It's Time to Change Our Perspective

When we look at something each time from the same perspective, like this flower for example, we only see what we always see. It may always be delightful to look at and we may feel like there is no need to ever look at it differently, but what could we be missing when we hold on to this attitude? When we change our perspective we often discover something even more beautiful and interesting, something we would never have known had we not simply changed our perspective.

We all know, all too well, that we are in a terrible economic crisis in our country and in the world. We think about it, we talk about it, we listen to it and read about it constantly in the news, and we feel it everyday in everything we experience. We want it to go away, like a bad headache, but to some degree we are in denial about what it will take and the changes we will have to make.

Because of the current economic situation, companies are having to let go of thousands of people, and by 'people',in this instance, I am referring to salaried professionals. It is not because these companies don't need the work done that their displaced workers were doing. It is purely a financial decision. Nearly 80% of most companies' operating costs are spent on salaries and benefits. When cuts have to be made in the operating budget this is the most logical place to look first. It's not about the work. The work still needs to get done. That means that the people who remain have to pick up the slack and/or the organization's leadership has to reprioritize the work. Unfortunately, some of the work that gets eliminated, in the short term, is actually work that is strategically essential to prepare the business for the needs of the future. So, how does a company get over this conundrum - having to cut the valuable resources that are essential to its economic success in the future only to survive in the short term? We could either look at this situation with the usual perspective which would be to tighten the short term operating budget, restructure the organization and the work, and hunker down and hold on until 'the storm' is over, or we could look at it from a different perspective.

I am currently working on a project at a small renowned east coast business college. As part of this project I have daily interaction with the undergraduate and graduate students. Like most college students across the nation, they feel trapped in a very disheartening circumstance. Only 8 months ago they were looking ahead with optimism. They expected ample job opportunities to be awaiting them when they graduated, and all the surveys were indicating that starting salaries would be even higher this year than they were last year. Now, unfortunately, these students are having to compete with thousands of highly skilled and experienced professionals who have been cut from their former companies for a dramatically reduced number of available jobs. And if that is not bad enough, even if they are successful at getting a job offer, it is likely that the salary offer will be lower than those offered to new grads in 2008, as salaries in general are being lowered across many companies to hopefully save jobs and yet still cut costs. Left with the uncertainty of employment in the near term, many students are deciding to stay in school and get another Bachelors degree or a Masters degree or even another Masters degree, which ultimately will only enhance their academic credentials and leave them with even more tuition debt.

This is not a unique idea. Several years ago, I was on a business trip in the western U.S. and I took advantage of the opportunity to visit my youngest daughter who was studying at Brigham Young University. On the particular weekend of my visit, her Advertising class was having a competition. The culminating project of their semester's study was to find a business in the Provo, UT area that had a need for the development of an advertising and marketing plan to help grow the business or meet some challenging issue they were currently facing. The students were put into teams and had to do market research and then from the results of the research develop plans and materials that on this weekend they would present to the prospective businesses. It was fascinating to watch as each of these teams presented. It was like watching a Madison Avenue show. The presentations were polished and professional. They were thorough and well founded in the research collected. They were actionable, so that the companies could easily run with the results. If this can be achieved by one Advertising class, imagine what could be achieved for the benefit of local businesses in need by an entire business curriculum of a local school.

Perhaps if we look at this situation from a different perspective we might find a win-win solution for businesses that are in short supply for critical resources, and students who are in desperate need of experiences that will allow them to apply the theory they have mastered in school. Think about it. Much of the work that businesses need to continue is in the form of projects. Certainly, there are the daily plethora of transactional tasks that keep things running, but it is the key strategic projects that will lead to the innovations and changes that are essential to the future success of the organization as it continually re-events itself and prepares for the dramatic changes associated with the future. What if businesses turned to their local colleges and universities to tap into the student resources available to help take on some of these key projects. After all, these students are being taught by some of the best and brightest minds in the field of business. Students could take on these projects purely for the sake of learning and having the privilege of applying the principles and practices they have mastered academically.

One of the paramount lessons that I think we learned from the experience of 9/11 was that when we as a nation are collectively confronted by a serious threat, we bind together and in unity overcome the obstacle before us. The current economic situation before us is clearly an opportunity to unite and help each other. If you are in a business, you could approach your local colleges or universities and offer key project opportunities to the students. If you are in academia, you could approach local businesses, through your networks, to identify opportunities and offer your support and the resources of your students.

If we all work together during this time of crisis and opportunity, we will surely come away with an outcome that ultimately prepares us all to function much more effectively and successfully in the future. All that is required is that we look at this situation from a new and different perspective.

Jump Start Your Team - Set Mutually Agreed Expectations

Are you about to take up the lead of a new team? Have you experienced a significant turnover on your team such that it seems like everyone is now new to the team? If so, then this is a significant transitional moment for both you and the team.

Just because you are energized about your new responsibility or the changes that have occurred on your team does not mean that they feel the same way. Human Beings like stability. They like to know that what has worked for them in the past will be maintained/sustained in the future, and they will work hard to ensure that that happens. This can be a very big hurdle for you as the new leader unless you deal with it right from the beginning.

There are 3 things that primarily concern members of a work team when it comes to being committed to their jobs and motivated by the work and the organization:

1. Am I clear about what my boss expects from me?
2. Do I know what my colleagues expect/need from me?
3. Do I feel secure that the job/work evironmental factors that are motivating me now will continue?

When you come into the role of new leader, you inadvertently create uncertainty in each of these key expectations of your team members. If you don't address these immediately, then your team members will demote 'work' to a level 2 priority, and they will spend their time and energy in a costly process of discovery to pull out the answers to each of these issues. This process can end up being very protracted and unproductive.

A simple solution is to hold an "expectations setting" meeting.

Here is a simple outline of such a meeting. It should be facilitated by an experience facilitator who is trusted by you and the team. This can be someone in your organization or it could be an external facilitator. If you use an external facilitator who is new to the team, then you should bring that person into your group prior to conducting your "expectations setting meeting" so that team members can meet him/her and develop a sufficient level of trust.

Expectations Setting Process

1. Introduce the exercise [15 minutes]

• Explain the purpose of this exercise. Tell the team that the process will begin with the team generating information related to specific questions, which have been pre-selected. The leader will be out of the room during this period. During the second portion of this activity, the manager will return and review the information generated and clarify and/or respond to it. She/he will also share his/her own expectations of the team.

2. Collect the input [This can be done electronically ahead of the meeting if you will be limited on time during the meeting.] [You may decide to add to this list of questions as well.] [30 - 45 minutes]

• The following questions are each written on a flip chart page and posted on the walls of the meeting room. Team members are asked to circulate around the charts and either write their input directly on the charts or record it on Post-it notes and stick it to the charts.
• The Questions:

> What do you know about (Manager's name) personally? professionally?

> What would you like to know about (Manager's name) personally? professionally?

> What do you need from (Manager's name) to be able to function most effectively on this team?

> What is there about the way this team has been working that you would like to continue?

> What is there that you would like to change under (Manager's name) new leadership?

> What critical issues does (Manager's name) need to know about NOW?

> What do you believe (Manager's name) will expect of you in your role and as a member of this team?

3. Clarify the input [15 minutes]

• After everyone has recorded/posted their input on the charts, briefly review each chart to ensure that you (the facilitator) can read and understand what is written. There is no need to cover every point at this time, just the ones that seem unclear to you.

4. Review the input with the leader [15 - 20 minutes or more]

• While the rest of the team is on break (15-20 minutes, or longer if needed), walk through the input with the leader. Clarify any information he/she has questions about, emphasize any points that the team felt strongly about, and offer any cautions and coaching as appropriate.

5. Leader responds to the input [45 minutes]

• At this point you (the facilitator) take a backseat and let the Manager/leader lead the meeting. The Manager should review each question and comment (either provide information that is asked for, get additional clarification and/or agree or disagree with the request). The caution is to not cover every word written on the charts, but rather look for themes and major topics for discussion. Once the Manager has covered all the questions, she/he should present his/her own expectations of the team. Many of these may have already come out during the discussion. If so, the leader should not be redundant.

6. Expectations are established

• As the Manager and the team agree on expectations of each other you (the facilitator) should take notes (if the agreements are different from what's recorded on the flip charts).

7. Summarize immediate actions and agree next steps [5 minutes]

• You (the facilitator) should summarize any actions that have been identified through the discussion and explain to the Manager and the team that you will type-up the notes from this meeting and publish them by an agreed time.

8. Document the outcomes [After the meeting]

If you follow this simple process as you start your journey with your new team, you will find that you will be operating at high performance much faster and your team will find working for you a more rewarding and fulfilling experience.

Good luck.

Hudson Whitenight

whitenight.hudson@gmail.com

http://whitenightproductions.com/

Finding Common Ground

In January 2000, two of the pharmaceutical industry's premier organizations, Glaxo Welcome and SmithKlineBeecham, merged to create a new powerhouse in the industry - GlaxoSmithKline.

I was the Organizational Development professional supporting the SmithKlineBeecham Oncology Division at the time. These were two highly competitive organizations often went head-to-head with some of the products that they provided physicians and patients. Since the merger was intended to be a joining of two highly successful companies rich in research and development and not a take-over of one or the other, the integration of these companies with their highly successful cultures and highly effective business processes was not going to be an easy transition. Not only were their differences in the way each organization operated, but it was decided at the time of the merger that the respective headquarters of each company, Philadelphia, PA and Research Triangle Park, NC, would be maintained. This meant that as new functional departments were formed and new operating practices developed, the people who would be working together would often times be physically separated by 500 miles of space.

So, how do you get people who have a history of being fierce competitors, absolutely committed to their way of working because they believe it has proven to be highly effective and successful, have never personally met each other, and who are separated by 500 miles, to work together with an attitude of collaboration, respect, and commitment to the mission of their function and the new organization - GSK?

Answer - Help them Find the Common Ground!

I learned an important lesson in those early days of the merger as I facilitated meeting after meeting bringing people from both campuses and respective companies together to meet each other for the first time and begin the process of defining how they would work together going forward. The lesson was that before any 'real work' would be able to be accomplished, the people had to develop a level of comfort, trust and credibility with each other. I was able to accomplish this easily and effectively by beginning each of these meetings with an activity of 'finding the common ground'. I also learned that just finding 'any common ground' was not enough. The new team members needed to find common ground on a 'personal level' and also on a 'professional level'. You see, when someone connects with someone else on a personal level, i.e. they discover they have some common hobbies, tastes in food, places they've vacationed, family attributes, etc. they form a personal bond, but when they discover that they have some common ground professionally, i.e. they have performed the same functions, have similar educational backgrounds, worked for similar companies during their career, or had similar professional successes they build 'credibility' in each other's eyes. This was and is very important!

The process I have used to help these teams, and others, to find this common ground has always been a simple one, and I am sharing it with you here so that you can apply it to achieve your own successful team start-ups.

Finding Common Ground - Exercise

Approach #1 [Time Needed: 30 minutes]

• Send out ahead of the meeting a simple questionnaire to collect insights about each team member both personally and professionally. (See the prework list of questions below)
• Make up a grid of the information collected and have a handout prepared for each participant
• At the meeting give each team member the grid and have them get together with another people with whom they have 2-3 things in common. Then have them discuss:
  briefly the things they have in common, and one thing in the way they have worked on previous teams that they would like to keep as a way of operating on this team, and one thing from their prior experience that they would caution this team to avoid
• Debrief this exercise by asking the group in general what they learned about each other.

Prework:

Ask team members to provide the following information so that you don't have to take time to collect it during the meeting.

1. What is your birth order? First born, middle child, youngest child, only child.
2. Where did you grow up? An urban setting, a suburban setting, a rural setting, moved around a lot - What state? What town/city?
3. What post-high school educational level have you achieved and where did you attend?
4. What is your favorite cuisine?
5. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go?
6. What was the most professionally rewarding achievement you have accomplished in the past 2 years?
7. What are some of the types of industries and jobs you have held in your professional career?
8. What has been your most personally rewarding achievement so far in your life?

Approach #2 [Time Needed: 45-60 minutes]

This approach is very similar to the first one except that you collect all the information from the group in a highly interactive and energetic process during the meeting. Here is how the exercise works.

1. Arrange participants into small groups of 4-5 each

• Try to mix the group with people who don't know each other well.

2. Find 'common ground' related to personal experiences

• Ask members of each group to talk about their hobbies, family background (growing up or presently), and leisure time experiences. Try to find at least 2 common experiences/interests between each pair in the group. For each common experience discovered, write it on a Post-it note (what the experience/interest is and the names of the 2 [or more] people in the group who share it.

3. Post the results

• Hang several flip chart pages on the walls before this exercise begins and label them as follows: Hobbies, Travel, Education, Family, Personal Achievements, Work Experience, and Professional Achievements. At the end of each round have participants post their results on these charts.

4. Find 'common ground' related to professional experiences

• Repeat the same process as round 1 with everyone in his/her same groups. Ask participants to discover 'common ground' in their work experiences (the kinds of jobs they've had, companies they've worked for (apart from the current company), achievements, etc.

5. Post the results

6. Summarize insights

• After the results from round 2 are posted, review the information on the wall charts. This should be done very briefly only highlighting interesting and fun facts.

Either of these exercises can be facilitated by someone on the team or an experienced facilitator within your organization. Of course, you can always bring in an experienced external facilitator if you think that will best meet your needs.

Good luck. I know that you will find this process fun and engaging, but more importantly, it will create the glue that will bind your group together into a highly cohesive and committed team.

Hudson Whitenight

whitenight.hudson@gmail.com

http://whitenightproductions.com/

Getting Started

Getting started. Even though it has been a year since I launched into this venture (whitenightproductions.com), I continue to learn new and effective ways to let the world know about what I am doing and how they might tap into the great resource I can provide.

Today I am discovering in more depth the world of the Internet and things like "twittering" and "blogging". I hope that as I learn to use these tools that I might be able to be more effective in marketing my services and convincing people of my capability.

"Using Video to Sustain Transformational Change"

Video and photography is such a powerful tool for connecting people to experiences that have had a deep personal impact on them. We all know this because we experience it every day when we look at old photographs or watch those 'highlight' tapes of our childhood or youthhood. We instantly go back to those moments in time and reconnect to them. We can remember the feelings, the smells and even the sounds associated with the moment. So, if this tool is so powerful, why would a team or leader want to use it to capture the transformational moments when she/he and the team made significant commitments to each other about how they would work together to achieve their highest level of performance and personal fulfillment?

Capturing these moments shouldn't be left in the hands of just anyone. If you really what to have an impact that will sustain the change that has occurred, then you need to be sure that the videographer/photographer knows what to look for when he is observing and filming the events/activities that are bringing about this change. As one who has spent 25+ years designing team development interventions and experiential learning opportunities for leaders, I know what to expect and can anticipate what will happen in most experiential learning situations that your team will go through. This enables me to be sure to capture the key moments of change that the 'every day' videographer, no matter how professionally skilled, would miss. But having captured these moments I can provide a tool and the means by which a team can reconnect to these critical moments in their development and use them in much the same way that a sports term uses 'game tapes' to understand their strengths and the actions they will take to achieve their full potential.