrance to include all those who have sacrificed during wartime, whatever we think of the original conflicts and causes. In Australia Turks who fought against the Australians at Gallipoli march alongside their one time enemies in commemorative parades, joined together in showing respect and regret for all death and warfare.

One of the Basic Interpersonal Skills is to “always make the effort to make things better”. One aspect of this is “being firm with the facts, and fair with the people”. Memorial Day is an occasion to think about the cost and pain of warfare. Our national days of mourning are an opportunity to show honor and respect for our past, present and future members of the military, and by extension our police, medical, fire and other services who put themselves in danger every day to serve and protect. It’s a good time to consider how we can all live so their sacrifices are properly respected.

My final (?) comment on my surgery

2009-05-18T11:42:00.010-05:00

Last week I ventured out into public professionally for the first time since my operation. It’s been about three and a half months since the diagnosis and operation to repair the faulty valve in my heart. Everyone I met was wonderfully supportive.

It’s good to be among colleagues who are also friends and to have a work environment that is also a positive social environment. It got me thinking about how important friendship is, even at work.

In my work with clients I emphasize the importance of a supportive network of positive relationships. My surgery and the experience afterwards was a reminder that it’s not only at work that supportive networks are important. A Wall Street Journal Article this weekend quoted an Australian university study of more than fifteen hundred women over fourteen years. It found that that the women with the most friends lived an average of 22% longer than the women with the fewest friends. That’s an enormous difference, and it’s repeated over and over with very little variation in the scientific literature.

Sometimes I hear people at work say “I’m not here to make friends”. Well sure, that’s not why you’re coming to work. However, it’s foolish to forgo the opportunity to build a supportive network in your work environment. We know that having fewer friends will make your personal life much more difficult, not to mention the professional effect of missing out on the support of your colleagues .

I’m extremely grateful for all the support I received from all our friends, clients and colleagues. Genevieve and I spent the last month of my recovery “getting away from it all” in Europe, (that’s us in the picture at Versaille in Paris). We traveled around, exercised every day and caught up with family and friends, even staying with some of our old clients who crossed that line and became our good friends as well. When I left Minneapolis I still couldn’t lift my carry-on into the overhead locker. Now I feel brand new after a month of fresh air, lots of exercise and constant contact with people who care.

This is an open thank you to everyone who was so wonderful. Speaking professionally, it’s given me encouragement to keep doing what I do. Speaking personally, it’s given me a sense of humility and gratitude for the great people I’m surrounded by.

This will probably be the last posting specifically covering my operation and afterwards. Now it's time to get back to a full focus on work. One thing I do know...over the next period of my life it's time to pay this forward with everyone I can.

You can email me here with comments or leave a question or reaction below.

If they're not on track...ask!

2009-03-25T16:50:00.005-05:00

“I have an employee who isn’t meeting my performance expectations. I don’t want to take disciplinary action inappropriately…is there some short set of questions I can ask that gets to the bottom of the issue?”

Managers are often reluctant to take appropriate corrective action with an employee. Sometimes it’s because they think the employee is too senior, (really), sometimes they feel it’s just a personality issue they need to get over, and sometimes they can’t quite put their finger on the performance issue that needs to be addressed. Corrective action comes in many forms, and disciplinary processes are the last resort.

Here are the four questions I use:

1: Is the goal unclear? Sometimes employees don’t meet expectations because they don’t understand what the expectations are. Of course, sometimes the managers aren’t clear on the expectations either, and that’s where a good performance review and consensus process is essential. However, if there is any doubt at all on the clarity of the goals there is a simple solution. Make sure they’re SMART, (Simple, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Defined).

2: Is the employee competent? Sometimes the employee just doesn’t have the required skills and abilities for the job. No amount of “performance management” is going to fix that. Have a candid discussion with the employee and decide to either get the required coaching and training, or change the employee’s job requirements.

3: Have things changed? Sometimes circumstances have moved on and the original goals just aren’t relevant any more. Particularly in the current climate, you can’t hold employee’s personally responsible for circumstances out of their control. Once again, have a candid discussion with the employee, remove barriers to success, facilitate problem solving, or renegotiate the goal.

4: Is it a problem of motivation? This is probably the classic precursor to disciplinary action. If the goal is clear, the employee is competent and things haven’t changed, then the only reason I can see why the employee isn’t performing is because they don’t have the appropriate engagement, incentives, or motivation. Manage them up or manage them on.

Most people are aware an issue exists before the discussion starts. Demonstrate that you can be trusted and the conversation will go much easier. If the employee knows they will be treated with dignity and respect you’ll have an open and candid exchange and come to a positive resolution.

Feel free to download a copy to keep or distribute here. You can email me here with comments or leave a question or reaction below.

Getting the most from ‘one-up’ meetings with your boss on performance

2009-03-25T16:09:00.007-05:00

“OK…my HR team has convinced me to get involved in our performance calibration meetings. I’m going to have a “one-up” meeting with my boss. What should I expect, and how can I prepare so I get the best use of my time?”

You and your manager are going to sit together and discuss the performance standards in your area. There may even be other supervisors there. Whether or not it’s been arranged formally, most executives want their managers to come to them with a sensible plan for how they are going to apply the organization’s performance standards to their people. Some businesses such as GE even mandate the process.

You are probably going to come to two kinds of understanding: UNDERSTANDING of the RATINGS that define each level of performance, and common APPLICATION of the RATINGS across a range of performers. Your ‘one-up’ meeting is really a Ratings Consensus meeting.

I recommend clients start by agreeing on a common understanding of the performance ratings. To do this, don’t just look at words such as Below, Meets or Exceeds Expectations. You can argue about those all day and still not reach agreement. Rather, imagine what it would look like if an employee were performing at that standard in your group.

For example, you discover an employee error and the employee is asked to correct it. The employee denies there is an error and refuses to investigate or take corrective action. Depending on the severity of the error, you might all agree this is behavior meriting a “Below Expectations” rating or even disciplinary action. Another example might be a receptionist who is recognized by others for their enthusiasm and whose greetings are now standard throughout the department merits an “Exceeds Expectations” rating.

Gaining this kind of agreement on the meaning of the performance ratings can take a significant amount of time, depending on the number of ratings in your system, and the number of different levels of employees and kinds of jobs they have. If well facilitated you can do this as a group, (one manager and all their supervisors), and it shouldn’t take much more than 90 minutes to three hours. A worthwhile investment for a certain return in future time, well-being and productivity!

Once you have reached agreement on what the ratings look like when translated into behavior, it’s a relatively simple process to have a principled discussion about the ratings to be applied to each person. Whether it’s done as a group, (which I recommend), or just between you and your boss, all you have to do is produce your best examples of the employee’s behavior which fit with the ratings you have agreed on. If you’re doing it as a group, be prepared that other people may disagree with you based on what they see.

This is also the answer to the preparation you need to do. Throughout the review period keep a running collection of examples of the employee’s behavior and achievements. Present them at the meeting.

I’ve talked before about the benefits to the organization when good performance consensus occurs. There is also a big payoff for the supervisor. It’s difficult to be the only one who sets stretch goals, or holds people accountable. It’s also hard to earn the disrespect of your people for being too harsh, or too soft. It’s much easier to be a principled people leader and be known for achieving your goals when you are consistent and have the support of your peers.

Download a copy to keep or share here, and email me with any questions here.

Gaining consensus on performance ratings

2009-03-25T15:07:00.005-05:00

“My human resources team wants me to get involved in “Performance Calibration Meetings.” It seems like a lot of work and something that will take away my ability to rate my people the way I want. Why should I get involved?”

A Performance Calibration Meeting is a discussion between a manager and one or more supervisors where they come to an agreement about the performance ratings to be applied to the supervisor’s employees.

By performance ratings I mean the kind of feedback we give to employees in their performance reviews. They are usually some variation of the Below Expectations, Meets Goals, and Exceeds Standards variety. There are two kinds of calibration: common UNDERSTANDING of the RATINGS that define each level of performance, and common APPLICATION of the RATINGS across a range of performers. A better term for the meetings may be Ratings Reviews, or Ratings Consensus meetings.

The meetings are designed to enable managers and supervisors to reach agreement on the performance ratings to be given to each employee. They do take time and require some deep thinking about the standards your employees are achieving. They are definitely a good idea, and I support their introduction into every management and executive team I work with. Here’s why.

We know that one of the things that is most important to employees is a sense they are being treated equally and fairly in the workplace. Performance ratings have such a huge impact on career development, job opportunities and work distribution. It’s important that every employee feels they are being judged by the same standards. We’re used to diversity requirements that ensure we treat employees equally and without fear or favor based on their race, gender or age. Ensuring performance ratings are applied equally is just an extension of the same principle.

We also know that if we want to use our performance ratings as input to decisions such as pay, bonuses, promotions and disciplinary actions…they had better be right! I have seen many organizations open themselves up to significant legal and financial consequences because their performance management system contained inherent biases or a disorganized application of standards.

Quite apart from making sure that the organization applies consequences and rewards appropriately, you want to make sure you don’t suffer from applying performance ratings inappropriately.

Finally, don’t underestimate the power that comes from having everyone in the organization aligned around the right tasks performed to the right standards. Providing a common language, common understanding and common application of performance ratings eases communication and ensures accountability. We know that with a well functioning performance management system you can easily achieve 10 – 15% efficiency and productivity gains with the same resources.

As always, trust is essential. If you are going to participate in a performance consensus process of some sort there had better be an atmosphere of respect and trust. You are going to talk about how employees are judged, and how you set and enforce standards. The people you are sharing with had better respect confidentiality, and be well motivated to supporting and helping each other. If they are, the rewards are significant.

Feel free to download a copy to keep or share here, and you can always email me with questions or follow up here.

Communicating Difficult News In Tough Times

2009-03-23T07:59:00.009-05:00

"We’re going through tough times in our organization and I need to be able to communicate with our employees and stakeholders some of the difficult decisions and changes we are going to make. What’s the best practice in how this should be done?"

First, we know that nothing will get you very far unless you are a principled leader of your business. By that I mean that you have to be able to balance people issues and task issues, and get both done with integrity. Being too task focused during a change only means you end up coercing people, being too people focused means you end up as a cheerleader. Doing both with integrity is what counts.

Provided you have established yourself as a principled leader you can leverage your position to communicate difficult issues with integrity. Think of the communication as something locked away in a vault. Trust is the key you use to unlock the vault and begin the process of sharing the knowledge.

Here are five best practices supported by research and experience. You can think of them as the labels on your keyring, helping you unlock the vault:

1: Understand that people generally follow a predictable path when dealing with change and transitions. Whether the news is good or bad, (but especially if it’s bad), most people go through six responses we can describe as Denial, Anger, Self-Concern, (sometimes accompanied by anxiety, depression and bargaining), Search for Meaning and Options, Testing Alternatives and finally Ownership/Acceptance. Accept the likelihood of each response and prepare for it.

2: Understand what people need to hear at each stage. Tailor the communications to the needs of audience as they move through the typical reactions. At first, they need Awareness of the issues, delivered with dignity and respect. Once they have absorbed the first news, people generally need to have four other messages delivered that raise their Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Rewards during the change. For example, if you are delivering news of restructuring the beginning is to raise the awareness of the need to change, followed by information that starts to deal with people’s denial and anger by raising their desire for a better future.

3: Understand that different stakeholders have different needs. It’s likely that individuals in a business going through a staff reduction will probably need different information to raise their awareness of the need to change. It might depend on whether they are senior executives, employees or customers used to dealing with their favorite staff person. The worst organizations make blanket statements that are subject to misinterpretation. The best organizations carefully craft messages to address what is important for their different stakeholders.

4: Understand that people want to hear the news from their most direct contact. Sure, it’s important that the CEO is seen to be on board and leading the change. In fact it’s very important that they are a model for how people will be treated, (with dignity and respect), and a communicator of the vision of the better future. However, staff want to hear news from their direct supervisor; customers want to hear news from their customer service representative or account manager. It’s the people who are closest to them who will be able to discuss how the news affects them, and it’s these people they will turn to when they need help or resources in the future.

5: Understand that the best practice is to craft the complete plan before taking any action. One of the difficulties in communicating tough messages is that once you have made a decision you feel obliged to act as quickly as practical. Too often this can mean that the messages aren’t as well thought through as they should be and not as tailored as they should be. We’ve all had one of those emails that come down from on high telling us about some major change and leaving us with more questions than they answered. A good plan includes contingencies, and briefing notes that help prepare each person for the key talking points of their message. Good plans include different talking notes for different levels of people, and different audiences, as well as answers to questions that are likely to come up. The best plans include an outline of the entire process that can be adapted as circumstances develop.

Finally, remember that trust is the key. If you are delivering bad news, or even if it’s good news that is going to disrupt the regular order of things, people need to be able to trust that you will see them through the change. Getting things done with people happens more easily, more profitably and more quickly if there is trust. Trust is the essential ingredient: Trust that you are capable; Trust that you are reliable; Trust that you are open, and Trust that your motivations are good.

You can contact me or email me here if you would like more information on building a communication plan that keeps your employees and clients engaged...or click on COMMENTS below to leave a response for others to view.

The Culture Words Exercise in Organizational Awareness

2009-03-08T18:59:00.007-05:00

There is a theory in the study of languages that the words you can use to describe something determine how you see the thing you describe, an idea that culture shapes your language, and your language shapes your culture.

In other words, if you don’t have a word for it, you don’t see it, and vice versa. Family, work and national cultures are full of culture specific words that help you understand how the culture works.

For example, when I learned Japanese at High School I learned about wabi, a flaw that makes something beautiful, or “the perfection of imperfection”. It sounds like nothing we have a word for in English but we completely understand the concept. We buy handmade suits or shoes because it’s the very imperfection of the handmade process that makes them perfect…perfectly machine stitched mass-produced clothes just aren’t as good. If you lived in a culture or worked in a place where wabi was a frequently used word you would know something about what the people value…you would be more "culturally aware" or “organizationally aware”.

An organization I once worked with frequently used the phrase “weed, seed and feed”. It represented an HR philosophy that first you had to weed out the bad performers, then seed the organization with good performers, and only if you were doing that could you afford to feed the ones who were left over. You can see that knowing about “weed, seed and feed” tells you a lot about the HR team.

Exercise:

Find three words, phrases or pieces of jargon that are specific to your organization. What do they mean, who uses them, and when are they most often used?

Review:

What does this tell you about what your organization thinks is important?

For Advanced Discussion:

Find someone who is not in your organization but who can relate to it in some way, (maybe a customer, a competitor or even a family member who shares your values but works somewhere else). Ask them what culture specific words they use in their organization. Are they describing something you understand but don’t have a word for, in which case, does this mean it’s something more important to their organization than yours? Are they describing something you have in your organization but use different words for, in which case how do you think the different words came about and what does that say about your organization?

You can down load a copy to print or share here, or email me with a comment or question here. If you want to leave a comment for everyone to see click on COMMENTS below.

The end of Week Five Post-Op

2009-03-08T18:42:00.006-05:00

This photo of me was taken by my ever patient photographer wife at the end of my first run, exactly five weeks after my surgery. I didn’t run far, maybe two miles in the sub-zero temperature…it’s a start.

This had been a bad week for me, but it’s all relative. It began with a bloody nose on Tuesday morning after a particularly violent sneeze. It turned out that I had burst a capillary in my nose, and with the blood thinners I am taking it just wouldn’t stop. I had to cancel meetings I had set up, and then put up with hanging around the house feeling useless while my nose dripped.

One thing that happened as a result…I finally got it fixed on Saturday. I’d gone to Urgent Care as recommended by my physician if it wouldn’t stop, and after a really bad downpour that ruined a shirt I’d had enough. I was ready to get my nose cauterized. My blood pressure was up, and my blood clotting ability was down, so they’ve changed my meds and then looked at what they could do to fix the bleeding in the meantime. “Have you tried Afrin?” asked the physician.

I’m thinking it will be a $95,000 experimental drug I’ll need to get special permission to take, and it turns out to be a $3.50 over the counter spray that most people would already have used. I guess he could have recommended a more significant medical intervention, but he did for me what I hope my advice does for my clients: regardless of what he gets out of it he presented the most effective solution in my best interest.

The second thing reinforced for me this week was the kindness of the people I know, both personally and professionally. I have four projects on currently, and I’ve had to contact each client, explain my situation, and talk with them about how we can handle their project in the best way for them. The very positive thing is that each one has gone out of their way to accommodate me, juggling calendars, doing work virtually and by email, and generally being as helpful as possible. I’ve had flowers sent to my home, books and meals left for me by friends and colleagues, and even a bag of chocolate covered licorice, (my favorite), deposited anonymously on my doorstep.

In the past I’ve visited my friends in hospital, dropped by and offered help when they’ve been sick and tried to go out of my way to cover for absent colleagues. I don’t think I’ve been particularly good at it, and I’ve never been sure how my efforts have been received. Now I’m on the other side of the operating table let me say, it feels really good to have people make an effort for you. It has helped my recovery enormously and given me a world of motivation to get well. I’m sure it wasn’t done in the spirit of payback, but nevertheless, I feel fortunate to be the recipient of the largess, and an obligation to do more for others in the future.

If the golden rule of “do unto others as you would they do to you” has any meaning it is as a basis for everyone building a kinder, more generous society where we think about how our actions affect others and try to maximize their well-being. My take-away from this week is that I should try to do that more, and ask for help when I don’t know how to deal with a nose-bleed.

One small run for me, one giant thought for society.

Minnesota Judicial Branch Performance Management Superclass

2009-03-07T14:18:00.004-06:00

Thank you for being part of the MJB Performance Management Super Class.

This is going to become your reference for the day’s activities. We are going to update it with electronic links to the key issues we discuss, as well as any topics we bring up that we can include for the future. It will be available here and on your intranet.

You will also be able to use this link to download a copy of the presentation.

Super Class Topics:

1. Principled Leadership
2. Performance Calibration
3. One Up Meetings
4. Describing Behavior Well
5. If The Employee Is Not On Track, Ask…
6. Five Key Steps To Communicating Poor Performance

On Line Materials: The links above will take you to a website and newsletter articles where you will find materials that explain each of the topics.

Below each page there is also a “Comments” box. You can ask a question of me on the website, share something of your own anonymously for other people to comment on and leave examples of your own that you would like a response to.

Follow Up Sessions: We will put together follow up sessions for managers and supervisors. These will be discussion sessions where we can review your questions on the topics we cover and help you work through some of the real life issues you face managing performance with your employees.

You can download this document as a PDF here. If you have a situation you would like covered, or a question you would like to ask, just email me here, or leave your comments for others to share below.

Week five is the week of hubris

2009-03-05T09:07:00.002-06:00

There’s no word in the English language for hubris. The ancient Greeks and Romans wrote about it often. Oedipus in his pride refused to step aside for another on his path and unknowingly killed his father. As a result he goes on in his ignorance to marry his mother, a sort of ironic come-uppance from fate. The word means a lack of humility coupled with overconfident presumption, and usually precedes a suitable downfall.

Wikipedia has a great modern example:

“During the 2006 Winter Olympic Games, American snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis had attained a seemingly insurmountable lead in the Snowboard Cross event final until she attempted a celebratory method grab as she neared completion of the course. The unnecessary move caused her to fall, allowing Tanja Frieden of Switzerland to pass her and win the gold medal. The media has cited this incident as an example of modern-day athletic hubris.”

So…my hubris was assuming my recovery was going so well that I thought I could start back at work three weeks early, and I told people I was “as fit as a lion”. I’m still very well, and there’s no big problem to my health, but starting Tuesday morning I got a nose bleed that wouldn’t stop. I’m on blood thinners so essentially I had a bright red dripping nose from about 11am until bedtime. A trip to the anti-coagulation clinic and some advice has kept the drip somewhat manageable, but still not something you want to inflict on other people.

When you presume too much and get overconfident you leave yourself open to problems! Now I have to eat humble pie and get ready for next week’s challenges. It's a sobering lesson in hubris.

What is the best book about doing business in China?

2009-02-28T16:07:00.011-06:00

“Managing the Dragon” by Jack Perkowski! There are three things that make a business book stand out for me among all the many very ordinary books that are published each month. The author needs to know what they are talking about, They need to have something new to say, and they need to be able to write it in an interesting way that I can relate to.

Perkowski manages to do all three in a book about business that reads like a combination between a personal biography and a travel guide. Throughout the book three themes are continuously repeated, if not always explicitly: Connectedness in relationships, Trust, and Perseverance. I imagine that these three values would also be strong contributors to Perkowski's self-identity.

Perkowski knows what he’s writing about. He went to China in 1991 after a successful career on Wall Street, and founded a automotive parts company currently selling over US$500m and 30% of that outside China. His book outlines how he came to make the connections in China that enabled him to start and build his business, and the various challenges he has faced since.

He has a number of new things to say. For example, many people talk about the challenge of enforcing Intellectual Property Rights, (IPR), in China. Local laws do little to protect IPR, and writers often draw negative conclusions about the Chinese character and society as a result. Perkowski, on the other hand, has a purely economic take on the situation. He talks about the sort of products that are regularly knocked off, the kinds of buyers they have, and the distribution systems. His take is that all of these do much more to explain what happens in China than any judgemental comments about Chinese morality. His own business success shows how he has accommodated and succeeded in the Chinese market without compromising his principles. And the something new? Products with the most proprietary content and highest-technology value are probably the best products to take to China and the easiest to protect. (You’ll have to read the book).

Other counter-intuitive concepts in the book?

• You don’t need a local partner in China, and you might even be better off without one.
• You don’t need to learn Mandarin
• The real reason for the Chinese cost of manufacturing, (it’s not lower labor costs)

Not every one of Perkowski’s plans came out well. He discusses how he went through Plan A to begin his company, (it failed), Plan B, (which also failed), and he eventually settled on Plan C, (the success). The story of his three different strategies and how he learned from his mistakes is a lesson in persistence and humility many leaders can learn from. He describes his journey in China as a marathon.

There is a lot of discussion in the book about baijiu, the local alcoholic drink without which no business dinner seems complete. Many of the stories are funny and entertaining in their own right, and would stand up to inclusion in any collection of witty travel writing. Perkowski also uses them as a platform to talk about the importance of mutual respect, being willing to share, acting kindly toward others and having a sense of humility. All of the various dinners and social drinking sessions seemed to build supportive relationships that furthered the business without being focused on the business.

Finally Perkowski makes two points in his book that are interesting and easy for me to relate to. Firstly, he debunks the popular notion that China is different because it relies on Guanxi, which can best be described as “a network of influence and supportive social relationships”. A lot of foreigners emphasize the extent to which this is important in China, likening it to nepotism or cronyism. In fact, most successful people in any culture rely on networks of influence and social support. Managing The Dragon describes how China is the same, rather than focusing on how it is different. Perkowski uses his own career story to illustrate how important it is to be socially intelligent, and how he has benefited from the support of others.

The other concept emphasized in the book to which I readily relate is the importance of trust. If employee and customer engagement means contributing time, talent and resources to the organization it is impossible to imagine engaging people without trust. The importance of trust is a central theme throughout Managing The Dragon. The book looks at both the benefits of positive trust, and how difficult business is in the absence of trust.

Of all the business books on China I have read, this is one of the few that looks at how doing business in China is much the same as doing principled business anywhere else. No fancy tricks or “gee whiz” formulas. And at the end of the day, Perkowski sounds like a good guy to share baijiu with.

You can email me by clicking here, or leave a comment to share with others by clicking on "COMMENTS" below.

Postscript: After this review was written Jack Perkowski left Asimco. I'm not sure of the circumstances, and I'm not sure they are relevant. However, here's another review of Perkowski's views of doing business in China, this time from the China Law Blog at http://www.chinabusinesslawblog.com/2009/02/want-lasting-relationships-in-china.html Interestingly, the emphasis in the article is on one of the key themes in the book that I picked up on: the importance of trust.

The end of week four

2009-02-28T15:09:00.004-06:00

Genevieve took this portrait of me this morning, exactly four weeks after my surgery. I'm sitting at my computer and finally catching up on all my work and correspondence.

Yesterday we met with my surgeon for the first time since my discharge from the hospital. I'm doing well, as was indicated when the nurses asked if I would like a wheelchair to get to the X-ray department. I haven't used a wheelchair since the second day after the operation, and even walked out of the hospital under my own steam on the day of my discharge.

So yesterday I had a lot of blood samples taken, looked at a lot of charts and figures, and spent a lot of time contemplating my recovery.

I got the go-ahead to start driving, and because I'm pretty flexible now and pain-free, I even got approval to begin some light running if I want. I still can't lift much until the bones knit, but I can get around OK, and I have much of my old stamina back. (My old stamina, as in before 2008 since I suspect that much of what I thought was old age and laziness last year was really the result of the poor heart circulation).

All things being equal, this will probably be the last entry here that specifically relates to how I'm recovering. I still have some insights that have come as a result of the experience, and I'll continue to put those here where I feel they can benefit others.

I also have to say, thinking and writing about things has benefited me enormously, particularly in so far as it has helped me get a sense of humility and the role of good fortune in my recovery.

Everyone has been wonderful and positive, and if I haven't said it directly, (which I hope I have often enough), then at least you know I have been continuously thankful and pleasantly surprised by just how supportive everyone has been.

Sincerely,

David

You can email me with comments by clicking here, or leave a comment for others to see by clicking on "COMMENTS" below.

"Implementing ITIL Change and Release Management", by Larry Klosterboer

2009-02-27T18:22:00.004-06:00

Larry Klosterboer, author of "Implementing ITIL Change and Release Management" has written the comprehensive overview of managing ITIL based change strategies for IT Operations Managers and Directors.

So why is a psychologist reviewing an IT change management book?

For starters, many of my clients are IT and information systems specialists. Most are going through pain, change and challenges related to keeping up with the rapidly shifting demands of their customers, the adoption of new technology, and of course, the economy.

What makes this book different is it specifically speaks to the change and release methodologies you need to manage these three technology pressures. In particular, this book focuses on issues of Content, (Structure, Strategy, Process, Product) and Roadmap, (Project management, Governance, Implementation, Contingencies). This is both its strength and weakness.

In a recent interview Klosterboer offered these critical words of advice from his book:

5 must-dos

• Engage the organization-- implementing change and release management cannot be done in a corner.
• Establish strong policies so process documents never need to be interpreted on the fly.
• Use tools to automate the process rather than defining a process which fits the tools.
• Train each person for the role they will fill rather than creating generic process training.
• Build reports that people will use.

5 don'ts

• Don't forget to gather and agree on solid requirements before moving on to implementation.
• Don't believe implementation of a tool is the hardest part.
• Don't think you can implement release management without appropriate staffing.
• Don't underestimate the importance of a definitive media library.
• Don't settle for a general, high-level process that nobody really follows.

It’s the very first of these, engaging the organization, that is truly critical, and often overlooked or given not enough attention. Engaging people means getting them to devote their time, talent and trust to supporting your goals.

It's also true that the book deals largely with the Organization level of analysis. To be truly comprehensive change managers need to have a strategy to deal with the Group and Individual dynamics that get stirred up by organizational change.

The various chapters in this book work through the content and roadmap you need to lay out for your organization to get on top of change and release management, using the ITIL structures, but don't provide much detail on how to engage the staff and customers. Add in expertise on the People issues, (Mindsets, Reactions, Engagement, Acceptance, Commitment) or supplement it from elsewhere and the book would be perfect.

The Self-Identity Exercise

2009-02-24T14:57:00.006-06:00

How you view yourself, and how others view you, has a major impact on how effective you are.

We know from extensive research that if you identify with a group that gives you a sense of meaning, purpose and belonging, it's likely that your positive self-image will spill over into your ability to interact positively with the world. In other words, if you feel you are part of a group or community that is generally successful, you are more likely to be generally successful yourself.

There is also a very obvious corollary of this. It is usually called the “halo effect”. If other people identify you with a positive and successful group, they are more likely to think of you the same way. Not only that, but as a result they are more likely to present you with opportunities, forgive you for minor mistakes and recognize you for your achievements.

Exercise:

Pick three aspects of your self-identify that have the most power to describe you to others and yourself.

It is likely the most powerful self-identities will be the ones that most differentiate you from other people. For example, being an American in America is unlikely to be a powerful differentiator. On the other hand, being an American might be a powerful descriptor of yourself if you move to the Middle East. Similarly, being a good parent is unlikely to be a powerful and distinguishing self-identity, although it might be if you have made some significant sacrifice to be a parent and it has changed your life as a result.

Here are three of my most significant self-identities, along with a few words that describe each one for me:

Psychologist: A person with evidence based expertise in how people behave.

Australian: A bit of rebel, open-minded, friendly, believes in a “fair go for all”.

Marathoner: Self-disciplined, determined to finish, able to achieve over the long-haul.

What three groups do you most identify with?

Review:

What do you do to live up to the ideals of the groups you identify with? How do you communicate to others that this is who you are? What happens when what you aspire to do comes in conflict with the demands of your life?

For Advanced Discussion:

Ask three to five of your closest friends, colleagues and associates to do the same exercise thinking of you. Do they come up with the same three ways of looking at you? What are the differences? Explain your three self-identities to them and note how they react.

Download a version to print or share here.

You can email with comments or questions by clicking here, or leave a comment for others to see by clicking on "Comments" below.

End of week three

2009-02-24T14:44:00.004-06:00

This is me exactly three weeks after my operation. I’m still at home, but I’ve started seeing a few clients and getting back into my regular routine. I still can’t drive, but that will come soon.

Last week at my second physiotherapy session I lifted my arms over my head for the first time: painful but worth it. I can’t lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk, but I can put on my own shirt and tie, lift my books and generally get around the house. I still have to sleep entirely on my back, but I can get into and out of bed easily enough, and make myself comfortable in most chairs around the house.

Everything is relative.

I have been very lucky, both in the friends and clients who have been so supportive, and in the good healthcare outcomes that are putting me on the road to a great recovery.

A lot depends on whether you focus on how good things are, and work at the few things that are not going so well, or whether you focus on how bad things are and spend all your time looking for something to feel good about. I try to do the former.

Connections, Connections, Connections

2009-02-24T11:01:00.006-06:00

During my recent hospitalization I made many connections with the nurses, technicians, physicians and support staff on my ward. Hospital rooms are a bit like Times Square or in my home town, Flinders Street Railway Station: many people constantly coming and going whose purpose and motivations you don't understand.

A concept I discuss with my students and clients is Peter Singer’s “circle of ethics”. Drawing on a long history Singer talks about how most of us start with a fairly narrow circle of care: the people whose interests we try to assist and whose positive outcomes we support. It begins with parents and family, extends to neighbors and play-mates at school, and over time comes to include “first a class, then a nation, then a coalition of nations, then all humanity.” As the circle of care expands, so too does the circle of influence. Once we begin to care about suffering in other countries, we start to find ways to positively influence overseas welfare. Our circle of care runs a little ahead of our circle of influence, and directs where we spend our time and emotional energy.

In the hospital I made a point of introducing myself to everyone who came into my room. When Genevieve was allowed to stay with me I introduced both of us, and I made a point of trying to remember everyone’s names so I could greet them again when they came back. This is just part of my nature, but I imagine it’s also something I have learned to do because I am positively rewarded for it. The staff made little allowances for us, and generally made our stay as pleasant as possible. We were pulled into their “circle of care” because we had created a personal connection with each other.

As an example, it seemed like every six hours or so someone would come to change my IV site, take a blood sample or do something else that involved tubes and poking me with sharp needles. One day, two gentlemen came in together and I went through the usual introductions: “Hello, I’m David, and this is my wife Genevieve.” Almost anyone will then tell you who they are by name, and these two introduced themselves and told me they were the new phlebotomist and his trainee. We made a little small talk, and I was interested to hear how the trainee's job was going because my Little Brother from the BigBrotherBigSister scheme has just started working as a trainee at the Red Cross.

So then the time came to stick me. “Ah,” I said. “And which of you will be drawing my blood today?”

Now you have to remember that my arms already have two IV lines in them, and they are blue and bruised all over from the many blood draws I already have. A trainee will be hard pressed to find a spare vein, and will find it even more difficult than usual to take the blood sample painlessly.

“Well…I guess I can do your draw today” said the trainer, and the trainee handed over his needles.

Connecting with people draws you into their circle of care, and if they have the ability to influence your well-being it makes people positively inclined to go out of their way for you. It’s why waiting staff introduce themselves to you at your table, and why it pays to get to know your auto mechanic. Done with sincerity and genuine care it expands the circle of people around you who will put out their hand to help you.

The Three Principles Exercise

2009-02-22T09:42:00.007-06:00

Three principles govern your success as an ethical leader who gets things done:

• Treat everyone with integrity
• Align activities to deliver what matters most
• Engage stakeholders to commit their time, talent and trust

Exercise:

Divide your activities each month or week into three groups:

1. Treating people with integrity: All the things you do specifically to communicate the core purpose of yourself and your organization, set your values and demonstrate your principles in action. This is how you shape Why things are done by you and your organization.

2. Alignment: All the things you do to set and support business goals that focus on what matters most; your activities to drive results, and actions you take to cascade accountabilities to all levels. This is how you shape What is to be done in your organization.

3. Engagement: All the things you do to encourage people to commit their time, talent and trust; the things you do to provide recognition, build morale and encourage effort. This is how you shape How things are done in your organization.

Review:

Do the review at a high enough level that you start to see themes in your activities. Don't be too concerned if you assign some of the activities to more than one of the principles.

What can you learn from how you spend your time? Given your Strategic level, what things are you doing that don’t contribute to the three principles? What things do you need to do more of and less of?

For Advanced Discussion:

Compare how you spent last week/month/year with how you plan to spend next week/month/year. What are the differences? When are you most successful? What are the barriers that prevent your time being spent the way you plan?

Download a version to print or share here.

Email me

Recovery is a marathon

2009-02-18T19:18:00.000-06:00

I’m up and about, and yesterday I even met with a client as I slowly resumed my normal work pattern. Not such a good idea.

I think that if you wanted to make a broad generalization about people you could say that they are either temperamentally suited to be sprinters or marathoners. The sprinter types see challenges and obstacles as something to be tackled right here, right now. They throw their all at a situation, and depending on talent, motivation and opportunity, they either succeed or fail, right here, right now.

Marathoners are a little different. Today wasn’t such a good day for me. Just as a hill looks different at mile six, or sixteen or twenty-six, a few simple tasks today completely tuckered me out. I hadn’t realized how much being out and about had taken out of me. I slept in front of the TV for three hours yesterday, and this morning I was still sleeping on the sofa at 11am.

However, I don’t succeed or fail based on how I feel today. Recovery is about keeping your eye on the finishing line and keeping on being the best you can. I want to give my clients my full attention when I'm with them, and I want to be on top of my game. Recovery is a marathon, and sometimes you have to slow down to go fast. I’m taking it easy for a couple of days and then I’ll try again…and I’m going to make that finish line faster than you might expect.

How fast is trust?

2009-02-18T17:52:00.000-06:00

I often ask my clients and presentation audiences “How fast is trust?” The answers are usually the opposite of what the evidence says, and their own experience would indicate. We have been brought up to think that trust is slow. We are told it takes a long time to build up trust, and people often think that once established trust takes a long time to erode. Something happened to me last week that emphasized again the answer is the opposite of what you might think…

Last week we went to a production at our local Guthrie Theater. It was “Two Gentleman of Verona”, and it’s the kind of play that you want to talk about for a while afterwards. We were all primed for some light refreshments when we left the theater. Across the road from the theater exit is Spoonriver, a nice little restaurant run by one of the Twin Cities better known restaurateurs. So here’s the first lesson about trust. Once lost, it takes a long time to regain. I think this person’s restaurants are overpriced for what you get, and there’s not a lot to choose from on the menu. I haven’t been back in a very long time after a previous bad experience.

On this night there was a sandwich-board type sign out the front that advertised “After Theater Menu: Appetizers and Desserts”. That sounded ideal, so contrary to my previous experience I was prepared to try again. This is typical of how trust works. It’s fast. We typically decide whether or not to trust someone or something very quickly, and the research shows that this is true whether we are making hiring decisions or deciding on a new brand of soap powder. Change a couple of variables and we are generally prepared to review the situation.

[Note: This is true of most people. While some people are generally “trust averse” they are just as likely to make that decision not to trust quickly. The speed of most people’s trust decisions is fast regardless of whether they are typically trusting or not.]

It’s cold in Minneapolis at this time of year, so entering a restaurant entails a lot of work. You stand about waiting for your table, and then spend five minutes taking off all the various layers of coats, hats and gloves you needed outside to remain warm. This explains why we didn’t leave when we were told the kitchen was closed once we were seated. No apology…just an offer of a drinks menu. Shortly after we saw staff standing in the kitchen doorway eating. To be fair, the food might have been leftovers or reheated, but letting staff eat in view of paying customers who had been denied food didn’t look good. The people next to us complained, and were just told again “the kitchen is closed”.

We finished our one drink and left. On the way out we saw…the sandwich board with the “After Theater Menu” still on the sidewalk. So, they were quick to gain my trust, and just as quick to lose it. It's a lesson for every business and every executive: you can gain trust quickly with the right approach, but you will lose it just as quickly if you let people down. And now it’s been lost, how long do you think it will be before I go to Spoonriver again?

Self identity and effectiveness

2009-02-13T15:43:00.001-06:00

This is me two weeks exactly after my surgery. You can tell from the beard...I'm not planning to keep it but it's been growing since the operation. It gives me a Ernest Hemingway look that goes with the fact I have been doing a lot of writing and reflecting lately.

Two things happened today that made me think again about how my recovery process has progressed. Firstly, I received my monthly copy of the Journal of Applied Psychology today. This month's special edition is on social identity and well-being. (I'm an applied psychologist...that means I did six years full time university study after my undergraduate business degree, and my focus is psychology applied to real world issues. In my case my expertise is psychology applied to business, ethics and organizations. The International Association of Applied Psychologists is the world's oldest professional psychology association.)

Secondly, someone I don't know was reading this blog and commented "...I did find it interesting. He sure is a type A. I could not agree with him more on how his outlook affects how he recovered!!!"

I don't think of myself as a type A, or super competitive, or very driven. I've had feedback before that I come across this way, but, like most people I just think I'm "normal". However, I know that how you identify yourself makes a huge difference to your effectiveness when faced with stresses and challenges.

You've possibly heard the saying "whether you think you can or think you can't, you're always right". A lot of people mistake "positive outlook" for some kind of new-age ability to affect the world around you because of how you think. It's much more complicated than that. My IAAP journal featured articles that show that if you identify with a group that gives you a sense of meaning, purpose and belonging, it's likely that your positive self-image will spill over into your ability to handle challenges, particularly health related challenges.

Type A outlook? Sort of, but not quite.

You can see in the picture that I'm wearing my last marathon finisher's t-shirt. Today was my first day of physiotherapy, and I wore it to the physio session. I wasn't trying to be smart, but I think of myself as a marathoner. I identify with that determination to finish, stamina, and positive mental attitude. I didn't think about why I wore it today until I came home, read my email comments and opened my journal. Yep...that's one of the ways that I identify myself, and that attitude carries over into my ability to deal with this surgery and everything else in my life.

Social and self identity are extremely important. How you see yourself is reflected in how others treat you, and plays a key role in determining the mental resources you can muster. I once coached a Finance Director who felt that every day on the job was a fraud...another day he got by until people found out he wasn't very good. The thing is he really was good, running financial operations for a multi-billion dollar operation spread across dozens of countries, but with that attitude he could never muster the self-confidence to be a really effective leader in his organization.

It's better to find a more effective self-identity...like great parent, generous parishioner, faithful friend or whatever. All of us have complex self identities, part of mine is being a marathoner.

How do you identify your self?

You can email me here, or leave comments for others to see by clicking "comments" below.

"What Would Google Do?" by Jeff Jarvis

2009-02-12T21:44:00.000-06:00

“What Would Google Do?” is a provocative title because Jarvis knows Google is unlikely to do many, if any, of the things he writes about. Things like run a bank, build cars or get involved in hospitals and insurance. What he tries to do is get at the essence of what has made Google successful, and use that to hypothesize how Google’s terms of engagement could be applied to other industries. Interesting…

When I was an economics student I learned there were only four engines of prosperity and wealth:

1. Arbitrage: The classic buy low/sell high, either across time, across space or between different buyers’ perceptions of value.
2. Compound growth: Reinvesting your winnings, no matter how modest, and letting exponential growth provide you with a healthy return.
3. Leverage: Borrowing to maximize the returns compared to the capital invested.
4. Value Enhancement: Addling labor, capital or marketing to a product to improve its value in the market place. What most of us do by going to work and laboring for wages and salaries.

Jarvis says that in the new market place all that has changed. Google has made “free” into a business model, and encouraged us to make money by “getting out of the way”.

In reality, what Google has done is removed one of the most significant barriers to a free market: getting perfect or near-perfect knowledge to consumers at near zero cost. In the old economy one of the reasons people made a lot of money in the four ways above was because they had access to knowledge at a cost most couldn’t attain. They knew where to invest, where to leverage, how to add value and where the best price differentials were. Google changes all that. Google commodifies everything and enables everyone equal access to all parts of the market at the lowest visible cost.

The book is in two parts. First, Jarvis sets out new business realities in a world where instantaneous knowledge is near perfect and near free. Second, Jarvis looks at specific industries and speculates on what they would look like if they were run in a way that takes most advantage of the new business realities.

Here are a couple of examples. “Atoms are a drag” and so in the new world businesses should try to be as virtual as possible. Avoid buildings, trucks and stock in your business…manufacture just in time to meet consumer demands, and distribute using existing infrastructure that you access at the lowest possible cost. This is the model Amazon uses for selling and distributing books and many other goods, and it works. “Answers are instantaneous” so your consumer responsiveness better be lightening fast. “Everything is searchable” so you had better be transparent, honest and capable of recovering from your mistakes.

One of the most significant areas of analysis in the book is the section on ethics. The message seems to be that when everything you do is searchable and visible to all you better be good. Although the approach is very pragmatic and utilitarian it nevertheless encourages all business people to be honest, open, collaborative and self-regulating. Not a bad admonishment for businesses everywhere.

I like this book largely because of the second half. It’s interesting to look at how Jarvis envisions Google running retail: responsive, collaborative, and virtual. In Jarvis world restaurants would aggregate all the information available about who orders what with what, and use it to offer you specials, discounts and wine/food pairings based on your tastes and the tastes of the people you emulate. Airlines get out of the business of “moving atoms” and get into being a social marketplace where people can exchange travel options. Car companies collaborate with consumers to produce vehicles people really want, (a purple electric SUV with DVDs, a child’s high chair and no stereo perhaps).

Jarvis personal style is a little irritating. I learned too much about how much he earns, how successful his meetings are at Davos and what it’s like to run an internet community of his devoted fans. Still, the book has many valuable insights into doing business in a modern economy. It’s worth it just for the great chapters on “If Google ruled the world”.

An ethical suggestion for the bailout package

2009-02-12T11:16:00.000-06:00

Here's a suggestion for the government's upcoming economic bailout package. It won't require special appropriation beyond what congress has already approved; it won't set up bad precedents for the future; and it will encourage the right kind of economic behavior.

Get ethical!

Alex Brigham is the Executive Director of the Ethisphere Institute, a research, rating and media organization designed to develop, drive and reinforce profitable ethical business practices, www.ethisphere.com. In a recent article, (http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/02/08/brigham_obama/), he pointed to the waste in government spending that comes from poorly supervised government contracts that go to people with political connections and lobbying ability rather than those with the best economic outcomes for the public. He estimates that more than 50% of government contractors can't show compliance with even the most basic ethics requirements of the government's contracting laws. If the waste is only 10% of this 50% it still comes to more than $18 billion.

That's a lot of money.

However, it's already the case that companies actively engaged in federal procurement and contracting, particularly those who receive contract awards in excess of $5 million, have to develop and maintain compliance plans, business ethics training, and related internal controls under rules that amend Parts 2, 3 and 52 of the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR).

Every organization actively engaged in federal contracting! So the 50% who can't point to their interal controls are out of compliance and shouldn't be receiving federal contracts.

How about if some of the economic bailout money went into investigation and compliance programs. It probably wouldn't cost $18 billion, and with the improved efficiency and ethical compliance it would probably end up being cost neutral if not revenue positive. Even if it wasn't, it would be a positive step toward getting organizations to what they are supposed to be doing anyway.

That would be a good use of the money, and probably one of the better bailout measures.

Of course, if you want to be ahead of the game, you could make sure you have your ethics and compliance program in place, (including your code of conduct, internally publicized reporting hotline, internal control system that prevents violations of law, periodic reviews, and procedure for self-disclosing of violations). I'm sure you can find a consultant who could help you with that.

You can send me an email by clicking here, or you can share a comment for others to see by clicking on the word "comments" below

How trust helped me through

2009-02-11T21:08:00.000-06:00

I’m writing this in the second week after my open-heart surgery. I’m home and feeling well, and getting ready for my first physiotherapy sessions. I am reflecting on my experience and the notes I took and I have decided to start with the big one: Trust. Trust is the basis of all human interactions. That’s a huge statement, and one I repeat frequently with my clients and in my presentations. Trust helped pull me though my recent surgery.

I shopped around for my surgeon. I called on my network and checked out a few of the different places and people who could do my operation. When I sat with my surgeon for the first time it was Genevieve and I having a three-way discussion about my options and prognosis.

What would have happened if we hadn’t trusted each other? Without trust it’s difficult to have a relationship of mutual and positive outcomes. If you don’t have trust you’d better at least have, in declining order of effectiveness:

1. Respect
2. Compelling Mutual Goal/Context
3. Continual and Intense Communication
4. Power and Competition
5. The ability to “live with it”

Sound familiar? Many patients complain they don’t understand their surgery, or they feel powerless to get what they want. Eventually, many patients have to “live with it”, feeling pushed around by their medical staff and not a part of the process.

I wanted to trust my surgeon, and just as importantly, I wanted my surgeon and my medical team to trust me. What is trust? Here’s how I define trust as an outcome of four different aspects of the relationship:

• Capable: Can do what you say
• Reliable: Will do what you say
• Open: Will say what you do
• Principled: Will do what you should

When it comes to trust, like a crop, you reap what you sow. So of course, we asked many questions such as how many of these procedures the surgeon had done before, what the success rate was, what the options were and so on. One question in particular stood out for me. I wasn’t afraid of much with regard to the operation, but I did have a morbid dread of being one of those patients who “wake up” under anesthesia and experience the pain of the operation without being able to do anything about it. The surgeon’s response? “Yes, that would be terrible, and it does happen. That’s why we do X, Y and Z to minimize the chance of it happening during your operation.”

I liked that. He was clearly competent and didn’t try to sugar coat the risks for me. He empathized with my fears. He outlined what might happen, and the steps taken to minimize the risk. He was principled…he was open and frank with me and I trusted him as a result. But how did I come across to him?

Trust is a two way street. By doing my homework before our meeting I hoped he would see I was competent and reliable as well. I was open about what I knew I could do post-surgery, and what I felt was beyond me…and in our discussions I believe I came across as principled: someone who would do the right thing when needed.

And as it turned out, I believe my surgeon’s trust in me helped my recovery just as much as my trust in him. Certainly, when it came to my peace of mind it was much easier to be relaxed and focused believing I was in the best hands. When the medical team discussed my pain medications and my options for getting up and moving around they let me try to move forward at my own pace. They trusted that even if I wasn’t as pain medicated as many patients, and was trying to get up and walking quickly compared to others, I would be open with them about my limits and take responsibility for the outcomes. They let me try walking on the first day, and I was able to gently push myself to getting out of the ward on the fourth day post-op.

Our mutual trust worked well for both of us, and set the basis for our interactions together.

Doubt, Starring Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman

2009-02-11T20:45:00.001-06:00

A few minutes into this movie I wanted to dislike it intensely. It seemed that we were being set up from the beginning to view the priest played by Hoffman as someone who was having inappropriate relationships with the boys in this 1960’s Bronx Catholic school. My reaction was based on the fact that we could see what was going on so clearly, yet the staff of the school seemed oblivious. It would have been too easy to make a movie that attacks the Catholic church, or uses a “ripped from the headlines” approach to engage the audience. However, not long into the movie it takes a turn, and the doubts and ambiguity of the situation start to be spelled out for the audience. This is a clever film, and one with significant lessons for how people try to do well in difficult circumstances, and what organizations need to do to address wrong-doing.

[Warning: Plot spoilers follow]

Streep plays Sister Aloysius, an old-fashioned nun and stern principal of the school. She distrusts Father Flynn, a laugh-out-loud jolly priest with a compassionate view of what it takes to help children grow and provide love and support in a poor working class neighborhood. Sister Aloysius distrusts his use of ball point pens, (we can almost hear her mutter “tools of the devil”), and in turn Father Flynn says “the dragon is hungry” when seeing the principal call another luckless student to her office for discipline.

The drama in the movie revolves around the school’s first African-American student and his relationship with Father Flynn. Is the priest just solicitous and compassionate, or is there something inappropriate in their relationship? Sister James thinks she sees something when the pupil is called to a private meeting with the Father, and she suspects she smells alcohol on the boy’s breath after. The boy’s mother just wants to enable her son to graduate, go to a good high school, and avoid a beating from his father who suspects him of having an “unusual nature”. Sister Aloysius goes on a crusade to get Flynn to confess, Flynn provides extremely plausible explanations of everything that happens.

The film’s ending leaves what actually happened unresolved. We don’t know for sure whether there was any wrongdoing. Indeed, we don’t know if Sister Aloysius’ distress and doubt at the end is at the role played by the church hierarchy, or directed at her own role in removing a potentially innocent priest from his calling to teach, or even a wider doubt in her faith that such things could happen at all.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops gives the movie a favorable review, (http://www.usccb.org/movies/d/doubt.shtml), despite the fact that it deals with themes of child abuse and sexual misconduct within the Catholic Church. I think it is because the film deals sympathetically with the dilemma of the school, the staff and the Catholic Church, a dilemma faced equally often today by contemporary businesses and organizations.

Since at least 1970, social researchers such as Latane & Darley, (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/?qid=20070430084944AAby7D0), have recognized five stages of helping behavior.

1. You must notice an event
2. You must interpret the event as requiring help
3. You must assume personal responsibility
4. You must decide what action is required
5. You must act

The film illustrates that this is not as obvious as it seems. It would have been easy for Sisters Aloysius and James to ignore the warning signs of potential misconduct, and equally easy for them to accept Father Flynn’s explanations as showing no intervention or help was necessary. Similarly, had not Sister Aloysius taken personal responsibility for dealing with the situation and saving the boy the movie illustrates that the church and the schools in this era had no infrastructure set up to deal with child abuse. While Sister Aloysius works through her options it is clear there is no one easy way to deal with a potentially inappropriate relationship in the school and the church. Her actions end up including direct confrontation, (trying to get Father Flynn to confess), and deception, (pretending she has spoken to a nun from the Father’s previous school who has spilled the beans on his past). Sister Aloysius is a model of the Latane and Darley theory, but also a sad illustration that a reinforcing social infrastructure is needed to enable helping behavior to be successful.

What can contemporary organizations do to enable helping behavior to succeed?

Organizations can “inoculate” themselves against bad behavior by systematically and sequentially addressing Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Abilities and Reinforcement. Using the movie Doubt as an illustration, here’s how a successful implementation might look.

Awareness: What is right and what is wrong needs to carefully explained so everyone is aware of the difference. Meeting with the priest to discuss pastoral matters is right. Calling boys for private meetings with Father Flynn when the purpose is unspecified and setting is hidden is probably wrong. Providing respect and support is right, providing hugs and giving individual gifts, (as Father Flynn does), is probably wrong. One of the major traps Father Flynn and many organizations fall into is that it is not enough not to do wrong, you have to be seen to not do wrong. Even if Father Flynn’s behavior had been acceptable the private and secretive nature of the relationship provided enough of an opportunity that something inappropriate could be happen. As such, Flynn’s behavior was wrong and his actions should have been subject to “the cleansing light of open air”.

Desire: There needs to be a shared understanding and desire of what the right behavior will do, and how the future can be better. Sister Aloysius and Father Flynn have very different views of what is right for the boys in the school. The principal is a disciplinarian who favors mirrored glass to enhance the ability of the teachers to have “eyes in the back of their heads” and hands out repetitious tables and word drills for disciplinary infractions. The priest believes the boys respond to positive modeling, (“look at my clean nails” he says), and offers opportunities for sport and positive interaction as well as delivering his traditional sermons from the pulpit. An organization needs to create a vision of what can come from positive change, and engage everyone in working constructively toward the common goal. Such collaboration lessens the possibility of in-fighting and reduces the opportunity for bad or deviant behavior to exist or worsen.

Knowledge: Had Sisters James and Aloysius been able to understand from the beginning the purpose of what had been happening between the priest and the boy there would have been less room for ambiguity. The priest was secretive, exerting his authority in the face of legitimate enquiries and attempting to intimidate the principal with a sermon on intolerance. One of the surest guards against bad behavior is public knowledge. The less that is secretive in an organization, the less opportunity there is for bad behavior to go unnoticed.

Ability: Sister Aloysius doesn’t know what her abilities are to act against the appearance of wrongdoing from Father Flynn. Had the school or church wanted to ensure such things did not happen there needed to be system of enquiry or “whistle blowing” that empowered anyone with suspicions. The system need not be punitive. It should have given Sister Aloysius the ability to have her doubts heard without adverse consequences. It should have enabled self-learning in the school and church as organizations. The school could have let Father Flynn continue in place, but changed its rules on private meetings with the boys or the giving of personal favors. One of the saddest outcomes of the movie is that you suspect that if Father Flynn were guilty, the church had simply moved him to another parish where he could transgress again unless there were another equally powerful sister to stand up to him.

Reinforcement: This is the crux of the final scene in the film. Sister Aloysius is not positively rewarded for what she has done. Rather, she is left out of the church’s decision to relocate Father Flynn, and left to deal with her own doubts over her actions. She is comforted by Sister James, but not by the church and its hierarchy. We wonder as an audience whether it was worth it for her. There is a whole sub-plot in which the boy’s mother wants no part of confronting the priest, and it seems that she is alone and unrecognized. Would she do the same again? Father Flynn moves on, neither reprimanded nor enlightened as to his role. Indeed, we are told his new position is a promotion. Organizations need to set up positive reinforcement for people who do the right thing, especially when it involves speaking up against authority or disclosing unpleasant truths.

Doubt is a powerful movie with great illustrative power. I will be using it with my clients to demonstrate a practical example of how well meaning people can’t always prevent bad behavior, and how organizations need to reinforce and support people doing the right thing.

A psychologist's experience of open heart surgery

2009-02-05T14:21:00.000-06:00

So this is me six days after surgery: at home, out of pain and well on the road to a complete recovery and resumption of my healthy pre-op life.

I've done well, but more importantly, I had a network of really powerful relationships supporting me through all this. Let me take a quick moment to express my thanks to my beautiful wife Genevieve, her mother and my parents, the surgical and post-operative teams at Park Nicollet Cardiology, my friends, my clients and everyone who has been in touch and provided comfort and support.

My recovery has been really good. I know that because I saw others on my ward and heard the experiences recounted to me by the medical teams. This is the biggest thing that has ever happened to me...more life changing than I could have imagined originally. I took notes throughout, and with hind sight I can pull apart my experiences and explain them with the benefit of my training. I am going to put what I have learned into a series of posts here.

The importance of trust
Self-awareness
Self-efficacy and the belief you can do well
Emotional support
Managing your emotional state
Building relationships
Appreciating others

The soft stuff is the hard stuff. Everything I knew and applied helped me come through this as strong and well as I did.

You can send me an email by clicking here, or you can share a comment for others to see by clicking on the word "comments" below.

Sincerely,

David

Getting strong again

2009-02-05T13:53:00.001-06:00

This is me on the afternoon of the first day after surgery. I'm sitting up out of bed, I've asked for my book and some glasses, and I've put on my own "luxury" robe.

Why?

I can't speak highly enough about the surgical and post-operative teams. While I was in the hospital I saw my one job was to work at feeling as well as I could. I didn't emphasize "getting better" because that might be out of my hands, but I did know that I could be fully responsible for making the best of every opportunity I had to be as well as I could. It's a subtle difference but an important one.

Shortly after this photo was taken I went for my first "walk". Probably not really a walk. The ward I was on was in the shape of a cross, with a central nurses' station, and rooms coming off each of the arms. My best guess is that the arms were about twenty metres/twenty five yards long. On the first day I went from my room to the nurses' station, up one corridor and back...maybe sixty or seventy yards round trip. It took a good twenty minutes and left me totally exhausted.

I had a tag on my arm saying "fall risk" and a nurse on one side with Genevieve on the other.

On the second day I made the trip eight times...it took me eight hours.

By the third day every nurse or procedure technician coming in would say "oh, you're that marathon guy aren't you?". I was off pain medication for more than twenty-four hours, and off the blood pressure medication as well, which none of the nurses could believe. I had a slight set back in that I put on eight kilos/twenty pounds in water weight on Saturday, and needed to be stabilized again. On Sunday I was asking to go home. I was disappointed when they wouldn't let me out on Monday, although they removed all the drainage tubes, catheters and pacemaker wires. By then I was cruising the halls of the hospital taking walks every hour or so, and covering my floor and the public floors below.

They made the decision to let me go home before lunch on Tuesday.

For more click here.

You can send me an email by clicking here, or you can share a comment for others to see by clicking on the word "comments" below.

My operation

2009-02-05T13:21:00.000-06:00

This is an illustration of the operation I had done, beginning with the incision made in my chest. Basically the surgeons needed to get access to my heart, and the way we chose to do it was by the frontal incision you see here. There is a neat scar from just below where my throat ends to just underneath my sternum. Once the chest is opened the sternum is cracked, (sawn?), and the ribs spread. The internal organs are moved around, and the heart is exposed for the operation.

I say "we" chose this because we had discussions with the surgeons before the operation about how it could be done. There is an alternative method that involves "keyhole" type surgery from the side. Post-operatively the results are much better as there is less trauma to the body. However, the surgical outcomes in terms of repair and complications may not be so good. We figured I was young and fit enough that I would prefer the better chance of a full repair and I'd fight my way through the recovery after.

I believe a major factor in my recovery is that I felt engaged and fully trusted the surgical team. I'll come back to this in a later post because this is a major learning for me and my clients in terms of self-efficacy. We do well because we believe we can do well, and there are clear paths to improving what we believe about our abilities.

The day before the major operation I had a angiograph...one of the procedures where they knock you out and put a catheter into your heart from the artery in your leg. Then they flood the heart with dye and check out the health of the blood vessels. Bingo! I have the heart of an ox, and despite the occassional beer, wine and plate of fish and chips everything was clean and healthy.

This is an illustration of the work done in the heart. It was cut open to reveal the mitral valve between the two left heart chambers. In my condition the valve wasn't closing properly, so if I understand correctly about 40% of each pump went back up the heart instead of into the body. This was causing my upper atrium to expand, and limiting the oxygen my muscles were getting.

The damage to the upper atrium isn't permanent, but would have become permanent if this had gone on.

After the repair I was moved to ICU where I was on ventilation and a heart pacemaker. For the next two days I had IV drips in my arms, two drainage tubes from my chest attached to a portable "suction" machine, and the electrical lines for the pacemaker still buried into my heart "just in case".

For more on my recovery click here.

On the mend

2009-02-05T10:44:00.002-06:00

As you can probably tell from the photo, I'm up and about and enjoying the taste of real food. This picture was taken on the morning after my surgery while I was still in the Intensive Care Unit. I'm doing well and the recovery has been good.

I went in to surgery at 7am on Friday 30th January, and I came out into ICU around 2pm. They had me stabilized and on IV and heart monitoring, and Genevieve was able to see me around 5pm, which is roughly when I became conscious. I was on ventilation for an hour or so, and on a heart pacemaker overnight.

I'll not share with you my experiences of recovering consciousness and the ability to breathe. It's enough to say that it took me a good twenty minutes to remember how to speak again even after the ventilation came away. I remember holding Genevieve's hand while I learned the shallow in and out breathing that kept the machine off me, and how thankful I was for having her there and the care of the nursing staff.

The first thing I asked for when I could speak...a sprite! I never drink sprite so I've no idea what was going through my mind, but I can tell you it seriously tasted so good I have no words to describe it. It was like I had to regain the ability to taste, and the sugary liquid set off every pleasure center in my head I have ever known. Genevieve and the nurses said I couldn't stop laughing.

The following morning I could sit up with support, and I asked for solid food. From then on the hospital has told me the recovery has been one of the best they have ever seen.

I'm writing this about one week after it all happened, so you know things have just kept going uphill from here. I'm very thankful for all the kind support and good wishes that have been sent to me.

I am going to keep this short, and I will post the rest of the recovery in some short messages that follow. You can send me an email by clicking here, or you can share a comment for others to see by clicking on the word "comments" below.

For more on my recovery click here.

Once again, thank you to everyone for all the support.

David