Forward Momentum: Delivering Results

by Rob Zell

I imagine you could survey employees on any day in any company and they would tell you that meetings are the bane of their existence. Too often, meetings are conducted without an agenda or even an overarching purpose. Attendees jockey for organizational position or display blatant apathy, checking email on mobile devices or laptops.

Meeting derailers are well documented and websites abound for coping with them. One challenge is that we work in an information age in which knowledge workers spend their time gathering, analyzing and synthesizing data, rather than producing or manufacturing. In meetings we have a desire to share what we know, rather than work to completion or decision. We all have a data set that we bring to the table and we need the time to process the data that others have before we can make a decision.

One way to manage this confusion is to have “pre-meetings”: touch base sessions with participants to set the stage and gain buy-in and commitment. Of course this means that a one hour meeting turns into a series of meetings; not the way to increase productivity! I would propose that this is the best reason to integrate the technology of a social collaboration tool into your workplace.

I can already hear the groaning in some corners of your organization. “Just what we need,” the CFO will say, “Facebook for work.” The COO will argue that the organization doesn’t need people “tweeting” on the job. This is what we often think of when the topic of “social” collaboration comes up. What if we took “social” of the term and instead called it “enterprise collaboration?” Few people would argue that engaging more people in the conversation, at least more people with relevant information, improves the quality of the decision.

A collaboration tool for business might be the answer to creating productive sharing prior to the decision meeting. Inviting employees to discuss and share adds value by increasing the knowledge and awareness of the participants and giving them time to process and synthesize. Furthermore, the content and discussion becomes a shared database and with proper use of tagging and cataloging, the information is available to the organization speeding the time to productivity. In a workforce that is generationally shifting, capturing this “tribal knowledge” is critical to the organization’s long term success.

The other great advantage in using a tool like this is that it increases the commitment to the decision. Because the members had a chance to weigh in, discuss, process and be heard, the team can come to a joint decision during the dedicated time allowed without the posturing and politics that might normally occur in the formal meeting space.

And finally, for the naysayers who will argue that these kinds of tools don’t add business value, there is plenty of research out there that says otherwise. In organizations that utilize these tools, there is better alignment, better transparency, better community and better results.

I’d like to hear your thoughts: how might your organization take advantage of “enterprise collaboration” tools to support higher productivity? If you are already using a tool like this (in my organization we use Yammer) how is it paying off?

By Rob Zell

How is learning delivered in your organization? Would you say it’s “pushed” (often used with “down” or “out”) or does it follow a “pull” model in which team members access it at will? Either way, your learning department is working hard to make sure that training is available as needed to support the business, and that’s a good thing. Furthermore, the best in class organizations are doing both, providing just in time training to meet immediate needs and optional offerings to advance knowledge and skills.

Organizations that follow a “push” only model are going to rapidly fall behind the curve and will soon find themselves lagging behind the competition. In the current business environment, companies need to have innovative, forward thinking leaders and requires a culture that fosters experimentation, exploration and critical thinking. Your organization can certainly hire for those skills but it’s an expensive model to support and you might be better served growing talent from within the organization.

Compliance often drives a “push” model of learning. In organizations with a high need for safety, security, internal accountability and regulatory compliance, training reflects the need to ensure that employees are certified for legal reasons. Historically, this follows a traditional model of education. Primary and secondary schools modeled the factory model of the industrial revolution, demanding homogenized groups and standardized levels.

Instead, I propose to maximize the effectiveness of learning in your organization you should be looking at three categories of training:

1.  Compliance Training. We’ll call this “Mission Critical”, training that meets regulatory compliance or is necessary to keep the wheels on the bus. In my experience, things like food safety, OSHA training, information security, Patriot Act and, for front line employees, training required for cash management, point of sale, and inventory management. In some organizations, ethics courses and diversity training fall into this category based on the culture. These types of courses fit well into the “push” model and are considered ticket to entry into the organization.

2.  Development Training. Let’s call this “Nuts and Bolts” training. This set of courseware advances the knowledge and skills of the organization in various functions. Content areas in this curriculum cover topics like leadership, project management, merchandising, human resources management, real estate development, logistics and customer relations. These courses can be developed in house or outsourced and may be linked to university or certification programs for transferable credits. By delivering this content you raise the knowledge and skill level of your people which increases the bench strength and long term survivability of your team. These courses fall into both “push” and “pull” categories. Learners engage the content as needed for their own development and growth in the organization but managers can always prescribe a course of learning to help move employees along or ensure accurate execution.

3.  Personal Training. This is the “Bells and Whistles” content. This is my catch all bucket for anything else that people want for their own learning plan. These courses support personal development and fill in the gaps to improve personal performance. Courses on time management, communication and organizational skills or experiences and roles that provide experience through trial and error. These should be primarily “pull” programs; employees self-identify areas of improvement and seek out learning opportunities to enhance their performance. In some cases, managers may prescribe specific courses or experiences based on need.

A solid learning program should have all three kinds of content, delivered via various modalities. Some sessions are best served through classroom sessions (in person or virtual classes) while others might be online courses, self-study documents, or peer sharing networks. Having a menu of content and delivery options provides access to the necessary training for success.

How is training structured in your organization? Is all training served up through a “push” model, a “pull model” or a combination of both? What do you find to be the most effective way to ensure employees are receiving the content they need, when they need it?

By Rob Zell

I had a boss once who loved to draw on the white board. It became something of a joke on his team, that at the beginning of a meeting we would hide the dry erase markers before he came into the room. It never stopped him; he started carrying them around. Only recently do I truly appreciate his approach.

Sidebar for a personal story: My daughter’s soccer team recently ended their season and part of my end of season gift was a coloring book and crayons and the missive that it was something to help me reduce my stress (something of a gag gift). At home after the party, I sat down with the coloring book and colored a picture. I took the time to work slowly and carefully, experimenting with different colors and used shading to highlight areas. It took me back to a calmer time: I worked on the image for me, not for my boss, or my kids, or for the executive committee – just for me. I loved it.

I am known among my peers as the visual learning guy. I push hard on the team to use fewer words and more pictures in both the training materials we produce and the presentations we create. If an image is worth a thousand words then we should we be creating voluminous training in images, not pages of text. Too often, the push back is, “I can’t draw” or “I’m not creative.” Let me say now that everyone can take this approach given some processes and tools.

1. Take some time to tap into your creative side. A quick search on Google yields a plethora of sites on coloring to relieve stress. I’m not saying you should make it a daily habit, but why not take a few minutes once in a while to doodle? It unlocks a thinking habit that thrives on free association and random connections that you might not have considered. Those links are the foundations of innovation and might lead to bigger and better ideas.
2. Incorporate a process for thinking differently. The Six Thinking Hats framework developed by Edward de Bono is a wonderful starting point for organizing meetings and encouraging a style of thinking. Assign the role of Green Hat to various team members and have them work at being the creative, “blue sky” thinker. By assigning the role to a person you give permission for ideas to flow and remove limitations.
3. Encourage mind-mapping as a technique for organizing information. On many occasions I find myself in meetings struggling to grasp how all the parts of a program or initiative are tied together. The various stakeholders have input into the problem and the resulting maelstrom can be hard to decode. A mind map can help illustrate the interconnectedness of all the ideas and make concrete the linkages that the entire team needs to see.
4. Seek out visual representations of complex ideas. I have two sites I visit regularly to keep my mindset firmly planted in a visual approach. One is the RSA.org channel on YouTube. This British think tank does a fabulous job of linking thought leaders to artistic displays of the concepts. The images drawn in the videos make the presentations so much more vivid. Another is visual.ly a web site that shows how information can be presented visually and, in my opinion, more memorable.

Finally, let me say that visuals don’t have to be high end art work to be effective. A very simple visual can speak volumes to the reader and communicate at more levels than a paragraph of text. Visuals are great for learning, meeting management, brainstorming, even project management (what’s a WBS but a visual of all the tasks in a project?). Don’t fear the creative side, embrace it and take your projects and work into a different, better, more holistic place.

How are you using visuals and creativity to work more efficiently in your role? If you aren’t using them now, how could you?

By Vicki Wrona, PMP;  Rob Zell

While listening to podcasts and reading articles that I enjoy, I thought that if we all share our favorite business blogs and podcasts, we might find a few gems to brighten our weeks. Below are some suggestions. What are your favorite podcasts?

From Vicki:

The podcasts I enjoy listening to are:

• Get it Done Guy’s Quick and Dirty Tips to Work Less and Do More podcast by Stever Robbins provides good tips for professionals.

• TED Talks – available in hi-def video or audio only, TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a non-profit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Topics include business, environment, technology, engineering, science.  The podcast can be found at http://feeds.feedburner.com/tedtalks_video.

• To The Best of Our Knowledge (TTBOOK) by PRI and Wisconsin Public Radio. I have subscribed to this podcast for years, both through audible.com as well as directly from their site. I am a fan of this show, its wide (huge) variety of topics, and its excellent interviewers. I have enjoyed shows on topics I would never have thought about or taken the time to look into.

From Rob :

I admit to not listening to many podcasts as I tend to be more of a visual learner. I enjoy a series by RSA called RSAnimate.  You can find them on YouTube for free here:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=rsa+animate&aq=0&oq=rsa

RSA creates videos from audio tracks of famous authors talking about their works and matches it up to video of an artist sketching the concepts. Fun and educational for the auditory and visual learner. It includes summaries from Daniel Pink (Drive), Sir Ken Robinson (on education), and many other thought leaders. It’s fascinating to listen to the summaries while the artist expresses the content visually.