"Wonder what will happen if I blow this whistle?"

Whistleblower: (noun) A person who makes public disclosure of corruption or wrongdoing

Picture the scene. You’ve secured an overseas posting, and you really like the place. Then in the first couple of months you uncover some ‘work practices’ that are less than kosher. Your boss is a difficult guy, not easy to approach. And, now that you are aware of this stuff, you can’t just ignore it. You tentatively mention your concerns to the boss and he dismisses the analysis, effectively telling you to ‘mind your own business’. The boss has a solid track record of performance and has always produced stellar results (head office is thousands of miles away and not really up to speed on what happens locally). What do you do?

Contradictory Forces: I know that this reads like the storyline from a ‘B Movie’, but this is precisely the dilemma I faced a couple of years back. And, to make matters more complex, I was in the middle of an adoption so could not afford to ‘jump ship’ without losing our place in the queue. Most of us grew up with some idea of loyalty – to our mates and to our boss. So, telling tales does not seem like an automatically good way to resolve anything. Perhaps this is something peculiar in the Irish culture. Our Colonial history or the fact that in a small island nation, we tend not to say things which will cause offense. For whatever reason, the option of becoming a ‘whistleblower’ seems particularly unattractive. But, and this is obviously dependant on what you have uncovered, there is a contradictory idea, what Americans label ‘doing the right thing’. Where the sins are ‘mortal’ (in business terms, fraud, physical violence) the call is somewhat easier. Where the allegations are ‘at the margins’ (allegations of sexual harassment, bullying, bribery in line with ‘local norms’), it’s a more nuanced decision.

New York: I weighted up what had to be done and eventually flew to the head office in New York to confront the issue. I came very close to getting fired myself (shooting the messenger is a classic organizational response). But somewhere underneath all the noise, they did listen and sent an internal audit team. 2 months later, one of the senior managers left the company. Now, I’m no hero. I was much more uncertain at the time than is portrayed above. With the benefits of hindsight, I can dissect the individual points into neat chunks. At that time I’d never even heard the term whistleblower and it was going completely against a cultural norm to raise the curtain on someone else’s behaviour. Perhaps I ws guided by the Force, Yoda’s line in Star Wars: “Do or do not. There is no try”. 

Dominant Culture: I was reminded of all the above when reading Simon Carswell’s book Anglo Republic – Inside The Bank That Broke Ireland. Jam-packed with dates and details, it’s a really good, but not an easy read. A customer service and speed orientation in Anglo (good things) eventually morphed into a selling/profitability obsession where the normal risk controls in banking were abandoned. But what struck me most forcefully was how difficult it is for individuals to stand up to the cultural norm within an organization. Especially when this is being driven by powerful individuals and where the ‘whistleblower’ has a chunk of mortgage to pay off and kids to put through school.

Personal Grievances: Dermot Rush, a Clinical Psychologist by training and my colleague in Tandem Consulting, believes that many whistleblowers are motivated by a personal grievance, a denied promotion or some other slight. Why? Because there is just so little mileage in pressing the STOP button for ethical reasons alone. Zero upside and so much potential downside.

So, here’s the question. Is there something happening in your organization that is not right? Do you feel strongly enough about this to pull the plug or are you afraid to confront this? What’s holding you back? Will you be a central figure in some future book, exploring ‘where it all went wrong’? Perhaps Edmund Burke the Irish politician and philosopher said it best 300 years ago: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”.

Paul Mooney

 PS More voices from a survey conducted in Toronto.  Kids On Love and Marriage.

 Q: HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHO TO MARRY?  

“You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming.” Alan, age 10

“No person really decides before they grow up who they’re going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out later who you’re stuck with.” Kirsten, age 10

Q: WHEN IS IT OK TO KISS SOMEONE?

“When they’re rich.” Pam, age 7

Q: HOW WOULD YOU MAKE A MARRIAGE WORK? 

“Tell your wife that she looks pretty even if she looks like a truck.” Ricky, age 10

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Here's a big idea to progress your management development

Have you seen the TV show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition? It focuses on disadvantaged/deserving families in the USA, people who are really active in the community, who’ve suffered a bereavement in the military and so on. The prize is not bad: The family get a new house built from the ground up in one week (the old house is demolished and the new house built on the same site). This extraordinary event could only happen with (a) TV funding (b) great planning and (c) an enormous level of community volunteer support. Sometimes several hundred people are involved in the construction. In trying to understand the root of this community based behaviour, the concept of ‘Service Learning’ which is fairly common across the US, helps to explain this.

US Trip: About 3 years ago, I visited two Jesuit universities in the USA, in Denver and Connecticut. Both of them had active Service Learning programmes. It works like this. Students spend time working on selected community projects and this time is ‘credited’ i.e. it’s a formal part of their 3rd level learning experience. Service Learning is not confined to Jesuit schools, but is widespread across the US at both 2nd and 3rd level. While the concept is understood, Service Learning is not integrated into the educational system in Ireland. But that’s slowly changing. A recent example helps to bring the point alive.

Cold Nights: The annual Belvedere College sleep out for the homeless is a tough stint. Just before Christmas I went into town to see my son Cillian who was part of the programme this year. We stood talking at the corner of Abbey Street and O’ Connell Street. The first 10 minutes or so were grand; after 20 minutes I was colder than Tarzan on a trip to Winnipeg. We walked up and down just to generate a bit of heat. The collection was going well. Earlier that evening, one man having asked a couple of questions about how the money would be used, wrote a cheque for €1,000. People give according to their means, so 50 cent from a child can be a hugely generous gesture. In 3 days, over €127K was collected with the money going directly to the Fr. Peter McVerry SJ Trust. Every penny provides food and shelter for the homeless (in an organization with zero administration costs, this amount goes a long way). Current students sleep in O’Connell Street. Ex Belvedere Boys sleep outside the Bank of Ireland in College Green – so the Service Learning tradition continues even after they leave. And many of the teachers stay out on the collection too, ‘leading by doing’. An inscription in the college reads: ‘If not you who, if not now, when?’

In all, Cillian spent 56 hours on the street, 24 of those without food. On the 2nd night a homeless guy stole his sleeping bag from the tent erected beside the Spire, which was somewhat ironic. So he spent a cold night there and a lot of the Christmas holidays catching up on lost sleep. I’m usually rabbiting on about how much my kids underperform so it’s nice to have something positive to report (it’s the rebirth of hope!).

Management Development: All interesting of course, but how does it apply to the world of work? In times of tight budgets, the amount of money available for management development is limited. Training time and € expenditure is often focused on an organizations high achievers, understandable in a time of austerity. But there is also a strong case for focusing on the ‘magnificent middle’ – the group below the top who also need to develop skills and usually want to progress in your organization.

Win: Win: Win: If you have a nose for it, there are tremendous development opportunities in the community and not-for-profit sector. Many community organizations need support in areas like finance/accounting, human resources, project management, public relations and marketing. These can provide great development opportunities for staff in professional organizations. Becoming involved in complex projects gives people exposure, sometimes in areas where commercial organization would be reluctant to ‘let them loose’. Corporate Social Responsibility projects that have an explicit development angle therefore provide a win for participating staff, a win for the community organization and a win for the employer.

70: 20:10: Those of us who have been around the training space since Louis Walsh was in short trousers, often refer to the 70:20:10 principle i.e. 70% of the value of learning typically takes place on the job, 20% through coaching and 10% through formal education programmes. Are you maximizing that 70%? We may not like everything imported from the US (the Whopper springs to mind) but Service Learning is a solid idea and should be part of your developmental jigsaw. To steal a title from Jack Canfield, this is Chicken Soup for the Soul. Check it out.

Paul Mooney

PS All too serious? 
 

A mate of mine recently admitted to being addicted to brake fluid. When I quizzed him on it, he reckoned he could stop at any time!

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Staying Positive Gives you the Edge

Over the Christmas break I read Ken Dohertys’ autobiography – Life in the Frame. I got to know Ken reasonably well when I worked in the National College of Ireland. He was a great hit with the students, making time to attend award ceremonies and connecting with individuals, never too busy to spend time supporting others, despite a grueling practice regime. You should read the book yourself to get the full story but here’s how it concludes:

“As I think about my future, I find myself reflecting on the past. When I look back, above all I’ve been lucky. Lucky to have been born into a loving family. Lucky to have spent my life playing the game I love. Lucky to have travelled the world and experienced so many diverse and interesting cultures. Lucky to have met a variety of people from differing backgrounds. Lucky to have enjoyed the support of millions of people, most of whom I will never meet. Lucky to have met Sarah and been blessed with Christian. Lucky to have been able to appreciate it all and not take any of it for granted.”

Genuine Belief: When you meet Ken in person you realize that the above is neither Pollyanna nor just some smart way to conclude a book. He really means it. And, I have no doubt that a central reason underpinning his success, is this ‘glass three-quarters full’ outlook. This simple idea of staying positive has a hugely important role to play in terms of our mental health. Wouldn’t it be great if there was some ‘technique’ where we could give ourselves a mental boost, to help overcome the normal speedbumps we encounter?

Double Winner: Ken is the only snooker player ever to have won both the world Amateur and the World Professional Snooker Championships. Now, without a doubt, every professional sportsperson would always wish that they had won more. That’s the way they’re built. But when you meet Ken, you realize that this is someone who’s happy in his own skin. Not trying to impress. No bullshit. Still focused on the future with all of it’s potential, but essentially happy with the journey to date. While there is always an element of the mountain which remains to be conquered, positive people also seem to be able to take a bow for the climb made to date.

Now, not everyone can be a World Champion. But chances are that you have accumulated a good number of successes. Made it through college? Tick. Solid relationship? Tick. Good Job? Tick. And so on. We know the old line: ‘Happiness is wanting what you have, rather than having what you want’. Mental health begins inside our own head. That’s the lesson for all of us. Sometimes I even remember to heed it myself!

Paul Mooney

PS Latest Joke from the Kids: A random man came up to me the other day and threw a handful of Lego on the ground. I don’t know what to make of it! (hey, lighten up. I’m running out of clean jokes).

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Release your 'Horsepower' potential!

I have a great Buddy (at least he was a great buddy until I posted this blog), Rory Mc Dyer. Rory is the local travel agent in Clontarf and one of life’s all round good guys. For the past 5 years, Rory, myself and four other guys go to Portugal for a golf trip. So, we know each other pretty well at this stage.

Silverback Gorilla: For the non-golfers among you, let me use a non-technical term. Rory hits the ball like a Silverback Gorilla. It goes an absolute mile. But then there is the small matter of finesse, getting it into the cup for a low overall score. Oops! Last year we played one very difficult course and we jokingly referred to it as a ‘hill walking exercise’ because Rory’s ball was up the side of the mountain more often than on the fairway. And we took endless delight in ribbing him about this. As you do!

Musical Director: Among Rory’s many accomplishments is the fact that he is the Musical Director for Whitehall Music Society. Every year they put on a Christmas Carol Service in the Holy Child (the big redbrick Church) in Whitehall. I’d been threatening to go for a couple of years and eventually made it at Christmas. It had been some time since I was in a church and half expected a bolt of lightening to strike as I entered. It’s a huge space and the church was jam-packed. The ceremony itself was magical, fantastic music, wonderful singing. A tonic.

No Music: On those golf trip to Portugal, we had not discovered Rory’s musical expertise. To the best of my knowledge, no hymns were sung on any previous outings, other than My Way, which, I suppose, is an anthem in its own right. So, there we had this musical genius in our midst, a greatness that we were totally unaware of.

Hidden Talent: In many work organizations a similar dynamic is at play. There are great people, with wonderful talents ‘under your nose’. People crying out to be given an opportunity to grow and develop, to learn new skills or demonstrate stuff they already know. But somehow you have them labeled. You see them as the ‘green’ 22 year old that you hired 10 years ago or you’ve become fixated on some mistake they made as a junior employee (and they are still carrying the scars). And the prize is big. Securing an extra 10% discretionary effort, is the equivalent of AIB hiring an additional 1600 staff.

The real War for Talent is not about hiring the best Money Trader or Civil Engineer from your competitor. It is not about ‘new horses’ at all – but releasing the horsepower that is already in house. It’s about seeing potential rather than past sins. Don’t be stuck with a 2002 mindset, a decade out of date. Like Simon Cowell and the X Factor team, can you really spot ‘potential’? When you do, let your staff know that it’s time to start writing the next chapter in their personal story.

Paul Mooney

PS One of the main banks has asked me to add all of their Regional Managers to the distribution list for this blog. They are under cost pressures and this is a zero cost form or management development. If a similar arrangement would work in your organization, just let me know.

Lighter Moment of the Week: Someone said to me recently : “If you look like your passport photo, you are too sick to travel”. Honestly, those airport security guards just go too far sometimes!

Louie - at 7 Weeks. Handsome Boy!

It all happened a couple of years ago and the memory lingers on. Not in a good way.

Toronto Job: I was interviewing for a job in Toronto, HR manager for Canada in a pharmaceutical company. All the questions were anticipated and answered on 2X4 white cards stuffed into my inside pocket and rehearsed on the plane. I’d packed a shirt/tie combination, erring on the conservative side with the dress code. And I’d completed stellar homework on the company, turnover, products in development, major competitors, the whole nine yards. Nothing left to chance. Somewhere over the Atlantic, the tie became hopelessly creased in the luggage. I had to iron it at the hotel to look respectable. Being a dab hand at ironing (not) I managed to burn a huge hole in the silk tie and had to go shopping at 8pm on Sunday night for a replacement in a strange city. I eventually tracked down a tie and made it to the interview, but I didn’t get the job.

Dealing with Disappointment: Two of my brothers live in Canada so it was a real disappointment not to be moving across to join them. And, of course, they all knew I was interviewing for the job – so my hero status took a beating in the family! What I didn’t know at that point was that six months later I would move to Singapore and begin an Asian adventure that would last a lifetime (two of my kids are Chinese). Not getting that job in Canada was the best thing that ever happened to me – although I would not have believed it at that time.

New Dog: Roll the clock forwards a couple of years. In mid 2011, Max our dog died. We loved Max so much, it was just awful and the entire family were terribly upset. This was going to be our last dog. Absolutely. We could not go through that experience again. But, just a couple of months later, on December 27th, Nicole and myself made the pick-up trip to a town called Hospital in County Limerick where we met Louie, a Bull Mastiff,  for the first time. The journey took so long (a combination of Christmas traffic and the small matter of me getting completely lost), that I almost needed to be hospitalized by the time I got there.

Welcome Aboard: Louie cried for the first 10 minutes of the drive home until Nicole put him and his blanket on her lap and talked to him all the way home. The house is now upended. In the last couple of days we’ve picked up more s**t than the Elephant Keeper in Dublin Zoo does in a month. But ‘King Louie’ has settled in. We are looking forward to him learning to use an outdoor loo and coming on those long walks when he has all his inoculations. Max was a special dog and can never be replaced. But Louie is beautiful and has already won a place in our hearts.

None of us know what’s ahead. We absolutely cannot predict the future. And, no matter how tough things seem at the moment, there is potential joy around the next corner. Whatever happened in 2011, the potential of 2012 stretches ahead. And, the next conversation you have could change your life. Will you be ready for it?

Happy New Year!

Paul Mooney

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Santa + subordinate clauses (it's a legal joke)

Linda and myself have recently taken to walking the roads at the dead of night, wearing 8 layers of clothing to block out the wind and the damp. Rudolf is not the only one sporting a red nose this Christmas. We’ve been admiring the Christmas decorations, despite the fact that there seems to be less houses ‘dressed up’ this year. It will be a sad state of affairs if Santa gets made redundant during the recession. News Flash: ‘The light at the end of the tunnel is being turned off due to further cutbacks’.

What’s not to like about Christmas? Santa is always well turned out. Despite carrying a bit of weight, he seems pretty agile, climbing down chimneys of every configuration, clocking up more air miles in one night than Ivor Callely could manage in a week of expense claims! On a recent cold walk we got talking about the kids, a time for self-reflection on how we score as parents.

Child Expert: Now I don’t wish to be boastful, but did I mention that I used to consider myself (past tense) somewhat of an expert on managing kids? In Cabra, I worked with teenagers in Youth Clubs for many years. More recently, I had a lot of contact with the Students in NCI during that wonderfully formative time in their lives. And I made a real effort with my own little ones, helping them to understand the world.

Troubled Teenagers: My particular specialism was troubled teenagers. To cut to the chase, I understood them. Then, almost overnight, a tragic thing happened in our family. Three wonderful little kids, Amie, Cillian and Nicole, who formerly did what they were told (most of the time), morphed into the most awful teenagers who ever inhabited the planet. All that pseudo expertise, gained through the virtual management of other people’s teenagers, evaporated.

We’re praying now that our kids will be late developers – because we’ve given up on any early promise. The word adolescent is so hard to spell, I’ve given up and just use ‘it’. I’m not even quite sure where it all went wrong. Probably a lot of it is down to their mother’s influence (coincidentally, Linda never reads this blog!). The only saving grace is that they seem to have developed a sense of humour. Instead of studying, they regularly engage me in deep conversation about life’s great mysteries like: What colour does a Smurf go when you choke it?

Work Link: So, where’s the link between unruly teenagers and the world of work? In my job I meet some managers who are struggling to deliver. Sometimes the fogginess of mid-career drags them down into 2nd gear. For others it’s a sense of coasting, of talent being underutilized. In the tougher cases, some managers underperform and put themselves seriously ‘at risk’. When I talk to people in the underperforming group about what’s happening – I’m amazed at how often the central focus, the lightening rod for all their angst, is the boss; s/he should never have been hired, is a poor cultural fit with the organization, they are not ‘value driven’ etc. Just like I’m ruining my teenagers’ lives, the boss is screwing up their career. And they fervently believe that if they were doing the boss’s job, it would be done so much better.

Normally I highlight the irony of this stance: “Just let me get this straight; you’re underperforming in your current role, but would be a stellar performer in a more senior role?” Subtlety does not always work and they take the opportunity of a lull in the conversation to re-tell how awful life is as an underling to the world’s worst boss (to deep dive into this particular topic, read Robert Suttons’ book Good Boss, Bad Boss and unearth real gems; like the CEO who made the first ‘Employee of the Month’ award to himself).

Core Message: Forget about doing your boss’s job. Do your own job. If you do today’s job superbly well, despite the roadblocks, tomorrow will take care of itself. When I was observing those unruly teenagers from a distance, I was pretty sure I’d be a good Dad. But it’s turning out much messier in real life. In similar vein, the boss’s job can look a lot easier from a distance and it’s all too easy to outplace the blame.

New Year: So here’s the thought. Both winners and losers are self-made, but only winners acknowledge this. If you really do work for a Desperate Executive, then move on to another role or another organisation. Otherwise, focus on what you can do to improve your own performance rather than fixating on someone else.

Paul Mooney

PS The old Christmas jokes are the best. Two snowmen are talking and one says to the other: “Can you smell carrots?”

Every best wish to you and your family for a really happy Christmas and continued success and good fortune in 2012. I’m taking a short blogging break. Back on line in early January 2012 with more reports from the consulting trenches.

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Wayne Gretzky - The Great One

My life is just so interesting at the moment. I keep getting letters from successful Nigerian businessmen who want to partner with me in business (sending wads of cash in exchange for a few personal details) and Russian women who want to partner with me in general. The women, in particular, seem disappointed with the fact that I have not written to them, ‘despite the love they have given me in the past’. The most recent note from Nadia is typical:

‘Hey Paul – why do I stop writing? I very much waited your letter – every day, I now have a website, come to my page and write to me at last, I’m waiting for you, and I want to meet with you, kisses’ – Nadia from Russia.

Perhaps we should meet just to help her with English. Possibly re-establish the barter system, now that the Euro is under threat! It’s a neat idea but real work keeps getting in the way. Like figuring out the best way to design & deliver executive development programmes.

Action Learning: Throughout the year, we have been involved in a number of executive development programmes all of which have had a strong emphasis on action learning. The short version = adults learn by doing. While presentations by key speakers are good for creating awareness, eventually the participant has to be given an opportunity to practice the new skill. Why? Because that’s how people learn. You’ve seen this captured in the Chinese saying: ’I hear and forget. I see and remember. I do and understand’. Think back to when you learned how to cycle. Did your dad show you a video on bikes, explaining the key safety rules and how forward motion enhances balance? Or did someone take you out on a real bike and you eventually ‘got going’? Point made.

I’m Too Busy: At a recent management seminar, we got a lot of pushback on this. A couple of the participants had so many day-to-day pressures, they were hard-pressed even to find time to come to the workshop. Later on, I posed the following question: “What would you do if the CEO of the company personally invited you, on a voluntary basis only, to work on a special project? It would take about a day a week, and you should only accept if you feel you can keep your regular job going during the three or four months of the project”.

When I asked who would accept the assignment, every single hand went up (it helps that in this particular company they all like the CEO). After earlier complaining that they could barely find time to come to the workshop, they were volunteering to take a day out of every week and still get their jobs done. That provoked a good laugh in the group (when the inconsistency was gently highlighted!).

“If I had to do it, I’d find a way”, explained one person. “I couldn’t pass up an opportunity for that exposure”. Someone else suggested that she’d delegate less critical work. “I’d train my people to take over some tasks, and find shortcuts for others”. The comments illustrate that in a crisis or emergency, having to do something provides the energising force to make things happen in ways we don’t ordinarily think about. So, could you introduce your own mini-crisis – disrupting the way you currently work? Identify stupid tasks that currently take time but don’t add value – by taking the ‘Crap Detector’ test.

Crap Detector: If you had to choose ways to gain time, could you find something in one of these categories…

• A task you complete that could be completely eliminated
• One thing that you can do in less time
• Something that you can delegate to someone else

The changes can be quite simple. Always read your email every day? Get your PA to sort out what you don’t need to see (does anyone in the universe still have a PA?). Still checking every report generated by your department? Tell people they are responsible for their own reports and stop using you as a ‘sweeper’ for picking up silly mistakes. And so on.

Extra Time: And what will you face into tomorrow morning, now that you have freed up all that extra time? Two Bacardi and Cokes to kick start the day? Hardly. But you can spend less time fire fighting today issues and put effort into the tomorrow agenda. Get on a plane and talk to customers about their needs. Interrogate suppliers about emerging technology. Investigate competitors and how they’re bundling offers. Look over the wall at other industries – to spark ideas and steal shamelessly. The Ice Hockey player, Wayne Gretzky (nicknamed The Great One), explained his success as “skating towards where the puck is going to be”. Making the time to do this is the challenge for all of us who lead over-busy lives.

Paul Mooney

PS If you freed up enough time, perhaps you could even jump on a plane to Russia and meet Nadia in person. Please give her my best regards. I just hope, for your sake, that Nadia and that Nigerian businessman are not one and the same person, a baldy little fat guy from Huddersfield who is really good with computers. Thanks for reading the blogs. I get a kick out of the amount of people who tune in, sometimes sending suggestions, sometimes disagreeing with the points made. 350-400 people read the blog each week, and that number has been steadily growing. It’s probably down to the fact that you get access to brilliant jokes like: “If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is not for you”.


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High Voltage Ideas for Staff

Despite the fall of the Celtic Tiger, some executive teams have not yet faced into the reality of change management and remain vulnerable to virulent low cost competition from Bangalore to Bogotá. Ga Ga land can be an interesting place to hide out for a while, but the real world eventually intrudes; that timebomb is ticking.

Cutback Kings: However, most executive teams have moved beyond denial, making more cuts than an average shift in an Abattoir. Pay, pensions and benefits have all been through the ringer and liquid lunches are the stuff of ancient history. Staff are reeling from the impact on take home pay and from the general influenza of gloom caught from every media outlet. It’s a time of austerity and paying for past sins (even if most people believe that they are stumping up for the sins of others). Because of the above, most staff are stuck in a vortex of negativity – looking at their shoes rather than the sky. The classic symptom of depression is low energy and, arguably, the entire country is suffering from low level depression, despite Enda’s ‘State of the Nation’ address. The managerial challenge is clear: how do you get low-energy staff pumped up?

Managing in the Meantime: Some organizations are beginning to look beyond the current scenario. They know that there is a tomorrow as well as a today and have started to consider a range of creative, low cost ideas to re-engage the workforce. To pump some air into employee’s tires, the best-managed organizations are working on a range of positive exercises. Here’s a couple of potential New Years’ Resolutions. Feel free to steal shamelessly!

a. Dress Code: Formal dress codes (shirt and ties etc.) are increasingly being abandoned in favour of ‘smart casual’ wear at work. It’s dress down Friday, everyday. Relax the company rules on this outmoded practice.

b. Climate Survey: Take the major presenting issues in your most recent survey and ensure that visible progress is being made. General rule in employee relations = ‘It’s no good giving people more and more of what they don’t want’ i.e. the issues have to be material to staff.

c. Eat Cake: Look for small celebratory events to say thanks to staff for a job well done. Perhaps give each functional manager a small budget for this. Look at restoring a small ‘drinks’ budget at Christmas to allow managers take the staff on a night out. Not flamboyant, but sending a signal that the company recognizes effort. It’s the thought that counts.

d. Sports & Social: Put some real managerial effort into making this work well. Typically, low cost and high impact (assuming it’s led by a manager who has a pulse).

e. X-Factor: When the ‘internal talk’ is a bit gloomy, it might be worthwhile to consider something a bit more light-hearted e.g. an internal Talent competition. Judged by Paul Harrington, ex Eurovision Winner (or someone similar). Initial management and staff response will initially be a ‘groan’ – but these competitions are fantastically energizing. Low cost, high impact. Tops of the Town – reformed!

f. Employee Voice: Develop methods for staff to voice ideas and concerns openly. There are a range of options – from Lean to Employee Engagement; when it works it can be really productive (caveat: this is not pseudo democracy; don’t start unless you mean to continue).

g. Annual Benefits: Reaffirm the company’s pay philosophy and show how salary movements are tracked by issuing an annual benefits statement – highlighting the full monetary value of the package for each employee. It’s a timely reminder of the ‘deal’.

h. Share Ownership: A particularly useful method to underscore the ‘upside’ of future high performance i.e. staff will share in the reward. If you are a Plc., the current share ownership of the executive team will be well known; this can help close the ‘them’ versus ‘us’ perception gap.

i: Supporting Education: As part of the cutbacks, some companies no longer support external education. For younger staff, in particular, this is a difficult pill to swallow and has a knock-on impact in relation to talent retention (the policy might actually cost you more money than the savings made).

j: Internal Passport: Some staff rate opportunity highly on their list of what makes an organization a ‘great place to work’. Historically, many companies trained people in silos – with an emphasis on acquiring depth rather than breadth of skills. It is possible to develop a system whereby staff rotate between departments to ‘learn the business’ e.g. have a passport to travel anywhere across the company. Works great in places with ‘low ceiling’ jobs e.g. call centres.

k: Individual Accommodations: Some organizations demonstrate the ‘caring’ element of their role during times of retrenchment and pay cuts by offering individual accommodations (e.g. loans to staff members facing difficult family circumstances). Usually the take up is miniscule, but the gesture of making the offer can signal a senior team that is attuned to the reality of people’s lives.

i: Active Listening: At a time of cutbacks, the senior team need to demonstrate a personal interest in staff, listening to what’s happening on the ground. Your antennae need to be particularly sharp during this time (hard for a CEO to put sufficient effort into this, when s/he is more used to people listening to them).

High Costs? A concern in reviewing the above list might be ‘What are the additive costs?’ In practice, most of the suggestions made are either low or no cost. Making this work has more to do with managerial attention and creativity rather than dollars. You just need to pay attention to that great management philosopher, Kung Fu Panda who said: “The past is history, the future’s a mystery, but today is a gift. That’s why they call it the present”. During the continuing global financial meltdown (which shows no sign of easing up anytime soon), we all need to ‘manage in the meantime’. The message is clear. Jettison the philosophy ‘the beatings will continue until morale improves’ and get your people back into 5th gear by paying a bit more attention to this area. Isn’t that why they’re paying you the big bucks?

Paul Mooney

PS Joke from my Niece (she’s 8): “My pet spider died yesterday, but I’m getting a new one on the Web”. That kid has real potential!

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"You're Fired"

Unless you have spent the last 40 days and nights living in a cave (in preparation for the excesses of Christmas?), you will no doubt be aware that RTÉ’S Prime Time Investigates series has been suspended. The station’s boss said that its journalists were responsible for “one of the gravest editorial mistakes ever made” in the national broadcaster. This admission has led to an investigation into errors made in a programme broadcast in May 2011, Mission to Prey, about Fr Kevin Reynolds.

Catastrophic Failure: It’s not just an internal affair. The Cabinet approved an independent inquiry into why RTÉ broadcast the programme, which wrongly accused Fr Reynolds of raping a minor and fathering her child while working as a missionary in Kenya 30 years ago. A Government spokesperson said the decision had been taken in view of “general disquiet” about the issue. So, this one is serious. The key question is: Could something similar happen in your organization?

Incorrect Premise: We will have to wait on the outcome of the investigation to find out what actually happened in RTÉ, but there are a number of parallels in both the commercial and not-for-profit sectors. The first potential tripwire is around ‘incorrect premise’. If you commence a project with a preformed premise, then you immediately search for evidence to support your bias. Just like the Birmingham 6 case in the UK. Each week a less dramatic form of this is played out on The Apprentice. Each team typically has 2 jobs. They need to come up with a concept. And, then they need to execute this rapidly. Because of time pressures and the thought of ‘facing Bill in the Boardroom’ (having your personal flaws raked over in front of a national audience can’t be much fun) the concept phase is often rushed through as the team dives into the details. In other words, the ‘thinking’ phase typically gets short shift while implementation predominates. And this doesn’t just happen on TV programmes. Dr. Ivor Kenny, former director of the Irish Management Institute captured this tendency in the quip: “Doing is the Opium for Managers”.

Cognitive Dissonance: I’m guessing that the incorrect premise in the RTÉ case was that Fr Reynolds was guilty. And once you lock onto a wrong idea, bad things follow. In commercial organizations the outcome (albeit a bit less dramatic) is a strategy that does not work or a change programme that doesn’t produce change. All heat, no light. So, why don’t people fully explore a range of possibilities before ‘locking on’ to the central idea? The concept of cognitive dissonance from psychology helps to explain this. Most of us seek consistency between our beliefs and our experience. When we receive new information that conflicts with existing ideas, the discrepancy creates feelings of discomfort and unease. Rather than staying with this i.e working it through, we ‘lock on’ to a single idea. We re-enter the certain zone, our unease disappears and we feel good again. This is an unconscious process and happens even in relation to quite small decisions. Lets assume that you want to book a family holiday and are considering France or Spain. While there are competing arguments for both locations, holding the 2 ideas at the same time is uncomfortable for many people. So, you quickly dismiss Spain (“Their economy is in tatters. Anyway, who wants to eat eggs fried in a sea of olive oil?”) and grab that Ryanair flight to Marseille.

Hold Out: The next time your organization is facing a big decision, try to be aware of the ‘competing arguments’ and don’t lock on too soon. Keep listening and weighting up the odds. Watch that you haven’t fallen into a default pattern of making quick decisions simply to ease your discomfort. And even where the alternative idea was put forward by ‘Mick in Sales’ (and you know of old that Mick is a gobshite), consider the possibility that he just might actually be right (in line with even a stopped clock is right twice a day). Listen to others, but most of all to your own instinct. In effective decisions, to speed up sometimes you need to slow down.

For some people reading about grave errors in organizations like RTÉ offers an element of Schadenfreude, pleasure derived from the misfortune of others. Just be careful that you are not the central player in the next media frenzy. Have a good one!

Paul Mooney

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"Pass that Pipe along, and I'll tell you what I really think about that proposal"

Galway Gig: I was working in Galway, the city of tribes (which perhaps should be re-christened the ‘City of the Magic Roundabout’). A senior team in a major multiple-national had come together to review where they were today and where they wanted to get to tomorrow. We’d completed a lot of preparation work and the meeting was broadly going to plan. The only downside was the room we were working in had no natural light, a no-no for an all day meeting, unless you’re working with Al-Qaeda.

Social Loafing: My buddy John O’Dowd, who also works with Tandem Consulting, makes the point that generally it’s more difficult to facilitate small groups because of the absence of the possibility of ‘social loafing’. In small groups, there’s no place to hide and these sessions can be quite intensive. Larger groups lend themselves to daydreaming, a form of escapism (people daydream to hide from boredom or social interaction). There are zero daydreaming possibilities in a small group, which makes facilitation particularly skillful and intensive.

Fun Injection: The group were reflecting on the progress made – and there was loads of good news to report; this talented team had delivered huge change within the business. But something was not quite right. The progress charts were full of ‘ticks’ demonstrating movement, but somehow it felt a bit relentless. Last months success was quickly replaced by this months ‘to do’ list. Then one participant suggested that the group had lost its sense of fun; the craic had been engineered out of the system. It was both insightful and brave – said while the boss was present – a version of The Emperors New Clothes. The comment opened up a difficult but highly productive conversation and allowed us to plot a different way forward.

Safe Place: In facilitating these meetings I normally have 3 broad objectives. The first is to take an appreciative inquiry approach – finding out what’s working well rather than simply focusing on what’s broken. It’s all too easy to make yourself look smart by making someone else look stupid. Consulting is about building confidence – leaving the person or the organization in better shape than you found them. The second is to ensure fog clearance – confusing topics get bottomed out and understood. You can’t fix something that you don’t understand – so understanding is key. The immutable rule in organizations is as follows: ambiguity leads to anxiety and anxiety lowers performance; all good consultants are in the job of ‘fog clearance’. The final point is to create a safe space, allowing people to feel comfortable discussing socially awkward topics. That’s where the idea of the truth pipe comes in.

Truth Pipe: Historically, several tribes used a version of the ‘truth pipe’. In tribal meetings, the person holding the pipe was tasked with expressing what they felt and the other members of the tribe had to listen to this – even where what was being expressed was difficult. While we do not use a physical ‘pipe’ – facilitators essentially deploy the same idea, creating what one writer (Annette Simmons) described as ‘a safe place for dangerous truths’.

Difficult topics don’t disappear just because they are not discussed. In the worst cases, undiscussable topics become a cancer that implodes the organisation from the inside out. Small talk is grand – in pubs and on airplanes. But in management teams, when you swim away from awkward discussions, you are running away from the job you’ve been paid to do. The next time your senior team gathers to discuss something important, ask yourself if this idea of a ‘truth pipe’ could add value.

Paul Mooney

PS: Recent article in a newspaper in Toronto was based on the following question posed to children: HOW CAN A STRANGER TELL IF TWO PEOPLE ARE MARRIED? Derrick, age 8, suggested the following: “You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids.”

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