Going into 2009, many people have a sense of anxiety and nervousness, largely because there are so many unknowns in a rapidly changing business environment. Where is the bottom of the housing market? When will stocks finally stabilize? What industries will have key bankruptcies? Although there are so many unknowns, there is one thing we can count on; there will be a significant amount of people finding work in new industries over the next 2-3 years.
Over the last 6 months a tremendous shift has begun in specific industries, especially financial services and retail. These industries are being depleted of workers as they begin to look for work and in growing industries and markets such as healthcare, infrastructure, energy and the Federal Government. In November 2008 there were 533,000 fewer jobs which is the highest one-month decline since 1974. And economist project this trend will continue for months. This means there will be a lot of “re-shuffling” in job markets over the next few years.
This implies that 2009 will be a year of retraining. I believe the key to success for individuals retraining in today’s changing job market, will be to accelerate their retraining. The historical trend for retraining has been a focus on knowledge and technical skills. However, today’s global environment is different. It is equally or even more important to accelerate the learning component on how to apply the knowledge. As we know, technical knowledge without the ability to apply it is of little value. As hundreds of companies begin to retrain existing staff and new staff, the key will be empowering them with the needed learning tools to quickly apply their learned knowledge.
Companies will find that accelerated and successful training can be achieved by designing knowledge training in small segments and then using “in-between” sessions to assign opportunities to apply the knowledge being acquired from training. This “on-the-job” training will solidify the “classroom” learning. The other key element will be to create debriefing groups to discuss the live experience of applying the training. The debriefing sessions are not as complicated as people think. Simply design the debriefing session around three core questions: 1) What worked, 2) What didn’t work, and 3) what should you do differently to improve the outcome. Some research indicates that by encapsulating training with live training and debriefing, you can accelerate training by over 250%. The biggest challenge to this type of training is that it requires people to have frequent interaction with a trainer or a facilitator that can regularly debrief their applications.
The ARTT approach described in my book is an excellent tool to use for designing training programs. Anyone undertaking new training initiatives I would strongly encourage to implement and use the 4 step model to learning how to learn. Here is the link to the model - http://www.learntheskill.com/#/arttoftheskill/4529483749
We all know that transitions and “work-shifts” are filled with challenges and more often than not difficult. But they don’t have to be. They are ripe with moments of learning, but only if navigated with the right tools. As you retrain or your company retrains, be sure you have the right tools.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Monday, October 27, 2008
Staying Competitive in Turbulant Times
There is no question we are living in volatile times. Over the last month we have seen a near meltdown in global stock markets and credit markets. It is becoming more and more difficult to conduct “normal” business. I have yet to talk with someone who has not been impacted in some way, by the financial turn-down. Some have prospered and taken advantage of the opportunities lurking, while others have taken heavy hits, with few alternatives other than consolidating.
Over the years, I have been one of the biggest advocates and believers of “the Adaptive Leader.” For years, I have coached many of my clients to become more adaptable in their leadership, to address the constant increase of speed, complexity and volatility of doing business.
Last week as I continued to think about Jim Collin’s list of Good to Great companies, I thought how many lacked adaptability, which was apparent over the last few months. Contrary to this, there is one company in particular which I think has shown incredible adaptability over the years and especially since oil prices hit $140 a barrel earlier this summer.
More than most, Southwest Airlines have realized that the market is reforming from the bottom up. Their target market wants more value for the price, rather than added on “hidden charges” such as now charging $15 for each checked piece of luggage.
In order to keep their planes full and flying, they had to keep prices low, rather than increase them to reflect the rise of fuel prices. Instead what Southwest did was increase their speed and efficiency in order to raise their volume. If you have ever flown Southwest, you might have noticed how incredibly fast their systems are. They make the whole process of taking a customer so streamlined, from getting their ticket and boarding pass, to arriving at their destination. They have created a 20-30 minute turnaround from when a customer lands, to when they leave again. That is their secret and it allows them to service 4 flights for every 3 flights of their customers.
I am not necessarily arguing that everyone should fly Southwest, because as most of us know flying “cattle car” is not always appealing. But my point is that Southwest is adapting to the marketplace. They put more people in the air, and create a better price to value equation. It is clear that they are adaptable and in doing so finding the highest leverage. As I continue to argue, those who are adaptable will continue to find successes in these volatile times.
Over the years, I have been one of the biggest advocates and believers of “the Adaptive Leader.” For years, I have coached many of my clients to become more adaptable in their leadership, to address the constant increase of speed, complexity and volatility of doing business.
Last week as I continued to think about Jim Collin’s list of Good to Great companies, I thought how many lacked adaptability, which was apparent over the last few months. Contrary to this, there is one company in particular which I think has shown incredible adaptability over the years and especially since oil prices hit $140 a barrel earlier this summer.
More than most, Southwest Airlines have realized that the market is reforming from the bottom up. Their target market wants more value for the price, rather than added on “hidden charges” such as now charging $15 for each checked piece of luggage.
In order to keep their planes full and flying, they had to keep prices low, rather than increase them to reflect the rise of fuel prices. Instead what Southwest did was increase their speed and efficiency in order to raise their volume. If you have ever flown Southwest, you might have noticed how incredibly fast their systems are. They make the whole process of taking a customer so streamlined, from getting their ticket and boarding pass, to arriving at their destination. They have created a 20-30 minute turnaround from when a customer lands, to when they leave again. That is their secret and it allows them to service 4 flights for every 3 flights of their customers.
I am not necessarily arguing that everyone should fly Southwest, because as most of us know flying “cattle car” is not always appealing. But my point is that Southwest is adapting to the marketplace. They put more people in the air, and create a better price to value equation. It is clear that they are adaptable and in doing so finding the highest leverage. As I continue to argue, those who are adaptable will continue to find successes in these volatile times.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Autopilot – what were you thinking (Part 1)
We all know what autopilot is as it refers to flying – but what about in terms of our own behavior? There have been so many occasions where I have felt this “autopilot” feeling as I subconsciously made it through each day, every decision and lived life in this very unintentional way.
In our book we defined autopilot as a “mode of living or working in which little purposeful or active thinking takes place.” It is synonymous with unconscious behavior. You can simulate this state by remembering a time when you drove home from a tough day at the office or back from the airport after a stressful business trip, and during the drive a disjointed tape of the stressful moments earlier in the day replayed in a loop in your mind. All of a sudden, you arrive at your home and have no memory of the drive. You drove home in a kind of daze and can’t even remember stopping at lights or making turns down particular streets.
Autopilot may seem like a benign state, but it is an insidious condition that can diminish work effectiveness and destroy careers. You would think that smart, savvy professionals would avoid autopilot since it’s clearly not in their best interest to go through work unaware of what’s going on inside of them, yet even some CEOs fall into the autopilot trap. This is a phenomenon that has an illustrative parallel in nature. John Fabre, a French naturalist, conducted an experiment involving processionary caterpillars. As the name implies, these caterpillars blindly follow the one in front of it. In the experiment, Fabre placed a flowerpot filled to the rim with dirt and pine needles, which provides these caterpillars with sustenance. The caterpillars were released next to the flowerpot and traveled in a processionary circle around the flowerpot, and within a short period of time, all the caterpillars dropped dead of starvation, even though food was just six inches away.
They were marching on autopilot, unable to break the unthinking grip of their habitual behaviors even to save themselves.
Last week in the New York Times there was an interesting article called “Mirrors don’t lie. Mislead? Oh, yes” which showed new studies regarding the use of mirrors and autopilot. The studies showed that “subjects tested in a room with a mirror have been found to work harder, to be more helpful and to be less inclined to cheat, compared with control groups performing the same exercises in non-mirrored settings. Reporting in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Neil Macrae, Galen Bodenhausen and Alan Milne found that people in a room with a mirror were comparatively less likely to judge others based on social stereotypes about, for example, sex, race or religion.”
What is interesting is that a connection was made that "When people are made to be self-aware, they are likelier to stop and think about what they are doing." Dr. Bodenhausen stated that "a byproduct of that awareness may be a shift away from acting on autopilot toward more desirable ways of behaving."
Many professionals are locked into autopilot routines. They run meetings the same way they have for years. They interact with customers as they have always interacted with them. They deal with crises in the same manner as they have dealt with crises in the past. As a result, they don’t take into consideration if an old approach that may have worked 15 years ago still works. I am sure we are all guilty of autopilot behavior at some point in time. In the next blog (Part 2) we will discuss how you end up in autopilot in the first place.
In our book we defined autopilot as a “mode of living or working in which little purposeful or active thinking takes place.” It is synonymous with unconscious behavior. You can simulate this state by remembering a time when you drove home from a tough day at the office or back from the airport after a stressful business trip, and during the drive a disjointed tape of the stressful moments earlier in the day replayed in a loop in your mind. All of a sudden, you arrive at your home and have no memory of the drive. You drove home in a kind of daze and can’t even remember stopping at lights or making turns down particular streets.
Autopilot may seem like a benign state, but it is an insidious condition that can diminish work effectiveness and destroy careers. You would think that smart, savvy professionals would avoid autopilot since it’s clearly not in their best interest to go through work unaware of what’s going on inside of them, yet even some CEOs fall into the autopilot trap. This is a phenomenon that has an illustrative parallel in nature. John Fabre, a French naturalist, conducted an experiment involving processionary caterpillars. As the name implies, these caterpillars blindly follow the one in front of it. In the experiment, Fabre placed a flowerpot filled to the rim with dirt and pine needles, which provides these caterpillars with sustenance. The caterpillars were released next to the flowerpot and traveled in a processionary circle around the flowerpot, and within a short period of time, all the caterpillars dropped dead of starvation, even though food was just six inches away.
They were marching on autopilot, unable to break the unthinking grip of their habitual behaviors even to save themselves.
Last week in the New York Times there was an interesting article called “Mirrors don’t lie. Mislead? Oh, yes” which showed new studies regarding the use of mirrors and autopilot. The studies showed that “subjects tested in a room with a mirror have been found to work harder, to be more helpful and to be less inclined to cheat, compared with control groups performing the same exercises in non-mirrored settings. Reporting in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Neil Macrae, Galen Bodenhausen and Alan Milne found that people in a room with a mirror were comparatively less likely to judge others based on social stereotypes about, for example, sex, race or religion.”
What is interesting is that a connection was made that "When people are made to be self-aware, they are likelier to stop and think about what they are doing." Dr. Bodenhausen stated that "a byproduct of that awareness may be a shift away from acting on autopilot toward more desirable ways of behaving."
Many professionals are locked into autopilot routines. They run meetings the same way they have for years. They interact with customers as they have always interacted with them. They deal with crises in the same manner as they have dealt with crises in the past. As a result, they don’t take into consideration if an old approach that may have worked 15 years ago still works. I am sure we are all guilty of autopilot behavior at some point in time. In the next blog (Part 2) we will discuss how you end up in autopilot in the first place.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Good to Great - but for how long?
The other day when I opened the newspaper and read that Starbucks was closing down 600 stores and shedding 12,000 employees it made me pose the question - “How does a great company get hit so hard?” I understand we are in the midst of an economic downturn and competition continues to grow, but I believe there are some core lessons or insights which can be pulled from this. Starbucks is not the only one though. In Jim Collins’ 2001 book Good to Great he studied 11 companies from 1965-95 which underperformed, transitioned and returned with exceptionally high growth.
However, let’s look at these companies today. Circuit City is in serious financial difficulty. Fannie May, Kimberly Clark, Walgreens, Kroger – all of these companies have done little to continue their transition and stay atop the market in the last decade. The point is that the companies he studied in 2001, have shown that their change was not sustainable. There has been so much change in the last 8 years, that 75% of these companies are slowly vanishing from marketplace prominence or drastically losing their dominate position.
Collins’ suggested that what led these companies from being good to being a great was level 5 leadership which was characterized by humility and drive for success. I agree that these characteristics are essential in leadership. However, I think that there is a key component missing to really understand how companies go from being good to great and sustain that change. This leader is one who will put in mechanisms that will renew and refresh in order to be continually aware of changes around them.
Today it seems everyone wants a quick fix solution – a one-time solution or a silver bullet. Well, there are none! You have to continuously renew where you are constantly adapting to change – because change is always happening.
If we look further at Starbucks, just an example would be how they got into selling books and CD’s when both of those markets are in decline. MP3’s and Kindle are the new wave. I don’t believe that Starbucks assessed the market to adapt to the change that was happening. Many competitors chose to offer free Wi-Fi services knowing this would be a major draw for customers needs.
The question then is “what are the mechanisms and processes” for continual renewal and refreshing? Where do we get our info about future trends and how do we integrate those into our decision making.
The wetware needed for this is creating the space for awareness, reflection and then situations to apply changed behavior. It is the solution for CONTINUED success.
However, let’s look at these companies today. Circuit City is in serious financial difficulty. Fannie May, Kimberly Clark, Walgreens, Kroger – all of these companies have done little to continue their transition and stay atop the market in the last decade. The point is that the companies he studied in 2001, have shown that their change was not sustainable. There has been so much change in the last 8 years, that 75% of these companies are slowly vanishing from marketplace prominence or drastically losing their dominate position.
Collins’ suggested that what led these companies from being good to being a great was level 5 leadership which was characterized by humility and drive for success. I agree that these characteristics are essential in leadership. However, I think that there is a key component missing to really understand how companies go from being good to great and sustain that change. This leader is one who will put in mechanisms that will renew and refresh in order to be continually aware of changes around them.
Today it seems everyone wants a quick fix solution – a one-time solution or a silver bullet. Well, there are none! You have to continuously renew where you are constantly adapting to change – because change is always happening.
If we look further at Starbucks, just an example would be how they got into selling books and CD’s when both of those markets are in decline. MP3’s and Kindle are the new wave. I don’t believe that Starbucks assessed the market to adapt to the change that was happening. Many competitors chose to offer free Wi-Fi services knowing this would be a major draw for customers needs.
The question then is “what are the mechanisms and processes” for continual renewal and refreshing? Where do we get our info about future trends and how do we integrate those into our decision making.
The wetware needed for this is creating the space for awareness, reflection and then situations to apply changed behavior. It is the solution for CONTINUED success.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Why the book?
As I sat back and reflected on why I was writing a book, I was particularly struck by my inner thoughts on how much work it was to complete a project of this magnitude, which forced me to reexamine what the driving motivation really was. To say the least, the motivation to do it has evolved over time.
For the last 5 or 6 years, whenever I make presentations on both learning and the ARTT of Learning™ or when I would talk about adpatability, many times I was approached by multiple people afterwards suggesting that I should write a book on the topic or they would like to hear more on the subject. The possibility of a book always sat in the back of my mind, but I never got to the critical mass where I was ready to sit down and start pounding the keyboard. However, in 2004 my son James told me that although I keep talking about a book, since I always get too busy and get involved in so many other things, he didn’t believe I would really ever do it. Then he told me that between his work and travels in Africa with Bulembu (www.bulembu.org) and moving on to starting his masters in International Law, he would be willing to work with me and help in the writing process. That was the final motivation, because he knows me well enough to know that I work better by talking, than by typing at a computer. Also, the two of us are on the same page about many of the issues from leadership, interpersonal relationships, the importance of networks to the relevance of adaptability. The evolution over time and the motivation provided by James really are what caused me to get started.
Lastly, I want to share and leave something behind; I want to contribute to the HR world, coaching profession, and the next generation of leaders.
Why it’s needed
Through my consulting experiences over the years, I have come to the following conclusions as to why this book is needed and will add to the coaching profession.
People aren't changing
In my consulting experiences, including hundreds of coaching sessions over the years, I have found that people really weren’t changing that much. I might have good sessions with them while they would get hold of things and would in turn notice a spurt in the first few months in their individual effectiveness or their ability to get more from their experiences. However, over time, particularly after the coach left or the dialogue was over, when I would go back and visit a few years later, things were pretty much the same. This led me to question the current coaching techniques and why they weren’t effective to the point of creating lasting changes.
The coaching dilemma
the coaching dilemma is that coaching can be good and is helpful; however, you can’t go through life with a coach all the time. The real issue then is, how can the coach, coach you to coach yourself so that you can have meaningful discussions with yourself after the coach leaves.
Reality-based self talk
Given the coaching dilemma, the main thrust of coaching should be to help people to have productive inner dialogue in order to help themselves. However, the conversations we have with ourselves need to be focused on the right stuff and have to be reality based. The issue quickly becomes to coach people to coach themselves and have their self talk not be emotionally based, but rather be open dialogue that asks questions that causes them to think things through afresh and to be able to make adjustments to our behavior based on our own questions and answers.
Motivated participants
There is in fact a significant body of research that shows the value of self coaching. As I started helping people to coach themselves and formalizing the ARTT of Living™ model of self coaching, I found that what people were able to do was become more motivated as they talked to themselves. People are more motivated when they are able to screen and test for reality and talk to themselves.
Overuse of the 360º feedback process
Over the years, when I was introducing 360 degree feedback processes, many of my clients starting pushing me saying they had used 360 degree feedback too much. Therefore, in addition to doing self coaching, I began to do self assessments. When I looked at the research I knew that they needed to be focused and needed to have external cues that would help in the self coaching process. An example of that would be I would have them think of 3-5 situations where they were at their best and 3-5 when they were at their worst. Soon I began using this technique rather than a 360º. From talking with others in the organization, it turned out that they were particularly accurate, which stared in the face of much common wisdom and a significant amount of research in the HR body of knowledge. In fact, it goes against many HR practices, research and beliefs.
The bottom line
The bottom line is that I have found from my experiences that self assessment and self coaching works. The key is to have it be reality and enquiry based. Therefore my motivation is to bring additional insights to move the coaching and human resource profession forward.
For the last 5 or 6 years, whenever I make presentations on both learning and the ARTT of Learning™ or when I would talk about adpatability, many times I was approached by multiple people afterwards suggesting that I should write a book on the topic or they would like to hear more on the subject. The possibility of a book always sat in the back of my mind, but I never got to the critical mass where I was ready to sit down and start pounding the keyboard. However, in 2004 my son James told me that although I keep talking about a book, since I always get too busy and get involved in so many other things, he didn’t believe I would really ever do it. Then he told me that between his work and travels in Africa with Bulembu (www.bulembu.org) and moving on to starting his masters in International Law, he would be willing to work with me and help in the writing process. That was the final motivation, because he knows me well enough to know that I work better by talking, than by typing at a computer. Also, the two of us are on the same page about many of the issues from leadership, interpersonal relationships, the importance of networks to the relevance of adaptability. The evolution over time and the motivation provided by James really are what caused me to get started.
Lastly, I want to share and leave something behind; I want to contribute to the HR world, coaching profession, and the next generation of leaders.
Why it’s needed
Through my consulting experiences over the years, I have come to the following conclusions as to why this book is needed and will add to the coaching profession.
People aren't changing
In my consulting experiences, including hundreds of coaching sessions over the years, I have found that people really weren’t changing that much. I might have good sessions with them while they would get hold of things and would in turn notice a spurt in the first few months in their individual effectiveness or their ability to get more from their experiences. However, over time, particularly after the coach left or the dialogue was over, when I would go back and visit a few years later, things were pretty much the same. This led me to question the current coaching techniques and why they weren’t effective to the point of creating lasting changes.
The coaching dilemma
the coaching dilemma is that coaching can be good and is helpful; however, you can’t go through life with a coach all the time. The real issue then is, how can the coach, coach you to coach yourself so that you can have meaningful discussions with yourself after the coach leaves.
Reality-based self talk
Given the coaching dilemma, the main thrust of coaching should be to help people to have productive inner dialogue in order to help themselves. However, the conversations we have with ourselves need to be focused on the right stuff and have to be reality based. The issue quickly becomes to coach people to coach themselves and have their self talk not be emotionally based, but rather be open dialogue that asks questions that causes them to think things through afresh and to be able to make adjustments to our behavior based on our own questions and answers.
Motivated participants
There is in fact a significant body of research that shows the value of self coaching. As I started helping people to coach themselves and formalizing the ARTT of Living™ model of self coaching, I found that what people were able to do was become more motivated as they talked to themselves. People are more motivated when they are able to screen and test for reality and talk to themselves.
Overuse of the 360º feedback process
Over the years, when I was introducing 360 degree feedback processes, many of my clients starting pushing me saying they had used 360 degree feedback too much. Therefore, in addition to doing self coaching, I began to do self assessments. When I looked at the research I knew that they needed to be focused and needed to have external cues that would help in the self coaching process. An example of that would be I would have them think of 3-5 situations where they were at their best and 3-5 when they were at their worst. Soon I began using this technique rather than a 360º. From talking with others in the organization, it turned out that they were particularly accurate, which stared in the face of much common wisdom and a significant amount of research in the HR body of knowledge. In fact, it goes against many HR practices, research and beliefs.
The bottom line
The bottom line is that I have found from my experiences that self assessment and self coaching works. The key is to have it be reality and enquiry based. Therefore my motivation is to bring additional insights to move the coaching and human resource profession forward.
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