Are you solving problems or co-creating flow?

The 'Problem'



Recently, I was working with a client, when they admitted to having a dispute with another colleague over a number of work related issues. This person, lets call them Manager A was really struggling to see eye to eye with Manager B, who worked in the same department. The matters were of real importance to the organisation and they had attempted several times to discuss and resolve them. The boss had noticed the relationship differences and wasnt sure how to resolve this either.


I wondered if part of the 'problem' was the level of trust between the 2 Managers and if, as a result of this, the level of flow being created by each of them for the other one was not being maximised. Both were attempting to get an outcome that worked for them and hadn't thought of the 'problem' as an opportunity to actually create flow for one another in a really effective way that would benefit the team and the Organisation at a much higher level.



Measuring Trust and Flow



Having both already completed their Talent Dynamics Profile tests (and being almost opposites on the profile square) I now asked Manager A to complete the diagnostic tool I use to measure PSR: Personal Social Responsibility and asked Manager B to do the same. Once they had both completed their assessment, I asked them to share their responses with one another.


The PSR scores show individuals very clearly where they create the highest amount of Trust and Flow and both were quite suprised at the low scores they recieved from the other Manager!


Where an individual is not seen to be adding value or helping the team to leverage in an effective way, they will soon be rejected by the other team members and indeed ultimately by the organisation. Manager A and B recognised that this was happening to them, in the way they viewed each other and possibly the way other team mates viewed them also.

This created an open discussion on what could be done to increase both the Trust and Flow scores for one another. Both Managers realised the way that they could most successfully co-create flow was by taking specific actions that would enable the other person to increase the scores they had given them. To do that, the Managers created a plan both individually and together that they could implement.


Just last week I had a call from Manager A, to tell me that since they had this new level of understanding about how they can add most value to one another, their working relationship has improved dramatically. They actually now really appreciate the differences in one another and they value one anothers strengths and utilise them in a way that is much more effective for the Organisation. The boss has noticed the difference and commented on the improved outcomes that they are now creating together too!


Manager A said to me... 'I wish we'd known about this months ago!'

What is Talent Dynamics and what does it do?

Wow, so much has happened in the short space of 2 weeks, since Jan and I ran the first Talent Dynamics Pilot Workshop!! So many people have been asking me for more information, so over the next few days I will be sharing my experience of the past few weeks and answering some of those questions...

The main questions Im being asked are: What is Talent Dynamics and What are the Pilot Particpants saying about it?

What is Talent Dynamics?

Click here to see video on Talent Dynamics http://tinyurl.com/yz7gn2f

Talent Dynamics is the first ever integrated training system that actually links Team Performance to Company Profitability, Sustainability and also Corporate Social Responsibility. It actually has strategies to implement at an individual, team and at an organisational level to achieve those outcomes.

Talent Dymamics was created by Roger James Hamilton as an extension of his World Leading Wealth Dynamics System for Entrepreneurs. If you have utilised and leveraged Wealth Dynamics, you may be able to have a guess at what Talent Dynamics is and does. Otherwise, let me explain.

Through the Talent Dynamics system, Organisations can actually measure and track their current level of trust and flow. They are then given clear strategies and tools that empower individuals at every level of the organisation to increase their level of personal effectiveness, increasing results directly.

There are a number of steps that an Organisation can choose to go through with Talent Dynamics depending on what they are looking to achieve themselves.

1. Understanding Primary Purpose


2. Measuring and Building Flow in the Organisation


3. Meaningful, Measurable, Profitable Change

What are the Pilot Participants saying it did for them?

We ran the first Pilot with The Halthean Corporation - A team of extremely specialist Brand Consultants who work with some of the largest international Brands around. The second Pilot last week was with Cumbria University's Facilities Management Leadership Team. A team of 12 who line manage over 300 staff over multi site operations in the North.

When we go back in 3 and 6 months time and see what both organisations say they have achieved, I will let you know. For now, the immediate feedback was fantastic:

• 95% of the participants said they had learnt something completely new that had great applicability in their current role.


• 90% said they now had a clear understanding of the value as an individual they bring to the organisation that they didnt see before


• 90% can see clearly the value in their team members they didnt see before


• 90% can also now see how they can effectively leverage that value for business results in a way they didnt see before.

Some of the anecdotal feedback we recieved was

"I feel totally empowered to be me and that actually, by being me, I bring tremendous value to the team"

"I cant believe we have achieved all of this in just 2 days!"

"Being part of this programme has opened me up to infinite possibilities in my organisation"

"We have a whole new strategy for 2010, one that we wouldnt have even known was possible if we hadnt done this process, one that we all feel inspired by"

"I had a negative and sceptical view at the start of this programme, I thought it would be a waste of 2 days. Its actually been brilliant"

"Its totally explained why I didnt get on with 'Y' and now we have a language we can use to work together so much more effectively and deliver much better results"

If you have some specific questions on Talent Dynamics you would like me to answer, please post them here and I will get to them over the next few days.

We are working with Workshop Productions who are producing a short video from the second pilot and that will be ready by the end of next week to view and share, so you can see us in action and hear the testimonials direct!!

Dont ask me how to inspire your team... Ask them!

I was asked recently by the leader of a recruitment sales team 'how do I motivate and inspire my sales team when the next sale is really challenging and clients say no, more often?' My answer was very simple, if a little short... 'you dont ask me, you ask your team...'


Seriously Demotivated individuals

It reminded me of when I was leading a team back in my corporate days. I had been placed as a project leader of a team of 6 HR Professionals. All of them had been either Senior HR Managers/Recruitment/Training Managers and they were all based in different parts of the country. None of them had 'elected' to be part of this project group and to make matters even harder, they had all been given redundancy notice but had been told they had to complete this project first. To say they were not motivated was the century's understatement. The company they were working for had just told them they were surplus to requirements, yet they had a really important project to complete first. To make matters much worse, I was the only member of the team that hadnt been served notice, in fact I had recieved a promotion. That didnt make me a popular line manager immediately either!

The first meeting we had was one that made me want to go home and hide!... The team spent 4 hours giving me first hand the brunt of their raw emotion and made it very clear that they did not choose to be in this position and did not see why they should do it.

I on the other hand had been given some particularly challenging goals to achieve in the 6 months by the HR Director. I knew I couldnt do it all myself especially as the most important and technical aspect of this project was one of my greatest weaknesses!

Where to begin?

So how was I ever going to motivate a team that had been told they were not viewed as employees the company wanted to keep...?

Well... Thats exactly what I asked each of them. I met up with each of them individually and asked them, what if anything could possible motivate them to complete this project and to complete it with pride and satisfaction.

One Manager said 'I would like that the company changes its mind about making me redundant and wants me back again'

Another said 'I want you to assist me to get a fantastic job for myself out of this role, with a great reference'

Another said 'I want to feel like part of a really high performing team and I'd like to learn some new skills as im considering setting up my own business'

Each of them had a very different reason for wanting to even contemplate completing the project well and a very different way they wanted to be motivated. Having the one to ones was extremely insightful, it allowed me to see what made each member of the team tick and what turned them right off!

Structuring the Team to play to strengths and preferences

I set up a team day and we all completed a psychometric to allow individuals to learn more about themselves, how they naturally perform best and about each other. Traditionally, in that company, individuals would have had set job profiles but knowing now what I knew about how to get each person into flow, I got them to structure their own accountabilities, choosing what they wanted to work on, either because it was a natural strength or because it was an opportunity to learn a new skill.

All of the project tasks were taken by someone in the team on the day as if by magic. In fact, some members of the team were starting to get quite exited about their projects.

Line Manage me the way I like it best...

Each member of the team as well as picking projects had told me how they liked to be line managed. One manager said 'just leave me to it, tell me what you need and ill get it to you but dont be in my face all day' another said, 'please call me every day in the morning and we can discuss my priorities, this builds my confidence'

Each day as I was line managing I had in my mind the ultimate goal of the individual and we would discuss their progress not just operationally but personally so they knew that their personal success was as important to me as the professional ones.

The result?

I couldnt have dreamt it. We smashed all the goals and well within the time and under budget! My review said that all the goals I had been set were far exceeded... This was totally down to the team being inspired to achieve. Without them, I would have got nowhere...

and by the way, the Manager that wanted to be offered a job back - was offered a promotion instead of the redundancy at the end of the 6 months - however, turned it down as the time had given them chance to assess what they really wanted out of life! Each Manager got exaclty what they had desired for themselves out of this 6 months and some of them confided to me it was the best experience they had to date in their careers...

So if you want to know how to inspire your team, here are my top 5 tips!

1. Find out what motivates them to achieve in the first place - what do they want out of this experience ultimately and how can you help them?
2. Complete some kind of psychometric tool, like the Talent Dynamics Profile test to create more awareness of strengths and preferences in teams
3. Allow the team members to divide up the accountabilities with you so they pick the projects they love doing and the ones they can do well
4. Keep track of both professional and personal goals.
5. Line Manage your team in the way they enjoy being line managed. You dont have to treat everyone the same you do however need to be fair. Everyone wants to be managed differently.

Must I do it all myself?

I've noticed an increase in the number of Leaders i've been talking with recently, who have been feeling overwhelmed by a sense of responsibility and taking themselves amost to burnout, some of them resigning altogether from their leadership positions as they feel they are the only ones feeling passionate about the results.

One lady who I have been coaching shared with me just the other day, about the fact that her team members are not pulling their weight in her eyes, not helping to make decisions and not getting involved generally in operations in a way that they should be. So being a very conscientious individual she has been making up for the lack of weight pulling by pulling more weight herself... Basically doing their jobs and making their decisions, in a bid to speed things up and get the work done.

I asked her to think back to when this happened first and how she handled it. She was very quickly able to get back to her first recollection and her immediate reaction, when initially, she felt let down or disappointed secretly and then she began taking on the task, having more work to do, until the team were not only allowing her to pull more weight, they were now critisising her when stuff didnt get done! Weird role reversal...

During the conversation she realised she had created this situation for herself. By being the one who continued to show up and take responsibility, she was not only taking on more responsibility for herself, she was taking it away from the team.

They were in turn feeling quite disempowered and also were low on morale as they were unable to be creative in the way they wanted to be in their roles. The next week she got the team together and they discussed this responsibility theme and each member felt strongly about it. They had witnessed the leader taking on more and more and assumed thats what she wanted or that she didnt think they were capable, so they let her take more and more on and felt more and more removed themselves!

An honest and open conversation ensued with the Leader allowing the responsibility to be shared back out amongst the team, as a result new ideas and new initiatives were discussed.

Of course, as leader you take overall accountability for the success/achievement of the project, thats why you are in a position of leadership but you have a team to help you deliver the goals and they are as keen for it to succeed as you are. Do remember to allow them to join in and to take responsibility for their own part in the goal...

In my 'spare' time as a Project Leader, I give my time and support to XL Nation, a not for profit organisation, which is the Global Nation for World Wide Wealth.



I have posted my blog here about the convention and XL Nation projects. www.xlnation.posterous.com

Read more about XL Nation here. www.xlnation.org

Increasing productivity following a restructure

During the current economic climate, with sales becoming harder to stabilise and costs becoming more challenging, companies are being forced to restructure and to slim down their salary bills. Individuals who are lucky enough to remain in the organisation are given more responsibility and accountability, to take on the demands of the colleagues roles they are replacing. There is then an expectation of an increase in the individuals productivity levels, to compensate for the reduction in the staffing quota.

Sometimes, following these restructures, organisations re allocate roles and responsibilities, fairly and taking into account workload's, which, whilst on the surface may appear to be the best strategy, in practice, can often result in member's of your team taking on areas that they are unfamiliar with, perhaps don't enjoy so much, or dont have a natural talent in achieving results with. When people are asked to do tasks which they dont naturally have a talent for, they often find it harder to get the result and can also, in extreme cirumstances suffer from work related stress, which occurs when an individual is out of flow.


Of course, company restrutures are neccessary, so when planning for one with your team, here are a few things for you to consider, which will allow individuals to continue in their natural flow and to maintain a high level of productivity, immediately following the restructure.

1. Get to really know the natural talents of the individuals in your team and do your best to ensure you not only select the best people to stay in the company but you also select the best people for the job's that you are now structuring. Ask them which aspects of their job they enjoy the most and why. Find out what makes them tick and motivates them. Everyone is motivated in a different way, so dont be tempted to treat everyone as you would wish to be treated, instead find out how they would wish to be treated.
   
2. Allocate the additional tasks according to an individuals 'natural talents'. Avoid giving your energetic, extroverted sales person, who is great with people and networking, additional spreadsheets to analyse or complete in the back of office, instead focus them on specific sales routes or targetted customer accounts where they can drive more sales with bigger accounts. Think about giving more operational, task focused activities to the person who really enjoys 'completing a list' and is able to juggle many operational activities at a time with great detail. Try not to give them the job of creating the new strategy or new sales plan, which takes them away from the detail and requires them to think in big picture thoughts, which is in complete contrast to their natural way of working and the way they often enjoy working the most.


3. When selecting the individuals to stay in the team Consider the balance of natural talents that you want in your team to ensure that all the tasks get effectively completed and on time. If you have a team that is very creative, bright, enthusiastic and full of fantastic ideas, you may find you are lacking in a grounded energy to actually bring the ideas to fruition. Balance here is key.

Following these 3 basic guidelines when restructuring will enable your 'new' team to hit the ground running and for productivity to not just get back to normal but to increase as well.