How The Future Looks

Lately I have been reading a lot of predictions for 2012. It’s hard not to – everyone from editors to researchers to artists are speculating about trends all over the place. It seems a normal New Year’s diversion – to get ahead of the pack by figuring out what is in store for us. I’ve found that reading an abundance of predictions at once can have quite an impact. For some people it is inspiring and engaging; creating an “I can’t wait to experience that” kind of feeling. Others might feel irritated, frightened or annoyed – like wanting back the peace-of-mind of current reality.
No matter how thinking about the future impacts you, it does seem like January is a good time to do so. Here are the changes I am personally noticing about how we live and work.

• The pace of change will be slowed by what people can handle. As I look at all of the new technology, gadgets and processes that are becoming available I could easily be sucked into thinking that the people using them are super-fast too. This holiday season I experienced airport line-ups and general mash-ups. Sure there were smart-phone apps and kiosks to print out boarding passes. But put all that in the hands of people – cranky, tired, confused and just plain rude passengers and you quickly see the result. Slick technology will never trump our plain-old less-than-perfect human nature.
• And because of that, we will avoid each other. On-line shopping is taking off – I think even the die-hard paranoids are figuring out ways to use PayPal. Delivery services and courier companies have it made. One of the benefits is, let’s be honest, not having to drive, wait in line or deal with a sales clerk. During the busy season, I can avoid the crowds and perhaps avoid the cold and flu germs it carries. So I can order a gift, wrapped, and have it delivered to another town. I get my prescription by touching a keypad on my phone, and I can order what I want on my pizza without talking to anyone. Cool.
• Adding to our physical isolation. Political correctness has removed any physical contact from the world of work or school. So has the fear of a pandemic. Aren’t you amazed at how many anti-bacterial hand stations have sprung up? (Another industry I should have invested in.) Yet the desire to touch is seen in our renewed attention to the tactile: Interior decorators are plugging grass wallpaper and faux-fur cushions and throws. There has been a resurgence of actual concrete products accompanying the virtual; e-books released as hard-covers with linen pages and rough edges. Retro kitsch pieces – which touch us nostalgically – are snapped up off e-bay. And spa services like massages and pedicures are used to alleviate stress by bringing physical touch to us. Admit it; touch screens are our new playthings.
• Less cars and home phones. A number of my friends and family members no longer have land-lines – they rely solely on their cell phones. Think about how quiet your home phone has been lately (not counting solicitors or politicians). I predict many people will avoid buying cars too – the price of gas, maintenance and insurance is too high and public transit continues to improve. I hope those one-driver vehicles clogging our highways will start to fill up with carpoolers – workmates with a shared commitment to be “green.” Zipcars has a Toronto and Vancouver location offering shared car ownership and advertise they take 15 cars off the road. Employers who think they can advertise entry level jobs with a car required will have to get real.
• Simple and integrated will be demanded. Many predictions say we desire to better integrate the disparate and fractured aspects of our world – the multitude of competing technologies, products and channels. I agree: It’s tiresome to jump gaps between tools meant to serve us. If it’s not intuitive and useful, I don’t want it. I’m sick of companies competing instead of collaborating so their products work together. How many pass-codes can a person remember? The best appliances will be those that I can just buy and use, without having to read a 40 page manual. Once you use a phone that can type your spoken texts it’s hard to go back to manual texting. Same for customer service – efficient, fast and friendly please. Fix it before it breaks if you can. Some companies are now offering to take back their used products when you’re done with them, for recycling or redistribution. Nice.
• Hey, pay attention here!! In a world with a smorgasbord of information at your fingertips (thanks Google) and many jobs structured around multi-tasking, people are forgetting how to pay attention. Reading Tweets makes it seem like an essay this long is a novel. People read email on their morning 5 km runs. We’ve learned to skim the surface and have trained our brains to hunt and peck. The constant stimulus makes anything normal speed seem boring. Of course conflicts flare and misunderstandings spin out of control because text-messages are written furtively, quickly, in the dark at the opera: “Hey, it was a slow part!” Every conversation is a side-bar. In a world like this, intimacy is lost. How rare become the skills of patience, listening and focusing. I think many people will confuse attention with love. Mindfulness and meditation practices will continue to gain in popularity and that will help. In the future schools might re-teach concentration, memorization and paying attention.
• Mini-vacations mean leaving the device off. The pervasive social network and over-stimulation of 24/7 availability has started to create a backlash. With so little privacy and so many attempts by marketers to niche them together, people are starting to long for their own space. Coming off the grid, even for a few hours, feels like leisure and relax time. Anyone who has forgotten their phone and then felt the unexpected freedom knows what I mean. Brave souls are going further to open up space for random discovery and spontaneous events to occur. They are turning off the GPS and checking out tripped-upon restaurants before seeking smart-phone peer reviews. Then, after the surprise delight, deciding to not share their experiences on-line but keeping them secret and personal.
• No matter what, the future arrives one day at a time. Thinking about change and the future is strange because it’s such a cognitive experience. You might decide to think about the future today, or to remember the past. As an escapist pursuit it can be fun and nurturing. But the present moment is where everything happens. Our lives arrive one moment after another. Have fun using your brain to plan, daydream or anticipate – but be mindful of this present moment. It’s all there actually is.

Write Annual Work Objectives That Motivate

The end of a calendar year invites you to think hard about what needs to be accomplished next in your business. Writing personal and team objectives is a natural beginning to the new year. As you embark on writing your business objectives – or those of your staff – here are a few concepts to keep in mind to ensure that your objectives are more than just words on paper.

1.  First, align to a few strategic priorities. You indicate priorities to the whole organization by what you pay attention to. Everyone should be paying attention to the same key indicators. If you use a balanced scorecard approach, write your objectives in the same categories all the way down the organization’s ladder. If client and employee surveys are used to track results, write measures that link to these. If the CEO talks about three key indicators, link to them.
2. Simplify and generalize rather than splice it too finely. Too many objectives, and too many details about how they will be achieved, stifle people’s creativity and create an expectation of “adherence” rather than encouraging creativity and self-empowerment. Do the objectives clearly state what’s important in this role, and how success will be measured? Great. That’s enough. If many people share the same role, give them the same objectives with room to shine.
3. Separate the “measure” from the objective. For each objective, write out the measures. Ask the question “how will we know when we have succeeded?” The outcome is your success measure, but some people confuse the outcome with the objective. The acid test is to ask “Why are we doing this?” The true objective reflects your strategic intent.  For example, “Reaching an 80% satisfaction rating in our next client survey” is not an objective – it’s a measure. The real objective might be to create a satisfying relationship with the most profitable clients in order to retain their business. Same with “Make 30 phone calls a day.” The real objective might be “Ensure high potential clients know about the advantages of our product and service offerings.”  Action items below such objectives can be varied and creative, and even emerge as the year progresses. The idea is that every action is taken because of the likelihood it will cause the intent of the objective. If your objectives are measures, your people will focus on attaining the right “measures” instead of reaching for the intent of the objectives. 
4. Everything can be measured. Some organizations shy away from setting objectives that they think are too subjective – “how would we measure that?” Generally, the more distrust in an organization, the more emphasis on numerical statistics for performance measurement, by both leaders and staff.  Any objective is easier to measure when you use behavioural descriptions of the expectation. Actual, demonstrated behaviour is the best measure for objectives around teamwork, client service, showing initiative and the like. If the work set-up makes it difficult for leaders to observe behaviour directly, write down who they’ll be tapping into for this information. And don’t neglect to ask the person doing the job to provide their own proof of how they met these objectives.
5. No matter what the written objectives say, what you publicly pay attention to is what is deemed most important. If your leaders publish or compare stats, or speak publicly and often about certain projects or behaviours, those will be the expectations people pick up on. Leaders should be consistently talking about the strategic intent behind the objectives.
6. Changing expectations need to be articulated, and even then, it takes time for people to make the transition. People will cling to old expectations until they are confident they can be successful in the new ones. And leaders, through habit, will inadvertently continue to pay attention to the old indicators instead of the new ones! Re-write objectives to reflect business changes throughout the year. It forces clear articulation and dialogue.
7. Setting unrealistic or unreachable goals de-motivates people. It’s amazing how many times objectives are set by the leader and then totally ignored by staff, who know they are unrealistic. When everyone knows the goal isn’t really the goal but a “pie in the sky” number, than writing the goal is just a game. Who’s kidding who? Make the objectives challenging but attainable. Don’t forget that the main reason for writing objectives is to motivate people to achieve business goals. Set people up to succeed.

 

Professionally Dealing with Life’s Distractions

Let’s face it – sometimes work gets in the way of life.  Or vice versa, depending on how you look at it.  Even the most organized and well-balanced people will face unexpected and unwelcome distractions from work. Whether it’s a crisis like an injured loved-one, a child’s struggle with schoolwork or a flooded basement – or a more positive distraction like getting married or falling in love – eventually life is going to interrupt your concentration.  What works for one, won’t work for all – but here are a dozen suggestions for you (or for you as the leader of a distracted employee) that you can use to help keep things on-track:

1. Don’t deny you are distracted. Those around you may be impacted sooner and may also notice faster that you are distracted. Pay attention and don’t be offended if co-workers or others are hinting that you seem aloof. Memory-loss is common when your mind is distracted, so watch for missed instructions, missed appointments and forgetting things you usually know by rote – like driving the wrong way to work, forgetting your photocopying key number  or leaving out an ingredient in your favourite recipe.
2. Plan, plan, plan. When you feel pulled in every direction sitting down to plan your week can be incredibly calming.  You know what you have to deal with and you must set reasonable expectations of yourself.  Some people start to plan their lunches and wardrobes for the week, so it’s one less thing to worry about on a daily basis.  
3. Stick to a routine as much as you possibly can. Change nothing that has been working well for you up to now. Drive the same way to work. Hold team meetings each week. Make your lunch like always. It may seem boring, but it works.  The more you can do on “autopilot” the more you can focus on the things you really need your brain for, i.e. your job. 
4. Rely on more than your memory. Writing things down is a great way to remember them. Use the old stand-by: Create a Things to Do list at the start of every day – and then keep checking it. Give yourself a break and write down everything for a while. Use written instructions to yourself to keep focused in conversations too. Before you pick up the phone or go to a meeting, write down the points you need to cover and what exactly you are asking for. After a conversation write a quick note to the other person (cc to you) about what you both decided. When working with details (budget figures, invoices, important memos) ask someone else to edit and double-check your work.
5. Build in short energy breaks. This can be hard to do when you are used to having high capacity and everyone around you thinks of you as always being available. Set a watch or an alarm on your PC for every 50 minutes and get up and walk around for 5 minutes or so. Pretend that you are preventing leg cramps if you have to, but give yourself permission to get away from your work screen/phone/desk and move. Moving your body will relieve some muscle tension, especially if you learn to do shoulder shrugs and head rolls while you walk. Go out for fresh air or at least walk up and down one flight of stairs. Take deeper breaths into your belly and when you exhale force out the air with a big sigh. Forget to take your cell phone and make it a total “I’m not available” break.
6. Schedule time to think about what is on your mind. Instead of just pushing away whatever is bothering you, actually schedule time to think about it. Give yourself permission at lunch or right after work – once a day – to just sit and think about what is going on.  Journal your thoughts and feelings – it helps to put them on paper and then close the book. Or speak to someone you trust and who cares enough to listen without judgment. The key thing is to give what is important to you its due.
7. Be careful who you confide in or unload on. Many an unsuspecting employee has revealed too much to their boss or co-workers when they were under pressure. This is a time to be discerning about how much you share. Even the most empathetic and understanding workplaces have long memories. Your distraction may be tolerated now, but you don’t want to hear about it in your performance review in 6 months time. You can never predict how it will change the perception of you as a capable performer. Best to keep personal details to yourself and ask for only the accommodation you need. And especially don’t take your stress out on others. You need a fan club when you are going through tough times, so snapping at those who can help you is not a good idea at all. If you do, apologize sincerely as soon as possible – without spilling your guts. 
8. Ask the right people for help. If there is a confidential Employee Assistance Program (EAP) don’t hesitate to use it. This is a time to make use of counselling professionals – your doctor or your pastor. If you have an HR partner you trust, you might confide in them. Outside of work you should lean on your friends and your family. You’d do the same for them – so don’t be too proud to ask for help. You might have vacation days or sick days to use – go ahead and use them if a rest is recommended. 
9. Prioritize your life. If there isn’t anyone to help, you will have to scale back in some area while you work with the additional burden of distraction. That might mean an apartment not quite so clean. Choose something that you can let slide without too much angst. Re-negotiate commitments and promises. Sometimes you need to take a break from volunteer positions for a time.
10. More than ever, take care of your health. That means eating right, exercising, and getting enough sleep. Don’t succumb to the stress eating temptations of fast food and junky snacks. If you absolutely can’t find time to work out (try the mornings!) then go for a brisk walk at lunch, no matter what. Go to bed on time.  You probably aren’t sleeping well already so don’t stay up late and completely ruin the possibility of getting a minimal amount of sleep. 
11. Prioritize at work too. Pare down to the essentials of your work. What are the must-do’s for today? Take it one day at a time. This is a good time to delegate and to develop the capacity of your staff and peers. Let them pick up a few meetings on your behalf. Decide to teach someone else how to use the systems/tools only you know how to use. Ever teach someone to drive? Demonstrating and explaining to another is a great way to keep focussed and ensure you are hitting all the details.
12. Enter another world when you go to work. Drop your cares at the door and focus, focus, focus.  Make work a haven from the stresses in your life. Collaborate with your co-workers. Understand expectations.  Deliver on time. In other words, perform. It may seem like an act sometimes, but do it anyway.  Everyone has times when their work capacity is diminished. Once you accept that, it’ll lighten your guilt load, you will be able to find your way back much faster.

A special thank you to a very professional leader, Mary Ann Mooney, for her wise contributions to this newsletter.

Let’s Get Real: Tips for dealing with unreasonable people

It’s a common workplace dilemma: You start a new job, excited and eager based on what you were told in the interview. Within two weeks on the job, the bloom is fading.  A recent client framed the issue this way:  “My new boss is asking me to do things that are not part of the job, at least not the way it was described to me in my interview.  And, her demands are unreasonable – suddenly I find I have to work evenings and weekends just to keep up to her expectations. What do I do?”

The underlying issue here shows up in many relationships – any time someone else has unrealistic expectations of you. Yes, it’s often a boss, and often a new boss whom you need to impress or satisfy of your credibility. But it can just as often be your staff, your peers and your family, who expect and demand too much from you.  What can a person do when faced with unrealistic expectations?

1. Scope the problem. Is this a short-term situation or an exception? There are many cycles in various industries where volume of work spikes.  There are also exceptional circumstances, like when a crisis require “all hands on deck.” If you are being required to step- up to a challenge that will be over in the short-term, then do it. In a new role it is important that you prove you are committed.  Leaders especially need to be available and visible during tough times.
2. Don’t slap negative labels on the other.  It’s easy to take on a victim mentality and say things like: “He’s being unreasonable.”  Even if you feel that way, my guess is that the other person feels what they are asking for is perfectly reasonable.  Try becoming more curious. Ask lots of questions: Why does this need to be done now and not later; why is this is so important; how does this fit into the bigger scheme of things?  As Stephen Covey says, “Seek to understand before being understood.”  Often getting more information is the first step in effectively prioritizing and negotiating deadlines.
3. Recognize leadership styles. There are some leaders who believe that the best way to motivate high performance is to keep piling on the expectations.  Either they themselves are motivated by the unreachable goal, or they were taught this method early in their career.  In fact, goal setting is a delicate science – a goal needs to be challenging enough to create energy (vs. boredom) and yet not so impossible as to be deemed ridiculous and dismissed. If you are working for someone who never stops making demands, you’ll notice they do this with everyone. It might be a simple leadership style, or an inability to empathize with others. That means it falls to you to gauge where your own healthy balance of challenge and ease lies.
4. Show what it takes. Many leaders are actually unaware of all the steps involved in implementing their demands. In fact, the further away a leader is from the operational work, the easier it is for them to forget what is involved in making things happen.  If you seem to be too relaxed at work, they assume you don’t have enough to do. Don’t hide what it takes because you think it’s bothersome in the details. Share the details. Show the many draft copies not just the final version. Let them see you slogging away. Have your calendar show blocks of time for meetings and also for “deskwork.”
5. Get good at estimating time required for the demands made.  Be ready and able to counter-offer demands with a more realistic expectation. Keep a log for yourself and pay attention to how long it takes to do the routine tasks that must get done. For one or two weeks do a time-study on you.  Once you are armed with factual experience, you can sit down with your boss (or peer or staff) and explain how your hours are being spent.  Here’s a new habit to take on: Instead of saying “yes” quickly when a new demand is thrown at you, politely say, “Let me figure out what’s required to do that and I’ll get back to you.”  Try not to agree to deadlines that feel unreasonable the minute you hear them. The more attention you pay to what you are doing, the more confidence you will have in pushing back.
6. Involve others in prioritization. It’s one thing to say “I can’t do it.”  It’s another to say:” I can do this, but something has to give. We’ll have to think of what else can either wait or be given to someone else. What can we take off my calendar to get this done?”  Start from a position of wanting to accommodate and involve the asker in juggling priorities. Demonstrate flexibility and a willingness to take on emerging demands – but keep in mind that the work hours you have available are finite.
7. Have a courageous conversation. This is especially important in the early stages of a relationship. You need to establish ways of discussing issues before they become full-blown conflicts. In the case of the new job, schedule a private meeting to discuss your perception that the role is different than what you expected. Perhaps it is changing. Perhaps the prior incumbent did lots of things that are not in the job description. Or, perhaps the new leader has seen skills, talents and experiences in you that she wants to make full use of. Whatever the reason for the shift, you need to be proactive in discussing what you are able and willing to do.   
8. Say no. Unrealistic expectations and demands are a part of life. Whether it’s a customer, an employee or a boss, there are times when you will need to say no. Consider your personal history and comfort level with that word.  You may need to practice saying no.  Start small and say it more often. Eventually you’ll be ready to say no without feeling guilty, mean or unreasonable.

The hefty weight of procrastination

Most of us do it -  which technically means we don’t do it, really.

I’m talking about procrastination, that annoying habit we have of letting things languish. Everyone has something they are ignoring. There is the file that needs to be cleaned up, organized and put in a secure place. And the project report we promised a colleague we’d read and comment on, which is due any day now and sits in the bottom of our pile of reading. More pressing is the difficult phone call to tell a valued customer they won’t be getting what they want. Or the face-to-face conversation with an employee about how his or her dysfunctional behaviour with teammates has now become a performance issue.

 In reality, we aren’t really ignoring these things at all. They weigh heavily on us. They creep into our day as we spend time feeling guilty, rationalizing or dwelling on our lack of initiative. In some cases they manifest as headaches or stomach pain. How can you stop something that is so pervasive and so unconscious? Let’s look at reasons for procrastination and some tips on how to overcome it.

1.  Boredom. Let’s face it, some of the stuff we have to do is downright monotonous, tedious and boring. Of course, what’s boring for some, isn’t boring for others. What makes your eyes glaze over? Is it working with numbers (I sympathize), writing up annual objectives, sorting and filing, listening to complaints? Be aware of your own boredom triggers. Schedule those must-do activities for a time of day when you have high energy or when you are in a particularly pleasant mood. 
2. You’re an adrenalin junkie. The idea of working at a normal pace, steadily toward a deadline, causes some people to yawn. A group of people were asked when they start to get excited about a project that has a 6 month deadline. A majority of them said their interest didn’t really start until  the last few weeks. Obviously the excitement of the last-minute race makes it worth holding off. If you say things like, “I do my best work under pressure,” or “There is no use getting an early start – I’ll change it all near the end anyway,” admit you crave excitement. Then think about other ways to get your adrenaline than through the panic of last-minute work. You might want to add more physical activity, especially cardio workouts, to your day.
3. The work is too big to begin. This reason isn’t uncommon, especially in cases of getting organized or cleaning up (anyone have a garage or attic in mind?) The best thing to do is chunk the project into smaller bits. Divide physical space into squares, or a file desk into drawers, and just do one at a time. When you are overwhelmed, picture the end result instead of visualizing all the work along the way.
4. You aren’t sure it’s important. Perhaps the completion of this task isn’t important to you right now. Your perspective might have changed in the face of some other more important priorities. If that’s true, take it off your To Do list. If it’s just that you’ve become discouraged over time, get another person to take interest with you. Enlist a friend, a colleague, your boss – some other person who you can verbalize your commitment to. It is harder for us to break our commitments when others know about them. In hearing about your dilemma, your confidant may tell you to give it up. That works too: Sometimes another person’s disinterest is just enough to rekindle your own. At least you have permission to stop trying.
5. Fear of failure. Have you ever said you’d do something, and then wondered why you said that? You may not want to start because you are afraid you will fail. Take a first step and see what happens. Don’t think you must have the entire process completely mapped out at the beginning. Just take one step. Allow yourself to remember other times when you felt this uncomfortable. Learning is hard work, and trying something new is part of learning. No matter our experience, our age or our intelligence, we all have something to learn. There is no shame in failing.

How Temperaments Face Change

This month I’m thinking about all the various ways that people respond to change and how leaders can best prepare to manage a smooth transition. Whether it’s a new system, a new product, a new organization structure or a new office building, each time you introduce change you’ll see some version of the following four faces of response.  Being inspired by the novel Life of Pi (good summer reading) which featured a hyena, zebra, orangutan and a tiger, I will also use four different animals to describe typical responses to change.

In this story, which is not meant to depict any real person living or dead, a service team that is all located together is told by their new leader that they will be moving. The company has decided to align team members to various business lines and move them from a central location into offices located in different buildings.  This is a big change, because team members’ work will come directly from the client’s emerging needs, and not be divided by who has the capacity or the expertise to take it on. Also, a very small group of specialists will be centralized to launch strategic programs, keeping the original team out of that and ensuring they are full-time available to the business needs.

What is the response of the team members?

One team member is like an Owl during change. She is quiet as she deeply concentrates on the wisdom of the change; as she tries to sort out the logic behind it. She isn’t sure that the leaders  making the decision (in the Corporate office in another city) are credible or competent, or that they had all the information they needed. She wants to “get someone from there down here” to grill them a little bit before she is willing to unconditionally support the change. When she is finally given a well-articulated  “vision” of the future she feels much better, and when she sees research that this model is a “best practice” in the States (where we are always 5 years behind she likes to say) she feels much better.

Another team member is more of a Dolphin. When the change is announced in a team meeting, he is looking around to pay attention to the reaction of his colleagues.  He notices right away who is upset and who wants  to talk, and very shortly  after the meeting he is booking coffee breaks with people to listen to their reactions. He goes to the leader, informally of course,  to let her know how the team is doing, and what concerns others have.  He offers to lead monthly “get-togethers” so no one loses touch. And he offeres his services to those on the team who might not have the specific experience they need to deal with client demands.

The third member of the team is the Bee. She decides the best response is to keep her head down and work like mad. She becomes so industrious that she almost doesn’t have time to pack up her office. When the Dolphin asks her about the change, she is very realistic. She has mixed feelings about it  – she really wants to line up behind the new vision (she is not going to aggressively criticize the leaders like the Owl did– but she is also afraid that some of the good synergy the team has established will now be missing. She is particularly worried about the loss of the books in everyone’s offices that currently are easy to share.  So, she sets up a library catalogue in Excel so everyone knows where the books are.

Finally, there is the Fox. He is so excited by the prospect of this new way of delivering service that as soon as the leader announces the change, he asks “When can we start!” When others are talking about how to carefully plan this and that, and the importance of cautiously advising the clients, he is already packing his office. “Let’s just implement – they will get used to it” he says.   He also is excited about how this change will put him in contact with new people and new tasks. The only time the FOX gets annoyed by the change is when a decision is made to implement a consistent and detailed record-keeping system.  The Fox is now squirming at the thought that he will have to begin to monitor and track his activity.

Any of this sound familiar to you? It should, since the four animals represent the four temperaments developed by David Keirsey. The Owl is often called the Rational; the Dolphin is called the Idealist; the Bee represents the Guardian and the Fox represents the Artisan temperament.

As a leader responsible for change implementation, you can assume you’ll encounter several different reactions. Here are some hints for making use of this knowledge:

• Give both the “big picture” rationale for the change and as many details about what the future will look like.
• Be honest about what you don’t know, and ask those on your staff who are interested to help plan implementation
• Institute mechanisms for people to ask questions and voice concerns, without fear of retaliation
• Don’t take too long planning the change – where it is possible and low risk, let people jump right in and show others the way
• Respect the different types of reactions by being flexible AND ask each person to be accountable for expressing their needs in order to be involved in a successful change

How to learn something new

This is about how stepping into my fear was the big YES to a new opportunity. And about being inspired by a Lululemon bag!  (The bag doesn’t get ALL the credit but its a big part of the story.)

Recently I was contacted to be involved in some work that I had never done before. The requirements included some clear areas that I was skilled in, but they also required my ability to use technology that I was totally unknown to me. My initial enthusiasm, upon seeing the list of requirements, began to drop. In fact, I was terrified. My gut was turning, I felt sick and I thought, “Who am I kidding?”

Just then I say the Lululemon bag sitting in my office. And these words practically leapt off the bag toward me: DO ONE THING A DAY THAT SCARES YOU.  Now motivational posters and sayings are not really my thing – I think they are a little lame actually, and I avoid any requests to pretend to be a motivational speaker. I think motivation is best when it is intrinsic, and there is something patronizing about others giving me pat little sayings when life is so complex, and tough to boot.

But there is no avoiding it – the Lululemon bag was talking to me. And I was scared. Here was my one thing to do.

I checked my calendar. Surprisingly, where I am usually jam-booked, there was clear day. A day clearly deigned to be a “learn the new technology” day. The fear was still in my gut, but I was now thinking that it was an invitation not a warning. My business partner got involved:  “Go for it”  – he was like a cheerleader on the sidelines. “It’ll be fun and even if nothing comes of it, you will have learned something.”

There’s the thing. “Even if nothing comes of it, you will have learned something.”  AHHH - the learning that comes from trying new things, taking chances and not caring how it turns out. Like a kid who tries to move from crawling to walking and just concentrates on this moment, this learning right now – not anticipating the fall that is inevitably part of the learning curve.

Could I harken back to the innocence of not predicting failure? Of not beginning to criticize myself before others got the chance? Of actually CARING DEEPLY AND NOT CARING AT ALL.

With my trusty cheerleader and bag at my side, I could. I did. It stayed scary – for about 4 days. But the feeling in my stomach somehow made me feel alive and it was part of the fun.  I seriously engaged in the opportunity, worked really hard to do my best (I’m really not at the “leave it all up to the universe by any stretch)  and then gave it my all.  What I didn’t care at all about? The outcome. Truly I said to myself, ”I have done what I can – this is my best, if its not good enough – oh well.”

Opportunity taken. Opportunity won. With a little bit of help from my friends.

Get a Degree in Common Sense

Years ago I wrote an essay for leaders called “Increase Your Common Sense Capability” about ways to increase the practical and useful skills of people in an organization. Interestingly, that essay gets the most hits on my blog, as people search using the words “increase common sense.” Obviously, common sense matters, and it’s a rare commodity. So this month, I’ll talk about how to increase your common sense – or at least the perception that you have it.

The main premise is this: The more you know about the world and how to move within it, the more common sense you will have. Common sense (unlike “book sense”) comes from living among common-folk – that’s you and me and everyone else. It used to be that everyone in the community sortof knew the same thing. In tight-knit, stable rural communities, for example, every farmer generously shared what they knew, talking with neighbours and teaching the next generation. These days of high mobility and ever-expanding human endeavours mean there is too much to know and little time to learn. In competitive societies when jobs are scarce, knowledge is often hoarded because of its worth. Frankly, if you want common sense, you are going to have to go out and get it.

There are two levels of common sense: The “I know it because I’ve seen/heard about it” and “I know it because I’ve done it.” Both are useful, and depending on your tolerance for other people, and for risk, you get to choose which of each you’ll go after.

1. Start by getting out more. Expose yourself to a lot of real-life experiences. Go to different neighbourhoods to hang out. Eat different foods. If you see a street carnival, or a church basement sale and you’ve never been, go and hang out.  Travel is a great way to gain common sense, and you don’t have to go to the other side of the world.  A few kilometres from work or home can make a big difference. I had never seen a girl’s lacrosse game until I went to a nearby village arena with a friend. Travel nicely combines exposure to new things with a need to think on your feet in unfamiliar territory.  When you see a poster for an event, take a friend and try it out. If you’ve never been to a dog show, now is a good time to learn about dog breeds.
2. Widen your attention span. Read books that are different from your usual genres and about places or times you don’t know. Never been to Africa – read the richly descriptive stories in Say You’re One of Them to learn more.  Read biographies and autobiographies of people in cultures and occupations that are new to you.  Read survival and adventure stories. An old version of Robinson Crusoe I found at a garage sale has detailed and interesting footnotes in the margins. Do the same with movies. If you subscribe to a service like Netflix you can watch movies from many genres at low cost.
3. If you don’t like to read books, or have little free time, pick up magazines you don’t normally read. Bookstore and airports have tonnes to choose from – some that are pretty obscure. The library does too. Spend an hour flipping through them. It’s fine if you don’t care about knitting, but recognizing a Fair Isle pattern might come in handy some day. Subscribe to a few blogs outside of your industry. Lifehacker.com is a good cornucopia of useful knowledge.
4. Talk to old people. Many have better memories of the far past than they do of yesterday. An elderly person typically has a lot of common sense just by virtue of having lived life longer than the rest of us.  Suspend your judgment and listen with fresh ears for the drops of wisdom. Instead of just nodding at your Great Aunt’s quirky saying, explore it with her. “How’d you learn that?” Let them tell you stories.
5. Play around for 30 minutes on Google or your favourite search engine. Start with a question you are curious about: “Where do peanuts grow?” and zigzag from there. Think of it like brainstorming or mind-mapping – just jump from topic to topic and soak it up. The main rule is to let go of your care about retention or about usefulness. Enjoy learning and be curious. Our brains are capable of storing and retrieving much more information than we think. Just trust the process.
6. Ask casual and curious questions of people – not to grill them but to learn. Adopt a learning tone. When your mechanic changes the tool in his hand, ask him “what’s that and why did you change?”  Ask the salesperson the difference between a back-sleeping pillow and side-sleeping pillow. When shopping, ask the trained sales clerks for their knowledge. At the garden centre, ask questions about plants and soils. At the hardware store, ask about the difference in drill usage and wood types. Ask your butcher to explain the difference between sirloin and rib eye. People love to talk about what they know. My husband sells tires, and he can riff about all-season and winter brands for hours.
7. Common sense includes the application of what you’ve learned. This means you have to try new things – even if you think you won’t get it all right. Be inspired by William Kamkwamba, who built a windmill for his village using his common sense and parts available to him.  You can start smaller. Try a recipe that seems daunting – that has 4 steps and has to sit overnight.  Solve your own irritating day-to-day problems. We recently fixed our dishwasher by reading an appliance repair forum online. It was fun, and it saved us the cost of a service call.  Let yourself make mistakes. Making mistakes is a great way to gain common sense. It’s only after you’ve done it the wrong way can you say with confidence, “Everyone knows you have to do it this way.” 

A word of caution: Common sense is also about safety and security. Some things are safer to read about than to do. There are a lot of movies and books that explore the gritty reality of life in places where real danger makes it unsafe for you. Sometimes the best common sense comes from learning from others mistakes. It’s common sense to say, “I’m never going to do that.”

Getting back to nature with Easter Eggs

 This Easter I decided to try dying Easter eggs naturally.  This was not something that was easy for me. You see, growing up in a family of nine kids, my single Mom was very resourceful. Every year she would colour our Easter eggs by boiling them in onion skins. (She still does this – the grandkids love it.) The trauma for me was when she would send me into the corner store with a paper bag to ask the store owner to fill it with onion skins that had fallen off the 20 lb bags of onions stacked in the store. This was the 70s – in southwestern Ontario. I was mortified.

But given that I am well past that humiliation (do ya think?) I wanted to see what I could do with Easter eggs without the small coloured tablets my own children had enjoyed. Here’s what I got.  Beautiful and edible.

For each I created the “colour water” with ingredients boiled on the stove. Then added one tablespoon of vinegar and boiled the eggs, from room temperature, for 10 minutes.

I tried red cabbage for blue (as advised on other blogs) – although the water was blue,  nothing happened to the eggs! These lovely blue eggs are boiled in blueberry pie filling. Next year I will try straight-up frozen blueberries. The yellow was the spice Tumeric boiled in water. The grey came from beets (also not worth the time and mess). The lovely chestnut brown from red onion skins. (My mom uses cooking onions and hers are more of a yellowy brown – like brown eggs.) I tried Paprika for orange, but got just a few orange speckles on white eggs. Next year I will try cherries or cherry pie filling.

It was fun and I have a great screensaver for Easter.

Leaders’ Guide to Ethical Employee Engagement

This month’s topic is the dark side of employee engagement. For the last several years, organizational researchers have been promoting the advantage of having engaged employees, and the loss to productivity, competitiveness and customer service when employees are disengaged. We have surveys to measure engagement and HR-driven programs to increase engagement.

One oft-used measure of employee engagement is how much discretionary time an employee is willing to give to the pursuit of the organization’s goals. Similarly, a fully engaged employee looks beyond their current limited responsibilities and thinks about new ways to contribute to the bottom line. He or she might even feel like an owner.  Engagement is about an internal commitment and an emotional tie that goes beyond simply working to collect a paycheque.

So what’s the problem? In recessionary times, you or someone you know is likely to suffer a job loss because of restructuring or downsizing. What you may not already know, is that the suffering and emotional trauma of job termination is exasperated when a person is one of those fully engaged employees.  When I coach people who have given their heart to their organization, the shock and betrayal they experience is no small matter.  However generous their previous employer’s financial settlement, they often lose months – even years – trying to recover emotionally. The word that comes to mind? Jilted.

So, what’s an ethical leader to do about it? Your goal is to make them love their chance to contribute, not fall in love with the company. You still want employees who care a lot about their jobs, the company’s goals and doing their best. Here are some ways to get all of that without creating an emotional dependency that is debilitating at termination.

1. Don’t use artificial means to create engagement. In other words, don’t create mushy-gushy events or esprit de corps outings. Team-building, at its best use, is about learning to synchronize diverse talents so a group can become integrated in the pursuit of a real goal. It’s not about creating a false sense of companionship, love and family. It’s not about getting people so relaxed they share personal and intimate things they might regret later.  There is nothing as sad as someone shakily packing up the “weekend at Bernie’s canoe challenge” team photo on their last day at work.
2. Instead, create engagement in the job day-to-day. This is done by increasing the level of transparency about the work. Share more information than you might normally – to build context and a high level of interest. Create lots of information channels and flood them.  Encourage a workplace where people are allowed to be curious about what others are doing. Discourage a “get out of my sandbox” mentality. Encourage employees to seek out diverse perspectives and to invite others to brainstorm company problems. Make more time for questions.  Designate the normal work day as the appropriate time to dive deep into what the business is all about.   
3. Invest in training and development that is job related. When someone is interested in becoming more technically proficient, support that. Offer advanced computer training. Send people to the annual industry conference, and when they return have them present to the team what they learned. This is different than sending them to the conference to showcase the company – it shifts the focus from corporate PR to their development as a professional.
4. Insist that their personal life is as important as what the company is doing.  Many studies show that employees who balance their work lives with other pursuits are more productive, creative and healthy. A good leader gets concerned when someone is working too hard for too long. Before the job becomes a sacrifice, and your employee a martyr for the company, step in and offer relief. Explain that commitment and burnout are not synonymous. Make vacation days and days-off mandatory. Create no-contact periods each day, so people can turn off the smart-phone and connect with their friends and family. The message is, “We want to be important to you, but we don’t want to be your everything.”
5. Support your employee’s chosen charities. Many companies are involved in socially responsible causes. Some companies combine their chosen charity with teambuilding events (see point 1). Instead, let each employee pick the cause that has meaning to them. Support it financially, like through a matching grant program. Better yet, give a number of days a year to employees so they can volunteer. 
6. Encourage social clubs. Let employees plan their own events and get togethers. Encourage baseball and bowling teams. These friends at work create higher satisfaction (Gallup organization said “I have a best friend at work” is an indicator) and good collaboration. It is personal friendships that may provide the most support after a job  termination. Don’t be persuaded to take over the event and make it a company-sponsored thing. Even if you sponsor it financially, go light on the company logos and name on the trophy. This changes generosity to PR. It’s enough that you gave the avenue for the friendships to form.  
7. In the same vein, create friendly workspaces and areas where people can congregate and chat. People are naturally social beings and so they will tend to come together organically if you have a comfortable coffee-station and a stone walking-path around your building. Include current trade magazines and a monitor with business channels, and you encourage more interest and conversation about the business.

These kinds of measures will create a friendly, accessible work place where people’s natural curiousity and drive can boost their engagement. At the same time, you can rest assured that you have done your part to establish healthy boundaries that create a realistic employer-employee relationship.