Connect, Trust and Spark Fascination through Conversation

In last week’s blog post, Are you spreading optimism or pessimism, we discussed how emotions can be contagious. This week, we’d like to explain how you can create connections, increase trust and spark fascination in your conversations.

The Connection Contagion

Great leaders understand the powerful secret of human connection. They spend time interacting with employees, showing interest in them as a person (versus treating them like corporate chattel), listening to them, and thanking them face-to-face for their contribution. When you need to convey optimism, passion, purpose, gratitude or seriousness, the most effective way to do it is face-to-face. The limbic system in your brain regulates emotions, and sends out a wavelength in face-to-face conversations that act as a contagion to imprint others with passion and it can powerfully serve an entire organization. If you need to deliver excitement and enthusiasm, or perhaps compassion and kindness, along with your words, consider a face-to-face conversation as your default, if possible.

Create Trust / Reduce Tension

Face-to-face conversation is essential if you need to create trust and reduce tension in a relationship. It increases trust, bonding, attention, and pleasure, and it reduces fear and worry. As Edward Halowell puts it in his Harvard Business Review article called The Human Moment at Work:

“Nature … equips us with hormones that promote trust and bonding: oxytocin and vasopressin. Most abundant in nursing mothers, these hormones are always present to some degree in all of us, but they rise when we feel empathy for another person – in particular when we are meeting with someone face to face. It has been shown that these bonding hormones are at suppressed levels when people are physically separate.”

That explains why it’s easier to rip someone apart in an email than it would be if you were standing in front of them. But face-to-face conversation not only produces trust, it can be the happy Prozac moment of your day. Hallowell adds that “scientists hypothesize that in-person contact stimulates two important neurotransmitters: dopamine, which enhances attention and pleasure, and serotonin, which reduces fear and worry.”

Spark Fascination

Have you ever had a conversation with an “expert” who is explaining something that is intricate and complex, but you find yourself fully capable of comprehending what is being said? It’s as if all your channels are open - no distorted buzzing in the background. In another conversation, a different expert is explaining a subject that is no more complex but you feel thick and slow, unable to comprehend the message.

What was the difference? Sometimes it’s more than just your affinity with the subject matter or how ‘with it’ you felt on a given day. Often, chemistry can be at play. Perhaps the first speaker made you feel respected and valued. The second made you feel patronized and disrespected. Each of these two interactions sets into motion a very different hormonal chain of events.

Daniel Goleman, in Working with Emotional Intelligence,discusses the scientific evidence regarding the physical effects on people when they are disrespected or respected. “When we experience stress -- for example, when we’re being psychologically “erased” or simply ignored by others -- our bodies release cortisol, sometimes called the stress hormone. When cortisol is released into our pre-frontal cortex, the logic center or CPU of our brains, can shut down up to sixty-six percent of our rational reasoning powers. The unhappy effect is that we find it hard to understand what is being said. We literally remain stupid, no matter how hard we try to understand.”

He adds that whensomeone positively engages us, “our brain is being soaked in a bath of catecholamines and other substances triggered by the adrenal system. These chemicals prime the brain to stay attentive and interested, even fascinated, and energized for an almost effortless, sustained effort.”

If you want to make a deep and lasting imprint on people, make them feel respected and valued as you converse with them. Doing so will enable them to find the fascination that keeps them engaged to the point of full understanding.

This post discusses face-to-face conversation as the ideal default mode when communicating, to take advantage of your body’s natural chemicals to engage in a better connection. Next week will introduce reality, and talk about how to be more effective at having better conversations virtually and electronically.

Innovation - Don’t rely on the leap of faith!

Apr 5, 20120 comments

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This morning I did a google search for “Think Outside the Box” and received 17,800,000 results. As I scanned the results, it became apparent that there is no shortage of tools, tips and advice on how to “think outside the box”. So, what’s the problem?

 

Simplistic is right! I sat back and wondered, what does it actually mean to “think outside the box”? What exactly, are we asking people to do?

 

Take a leap of faith… that sounds nice but the reason I want to innovate is to drive better results. And taking a “leap of faith” feels a little uncomfortable if not downright risky when,  really, I’m accountable for improving quality, efficieny and sales. If I was sure that taking a leap of faith was all it took to create breakthrough solutions that would be one thing, but…

 

Fortunately, there are tried and true innovation best practices that are available to anyone.

Innovation does not have to be complex. There are simple, practical “back-of-the-napkin” tools you can use to create innovative solutions to both everyday problems and your most important strategic challenges.

In the coming weeks, we’ll explore some of these tools, and  in the process help you (and us) become more innovative and achieve the results we all want. 

Permalink // posted in: Innovation, Leadership

Are you spreading optimism or pessimism?

Apr 2, 2012by Crista Rennerby Brady Wilson0 comments

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Imagine a good friend telling you about a pill she takes every morning that produces amazing results for her in the area of her interpersonal relationships. This is a friend who used to have difficulty connecting with people. Now, she establishes an easy rapport within minutes. Building trust with people had always been difficult for her, but now people offer their trust, information and commitment spontaneously. People used to tune out when she talked. Now her conversations fascinate her listeners. 

Do such wonder drugs exist? Yes, but not in tablet form, they’re stored inside you. All of us come equipped with hormones that, when triggered and released, have a remarkable effect on our ability to connect, create trust and fascinate people. These hormones produce a relational chemistry we have with some people and completely miss with others.

Let’s explore the simple science of how human beings ‘synch’ with each other. The limbic system of your brain (the emotional center) is an open-loop system, meaning emotions can be contagious. Someone’s tears, or their smile can trigger an involuntary sympathetic reaction in you.

In their book Primal Leadership, Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKee discuss this open-loop phenomenon and describe how emotions spread between people.They cite studies in which scientists measure the heart rate of two people as they have a good conversation. At the beginning of the conversation, their bodies are functioning at different rhythms, but fifteen minutes later their physiological profiles look remarkably similar – a phenomenon called mirroring.

Scientists describe [the limbic loop] as “interpersonal limbic regulation,” whereby one person transmits signals that can alter hormone levels, cardiovascular function, sleep rhythms, and even immune function inside the body of another…The open-loop design of the limbic system means that other people can change our very physiology – and so our emotions.

Put us together in face-to-face conversations and we regulate one another’s emotions. You’ve probably experienced this yourself. One team member’s strong, buoyant mood affects one person after another until the whole team is feeling upbeat. Another member’s critical, negative mood can equally infect an entire team in destructive ways. These authors go on to say:

This circuitry also attunes our own biology to the dominant range of feelings of the person we are with, so that our emotional states tend to converge. One term scientist’s use for this neural attunement is limbic resonance, ‘a symphony of mutual exchange and internal adaptation’ whereby two people harmonize their emotional state.

Recent discoveries in neuroscience confirm there are steps you can take to increase your chemistry in the relationships that are most important to you. In the coming weeks we’ll share how you can create connections, increase trust and spark fascination in your conversations – both face-to-face and virtually.

Permalink // posted in: Leadership, Sales

Employee Engagement - A Manager’s Burden?

Dec 15, 2011by Cheryl Rayfield0 comments

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In our work with current and prospective clients around engagement, the discussion will typically start with a question: “How do we get our employees …”.

You may have heard the saying: "People don't leave organizations, they leave people.” (In particular, their direct manager.).  A lot of work has been done to try to "fix" managers.   I am not suggesting that developing managers is a bad thing, in fact it is imperative that managers continue to learn and grow to become the type of leaders everyone wants to follow.  However, when speaking about engaging employees, the burden has fallen again on the shoulders of managers which I would argue is not only unfair, but is also doomed to fail or get little traction.  A manager’s role in engagement is to create the conditions in which employees’ needs (including their own), can be met through mutual accountability.

Engagement and the culture of the organization is as much the responsibility of the employee as it is for their leaders.  Otherwise  the organization is setting itself up to have employees with entitlement issues, constantly waiting for their managers to make them feel better or to give them what they need. Managers are people just like anyone else.  They wake up in the morning with the best intentions in the world to support and recognize their people, and to ensure the organization is successful.  But they are human—not mind readers.  From Juice's research on engagement, we have created a short-cut to understanding engagement from both a rational, and an emotional level, through 5 statements:

I Fit.  I'm Clear.  I'm Supported.  I'm Valued.  I'm Inspired.

The degree to which an employee can make these 5 statements with emphasis will uncover how engaged and energized they are, and directly relates to the amount of discretionary effort and energy they can offer to the organization. These are not simply "employee" statements; they apply from the janitor up to the CEO, and typically a manager (unless highly tuned-in and skilled in the art of leadership) will not distinguish  which of these are most important to their direct reports.   Nor will they recognize what their employee is lacking or needing in order to assist them in moving towards higher levels of engagement.

The manager needs to create the conditions and develop the skills where:

• honest, authentic conversations can emerge and employees feel comfortable asking questions if they are not clear;
• they can discuss their fit and how they would like to advance in the organization;
• they can point out areas where they need support;
• they can express the areas in which value and inspiration are not present for them
• they can be a part of the solution: committed partners for the success of the individual needs, the team needs, the organizational needs and the needs of the client.

Permalink // posted in: Healthcare, Leadership, Sales

Whose responsibility should engagement be: management or the employee?

Oct 12, 2011by Crista Renner0 comments

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I received a query from a magazine editor - whose responsibility should engagement be: management or the employee?

This is not a fence-sitting response - effective employee engagement relies on both employees and management.  Employee engagement is not a "broad program" you can enforce upon all. What engages each employee is as unique as that person. It is up to that individual to communicate what it is that he or she needs to feel like they fit, they're clear, what support they need, and what makes them feel valued/inspiredand rewarded.  If, as an employee I can't or don't communicate my goals and objectives, seek challenges and build a good rapport with my peers and managers, I will have a difficult time becoming engaged no matter what I do. The manager/leader's role is to ensure there is the type of environment that fosters these kinds of conversations so employees can flourish. There also needs to be "corporate will" from the top that management/leaders are committed to creating this kind of environment and putting into place, the kinds of reward and compensation structures that reward company values, positive behavior, a supportive, challenging environment, new ideas AND results.

Permalink // posted in: Leadership

Love Makes you Strong

Jul 5, 2011by Brady Wilson0 comments

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Want your quads, calves or biceps to grow? Here’s how to make it happen. First you exert yourself to the point of tearing the micro-fibers of your muscles. Next you rest your muscles. In the next couple of days, as the torn fibers repair themselves muscle is built. This is the cycle that creates the growth of muscles: stress and recovery, stress and recovery.*

Extending yourself tears the muscles

Last week my eldest son Adrian and his wife Alison had a triple whammy. They moved into a different house on Saturday, had a baby on Sunday and renovated their entire bathroom in the ensuing week. I had just come off a big month of travel and was exhausted. But I really wanted to invest in the highest good of my kids. Adrian and I gutted the bathroom, re-plumbed it and got the drywall all taped. I worked late into the night with him then woke up at 4:30 the next morning to take off on another trip. I knew when I woke up that my body was sick. Sometimes when you extend yourself to invest in someone’s highest good it requires sacrifice – you tear something in the process. I later told my business partner Alex, “I wouldn’t trade this cold for anything. It means everything for me to be there for Adrian.”

I have stepped into many, many stressful conversations – extending myself to invest in someone’s highest good. In the process I often exerted my intellectual or emotional muscles to the point where they began to tear. In the aftermath I became enlarged – a bigger, more expansive human being.

My scope of care and ownership expanded and I became more mature, no longer just caring for my own good and growth but the good and growth of those closest to me, and then in an ever-expanding orbit – my community, my province, my nation – my world.

Are you tearing the muscles?

Is there someone you need to offer your help to – something that will mean significant personal sacrifice for you?

Is there someone close to you who needs to move to a higher level of growth or maturity and you’re the one who needs to have a conversation with them?

Is there someone with an annoying idiosyncrasy requiring levels of patience and restraint from you, that are almost more than you can bear?

 

*For more on this concept read The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Lohr and Tony Schwartz. 

Permalink // posted in: Love at Work, Life, Leadership

Take care of your employees and they take care of your business!

Jun 9, 2011by Matt Ninaber0 comments

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Author: Matt Ninaber, CEO/Director, High Rise Studio

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Every once in a while you learn something that saves your life. That’s when you write it down and tattoo it to your brain.

Being an entrepreneur is a hard thing. Being an entrepreneur who just got married is even harder. Being an entrepreneur, married and having a team of seven people (and counting) is even harder than that. There are so many things that need working on. Such as generating leads, customer service and retention, product development, payroll, employee experience…. the list goes on.

So when I learn something that makes life easier, I like to write it down and share it.

Eight years ago, Josh and I could be found constantly running around with a video camera in hand, living out our dream. Now it seems as though I spend more time with the list above than actually making movies.

By passion, I am a moviemaker; by necessity, I am a business owner.

The question I have been asking myself lately is: “How can I get back to making movies, while at the same time make sure we are taking care of business? How do we get new clients? Stay ahead of the curve? Be innovative and solve problems fast?”

The solution? It’s called the Success Ethic. The basic concept is:

“Take care of your employees and they take care of your business.”

I find this especially hard to do because running a business is a lot like going into battle. There is intense competition in quality, price and turnaround.  The idea to stop and ask people how are they doing and give them “felt support” [supporting your employees the way they need to be supported] feels like a time waster. To make sure people fit, ensuring communication is clear, that they feel supported, valued and inspired seems overwhelming.

But something happens when a business makes their employees top priority.

It’s the difference between Peter Parker before he was bitten by a radio active spider. It’s like taking kryptonite out of Clark Kent ribs.  Something breaks and you don’t have regular employees.  You get superheroes that are faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Now the question: How do I know this secret to success?

One of our long standing clients is Juice Inc. In short, Juice Inc. is hired by organizations across the globe to help implement this strategy of felt support through something called the Success Ethic.  By creating promotional videos for them (and watching them over 100 times … literally), we’ve learned a thing or two about the Success Ethic and have had numerous opportunities to apply it here at High Rise Studio. 

When I was young, at the ripe age of 20, my goal was to “to tell stories that inspire and equip people to live lives bigger then themselves.”  Now, my mission is to “build the world’s greatest team that will tell stories that inspire and equip people to live lives bigger then themselves.”  Focusing on taking care of the team here at High Rise Studio seems to be one of the keys to doing that and getting back to making movies.

What are your thoughts about making employees your top priority?

Reprinted with permission. © 2011 High Rise Studio

Permalink // posted in: Life, Leadership

Love Makes You Big

May 31, 2011by Brady Wilson0 comments

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Tears welled up in Shelly’s eyes as she told me about her boss’ sacrifice. Shelly was stuck in a no-win situation. She managed a highly-complex nursing unit with too few resources, too many demands and too much emotional energy being sucked out of her by a chronic bullying issue.

Kate, my boss came to me and said, ‘I’m carrying your pager for the next six weeks while you get things straightened out. I’ll let you know what you need to respond to and I’ll take care of the rest. What kind of a boss does something like that?!”

In short, only big people do things like that. Scott Peck unpacks the concept of human enlargement in The Road Less Traveled*. Psychologists say that when “we are attracted to, invest in and commit to an object outside ourselves 'we actually cathect it' We psychologically incorporate a representation of that object into ourselves.' In the process of cathexis, we extend the boundaries of our personhood by stretching out toward the object of our love whose growth we wish to nurture.”

My neighbor Mary-Catherine is a gardener who loves her garden. When she’s at work and takes a break for lunch she pulls out her Lee Valley catalogue and studies the gardening section. On rainy days she’s creating sketches of how she envisions her garden to be. In a very real way, Mary-Catherine has incorporated the garden within her, and by this incorporation her self has become enlarged. She is not only Mary-Catherine anymore, she is Mary-Catherine with a garden growing inside her.

Those of us who are parents have experienced this first-hand. I am not only a person, I am a person with children and grandchildren living inside me. Through cathexis - being attracted to, investing in and committing to the objects of my love I have become a bigger person. In short, love has made me big.

If love enlarges us, think how large Mother Theresa’s soul was. She cathected thousands inside of her. Think how small the soul of a cold, heartless banker who only lives for his own self interests.

I’ve been on a quest to discover a working definition for love. I think maybe there’s one inside this concept of cathexis. My current working definition for love is extending yourself to invest in someone’s highest good.

So back to Shelly’s question, “What kind of a boss carries her employee’s pager for six weeks?” A boss who is attracted to, invested in and committed to the highest good of her employees. In short, a boss with employees living inside of her. It’s only a big person who makes a big boss.

How big are you on the inside? What, or whom do you have living inside of you? If you extend yourself to invest in the highest good of your employees, it is possible that one of them is speaking positively about you right now and asking, “What kind of a boss does something like that?”

*If you haven’t yet read it, pick up Scott Peck’s book The Road Less Traveled. His thoughts on cathexis are on page 52-53 of Love at Work.

Permalink // posted in: Love at Work, Innovation, Life, Leadership

Do employee-engagement reports improve engagement levels?

May 30, 2011by Crista Renner0 comments

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Do you think employee engagement reports are an effective way to improve employee engagement levels?

Employee engagement reports are a tool and should be treated as such. A hammer in and of itself does nothing until you know how you want to use it. And, like many tools, if used correctly, it can be used to build something significant. And yet, like a lot of tools, in the wrong hands, it can be destructive. What is the purpose of an engagement tool? To genuinely discover the pulse of the organization and use it as a baseline to improve? Using these tools and then hiding or not sharing the discoveries can back-fire. Ensure there is a plan in place that considers how feedback will be fed back to the people who gave it to you. Share strengths with employees, and share the areas for opportunity so they know where and how management is trying to change things, and where they can play a role. Employees who feel heard and understood will ultimately be those who are more engaged. If they feel their feedback is not appreciated or valued, their engagement levels - the very thing you are trying to improve - may get worse.

Permalink // posted in: Leadership

Got a Soul?

May 26, 2011by Brady Wilson0 comments

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A chunk of limestone does not seek the growth of another being. Neither does a turnip. As far as we can tell, minerals and vegetables have no drive to seek the growth and preservation of others. The cocker spaniel, on the other hand, does exhibit this drive. She cares for and protects beings outside her own scope of concern. Humans take this trait to even more sophisticated levels.

If you were asked, “Does a rock have a soul? Does a turnip? A cocker spaniel? A human?”, what would you say?

Mihalyi Csikzentmahalyi, the author of the book Flow, has an opinion on this. “No matter how complex a system is, we judge it as having no soul if all its energies are devoted merely to keeping itself alive and growing. We attribute soul to those entities that use some portion of their energy not only for their own sake but to make contact with other beings and care for them.”

With this thought in mind, one could argue that the cocker spaniel has a bigger soul than the heartless lawyer who devotes all his energies to serving himself.

The bigger the soul – the more it seeks to extend itself to invest in the highest good of another. In short, the soul’s stature is measured by the yardstick of love.

In a very real sense, love is the metric of maturity. Got a soul? How big is it? You can tell by the amount of energy you expend seeking the highest good of others – the drive to seek the growth and preservation of an ever-broadening community. This journey of maturity started when you began to share toys with other toddlers. It continued with your friends as you protected them in the schoolyard. It progressed when you protected a colleague’s reputation at work. Perhaps you’ll get married and have children. That part of the journey will give you millions of opportunities to grow your soul. The journey includes all your dealings with your community, and your entire world.

Here’s my definition for love at this point in my journey: Love is extending yourself to invest in someone’s highest good.

Breaking apart this definition will provide you with a choicepoint many times a day: Will I extend myself? This can mean sacrifice, stress, stretching and pain. To invest. This part requires risk. You take time, energy or money that’s in your hand as a for sure thing and you spend it on someone else in the hopes that good will come out of the investment. In someone’s highest good. This part requires relationship and conversation. A person’s highest good is not tattooed on their forehead. Not only that, most people aren’t crystal clear themselves, about what the highest good is for them. We all have blindspots and are a little bit unaware of what’s best for us. This is a discovery process: seeking to co-explore what someone’s true potential is and how you can help them fulfill it.

Animal, vegetable, mineral – the choice is yours every day.

Permalink // posted in: Love at Work, Life, Leadership

Innovation Interview Part 3

May 17, 2011by Rick Boersma0 comments

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How important is it that CEOs are bought in to innovation initiatives at a company?

When I was asked this question by an editor recently, this is my response...

Innovation can definitely happen at the grass-roots.  Innovation initiatives can be driven by individuals, project-teams and departments.  Individuals and managers can work within their own circles of influence and do incredibly innovative work almost regardless of the overall culture of innovation in the company.   But, if one looks at icons of corporate innovation: Apple, Google, P+G...Companies that really do have cultures of innovation ( cultures which allow them to reap a harvest in terms of innovative products and services)  then having the CEO on board is critical.

Permalink // posted in: Innovation, Leadership

Innovation Interview Part 1

Apr 26, 2011by Rick Boersma0 comments

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Do you think companies are more concerned with product innovation than enterprise innovation? Why? Does the economy have anything to do with it?

When I was asked this question by an editor recently, this is my response...

I’ll be provocative here and say that companies should be more interested in product innovation then enterprise innovation because of the numbers associated with breakthrough products. Truly superior new products have 4-5 times the success rate, market share and rated profit of “me too” new products.

Having said this, the reality is that few companies are willing to dedicate the resources necessary to ensure breakthrough innovation on either the product or enterprise side. Most innovation in most organizations is incremental.

Most enterprise innovation efforts are focused on the maintenance or mild improvement of the status quo. More often then not it’s focused on incremental cost-savings. In fact, it’s questionable whether it should even be called innovation - it’s really problem-solving.

Does the economy have anything to do with it? Absolutely. Under pressure companies are risk-adverse. Rather then making bold-bets they focus on maintenance. The irony of course is that while they do this, their competition may pass them by. The low-risk strategy in the short-term is high-risk in the long-term.

Permalink // posted in: Innovation, Life, Leadership

New Innovation Video - Innovation in a Box by Rick Boersma

Apr 21, 2011by Rick Boersma0 comments

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Learn how a so-called "average" group using innovation tools can produce 500 percent more useful ideas than a "creative" group. Innovation in a Box™ unleashes the creative thinking that powers business success.

Permalink // posted in: Current Events, Innovation, Life, Leadership

Inspiring Performance - Not Managing It!

Apr 14, 2011by Susan Stitt0 comments

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Although the industrial age is long over, most organizations’ key people systems, processes and practices still have roots from that era. Traditional performance management processes are no longer relevant.  In fact, they deliver the opposite of the intended performance objective and de-motivate employees (see my article “Dirty Words in the Workplace – Performance Management!”).

The critical performance question business leaders would like to address is how to unleash potential in their organization.

Here are my Five Tips to Inspire Exceptional Performance :

1. Ditch your current performance management process.
2. Spend timediscussing your company’s vision, strategies, goals and values.
3. Focus on outcomes by being flexible about how, where and when work gets done.
4. Invest in developing GREAT people managers and leaders.
5. Put people first.  It’s really that simple.

It’s time to re-think how we work in organizations. I am passionately committed to helping organizations make significant changes for the better. What are you inspired to do?  To read the full article by Susan Stitt, please click here.

By Susan Stitt, Director/Human Resources Business Partner, AstraZeneca Canada

Permalink // posted in: Current Events, Leadership

Some thoughts on Conflict

Apr 5, 2011by Crista Renner0 comments

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You know it when you feel it. At least I do. I become defensive. My face goes red. My breath gets shallow (and so do some of my words…) I get tense and my lips purse.  Physiologically, my body is prepping for flight or fight mode. In fact it does at the mere mention of the word. Conflict.

What does it do to you?  Conflict comes from the word confligere, derived from con, which means together, and the Latin fligere, which means to beat down. No wonder our bodies take on a protection stance when we hear the word.

As a kid, my conflict training came from sibling combats for the last cookie or remote control. There was very little guidance at school, except to say you turn the other cheek. (Was that another way of saying run away from it?) Turns out though, with a little bit of education, conflict doesn’t need to be such a threat. In fact, there are benefits to conflict. It can catalyze change, force decisions, boost trust, promote diverse opinions, and even strengthen relationships.  An absence of conflict can signal suppressed views, it stifles growth and it limits the ability for attitudes, behaviors and relationships to evolve and change.

Do any of these opportunities exist within a current conflict you are struggling with?

Finding common ground is critical to resolving conflict but that is so much easier said than done. The same can be said for trying to understand another person’s values. Yet there’s a way to get there. The first step is to remain open, and you can do that by being curious. Ask questions genuine questions that get at the heart of the issue rather than those that help you prove your point.

Another approach is to change your perspective. In conflict, each person feels like they were “hit” first – they were wronged by someone else and there’s no possible way they did the harming. Consider for a moment, where the other person is coming from and how they could have possibly perceived a wrong-doing by you. Also think about the qualities you like in the person with whom you are quarreling.  The hope is that you become more open as you are consumed by compassion and empathy rather than closed off, by anger and bitterness.

Finally, conflict is not intentional. Typically, there’s an issue behind the issue, and the presenting conflict is not the true source of pain - there's something else going on. Explore the true source and remember, people don’t do things to you – they do them for themselves – to get their own need met.

 

Permalink // posted in: Life, Leadership

Breaking Free From Our Cultural Chains

Mar 29, 2011by Kathleen Bartholomew0 comments

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Human beings rarely, if ever, succeed at accurately perceiving their own culture.

So deeply entrenched is culture that no one talks about it: the unspoken rules and behaviors (called norms) are never written down, and yet everyone knows them. We learn these norms the hard way through the process of assimilation into a culture. For example, when Shelli was a new scrub nurse with only six months experience, she failed to anticipate that the surgeon would need a particular scalpel. Immediately, her experienced preceptor deftly handed the correct blade to the impatient surgeon with a glare in Shelli's direction. At that moment, Shelli learned that if she was not on top of the surgeon's needs, she would end up feeling embarrassed and looking incompetent. Shelli did not find this information in her orientation manual.

Culture also determines what we see – and what we don’t. Scrub nurses do not innately “know” which surgeon tolerates technical questions or joking and which ones do not, or what subjects are acceptable to talk about among their team. They figure this out. Humans quickly pick up on these subtle cues and  then act accordingly. Like any group, operating teams learn norms by induction and trial and error because the need to belong is so strong. So  without a conscious thought (whether scrub nurse, anesthesiologist, tech or surgeon), we mimic the behaviors of those around us in order to be accepted. After a while, no one even notices the subtle, unspoken rules. And why would they? Everyone exhibits the same behaviors. The norms are now downloaded into our subconscious mind.

To read the full article, http://www.juiceinc.com/Cultural_Chains_Kathleen_Bartholomew.pdf

Permalink // posted in: Healthcare, Leadership

The Feelings Economy and its Impact at Work

Mar 18, 2011by Alex Somos0 comments

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Feelings drive behavior. Marketers have been selling feelings for years. Watch any good television commercial and you will see that marketers constantly connect to people’s emotions, whether it’s selling coffee or cars. Good branding is  about evoking feelings and emotion in your audience. People have a short memory about facts, but they never forget how you make them feel.

When it comes to people you work with, how you make them feel makes a significant difference in their performance. Why? Because feelings create energy - much like gas in a car or food for the body. People’s emotional state affects their performance. If people are positively charged it enables them to tackle tough issues and they can access their knowledge and experience  faster because there is little or no interference from negative emotions. If people are negatively charged, motivation plummets and the ability to access knowledge or experience is compromised and ultimately productivity is affected.

If people forget what you say and remember how you make them feel, how can we practically make this happen in a real and authentic way that produces results? At Juice, we help people understand it is possible to create environments where it feels good to work and it is easier to get things done. You can apply this truth to how change is managed. If you approach people purely on the rational level, the likelihood of enabling change will have more to do with  pushing it on them and mandating it. In turn, this  creates friction, interference and resistance in the system even when it is the right thing to do. If you engage people at an emotional level and speak to their heart and mind,  people will be more open to your message and it enables them to act. John Kotter illustrates this truth beautifully in his book The Heart of Change.

My business partner, Brady Wilson goes further in his latest book, Love at Work, Why Passion Drives Performance in the Feelings Economy and he makes a compelling case for the role of feelings in the workplace.

Humanizing the workplace is good for employees and good for organizations because humanizing the workplace gets results.

Permalink // posted in: Love at Work, Leadership

Dirty Words in the Workplace - Performance Management!

Mar 15, 2011by Susan Stitt0 comments

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Thank you for the opportunity to submit a blog post to the new Juice Blog!

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Dirty Words in the Workplace - Performance Management!

From every perspective - employee, manager, business leader and HR practitioner - performance management systems have become an antagonistic tool.  At many organizations, it is referred to as the annual de-motivation cycle.  And it’s a fitting label. 

Here are five reasons why I think “performance management” fails to achieve its intended goal:

1. Compensation has taken over. 
    
2. Performance ratings are labels that de-motivate everyone. 
    
3. Goal setting gone awry. 
    
4. Risk, rather than Performance is managed 
    
5. Form vs. Function.  

The bottom line is that organizations have lost their way with respect to performance management systems and forgotten their purpose.  Instead of inspiring performance, most systems de-motivate and disengage employees.

Where do we go from here?  Being aware of what’s gone wrong is the first important step!  Next time, I will share practical and easy-to-implement solutions that will call forth exceptional performance from your employees.  To read the full article by Susan Stitt, please click here.

By Susan Stitt, Director/Human Resources Business Partner, AstraZeneca Canada

Permalink // posted in: Current Events, Leadership

Innovation, Strengths, and Hedgehogs

Mar 3, 2011by Rick Boersma0 comments

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There is a tension between being asked to “Think Outside of the Box” and the type of “strength-finding” research and recommendations of thinkers like Marcus Buckingham, Dan Pink and even Jim Collins.

 

We know that there are a series of Innovation stages, what we call “the i5”: identification, investigation, ideation, impact evaluation, and implementation.  These stages roughly correlate with different personality or thinking preferences.  When we ask someone to think outside of the box - we might very well be asking them to think “outside of their preferences” as well.   In turn, Buckingham, Pink and Collins might all say that we’re setting them up for failure:

 

- Buckingham: “Operate according to your strengths”, i.e. stay in your box.

- Pink: “Gain mastery”, i.e. stay in your box.

- Collins: “Focus on your hedgehog”, i.e. stay in your box.

 

And I largely agree with them - or I would if we lived in a perfect world. If you work in a context where you can enlist a collaborative “dream team” (what Collins would call getting the right people on the bus), then each member of that team will probably be able to spend time operating from strengths, gaining mastery,  doing what they do best.  Who wouldn’t want that?

 

However many of the clients we work with don’t have that luxury.  They are charged with innovation, but need to rally their existing teams to the cause, and although their teams may be wonderful, they’re not necessarily “dream” teams crafted specifically for innovation.  In fact if anything they’re probably crafted for execution and efficiency.  I’d argue that the biggest challenge of Innovation training is to give self-professed “normal” or “average” teams  tools that will help them comfortably and effectively approach opportunities in a new way.  

 

Einstein said that the definition of insanity is, “Doing the same thing you’ve always done, and expecting a different (innovative) result”.  I’d say our challenge is helping people bridge the gap between doing what they do best, and trying something new, without losing their engagement in the process.

 

As Collins says in Good to Great, Great companies act like hedgehogs.  I’d say in every company, and in every career, there are moments where you need to think like a fox.

 

 

Permalink // posted in: Innovation, Leadership

Bad Advice? Good Intent.

Feb 16, 20110 comments

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I read an article today that hit a nerve. It was in an HR publication and it talked about how to find the right words to use in an awkward situation. Many of the steps I agreed with. For example, it suggests that you should be direct in a conversation, “be respectful, be empathetic, but get to the point…” It was one of the examples used where I took umbrage. The example they use of a direct, empathetic conversation that gets to the point is “I know you have a sick child but your work is falling behind.” There are two things wrong with this. First, “I know you have a sick child” is not empathy. Gary Harper, author of The Joy of Conflict, http://www.joyofconflict.com/ says “Empathy involves understanding and acknowledging another’s feelings. It flows when we attempt to put ourselves in another person’s shoes and identify with their feelings and perspective.” There is no identification with any feeling in this example, if anything it sounds cold and calloused and everything that an empathic reflection is not. Harper goes on to say, “We demonstrate empathy by reflecting the emotion we sense in another.  We don’t even have to be right; we just have to be genuine.” Do you think the person with the sick child feels genuine concern from the person saying it? This type of language will make them defensive and resentful. If you said this to me, my internal response would be “Are you saying my work is more important than my sick child?” By bringing these two thoughts together nobody is going to walk away feeling engaged or motivated to do better.

The second issue I have with this example is the use of the word “but”. Small words can have a big impact on how we think and they affect how we communicate and in turn how we are perceived. The word “but” is very divisive; it takes a thought and separates it into two. Most of the time the person you are speaking with does not even remember the first part of your statement and becomes fixated with what comes after the but…

 At work:

You are a great employee, but…

Your performance has improved significantly, but…

I know you are working hard, but…

I know you have a sick child, but…

At home:

You did a great job cutting the grass, but …

I love you, but …

You are a wonderful daughter, but…

There is a more powerful and inclusive word. It is the word “And”. Try it on the examples above and see how different it feels and how much easier it is to transition to the next thought. 

Let’s be perfectly clear that the work issues in the above example need to be addressed. By not addressing them, it may be creating more stress for the person with the sick child because he or she knows it is an issue, creating one more element of interference. A solution-based conversation can actually relieve stress, foster appreciation and strengthen commitment once it is addressed. In the above example I would “Pull” out how the other person is feeling and then reflect that back in a way that lets the employee know I understood their context. It is only after I have sought to understand where they are coming from, that I would seek their input on how to address the work issues that were manifesting.

Permalink // posted in: Life, Leadership

If Culture Was a Brand, What Would Yours Be?

Feb 10, 2011by Alex Somos0 comments

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Brand & Culture

Most leaders understand their business well. They pay attention to market trends, forecasting, cash flow and product cycles. They understand their assets and try to capitalize on them to build long-term results and improve the bottom line. Sales, marketing, product development, manufacturing, and operations are all reviewed and tightly managed. What I don’t see very often are leaders who understand and appreciate the value of the culture in which they operate. Culture and the normative behaviours that come from it can have a profound impact on all of the other assets in an organization and can add significant long-term value if they invest in it wisely.

The by-products of cultures that work are innovation, teamwork, higher retention of corporate IP, on-boarding others and problem solving. It attracts talent, motivates, reduces costs and engages people at an emotional level. People feel it. Culture, without getting too heady, is the soul of an organization. And most leaders don’t know how to satisfy that truth.

Interestingly, leaders have the most profound impact on an organization’s culture. Here are some of the unspoken and damaging beliefs leaders have about organizational culture:

“Human Resource” is a thing;

We pay people to work, we don’t pay them to feel; Culture is what I say it is;

I don’t have time for that sort of thing, I want results;

I am the boss - people do what I tell them;

What your managers and leaders tell you is reality;

We have a mission, vision, values statement that is enough;

Culture is like a brand- it is an identity. And like it or not, your work culture really matters to employees. And like a brand, it needs to be designed, articulated, supported, believed and measured. If your culture was a brand, what would it be?

Permalink // posted in: Leadership

Responsible Conversation

Feb 1, 2011by Crista Renner0 comments

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Words have the power to persuade and inform. They make or break relationships, incite action and reaction, and sadly, words – have the power to discriminate, divide and wound. I’ve seen great communicators get what they want, and I’ve watched poor communicators lose what they need. People who lack the ability to communicate effectively are denied the basic need of “feeling understood”. This is particularly true of the most disadvantaged in our society, the immigrants, the poor and the uneducated.

Back in my school days I witnessed this form of “discrimination” first-hand as I watched an Asian student sit quietly at the back of the class, avoiding the professor’s glance. I worked with her in a study group and we always had brilliant conversations about the content. She was very smart yet she confessed she was failing half of her courses. With English as her second language, she knew in her head what she wanted to say, but she couldn’t get it out so it was easier for her to just be quiet.

Have you ever felt this? Where you know what you need to say, but you just can’t get it out? Some people, when you have a conversation with them, are brilliant at pulling the good stuff out, while others are just as talented at making you feel like it is easier to remain quiet. This is especially true when a conversation turns emotional. Our ability to think rationally and articulate needs seems so difficult. It isn’t until we step away do we think about all of those great things we could have said!

When we choose to engage in a conversation with someone - a colleague, a partner or our kids - we have a responsibility to pull out the best in that person. We can do this by practicing “IOU” (Interest, Openness, Understanding). Demonstrate INTEREST by being present and inquiring more deeply into their needs. Practice OPENNESS by listening to them without judgment and being curious about their thoughts, feelings and ideas. Finally, convey UNDERSTANDING by restating what you heard and understood using your own words. It is only once the other person has felt understood, that you can begin to invite them into your perspective . Without understanding, words are tools that can hurt or heal. How will you use them?

Permalink // posted in: Life, Leadership

Hiring. People.

Jan 28, 2011by Alex Somos0 comments

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Today’s marketplace offers an abundance of tools to help make the hiring process more efficient and effective. We can scan resumes for key words, penetrate defenses and look for evidence of related experience with behavioral interviews, test for affect, personality and leadership styles, and check references through our connections using social media. All of this is designed to help us validate our conclusion and it is a helpful and prudent thing to do. However, with all of these tools, it is sometimes easy to overlook the human side of hiring people. I have had enough experience and bruising in hiring the right candidate to know that finding a good hire comes from these three techniques:

Humanize the Experience: Look for a mutual fit. Imagine enlisting the candidate in the process of seeing their hire as a one-way street with both of you walking in the same direction, toward the same destination. Be real and speak candidly about the positives and negatives of the job. Create an environment of openness and disclosure where you become vulnerable and lower their defenses all with the intent of making the right hiring decisions together. Speak gravely about the costs to all of making a misstep and draw out fears and assumptions that may be present. Demonstrate genuine interest in the person and their story because you are hiring a person - someone with hopes, feelings, aspirations, responsibilities and a desire to perform. This is a person, not just an asset or a pair of hands; they are unique, gifted and multidimensional.

Pay Attention to Chemistry: Chemistry, a key ingredient, when present, fosters the flow of ideas, allows people to initiate, and the higher good of the organization and the team to be served. There is a feeling when all the right things are in place that can best be described as hum. Positive energy is present, enabling people to overcome daunting challenges and obstacles to create truly outstanding performance. To access this chemistry, include your team in the interview process. I don’t mean a perfunctory interview to get to know them, I mean your team actually helps you make the decision. Include your top candidates in team meetings, invite them to job shadow, and take them out for lunch. Understanding the dynamic of chemistry will inevitably lead to superior hires and a great team.

Listen to Your Niggles:  Everyone has experienced a niggle, but not everyone knows what a niggle is. A niggle is a question, a feeling, or that something “inside” that you or your team may not be able to articulate but is present nonetheless. I can’t tell you how many missteps have been avoided by paying attention to my own or other’s niggles. They typically come from a place of tacit knowledge that is manifested in a feeling, or a dis- ease the person may or may not be able to put into words. You may feel something is off, but you’re not sure why. My rule is, follow the emotion to the reason much like you would follow smoke to a fire. It pays off.

What ideas do you have to help you find great candidates?

Permalink // posted in: Leadership

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Contributors

Alex Somos

Co-Founder of Juice Inc.

Lara Hall

Director of Marketing, Juice Inc.

ODScore®

Organizational Development Consulting

Brady Wilson

Co-Founder Juice Inc., Author, Facilitator

Crista Renner

Director of Communications, Juice Inc.

Kathleen Bartholomew

Keynote Presenter

Rick Boersma

Co-Founder Floworks Training; Design & Innovation, Juice Inc.

Susan Stitt

Director/Human Resources Business Partner, AstraZeneca Canada

Matt Ninaber

CEO/Director, High Rise Studio

Petrina Fernandes

Wilfrid Laurier Co-op Marketing Student, Juice Inc.

Jean-Francois (JF) Hivon

Business Development

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