There was an article in the newspaper that described the changing layouts of offices to allow for greater collaboration amongst employees. I cringed, as I think “collaboration” has become one of the most overused buzzwords today, and few people really stop to consider what it means.
I always refer back to a document that I have been referencing for over two decades that describes the differences between cooperation, coordination and collaboration. The Amherst Wilder Foundation seeks to fund projects that are true collaborations, and to help potential grant recipients they compiled this brilliant chart that outlines how essential elements are different under the three conditions. In one page, the Foundation describes the variation in: vision and relationships; structure, responsibilities and communication; authority and accountability; and resources and rewards as well as how they manifest themselves in the three environments.
I think that if you read it, you will find that most things people currently describe as collaborations are truly cooperation or coordination. Working together is very different than creating a shared mission, pooling resources or dispersing control. Yet striving for genuine collaboration is needed more than ever, as it creates the synergy that is the only thing likely to create solutions for some of the greatest problems we face as a society.
The next time you want to pat yourself on the back for collaborating with a colleague, reference this guide before you do. The bar for true collaboration is high, but the rewards for reaching it warrant much more than new collaborative furniture.
— beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com
@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com
Collaboration marks the office of the future, by Steve Brown in the Dallas Morning News, reprinted the Telegraph Herald, July 3, 2016, p. 7D.
Month: July 2016
#1500 MD
I am taken aback when I realize that it would now take three full reams of paper to print out these dots. How did it get to be 1500? You know the answer: one sentence at a time, that formed a dot, repeated daily for 49 months, which brings us to today.
A friend was recently asked to write a few blog entries for his institution, and asked me for some advice on how to go about the task. When I thought about it, my process involves these steps:
1. Being aware of what is around me (reading, paying attention, observing)
2. Then turning that observation into an idea
3. Adding a lesson or making a point in conjunction with that idea
4. Writing the dot
5. Adding enhancements: tags, photos, links
My advice included two more steps that I should do, but don’t always:
6. Sharing the blog via social media
7. Repurposing content in as many ways as possible.
Thinking about the process I use for something that is so ingrained in my routine helped me to see portions that are easier or harder for me. I often have ideas without lessons (eg: it’s dot #1500 — how do I turn that into something meaningful), but once I get the thought formulated, writing it is the quickest portion. So rather than sitting down to write, it makes more sense for me to first think about linking lessons with the ideas I have.
What complex sequence do you frequently follow? Take a moment today to break it down into steps to see where your strengths and challenges fall. Instead of one day a time, take it one small piece at a time, and repeat, over and over again.
Onward to #2000!
— beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com
@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com
#1499 what’d you think?
Continuing on yesterday’s topic about the hiring process, I will share another tool that may be helpful at the other end of the hiring spectrum: interview evaluation forms. If your candidate meets with many people during the course of the selection process, you need to develop a way to gather feedback about the person. To do so, I use this form.
This form offers five important components:
1. The evaluator’s name. If they want to be anonymous, in my view, their comments can remain invisible too. If the evaluator doesn’t own up to what they are saying, I don’t read it.
2. Strengths: It is helpful to hear people articulate the positive aspects of the candidate vs. just what is wrong with them. Even candidates the evaluator may not like have strengths, and if they can’t list any then I question whether they are providing a fair evaluation.
3. Weaknesses: The reverse is true here. If the evaluator only sees glowing aspects, I wonder if they are star-struck instead of objective. And if there are legitimate weaknesses listed, they form a strong basis for reference check questions as well as for initial professional development should the person be hired.
4. Additional comments: I like an open-ended opportunity for the evaluator to make observations or raise questions that may not fit neatly into the other two categories.
5. Ranking: I believe it is important for the hiring manager to know how colleagues and others feel about the candidate. If several mark: “Definitely Do Not Want,” the supervisor needs to be prepared to deal with office tensions if that candidate is chosen.
Hiring staff is one of the most important roles of the supervisor. Use this form or something similar to ensure that you get valuable feedback from those involved in the selection process as well as to help you hit the ground running to address training needs and concerns your new hire may bring.
— beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com
@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com
#1498 sorting hat
If you ever serve on a search committee or are involved in hiring candidates, here is a process that I suspect will make your work easier than it is right now.
> When resumes come in, number them in a visible way. The numbers mean nothing, but serve as a quick way for committee members to a) discuss candidates [It is far easier to say: “I like #14” than it is to say: “I like Natalia Obertini Noguera”] and b) know whether they have reviewed all of the resumes [“#76 just came in, did you get that?” vs. “have you seen Schockemaliger?”]
> Instruct all committee members to independently review the resumes and place the number of each candidate into one of three categories: HIGH (I think we should explore further), MEDIUM (I could consider them) or LOW (I am ready to send a rejection letter now). Members can make notes about their candidates as they wish, but the goal is to get all the numbers placed in one of the three categories. (You can use this handy form.)
> When the committee meets to review candidates, the facilitator has the stack of resumes (or list of numbers if resumes aren’t printed) in numerical order. The facilitator begins with “#1” and committee members go around the room and indicate into what category they placed that person. All numbers are called out in order and resumes are sorted (without any discussion) until all three piles have been made. If anyone gives the person a HIGH, they immediately go into the HIGH pile. If everyone categorizes the candidate as a LOW, they are in the LOW pile and are out of consideration. A MEDIUM pile is for everyone else.
You could do the above sorting in advance, but I think it lends credibility and insight to the process to do it with everyone together. You quickly can learn nuances of the person’s rankings (e.g. if someone gives lots of HIGHS you know they are less meaningful than the person who only had two), and people feel less angst ruling people out when they see that others feel the same way.
> After the candidates have been sorted, discussion begins about each of the HIGH resumes (only). If this yields a robust enough pool for the interviewing or screening process to begin, discussion ends there. If not, discussion can continue to the MEDIUM pile. The LOW pile is set aside and no discussion is necessary.
I can say with certainty that this method facilitates the screening process and allows for everyone to have a say on their top people. We have hired many candidates that only one person marked as a HIGH, but because of the automatic inclusion into the discussion pile, the committee member was able to make their case and move the candidate forward.
The next time you are involved with selection, give these techniques a try. I’ll bet your days of fumbling around with names and digging or scrolling through piles of resumes to find someone are over. It’s not as good as the Hogwarts Sorting Hat, but darn close!
— beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com
@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com
#1497 born for this
I am a big fan of self assessments and profiles as I think they offer a mirror of understanding about ourselves that is sometimes hard to see on our own. I taught a class on leadership styles and it was one of my favorites because there are so many different ways to assess traits or characteristics. It was rewarding to watch the proverbial light bulb come on in students’ heads as they finally had language to describe something that was so engrained in how they behave.
I recently came across a new instrument, linked to the Born for This materials from Chris Guillebeau. A seemingly simple (and free!) 14 question quiz yielded a rather deep and insightful profile of the kind of work I was “born to do” and described with amazing accuracy my preferred: work style, organizational structure, workplace atmosphere and pace, and means of motivation. It also gave tips and recommendations in a report that was sent to my inbox. (Surprisingly, the same descriptions are not included in the book, although a lot of other interesting information is.)
I would encourage you to take a few minutes and take the quiz to equip yourself with a little greater understanding and some succinct language to describe your ideal work. Then take a look around and see if it explains why some aspects of your work are rewarding while others are not, and resolve to change what warrants it. (This is where the book is most helpful.)
We all spend a large portion of our life at work. Isn’t it worth a few moments to “find the work that you were meant to do?”
— beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com
@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com
See: https://bornforthisbook.com/quiz
Born for This by Chris Guillebeau, 2016
#1496 platform
I heard a speech from Aaron Thomas who was thrust into the spotlight when his father, a longtime high school coach, was murdered by one of his players. The junior Thomas was quite eloquent in delivering his message about controlling your attitude, even when you can’t control what happens to you, and trying to do right no matter what the circumstances.
He also spoke about the intersection between platform and opportunity. Thomas said that you need to be prepared with your message — to know what you value and what you wish to convey to others — so that if you are given the opportunity, you have a platform ready to share. His opportunity came with national attention at the time of his father’s death, but he said that he had learned lessons throughout his life that allowed him to speak of forgiveness and compassion at a time of unimaginable grief.
I think of all the life lessons each of us has accumulated, and wonder whether we have given them any intentional thought. If you were called to speak into a microphone today, do you have your platform developed of what matters to you and what you want to convey? In other words, if opportunity knocks, are you ready to answer?
The opportunity could come in terms of delivering reflections at a time of loss, or it could be that you are given a chance to lead a new venture. If asked what you stand for, could you say?
None of us knows when we will need to articulate our platform or under what circumstances this could be. Take a moment to reflect on what we would like our message to be, then live those values, with or without the formal microphone.
— beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com
@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com
#1495 response
There are vast amount of data collected in organizations and companies these days. As a data nerd myself, I have spent a fair amount of time pouring over spreadsheets and analytics.
As I wrote about way back in dot #111: None of the numbers mean anything unless they are put into context by contrasting them with something else. Knowing that headcount is X means little unless you understand how that compares to budget projections and how that number contrasts with last year. Having the enrollment-by-major is just data; it doesn’t become information until there is something to put it into context with another comparable statistic. Too many times reports are presented that only have one number without a reference point, and it does little to advance understanding.
The real key is how you react to the data you review. When you see a variance, do you prudently wait to see if things change, intentionally formulate a response or verbally panic and demand immediate action? It is an art to know which reaction is called for, and what the difference is between numbers. For some data points, a small movement is a big deal. For others, there is great fluctuation. A true leader knows what that difference is.
Learn as much as you can about the trends and patterns of your data to help you know what to do. There is a time to be prudent, proactive or to panic, but a mismatched response is more likely to do damage than move the data in the direction you desire.
— beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com
@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com
#1494 Dear Ann,
In addition to the Fourth of July celebration, today also marks the birthdate of Ann Landers, the spunky advice columnist who doled out words of wisdom to readers for nearly 50 years. At the time of her death in 2002, her column was read by 30 million people in over 1200 newspapers.
I wonder what advice Ann would give about the state of America today. Since she is not around to dispense it, I’ll take her place:
Dear Ann,
The country seems to have gone crazy. There is violence, intolerance, an impasse in Congress, divisive political elections and all kinds of bad things happening. What are we to do?
Signed,
A Concerned Patriot
Dear Concerned,
Alas, you are seeing the glass half empty. Especially on this Independence Day, take a moment to look around and see all that is beautiful about America. We are able to speak our political views without ramification, even if they are not embraced by others. We have the ability to vote, and can pick our leaders. There are vast opportunities for education, entrepreneurship, health care and culture. We have amber waves of grain, purple mountain majesties, spacious skies and shining seas. America has much that is great (already!) and if people think otherwise, there are literally thousands of ways to volunteer and contribute to a change. Ah, yes, Concerned Patriot, focus on being a patriot instead of being concerned. Fly your flag high today, feel the fireworks in your heart and do your part to be an active citizen in the greatest country on Earth.
— beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com
@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com
Source of Ann Landers’ facts: Chase’s Annual Events
#1493 take
I recently was thinking about the word “take.” It often has such negative connotations — that you are taking vs. giving or taking something that you shouldn’t be.
So I thought I would brainstorm all the things that you can take without it being bad. Here is my list.
You can take…
> pictures
> charge
> your time
> away (an idea, etc.)
> notice
> a stand
> a position
> leave
> a double take
> offense
> pity
> issue
> a break
> heart
> credit
> control
> over
> two
> a drink, a sip
> a step
Not a comprehensive list, of course, but I set out to come up with at least a dozen ideas and did.
What can you TAKE away from this dot? I hope it is another example of how focus helps with creativity and that routinely TAKING a break from your routine helps you to TAKE notice of new patterns and ways of thinking. TAKE time today to pay attention to all the things you can legally TAKE to heart.
— beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com
@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com
#1492 intersected
I recently had an experience that reinforced to me what a small world it really is. I was cleaning out my stack of papers that I saved from college and came across one of my financial aid awards. I noticed the signature on that award was from someone who ended up working for me as my financial aid director — 10 years later, and half a country away! Who knew?!
Even though we worked together for a decade, I never realized she originally worked at the school where I attended college, and she never made the connection that she would have been the one doing my aid award. But I saw her signature on literally thousands of aid letters when she worked for me, and so it jumped out at me right away when I was purging.
It brought back a saying I frequently quote: “You have to behave all the time” because you never know who you are with or how they will turn up in your life again. The person that works for you may become your boss. The jerk in the store could end up as your neighbor. A person in church may have a job to offer you. A fellow parent at Little League could one day be your child’s in-law.
It really is a small world and we are all connected in it, even if we don’t realize the ways in which our world overlaps. Treat others and carry yourself as if those intersections were visible, and you will be glad when they are.
— beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com
@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com