Month: August 2015

25 Aug 2015
Sticky Post By Posted in Change Management Articles, Facilitation Articles, Instructional Design Articles, Leadership Articles Permalink

Follow The Yellow Brick U-Turn

Sticky Post By On August 25, 2015

SOMETIMES, REALITY BITES.

Sometimes it’s just a nip at the ankle.

Other times, reality bites your hand.

And other times it jumps up and bites us in the back side.

One way that reality bites is when plans should go one way, but somehow take a detour and go another way in a totally wrong direction that leads to a dead-end. When this happens, we scratch our heads and wonder if somehow we woke up in the middle of “Opposite Day.”

BUSINESS CASE

When organizations get into trouble with their businesses, the job of the leaders is to recognize what is happening and make the necessary changes to get things back on course. They need to be able to understand their current conditions and seewhat steps need to be taken by creating effective plans and strategies. Leaders should use all the resources at their disposal to execute their planning so that they have the best shot at correcting their course.

Using both internal talents and outside consultants, the leaders responsibility is to get the best plan at the most reasonable cost.

As a business consultant who works with organizations on developing plans for them, I am called upon to help create effective plans that implement positive changes. After working hard to develop a plan for a client, I recently “got bitten by reality.” The reality was that a client who clearly needed to change course “decided not to decide” on my new plan.

They loved the plan that I created and agreed that it would work, but they took a detour into no-man’s land. Even after an exhaustive search for potential vendors to create a plan to help them change course, the decision was made to…make no decision.

They were headed down the yellow brick road to a better place, but somehow got off track and took a detour.

DECISION MAKING

The client loved the plan, but didn’t want to use it. What is that all about, I wondered?

To get my answers as to why the client “decided not to decide” to change, I did what all good consultants do; I did a Google search and asked my peers for the answer.  Here is what I found:

  • Companies take, on average 15% longer to come to decisions about vendors, strategy and organizational changes (2009 Right Management Survey)
  • 20% of companies, on average, decide that the best course of action is no action when deciding on strategy, vendors and organizational changes
  • Internal decision-making processes add, on average, 10 to 20% more time tocomplete contracts, negotiations, etc.

Discovering this information made me even more curious.  Why would that be?  What could be the cause of this institutional analysis paralysis?  After some more conversation, research, and interviews I found some more fascinating facts:

Fear Factor

It seems natural that companies are hesitant to make decisions because there is a lack of trust in (and for) the organization. In addition, the very people tasked to make decisions are too scared of making the wrong one.

WHAT CAN BE DONE?
Here are 6 ways to help your organization become more effective in making decisions.

1.  86 the process
It is often said that nothing kills creativity like a good process.  Approval processes can be vital to success for large organizations.  They can help to manage cost and ensure accountability.  But, once a process is in place it tendsto take on a life of its own.

At times the process becomes so burdensome, that it is easier to just keep the status quo rather than bucking the system. It is important that questions like “Why are we doing this?” be asked on a regular basis.  There should be no process that isn’t scrutinized.

2. Encourage or Force Choice
This is tricky.  This requires managers and leaders to allow employees to make decisions or select new ways to doing things and rewarding them for doing so. This is not the norm for many organizations, departments, or teams.  Reward employees for making decisions.  Support them. Use the decision-making process as a learning opportunity. It will become a practiced skill that they will gain expertise the more they do it.

3. Take Actions To Increase Trust
Every effort should be made to increase trust on a regular basis.  Patrick Lencioni, the author of 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, has shown that the foundation of every successful team is trust.  But, it is often the first area where many teams fail.  There is not an emphasis on trust at organizations where it vanishes so quickly. In order to create high performance organizations building trust is paramount.

4.  Keep Changing
A great lesson can be learned from Ingar Skaug.  He was the CEO of Wilh. Wilhelmsen Lines, ASA a major ship building company.  Through tragedy he helped his company transform itself.  Although very successful ASA had become stagnant and resistant to change.  Skaug knew that this would be its downfall.  He encouraged decision-making that lead to change.

5. Align Culture to Strategy
Lack of decision and indecisiveness comes from being unclear on the path.  The decision of whether to go right or left can be paralyzing, if you do not know what the best path to take.  Leaders have to make sure that they are uncovering the dimensions of their culture and working towards aligning that to the organizational strategy.  Of course, it is necessary to have a strategy first.  It does not have to be a “we will change the world” strategy, but something that tells people where you intend to go.  This should inform every action and be the arbiter of decisions.

6. Have Fun
“Hardly a day goes by without reading an interview with a prominent executive or hearing a knowledgeable observer suggest that having fun at work is important for employee morale and productivity” ~ Robert C. Ford

People are relaxed when they are having fun.  They are confident and more willing to make decisions.  Not to say that it should be party, but fun.  Iron-clad, rule oriented organizations stay stagnant.

Taking these small actions at every level of the organization will increase the speed and ability to make decisions.  It is not a guarantee of perfect decisions.  That is notand should not be the goal.  People in organizations need to be good at deciding and acting.  The old child’s tale about the tortoise and the hare misses the point. The hare was fast but unfocused. If the hare had been intent on winning, the tortoise would have been left in the dust.

Don’t you wish your organization was the nimble hare? Do you want to help your leaders and teams be more decisive. Are you building a culture of trust, reward, and risk-tolerance that allows for healthy decision-making? What are some others ways that you can help keep your teams on the yellow-brick road to a better place?

Anil Saxena is the President of Cube 2.14, an organizational development consulting firm that works with clients to increase both customer and employee engagement while decreasing turnover, improving customer retention, and increasing profitability within organizations.

Saxena is a certified High Impact coach and trainer and a Joint Application Design facilitator. He is also certified by both Rush Systems and IBM as a focus group facilitator. He is an inaugural member of Northwestern University’s Learning and Organizational Change program, and he earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

25 Aug 2015
Sticky Post By Posted in Change Management Articles, Instructional Design Articles, Leadership Articles Permalink

Leadership Follies: Blamestorming

Sticky Post By On August 25, 2015

Blamestorming?

The act of an organization, or portion thereof, blaming other parts of the organization when there is a failure with a customer. Instead of finding or creation a solution for the customer they try to focus on why things happened.  Coming up with reason after reason for the failure but no resolution.

Business Case

“We spend all of our time trying to figure out who or what is to blame and none of it trying to fix the problem”, said the senior leader.  She was trying to figure out why the new “Focus on the Customer” strategy was not taking hold.  I had seen it too often – a great idea or strategy to improve business performance that actually decreases it.

Or organizations spend all their time looking for heads to roll –

“The board of directors was exhausted after a four hour blamestorming session which finally resulted in two names for the chopping block.” —Gab Halasz, Merriam Webster

Why does this happen?

It is as if organizations are built on the principles of self preservation….wait, they are.  Like any other organism, organizations actively work to survive.  Unfortunately in business, sometimes survival is the enemy of exceptional or superior performance.

The major thrust of Jim Collin’s exceptional book “Good to Great” was the chasm between the good and the great.  It is even evidenced recently.

The rash of companies that have failed in the past decade due to the “circling the wagon” mentality – Toyota, Goldman Sachs, BP and many more – or have lost market share because they can’t implement new strategies vital to their business’s success (think record labels dealing with the internet or US Steel Mills unable to deal with globalization). Clearly, there were efforts in all those companies to pull the organization towards a solution, but somehow it fell short.

It is almost understandable that a company would try to block or repel accusations of failure, but why would that happen internally? All the company’s departments are working towards the same goal, right?

Anyone that has worked in a company with more than one person knows that eventually people lose sight of the common goal. – Henry Ford

The storm clouds gather.

At some point in every employee’s career, they go from caring about the company to caring about themselves. Just like an individual organizations start out focused, driven and building solutions for their customer’s success.  But, companies too fall into the trap of caring more about their survival than the people or process that brought them success.

Chance of inclement weather and disaster

When companies reach the point that they do more “fixing the process” than solving customer problems, than blamestorming has taken over.  It is easy to see when this happens:

Once a company starts to go down the blamestorming path, these are the things that can happen:

  • Increase in internal bureaucracy
  • Lower employee morale
  • Decrease in new ideas coming from employees, lower organizational creativity
  • Lots of CYB (cover your butt) action like documenting every single interaction
  • Increase in Customer attrition
  • Overall lower organizational efficiency

When does the storm end?

Blamestorming is an organizational issue, but it can be addressed at many layers within the organization.

At the team level

Focus on the problem and solve it.

Sounds simple, right?  It is not as simple as it seems.  The idea is that the long term solution will come from solving the problem presented.  Once the problem is solvedcompletely take the solution and analyze it.

  • Why did the solution work?
  • How can it be used again?
  • Where can we leverage this solution?

Don’t focus on the process but the people
Process is important. It lends to organizational consistency, but once it is done for the sake of the process it is failing.  This is evidenced when leaders want employees to follow process over action or impact.  It is important that when solving a problem that individuals are taken into account.  Make sure that the people are taken care of while solving the problem.  All the people involved – customers, employees, vendors, etc. In the end people will make or break your process and the success of your company (just ask Jerry Reinsdorf how that went when Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, etc. left the Bulls)

At the macro (organizational) level

Mine for solutions
Organizations can foster a sense of pride and build creativity by promoting/highlighting solutions.  This is not collecting best practices.  Best practices have become “formulaic” and don’t allow for creativity.  It is showcasing solutions.  Promoting, as an organization, looking for and creating solutions.

Align to Strategy
This is going to sound a little bi-polar.  On one had organizations need to promote a solution focus.  That requires some freedom of thought and action where the primary objective is to solve organizational issues (customer problems, etc.) On the other hand there needs to be some focus on the focus.  That is there needs to be some direction or boundaries to the problems being solved.  Actions taken within the organization and to forward the organization should be taken towards a common end or strategy.  This will increase the overall organizational effectiveness. (quote and link here)

Why do something about it now?

A logical question might be, “Why should we worry about this now?”  Organizations that don’t will go the way to horse carriage makers, US Watch makers, etc.  These organizations did not see that they were not solving customer issues but holding on to a way to doing business or even product that wasn’t needed.

Does your organization focus on pointing the finger of blame rather than solving problems?  What does that cost you?  What has been done to interrupt that way of being?  I’d be curious to know!

Anil Saxena is the President of Cube 2.14, an organizational development consulting firm that works with clients to increase both customer and employee engagement while decreasing turnover, improving customer retention, and increasing profitability within organizations.

Saxena is a certified High Impact coach and trainer and a Joint Application Design facilitator. He is also certified by both Rush Systems and IBM as a focus group facilitator. He is an inaugural member of Northwestern University’s Learning and Organizational Change program, and he earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

25 Aug 2015
Sticky Post By Posted in Change Management Articles Permalink

Leadership Follies: Are You Ready For The Winter?

Sticky Post By On August 25, 2015

Is your organization poised to make money on the coming recovery?  Are you preparing now or planning to change when it happens?

Do you prepare when you know a change is coming?

Towards the end of November at my house we begin to winterize.  That is, we start to prepare for what we are anticipating will be cold, windy and snowy weather.  Although we can’t predict exactly when, we know that it is inevitable.  So that we can not only survive, but thrive in the coming change of season there are precautions we must take and stop gaps we can employ.  Shouldn’t companies winterize too?  We know that winter, just like the economic recovery, is coming.  Are we prepared?

Can’t you just wait until it gets cold to prepare for the winter?

Sure we can.  However, like the tale of the ant and the grasshopper waiting for the cold, or the economic change, can be disastrous.  The problem that many organizations and teams faced in the recent downturn was that they did not react until it was too late.  The economy hit all hard, but some were ready, like the ant, and weathered it well.
Unfortunately, we have become accustomed to knee-jerk and just-in-time reactions.  Thereby, allowing the desire to profit in the next quarter cloud the judgment to advance the organization for the long haul.  The same can be said for the team or department.  We must begin to anticipate the change that is inevitably coming through leadership and preparation.  Until we do, we tempt being like the grasshopper more often than we’d like.

How do you “winterize” your organization?

1. Find out what is really going on in the organization.

During an economic downturn, organizations often take drastic cost cutting measures.  Employees understand the reality of this.  That being said, it is important to understand the “state of your state”.  This is not just from P&L standpoint.  You have to be aware of trends within employee and customer ranks.  Invest in an engagement system to understand how well aligned and prepared for an uptick in business.  It is vital that you know the level of engagement to ensure flexibility and ability to act.

2. Prepare your managers

Managers are the front line of information and support for the organization.  Too many times, managers are left without tools or training to answer questions and hold discussions about changes to the organization.  They have the proximity and power to dispel rumors and create some momentum for the pending change. They don’t have the power to make the change by themselves.  Bu, it is critical to ensure they are developed and there is alignment between the organizational strategy and culture and the managerial ones.

3. Determine key roles and functions within the organization.

It sounds a little unkind, but there are some roles that are critical to the function of your team or organization.  There are some people and positions that have knowledge that would take a great deal of time to teach others or might hinder operations with access to.  Once you identify these people and positions, put plans in place to capture the critical knowledge, learn best practices and how to encourage them to grow with your organization.

4. Cross Train

Make sure that you are cross train knowledge within teams, departments, etc.  Once the critical positions and people have been identified, you can accurately partner folks based on their knowledge and need for growth.  Doing this can also be a method of recognition for both the person training and doing the training.  Mentoring can be a power method to continue to the good aspects of organizational culture.

5. Develop your current staff

Use the data from your engagement study you can uncover the development needs of your staff.  When combined with employee interviews, a baseline can be uncovered that will increase their productivity and abilities.  Development is inexpensive compared to losing customers or opportunities.

Does this really work?

Although all companies have been affected by the recent economic downturn, there are some that have fared relatively well.  Those that have, generally speaking, have focused on these five keys.  Apple, Wal-mart, Toyota, and others have shown that by focusing on what they do well and preparing for change companies can survive almost anything the economy throws their way.

Do you know what your employees are really thinking?  What are you doing to prepare for the coming economic change? Or are you just hoping that things will work themselves out?  If you are preparing, I would love to hear what you are doing or how!

25 Aug 2015
Sticky Post By Posted in Leadership Articles Permalink

Leadership Follies – Part Of The Pack

Sticky Post By On August 25, 2015

As we brought our first puppy into the house, I realized that there were a couple of key things that I had forgotten to get. I actually forgot food and a bed.  I had plenty of time for our new arrival, but I still hadn’t prepared enough. The new member of the family did not have everything it needed to be successful. I was in charge, yet unprepared for success.

Silly me…How could I expect the puppy to learn about how to be a part of the family without the basics?

As I raced around to the local pet stores, I began to think about how similar this was to new people starting at companies.  I worked with many organizations that acted like my family with our new puppy.  They were excited at the thought of a new member of the family, but unprepared when they finally arrived.  How often had I seen new employees without the basic tool like a desk, computer, phone, etc?

That night, as the puppy whined, I began to ponder how little my wife and I had done to ease it into its new role. The puppy didn’t know what it was getting into as we carried it into its new home.  Even worse, we had no plan to ensure that the puppy learned what it needed to do or know to be successful.

The Way It’s Done Now?

Silly as it sounds I remember thinking that night how many times had I seen new people at clients being left to:

  • Fend for themselves
  • Figure out the ropes
  • Sink or swim in order to survive

Often times this approach leads to disaster:

  • 22% of staff turnover occurs in the first forty-five days of employment.” – The Wynhurst Group
  • “46% of rookies wash out in their first 18 months” found a study of 20,000 new hired employees.” – Leadership IQ
  • “The cost of losing an employee in the first year is estimated to be at least three times their salary.” – The Wynhurst Group

It happens just like it did to the poor pup.  Isn’t it a leader’s duty to make sure their employees are taken care of?

Doesn’t a leader have an obligation to give a new employee every opportunity to succeed?

There has to be a better way

A new employee is not a puppy.  But, each new employee is like a new member of the family.  New employees are the lifeblood of new ideas, leadership, and vibrancy in any organization.  It is absolutely critical that new employees are made to feel:

  • Like they belong
  • glad they joined the company
  • Ready to make an impact

This has also been proven to add to the bottom line. In his book Deciding Who Leads, author Joseph Daniel McCool cites the example of Bristol-Myers Squibb, which increased retention of new executives from 40% to 90% by revamping the hiring process, including instituting a formal process for new executive integration.

New employee success is built upon 10 key fundamentals:

1. There must be a plan from the moment they are hired through the first 180 to 365 days of their job.

2. A new employee has to feel like they made the right choice as soon as they accept an offer.  This can easily be accomplished with a simple welcome package.  Nothing fancy, just some items that help to prepare the new employee for their first day and are a little special.

3. The new employee’s workspace should be 100% ready for them when they start.  There is nothing more demoralizing to come to an unprepared desk.  That prep makes people feel special.

4. Set up the new employee with a mentor.  Each new employee should have a mentor.  Depending on the size of the company, it could be internal or external.  But the mentor relationship needs to somewhat structured.

5. In the beginning, introduce the new employee meet critical people every day. It will allow them to be more comfortable from the start.

6. Have a training plan ready for them when they start that will take them through the end of their first year.

7. Make sure the new employee meets with other new hires

8. Put them to work right away. No one wants to sit idly.

9. Conduct, at minimum, one assessment of the new hire’s progress and knowledge every quarter. Review that with them to ensure they are clear about what they did well and where there is room for improvement.

10. Celebrate them joining the company. People like to know they are appreciated.

Does it really make a difference?

The second dog my family got was a much more pleasant experience.  I made sure to map out his first 180 days with us.  It sounds a little like overkill, but it worked remarkably well.  The extra time I spent with him the first couple of months was worth it.  ”Cadoo” turned out to be exceptionally well behaved, friendly and very reliable.  After the initial investment in time, tools, training and attention, he became a productive member of the family (he earned his keep by chasing rabbits out of the garden).

I think about Cadoo when working with clients on how to make new employees more effective, knowledgeable, and productive. Just make sure to set them up for success and there is no limit the positive effect they can have on the organization.

How do new employees feel when they start? Are you making sure that new employees are set up for success? What are you doing to give new employees knowledge? How are you going to make them feel like part of the pack?

Anil Saxena is the President of Cube 2.14, an organizational development consulting firm that works with clients to increase both customer and employee engagement while decreasing turnover, improving customer retention, and increasing profitability within organizations.

Saxena is a certified High Impact coach and trainer and a Joint Application Design facilitator. He is also certified by both Rush Systems and IBM as a focus group facilitator. He is an inaugural member of Northwestern University’s Learning and Organizational Change program, and he earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

25 Aug 2015
Sticky Post By Posted in Instructional Design Articles Permalink

Leadership Follies: Cutting Through The Meat

Sticky Post By On August 25, 2015

Why is most training not effective for very long? There is a lot of time and effort put into training? Does behavior really change because of training?

As performance improvement tools go, training is extremely effective.  But unless it is used on the job it is a waste of time.   

I learned early in my consulting career that good training is like teaching your kids to cut meat.  When done correctly, children learn to be self sufficient.  The alternative is cutting the kid’s meat or watching them eat like a barbarian. 

Great Training?

My wife and I were talking about the training that I just conducted for a client.  She asked me how the training went.  I told her it was magical.  The participants in the course were:

  • engaged,
  • laughing,
  • asking great questions
  • and taking notes!

“Wow”, she said.  “What happens when you leave?” she asked.

“Umm, well, they go back to work.” I eloquently stated.

“Really, do they put what you taught to use?” she asked.

“I’m not sure.”  I replied “Honestly, I am a consultant and I can’t control what the client does when I leave.”

“Oh, that seems like a waste of time then.”  My not so subtle wife stated.

What is the real impact?

I was stunned and hurt.  But wondered if that were true.  Was it a waste of time?  Did all of my hard work go for naught? 

Were my clients guilty of training for the sake of doing it with little thought to the follow through?  I decided that I would call some of the participants in my class in a couple of weeks and see what magic they were creating.   

Exactly two weeks from the end of my class, I called each person that attended.  The results were less than stellar.  Of the 22 people attending:

  • 13 had not looked at any of the material, done any of the post class work, etc.  None of their leaders asked them about the training. All of them thought I was great though.
  • 2 did not remember what we worked on, but remember the funny story I told about my father and the parking garage.  None of their leaders asked them about the training.
  • 3 said that they tried some of their new knowledge once at work and never tried it again.  They liked me during the course, but don’t think I gave them practical solutions.  None of their leaders did not ask them about the training.
  • 4 had implemented most of the learning and were excited with the results.  They liked me, but thought my jokes were old and tired.  Their managers inquired about the training, asked them to share their post training work and made it a topic during their status conversations.

I learned 3 things from these calls:

1. People like me
2. Training is great when people put it into action
3. People only put it into action consistently over time when prompted by their leader.
 
I thought that sounded ridiculously simple and therefore believed that could not be the answer.  Of course, that night my wife proved that it was. 

What could you do differently?

At the time, my daughter was not very good using a fork and knife.  She struggled particularly with cutting.  For some reason she thought it was easier to push down with a knife than saw back and forth.  She would struggle mightily and when frustrated would ask her Dad to cut it.  My wife took half the dinner to show Alex how to use a knife.   Over the next couple of days, my wife had my daughter practice cutting with her knife, talk about how to use her knife and praising her.  By the end of the third day, my daughter was a knife welding pro. 
 
It did not end with knowing the skill.  My wife worked with Alex every day to drive the learning home.  Although it took my wife extra time for a couple of days, we never had to cut Alex’s meat again.  My wife showed me that training is only the beginning.  Follow through enables real lasting learning. 

Since then, all of the training I deliver does not end with class.  It ends when the participant’s leader has made the learning a priority.  It is up to the participant to take in the lessons and bring back the knowledge.  It is up to the leader to help the participant put that learning to use every day until there is a change in behavior or skill. 

Are you making sure that training is acted on?  What steps are you taking to make sure that there is follow through after training?  Do you encourage people to use knowledge from recent training?  How do you make sure that training is being put to use?

Anil Saxena is the President of Cube 2.14, an organizational development consulting firm that works with clients to increase both customer and employee engagement while decreasing turnover, improving customer retention, and increasing profitability within organizations.

Saxena is a certified High Impact coach and trainer and a Joint Application Design facilitator. He is also certified by both Rush Systems and IBM as a focus group facilitator. He is an inaugural member of Northwestern University’s Learning and Organizational Change program, and he earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

25 Aug 2015
Sticky Post By Posted in Leadership Articles Permalink

Lessons From A Bad Manager: Employee Engagement Is All About You

Sticky Post By On August 25, 2015

ad managers see engagement surveys as a personal reading; they take the scores personally. Therefore, they see it as their “responsibility” to create an action plan to remedy any low scores. This is the antithesis of what should be done. It stifles conversation and ensures lower engagement over time. If engagement scores were about making the manager look good, it would undermine the whole premise of engagement!
 
When the manager believes that employee engagement ratings reflect how well they manage, and begin to take the scores personally, it’s basically a sign of being really bad manager.
 
Employee engagement scores are certainly influenced by the direct manager, but it’s most importantly the vehicle that empowers employees to create that kind of working environment that leads to engagement. The results enable individuals and teams to review what’s working and what isn’t, and in turn, create processes, systems, and initiatives that solve problems and lead to a better future.
 
Great managers see that having an engaged team is largely about the team creating an engaging environment.  
 
Employees are engaged when the work is interesting, meaningful, and has impact. Managers are instrumental in making that a reality. Employee engagement ratings are a tool to determine what could be improved to increase engagement, not a personal measure of the manager’s worth as a human being.
 
Great managers understand that they can provide a forum to allow the team to enhance engagement. They know they can create an engaging environment by having open dialogue about what works and what doesn’t.
 
I worked with a leader whose team scored very low on employee engagement tests. She was furious. Even though she thought she was nice and fair, her scores were low. She was embarrassed. In the meeting about the results, her discontent was palpable. She demanded that her managers get to the bottom of the low scores.

Her desire to find out why the scores were low became a barrier to actually fixing the issues identified by the survey. One of the areas that people felt disengaged about was being able to have open dialogue and fix processes that were broken.
 
Her reaction to the survey results solidified their belief that expressing their views and sharing their feedback was a CLM (Career Limiting Move).

Imagine if she had reacted like this instead:

“Wow, I was shocked by the results of the survey. It seems like we’ve identified a few things to get on. Let’s talk about how we can make this department an even more engaging place to work. Let’s not focus the conversation on why you selected the scores/levels you did. Let’s talk about solutions to make it better.”

The employees would have reacted much more favorably.
 
The objective isn’t to focus on what’s not working, or get rationale for why someone scored the way they did. The focus is moving forward on the solutions. 
 
Work on making improvements. When people see that their input is being used to make things better, they will become MORE ENGAGED.
 
Don’t be a bad manager. Employee engagement scores are not a measure of being likable; they’re a gauge of where to take action.

Anil Saxena is the President of Cube 2.14, an organizational development consulting firm that works with clients to increase both customer and employee engagement while decreasing turnover, improving customer retention, and increasing profitability within organizations.

Saxena is a certified High Impact coach and trainer and a Joint Application Design facilitator. He is also certified by both Rush Systems and IBM as a focus group facilitator. He is an inaugural member of Northwestern University’s Learning and Organizational Change program, and he earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

25 Aug 2015
Sticky Post By Posted in Instructional Design Articles Permalink

Leadership Development Program Epic Fail

Sticky Post By On August 25, 2015

Every year in organizations globally there are billions of dollars spent on developing leaders.

It’s estimated that $60 billion is spent annually by corporate America on learning and development programs. Over 20 percent—about $12 billion—is spent on programs specifically for executives and managers. – Jack Zenger

But, for the most part they don’t seem to get the return on investment that’s intended?  According to a recent McKinsey study:

“When upward of 500 executives were asked to rank their top three human-capital priorities, leadership development was included as both a current and a future priority. Almost two-thirds of the respondents identified leadership development as their number-one concern.2 Only 7 percent of senior managers polled by a UK business school think that their companies develop global leaders effectively,3 and around 30 percent of US companies admit that they have failed to exploit their international business opportunities fully because they lack enough leaders with the right capabilities.”

WHY DO THEY FAIL?

1. NO LINK TO IMPACT A SPECIFIC BUSINESS GOAL

In numerous companies, leadership-development efforts are not aligned with strategic goals.- Douglas A. Ready and Jay A. Conger

As with any other “people” related program, the only way to drive long term involvement is to connect it directly to business outcomes.  Unfortunately, too often this link isn’t made explicitly.  Therefore, the learning doesn’t help business leaders make decisions that affect issues that are important to business now.  In addition, if there is no link to business outcomes then it is easy to eliminate during economic downturns because it’s a “nice to have” not a necessity.
 
SOLUTION – LINK IT TO ONE OR MORE BUSINESS GOALS

This takes effort and money – and our research shows that this investment, when done well, pays off handsomely. Companies that don’t take the time and effort to align leadership with their business strategy (Yahoo is a great example) suffer in the market. – Josh Bersin

Actively connect leadership development to one or more business goals.  Whether it is decreasing errors or increasing productivity, make a connection that is real, important and visible.  That way it can be reported and measured. Of course measurement isn’t everything, but it can help to make improvements on the program over time.
 
2. NO CLEAR OBJECTIVE OR INTENDED OUTCOME
Far too often, there is no objective or measurable outcome related to leadership development programs.  They are put in place because “they should be” or as a result of survey or a senior leadership mandate.  Anecdotally, everyone knows that leadership development is important.  Research done by Josh Bersin, the Blanchard Companies and many others have shown that leadership development can be a competitive advantage.  But, without an outcome there is no guiding principle or direction for the development.  Development for development’s sake is good, but not sustainable.
 
SOLUTION – PUT A STAKE IN THE GROUND FOR OUTCOMES  

Although it’s not always true that only what’s measured matters, in this case it is important to have some outcomes that people can align on achieving.  This will drive the type of learning that is chosen, the modality, etc.  Without some agreed upon outcomes there will also be no way to measure if the program is successful, needs to be improved, etc.

3. NO ACCOUNTABILITY/CURRENT LEADERS ARE NOT EXHIBITING CHARACTERISTICS OR COMPETENCIES
Because there is often not a link between leadership development and business outcomes, leaders that don’t promote or exhibit the skills/competencies/tendencies taught are not held accountable.  They are allowed to continue their bad behavior and be a walking reminder of the program’s lack of teeth.  Those people will undermine the uptake of the principles taught in it. 

SOLUTION – HOLD LEADERS ACCOUNTABLE OR BETTER YET REWARD THOSE THAT EXHIBIT THE BEHAVIORS YOU’RE LOOKING TO BE EXHIBITED!
 
Remember the saying “Shadow of a Leader”.  It sounds easier than it is.  If an organization wants to create a particular culture, then it has to enforce the mores and norms of it.  That includes getting tough with bad leaders.  Reward the behavior that you want emulated.

4. NO PRACTICAL APPLICATION
Many leadership development programs are based in delivering a series of courses and weaving in some role playing or case studies.  The theory is delivered and then the implementation of that theory is left to the leadership development participants to put into practice.  The problem is:

1. There is little time for leaders/managers to implement new ideas
2. There is no one that can help them implement them in the best way
3. There is no feedback loop for them regarding their new skills
 
SOLUTION – ALL LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS MUST MUST MUST HAVE MENTORING AND REAL LIFE APPLICATION INCLUDED IN THEM.

It’s likely that classroom learning will always have a place in leadership development.  It is a good place to introduce new concepts and provides a safe place for experimentation.  But for leadership development to really take hold, it has to enable people to put learning into action and feedback/coaching regularly on how they did regularly.
 

Integrate leadership development into the work itself. This is the ideal environment, where the learning and the work are seamless. – Peter Bregman

Without the practical implementation aspect of leadership development the learning never gets past “that’s a good theory” stage.  Change in behavior or adoption of new behavior takes acting in a new way.  Creating a section of the program dedicated to application is vital to deep, meaningful and lasting learning.
 
What do you think? What are examples of leadership development programs that have succeeded?

Anil Saxena is the President of Cube 2.14, an organizational development consulting firm that works with clients to increase both customer and employee engagement while decreasing turnover, improving customer retention, and increasing profitability within organizations.

Saxena is a certified High Impact coach and trainer and a Joint Application Design facilitator. He is also certified by both Rush Systems and IBM as a focus group facilitator. He is an inaugural member of Northwestern University’s Learning and Organizational Change program, and he earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

25 Aug 2015
Sticky Post By Posted in Customer Service Articles Permalink

The Recovery: Winning Customers Over After You Screw Up

Sticky Post By On August 25, 2015

Of course great customer service is key to gaining and retaining customers, but the real test is how you react when something goes wrong, when you screw something up so badly that it could make or break the relationship, that moment when you realize what happened was not a simple mistake but a monumental screw up…
 
That’s the truest test of your customer service.
 
The real magic is when you recover from it gracefully. If you can accomplish this, the customer is yours for life!
 
It’s called the service recovery paradox:

“The service recovery paradox is the result of a very positive service recovery, causing a level of customer satisfaction and/or customer loyalty even greater than that expected if no service failure had happened. The term was coined 1992 by Michael McCollough and Sundar Bharadwaj, who defined service recovery as, ‘…a situation in which a consumer has experienced a problem which has been satisfactory resolved, and where the consumer subsequently rates their satisfaction to be equal to or greater than that in which no problem had occurred.’” (Source: Wikipedia)

Real Life Example

There was a time when my wife and I were staying at the Palomar Hotel in Phoenix while in the process of looking for a new place to live. Our real estate agent had us on a tightly packed schedule to find a new place in a single weekend.
On our first full day of looking, we came downstairs to get our car from the valet (it’s the only way they’d let us park there), but when I handed the valet our ticket, he informed us that the overnight valet had locked the keys in our rental car!

My immediate reaction was, “HOLY $#!T? We have a busy day ahead of us! Now what do we do?”

And the moment of truth: the valet and the on duty hotel manager just handled it.

  • They sent us up to the restaurant for free breakfast
  • They called the rental company
  • They scheduled a driver to take us around all day
  • They made sure our rental car was ready for the next day
  • They apologized, and when we got back they told us how it was going to be fixed

Was it their fault that the keys were locked in the car? Yes!

But here’s the key: they handled the situation in a professional way and made us feel great throughout the process. Organizations are going to make mistakes, that’s just reality… It’s not about if, but when.

So maybe the message is not about preventing the screw up… but instead about allowing employees the room to correct errors and go above and beyond for the customer.
 
Here are some easy steps to turn these inevitable mistakes into opportunities:

1. Be proactive about telling the customer: Don’t wait for the customer to point an issue, let them know right away

2. Have a plan: Before you contact the customer, be clear about how the issue will be resolved

3. Go way above and beyond: Don’t just fix the issue, provide the customer with exceptional service and services – mistakes aren’t forgotten, but they’re forgiven if the solution makes us feel better

4. Apologize: You can never say sorry enough

5. Don’t throw anyone under the bus: This is not about covering any one person’s ass or finding a scapegoat, it’s about correcting mistakes – customers don’t care about whose fault it is, just that the problem gets solved

6. Follow up… a lot: Even when the solution is in place and the customer seems happy, make sure to follow up afterward – it’s important to make sure the solution sticks
 
What would customer experience be like if employees were empowered to fix mistakes? What if employees were rewarded for fixing screw ups and paving the way to correct them proactively?  
 
From my family’s perspective, we’ve decided this is our favorite hotel. We tell everyone about it because our experience shows how awesome the staff is. We’re a walking endorsement.

What would it mean for your business if you had more customers like that? 

Anil Saxena is the President of Cube 2.14, an organizational development consulting firm that works with clients to increase both customer and employee engagement while decreasing turnover, improving customer retention, and increasing profitability within organizations.

Saxena is a certified High Impact coach and trainer and a Joint Application Design facilitator. He is also certified by both Rush Systems and IBM as a focus group facilitator. He is an inaugural member of Northwestern University’s Learning and Organizational Change program, and he earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

25 Aug 2015
Sticky Post By Posted in Instructional Design Articles Permalink

Training That Actually Makes An Organization More Successful

Sticky Post By On August 25, 2015

All signs point to a dramatic increase in spending on training within organizations:

“US spending on corporate training grew by 15% last year (the highest growth rate in seven years) to over $70 Billion in the US and over $130 Billion worldwide.” – Josh Bersin

Leaders within organizations see a growing gap between the skills of their employees and the skills necessary to make the organization successful. The question is not whether training is necessary, it’s whether the training delivered is really making organizations more successful. What is the proof?

As someone deeply ingrained in learning, that’s something that I struggle with on a regular basis. In order to ensure a measurable impact, we need to be speaking the language of business. We have to understand what will really move the needle on organizational performance.
 
Even though spending on training is increasing, there is still the perception that a large number of training initiatives are not effective.
 

“…These metrics matter a great deal to CEOs. In fact, 92 out of 96 Fortune 500 CEOs said that they are most interested in learning the business impact of their learning and development programs, but only 8% see that happening at their companies now.” – Gary Stern

Unfortunately for many organizations, this leads to view of training as a cost instead of an investment. It’s the same as spending on supplies. As training professionals, we have historically looked within our organizations to identify skills o drive learning, but is that where we should be looking? Maybe to bridge this large and growing skills gap, we have to change the way we approach learning in the first place.
 
For instance: does training a cashier to scan items more effectively earn the company more money? Tangentially, it likely helps, but what if the cashier was trained on how to incent customers to come back to their line the next time they were in the store? What if their training was more about how they could retain loyal customers/gain new customers, instead of getting people through the line quickly? What might that do for the cashier? What might that do for the customer?
 
If the cashier views their role not as “the last part of the shopping process,” but instead as a critical part of the customer experience, it might change how they view their role. Of course, they will still have to be trained on the operations of their register. They will have to know store policies. But the measure or outcome of what they are doing is entirely different.
 
What if training and development wasn’t just about increasing skills, but about giving each and every employee their Line of Sight to the Customer™?. That is, training them on their impact on gaining and retaining customers.
 
It would alter their focus.
 
Being highly efficient on the register becomes a method to increase overall organizational performance, instead of just “what they have to do.”
 
Remember the movie Office Space?

The manager in the restaurant wanted Jennifer Aniston’s character to wear more “flair,” but it wasn’t about the number of buttons on the shirt – it was really about the customer experience, but had morphed into some meaningless part of onboarding or training a server. Put into the realm of gaining and retaining customers, its about creating an experience. The servers’ roles in Office Space shift from, “I’m going to take your order” to, “Let’s make this a little getaway” or something like that. It becomes an experience.

The shift in focus of is about gaining and retaining more customers. If training isn’t addressing that, then why are you doing it? If you are not thinking about this, it’s likely an impediment to the Line of Sight.

Anil Saxena is a President & Senior Consultant Cube 214 Consulting. 
He helps teams create environments that generate repeatable superior results.

03 Aug 2015
Sticky Post By Posted in Change Management Articles Permalink

Is It The Change That Fails Or The Lack Of Focus On Transition?

Sticky Post By On August 3, 2015

change management project fails2/3 of all change initiatives fail! Shocking bold-faced headlines pushing us to believe that change fails because:

  • People suck at change
  • No one really knows how to do it
  • It has to be managed
  • The right process was not chosen

What if all of those reasons about change management projects failing were not true?

A LITTLE STORY

My father came to the United States as an immigrant. He used to tell me it was both exhilarating and terrifying.

“I knew how to be successful in India. There I was a skilled and successful engineer. But I had to learn how to be successful in a new way here in the States.”

His college advisor at Duke didn’t talk to about the steps he needed to take to assimilate. Instead he focused on helping this new place feel like home. But it was never “now this is your new home, deal with it.” That would have been insane. Why should it be any different at work? Why isn’t there more focus on the transitions?

HUH? TRANSITIONS?

“It’s not the changes that do you in, it’s the transitions.” – William Bridges

Bridges defines transitions as:

Transition is the psychological process people go through to come to terms with the new situation.

Said a different way

Successful change is less about the mechanics of the change project and more about how people migrate between their old comfortable world and the new scary world.

What if we focused 50% of change efforts on the mechanics and 50% on helping people through the “messy middle of change?

What might that look like?

  • Help people to agree to/accept the change – understanding what the new world will look like and how it will be implemented.
  • Promote the change – it’s vital that people are bought into the principles of the change (this with the “What’s In It for Me” portion)
  • Make sure people appreciate the impact – describe the consequences of the change both from an individual and a personal perspective.
  • Identify and use leverage tools– leverage tools are ways in which we can encourage folks to accept and even promote the transition. (Different changes, people and organizations will need different levers to make that change work.)

SO WHAT NOW?

The whole practice of change management may be misnamed. There are certainly technical aspects to it that must be managed. But, that is only a portion of it. Truthfully, it’s not so much the new way of working that needs managing, but the transition from old to new; change management is really about helping people through the transition from the “old way of doing things to the new”.

How do you help people through the messy transition from old to new?

Picture thanks to – http://www.magiclovebus.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Metamorphosis.jpg

FIND A SOLUTION

Cube 2.14 will increase your organizational effectiveness. We specialize in developing innovative, practical solutions to create productive workplaces that exceed goals.

CONTACT INFORMATION

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  • (847) 212-0701
  • www.cube214.com

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