Interview: Employee Feedback with The Suggestion Guru
March 30, 2010
This morning on The Change Agent’s Dilemma radio show, I interviewed Lara Fordis of Suggestion Guru about employee feedback, especially going beyond the traditional employee survey. If you’ve been wondering how to get better feedback about your organization, your change initiative or even about yourself, you’ll want to listen to today’s show.
Lara shared a number of feedback methods and tools she has used in organizations to improve communication and engagement. She talked about the factors to consider when selecting a feedback method and also shared common mistakes you will want to avoid when implementing employee feedback.
As a special hand-out for Enclaria listeners, Lara provided this 1-page Feedback Favorites summary (PDF).
Listen here (30 minutes):
Be sure to visit the radio show page to listen to past episodes and subscribe to the show.
Implementing Change from Inside? Watch Out for Blind Spots
March 24, 2010
Due to human nature, sometimes we make assumptions that are so ingrained in our minds that we don’t even realize we are making them. When it comes to implementing change, these blind spots can get in the way of taking proper action – or even realizing that action is a possibility. Read more
A simple way to assess motivation preferences
March 18, 2010
My son likes to challenge me to battles on MarioKart Wii. While the main game is the traditional car race, there are also two options for battles:
Balloons: Each player starts with 3 balloons attached to their cars. The goal of the battle is to protect your balloons from being popped while trying to pop as many balloons as possible on the opposing team.
Coins: Each player starts without coins. The goal of the coin battle is to collect as many coins as possible.
It turns out I detest the balloon battle option. I started thinking about why this is the case, and determined it is a matter of personal motivation preference. The goal of gaining points by reducing the other team’s number of balloons does not appeal to me at all. In contrast, seeing the number of coins I’ve collected and making the number go up up up is much more motivating to me.
The same is not true of everyone; my son on the other hand, prefers the balloon battle. He likes to watch the balloons pop.
We can expand the learning outside of MarioKart Wii. Understanding what games someone enjoys can tell you a lot about their motivation preferences. Among my favorites are Trivial Pursuit, Clue, Blokus, Jeopardy, and Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Clearly, if you want to motivate me, find ways to let me show you how smart I am and challenge me with a puzzle to solve. The conclusion might be different for someone who enjoyed playing Scrabble and watching Wheel of Fortune.
Consider the board games, video games, game shows and sports that you like to play and watch. What do they say about your motivation preferences? Do you like to win, or beat your own high score? Do you prefer to play solo, or would you rather play a team sport? Do you like to take risks? Would you rather play for fun or for the challenge of it?
Perhaps organizations should have game closets to assess what types of achievements fuel their employees.
Based on your favorite games, what are your motivation preferences?
On the Radio: Ten Essential Tools for Change Agents
March 16, 2010
This morning on The Change Agent’s Dilemma radio show, I shared Ten Essential Tools for Change Agents.
The Ten Essential Tools include personal influence and structural influence methods, plus a focused foundation that every change agent needs to start with. If your change initiative is stalled, use the Ten Tools as a checklist to see what areas might be in need of a boost.
Listen here (30 minutes):
Be sure to visit the new radio show page to find other ways you can tune in to the show.
If you prefer to read a small synopsis of the list, see the previous post Ten Essential Tools for Change Agents. However, you will miss out on a special offer that is presented at the end of the show!
Four criteria for strategic measures
March 13, 2010
Yesterday I went to a meeting of the Association for Strategic Planning Atlanta, where some members of a team at Deloitte presented their process for strategic measure selection. One step in the process, after brainstorming measures for each strategic objective, was to put the measures through an evaluation funnel. There were four key criteria for selecting measures:
- Strategic. Does the measure track progress toward achieving the objective?
- Actionable. Will you be able to do anything about it? Will it help you make decisions?
- Operational. Is it something you are able to collect? Can people understand it and do they believe it?
- Economical. Is the cost of collecting the information feasible?
After measures made it through the evaluation funnel, they would be further whittled down until there were 1 or 2 measures for each strategic objective.
Would the measures for your change initiative make it through the funnel?
Cringe factors
March 11, 2010
My husband is the audio director for North Point Community Church, an admitted “megachurch” designed so that people who don’t normally go to church can go there and feel comfortable. The staff there goes to great lengths to avoid what they call “cringe factors.”
I don’t think there is an official definition for cringe factor; it’s something that you know when you see it… or really when you feel it. You feel a cringe factor in your face when you flinch from what you’ve just heard. Your shoulders might tense and you might even feel sick to your stomach a little bit. You might even throw your hands in front of your face in an attempt to block the offending message. If you haven’t already while reading this, take a second to cringe and see what it feels like.
The church, of course, wants to avoid this feeling in its target demographic, people who might be looking for a reason not to come back next Sunday. And you want to avoid this feeling in your organization toward your change initiative.
In my experience, the most prominent category of cringe factors in organizations is terminology. For example, I’ve worked with a number of people who implemented Balanced Scorecards without calling them Balanced Scorecards. They deliberately selected another name because there was either a bad connotation from a previous bad experience or the term was considered to be too high on the jargon list. Other cringe factors include the incentive program that doesn’t quite align with people’s motivation, or a leader saying something that seems hypocritical.
Pay attention to the things that make you cringe as you design a new program or listen to leaders talk about your change initiative. Recruit other people in the organization to tell you about cringe factors that they experience. Then, see what you can do to avoid them. The last thing you want is for people in the organization to have an automatic negative visceral reaction to your change initiative!
What might be your cringe factors?
My recent carnival appearances
March 9, 2010
Ok, I do not perform any tricks worthy of joining the circus, but a couple of recent blog posts have been published by two Blog Carnivals – monthly collections of noteworthy articles on specific topics.
First, my article 10 Essential Tools for Change Agents was posted in the Carnival of HR: Mardi Gras Edition.
Most recently, Monitor Your Organization’s “Non-Verbal” Communication was published in the March 7 Leadership Development Carnival: Academy Awards Edition. It was an honor just to be nominated.
Check out both of these Carnivals for articles by some great bloggers!
Interview: Performance Management Design for Organizational Change
March 2, 2010
This morning on The Change Agent’s Dilemma radio show, I interviewed Dr. Janet Hecht of Talent by Design Consulting, LLC about how to design a performance management system for organizational change.
Janet shared the components of an effective performance management design and the tips she learned as an employee implementing a performance management system to 55,000 associates at the State of Georgia. She also warned of some of the pitfalls to avoid when designing and implementing a performance management system.
Listen here (30 minutes):
Be sure to visit the new radio show page to find other ways you can tune in to the show.
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