CaribHRForum

The Problem of Caribbean Time

fwadecarib — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:10:36 +0000

This issue of FirstCuts was focused on the issues that regional professionals have in the area of time management. There is an audio link in addition to the text presented below.

The Problem of Caribbean Time: FirstCuts 16.0

Francis’ Recordings

FirstCuts

A Framework Consulting ezine

High-Stake Interventions — New Ideas Issue 16 October 2007
The Problem of Caribbean Time
by Francis Wade

Editorial

Earlier in my career I was trained to lead one of the leading time management courses of that time. As a professional living in Florida, I thought that it would make a tremendous difference to employees at all levels in the region.

Now that I have moved back and am living in Jamaica, I can see where the assumptions of that system, and all others I am aware of, are limited in their scope to developed countries.

This problem spurred me to try to think more deeply about the issue of time management, and I started writing a blog to give myself some relief from the ideas I was carrying around.

The blog grew into a complete approach that encompasses all time management systems — creating some new thinking in the process.

Last month, I submitted a proposal to a website that produces manifestos of ideas. ChangeThis.com features manifestos by Tom Peters, Seth Godin and Malcolm Gladwell among others. After a month (and with the help of many of you) I got over 460 votes from the internet public to write a manifesto to address the ideas.

It was the #1 proposal, receiving more than two times the votes of the second place proposal.

First of all, thanks to those of you who voted. I am currently waiting to see whether or not they make a request of me to write a complete manifesto, but in the meantime, I have been doing some more thinking about the topic, as reflected in this issue of FirstCuts. I hope you find this issue provocative.

Until next month,

Francis

P.S. If you would like some information on an upcoming pilot of our new time management course, see the section on Tips, Ads and Links. Also, this article is available as an audio podcast at http://fwconsulting.podomatic.com

The Problem of Caribbean Time

There’s no denying that we have a problem in the Caribbean when it
comes to managing time. Meetings start late, appointments are just
forgotten, and people get angry when held to account for not meeting
deadlines.

Professional managers who learned their craft from outside the region are stymied by what they see, and they find themselves unable to do much about a culture that’s “quaint” when they’re here on vacation, but absolute hell when it’s time to get business done.

Those of us who are caught in this state of affairs take the matter lightly. When it comes to time, we’re used to mediocre standards and an utter lack of accountability. We make excuses for it: “Life here is too hectic, hot, and harried to worry about that.” We use history: “It goes back to slavery days, when the slaves pretended to do work, but in fact were doing only enough to escape punishment.”

Some even turn to racial/ethnic theories: “Europeans are just better at keeping time because they had a winter season, whereas Africa and India were primarily tropical countries . . .”

While any of these theories might be valid, the result is the same. In corporations, hundreds of hours are lost each week, millions of dollars are wasted each year, and promising careers sink into mediocrity over opportunities that are irretrievably squandered. The costs are enormous, yet there seems to be no simple answer.

It’s not as if we can import some foreign solution to the problem.

In the last issue of FirstCuts, I mentioned that I had written a proposal at ChangeThis.com for a “new, revolutionary approach to time management.” (See below for the link.) What prompted my writing is the fact that time management theories applicable to the cultures of New York, London, and Toronto are of limited use in Basseterre, Belmopan, and Nassau. Any solutions will have to be devised here in the Caribbean, for our people, and by our people.

What we can borrow from the developed world is an understanding of the limits of typical time management thinking as well as some of the methods that are used to pass on effective time management techniques.

Also, managers need to know how to empower employees to have high standards of their own, as this is the key to employees improving their own productivity throughout the course of a career.

Time Management “Methods”

In the past three months, a relative of mine (known to some readers) was buffeted by one drama after another. First, there was the category 5 hurricane. Then came dengue, also known as “bone-break fever.” At the end of the illness, her father died.

These tragedies could have been individually overwhelming had they happened in the northeast USA, where she used to live. Here in the Caribbean, such things happen one after the other. We have the experience of being subject to forces that are just plain bigger than we are.

Most of us live in small islands. It’s a sobering feeling to see a hurricane, many times bigger than our entire country, inch its way across the TV screen, hell-bent on destroying everything in its path. Recently, Hurricane Dean sideswiped Jamaica, and as we watched report after report predict the destruction that was to come, there was nothing to do but surrender.

In this case, “life in the tropics” involved mentally calculating the cost of destruction in our minds. First, lives would be lost. Then there would be lost profits as the country halted all economic activity. Finally, there would be personal costs—replacing a roof, fixing a window, or repairing a car.

The pending catastrophe was bound to cost something, and the only question was, “How much?”

It was a force over which we had no control, similar to the force causing the death of a loved one or the onset of an unpreventable, incurable fever. Here in the region, we’re used to surrendering to these forces, knowing that we can expect to have even more hurricanes next year, and the next, and the next.

Time is often seen the same way—a force over which we have no
control.

And it’s actually true—there’s no way to truly manage time.

According to Webster’s, “to manage” means “to work upon or try to
alter for a purpose.” Any fool knows that you can’t do that with time. It has a mind of its own, and it cannot be altered by anything we humans do (Einstein notwithstanding). It’s independent of our actions, and it just keeps ticking along.

I recall a quote from a Native American who asked the question, “How can you own the land?” To his people, it seemed bizarre to think that one could own the land, the sky, the clouds, or the sea.

I imagine early West Indians, forced to work at the point of a gun,
wondering something similar: “How can you manage time?”

We can no more affect the passage of time than we can change the
movement of the planet Jupiter through the skies. We Caribbean
people look at those who try to manage “time” and sometimes laugh—“Dem people mad!”

We actually might be correct, because the fact is that when people in the most productive countries say “time management,” they don’t mean it literally—they mean something closer to “personal habit management.” If we in the Caribbean were to understand this distinction, it might help us come out of this resignation we have over “time management.”

Perhaps the key is to focus on managing and changing our personal habits and practices, rather than trying to “manage time” itself.

I believe we can convince Caribbean professionals that they could get more of what they want in life if only they would develop better habits. In other words, they could not only be more productive at work, but also accomplish more of their goals related to family, leisure time, and social activities.

Managers who cross cultures and enter companies or countries that seem to have no regard for time are more skilful when they coach employees in these terms. Instead of saying “You need to manage your time better,” they should say “You have a habit of arriving late.” This change in approach puts the problem, its cause, and its cure squarely in the lap of the “coachee.”

Also, this approach takes an abstract problem and makes it quite personal. “Failing to manage time effectively” just doesn’t resonate in the mind like “wasting people’s time” does.

There’s some evidence of this with non-natives who come to the Caribbean and learn that turning up “right on time” for a social
engagement is seen as inconsiderate. They soon realize that being “on time” is a sign of uptightness that works against the laid-back feeling that is the very purpose of the occasion. It kills the mood.

In Munich, being “on time” signals politeness—while in Montego Bay, the same behaviour implies rudeness. Underlying both expectations,
however, is a common theme: the impact of your actions on others.

In the workplace, when employees are aware of the impact their personal habits have on others, I’ve observed that they’re more likely to change behaviour—or at least make an effort.

A coach who would normally say “You have a habit of arriving late”
would change the advice to say “You have a habit of arriving late and keeping us waiting, which makes us impatient with you.”

Is it possible that the productivity of entire companies could turn on an understanding of these fine cultural distinctions? If so, it would make sense to create a working environment in which new professionals can learn this new way of thinking.

For this reason, there might be something to learn from managers who belong to time-conscious cultures and how they learn personal work habits.

Good Habits Rub Off

Given the misleading way that the phrase “time management” is used, how do young professionals in cultures that are skilful in managing time learn to be effective?

Or, how do émigrés from our region learn to be productive once they land in North America or Europe? Anecdotal evidence shows many examples of West Indians, famous to their friends for their shiftless ways, undergoing dramatic transitions once they arrive in other countries. Gone are their old habits of always being late, never keeping a schedule, and forgetting meetings entirely; these are replaced by an amazing productivity and a newfound ability to hold down multiple jobs at the same time.

Is it greed? Is it better pay? Is it the cold weather? What happens to turn those West Indians into model employees abroad? How do they become part of an ethnic group in the U.S., for example, that
outearns both black and white Americans in median family income?

When I was a young college student in my first month in the U.S., I was stunned when, after arriving ten minutes late for a meeting, I was told that it was cancelled. I remember thinking that it was unfair; after all, “I wasn’t that late . . .” Of course, my feelings just didn’t matter, the meeting remained cancelled.

I had to learn a better way.

My first roommate happened to be a graduate student who had worked for a few years at General Electric. I watched him carefully.

When I started working full time, I did the same thing: I watched the managers and other professionals closely. Over time, their work habits became mine.

My key to changing my old habits was simply copying the people who were the most effective.

I believe that managers who are effective in “managing their time” learn their habits in a similar fashion, often without thinking. It’s only when these managers cross into a new culture that they realize they possess an uncommon skill that they learned via mostly informal methods. However, as far as they know, they “just learned it”—and they really had no choice but to learn.

When managers from elsewhere come to the Caribbean, they learn that the young professionals they encounter suffer from a simple lack of good role models. Younger people enter the workplace and work alongside older professionals who are mediocre at managing their time, and the new workers quickly pick up the older workers’ habits and standards. Some of the bad habits they learn include the following:

•    Being late, but coming prepared with a really good story as backup
•    Bending the system to work fewer hours than the job requires
•    Forgetting about key appointments, trusting that others will also
forget
•    Using the latest dramatic event (e.g., traffic, the weather) to
justify not delivering results
•    Relying on their boss’s lack of skill in giving feedback to
continue poor habits
•    Comforting themselves with the knowledge that they’re a bit
better, on average, than those around them (“If they can keep a man like Smitty around, then I know I’m safe”)

Ultimately, the lack of role models allows the young professional to sink into mediocrity without knowing it. On a larger scale, a company of mediocre performers becomes a company that produces middle-of-the-pack results.

Unfortunately, most regional companies don’t do enough to encourage people who demonstrate high productivity. In the worst company cultures, such people are discouraged from doing well and teased when they “try too hard,” accused of sucking up to management.

Such cultures of low performance must be confronted directly. One way to do this is to encourage young professionals to work hard to create high standards for themselves while they copy best practices from those who perform at a very high level.

Insisting on High Standards

Rallying young professionals to high standards in time management and productivity is easier than it sounds.

While many companies in countries outside the region can rally the troops with cries of greater profits for shareholders, my experience
is that this kind of rah-rah talk falls on deaf ears in the Caribbean. It sounds hollow.

After all, it was the cry for greater profits that led directly to slavery. It remains very easy for senior managers to unwittingly bring up unwanted feelings and behaviours from the past by insisting on the profit motive as a reason for greater productivity.

The first manager to talk about “managing time” was probably Massa, the typical slave driver of the 15th–19th centuries. He wanted greater efficiency, and he tried to get his dark-skinned employees to work as hard and as long as possible.

I imagine that when that kind of talk started, our enslaved and
indentured forefathers made sure that this piece of English madness was “not going to catch” them. They did what we sometimes do today: they paid “lip service” to the idea while making sure that nothing really changed.

Trying to get people to come to meetings on time to benefit the
company’s income statement didn’t work then, and it doesn’t work
today.

Managers in the region are on much firmer ground if they try to
achieve higher productivity by helping their employees set high
standards for themselves. They’re more successful when they can
demonstrate that meeting these standards is a powerful reward in and of itself.

The best teachers do this skilfully. One of my high school teachers
once rejected a student’s dishevelled paper, asking him, “Do you see me dressing like that to come to class?”

That teacher always pushed us to demand the best from ourselves, and he insisted that we expect the same from him.

Managers who create an environment where all employees ask the best of themselves, first and foremost, empower those employees with a new way of thinking and a way to guide themselves to higher
productivity.

Managers need to start by demanding high standards of themselves. When they do so, they learn a critical fact about time management habits: those habits tend to be idiosyncratic and must be customized by individuals for themselves.

For example, one of the easier standards employees can set for
themselves is being on time. With sufficient awareness, they can see how this habit will benefit themselves and others. Once the habit’s importance is established and its benefits clarified, employees can teach themselves specific techniques to make on-time behaviour as easy as brushing their teeth.

The trick is that each employee must create and manage habits that work for them—and, perhaps, for them alone. Some will set their watches to be ten minutes fast. Others will programme their cell phones to remind them of critical activities. Those who have administrative support will use their assistants to manage their time with well-placed phone calls and interruptions.

Employees will (and must) discover what works for them personally. The manager’s job is to help them set increasingly higher standards for themselves while giving objective advice on how to meet those standards.

This is very different than the approach that managers often take:
treating employees as if they have moral defects. To some managers, employees are thieves—stealing time. To others, employees are lazy. And to some, there’s even a belief that employees want to harm the company.

These conclusions are rarely true—I observe Caribbean employees wanting to do their “best,” but not understanding what that means or how to accomplish it.

What they need are managers who know how to coach in the area of time management, who don’t tell employees to simply “Follow me,” but encourage them to find their own way to greater productivity using the better examples around them.

When employees can plainly see that their managers are also on a
course to greater productivity—and that those managers, too, were
once novices—they can trust that their path is one that all
professionals must take. Employees can appreciate how difficult it
is to craft good habits and how the game of increasing their
effectiveness never ends.

Summary

Although the Caribbean has a checkered past around the issue of
productivity, good managers can learn to navigate their way around the historical obstacles by thinking hard about what time management really involves. Armed with a new understanding, they can provide their employees with the right kind of role models and the right kind of support, helping those employees win the battle against their own bad habits.

Useful Stuff

Tips, Ads and Links
To follow the development of the ideas I am creating for the 2Time
management system (for time management,) visit
http://2time.wordpress.com. There you will find the essence of the
time management system I proposed at changethis.com

There will be a limited pilot of the 2Time system in early 2008. If
you’d like to register for it, do let me know.

I recently completed a speech for the Human Resources Managers
Association of Trinidad and Tobago(HRMATT) Biennial Conference
2007, based on our research study “The Trinidadian Executive in
Jamaica.” There is all sorts of information available for free:
the audio and PowerPoint presentation, press reports and even an
interview recorded on TV/Radio (audio only.) Follow this link to
our News Room: http://urlcut.com/tdad1

Also, an article I wrote appearing in the Trinidad press covered
many of the ideas in the presentation: http://urlcut.com/tdad2

Next month I will be speaking at the award ceremony of the Jamaica Customer Service Association. The function will take place at the Hilton Kingston, on November 21st, 2007. See the following page for details: http://urlcut.com/Ja-customer

To leave a comment on this issue of FirstCuts, visit the following
link: http://urlcut.com/comments16.

Back Issues of FirstCuts can be found at http://tinyurl.com/pw7fa

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Bajan, Jamaican and Trini Work-Culture

fwadecarib — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:52:58 +0000

An article covering the work my company (Framework Consulting) does in companies was printed in the Observer, and then picked up by blogger Dennis Jones, in Barbados.

I thought his response was interesting, and quite unexpected as it draws direct comparisons between Jamaican work culture, and the one he found in Barbados as an outsider. Some of what he says was echoed in the first CaribHRForum Conference Call held last Friday.

(A link to a full recording of the call was sent last Friday to the discussion group.)

Click here to access Dennis’ article: “Why Get All Worked Up When You Can Wuk Up?”:.

Also, the original article by Observer columnist Jean Lowrie-Chin can be found by clicking here: “Jamaicans Rebel… Trinis Crack Jokes.”

Would love to hear comments and reactions either in the discussion group, or here.

Francis
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Mandatory Cost Cutting is NOT the Answer

fwadecarib — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:32:42 +0000

The first reaction of most companies is to start to cut costs during times of crisis.

This approach has short term rewards, but most of the time long term negative effects on the business.
When businesses start cost cutting drive they say things like:
o    ‘cut 20% off all our spending’
o    ‘No more overtime’
o    ‘No salary increases’
o    ‘No catering, for internal meetings’
o    ‘Hiring freeze’ etc
These approaches might all seem like the right thing to do, but they are very reactive approaches.

This approach to ‘managing’ costs can only be for a short period as it can be realistic to never hire anyone again!!

Also this approach can leave employee feeling disgruntled as they have to work with limited resources (people, products, time) and also start to feel unappreciated. Working with limited resources and unhappy employees has a direct impact on your product /service and can lead to unhappy customers, who will eventually move on to one of your competitors.

So rather than ‘cutting costs’, look for ways to manage your costs and work to having a cost management culture.

Having a cost management culture simply means becoming a cost conscious organization. I would advise that one of the best ways of doing this is by allowing everyone to be part of the solution.

Involve your employees in the cost management of the business, rather than just being on the receiving end of ‘cost cutting orders. Monthly meetings can be held to review the operating costs of the department/business. I would also show the profit, so they can see the fruits of their labour. But I know for some businesses this is information they would prefer not to share.

At these monthly meetings, show the costs against budget both the month and year to date and ask questions about the data and set future agreed targets together (focusinng on the high costs areas first).
Sample questions:
o    Why do you think we over spent this month?
o    What was different this month from last month?
o    What ideas do you have to bring these costs down?
o    Is our budget realistic? If not why not?
o    What can you personally do, to reduce the costs in the coming months?
o    What are you thoughts on the quality of the materials we use?
o    How can we reduce the wastage next months?
o    What are your suggestions on how to reduce overtime?

In the following month, review the costs with the team and compare the actuals with the targets agreed the previous month. If achieved, agree how you will celebrate. If not achieved work with the team to find out why and agree what needs to be done differently in the current month.

By involving your employees, they get to understand the impact they have on the department /business expenditure, they feel more informed and more engaged in the business. Also if they are the ones to come up with the solutions, they are more likely to adhere to them and ensure that their peers also follow suit.

I would advise companies to hold this meeting every month, not just in times of crisis.
This approach can become part of how they operate the department/business. Both the management and their employees will develop long term realistic cost management solutions that can achieve huge positive gains for their department/business in the long term.

Georgina Terry
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Employee Engagement and Financial Success

fwadecarib — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:11:12 +0000

Which comes first employee engagement or financial success?

Those of us who have spent many man-hours in understanding employee engagement, developing and implementing engagement programmes and measuring the results may be tempted to render the above statement a rhetorical one. It could be argued that financially successful companies have more money to spend on their employees, and also employees are more engaged because they work for an already winning team. It may be considered a virtuous cycle.

Among a few of our local CFOs, the question is completely valid and would even go so far to comment that all research that shows that engagement is a lead indicator to financial success was conducted outside of Trinidad and Tobago and hence does not apply to the local environment. What behooves me is when qualified financial professionals make comments like “Trinis are a simple people, just give them rum and roti”. I am not sure if they were present for the Human Capital module as part of their post graduate training. I am positive this myopia is among the special few of the profession and in no way reflects their perceived preoccupation with only counting the shrinking beans.

Regardless of the research on the correlation between people and share price, most companies are not yet full believers that there is a link between the two. It is easy for the CFO to approve an investment into a piece of equipment that they can see, feel, touch and they can also observe the outputs. When one spends money on employee engagement programmes, you cannot see the return in a tangible way; hence we classify that money as expenditure and not investment. Even if we “invest” in these programmes, we cannot vouch with absolute certainty the cause and effect relationship because there are so many variables in the equation.

Engaged employees are the company’s best advocates, they have a clear line of sight, they are motivated and driven to contribute their discretionary effort into their work beyond what is the norm. In a study of 50 multinational companies, Towers Perrin documented that over twelve months, the companies with high levels of engagement outperformed the companies with less engaged staff in three financial measures, operating income, net income growth and earnings per share. The high employee engagement companies posted a 19 percent increase in operating income and 28 percent rise in earnings per share.

Towers Perrin’s research also shows that as engagement levels increase so do customer satisfaction levels. A case study was done on a company called Motability Operations in the UK, where they invested in their people strategy and reaped benchmarked results in customer satisfaction.

Towers Perrin developed a linkage framework between people and performance and essentially it starts with reward investments, HR service delivery, workforce deployment and its impact on employee behaviour in terms of engagement, turnover and productivity which in turn impacts customer behaviour as evidenced by loyalty, repeat business, company advocacy and ultimately it impacts revenue growth and stock performance. World at Work association has a Total Reward Philosophy which also links HR strategies to engagement and to company performance.

WorkUSA® 2006/2007 research suggests that employee engagement has a strong impact on the bottom line. The research has noted that the frequency with which senior leadership communicates with staff is a key driver to employee engagement. Also to ensure the improved productivity, the staff must be provided with targeted training, tools and resources to contribute effectively without the red tape of bureaucracy.

We have even seen where investors review the companies on the “best companies to work for list” as a source of potential high investment earners to invest in, and the result has shown that the companies on those lists earned average annual returns of 14 per cent which was more than double the average market return according to Alex Edmans at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

Craig Donaldson quotes an Accenture study where the book value of companies is now including their intangible assets as well as the tangible ones. This is indicative of the market slowly recognizing the value of a company’s people, knowledge, skills and abilities.

Craig Donaldson also reports that Alan Bardwell, the Finance Chief of ASX Limited is of the view that CFOs need to support appropriate investments in developing human capital. The widespread practice of setting short term earnings targets forces managers to forsake long term investments and this hinders the people development. Mr. Bardwell is of the view that CFOs must take the time to understand the drivers of employee engagement with a long term view.

Watson Wyatt maintains that engagement is a leading indicator of financial performance. The link between past engagement and current financial performance is stronger than the link between past financial performance and current engagement. Engagement comes first.

Denise Ali
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fwadecarib — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 18:28:22 +0000

HUSH 2- End the silence.,

This is a Caribbean movie written, directed and produced by Barbadians in Barbados.

The entire cast and production crew are young people committed to sending a powerful message about issues affecting our communities (and the youth in particular) such as Drugs, sexual abuse of children, rape, and incest; many of these topics as you know have been taboo in the Caribbean for some time and the movie seeks to raise awareness and promote the concept of healing after abuse.

The movie will be shown throughout the Caribbean so watch out for it at a cinema near you. Check out the trailer at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78wcM9lRWI4

The Psychology of Change

fwadecarib — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:57:13 +0000

Dr. Leachim Semaj is a Jamaican psychologist and consultant who I had the fortune to interview a few weeks ago after he presented at the Jamaica Employer’s Federation conference on the topic - Mastering the Psychology of Change: Learning from the Past, Managing the Present, Reading The Future.

He’s also a member of CaribHRForum and some more information on the work he does can be found at his site: The JobBank.

Click on the arrow below to hear the podcast which is a little over 30 minutes in length.

Workplace Civility

fwadecarib — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:58:14 +0000

The term “Workplace Civility” came up at one of our subsidiaries operational meetings and it sparked my interest.

We may argue that humans have evolved or progressed but from a conceptual perspective it seems we have come full circle in a kind of pseudo-progression. The insurance company Geico says “even a cave man could do it” in some of their advertisements, but we may be underestimating the caveman and overestimating the civil man.

The civil man may look the part but when you see the careless driving on the nation’s roads, the disrespect among our people, one really questions if we as a people have really progressed. We drive on the shoulder, we resist queuing, and we extend no courtesies if when paid to do so as Customer Service representatives. On the rare occasion, one receives exemplary service or care. We at Guardian are working on transitioning the rarity of a pleasant customer care experience to be the norm.

Workplace incivility refers to rude, hurtful and disrespectful behaviour. The vicious circle starts with a perception of inequity, unfairness which breeds negative feelings; this may fuel some desire for reciprocation and may manifest itself in uncivil behaviour. If we return to an eye for an eye, we will all be blind.

In the workplace, there are several contributors to workplace incivility. When one combines all the work factors of long hours, workplace stress, change in employment status, job insecurity, demanding bosses, “short” temperaments, intolerance of diversity, financial problems, with social and domestic challenges, traffic, rising cost of living, etc, people may be driven to act out. We recall years ago the term “Going Postal” where a post office worker in the Edmond, Oklahoma killed fourteen co-workers and then killed himself. When the incident was investigated, they found that he believed he was about to lose his job, he had work-related stress with a smaller workforce and decreased wages all contributed to the violence.

Your organization may not experience incidents as drastic as quoted above, but the subtler instances affect productivity, increased turnover, decreased teamwork, work avoidance, decreased motivation, increased health-care due to stress and or psychosomatic disorders, legal costs due to litigation and an impact to customer retention and growth.

Humans communicate and interact with each other based on their individual needs (conscious or unconscious), be it for power, approval, validation, inclusion, justice, acceptance, to mask insecurities etc. These needs colour our communication. If we review the underlying causes of conflict (let’s call it the conflict iceberg) since what everyone sees is the issue that is above water. We don’t see all the personality characteristics, the emotions, the interests, needs, desires, self perceptions and self esteem issues, hidden expectations and or unresolved issues from the past. We need to ask key questions that will help us see below the surface and if these answers are forthcoming they should enhance our understanding.

When communicating, it is important to be aware of one’s tone, voice volume, be open minded, try not to interrupt, remember pleasantries, say what you mean respectfully and don’t argue for arguing sake. One should address conflicts in private, be aware of one’s own defensiveness, practice active listening and avoid making accusations rather ask questions first. Sometimes, it is even possible that you can be wrong, imagine that?.

We should have healthy boundaries, avoid escalation and vent if necessary to cool off. Bullies are everywhere, in schools, and at work. The organization must deal with bullying swiftly. We must not let people take advantage of our good nature.

In conclusion, we should not be keeping score or waiting for someone to be nice first. We should consider letting things slide that may not be intentional. According to Mahatma Gandhi, “Be the Change You want to see in the World”.

Denise Ali
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Nine Ways to Achieve Extraordinary Performance in your Team

fwadecarib — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 20:57:41 +0000

Effective teamwork is essential to your organization’s performance.

There are many teamwork definitions, but this is one of my favourites:

‘A tight knit group of competent individuals who care deeply about each other. They are fiercely committed to their mission, and are highly motivated to combing their energy and expertise to achieve a common objective.’

Are you part of a great team?
If you said yes, what makes your team great? What is your contribution to the team’s success? What outstanding results have you been able to achieve together?
If you said no, what are YOU doing that is stopping the team from being great? Yes, we all contribute to our current situations.
Working with a great group of people, creating an amazing bond and achieving great results, is a wonderful feeling.

There are certain qualities that a high performing team exhibits that will enable you to achieve great things.

Below are nine fundamental behaviours that can help your team achieve extraordinary results:

1.    Totally committed to each other and your overall goal
2.    Curious before critical
3.    Focused on the hope of success
4.    Embrace people for what they bring to the team
5.    Everyone accepts responsibly for all that happens – there is a ‘we’ mentality
6.    Hire the inspired or inspire the hired
7.    There is no room for egos
8.    The appropriate leadership style is found to fit the current situation
9.    The ‘leader’ in each person is given space to be ‘step up’

Which behaviours does you team already possess? When was the last time you saw these being demonstrated?

And which elements does your team need to demonstrate more of?

What more could your team achieve, if you were consistently demonstrating these behaviours? What would it feel like to work together like this? What would others say about your team?

By having faith and trust in each other, ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things!!!

Georgina Terry
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Job Evaluation, Not People Evaluation

fwadecarib — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:19:06 +0000

Job evaluation is about weighing the general importance or relative worth of jobs in comparison to other jobs in an organization.

There are four basic job evaluation methods: Whole Job Ranking, Job Classification, Point Method and the Factor Comparison method. At Guardian, we have adopted the Hay Job Evaluation method which is based on a combination of the point and factor comparison methods. It is based on input (knowledge/know-how), throughput (problem solving) and output (accountability).

Our job evaluation committee comprises employees from a variety of functional areas across the organization. This makes for hearty dialogue and on some rare occasions it may even be entertaining considering that job evaluation is not the most exciting task. I thought I would share some experiences on common misconceptions on the topic.

More often than not, our committee receives job content questionnaires completed with the incumbent in mind, and it is often tailored to suit the incumbent.

Job evaluation focuses on the job not on people. The job evaluation does not determine the worth of the incumbent doing the job.

We also think if someone is doing more work, their job needs to re-evaluated. When they are just doing more of the same type or level of work, a re-evaluation is not the answer. Maybe the department needs to review the processes, streamline, improve efficiencies, or increase manpower.

Job evaluation does not produce pay rates. It may be a contributing factor to the process of determining pay grades, but it does not directly determine pay. Job evaluation determines the relative worth of jobs, which are then plotted to create job grades. We go to the market for compensation data on the benchmarked jobs. We decide on our pay philosophy which must be aligned to our business and then this informs our pay bands linked to our job grades.

Job evaluation does not account for scarcity of labour or skills, since demand and supply of labour shifts with the tide. Y2K was a great time for IT professionals. Our oil boom days were great times for Geologists.

These professionals earned top dollar when compared to the earning potential for other professionals in jobs with similar hay points. As soon as the demand for a skill is satisfied with the supply, any excess supply starts diluting the earning potential. A job ideally should not be evaluated on the high end to overcome supply and demand pay challenges in the labour market.

We should not conduct job evaluations to justify the status quo, never start an evaluation, thinking we know the result before we start. We should not concentrate on the reporting relationship. For example, the executive assistant to the CEO may have the same hay points as the executive assistant to the VP of marketing, not because one may report to the CEO makes the job more important.

Another common error is evaluating the tools of the job. Secretaries in the past used typewriters, now they use computers, is the job worth more or less now? I know, for example, that typewriters have no spell check function.

The Hay methodology is intended to benchmark jobs internationally using the same criteria; however it is the application of this methodology that poses challenges when it is fraught with some common blunders as discussed above. What have been your experiences?

Denise Ali
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The Other Side of The Grievance Procedure

fwadecarib — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 03:18:07 +0000

Last month I was in San Diego, California for business and was also able to squeeze in some vacation time too.

While in San Diego, I went to Sea World and I strongly recommend that if you are ever in that part of the world; you HAVE to go to Sea World. Anyone who really knows me, will tell you that I am not an animal lover, but the shows are amazing.

The common practice of the trainers is to reward the sea lions, dolphins, whales etc. when they perform their tricks.

This practise of rewarding really got me thinking.

In the business world how often do we really reward the people around us, when they achieve something? I know many organisations have grievance procedures, poor performance processes, but how many organisations have a ‘well done’ procedure as part of their business culture?

How do you show an employee true appreciation for a job well done? Is this part of your business culture, or just something you choose to do, because of your personality?

What also struck me during the show, was that the animals were rewarded with fish and ice!! Ice…No flavour, inexpensive, yet they still enjoyed it. So we don’t need to spend lots of money to show appreciation…sometimes a simple ‘Well done, great job’ will be music to someone’s ears.

But what if an employee does something and it fails. Should they still be rewarded? I would argue yes…. they can be rewarded for stepping out their comfort zone and trying something new and challenging and with the right coaching you can turn a perceived failure into a great learning experience.

When someone feels truly appreciated and valued, they will start to perform at their maximum potential, which will reap great business results for the department and the organisation, as well as personal development results for the individual.
For example – ‘The Walt Disney World Resort established an employee recognition program that resulted in a 15% increase in staff satisfaction with their day-to-day recognition by their immediate supervisors. These results correlated highly with high guest-satisfaction scores, which showed a strong intent to return, and therefore directly flowed to increased profitability.

Likewise, Sears, Roebuck & Co. found for every 5% increase in employee attitude scores, they saw a 1-3% increase in customer satisfaction and a 0.5% increase in revenue.

On the other hand, the cost of extremely negative or ‘actively disengaged’ workers comprises about 10% of the US Gross Domestic Product annually, including workplace injury, illness, employee turnover, absences and fraud.’

It costs virtually nothing to show appreciation, but the rewards to everyone involved can be HUGE!!!

Georgina Terry
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