Can we get along too well?

Today is the first Friday in May.  You know what that means, right?  Another great blog from my friend and colleague, Mark Murphy.  Mark is a senior consultant with FranklinCovey and has worked with organizations across the globe to help them with everything productivity, leadership and team performance.  If you have ever worked in an organization where teams were “stuck” from achieving their potential, then this month’s post might bring back a few memories. 

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Within the last month I’ve had the opportunity of working with two very different organizations struggling with one very similar issue.  One organization was a small privately held resort company in Colorado and the other was the UK office of an Italian-based multinational organization.  The issue was trust…or more specifically…the lack of trust. 

I was fascinated by how different and yet how similar the teams in both organizations were.  Even though one team was struggling to grow beyond the vision of a single entrepreneur and the other was working to integrate new team members from various cultural backgrounds; they were both essentially stuck in what Bruce Tuckman calls the “storming” stage of team development.

 According to Tuckman, all teams go through a natural process of development that consists of 4 phases:  1) Forming 2) Storming 3) Norming and 4) Performing.  (Bruce Tuckman reference).  Looking at the behavior of small groups in a variety of environments, he recognized the distinct phases teams go through and suggested they need to experience all four stages before they achieve maximum effectiveness.  This process can be subconscious, although an understanding of the stages can help a group reach effectiveness more quickly and less painfully. 

The “Storming” stage is when, as the name suggests, members can become hostile and combative.  As goals and objectives are clarified, team members become aware of any gaps between reality and their initial expectations. They may experience dissatisfaction with the team’s objectives and may begin to question the ability of their leadership.  If these issues are not addressed quickly and openly with what Steven R. Covey in his book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,  calls a “combination of courage and consideration”, the team may never get to the next stage which is Norming.  Norming is where members begin to resolve conflicts through increased cooperation and trust.  They settle in to norms on how to work together.  They rally around each other with common spirit and goals and get down to work. 

Norming is an essential step to the final goal of an effective team, which is Performing.  Performing is when team members work together productively and produce high-quality results. They prevent problems or work through them constructively.  They provide their own direction and encouragement and feel satisfaction in working with the team.  These high-performing teams are able to function as a unit as they find ways to get the job done smoothly and effectively without inappropriate conflict or the need for external supervision.

I think the key work here is inappropriate conflict.  Not all conflict is bad.   In seeking the balance of courage and consideration required to get beyond the storming stage teams must be able to, not only experience conflict, but actually embrace it.  I’ve worked with teams and organizations that are overly courageous and frank in their opinions without consideration for the feelings of others. These highly courageous yet inconsiderate teams rarely get beyond the storming stage.   I’ve also worked with teams that are overly considerate and afraid to confront issues with any degree of honesty or courage.  I’ve found that these teams are just as likely to get stuck in the storming stage.   As Steven Covey states, maturity in an individual as well as a team requires balancing both courage and consideration.

 In his book “The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team”, Patrick Lencioni states that ultimately teams fail to get results or Perform because of an Absence of Trust which leads to a Fear of Conflict. 

Notice (below) that the solution to a lack of trust lies, not in removing all conflict, but rather through embracing appropriate conflict with open, honest, thoughtful dialogue.  Steven Covey says the ultimate form of a Win-Win is to find agreement where both parties mutually benefit or to have both parties agree to disagree agreeably. 

So…back to the original question.  Can we all get along too well?  I believe we can.  If we want to create a high performing team that gets consistently superb results we have to create a high trust environment where people feel they can openly disagree.  An environment where differing views are not just tolerated, but actually celebrated.  An environment that understands how Storming can ultimately lead to Performing.  This is as true in the mountains of Colorado as it is in the UK.



- Mark Murphy, FranklinCovey Consultant             

Copyright © 2012 - Mark Murphy

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So it’s time for a little assessment.  Where is your team on the scale below?

1) Forming     2) Storming     3) Norming     4) Performing

If your answer was not 4, then we should chat.  Even if your team is Norming, what would it be worth to your organization if we could help you get to Performing?  For most organizations we visit with the financial ROI is huge.  If you are just Forming or Storming, them the ROI is even greater.

Be courageous enough to admit where you are at and contact me to set up a call with Mark and your FranklinCovey Client Partner.  I am confident to say that the time you give us will be well spent  to learn how we can help.

Helping increase performance one team at a time,

John Vakidis

Creating a Culture of Execution

In today’s busy world, it is harder than ever for employees to stay productive.  It’s even harder for employees to execute the organization’s strategic goals, while holding down their day job. 

As a leader, getting your team to execute your top strategic goals is probably one of the biggest challenges you will ever face!

In his book, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done (co-authored with Larry Bossidy), Ram Charan once said…

“To understand execution, you have to keep three key points in mind:

(1) Execution is a discipline, and integral to strategy

(2) Execution is the major job of the business leader

(3) Execution must be a core element of an organization’s culture.”

He goes on to say, “Execution is a systematic process for (A) rigorously discussing how’s and what’s;

(B) questioning tenaciously; and (C) following through and ensuring accountability.  It includes:

·         Making assumptions about the business environment

·         Assessing the organizations capabilities

·         Linking strategy to operations and the people who will implement the strategy

·         Synchronizing those people and they’re various disciplines

·         Linking rewards to outcomes.

FranklinCovey has partnered with hundreds of organizations to help them execute by with The 4 Disciplines of Execution - Manager’s Certification Process.  Watch the video below to see how we help organizations, Move the Middle.

If you want to help your organization grab hold of performance, follow this link to view videos for:

You will hear them reference the success of their WIGS.  These are their Wildly Important Goals.

·         Execution overview

·         Opryland

·         Grocery Store 334

·         Gwinnett Medical

·         Move the Middle

On this page, you will also find these helpful files:

·         Manager Certification Process (PDF)

·         Results Brochure (PDF)

If you would like to learn more about Creating a Culture of Execution in your team/organization, go to our Live Events Page and look for our next Execution showcase or event in your area.  If you would like to set up a meeting by phone to discuss further, fill out the information with our Online Appointment Book on the top right-hand side of this blog.  I’ll be happy put you in touch with your local Client Partner.

If you want to learn more, check out a previous post about The 5 Stages of Performance Improvement.  I think you will find it helpful. 

Enabling success one company at a time,

John Vakidis

PS - Are we connected yet?  If not, follow me on Twitter or send me a friend request on LinkedIn 

The Power of Positive Questions

Today’s post comes to you written by J.D. Frailey, FranklinCovey Consultant.  Take a moment to read this post and examine yourself and your team afterwards.  What kinds of questions are you formulating together to drive your business forward?  Enjoy!

“Why can’t I find time to do things before the deadline?”

“Why can’t I stick to an exercise program?”

“Why can’t I get people to communicate with each other?”

 If you’ve ever asked yourself questions like these—and who hasn’t—it was probably in frustration, maybe even with hands thrown up, awash in a feeling of anger or helplessness.    

But here is something to consider: maybe the questions themselves are the problem, specifically the way you’ve worded them.   

You see, the human brain is excellent at answering questions and solving problems, that’s what it does.  So—be really careful as to how you word the questions  you ask yourself, because your brain will do its best to answer those questions, and the answers will either help you solve problems and move forward—or create more problems and hold you back.

Every answer to a question that begin with “Why can’t I—?“ is an OBSTACLE to what you want, a reason why you CAN’T, whether those answers are logical or even true. 

“Why can’t I find time to do things before the deadline?”  Because I’m too busy, because I’m a procrastinator, because I watch too much television, etc., etc.

“Why can’t I stick to an exercise program?”  Because I don’t have time, because I hate to exercise, because I’m lazy, etc., etc.

Why can’t I get people to communicate with each other?”  Because they’re lazy, because they don’t get it, because they want me to do everything for them, etc., etc.

The result?  We are frustrated and we don’t get the results we want.

But what if you worded those same questions such that the answers are solutions rather than obstacles?

“How can I find time to do things before the deadline?”  As taught in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People or the FranklinCovey goal setting process:  Start early, allot a bit of time each day, block out distractions while I work on the project, etc.

“How can I stick to an exercise program?”   As recommended in The 5 Choices to Extraordinary Productivity:  Work out with a partner, plan and schedule my exercise time in advance, set specific goals and record my progress, remind myself of the benefits of good health, etc.

Here is an example.  I once worked with a client, a sales manager, who was frustrated that his team was convinced they could not meet a sales goal imposed by corporate, and therefore, he felt, were not really trying.  After sharing the power of positive questions with him, he called his team together in a conference room.  He titled a flipchart, “Why can’t we reach the sales quota goal?”  He said to his team, “I know you feel strongly that the goal is unrealistic, unreachable, and I need to clearly understand why you feel this way, I need to understand what the obstacles are.  So let’s hear them, and don’t hold back.”

His team mistakenly felt they had convinced him the goal was unreachable, that he had come to them for ammunition so he could push back on corporate, and they really opened up. 

“It’s the economy!”  “Look at what the competition is offering!”  “We have too many other priorities!”  And on and on.

He recorded every obstacle on the flip chart page, and after about five minutes the page was nearly filled.  “Is there anything else?”   When he was sure there were no more obstacles, he tore the page from the flip chart stand and turned to his team.  “Follow me,” he said. 

Confused, they followed him outside and to a far corner of the parking lot.  Without a word, he wadded up the flipchart sheet, got a lighter from his pocket, and held the flame to the paper.  When it had ignited he dropped it to the asphalt and stood with his team watching until it had extinguished itself.

He turned to face his team.  “Now let’s be clear,” he said in a quiet voice.  “We are going to reach the goal, and we are going to do it the right way, period.  I have tremendous confidence in you, and in our ability as a group to get creative and to work hard and to make that number.  We’re going back in that room, and I don’t want to hear one more word about why we can’t.  We are only going to focus on how we can.  And as a group we ARE going to get there.  Come with me.”

They followed him back into the building and into the conference room, obviously down and disheartened.   They watched as he headed a clean flipchart sheet, “How can we reach the sales quota goal?”

“All right,” he said, marker in hand.  “Let’s hear your ideas.  I know it will be a challenge, but how can we get there?”

After a silence that had begun to stretch to an uncomfortable length, one of the sales reps finally spoke up.  “Well, there is one thing I’ve begun doing that has gotten me some really good appointments.  What I do is…” 

“Great idea,” the manager said, and wrote it down.  “What else?”

After a shorter silence, another team member raised her hand and shared an idea regarding benefits comparisons.  The manager wrote this idea down, then turned around to see two more hands raised to share ideas.  After ten minutes the flipchart was nearly filled with over a dozen ideas for increasing sales. 

Any guesses on what ultimately happened?  The team exceeded the “impossible” goal by over five percent. 

If you really want to reach a difficult goal or solve a tough problem, and you find yourself stuck, be sure to ask questions that provide answers, not obstacles, and you greatly increase your odds of success.

J.D. Frailey, FranklinCovey Consultant      

Copyright © 2012 - J.D. Frailey

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We hope that you found today’s post thought provoking about your paradigms as a leader and the culture of your team.  If you would like to visit with us to discuss enabling your culture to achieve new and better results, let’s talk!

Enabling greatness one organization at a time,

John Vakidis

Associate Client Partner | FranklinCovey

214.387.9960 | john.vakidis@franklincovey.com

Let's connect online: LinkedIn & Twitter

Attitude is Everything

It’s the first Friday of February, so today I bring you the second post by my colleague, Mark Murphy.  Last month Mark authored a blog titled, Networking and Trust.  Today, Mark writes about something close to my heart.  The subject is Attitude is Everything.  See if today’s post resonates with you and if it does, feel free to post the URL on Facebook or Twitter.  Who knows, maybe you’ll be able to help someone else with their attitude.  Enjoy!_______________________________________________________________________

“If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” —Antoine de Saint Exupery

Our attitudes and beliefs drive our behaviors; our behaviors in turn determine results.  For example, some managers could have the belief that people over 50 are incapable of embracing technology; therefore deciding that anything having to do with innovative technology on a project should be the responsibility of younger IT team members.  This could potentially cause problems on the team. There may be older members of the team who are quite tech savvy and some younger team members who aren’t.  We sometimes make assumptions which can be inaccurate and can cause trouble if not clarified. Remember, Steve Jobs was in his 50’s as is Bill Gates.

The See-Do-Get cycle from Dr. Steven Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, illustrates how our attitudes drive behaviors which ultimately determine results.  As an example of how the model works, let’s take a cue from history. 

Imagine that we are all physicians in the 15th century. What was the belief system held regarding illness in the 15th century?  Where did it reside in the body? Answer:  If you were sick, you were thought to have bad blood – a condition that meant that you were probably evil to some degree. If that’s our paradigm, the way we “see” things, what do we “do” to heal patients? We bleed them. What kinds of results do we probably get? Dead people. 

As physicians, we’ve taken the Hippocratic Oath.  We sincerely have a desire to help people.   It’s obvious we’re not getting very good results. We determine that we have to “do” something different.  If our paradigm doesn’t change-- the belief continues to be that illness comes from bad blood--and taking small quantities of blood isn’t working, what should we do?  Take more blood out! Possibly get them more involved in their healing process by letting them put their own leaches on. What are the results? Exactly, even more dead people.

Let’s imagine one of us, we’ll call him Louis Pasteur, comes up with a very heretical idea that it’s possible illness doesn’t necessarily reside in the blood, but actually comes from  tiny particles in the air that we can’t even see that we’re going to call “germs”.  If that becomes our new paradigm, what might we do differently?  Answer: We could separate or quarantine patients so they don’t spread disease.  We could begin to sterilize instruments between patient visits.  We could wash our hands.  If we were to begin to do some of these things, we would eventually get different, and possibly better, results.

Does that mean the paradigm of illness residing in the blood is completely incorrect?  Of course not. There is Leukemia and many viruses that are blood-borne diseases.  Does it mean the belief is completely correct either?  

No – as managers we need to be willing to be flexible and adapt our paradigms to a diverse set of facts.

“I have never learned anything from any man who agreed with me.” —Dudley Field Malone

- Mark Murphy, FranklinCovey Consultant             

Copyright © 2012 - Mark Murphy

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If you are interested in learning more about our 7 Habits Solutions, consider setting up an appointment to meet with Mark and your FranklinCovey Client Partner.  Schedule an appointment today with our online appointment book (top right side of this page.)

Enabling greatness one organization at a time,

John Vakidis

Associate Client Partner | FranklinCovey

214.387.9960 | john.vakidis@franklincovey.com

The 5 Stages of Performance Improvement

One of the world’s top business consultants is Ram Charan.  He has personally coached leaders from several top 100 Fortune Companies for many years.   He is probably best known for his work around Strategic Goal Execution.  Ram once said, “To understand execution, you have to keep three key points in mind: (1) Execution is a discipline, and integral to strategy; (2) Execution is the major job of the business leader; (3) Execution must be a core element of an organization’s culture.”

We are going to explore this today because Execution is probably the biggest challenge a leader will ever face.  In the beginning, it sounds easy.  You’re the leader, you have a team, you have shared your strategy and now, all they have to do is execute, right?  Wrong!  It’s much more difficult than that.

First of all, only half of the people will claim they understood what you said.  In reality, only 15% of people can articulate the strategy back to you and only half of those people probably know what to do.  If 7-8% of your staff knows how to execute your plan, do you think you will make it?

Having the capability to execute is probably one of the most important aspects a leader can instill in their culture.  While the statistics above are more of a picture of most businesses, there is still light at the end of the tunnel.  Some organizations get it right year after year, and yours can too!

Please take a moment to review the photo below of The 5 Stages of Performance Improvement. 

Let’s review each of these stages, so you can see HOW a culture is developed and strategy shifts towards execution. 

1.)    Drive to improve - Obviously, this is the first step.  If you don’t change what you are currently doing in your business, you will not improve what you are doing now.  So, the leaders must have this “drive” in order to begin making a shift in the culture.

2.)    Leadership Emphasis - This is when the executive team picks something.  It is best, to pick one or two top strategic imperatives.  When you start adding goals to the list, The Law of Diminishing Return will kick your tail!  It is also important that leaders don’t change this emphasis on a regular basis.  If they do, their teams will never start to accept accountability because they know a new strategy will be developed soon.

3.)    Team Accountability - Once the teams take ownership of the goal is when you begin to see a momentum building towards creating your culture.  Division leaders now understand the goal; they know how they contribute to executing the strategy.  Now they are communicating to their teams regularly and holding individuals accountable for measurable activity towards the goal.

4.)    Individual Ownership - It’s one thing for a leader to tell you what to do, but when your individual contributors hold themselves accountable and start behaving in new proactive ways to take new steps towards implementation, this is when the wheels start moving. 

5.)    Habits - When individuals start putting new practices into place and do them consistently, you’ve got something!  This is when the rubber is beginning to hit the road.  Now leaders can predict outcomes based on a large group of individual behaviors or habits. 

To sum it all up, our Regional Execution Practice Leader Scott Thele, recently said, "Your organization's culture is nothing more or less than the collection of habits of the majority of people most of the time."  You can have a culture that executes or one that doesn’t.  It’s all a result of your culture and people’s habits. 

The goal is get your middle performers to behave like your top performers.  Whether you have one location and you want most of the people performing at peak performance or whether you have multiple locations and you most of them performing like your top sites, the challenge is getting the large group to behave well, consistently.  We call it Moving the Middle.  How would your bottom line be affected if you could shift performance by 20% of your middle 60% of your organization?  Do the math! 

If you are a leader and are looking to execute a strategy that is going to take a substantial change in human behavior, then I highly encourage you to take a serious look at our proven process known as, The 4 Disciplines of Execution.  We are helping clients across the globe achieve some pretty amazing results. 

For more information or to join us for one of our upcoming sessions, Creating a Culture of Execution, please give me a call.  We would like to be your strategic partner in 2012 and beyond!

Sincerely,

John Vakidis
Associate Client Partner | FranklinCovey
214.387.9960 | john.vakidis@franklincovey.com