Archive for February, 2009

When small businesses implement a change in the way they work, it’s helpful to have some guidelines to follow as they alter their behavior. Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It offers 13 guideposts for working in a results-only work environment (ROWE). The tenant discussed today outlines HOW work gets done:

There aren’t any last-minute fire drills.

Fire drills are those last minute “emergencies” that appear out of nowhere and take priority over everything else. For example, a board member wants an update and written report on a project that’s not due for two months, a team member needs your part of the project by the end of the day (when earlier they said end of the week) or your boss stops by your desk for a “quick question” that turns into a two hour conversation that completely interrupts your workflow.

Very rarely are fire drills actual emergencies. They create a false sense of urgency and are typically the result of poor planning or a crazy whim. 

When you work in a ROWE, each employee has control over how they work and the responsibility to stop doing anything that’s a waste of their time, the company’s time, or the customer’s time. Last minute “emergencies” and “quick questions” are usually a waste of time. But how do you stop them from occurring?

You plan! At the beginning of projects you talk more about outcomes and get really clear on results and timelines. You take time up front to plan things out. You stop going through the motions in reaction mode and enforce some boundaries. 

Managers and leaders also have to shift from supervising to coaching. Leadership becomes more collaborative and managers take an active role in their employees’ success. Additionally, leaders must create a culture in which it’s safe to speak up about fire drills and need to be okay when employees call them on their behavior.

Obviously things change and project plans shift, but when you respond—rather than react—there will be fewer emergencies. As you shift your work environment into a ROWE, don’t forget to have all employees follow this guidepost. And be sure to check your own behavior to see if you’re the source of frequent fire drills.

This is Part 2 in a series from the book Influencer: The Power to Change Anything. If you are in a position of influence, want to motivate others to change, or want to change your own behavior, you need to grab a copy of this book. 

If you recall from Part 1, the Personal Aspects of Changing Anything, if you want to change behavior, you must impact motivation and ability on three different levels: personal, social, and structural. Today I’m going to talk about the social aspects of change.

If you wish to change behavior at the social level, there are two things to consider:

1. Social Motivation: Harness Peer Pressure

Social motivation is all about our human desire to be accepted, respected, and connected. Consider the following as you identify social motivation for change: 

• Identify Opinion Leaders & Gain their Support

We are easily influenced by others and successful change agents recognize and use that fact. In addition to the support of formal leaders, you need to gain the support of opinion leaders. Why is this so important? Because research has shown that over 85% of the population will not adopt new practices until opinion leaders do. When opinion leaders are supportive of your change efforts, your job will be much easier.

When searching for opinion leaders within your organization, look for people who are viewed as knowledgeable about the issue at hand, are trustworthy, have other people’s best interest in mind, are generous with their time, and speak their minds in a direct and healthy way. 

• Enlist Social Support 

Spend time talking openly with everyone that will be involved in the change efforts. This is especially important if you’re trying to change an “undiscussable.” Make it safe for people to openly share their thoughts and talk through controversial topics.

Finally, use peer pressure to your advantage. Everyone in the company, every member of a team, must support and reward the right behaviors, and call people out on the wrong ones. It’s a group effort.

2. Social Ability: Find Strength in Numbers

Our society is all about individual success, but for change efforts to be successful we must be willing to work with others and build social capital. As a change leader, you must provide help, information, and resources on a timely basis to those engaged in change. Are you, and others you work with, holding people accountable for changing their behavior? 

Increasing social ability involves creating opportunities for interdependence—people should work in smaller teams as change occurs. Create group solidarity by having all team members publically commit to the change. As a team, they can create new solutions to problems that arise, support and hold each other accountable (which reduces risk), and provide real-time feedback to one another. 

Stay tuned next week for Part 3, the Structural Level of Change. In the meantime, think about what you are trying to influence and change in your small business? Have you adequately addressed social motivation and ability? Leave a comment and share what’s worked for you.

Did you know today, February 21st, is Single-Tasking Day? At least for today, leave multitasking behind and do only one thing at a time without feeling guilty.

The idea behind single-tasking is simple: research has shown that multitasking is ineffective. Productivity actually declines when we multitask because the brain can only process so many things at once. 

Individuals that multitask have been found to experience:

• Loss of concentration,
• Gaps in short-term memory,
• Problems communicating with others,
• Lapses in attentiveness, 
• Increased susceptibility to interruptions, and
• Stress symptoms such as shortness of breath.

Next time you find yourself on a conference call, listening to iTunes, twittering, checking email, and Googling to find a cool new place for dinner all at the same time, stop and ask yourself which task, if any, has your full attention. Then, pick a single task to focus on and shut everything else down.

When you are mindfully doing one thing at a time you will get your work done more quickly and you’re more likely to produce a higher quality outcome. Give it a try today and for a few days next week while you’re working and the simple joys of single-tasking may win you over for good.

Do you have a question about results-only work environments (ROWEs), virtual teams, flexible work arrangements, cloudworking, improving your team’s performance, or how to change the work environment in your business? If so, I’d love to hear from you!

In a new Reader Q&A series on the blog I will be answering your questions. All you have to do is submit a question via the Ask Ashley page and keep your eye on the blog for the answer.

I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Twitter is a wonderful community full of rich conversations about all kinds of things. Recently I searched through the dialogue on Twitter to find out what people were saying about leaving work early. 

The language we use tells a lot about what we believe and how we behave. I discovered 3 specific beliefs about leaving work early from Twitter (note: tweets can be seen in full at the end of this post): 

1. You have to make excuses or come up with a valid reason to take off early. 

@kelvinp spent the morning thinking of excuses

@kittyhotpants is hoping for a physical ailment

2. You must come into work early if you want to leave early.

@alexmcdowell04 is doing this so he can attend funeral services for his uncle

@emmaisawesome came in early too

3. You must get permission to leave early.

@emmaisawesome “got the all clear” before she left early

Leaving work “early” is something you should be able to do without having to make up an excuse, come in early, go to a funeral, or suddenly develop a fake disease. If you’ve done what you need to do for the day, you should be free to leave. If you need a break and a change of scenery, you should be able to freely leave your cube—without anyone’s permission—and finish work later in the day from home of your favorite coffee shop.

The new model of work is results-only: Reward people for the results they produce, not the time they put in at the office. Part of this is remembering that work isn’t a place you go, it’s something you do.

These Tweets are just a small example of how our language reflects our outdated beliefs about work. Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson, authors of Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It , call this type of language “Sludge.” They define Sludge as any negative comment that reinforces old ideas about how work gets done. When you start paying attention to your language and the language of those around you, you’ll notice that outdated beliefs about work run rampant in our everyday dialogue.

The first step to change the way we work, is to change the way we talk about work. When you change your language, you change your beliefs, and then you permanently change your behavior. This is the only way we’ll be able to move away from the traditional model of “work” to a model of work that works for everyone. 

Pay attention to the language around you at work this week. What do you hear? Can you identify any outdated beliefs about language? Have you spotted any outdated beliefs on Twitter or Facebook? Leave a comment below and share what you hear.

Related Posts: My Boss Let Me Leave Early, How About Yours?

Tweets about Leaving Work Early

I’m currently reading Influencer: The Power to Change Anything. If you are in a position of influence, want to motivate others to change, or want to change your own behavior, this book is for you. The authors combine the latest insights on change from behavioral scientists and business leaders with real life stories of highly successful influencers who made change happen where others failed. 

NBC’s “The Office” provides us with a wonderful glimpse inside all that’s wrong with corporate America. If you aren’t a regular watcher of this great mockumentary, I suggest you check it out Thursday nights for a few laughs. 

There is always a lesson to be learned from watching Michael Scott, fearless leader of the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin, even if it’s usually a lesson in what NOT to do as a leader. This episode is no exception.

What does Michael teach us today? Not to assume you know how your employees want to be rewarded. While there may be a few people who appreciate a nice butt slap, the majority of people will sue you for sexual harassment. And as Pam the receptionist puts it, you may create a team that’s “terrified of doing even an adequate job.” 

In all seriousness though, you don’t want your reward and recognition system to decrease performance, as it did in this episode. Not sure what your employees want? Have you asked them or are you assuming you know what’s best? 

Everyone is going to be a little different—there isn’t a one-size-fits-all reward that works for all employees. It may be public acknowledgement, financial compensation, time off, a promotion, gift certificates for dinner, or a day at the spa. The list goes on and on, but you won’t know until you ask.

Please, take this leadership lesson from Mr. Scott and find out what your people really want. And share some ideas by leaving a comment—what reward or type of recognition would be most meaningful to you?

People hate meetings, don’t they? There’s nothing worse than sitting in a meeting wondering why the meeting is taking place and why you were asked to be there! In a survey I recently conducted I asked people about their experiences with meetings. Here’s an overview of what I found:

• 25 percent were frustrated by meeting outcomes (e.g., unproductive, nothing accomplished, leave without action items), 
• 40 percent were frustrated by meeting content and structure (e.g., lack of direction, unclear purpose, inefficient),
• And 15 percent felt meetings were generally a waste of time! 

Overall, that’s 80 percent of people that are annoyed and frustrated in any given meeting! If the majority of meeting goers are annoyed and frustrated, why aren’t we doing anything to change them?!

When working with clients to reorient their business around results, one of the first things I encourage them to do is make all meetings optional because it has an immediate and profound impact on everyone in the small business.

When you make all meetings optional, you give power to every individual in your organization—from entry-level admin to top executive—the right and responsibility to turn down a meeting invite if it lacks a clear agenda, if they can deliver information in advance, or if there is no clear reason why their attendance is warranted. 

How do you know if a meeting should be scheduled and who should be invited? 

Ask yourself the following questions before you schedule your next meeting:

• Ask questions about the Purpose & Objective:

What are the results you’re trying to drive? What’s the goal you need to achieve? 

• Ask questions about People:

How does this meeting, at this time, with these people drive those results? Who really needs to be in this meeting? Do they need to be physically present? If not, provide the call in number or link to web-based conference.

• Ask questions about Necessity & Means: 

Does this meeting need to take place or can we resolve it via email or a quick phone call? Is a meeting the best way to handle this/produce this result?

How do you know if you should accept or decline a meeting invite?

Ask yourself three simple questions before putting a meeting on your calendar: 

1. Do you know the purpose of this meeting? 
2. Do you have an agenda? 
3. Do you know your role?

If it makes sense for you to attend—you have a results-oriented role to play—accept the invite. If you can’t figure out the purpose of the meeting or your role, ask for clarification. If you find the meeting is purely to monitor progress or share information, recommend an email be sent instead. Finally, if your presence isn’t truly needed or required, decline the invite and spend your time on something else. 

Making meetings optional doesn’t mean you quit having meetings. It doesn’t mean you’ll never have to attend another meeting in your life. But it does mean that if you’re regularly attending a mandatory meeting that isn’t producing results, it’s time to speak up. It means that if you’re the one holding meetings and requiring attendance, it’s time to reexamine your meeting process and assumptions. Because when meetings are done well, with the right people in attendance, they can be an excellent way to quickly and efficiently accomplish an important outcome.

What meetings are you attending that are unnecessary? Would making meetings optional have a positive impact at your company? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts.

This is the first story in what I hope becomes a regular feature here on the WorkStyle Design blog. Outdated beliefs about how and where we work are causing undue stress, frustration, and conflict in millions of small businesses around the globe. By sharing this story I hope many of you will realize you’re not alone, and at the same time, see the urgent need to change the way we’re working. 

Here’s a crazy—but true—story about a real small business that a colleague shared with me. Read on and see if any of it sounds familiar…

Boss Man was out-of-town visiting a client and called to check in at the office at 3:45 p.m. on a Friday afternoon and no one answered his call. Unbeknownst to him at the time, his small group of employees had all finished their work early and had headed home for the day. 

Even though one person had been designated to stay behind to cover their assess answer the phones in case Boss Man called, she too decided to head out for the day. So the phone rang and rang and eventually went to voicemail. 

Boss Man was furious and to get to the bottom of the situation, called two employees who had a history of not answering their cell phones. He now had even more reason to be upset—it was “impossible” to get a hold of anyone in his company on a Friday afternoon (Note: he didn’t actually need anything, he was just calling to check-in).

Now, Boss Man decided the only thing to do was to schedule a full day of meetings on Monday to deal with the problem. And when Boss Man meets with his employees, he does it one-on-one because he knows if all the employees are in a meeting together, no one would be working. And that’s just what happened. Monday was spent in back-to-back meetings, where the employees got a stern talking to, and no one got any real work done.

This is just a small snippet of life in this small business, but it paints a pretty clear picture of the outdated beliefs that are running rampant and causing problems for employees and business owners alike. Let’s take a closer look at some of those outdated beliefs:

Outdated Belief #1: Leadership is all about control. 

The boss in this situation buys into the old “Command & Control” model of leadership. If he’s not in the office, he has to check in to maintain some feeling of control over his employees. 

Command and control leaders believe their team needs close supervision, rigid boundaries, and precise direction in order to produce results. The problem with this model, and it was pretty clear in this example, is that the boss doesn’t trust his people. I know many of the employees in this business personally and they know they aren’t trusted—and they resent their boss and don’t trust him either. Not exactly an ideal work environment.

This style of leadership leads to treating your employees like children. But your team isn’t a group of children. They are adults and you can trust them to act like adults. 

Leadership isn’t about control; it’s about collaboration. Leaders need to support their team’s process of producing results, not stand in the way.

Outdated Belief #2: Time matters more than results.

The employees in this example felt the need to sneak around and leave “early” even though they had all finished their work. It’s time to stop measuring performance by the clock. How much time you put in does not determine the quality of results you produce. Time doesn’t equal results. 

The team suffers when the boss has a “butt-in-the-seat” mentality.  Just because someone is at their desk, doesn’t mean they’re working. Why force people to sit in an office until 5:00 p.m. if they’ve already finished all the work that needs to be done that week? 

What’s really more important? The time you physically spend at work or the results you produce? Results are more important than time. Reward people by giving them control over their time and they will continue to produce the results you desire.

Outdated Belief #3: You can solve anything with a meeting (especially a day full of meetings)!

In this example, the boss knows meetings keep people from working (which is why he only meets with people one-on-one—so everyone else can keep working). However, he still insists on having them to solve problems. 

His crazy solution to the problem at hand was a day full of meetings (meetings that aren’t focused on producing a result, rather focused on exerting his control) wastes an entire day of his time! He didn’t do anything for the business that day because he was obsessed with controlling his employees. Was that really the best use of his time? 

Meetings should be the exception rather than the rule. Meetings are often just an exercise in exerting influence and power. Save your time and energy by making all meetings optional. That way, only the people who truly need to be there to produce a business result are in attendance. 

Did you see yourself or someone you know in this story? Are you hanging onto any of the outdated beliefs highlighted here?

And if you have a story about your work environment that highlights outdated beliefs about work or leadership, let me know. I’d love to share your story in this new regular feature.

A big part of changing the way we work is shifting the way we lead others. If the future of work is results-only, we’re going to need strong forward thinking leaders who are ready and willing to challenge the status quo. 

Are you up to the job? Find out by taking our free Results-Only Leader Evaluation to assess your leadership style. You’ll receive your score along with a special report where you’ll discover: 

• Your natural leadership style and tendencies.
• The ROLE you’ve been playing in your team’s success (or failure).
• Questions you can ask yourself about your leadership style.
• Actions you can take to strengthen your skills as a results-only leader.

So what type of leader are you? Find out now at www.ResultsOnlyLeader.com.