In this month’s Wired magazine, Clive Thompson wrote a fascinating article about PH.D student Benjamin Waber and the research of MIT’s Human Dynamics Group. Bottom line: managers are out of the loop, friendships at work increase group creativity and organizations should be intentional about facilitating connections among people at work to improve performance. Sounds like more empirical support for Connection Cultures to me!
Category Archives: Knowledge Flow
Post Merger Trap#4: The Exclusivity Trap
Here is another post merger trap organizations would be wise to avoid following a merger or acquisition.
The Exclusivity Trap. Too many leaders fail to keep all the employees they are responsible for leading in the loop. Instead, they tend to keep a smaller, more exclusive group involved in the conversations about important business issues. The problem is that most individuals want to be informed about issues that are important to them, have a voice to share their opinions and ideas, and be certain that their input is considered before decisions are made. When people are in the loop, it helps meet their needs for respect, recognition and belonging. When they are not in the loop, they are naturally anxious and tend to fear the worst.
Leaders are wise to regularly meet with all the employees they are responsible for leading to share information about issues that are important to them, ask for their ideas and opinions, and then consider them before making decisions. Obviously leaders will not be able to do this with every issue. The leader who keeps all employees in the conversation about issues important to them, however, will be rewarded when employees put more effort in their work because they feel a sense of ownership in achieving the results.
A poignant journey to heal and reconnect
In honor of Mother’s Day tomorrow, I am taking a break from writing about connection at work to focus on connection in families. Each of us experience times in life when we feel disconnected from family members. The lack of relational intimacy with the people we love can be especially painful. It often contributes to unhealthy behaviors as a means to cope with the pain. In the stories of individuals who break their addiction, you will nearly always find one person or a group of people who helped heal the wounds of the addicted with love and encouragement.
Lost & Found is the poignant story of Kathryn Slattery, a contributing editor of Guideposts magazine and author of several books. In the book, Kitty describes her disconnection with her mother and father, the onset of bulimia, how her husband Tom’s love and encouragement helped her overcome bulimia, and finally how Kitty reconnected with her parents.
I enjoyed this book.
Cranky Middle Manager Interview
I recently recorded an interview with Wayne Turmel, host of the “Cranky Middle Manager Show” on The Podcast Network. Wayne is an interviewer extraordinaire. His valuable insights and sense of humor always enliven and enlighten listeners (and guests) alike. Wayne and I had a great chat about Connection Cultures and how they increase employee engagement. To listen to the interview, click here. Also, be sure to check out the other 139 interviews Wayne has recorded since the Cranky Middle Manager show’s inception.
Share your thoughts with journalist William J. Holstein on his BNet Blog
William J. Holstein, the well-respected business journalist who writes for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week and other publications, described my new ebook on connection this way: “For those of us who write about business, every once in a while, a book or an article comes along that seems so simple on some levels yet communicates great wisdom. “The Connection Culture: A New Source of Competitive Advantage” is one such work.”
On his blog, Holstein invites readers of The Connection Culture to share their thoughts. Would you consider sharing your reaction by posting a comment on Holstein’s BNet blog entitled “The Corner Office?”
Make every employee a part of your team
GUEST: Michael Stallard
TOPIC: What are you doing to make sure your employees are engaged? Michael Stallard joins Jim to talk about how to make our team members feel that they actually have an important stake in the direction of the business.
Brought to you by The Small Business Advocate®
Family Spirit
GUEST: Michael Stallard
TOPIC: How important is having a family spirit in your business? Michael Stallard talks with Jim Blasingame about how a family spirit culture in your business improves employee engagement and becomes contagious with customers, too.
Brought to you by The Small Business Advocate®
Why “inclusiveness” is in at GE
As word has spread that General Electric is trying to increase “inclusiveness,” cynics might snicker and comment that Jack Welch was mistaken to hand over the CEO reigns to a teddy bear like Jeff Immelt. They would be wrong.
Implicit in any criticism is that GE is getting soft. That’s highly unlikely. A core value of GE’s culture is a passion for excellence..that’s not going away. The problem at GE, and in many other organizations, is that under employee performance ranking systems, employees who are not rated in very highest category can begin to feel like second class citizens, especially if the top ranked employees treat them as such. It may be that they’re not kept in the loop or given an opportunity to share their ideas and opinions anywhere near as much as the stars, so they may not feel like they are valued or have a voice.
To Immelt’s credit he knows that these are the core employees of GE. If GE thrives, it will be in part because the core employees are playing at the top of their game which means they need to know and feel like valued members of the team.
There’s no management problem that I can’t find a sports analogy for, including GE’s current situation. Consider Michael Jordon and the Chicago Bulls predicament before the Bulls dynasty run of six NBA Championships. When Phil Jackson became the Bulls’ coach, he helped Michael Jordan see that the Bulls would never be champions if the rest of the Bulls’ players didn’t feel like they were Michael’s teammates, which they didn’t because Michael hung around with his entourage all the time and hogged the ball, especially at critical moments. When Jordan became inclusive by hanging out with the other Bulls, coaching some of them, and trusting them enough at critical moments to pass the ball to them, well, that’s when the Bull’s dynasty was born.
At GE, the stars need to learn to be inclusive in dealing with core employees. They need to be inclusive socially (by getting to know them), economically (by paying them fairly), and politically (by keeping them informed and considering their opinions and ideas). Doing so will meet their human needs for respect, recognition and belonging. Failing to be inclusive will result in low employee engagement and potentially sabotage behavior.
Leading GE is one of the most challenging leadership assignments in the world today. GE’s “inclusiveness” agenda is yet another reason to believe Jack Welch knew what he was doing when he handed the baton to Jeff Immelt.
Weathering the downsizing storm
Downsizing, whether it’s from a business slow down, efficiency improvements or merger, is stressful on employees. Encouraging open conversation and human connection is critical to maintaining employee engagement and organizational health during such periods. Click here to read an article I wrote about it for Customerservicecrossing.com.