"wanna see what else..." (creativity)

(part of the Total Quality Leadership (TQL) series)

How an organization achieves world class quality excellence depends on its leaders within the organization, at all levels of the organization.  Whether your organization has just started its quality journey with ISO certification or are ready to apply for the world renowned Deming award, the critical success factor to world class quality excellence…it’s all in the leadership!

Leadership skills that make an environment successful are the same skills that we learned when we were little and playing in the sandbox.  Today's sandbox skill is creativity.

Kids can make something out of nothing.  A bucket and a shovel can make beautiful castles.  You take the shovel and scoop up the sand into the bucket.  Once the bucket is full, you pack it down.  Very carefully, the child will quickly turn the bucket over and very carefully pull the bucket up, et voilà, a castle form.  From there, they add doors, windows, a moat, a bridge, and whatever else they feel makes their castle better.  Their creativity has no boundaries.

Creativity is the ability to use the imagination to develop new and original ideas or things.  Creativity is the foundation of brainstorming sessions.  The first requirement is an environment where the associates and team leaders feel free to be creative, to brainstorm.  The old dysfunctional environment, the ‘me boss - you employee’ environment, prevents creativity.  One of the comments I hear all the time is “we tried to tell them” (ref my blog dated on “this is the last time I'm gonna to tell you! “ (listening), August 19, 2012).                                

“As a team, invent as many uses as you can for this pictured item.”  The above 2011 Family Circus cartoon represents an exercise I have used in my creativity, team building classes for many years.  This is a simple exercise to get the brains of the associates and leaders “out of their box”.  It’s also a lot of fun!  Fun is not a dirty word in a team based environment.

The World Class Leadership objective is to build excellence into every aspect of the company by focusing on creating a workplace that encourages EVERYONE to contribute.  The prerequisite is everyone must feel comfortable in voicing ideas and having them actively listened to versus the old dysfunctional attitude of “we (managers) know what’s best for you and we’ll tell you what to do.  We’ll make the decision for you and then we will hold you accountable to make it work.”  It obfuscates the associates.  Fear is not a motivator!

The associates who do the work 8 hours a day know the changes to make in their jobs to make it better.   Ask each associate and leader to “name 3 things that would make your job better?”  I am always (pleasantly) surprised to note the associates make changes that cost little to no monies but save time and increase productivity.  Think 3M, an engineer, paste, a tablet and post-it-notes – who woulda thought?

Associates are like the bucket – you fill them with the right education, top it off with a firm belief in them (based on your outstanding education and coaching to them) and then let them build their castles.  Allow their creativity.  Success is built on "can" not "cannot".   I find 99.9% of the time, they really can.

“all done...?” (performance appraisals)

(part of the Total Quality Leadership (TQL) series)

How an organization achieves world class quality excellence depends on its leaders within the organization, at all levels of the organization.  Whether your organization has just started its quality journey with ISO certification or are ready to apply for the world renowned Deming award, the critical success factor to world class quality excellence…it’s all in the leadership!

Leadership skills that make an environment successful are the same skills that we learned when we were little.  Today, performance appraisals.

When we ask children to do something, we tell them what to do and what the expectations are.  "I want you to sweep the kitchen floor and make sure you clean behind the table.  Thank you."  If it's the first time they've done it, we show them how.  We then turn the task over to them, we watch them for a while, and answer questions when asked.  When it appears the child understands the what, the how and the why, we leave them to finish the task. When they are done, they will come in and tell you to "come and look".  You walk into the kitchen, look at the floor and give your comments.  They may range from "good job" to "it looks good but you forgot to clean under the table".

"Good job" means the task is over and expectations have been met.  Depending on the age of the child, if he/she also mopped the floor, expectations were "exceeded".  If the first review means the task was not complete, the child will try again. When finished, the child will come in, and the review process, this time, should net the "good job" appraisal.  If not, the process of sharing with the child what was missed and having the child try again will continue until expectations are met and the "good job" appraisal is achieved.  Not all children learn at the same pace.  It may take only once for one child and several times for another.  One child may just need to understand exactly what you mean ("you didn't tell me to pick it up, you just said 'sweep' ".)  et touché!

Performance appraisals should be used as a way to increase employee achievement.  Back in the day performance evaluations were used as a "gotcha" tool.  To evaluate means to examine and judge something, not a person.  To appraise: HR – to make a formal assessment of an employee or an employee’s performance following an agreed set of criteria.

In our team based environment, both employee and team leader (or manager and director; director and vice president...) sit down and discuss achievements and needed (continuous) improvements of the year past.  This should not be a surprise to either involved.  In a team based environment, we share performance every day.  When a correction needs to be made, we share immediately.  The goal is to continuously coach our team for their success and ours.  The introduction of SMART goals in the '90s was the tool to assist in the professional development of all employees regardless of level.  SMART goals articulate the expectations and eliminate the nebulousness of evaluations (what does "you're a good leader" mean?). 

• Specific  (what is the task or objective?  Attach details if appropriate)
• Measures  (standards and parameters)
• Achievable  (is it?)                         
• Realistic  (is it?)
• Time-bound  (start / finish dates)

When questions are asked, they need to be answered to the satisfaction of the one who asked.  The old "that's why I hired you" comment does nothing to inspire or teach or answer a question.  Today that comment translates to "I don't know but I don't want to tell you I don't know".  It's ok if you don't know, just say that rather than putting the onus on the questioner.

Remember the "one size does not fit all" mantra.  Employees (all humans) learn at a different pace.  Specificity removes ambiguousness in expectations - the "you didn't say x, all you said was....".  The time taken up-front to insure goals are understood, and agreed to, by both the team leader and the associate saves time in behavior and task performance.  It allows for an easy "yes" or "no" when responding to the "all done?" questions in the performance appraisal process.  The goal for both you and the employee is to achieve the "good job" grade.

Are you employing SMART in your business? 

 



“just tell me the truth..” (ethics)

(the first in a series of Total Quality Leadership (TQL)...Everything you learned in the sandbox)

How an organization achieves world class quality excellence depends on its leaders within the organization, at all levels of the organization.  Whether your organization has just started its quality journey with ISO certification or are ready to apply for the world renowned Deming award, the critical success factor to world class quality excellence…it’s all in the leadership!

It is my (proven) belief that the leadership skills that make an environment successful are the same skills that we learned when we were little and playing in the sandbox.  The first sandbox skill I want to talk about is ethics.

One of the first things we teach our kids is not to lie.  As they get a bit older, we teach them not to steal.  We teach them the difference between “right” and “wrong”.  When we did do something wrong and then tried to deny it (“it wasn’t me”), our parents would say, “don’t lie to me. Tell me the truth and it (punishment) won’t be as bad.”  Today, as adults, we know it’s not so much the initial act itself that gets us in deep hoo-ha, it is the cover-up afterwards. 

.

Don’t know unethical behavior when you do it, take a sample test:

Ÿ   Have you ever lied to your boss, a customer, an associate?

Ÿ   Revealed confidential information?

Ÿ   Given or received gifts in return for orders?

Ÿ   Called in sick on a sunny day?

Ÿ   Taken credit for someone else’s idea?

Ÿ   Falsified information on an application blank?

If you answered “yes”, your ethics is to be questioned.

Before acting, think:

Would you take items from a friend’s house as freely as you would from the workplace?

Ÿ   What would your spouse think?

Ÿ   What would members of your church think?

Ÿ   Is there anyone who is important to you who would be appalled?

Faced with the demands of overtime, balancing work and family, and downsizing, a survey of 1324 workers said they feel more stress than 5 years ago, as well as more pressure to act unethically.  Companies are just catching on to the legal need for a strong ethics program.  Under current federal sentencing guidelines, a corporation that is charged with negligence or bad behavior can receive a far lighter fine if it can prove that the evil act violated company policy. 

The objective of your ethics plan should be zero tolerance for unethical behavior.  It’s one thing to say you have an effective ethics compliance system but effective process goes beyond a written report that sits in a drawer.  It has to be a meaningful part of business development.  Does your workplace set high ethical standards, behave in very ethical ways, sponsor training programs on ethics, and stress the hiring of ethical people?  These are some of the initial steps that should be taken to insure that ethics is placed at the top of the values list. 

A better informed public may resist investing in or buying products from companies with damaged reputations.  Brand loyalty is based on the good reputation of the company.  Ethical skills play a large part in validating the values the company espouses.  “The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose”.  Make sure the environment created in your organization is one that “tempts” people to choose to do the right thing.

 

Education webinar reminder:

No Pain, No Gain, No Instant Pudding...

Driving World Class Excellence into Your Organization!

   

The ABCM OF EMPLOYEE RETENTION - The company’s performance appraisal

Factoid:  Employee turnover is the largest hidden cost in organizations.

“A penny saved is a penny earned.”

Activity Base Cost Management (ABCM) allows us to quantify the wasted dollar$ of yesteryear’s casual “hit the door” policy.  I’ve designed a worksheet to help measure how well your organization is doing. 

Once completed, you can begin to problem solve.  (i.e. Should we change our interview process?  Have we identified problem departments?)

Ê  Just fill in the blanks.  Add or delete to customize. 

DIRECT CO$T$ Recruiting                             Training (Basic)                   Relocation/Moving	$ ________________ $______ __________ $ ________________
+	+
INDIRECT CO$T$ Lower Productivity Levels    Lower Employee Morale    = Lower Revenues	$ ________________ $ ________________ = $ ________________
+	+
HIDDEN CO$T$ Training costs, including management time      Paying full salary and benefits during training, before full productivity is reached  Lost sales and alienated customers during off-site training    Cost of mistakes made by new inexperienced employees       Loss of customers loyal to departing employees       Loss of knowledge and experience built by departing employees      Lost or damaged relationships with suppliers     Employee morale and customer perception of that morale	$ ________________ $ ________________ $ ________________ $ ________________ $ ________________ $ ________________ $ ________________ $ ________________
TOTAL TURNOVER CO$T$	$ __________________________

Versus

EDUCATION  INVE$TMENT

$ _________________

The moral of this exercise

Education is an investment.  It's a value added line item!

http://www.pwickman.wix.com/education