Education 2.0 & 3.0

Here’s the dilemma: In a competitive, complex, and volatile business environment, companies need more from their employees than ever. But the same forces rocking businesses are also overwhelming employees, driving up their fear, and compromising their capacity.

 

It’s no wonder that so many C-Suite leaders are focused on how to build higher performance cultures.  The irony, we’ve found, is that building a culture focused on performance may not be the best, healthiest, or most sustainable way to fuel results. Instead, it may be more effective to focus on creating a culture of growth.

 

A culture is simply the collection of beliefs on which people build their behavior. Learning organizations – Peter Senge’s term — classically focus on intellectually oriented issues such as knowledge and expertise.  That’s plainly critical, but a true growth culture also focuses on deeper issues connected to how people feel, and how they behave as a result. In a growth culture, people build their capacity to see through blind spots; acknowledge insecurities and shortcomings rather than unconsciously acting them out; and spend less energy defending their personal value so they have more energy available to create external value. How people feel – and make other people feel — becomes as important as how much they know.

 

Building a growth culture, we’ve found, requires a blend of individual and organizational components:

 

An environment that feels safe, fueled first by top by leaders willing to role model vulnerability and take personal responsibility for their shortcomings and missteps.A focus on continuous learning through inquiry, curiosity and transparency, in place of judgment, certainty and self-protection.Time-limited, manageable experiments with new behaviors in order to test our unconscious assumption that changing the status quo is dangerous and likely to have negative consequences.Continuous feedback – up, down and across the organization – grounded in a shared commitment to helping each other grow and get better.
Via The Learning Factor

Via The Learning Factor

Advice on how to improve one’s self is everywhere.  It accounts for about 2.5% of all book sales in the United States. Add in speeches, training programs, TV programs, online-products, coaches, yoga, and the like, self-help is a $10 billion industry per year, and that’s just in the U.S.

 

However, research shows that much of the advice extolled may be misleading or even wrong. Several myths about performance persist, despite research and practices that show they are half-truths at best. That might explain why the most likely purchasers of self-improvement books have bought another within the previous 18 months.  The first myth-riddled book didn’t work, so they bought another, and maybe another soon after.

 

A recent report in the Journal of Management noted that of nearly 25,000 academic articles on performance, only a fraction include what psychologists call within person variance, which describes ranges, such as that between individuals’ top, average and worst performances. Advice too often mistakenly assumes performance can be compared across people, using the same gauge. That’s absurd.

 

Our observation of hundreds of performance seekers largely confirms the report and has led to delineating a series of myths that hold people back when trying to improve. These assertions are based on a diverse set of fields, including psychology, sports, arts, and leadership. We hope that by dispelling these myths, explaining the reality and offering some sound advice instead, we can help move people toward more effective personal development.

Via The Learning Factor

Via The Learning Factor

We all want to learn and grow. Improving our skills and being exposed to new ideas not only makes us better at our jobs but makes us happier and more engaged at work. But with a full-time job, it can be tough to find the time and resources to dedicate to personal development. Some people, like me, are lucky to work for companies that encourage and even fund classes, sabbaticals, or fellowships. But if you work for a company that doesn’t have an official policy, how can you make the case to your manager (and the necessary higher ups) to support you?'

 

Identify how you want to learn and grow. If you don’t yet have a clear picture of what you want to develop, spend time honing in on exactly what you need. Do you want to build your emotional intelligence skills to be a more attuned business leader? Are you interested in going on a yoga or meditation retreat? Set aside a specific period of time, such as one evening or even a week, to explore ideas and research what appeals to you. Write down what you want to learn and how you would grow from the experience you’ve identified. Research shows that the physical act of writing has a neurological effect on the brain which tells the cerebral cortex to “wake up and pay attention.” Writing stimulates a bunch of cells in the brain called the Reticular Activating System that plays a key role in being more conscious and alert. The more you can write down, the more aware and real your ideas become. 

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Ask the members of any team if they want to institute better processes, and be prepared for them to roll their eyes. “‘Better processes’ means ‘more bureaucracy,’” someone will mutter. But ask that same team how much they enjoy doing projects the hard way — duplicating efforts, scrambling to meet deadlines when someone drops the ball, or bearing the brunt of customer fury — and you can expect the floodgates to open.

 

Why do people love to hate “process” but rail against disorganization? It is because most people associate processes with checklists, forms, and rules — the overseer breathing down their necks. Not surprisingly, leaders wanting to foster innovation and creativity are reluctant to institute such rigid controls and procedures.

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You had a great idea for a product. Your prototype got great reviews from focus groups or even from a crowdfunding campaign. Now you’re planning for mass production, ready to launch your own website, prepping for massive online sales, and practicing poses in the mirror for your picture on the cover of Forbes. Whoa! 

 

Having something to sell is the easy part. Getting it into the hands of consumers is sometimes the more complicated step. E-sales may make marketing easy, but that can be deceptive. Ben Wong is the Head of Startup Launchpad at Global Sources. He helps startups understand the distribution channels they need to leverage, and the different challenges they need to address to get their products into the hands of paying consumers in an offline setting. Global Sources runs the largest electronics sourcing trade show in the world.  This October, more than 63,000 distributors and retailers from around the globe will wander the aisles at the Asia-World Expo in Hong Kong, stopping — or not — at 6,000 manufacturers’ booths. Among those will be about 300 booths where ambitious, hopeful, sometimes naïve, startup companies will beam with pride, burst with anticipation, and sweat with anxiety as they demonstrate their products and hope for a chance to launch a product, start a business, and scale to meet demand.

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Gray skies, chilly temperatures, failed New Year's resolutions: these unfortunate afflictions can all contribute to winter blues. Feeling down? Your team might be, too. But employee happiness and engagement are key to work productivity and success.

 

Research shows happiness at work makes people 12 percent more productive. And in one Gallup study, highly engaged teams outperformed poorly engaged teams by 22 percent in profitability.

 

As a leader, that means fighting winter gloom should be a priority.

While larger companies may have the resources for structured employee development programs or more lucrative perks, smaller companies must take a different approach. Here are six low-cost tactics you can implement today to boost motivation and provide a positive work environment in which team members thrive:

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Have you ever had a conversation and said something that you immediately regret?

It's happened to the best of us at one point or another, but that's not usually the norm for intelligent people who carefully select their words before saying them out loud.

Unfortunately, since there are so many of us who are inept in this area, I've put together 12 words and phrases that intelligent people would never say to someone else so that you can strengthen your communication skills both in and out of the office.

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You're pouring all your energy into a goal expecting an outcome worthy of the effort you're putting in. Yet, months have come and gone and you're not where you want to be.

Maybe your business isn't growing as much as you anticipated. Maybe your weight isn't sliding off as easy as you expected. Your level of motivation is like a boxer who's on the ropes and is close to being TKO'ed.

It's in these very moments where it's tempting to wave the white flag, especially with self-doubt and negative chatter whispering in your ear. You'll have moments where your hard work seems to be for nothing. Results seem like a distant fantasy.

But, this is part of the journey of growing as an individual.

It's during these times when your perspective is of the utmost importance. Here are five effective ways to stay motivated about your goals, even when you feel like giving up.

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Are you one of the never satisfied strivers?

 

The type of person who, despite having some obvious successes in life--a solid career, a modicum of financial security, the respect of your peers--just never feels like you've quite made it?

 

Are you always a little worried you could be accomplishing more?

 

If so, you probably feel kind of crummy sometimes compared to your more easily contented competitors, but according to new research out of Stanford, all your ambition has a serious upside (hat tip to Science of Us for the pointer).

Perpetually feeling like you're a bit unsuccessful, it turns out, is a pretty good sign you're going to go on to achieve even greater things.

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Yesterday I walked into my home office and examined the space from a fresh perspective. It hasn't had a facelift in about ten years and I've hardly noticed its dingy appearance. Don't get me wrong, I love my office but it's simply out of date and no longer reflects my personality. It's time for a change.

 

Approaching the challenge like any diligent, problem-solving coach, I did my research. What does science say about an office space that boosts energy, creativity, and productivity, all while projecting a safe, calm feeling for clients? Yes, it's possible, and you can do it all on your own. Here's what I've learned.

1. Use color, but not just any color.

Color psychology studies (and there are many) reveal changes in the body and brain when people view certain colors. These changes influence productivity, creativity, health, stress levels, focus, communication, and emotions. That's some powerful influence!

 

Color psychologist Angela Wright explains the phenomenon this way: "Color travels to us on wavelengths of photons from the sun. Those are converted into electrical impulses that pass to the part of the brain known as the hypothalamus, which governs our endocrine system and hormones, and much of our activity."

 

First decide what's most important about how color affects you, your employees, and your visitors. In an interview with Chris Bailey, Wright offered this simple breakdown of the effects of color on the mind: "The four psychological primaries are: red, blue, yellow, and green. And they affect the body (red), the mind (blue), the emotions, the ego, and self-confidence (yellow), and the essential balance between the mind, the body, and the emotions (green)." But it's not that simple. Bailey nicely breaks down the process of choosing just the right color in this article.

Via The Learning Factor

Via The Learning Factor

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What are the defining attributes of great leaders? That's the age-old question thought leaders and scholars galore have been attempting to answer in mountains of books and literature. 

 

While great leadership, to an extent, can be personal and subjective to the follower, there are universal principles you can't argue with (but you can try). Speaking of those thought leaders and scholars, here are six traits that keep surfacing over and over again in the leadership literature and best-sellers.

1. They challenge their own assumptions.

Great leaders may be smart and know a lot, but they are humble enough to recognize there are smarter people in the room that they can learn from. They don't restrict themselves from opinions and input outside of their own. They surround themselves with diverse perspectives to help them answer questions like, "How do I know my decision is the right one?" or "Is there a better course of action here?"

Via The Learning Factor

Via The Learning Factor

No commute. No drive-by meetings. No dress code. Remote working can seem like a dream — until personal obligations get in the way. These distractions are easy to ignore in an office, but at home it can be difficult to draw the line between personal and professional time.

 

Consider when you’re working on a project and get a call from a friend. You know you need to finish your work, but you feel rude for not talking when you technically could. Or think about when you’re planning your daily to-do list, but also need to decide when you’ll squeeze in your personal commitments. Taking the time to put a few loads of laundry in the washer midday can seem like a quick task — until you find yourself making up that work time late at night. In the end, it’s never entirely clear when you’re really “on” or “off.”

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Defined hierarchy. Commanding leadership. These corporate ligaments secure firms in the face of threats and unify them against competition. Few beliefs are more widely held in business.

 

The intuition, though, is wrong. “When you look at real organizations, having a clear hierarchy within your firm actually makes people turn on each other when they face an outside threat,” says Lindred Greer, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Effective teamwork against threats requires not hierarchy, but egalitarianism; not centralized power, but a culture in which all voices count.

 

Along with Lisanne van Bunderen of the University of Amsterdam and Daan Van Knippenberg of Drexel University, the research team teased out this finding through two complementary studies. In the first study, an experiment, teams of three students developed and pitched a consultancy project to a prospective client. Some of these teams were non-hierarchical, while members of other teams arbitrarily received titles: senior consultant, consultant, junior consultant. Likewise, some teams faced no rivals, while others were told they were competing with a rival firm for clients. The researchers found that the subset of hierarchical teams facing competition with rival firms struggled with infighting while the egalitarian teams cooperated on their work.

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Flexible jobs, or jobs that can be done remotely, are very common today. A recent Gallup survey found that 43% of American employees spend at least some time working remotely.

 

The nearly half of jobs that can be done remote is no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention, as technology has paved the way for workers to unplug or become location independent. It’s the same reason why millennials are keen to become digital nomads and travel while they work.

 

Employers benefit by having remote employees because their productivity spikes without distractions provided by an office environment. Further, a FlexJobs report found that 82% of millennials said they are more loyal to their employer if they have flexible work options.

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Raise your hand--who likes to discipline an employee? I hear crickets chirping in the background. Yet discipline is a cornerstone of highly productive companies. Without it, employee performance is at risk.

 

But don't see it as a negative. If conducted with a constructive, future focus, it provides consistency, guidance, and valuable feedback both to and from the problem employee.

 

The best managers employ a face-to-face discussion to deal with low performers, and employees with attitude problems in general. This conversation is best handled on the manager's end when they're well prepared and have a game plan. Here's how they do it:

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New ideas, whether it's a way to improve upon a process or something that completely goes against the grain, are what keep the business engine going. Some lead to big breakthroughs while others fall dead in the sand. But every idea, good or bad, has one common link: It required buy-in by someone other than the originator.

The history of great ideas is littered with the remains of potentially great innovations, notions and plans that never saw the light of day simply because the pitch failed to ignite a fire or set a series of actions into play. Anyone who's experienced the frustration of others just "not getting it!" knows how critical team buy-in is for the success of an idea.

The next time you bring a novel idea to your company's table, consider adopting a few of these strategies for selling it through.

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A few weeks ago I was sitting at a restaurant watching waiters step around some food that was spilled on the floor. This went on for almost 10 minutes before the restaurant manager came out with a mop and bucket to clean up the spill. I am fairly certain that cleaning the floors is not part of the restaurant manager’s job description.

 

The incident reminded me of how much I loved having dinner with my family when we had teenagers. As soon as they would finish their meals, they would excuse themselves and exit quickly from the dining room only to hear their mother say, “Pick up your dishes!”

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Startups are a learning curve. Team dynamics and communication practices change with growth because they have to. But during this growth, sometimes things change without you realizing it and you feel like a bird who smashed into a clear window.

 

Recently, we ran right into one of those windows and it hurt! Usually, it’s just a miscommunication but feather still get ruffled and the air has to be cleared. But in the moment you hit that window, it’s easy to get swept away by the initial emotion.

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