The degree and quality of the leadership provided by managers are key ingredients in the success of industry and commerce; management status and management salaries reflect this. Yet, in practice, the development of these crucial managerial and leadership skills is frequently left to chance as if they could be acquired in the course of ordinary office and work experience, or at school, or in the home. But these skills require training. A person who did not have experience to drive vehicle can’t be employed into position as a driver. Hence, too many organizations still refuse to accept the idea that managers should be trained to manage and that leaders should be trained to lead. In such circumstances, it is hardly surprising if the workforce lacks motivation. Of course, some people are born leaders and need little instruction. These people have well managed skills in self development and management development by going through life experiences or how they were raised by their parents. To support these fact, Buckingham (2007) explain 3 different myth & truth that stopping people to identify which thoughts that holding back every decision in life.
The 3 myths and truth are:

1. Myth – ‘As you grow, your personality changes.’ / Truth – ‘As you grow, you become more of who you already are.’

The first myth and truth are supported by personality test (Buckingham, 2006). The results of personality test of identical twins when raised apart even when they are not raised in the same family, cultures or countries. The shocking finding is that even these twins never meet each other; believe it or not, they both still have similar personalities. As time flies they will become more of who they really are. As Reissner (2010) mentioned how organisational change affects personal identities, these findings about 3 myths and truth from Buckingham (2006) may conclude that why certain self development and management development will fail if the organisational development is poorly planned and conducted by the organisation itself. Certain traits from the individuals may not match with changes from the organisation because not two people are the same although they are in the same team or department or division and it requires strong leadership to tackle matters. Instead, O’Regan et al., (2010) claimed that leadership is defined as getting the best out of people with moving people into situation that they will be most likely successful and ‘success then builds on itself as people feel proud of what the organisation does’. Leadership is not the process of accomplishing great things by the leaders, while gaining the respect of people. It is rather the process of accomplishing great things through employees, thereby raising their self-respect. Leadership also involves more than simply overseeing or directing others. It involves developing employees’ skills through delegation. Hence, an organisational development should take point of having leaders who excel in their own self development and management development first before move to organisational development plan.

2. Myth – ‘You will grow the most in your areas of greatest weakness.’ / Truth – ‘You will grow the most in your areas of greatest strength.’

A leader must identify an employee’s special abilities and make use of them. Hence, a leader must also identify the weak areas and limitations of employees and be willing to help strengthen them. Management development of emphasizing a priority on developing certain skills and abilities of the manager while ignoring the needs employees are not usually effective approaches. When leaders consider themselves superiors in respect to attitude, it will affect employees to manage their self development. Leaders should acknowledge the fact that if employees are not naturally a person who eager to learn or upgrade themselves, Buckingham (2006) explains that a person will be the most inquisitive in their areas of strength and the most optimistic, most courageous, and most ambitious when playing to an area of strength. Buckingham findings about biology creation of improving existing connection of the brain that already making progress rather than taking defence steps of plotting escape routes to mistakes that comes from weakness. In organisational development, this helps as to important part of an appraisal schemes in assessing the future potential of the people involved. Ideally, this should be done by linking the information obtained such as personality traits, experiences, knowledge or others to a succession plan. Knowledge of past and current performance can be used in an attempt to predict future performances. The accuracy of such forecast can never be certain to a large extent will be governed by the amount of evidence available concerning any particular individual but someone who has consistently achieved targets is obviously a better than someone who has not.

3. Myth – ‘A good team member does whatever it takes to help the team.’ / Truth – ‘A good team member deliberately volunteers his strengths to the team most of the time.’

Teamwork is defined as entity itself. A leader must ready to respond to the team by understand that a team as a whole, has its own needs. Problems like over identifying the team by the leaders to speak on behalf of the team with its voice occurred by lack of communication of among the team members. This is because team members doesn’t have a knowledge about each other’s strength and how to figure out to arrange their time and their role so that they play to these strengths most of the time (Buckingham 2006). A vital activity for the leaders is regularly to identify what will make satisfaction from personal achievement in the job that their employee is doing. Employees who have genuine control over aspects of job that they are responsible and feel that they are making a worthwhile contribution to the objectives of the team and organisation is considered a person who is making the best of their strength at work. In summary, this concludes that a good organisational development is composed of team members within organisation that plan and exercise self development and management development of their people who play to their individual strengths, and teams that are assembled from people with different strengths.

Ref:
Buckingham, M. 2007. Go put your strengths to work. New York: Free Press.

O’Regan, N. and Ghobadian, A. 2010. ‘A serial successful strategic transformer of businesses: An interview with Anthony Habgood, Chairman of Whitbread plc, Reed Elsevier plc and former CEO and Chairman, Bunzl plc’, Journal of Strategy and Management, Vol. 3, No 1, pp.72 – 78.

Reissner, S. 2010. ‘Change, meaning and identity at the workplace’, Journal of Organisational Change Management, Vol. 23, No 3, pp.287-299

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But after a day of exciting learning experiences, i feel something strange. It’s like, the more I try to run and chasing my dream, the more I feel that my destiny is something that was really near with me. Something that I should’ve known before. I wonder why FINAS was so closed to my primary schools,my secondary schools and even my home.I wonder why is it normal for me to see a TV drama or film production is doing their outdoor work, which I very often encounter such things. I remember there was TV production called ‘Jangan Ketawa’ did one of their episodes in my school when I was 11 years old.Suddenly it coming back to my mind in last 2 year, when my previous employer RHB Bank was having a annual dinner for my department in Royale Bintang, I was  the “Choosen One” to be on the stage performing spontaneous Spidey costume tricks, with the host at that night whose name is Dee, which happens to be one of the actor that starred in Jangan Ketawa.Damn, I was wearing a black tuxedo that night and he happens to joke around by showing his lust to a boy like me.That was in front of more than 100 crowd of my colleagues that knew me with my 5 years of unforgettable working experience there. I purposely avoiding any small talk that would makes him flash back all those moments in schools while talking to him.  That was a hundred of my objections of chances to be in anything that related with acting,filming or anything that related with broadcasting business.No, it’s not that I hate this business. I got so many friends,cousins and former schoolmates that involved in this and it’s like the TV drama and film are small for me, I can tell more than 70 % of the places that this film/TV production was shooting nearby places that are my stomping ground.Maybe it’s was me, who thought that having so much priorities and biggger than any fortune in front of myself, all the way before. But I didn;t realized so much things that were noted in Malaysia local fim scene history was happened around this particular area.

Ulu Klang,Setapak and Gombak, where the FINAS was built, P. Ramlee was lived (Taman P.Ramlee in Setapak as well as P.Ramlee Memorial Library) and other places which think you should be able to noticed, were all of my places where I grew up.But No, it’s not something that I proud of. I shall say I am the most stupid person by choosing things that were supposed to be “choose” at first place. But being stupid or the most stupid is not the issue.Is not what the decision that determine your stupdiness, but what are the output and outcomes, is the most important thing.But I also believed the theory applies to different things with different situation that must be consider. Procedures is better than results. Guess what? I got that from Winter Sonata, a love story from Korea. Yes, the love story is interesting but I don’t follow that much..And don’t even start with me! Heheh…just kidding. But from that you get the ideas of this – People see things that they only want to see as much as what they want to hear. Hmnnnn…. just imagine how TV can gave impact so much with different kind of ideas,philosophies and even your decision in life.

Take Care..

Ridhzuan

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Want to be a genius? Just practise

WHAT do The Beatles, Warren Buffett, David Beckham, Mokhtar Dahari and Bill Gates have in common? They’re all famous, they’re all gifted, and they’re all geniuses in their own realms. More importantly, they have all reached the top by doing one thing – they poured their hearts and souls, their blood, sweat and tears, into achieving “perfection” through lots of practice.

Thomas Alva Edison once said, “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” Based on their research, Anders Ericsson and a team of scientists claim to know just how much perspiration is required to become a genius – apparently 10 years or 10,000 hours.

Ericsson writes, “A lot of people believe there are some inherent limits they were born with. But there is surprisingly little hard evidence that anyone could attain any kind of exceptional performance without spending a lot of time perfecting it.”

In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell reinforces this point with evidence that geniuses simply become great through practice.

The Beatles remain the best-selling musical group of all time, but this success did not come overnight. Gladwell explains that the Beatles became so good because they played for hours and hours in the German underground scene in Hamburg, receiving little money or recognition.

According to John Lennon, they played eight hours per night, seven nights a week for 270 nights. In comparison, most bands of their time (and probably even now!) only performed one-hour sessions every week.

Mokhtar Dahari always pushed us to the limit during our training sessions.

Fortunately for the Fab Four, by the time they were ‘discovered’, they had performed an estimated of 1,200 times! Most bands today don’t even perform that many times in their entire careers. These 1,200 live practice performances really was the differentiator.

Buffett is widely recognised as the world’s greatest investor. But his success is the result of sheer discipline, hard work and lots of practice. He practised the discipline of “mental strategies” of investment for years and years, and became an expert in investments over time.

Beckham is no different. Famed for his lethal free kicks, he wasn’t born with those skills. He practised free kicks diligently to impress his dad at first and developed it into his trademark.

Said his former boss, Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, “He practised with a discipline to achieve an accuracy that other players wouldn’t care about.” After the usual practice session, Beckham would stay back and continue practising and practising – 500 free kicks a day, 180,000 free kicks a year.

That effort soon translated into an ability and talent that we called genius.

We know that Gates, a Harvard dropout, is among the world’s richest men because of his Microsoft fortune. But there is more to his story than meets the eye.

For starters, he went to an elite high school, with access to a computer. This was back in the 1960s, when many universities didn’t even have computers. This allowed him to do real-time programming as a 14-year-old.

Obsessed, he programmed eight hours a day, seven days a week. He skipped athletics, sneaked out after bedtime, hacked passwords, and told the occasional lie, just so that he could have more hours of programming. By the time he dropped out of college, he had 10,000 programming hours under his belt.

Think of teenagers who are computer whiz-kids. How do they become experts? With their short attention span, how do they learn? Observe them for a day and you will see them surfing the Internet, playing video games, and sharing everything they learn on blogs and YouTube.

Considering the hours they spend daily on the computer, it’s no wonder that they are so good with all things digital. Clearly, there is a correlation between time and expertise.

Greatness is only achieved through hard, painful, and demanding practice. “It can take 10 years or 10,000 hours of extensive practice to excel in anything,” says George Kohlrieser, the head of leadership at business school IMD.

“Mozart was six when he started composing, but his world-class compositions started at age 21.” Kohlrieser believes that talent and luck are important, but it is practice that makes the difference between being good and being great. So what does this all mean? We live in a world where we expect everything to be instantaneous. Maggi Mee, instant coffee, instant profits, and we even produce leaders by using the 1-Minute Manager manual.

Yet, to be truly exceptional and great, we need to put in the time. We expect world-class football players in Malaysia, and yet we start formal football training for kids at age 12, when teams like Everton start developing their Wayne Rooneys at age 4. And we wonder why we don’t see football geniuses?

There are no shortcuts. We can conclude likewise on leadership. Nobody becomes a great leader without working at it. To develop leaders, we need to provide our future leaders with early exposure and practice to leadership, possibly even in their schooling years. Why aren’t there leadership clubs in our schools that enable our kids to practice leadership?

There is a belief that if you’re good at something, it should be effortless. That unfortunately is baseless. To become a great leader, you need to notch up hours of practise. Even Jack Welch spent 10 years as CEO of General Electric, practising and practising before he finally got it right.

If you do the math, just three hours a day of practice for 10 years makes you an expert.

Just one problem: How do you practice business? Many elements of business, in fact, are directly practicable. Presenting, negotiating, delivering evaluations, deciphering financial statements – you can practise them all. And even the softer pieces of management, such as giving feedback on performance, coaching your reports and hiring the right people can all be practised.

I played football under the great Mokhtar Dahari. He was an intense coach, always pushing us to the limit during our training sessions. One day I asked him about the goal he scored against England. He replied, “I guess I was just lucky.” Then he said, “But, Roshan, you make your own luck. The more you practise, the luckier you get. So stop asking questions and keep practising.” I took his advice and before long, I broke into the state team.

Roberto Galeotti, president of Scoula Superiore, once said, “Genius is NOT reserved for the special few”. Then again, practice is never easy. If achieving great performance was so easy, it wouldn’t be rare. So, you want to be brilliant or a genius, just practice la. Hopefully, you have 10,000 hours to spare!

Roshan Thiran – The Star

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Employee Retention – Critical Skill at a Critical Time

          Many of you have probably heard about the “pending” labor shortage. The Herman Group predicts that by 2010, there will be a shortage of over 10 million employees in the U.S. This is not a problem that will magically appear in 5 years. The problem is NOW!!

         We are currently in the tightest labor market of the past 40 years. Data already suggests we have a shortage of almost 5 million employees. Much of this is due to the impact of the 20% drop in birth rate we saw after the Baby Boomer generation. At the same time these Baby Boomers begin to retire, fewer people are entering the job force. Unemployment rates are at their lowest levels since early 2001 and they will only get lower.

         If you haven’t given this problem much thought, you’re not alone. Most companies have been lulled to sleep by the up and down economy and fickle job market of the last few years. That’s great news for those of you reading this because the few companies who understand the importance of this problem, and proactively do something about it, will gain incredible competitive advantage.

The Impact

You will feel this impact in two ways

1. Increased employee turnover

According to the Gallop organization, only 29% of employees are truly engaged in the work they do. That means 71% of your employees would probably not think twice before leaving for a better (or maybe just different) opportunity. At the same time, the current positive state of the economy, low unemployment rate and flexible work arrangements have given employees more choices than ever before.? And, by the way, your best employees have the most choices, and therefore more reason to leave! Think about the impact that would have on your customers, employee morale, hiring costs, training and number of non-gray hairs on your head

If you haven’t begun to see this problem in your organization, you will. If you don’t tackle this problem today, you will pay dearly to solve it tomorrow

2. Increased difficulty in recruiting

Some of you may have already experienced the increased time it takes to find qualified employees. Two years ago, a job candidate was happy to have one good job opportunity. Today, most good job candidates have several opportunities to choose from.

This will cause two types of problems: either your company will be understaffed as you wait longer to fill those open spots, or you’ll rush to fill open spots by settling for employees that are not really qualified for the job.
The Solution

So how do you weather this storm?

What follows are eight ways to dramatically increase the chances of keeping and maximizing your best employees.

1.Hire the right people

The first step for any company hoping to become great is to hire superior people.? “A” players breed more “A” players. Companies filled with “B” and “C” employees will not have the ability to attract “A” players. In addition, the “A” players you do have will be de-motivated and/or leave. ?
Research has shown that companies mis-hire 75% of the time! That means most companies need to hire four mediocre or under-performing employees in order to find one “A” player. The cost of this poor performance is astounding when you estimate the impact on company performance and/or employee turnover costs.?
Therefore, the first step in your retention process should be to improve your hiring process. You will need to develop a system for recruiting, evaluating and hiring superior people. This is an extensive topic unto itself, which has spawned hundreds of books. I suggest you read “Hire With Your Head” by Lou Adler or “Topgrading” by Bradford Smart as a great starting point.

2.Know your employees

Do you adhere to the adage that all employees should be treated equally? If so, your employees will never achieve their true potential, and never be truly happy in their work. ?

Each one of your employees has different strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, goals, motivations and learning styles. By understanding and acting on these differences you will be able to bring the best out of your team.

Let’s look at an example concerning motivations&ldots;

One employee is motivated by money and/or status while the second employee is motivated by free-time and flexibility.? Should both be offered the same type of work incentives? Of course not

Let’s look at one more example. This time concerning learning styles…

Some employees learn best by studying everything there is to know about task before trying it. Forcing them to begin a task before they’re ready will result in poor execution and diminished confidence. Other employees like to learn by doing. They like to understand the basics of the task and then be “let loose” to learn from their mistakes. Studying the details of a task for too long only bores and de-motivates them.? Would you train these different types of employees in the same manner?? I hope not.

The sad thing is that most managers don’t know their employees well enough to understand these differences. If that’s the case in your situation, the first step is incredibly easy. Just ask them. Ask them what they like and dislike about the job. Ask them what motivates them and how they like to learn best. Not only will you find out an incredible amount of useful information, you’ll also show them how much you care.

3.Focus on employee strengths

When creating and giving employee evaluations, how much time do you spend on strengths versus weaknesses? If you’re like most managers, you rack your brain to find every possible weakness and development need for the employee you’re evaluating. I remember having a hard time writing reviews for my best performers since it was more difficult to find areas of weakness. Telling them where they were doing a great job was almost an afterthought and not much more than a pat on the back.

Focusing on weaknesses might help an employee become a bit more “well rounded”, however, being “well rounded” is incredibly overrated.? Employees will rarely become strong in an area of weakness. The best we can hope for is that they will rise to become mediocre. However, where an employee has talent, they can become world-class.? In addition, focusing on maximizing those areas where we have true talent is incredibly motivating.

This doesn’t mean we should ignore weaknesses. By all means, if weaknesses are getting in the way of doing the job, you need to find ways to manage around those weaknesses. These can include looking for ways to get them to acceptable levels of performance, changing their responsibilities or counseling them out of your organization. But don’t expect them to become “expert” tomorrow in those areas they’re weak in today.

Your return on investment will be significantly greater by focusing the employee’s efforts on continuing to build on their talents by adding new knowledge, experience and tools. Would you rather have a “well rounded” employee or a world-class employee??

4.Create a compelling mission

I’m not talking here about your typical mission statement, created by high level executives during a 2-day retreat. I’m talking about something your employees feel in their gut. Something that makes them believe their work is important. ?Something that gives them pride in what they do

If you work for a brokerage firm, wouldn’t it be more powerful to state your mission as “We help our clients provide for their children and live comfortably into their old age” than to say “We will be the leading brokerage firm in our industry”. If your company makes smoke alarms, wouldn’t it be more powerful to have a mission to keep families safe instead of a mission to be the #1 provider of smoke alarms.

Think about what makes your work important and make that your mission.

5.Trust your people

Conventional management wisdom says you’ll get the most out of your employees by defining specific goals and detailed procedures for getting there. This is only half right. Creating challenging goals is critical, however, let your employees figure out how to get there.

Most of us know it’s the people on the front lines who truly understand the best way to get things done. Defining every detailed procedure for them not only stifles their motivation and creativity, but also lowers the chance they’ll create break-thru performance.

If you’ve hired the right people and given them the tools necessary to do the job, you should give them the freedom to get the job done. Giving them ownership will allow them to reach their true potential.

6.Show your appreciation

There’s a reason why teams play better in front of a home town crowd. There’s a reason why stand up comics feed off the laughter of the crowd. Appreciation works!

Find ways to measure and reward positive outcomes. Compliment and celebrate your teams’ accomplishments big and small. There’s no such thing as too much praise as long as it’s genuine.

7.Cultivate strong managers

Research shows that employees leave their managers, not the companies they work for. It does no good for a company to invest in great compensation plans, mission statements and performance management systems if front line managers can’t execute against the previous six ideas.

Simply put, managers need to know how to effectively select, manage, develop and reward their employees. Missing any one these pieces will lead to poor performance and high employee turnover.

Therefore, a company’s biggest investment should be in the selection and development of great managers.

8.Have fun!

We spend half our waking lives at work. Shouldn’t we figure out how to make it fun? ?Not only will a fun work environment breed happier employees, it’ll breed creativity, outstanding service and tremendous teamwork.

Allow your employees to play, have fun and experiment. Encourage them to contribute to others (employees, customers and the community) in extraordinary ways. Most of all loosen up. Let people bring their true selves to work and have a good time. Your customers, employees and bottom-line will be better for it.

Following these eight steps will actually do a great deal more than help you keep your best employees. Happier, more productive employees will lead to improved innovation, quality, customer service and, best of all, profitability.

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Scientists have shown that web browsing excites the brains of middle aged and elderly people more than reading a book.

The study suggests that using Google and other internet search engines could exercise the mind in a similar way to crossword puzzles, sudokus and “brain training” computer games.

The findings come from a study of 24 volunteers aged 55 to 76 at the University of California, Los Angeles who were asked to either search the web or read while their brains were scanned using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

The scans monitor activity by measuring the flow of blood to parts of the brain.
Some of the volunteers were experienced web users while others were newcomers to computers.

The study found that readers and surfers both showed increased blood flow in parts of the brain controlling language, reading, vision and memory.

However, experienced web users showed increased activity in the parts of the brain dealing with complex reasoning and decision-making – such as the frontal, temporal and cingulate brain areas – when searching the internet.

Professor Gary Small, from the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behaviour at UCLA, said: “Our most striking finding was that internet searching appears to engage a greater extent of neural circuitry that is not activated during reading – but only in those with prior internet experience.”

The research, due to appear in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, that those with the most internet experience had twice the brain activity as the rest of the volunteers.

“The study results are encouraging, that emerging computerised technologies may have physiological effects and potential benefits for middle-aged and older adults, said Prof Small.

“A simple, everyday task like searching the Web appears to enhance brain circuitry in older adults, demonstrating that our brains are sensitive and can continue to learn as we grow older.”

Less experienced web users could show similar boosts to brain activity with practice, he said.

“With more time on the internet, they may demonstrate the same brain activation patterns as the more experienced group,” he added.

Some researchers and computer games companies believe that “mental workouts” can improve concentration and help prevent dementia and memory loss.

They recommend mental arithmetic tests, sudoku and word games as a way of keeping the brain sharp.

David Derbyshire

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This article takes a look at the basic principles of change management, and provides some tips on how those principles can be applied.

When leaders or managers are planning to manage change, there are five key principles that need to be kept in mind:

1. Different people react differently to change
2. Everyone has fundamental needs that have to be met
3. Change often involves a loss, and people go through the “loss curve”
4. Expectations need to be managed realistically
5. Fears have to be dealt with

Here are some tips to apply the above principles when managing change:

* Give people information – be open and honest about the facts, but don’t give overoptimistic speculation. Ie meet their OPENNESS needs, but in a way that does not set UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS.
* For large groups, produce a communication strategy that ensures information is disseminated efficiently and comprehensively to everyone (don’t let the grapevine take over). Eg: tell everyone at the same time. However, follow this up with individual interviews to produce a personal strategy for dealing with the change. This helps to recognise and deal appropriately with the INDIVIDUAL REACTION to change.
* Give people choices to make, and be honest about the possible consequences of those choices. Ie meet their CONTROL and INCLUSION needs
* Give people time, to express their views, and support their decision making, providing coaching, counselling or information as appropriate, to help them through the LOSS CURVE
* Where the change involves a loss, identify what will or might replace that loss – loss is easier to cope with if there is something to replace it. This will help assuage potential FEARS.
* Where it is possible to do so, give individuals opportunity to express their concerns and provide reassurances – also to help assuage potential FEARS.
* Keep observing good management practice, such as making time for informal discussion and feedback (even though the pressure might seem that it is reasonable to let such things slip – during difficult change such practices are even more important).

Where you are embarking on a large change programmes, you should treat it as a project. That means you apply all the rigours of project management to the change process – producing plans, allocating resources, appointing a steering board and/or project sponsor etc.. The five principles above should form part of the project objectives.

When leaders or managers are planning to manage change, there are five key principles that need to be kept in mind:

Principle ONE

Different people react differently to change
The following diagram represents a spectrum of change:

Stability – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - Change

Different people have different preferences for where they like to be on this spectrum. Some people like to be at the STABILITYend of the spectrum – they like things to be the way they have always been. Other people like to be at the CHANGE end of the spectrum – they are always looking for something different and new.

Problems arise when the individual’s preferences differ from the situation they find themselves in. That is, if:

* a stability-oriented person finds that circumstances are changing quite rapidly, or
* a change-oriented person finds that everything is the same and there is nothing new

In these situations, the individuals involved can experience:

* strong disatisfaction
* stress
* negative attitudes towards individuals with preferences at the other end of the spectrum (eg: distrust, dislike)
* resistance (to change, or to the status quo)
* intense emotions
* loss of rational judgement

People tend to resist, therefore, approaches on other parts of the spectrum than where they themselves prefer to be.

Principle TWO

Everyone has fundamental needs that have to be met
A famous psychologist called Will Schutz identified three basic needs that people have in interpersonal relations. These basic needs are also of fundamental importance in people’s reaction to change:

* The need for control
* The need for inclusion
* The need for openness

Whilst the need for these can vary between people, in any change process there is always some degree of need for control over one’s environment/destiny, some degree of need to be included in the process of forming the change that is taking place, and some degree of need for managers/leaders to be open with their information.

If a change programme fails to meet the control, inclusion and openness needs of the individuals affected by it then that programme is likely to encounter a range of negative reactions, ranging from ambivalence through resistance to outright opposition.

Principle THREE

Change often involves a loss, and people go through the “loss curve”
The relevance of the “loss curve” to a change management programme depends on the nature and extent of the loss. If someone is promoted to a more senior position, the ‘loss’ of the former position is rarely an issue because it has been replaced by something better. But if someone is made redundant with little prospect of getting a new job, there are many losses (income, security, working relationships) that can have a devastating effect.

There are many variations of the “loss curve”. One is known as “Sarah” – that is, the individual experiences (in this order): Change Management loss curve

* S-hock
* A-nger
* R-ejection
* A-cceptance
* H-ealing

The common factors amongst all “loss curves” are:

1. that there can be an initial period where the change does not sink in. For example, feelings may be kept high by the individual convincing themselves that the change is not going to happen.
2. that when the loss is realised, the individual hits a deep low. The depth of this ‘low’ is deepened if the loss is sudden/unexpected.
3. that the period of adjustment to the new situation can be very uncomfortable and take a long time. In the case of bereavement, the period of adjustment can be as long as two years.

Principle FOUR

Expectations need to be managed realistically
The relationship between expectations and reality is very important. You can see this in customer relations – if a supplier fails to meet expectations then the customer is unhappy; if the supplier exceeds expectations then the customer is happy.

To some extent the same principle applies to staff and change. If their expectations are not met, they are unhappy. If their expectations are exceeded, they are happy.

Sometimes, enforced change (eg: redundancies) inevitably involve the failure to meet expectations: there had been an expectation of job security, which has now been taken away.

What leaders/managers have to do, however, is make sure they don’t pour petrol on the fire by making promises that can not or will not be kept. Expectations have to be set at a realistic level, and then exceeded (eg: in terms of the degree of outplacement support that will be provided).

Principle FIVE

Fears have to be dealt with
In times of significant change rational thought goes out of the window. This means that people often fear the worst – in fact, they fear far more than the worst, because their subconscious minds suddenly become illogical and see irrational consequences. Eg:

* Our company is reducing staff, which means…
* They will make people redundant, and…
* I’ll be the first to be kicked out, and…
* I’ll have no hope of getting another job, and…
* I won’t be able to pay the mortgage, so…
* I’ll lose the house, so…
* My family won’t have anywhere to live, and…
* My wife won’t be able to cope, so…
* She’ll leave me, and…
* I’ll be so disgraced the children won’t speak to me ever again.

Such fears need to be addressed, eg by helping people to recognise that most people who are made redundant find a better job with better pay and have a huge lump sum in their pocket! Or, where appropriate, by explaining how the reductions in staff numbers are going to be achieved (by natural wastage or voluntary redundancy).

http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/

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Here are some ideas to help you get started on the road to increase your current business offerings with your existing expertise:

– Sell your products. If your passion is creating jewelry, sell your pieces online. If you love to paint, create a web site to sell your paintings.

Not everyone wants to create something. If your products are presented and marketed correctly, many people will happily pay you for the fruits of your labor.

– Sell your services. Did you proofread all of your friends’ papers back in school? Do you catch yourself finding errors while reading books, newspapers, and magazines? Offer proofreading services.

Selling services is different from selling products. You can take a picture of a tangible product and put it on your web site. This will give your customers a better idea about the product. However, you can’t do this with a service. Instead, you have to carefully outline the benefits clients will get when they hire you.

– Teach others how to do what you do. People like to learn from others, who are experts in their fields. Put together a workshop or seminar and share what you do with others.

A savvy public relations consultant can put together a seminar called “Finding Your First PR Client”, targeted to new PR consultants. Or this consultant can put together a seminar called “Do It Yourself PR” for business owners who want to take charge of their own public relations.

Teaching others gets you in front of your target market, and it creates a whole new income stream for your business.

– Create products that describe how to do what you love to do. You can create several different products: write a book, create an e-book or a special report, or create audio CDs or DVDs.

If you are a personal chef, who already provides cooking services, you can expand your business with a line of products. You may publish a detailed cookbook that teaches others how to re-create your original recipes in their very own kitchens. You may videotape yourself cooking your favorite dishes, and create a Cooking DVD you can sell on your web site.

There are many ways to profit from something you love to do. Use the tips above to get you started on the road of creating more products and services from your expertise.

Biana Babinsky
www.amazines.com

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Apart from Motorola itself, other major established companies that adopt Six Sigma includes General Electric, Bank of America, Merryl Lynch and so on. In Malaysia, it is pretty much widely used in manufacturing (OEM & ODM) e.g. Flextronics, Samsung, Siemens VDO and Agilent Technologies as well as other industry e.g. UEM, Dutch Lady, TM and AIA Malaysia, just to name a few.

If you study statistics in school, most likely you have been introduced with the ‘Sigma’ symbol, where it is used to represent a standard deviation. Again, do not worry too much if you have not come across it. Reason being is that you’d probably pass out to see the standard deviation formula, which looks like the following:

What you need to understand about standard deviation is actually used to describe how much variation exists in a set of data, group of items, or a process.

To easily explain further the Six Sigma terminology, let me pick an analogy of study made by Pete Pande and Larry Holpp who presented the idea in their published book, “What is Six Sigma?”.
Suppose that you run a pizza business and deliver pizzas to offices in the neighborhood area. According to your contract with one of your major customers, everyday pizzas will be delivered fresh and hot, and will be delivered between 11.45pm to 12.15pm. Here the ‘11.45pm to 12.15pm delivery window’ will form as part of the ‘requirement’, while the window outside of 11.45pm and 12.15pm will be considered ‘defect’. You agree to give your customer a 50% discount if the delivery falls on the ‘defect’ window. At the same time, you will pay bonus to your staff whenever the pizzas are delivered within the ‘requirement’.

In this process, here is how Six Sigma is used as a measure. If the pizzas are delivered within requirement 68% of time, the process is only at ‘2 Sigma level’ (If you plan to do some calculation, think back of the formula before). If pizzas are delivered 93% of time, the operation is at ‘3 Sigma level’. A performance of 99.4% of time will convert to 4 Sigma.

To obtain a Six Sigma level, the pizza delivery must be 99.9997% all the time! Practically, this means a perfect delivery, or statistically about 3 to 4 late (or too early) deliveries out of 1 million!

Is Six Sigma Suitable for All Industries?

A few companies have tried to implement Six Sigma in their organization but met with failure. The most popular one is the case of a former CEO of General Electric by the name of Bob Nardelli who tried to adapt it to retail industry. The result is an overwhelming failure because Six Sigma uses ‘defect’ structure where retail industry is very much related to ‘people’. Home Depot in America also tried to adopt Six Sigma but much without success.

www.sixsigmablog.com

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You may remain in such close contact with your direct reports that MBWA is redundant with them. The real power of the technique lies in the time you spend with those in lower levels of your area of responsibility. Get around to see those who work for your direct reports and any others whose work is important to you.

Do it as often as you can.

MBWA sends positive messages to employees. It reveals your interest in them and in their work, and it says you don’t consider yourself “too good” to spend time with them. MBWA also enables you to stay in touch with what is going on in your department, section or unit. Put aside at least thirty minutes a week to spend with all employees. Aim for once a quarter to see those you must travel long distances to visit.

Go by yourself.

MBWA is more meaningful when you visit with employees alone, and one-on-one. It encourages more honest dialogue and speaks loudly of your personal commitment to the idea.

Don’t circumvent subordinate managers.

Some employees may take advantage of your presence to complain about a supervisor who is your subordinate. Counsel them to discuss the issue fully with their supervisor first. If you have cause to question the supervisor’s judgement, don’t indicate so to the employee, but follow up privately with the supervisor.

Ask questions.

MBWA is a great opportunity to observe those “moments of truth” when your employees interact with your clients. Ask them to tell you a little bit about the files, projects or duties they are working on. Take care to sound inquisitive rather than intrusive.

Watch and listen.

Take in everything. Listen to the words and tone of employees as they speak to you and to each other. You’ll learn a lot about their motivation and their levels of satisfaction. In the words of Yogi Berra, “You can observe a lot just by watching.”

Share your dreams with them.

As a Yukon Dog Team handler used to say, “The view only changes for the lead dog.” MBWA is a solid opportunity to make sure that when you lead the sled in a new direction, the employees behind you won’t trip over themselves trying to follow. Tell them about the organization’s vision for the future, and where your vision for the department / unit/ section fits in with the “big picture.” Reveal the goals and objectives that you want them to help you fulfill together as a team. Ask them for their vision, and hold an open discussion.

Try out their work.

Plop down in front of the computer; get behind the wheel; pick up the telephone; review a project file. Experience what they endure. Sample their job just enough to show your interest in it, and to understand how it goes. Think of great ways to reconnect with your front line workers, and gain a current understanding of exactly what they are dealing with during a typical work day.

Bring good news.

Walk around armed with information about recent successes or positive initiatives. Give them the good news. Increase their confidence and brighten their outlook. So often employees are fed only gloom and doom. Neutralize pessimism with your own optimism, without being non-credible.

Have fun.

This is a chance to lighten up, joke around, and show your softer side without being disrespectful or clowning around. Show employees that work should be fun and that you enjoy it too.

Catch them in the act of doing something right.

Look for victories rather than failures. When you find one, applaud it. When you run into one of the many unsung heroes in your job site, thank them on the spot, being careful not to embarrass them in front of peers or to leave out other deserving employees.

Don’t be critical.

When you witness a performance gone wrong, don’t criticize the performer. Correct on the spot anything that must be redone, but wait to speak to the wrongdoer’s supervisor to bring about corrective action.

http://www.futurecents.com

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