The Why Of Work: Actions and Outcomes

"Leaders create a line of sight by crafting "if...then...." logic"

Our performance metrics are often based on then. My role is to identify for myself and my team what our if's are to ensure that we get there. Once I know this it becomes my responsibility to share these.

The last entry I did on this book I published my action item. A simple task of bringing up the idea of higher quality office furniture/ decor as a method to support a more positive work environment for our team. It took much longer than I anticipated for me to bring it up, and ultimately it came up during an e-mail discussion about recent employee engagement survey results.

Learning that I feel a sense of obligation to those random folks who read this, the action challenge that I am going to set for my self is going to be a team update call in December looking at the first 4 months of the Fiscal Year. Acknowledging that our metrics are based on Outcomes (Thens) and sharing what our actions (if's) need to be for us to find success.

Our actions define our outcome even when variables are beyond our control

The Why of Work: Physical Work Space

Its been several months since I made a post based on my readings of the Why of Work by Wendy and Dave Ulrich. I had several big events going on within my work that have needed my complete focus. As I am now returning to a more standard rhythm I picked up the book and flipped to the next dog eared and highlighted page to see what Dave and Wendy had written that almost a year ago caught my attention.

This section is on the attitude and value of physical space. As a change maker in your institution you can either let the physical space haphazardly evolve or make some strategic decisions that can generate long-term benefit for your institution.

The first argument that caught my attention was this statement "Investing in seating and work surfaces that fit the individual worker may be more costly than one size fits all office furniture but can pay for itself in workers' compensation alone (back pain leads to almost a quarter of workers' comp claims and a third of the dollars spent).

This is mind blowlingly clear that every leader when evaluating their budgets should be taking office furniture into consideration. But why than is this such a systemic challenge in the work place 1/4 of workers comp claims could be mitigated with better office furniture?!?!

Having just come out of our annual budget allocation and planning meeting I can attest first hand that these types of "luxury " expenses were not event on the radar. Often in organizations budgets things such as facilitates, and workers comp are held by individuals who are not directly linked to the workforce and their responsibility and scope would not enable them to make personalized office furniture decisions.

Mid level management who might be best positioned to make these types of decisions are often given limited budgeting authority and their discretionary funds are so limited that they would be faced with the choice of a few new chairs or funding  holiday socials and recognition events. In the non for profit world this becomes even a larger challenge as its extremely hard to fundraiser so that your staff can have the most advanced office furniture. While in the long run it will make your organization more successful at mission delivery the donor is typically not  interested in giving to office chairs.

I try to take this information and turn it into action. First thing I did was find what I think is my dream desk chair: The Herman Miller Embody -  http://myergonomicchair.com/ergonomic-chairs/herman-miller-embody-chair-review/

And while this is not going to come into my life this year, I hope that with my next promotion I can have this chair.

The second thing to do is a bit more complicated and that's determining how I can influence better office furniture within my organization. I think the first step might be a conversation with my direct manager during our next monthly review to see her thoughts on this information; and I will need to do a bit more research in the mean time.

Update:

Links to supporting documentation on better office furniture - 

http://www.public-health.uiowa.edu/hwce/office-ergonomics/supporting-literature-for-office-ergonomics/ 

http://www.gsa.gov/graphics/pbs/Innovative_Workplaces-508_R2OD26_0Z5RDZ-i34K-pR.pdf 

The Why of Work: Communication

Off and on since September I have been on a journey reading and processing the book "The Why of Work" By Dave and Wendy Ulrich.

After quickly being captured by some startling research and time contemplating the section titled 'Leaders who focus on Meaning create an abundant response', I took a few weeks to think about the "Seven Questions that Drive Abundance". In this examination I am reviewing what the Ulrich's write on communication.

Four intreated points really stood out to me and feel so very applicable to the non profit sector:

A common finding from employee attitude surveys is that communication rates low: Employees often feel out of the loop about ideas leader think are well understood.  Leaders often find that they are continually thinking about ideas and within the non profit sector are developing these ideas with their boards and counterparts from other sectors that by the time the idea is launched the leader is so immersed in the concept and those who are part of the leadership team have heard it since inception there is frequently a lack of communication to those lower down in the organization.

A positive work environment is fostered by communication that is redundant, two way and affectively charged. The non profit sector attracts individuals who passionately care about the area of work. taking this passion and channeling it into positive communication among the team can be that extra lift an organization needs to bring its mission to the next level. Weekly staff meetings do not have to be a chore, they can become a platform for quality communication.

When a complex or new ideas are involved, it probably takes 10 units of communication for every unit of understanding. What? WOW! No wonder I spend so much time scratching my head thinking I told you this already. How do I build this level of redundancy into what I do? I have continually found myself in the position where I am leading change, developing and implementing new projects and pioneering new ideas. Thinking about some of those things that I am currently working on, perhaps I need to purposefully set for 10 individual units of communication with each person on the team. Its very much worth the experiment and if its successful I could save myself so much head scratching and time that I feel that is unsuccessful reiteration of a point I have already made.

Sony regularly encourages employees to offer suggestions for improvement and seeks to implement over 90% of the ideas. Incredible, going back to my prior point that the non profit sector attracts individuals who are passionate, imagine what it would look like if their suggestions for improvement were seriously sought after and implemented. Might the rate of failed non profits dramatically decline? Could the effectiveness of those that are marginal allow them to become something great. How can I as a mid level manager help my organization move this direction? Do I make a point to really hear the suggestions of others? Could their ideas cause me to achieve success that I am not even looking for?