The five promises of America's Promise can be summed up in five words: Mentor, Protect, Nurture, Prepare and Serve.

Here's a refreshing story about community that will life your spirits. "Autumn League" catches leaders and others in a sport as American as apple pie. Published in the October 2001 issue of Central PA Magazine, and written by Culture Connects' president, Michele McKnight Baker.
To view an excerpt, use this link:

Autumn League story

(from an article by Christina Olenchek)

A local firm’s web site is helping executives suffering from culture shock.

Baker Marketing Communications in Spring Grove launched www.cultureconnects.com in late October. The Web site includes information about managing organizational culture, a free evaluation and an online team-building session.

Cultureconnects.com also features a free online newsletter, Leadership Connections, which is e-mailed to subscribers “about once a month,” said Michele McKnight Baker, president of Baker Marketing Communications.

It’s no longer enough to have product-based competitive advantage.

It’s too easy for competitors to match or exceed product and service
offerings. Consider the phenomenal rate
of change in store for technology, information, and people.

Technology: According to the National Center for Education Statistics, during the 21^st century 60% of today’s students will work in jobs that don’t exist today.

Information: A weekday edition of The New York Times contains more information than the average person was likely to come across in a lifetime during 17^th century England. In one information source alone—web sites—expansion occurs at an estimated 1.5 million pages daily. The number of web sites is doubling every 8 months.

People: The satisfaction levels and availability of qualified workers are trending downward. According to a survey by The Conference Board, Less than half of workers aged 35-54 express satisfaction with their jobs, down almost 10 percentage points from five years ago. Current U.S. population figures tell us that as Baby Boomers retire, there are not enough younger workers to take their place.

CultureConnects can help your organization achieve a new “strategy” advantage, via skilled facilitation, research and support in prototyping. Contact us.

As today’s business leaders seek ways to improve organization productivity, a good starting point is to examine how the organization and work are structured. There are many variations. Among the most exciting are: using self-managed teams (SMTs), flattening the organization structure, and the use (or creation) of virtual organizations (i.e., organizations that exist as working relationships without being in the same physical space or defined by organizational charts).

Teams are used in some way, shape or form in most organizations today. Working on a team can mean anything from working on an ad-hoc team to plan the company golf outing to working on a self-managing team (SMT) responsible for hiring/firing team members and meeting service and/or production, budgetary and strategic goals set by the team.

Changing from the “rugged individualist” to the “team member” has its challenges. Different skills and attitudes are required to be successful in a team versus doing the job as an individual. (The Quest for Productivity: A Look At “The New Organization.” – SHRM White Paper June 2000)

The role of the team “lead” on a SMT is very different from the traditional role played by supervisors or managers. Rather than directing and giving orders the team leader becomes a facilitator to assist the team, mediate and resolve conflicts among team members, and interact with other teams and managers in other parts of the organization.

Three characteristics have been identified for the successful use of SMTs in the US*:

1. Teams value and endorse consent.

2. Teams use “shamrock” structures and have some variation in membership.

3. Teams have authority to make decisions.

*(Human Resource Management – 8^th Ed. By Robert Mathis and John Jackson)

Look at a roster of the 100 largest U.S. companies at the
beginning of the 1900’s. How many are still in existence today?

1. 45
2. 7
3. 16
4. 29

The answer: 16.

In the past decade alone,

• Nearly 50 percent of all U.S. companies were restructured.

• Over 80,000 firms were acquired or merged.

• At least 700,000 organizations sought bankruptcy protection to continue operating

• Over 450,000 organizations failed.

• More than 24 million jobs were lost.

That is a tremendous amount of change. Author and futurist Marilyn Ferguson makes this observation about the human response to change:

“It’s not so much that we’re afraid of change or so in love with the old ways, but it’s that place in between that we fear…It’s like being between trapezes. It’s Linus when his blanket is in the dryer. There’s nothing to hold on to.”

Does your organization need assistance in navigating change? Contact us.

BEST PRACTICES:
The Power of Appreciative Inquiry

Battle-weary of squabbling teams...negative thinking...relentless, ferocious “whitewater” change?

As a leader, do you look for problems to be solved, or strengths to be built upon? If the former, you are modeling a deficit mindset, and it’s likely that “solutions” will be short-term at best. The latter represents an appreciative mindset. Research confirms that an
appreciative approach toward people and processes has long-term positive impact on organizations and can serve as a conduit for rapid transformation.

Appreciative inquiry is an applied research methodology and a tool for implementing positive change, first articulated by Drs. David L. Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastva in an article titled “Appreciative Inquiry in Organizational Life” (1987). They make an intriguing observation: “Through our assumptions and choice of method we largely create a world we later discover.” A “generative” research method that creates new theory and reality and then discovers what it creates; this is not your father’s research!

In our consulting work we have observed the constraints of a problem-solving approach, and the wisdom of identifying and building upon organizational strengths to accomplish positive change, short- and long-term. Cultureconnects works with clients (individuals and organizations) to discover their “strategic capabilities”--those competitive strengths that would be relatively difficult for a competitor to duplicate—and facilitate their work in building on those strengths.

We use the method with leaders and in a group context to elicit the best aspects of an organization’s culture so that the group can understand and build upon those strengths, toward a brighter future.

Dr. Gervase R. Bushe (see also book review) is one practitioner who has written about some of the possibilities and challenges in applying appreciative inquiry. Commenting on Dr. Cooperrider’s “heliotropic hypothesis” (1990), that social systems evolve “toward the light”, or “toward the most positive images they hold of themselves”, Dr. Bushe observes that “When these images are out of step with the requirements the social system faces the group will experience itself as dysfunctional and rational attempts to fix itself will not work until the underlying ‘affirmative image’ of the group is changed. Appreciative inquiry, therefore, attempts to create a new and better affirmative image…one better aligned with the organization’s critical contingencies.” (“Theories of Change Embedded in Appreciative Inquiry,” 1998). He calls the underlying affirmative image of an organization, its “inner dialogue”: “If you change the stories you change the inner dialogue. Nothing the ‘rational mind’ decides it wants will actually happen if the ‘inner dialogue’ is resistant to it.” He writes about the potential for healing, and the importance of conducting appreciative inquiry “with an open heart”: “in my personal and professional life this has had a consistent, profound, healing effect on my interactions with others.”

Apply AI in four different ways.

• As a mindset, AI flows from a positive view of people and the world. It frees a group to discover its own data and process, and in a facilitated context, requires the facilitator to reveal what is happening in a way that makes sense.

• As generative theory, AI requires time, trust, and access to unconscious levels of thought and action. Just as community cannot happen in the petri dish of a meeting room, AI works its magic best in the music hall of organizational life, where people practice and perform, reflect on their performance, and do it all again the next day.

• As a process, AI can enhance day-to-day operational frameworks.

• As a consulting tool or “intervention,” AI can be presented to organizations in need of aligning their “inner dialogue” with the envisioned “affirmative images” of themselves.
  

CultureConnects offers the following ways in which expert facilitation can maximize your in-house talent (not necessarily in order of importance.) We can help...

1. spot “disconnects” or differences between an organization’s espoused values (“what we say”) and what organizations actually do, and believe; including “blind spots” and wrong assumptions in thinking and process.
2. tailor approaches to your organization’s unique culture and needs.
3. overcome internal resistance by engaging people as a neutral facilitator.
4. complement in-house resources, rather than duplicate them.
5. provide realistic feedback and implementation support.

For more information about on-site facilitation, Contact us.

*Permission is required to reproduce any material under copyright. We grant permission to save Leadership Connections for your personal use, and to share with your colleagues in the manner specified in the e-letter.

Do you have a Best Practices idea to share? Send it to us—and receive a free e-copy of the executive white paper, Recruiting and Retaining Good Employees: A Marketing View.

Copy and paste the following five questions into this email, then answer the questions.

1. Title for your Best Practices submission:

2. How did your Best Practices benefit your organization's bottom line? (Use specific numbers ($, %, dates etc.) if possible.

3. Briefly describe your Best Practice:

4. Who accomplished the best practice, and what motivated him/her/them? (You may use job titles rather than names.)

5. Include your name, company, title, email and phone number.

There is so much information in the world that we do not know. And, we must add, so much we do not know about ourselves.

Over 45 years ago, Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham introduced a Disclosure/Feedback model of awareness known as the Johari Window. It graphically depicts how 75% of our self-knowledge remains hidden.

KNOWN TO SELF

Individualized Executive Coaching offered through CultureConnects has been designed to deepen your insight and uncover untapped knowledge and potential.

What exactly is Executive Coaching?

• It is similar to traditional consulting, but different in that the coach works with you one-on-one to identify your strengths, outline goals, provide you with some proven tools, monitor your actions, and empower you to succeed.

How can Executive Coaching benefit my organization?

• Coaching centers on client accountability, both personally and within an organizational context.

• Coaching maximizes the effectiveness of an organization’s most valuable resource, its people.

• Coaching enhances both individual and team performance.

• Coaching is a more cost-effective option than out placement or employment agencies.

Why should I consider Executive Coaching either for myself or for one of my colleagues? The following assessment will identify ways in which Executive Coaching can be an invaluable asset to your career—and your organization. (If you would like feedback from us, please copy and paste the assessment into the "contact us" email link below, checking all that apply.)

___ I am new to my executive position in this organization, and am not clear as to exactly how to establish myself as a “leader” in this new environment.

___ This is my first role as a leader, and I am feeling “like a fish out of water.” What skills do I need in order to be successful?

___ I have just received my annual performance evaluation, and my boss and I have identified some skill “gaps” in my performance.

___ Morale in my department has fallen recently, and some of my employees have taken their complaints to my boss. What do I need to do to restore morale and the faith of my employees?

___ I REALLY would like to apply for the position of Vice President that was recently posted. What can I do to make myself more “marketable?”

About Fees

Organizations typically consider executive coaching to be a vital part of their learning and development investment. In some instances, individuals choose to pay the fee. In either case, Executive Coaching is confidential. Feedback is shared at the client’s direction. The professional staff at CultureConnects would be glad to answer any of your questions about this confidential service.

Consultations available via telephone or in person, both by appointment.

Tools You Can Use: Assessment tool--Would SMTs Work for Your Organization?

Self-managing teams (SMTs) have been around in the for-profit world for more than a decade. In spite of their promise, results have been mixed. Research findings tell us that successful implementation requires sufficient up front planning, as well “TLC” following implementation.

Not-for-profits are just beginning to consider whether SMTs would work for them. All organizations, whether for-profit or not-for-profit, need to “empower” employees at all levels of an organization, and, in some instances, are experiencing difficulty in recruiting quality leadership—two challenges in which SMTs excel.

What exactly is a SMT? Simply stated, it is a work group that operates with varying degrees of autonomy and without an appointed director/manager. It contracts to assume management responsibility in addition to performing its specific jobs. The team learns and shares job responsibilities usually performed by a manager. In a fully functioning SMT, control comes from within the group, rather than from outside it.

Should your organization or work groups within your organization consider becoming self-managing? Take the following brief quiz to begin the thinking process:

1. Are you struggling to find a competent manager/director who fits in well with your current staff?

2. Does your Board of Directors want the staff to take on more responsibility for running the agency?

3. Are your employees ready and willing to learn new skills?

4. Do your employees work well as a group?

5. Does communication flow effectively throughout your organization?

If you answered “yes” to these questions, your organization may very well want to look into the SMT concept.

CultureConnects can help. Contact us.