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Reframing “Working and Playing Well With Others”

August 24, 2008 By Leave a Comment

I found zenhabits.net when I was googling (never thought I’d use that as a gerundive , or is it gerund, Chris?) to find websites that address minimalism. I also came across a couple of sites by a couple of minimalist twenty-somethings (http://www.lucasallmon.com and http://www.betterthanyourboyfriend.com.) A guy named Tynan authors the latter blog. His bio reads as follows: Hi! My Name is Tynan… I’m an egomaniac vegan pickup artist who sold everything and is traveling around the world. I generally do whatever I want whenever I want, even when I’m pretty sure it’s a bad idea. I like singing gangsta rap, writing, working out, working on my business, traveling, and finding adventure. I always wear a sequinned hat with stars on¦ OK, so maybe Tynan is a little non-mainstream kind of dude. However, I’m picking up that there is a trend emerging around earning a living , or at least making money to support oneself , in an unconventional manner that does not link one to a specific place. There are others who have decided to “sell everything, travel around and support themselves on the road and they are able to do it-or so they claim.

When more and more people opt for flexibility in work, which could be as simple as, working at home, I wonder what “working and playing well with others will look like in the future. In the good old days when everyone worked in the same location , or at least a finite number of multiple locations , you could actually see if people were, in fact, working (and playing well) with others. With situations like Lucas Allmon where he may never even meet a client face-to ,face, the only thing anyone will see are the results , not how they are produced. And that scenario may drive the control freaks of the world off the proverbial bridge. About a year ago, I wrote a blog about my first job. I had a boss who believed that if you are not sitting at your desk with your pencil poised, you were not working. That was a long time ago and that is a good thing because this example of control freak behavior would not work today.

I’m sure no one would be surprised that the management cognoscenti have coined a term for people who work together in multiple locations and who may never see each other but are accountable for a collaborative work product , that term is a “virtual team. Here’s the deal. A virtual team is no different than a traditional team. Apart from the fact that members of a virtual team may never meet face to face (they could teleconference or use SKYPE), they still need clear goals and expected results, defined roles and responsibilities, established systems and procedures (like how they will communicate and make decisions) and clear definition of the kind of relationship the team will have in working together , that is, its sense of community. As I think about it, the longing that some have for a different kind of relationship is not only possible, but there are a number of great practices for building effective and satisfying relationships that still apply. If only some managers could get over the control thing¦

Filed Under: Generational Issues at Work, Observations, Team Development, Work place issues

Collaborate and Improvise!

August 21, 2008 By Leave a Comment

“In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed. – Charles Darwin

I came across this quote in a blog on zenhabits.net titled “12 New Rules of Working That You Should Embrace Today. Aside from the fact that article is a little judgmental and reductionist (why not 14 rules or even 20?), I think the themes of collaboration and improvisation are noteworthy , and are valued especially by the twenty-somethings of the millennial generation about whom I have commented in prior blogs.

First, let’s talk about collaboration. One of the characteristics of the baby boomer generation is its competitiveness. As my colleague on generational issues Wendy Shannon points out, boomers are competitive because there are so damn many of them! I had to try out for the baseball team, the orchestra, the play, and compete for a place in my entering class in college when there were way more applicants than spaces. And when I was in graduate school in the early ˜70′s the reality was that there were way more Ph.D.’s than open positions. My friend Tom Brady, who was a philosophy graduate student at the University of New Mexico at the time, told me that UNM had an opening for an assistant professor in philosophy and that there were over 500 applicants! So the boomers learned how to compete.

In organizations today, boomers hold the majority of leadership positions and therefore set the direction and policy for those organizations. Hence, most organizations are more competitive than they are collaborative. It is one thing to compete externally in the marketplace for customers and talented employees. However, competitiveness often gets out of control internally when employees on the same project or department are competing to get ahead in their careers because of the policy of “up or out that seems to dominate most organizations. Peter Senge in “The Fifth Discipline talked about how mental models or assumptions that people hold can shape the way people think and act. He emphasizes the importance of questioning assumptions to see if they have become outdated. I think the assumption that internal competition is a good thing for an organization needs such questioning. The idea that collaboration is the new productivity tool is worth examining. The twenty-somethings understand the value of collaboration. Maybe the Boomers can learn something from them – instead of seeing them as so different.

Second, let’s address improvising. In the context of the blog, improvising means adapting, changing ways of working, and utilizing technology most effectively. I know a lot of boomer leaders in organizations who find trying new methods, new ways of thinking, and new technology too scary and so they resist change. As a result, I think there is a possibility that large corporations may become casualties because of their failure to adapt. Rapid changes in markets and resource availability , especially non-renewable fuels- will force improvisation. And I see examples of corporations resisting change frequently. Here is a simple – almost trivial example. There is a readily available piece of software called Skype. It’s free and with a camera and microphone attached to your laptop , which is usually built in in newer machines, you can talk with and see people anywhere in the world there is Internet access. And yet, the norm is to hop on a plane, travel across country or continent in order to meet face to face. Just think how adapting new technology can aid collaboration.

The author of “12 New Rules of Working That You Should Embrace Today, Leo Babauta, ends by stating that the ideas he put forward in this article do not have main stream acceptance. So as I reflect on the quote that sparked this blog, I wonder how many corporations will prevail?

Filed Under: Generational Issues at Work, Leadership, Observations, Work place issues

Funsultants Need to Go Away!

August 17, 2008 By Leave a Comment

One of my realities, as a constant traveler is that it is sometimes difficult to get everything done when I want to. So things pile up , like things I want to read. This past weekend I took some time to catch up on the March-April 2008 issue of Utne Reader. I found an article by Matt Labash reprinted from the Weekly Standard titled, “Are We Having Fun Yet , The infantilization of corporate America. The gist of the article is that there is a new cadre of “consultants called “fun consultants or funsultants or funcilitators who have convinced corporations that the road to success is not about “industriousness, talent, and know-how¦[but] fun. Apparently, there is a body of literature that says that employee retention hinges on creating a fun workplace. Of course, Labash says that the word “literature is used loosely here to “mean a series of often ungrammatical double-spaced sentences put on paper, slapped between festively colored covers, and sold to mouth readers with too much discretionary income. (What a great turn of a phrase.) I would add that this “literature is not research-based, but instead is a case of “if enough people say something is true, then that makes it true, and we (the gullible) are certainly not going to question that.

As most of you know, since 1991, I have been an independent consultant who helps managers and teams get work done through and with others in a way that is both satisfying and effective. I advocate that a sense of humor in the workplace is a healthy thing and that at the end of day performance (that is, the result that we get) matters. I have found that what contributes to employee retention is when employees at any level know what is expected of them, how they are doing, how the boss will consistently relate to them, and what chance they will have for development.

When I have been in organizations (or conferences) where these funsultants put participants through bizarre activities that even the most sympathetic would be hard pressed to see as relevant to the business, I have a number of thoughts:

First, I am usually annoyed. Not everyone has the same idea of fun. The activities these funcilitators introduce are usually embarrassing to many and I do not think public humiliation is a good thing in any context.

Second, rarely if ever does the funsultant or the organization explain “why we are doing these humiliating activities. In other words, like the ropes courses of the 90′s they have no business relevance.

Third, I wonder what in the world the leadership of the organization is thinking. Are they covering something up?

Finally, part of the emphasis on fun is the fear that a lot of organizations have that they will not be a hip place for the twenty-somethings to work. The youngest generation tends to claim that school, work, and anything for that matter needs to be fun. In the last MBA class that I taught, the class ranged in age from 23 to 58. When we talked about expectations on day one, the four twenty somethings (out of a class of 15) told me that the class needed to be fun. When I asked what “fun would look like, they uniformly said no lectures, just games! Because of the well-documented talent shortage many , not all – corporations lack the guts to have the “here’s the deal talk with this youngest generation and explain work expectations. Instead, they opt for the “fun is good approach.

Now lest you think that I am a curmudgeon, I’ll end with a quote from the Southwest Airlines web site:

“More than 37 years ago, Rollin King and Herb Kelleher got together and decided to start a different kind of airline. They began with one simple notion: If you get your passengers to their destinations when they want to get there, on time, at the lowest possible fares, and make darn sure they have a good time doing it, people will fly your airline. And you know what? They were right.

Ah, what a refreshing idea, deliver results AND have fun!

Filed Under: Generational Issues at Work, Observations, Work place issues