FOCUS

Are you inundated with communication? Emails, IMs, meetings, and if it still exists, phone calls. On any given day, I receive 30 emails an hour, averaging 1 every two minutes, a meeting every hour, sometimes every half hour and lately every 15 minutes, lastly a constant flow of IMs. I’m exhausted just writing about it. Maybe your day is not as bad, but I bet it can still be filled with over communication.

This blog post compliments my tagline, "People plus Process plus Technology." All three elements must blend to be successful at anything, manager, project management, educator, builder, everything. We must learn to balance them. I put the elements in order of importance, so don’t let today’s communication technology override the most important element - People.

Here are few of my communication rules:

• Emails – all cc’s do not require my response and may not even get read
• IMs – you really need a response now or used for multi-tasking (listening in a meeting, but not participating)
• I may, or may not, answer based on my role above
• Meetings (Skype or live) – require an agenda to determine priority and/or attendance
• Phone – if someone calls me, it is definitely a priority (and a preference)

Roll all these communication rules into one theme – FOCUS

Only a Super Human can satisfy every communication received, during the day.

Now, a message to management – consolidate information.

• Plan to send out your communication once a day, at a regular time would be best,  every morning or end of day even better to cover routine items, like process
• Advise your reports to prioritize their communications
• Assign specific areas of expertise to qualified associate(s) to reduce irrelevant communications to everyone (focus your team)

In the long term, productivity will increase. I promise.

People - Part II

People - Part II

As my head spins about all the productivity and measurement programs available to all organizations, listed below, there is one element required in all of them - People.

• Lean
• Kaizen
• Six Sigma
• ISO
• Scrum
• Agile
• Waterfall
• KPI
• Plethora of smaller metric tools

I have worked with startups, small and medium size businesses (SME), and large corporate internal departments and not one of them can exist, improve, or grow without people. Yes, you can use software to measure productivity, output, KPIs, etc., but a person needs to interpret and make business decisions based on the data.

True confession; I love the show The Profit. Marcus Lemonis displays personal strengths and weakness in helping businesses survive, aka humanity. Spoiler Alert: here is the theme prevalent in most episodes - weak and/or change resistant leadership, lack of basic business financial acumen, and most importantly, people skills.

The purpose of this blog post is to repeat my personal business axiom, "If the people grow, the company will grow." Invest in your people, which can be as simple as listening to them. You may not need any of the programs listed above.

It's All About People

The title of my website displays the convergence of People, Process and Technology, but nothing can occur without people.

Process and technology cannot function separate from people. People write and follow the process. People write and execute code. People communicate with people to achieve a goal. Teams cannot exist without people. Customers are comprised of people, whether internal or external of the organization. People are the key to any successful project. 

People skills should be the highest valued acumen, in any successful organization.

Leadership’s Role in Lateral Conflict

There is always a vertical manager hierarchy in every organization. Some companies this hierarchy is short, others can be quite layered. When it comes to problem solving protocol, there are typically rules to follow. One well known rule is you never leap frog your direct reporting manager. This is proven political and career ending suicide. I want to address a lessor known, or possibly not practiced, management protocol regarding lateral conflict resolution.

When conflict arises between intradepartmental team members, it’s leaderships’ role to resolve it, while retaining the team member’s relationship.

Here are the steps that have worked in my experiences:

1. One or both of the conflicting team members contacts their direct manager and explains the situation
2. The direct manager contacts the non-direct member’s manager
3. The two, or more, managers involved in the situation discuss resolution, independent of the team members (this does not exclude input from the team member)
4. These managers explain the resolution to their direct reports

The benefit from this conflict resolution approach preserves the day-to-day working relationship of the team members.

This protocol can be effective at any level of management. I would hope the higher up the leadership chain the conflict rises, the quicker the solution, based on all the factors contributing to this level’s position. Too often, conflict resolution is restricted to the team member and reporting manager. This eliminates the other parties involved in the conflict and reduces resolution success, at least in the long term.

Is it real or is it Rhetoric?

Companies love buzzwords. Every industry has them and many are common between them. What is their etymology? Is it generational? What is the purpose?

I’ve been involved with companies where buzzwords we literally comical. In a roundtable meeting with "C" level executives, the CEO would laugh at you, if you used a buzzword in your update. He even created on-the-rock glasses with the current buzzwords printed on them. Other companies have distributed posters to incentivize associates to be "team players" or "innovative."

The real question is "Why do buzzword exist?" In the case of motivation, are the effective? I have an answer, "It depends." I purport the axiom, "Put your money where your mouth is." Take the word "game-changer" or "disruptor" if the company takes an associate’s suggestion and implements it, then it’s real. Take the word "empower". This buzzword has been around for decades. If an associate takes an initiative and gets reprimanded, then it’s rhetoric.

Personally, I prefer quotations over buzzwords. The quote doesn’t need to be from a famous person, and least of all, from an actor. As long as it is positive, truthful, and/or inspires action, I like it. I’ll share two I came across in preparing for this blog.

There are only three measurements that tell you nearly everything you need to know about your organization’s overall performance: employee engagement, customer satisfaction, and cash flow.

Jack Welch

Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers.

Stephen R. Covey

How many companies adhere to these words of wisdom? Only the successful ones!

If you’re up for some more buzzword fun, here are two links I enjoyed researching this subject.

Business buzzwords to watch in 2018

List of Buzzwords from Wikipedia

How Do You Communicate?

With all the technology to communicate, email, text, chat, phone (landline or cell), what is the best tool?

I had a rule, when I was in corporate America, after three consistent emails back and forth, I picked up the phone and called the person. After two consistent phone calls , I’d show up in their office. Of course, this was before text and chat. Now, the rule would still apply. Just include text and chat with email.

It seems we have become to dependent on texting. Sometimes I think to avoid face-to-face communication. Don’t get me wrong, I think texting is a good thing (as long as you’re not driving). It can be less intrusive, like email, allowing the recipient to respond on their own time or get a quick answer to an immediate need.

A colleague of mine told me he sends an email and then calls the person. He’s in sales and informed me people have a harder time saying no over the phone. The concept is valid in all communications. Working with someone in their presence has its own dynamics - facial expressions, tone of voice, body language, etc. I think these are positive traits, whether the conversation is positive or negative, typically some result is accomplished.

If we all could adopt a similar policy to communications, as mentioned above, I believe humanity in the workplace can be augmented or even restored if lost. Life is all about relationships.

Fact of Life

While posting a comment on a website, I realized my statements were applicable beyond that articles subject matter. Later the same day, I had several conversations were this "fact of life" was revealed again. Enough waiting.

Fact of Life: No matter how old you are, what job you have, where you are in life, there will always be good and bad people. How you react defines you.

Is Social Media Anti-Social?

A portion of my day is spent reading blogs, as many of you do. Social media is the key topic of many blogs and rightly so, as it's a key economic driver for many industries, not just web companies. The current axiom is "you're nobody, unless you're on a social network." This is not restricted to people, but companies of all types. No one is immune to this phenomenon.

But the question I raise, from my readings and experience, is the title of this blog. Is social media anti-social? I've spoken to MBA students who supported my research and the answer is "it can be." Friends text and use the social networks to communicate, many post the trivial details of their lives. This appears to be social, but in most cases there is no emotional engagement. I think of it in the same vein as the when email communications began (admit you remember when there was no email). People became frustrated and even mad, because they could not determine the author's tone. Jokes became offensive, until the icon vernacular developed, i.e. smiley faces, lol, etc.

Redefine social networking is "posting" not "sharing".

One blog exchange I read displayed the reader clearly could not understand a company's reason for sending a physical "Thank you" gift, or even a phone call thank you, for a large order they received from a customer. They believed a email was sufficient. Which do you believe is the better approach for relationship building and retaining?

The most prevalent environment, supporting this subject, is in a restaurant. I challenge you to look around and survey how many people are engaged in verbal communications, looking up at each other (as opposed to looking down using their smart phones), or heaven forbid, PDA-physical connection.

Social networking is an incredible communication channel and I love having found and connected with lost friends, from around the world. When I'm in another city, I try to arrange a physical visit and engage a verbal conversation or share an event with them. Heck, sometimes, I call them on the phone, spontaneously. Voice is an amazing sound with inflections, laughter, tears … emotions felt, received, responded with heartfelt reactions.

Keep networking, but don't forget and/or learn how to communicate, using your other God given senses.

Just image a physical hug. How does that make you feel?

When To Fire Your Marketing/Advertsing Agency Part II

How often do you meet with your Account Representative? Who meets with them? Do you have a feedback loop in place?

In theory, there should be some contact everyday. In practice, there should be some contact everyday. Yes, I repeated myself. Go back and read it again.

Okay, there can be some factors that preclude daily contact:
    •    It a project based relationship
    •    The project schedule has specified touch points
    •    You're very smart and already have scheduled periodic meetings
    •    Scope of relationship, including investment ($)

A standard agency practice is to provide "Call Reports". Each time someone in your company speaks with the agency, an email, or some other documentation is provided by the agency. Usually, this occurs within 24-48 hours of the contact. This report identifies the parties involved, the discussion points and action, if required.

Action is further detailed with deadline and who's responsible.

Finally, the most critical factor in good communication, I call it "Key Contact." Having a list of contacts  and responsibilities is great, but there should be a catch-all person, affectionately called the "Key Contact." Nothing is more frustrating than not being able to get someone, when you need them. Key Contacts are on both sides of the communication chain.

Oddly, our industry is communication and we seem to be just as guilty as most industries about it.

Part III will cover, "When to fire your client."

Communication and Empowerment

When you speak with someone, can you look them in the eye? Are you a "crackberry" head? Are you addicted to power? Can you leave your job for more than two seconds, without being connected?

I love technology and guilty of being a geek (but a creative one) myself, so don't get me wrong about communication tools. The point is iPhones, and the like, are just that, tools.

While eating at a Waffle House, I noticed a nearby young couple sitting across from each other. For those not familiar with this restaurant chain, the place and tables are small. Each person, at this table, was on their respective devices. No verbal or visual communication. You see this scenario at the theater, in church, meetings, in the grocery store, everywhere. What was the point of being together?

Next, can work survive without you for an hour? A day? God forbid, a week? Think about this, a week's vacation. If the answer is no, you haven't done a good job of preparing and empowering your people or you're a candidate for a heart attack, because you're addicted to the power. Or both.

My management philosophy has proved to be valid and I share it with you.

    I do not get upset if a manager makes the wrong decision, as much as if they don't make a decision at all.

Mr. Whitacre, the General Motors' CEO, became upset when highly compensated executives came to him for a decision. I read, he sent them out of his office and told them they were paid to make those decisions. I applaud him. If managers can't make appropriate decisions, in their area of expertise or responsibility,  the wrong people are in these positions.

When I'm not connected via technology, I find myself creatively thinking. When your mind is at rest, great things come to the surface. This is a psychological truth, too deep to cover in a blog. Here's a simple example. When you lay down to sleep (assuming you do sleep), have you noticed your mind remembers things or new ideas pop into your head? If you haven't experienced this feeling, seek help.

Morals to this blog:

• Talk with people. Practice with someone nearby, right now. Look them in the eye. This is called respect.
• Review your management team, empower them as a subject matter expert. This is called respect. If you're a manager, seek empowerment.
• Finally, turn off your device. First for 5 minutes, then 10; work up to a whole day and beyond.

Then, enjoy a nice conversation with someone at the Waffle House.