How non-truths become part of your business’ culture

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I reckon this is a cracking explanation of team dynamics and culture… it has somewhat evolved over the years… Enjoy!

Team or Organisational Culture.. What is it and How does it grow?

Firstly the ‘What’…

Your team culture is essentially the internalised beliefs that exists in sufficient numbers of your team members, for those beliefs to become reality – or at least, perceived reality.

Organisational or Team Culture ought to be centred around ‘What the organisation stands for’ and ‘What it won’t stand for’ and… how consistently it upholds both.

However… some organisations have their culture based on non truths – half truths or perhaps dead-but-kept-artificially-alive truths…

How does this happen?

Well here’s a popular story that fundamentally explains how non-truths can become your reality and subsequently, part of your organisational culture…

A some-what mad Scientist (let’s give him the traditional white coat and crazed white hair) places 5 monkeys into a cage. Also in the cage he places a tall ladder and on the very top of the ladder he puts a bunch of bananas.

As you would expect it isn’t long before one of the monkeys begins to scurry up the rungs. 

However when he’s barely half way up, the Scientist blasts the unsuspecting monkey off the ladder with ice-cold high-pressure water and then saturates the other 4, causing them all to retreat to a corner of the cage…

 A few minutes later, a different monkey tries his luck at retrieving the bananas, only to have the same cold shower blast over him and his simian buddies.

Now it doesn’t take too many more times before not one of these monkeys dare climb the ladder or go anywhere near it, despite the delicious fruit being enticingly close. 

With this achieved, the Scientist removes one of the monkeys from the cage, takes him to a back room where selects a new chimp from this back room and places him the in cage with the others.

As expected, this new guy instinctively races up the  ladder towards the bananas. But before he makes it up 3 rungs (and without any water being sprayed), the other 4 monkeys drag him down and beat the living daylights out of him.  Confused and battered, this new money retreats to his own corner, convinced to not do that again!

Intermittently over the next few days, the Scientist replaces the remaining original 4 monkeys one by one, with a new monkey. Each time these newly added chimps attempted to climb the ladder, they too were dragged down by the others and  subjected to a serious belting…

So eventually, this was the scenario. The Scientist now had a cage with 5 monkeys, none of whom had any first hand experience of the cold water consequence,  yet none of them dared go near the ladder, let alone the bananas….!

Now imagine if we could actually ask these monkeys some questions and solicit their responses…

 “Why don’t you guys climb up to get the fruit”?

They would likely respond along the lines of…

“No one here touches the bananas. We stay OFF the ladder!!!” 

“Why”? we would would ask. 

“…’cause… something bad happens…”

“Like what”? we would push. 

“(long pause) Ummm, not sure... But we just don’t do it!”

So here comes the likely clear point to the story… If your organisation has some non-truths, or perhaps past truths e.g. if the company used to ‘blast monkeys off ladders’ many  years ago,  but that story was still being shared as reality today; when new team members started but weren’t given a better and/or more accurate ‘truth’ about your organisation, they would invariably buy into whatever belief had sufficient momentum, thereby further fuelling that reality and giving it life….

How do you counter these non-truths? Firstly, the girl or guy at the helm may want to acknowledge and apologise for (whether it was them or not) any aspects that may have been true in the past. And then begin conversations and ask questions around what the team actually experiences now…

Then, document & discuss these Actual and/or perhaps Ideal truths (things like company standards, values, policies, purpose etc). Then, be sure to review and challenge these new realities with your teams Passionately, Collaboratively and Frequently – lastly, hold yourself and everyone else accountable to these ‘best-practices’.

And whilst this change is unlikely to occur in a few days, it doesn’t take as long as you might think… When sufficient numbers of your team hear and moreover, see the actual truth in play, old truths soon lose their traction. And if a few past-dwellers attempt to keep the dying stories alive (some people can’t help themselves), without the buy-in from others, those few loose their previously vast influence.

Ultimately, your ‘organisational truth’ will be based on demonstrable reality – not on gossip and ‘populist’ stories – meaning your existing and newly hired people will be continually ‘re-infected’ by a far healthier culture…

Your’s in engaged staff and loyal customers 

Jeff Austin
jeff@actualtoideal.com.au
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People…! Please Stop Bleating…!

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To the guy I spoke with last Thursday who was complaining about the thing… Please read this article…!

 

Can you think of someone who seemingly has made it their life’s work to complain (or as I call it – ‘bleat‘) every chance they get?

These people are easy to spot, particularly in the workplace!When ideas are tabled or solutions to problems suggested, they are the ones whose input is entirely about why things won’t work. Their input revolves entirely around the problem – and never the solution. (Yes, it drives me mad too!)

If you do have someone in your organisation that is a perpetual bleater, firstly consider reasons why they might be doing it – it may provide some opportunity to reduce or even stop their bleating. Consider…

they are the ones who spend their time telling you why things won’t work

• They may have inherited it from their last workplace – because it was culturally embedded there…
• They may have got it from their parents or other family members
• It could be that they choose to hang around people who are also bleaters – it’s like a club for complainers :0
• Quite likely… They have never been called on it (i.e. they’ve been given permission to continue doing it)
• Perhaps… they have not been asked one simple question, persistently enough… ‘What will work?’

They have a installed a ‘No bleating policy’. It’s True!

If you have a bleater in your midst, try changing your language to help them change their focus. When they focus on the problem, which means they are focusing on past events, move them to focus on the solution and the future. And you’ll need to be persistent – this bleating habit wasn’t formed overnight.

Try asking them, ‘Ok, what will work?’ And if they reply with, ‘Well we’ve tried such and such and it didn’t work..’ or similar, push harder… ‘OK, but I asked what will work? How do we fix this? Surely there’s something we can do… Isn’t there?’

If you still don’t have any success, then perhaps do what some of Actual to ideal’s clever clients have done. They have a installed a ‘No bleating policy’. It’s True! Essentially it says that you cannot complain or raise issues unless you are prepared to help with the solution…  Yep – it’s a written policy. And if a member of the team does not wish to help, or if indeed there is no solution (i.e. it’s completely out of everyone’s control) then they and others cannot continue to bleat – they need to move on!

They just needed to be asked much better questions.

After-all, isn’t it exhausting to complain about something that you can’t change?! Shouldn’t we focus our time and energy about the things we can do something about…?! Can I have an ‘Amen’

Here’s the up side to the story… These businesses that have banned bleating without a solution, find more often than not that most people do have a positive side accompanied with some truly good ideas. They just needed to be asked much better questions.

Oh, and by the way… if you’re a bleater…then…. um…. please stop – it’s not helping!!

Yours in good times and strong profits

Cheers!

Jeff Austin
jeff@actualtoideal.com.au
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Performance Management…10 reasons why you’re doing it wrong!

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OK – that’s a little out of line…

If you are running some form of Performance Management for your staff, then you’re not likely to be doing it wrong or likely not doing all 10 things wrong… but very likely you are making one or more of these common and often critical errors…

And I’m going to guess your manager did it this way, so you picked up many of their bad habits too…

How do I know? Well I made all of these mistakes (and I’m sure others that I have erased from memory). And I was taught to do it that way by a raft of managers , as were they I guess, and so on. And I’m going to guess your manager did it this way, so you picked up many of their bad habits too.

Think about it… How can you truly ‘manage’ someone’s ‘performance’? How can that be effective?
So here’s my list of 10 things for you to check your staff review practices against…. See if you do better than your past managers!

# 1) The name! Straight off the bat – Performance Management as a name for this process is laced with an expectation of conflict, and for the recipients, causes considerable angst…

When thinking of that term, how can you truly (and permanently) ‘manage’ someone’s ‘performance’? If managing performance is all you are doing, what happens when you turn off the surveillance of ‘managing that performance’..?

The alternative – Install a Personal Development approach – Not a Performance Management System (keep reading to learn more!)

If it is indeed the employee’s review, shouldn’t they be doing most of the talking?

# 2) Regardless of the name you give your process, your staff may seeing that process as their annual ‘sit down – be quiet – nod at the appropriate times and get told what I’m not doing well, what I am doing doing well and what I need to improve’ session – (or the short version – ‘my annual ass-kicking session’)

The alternative – Changing this perception takes a few steps in a different direction and some evidence that this is indeed a process of personal development … and yes, please keep reading!

# 3) Managers being confused about whose review it is… –

If managers are the ones doing the vast majority of the talking, whose review is it really?…. If it is indeed the employee’s review, shouldn’t they be doing most of the talking?

The alternative – Lead with questions – not with answers! Ask them how they rate themselves – ask why they rate that way – For the stuff that’s going well, ask how they will keep it going, or when gaps in results are identified, how they feel it would be best improved. Now, this approach doesn’t stop you from adding your bits – but you’ll be doing just that… adding your bits, to their plan – not giving them your plan.

use a simple yet incredibly effective ‘Start Doing – Stop Doing – Keep Doing’ approach to Personal Development

# 4) Using the same generic content for every employee…

If you are serious about conducting Personal Develop, then how can you successfully use generic content – and perhaps even the same content year in and year out?

The alternative – Through our consultancy, we help our clients use a simple yet incredibly effective ‘Start Doing – Stop Doing – Keep Doing’ approach to Personal Development – and you can too… It takes just a handful of minutes to bash down the answers to –  What would I like ‘Mike’ to Start Doing – Stop Doing & Keep Doing? and by doing so, virtually no two reviews will be the same… It’s a truly ‘Personal’ Development approach – in a matter of minutes per person!

Better still – using this approach you’ll also limit the review content to between 4 and 7 items for discussion (which, by the way, fixes what should be common error number 11 – having waaaay too much content to remember, let alone actually  implement) – and that small amount of content is more than enough to have a deep and highly engaged personal development discussion.

# 5) The manager and the employee assessing different things…

Certainly they would be reading the same thing, but how they interpret its actual meaning can be staggeringly differently – which often leads to conflict because one person thinks they are reaching the required standard (or their interpretation of it), and the other clearly does not…

The Alternative – Add this simple question to your repertoire before any discussion about ‘how are you going?’ takes place… ‘How do you interpret that…? Can you put it into your own words..?’ If they explain it the same (or suitably similar) to you, then you are confident you are assessing the same thing. If not, clear up the misinterpretation before proceeding.

you’ll find the discussion will be centred around reaching or maintaining the standard, and not a debate about what was and wasn’t expected

# 6) The content they are being assessed against being somewhat unfamiliar…

If you have ever had an employee during a review say something like ‘I wasn’t aware of that…’ or ‘You never told me that…’ or ‘That’s not in my job description…’ then you’ve fallen foul of number 6.

The alternative – Don’t have the only discussion each year around company and individual Standards – Values – Polices – KPIs etc. when reviews take place. As frequently as you have team / tool box meetings, put small sections of your ‘written game plan’ on the agenda and ask ‘Is that still correct? (and) Are we still doing that?’

Do this well and frequently enough and you’ll see that when it comes to reviews, the content will NOT be unfamiliar and you’ll find the discussion will be centred around reaching or maintaining the standard, and not a debate about what was and was not expected. (Note: ensure the content for the review is an extract of this frequently tabled and discussed content!)

if it truly isn’t a big deal (aka It’s not that Important), then why have it in the review?!

# 7) Either being too aggressive, or more commonly, too passive in the delivery of a review.

I think we have all (mostly) figured out that slamming the table and shouting demands for improvement is on a highway to fast failure. However, the opposite is far more prevalent and often, equally as unsuccessful in instigating a path of change and lasting improvement.

Have you ever, in the midst of discussing an improvement area, found yourself saying something like ‘…look it’s not a big deal..’ in an attempt to ‘soften’ the blow?

The Alternative – Firstly, if it truly isn’t a big deal (aka it’s not that Important), then why have it in the review in the first place?! But my guess is that it is important, so don’t undersell the importance by softening it. Furthermore – you should only be compelled to soften the blow if you plan on belting someone! – But with a ‘Hard on Problems – Not on People’ approach there won’t be any belting!

Remember that in someway, you have played some part in the gap

# 8) Not providing sufficient or safe opportunity for employees to discuss the part they need you to play in closing identified gaps in their results. The discussion is exclusively around what they need to do better or differently.

The Alternative – Remember that in someway, you have played some part in the gap – even if it is as ‘innocent’ as not raising the concern with the staff member sooner. Make it a habit for each point of development to ask, ‘What do you need from me to help close this gap?’

‘Is there any reason why this great result might slip in the future’?

# 9) Giving vastly disproportionate time and attention to those who are not reaching  company requirements

Sort of like bad account payers versus the excellent payers – who gets all your attention? Who should be getting equal attention?? The only thing worse that having your non performers continue to not perform, would be having your star performers stop performing!

The Alternative – Give your star performers just as much time, attention and levels of importance to Personal Development. If the entire discussion is centred on these 3 things – a) Acknowledging how important it is that they do these things so well – b) Genuinely thanking them for their commitment – and c) Asking (and this is the kicker) ‘Is there any reason why this great result might slip in the future’? – then that is an outstanding use of Personal Development time.

10) Having an excellent Personal Development discussion that avoids all of the above pitfalls – but then not following up and doing the 3 things that you MUST do in the days and weeks after a review.

The Alternative – Do these 3 things! a) Do the things you said you would do – b) Catch them doing the things they said they would do and acknowledge it – 3) Catch them NOT doing the things they committed to do and ask them ‘What happened? – isn’t this what we agreed?’

And that would easily have been my biggest failing in my early days of people development – Not doing those 3 follow up things.

So here’s my easy litmus test for you as you head into your next employee review… Read the content in their review and ask yourself – if there was little or no improvement in these areas, would I follow it up i.e. – Would I hold them accountable? – and if you are not 100% certain that you would, then take it out of their review because it clearly can’t be important enough to spend time discussing in the first place…

But my guess is – it’s super important because it almost certainly in one way or another impacts ultimately on your customers…

The Best of Success with your next round of Personal Development reviews!

Jeff Austin

The Print Shop Bunbury

Actual to Ideal
jeff@actualtoideal.com.au
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Regional Towns benefit from their own local Print Shop

 

With our 8 year commitment to become the South West of WA’s most trusted commercial printer of choice being well and truly realised, we recently made the move to take our winning formula on the road – and some of them are very long roads indeed!

 

The Print Shop Bunbury is delighted to announce that in during the later part of 2015, we negotiated and developed satellite Print Shops in 3 other major Western Australian regional markets.

 

The Print Shop Esperance and South East (http://ift.tt/1KFFdqv.com.au)

The Print Shop Albany and Great Southern (http://ift.tt/1nyAKBe)

The Print Shop Port Hedland, Karratha and the Pilbara (the printshoppilbara.com.au)

 

And we have committed much more than just registering domains and an online presence in these markets. We are proud to introduce dedicated local people in each of these busy centres. This means that businesses in these regions not only can access the print quality, consistency and service The Print Shop is widely know for, they can do so with a local person there to provide that service from print quote to order delivery. 

 

Contact Ross Beckett in Esperance ross@theprintshopesperance.com.au – Nev Walton in Albany nev@theprintshopalbany.com.au – Maureen Grantham in Port Hedland maureen@theprintshoppilbara.com.au for all things in print including Full Colour Business Cards, Brochures, Flyers, Docket Books, Magnets, Short-run Digital Printing, Pull up Banners, Printed Stationery, Presentation Folders and more.

 

Watch this space for more Print Shop locations soon.

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