Do One Emotionally Difficult Thing Every Day

Posted by Chris Cook on
 May 6, 2012
  ·  No Comments

How are you avoiding the tough—but productive—conversations that you could hold with your self? Or, as I like to ask, “What lies are you telling yourself right now?” (Admittedly, a little harsh.)

This week I am inspired by Peter Bregman’s article, just posted at Fast Company. Essentially, he challenges each of us to do one emotionally difficult thing every day. Most of us will avoid that challenge like the plague. But here’s why we might re-think that.

Tackling something that is emotionally charged is hard enough. But what’s worse? The pain we feel by not taking action. Not telling a colleague when his behavior is interfering with your work. Not saying no to the “friend” whose company leaves you drained every time you meet her for lunch—or anything else!

For me, it’s about articulating what’s going on. At the Coaches Training Institute (CTI), we just call it AWGO–articulating what’s going on. It’s a powerful coaching tool and can be used productively in most instances.

It’s hard to be honest and direct sometimes, especially within certain employment structures. I’ve found that as long as you are speaking with integrity and compassion, you will find greater happiness and make better choices. Every day in which you take on an emotional challenge gives you strength and underlines your integrity. It’s natural to experience fear that such openness will result in a bad outcome—that’s why it’s such a challenge.  The outcomes, though, are far better than the price you pay.

What sorts of things might you find emotionally difficult to do? Please share your ideas here. If it’s difficult for you, it’s most likely difficult for others too.

 

 

 

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You Are Not the Mistakes You Have Made; You Are the Lessons You Have Learned.

Posted by Chris Cook on
 April 23, 2012
  ·  4 Comments

Simple enough to say. Hard to own. We spend our whole lives judging and being judged by what we do—both good and bad. In our culture, mistakes are most often perceived as bad. Although lessons ensue, it’s the mistake—not the lesson—that is most remembered and internalized. It’s time to flip that paradigm. Grab hold of the lesson. Embrace the mistake. We fail forward. Without failure or mistakes, there is no learning. And isn’t learning what it’s all about? (No, it’s really NOT the hokey pokey!)

The learning model described as “Four Stages for Learning Any New Skill” shows that we begin in a state of unconscious incompetence. Then we move to conscious incompetence (where we know how much we don’t know). Then we hit the level of conscious competence, being very tuned in to the process of our work or skill.

Our end goal is to become unconsciously competent—to do what we do with complete ease, in the flow. In other words, we begin as a child who has no idea of what she knows or doesn’t know, nor of what can be known. We progress toward mastering our lives with thoughtfulness to living authentically with little or no effort.

I’m exploring this at my training this week at The Coaches Training Institute. Pretty intense stuff, and very important to becoming an authentic person and coach. I invite you to contact me at chris@capiche.us for a sample coaching session. I would be delighted to give you a complimentary 30-minute coaching session so you can begin to reach your life’s goals!

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Spring—A Time to Reawaken!

Posted by Chris Cook on
 April 11, 2012
  ·  2 Comments

Springtime. Are you ready to emerge from your wintertime way of life and welcome the new possibilities of spring? I say, “Yes, I am” and when I look at what I’m doing, it’s perfect! Last month I began the fast-track co-active coaches training program at The Coaches Training Institute in San Rafael, CA.

What do I love most about the program? I love that the co-active coaching model is built upon one very powerful belief: people are naturally creative, resourceful and whole. PEOPLE ARE NATURALLY CREATIVE, RESOURCEFUL AND WHOLE. How do you feel when you read this? Do you feel like this is a place where you are ready to embrace your future? YES!

So, for the next two months, I’ll be traveling back and forth to California for my seminars and doing a lot of practice coaching—I’m taking new clients at a reduced rate until I am certified this summer. I’m very excited about what I’m learning and how it will dovetail into my current happiness in the workplace consulting business. It will reinforce the trainings to develop high-performance teams. It also will give more depth and breadth to the executive leadership coaching I provide.

I promise to share as I go! You will meet some of my auspicious cohort—16 terrific people from far and wide: China, India, England, Norway, Seattle, LA, the San Francisco Bay Area, Colorado and Oregon. I will challenge you with powerful questions too.

Here’s one: How does your current career align with your personal values?

How would you answer? Does this make you feel good? Or do you feel like you are missing something important? Perhaps that’s where we start on your leadership coaching journey.

That’s all for now! May this spring awaken your natural states of creativity and resourcefulness. May you feel whole as you move forward with the things that can make your life feel meaningful and happier—even at work! Contact me for coaching at 541-601-0114 or chris@capiche.us.

Bonjour printemps!

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Teaching with the Power of Digital Media

Posted by Chris Cook on
 March 28, 2012
  ·  2 Comments

The educational landscape is shifting—fast. It’s because of three revolutions that have occurred since 2000. This was the message of Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, as he delivered the keynote to the NROC Annual Membership Meeting in Monterey, CA, earlier this week. NROC is the National Repository of Online Courses and is made up of members from state boards of education, school districts, digital academies, virtual universities, education networks, and more. I was at this meeting because I’ve been consulting for the parent organization, the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education. (See more about NROC and MITE at the end of this blog post.)

I was hooked immediately by the positive outcomes from this new educational model and then reeled in by the call for positivity in delivering the educational experience.

Three revolutions that are shifting the educational landscape

1). Broadband facilitates networked learning

2). Mobile connectivity alters learning venues and expectations

3). Social media aids peer-to-peer learning by doing

What does this mean? There are new kinds of learners emerging—both in capacity and learning styles. They are more oriented towards being nodes of production. More self-directed. More reliant on feedback and response. Better arrayed to capture new info. And more inclined to collaboration.

And according to the 75 NROC meeting attendees, for this new technology-based and often remote online learning to be effective, teachers, learners and parents must embrace the experience and come at it with positive expectations. Many are doing just that, and we heard compelling success stories. Others are just getting started, and many more are just beginning to think about it. There is a great deal of potential in changing the delivery of education, and there are many benefits to come.

What is the future of learning/knowledge?

Rainie referred to Shana Ratner’s (1997) “Emerging Issues in Learning Communities.”

  • With the old education system, learning is transactional. Knowledge is objective and certain. Learners receive knowledge. Knowledge is organized in stable, hierarchical structures that can be treated independently of one another. And our “intelligence” is based on our individual abilities.
  • In the new education system, learning is a process. Knowledge is subjective and provisional. Learners create knowledge. Knowledge is organized “ecologically” (i.e., disciplines are integrative and interactive). And our “intelligence” is based on our learning communities.

Don’t forget the positivity

Ben Williamson’s recent blog at DML Central about “Happiness, Learning, and Technology: Why “Affective” Schools are the New “Effective” Schools” underscores the need for digital learning to be infused with the same (or more) positivity as traditional learning. This is a great read for anyone involved in the online learning revolution. With Williams’ urging, perhaps we will REALLY transform education—as long as we make sure a positive outlook bears as much gravitas as the information that we convey.

About MITE and NROC

Supported by grants from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The Monterey Institute for Technology and Education (MITE) has developed an open education resource called HippoCampus.org to provide high-quality, multimedia content on general education subjects to high school and college students free of charge.

Contact Capiche

Positivity has an important place in every aspect of life. Please post examples so that others may see how a positive approach has helped you with a specific outcome or process. Or contact me if you are interested in exploring ways that your life can be more fulfilling through positivity. Cheers!

 

 

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April is the Cruelest Month

Posted by Chris Cook on
 March 20, 2012
  ·  2 Comments

Fools, showers and tax returns. Perhaps T.S. Eliot was right when he wrote that “April is the cruelest month.”

April is bad news whether you’re in New York desperately trying to fill in your tax return (due April 17 this year), in London gathering together your end-of-year accounts (April 6) or are one of hundreds of new graduates having a nerve-wracking start at a major company in Tokyo (April 1 is the usual date for the entry ceremony—Nyushashiki—for new employees).

Data gathered in collaboration with The Wall Street Journal (see original article; see results), tells us that people around the world are more unhappy at work in April than any other month. So why does this matter? The Science of Happiness at Work and The Performance-Happiness Model tell us that happiness is a significant indicator of performance outcomes. The happier employees are at work, the more they feel engaged, energized, and “on task.” And the less they’ll be out sick or thinking about leaving their job.

In other words, Happiness at Work predicts employee performance and motivation. And it has a significant impact on the bottom line.

Back to April and its effects. Employees appear to experience a significant rough patch throughout the month. They report spending less time on task, less time feeling energized, and less time feeling engaged. What’s worse for employers is that April is when employees report their greatest desire to leave their jobs.

But why April? There are two massive and obvious drivers: recruitment and HR practices.

Let’s take recruitment first. When organizations think of recruiting, they are unlikely to do it in December. They start in January. They write the job descriptions, check with HR and their favorite consultants. Then they get going in early February.

But by the time they’ve found the right person, April has come around–and that’s when employees move on. So it’s no surprise that the housing market is buoyant at the same time. Movement is the order of the day in April, so things get done before the summer break.

There is however a serious added effect. The employees who quit, don’t only leave their jobs: they leave a great deal of dissatisfaction behind them too.  No one likes being left while others move on to greener pastures.

The negative effect of changed relationships and responsibilities rumbles throughout April, spreading like contagion from person to person, but like wildfire if more than one key employee leaves. It’s the time when personal and professional networks interact creating a strong ripple effect.

Turning to HR practices. The exodus in April is often kick-started by new targets and key performance indicators set in January.  When the old year ends, a new one begins, and that’s when fresh targets are set. The satisfaction of having achieved a budget or met your targets lasts only a very short time—especially compared to the difficulty of starting again from scratch.

Many organizations make things worse by asking for “stretch targets” or “big, hairy, audacious goals,” aka impossible ones. Too often impossible goals, which get bosses salivating, are seen as unachievable and therefore massively demotivating by the employees who have to deliver them. Especially when those goals are coupled with uncertain economic times. That’s when employees start thinking about greener pastures—at the same time as recruitment is getting going.

So what should organizations do? Being aware of the coupled effect is one thing. If you know it’s happening you can take steps to nurture your best employees and make sure that you are connected to them. Especially at this time of year.

Oh. There’s one more thing to be aware of. Mondays are less happy than other days of the week. Employees report significantly lower levels of commitment to their jobs, goal achievement, feelings of efficiency and effectiveness, and general positive feelings to name a few.

This year April has five Unhappy Mondays and a tragic Tuesday (Tax Day). Enjoy them all.

If you’re interested in finding out how happy at work you are, click here. For a free team report for 9-19 people, contact Chris.

 

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Build Your Leadership Cache: The Wall Street Journal Picks the Best Books of 2011

Posted by Melissa Michaels on
 March 13, 2012
  ·  No Comments

With a steady stream of terrific leadership advice hitting bookstores and inboxes, how do you prioritize your reading? Do you wonder which leadership books will help you make the most difference in your organization? Check out the latest recommendations from The Wall Street Journal here. One recommendation is “The Progress Principal” by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer, published by Harvard Business Review Press. Read it and you’ll learn what enhances a worker’s “inner work life”—the stuff that inspires and motivates them to be more productive and creative, among other positive outcomes.

Let me give you a hint: let your workers make meaningful progress at work.

Sounds simple enough, but in the 15 years that Amabile and Kramer collected confidential data from 238 professionals at seven companies (totaling nearly 12,000 days), they gained a laser focus on what frustrates employees, de-motivates them, makes them hate their boss and prompts them to sabotage the success of their employer—and conversely, what motivates them toward better performance, loyalty and innovation.

So how do you facilitate your employees’ feeling of making meaningful progress at work?

Step 1: Allow pride of accomplishment. People want to make a valuable contribution, and feel great when they make progress toward doing so. Knowing this progress principle is the first step to knowing how to boost an employee’s work life. This must be harder than it sounds, as in the work diaries, on one-third of those 12,000 days, the person writing the diary was either unhappy at work, de-motivated by the work, or both. One of the most egregious examples was a head of product development, who routinely moved people on and off projects like chess pieces in a game for which only he had the rules.

Step 2: Set smaller goals to create a sense of movement toward achieving larger goals. This naturally follows the first step. By setting smaller, achievable goals and allowing workers the autonomy to meet them, workers feel a sense of accomplishment and progress. This goes a long way toward increasing motivation and performance.

Step 3: Give recognition for good work. One of the most common mistakes managers make is to assume their employees are doing just fine—or that “bad morale” was a result of poor work ethics or undesirable personality traits. A manager’s actions and words set the tone for the entire organization, and without their recognizing good work, there is little sense of accomplishment and motivation to perform.

Step 4: Encourage and reward transparency. When you hear about problems within the ranks, listen and take action. Don’t deny. Here’s a great example from Amabile and Kramer’s research. In an open Q&A with one company’s chief operating officer, an employee asked about the morale problem and got this answer: “There is no morale problem in this company. And, for anybody who thinks there is, we have a nice big bus waiting outside to take you wherever you want to look for work.” How’s that for a motivator? Makes me want to work for that manager—not!

While Amabile and Kramer’s research doesn’t provide any great new insights, it does drive home concepts that leadership gurus have been preaching for years. Provide meaningful work. Let your employees make progress toward achievable goals. And set the tone for success by recognizing and rewarding good work.

If your business could benefit by leveraging management practices that enhance employee work life, contact Capiche. We specialize in working with businesses and organizations to build high performing teams and to create a culture of productivity and innovation. Or tell us what is working for you! We hope to hear from you soon.

Photo: Image by Dan

 

 

 

 

 

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What’s so Funny ‘bout Peace, Love and Understanding? Making Cross-functional Teams Succeed.

Posted by Chris Cook on
 February 27, 2012
  ·  1 Comment

Have you ever endured a team meeting that went from productive to disastrous? Where the people from the departments that make up the team just didn’t seem to get it? They fought with each other, protected their own departments and were distracted by a bazillion side issues and personal problems? Did you drift off, thinking of Elvis Costello’s plaintive cry, “What’s so funny ‘bout peace, love and understanding?” Does it make you want to go back to the good ol’ days where each department did its job and didn’t have to worry about what was going on in other areas of the organization?

I hope not, because those days are gone and not likely to return. With your organization’s competition re-re-engineering, Six Sigma-ing, TQM-ing and getting even leaner and meaner, now is the time to get your cross-functional teams working better together.

A cross-functional team is made up of at least three people from different functional areas working toward a common goal. This team will have members with different functional experiences and abilities, and who will likely come from different departments within the organization. A team member might even be an external partner. A cross-functional team is typically responsible for all or some segment of a work process that delivers a product or service to a customer who is either external or internal to the organization. The work process requires input from several functional areas, therefore group collaboration is essential. When managed properly cross-functional teams provide flexibility, control and speed, coupled with multi-disciplinary knowledge. In fast-changing markets, cross-functional teams can quickly respond to customer needs.

So what can you do to get a cross-functional team operating at its peak potential? Start by establishing shared values and a common goal. Emphasize collaboration and team rewards. As a team, agree upon how you will operate. How you will communicate and how often? How will you hold each other accountable? How can you best help one another? Effective teams are committed to communication and collaboration as well as constructive conflict. People working on teams also develop mutual accountability for the success or failure of the team’s efforts.

What can you do to be a better team member?

  • Consider things from the point of view of your teammates
  • Think about how your work impacts the work of others on the team
  • Look for input, advice and ideas from others on the team, and don’t push your solutions on others
  • Share ideas freely; don’t be afraid to give away your “secrets”
  • Embrace the diversity of your team
  • Get to know your teammates—what they value, how they like to be recognized, their preferred methods of communication

What if you’re the team leader? Do all of the above PLUS take on more the role of a coach than a traditional manager. You champion ideas, but don’t command. You don’t give orders or assignments, but you rely on the entire team to take part in decision-making. You are not “over” the group, but rather a contributing member of the group. You promote performance and makes sure that the team efforts are in line with the goals of your organization. It is also your responsibility to be the liaison for upper management, suppliers and other outside entities. In a sense, you are the team’s key spokesperson that keeps a clear vision of the team’s goals and promotes activities to obtain those goals.

The return on investment will be increased productivity, creativity and efficiency. The end result will be better because you have developed a product or service that meets the customer’s needs and has the sales associates’ buy in. AND you will have improved quality and innovation because you are getting all the best ideas from everyone. Cheers!

Image by digitalart

 

 

 

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Why Happiness at Work Trumps Employee Engagement and Job Satisfaction

Why Happiness at Work Trumps Employee Engagement and Job Satisfaction

Posted by Chris Cook on
 February 12, 2012
  ·  1 Comment

Last Friday, I had another chance to share the benefits of happiness at work – this time with 20 members of the Douglas County, OR, Society for Human Resource Management. There was a diverse group of organizations represented – from Roseburg Forest Products, the News Review, Umpqua Dairy Products and Ingram Book Company to the Umpqua Indian Development Corp.

As defined, happiness at work is a mindset that allows you to maximize your performance and achieve your potential.

During the two hours we shared, there was discussion about the difference between happiness at work, employee engagement and job satisfaction. Fortunately, I am familiar with recent research on just that topic, so I shared the latest facts.

The concepts are related, yet very different different. One thing is certain: happiness at work is a stronger predictor of performance than engagement or satisfaction. And that’s important because performance is what you really want on the job. Here’s the paradox: people who report high levels of happiness at work also report high job satisfaction and high engagement. But people with high engagement or job satisfaction are not always happy.

How can that be? You might be strongly self-motivated and power through the challenges at work (high engagement), but you may not be happy. Nor will you be satisfied with your job. (In fact, this is often the situation with executives. And this is a good predictor of intention to quit.) This suggests that happiness at work is a bigger and more important concept than employee engagement or job satisfaction. We know the drivers of happiness at work, and we can measure them quite accurately for individuals and teams. Job satisfaction and engagement don’t lend themselves to such definitive measurement. These two concepts are more closely tied to organizational attitudes that are extremely hard to interpret or influence. These typical questions illustrate this point: “My manager helps me engage with my work” and “As an employee, how satisfied are you with your work?” Engagement and job satisfaction are typically seen as driven by the top down. I believe that happiness at work is a joint responsibility of managers and employees.

Keep in mind that job satisfaction and engagement are older concepts that were developed in the ’60s and ’70s when the workplace was very different. They are based on research that occurred inside organizations whose structures were more hierarchical and had more of a command and control approach. This doesn’t jibe in today’s flatter, lean-and-mean organizations that rely more on knowledge work.

Happiness at work takes the traditional measures of employee engagement and job satisfaction to a deeper and more practical place, with outcomes of greater performance, leading to higher levels of productivity and profits.

 

 

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Something Seemingly Outrageous

Posted by Chris Cook on
 January 28, 2012
  ·  3 Comments

That’s what today’s strategic plans need to be, according to strategist, speaker and author Randy Harrington. Our economy is changing, Harrington explained, and three things are driving that change: 1) We value experience over acquisition, 2) The emergence of integrative technology, and 3) We respond more favorably to dialogue than directives.

Harrington addressed a room of ~300 Rogue Valley business people last Friday at the 8th annual Southern Oregon Business Conference, organized by Southern Oregon Regional Economic Development, Inc. (SOREDI). He talked about how, as we move beyond the Great Recession, businesses will need leaders who are agile, adaptable, innovative and visionary. I’m not really sure how that is so different than before, but I hope to find out by reading his new book “Evolutionaries.”

Randy and Chris

To be sure, I agree with Harrington’s assessment of the three reasons our economy is changing. He talked about his twenty-something daughter not wanting a car. Not wanting a car? Well, that’s just plain un-American! That’s the main thing we all wanted at her age and younger. How can that be? Yet, she goes to India to work with severely handicapped youth. Hmmmmm. Guess that’s the new experience over acquisition paradigm. How have you experienced it?

Next, we look at integrative technology. It started out that we had these computers and we could do stuff on them, like solve an engineering problem, type a letter or manage a budget. Then, we could search the Internet and obtain information about everything. These days, our technology is doing even more—more than working on our command; they are working on our behalf. I’m so interested in seeing where this all goes . . . it’s called the semantic web and it will be ever present and ever helpful. (Click here to check out this Ted talk for some amazing info on the future of the web. Really incredible and so interesting.)

Finally, Harrington stressed the importance of relationships in the workplace. Dialogue over directives. Who hasn’t seen that emerge as the generations of workers move through and the work moves from task- to knowledge-based? And this is where my work with happiness in the workplace comes in (https://capiche.us/services/organizational-development).

In Harrington’s future vision, the most successful organizations will be led by “evolutionaries” and characterized by high energy and high speed, rockin’ and rollin’ with high levels of change—evolution. “All improvements are change, but not all changes are improvements,” he says. It takes an evolutionary to know one. Let’s all be on the lookout, and don’t forget your mirror. Thanks, Dr. Randy Harrington, for giving us plenty to think about.

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Is Anyone Sick of Happiness at Work? I’m Not, and Here’s Why

Posted by Chris Cook on
 January 22, 2012
  ·  3 Comments

Happiness at work is a big topic these days. I spoke to a packed room at the Medford Rotary about it just last week. Even with unemployment still looming large, most people are carrying 150% or more of the workload they were hired for. Companies are cutting their workforce without lowering the expected output. Someone needs to pick up the slack. How can employees stay positive and how can a company justify investing in workforce engagement programs?

How can they not? 

The billboard you see above is posted all over the San Francisco Bay area. There are many terrific books on happiness at work, and more and more articles continue to be published as the research continues. Just Google “happiness at work” and you will find articles in Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Business Review, Psychology Today, etc. There is even a great LinkedIn group that I belong to called ‘Happy at Work.’ Check it out!

According to one of my favorite happiness gurus, Shawn Achor, “Nearly every company in the world gives lip service to the idea that ‘our people are our greatest asset’. Yet when the Conference Board Survey came out last year, employees were the unhappiest they have been in their 22 years of tracking job satisfaction rates. Around the same time, CNNMoney reported a survey that indicated 84% of Americans are unhappy with their current job. Mercer’s “What’s Working” survey found that one in three US employees are serious about leaving their current jobs.”

Why is this lack of happiness at work important? Job satisfaction is not only the key predictor of turnover rates. In The Happiness Advantage, former Harvard University professor Achor makes the research case for the fact that the single greatest advantage in the modern economy is a happy and engaged workforce. A decade of research proves that happiness raises nearly every business and educational outcome: raising sales by 37%, productivity by 31%, and accuracy on tasks by 19%, as well as a myriad of health and quality of life improvements. Yet even those companies that do take leadership training seriously still ignore the role that happiness plays in leadership effectiveness.

So the secret is out! Happiness, job satisfaction and fulfillment, and employee engagement are WIN-WIN situations for employees and employers. How does your company invest in yours?

(Photo credit to: Anne Espiritu – Google+ http://bit.ly/pElTPu.)

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