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WhatsApp Groups for Employee Engagement

In today’s COVID era, local companies have seen a dramatic rise in the use of WhatsApp groups among staff. It’s been a love/hate relationship for most, but online groups have become a critical channel of communication. Is your organization boosting employee engagement via these groups, or sitting by hoping the fad will die off?

Remote work has made virtual, intra-company communication more important than ever. By replacing its digital sibling, email messaging, WhatsApp has become the popular default choice. Now, your official email updates are being ignored. Your employees’ habits have shifted; they are using the app over a hundred times per day.

Unfortunately, a number of poor practices have also arisen. In response, most executives and HR departments watch from the sidelines as the software shapes their organization’s culture. No-one knows what to do, or even whose responsibility it is to ensure this channel adds productivity. How should your company influence a change which is already underway?

  1. Accept WhatsApp’s power and limitations

Understand that you can only influence WhatsApp, not control it. Unlike email, the messages being shared aren’t sitting on IT’s servers, where management can observe and dispose of them at will.

Also, individual accounts don’t belong to you. Disgruntled ex-employees can continue their hourly gripe sessions with key workers for months to come.

As such, WhatsApp groups have a life of their own. For example, a small chat between friends can quickly grow to reach the limit of 256 users. Any hot topic can dominate the space and take over attention, including office gossip. Individuals can use it for self-promotion, or to attack others.

Unfortunately, the range of responses is limited. For example, when a group develops a nasty sub-culture, an administrator may only see a single course of action – to delete the group. However, this final act of desperation doesn’t prevent former members from forming a brand new chat to continue the discussion.

Yet, despite this danger, WhatsApp remains the most effective way to have a conversation within a small to medium-sized group of people. It’s already your employees’ most popular app. Some companies try to counter its power by launching their own app. If you try this tactic, “Good luck!” Be prepared for staff to bypass it. Instead, they’ll discuss your attempts to take over their chats in their groups.

Your best bet? Accept WhatsApp’s role as today’s trusted, and most frequently used, channel of corporate communication between staff.

  1. Play the Role of Coach

If the channel is already out of your control, the best option is to provide workers with skills to use the platform effectively. Essentially, this “if you-can’t-beat-them-join-them” strategy is your way of spreading sound WhatsApp principles to others. You hope that they’ll act in ways that support the well-being of your employees.

This means that someone needs to become versed in the apps’ best practices, such as:

  • realizing that group chats are not the same as individual chats – once the number of participants grows beyond 10, a unique space is created.
  • setting up a moderator and establishing guidelines or rules of engagement.
  • developing a strategy for large groups, such as splitting it when the number of members reaches 100.

Where do these come from? This short list is based on my experience in regional WhatsApp groups of all sizes. Your company needs to develop its own insights in keeping with your policies and strategy.

The sad fact is, most companies don’t train their employees to be productive in either meetings or electronic messages (email and WhatsApp). The net effect? A ton of waste, even as these activities take up a reported 25-50% of employee time.

  1. Encourage Exception Reporting

Unfortunately, WhatsApp’s design encourages users to think of themselves as individuals, not corporate citizens. Therefore, they act in their own interests, first and foremost.

However, there’s another dimension which you must consider: the impact of online discussions on the entire staff. For example, when an employee quits, but doesn’t exit a WhatsApp group discussing sensitive company matters, everyone is affected.

Your organization should act to introduce this broader perspective.

In cyber-space, employees need to ask a new question: “What is best for all concerned?” In this context, someone can act to protect a fellow employee, a department or their entire company by intervening and alerting others when trouble is brewing.

The truth is, these are uncharted waters. Executives who ignore the powerful immediacy of WhatsApp Group communication are putting their heads in the sand, hoping it will go away. It won’t. Gear yourself and your staff for the new reality of remote work dominated by digital messaging at scale.

Francis Wade is the author of Perfect Time-Based Productivity, a keynote speaker and a management consultant. To search prior columns on productivity, strategy, engagement and business processes, send email to columns@fwconsulting.com.

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Overcoming the Flaw of Forgetting Tasks

Like most people, do you share the challenge of keeping track of your to-dos, especially during the holiday season? You may think it has something to do with your personality, but…surprise: it doesn’t. Here’s why.

We human beings have a flaw. When we make future commitments, we find them hard to track, manage, and trigger at the right instant. Consequently, quite often, we simply forget to do what we intend.

In fact, the further away in the future a tricky activity must be performed, the more likely it is to fall through the cracks. In those moments, we blame our memory, or psychology. We suspect it reflects a lack of personal motivation.

But the most effective professionals have found a way to recall tasks later, every time. But their performance has nothing to do with their mental ability or willpower. What can you do to be more like them?: flawless.

1. Forget About Using Memory

Some believe that the right answer is to cut down your commitments, but that isn’t a real solution for people of even average ambition. Don’t surrender. Instead, craft task management techniques which match your aspirations.

Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. First, you’ll have to undo mistakes you are making and untruths you were taught.

One mistake is to continue using your memory to track tasks. Why? Unless you have relaxed into a simple retirement, you are already committing to more tasks than you can recall. This is the direct outcome of being an engaged employee.

Unfortunately, your brain is no longer 11 years old. It cannot track tasks the way it once did, without help. Inside of a complex life, it doesn’t keep up.

Instead, give your memory the sack. Take away the job of tracking tasks and hire an external tool. You’ll stop complaining about the onset of early dementia, and, like the most accomplished professionals, your focus will shift.

When these exceptional individuals fail to manage their tasks, they talk about systemic issues instead of personality weaknesses. They know they use a system comprised of a range of paper and digital tools, and they are willing to upgrade it as needed to stay on top of a growing task volume.

As such, when there’s a failure, they change their system, rather than feeling guilty, or stupid.

Thus, they reverse a pernicious untruth. In school, we were shown that smart kids who did well on tests could remember everything; hence, their high marks. The irony is that, as an adult, the wise move is to do the opposite and stop using what’s called “prospective memory” for to-dos.

It’s fine to use “retrospective memory” to recall facts and figures. If you’re in the horse racing industry, don’t forget the number of yards in a furlong. You need this kind of memory to perform your job.

But when it comes to prospective memory, the best practice is to overturn what you were taught.

2. The Replacements

Once you make the commitment to unlearn the use of memory, don’t delay. Most start with a task or to-do list, usually written on paper. But nowadays, some of your younger colleagues are skipping over paper, going straight to a simple task app on their smartphones. So can you.

That should work for a while until you take on more tasks. Then, you should upgrade to a more powerful task management app. After that, with more growth, you will need to switch to using a calendar or even an auto-scheduler.

But these aren’t just matters of taste.

You should follow the described sequence in order to augment your capacity. To illustrate, think of a spoon as a device to transfer some soil. But if you want to move more earth, you should probably switch to a hand-trowel, shovel, wheelbarrow or tractor. Notice that each tool has greater capacity. But the “right” solution is the one that fits the job at hand.

The same applies to your choice of paper task list, simple task app, complex task app, digital calendar, auto-scheduler or trained administrative assistant. Once again, pick the right one from the lineup for your current circumstances. Then, keep an eye on early warning signs, which indicate it’s time to switch.

These aren’t common lessons taught in school. However, as quality task management becomes a hallmark of high professionalism, they are becoming widely accepted.

It’s ironic – the best memory for all your adult to-dos isn’t actually memory at all – not if you want perfection. Use a system that matches the depth of your commitments. In these tumultuous times, this is a terrific aspiration to create for 2022.

P.S. Registration is now open for the Task Management & Time Blocking Virtual Summit coming up on March 3-5, 2022.

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Why CEO’s Want HR to Transform Itself

Human Resource departments are facing an unprecedented demand to become analytic and data-driven. But few are answering the call. What should HR practitioners and consultants do to respond?

A few years ago, I substituted for a VP-HR of a major company who died suddenly. For four months, I attempted to pick up the pieces while seeking a replacement. I discovered that he didn’t leave much of a structure behind. Everything, it seemed, was in his head.

Fast forward to today, and HR organizations are under increasing pressure due to the COVID-era need to digitize functions. CEO’s have longed for HR Departments which look more like Finance, Operations and Sales, whose employees are digitally savvy.

Unfortunately, there are few HR teams I have worked with who have sufficient skillsets and mindsets to embrace technology, analyze data and provide dashboards. Case in point: after facilitating numerous strategic planning retreats, only a single presentation by HR stands out in these areas.

Such was the situation before COVID. Now the pandemic has widened the gap. HR, with low tech skills, has stayed in the same position, watching others surge ahead with new capabilities. This observation is backed up by global research from the Academy to Innovate HR (AIHR). Some 60% of HR Professionals say they are falling behind their more tech-savvy colleagues in terms of efficiency and impact.

What can local Human Resource Practitioners do to catch up and close the gap?

  1. Embrace the CEO’s Perspective

Perhaps what scares C-Suite leaders more than anything else is that the pandemic has made HR’s role more important than ever. But, it’s also annoying them at the same time. Why?

They don’t have visibility into staff-driven operations. While most agree they must make fresh investments in people to thrive in a new economy, they lack the data.

For example, while they are painfully aware of talent gaps, HR usually cannot predict what happens after key roles are filled. Will individuals stay? For how long? And should they be paid at the 25th or 75th percentile of the average wage? To what effect?

When such quantifiable questions can’t be answered, it’s easier for executives to invest in a new piece of equipment. After all, it usually comes with an easy-to-understand cost-benefit ratio.

Unfortunately, I only know a couple of CEO’s in the Caribbean who have HR backgrounds. As a result, most leaders don’t intuitively understand the invisible tradeoffs HR must make. And without data, no-one can offer a clear, numbers-driven explanation.

The solution is for HR to think like CEOs who need to implement big, fact-based decisions.

  1. Hire and Train

Maybe not surprisingly, the AIHR survey showed that the best place to develop such talent is at the bottom of the organization. Often, the newest and youngest employees in HR are the most digitally proficient. They are the ones who should drive improvements by picking up new capabilities and teaching them to others.

At the same time, hiring savvy mid-career HR professionals may help fill critical gaps – if they can be found. But the most difficult choices surround those HR team members who don’t have the capacity to grow fast enough. Their future might be grim as their lack of quantitative skills makes it hard for them to find employment.

All these changes add up to a major investment in talent acquisition and development within HR. However, most organizations have not recovered from the deep cuts made in training budgets during the 2008 recession. Arguably, this led to the problems we see today.

  1. Be Strategic

The fact is, most HR departments aren’t in a position to advocate for these investments on their own. They need the company’s entire strategic plan to call for a transformation in staff and talent in order to thrive in the future.

This kind of widespread change requires informed leadership from the top. Consequently, HR must focus on educating other executives using tools such as analytic reports and dashboards. This approach could ultimately lead to the game-changing decisions that can drive any or all other strategies the company pursues. As CEO’s know from painful experience, trying to make big changes with the wrong people in place will fail.

What would it be like to have a top class HR function in your organization? While the global standard has suddenly been raised without warning, take this as an opportunity rather than a rude surprise. Everyone will benefit when HR steps up to the challenge of transforming itself to use analytics. While it probably won’t be the first unit to do so, it has the potential to influence all company functions.

Francis Wade is the author of Perfect Time-Based Productivity, a keynote speaker and a management consultant. To search prior columns on productivity, strategy, engagement and business processes, send email to columns@fwconsulting.com.

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Becoming a Data-Focused Company

In the past few years, what opportunities has the shift to online business created for local companies? Your firm may be automating its processes, but is it also converting the data being collected into competitive advantage?

In 2003, I started a virtual organization: CaribHRForum. With less than 10 people at the start, it drew together HR practitioners I met in the Caribbean on various trips. New digital technologies were just emerging, and I believed they could be used to close the distance. Consequently, we adopted a centralized online mailing list to initiate a region-wide discussion.

The small group grew to add a website and a podcast – CaribHR.Radio. But the rapid growth outgrew the tools we were using and became overwhelming.

Thankfully, newer technology emerged in 2019 in the form of virtual community software – Mighty Networks. For the first time, an affordable, private internet platform could bring together thousands in the same space.

That same year, by coincidence, I apprenticed behind the scenes of a virtual conference. While I had been a speaker at prior events, now I learned how to host a summit or big event. It was a thrill, and I vowed to make it available to the members of CaribHRForum.

Then COVID-19 hit, and interest in online networks grew. It hasn’t stopped – CaribHRForum recently concluded its second virtual conference, one of the biggest in the region. With free registration, thousands are able to connect with HR experts, consultants and colleagues for the very first time.

But this is only the public side of the story. Hidden away from view, an important inner transformation based on data is also underway.

1) Industry Data Using Linkedin

What are the drivers of customer behaviour in your industry? You may want to have more than anecdotes to make decisions, but don’t have access to anything concrete.

We had the same problem, but the platforms we use have obliged by developing better data and analytic capabilities.

For example, on Linkedin we have learned that there are 23,000 HR professionals in the region, spread across 21 territories and countries.

By offering multiple Linkedin events on a range of topics, the platform tells us what this cohort is interested in learning. Our webinars and conferences advertised on the social network have served as a continuous pipeline. Each one adds new potential members. The cost? Just our time, as the network doesn’t charge for this service.

Furthermore, we have run paid Linkedin advertisements. While these are not cheap, they allow us to target each country’s HR Professionals with great precision. As such, we have steadily “trained” our Linkedin account to recognize people in our audience. Now, it’s a valuable tool: an analytic partner that outstrips our use of Instagram, Facebook and Google.

But the point is that they all offer data which gives us powerful insights into our efforts, and their results. They also track a storm of information on audience behaviour: views, clicks, and conversions which are impossible to gain from other face-to-face methods. Together, we can paint a picture that becomes clearer as they add new features.

2.) Community Behaviour Using Mighty Networks

While social networks have become great assets, our community platform on Mighty Networks has also improved its analytics. Now, we can track the overall behavior of our members as they transition from being newbies to more mature contributors.

From this data, we are able to predict which new topics are trending. From there, we can tweak the members’ journey and make timely improvements. As a result, we can better meet their overall purpose: to become better professionals. The data indicates which events and training we should offer.

3) The End Result: a New Organization

What else do all these data-driven insights allow for? Apart from the obvious internal benefits to us as hosts, they also enable more pluses for potential sponsors. As we uncover deeper interpretations, we offer sponsors more than exposure. Today, we can give them a better understanding of the audience and its unique behaviour.

In other words, the availability of analytics has transformed CaribHRForum. Scaling up from our small example, you may see how any organization can transform itself using data. The mere existence of this new information could be disruptive to an industry.

Perhaps your company is similar. You probably don’t intend for it to become a data-driven organization, but as you conduct more online business, consider this outcome. In fact, you may not have a choice.

The availability of fresh, easy-to-collect data in your industry could become a way for your company, or a competitor, to gain a permanent advantage. Don’t hesitate to include this likely scenario in your strategic planning.

Francis Wade is the author of Perfect Time-Based Productivity, a keynote speaker and a management consultant. To search prior columns on productivity, strategy, engagement and business processes, send email to columns@fwconsulting.com.

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Lessons from Virtual Conferences

If you have been asked to create a multi-day, online event, you may want it to be everything a live event should be. But you could also be wondering: should it try to mimic a face-to-face experience? And what does success even look like in this environment?

In the past two years, (but starting just before COVID), we added the ability to conduct online conferences to our company’s repertoire. After speaking and apprenticing at several virtual gatherings, we decided to offer our own…with some trepidation. Since then, 4,000 people have registered in four events.

What have we discovered that can be transferred to any business with a virtual audience?

  1. Quality Attention Counts

We have learned that our objective should be to create a unique online experience. While there is some overlap with live events, we don’t try to emulate them. Instead, we follow best practices from the finest virtual gatherings we can find from every corner of the world.

In that context, we compete for our audience’s attention against anyone who offers education, engagement or entertainment. Examples include webinars, Facebook and Netflix. Our job is to create a compelling alternative that keeps people’s focus whether they are in the office or working from home.

This definition has kept us on the edge of our seats, because the world is constantly changing. Internet providers of education, engagement and entertainment are highly sophisticated, with deep pockets. We consider them all to be unwelcome, but possible substitutes for our event: “competitors”. Even distractions are included.

As such, if you aren’t studying Facebook and Instagram to see what they are doing to capture attention, then you may not be in the know. Why? Your customers have become accustomed to attractive online experiences at a world-class level. They expect you to provide the same. Fail to do so and you’ll fall behind.

  1. Grow a Pipeline

Many companies aren’t interested in prospects until they are on the verge of making a purchase. The evidence lies in their processes. They blast advertisements to customers, driving them to interact directly with a salesperson, or sales page.

In the virtual world, this approach doesn’t work. Common sense tells us that a buyer’s interest should be fostered over time. Companies which nurture prospects from the initial show of concern can bring them all the way to the point of purchase. The entire cycle may take minutes, or years, but the principle remains the same.

The magic of online conferences allows us to track people’s behavior from their very first click to actions taken even beyond the close of the event…at a minimal cost. In the face-to-face world, this is difficult to do. But the data is easy to gather for ecommerce. All you need to do is set up the right virtual infrastructure.

As such, if your company is still writing prospects’ names in a big, hardcover book, you may want to consider an upgrade.

The fact is, the customer relationship software used to manage a database of thousands of prospects costs relatively little. Unfortunately, the skills required to run it are in desperately short supply, but the sooner you make the investment, the better.

  1. Invest in Analytics

Even after you gain the attention and put in place the necessary software, your journey has just begun. Fortunately, even entry-level applications allow you to collect metrics.

Use them to predict the flow of your prospects from one phase to the next, the effectiveness of your messaging and the precise impact of the final results you produce. This knowledge means that you can make tweaks that have a positive effect.

While your company may have reached its current position without these capabilities, I assert that it has no future unless it masters them. Why? We live in a world in which every organization can be out-analyzed by a substitute or competitor.

Perhaps you think this to be an exaggeration, but as you read these words, consider the medium you are reading: paper or digital?

As you probably know, there is a major transformation underway in the newspaper industry. As a reader of this column, you’re involved. In fact, the Gleaner’s future depends on understanding your behaviors. Using the data it can gather from paper and digital customers, new strategies are being implemented. There simply is no choice.

The transitions taking place in the conference industry are also unavoidable. As new tools become available, the online versions have the means to get better, faster. This gives them a great advantage over traditional counterparts. It’s just an example of yet another business being disrupted by analytic technology.

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Why New Employees Need to be Gamified, or Else

What’s happening in the workplace to young employees? They seem to operate by a different set of values, showing little interest in company events.

Yet, they willingly give time and energy to off-the-job pursuits. How can executives create an environment in which they direct some of that discretionary effort towards their work?

“The company’s culture was good enough for me, why isn’t it good enough for them?” If your organization’s leaders are asking this question about engagement, consider the presumption: young employees need not receive any special privileges. After all, the argument goes, “I had less than they do and I made do with what I had!”

At first glance, this seems to be a fair statement.

Yet, the result of such thinking is disengagement. Whereas, in past generations, a paycheck was enough to guarantee a certain level of staff engagement, those days are over. Today, the young, post-COVID employee isn’t interested in merely trading time for money. (The only exceptions might be those who stand to earn a windfall which allows them to retire early, and those who are desperate.)

This state of affairs is hardly a sustainable recipe for fostering a new generation of leaders. In fact, if the status quo is maintained, it’s likely to repel the most creative talent, which is neither greedy nor desperate. If this rings true for your company, it might be time to call for a transformation. Here are some guidelines to use.

1. Young Employees Expect High Engagement

Consider that most of their lives before joining your organization were highly gamified. As achievers of better-than-average grades in school, they accepted the default structure and became winners. They filled their spare time with apps specifically engineered to grab their attention for long periods.

The resulting heightened states became the norm. Constant, high-quality feedback followed intense efforts, helping them make clear, undeniable, prize-winning progress. Whether it was CSEC/CAPE, Schools’ Challenge, Facebook or World of Warcraft (an online game), they benefited from great gamification.

Now, consider all of these to be powerful competitors to your company’s best attempts to engage staff. They are formidable: not even our Parliamentarians can resist Instagram or email during speeches at Gordon House.

And if your employees are spending their spare time starting new companies, or hustling side-gigs for extra income, consider that to be more of the same. Some of their interest in becoming entrepreneurs is to compensate for a lack of engagement in a disappointing job.

2. Your Company is Allowing Bad Games

If your leaders aren’t using game mechanics to deliberately engage staff, they do them a disservice. Some may go start new companies, but most will remain in your employment, falling into games which are harmful.

One of my summer jobs as a teenager with a government agency revealed a game of “Cat and Mouse”. Employees waited until the manager left the office to bring out cards, dominoes, and radios. When the appointed lookout spotted her return to the parking lot, shouts of “She ah come!” sent staff scurrying to remove the evidence, and resume the pretense of work being done.

According to one conspirator, “Sometimes she tries to trick us by not pulling up in her usual spot!”

Unfortunately, most Jamaican companies are infected with a cabal of the most disengaged. They make fun of new employees who work too hard (at best) and may even ostracize those who persist in making them look bad with high performance.

Eventually, the average new hire surrenders, dropping their standards (and expectations) just to fit in. This game of “Do as Little As Possible” can last an entire career, even though it may never be formally named.

The point is that these negative games (and innumerable others just like them) are at play in all companies. The only question is one of popularity. Call it a version of “The Devil Makes Work for Idle Hands” if you will.

3. Transforming a Dysfunctional Culture

What’s a way to prevent a culture of nasty games? Get leaders to explicitly create better ones. By so doing, you can scoop up new employees before they fall prey.

If your organization is already overrun by people playing destructive games, start by teaching your managers the principles of gamification. Then, use these same principles to give them a great first-hand experience as they apply them to their departments.

Continue by setting up programmes which place young, new employees in high engagement activities from the moment they join. Don’t let them lapse into the boredom which invites mischief. Just help them experience the reality of positive games which ultimately give them more of what they want in life.

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Are you a Tit-for-Tat Manager?

As a company leader, you are probably interested in employees doing their best work. But most new staff members quickly lose the inspiration they had on their first day. How can you intervene so that precious employee motivation doesn’t get lost so soon?

An old man woke up one morning to the sound of stones hitting his zinc roof. He ran out to see a bunch of kids running away, laughing as he shook his fist and shouted at them to leave him alone. After several episodes in a row, he drew them into a conversation, from a distance: “Come stone my roof tomorrow and I’ll give you each some money.”

The following morning, they each received J$100 for their antics. But he apologized. He could only afford J$50 to repeat their performance. Deciding it was still a bargain, they returned the next day and collected their payment from the obviously senile senior citizen.

Shaking his head, he said: “There’s so many of you…I can only pay you J$1 tomorrow.”

“That’s all? Cheapskate…Forget it!” they complained as they stalked away for good.

While the old man was a master manipulator, there are managers who unwittingly produce the same result. Their employees start out being “transcendent”, but end up stuck in a “tit-for-tat”. The only difference is that everyone is unhappy with the outcome. Here’s why this happens.

  1. A Transcendent Beginning

Most employees are naturally motivated at the outset of a new job. When asked to give discretionary time and effort, they are often quite willing to do so. They are inspired.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t last, but it’s not because of the circumstances. The transcendent state they initially enjoyed is one they can’t manage for very long. In other words, they are unable to explain why they feel the way they do. Also, they don’t identify the drivers of their positivity, fail to intervene when it slips away, and sometimes even regret that initial burst of motivation.

And most company cultures are unhelpful.

They don’t foster transcendent ways of being, let alone act to keep them alive. Toxic employees attack them with open cynicism. Those who are “too happy” have obviously “drank the Kool-Ade” – a snide reference to the suicidal Jim Jones cult.

In other words, companies allow this precious resource to fritter away as if it weren’t important. However, it’s actually critical.

In fact, most organizations do a good job of promoting staff to the executive suite, where transcendence is the norm.

Unfortunately, top leaders take their own motivation for granted. They also don’t realize that as they rose in the corporate ranks, they left the de-motivated behind. They no longer had to contend with the most embittered. Their amnesia leaves them unaware of the battle new employees face, made worse by a lack of help from their direct managers.

2. Why Most Leaders Become Tit-for-Tat Managers

Even though leaders may be transcendent, few have the ability to inspire their troops to extraordinary actions. Instead, the average manager devolves into a Tit-for-Tat: “No-one does anything if they aren’t being paid”.

While there’s abundant evidence this thinking is flawed, they cling to this explanation. It’s the ultimate escape from responsibility because there isn’t a single organization on earth with enough Tit (i.e. cash) to induce a meaningful Tat (i.e. a transcendent culture.) Why? Research shows that apart from short, physical activities, more pay does not produce motivated behavior.

In other words, ineffective managers surrender, then blame their staff. But is there an alternative? Yes – the fact is that transcendent cultures do exist.

  1. Prevent the Slip into Tit-for-Tat Relationships

The best interventions take place before the slip begins. Organizations can train employees to work with their habits of thought that often turn a dip into a landslide.

Eastern philosophies teach that joy is inside all of us. Unfortunately, its presence fades as we pick up defects in our thinking patterns.

However, mystics also argue that transcendence is merely a transformation away. If taught, we can learn how to become like the old man in the story: someone who coaxes a change with the right dialogue. In other words, we can pick up the kind of self-talk which transforms and returns us to a transcendent experience at will.

There are a number of effective methods to try, including affirmations, meditation, and journaling. More advanced approaches require fresh mental models picked up from coaches, books and therapists. (For more than a decade, I have used The Work of Byron Katie.)

The startling realization is that most organizations offer nothing at all. If they were to start, they would probably see that the high motivation present in the probationary stages never goes away completely. They just need to invest in helping staff remove the obstacles.

Francis Wade is the author of Perfect Time-Based Productivity, a keynote speaker and a management consultant. To search prior columns on productivity, strategy, engagement and business processes, send email to columns@fwconsulting.com.

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Triaging new workplace ideas

An engaged staff full of bright ideas? This is clearly an aspiration for most leaders. But what happens when employees, armed with a dose of courage, create more noise than anything else? What should organizations do when people pick up the habit of simply speaking what’s on their mind, with little commitment behind their words?

In times past, managers did the thinking and workers did the doing. Thankfully, those days are long gone and staff expect their input to be taken seriously. Their engagement is critical.

However, executives with open-door policies can spend all day at the mercy of those who think they have good ideas. Indulge too often, and they fall into inefficiency, even with the best of intentions. While their openness is a fine start, it’s not enough.

According to Michael Stelzner from the Social Media Marketing Show, you must learn to follow three counter-intuitive steps when you sell your suggestions.

  1. The What

The higher up you go in an organization, the greater the need to begin any proposal with the headline or solution – “the What”. Why? Leaders are time and attention constrained. Their people are required to get to the point.

Journalists have a name for it: “burying the lead.” It refers to a British-inspired tradition of using polite banter before getting to the bottom-line. Unfortunately, it’s a deadly communication sin in today’s world of ongoing distractions.

As such, reporters are taught to unlearn this practice because it loses the reader’s attention. The lead (i.e. the main point) comes first, and the explanatory details after.

However, in everyday life, this takes courage. Most of us prefer the safe approach. We’d rather beat around the bush and leave the punchline for the end, delaying any rejection for as long as possible.

In the corporate world, it pays to train yourself and others to summarize the idea at the start. Everyone benefits, even if the suggestion is ultimately discarded. You’ll save precious time and can move on to other topics of discussion.

  1. The Why

If your audience seems receptive to “The What”, shift gears to explain the reasons your idea is important.

You may describe the past, present and future of the problem. Why has it not been cleared up? Why is this the ideal moment to make a public commitment to deal with the issue? What is the cost to the organization if the obstacle is allowed to continue? What if the challenge is never addressed at all?

One way to answer these questions is in the form of a story in which the members of your audience take the role of protagonists. Their tale begins with the normal, everyday situation where everything is working as it should. Then, it’s interrupted by a failure of some kind that introduces pain. Finally, the saga ends with your suggestion for taking action.

In this finishing step, your solution addresses a range of functional, emotional and social gaps which the breakdown has produced. They amplify the impact of the breach in order to generate real-time attention and commitment.

  1. The Who

If the heads are nodding at this point, you’re ready for the element that most employees fail to address. Who exactly will implement the initiative?

The answer to this question separates the talkers from the implementers. The fact is, most leaders don’t want to entertain solutions which lack this critical piece. Why? No project succeeds when there is no-one willing to be accountable.

Therefore, think through the staffing of your proposed solution before offering it openly. Even if you do not have a definitive answer, show that you have given it enough thought to make an informed suggestion. Your attempt will be appreciated as you help your audience grapple with this dimension and the trade-offs it demands.

Finally, resist the temptation to get caught up in the question of “How should this be implemented?” Usually, this moment is neither the time nor the place to delve into that level of detail. Why? The subject-matter experts are probably not in attendance, accountable individuals have not been assigned and a decision to proceed hangs in the balance.

Instead, trust the project team to figure out “The How” after careful study, once they have consulted appropriate stakeholders.

In other words, don’t allow uninformed (but well-meaning) leaders to indulge in commitment-free, speculative conversations. While they are comfortable and even enjoyable, they are out of place and waste everyone’s time.

In summary, follow the What, Why and Who script, and delay the How discussion. If you discipline yourself as an organization to stick to this formula, you’ll see better ideas bubbling up to the right places from your staff.

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Stop Your Brainstorming for Better Innovations

Where should good ideas for new products and services come from? Does the customer know best or not? Answer these questions correctly and your company could launch a series of winning offerings.

Is the customer always right? Steve Jobs argued otherwise: “By the time you build what they say they want, they have moved on and want something new.”

At the other end of the spectrum, customers were demanding better buggy-whips when innovators wanted to sell them cars. A survey of their needs would have been trapped within the limits of their thinking.

Here in the Caribbean, researchers complain about the challenge of customer surveys: people will often default to telling you what you want to hear. They are afraid of rocking the boat, or making you feel bad, so they alter their responses.

But should you ignore your customers?

The fact is, there are more companies that have failed by following their instincts and intuitions than by doing surveys and focus groups. Fortunately, there’s some new thinking emerging that solves the dilemma. Here are the steps some of the best organizations are using to craft fresh offerings that win the hearts and minds of their audience.

1. Uncover Struggling Moments

A “struggling moment” is one which occurs when a customer can’t have your offering. It may not exist, or not be available to them. Some may complain loudly, but the ones you really need aren’t merely the unhappy and opinionated. Instead, you should focus on those who are so frustrated they are engaging in what Amy Jo Kim calls “Solution Seeking Behavior”.

In other words, they are actively trying to solve the problem by finding substitutes. For example, if you want to create a better car, find people who are already working to fill the void you have identified. You’ll know who they are because they are taking visible action.

They probably know more than you do about the problem, because they have been attempting to solve it for so long. Their actual experience of living at their wits’ end, praying for answers, is important information you can’t get elsewhere.

This discovery is a pivotal moment for you as a product or service innovator. You need to stop brainstorming internally, so you can hear real-life struggling moments from the outside. Unfortunately, most companies don’t reach this point and end up missing the mark. But yours could be different if it can be disciplined enough to make the switch.

  1. Find the Best Strugglers

But you are still faced with the problem of locating these rare people. This could be a matter of searching for them in social media communities, or making face-to-face invitations. Perhaps the most efficient way is to conduct a questionnaire or survey intended to weed out the least qualified. Do it well, and the most likely prospects will nominate themselves.

They will definitely be in the minority.

But once you have some prospects, conduct short interviews to select the few who will become your biggest fans. And they should be willing to participate. After all, they have been dreaming up solutions ever since they identified the problem, putting you in a coveted position.

And don’t worry if they add up to a motley crew which doesn’t represent the majority. Or if there aren’t enough of them to earn you a decent profit. That’s OK – their role is not to make you rich, but to teach you.

  1. Craft Strugglers into Co-Creators

While they won’t bring you lots of revenue, these high-quality strugglers will give you something more valuable: their energy and knowledge. Because they are highly motivated, they’ll work with you to craft the ideal offering that would solve their problems.

This small army of practical soldiers will also provide the impetus and inspiration you need to make your first wins. This sets you up to pivot. Next up? The group Geoffrey Moore calls the Early Majority. This is the segment of the mainstream audience that will adopt your offering.

But there’s a catch.

The product or service you eventually offer to the mainstream may not look like the one you crafted to win over the Strugglers/Co-Creators. That’s OK. Today, the average personal computer user looks nothing like young, mostly male nerds who fell in love with the technology in the late 1970s’.

Once you expect this to be the case, you can be patient. Working with customers is a must, but the entire journey requires a nuanced approach.

It’s just not as simple as asking people what they want or trusting your gut instincts. Dig deeper into the reason the Strugglers are so fired up and you’ll find the seeds of solutions that may take you to success.

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On Fostering Powerful Admins

As an up-and-coming leader in your company, do you need an administrative assistant? If you are adamant that you don’t, consider that it’s only a matter of time before your mind changes. The question is, do you know why this will take place?

The position of administrative or executive assistant has been under assault. In times past, the role was the exclusive domain of women who possessed shorthand, typing, and organizational skills. While the first two tasks have been replaced by note-taking technology, the third has become all-important.

In fact, there are a number of women running Jamaican companies behind the scenes. They all used to be admins. Outside their organizations, they are unknown, but insiders know the real story. Recently, Big Bosses’ memory has started to fade. Their facility with the latest technologies has slipped, but their admin has stepped up to play a vital, but quiet role.

Furthermore, persons in these roles have added specialized digital and online skills no-one else in the company has. But they are far more than IT geeks. Their unique position means that if you aspire to the executive suite, or already sit there, you need an admin by your side.

Take note of the McKinsey research completed by DeSmet and Bevins. According to their article “Making time management the organization’s priority”, admins enhance a leader’s power. Also, executives who are effective time managers receive “strong support in scheduling and allocating time”. Only 7% of ineffective time allocators said the same.

What would it take for you to have that level of support, preferably before you become desperate? Here are a couple of steps.

Invest in Administrative Talent

Following the low pay, low-skilled secretarial positions of the past, some companies still treat admins as if they aren’t important. For example, some HR managers are quite willing to put a brand new hire in the office of the CEO, believing that such persons are interchangeable.

Using the old, outdated definition, they are.

However, once admins are seen as a critical part of executive success, the game changes. The person (who can be any gender) requires specialized training in each step of their development. This should be introduced as they climb the career ladder, enabling them to serve managers at higher levels. In fact, there should be a healthy pipeline of assistant talent at all times.

Also, companies shouldn’t pay assistants peanuts. Not only is the role important, it should attract quality persons who have their own aspirations. Low salaries simply won’t engage those who can add value to the C-Suite.

Be Prepared For a Partner

As a high-performer, you may be quite capable of navigating any new technology, and managing the demands on your time. However, the moment will come when you won’t be able to juggle all your business and personal commitments on your own.

As such, you need to give thought to the kind of person you intend to work with. What practices will they perform? How well? Should other staff relate to them as the power behind the throne?

Unfortunately, personal productivity among executives varies widely, because few have received any formal education on the topic. As such, they aren’t taught how to leverage someone who helps them manage a busy calendar, to-do list, or project plan.

Up until now, it’s also unlikely that you have benefited from the feedback or coaching required to be productive at higher levels. As such, you may be underestimating the demands which will be made on you, and the need for a team approach.

Consider the television show “The West Wing”. Jeb Bartlett, the President, had a decades-long working relationship with his admin, Mrs. Landingham. Several times per day, he asked: “What’s next?” In keeping with the character of a perfect assistant, she was always ready with an answer.

If you haven’t recruited such a person in preparation for promotions you hope to attain, start looking. Likely subjects may already be in your company. But sometimes you can recruit talented admins from other organizations where they just aren’t being appreciated.

More importantly, if your corporation doesn’t foster its administrative assistants, undertake a coordinated attempt to change the culture. If folks think that having an assistant is a perk like a bigger office or a company car, challenge this thinking.

Introduce the idea that admins are powerful contributors to the executive suite. Without them, your organization may be wasting time and effort on meetings, email and scheduling activities.

Advocate the notion that these necessary evils are better left to the trained professionals. Show the powers that be that the value of their skills far outweighs the cost of their salaries. Then, champion concrete changes.