Norms, Anyone?

I’ve been mentioning the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce’s New Media Technology Conference (#FredNMT) to friends and business colleagues and more than a few have reacted as if they had just tasted soap. They tell me, for example, they don’t like Facebook and can’t even imagine using Twitter in any way. Now, my guess is that no one sympathetic with this point of view will be reading this blog, so I won’t argue that point. Rather, let’s consider what some folks don’t like about this new-fangled New Media.

These everyday, technologically capable people tell me they don’t like the idea of sharing or seeing what they consider personal information up on a computer screen. The first reason is they don’t want the wrong person – whoever that might be – to know anything about them. Secondly, they just find they don’t want to know much of what some people share.

I know I am not alone in being careful about anything I post on WaterCoolerView.com and on MScottatFCC. I am a Frederick County Workforce Services employee and we partner with Frederick Community College; it is certainly true in the modern world that no one involved wants me to offend anyone in their name. So, how do we know how not to offend anyone?

Norms are defined as “spoken or unspoken rules that distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate behavior.” So, in different ways my friends and I are wondering, “What are the norms?” Some obvious norms include no profanity, no personal attacks, really no attacks at all – but are there less obvious norms?

I think the question of "what is private and what is public" is an area where the norms are not so obvious, and there are many more. I am inviting the Frederick new media technology community to ponder about the question of norms as we prepare for the conference. What do you think?

-Marc

New Media Conference in Frederick

Why do some people seem to be a few steps ahead in the race to adopt the latest evolutions of new media and technologies? Probably because they attend conferences like the one being held by the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce. The full day event is made up of short sessions broken out by topic and audience knowledge base. So, laggards like me can ask embarrassingly basic questions without annoying the more knowledgeable technorati.

There are three concurrent breakout sessions for beginning, intermediate, and advanced participants. Sessions will over topics such as Twitter, Facebook, email campaigns, blogging, and more. There's even an optional lunchtime bonus session to demonstrate and discuss new applications, including Google Wave, Posterous, and Hoot Suite. The New Media & Technology Conference will be held on February 5th .

The registration deadline is January 27th and many seats are already reserved. Find out more on the conference website.

-Dave

Learning from an American Story

We all know the trouble facing the U.S. Automobile industry. None of the big three are in good shape, and until recently I didn’t have faith that any had a clue as to how to respond. This New York Times article gives me some hope – at least for Ford – and is definitely worth a read.

The watchword for Ford right now is focus. For decades Ford has had something like a dozen different companies jostling for resources and attention from managers and from the market. The result is what you usually get when you try to be everything for everyone – no one really knows who you are.

Upon coming to Ford from Boeing, new CEO Mulally has instituted a new vision: One Ford ... One Team ... One Plan ... One Goal. The most tangible example of this focus will be the new Ford Focus, which will be manufactured on a single platform for the entire world. This seems poetic when we remember Henry Ford’s famous response to requests for Model T’s in various colors. Mr. Ford understood the value of focus when he said they can have “any colour - so long as it’s black.

Food for thought – in what ways is you company trying to be too much for too many?

Where should you focus?

-Marc

Shifting Focus from Objectives to Training

Peter Drucker would have turned 100 a few weeks ago. A groundbreaking and transformative management guru, he passed away in 2005.

One of his management theories states that organizational performance is achieved by focusing managerial energy on measurable objectives (the "what"). I think it does little to address the required underlying skills and aptitudes of individual performers (the "how"). While some will argue that Drucker’s Management by Objective approach will uncover training deficits and prompt skill development of employees, too often the learning aspect is downplayed or abandoned entirely. It assumes the employees are all as they should be rather than as they are:

• “I will create a regular objective review structure that will require her to make step by step progress toward the agreed upon goal”


• “He will either be able to perform or he will be --- (terminated, demoted, reassigned, sent to gulag)”


• “If the objectives are clear and measurable, it will be their responsibility to meet them.”


• “Clearly stated employee goals and objectives are the core of an employee evaluation system.”

It seems to me that statements like these are still common, but are borne of a 1954 management philosophy. As a manager, do you find that focusing on the progress toward a goal (for example developing proposals) can stall even if the employee has the desired outcome pinned to her cubicle wall on a neon piece of paper?

What if a manager was to focus his energy primarily on the development of the individual? Talk about the employee’s challenges in finding model proposals, mentor him or her on it, accompany him or her on proposal review meetings, model the behavior you would like to see, observe the employee doing it and give feedback.

Business plans and objectives are required, certainly. Peter Drucker’s SMART objectives are a good model. But you might be better served if, rather than saying to yourself “Today I will focus on objective 2.35b,” you say “today I will make sure that Dave knows how and when to access the proposal library.”

-Dave

Time Management: Priorities

I love training because it gives me a chance to practice, and even re-learn, important skills. If you know me, you know that managing time is a skill that I often need to re-learn! Recently I delivered a short session on the topic for the staff of The Arc of Frederick County during their annual meeting. It’s always a pleasure to help people who do such good work, and it’s even more of a pleasure to work with people that laugh as easily as does the staff of The Arc of Frederick County.

So what did I learn from these folks as they learned about time management?

Well the first thing they realized is that it’s not really about managing time, but rather it’s about managing the tasks you have before you. A quick way to prioritize your tasks is to consider Stephen Covey’s famous matrix (above).

In order to prioritize your own tasks, divide them according to the factor of time – is the task urgent or not urgent? Then, divide them again; this time according to whether the task is important or not. Now you have your tasks organized on the matrix, and your priorities should be clear:

• Urgent & Important tasks need to be addressed first. That is, now.


• Important & Not Urgent tasks should be scheduled into a plan for the near future.


• Urgent & Not Important tasks should be carefully analyzed – many can simply be cancelled, some should be delegated, and others can be accomplished between more important tasks.


• Not Important and Not Urgent tasks are the lowest priority; most can be cancelled, although some of these tasks may have some value – such as facilitating casual social bonding and knowledge sharing among staff.
  

How do you prioritize?

-Marc

Meditation in the Workplace

It may bring to mind pictures of the workforce sitting idly in their offices with their eyes closed, their emails unanswered, the voice-mail light flashing futilely, and their reports left unfinished. But, practitioners claim, meditation actually makes people more productive, not less. It reduces workplace absenteeism, increases focus and concentration, and reduces stress and turnover.

While some forms of stress (like a looming deadline) can help make us productive, an oversupply is harmful. Ryan Diener, of Holistic Health Associates, in Frederick, Maryland, points out that stress reduction through meditation can have far-reaching effects, “Meditation is a practice that relates to life so while one may notice a reduction in stress levels in regards to their job, there is a deeper implication which points to the origin of stress itself and how we relate to that. While many people begin a meditation practice to relieve stress, often there is a bigger, more positive outlook on life that goes beyond one's relationship to work.”

Meditation does not mean a huge time commitment, either. Results can be felt in as little as fifteen minutes per day, he says. The most important thing is to practice it regularly.
In looking into it, I have come to understand that for beginners, the attempt to achieve a meditative state is what it’s all about. Practitioners do not claim that there is some trick to achieve nirvana in your cubicle—one should really be attempting to just focus on stillness and listening to your own thoughts.

Discussed in a Business Week edition some 4 years ago (read the article here), some organizations such as Apple, Yahoo, and Google were early adopters of workplace meditation programs. Here’s a quick tutorial on how to practice meditation. And if you are too darn busy to take a moment read it, you just might really need to.

Ryan says that when learning to meditate one can often benefit from a teacher, or participating in a group setting. He offers free group meditation sessions the second Wednesday of every month from 6:30 to 7:30 pm.

-Dave

Avoiding the Duds: Making the Right Hire

In these hard economic times, the need to make a “good” hire is more critical than ever. There is a lot riding on the investment an organization makes in a new employee-- for both public and private employers. Whether the position is entry- level or senior in nature, belt tightening makes it more difficult than ever for a hiring manager to justify opening a position. While it’s never a good time to make a mistake, the consequences are magnified because it is doubly hard to replace a dud in times like these.

There is some interesting research that shows that the screening traditionally used to select employees is pretty ineffective. An article in the June/July 2009 Community College Journal cites a 1999 study by Bain & Mabey that indicated the traditional reference checking is one of the most ineffective means in predicting the success of a new hire. Reference checking rates only 0.1 on a validity scale of with a max of 1.0 (think of standard deviation). The unstructured interview doesn’t do much better, with a rating of 0.25. Better are structured interview, (0.35) Personality Questionnaires ( 0.40), Work Sample Tests (0.46) and Assessment Center scores (0.60).

Even though no single assessment score is absolutely fool-proof in predicting success, many organizations continue to rely upon the least effective methods.

Consider using personality and work style assessments that are designed to uncover a candidate’s preferred style in the workplace. Many can be completed online and take about 45 minutes. Check out the Occupational Personality Questionnaire (OPQ) from the human resources consulting firm SHL.

Such an assessment can typically cost below $400 per person to screen 5 to 10 finalists. Organizations often engage in a consulting relationship that costs about $3,500 for a day to assist in interpretation.

-Dave