On Business

Better Results with Clear Directions

2010-07-26T19:10:00.000-07:00

Does this sound familiar? You delegated a task and the delegate agreed to work on it. When you try to collect the result, you find out it is incomplete or simply wrong. Conception about how to carry out tasks is numerous as people executing them.

Successful task accomplishment is based on:

Clear, unambiguous directions
Background and ability to fulfill the task
Understanding the purpose
Sufficient time
Progress evaluation

Clear instructions are vital for successful execution of assignments. Managers are sometimes negligent in instructing their team sufficiently and explaining tasks adequately. Some are reluctant because they are concerned that explicit instructions could hurt the working climate. They hope their team will make it right anyway. Such fears are not only unnecessary; the opposite is the case. Most employees welcome precise directions, because they help doing a good job and deliver high quality material on time.

Assumptions are a leading cause of misunderstandings. Managers must ensure that delegates have the background and ability to fulfill the actual task. No satisfactory result can be expected if it is completely over their capabilities. A true two way communication is required when assigning tasks. The receiver needs to confirm that the full scope is understood. Open questions have to be answered by the assigning individual. Background information about the purpose helps the assignee to understand the bigger picture, increasing the likelihood of right-on-target results.

Even most motivated employees can achieve only so much in a given time. Available time has to be considered when tasks are assigned. Unrealistic promises as well as unrealistic expectations are counterproductive and unprofessional. If available time is insufficient, reasonable priorities have to be discussed and mutually agreed. Such measures support the efforts to deliver quality results, and to meet the deadline.

“You don’t get what you expect, you get what you inspect”

Checking progress and results is clearly not a matter of control and distrust but one of care and guidance. Possible deviations are best adjusted in an early stage. Furthermore, evaluating progress provides an excellent opportunity to motivate employees expressing praise if they are on the right track.

Articulate instructions include always the 3W’s: What? Why? When? Questions have to be answered. Realistic goals – in content and time – are paramount for building a flourishing organization. Clear directions make employees more efficient and organizations more effective.
Deiton

Effective Meetings

2010-06-01T18:54:00.000-07:00

Effective Meetings

Meetings are an important element of our corporate landscape. They are generally conducted to achieve two key goals: exchanging information and making decisions. Much time is spent conducting meetings, but, unfortunately still the rule, significant resources are lost by ineffective meetings.

The presenter, although an important one, is only a part contributing to successful meetings; the audience is as important. Since higher ranks play a specific exemplary role in the corporate world, their professional conduct deserves particular attention.

The following list provides easy-to-apply guidelines that increase efficiency of most meetings and with that, help organizations to improve their competitive potency.

Meeting preparations

What	Who	Explanation
Invitations	Presenter	Invite early. Everyone has a busy schedule and other urgent tasks to execute. Providing sufficient time to plan allows the attendees to arrange and make themselves available. If important people are unavailable at the planned day and time, early invitations allow re-scheduling. Many professionals plan their schedule on a weekly base, therefore: invite - at least - one week before the meeting.
Invite electronically	Presenter	Electronic invitations have many advantages. They document the event and they list all invitees, which makes it less likely to forget individuals. If it turns out that someone has been forgotten – it is quite easy to send the invitation to this individual. Most electronic systems put an entry automatically in the calendar, which helps planning schedules and even reminds when the meeting is due.
Respond to electronic invitations	Audience	When getting an electronic invitation, responding is more than appropriate etiquette. The inviter needs to know if the person has received the invitation and if he is available. If the timing of one or more invitees does conflict with their schedule, the inviter has to look for a new opening. But this is only possible if he is aware of the actual situation. Pressing the respond-button is not more difficult that pressing the minimize- or exit button of the screen.
Don’t overload slides	Presenter	Despite the fact that overloaded slides are barely readable, this practice may suggest that the presenter is trying to deny the audience proper documentation, papers that probably should have been attached to the invitation. Respect the audiences time by providing adequate documentation.
Attach required documents	Presenter	Electronic invitations offer an easy way to attach documentation that is needed for the meeting. Use this feature, but use it wisely. Attach only documents that are really needed for the meeting, don’t attach encyclopedias, no one will read them. If you want to provide extended information, simply offer links.
Attach up-to-date documents	Presenter	It is a great difference whether information changed last minute or if information is distributed when not yet finished. It is frustrating for the audience to spent time reading your documents, only to see very different actual information. You always can invite early and announce that supporting information will be provided later, just remember to send the information at the promised day.
Read information that is attached to the invitation	Audience	Educated decisions can be made when sufficient information is available. The inviter spent a significant amount of his time to prepare the meeting. Whether the purpose of meeting is solving a problem, defining a strategy or moving the company to the next level, your presence is important. Attend the meeting informed.
Check and prepare equipment before the meeting takes place	Presenter	Most meetings rely on additional tools like projectors or video conference systems. Keeping attendees waiting while trying to control equipment is the worst way to utilize meeting-time. Even if it "worked yesterday”, valuable time is lost. Make sure the equipment is working properly. The same applies to booting up computers. Even if It takes “only a couple of minutes”, these are ineffective, wasted minutes. Practiced presenters start presenting at the time they invited to.

The Meeting

What	Who	Explanation
Be there in time	Presenter	Being late at ones own meeting signals that even the presenter has “more important things to do”. Right from the beginning the standards and expectations of the meeting are significantly lowered. Be there in time – better too early than a minute too late.
Be there in time	Audience	Even if your schedule is very busy, be there in time. Having a round of important people waiting or even worst, having people looking for you is plain unprofessional. A simple example: If 6 people have to wait only 10 minutes, a full hour of corporate productivity has just been irrevocably consumed. Always remember the golden rule (categorical imperative): treat your pears the way you want to be treated.
Be there in time	Ranks	Everyone in the organization deals with a busy schedule; on top of this, the higher the rank the more responsibility is carried. One particular behavior can be observed frequently: as higher the rank as later the individual arrives. Obviously a result of a busy schedule, but the rule of wasted productivity applies as well. True professionalism of ranks is demonstrated, providing new standards for commitment and in-time delivery, by being there in time – despite their busy schedules.
Skip small talk	All	Excitement after big games or other important public events is only natural – but it does not belong in meetings; even not to loosen up the atmosphere. Professionals are able to skip the warm-up and concentrate straight on the facts.
Presentation style	Presenter	There are many as many ways of presenting as there are presenters. The worst kind is however: reading the presentation. Even if the facts are important, the audience’s perception will be different. If speech support is needed, keyword cards help, or better: one page with keywords (not sentences) provides confidence and structure. Be yourself and talk the way you always talk about subjects – the audience will appreciate this.
Pay attention	Pay attention	If documentation has been distributed, people usually look at it right away. Unfortunately important facts just provided by the presenter are missed. To catch up, neighbors are asked about the subject, which makes him not getting information during his explanation as well. If documents are distributed at the beginning of the presentation keep track at the same pace as the presenter, don’t try to pass him. Seasoned presenters provide documentation after the QnA phase of the presentation.
Switch your mobile off	All	Ringing mobiles not only disrupt the presentation, they show disrespect to both, presenter and the rest of the audience. If there is really no peer in the organization who can take your call during the meeting, the least one can do is to set the mobile to buzzer and keep it in the pocket or in the holster. A mobile crawling over the table while buzzing, is even more distracting that ringing. If you expect a call that is indeed more important than the meeting, choose a place close to the door. This way you can sneak out without disturbing the audience.
“Corporate prayer”	Audience	Smart phones are an important tool that can significantly increase individuals’ efficiency – when used the right way. Reading and responding to emails during a meeting is not the right way. Valuable information presented is missed while emailing. If the meeting is in fact not as important as the emails, why attending at all? REM: The term “corporate prayer” origins from the posture while working the emails during a meeting: holding the smart phone under the table, hands closed, head tilted down, just like the devote posture during prayers.
No napping	Audience	While people perform often at their limits, and the darker environment during a presentation and somewhat relaxed atmosphere invites to “re-charge the batteries”, napping during meetings is highly unprofessional. If an individual feels slipping energy and that the body demands his rest, standing-up and positioning against a wall helps. It is nearly impossible to sleep and stand and paying attention while standing is much less intrusive than napping.
Involve all participants	Presenter	Responding to questions and discussing points are often the meeting’s highlight. It is important to involve all participants; this is why they are here in the first place. Communication time is often imbalanced towards people who really like to talk. In a smaller meeting, actively address everyone. To finish within the planned time, it might require cutting “communicators” short.
Don’t delay decisions	All	It could actually be an ideal situation: making decisions while the required decision makers are gathered. Unfortunately decisions are often postponed to an unspecified other meeting. The rationale behind this is not clear. If all required people are assembled, the facts for decisions are available and time permits make decisions now. This frees time in the future which will contribute to the well being of the organization.
Finish in time	Presenter	Finishing meetings in time is not only a sign of professionalism; it is a necessity to keep the corporate clockwork running smoothly. Everyone of your audience is quite busy and may even have scheduled other meetings adjacent to yours. Set a realistic time for your meeting, don’t try to “lure” the audience in your meeting by offering a short meeting, while your know quite well it will take longer. Put in a realistic time, and if you are not sure use a longer meeting time at your invitation. This way the audience can arrange their busy day accordingly. If the meeting is finished earlier – even better.

After the Meeting

What	Who	Explanation
Write down minutes and distribute them	Presenter	If decisions have been made during a meeting, distributed minutes are paramount. If the results are not provided in a written form, they will soon be replaced in the participants’ minds by other important issues and tasks. Writing and distributing minutes will make the meeting result official and is invaluable when information needs to be looked up later.

Communicating Change

2010-05-08T16:19:00.000-07:00

Information during change keeps workforce efficient.

Technical development happens at breathtaking speed. Even large corporations have often difficulties to maintain technological advantage. Gaining expertise by acquiring advanced technology companies (or parts of them) is more than ever common practice. This article talks about communication during periods of change; communication that helps not only to gain employees acceptance but more importantly their commitment to make the post-change organization most successful.

The most important factor in the outcome of any major reorganization is the human factor; it bears the most weight of successful restructuring. Employees see themselves often as victims of “arbitrary” corporate decisions. Job security is just one of their many concerns. Even after the transition has been completed, strong anger, fear, cynicism, and lack of motivation may still linger among employees.

Employees and managers perceive change in very different ways. One factor is the timing. While Management is not just involved in the change, but actually initialized it, employees start usually with grapevine information. This causes naturally emotional disturbance. When concrete information is not available, gaps are filled with guesses. Facts become strongly distorted, impeding the progress of the reorganization.

What to communicate?
There is no such thing like over-communication during phases of significant change. Even if all facts are presented in an all-hands-meeting, messages require frequent repetitions. Employees need to receive and understand the information; questions need to be answered. Because people learn differently, providing information through different media helps a great deal. Face-to-face communication between supervisors and staff is however the most important way exchanging information, because it happens at a personal level. Personal communication is considered most trustworthy. Employees are always looking to apprehend the big picture of the reorganization. They want to understand their position, how they are impacted and how they can contribute to the success of the new company. The following guidelines for executives, managers and supervisors help to improve communication during periods of change.

What is the reason for change - and why now?
Even if employees may know the difficult conditions that led to the new situation, many adhere to the past. They may blame external circumstances rather than internal factors for

it. The real situation needs to be explained in clear and credible language. Shorthand statements like, “With this measure we will increase our equity base”, even if correct, do not help to understand why change is necessary now.

Repeated information sharing.

Often, people do not hear or understand a message right at the first time. This can be overcome with repeated communication. Unfortunately, additional tasks during the transition leaves managers not much time for repeating m
essages, which results often in insufficient communication. It is however not only necessary to take the time for communication – it is possible as well, given of course, the time needed has been considered when the transition was planned. Information not provided or understood will be replaced with grapevine. Obviously, such substitutes distract employees even more.

Frank information and courage to say: “I don’t know”.

In situations of massive change, employees weigh every word from management. Some managers provide information that is available in the moment, but may need to revise it later, simply because facts have changed. Well meant, but ill perceived by employees; it shows inconsistency in the messages. Waiting to talk until all facts are ready and confirmed? Unfortunately this is also not well perceived by employees, they feel excluded from the process. The best way is simply to ask if they want to hear current information, even if it may change in the future, or if they rather wait until information has become fact. Most certainly employees will assure that they prefer to get available information right away, rather then to wait. Now, they receive desired information but will accept possible changes later.

Careful use of language.

Phrases like, "it is business as usual" are far too often used by management. The intention is well meant, soothing and taking away employees’ fears. The situation during major organizational change is however not at all “usual”. Managers who resort to such phases may easily be stamped “incredible”. Statements like, “let’s stay focused on work” are much more advisable under such circumstances.

Assurance of what is not changing.

Even if the focus is on the transition, explaining which characteristics of the former organization remain helps reducing employee’s fears and makes it easier for them to cope with stress that inevitably accompanies transitions.

Information over form.

Information must not be delayed because forms are not available, or the final presentation template has not been agreed to. If information is valuable to employees, it should be provided as soon as possible. Even if available information is incomplete, providing two memos is better than causing “information delay”. Employees will always appreciate management’s efforts to get information to them as soon as possible, even if the form is not yet perfect.

Finding available information.

People are often afraid to speak about subjects that are not positive. They fear the messenger may face negative consequences. Especially in periods of significant change, negative information is of great importance for intelligent decision making. Management has to encourage people to share their thoughts, in order to gather valuable information. The result: most educated decisions and more successful transitions.

"Whenever a company is subject to significant change, adequate communication translates to smother execution and better post-transition-organizations."
- Wolfgang Damm

Diligent and realistic transition planning builds the foundation for a successful, in time realization. Execution as a team leads to motivated employees, which results consequently in more efficient, more competitive organizations. Employees build the backbone of most companies. They carry pride in what they do and have usually very keen interest in contributing to make “their” company successful. Communication is a very simple, yet very powerful element of change management to make this happen. DN