I recently attended a conference where I heard Rick Tamlyn speak on his topic of the “ Bigger Game”.      I purchased his book  and it is a great read with some hands-on practical tools for figuring out your own Bigger Game.    Some key points that I took are as follows:

 It is important to define what game you are playing in your life without trying to figure out the exact outcome .    If you try to figure out exactly what the path or outcome is,  then you cannot effectively play the game.  You need to be open to adapt and innovate as you go along.   

 The first step is identify various games that you might play by noticing around you things that you feel strongly should be different.   The second piece of this is to figure out what parts of these games that you bring particular skills and aptitudes to, as well as yearn to be doing.   This starts with  a need to be more observant about the world around you – at work, in your community, at home.  What are the things that you feel strongly about changing and that you have a “hunger” to be involved in changing?   These are often the things that you keep talking about and can be categorized in one or more of the following statements:

1) No, not that!    What do you want to eliminate or reduce in a situation?  Perhaps you are appalled at something going on in your organization or community that you want to eliminate.

2) Something is missing: This is about something that you want to start.  Perhaps it is a new program or innovation to make something better.   An example was the creation of an all-news channel – CNN. 

3) Yes, more of that!  :  Perhaps you notice something happening in one area that you would like to expand into other areas.   An example of this is the rapid expansion of recycling programs across cities and into new types of materials.

The Bigger game and your Compelling Purpose are closely related and the author has several exercises to help you identify this for yourself.    I have noticed in my own practice that most people struggle with the concept of identifying their “purpose” and how to put it to work.    This book provides some practical ways to do that through the Bigger Game approach.     This is a worthwhile read for anyone looking to step up to their next challenge.

http://www.amazon.com/Bigger-Game-Playing-Designs-Become/dp/1432724169

Maria

President Obama, in his recent State of the Union address, referred to the “Sputnik Moment” – that time back in 1957, when the U.S. realized that the Soviet Union had beat them in getting the first human made object to orbit the earth.   That object was called the Sputnik 1.  This was a humiliation to the U.S. and spurred them on to an increase in U.S. government spending on scientific research and education. It also inspired a generation of engineers and scientists who focused on innovation over the following years, fostering great success in the U.S.   

The point was that the U.S. now needs to recognize a “Sputnik Moment” in the fact that China and other countries are moving ahead much faster than the U.S. and the U.S. cannot afford to be complacent.  There needs to be new energy and resources put into innovation across the nation. 

This is equally relevant for Canadian organizations.    The need for innovation is becoming greater every day.   What is our competitive point of difference with emerging countries?    It certainly isn’t cost of labour, so we have comforted ourselves with the idea that we are a knowledge-based economy.   But emerging nations are gaining knowledge rapidly and learning from us;  many of  their brightest students graduate from our best schools. 

So continuous  innovation in new products, human resources, manufacturing, transportation, technology and marketing will all be critical to our success in the future.    The big question is “How do you foster innovation in your employees and build a culture that supports it?”    If we look at two high-profile examples – Microsoft and Apple – what is the difference here?    Certainly we would think of Apple as more innovative in recent years and their stock price reflects that.   What is the “ magic dust”  in their company and in their people and what is different ? 

There is no simple answer to this.    I had the great fortune to work for one of the most innovative packaged goods companies in the world for many years – PepsiCo – and observed many of the methodologies that worked there.   As a coach and consultant,  I have also worked with numerous other corporations who have had good and bad results in this area.   Here are some  key elements that I have observed that encourage innovation. 

1) Make sure that this attitude comes from the top and is supported throughout the organization.    Hire leaders for your business units who show enthusiasm for innovation, in addition to being competent.   Remember that most employees will try harder for a leader whom they like and respect, as well as challenges them.  In addition, the leader must foster a relatively flat organizational structure where every employee feels like an important contributor and can come forward with ideas.

2)  Hire the right people for this culture.   Employees must feel excited about the work itself and the team they are a part of.   They must also have great potential for filling an important role on the team.  Personality assessments and situational interviewing are important but also make sure that they meet the team before any final decisions are made.       Think of a sports team analogy – how do you choose the right players?    

3) Related to the above – Make sure that your current players are the right ones – Do they enjoy each other’s company and play as well as work hard together?  Playing means  anything that lightens up the moment such as humour or outrageous ideas.   This allows the brain to go into a different place for a few minutes and enhances creativity and teamwork.  It also makes work more fun.   Working hard means having enough passion about their role and the company that they are willing to work to get things done as well as think outside the box to make things better.    An attitude of “whatever it takes”   (within ethical boundaries) is critical as opposed to “whatever reason why not” .   

4) Even in large organizations, create smaller teams so employees can feel an integral part of what is happening.   If they feel like whatever they do doesn’t matter, that is how they will act.

5) Reward the right things.  Reward new ideas and successes.  Not every new idea is a success but if there are no new ideas, there will definitely be no successes.

6) In order to support all of the above, implement a coaching style of management that encourages employees to think for themselves with strong support from their managers.

Here is an interesting link on this topic that you might enjoy reading as well. 

http://www.pressdisplay.com/pressdisplay/viewer.aspx

Maria

I will be conducting a number of workshops and courses over the next couple of months.   There are several public courses that you can sign up for.  In addition, some of these are for specific organizations so you would need to be an employee of that organization.   If you are interested in any of these, please contact me at  info@inspiredstrategies.ca  and I can give you more details.     Even if they have already run when you read this, you can contact me to find out when the next session will be.   I am also happy to conduct one specifically for your team if you would like to set that up.             

March 2 – “Coaching out of the Box” with Uniscan Consulting      (Public)

March 7- April 14 – Strategic Selling  – U of C                                 (Public)

March 16 – Difficult Conversations – Bow Valley College (Lifespeak Workshop)                      (Private)

March 24, 25 – Coaching Out of the Box- U of C                            (Public)

March 31 – Taking the Snooze Element out of Meetings- Altalink    (Private)

April 9 ,16 – Coaching: Inspiring Excellence in Others – U of C    (Public)

April 14 – Difficult Conversations – Wawanesa (Advance Insurance Education workshop)  (Private)

April 27, 28 – Be the CEO of Your Life – U of C                           (Public)

April 26 – June 28 – Business Management – U of C                 (Public)

I came across this great terminology for a philosophy that I deeply believe in for business.  It’s called being a  “Go-giver” instead of a “Go-getter”.    See this link for a great little book on this topic.  http://www.thegogiver.com/       The main idea is to put other’s interests first,  and focus on adding value for others, instead of focusing primarily on what we want to achieve in a business situation.    The results speak for themselves, whether we are talking about sales,  leadership effectiveness or personal success.    People will be drawn to people who they think care about their interests.   With my clients, we talk about “Learning Conversations”  where you ask curious questions to find out what is on the other person’s mind and then you listen effectively and make sure that you understand.  Only at that point can you reasonably offer some ideas for them to consider.  The key part of this is your mindset – a mindset of wanting to bring value.  To do this, you first have to understand what value is for that person.   This is a big departure from the traditional model of being all-knowing as a key competency.  There is still a real difficulty in embracing this philosophy in many situations where they have been trained to know the answers, not to ask others for their thoughts.  This can foster an enviornment of trying to put forward the most clever answer; therefore, everyone is thinking ahead of what their clever answer will be instead of listening to and making sure that they understand someone else’s thoughts and what value means to them.   It can be particularly problematic in classic sales situations, but it is important to any situation where we are dealing with clients, internally or externally.     Next time you feel offended by someone’s approach, notice whether you felt that they really cared about what you wanted or not.   

Maria

There is a funny scene from a YouTube video called” Meetings bloody Meetings”  where the husband and wife are in bed and he is busy working on some papers.  His wife asks why he is doing work now instead of when he is at work and he declares, ” There isn’t time – I have to go to meetings”  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWYnVt-umSA

Most of us have been subjected to meetings that go longer that expected and/or seem to waste our time, leaving us scrambling to catch up on our “real” work.    If you are leading meetings, you probably want to fulfill clear objectives, gain positive participation, stay on time and create positive action after the meeting.   However, this can often prove to be challenging in a number of ways.  Conducting meetings is both an art and a science with a mix of process management and human relations skills.

Here are the top 7 causes of ineffective meetings and a few ideas to help with them. 

Unclear objectives – Make sure that you are very clear on what you want to accomplish and that others are committed to the objectives

Unclear agenda – Lay out clear timelines, including breaks. Make sure that you consult with any presenters beforehand to confirm their time requirements. Send the agenda in advance to all participants

Poor Preparation - Summarize and send all materials that need to be read at least 48 hours in advance.  Make sure that you are also prepared 

Wrong people at the meeting – Make sure that anyone required to make critical decisions on objectives  is at the meeting

Poor facilitation – Keep people on track and on time, encourage participation, manage conflict.   A best practice is to have someone else do the timekeeping and announce when the time is almost over for a topic.   People will only speak up and participate if they trust the others in the room, so make sure that you spend some time on building trust if you think that might be an issue.   Another way to encourage participation is to have others presenting parts of the agenda.   Conflict management can require specific skills.  Sometimes it makes sense to hire an outside facilitator for important meetings, especially if the chairperson also needs to participate a great deal.

Poor commitment and accountability – Make sure that clear action plans are determined where people are committed to specific action to move forward. 

Poor documentation and follow-up – Make sure that concise meeting minutes are sent out within 48 hours and clear action plans are included that outline what, when and who.  Have a plan of follow-up to ensure the action plans are accomplished.

For more tips on meetings, check out this website www.effectivemeetings.com

Maria

I teach several business and leadership courses for the University of Calgary Continuing Education.

The following upcoming courses are open for registration through the University of Calgary.

Business Management (online) – February 8- April 19, 2011

Strategic Selling – March 7-April 18, 2011

Coaching Out of the Box®: Coaching skills for Managers and Leaders  – March 24 and 25, 2011

Coaching: Inspiring Excellence in Others – April 9 and 16, 2011

Contact Continuing Education for more details at http://conted.ucalgary.ca/

or call Continuing Ed at 403 220-2866

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

With the recent elections over, many municipalities will be reviewing and possibly renewing their strategic plans. To assist with this,  I did a presentation on Strategic Planning for municipalities at the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association conference in Edmonton yesterday.    The slides from this presentation will be available on the AUMA website for all members.  See the description below. 

“A Hands-on Session for Creating a Strategic Roadmap”

“Strategic Planning provides organizations with a roadmap to success. Often, there is a great deal of confusion over how to produce a workable Strategic Plan. This session works through an outline of the key concepts included in a Strategic Plan and how best to address them. This session will appeal to anyone involved in Strategic Planning, providing participants with a variety of tools and processes that can be put to use right away.”

Maria