Hacking Work

Work is broken.  As Bill Jensen and Josh Klein point out in their book “Hacking Work”, companies are moving faster, but not really getting anywhere. In fact organizational performance has been deteriorating for decades, regardless of economic conditions. Companies have tried to avert this through short term fixes like layoffs and spending cuts however, in the long run the result is the same.  Work is broken and needs to be hacked.

Employee engagement continues to decline, while leadership frustration continues to rise. We could blame the people (employees) or the economy but the truth is that as the complexity in the workplace has increased over the years the way we work has changed very little. People are frustrated with constantly shifting priorities, limited resources and an accelerated market place.  The feeling of accomplishment and pride in work that feeds the ‘soul’ of the employee is marginalized because current (and by current we mean old) organizational structures haven’t evolved to accommodate shifts in the market, communication or technology, thus don’t allow for significant achievement.  In short, it is the way we work that is failing to keep up,  not the people.

Jensen and Klein suggest that the solution to the problem of how we change the work landscape is not a top down approach but rather will come from individuals at all levels of an organization challenging the status quo, daring to bypass sacred structures, using forbidden tools, and ignoring silly corporate edicts. In other words, they are hacking work to increase their own efficiency and job satisfaction.  When enough of today’s workforce joins the hack, there will be a definitive movement towards functional work in the 21st century.

The Kingbridge Insight this week, like many others comes as a question:
Are you going to remain part of the problem, protecting the status quo? Or, are you going to join the tribe of individuals implementing the solution and teaching others how to hack work and make it better for everyone?

Measuring Collaboration ROI

In most cases an overall objection to collaboration within organizations is not an issue, however, the where, when and how of implementing collaborative systems is.

Collaboration is an increasingly vital capability for organizations. But when companies just promote collaboration indiscriminately, without the proper culture and resources to support it they create information bottlenecks and actually diminish their organizational effectiveness.

In a 2006 edition of McKinsey Quarterly the article “Mapping the Value of Employee Collaboration” presented an in depth network analysis approach to determining where and how to introduce collaboration initiatives within an organization in a way that is not only effective but measurable against the bottom line.  Despite the article being nearly 8 years old, the issue of how to appropriately leverage collaboration mechanisms is as much a problem today – if not more.

The network approach presented in the article gives executives the information they need to foster collaboration at the points where it delivers an economic return – a key indicator required to allocate resources to collaborative efforts.

It would not do this article justice to attempt to summarize nor would it help you apply any of the methods within (for which you may want to hire a professional!). However, if as a leader you have been searching for a way to both justify and accurately allocate resources to collaboration systems in your organization it is highly recommended to read this article.

Do your Collaborative Leadership Skills measure up?

Carrying on the same vein as the last post, we move forward to the increasingly essential skill of collaboration, specifically for leaders.

The Ivey Business Journal recently published an article “The Collaboration Imperative” exploring one of the greatest management challenges of the 21st century – cultivating collaborative leadership skills.  Author Rick Lash of The Hay Group, discusses how in the current and accelerating complexity and unpredictability of markets that companies will “need leaders who are highly adaptive, continuous learners, able to lead diverse groups across functional disciplines, regions and cultures.”  Essentially, whether across teams, borders or function leaders will need to collaborate.

The first key point in this article – that can not be stressed enough – is that the skills required for collaboration are NOT the same as those required to work effectively in a functional team.  As a leader you may excel at ‘teamwork’ but this does not lend to your credibility as an effective collaborator.  A Hay Group study found that most executives still require considerable development in influence, inspirational leadership, coaching, mentoring and emotional self-awareness – the competencies that are not necessarily needed for successful ‘teamwork’ but absolutely imperative for collaboration.  In short, leadership skill sets have not kept up with the evolution of the marketplace and subsequent shift to flatter organizational structures.

One of the obvious barriers to collaborative leadership is the organizational culture.  If the leader is rewarded based only on his departmental performance rather than that of the organization as a whole he/she is unlikely to put long term cross functional collaboration as a priority. regardless if the skill set to do so exists or not.
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Although it is acknowledged that organizational culture plays a considerable role in successful collaborative leadership, the list below succinctly summarizes the key collaborative competencies required in an individual to be successful as a collaborative leader:

  1. Enterprise perspective – they have a comprehensive understanding of the company’s overall business strategy and how the joint work they are leading aligns with that strategy. They use this understanding to resolve any conflicts that may arise.
  2. Cross-functional perspective – they understand the needs, metrics, incentives and deliverables of different functions and business units. They can align these competing priorities within the operating model.
  3. Customer perspective – they not only understand the customers’ interests and needs, they also know how to keep the team focused on making the decisions that enhance the overall customer experience.
  4. Self-management – they exhibit self-control when challenged. They have patience when dealing with colleagues who may have trouble understanding the shared purpose of the collaboration initiative. They do not take disagreements personally.
  5. Listen with respect – they listen objectively and respectfully to multiple opinions. They empathize with colleagues whose position, situation or perspective may differ from their own. They start with the assumption that collaborators are capable and will do their best.
  6. Matrix influencing – they excel at communicating with different stakeholders and influencing them to support collaborative projects.

The level of these competencies can be broadly assessed with the following questions:

1.    Can this leader achieve results by influencing rather than directing?
2.    Can this leader share ownership, even if it means sharing credit and rewards?
3.    Can this leader delegate and let others deliver results?
4.    Has this leader demonstrated the ability to motivate groups of diverse individuals who may not share her viewpoints or perspectives?
5.    Has this leader demonstrated the ability to make and implement decisions collaboratively?
6.    Can this leader get results even when he has no direct control over people or resources?

Now that you have self assessed your abilities against the competencies above and considered your own growth areas to achieve ‘master’ level collaborative skills and have devised a plan to become the best collaborator you can be……. I will temper this with the Kingbridge Insight for this week which is that collaborative skills and leadership abilities are not in themselves a solution.  Perhaps the greatest strength of any collaborative leader is to know how to select collaboration opportunities wisely and to recognize when they are not working or not true collaborations.

How are your Strategic Leadership Skills?

Today’s Fast Track article offered several guidelines/tips on how to be an effective strategic leader.  Upon reading this simple yet insightful article it struck me that many of the guidelines could easily be transformed into questions leaders could use for self-assessment (or alternatively, by others in a 360 review).

The article focused on 3 Key areas of Leadership: Knowing your Business, Decision Making and Inspiring Others.  Below are some questions based on each of these areas that every leader should ask themselves – many are obvious and simple to respond to while others may be cause for reflection:

Knowing your Business:
Effective leaders have in depth knowledge of their business and are continually learning.

1. How does your company make money?
2. What is your competitive advantage?
a. Have you spoken directly to your customers to understand their needs and
perceptions?
3. Where is your industry headed?

Decision Making:
Once you have the knowledge a strategic leader must know how to apply it appropriately.

1. Are you responsive or hasty?
2. Do you reflect or overanalyize?
3. Do you make decisions with any of these common biases?
a. Similar-to-me effect (favoring those who look, act, think like you)
b. Confirmation bias (remembering only the facts that support your viewpoint)
c. Halo effect (allowing one very positive or negative item to overshadow your opinion)
d. Hindsight bias (wrongly perceiving past events as predictable, “I knew it!”)

Inspiring Others:
Knowledge and decision making ability will only make you a good individual contributor, to be a true leader you must inspire and encourage the same in others.

1. Are you optimistic with a focus on possibilities or do you focus on limitations?
2. Have you created and shared a clear aspirational vision?
3. Are you passionate about reaching goals?
5. Are you able to present ideas simply and clearly so they can be understood and repeated by all?

So, how did you do?

The Kingbridge Insight this week is an observation that although the above is a very quick and simplistic high level assessment of leadership it is a good place to start none the less. So many leaders are intimidated by the plethora of ‘assessment tools’ out there that require hours or more to complete and then provide results that are not easily interpreted nor extrapolated into usable/actionable information.  Rather than diving right into the deep end perhaps it is wiser – and ultimately more effective –  to wade into the shallow end first!

 

Robot Collaboration

You are probably wondering how we could possibly program robots to collaborate when most of us have such a difficult time doing it effectively ourselves!  Well MIT researchers have recently discovered that it is quite a challenge indeed. (“Helping Robots Collaborate”, Kurzweil Accelerating Intelligence News, February 14, 2014)

Currently researchers are working on applying a combination of robotic control programs to enable groups of robots to collaborate.  The most recent tests of this complex system have included a simulation of a warehousing application where teams of robots are required to retrieve arbitrary objects from indeterminate locations, collaborating as needed to transport heavy loads.  It sounds simple enough right?  Well, as with any collaboration communication has proven to be one of the primary issues.  There are far too many variables involved to program a detailed set of communication conditions – similar to communications in any work environment.  And similar to human work environments and modes of communication the greatest success in this venture for robotic collaboration has come when the robots are given the tools and freedom to ‘decide’ how best to communicate and accomplish what they need – like a self organizing team.  Each robot has a series of coloured lights to use for communication when their direct relay systems are slow or out of order.  Originally, the programmers were attempting to create a specific light response for any situation/communication need that may arise, which of course proved impossible given the infinite number of variables and qualifiers involved in a group collaboration.  What has provided some success is programming the robots to identify the coloured lights as a method of communication and allow the artificial intelligence algorithm determine whether use of the lights is necessary and what the colours mean.

The Kingbridge Insight this week is an extrapolation of the lessons this robotic experiment has to offer while attempting to program collaboration behaviour.

Traditionally, organizations work in a hierarchy, where actions and behaviours are determined by a superior officer.  Even though many organizations have taken some steps towards creating ‘bottom up’ environments the underlying structure for the most part remains the same. In this experiment however, the most successful collaborations resulted from self organization and the absence of command and control.

What conclusion would you draw from this about the conditions required for successful collaborations?

Creating Engaging Environments

This week blogs.cisco.com had a great article on Creating Environments for Better Employee Engagement including some startling statistics on current employee engagement norms.

“In its recent State of the Global Workplace, Gallup reports that only 13% of workers feel engaged by their jobs. On the other end, 63% are disengaged and 24% are actively disengaged. Numbers vary by research study and country, but overall most employees don’t feel passionate about their work, connected to their employers, or that they’re making a difference.”

This statistic is particularly troubling given that we are currently operating in a global environment of perpetual transformation where the rate of change in everything from technology to leadership is such that a dedication to continual growth and education are necessary at all levels to succeed.

So how do we as leaders prevent and in many cases remedy this current employee malady?  We turn to those like Google and Southwest Airlines who are getting it right for guidance:

  • Understand what employees are thinking: Use surveys, online forums, and other feedback mechanisms to give employees a voice – and act on what you learn.
  • Create an intentional culture: Integrate and articulate values throughout the organization.
  • Demonstrate appreciation: Recognize employees in big and small ways to create consistent reinforcement and provide examples.
  • Commit to open, honest communication: Make sure employees know what you expect and encourage communication among and between teams, and with leadership.
  • Support career path development: Show employees you value their futures by providing mentoring and training opportunities.
  • Engage in social interactions outside work: Participate in supporting the communities in which you operate — as a community of coworkers.
  • Communicate the culture: Emphasize the “brand” of your culture both within the organization and externally to customers and partners.

It is up to organizational leaders to create, support and participate in an engaging environment in order to reap the benefits that employee engagement offers; productivity, dedication, passion, buy in etc.  So, this week rather than offering a Kingbridge Insight we would like you to produce some insight of your own.  As a leader, really and truly examine the environment your employees work in, the environment that you have created, and ask yourself if you believe it is engaging and supportive.  If yes, congratulations you are among the select few! (According the studies quoted above).  If no, ask yourself how you can change that.

The Dominance Problem

Another classic problem of most meetings is the dominance problem.  A few people intimidate others.  As a meeting organizer or leader how can you mitigate the negative effects these people can have on potential collaborations?

Sometimes a few loud individuals can dominate your meetings.  And that can lead to quiet people (e.g. introverts) not sharing their best ideas.  There are lots of ways to manage this psychological dynamic between the louder and quieter people in your meetings.  But one such technique is called the Nominal Group Technique (NGT), an alternative to traditional brainstorming.  NGT prevents the domination of discussion by a single person, encourages the more passive group members to participate, and results in a set of prioritized solutions or recommendations.

Let’s say your team is trying to make a decision, for example; imagine you’re trying to decide whether to bring your proposal to the CEO now or wait until after the Board meeting.  Now, this is a classic situation where a few louder voices could steamroll the rest of the group.

So, as the team leader, what you do is ask everyone to write down their opinion on a sheet of paper. Then you collect those papers and record the opinions on a white board or flip chart and vote. This forces team members who wouldn’t have otherwise spoken up to voice their opinions.  It also minimizes the effect of group members who would otherwise dominate the conversation.  And yet, everyone still has input, and you get all of the best possible ideas.

You, as team leader, can control each of the member’s voices.  You can control their input, the flow, and the tone of it.
ngt
Another benefit of the nominal group technique is that it reduces Groupthink because it encourages independent thinking – people don’t get swayed by listening to everyone else’s arguments.

An alternative to the manual recording method for Nominal Group Technique is to utilize a collaborative technology tool such as an audience response application like Turning Point or one of the many smartphone applications or a decision support application like Think Tank.

The Kingbridge Insight this week is to encourage you as a leader, whether of a group or an entire organization to continuously try new techniques for group engagement  – the results will speak for themselves.  Also, and perhaps more importantly, ask for help if you need it! Consult a professional management consultant or if you are in the Greater Toronto Area give us a call and we can connect you with one of our trusted advisers.  There are resources out there to help you reach your goals – tap into them!

TED@Your Company

Imagine giving your own TED talk – what ‘’idea worth spreading’’ would you share in 18 minutes or less?

Recently, this question has been promoted from day dream to reality for some with the advent of TED’s professional development arm, the TED Institute which recently launched a corporate events program.  In this program companies can work with TED experts to put on their own authentic TED talk!

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One of the first to engage in this program was the financial services company State Street.  The organization put out an open call to all employees for TED talk proposals, from which TED experts worked with company organizers to select those chosen to participate.  Those selected were then paired with TED coaches and led through an intense 6 week training program culminating in the creation of a presentation quality TED talk.

Aside from the obvious ‘cool’ factor of presenting your own TED talk for your colleagues, the real impact from these events comes from the creation of a ‘level’ playing field where position is secondary to content – a front line staff member’s talk on professional development may be followed by a personal experience talk by the CEO (if he made the cut!) and be equally as brilliant.

In the current fast paced environment it is increasingly important to inspire passion in employees (those who view new challenges as opportunities to learn additional skills) in order to maintain a competitive edge and foster innovation in a marketplace where many skill sets become obsolete within a few years.  These TED inspired events take great strides towards empowering such a culture.

This weeks Kingbridge Insight is a challenge: How can you as a leader in your organization empower a culture of continuous learning and professional development to inspire passion in your workforce?

John Abele: Medical Devices to Conference Centre – The Connection

John Abele, co-founder of Boston Scientific spent the better part of 4 decades pioneering the field of less invasive medicine.  With the undeniable success of Boston Scientific John has since pursued philanthropic endeavors including promoting science literacy for children and projects in social innovation.  John also purchased The Kingbridge Conference Centre & Institute in Ontario, Canada.

So, why a conference centre?  It seems an unlikely progression, medical devices to meetings, but for John the link is clear.  The current edition of Briefings Magazine published by The Korn/Ferry Institute features an article by accomplished author Glenn Rifkin exploring this very connection –  “Growth Through Collaboration: John Abele’s Vision”.

The article highlights how after years of working to convince often ego driven medical professionals and a bureaucratic medical industry to make change and ‘try something new’ that the key to success was collaborative approaches featuring innovative meeting techniques.  One of the most notable outcomes of these efforts is the still widely used Live Demonstration Course.

(Full article here)

In the following video John summarizes in his own words his vision for The Kingbridge Conference Centre & Institute and it’s roots in his experience with Boston Scientific.

Why Purchase a Conference Centre? from Kingbridge Conference Centre on Vimeo.