Manager Mondays: Deliberate Dialoguing, Part 2: Ask For Feedback The Right Way

This post is another in our Manager Mondays series about crafting intentional relationship-building communications to prevent polarization.  If you haven't read the first post on the subject, click here to do so.

What happens when you ask an employee a question?  

If yours is a polarized workplace, you probably get awkward pauses and averted eyes at first.  Then you get a neutral comment, a "safe" stock response, or remarks that seem unnaturally bright and chipper, like the one  depicted in this wall mural.

People don't want to tell the boss the truth.  They're worried that doing so will make them the scapegoat.

A story is told about the first American astronauts who were guests aboard the Soviet Mir space station.  They were appalled to find broken instruments that had been fixed with the aerospace equivalent of duct tape and baling wire.  When they asked their cosmonaut counterparts why they hadn't requested replacement parts, they were told that problems generally weren't reported -- because if they were, the cosmonauts doing the reporting were blamed.  It was assumed that the breakdown happened on their watch, and they could face disciplinary action for failing to perform maintenance correctly.

If questions from the boss are viewed as ticking time bombs, no wonder people don't want to engage in dialogue!

In a workplace where systems and equipment are expected to run perfectly, humans are the only target when things go wrong.

Does that describe your organization?  Does your upper management automatically assume that people are the problem?  Do you?

If so, you will continue to have a hard time engaging your employees in dialogue.  When you do corner them, you will continue to get no-answer answers.  They aren't stupid!

The way to reverse the trend is to start giving the impression that you are more interested in fixing problems than blaming people. And that means you must ask questions that invite analysis without implying blame.  Wording is extremely important here.

The #1 Question Technique That Gets Results

Here's a questioning strategy I recommend because it builds one-on-one relationships as it breaks new ground in management-employee relations.  And oh yes, it usually gets reliable answers.

1.  Set up a conversation. Start your interaction in a friendly, casual way.  Never ask a question "cold."   Start with an affirmation (see last week's post) or a neutral observation about a project that states a very obvious fact without any judgmental overtones.  This might be a comment about a project's state of completion, or a recent observable trend. It should include a time reference.  Some examples:  "It's been about a month since they finished installing the new machines."  "Job orders have picked up the past two weeks."  "You were at that department meeting the other day."

This type of opening comment gives employees the context of your upcoming question in a non-threatening way.  It helps them pull their thoughts away from what they were just concentrating on, and zero in on what the heck you are talking about.  Don't forget, you may have had your question in mind for a while, but for your employee, it's coming out of the blue.  Engaging the employee with light commentary will give them a chance to focus on the topic at hand and start framing their response.

2.  Make "face contact." After your comment, pause the verbal communication and take a moment to communicate non-verbally via your facial expression.  Your expression needs to be upbeat, curious, energetic, and focused on the employee.  If you don't know the type of expression I'm talking about, just picture how you would look at your best customer if he or she walked through the door right now.   That's right.  You need to treat your employees as though they were your best customers when you talk to them. That means not only making eye contact, but making a connection.  And if you're looking dull, distracted, or down your nose at them, your conversation is likely to be relationship-damaging, not relationship-building.  So practice in the mirror if you have to!  Then, keep your face working full time as you go on to the next step and...

3.  Ask the Universal, Neutral, Open-Ended Question.  I am very proud of this question.  It's such a winner -- but it's so deceptively simple, you might be tempted to scoff at it.  That said, here it is (and I wish I had a dramatic drum roll sound effect to accompany it):

"How's all this working out for you?"

I have worked very hard to perfect this question over the years. Giving it to you is like giving you a magic lamp, because if you set it up correctly, it will grant your wish for real, honest feedback.  

Look at it again.  Do you see what's going on here?  You are giving the employee an opportunity to talk about his or her experience within a receptive, constructive context.  That employee might still clam up -- and if so, you have more relationship-building to do -- but by now he has had a chance to mentally check in with the topic (step 1), and received your non-verbal permission to talk freely (step 2), so it's highly likely that the next words you hear will be heartfelt. 

4.  Pay attention!  Your role now, in case you haven't figured it out, is Support Person.  You will hear the employee's comments from a support provider point of view.  in his eyes, you are not the boss now -- you are the Person With Pull who might be able to help solve a problem.  

Once the employee starts talking, you can keep him talking as long as you stay in this role, and treat the employee as the expert.  Listen. Respond to show that you're listening and empathizing: "I see."  "I understand."  "That sounds like it was tough for you to do."  "Wow, that must have been surprising."  Restate the points that are made to make sure you understand them correctly.  But do it all in that friendly, attentive, talking-to-the-customer tone.

4. Refrain from weighing in.  Keep building the relationship by remaining non-judgmental.  Don't object, defend, or explain -- just keep listening. Respect and value whatever is being said as the reflection of that person's experience, whether you agree with it or not. When the person has reached the end of his or her comments, ask follow-up questions if it makes sense to do so, but concentrate on only two things:

• Which parts of the process are helping the employee do his job?
• Which parts of the process might need to be clarified or changed to help the employee do his job?

Honest employee feedback is a gold mine.  Keep the moment going so you can mine all the information you can.  Decide whether it's valid later.  Right now your task is to keep the conversation going and let the employee give you all the treasure he can.

5.  Thank the employee.  No matter what has been said, you need to show appreciation to the person who said it.  Even if it was information you already knew, giving it to you was an effort.  Say, "That's good feedback for me.  I appreciate it."

6.  Supply answers or assurance of support if you can.  If you have detected a cry for help in the employee's remarks, address it right away.  Reaffirm that your goal is to help the process work the best for everyone, then give direction or offer input in your role of Support Person and/or the Person With Pull as a way to help the employee address the issues and do his job well.  Even if the crux of the matter lies outside your sphere of responsibility, commit to a follow-up action if you can: "I'll check into it when we have our task force meeting next week."  

Other strategies to keep in mind when engaging in two-way Deliberate Dialoguing:

• Continue to avoid blame.  If you hear "She did this" or "He didn't do that," ask a question to defuse the finger-pointing and bring the focus back to the process. "So you're saying that some people are having a hard time with ____?"  
• Ask permission before you share the employees' comments.  Keep in mind that if they've divulged information to you alone, in a one-to-one conversation,  they may assume that it will be kept confidential.  When you want to take it further, explain your reasons for doing so (and these should focus on improving the process or resolving the issue), then let the employee choose between going on the record or remaining anonymous.  
• Don't penalize the employee for sharing -- in any way.  Don't make them late for lunch or take up their whole coffee break with your questions.  Above all, don't make them do extra work: "Can you summarize what you just said in an email and send it to me?" (Imagine how that will play in the inter-office grapevine!  Good luck getting any comments the next time you go fishing for them!)
• Respect that people are speaking off the cuff.  Cut everyone a lot of slack, and say so: "I know I haven't given you time to think about this.  I'm just looking for your gut reaction."  
• End the conversation by linking it to a mutual objective.  If you haven't already done so, make your purpose clear: "I'm trying to make sure we can meet our company goal of ______." 
• Invite more input.  Say, "If you think of anything else, here's how to contact me..." then give your availability and how to best get in touch over the next few days.    

To empower quality relationship-building conversations, you need to stay intentional.  Make systems and processes the focus of trouble-shooting, not people.  Your people are your most precious problem-solving resource at work.  By engaging in Deliberate Dialoguing, you can ensure that this resource is available to you when you need it the most.  So remember my guiding motto:

"Aim, Don't Blame."

Friday Fundamentals: Do The Dreaded Outline

This week's Friday Fundamentals considers the outline: one of the best -- and least appreciated -- tools in a communicator's toolbox.

Most of us Americans seem to have an instinctively negative reaction to creating an outline for our writing projects.  I strongly suspect that this is because from the time we were middle school students we were taught to hate outlines or hold them in contempt.

My own seventh grade English teacher, Miss Montesano, turned making an outline into a dreaded exercise. (She had a similar effect on my reading of A Tale of Two Cities and Johnny Tremain.)  In Miss Montesano's class, outlines were merely another brand of hated homework assignment, composed in a cloud of confusion, submitted for grading in the same state, and received back with apparently random red marks sprinkled all through them.  They seemed to have no relationship to actual finished writing projects, other than protracting their agony.

Throughout high school, the outlines I was compelled to use in English classes retained the same aura of mystery, if not meaninglessness.  Then, in college, my film screenwriting professor, Mike Lawrence, dismissed the idea of an outline outright and actually said that getting mildly drunk before starting to write was a much better conduit for creativity.  (Many of my classmates, all under legal drinking age, were happy to put his scholarly advice into practice. Personally, I stuck to writing sober, possibly explaining why I graduated Summa Cum Laude, and they didn't.)

Outlines Meet the Real World

I had to land my first job in professional film before I resurrected the outline idea.  It started with annoyance.  Our production team had been given a script that just didn't make sense.  When I tried to follow it in the editing room, it wasn't working.  The script was trying to go in one direction, but my camera crew's footage was going in another.  What was wrong?  I sat down and dissected the script, remixing its ideas into a new master plan that would allow the scenes to actually build a cohesive story and send the message we wanted to send.  There!  That was WAY better!  Why couldn't the screenwriter have said it this way to begin with?

Cranky and tired, I looked at the comments and  arrows scrawled all over my script, then at the neat hand-written notes on my pad.  A distinct wave of deja vu shimmered through me.  This was Miss Montesano's outline!

Charmed, I tried using an outline for the next script I wrote.  Not bad.  I used outlines for magazine articles I authored.  Decent.  I tried an outline for the Star Wars novella I was attempting to write.  That time it didn't work -- but neither did the novella -- so maybe that meant that the outline really had worked.  It was actually telling me the truth when it looked me in the eye and said, "This stinks."  Either way, I felt I was onto something.

So my first suggestion to my fellow American communicators out there is this:  Ditch all your assumptions about outlines.  If you're approaching outlining from an outsider's perspective, it might help to be aware that  many of us have been duped.  Here's the reality:

An outline is not an assignment.  An outline is a present.

It's a present you give yourself.  It's your own custom-made map to take you where you want to go.  It's a compass that helps you stay on the path and out of the ditch.  It's a menu for the buffet of your own imagination, telling you what's for dinner.  It's a pickup truck that holds all the bulky building blocks of your thoughts so you can drive them around and deliver them where they belong.  It's an aerial view of your journey, a satellite picture that shows you what's behind, what's ahead, and where you go from here.

Are you outline-challenged?  I understand.  I care.  That's why I want you to do this before you go any further: reread that last paragraph.  Pick whatever image works best for you.  Then make that image your mascot as you continue to read.  Got it? Great.  Let's keep going.

Besides being practical, an outline's other main benefit is emotional.  Many of us writers start to unravel about a third of the way into our writing.  The clarity we thought we had has slipped away, replaced by stark anxiety.   Like the fear of dementia that floods you when you can't find the car keys you just had in your hand, writers will often take a momentary concentration lapse and telescope it into a dire indicator that their talent has utterly deserted them, as they always suspected it would.

So, perhaps most important of all, an outline is an anxiety-reducer when a project starts to get murky or complicated.  Once you have an outline, then no matter how you may feel in whatever stage of a project's development, you can retain the feeling that you're already halfway to the finished product.  Just look at your outline, get your bearings and keep going.

Not Your Seventh-Grade Outline

I do feel the need to tell you that, for planning your own projects, you don't have to use the crazy outline format that many of us were taught.  Roman numerals? Alternating letters and numbers?  Capital, lower case,   and strings of little i letters?  Not needed.  The thing is to find a way to sequence your information that works for you.  Sometimes my best outlines are doodled flow charts with arrows, or strings of Post-It notes on a blank section of my office wall.  I also like Word documents populated with text boxes or tables.  Word's cut and paste shortcuts make it handier to outline on the computer, but if you are a pencil-to-paper type of thinker, by all means construct your outlines on a legal pad out on a park bench in the autumn sunshine.

An outline is an inspiration tool.  It's the Navajo dream-catcher of literary devices.

The next time you're ready to give up on a writing project, don't give your fears the upper hand.  Instead, go for a walk.  Have a conversation with yourself about what the main idea is, and how you might illustrate it.  When you feel ready, start capturing whatever thoughts seem most solid to you on paper or screen.  After you record what you think will be the key points, start playing with the order. The pieces will fall into sequence soon enough, as you start to shape the big picture.

That's all there is to an outline.  It's not a grit-your-teeth kind of thing --  whatever the Miss Montesanos in your life have told you to the contrary.  It's a great way to find freedom within structure, and give yourself a solid platform upon which to practice your artistry.

Got an assignment that has your wheels spinning?  Get yourself an outline.  And remember, no alcohol is required!

Manager Mondays: Deliberate Dialoguing, Part 1: Say What They're Doing Right

Welcome to Manager Mondays, where we focus on how to achieve and sustain remarkable workforce messaging.  Today we're starting a new series called Deliberate Dialoguing, all about having intentional relationship-building conversations to prevent workplace polarization.

Readers of this blog have heard me talk about polarization before.  It's a condition where the workplace is divided into two subcultures. In a typical polarized environment:

• Managers view employees as necessary cogs in the machine, and interact with them perfunctorily, but don't go out of their way to "make nice."  Why should they?  They even avoid making eye contact if they can help it.  
• Employees see management as unapproachable, unfriendly, or even hostile.  There's a baseline assumption that the bosses are hiding something -- and it's something bad.  Their posture towards management tends to become passive, defensive,  secretive, or even destructive as a result.

Does your on-the-job atmosphere feel like mutiny is in the air? 

Navigating this climate of mutual distrust, and trying to get business done within it, is an energy-sapping and efficiency-killing endeavor.  Smart companies try to stem that drain before it starts by initiating active measures to bridge it.  The trouble is, some of those measures are too shallow to address the real issues.  How will employee engagement programs ever warm up your workplace if they are kicked off by an HR department that is regarded as having a cold heart of stone?

If you want to weed out the seeds of polarization before they poison workplace culture and productivity, the best way to do it is to prevent those seeds from being sown in the first place.  I don't care how many softball leagues you sponsor, how many drawings for a free iPod you hold, or how many company picnics you stage, the roots of polarization will continue to grow until you change management behavior.

Good news!  You can go a long way to get everyone back on the same side by employing certain specific, intentional communication strategies at the management level.  I call this concept Deliberate Dialoguing, because it cultivates two-way communications instead of top-down communications, AND it sure doesn't happen by accident.

Deliberate Dialoguing is the process of engaging in informal conversations with your direct reports that strengthen bonds and allow interchanges of ideas and opinions to flourish within a safety zone of respect.

If you lead people on the job, you can become proficient at Deliberate Dialoguing, no matter what your circumstances, and reap the rewards of increased employee responsiveness and collaboration.  You can do this even if your company doesn't recognize the value of relationship-building communication, or offer you, as a manager, specific training on how to do it.  Just keep reading this Manager Mondays series and you'll get a toolkit of tips that you can put in practice. And you will love the results!

Of course, all of these tips are based on respect.  If you have an attitude of contempt toward those you lead, that will always influence your non-verbals and trump any verbal strategy you might attempt.  Because, as they say, "Actions speak louder than words."  So before you try any of these ideas, you need to do an internal audit to check your own respect level regarding your direct reports.

Here's a three-question self-evaluation.  Take it now.  Just use your gut reactions.  Go!

Respect Spot-Assessment

Thinking about the people you lead and work with, read each statement below and indicate whether you agree or disagree:

1.  I believe that their lives are as valuable as my own, and I can honestly say that I do not mentally put them in a separate category or caste.

 __ Agree Totally       __ Agree Somewhat       __Disagree Somewhat        __ Disagree Totally

2.  I believe that they are capable of displaying unique skill, talent, judgment and insight that can contribute value to our enterprise as well as to me personally.

__ Agree Totally       __ Agree Somewhat       __Disagree Somewhat        __ Disagree Totally

3.  I know that they deserve to be treated the way I myself would want to be treated if I were in their position, and I hold myself accountable to do so.

__ Agree Totally       __ Agree Somewhat       __Disagree Somewhat        __ Disagree Totally

If you could not agree totally to all three statements, it may be too soon to try your hand at Deliberate Dialoguing, since it depends on having a measure of empathy and genuinely caring about people.  I suggest you look at your answers and take measures to discover why your attitude is the way it is, perhaps discussing this issue with a mentor or trusted adviser   (If your lack of respect is based on employees' bad performance, you need to think about how to address it from a performance improvement standpoint.  If it's for any other reason, you need to think about how to address your own "humanity shortfall"!)

If you could totally agree to all three statements, then here's the first tip for weeding out polarization:

Deliberate Casual Affirmations: I DIG What You Did

Start to establish new communication patterns by engaging in friendly, reassuring mini-dialogues that center around standard procedures and well-known performance goals.  

1. Make a list of things you can catch people doing right.  What are five or six key behavioral expectations that are important to your enterprise?  Whether they involve regulatory compliance, procedural standards, or current high-priority business directives, these should all be observable behaviors that should show up in the course of your troops' regular assignments.  For each one, ask yourself: What will good execution look like?  Put them on your radar, then get going.

2.  Go out on Positive Patrol.  With your list in mind, carry on with your day, but watch for instances when people are doing those key things they way they should be done.  I know that as a manager it's your job to notice the trouble spots -- but if your aim is to reduce polarization, you need to ditch your inner critic for a while and listen to the glass-half-full side of your personality.  Re-calibrate your sensors to look for the bright spots as well. Your troops need to be reassured that you're not just out to play "Gotcha!" all the time.  They need encouragement.   So benignly walk your beat, asking yourself, "What's on the plus side today? Where are things looking up?"  When you spot a behavior that fits that description, make a note, and take action. 

3.  Say that you DIG what you see.  Approach the person who performed the behavior with a big smile. (Note: your smile should always be bigger than you think is necessary!)  Then give him or her your focused attention as you say these three things:
1. What you saw they Did (state the observed behavior)
2.  Why it was Important (link the behavior to an outcome that is in line with the company mission)
3.  How Great it made you feel (your personal gratification in observing the behavior)

4.  Leave on a positive note.  After you give this quick casual affirmation, retreat. Leave the person glowing.  You can wreck the effect in a heartbeat if you follow it with a "But..." comment that injects a negative note.  No matter how innocent the circumstance, or how slight the comment, if you follow an affirmation with a correction, guess which one the person will remember?  Resist that impulse.  Instead, if you want to follow up your DIG comment with anything else, make it a question.  And make sure it's the right kind of question.    (But that's intruding on the subject of next week's post, so tune in again next week for more details!)

You're OK, I'm OK, We're OK 

As an example of the DIG approach to giving affirmations, let me relate a true story of a real-life casual affirmation that I witnessed myself just the other day.  A friend of mine, Carol,  recently got a new job managing a retail establishment, and I met her for lunch at her new store's cafe.   As we toured her part of the sales floor, Carol paused to smile and greet a cashier by name.  "I've noticed what a difference you've made in these displays by the register," she told her.  "You've really straightened them up, and they're always restocked. Good displays sell, and it's great to see that you're taking the extra time to keep things looking so fresh."

>>>  Did you see the elements of the DIG formula embedded in those remarks?  If not, go back and read through them again.  This time I'm sure you'll find them.

How do you think the sales clerk felt when she heard her behavior affirmed in this way?

I'll tell you: her whole face changed and she became much more animated as she replied that yes, she had done some changing around, she liked to experiment, and she was just trying to do what looked good.  Carol resisted the temptation to give more direction at this point.  Instead, she sailed off with a smile. Later, the same clerk rang up my purchase with an increased energy level and an added gleam of interest in her eye  -- or at least that's the way it seemed to me.

Casual affirmations help employees own their good execution.  Casual affirmations also set behavioral benchmarks that stick in employees' memories and become internal job aids to help them hold themselves accountable to their own level of excellence, and self-correct their behavior later on, as needed.

But the most important role of the casual affirmation is to establish an environment of appreciation, which strengthens the bond between managers and employees and defuses any polarization that might be brewing. 

Carol and I talked about the healthy organizational culture at her new company, and how different it was from her last job, where politics ruled the day and good managers like Carol were held to ill-defined standards and often browbeaten into mute desperation. Carol said that at her new job, her supervisor made it a point to give recognition daily, telling every one of his direct reports what was working especially well or where he was seeing improvement.

My friend Carol's own body language reflected that change in her environment.  At her old establishment, she had always seemed aggravated, her face pinched and her posture stooped.  Here, she looked five years younger and walked with a lightness of step.  Even her hair looked bouncier.

Which just goes to show that giving and getting encouragement can not only defeat polarization but also have a positive ripple effect in many other unexpected ways as well.

Can you DIG it?

We've only just begun.  More about Deliberate Dialoguing next week. Until then, feel free to leave a comment!

Friday Fundamentals: Writing Is Not About Perfection

Welcome to Friday Fundamentals, a feature of this blog that focuses on basic tips to help you communicate effectively.  This time I want to share some thoughts about one of my personal writing mottoes, which is: "There's a million different ways to say something."

I tend to quote that motto to myself when I'm getting too wrapped up in writer's perfectionism.

Do you ever feel that you need to find the one perfect phrase that will capture your idea as nothing else can?  If you do, I can relate. Sometimes I can get so steeped in my search for perfect expression that I end up stifling my creativity.  I must often remind myself that there is no one right way to say anything.  In fact, the richness of our English language gives me many possibilities, each one as potentially valid as the next.

When I struggle too hard to turn my thoughts into just the right words, it's not good.   I tend to freeze in fear under the severe spotlight of my own criticism.  I lose my focus and become fretful. I clench up in frustration, and become fatigued by the effort of trying to steer, white-knuckled, down the too-narrow road of my own high expectations.

Here are some ideas that I -- and you -- can use to get out of that state of paralysis, and back into the easy-going, curious, nimble frame of mind that is the key to composing a fine and fun piece of prose.

1. Writing is Care-Giving

When I get so charged up about writing wonderfully, I need to pull myself aside and give myself a smack-down talking to.  I need to remind myself that writing is not about impressing. It's about helping. Writing is, in a sense, an act of caring.  You care about your message -- you care about getting other people to understand it -- so you carefully construct a verbal framework that helps people get from where they are (in their understanding right now), to where you want them to end up (after you tell them what you want to tell them).

An awesome author named C.S. Lewis once said that the act of writing is like shepherding a flock of sheep down a country lane.  Your main job, he said, is to close off all the gates and doors that lead to the side alleys and backyard gardens where you don't want your charges to go.  When you've removed all of those false assumptions that would allow your readers to go off track, and you cause them to understand the correct thing by default, you have done your job. Searching for the right words is not as important as removing the wrong words so your "flock" can find their way safely home.  (I wish I could find the source of this C. S. Lewis  quote which I remember reading long ago, but it's lost to me now.  If anyone knows where to find it, please tell me!)

If you can put yourself in your reader's shoes -- or brain, I guess -- and serve up a series of words that helps him find his way, then you are doing your utmost to care for him.  And there is no one right way to care for people.  Rather, caring puts the emphasis on the outcome, not the output.

2. Writing is a Craft

As writers, we need to remind ourselves that we're engaged in a craft, and each of us is formulating a distinct style of craftsmanship.  Differences are good.  Like the photo above, where each row house wears a different color that proudly reflects the tastes of its owner, each of us applies a different perspective to the writing we do, and it's all beautifully and randomly appropriate.  Writing's not just plain, stark construction.  Neither is it pure, sweeping creation.  It's a mix of the two.  Some days we'll feel more in tune with our inner artist than others.  But carpenters can still make a bench, even when they don't feel inspired.  We need to pay practical attention to our craft, and be diligent about pursuing artistic excellence -- but not to the point of getting upset with ourselves.  There's a job to be done.  Let's bang it out first, and sand it down later. Just get the project underway.

3. Writing is Kitschy

Don't take yourself too seriously, you writing fool.  It's all so subjective, after all.  Fads, fashions, common knowledge, connotations, persuasions and your own perceptions all change constantly.  You're not writing for the ages.  You're writing for the moment.   Just get over it.  Realize that you may very well recoil in embarrassment some day in the future when you read again the words you just put a final polish to ten minutes ago.   It's very likely that some of the phrases that sound so elegant at this present stage of your writing career will cause you crushing mortification later on.  It doesn't matter, because the opposite is also true: someday you will unearth a utilitarian piece of writing that you forged in haste today, never giving it a second thought -- and you will be astounded by its brilliance. In the kitschy words of a current catchphrase: "What-ever!"

4.  Writing is Just Kindergarten, All Over Again

It never pays to get too rigidly self-absorbed with your writing.  We're all kindergartners, trying our best to write the alphabet on our paper, our tongues sticking out and our erasers at the ready.  What was it that our kindergarten teachers used to say?  "Just do your best."  And then, when we cast our eyes enviously over at our classmate's solid capitals marching stoutly across the page, then woefully looked back at our own limping letters, what did our kindergarten teachers do?  They circled the best A on our tablet and said, "That's wonderful!  Try to make the rest of them like that."   

We need to speak the same self-encouragement into our own writing efforts, today and every day.  And when we get frustrated because those efforts don't result in perfection, we need to remember:  There is no perfection.  There's just a story to tell.  Then we need to affirm, "There's a million different ways to tell this story... " and forge ahead, applauding ourselves for giving it a shot.

How do YOU talk yourself off the ledge of literary perfectionism?  Leave a comment and let us know!  

Manager Mondays: The Gap in Customer Expectations, Part 2

In this week's Manager Mondays post, we tell a horror story as we revisit the problems that pop up when employee performance doesn't match your brand messaging.

This blog's first post on this subject talked about the critical importance of making sure your employees are aware of your website's current content.  But there's another dimension to the gap between your glossy brand image and your customer's actual experience.

Swindled By The Shack

My son Pete arrived last Tuesday from Europe, where he now resides full-time.  He was looking forward to a month-long visit back in the United States.  One of his first tasks was to start up his iPhone, since his regular cell phone service contract doesn't extend to this continent.  He wanted to get it to function stateside for four weeks, data plan and all.  Where to go for help?

Radio Shack was nearby, and having been told about its new brand emphasis as the one-stop shop for smart phones, Pete walked in. He hadn't been inside a Radio Shack for years, so the store's drastic redesign elements were new to him.  Expensive shelving installations, displays, and signage gave the premises a fresh, techno feel. Radio Shack has done a lot to revamp its image in the past few years, both on its website and at its locations.  It certainly seemed like a cool and different world in there.

The coolness extended to two staff people who were stationed behind a modern-looking circular counter in the center of the sales floor.  One of them, a woman, looked up.  She did not smile.  (Maybe it's not cool to smile?)  "What's up?" She said. (Her greeting sounded more like a tweet.)

Pete held up his phone and explained what he wanted.  The Radio Shack man asked one question: "Is it a 4 or a 4S?"  He pulled out a SIM card in a blister pack, which he sold to Pete for $25.00.  Pete asked what his new American phone number was, and he was told that to get it he would need to install the SIM card, then call AT&T.  Transaction over.

After going home and following these instructions, Pete learned the following during his call with AT&T:

• he didn't have a new phone number;
• his phone wouldn't work without a contract;
• his new SIM card hadn't come with a contract;
• AT&T could sell him a contract;
• if he gone to an AT&T store first, he would have been sold the same contract -- and given the SIM card for free.  

Pete went back to Radio Shack to complain and ask for a refund.  "Sorry, we can't refund SIM cards once they're out of the box," the "What's Up?" woman told him. When Pete said that AT&T would have given him one for free, her male compatriot pointlessly pointed out that SIM cards cost Radio Shack $24.99 and they weren't making any money on the sale.

Politely, Pete clarified that since he had clearly stated that he wanted to equip his iPhone with an American phone plan, he felt that he had been misled to believe the SIM card came with a plan.  He said that when the Radio Shack people said to call AT&T, he had assumed that the call would be about activating a plan -- not purchasing one from scratch. So now he was wondering, if they couldn't take their SIM card back, what else could the Radio Shack people do to make it right?

What do you think should have happened at this point?  Should the Radio Shack representatives have:

• made an exception, taken back Pete's card, and issued a refund?  
• called AT&T to try to get him a better deal?
• offered to pay for at least part of the AT&T plan?
• offered him one of their own no-contract phones for free for a month?  
• offered him store credit?
• given him a coupon?
• at least let him pick out a nice iPhone case from their beautiful redesigned product display wall, to partially compensate him for his trouble?

Here's what did happen.  The Radio Shack man said:  "Look, you asked for a SIM card and I sold you a SIM card."


Whoa.  That's right.  Go back and read it again.  Radio Shack didn't give him anything, except a revised history of the problem which placed the blame on Pete, the customer. Pete's communication had been faulty. So now Pete was stuck.

This is Exhibit A for what NOT to do, and Radio Shack did it.

What's the moral of this story for you?

If you're a sales manager, no matter how well-informed your sales staff may be about your product line, if they don't know how to listen to the client, then tailor your company's products and services to the client's needs, they're still not knowledgeable enough.

Lost Connections

People expect a lot when they speak with your company representatives. They expect what they hear from your people to match what they saw on your website.  They expect your folks to at least try to fulfill the promises you made in your advertising.  But most of all, they expect to get something they want or need.

In my opinion, you're already approaching the danger zone when your staff starts a conversation with "What's Up?" instead of "What can I do for you?"  And you're certainly in trouble when your staff is so eager to sell something that they don't take the time to make sure it's what the customer had in mind.

A huge part of brand identity is simple quality of service.  If your staff can't treat your customers right, your glitzy new promotional campaign doesn't matter, and neither does your store decor.  No matter how glamorous your website is, if your staff isn't paying attention to your customers' needs, your company is still doomed to sink into the crowded field of mediocrity that makes up the bulk of any industry.  Without skilled, enthusiastic and responsive service, all your highly-engineered "wows" will turn into one big expensive "meh."  Or worse.

Pete held onto his useless SIM card, took it to an AT&T store and bought a plan from AT&T.   With his iPhone finally working, he immediately called several friends to arrange his stateside social calendar.  The next day, he met up with his old college posse at a Manhattan dance club.  The day after that, he had breakfast at a diner with relatives, then attended a wedding in Brooklyn.  And so on.  And he did it all with his iPhone in his hand.

How many people do you imagine have heard his "I Was Swindled By Radio Shack" story by now?

How many of your clients are carrying around -- or driving in --or looking at -- or using on a daily basis -- things that remind them of the disappointing service they got from your company?

Have you communicated a clear service delivery plan to your client-facing staff?  Do they know that you want them to listen first, and sell later?  Or are they going for the sale so diligently that they are wrecking your service image in the process?

Training programs cost time and money, so a lot of companies don't have them (though I think they would see a big spike in revenue if they did).  If you're in charge of a sales team, and your company hasn't provided a customer service training program, guess what -- you're their training program.  You need to give adequate messaging about the importance of customer service so that your sales staff at least knows to do four things:

1. Listen to the customer.
2. Meet the customer's needs.
3. If you can't meet the customer's needs, find someone who can.
4. Never blame the customer.

If your troops can't cover those four bases, you shouldn't stay in business.


By the way, if anyone out there is looking for a great customer service training program for their client-facing staff, check out this link:  http://www.workdevgroup.com/ 


Even if you're not in charge of a sales staff, if you're in charge of ANY staff at all, tell your people to treat people like people.  Make sure they have the systems and tools to do it.  Make sure their compensation plan and employee recognition programs reward them for good people skills, not just productivity -- because in the long run, success comes from helping people, not from being productive.

Keep communicating the importance of putting people first, not only by your lofty words, but by your living example.

When was the last time you coached your team on how to listen?

When was the last time you listened to your team?

Friday Fundamentals: Remarkable Handouts

Welcome to Friday Fundamentals, where we present tips and tools to help your communications achieve maximum impact.  Today we're handing out ideas about meeting handouts.

In Bel Kaufman's 1964 novel  Up The Down Staircase, the opening chapter finds the protagonist, new high school teacher Sylvia Barrett, distributing materials to her first class of students.  She starts to announce, "I'm passing out..." but gets no further as a class comic shouts "She's passing out!  Give her air!"

For a teacher, trainer, speaker, or other event communicator, the stress of producing and passing out effective participant handouts is real.  The whole situation can be enough to make any live presenter faint.

Why are handouts so problematic?  Because they:

• load an extra layer of complexity onto any live presentation project; 
• are a pain to print, copy and ship;
• balloon an event's budget (for the above printing, copying and/or shipping, plus storage fees in some cases);
• need an accurate audience count to avoid producing too many or too little;
• tend to cause delivery angst -- such as when you're minutes away from start time and your UPS tracking report still says "on truck;"
• often require time-consuming collating and staging at the venue;
• are cumbersome for recipients to handle as they pile up on laps or under seats;
• present difficulties if users must write on flimsy pages without desks or tables to lean on.

For all these reasons and more, handouts are usually the source of eleventh-hour issues which you, as a content creator or event producer, would much rather avoid.  That's why lots of people skip handouts altogether.  Others contract with print on demand services to produce them, but this can be extremely pricey.  I've staged events where the print-on-demand handbooks cost significantly more than each person's catered dinner.

For many projects, fluidity is an added issue.  It seems that event organizers always feel that they can keep adding to or changing their presentation right up until show time -- and then they want the handouts to be revised, too.  This means they can't be finalized until right before the event.  Sometimes,even when you hold off production till the last minute, your handouts still turn out to be outdated and inaccurate in some embarrassing fashion.  Once, at a national manager training conference, I sat in a hotel storeroom and clipped out the full-page bio of the CFO from a couple of hundred staple-bound booklets -- he had mysteriously left the company the day before.

So I want to present my preferred method of handout production, which mitigates some of these issues and eliminates others altogether.  

The Pocket Packet

Solution # 1: Pre-stage the folder.  If you invest in a large-quantity purchase of two-pocket folders, you can produce professional-looking handouts quickly and flexibly.  A folder is easy to stuff, convenient to carry, makes a strong impression, provides a sturdy surface for writing, and is much less likely to be thrown out or left behind -- meaning it will automatically strengthen your presentation's effectiveness simply because your recipient will keep the material.  To go the folder route:

a. Shop the office supply websites for good deals ahead of time.  If you have no budget to speak of, just choose the cheapest two-pocket folder you can buy and order it as-is.  Try to share costs with another colleague within your organization who also has a handouts-inclusive project.  Or get a donor to buy the folders as a sponsor, and promise that you'll include the donor organization's logo or promotional flyer in the finished packet.

b. If you have the budget for it, you can have folders custom printed with your own organizational logo.  Don't print anything event-specific on the folder, though -- you want to be able to use your extras for other projects once your presentation is over.   

c. You can customize plain folders with your own own labels, produced with Microsoft Word's Labels function (found on the Mailings tab in Word 2010), Avery precut labels, and your own printer.

Solution # 2: Separate the elements production.  Now that you have a vehicle in which to house your handouts, you can put each one on a separate production schedule as necessary.  

a. If you have many contributors to your event's materials, you can simply make each originator responsible to get you their finished material by a comfortable deadline, in appropriate quantities.  This removes you from the crisis-crunch of last-minute revisions.  Your contributors now have that hassle, not you.

b. If you will be the one supplying the content, you can plan to subdivide it according to relative time sensitivity.  This means that you can hold off printing anything that is not yet finalized, but reduce costs by printing ahead of time any elements that are approved and ready to go. No more holding up the works because you have one blank spot that still needs to be filled in. 

Solution # 3: Use "pick and pack your own packet" distribution.  Depending on your event, you can often stage your handouts so that recipients pick them up and put them together as they enter the room.  

a. Start the ball rolling at the reception desk, where you hand each person a folder when they register.  Then direct them to a table by the room entrance where your produced pages are set out in stacks, buffet-style.

b.  The folder holders go down the line, stuffing their own materials.  Surprisingly, no one ever complains about this do it yourself approach. You save time, and your audience gets a bit of a teaser about the presentation as they look over the handouts prior to start time. 

c.  If you don't want to reveal some handout contents until later, give the folder first, then do a pass-around for each insert at the appropriate point in the presentation. 

d.  If different subgroups need different sets of handouts, you can set up your pick-up point with signs to guide recipients to the exact complement of pages targeted for them.  This beats trying to create different subsets of materials ahead of time in sufficient quantities for each audience type.

e.  If the handouts are better distributed after the presentation, place the folders and contents on a table by the exit during the event, so they're ready for recipients to grab on their way out.  Tip:  You can still organize them buffet-style and have people stuff their own folders, but you might want to have personnel standing by to remind tired event-goers to take all the sheets that are coming to them.

Solution #4:  Use email as an easy remedy for materials shortages.  If the quantity was underestimated and you run out of some materials, circulate a sign-in page so that people can request emailed copies.  Since your materials are only pages for insertion -- not printed booklets -- they can easily be emailed as attachments.

Handouts are sometimes vital, and even when they're not, they enhance live presentations in so many ways that they are worth the time and effort to produce.  With  the Pocket Packet system, you can create customized handouts that look great, fit everyone's needs -- and never cause you to faint.  Remarkable!

Do you have other handout solutions that you love?  Share them!  Leave a comment below.  

Manager Mondays: "Friendly-Formatting" Documents for Success

This week's Manager Monday's post is a a further elaboration on the ideas from last week's Friday Fundamentals post.  If you haven't read that post yet, you can click here to link to it now.  Read about Visual Space and Symmetry first, then read on to find out more about the concept of formatting documents well for good workforce messaging.  

The other day, while sorting through past projects, I came across a booklet that I had produced some years ago.  It was an orientation guide that outlined the responsibilities for a particular role at my old firm called the Location Coordinator.

Before I produced this booklet, this role was usually assigned to individuals by their manager in a very informal way -- typically via a hurried phone call.  Since it was poorly defined, involved many varied tasks, and managers tended to put their own spin on what was involved, people hardly ever knew exactly what they were agreeing to; they tended to take on the role as a favor, or to build up their hours to become benefits-eligible.  So it was no surprise that after a while each Location Coordinator seemed to have their own definition of exactly what their job entailed.  Plenty of rogue, unauthorized behaviors resulted as different people interpreted responsibilities differently.

The orientation booklet's mission was threefold:

1.  Make sense of the mishmash that this role had become, and give everyone a clear and standardized picture of what success looked like.

2.  Give managers an easy tool to use when they walked through the role's responsibilities with potential candidates.

3.  Give existing Location Coordinators a document that they could check to see if their own assumptions about the role were complete and accurate -- and that they could use as a basis to self-correct if they had been doing things wrong.

To accomplish these objectives, and to help users have the most positive experience, I developed the booklet using a distinctive process that I call Friendly Formatting.

1.  First I documented all of the actual Location Coordinator tasks.  Which parts were real, and which parts were urban legend?

2.  I then sorted all the actual tasks into different buckets according to category, such as Promotional Activities, Inventory Control, Facility Upkeep, Manager Support, etc.

3.  I gave each category a single page in the booklet, and put all of its relevant information on that one page only.  

4.  Each page's task overview followed the same progression:
   - the category title;
   - a check list of all regular tasks in that category, with short descriptions;
   - an additional "From Time To Time" check list for other tasks in that category that needed to be performed less often.

5.  To enhance the user-friendly tone of the document, I included some other design elements on every page:
     - a clip art illustration that represented the category in a perky, can-do way;
     - a Getting Started section with tips about what to do first;
     - a bank of blank lines for note-taking;
     - plenty of white space between sections and in the margins.

The booklet was a success.  Its cohesive formatting allowed managers to walk through the job with their prospective new hires and explain, point by point, how everything fit together.  Now all it took was a short conversation for a new hire to feel informed and equipped to succeed.  Existing Location Coordinators could now make sure they were spending their time in task-appropriate ways.  If questions arose, they could point to their booklets to verify whether something was their responsibility.

Certain key elements of this piece's "friendly formatting" style resulted in particularly big wins for the project:

• The One Task, One Page structure meant that each big idea had its own space to live.  The structure helped users take it one page at a time, and this made the role seem more doable.  Otherwise, the wide variety of tasks might have seemed arbitrary and confusing, and newbies might easily have been overwhelmed by all their responsibilities.
• The checklists gave reassurance.   They enabled both employee and manager to feel confident that nothing was omitted, and that each knew what the other expected.  They gave solid boundaries to each aspect of the Location Coordinator role, and ensured that no one would be blindsided later by new obligations they hadn't known were part of their commitment.  They also limited the range of initiatives that new Location Coordinators could assign themselves, since the booklet clearly said to consult the manager before doing anything else.
• The spatial balance on each page implied simplicity.  Having lots of empty space in the margins and between each section invited users to "sit down and get comfortable" with each group of ideas before going on to discover the next.   When managers used it as a walk-through orientation document, these breaks gave them natural cues to ask their candidate, "Any questions?  Are you good with that?" before they moved on
• The Getting Started section helped people ease themselves into transition mode as they mentally rehearsed the first action steps they would need to do.  It was, in essence, a transitional game plan.  People want action-oriented specifics when they contemplate taking on new responsibility.  This section gave them that.
• The blank Notes section encouraged ownership and initiative by inviting people to record their own ideas, reactions,  questions and strategies.   If something came up later that the text didn't address, they could add new information as they continued to make the role their own.   This was also the place to record more mundane location-specific details that would enhance their ability to do their job, such as when dumpster pick-up happened, or the phone number of the plumber.  

In his best-selling book The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell talks about how small details make a big difference in people's perception, acceptance, and compliance with behavioral cues. Friendly formatting is all about the small details. The way information is formatted can give a powerful boost to its ultimate effectiveness.  This is especially true when dealing with subjects that require readers to accept change or visualize transition.   When you're depending on a printed document to take your audience to a new level of  awareness, then the all aspects of your presentation are pivotal -- from the font size, to the paragraph size, to the number of items in a checklist, and even the amount of white space around your words.

Leaders, you need to be sure to feed people ideas in right-sized bites so they can absorb them thoroughly and act on them appropriately.  Friendly formatting helps you do that.

A word of warning, though: friendly formatting requires adequate space.  You may have to increase your page count to limit the amount of words on a page, so that you can curtail visual density and keep your tone user-friendly.  For printed documents, this can become a cost factor when you run into additional charges for added pages, so be prepared to get push back from the budget-watchers.  Don't give up your space without a fight, though.  The cost of going to extra pages might seem frivolous, but the return on investment is real.  People pay much more attention to any content if it's presented with enough visual "breathing room."  

Need-to-know information deserves good formatting.  This is part a homegrown communications philosophy I have developed which I call Stage To Engage.  If you want to engage your audience, you need to stage your messaging so that it stands out, stays interesting, and sticks in their memory. But that's a subject for another blog post!

Think about the current vehicles that your company uses to give direction to employees.  Are they online training courses?  Emails?  Posters?  Handouts?  Company website pages?

No matter what medium is used to present them, performance guidelines need to be easy to read and apply.  Are yours formatted for ease of use, so that learners can navigate them quickly to find what they need?  Do they allow transitioning employees to absorb small chunks of newness at a time?  Do they encourage learners to quickly put into practice what they learn, before the new information "goes stale"?

Champion the use of friendly formatting techniques for your workplace's performance-related communications.  If people can easily read, reference and understand what is expected of them, they will be much more likely to remember it and do it.

And isn't higher performance more important than lower page count?