Month: October 2013

Guilty of it myself, much more often than I would like.

We do some training and expect things to change.

What is wrong with this picture is that while we might impact knowledge, we do not really implement any change or improvement in results.

Gosh, I know that feedback is the critical part of performance (not reinforcement per se) and that changes in feedback are the ONLY way that anything will change for any length of time.

What I have been doing lately to impact the effectiveness of the play of our team building exercise that focuses on collaboration is to further develop our debriefing cartoons to include some anchored to poems and that could be used to keep people thinking about issues and opportunities and about the commitments they made to do some things differently.

Obviously, without some way to measure change and improvement, we will not have much sustainability from any training event. But, with the leadership team asking about changes and improvements and ideas, it does keep the issues and opportunities more in the forefront.,

I do NOT have a silver bullet for making all things right. But we do offer some simple, elegant tools like Lost Dutchman and Square Wheels to help organizations implement improvement.

Here are a few of the series, that is still under development. If you are a Lost Dutchman owner-user, pop me a note and I can assemble the illustrations for you and send them along,

I trust that you like these. Feel free to bounce back with your own poems and suggestions, and note that I have about 50 of these right now, with more to come,

For the FUN of It!

Dr. Scott Simmerman is a designer of team building games and organization improvement tools. Managing Partner of Performance Management Company since 1984, he is an experienced presenter and consultant.

Connect with Scott on Google+ – you can reach Scott at scott@squarewheels.com

Follow Scott’s posts on Pinterest: pinterest.com/scottsimmerman/
Scott’s blog on Poems and Quips on Workplace Improvement is here.

Enthusiastic People Accomplish MORE

By Dr. Scott Simmerman

On October 15, 2013

In Articles on Teamwork, employee motivation, Engagement, Facilitation, intrinsic motivation

This is NOT rocket science, but the general reactions of so many make it seem like this should be a Big Surprise:

In places where there is high morale, there is higher performance.

This from Sirota Consulting and their research:

Crazy! Ridiculous! But in fact, we found that high-morale companies outperformed their industry competitors in 2012 by 368% when considering year-over-year stock market returns. We discovered this when working on the second edition of our book, The Enthusiastic Employee.More specifically, we found that companies with high morale (those with scores at the 75th percentile or higher who ask “overall satisfaction with their company” on their annual employee attitude surveys) had stronger year-over-year stock performance than their industry counterparts. These high-morale companies averaged a 15.1% improvement in their stock price, while their matched industry comparisons averaged only a 4.1% year-over-year improvement, a difference of 11 percentage points or 368%! Moderate-morale companies (companies scoring between the 25th and 75th percentiles on employee attitude surveys) matched their industry counterparts (only a 0.8 percentage point difference), and the low-morale companies were 166% (or 13 percentage points) lower than their industry counterparts.

Are these results a fluke, a chance occurrence in this particular period? Well, we have been able to replicate the results every year we have analyzed employee morale measures against companies’ stock market performance.

They expand on the numbers and their conclusions in their blog post, which you can find here.

We feel the same way, and do not think it is real rocket science to figure out how to establish a positive work culture.

It is about innovation and improvement, celebration of accomplishments, and a continued focus on how to better compete and perform in the marketplace. It is about people — it is always about people!

As they said,

“In these companies, relationships between management and employees are based on mutual obligations grounded in performance; high levels of trust, transparency and collaboration; and shared rewards. In both good and difficult business conditions, the employee enthusiasm generated by this kind of corporate culture is a huge factor in their business success.”

At PMC, we sell simple tools to involve and engage, to enable motivation and innovation and workplace improvement,

For the FUN of It!

Connect with Scott on Google+ – you can reach Scott at scott@squarewheels.com

Follow Scott’s posts on Pinterest: pinterest.com/scottsimmerman/
Scott’s blog on Poems and Quips on Workplace Improvement is here.

Square Peg, Round Holes and Motivating and Engaging for Performance Improvement

By Dr. Scott Simmerman

On October 15, 2013

In Change, Change Facilitation, dis-un-engagement, employee motivation, Facilitation

This is a little ditty that Joan cooked up for an email to our customers and prospects and I thought it was really cute and well done. So, I thought to share it on Columbus Day, but it took us an extra day. Let me start with our Columbus Award, something which can be given posthumously (grin):

Know anyone who we need to send this to?

Okay. Back to business…

The title of the mailing is,

A “Square” Peg becomes a Round Peg!

Introducing Peg:

Peg is a workplace manager who thought she was managing well but usually came up short from her employees’ view. Many called her “Square” Peg because she always did what she’s always done. Prospects for change were bleak given as Peg did not communicate well and had no vehicle in place for others’ input and discussion.

Her staff felt unmotivated and disengaged!

Peg’s View:

Peg was pleased with and fully committed to her company’s vision of the future. However she felt that her staff didn’t have the same commitment and she had no clue as to how to get them on board sharing in her enthusiasm.

All was good from Peg’s view BUT it was only her view!

The Employees’ View:

Peg’s staff described their view more like this. It was based on their not being keyed in on what was taking place. They were given no opportunity to give input about what improvements could be made and how they could be involved.

They were typical disengaged employees!

Square Wheels to the Rescue:

Peg decided to set aside her square ways by using the Square Wheels Facilitation Toolkit as a means of reaching out to her employees. It sets up an interactive discussion of issues and ideas for improvement that really gets energy rolling.

Everyone shares their perspective!

The New, Better View:

After their first Square Wheels session, the employees felt a change had occurred that left them feeling part of the vision, therefore, making them more motivated and part of the plan. They were given an opportunity to express their thoughts and realities about what was happening with their jobs and what could be improved.

They became involved and engaged!

From a Square Wheel (Peg) to a Round Wheel (Peg):

Peg was excited about the positive changes and feelings that stemmed from her going beyond her “square old way” of doing things and giving Square Wheels a try.

Staff morale was at a new high and even Peg enjoyed the result of being better connected with everyone, especially when she heard herself being called a “Round” Peg. A good thing!

Communication and motivation was filling the workplace!

If you feel your employees or your workplace could use some “Stepping back from the wagon” to get new ideas and inspiration in place, give one of our many Square Wheels Toolkits a try. Square Wheels is a simple, unique way to motivate and engage everyone in the workplace around organizational issues of communications, change, leadership, planning, performance improvement and other topics.

For the FUN of It!

Connect with Scott on Google+ – you can reach Scott at scott@squarewheels.com

Follow Scott’s posts on Pinterest: pinterest.com/scottsimmerman/
Scott’s blog on Poems and Quips on Workplace Improvement is here.

I came in contact with Square Wheels 13 years ago and since then I still have not found anything else quite like it. Being a trainer and facilitator in Singapore and regional countries, I’ve found that people of any culture would be able to identify with it. The Square Wheels One picture often helped to surface many organization and people issues and moved the session to a deeper level of open discussion and sharing. I highly recommend this very useful facilitation tool 🙂
Jason Ho, Singapore

Innovation, Space Pens and Myths – an interesting article

By Dr. Scott Simmerman

On October 11, 2013

In innovation, Metaphors for business improvement, Thinking

I saw this online today and thought to repost, because I think it is a good story and one that relates to how we look at things like innovation and functionality in our organizations. It is the case of a myth, a Square Wheel (graphite dust) and the design of a round wheel solution.

The story comes from this Jason Kottke’s blog / website – Kottke.org — I think it is a good example of a good story, and one where the ACTUAL story is just as good as the myth.

There’s a story about NASA’s incredibly expensive space pen and Russia’s simpler solution that gets trotted out every time some large organization introduces some complex, bloated, over-engineered product or process. The story (Snopes.com, with details on the design of the pen) goes like this:

During the space race back in the 1960’s, NASA was faced with a major problem. The astronaut needed a pen that would write in the vacuum of space. NASA went to work. At a cost of $1.5 million they developed the “Astronaut Pen”. Some of you may remember. It enjoyed minor success on the commercial market.

The Russians were faced with the same dilemma.

They used a pencil.

Fantastic story, right? Except that’s not what happened. NASA originally used pencils in space but pencils tend to give off things that float in zero-g (broken leads, graphite dust, shavings) and are flammable. So they looked for another solution. Independent of NASA, the Fisher Pen Company began development of a pen that could be used under extreme conditions:

Paul C. Fisher and his company, the Fisher Pen Company, reportedly invested $1 million to create what is now commonly known as the space pen. None of this investment money came from NASA’s coffers — the agency only became involved after the pen was dreamed into existence. In 1965 Fisher patented a pen that could write upside-down, in frigid or roasting conditions (down to minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit or up to 400 degrees F), and even underwater or in other liquids. If too hot, though, the ink turned green instead of its normal blue.

After testing, NASA ordered 400 Fisher pens for use on space missions at a cost of under $1000. Russia switched to using the pens a year later. Fisher still sells the original Space Pen and you can get it on Amazon for about $32.

Actually, you can get it for $26, just in case you need to write upside down!

For the FUN of It!

Connect with Scott on Google+ – you can reach Scott at scott@squarewheels.com

Follow Scott’s posts on Pinterest: pinterest.com/scottsimmerman/
Scott’s blog on Poems and Quips on Workplace Improvement is here.

Ideas on People and Performance, Team Building, Motivation and Innovation

Month: October 2013

Followup, Followup, Followup — The Only Way to make Improvements

We do some training and expect things to change.

Enthusiastic People Accomplish MORE

Square Peg, Round Holes and Motivating and Engaging for Performance Improvement

Innovation, Space Pens and Myths – an interesting article