Lately, I’ve been attracted to a show called Tabitha’s Salon Takeover because it is chock full of lessons in each episode.  If you haven’t heard of it, it is now casting for it’s fourth season and is being shown in re-runs on Bravo channel.  The show highlights hair salons who are in desperate need of intervention.  Tabitha Coffey, a professional stylist and educator with many years of experience, comes into a salon in order to asses why the salon is in dire straits, communicate what is and is not working, make recommendations for improvement and redesign the salon for a grand re-opening.  It’s not really about hair or salons, it’s about how to take a critical look at a business or department and see things with a critical eye in order to improve.

I watched an episode today that caught my attention.   The real issue of the salon was inconsistency.  The owner was inconsistent in her behavior, in her rules of running the salon, in her treatment of the stylists and of her overall expectations of what a successful salon should be.  Her stylists were inconsistent in their skills, their application of the skills they did have, their attitude and response to caring for their work environment and in their relationships with the owner and with each other.

It was one BIG mess!  Why?  Because an arbitrary approach to work leads to chaos and ultimately failure to reach business goals.

CREATING A PARADIGM

If you are advising a leader who behaves inconsistently or if you ARE the leader who demonstrates inconsistency in leading, how can you create a new model that will support and achieve new levels of success?

• Get honest-  Take a look with a critical eye.  If you are the leader or if you are working in a department where you’re not achieving success,  step back and try to look at how things get done, or don’t, as if you are a stranger seeing the group for the first time.  What are the behaviors you see that are supporting reaching the business goals?  Who are your informal leaders who can help turn the morale of the group around?  Are the inconsistencies coming from one or a small group of employees, or does the inconsistent behavior run rampant throughout the department?
• Share the results-  In human resources, we see leaders who not only turn a blind eye to what is really going on in the department.  We also see leaders who know what is going on but do not share their concerns with staff.  Part of being a good leader is being able to teach staff and without sharing results, you won’t be able to adequately teach so that the behaviors can improve.
• Set or “re-set” expectations-  We all have goals.  Most organizations set them each year.  Instead of just creating some formal document that is pushed to the side until the end of the year, gather your team together and talk about what specific behaviors and actions will achieve the goals. Your only chance of achieving success is by soliciting the feedback and gaining the buy-in from staff.  Skip this step and the house of cards will fall.
• Redesign-  This is another step that is so important but is often skipped.  As leaders, we tend to communicate that change is needed and even what needs to change.  Then, the staff are told to just get back to work.  This does not inspire change.  In order to get the ball rolling, think of some way to visually show that something is different.  Whether that means changing some work assignments, creating a new work group, making plans to change the physical work environment or another creative idea, the point is that staff who see that something has already changed and for the better will be more likely to embrace additional changes.  Shake it up!

The point is to be able to ban inconsistency and inconsistent behavior from our workplace.  What have you seen or done in order to support the change where you work?  What other tips do you give to support consistency?  

Breaking out of YOUR mold

I spent many years learning human resources and honing my skills related to compensation, benefits and employee relations.  It wasn’t until I reached my mid-thirties that I realized that I was compelled to learn more about technology, finance, marketing and communications, and ultimately social.  Spending my free time educating myself was some of the best time I’ve ever spent in terms of the return on my investment.  The best compliments I get now are when someone tells me I’m a good writer, a marketer, or an expert for them in social media.

What are you known for?

When I think of the most successful people I know, these are the people who continuously increase their knowledge.  Here 6 steps you can take to update what you are known for and be more than the definition of your job title:

• Identify industries you want to learn more about-  Before you invest your time, make sure you have carved out a path that is not only going to be interesting for yourself, but one that will actually provide you improved business opportunities in the end.
• Read as much as you can online about the topic-  The internet brings the best education to us at our fingertips.  It’s easy to find written works from experts in your chosen field as well as video to teach you what they know.
• Interview “experts” already in that field and ask for recommendations to get up to speed in that industry- This is the time you really need to break out of your comfort zone.  You will be reaching out to people you may not know and asking for them to help you learn.  Keep in mind that many people like to
• Listen to podcasts on the subject while driving or working out
• Register for a course online or at a local university
• Ask to job shadow someone already working in the industry

With a bit of time, a plan, and a desire to learn and expand, you will be able to position yourself to no longer be defined by your job title.  What have you done to change this in your career?  Share with us in the comments.

Tuesday had been a mentally challenging day for me, in a positive way.  Still, as I left work and headed for home, long after the time I intended to, my mind needed to decompress.  I was flipping through various radio stations when I came across Oprah’s voice.  Something about her tone made me stop and listen.  She was teaching herLifeclass and the guest was Bishop TD Jakes.  I didn’t know who he was, but his booming voice captivated me.  It turns out that Bishop Jakes is the senior pastor at The Potter’s House, a 30,000 strong non-denominational church in Dallas.

He was speaking about mothers who have not had a good role model for a variety of reasons when I heard him say, “You have to surround yourself by greatness in order to be great.”  His point was that just because someone did not have a good role model as a mother, as long as they surround themselves with great mothers now, they will learn to be great mothers.

You have to surround yourself by greatness in order to be great.

The power of those simple words spoke volumes to me because I believe them.  They apply in so many ways:

• You want to be a great leader? Surround yourself with great leaders who you can emulate and learn from.
• You want to be better at your job?  Surround yourself with others in your field who push themselves to success so that you can learn how they internally motivate themselves, how they train, how they reach the heights they reach.
• You want to be a better parent?  Associate with parents who make time for their kids, who participate in their interests and who show their love and support openly.

What I learned was that there are so many ways to engage the senses of learners and that you can add in components that make the environment one that spurs questions and brings about more complete learning.  Now, some twenty years later, I find myself still thinking about adult learning and how we can incorporate new techniques using technology to bolster the learning of participants.  Here are 5 keys to gaining more success with your organization’s collaborative learning:

1. Live demonstration-  One of the most effective approaches to adult learning is that of the instructor demonstrating the task, or idea, at hand.  People are able to learn visually while also hearing the instructor talk through the steps.  The more senses that are used as the idea or task is learned, the more likely the participant is to remember.
2. Panel of advisors/ Subject Matter Experts-  We have all been through demonstration learning, but how often have you had a panel of experts there as well to talk through various questions and ideas that are raised during the demonstration?  Not many.  By adding in a few panelists, you increase the odds that the participant will not only be able to recall the information but may have a greater context for applying the information they learned.
3. Participant interactive component-  Traditional teaching offers an instructor lecturing with participants taking notes.  Amp up the learning by providing a way for even your remote participants to live chat.
4. Technology-  All the other components will not work well without having the proper technology aligned to bring it all together.  Work with your organization’s IT leader to ensure that you have the tools you need to share live feed of the demonstration, the audio to support the panel of advisors and a way for participants to interact with the advisors via live chat.
5. Social platform incorporation-  By adding in social platforms, the instructor can encourage the learning and conversation to continue via social media.  This extends the reach of the instructor’s lesson and brings about opportunities for advanced ideas or ideas that challenge the norm.

Have you used a collaborative approach to learning in your organization?  What have you found that works well?  What methods do you like to have in place if you are in the “student” role?  Be sure to share in the comments.

The chapter that stood out to me the most was written by Sue Meisinger, SPHR, JD.  Her ideas about HR and innovation are worth sharing and I’m thrilled that Kronos is allowing me to share that chapter with you today.  Please enjoy the guest post below from Sue and be sure to click through the link at the end to download her chapter from the book.

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With the economy beginning its rebound, more companies are refocusing their efforts.  For the first time in years, they’re able to shift their attention from doing whatever they could to just survive towards new growth opportunities.    And for many, growth will require innovation.
It’s a great opportunity for HR professionals to add value to the business.

But the results of a survey last year by HRExecutive Online suggest that HR professionals may not be ready.  More than two thirds didn’t use screening tools designed to bring in creative candidates, and half didn’t tie performance management systems to driving innovation.   Truly surprising was that more than a third said that HR leaders in their organization didn’t participate in brainstorming sessions related to business and product development.    It is probably no surprise, then, that a large majority also reported that the performance evaluation for HR leaders wasn’t based, in any way, on the ability to foster innovation.  In other words, HR doesn’t want to hold itself accountable for helping to drive innovation.

There’s a lot that HR can be doing.  There are the obvious human resource management tools of sourcing creative talent and using rewards and recognitions to reward and highlight innovation.  But in addition to these HR tools, HR should help to design an organization where information flows easily across the organization, allowing for a greater cross-pollination of ideas.
Lynda Gratton, of the London School of Economics, found in her research that three factors promote the creation of “hot spots,” or places where people came together and created new, innovative advances.  These factors were:

1. A cooperative mindset –creating a culture where the emphasis is on “we” and not “I”;
2. The ability for information to be shared across boundaries – outside of the typical silos that exist in all organizations; and
3. A pressing business need or challenge, or “igniting purpose.”

Rather than wait for a “hot spot” to occur randomly, HR professionals should look for opportunities – through a focus on the culture, how work is designed, how work groups and teams are formed, and how the flow of information is designed, to create “hot spots.”   This will enable people with different ideas, backgrounds, and areas of expertise to interact with each other, increasing the likelihood of innovative advances.

This doesn’t necessarily mean coming up with a new org chart with more dotted lines.   It means paying attention to how information is shared – or not shared – across the organization, and looking for ways to encourage a culture of easy information sharing.  Look for information hoarders – each organization has at least one—where the individual believes hoarding information gives them greater power in the organization.  Undertake an intervention to focus their attention on the fact that hoarding actually reduces their power because it reduces employee engagement, thereby reducing productivity.

HR has much to offer to help drive innovation within organizations.  But it requires HR to focus on the end objective – a more innovative culture – while leveraging the tools of talent management and organizational design.

For more on HR’s role in driving innovation, see “Where HR and Innovation Meet; Embracing Invention, Continuous Improvement, and Business Objective” in Elements of Successful Organizations, published by Kronos Incorporated.