How to Ignite a Winning Culture Facing Change

effectively lead through change video elearning courseSince many of you have asked us about our leadership change management videos, we wanted to let you know we now have an e-learning leadership change management course that makes a great stand alone course or blended learning course trainers can use as a pre or post tutorial to an in-classroom training. Time-pressed executives can select a single module or take the entire 6-module training at one sitting.

The “instructors” for this e-learning course are well-known entrepreneurs and thought leaders like Andy Grove, who co-founded Intel and Stephen Covey, author of “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.”

This course is affordably priced for managers and executives who want to invest in their own leadership development. We also offer discounts for multiple number of users. Call (888)380-5491 or Email us for more information.

Leadership Change Management E Learning video training featuring Intel co-founder Andy Grove, Stephen Covey and executive coach Marshall Goldsmith. Here are some of the learning benefits of the course:

    • Effectively communicate and manage uncontrollable change
    • Make positive behavior change as a leader
    • Increase ability to spot opportunities and beat the competition
    • See a sample the course or register to see a full-fledged demo.

by Holly Green

Want to spread an idea like wildfire throughout your organization? Start withhow to turn 10% support for a vision into the majority getting one out of every 10 people to passionately care about winning.

As business leaders, everything we do should focus on setting our organizations up to win. But we can’t do it all ourselves. Which means we also need to get our employees obsessive and relentless about winning – a task much easier said than done.

If you’re struggling to build a winning attitude in your organization, I have some encouraging news. Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have found that when just 10 percent of the population holds an unshakable belief, their belief will always be adopted by the majority of the society.

Not some of the time, but always. Which has huge implications for business leaders trying to shape attitudes and opinions in their organizations.

Read more on how to turn 10% into a majority >>

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The “Triple Bottom Line” and the Annihilation of Blue Chip Institutions

By Karlin Sloan

“The role the corporation needs to play in individuals’ lives the community’s life, and the world’s life is to sustain the platform upon which the corporation exists. Leaders must recognize that we live in one big system that is our planet. We can’t spoil the groundwater in one area and not expect it to show up in another area. Corporate leaders need to understand that the only way to sustain an enterprise is to  pay attention to it’s impact on the world as a whole system.” – Franklin Jonath

As the landscape of our World Economy becomes more surreal and wildly volatile, it’s time to remember the simple reasons and the simple lessons behind the annihilation of blue chip institutions like Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers.  We’ve got a crisis of consumer confidence, an ever-increasing deficit, waning opportunities for American workers, a shrinking pool of social security dollars, and many who’s retirement savings are reduced to a tiny portion of what they imagined. 

We’ve reached a new era in which reality is hitting us like a tank, and we’ve got to acknowledge that our individual actions have long-term consequences. When we’re not watching our portfolios shrink and our jobs go away, we might notice that this is a big wake up call that’s been coming for a long time, and the possibility for changing to a more sustainable way of living and working comes next.

There is great opportunity during large-scale change to do things differently, to start fresh, and to cultivate the positive future we envision. Three starting points are: 

  1. Get Smarter by letting go of knowing everything
  2. Get Faster by slowing down
  3. Get Better by becoming better with versus better than others

Smarter

To be smarter, we need to stop being the expert and start asking more questions. This paradox is rooted in the shift from the Information Age to the Age of Interdependence, which requires leaders to possess skills and intelligence related to connectedness.

The business environment has become more global and diverse, so leaders who can be flexible, ask questions and make connections will be smarter than those who don’t. Right now, we’re seeing the consequences of not asking questions, and not acknowledging our interconnectedness and interdependence.

If those folks who invented mortgage-backed securities had imagined the number of hands that would touch the ultimate collapse of the credit system, things might have been different. Our sense of personal responsibility for the larger picture needs to kick back in.  

Faster

The faster paradox is that we must “slow down to go fast.” Many leaders and organizations believe that going faster will give them a competitive advantage; however, slowing down will help leaders and organizations sustain in the long run and will have a positive impact on leadership effectiveness. Slowing down actually helps leaders to stay ahead of the competition because it gives them time to think and reflect, which also helps you to be smarter as a leader and, thus, more successful. This doesn’t mean slowing down the critical processes that keep your organization functioning; instead, it means slowing down our brains to engage our best creative intelligence.

Better

To be better leaders, we need to move away from trying to be better than and, instead, focus on being better with—our colleagues, vendors, customers and constituents. Leadership success depends on being smarter, faster and better with the rest of the group you lead. “Better with” leaders focus on inspiring, not dominating or controlling; to be “better with” means focusing not just on competition, but collaboration. You can’t be a better leader just for yourself; you have to think about the greater impact of your leadership.

Leaders should understand the legacy they want to leave behind—and how they plan to make it happen. “Better with” leadership is a growing trend, alongside the “triple bottom line” concept of corporate responsibility, which measures a company or organization’s impact on three levels: economic, social (community) and environmental.

Leaders and organizations who do not embrace this model will be left behind.

Karlin Sloan, MA is the CEO of Karlin Sloan & Company, a leadership development consultancy that empowers executives and their organizations to become smarter, faster, and better. She is the author of Smarter, Faster, Better; Strategies for Effective, Enduring, and Fulfilled Leadership (Jossey-Bass 2006), and the creator of The Resilience Project, a series of programs based on creating greater resilience and long-term sustainability in global organizations.

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How to Ignite a Winning Culture with just 10% Support

by Holly Green 

Want to spread an idea like wildfire throughout your organization? Start withhow to turn 10% support for a vision into the majority getting one out of every 10 people to passionately care about winning.

As business leaders, everything we do should focus on setting our organizations up to win. But we can’t do it all ourselves. Which means we also need to get our employees obsessive and relentless about winning – a task much easier said than done.

If you’re struggling to build a winning attitude in your organization, I have some encouraging news. Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have found that when just 10 percent of the population holds an unshakable belief, their belief will always be adopted by the majority of the society.

Not some of the time, but always. Which has huge implications for business leaders trying to shape attitudes and opinions in their organizations.

How to turn 10% into a majority?

According to the scientists, when the percentage of a population committed to a certain idea or opinion is less than 10 percent, that idea or opinion will spread very slowly, if at all. However, once that percentage climbs above 10 percent, the idea will spread like wildfire. As long as proponents of the idea hold firm to their belief, once they begin to talk about it, opinions about that belief will begin to gradually change and then at some point suddenly shift.

As an example, the scientists point to last year’s tumultuous events in Tunisia and Egypt, where dictators who held complete power for decades were toppled in just a few weeks.

Clearly, the uprisings benefited from the use of social networking tools, which made it easier to connect with others in the population. But the scientists assert that the type of network does not influence the 10 percent tipping point. As long as the percentage of committed opinion holders remains at 10 percent or higher, it will eventually become the majority opinion, regardless of how or where it got started or spread throughout the society.

For business leaders, this means we can leverage our efforts to build a winning culture by engaging informal thought leaders throughout the organization. And once we get that critical 10% to care as passionately about winning as we do, the majority of employees will soon adopt the same point of view. 

How do you engage those thought leaders?

Start by sharing your compelling vision of what winning looks like for your organization. Not just how the company will win financially, but how it will improve the lives of customers, employees, and all key stakeholders.  Talk about how you positively impact others and the world.

In meetings and in one-to-ones with direct reports, share why you feel so passionate about winning. What is it about where the company is going that gets you fired up to come into work every day? Ask employees what your vision of winning means to them. How does it motivate them to produce the results your organization needs? How does it impact the way they feel about how they earn a living?

To give people reasons to feel good about what the company does, share positive customer feedback. Relate stories of how your product or service solves problems for your customers or improves their lives.

Celebrate the achievement of milestones, both big and small.

Nothing reinforces the positive aspects of winning like recognizing the progress and success people make along the way to the company’s goals.

During meetings, place visual cues around the room to remind people of the importance of winning. Eliminate language that supports outdated ideas and old ways of thinking (i.e., “good idea, but it will never work; we already tried that; the customer would never go for that”…).

Ask future, active, past tense questions to help people understand what winning looks like. For example, when we have won:

  • What will we have achieved from a financial and market-share perspective?
  • How will customers perceive our brand?
  • How will our competitors view us?
  • What will our workplace culture (attitudes, beliefs, values and operating principles) be like?
  • What will be our greatest competitive advantage?
  • What will we be doing to continually innovate to stay ahead of the game?
  • How will working in this organization be even better than it is today?

Future, past tense questions open the brain to figuring out how to get it done versus what is getting in the way. When these questions focus on winning, it gets people thinking about playing to win rather than playing not to lose.  It opens the brain to explore possibilities and alternative ways of achieving that we don’t even know we can ponder.

Ten percent is all it takes. If we can’t get one of out ten people to believe as passionately about winning as we do, then we either have a lousy vision of winning or else we’re in the wrong business!

Holly is CEO of The Human Factor, Inc., and helps business leaders and their companies achieve higher levels of performance and profitability.  Holly was previously President of The Ken Blanchard Company and LumMed, Inc.  Holly’s clients include AT&T, Microsoft, Expedia, Nokia, and Google as well as numerous small and midsized businesses. 

Holly’s top selling book, More Than a Minute: How to be an Effective Leader & Manager in Today’s Changing World (available in 9 languages globally) goes beyond the theory of leading and managing by providing practical, action-oriented information.

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What does playing to win look like in the business world?

by Holly Green

Once again, the sports world offered a powerful lesson for business leaders when the New Orleans Saints played the Detroit Lions January 14th.playing to win in the world of business and sports Specifically, I’m referring to Saints coach Sean Payton and how he approaches the game of football. Now there’s a coach who plays to win! 

If you follow pro football, you know it’s nothing new for Payton. In the Super Bowl a few years ago, he shocked the Colts (and just about everyone else) by doing an onside kick-off to start the second half.

Conventional wisdom says that you just don’t do that in the Super Bowl, especially against an explosive offense like the Colts had at the time. The odds were that if you gave them the ball at midfield, they’d score in no time at all. But Payton plays to win (as opposed to playing not to lose), and his calculated risk served as the turning point in a hotly contested game. 

In the game against the Lions, Payton again demonstrated this philosophy of going for it on the fourth down. Not once, but several times. Conventional football wisdom says to punt and play it safe when your team has the lead. But Payton knew that holding onto the ball gave his team the best chance to win. So he took a few calculated risks, and they paid off. 

Of course, it helps to have a quarterback like Drew Brees and plenty of offensive weapons, as the Saints do. But Payton’s “play to win” attitude clearly rubs off on his players. No matter the opponent or the situation, they don’t just believe they can win, they expect to win.

Why is playing to win so important? 

People want to be on the winning side, and playing not to lose sends a subtle message that changes their thinking and their behavior. People become a little less focused on the small things that lead to winning. When faced with adversity, they get discouraged and disheartened a little more easily. And when major setbacks occur, they have doubts about whether the company can still win. When you play not to lose, you’re playing for second best (or worse). 

What does playing to win look like in the business world? 

Dare to take risks.

This doesn’t mean to call a fake punt on 4th down at your own 10-yard line. Risks should be calculated, not foolhardy. Look for opportunities that offer huge upsides with minimal downside if they don’t pan out.  Or outline the risks and mitigate or minimize them beforehand. 

Get comfortable with failure.

When you take risks, you will fail much of the time. They key is to make it safe for people to fail, and to learn from your mistakes. Even Tom Brady throws an interception every now and then, for gosh sakes. His coach puts him back out there every time. If you’re not failing, you’re not trying hard enough and you are probably falling behind. 

Shake up the status quo.

This is hard for most business leaders to get comfortable with. In the U.S., we tend to have a real short-term mentality, especially in large public companies. We’re so worried about the quarterly numbers that we play not to lose rather than to win. When we innovate, we usually do it incrementally, which yields a safe but minimal return. 

In today’s markets, becoming a market leader requires shaking up the status quo; going for the long bomb rather than the 3-yard run up the middle. Easier said than done. But if you don’t at least aim for it, you’ll never hit it. 

Change your thinking to set the rules of  the game.

Most of all, get rid of the idea that what made you successful today will continue to make you successful tomorrow. In football, the players keep getting bigger, faster and stronger. Coaches know they can’t stand pat, so they continually develop new offensive and defensive schemes to stay ahead of the game. In business, your competitors are also getting bigger, faster and stronger. To stay ahead, your products, services, and ways of doing business must continually evolve. 

When it comes to winning, there’s one big difference between pro football and business. In football, the rules of the game are imposed on every team by the NFL. In business, when you play to win, you get to impose a lot of the rules. 

  • When you change the way customers perceive value, they have to play by your rules.
  • When you come up with a new product or service that transforms your industry, competitors have to play by your rules.
  • And when you build an organization that is so passionate about winning that the top performers clamor to work for you, other employers have to play by your rules. 

Doesn’t that sound like more fun than playing not to lose?

Holly is CEO of The Human Factor, Inc., and helps business leaders and their companies achieve higher levels of performance and profitability.  Holly was previously President of The Ken Blanchard Company and LumMed, Inc.  Holly’s clients include AT&T, Microsoft, Expedia, Nokia, and Google as well as numerous small and midsized businesses. 

Holly’s top selling book, More Than a Minute: How to be an Effective Leader & Manager in Today’s Changing World (available in 9 languages globally) goes beyond the theory of leading and managing by providing practical, action-oriented information.

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Entrepreneurship Management Skill to Succeed

Entrepreneurship is not just a young person’s game.  You will hear more about young founders of startups but that is only because it has great sex appealEntrepreneurship management elearning course launch for the media. Now, more boomers and the generation just behind them are starting their own companies. Whether it’s because jobs are scarce or people have cash to chase their dreams, more entrepreneurs are hanging out their shingles. Here are some other interesting stats on entrepreneurship: 

“According to the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity, a leading indicator of new business creation in the United States,

  • More Americans became entrepreneurs during the Great Recession then at any time during the previous 15 years. (Note: there were a lot of good economic times during this period).
  • In 2009, business startups reached their highest level in 14 years – even exceeding the number of startups during the peak 1999-2000 technology boom.
  • An aging population and increasing rate of entrepreneurship among older adults has led to a rising share of new entrepreneurs in the 55-64 age group. This age group represented 14.5 percent of new entrepreneurs in 1996, whereas it represented 22.9 percent of new entrepreneurs in 2010.
  • A growing immigrant population and rising entrepreneurship rate contributed to a rise in the share of new entrepreneurs that are immigrant, from 13.4 percent in 1996 to 29.5 percent in 2010.

Becoming an entrepreneur is not for the weak-kneed or faint of heart.  From taking out the trash to setting pricing policy and making investor pitches, it takes stamina, discipline, a great attitude and whole heap of fortitude. Included in that is the ability to influence and motivate yourself, customers, freelancers or your employees.  The latter group will be the ones that will make your product work, help sell it and make your dream of success come true. But, many entrepreneurs have had no management or we’d like to call it, “influencing” training.  They might have learned “how to write a business plan” or “how to manage cash flow,” but they haven’t learned “how to manage” themselves or influence others.

We’ve just launched a new entrepreneurship management video e-learning course to help entrepreneurs strapped for time to get the wisdom usually reserved for big companies with training budgets.  This course features video of great entrepreneurs (Andy Grove of Intel) as well as best-selling authors (Marshall Goldsmith).  There are quizzes and articles to help retain the learning concepts taught in the course.  Click here to see the nine entrepreneurship management learning concepts.

So, for all you entrepreneurs out there, the pivot point of success starts with you. You have a lot of choices but remember to invest the effort in your single most important resource: you.

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Management Skills for the Entrepreneur & Change Catalyst

Yep. It can feel like this when you’re an entrepreneur or someone who is playing to win. Belly flops don’t stop you. They just make you smarter. entrepreneurship management elearning course to win

The success skills of entrepreneurs – influencing others, risking and making mistakes, bouncing back from setbacks, playing to win – are all skills any successful manager or executive wants to possess, whether or not s/he is running her own company. They are the skills of innovation and change that help you beat the competition and, if you’re lucky, set the rules of the game.

We’ve designed two video e-learning courses, sourcing video of great entrepreneurs and executive coaches, to help teach the learning concepts to make you bullet proof in today’s fast changing world. These are courses that can be used on their own or as part of a blended learning course. Either way, there are plenty of learning concepts to make you and your company more competitive.

  1. A six-module featuring Intel co-founder Andy Grove, Stephen Covey and executive coach Marshall Goldsmith. Here are some of the learning benefits of the course:
    • Effectively communicate and manage uncontrollable change
    • Make positive behavior change as a leader
    • Increase ability to spot opportunities and beat the competition
    • See a sample the course or register to see a full-fledged demo.
  2. A nine-module Entrepreneurship Management e-learning video course.  This course is focused on the management aspects of being an entrepreneur. You will learn to:
    • Expand your influence
    • How to sell to big companies
    • How to motivate dog-tired employees
    • Time management and stress reduction techniques
    • Watch a demo here.

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What’s going on: More career development to mask a hiring shortage?

One thing about change, it’s always happening. It’s well visualizedtalent retention through learning and development as workers gain more clout with a pendulum.  That’s definitely the case with the job market. Today, it swings in favor of companies. Tomorrow? Could it swing in favor of workers?  Is it already happening?

Bersin Associates, a talent management research organization just sent out  a promotional email that read: “This hot-off-the-presses research showing significant growth of 9.5% in employee development spending – to an average of $800 per learner – as organizations combat ongoing skills shortages in the labor market.”

Skills shortages? Where?  In the manufacturing sector, which has led the recovery by hiring and growing faster than the services sector, nearly 600,000 jobs go unfilled. The Financial Times quotes a Deloitte and National Association of Manufacturers study, that “there’s a ‘moderate to severe’ shortage of skilled production workers such as machinists, operators, craft workers, distributors and technicians. A similar proportion said workforce shortages or skills deficiencies in production roles were having a significant impact on their ability to expand operations or improve productivity.”

So, if the number of unemployed people is 13.1 million, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that would leave 12.5 million people who are looking for jobs.

With so many people out of work, makes you wonder if there’s a skill shortage or a hiring shortage. Are companies paying more for “employee development” because it’s cheaper to train burnt out workers who are stressed and not engaged – throw them a carrot– then spend to hire new people?  At some point, no amount of training will make up for too much work and not enough workers.

Spending on training and development increased sharply in 2010 according to ASTD. Managerial and supervisory training was the most offered training, followed by industry-specific training. Good thing as employee disengagement is highest when a direct supervisor is also disengaged.  

So, is this a good trend of management investing in career development? Or, is it a stopgap way to get a little more mileage out of overly worked employees? Third option, we’re in a good but painful cycle, where companies are gearing up to try to keep workers from bolting as more job opportunities arise. Got to love the pendulum.

Love to know you thoughts either way..

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All About Mentoring and Asking Good Questions

by Lois Zachary

Ever been asked a really good question that gets the wheels turningEvolving as a mentor or coach and asking really good questions in your head about your future? If you’re young, that question could be about whether you want to head up a company one day and what your plan is to decide whether that’s the path you want to take.

The power of mentoring happens when the mentor asks thought-provoking questions to stimulate the mentee to reflect about creating his/her own future.  Here’s an example of the Before and After lessons of a mentor. In this case, Kathy Button Bell,a CMO who was interviewed by Adam Bryant of the New York Times.

Before:

“I was probably not as good a manager when I was younger because you’re so worried about what you’re doing, as opposed to developing people… I love mentoring people, but I think when I was younger and mentored people I was trying to get them to the next level, not get them to the C.E.O.’s office.”

After:

“I’d say I’ve shifted from shallow to deep in terms of mentoring.  Now we talk a lot more about looking at the end of the story, of where you envision yourself.  Do you see yourself as an operation’s leader?  As a president of one of our companies? Or do you want to be in my job someday?  And then asking: What do you need to do to make up your mind about that?  What should you try along the way to give yourself a better sense? It’s like playing as many sports as you can to figure out which one you’re good at.

I think the shallow-versus-deep issue is about asking those bigger, richer questions about who they want to be.  I think you want to ask them about being delighted in life and what would make them incredibly happy.  And what would make them proud?  I think it’s easier to look at that instead of saying, ‘O.K., you need to dress better for work or take less vacation.’”

I’ve re-read this column numerous times. Although Bryant titled his interview, “Endurance on the Field and at Work,” the way I see it, it could just have easily been called “All About Mentoring”. It is a testimony to the power of mentoring, the centrality of learning in a mentoring relationship for both the mentor and mentee and the importance of a mentor who asks thought-provoking questions.

Mentoring is something I know a little bit about having written and read extensively about the topic for the last twenty years.  What I appreciate most about Kathy Button Bell is that she is obviously a continuous learner. She is self-aware, willing to learn about herself and is committed to her own growth and development as a mentor.

You see, I believe that a mentor’s good intention to mentor is insufficient to do a good job. Mentoring isn’t something you do out of your back pocket. It is a leadership competency and that means that you can get better if you work at it. It takes time, willingness and experience. I also believe that there is a standard of practice to which one can aspire. I call that mentoring excellence. Bryant gives us a glimpse of it in his interview: a continuously learning mentor, a reflective mentor, a mentor who is growing in the role.

Lois Zachary is the President of Leadership Development Services, LLC. and an international expert on mentoring and leadership development. She has written several books on mentoring. The newest one is The Mentor’s Guide: Facilitating Effective Learning Relationships. Other books include Creating a Mentoring Culture: The Organization’s Guide, and The Mentee’s Guide: Making Mentoring Work for You.

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How Pixar Powers Its Creativity through Employee Engagement

by Michael Lee Stallard

At the technical Academy Awards ceremony in Hollywood, the Associated Press reported that it wasn’t the gorgeous host, actress Jessica Biel, who attracted the most attention. Instead, it was an understated, bespectacled, computer engineer named Ed Catmull. When Catmull’s name was announced to receive an Oscar for his lifetime of work in computer animation, the crowd went wild, whistling and whooping. And rightly so. The impact of Catmull and his collaborators on Hollywood may last for decades to come. I’m not referring to his contributions in computer animation though. More lasting will be his contribution to improve corporate cultures.

Catmull, of course, is the president of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios. He has rejected the pixar corporate culture on inclusion boost employee engagementHollywood star system and replaced it with a community environment. Catmull described it this way in a Harvard Business Review article he wrote last year: “[Pixar has] an environment that nurtures trusting and respectful relationships and unleashes everyone’s creativity…the result is a vibrant community where talented people are loyal to one another and their collective work, everyone feels that they are part of something extraordinary, and their passion and accomplishments make the community a magnet for talented people…”(italics mine).

What is it about Pixar’s environment that attracts talented employees and helps them produce outstanding movies such as the blockbuster hits Toy Story, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and WALL-E that have made Pixar the envy of Hollywood?

The element that Pixar’s environment that sets it apart is it’s intentional inclusiveness toward all employees. In most organizations only 20 percent of employees – managers and the stars — feel included.  At Pixar the percentage of employees who feel included is certainly much, much higher than the norm. 

Inclusiveness begins with what management says about its employees. Catmull says that great movies are made from the tens of thousands of ideas that go into them from beginning to completion. As such, everyone needs to contribute their ideas and opinions, everyone’s work matters and everyone makes a difference in the quality of a film. Pixar employees know senior management values their contributions whereas in most organizations the overwhelming majority of employees feel their contributions are not valued by senior management. As a result, Pixar employees are more engaged in their work than employees of the average organization. And because they are more engaged Pixar employees put more effort in their work, they are more trusting and more cooperative, all factors that affect productivity, quality and innovation.

Another aspect of Pixar’s environment that contributes to inclusiveness is the Pixar University. It offers numerous courses related to filmmaking, the arts, health and other topics of interest to Pixar employees. Employees can take up to four hours of classes each week. In class participants develop acquaintances across the firm that strengthen their ties to the organization.

Pixar’s office design also contributes to developing loose ties across the organization. The cafeteria, meeting rooms, employee mail boxes and restrooms are centralized to make it more likely Pixar employees will interact with one another.

As a leader and advisor to leaders I have learned that practices, such as those above, are not sufficient to produce an environment that will help make an organization great. It’s more than just what leaders do that matters. Just as important is who leaders are. Ed Catmull doesn’t just talk and act inclusive. He deeply believes in it. His business partner John Lassiter, Disney and Pixar Animation’s Chief Creative Officer, does too. They in turn select leaders who embrace these values such as director Brad Bird and his business partner, the producer John Walker (who worked together on “The Incredibles”).

Late last year I met John Walker at Pixar’s headquarters in Emeryville, California. Listening to Walker it was clear to see that he embodies the values of inclusiveness. He has a the sort of bridge-building personality that helps people amicably resolve conflict and keep them feeling like a part of the community. During the course of our conversation, Walker told me how he insisted on gathering the entire team of more than 200 people who worked together on a movie at least once a week so that the extroverted artists and their more introverted technical counterparts came together as a community. In the meetings, Brad Bird, Walker and others keep team members informed about the film’s progress get them thinking about how to solve the present set of issues facing the team.

So long as Pixar’s leadership preserves its environment, I would expect it to continue leaving the rest of Hollywood in its wake. In time, Catmull and Lassiter will return the magic to Disney Animation too.  

Sadly, research shows that approximately 75 percent of employees are not engaged in their jobs, which clearly indicates that the importance of the work environment is not on the radar screens of most leaders. That’s tragic. Work environments need to be healthy today, perhaps more than ever. Pixar’s example has awakened Hollywood’s leaders from their slumber. It should be a wake up call to leaders in other industries too. 

What are you doing to make all of your organization’s employee feel like a valued member of your organizational community?   

Michael Lee Stallard is the president of E Pluribus Partners, a leadership training and coaching firm. He is the primary author of Fired up or Burned Out.  For additional information, see www.MichaelLeeStallard.com.

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What’s Your Benefit to Changing a Behavior?

by Marshall Goldsmith

In my younger days, as a newly minted PhD and executive educator, I would challenge my clients to pick one to three behavior patternsbehavior change and its benefits for personal improvement – that is, if they demonstrated a positive change in these practices, they would become more effective leaders. As I grew more experienced, I began to realize that three patterns were too many.

The problem was not a lack of motivation or intelligence – these were brilliant, dedicated leaders. The problem was that they were just too busy. They all had profitability goals, growth goals, quality goals, customer goals, health goals, and so on. If my clients applied the logic that I was teaching and picked three goals in each area of their lives, they would quickly reach a number of goals that was not only impossible to achieve, but also impossible to even remember.

What I teach my clients now is to pick the one behavior pattern for personal change that will make the biggest difference, and to focus on that. If we pick the right area to change and actually do so, it will almost always influence other aspects of our relationships with people. For example, more effective listening will lead to being more successful in building teamwork, increasing customer satisfaction, and treating people with respect.

Consider the Consequences

My friend Nathaniel Branden is a psychologist and the author of about 20 books. He has a wonderful exercise that helps people isolate the pattern that makes the most sense to change, because it helps people figure out the benefits of change. This is how he helps people decide whether change is worth it: Five to eight people sit around a table, and each person selects one practice to change. One person begins the exercise by saying: “When I get better at …. and completes the sentence by mentioning one benefit that will accompany this change. For example, one person may say: “When I get better at being open to differing opinions, I will hear more great ideas.”

After everyone has had a chance to discuss their specific behavior and the first benefit, the cycle begins again. Now each person mentions a second benefit that may result from changing the same behavior, then a third, continuing usually for six to eight rounds. Finally, participants discuss what they have learned and their reactions to the exercise.

When Branden first explained this exercise to me, I was polite, but skeptical. I couldn’t see the value of simply repeating the potential benefits of change over and over. My skepticism quickly went away when I saw the process work.

Moved to Tears

Nathaniel and I were facilitators at a large conference that included many well-known leaders from corporations, nonprofits, the government, and the military. The man sitting next to me was a high-ranking military leader directly responsible for thousands of troops. He also was extremely judgmental and seemed to be proud of it. For example, when conference participants discussed the topic of character, he said: “I respect people with real character – and organizations, like mine, with real values. I don’t believe in this situational crap!”

When we began Nathaniel’s exercise, our military friend chose: “When I become less judgmental ___” as his behavior to change. I was skeptical about his sincerity and thought his participation in the exercise would be interesting to observe. True to my expectations, the first time around he coughed and grunted a sarcastic comment rather than talk about a real benefit. The second time around he was even more cynical. Then something changed. When he described a third potential benefit, he stopped being sarcastic. Several rounds later, he had tears in his eyes, and said: “When I become less judgmental, maybe my children will speak to me again.”

Since that day, I have conducted this exercise with several thousand people. Many start with benefits that are “corporately” correct, such as: “This change will help my company make more money,” and finally end with benefits that are more human, such as: “This change will make me a better person.” I will never forget one hard-driving executive who chose: “When I get better at letting go” as the behavior he should work on. His first benefit was that his direct reports would take more responsibility. His final benefit was that he would probably live to celebrate his 60th birthday.

Try It for Yourself

As the exercise progresses, one of two realizations tend to dawn upon participants. Some see the more compelling motivations to change and become convinced that doing so would be worth it. My advice to these people is simple: Get started on changing now, and I’ll talk about how to do that in another column.

Others begin to feel they are just making up benefits to complete the exercise. The benefits don’t resonate with them or seem genuine. My advice to them is equally simple: Don’t waste your time. If you feel you have to make up reasons why you should change, your heart won’t be in the process, and you ultimately won’t put in the effort required.

Now, it’s your turn to pick a behavior pattern that you may want to change. Complete the sentence: “When I get better at ___” over and over again. Listen closely as you recite potential benefits. You will be amazed at how quickly you can determine whether this change is worth it for you.

Please try this out, and send in any comments or reflections that you may have.

What behavior do you really want to change? Is it worth it?

Life is good.

Marshall

My newest book, MOJO, is a New York Times (advice), Wall StreetEffective leadership skills video DVD training Journal (business), USAToday (money) and Publisher’s Weekly (non-fiction) best seller. It is now available online and at major bookstores.

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