A Hierarchy of Wellbeing and Engagement, part 2

Last time I looked at the first two levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of Needs and how that could be translated into increasing employee engagement.  This time we’re going to loo at the other three.  Next up …

Love and Belonging.  Everyone want to feel that someone cares about them. It’s become clear that in recent times organisations and line managers in particular have overlooked that simple fact.  It’s not enough to pay people and expect them to get on with it.  The power of acknowledgement cannot be underestimated. MIT studies have demonstrated  that acknowledgement is a powerful motivator.  And anyway, isn’t is just polite to say thank you?  The line management role in showing the organisation cares is critical and by developing a deeper relationship through informal coaching (not managing performance) reaps untold rewards. 

At an organisational level, how are employees involved in the decision making process? Annual culture and engagement surveys are great - if the organisation acts immediately upon the feedback.  surveys as a box ticking or reporting exercise are worse than worthless.  I remember the first ever staff satisfaction survey I sent out.  The results were horrendous and made very uncomfortable reading.  However we picked out and implemented 3 simple low cost measures we could do and the results were amazing. It also made other changes we were making easier to introduce.

The bottom line:  Recognition is a core responsibility  - no one ever resigned over too much praise.  Managers have to build effective relationship with their staff, listen and respond to concerns.  Develop the culture of recognition with organisational surveys that have teeth and take swift action to show you are listening - and care.

Achievement. Ah yes, the dreaded appraisal or performance review process, where we sit down, review previous goals and set new ones. There’s nothing wrong in principle but its implementation has been patchy to say the least, often due to the importance attached to it (see above).  Lets take this to another level.  

Everyone has the desire to get better at something they are passionate about - why do people spend hours practising the piano for no material reward?  It’s that sense of achievement and accomplishment that drives them.  In the workplace its all about career development.  Understanding where an individual’s talents and passions lie and channeling that energy through a career path is what creates the win-win.  Again it comes down to the line manager - can they hold a developmental dialogue that promotes growth?  It’s these softer skills that managers often lack, which makes the difference between engaged or disengaged employees.  These skills are often found in a coach’s skill set and building these skills into management development programmes is a must.

Alongside this, the organisation has to have in place the mechanisms for supporting employees and creating career paths. For example, If the only way your top sales people can achieve long term career success is by moving into a sales management role and removing them  from what they do best (and love doing); that isn’t the smartest thing to do.

The bottom line: Match individual talents and passions to organisational roles.  Provide career development support through managers with coaching skills.

Self Actualisation.  A tricky one perhaps, but I think not.  The hardest thing is to describe what self-actualisation is. I think of it as those moments where you feel one with yourself and the world - a beautiful sunset, a work of art (Sergeant’s Lady Agnew of Lochnaw does it for me ).  It’s that moment of connectedness to something bigger - purpose.

what every organisation has to do is build meaning and purpose in every aspect of work and create a connection with each and every employee.  go to any company’s website or read their set of annual accounts and there is likely to be a reference to the company’s mission, vision and values.  But how often are they played out day to day on the shop floor?  Not very often.  It’s the missing link that ties in everything I’ve written about above.  Without meaning or purpose, everything else is window dressing.

Let me go back to the MIT study I mentioned earlier.  The experiments were conducted by Dan Ariely and he found that recognition led to higher performance.  what he also discovered was that meaning increased performance.  Where employees could see meaning in what they worked on it led to increased motivation and performance.  you can read more about the research  and what happened to a software company that took the opposite approach here.

The bottom line: Maslow’s work is still relevant today, but maybe turn it on its head. Build up from the values and purpose - Just like in the film Field of Dreams - build it and they will come. 

A Hierarchy Wellbeing and Engagement, Part 1

In his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation, Abraham Maslow proposed a hierarchy of needs. He never portrayed them in a pyramid and he recognised that while one need might dominate at a given time, different levels of motivation could occur simultaneously.  His hierarchy is perhaps,  a set of guiding principles, rather than an A to B process as they are often used.  Similarly, employee engagement is not an A to B process.  It is a complex combination of drivers and enablers that different people look for in different ways at different times.  Organisations can’t control engagement - it’s a 2-way street that employers and employees walk along together.  What organisation can do though, is put in place some key elements that Maslow referred to in his paper over 70 years ago

The first level in Maslow’s Hierarchy relates to physiological needs e.g. food, water, shelter - but I want to focus on another basic employee need.  This one is normally placed in Maslow’s 2nd level (Safety and Security), but I’m going to address it here as it is the most basic need in the employee relationship - to be compensated fairly for his or her contribution.  As many other notable studies have concluded money doesn’t motivate. But if you don’t pay enough to remove pay as an issue, it will always have the opposite effect and demotivate or disengage.  In his book Drive, Dan Pink  sets out the science behind his assertion that money isn’t a motivator.  J Stacy Adams has a complimentary perspective through his Equity Theory on Job Motivation.  At the heart of Adams’ theory is an important distinction - one of fairness - how people are treated/compensated in comparison to one another. It’s not all about money, it’s the total package and it becomes lined to other levels of motivation and wellbeing, such as development opportunities.  

The bottom line - reward people well and fairly so they can focus their energies on being the best they can be. It will improve the employer brand and in the next 10 years employer brand will be a key differentiator. Start now! 

The next level is Safety and Security.  for this I mean your wellbeing strategy.  people need to feel safe and secure.  Job security is hard to promise, but what is in an organisation’s control is how employees’ physical and emotional wellbeing is managed.  Physical wellbeing is clear enough at work- health and safety, but what about emotional wellbeing? 

Stress is the #1 cause of sickness in the UK and affects one in five of the working population.  Managers have a key role to play here and it is their lack of skill in managing staff effectively that is often cited as the  main reason for staff turnover.  Stress related absenteeism costs employer £1.24 billion with over 105 million days lost ash year (source HSE).  Management development, mental toughness, resilience training - all aiming to combat the effects of stress, but may be looking in the wrong place. Are we pushing people to fit into a model that is inherently dysfunctional?  Should we rather change the organisation to harness the talents of its people instead?

One hidden and far less discussed issue is domestic violence.  In 2011/12, 7.3% women (1.2 million) and 5% men (800,000) report having experienced domestic abuse  (source ONS).  Whether they want it to or not, the impact and effects come to work with them. There is a likelihood  that an employee in your organisation is a perpetrator of domestic violence.  It is an uncomfortable truth, but a truth none the less.  If you want to engage your workforce, put in place the relevant policies to communicate and confront this reality.  The Corporate Alliance Against Domestic Violence is a registered charity that works with UK business to provide practical support in this area http://www.caadv.org.uk. 

The bottom line:  wellbeing isn’t just a touchy feely hr issue, it has tangible business impacts.  Making wellbeing a core business strategy will deliver a positive return on investment. 

Next time, a look at recognition and achievement.

Just 90 Days to Change the Habits of a Lifetime

Over the last 3 months I have been undergoing a bit of a lifestyle change.  I was overweight, lacking I energy and starting to lose direction.  Three months later and all that has changed.  The gym where I train – yes I really do enjoy  going to the gym now – asked my to write my story, which I duly did.  It’s a personal story, but one that I thought would make an interesting blog around motivation and engagement, as the parallels are there.  Here it is,  if you are in the position I found myself, I hope this helps you take the first step to a better place. 

Just 90 Days to Change the Habits of a Lifetime.

As someone who used to play sport to a high level, you’d think I’d know how to take care of my body.  Wrong.  30 years ago I was pretty good squash player, but pressures of work and life meant I’d stopped playing or doing any other exercise come to that.  I never ate breakfast and often skipped lunch - too busy to eat!  My one and only meal of the day was dinner and I crammed a whole days worth of eating into a single meal.  To top all that off I had a bad habit of eating the kid’s meals.  My parents drummed into me “if you don't’ clear your plate they’ll be no pudding.” Not wanting to subject my kids to the same ordeal, I would eat their leftovers.  Not so bad when its baby food, but burgers and chips is another matter!

To try and get into some sort of healthier routine I’d make the annual pilgrimage to a gym, go on diets or de-toxes and sure, I’d lose some weight, but it never lasted more than a few weeks. I wasn’t happy with my weight or body shape, but didn’t know what to do about it.  At one point, I even considered surgery.

I made one last attempt at playing squash again, but just kept getting injured.  In the end I decided I was just too old and the days of being fit and healthy were over.  I sat at home watching sport and films on TV never noticing my body slowly falling apart.

Then, one day, an email popped into my inbox offering a 12 week get fit programme.  I don’t really know what made me join up, maybe it was the £30 offer or perhaps it was the idea of doing something in a group.  Whatever it was, I’ll never be more grateful that I made the call. Life changing is a phrase that gets bandied around a lot, but over the last few weeks, my life has changed. I’ve not won the lottery, but money couldn’t have done what I’ve done for myself.

What changed my life?  It’s been a combination of things but a few stand out.

• Knowing what I wanted

At the first session we were all asked to write down our goals.  For the first time is sat down and thought about what I really wanted.  Instead of thinking about simply losing weight, I thought about how I’d look and feel with a different body shape.  In creating that image and sense of well being, something clicked and that has been a key driving force for me.  As my shape has changed over the weeks that vision has become stronger and pulls me forward.

• Discovering what healthy eating really is

I knew I wasn’t eating well, but I thought I was at least eating the right things, just at the wrong time. Turns out I was so far off the mark.  What amazed me (and still does) is not so much what you can’t have, or  eat less of; its  all the lovely things you can eat.  The nutrition guide and recipe book is a firm favourite and really helped developing my new eating habits.  It has truly been a revelation and I so love morning breakfast now.  I get up earlier, with more energy and look forward to the day

• The fitness training team

From day one and the introductory video, the team have been so supportive.  Their endless enthusiasm and commitment has transferred across to me and I don’t want to let them (or me) down.  regular communication with facts and case studies really helps my understanding and their stories are really motivating.

The weekly sessions have always been fun and nothing like my previous gym experiences.  From country walks to mud covered boot camps, the team have inspired me to push on.  The regular measure and weigh ins have also been a great source of motivation.  Regardless of the outcome, the support has been great and any change even small gets the whoop whoop.

• Personal Training sessions

To be honest I was a bit sceptical about 1:1 training, but as with pretty much everything else I was proved wrong.  The sessions with Jonny has changed my view of gym work.  Somehow he found a way of making the sessions fun.  What also helped was being able to measure the improvements.  Every small step has added up to a big change.  I’ve even started going to the gym and training on my own.  Just writing this is making me want to go.  That’s what I call a result!

A funny thing happened to me the other day.  I clutched my arm for some reason and was a bit surprised to find a lump.  It was a muscle! - I’d forgotten I had them. It showed me that what I had been doing for only a few weeks was making a noticeable difference.  People who haven’t seen me for a while feel compelled to tell me how well I look and want to know how I’ve done it. I tell then I eat more – just differently.  I’ve become a bit of a nutrition nerd and that's not a bad thing.  I’ve learnt that when you put rubbish in, you get rubbish out.  The thing you need to know is what rubbish looks like.  Fat is your friend!  Really.  Give it a go, I know it works.

Your Brand is at Risk

“The future of employer branding is in the hands of their employees and employers will “lose control ” of their employer brand”.  This is the message from Teresa Collis Head of Global Employer Marketing, Employer Branding at Siemens.  In a recent interview  Teresa sets out a future where employees will gain control of their employers brand through social media.  

So what does this mean for employers?  If you want to recruit and retain the best people, you have to invest in your current workforce.  The levels of engagement with your vision, values and priorities will be reflected in your employer brand. In effect your current employees will be letting everyone know if you are a worthwhile company to work for, or do business with. 

Social media is an incoming wave that can’t be held back. Disciplining people are the actions of King Canute - it’s never going to work in the longer term and it may be causing your business irreparable harm. Rather than trying to tighten your grip through social internet policies and restrictions, engage with the people who use it.   The future of your business lies with Generation Facebook.  Social media is an intrinsic part of their lives. 

more than 4 years ago, author Gary Hamil (Wall Street Journal Management 2.0)  concluded that an organisation’s environment has to reflect the social context of the web.  It’s this alignment between an individual’s personal brand (see last weeks blog) and the organisational culture that produces increased engagement. What are you and your organisation doing to build alignment?  - It is a joint responsibility.  Don’t risk drowning in the onrushing storm, the only course of action is to set sail full steam ahead to its heart.

The Poppy Fields Effect

In the world of pop music, the ability to sing has never been overly important.  Those of you who remember a band called The Alarm of 68 Guns fame, may also remember another famous episode in their career.  

In 2004 almost 20 years after their most famous hit and finding it increasingly difficult to get the attention of record executives, The Alarm decided to play the industry at their own game.  Lead Singer Mike Peters created a fictitious group called the Poppy Fields and had them lip sync a song written and played by The Alarm.  A promotional package, including video launched Poppy Fields into the public eye and the single 45 RPM entered the charts at number 24.  

Live on BBC Radio 1’s Chart Show, Mike Peters exposed the hoax and the reasons for doing it.  In a later interview he was quoted as saying  “"We wanted to make sure we are judged purely on the strength of the music, and not by our old hairstyles."  In 2013 those events were turned into a film called Vinyl.

Image in the pop industry is everything.  Talent counts much less and that is a crying shame. There are so many people who are cast off because they don’t fit a stereotype, regardless of their ability.  And there’s another side to consider.  For every person that is ignored, sidelined, or discarded, there are 10 others who don’t even try, demoralised by what they see, read and hear.

In 1969 I was in a school choir, but having to leave as the family was moving house.  I still remember the choirmaster making me promise that I would never give up singing.  But of course I did and in the intervening years I came to believe that I couldn’t sing anyway.  But today that changes.  I’ve booked some singing lessons and I’m going to fulfil the promise I made over 40 years ago.  I have no aspirations for public singing and that’s fine.  What I do feel sad for are all those people who have a real talent but through stereotyping and discrimination crush someone who could light up the world.

Whether in the world of pop or on the shop floor, there are talented people wanting and waiting to prove it, but don’t get the chance.  There are just as many who have proved it over time but are starting to tread water as their spark is being snuffed out.  It’s not necessarily a deliberate act on anyone’s part, its an unintended consequence of a culture that’s evolved, almost unnoticed. 

Last week on The Voice a guy called Myles Evans wowed the judges who all turned for him.  They were surprised to learn that his audition was the first time he had sung in public.  It was only his sister’s encouragement that got him to go.  I wonder if we all took the time to recognise and encourage the talent that exists in our colleagues and team members, our world would be a better place?

Engage the Neural Net

Do you make a list for everything?  Or perhaps you prefer doing things on the fly. Do you know someone who lives their life through lists?  By nature I’m not much f a list-maker, unless I’m under pressure, in whig a list hops clear my head.  What is it though that makes us list-makers?  

Last week it's was widely reported that male and female brains are wired up differently.  According to the research by the University of Pennsylvania, neural circuitry in women make them more adept at at multi tasking; while men are better at perception. Naturally, this reinforces all the old stereotypes about men being from Mars and women from Venus.   At the same time, it also backs up the research undertaken by Roger Sperry on the left and right hemispheres of the brain performing different types of functions - left logical, right creative. His work won him a Nobel prize in 1981.

Apart from the aforementioned reinforcement of gender stereotyping, there is a hint of the so what? about the research. But that would be a mistake.  There’s a very powerful message behind this story, are goes far beyond to list or not to list.

Most people are familiar with the left/right brain split.  What is less well known is the principle of the triune brain - 3 distinct stages of the brains evolution. The reptilian brain governs automatic functions such as breathing.  The limbic system controls emotions, the flight or fight syndrome held over from man kinds earliest days.  More recently the new cortex has developed and controls logical, rational thinking, the higher level thinking that sets us apart in the world.

If you take those 2 sets of research and combine them (left right brain with the limbic system and neo cortex), you get 4 quadrants, each with their own distinctive pattern of thinking. A part of why people behave differently and are good at different things is because their brains are wired up differently.  Understanding the power behind these differences and harnessing them brings out the best in people.  It also offers an opportunity to reduce conflict and increase collaboration.

The Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument HBDI) is a psychometric tool that creates a visual metaphor of the brains map, revealing the preferences for thinking and behaving.  

One high profile example of the power of taking a whole brained approach is Coca Cola and how they applied the principles and tools behind the HBDI to the 2012 Olympic Torch Relay in the UK.   

My own team understands the power of the HBDI and we regularly use it within our own business.  Building our own team profile has enabled us to work together more effectively and given us a powerful approach to managing projects, communication and problem solving.

We have also built those principles into our ExtraMILE process, helping to align individual strengths and preferences with team and organisational goals.  It’s amazing what the brain can do and understanding more about how it drives behaviour, makes a real difference to performance outcomes and job satisfaction.

Where is Your Engagement?

Studies regularly report the benefits of engagement to the organisation  Direct benefits such as increased productivity, reduced absenteeism and turnover are often quoted; as well as indirect and still important benefits such as employer brand, volunteering and being more proactive with personal development. All of the above is very valuable in an increasingly competitive business world, but I get the sense that organisational leaders believe that engagement is something you do to to people - run a survey, roll out initiatives.

 For some reason decorating comes to mind.  Running a survey can be a bit like preparing the wall for the first coat of paint.  Once the wall is prepared its time for the first initiative (sorry coat) - but not before we've applied some masking tape, don't want to paint another area by mistake.  Then it's time for the roller and your chosen hue. But who asked the wall if it wanted to be painted - and in that colour?

In the first of a series of three videos on HRZone, Professor Yannis Georgellis from Kingston Business School explores employee engagement and in the interview makes 2 particularly interesting points. First he explores the locus of engagement.  Individuals are not necessarily engaged with their day to day work.  It could be the people they work with, or even something outside of work altogether. It could even be a unique combination that changes over time. And every individual could have their own unique combination. So a one size fits all approach is never going to work.

 We all know you can't make someone love you and equally you can't make someone engage with your organisation. What you can do is learn and understand what that person cares most about most, recognise them and act on as many as possible.  If you’re not interested in the same things, there’s
a problem.  At work it’s the same, build as many of those ingredients into the (work) environment as possible. Some of those things may be hr policies like flexible working and flexible reward packages.  Other actions that can be taken bring me nicely to Professor Georgellis’ second point.

At the end of the interview the professor touches on matching talents with what individuals care about.That simple statement is for me a cornerstone of engagement.  Using my talents to deliver on something I care about is deeply satisfying and naturally I do the best job possible.

I watched a film last night called Ip Man - about a Win Chun Master who refused to teach so he could devote more time to himself and his art. Eventually he realised he cared more the plight of his family and his compatriots.  Channelling his talent for martial arts through his need to fight for what he cared most about changed the Japanese occupation of China.  It also enabled the emergence of Bruce Lee, probably the worlds best known matial Artist. Ip Man was his Mentor.

Matching talents to interests isn’t necessarily straightforward. Not everyone immediately recognises their strengths and motives, yet alone finding a way to align them with organisational needs.  This is one reason for us developing the ExtraMILE process.  Through clearly defined stages the process uncovers the power within the individual and develops or strengthens the organisational processes to align and utilise that power to exceed expectations.  Oscar winning Director Robert Altman put it well when he said - “The role of the director is to create a space where actors can become more than they ever dreamed of being”

If you’d like to know more about the ExtraMILE process, leave a comment or use the contact form on the Emenex website.

Trainer, Train Thyself

I've recently completed re-designing our Company website, which launched on 1st September.  No big deal you might think, but until I took on the project around 2 months ago, I knew pretty much nothing about web design, HTML or any other programming code. I'm pleased with the results and I hope you are too. If you're reading this, you're on the emenex.co.uk website.

So, what did I learn from this experience and does it have wider application/implications for  learning and development?

Technology is revolutionising the value chain

The Emenex website is powered by Wordpress, which virtually eliminates the need for knowledge of a programming language - as long as you can work out out how to use plug ins and widgets.  These little applets drop into Wordpress' content management system  (see, I'm a technical wizard already!) and enables you to almost endlessly customise any one of thousands of templates, many of which are free.  

However, the seemingly never ending choice, raises other issues.  If you can do almost anything, then why not do it? 

One example I recently came across is managing creative talent.  A manufacturer who needs creative talent, has recently been going though a re-structure.  As part of that process, it has considered sharing creative resources with its US parent.  This will mean that instead of creating new designs, it will simply adapt existing ones.  That reduces costs and simplifies processes, but what will happen to the creative people in the UK? Technology has simplified their role, but at the same time taken away a key ingredient for job satisfaction.  Creativity is this Company's competitive edge.  Lose the creative element and the UK division risks losing its competitive edge.

Looking at it from another perspective, how is Wordpress changing the web design industry? If I can create a website, knowing little or nothing about web design, then so can anyone else.  Web design used to be all about technical know how - the black art of coding,  php, C++, Java, Python. Facebook might need all of these (and they use all of them), but for the majority, it's just not necessary anymore.

Wordpress and other platforms brings Technology to the masses and shifts  the value we place on technical expertise. Speaking to a friend of mine, Chris Lee  www.bigcheesedc.com describes how his business has come full circle from being a design and branding agency who moved into the web design space.  With the advent of content management systems, he has moved back to his roots developing creative content. Nowadays his clients take day to day control and management of their websites and Chris provides the expertise around branding and identity  Although its been a difficult transition, Chris says it has been a positive experience. 

What this highlights for me is the importance of recognising where and how you add value to your clients. In a dynamic business environment, your expertise can quickly become redundant, regardless of how often you update your technical skills.  The ability to recognise how client needs are shifting is equally, if not more important, and to move your offer and value proposition to keep pace with shifting expectations.

Which brings me to the second point around my website development experience.

Build the website backwards

Because of the myriad of options available to the novice website builder, I started by thinking about what the finished website would look like, what it would or would not do and the messages we wanted to convey.  

In my work with organisations supporting them in managing change, a constant indicator of the likely success of any strategy was whether the senior management had a powerful vision of the future and how well that was communicated in their organisation.  In the same way, the success of  the website's development was largely due to the discussion around the vision and purpose of the website. It took some time for the clarity and understanding to emerge between all the stakeholders, but it was time well spent, minimising the time spent on implementation, Pareto's 80/20 rule comes to mind.

Another benefit was that because i knew what we wanted, the technology just became a matter of how.  I didn't need to spend lot of time researching all possible options, I just needed to find a plugin to add video, or a plugin to encode text and formatting. Technology became a means to an end, rather than the focus.  

This also reminds me of our work on the ExtraMILE model of employee engagement and development.  The model describes the key drivers for employee engagement.  We spent a lot of time trying to find the technology to automate a questionnaire for an individual and organisational survey based on the model.  

What we originally lacked was the vision of how the model could be used within organisations. We focused on the technology, not the value to the wider market. However, as we shared the model with some long standing clients, it became clear that the model was more far reaching than we originally realised. This has given rise to new opportunities for us and added value for our clients, whether or not they already have embedded an engagement or talent management strategy. The technology has taken a back seat as we focus on the value.

Aligning talents and passions

Right through the website development experience, I was constantly challenged to bring the website to fruition.  This suited my career orientation of challenge and sat perfectly with my interest in technology. Being able to deliver something for the organisation that was new, interesting and challenging made for the perfect assignment.  One of my favourite youtube videos is the RSA’s take on Dan Pinks’ Drive.  It’s on the front page of our website and puts some evidence and research behind my experience with our webiste.

Imagine if you could better align your own talents and passions with your organisation’s needs, how would that work for you?

The Dark Side

This week is the 40th Anniversary of the release of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. It’s one of my favourite albums of all time. As I listened to it again this week, it struck me that I don’t listen to albums much any more.  More often than not it’s a play list on my iPod or 8tracks on the web.  

And that is a shame, because although I get to hear lots of music I like, I miss out on the experience of the complete album, carefully crafted, with tracks thoughtfully chosen to create the whole experience and capture a mood, idea or moment.

Dark Side is an album that makes this point.  One of the stand out characteristics is its connectedness, not just to the listener, but also in the way every track is connected.  The LP (that’s long player for the digital generation) was conceived as two pieces of music, one per side.  Although a couple of tracks were released as singles, e.g. Time, it's when the album is taken as a whole that everything comes together.

New technology brings many benefits and the advent of portable digital music has certainly brought many, but it as have the potential to destroy - that’s why its called disruptive technology.  It’s been happening for centuries - remember the Luddites?, but is there a point at which we lose more than we gain from the impact of technology?

I made a connection between my Dark Side experience and a book I’m currently reading. In Arc 1.x, a New Scientist collection of articles, Samuel Arbesman proposes that in the near future only computers will be able to make new discoveries. He suggests that in the relentless pursuit of advancement, the world has become so complex that we are reaching the point of being unable to understand the world we live in.  He quotes Don Swanson, who described this complexity as “undiscovered public knowledge”.

What this says to me is that as we create new ways of doing things, introducing new technology to become more efficient, faster, smaller we are in danger of losing the connection with the world and the people around us.  Danny Hills in Scientific American calls it the transition from enlightenment to entanglement - a point at which we no longer understand the systems of our own making.  We are at the point where we can do almost anything. Whether we should do it, is now a more important question. Are we still able to understand the consequences of our intention?

Dry Stone Walls, Holons and Organisations

Recently Ive been walking in the Derbyshire Dales. Even though I live in Yorkshire, it's one of my favourite parts of the country. The weather was kind and the scenery - even though spring hadn't yet sprung, stunning.  One of the things that characterises the Dales are the dry stone walls.  It's easy to forget they are not a natural feature of the landscape - they are man-made, but they just seem 'right' and add to the landscape as much as any natural rocky outcrop or waterfall.

Reflecting on my weekend, the concept of holons came to mind.  A holon is something that is simultaneously a whole and a part. In a dry stone wall each stone is an individual, has its own identity and, at the same time, is part of a larger whole. To exist as a wall, the stones must conform to a structure that has rules. To survive, the wall must continue to meet the intended purpose. Within the larger structure, smaller systems and structures exist. Each stone has a relationship with each adjacent stone and with the rest of the wall. There is no bonding agent other than the relationship between the stones. The careful placement of the stones, keeps them together and creates the wall. Building the wall in this way, enables it to flex and move with its environment. Building a wall requires craft and an awareness of the landscape where the structure will be built. The wall needs to be carefully maintained; rebuilding a wall requires far more resources than maintaining one.

Holons exist in organisations too.  The organisation is an entity on its own, but existing within it are functions, departments and teams.  And of course a team is a group of individuals organised to deliver purpose.  Sometimes though, as with dry some walls we see the landscape but not the individual stone. Yet without each stone there would be no wall.  

When building a wall it is said that once you pick up a stone you can't put it down again until it has been placed in exactly the right spot. The builder evaluates each stone carefully to assess its value for a particular purpose and then handles it respectfully to realise its potential.  That sounds like talent management and succession planning to me. Whatever the size and shape, no matter how big or small, each stone plays an integral role in becoming something bigger. 

Imagine your organisation as a dry stone wall, what would that be like?

If you'd like to know more about the art of dry stone walling, the Derbyshire Branch of the Dry Stone Walling Association would be happy to help I'm sure (other Branches are available) .  If you'd like to know more about how developing individuals can add value to your organisational landscape, contact us.

The Gorilla in the Room

I’m sure that you've come across the elephant in the room – the thing that everyone sees but cannot (or dares not) talk about.  But what about the Gorilla in the room?

Research by Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris demonstrated why, when focusing on something specific, we tend not to notice other things going on around us.  In their research on selective attention, 2 groups of students pass a basketball as they bob and weave around each other. With all the movement, counting the number of passes is difficult and requires a lot of concentration.  Try it out for yourself Test of Selective Attention before reading on.

You can also learn more about perception and focus in Dan’s TEDx presentation on Seeing The World As It Isn't.

Now you’re back, I hope I didn't give the game away in the title of the blog.  Around only 1 in 8 people will see the gorilla. It may seem strange or even implausible that someone in a gorilla suit goes unnoticed, but the research shows that the level of focus needed to achieve a particular result, gives rise to some unintended and unwanted consequences.

In a related experiment, Trafton Drew found that 83% of radiologists missed a matchbook sized picture of a gorilla when they were examining medical slides for cancer nodules.  They only saw what they what they were expecting to see and disregarded anything that didn't fit their reality.

In the current business reality of austerity, it’s not that hard to get fixated on cutting costs for example.  With total focus on one thing, it’s easy to lose the bigger picture, or miss out on opportunities for innovation.  That’s one thing that Steve Jobs apart. As well as being fanatical about detail, he could also see the bigger picture.

One unintended consequence of a cost driven focus is the impact on employee engagement.  Management is reduced to completing tasks without considering their effectiveness or contribution to the organisation’s purpose. Staff feel increasingly under-valued and stress levels increase. Have you ever tried squeezing play dough?  The harder you squeeze the more it slips through your fingers.

I’ll leave you with a question.  How is selective attention impacting on you and your business?  Where is your focus at present and what might you be missing?

Is there a gorilla in your room?

Thanks to my friend Ann Herrmann at Herrmann International (www.hbdi.com www.hbdi.co.uk) for bringing this to my attention. 

From a Negative to a Positive

Don't you love digital photography? Take as many photos as you like, edit them, upload them, email them, even print them. And if you don't like them, delete them. Everyone is a photographer now, but I feel something has gone missing.

I went to a small exhibition recently where the photographer had used a 100 year old box camera, made the plates herself and could only take 6 photos because that was all she could carry. Each photo could take up to one hour to take and there was no second chance, so the composition had to be spot on first time.  Then there was the developing.

At a recent client meeting the subject of developing negatives came up.  It made me think about the art of photography and in particular developing prints in the dark room.  Developing photographs, like people, is an art.  It takes time, the right mix of ingredients along with the patience and expertise of the photographer.

And it needs time and patience. As the image develops, the fine detail and contrasts slowly emerge. Too soon or too long and the photograph never achieves its potential. It's a difficult balance, a bit like developing people. Too fast people burn out, too slow and they fade away.

In a digital world, there's still space for the personal touch.

Remembering Alice Pyne

Last Saturday following a six-year battle, 17 year old Alice Pyne succumbed to cancer. Over the last 2 years, Alice inspired thousands of people by documenting her story in a blog and in particular her bucket list. It wasn’t a list full of completely unachievable things –although she still had dreams. One dream was going to Kenya (she got to Kent - ya), but it was also a list of things that she could achieve, like enter her dog Mabel in a show and buy a static caravan for her charity.

One of her dreams is that everyone creates their own bucket list and it got me thinking. I thought bucket lists were about big things and they are. But they are also about the small but no less significant things, silly things even. It’s about momentum, starting small and maybe even staying small, but always moving on and having fun along the way.

So Alice, here’s the first item on my bucket list – tell people about your dream and invite others to start theirs. Buckets are for filling, start filling one today.

The Power of Teamwork

Yesterday, Team GB exceeded their Beijing Olympics medal haul and by the end of the London Games, will have reached their highest total in the modern Olympic era.  Not only that but on a per capita basis, Team GB would head the medal table.

There are many reasons for this success, not least the years of hard training and sacrifice by the athletes, the coaches, medics, nutritionists, psychologists, engineers, and all the other backroom men and women that make Team GB. 

Yet there is another group of people that athletes from around the world have paid tribute to for contributing to their success – the spectators.

The designers of the Olympic Stadium engineered it to amplify the crowd.  They recognised how the roar of the crowd would help build the atmosphere, urging the athletes on.  And it worked.  The spectators are definitely Team GB’s 12^th man. The athletes themselves, spurred on by the crowd go faster, higher, further and cite the crowd as a key contributor to their performance.

So, who are the 12^th men and women for your organisation? 

Who are the people that help build the atmosphere, that are passionate about what you are trying to achieve?

Who offers their unconditional support, shares your highs and lows, attaches no blame, asks only that you do your best?

The track cycling team have exemplified the science and business of winning.  Their planning organisation, innovation and execution are a testament to teamwork.  But even they can’t engineer the support they received over this last week.  Those levels of support have to be earned.  The crowd has to see the passion and determination, as well as the skill and ability.

Who is your sporting hero? What is it that gives them that level of recognition in your eyes?  What are the qualities that take them beyond technical ability?

How can you take those qualities into the workplace?

What do you need to do to harness the power of the 12^th man?

Dream Your Way to Success

 Mohammad Ali was probably the greatest boxer ever, but did you know that his pre-fight predictions were uncannily accurate, somewhere around 80% in fact.  How did he do it?

In an interview, Ali described his preparations.  Ali would research the opponent and devise a strategy to beat him.  Once the strategy had been developed, Ali would go to bed and dream the fight exactly to his strategy.  Once he had ‘seen’ the fight play out in his dream, he’d go to the gym and train for the dream.

That’s a powerful story and one that demonstrates the importance of having a clearly articulated dream or vision. Such was the strength of Ali’s vision that more often than not ,it came to fruition exactly as he had seen and planned it.

Along with his powerful vision, Ali was a very positive thinker.  Everything he said, thought and did affirmed his deeply held beliefs.  He was once quoted as saying “It's the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.”

Dream yourself to the success your heart desires.