The Win Report

It’s the middle of the night. You’ve woken up with a brilliant idea on how to improve the way your business product is delivered to your customers. You scribble it down and can’t wait to share it with your co-workers during your morning meeting.

The appointed hour arrives and you get your idea onto the agenda. Unfortunately the meeting proceeds without focus and at the speed of really good ketchupslow. The person directing the meeting has gone over the same things you’ve already discussed ad nauseum, and your co-workers are mired down in dissecting ideas before anything tangible can be accomplished. By the time your agenda item is up for discussion, everyone is tired and frustrated. The nitpicking has drained all the energy out of a potentially terrific idea.

What is happening in this meeting? While it might be easy to blame it on your co-workers, the boss, or your team leader - the real culprit is process, or lack of it. A good meeting must be orchestrated like any other; it’s a creative group effort. If you start with an unfocused agenda, add group members who are unclear of their roles, and mix in a lack of clear guidelines about participation, you have a recipe for a snoozefest…or worse.

Traditionally, companies have asked their leaders to have all the answers, take control, and make tough decisions. The result has been a directive leadership style where one “boss” is in charge, and employees are often reluctant to openly express their opinions. This system places tremendous pressure on management, and the organization loses out on many valuable ideas. Meetings tend to get bogged down in minutia with few tangible actions taking place beyond the initial discussion.

Thankfully, this command leadership model is in decline, becoming a thing of the past. Increasingly, organizations are turning to all members for their energy, commitment, and brainpower. Input from all employees requires a shift in leadership from controlling to facilitative. This change may take time in your organization because many of us have been conditioned to put the person in the front of the room in control.

Skillful facilitation can significantly improve your meetings. And, your brilliant product idea will actually have a chance! Effective facilitation will not only rev up your company’s meetings, with patience it will lead to a more collaborative way of making decisions.

Team members learn their ideas are valuable, they gain new interpersonal and leadership skills, and they begin to become more engaged in team projects. Employees become less reliant on management for answers and begin to draw on their own resources. They begin to bring solutions to meetings instead of coming with questions.

Managers can learn to use a facilitative style, team members can be trained to facilitate, or the organization can hire an outside facilitator to help meetings become more effective and participatory. Ideally, each team member will ultimately become leaders and skilled facilitators.

Here are 10 tips for facilitative leadership you can incorporate into your meetings. Used consistently, these guidelines will turn your meetings into events that everyone highlights on their calendar.

1. Stay on Track: Create an effective agenda to keep the action moving. When discussion strays, the facilitator has the responsibility to keep things on track by referring to the agenda and reigning in off-topic discussions.

2. Develop a Parking Lot: Side comments have their place. The facilitator can record side issues on a “parking lot” flip chart. At the end of the meeting, determine when the team would like to address the parking lot issues.

3. Create Rules: Decide on ground rules for your meetings and hold team members to them. For example, a rule such as “No team member may interrupt another” or “Comment periods are limited to 10 minutes” can be ways to ensure your meetings don’t get dominated or bogged down.

4. Give Everyone a Voice: Draw out shy members by taking turns until each group member has given his or her input. Ask individuals for their opinion if they are not talking. When dominating members speak up, the facilitator keeps their comments controlled so others have a chance, too.

5. Break the Ice: Try creativity games and teambuilding exercises to liven up your meetings and discover new insights. Particularly if you have cross-functional teams, this can give people from different departments and management levels a chance to know each other.

6. Create Action Items: As agenda topics are discussed, the facilitator should take notes that include tangible action items, a person who is responsible for following through on the action, and a deadline. Action items can be e-mailed to everyone after the meeting as a reminder.

7. Build Consensus: Facilitative leadership is about building agreement and cementing teams. Work to create outcomes that reflect the ideas of all team members. Treat all participants as equals and work hard to create an open and trusting atmosphere.

8. Be Firm and Impartial: A good facilitator is not passive. It’s important to use assertiveness to keep people on track and on time. When a team member is facilitating the meeting, he or she is NOT a participant. If the facilitator must make a comment about the discussion at hand because they are a key player, he or she must make it very clear they are momentarily taking off the facilitator “hat.”

9. Work to Understand: High stress levels at the workplace can create cynicism among team members. A facilitator should pay careful attention to group dynamics, listen attentively, maintain eye contact, and manage conflict.

10. Cultivate optimism: The facilitative leader does not allow disinterest, shyness, pessimism, or other negative behaviors to throw off the course of the meeting. Instead, the facilitator helps the group to succeed and work hard to stay positive, even when team energy is at a low point.

Wendy Maynard, your friendly Marketing Maven, publishes REMARKABLE MARKETING, a free weekly ezine for entrepreneurs, business owners, and freelancers. If you’re ready to skyrocket your sales, easily attract customers, and make more money, sign up for her FREE ezine and marketing report now at http://www.gomarketingmaven.com

While at a party I found myself next to an intriguing bowl of delicious mixed nuts - cashews, walnuts, peanuts, and pistachios. As long as I can remember, I have been addicted to those tasty morsels yet they conflict with my dietary goal, so I grabbed a handful and moved away quickly while congratulating myself on my discipline. My favorites are the cashews and pistachios. The next time I looked at that bowl I estimated that about 40% of the nuts were cashews and 5% pistachios so, in the interest of scientific inquiry, I grabbed another handful and moved away quickly. Instead of ingesting the whole handful at once, this time I opened my hand, counted and found my estimate was correct and then ate them all (after all I had touched them).

Since business issues are always on my mind I started thinking about the concept of “product mix” and wondered how the nut company developed their formula for putting the most attractive mixture together to entice prospects yet balancing the cost of the various varieties to create a profitable product. This, of course, led me to think about the product mix in a business.

Every business has some products (or product categories) that return higher profit, greater sales volume, greater sales per sq. ft., or sales per hour. Others do far less for the bottom line. Some may be complete losers, costing the business because of low sales, high support expense, or the need for extra effort in sales or production. They should be removed from the product mix unless there is a compelling reason to retain them.

Unless the product mix is analyzed frequently a business will often keep the losing products or product categories and profitability is lost. The solution is to develop a method of analyzing sales and profits against costs and effort and then remove or minimize the investment in those that do not perform to a minimum standard. That way you have more cashews and pistachios (more profitable products) in the product mix and a more addictive, tastier snack (profitable business).

Larry Galler coaches and consults with high-performance executives, professionals, and small businesses since 1993. He is the writer of the long-running (every Sunday since November 2001) business column, “Front Lines with Larry Galler” Sign up for his free newsletter at http://www.larrygaller.com Questions??? Send an email to larry@larrygaller.com

You have planned your business to use systems to ensure quality as well as control costs and increase profits. One of the systems is an innovation program that is used daily. To make your innovation program effective you will need to quantify your results to ensure your innovations actually help the business. To quantify your results means to produce numbers that can be measured. You want to count everything in your business. From the number of customers you have daily you can break down more numbers. The number of customers in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening,
on a rainy day, a sunny day, a cloudy day, week days, week ends and so on.

Now you implement your innovation, maybe if you’re a salesman you wear only blue suits and red ties for six weeks. You have continued to quantify your customers and compare the numbers from before you started your innovation to the end of the six weeks. Now you try a brown suit for six weeks. You check the results again and determine that you sell more products wearing a blue suit and a red tie. You will not be wearing brown suits to work anymore. This is innovation, quantification and implementation of the innovation.

The possibilities are endless. This process will help you develop the best systems for your business. By having systems in your business you will eliminate choice and discretion. This will be a repeatable process that will give you results that you can implement as your business grows. This gives you a unique way of doing business that is proprietary property. Simply by innovating simple things such as this you are creating value in your business. In essence, you are creating wealth.

With three startup businesses before he was 21 years old, Matt Fox has the experience to help you create your own businesses for your financial future. See his blog at http://www.bizmaker.blogspot.com.

Firing, sacking, letting go or terminating people is unpleasant. There are ways to minimise resentment, but why bother? Because most legal action and unpleasantness stems from dissatisfaction/resentment about the way things were handled - about how rather than what happened. Dismissal can be unfair because of the reason, or the way it was done, so you need to be extremely careful. In the law regarding employer-employee relationships, fairness is key. You must be fair, and be seen to be fair. But fairness, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder - after being terminated, very few people have clear vision!

Prepare a disciplinary process/policy given to all, with a sequence of verbal then written warnings ending with dismissal. Ensure processes allow for discipline/termination on grounds of both performance (capability) and attitude (conduct). Specify your right to instantly dismiss someone (summary dismissal) for gross misconduct, and give guidance on what would constitute this.

Have hard evidence to back up all decisions. Documentation of poor conduct and/or capability is essential. You have to follow your own process to avoid legal unfairness. Negative appraisals/reviews make good evidence.

Never take decisions lightly - weak performance can sometimes be improved by skilled intervention/support. Termination is traumatic/demotivating for surviving staff, even when they understand why.

Avoid surprises by giving every opportunity for improvement before opting to terminate. This reduces grounds for legal action. Plus, survivors feel less threatened if they see you are fair. Employees who have been aware for some time there is a problem are usually less traumatised, and may already be looking elsewhere. Always avoid firing someone who has no idea its a possibility, except for summary dismissal.

Get legal advice if you have any questions. Balance £200-500 for advice against £50,000 max unfair dismissal compensation! Phone lawyers and ask for advice on dismissal - sometimes possible over the phone for a fee. Remember, sexual/racial discrimination compensation is unlimited, so always take legal advice if this might be alleged, whether or not it happened.

Plan your speech exactly and write out a script. It ensures you say everything necessary, and helps if you get stuck. There can be temptation to offer sympathetic/reassuring words to sweeten the message. Unfortunately, kindness here can cause confusion and lead to legal action. Have a witness present - never fire one-to-one.

Stay calm - never act in anger. Even summary dismissal can be done after an hour to prepare and calm down. If employees lash out verbally/physically, don’t respond. Get it right, and this is the last time you will deal with them - they will no longer be your problem.

Be humane - treat people sympathetically if possible - without conveying anything positive about conduct/capability. They are losing their job and income. They are frightened, angry, upset, devastated - and you have to deal with it. Sympathise with their predicament without commenting on the cause. Being calm and softly spoken can negate trauma. It also decreases unpleasantness - it’s harder to abuse someone who is being nice to you.

Recommended action:
Have a policy, publicised to all staff, and signed for receipt by all.

Have the policy legally checked by an expert.

Always prepare.

Remember the way you terminate someone can be legally unfair, even if the grounds are perfect.

Julie-Ann Amos is a professional writer and business consultant. Find out more at http://www.hackingreality.com

Discipline is very important in organizations as it is for organizing you personal life. If you want to achieve something in sports or any other area you cannot without. But what is it exactly?

According to the free dictionary, the verb discipline may be used to express four actions: to train (a specific pattern of behaviour) ; to teach (a branch of knowledge or teaching) ; to punish (in order to correct) or to impose order (by a set of rules or methods).
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/discipline

In fact all four are centered around order; order in the frequency of activities (training), order in subjects (knowledge), order in the class (with or without punishment).

I remember a quote from Evelyn Waugh, which I cannot retrieve, but what say’s about the following - A teacher with a wig will not be able to keep order in the classroom (”Mr Prendergast, an elderly teacher who made the mistake of wearing a wig on his first day and could not take it off without incurring more laughter from the boys,” which is an online review from Decline and Fall on Amazon I looked it up - Internet is a great source of information, now I understand Why Google wants to scan and archive literature).

This classroom incident speaks for itself. And it is not about the laughter of the boys in the class. It is about being credible. “Why would you wear a wig,’ the boys must have asked. “Do you pretend to be different than what you are?”
Unfortunately we see organizations pretending to be different than what they really are. They focus on business transaction that are way out of their profile.

No wonder that you have a hard time getting disciplined.

If discipline is taken seriously, credibility should have been dealt with first. Make sure that activities are credible and the discipline will follow.

© 2006 Hans Bool

Hans Bool is the founder of Astor White a traditional management consulting company that offers online management advice. Astor Online solves issues in hours what normally would take days.
You can apply for a free demo account

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.

There are other useful definitions in this field, for example, creativity can be defined as consisting of a number of ideas, a number of diverse ideas and a number of novel ideas.

There are distinct processes that enhance problem identification and idea generation and, similarly, distinct processes that enhance idea selection, development and commercialisation. Whilst there is no sure fire route to commercial success, these processes improve the probability that good ideas will be generated and selected and that investment in developing and commercialising those ideas will not be wasted.

Value versus Quality

Most firms attempt to add value to their products or services in order to increase sales and prestige. However, few appreciate the difference between value and quality. But by doing so, they can more finitely increase their options for adding both value and quality.

a) Quality is directly related to the product itself. A firm can increase a product’s quality, but that increase may or may not be profitable. For example, Microsoft can increase the quality of its Windows operating system but that may not lead to an increase in value for the customer. This is especially true when a product reaches maturity, as options for improving the cost/performance mix begin to dwindle after years of improvement.

b) Value is the worth of the package as a whole and the relationship to the quality of each part of the package is tenuous. For example, Microsoft increased the value of the Windows package by adding Internet Explorer. Neither of the two products was optimised for quality but together they made a more valuable and irresistible offer to the customer.

These and other topics are covered in depth in the MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity & Innovation, which can be purchased (along with a Creativity and Innovation DIY Audit, Good Idea Generator Software and Power Point Presentation) from http://www.managing-creativity.com/

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author’s name and site URL are retained.

Kal Bishop MBA, is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached on http://www.managing-creativity.com/

It is common knowledge that creating and living according to a financial budget is a requisite for fiscal health and well-being. Budgets enable allocation of resources according to priorities. $x for shelter, $x for food, $x for clothing, $x for education, $x for savings, $x for transportation, $x for entertainment, etc.

What is not commonly applied, despite the preponderance of daily planners and time management software, is a temporal budget. Time is our most precious asset. It is also our only non-renewable asset. Each heartbeat, each second ticking on the clock denotes one moment less of our diminishing asset of time.

Each day presents us with 24 hours = 1,440 minutes = 81,400 seconds.

How are you spending these ever diminishing seconds? How have you budgeted your time? To what purpose do you pass the time of your life away?

I presume, since you have enough interest in your own well-being to subscribe to this eZine, that you have an interest in personal fulfillment.

There are aspects to your being; each aspect having its own needs. In order to be fulfilled and happy, these needs will need to be met. Time must therefore be allocated or budgeted to fulfill those needs if you wish to achieve any measure of fulfillment.

For the sake of simplicity, I will identify the main aspects of self as physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.

How much time in each do you have budgeted to meet your physical needs, your emotional needs, your mental needs and your spiritual needs?

Of course, just as there is no clear delineation between these various aspects of self, there is also the possibility of getting several needs met from the same activity; say for example…sex.

So, now that I have your attention, please seriously consider taking the time to manage your time. Examine your spending habits and create a time budget to help you manage your most valuable asset.

What amount of time do you have allocated for the fulfillment of your various needs? Do you have time set aside to exercise? Time budgeted for ongoing education? Time allocated for honoring the sacred?

Does it really make sense to squander all those hours in front of the idiot box? Are those daily commutes underutilized times? Could you be learning something from tape or CD to increase your IQ instead of “dumbing down” to withstand the boredom of another lap in the rat race by listening to talk radio?

1,440. Divvie it up. Prioritize it. Spend it well. Invest it in your own enhancement.

Every moment lost or wasted is gone forever. Each moment spent without purpose or intent is like money tossed in the fire.

© Leslie Fieger. All rights reserved worldwide.

Leslie is the author of The DELFIN Knowledge System Trilogy: The Initiation, The Journey and The Quest plus many more success publications. He also the co-author of The End of the World with Hugh Jeffries and Alexandra’s DragonFire with his daughter Ashley. Subscribe to his free and ad-free eZine at http://www.ProsperityParadigm.com or http://www.LeslieFieger.com.

Reprinting and republishing of this article is granted only with the above credit included. Permission to reprint or republish does not waive any copyright.