Inspiring Cultures

Time to Expel Bosses?

This is a short summary of a longer article soon to appear in our July 2009 'Cultural Intelligence' newsletter...

In Queensland, Australia, it has recently been announced that the number of school suspensions and expulsions will be made public - down to a school level, for the first time.

This got me wondering about what circumstances conspire to result in the final act of a school expelling a student. In a sense, in making the decision, a school is saying there are no other options open to them - they've done their best.

I know that schools don't take the act of expelling students lightly. It's a serious decision. At the end of the day, I'd guess senior people in schools would think to themselves that they'd done their best to accommodate the student in question. I'd also guess that blame for the inappropriate behaviours of the expelled student would lay with the student and/or his/her parents.

A long time ago, I was a school teacher. Hearing this latest news made me reflect on the fact that in my four or five years of teaching I came across quite a few really bad teachers. I wouldn't have liked my children to be in the classrooms of those teachers. This makes me wonder whether school expulsions occur on occasions, not so much because of the student's innate poor behaviours, but because of poor teachers who fail to engage students.

The issue of employee engagement has been highly prominent over the last few years. In all the research I've read into this complex issue, I've not come across anything that seriously questions whether a key reason for employees not being engaged is because of poor managers.

Maybe, just maybe, some bosses need to be expelled....

No supervisor, no response

I've just put the phone down and simmered for around one hour. And I still remain angry!

I've just returned from doing presentations in Johannesburg and Tanzania. During the trip, my Visa card was 'declined'.

I've just put the phone down after speaking with our Australian bank, the ANZ. After three phone calls, I finally get to speak with someone who can pin down the problem - the card had indeed been halted as two entries totalling $27.00 had been incurred overseas without me telling the bank I was going overseas.

On being told this, I must admit to getting agitated. I go overseas a lot, and when I do, I use my credit card (I was in London for example, two weeks prior to the African trip). And I haven't been contacting the bank on each occasion prior to the trip.

Despite this, a pompous bank staffer was telling me I need to contact the bank prior to every trip. I'd been notified of the card being put on hold through them sending me a hard copy letter (this defies belief - while I'm overseas, I'm sent a hard copy letter telling me there 'may' be a problem with my overseas visa card usage!!).

I got so angry with the situation and the staffer's tone, I asked to speak to a supervisor. I was then informed that was not possible. The only way I could escalate the issue was to send an email to the... wait for it.... 'Rapid Response Team' who would get back to me within 48 hours. This would have been laughable had it not been serious.

Organisations spend huge amounts marketing their products in the search for new customers. If only they put a little thought into servicing their existing ones.

No feedback, no improvement

Over the past few months, I've been really busy. It's been so busy, I've been unable to practice a game I took up a couple of years ago - the game of golf.

I've learned that golf is a really hard game! This hasn't been helped by the fact that I haven't been able to play all that much. This afternoon, I decided to give myself a treat by going to the driving range where I could get in some practice. I drove to the driving range looking forward to the sunshine and the hit.

I drove home disappointed.

When I arrived at the range, I realised I would be hitting straight into a setting sun. I would hit a golf ball, and had no idea where it went. The sun was so bad, I figure I would have been able see where one in ten of my shots went. Nine out of ten times, I had no idea where the ball went.

When I've gone to the driving range in the past, I've enjoyed it even when I haven't hit the ball well. Under normal conditions, you get feedback the instant you hit the ball.

Today, that didn't happen. Most times I had no idea how I'd hit the ball.

And this made a huge difference to the whole experience.

I figure this has enormous application beyond golf! People need and, given appropriately, want feedback on their performance. And it's probably the case that the more immediate the feedback the better.

I'll not be going to the driving range late afternoon any more :-)

The 'Eyes-Up' Rule

I’ve just returned from a week-long trip to London where I spoke at a great conference organised by CIPD.

I stayed at the same hotel for the week - a hotel that was well staffed with people with a friendly attitude.

Having breakfast on the third day of my stay, I ordered and was given a pot of tea. After the staff member walked away, I noticed that the milk jug on my table was empty. It was at that point I struck a problem! Despite many staff circulating the restaurant busily cleaning tables and delivering tea and coffee, I couldn’t find one person with whom I could make eye contact. Everyone seemed to have their eyes pointed downwards, making me wonder whether they were deliberately avoiding eye contact with hotel guests. After some time, I was finally able to attract the attention of one staff member, who happily re-filled my milk jug.

The next morning, I again went to the restaurant for breakfast. I was ushered to a table and informed someone would come to take my order for tea or coffee in a moment. No such luck. After almost completing my breakfast, I still had not been asked for a tea or coffee. So once again, I searched the room for someone to serve me. And once again, I saw numerous staff, busy doing their delivering and cleaning, with eyes down. I tried to attract the attention of someone without luck. Finally, I had to leave my table to approach a staff member with my request.

A number of years ago, I came across a principle applied in a retail context called ‘eyes-up’. This principle says that customers’ eyes in a store remain down - looking at stock - until they are ready to be served. The cue they give to let staff know they want to be served is ‘eyes-up’. This means staff need to be ever alert to the eyes of the customers - if not, customers may give-up and leave the store without having made a purchase.

Of course, the staff in my London Hotel had never come across this concept! The staff were not on the lookout for cues from customers who wanted to be served - rather, they were busy ‘doing their work’ - and there was plenty of that for them to do.

This got me thinking that the eyes-up principle applies at least metaphorically, in contexts outside of hotels and the retail sector.

In essence, the eyes-up principle is saying we need to be alert to the signals others give that they need assistance. Too often, the cultures in organisations are such that people are not biased towards helping others - irrespective of the cues given.

The unwritten ground rules (UGRs) in a team or organisation play a part here as well. We’ve worked with organisations where there are UGRs that include:

• Around here, if you demonstrate you need help, it will be used against you in the future
• Around here, everyone wants to take the credit for themselves, so you’re better off not sharing anything
• Around here, you demonstrate you are weak if you ask for help

These types of UGRs prevent a person from even giving cues that they need help. Other UGRs cause people not to be on the lookout for cues, even when they are given. These include:

• Around here, if you don’t cover your own back, you’re in trouble with the bosses
• Around here, if you help others, the workload simply piles up

If teamwork is important in an organisation, then clearly the ‘eyes-up principle needs serious consideration.

Why customer service is poor

Below is a link to a radio interview I did yesterday on the issue of customer service - why it is often poor, and what can be done to improve it. As usual, would love to hear your feedback! The audio runs for around seven minutes...

Corporate Culture, meetings and UGRs

We've developed a series of UGRs re-energisers - short three to four minute videos to help sustain people's focus on creating a more positive culture. Here's a sample of the first series, which people receive every two weeks for a full year.

If you'd like to learn more about these, please contact me!

Click here to watch the video!

New podcast on the power of culture and 'UGRs'

I was recently interviewed by US based author Nick McCormick, who wrote the book 'Lead Well and Prosper'.

The podcast is here

Would love to hear your thoughts!

The 'Invisible rules'

I'm speaking at the CIPD HRD Conference in London this coming April. I was interviewed recently on some of the content of my presentation - and the article is here.

If you're in the UK, why not come along to what looks to be a great conference!

What causes communication problems?

The scene of a movie I was watching recently involved two teenagers talking to one another. Their respective single parents were dating. One of the teenagers said ‘My mother really likes you, you know'.

What was happening here? One teenager was trying to help the other understand the real mindset of a third party - in this case, the parent. The teenager doing the talking, perhaps sub-consciously, wondered whether the real intentions of her mother were being interpreted correctly.
That's because the intentions driving behaviours can be interpreted in different ways.

This is never more true than in the workplace.

When a staff member offers to help a manager by taking on extra duties, what do other staff believe is the real driving force behind that offer?

When a boss asks for volunteers to join a new working committee, what do staff believe is the manager's real agenda?

When a middle manager suggests that a staff member ought to attend an industry training session, what does that staff member believe is driving this?

In each of these scenarios, both a positive and negative spin can be put on these actions. Is the staff member offering to take on extra duties trying to ‘win-over' a boss, or are they simply sensitive to the workload of others? Is a boss who asks for volunteers for a committee playing a game to see who is prepared to roll their sleeves up, or are they genuinely trying to delegate?

What people perceive as the real intentions driving the behaviours of another person in turn impacts heavily on their own behaviours. For example, if I believe a boss is being friendly to me simply because he wants me to take on extra duties, then it is less likely I will respond positively.

Similarly, if I work with a person struggling to cope - and I believe that person is genuine and is constantly there to support others, then it is highly likely I will offer to help them.

The UGRs (unwritten ground rules) in a team help people to interpret intentions that drive behaviours. These can help in both positive and negative ways.

If there is a UGR in a team that says ‘Around here, bosses don't care about staff', then friendly overtures by leaders will be interpreted as having ulterior motives. People are likely to be highly suspicious of the real intentions of those managers.

If there is a UGR in a team that says ‘Around here, initiative is valued, irrespective of the source', then a person taking a calculated risk is not going to be seen in a negative light.

UGRs are deduced by people looking at the alignment between what people say and what they do. If there is a lack of alignment, then negative UGRs will be created. Perhaps negative interpretations can be minimised by being more open about the real intentions driving behaviours - and by being brutally honest about these.

Why we are always right...

Imagine this scenario --a man is driving his car and with no indication, a car enters the road in front of him forcing him to brake heavily.  As the man fights to suppress his annoyance, and without being able to see the other driver, he says to himself “how useless is this driver -- guaranteed it’s a guy”.

As the traffic clears, the aggrieved driver draws parallel with the offending driver, and he sees that the guilty party is a female.  The aggrieved driver says to himself “Wow -- that’s unusual, it’s a woman”.

The above scenario is a classic example of how our generalisations about human behaviour do two things:

• They lead us to make conclusions about events that we experience

• They become self-fulfilling

It is with regard to the latter point above that I would like to explore a little further.  My point is that generalisations become self fulfilling.

In the driver scenario above, the generalisation held by the aggrieved driver is that “male drivers are careless drivers”.  When he experiences something that challenges this generalisation, his rationalisation process is “this is an unusual event”.  Thus, this man’s generalisation remains intact -- because the event he has just experienced is simply an anomaly.

The process of self fulfilling generalisations also applies to UGRs® (Unwritten Ground Rules).  I’ve been in organisations where a UGR is “around here, the bosses couldn’t care less about what we think”.  So when a leader in this context genuinely asks for staff feedback, the response has been to rationalise this by thinking “this is a one-off anomaly -- they are not really serious about this”.

I am not proposing here that all leaders are well intended in all circumstances.  What I am saying however, is that often our unconscious UGRs cause us to have lenses through which we interpret events as they unfold.  So if our interpretation of events is often negative, perhaps -- just perhaps, it might be worthwhile to consider removing the lenses and taking things on face value.  Let me close by sharing a thought which, if you think about it, is circular and non-sensical.  Hopefully, you will remind yourself of this from time to time.... 

All generalisations are wrong.