The Worst of Times

photo by photomish dan

photo by photomish dan

A sobering article from the Economist illustrates how unhappy people currently are with their jobs.   When the economy turns expect to see a massive surge in voluntary turnover.  The article included some alarming numbers from the US-based Center for Work-Life Policy:

Between June 2007 and December 2008 the proportion of employees who professed loyalty to their employers slumped from 95% to 39%; the number voicing trust in them fell from 79% to 22%.

Employers have the upper hand these days, but what good is that if nobody is willing to bring their best?  Quality work doesn’t flow from mistrust.

The employment process is a two-way street.  Employers need to get quality ideas and execution.  The employees, however, are trickier.  They all need something different.  Each is motivated differently, has different goals and needs to be communicated with in a certain manner.

There is no magic bullet to engaging people except by taking the time to know what makes them tick.  Clearly, these economic times are tough.  And companies are taking the opportunity to pare back and let loose the dead wood.

This requires doubling down on the efforts to learn about the others in order to make sure they don’t all check out as well.

Better yet, build this into your process.  Don’t wait for dire economic times to trim the workforce.  Frankly, people who aren’t engaged and aren’t fitting in with the culture are a drag on your time and bring others down with them.

Start with who you hire and remember it.

  1. Take the time to ensure those you hire fit your culture and are likely to remain engaged.  RoundPegg can help you do this
  2. Learn about what your new employees need during those first few weeks (they typically aren’t working on meaty projects yet anyhow)
  3. Check back in regularly (aka re-interview)
  4. Communicate your needs and how the employee helps solve them
  5. Be quick to release those who aren’t working out.  Easier said than done, but failing to do so will cost you a helluva lot more than their salary

Times are dire.  Not just for the unemployed, but for the employers as well.

The job market is far more fluid these days and once companies start hiring again we’re guaranteed to see that fluidity in action.  Protect your most valuable assets and get the most out of them as you can.

Posted by brentdaily on October 25, 2009 | Add a comment | Engagement, Fit, Hiring, Motivation, communication, productivity

Engagement: Take the First Step

We all want to hire people who are going to make a difference.  Who will drive our businesses forward.

We want people who will remain engaged long after the honeymoon period.

The circle of engagement is pretty clear.  An employee likes her job so she works hard and does well which in turn produces rewards that matter to her so she tries harder still.

But where is the on-ramp?  What fuels this virtuous cycle?

photo by robotography

photo by robotography

It’s easy to put the onus on the employee by saying you’re paying well, you have free yoga classes and M&Ms.  But none of those spin the wheel.  Despite what you may think those are only ‘nice to haves’ for most people.  People who are intrinsically motivated to do something amazing.

You’ve spent a lot of time and money to bring the new employee on-board.   So why not suck up your pride and take that first step?  Do everything in your power to ensure the people you hire succeed?

  • Give your time liberally. Yes, you’re busy.  But every minute you give to properly on-board someone will give you several in return in the long run.  The new employee will appreciate it even if you don’t hear about it.  You’ll be rewarded with more and more focused effort.  Your team scales, you don’t.
  • Praise early initiative. It’s tough for someone to come aboard, figure out how everything works and pay immediate dividends.  Rather than being ‘constructive’ and honing output, focus on input.  Few will be more motivated to put in solid efforts than when making the first impression.  Do your part to encourage that same level of effort in the future.
  • Listen. Find out what where they loving pouring their efforts.  Ask for an honest assessment of their strengths and weaknesses.  Their weaknesses will be the areas where they put forth less effort.  Minimize those occasions.  Similarly, find out what they want to get out of a job, what skills they want to pick up and what motivates them.  They may have thought about it, but be persistent.

Engagement is a two-way street.  There is give and take on both sides, but we far too often neglect the new employee and trust them to ‘quickly get up to speed.’

Take the lead in engaging your employees and that lead will be followed.

Posted by brentdaily on July 7, 2009 | Add a comment | Engagement, Hiring, Management, Motivation, communication, productivity

Return on Brain Waves (ROBW)

We’re all in the same business.

We may produce different things, but that doesn’t change anything.  With off-shoring and 100-years to optimize the process, production is a commodity.  Everyone can tap into efficient, quality production (lead-laden toys notwithstanding).

In fact, we’ve been in this business for a half-century and we aren’t getting any better at it.

We are all in the people business, of course.

Your job is to turn brain waves into cash (hat tip).  If you thought you’d misplaced your competitive advantage, you’ll find it there.

photo by gilles chiroleu

photo by gilles chiroleu

In 1957 the U.S. hit the inflection point whereby we started thinking more than producing.  White-collar workers outnumbered blue-collar workers for the first time.  Since then the spread has only increased, but we haven’t changed our mindset about how we work.

We are still trying to get more from less by using the same approaches we used 100-years ago.  Basically, work longer then work smarter then finally give up and off-shore everything.

But we’re left with an economy and business scenario that is entirely different.  The job today is to optimize people’s thoughts.

Optimizing people is far different than optimizing people operating machines.

A couple starting points to keep in mind to make the transition from acting like a production line manager to a brain wave herder.

  1. How, not what. Anyone you’ll consider hiring is going to be smart.  The difference in a few IQ points at the top end of the spectrum isn’t going to make a damn bit of difference in accomplishing your goals.  The difference is how they put those smarts to use, not what they know.  Is it in a way that aligns with how your company does business?  Does it inspire conversation and even more brain waves?
  2. People aren’t independent. Our working systems are so intermingled that the lone wolf is indeed an endangered breed.  When assembling your team look at it holistically.  You don’t just need a marketer who has previously hawked your competitors product.  You need a markter who knows how to communicate with the prima donna sales guy and knows how to extract good ideas from the introverted engineer.  You need a marketer that raises the game of everyone on the team.
  3. Redefine ‘management.’ You’re job is to take seemingly disconnected thoughts and focus them in a way that a) makes money and b) doesn’t shut down future thinking.  You’re job is actually far harder than you thought.  You have to keep energy high, focus it, be able to recognize great ideas and keep the momentum going when conflict arises.  You’re less a manager than you are a cowboy / cheerleader / psychologist.
  4. Rethink your relationship. Stop thinking that people are cogs in the wheel and are easily replaceable.  Though it’s easy in this economy and it could be argued that it’s partially true (see above: there isn’t much difference in knowledge and skill levels between smart people), there is no faster way to shut down the brain waves you need to harness than to not appreciate what one brings to the table.  You may not agree with what they’re bringing, but if you want the spigot of knowledge to continue to flow you don’t gum up the pipes with your archaic, century-old thinking that people a natural resource to continue to be exploited.

I could go on, but then I’d have nothing left to write about.  Please add your own or challenge me on any of these.  My thinking is always a work in process and it’s hard to do alone.

Posted by brentdaily on June 25, 2009 | 1 comment so far | Creativity, Engagement, Hiring, Management, Motivation, productivity

Milking Productivity From Groups

photo by robert francis

photo by robert francis

An excellent post at PsyBlog on the effects of group dynamics on productivity.  Basically, the more people you add to a group the less effective the group becomes when the workload is additive. One interesting study showed that when people were asked to clap or yell as loud as they could their output in a group of six or larger was 1/3rd of what it was on their own.

As the author notes, “… a group problem-solving session relies on the brains of the best people in the group - social loafing wouldn’t necessarily reduce productivity in this group as markedly.”  So this doesn’t wholly apply to our knowledge businesses, but I think we can all remember times when we were guilty of this or saw it in others in a group.

The post recommends several ways to minimize the effects of social loafing, including:

  1. Make it known the task is important
  2. Foster a group identity / belonging to the group
  3. Make the contribution of other members well-known so as to decrease the ’sucker effect’

All good, but there are a few worth adding.

  1. Assign a communicator. Team construction is vital.  Having a communicator on the team who’s primary job isn’t necessarily measured in output, but rather whether everyone is aware of what others are doing, is a start.  His job is to make sure everyone knows the latest developments and thus implicitly communicates the accomplishments of others on the team so as to minimize the ’sucker effect’ even further.
  2. Frequent iteration. Apply the Agile method of software development to your team.  Break large tasks down into daily or weekly deliverables.  Assign the responsibility for the task to the individual.  If it requires the team to collaborate it is still that individual’s responsibility to get everyone together to accomplish the assignment.  Deliver something every week and iterate as required.
  3. Show your work. Time should be set aside for each individual to ‘present’ their contribution to the rest of the group.  Even if it’s just thought starters, the contribution should be formally recognized so that it is visible to every member.
  4. Limit group size. Seems obvious, particularly given the graph on the PsyBlog post that shows individual effort halves in groups of 8 or more.  Group dynamics expert and HBS luminary, J. Richard Hackman, found that the optimal group size is 4.6.  Obviously, it depends on what you’re trying to accomplish but err on the side of too small and you’ll force everyone to shoulder more of the load.
  5. Relinquish ownership. Unless ownership of the project and the subsequent success or failure is fully granted to the group, individual’s will have some cover to hide behind.  While the output/goal may be dictated by someone outside the group acknowledge there are many ways to arrive at the same destination.  Grant the freedom to determine that path to the group and let it be known that the rewards and recognition are all theirs.

If other solutions have worked for you please leave them in the comments for others to see.

Posted by brentdaily on June 4, 2009 | Add a comment | Culture, Fit, Leadership, Management, Motivation, collaboration, group dynamics, productivity, teamwork