Michael Lee Stallard

 Wow!  The more I look at IBM, the more I like what I see.  They* have smart people.  They have scale.  They have a global presence.  They’re doing cool things that help organizations perform better and cranking out patents at an unbelievable pace.  If that’s not enough, the IBM culture seems to get better all the time and they’re leveraging the strength of culture with cutting edge social networking capabilities that connect IBMers so that they are “better together.”

In recent interactions with IBMers, I’ve noticed a sense of pride about being at IBM that I haven’t seen in 20 years.  There are clear signs to me that IBM is developing the Connection Culture I write about.  Take a look at CEO Sam Palmisano’s inspiring email about the importance of IBM values and how they were developed through collaboration via IBM’s “Values Jam.”  Check out IBM’s “Beehive” social networking capability.  

I suspect these examples are just the tip of the iceberg. Stay tuned for more.   In the coming months I’ll be learning and sharing much more about IBM and other organizations that are helping their employees feel connected to their corporate identity (mission, values and reputation), to the people they work with and to their daily tasks at work.

* I intentionally use the term “they” rather than “it.” Although organizations are a legal person they are, in reality, a community of people. It’s healthier, in my view, to refer to and think of organizations in this way.

An article I wrote on the band U2 was just published by the American Management Association as the lead article in its popular Moving Ahead: Management Insights for Business Success publication. The article is entitled “Great Teams: The Extraordinary Unity of U2.” Thanks goes to Shari Lifland, the editor of Moving Ahead, who made some very clever changes from the original article that was published last month in The Economic Times in India.  

Clive Thompson wrote a fascinating article for the weekend’s The New York Times Magazine entitled “Brave New World of Digital Intimacy.” I clearly see the benefit of weak connections online that come from LinkedIn and Facebook.  I question the value of weak connections that are less substantive in nature, the type that are maintained via Twitter, especially if it crowds out time for personal reflection which I believe is necessary to thrive in life.   What do you think?

Managing Aloha by Rosa Say is an excellent book that I’m adding to my recommended reading list for managers.  Rosa Say is a Hawaii-based leadership and executive coach who formerly worked as a manager at various premier luxury hotels and resorts in Hawaii.  In reading about her journey and experiences as a manager, we learn the values and practices that Rosa has identified as critical to success and happiness at work and in life.  They are also the values that Rosa aspires to live out and to pass on to her children. 

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.  What was especially fascinating to me were the rich descriptions of the values Rosa identifies.  While readers will recognize many as being the universal values identified by positive psychology research, Rosa expresses them in Hawaiian words and in an Hawaiian context.   In doing so, the values are more resonnant, i.e. they connect more with Hawaiians.  This greater emotional connection is in part due to the fact that expressing universal values in native terms and stories gives Hawaiians a  “sense of place” and pride that Rosa writes about in the book.  After reading Managing with Aloha, I now look for ways to contextualize values for those I’m teaching and training.

I appreciated the way in which Rosa introduced new values while connecting them to those introduced  earlier in the book.   This building approach helps readers see the inter-connections among the values and how they play out in real life rather than viewing them as discrete concepts that are unrelated to one another.

Rosa’s values provide the optimal mix of task excellence and relationship excellence that is required to achieve sustainable superior performance.  In the stories she tells, we see a manager who expects excellence, and works hard to achieve it herself while caring about the people she is responsible for leading.  

Another benefit that comes from reading this book is that you learn about the practices that Rosa has developed.  One in particular is called “take five.”  When a manager asks an employee to “take five” it is an invitation to meet briefly together so the manager can hear what is on the employee’s mind.   This simple practice gives every employee an opportunity to express his ideas and opinions and it motivates him to be continuously thinking so that he will be prepared when it is his time to “take five.”   This practice increases the elements of Value and Voice that I write and speak about in my work.

In addition to Managing with Aloha,  I encourage you to check out  several websites that Rosa maintains.  Here are links to them:www.ManagingWithAloha.com
www.SayLeadershipCoaching.com 
www.sayleadershipcoaching.com/MWAcoaching
www.sayleadershipcoaching.com/TalkingStory

www.JoyfulJubilantLearning.com 

Earlier this year I posted about the unity among the members of the band U2 and how it contributed to the band’s success.  Comments from several individuals made me dig much deeper into the band’s story (thank you Astid, David Zinger, Lee Smith and Rachel for enlightening me). What I discovered was an extraordinary journey the band made to evolve into the force it is today. 

The article I wrote about it was published today in The Economic Times (in India) and it will be published later this year in two of the American Management Association’s publications (Moving Ahead and the AMA’s Catalog).  Here’s the link to The Economic Times’ article. 

Let me know what you think. 

What can managers do to reduce the anxiety workers feel these days?  Anita Bruzzese, award-winning journalist and workplace columnist for Gannett News Service, recently interviewed me about this topic for her nationally syndicated column. The article, entitled “In gloomy times, good management becomes essential,” has appeared in Gannett papers across the country.

Last Thursday my wife and I attended the premiere of the new documentary Full Battle Rattle produced and directed by Tony Gerber and Jesse Moss. The documentary is about the U.S. Army’s billion dollar simulated Iraq in California’s Mojave Desert, complete with hundreds of exiles playing civilians and insurgents, terrorist suspects, grieving mothers, and innocent shopkeepers.  It’s an extraordinary work that gives the viewer a very real sense of the challenges faced by an occupying force in a foreign land.  A.O. Scott just reviewed the film for The New York Times. Here’s a clip about the movie from CNN.
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My blog is primarily about Connection Cultures in the workplace and how they increase employee engagement.  Connection is even more important at home.  I’ve had several friends who were so swept up in their careers that they ignored and lost connection with their spouses. Their lives drifted apart and their marriages soon ended in divorce.  

Maureen Dowd at The New York Times wrote a gem of an article entitled “An Ideal Husband” that infers the importance of relational connection in marriage.  There’s a lot of wisdom in this article.  I’ll be reading it soon to my two teenage daughters.   

It’s wise to begin your day on a positive note by saying “good morning” to your colleagues at work.  Failing to recognize them is to communicate indifference.  It’s also wise to begin every meeting with a positive comment.  Research has shown that beginning a meeting with a positive comment makes group participants better listeners and makes the group more constructive.  These benefits of starting your day and meetings off on a positive note are consistent with the findings of Professor Barbara Frederickson’s research on positive emotions.

I learned the foregoing from my friend Alex Kjerulf.  Check out his Chief Happiness Officer blog and his book entitled Happy Hour is 9 to 5: Learn How to Love Your Job, Love Your Life and Kick Butt at Work. 

Years ago when I attended a large church in Wheaton, Illinois, I remember the Asgedom family who came from a refugee camp in Sudan.  They were ever present members of our church community.  Mawi Asgedom was a young boy at that time.  I recently learned that Mawi went on to graduate cum laude from Harvard in 1999 and was voted by his fellow students to be one of the Harvard’s four commencement speakers.  

Standing before an audience of 30,000 Mawi gave a remarkable speech entitled  ”Of Snakes, Butterfies and Small Acts of Kindness.”  Read more »