WorkPuzzle

The Nerds May Triumph Again - Part 2

Yesterday we talked about how data geeks are getting into the Human Resources business.  One of the companies pioneering this effort is IBM.

I’ve often wondered... how does one manage a workforce of more than 400,000 full-time employees?  Well, one way is through basic mathematics.

In a recent Business Week article, researchers report:

“…as the role of computers in the workplace expands, employees leave digital trails detailing their behavior, their schedules, their interests, and expertise.  For executives to calculate the return on investment of each worker their human resources departments are starting to open their doors to the quants.”

You might be wondering how this plays out.  Is there some big control center where the real time value of an employee is calculated and registered in a database?  Do guys with thick glasses pour through the information and make graphs on how people contribute to an organization?  Almost...

“The chart looks like colorful pop-art doughnuts flying through space.  The message, though, is anything but playful…. Each circle represents an employee.  Those who generate or pass along valuable information within the company are portrayed as large and dark-colored circles….  Certain employees produce chunks of data—whether words or software code—that later pop up in other messages.  The people copied most often are thought leaders. They get big dark blue circles.  Other people spot the valuable content and pass it on. Those are networked curators. Their circles are bright red.”

Don’t get me wrong.  I do not think that these techniques are going to replace the need for real people to do meaningful work within organizations.  We still need leaders to inspire us, managers to execute business systems, and front-line employees to be engaged in doing the tasks that amount to the company’s contribution.  The article explains:  

"What about the worker who dispenses priceless wisdom the old-fashioned way, through spoken words at the coffee machine?  Much of that goes unrecorded by the analytic team.  So there are limits to number crunching.  Machines may advance in HR, but humans will retain a strong supporting role." 

I do, however, believe that a new level of mathematical rigor will be applied to the areas typically classified as “soft sciences” or the “art of management.”  As your competitors adopt these techniques, you too, will need to compete on this level.  You may find there are people in your organization with different capacities and skills who may excel at this work. Maybe the talented person being laid off in a technology group can fill a spot in HR!

On a personal level, you may want to start looking at your work from a data perspective.  Can the contribution you make to your organization be measured?  If you work independently, can your clients quantify your contribution?  Are the individuals you're managing and coaching making contributions that can be captured in a spreadsheet?  If you can't answer these questions, then chances are those paying the bills for your services can't either. 

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The Nerds May Triumph Again

In the mid-90s, Public Television aired a documentary titled, “The Triumph of the Nerds.”  It was a humorous look at how entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Steve Jobs, and others came to prominence around the birth and rapid growth of the personal computer industry.  The documentary was based on the best-selling book, "Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date."

You’d think that these types of geeks would only find prominence in fields such as technology, math, physics, etc.  Well, that may not be the case anymore...

Researchers (code word for geeks) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are beginning to use technology to do the “subjective” work typically reserved for managers, recruiters, and coaches.

“Using high-tech badges that transmit data on an individual's gestures, eye movements, voice levels, and even proximity to other people, MIT is parsing the physical traits of leadership.  Along with highlighting effective managers, researchers hope the data will help train workers to be more effective at everything from networking to dealing with customers….  The technology goes beyond anything captured in a typical personality test… [By collecting this type of data], you can suddenly look at hundreds of people on a millisecond-by-millisecond basis.”

This may be taking measurement to an extreme.  The Business Week article citing this research estimates that only 1% to 2% of companies are currently using analytics as a component of their human resources and management strategy.  The example cited above would still be considered by most to be conceptual research.

However, the trend toward measuring human behavior is definitely growing.  If you’re the type of person who does not care for numbers, math, measurement, data analysis, scientific research, and other such topics, you may find yourself at odds with where the “people business” is heading. 

Tomorrow I’ll share some information about a project that has been going on at IBM for several years.  It is not as scary as the MIT researchers wearing electronic badges that count how many times your eye lids blink during a conversation, but you will be surprised to learn what they are measuring.   

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Play Time

We've focused on a lot of heavy subject matter lately, and as you may recall from the movie The Shining, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy!" 

To avoid following in the footsteps of Jack Nicholson's famous character, we need to guard our play  time.  It's an essential way to keep our stress level under control.

Over the weekend, I was skiing in knee deep northwest powder with my 26 year old son.  You can't find better stress relief than that!  Perhaps a glimpse of Heaven?

We all need activities and hobbies that bring joy into our lives and lift our spirits.  If you don't have a hobby or interest that helps reduce stress, know that it's never too late to find one.  Follow this link to take a free test that might help you find a stress reliever matches your personality. http://stress.about.com/library/reliever_personality_test/bl_stress_reliever_personality_test.htm

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Leave it to the CFOs to Drop the Hammer

If you’ve been reading WorkPuzzle for awhile, you’ve probably noticed that our organization likes numbers and metrics.  We believe that anything worth doing is worth measuring. (Workpuzzle Blogs about Metrics:  articles 1, 2, 3, and 4)

I may have found a kindred spirit this week -- Dr. Richard Beatty at Rutgers University.  Dr. Beatty spoke at a recent conference of more than 300 Chief Financial Officers (CFOs).  You’d think a Human Resources (HR) Specialist like Dr. Beatty would hang out with the HR folks, but this guy seems to me more at home with CFOs.

Excerpts from his speech were recorded in CFO Magazine this month.  In the speech, Dr. Beatty is quite critical of most HR organizations.  He makes the point that people in these roles cannot be trusted because they don’t understand metrics.

"…the language of organizations is numbers, HR isn't very good at data analytics.  They don't think like business people.  Many of them entered human resources because they wanted to help people, which I'm all for, but I'm also for building winning organizations."

Of course, what’s prompting this type of rhetoric is financial pressure.  One of the case studies he referenced shows how an unnamed financial firm was spending more than $30M per year in salaries and benefits to employees in the lowest quartile.  There was a direct connection made showing how this poor performance cost the firm as much as $50 million worth of business.

There are several lessons that can be gleaned from this topic:

Regarding organizations, Dr. Beatty made the point that competent companies use recessions to upgrade their talent bases.  They get rid of poor performers and replace them with more talented people in search of work.  Of course, to do this effectively, you have to be able to measure performance.  Specifically, you need to be measuring the performance of  your existing employees, and measuring the performance of the new talent you’re evaluating.

As for individuals, find solace in knowing that there’s hope.  If you’re a talented person who happens to be unemployed at the moment, then you should find encouragement in the knowledge that good companies still need people like you.  As you look for a job, quantify your experience in a measurable way.  Show on your resume that your past accomplishments actually produced measurable business results, and then be prepared to communicate with metrics in an interview.  Who knows, you might be interviewing with a CFO…

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Coaching for Change - Part 2

If you haven’t already, you may need to read yesterday's entry to catch up on this topic.

We all (myself included) need to remember that change, when approached with the right attitude can lead to tremendous personal growth.  (Remember the blogs on Resilience?  1, 2, and 3)

Isn’t it interesting that most of us have a tendency to avoid the change, challenge and growth that we once sought out.  Instead, we have trained our brains to look forward to some arbitrary and hollow goal, like retirement, when in fact what we really miss most are the days when we were carefree.  Ironically, that carefree attitude came when we were young and taking risks.

So, it’s not just feeling carefree that we’re really after -- Its carefree with a challenge.  That’s the secret combination we’re really after-- and where great learning takes place.

Personally, I know many people who have been hit hard by what’s going on in the world right now.  Some of them, despite great anxiety and sadness, are taking steps daily to reevaluate their lives, take stock of their values, and be grateful for what they have.

If you help people do this, eventually new and exciting challenges will arise.  Even this change, as uneasy as it makes us feel, can be good.

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Tips for Coaching During Change

Change is difficult.  Most healthy, rational people avoid change, preferring instead the security and safety of what is known.  But ironically, change can produce incredible growth, if we respond to it effectively.

With today's economic conditions, we are all experiencing some kind of change, without having made the conscious decision to do so.  For most of us, it is in the form of fear that is paralyzing us with panic.  Panic makes it difficult to reflect and benefit from change.

Answer this question:  When have you experienced the most growth in your life?  The answer is probably when you were undergoing tremendous change, accompanied by uncertainty...perhaps when you were much younger.

It's normal to risk more when we're younger, because we don't have that much to lose.  If you analyze that statement, you will begin to see the problem:  Security and hanging onto what we've acquired becomes paramount for most of us when we're older.  We cling to it and cherish it, without ever reflecting on its inherent value to our well-being.

Of course it's irresponsible to take foolish risks.  But, you can also make the argument that it is foolish to follow a course of action simply because it promises "early retirement".  Are you living to retire?  The financial industry has helped convince you that this should be your ultimate goal, no doubt because it's profitable to them to tell you this. 

Almost everyone over the age of 30 (even younger if you consider the trickle down effect) is undergoing some kind of change due to the current turmoil the economy has placed on us.  Empathizing with people is important, and a period of grief necessary, but if you find them fixated on what they've lost, ask them the following:

"Rate on a scale of 1 - 10 how important your loss is when compared to your basic values (family, friends, community, spirituality...) If it is low on the rating scale, how important or valid is your grief?"

Now ponder that for a day, and I'll follow up with more thoughts to consider tomorrow.

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You Can't Make Me Do That - Part 2

So, did you figure out why paying someone to give blood reduces the number of people of who are willing to give blood?  If you missed yesterday, you may want to catch up.  Here is another story that may help you understand why people do not respond to incentives in the way we think they should:

In Haifa, Israel there was a group of six daycare centers that were trying to find a proactive approach to dealing with a particular group of parents.  These parents were perpetually late in picking up their children at the end of the school day.  As the frustration mounted, the daycare centers searched for an incentive that would make parents operate within the rules.

The incentive they chose was a fine that would be assigned for each time a parent was late.  After the fine system was instituted, guess what happened?  The number of tardy parents doubled.  Like the blood donors, the incentive not only did not produce the desired effect, it made the situation worse.

These are just two of dozens of experiments that show that rewarding self-interest with economic incentives can backfire.  Why?  Some incentives undermine what Adam Smith called “moral sentiments.”

Dr. Bowles makes the following observations:  

Regarding the blood donors:

“People desire to be esteemed by others and to be seen as ethical and dignified.  And they don’t want to be taken for suckers.  Rewarding blood donations may backfire because it suggests that the donor is less interested in being altruistic than in making a buck.”

Regarding the tardy daycare parents:

“The fine seems to have reduced their ethical obligation to avoid inconveniencing the teachers and led them to think of lateness as simply a commodity they could purchase…   Fines or public rebukes that appeal to our moral sentiments by signaling social disapproval (think of littering) can be highly effective.  But, incentives go wrong when they offend or diminish our ethical sensibilities.”

The art of coaxing performance from those we coach and manage is difficult because people are complex.  When we treat people as machines or robots that can be poked and prodded into certain behaviors, then these types of issues usually surface to confound our efforts.

Treating people…well, like people, and respecting their complexity is the first prerequisite to earning the authority to step into their lives and make changes that positively affect them, as well as your organization.

Editor’s Note:  Content for this article was collected from a recent Harvard Business Review article called:  "When Economic Incentives Backfire" by Samuel Bowles.  You can read this article in the March 2009 issue of HBR.

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You Can't Make Me Do That

I ran across an article in The Harvard Business Review last week that I found very intriguing.  The article was written by Dr. Samuel Bowles. 
 
Dr. Bowles is an Economics Professor at the University of Siena and he specializes in the study of how economic issues affect human behavior.  While the financial information is interesting (especially in today’s economic environment), what struck me was the human behavior side of his research.

Dr. Bowles sited two examples where incentives were supposed to produce a desired result, but backfired.  The first example concerned asking people to donate blood.  An English social researcher, Richard Titmuss, first hypothesized in the 1950's that if you offer to pay someone to give blood, the blood supply would be significantly reduced.

At the time, people thought he was crazy, but the research later proved him correct.  Studies have since shown that offering to pay people to give blood, in fact, decreases the number willing to donate by almost half.  In follow-up studies, the same clinics allowed the blood donors to contribute the payment to charity, and the trend was then reversed.

The lesson here is that motivation is a tricky thing to tap.  If you’re a manager or responsible for coaching someone, it is important to learn what motivates people.  What seems intuitive on the surface may not produce the anticipated result.

For this specific case, there is an underlying principle that explains this behavior.  Rather than give you the answer (which I learned by reading the HBR article), I thought I’d give you the opportunity to ponder the puzzle on your own... 

Tomorrow, I'll elaborate with a similar example and connect the dots.

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Coaching for Possibilities

“A true friend knows your weaknesses but shows you your strengths; feels your fears but fortifies your faith; sees your anxieties but frees your spirit; recognizes your disabilities but emphasizes your possibilities.”    -William Arthur Ward

Over the past 25 years of providing Psychotherapy, my chief mission has been to free people from unconscious ruts that control their lives.  This isn't easy.  People rarely see how they have boxed themselves into a view of themselves and the world that limits their perspective, beliefs and actions.

When a person is in a rut, they limit their own movement, growth, vision and freedom to act.  They see the world in a fixed way, and try to convince everyone around them of their "rut trapped" perspective.  Their perspective on life unveils consistent themes, describing their own personal rut repeatedly acted out.

A person who is not stuck in a rut flows like a river, emanating wisdom, humor, and humility.  They may have a long list of things that haven't worked out, but have no regrets for their efforts.  

When things are going well, economically, emotionally etc., it is easier to ignore the ruts that would otherwise bind us.  However, in these difficult times, ruts are bound to surface.  Even the most fluid people can be temporarily thrown into a rut in these extreme circumstances, simply because life isn't familiar or secure.

Losing a job, a home, and plans for the future can certainly appear as an insurmountable rut.  "River people" however, don't allow themselves to get stuck there.  They manage to continually pull themselves up and out of the rut, dust themselves off, and move on with life.  I feel fortunate to know many river people.

As leaders, you owe it to yourself and those you coach to help free them from their ruts...even those who your letting go.  Help them find hope and envision the opportunities that can unfold as a result of this economic period.  Help them realize their freedom and potential to pursue a new river in the form of new ideas, new innovations, new training, new commitments, new values, and perhaps even an entirely new direction. 

You will find that everyone within an organization benefits once the individual tributaries find their "flow", and can contribute their full potential once again.

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Choosing Hope

Most of you have heard about the four football players who were recently involved in a Florida Boating accident.  What you might not have heard is that, apparently two of them gave up hope and quit fighting to survive within a few hours of the boat capsizing.  A third person eventually took his life jacket off and swam in an attempt to get help, while the fourth remained steadfast, clinging to the capsized boat.  Unfortunately, this young man was the sole survivor of this catastrophe.

Fox news reports:

"As the Coast Guard ended its search for three missing football players whose boat tipped over in high Florida seas, the lone survivor said two of those lost gave up after hours in the frigid water and the third tried to swim to safety."

Why would people behave this way?  The answer is fairly simple.  When we humans experience fear, our central nervous system switches over to a high alert system that causes us to stop thinking rationally, and either fight, run or give up.  Once a sense of despair and hopelessness encroach on a situation where you continue to be bombarded by wave after wave of stress, it becomes very difficult to hold on.  Our problem solving brain (cerebral cortex) shuts down and our limbic system (oldest part of the brain) takes over. 

Undoubtedly, facing high winds and seven to fifteen foot swells caused constant stress, both emotionally and physically.  The human body can only take so much fighting before it exhausts its resources, especially with so much adrenaline pumping through the system.

So, how did the sole survivor hang on?  He used the power of his brain to overcome his circumstances.  He began an internal dialogue, repeating to himself:

"My mother is not going to attend my funeral."

He kept his mind on a central, rational thought, that guided every decision he made.  In doing so, he kept his cerebral cortex working at least as hard as his limbic system.

So what does this mean for the rest of us?  While our everyday crises may not compare to the perils these four men faced, current stressors can lead to similar reactions.  Don't let yourself get stuck in fight or flight.  Set goals daily, weekly, and monthly, and more importantly, stick to them.  By doing so, you'll survive and eventually thrive.

If you do find yourself in a fight or flight scenario, by all means, fight!  But, don't allow your circumstances to dictate your outcome.  This applies in emergency situations as well as daily encounters.  Engage your brain to take charge, choose hope...and hang on to your boat.  There is always something better waiting.

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