Speaking of Change, Collaboration, Leadership, and Body Language

2011-01-04T12:30:00.000-08:00

I was asked today to contribute to the Washington Post “On Leadership” column. My remarks were about how new beginnings start with the death of the old ways – and what this means for leaders of organizational change. Here is what I wrote:

“The beginning of anything new always signals the death of the old. Changing the way work gets done means employees having to give up the competence and confidence they gained under the old system. Employees under new leadership must relinquish the relationships they created with their previous boss. A work force relocating to new facilities has to move from the existing building. And with every “death” comes a period of mourning where people grieve for what they are being asked to leave behind. This is why you can expect that employees in the midst of a cultural transformation are almost certain to take a nostalgic look back at 'the good old days' and to mourn the passing of that familiar culture.

Effective leaders of change focus on the future without describing the past as wrong. It is almost always unproductive to tell people that they must change to 'correct' past performance. (It is also unrealistic to speak of “correcting” in cases where the past has been highly successful, but still needs to change.) In any case, it is wise to assume that workers have done their best. Telling them it was not good enough -- that, in effect, they were not good enough -- is demoralizing, de-motivating, and guaranteed to build resentment.

Instead of blaming the old ways, leaders can help employees detach from the past by allowing them to mourn it. To facilitate people through the mourning period, I've seen the past honored in a variety of rituals. From pictorial displays on company walls to parties celebrating the history of the organization, rituals help people say good-bye and move on to embrace the future.”

Not a bad way to think about the new year. If you take time to honor (and perhaps mourn) whatever beliefs, behaviors and attitudes you want to leave behind, it will be much easier to release them in order to move on.

Happy 2011 - I hope it's a good one for you!

2010-12-15T15:34:00.000-08:00

Why Leaders Should Watch Their Body Language

Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D.

Many executives in my audiences are initially skeptical about hearing a speaker on “body language” because they suspect that the topic might be interesting, but not very practical.

By the end of my program, they know better. Here’s what they learn . . .

1) Science has validated the impact of body language.

Body language is the management of time, space, appearance, posture, gesture, touch, smell, facial expression, eye contact, and vocal prosody. From the latest research in neuroscience and psychology we can now prove that body language is crucial to leadership effectiveness – and we can show exactly how it impacts a leader’s ability to negotiate, manage change, build trust, project charisma, and promote collaboration.

For example, research by the MIT Media Lab shows how subtle nonverbal cues provide powerful signals about what's really going on in a business interaction. Whether you win or lose a negotiation is strongly influenced by unconscious factors such as the way your body postures match the other person, the level of physical activity as you talk, and the degree to which you set the tone – literally – of the conversation.

Based on data from devices (called Sociometers) that monitor and analyze patterns of unconscious nonverbal signals passing between people, researchers with no knowledge of a conversation’s content can predict the outcome of a negotiation, the presentation of a business plan, or a job interview in two minutes – with over 80% accuracy.

2) All human beings (that’s every direct report, board member, customer, contractor, and colleague) have been genetically programmed to look for facial and behavioral cues and to quickly decode their meaning.

As a species we knew how to win friends and influence people – or avoid/placate/confront those we couldn’t befriend – long before we knew how to use words. Our ancestors made survival decisions based solely on intricate bits of visual information they were picking up from others. And they did so almost instantly.

We still do.

Research at New York University found that we make major decisions about one another – assessing credibility, friendliness, trustworthiness, confidence, power, status, and competence – within the first seven seconds of meeting.

In business, these first impressions are crucial. Once someone mentally labels you as “likeable” or “un-likeable,” “powerful” or “submissive,” everything else you do will be viewed through that filter. If someone likes you, she’ll look for the best in you. If she doesn’t like you, or mistrusts you, she’ll suspect devious motives in all your actions.

As a leader looking to make a positive first impression, you’d better know how to instantly project the nonverbal signals of warmth, candor, credibility, and confidence.

3) People evaluate body language unconsciously.

The tricky thing about body language (and one of the reasons it is so powerful) is its unconscious nature. Co-workers may form a negative opinion of you because you slouch, don’t make enough eye contact – or make too much eye contact – or stand too close to them when you speak. But, because people are unaware of how or why they made the judgment, they are unable to filter out their biases.

With nonverbal communication, it’s not how the sender feels that matters most; it is how the observer perceives how the sender feels. And those interpretations are often made deep in the subconscious mind, triggered by the limbic brain, and based on a primitive emotional reaction that hasn’t changed much since humans began interacting with one another.

That’s why your nonverbal signals don’t always convey what you intended them to. You may be slouching because you’re tired, but people read it as a sign of disinterest. You may be more comfortable standing with your arms folded across your chest (or you may be cold), but others see you as resistant and unapproachable. And keeping your hands stiffly by your side or stuck in your pockets can give the impression that you’re insecure – whether you are or not.

4) Body language is how leaders express emotion.

A classic and often misquoted study by Dr. Albert Mehabrian at the University of California Los Angeles stated the total impact of a message is based on: 7% words used; 38% tone of voice, volume, rate of speech, vocal pitch; 55% facial expressions, hand gestures, postures and other forms of body language.

But Mehabrian never claimed that you could view a movie in a foreign language and accurately guess 93 percent of the content by watching body language. In fact, he was only studying the communication of feelings – particularly, liking and disliking.

The nonverbal aspects of communication won’t deliver 93 percent of your entire message, but it will reveal underlying emotion, motives, and feelings, In fact, people will evaluate most of the emotional content of your message, not by what you say – but by how you say it and how you look when you say it.

5) When your body language doesn’t match your words, your verbal message is lost. Neuroscientists at Colgate University study the effects of gestures by using an electroencephalograph (EEG) machines to measure “event related potentials” – brain waves that form peaks and valleys. One of these valleys, dubbed N400, occurs when subjects are shown gestures that contradict what’s spoken. This is the same brain wave dip that occurs when people listen to nonsensical language. So, in a very real way, when your words say one thing and your gestures indicate another, you don’t make sense. And if forced to choose between your rhetoric and your body language, people will believe what they see and not what you say.

By the end of my program, leaders in the audience understand how nonverbal skills can help them develop positive business relationships, influence and motivate direct reports, improve productivity, bond with team members, present ideas with more impact, and authentically project their personal brand of charisma. They learn that body language is not only “interesting,” but also imminently practical!

Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D. is an executive coach and international keynote speaker at corporate, government, and association events. She’s the author of “The Nonverbal Advantage: Secrets and Science of Body Language at Work.” Her new book, “THE SILENT LANGUAGE OF LEADERS: How Body Language Can Help – or Hurt How You Lead” will be released in April 2011. To contact Carol about speaking or coaching, call 510-526-1727, email CGoman@CKG.com. Carol’s website is http://www.NonverbalAdvantage.com. You can also follow Carol on Twitter: http://twitter.com/CGoman.

2010-11-17T20:28:00.000-08:00

Listening With Your Eyes
Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D.

You’re at a business event and the colleague you’ve been having an intense conversation with begins to shift her gaze from your face to look around the room. Ever wonder why that makes you feel as if she has stopped listening? You know it’s not logical. A person doesn’t have to look at you to hear you. People don’t listen with their eyes.

Or do they?

The impact of eye contact is so powerful because it is instinctive and connected with humans’ early survival patterns. Children who could attract and maintain eye contact, and therefore increase attention, had the best chance of being fed and cared for.

And eye contact retains its power with adults. We gaze intently at one another, unconsciously monitoring the wide eyes of surprise or pleasure and the narrowed eyes of suspicion or dislike. We respond (positively or negatively) to dilated pupils that signal attraction, increased blink rates caused by stress, and darting eyes that underscore discomfort or defensiveness.

Over the course of a conversation, eye contact is made through a series of glances – by the speaker, to make sure the other person has understood or to gage reactions, and by the listener to indicate interest in either the other person or what’s being said. It is also used as a synchronizing signal. People tend to look up at the end of utterances, which gives their listeners warning that the speaker is about to stop talking. There is often mutual eye contact during attempted interruptions, laughing, and when answering short questions.

Eye contact is most effective when both parties feel its intensity is appropriate for the situation (and this may differ with introverts/extroverts, men/women, or between different cultures). But greater eye contact, especially in intervals lasting four to five seconds, almost always leads to greater liking. As long as people are looking at us, we believe we have their interest. If they meet our gaze more than two-thirds of the time, we sense that they find us appealing or fascinating.

In fact, the only kind increased eye contact that does not increase liking is staring – which most of us consider to be rude or even threatening. This kind of over-done eye contact generally communicates a desire to dominate, a feeling of superiority, a lack of respect, or a wish to insult.

In the Western world, too little eye contact is interpreted as being impolite, insincere, or even dishonest. One hospital, analyzing letters of complaints from patients, reported that 90 percent of the complaints had to do with poor doctor eye contact, which was perceived as a “lack of caring.”

But people decrease or avoid eye contact for many reasons – when they are discussing something intimate or difficult, when they are not interested in the other person’s reactions, when they don’t like the other person, when they are insecure or shy and when they are ashamed, embarrassed, depressed or sad.

Waiters in restaurants tend to avoid eye contact with their customers to send the message, “I’m too busy to deal with you right now.” Employees avoid eye contact when the boss poses a difficult question or asks for volunteers. (The general rule here is to look down and shuffle through notes as if searching for the answer or engaged in a much more important pursuit.) And when pedestrians or drivers want to ensure their own right of way, one strategy is to avoid meeting the other’s eyes in order to avoid cooperation.

In intense or intimate conversations people naturally look at one another more often and hold that focus for longer periods of time. A sure sign that a conversation is lagging is when one of the participants begins looking away to pay more attention to other people or objects in the vicinity.

So when your business colleague stopped looking at you and began to gaze blankly into the distance or visually scan the room, she was “saying” with her eyes that she had, in effect, stopped listening.

Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D. is an executive coach and international keynote speaker at corporate, government, and association events. She’s the author of “The Nonverbal Advantage: Secrets and Science of Body Language at Work.” Her new book, “THE SILENT LANGUAGE OF LEADERS: How Body Language Can Help – or Hurt How You Lead” will be released in April 2011. To contact Carol about speaking or coaching, call 510-526-1727, email CGoman@CKG.com. Carol’s website is http://www.NonverbalAdvantage.com. You can also follow Carol on Twitter: http://twitter.com/CGoman.

2010-09-13T16:41:00.000-07:00

WHEN LEADERS TALK WITH THEIR HANDS
Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D.

Have you ever noticed that when people are passionate about what they’re saying, their gestures automatically become more animated? Their hands and arms move about, emphasizing points and conveying enthusiasm.

You may not have been aware of this connection before, but you instinctively felt it. Research shows that audiences tend to view people who use a greater variety of gestures in a more favorable light. Studies have found that people who communicate through active gesturing tend to be evaluated as warm, agreeable, and energetic, while those who remain still (or whose gestures seem mechanical or “wooden”) are seen as logical, cold, and analytic.

That’s one of the reasons why gestures are so critical to a leader and why getting them right in a presentation connects so powerfully with an audience.

I’ve seen senior executives make rookie mistakes. When leaders don't use gestures correctly (if they let their hands hang limply to the side, hide them in pockets or clasp their hands in front of their bodies in the classic “fig leaf” position), it suggests they don't recognize the crucial issues, they have no emotional investment in the issues, or they don’t realize the impact of their nonverbal behavior on the audience.

We all form impressions about a speaker that help determine how we interpret what the speaker is saying – and the impression we get about someone’s trustworthiness is a critically important factor in effective communication. If an audience does not trust the presenter, or at least think that the speaker believes what he is saying, then it will be almost impossible for that speaker to get his message across.

Trust is established through congruence – that perfect alignment between what is being said and the body language that accompanies it. If a speaker’s gestures are not in full agreement with the spoken words, the audience consciously or subconsciously perceives duplicity, uncertainty or (at the very least) internal conflict.

Although people may not be aware they are doing so, audience members are also evaluating a leader’s sincerity by the timing of his or her gestures: Authentic gestures begin split seconds before the words that accompany them. They will either precede the word or will be coincident with the word, but will never come after the word.

To use gestures effectively, leaders need to be aware of how those movements will most likely be perceived. Here are some common hand gestures and the messages behind them:

Emblematic gestures - Some gestures have an agree-upon meaning to a group and are consciously used instead of words. These are referred to as emblematic gestures, and, like the words they represent, they’re processed in the left hemisphere of the brain. We learn emblematic gestures at home, in school, and in other social environments, so they generally differ from culture to culture. So remember that what may be effective communication in one culture can become ineffective or even offensive in another.

Emblematic gestures used in the U.S. include the thumbs-up sign that is commonly understood to mean “good job,” “OK” or “everything’s fine,” and hand rocking - where the palm faces down and the fingers spread out and the hand rocks left and right - means “so-so” or “maybe.”

Pacifying gestures – When nervous or stressed, people pacify themselves with a variety of self-touching gestures. They rub their legs, pull at their collars, and cross their arms to hold their upper arms in a kind of “self-hug.” In a presentation, any pacifying gesture (including hand wringing, rubbing the forehead, playing with jewelry or hair, etc.) makes a leader look tentative, unprepared or insecure.

Illustrative gestures – Everyone produces gestures spontaneously and unwittingly as they speak. We may seldom think of our gestures consciously, but in practice we use them with great efficiency and sophistication to cover a surprisingly wide range of communicating.

Sometimes gestures are used to physically illustrate a point, as when pointing to a particular paragraph in a contract or moving your hand to the right when telling someone to turn in that direction. Other gestures are unconscious signals that give the viewer a glimpse into the speaker’s emotions, motivations or attitude. These include . . .

• Open palms at an angle – Gestures with palms showing (tilted to a 45 degree angle) signal candor and openness. When being truthful or forthcoming, people tend to use open gestures, showing their palms and wrists and spreading hands and arms away from their bodies, as if saying, “See, I have nothing to hide.”

• Palms up – When palms are rotated straight up and fingers are spread, in a prototypical pleading position), it communicates the lack of something that the speaker needs or is requesting.

• Palms down – Speakers pronate their palms to signal power and certainty. This is also a controlling signal – as when trying to quiet an audience.

• Vertical palms – Vertical palm gestures with a rigid hand are often used to demonstrate the need for precise measurement – or to beat out a rhythm that gives emphasis to certain words.

• Clenched hands – When a speaker clutches an object tightly, grips his hands behind his back, or curls his hands into fists, it signals anger, frustration or a nonverbal way of saying, “I’m holding on to something and I’m not going to open up to you.” Depending on the context, the clenched fist gesture can also communicate a warning that unwavering fortitude may be necessary to achieve an objective. I’ve often seen leaders use a fist to add the nonverbal equivalent of “with power”, “firm commitment,” or “by force” to their message.

• Finger pointing – Finger pointing and wagging are parental gestures of scolding, and I’ve often seen politicians and executives, in particular, use this gesture in meetings, negotiations, or interviews for emphasis or to show dominance. The problem is, that rather than being a sign of authority, aggressive finger pointing suggests that the leader is losing control of the situation – and the gesture smacks of playground bullying.

• Hands on hips – Whether in a stubborn toddler or an aggressive CEO, hands on hips is one of the most common gestures used to communicate a defiant, super-confident, or independent attitude.

• Hidden hands – Hidden hands make you look less trustworthy. This is one of the nonverbal signals that is deeply ingrained in our subconscious. Our ancestors made survival decisions based solely on bits of visual information they picked up from one another. In our prehistory, when someone approached with hands out of view, it was a clear signal of potential danger. Although today the threat of hidden hands is more symbolic than real, our psychological discomfort remains.

• Steepling gestures – It is common to see a speaker using a steepling gesture (palms separated slightly, fingers of both hands spread and finger tips touching) when feeling confident or comfortable about a subject she knows well. Politicians, executives, professors, and attorneys are very fond of using these gestures when they speak.

Hand gestures of enthusiasm – There is an interesting equation of hand and arm movement with energy. If a leader wanted to project more enthusiasm and drive, she could do so by increased gesturing. On the other hand, over-gesturing (especially when hands are raised above the shoulders) can make her appear erratic, less believable and less powerful.

Hand gestures of composure – Arms held at waist height, and gestures within that horizontal plane, help you - and the audience - feel centered and composed. Arms at waist and bent to a 45 degree angle (accompanied by a stance about shoulder-width wide) is also the posture I advise leaders to assume between gestures. It helps keep them grounded, energized, and focused.

Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D. is an executive coach, consultant, and international keynote speaker at corporate, government, and association events. She’s the author of “The Nonverbal Advantage: Secrets and Science of Body Language at Work.” Her new book, “THE SILENT LANGUAGE OF LEADERS” will be published May, 2011. Contact Carol by phone, 510-526-1727, or email CGoman@CKG.com. Carol’s websites are http://www.NonverbalAdvantage.com and http://www.CKGcom. You can also follow Carol on Twitter: http://twitter.com/CGoman.

2010-08-12T08:05:00.000-07:00

ATTRACTING AND RETAINING TOMORROW'S TOP TALENT

Kendra is majoring in Finance in of one of the top universities in the United States. With one semester of schooling to complete, Kendra spent the summer as an intern in one of the leading high-tech companies in Silicon Valley. That company just made her an offer for full-time employment after graduation, which Kendra will accept -- unless she gets the counter offer she’s hoping for, from one of the world’s most prestigious management consulting firms.

Kendra is an example of “top talent” – one of the best and the brightest of a new generation of workers who are the future of your organization. Your ability to attract, retain and engage the Kendras (and Kenneths) of this generation will, in a large part, determine whether your organization will continue to thrive or must struggle to stay competitive in the years ahead.

The best and brightest of Gen Y are ready for you. Are you ready for them?

When I ask young workers what they most want from their employers, these four categories (collaboration, relationships, feedback and development, access to information) are always at the top of the list.

Want #1: Collaboration and teamwork. Gen Y comes with a collaborative mindset, partly because they are the Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, social-networking generation and accustomed to sharing ideas, exchanging knowledge, and working collectively. They don’t want to work in pyramid hierarchies, but rather in flatter, networked, flexible, and more collaborative organizations. They would also prefer environments in which people spend less time in separate offices and more time coming together to socialize and work collectively.

Want #2: Great working relationships. Members of this generation want leaders who will get to know them personally as well as professionally and leaders who care about them as individuals. They want to develop strong personal relationships with their peers as well. Millennials thrive on social connections, and are more reluctant to leave companies where they have friends. They see the workplace as a place where they mix and interact. For them, work is about being with people, and that’s one reason they might choose to work in a company, rather than as a solo entrepreneur. In short, they want to be a member of a community.

Want #3: Frequent feedback and personal development. The days of annual performance reviews are over. Or they will be shortly. Gen Y employees want constant, informal assessment of how they are doing -- are they doing it fast enough, are they hitting the mark? If possible, they want this information on a daily basis. Not telling them how they are performing makes them feel left in the dark, and they will most likely stop contributing or chose to leave the organization.

Just make sure your feedback isn’t all about what they need to improve. "Catch people doing things right" will become more than a leadership mantra, it will be a necessity for this “everyone-gets-a-trophy” generation whose abilities and achievements as children have been constantly reinforced. Recognition, reward and appreciation from their managers will be paramount in engagement and retention.

Gen-Y'ers also put great store in education, and they want to be encouraged and supported to create personal growth and development plans. They want the challenge and excitement of getting on board and getting up to speed quickly. They want to build their reputations within the company. The worst thing you can do is leave them sitting around waiting for something to happen. Instead, give them a task or responsibility they can own and offer a wide range of projects to work on.

Want #4: Access to information. These are the cyber kids who grew up with the Internet, so speed and access to information is something that they automatically expect. Computers have given this generation the experience of always having information "at their fingertips," and they are adept at using different data and technology to blend seemingly unrelated elements when solving problems. To a Millennial, the idea of cascade communication (where information flows through organizational levels, starting at the top) seems like a quaint concept – and a completely ineffective business practice.

There’s more you should know about them: They work to live, not live to work. Younger employees want control of their time, whether it involves organizationally structured arrangements such as flex-time, flex-place, contractual work, or management philosophies and practices that stress results over "face time." They're also looking for meaning in their lives, so is helping new employees make a "values match" between their personal values and the organization's vision/mission is key. As is letting individuals know specifically how their work fits in and contributes to the goals of the enterprise.

And forget about issuing orders. Millennials were raised to express themselves, and their opinions were regularly sought in family decision-making (especially when it came to buying and setting up the latest technology). In organizations they want to be included in decisions that affect them – not simply told to drink their milk and go to bed. Responding to this generation’s demands for inclusion, one high-tech CEO observed, “There’s nothing wrong with command and control leadership. It’s simply irrelevant in the 21st Century.”

Competitive salaries and benefits? Of course they're part of the equation. But as another executive told me, "If they come just for the bucks, they'll leave for the bucks." Retaining Gen-Y'ers will depend more on building their engagement – with challenging work, collaborative leadership, and a nurturing environment – than it will on salary.

But isn’t that usually the case with top talent?

Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D. is an executive coach, consultant, and international keynote speaker at corporate, government, and association events. She’s the author of “The Nonverbal Advantage: Secrets and Science of Body Language at Work.” Her new book, “THE SILENT LANGUAGE OF LEADERS” will be published by Jossey-Bass in the spring of 2011. Contact Carol by phone, 510-526-1727, or email CGoman@CKG.com. View video clips on Carol’s websites: http://www.NonverbalAdvantage.com and http://www.CKGcom. You can also follow Carol on Twitter: http://twitter.com/CGoman.

2010-07-12T10:51:00.000-07:00

10 Body Language Mistakes Women Leaders Make
Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D.

There are two sets of body language cues that followers look for in leaders: warmth (empathy, likeability, caring) and authority (power, credibility, status). Although I know several leaders of both sexes who do not fit the stereotypes, I’ve also observed that gender differences in body language most often align do align with these two groupings. Women are the champions in the warmth and empathy arena, but lose out with power and authority cues.

All leaders are judged by their body language. If a female wants to be perceived as powerful, credible, and confident, she has to be aware of the nonverbal signals she’s sending. There are a number of behaviors I’ve seen women unknowingly employ that reduce their authority by denoting vulnerability or submission. Here are ten body language mistakes that women leaders commonly make.

1) They use too many head tilts. Head tilting is a signal that someone is listening and involved -- and a particularly feminine gesture. Head tilts can be very positive cues, but they are also subconsciously processed as submission signals. Women who want to project power and authority should keep their heads straight up in a more neutral position.

2) They physically condense. One way that status is nonverbally demonstrated in a business meeting is by physically taking up room. Lower-status, less-confident men (and most women) tend to pull in their bodies and minimize their size, while high status males expand and take up space. So at your next meeting, spread out your belongings and claim your turf!

3) They act girlish. Everyone uses pacifying gestures when under stress. They rub their hands together, grab their upper arms, and touch their necks. But women are viewed as much less powerful when they pacify with girlish behaviors (twirling hair, playing with jewelry, or biting a finger.)

4) They smile excessively. While smiling can be a powerful and positive nonverbal cue – especially for signaling likeability and friendliness – women should be aware that, when excessive or inappropriate, smiling can also be confusing and a credibility robber. This is especially true if you smile while discussing a serious subject, expressing anger, or giving negative feedback.

5) They nod too much. When a man nods, it means he agrees. When a woman nods, it means she agrees – or is listening to, empathizing with, or encouraging the speaker to continue. This excessive head nodding can make females look like a bobble-head doll. Constant head nodding can express encouragement and engagement, but not authority and power.

6) They speak “up.” Women's voices often rise at the ends of sentences as if they're asking a question or asking for approval. When stating your opinion, be sure to use the authoritative arc, in which your voice starts on one note, rises in pitch through the sentence and drops back down at the end.

7) They wait their turn. In negotiations, men talk more than women and interrupt more frequently. One perspective on the value of speaking up comes from former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who – when asked what advice she had for up-and-coming professional women – replied, “Learn to interrupt.”

8) They are overly expressive. While a certain amount of movement and animation adds passion and meaning to a message, women who express the entire spectrum of emotions often overwhelm their audience (especially if the audience is comprised primarily of males). So in situations where you want to maximize your authority -- minimize your movements. When you appear calm and contained, you look more powerful.

9) They have a delicate handshake. Women with a weak handshake are judged to be passive and less confident. So take the time to cultivate your "professional shake.” Keep your body squared off to the other person -- facing him or her fully. Make sure you have palm-to-palm contact and that the web of you hand (the skin between you thumb and first finger) touches the web of the other person's. And, most of all, remember to shake hands firmly.

10. They flirt. Women gain likeability, but lose the competitive advantage in a negotiation when they flirt. In a UC Berkeley study female actors play the roles of sellers of a biotech business. Half were told to project a no-nonsense, business approach. Half were instructed to flirt (using the nonverbal behaviors of smiling, leaning forward suggestively, tossing their hair, etc.) – but to do so subtly. The outcome was that the “buyers” offered the flirts (dubbed “likeable losers”) 20% less, on average, than what they offered the more straitlaced sellers.

Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D., is an international keynote speaker, executive coach, and management consultant. Author of THE NONVERBAL ADVANTAGE - Secrets and Science of Body Language at Work, Carol’s new book, THE SILENT LANGUAGE OF LEADERS will be published by Jossey-Bass in the spring of 2011.For information contact Carol by phone: 510-526-1727, email: CGoman@CKG.com, or through her web sites: www.CKG.com and
www.NonverbalAdvantage.com.

Forbes.com posted Carol's video blog "Body Language Mistakes Women Make"
http://video.forbes.com/fvn/forbeswoman/body-language-mistakes-women-make

2010-05-12T07:44:00.000-07:00

SMILE POWER – YOUR SECRET TO SUCCESS
Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D.

Smiles have a powerful effect on all of us. The human brain prefers happy faces, recognizing them more quickly than those with negative expressions. Smiles are such an important part of communication that we spot a smile at 300 feet -- the length of a football field.

Smiles can also be your secret to success. Here are five reasons to activate your smile power:

1. You’ll feel better – even if you fake it

We all use the fake smile in business settings when we don’t really feel an emotional closeness to those around us; the real smile is reserved for those we truly care about. And we’ve had a lot of practice doing this. We’ve been displaying both real and fake smiles all of our lives. A fake smile is easy to produce. It takes only one set of muscles to stretch the lip corners sideways and create a grin.

There’s no doubt that the “best” smiles are genuine. They light up your face, crinkle the corners of your eyes and produces positive physiological changes in your body temperature and heart rate. But consider research findings that even if the smile is mechanically produced, positive feelings still emerge. This study matched samples of people looking at cartoons. The first group ranked every cartoon as funnier than the second group. The only difference is that members of the first group were asked to hold a pencil crosswise between their back teeth. The simulated smile caused by the pencil between their teeth effected their emotion - and their perception of the cartoons as funnier.

2. You’ll be unforgettable

Why do some people make a lasting impression while others are quite forgettable? The answer may be in their smile.

Research from Duke University proves that we like and remember those who smile at us – and shows why we find them more memorable. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the Duke researchers found that the orbitofrontal cortices (a “reward center” in the brain) were more active when subjects were learning and recalling the names of smiling individuals.

3. You’ll encourage collaboration

No one, regardless of how intelligent he or she may be, can succeed alone. We all need the knowledge and ideas of others. You know that. But did your know that by merely smiling or frowning you can influence how a speaker reports information and how it is subsequently remembered, and possibly passed on?

According to research conducted reported by the British Psychological Society, positive and negative emotional responses systematically alter the use of language. Speak to a positive listener and people will likely use more abstractions and subjective impressions. But if people talk to a negative listener, they’ll probably stick to the relative security of objective facts and concrete details.

Researchers speculate that this is because the smiles and nods of a positive listener are interpreted as a sign of agreement and understanding, encouraging the speaker to provide more of their own opinions and speculations. By contrast, negative listeners provoke speakers to adopt a more hesitant and cautious thinking style.

4. You’ll improve your productivity

Charles Garfield, the author of Peak Performance, once coached the Russian Olympic weight-lifting team. Garfield noticed that when team members lifted to exhaustion, they would invariably grimace at the painful effort. In an experiment, he encouraged the athletes to smile when they got to that point of exhaustion. This seemingly minor difference enabled them to add 2-3 more reps to their performance.

No matter the task, when you grimace or frown while doing it, you are sending your brain the message, “This is really difficult. I should stop.” The brain then responds by sending stress chemicals into your bloodstream. And this creates a vicious circle: the more stressed you are, the more difficult the task becomes.

When you smile, your brain gets the message, “It’s not so bad. I can do this!”

5.You’ll positively contaminate others

Some nonverbal behaviors can bring out the best in people. Smiling is one of them, as it directly influences how other people respond. When you smile at someone, they almost always smile in return. And, because facial expressions trigger corresponding feelings, the smile you get back actually changes that person’s emotional state in a positive way.

Maybe that’s why a DePauw University study found that people whose smiles were weakest in snapshots from childhood through young adulthood were most likely to be divorced in middle or old age. (1 in 4 compared to 1 in 20 for the widest smilers.)

And if you ever go to trial, keep this in mind: Although courtroom judges are equally likely to find smilers and non-smilers guilty, they tend to give smilers lighter penalties, a phenomenon called the “smile-leniency effect.”

Want to brighten your mood, make a lasting impression, encourage collaboration, lighten your work load, and positively influence others? Then smile – really smile. Think of someone who genuinely amuses or delights you. But if you can’t do that, then fake it . . . or hold a pencil in your mouth.

Sign up for Carol's monthly article at CGoman@CKG.com

2010-05-09T10:20:00.000-07:00

Forbes video

Forbes.com posted my video on "how to spot a liar" - as part of their article on the topic. Take a look at http://www.forbes.com/2010/05/03/how-to-unmask-a-liar-entrepreneurs-management-liar.html

2010-04-07T16:30:00.000-07:00

SEVEN INSIGHTS FOR COLLABORATION

One my most popular speaking topics is “Harnessing the Power of Collaboration.” (In fact, next month I’m presenting seminars on it in Amsterdam, Edinburgh and London.) The topic’s popularity stems from corporate clients around the world realizing that “silo mentality” and knowledge hoarding behaviors are wasting the kind of collective brainpower that could save their organization billions. Or lead to the discovery of a revolutionary new process or product. Or, in the current economic climate, help keep their company afloat when others are sinking!

And it’s not just corporate profits that suffer when collaboration is low: the workforce loses something too. Individuals lose the opportunity to work in the kind of inclusive environment that energizes teams, releases creativity and makes working together both productive and joyful.

From my upcoming seminars, here are seven insights for harnessing the power of collaboration:

1. Collaboration is a leadership issue. In trying to capture and communicate the cumulative wisdom of a workforce, the public and private sectors have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in portals, software, and intranets. But collaboration is more than the technology that supports it, and even more than a business strategy aimed at optimizing a organization's experience and expertise. Collaboration is, first and foremost, a change in attitude and behavior of people throughout an organization. Successful collaboration is a leadership issue.

2. Collaboration is essential for organizational change. Over the past 25 years, I’ve worked with a variety of very talented leaders, and one thing I know for sure: Regardless of how creative, smart and savvy a leader may be, he or she can’t transform an organization, a department or a team without the brain power and commitment of others. Whether the change involves creating new products, services, processes - or a total reinvention of how the organization must look, operate, and position itself for the future - success dictates that the individuals impacted by change be involved in the change from the very beginning.

3. Visioning is a team sport. Today’s most successful leaders guide their organizations not through command and control, but through a shared purpose and vision. These leaders adopt and communicate a vision of the future that impels people beyond the boundaries and limits of the past. But if the future vision belongs only to top management, it will never be an effective motivator for the workforce. The power of a vision comes truly into play only when the employees themselves have had some part in its creation.

4. Diversity is crucial. Experiments at the University of Michigan found that, when challenged with a difficult problem, groups composed of highly adept members performed worse than groups whose members had varying levels of skill and knowledge. The reason for this seemingly odd outcome has to do with the power of diverse thinking. Diversity causes people to consider perspectives and possibilities that would otherwise be ignored. Group members who think alike or are trained in similar disciplines with similar bases of knowledge run the risk of becoming insular in their ideas. Instead of exploring alternatives, a confirmation bias takes over and members tend to reinforce one another’s predisposition.

5. Relationships are key. The outcome of any collaborative effort is dependent upon well-developed personal relationships among participants. Not allowing time for this can be a costly mistake. For example, all too often, in the rush to get started on a project, team leaders put people together and tell them to "get to work." This approach proves less than productive, as the group hasn't had time to get to know one another, to discover each other's strengths and weaknesses, to build trust, nor to develop a common understanding and vision for the project.

6. Trust is the glue. Trust is the belief or confidence that one party has in the reliability, integrity and honesty of another party. It is the expectation that the faith one places in someone else will be honored. I recently conducted a survey of middle managers in an attempt to pinpoint the state of trust and knowledge sharing in their various organizations. What I found is a crisis of trust: suspicious and cynical employees are disinclined to collaborate -- sharing knowledge is still perceived as weakening a personal “power base." And, despite lots of lip service to the contrary, too many corporate leaders still don't trust employees with the kind of open communication that is the foundation of informed collaboration.

7. Body language matters. I’m writing a new book on the role of body language in effective leadership, and am collecting examples of the “body language blunders” that leaders make. (BTW: If you have an example, I’d love to hear from you.) Here’s one that highlights the fact that when a leader’s verbal support for collaboration conflicts with his or her nonverbal behavior, an audience will disregard the words and believe the body language:

I was in an important meeting, and the presenter was telling the group how much he welcomed any input we could provide. But at the same time he was using both his hands to nonverbally push the entire group away. The amazing thing was that he repeated this sequence several times, always saying that he would welcome our input while making the exactly the same “push back” gesture. It was all I could do not to absolutely lose it and laugh out loud. I almost did, but that would not have been good!

Today’s corporation exists in an increasingly complex and ever-shifting ocean of change. As a result, leaders need to rely more than ever on the intelligence and resourcefulness of their staff. Collaboration is not a “nice to have” organizational philosophy. It is an essential ingredient for organizational survival and success.

Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D. is an executive coach, change-management consultant, and international keynote speaker at corporate, government, and association events. She’s the author of “The Nonverbal Advantage: Secrets and Science of Body Language at Work,” and her new book, “THE SILENT LANGUAGE OF LEADERS” will be published in the spring of 2011 To contact Carol about speaking or coaching, call 510-526-1727, email CGoman@CKG.com. Carol’s websites are http://www.NonverbalAdvantage.com and http://www.CKGcom. You can also follow Carol on Twitter: http://twitter.com/CGoman.

2010-03-02T09:29:00.000-08:00

Pygmalion Leadership

Pygmalion in the Classroom, one of the most controversial publications in the history of educational research, shows how a teacher’s expectations can motivate student achievement. This classic study gave prospective teachers a list of students who had been identified as “high achievers.” The teachers were told to expect remarkable results from these students, and at the end of the year, the students did indeed make sharp increases on their IQ test scores.

In reality, these children had been chosen at random, not as a result of any testing. It was the teachers’ belief in their potential that was responsible for the extraordinary results. The children were never told they were high achievers, but this message was delivered subtly and nonverbally through expectancy behaviors such as facial expressions, gestures, touch, and spatial relationships.

In much the same way, a leader’s expectations of employees and their expectations of themselves are also key factors in how well people perform at work. Pygmalion leadership is in operation when staff excels in response to the manager’s message that they are capable of success and expected to succeed. This effect was described by J. Sterling Livingston Harvard Business Review article, Pygmalion in Management: "The way managers treat their subordinates is subtly influenced by what they expect of them.”

Of course, we’ve all seen instances where the reverse is true – where a leader’s verbal and (my special interest) nonverbal communication undermine staff performance and lower productivity.

I’ve also noted that sometimes these negative nonverbal behaviors aren’t all that subtle. Take, for example, this email I received recently: My boss drives us crazy with her mixed messages. She says things like, "You are always welcome in my office" and “You are all an important part of the team.” At the same time, her nonverbal communication is constantly showing how unimportant we are to her. She never makes eye contact, will shuffle papers when others talk, writes email while we answer her questions and generally does not give her full attention. In fact, we don’t even rate her half attention! Then she wonders why we’re all so demoralized.

Here’s a suggestion from my book, The Nonverbal Advantage: Secrets and Science of Body Language at Work: Imagine that you found out that everyone on your staff had been identified as a high achiever. And imagine that this was a secret you couldn’t share with anyone on your staff – except through your body language. How would you use to let people know they were special? (More eye contact? Appreciative nods? Smiles?) Remember that what you tell them is motivating only if your nonverbal signals corroborate it.

Once you get a good idea of what you would do, take one full week and treat everyone who works for or with you as if they were potential stars. See if at least some of them don’t start living up to the high expectations your body language signals send.

Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D. is an executive coach and international keynote speaker at corporate, government, and association events. She’s the author of “The Nonverbal Advantage: Secrets and Science of Body Language at Work.” To contact Carol about speaking or coaching, call 510-526-1727, email CGoman@CKG.com. Carol’s website is http://www.NonverbalAdvantage.com. You can also follow Carol on Twitter: http://twitter.com/CGoman.

2010-02-05T10:46:00.000-08:00

Good Television - Lousy Leadership?

Right after the Super Bowl, CBS will air it's new show, "Undercover Boss." But earlier this week Oprah featured "cast members" - executives and employees from the first two companies (Waste Management and 7-11). At the end, executives gave "prizes" to participating employees. A 7-11 truck driver received the keys to his own franchise (without having to pay the regular set-up fees), a Waste Management office worker got a promotion and a pay raise, etc.

You can imagine the reaction from employees of those companies who weren’t on the series, but who watched Oprah: Why did that person get singled out? Why did one person in the same company get a much more lucrative reward than another? What about the rest of us who work here? We work hard too!

"Undercover Boss" is a British import and I assumed that the Brits probably handled things a bit differently. But to make sure, I checked with Stephen Martin, the Clugston CEO (and participant in the UK version of the show) whom I’d interviewed for the Washington Post article, "Would YOU be an Undercover Boss?"

Here is his reply:

Hi Carol,
Wow – as you say things are certainly bigger over there in the US!

The UK version of ‘Undercover Boss’ could be described as very low budget in comparison.

However, I would comment as follows, as one with experience in the process.

I feel that there is a potential underlying friction between what the program makers want to produce i.e. an entertaining television show that guarantees great ratings and what I, as a company boss, want i.e. genuine feedback from employees on what is and is not working within my business so that I can make positive improvements.

And here’s the rub - what makes great telly does not necessarily make great business and vice versa!

Indeed, the producers of the program wanted me to give out great rewards at the end of the program after the televised ‘reveals’. I, however, resisted on the basis that it would be grossly unfair to single out individuals for treatment over and above what I could realistically achieve with the rest of our workforce.

Furthermore, I went undercover soon after I had made over 100 employees redundant and I felt that it would have been in poor taste to throw money around in such a sensitive business environment.

In terms of ‘rewards and recognition’ for the three individuals singled out by me for the televised ‘reveals’, this is what I did:

1) Leon Bever – I gave him the opportunity to move to a bigger project where he had the potential to earn more money, as he would be site based and, consequently, have to travel further and work longer hours. I also gave every single person at his work site the same opportunity – some accepted and were moved, whilst others did not want to travel and accepted that they would earn less money but get home earlier every evening.

2) Les Parker – I moved him from a temporary contract to a permanent contract. His wages and terms of conditions of employment remained exactly the same. This turned out to be a great morale booster for all temporary employees as they could see that if they worked hard they had the potential of gaining a permanent position with Clugston and all of our permanent workers were delighted that Les gained a place on our apprenticeship programme. There was no pay rise or promotion.

3) Dick Sutton – I asked Dick, alongside his normal duties, to undertake a mentoring role with our less experienced workers so that he could pass on his valuable skills to our next generation of workers. There was no pay rise or promotion.

So, the joy of these three individuals cannot be measured in monetary terms - but in terms of being the people I chose to be representative of the hundreds of hard working individuals we employ up and down the length and breadth of the UK and deserving of praise directly from the top.

As I mentioned to you previously, I also personally visited everyone I met during my two weeks undercover afterwards for their own personal ‘reveal’ – the only difference being that this time the cameras were not rolling.

In terms of ‘rewards and recognition’ for our workforce in general, I threw a party for our entire workforce at a local hotel to celebrate and recognize their invaluable support and hard work for Clugston over many years. This was the first time in our 73 year history that operatives had ever been invited to a party and was incredibly well received by all employees – so much so, in fact, that in December I threw the first ever Christmas party for our operatives too!

What you say is correct in that I actually published what I learned from my undercover experience in the form of my "Top Ten Tips" which have been put onto our website for all employees to read and I also published extracts from the diary I kept while I was undercover so that employees, who were not directly involved, could learn more about what happened.

So to ultimately answer your question, what I learned was indeed transferred into corporate-wide policy and not just individual reward for 3 individuals who became the focus of a TV program.

I think my response poses a further question though – how do you make compelling reality television while remaining true to both your own personal and company values?

Best regards,

Stephen

Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D. is an executive coach, change-management consultant, and international keynote speaker at corporate, government, and association events. She’s the author of “The Nonverbal Advantage: Secrets and Science of Body Language at Work.” To contact Carol about speaking or coaching, call 510-526-1727, email CGoman@CKG.com. Carol’s websites are http://www.NonverbalAdvantage.com and http://www.CKGcom. You can also follow Carol on Twitter: http://twitter.com/CGoman.

2010-02-03T10:29:00.000-08:00

FOLLOW UP FROM AN "UNDERCOVER BOSS"

February 7 (right after the Super Bowl) CBS is launching a series called "Undercover Boss" about executives who go incognito into their companies to "walk a mile" in their employees' shoes.

My article about one of the original participants from the British version of the show was posted in The Washington Post "On Leadership" section this Monday. Stephen Martin, CEO of the Clugston Group, was wonderful to interview - and his experience on the show taught him so much about what it really takes to communicate with his workers.

The posting that sparked a lively debate among professional communicators. Among their concerns: Is this a gimmick? Would executives be urged to follow suit - with less-than-optimal results? Isn't going "undercover" dishonest?

I forwarded these to Stephen. Here is his reply:

Dear Carol,

Very interesting and I am pleased that it has generated a debate on the matter over there in the US - as it failed to ignite such a debate over here.

Indeed, this was the kind of response that I was concerned about prior to agreeing to be an Undercover Boss. If I had spoke to the unions, my PR, legal or HR departments prior to committing Clugston to Undercover Boss I am sure the response would have been negative because of such concerns.

But as it happened, I did not speak to any of them in advance and went ahead because I was convinced it was the right thing to do for the business - and it would be a once in a lifetime opportunity to get the truth from our employees without anything being filtered through dozens of layers of management prior to reaching me.

Having now been through the process, I am absolutely convinced it is the right thing to do for most company bosses- if done in the right manner, of course, ie not to try and spy on people or to catch them out but to allow employees freedom of expression and to improve the business and the opportunities for everyone within it.

When I went undercover I did not lie to anyone eg when someone asked what I did, I explained that I worked in an office and then changed the conversation to ask about their job as most people like to talk about themselves.

Furthermore, immediately after the "experiment" was over, I personally spoke to everyone I met whilst I was undercover to tell them exactly who I was and why I had done it and to give them the opportunity to express any concerns directly to me.

My biggest answer to any potential negative comments in the press would be that I had 100% positive feedback from everyone I worked with in Clugston - they were more shocked that I had gone to the trouble of working with them on nightshifts etc and were genuinely pleasantly surprised that their boss had shown such an interest and listened to them and, most importantly, acted on their concerns with tangible actions.

No one within our business ever listed the potential moral issues that could arise as being a concern - especially after they had witnessed first hand the huge morale boost it had given to all of our employees, irrespective of whether or not I worked directly with them.

Let's hope that the debate continues - because it is long overdue in closing the barriers between employees and leaders of large corporates!

Best wishes

Stephen

Maybe it's just a case of the right organization and the right leader (with the right intentions) at the right time. But in the Clugston case, not only were the financial results impressive, but at the end of last year the company won many awards - including the top award in the UK Construction Industry Awards. And Stephen believes that his undercover experience definitely contributed to that success.

The following is a quote from the Contract Journal Construction Industry Awards 2009 explaining why the culture at Clugston was so impressive to the judges: "Clugston Group chief executive Stephen Martin recently made national headlines when he took part in the Channel 4 series Undercover Boss. That refreshing openness is something that extends throughout the company."

Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D. is an executive coach and international keynote speaker at corporate, government, and association events. She’s the author of “The Nonverbal Advantage: Secrets and Science of Body Language at Work.” To contact Carol about speaking or coaching, call 510-526-1727, email CGoman@CKG.com. Carol’s websites are www.CKG.com and www.NonverbalAdvantage.com. You can also follow Carol on Twitter: http://twitter.com/CGoman.

2010-02-02T08:29:00.000-08:00

UNDERCOVER BOSS

On February 7 (right after the Super Bowl) CBS is launching a series called "Undercover Boss" about executives who go incognito into their companies to "walk a mile" in their employees' shoes.

My article about one of the original participants from the British version of the show has just been posted in The Washington Post "On Leadership" section. Stephen Martin, CEO of the Clugston Group, was wonderful to interview - and his experience on the show taught so much about what it really takes to communicate with his workers.

Take a look and leave a comment: http://views.washingtonpost.com/leadership/panelists/2010/02/would-you-be-an-undercover-boss.html

2009-12-19T08:39:00.000-08:00

A new global study on employee engagement conducted by Right Management found the top five global engagement drivers to be:

1) I am committed to my organization’s core values
2) Our customers think highly of our products and services
3) My opinions count
4) I have a clear understanding of what is expected of me at work
5) I understand how I can contribute to meeting the needs of our customer

Notice that all five drivers reflect a state of mind - how employees feel (or how they perceive customers feel). Once again, emotion rules in the workplace.

2009-11-06T16:31:00.000-08:00

The Marshmallow Test

Did you know that a more accurate predictor of high SAT scores (and success later in life) is not an IQ test? Rather, it's the marshmallow test. Watch the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWW1vpz1ybo and see children struggle with the choice: one marshmallow now or (if they wait until the researcher returns to the room) two marshmallows later.

Those children who could delay gratification in this test when they were four or five, performed better in high school and scored higher on their SATs. Regardless of their respective I.Q. scores.

And the differences follow subjects into adulthood. The original children in the study are now in their early 40s - and those who could resist the marshmallow when they were young are more successful and have achieved more than those who could not.

2009-10-26T13:22:00.000-07:00

GHOST STORY

I believe in ghosts.

Not only do I believe in ghosts, I’ve seen how they haunt individuals, teams, departments, and entire organizations around the world. And nowhere are these workplace ghosts more insidious than in the area of collaboration.

What I’m calling “ghosts” are those out-dated attitudes and behaviors about collaborative knowledge-sharing that still haunt corporate halls and factory floors. It’s an expensive haunting that causes wasted talent and underused brainpower and results in billions of dollars in lost ideas, in not sharing best practices and lessons learned, in a lack of innovation, and in employees’ not having the information needed to do their jobs.

Now that’s scary!

To explain what I’d been seeing in organizations, I wrote a book called “Ghost Story.” And I wrote it as a business fable -- just for fun.

And fun I had creating some pretty weird characters: A magpie who hoards information, a three-legged Martian who is the ultimate outsider, a 400-pound pig in an admiral's uniform who treats staff as if they were children, and the two-year-old head of IT who speaks "dribble" – to name only a few.

Actually, it wasn’t that hard for me to create these characters. Truth is, I’ve met all of them. Of course I’m speaking figuratively. The pig, for example, is the prototypical "command and control" manager who distributes information on a “need-to-know” basis. His role, he believes, is to protect people who are unable to absorb what's really going on within the organization. Let them know what's actually happening, he insists, and they would panic, freak out, and defect like rats. So, naturally, the pig is hesitant to share.

Everyone in the story, in fact, has a valid reason for not sharing information. The Martian tried to give his opinion when he first joined the organization, only to be told: “That's not the way we do things around here. It may have worked on Mars, but not here.” So, over time, he stopped contributing.

And we’ve all met the “techie” (and other experts like him) who thinks he’s informing us, but really just confuses the issue because he can’t translate what he knows into words we can understand.

Then there is Dot, the heroine of the story. After surveying 200 mid-level managers regarding the state of knowledge-sharing in their teams and departments, I found women to be at a distinct disadvantage: They are less likely to speak up in meetings, less likely to believe that their contributions are valuable, and more likely to personalize failure while externalizing success. Dot symbolizes those of us who don’t share information because we are unconsciously competent. We simply “don’t know what we know.”

One of my favorite characters in the book is a talking bonsai tree. I needed a living thing that Dot could use as a mentor, something you might find in a corporate meeting room. I also wanted her mentor to have obvious flaws. The bonsai offers a lot of good advice, but doesn't have Dot’s courage and inner strength. It’s a way of making the point that mentors, while incredibly valuable for a time, are always imperfect people . . . or plants. In the end, Dot grows in her ability to value her own insights and to rely on herself.

I was once asked if any of these characters were autobiographical. I initially denied that any of them resembled me in the least, although one, “Mr. Right” -- who has already found the right answer and so refuses to look at alternatives -- was very much like my husband. But after thinking it over, I had to admit that I’ve been just as haunted as all my characters. Under some circumstances, I’ve let ghosts lead me into any number of outdated behaviors. The trick, I’m learning, is to examine those behaviors in light of new realities.

For instance, like my character “The Miser” (a knowledge-hoarding Magpie), I’ve been haunted by the belief that “knowledge is power.” Which may have been true in an earlier, more stable time, when knowledge obsolescence took years and when hoarders created leverage and power bases by hanging onto what they knew. But today, when the shelf life of knowledge is much shorter, the new reality is that knowledge is no longer a commodity like gold, which holds (or increases) its worth over time. It’s more like milk – fluid, evolving, and stamped with an expiration date. And by the way, I’ve learned there is nothing less powerful than hanging on to knowledge whose time has expired.

How about you? Seen any ghosts lately?

Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D. is an international speaker, consultant, leadership coach, and the author of ten books, including “Ghost Story: A Modern Business Fable.” Her latest book is “The Nonverbal Advantage: Secrets and Science of Body Language at Work.” To book Carol to speak at your corporate or association event, email: cgoman@ckg.com, phone: 510-526-1727, visit her web site: www.CKG.com.

2009-09-23T19:48:00.000-07:00

EMOTIONS AT WORK

Preparing for a speech to the leadership of an organization facing major restructuring, I asked the meeting planner for background on the audience.

“We’ve presented all the facts,” she replied. “But it would be much easier if everyone weren’t so emotional!”

In the business world, it seems, people are supposed to think logically and act rationally. Steeped in this belief, leaders quantify everything they can and try to present information in ways that help employees make objective decisions.

Emotions are not supposed to be part of the equation. But the fact is that all employees bring their emotions to the workplace. And the more I study the psychology of people at work, the more I see how emotions are integral to everything that happens in an organization.

According to the neurologist and author Antonio Damasio, for example, the center of our conscious thought (the prefrontal cortex) is so tightly connected to the emotion-generating amygdala, that no one makes decisions based on pure logic. Damasio’s research makes it clear that mental processes we’re not conscious of drive our decision making, and logical reasoning is really no more than a way to justify emotional choices.

Emotion gets our attention. Emotionally charged stimuli (ECS) persist much longer in memory, and people remember the emotional components (fear, joy, surprise, anger, embarrassment, etc.) of an experience better than any other aspect.

Emotions dictate actions. Since our past experiences carry an emotional charge that is encoded in memory, we subconsciously assess a new situation based on past emotions – and are then motivated to act on those we have labeled “good” and reject those deemed “bad.”

Emotions drive performance. Positive emotions increase energy, learning and motivation. Worry, resentment or boredom decreases physical and mental energy and impairs mental agility. And when the pressure becomes excessive, soaring cortisol levels combined with adrenaline can actually paralyze our mental functions.

Emotions can even highjack a negotiation. When we negotiate in a positive mood, it increases our tendency to select a cooperative strategy and helps us to avoid the development of hostility and conflict. Negotiating when angry makes us less likely to accurately judge the interests of opponents and less likely to achieve joint gains.

Emotions are highly infectious and “catching” them is a universal human phenomenon. A research study, conducted by Peter Totterdell of the University of Sheffield, had nurses record their moods each day at work for three weeks. He found that the mood of different teams shifted together over time. Totterdell also found this same tendency of emotions to move in a lockstep fashion in teams of accountants and cricket players.

It’s also true that emotions flow most strongly from the most powerful person in the room to others. We monitor our leaders and are extremely sensitive to what the boss says and does. Researchers at California State University, Long Beach found that when business leaders were in a good mood, members of their work groups experienced more positive emotions and were more and productive than groups whose leaders were in a bad mood.

Good or bad, emotional responses can happen before we have time to process them consciously. In a study at the University of Tubingen in Germany, people were shown photos of happy or sad faces on a computer then asked questions to gauge their emotional reactions. Subjects reported corresponding emotions to the photos – even when the pictures lasted only fractions of a second.

So I made sure my harried meeting planner understood that, sure, we all want change to make logical sense. But we also need – and it’s a primary need – to view challenges and solutions in ways that validate and influence the way we feel about our organizations, our jobs, and ourselves.

And that involves emotions. Because like it or not, as I told her, emotions have already been driving or inhibiting the organization’s successful transformation.

Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D. is an executive coach and international keynote speaker at corporate, government, and association events. She’s the author of “The Nonverbal Advantage: Secrets and Science of Body Language at Work.” To contact Carol about speaking or coaching, call 510-526-1727, email CGoman@CKG.com or visit her websites: http://www.CKG.com or http://www.NonverbalAdvantage.com.

2009-09-17T15:02:00.000-07:00

The Fourth Cookie

The June issue of Harvard Business Review featured an article, “How to be a Good Boss in a Bad Economy.” One interesting piece of research the article cited was the “cookie experiment” that psychologists conducted in 2003.

In this study, groups were created with three students in each. Two of the students were asked to write a short policy paper. The third student in each group was asked to evaluate the papers and determine how much the first two would be paid. (This made the third student the “boss” over the other students.)

About 30 minutes into the experiment, there was a break and a plate of five cookies was brought into the room. All three participants took a cookie. That left two – the last cookie which, out of politeness, no one was expected to (nor did) take – and the fourth cookie, which was the real object of the experiment.

Question: Who would feel “entitled” to grab the extra cookie?

Answer: The boss. In all cases, it only took half an hour for the randomly chosen bosses to not only take the fourth cookie, but to chew with their mouths open and to carelessly scatter crumbs.

It could be dismissed as a silly experiment if it wasn’t consistent with the findings in many other studies. Power, it seems, does corrupt – if only to make people more focused on their own needs, less focused on others’ needs, and more likely to behave as if the rules expected of others didn’t apply to them.

2009-09-08T14:58:00.000-07:00

To change a bad habit – stop trying.

Studies in neuroscience show how the brain constantly prunes and removes unused links. Any pathways that don’t get used slowly get disconnected.

So, here’s the new formula for changing a bad habit: Stop trying to change it. In fact, don't give it another thought. Leave the old habit alone and create an entirely new one. Take your energy away from fighting the old and give all your attention to the new – those behaviors and attitudes you want in your life.

Reinforce the new habit by linking it to different parts of your brain. You make these links when you utilize a variety of modes: Visualize it. Write it down. Talk about it. Create a strategy. Take action.

Still not easy. But a lot more productive than giving good energy to a bad habit!

2009-08-31T14:09:00.000-07:00

Emotions and Immune Systems

An experiment done with the drama department at UCLA shows the effect of emotions on the immune system. All of the actors practiced method acting (recalling an experience from your past which hold the same emotions as the situation in the script). The experiment lasted a full day, during which time one group of actors performed using only happy memories, the other only sad.

The researchers took periodic blood samples from all the subjects, continually looking for immune “competence.” Those people who had been working with happy and uplifting scripts all day had healthy immune systems. Those people who had been working with depressing scripts all day showed a marked decrease in immune responsiveness.

So the next time you are feeling out of sorts, try "faking it" by thinking of a happier time. It's good for your health!

2009-08-27T14:56:00.000-07:00

New Research in Neuroscience

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) uses radio waves and a strong magnetic field to take clear and detailed pictures of internal organs and tissues. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) applies this technology to chart blood flow to various parts of the brain.

fMRI has been held up as a breakthrough technology for better understanding brain function. Although the technology is still in the early phases of development, it paves the way for applications that until now have only been the stuff of science fiction. Recent examples include . . .

Researchers at the University of Sheffield in England believe that fMRI is more useful than polygraphs in determining whether someone is lying.

Research by neuroscientists at UCLA and Rutgers University provides evidence that fMRI can be used in certain circumstances to determine what a person is thinking.

Cambridge University researchers have discovered that whether someone is a “people-person” may depend on the structure of their brain: the greater the concentration of brain tissue in certain parts of the brain, the more likely they are to be warm and empathetic.

Scientists have discovered they can "read" whether a person just heard words spoken in anger, joy, relief, or sadness. The discovery, reported in Current Biology, is the first to show that emotions are represented by distinct spatial signatures in the brain that can be generalized across speakers.

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have compiled the first-ever review of the neurobiology of wisdom - once the sole province of religion and philosophy.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania say they have brain images that prove male and female brains work differently under stress. Men responded with increased blood flow to the right prefrontal cortex, responsible for "fight or flight." Women had increased blood flow to the limbic system, which is associated with a more nurturing and friendly response.

Neuroleadership is the study of leadership through the lens of neuroscience. Soon we will have a neurological theory for the art of influencing people and for the “soft skills” of leadership.

2009-08-13T14:38:00.000-07:00

I often get email responses to the articles I post on www.CKG.com. Here are a couple that came after I posted "Emotional Contagion" - an article that ended with this paragraph: "Each of us gives and responds to hundreds of facial expressions daily -- from co-workers’ grins to clenched-jaw displays around the conference table, Looked at another way, you are part of an emotional chain-reaction effect. Especially now, in challenging times, we need to make sure we’re part of the (positive emotion) solution, and not part of the problem."

Here's one . . .

Thanks for this article. I've known this for much of my career, but it's a great reminder. I remember seeing a biography on Dwight Eisenhower. His first major battle of WW2 was in North Africa. - He lost. In analyzing why, he came to the conclusion that he had let his worries, stresses and tensions about the plan of attack to be shown and adopted by his team. - He felt that was the key reason for the defeat.
From then on, for the rest of his life, he was always seen smiling, projecting a confident air, whenever in public, no matter what monumental issues and concerns he was addressing.

And another . . .

Excellent article, Carol, and one that brought back to mind a party game we were taught some 20 years ago. The game involved a simple test of strength in which the principle player held out his/her arm and then tried to resist having it pulled downward by an 'opponent' of roughly the same size, weight and strength. Just before the contest began, another player held up one of two sheets of paper showing a very simple drawn face - merely a large circle with two dots for eyes and a line for a mouth - for the principle player to look at while trying to keep his/her arm from being moved. The only difference between the two drawings was that the mouth curved upwards in one and downwards in the other. No matter which drawing the principle was shown first, the result was always the same - success while looking at the smiling mouth, failure while looking at the other. Not exactly scientific, but I did try it once on a scientist friend who is the world's biggest skeptic - and it worked on him just as well.

2009-08-07T11:00:00.000-07:00

STRESS FOR SUCCESS

The pressures of business require the ability to manipulate daily stress levels. Many people thrive on stress, in manageable amounts. To these people, stress lends zest to life. “Eustress” is the term coined to label a positive level of stress that heightens productivity, creativity and enjoyment of life.

But relentless stress causes the body to respond as it does in an emergency, with a “freeze, flight or fight response.” As danger is perceived, the brain stimulates the kidneys to release two sets of hormones. The first, glucocorticoids, increase the level of fats, cholesterol, cortisone and sugar in the system, and these increase available energy levels to fight or flee a dangerous situation. The second, adrenaline, increases heart rate and consequently the body’s oxygen consumption.

As this psycho-physiological process continues, blood pressure rises and breathing becomes rapid and shallow. Blood is pumped to large muscles and away from smaller vessels; muscle tension increases, as does perspiration needed to cool the active body. Pupils dilate and the senses of hearing and smell become more acute. Brain waves elevate as attention and alertness increase.

When the danger has passed, the parasympathetic nervous system reverses the bodily effects to regain equilibrium -- homeostasis. As long as we only experience episodic stress -- those situations that are comprehensible, specific and infrequent -- we can rely on our bodies to discharge physical tension and automatically rebound in this manner.

Stress is basically a response, a flow of energy if you will. A certain amount of stress is necessary for top performance. (The only truly stress-free people are dead.) So, up to a point, stress increases motivation and productivity. When the stress level continues to rise above that point, however, it becomes distress and negative consequences begin to take effect. Ill effects of negative stress include high blood pressure, headaches, chronic muscle tension, and the general weakening of the immune system. When you are in this mode a great deal of the time your brain stops functioning well and your judgment is clouded. Chronic stress is also linked to short-term memory loss and poor decision-making. Change-adept achievers have learned how to manage stress levels -- to generate the right amount of eustress which for them assures optimal performance -- and to utilize stress-reduction techniques when they begin to go into stress overload.

2009-08-03T15:19:00.000-07:00

Top employees may be getting restless.

According to Salary.com, 65 percent of employee respondents plan to look for a new job in the next three months. What’s more, the percentage of employees who describe themselves as "very likely" to leave their current job increased more than 50 percent in the past year, to 38 percent of employees, Salary.com reports.

Sure - employees may stay with you when times are tough. But as the economy picks up, watch them leave for greener pastures. This is especially true for top talent.

So do the best people want great pay or great working relationships?

The want both.

Insurer MetLife’s annual Employee Benefits Trend Study finds that employees’ top consideration when deciding to join or remain with an employer is "the quality of co-worker and/or customer relationships," followed by the opportunity for work/life balance and "working for an organization whose purpose/mission I agree with."

Compensation research firm Salary.com, meanwhile, finds that inadequate compensation is the top reason dissatisfied employees cite for leaving. No opportunity for advancement is second, followed by no recognition for work, according to the company’s 2005-2006 Employee Satisfaction and Retention Survey.

2009-05-28T09:43:00.000-07:00

May I have your attention . . .

A few weeks before the National Basketball Association begins their season, all the rookie players meet for a mandatory orientation session. One year, a group of provocatively dressed females were hanging out in the hotel bar drinking and flirting with the young NBA players.

The next morning, as the rookies assembled for their first session, they were surprised to see the same group of young women from the night before. Each woman then stepped to the front of the room and introduced herself: “Hi, I’m Donna, Cynthia, Karen, Michelle - and I’m HIV positive.”

That one carefully designed experience had more impact on the players than a dozen cautionary lectures on the risk of AIDS.

What has this got to do with managing change?

Plenty!

There is a section of the brain known as Broca’s Area, which is a sort of filter for sensory input, sifting through everything we see and hear and read to separate the useful, the pertinent, and the unusual from the rest of what we can call background noise. In other words, Broca’s Area looks at all input and lets pass what is familiar and commonplace, but stops to examine what is novel or surprising. When something is described as having arrested our attention, the phrase is more than apt: some piece of input or information has in fact been detained for questioning.

Have you noticed that it is getting increasingly difficult to get people’s attention when you are announcing an organizational change? Maybe that is because change has become such a common occurrence that speaking about it has become part of the corporate background noise. It simply slides right through the Broca’s Area.

As a leader of change - if you want to grab someone’s attention, you may have to move from announcements to creating an experience (a product fair, a panel of customers, a “secret shopper” visit to a competitor, etc.) in which people learn for themselves that which you would have told them.

2009-05-17T17:15:00.000-07:00

Do you focus on strengths or weaknesses?

Here is a question I often ask my audiences: “If your boss told you that she noticed something about your performance and wanted you to come to her office to discuss it, would you assume that she had noticed an area of your special competence and wanted to bring it to your attention?” Among the majority of audience members who respond with nervous laughter, only a few hands raise.

Bosses tend to notice and comment on weaknesses and mistakes more than they comment on talents and strengths. Bosses feel it is their role to criticize because the old model for employee improvement is based on what one middle manager refers to as the “If-I-don’t-say-anything, you’re-supposed-to-know-you’re-doing-fine. I’ll-let-you-know-if-you-screw-up.” mentality. While continuous learning and self-improvement are valid concepts for future success, focusing solely on what is lacking leads to an unbalanced evaluation of employees’ worth and potential. It is no wonder then that most workers have problems taking risks and confronting uncertain situations. The focus is on weakness, not competence, and without an awareness or confirmation of their strengths, workers lack the confidence required to embrace change.

Todd Mansfield, Executive Vice President of Disney Development Company, found that his company had been spending too much time on employee weaknesses: “When we’d sit down to evaluate associates, we’d spend 20 percent of our time talking about the things they did well, and 80 percent on what needed to be improved. That is just not effective. We ought to spend time and energy helping people determine what they are gifted at doing and get their responsibilities aligned with those capabilities.”

2009-05-13T08:27:00.000-07:00

Participation is not just a “nice” thing to do for employees, it is a sound business strategy. Here’s how one senior executive put it: “Our work force will run through walls for you, if they perceive that we’re all in it together. Participation unleashes behaviors and passions that I think leaders sometimes miss by trying to look strong and omnipotent -- as if that is what a leader is all about. It isn’t. It’s not about having all the answers. It’s about being open to other people contributing, providing their insights and offering diverse perspectives so that you get to the best decision, not just the leader’s decision.”

2009-05-05T13:46:00.000-07:00

A Different View of Empathy

Supreme Court Justice David Souter is retiring and President Obama is looking for a nominee who has, among other qualifications, "empathy for ordinary Americans." I assume that the president has his own definition of empathy, but in my programs on "The Nonverbal Advantage" and "The Silent Language of Leadership," I use the term to describe the human ability to internalize the emotional state of others by simply observing or mirroring their body language.

We are hard-wired to connect with others. The brain's mirror neuron system gives us the ability to create an image of the internal state of another person's mind. The moment you see an emotion expressed on someone's face - or read it in her gestures or posture - you subconsciously place yourself in the other person's "mental shoes," and begin to sense that same emotion within yourself.

And notice what happens naturally the next time you are talking with someone you like or are interested in. You'll find that you and your partner have subconsciously switched body postures to match one another - mirroring nonverbal behavior and thereby signaling that you are connected and engaged. A recent research study observed two different teachers as they taught students. One used mirroring, the other did not. The students' reactions were substantially more positive toward the teacher using mirroring techniques. They believed that teacher was much more successful, friendly, and appealing.

There are other forms of behavioral congruence in which people imitate each other without realizing it. Interactional synchronizing occurs when people move at the same time in the same way, simultaneously picking up coffee cups or starting to speak at the same time. This often occurs when we are getting along well with another person, and it can feel as though we are “on the same wavelength.” In fact, synchronizing is once again the result of our subliminal monitoring of, and responding to, each other's nonverbal cues.

One executive told me that in a negotiation session he often mirrors the posture of the person he's dealing with. He noticed that doing so gives him a better sense of what the other person is experiencing. I've noticed this as well. Our bodies and emotions are so closely linked that by assuming another person's posture, you are not only gaining rapport, but are actually able to “get a feel” for his or her frame of mind.

In his book, On Becoming a Person, psychologist Carl Rogers wrote, "Real communication occurs when we listen with understanding - to see the idea and attitude from the other person's point of view, to sense how it feels to them, to achieve their frame of reference in regard to the thing they are talking about."

Reaching that goal of real communication -- of understanding, of empathy -- this is why nonverbal literacy is so crucial to our profession relationships.

2009-04-27T13:20:00.000-07:00

Tips from the Trenches:
Surviving and Thriving in Turbulent Times

For many of us--even for most--these are the toughest and most nerve-wracking of times. A recent survey by the American Psychological Association indicated that financial concerns topped the list of stressors for at least 80% of those surveyed. More than half reported the most common symptoms of stress being anger, fatigue, and an inability to sleep.

As I travel globally to speak for various organizations, I hear comments like this: “People who work here are afraid to take a day off or not work long hours because they will appear to be a non-asset. This is making morale plummet and is a cycle of destruction.”

However, there is another side to the story.

I recently conducted a survey of over 200 professionals from the United States, Canada, and Europe to find out what people were doing personally and professionally to survive--or even thrive--in these turbulent times. Below is an outline. If you’d like a full copy of the 8-page report, email CGoman@CKG.com.

Personal Strategies
As expected, the highest number of strategies for thriving in tough economic times had to do with spending cuts. But those weren't the only strategies that people were employing. Here are the top three categories of tips reported.

1. Modify Spending. Respondents said that they are being cautious about spending and look more to the future when planning vacations, spending money on our house, or helping our older children. The big difference is slowing down a little when making financial decisions and watching more closely for the unexpected expenses.

2. Stay Positive. During this economic time, it is a good reminder to be thankful for the blessings you have and not to take anything for granted. Remember to focus on the positive, not the negative.

3. Renew Your Spirit. Remember that this recession is not about you. Take joy in networking--reconnecting with folks you value and making new connections. Help others make connections. Appreciate each day. Share the highlights of your day with your loved ones around the dinner table. (Invite others who are struggling to join you.) Start new habits that may change your life for the better forever.

Professional Strategies
1. Look for Ways to Add Value. I think there are a lot of career advantages in this recession, especially if you already have a job. Stepping up to the plate without being asked. Looking for ways to make improvements in processes, procedures and especially cutting expenses is a great way to show you care and you are a valuable employee. Sitting around and fading into the background is not a good idea. No one is in a position to just "hang on" to their job. Acting like and working like an owner really helps. Demonstrating how much you care and want to get things done right the first time can speak volumes. Asking yourself, what can I do better, what can I do differently, what may need to be changed or improved. Continue to be a team player. When possible see where you may be able to help out a co-worker. This could have great advantages in itself especially if you gain more knowledge about a particular topic or process or learn something completely new. Again, you are making yourself more valuable to the company by becoming even more well rounded.

2. Develop Skills. The recession may be a wake-up call for many people, pointing out to them the importance of investing in themselves and their skill sets.

3. Have a Job Search Strategy. Be prepared in the event that your job is eliminated. Devote as much time job researching, searching, applying, and networking for the job you want in the event you lose your current position. Be realistic about your skills and what you want or don’t want in a new position.

4. Network, Network, Network. It has become more important that ever to build and solidify professional and personal connections. Along the way, business relationships have been strengthened.

2009-04-11T13:33:00.000-07:00

Communicating change, collaboration and credibility

I’m speaking on June 9 at the IABC World Conference in San Francisco, where I’m looking forward to reconnecting with some great old friends – and making some great new ones!

My session (scheduled from 11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.) will be an overview of the challenges and opportunities for employee communication in today’s turbulent business environment. Here’s a quick look at the three key areas I’ll be addressing in “Communicating Change in Uncertain Times.”

CHANGE

A quarter of a century ago I was a therapist in private practice who had just agreed to speak to the communications department of a major bank on the "human" side of organizational change. It was my first talk to a corporate group, but from that program on, I was hooked. I became a huge fan of communicators everywhere and a passionate advocate for helping individuals and organizations thrive on change.

Organizational change efforts (still) fail more often than they succeed. And rarely because of poor strategies. Rather, it's almost always a "people" issue.

My session will begin with the lessons I have learned over the past 25 years - about people in organizations, and about what does and doesn’t work in communicating change.

COLLABORATION

Business functions operating as silos are a major hindrance to corporate performance in organizations around the world. I’ve seen firsthand what silos can do to an enterprise: The organization disintegrates into a group of isolated camps, with little incentive to collaborate, share information, or team up to pursue critical outcomes. Various groups develop impervious boundaries, neutralizing the effectiveness of people who have to interact across them. Local leaders focus on serving their individual agendas - often at the expense of the goals of the rest of the organization. The resulting internal battles over authority, finances and resources destroy productivity, and jeopardize the achievement of corporate objectives. Talented (and frustrated) employees walk out the door – or worse yet, stay and simply stop caring.

Today, more than ever, we need a unified organizational focus that only comes by breaking down silos and harnessing the power of collaboration.

In my session, we’ll a look at the communicator’s role in “silo-busting,” reducing conflict, and increasing collaboration.

CREDIBILITY

Traditional explanations of human behavior in the business world presume that employees are influenced most by meaning and reasoning.

But . . . recent studies from the Human Dynamics Group at MIT's Technology Media Lab, Xerox and Intel's research centers (and a growing volume of other evidence from psychology, neurobiology and sociology), suggest that this view is seriously flawed. The key to successful change communication may be found in understanding the kinds of signals ordinarily overlooked, especially tone of voice and body language.

In my session, we’ll look at the latest research about how credibility and trust are really communicated.

In addition, I’ll have my latest book for sale – and will offer a free management team “appraisal and training session” to the lucky winner of a drawing. (Email me for details!)

Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D., is an executive coach, management consultant, and keynote speaker who addresses association, government, and business audiences around the world. Her latest book is THE NONVERBAL ADVANTAGE – Secrets and Science of Body Language at Work. For more information, contact Carol by phone: 510-526-1727, email: CGoman@CKG.com, or through her websites: www.CKG.com and www.NonverbalAdvantage.com.

2009-03-30T14:35:00.000-07:00

I'm collecting "Tips from the Trenches" - a report on what people are doing (not what they're advising others to do, or what they know they should do, but actually doing) to thrive and survive in these turbulent economic times. If you'd like to participate, please email me at CGoman@CKG.com.

Below is a response I received from a woman named Cyndy Kaufman. I thought her story so valuable I wanted to share it right away.

"My position was eliminated last July. My company was going through several reorganizations and layoffs. Although I was safe from the first two rounds...you never know. My position was just not needed in the current scheme of things. So my next steps? We work at our jobs 8-10 hours. And that is how much time I devoted to job researching, searching, applying and networking. While I kept an open mind about the type of work, I was also realistic about my skills and what I wanted to or didn't want to include in a position. These efforts paid off. I had about a dozen phone interviews and almost the same in-person interviews.

I help others in their efforts to look for work. That means that two or more of us are looking and making contacts. Boomerang theory really works here! I had held a networking group for the first few months. We would meet for coffee or at the noon hour once every two weeks. We shared tips, resume writing feedback and our frustrations. Everyone has a job today...well, okay, that would be almost for me...keep reading...

From previous job searches, never bring up salary unless they do. Often if they think you are wonderful and the right person, the salary can magically appear. And don't settle for less than your current base salary (the days of bonuses and incentives are fading away). That will only make you bitter and resentful in your new wonderful position. I learned that after my first layoff, years ago. Having been a career counselor and having many jobs myself, if you keep confident (not overconfident) about your job/self worth, you will not fail to bring in the appropriate compensation for your life's work.

I also believe you should have 9-12 months salary in the bank all of the time...regardless of your current status. If I hadn't I would not be in good shape today...eight months later. Having this cushion allowed me to turn down a job I knew would not be in my best interest. Instead, I waited and took a job for the future...with the Federal Government. However, my security clearance will take 8 months or so. Again, I had the savings to endure the months of non-income and make the best decision.

That said, I am looking for freelance, part-time and hourly work to help me until my first paycheck. Although everyone else is doing the same. I carefully pick small networking events that can provide me with contacts or skill building for the future. I have volunteered for professional associations so that my name is out there and I get more contacts. This also allows me to keep current in the industry.

I've cut back on my gym membership. However, exercise is especially important if you are not working or worried about the times. I walk outside and do abs on my bedroom floor to stay in shape. I looked for a sale for hand weights as well. I pay a small fee not to lose my initiation fee and can be in this non-active status for 6 months. I do not go out for dinner or lunch except for a rare networking dinner or lunch. I make my own cookies/muffins. I buy a whole chicken and make several days of it. I make pizza from the dough you can buy in a Trader Joe's. Chili, lasagne, are other possibilities. Meals from scratch are much cheaper than ready-made. So hone up on your cooking skills. This really saves the pennies. I clip coupons and shop the sales. I bunch my errands so I don't have to go out (and use gas...) everyday. I had to cut back on cable TV services and I don't go out to the movies. I will rent the DVD or purchase online when I have the cash flow. I use the local library! for magazines, checking out books, and DVDs. I'm not afraid to say no to my family or friends or tell them I honestly would prefer not to spend the money right now.

Most of all, surround yourself with positive people and keep positive inner thoughts if you are faced with a job layoff. Often this can lead to something greater/better/different.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. I hope I can help you make a difference in someone else's life."

Best Regards, Cyndy

2009-03-19T10:59:00.001-07:00

Just a thought . . . Watching the business news this morning, I was reminded that all of us need to get really comfortable with ambiguity. In a business atmosphere that is random and unpredictable, it doesn’t mean you can’t have a strategy, but it does mean that your strategy will more like play-dough and less like concrete.

2009-03-11T18:19:00.000-07:00

Silo-Busting by Organizational Restructuring

Recently, two executives made headlines by announcing organizational restructuring to rid their companies of silos. For me, it was great timing. I was preparing for a keynote speech at the Prepaid Card Expo in Orlando, and my topic was “tearing down silos to drive success.”

I gave that speech yesterday and used these examples as part of my talk.

Two years ago, Sir Howard Stringer, Sony’s CEO, was interviewed on PBS and said one of the first jobs he had to do at Sony was reach out and get people to collaborate with each other, and to break up the vertical silos. Stringer is now putting those words into action. Starting April 1, Sony will have two new silo-busting groups: Networked Products and Services and Consumer Products Group. Stringer, who adds the title of President to his existing CEO and Chairman roles, recently announced, “This reorganization is designed to transform Sony into a more innovative, integrated and agile global company.”

The day before the Sony story hit the papers, Yahoo’s new CEO, Carol Bartz, announced their new management structure. She created a global Customer Advocacy Group and destroyed the division line between technology and products by making one development group call Products. Bartz said of this restructuring: “Everything gets simpler. We will be able to make speedier decisions. The notorious silos are gone and we have a renewed focus on the customer.”

I’ve seen the high price that is paid for “silo mentality” and I know the power of collaboration. So I was delighted to be able to cite these recent examples.

I also thought it interesting that the breakout sessions at the Expo where I was speaking had been restructured from vertical tracks to lifecycle tracks.

2009-03-04T13:33:00.000-08:00

I'm speaking next week at an international conference. My topic is "breaking down organizational silos." Which is no easy task for any organization. Wherever it’s found, “silo mentality” becomes synonymous with power struggles, lack of cooperation, and loss of productivity.

Most silos operate in isolation. Because of silos, organizations misallocate resources, send inconsistent messages to the marketplace, and fail to leverage scale economies and to share valuable information. The foundation of a successful organization is an entire team focused on common goals. Silos erode this foundation. Silos can be monumentally inefficient and, worse, a major barrier to innovation, profitability -- and even survival.

But if silos are so bad, why do they exit? Well, for a couple of reasons . . .

Silos exist because we create them. Most companies are not organized around customer needs or outcomes. They are organized around functions (finance, sales, human resources, etc.), technologies, product lines, brands, etc. Then those silos are held accountable for performance within a narrow, often self-serving, focus. To make it worse, silos are left to compete with one another in the battle for funding, power and recognition.

In turbulent times, a silo mentality plays into the human belief that an "every man for himself” attitude is the only way to succeed. Nothing could be less true. In a crisis, it takes teamwork to produce innovative, cost effective and targeted products and services.

That’s why organizations that are serious about innovation and are striving to be more customer-centric do everything possible to break down silos and encourage communication and collaboration throughout the organization. Developing a culture for collaboration begins with silo-busting strategies: Flattening the organization, creating interdependent goals and rewards, supporting communities of practice, increasing cross-functional teamwork, and building trust between members of those teams.

There are mini-cultures in every organization. Regardless of the overall corporate culture, individual managers and team leaders can nurture a climate for collaboration within their own work group or staff. And the best of these leaders do so by taking the time and effort necessary to make people feel safe and valued. They emphasize people's strengths while encouraging the sharing of mistakes and lessons learned. They set clear expectations for outcomes and clarify individual roles. They help all members recognize what each of them brings to the team. They model openness, vulnerability and honesty. They tell stories of group successes and personal challenges. And most of all, they encourage and respect everyone's contribution.

2009-02-24T09:22:00.000-08:00

As an expert on the “human side” of organizational change, I have been a guest on hundreds of radio call-in programs over the past several years, but I especially remember one in the Northwest, when an unusual number of disgruntled employees were phoning in with corporate “horror stories.”

People complained about being unappreciated and overlooked. They spoke of callous treatment from uncaring bosses, and reported that they worked for organizations “just interested in making a buck.” For the entire hour, calls followed the same line. Finally, in genuine disgust, the interviewer said to me: “The principles you're giving us sound so simple, why aren't more managers following them?”

I didn't have to think twice about my reply: “With all the diet books on the market, why aren't we all thin and trim? What could be simpler than reducing calories and increasing exercise?”

The answer to my question and his is the same. Things that are simple are not necessarily easy.

My work has enabled me to deal with business leaders around the world, and not once have I encountered a boss who despised all his or her employees. On the contrary, the leaders I've met were genuinely concerned about the well-being of people who reported to them. (Even the occasional leader whose only focus was on the bottom line understood that the best way to increase profits was to build the commitment of talented employees.)

In general, it's the soft skills of leadership that are paramount. Leaders (and their organizations) won't succeed without a genuine caring about people and the ability to develop and nurture interpersonal relationships.

This is something that the MBA industry is grappling with today. Many business schools are revisiting their offerings to see if they still have relevance in the 21st century. Consider Harvard Business School, the blue-chip brand of all MBA programs, which used 2008 (its centennial year) to convene worldwide experts on business education and plot its directions for the next 100 years.

The results: Deans and recruiters said that MBAs in general needed better communication skills, increased self-awareness and an enhanced capacity for introspection and empathy. HBS is now looking at several change proposals, among them a program to develop various soft skills in its students.

Isn't that simple?

Not easy, mind you, But simple.

2009-02-18T17:33:00.000-08:00

A Matter of Trust

A few years ago I was hired to find out why the leaders of a utility company were having so much trouble implementing a large-scale organizational change. As I reviewed their communication strategy, I noted that the company definitely had a compelling reason for the change, a well-constructed change-management strategy, and an eloquent senior leadership team to deliver those messages.

But when I conducted focus groups throughout the organization, one comment kept repeating:” We don’t trust them.”

I was reminded of this when I read “Honest Signals” by Alex Pentland of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab. At MIT, Pentland and other researchers study the nonverbal dynamics of human interactions. Their studies show that body language, vocal pitch and pattern are so critical to human trust that they alone can predict the success or failure of an interaction.

A device called a sociometer tracks body language signals and vocal speed and inflection – but not the content of the conversations. It turns out that, regardless of the words spoken, people who use positive nonverbal signals (looking at the other person, nodding heads in agreement, leaning forward, and speaking in the same vocal range an speed as their conversational partners) will win the other person’s trust.

So - you may have the most solid rationale for change, a bullet-proof communication strategy for delivering that message, and articulate leaders. But if leaders aren’t sending the right nonverbal signals, they won’t be trusted. And your organization won’t have a successful change.

2009-02-03T16:02:00.001-08:00

Upbeat in Down Times

Long before Dale Carnegie, the human potential movement, or self-help videos, a positive outlook was acknowledged to be a crucial part of high-level achievement. In today’s turbulent, always-changing business environment, a positive, upbeat, “can-do” attitude is vital for success.

After years of profiling people who do exceptionally well dealing with turbulence and change (those I’ve labeled “change-adept”), I’ve seen the power of optimism at work.

In Chinese, the ideogram for crisis combines two characters: One is the symbol for danger, the other for opportunity. The same dual aspects can be ascribed to change. With any changing situation, the danger of possible reversals coexists with incredible opportunities for personal and professional success.

So, in these uncertain times, nurture your optimistic nature. Instead of wondering how you are going to get through this – ask yourself “How can I take charge of this situation and use it to achieve outstanding results?”

2009-01-23T15:32:00.000-08:00

But is it fair?

A team of Princeton researchers hooked up players to functional MRI machines and had them play the "ultimatum game" in which two people are asked to split a sum of money. The rules: One player gets to make the split, and the second player gets to accept or reject the split. If the second player rejects the split, neither player gets any money.

Rationally, the first player should realize her advantage and offer a lopsided split in her favor. The second player should then accept the uneven split, because any amount of money is better than nothing.

But this rarely ever happens.

While the fairness of the split shouldn’t logically affect the second player’s decision, it nearly always does. If offered a lopsided split, the second player rejects the deal, and both players walk away empty-handed. That is why most people end up offering a fifty-fifty split to the second player.

The functional MRI machine showed why people react in this way. When players are offered an unfair split, a primal part of their brains known as the anterior insula sends out a signal of disgust and anger. It doesn’t matter one little bit that rejecting the split—regardless of how unfair—is an irrational financial decision. It feels right.

This is only one example of where emotion trumps logic. And hard-wired human reactions don’t disengage just because people enter a workplace. Keep this in mind the next time you try communicate a "we've-got-to-do-more-with-less" message when the folks at the top are still perceived to get all the perks.

Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D., is an executive coach, author, consultant and keynote speaker who addresses association, government, and business audiences around the world. For more information, contact Carol by phone: 510-526-1727, email: CGoman@CKG.com, or through her website: http://www.CKG.com.

2009-01-14T15:03:00.000-08:00

It's a new year and I have a new program topic. Below is the overview... I'd love to hear from you if know of any organizations who might be looking for this kind of program.

BODY LANGUAGE FOR WOMEN WHO MEAN BUSINESS
Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D.

o Are you aware that within your first seven seconds of meeting people, they have already decided if you are competent, confident and trustworthy?
o Did you know that when your body language is out of alignment with your verbal message, people believe what they see--not what you say?
o Did you know that the way you sit, stand or look at others reveals volumes about your true intent?
o Did you know that your business colleagues are constantly telling you what they think and feel, but it often has nothing to do with the words they use?

Body language cues are especially important for women in the workplace, and they differ markedly from those of a man. Women are better than men at reading nonverbal signals, but women are less aware of how to present themselves in ways that optimize their credibility, confidence and power.

Carol Kinsey Goman, accomplished author, personal business coach, and keynote speaker can show your audience how to take this mostly unconscious process and turn it into a compelling communication skill.

o How to read other people's bodies from head to toes
o The ways women give away their power - without saying a word
o Why a certain kind of eye contact can get you into trouble
o Why head tilts and nods send the wrong message
o Seven powerful mannerisms that lead to positive first impressions
o How coupling a single touch with a single word can make you unforgettable
o What happens to your credibility when you smile at the wrong time

Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D., is the author of THE NONVERBAL ADVANTAGE-Secrets and Science of Body Language at Work. She addresses association, government and business audiences around the world. Contact Carol by phone: 510-526-1727; e-mail: CGoman@CKG.com, or view a video clip on her website: www.NonVerbalAdvantage.com.

2008-12-31T15:33:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year - You're Fired!
Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D.

With many of us feeling the pain of an economic slowdown, it's important to be aware of and proactive about possible changes in our organizations. While we can't control the economy or the other forces of change, we can position ourselves to survive and even thrive in these challenging times.

Here are six tips to consider, whether you feel secure or think your job may soon disappear:

1. Don't get caught unaware. Too often, workers fail to recognize the early signs of looming layoffs, downsizing or shutdowns and are caught by surprise when they find themselves without a job. Keep your eyes open for signs of trouble: Notice if there are large-scale layoffs throughout your industry, if new competitors are increasingly crowding the market, or if demand for your company's product or service is dropping.

2. Imagine the worst-case scenario and make a plan. What if you lost your job? What would you do? When you examine and confront the situation, you can consider possible options. At the very least, you will feel that you have more control over your reactions if that scenario should indeed occur. Here's the trick: Once you have a plan of action, stop focusing on the potential downside and start searching for potential opportunities.

3. Neutralize your fear. Neuroscience tells us that when the fear system of the brain is active, exploratory activity and risk-taking are turned off. You can start to neutralize that system by avoiding people who are all “doom and gloom” about the economy and by turning off the constant barrage of bad news from the media. Remind yourself that you have already worried about the worst possible outcome and that you have a plan for dealing with it.

4. Keep a positive attitude. You never know when a seemingly negative situation may turn out to be for the best. If your job changes or disappears, it's an excellent chance to learn something new, discover untapped skills and meet new people. If you keep a positive attitude, you'll be able to rally your energy toward furthering your career - regardless of the circumstances.

5. Stay in the game. In tough times, your first reaction may be to “hunker down.” Nothing could be less helpful. This is a time to become very visible in your organization. In a recent survey of 150 business executives, 49% said they consider an employee's dedication to the company's mission and values when downsizing. So volunteer for projects, take credit for your success, and speak up. And if you can come with ways your organization can save money - now is your time to really shine!

6. Network, network, network. First, understand the importance of "social capital." Capital is defined as "accumulated wealth, especially as used to produce more wealth." Social capital is the wealth (or benefit) that exists because of your social relationships. Think of social capital as the value created by your connections to others. There is no more valuable commodity in today's volatile business environment.

Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D., is an author and keynote speaker who addresses association, government, and business audiences around the world. Her latest book and program topic is THE NONVERBAL ADVANTAGE – Secrets and Science of Body Language at Work. For more information, contact Carol by phone: 510-526-1727, email: CGoman@CKG.com, or through her websites: www.CKG.com and www.NonverbalAdvantage.com.

2008-12-09T09:19:00.000-08:00

DO YOU CARE?
Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D.

At a claim office of about 125 employees, the head of Human Resources spent the day observing the claim manager. This particular manager had received fantastic feedback on her company’s Quality Leadership Measurement System (QLMS) survey, so the HR executive was curious to watch her with her people to figure out what generated this great feedback. And as they walked through the office, conversing about the normal work conditions, the manager would often stop and refer to specific individuals: "Steve over there has been in our area for 15 years. Steve also coaches Little League. They won their game last Thursday.”

They’d move on to someone else, and as they left that person's area, quietly the claim manager would say, "Sally had some problems with her daughter this year. You know how difficult teenagers can be. We've had many sessions behind closed doors where Sally’s trying to sort through these problems."

Months later, when I interviewed the HR executive, that day at the claim office was still etched in her mind: “It became apparent to me that this manager knew all of her people. And I don't mean just knew their jobs. She knew each individual – their backgrounds and hobbies, what their concerns were, what got them excited. She knew when they were upbeat because things were going well, and she knew when they were struggling and needed her time and attention. When I asked, ‘How on earth can you do this for 125 people?’ she replied, ‘That's my job.’"

Great leaders understand that you can’t pay people to excel. You can only pay them to show up. But once you’ve got them there, the leader’s job is to encourage people to excel by create an atmosphere of caring, trust and inclusion. Sun Tzu, author of the Chinese classic, “The Art of War,” “Regard your soldiers as your own children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys. Treat them as your own beloved sons, and they will be with you even unto death.”

2008-10-28T10:55:00.001-07:00

Five Body Language Tips from the Presidential Debates
Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D.

You may never find yourself in the high-stakes, high-pressure world of a presidential debate. But if you are addressing an employee audience, meeting with your team, or even interviewing for a job, you are constantly communicating. You’re doing that through body language, and the key is to know whether the way you stand, your facial expressions, gestures, touch, and use of space are expressing enthusiasm, warmth, and confidence – or arrogance, indifference, and displeasure.

Whether you are a business executive promoting a vision for the company or a politician promoting a vision for the country, people interpret what you say to them only partially from the words you use. They are picking up most of your message (and all of the emotional nuance behind the words) from your nonverbal signals.

Understanding body language is critical whether you are a chief executive officer, a first-line supervisor, or a candidate for president of the United States. But unlike political candidates, most business people are oblivious to the impact of the nonverbal signals they send.

Which can be a big problem.

The female manager who constantly flips her hair as she speaks or smiles too much when discussing a critical business issue probably doesn’t realize that she has minimized her chances of being taken seriously. The team leader who reserves head nods, forward leans and direct eye contact for only a few members of his team may not know that he is demoralizing the rest of the team.

The first step to gaining a nonverbal advantage is awareness – and one way to increase awareness is to learn from experience. The good news is that it doesn’t always have to be your own experience.

If you were not watching the political debates, you missed an opportunity to learn from some body language dos and don’ts. Here are five tips from the debates that would apply to leaders in any kind of organization.

Tip One: With nonverbal communication, it’s not how the sender feels that’s most important; it’s how the observer perceives how the sender feels.

Body language interpretations are often made deep in the subconscious mind, based on a primitive emotional reaction that hasn’t changed much since humans began interacting with one another. Because reading body language is an ancient and primarily process, your audience may not always know why they get that “something just isn’t right,” or “I trust this person” feeling – but most often it has nothing at all to do with a critical analysis of the statements you make. Instead, it has everything to do with what the audience believes you really mean.

A famous debate signal occurred in 1992 when incumbent President George H.W. Bush looked at his watch while his opponent, Bill Clinton, who would win the election, spoke.

Why did he look at his watch? It doesn’t matter. What does matter, is that to the viewing audience, President Bush’s gesture conveyed boredom – as if he had better things to do with his time and was wondering when this annoying inconvenience would end.

This is a common problem with body language: often your nonverbal signals don’t convey what you intended them to. You may be slouching because you’re tired, but your team will most likely read it as a sign of disinterest. You may be more comfortable standing with your arms folded across your chest (or you may be cold), but others see you as resistant and unapproachable. And keeping your hands stiffly by your side or stuck in your pockets can give the impression that you’re insecure or hiding something – whether you are or not.

Tip Two: Watch those facial expressions.
Have you ever interviewed for a job? Ever been interviewed in a group setting? If you have, then you probably did your best to come across as qualified, confident, and likable.

Let’s suppose the interviewer asked you a question that you hoped wouldn’t come up. Did you clench your jaw, raise your eyebrows in amazement, and grimace to show your annoyance? Or did you sigh, smile condescendingly, and shake your head?

Can you imagine the impression you’d make if you did any of those things in an interview? Do you think you’d get the job? Do you think you’d even make the next round?

Job interviews are often as much about body language and impressions as they are about issues and substance. If you think of the debates as a super-sized job interview – and in many ways they are – you can begin to see why facial expressions have such an impact.

Both candidates made facial expression errors. In most of the debates, Senator Obama minimized his emotional reactions and reinforced the impression that he is remote and “cold.” Senator McCain’s forced grins and eye rolling in the third debate sent a negative signal that was reflected instantly in polls rating likeability: Obama scored 70% to McCain’s 22%.

Tip Three: Don’t underestimate the power of touch.

While Senator Obama shook hands with audience members after the debates, only Senator McCain touched anyone during a debate. Toward the end of the second debate, McCain walked into the audience and patted a U.S. military veteran on the back and then shook his hand, which produced a genuine smile from the veteran. McCain’s gesture was exquisitely done and worked very much in his favor.

Usually considered to be the most primitive and essential form of communication, we are programmed to feel closer to someone who’s touched us. The person who touches also feels more connected. It’s a compelling force and even momentary touching can create a human bond. A touch on the forearm that lasts a mere 1/40 of a second can make the receiver not only feel better but also see the giver as being kinder and warmer.

Touch is so powerful and effective that clinical studies at the Mayo Clinic show that premature babies who are stroked grow 40 percent faster than those who do not receive the same amount of touching. And touch retains its power -- even with adults in business settings. A study on handshakes by the Income Center for Trade Shows showed that people are twice as likely to remember you if you shake hands with them.

Tip Four: When your body language is out of sync with your words, people believe what they see.

Anytime Senator McCain was speaking in the first debate, Senator Obama oriented his body toward McCain and looked directly at him. In doing so, he sent a nonverbal signal of interest and respect. McCain’s decision to avoid looking at Obama during that debate, was not only dismissive, it was counter to McCain’s stated position that Democrats and Republicans need to work together on behalf of the American people. In fact, his failure to look at Obama was so off-message that if I had been coaching McCain, I would never have allowed it. To me, it was the biggest nonverbal stumble – and the one most significantly against-message – that I saw in all the presidential debates.

In the same way, a business leader who stands in front of a thousand employees – and talks about how much he welcomes their input – derails that message if he hides behind a lectern, or leans back away from his audience, or shoves his hands in his pockets. All of those send closed nonverbal signals – when the intended message is really about openness.

It is crucial to communicate congruently – that is, to align your body to support (instead of sabotage) an intended message. Mixed signals have a negative effect on performance and make it almost impossible to build relationships of trust. Whenever your nonverbal signals contradict your words, the people you are addressing -- employees, customers, voters -- become confused. And, if forced to choose, they will discount your words and believe what your body said.

Tip Five: Remember - you are never “off camera.”

When the second debate was over, and their wives were on stage, Senator McCain tapped his rival on the back. Senator Obama turned around to offer his hand, but it was not reciprocated. McCain, instead, pointed to his wife, Cindy – an action that many viewers took for a nonverbal brush-off.

As a leader, you are always communicating. People are unrelenting leader-watchers, and your “off-record” behaviors are being closely monitored. In the words of one savvy executive, “What I do in the hallway is more powerful than anything I say in the meeting room.”

So there you are -- five body-language tips that can play a positive role in your professional communication. Even if you never find yourself in the midst of a presidential debate.

Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D., is an executive coach, author and keynote speaker who addresses association, government, and business audiences around the world. Her latest book and program topic is THE NONVERBAL ADVANTAGE – Secrets and Science of Body Language at Work. For more information, contact Carol by phone: 510-526-1727, email: CGoman@CKG.com, or through her websites: www.CKG.com and www.NonverbalAdvantage.com.

2008-09-20T07:50:00.000-07:00

I couldn't have said it better myself . . .

"Here is the very heart and soul of the matter. If you look to lead, invest at least 40% of your time managing yourself — your ethics, character, principles, purpose, motivation, and conduct. Invest at least 30% managing those with authority over you, and 15% managing your peers. Use the remainder to induce those you "work for" to understand and practice the theory. I use the terms "work for" advisedly, for if you don't understand that you should be working for your mislabeled "subordinates," you haven't understood anything. Lead yourself, lead your superiors, lead your peers, and free your people to do the same. All else is trivia."
Dee Hock

2008-09-16T21:37:00.000-07:00

Because leaders perceive today’s work force to be more cynical and less optimistic than previous generations, they often make a big mistake in their communications. They tend to present factual information about the organization with a too positive spin -- commenting solely on the most positive aspects to wary employees. Not only is this misguided communication strategy out of step with the reality that employees experience, it further widens the trust gap between leaders and workers. (“Are these executives working in the same company that we are?”)

Most importantly, a diet of all good news does not motivate employees to be more positive and upbeat. Instead of helping develop optimism, the lack of full disclosure actually encourages the rumor mill to fill in the missing communication, often by inventing or distorting information in ways that exacerbate work force apprehension.
A much more effective communication strategy is to level with employees about the current problems and challenges the company is facing so they will have a complete picture of the situation.

Earlier this year I addressed an audience of business communicators at their international convention. The head of corporate communications from a Fortune 500 Corporation came up to me after my speech. He said that the local newspaper had printed a negative story about his company and its environmental policies. After meeting with senior management, it was decided to rerun the news story in their in-house magazine, and next to the negative article to print the company’s point of view. The result was that employees were treated as adults, not sheltered like children. They were given both sides of the story and trusted to draw their own conclusions.

2008-09-08T07:04:00.000-07:00

Managing Continuous Change
Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D.

A reporter once asked Dale Berra, son of baseball great Yogi Berra, and a major leaguer himself, if he was similar to his father. To which Dale replied, taking a page from his oft-quoted father, “No, our similarities are different.”

I thought of this comment the other day when a client I had worked with several years ago contacted me about speaking at an upcoming leadership event.

“Sure!” I said, “I'd love to work with your organization again. But tell me, are you facing the same problems with organizational change as when I last addressed this audience?” He quickly replied, “Oh no, it's nothing like before. Sure, we are still trying to get people to embrace change, but the change is completely different!”

Over 20 years ago, I began researching, writing and speaking about managing the “human side” of organizational change. At that time I thought it was a topic that would be a top priority -- for a few years (until we'd all mastered the strategies and techniques of change management) -- and then the focus would shift to more current organizational challenges.

I was wrong.

Two decades later, dealing with change remains the crucial organizational challenge.

What I overlooked in my assumption of change mastery is the radical way change would, well . . . change. Many leaders did become proficient in managing incremental change (continuous improvement) and the occasional (or annual) large-scale transformation. But managers today are facing a flood of continuous, overlapping, and accelerating change that has turned their organizations upside down. And managing people through that kind of change requires all the communication and leadership strategies we learned in the past - and then some.

The shift from “a change” to “constant change” is more than just semantics. The increased difficulty lies in the fact that most people and processes are set up for continuity, not chaos. We're built to defend the status quo, not annihilate it. But the world is throwing change at us with such intensity that there is hardly enough time to regain our equilibrium or catch our breath. Nor is there much hope that the rate of change will ease in the future.

So, what does it take to manage people through continuous change? Here are some suggestions:

• Realize that resistance to change is inevitable - and highly emotional.

Didn't think you were hired to manage emotional turmoil? Think again.

Being aware of and responsive to the emotional component of change is now a prerequisite for effective leadership. This task is complicated by the fact that the emotional cycle of transition (denial, resistance, choice, acceptance, engagement) overlaps - as one change begins while others are in various stages.

• Give people a stabilizing foundation.

In a constantly changing organization, where instability must be embraced as positive, a sense of stability can still be maintained through a collective focus of purpose. The leader's role here is to create stability through a constant reinterpretation of the company's history, present activities, and vision for the future. And, by using the term vision, I'm not referring to a corporate statement punctuated by bullet points. I'm talking about a clearly articulated, emotionally charged, and encompassing picture of what the organization is trying to achieve.

• Help your staff/team/department realize that change really is the only constant.

Never let people believe that once any single change is completed, the organization will solidify into a new form. Instead, help them understand that solidity has a much shorter life span than ever before. As processes temporarily manifest themselves in structures, we all should be getting ready for the next transformation.

• Encourage employees to mingle.

The new change-management fundamentals include an increasing focus on relationships and collaboration. Social networks - those ties among individuals that are based on mutual trust, shared work experiences, and common physical and virtual spaces are in many senses the true structure of today's organizations. Anything you as a leader can do to nurture these mutually rewarding, complex and shifting relationships will enhance the creativity and change readiness within your team or throughout your organization.

• Give up the illusion of control.

The biggest obstacle to the organizational may be an unwillingness to give up control. Rather than tighten the reins, leaders need to loosen their grip in order to align the energies and talents of their teams and organizations around change initiatives. No one likes change that is mandated - but most of us react favorably to change we are part of creating.

Leaders need to loosen their hold on information, as well. Transparent communication means disclosing market realities and the company's inner workings to everyone -- not just to the upper echelon. It requires an unprecedented openness: a proactive, even aggressive, sharing of financials, strategy, business opportunities, risks, successes and failures. People need pertinent information about demographic, global, economic, technological, consumer and competitive trends. They need to understand the economic reality of the business and why that reality is the driving force behind change. Most of all, people need to understand how their actions impact the success of change initiatives – and how those initiatives impact the overall success of the corporation.

I often tell audiences that “organizations don't change. People do . . . or they don't.” The similarities in today's continuous change may indeed be different from change in the past. But here's one thing that has hasn't changed. People are still the key.

Or, as Yogi Berra might have explained it: When it comes to the importance of the human element in change, "It's déjà vu all over again."

Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D., presents keynote addresses and seminars for management conferences and major trade associations around the world. She is an expert on helping individuals and organizations thrive on change. Carol is the author of nine books, including “This Isn’t the Company I Joined”- How to Lead in a Business Turned Upside Down. She can be reached by email: cgoman@ckg.com, phone: 510-52601727, or through her web site: www.ckg.com.

2008-08-27T15:47:00.000-07:00

Resistance to Change

Don’t you just hate dealing with people who fight against every plan for organizational change? You know the type: They’re disruptive, set in their ways, and highly resistant to change, even when it is obviously in the best interest of the business. Well guess what? New research suggests that those trouble-making, inflexible, change resistors are . . . all of us!

Recent advances in brain analysis technology allow researchers to track the energy of a thought moving through the brain in much the same way as they track blood flowing through the body. And, as scientists watch different areas of the brain light up in response to specific thoughts, it becomes clear that we all react pretty much the same way to change. We try to avoid it.

Here’s why . . .

Most of our daily activities, including many of our work habits, are controlled by a part of the brain called the basal ganglia. These habitual, repetitive tasks take much less mental energy to perform because they have become “hardwired” and we no longer have to give them much conscious thought. “The way we’ve always done it” is mentally comfortable. It not only feels right – it feels good.

Change jerks us out of this comfort zone by stimulating the prefrontal cortex, an energy-intensive section of the brain responsible for insight and impulse control. But the prefrontal cortex is also directly linked to the most primitive part of the brain, the amygdala (the brain’s fear circuitry, which in turn controls our “flight or fight” response). And when the prefrontal cortex is overwhelmed with complex and unfamiliar concepts, the amygdala connection gets kicked into high gear. All of us are then subject to the physical and psychological disorientation and pain that can manifest in anxiety, fear, depression, sadness, fatigue or anger.

It’s no wonder that logic and common sense aren’t enough to get people to sign up for the next corporate restructuring.

2008-08-19T13:15:00.001-07:00

Thriving on Discontinuous Change
Carol Kinsey Goman

IBM's 2008 Global CEO Study finds that organizations are being bombarded by change, and many are struggling to keep up. Executives see significant change ahead, but the gap between expected change and the ability to manage it has almost tripled since the last Global Study in 2006.

The question is: How do we create the kind of organization that not only adapts quickly to current trends, but is aggressive about shaping and leading change?

Two kinds of change -- incremental and discontinuous -- are taking place simultaneously and constantly in business organizations around the world. Incremental change is the process of continuous improvement -- what the Japanese refer to as "kaizen." Discontinuous change is the kind of large-scale transformation that turns organizations inside out and upside down.

If managing incremental change can be compared to encouraging a group of joggers to gradually pick up the pace, then leading discontinuous change is like getting those same joggers to leap off a cliff and build their parachutes on the way down.

Incremental change fits the Newtonian framework of a linear, progressive and predictable world. An unmistakable logic behind it makes it easy to communicate and relatively easy for people to adopt. Best of all, it uses current practices as a baseline for the systematic improvement of a product, service or system. And people like the fact that they can base their future success on their past performance.

But much of the change our organizations are facing today is not incremental. It is discontinuous. It is restructuring, reengineering, transformation. Discontinuous change confronts the entire organization with the possibility that the very roles, actions and attitudes that were most responsible for past success will be insufficient, and perhaps even detrimental, in the future. And that concept is difficult to communicate and much harder for people to adopt.

An Unlearning Agenda
No one likes to contemplate letting go of the skills and behaviors that "got us here." As individuals, we become psychologically attached to the status quo because it is familiar and comfortable. But even more difficult than fighting off the inertia of comfort, we find it hard to let go of the past because it is there that we've experienced personal success.

People like the experience of mastery. That's understandable. It's basic human psychology. But it is not an attitude that helps us move forward. Although "knowledge is power" may have been an accurate assumption in the past, the reality of today's high-speed business environment is that information and skills become outdated faster than the current fashion. In this climate, employees are valued primarily for how quickly they can learn, unlearn and relearn.

One of the greatest challenges for anyone who wants to become adept at is identifying the practices and attitudes that need to be unlearned to adopt more productive new behaviors more quickly.

Here are a few questions to consider:
o What do I do best? (What skills and abilities am I most proud of?)
o Which current skills, abilities, and attitudes will continue to make me successful in the future?
o How does feeling competent stop me from doing things differently? (Where are the comfort zones that I'm most reluctant to leave?)
o What new skills do I need to learn to stay valuable to the organization?
o What do I need to unlearn? (Which skills are becoming obsolete? What practices -- attitudes, behaviors, work routines, etc. -- that worked for me in the past are no longer valid?)

Leaders who help their colleagues thrive on discontinuous change begin by identifying those skills and behaviors that they themselves need to learn and unlearn. Then they address the topic openly: They talk about their own problems with letting go of past competencies; they empathize with the feelings of awkwardness that come with leaving the comfort zone, and they are candid about why they decided to leave some behaviors in the past to better serve the future. Then they massage damaged egos by applauding the efforts that everybody is making.

Building a style of behavior that is comfortable with -- even aggressive about -- significant projected change means helping everyone realize that the process of continuous learning, unlearning and relearning is the key to both organizational and personal success.

Carol Kinsey Goman, is a keynote speaker who helps association, government, and business audiences around the world thrive on change. Her newest book (and program topic) is The Nonverbal Advantage: Secrets and Science of Body Language at Work. For more information, call 510-526-1727, email: CGoman@CKG.com, or visit her www.CKG.com and www.NonverbalAdvantage.com.

2007-04-11T10:47:00.000-07:00

You Don't Say
Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D.

In "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat," neurologist Oliver Sachs describes how a group of his patients with lost cerebral functions were unable to understand spoken language, yet were highly adept at picking up the subtleties of body language. Sachs recalls how these patients broke into uncontrollable laughter while watching a politician on television, because the politician’s nonverbal communication was clearly stating: I’m a liar! These cues were totally missed by most of the rest of the audience – focused as they were on what was being said.

But what if those body language cues weren’t really overlooked by the audience? What if all those silent signals were being picked up and processed beneath consciousness awareness?

That’s exactly what I think happened.

The ability to decode nonverbal signals is hardwired in all of us. Human beings are genetically programmed to look for facial and behavioral clues and to quickly understand their meaning. Our ancestors made survival decisions based solely on intricate bits of visual information they were picking up from others. Survival of the fittest was not only about physical strength, but also about how quickly they could interpret the intention of others and how accurately they could send appropriate signals in response. As a species we knew how to win friends and influence people (or avoid/placate/confront those we couldn’t befriend) long before we knew how to use words.

So, even if audience members weren’t aware of exactly what they were picking up when they watched the politician, most of them would still have felt that something wasn’t right. That’s how body language works. You may think “It's only a hunch,” but in reality, your hunches are based on a multitude of subconsciously noted nonverbal cues. And, when someone’s facial expressions and body gestures aren’t congruent with what is being said, you instinctively question the verbal comment.

Which brings us to business leaders I have observed . . .

I’ve noticed that there is often a disconnection between executive body language and the messages they are trying to convey. Last year I was on a panel of speakers and watched the man before me (representing a Fortune 100 company) finish his presentation and ask for questions – standing with his arms folded across his chest. Not surprisingly, the audience had nothing to say.

When a leader stands in front of a thousand employees and talks about how much he welcomes their input, the message gets derailed if the executive hides behind a lectern or leans back or puts his hands behind his back or shoves them in his pockets – or folds his arms across his chest. Such nonverbal signals are closed – while the message is about openness.

Then there is the matter of timing. If a person’s gestures are produced before or as the words come out, she appears open and candid. However, if she speaks first and then gestures (as I have seen many executives do) it’s perceived as a contrived movement. And at that point, the validity of whatever is said comes under suspicion.

So what’s a leader to do?

If you want to be perceived as credible and forthright, you’ve got to think “outside the speech” and recognize the importance of nonverbal communication. I’m a professional speaker and the author of nine books. I love words. But, oh, how I’ve learned to appreciate the power of body language!

Professor Albert Mehrabian at UCLA established this classic statistic for the effectiveness of spoken communications:
• 7% of what you communicate is conveyed through the words you use;
• 38% of what you communicate is conveyed through the tone of you voice; and
• 55% of what you communicate is conveyed through nonverbal gestures—body language.

Remember that Mehrabian was only studying the communication of emotions and attitudes. Obviously, an audience can’t watch you speaking in a foreign language and understand 93 percent of what you’re saying. They can, however, hone in on how you are feeling about what you say.

People both consciously and unconsciously notice how you look and how you present yourself. Then they filter the content of your presentation through that judgment.

They are pretty good at it. And pretty fast!

In one study, students were asked to view a two second video clip of a professor teaching and to say whether or not they liked him. At the end of the semester, students who actually took the professor’s class also reported on whether or not they liked him. With incredible accuracy, the two sets of evaluations matched up.

There is no doubt that you can gain a professional advantage by learning how to use nonverbal communication more effectively. Fully facing the audience, making eye contact, keeping your movements relaxed and natural, standing tall, using open arm gestures, showing the palms of your hands – all are silent signals of confidence and candor. And a good coach can help you find the gestures and facial expressions that are most congruent with the messages you want to convey.

But body language is more than a set of techniques. It is also a reflection of a person’s internal state. In fact, the more someone tries to control emotions, the more likely they are to leak out nonverbally.

Here’s a recent example: The corporate communicator who brought me into her company to coach an executive warned me that he was a “pretty crummy speaker.” And, after watching him at a leadership conference, I was in total agreement. It wasn't his words. They were carefully chosen and well rehearsed. It was how he looked when he spoke. Mechanical in all his gestures, this man’s body was screaming: “I’m uncomfortable and unconvinced about everything I’m saying!”

The question: Could I help?
The answer: Not much.
Oh sure, I could find ways to make his movements less wooden and his timing more fluid. But if a person doesn’t care about (or believe in) what he is saying, his gestures will automatically become lethargic and restricted. What the executive needed most was genuine enthusiasm and passion about the company’s new strategic direction. Because, just like Sachs’ patients who decoded the politician’s authentic emotional state, what audiences saw when this business leader spoke was exactly how he really felt!

Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D., is a coach, author and keynote speaker who addresses association, government, and business audiences around the world. Her latest program topic is THE NONVERBAL ADVANTAGE – Body Language for Busy Professionals. For more information, contact Carol by phone: 510-526-1727, email: CGoman@CKG.com, or through her website: http://www.CKG.com.

2007-03-01T14:57:00.000-08:00

Communicating Across Cultures
Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D,

Two psychiatrists meet on the street. One psychiatrist says to the other, “How are you?” The second psychiatrist nods, hurries away and thinks, “I wonder what he meant by that?”

If communicating person to person can be so difficult, then it’s a safe bet that communicating across cultures will add layers of complexity to the difficulty. Each culture has rules that its members take for granted. Few of us are aware of our own cultural biases because cultural imprinting is begun at a very early age. And while some of culture’s knowledge, rules, beliefs, values, phobias and anxieties are taught explicitly, most of it is absorbed subconsciously.

Take this scene in a Chinese cemetery. Watching a Chinese reverently placing fresh fruit on a grave, an American visitor asked, “When do you expect your ancestors to get up and eat the fruit?” The Chinese replied, “As soon as your ancestors get up and smell the flowers.”

The challenge for multinational communication has never been greater. Worldwide business organizations have discovered that intercultural communication is a subject of importance – not just because they have to deal increasingly with globalization, but also because the work force within their own national borders is growing more and more diverse, ethnically and culturally.

We are all individuals, and no two people belonging to the same culture are guaranteed to respond in exactly the same way. However, generalizations are valid to the extent that they provide clues on what you will most likely encounter when dealing with members of a particular culture.

High-context or low-context
All international communication is influenced by cultural differences. Even the choice of medium used to communicate may have cultural overtones. For example, it has been noted that advanced industrialized nations rely heavily on electronic technology and emphasize written messages over oral or face-to-face communication. Certainly the United States, Canada and Germany exemplify this trend. But Japan, which has access to the latest technologies, still relies more on face-to-face communications than on the written mode. The determining factor in medium preference may not be the degree of industrialization, but rather whether the country falls into a high-context or low-context culture.

In some cultures, personal bonds and informal agreements are far more binding than any formal contract. In others, the meticulous wording of legal documents is viewed as paramount. High-context cultures (Mediterranean, Slav, Central European, Latin American, African, Arab, Asian, American-Indian) leave much of the message unspecified – to be understood through context, nonverbal cues, and between-the-lines interpretation of what is actually said. By contrast, low-context cultures (most of the Germanic and English-speaking countries) expect messages to be explicit and specific. The former are looking for meaning and understanding in what is not said – in body language, in silences and pauses, and in relationships and empathy. The latter place emphasis on sending and receiving accurate messages directly, and by being precise with spoken or written words.

The business challenge for someone from a low-context culture is to realize the importance of building and maintaining personal relationships when dealing with high-context cultures.

“The most important thing I learned on my international assignment was not to rush meetings with the typical ‘American take-charge attitude.’ I was present when the outgoing chief took the new officer to meet a key contact – and I watched, helpless and horrified, as the new man destroyed in five seconds what the incumbent had taken a year to build. Undoubtedly the new chief thought he was creating the impact of a hard-charging young executive, but in reality he was tearing down a delicate relationship." Major, U.S. Air Force

Sequential or synchronic
Some cultures think of time sequentially – as a linear commodity to “spend,” “save,” or “waste.” Other cultures view time synchronically – as a constant flow to be experienced in the moment, and as a force that cannot be contained or controlled.

A friend from Venezuela was invited to a party in the States. The hours on the invitation were stated as 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. This was almost inconceivable to the Venezuelan. “How can anyone know when the party will be over?” she asked. To her way of thinking, a party can’t be “timed.” It begins when it begins and ends when it ends.

Whether time is perceived as a commodity or a constant determines the meaning and value of being “on time.” Think of the misunderstandings that can occur when one culture views arriving late for a meeting as bad planning or a sign of disrespect, while another culture views an insistence on timeliness as childish impatience.

In sequential cultures (like North American, English, German, Swedish, and Dutch), businesspeople give full attention to one agenda item after another. In many other parts of the world, professionals regularly do several things at the same time. I once cashed a check at a Panamanian bank where the teller was counting my money, talking to a customer on the phone, and admiring the baby in the arms of the woman behind me. To her, it was all business as usual.

The American commoditization of time not only serves as the basis for a “time is money” mentality, it can lead to a fixation on timelines that plays right into the hands of savvy negotiators from other cultures. A Japanese executive explained: “All we need to do is find out when you are scheduled to leave the country – and, by the way, it amuses us that you arrive with your return passage already booked. We wait until right before your flight to present our offer. By then, you are so anxious to stay on schedule, you’ll give away the whole deal.”

In synchronic cultures (including South America, southern Europe and Asia) the flow of time is viewed as a sort of circle – with the past, present, and future all inter-related. This viewpoint influences how organizations in those cultures approach deadlines, strategic thinking, investments, developing talent from within, and the concept of “long-term” planning.

There’s a joke about an American and a Chinese businessman sitting on a park bench in Hong Kong. The American is saying, “Well, you know I’ve been in Hong Kong for my company for thirty years. Thirty years! And in a few days they are sending me back to the States.” The Chinese executive replies, “That’s the problem with you Americans: here today and gone tomorrow.”

Orientation to the past, present, and future is another aspect of time in which cultures differ. Americans believe that the individual can influence the future by personal effort, but since there are too many variables in the distant future, we favor a short-term view. This gives us an international reputation of “going for the quick buck” and being interested only in the next quarterly return. Even our relationships seem to be based on a “what have you done for me lately?” pragmatism.

Synchronistic cultures have an entirely different perspective. The past becomes a context in which to understand the present and prepare for the future. Any important relationship is a durable bond that goes back and forward in time, and it is often viewed as grossly disloyal not to favor friends and relatives in business dealings.

Affective or neutral
With much angry gesturing, an Italian manager referred to the idea of his Dutch counterpart as “crazy.” The Dutch manager replied. “What do you mean, crazy? I’ve considered all the factors, and I think this is a viable approach. And calm down! We need to analyze this, not get sidetracked by emotional theatrics.” At that point, the Italian walked out of the meeting.

In international business practices, reason and emotion both play a role. Which of these dominates depends upon whether we are affective (readily showing emotions) or emotionally neutral in our approach. Members of neutral cultures do not telegraph their feelings, but keep them carefully controlled and subdued. In cultures with high affect, people show their feelings plainly by laughing, smiling, grimacing, scowling – and sometimes crying, shouting, or walking out of the room.

This doesn’t mean that people in neutral cultures are cold or unfeeling. (All cultures will express irrepressible joy or grief.) But in the course of normal business activities, neutral cultures are more careful to monitor the amount of emotion they display. Research conducted with people who were upset about something at work, noted that only some cultures supported expressing those feelings openly. Emotional reactions were found to be least acceptable in Japan, Indonesia, the U.K., Norway and the Netherlands – and most accepted in Italy, France, the U.S. and Singapore.

Reason and emotion are part of all human communication. When expressing ourselves, we look to others for confirmation of our ideas and feelings. If our approach is highly emotional, we are seeking a direct emotional response: “I feel the same way.” If our approach is highly neutral, we want an indirect response: “I agree with your thoughts on this.”

It’s easy for people from neutral cultures to sympathize with the Dutch manager and his frustration over trying to reason with “that excitable Italian.” After all, an idea either works or it doesn’t work – and the way to test the validity of an idea is through trial and observation. That just makes sense – doesn’t it? Well, not necessarily to the Italian who felt the issue was deeply personal, and who viewed any “rational argument” as totally irrelevant!

When it comes to communication, what’s proper and correct in one culture may be ineffective or even offensive in another. Culture is, basically, a set of shared values that a group of people holds. Such values affect how you think and act and, more importantly, the kind of criteria by which you judge others. Cultural meanings render some behaviors as normal and right and others strange or wrong. In reality, cultures are not right or wrong, better or worse; they are just different. In today’s global business community, there is no single best approach to communicating with one another. The key to cross-cultural success is to develop an understanding of, and a deep respect for, the differences.

Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D. is an international lecturer. She presents keynote addresses and seminars for management conferences, major trade associations, and corporate clients in 19 countries. Find out more about Carol’s programs and services on her website: www.CKG.com. Or contact her by email (CGoman@CKG.com) or phone (510-526-1727).

2007-02-05T13:56:00.000-08:00

The Upside of “Office Buzz”

If you put a microphone in every hallway, stairwell and coffee station in your organization, what would you overhear?

Well, according to a variety of studies, the breakdown would look something like this:

Gossip (14%). People talk about office intrigue: Who’s sleeping with whom? Did so-and-so really quit “to pursue other options” or was he fired? How did that jerk get promoted? Who does the boss currently loathe or love?

They also compare childcare facilities, restaurants, television programs and sporting events. And in doing so they bond and build relationships that will become the foundation for trust and knowledge sharing. But all of this is only a fraction of what’s being discussed when employees get together.

Business (86%). Most of the conversations in your organization have a work-related focus: Who’s reliable – trustworthy - informed? How am I supposed to behave in this situation? Have you ever dealt with this customer – problem – manager before? What does it take to succeed in this culture?

People share information about their projects, collaborate to develop innovative products and services, and have real-world discussions about “how things get done around here.”

And that’s how “office buzz” becomes money in the bank for an enterprise.

An organization’s cumulative knowledge is contained in the heads of individuals and disseminated through the information and stories they exchange within the networks they access. People learn more from comparing experiences in the hallways than from reading the company’s official manuals, going online to a knowledge repository, or attending training classes. And, as a result of these informal conversations, the organization builds its worth.

Which is not to deny the importance of classes, databases and books, but only to point out the (often overlooked) value of simply getting people together and encouraging them to talk.

Xerox Corporation learned this lesson when it was looking for a way to boost the productivity of its field service staff. A cultural anthropologist traveled with a group of tech reps to observe how they actually did their jobs – as opposed to how they described what they did, or what their managers assumed they did. The anthropologist discovered that the reps spent more time with each other than with customers. They’d gather in common areas like the local parts warehouse or around the coffee pot and swap stories from the field. And it was here that the reps asked each other questions, identified problems, and shared new solutions as they devised them.

Impressed by the potential of these employee gatherings, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) added a technological element, and wired the coffeepot to computer monitors. Any time that someone brewed a fresh pot of coffee, an icon flashed on employees’ screens. People would come out of their offices from various parts of the building for a cup, and they would collect in front of the coffeepot. As the ensuing conversations became more complex, PARC installed huge white boards around the coffee area, so that people could draw diagrams and write out key points. This, in turn, allowed others who were in the area to see where the discussion was heading, and to also join in.

To encourage employees to linger and chat with one another, some companies have designed wide stairwells with large landings, many organizations have created attractive employee “commons” areas, and meeting planners have been asked to designate more time for informal interaction at business conferences.

Did you ever think you’d see the day? In a complete reversal from the old “stop wasting time - and get back to work” mentality, the most progressive companies today are helping employees find ways to stop “working” and start talking!

2007-01-04T07:40:00.000-08:00

Organizational Values

A sales manager read an article about his company’s refusal to deal with any country where “under the table” money was part of the negotiation process. He circled the article and wrote the words Right On! in the column, and mailed it to his CEO. The attached note said: “I’m proud to work in a company whose values reflect my own.”

Values. Every organization has them. Sometimes they are created with intention and sometimes they are the unhappy result of poorly chosen decisions and actions. But, whether they are established deliberately or by accident, values are always present.

Webster defines value as “a principle, standard or quality considered inherently worthwhile or desirable.” The root is the Latin valor, which means strength. The best values serve as a source of strength for an enterprise or an individual. And as leadership effectiveness moves from command and control to collaboration, the key to bonding people to the goals of the organization automatically becomes the intangibles -- relationships, commitments, and shared values.

Values are never not present. So given that they are going to be part of the company, regardless, why don’t more leaders create the healthiest possible values?

Because doing so takes an enormous amount of time, focus and effort.

Values written on a plaque or laminated card are meaningless. (This is where leaders may start, but it is only a beginning.) Values must be integrated into processes, policies, and organizational behavior before they become tangible – a shared understanding of “how we do things around here.”

Achieving this kind of integration takes much more than the crafting of a values statement. It takes an all-encompassing strategic campaign. There are six steps to creating such a campaign:

1) Walk before you talk.
When a company wants to highlight any core value – we’ll use collaboration as an example – I recommend holding back all official communication until members of the senior management team fully understand how their behavior has to change to be perceived as supportive of knowledge sharing, until there is a system developed (or at least in the works) for teaching collaborative skills to employees and a process for educating managers as collaborative coaches, and until there is an appropriate shift from individual to team accomplishments in rewards and recognition programs.

2) Tie values to business goals.
All core values need to be connected to strategic objectives. With the value of diversity, for instance, leaders need to present the business case – explaining why diversity is not only the right thing to do, but also why it’s crucial to the organization’s success. Diversity should be positioned as a positive force for bringing in new ideas, fresh perspectives, better customer service (especially as the customer base also becomes more diverse) and more effective problem-solving potential.

3) Paint a picture of values in action.
People need to see how values actually operate in their day-to-day experience. If the organizational value is work-life balance, leaders need to identify specific behaviors that demonstrate this kind of balance. Better still, they need to find organizational examples where the company’s objectives are well served by a flexible work arrangement - and tell those real-life workplace stories.

4) Develop the corporate mechanisms that bring values into reality.
3M allows scientists to spend 15 percent of their time working on whatever interests them, requires divisions to generate 30 percent of their revenues from new products introduced within the past four years, has an active internal venture capital fund, and grants prestigious awards for innovations. I don’t know if 3M has a formal “values statement,” but I know what they value.

5) Create linkage.
Ultimately, the leader’s role is to create linkage between the organization and its employees. And this goes beyond making sure that everyone knows where the company is headed, what’s expected of them and how their contributions fit into the overall strategy – although all of those concepts are vitally important. True linkage, the kind that bonds committed employees to the success of the organization, comes when there is a deep connection between the values of the company and those of the work force. As a leader, the most effective way of developing this powerful connection is to encourage employees to clarify their own personal values and to see how they fit within the values of the organization.

Linkage Exercise
Define your personal values.
How do you define success in life?
How do you want to be remembered?
Decide what your professional “purpose” is.
What do you want to accomplish in your career?
What are you passionate about achieving?
Describe your ideal working environment.
Under what working conditions are you the happiest and most productive?
Write out the values and principles of the organization.
What attitudes and behaviors does the company value?
What organizational principles would you be fired for violating?
Link your values to the organization.
How do the values of the organization reflect your own values?
How does the company afford you opportunities to live your values?

6) Track your “values alignment.”
Leaders who utilize a “Say/Do” survey to periodically monitor employee perception can make sure that the organization stays on track. Such an inquiry identifies values that have been integrated into organizational behavior – and shows where gaps still exist. Typical survey questions are: “This is what our values state. What actions do you see us taking that are in alignment with our values? What behaviors are out of alignment?”

These six steps outline an undertaking that is both difficult and time-consuming. But the payoff is an enterprise with cohesive values.

Cohesive values can turn an organization into a hologram – in which every part contains enough information in condensed form to describe the whole. A hologram is a wonderful image for an organization with strong values. An observer can see the entire organization’s culture and ways of doing business by watching one individual -- whether a production-floor employee, the receptionist at the front desk, or a senior manager. There is a consistency and predictability to their behavior that customers, suppliers, partners, and other employees can count on.

Now that’s something to value!

2006-12-05T14:27:00.000-08:00

Generations at Work

I love the holiday season! A great time to get together with extended families – and a perfect time to conduct a little informal research on generational differences.

Here’s one example . . .

I recently attended a family gathering where 17 year-old Alexandra, announced that she was quitting her weekend waitress job because the manager wouldn’t give her time off to attend a party. Her statement and the responses she got from various family members were classic:

“It’s no big deal,” Alex said. “I’ll just get another job somewhere else.”

“Never quit one job until you have another,” counseled her 28-year-old cousin.

“Maybe you should consider staying there a little longer. It will look better on your resume,” added her 49-year old mother.

And Alex’s septuagenarian grandfather grumbled, “Where is your work ethic young lady? That restaurant is counting on you!”

When I address business audiences, I’m often asked whether or not it’s fair to generalize when talking about individuals. And in many ways, it isn’t. Everyone is unique - with personal motivations, desires, and goals.

No one likes being lumped into a generational category that encompasses 18 years – and then stamped with a single label. But, like it or not, there are shared circumstances that help shape expectations and attitudes. And these circumstances differ with times in which people were born and raised.

In today’s work force, four generations are currently represented:

• The Silent Generation, born between 1927-1945, are the children of world wars and the Great Depression. Because economic times were tough when they were looking for jobs, this generation tends to be hard working, loyal, and thrifty.

• Baby Boomers (1946-1964) were raised in an era of opportunity, progress, and optimism. Growing up in a radically changing society marked by rebellion, shifting social norms, and outward challenge of authority, they created the need for organizational "vision, values, and mission.”

• Gen Xers were born between 1965-1983. They are technologically savvy and were raised in the age of dual-career families. Watching their parents “bleed company colors” only to be found “redundant,” this generation hit the job market looking for career development, flexibility and work-life balance.

• The Millennials (1984-2002) are the newest members of the work force. A “plugged-in” generation, they have been around technology since birth. Navigating the world of blogs, wikis, podcasting, and instant messaging is as natural to them as breathing.

Each of these distinct groups of people views life differently. And it isn’t just technology that divides the generations. Their differences include perspectives on authority and respect, hierarchy and collaboration, balancing the demands of work and home, aspirations for leadership, and the definition of workplace loyalty.

Just consider the friction that is bound to exist in financial attitudes between those who grew up with economic scarcity, frugality and rationing during the Depression era and those who were raised in an “instant gratification, no payment until next year,” society. And there’s sure to be a clash between members of the Silent Generation, whose definition of leadership reflects the military structure with its command and control philosophy, and their Millennial counterparts who are distrustful of leaders in general - and who expect a collaborative/inclusive work environment.

So what can organizations do to engage and motivate employees across generational boundaries? Here are a few ideas:

• Expect and accommodate differences. Career growth and development opportunities are crucial to the retention of younger employees – as is exciting, challenging work. Silents and Boomers may be looking for a way to leave a legacy or to have their contributions acknowledged and shared.

• Create choices and let the workplace organize itself around the job to be done. Call it empowerment or autonomy or flextime or “doing their own thing.” The reality is that different work styles/hours/locations can attain the same results. And results are what count!

• Focus on commonalities. Regardless of generational category, all employees have two things in common: They want to be successful and want to do meaningful work. When you build your management and communication strategies around these universal motivators, you appeal to the most senior as well as the newest members of the organization.

Each generation has much to offer an organization – and much to offer other generations. The more we know about generational differences and similarities, the easier it is to create workplace environments based on complementary talents, mutual respect, and unified purpose.

2006-11-13T12:07:00.000-08:00

International Leadership Study

Researcher Robert J. House and a team of 160 scholars have produced a comprehensive study of the common and distinctive elements of organizational leadership around the world. In his co-edited Culture, Leadership, and Organizations: The GLOBE Study of 62 Societies, House and colleagues find that four leadership attributes are valued universally:

1. Being trustworthy, just, and honest.
2. Seeing and planning ahead
3. Being optimistic, dynamic, and inspiring
4. Communicating, informing, and coordinating others

House and his team also report that several attributes are universally disliked in leaders, including being irritable, egocentric, and autocratic.

But cultural variance in desired leadership qualities was also noted. Countries whose cultures place a premium on performance, for instance, are those in which inspirational and decisive leadership is valued; countries whose cultures stress group identity and minimizing uncertainty are those where diplomatic and collaborative leadership is valued.

2006-11-01T12:43:00.000-08:00

My friend, Joe, keeps information to himself. In his mind, not telling what he knows gives him a personal competitive advantage. After all, he reasons, “Knowledge is power.”

My other friend, Ken, doesn’t see it that way. His recent promotion came as a result of the exposure he received from sharing his ideas and experiences (in conversations and presentations) throughout the organization.

So who’s right?

According to evolution – maybe both!

Recent research shows that the instinct to hoard can be traced back to early humans hoarding vital supplies, like food, out of fear of not having enough. The more food they put away, the safer they felt. In an evolutionary sense, those who hoarded food and other basic necessities, were better off, healthier, and produced more offspring.

This emotional attachment to our possessions has been hard-wired into our brains to help us survive. And, still today, whenever we feel threatened, fearful, distrustful or insecure, the “hoarding gene” kicks into high gear, urging us to hold on tightly to whatever we possess – including knowledge.

On the other hand . . . humans are also a learning, teaching, knowledge-sharing species. This too has been hard-wired in us. Experiments at Notre Dame support the notion that cooperation helped our ancient ancestors survive. Computer simulations add to real world evidence that teamwork in early humans was critical. For example, the common use of stone tools suggests they shared information on the location of suitable material. These sites are sometimes 30 kilometers away from where the tools are found and would have been difficult for individuals to discover on their own.

This knowledge-sharing instinct is alive and active in little children. They can't wait to tell what happened in school or on the playground. And when children grow up, they become adults who thrive on collaboration. According to just about every employee survey I’ve seen, hoarding information is identified as a huge barrier to optimal productivity and morale. People prefer to work in a collaborative environment because it is where they feel that their contribution matters. High participation builds high employee engagement.

So, when it comes to knowledge, which survival strategy (hoarding or sharing) is more likely to be effective in today’s fast-paced, information-intensive world?

The answer lies in the shift from the Industrial Era, when knowledge obsolescence took years and when hoarders created leverage and power bases by hanging onto what they knew, to today, when the shelf life of knowledge is much shorter. Knowledge is no longer a commodity like gold, which holds (or increases) its worth over time. It’s more like milk – fluid, evolving, and stamped with an expiration date. And by the way, there is nothing less powerful than hanging on to knowledge whose time has expired.

Want to add real value to your team – your company – your profession? Want to build a reputation as an informed player? Then put your knowledge into action – fast. The new model of power/influence/success is a cycle of learning quickly, sharing what you know while it is still valid, unlearning what no longer works, and relearning.

Now that’s an instinct worth cultivating!

2006-10-27T15:52:00.000-07:00

I've been thiking a lot about intuition lately. Here are some items from my notes . . .

• The president of a large restaurant chain headquartered in Vancouver, B.C., flabbergasted his underlings when he made the decision to build a restaurant in a rundown warehouse area, because he “had a good feeling” about the location. Two years later the new restaurant was the chain’s top moneymaker and the neighborhood around it was revitalized.

• The plant manager of a leading U.S. software company spent most of her time sitting at her desk doing paperwork. But every once in a while she got up from her desk and for reasons not clear to her, walked to a point on the production line and picked out a disk that appeared to be okay but proved to be flawed.

• Anita Roddick, founder and president of Body shop International, said: “No market research in the world is going to tell you why people don’t want to buy this product or why they love your company. But if you have your intuition working you can look at a huge marketing research report from the cosmetics industry and just know ‘This is wrong!’”

What about you? How often do you rely on feelings and intuition when making business decisions?

2006-09-30T14:35:00.000-07:00

Don’t you just hate dealing with people who fight against every plan for organizational change? You know the type: They’re disruptive, set in their ways, and highly resistant to change, even when it is obviously in the best interest of the business. Well guess what? New research suggests that those trouble-making, inflexible, change resistors are . . . all of us!

Resent advances in brain analysis technology allow researchers to track the energy of a thought moving through the brain in much the same way as they track blood flowing through the body. And, as scientists watch different areas of the brain light up in response to specific thoughts, it becomes clear that we all react pretty much the same way to change. We try to avoid it.

Here’s why . . .

Most of our daily activities, including many of our work habits, are controlled by a part of the brain called the basal ganglia. These habitual, repetitive tasks take much less mental energy to perform because they have become “hardwired” and we no longer have to give them much conscious thought. “The way we’ve always done it” is mentally comfortable. It not only feels right – it feels good.

Change jerks us out of this comfort zone by stimulating the prefrontal cortex, an energy-intensive section of the brain responsible for insight and impulse control. But the prefrontal cortex is also directly linked to the most primitive part of the brain, the amygdala (the brain’s fear circuitry, which in turn controls our “flight or fight” response). And when the prefrontal cortex is overwhelmed with complex and unfamiliar concepts, the amygdala connection gets kicked into high gear. All of us are then subject to the physical and psychological disorientation and pain that can manifest in anxiety, fear, depression, sadness, fatigue or anger.

It’s no wonder that logic and common sense aren’t enough to get people to sign up for the next corporate restructuring.

So what’s a change agent to do?

1. Make change familiar
If you show people two picture of themselves – one an accurate representation and the other a reversed image – people will prefer the second. Because that’s the image they see in the mirror every day.

With change comes the need for an ongoing communication strategy. It takes a lot of repetition to move a new or complex concept from the prefrontal cortex to the basil ganglia. Continually talking about change and focusing on key aspects will eventually allow the novel to become more familiar and less threatening.

2. Let people create change
No one likes change that’s forced on them, yet most people respond favorably to change they create. Brain research shows us why this is so. At the moment when someone chooses change, their brain scan shows a tremendous amount of activity as insight develops and the brain begins building new and complex connections. When people solve a problem by themselves, the brain releases a rush of neurotransmitters like adrenaline, and this natural “high” becomes associated positively with the change experience.

This means that you can’t “sell” change and you can’t lead it with command and control tactics. But you can provide enough background information (about trends, customer demands, competitive pressure, and other key issues) and a forum for people to reflect on and discuss the implications of those forces for the organization. Rather than lecturing and providing all the answers, try asking questions and letting people work out the solutions on their own.

3. KISS your communication
The prefrontal cortex can deal well with only a few concepts at one time. As tempting as it may be to lump everything you know about the change into one comprehensive chunk - don’t do it. Your job is to help people make sense of complexity by condensing it into two or three critical goals they can understand and absorb.

4. Never underestimate the power of a vision
Human beings are teleological. That is, we are attracted to (or repelled by) images we hold in our minds. If all the mental pictures employees hold are of happier times in the “good old days” or the painful reminders of unsuccessful change efforts of the past, they will naturally resist the next announced change.

Here’s where a vision becomes crucial. And, by using the term vision, I’m not referring to a corporate statement punctuated by bullet points. I’m talking about a clearly articulated, emotionally charged, and broad picture of what the organization is trying to achieve.

5. Don’t “sugar coat” the truth
The prefrontal cortex is always on guard for signals of danger. When overly optimistic outcomes or unrealistic expectations are exposed (and they always are) the prefrontal cortex switches to high alert – looking for other signs of deception and triggering the primitive brain to respond with feelings of heightened anxiety.

6. Help people pay attention
The act of paying attention creates chemical and physical changes in the brain. In fact, attention is continually reshaping brain patterns. Concentrating attention on a thought or an insight or a fear will, over time, keep the relevant circuitry open and dynamically alive. With enough focus, these circuits become stable, physical links in the brain’s structure.

The term “attention density” refers to the amount of attention paid to a particular mental experience over a specific time. The greater the concentration on a specific idea, the higher the attention density. High attention density facilitates long-term behavioral change. One way to encourage people to pay attention to new ideas is to continually repackage them in attention-grabbing ways – in a story, a game, an experience, a humorous skit, a metaphor, an image, or even a song. And the way to focus people on the organization’s optimal future is to get them to pay attention to their own insights and to develop pictures of the needed new behaviors in their own minds.

2006-09-05T16:00:00.000-07:00

I'm researching nonverbal communication for a new book I'm writing. Came across this often-quoted study:

Professor Albert Mehrabian at UCLA conducted the classic research on the impact of different channels of communication. His finding:

* 7% of meaning is communicated by spoken words
* 38% of meaning is communicated by voice tone
* 55% of meaning is communicated by nonverbal gestures

This is not to say (as many have) that all communication follows this formula. Mehrabian was studying the communication of feelings and attitudes. Obviously, you can’t watch people speaking in a foreign language and understand 93 percent of what is being communicated. But you can be assured that their nonverbal gestures reveal more about someone's real motives and feelings than anything they might say.

Here's why.

Manners and poise may be consciously learned, but facial expression, eye blinking, leg crossing and nervous tapping are difficult to consistently repress. Nonverbal gestures tend to reveal inner character and emotions – fear, honestly, joy, indecision, frustration, and much more. The tiniest gesture, like the way someone stands or enters the room, can speak volumes about their confidence, self-worth, and credibility.

2006-07-24T12:05:00.000-07:00

I’ve been researching virtual body language for a chapter in a book I’m writing. One of the unique concepts I’ve come across is the “limbic response” (named after the limbic brain). The limbic brain generates and interprets facial expressions and handles emotions.

Here’s what scientists have found: A baby, viewing a videotape of the mother’s face becomes distraught; the baby needs to see the mother’s “real” face before it calms down. Eye contact, it seems, is not just important for conveying messages, it is the means by which two limbic systems come into contact and affect each other.

Of course, adult humans have other ways to share emotions (language and body motion) - but still, this research presents an interesting perspective for technology and communication.

2006-07-20T14:32:00.000-07:00

From Theory to Practice

Global leaders place a high value on collaborative partnering, but most leaders have not yet made it operational. Some of the obstacles to collaboration are external – including government and other legal restrictions. But the greatest barriers are workforce issues, limiting funding, and (most of all) unsupportive corporate cultures.

Here’s how to get started:

Bring in the customer. Despite the demonstrated benefits of working closely with customers to drive sales, improve product innovation, and better match supply with demand, a recent study by Deloitte found that only 3% to 8% of respondents are actually engaging their customers in this manner. If your company is not already collaborating with customers for innovative product/services development, this is the place to begin.

LEGO Factory has been around for a while, but it remains an inspiring example of how to tap the creativity in a customer base. Children and other building enthusiasts visiting the site are invited to design models (using easy to use, free downloadable software) and take part in competitions for LEGO prizes. A popular contest last year entitled winners to have their model produced and featured in Shop@Home, receiving a 5% royalty on each set sold.

Make suppliers part of the solution. As part of Chrysler’s SCORE (Supplier Cost-Reduction Effort), there is shared responsibility for innovative ideas to get cheaper parts. The goal for each supplier is cost-cutting opportunities that equate to 5% of its annual billings to Chrysler. The collaborative program has generated a flood of more than 100 ideas per week and an estimated savings of $2.5 billion.

Partner with the competition. Collaboration among competitors is the most difficult and delicate form of partnership. But archrivals Procter & Gamble and Clorox have managed to make it work. The two packaged goods companies compete fiercely in the cleaning products and water purification categories, yet both profited when Press'nSeal, a new plastic wrap based on breakthrough P&G technology, went to market under Clorox's well-established Glad brand. And the collaboration continues with the recent introduction of Glad ForceFlex trash bags, which are made of strong but stretchable plastic developed by P&G.

Choose the right people. The best collaborative projects are often those in which the team members can let go of their own (sometimes entrenched) views and ideas, and apply a more open style of working with others. Because collaboration is built on a foundation of good working relationships and trust between individuals, personal qualities (good communicators, good relationship builders, flexible, culturally and politically savvy, confident without being arrogant) are often more important than subject matter expertise. Experts can be brought in as a resource to the process, whereas key interpersonal skills are what keep the collaborative venture on track.

With the constant pressures on resources and the ever-rising expectations of stakeholders, going it alone is no longer the most viable option for an organization. And, in reality, every organization exists within it own unique ecosystem of cross-organizational networks. Collaborative innovation is just one way of expanding and capitalizing on those networks so that they create a competitive advantage.

2006-07-11T12:06:00.000-07:00

For generations, Procter & Gamble generated most of its phenomenal growth by innovating from within. They hired the best global talent and built huge research facilities. And for a long time, that strategy worked just fine. But in 2000, newly appointed CEO A.G. Lafley dispensed with the company’s age-old “invent it ourselves” philosophy and created a “connect and develop” approach – which uses the world as a giant idea factory.

Today the company searches everywhere for proven technologies, packages, and products it can improve, scale up, and market. Now the company collaborates on a massive, geography-defying scale with suppliers, competitors, scientists, and entrepreneurs. In fact, R&D productivity at Procter & Gamble has increased by nearly 60%. In the past two years, P&G launched more than 100 new products for which some aspect of development came from outside the company.

Procter & Gamble isn’t the only organization looking outward. According to IBM’s Global CEO Study 2006, leaders today are increasingly seeking innovative ideas beyond company walls. While CEOs in the study ranked employees (especially those in sales and marketing) as the major source of new ideas, they also stressed the overwhelming importance of collaborative innovation from customers and trading partners.

The study also highlights the link between external collaboration and financial performance. Top performing organizations used external sources 30% more than under-performers. Of this kind of collaboration, one CEO stated that, “We need third parties as benchmarks and sparring partners. This also helps our staff broaden their views.” While another simply said, “If you think you have all of the answers internally, you are wrong.”

In direct contrast to past corporate doctrine, where innovation was considered too critical and proprietary to involve outsiders, major strategic alliances are quickly becoming the new competitive edge. As a client of mine put it, “The competition can hire away individual talent and they can duplicate our processes – but our intricate networks of relationships with employees, customers, global partners, regulatory bodies, and suppliers is ours alone. It can’t be copied. Every organization has to start theirs from scratch.”

2006-06-24T12:56:00.000-07:00

Mark van Vugt, Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Kent, thinks that leadership is genetic. His theory, published in the journal “Personality and Social Psychology Review”, states that leadership is the product of human evolutionary history and, as such, played a crucial role in the success of humans and is now deeply embedded in our genes; so much so that the human brain possesses a hardwired leadership prototype, a fixed idea of how a leader should behave and what they should look like, that is innate and difficult to change.

A few thoughts from his theory:

• For millions of years there was no formal leadership in human groups. Essentially, it was the best hunter or the fiercest warrior that emerged as leader. In present times, we still evaluate leaders in that way. The most admired leaders are the ones that help us defeat an enemy group – or unite various factions.

• Living for millions of years in small groups with close personal contacts between leaders and followers has ensured that what we are looking for in leadership is an intimate personal touch. Ideally we would like our leaders to know us personally and take an active interest in our lives. Successful leaders are still the ones that make people feel special.

• Leaders who try to dominate followers are particularly disliked. In ancestral times, overbearing and selfish leaders were simply ignored, ridiculed or sometimes even killed. This egalitarian ethos is still visible in modern society.

2006-06-17T13:11:00.000-07:00

Lee Strasberg, the famous acting coach, said, "I can train you in anything except that for which you have no talent." Everyone has areas of lesser and greater talents, and while it can be helpful to acknowledge weaknesses and seek guidance or training to develop those areas, there is nothing more frustrating than to strive vainly to excel in areas of endeavor where one has little or no natural ability.

We know intuitively that Mr. Strasberg's reasoning is sound, but leaders seldom apply it in the workplace. Instead, most workers report that they are singled out for notice only when there is a problem with their performance. Here is a question I often ask my audiences: If your boss told you that she noticed something about your performance and wanted you to come to her office to discuss it, would you assume that she had noticed an area of your special competence and wanted to bring it to your attention? Among the majority of audience members who respond with nervous laughter, only a few hands raise.
Bosses tend to notice and comment on weaknesses and mistakes more than they comment on talents and strengths. While continuous learning and self-improvement are valid concepts for future success, focusing solely on what is lacking leads to an unbalanced evaluation of employees' worth and potential. It is no wonder then that most workers have problems taking risks and confronting uncertain situations.

Certainly, if you manage people or lead a team, a powerful change-management strategy is to help people focus on their strengths and find ways to build on them that is congruent with the direction the organization is taking. It’s the same thing in dealing with organizational change. Approaches (such as Appreciate Inquiry) that look at what an organization already does well - and builds on those accomplishments to be even better - energizes and stimulates people to change because it is based on talents already possessed.

2006-06-10T13:17:00.000-07:00

Just back from Vancouver and the IABC conference. My speech (“I heard it Through the Grapevine”) was based on research that I recently completed comparing the grapevine with formal communications channels.

Here are a few highlights from that presentation:

The Grapevine is the informal, but powerful communication medium in every organization. The grapevine is pervasive and, according to my research, highly persuasive.

We can’t stop the grapevine. And we can’t outrun it. Word spreads like wildfire from person to person. And now blogs have become the “grapevine on steroids.”

While formal communications are important and effective, the grapevine should not be ignored. Understood and optimized, the grapevine can be a powerful vehicle to align the company around important messages.

The grapevine accelerates
• When there is a lack of formal communication.
• Anytime there is an ambiguous or uncertain situation
• When there are no sanctioned channels for venting
• When change is impending, and
• When there are heavy-handed efforts to shut it down.

There is a perception gap between senior and lower management. Lower managers are more likely to recognize the existence, the conditions under which the rumor mill accelerates, and the benefits of tapping into the grapevine.

Managers can influence the grapevine by
• Understanding the conditions that increase grapevine activity
• Respecting employees desire to know
• Increasing participation and influence
• Sharing the bad news as well as the good,
• Monitoring the grapevine, and
• Acting promptly to correct mis-information.

The grapevine may in fact be beneficial for an organization
• There is some information that people can only get from the grapevine. “If you want to see what insurance coverage is offered, check the brochure or intranet. But if you want to know what it really takes to be successful around here, ask the grapevine.”
• People can spot problems early and prepare/compare reactions.
• Individuals can seize opportunities.
• One can build a reputation by positioning yourself as a “hub” in the grapevine network.
• Bond with co-workers. “Gossip greases the social wheel.”
• Weed out cheaters and liars. The grapevine exposes “free riders” – those individuals who don’t contribute, but benefit from the group’s efforts.
• Let off steam.
• Gain power and control. People who are connected to the grapevine know more about what’s going on their companies that people who don’t gossip.

One study found that people receive 70% of their information from informal networks vs. only 30% from formal communications. Yet, most employee communications programs focus almost exclusively on the formal communications, ignoring the informal networks. Look at the grapevine not as a problem, but as an additional communication channel to be monitored and harnessed.

The law of the few: If you want effective, sustainable communication in any organization, you must reach a small number of people who are responsible for most communication.

How do you find the small number of employees who are really influencers?
• Volunteers: Pitney Bowes (PB Voice)
• Nomination: Disney’s Communication Ambassadors
• Identification: Social Network Analysis

Social network analysis starts with a survey of people in a network, asking whom they rely on for information – whom they find the most credible and trustworthy. This information is then used to identify the key influencers.

To influence the influencers,
• Find out what they think, feel and are currently saying about the organization.
• Train them to maximize their communication skills
• Inform them upfront about the back story (what got us to this place)
• Solicit their opinions, ask their advice and utilize their feedback.
• Influencing the conversation: “You must encapsulate the spirit of your organization, package it in strategic statements and then emphasize those statements repeatedly – so the message becomes part of the conversation.” Paul Danos, Dean, Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business.

2006-05-29T12:09:00.000-07:00

According to the "Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance," a 900-page academic book due for publication next month, the trait we commonly call talent is highly overrated. Or, put another way, expert performers — whether in sports or surgery, ballet or computer programming — are nearly always made, not born.

One of the most interesting findings from this research is that there is little hard evidence that anyone could attain a level of exceptional performance without spending a lot of time perfecting it.

This is not to say that all people have equal potential. But it does mean that a certain kind of practice (called “deliberate practice” in the study) is needed to build on whatever potential you have. So, our mothers were right, it’s practice that makes perfect – if that practice has two key elements: immediate feedback and specific goal-setting.

According to the findings, rather than saying you don’t have the talent for something, a more accurate statement would be that you don’t have the desire to devote the time, energy and focus that it would take for you to excel.

Thinking of changing jobs – careers - industries? Then find something you love and go for it! If you don’t love what you do, you are unlikely to put out enough effort to get very good. And if you do love your work, you’ll be surprised at how “talented” you can become.

2006-05-16T13:41:00.000-07:00

Innovation, People, and Change Communications

The company 3M, one of the first organizations to fully embrace innovation as the essence of its corporate brand, defines it as "new ideas - plus action or implementation - which result in an improvement, a gain, or a profit."

Good definition, but it needs another element. People.

Innovation is people using their imagination, experience, curiosity, instincts and relationships to develop and implement ideas that create value.

Innovation is the fuel of our future -- new products, new services, new markets. But it is isn’t just the “next big thing.” It’s also a million small things. Innovation is about people working within a philosophy of continuous improvement and change.

If you are looking to communicate this kind of innovation, here are a few thoughts to keep in mind:

1) Let leaders know that whether they lead a team, a work group, or an organization, they can’t innovate alone. They must involve and rely on others.

Isolating leaders as the sole visionaries in the organization simply won't cut it anymore. Thirty years ago, by the time an idea got to the senior leadership, it had been sifted through several layers of management. Now, savvy executives encourage e-mails and phone calls directly from people on the plant floor to get their opinions and suggestions.

2) Help leaders recognize that the heart of innovation is trial and error. While I’ve never worked with an organization that truly encouraged failure, I have worked with leaders (at all levels) who created environments where failure is acceptable. Where it becomes a learning experience, and not something to be punished.

3) Tell stories that show how mistakes can become successes. One such story: For years Charles Goodyear labored to find a way to make rubber commercially useful. Then one day Goodyear accidentally spilled a mixture of rubber and sulfur he was holding on a hot stove. The chemical reaction of heat applied to this mixture resulted in the discovery of the vulcanization process used to manufacture rubber tires. And with that “mistake,” an industry was born.

4) Help stamp out the Not Invented Here (NIH) mindset. An example of generating motivation to break that mindset came from General Electric in the days when Jack Welch was in charge. Welch made it clear that the sharing of good ideas across the organization was a high management priority. This posed a challenge for GE managers because of the size and diversity of the company. If you did have a good idea, how could you identify the people in other businesses who might benefit from it?

The Chief Learning Officer at GE came up with a simple solution. He created a “hot line” to be manned by his team. This operated similar to a dating service – only instead of matching people to other people, it matched good ideas with business units that might benefit from them.

5) Whenever you communicate this topic, look for ways to broaden the definition of innovation. Go beyond the creation of new products and services to include strategic innovation - new ideas about mission, values, and goals; administrative innovation - changes in internal systems; field level innovation - front line workers inventing solutions to better serve their customers; and incremental change that encompasses everyone in every job thinking about ways to do things differently and ways to do things better.

2006-05-11T13:47:00.000-07:00

Bill Toppeta, president of MetLife International, told the Fordham Leadership Forum, “What you need to know as the leader is what motivates your people, not what motivates you.”

To bring this philosophy into reality, here is the simple, yet revealing exercise Toppeta uses: He hands out a questionnaire to managers and their direct reports. The manager ranks the items on the page in the order of what she believes most and least stirs her direct reports’ passions. At the same time, the direct report also ranks the items on the list. The lists are compared and then dialogue ensues.

Toppeta says that, for the most part, managers do horribly on this exercise. They think they know what their people are passionate about, but they don’t.

But, of course, that is the point. And as the insuing dialogues take place, people get to know each other as people, not simply as functions that help the department make its numbers every quarter. And best of all, it is the very essence of employee engagement. Individuals in the workforce have a voice in where they can best make their personal contribution to the company.

And talk about a “win-win” situation. The outcome of marrying personal passions to organizational goals breeds deeper job satisfaction for employees and more profits for the company.

2006-05-04T20:31:00.000-07:00

Think back to the last meeting you attended where executives addressed an employee audience. Did anybody mention the elephants in the room?

Not likely.

Elephants are those forbidden subjects and hard questions that lurk in the back of everyone’s mind - and which senior management hopes have gone unnoticed.

Every organization has its own elephants. But if you listed them, you’d be surprised at how the same themes exist in company after company. Here are some verbatim examples from email surveys and focus groups at various organizations I’ve worked with.

• Senior leadership paints a picture of Utopia. What world do they live in?
• I’ve met with the mayor of this city more times than I’ve met with my department leader.
• We have managers, not leaders.
• How can our executives say, “We are all in this together” when they get all the benefits and we get all the cuts?
• Our best people are leaving and the “dead wood” is staying.
• No one cares how hard we work.
• Loyalty is a one-way street here.
• They talk about collaboration, but we don’t get rewarded for it.
• The wrong people get promoted into leadership positions.
• Leaders don’t tell us the whole story.
• We don’t believe what leadership says about the change/takeover/downsizing/merger/restructuring.

What if, at the next employee meeting, leaders introduced the elephants in the room? What if they used that opportunity to set a tone of openness and candor? How do you think people would react?

Well, in my experience, a well-planned session around these unspeakable issues would build employee engagement better than all the “rah-rah” motivational speeches ever could. It would break down barriers, create equity between leadership and workers, and jolt people out of their complacent or skeptical mindsets.

Here’s how I’d recommend designing such a session:

1. Use email and focus groups to uncover key issues. Capture exact words and phrases.

2. Create a “Top 10 Elephants” list.

3. Prepare executives for the process, but don’t let them see the list beforehand.

4. Bring in an outside moderator to ask pointed questions and push for real answers.

Sound risky? Sure. But how risky is it to believe that employees can focus on strategic objectives while surrounded by a herd of elephants?

2006-05-01T13:17:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year I was in Germany working with a group of “high potentials” - employees who had been selected by their managers as outstanding candidates for the next generation of leaders. My client (an international organization in the high-tech industry) is investing substantially in training, coaching, and mentoring opportunities for this talented group of professionals.

The company’s commitment to leadership development is in direct contrast to what I’ve seen in many other organizations. Definitive, purposeful succession planning is rare, even at the very highest corporate levels. Too often the “bench strength” in leadership is so poor that careers stall because no one else has been groomed as a management successor. Companies that don’t address this issue now are going to be at a serious disadvantage in the very near future.

By the year 2011, the leading edge of the Baby Boom workforce will be 65 years old – eligible for full retirement. And that generation’s collective wisdom will leave with them unless it has been transferred to younger employees. Which in turn makes succession planning and knowledge sharing increasing important to an organization’s financial strategy.

Effective leadership is a crucial source of competitive advantage, and corporations can’t just wait for leaders to arrive, fully developed. Organizations must actively seek out people with leadership potential and find ways to nurture and develop that potential. It takes a serious commitment of both time and resources to do it right. But that is the key to what separates great companies from good companies. Great companies make developing leaders a priority.

Here’s how . . .

The process begins with the early identification of leadership talent, and the realization that under certain circumstances, leadership potential is easy to spot. In an area of complex problems or in times of crisis, there are people who organically rise to the top. They are proactive, reliable, thoughtful, and they automatically take control. These natural leaders speak up – and other people listen to them because they’re providing solutions, not just stating problems.

Joseph Pieroni, president of Sankyo Pharma, notes the emergence of informal leadership in his organization: “Every time we are in a tough situation, people point to the same two or three individuals because we feel confident these ‘leaders’ will go well beyond their area of responsibility – and do whatever is needed.”

Identifying new leaders is something that all current leaders should be responsible for – and that policy is most effective if it starts at the top. CEOs and presidents need to spend time focused on this issue, assessing leadership strengths as well as current and future organizational requirements. And leadership development should start early. Ten or fifteen years before a person is expected to be at their full potential, current management should be discussing how to develop this individual. The most valuable conversation will center on how people use their time: How can their skills be leveraged in new ways? Who needs to know these people? Who should be working with them, coaching and mentoring them? What experiences would be the most advantageous?

Spotting potential leaders is also a smart move for managers who want to advance their own careers. As one savvy leader told me, “The minute I begin a new assignment, I start looking for people who can be groomed as my successor. I know that I won’t be able to take the next step until someone else can take over my current job.”

At Federal Express, employees identify themselves as candidates for leadership positions, and CEO Fred Smith discovered early on that not everyone has the unique traits that leaders need to succeed in the FedEx environment. His observation: “Our Leadership Evaluation and Awareness Program explains the demands of management as well as the personal characteristics and traits needed for successful leadership. I find it interesting that, once they know the demands and requirements, some 70 percent of the participants drop out of the program.”

However future leaders are identified, the next step is to find ways to nurture their potential. Along with formal educational opportunities, mentoring relationships, and personal coaches, leading-edge companies make sure that key candidates receive the kind of assignments that help them grow and develop.

The head of Ketchum’s brand practice, also the associate director of their New York office, was offered the director position in Atlanta as a way of rounding out her expertise. That was a decision made to advance her career, and looked at from the standpoint of what would add the most value for her. Another example from Ketchum is a director from the San Francisco office who was moved to a leadership role in London so that he could gain international experience.

But leadership development isn’t only about acquiring business skills. It’s also about effective mental preparation. According to Bob Dilenschneider, CEO of The Dilenschneider Group, the key is learning to keep a sense of perspective: “Keeping your balance at all times can be extremely difficult. Since leaders play the game at the highest and lowest levels, they experience the glory of the victories as well as the disappointment of setbacks and failures. The trick is not to let the glory go to your head nor let the disappointments devastate you.”

I agree with Bob. Giving people the freedom to succeed and fail – and the guidance to help them deal with both – may be the best leadership development strategy of all.

2006-04-20T20:12:00.000-07:00

Question: What’s the secret of real estate?
Answer: Location, location, location.

Question: What’s the secret of organizational change?
Answer: Communication, communication, communication.

Which is not to say that the top-down cascade communication strategies of the past are sufficient. They’re not. What is taking their place is a broader, more inclusive definition of communication. Here are five ways to add strategic value to your change communications.

1. Don’t just recite the facts – interpret them.
Facts are neutral. People make decisions based on what facts mean to them, not on the data itself. What people really want to know is, “What sense do you make of this? What is the conclusion? What does it mean to us?”

2. Utilize the power of symbolic communication.
There are a thousand ways to communicate symbolically. There are ceremonies, awards, logos, icons, drawings, and metaphors. Best of all, there are real-life leadership behaviors that “speak” volumes.

Folks at BBC still remember when Michael Grade, then controller and now director-general of BBC One, visited the news department one day when they were short-staffed. He pitched in and acted as a junior researcher to cover a shipwreck incident, finding a member of the coast guard to interview. That example raced through the company grapevine to become a positive symbol of corporate culture change.

3. Tell more stories.
Storytelling is an important tool to connect with audiences on an emotional level. In communication terms, storytelling is a "pull" strategy, in which listeners are invited to participate in the experience and to imagine acting in the mental movie that the storyteller is presenting. Stories resonate with adults in ways that can bring them back to a childlike open-mindedness -- in which they are less resistant to new and different ideas.

4. Turn first line supervisors into first-rate communicators.
There’s little doubt that one’s direct boss is a crucial link in the change-communication delivery system. Who better to align employee efforts to the change goals? But most first-line supervisor are lacking a key communication element.

While consulting for a utility company in New York, I was observing several supervisors delivering a change message to their teams. As you would expect, there was a great variety of styles and expertise on display: Some managers were glib ad-libbers while others were stilted and read from a script. Some were well liked and others were barely tolerated by the people they managed. But all the supervisors had one weakness in common. Not one of them had the training or skills to turn a monologue into a dialogue.

5. Harvest the grapevine.
Research suggests that up to 70% of all organization information circulates through the grapevine, yet few communicators have taken advantage of the informal channels in their organizations. Gossip moves through people who gravitate into an intermediate position, making connections between individuals and factions. Those who control the gossip flow hold a lot of power.

Influencing the grapevine, then, begins with identifying “the influentials” who operate within it. Use a tool like Social Network Analysis to create a visual map of the informal organization and see who and where your connectors are. Find out about their attitudes toward the company, inform them in advance, train them to be even more skillful communicators, solicit their opinions, and ask their advice.

2006-04-13T17:31:00.000-07:00

I’ve seen firsthand what silos can do to an enterprise: The organization disintegrates into a group of isolated camps, with little incentive to collaborate, share information, or team up to pursue critical outcomes. Various groups develop impervious boundaries, neutralizing the effectiveness of people who have to interact across them. Local leaders focus on serving their individual agendas - often at the expense of the goals of the rest of the organization. The resulting internal battles over authority, finances and resources destroy productivity, and jeopardize the achievement of corporate objectives. Talented (and frustrated) employees walk out the door – or worse yet, stay and simply stop caring.

What can be done to tear down silos, reduce conflicts, and increase collaboration? Here are a few ideas:

Reward collaboration. Too many companies talk about collaboration yet reward individual achievement. Therefore, the first obvious solution is to change the reward system. Define and make collaborative performance objectives part of the employee review process. Recognize and promote people who work across organizational boundaries – and tell their stories to the whole organization.

Focus on innovation. Innovation is triggered by a cross-pollination of ideas, such as when the "right people" happen to meet at the right time and discover, in the course of conversation, that each has information needed by the other. It is in the combination and collision of ideas that creative breakthroughs most often occur. When an organization focuses on innovation, it does so by bringing together people with diverse perspectives and expertise – breaking down barriers and silos in the process.

Communicate transparently. In any organization, the way information is handled determines whether it becomes an obstacle to or an enabler of collaboration. Company-wide communication is a vitally important tool in breaking up silos or avoiding their creation. You need to make sure that every employee has access to the same candid information about how the company runs its business – its financial challenges, competitive pressures, and strategic initiatives.

Encourage networks. Employees with multiple networks throughout the organization facilitate collaboration. You can accelerate the flow of knowledge and information across boundaries by encouraging workplace relationships and communities. Use a tool like Social Network Analysis (SNA) to create a visual model of current networks so you can reinforce the connections and help fill the gaps.

Create alignment. You want your people to understand their roles and what they do to help the organization succeed. You also want them to understand the roles of others. To help combat silo mentality, departments and teams need to know how they support or influence other areas of the organization. They need to understand the importance of working in concert with other areas to achieve crucial strategic objectives.

Mix it up. Encourage teams from different areas of an organization to work together. Find opportunities for managers and other employees in the organization to collaborate in cross-functional teams. Rotate personnel in various jobs around the organization. Invite managers from other areas of the organization to visit your team meetings, even making them members of the group, as you work on mutually beneficial efforts.

Focus on the customer. Nothing is more important in an organization – whether it’s a for-profit company or a non-profit group – that staying close to the end user of the service or product you offer. Unfortunately, within silos, the focus is typically on internal issues rather than on response to customers. You can refocus the organization by sharing marketplace information and customer feedback. Better yet, bring in a panel of end users to report on their experience so that everyone understands how the enterprise as a whole is meeting, exceeding, or missing customer expectations.

Get personal. Collaborative relationships thrive in an environment of personal trust. Well-placed trust grows out of experience and interaction – usually extended over time by talking and asking questions, by listening and seeing how well claims to know and actions hold up. But it is also built by getting to know people as individuals. When you hold offsite retreats, organization-wide celebrations, or workplace events with “social” time built in, you provide opportunities for employees to develop camaraderie and personal relationships of trust.

The foundation of a successful organization is an entire team focused on common goals. Silos erode this foundation. Being aware of the fundamental human behaviors that lead to silos and taking steps to overcome them offers fantastic benefits – including more relevant products and services, higher productivity, better use of resources, and more effective and engaged personnel.

2006-04-06T17:05:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month my husband, Ray, had both knees replaced with titanium and plastic joints. The operations were highly successful, and after just fourteen days, he was totally mobile with only the aid of a walking stick.

Because of the bilateral surgery, Ray spent a full week in the hospital (instead of the usual three days) and I was with him every day. That gave me plenty of time to observe the hospital staff. And what I saw was almost as impressive as Ray’s speedy recovery. I was constantly surprised and delighted by the highly collaborative spirit of the team of physicians, nurses, therapists, and aids who worked on his case.

I was especially grateful because I know how rare it is to get this level of service. I’ve consulted with several healthcare organizations where, instead of patient-centric synergy, a silo mentality had taken over.

And healthcare isn’t the only industry dealing with silos . . .

A study by Industry Week found that business functions operating as silos are the biggest hindrance to corporate growth. A more recent American Management Association survey shows that 83 percent of executives said that silos existed in their companies and that 97 percent think they have a negative effect.

In a recent Wall Street Journal article on the latest business buzzwords, the word “unsiloing” was listed. Unsiloing mangles the noun silo to make a simple but important point: Managers must find ways to foster cooperation across departmental, hierarchical, and functional boundaries.

Which is no easy task.

Turf battles happen everywhere – in hospitals, government agencies, associations, school systems and private industry. Silos can be created around an individual, a group, a division, a function, or even a product line. Wherever it’s found, silo mentality becomes synonymous with power struggles, lack of cooperation, and loss of productivity. And always, the customer/client/patient is the ultimate loser.

2006-03-30T11:28:00.000-08:00

According to IBM’s Global CEO Study 2006, competitive pressures and global market forces are driving 65% of the world’s top executives to plan radical changes at their companies over the next two years.

Looking over the results of this survey, it becomes very clear that CEOs today are looking at new kinds of innovation to drive substantial organizational change. It’s not just product innovation anymore. Now it’s about innovation in a business model, an operational process, or a management behavior. In making this point, one CEO commented that “The business model we choose will determine the success or failure of our strategy,” while another stated that “Products and services can be copied, the business model will be the differentiator.”

Fear is definitely a factor in the impetus for change. In fact, 61% of CEOs admit they fear that their competitors will make changes in their own business models that ultimately reshape the landscape of their respective industries. So CEOs want their companies to be ready to adapt rapidly – or, better still, be the company leading the industry transformation.

CEOs today want innovative ideas not only from employees but from customers, and trading partners. This is in direct contrast to past corporate philosophy, where innovation was considered too critical and proprietary to involve outsiders. In fact, the study highlights the link between external collaboration and financial performance. Top performing organizations used external sources 30% more than under-performers. On this kind of collaboration, one CEO stated that, “We need third parties as benchmarks and sparring partners. This also helps our staff broaden their views.” While another simply stated, “If you think you have all of the answers internally, you are wrong.”

While a large portion of CEOs recognize that big changes are on the horizon, a significant portion indicated some trepidation about their company’s ability to execute the necessary changes. As they contemplate this radical change, only 20% of CEOs say they’ve been highly successful in such endeavors in the past.

So what does all this mean to you? Well, for starters – here are the corporate messages you’ll hearing for the next couple of years.

WANT TO INCREASE YOUR VALUE TO THE ORGANIZATION?
Become a top-knotch collaborator.
Benchmark everywhere.
Constantly reinvent your job.
Nurture innovation in your team or work group.
Become a champion of change.
Do all that - and the future is yours!

Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D., speaks on collaboration, leadership, and change to association, government, and business audiences around the world. She can be reached by phone: 510-526-1727, email: CGoman@CKG.com, or through her website: http://www.CKG.com.

2006-03-26T15:42:00.000-08:00

Several years ago, the American Management Association (AMA) conducted a survey with 6,000 participants across the United States. The survey asked only two questions: 1) Do you get enough recognition at work? 2) Would you do a better job if you got more recognition?

The response was overwhelming: 97% of the respondents said “no” they didn’t get enough recognition at work, and 98% replied “yes” they would do a better job if they received more recognition.

To the AMA, this pointed out inadequate management practices. Obviously, not enough managers were doing a good enough job at recognizing and rewarding the people who report to them.

But I looked that the results in another way: It seemed that most of us were waiting – without much success – for someone else to acknowledge our efforts. Only then would we do a “better job.” Talk about relinquishing control!

On the other hand, some individuals (especially those who thrive on change) refuse to give anyone else control over their performance. The “change-adept” don’t wait for their employers to empower them; they go right out and empower themselves.

After I presented a program for Bell Canada in Toronto, an audience member raised her hand to comment: “I’m new to the company, but there is one change that I wish we’d make. I think we need a mentor program in this organization. To be paired with an experienced manager – to have someone to ‘show us the ropes’ – that would really shorten the time it takes new people to fit in.” From the stage, I asked (in all my consultant’s wisdom): “Well, why don’t you find your own mentor?” This woman was way ahead of me. “Oh, I already did that,” she replied. “I just think it would be a great program for all new employees.”

Of course, different people react very differently to change. Many get frustrated and pressured -- and they burn out. Others seem to thrive on chaos. It is no mere accident, no random selection by fate, as to whom will adapt optimally. While their co-workers are overwhelmed by the negative aspects of change, the change-adept take control and capitalize on opportunities they encounter daily.

2006-03-18T12:57:00.000-08:00

Change is the most pervasive influence within today’s workplace. Profound changes are shaking up our lives and the way we do business. And the pace of change will continue to accelerate -- driven by sharp economic swings, increasing competitive pressures, new technologies, government regulations, sociocultural shifts, further globalization of the marketplace, and the continued reshaping of organizations worldwide.

Dealing successfully with a changing reality means facing some hard truths: Today you work for yourself. Your only family is your real family – not the company. No big organization is going to take care of your future. This means that the responsibility for your success and happiness is in your own hands. You alone are in charge of clarifying your values, defining success, designing a career path, building motivation and developing a winning strategy for anticipating and capitalizing on the future.

For many of us, realizing that we are totally in control of our lives is traumatic. Gloria Steinem has said, “People waste more time waiting for someone to take charge of their lives than they do in any other pursuit.”

I call this phenomenon the Oz Factor – the belief that someone wiser and more powerful than ourselves (the wizard) will provide us with solutions to our problems. Just as it was for Dorothy and her friends, it is time for all of us to look within and to realize that we can rely on our own hearts and minds and courage.

2006-02-26T17:31:00.000-08:00

According to a recent MIT/Sloan Management Review article, what really distinguishes high performers from the rest of the pack is their ability to maintain and leverage large, diversified networks that are rich in experience and span all organizational boundaries.

Ironic, isn’t it? Here we are, smack in the middle of the Information Age, discovering that our greatest advantages aren’t coming from what we know but rather from whom we know – and that the high achievers of today are not so much a product of superior expertise as they are a product of superior networks.

Not that it should have come as a surprise to those of us who study organizational behavior. Flattened hierarchies and virtual enterprises have increased workplace complexity while reducing institutional support. We’ve gone from relying on organization charts to depending on social networks. So now, more than ever, professionals must leverage their relationships.

Which makes me wonder about the relationship between personal networks and organizational change . . .

In the pursuit of “hard skill” competencies and formal strategies we may have failed to notice that the most effective change agents are those individuals who have placed themselves at the center of intricate webs of relationships. How to build and maintain these unique relationships may become the most effective change-management “technique” a leader could learn.

The new business fundamentals include an increasing focus on knowledge, trust, relationships, and communities. And social networks – those ties among individuals that are based on mutual trust, shared work experiences, and common physical and virtual spaces are in many senses the true structure of today’s organizations. Anything you as a leader can do to nurture these mutually rewarding, complex and shifting relationships will enhance the creativity and readiness for change within your team or throughout your organization.

But, in order to capitalize on the potential in these relationships, trust has to be established. Trusting is not a matter of blind deference, but of placing – or refusing to place – trust with good judgment. In what are called “dense” relationships, the strength of connection is such that trust is taken for granted. In newer, less dense relationships, trust must be built.

Trust is the belief or confidence that one party has in the reliability, integrity and honesty of another party. It is the expectation that the faith one places in someone else will be honored. Or at least that is the definition of trust in its “benevolence-based” form. Another type of trust, “competence-based,” describes a relationship in which one party believes another to be knowledgeable about a given subject. When building personal networks, both types of trust are essential. People have to believe that you know what you’re talking about, that you have accurate information and expertise, but they also have to believe that you’re taking their perspectives and concerns to heart.

Another ingredient of trusting relationships is consistent credibility. One thing I’ve learned over the years is that you can talk until you’re blue in the face, but you will never create trust unless your sustained behavior parallels what you say. That’s why building trust can take so long. People are waiting to see a long-term, consistent pattern of behavior that is congruent with what you’ve been telling them.

High-trust relationships are also very personal. Beyond the link of work-related issues, we develop relationships through finding things in common: loving the same music, rooting for the same team, having children in school together, liking the same kind of food, or playing the same sport. And sometimes a leader has to create experiences that enable individuals to get to know one another as fellow human beings.

A story I often tell in my Creative Collaboration program is about Jeff Garbin, whose first management assignment was to help facilitate John Deere’s change from the “cell concept” of manufacturing in which employees merely performed one or two operations on a component before passing it on to the next cell to a “modular production system” in which all employees working on a given component would share equal responsibility for the finished product.

Along with the other new module leaders at Deere, it was Garbin’s job to help his employees through the transition – and he had inherited a problem. In Garbin’s words: “We had ten people working the early shift and five on the late one. There were people on the two shifts who had never spoken to one another before. They didn’t know each other, they came from different manufacturing disciplines and they had a reputation for not getting along. I had to build some kind of relationship between the two shifts – and I had to do it quickly. What I thought of was pretty simple, but it turned out to be very effective. I got everyone together in a room for a couple of hours, with no limits on what they were to discuss, except that it couldn’t be business-related. That was the beginning. Within three months, people started coming in early or staying late just so that they could talk with people on the other shift about what was happening at work.”

Another issue leaders should be aware of has to do with motive. Ron Burt, of the University of Chicago, discovered through numerous studies that certain patterns of connections that individuals build with others brings them higher pay, earlier promotions, greater influence, better ideas, and overall greater career success. But the MIT study found that high-performers didn’t develop and maintain these networks because it was “political” or self-serving – but rather because it was a natural consequence of the most effective way to get work done. And the connections made with others worked in ways that were mutual and reciprocal.

I’m not saying that leaders should throw out all formal change-management strategies. But I am suggesting that leaders should understand that the “soft” side of change – which includes building social capital and developing trusting relationships – might end up being the most powerful strategy of all.

2006-02-15T13:24:00.000-08:00

I was in Germany last week, working with a group of “high potential” European employees. Their organization had identified these professions for intensive leadership development. It was quite an event, beginning DOG SLEDDING as the team-building event the night before my session started. (Although a challenge for this Californian who doesn’t even own snow boots, it was great fun.)

During my program (on Creative Collaboration) I talked about Appreciative Inquiry (AI) as one of my favorite strategies for finding strengths and positive qualities that already exist in a team, and building on those.

AI was developed at Case Western Reserve University by David Cooperrider, professor of Organizational Behavior. I use my own version of AI - tailored for my clients and focused on collaboration and knowledge sharing. While I also work with gap analysis and After Action Reviews, I especially like AI’s shift from identifying problems to looking at successses.

AI can be used in a personal self-inquiry model, with questions such as:
• Think of a time in your career when you were the most engaged and collaborative.
• What were the circumstances/elements that made collaboration so successful?
• How could you replicate some of these circumstances/elements in other situations?

In a team setting, the leader sets the stage by stating the goal: “Our goal is to create a highly collaborative team experience.” Questions are posed to the whole team:
• When is it that this team is the most collaborative and engaged?
• What do we agree are our greatest strengths and successes?
• Building on these strengths, what would an ideal future look like?
• What are the principles and behaviors we need to focus on to make this future a reality?

If you haven't used this kind of process before, you may be amazed by the positive energy for change that it unleashes.

2006-02-04T12:40:00.000-08:00

After speaking at a conference on the East Coast, I was approached by an executive who handed me his business card as an introduction. I was startled when he abruptly snatched it back. He explained that he wanted to cross out the word senior in front of his vice-president title. He went on to tell me that he was only temporarily acting in the senior position and that, as soon as possible, he wanted to return to his old job. He said that five years earlier his ambition had been the presidency of the company, but not anymore: "Being a vice president suits me just fine. I'm good at it, and I could do it in my sleep. I don't need the added pressure of a higher position. Besides, I've got a family and a couple of interesting hobbies. This gives me time to play."

Just the week before, an audience member had shown me a drawing he'd sketched of his career objectives. His goal was to become the head of corporate communications for his present employer - an international firm that had already identified him as a "high potential" candidate. But the young man went on to say that he also wanted to live on the family ranch in Montana. While the company had been looking at ways this employee might commute home on weekends, he'd drawn a picture of himself working from the ranch and coming into an office only periodically.

Like many other talented professionals I've met and interviewed, these two were developing their own lifestyle formulas to compensate for the demands of the workplace. And while the strategies differ from person to person, they almost always reflects a desire for autonomy and freedom.

Some leaders are paying attention - and responding to this trend. Last year I worked with a company's senior management team. They were looking to center their organizational reengineering efforts on the key question: What gets in the way of your doing a great job and having a great life?

It wasn't an idle question. A 2005 ISR study of 50,000 workers found a clear link between good management practices, good work-life balance for employees, and an improved bottom line that included more satisfied customers and lower rates of absenteeism and safety incidents.

So ask your staff about their scheduling conflicts, and then involve them in co-creating timetables and deadlines. Be as understanding and supportive as you can when your workers have major personal issues. Find creative ways to help employees balance the work-life seesaw - and watch the positive effects on retention, customer loyalty, and profits!

2006-01-26T16:32:00.000-08:00

A few years ago I wrote a book (The Human Side of High-Tech) about how technology companies recruit and engage a new generation of talent. And, of course, I touched on a generic theme – that the result of our high-tech lives is increasing our need for high-touch encounters.

Futurist Faith Popcorn takes this a step further, predicting that as people form more relationships in virtual rather than real communities, the loss of the human touch will be keenly felt. To make up for it, airlines may hire actors to greet you with a hug and financial advisers may increasingly hold your hand through tough times--literally.

Thinking of a second career? Massage therapists are going to be increasingly sought after.

2006-01-20T07:52:00.000-08:00

Many Native American tribes use what's called the Talking Stic. In meetings, the person holding the Talking Stick is the only person allowed to speak. And the possessor of the Talking Stick holds onto it until he or she feels completely understood. Then, and only then, is the Talking Stick passed on to the next person. This creates an incredible understanding and synergy among the team. Most of all, it encourages members of the team to really listen. Every business would do well to have a Talking Stick!

2006-01-04T13:38:00.000-08:00

The general manager of an insurance company, concerned that her salespeople were so afraid of failure that they hesitated to take even well-calculated risks, took action at a sales meeting. She put two $100 bills on the table and related her most recent failure, along with the lesson she had learned from it, then she challenged anyone else at the meeting to relate a bigger failure and “win” the $200. When no one spoke up, she scooped up he money and said that she would repeat her offer at each monthly sales meeting. From the second month on, the manager never again got to keep the $200, and as people began to discuss their failures, the sales department became more successful, quadrupling their earnings in one year.

Change always entails some kind of risk. And one way to encourage risk-taking in others is to use your personal failures as examples. Talk openly and honestly about your errors and setbacks -- and what you learned as a result. Let people know that you took risks when you were afraid and unsure of the results. And maybe you too will watch your staff fail their way to success.

2005-12-29T18:22:00.000-08:00

January 1 is the very worst time to make a New Year's resolution. Why? Because people who are broke and exhausted from the holidays won’t be able to rally the physical and emotional energy needed to shed pounds or stop smoking. At least that was my experience with clients when I was a therapist in private practice. I also learned some other valuable, but unorthodox lessons about goal setting:

• Don’t focus on building up your areas of weakness. Talents overlooked may atrophy, and weaknesses -- regardless of how much effort is put into trying to improve them -- will never match a person’s natural abilities. Instead, focus on your strengths and place yourself in positions where those strengths can make you successful.

• Learn to embrace failure. Appreciate that growth and development comes as much from failure as it does from success. Understanding what doesn’t work may be at least as important as understanding what does, especially when these failures are acknowledged early on and are swiftly examined.

• Realize that unlearning is hardest part of learning new behaviors. One of the greatest challenges of making resolutions is to identify those behaviors and attitudes that need to be unlearned in order to more quickly adopt new behaviors. The trick is to use past competencies, not as a reason to stop progressing (by getting stuck in your comfort zone) but as a springboard to future success.

• Don’t set goals. Create action plans. Anybody can write a wish list. The secret of success lies in forming the habit of doing the things required to succeed. I have no complaint with those who write down their goals and ambitions. But please don’t stop there. Jumping into action is what will turn dreams into reality.

2005-12-13T13:15:00.000-08:00

There is a new version of “A Christmas Carol” being performed in a San Francisco theatre this holiday season. I love this story about the transformation of a human being and how the community he lives in supports his metamorphosis. I think it is a great example of what I saw as a therapist in private practice, and what has stayed in the back of my mind with every corporate client I now work with. People are capable of amazing feats of change. They can totally reinvent themselves, learn brand-new skills and ways of thinking, and turn a seeming tragedy into a new opportunity.

2005-12-03T20:32:00.000-08:00

I was still in high school when my father was fired from the San Francisco Examiner. My dad loved the newspaper business, and he especially enjoyed his job, working with the newsboys who (then) sold papers on street corners. I knew he'd be devastated by the loss.

To add to the problem, he had been employed by the Examiner for 30 years -- but not consecutively. (He left school at twelve, and worked to send his younger brothers through Stanford University.) So when the newspaper eliminated its entire circulation department, my dad was not only out of work, he was out of any chance to receive a pension.

I will never forget that afternoon. I came home from school to find my father already there. Not only was he home, her was in the kitchen. In fact, my dad was at the sink, bent over, holding his head in his hands.

My heart went out to him, but as I was about to say something consoling, I noticed that the reason he was bent over the sink was that my sister was dying his grey hair brown so that he'd look younger when he went looking for a new job. Dad straightened up, grinned, and said: "Now we're going to have some fun!"

And fun we had indeed, for my father did many fascinating things, including owning the "front yard" of a traveling circus, managing a gold mine, and taking photographs for postcards. In his late sixties, he opening his last business -- a carnival supply company, which he operated successfully until his death (in the middle of a work day) at the age of 80.

My mother worked along side my father in most of his endeavors. After his death, she did what any grieving widow in her seventies would do -- she took up country-western dancing. And a couple of years later, Mom married her country-western partner. (At their wedding, they wore their dancing costumes. But that, quite literally, is another story.)

Having the profound luck of being raised by these two incredibly resilient people is something for which I will always be grateful. They made dealing with the vagaries of change seem like a great adventure.

And that is what they taught me -- but not by anything they said. I don't recall my parents sharing any slogans or advice on managing change, but I DO remember exactly what they did, and the attitudes they held.

This is also how the people who live and work with you learn about change – not by what you say, but by everything you do, and how you feel about doing it.

In this season of present-giving, I’d like to remind you that one of the greatest gifts you have to offer, is to embody the change (whatever that is!) you want to see in the world.

Happy Holidays!

2005-12-01T08:54:00.000-08:00

There is a deep sense of loss at the passing of Peter Drucker. His contributions included 30 books and thousands of articles that have influenced the way in which we look at the role of management as well as employees and their work environment.

Here are a few of the quotes that may serve as reminders of the way in which he thought:

“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”

“Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.”

“My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions.”

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

“Company cultures are like country cultures. Never try to change one. Try, instead, to work with what you’ve got.”

“So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.”

“The productivity of work is not the responsibility of the worker but of the manager.”

“The really important things are said over cocktails and are never done.”

Through his writings, presentations, and consultations, Peter Drucker improved the work environment, increased productivity, and changed the way in which we lead and manage organizations around the world.

My favorite quote of his: "Reporters refer to managment 'gurus' because they can't spell charlatan."

2005-11-19T13:09:00.000-08:00

I received my first invitation to join LinkedIn, an internet-based “social network,” back in October 2004. Admittedly, I didn’t pay much attention to the details of this service when I responded, mostly because I trusted the judgment of the person asking me to participate. It wasn’t until my fourth request to be part of such a network that my curiosity forced me to take a closer look. My research uncovered a surprising number of players in this space, all leveraging they theory of six degrees of separation by allowing users to tap into the existing affiliations of other professionals. At first, this trend seemed merely the internet version of networking – a faster, cheaper, more precise way to schmooze than the conventions, business lunches and golf outings I was familiar with. What struck me, however, is the mounting evidence that maintain a good network might well be the most important business skill of all.

A recent MIT/Sloan Management Review article states that what really distinguishes high performers from the rest of the pack is their ability to maintain and leverage large, diversified networks that are rich in experience and span all organizational boundaries. Creating such a network is rarely motivated by explicit political or career-driven motives. Building relationships is simply intertwined with how these “connected” people get their work done, and stems from a natural ability to find points of commonality and blend business utility with a personal touch.

Ironic that in the "Information Age" success becomes less what we know (because knowledge is changing so rapidly) and more who we know.

2005-11-13T12:57:00.000-08:00

I spent most of last week in Phoenix, facilitating several sessions with a group to help them co-create a substantial change in their organization. Instead of requesting the usual “motivational speech,” this company was savvy about what it really takes to bring help people deal with the challenges and optimize the opportunities that transformation always brings.

Here’s the takeaway: Engaging people in organizational change takes more than the pep talks and change-management techniques of the past. Increasingly, it takes interactive strategies – what I call creative collaboration. Whether you are designing a conference for several hundred people or planning your next staff meeting, high involvement will produce energy, engagement -- and results.

2005-10-29T15:52:00.000-07:00

I believe in ghosts. In fact I’ve seen plenty of them haunting corporate America. From the boardroom to the factory floor, professionals are haunted by behaviors that worked for them in the past but are an impediment to success today. I even wrote a book about it.

GHOST STORY is a business fable that has some pretty weird characters: A magpie who hoards information, a green, 8-foot tall Martian who is the ultimate outsider, a 400-pound pig in an admiral's uniform who "protects" staff by keeping them uninformed, and the two-year-old head of IT who speaks "dribble" – to name only a few.

Yet, surprisingly, I have met all of these characters. Of course I’m speaking figuratively. The pig, for example, is the prototypical "command and control" manager whose role in life is to protect people who are unable to absorb what's really going on within the organization. Let them know what's really happening, he insists, and they would panic, freak out, and defect like rats.

And we’ve all met the “techie” who can’t translate what he knows into words the rest of us can understand.

Even the heroine of the story is fighting the ghost of “unconscious competence.” And this is how many women are haunted. Because they “don’t know what they know,” they are less likely to speak up in meetings, less likely to believe that their contributions are valuable, and more likely to personalize failure while externalizing success.

In writing the book, I came to realize that I am as haunted as any of my characters. Under some circumstances, I’ve held the same limiting assumptions and made the same errors. Now that’s scary!

Happy Halloween!

2005-10-24T12:29:00.000-07:00

My nephew saw his first musical comedy on Broadway when he was eleven. I took him to a revival of “The Music Man” and Joshua went home to take up guitar lessons and song writing. Now that’s he’s in high school, Josh is on the football team and in a band. If he gets chosen for the school play my wishes will be fulfilled.

I’m certainly prejudiced, but I think that theatre and the performing arts are an ideal perfect background for business success. Especially when it comes to understanding the power of creative collaboration. Most theatrical productions require elaborate collaborations between many disciplines - researchers, writers, visual designers, actors/singers/dancers, musicians, choreographers, directors, producers and technicians - all working together for the good of the production.

Collaborations in the theatre require open and steady communication to bring a diverse group of people together and to capitalize on the richness of each person’s expertise. Each discipline brings its own ideas, background and skills to bear on the work, and from there it becomes a total concept, integrating as many ideas from the participants as possible. Central to this concept is the premise that there is no one particular way to create or assist others in their creating. In a world defined this way, everything is negotiable, and collaboration is always valued. Could there be a better model for today’s organizations?

2005-10-14T14:56:00.000-07:00

What if your job changed significantly -- or was being eliminated? What if you had to reinvent yourself to stay relevant in your profession? What if you had to change careers? Would you survive?

Some people actually do survive, and even thrive, in these circumstances. They flourish in chaotic times by (first of all) understanding the forces of change in a world where nothing is guaranteed.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself. Better yet, gather your team and answer these together:
• What trends and forces of change are currently impacting my profession? Especially -- What could happen in the future that would make my profession obsolete?
• What assumptions do I have about my current situation? (Write them down and then write the opposites. Analyze what would happen if the opposite assumptions proved correct.)
• Which skills and abilities are my current strengths?
• Which current strengths will continue to make me successful in the future?
• What new skills do I need to learn to stay valuable in the marketplace?
• What do I need to unlearn? (Which skills are becoming obsolete? What practices -- attitudes, behaviors, work routines, etc. -- that worked for me in the past are no longer valid?)

2005-10-02T14:22:00.000-07:00

If you put a microphone in every coffee station, doorway and stairwell in your organization and listened to people’s conversations – what would you hear? Well, sure, you’d get the latest dirt on who’s sleeping with whom – but that would be a minute percentage of the talk. Most of it would revolve around issues like these: Where is the knowledge in this organization? Who’s reliable - trustworthy? How am I supposed to behave in this situation? Have you ever dealt with this customer – problem – manager before? How did that jerk get promoted? Did “so and so” really retire or was he asked to leave? Why did the stock price take a dive? Have you heard that we may be acquired – get a new CEO – move headquarters?

This is the office grapevine in action - and we couldn't operate without it. But office buzz can also pose a big threat for management and corporate communication professionals.

I just finished a study on the office grapevine and how it compares with more formal channels of information (including speeches from senior management, articles in newsletters, and messages from first-line supervisors) and I think this response from my survey sums it up perfectly: “Formal communication focuses on messages the company wants to deliver, with a scope management feels is appropriate, and at a time management feels is right. The reason the grapevine plays such an important role is that it delivers the information employees care about, provides the details employees think they should know, and is delivered at the time employees are interested.”

To view the article I wrote on this research, go to www.CKG.com and click on the "articles" link.

2005-09-28T14:51:00.000-07:00

Last week I was speaking in Las Vegas at a conference for the International Society for Performance Improvement. And I was fortunate to share the platform with a remarkable woman, Louise Anderson, the president of Anderson Performance Improvement Company (www.andersonperformance.com).

I spoke on building “change-adeptness” within an organization and on leading people through transformation. Louise talked about how to make change fun and profitable. She told a story about how her company, which designs and implements behavior-based incentive programs, worked with a bank during their merger. The fear was (as usually happens) customer service would take a dive. The result that Louise and her team achieved for the bank was 110% customer retention. Pretty impressive!

While in town, I visited the new and spectatular Wynn hotel – with its man-made mountainside, lake and waterfall – and had dinner there at Bartolotta. In a town of great dining experiences, this has to be one of the best. If you go, be sure to order the sheep's cheese ravioli. Quite possibly the best dish in town.

2005-09-20T13:06:00.000-07:00

I received a call this morning from an organization asking me to facilitate an offsite meeting for a group of managers. I asked about the goals of the meeting and who else was going to speak at the event. The meeting planner told me that the organization was going through major change and that cost-cutting was high on the list of crucial objectives. The company leadership wanted me to present my program on “creative collaboration” as a way to stimulate problem solving and engage people in the change.

When I asked if the audience had been presented with the business reasons behind the cost cutting, I was assured that it had. But when I asked if people had the financial background to understand the business rationale, there was a long pause on the other end of the phone.

After working with organizational transformation for over twenty years, I’ve learned a few things. And one of them is that the more employees understand about how the business works, the more likely they are to accept and support change. (Especially change that involves cutting back on costs.) Most organizations have very few finance majors on their staff, and yet all employees need a clear “line of sight” – a direct connection between their jobs and the objectives/mission of the organization. To really build that connection takes people who understand the “business” of the business.

So here’s what I said to this meeting planner: Sure! I’d love to work with your group. But if you can only afford one outside speaker, pick someone who can teach business literacy. It will be the best investment you could make.

2005-09-14T14:17:00.000-07:00

The joke goes like this. . . A reporter was interviewing Mary Todd Lincoln shortly after her husband was shot: “So, aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?” Frightfully un-PC and in questionable (okay, really bad!) taste, but also as American as motherhood and apple pie - we look for the humor in tragedy. As soon as disaster hits, the tee shirt slogans are ready and the jokes are flying. It may seem callous, but to me it is our unique way of healing. As one friend in crisis told me, “I can cry or I can laugh. I prefer to laugh.”

Another friend was at this summer's Boy Scout Jamboree, which started with the devastating news that four leaders were killed. His report: “As there was a lack of credible information, the informal rumor mill took over. The day that 300 kids were taken for medical attention because of the heat, the rumor sweeping camp was that 10 kids had died. On a lighter note. . .the rumor spread that some of the Swedish Scouts (a co-ed troop) would flash their breasts in exchange for a vanilla pudding that came in a bag lunch one day. I did notice that boys seemed to be hoarding their vanilla pudding.”

Not much to laugh at with Katrina, but one piece of news coverage made me smile. Last night a rescue worker was standing in front of a New Orleans apartment house, shouting up to the second story: “Okay, come on out. We know you’re in there. We saw you dancing!”

2005-09-13T08:33:00.000-07:00

Much has been written about Katrina - but here is something from a professional communicator who was there. When you get a chance, read Charles Pizzo's comments on why people didn't leave New Orleans. (http://raganpostcard.blogspot.com)

2005-09-05T13:35:00.000-07:00

Storytelling has been around for thousands of years, and it’s arguably our most powerful tool for stirring emotions and creating mental pictures. We all think in image and narrative. Storytelling is a natural “pull” strategy, engaging listeners into imagining outcomes toward which facts alone would not lead them. By telling the right kinds of stories, and presenting the right kind of mental images, we can bring about profound change.

In my current role as a consultant for large-scale organizational transformation, I’m constantly searching for ways to get employees involved. How can they help design the change? How can they feel ownership? How can they optimize change for personal and organizational advantage?

For me, it all begins with stories: I want to find out how employees already wed their own stories into the change process. What are their tales of the past - the successes and accomplishments? How do they see the future - what are their stories of coming challenges and opportunities? I want their words, their images, their metaphors, and their unique ways of explaining change. Because then I can use those powerful examples to help people talk constructively and meaningfully about what is going on.

2005-08-30T17:19:00.000-07:00

Three frogs were sitting on a lily pad. One frog decided to jump. How many frogs were left?

If you said “three,” you’re right. “Deciding” and “jumping” are not the same. Deciding is a thought and jumping is an action.

The world is filled with people who have decided to be successful, healthy, and happy. And, while I applaud those aspirations, I also see their limits. My overwhelming admiration goes to those who take the necessary steps to achieve the desired success, good health, and happiness.

I have no complaint with those who write down their goals and ambitions. (I do so myself.) And I know how powerful imagery can be when you create full-sensory mental pictures of future achievements. But please don’t stop there. Jump into action, take risks, make mistake - and learn from them. It's those action that will move you – however tenuously – toward turning your dreams into reality.

2005-08-24T10:49:00.000-07:00

NYC

Just back from a speaking trip to New Jersey (presenting a seminar on "The Power of Collaboration" for the Institute of Management Studies) and then on to NYC for the weekend. As I saw the skyline of the City, I was reminded of the week after September 11, 2001 when I flew to New York for a Conference Board presentation. About a dozen of us passengers on a Boeing 747 - the dust still in the air from the recent attacks - and New York strangely subdued and half-empty.

What a difference this trip! Now I flew east on an overloaded 737 and creeped along choked highways in a 2-hour ride from New Jersey to Manhattan. And despite any qualms about public transportation after the London bombings, New Yorkers and tourists alike jammed the subways and buses.

I love New York! And if you are planning a trip there in the near future, here are a couple of reccommendations:1) When in SoHo, eat at Kittichai (60 Thompson - 212-219-2000). I'm from the Berkeley/San Francisco area and I'm used to great food - but this restaurant serves the best Thai food I've ever had! 2) Get tickets to "The Light in the Piazza" at Lincoln Center. It is wonderful.

2005-08-15T16:39:00.000-07:00

Just in case you forgot to mark your calendar, this past weekend was the opening of deer hunting season in Northern California. I know this for a fact because my husband is a hunter and every year since he was sixteen, he’s gone to the same region (where we have a small cabin and hunting camp) for the seven weekends of the season.

I don’t hunt. But I do go with him to camp. And here’s what I’ve learned: Hunting is not about killing Bambi’s daddy (although a fair amount of them have been eliminated during the years). Hunting is about telling stories –mostly the same stories - over and over every year. It’s how my husband and his friends bond, how they learn from one another and caution each other, and how they transfer what they’ve learned to the next generation.

I’ve spent several years looking for great examples of knowledge sharing and collaboration in organizations, only to find some of the best examples around a campfire.

2005-08-12T11:33:00.000-07:00

Okay, here's the deal. You make this company your No. 1 loyalty -- even above your family. You do what you're told. If we transfer you to Timbuktu, you move to Timbuktu. In exchange, we'll give you security -- you'll have a job for life.

Perhaps no one ever stated it so explicitly, but that was the basic loyalty contract between employer and employee 20 years ago.

What do you thnk? Is loyalty dead and gone, a victim of turbulent times in the corporate world? Or is it still here, only different somehow?

2005-08-01T18:57:00.000-07:00

Over the years I have interviewed many scientists, inventors and other creative people from various professions. One of the things I most wanted to know was the key to great brainstorming sessions. Although it is widely practiced, brainstorming is seldom utilized to its full potential.

I already knew these fundamentals:
• Start with a warm-up exercise - especially if the group doesn’t brainstorm frequently or when the group seems distracted by outside issues. Use word games or puzzles or humor to set an atmosphere that is relaxed, fun and freewheeling.
• Encourage everyone to participate, either with original ideas or “piggybacking” (adding on to) other people’s input.
• Focus initially on quantity, not quality of ideas. Write all ideas on a white board or large sheets of paper and number them to help motivate participants and to jump back and forth between ideas without losing track of where you are.
• Urge participants to say anything that occurs to them, no matter how wild or “far out” those ideas may seem.
• Realize that brainstorming sessions tend to follow a series of steep energy curves. When the momentum starts to plateau, the facilitator needs to build on what’s been stated (“That’s a great idea; now what are some other ways to _____________?”) or to jump to another point (“Let’s switch gears and consider _____________.”)
• Break the brainstorming session into two parts: the first for idea generation and the second for evaluation. During the idea generation phase, no one should be allowed to judge, criticize, or squelch any of the ideas presented.
• Stay alert for nonproductive comments such as, “We tried that last year,” “I don’t think that will work,” etc. and counter premature judgment with, “This isn’t the time for evaluation yet.”

But the best advice I ever received about brainstorming was this: Invite the janitor. Or any other person who can bring a new perspective to the problem. It’s the diversity of thinking styles, points of view, personal experience, and gut feelings that increases effectiveness. One of the most productive brainstorming sessions I have ever facilitated mixed administrative assistants, lawyers, mail clerks, janitors, accountants, and corporate communicators. Their unique capabilities and contributions made the session so much more effective – and fun!