REINVENTION 301

2010-12-21T16:48:00.000-08:00

GUNTHER'S NOSE

In the beginning there were six: Toronto, Montreal, New York, Chicago, Boston and Detroit. In 1966, there were two TV channels in Edmonton and your choice was hockey or Don Messer's Jubilee with an awful lot of fiddlin and too much doe-see-doe-in. So hockey it was.

Edmonton didn't have an NHL team when I lived there and since Dad had grown up in Toronto, the gloves and hockey jersey would definitely have to be the blue and white of the Maple Leafs. Of course, as a kid growing up in Alberta, I had skates . It's just that I never put the skates, gloves, sweater and stick and an ice rink together at the same time. That could get you killed since small boys on the ice were just targets for slap shooting bigger boys who were also on the ice. Best then that I played shinny in the alley with my friends: Jerry, Gunther, Scott and Andrew.

In 1966, Tim Horton had yet to lay eyes on a donut and Eddie Shack didn't realize that his post-season golf swing would eventually lead him to own his own golf course. They and Red Kelly, Frank Mahovlich and Johnny Bower were names and faces on bubble gum cards and Maple Leaf heros to emulate on packed snow at the back of the house.

Shinny can be played with as few as two or as many as you want just so long as everyone can keep moving. Two garbage cans or two broken hockey sticks stuck in the snow can make a goal and a tennis ball moves better over the lumpy frozen snow and it hurts less if you catch one in the nuts.

The game was easier in the alley. The garbage trucks didn't come down there on the weekend and the snowplows never interrupted our game. It was about minus 10 c; cold enough for a toque and scarf and cold enough to take a break and warm up every few minutes in the garage before continuing the game. You didn't want to get frost bite.

Gumboots were the footwear of choice. They weren't as clunky as those dumb overshoes and the orangey-red tread of our gumboots could give us some traction on the show but they didn't offer much protection from an errant stick. A couple of Life magazines stuffed inside your boots created some padding and added a bit more warmth and Sean Connery's face was on the cover that January as James Bond, 007 - how cool was that!

We had CCM and Sherwood hockey sticks and a roll of black or white tape made sure the stick didn't fly out of our gloves when we took a mighty slapshot at the garage door. Too much wrist action and the game would have to stop while we poked in the snow on the garage roof to retrieve the errant ball. I learned my first Mexican words from Jerry: Arriba Riba Riba! Andelay Andelay who learned them from Speedy Gonzales a cartoon mouse. I am not sure if professional hockey players used the same language on the ice but it certainly enhanced our game!

But it was Gunther who taught us about frostbite. Frostbite happens when your skin freezes. Your nose and ears are really sensitive but it can happen to your cheeks and fingers and toes too, if you don't pay attention. And once it happens, once your skin freezes it can happen again and again because that spot gets weak. We knew because Gunther had gotten his nose frost bitten before. And when it started to freeze a second or third time it would turn a pale green. It was probably white but we thought it looked green and that was our signal to take a break and warm up. You didn't want to pay too much attention to Gunther's nose because you might miss a shot or he would deek around you but then again: once bitten, twice fried - isn't that how the saying goes?

Playing It Forward

2010-12-10T20:34:00.000-08:00

The first hints of spring in Edmonton were the puddles on the outdoor ice rinks and the bare patches of gavel that emerged in the school yard. It meant the end of hockey ,shinny and tobogganing and the beginning of the marble season. It wasn't a long season - it had to fit between hockey and baseball and that might be a month, if that.

An older boy I had never met came up to me on the school ground one afternoon. "Do you want some marbles?" he asked. "I don't play with them any more so you can have them." I walked home carryng the cloth bag with the loot of King Canute weighing heavily in my down parka coat. I had won a childhood lottery!

Inside were catseyes, boulders, crystals, giant crystals and the prize: a steely. In the world of marbles you had to play an opponent with a worthy marble. You wouldn't waste a crystal playing against a common catseye or offer a bigger target with a boulder when your opponent held a crystal and you certainly didn't bring out the jewel of the bag, the ball bearing better known as a steely to play anything else but another steely.
Unlike the marble games of another generation, we played one-on-one in a linear duel of cast and strike that relied on the remnants of snow to form pockets and hideaways for our prized possessions. Too much snow and an errant marble could disappear in a bank until the snow finally made way for summer grass. I wonder what one of those would sound like when the lawn mower hit it?

Gravel or sidewalks offer open ground that makes an easier target. You wanted the icy terrain to with lumps and bumps since it meant you would each have to throw rather than roll your marble. If your oponent could strike your marble with his own and send yours more than three inches then the marble was his. A strike with less than three inches movement meant two more strikes called "ticksies" and the round was over.

Marbles were carried in a cloth drawstring sack. If you were lucky you could get your dad's velvet Crown Royal bag but not many of us had one of those. A pocket just wasn't safe enough. You didn't want to drop one in class because if it hit the floor it disappeared into the teacher's desk with not much hope of it ever seeing the light of day again.

At one point, I was sure my sister was taking my marbles. I knew I hadn't lost them though some may quibble at that assertion. I hid some to make sure I had a safe stash of extras. Too safe! I never found them again.

I probably had six good years of playing marbles and then it was off to Junior High. I walked up to a kid in the school yard. I asked him if he wanted some marbles and I gave him my bag. I think it's called playing it forward.

MEDICAL MARVEL and ECONOMIC DISASTER?

2009-11-23T08:55:00.000-08:00

Do we not each pray for the end to disease in hopes of preventing a loved one suffering the vagaries of an incurable illness. Is it not the mission of every non-profit organization with a disease or syndrome in its name to actually find a cure to end the associated suffering? Imagine waking up to the news that a major debilitating illness may be avoided and its effects reversed through a relatively simple procedure!

The End of Multiple Sclerosis is Near. That headline is implied with the announcement that Dr. Paulo Zamboni, an Italian vascular surgeon has discovered a direct link between the narrowing of the jugular veins and the symptoms of patients diagnosed with multiple sclerosis or MS as most of us call it.. The disease causes symptoms like balance problems, walking and speaking difficulties, fatigue and cognitive dysfunction and Canada has one of the highest rates of MS in the world. Between 55,000 and 75,000 Canadians have the disease.

Dr. Zamboni (a name synonymous with Canada and hockey) discovered that widening the artery to more normal dimensions resulted in an almost immediate and dramatic improvement in the lives of patients who live with the symptoms of MS. The correction of diminished or twisted veins increased the flow of blood away from the brain and with it the dangerously high levels of iron. You would expect bells to be ringing and parades to honor this man and the various non-profit societies supporting MS research to be chanting "our prayers have been answered". But they are not.

Dr. Zamboni's thesis has not been proven conclusively. It is not a made in Canada cure. It does not involve pharmaceutical intervention. And It certainly does not validate all the work that has been done and is planned to be done by by those alrady in the MS field across North America or around the world.

It is like watching an amateur bowler loft a ball from another lane. The ball wanders wildly, skips into the gutter, rises and lands in your own lane and in a moment of serendipity removes all the pins at the end of your own lane. All your concentration, preparation and effort are for naught. The outcome has been achieved but not by you and not even by a seasoned researcher - I mean bowler.

In his book, Blindsided: How to spot the next breakthrough that will change your business forever, global change guru, Jim Harris demonstrates how to build consensus faster within organizations when the unexpected throws plans off course.

Ironically, another book: Blindsided; lifting a life above illness, author Richard Cohen describes his experience when life throws him a curve and he is diagnosed with MS.

Fund raisers and researchers alike will need to read both books. In Canada alone, $60 million was set as the next five-year target to be raised for MS clinics and research. Finding a cure for MS is an industry employing fund raisers, event organizers, researchers, nurses, doctors, researchers, sales, clinicians, hospice workers administrators and clerks, It is an industry that will very carefully jump at the prospect that a cure may indeed have been found and with it a need to redirect the efforts of hundreds if not thousands of people and resources to diseases still looking for a cure. In peak fundraising season what message can be sent to prospective donors to celebrate this new discovery and not disturb the flow of money to projects already under way? No wonder the MS agencies are cautiously optimistic.

I pray Dr. Zamboni is right and the end of MS is near and I dearly hope that donors and volunteers continue to give until this disease is truly put in the box of history

Crucial Conversations, Confrontations and Beyond

2009-09-27T11:08:00.000-07:00

Perhaps it is the current state of the world or perhaps we are getting a little more sensitive in our old age but the need to skip the histrionics and get to the core issues with the people around us is paramount. We just don't have the time to destroy and rebuild and destroy and rebuild the relationships we have with each other so we need to do it right the first time.

Our little club of literary minded individuals used the summer to make a half-hearted attempt to finish Crucial Conversations - tools for talking when the stakes are high by Patterson et al (McGraw Hill 2002) and came to the collective realization that even though the summer sun was still shining we really needed to finish the book. In fact we found the material and stories worthy of expansion to include Crucial Confrontations - tools for talking about broken promises, violated expectations and bad behaviours, by the same people and and The No Asshole Rule- building a civilized workplace and surviving one that isn't , by Robert I. Sutton (Business Plus 2007). We will make them the focus of our discussion through September, October and November.

Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan and Al Switzer are very adept at pulling concepts together wrapping them in simple yet powerful examples and allowing the reader to learn. You won't become the gifted mediator and problem solver overnight but you will gain insight to the stances people take and your own innate reactions when your personal "buttons" are pressed. Crucial Conversations offers a short diagnostic test to determine your own pattern of behaviour and then lets you focus on the skills you need to build and maintain healthy relationships in the workplace and at home.

It's about speaking from the heart and creating a safe zone for conversations that many people want to avoid. It's about speaking persuasively and gaining commitment for action. Yes. It should be on your shelf and probably on the shelf of every manager in your organization. We may be on the upswing of a recovering economy but there are still a lot of tough conversations ahead. The book group will use the next three months to work through all three books and see what we can learn. I'll keep you posted.

Part 2 - SECURITY

2009-08-03T18:48:00.000-07:00

This is part 2 of a series describing a framework for identifying the strategic focal points in an HR plan.

At first glance SECURITY appears to have many of the same elements as TRUST. Security addresses employee confidence in knowing that the tasks undertaken contribute to the satisfaction of clients and customers, are legal, safe and positive over the long term. They do not need to continually second guess their purpose and value in the organization.

SECURITY demands that we look at the legal requirements of our corporation and confirm that we are meeting those obligations. As services are decentralized and put in the hands of line managers we need to know that they understand the responsibilities that goes with independent authority. We cannot assume that everyone knows or embraces the Human Rights Code, Protection of Privacy legislation or fully understands the requirements set by Workers Compensation Boards. Underpinning much of what we do is common law and employment law.We have to ask ourselves: are our policies fair, known and implemented consistently.

As many HR people work to implement healthy living goals built around workplace satisfaction surveys, some are ignoring the fundamentals of worker safety. Consider the next steps after employees evacuate the building while the fire bells ring. What are their next steps? Do you have a plan for safety and in the event of the unexpected fire, flood or loss of IT systems, do you have a recovery plan? Do employees know the role they play in maintaining security?

A great commercial is airing now with a theme of "no one wakes up in the morning planning - to drown - or to fall - or to cause a vehicle accident. Does our strategy need to include a renewed focus on the physical safety of our employees?

We naturally believe that we offer a positive benefit to our clients. It's obvious, isn't it? But is every aspect of our services to internal and external clients viewed as positive or are some placed in a position of enforcement or implementation of less than desirable outcomes, like repossession of property, collection of penalties, challenging consumption or just saying know to requests. It is often our supervisory ranks that are expected to fulfill these roles and we must provide the tools and coping mechanisms to succeed.

Employees need to be secure in the knowledge that they come to work for a purpose that contributes to the success of the organization. They must feel that change includes them and is not something that happens to them. When employees are unsure of their future the optimist is the one who packs his lunch to work!

Viewed through the lens of SECURITY we can consider a number of measures that will focus our strategy:

# of employee suggestions
# of grievances
# of hours of legal services required
# of WCB infractions
# of absences
# of claims of harassment or privacy issues

Employees who are secure in their jobs have fewer accidents, are know the value they add through their efforts and are able to deliver greater productivity in tough times. They will also contribute more effort to the change processes initiated by the organization and expend less effort resisting those same changes.

We have now looked at TRUST and SECURITY. Next week we will look at Knowledge as the third element in our framework.

Part 1 TRUST

2009-07-26T11:43:00.000-07:00

How many organizations incorporate honesty, integrity and trust into their value statements. It should be a "given" that our company or organization is built on such values and the real question is: have we built and do we deserve that trust?

Building profits through increased sales or expanded markets requires our employees to believe they will receive the rewards we have offered and not snatch them back through some detail in the fine print. Decreasing expenses through more careful management of existing resources or in some cases not replacing departing employees asks our employees to focus on the business and not fear the loss of their own jobs. A tough challenge in this post recessionary period as reductions, realignments and rationalizations continue.

Trust is the first element in our framework when examining the organization and building a strategy for the short to midterm. Trust is the established confidence of each party in a relationship (personal or business) that assumptions expectations and commitments are in agreement. It's the perception that "I thought you said" and "I think you will" consistently become "I knew you would". So are we offering to our employees that trust in our day to day transactions?

If we state a philosophy of hiring from within, do our selection systems encourage employees to develop and grow; do they know the standards, have we given them the training and tools to advance? Do they understand the processes in place or have we created a "black box" from which decisions emerge but no learning occurs?

Are pay decisions a mystery and subject to conjecture and rumour? Are job evaluation schemes published or is the process lost on all but the experts?

Do people feel secure in their positions, knowing what to do, how to do it and wanting to do it too! What has been the tacit message communicated to them?

When trust is low, people retreat, commit to little and cling to the status quo.

Indicators you may want to assess if they are escalating:
Employee Turnover
Absenteeism
Grievances or formal employee complaints
Indicators you may want to assess if they are declining:
Number of employee suggestions down
Acceptance of change

Boosting trust in your organization will speed the alignment of people with corporate plans, reduce the hindrances of change and increase commitment to cost savings. Is trust a value that means something in your business?

Diagnosing the Organization - A Framework

2009-07-08T20:33:00.000-07:00

I have been quiet for awhile and it has taken me the past few weeks to move from external consultant and teacher to internal consultant and manager. My clients like to start their workday at 7:00AM and believe me that has been an adjustment for someone who only gets going at about that hour! It is however, a great opportunity to set the stage and talk about diagosing the organization.

Once upon a time I was asked by an interviewer: "What are the weaknesses of our HR Advisors today?" I know its a dumb question but one is obligated to smile at your potential boss and respond. My answer was succinct. "They lack diagnostic skills". "What else?" asked the interviewer. Without diagnostic skills I said, nothing else matters. That was a long time ago but on reflection I still believe the answer still stands. Without diagnostic skills, how can any HR professional draw on the right tools to respond to the needs of the organization and provide value-added services? HR managers want to be at the executive table but without a framework that links into business issues then what indeed will they bring if invited?

In presenting the business case to HR students I have reminded them to start with the business issues and to cascade their analysis from there. After developing their action plan then they should, in turn rebuild their HR strategies and actions to contribute to the resolution of those very business issues.

Frameworks provide the broad stokes or principles of analysis that guide us. Too often get forgotten as we scramble to provide day to day services to our clients. As an external or internal HR consultant I like to look at the business from five perspectives: are we trying to increase profits and if so is it by increasing sales or reducing costs, are we out to maximize opportunities; do we need to reduce or mitigate risks and what are we doing to establish or maintain a sustainable entity. With answers to those questions form my clients I can then consider the HR factors that affect their business goals.

Over the next few weeks I will develop and share a framework for HR Advisors to use in the analysis of their own organizations. The framework examines: Trust, Security, Knowledge, Safety, and Reward and Engagement. These five are all interlinked

Trust: Do employees trust the employer? If not how will change occur in the workplace, how will new technologies, markets and products be launched if people cannot let go of the status quo?

Knowledge: How is knowledge acquired, stored and shared? If we don't know then how will the organization be sustainable?

Safety: Are employees safe? What risks are unknowingly being ignored at the peril of the organization?

Reward: Are employees being rewarded for the actions that will drive the business forward?

Engagement; Do people want to do the work. Have we got the right organization and workforce in place to capitalize on the opportunities that await us?

If you are having a hard time keeping an eye on the big picture then this framework may be just the tool to add to your repertoire. Each of the above will be developed further in the coming weeks so stay tuned.

Lean Solutions

2009-06-01T12:45:00.000-07:00

Our HRMA book club got together over drinks and appy's and under brilliant sunshine to discuss, Lean Solutions by James Womack and Daniel T. Jones (2005). It's a book that at first blush the average HR type might want to set right back down again because it is liberally sprinkled with flowcharts and diagrams optimizing production runs and customer interactions. But those who taste the intro will soon savour the whole book and appreciate the principles offered.

If you have grown up in HR and never sat on the other side of the desk receiving the proffered services, you might not fully appreciate the parallel that can be made between HR expertise and automobiles or bags of chips but believe me our clients can. In an age of increasing use of the Internet and Intranet to put HR tools in the hands of client managers, little thought seems to be given to the increased time required of those same managers. As an executive said to me one day: "Bill, if I wanted to do your job I would have applied for it." In the rush to follow David Ulrich's first advice: to get out of the way, too few have built value-added services and continued the transition to his dream of strategic HR leadership.

Lean Solutions offers the analytic tools to optimize the interactions between service providers and clients and uses real life examples of Toyota and Tesco to demonstrate the streamlined cycles that can be put in place. At the operational level the solutions are easy to swallow. They result in new added value for the customer, reduced costs for the supplier and often with implications for a greener business model too! (the example of eliminating hidden costs of running shoes produced off-shore and moving production back to North America comes to mind. On a grander scale, Womack and Jones offer models for resolving five consumer demands that smack of a level of socialism unheard of south of the boarder and totally ignoring the 50 years of lack of success in the former Soviet Union. They might require a little more wine before we buy into them!

Consciously or unconsciously the Internet has enabled some of the key elements of the Lean Solutions model and that is good. The Internet has launched a version of self-service that sometimes makes us and our clients cringe. Lean solutions will get you looking from the other side of the desk.

A Boy Named Suzi

2009-05-27T14:23:00.000-07:00

Students at the University of Guelph could be forgiven if they expected to meet two female engineers in the temporary buildings behind the main campus classrooms. They had only been told that they would be talking to Suzie and Marion and, as usual, they should dress appropriately for the all important job interview. The blushes, stammers, and quizzical looks were almost expected by the two burly but friendly male professionals. One had grown up with the Welsh name, Marion and the other was more formally known as Suziama and years after Johnny Cash made famous his song, A Boy Named Sue, they had grown adept at fielding the name game.

This past week, Philip Oreopoulus, an Economics Prof at UBC, through Metropolis Research Center of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Diversity released the results of a study of foreign entitled: Why do Skilled Immigrants Struggle in the Labour Market? A Field Experiment With Six Thousand Resumes. By circulating the same resumes with Anglicized and foreign sounding names he was able to demonstrate that those resumes with foreign sounding names were less likely to receive a call for an interview than those with names of typical English names. Six thousand resumes were sent to 2000 job opportunities for computer programmers, administrative assistants and accountants in the Greater Toronto area. People with a "foreign" first and last name were 40% less likely to receive call-back for an interview. The Canadian results were similar to a US study by Bertrand and Mullainathan (2004) find between black- and white-sounding names. Changing their first name to to something more common like Bill or Sue resulted in better odds and changing their last name to something like Evans (the most popular name for Chinese immigrants) increased their success even more. Unfortunately, the results imply that an applicant’s name matters considerably more than his additional education,
multiple language skills, and extracurricular activities.

My work with the Intercultural Association of Greater Victoria brings me into contact with new immigrants trying break into the local job market. It saddens me to see people with multiple degrees and years of experience in their chosen field reduced to minimum wage kitchen jobs because of their name. (I must admit to not having a lot of sympathy for Frank Zappa's child dubbed Moon Landing Unit. He will just have to stay in the rock music industry)

In a conversation with Gaylene Turner, the Mentorship Coordinator at ICA, we debated the wisdom of counseling people to change their names to increase their chances of finding a career oriented job. We concluded that it was good advice but also noted that like, Dr. Oreopoulus' findings, Canadian experience is also a key factor in clearing the resume / interview hurdle and we will work with our new-found friends to get them that experience. The Suzis and Marions, Japanese and Welsh, of the world must now open their minds to the Chinese, Pakistani and Indian immigrants following them.

A New Gig

2009-05-18T07:36:00.000-07:00

I see bears. Is it a sign of the times or is it because I am in Whistler Village and they are out of their dens feeding on the verdant greenery emerging from under the last vestiges of snow?

The May election count is over and the other shoe is dropping as provincial public servants consider four-day weeks as an option to avoid future lay-offs. Perhaps they read my earlier blog about re-aligning their flexible work schedules.

When I first moved to Vancouver Island I set up shop as a consultant and soon discovered that my major client would inevitably be the BC Public Service. Contractors and consultants and policy wonks lived in a happy saprophytic relationships until the government of the day severed that link. I took the employment oath and became one of them. One needs to make a living y'know!

Three years ago after continued downsizing and re-alignment of government ministries I took my experience in the private, public and not for profit sectors and created Whiteboard Consulting Inc. finding, once again, that my clients were the many brilliant and hard working people of the public service and public sector. (For readers who have never worked both sides of the street one can only marvel at the dedication of those who work for the public good with no expectation of fabulous wealth to follow.

The economy is bouncing along the bottom, residential real estate investment has stumbled off its precipice and commercial real estate investment will follow the recent and continuing lay-offs. And I along with many consultants and contractors have seen their host benefactors retrenching. If one can retire with the remaining pittance of personal investments then now is a good time to refurbish the den. For the rest of us reinvention is necessary.

I am delighted to be spending the next year with a small and dedicated group of HR professionals at the City of Victoria. On the tip of Vancouver Island there are about 350,000 people and 13 different municipalities and look forward to discovering the nuances of this public sector.

Whiteboard Consulting Inc. as they say is not dead - it's just sleeping. And the blogs about HR issues will continue.

Watched Pots and People

2009-05-03T17:58:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again and employee engagement surveys are being completed - well at least senior executives hope they are. Using that wonderful balanced scorecard approach, employee satisfaction is one element to be assessed in determining executive compensation in the BC Public Service. By executive I do mean deputy ministers and assistant deputy ministers since they are the only ones eligible for variable compensation in that organization.

If you are concerned that some pocket of public servants may be receiving huge bonuses in this era of back-to-basic salaries then worry no more. It's a bit of a backhanded incentive Executives have 5% of their annual salary withheld pending them meeting their personal performance goals which also include employee engagement scores. The bonus is something like the 10% "hold back" built into standard contractor agreements and certainly nothing like the colossal bonus and share schemes of the banking industry. But I digress...

The BC Public Service set themselves a goal of becoming an employer of choice and then wisely revised that to be the employer of choice in the public sector. Their measure of success is the annual employee engagement score each ministry (department) achieves and the four executives in each of those ministry are supposed to push the numbers higher each year through their demonstrated leadership and adherence to corporate values. If the score goes up they receive the 5% salary withheld at the beginning of the year. If the scores don't go up then they argue why their ministry is "different" and why they should be excused from the exercise.

Every year they ask the people: are you happy yet? And every year the answer is: no - not yet. If the answer is: yes we are happy, would the public service be operationally more sound? Satisfied employees are not necessarily more productive employees. They just like coming to work. The organization wants a positive answer so the question is asked again... and again... and again.

Compounding the sense of survey satiation is the time lag in feeding back the results. By the time the data has been sifted, the entrails examined, the portents concluded and the excuses prepared, it is almost time to start the process ... again.

It may be time for organizations like the BC Public Service to back off on their annual climate or engagement surveys and let their new programs gel. Give staff time to build on the new initiatives, increase awareness and entrench them in the minds of employees. Like good marketers they need to create top of mind awareness internally and improve program utility, convenience and effectiveness. Save the culture surveys and instead, sample the operational measures to ensure that quality of recruits is up, employee absences and turnover are down and performance is up. Then come back every other year and test the waters to see if the broad scores of engagement have increased. A watched pot never boils and neither will an employee survey.

Seth Godin's Manifesto

2009-04-27T13:20:00.000-07:00

Each month I get together with a group of HR types to discuss a book. Yes, it is a book club and no we don't always read what is currently on the best seller shelves of our local book stores. This month we discussed Seth Godin's Tribes(Portoflio, 2008)

Tribes was given to me by my son, Will, when it first came out and like so many of my books, I let it age on the shelf a little longer before cracking the cover.

Tribes is not a business book although it could be. It is, in fact Seth's manifesto, or better yet, his mission. I hesitate to add "statement" after the word mission since the book spans 151 pages, so I'll stay with Seth's word: manifesto.

If you want to make a difference in the world and you have thought about that epitaph that will cap your life; if you want to know if there are others who think like you do and believe it is time to act for change, then this little book should be on your shelf too.

Tribes is not so much a book for the corporate suits and communications gurus as it is for the corporate heretics and, those like Popeye the Sailor Man, who say, "I can't takes it no more." Seth Godin is in your corner but says too, don't go it alone. You can be a leader and you can lead from the bottom if your message is timely and others believe it will make a difference. There will be others like you who are willing to band together and form a Tribe to make a difference. If you want to make a difference then Godin says:
1. Publish your own manifesto
2. Make it easy for followers to connect with you
3. Make it easy for your followers to connect with each other
4. Realize that money is not the point of a movement
5. Track your progress.

Seth Godin likes the word "heretic" and in some instances takes his sideways shots at the Church monolith. As leader of his tribe of tribes, the theme that runs through his manifesto is one of servant leadership, a very Christ-like model though he stops well short of "What Would Christ Do?"

Tribes is not a self-help book. It's a map for those who want to set their own path, for heretics who want to take on the establishment and for those of us who want to make a difference before we move on to the next state of being and for those who want to bring out the best in people during this global economic meltdown.

We live in an era when the Internet allows anyone to connect with everyone and find the tribe of followers who will create a movement and change some part of our world. We don't need to stand on a proverbial soap box, stump from the back of a train or knock on doors. The keyboard has become mightier than the pen.

What is your manifesto? Where is your tribe?

Tweet - You're It.

2009-04-21T14:44:00.000-07:00

Is Twitter the gateway drug to the Internet? I know. It's just 140 characters and it couldn't hurt to send or receive a few messages each day - y'know - just between friends. I'll keep my Facebook page open just in case there is some update from a colleague, our competitors or our suppliers. I can manage my Second Life avatar that is building awareness for our recruitment campaigns and don't worry; I am staying on top of my e-mail with my blackberry.

Many years ago I was the new guy in the office. A colleague came hustling down the hallway with the question barely out of his lips.
"Did you get my e-mail?" he asked.
"When did you send it?" I parried.
"Just now."
"Just now," I said. Well I haven't been in my office for awhile. Why don't you tell me what it said.". We dealt with his immediate issue and I reminded him that my priorities were face to face; telephone, e-mail and - oh yes, it was that long ago - mail.

What is the priority today. Add the Internet, the Company Intranet, traditional media updates and your personal and professional blogs to be filtered and how about that sharepoint function that lets you build and maintain documents with your web team and you will spend your entire day just checking your communication pipelines to see if some new info is at hand. And 99% of it will not affect a single decision you make today.

It is that 1% that may slip through the etheral mist of info floating your way that will kill you. Didn't you get the e-mail - the one that said give us your feedback or we will assume you agreed with the mutiny we scheduled for 3PM today. What kind of team player are you?

Timothy Ferriss, in his book, The Four Hour Workweek, describes beating down and re-directing the flow of needless info and delegating decisions to those who actually do the work. The media's infatuation with Twitter has told us that we can know instantly: that fresh bread is ready; the recipe for brioche is at hand; and that your candidate on the hustings just got off the bus in downtown Yahk .

What do your employees need to know? How many sources of information and communication are you expecting them to manage. Are you repeating communication across your internal media channels? On Purpose? It's time to get cosy with your systems folk and look at the IT plan and it had better include more than how many desktops, laptops and servers your organization will need in the coming three years. Its going to need to include a media channel analysis for your staff and policies on what information goes where. If your internal communication has been handled by an adept clerk or summer student off the corner of his or her desk you may want to revisit that decision. HR needs to be looking at "E2E" communication before burnout and turnover take their toll. Tweet. Your communications plan is due.

Blackberry Brambles

2009-04-13T09:46:00.000-07:00

A young acquaintance sat in a meeting with a senior manager. The manager, a straightforward man, stated his vision for the project in clear and unequivocal terms. The small group gathered at the table began to tease apart the project components and realized very quickly that the initial direction was flawed and that some serious course correction would be needed in order for the project to be successful. Ideas were bandied about and nods of agreement suggested that, with the right tweaking, the project could be saved. All eyes turned to the senior manager for assent. His eyes flicked up from his blackberry, he was up-to-date on his latest e-mails, (score one for the multi-tasker) and he reiterated his vision for implementing the project. It was obvious he had not heard a word of the discussion. (Score zero for the project team).

I agree with the the statement that there is no such thing as multi-tasking merely continuous partial attention.

“Blackberries”, “Crackberries”, have taken the life right out of work-life balance. Executives and professionals who spend 90% of their workday in meetings, in turn spend their evenings and weekends flexing their thumbs responding to the myriad communiques that arrive in their in-box. E-mail lists allow everyone to be included and require a response to all. Face time is replaced with "e-face time" the need to let people know you have received their missives at all hours of the day and night. And so elevators, escalators, cars, and conveyors of people are jammed with people, head down, thumbs in motion and personal presence somewhere beyond infinity.

Hence the physical but not mental presence in the meeting with our erstwhile executive. Caught in the balance between working and living he decided to clear a few e-mails while allowing others to carry the discussion. Is he contributing to the turnover of Millenials who lose faith in their leaders? Yes. Is he engaging people in the project at hand. No. Is he wasting everyone's time through his multi-tasking. Probably.

Kriss Dunn asked not that long ago, "Is there a time and place to "tweet" in front of your boss? Unless it related to something you are both doing then: no. Don't waste our time.

This is Just a Test

2009-04-08T09:15:00.000-07:00

Two and a quarter hours into a Monday night class, almost at the end of term and everyone is lagging just a bit. The angst of a looming final exam weighs against the desire to take the night off or to skip class and work on the group projects that will also be due at end of term. Even I, as an instructor look forward to the end of term.

Pop, pop, pop, staccato bangs followed by screams come reverberating through the air vents and I am stopped in my tracks. It's not a sound I ever wanted to hear in a school, in an office or anywhere near me, though I know that it happens in Canada, in Germany and in every jurisdiction in the world. The class looks at me and I look at them and I realize I don't have a clue what I am supposed to do.

My advice to my teen son was always: run don't walk in the opposite direction of sirens and flashing lights. Do not become an innocent by-stander. The reaction of instructors that Monday night was to step out of their own neighbouring classrooms and peer through the window of the classroom where the "gunfire" came from. It was a student presentation incorporating balloons containing questions - but who knew!

Most businesses have fire drills, many develop disaster preparedness plans and, living on the west coast of Canada, we all see boxes holding emergency earthquake supplies, veritable time capsules waiting to be opened to see if we guessed right when we filled them the first time.

Once our policy is written and launched, once our business continuity plan is printed, too many people say good job, now what's next? After the initial flurry of roll-out meetings our communication of what to do and where to go, if and when an emergency happens, is relegated to a web page or perhaps a page in the handbook. But who surfs the company website looking for safety instructions other than the authors of said web pages? New employees may be lucky if it is part of their orientation but part timers, seasonal workers and contractors often miss the meeting, the memo or the web page.

Floor Wardens, OSH Committee members and first aid staff may know the answer to: What do we do now, but will they be at hand when the unexpected happens? The old adage: a little knowledge is a dangerous thing is not true when it comes to safety. Better to train everyone in an introductory first aid course than to train a handful in trauma response. Increased awareness translates into reduced accidents.
If your building catches fire, if your region suffers an earthquake, if shots are fired, do all your staff know what to do? Try this: send out one question each month asking about safety, or health with a follow-up answer the next day. Or this: schedule a semi-annual refresher for all staff and tie one of them in with World Safety Day (July 6th, 2009.

It was balloons. Thank God it was only a test.

Super Crunchers by Ian Ayres

2009-03-25T13:54:00.000-07:00

Super Crunchers by Ian Ayres, (Bantam Book, 2007) , is a scary book for every HR wannabe who came to the field because they hate math. If you are all about the relationship and tend to run from the regression analysis then close your eyes and I will tell you when its over*. For the rest of us, Ian's book is a roller coaster ride from the eye-opening realization that numbers don't care what your gut instinct thinks because chances are you're wrong; to a second realization that we are lucky to have protection of privacy legislation in Canada.

The crux of Ayres' thesis is borrowed from two cognitive psychologists: Richard Nisbett and Lee Ross, who say, " Human judges are not merely worse than optimal regression equations; they are worse than almost any regression equation." And its not just those human resource people shying away from numbers but all professionals who hold themselves as experts in forecasting events based on their intimate knowledge of the past.

Ayres demonstrates through simple examples how the power of data - now available to the average person- can support better decision making. You don't have to be a math wiz because many of the tools are now embedded in your Excel spreadsheets and the book contains additional resources too!

Now the scary part. A lot of Super Crunchers is directed at policy developers, those people thirsting for hard data on which to base their decisions. Crunching vast quantities of data is dependent on getting one's hands on vast quantities of data and cross referencing to arrive at new views of ourselves that we might not want brought to light. Ayres asserts it is for the greater good and our privacy commissioners will assert otherwise. Hence the State of California will sell your social insurance number to make a buck and the Province of British Columbia will seal the vault to keep it secret. Hence in some settings you can split your client base and test different offerings and determine the most efficient, profitable or efficacious and in some settings you cannot. We are reminded by Ayres that what we learned in school should not be forgotten and that hypotheses established and tested with the rigour of math will always enhance the best gut feel.

Super Crunchers. Buy it. Read it. Do it.

* It's over. Opinions may not be suitable for all those who have ever read a book or are intending to read a book. It is the opinion of the writer that you not operate heavy machinery while reading this blog or while reading a book.

Got Any Bright Ideas?

2009-03-25T11:10:00.000-07:00

Employee engagement surveys may be looming on your horizon and if you have not been actively involving your employees in your business then forget about making the numbers jump. Right now managers are gathering their employees around them and asking, what can we do to engage you? The answer, inevitably, is look at last year's survey and do something - anything. As a seasoned employee told her boss one day, "You guys all go off to your leadership training sessions and conferences and nothing ever changes!" Engagement and recognition of employees is a process and not a destination - accomplished the old-fashioned way - through hard work and perseverance.

Right now employee recognition cupboards are stocked with certificates, toys, plaques and tokens. HR departments are encouraging recognition through semi-annual awareness days and annual suggestion awards and some executives are sweating the week of nominations for fear their departments will appear to be black holes for new ideas. In some organizations the toys have been replaced with Visa TM gift cards that can be used anywhere. That way the gift always fits since the recipient gets to pick it out and wrap it! And the ubiquitous pizza party will never die no matter how many trans fats are piled on top.

I am not advocating the demise of the recognition cupboard. It reminds me of the treasure chest in my dentist's office offering treats to children (employees) who don't complain. I think that in the age of gift cards the multi-purpose recognition credit card is a great innovation for commending new ideas and the moments when someone goes above and beyond the normal demands of the job. But what of those who employ their minds to do more than process the paper, those who actually create the words on the paper, or develop new paper. A certificate or desktop token may not adequately recognize their intellect nor provide them the platform to stand on and say, "I did this and I am proud."

In the info technology world, executive teams meet weekly in pre-game huddles to go over the checklist: has every employee received face-time? Has every employee received positive feedback about some aspect of their work? Have workplace concerns been addressed? It is crucial contact in an industry dependent on the knowledge of stable 'human capital" in a market rife with turnover. Even in a downturn economy it is still a best practice that every management team should consider adopting. It will raise employee engagement if it is done all year round and not just before the next survey.

In the movie industry every person contributing to the film project is listed in the credits. Are your projects giving credit to the people who did the work or just the last executives to touch them? Let's remove the anonymity and put their names on documents, put them in front of audiences and let them say, "I did this and I am proud."

Do something different. Start now and your engagement figures will be up for the next survey.

No Blarney in the Resume

2009-03-15T14:47:00.000-07:00

It is said that Queen Elizabeth I, was the one to coin the term "blarney" when she became fed up with the flattery and stories offered by Cormac McCarthy who would not pledge his loyalty to her. Let the Blarney fly on St. Patrick's Day but don't let it find its way into your resume.

I am sure that with the threat of lay-offs spreading across the country, hopeful fingers are delving into wallets and purses to find two dollars to put down on the next lottery. Wouldn't a pot of gold come in handy right about now? It's true "never in - never win" but best to polish that luck with some hard work on that resume and cover letter destined for the next prospective employer.

I will be presenting a workshop this month (it's called: I laughed I cried, I Read your Resume) to people preparing their resumes and sharpening their wits should they be fortunate enough to garner that all important in-person interview. Erstwhile applicants may feel like they are responding to the casting call for Canadian Idol, but they don't get the pleasure of seeing the reaction of their judges as they read their cover letters and resumes.

As family and friends and clients have prepared their resumes I was prompted to conduct a quick survey of those who read them and here are the findings of my not-so-scientific survey. In your cover letter you need to be able to answer three questions:

1) Why do you want this particular job? In the answer you will convey to the reader how it fits
into your own career path.
2) Do you have the key knowledge and experience that will make you successful in this
job? In a paragraph, tell the reader the top three things that will make him or her say,
"I want to read more".
3) Will you make a positive difference in this organization? You should be able to say: I like
the rewards this job offers and I can cope with the frustrations (and every job has both).

The cover letter is your opportunity to demonstrate that you can write clearly and concisely. If it takes you more than a page to say, "Here I am," then you need to cut the blarney.

Is the Public Service Ready for a 4-Day Week?

2009-03-06T10:07:00.000-08:00

The BC Public Service wants to match its employee population to its revenues - an alignment that held until its oil and gas revenues plummeted and every other source of provincial revenue took a hit. They have asked their employees to voluntarily elect to retire early, reduce their work week or take unpaid leave between Christmas and New Years. It's a classic budget smoothing process meant to reduce inputs while appearing to offer the general public a full array of services.

Early stages of organizational weakness show in an inability to flex to surge capacity i.e. staff rising to meet unexpected demands. The gaps are either filled by mid and upper managers working into the nights and weekends and forgoing vacation time or punted to contractors and casual workers.

Compounding the pressure on human resources is a facet of public service found in few other sectors: the 9-day fortnight; usually called flextime. It is a boon to working parents and a silver bullet in the recruitment arsenal when attracting administrative staff in a tight labour market. It's a work week model that lets clerical and administrative staff and in some cases professional and junior management take one day off every second week if they work an extra 46 minutes during the other nine days. In order to offer the public and internal clients "seamless service" it requires staff to stagger their 10th day off with some taking a Monday and others a Friday (because no one in their right mind would take a Wednesday). The result: by default, meetings and training sessions requiring internal resources inevitably get pushed to Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday and phones got to voicemail every day. Those who fail to appreciate the true worth of administrative staff need only hear the unanswered cries for help on a Monday or a Friday in the corridors of public service.

Those closest to power don't feel the gap and only wonder at the response time because, of course, this benefit doesn't quite reach into the executive offices. And clerical staff who should be luxuriating in the cumulative time off surprisingly find themselves stressed about what awaits them on their return to their asynchronous work world.

If the calls for voluntary reductions do not result in the savings that the Public Service needs, perhaps they can take a half-page from the Utah State playbook and effectively close shop every second Friday. Be brave and move all those flex days to a single day every second week. Team productivity will increase, flexibility will be created in three additional weekdays with staff available for meetings, work and interaction and yes, every second Friday will be remarkably quiet. It requires no collective bargaining though it will require some time sheet adjustments through the window of change.

The 9-day fortnight has been a very powerful recruiting and retention tool for the BC Public Service but it has placed undue pressure on more senior staff to maintain the facade of full service. The BC Public Service is working hard to be the employer of choice in the public sector and should continue their mission in these economically uncertain times. A realignment of flex days will synchronize staff resources, create surge capacity and actually support the slogan introduced in the early days of the Campbell administration: Yes with Less".

Reinvention - At a Crossroad

2009-03-04T09:54:00.000-08:00

The world is crashing and everyone, like hermit crabs, are retreating into their shells. Voices call out: "I'm ok. Im ok yup, yessiree these are challenging times!" It is indeed and for those of us who make our living by selling our services to others, the challenges are immediate and in some cases daunting. Are you up for reinvention?

Life as a contractor/consultant has come to a cross-roads. The latest invoice is in the mail, the phone is suddenly quieter except for those incessant 1-800 callers and spam dominates the in-basket.

Have you saved for a rainy day? Have you diversified your client list? Did you see this coming? Yes. Yes. Yes. But who could predict the rain would dissolve the savings as well as the source? Who could see that the wider circle of clients would all be linked and lost in budget cuts at the centre? Who could take an alternative course when alternatives were not obvious? It's done. It's happened. It's time to move on.

Reinvention 301 is for those who have found themselves at the career crossroads before. You may be like me finding yourself in the final third of your career. As one friend put it: the cocktail hour of your career.

The first third of my career was in the private sector, rapidly rising through various management positions across the country. Potential is such a marvelous thing! Children arrived and the career track became the daddy track and we moved to the West Coast and began a the second third of my career in the BC Public Service. Life was slower, advancement slower. And then the quake of realignment and reduction: a ministry of 1500 dwindled to 150 and I found myself on the outside looking in.

A BComm and MBA, a part time college teaching gig and a whole lot of years in the human resources field had given me marketable skills and within days I was incorporated and back in the same corridors offering advice and service as a hired gun. I thought I had begun the final third of my career.

Every new business will face a crisis within the first five years of operation and will either overcome it to continue into the future or sink. I do not know where that adage came from but it has been in the back of my brain since I registered my company, Whiteboard Consulting Inc. That day of crisis has arrived. It's time to play with new ideas, connect with old and new friends and reinvent myself and my company.

Are you at the crossroads? Are you looking for new ideas? Then it is time for REINVENTION 301.

Now