Facilitating networking to improve business

I attended a fascinating presentation by Maya Townsend of Partnering Resources. The topic was network analysis in organizations, and the discussion meandered into many other aspects of networking in business. As an excellent conversation, this triggered many additional thoughts afterwards that I want to put together to make my case that networking is an essential function that needs to be built into high performance organization.

Most organizations state among their core values something around teamwork or collaboration. This is not just to make everybody feel warm and fuzzy, but because it makes business sense. People working together get things done more creatively and more effectively. We have all experienced how much more willing we are to help someone whom we have met in person. Virtual teams struggle with this phenomenon in reverse.

Every organization has its power players. Some have position power, some have informal power. A network analysis can reveal who the informal leaders are. Information, expertise and social connections are channeled through these people, usually not according to the organizational hierarchy. Knowing these movers and shakers is critical in change initiatives or in analyzing an organizational problem.

High performers are natural networkers and learn fast how to build strategic networks. To build a truly high performing organization, everybody would do well to be good at building important connections inside and outside of work. The company can assist by building networking infrastructure and skills. A mentoring program can create vertical connections. Intranets and expert wikis create platforms for informal learning and linking through expertise. Company events and buddy programs give a chance to form true human connections. Sometimes classroom training not only serves as professional development, but also as an excellent bonding and networking opportunity. Even office design can enhance networking with employee lounge areas and attractive cafeterias. Access to social networking tools, like LinkedIn and Facebook, is increasingly important, especially for the Millenials, with other generations catching up fast.

In addition to creating the right environment, the organization should consider providing training on basic networking skills. For some, it may come natural; for the rest, a little help may be needed. Whether it is networking etiquette, the use of the social media or basic interpersonal skills, increased collaboration both internally and externally will pay back the efforts.

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Happiness at work

Positive psychology is gaining in popularity. No longer is it enough to find ways to cure mental illness, but psychologists are now researching ways to help people live more fulfilling lives. I wanted to dig in deeper to see what positive psychology has to say about happiness at work. Does happiness really matter for productivity? And if it does, what can we use from the current research that can be applied in today’s workplace?

The Gallup Management Journal Employee Engagement Survey shows a strong correlation between employee engagement and happiness. Happy employees are more equipped to handle change and new challenges. According to another Gallup poll, employees who considered themselves happy spent 80% of their work time on task, versus unhappy employees who only spent 40% of their time on task. Professor Teresa Amabile from Harvard Business School studies employee innovation and performance. Her research discovered that employees were more creative on the days when they were on a good mood.

To increase happiness, there are elements we can control and some that we can’t. Research suggests that some people are born to be sunnier personalities than others. But, even the grumpsters can increase their level of happiness by focusing on the controllable factors. Our level of fulfillment improves, when we find a greater purpose and focus in our daily activities, play to our strengths, learn and grow, and have meaningful relationships. A good workplace can contribute to these happiness drivers.

Purpose and meaning

Organizations that are able to communicate a greater purpose and create an emotional attachment with their employees can reach over 50% increase in discretionary effort. Organizational communications and employment branding do part of this, but the most critical role falls to the managers who create the link between the organizational goals and the day-to-day work.

Strengths and growth

Recognizing individual strengths and letting employees leverage them not only creates happiness, but is a wise investment for the company. The most intense level of happiness is experienced in Flow, where the level of challenge is highest and skills are stretched to meet it. Continuous learning and growth guarantees on-going opportunities to reach Flow.

Meaningful relationships

One of the strongest engagement drivers is to have a best friend at work. Human connections create a sense of purpose and belonging. Organizations should be cautious of evaluation and reward systems that incentivize individualism and internal competition. Cultures that nurture teamwork and service orientation are more likely to promote happiness and loyalty.

Last but not least, positive language by itself is a self fulfilling prophesy. When employees and managers pay attention to positive events, they are more likely to feel happy. Positive feedback, gratitude and recognition are small gestures that go a long way to promote happiness and productivity. What’s the downside?

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How to heal a toxic culture?

We hear stories of workplaces with backstabbing, blame games, taking the credit from others, kiss up -kick down antics and worse. Unfortunately, some of you spend your work days in this kind of environment. In some cases, there are pockets of suffering teams caused by individual bad managers that are allowed to continue their pillaging. In other cases, the poison has permeated the whole company culture. Is there anything to be done when the problem has reached this level of severity? A culture can be healed; it takes time and intentional steps.

Start from the top

One could argue that the most important task of the leadership team is to manage the company culture. Everything else follows. As the top team has such an influence on the culture, you are often part of the problem as well. Do you have the guts and self awareness to put the stake in the ground and turn the company around, even if it requires some significant soul searching and behavior change on your own part? If you can’t resolve your simmering conflicts and passive aggressive positioning, there is not much hope for the rest of the organization.

Trash to treasure

Assess your existing culture. There is no culture that is totally rotten. Identify the legacy you can build on and be proud of. Perhaps among all the stings and arrows flying everyone ended up being very punctual and concise in communications. Or, even though it is totally overboard, everyone says what they mean. Once you are able to articulate what you are dealing with, define what you aspire for. Create a vision for your new culture and share with your employees.

Open feedback

Although easier said than done, the only way to build a new culture is through open feedback. Leaders, managers and employees must learn to express to each other how they perceive each others’ behaviors and how they would like to shape them towards the new culture. The goal is to make it a safe experience, thus it is a delicate, arduous and exciting journey. As many mistakes will be made, the company must also develop a learning focus where learning from mistakes will be celebrated. This concept itself will be hard to grasp for employees who have lived in a company where coworkers were looking for opportunities to pull the rug from beneath their feet at the first opportunity.

Manage out the toxic behaviors

Managers’ role will be to slowly guide the teams to the new behaviors using informal feedback and coaching. Those who are too entrenched in their old toxic behaviors need to be managed out to show to the workforce that the new culture is for real.

Long term maintenance

As the culture gets traction, it is important that the new blood in the company reinforces the new culture. The selection process must be aligned with the new cultural values. The stricter the selection, promotion and reward decisions are made based on the cultural values, the stronger they are adopted by the rest of the population. Track the progress by using cultural surveys and focus groups. The metrics and stories will both tell you when the toxin levels will start decreasing. The business results will show it too.

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Why is nothing changing after training?

According to Robert Brinkerhoff research, only about 15% of learning impact is determined by the actual training event. Up to 85% of the learning impact is influenced by external factors: what happens before and after. As so much scrutiny is put on the actual training event, and not much attention is paid to what really matters, it’s no wonder that most training sessions become a nice, although high quality, break from the daily grind but not much more.

Typical pitfalls of training with low impact are:

• Wrong people sent to the training
• Lack of purpose / expectations
• No opportunity to apply new skills and knowledge
• Lack or reinforcement after training
• Work environment makes it difficult to apply new skills and knowledge
• Wrong learning attitude

1. Send the right people to the training

The reason to train a person is to improve or learn a new skill, behavior or knowledge. This can be achieved through many methods. Sometimes just handing a simple job aid or a book could do the trick. If a fundamental behavior change is expected, one-on-one coaching over a long period time is often more appropriate. In some cases, the whole team needs to adopt a new methodology, approach or tool, and training everyone at the same time is the most efficient. If your employee is having a behavior problem, training is not the silver bullet. I have seen whole teams sent to a behavior improvement class so that the manager could avoid having a frank discussion with just a couple of employees. Sit down with your low performers and communicate your expectations. If it truly is a skill gap, you may consider training. In most cases, it is matter of close monitoring and getting back on track. Send your high performers to state-of-the-art workshops and conferences where they really get to expand their expertise.

2. Set the expectation for learning

Whether it’s your whole team or one or two individuals, plan ahead to make the most of the learning experience. If you are not concerned with the ROI of the learning, why bother sending them at all? Be clear why they are going to this particular training and why they were picked. Make the new skill part of their performance plan, and expect them to share the key learning points with you and the team.

3. Ready to apply

Prepare for their return so that learners will immediately be able to apply what they learned. If it is new software, the tool should be installed on their computer, ready to use. If they are going to learn negotiation skills, agree with them in which deal will they be testing the new skills. If there won’t be any chance to apply upon return, delay the training.

4. Reinforce and enforce

Inspect what you expect. Ask for a briefing on the key learning points. Work together to create a simple action plan to ensure that the skills are applied immediately after the training. Monitor progress and celebrate success together. Give feedback and coaching as much as you are familiar with the topic.

5. Create a supportive work environment

Cynical coworkers can certainly kill any budding new skill. Set rules of engagement for the whole team to expect support. If the whole team is learning new methods, share war stories, wins and best practices as they emerge. Remove obstacles such as bureaucratic processes or old systems that can be counterproductive to the excitement of gaining new skills.

6. Select people with a positive learning attitude

To create an innovative organization, you need people who are curious, open to change and who want to continuously improve and learn new things. Make this a performance evaluation and promotion criteria and, more importantly, a  selection criteria for new hires. Nothing stops progress more than an employee who thinks he or she knows everything there is to know and poisons the learning environment for everyone else on the team.

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Copyright 2010 Liisa Pursiheimo-Marcks, all rights reserved.
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Meaningful relationships at work

One of the Gallup’s Q12 questions is whether you have a best friend at work. At first glance, this seems like a strange question to have risen to the top 12 questions to ask, but Gallup has proven that having a best friend at work correlates with retention, engagement and profit generation.

Meaningful relationships at work build trust. Where you find trust, you will also find accountability. Smart employers will create a work environment that nurtures relationship building. Leadership style is the most critical in creating the right environment. A participative style that engages the team members and values everyone’s input is more likely to create deeper relationships than a top-down directive leadership style.

The overall company culture will clearly impact the work environment. If the culture is very fast paced and task oriented, and relationship building is not valued, the employees will feel discouraged to take any time away from their tasks to get to know their coworkers. This will make the relationships transactional. A sign of a task oriented culture may be that the employees prefer to send a thread of e-mails instead of simply picking up the phone to resolve an issue.

Another organizational mechanism that may complicate trust and relationship building is the forced ranking process. By its nature, it has a risk of promoting an individualistic and competitive culture, unless the process is managed with care, and the managers are highly trained about the performance standards and knowledgeable about potential rating biases.

To build more relationships, the company may just create more opportunities to do so. It can happen in team meetings, happy hours or more elaborate team building events. Eventually, it boils down to a chain of small moments when people get to know and trust each other. They come out of their cubicles, or look around in their production lines.

At the personal level, most of us spend more time at work than at home. It should be time that we enjoy, with people whom we appreciate. Challenge yourself to find out one new unique thing about your coworker. Make a real connection.

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Copyright 2010 Liisa Pursiheimo-Marcks, all rights reserved.
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