Google’s 8 Point plan to be a better manager

In a previous article we listed a summary of Google’s 8 points to be a more effective manager – here is some more detail.

Eight good behaviours of effective managers (in priority order for Google)

1. Be a good coach
   • ◦Provide specific constructive feedback, balancing the negative and the positive.
   • ◦Have regular one-on-ones, presenting solutions to problems tailored to your employees’ specific strengths.
2. •Empower your team and don’t micromanage
   • ◦Balance giving freedom to your employees, while still being available for advice. Make “stretch” assignments to help the team tackle big problems.
3. Express interest in team members’ success and personal well-being
   • ◦Get to know your employees as people, with lives outside of work.
   • ◦Make new members of your team feel welcome and help ease their transition.
4. Don’t be a sissy: Be productive and results-oriented
   • ◦Focus on what employees want the team to achieve and how they can help achieve it.
   • ◦Help the team prioritize work and use seniority to remove roadblocks.
5. Be a good communicator and listen to your team
   • ◦Communication is two-way: you both listen and share information.
   • ◦Hold all-hands meetings and be straightforward about the messages and goals of the team. Help the team connect the dots.
   • ◦Encourage open dialogue and listen to the issue and concerns of your employees.
6. Help your employees with career development
7. Have a clear vision and strategy for the team
   • ◦Even in the midst of turmoil, keep the team focused on goals and strategy.
   • ◦Involve the team in setting and evolving the team’s vision and making progress toward it.
8. Have key technical skills so you can help advise the team
   • ◦Roll up your sleeves and conduct work side by side with the team, when needed.
   • ◦Understand the specific challenges of the work.

Three Indicators of Poor Managers

1. Have trouble making a transition to the team
   • ◦Sometimes, fantastic individual contributors are promoted to managers without the necessary skills to lead people.
   • ◦People hired from outside the organization don’t always understand the unique aspects of managing at Google.
2. Lack a consistent approach to performance management and career development
   • ◦Don’t help employees understand how these work at Google and doesn’t coach them on their options to develop and stretch.
   • ◦Not proactive, waits for the employee to come to them.
3. Spend too little time managing and communicating

For many there is nothing surprising here – what is important about this data is that it shows that consistency is important. People value the basics.

 

Google’s Project Oxygen – 8 point plan to help managers improve

A practical plan to help mangers be better

Google have grown, so has their need to manage. This giga company has the time and resource like no other, and it is use some of that resource to invest not only in technology but inwards. As a part of that investment, the HR team embarken on some research using Google’s renound data analysis skills. Project Oxygen (so called as they see people as the life blood of the organisation) was designed to measure the impact of good managers and help the company make more of them.

The study found that a manager’s technical skills were far less valued by employees than people skills. However they are still on the list as being important.

Why do people leave their employer?

The work is based on testing the belief that people typically leave a company for one of three reasons.

1. They don’t feel a connection to the mission of the company, or sense that their work matters
2. They don’t really like or respect their co-workers
3. They have a bad boss — This being the biggest variable

“Project Oxygen is our attempt to verify here at Google the age-old HR statement that people leave organizations because of their managers,”.  ”We wanted to see whether there’s a huge variance in the quality of managers and if so, what kind of impact was it having on the company?” - Director of People Analytics & Compensation Prasad Setty.

Setty and his team examined the results from Googlegeist, the company’s annual employee survey, as well as performance-management scores and other data on managers to identify good performers and poor ones.

The work started in early 2009 and training from the results commenced in 2010.

The project set out to analyze the results from performance reviews, feedback surveys, nominations for top-manager awards and other available data. Then they correlated phrases, words, praise and complaints. The results were then prioritized by importance.

So what is in the 8 point plan to help managers improve?

Just the stuff you would expect – but it is about consistency and authenticity in the way they are applied. Unlike many competency approaches, Google just share the data and help individuals, managers and teams to make sense of it. They are not forced into change, they are educated and hope that individuals see what is expected of them and learn. If they don’t in the longer term.. well that is a different story.

The 8 point plan to help managers improve

In order of importance the 8 top behaviours of managers are:

1. Be a good coach
2. Empower your team and don’t micromanage
3. Express interest in team members’ success and personal well-being
4. Don’t be a sissy: Be productive and results-oriented
5. Be a good communicator and listen to your team
6. Help your employees with career development
7. Have a clear vision and strategy for the team
8. Have key technical skills so you can help advise the team

In addition they identified 3 key  manager pitfalls:

1. Have trouble making a transition to the team
2. Lack a consistent approach to performance management and career development
3. Spend too little time managing and communicating

You can see the original list as published

 

Stop the fad surfing

While many of us in the world of HR & Organizational Development strive to find the “new shiny” idea, this research clearly shows that we need to keep with the basics if we really want to succeed.

A note of caution – it will be easy for a company to adopt this as a list of things for them – such have 100s of firms in the past – but remember this is GOOGLE’S data – their culture is different, so while the issue may be similar, the outcomes may be very different!

NOTE, the fact that technical skills is still on the list is an important one. Employing “professional managers2 without some technical understanding can create tensions that do not need to exist.

Based on an article from NY Times

Sample template for Training Needs Analysis – Management & Leadership

Identifying Management & Leadership Needs

The sixth in our series of sample templates of Training Needs Analysis templates – this one for looking at management and leadership skills.

TRAINING NEEDS ASSESSMENT – For  Management And Leadership

 

Introduction

An organization is basically constructed for a purpose. Business is (usually) to make profit; education is to touch the heart and teach the minds of its students, health care is to take care of the wellness of its patients, etc. These organizations comprise human resources that work on the fulfillment of its purpose. The attainment of the vision and mission of any organization depends on the direction of its leaders. Managing the organization’s business and leading its people would be a difficult task to an un-prepared individual assigned to be, as they say, “captain of the ship”. The purpose of this TNA is to make an analysis of your competency as managers and leaders/supervisors of your respective departments.

This is to help you nourish your strengths, improve your limitations and bring out your potentials.

Instruction: Kindly fill out the necessary information being asked. Encircle the number corresponding  your response in each item following the legend below.

5        – Excellent                        3    – Satisfactory                    1    – Needs

4    – Very Satisfactory          2    – Fairly Satisfactory                Improvement

 

Name: __________________________________   Department:____________________

Current Job Position:______________________________

No. of Years holding the position:____________________

Service Record in the Company:

Position	Inclusive Dates	No. of Mos/Yrs

Highest Educational Attainment: ____________________________________________

 

Managerial Capability

1. Planning:  (1.1) sets company goal for the fiscal year                 1     2     3     4     5

                     (1.2) identifies work to be done to attain the goal  1     2     3     4     5

                     (1.3) identifies who is accountable for the various

                              work in attaining company’s goal            1     2     3     4     5

                     (1.4) projects the needed resources in attaining

                              the goal                                    1     2     3     4     5

                     (1.5) provides contingency plan in case of plans

                              projected does not work                     1     2     3     4     5

                     (1.6) sets evaluation tool for the company’s

                             performance                                  1     2     3     4     5

2. Organizing: (2.1) assigned person responsible for a

                             particular task                              1     2     3     4     5

                     (2.2) identifies responsibility of each personnel    1     2     3     4     5     

                     (2.3 sets time frame of the work to be done of

                            each personnel                                1     2     3     4     5

3. Leading:   (3.1) gives direction to the subordinates in

                             attaining the company’s goal                 1     2     3     4     5

                     (3.2) sets a good example for his subordinates

                              to emulate                                  1     2     3     4     5

                     (3.3) make decisions and direct the work of

                              others                                      1     2     3     4     5

                     (3.4) builds a harmonious working relationship

                              among its subordinates                      1     2     3     4     5

                     (3.5) nurture a pleasant culture of the organization 1     2     3     4     5

                     (3.6) maintains a harmonious working relationship

                              with fellow manager                         1     2     3     4    5

                     (3.7) supports the decision of the higher authority  1     2     3     4    5

4. Coordinating: (4.1) conducts regular meeting with the

                             accountable person                           1     2     3     4     5

                     (4.2) makes follow up of the tasks to be done        1     2     3     4     5

                     (4.3) assess company’s performance according

                              to plan                                     1     2     3     4     5

                     (4.4) assess departments’ performance based

                              on the given responsibility                 1     2     3     4     5

                     (4.5) provides feedback on individual,

                              department and company’s performance        1     2     3     4     5

5. Controlling: (5.1) delegates work to others                            1     2     3     4     5

                     (5.2) sets a standard of subordinates level of

                              performance in her/his job                  1     2     3     4     5

                     (5.3) maintains the quality of service/product

                              that the company offers                     1     2     3     4     5

                     (5.4) ensures that the tasks are done according to

                              schedule                                    1     2     3     4     5

                     (5.5) work to accomplish the task within the

                              budget allocation                           1      2     3     4     5

6. Staffing:   (6.1) identifies the needed staff in a department          1     2     3     4     5

                     (6.2) sets the standard competency of staff to be

                              hired                                       1     2     3     4     5

                     (6.3) hire an applicant staff based on the

                              competency she/he could perform             1     2     3     4     5

7. Motivating: (7.1) provides a conducive atmosphere at work              1     2     3     4     5

                     (7.2) recognizes the needs of its staff/workers      1     2     3     4     5

                     (7.3) supports the recreational activities of its

                              workers/staff                               1     2     3     4     5

                     (7.4) listen to its staff/workers grievances         1     2     3     4     5

                     (7.5) recognizes the efforts of workers/staff

                              in attaining organizational goal            1     2     3     4     5

                     (7.6) share the blessing of the company to its

                              workers/staff                               1     2     3     4     5

Coping with Stress

Instruction: Kindly tick the box(es) that you do as your recreational activities following the legend below.

4 – Often                        2 - Occasional

3 - Regular                      1 - Never

                                                                      1             2             3            4

1. Watch Television program.                                        [     ]       [     ]       [     ]      [     ]

2. Watch a movie.                                                   [     ]       [     ]       [     ]      [     ]

3. Read magazine or books.                                          [     ]       [     ]       [     ]      [     ]

4. Listen to favorite music                                         [     ]       [     ]       [     ]      [     ]

5. Practice deep breathing                                          [     ]       [     ]       [     ]      [     ]

6. Goes to the gym                                                  [     ]       [     ]       [     ]      [     ]

7. Visualizes herself/himself as a healthy

     and relaxed person                                             [     ]       [     ]       [     ]      [     ]

8. Do yoga meditation                                               [     ]       [     ]       [     ]      [     ]

9. Writes in the journal to account the days’

    activity, blessing, accomplishment, etc.                        [     ]       [     ]       [     ]      [     ]

10. Play games (basketball, chess……)                                [     ]        [     ]      [     ]      [     ]

11. Take a walk in the park                                         [     ]        [     ]      [     ]      [     ]

12. Visit a SPA                                                     [     ]        [     ]      [     ]      [     ]

13. Tend the garden, plant trees                                    [     ]        [     ]      [     ]      [     ]

14. Have a good talk and laughter with someone                      [     ]       [     ]      [     ]      [     ]

15. Have a good sex with wife/husband/partner                       [     ]       [     ]      [     ]      [     ]          

Training Evaluation This section focuses on the planning and evaluation aspects of the specific trainings that were identified for management and leadership skills. This can be used to present the idea for approval by upper management.
Estimated budget (Breakdown of projected expenses for duration of training)	Resources (Presentation materials, physical facilities, etc.)	Documentation (Consolidation of digital and hard data for presentation)	Evaluation (Focused on trainers,  trainees, organizers,  and training program)
- Use a separate sheet if possible -	- Use a separate sheet if possible -	- Use a separate sheet if possible -	- Use a separate sheet if possible -
Conclusion	How will this assessment tool help identify the training needs and motivation needed by the staff under management and leadership units for future training?

Team Leader Mentoring (Management Mentoring)

Using Mentoring to Effectively Develop Team Leaders

Team leader and middle management mentoring is rapidly becoming the “must have” in replacing conventional and costly internal training programmes.

With the changing economic climate presenting new challenges every day, many middle managers lack the skills and experience to make informed decisions. Worse – much of the management development over the past 10 years has focused on systems and growth, not survival and sustainability, certainly not problem solving. One solution to this development gap is the use of external experienced managers as mentors to your managers. This is proving to be a cost effective solution for financially astute organisations for manager of all levels and experiences.

The basic principle of management mentoring

These programmes are not optional. Employees (Team leaders, Supervisors and Middle Managers) are advised they will be given a mentor and are obliged to accept. While some will resist, most are happy to embrace the concept and evidence shows that the mentee, the mentee’s immediate superior and the overall company benefit from these programmes. Meetings take place every 2-4 weeks depending on the needs of the organisation.

External mentors visit the company three or four times a month and mentor up to five managers on each visit. It gives the executive an opportunity to discuss issues with an external person and to bounce ideas off someone who has no axe to grind and can give objective advice and guidance.

As well as the fortnightly or monthly one to ones, the mentors are also available to their mentees on the phone and email at other times. This allows the mentee to always be supported.

All meetings are confidential, and apart for confirming attendance, no feedback is given (unless specifically agreed in advanced). This ensures the managers talk openly with the mentor. Any generic or common needs will be highlighted to the sponsoring director or executive, for consideration as an organisational wide development need.

It is important to stress that this is not executive coaching. The staff are mentored by professional mentors who are themselves business people, many of who are non-executive directors as well as specialist consultants. The mentor teams are put together to offer a vast reservoir of knowledge, experience and expertise.

Expertise in management mentoring

For this to work the external mentors need to be experienced and credible. They need to have considerable experience as both line managers and business managers, with proven expertise and competence in mentoring and at least 4 of the following:

• Strategy & business planning
• Finance (operational and strategic)
• Marketing (operational and strategic)
• Operations (operational and strategic)
• HR (operational and strategic)
• IT (operational and strategic)

Knowledge of management mentors

As times and trading conditions change, so does the need of the mentor. Having experience to draw upon, rather than just text books is increasingly important. For many in management positions – especially those that have spent their entire career in public or large corporate positions, they have relied on function to undertake activity. The world is changing, and increasingly organisations require the adaptability of people that have developed and grown small and medium sized organisations – where dealing with diverse issues was order of the day. In other words we need mentors with 20-40 years experience rather than those with 1-10 years. The recent business challenges (loss of jobs, financial constraints etc pose problems to less experienced managers and mentors – but these challenges are not new, and we can learn from the way these situations (or ones like them) were handled in the past.

Recent reports from the CIPD show that experienced managers are losing out in obtaining employment. The irony is that it is often just this experience that organisations need to support their up and coming younger managers. An effective mentor needs to have worked in a diverse range of sectors, in varying roles and had experience of passing or transferring knowledge effectively.

The management mentoring cost from £2000 per person per annum whereas a typical coaching programmes can cost upwards of £5000 per person. Coaching will often lead to identifying additional training needs for an individual, where as mentoring can often provide that training as part of the on going relationship.

Want to learn more?

If you are interested in this cost effective manager development strategy, please contact a member of the RapidBI team for a discussion.

Useful Links

Recently I have noticed a number of trends on many professional forums. There appear to be increasing numbers of people in HRD roles or studying for HRD roles that lack some of the ‘basics’. To meet this need I have written a number of guides and introductory articles, their purpose is to act as a beginner 101. I hope you find them of value.

http://www.rapidbi.com/articles

Management Models – 100+ Management Models – a page full of graphical management models
The PESTLE Analysis Tool – The PESTLE analysis – a powerful tool for exploring the external environment of an organzation
SWOT analysis – The SWOT analysis – a powerful tool for exploring the strengths of an organzation
PRIMOF_- Business_Growth_Model – The PRIMO-F business growth model
Write SMART objectives – Description on how to write SMART objectives for individual and business performance
Critical Success Factors – What are Critical Success Factors and how to use them
Corporate Social Responsibility CSR – How does Corporate Social Responsibility impact smaller businesses

 

 

The pages below contain free articles on management, leadership and HR issues:

Action Learning for Leadership Development

Introduction
When devising any leadership programme, it is important to ensure that as participants students are not only ‘taught’ or trained, but that they have the opportunity to put learning into action. Experience has shown us that unless we practice new skills and ideas soon after a programme we tend to forget the lessons learnt.

In practice many of us tend to short circuit this cycle and often ship the reviewing phase as it is often difficult to do ‘out of context. Action learning will help ‘close the loop’ and ensure our learning is as effective as possible (more about learning cycles in module one). Action Learning Sets are primarily focused on the individual’s learning.

An Action Learning programme involves the following key elements:

• The Set: a group of 6 – 8 people who meet regularly.
• The Projects: each participant works on a project or task over the life of the set
• The Set Advisor: a facilitator who helps the group to work and learn together.

Although Action Learning is flexible, it is structured and focuses on the individual and their learning need and NOT on the programme.

Participants have quoted many benefits which they have gained from action learning:

• learning a more ‘disciplined’ way of working
• learning to network
• learning to relate to, and communicate with, others more effectively
• gaining increased self-confidence
• gaining increased awareness
• gaining increased readiness to take responsibility and initiative.

In summary, the values which underpin action learning are:

• membership of a set is voluntary
• commitment must be demonstrated in making the process work
• a positive, constructive approach to life
• reflection as the key to learning
• the presenter is focused (on her/his own issue)

How to run an Action Learning Set

Action Learning Set
Who is in it?
An Action Learning Set is a group of 6-8 people who meet regularly to help each other to learn from their experiences. A Set Advisor is appointed to help manage the process. The set is not a team since its focus is on the actions of the individuals within it rather than on a shared set of work objectives. Experience has shown that sets often work better when participants come with a similar level of experience. The Set Adviser is part of the set in one sense but has a particular responsibility to create a learning environment by encouraging, challenging and focusing on learning. Some Action Learning Sets are self-facilitated.

A ‘Set’ Meeting
The Set will decide on its own way of working but usually a ‘meeting’ involves a series of individual time slots where participants take turns in presenting their project/ challenge/ issue to the set. This will normally involve:

• an update of progress on actions from the last meeting
• a presentation of current issues/problems
• an agreement on actions for the future.

Throughout this, other participants will work with the presenter (by listening and questioning) to help them to decide what actions to take.

Time is always a limited resource in a set meeting and the Set Adviser must ensure that set participants get their full allocation (it is not a free discussion). Some Sets develop a fixed agenda to speed up the start of the meeting but in any case, all participants should come fully prepared for the meeting.

Action Learning Projects
The project is the piece of work around which the participant learns. It does not need to be linked to specific outcomes such as setting up a safety audit carrying out a particular task but could also be about acquiring skills or knowledge. For the purposes of this programme, however, the project must have a learning focus.

Participating in an Action Learning Set
Preparing for a Set meeting:
Before the meeting it will help to get the best out of the session if participants can think through what to focus on with their set. The set may be somewhere that participants can ‘experiment’ with different behaviours such as consciously asking more questions than usual or being more reflective if they are usually very talkative. Presenters should:

• prepare for meetings
• structure their time
• be clear about what they want – or want the set to – focus on
• learn to ask for what they want
• listen
• generate action points for them self.

Structuring your time:
Usually, the presenter will use their time to report on action taken as a result of the previous set meeting. It is useful to think about:

• what I did
• what happened
• what was different from what I expected
• what I did not do – why – what I did instead
• what can I/have I learned from this?

This can form the basis for reporting back to the set who will then ask questions. The presenter can continue with:

• what is the issue now
• what actions could I take now
• what action points can I identify

Alternative Approaches
A presenter may wish to concentrate on a particular aspect of their project that s/he thinks the set can really help with. This gives a depth of focus which may be a more appropriate use of time than an overview.

Alternatively, the presenter may wish to ask the set to talk about a particular problem and s/he will listen and only ask for clarification at the end of an agreed time. This is helpful if the presenter is stuck for ideas to take the work forward.

The reverse of this is where the audience remains silent and the presenter talks through the project. A listening, attentive audience may help the presenter to clarify thinks for her/himself.

Reviewing your time
At the end of each participant’s time slot it is useful for the presenter to review with the
set the process by which the action points have been identified. S/he might ask for feedback on how s/he presented the project or might give the set feedback on what was helpful or unhelpful about the set’s interventions. This can also be done by the whole set near to the end of the meeting. It helps the set to develop a supportive learning climate to work in.

A typical meeting might follow this format:

Introduction – a warm-up activity and confirmation of programme for the meeting
In agreed order each person in the Set:
10 Minute presentation of current ‘state of play’/ position
10 minute of exploratory questions from the Set to help the presenter think through the issue
5 minute presentation to the Set on the action plan.
Closing session – time taken for the whole group to finish the meeting rather than drift off at the end. Would include an element of evaluation – what will we do differently next time.

Effective leadership development programmes will encourage participants to participate in at least one Action Learning Set. The frequency that they meet will depend on the programme and the level of progress being made by participants.

Conclusions
Action Learning Sets can be very effective development methods in the development of leaders. Facilitators of the most effective Action Learning Sets have undertaken appropriate training with an experienced Action Learning Facilitator, the author strongly recommends all facilitators not only take part in an action learning set for their own development but that they undertake appropriate training prior to facilitating sets themselves..

Action Learning is one of the methods good development programmes use to help leaders apply their learning. Other formal approaches will include your Line manager and your mentor.

Action Learning works best when a ‘Set’ of individuals are put together as a support group for the duration of the learning activity.
The concept of Action learning Sets was developed originally by Reg Revens.

A definition of Action Learning
“Action Learning is an approach to the development of people in organisations which takes the task as the vehicle for learning. It is based on the premise that there is no learning without action and no sober and deliberate action without learning. The method has three main components: people who accept responsibility for taking action on a particular issue; problems, or the task that people set themselves; and a set of six or so colleagues who support and challenge each other to make progress on problems. Action Learning implies both self-development and organisation development.” Mike Pedler (1991)

So what is Action Learning?
Action learning is based upon the concept of learning by reflection (or reviewing) on an experience. It is underpinned by the cycle of experiential learning as shown below, where the stages of reviewing and concluding are worked through with the Set.

Transactional Analysis (TA) – is it relevant to todays world

Is Transactional Analysis (TA) relevant?

In the first of a multi part series written by RapidBI team associate Vince Whittle, we look at Transactional Analysis and its application in management and people development.

Introduction to TA

Many people have heard of Transactional Analysis (TA) and it was popular a number of years ago in management development programmes but how relevant is a psychoanalytic tool developed in the ‘50s to today’s managers and consultants in industry and commerce?

There is scepticism about the role of a host of ‘psychological’ interventions and tools and the legitimacy of their use in the work place or of the consultant peddling their “snake oil” as a cure all for organisation problems – and rightly so. But what of a straight forward model for understanding the behaviour of our self and others that can give a rich insight into the complexities of human relations?

I would argue that knowledge and experience of Transactional Analysis as part of personal development provides a very useful understanding of individuals, relationships and communication which is at the heart of management and organisational effectiveness.

History of Transactional Analysis (TA)

TA has its roots firmly in the therapeutic arena. It was developed as an approach to psychotherapy by Dr Eric Berne, a Canadian Psychiatrist who had become increasingly frustrated with approaches to psychotherapy in the late 1950s. His revolutionary approach led to an effective theory of personality and systematic psychotherapy with a wide range of applications from clinical approaches to psychopathology, child development, communication and therapy for individuals, couples, groups and families. However the great legacy is its application outside the therapeutic field in education, social work, management and organisations.

The models that Dr Berne developed are readily accessible and provide insight into the dynamics of human relationships. He published Games People Play in 1964 which became a best seller. According to Dr. Berne:

“… games are ritualistic transactions or behaviour patterns between individuals that can indicate hidden feelings or emotions – you can think of a game as a series of interactions (words, body language, facial expressions, etc.) between two or more people that follow a predictable pattern. The interactions ultimately progress to an outcome in which one individual obtains a “payoff” or “goal.”  In most cases, the participants of the games are unaware that they are “playing.”"

All models are based on some key assumptions and in the case of TA the philosophical assumptions are that:

• People are OK  – Both you and I have worth, value and dignity which is unconditional
• We all have the capacity to think – and be responsible to decide what we want and face up to the consequences
• We decide our destiny – strategies and ‘games’ we play even if decided on as children are our decisions and these decision can be changed

So how can some of the TA concepts help?

In TA, ego states are sets of related behaviours, thoughts and feelings. Individuals have a limited repertoire of these that can manifest themselves at different times. The repertoire can be can be sorted into three categories, ego states that resemble those of parental figures (referred to as Parent), those that are directed towards an objective appraisal of reality (referred to as Adult) and those which represent relics but which are still active and where fixated in early childhood. Movement between these states can explain some of the shifts in behaviour we observe in others and are all components of a person’s personality. It is important to remember that each of these states is quite distinct and that movement between them can be rapid. When two or more people interact we have what is called a “transaction” and that is when this understanding of structure becomes interesting,

Complimentary transactions are the basis of appropriate interchanges for example in Adult to Adult exchanges where there is some stimulus which is correctly interpreted and a complementary response is given. These complementary transactions lead to smooth communication, however when the transactions are crossed then communication breaks down. A classic example of this is where there is a stimulus that produces an inappropriate response, if the Adult to Adult stimulus was a question such as “Maybe we need to find out why you’ve been putting on weight recently?” the appropriate Adult to Adult response would be “Maybe we should I would really like to know” However if the person retorts angrily “ You are always criticising me just  like my Dad, I hate you” you are getting a Child to Parent response and the Adult concerns about weight will be suspended until the transactions can be realigned.

The workplace has many such examples of “crossed wires”.

When people transact they acknowledge each other by an act of recognition – these are called strokes and are necessary for people to maintain both their physical and psychological wellbeing.  Different strokes for different folks, is very true as many a naughty child will play up just to get the attention – even if it hurts! I bet you already recognise this in a number of your colleagues or clients! But understanding and recognising the need for strokes is fundamental in developing positive working relationships.

As children we write for ourselves a life script, it’s a story of our life with beginning, middle and end. The basic plot is formed in infancy and most of the rest is completed by age seven. Whilst most of us will not consciously remember what we determined for ourselves we are likely to live it out without being aware of it tending to set up our lives to move towards the final scene we decided upon when very small. Becoming aware of your own life script can help people understand how they may, unconsciously, set up problems for themselves – and how they may resolve them. Jerry B Harvey recognised this in his brilliantly titled book “How come every time I get stabbed in the back my fingerprints are on the knife?”

Games are ongoing series of complementary ulterior transactions which progress to well-defined and predictable outcomes. Dr Berne details thirty-five games in his book each of which results in a “payoff” for at least one of the players. Recognising what is happening in social interactions is sometimes difficult which is why TA therapists undergo extensive training. However having a knowledge and understanding of the nature of games gives managers and consultants some choices about how they approach engaging with others which can realise benefits for both.

TA – a summary

In summary the models developed by Eric Berne are readily accessible and straightforward, he uses simple language to describe some of the complexities of personality and social interaction and on the whole it is a very “user friendly” approach which clearly explains many of the truths we experience in our personal and work lives. That understanding gives choices in the way we manage our own communication and interaction helping us be more authentic and effective.

More to follow in coming pieces – how to use these concepts in practice

VJ Whittle 2010

Free discussion group for those involved in training

One of the best kept secrets in the training world is the daily digest from Training Journal.

Known as the TJ Daily Digest (once the UKHRD started by Fenman)this daily round-up of questions and answers of all things training is free again sign up here to receive it http://www.trainingjournal.com/subscriptions/discussion.php

Great for in-house training specialists to seek the opinion of like-minded colleagues, and for freelance trainers to ‘show they can’ – but beware this is not an advertising medium – so great for brand awareness but not a place for sales, but a wonderful and valuable service none the less.

For the more adventurous of you annual subscription to the Training Journal comes with access to the TJ archive – training articles going back many years from this authoritative journal.

New use of wordpress blog for management articles

For some time I have been looking at ways to include smaller articles on the RapidBI site.  Our main articles page www.rapidbi.com/articles/ works well but is not the place for small tips, thoughts and items.

My experience with WordPress has prompted me to put up a version of wordpress on my site for managing this ‘micro content’ and the blog software does this job well. you can read more at www.rapidbi.com/management/

Innovation – Individual or team effort – “Collective Leadership”

Today I read an interesting blog article on Innovation which starts with:

“To generate creative business ideas, breakthrough innovators must be fiercely tested and wisely deployed (…) Truly innovative people are rare. Perhaps, 5% or 10% of the high potential managers within a company at any given time have the skills and attributes to become innovators.”Read Jeffrey Cohn, Jon Katzenbach, and Gus Vlack’s paper, “Finding and Grooming Breakthrough Innovators,” on HBR.” 

The author of the piece José de Francisco López goes on to say:

“Interestingly enough the above article also states that most companies develop leaders who are better at replicating than innovating, thus struggling to create new opportunities and to get the business ahead of the curve: “rising stars realize that to be promoted, they need to mirror incumbent leaders (…) even when stellar external talent comes in it is frequently drawn into the same anti-innovation culture that has been squelching internal talent.”The article goes on to portray an “innovator’s profile” failing to realize that innovators’ personalities and behaviours can be as diverse as the sources of innovation. In any case, it is true that most creative people wrestle with tensions when challenging the status quo. Innovating means going back and forth between working in isolation and working with others to get things done.”

Why do so many approaches to innovation and innovation in leadership focus on the skills, knowledge and behaviour of one individual. We have tried management models of hierarchy, leadership, transformational leadership etc.. now is the time for leaders to maximise their performance by team working, where that team may be 2 or 22 people. It is about harnessing strengths in the “collective”, and this means a new form of leadership – “Collective leadership” where the individual who is the leaders is not there for them-self, but for the success of the community (what ever that means).

For Collective leaders to be effective we need executive innovation to be a part of the organisations culture.

Byrd and Brown in their book “The Innovation Equation” identify eight orientations of behaviour towards innovation, in the model (The Creatrix) rather than just take a traditional approach of looking at the profile of the individual, it is the team and organizational culture that is the difference that makes the difference.

The language of innovation is also important – everyone understanding what innovation means to each individual in their role, the Creatrix model helps to provide so of that language. For example, in this models an “innovator” is a person who harnesses creativity and takes action and risk to see the outcome through. This is a rare combination. What the model also allows for is for the individual with high drive for achievement and action to work with a creative to implement the idea, thus a team approach is born. the model allows for an unlimited mix of strengths to be harnessed to deliver innovation at all leveus from executives through to customer facing people. This approach take innovation away from process and puts it in behavioural terms, terms that are tangible and can be developed in OD change programmes easily.

Executive Innovation the key to success?

Is Executive Innovation the key to success?
The world economy is changing… are we reacting fast enough?
For many executives innovation is just not happening fast enough according to recent articles and research from Boston Consulting Group’s annual study on innovation.

Many organisations know that first in order to survive and then to grow they need to innovate. In recent years the focus of innovation has been on creativity and the innovative process, but the lack of results show that this is only half the picture.

Background to executive innovation

In the 1960s and 70s Dr Richard Byrd developed some research which led to the publication of a model he originally called the C&RT or creativity and risk taking (1986). This model was adopted by the Pfeiffer publications company as a key part of a methodology they called Applied Strategic Planning. They realised that for successful strategy, risk and innovation as behaviour (rather than a process) was fundamental. In the 1990s Byrd’s daughter, Dr Jacqueline Byrd further refined and developed the C&RT and used the technology available on the web to make the Creatrix model more robust and provide the ability to delve deeper to ensure any development activity resulted in effective behaviour change.

Innovation everywhere but little progress

Many organisations have innovation departments, functions or teams and yet little progress is actually being made in terms of productivity, cost saving or market share. Certainly organisations are developing new and innovative products, but as technologies collide and merge and economies tighten, the consumer buys less. For example the markets or phones, music players, cameras and GPS systems are merging fast – where there used to be four markets increasingly there is one.

Innovation needs to be at all levels and in all elements within an organisation to be effective. In the 1990s benchmarking processes to identify the most effective way of working was everywhere, not organisations need to innovate internally to deliver best value in all that they do, not just product development. This is where entrepreneurial or executive innovation leads the way.

The fish rots from the head

Is the old saying, but innovation grows from the head. When introduces from the top as part of an organisations culture innovation can really make a difference. The key is the culture of the organisation, effective culture change starts from the CEO or COO.

Using tools like the Creatrix, executive or entrepreneurial innovation can be easily developed and nurtured, then when executives see the results they will soon want the whole organisation to behave this way too.

Innovation assessment

The Creatrix starts as a personal profile, with each individual involved in the change process undertaking a simple online inventory. The results of this single profile show the individual on the Creatrix grid, a combination of the individuals risk taking assessment and creativity assessment. In addition the individual gets an output showing the seven drivers and their respective strengths.

Collectively all the individuals involved in the team or organisation are plotted on one matrix or grid providing an overall innovation assessment.

This enables the executive team to review the current position of innovative behaviours and plan where is appropriate (there is no right or wrong profile – just more or less effective at that point in time). Then using the language of the Creatrix it is straightforward to develop a change based programme using the (now) common language to inspire and motivate appropriate change.

Dan Coughlin said

“Apply the same process you do at work by asking the following questions:

1. What does this individual or the members of this group want to achieve?

2. What is keeping them from achieving their objectives?

3. What can I provide or remove that would increase their chances of success?

4. How can I combine my answers to question three in a way that will add the most value to them?

5. Stop writing and move into action!

Mother Theresa was a classic example of this behaviour. She identified opportunities to add value and moved into action. We can do the same over and over again.“

Identifying opportunities and taking action are the two critical elements, simple, and yet many organisations still have barriers in place. Some of these barriers are obvious, many are invisible and should not exist… but they do

For innovation to be commonplace in our organisations we must stop looking at innovation as a process and start to look at it as a culture or set of behaviours.

Product innovation is one thing – executive innovation is quite another.

Management theories and models

Introduction

Management models are not in themselves a solution, but a tool to help develop understanding or a common language.  Remember these are only tools, an over simplification of a view of reality in a given context. Tools come and go like fashion.

While we list a great many here, please ensure you research any tool or model prior to applying it in your organisation. As a coach and consultant I have used many of these to help explain concepts. As a consultant I have used many of these to develop understanding. They are tools, valuable tools. Only use a model if it appropriate to the situation, any model is only a representation of a concept, reality is always much more complex and involves more dimensions than a simple model can infer. All models are equally valid and invalid – for a model to be effective we need to understand the context in which it was developed and implemented. Just because a model works in one organisation in one sector does not mean it will work in all organisations in that sector… remember a model is just that… a model.

 

KNOWLEDGE > UNDERSTANDING > ACTION

To see and download many graphical models in power point>  Management Models and theories

Change management – approach and models

Introduction to Change, change management and change models
For any organizational development (OD) intervention to be effective, change needs to be lead or at the very least managed.

Many organizations focus on the project management aspects of change. While this is an important factor – it is not the critical factor. People are. Having said that, it is about balancing the development or change of both at the same time – see our business growth model.

Often when undertaking change processes in organizations we focus on the process, the project management.  Usually when change fails, it fails because we have not taken into account the impact change has on the individuals concerned from a psychological perspective.

When you are researching or talking to others about change remember the three important leadership rules:

Read more> Change Management

Force Field Analysis

The Force Field analysis is a graphical tool for supporting decision making. It can be used equally by individuals or teams.

Kurt Lewin in 1943 developed the concept based in the physical sciences. He originally proposed it as a tool to understand problem based situations in social science and to effect planned change.

He described a problem situation as one where the difference between the way things are and the way they are desired to be. The principle of force field analysis is that in any situation it the way it is  at any given point because of counterbalancing forces are keeping it that way.

Force does not infer any physical pressure but to the broad range of influences at the time – be they political, personal etc. One way to understand the situation is to analyse the environment or ‘forces’ in it to explore what is supporting the change or resisting the change.  Therefore to effect change we much change the way these forces act on the organization at a given point in time.

Read More> force field analysis

Not what… why

When situations are difficult it is easy to remain task focused (what), but does this help us maintain a future resistant approach?

Schein in “organizational Culture and leadership”  says “what happens in organizations is fairly easy to observe, but in the effort to understand why such things happen, culture as a concept comes into its own”

If leadership is the key to the future success of our organisation then culture is the lock. In a world where we are very short term-ist (just look at the financial markets) we think that we understand the ‘what’ i.e. what needs to be done, but this will again only have a short term impact. The UK gov has seen this first hand with the bailout of the finance sector. We need to “get under the surface” and understand why and change the behaviours.

This is the important of the longer term and longer vision.

In this article there is a challenge to the paralysis by analysis that can catch people who are unaware:

ASK WHAT, NOT WHY

Reckoning with your mind in order to free up your capacity for wisdom is the ongoing battle of life. For some, the battle is constant; others are not as affected. Regardless of which category you fall into, this chapter will give you the first tool for accessing the wisdom that can change your life. It’s a tool you use every day: the ordinary, common question.

One of the most common questions we ask is “Why?” “Why” is the language of seeking to understand. When we were young children, we used this question to figure out how the world works: “Why is the sky blue?,” “Why did Sparky run away?” As we get older, we still use “why” to bring our circumstances into alignment with our ability to understand our world.

Unfortunately, “why” eventually loses its power to move us forward; instead, we get “stuck” by obsessing over questions like “Why did that happen?,” “Why am I this way?,” and “Why aren’t I better-thinner-smarter?” 

 Without Why we would not progress, we would not innovate, we would not learn – copy by rote yes.. learn.. no. Anyone that has had children know very well those years where almost every question was “why” – why is a wonderful learning based question – it gets knocked out of most children by the age of 7 – a shame.

In Organisational Development the why is not just an important tools – it is the ONLY real tool. Without understanding why making any change is dangerous. In her book “the innovation equation” Byrd outlines eight orientations of innovative behaviour, one of those is the “modifier” who makes incremental changes without understanding the culture or context. this can be a dangerous activity if unchecked.

WE need to ensure that before we undertake any organisational development activity that we understand the “why”… the culture… or context in which the decision needs to be made.

many managers and leaders can be successful in one organisation but not in another  this is all down to the extent to which they can change the culture or context to match their strengths.

Over the years i have worked with many business owners and entrepreneurs that wanted to change the culture of their business, but did not realise that they were the culture – when the culture was changed (at their request) from the bottom up, often they were very uncomfortable and did not adjust – one of three things happen – they revert to the old culture or they leave or the company goes bust.

We all need to ask Why a Little more often and learn to understand the culture before proposing changes – at any level in organisations.