What's Wrong with Work?

If you ask, do you receive?

We've recently done a little office experiment. 

We wrote a short letter to no one in particular and posted it on the noticeboard. 

It asks for 3 specific outcomes (I won't share the details here but things like £X of new business by Y date, a particular project to get brilliant feedback and a piece of news we are waiting for to come in before Christmas). We kept to outcomes we really wanted and needed. We weren't greedy. And we were realistic in the sense that we knew there was a real possibility that we would get these outcomes. They weren't random or plucked out of thin air.

We've all put our names to it. 

What is interesting is that some of the outcomes are starting to be realised. I have given some thought to why this might be and here are my short-listed theories so are - 

1. Magic/God/The Universe

2. It focused the mind and we took actions we might not have taken because we wanted the letter to work

3. Our intentions were in our energy so that, without even realising, other people picked up on that energy and were influenced by it

4. These things would have happened anyway, with or without the letter. It was our hard graft in previous weeks and months which started to pay off. 

Of course, it doesn't much matter why it seems to be working (although understanding what works means you can replicate it). But it brings to mind Rule 4 for Taming Tigers - It's all in the mind. 

By putting in the hard graft and also putting our wishes, hopes, dreams on paper and putting it where we could see it every day we shifted our mindset. The voices in our heads left us alone and we could go about our business with a clear mind, knowing what success looked like. 

I would love to know whether you've ever tried anything like this, what effect it had (if any) and what explanation you give. 

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Bring a Teddy Bear to Work Day

Evidence published in the September issue of Harvard Business Review reports that adults are likely to behave much better when there are reminders of children, such as teddy bears, in their presence. 

You will know that, chance are, you watch your mouth and your opinions when you are around your own children. Well, it appears that it isn't just ACTUAL children who bring out this better behaviour in us but the IDEA of children such as toys, crayons, balloons etc in our vicinity. 

An sample of the data from the research - 

The number of people who will cheat in a given scenario is 20% lower when subjects are near children's toys or engaged in children's activities

The more day-care centres and kindergartens there are in an area, the more likely a company is to engage in charitable behaviour

Neuroscience has shown that oxytocin is released when people are near kids and oxytocin is associated with pro-social behaviour

At a time when business ethics is so high on the agenda, anything which might help leaders be more socially conscious is a good thing, right? Just to be on the safe side, I am bringing my childhood Winnie the Pooh in to the office on Tuesday. Anyone else? 

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If you had to put your values in order...

Disneyworld has four quality standards, a bit like organisational values. Nothing new there, most organisations today do. But what I find interesting about theirs is that they prioritise them. 

So often in organisations staff are expected to balance the differing and often conflicting values meaning they choose the one which is most useful in that moment above the rest. 

So if a company has Our People First, Delight the Customer, Great Value Everyday and Ethical as their values you can see that on any given day you would be forced to decide whether, on this occasion, it is more important to be ethical or to provide a low price, to prioritise your own staff or let them suffer at the hands of rude customers because telling a customer what you think of them is likely not to "delight".

It is a constant trade off, when values are meant to provide staff with clarity about what matters so that they can make wise decisions without constant reference to their bosses.

Disney has got around this problem by prioritising their standards, meaning employees don't have to trade one value off against another in a random or convenient way. 

The four standards are:

Safety

Courtesy

The Show

Efficiency

Efficiency should never be prioritised over The Show (that sense that being at a Disney resort is magical). But The Show should never take priority over being polite. None of these matter more than Safety which is the number one standard. 

I wonder how many organisational values would stand up to this approach - whether they could be put in order. If not you run the risk of having values which don't help people make great decisions. And, I am left wondering, what is the point of them then?

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Getting away from it all

I am about to go away for three days with some chief executive colleagues "on retreat". If this conjours up images of meditation, green tea and tai chi think again. It will be more "rigorous debate, black coffee and a trip to the pub".

Our purpose is to step away from our businesses to get some perspective. By inviting trusted colleagues from other businesses to listen, challenge, feedback and encourage us, we all hope to gain better clarity about an issue facing us in our business. 

Each of us will bring an issue we want to explore to ensure we all get something tangible and valuable from the retreat. But the real value isn't the time spent on your own issue. The real value is stopping and thinking for a change. Discussions over dinner may be more important ultimately than the "proper discussions" we have during the day. A revelation while someone else is exploring their issue may offer more value to you than the time you spend exploring your own issue.

Whatever happens, each of us is guaranteed to come away with a real benefit in terms of our mental well-being, clarity of thought and motivation.

It couldn't come a moment too soon! I feel very fortunate to have this outlet and look forward to it all year. But surely it should be the norm for teams, friends, business associates, to spend time away from their businesses thinking about life the universe and business. Yes, it can be a logistical problem - who will answer all the emails while I am away? What if there is a business related emergency? But the benefits far outweigh the difficulties.

Next time you get the chance to step back from your work, let me know. Was it time well spent? I think I can guess the answer.

It could be worse...

 

Mental vs physical challenges

A colleague of mine is about to undertake a very difficult and dangerous physical challenge. I can't tell you much about it at the moment but as soon as he starts blogging about it I will let you in on it!

We all admire people who put themselves to the test physically, especially when they are attempting something we ourselves cannot imagine doing - for me that includes anything involving running, anything in the extreme cold or anything which involves doing without a nice cup of Starbucks coffee every day.

It is relatively easy for most of us to imagine what would be hard about a physical challenge. Let's say you were about to trek to the North Pole. You can imagine some of the things that would be tough about that -

• The cold
• The lack of home comforts
• The company of a small set of other people who are bound to annoy you at some time
• The relentlessness and potentially the boredom
• The exhaustion
• The difficulty of escaping should you want to give up
• Missing people back home
• The muscle pain and potential pain of injuries (and the lack of access to a doctor or pain meds or a nice warm bath)

Before you set off you would have to be pretty sure that you were prepared to take part despite all of these difficulties. In fact, you would have to believe that the end result - the sense of achievement - would be worth it.

But how much consideration do we give when we embark on a mental or emotional challenge? When we sign up for a self-development programme or try to bring about a change in our company or in our lives...how much do we think about the difficulties we will face?

I find that people under-estimate how hard these mental or emotional challenges are going to be. And then, when they face the inevitable difficulties, they are unprepared. Emotional or mental challenges are just as likely to be tough and include -

• Feelings of physical discomfort (stomach aches, headaches etc)
• Lack of familiar comforts (change inevitably means stepping outside the familiarity of the comfort zone)
• The company of a small set of other people who are bound to annoy you at some time
• The relentlessness and potentially the boredom (change isn't always interesting!)
• Missing people from your past life
• Wanting to give up or downgrade the success criteria (e.g. "Maybe just by getting this far we have proven enough")
• The pain of growth and change for which there is no medication

I don't lightly make this analogy. I believe this is one of the main reasons we so often give up when we set about making a change to our lives or to our company or to our relationships or to ourselves. We don't think of it as giving up because it isn't as obvious as turning on your heels half way to the North Pole. But it is giving up nonetheless.

At Taming Tigers we are going to ask all delegates to fully commit to the journey they are about to embark on as if it were a physical challenge rather than a mindset challenge.

I believe that, if we fully recognise what we are about to do and face up to the myriad ways we will find it hard before we start, we will be far better equipped to deal with those obstacles when they arise...certainly better equipped than if we entered in to the journey oblivious of the hurdles and pains ahead. Ignorance is not bliss.

Puppy update

A few weeks ago I wrote about our new puppy, Humphrey.

Humph isn't my first dog. I grew up around dogs and got my own when I was 13. I got another dog in my 20s from a rescue centre who was fabulous but a bit of a tearaway. This time, especially as I now have a tiny toddler in the house, I was determined to train my dog properly and have been using the principles behind pack hierarchy and dog behaviour to assist me (in addition to lots of treats and praise when he does the right thing).

One problem I hadn't anticipated was that my daughter would be petrified. Never having been around dogs, she found it quite traumatic to come home one day to a large, boisterous, waggy monster...despite lots of preparation by us and lots of excited anticipation by her.

She would tell us how much she loved her puppy and then scream when he took a step towards her.

I explained that running away from the dog would only encourage him to chase her but she couldn't help herself. The flight or fight response kicked in and she would just run!

This went on until a couple of days ago when we went to the local woodland with both my daughter and the dog. As the day progressed she became more and more comfortable with him until, by the end of the day, she was doing this:

Apart from being a great relief, there are some lessons here -

1. Give it time. Many people are afraid of change. It takes time for people to get used to the new reality and realise it isn't that bad.

2. Create loyalty. My daughter became more possessive about her puppy when other children wanted to touch him. She started telling other children how to hold him and how to cuddle him which made her feel like the expert and therefore loyal to the dog.

3. Reward the behaviour you want. As my daughter became more confident I gave her more and more praise, telling her at the end of the day how helpful she had been and how proud I was of her.

4. The problem just evolves. Now we have a new problem. She is so confident with the dog that she is at some risk of getting hurt! He is a puppy with sharp little teeth and is much bigger than he thinks. So the learning continues as we explain to her how to tell when he is too tired, hungry or lively to be played with. Remember that as one problem is resolved a new, higher level problem takes its place. Don't think that you'll get to a place where all the problems are solved and you can have an easy life again.

   

Re-writing Rule Number 1

We carry around with us a hefty Rulebook which informs our decisions and our actions. This Rulebook tells us about the ways of the world as if they were truths.

Maybe your Rulebook tells you "You can't be rich AND happy" or "Bad things happen to good people" or "I'm just not lucky" or any number of rather negative "facts".

Our Rulebook also tells us about the world - "Business is not about people it's about money" and "The years of boom and bust are over" (ha ha!).

In any one day you are limiting yourself because you are accepting these, and others like them, as Rules rather than what they actually are - myths, conventional wisdom, fears, narrow-mindedness, assumption, belief.

I am not saying I have re-written all my Rules. Every day I have little conversations with myself when I realise that I am acting in accordance with a Rule not my true authenticity.

But I think there is one Rule about business and work which should be re-written as a matter of urgency. The Rule states -

"You can't reconcile what is right for people with what is right for business"

It is the Rule that leads us to make choices to prioritise our business over our people. We justify this by saying "Well, without a business our people don't have jobs so, in a way, by prioritising the business I am prioritising people".

Really? When you delay having that 1-2-1 with your line report? Or when you judge someone for coming in late because they had to take their son to the doctor? Or when you stop "walking the floor" for a few weeks because you are so busy with meetings and spreadsheets?

It's time we re-wrote this Rule and replaced it with one that says "You must reconcile the business and the people. Only by doing what is right for the people in your company can you do what is right for the business"

Engaged, motivated people get better results than their disengaged colleagues. When you are under pressure, that is exactly the time to put more effort - not less - in to your people.

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Sick of work?

A new study shows that Britain tops the league table for Sick Days in Europe. We take a massive 170 million days sick a year.

And, surprise surprise, for 50% of those days we aren't actually sick.

By the way, 24% of people say they feel engaged at work. I wonder how many sick days they take? Or are the majority of sick days taken by the 76% who aren't engaged at work?

If you are self-employed or own your company you are probably rarely sick. When you are sick you probably work unless you are really stricken down and can't move. Last year I took a half day off sick because I couldn't see straight having struggled through a cold for about three days and eventually giving in to it and going to bed for one afternoon.

How do we get employees to feel so valued, integral and responsible at work that they will give whatever they can to their job rather than crying off sick because they are sick of their work?

The myth of leadership

I was just searching Harvard Business Review online for a definition of leadership. Up came 6,453 articles.

6,453!

It's not surprising that some many leaders are at best confused and at worst overwhelmed by what it means to lead.

In just one issue there were 10, contradictory, articles about leadership including:

• 3 ways to network
• 4 ways to recover from a career disaster
• 5 misconceptions of new leaders
• 6 ways to be more courageous
• 7 questions every leader should ask themselves
• and 8 lessons from global executives that every leader should know

So, in one month, more than 33 new lessons about leadership.

I think it is actually much more simple than that. Leading is simply about being the best version of yourself. You know what your best self would do. You don't always do it. But you know what it is.

Now you can cancel your HBR subscription! I just saved you $165!