How is Science Education Like Coaching?

I'm stealing this interview from Big Think and re purposing it.  The original article on this video is by Megan Erickson, "No, Seriously. Science Can Be Funny.".  It's based on this 90 second clip from an interview with Bill Nye, The Science Guy, and his response to Big Think's question "How is Science Education Like Comedy?". 

But I'm re purposing it here because as I watched the video, I was immediately struck with the idea that the core of his response might have been exactly the same had they asked him "How is Science Education Like Coaching". 

"You always want the student to figure it out for her or himself, you don't want to give her or him the answer.", says Bill.  "You want to get people to choose, to choose to embrace it."

Whether you want to encourage discovery, change, or as this interview spotlights, comedy, you need the "audience" to become active participants. 

This is why people don't make significant change in response to being told "just do it" or "do it this way".  They need to make the discovery on their own, to choose to do it. 

And that's the science behind coaching.  Actively engaging in exploration.  A catalytic process that brings new awareness, reveals different perspectives, allows for possibility, and inspires choice.

So I choose to hear Bill Nye share a message about choice that has a broader application than initially proposed.  And not coincidentally, that's exactly how science and innovation works.  Thanks, Bill, you are The Science Guy.

Overcoming Your Business Nightmares With Teamwork

You know the old saying, "the show must go on"?  Well, sometimes, it doesn't.  And if your business industry is the performing arts, telling your packed theatre that you can't deliver the show, is your worst nightmare.  Here's a story about how a prominent theatre in my local area faced that nightmare using teamwork.    

The full article appears in The Daily Gazette and is titled "Proctors overcame 'disaster' with teamwork".  Here's the scenario:  the audience is seated (all 2400 of them) for the afternoon matinee of a popular new musical, but the engineers could not get the sound to work.  Never before had Proctors been forced to announce to an audience that the show, which hadn't even started, was being cancelled.  Due to the complexity of ticketing/seating/scheduling/union hours, the next steps had logistical migraine written all over them, and the whole thing had all the potential to be a public relations nightmare.  And on top of that, there was an evening show scheduled of this same production. 

Skip to the end of the story, and what you learn is that it's in the midst of your biggest business nightmare when strong leadership and teamwork pays off.  And Proctors passed that test with flying colors.

Here's an overview of what they did right:

• The leader steps out front - CEO Philip Morris was on site, overseeing the crisis personally.  Further, he stepped forward and took on the toughest assignment of the day-announcing the bad news to the audience.  In an emergency, you need your leader to be visible to your customers and an example to the rest of the team.
• Explore all options -  The leadership team began thinking outside of the box on options for rescheduling well before the cancellation was made, even considering the use of "dark" days (down days for the theatre).  Be prepared to present creative alternatives and your best offer to the customer.   
• All hands on deck - Proctors called in every employee to come to the theatre to assist.  By the time the announcement was made, there were 26 employees from various departments on the phones and staffing all 6 box offices, programmers had reset the computer system to accept exchanges without charging a fee, and work had already begun to save the show that was scheduled to go on that evening.  Leverage your team and leave no one out.
• Honor unique customer needs - The team recognized that they had some special groups in attendance that day, specifically 3 groups of students.  Rescheduling needed to honor their request for a block of seats during a matinee show.  Also, one of the groups couldn't return to school right away, so the actors were enlisted for a special question and answer session with the students until their bus returned.  Knowing your customers allows you to address their needs.
• Keep working on the problem - Proctors had another show to run that evening.  The engineers stayed focused with debugging of the system, specialists were flown in, and new equipment was on its way.  The team never let up their focus to identify and fix the issue, and as a result, the evening show was able to take place on time.  While part of the team works on addressing customer needs, the rest of the team stays focused on fixing the underlying issue.
• Consider previous creative solutions - During the run of the "Lion King" at Proctors, the audience couldn't be seated until 20 minutes before the show was scheduled to start.  This was a logistical challenge, but the team was able to develop a plan to seat a full house in a tight time frame.  This same plan was called upon for the evening show when the engineers gave the go ahead on the sounds system with only 25 minutes before curtain call and a long waiting line of ticket holders.  Plans you've developed for unique situations can also work during a crisis. 
• Be transparent - Patrons for the evening show were notified in advance that a 10 minute delay was anticipated, resetting expectations for seating times.  And the full story of what went on that day was shared with the media, setting the record straight for the rest of the general public and future patrons about how unusual this was for Proctors and how well they handled a very difficult situation.  Get ahead of the situation by sharing your story in a factual and timely manner with your customer base.  

Congratulations to Philip Morris and his team on a job well done during their worst business nightmare.   

Study Shows CEOs Prefer Team Model

A working paper that came out this month from the Harvard Business School on "Span of Control and Span of Activity" sheds some light on how today's CEOs engage with their senior executives. 

Interactions between top executives are central to the top management team (TMT) literature in management. According to this area of study, senior senior management acts as a team, not as a group of executives operating independently.  The CEO interacts with senior managers and senior managers interact with each other to share information and collectively make decisions.  

In contrast, models in economics propose the classic inverted tree model of organizational structure.  The CEO and each subordinate has a pairwise nature (one-to-one) and there is no multilateral interaction involving more than one subordinate, or with a subordinate and other managers (one-to-many).

According to the time use data from this study, when the CEO sits down for an internal meeting, there is representation at the table from across the organization.  In fact, "almost a half of CEO interactions with insiders are in fact cross-functional, which provides some initial supportive evidence for the team model of managerial interactions", and this lends itself to collective thinking and decision-making. 

One of the findings reported in the report's summary is that "CEOs interact with their subordinates in a team-like fashion and less as a group of independent executives. This is generally supportive of the central implicit assumption of the TMT literature that senior managers interact like teams, and in contrast with the simple inverted-tree model prevalent in the organizational economics literature."

There's more to learn from this study about CEO interactions with subordinates, yet the confirmation that the cross-functional senior team is going strong seems to mirror the increased focus on team dynamics within the industries of leadership training and development, management consulting, and executive coaching. 

"Individuals don't win in business, teams do."  Sam Walton

Answers To Your Questions About What Coaching Can Do For Your Organization

In celebration of International Coaching Week, I share with you today a link to the Library of Professional Coaching.  As noted on their home page, "Our library includes a growing collection of articles, research briefs, and white papers which will serve as the ultimate free Internet-based source of information about professional coaching.  It's an easily searchable database of trusted, high-caliber, peer-reviewed content." 

This site is a valuable resource to those looking for answers to questions like these about coaching:

•      Why does an organization hire a coach?
•      How long is a typical coaching engagement?
•      How does coaching work for groups and teams?
•      What is the Return On Investment (ROI) for coaching?
•      How is coaching applied in different industries?

Additionally, you will find a wealth of articles on leadership topics such as :

•      Managing Change
•      Applying Emotional Intelligence in the workplace
•      Ethics and Values
•      Breaking Down Organizational Silos
•      Employee Engagement

Sponsors for this site include the International Coach Federation, and you can find more articles, research, and case studies about coaching on their Research Portal.

If you are interested in coaching for your organization,

•      send me an email at april@charltonconsultingservices.com
•      call me at 518-557-2864
•      visit my website at TeamsInTransition

 

  

Living In Your Calendar

I just read an article today on Harvard Business Review, thinking I might learn about a new productivity tool.  The article is called To-Do Lists Don't Work by Daniel Markovitz.

Turns out I was already following his suggested alternative, I just hadn't thought to give it a name.  I like the one he's come up with, Living In Your Calendar.  Having used this method for a few years now, I share it for your consideration. 

Here's Daniel's advice:  "The alternative to the feckless to-do list is what I call "living in your calendar." That means taking your tasks off the to-do list, estimating how much time each of them will consume, and transferring them to your calendar."  "In essence, you're making a production plan for your work."

For me, what that means is that my day, while still full, is realistic.  If the task doesn't fit, I move it to a day and time where it does.  And if something of higher priority comes up (for example, a client meeting), I move the task to a future day/time on the calendar to make room. 

Advantages

• Sanity  As I said, it makes for a realistic day.  Things don't so much move off the list as they just get done.  And I don't lose track of the rest of the work because it's already been scheduled somewhere else on the calendar.    
• No Guilt  The to-do list always made me feel like I was starting my day with a backlog of things I "should" have bene able to cross off yesterday.  The calendar method instead follows the philosophy that there's a time and place for everything.
• Prioritization  Since I'm scheduling, not just making a running list, I put things on the calendar in a manner that corresponds to due dates, appointments, and even best time of day for my work style. 
• Running Time Tracker  When I look back on my week or my month, it's easy to see where I've spent my time and then I can adjust on the go-forward if I think it's not in balance with my business goals.  It can also be an easy way to keep track of accomplishments.

Disadvantages

• Tough Fit For The Corporate Environment  If your typical day is back-to-back meetings with other people, you'll spend too much time moving your to-do appointments around.  At best, you might be able to work them into early or late day, but even then, only if you have little to no meetings with people in other time zones.
• Public Viewing  If others (like your team) have access to the contents on your calendar, they will also see these appointments, along with the details.  Unless the whole team has adopted this method, these appointments with yourself to do work may look to others more like free time such that they can insert themselves by calling/stopping by.  It can take a lot of discipline for you to protect these to-do appointments.
• Harder To Delegate  If you set up to-do's as tasks (Outlook), you can delegate them.  If you set them up as appointments, you can't.  The calendar approach assumes you are the only one who can do the task, or at least that you need to be involved while it's been accomplished.

So depending on your work situation, Living Your Calendar is an approach to consider.  The small business leader, solopreneur, or senior leader with a manageable meeting schedule (perhaps, 4 hours or less per day spent in meetings) would seem like a good fit.  Corporate leaders who are already double and triple booked in meetings from morning til night, not so much.

Owning Your Team's Destructive Behaviors Is Step One

My HR BFF sent me the link for a recent article on teams from TLNT, an HR blog.  It's called 10 Destructive Behaviors That Can Bring Down a Team’s Success by Deb Spicer. 
Here is the list (further descriptions can be found within the article):

1. Power Coalitions (cliques)
2. Piranha Factor (saboteurs)  
3. Complacency/Status Quo
4. Lip Service
5. Competing Factions Within a Team
6. ‘Round Here Thinking
7. Strong Silos
8. Passive-Aggressive Behaviors
9. Blindness to Customers
10. Engrained “Old Culture”

Chances are you recognize these from your own experience, and could even add on a few of your own.

And while I agree that this is a good short list on destructive team behaviors, I worry that compiling it in this manner sends an unintended negative message that the team members are the the source of all problems.  In other words, "Oh, the trials and tribulations of being a leader and all the nonsense one has to deal with."  In my experience, the behavior described in that list is a direct result of past and present management capabilities, policies, and culture.

• Was a team member rewarded by their last manager for delivering on their goals even though the manner in which they achieved it meant that another team was unable to deliver on their goals (e.g., resource hogging, refusing to collaborate)?  Knowing how a new team member was incentivized/rewarded by prior management is just as important as it is to communicate your own expectations going forward.  If it's different than they've experienced before, call attention to the difference, monitor, correct as needed, and reward when the new desired behaviors are demonstrated.    
• Is the culture you've established for the team one of competition or collaboration?  If it's competition, expect to continue with about half of that list (cliques, silos, saboteurs, lip service, passive-aggressive, competing factions). 
• Did the recent reorganization merge teams that had previously not worked well together with the expectation that common leadership (aka, sharing the same boss) would "fix" it?  Don't count on it.  Merging silos on an org chart does not make them go away.  It takes sustained effort with consistent messaging by the new leader to break down silos.
• Does your team have both individual and team accountability well defined?  And if so, do you really deliver on that?  Organizations that move "problem" employees around rather than address poor performance do not uphold individual accountability.  Teams that set only individual performance goals do not have team accountability.  This is where complacency/status quo, 'round here thinking, and ingrained old culture come in.

So yes, recognize the destructive behaviors.  Then get busy understanding where they come from and determining how you're going to address them.  Whether you created or inherited the problems, you own them now.  And that's good news because these are just behaviors, and behaviors can be changed.  Own it and then change it.

Although targeted for those in HR, this website is full of great articles and webinars for leaders in any part of the organization.  Check it out at www.TLNT.com.

Hire A Coach And Reach Your New Year's Goals

It's a new year.  Know how I can tell?  No, not the calendar, not the fanfare in Times Square, and not the long lines at the mall to redeem the holiday gift cards. 

I can tell it's a new year because during every commercial break on TV and radio, in every form of print advertisement, and on every banner ad, there's a message informing me that now is the time to lose weight, start a new exercise routine, join a gym, and begin that diet.  New Year's Day is the official start to the "Get Healthy" season.

It lasts about a month.

One of the ads I saw last week on TV was by Nutrisystem with Janet Jackson.  It struck me that their core message was as good as any you'll hear about what it takes to be successful in meeting your goals - weight loss or otherwise.

"You have to have a plan and then you have to get on it."

The plan tells you where you want to go, why you want to get there, how you'll get there, what the timeline is, who will be involved, what investments are needed, and how you'll measure success. 

And then you have to get going.  Or as Nike says, "Just Do It". 

A coach can help you make that plan, get moving, and reach those goals.  There are fitness coaches, career coaches, life coaches, nutrition coaches, speaking coaches, and yes, executive coaches like me who want to see you be successful. 

If you've struggled to meet your goals, you don't have to go it alone this year.  Reach out to a coach.  Even if what you're focusing on isn't their niche, coaches know other coaches, and we love to recommend and refer. 

Make your New Year's resolutions last longer than a month this year.  Add a coach to your team and see that transformation come to life.