Remote Vision

Many of you may not be aware how physically diverse the Glasstap team is these days. Whilst I work remotely from home in Devon, most of the team remain based in Alston, Cumbria, whilst others work remotely from Leeds or elsewhere in Devon.

Mostly our remote team works outstandingly well together but just once in a while, I’m reminded how important communication is when we work remotely.

The other week I was having a video call with one of the team in Alston about a change we’d made to the Trainers’ Conference website. We’d added our new Unique Features pages, which lists some of the things that make Trainers’ Conference special. I was really pleased with the new page that had been put together by Craig and Lee and told Zoe so. I was surprised and disappointed that she didn’t seem to share my enthusiasm:

“It’s great isn’t it” I enthused. “I think it’s my favourite page yet?”

“Really?” replied Zoe. “Well, if you say so.” There was a pause before she continued: “But, don’t you think it needs some bullet points or something?”

“Oh, no” I said. “I think the capital letters are enough”.

“Oh… OK.”

A few minutes later Zoe called back. It turns out that we’d been looking at totally different things. The style sheet behind the website hadn’t refreshed when Zoe loaded the new page, so all she was seeing was a clump of text on the screen, with no graphic at all, whilst I was looking at the full package with neatly formatted text on a lovely new scroll graphic.

“I couldn’t understand why you thought it looked good” admitted Zoe laughing. “It was awful.” (She may not have used those exact words.)

It was a timely reminder of how important it is not to jump to conclusions when talking to remote colleagues and of the importance of questions and summary and clarification. Had I asked a few more questions like: “What don’t you like about it? Or, had we checked that we were looking at the same thing, a lot of confusion could have been avoided.

And yes, she does like it now. ☺

Rod Webb
www.glasstap.com

The Tasks We Ignore

Well, it’s been a while since I last wrote a blog. It’s amazing isn’t it how time slips by when you start to put things off? Those tasks that you initially put off for a few days, and then a week, and then a month slowly sink in a quagmire of good intentions.

A quick glance at my email inbox now has revealed at the very top an email I sent myself in February 2009. An email that I’ve studiously ignored for two whole years! I’ve shocked myself with that revelation – I’m genuinely amazed that it’s two years since I had that idea for a new training exercise, started working on it and then got stuck, or bored, or sidetracked. The trouble is, it’s been there for so long that I’d stopped even noticing it –it’s like my brain’s been telling me that my inbox starts about four messages down. (There are two other long-standing messages – one from May 2009 and another from March 2010.)

The really strange thing is that I consider myself pretty organised these days (I didn’t used to be). If I’ve not managed my virtual in-tray (because that’s what email is) down to about 20 emails by the end of each week, I feel I’m losing control. 

I suspect I’m not alone in having incomplete tasks languishing somewhere like this. I can’t be the only one of us adept at turning a blind eye to things I don’t really want to do.

Which is why we should all take time periodically to review outstanding tasks and ruthlessly apply one of three Ds: Do it, Dump it or Delegate it. And stop doing the other one: Defer it. 

It might help if I think about why I’ve been deferring the task for so long. The reasons could include:

• It’ll take a long time.

• I won’t enjoy it.

Neither of these are good reasons to Dump the task. If the task is important and I am genuinely the best person to complete it then I need to be disciplined, put time aside and Do it. Perhaps I can reward myself with a bar of chocolate or some online shopping when it’s complete (and not before!) 

But, perhaps those aren’t the reasons why I’ve not completed the task. Perhaps, actually the reasons look more like this:

• I can’t see the point.

• The task involves a lot of effort with very little return.

• It’s poor use of my time.

• I want to dump the task but don’t want to say no to someone.

• I’m not the best person to complete the task.

In this case, I do need to consider Dumping it or Delegating it.

The key theme here is discipline. Effective time management demands it from time to time. 

Well, I promised Louise I’d have a blog to her by the end of the weekend so that’s a big tick for me. (A public commitment to complete something can be a useful driver).

As for that task, well, it’s the weekend now, but I’ll look at it first thing on Monday, probably, or at least as soon as I’ve dealt with the emails that come in over the weekend, unless something else crops up…..soon anyway. ;-)

Rod Webb
www.glasstap.com

I Might as well Do It Myself!

If I had a pound for every time I’ve heard a manager or supervisor over the years utter the words, “I might as well just do it myself”, I’d be quite a lot wealthier.

I suspect that everyone who’s ever had to manage anyone else has, at some point used the line, and I’m sure every parent has. Sometimes, other people just don’t seem to do things Right. By Right I mean, of course, the way you, or I, would.

Like the times others use a comma where I would use a semi-colon or full stop. Or ask a different question to the one that was on my lips during a sales call. Or, heaven forbid, make a mistake, which, of course, I would never do. (Oh, apart from that occasion when I forgot to … and that time when no-one seemed to notice that I hadn’t....)

Anyway, I digress. The point is, that if everyone completed every task in exactly the same way every time, our offices would be about as interesting as rooms filled with toasters. And all the manager would need to do is flip a switch in the morning.

And nothing would ever change.

Luckily, people are different; bringing their own mix of skills, attitudes and experiences to any task or role they’re presented with. They might not complete every task the way you would, they probably won’t complete some as well as you would, but probe the differences more deeply and you’ll probably find other things they do better than you, or ideas they’ve already implemented that you’ve never considered.

Great managers tend to be great coaches. And a great coach doesn’t help individuals become as good as the coach; they help people become as good as they can be.

Which is just as well: How many boxing titles did Angelo Dundee, who famously coached Mohammed Ali, win himself? (I think the answer is none though I'm relying on the internet here. I don't profess to know anything about sport!*)

So, next time you feel like saying, “I might as well just do it myself”, just remember that stepping in might be debilitating for you (have you really got time to do it yourself) and the member of staff. They might never be able to do what you do as well as you do, but they’ll probably be able to do what they do much better.

I’ll leave you to make sense of that.

*Except in World Cup years when I become an overnight expert in all things football.

Rod Webb
www.glasstap.com

In the Naughty Corner

I was not always a model employee. Even during a period of considerable success in my previous career, when I’d transformed a department to deliver huge gains in productivity, morale and motivation, I could sometimes find myself in the naughty corner.

The most notable incidence came when during one coffee break, my colleagues and I came up with the idea of launching an ‘employee rag’. 

Our rationale was that the ‘rag’, which we named ‘Allegedly’, would raise morale and money for charity. It would create development opportunities for staff as they learnt editing and writing skills, and the involvement of both management (like myself) and more junior staff, would encourage teamwork and team pride.

That was the positive side of the motivation coin. The less positive was that we were feeling a bit rebellious as a result of a new heavy handed management approach from Head Office, following a change in our London-based MD, who’d never visited our Yorkshire offices (and to the best of my knowledge never did).

I volunteered to get the project off the ground and, as you’ve probably guessed, the whole thing blew up in my face. ‘Allegedly’ proved a little risqué for the new MD who, apparently, was particularly offended by a letter purportedly from him to our agony aunt, which simply read: “Nobody loves me”. 

Both I and my MD probably learnt a lot from this experience. I learnt quite a lot about disciplinary procedures from the receiving end, but I also learnt important lessons about evaluating ideas, risk management, networking, power and politics. 

The lessons I learnt about power and politics were clarified and brought home to me when I read the new modules Clare Forrest has written for Trainers’ Library. Power and politics can be uncomfortable concepts, but I wish I’d had the opportunity to learn about them through these brilliant new modules when I was a young manager. 

My MD would have benefited from them too: His response to the publication of ‘Allegedly’ not only created a black market for the magazine (with copies allegedly changing hands for ten times their face value in London), it also directly led to me being elected to the bank’s first international staff council and consequently to a huge increase in my own power and influence.

Rod Webb
www.glasstap.com

Chasers Are Good

I was delighted this week to discover yet another service that is remarkably similar in concept, if not execution, to Trainers’ Library being promoted. This one is based in America and has a very similar pricing plan to ours, (which might of course be an extraordinary coincidence).

Delighted? That’s a bit odd isn’t it? Have I completely lost the plot?

Well no, not really. In my past life, I worked for one of the large banks, where I was often frustrated by the fact that we never seemed to be first to market with anything. First with internet banking? No. First with offset mortgages? No. First with free banking? Nope. In fact, I can’t think of a single time when this particular bank was first to market. Instead, it pursued a policy of following the leaders at a safe distance.

I’ve often talked about the importance of innovation to businesses – the need to constantly adapt to a world in a permanent state of flux, for example. But one aspect of innovation that I’ve sometimes overlooked is just how motivating it is to be at the front of the pack. I touched on the thrill of winning last time – well, winning wouldn’t be anything if we weren’t beating someone into second or third place. We rely on those chasing us to improve; it’s their improving performance that drives us to improve.

Apple recently launched the iPad. It’s success won’t ultimately be told by the number of units sold. It’ll be told by whether in five years time, laptops with traditional keyboards are largely obsolete, in the way that phones with keypads are rapidly becoming consigned to the technological dustbin. In other words, we’ll know the iPad has delivered all it promises, when Apple’s competitors follow.

Being innovative is exciting and motivational and nothing confirms success more than imitation. The competition snapping at your heels can deliver a boost to performance and drive like no other. You could almost feel the electricity buzzing off the development team this week as they worked on our next set of service enhancements, due to come online this year and next. It’s probably been our most productive week for ages.

What can you take away from this? Allowing teams to be innovative, to lead, even in a small way, delivers benefits beyond the possibility of a unique improvement in process or a new product. It allows your competitors, internal or external, to motivate your employees, and you, as they struggle to keep up. 

Rod Webb
www.glasstap.com

Meeting Expectations

At secondary school, when it came to sports, I was hopeless. As we lined up on the wall, and the team captains picked their teams, I knew that I would be one of the last to be chosen. And if there were an odd number, I knew that I might very well be packaged with another sporting dud – two for the price of one.

I treated cross country as a gentle stroll in the country. I could take as long as I liked, nobody expected me to be back early, and sometimes I and my fellow duds could fit in a quick detour into town on the way round. If I was in the top 60 or so getting back, nobody would be disappointed, including myself. The perception I, and others, had of me was continuously reinforced.

Now, this is all very odd. Because I am, by nature, an extremely competitive person (as anyone who ever played Monopoly with me will testify). I was reminded of this when I was driving through Burford yesterday and passed the Cotswold Wildlife Park. “I won tickets to there when I was a kid” I exclaimed, beaming. “For writing a story about badgers.”

The event occurred when I was just ten, but I remember it clearly. The class had been given the challenge of writing a story about animals, with three family tickets to the wildlife park to be won by the authors of the best stories.

What I remember in particular was my determination to win and my expectation that I could win. I remember too the hard work I put in, dreaming up my story, writing and re-writing it, before finally, handing it in to be judged.

Then came the morning we received the results. The first two ‘winners’ were announced – not me! I recall a growing sense of panic and then, finally, the teacher saying: “If there had been a bigger first prize, this person would have won it…” and the euphoria I felt when my name was called.

Some might say that I had a talent for writing but not for sports, and that may be true. But actually, when I reflect back on the stories above, what really strikes me is the difference in my attitude and how that was affected by my own, and others, expectations of me. An extraordinary teacher, Malcolm Emery, had instilled in me from an early age a belief that I could write (even if not very neatly – I was the last in my class to be promoted from pencil to ink pen – I’m an even messier writer now!)

The thing is this. People generally live up, or down, to their own expectations, which are usually the result of other people’s expectations. The two continuously reinforce each other in an upward, or downward spiral.

Here’s an experiment you may not wish to carry out. Find someone who is just falling short of their targets. Reinforce your mutual expectations by reducing their targets and wait to see what happens. In my experience, invariably, the sales person’s performance will deteriorate so that they’re now struggling to achieve the new, lower targets.

Rod Webb
www.glasstap.com

Positive Ripples

I’m feeling rather proud of myself. A little exercise I wrote for Trainers’ Library several years ago has been endorsed by Show Racism the Red Card, the charity that uses professional footballers to educate against racism.


The exercise in question is The Witches of Glum. The charity considers it to be such a powerful tool for illustrating how deeply rooted stereotypes can be, and the dangers of making assumptions, that it’s to be included in a resource pack being put together for educational establishments around the UK. I’m thrilled that something I really enjoyed writing might be helping to make a difference.


I have to be honest though. This isn’t the result of some grand scheme. I never imagined Witches of Glum would become one of the most popular and widely used exercises in Trainers’ Library when I wrote it. I didn’t even appreciate, when I’d first written it, how much discussion and learning it could provoke.


Sometimes, training can seem a fairly unrewarding role, particularly if you’re dealing with behaviours that are slow to change and/or you’re not on site to see what happens after you’ve finished delivering your training.


It’s worth remembering then that the actions we take every day as trainers (and as non-trainers) are like pebbles thrown into a still pond. We never really know how far the ripples we create will travel.


Sometimes the extent of our influence is surprising. I had another sharp reminder of this a while back when I bumped into someone who had attended a Creative Thinking course I ran for volunteers a few years before. He told me how that training course had inspired him to launch a community music shop, which sells instruments and music and, perhaps more importantly, is widely involved in supporting and encouraging the local music scene. Core Music in Hexham provides rehearsal space, music lessons and even recording facilities, and all profits are reinvested in the local community, providing music based services to those who can’t afford to pay for them.


I’m sure many of you have similar stories about the ripples you’ve generated from your own training interventions, and if so, I’d love to hear them.


Of course not all the ripples we generate will be positive. I’m sure we’ve all had situations where we wish we’d handled a situation better. But just recognising them and learning from them are part of that ripple effect too.


Now, I’m going to go before I tie myself up in mental knots.


For more information about the great work Show Racism the Red Card is doing, visit their website at www.srtrc.org. And for Core Music, www.coremusic.co.uk.

Rod Webb
www.glasstap.com