One of the greatest hurdles to productive group implementation is one of the easiest to solve, listening. Was everyone heard is a major indicator in whether or not the product of a decision will be implemented and the percentage of support it will receive. When we look at the model of group decision making – orientation, discussion, decision making, and implementation – it’s easy to identify where verbal contribution factors in. So the path is clear. The challenge is the engagement piece. Is everyone’s voice being heard? Is everyone being asked to contribute. Even if someone does not have something to contribute, the request and offer for them to contribute is critical, as is the sense of inclusion. Whether one decides to contribute or not, has less impact on outcomes than whether or not they felt included. A sense of inclusion is paramount to the decision to support the outcome. What’s all of the above mean? Want to tank your project quickly? Have someone who was involved in the project bad mouth it.
The Neuroscience Of Positive Leadership
Research on the neuroscience of positive leadership, to me, seems like the best idea ever! If you have positive leadership, creating a positive organizational culture, things start to take care of themselves, ROI, productivity fall into place. http://www.unc.edu/peplab/research.html
Public Speaking
Yesterday I held a TEDxWomen event here in IL, on the beautiful North Shore of Lake Michigan, outside of Chicago, in the amazing suburb of Winnetka. I learned a few extremely valuable lessons in the compact time I had to organize it, raise money for it, pick speakers and implement it all. 1) It is true, when opportunity knocks and you aren’t sure how to tackle the opportunity, say yes anyway, and figure it out along the way. 2) A great thing is a great thing. My event sold out without advertising and I covered cost with investing less than 2 hours raising the $8,000 I wanted to do the event well. 3) If you need help, ask. I didn’t ask for help for any of the process except for the day of the event. That was a mistake on my part as I could have shared this amazing experience with others. 4) There is an endless flow of amazing people when you look for them. The event featured 12 of these amazing people and their incredible stories. Some of the great speakers yesterday, Julia Collins who is the 2nd winningest Jeopardy contestant of all time, Marcia Cleveland, who swam the English Channel – her book,http://www.amazon.com/Dover-Solo-Swimming-English-Channel/dp/0967209110/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1432928785&sr=1-1&keywords=Dover+Marcia+Cleveland, Jeanne Bishop who shared her story of mercy and grace after several members of her family were murdered – her book: http://www.amazon.com/Change-Heart-Justice-Making-Sisters/dp/0664259979, and so many other wonderful women. TEDxWomen and TEDx in general are the most amazing examples of an institution that has created a platform for truly, as they say, sharing “Ideas Worth Spreading”. Nine of the twelve speakers at day’s end yesterday…
You Must Recharge
My friend Melissa once told me chickens brood, sitting in what could appear to be a very unproductive manner, in order to be uber-productive later. I’m paraphrasing that a bit. Melissa said it much better-she lives on a farm and knows things and knew I needed to dial it down at the time. All this is to say, unproductive behavior can breed productive behavior. You must rest and relax in order to maximize your creativity, thoughts, skills, productivity, etc. And if you are a manager or leader, you must allow those you are leading to do so as well.
Make Them Want To Stay
Ratty Transgressions
There are all types of very important, official sounding words to describe group/team conflict dynamics. We can talk about proportional or perceptual conflict, but what it all boils down to on most occasions when conflict goes from productive to toxic is what I like to call “rats in a cage conflict.” “Rats in a cage conflict” is the scenario when there appears (real or not) to be more work and less time for those within the dynamic to get it all done. Basically, scarce resources, primal instincts equal turning on each other. The result is the dual ratty transgressions of finger-pointing and off-loading responsibilities. A simpler term is “drama.” The key to resolution is within the observation of the dynamic and workload as a whole. As noted above, the fall out can come from a scenario that is perceived and not real? How? Burnout and even stress can skew our outlooks. We fail to appropriately address and manage our time. For instance, recently someone shared they don’t have enough time for all that is required of them. Upon further evaluation, turns out he does have enough time, the time however was not being managed well. Often just the stress of the known combined with the unknown timeline of when the flood will abate is enough for folks to disconnect from appropriate time management skills, and the downward spiral begins. Perceived work versus actual work can be two very different things. When our time management component snaps due to misperception, the toxic fallout will spread to additional employees and the dominos begin to fall. So how do you address the situation? You can address it in several ways. Time management resources help, continued communication helps, accountability helps, and planning helps. If someone is overwhelmed have them map out their duties and time management plan. Boom, whining goes away and you can identify if the problem is real or perceived.
Performance Strategy
If you ask your boss or those you manage/lead, what their performance strategy is, what do you anticipate hearing? If you ask yourself what your performance strategy is, what is your answer? Who is setting the tone, and bar, relating to performance strategies in your organization?
Performance Matching
Performance matching is a common phenomena within the workplace. It consists of group work and/or area work resulting in a consistent outcome pulled lower by the poorest performer. What does it look like? Say two teams are working at opposites sides of the building on the same task. The groups outcomes will tend to match that of the least productive members, pulling down the overall group output. How do you guard against a failing dynamic and downward norm setting? Implement internal and/or external incentives for high performance and include a competition component involving another group. Studies have shown when team competition enters the equation, the downward norm no longer exists.
Action + Accountability Trumps Ongoing Mind Numbing Discussion
Think. Discuss. Act. Be Accountable. That is all you need to succeed. There is a direct correlation at a point in ongoing discussions showing reduced productivity and positive outcome. Early collaboration and action has a cost benefit.