A few years ago, I did a project with a company that was a joint venture between a British Company, an American Company, and a Canadian one.  It was in the Utility sector, so you would assume that very similar parent companies, from very similar countries would have no problem integrating their cultures.  This was an excellent example of why one should never assume.

The United States and Canada are both former colonies of the UK, and all three countries share a language (with respect to the one-third of Canadians who are French speakers).  How different could they be?

On Managing Conflict:

• Americans argue hard for their viewpoint, and ultimately get along at the end of the day
• The British are much more reserved and polite, but will express dissent.
• Canadians avoid conflict at all costs – often to their detriment

On Working Hours:

• Americans work 12 hours a day, and rarely take more than a few days off in a row
• The British work hard on a daily basis.  They also have 8 weeks vacation (holiday) per year, and take a minimum of two weeks off at a time.
• Canadians are about half way in between the two, unless there’s a hockey game on TV, in which case they go home early.

On Dealing with Governments (we were constantly moving people between the three countries)

• The American Government was a nightmare to work with.  They constantly change immigration rules, and won’t provide any reasons or justifications for doing so.
• The British Government was consistent, although highly bureaucratic and cumbersome in its process.
• The Canadian Government was consistent with its expressed goal of making it easy for skilled people to enter and work in that country.

On Language

• Americans speak “Microsoft English” – the easiest and most identifiable form of the language.
• The British contingent from England spelled some things differently, but otherwise communicated well.  The Scottish contingent constantly baffled all the rest of us with their use of the language.
• The Canadians sounded like the Americans; spelled like the British; and threw in some French spellings just to throw everyone else off.

On the Metric System

• The United States is the only country in the world that still uses the outdated and cumbersome Imperial Measurement system.
• The British were very frustrated when they hopped in their Audis and BMWs that the speed limit was 65mph, rather than 110 kph.
• The Canadians were baffled that 32 degrees was miserably cold, rather than miserably hot.

On “Entitlement Mentality”

• Americans don’t feel much entitlement, but rather feel the individual is responsible for his/her own circumstances.
• The British have some Entitlement Mentality – particularly when it came to the private American health care system. (“I have to pay for this!?!?”)
• The Canadians had a bad case of entitlement mentality.  Perhaps it was because most of the people working there had been government employees before the utility was privatized.

In the end, we managed to make this company work, but don’t ever underestimate cross-cultural issues even in seemingly similar cultures.

Become a Wily Manager member and get instant access to even more information about Encouraging Conflict.  And don’t forget to sign up for our FREE Management Cheat Sheet Collection.

Become a Wily Manager member and get instant access to even more information about Encouraging Conflict.  And don’t forget to sign up for our FREE Management Cheat Sheet Collection

Join Jed and Bob as they talk about why some conflict is good, and how you can encourage conflict amongst your team members.

Watch the ‘Constructive Conflict’ Video (14 mins 20 sec):

Firing people is really under rated as a motivation tool – hear me out.

It’s not about punishment and intimidation – those things only work for short periods of time.  AND — as soon as you turn your back, people go back to what they were doing before.  It’s also not very nice.

Rather – by removing a consistent poor performer, you do that person’s peers (the rest of your team) a tremendous service.  If there are six people working on a team, and I am consistently not pulling my weight, then the impact of my non-performance is far more tangible on my peers than it would be to my boss.

This lesson was delivered home to me back when I had a real job as a manager – one that required me to occasionally fire people.  One member of our team constantly called in sick on short notice – a behavior that significantly, and negatively impacted his co-workers.  A bunch of us ended up working late because this person had called in sick, and we decided to go for a beer after work.\

We walked in to a local pub about 9pm, and saw our absent co-worker dancing on top of speaker.  It was quite obvious he’d been there for some time.  Apparently this fellow wasn’t very smart either – he chose to go partying at a place a block from work.

It was an easy decision to fire him, but what happened next surprised me.  Several of his peers thanked me getting rid of the guy, and one even challenged me on what took me so long!

I’m not suggesting you fire the bottom 10% of performers every month.  I am suggesting you provide crystal-clear expectations, do everything you can to help people be successful, and when the occasional person chooses to consistently betray his team and not perform, that you do not hesitate to remove that person.

Channel your “inner-Trump”.  Your team will thank you for it.

Become a Wily Manager member and get instant access to even more information about Team Motivation Activities.  And don’t forget to sign up for our FREE Management Cheat Sheet Collection.

Become a Wily Manager member and get instant access to even more information about Team Motivation Activities.  And don’t forget to sign up for our FREE Management Cheat Sheet Collection

Join Jed & Bob as they discuss moving beyond silly games, to five tangible things you can do to motivate your whole team.

Watch ‘How Do I Motivate My Whole Team?’ Video (16 mins 31 sec):

Become a Wily Manager member and get instant access to even more information about Building Trust in Teams.  And don’t forget to sign up for our FREE Management Cheat Sheet Collection.

Become a Wily Manager member and get instant access to even more information about Building Trust in Teams.  And don’t forget to sign up for our FREE Management Cheat Sheet Collection

This week the Wily Manager guys talk about building trust on teams.  If you’ve every been on a team that was a bit dysfunctional, then this week’s discussion will resonate with you.

Watch the ‘Building Trust in Teams’ Video (15 mins 32 sec):

There are certain things I trust.  I trust the sun to rise in the morning.  I trust the lady who does my dry cleaning to always wish me a “more-nice day”.  I trust that Justin Beiber is past his 15 minutes.  I also trust that the word “trust” is a loaded word.

Often, people think that the only way to lose or violate trust is to do something very clearly wrong or dishonest.  It is actually much easier than that to destroy trust.  Trust is quite simply, managing expectations in others, and then delivering on those expectations.

This is how it goes horribly wrong for politicians – large segments of the population demand that politicians lie to them during a campaign.  Any political candidate that dare speak an uncomfortable truth, will be marginalized immediately.  Then once elected, the disconnect between the expectations that have been set, and those that are delivered becomes patently obvious, and the public feels betrayed.

Just so you don’t end up being viewed like a politician, here are five ways to quickly destroy trust:

Say one thing and do another.  Much like the politician above, this is the fastest way to ensure that no one will trust you.

Try to please all the people all the time. Life is a series of trade-offs – particularly for people in positions of leadership.  As a leader, there should be some contingent of your followers that should be marginally pissed-off at all times – because it is impossible to keep everybody happy.

Pander to your audience. Targeting whomever you are communicating to is a good idea.  However, if you find yourself targeting to such a degree that your message is fundamentally different amongst different stakeholders, you’re going to alienate someone (if not everyone).

Fail to tackle difficult issues. Every leader bears the burden of dealing with difficult issues.  They will not magically disappear or solve themselves – in fact, an issue ignored is most often one that grows out of control.

Under-value giving credit, and over-value assigning blame.  Leaders need to be humble – give away credit when things go well, and step up and accept more than your share of blame when things go poorly.  You gain a whole bunch of trust by doing so.

Become a Wily Manager member and get instant access to even more information about How to Set Goals and Objectives.  And don’t forget to sign up for our FREE Management Cheat Sheet Collection.

Become a Wily Manager member and get instant access to even more information about How to Set Goals and Objectives.  And don’t forget to sign up for our FREE Management Cheat Sheet Collection

Join Jed and Bob as they talk about the Performance Management process, and more specifically about Setting Goals and Objectives.  How do you cascade them up and down the hierarchy?  Find out this week.

Watch the ‘How to Set Goals and Objectives’ Video (15 mins 16 sec):

There is so much stuff out there telling managers what they should do to be more effective, and how they can be better leaders of their people.  This week, I thought I’d take a different approach, and suggest to managers how they might make sure that none of their people care.

It seems that many leaders will read an article or attend a seminar and them come back to the office and do the same thing they were doing before.  They then find themselves stressed-out and miserable, as they can never seem to get a grip on their jobs or on leading their people.  It seems something is lost in the transfer between reading or hearing something, and applying it to our own circumstances.

As for the people those managers are leading: they all start out with a different level of giving a crap, and they are then pushed towards the mean (or average) of “giving-a-crap-edness” of the culture around them.  The great managers push that average line up, and inspire people to come along for the ride.  Bad leaders, push the line down, and tacitly encourage people to give a crap about far fewer things, and at far lower a level.

So here are some things bad leaders do to ensure no one cares:

1. Enable unnecessary bureaucracy. This is why many public sector organizations suffer with poor morale.
2. Not dealing with performance issues.  I’m not going to work all that hard for you if I know my peer is doing nothing, and not getting called on it.
3. Not administering consequences.  People need to know that both good and poor performance will be recognized and “rewarded” as such.
4. Micro-managing.  If you are going to redo all my work anyway, I’m not going to put much effort into it.
5. Playing favorites.  OK… maybe a meritocracy only exists in a University Professor’s textbook, but you’ve got to at least try to give the appearance of fairness.
6. Reinforce a blame culture. People’s best work comes from taking risks, which they will not do, if they get crucified every time a small error is made.

There are lots of other ones, too, but leaders should start with these ones, and determine to what degree they do these things.  The further away you are from these things, the more likely you are to be pushing that mean line of discretionary effort upwards.

So if I read all the management literature correctly, then to improve employee morale, I should hire a concierge, allow people to bring their pets to work, and every day at 3.00pm we should join hands in a circle and sing campfire songs.  Personally, I can’t think of anything that would make me start looking for alternative employment faster.

So what does impact morale, and should managers care?

First of all, they should care – just not about concierges and employee sing-alongs.  Morale is a key driver of attendance and retention both of which have a clear and immediate impact on costs.  Morale also creates and maintains employee discretionary effort — which has a clear and immediate impact on productivity, quality and safety.  Besides all of that, it’s just way more fun to work at a place where people are engaged.

There are several ways for leaders to impact morale.  Perhaps one of the most important is a consistent, fair, and well thought out progressive discipline process.  Yep, that’s right… I’m suggesting that progressive discipline and higher employee morale are highly correlated.  Here’s why:

When one member of a team consistently doesn’t pull his weight, it is rarely the boss that feels the impact of this.  Most often it is that laggard’s peers.  By addressing one person’s poor performance, others are both relieved and validated.  They are relieved that the discipline will either lead to the person beginning to pull their weight, or that the person will be replaced by someone who will.  They are validated by the demonstration that their effort is superior to that of the person receiving the discipline.

The most highly effective workplaces have predictable and clear consequences for both good and poor performance, so it is not good enough for a leader simply to focus on discipline.  However, many managers put off uncomfortable discussions about poor performance using the excuse that any intervention will harm morale.  In fact, the opposite it true.

Oh No.  Now you’ve got to go do it.

Go ahead… discipline someone for poor performance, and improve your team’s morale.

Mistakes are remarkably underrated, and very few organizations are actually good at making them.  When it comes to making mistakes, there are typically two types of organizations:

1. Those with little or no tolerance for mistakes, so in order to avoid making them, they either don’t make decisions, or they analyze decisions to such a degree that they become paralyzed.  I would include most public sector organizations and big utilities in this category.
2. Those organizations where mistakes get made, and the most important thing is to assign blame.  Of course, people in such organizations would not self-identify as being blame-seekers, but it is often cloaked in “holding people accountable”.  Accountability is about people delivering on pre-agreed upon requirements.  Making mistakes is about taking risks and doing something new

There is a third type of organization that encourages people to take risks in certain areas of the business.  Many times those risks do not pan out, but from the ashes of failure a phoenix of innovation and performance rises.  This type of organization is exceptionally rare.  The best examples are well known:  Apple, Virgin.  There are others as well, but they are as difficult to find as a trace of dignity in a reality TV star.

I always know I’m in a well run and innovative business when I hear, “Here’s a stupid idea”.  A high level of confidence is required is say such a thing, and a high level of trust in your peers to take such risks.  So revel in your mistakes, and do so knowing you are in good company.

Become a Wily Manager member and get instant access to even more information about Strawman Proposals.  And don’t forget to sign up for our FREE Management Cheat Sheet Collection.

Become a Wily Manager member and get instant access to even more information about Strawman Proposals.  And don’t forget to sign up for our FREE Management Cheat Sheet Collection

Join Jed and Bob as they discuss what a Straw Man is, and how it might best be used, and how to build one for use in your organization.

Watch the ‘Strawman Proposals: Straw Man and Straw Dogs’ Video (12 mins 50 sec):

There are lots of colloquialisms and metaphors used in business today that are “reaching” to say the least.  Sports analogies are very tired, and if I hear one more person talk to me about “low-hanging fruit”, there will be a Bob-shaped hole in the nearest door.

However the word, “weasel” is perfect for the type of behavior it describes in the workplace.  To that end, I’ve put together a list of the similarities between a weasel found in nature, and the weasel found in the workplace:

• A weasel is a rodent.  As such, they are a nuisance that needs to be weeded out and destroyed.
• When a weasel is threatened it becomes extremely aggressive, and potentially dangerous.
• They are small (in this case of the workplace weasel small-minded), but active predators.
• According to Wikipedia, weasels in nature have a reputation for cleverness and guile… not unlike the workplace weasel.
• Weasels are considered vermin because they stock poultry and rabbits used for commercial purposes.  The workplace weasel also undermines commerce – usually by more insidious means than stocking poultry.
• Weasels exist on all continents except Antarctica and Australia.  If there are any Wily Manager followers at the research station at Antarctica, I’d love to know if there are any workplace weasels.  I lived in Australia for a while, and while they may not have weasels, they have lots of other rodent vermin, which begs the question, “what do the Aussies call their workplace weasels?  Actually, I was once told that the Australian equivalent of the office-weasel was called a Kiwi, but after I visited New Zealand, I had to dismiss that as sour grapes on the part of my Aussie-informant.
• A group of weasels can be called a boogle, gang, pack, sneak, or confusion.  The workplace weasel, when s/he finds a support group, could also be called “sneak” or “confusion” (but I also like boogle).

All these similarities got me to questioning whether weasel remedies would be similar between the natural and workplace varieties.  Here, the parallels are a little more illusive, yet still instructive.  For example, you can set traps for weasels.  In nature, the bait is usually something to eat.  With workplace weasels, it might be a rumored promotion, but sometimes they might respond to good catering.

Suddenly, the song “Pop Goes the Weasel” makes so much more sense to me now.

Become a Wily Manager member and get instant access to even more information about Inappropriate Behavior in the Workplace.  And don’t forget to sign up for our FREE Management Cheat Sheet Collection.

Become a Wily Manager member and get instant access to even more information about Inappropriate Behavior in the Workplace.  And don’t forget to sign up for our FREE Management Cheat Sheet Collection

Join Jed and Bob as they discuss how to deal with six different types of weasels commonly found in the workplace.  Learn how to handle The Backstabber, The Slacker, The Credit-Taker, and others.

Watch the ‘Dealing With Workplace Weasels’ Video (14 mins 56 sec):

Become a Wily Manager member and get instant access to even more information about Managing Peers.  And don’t forget to sign up for our FREE Management Cheat Sheet Collection.

Become a Wily Manager member and get instant access to even more information about Managing Peers.  And don’t forget to sign up for our FREE Management Cheat Sheet Collection

Learn the five critical things that all managers of their former peers need to learn to be successful in their new leadership role.  Also figure out how to strike the balance between being an overbearing micromanager, and being a pushover when managing former peers.

Watch the ‘Managing Former Peers’ Video (13 mins 24 sec):

Download the  ”Managing Former Peers” Cheat Sheet, Video, Audio, and Slides

This Generation X cohort is a real piece of work, isn’t it?  Is it possible to have a whole generation stuck in a massive inferiority complex?  It’s kind of like meeting a Canadian backpacking across Europe.  Yeah we get it – those 500 Maple Leafs you’re wearing mean you come from Canada.  The rest of us don’t really care that much, but you go ahead and dress up like a Mountie.

Gen X is not unlike when Jan Brady got completely bent out of shape because everything was “Marsha, Marsha, Marsha.”  (You have to be a Gen Xer to get that reference).  Grow up Jan, and stop being so annoying.

Actually all this generation talk is getting a bit boring.

In 1994, I suffered through a breakfast seminar where the guest speaker was telling us how this new generation of worker was completely different than anything that had every come before it.  These Generation X types were not loyal to any employer, didn’t care too much about their jobs, and were just generally hard to get along with.

Remembering back on this particular breakfast seminar now, it was particularly offensive on at least three levels:

1. About 2500 years ago, some guy named “Socrates” made the same observation.  I’m more familiar with the published works of Socrates than I am with the guest speaker (whose name I’ve forgotten) that morning, so I’m going to assume it wasn’t an original talk.  Although the flashy Powerpoint slides were something that Socrates never pulled off.
2. Those entering the workforce in the early 1990s had just watched their parents be laid-off en masse after a lifetime of loyalty to their companies to take on a new role as an unemployed middle-aged former corporate drone with no real marketable skills.  Add to this, the fact that Generation X – to date the most educated generation in history – walked into a job market with very few prospects, and you may begin to understand some of their crankiness.
3. These Gen Xers did finally manage to find jobs — though not the cool, self-fulfilling ones they were promised.  Fast forward in time twenty years and these Gen Xers are now lamenting the fact that the generation that came after them has no loyalty to their organizations, and don’t care too much about their jobs.  It really does come fully circle, doesn’t it?

We need to quit trying to rationalize and explain the fact it is each generations’ express mission to drive the generation immediately preceding it crazy.  How else can you explain the music of the devil (also known as Jazz) that today’s older retirees used to make their parents foam at the mouth with anger.

Your job as a leader is to get other people to do what you want them to do, because they want to do it (with credit to Dwight Eisenhower).  Spending a whole bunch of time trying to label and define different generations won’t help you with that.

Finally, just to prove there’s no hard feelings about the crack about Canadians above, this week’s video is dedicated to those viewing from Canada:

Join Jed and Bob as they discuss how this generation has been shaped, the expectations of Gen X at work, and most importantly, how to effectively lead this group.

Watch the ‘Generation Gap: Managing Gen X’ Video (14 mins 41 sec):

Download the  ”Generation X in the Workplace” Cheat Sheet, Video, Audio, and Slides

Become a Wily Manager member and get instant access to even more information about Generation X in the Workplace.  And don’t forget to sign up for our FREE Management Cheat Sheet Collection.

Become a Wily Manager member and get instant access to even more information about Generation X in the Workplace.  And don’t forget to sign up for our FREE Management Cheat Sheet Collection

How did this happen?  When you were a teenager, you were very clearly smarter than your parents.  Then you went on, and got yourself a whole bunch of education, worked hard, and are now leading a team of people.  Half of them are old enough to be your parents.

Managing your mom?  You didn’t sign up for this.

Oh to be a Baby Boomer — The single most important demographic cohort in the history of the planet.  The baby boomers have absolutely dominated the workplace since the 1960s, and are only slowly giving up their grip now.  If you were born after about 1965, then it is a good news/bad news story for you.

The bad news is the Boomers racked up your “societal credit card debt”, that will take several generations to pay off.  The good news is they’ve already cured erectile dysfunction, and they are bound and determined to stay youthful forever, which bodes well for all those that follow.

In the workplace, this has a number of ramifications.  If you’ve got a boomer working for you, you might have to put up with the occasional tardy arrival, if you are to believe the Cialis commercials.  It also means when you start talking about ISPs, ASPs and HTML, their eyes will glaze over faster than Paris Hilton’s would on Jeopardy.

Keep in mind that there is something to be learned from this generation.  Yes they were financially reckless with your future, and made the planet into an environmental disaster, but that doesn’t mean they don’t know a thing or two about whatever business you are in.

The Boomers have seen several business cycles come and go, and will tell you (with certain credibility) that they’ve seen it all previously.  Everything in business comes full circle – just the details are marginally different.  If you listen carefully to the Boomers working for you, you just might get a jump on whatever is going to happen next.

They can’t manage email to save their life, and they think microwaves and fax machines are high tech, but if you discount their input and feedback, it is at your peril.

Learn how to lead and manage the balding and grey.

Watch the ‘Baby Boomers in the Workforce’ Video (13 mins 46 sec):

Download the ‘Managing Baby Boomers in the Workforce’ Cheat Sheet, Video, Audio, and Slides

Become a Wily Manager member and get instant access to even more information about Managing Baby Boomers in the Workforce.  And don’t forget to sign up for our FREE Management Cheat Sheet Collection.

Become a Wily Manager member and get instant access to even more information about Baby Boomers in the Workforce.  And don’t forget to sign up for our FREE Management Cheat Sheet Collection

Become a Wily Manager member and get instant access to even more information about creating and using a Cause And Effect Map.  And don’t forget to sign up for our FREE Management Cheat Sheet Collection.

Become a Wily Manager member and get instant access to even more information about creating and using a Cause And Effect Map.  And don’t forget to sign up for our FREE Management Cheat Sheet Collection

Learn how to create and use a Cause and Effect Map (Fishbone Chart).

Watch the ‘Cause And Effect Map’ Video (15 mins):

Download the ‘Cause and Effect Map’ Cheat Sheet, Video, Audio, and Slides

If you’re from a different generation, how do you lead and motivate Millennials?

Watch the ‘Generation Gap: Millennials in the Workplace’ Video (14 mins 22 sec):

Download the ‘Millennials in the Workplace’ Cheat Sheet, Video, Audio, and Slides

Become a Wily Manager member and get instant access to even more information about Millennials in the Workplace.  And don’t forget to sign up for our FREE Management Cheat Sheet Collection.

Become a Wily Manager member and get instant access to even more information about Millennials in the Workplace.  And don’t forget to sign up for our FREE Management Cheat Sheet Collection

OK… so I know I’m supposed to treat these ones differently.  They’ve never received anything but continually positive feedback, and their Mum’s and Dad’s loved them so much, they got a cake and a parade every time they didn’t wet the bed.

Unfortunately, some one has to break the news to the more entitled of this generation that:

Life is Just Not Fair.

If you are living and working in a society of more than one, sooner or later someone who is not as smart as you, not as hardworking as you, and maybe not even as good looking as you, is going to get something that you feel entitled to.  It’s horribly unfair.

It’s called “life”.

Prince Charles got himself into trouble a few years ago because he suggested that maybe it wasn’t the best idea to tell everyone they could do or be anything they wanted to.  On the surface, it is highly offensive to have a guy that was born into fame and riches lecturing people to accept their lot in life and make the best of it.  On reflection however, he is the perfect person to say so:  he never had a choice as to his vocation or ambition.  It was pre-determined for him, and few sane people would want to trade places with him.

In reality, people of all generations should try to reach beyond their grasp.  The folly is when achieving things beyond your humble origins becomes an entitlement, rather than a bonus.  There are lots of smart people out there who have worked very hard to exceed their natural circumstances, who only do marginally better than their parents or peers did.  Those that have risen above tremendous adversity go on to get their own television networks (good for you, Oprah), or have movies of the week made about their story are the exception, not the rule.

The rest of us need to be content with what fate conspires to deliver to us for our efforts.

I have a creepy feeling about a whole generation of trophy-kids entering the workplace, when their parents and society have failed to expose them to unbridled competition or at least some understanding of the harsh reality of life.  Far too many parents would storm into the principal’s office when Susie didn’t get an “A” in chemistry.

What’s going to happen when Susie’s dad wants to storm into the boss’s office when Susie gets fired?

Part of my job is to read the latest management books, and scan the media for important literature that could be of some use to managers.  Some stuff is certainly better written than others, but lately I’m getting downright cranky with some of the “wisdom” the alleged management gurus and pumping out to maintain their publishing revenue.  As a result, this week we’ll address some of these guru-myths.

Myth #1:  You need to treat everybody the same.

Treating everybody the same is a management slogan that gets trotted out as good leadership behaviour when exactly the opposite is true.  People are individuals and need to be treated as such.  Here’s something else the management gurus won’t tell you – sometimes, some of your people will desperately need a kick in the ass.

The reason management gurus won’t tell you this, is because they don’t know.  They don’t know, because they’ve never actually been a manager.  Yes, they may have sold enough books to own their very own Caribbean island, but many of them have never actually had direct reports.

I won’t disagree that people should be always treated with equal amounts of respect.  But respect necessarily means that a good leader will deal with a poor performing team member (sometimes via that kick in the ass, mentioned above) out of respect for the higher performing team members.

Myth #2:  Managers need to delegate everything

Another guru-myth is that every manager needs to, “delegate, delegate, delegate!” There is no doubt that effective delegation can help a leader push some teams to outstanding performance.  But there are other teams, where relentless delegation can be a catastrophic mistake.

In teams with members that are lower skilled for the tasks they are performing, the last thing you want to do is delegate.  These people need to be carefully directed and managed – some people might even call it micro-managing.  Delegating too much, too soon is probably a larger management issue than failing to delegate.

Myth #3:  Training solves all performance problems

More than once we’ve gotten a call from someone who asks us to come in and do some change management training with his people.  Our very first question is, “why do you think they need training?”

Sometimes, they do.  In other cases, people are fully capable of making the change being asked of them, they just don’t want to do so.  (See:  ass-kicking, above)

Myth #4:  People don’t resist change.  You just need to give them all the information

This myth is particularly offensive.  People DO resist change even when they know the benefits, and have all the information required.  Case in point:  the metric system.  It’s vastly superior, and far easier to understand.  Nearly 7 billion people use it every day, yet the few who still choose not to use it hang on to the old imperial system like Linus protects his blanket.

I could go on and on, but I’m working on a change-management training course for managers who want to better delegate to the people they want to treat all the same.

The first day on a new job is a harrowing experience.  It creates impressions on all those you work with, and sets the stage for your success (or failure) with that employer.

Probably my most memorable first day on the job was literally my first day on the job – any job.  I was fifteen years old, and I got a job bagging groceries at the local supermarket.  Ron Grant was the manager on duty, and he met me at the door.  Ron was never one to smile much, but he was a good guy, and he knew his job very well.

What he didn’t do as well, was to remember people’s names.  From my first day onwards, my name was always “Brad” – the curse of having a last name that is many others’ first name.  In the months to come, I’d hear him paging Brad time after time, and then wonder why Brad (whoever that was) never answered.

Ron toured me through the whole store, stopping along the way to introduce me to everyone on staff that we met, and to point out the things I might need to know for my new career wrapping groceries.  He also doled out advice that was very useful and well intentioned, but easily could have been included in the best-seller, “Sh*t My Dad Says.”  Needless to say, I learned some new words and expressions that day, that came in very handy when I recycled them back at high school.

I learned in the months and years to come, that Ron oriented me to my new workplace completely of his own initiative.  The organization really had no process for bringing people on besides the requisite signing of the official paperwork.

At the end of this orientation, he returned me to the front of the store, where I’d spend the next several years bagging groceries.

“Any questions?” asked Ron.

“Nope… I’m ready to go.” I replied.

“Great”, he said, as I turned to get started.  “Hey Brad,”

“Yep?”

“Your fly’s open”, he said without cracking a smile.

Presumably, he’d noticed this before he’d toured me through the whole place, but had waited until now to share this news with me.  It’s been a while since I’ve been teenage boy, but I’m assuming at the time I would have had checklist of basic hygiene items – such as making sure one’s zipper was properly secured.  Apparently, first day job jitters successfully eclipsed basic personal maintenance items.

Walking around in a public place with your fly open — I suppose that’s one way to make a first impression on when starting a new job.

I know it may be hard to believe (because I seem so delightful in these pages), but I can sometimes be difficult to get along with.  I get particularly cranky when I’m working with a group that loves to have meetings.  They have no idea why they have meetings, there are no outcomes, and no decisions are made, so it must be that there is some addictive quality in the coffee served at meetings.

Humourist Dave Barry once said that organizations have meetings because they are unable to masterbate.  I prefer to look at it this way: there is an inverse correlation between the number and quality of meetings in an organization, and their overall success.  In other words, I am suggesting that the fewer meetings that occur, the more successful the organization will be.

I know this is an argument I will lose in most companies, so as a service to Wily Manager readers, I’ll suggest ways to pass the time in one of your infinite number of meetings:

• Buzzword Bingo – this is where you try to stay awake by identifying business catch phrases.  You need to be discrete, though.  You don’t want to carry in a BINGO marker, or jump out of your chair, screaming “BINGO” when the Director of IT utters the words “low-hanging fruit”.  Download the Wily Manager Buzzword Bingo card here.
• Meeting value calculator – it’s kind of like a telethon, where you keep adding up the total amount of shareholder value that is being sucked away.  You can run the calculations privately, or put up a display board with changeable numbers that can be updated as the meeting goes on.  It’s a bit like the national debt clock in Times Square.
• Count the Meetings. Often you may be in a room and witnessing 12 individual meetings happening in rapid succession, as each person updates the boss with information that is completely irrelevant to everyone else in the room.
• Count the Meetings (variation). In particularly undisciplined organizations, meetings will degenerate into multiple and simultaneous conversations.  In this case there can be several separate meetings occurring at once, but they are much harder to count that the first variation of this game.
• Spot the Participant Type: In this game, you tag each participant with the label most appropriate to them.  Here are some thought starters:
  • The Jeopardy game show contestant:  this is a person constantly asking rhetorical questions, and communicates through Socratic code:  “Do I like the idea of being in this meeting room for 8 hours?  No, I don’t”
  • Caffeine-Deprived: Spot the people in the room struggling just to maintain a minimum level of consciousness, so as not to appear asleep.  Often identified by periodic head-bobbing, however the really good ones have perfected sleeping with the eyes open, while nodding every few moments to give the illusion of awareness
  • The Rambler – A solution to this problem is like Book III of Gulliver’s Travels where an empty sheep’s bladder tied to stick is used to gently hit the Rambler in the head to keep him on track.
  • The Evangelist – everything is a matter of life or death.  If the colour of the toilet-paper is changed, it will negatively impact our very way of life.
  • The thinker – they doodle, don’t look they’re paying attention, and then once per meeting the amaze everyone with their ability to put the entire issue into context.  Be nice to them, they could be your next boss.

Finally, it seems that meetings and death are closely related.  Even before Patrick Lencioni wrote Death By Meeting, I had a dream that I had died, and arrived in purgatory, and it was a meeting that never ended.  I was desperate that someone would pray for my soul, until I realized all of them were too busy in meetings as well.  I woke up realizing a violent death wasn’t as bad as it sounded – at least after a grizzly death, someone would pray for me.

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• Rarely will you be successful without the ability to “relate” effectively.
• Those who leave positive impressions get more done through and with others than those who leave negative impressions.

Listening

• Do you offer answers before the question has even been asked?
• Do you offer conclusions or solutions before hearing the whole story?
• Manage the first 3 minutes
  • Take in information
  • Ask questions
  • Active listening
  • Don’t interrupt

Body Language

Body language that will not help you relate well with others:

• Washboard brow
• The blank stare
• Looking at your watch or the I’m busy look
• Finger or pencil drumming

Body language that will help:

• Eye contact
• Smile
• Nodding while the person is talking
• Open body posture

Language

When you do start talking the key to leaving a positive impression is to replace conflict provoking language with language that sounds like you want to cooperate and work with the other person.

Blame

Assigning Blame or figuring our who’s at fault is rarely helpful

• Eliminate blaming statements
  • You aren’t listening.
  • If you had taken more care …
• Focus on figuring out a solution and moving forward
  • Let me try and explain this better …
  • What might we do differently in order to …

Commands

• In most situations people don’t like being told what to do.
• Be careful with direct or implied commands.
  • You should …
  • You ought to  …
  • You have to …
  • You need to …
• Instead try statements of options or choice.
  • Have you considered …
  • What if we were to …
• Making a request often lands better than a command.
  • Would you mind …
  • Could I ask you to …

Absolutes

Never use absolutes like “never” or “always” because they always:

• Result in the other person getting defensive.
• Are inaccurate.
• Examples:
  • This work is never finished on time.
  • This happens every time we talk.
  • You always …

Other Tips

• When you are frustrated your “gut” response will often cause problems.
  • Reflect, Restate and Respond.
• Check your Ego.
  • Don’t come across like you couldn’t possibly be wrong or the other persons idea couldn’t possibly work.
• Show you Care.
  • Take the time to get to know the other person.

Learn Even More About ‘Effective Interpersonal Communication’

Wily Manager members, click here to access the members-only area for this topic (you must be logged in).  In the members-only area, you can:

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• Click through to Related Topics:
  • Difficult Conversations: You Smell and People Don’t Like You
  • Improve Your Public Speaking and Presentation Skills
  • Giving Quality Feedback
  • The Power of Persuasion: Selling Your Ideas

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In January of 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded on take-off killing all seven crew, and grounding the American space program for two years.  Of the exhaustive investigations that took place (that led to a significant number of changes for NASA, and how they conducted their business), perhaps the most important change was that for the first time, talking about changing corporate culture was fair game.

The engineers and investigators determined the technical causes of the explosion, but when they dug deeper to understand why those technical issues were not addressed in advance, they ended up in the uncomfortable place of changing corporate culture.  It turns out NASA had a culture whereby many qualified people knew there was a significant risk of disaster, but none chose to voice those concerns, even if they would have been listened to.

I call this an “uncomfortable” conclusion because highly technical people in any organization want to discuss things they can see, touch and/or count.  Changing corporate culture is something that nebulous and messy.  It’s difficult to define, impossible to measure, and probably the most important element of performance in an organization — as NASA found out the hard way.

So how do you go about changing corporate culture?

You don’t.

Much like Jerry Seinfeld dominated television with a show about nothing, organizations need to get about doing what they do.  I was recently in the NBC store in New York, more than a decade after Seinfeld left the air, and discovered that a significant portion of the wares were dedicated to Seinfeld’s “nothing”.  The Soup Nazi, Vandalay Industries, and Kramer’s hair all testify to the enduring quality of Seinfeld’s “nothing”.

Changing corporate culture is a lot like the show about nothing.  What people do, how they interact with each other, how they manage conflict, what gets rewarded, who gets promoted, how success is measured and a score of other things all add up to your corporate culture.

The silliest thing you can do is to declare a change in corporate culture to some virtue you read about at some other company.  The culture you have now is a product of the things above.  If you want to change your corporate culture, you need to address those things.

And don’t think it will happen in a hurry.  It will be a decade more before Seinfeld is replaced at the NBC store.

What can you do if you’re looking to change or strengthen your corporate culture?

Listen to the ‘Corporate Culture’ podcast:

: Download Podcast (MP3)

Corporate Culture Podcast Slides

Take a look at the ‘Corporate Culture’ Cheat Sheet

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• Your projects, programs, and career turn on the difference between “no” and “yes.”  Part emotional intelligence, part politics, and part psychology, selling ideas is not like tricking someone out of his money.   It’s about helping others to see things your way— engaging their minds and imaginations.  (Richard Shell, author of “The Art of WOO – Using Strategic persuasion to Sell Your Ideas”)
• On today’s knowledge based workforce – “In our world, the right to give orders has largely been replaced by the need to facilitate, lead, and exercise influence.” (Klatt, Murphy, Irvine)

Influence Pre-Work

1. Establish Credibility

• Authentic professional relationships
• Expertise
• Trust

2. Plan

• Know how you are perceived by others.
• Know your audience - what do they value?
• Inside an organization selling your idea is likely to be a series of interactions rather than one single “pitch”

The Pitch

1. Context

• Frame Your Idea
• State the opportunity

2. Clarify

• Explain the details
• Why should they act?  (in their frame of reference)
• Supplement numerical evidence with stories, metaphors, analogies that will speak to the heart as well as the head

3. Create

• Deal with concerns or objections
• Seek and share ideas

4. Commit

• Determine Who will do What by When

5. Close

• You’ve already closed the “selling of your idea” and have commitment.  This is more about ending the conversation appropriately, saying Thanks.  Don’t keep selling at this point …. Get out of the conversation and move on.

Learn Even More About ‘The Power of Persuasion’

Wily Manager members, click here to access the members-only area for this topic (you must be logged in).  In the members-only area, you can:

• Listen to the ‘The Power of Persuasion’ Podcast (15 minutes)
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• Print or save the ‘The Power of Persuasion’ Cheat Sheet (pdf)
• Click through to Related Topics:
  • Improve Your Public Speaking and Presentation Skills
  • How to Build a Communication Plan
  • Getting Ahead
  • How to Manage Up Without Brown Nosing
  • Effective Interpersonal Communication

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Become a Wily Manager member and get instant access to even more information about Being a Better Boss.  And don’t forget to sign up for our FREE Management Cheat Sheet Collection.

Why care about Leadership?

• Retention – Unwanted turnover = 1.5 – 2.5 annual salary
• Capturing Discretionary Effort  – What the value of 10% more productivity?  How about 100% more?
• Less stress

Realities of being the Boss

• You are under a microscope
• The blame you get, and the credit you get are both exaggerated
• Most people land in leadership roles because they were good technicians or practicioners of their work
• Leaders underestimate the impact they have on others

5 Things you can do right now to be a better Boss

1. Be a better listener

• Take the time
• Don’t multitask (especially PDAs)
• Seek to understand… not to plan your response
• Paraphrase without being a parrot

2. Be a Teacher

• It may take more time in the short-run
• Don’t micro-manage
• Tell people why
• Connect them to something bigger

3. Give and receive feedback in abundance

• Look for opportunities to offer feedback on a daily basis
• Ask your direct reports for feedback frequently – and act on it
• Offer both positive feedback, and corrective feedback

4. Be crystal-clear in your expectations

• Write important expectations down formally at least once per year
• Constantly reinforce expectations
• Use several different media to describe important expectations
• Practice what you preach at all times

5. Provide consequences for both good and poor performance

• People will do what gets reinforced
• You are currently getting the performance you are asking for
• Be absolutely consistent with consequences
• Apply consequences to reinforce both good and poor performance

Learn Even More About ‘Good Boss, Bad Boss: Be a Better Boss’

Wily Manager members, click here to access the members-only area for this topic (you must be logged in).  In the members-only area, you can:

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• Click through to Related Topics:
  • Conducting Effective Meetings
  • How to Coach When You’re Not the Expert
  • The One on One Meeting
  • Dealing With Difficult Employees
  • Delegation
  • High Impact Development
  • ABC’s of Performance Management
  • The Situational Leadership Model
  • Giving Quality Feedback
  • Help! I’m a Micro Manager
  • Millennials in the Workplace: How to Lead and Motivate Generation Y
  • Retention of Employees

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5 things you can do right now to be a better boss.

Listen to the ‘Good Boss, Bad Boss’ podcast:

: Download Podcast (MP3)

Good Boss, Bad Boss Podcast Slides

Take a look at the ‘Good Boss, Bad Boss: Be a Better Boss’ Cheat Sheet

“Selling” is not a bad word – it is an essential business skill.  It’s easy to see how some people would think that influencing others is somehow underhanded or unethical:

“Yep… this one’s got really low miles.  Only driven to church on Sunday by a little old lady from Pasadena”

In reality, many great ideas die an agonizing death because they have not been properly sold.  There also seems to be an inverse correlation between our technical ability, and our willingness to sell.  In other words, probably the more technically skilled you are in your area, the less likely you are to want to sell your idea.  (With all due respect to the Engineers out there.)

Here’s an ugly truth:  marketing is everything.  Think of the examples in consumer goods:

• 8-tracks were far superior in quality to cassettes or records.
• BetaMax was most certainly better than VHS
• Apple’s Mac has long been superior to any PC.

So if these are any indication, great products and great ideas require great marketing if they are to be adopted.

So what do you do?

First – you have to value the idea of selling your ideas.  You need to tell a story about how your idea is going to enhance pleasure, or reduce pain.

Second – Put together a marketing plan.  Depending on what you’re doing, it might only be half a page long, but have some idea about what story you are going to tell, to whom, and via what media.

Third – Check out our podcast this week to hear more about Influencing Others

Finally – remember that we are all “in sales”.  If you live in a society of more than one person, you will be constantly trying to lobby people to your way of thinking about one thing or another.  The sooner we all get comfortable with this reality, the sooner the good ideas will at least seem to “sell themselves”.

Find out how different people react to different methods of persuasion, and then effectively target those you may be trying to influence.  Also learn the three killer mistakes many managers make when attempting to influence others.

Listen to the ‘Power of Persuasion’ Podcast:

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The Power of Persuasion Podcast Slides

Take a look at the ‘Power of Persuasion’ Cheat Sheet

Every few years I’ll do a job or a project for a governmental organization.  Given that I spend about 90% of my time dealing with private sector organizations, I always have to recalibrate when I enter a public sector organization.  Most often in government, I experience generally hard-working people frustrated by a bureaucracy resulting in precious little actually being accomplished.

The public sector usually attracts people who are generally risk averse, and as a result, the idea of taking action without perfect information, or allowing oneself to make mistakes and then swiftly correcting them is a hard sell.  I seem to spend a ridiculous amount of time just urging people to hurry up and move to action.

In some cases, my problem in private sector organizations is exactly the opposite.  Getting people to slow down for just an hour or two to evaluate and document their performance is often branded as heresy.  In the case of doing some form of “look-back” after a project or initiative, public sector organizations tend to do a much better job.

There are probably a variety of reasons for this, not the least of which is that public spending is subject to much closer scrutiny, and by a wider variety of interest groups.  Nevertheless, private sector organizations would be well advised to take a look at how their cousins in the public sector evaluate and document lessons learned from projects and initiatives.

Most often, the reason given for failing to do a post mortem is, “we don’t have time, besides… everything went well.”  When things go very well on a project or initiative is the most important time to do a post mortem.  Do you know why things went better than expected?  Can you repeat that performance again, or was it just good luck?

To spend an hour or two properly debriefing a project or initiative may be the best investment an organization can make.

What should happen after a project winds down?  Pick up some tips for a successful project post-mortem.

Listen to the ‘Project Post Mortems’ Podcast:

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Project Post Mortems Podcast Slides

Take a look at the ‘Project Post Mortems’ Cheat Sheet

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What is a Project Post-Mortem?

• A “look-back” from a specific project or course of action
• Occurs after the fact
• Documents lessons-learned for use in similar future circumstances
• Compares expected results with actual results

• A full, comprehensive project post mortem for the project or action
• Bundle the project with other similar ones and debrief together
• No post project review will occur, but it will be a conscious decision rather than just not getting it done

Benefits of a Project Post-Mortem

• Documents the wisdom gained through experience, and what could be done differently next time
• Understand why things went well (or not), and why
• A form of structured feedback
• Improves communication

How to Conduct a Project Post Mortem

1. Decide on scope and who should participate
2. Establish ground rules, and meeting roles
3. Conduct Gap Analysis
   • Review expected performance or results
   • Document actual performance or results
4. Document action items arising as a result of the PPM

Questions to Ask at a Project Post-Mortem

• What are the KPIs for this project?
• Where the requirements and goals of this project clear at the beginning?
• Did we achieve the business objective?
• What went better than expected?
• What did not go as well as expected?
• How were specific problems overcome?
• What changes would be made if we were to do this project over?
• Which process or methods caused frustration?
• What specific tools or techniques were useful on this project?
• Next time we need more/better involvement from…?
• Does a smaller group need to go offline and evaluate parts of this project further?

Tips for a Successful Project Post Mortem

• Do it as soon as possible after the conclusion of the project or action
• Do not assign blame, but rather focus the intent on learning
• Talk about team performance
• Keep the discussion focused, and do not allow digression to related issues
• Look for an 80% solution

3 Things to Remember about Project Post Mortems

1. Don’t let the project post-mortem become bigger than the project it was meant to assess
2. Take the time to do it well
3. Make it a learning exercise – don’t make it about personal blame

Learn Even More About ‘Project Post Mortems’

Wily Manager members, click here to access the members-only area for this topic (you must be logged in).  In the members-only area, you can:

• Listen to the ‘Project Post Mortems’ Podcast (15 minutes)
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• Print or save the ‘Project Post Mortems’ Cheat Sheet (pdf)
• Click through to Related Topics:
  • The Business Review Meeting
  • Tools to Lead Change
  • Giving Quality Feedback
  • Cause and Effect Map: Creating and Using a Fishbone Chart

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Find out all about the Wily Manager Leadership Boot Camp:

• Why bother?
• What it’s about
• Who should participate
• How it works
• What’s covered

Listen to the ‘Leadership Boot Camp’ Podcast:

: Download Podcast (MP3)

Leadership Boot Camp Podcast Slides

Download the Leadership Boot Camp Brochure:

Wily Manager Leadership Boot Camp Brochure

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Who Cares About von Manstein?

• Career military man who finished his career advising the West German government
• He assessed top performers on how they got things done
• Provides guidance on how to organize our time

The von Manstein Matrix:

The Pareto Principle:

• 80% of your results will come from 20% of your efforts
• You need to work hard to identify the 20%

How to Get “Lazy”:

• Don’t fall into the activity trap.  Nobody cares how busy you are, they care what you produce
• You need to do more than just work hard
• Decide what NOT to do

Applying the Matrix:

• Don’t try to keep all people happy all the time
• Have a work plan
• Practice saying “no”
• Assess your direct reports on the matrix
• Fire the hardworking, stupid ones

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Learn how to be “lazy” yet get more done at work.

Listen to ‘The von Manstein Matrix’ podcast:

: Download Podcast (MP3)

von Manstein Matrix Podcast Slides

Take a look at ‘The von Manstein Matrix’ Cheat Sheet

We’ve heard many managers compare their jobs to that of baby-sitter.  The only difference being when the kids upset you, you can send them to their room, and the snacks and TV-watching options are better for the baby-sitter.

It is true that managers of people get dragged into all kinds of trivia, and much of it should be ignored.  There seems to be no more emotional issue than that of the office layout.  Several years ago, people were mourning the loss of office walls, as many organizations transitioned to cube-farms.  Now people fight over the size and location of their workstation.

Unfortunately, most managers have very little time/patience/control over the office configuration, so the best they might be able to do is offer some advice to disgruntled cube-dwellers as to how to cope with the physical office reality.  Here are some ideas:

Define Your Office Boundaries. This worked for Les Nessman at WKRP, and it can work for you.  Don’t acknowledge anyone unless they knock at your pretend door, and certainly don’t put up with people walking through your pretend walls.  You might even want to suspend wall paintings from the ceiling to line up with your pretend walls.

Engage in Closed Office Behaviour.  Make loud personal telephone calls.  If you feel the need for a nap, close your pretend door and sleep like you would at home (unless you sleep in the nude).  Need to pick your nose?  You’re in the privacy of your own office – go for it.  If someone tries to talk to you through a pretend wall, look towards the pretend door, and shout, “I can’t hear you.  Would you like to come in here?”

There’s No Place Like Home. Most people spend more conscious hours in their workplace than they do in their homes.  You need to make the place comfortable.  Buy a portable fridge to put under your desk, as well as some small kitchen appliances (start with a toaster, blender, and espresso machine).  You probably don’t control much in your work-place, so make your 8 X 8 part of the empire a castle.

Of course with this new-found freedom, you will also have to respect and ignore others engaging in the same behaviour if the illusion is to be complete.  Here’s a YouTube clip on office layout that outlines the perils of being too interested in what’s happening one row over on the cubefarm.

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Office Types:

• Enclosed Offices
• Open Space Concept
• Cubicle Farms
• Alternative

Why Getting Out of Offices is Great:

• More and better communication amongst team members
• More direct contact – you end up knowing people better
• Space can be modified quickly and easily
• Usually people have more access to natural light
• Some companies have found it reduces cost because you can put more cubes per floor than offices. (Cisco reduced costs by 37%)
• It’s harder for employees to slack off

Why it Sucks:

• Over communicate any office-space change.  This is a very big deal to people
• Be very clear about your reasons for making a change, and make sure you consider the pro’s and con’s
• You need much more meeting space in an open concept than with offices
• Hire someone to help you through the transition
• Ensure white-noise
• If you go open – everyone must go, from the CEO on down
• Research it well – there is no shortage of information arguing both for and against open office space

One Solution:

• If employees spend the majority of their time working individually, put them in offices
• If employees spend a great deal of time collaborating, put them in an open office configuration.  Perhaps in offices of four to eight people.
• If you want you employees to spend most of their time reading Dilbert, put them in cubicles.

Last Word from Robert Probst:

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What’s the best type of office design?  Enclosed offices?  Open space concept?  Cube farms?

Listen to the ‘Office Design’ podcast:

: Download Podcast (MP3)

'Open Office Concepts' Podcast Slides

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If the last meeting you went to sucked badly, you are in good company.  A survey of over 1000 North American managers indicated that on average they spend about 17 hours per week in meetings.  Of that considerable portion of their work-week, they deemed that one-third of that time was wasted.

The economic implications of this are staggering.  If you multiply 6 hours times the hourly rate of those managers times the number of managers in the economy, you begin to see a number with a whole bunch of zeros behind it.  Even in your own organization this calculation could easily total in the millions of dollars every year.

More selfishly, ask yourself what you would do if you had an extra six hours every week.  Could you work more reasonable hours?  Perhaps you could get to those things you know are important but are constantly displaced by the urgent.

This got us to ask the question, “if meetings are systemically bad, and they cost that much what can be done?”

First of all, do not accept that meetings have to be bad.  We all seem resigned that we have to write-off a significant portion of our week to something we know is useless.  Demand more of yourself, and of your organization.

Second – be part of the solution.  This is your problem to solve.  Even if you do not chair the meeting, you can raise questions as to how effective they are.  Your complacency will get you into more pointless meetings.

Third – insist on a structure.  The engineers and accountants always get a bad rap for being anal retentive.  While you may want to avoid such people at cocktail parties, invite them to help fix your meetings.  A bit of discipline will exponentially improve the value of your meetings.

Finally – figure out what meetings are costing you.  What is the cost to the organization by the time they pay a fully burdened labour cost.  What is the cost to you if meetings are causing you to work longer hours and give up your leisure time.  Profit-driven organizations are usually good a containing costs when they have to.  Get them to contain the cost of their meetings.

Then you’ll have more time to read our blog, and download YouTube clips.  Here’s one from John Cleese – for those who love British humour.

What is a Business Review Meeting all about?

Listen to the ‘Business Review Meeting’ podcast:

: Download Podcast (MP3)

Business Review Meetings Podcast Slides

Take a look at the ‘Business Review Meeting Cheat Sheet

Many moons ago, I was a teenage university student, paying my tuition by working the graveyard shift at a grocery store.  One of the prime motivators of continuing to study hard year after year was so that I wouldn’t have to continue to work the graveyard shift at a grocery store.

Now that a few decades have elapsed, I have come to realize and appreciate the true value of this experience.  When we have assisted clients to implement high performance teams, I am often asked if I have ever been on one of those very special teams.  Then I tell the story about being on night-crew during university….

Interestingly, people are always trying to draw the connection between high-performing individuals and high performance teams.  When I tell people the link is not as strong as they might like to think, I am often greeted with confusion.

Here’s an ugly little truth:  Your star employees are often high-maintenance, and may do more long term damage than good.  Everyone knows the employee who can crank out the results, but leaves a wake of broken relationships and collateral damage behind.  She may produce a superior level of output for some period of time, but may adversely affect the output of others.

High Performance Teams exist where the interactions between team members are exceptionally functional.  A High Performance Team quite likely doesn’t have any stars, but rather group of competent performers who have found their groove in working together.   The success of your organization depends upon the number and quality of these B-players.

Back in the 1980s, in the middle of the night at a high-volume grocery retailer, our little team had no stars.  It was a group of guys who liked working together, had a very clear idea of what they were supposed to be doing, and relentless peer pressure to get things done properly.  Our output was almost double that of any comparable crew – and we had way more fun too.

The prescription for a High Performance Team is easy to understand.  Filling that prescription is much more difficult.

OK – we’ve all done it.  Decided to do something ourselves because its easier and faster than holding the appropriate person to account.  Maybe you’ve even done it with your children.  Micro-managing – the gift that keeps on destroying.

Every manager has been warned against this, so let’s look at why it happens, given the most common excuses most managers give for doing so:

It’s faster to do it myself.  It probably is faster… the first time.  But if you look at the amount of time it will take you to teach or correct someone else in the execution of a task, versus the amount of time it will take you to do it on an ongoing basis, the answer is clear.

I can do it better. You probably can… for a while.  However, if you insist on doing every individual task yourself, you will become quickly overwhelmed, and will end up doing some (high) proportion of those tasks poorly.

My people aren’t capable. If this is the case for any amount of time, you are clearly not doing your job as a manager.  It is your job to develop people.  Occasionally you truly don’t have the right talent, in which case you have to make changes to your talent bench.

I need to keep close to the details. Actually, you probably don’t.  As a manager, it is not your job to be expert at everything.  It’s your job to create experts, and be able to ask some semi-intelligent questions of them.

If I don’t do all these tasks, I won’t be useful anymore. Listen to yourself.  If you’re that insecure in your role as a leader, you need to examine whether you should be in a management role at all.

The bottom line is that micro-managers sap the productivity out of organizations by failing to capture the discretionary effort of their employees.  They don’t develop people, which is a primary function of a leader.  They also limit their own career mobility by trying to make themselves indispensible in the role they are in.

Micro-management is a self-destructive behaviour, and a great way to get fired.  Then you’ll have lot’s of time.

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Vision helps to define where the organization is headed.   The vision should paint a clear and compelling view of the future that helps everyone understand where the organization is headed and perhaps what it will be like once you’ve reached your desired state.   It must motivate, be ambitious and should stretch people to achieve more than they thought possible.

A clear vision is one that answers the question …Where are we headed?

Once you have your vision in place, then you can proceed with the strategies, plans and budgets to map out exactly how you will move ahead to realize the vision.

A clear vision has the potential to break through all the forces that support the status quo and encourage a true commitment by:

1.     CLARIFYING the general DIRECTION for the organization;

2.     MOTIVATING people to take ACTION in the right direction;

What Makes a Vision Great?

Clearly, some visions are better than others. Who can question the success of Bill Gates’ “A computer on every desktop” at Microsoft? This vision was successful because it possessed a set of characteristics shared by all great visions. Great visions are:

• Imaginable – they convey a picture of what the future should look like.
• Desirable – they appeal to the long-term interests of employees, customers, stockholders, and others who have a stake in the enterprise.
• Flexible – they accommodate individual initiative and allow alternative responses in light of changing conditions.
• Memorable – they communicate a message easily and are somehow ‘catchy’ or hard to forget?

What Works and What Doesn’t Work

What Works

• Trying to see – literally – possible futures
• Visions that are so clear they can be articulated in one minute or less
• Vision statements that are creative and memorable.  It needs to be simple, yet catchy to make it stand out.  Think short, fun and to the point.

What Doesn’t

• Assuming linear or logical plans and budgets alone adequately guide behavior when you’re trying to leap into the future
• Overly analytic, financially based vision exercises
• Giving fifty-four logical reasons why our future needs to look different than our past

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The Strategy Starter Kit topic bundle includes:

• Strategy Starter Kit Workbook (pdf, 40 pages) – A series of questions and fill-in-the-blanks that result in your completed Business Planning Document, containing aligned Mission, Vision, Strategies, Goals & Objectives, as well as a Sustainment Plan to ensure success.
• ‘Aligning Vision, Mission & Goals’ Full-Length Video (approx. 15 minutes) – Audio (mp3) and Visual Slides (ppt) can be downloaded separately
• ‘Aligning Vision, Mission & Goals’ Cheat Sheet (pdf, 1 page)
• ‘Mission Statements’ Podcast + Podcast Slides (mp3, ppt)
• ‘Mission Statements’ Cheat Sheet (pdf, 1 page)
• ‘The Vision Statement’ Podcast & Podcast Slides (mp3, ppt)
• ‘The Vision Statement’ Cheat Sheet (pdf, 1 page)
• ‘SMART Goals and HARD Goals’ Podcast & Podcast Slides (mp3, ppt)
• ‘SMART Goals and HARD Goals’ Cheat Sheet (pdf, 1 page)

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While the vision statement is future oriented and describes where the organization wants to be in the future, mission statements are firmly grounded in the present, describing what the organization, department or team does.  The Mission describes the purpose of your organization, product or service.  It answers the question “Why are we here?”

Even if you are working within a larger organization think as though you are in business for yourself as though you are a consultant or contractor with skills and talent the organization needs for a specific purpose.   Why do internal or external customers need you?  What is your team or department committed to providing to it’s internal or external customers?

Why Create a Mission?

A clear mission provides grounding and purpose to your organization.  It communicates the focus of the organization.  What the organization does.  It’s purpose.   A well-written and well-communicated Mission can coordinate the actions of many people in a fast, efficient way.

Without a focused mission statement, the risk is that the organization limps along, attempting to be everything for everyone, with no limits, no parameters, and no focus.  Lacking focus the organizations energies and resources may become stretched over more activities than can be properly served with excellence.

Mission statements help clarify what business you are in; with that clarity you are then in a much better position to articulate your strategies and goals.

What Works and What Doesn’t Work

What Works:

• Mission statements that are clear statements of the business purpose
• Missions that are moving, capturing your heart as well as your head
• Focused language that provides guidance in decision-making, clearly explaining what the company or department or team does.

What Doesn’t:

• Unfocused statements – we will be successful in everything we do … we will exceed the expectations of our customers.
• When the Mission is too confusing.  If your mission statement is packed full of technical terminology and business lingo, it loses its effectiveness.
• Mission Statements that are too long – trying to cover absolutely everything.  Relating fifty-four things the company does.
• A Mission that is not grounded in reality.  It’s okay to be hopeful, but when hopefulness crosses the line into sheer fantasy … there is a problem.

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The Strategy Starter Kit topic bundle includes:

• Strategy Starter Kit Workbook (pdf, 40 pages) – A series of questions and fill-in-the-blanks that result in your completed Business Planning Document, containing aligned Mission, Vision, Strategies, Goals & Objectives, as well as a Sustainment Plan to ensure success.
• ‘Aligning Vision, Mission & Goals’ Full-Length Video (approx. 15 minutes) – Audio (mp3) and Visual Slides (ppt) can be downloaded separately
• ‘Aligning Vision, Mission & Goals’ Cheat Sheet (pdf, 1 page)
• ‘Mission Statements’ Podcast + Podcast Slides (mp3, ppt)
• ‘Mission Statements’ Cheat Sheet (pdf, 1 page)
• ‘The Vision Statement’ Podcast & Podcast Slides (mp3, ppt)
• ‘The Vision Statement’ Cheat Sheet (pdf, 1 page)
• ‘SMART Goals and HARD Goals’ Podcast & Podcast Slides (mp3, ppt)
• ‘SMART Goals and HARD Goals’ Cheat Sheet (pdf, 1 page)

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I’m not really sure when it happened.  Sometime over the last few years it has become socially acceptable to have a potty-mouth at the office.  Most often I am invited into workplaces for short periods of time – usually a few months – so I normally don’t know anyone when I first show up, and have to take some time to get to know people.

I find it incredible that people who don’t know me are quite willing to use exceptionally foul language in our very first meeting.  I should clarify two things:

1)   I’m not there to fire them, or otherwise torture them… which may be construed as just-cause for an expletive or two.

2)   I’m not offended by any of this, and use my own fair-share of foul words in more familiar company.

I just find it curious that people think words your mother always told you she didn’t want to hear are now common-place in work settings.  In my experience, this transcends just about all demographic groups.  It is not just younger people, nor is it just men.  I have witnessed this in large cities, and small ones, in a wide variety of industries.  I think it’s safe to say this has become a societal thing.

So… what is to be done?  Probably nothing.  But I would caution anyone who cares that first impressions are very powerful, and if you litter your first impression with language that would make a lumberjack blush, then you will inevitably come across as insensitive and less intelligent.

As a general rule of thumb, it might be good to know someone’s last name, before asking them (in so many words) if they like sex and travel.  Likewise, don’t assume that you’re not offending anyone, just because everyone else seems to be swearing.  It’s amazing that many offices insist on no fragrances or smelly foods for fear of upsetting someone, but have no similar guidelines for certain forms of noise pollution.

Until you know who you’re talking to, you might want to channel Bill Cosby more so than Eddie Murphy.  In the mean time… check out this clip for how one office handled it.

I found this clip on YouTube that is a hilarious/sad commentary on many workplaces.  Happy Viewing.

Other than questioning someone’s parentage, is there a faster way to insult someone than calling him an introvert?  Isn’t introversion something that we need to cure people of by sending them to the Dale Carnegie Course?

Many organizations have invested in some form of psychometric instrument that indicates whether people have a preference for introverted or extroverted behaviour, but that hasn’t stopped the vast majority of people from throwing around these terms without actually having a clue as to what they mean.

People hear “extrovert”, and they think: outgoing, friendly, social, capable, productive, normal.

People hear “introvert”, and they think: shy, withdrawn, anti-social, illusive, dysfunctional, wall-flower.

The problem with these descriptions is that neither is particularly accurate, and it infers that people are capable of only one set of behaviours exclusively.  There is also a connotation that Extroverts will excel in business to a much higher degree than Introverts.

In Good to Great, Jim Collins reveals the qualities that his research has shown as effective in running great organizations.  Interestingly, many of the qualities of “Level Five Leadership”, are found more naturally in people with Introverted preferences.

You might also be surprised who may be a closet-introvert:  High-profile leaders, television personalities, sports stars, maybe even one of your friends, neighbours, or family are introverted.  They’re everywhere, so beware – you never know when they’ll want to slink into the back corner of a meeting room, and silently wish everyone would stop talking at once.  Or perhaps pray that someone will listen to them for 20 seconds before interrupting them.  Worse yet, they may think about something before responding to a question creating that awkward few seconds silence.

So you may be wondering where I fit on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Grid.

As someone who spends a lot of time talking to groups of people, and a person who worked in television (for a short and spectacularly unsuccessful period of time), I am rarely accused of being an Introvert.

I prefer to label myself as a Recovering-Extrovert.  We might need to create a new scale for measurement.

Poor Tony Hayward – he just wants his life back.  OK – that’s officially the stupidest comment of the year, but he’s apologized now, so it should all be OK.  Like most important life-lessons (whether it be business or personal), the fundamentals were taught to us in Kindergarten, we’ve just chosen to forget, or not apply them.

I was watching Disney/Pixar’s A Bug’s Life with my son the other day, when Hopper (the chief antagonist, and all-around bad ass) reminded Princess Atta that the number one rule of leadership is that “Everything is Your Fault”.  Apparently Mr. Hayward hasn’t watched any children’s programming lately, or he might have gotten some of this right.

If it’s any consolation, BP is not the only company to have reacted to a bad situation by making it exponentially worse.  Just a few months ago, we were watching Toyota come unglued like an Egyptian mummy in a swimming pool.  It seems that every organization to have screwed up (or just had plain bad luck) seems to go into ass-covering mode with the exception of Tylenol in the 1980s, and Maple Leaf foods just two years ago.

The big difference:  both the Tylenol and Maple Leaf disasters killed people, but instead of hiding behind their lawyers, the leaders of these companies made themselves front and centre, and took responsibility for the (in)actions of their organizations.

So what can the middle manager or front level supervisor learn from all the silliness?

First… go rent A Bug’s Life, and listen to Kevin Spacey’s line about leadership responsibility over and over again.  When you think you’ve learned it, go listen to it a bunch more times so that when the excrement hits the rotating air-circulation device, you won’t try to cover your ass, but rather step up and take your lumps.

Second… manage your little empire proactively.  In areas that could get you into big trouble (health & safety, violence in the workplace, harassment, discrimination, etc.) don’t ever settle for less than outstanding performance.  Executives at BP will not only oversee the loss of billions of dollars/pounds of shareholder value, but they may be held personally liable for sloppy process.  It’s not out of the question that one or more of them end up in jail/gaol.

Third… understand that taking responsibility is the burden of leadership.  This is what we pay you to do.  It’s what you signed up for in the first place.  If you’re unable to get your head around this, you should get yourself reassigned as an individual contributor.  Yep… that right:  If you “want your life back”, you should think about that before disaster strikes.

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When creating a team charter, you will wan to include the following standard components (and might also include other sections):

1. Purpose
2. Accountabilities
3. Operating Guidelines (Ground Rules)
4. Goals and Actions

The Purpose, Accountabilities, and Goals sections establish what the team needs to achieve; the Operating Guidelines section lays out how the team is going to achieve them.

Team Charter: Purpose

The Purpose Statement in a team charter defines the focus of the team’s efforts by explaining why the team exists.  This section is less about the job description of things the team does and more about why the team might do these things … to what end?  What organizational goals does the team intend to impact?  Think in terms of being in business for yourself as though you are a team of consultants or contractors with skills and talent the organization needs for a specific purpose.  You might try using the “5 Why’s” or asking “SO WHAT” to help you drill down from actions or activities to what the teams purpose is.

Questions to prompt your thinking:

• Why does this team exist?
• What goals or objectives do we intend to impact in the broader business?
• What will change for the better because of our team?
• What problems or opportunities are we to address?

Team Charter: Accountabilities

The Accountabilities in a team charter are the team’s main deliverables.  Well-identified team accountabilities, provide a list of the team’s main responsibilities and outputs. Think outcomes not activities!

Questions to prompt your thinking:

• What are the teams main job responsibilities?
• What outputs, products, tools, services do we provide to fulfill our purpose?

Team Charter: Operating Guidelines

The Operating Guidelines in a team charter should be stated as behaviors so that all team members understand what is expected of them. It’s important that everyone on the team agrees to and supports the guiding principles.  They define the agreed-upon behaviors and expectations of the team and the individuals who make up the team.

Questions to prompt your thinking:

• How will we approach the work?

• Collaboratively, always working together
• Divide the work to experts to work on separately
• Will we involve others from outside the team .. who, how, when
• How will we share information
• ??

• How will we make decisions?

• By consensus …how will we define consensus
• Present our positions to the team lead who will make final call
• ??

• How will we run meetings?

• How often will we meet, where
• Who controls and distributes the agenda
• How will we spend our meeting time
• ??

• How will we treat one another?

Team Charter: Goals and Actions

The team’s Goals and Actions in a team charter need to have direct line of sight to the Team Purpose and Accountabilities.  Here you need to get more specific, with actions that include measurable targets that will lead to your team meeting its accountabilities and delivering on its purpose.  Think ‘SMART’ (Specific, Measurable, Agreed-upon, Realistic, Time-Bound).

Questions to prompt your thinking:

• What are the first steps that we need to take in order to meet our accountabilities and delivering on our purpose?
• Who will do What by When?
• How will we measure our progress?

Learn Even More About ‘Create a Team Charter’

Wily Manager members, click here to access the members-only area for this topic (you must be logged in).  In the members-only area, you can:

• Listen to the ‘Create a Team Charter’ Podcast (15 minutes)
• Download the ‘Create a Team Charter’ Audio (mp3)
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• Click through to Related Topics:
  • Mission Statements
  • The Vision Statement
  • Good Boss, Bad Boss: Be a Better Boss

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Become a Wily Manager member and get instant access to even more information about Creating a Team Charter.  And don’t forget to sign up for our FREE Management Cheat Sheet Collection

Learn how to create a team charter that establishes both WHAT a team needs to achieve and HOW the team is going to do this.

Listen to the ‘Create a Team Charter’ podcast:

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Team Charter Podcast Slides

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What is a Vision Statement? How does a Vision Statement fit into the bigger picture (vision/mission/strategy)? What is an example of a great vision statement versus one that is not so great?

Listen to the ‘Vision Statement’ podcast:

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Vision Statements Podcast Slides

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What makes a great mission statement….and what are mission statements that suck? What is a mission statement and why do you need one?

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Mission Statements Podcast Slides

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A business review meeting is a specific type of recurring meeting that is held to discuss individual or team scorecards and progress toward objectives.  During the business review meeting, teams apply problem-solving tools to issues that are impacting their performance.  Team leaders, managers and senior leadership assume coaching roles which emphasize positive feedback and recognition.

• Reinforce the accountability and action plans of each team or individual
• Share ideas and learn about interrelationships in the business
• Celebrate success
• Identify and remove barriers

Roles of leaders in the business review meeting process:

• Articulating the organization’s vision
• Involving people in deciding how to achieve the organization’s vision
• Supporting employee efforts to realize vision by providing coaching, feedback, and role modeling
• Recognizing and rewarding success

The business review meeting process:

Business review meetings are scheduled on a regular basis (monthly or quarterly) and include a presentation of key performance measures (individual and/or team).  Baselines (historical performance), current data and projected trends are presented for each goal or critical success factor.  Key successes are shared with the group as well as required interventions and actions to overcome barriers.  Working together, the team develops action plans to improve performance - steps to reach objectives are identified; individuals are assigned responsibility for each step; target completion dates are established for each step and expected results are communicated.

Why have a business review meeting?

• Opportunity to assess the current performance status of each team or individual
• Opportunity to highlight and recognize good performance
• Opportunity to gain input from peers and management on ideas, scorecards and action plans for the next time period
• Opportunity for leaders to focus the team on critical issues, goals and objectives
• Opportunity to make decisions as a team
• Opportunity to give and receive feedback

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• Business Review Meeting Cheat Sheet (pdf)
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  • In-Depth Topic Overview
  • How to Make a Successful Presentation at a Business Review Meeting
  • How to Lead the Business Review Meeting Process
  • Recommended Resources – where to find out even more about business review meetings
• Business Review Meeting Podcast (mp3)
• Business Review Meeting Podcast Slides (Powerpoint)

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What is a RACI Responsibility Chart?

RACI is an acronym for the four major headings in a responsibility chart:

• Responsible – this position does the work to ensure that the action is completed
• Accountable – this position is ultimately responsible for ensuring completion of a function, activity or decision, but may delegate responsibility to another. Only one position should be accountable for every action or decision
• Consulted – This position is involved prior to a decision or action taking place
• Informed – This position is told of an outcome of an activity or decision afterwards

RACI Responsibility Charting Guidelines

• Focus on the position, not on the individual currently occupying the position
• Ensure the level of detail is appropriate to the positions on the RACI Responsibility Chart. Organizations should have cascading RACIs from the senior team down to the individual contributor level
• The RACI Responsibility Chart should be revisited and tested regularly as business conditions change
• The first RACI Responsibility Chart will be an iterative process, and may not 100% accurate at first. Further refinement is encouraged
• Place accountability (A) and responsibility (R) at the lowest feasible level
• There can be only one accountability (A) per activity
• Minimize the number of Consults (C) and Informs (I)
• Avoid listing mundane activities like ‘attend meetings’

Horizontal & Vertical Analysis of a RACI Responsibility Chart

Once the RACI responsibility chart has been populated, it is important to review and analyze the work to ensure that the tasks, decisions and functions will be properly executed. View the chart horizontally to ensure that each action or decision is properly supported. View the chart vertically to ensure that workload is properly distributed amongst a team or work group.

Using a RACI Responsibility Chart to enhance or validate job descriptions

After a RACI has been conducted with a group, it is wise to cross-check the data on the RACI responsibility chart with what is written in the job description. In some cases, items from the job description should be noted on the RACI. responsibility chart. Most often Accountabilities and Responsibilities from the RACI responsibility chart are used to update job descriptions.

Using a RACI Responsibility Chart to enhance KPIs or Scorecards

A good use of the output of a RACI responsibility chart is to note what KPIs, data and other management information is required for an incumbent to successfully execute his or her accountabilities and responsibilities. In many cases the RACI responsibility chart can provide a solid guide as to what should be on a scorecard for the positions featured in the RACI chart.

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• RACI Responsibility Charting Cheat Sheet (pdf)
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  • In-Depth Topic Overview
  • RACI Horizontal and Vertical Analysis Check-Sheet
  • RACI Job Description Template
  • Recommended Resources – where to find out even more about RACI Responsibility Charting

• RACI Responsibility Charting Example from the Oil and Gas Industry (Excel)
• RACI Responsibility Charting Presentation – use this if you want to roll it out in your organization (Powerpoint)
• Easy-print versions of the Wily Manager Tools contained in the RACI Responsibility Charting Booklet (pdf)
• RACI Responsibility Charting Podcast (mp3)
• RACI Responsibility Charting Podcast slides (Powerpoint)

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What is RACI? Learn how to create a responsibility chart (matrix) using RACI…and how to use it once you’re done.

Listen to the ‘RACI Responsibility Charting’ podcast:

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RACI Responsibility Charting Podcast Slides

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Stop wasting time in meetings. Learn the four key points to effective meetings.

Watch the ‘Meeting Effectiveness’ video (26 mins 38 sec):

Download the ‘Meeting Effectiveness’ Video (mp4)

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Meeting Effectiveness Podcast Slides

Take a look at the ‘Effective Meetings’ Cheat Sheet

Why we like this book:

Jim Collins always writes his books based on quality research as opposed to the cheerleading that we see in many management books. He also has a very conversational tone, which makes it very easy to read and retain his key ideas. How the Mighty Fall is not a book about the Global Financial Collapse, although its timing was almost perfect, and the lessons to be learned from the book and the research certainly may have helped some of the organizations. Probably those who need to read this book most are those that are running companies (or departments within companies) that are doing particularly well. As Collins points out, organizations that convince themselves they are doing very well often self-delude themselves into ignoring blind spots that become all too evident after the fact.

We think this is an easy, informative read, and worth the time to do so. What about you – what do you think?

Jed & Bob

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How much time do you waste…I mean spend…in meetings every week? Meeting effectiveness is a critical leadership issue that needs improvement in just about all organizations.

• Have a defined purpose and clear objectives with a written agenda
• Members have prepared in advance and are engaged
• Balance of discipline, flexibility, diplomacy and determination
• Members have defined roles and respect established ground rules
• Efficient, result focused, and ultimately save time and effort
• Result in a series of tangible action items
• Capture insights and enthusiasm
• Motivate people to specific action
• Efficient and result focused
• Are documented and summarized with commitments well understood

On the other hand, ineffective meetings look like this:

• Lack participation
• Dominating leader or member, unbalanced involvement
• People don’t listen to each other
• Stays off track too long
• Inefficient, results unclear
• Ideas and different views are criticized or squelched
• Action assignments and outcomes are not clear

There are four steps you need to follow to make sure that your next meeting is effective. Here’s a brief introduction to the four steps:

Step 1 – Prepare

• Ensure the purpose of the meeting is well understood. Ask what would happen if this meeting did not take place.
• Prepare the agenda in advance.
• Ensure that the desired outcomes of the meeting are articulated in advance.
• Make sure all the participants are prepared in advance.

Step 2 – Communicate

• Inform all participants well in advance of the details of the meeting; the purpose and outcomes; and, preparation required.
• Circulate agenda in advance, as well as any other reading material

Step 3 – Control

• Start on time
• Review ground rules and assign roles
• Use a “Parking Lot” to keep on the agenda

Step 4 – Document and Follow-up

 
• Record main discussion points and decisions for future reference. This list becomes your meeting minutes.
• Clarify actions and assign names and deadlines to them.

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The Effective Meetings topic bundle includes:

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  • In-Depth Topic Overview
  • How to Get a Meeting Back on Track
  • Role Definitions for Effective Meetings
  • Effective Meeting Preparation Checklist
  • Worksheet for Effective Meetings
  • Meeting Rating Form
  • Types of Meetings and Tips for Success
  • Recommended Resources – where to find out even more about Effective Meetings

• Easy-print versions of the tools contained in the Effective Meetings Booklet (pdf)
• Effective Meetings Podcast (mp3)
• Effective Meetings Podcast Slides (Powerpoint)

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