Priority Learning Articles

Changing Those Problem People (part 3) - Image building around the new personal behavior

ralph@prioritylearningresearch.com (Ralph Twombly) — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:51:26 EST

Reflection of how people make/find success. After spending countless hours with business people and witnessing human success on a scale that still astounds me right alongside unexplainable human failure from people who should be achievers, I think I can say that the formula for personal success inside organizations is fleeting, fragile, and complicated. On top of all that fleeting, fragile and complicated stuff you can add scary because you can be on top one day and out-of-luck the next. As I scratch my head and think back I have witnessed people who failed at becoming good work-a-day employees but were perfectly matched and highly successful supervisors. I have seen amazing supervisors who could not make the leap to manager roles and highly functional managers who could not become leaders. So before you draw the conclusion that it is all without structure or method let me send you a little life-line of encouragement. There are things you can do to create, add and reinforce success that will make it a lot simpler.

Years ago one of my bosses quoted the cliche "Results rewarded are results repeated" (wish I were that smart) and I never forgot it. Some things stick because they are bad and some because they are good and this one was good. It played itself out with my children and still does with spouses, partners and employees and, yes, even with peers. In the last of these three articles I wanted to discuss and plant the seeds of something so fundamental and yet we forget to do it or maybe don't ever recognize its value. "It& is the basic idea of image building around the new personal behavior. If you are good and lucky enough to get one of these problem people to change behavior it is a temporary unless you find a way to "cement" that new behavior. If you don't "cement" the new behavior quickly, it will slip, it may escape immediate notice and you will probably have moved on to your next challenge. One day you are wandering about and someone points out the person you worked so hard on demonstrating the old bad behavior. Ground hog day!!!

The 10/80/10 Rule

craig@prioritylearningresearch.com (Craig Twombly) — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 10:51:26 EST

Everyday inside the workplace leaders are tasked and traditionally trained to solve problems. Inside those same organizations the daily activities of manager's and leader's success is often based on how well they can execute and solve those problems. The problems leaders face can be focused around production, logistics, and customer service. The topic that will inevitably end up being discussed is the employee who is challenging to the team and the organization.

As a corporate restaurant manager I had the opportunity to work in a restaurant in New Jersey. During the transition period into the restaurant, I had an opportunity to sit down with many employees and discuss how they felt about the restaurant and management team they worked for, what they would like to see, and what they needed to be successful. During the second day, I had the overwhelming feeling that there were serious issues inside the restaurant. I heard many comments such as, "morale is bad and no one did their job" and so on. Once I completed the transition, I focused on fixing the morale issue. As a leader I saw it as a glaring issue that needed attention. Over the next several months, it seemed that no matter what I did morale was still a challenge. As I focused on the complaints and concerns of the employees it appeared that the morale became worse not better.

Civility in the Workplace (part 1 of 3) - What all businesses and organizations should know about and how the bottom line is affected

lorraine@prioritylearningresearch.com (Lorraine Twombly) — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 09:33:48 EST

There are some extraordinary percentages of US employees in the workplace who think incivility is on the rise. When you combine all the categories of incivility (from taking credit of others' ideas and accomplishments to being physically abusive to others), you can image in this day of tightening belts and growing expectations from superiors to get more done for less money, that stress can be a major factor when we experience it in the workplace. I'm not writing about those folks who have occasional stressful outburst or have momentary venting conversations. I'm writing about people who are focused on only getting "their" work done at the risk of alienating cooperation and participation from the rest of the organization or team or department.

Why Turning Your Passion Into A Career May Sound Better Than It Is

milly@prioritylearningresearch.com (Milly Welsh) — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 11:45:34 EST

As a child people would often ask me, "What do you want to do when you grow up?" Without hesitation I would state that I was going to be an artist. I wasn't specific about what type of artist I would be or what medium I would use. The only thing I knew is that no matter what, I was going to make a living creating artwork. Many people would point out to me the difficulty of this endeavor, but I never listened. I just knew that somehow I would figure it out.

As I wake up every morning, turn on my computer and stare at lines of code the irony is not lost on me. As a web developer I absolutely get to use my creativity and I even illustrate on occasion, but to be honest I spend more of my time writing code than anything else. My 6-year-old self might not approve but looking back I'm happy the way things turned out. Just because I don't make an income off creating works of art does not mean I have to give up my dream of becoming an artist. To the contrary there are many aspects made easier due to the fact that I have a day job.

The Three Methods of Learning

milly@prioritylearningresearch.com (Milly Welsh) — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 10:24:34 EST

This is the second in a two-part series about how businesses can use social networking to their advantage. If you haven't read the first installment about using Twitter and Facebook for business click here. LinkedIn is a professional social networking website, meaning that you use this website to connect with current and former colleagues, classmates, and organizations. For an individual using LinkedIn is a great way to look for a new job or business opportunity. You can also use LinkedIn to gather information from industry experts. For an organization LinkedIn is not only a free way to advertise your services but a useful tool in recruiting new employees or collaborators as well.

To create an account on LlinkedIn go to http://www.linkedin.com/home?trk=hb_home. When you sign-up for a LinkedIn account, you will be asked to provide information about your present and past work history and your education level. The next thing you will need to do is make some initial connections.

An example of how to successfully use LinkedIn...

Meet Scott McKeen. Scott was laid off from his job as a field service engineer during the deepest part of the recession and he was one of many who could not seem to find another job in his profession. As a field service engineer his job entailed going into other technology companies to install and repair equipment. He used LinkedIn to keep in touch with colleagues and with many key people inside the organizations he routinely did work for. After months of being unemployed, he noticed that many of his counterparts in other regions of the country who had also been laid off were starting their own businesses. Not finding any employment opportunities on the horizon he decided to follow suit. He used LinkedIn to contact the colleagues who had already gone through the process of starting their own business to get a better understanding of what needed to be done. Once Scott got McKeen Services and Consulting up and running, he then used some of his LinkedIn connections inside the organizations he had worked for to get the word out about his new business.

The Three Methods of Learning

craig@prioritylearningresearch.com (Craig Twombly) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 10:00:34 EST

While speaking with a client recently, I was asked to help train her leadership team on how to coach employees. Once we discussed what the needs were, the client asked, ";Can we do it in two hours?" The answer to the question is fairly vague - yes and no. There are several factors to consider when training and one is the knowledge base of the audience and the other is the retention rate you wish to gain. While some training only needs engagement of the audience, others will only need knowledge transfer. The most important question I will often ask is, "How much do you want the group to execute on?" Each one requires a specific amount of time and will determine if time will allow.

Three methods Learning

Of the three methods Teaching can often be done in the shortest amount of time. Teaching is the transfer of knowledge necessary for completion of a prescribed curriculum or application. The instructor needs to have a lot of knowledge in the subject matter. It is a transfer and based in the knowledge of the instructor inside the given subject. Subject matter experts are examples of teachers who come in to train an audience on a new tool such as computer programs. One of the challenges often faced with teaching is the audience knowledge of the material beforehand. If the audience has some understanding of the subject, there might be frustration or confusion in the way the information is taught. In most situations this is a transfer of knowledge based on the need of the audience to learn how to complete the given task. In the teaching model there is usually a test in which the answer needs to be given to show completion in that given task. One of the greatest challenges to teaching is the retention rate of the information. As adults we will relate to our own experiences to help us learn. In this method it has the "I need to know to pass" which has shorter long-term retention. In this method 90% of the time is teaching and 10% is participation.

What's New At Priority Learning

lorraine@prioritylearningresearch.com (Lorraine Twombly) — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 11:14:56 EST

We have a new Facilitated Series starting on August 30th and ending on November 22nd. We will be sending out information about how much folks have learned in the first series next week. There've been five of eight sessions so far and the participants of this series have learned even more about facilitation and they are developing strong leadership facilitation skills. From the first session to the fifth, these folks have shown just how creative and fun their facilitation can be and they are doing tremendous work!

Anyone who has attended our public leadership two-day workshops has gotten quite a bit out of those two days and some say that they leave with so much information and it's hard to focus on which one to try first. Some have asked, "Why not have a series of one-day programs spread out over the year so I can attend more often, which is a better fit for my schedule?" We have heard this many times and we've decided to try something different. After thinking about the fact that we do an eight-part leadership development process spread out over six months with some of our clients in house, it was easy for us to think more strategically about the way to offer our future public workshops. We have decided to try offering one-day workshops designed to practice the best practices in leadership competencies for each program that we offer. People can sign up for one program at a time and when they are able to because we can now offer the most popular programs at least twice a year. If you have comments or feedback about the one-day versus the two-day program, please let us know. We will be sending out some information about this soon!

We are excited to let you know that our website will have a new face in August. Our very capable web designer is working on some great ways to make our website even more interactive and interesting. We may be ready to show you our new site when you receive our August Newsletter.

We are hoping that you enjoy reading our monthly newsletter. Please do not hesitate to call or email us if you have suggestions on articles or if you'd like some information about our workshop events and services.

Best regards and wishing you a great summer season!

Changing Those Problem People (part II) - Building a collaborative plan to change personal behavior

ralph@prioritylearningresearch.com (Ralph Twombly) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 11:25:35 EST

Collaboration is described by Wikipedia as a process where two or more people or organizations working together in an intersection of common goals - for example, an intellectual endeavor that is creative in nature -by sharing knowledge, learning and building consensus.

Last month I introduced the first of three articles on changing the behaviors of problem people. The feedback I received from you was that while it tried to be as detailed a possible it was clear that people wanted more information and ideas. I will try to do more and better this month as I tackle the concept of Building a collaborative plan to change personal behavior. If you want to go back and look at last month's article around creating personal tension for change you can select this link and it will bring you to the web page and article. http://aprioritylearning.com/articles/creating_awareness_disruptive_employee_behavior_may2010.php

A Key Concept - Lets start with a concept that I think most leaders believe; if a person takes ownership for their own growth and development there is a much better chance that the person will be successful in that growth and development. Conversely if you (the manager) design a development and growth plan for someone else, the likelihood that there will be a successful process is minimal. So, it just makes sense for people to have a strong voice in their own change when it comes to personal behavior.

This is the tricky part. Many managers don't practice the skills to manage these kinds of tricky changes with their people. Lots of things get in the way when you start asking questions like:
It is their job and not mine, why don't they just get it, and my favorite; I don't have time. So here is a primer for all of you anxious managers who want to make personal behavior change collaboratively with your people.

It's gonna take some time (anything worthwhile usually does) so, build a plan with several follow-up meetings.

Example:

Set up the first meeting to discuss the current behavior and the need to change to new behaviors. Do your homework and be ready to discuss the behaviors you have witnessed and have an idea about what those behaviors should be. As long as it is not an urgent change you will be fine. If it is more urgent combine the next step with the first one. Remember that your emotions will be critical to success. If you are irritated, angry or disappointed it will show and the other person will read it. This now becomes an emotional event.
The second meeting might be to consider what the employee thinks is the right first steps are. Consider the lasting effect vs. the onetime event. Sometimes we think in events but habits are changed slowly and it usually take two or three weeks to create a new habit. With the employee build a series of steps that piece-by-piece change the behavior.

For instance, if an employee has a problem getting to work on time;

Help them determine what causes them to be habitually late,
Find one thing to change in the pattern that will lead to on-time arrival and,
Design with the employee a way change the pattern and immediately practice the new behavior.

Once the behavior has changed (even a little bit) congratulate the employee and make sure that they know appreciate the change effort. This can sound a bit condescending but you will be surprised at how employees want the approval of the manager.
Restart the process at one and describe the behavior and take it to the next level of success. This is where managers sometimes drop the ball. You get a change started and you move on assuming that change is ingrained.; You won't need to sit on the issue forever but take it just a bit further than you think you should and you will be fine

Some tips to remember -

People want the attention of the boss particularly when things go right so be quick to congratulate on improvement.
Practice patience. It is the most important aspect of good leadership.
People are like their fingerprints, complex and unique. What works with one will not work with others so be a student of the human condition and those pain-in-the-butt folks will become a mystery to be solved. I promise if you can't solve the mystery, another manager will.
Connect with people. If you are just working through a process to improve their performance they will feel it, and know it. If however you are work with them to help make them successful and it becomes a partnership... you have a human connection.
Get help. If after all of your crafty and well intentioned work you cannot turn bad performance around, be strong enough to get the help you need.
Not all people are good fits for the job and sometimes we hire the wrong people. I left this for last but I think we all know that we cannot make water into wine. Just make sure that you get here after you have made sure the problem is not with your ability to collaborate for change.

If you want to take this concept one step further. Good employees need your help and attention also. If you work with a high performing employee using this same technique you may be surprised how much they will appreciate the extra time and energy you are giving them and will respond more quickly than the poor performer.

I will be back in July to talk to you about image building around the new personal behavior. So, try it out and please send us a line to tell us how it went.

Computer Stress - The Art of File Management

lorraine@prioritylearningresearch.com (Lorraine Twombly) — Tue, 1 Jun 2010 11:25:35 EST

These last few months in 2010 have been the busiest that I can remember. A major priority that recently popped into my life is traveling to visit my very senior parents, making sure to be a good advocate toward the many different obstacles of medical information and regular household chores. While doing this, I'm keeping very active in our business of leadership/relationship coaching, general management, and consulting. This means that I have many sources of information in my computer, which is the greatest filing cabinet in the world, in my view!!

The fact that my computer is my greatest resource in the world has a down side, however. The biggest challenge for me is how to file electronically so that when I have to find things at a moment's notice, it will only take a quick few seconds. There's so much information and so many files, that it can take a while to find what I'm looking for. When I have to spend more than a few minutes looking for a file it can feel like a waist of time and the stress starts to take over.

In our business, we need to know how to file and retrieve:

Client files and resources we designed for each of them.
Correspondence files from email communication.
Important resource files for instant access for designing diagnostic tools, facilitation exercises, and everything that applies to human development and communicating the learning.
Staff files and all their important information and projects.
Many more things not even thought about!

I decided to make a point of paying attention to what works and what doesn't work and I've figured out a thing or two on how to make this challenge less stressful. Here are some things that have helped me - starting with email correspondence:

When downloading my emails, I get rid of the junk mail immediately to get the distractions out of the way.
I read over the priorities first (information due from others, questions to be answered, info to forward) and respond, research and respond, etc. I'm getting the priorities out of the way and this usually takes no more than 10 minutes per priority email.
I post any calendar reminders so I can be on top of all priorities and promises and I'm good to go.
Then, I read over the leisurely emails and take my time responding. Saving the fun emails for last helps me stay in a less stressful work mode because I've gotten the priorities out of the way.
Then I file all my answered emails (both inbox and sent) in alpha order by client, company or vendor name for easy access and retrieval in my personal software email package.
We use an internet storage website to backup our email files, like Google, that also backs up our archive files.
I do this every day to keep my emails in check. Keeping on top of it gets to be routine after a while and becomes less time consuming and less stressful.

Data Files can be filed the same way as email, as far as setting up electronic files. The only difference may be the sub files. I start with the client or company name as major file names and then create sub-files for the different categories of their service needs so I can quickly retrieve the data when needed. These files can be backed up via a document storage internet center (again, like Google) and/or via an external hard drive. We usually back up our files once a week and network and centralize our files (via Google) so we can all retrieve the info as needed and see each other's schedules, etc. It helps that we have a couple of IT consultants to help us get into the electronic world of filing important information.