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The Problem with Work-Life Balance: Tips for Planting Trees

By gothamCulture
Published at In Category Blog Tags:
work-life balance

Guest Article Written by Dr. Tracy Brower

We talk a lot about balance. Work-life balance, balancing our time, balancing our commitments, and balancing our priorities. But what if we have it all wrong, and the paradigm of balance has actually been getting in our way?

Why Balance Doesn’t Work

Balance connotes a zero-sum game. In a world of balance, there is never enough to go around and the balancing game is precarious. We’re making trade-offs between work, family, community, hobbies, sleep, and ourselves.

In the balance paradigm, work and life are separated. But when you really think about it, work is a part of a full life and all work is intrinsically valuable. People choose to work. The Lottery Study (Paulsen, 2008) proves it: In a longitudinal study starting in 1995 and spanning 7 countries, a vast majority (93% – 59% depending on the country, gender, or year of the study) of people say that if they won the lottery, they would still work. They would contribute somehow. They would express their talents. They would do something that matters to the broader community.

Abundance is an Alternative

An alternative way to think about work-life is through the lens of abundance. When we think differently, we open the door to new possibilities, creative solutions, more meaning, and work-life fulfillment.

In a culture of abundance, there is enough to go around. There is plenty of time, choice, challenge, opportunity, meaning, and engagement. You can feel a culture of abundance. People are energized. People are connecting. People are learning. People are doing their best work. And people are fulfilled in both their work and the rest of their lives.

Sounds like nirvana, right? So, how do we begin to create an organizational culture of abundance?

Creating a Culture of Abundance

The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the second best time is today, and the same is true for planting seeds toward a culture of abundance. While nothing it as easy as ‘5 simple steps’, here are the 5 starting points to plant the seeds.

1. Make Work Matter

We want to build cathedrals, not just lay bricks. In fact, multiple studies across generations, professions, and cultures have shown that people will trade off salary for a job that has meaning. We want to be part of something bigger. We want our work to matter. And specifically, we want our work to matter to the community around us. An example of this was that my friends boss gave a newer employee the fantastic responsibility of finding the office a new business energy provider, all done without pressure and did it to help build a community. He did a great job and found the company some wonderful savings through a website similar to Usave.

How do you make work matter? Leaders can articulate a vision and be clear about how team members’ work contributes to the bigger picture and to others. Individuals can clarify what they love and what they’re good at and seek roles that are aligned with their own core passions.

2. Make Relationships Matter

We are wired for belonging. In fact, when we have positive social experiences, we receive a hit of the brain chemical oxytocin, and we feel the happiness in the pleasure center of our brain. This makes us seek out positive social relationships. In addition, having at least one good friend at work is the number one thing that makes us stay at a job.

We are social creatures and work is fundamentally social. In the work environment, leaders can encourage positive relationships between team members, and individuals can reach out actively and support teammates. Creating relationships through social time, and through working together on tasks all contribute to an environment in which our social selves thrive.

3. Make Each Moment Matter

In our always-on world where distractions and multitasking are the norms, focus is a gift. The Chinese have a concept of ‘listening with a virtuous heart’ whose symbol has elements of the ear, the eyes, the heart, you, me, and undivided attention. When we give someone the gift of our attention, we contribute to an abundant culture where people feel heard and feel like they matter.

One study (Rath & Harter, 2014) found that the most engaged employees were those who had a leader who paid attention to them and focused on their strengths. The less engaged group had bosses who criticized them. The least engaged team members were the ones who were ignored by their leaders or their co-workers. The lessons: listen, share, offer support and respect.

4. Make Choices Matter

A culture of fulfillment and abundance is also characterized by choice. When leaders and organizational practices allow people – as much as possible – to have a say in where they work, when they work, with whom they work, on what they work, and how they work – employees tend to be more engaged. This new level of choice is predicated on performance, and with more choice comes accountability, for sure.

Leaders can provide flexibility for employees, trust them to do a good job, and hold them accountable. Employees can recommend ideas for flexibility and perform brilliantly within the framework of those increased choices.

5. Keep Growing

A sense of fulfillment also comes from new opportunities. When we’re curious, interested, and challenged, we tend to feel more fulfilled. There’s a spillover effect as well. Research demonstrates that when we have a sense of doing something meaningful outside of work, we tend to have a greater sense of meaning within the boundaries of work as well.

Leaders can offer options for development and ever-increasing challenge in the tasks they assign. Individuals can think broadly about what energizes them – within the work environment and outside of it.

Planting Trees

Rather than the limits of work-life balance, work-life abundance is a paradigm that leads toward more engagement, more energy, and a more fulfilling organizational culture. The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the second best time is today. Let’s begin!

 

Written by Tracy Browertracy-brower

Dr. Tracy Brower is the author of Bring Work to Life by Bringing Life to Work: A Guide for Leaders and Organizations which provides new perspectives on work-life balance and how to create abundance and fulfillment in work-life. Find out more about Tracy at www.tracybrower.com, or connect with her on Twitter: @tracybrower108.

 

 

Why Great Leaders Must Tell Better Stories

By gothamCulture
Published at In Category Blog Tags: ,
leadership storytelling

Remember back to when you were a child. Did you get tucked in at night with a bedtime story? Well, I bet you didn’t know at the time that in those moments our guardians were displaying one of the hallmark qualities of a powerful leader.

It wasn’t care. It wasn’t generosity. It wasn’t responsibility. It was quite simply their ability to tell a story.

In fact, storytelling is one of the most important traits that leaders possess. In Howard Gardner’s Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership, the author profiles leaders from all walks of life; rich, poor, educated, uneducated, political, social, organizational, etc. His findings yielded that “leaders achieve their effectiveness largely through the stories they relate.”

To understand why this might be, a cursory review of some ancient history is in order.

The Evolution of Storytelling

Stories have literally been told forever.

Cavemen told visual stories using drawings, the Egyptians told visual stories using etched hieroglyphics and the Greeks and Romans told oral stories in their Forums and Amphitheaters. Native Americans, Australian Aboriginals, African Griots – they all had their own version.

Fast forward to 2001, when a gene called FOXP2 (well, technically it’s called forkhead box protein P2, but we’ll stick with the abridged version for now). Scientists have been able to isolate this particular gene as the one responsible for giving humans the neurological skills to be able to string together words and speak them quickly and in sequence. Simply put; FOXP2 is the first gene that’s directly linked to speech and language.

If you buy in to evolutionary theory, then you accept the basic premise that human DNA can actually change if there are benefits to it. Over the course of many millions of years, after listening to and telling countless stories, the human brain has come to become hardwired to understand them.

With evolution in our corner, the pertinent question becomes: How can leaders utilize this natural ability to their organizations’ benefit?

Why Leaders Should Pay Attention

When I work inside an organization, I pay particular attention to the stories that are being told, and it doesn’t take long to pick up on things.

Each of those stories has a place, and tells a message – either of a corporate value being applied or being ignored, about the future of the organization, its past, or the leaders. Sometimes those stories serve the organization well, and other times they don’t.

Either way, stories are the DNA of culture, and they have great power to alter it.

The great responsibility that lies with leaders in organizations is in their ability to change the stories that are being told. Here are a few reasons why it’s important to take this responsibility seriously:

It’s not hard. It doesn’t take too much discretionary effort for leaders to create and tell stories. They often already have access to platforms to speak to their employees, and by paying attention to a few important considerations, leaders can make great use of those opportunities.

It’s memorable. It’s commonly known that people don’t tend to remember facts and hard data, they remember and can relate to narrative.  The more leaders are able to craft that narrative, the more likely their listeners are to retain it.

It’s required. Employees are constantly looking for information, and leaders have the critical responsibility to provide it.

It’s helpful. In order to move an organization forward, everyone needs to be rowing in the same direction. By telling stories, and having them re-interpreted and then re-told by listeners, organizations are aligning the messages of their employees.

It’s powerful. Told in the right way, stories have the unique ability to galvanize large numbers of people around a common goal. They can quite literally change the realities that employees experience.

How to Tell Better Stories

We’ve discussed the usefulness of storytelling, and the neurological capacity we all have to do it. So, what can you do to tell better stories in your organization?

From a practical perspective, here are a few things you can start doing immediately to make your stories more impactful:

1. Be vulnerable and candid

Leaders’ credibility and authenticity are constantly being questioned.  Employees have a strong desire to understand your motivations, so the more you can make them clear, the more likely you are to get your message to stick.

2. Anticipate concerns

You should know what your listeners are going to push back on, and know those vulnerabilities before you begin communicating.  The more you’re able to get ahead of those concerns, the more open the listeners will be to hear your story.

3. Choose your words wisely

Ensure you are sharing the most pertinent information, and letting your audience know what’s in it for them.

4. Practice makes imperfect

Stories are messy, and that’s OK. This is not a muscle that leaders flex too often, so it’s not meant to be a perfect science. Once you start using these skills, you’ll get more and more comfortable with the practice.

The good news is that there are plenty of opportunities in organizations to create and share stories. Think about visioning work, sharing strategy, describing particular initiatives, your personal leadership journey, showing corporate values at work, etc. – all instances in which it would serve you well to consider these skills.

Closing Thoughts

Storytelling is one of the few ways we can effectively connect knowledge with emotion. Stories help us make sense of information through narrative. The best stories are those that can capture the head, the heart, and the hands of your listeners.

There may be no better way to impart information, capture peoples’ curiosity, and most importantly, motivate people to act.

“Stories are the single most powerful tool in a leader’s toolkit.” – Howard Gardner

So, what story do you want to tell?

Build Your Leadership On A Foundation Of Trust

By gothamCulture
Published at In Category Blog Tags:
leadership trust

The most effective leaders share a lot of characteristics, but the most important is their ability to inspire trust.

With a solid leadership foundation of trust, team members will act freely and without fear, and they’ll be more willing to take risks, move outside their comfort zones, and explore new ideas. They’ll more readily share information, feeling confident that other members of their team have their best interests in mind.

I asked Dave Bushy, a long-time friend, mentor, and colleague who is a well-known aviation consultant and executive coach, to describe an example where he observed the positive effects of trust. This is what he shared:

“Take my experience at JetBlue, for example. Dave Barger, JetBlue’s president and CEO, is committed to running an organization of respect, empathy, and integrity. His team members trust him as an individual and as a leader, and they want to follow his lead. As a result, JetBlue has achieved brand recognition, respect within the marketplace, and, most importantly, a culture driven by trust.”

Without trust, you can’t lead effectively, and your teams cannot reach their full potential. Fostering trust in your organization isn’t an easy process, but it is worthwhile because it will increase functionality across your organization.

One way to facilitate this process is by understanding trust through the use of a model. Not only does that help educate team members about the importance of trust, but it also provides them with a common language that can drive honest conversations.

A Tangible Framework for Trust

One well-known framework is drawn from Jack Gibb’s Theory of Group Development. The theory states that as the level of trust increases, unhealthy dynamics begin to fall away, increasing the functionality of the group and creating a safe space for dialogue, debate, and problem-solving.

This theory centers on the pyramid-shaped “TORI” model, which takes into account the key aspects of a highly functional team. At the bottom of the pyramid rests trust, above that is open and effective communication, next comes realization of common goals, and finally, interdependence forms the peak. Recently, people have started adding a second “R” for respect, which, in effect, makes it the “TORRI” model.

According to Gibb, every group member experiences two lives — his or her own life and the collective life of the group. On the group level, members ask questions about how they’ll work together, who is making decisions, and so forth. As individuals, they wonder if their voices will be heard, how they will fit in, and how they can exert some control within the group.

Put Trust Into Action to Become a Better Leader

As a team develops and faces these and other questions, its members progress through the TORI/TORRI model. Sometimes, team members will have to take a step back to regain momentum, but throughout the journey, the team will experience a number of increasing benefits.

Not only does this model provide a tangible, easy-to-use framework and language for understanding group dynamics, but it also helps group members understand their feelings. Finally, it provides a structure for individuals and groups to ask and answer questions that will clarify situations and build trust. To foster organizational trust based on this theory, start with these three steps:

1. Be intentional about developing trust. Establishing trust is easy, but losing it is even easier. As the leader, you must hold yourself and your team accountable. When team members’ efforts are being put toward flying under the radar and hiding their true feelings, organizational success takes a hit. So make sure that you always clear the air.

2. Use Gibb’s model as a guide. When your team members have a clear understanding of the TORI/TORRI model, they’re better equipped to engage and ask questions in an honest, respectful way that benefits everyone.

3. Serve as the example. Use Gibb’s framework as a means to coach your team on matters of trust, and soon they’ll start navigating issues of trust on their own.

Trust is the foundation of any relationship. In the military, you need to know that the people next to you have your back, and the same goes for the corporate world. When companies adhere to the TORI/TORRI model, great things can happen.

Just look at Buffer. The tech company decided to embrace a culture of transparency and trust in order to help drive teamwork. It discloses employee salaries on its website, a move that took an enormous level of trust. As a result, not only did the company see a big increase in the number of job applications, but it also started receiving higher-quality applicants.

By being intentional about developing trust, using Gibb’s model as a guide, and serving as an example, you can ensure your team is functioning at its full potential. Keep your foundation of trust strong, and as with any well-built structure, your team will stand the test of time.

This article originally appeared on Forbes

How to Get More From Your Mind-Numbing Meetings

By gothamCulture
Published at In Category Blog Tags: ,

“If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be ‘meetings.” – Dave Barry

No one likes sitting through a pointless office meeting.

Poorly run meetings can be a ball and chain to many organizations. They take up time when there’s work to be done, they’re often unproductive, and in many cases, altogether pointless. In fact, Mattel’s former CEO recently blamed meetings as the major factor behind their lack of an innovative culture.

So, the question is: Why do organizations spend so much time in formal meetings? How do they affect the engagement levels of the team? And is there a better way?

We asked our team to share their ideas and experiences around corporate meetings, and whether they can really have such a negative effect on organizational culture and employee engagement.

Anton Rius, Digital Marketing Manager

anton-riusI’ve been a part of some pretty terrible meetings. They would last for 2 or more hours, dragging on and on without ever coming to an actionable conclusion. Everyone shared ideas and participated, but no decisions were made and no tasks were assigned. I think being in a good meeting room such as conference rooms in new york, makes the ideas flow better, rather than being in a dingy old office!

That’s the big problem with meetings, in my opinion. They are often used as a way for people to discuss their goals while diffusing the ownership of the decision. Rather than empowering employees to make executive decisions about their work, meetings are used to gain collective approval from people who may not have a full understanding of the problem, or the expertise to make a good decision.

And if meetings are meant to bring people together to tackle problems quickly and collectively, then this behavior does the opposite: It slows business down to a snail’s pace.

The fact is; the average American office worker wastes a lot of time on everything other than work. Between shovels full of pointless email, office banter, the phone ringing, and all of the other distractions that happen at the office, it’s a wonder how any work actually gets done!

Adding additional, pointless meetings on top of that takes even more time away from your team members when they could be spending that time on more important tasks.

Samantha Goldman, Associate

samantha-goldmanOftentimes in organizations, meetings happen because of inertia; it’s the way it’s always been, and the people who realize they’re not productive don’t necessarily have the power to stop the meeting from happening.

In some organizations, the meetings are a remnant of the days when communication and decision-making only happened face-to-face. Today, due to technology and the faster pace of work and email/chat communication, most meetings are pointless.

But, before you decide to cancel all of your company’s meetings, take an inventory of what is actually happening in each meeting and whether some of that communication is repetitive. Maybe the communication would be better served through another channel, such as email.

Then, it’s critical to think about what actually could be happening in that face-to-face meeting instead, such as: group decision making, developing strategy, best practice sharing, highlighting work well done, gathering feedback, team trust building and/or professional development.

The key is to align the medium to the message: What do we absolutely need a meeting for, and then go from there. Make small experiments and gather feedback and see how these changes are affecting engagement levels. It’s more an art than a science, and should reflect the values of the organization and the team, the type of work you need to get done and your timeline for getting it done.

What works in one organization and department may not work in another, so be sure to constantly check in and see how it’s going.

Mark Emerson, General Manager

mark-emersonI was a consultant for a major telecom that will remain nameless, but in my opinion, the endless meetings were a complete waste of time and contributed to a total lack of execution on multiple fronts.

And the politics! Everyone and their mother had to be invited to these meetings, which meant that introductions alone took 10-15 minutes. The executives did almost all of the talking and the minions either took notes or pretended to listen while playing on their phones/laptops.

In almost all cases, these meetings involve far too many people, devolve into power plays and give a veneer to the idea that the organization is solving issues and moving forward, rather than just kaffeeklatsches.

Having said that, there have been well-organized meetings where there was a meeting coordinator. These meetings were on-topic, focused, short, and everyone walked away with actionable items with deadlines. This meant that no one was at the meeting just taking up space. In one case, the meeting organizer even dis-invited three people after the first organizational meeting because they were not given any actionable items. The following meetings were then just as productive as team members delivered and course corrections were made.

Even if these meetings were not in person, they were just as productive. In most cases there was a one-page agenda sent out beforehand, all electronics were banned, and PowerPoint presentations were limited to five slides. The coordinator captured everything and distributed the materials, making it a more free-flowing discussion that brought out great insights and ideas.

Cary Paul, Senior Associate

cary-paulOften, organizations spend so much time in formal meetings because it is comfortable. People love structure and meetings are one of the last bastions of structure in American business.

Think about children. We are always hearing that children crave discipline and structure. We never grow out of that, and meetings give us that structure.

The intent of meetings is spot-on.  Really.  While the meeting may be unnecessary, too long, structured poorly, boring, or include the wrong people – the BASIC idea behind the meeting—every meeting—is sound and justifiable:  Sharing information. Making decisions. Keeping on track. Getting new ideas. All critical functions of a company, right there in a comfortable package that everyone knows how to behave in.

And because of our hardwired need for structure, everyone knows how to behave. Meetings are muscle memory for people; they play their roles and all is well.

A lot of criticism has circulated around the engagement levels of team members due to bad meetings. While they can turn people off, meetings can have a positive effect on engagement, if done correctly.

Engagement equals action, and meetings are held when we are getting ready to act.

Is there a better way to run meetings? Absolutely. Here are a few ideas for making your meetings more productive:

  • Have everyone read their notes ahead of time, and the meeting becomes just a 20-minute decision making process. There’s less time sitting through presentations, and more time spent on productive, action-oriented activity.
  • Find new and creative ways to engage people in your meetings. Involving all the members of your team amps up the participation level and gets ideas flowing.
  • Remember: meeting planning comes from the outset. Two clear components must be determined. WHY are we having this meeting, and WHO should be there?  Every person should have a clear and distinctive role they play and a good reason to be involved, or not be there at all.

Your Turn

So, what do you think? Are meetings getting a bad rap based on a few peoples’ bad experiences? What advice can you share about creating a more engaging, actionable meeting? Remember that first impressions are a big thing, some companies may even go to the extreme and look into the Best limo service in Alexandria VA to impress potential clients! We’d love to hear your thoughts!

How to Manage a Rapidly Growing Company: 5 Productivity Tips

By gothamCulture
Published at In Category Blog Tags:
rapidly growing company

I have worked in finance for over 15 years and have always made sure that I am servicing ‘the client’ to the best of my ability.In most cases, my clients are my fellow employees and the executive team.

One of the biggest issues that I have encountered over the years is that, as the financial person in the company, I am expected to make sure our employees and bills are paid and the invoices are collected, all while trying to find time somewhere in between there to bring value and visibility to the financials for the executive team. It is hard to give the 30,000 foot view when you are stuck in the weeds of your daily work.

My current role as General Manager of gothamCulture is no different:There are high-level tasks that must be completed in addition to a barrage of daily tasks and requests from our growing team.

I imagine that you, as a leader in your company, can relate.

How do you effectively manage everything on your plate in a rapidly growing company? The answer for me has always been to work smarter, not harder. With that in mind, here are 5 of my favorite productivity tips that I’ve learned over the years:

1. Outsource Your Payroll

There is absolutely no good reason why anyone should be doing their own payroll processing; even Cisco Systems, a tech 100 company, uses an outside vendor.  You cannot hire someone for the cheap price that most payroll providers charge and, more importantly, you are avoiding all the liability of making a mistake on tax reporting and remittances.  Leave this to the payroll experts and focus on value-add.

2. Automate What You Can

As almost any support staff knows, a lot of little tasks can all add up to one big distraction.  For example, I was the Controller for one company still doing paper timecards – the process was cumbersome and took the better part of a day to validate and then enter into the payroll system.  Almost immediately, I moved the company to an electronic timekeeping system, cut the process down to an hour and a half, and got that day back every other week.

The less we touch data, the faster the process and the less room for error.  At gothamCulture, we use a time entry and expense system and align everything else to it.That way, there is one data entry point to monitor and validate. Everything else; payroll, invoicing, payables, and reporting, flow from that system semi-automatically and save a tremendousamount of time.  Even something as simple as creating invoice templates can help – no amount of automation is too small!

Automate everything you can and get that time back for more important tasks.

3. Stick to a System

I am a world-class procrastinator, so being a finance professional presents somewhat of a dilemma for me. In response, I’ve learned to manage my daily tasks through a series of systems. I operate by my calendar, checklists and processes. I look at my calendar to see what is coming up the next day and the rest of the week (orMonday as it may be) and have links in my calendar to specific checklists and/or processes like reconciliations, journal entries, month-end prep, month-end close, AR, AP, etc.

4. Minimize Distractions

Keeping your inbox clean and no web browsing – you have heard this a million different ways, but the fact is that this is a major distraction for many people. I give myself 15 minutes in the morning to look at nytimes.com and then shut the tab. Same with email: the night before I look at items needing attention and address them in the first 1/2 hour of work.  After that, it is for true emergencies only until after lunch, when I take another 1/2 to answer emails.  I don’t always stay true to this schedule but have found it to help me be more productive by limiting the amount of online distractions throughout the day.

5. Keep Meetings On Point

Meetings can be a huge time suck for a company of any size. To control the amount of time we spend on them, we do a 1/2 hour standup meeting every Monday and a 1/2 hour closeout meeting every Friday for support and planning staff.  These meetings are deliberately kept brief and are supposed to help the team as a whole know the workflow and see where they might be able to support the team.  In addition, we hold a 1/2 hour meeting after the Monday meeting for the larger team for quick Q&A’s, operational announcements and anything else that that the entire staff needs to know.  This keeps the team efficiently aligned; aware of what’s going on besides what they immediately touch, and lets them know that the support is always available.

 

So why do I do these productivity shortcuts?  Like I said at the start of the conversation, it is all about customer support and the customer is my internal team. These shortcuts help me make the everyday ‘time sucks’ as minimal as possible, which leaves the maximum time available to support the team and analyze the finances for having meaningful discussions with the leadership.

We are a small, growing consultancy with enormous flexibility, but for someone like me that can mean I am still working after putting my kids to bed.  This process helps me organize my workflow and deliver ‘true’ value-add while ensuring that I have enough down time after work and on weekends to enjoy the life that I am working so hard to earn money for in the first place!

Give Employees a Voice by Crowdsourcing Leadership Decisions

By gothamCulture
Published at In Category Blog Tags: ,
crowdsource leadership

As a leader, your title alone might lead you to falsely believe that you have all the answers. After all, others have entrusted you to direct the company, right?

In reality, no one person in a complex organization can ever see the entire picture, and when leaders default to making ill-informed decisions, they slowly etch away at dismal employee satisfaction levels. In fact, a recent survey by TINYhr found that 79 percent of employees feel marginally valued or extremely undervalued at work.

By crowdsourcing decisions in your organization, you can leverage the input, ideas, and diverse thinking of others to make healthier choices. And when both customers and employees are actively engaged, organizations experience a 240 percent rise in performance-related business outcomes, according to Gallup’s State of the American Workforce report.

This year, I’ve made a commitment to crowdsource more of my company’s decisions. And there are plenty of reasons you should, too.

1. You overcome bias. Crowdsourcing prevents groupthink and stops leaders from buying in to their own ideas without thinking through other perspectives. By bouncing ideas off others in your organization, you can stay true to company goals and focus on broader objectives.

2. It invites better ideas. Those closest to an issue often have the best ideas for fixing it. And while most of them want to contribute to company decisions, they often don’t feel comfortable inserting themselves or know where to start. Actively involving employees, customers, and vendors in the conversation will drive better decision-making and make everyone feel connected to your company.

3. It enhances company culture. Crowdsourcing changes a leader’s role from the all-knowing seer who sends commands down the line to an approachable colleague with a robust understanding of complicated situations. This sends a message to employees that what they think matters. It encourages buy-in and creates an environment where everyone’s voice is welcome. And for companies that want to secure top Millennial talent, fostering an open and collaborative environment is a must.

4. You can meet diverse needs. Different demographic groups interact with your brand in unique ways. By crowdsourcing your decisions, you can confidently meet all of your employees’ diverse needs and avoid focusing on the expectations of a single group. This also allows you to engage stakeholders on an ongoing basis, keeping your finger on the pulse of your customers and employees.

How to Start Crowdsourcing Decisions

When you implement crowdsourcing, it’s easy to get in too deep, too quickly. Instead of jumping in with both feet, keep things simple as you try this process on for size. Experiment with methods and tech for collecting information and keeping track of it.

In our company, we start with internal “think tanks.” When we face complex problems, we bring everyone in our company together to discuss, debate, and develop options to solve them. These think tanks allow us to consider everyone’s input, but they require pulling people out of their daily tasks, so we have to use them sparingly.

With modern technology, you can quickly and easily connect with stakeholders around the world, collect and share ideas through data, and discover the most effective solutions to problems. We’re experimenting with a new software platform that lets us launch live feedback opportunities for our stakeholders so we can access input in the middle of strategic planning processes. It helps us understand which processes we need to prioritize and how to improve them.

To capitalize on the benefits of crowdsourcing, you need to lay a foundation of trust. Openly welcome input and feedback, and don’t be too quick to shoot down any idea. If you’re overly critical or unsupportive, employees will hesitate to contribute their ideas in the future.

The people affected by your decisions have a vested interest in the direction of your company. When you leverage the collective mindset of an entire organization, you ensure that everyone’s input has a meaningful impact on your choices. The possibilities are truly endless.

This article originally appeared on Forbes

Engaging Gen Y: Employees Are Thinking Far Beyond The Cubicle

By gothamCulture
Published at In Category Blog Tags: ,
employee engagement gen y

The Business Manager at my last employer just celebrated her 43-year work anniversary. At 20 years old, she took an administrative job and worked her way up over the next 40 years as she gained more experience and tenure. It was her first job and she will be working there until she retires 2 years from now.

Stories like this used to be more common in the workplace. It was commonplace to get a job on the ground floor of a company, expecting that they will take care of you and your professional career while you grow with them. You were expected to work your way up the ladder to a middle management position, then the corner office; all the while building your pension so you can finally escape the cubicle on your 65th birthday.

Read More…

Redefining Business As Usual: An Introduction To Orghacking

By gothamCulture
Published at In Category Blog Tags: ,
redefine business orghacking

Why is it that many large-scale change initiatives fall short of expectations?  Some might say it’s because leaders weren’t communicating the effort effectively. Others might say employees were stuck in a “business as usual” attitude. I would argue that the failure of many change efforts can be attributed to three factors:

  1. The organization didn’t target the right individuals
  2. The organization didn’t incentivize the change to match the values of its employees
  3. The organization tried to make the change too substantial rather than incremental

I’d like to offer an alternative approach that leverages insights from emergence, antifragility, and analytics to circumvent standard “top-down” strategies.

In recent years, the term “hacking” has grown in popularity, especially “growth hacking” within the marketing field.  Growth hacking involves using analytics to target specific consumer groups, test which messages are successful in driving viewership, and scale the most effective strategies.

This process can also be applied to implement organizational change, hence I’d like to term this alternative approach “orghacking.”

Orghacking offers a way to implement rapid, testable, repeatable, and scalable interventions that bypass conventional organizational limitations like hierarchy, stovepipes, and communications protocols. Each intervention caters to the values of key demographic groups and leverages the many social networks and relationships that exist among employees.

Changing Our Perspectives

Many large-scale change efforts see the world from a top-down perspective.  Leadership has an idea, they develop a policy to capture the idea, and they rely on managers to implement the policy at the ground level.  In this approach, information moves up through the hierarchical chain while decisions flow down.

The problem with this strategy is that it often fails to appreciate the complexities inherent within an organization.  Employees often interpret and respond to situations differently.  They may also interact and organize very differently across departments.  As a result, organizations function more as a network of clusters, where employees congregate around certain individuals and processes and share ideas and values with those closest to them.

orghacking0

A top-down approach may easily glaze over these factors, leading to unintended consequences such as employees misinterpreting the policy or outright ignoring it. The disconnect between top-down strategies and the way organizations inherently operate makes it difficult to align the workforce to a new strategy and vision.

Enter Orghacking

Orghacking, on the other hand, bypasses the standard top-down approach and instead moves from the focal point outward.

orghacking1

As the diagram above shows, orghacking involves a combination of process mapping and culture-based analytics to pinpoint what issues exist, where they occur, and who is involved. It then uses precise interventions to target hubs within the organization’s social networks, shape the intervention to tap into the influencers’ values to incentivize behaviors, allow the intervention to spread throughout the social network, measure its impact, and modify the approach.

In this way, orghacking flips conventional logic on its head by making interventions small in scope, targeted to the individual, and adaptable to new insights.

How does orghacking work?

Based on the diagram above, orghacking entails the following steps:

Step 1: Executing process mapping to understand challenges

One of the more succinct ways to identify bottlenecks is through process mapping. Process mapping allows us to see the flow of how products/deliverables are produced in an organization.

We can gauge how effective certain parts of the process are by obtaining feedback from focus groups, looking at financial data to assess returns, and examining process metrics to determine where delays occurred.

Through this approach, we can pinpoint specifically what challenges exist, what type of issue it is (people, process, tools related), and where it exists in the process.

Step 2: Leveraging analytics to discover insights about employees

Organizations are overflowing with data that can be used in orghacking.  Everything from personality indicators to satisfaction surveys give us insights into the different types of people who work at an organization, how they think, and what they value.

Depending on the level of granularity in the data, we can even look at correlations among the responses to identify connections among different sets of values/attitudes and demographics. Examples would be if people who rate the organization low on trust also tend to rate the organization low on delegating authority. Or, whether males in purchasing tend to rate the organization low on trust also tend to value clearly defined processes.

The goal is to identify hidden insights about our employees and find connections.  In the end, we can develop profiles for different types of people in our organization, each including a demographic indicator and one or more values/attitudes.

Step 3: Engaging in observation to understand how people organize

Emergence and self-organization are fundamental to how organizations operate.  Understanding how people organize to get work done is a key component of orghacking.

Observations can be conducted in-person by seeing who talks to whom and/or through data driven methods such as counting the number of individuals that enter a given room or office. Observations should be validated with employees (even anecdotally) to verify their accuracy and determine the context of the discussion, like why people are congregating around a specific person.  This helps us understand who are the key influencers in the organization that help move work forward.

Notionally, we assume that people congregate around others with similar values and perspectives, enabling influencers to spread ideas and permeate change.

Step 4: Using all three to create custom-tailored interventions

Orghacking is different from other approaches in that it aims to change the most fundamental units within organizations. Ultimately this comes down to identifying the influencers and those closely connected to them, communicating in their language, and developing incentives based on their profile to drive the desired change in behavior.  This can increase the likelihood that a message and intervention will stick.

Another difference is how interventions are implemented. Orghacking implements numerous bite-sized interventions that invoke small changes in someone’s behavior.

Each intervention is conducted using an A/B test approach, where there are intervention and control groups.  This allows us to estimate the impact and effectiveness of any one approach.  Since the change is small, it can be easier to assimilate, and follow-on interventions can be conducted in rapid succession. Interventions are also given time to work their way through the various social networks and will look different across groups.

For this reason, change occurs much more organically to the unique culture of a particular group or sub-group, allowing it to scale over time.

Finally, due to its small size and scope, the risks associated with any given intervention are fairly miniscule.  The failure of any one intervention does not jeopardize the whole effort.  In fact, failures give us ample opportunities to fine-tune our strategies.

Step 5: Gauging the impact of our interventions

It’s important to have a clear idea of the desired outcomes from an intervention.  Outcomes should be measurable, even with something as simple as a yes/no metric.  Outcomes help us determine whether an intervention was successful.  The lessons learned from this step allow us to determine what went wrong and make adjustments to improve the approach in the future.

Step 6: Adapting strategies based on lessons learned

While some approaches succeed, others will fail.  These opportunities enable us to modify our strategies to optimize the message and incentive.

Best practices within one intervention can be applied to others as well.  Eventually, we can fine-tune our approach to a set of key strategies that work for a given group, or even across groups. Then, we can broaden the outreach of the interventions to other hubs and influencers. Over time, larger segments of the organization will start exhibiting the desired outcomes and effectively internalize the change.

Repeat Steps 4-6 until the desired end-state is achieved

Coming Full Circle

The effectiveness of change ultimately depends on how it is packaged.  Orghacking uses micro targeting to fine-tune the package to better incentivize behaviors.  By doing so, it gives us a highly adaptable and effective way to systematically internalize change within our organizations.  In this way, it can be a preferable alternative to traditional top-down change strategies.

Budget For Culture: How Investing In Your Team Drives Results

By gothamCulture
Published at In Category Blog Tags: ,
budget for culture

As a leader, every decision you make shapes your organizational culture, and when it comes to budgeting your limited resources, these decisions send powerful messages to your people about what’s most important. After all, money doesn’t just talk — it shouts your priorities through a bullhorn. You have to make budgeting decisions that drive your business’s strategy and goals. But too often, the technical aspects of your strategy are prioritized over the most important facet of your organization’s long-term performance: the people.

[Tweet “As a leader, every decision you make shapes your organizational culture”]

The best plan in the world won’t survive if your people aren’t on board. But if you support your employees and nurture their enthusiasm, they’ll take care of your business. In fact, investing in your people can reap rewards that ripple across your entire organization and beyond. According to Gallup, organizations with above-average levels of employee engagement reap 147% higher earnings per share. Furthermore, when they engage both customers and employees, organizations experience a 240% jump in performance-related business outcomes. Clearly, you need to start investing in culture.

The concept may still seem abstract, so here are six concrete aspects of organizational culture to focus on:

1. Recruitment, orientation, and the employee experience: A new team member’s impression of how you treat employees is set from the beginning. Even during the recruiting process, the way candidates are treated sends a clear message about your company culture. These messages about expectations and a person’s value are reinforced during the onboarding process. With this in mind, you need to be thoughtful about your employee experience throughout their tenure with you and make it as seamless and supportive as possible. This kind of investment will pay dividends down the road.

2. Professional and leadership development: It’s not uncommon for business leaders to create strategies that require a significant shift in employee behavior to succeed. However, if you’re asking employees to do things differently, you need to anticipate their apprehension.

By setting aside resources to train your employees in the knowledge, skills, and abilities they’ll need to implement your plan, they’ll see that you’re serious about your changes and are willing to support them through the transition.

3. Compensation and incentives: Compensation is a massive and complex topic in business — one that can’t be underestimated. As a professional services firm, the lion’s share of my company’s budget goes into compensation. Our team members are expected to dedicate a lot of time and energy to the success of our clients, and they’re paid as well as possible because we value and trust in their abilities.

People’s total compensation (not just their base salary) will drive all sorts of behaviors, but your plan must be designed thoughtfully. If it’s not, you may find yourself in a no-win situation with employees behaving in ways that maximize their personal gain but don’t move your organization forward.

4. Rewards and recognition: Like compensation, rewards and recognition require resources, but they also send clear messages to your people about what behaviors are acceptable and encouraged and which are not.

Finding creative ways to recognize people who are creating value in your business is worth its weight in gold. Rewards and recognition aren’t one-size-fits-all strategies, though. Different people value different things, so you must take the time to get to know your team members and develop an understanding of what incentives will be the most appreciated.

5. The physical environment: The space in which people work can promote desired behaviors, but it can also be used to reinforce what’s most important to you in less direct ways. Put careful thought into the design of your office space. If your strategy dictates significant changes in how people do their jobs, you may need to make extra room in the budget to align their workspaces with your expectations.

6. Tools and equipment: When you’re budgeting to drive your strategy, a final key consideration is whether your people have the proper tools and equipment to fulfill your expectations. Outfitting your team with the wrong equipment will lead to disaster. You can’t ask your team to get to the moon with a roll of duct tape and a spatula; it will only hold your team back from accomplishing your overarching goals.

If you fail to think more holistically about the “what” and the “how,” your perfect business strategy will be left on the launch pad, unable to take off. Don’t let all that planning go to waste by ignoring the needs of the people who make your strategy effective. Investing in ways that communicate how much you value team members will drive the behaviors you need to reach your goals this year.

this article originally appeared on Forbes

How Culture and Leadership Pave the Road to the Super Bowl

By gothamCulture
Published at In Category Blog Tags: ,

As we head into Super Bowl 49 this weekend, we at gothamCulture can’t help but think about a professional football team’s culture and leadership that has (or has not) helped teams get to the big game.

Like a corporate organization, NFL football teams’ organizational culture is largely made up of leadership, team members, and the brand. Each of these plays a unique role in a successful (or unsuccessful) team on the road to the ultimate goal every year: a chance to win as world champions in the Super Bowl.

Leadership

Formally, the Coach provides a great deal of the leadership, like the CEO or the Executive Director. He sets the tone along with the team’s General Manager. The owner is usually the one who is most concerned about how well the team is doing and leads the hiring and firing of those two based on the team’s performance.

This might be similar to the board of directors or advisors in a more corporate organization. The Coach and General Manager are usually the first to take the fall if the team does badly. For example, as Owner Woody Johnson of Gotham City’s own 4-12 New York Jets said, “It became pretty apparent during the season the team wasn’t getting better and, as (Bill) Parcells said, you are what your record says you are…It was kind of obvious we had to make the change. It was obvious to me, anyway.”

Former Cleveland Brown’s quarterback Bernie Kosar reinforced the importance of this formal leadership in his recent comments, “When you have a front office that’s really uneducated, and I’m not talking about just the coach, there’s way above him that deserves this, they don’t know how to lead and organize and set a culture to play winning football, to win in the NFL consistently.”

Culture

The Owner, GM and Coach aren’t the only leaders on the team. Fans often hear about quarterbacks “leading” their team to victory. If the quarterback is having a bad day, it’s very hard for the team to do well, and often when quarterbacks are hot, the team is unstoppable.

These are the leaders in the organization who play outsized roles, whose successes and failures have ripple effects across the organization. While quarterbacks may control the game by function or role, and perhaps are the most visible of players, many other roles on the football team are critical to a team’s success.

One such example was during the NFC Championship and the Seattle Seahawks. Jon Ryan and the special teams players made a few critical plays when the team was losing badly to turn the game around. These pockets of action and success highlight the importance of the team coming together; the offense wasn’t the only one responsible for scoring points, just like one division within a company isn’t the only one responsible for making a profit.

And, even for those key opportunities for the special teams to be successful, advanced research was conducted on the opponent Green Bay Packers’ weaknesses, the coach had to be willing to take the risk to call the play, and the players needed to have the skills and focus to be able to deliver.

In corporate culture speak, this involves a culture of creativity, trust, empowerment, risk taking, and thorough market research of competitors.

Fan/Customer Appreciation

The Seattle Seahawks are also known for an organizational culture of appreciation. Their stadium is lined with #12 flags, representing their appreciation of their fans; arguably some of the most loyal in the country. They are the team’s 12th man on the field, and thereby critical to their success.

Seahawks fans are known to be so supportive and vocal that there was even a seismograph machine at both recent playoff games to measure the decibels. The fans screaming and jumping in the stadium was thought to be as powerful as a minor earthquake.

That kind of brand following is critical to organizational success.

Applying These Concepts To Your Organizational Culture

While the parallels between your corporate environment and the NFL may not be immediately apparent, there are some key concepts that you can apply to the culture of your organization:

  • The buck always stops with the formal leader; if it’s not working, don’t be afraid to make a change
  • Informal leadership within the organization plays a critical role in team success
  • A culture of learning, risk taking, empowerment and research can pay high-dividends
  • Appreciation goes a long way and leads to brand loyalty

What other relevant leadership and culture insights have you gleaned from watching football? Let us know how you’ve been inspired from leadership on the field into action in your office!

(photo credit: Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)