Matt Cartwright, consulting, coaching, facilitation - Professional Facilitator - Matt Cartwright

Empowerment in group decision making

16/2/2012

Empowerment in Group Decision Making

Empowerment… sounds a bit all new age, feel good, tree hugging stuff, or a tokenistic gesture of business profiteers of the new millennia. Maybe, maybe not. Anyway, I am a fan of the concept, It makes good business sense.

My thought is it’s here to stay, people are your power in the business. Give them appropriate power, along they go and along you go. Empowerment in groups needs better understanding.

When I am working with new clients I seek out what level of empowerment are we talking about, what does this mean, how will it be communicated and how will we know it?

Nothing causes greater mistrust than lack of clarity about empowerment levels. It’s very common for groups to assume they have final say in making a decision while management is merely asking for their opinion as input to a decision that managers be making later. Ever felt like that, ever seen it happen, ever heard people tell you something like this???

I experienced this confusion first hand just 2 weeks ago, when a high level group thought they had power to make decisions over a project….. uh uh, the CEO did. Sorry team, no project, 6 months of planning work squashed. The mood was doom and gloom and there were a few other strong adjectives shared around.

Here it is…..It’s essential that you clarify the level of empowerment at which a decision is being made and communicate that explicitly to the group at the start of any decision-making discussion. Yes it takes courage and you might cop a spray, but be warned, if you don’t, the backlash will be far worse. Ingrid Bens discusses 4 empowerment levels in her facilitation practice.

4 Empowerment Levels

Directive: Level 1 - this refers to decisions made by management without input from employees. Employees are informed of the decision and expected to comply.

Consultative: Level 2 -this is a decision made by management after seeking input from employees. Employees are consulted but have no actual say in the final decision and are expected to comply. An employee focus group is an example of this decision.

Participative: Level 3 - this type of decision involves employees discussing and recommending a course of action, but unable to act without gaining final approval. Problem-solving workshops are often set up as level III activities.

Delegative: Level 4 - in this type of decision the group has been given full authority to make a decision and implement action plans without having to seek further approvals.

Tip 1, ensure you and the group know what level they are empowered.
Tip 2, let go of people control, empower others, empower yourself

Journey well,
Matt Cartwright
Inspiring People, Inspiring Business, Inspiring Results
© Copyright 2008 -12

50 Ways to Build Workplace Trust

15/2/2012

Inspiring Trust Behaviours, 50 Agreements from Team Facilitation's

Be accountable
Be responsible
Be congruent
Be adaptable
Be responsive
Be competent
Be honest
Be ethical
Be compassionate
Be open
Be on time
Keep relevant
Examine your motives
Talk straight
Demonstrate respect
Create transparency
Right wrongs
Show loyalty
Deliver results
Get better
Confront reality
Clarify expectations
Practise accountability
Listen first
Keep commitments
Extend trust
Create a trust action plan
Treating all others with respect, courtesy and appropriate confidence
Value each other’s background, experience and diversity
Keep each other informed, passing along information accurately, openly and consistently
Speak well of others, avoid gossip and behaviours which may harm others
Respect organisational values, goals, structure and roles
Speak openly and positively about their work, the organisation, and the future rather than negatively or with cynicism
Focus on the main issues and goals, not getting sidetracked by differences in details
Raise concerns, criticisms, and conflicts openly, and discussing them respectfully
Do what you say you are going to do and build credibility by doing so
Talk in terms of “we” instead of creating “us and them” culture
Recognise others when they have done something positive or different
Take responsibility for your actions/behaviour rather than making excuses or blaming others
Take care when providing feedback; do so in an appropriate time and place
Collaborate on important issues by seeking out others’ opinions and expertise
Show your human side and do not hide mistakes
Show respect to others by understanding that they have a stake in the organisation’s future and success
Listen to others and ask questions if you do not understand or agree; appreciate and value others opinions and say so
Own your area of responsibility and make efforts to improve the environment to make it function successfully
Avoid withholding information
Speak truth not UNtruth
Role model trustworthiness
Say sorry
Forgiveness I trust this helps you....

Journey well.
Matt Cartwright
Inspiring People, Inspiring Business, Inspiring Results
© Copyright 2008-12

Managing Change in your Workplace

15/2/2012

Managing Change in your Workplace

Greetings across the ether...I hope that you have had a good week. If not, this might be for you.

Are you change fatigued, guess what... its normal....but there are some processes that are just more effective than others. I'd like to help you on your journey.

I just wanted to share some info about change that may be of help. Please pass it on as you see fit.. and “Be the change you want to see in the world”

The pressure of work and juggling life is well upon most of us now. Whilst working with teams and change managers I’m becoming more concerned by the impact of change on teams. I ‘m seeing resistance, negativity, team conflicts, budget overruns, staff turnover, poor morale, lost customers and sense of helplessness. It's not all doom and gloom out there, many teams thrive effectively.

Change management isn’t rocket science but it’s a challenge.

I’m seeing many clients with issues of inability to embed, sustain and spread the change. One of the problems is that readiness for change processes have lacked enough consideration, planning and management. Also lack of sustainability for maintaining the change is problematic.

I just had to share one of the most effective constructs for managing change...an oldie but a goldie.....

It comes from John Kotter’s book, The Heart of Change. Kotter is one of the leadership and change management gurus and well respected Harvard Lecturer. I am sharing this info as I use this approach along with many others and with my clients and they get excellent results. This might save you and your team frustration down the track.

If you want to talk about change in your work place, review a change management program, or you need assistance please feel free to give me a call. We have a number of best practice change programs to assist teams deal with change and expertise to facilitate and coach change leaders.

Change will happen, its how transformational that you want it to be.

Journey well,
Matt Cartwright
Inspiring People, Inspiring Business, Inspiring Results
© Copyright 2008 -12

From John Kotter's book, The Heart of Change, summary of key points that I like most are:

Increase urgency - inspire people to move, make objectives real and relevant.
Build the guiding team - get the right people in place with the right emotional commitment, and the right mix of skills and levels.
Get the vision right - get the team to establish a simple vision and strategy, focus on emotional and creative aspects necessary to drive service and efficiency.
Communicate for buy-in - Involve as many people as possible, communicate the essentials, simply, and to appeal and respond to people's needs. De-clutter communications, make technology work for you rather than against.
Empower action - Remove obstacles, enable constructive feedback and lots of support from leaders - reward and recognise progress and achievements.
Create short-term wins - Set aims that are easy to achieve – in bite-size chunks. Manageable numbers of initiatives. Finish current stages before starting new ones.
Don't let up - Foster and encourage determination and persistence - ongoing change - encourage ongoing progress reporting - highlight achieved and future milestones.
Make change stick - Reinforce the value of successful change via recruitment, promotion, and new change leaders. Weave change into culture.

Leadership and the influence on organisational learning and training

15/2/2012

Leadership and Influence on Organisational Learning and Training

I was in a forum this week about leadership influence and training. I thought to myself.... leadership is not a separate role, neither is training a separate function. Leadership and growth rests within all of us, everyone's responsibility, there are too many many dis-empowered workers out there, lead up, down and lead across or lead yourself out of there.

My best organisational learning experiences always came from elected leaders who bleeped me off, I find new ways of learning generally outside the organisation.

Nelson Mandela once stated that the trick of leadership is allowing yourself to be led..... and a sign of wisdom or effective leadership is persuading people to do things and make THEM think it was THEIR own decision. Apply this to the role of a trainer.

Imagine if employees no longer needed that guidance in the training scene, rather they were empowered to guide themselves?...is this possible? Again, apply it to the concepts of leadership, training and learning transfer.

Ultimately 'empowerment' is simply increasing the decision-making options or discretion of workers. Empowered employees have greater authority and responsibility for their work than they would in more traditionally designed organisations. Empowerment generally enhances their motivation, allows them to be more adaptive and receptive and minimises bureaucratic hurdles that slow action and learning transfer.

Journey well,
Matt Cartwright
Inspiring People, Inspiring Business, Inspiring Results
© Copyright 2008 -12

Making Decisons in Uncertain Times

15/2/2012

Making Personal Decisions versus Decision Dramas

Okay most of us are faced with personal and work based decisions that from time to time are tough. Yes me too, I''m not superman.

Here are some typical possible decision scenarios in a day

Will I change jobs, sack the boss, or take a vacation???
Will I buy the new car, lease or hold onto the current one???
Will I buy that new laptop???
Will I invest in staff training?
Will I, will I, will I, oh know its too much......
What will happen if I make the wrong decision???
Will I leave work early to be home with the kids?
Will I sort out the project team mess or leave it a bit longer until the next meeting?
Will I change our business processes this month or leave it a bit longer?.....And the rest of the day is filled with them, right! you bet ya.....they are.

“Your decisions influence your actions to either avoid pain or move toward pleasure”

It’s your life, are your decisions helping you achieve more of what you want from it?

Making decisions for many people is a struggle. “What will I do here, What will happen if I don’t do it, how wilt this effect me or others, if only I knew what to do, it isn’t fair, I’m stuck, what do I do and so it goes on until one day the opportunity has passed by or they get there but it hasn’t exactly been easy.

There are many decision making tools that you can use, but the simple and effective approach is often overlooked especially to personal decision making.

So how do you make better decisions? The secret lies within how you think, what you do and how you interpret your world. What references you attach to your decisions makes the difference, for example:

Decide to have a holiday versus decide on want to have a holiday. The first approach decide to have a holiday gives direction and action, whereas decide want to have a holiday is a preference which may not result in action or commitment. The pain might be saving more money which means less time with friends in the short term or the pleasure might be relaxation, meeting new people and seeing new places.

What I have learnt is the the key to effective decision making is to maintain your motivation and to see yourself moving in the direction you want to go and what benefits you will experience. I also know from my neuroscience research that brain likes pleasure, so make decisions pleasurable not painful.

Decision Points, Read and Take Action...It Helps.

Decide to have versus decide on wanting to have.
Action focuses you on direction.
Take consistent action to achieve more results.
Making good decisions requires practice, the more you make the more the energy you get, the more likely you learn how to move toward what you really desire.
Decide what to focus on.
Ask yourself what does this mean to me?
Ask yourself what do I do now?
Take massive action.
Notice what is working and not working.
Change your approach until it works.
Stay flexible but committed.
Link pain or negative consequences for not taking action.
Link pleasure and positive consequences for taking action.

“Fear of failure is created in our minds, so are dreams and realities”
“Coaching helps you make decisions and reach your goals faster and more effectively. You can always achieve more from life and work, just contact me at Inspiring Results to find out how.

Journey well,
Matt Cartwright
Inspiring People, Inspiring Business, Inspiring Results
© Copyright 2008 -12

Closing The Chasm of Strategic Intents and Customer Engagement

15/2/2012

Closing the Chasm of Strategic Intents and Customer Engagement

Okay the topic sounds a little heavy I know, I was feeling heavy and academic today, and....well to be honest one of my close colleagues child was hit by a car today, hospitalised and had surgery and so on.

Thankfully the whole experience with staff was fantastic... so good customer engagement I guess.

So.... most of those who know me, know that I care a lot about working relationships than the dollar. I spend more time on developing people, including relationships and myself than may be I ought to, and yes, I could be a bit more cut throat in the decisions den. I simply just don’t sell customers into something they don’t need, I don’t work that way, and I won’t…

Why, because people and relationships matter in my business. I’ll share a secret……ready…to me, you the reader and customers are my purpose and lifeline to the experiences I want from life and business. That’s how I measure my success, not turnover/profit. Sound about new age, zenlike....well maybe , the truth is I value experiences over money and when I ask others, it seems to be the same. There is a wealth of evidence on happiness and income levels, and if you read it you will find their is correlation to a point and then it makes no difference.

"More is less" and "Less is More"

I’d rather it be written on my tombstone, “Matt engaged in life and people, versus Matt was a filthy rich bleep screwing over every customer and employee”

One thing I do know best is how to engage your most valuable people your customers and your team. In business or projects, the people whether it’s my customers, team, stakeholder or partner, mirror my skills or lack of engagement skills. When I need them to take action it is often influenced by understanding my business intents and the intents of the partner/customer.

In my research on product branding and customer engagement I came across a useful article, here are some the key points I learnt. As we move into uncertain times, it's worth understanding how to engage with customers more effectively. Never underestimate the power of word of mouth (WOM), my most successful marketing strategy to date.

Remember if you are reading this blog, I challenge you to take action.

Key points are only good if you take some action, so make it worth your while. If nothing changes, nothing changes…….pretty easy science isn’t it……

Internal challenges There is evidence to suggest a growing link between customer strategies and business success. Many organisations are able to develop suitable strategies but fail to execute them properly.

Total customer engagement, here is a short summary.

4 Main points focus you

Customer value proposition. What the organisation can offer its customers.
Brand. What the company is and what it stands for.
Internal culture. This reflects what goals, values and behaviours should be in place to ensure that employees can consistently provide a quality service to the customer.
Customer experience. Reflects both the physical and emotional aspects of what occurs during interactions.

8 areas to focus action

The model in brief

1 Customer economics. Begin by building a customer economic business case. Define engaged versus non-engaged customers in terms of loyalty, share of wallet and recommendation to determine customer lifetime value. Then compare engaged customers versus other customers, as this will help build the business case for your customer initiatives.

2 Governance. Create a customer program committee where all key customer functional areas are represented. The key internal sponsor should be a senior executive and the committee should be chaired by the CEO. Ensure the program team has a mix of project management, analytical and functional expertise.

3 Design. Design all key strategic elements together including brand, customer value proposition, internal culture and customer experience. Start with your vision, customer value proposition and planned customer experience. This ensures that the creation of your strategic elements is designed with a view to achieving your vision and your planned customer outcomes. Ensure the heads of all key functional areas are present in the design stage namely sales, marketing,service, HR and operations. Focus on more than mere satisfaction. Ensure that your planned customer experience includes emotional elements as well.

4 Engage. Invite all staff to participate in the creation of engaged customers. Involve staff by empowering them to develop innovative ways to create engaged customers. Ensure leaders exhibit the right behaviours. Staff engagement is a function of staff understanding your strategy, knowing what is expected of them, knowing they have the skills and resources required, being personally committed to your strategy and finally knowing that they are making a difference.

The key to engaging staff is to sell staff the strategy from two perspectives:

1 rational – business benefits, competitive benefits, market perspective; and
2 emotional – customer perspective, doing the right thing, an invitation to make a difference;
and to involve them in the design and delivery of your customer experience elements.

5 Measure. Measure customer engagement levels in terms of consideration, recommendation and loyalty. Follow a rating question with a question asking the reason for the score. Ensure that measures around recommendation and loyalty are granular and are census based so that results are at an appropriate operational level (branch, retail outlet, product, call centre team or other channel). From an internal perspective each team should be measured on their behaviours by peers and internal clients against the organisational values. Encourage inter-functional discussions post feedback.

6 Embed. Invite staff to develop initiatives against your planned customer experience. In addition, encourage staff to innovate and develop new initiatives. Deliver customer feedback to functional areas that are best qualified to make improvements. Create processes so that staff can make improvements against customer feedback.

7 Performance management. Manage, reward and recognise against the following:. living the organisational values; internal peer ratings against agreed behaviours based on organisational values; customer measures – recommendation, loyalty and consideration. Hire and fire based on fit with organisational values and behaviours.

8 Okay so what now? Here it is....business grows when we grow, so what will you change or what action will you take from this blog?

What
When
How

Journey well with your customers,
Matt Cartwright
Inspiring People, Inspiring Business, Inspiring Results
© Copyright 2008 -12

I've got some attitude and you're about to get it

10/2/2012

I've Got Some Attitude and You're About to Get It...

This week I've seen and heard it again..... How do I motivate my team, I'm not motivated, he's not onboard with us, she has a major attitude problem, you get the picture....

I ended the working week with an evening class, Friday night in my case, yes I do have a life but I am also am committed to my own professional development, after all I am a student of life.

Here are just some thoughts on attitude, I have done a lot of work in the attitude arena, and my biggest test was working with teenage mental health clients with serious behavioural and emotional problems... oh yes, my attitude sure got some working out.

5 Tips on Attitude Adjustment

Note, you can not change others attitudes, that's not your job, let go... and work on yourself first, then when you have mastered that, do it all over again

1. What you focus on is what you get
2. If you think you can't you won't
3. It's not whether you get knocked down, its whether you get back up
4. If you think you are beaten you are
5. If nothing changes, nothing changes

Journey well,
Matt Cartwright
Inspiring People, Inspiring Business, Inspiring Results
© Copyright 2008 -12

Develop a Culture of Candor or Develop a Culture of Cancer

10/2/2012

Develop a Culture of Candor or Develop a Culture of Cancer

How often is the quality of open and honest expression lost in your workplace?

How many times have you wanted to have the hard conversation but shied away?

Or, when you did have the conversation the other person retreated into a helpless victim role and avoided responsibility. The result being deeper trenches and longer battles.

With political correctedness, codes of conduct, legislations and laws we may have developed a cotton wool culture or culture of uncertainty and powerlessness. Although we need external boundaries for order, people have gone the other way avoiding the issues in fear of reprimand, reprisal, rejection and retribution.

Lack of candor feeds corporate cancer by infecting it with cynicism, contention, competition, conflict, contention, comparison and childish tantrums. The result being a paralysis of truth and expression. Without expression we lose power, creativity and innovation. Our work places lose community to problem solve and move beyond mediocrity. The result, poor performance.

Imagine your workplace communication being open, frank, honest, truthful, free from bias, fair, impartial, accountable and upfront. It would be kind of nice, wouldn't it?.

What would change?
How would workplace relations differ?
What might improve?
What would happen to morale and job satisfaction?
How would it affect the bottom line?

What can you do? Candor starts with you. Work from the inside out.

Try these ideas, share these ideas, pass it on, use it as a 10 minute discussion topic for your next meeting. The following is taken from. A Culture of Candor, O”Toole and Bennis, Harvard Business Review 2009.

Tell the truth. We all have an impulse to tell people what they want to hear. Wise leaders tell everyone the same unvarnished story. Once you develop a reputation of straight talk people will return the favour.

Encourage people to speak truth to power. It's extraordinarily difficult to people lower in the hierarchy to tell the higher ups the unpalatable truths, but that’s what higher ups need to know, because often their employees have access to information about problems that they don’t. Create the conditions for people to be courageous.

Reward contrarians. The company won't innovate successfully if you don't learn to recognise, and then challenge your own assumptions. Find colleagues who can help you do that. Promote the best of them and thank all of them.

Practise having unpleasant conversations. The best leaders learn how to deliver bad news kindly, so people don't get unnecessarily hurt. That’s not easy, find a safe place to practise.

Diversify your sources of information. Everyone's biased. Make sure you communicate regularly with different groups of employees, customers, and competitors, so that your own understanding is nuanced and multifaceted.

Admit your mistakes, this gives everyone around you the permission to do the same. Build organisational support for transparency. Start with protection for whistleblowers, but don't stop there.

Hire people because they created a culture of candor elsewhere, not because they can out-compete their peers. Set information free. Most organisations default keeping information confidential which might be strategically private. Default to sharing information unless there is a clear reason not to.

Candor is something that we can all do better. We can help you achieve better outcomes through facilitation, coaching and team development. We offer a range of services and programs to address team communication, performance, team and individual effectiveness.

GFC Tip: We can continue to grow ourselves, our teams and our corporate culture.

Journey well,
Matt Cartwright
Inspiring People, Inspiring Business, Inspiring Results
© Copyright 2008 -12

Workplace Culture

3/2/2012

Workplace Culture

Constantly I see teams losing direction about their meaning and purpose. Let's face it, that's why I get hired. It is expressed in negativity, burnout, stress, the silo mentality, conflict and poor communication. I also hear the pain of people being unhappy, dissatisfied and looking for something else in search of a better place. Many of them forget that the better place starts within.

I observe people becoming the victims, some actually become persecutory and then there are others that try to save what is worth saving. This fruitless game is a no win situation for the workplace and life in general.

What is clear in this changing workplace is a loss of sight on what matters, a lack of inclusion and connectedness between the people and its culture. Is this true?

The challenge, (because there is one....or it's an opportunity)

Ask yourself this and then ask the people around you could they confidently stand up in front of a group at a moments notice and answer the following?

What is the workplace culture like?

What is the vision?
What are the core values?
What is the strategy to achieve the vision?
What are the collective goals?
When will these goals be achieved?
What roles does everyone have?
How are people valued in their role?
What is the social responsibility policy?

Be honest, discuss this with your teams these questions, check in and check out what people really think and feel.

A listening, learning and coaching culture may provide the best change of riding out the unsettling waves of change that businesses are facing.

We provide affordable and responsive business facilitation, coaching and teambuilding. We move organisations closer to what matters most. Feel free to contact us for more information on how we can help.

Journey well,
Matt Cartwright
Inspiring People, Inspiring Business, Inspiring Results
© Copyright 2008 -12

Tips to manage conflict, energise or else

3/2/2012

Constructive Conflict vs Destructive Conflict

Well it's one of my all time favourite topics, well not really... sure I don't necessarily love it when it happens, but my advantage is I do know how to mange it well. It doesn't mean I don't get into conflict, I do, because it's a normal part of business, innovation, growth and change.

I'm just more likely to stick to the process that works. Given that, I have also found this to be challenging for the other side, because they know I am sticking to the process, being accountable, again its not personal, sometimes its just good manners and good business and common sense.

I have yet to coach a client who has not addressed conflict as a growth area. So,

What’s the conflict score in your workplace?
Who’s in competition?
Who’s winning, who’s losing?

Okay, here it is, have you ever dreaded coming to work because conflict exists with a colleague or in a team? Remember those feelings of being uptight, nervous, sick, worried or angry? How often can you recall experiencing animosity, bitching, backbiting, comparing, complaining, criticising and sabotage? Okay so it’s all coming back so let’s stop there. Conflict does have a positive side, and when it’s dealt with appropriately both parties can achieve resolution and synergy.

Conflict occurs every day in the workplace and exists in all organisations, with varying degrees of success. More often, conflict is avoided or ignored. As such, unresolved conflict becomes a major contributor to unproductive stress in the workplace. This impacts the business goals, morale, communication, culture, customer service and the bottom line.

Cited studies find that more than two-thirds of managers spend more than 10% of their time handling workplace conflict and 44% of managers spend more than 20% of their time in conflict-related issues. Working Dynamics (2006).

Over 65% of performance problems result from strained relationships between employees, not from deficits in individual employee's skill or motivation." (Dana, Daniel 2001)

I have observed that most conflict in teams is attributed to three key areas:

roles and relationships
work processes
tasks

Imagine having the confidence, skills and support to apply preventative and proactive strategies to constructively manage conflict. Resolved effectively, conflict can lead to personal and professional growth. Picture yourself applying these simple but yet powerful ideas of STOP and START.

STOP before you try to resolve conflict.

S Step back from action, emotion and thinking
T Think about what’s most important here
O Organise your thoughts to create coherence
P Proceed, when purpose and next steps are clear
(Timothy Gallwey, 2000))

START with these action processes.

S Set out the “facts” to be addressed and sort out the person from the problem
T Together explore available options, take personal attacks as non-personal
A Assertively express your views, avoid being aggressive, attend to the interests being
presented
R Relationships are the key, make good relationships the first priority
T Talk second, listen first
(Matt Cartwright, 2008)

Dealing with conflict is something that we can all do better. Inspiring Results can help you achieve better outcomes through facilitation, coaching and team development.

Conflict Coaching
Conflict coaching is a proven and preventative process to reduce working relationship breakdowns, avoiding grievances and need for mediation.

Ceasfire
Ceasefire is our quick experiential team program that helps you manage conflict effectively by learning new strategies that achieve results.

Journey well,
Matt Cartwright
Inspiring People, Inspiring Business, Inspiring Results
© Copyright 2008 -12