Professional Documents
Culture Documents
What Really Matters Vol 1 No 2 2009
What Really Matters Vol 1 No 2 2009
Organisations That Matter
What Really Matters!
Volume 1, Number 2, 2009
Gary Ryan & Dr Andrew O’Brien
What Really Matters! Volume 1, Number 2, 2009 – is a compilation of selected articles from
The Organisations That Matter Learning Network from July 1st through to September 30th
2009
By Gary Ryan and Dr Andrew O’Brien
Published by Organisations That Matter Pty Ltd
AUSTRALIA
E-mail: gary@orgsthatmatter.com
Copyright © 2009 Gary Ryan & Dr Andrew O’Brien, Organisations That Matter®
All effort was made to render this ebook free from error and omission. However, the author,
publisher, editor, their employees or agents shall not accept responsibility for injury, loss or
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However, this is a FREE eBook. You have our express permission to share it with friends,
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reference material.
Thank You!
Thank you to all our members of The Organisations That Matter Learning
Network. We hope that you will receive great value from this collection of
articles from The Organisations That Matter Learning Network.
Please respect our copyright. This means that if you are a member of The
Organisations That Matter Learning Network you have our permission to
share this ebook with your friends and to invite them to join our
community so that they too can enjoy this book.
Best wishes!
Shared vision is not a one off event but an ongoing conversation By Andrew O’Brien ......................... 5
How to create a culture based on respect ‐ focussing upon organisational community spaces By Gary
Ryan ........................................................................................................................................................ 7
The mental models behind disrespectful behaviour .......................................................................... 8
Building 'weight of numbers' toward a new culture ......................................................................... 10
The Seven Skills of Dialogue By Gary Ryan ........................................................................................... 12
The Conversation Continuum ........................................................................................................... 12
Leadership for kids provides lessons for adults By Gary Ryan ............................................ 19
1) Everyone is a leader ...................................................................................................................... 20
2) The Figure 8 of Leadership ............................................................................................................ 20
The Figure 8 of Leadership ............................................................................................................ 21
3) Being responsible for your choices ............................................................................................... 22
How to identify your personal values By Gary Ryan ............................................................................. 24
How to stimulate ‘Conversations That Matter’ By Gary Ryan ........................................ 29
Why ‘Great Service’ means that your staff come first, not your customers! By Gary Ryan ................. 31
Defining ‘Systems Thinking’ – a core leadership skill By Gary Ryan ............................................ 34
Discover how ‘Structure Drives Behaviour’ By Gary Ryan ......................................... 39
Student example ............................................................................................................................... 39
Employee example ............................................................................................................................ 41
Elite sport example ........................................................................................................................... 43
Learn to accept your brutal reality, but never lose the faith By Gary Ryan ......................................... 46
Brutal Reality/Faith Model ................................................................................................................ 48
How little ideas can make a big difference when times are tough By Gary Ryan ................................ 50
How doing nothing can be an example of leadership .......................................................................... 53
By Gary Ryan ......................................................................................................................................... 53
How to release mental models that choke ‘Truth to Power’ By Gary Ryan ......................................... 56
What leaders can do to maintain focus on organisational objectives By Gary Ryan ........................... 60
Step 1. ............................................................................................................................................... 60
Step 2. ............................................................................................................................................... 61
Step 3. ............................................................................................................................................... 61
Step 4. ............................................................................................................................................... 62
Step 5. ............................................................................................................................................... 62
How to leverage employability skills for success By Gary Ryan ............................... 64
About Organisations That Matter ......................................................................................................... 69
About Gary Ryan ................................................................................................................................... 70
About Dr Andrew O’Brien ..................................................................................................................... 71
More in this series! ............................................................................................................................... 73
Feedback ........................................................................................................................................... 73
Join us! .............................................................................................................................................. 73
Share! ................................................................................................................................................ 73
Thank You! ........................................................................................................................................ 73
What Really Matters 2009 Vol.1, No.2
Shared vision is not a one off event but an ongoing
conversation By Andrew O’Brien
Far too often I hear executive leaders say “We did shared vision last
year and we will do it again in 4 years time as part of our 5 year
planning cycle”. Managers with this attitude are keen to be seen to
putting a big tick in their management check list and making sure they
are seen to do the right thing and can’t be accused of not knowing
what they are doing.
Shared vision requires constant attention and provides the content for
constant workplace conversations. Basketball Coach John Woden
provided an insight into the need to keep working on vision when he
said “If you go as far as you can see, you will then see enough to go
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even farther” which recognises that as we learn, grow and move
ahead we realise how much further we can go.
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How to create a culture based on respect focussing upon
organisational community spaces By Gary Ryan
When these spaces are left messy they reflect a lack of care and
respect for other staff members. Some people argue that the
"...cleaners are employed to keep the space clean, so we'd be taking
away their jobs if we did it ourselves." Such arguments seem to forget
that most cleaners don't arrive until the evening and I've never
experienced an organisation yet where there wasn't enough work for
the cleaners to do, even if a positive culture of keeping community
spaces tidy already exists.
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The mental models behind disrespectful behaviour
The mental models that may underpin these behaviours are quite
interesting and may reflect combinations of the following deep seeded
views:
3) If an area is messy when I find it, why should I clean up after other
people?
What I have found very interesting over time is how people who seem
to hold the above mental models, are also the very same people who
become quite indignant when they enter an area and it is not up to the
standard that they expect it should be when they want to use it. In
many ways they hold a very hypocritical view of the world.
Simple behaviours that demonstrate respect for community spaces
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1) When leaving a Training & Development Room, return the room to
its standard condition and set-up, even if that wasn't how you found
the room.
2) Always clean up the space that you use in the staff dining area and
place rubbish in the bin and dirty dishes in the appropriate washing
space if one is provided, and if one isn't provided either take your dirty
dishes home to wash or wash them in the staff kitchen.
3) Leave a staff shower area clean, ready for the next person to use it.
4) Place the paper towels used for drying hands in a staff bathroom in
the bin.
5) Remove litter and cutlery from a staff lounge area as you leave it.
Some people do not realise that the internal spaces of the organisation
send a strong message to 'outsiders' about what the organisation is
really like. If your organisation seeks to be respected by the outside
world, then the people within the organisation have to show respect
toward each other and this respect is often demonstrated through how
community spaces are respected.
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'Walk your beliefs' by ensuring that you show respect to others when
you use community spaces. Initially this may involve cleaning up after
other people when you first enter a space, or it might include cleaning
up after them after they leave.
Step 2: Be prepared to explain what you are doing when you are
asked, "Why are you doing that?"
When someone asks you why you are doing what you are doing, they
are effectively opening the door to their learning. Over time I have
found the practice of waiting for people to open their door to their
learning to be far more powerful than 'standing on a chair and
preaching to them'. In this context you must be prepared to be both
patient (a servant leadership attribute) and to be able to explain why
you are helping to keep the community space clean. This is the path to
building 'weight of numbers'. As people develop an understanding of
what you are doing, more and more of them will start to demonstrate
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the behaviour and just like an exponential curve rises sharply, a
culture can quickly change when it has weight of numbers supporting
the change. If there are a number of staff that you know who might
already be sympathetic toward changing the culture, engage their
support in practicing the steps outlined in this blog. It really is
amazing how powerful weight of numbers can be.
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The Seven Skills of Dialogue By Gary Ryan
The Conversation Continuum
Conversation continuum
Dialogue
Skilful discussion
Polite discussion
Raw debate
More Conventional More attuned to the sources
of group thought and bringing
them to the surface
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moving and they seek to sell their view or 'to beat down' opposing
views until their view 'wins'. People often use their positional power to
win debates which is one of the reasons why many people become
very skilled at debating.
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1. Deep listening
In its most simple form deep listening derives from the conscious
choice to listen. It involves quietening the voice in our heads so that
we can hear the true story of the person to whom we are listening. As
we listen to understand their whole story we literally stay quiet and
just listen. In exercises that we conduct on listening, people often
report that they are amazed at how much they can hear when they
know that all they have to do is listen. Instead of readying themself
for their turn to speak, the listener focuses on understanding the
speaker. Deep listening can occur anywhere, anytime. It could be with
a team member while walking down a corridor. It might be with a
customer in a busy department store or on the telephone. It might
even be with our own partners! Imagine the difference that enhanced
listening could make in that domain! The common element in all
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listening examples is the genuine choice to listen. It is both powerful
and important if deep listening is to occur.
2. Respecting others
3. Inquiry
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4. Voicing openly (advocacy)
The capacity to explain why we hold the views that we hold lies at the
heart of suspending assumptions & judgements. Much like we hang
our clothes on a line for them to dry, suspending means that we 'hang
out' our reasons for our views. This allows people to look at them,
question them and assist us in developing a deeper understanding of
our perspectives. To suspend your assumptions & judgements
illustrates a willingness to be vulnerable which is a key attribute of
servant leaders (see the articles Dee Hock - an example of a Servant
Leader and The Paradoxes of Servant Leadership if you are not aware
of servant leadership). Should we discover that our views are not
useful through the act of having suspended them before others, we
have the opportunity to adopt new ones. This experience is often
described as true learning.
This is as simple and complex as balancing sharing our view and why
we have it with asking genuine questions to better understand another
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person's view, or to allow the group to talk about issues that will
enhance the whole group's collective understanding of a topic. To
practice this skill involves utilising all the skills listed above; deep
listening, respecting others, inquiry, voicing openly and suspending
assumptions & judgements. Even if the other people with whom you
are conversing are not trying to dialogue, practicing this skill
significantly enhances the quality of your contribution to the
conversation. People will notice your enhanced communication skills
because the quality of the conversations within which you participate
will be enhanced by your contributions to them.
7. Reflecting
Our fast paced world offers little time to reflect. However the capacity
to reflect is a big rock (see the article The Rocks and the Jar) and
enhances our communication skills and capacity to dialogue through
considering how we have just practiced our skills. In team
environments it is worth holding a reflection at the end of an
attempted dialogue to recognise where the skills of dialogue were used
effectively and where they could be improved. The article Conducting
an End of Meeting Reflection provides some pointers for such a
conversation.
Summary
People often recognise that practicing dialogue is not easy. It isn't. But
the various skills of dialogue can be practised at any time in any form
of communication, and providing they are used for the purpose of
genuinely enhancing communication, practicing these skills will
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provide immense benefits for all involved and result in improved
team/group performance.
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Leadership for kids provides lessons for adults
By Gary Ryan
Over the years I have had the good fortune to have been asked to
provide some leadership development sessions for children. I usually
work with adults and many of those adults are highly educated so we
often go into quite complex areas when we facilitate leadership
programs. Working with children therefore poses a considerable
challenge. How do we distil quite complex information into an easily
understood format for children?
Three key concepts have emerged as being the ones that children
seem to be able to embrace:
1) Everyone is a leader
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1) Everyone is a leader
Over time I have found some interesting trends when working with
children. When I have asked them to raise their hands if they believe
that they are a leader or could be one in the future, virtually all the
children raise their hand. When I then ask them, "Who are leaders?"
they unanimously respond, "We are!".
Very few adults raise their hand to indicate that they think that they
are a leader.
For children, the concept that everyone is a leader and they have to
lead themselves seems relatively natural, yet for adults it seems (for
many) quite foreign. When we facilitate leadership education for adults
one of our key themes is that you can't lead others if you can't lead
yourself. My experience has taught me that children understand this
idea, so we adults have a responsibility to continue to help them
understand this concept by re-enforcing that they are, in fact leaders.
To do this, find them making positive choices and recognise them for
it. The importance of choices is explained in the second lesson below.
2) The Figure 8 of Leadership
The attached file Leadership for Kids includes a diagram outlining the
Figure 8 of Leadership.
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The Figure 8 of Leadership
Good
Positive Actions Positive Choices
Leadership
Choices
Poor
Negative Actions Negative Choices
Leadership
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The simple power of the model lies in the fact that children have the
capacity to start making good choices even if they have made some
poor ones. In other words, the start of good leadership is only a choice
away. Clearly the reverse is also true; poor leadership is only a choice
away as well. I recall a child in one session raising his hand and
saying,
"I've been making lots of bad choices at school such as not listening to
teachers and picking on other kids. I thought that I was a bad person
and I didn't realise that I was a leader. But what you're saying is that I
only have to start making good choices and I can be a good leader. I
like that idea. I can do that."
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feedback on the choices that we are making and our resultant
behaviours? Maybe such feedback would assist us in better leading
ourselves. And we never know, the better we lead ourselves the more
likely others may be to follow.
In summary, the key features of Leadership for Kids that may provide
some lessons for adults include:
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How to identify your personal values By Gary Ryan
Usually our values become evident when something happens that truly
upsets us. Our values are often the opposite to the things that deeply
upset us. For example, if someone is telling me lies and I have
discovered that I have been told lies, I have a physical reaction to that
behaviour. My values of honesty and integrity have been challenged
by the person lying to me which results in a strong reaction from me.
Similarly, I have a strong work ethic and I struggle with people who
seem lazy and then complain that nobody is helping them. In this
example, my service value is being challenged.
Jerry Porras in his book Success Built to Last suggests that it doesn't
really matter what your values are (unless they would cause deliberate
harm to others), what really matters is that you are aware of what
they are for you. This is critically important because without a deep
understanding of your values you are at risk of behaving in ways that
are not congruent with them.
If you are not sure what your values are, try the following activity. You
will require a pen and four small pieces of paper.
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1) Write what you think might be a core value of yours on each of the
four pieces of paper. You can write single words or phrases - whatever
works for you. What matters is that you understand what your values
mean. It doesn't matter if no-one else understands what you write.
3) Life is even more challenging. Out of the three values that you are
yet to set aside, which value would you set aside next? Once again,
scrunch up the paper and drop it on the floor.
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De-Brief
How did you feel when you had to select the first value to set aside?
The second one? Your reactions will tell you something about whether
or not what you wrote is more like a core value or not. A strong
reaction to the activity more than likely indicates that what you wrote
is more like a core value than not.
Now, let's go a step further. If you have discovered some core values,
do you ever behave in ways that is far worse than scrunching up a
piece of paper and throwing it on the floor? Maybe you had honesty
and integrity as a value, yet you regularly talk and gossip behind
people's backs, then pretend to be nice to them when they are around
you.
Once we identify our core values we can use them in our day to day
decision making. They help us to do the right thing at the right time.
Sometimes our actions, when driven by our values are not popular.
That is OK. There are times in our lives when we must take a stand no
matter how futile the odds may seem to be. For example, someone
may be getting bullied at work and we see it occur. What would our
values guide us to do?
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visit. He handed me an envelope with several hundred dollars in it. He
openly told me that he had over-charged my organisation for the work
that he had performed and the money in the envelope was my share
of the over-payment. If I agreed to continue to contract him and to
approve his work at inflated rates, he would continue to give me
envelopes filled with money.
While not enraged by his behaviour I was not far from that type of
reaction. I literally threw the envelope back at him and immediately
told him that I was reporting him to my boss and that he would never
work for our organisation again. He too reacted strongly and
threatened my physical well-being at which time I picked up the phone
to dial our security personnel. He quickly left our premises, never to
return.
I had not gone to work that day expecting such an event to unfold. I
had nothing but my values to guide me with regard to how I reacted in
the moment when he handed me the money. To this day I am glad
that I had the courage to follow my values. At the time I was on a
very low wage and three hundred dollars was a lot of money. But
there simply wasn't a chance that I would accept it. In telling the story
to my boss I also had to admit that I had not followed proper protocols
when I had suspected the bill had been inflated in the first place. I was
reminded of the reason why our protocols existed and promised to
strictly follow them in the future, which I did.
Imagine if I was not clear about my values and I had accepted the
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money. Imagine the ripple effect over time. I suspect that I wouldn't
be writing this blog on this topic, that is for sure!
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How to stimulate ‘Conversations That Matter’
By Gary Ryan
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The blogs and discussion forums that we create on this learning site
could be used as a point upon which to focus a conversation within a
workplace. For example, mental models are a concept that not a lot of
people have been exposed to throughout their lives. Through sharing
the blog that defines them and then hosting a conversation about
what people understood from the article, and then relating the
understanding of the blog to your workplace can produce a
conversation that matters. Real learning can occur especially if you
take the step and ask the question, "Ok, so we have created a level of
shared understanding from what we have read, in what ways does the
article relate to our workplace?".
There are many other conditions that are required to enhance the
number of conversations that matter within an organisation. One of
the key messages from Systems Thinking is that everything is
connected. If you understand this concept then you will see that all
our blogs and discussion forums are connected. The clues for creating
an organisation that is able to truly learn so that it achieves the future
it desires is imbedded amongst the many pages of this site. So, if you
see a blog or a discussion that you think might stimulate a
conversation that matters with other people, share it and host the
conversation. Please let us know how you go!
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Why ‘Great Service’ means that your staff come first, not
your customers! By Gary Ryan
Southwest Airlines in the USA have been a huge success story, not
just because of their sustainability (they have returned a profit every
year since 1971, including the year 2001 when most other airlines
suffered because of 911, and more recently last financial year when
many airlines were making tremendous losses) but also because of the
way they operate. They are the winner of multiple airline industry
awards, Service Excellence awards and Best Employer awards. While
written in 1996 by Kevin and Jackie Freiberg, the book NUTS! -
Southwest Airlines Recipe for Business and Personal Success highlights
why Southwest has been able to be so successful.
Despite founding CEO Herb Kelleher having been retired for a number
of years, the foundation stones of creating a great place to work and
striving to provide great service have continued with current CEO Gary
D Kelly. Through a core set of values that include concern, respect,
and caring for employees and customers Southwest has been an
amazing example of NOT believing the customer is always right.
The fact is, the customer is probably right 99% of the time, but you
have to be prepared to exclude customers from time to time.
Especially if their behaviour is unacceptable toward your staff and
other customers.
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throughout the centre and all new members were inducted to the
etiquette as part of their induction program. The etiquette outlined,
amongst other things, that all members needed to wear appropriate
clothing, including a top. A small group of young male 'body builders'
started training without a top. Several of the staff approached them
and kindly reminded them of the fitness centre etiquette and asked
them to replace their tops. With rude language the young men refused
to do as they were asked. As the manager of the centre I was
informed of the incident and approached the young men. We had a
short conversation where I reminded them of the expected
behavioural standards for members and they replaced their tops.
I approached the men and asked them to leave the centre. I had
another staff member ready to call for security assistance if they did
not leave peacefully. I informed the young men that they were not
only expelled from the centre but that they were also not welcome to
return unless they could demonstrate a willingness to support the
fitness centre's etiquette. Amongst a flurry of abuse and threats
toward me, the young men left, cheques in hand never to return.
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What was to follow both surprised me and re-enforced the idea that
staff must come first. In doing so, they will serve your customers to
the highest of standards.
Secondly, the staff who had experienced the poor behaviour of the
three young men all noted how important it was to them personally
that I had supported them. They said that it gave them confidence and
that it indicated that we took the overall delivery of our service very
seriously. So seriously that we were prepared to exclude some
customers if that was in the best interests of both the centre and the
vast majority of our customers.
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Defining ‘Systems Thinking’ – a core leadership skill
By Gary Ryan
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1) Every system has a purpose within a larger system.
For example, the Information Technology department within any large
corporation must fulfil the purpose required of it by the larger system.
Should the IT department not fulfil this purpose then the department
would be at serious risk of being outsourced.
2) All of a system's parts must be present for the system to carry out
its purpose optimally.
My body is a system. It contains a number of sub-systems that
contribute to the optimal functioning of my body. One of those sub-
systems is my urinary system that includes my kidneys. Should my
kidneys fail and cease to function I will die if I am unable to find a way
to replace the function that my kidneys play in my urinary system.
That part of my body's system is necessary for my body to function
optimally.
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we hit a limit and the system collapses (or dies!). Systems thinking
teaches us this very important point. The world really works in curves
and the tools of systems thinking help us to understand how the
curves work and how we can work with them.
I often hear people within organisations say things like, “We aim to
grow at ten percent every year for the next ten years.” Such a
statement actually means that the organisation is going to grow at a
very steep exponential rate over the next five years. What is the
capacity of the staff to handle such a high level of growth? How will
new staff be recruited? Is there a large enough talent pool from which
to draw new staff? What are the competitors in the industry doing?
The answers to each of these questions highlights a potential ‘limit’
that could de-rail the projected growth. Systems thinking helps you to
ask these questions and to consider their answers. Nothing grows
forever, at least not at the same rate all of the time.
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capacity to demonstrate foresight (a Servant Leadership attribute) as
well as the capacity to change to the needs of your immediate
environment, General Motors inability to do either of these have seen
it decline in a most dramatic fashion. While General Motors was able to
grow exponentially while its broader environment was favourable, its
lack of an ability to truly learn contributed to its eventual downfall.
Remember, all systems have limits - and General Motors found its own
limits.
In reality I have barely touched the tip of the iceberg with regard to
how systems thinking can help an organisation to learn. Our learning
community includes more resources and programs regarding further
development of this skill, and future books will include more
information on this topic. Please feel free to make a comment on this
article by clicking here.
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Discover how ‘Structure Drives Behaviour’
By Gary Ryan
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that the assignments are due at similar times. This is our first example
of the concept structure drives behaviour. The structure of the
semester mixed with the structure of how the marks for each subject
are established dictates when lecturers are likely to determine when
an assignment is due.
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Employee example
One of our organisational clients includes a large national sales team.
While the sales team has been relatively successful over a long period
of time, a problem emerged whereby the organisation's management
were frustrated by the apparent lack of knowledge sharing and team-
work amongst the sales team. For us this immediately highlighted a
probable organisational structure that was driving this behaviour. Our
first question to management was, "How are the sales team members
remunerated?".
The managers responded, "They all have a base salary and then
receive commissions for their sales volume. Their commissions usually
far exceed their base salary which is why so many of them are very
highly paid."
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there was minimal knowledge sharing. The sales team members were
effectively 100% in competition with each other. If one sales team
member was to share information with another sales team member,
then they might risk another sales team member 'stealing' their client
and the subsequent commission. It would take an extra-ordinary
person to not have their behaviour influenced by such a structure!
"Whoa, hold your horses! If you want a mutiny, then change the
structure as you have suggested. If you want to keep your sales team,
then you have to start where they are at and the new structure has to
be able to demonstrate that the majority of the team will be better off
under a new structure. So you'll need to negotiate a starting point with
them. Your overall sales volume will need to increase as a result of
increased teamwork - otherwise why would you change? So you must
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be able to demonstrate how your change in structure will result in
more money available for commissions. You may have to start at
something like 85% individual and 15% team based commissions to
start with. Experiment over a couple of years with the full involvement
of the team until you can find the right balance and the right structure
for the outcomes and behaviours that you desire."
Because a structure did not exist to 'back up' the feedback, over time
such feedback would hold little if no long term impact. Yes it was
uncomfortable when the issue was raised, but the discomfort would go
away quickly and things would return to 'normal'.
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tend to blame people when ‘things aren’t right’. Often it is not as
simple as that!
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Learn to accept your brutal reality, but never lose the faith
By Gary Ryan
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that my parents were under to succumb to the school's desire to have
Denis and I in the same class. Fortunately they didn't and eventually I
got used to the idea that we were going to be in separate classes.
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found a second part time job (to add to his full time job and his
already existing part time job) to enable me to go to the local boys
college.
Brutal Reality/Faith Model
Accept your
brutal reality
Never lose
the faith
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Each of these turning point stories involved experiencing difficult
times. The first three weeks of my school life was difficult. While
difficult for different reasons, going to a different secondary school to
all my brothers was also difficult. Yet I knew that it was right for me. I
now hold three degrees and am completing doctoral studies part time.
Like these brief stories that I have shared with you, participants in our
workshops have often highlighted how many of their turning points
have occurred as a result of the lessons that they learned from the
difficult times in their lives. The Brutal Reality/Faith Model highlights
that if we are prepared to accept the challenges that often come with
turning points and to maintain the belief that one day we will be better
off for the experience, it is amazing how turning points can turn lives
for the better. A challenge can be maintaining the faith that you will be
better for the experience while you are in the midst of a difficult
turning point. My life has taught me to hold that faith. How have your
turning points turned your life and how have they made you what you
are today?
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How little ideas can make a big difference when times are
tough By Gary Ryan
The team from the financial organisation that I assessed last week
shared a couple of significant results from implementing 'little ideas'.
Last year the staff in the call centre were required to complete eight
weeks of overtime leading up to the end of financial year. With 120
staff in the Call Centre that creates a significant salary overhead. This
year only one weekend of overtime was required to complete the same
amount of work with the same number of staff.
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There were two 'little ideas' that drive the response to this question.
The first was that over the past year they have created a work
allocation system that more evenly distributes work, including
ensuring that the work performed by the more senior staff in
'coaching' other staff is recorded as 'real work' for the coaches. In the
past this work was not recorded as 'real work' for the more
experienced staff so their system included a dis-incentive for
experienced staff to share their knowledge. As part of a continuous
improvement program where staff submit suggestions, a simple idea
to change the system so that the 'coaches' were recognised for their
'coaching' significantly changed the behaviour of those people. The
resultant behavioural change also meant that less experienced staff
started to access knowledge far more quickly than they had previously
been able to access existing knowledge. The result was that new staff
were more quickly gaining the right knowledge at the right time which
enabled them to become more efficient in their work.
The second 'little idea' that has caused a major efficiency improvement
for the team was as simple as pressing a button. Through the
continuous improvement program that the Call Centre has created for
its staff, one of the team members noticed that each of the 120
computers in the Call Centre took five minutes to 'boot up' at the start
of each day. There are a number of security firewalls that cause the
slow boot-up time but these are considered necessary by the
institution for security purposes. One of the staff who arrived early
every morning decided that while her computer was 'booting up' she
would spend the five minutes walking around and pressing buttons
until all the computers were activated, rather than staring blankly at
her screen.
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This meant that when the other staff arrived all they had to do was log
in and they could commence work immediately. If you do the math
and multiply 119 computers by 5 minutes, by 5 days by 50 weeks you
will discover that it adds up to over 14.3 days of extra productivity
over the course of a year. Two little ideas, one big saving.
The key factor in these examples is that the organisation has created a
culture where submitting ideas is considered normal. I was also shown
a number of ideas that have 'not grown legs and won't be
implemented' and management is happy about that. From their
perspective if two little ideas each year can produce such a significant
benefit, then the system is working above expectations!
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How doing nothing can be an example of leadership
By Gary Ryan
One of the most important roles that a leader has is the development
of the people that the leaders serve. Often this means letting those
people take the lead even though their level of performance may not
be at the same level as the leaders.
Recently a client (let's call him John) shared a story where he had
battled to resist his own internal urge to 'takeover' from one of his
team members (let's call her Amy) when it became apparent that Amy
was uncomfortable performing the task she had agreed to perform.
Amy had agreed to be the host and welcome a High Court Judge to
their team, and then thank and provide a summary of the judge's
speech to conclude the evening. After struggling through her initial
welcome John had become quite concerned that Amy's performance
was not up to his standards, despite this being Amy's first time at
performing such a role. As his discomfort rose, so too did his desire to
'save' Amy by taking over from her. John knew that he could have
done a better job and was concerned about how Amy's introduction
would reflect on the organisation if it wasn't rectified for the
concluding sections of the event.
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right, John consciously decided to do 'nothing' (which, if we wanted to
get technical, is in fact a conscious choice to do something that in this
example was to not intervene). In leadership the choice to do nothing
is often far more difficult than the choice to do something!
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John also noted how delighted he felt when Amy had 'delivered' at the
end of the judge's speech. His delight came from multiple sources. The
first was that he was delighted for Amy because he knew that she
would have been disappointed with her welcome and introduction
(which she later confirmed) and that she would have been stressing
about the summary and concluding remarks (which she also
confirmed). To overcome those stresses and to perform so well was
exciting because it showed Amy that she could recover from a poor
start and it would also give her confidence moving forward into her
next development activities. The second source for John's delight was
that he had been his own master in this little episode. On previous
occasions he had stepped in and 'saved the day', or so he had
thought. After this experience his thoughts about the previous ones
were, "What if, instead of saving the day, I had actually reduced the
development of those people so that I could look good?" It is an
interesting question, isn't it!
Leadership is not always about being the person out the front making
all the noise. Often, true leadership comes from having the personal
mastery to let others lead. In this way, doing 'nothing' can be just as
effective as doing 'something'.
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How to release mental models that choke ‘Truth to Power’
By Gary Ryan
John continued, "Then I became Captain and one of the first things I
noticed was people looking at me and waiting for my reaction and I
realised that they were now doing to me what I had been doing to the
previous Captain. And it wasn't just a few of the players, it was
everyone! But I know that I'm not the font of all wisdom because I'm
learning too. If I already knew everything about being Captain then
how could I improve over the next three to four years? I can't imagine
that I won't improve which therefore means that I'm not as good now
as I will be in the future. This also means that right now I won't know
the best way to handle every issue that comes up. I'll know a few
because I've been around a while now, but I won't know everything.
The pressure you feel to have an answer, "the answer" is incredible!"
After a period of time John added, " When I wasn't the Captain I recall
a few times when I actually did have a different opinion about what we
should do, but I never raised them because I thought to myself, "Oh
well. The Captain knows best so we should do what he thinks.
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Otherwise he wouldn't be Captain.” Guys, please don't do that, if you
have a different view to me I need to hear it. My view might be wrong.
More importantly when we put our different views together maybe
we'll all see something better that none of us could see on our own."
What an insightful series of comments. John (not his real name) is the
Captain of an elite sports team with whom I have worked in Australia.
These comments were made in relation to an explicit conversation that
I was facilitating with John and the rest of the Leadership Team with
whom he was working. The purpose of the conversation was to raise
their individual and collective awareness of their mental models
regarding leadership. The other members of his Leadership Team
remarked that they too had shared the "font of all wisdom" mental
model regarding the person holding the title of Captain. They also all
agreed how ridiculous such a mental model was and how debilitating it
probably was to their performance and their capacity to present a
different view to those in positions of power. Yet they also agreed, and
I observed in practice, just how difficult such a mental model is to stop
from a behavioural perspective.
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present a different view to the one they hold. Quite literally the issue
of 'saving face' becomes real.
Elite sportspeople are often described as "jocks who can't think for
themselves". My experience could not be further from that description.
The elite sportspeople with whom I have worked closely have been to
a person, people who are intelligent and willing to learn. Very rarely,
including in the corporate world where we work extensively have I
experienced such an open and honest conversation as the one
described above. John's willingness to be vulnerable to his team-mates
by suspending (please see the blog on the Seven Skills of Dialogue)
his mental models about his role and how they had changed as a
result of becoming the Captain was a privilege to experience. John's
intention for sharing this information was to open the door as far he
possibly could to enable his fellow Leadership Team members to be
honest with him and to not default their views to him simply because
he was the Captain.
While we never used the term 'Dialogue' the Leadership Team were
actually holding a dialogue about their individual and collective mental
models about leadership. John was concerned that if he wasn't explicit
about his transitional experience from not being the Captain to
becoming the Captain, then it would not be until the next Captain was
in his shoes that the new Captain would have an opportunity to
understand this perplexing situation. It's not hard to imagine a group
of ex-Captains sitting in a cafe joking about how they had all been
labelled the 'Font of all Wisdom" even though they knew that they
weren't!
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While this example is provided from an elite sport context, the same
phenomenon occurs throughout the government and corporate
sectors. One of the only ways to release the choke hold on people that
the mental models described above can have on people’s behaviour is
to develop the capacity to dialogue. My view and experience is that if
the capacity to dialogue can be developed within the elite sport arena,
then it can also be developed in any other sector. ‘Not enough time’ is
often used an excuse for not developing the capacity to dialogue. I
can’t think of an industry where time is less available and the pressure
as high as in the elite sport arena. The point of leverage for change
will come from both those in positions of power and those with less
power to trust the learning environment created through dialogue to
collectively release the stranglehold of these debilitating mental
models.
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What leaders can do to maintain focus on organisational
objectives By Gary Ryan
A recent question that I was asked was, "What is the most important
thing that you have to do as a manager to keep your team focused on
organisational objectives?".
There are many factors that relate to answering this question. In this
blog I will provide one approach that a leader can use to enhance the
capacity of the team that they lead to stay focused on (and achieve)
organisational objectives and goals.
Step 1.
Does your team know the organisational objectives to which it is
contributing? This may seem like a silly question but my experience
has taught me that it isn't. Too many managers aren't able to clearly
and quickly articulate the organisational objectives to which the
performance of their team is contributing. If you are in this situation
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then it is your responsibility to find out. The answer can usually be
found in the organisation's Strategic Plan or Annual Plan. These
documents will exist but all too often their implementation seems
remote from a mid-management perspective because a gap often
exists between planning and operational activities.
Step 2.
Once you have identified the objectives outlined in your Strategic Plan,
the next challenge for you is to communicate how that plan relates
directly to your team members. A simple and effective tool,
irrespective of the level of the people who report to you, is to use the
One Page Strategy Map invented by Kaplan and Norton. An example of
such a map can be found at the attached link:
http://jacobs.indiana.edu/MBA/StrategyTemplate.htm
Step 3.
Literally sit down with each member of the team that you lead and,
with a highlighter in hand, highlight each aspect of the Strategy Map
to which their work directly relates. On many levels the act of
highlighting different aspects of the content on the Strategy Map is far
less important than the conversation that you will be having with each
member of the team as you go through this process. These
conversations will create a clear and specific level of understanding
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about what each person does and how that contributes to the
achievement of organisational objectives.
Step 4.
At the conclusion of your conversation ask your team member if they
have identified any work that they are doing that doesn't seem to fit
anywhere on the map. The answer to this question will not
automatically mean that they are doing something that they shouldn't
be doing, but it certainly should indicate that further inquiry into this
work should be considered.
Step 5.
Ultimately any work performed by the members of the team that you
lead should be able to be explained in the context of how it contributes
to the strategies outlined in the Strategy Map. Any other activities may
be a waste of time and may indicate a loss of focus from the real work
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that should be performed. If possible, conduct a whole team
conversation to enable each team member to clearly and concisely
articulate their contribution (and collectively your team’s contribution)
to the achievement of organisational objectives.
If you follow the five steps above and regularly talk about the progress
that your team is making toward the achievement of the objectives
outlined on your organisation's One Page Strategy Map you will have
an enhanced capacity to help your team members maintain focus on
the work that they should be doing.
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How to leverage employability skills for success
By Gary Ryan
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8) The capacity to understand and use numbers for business
purposes;
9) The capacity for self-management across a wide variety of life
activities; and
10) The capacity to provide high levels of service in the way
that you perform your work.
With more and more people throughout the world gaining academic
qualifications, the point for differentiation and individual competitive
advantage stems from how a person has continued to develop their
employability skills. Some people believe that it is important to
develop your employability skills so that you can obtain a job. Once
you have a job then you no longer have to worry about developing
these skills. This thinking is flawed. Jobs are no longer guaranteed for
life and employees must continue to develop their employability skills
if they wish to remain employable (hence the term, 'employability
skills'). Seeking opportunities through on-the-job learning or through
training and development experiences are critical to maintaining high
employability while you have a job.
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Consciously developing employability skills is an important process
that many people forget to do. In our work with students we often
hear them refer to their part time experiences like this, "I'm just an
administration assistant", or, "I just work at a gas station." Having
performed many menial jobs throughout my youth and undergraduate
studies I have formed a view that there is never a situation where
what you are doing is 'just a job'. All jobs create the opportunity in
some way, even if only small, to develop employability skills. The
same is true for full time employment.
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up an answer for a 'what if' style question) it is critical to be able to
have a range of stories at your disposal to share in an interview.
Once you have captured your stories all you have to do is listen
carefully in an interview to the questions being asked, and then tell
the most appropriate story for that question. A significant benefit from
recording your stories is that many stories contain a range of
employability skills. For example, a leadership story may also include
aspects of teamwork, communication, problem solving etc. Once you
have your leadership story prepared you also have the capacity to tell
the same story from the perspective of those other skills. In the
context of an interview you may be asked a question about teamwork
that, for one reason or another the teamwork story that you have
prepared may not be the best story or example for use in response to
that specific question. Your leadership story, on the other hand may
be a better story to tell, but from a teamwork perspective.
In this way the ten stories that you prepare (one for each of the
employability skills listed above) can turn into 40 or 50 stories when
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you walk into an interview. How confident do you think you would be if
you walked into an interview with 40 or 50 genuine stories? Most
people say, "I'd be very confident!". The key is to follow the flow of
the interview and to select the most appropriate story for the question
that has been asked.
In this context what are your employability stories and how have they
helped you in an interview to be successful in being offered the job
that you wanted? Alternatively, if you have been involved in employing
people, how important are employability skills in the context of your
recruitment strategies?
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About Organisations That Matter
Organisations That Matter specialises in helping organisations matter.
To their people within the organisation, to the people the organisation
serves and the people within the broader community within which the
organisation exists.
9 Young Professionals
9 Students
9 Strategic Advice
9 Facilitation
9 What Really Matters
9 Desired Futures
9 Consulting
9 Mentoring
9 Development Programs
9 Learning and Change Reviews
9 Behaviour and Performance Materials
9 Keynote Speeches
9 Conference Packages
9 Theme Weaving
9 Membership
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About Gary Ryan
Gary Ryan is a consultant, author and speaker who helps
organisations, organisational leaders, graduate employees,
graduate students and undergraduate students to be the very
best that they can be. He is passionate about helping
organisations to matter to their people; to their stakeholders
and customers; to their community and to their environment.
Through helping employers align what they say with what they
do, as well as helping current and future employees do
likewise, Gary knows that he can help organisations matter!
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About Dr Andrew O’Brien
Andrew is a sought after speaker, author, facilitator, executive
adviser and consultant. Drawing on his extensive experience as
a Chief Executive Officer and facilitator Andrew is highly
regarded for his ability to connect with people from the Board
Room to the Front Counter and everywhere in between.
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as part of the Partnerunning brand of Organisations That
Matter.
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More in this series!
Please keep your eye out for the other two ebooks in this
series.
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