Farrar's Faucet

Summit on leading in crisis

David.Farrar@FGRAssociates.com (David Farrar) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 02:05:00 +0000

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

David.Farrar@FGRAssociates.com (David Farrar) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:42:00 +0000

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

David.Farrar@FGRAssociates.com (David Farrar) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 20:01:00 +0000

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

David.Farrar@FGRAssociates.com (David Farrar) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:55:00 +0000

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

David.Farrar@FGRAssociates.com (David Farrar) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:26:00 +0000

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

David.Farrar@FGRAssociates.com (David Farrar) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 01:05:00 +0000

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.

A lesson in presence from The Next Food Network Star

David.Farrar@FGRAssociates.com (David Farrar) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:24:00 +0000

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)?

David.Farrar@FGRAssociates.com (David Farrar) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 02:08:00 +0000

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

David.Farrar@FGRAssociates.com (David Farrar) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:56:00 +0000

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?

David.Farrar@FGRAssociates.com (David Farrar) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:55:00 +0000

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

David.Farrar@FGRAssociates.com (David Farrar) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 21:11:00 +0000

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

David.Farrar@FGRAssociates.com (David Farrar) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:43:00 +0000

"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

David.Farrar@FGRAssociates.com (David Farrar) — Mon, 25 May 2009 18:52:00 +0000

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

David.Farrar@FGRAssociates.com (David Farrar) — Mon, 18 May 2009 16:42:00 +0000

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!

David.Farrar@FGRAssociates.com (David Farrar) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 21:50:00 +0000

“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

David.Farrar@FGRAssociates.com (David Farrar) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 21:09:00 +0000

“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

David.Farrar@FGRAssociates.com (David Farrar) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 20:07:00 +0000

“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

David.Farrar@FGRAssociates.com (David Farrar) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 12:59:00 +0000

"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

David.Farrar@FGRAssociates.com (David Farrar) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 23:59:00 +0000

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

David.Farrar@FGRAssociates.com (David Farrar) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 23:42:00 +0000

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

David.Farrar@FGRAssociates.com (David Farrar) — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 20:18:00 +0000

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

David.Farrar@FGRAssociates.com (David Farrar) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:07:00 +0000

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?

David.Farrar@FGRAssociates.com (David Farrar) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 22:07:00 +0000

“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

David.Farrar@FGRAssociates.com (David Farrar) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 21:09:00 +0000

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

David.Farrar@FGRAssociates.com (David Farrar) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:22:00 +0000

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.