This week, Mayor Nenshi spoke to Calgary city employees about how he wants to start a “culture shift” at city hall.  He would like employees to be more proactive, take some risks and innovate to reduce red tape and serve the citizens more effectively.  Although it sounds very positive, it was met with mixed reactions from both employees and some commmunity members, since the concept of risk can in some ways go against what people expect from city hall.    So it seems that the definition of risk needs to be more defined and it probably varies for different departments. For example, how much risk do we want the people who run our utilities to take?  Perhaps this is more about personal risks to speak up with new ideas that could make a difference.   And that is maybe where the culture could be a problem – if people do not feel comfortable to speak up. http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Mayor+seeks+city+hall+culture+shift/3979565/story.html

Coincidentally, I attended a great presentation this week by David Irvine  on “Building an Engaged Culture”.   David is an expert on building cultures and works with companies all over the world.    He talked about the DNA of an organization and the impracticality of trying to change a culture where the new values for the culture do not match the type of people who work there.   For example, if an organization has deliberately hired technical people who value precision and results, then trying to introduce a more socially oriented culture may have challenges.   Another point was the differences between the visible culture and the real culture.   The visible culture is what the company puts out to the public, whereas the real culture includes how people honestly experience the organization, the informal procedures and coffee conversations.  In most organizations, employees would not be able to tell you the published values, but they certainly could tell you about the real values.    http://www.davidirvine.com/

Coming back to shifting the culture at City Hall – first of all, it would have to start at the top within the administration.  Values need to be defined for the culture .   The key question that needs to be addressed is, “Do we have the right people in place to drive this new culture?”   If part of the current culture is to not take risks, then why is that?   Who has been punished or ignored for being innovative and how can that be changed?   Teams and workgroups would need to meet among themselves and have conversations to determine, “What does this mean in our group and how can we start on it?”    It has to become imbedded in the performance planning process that innovating is good, if it is focused on goals of serving the public more effectively.   I look forward to the next chapters in this interesting project!

Maria

In addition to the leadership work that I do, I also teach Strategic Selling.   Although these two areas may seem functionally different, they are actually very related since leaders need to constantly be selling their ideas, internally and externally, and this needs to be a strategic process.  Also, as ”CEO of your Life”, it is extremely important to be able to sell the ideas that you are passionate about.   I came across a great new book by Kotter and Whitehead, called “Buy-In: Saving Your Good Idea from Getting Shot Down” that puts forward some interesting ideas on this topic.   I will discuss a few of their key points from my point of view and I have also provided a link to a more detailed review of the book.   http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/oct2010/ca2010108_743960.htm

A key point is to welcome your opponents and make sure they have their say.  The premise is that you want to create some emotion around the discussion that this conflict can create.   Also, if they are excluded, they may undermine you later.

The point about emotion is very important.  When I teach Strategic Selling, we talk about not only the selling steps, but also the Buyers Process and how important that the “Desire” step is.   The buyer only reaches this point when they have some positive emotional feeling (desire)  about the idea. Similarly, a leader wants to create some kind of emotional commitment to their ideas.   The natural tendency is to provide more data to counteract any objections, and although this can be inportant in answering a question that requires data, it does not create any commitment.   The buyer may be totally convinced that you are right, but have no inclination to help you push forward, since there is not enough desire to do whatever it takes to make it happen.     Usually, the emotional commitment occurs when they care.  Appealing to all their objections with facts is less effective than using real-life examples and stories to create tangible pictures for them, easy for everyone to relate to. 

Another point is to be very prepared.  This includes thinking about the objections that could occur and how you will respond. Try to have a good idea how various people will respond and who are the key influencers.   Practice short responses to direct attacks and then move into a desire-creating stories or examples.   

Above all, manage your own emotions and maintain an attitude of genuine interest in the people who are objecting to your ideas.  Avoid being drawn into mud-slinging arguments since you will then lose the whole audience.  Keep asking open questions to uncover their true objections and show them that you are interested.  

Maria

In the wake of Wikileaks, organizational  leaders and small business owners should  be thinking about their policies for protecting their sensitive information, not just from external attacks, but from internal “leakers”.  Examples of types of sensitive information are customer credit card information, health information, customer confidential information, intellectual property, and business critical information.    Think about all the ways that information can leave your site, such as e-mail, saving to a smart phone or memory stick, or printing, not to mention being posted on social media sites, or even wiki’s.   

Additionally, a few people are always looking for an easy way to make their mark and the online world has opened up new opportunities for them to do this by uncovering and publishing  information that you would rather have stayed confidential.  

You may not have reviewed your policies for Data Loss Prevention in awhile and the technology of “leaking” is rapidly changing.   For small companies, this is simpler but still critical, especially if you perform contract work for larger organizations.  For larger organizations, there are many things to consider.    I am no expert on this but I thought for a start, I would share this video from RSA, an insurance company specializing in data loss prevention.  The presenter puts forward some some good ideas to think about.   

Enjoy the video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsW-_jPpYfc