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How to Be a Creative Problem Solver - Wall Street Journal (blog)

How to Be a Creative Problem Solver - Wall Street Journal (blog) | Performance Intervention | Scoop.it
Wall Street Journal (blog) How to Be a Creative Problem Solver Wall Street Journal (blog) Gontin says that the ability solve problems creatively and collaboratively is a key skill for mid-level managers seeking to move up to the next level within...
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Crisis Management Experts Slam NRA, Wayne LaPierre Conference as Worst ... - TheWrap

Crisis Management Experts Slam NRA, Wayne LaPierre Conference as Worst ... - TheWrap | Performance Intervention | Scoop.it
NPRCrisis Management Experts Slam NRA, Wayne LaPierre Conference as Worst ...
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6 Customer Service Suggestions For Handling A Crisis

6 Customer Service Suggestions For Handling A Crisis | Performance Intervention | Scoop.it
Unfortunately, so many of us, both personally and from a small business perspective, don’t plan for a crisis.
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‘If It Ain’t Broke Don’t Fix It’: EU Adds Its Voice To The Chorus Opposing More Internet Regulation Ahead Of Key ITU Dubai Meeting | TechCrunch

‘If It Ain’t Broke Don’t Fix It’: EU Adds Its Voice To The Chorus Opposing More Internet Regulation Ahead Of Key ITU Dubai Meeting | TechCrunch | Performance Intervention | Scoop.it

The European Union today became the latest official body to back an open Internet, ahead of a important United Nations meeting to update Internet and telecoms regulation for the first time in 24 years.

 

There may be some value in reading the UK's Report by Lord Justice Leverson http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/ before the ITU "cross the rubicon" as our politicans like to phrase it.   

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Emerging Trend for Children's Hospitals: Urgent Care Center Wait Times via Text Message - The Sacramento Bee

Emerging Trend for Children's Hospitals: Urgent Care Center Wait Times via Text Message - The Sacramento Bee | Performance Intervention | Scoop.it
/PRNewswire/ -- The use of mobile technology for accessing emergency room wait times is an emerging trend among children's Hospitals.

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Designing The One-Week Team Sabbatical That Will Transform Your Company - Fast Company

Designing The One-Week Team Sabbatical That Will Transform Your Company - Fast Company | Performance Intervention | Scoop.it

Fast CompanyDesigning The One-Week Team Sabbatical That Will Transform Your CompanyFast CompanyAs Banner puts it, “Take the entire team offsite for a week, scope out the projects, and focus on getting things done.” What elements make for a...


I love the "factory week" name for this activity.  We have organized events like this for years.  I highly recommend them.  Here are some tips from our experience:


1. Get a facilitator and make a plan.


Factory Weeks don't fall into the same category as a Kaizen event... although one could.  Usually, these events don't fit into the typical formula.  They often require a formula of their own. Hire or assign a facilitator who can help you to develop a process that fits the challenge and the results you are working for.  Your facilitator can help you think through the process when determining the people and resources you should have available.  If you hit the ground running, you will likely have a great week with results that make everyone proud.


2.  Invite everyone you need


There are times when you need to get the whole system (or much of it) into the same place and time and shut out other distractions and focus.  So, don't limit it to managers -- in fact sometimes it may be many managers who help man the store while the others are doing the breakthrough building work. 


3.  Remember you are creating focus on a specific outcome


Focus is a rare commodity these days.  Focus is alingment.  Make sure you have limited distractions.  Make sure everyone understands the purpose and expected outcomes.  Have guidelines (ground rules) for the week and stick to them. 


4.  Work hard. Play hard.


Make work during your Factory Week as you would like work to be - enjoyable and fullfilling for everyone.  Winning brings that and in this week you will have opportunities to make big progress.  When you do, celebrate!   You will get a "2-fer" from the week: 2 accomplishments for the price of one: 1. A real breakthrough in accomplishing a task that has been hanging over your group for sometime and 2. A breakthrough in some important relationships.


Here are some events we have facilitated in the past, maybe they will give you ideas for your "factory week":


  • Redesign of an organization and layout to make room for a new product unit
  • Total clean up and "fix-up" of a key piece of equipment
  • A nagging performance problem "that's always been there"
  • Redesign of a website
  • Development of a social media campaign
  • Figuring out how to implement the local part of a global strategy
  • Analyzing customer data and creating plans for
  • Focusing on a specific customer, visiting them and working on specific improvements to help them and grow your business with them
  • Cleaning up an important database and creating ways to use the data for improving sales or service.


As I was making this list, I realized I could go on and on.   The point is sometimes you have to dedicate time and resources to fixing a problem and a great benefit can be had by organizing a "Factory Week" to get the work done. 


The result will be the best team building you could imagine - and it doesn't cost... it pays.


If you would like more information or help on creating your own Factory Week, we would be happy to share ideas


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Good Versus Effective Leadership - Room for Debate

Good Versus Effective Leadership - Room for Debate | Performance Intervention | Scoop.it

It isn’t enough for someone in a leadership position to get things done. A successful leader must also have good character. By Ronald E. Riggio.

Effective Leadership Requires Authenticity

to Live Long and Prosper 

 

Goffee and Jones describe this as authentic leadership in "Why Should Anyone Be Led by You?", while Ronald Riggio develops this into a clear and concise list of behaviours. The reference to sport set me thinking about a sport closer to my heart than cycling.  No laws were broken in what I am about to describe; I continue to admire those involved, even if I do not understand their reasoning or behaviour. 

 

My sport is football - always was and always will be.  I refer to the game using the round ball and not the one with all the body armour.  I am a life-long fan of Crystal Palace Football Club and though we have often travelled together through the valley of despair, I would rather give up watching the game than ever support another club.  

 

Crystal Palace is on the back of a 12 game unbeaten run.  They won 5-0 on Tuesday night to go top of the league.  Three weeks ago, their manager resigned and completed a lateral move (in organizational terms) to manage a club struggling at the other end of same league.  This manager, an ex-Palace player, has now taken the rest of his management team with him. 

 

Meanwhile, the players at Palace perform their socks off – just as Kimball Fisher’s classic “Leading Self-Directed Work Teams” predicts.  The quote before Chapter 19 (on the latter stages of Team Maturity) is by Raymond Gilmartin, the then CEO of Becton Dickinson.  He states, “Forget structure invented by the guys at the top.  You’ve got to let the task form the organisation.” How apt!

 

A fan is like an employee, watching the behaviour of its leaders and trying to make sense of it all.  Putting all the theory to one side, why does a successful manager, with a long history with a club, just up and leave when he is starting to reap the rewards on the field of play and the plaudits from his peers – he was named manager of the month in October?  Is it money, ambition, a fresh challenge or a rift behind the scenes?  Tweets and Blogs fill the void with rumour, speculation and, in some cases, vitriol.  But when I read Ronald’s list again, I realise that any harsh words are inappropriate.  The departed management team ticked all the behaviours on his list. 

 

And now we are happy.  The club have appointed one of the best managers in the league, with a reputation for winning promotion and at least for tonight, we are out-performing the competition.  Just as in business, it could all be different tomorrow, but at least for the day we will enjoy the ride… and wish the new management team at Bolton Wanderers our very best in every game they play, except one (of course). 

 

For more:

www.pyramidodi.com

http://www.pyramidodi.com/michael-salmon.html

http://www.pyramidodi.com/news.html

 

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Cuomo Fires New York’s Emergency Management Chief

Cuomo Fires New York’s Emergency Management Chief | Performance Intervention | Scoop.it
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo dismissed the official, Steven Kuhr, after learning that Mr. Kuhr deployed government workers to clear a tree from his driveway during the hurricane. (RT @DebFilcman: Oh, my. No waiting until crisis is over, huh?
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Performance of UK online customer service in decline - - BizReport

Performance of UK online customer service in decline - - BizReport | Performance Intervention | Scoop.it
There is much room for improvement in online customer service in the UK, according to new research from customer interaction technology firm Eptica, with half of the country's leading company websites failing to address standard customer questions.


Are you adding social media while failing to connect with customers?


Many organizations are stumbling forward and falling backward in connecting with customers.  Adding a Facebook page and a Twitter account do not make an organization social media savy.  Nor do they make customer relations better...unless they provide the information and access to answers that customers want.


In this research report will the use of social meda channels has doubled in some cases, 28% of companies actually worsened in the customer experience they were providing. 


We use an expression for organizations adding features or fads without integrating them into the culture - "adding ornaments on the Christmas tree".  They hold them up as shiny objects which are not a part of the tree just decoration.  Then they put them away after a short time.


How much time do you spend experiencing your business from the customers view?  Real breakthroughs in sales and performance imporvement happen every time you do.


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Do Starbucks Employees Have More Emotional Intelligence than Your Physician? - Forbes

Do Starbucks Employees Have More Emotional Intelligence than Your Physician? - Forbes | Performance Intervention | Scoop.it
A Starbucks barista. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) A cranky customer snaps at his barista, lodging an unjustifiable complaint about the service, the temperature of the drink…about anything and everything.  He came into the store angry (and in pain from...


Have you mastered the "Latte Method" of responding to unpleasant situations?  "We Listen to the customer Acknowledge their complaint, Take action by solving the problem, Thank them and Explain why the problem occured."    Have your employees?  This is a great basic tool for every person in an organization, not just front line employees.  In fact, if this approach is to be genuine (important for any customer intereaction) then everyone must be practicing the steps in all situations where something goes wrong.  I am sure you have seen the manager who refuses to acknowledge a problem much less any responsibility for the problem. 


Peter Ubel make the point that these skills are essential to successful patient outcomes.   More than doctors should take notice... any highly technical profession suffers the same pattern:  Intense training on in depth technical aspects of work only to fail when involved in interactions where relationships carry equal importance to successful outcomes: 


"According to audio recordings of interactions between patients with metastatic cancer and the senior oncologists...doctors respond appropriately to patients’ expressions of negative emotions less than one in five times."


Wow.  If you are an engineer, chemist, programmer, etc... how much better are you than a doctor?  Or for that matter, is your barista better at handling difficult people situations than you?


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This $9 Cardboard Bike Can Support Riders Up To 485lbs

This $9 Cardboard Bike Can Support Riders Up To 485lbs | Performance Intervention | Scoop.it
Izhar Gafni has designed award winning industrial machines for peeling pomegranates and sewing shoes. He’s also a bike enthusiast who’s designed a lot of carbon fiber rigs. But one day, he’d heard about someone who’d built a cardboard canoe.

What a great story. Would he have been successful in your organization? I've witnessed a number of companies lose genius talent because they saw them as difficult to manage....or just "difficult". As a manager, difficult people are your opportunity, not your problem.

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What business can learn from Bruce Bochy - San Francisco Chronicle

What business can learn from Bruce Bochy - San Francisco Chronicle | Performance Intervention | Scoop.it
San Francisco ChronicleWhat business can learn from Bruce BochySan Francisco ChronicleIn a Harvard Business Review article, Collins says a level-five leader demonstrates compelling modesty, shuns public adulation and is never boastful.


A Similar Experience


Years ago I was monitoring the progress of a very special and intense change process in Oxford Industries.  I was then the manager of the Oxford Education Center, our corporate development unit.  The change was a major move to redesigning our factories into "modules" - later they would be called "cellular manufacturing" and "self managed work teams".   At the time, we were the pioneers so everything was a grand experiment.  An interesting observation I made parallels this story about Bruce Bochy - our most successful factories were led by Bruce Bochy... well not by him - but by people very much like him.  Humility  was how we described the trait.  It was not the flamboyant managers or as others called them...charismatic.  The successful leader was  often described by others as "gentle", "soft spoken", " supportive", "open", and "open to learn".   They were also called "clear", "firm", "honest",and "present".  They made their facilities successful by moving  people forward - together.  They engaged people in conversations and were excellent listeners.  In fact, they were more about listening to others than telling others.  They didn't stand out in the crowd...at first.


I have tried to take lessons from these leaders.  It has not been easy.  Pride, ego, competitiveness, passion.  These often get in the way for me.  At the end of the day I try to remember that great leaders are certainly noticed by results and the impact when helping and serving others... more than words.


  1. When aligning people, take a lesson from Bruce Bochy and the people like him...
  2. Listen with the purpose of learning and lifting others.
  3. In a true team workplace, team is very important - don't destroy the others with a high flier who puts self before team.
  4. Provide space (time, place and activity) for people to build energy having fun.
  5. Make your "talk" clear, and aimed at making connections to purpose and progress.
  6. Act like other managers and you will rememberd for being like other managers.  Make sure your role models are the right ones.


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King's Mill Crisis: Monitor orders finance and management reviews - Mansfield Chad

King's Mill Crisis: Monitor orders finance and management reviews - Mansfield Chad | Performance Intervention | Scoop.it
Mansfield ChadKing's Mill Crisis: Monitor orders finance and management reviewsMansfield ChadKing's Mill Crisis: Monitor orders finance and management reviews. NMAC11-1277-5 Kings Mill Hospital.
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Making Process Planning Cool Again - blogs.hbr.org (blog)

Making Process Planning Cool Again - blogs.hbr.org (blog) | Performance Intervention | Scoop.it
Making Process Planning Cool Again
blogs.hbr.org (blog)
And it's not without challenges — Rosenberg talked about how when they first started implementing TPS, with its focus on surfacing problems quickly, the organizational culture became negative.
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Janine Shepherd: A broken body isn’t a broken person | Video on TED.com

TED Talks Cross-country skier Janine Shepherd hoped for an Olympic medal -- until she was hit by a truck during a training bike ride. She shares a powerful story about the human potential for recovery.
Billy R Bennett's insight:

There are no words I could add that would increase the impact of this Ted Talk from Janine Shepherd.


In our work we are always trying to help people see past the current challenge keeping them down and onto the future ahead of them.  There is no better example of that than Janine.



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A Crisis Manager's Own Crisis - The Holmes Report

A Crisis Manager's Own Crisis - The Holmes Report | Performance Intervention | Scoop.it
The Holmes ReportA Crisis Manager's Own CrisisThe Holmes ReportI came home on the afternoon of Saturday, 27 October after spending three solid days in a "war room" for a client in the midst of a crisis.
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Keep Your To-Do List Fresh with the 3-Day Rule - TIME

Keep Your To-Do List Fresh with the 3-Day Rule - TIME | Performance Intervention | Scoop.it
Keep Your To-Do List Fresh with the 3-Day RuleTIMEKeep Your To-Do List Fresh with the 3-Day Rule. By Harvard Business ReviewNov. 29, 20120. Share. Email · Print; Share.
Billy R Bennett's insight:

Good tips for those lingering to-dos.  You have to say you have a problem if your to do list is more cluttered than your desk.

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Roadmap to solve city's garbage crisis on the way - The Hindu

Roadmap to solve city's garbage crisis on the way - The Hindu | Performance Intervention | Scoop.it
The HinduRoadmap to solve city's garbage crisis on the wayThe HinduThe delegation suggested the constitution of a Waste Management Regulating Authority to guide the implementing authority — the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) — on waste...
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Workforce 2020 | Visual.ly

Workforce 2020 | Visual.ly | Performance Intervention | Scoop.it
The workforce and workplace are evolving. This infographic shares global demographic and trends of the current and future workforce. Are you ready?


Great infographic with trend information every leader should be thinking about for their future organization...only some of this future is here today.


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Reduced Mortality with Hospital Pay for Performance in England — NEJM

Reduced Mortality with Hospital Pay for Performance in England — NEJM | Performance Intervention | Scoop.it
Special Article from The New England Journal of Medicine — Reduced Mortality with Hospital Pay for Performance in England (http://t.co/dR2V7aWJ #improvement methods & pay for performance reduces...
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Healthcare Quality Accounting Metrics Need Improvement - The Hospitalist Online

Healthcare Quality Accounting Metrics Need Improvement - The Hospitalist Online | Performance Intervention | Scoop.it
The Hospitalist OnlineHealthcare Quality Accounting Metrics Need ImprovementThe Hospitalist OnlineEntities such as the National Quality Forum (NQF), the American Medical Association's Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement (PCPI), and the...
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High Noon: Will Your Employees Vote For You?

High Noon: Will Your Employees Vote For You? | Performance Intervention | Scoop.it
By Billy Bennett When do you work on alignment?  When you are "in crisis" is too late.  In the 1952 movie High Noon , Gary Cooper played a town Sheriff who finds himself needing help to face the...


Some of our assignments are with business units in crisis.  The problem is so challenging, they often require the help of on of our "intensive care" teams to gain stability.  One of the first tasks of the team, is to begin immediately  to develop personal relationships that will be needed to when asking employees to make the big behavior changes required.   We often observe that the "trust" bank account of leaders is empty.  Even technically correct actions go nowhere because people find it difficut to follow their lead.  


How well do you know your employees?


How well do you know co-workers who supply you with critical information and services?


Don't wait for the crisis to find out.



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During a recent leadership training session with English speaking supervisors, an individual made the following comment: "I wish my Spanish speaking team members would feel free to approach me and

During a recent leadership training session with English speaking supervisors, an individual made the following comment: "I wish my Spanish speaking team members would feel free to approach me and | Performance Intervention | Scoop.it
discuss their issues and challenges with me."
As a team leader, what suggestions do you have to deal with this situation?


Issac raises a frequent comment from managers. The answer lies first in perspective.... Who is responsible for the relationship in manager staff relations. Of course, as co-workers, everyone should be... But as a leader, YOU are responsible for the depth and quality of your relationships among your associates. Why? Your direction setting skills depend upon those relationships. If that dynamic is weak so is your ability to lead. Every direction you provide will be implemented at the speed of trust. So how good are those relationships?

Try this, go ask.
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Tackle Problems Effectively: Learn From Mistakes I Made

Tackle Problems Effectively: Learn From Mistakes I Made | Performance Intervention | Scoop.it

One owner confides how she improved her management when she had to troubleshoot a botched customer order.  An excellent first hand account from someone who has been there.


My mantra in situations where the performance of the operation seems to be folding like a house of cards..."Slow down to speed up".  Urgency is a necessity - but about the right things not the wrong things. If you are not careful you will make lots of errors - faster.


My favorite is the last one - right from the playbook; Debrief. We use the  Plan-Do-Debrief process for all of our teams.  The last step is most important because if you make sure to have an effective debrief you will make the first two steps better.  


If you do not learn, you will not learn. Take the time to review - and avoid blame at all costs.


Fix the system.


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For more information on improving performance check out our site www.pyramidodi.com

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Is Your Company Living Its Values? How Can You Tell?

Is Your Company Living Its Values? How Can You Tell? | Performance Intervention | Scoop.it
Values form the foundation for a business and help to create the culture of the business. If behavior is not consistent with values, employee engagement will likely decline, and turnover may increase.


Susan reminds us to take the time to look around and check for matches between behavior and the values we talk about.  Are they the same?   Here's a good exercise to think about:


1.  Make a list of your organization values (bet you have a web site where you can find them).


2.  Make a list of what you value.


3.  Make a list of everything you have done (look at your agenda) for the last 3 days.


4.  Is there a match between your activity and the values of the organization... or even your own values?  


If someone looked at your list of activities, what would they say are your values?


If you are concerned about people aligning with your organizaiton strategy, goals. etc.   then do repeat this exercise with a few people around you.  Alignment begins with people doing things that match the things we ask people to care about.  When they don't match then words lose their value.


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