My Dear Reader,
Many if not most of us are people with work - experience.
However how have we been looking at is the big Q.
As days pass, as we change organizations , the Q does not vanish , even if we choose to ignore it.
So to have a glimpse into it here's something which could interest you.
Happy Reading.
With Regards,
A.S.Prasad.
Work is One Big Fat Teachable Moment
by Merrick Rosenberg, MBA
When I speak at conferences about retaining winning talent and the problem of turnover, I often ask attendees to raise their hands if their fathers worked at three or fewer companies throughout their careers.
As you would expect, just about everyone raises their hands. I then ask them a second more revealing question: Raise your hand if you have worked at more than three companies in your career. You guessed it…just about everyone’s hands go up again.
The moral of this story is that people don’t stay at one company for their entire career anymore. In fact, twenty years ago if your resume showed that you switched jobs every three or four years, you would have been perceived as an unstable job-hopper.
Employers would have thought, “Why can’t this person hold onto a job?” Today, you would be seen as a career-oriented go-getter.
There has been a fundamental shift from lifetime employment to lifetime employability. People want to know that no matter what happens with the current employer, they will be employable elsewhere.
In a recent study by Career Systems International, career growth and development was cited by 43 percent of respondents as the reason for staying in organizations. And yet, a McKinsey study found that only 3 percent of 13,000 managers agreed that their organizations were effective at developing people.
The problem is that managers are often not great coaches, and organizations frequently don’t provide the needed training to retain employees. So on one hand, organizations complain about high turnover rates and lack of worker loyalty, yet on the other, these same organizations do not provide the very thing that employees most desire…the opportunity to learn and grow.
The best employees are life-long learners.
High-performers know that work is one big fat teachable moment. They recognize that learning comes from observation, practice, and experience. Further, they proactively seek opportunities to learn from everything they and their coworkers do.
According to research by the U.S. Department of Labor, 70 percent of workplace learning occurs informally, while the remaining 30 percent comes from formal learning programs, such as training and coaching interactions.
Superstar employees don’t wait for training programs to be offered, they seek them out. But more importantly, they also make connections and draw critical insights from everyday experiences.
Individuals who seek learning in everything they do often exhibit the following behaviors:
They are avid readers. They don’t wait for knowledge to come to them.
They pursue it.
They search for greatness and stay close to it. You’ll find these people hanging out with those who talk about what can be, rather than those who whine about what is not.
These individuals find mentors who have walked the path before them and seek their advice.
They volunteer for challenging assignments--the ones that nobody else wants for fear of failure.
They learn from their mistakes, but perhaps more importantly, they learn from others’ mistakes so they don’t have to repeat them.
Looking forward
Individuals who leave an organization hoping that the next employer will better develop them may be sadly disappointed. Growth comes from an unwavering passion to be better and do better.
The future of your organization belongs to individuals who drive their careers by seeking learning in all they do.
Ask yourself a few straightforward questions: Where do you want to be five years from now? What knowledge and skills will you need when you get there? What don’t you know yet or can’t you do yet?
What are you going to do to achieve your goals? Are you taking personal responsibility to develop yourself, or are you expecting your manager or organization to help you?
Commit to making learning a priority and watch your life unfold as the grand tapestry you dreamed it would be.
LULU PAGE
Showing posts with label H.R.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label H.R.. Show all posts
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Why Learning Is Never Enough ?
Dear Reader,
We all talk of learning at some time or the other - as in how much is there to learn.
Some have even stated that there is no end to learning.
Well reproduced below is an article that lays it s points out on,
Why Learning Is Never Enough?
Enjoy your read.
Regards,
A.S.Prasad.
Why Learning Is Never Enough ?
by Kerry Patterson
Ensuring that learning and development initiatives facilitate real change in a workforce requires deliberate follow-up and follow-through.
The foremost challenge in designing learning and development initiatives is effecting real change in a workforce. This is difficult but absolutely necessary for training to achieve solid ROI.
After all, any training program likely not only cost money, but it also took time to design and attend, and therefore spent productivity. If a learning and development program didn't change employees' behavior, then it was a waste - even if they liked the course.
But the ability to transfer knowledge and skills learned in training back to the office is never easy. The training finishes, participants return to work, and they're immediately pulled in a dozen different directions - none of which are designed to help them transfer what they've just learned into part of their daily routine.
Without skill transference, training is merely an expensive vacation that employees take from their daily responsibilities. So what can learning and development professionals do to ensure learning translates into action?
Better still, how can they manipulate the forces that draw people away from adopting new skills to both motivate and enable a genuine change in behavior?
Successful learning officers know that learning is not enough and find ways to ensure their training graduates implement new ideas and skills soon after the training ends.
They supplement their learning experience with a host of strategies that both motivate and enable graduates to adopt the skills taught in training. Skill transference is acquired by combining multiple sources of influence into a cohesive change strategy.
The following tactics can be used to create a well-rounded change strategy.
Co-Opt the Performance System
It's surprising how many training programs aren't supported by an organization's formal performance review system. While few, if any, performance review systems directly contradict what's being covered in training, rare is the program where the skills and ideas taught in training are purposefully reinforced in the formal review process.
For instance, when training people how to hold others accountable, the specific skills taught in the course need to be contained in the formal review paperwork. If they're not, it's unlikely that supervisors will include training graduates' recently acquired skills in their review.
Supervisors may not even know about the new skills, let alone think to include them. So, learning and development professionals should always seek to hardwire into the review process skills that came about as a result of new training.
Enlist Informal Support
While it's essential to build the skills from new learning and development initiatives into a formal review system, it's equally important to take steps to ensure that informal rewards are also aimed at the target behaviors. This is best done by gathering supervisors and ensuring they play a role in getting their direct report's training to stick.
Supervisors will need to talk about the new behaviors, discuss them in meetings, watch to see that the training graduates do what they've been taught and then praise graduates for their progress. For example, they might say, "I couldn't help but notice that you're using the new project software you studied last month. It's good to see you using the new processes. Thanks.!"
People often underestimate how important delivering praise is to encouraging new behavior. For those receiving praise, it's clear that a good word from a colleague or authority figure goes a long way to ensure the appreciated behavior continues. A simple thank you is often viewed as more meaningful and sincere than more formal means of approbation.
In working with supervisors and managers to bring informal praise into a culture, remember that givers of praise tend to forget the power of informal encouragement. Make sure to talk with supervisors about the importance of providing the occasional "Way to go!" and discuss with them what it will take to remember to do so.
What cues can be placed around them? How can managers remind supervisors? A best practice is to hold a meeting one week after participants return from an education experience and discuss the role of leadership in coaching, measuring and encouraging the new behaviors. Take five minutes and brainstorm different informal ways to say thank you.
Connect to Core Values
Much of what is taught in today's leadership and other soft-skill courses is value-based. In addition to informing people what they should do under certain conditions, the courses explain the "why" behind the targeted behaviors. These almost always connect to the company's core values - or at least they should.
For instance, organizations don't ask people to be involved in decision making simply because it's the new training trend. Rather, they ask people for their ideas because they value creative and innovative thinking or constructive feedback and criticism. They also believe that it helps people like they are part of the decision and aligns teams.
Involving others may also lie at the heart of diversity. Organizations seek to rely on the varying views of diverse specialists and realize that doing so leads to the best choices. These may be just some of the values underpinning a training course on teamwork or decision making.
Unfortunately, the idea of talking about values is often far from the minds of leaders, whose jobs require them to focus on numbers and charts. As a result, these leaders miss an important opportunity to connect with what their people really care about.
People don't connect strongly to charts, facts, figures and logic. Rather, they connect to direct and vicarious experiences, personal stories and deeply held values. In explaining how the skills and concepts that participants have learned in corporate training link to the company's core values, learning professionals breathe excitement and life into vanilla behaviors. Leaders should never be afraid to talk about theories, skills and values.
Link Coaching to Training
When it comes to interpersonal skills, training participants need more than knowledge. They need to turn knowledge into action. This requires them to take ideas, shape them in their own words and behaviors and then try them out. This calls for deliberate practice. As the old adage says, practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.
How does one experience perfect practice? Not alone. In determining how well they are enacting new skills, individuals need feedback from others. They need someone else to watch them, stop them when they go awry and then give them specific behavioral advice on how to improve.
In short, they need a coach. A coach doesn't simply look at the scoreboard and tell the team to hunker down. A good coach watches the team members in action and then advises them on what they need to change to affect the result.
Build in Reminders
To help people remember what to do at the right place and time, make use of cues. Put up charts that summarize training skills in meeting rooms. Ask people to carry summary cards with them at work. Put electronic devices to work.
Build in reminders that pop up every morning. Send participants video clips that remind them of what they've learned or even teach a subtle variation on the theme. Ask your IT folks and video specialists to build tools and reminders that are tailored specifically to the skills covered in training.
Training courses work best when combined with a variety of other sources of influence that both motivate and enable training participants to practice what they have learned at work.
This calls for a multifaceted rollout plan that supplements classroom training with both formal and informal rewards, coaching, value links and the use of cuing and reminders. These strategies are the sources of influence that inspire employees to change their behavior for good.
[About the Author: Kerry Patterson is a published author and co-founder of consultancy VitalSmarts.]
We all talk of learning at some time or the other - as in how much is there to learn.
Some have even stated that there is no end to learning.
Well reproduced below is an article that lays it s points out on,
Why Learning Is Never Enough?
Enjoy your read.
Regards,
A.S.Prasad.
Why Learning Is Never Enough ?
by Kerry Patterson
Ensuring that learning and development initiatives facilitate real change in a workforce requires deliberate follow-up and follow-through.
The foremost challenge in designing learning and development initiatives is effecting real change in a workforce. This is difficult but absolutely necessary for training to achieve solid ROI.
After all, any training program likely not only cost money, but it also took time to design and attend, and therefore spent productivity. If a learning and development program didn't change employees' behavior, then it was a waste - even if they liked the course.
But the ability to transfer knowledge and skills learned in training back to the office is never easy. The training finishes, participants return to work, and they're immediately pulled in a dozen different directions - none of which are designed to help them transfer what they've just learned into part of their daily routine.
Without skill transference, training is merely an expensive vacation that employees take from their daily responsibilities. So what can learning and development professionals do to ensure learning translates into action?
Better still, how can they manipulate the forces that draw people away from adopting new skills to both motivate and enable a genuine change in behavior?
Successful learning officers know that learning is not enough and find ways to ensure their training graduates implement new ideas and skills soon after the training ends.
They supplement their learning experience with a host of strategies that both motivate and enable graduates to adopt the skills taught in training. Skill transference is acquired by combining multiple sources of influence into a cohesive change strategy.
The following tactics can be used to create a well-rounded change strategy.
Co-Opt the Performance System
It's surprising how many training programs aren't supported by an organization's formal performance review system. While few, if any, performance review systems directly contradict what's being covered in training, rare is the program where the skills and ideas taught in training are purposefully reinforced in the formal review process.
For instance, when training people how to hold others accountable, the specific skills taught in the course need to be contained in the formal review paperwork. If they're not, it's unlikely that supervisors will include training graduates' recently acquired skills in their review.
Supervisors may not even know about the new skills, let alone think to include them. So, learning and development professionals should always seek to hardwire into the review process skills that came about as a result of new training.
Enlist Informal Support
While it's essential to build the skills from new learning and development initiatives into a formal review system, it's equally important to take steps to ensure that informal rewards are also aimed at the target behaviors. This is best done by gathering supervisors and ensuring they play a role in getting their direct report's training to stick.
Supervisors will need to talk about the new behaviors, discuss them in meetings, watch to see that the training graduates do what they've been taught and then praise graduates for their progress. For example, they might say, "I couldn't help but notice that you're using the new project software you studied last month. It's good to see you using the new processes. Thanks.!"
People often underestimate how important delivering praise is to encouraging new behavior. For those receiving praise, it's clear that a good word from a colleague or authority figure goes a long way to ensure the appreciated behavior continues. A simple thank you is often viewed as more meaningful and sincere than more formal means of approbation.
In working with supervisors and managers to bring informal praise into a culture, remember that givers of praise tend to forget the power of informal encouragement. Make sure to talk with supervisors about the importance of providing the occasional "Way to go!" and discuss with them what it will take to remember to do so.
What cues can be placed around them? How can managers remind supervisors? A best practice is to hold a meeting one week after participants return from an education experience and discuss the role of leadership in coaching, measuring and encouraging the new behaviors. Take five minutes and brainstorm different informal ways to say thank you.
Connect to Core Values
Much of what is taught in today's leadership and other soft-skill courses is value-based. In addition to informing people what they should do under certain conditions, the courses explain the "why" behind the targeted behaviors. These almost always connect to the company's core values - or at least they should.
For instance, organizations don't ask people to be involved in decision making simply because it's the new training trend. Rather, they ask people for their ideas because they value creative and innovative thinking or constructive feedback and criticism. They also believe that it helps people like they are part of the decision and aligns teams.
Involving others may also lie at the heart of diversity. Organizations seek to rely on the varying views of diverse specialists and realize that doing so leads to the best choices. These may be just some of the values underpinning a training course on teamwork or decision making.
Unfortunately, the idea of talking about values is often far from the minds of leaders, whose jobs require them to focus on numbers and charts. As a result, these leaders miss an important opportunity to connect with what their people really care about.
People don't connect strongly to charts, facts, figures and logic. Rather, they connect to direct and vicarious experiences, personal stories and deeply held values. In explaining how the skills and concepts that participants have learned in corporate training link to the company's core values, learning professionals breathe excitement and life into vanilla behaviors. Leaders should never be afraid to talk about theories, skills and values.
Link Coaching to Training
When it comes to interpersonal skills, training participants need more than knowledge. They need to turn knowledge into action. This requires them to take ideas, shape them in their own words and behaviors and then try them out. This calls for deliberate practice. As the old adage says, practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.
How does one experience perfect practice? Not alone. In determining how well they are enacting new skills, individuals need feedback from others. They need someone else to watch them, stop them when they go awry and then give them specific behavioral advice on how to improve.
In short, they need a coach. A coach doesn't simply look at the scoreboard and tell the team to hunker down. A good coach watches the team members in action and then advises them on what they need to change to affect the result.
Build in Reminders
To help people remember what to do at the right place and time, make use of cues. Put up charts that summarize training skills in meeting rooms. Ask people to carry summary cards with them at work. Put electronic devices to work.
Build in reminders that pop up every morning. Send participants video clips that remind them of what they've learned or even teach a subtle variation on the theme. Ask your IT folks and video specialists to build tools and reminders that are tailored specifically to the skills covered in training.
Training courses work best when combined with a variety of other sources of influence that both motivate and enable training participants to practice what they have learned at work.
This calls for a multifaceted rollout plan that supplements classroom training with both formal and informal rewards, coaching, value links and the use of cuing and reminders. These strategies are the sources of influence that inspire employees to change their behavior for good.
[About the Author: Kerry Patterson is a published author and co-founder of consultancy VitalSmarts.]
Monday, April 12, 2010
Why CEOs Talk Tough to Staff, and Why Tender Works Better
Dear Reader,
Given below is an article whose contents would make a lot of sense to some , yet would leave others wondering.
It is upto you my good reader to think through the article , chew on it , so as to later arrive at a stand as in a decision for yourself.
In my view ;
There is neither right nor wrong here .
All one is talking of the approach one needs to take - as they say it is a matter of one's discretion, or individual call.
However one needs to take a conscious call based on a platform of knowing the complete facts and the truth.
Regards,
A.S.Prasad.
Why CEOs Talk Tough to Staff, and Why Tender Works Better
On a flight back from London on British Airways the day after the end of the flight attendants’ strike, one employee said, “We know the company is facing difficulties, and we’re willing to help. But don’t they know that praise goes a lot further than fear?” I have heard similar sentiments from other employees at United—where there is a very punitive policy toward taking sick days—and from numerous workers not in the airline industry.
The comments are empirically correct but apparently hard for senior management to do. The truth of the statements and the difficulty of implementing them are both important.
Beginning with the famous learning theorist B. F. Skinner, research has consistently shown that positive reinforcement—rewarding desired behavior—is more effective than punishment for increasing the likelihood of people doing what you want them to do. In fact, O. C. Tanner, a company that sells both trinkets and also reward and recognition programs to companies, describes the importance of rewards in The Carrot Principle. The book reports on empirical research documenting how effective recognition can be. Add it to the body of knowledge accumulated over the years by people such as management scholar Fred Luthans of the University of Nebraska, and you have compelling evidence for the wisdom of implementing Skinner’s insights.
If there is so much anecdotal and systematic evidence—and even simple common sense—to support using praise and kindness, why is it used so infrequently?
In Blunder: Why Smart People Make Bad Decisions, naval history professor Zachary Shore suggests an answer.
Shore describes what he calls “exposure anxiety”—the fear of being exposed or labeled as “weak.”
He notes that more than a fear, many people believed that not acting tough will cause others to take advantage of them and see them as weak and spineless—not a good image for a leader.
You see this all the time at work. Management and organizational behavior are sometimes labeled as “soft” subjects—compared, I presume, to the “hard” disciplines of economics, finance, and accounting.
In my education and training work, when I describe companies that take a positive, inclusive, strong-culture building approach to their employees—places like kidney dialysis provider DaVita or the Andean region of Kimberly-Clark where Sergio Nacach doubled sales and tripled earnings in about four years—the response is the same.
This approach seems soft, mushy, and doesn’t signal the toughness that executives want to display.
Here again social psychology has some important insights. The two fundamental criteria we use to evaluate others are competence and warmth.
But as Harvard business school professor Teresa Amabile described in an aptly titled article, “Brilliant But Cruel,” the problem is that we often see competence and warmth as being negatively related—warm people don’t appear as intelligent or skilled as those that are meaner.
You would think that these dynamics wouldn’t apply as much to CEOS—already at the top of their companies, they presumably don’t need to worry as much about their image and ought to be more concerned with creating shareholder value by managing their workforce in a way that provides higher levels of business performance.
But many CEOs do care about what their peers think about them, and therefore make the trade-off to be unduly tough and mean and underutilize kindness, praise, and rewards with their workforce.
Making the same mistakes over and over again is not inevitable or preordained—it’s why I write this column, to help you do better.
Now that you understand both the evidence for the comparative effectiveness of rewards over punishments and the psychological barriers to acting on this knowledge, you should be more motivated and maybe even capable to, as the song says, “try a little tenderness.”
Jeffrey Pfeffer is a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and is the author or co-author of 12 books. His latest book, “Power: How to Get It, Use It, and Keep It,” will be published by Harper Collins in September 2010.
Given below is an article whose contents would make a lot of sense to some , yet would leave others wondering.
It is upto you my good reader to think through the article , chew on it , so as to later arrive at a stand as in a decision for yourself.
In my view ;
There is neither right nor wrong here .
All one is talking of the approach one needs to take - as they say it is a matter of one's discretion, or individual call.
However one needs to take a conscious call based on a platform of knowing the complete facts and the truth.
Regards,
A.S.Prasad.
Why CEOs Talk Tough to Staff, and Why Tender Works Better
On a flight back from London on British Airways the day after the end of the flight attendants’ strike, one employee said, “We know the company is facing difficulties, and we’re willing to help. But don’t they know that praise goes a lot further than fear?” I have heard similar sentiments from other employees at United—where there is a very punitive policy toward taking sick days—and from numerous workers not in the airline industry.
The comments are empirically correct but apparently hard for senior management to do. The truth of the statements and the difficulty of implementing them are both important.
Beginning with the famous learning theorist B. F. Skinner, research has consistently shown that positive reinforcement—rewarding desired behavior—is more effective than punishment for increasing the likelihood of people doing what you want them to do. In fact, O. C. Tanner, a company that sells both trinkets and also reward and recognition programs to companies, describes the importance of rewards in The Carrot Principle. The book reports on empirical research documenting how effective recognition can be. Add it to the body of knowledge accumulated over the years by people such as management scholar Fred Luthans of the University of Nebraska, and you have compelling evidence for the wisdom of implementing Skinner’s insights.
If there is so much anecdotal and systematic evidence—and even simple common sense—to support using praise and kindness, why is it used so infrequently?
In Blunder: Why Smart People Make Bad Decisions, naval history professor Zachary Shore suggests an answer.
Shore describes what he calls “exposure anxiety”—the fear of being exposed or labeled as “weak.”
He notes that more than a fear, many people believed that not acting tough will cause others to take advantage of them and see them as weak and spineless—not a good image for a leader.
You see this all the time at work. Management and organizational behavior are sometimes labeled as “soft” subjects—compared, I presume, to the “hard” disciplines of economics, finance, and accounting.
In my education and training work, when I describe companies that take a positive, inclusive, strong-culture building approach to their employees—places like kidney dialysis provider DaVita or the Andean region of Kimberly-Clark where Sergio Nacach doubled sales and tripled earnings in about four years—the response is the same.
This approach seems soft, mushy, and doesn’t signal the toughness that executives want to display.
Here again social psychology has some important insights. The two fundamental criteria we use to evaluate others are competence and warmth.
But as Harvard business school professor Teresa Amabile described in an aptly titled article, “Brilliant But Cruel,” the problem is that we often see competence and warmth as being negatively related—warm people don’t appear as intelligent or skilled as those that are meaner.
You would think that these dynamics wouldn’t apply as much to CEOS—already at the top of their companies, they presumably don’t need to worry as much about their image and ought to be more concerned with creating shareholder value by managing their workforce in a way that provides higher levels of business performance.
But many CEOs do care about what their peers think about them, and therefore make the trade-off to be unduly tough and mean and underutilize kindness, praise, and rewards with their workforce.
Making the same mistakes over and over again is not inevitable or preordained—it’s why I write this column, to help you do better.
Now that you understand both the evidence for the comparative effectiveness of rewards over punishments and the psychological barriers to acting on this knowledge, you should be more motivated and maybe even capable to, as the song says, “try a little tenderness.”
Jeffrey Pfeffer is a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and is the author or co-author of 12 books. His latest book, “Power: How to Get It, Use It, and Keep It,” will be published by Harper Collins in September 2010.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
RESOLVING CONFLICTS
Dear Reader,
Here is an article that is on ,'Resolving Conflicts'.
A well written piece will certainly provide for a lot of food for thought .
Regards,
A.S.Prasad.
Resolving Tough Conflicts - One Competency at a Time
by Jennifer S. Goldman
The ability to resolve conflict is a core competency for leaders in all types of organizations. It's no wonder there's lots of advice out there on the topic.
The good news is that much of it is excellent. The bad news is that most of it pertains to "routine" conflict - conflict that arises every day and is best addressed by using interest-based, or principled, negotiation that produces win-win solutions.
But what about conflicts that reappear despite our best efforts to resolve them? For example, what about the family business in which a father has threatened to sell the company rather than pass it on to his children? Or a newly merged company suffering from a long-standing conflict between two of its highest-profile members?
For all its successes, principled negotiation has its limitations. A new framework called CIVIC aims to enable organizations to effectively deal with persistent conflicts. CIVIC is an acronym for the five core competencies individuals need to do this: complexity, interconnectedness, values, imagination and courage.
Complexity
According to researcher Peter T. Coleman, many long-standing conflicts involve multiple parties, issues and relationships. The first step in solving long-term conflicts is to recognize this complexity. The second step is learning how to anticipate the potentially complex consequences of our own and others' actions.
For example, in the case of the family business in which a father wants to sell the business rather than pass it down to his children, it is important for all parties to ask themselves a set of questions about the potential consequences of their actions before taking a next step. Some important questions include: What are the possible unintended consequences of my behavior down the road for others? For myself? For the company? For future generations of my family and the company's leadership? When we take this long-range view, we may gain a new perspective that can help us prevent conflict from escalating.
Interconnectedness
Conflicts often are made up of interwoven interests and needs between the parties. For example, consider a company in which the sales leaders and the R&D individuals can't see eye to eye. If they didn't need one another, they could simply walk away. But sales would have nothing to sell if R&D didn't create the products, and R&D would have no way of putting new products into customers' hands without a sales force.
In the heat of a conflict, it can be easy to lose sight of the ways in which we depend on one another. A first step out of the conflict is for the parties to simply appreciate the fact that they are interconnected. It helps to map out our relationships and put on the map at least one new person, place or event that we haven't previously considered to be part of the situation. We should also put on the map at least one positive contribution that each person, place or event brings to the situation. Doing so can help us shift our perspective.
Values
If conflicts persist over a long period of time, the parties are invariably getting something out of it. If they weren't, they would have ended the conflict long ago.
An important question to ask ourselves is: What benefits do I personally receive from staying in this conflict? The answer may uncover important - but hidden or taboo - values that each party holds. For example, we may benefit from staying in a conflict if we get to feel that we are right and the others are wrong or if we get sympathy or attention from others. Sometimes staying stuck in a conflict simply allows us to avoid having to deal with it or make a difficult decision. These are all legitimate values or needs that we have, but bringing them to light allows us to find ways to attain them through other means.
Imagination
This core competency has two parts. The first is the ability to envision a better future. This requires that we take a step back and ask ourselves: What would this situation look like in its ideal state? Keeping in mind complexity and interconnectedness, what is the ideal state not just with regard to one other party, but for all involved? Map this out.
The second part of this competency refers to the ability to communicate this vision. If you are a leader in the conflict, you may need to communicate your vision both to your own team and to the other parties. Ask others to contribute to your vision of a compelling future.
Courage
At the end of the day, we may have the greatest ideas on how to get things back on track to produce superior results. But if we don't do things differently than before, we'll stay stuck in the same patterns. We must consciously choose to act differently, one small step at a time. This takes courage. It may take being unconventional or pushing past our comfort zones. We can study the actions of our favorite courageous leaders - real and imaginary - and choose to live by their example.
[About the Author: Jennifer S. Goldman is an organizational psychologist and the founder of Alignment Strategies Group, an organizational leadership consultancy.]
Here is an article that is on ,'Resolving Conflicts'.
A well written piece will certainly provide for a lot of food for thought .
Regards,
A.S.Prasad.
Resolving Tough Conflicts - One Competency at a Time
by Jennifer S. Goldman
The ability to resolve conflict is a core competency for leaders in all types of organizations. It's no wonder there's lots of advice out there on the topic.
The good news is that much of it is excellent. The bad news is that most of it pertains to "routine" conflict - conflict that arises every day and is best addressed by using interest-based, or principled, negotiation that produces win-win solutions.
But what about conflicts that reappear despite our best efforts to resolve them? For example, what about the family business in which a father has threatened to sell the company rather than pass it on to his children? Or a newly merged company suffering from a long-standing conflict between two of its highest-profile members?
For all its successes, principled negotiation has its limitations. A new framework called CIVIC aims to enable organizations to effectively deal with persistent conflicts. CIVIC is an acronym for the five core competencies individuals need to do this: complexity, interconnectedness, values, imagination and courage.
Complexity
According to researcher Peter T. Coleman, many long-standing conflicts involve multiple parties, issues and relationships. The first step in solving long-term conflicts is to recognize this complexity. The second step is learning how to anticipate the potentially complex consequences of our own and others' actions.
For example, in the case of the family business in which a father wants to sell the business rather than pass it down to his children, it is important for all parties to ask themselves a set of questions about the potential consequences of their actions before taking a next step. Some important questions include: What are the possible unintended consequences of my behavior down the road for others? For myself? For the company? For future generations of my family and the company's leadership? When we take this long-range view, we may gain a new perspective that can help us prevent conflict from escalating.
Interconnectedness
Conflicts often are made up of interwoven interests and needs between the parties. For example, consider a company in which the sales leaders and the R&D individuals can't see eye to eye. If they didn't need one another, they could simply walk away. But sales would have nothing to sell if R&D didn't create the products, and R&D would have no way of putting new products into customers' hands without a sales force.
In the heat of a conflict, it can be easy to lose sight of the ways in which we depend on one another. A first step out of the conflict is for the parties to simply appreciate the fact that they are interconnected. It helps to map out our relationships and put on the map at least one new person, place or event that we haven't previously considered to be part of the situation. We should also put on the map at least one positive contribution that each person, place or event brings to the situation. Doing so can help us shift our perspective.
Values
If conflicts persist over a long period of time, the parties are invariably getting something out of it. If they weren't, they would have ended the conflict long ago.
An important question to ask ourselves is: What benefits do I personally receive from staying in this conflict? The answer may uncover important - but hidden or taboo - values that each party holds. For example, we may benefit from staying in a conflict if we get to feel that we are right and the others are wrong or if we get sympathy or attention from others. Sometimes staying stuck in a conflict simply allows us to avoid having to deal with it or make a difficult decision. These are all legitimate values or needs that we have, but bringing them to light allows us to find ways to attain them through other means.
Imagination
This core competency has two parts. The first is the ability to envision a better future. This requires that we take a step back and ask ourselves: What would this situation look like in its ideal state? Keeping in mind complexity and interconnectedness, what is the ideal state not just with regard to one other party, but for all involved? Map this out.
The second part of this competency refers to the ability to communicate this vision. If you are a leader in the conflict, you may need to communicate your vision both to your own team and to the other parties. Ask others to contribute to your vision of a compelling future.
Courage
At the end of the day, we may have the greatest ideas on how to get things back on track to produce superior results. But if we don't do things differently than before, we'll stay stuck in the same patterns. We must consciously choose to act differently, one small step at a time. This takes courage. It may take being unconventional or pushing past our comfort zones. We can study the actions of our favorite courageous leaders - real and imaginary - and choose to live by their example.
[About the Author: Jennifer S. Goldman is an organizational psychologist and the founder of Alignment Strategies Group, an organizational leadership consultancy.]
Changing Attitudes
Dear Reader,
Given below is an article which was posted on one of the forums by a member of the forum.
The article has been reproduced here in detail as given.
Regards,
A.S.Prasad
Changing Attitudes
by Harold D. Stolovitch, Ph.D.
Sometimes getting people to change their performance seems impossible, despite the urgent need to do so. Here are some examples.
The press highlighted rising conflict incidents - some resulting in violence - related to racial, cultural and linguistic differences between public transit riders and bus drivers. Bus drivers were convinced riders were at fault. "They should go back to where they came from if they can't act decently," the drivers complained.
Firefighter hand injuries increased sharply. A major contributing cause was not wearing gloves at fire scenes. "Real men don't wear gloves," characterized the prevailing attitude.
Women enrolled, through a recent company campaign, in traditionally male-only, well-paying trades were abandoning the program at an alarming rate. They claimed discrimination and harassment. Men ridiculed these grievances, with the attitude, "If they can't take the heat, they should get out of the kitchen."
Each case investigation turned up evidence indicating deeply embedded attitudes, ignorance of the consequences of one's actions and cultural norms as major contributors to the undesirable outcomes. In the public transit case, the majority of drivers were unaware of their own contributory actions that triggered conflicts and had no knowledge of the consequences to themselves and their jobs. Firefighters firmly believed they knew what they were doing. This, coupled with a macho culture, created barriers to improved safety behaviors. As for the women entering hitherto closed job categories, job loss fears, misunderstandings concerning appropriate conduct and blindness about the impact of their actions inhibited the men from changing entrenched behaviors.
Transforming how someone troubleshoots equipment or processes claims basically requires goal setting, practice, feedback and reinforcement. In areas of strong emotion a different paradigm is required, one that focused on replacing deep-rooted beliefs and habitual behaviors. What follows is a six-step strategic approach for transforming attitudinally biased, counterproductive performances into ones that generate positive results for both the organization and the performers themselves.
1. Perception:
Awareness is a critical first step. For the bus drivers, ridership was declining - and affecting their jobs - except in one category: the newly landed immigrant riders with whom they were having conflicts. Drivers were amazed by a video about immigrant riders' fears and perceptions of bus driver hostility. Exposure to statistics about injuries, the long-term health consequences of hand injuries and their effect on absenteeism, budgets and jobs opened firefighters' eyes to how their individual neglect was creating widespread negative consequences.
2. Acknowledgement:
Perception must lead to acceptance of the negative consequences of deep-seated attitudes - short and long term - on all involved.
3. Valuing:
The negative impact of time-honored beliefs and behaviors has to be exposed and replaced with a new value system. Role-play, success examples, informal leader encouragement and reinforcement of all values are useful.
4. Actions:
From words to deeds, models of conduct, practice, feedback and reinforcement come into play. Appropriate policies, pro-cedures, expectations and consequences are critical in this step. Encouraging on-the-job initiatives and monitoring to foster appropriate actions strengthens the probability of performance changes.
5. Support:
A major step forward occurs when performers act appropriately and assist in others' efforts to do so. Encouraging informal support, communicating positive outcomes and recognizing support efforts accelerates the performance transformation.
6. Advocacy:
When key group members assume leadership and press for the new performance, success has occurred.
In all three examples, not only were strategies implemented, they resulted in significant performance improvements. Incidents dramatically declined aboard buses; firefighter hand injuries steadily decreased; women are increasingly succeeding and remaining in their new trades. All were difficult performance changes; all had positive outcomes.
[About the Author: Harold D. Stolovitch, Ph.D., CPT is a principal of HSA Learning & Performance Solutions LLC and is emeritus professor of instructional and performance technology at the Universite de Montreal.]
Given below is an article which was posted on one of the forums by a member of the forum.
The article has been reproduced here in detail as given.
Regards,
A.S.Prasad
Changing Attitudes
by Harold D. Stolovitch, Ph.D.
Sometimes getting people to change their performance seems impossible, despite the urgent need to do so. Here are some examples.
The press highlighted rising conflict incidents - some resulting in violence - related to racial, cultural and linguistic differences between public transit riders and bus drivers. Bus drivers were convinced riders were at fault. "They should go back to where they came from if they can't act decently," the drivers complained.
Firefighter hand injuries increased sharply. A major contributing cause was not wearing gloves at fire scenes. "Real men don't wear gloves," characterized the prevailing attitude.
Women enrolled, through a recent company campaign, in traditionally male-only, well-paying trades were abandoning the program at an alarming rate. They claimed discrimination and harassment. Men ridiculed these grievances, with the attitude, "If they can't take the heat, they should get out of the kitchen."
Each case investigation turned up evidence indicating deeply embedded attitudes, ignorance of the consequences of one's actions and cultural norms as major contributors to the undesirable outcomes. In the public transit case, the majority of drivers were unaware of their own contributory actions that triggered conflicts and had no knowledge of the consequences to themselves and their jobs. Firefighters firmly believed they knew what they were doing. This, coupled with a macho culture, created barriers to improved safety behaviors. As for the women entering hitherto closed job categories, job loss fears, misunderstandings concerning appropriate conduct and blindness about the impact of their actions inhibited the men from changing entrenched behaviors.
Transforming how someone troubleshoots equipment or processes claims basically requires goal setting, practice, feedback and reinforcement. In areas of strong emotion a different paradigm is required, one that focused on replacing deep-rooted beliefs and habitual behaviors. What follows is a six-step strategic approach for transforming attitudinally biased, counterproductive performances into ones that generate positive results for both the organization and the performers themselves.
1. Perception:
Awareness is a critical first step. For the bus drivers, ridership was declining - and affecting their jobs - except in one category: the newly landed immigrant riders with whom they were having conflicts. Drivers were amazed by a video about immigrant riders' fears and perceptions of bus driver hostility. Exposure to statistics about injuries, the long-term health consequences of hand injuries and their effect on absenteeism, budgets and jobs opened firefighters' eyes to how their individual neglect was creating widespread negative consequences.
2. Acknowledgement:
Perception must lead to acceptance of the negative consequences of deep-seated attitudes - short and long term - on all involved.
3. Valuing:
The negative impact of time-honored beliefs and behaviors has to be exposed and replaced with a new value system. Role-play, success examples, informal leader encouragement and reinforcement of all values are useful.
4. Actions:
From words to deeds, models of conduct, practice, feedback and reinforcement come into play. Appropriate policies, pro-cedures, expectations and consequences are critical in this step. Encouraging on-the-job initiatives and monitoring to foster appropriate actions strengthens the probability of performance changes.
5. Support:
A major step forward occurs when performers act appropriately and assist in others' efforts to do so. Encouraging informal support, communicating positive outcomes and recognizing support efforts accelerates the performance transformation.
6. Advocacy:
When key group members assume leadership and press for the new performance, success has occurred.
In all three examples, not only were strategies implemented, they resulted in significant performance improvements. Incidents dramatically declined aboard buses; firefighter hand injuries steadily decreased; women are increasingly succeeding and remaining in their new trades. All were difficult performance changes; all had positive outcomes.
[About the Author: Harold D. Stolovitch, Ph.D., CPT is a principal of HSA Learning & Performance Solutions LLC and is emeritus professor of instructional and performance technology at the Universite de Montreal.]
Friday, April 9, 2010
Cultivate Courage in Uncertain Times
Dear Reader,
Here is an article as receieved by me in my mail box from one of my fellow forum members.
The thought behind posting it here is to merely extend the scope of readership of some brilliant pieces.
Cultivate Courage in Uncertain Times
by Sandra Ford Walston
There is a strong correlation between courageous leadership and organizational success. Luckily, everyone can learn to practice courage at work regardless of career or position. Based on 13 years of research on the subject, there are six main components of work-related courage.
1. Clarity:
Most people do not have a clue about their inner calling. Think about a time and an issue that excited and animated you. There is a good chance that you have experienced this positive energy at some point in your life. Perhaps you have all but forgotten this experience, but if you look closer, you might see that it revealed your inner essence. Define what is vital in your life and escalate your success at work. One moment of courageous clarity can work miracles in organizational effectiveness and career advancement.
2. Consistency:
Reflect on a facet of work that causes tension in your life. As you examine the situation, begin to notice your "default" courage settings. For example, you might discover you often change your mind. Then, suspend assumptions, detach from opinions and certainty about what you think is true, and take responsibility for your "courage consciousness" development. This also lifts the spirit of your work environment. Courageous people are able to execute this process by stopping to reflect. Do you consistently practice any form of meditation?
3. Controversy:
At times, you may have to appropriately challenge the people you wish to influence. You do this by standing firm in your convictions and questioning the situation. As Martin Luther King Jr. once said: "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." Regardless of the cost, do you stand steadfast to demonstrate your talents and stand up for what you know to be right? Courageously forthright action does not mean bravado. Courage initiates decisive action and accepts nothing less.
4. Commitment:
When you manage how you learn, you also manage your workplace persona, an important key to developing workplace courage. In other words, when you are centered in your courage consciousness, your workplace persona provides an honest reflection of your inner being.
Success is about developing your own identity, your true self, so that you feel fulfilled and happy in each moment. Self-doubt is an obstacle to courage that ultimately undermines success. According to an ancient Chinese proverb: "He who hesitates before each step spends his life on one leg."
5. Confessing:
Do you confess your shortcomings and missteps? For example, if you lack knowledge about a topic, do you respond in a deceptive manner that keeps your ego intact? The honest response would be to confess your vulnerability by admitting that you do not know the answer.
Confessing is good for the spirit when done in a timely manner and with positive intent. The process helps us face the truth. We take responsibility for what is happening with our spirit and address those missteps that collect unhealthy energy. Yes, we invite potential trouble when we confess our shortcomings, but more importantly, we hold ourselves accountable and establish our integrity.
6. Candor:
Straight talk gets attention because it is uncomfortable for most people. Speaking with courage means learning to speak with your own voice. Only by learning to express ourselves from our own "courageous identities" can we begin to employ the courage that moves us beyond ambiguity.
[About the Author: Sandra Ford Walston is a learning consultant, speaker, corporate trainer and courage coach. She is the author of the book "Courage: The Heart and Spirit of Every Woman."]
Here is an article as receieved by me in my mail box from one of my fellow forum members.
The thought behind posting it here is to merely extend the scope of readership of some brilliant pieces.
Cultivate Courage in Uncertain Times
by Sandra Ford Walston
There is a strong correlation between courageous leadership and organizational success. Luckily, everyone can learn to practice courage at work regardless of career or position. Based on 13 years of research on the subject, there are six main components of work-related courage.
1. Clarity:
Most people do not have a clue about their inner calling. Think about a time and an issue that excited and animated you. There is a good chance that you have experienced this positive energy at some point in your life. Perhaps you have all but forgotten this experience, but if you look closer, you might see that it revealed your inner essence. Define what is vital in your life and escalate your success at work. One moment of courageous clarity can work miracles in organizational effectiveness and career advancement.
2. Consistency:
Reflect on a facet of work that causes tension in your life. As you examine the situation, begin to notice your "default" courage settings. For example, you might discover you often change your mind. Then, suspend assumptions, detach from opinions and certainty about what you think is true, and take responsibility for your "courage consciousness" development. This also lifts the spirit of your work environment. Courageous people are able to execute this process by stopping to reflect. Do you consistently practice any form of meditation?
3. Controversy:
At times, you may have to appropriately challenge the people you wish to influence. You do this by standing firm in your convictions and questioning the situation. As Martin Luther King Jr. once said: "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." Regardless of the cost, do you stand steadfast to demonstrate your talents and stand up for what you know to be right? Courageously forthright action does not mean bravado. Courage initiates decisive action and accepts nothing less.
4. Commitment:
When you manage how you learn, you also manage your workplace persona, an important key to developing workplace courage. In other words, when you are centered in your courage consciousness, your workplace persona provides an honest reflection of your inner being.
Success is about developing your own identity, your true self, so that you feel fulfilled and happy in each moment. Self-doubt is an obstacle to courage that ultimately undermines success. According to an ancient Chinese proverb: "He who hesitates before each step spends his life on one leg."
5. Confessing:
Do you confess your shortcomings and missteps? For example, if you lack knowledge about a topic, do you respond in a deceptive manner that keeps your ego intact? The honest response would be to confess your vulnerability by admitting that you do not know the answer.
Confessing is good for the spirit when done in a timely manner and with positive intent. The process helps us face the truth. We take responsibility for what is happening with our spirit and address those missteps that collect unhealthy energy. Yes, we invite potential trouble when we confess our shortcomings, but more importantly, we hold ourselves accountable and establish our integrity.
6. Candor:
Straight talk gets attention because it is uncomfortable for most people. Speaking with courage means learning to speak with your own voice. Only by learning to express ourselves from our own "courageous identities" can we begin to employ the courage that moves us beyond ambiguity.
[About the Author: Sandra Ford Walston is a learning consultant, speaker, corporate trainer and courage coach. She is the author of the book "Courage: The Heart and Spirit of Every Woman."]
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