I’m not a Facebook user of any great note. My children laugh at the small number of “friends” I have. However, yesterday, laid low with back troubles, I decided to see if I could find any of my old school mates. I found Sheila.
Sheila got “knocked up”, as we used to say in those days, when we were 16. I only saw her once after the baby was born. She brought her baby to school for a visit. I was intimidated and frightened by her new role and we lost touch. Facebook showed me that Sheila went on to a full life. She is now settled in the UK, where she and her husband run a tax franchise. Her albums are full of children and grandchildren.
There is much debate about the value of Facebook in the workplace. I recall a client being very distressed because employees would put their place of work on their Facebook pages. He felt it would lay the company open to security issues. Trying to manage what people say on Facebook, or anywhere else for that matter, is pointless. Social media is the modern equivalent of the water cooler and no boss every managed to keep that one quiet. Humans need to connect.
Social media, such as Facebook, should rather be seen as an opportunity for organizations to create networks and communities well beyond those with whom it would typically interact. The traditional mindset of a business is one where you put up a shingle and send out a few flyers. In effect “build it and they will come.” That notion of business is based on the idea of pre-existing communities, of high streets filled with people making connections and hopefully talking about your business. Sadly, communities like that do not, for the most part, exist any longer. We live isolated lives in the suburbs, using cars to connect us with our communities of friends, our work and other parts of our lives.
Because of the fractured nature of our lives, community is becoming more and more important. Savvy organizations recognize this and are attempting to provide employees and customers with a greater sense of belonging. MyStarbucksidea is an online community of coffee lovers (employees and customers) coming together to offer the mother company ideas to make the Starbucks experience even better.
Similarly a client of mine has had a fan page for clients and employees for quite a few years. It’s an opportunity for like-minded people to get together and share chat about what they consider to be important, in effect, a community. Even my neighbourhood corner store is into the notion of community. The guy who owns the store is bringing in local produce and putting in a kitchen so people can come and have a cup of tea or coffee and meet with neighbours.
There are huge advantages to building a sense of community within your workplace; the most obvious is enhanced engagement and improved productivity. In addition, once you build a community others want to join and work with your community. This translates to more potential (and like-minded) employees and customers.
Here are some basic strategies for building community within your organization:
• Tell stories of successful employees – story is the bedrock of community building
• Show employees why the organization is heading in the direction chosen by the senior team. Help them understand the broader context in which you operate and why your particular niche is important – in other words what makes us a community and how we contribute
• Have employees involved in the annual planning cycle
• Hold very regular town hall meetings with senior leaders. Make sure food is always part of your meetings. Food is fundamental to human relations
• Have a corporate cause to which everyone can contribute either financially or through time.
• Try social media in a managed fashion with a clear goal of establishing a sense of community. Start up a blogging centre. Collectively blog about your cause. Showcase stories related to your cause on your blog.
• Socialize. We are humans. Once we understand one another’s humanity – it makes working together a great deal easier.
Showing posts with label employee engagment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label employee engagment. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Thursday, September 9, 2010
A balanced approach to decision making
Here’s a story from my salad days. I was working in stakeholder relations with a large organization based here in Vancouver. Part of my responsibility involved attending project meetings. I was young, green and woefully ignorant on the technical complexities of the project, so I happily took on the role of listener. It turned out to be a real advantage and learning opportunity.
In this particular instance a group of senior professionals were talking about technical options. One of the gentlemen noted that he felt the approach they were discussing was too conservative and would limit future options. The response to this statement from the colleague who favoured this option was: “I disagree.. let me restate my opinion once again.” With that the level of tension in the room increased significantly and the two leading proponents of the differing alternatives were politely at each others throats until the end of the meeting. The rest of the attendees sat and watched. Of course there was no resolution.
I’m sure most of you have been in similar situations. The lines are drawn, people take their positions and there is no forward movement. Our world trains us to be very good advocates. Our society rewards us if our solutions are adopted so we like to get in there and tell people exactly why our ideas are best. Unfortunately advocacy alone can lead to conflict and ideas that are not sufficiently explored - culminating in bad decision making.
In the example above we needed some inquiry. Inquiry helps people to better understand one another’s’ reasoning and thinking behind a solution. So, for example, in the situation above a little bit of inquiry in the form of a question like: "Can you give me an example of what you mean" or "Can you share with me the data you are using to support that conclusion?" would have avoided conflict and allowed deeper and more meaningful exploration of the proposed approaches.
Inquiry is particularly important as our world - and the problems we deal with - become more and more complex. Inquiry can be used to truly understand the issue and the implications of proposed solutions. It is also useful when we reach an impasse. By asking the right questions people can begin to think outside of the box and look at the world from someone else’s perspective. And of course questions can be wonderful for drawing out the wisdom in the room, particularly when some people are hesitant to share ideas.
Currently I’m working with two other consultants on a new business opportunity. We are all strong minded and independent and each of us is very good at advocating his or her position. For this reason we have set up our exploration phase to include a significant amount of inquiry. This allows us to better understand one another’s’ thinking. It’s proving to be a fascinating process and we are discovering more depth to our partnership then we had earlier imagined.
However, we should be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Being a good advocate is also important; we need to have opinions, as long as we are open to listening to others.
Inquiry and advocacy should work together. Inquiry broadens and deepens our understanding. Advocacy leads us to action. Without a balance between inquiry and advocacy people are more likely to remain neutral. As leaders, it is our role to balance the two to ensure effective interactions.
How do you balance inquiry and advocacy? Generally inquiry precedes advocacy - assuming we do not have all the information. Through inquiry we expose ideas and ask others to challenge and probe them. However if all the information is available then we can go ahead and advocate – which hopefully will lead to action.
Here are some approaches you may wish to consider in developing your inquiry skills:
Ask in a way that does not provoke defensiveness:
“Can you help me understand your thinking here?”
Draw out reasoning:
“Where does your reasoning go next?”
Explain your reasons for inquiring:
“I’m asking you about your assumptions here because…”
Test what they say by asking for broader context:
“Can you describe a typical example?”
Check your understanding:
“Am I correct that you are saying…”
Explore, listen and offer your own views:
“Have you considered…..”
A few tips for effective advocacy:
• Provide data and back up information
• Help people understand the context for an approach
• Make reasoning explicit
• Encourage others to explore your views
• Acknowledge weaknesses, and
• Actively inquires into others' views.
Nicky Fried is the principal of Nicky Fried Consulting Inc. She helps organizations to translate change and strategy so that employees understand where the organization is going and how they support it through their daily actions. Learn more about us at www.nickyfried.com or read her blog at www.nickyfried.blogspot.com
In this particular instance a group of senior professionals were talking about technical options. One of the gentlemen noted that he felt the approach they were discussing was too conservative and would limit future options. The response to this statement from the colleague who favoured this option was: “I disagree.. let me restate my opinion once again.” With that the level of tension in the room increased significantly and the two leading proponents of the differing alternatives were politely at each others throats until the end of the meeting. The rest of the attendees sat and watched. Of course there was no resolution.
I’m sure most of you have been in similar situations. The lines are drawn, people take their positions and there is no forward movement. Our world trains us to be very good advocates. Our society rewards us if our solutions are adopted so we like to get in there and tell people exactly why our ideas are best. Unfortunately advocacy alone can lead to conflict and ideas that are not sufficiently explored - culminating in bad decision making.
In the example above we needed some inquiry. Inquiry helps people to better understand one another’s’ reasoning and thinking behind a solution. So, for example, in the situation above a little bit of inquiry in the form of a question like: "Can you give me an example of what you mean" or "Can you share with me the data you are using to support that conclusion?" would have avoided conflict and allowed deeper and more meaningful exploration of the proposed approaches.
Inquiry is particularly important as our world - and the problems we deal with - become more and more complex. Inquiry can be used to truly understand the issue and the implications of proposed solutions. It is also useful when we reach an impasse. By asking the right questions people can begin to think outside of the box and look at the world from someone else’s perspective. And of course questions can be wonderful for drawing out the wisdom in the room, particularly when some people are hesitant to share ideas.
Currently I’m working with two other consultants on a new business opportunity. We are all strong minded and independent and each of us is very good at advocating his or her position. For this reason we have set up our exploration phase to include a significant amount of inquiry. This allows us to better understand one another’s’ thinking. It’s proving to be a fascinating process and we are discovering more depth to our partnership then we had earlier imagined.
However, we should be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Being a good advocate is also important; we need to have opinions, as long as we are open to listening to others.
Inquiry and advocacy should work together. Inquiry broadens and deepens our understanding. Advocacy leads us to action. Without a balance between inquiry and advocacy people are more likely to remain neutral. As leaders, it is our role to balance the two to ensure effective interactions.
How do you balance inquiry and advocacy? Generally inquiry precedes advocacy - assuming we do not have all the information. Through inquiry we expose ideas and ask others to challenge and probe them. However if all the information is available then we can go ahead and advocate – which hopefully will lead to action.
Here are some approaches you may wish to consider in developing your inquiry skills:
Ask in a way that does not provoke defensiveness:
“Can you help me understand your thinking here?”
Draw out reasoning:
“Where does your reasoning go next?”
Explain your reasons for inquiring:
“I’m asking you about your assumptions here because…”
Test what they say by asking for broader context:
“Can you describe a typical example?”
Check your understanding:
“Am I correct that you are saying…”
Explore, listen and offer your own views:
“Have you considered…..”
A few tips for effective advocacy:
• Provide data and back up information
• Help people understand the context for an approach
• Make reasoning explicit
• Encourage others to explore your views
• Acknowledge weaknesses, and
• Actively inquires into others' views.
Nicky Fried is the principal of Nicky Fried Consulting Inc. She helps organizations to translate change and strategy so that employees understand where the organization is going and how they support it through their daily actions. Learn more about us at www.nickyfried.com or read her blog at www.nickyfried.blogspot.com
Facilitating for success
Every day about 25 million meetings take place in corporate North America; half that time is wasted.
Researcher Steven Rogelberg surveyed employees and found that professionals spend 5.6 hours a day in meetings. We can all relate to the feeling of gloom the surveyed employees expressed when sitting in unproductive meetings with piles of work waiting on their desks.
I have a game I play in one of my workshops where we look at the cost of holding a series of meetings over the course of a year. It’s quite shocking to realize your organization has just dropped $30,000 for last year’s departmental meetings.
The reasons for failed meetings are well documented, they include:
• No meeting objective
• Agenda incomplete and not sent out prior to the meeting
• Lack of clarity on roles
• Meeting does not start on time
• The agenda is not followed
• Conflict is not managed
• The meeting does not move toward resolving an issue/s
• Actions and deadlines are not assigned.
All of the above are valid. However, in addition to solid meeting management I’d like to suggest that we also need good facilitation skills for effective meetings. Let me explain.
We tend to work very much in isolation; often people come together from different parts of the organization to complete individual pieces of the pie. When we meet, it’s to get the big picture and to make decisions to move the process forward. However, given our cultural inclination to avoid confrontation and crucial conversations, we tend to revisit the same issues and our meetings become exercises in frustration.
Meeting management is defined as the process of planning, monitoring and coordinating all components of a meeting. Facilitation, on the other hand, is leadership by consent. Facilitating a meeting is different from leading a monthly organizational meeting using parliamentary procedure. The facilitator is a neutral guide who takes an active role in guiding the process.
When you become a facilitator, you share responsibility with the group members for progressing toward the goals. As facilitator you act as a guide, drawing out wisdom in the room as you move the participants forward in a particular direction.
Recently I had the pleasure of facilitating a series of management meetings with a very specific purpose. Initially I was participating very actively, by the last session my presence was superfluous and the group was self managing.
This is the process I use for facilitation. I hope you find it useful.
Stage 1 – Prior to the meeting
• Clarify purpose and objective of meeting.
• Develop an understanding of the issues
• Explore any previous sessions – reviewing strengths and weakness of those sessions
• Look at potential conflicts between participants
• Confirm expectations for you as facilitator
• Develop and send out the agenda
• Prepare materials and logistics for the meeting
• Agree on process / methodology of the meeting
• Confirm roles and responsibilities
• Establish group norms and rules for meetings
Stage 2 – During the meeting
• Begin the meeting and establish the meeting objective
• Keep everyone on track with the agenda
• Challenge thinking
• Help the group create lists of important points
• Summarize the issues from time to time
• Share ideas when they can help the meeting progress
• Provide handouts when needed to clarify the main points
• Raise questions to bring out different viewpoints
• Guide discussion
• Restate ideas when the person presenting them is not clear
• Provides constructive criticism when, for example, a person or people attempt to dominate the meeting
• Take notes
• Conclude the meeting.
Stage 3 – After the meeting up
• Report back in a fashion that ensures the process will move forward
• Follow up with people who committed to actions in the meeting.
Nicky Fried is the principal of Nicky Fried Consulting Inc. She helps organizations to translate strategy and change so that employees understand where the organization is going and how they support it through their daily actions. Learn more about us at www.nickyfried.com or read her blog at www.nickyfried.blogspot.com .
Researcher Steven Rogelberg surveyed employees and found that professionals spend 5.6 hours a day in meetings. We can all relate to the feeling of gloom the surveyed employees expressed when sitting in unproductive meetings with piles of work waiting on their desks.
I have a game I play in one of my workshops where we look at the cost of holding a series of meetings over the course of a year. It’s quite shocking to realize your organization has just dropped $30,000 for last year’s departmental meetings.
The reasons for failed meetings are well documented, they include:
• No meeting objective
• Agenda incomplete and not sent out prior to the meeting
• Lack of clarity on roles
• Meeting does not start on time
• The agenda is not followed
• Conflict is not managed
• The meeting does not move toward resolving an issue/s
• Actions and deadlines are not assigned.
All of the above are valid. However, in addition to solid meeting management I’d like to suggest that we also need good facilitation skills for effective meetings. Let me explain.
We tend to work very much in isolation; often people come together from different parts of the organization to complete individual pieces of the pie. When we meet, it’s to get the big picture and to make decisions to move the process forward. However, given our cultural inclination to avoid confrontation and crucial conversations, we tend to revisit the same issues and our meetings become exercises in frustration.
Meeting management is defined as the process of planning, monitoring and coordinating all components of a meeting. Facilitation, on the other hand, is leadership by consent. Facilitating a meeting is different from leading a monthly organizational meeting using parliamentary procedure. The facilitator is a neutral guide who takes an active role in guiding the process.
When you become a facilitator, you share responsibility with the group members for progressing toward the goals. As facilitator you act as a guide, drawing out wisdom in the room as you move the participants forward in a particular direction.
Recently I had the pleasure of facilitating a series of management meetings with a very specific purpose. Initially I was participating very actively, by the last session my presence was superfluous and the group was self managing.
This is the process I use for facilitation. I hope you find it useful.
Stage 1 – Prior to the meeting
• Clarify purpose and objective of meeting.
• Develop an understanding of the issues
• Explore any previous sessions – reviewing strengths and weakness of those sessions
• Look at potential conflicts between participants
• Confirm expectations for you as facilitator
• Develop and send out the agenda
• Prepare materials and logistics for the meeting
• Agree on process / methodology of the meeting
• Confirm roles and responsibilities
• Establish group norms and rules for meetings
Stage 2 – During the meeting
• Begin the meeting and establish the meeting objective
• Keep everyone on track with the agenda
• Challenge thinking
• Help the group create lists of important points
• Summarize the issues from time to time
• Share ideas when they can help the meeting progress
• Provide handouts when needed to clarify the main points
• Raise questions to bring out different viewpoints
• Guide discussion
• Restate ideas when the person presenting them is not clear
• Provides constructive criticism when, for example, a person or people attempt to dominate the meeting
• Take notes
• Conclude the meeting.
Stage 3 – After the meeting up
• Report back in a fashion that ensures the process will move forward
• Follow up with people who committed to actions in the meeting.
Nicky Fried is the principal of Nicky Fried Consulting Inc. She helps organizations to translate strategy and change so that employees understand where the organization is going and how they support it through their daily actions. Learn more about us at www.nickyfried.com or read her blog at www.nickyfried.blogspot.com .
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