In the coming months your company will need to explain how the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“Healthcare Reform”) will affect your employees. You’ll probably receive some model messages from your insurer explaining each of the changes and telling you what you are required to communicate in order to be in compliance with the law. So, just forward the memo, right?

Hold on.

If you explain these health plan changes using lots of layers of detail, your employees’ eyes will quickly glaze over. They’ll glance at your five page memo and move on without reading it, often to their detriment. To be more effective in communicating these changes, commit that you will Aim with Headlines, Summarize and Annotate.

Aim with Headlines

First, use headlines to aim each chunk of information to those affected by that chunk. For example, the headline “For Children under 19: Pre-existing Conditions Now Covered under New Law” will draw the attention of your employees whose children are younger than 19 and who also have a pre-existing condition. Employees not in that group can move on another well-worded headline that does apply to their situation. Another headline might be “For Flexible Spending Accounts: OTC Drugs Now Require Supporting Documentation for Reimbursement.” Employees who use a FSA and expect to receive reimbursement for over-the-counter drug purchases will recognize that they will have to obtain proper paperwork in the future.

Summarize and Annotate

Second, summarize the detail provided by your insurer. Consider writing an executive summary-style paragraph for each section if what they have provided to you isn’t clear. Then use bold face type, underlines, indentions or other typographic conventions to draw the reader’s eye toward what is most important about each provision. Read over the model messages or your insurer’s notice to you as if you were a college student.

Using a highlighter, note phrases within each paragraph that absolutely must be understood. Test your summarized/annotated version of the change communication by sharing it with a colleague and then asking them to explain verbally what they learned. Adjust your summaries and annotations to assure that only what is most important draws the reader’s attention.

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In the next few months, a flurry of healthcare reform changes will deposit themselves on your desk. Rather than just mindlessly pushing those communications out to the employee base, invest your time to make these change communications more effective. Your employees don’t have time to waste reading sloppy, undecipherable memos; they’ve got work to do.
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Jean Houston Shore works with organizations that want their people to work together better. She can be reached at 770-643-9724, by email at jean@thinkbusiness.com or through her website at www.working-together-better.com. Ask for your free copy of her book Working Together Better.

Copyright © 2010, Jean Houston Shore, Business Resource Group. All Rights Reserved Internationally. No portion may be reprinted or used without prior written permission.

The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service recently provided technical guidance for cattle producers that flies in the face of business’s oft-quoted 80/20 rule.

Pre-Harvest Interventions

The guidance isn’t a regulation exactly; instead it explains a list of what it calls “Pre-Harvest Management Controls and Intervention Options” that beef producers should implement. FSIS says beef processing players should prefer cattle from producers who implement one or more of these pre-harvest interventions.

Some of the items listed include basic sanitation practices as well as vaccines and targeted antibiotics that are new or that have only spotty results in research studies. Those in the industry may view these items as small or insignificant, ideas that may not do enough to stop the spread of E.coli to be worth the trouble. However, the agency’s thinking seems to be that “multiple interventions, even if their individual effects are small, could reduce E. coli prevalence as cattle go to slaughter.”

But I Don’t Raise Cattle

Some will argue that until a particular course of action is proven to work, we shouldn’t try it. Or that the results we can expect from implementing a small change aren’t enough, that we need to see massive improvements and small ideas just aren’t worth the time. That’s 80/20 thinking at its best. (If you’ve never heard of the 80/20 rule or Pareto’s Principle, it basically suggests that 20% of your causes lead to 80% of your problems; in other words, focus on the big stuff first.)

But what if following the 80/20 rule keeps us from going far enough? What if smaller causes or ideas can combine to produce compounded positive results?

The E.coli Rule

Here are some ways you might consider following the “E. coli Rule:”

• Think about your pre-harvest parallels: What are the characteristics of the processes that come before what you do? How could you influence those who perform those processes to give you something that has higher quality, less detail or fits more seamlessly into your process?
• Round up the small ideas that people have mentioned and then dismissed: How could you mix and match these smaller concepts to create momentum and improvement?
• Regularly challenge the wisdom of blindly following the 80/20 Principle: Certainly part of the job is focusing on the big stuff but don’t let your organization get lulled into thinking that the small stuff can’t make a difference. Expand your thinking patterns and require others around you to use creativity in finding solutions to nagging problems.
• Banish workarounds: Workarounds develop when people or processes aren’t functioning as designed. Don’t make working around a problem the normal way you do business. Fix the underlying problem and you’ll erase the need to compensate.

Pareto’s Principle is too popular to go away anytime soon and there is definitely wisdom in it. However, thoughtful businesspeople will learn an important lesson from the USDA’s recommendations for reducing E. coli. We can apply 80/20 in our decision making but maybe we should “sweat the small stuff” too.

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Jean Houston Shore works with organizations that want their people to work together better. She can be reached at 770-643-9724, by email at jean@thinkbusiness.com or through her website at www.working-together-better.com. Ask for your free copy of her book Working Together Better.

Copyright © 2010, Jean Houston Shore, Business Resource Group. All Rights Reserved Internationally. No portion may be reprinted or used without prior written permission.

Collaboration lessons tumble from Steve Jobs’ recent memo explaining why Apple isn’t supporting Adobe’s Flash software on its recent devices. (Explained: Your iPhone won’t be serving you any Flash content. Sorry about that.)  Here’s a summary of Jobs’ points and the collaboration hotspots I see:

Out of “Touch”

Flash, a widely used product for PCs that use mice as pointing devices, is not designed for touch screens that use fingers as pointing devices. Translated: Flash isn’t flexible enough to manage the newer ways people interact with their electronics. Collaboration hotspot: Obsolescence. If you haven’t yet moved into a 21^st century understanding of how your customers want to interact with your product, you’re risking your business even if you currently lead the market.

Reliability, Security, Performance

Jobs pointed out issues with Flash’s reliability (is it working properly?), security (am I vulnerable when I use it?) and performance (is it running slowly again?).  Collaboration hotspot: Mistrust. If you believe for a second that your coworkers are unreliable, you’ll probably begin watching them closer, double-checking their work, yanking them off of high profile assignments. As the reliability questions escalate, the entire team may begin to feel fear – how vulnerable are we when we trust this guy? The question of performance (speed, quality) turns into an issue of waste. If the employee can’t meet requirements, everyone suffers. But these are worklife basics, aren’t they? Work fast enough, deliver high quality and don’t make anyone worry that their trust in you is misplaced.

Third party Tourniquet

Apple is also miffed because Adobe keeps developers from quickly taking advantage of Apple’s new features. Unless and until Adobe upgrades, developers must wait on the sidelines. Collaboration hotspot: Control. It’s tough to let others sit at the table, isn’t it? A culture of fear causes you to hold on tightly rather than consider what could be accomplished if other people were allowed to play too. Ease up some, okay?

Leadership Summary

If your understanding of your customer’s way of interacting with your product isn’t fresh, get with the program. But even as you think about the new stuff, keep an eye on basic business requirements – reliably deliver high quality output. And consider inviting others to collaborate with you rather than insisting that you know it all.

That’s it! Keep on Working Together Better.

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Jean Houston Shore works with organizations that want their people to work together better. She can be reached at 770-643-9724, by email at jean@thinkbusiness.com or through her website at www.working-together-better.com.Ask for your free copy of her book Working Together Better.

Copyright © 2010, Jean Houston Shore, Business Resource Group. All Rights Reserved Internationally. No portion may be reprinted or used without prior written permission.

Ah, young people. A breath of fresh air, exuberance, energy . . . and ten very common workplace mistakes. Here, in summary format, are five of the Top Ten Mistakes Young People Make at Work and my advice on how you might avoid them. Print this out, highlight it and place it on that new guy’s desk. (Really. How else is he going to know?)

Curtain

The mistake is not remembering that you are “on” every minute that you are on work property or with coworkers or customers. People are watching what you do, listening to what you say and probably someone in IT is harvesting content of the e-mails, texts and IMs you send. While the curtain is up, you are being paid to play a role. Play it and stay in character.

My Way or the Highway

The mistake is not being open to the ideas of other people. Like the spoiled petulant celebrity (or child) who throws a tantrum when she doesn’t get her way, less mature employees see only one way forward in most situations – theirs. You’ll be most successful if you realize that your way is one way but there are other ways that might work too.

Blah, Blah, Blah

The mistake is not monitoring how you share your opinions with your colleagues. People of any age typically pay closest attention to what you say only when they feel your ramblings have something to do with them personally. Instead of droning on and on, frame your thoughts (concisely) by thinking about what matters to your colleagues. They’ll perk up when you show that you know it’s not all about you.

Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing

The mistake is you believing that every coworker has your best interests at heart. Uh, no. That’s typically not how it works. Most of your colleagues are probably kind, honest and worthy of your trust. But chances are there is a handful that will use what you tell them to further their causes, not yours. Listen to your gut and watch who you trust. Don’t get in the middle of someone else’s power play.

I (Don’t) Wanna Hold Your Hand

The most common mistake business leaders tell me young people make is this one – not taking initiative but instead waiting to be told what to do. This tendency is predictable; after all, recent college grads have been taking orders from teachers for 16 years or more. But in the post-education work world, taking initiative wisely will set you apart faster than anything else will. Size up the situation, do your research but then move ahead and take action. Your coworkers will appreciate your tenacity; at least, most of them will.

That’s five of the Top Ten Mistakes Young People Make at Work. The other five are coming soon.  Until next time, why don’t all of us, no matter what our ages, purge these mistakes from our work lives? Hey, I’m feeling younger already!

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Jean Houston Shore works with organizations that want their people to work together better. She can be reached at 770-643-9724, by email at jean@thinkbusiness.com or through her website at www.working-together-better.com. Ask for your free copy of her book Working Together Better.

Copyright © 2010, Jean Houston Shore, Business Resource Group. All Rights Reserved Internationally. No portion may be reprinted or used without prior written permission.

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You’ve hopefully read my digest of Top Ten Mistakes Young People Make at Work – Part 1. Here we continue with mistakes 6 – 10. See what you think.

Any Foot Forward

The mistake is in not consciously stepping out with your best self every time. No one works for long without making some bad choices. The thing that matters most is that you approach each situation trying to do your best. Younger workers sometimes engage other workers in a haphazard, unpredictable way. This wastes a huge reputation building opportunity. When people don’t know you well they are forming their opinions based on whatever they see or hear. So make it a practice to stop, center yourself and then step into the interaction with professionalism and maturity.

Clustering

The mistake is developing professional friendships only with those in your immediate department or at your level. Obviously it is most comfortable not to stray outside your age or proximity comfort zone. After all, why hang with someone who is so different than you? Career mobility, that’s why. You never know who – or how – or when another person might be the key to your next move. Or – and this is just as likely – you’ll be the key to theirs. It’s all about give and take as you shape your career. Don’t put all your eggs in the “just like me” basket.

Change? Forget It!

The mistake is being unwilling to change. Business situations are like little islands of culture, complete with accepted and unaccepted practices. It won’t take long for you to observe how things work on your company island and, even if people won’t tell you so directly, a person who says, “That’s just the way I am. Everyone else can just get used to it!” will be limited to permanent outsider. This is not to say that employees can’t be unique; it just means that if you stray too far from standard behaviors, you’re likely to be booted off the island.

But You Owe Me

The mistake is thinking that your company owes you more than you owe the company. All of us have worked long hours, gone above and beyond the call of duty and felt – not that secretly – that the company “owed us one.” While that might be true for the moment, companies have notoriously bad memories and it’s very likely that a year from now, no one will remember what you did. Instead they will ask, “What have you done for me lately?” That may seem unfair but older workers will tell you that it is true. Remember, you work for a “company” and companies aren’t your family. So, keep doing a great job but do not get obsessed with keeping mental reciprocity records. That will just turn you into a bitter old guy no one wants to be around. (I know. You’ve already met that guy.)

“NOW” – Think

The mistake is in making decisions that might be good in the short-term but are the wrong decisions for your long-term career and future marketability. As a young person myself, I once decided between two job offers because one of them paid $200 more than the other. Two hundred dollars. Per year. (Yikes.) For your career to reward you as it should, you’ve got to be oriented toward the long-term potential as you make career choices. And long-term is probably longer than most young people think. It’s five years away, then ten years away, then retirement age. You cannot predict the future but you can seek out industries, technologies and locations that have not good but great future potential. Keep up with the changes and make your moves earlier rather than later. Use a logical method for choosing between your alternatives. (For a video about a tool I highly recommend, the Decision Making Matrix, see www.working-together-better.com.)

That’s It

That wraps up my summary of the top Ten Mistakes Young People Make at Work and How to Avoid Them. I hope this short investment of your time has given you some things to think about but more importantly some things to do differently. (If you have employees that should hear this information, we have an on-site training program based on this material. Ask for our catalog.)

Until next time, let’s keep on Working Together Better.

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Jean Houston Shore works with organizations that want their people to work together better. She can be reached at 770-643-9724, by email at jean@thinkbusiness.com or through her website at www.working-together-better.com. Ask for your free copy of her book Working Together Better.

Copyright © 2010, Jean Houston Shore, Business Resource Group. All Rights Reserved Internationally. No portion may be reprinted or used without prior written permission.

It’s a social networking success story, right? One of your friends, a long-time good guy and a person you trust completely, hints that he’d like to work at your company and there’s an open position he just might be able to fill. Should you hire him?

Not so fast. Even if company policy doesn’t prohibit hiring a friend, you should consider this situation from several angles. It’s best to think long and hard before attempting to transform a personal relationship into a professional one. Here’s a digest of what you should consider.

Your Friendship Will Probably Change

When your once-a-month golfing buddy becomes your everyday-in-the-halls coworker you may find you’ve got too much of a good thing. In the past, your buddy gave you a safe place to unwind without having to censor your conversation. The updated relationship may have you knowing information he can’t know or vice versa. Alternately, changes in the workplace could pit you against one another in competing for resources, promotions or sales. While workplace censorship and competition is a fact of corporate life, your friendship will be complicated by it. Before you take the plunge, decide how important the friendship is to you, because there’s a good chance the friendship will eventually be overtaken by corporate reality.

Hiring Your Friend Affects Everyone

Over time, each of your current work team members has negotiated working relationships among themselves that are working pretty well. Changing the team composition upsets that balance since roles, responsibilities and working styles have to be renegotiated each time a new team member is hired. This situation is even more complex when other team members perceive that the new hire is “special” because of his preexisting personal relationship with you. If they have good relationships with you, they may arrive more quickly at a good relationship with him, transferring goodwill to him. Or, they may perceive the new hire as someone who receives preferential treatment. If this happens, it will bond the non-friend team members with each other, but against the new hire and perhaps against you. This puts you in an untenable position.

Hiring your friend also raises the possibility of affecting the workplace should something in someone’s personal life, a nasty divorce for example, cause the friendship to disintegrate. Without the blended relationship, your friend would simply drift out of your life; since he is now a coworker his drama has the possibility to affect your career. This possibility is exacerbated if you have become co-owners of a business. Other employees will be worried by the changes in your personal friendship, even if you try to insulate them.

More on this subject in my next post.

–Jean

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Jean Houston Shore works with organizations that want their people to work together better. She can be reached at 770-643-9724, by email at jean@thinkbusiness.com or through her website at www.working-together-better.com.

Copyright © 2010, Jean Houston Shore, Business Resource Group. All Rights Reserved Internationally. No portion may be reprinted or used without prior written permission.

Here are some other reasons you may want to think twice about hiring your friend.

It May Not Be Fair To Your Friend

Your friend deserves the best chance at workplace success, just like you do. By accepting a job with some level of personal entanglement, he has complicated his life too. Not only will others wonder if he got the job on his own merit, he’ll have a harder time proving himself to the team. He’ll wonder if his coworkers are candid in his presence, since people might clam up if they think their comments will quickly reach your ears. This keeps him from fully participating in the work team and may keep him from getting the information he needs to be successful. One kind of information he will likely miss is truthful feedback about his performance, because team members only give honest feedback to one another when they feel safe. His friendship with you may threaten their safety.

Its Hard to Be Objective

And anyway, how objective can you really be about this person? You have insider information about him that can’t help but cloud your judgment. Depending on the mistake you make this might work for him or it could work against him. For example, if you know that he struggles to maintain his diet and exercise resolutions, you might unfairly consider his workplace follow-through suspect; this is being unnecessarily tough on him. Or since you know just how tough his childhood was you might give him the benefit of the doubt way too often; this is being too lenient and not holding him accountable. Other employee’s motivation will drop if they perceive that the friend/employee plays under a different set of rules. Your lack of objectivity can become a real problem if you are comparing his performance to that of his peers, recommending him for a special assignment or doling out pay raises. There’s also the question of whether he will be willing and able to receive performance feedback from you and whether you will be willing and able to receive performance feedback from him. It could be difficult for both of you.

Relationship Limits Precedents

There’s plenty of precedent for limiting personal relationships in the workplace. The military has a long tradition of limiting relationships between officers and enlisted personnel, something they call anti-fraternization. In investigating whether a relationship between two persons has violated military policy, several factors are considered. If the relationships “compromises the chain of command, results in the appearance of partiality or otherwise undermines good order, discipline, authority or morale” those involved may be punished.

Many corporations, too, have anti-fraternization policies which strictly limit relationships with competitors, thus avoiding even the appearance of impropriety. Others prohibit dating or cohabiting between employees. However, legal provisions of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) guarantee employees to right to self-organize and discuss terms and conditions of employment so anti-fraternization policies go too far if they severely restrict employee friendships outside of work.

In our court system, judges are expected to recuse themselves (to disqualify themselves from presiding over a proceeding) if they have a conflict of interest or a personal involvement in the matter. The judge reviews the general facts of the case and determines whether or not he or she can truly be impartial, declining to rule if not objective.

But maybe you just want to try to make it work anyway. How to do that follows in Part 3 of Should You Work with Friends.

–Jean

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Jean Houston Shore works with organizations that want their people to work together better. She can be reached at 770-643-9724, by email at jean@thinkbusiness.com or through her website at www.working-together-better.com.

Copyright © 2010, Jean Houston Shore, Business Resource Group. All Rights Reserved Internationally. No portion may be reprinted or used without prior written permission.

So let’s say you’ve read Parts 1 and 2 of this article series and you’ve thought carefully about the situation from all angles. Here’s your task list for managing the situation effectively.

Ways to Make It Work

If you and your friend decide to move forward with transforming your personal friendship into a professional relationship, here are some tips for making it work:

• Avoid the temptation to hide your pre-existing relationship from other workers. While simply pretending there is no entanglement might seem expedient, you’ll likely be found out. Not disclosing the relationship will destroy the trust others have placed in both of you. Don’t hide the facts.
• Let the new hire stand on his own and encourage him to prove his qualifications as quickly as possible. Instruct him to get up to speed as fast as he can. Tell team members to expect him to contribute. If practical, assign a team member to acclimate him to the work processes; do not give him special treatment or more-than-usual personalized attention.
• Jointly define new boundaries with your friend and his spouse about what will and will not be discussed in personal friendship time. Recognize that one employee’s spouse may speak too freely to the other employee’s spouse and jeopardize both the work and personal relationships. Strictly honor these new boundaries.
• Also define what is and is not appropriate communication during work time. The pranks, lightheartedness and fun that characterize friendships can seriously confuse established work patterns and undermine credibility if others perceive that professionalism is lacking between the two of you.
• Monitor the impact that the new hire (your friend) is having on the workplace. Give feedback to him or to others if things are not going well.
• Agree in advance to let the friendship and/or the working relationship end with dignity and honor if it must. Commit to one another that, even if things do not work out as well as hoped, both of you will refer to one another respectfully and with gratefulness for having explored the opportunity.

While many studies show the mental and physical benefits of social connectedness, recent research shows that the average Americans’ circle of friends continues to shrink. If the friend who is hinting that he’d like a job is one of your inner circle, a confidant with whom you’d discuss important personal matters, use caution when putting that relationship at risk.

Please share your comments. And keep on Working Together Better!

–Jean

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Jean Houston Shore works with organizations that want their people to work together better. She can be reached at 770-643-9724, by email at jean@thinkbusiness.com or through her website at www.working-together-better.com.

Copyright © 2010, Jean Houston Shore, Business Resource Group. All Rights Reserved Internationally. No portion may be reprinted or used without prior written permission.

As children we learned to look both ways at railroad crossings; the school bus driver would sometimes wait for an eternity for us to be quiet. Making sure to do everything she could to keep us safe from an coming train, our leader looked carefully and listened intently for danger signals.

Your workplace may be sending danger signals to you, too. Sometimes coping problems come from personal situations and affect only one or two team members. When that’s the case you should coach the employees individually. But sometimes, thanks to a more widespread disturbance like a merger or industry meltdown, coping challenges saturate your whole work unit.

Here are twelve signs your workplace may face a coping crisis:

Fretting: In normal times, moaning, whining and moping are not appreciated or tolerated. If fretting behavior becomes so widespread that it begins to seem normal, it’s time to intervene. (more…)

Transmissions, pistons, and filters rarely get top billing on car commercials but everyone knows that a failure in one of these can quickly require a tow truck. Service departments organize their maintenance of your complicated vehicle by inspecting each of the important systems regularly. Just like your car’s systems work together, your work group harnesses individual skills, motivation and effort to a create results that are greater than the sum of its parts. Here are ten things to check to evaluate your group’s collaboration competence:

1. Proximity: Members of your team must have ready access to one another live, via phone and via email. While synchronous (real-time) team communication is best, even asynchronous can work as long as team members check and respond to messages promptly. (more…)