Category Archives: Communication

An Endless Set of Wednesdays

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Today.  Another Wednesday.  It shows up around this time each week.  Week in and week out.  Wash, rinse and dry.  Repeat.  The comings and goings of life.

As humans we want patterns and continuation. We create routines, both conscious and unconscious. Yet our routines, if not careful can define us.  An endless set of Wednesdays await.

There is a different way though and we do have control.    While routines can be very helpful, the trick is to step up and add ritual to our day, for ourselves and for our work groups.

Think of ritual as action with intention and attention.  We build meaning around rituals.  There is symbolism involved and awareness of the process, not just the result.  With ritual we slow down and recognize where we are, why we are, and who we are.

As a leader I recognize the need for ritual in my workgroup.  While we remain under stress as an organization, it is important to hold, and even create, new rituals.   Through these actions we hold and strengthen our center – that place of meaning for the group.

Here are a few examples of workplace rituals I recognize in my workplace.  What rituals do you have in your work group?

Monthly management meeting - a shift from strictly production focused to a wonderful gatherings full of learning, food, fun, and even dancing on occasion. We strengthen what holds us together and assure we are set to go forth into a new production month united.

Potlucks - from the occasional potluck several times a year, we now recognize the importance of food to bring us together.  We now typically have a monthly potluck. Our potlucks are a ritual and through food (lots of food) we gather and reaffirm our group.

Get Up and Move Time - This started last year with a few employees gathering twice a day to do some stretches and walk either up the stairs or around the block. It grew to involve a large part of the department.   Back then we had up to 20 or so people show up for any given stretch time.  Today, with few of us left, we may get 5 people to show up.  Yet, the ritual continues.  Twice a day the call goes out … “Gathering Now.  Get up & Move People!”

And move we do.  A ritual that holds our group, our tribe together.

Get Up and Move

This is the email image sent out twice a day. A call to action for our workgroup. Seen here are the two department Directors, Bob and yours truly. And yes, those are our real bodies…

Note: The title for this post comes from David Campbell and his book, “If I am in Charge Here, Why is Everyone Laughing?”

Not Ready For Primetime

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It is time for me to review my draft posts and see if any are ready for publishing.  None of these posts are ready for primetime.  Yet … as a whole the list does make for an interesting read. 

For fun let me share the working title for a number of my draft posts.  It is an interesting collection.  Let me know if any catch your interest and I will finish the post. 

  • Why Yes, I Am a Gym Rat (A coworker called me a “gym rat for leadership”.  I like that.)
  • Acutely Aware of My Ignorance and Incompetence (My, that must have been a tough day at the office.)
  • Energy Holes (Huddle in close during meetings.  The empty chairs suck energy. Very new age of me.)
  • Do You Have a Manifesto?  (My Jerry McGuire moment to write my mission statement and share with my bosses.  I may need to pack my office first.)
  • Forming a More Perfect Union (Leadership and our current polarized political environment. WeMoveTogether for Washington DC)
  • Semper FI Alive in Berkeley (Military Officer Training at the home of Free Speech)
  • The Pain Cave (Olympic Rowers talking about the pain necessary to reach the top.  Ah, I miss rowing.)
  • Into the Bear Cave (The big boss may roar a lot, but sometimes the best approach is to walk directly into his cave … I mean office.)
  • Zero to Sixty in Record Speed (I am a nice guy except when I am not.)
  • I am Your Leader and I Love You (That must have been a good day at the office.)

Hello Silence My Old Friend

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silence

Yes, I continue to think about silence.  My environment is my classroom and I am listening.

Silence is an important tool for leaders.  For introverts such as myself, silence comes more naturally.  For extroverts silence can be even more powerful as it can be perceived as unexpected.

An old school teacher trick … if children are speaking out of turn in the classroom, move to the center of the room, stand still and remain silent.  The children generally will notice and stop speaking.

This works in the workplace too – while remaining attentive, stand in the meeting and remain silent as the team talks over each other.  It helps to have an open center as I wrote in this blog entry, Step into the Circle (read here). Count to 10 (in your head of course) and silence will return.

The opposite works too.  The meeting room is quiet.  You ask the team a question.  The room remains quiet.  You are tempted to speak up and answer your own question.  Stop.  Do not speak.  Silence is your best tool.  It is an old workshop trainer trick of mine … someone will speak.

silence-speaksSilence, in a way of thinking, is standing still.  All the better to sense movement around you. Only by standing still and remaining silent do you gauge the movement, verbal and otherwise, around you.  Choose your time to speak … to energize, and move things forward.
Silence both fascinates and is uncomfortable for People.   A leader knows how to use silence, an old friend indeed.

To read more on silence for the leader, see this very good article, The Leadership Gifts of Keeping Your Mouth Shut.

Start a Meeting with a Poem

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I recently listened to a TED podcast featuring poet Billy Collins former Poet Laureate for the  United States.  The topic was the creative process and during the discussion he made a simple statement:

Start a meeting with a poem.

When we gather together at meetings often we are not centered and focused on the discussion at hand.  Distractions … thoughts of other tasks, what to have for lunch, and just about anything outside of the meeting space fill our minds.  We question the need to meet at all.

Poetry ReadingAn experienced leader knows all this and will typically work to focus the meeting participants at the beginning of the meeting.  As well-intentioned a discussion on meeting objectives and goals, the pattern returns and distractions again creep back.

An experienced and wise leader recognizes the need to go bold at times.  For the right meeting, at the right time … open the meeting with a poem.

The uniqueness of this act alone will gather the attention of the participants.  The wandering mind will find what it seeks right there in the room.

Beyond this uniqueness, every poem is open for interpretation by each who listens.  “What do you think?  How do you feel?  How does this poem relate to our meeting topic here today?”   As the meeting leader, imagine asking these questions.

I believe poets are everywhere, but most are not aware.  By introducing a poem to kick off a meeting, you tap into that undercurrent flowing in each of us and between us.

The goal of meetings is to establish understanding and agreement.  A poem can serve to open the vessel of uncommon thought circling the room.   The wise leader then proceeds to gather the circles in tight and assure a common understanding on the topic at hand.  The meeting is a success.

As a leader can you see yourself beginning a meeting with a poem?  Yes, I can.

Here is a wonderful video interpretation of a Billy Collins poem, Some Days.  And yes, a good poem for the right meeting.

Starbucks Leadership Lab

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starbucks-logoThis morning while drinking my Starbucks coffee (supplied at work) in my cool Starbucks mug (supplied by me), I read a great article at Fast Company magazine about the leadership practices at Starbucks. 

Late last year Starbucks held a conference in Houston for nearly 10,000 store managers and 5,000 live coffee plants (more on the plants later).  From what I read this is an annual conference and one that is quite different from other companies. 

Here is a link to the article and the video that shows the conference in action (click here).  Starbucks works hard to send their message out through its employees or what they call, partners.  This conference is set up to energize and educate the store managers so they are ready to head back to their little corner of the Starbucks world and lead their store, sell coffee and so much more. 

Yes, Starbucks is a business in search of profits, yet one has to admire their approach.  Their mission statement sets the right tone:

 To inspire and nurture the human spirit–one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.

While struggling back in 2008 with sales and morale dropping, Starbucks still held a similar leadership conference including the large price tag.  They now say that conference was the beginning to the improved results at Starbucks.  A strong tenet of leadership is to know when it is time to galvanize the troops or as Starbucks calls the employees (oops, partners), Brand Evangelists. (note: just a thought, but maybe this is underway at Yahoo)

One partner at a time inspiring one customer at a time.  Hey from my corner of the world, it is working.  I do feel better when hanging out at a Starbucks.  From the staff to the community centered environment and of course, the coffee, it works.

Here is a link to a more in-depth article (click here) from Fast Company associated with the Leadership Lab conference.  I do admit, I wish I was there.  As an outsider one can learn much from this approach to leadership and the set of believes lived at Starbucks. 

Back to those 5,000 coffee plants attending the conference.  Do watch the attached video to get the full effect, but here is the question for all of us … in how many companies does the leadership team in total understand the full process?  In other words the plants helped educate the Starbucks leaders to understand the full process, from bean to cup.

Does that exist in your organization?  Do all your leaders across a variety of departments, truly understand the process, from bean to cup? 

Starbucks gets the WeMoveTogether Award (hey, just made that up) for the week.

Here is a short video of the conference in action.  If interested though, do check out the attached links for more information.

Work From Work

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yahoo-logoEveryone is talking, and writing, about the Yahoo announcement yesterday.  The head of Human Resources at Yahoo sent an email to all staff essentially eliminating work from home programs.  In other words, for your job, show up in an office … and have a nice day.

Yes, a big and juicy topic for a blog on leadership and organizational effectiveness.  Where does one start?  Of course, do I agree with Yahoo or not. 

What do you expect me to say?   Do you assume I am against this decision along with the majority of articles and other blog posts?  

Well … while I am surprised by the decision by Yahoo, I am supportive and say good for them.   One immediate reaction though is the message should have come from the new CEO, Marissa Mayer directly instead of the head of HR.   She is changing Yahoo and this is one big decision she must own. 

I reproduced the staff email below.  You got to love the internet.  Employees could not wait to share this with the world.  (source: All Things D).

Yahoos,

Over the past few months, we have introduced a number of great benefits and tools to make us more productive, efficient and fun. With the introduction of initiatives like FYI, Goals and PB&J, we want everyone to participate in our culture and contribute to the positive momentum. From Sunnyvale to Santa Monica, Bangalore to Beijing — I think we can all feel the energy and buzz in our offices.

To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side. That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices. Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people, and impromptu team meetings. Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home. We need to be one Yahoo!, and that starts with physically being together.

Beginning in June, we’re asking all employees with work-from-home arrangements to work in Yahoo! offices. If this impacts you, your management has already been in touch with next steps. And, for the rest of us who occasionally have to stay home for the cable guy, please use your best judgment in the spirit of collaboration. Being a Yahoo isn’t just about your day-to-day job, it is about the interactions and experiences that are only possible in our offices.

Thanks to all of you, we’ve already made remarkable progress as a company — and the best is yet to come.

Jackie

In my support of this directive, it does help that I am not a Yahoo employee.  I can imagine that if I was working from home regularly and then told to get into the office, that would cloud my thinking on the bigger topic.

Nor am I against work from home programs.  My own staff has this available and most work from home a couple of days a week.  We have several staff members working full-time from home.  It works for us.  That is one of my points – for me yes, for Yahoo, maybe not.  It is too easy to stand outside their organization and throw rocks.  I respect them to make their own decision, based on information, observation, and vision that we, as outsiders, are not aware.

As an outsider and a social scientist of sorts, I welcome the laboratory that Yahoo set up here.  I have talked about Anthropologists in the workplace … here is a great example of why.  This is action science where an organization (Yahoo) has set up a specific set of expectations.  They will be wise to monitor it closely and stay open to the further learning.  This decision by Yahoo is not the problem.  The next decision by Yahoo is the key.  They created the laboratory.  Let’s put on our lab coats and sharpen our pencils as we observe this play out. 

Yet let me go deeper why I support this move by Yahoo.  It gets to the core of my website and writing … WeMoveTogether.  As I read the message as presented to the Yahoo staff, I see the desire to bring the staff together and create the new Yahoo.  To do this well people need to gather. 

A gathering is a challenge when people are not present; communication goes beyond voice and words.  Technology can do only so much.

Time for work.  Time for personal.  Good timing that this hit the news right after my last post titled, A Culture of Availability.  Our work lives and personal lives are blending together, especially for those of us working for larger companies. 

It is not inevitable that our work and personal time will further blend.  This culture of availability needs a significant emotional event.  Well we just got one thanks to Yahoo.  I and all of us will be watching the next steps closely.

A Culture of Availability

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2009 is so long ago. As we consider technology, 2009 is indeed B.i.P. (before iPad) and as such dark days indeed.

Since 2009 we have the iPad and other tablets as well as lighter, faster and smaller phones (well, some phones are now bigger). And all of it in glorious high-definition.

We are connected as never before. We are available as never before. Life is there to be captured as a Instagram, Tweet, or Facebook update. Not to experience in real-time, but later on our device shared with as many people as our friends list allows. We are there for everyone, but absent from those present here and now.

I am guilty of this. I know the importance of being present, yet my phone and tablet sing a siren song and draw me closer to the rocks. I will let you judge yourself on this front. Indeed though we are creating a new shared narrative as a society and our mobile technology is influencing that narrative.

Why my reference to 2009? I came across a short TED video by Renny Gleeson, a brand and marketing guy with an eye toward new media. This presentation in four years old taking us back to 2009. Once again a short video, but thought-provoking.

There is no turning back. Indeed though we need to be fully aware as we create this new shared narrative in our society. As Renny says in the video, “we need to create technologies that make people more human, not less.”

It is four years later. How are doing on that front?

I invite you to stop, watch, and think.

I Imagined My Muse to be Better Looking

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The universe speaks to each of us every day.  It is up to us to hear her call.  Signposts are posted for one who sees.  Voices are there for one who listens.

Last week I had one of those moments where I thought I heard the universe speaking to me.  To be sure I heard the message, the messenger repeated the message several times.  Actually he said the words over and over during the meeting we both attended.

I know the message.  I have heard it before.  Sometimes though one must hear the message over and over in a short period of time so there is no mistake.  

There was no mistake this time.  My Muse was speaking to me and wanted no doubt that I would hear the message this day.

Funny though, my Muse was a middle-aged man.  Kinda short and jolly sort of fellow.  He is a far cry from what I expect from my Muse.  You know what I mean – I am talking Greek Goddess stuff here, my guiding spirit and inspiration. 

Yet there he was repeating the words - in context of the meeting to be sure – but still I may have heard the words 20 times in 60 minutes.  Somewhere near the 20th time I uttered the words under my breath, “I hear you, oh Muse of mine.”

And what did my Muse say? 

“Michael is a writer.”  It is time.

writing

The Mona Lisa was not Painted by Committee

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The latest Fast Company magazine is a winner with several interesting articles. One short article immediately caught my eye as it links to some on my other reading lately. The article concerns Fahrenheit 212, an innovation consultancy (that alone is cool enough) and its cofounder, Mark Payne.

Mark speaks to the structure at the company where they divide up the staff into two groups, money and magic. As he says, “we want exceptional creativity and serious financial acumen to coexist.” The office is set up to allow for natural collaboration between both groups and all staff.

Where Mark got me is at the end of his article.

“But I also believe you need gestation time. That’s how creativity works best: You need a stimulus, but also you need to go away as an individual, to think and then come back to the group with a more fully formed idea. After all, the Mona Lisa was not painted by committee.”6a00d8341bf67c53ef017c322e10ba970b-800wi

I am working through the book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. I am also checking up on the latest HR Training forecasts which spell out a world of “Network Learning”.

We need to be careful as we move forward in business and organizations in general. It can all get so loud and hyper connected … are we doing ourselves a disservice? I agree with Mark, the Mona Lisa was not painted by committee.

I will focus more on the related topics concerning these themes in upcoming posts.

Use Your Shield

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I am still out of sorts from the events experienced last Friday.  Goodbyes take their toll.   Anyhow let me begin to move on through my writing.

shield1I keep a deck of cards on my desk at work.  These are not playing cards.  The card deck is called the “Creative Whack Pack” created by Roger Von Oech.   While the cards are probable 20 years old, no worries there is an App for that!  Check it out for yourself.

Each card has a separate idea on creativity and thus, for me, good fodder for leaders.   Today with little inspiration to write I pulled the deck out and randomly picked a card.   I told myself I would write about that card.

My card choice … “Use Your Shield”.   The lesson concerned new ideas and how they can be threatening and often provoke a negative reaction.  We need to anticipate such reactions and not let them stop us from acting on our ideas.

Thus the metaphor of using your shield to ward off the negativity.  With this shield how can I be harmed?

I like it.  I find strength in thinking about such a shield (of course I have days when a real shield is preferable).  The point of course is not the shield itself, but the idea protected behind it.  What ideas do you have now that you expect may be received in a negative manner?   Do you hold back the new idea because you expect a negative reaction? 

Build up your own shield.   Stand strong and present your idea to the world.  You may get battered, but you will survive stronger than before. 

Of course when I think through the power of building up a shield and using it, I pause.   These days too many people are holding up shields.  They may be protecting a great idea (good thing) or sadly holding their shield to ward off the ideas of others.

As leaders we need to know when to hold up our shield to protect our ideas and the ideas of those we lead.  We also need to know when it is best to lower our shield and listen to that possible great idea sitting right there, behind another’s shield.