Friends Don’t Let Friends Do Teambuilding
I got this enigmatic note from the JT International News Wire:
It’s fun because it’s true. It’s sad because it’s true. Don’t let it be true about you.
Click here to see the video it references. Friends don’t let friends do teambuilding.
Goggle’s Used-Generated Gmail Video
Goggle did a fun promotion asking Gmail users to submit a little snippet of video that passed the Gmail logo from left to right on the camera. They got thousands of submissions and compiled many of them into this clip. (If you can’t see the embedded video, click here.)
It would be so cool to do something like this with employees and HR could take the lead. This video has a real teamwork element to it — the envelope “passes” from one hand to the next. If you’re really into teamwork, maybe you could use it as a communication device, and have people pass something. (Or, to be funny, you could “pass the buck.”) Make it highly visual and get your employees to play along. They’re already posting user-generated video. How about letting them play along at work?
New Executive Hires Need Some HR Hand Holding to Keep from Stumbling
New executives can adapt anywhere. After all, they’re in charge, right? Well, as we all know, it’s not quite like that. There have been several classic executive flare outs in the past few years. Each of them seemed to hinge on “corporate culture” and how the executive failed to understand it.
“It’s my way or the highway” might be a good punchline, but it’s not what new executives get to say and not how organizations work. Recent research by leadership expert Michael Watkins says, “The main reason why newly hired outside executives have such an abysmal failure rate (40%, according to one study) is poor acculturation: They don’t adapt well to the new company’s ways of doing things.”
In an article in Harvard Business Online titled Help Newly Hired Executives Adapt Quickly, Watkins says that newly hired executives think they have a mandate, but there are pitfalls to be avoided and a culture to learn.
In some organizational cultures, it’s important for a newly hired executive to know the right people to advance his or her agenda. In others, it’s all about understanding proper procedure. At both GE and Johnson & Johnson, goals are set via rigorous planning processes, but the companies differ on implementation, with GE executives going through specified procedures and J&J leaders relying more on relationships.
It’s HR’s job at the outset to make sure that newly hired executives are prepared and fully aware of the culture they’re entering. What was successful where they’re coming from doesn’t necessarily mean the same approach will work in their new company. Watkins says that quick acculturation is essential: it makes the executive more effective and saves a lot of early embarrassment when “that’s not how we do it here” comes up:
A company can assist its newly hired executives by evaluating all those aspects of its organizational culture and then being explicit about them and about the behaviors it expects. This information should be incorporated into any “Getting Things Done at Our Company” material that may be handed out to new executive hires.
You can read more by Michael Watkins at The Leading Edge on Harvard Business Online.
If You Don’t Have Something Nice to Say About Anybody, Come Sit Next to Me
The headline is from my favorite line in Steel Magnolias, and I think it just about sums up corporate whispering campaigns. So, when I saw this “Let’s set aside some time for trashing coworkers” I thought it was just perfect. I’ve never been a big fan of gossip circles and the adult version of high school cliques, but they certainly exist.
Just how much gossip do you tolerate (or encourage) at your place, especially the kind targeted at individuals?
[Card via someecards.com. There are lots of funny cards there, but some are very NSFW.]
How to Have Great Meetings
Can you imagine a workplace without meetings? Most people can’t. There are over 11 million meetings a day in the U.S. alone.
Since we started our company over three years ago, we’ve come pretty close to our goal of no meetings. Sure, we talk. We get things done. And every once in a while we even have a “meeting.” We like them to zip along, though. Start fast, end faster, get to work. This week I stumbled across three very interesting articles about how to have effective meetings, each of which start with an admonition about avoiding meetings.
Five Weeeeird Tips for Great Meetings. Alexander, the Chief Happiness Officer, makes me smile every day. He offers some fun tips for effective meetings. One idea: Lose the table and meet standing up.
7 Ways to Avoid Pointless Meetings. Ben at Institgator Blog subtitled this one “Meeting don’t have to suck.”
The 7 Sins of Deadly Meetings. This Fast Company article says, “Meeting are too long. They should do twice as much in half the time.”
Although professionals in American business are said to waste over 30 hours in meetings monthly, there is a better way. Way back when I started working I used to attend group meetings that were quick…and on time. The big boss used to lock the conference room door at the exact time the meeting was to begin. And inevitably someone who was late would tug on the door. They only did that once.
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