Trying to engage with your team? Try a few questions, not statements...

What  would  you  think  if  I  said  there’s  too  much  ‘telling’  going  on  and  not  enough  ‘asking’?    Percentage-­‐ wise,  how  many  questions  have  you  asked  today  vs  statements  you’ve  made?  Have  you  been  more  on   the  telling  people  things  side  of  the  spectrum  than  asking  questions?

As  a  facilitator,  I’m  a  little  biased  towards  questions.  Finding  out  what’s  going  on,  what  people  are   thinking,  where  they  want  to  get  to  with  their  work  or  project  and  then  helping  a  group  set  out  a  plan  to   achieve  that.       But  as  a  manager  and  leader,  how  often  do  you  think  about  the  questions  you’re  going  to  ask?  In  an   interview  you  do,  sure.  But  what  about  your  team  meeting?  Or  a  project  check-­‐point  with  peers?  Or  a   ‘work  in  progress’  meeting  with  your  leader?

In  the  work  I  do  with  groups  and  teams  –  across  corporate,  community  and  not-­‐for-­‐profit  organisations   –  I  see  and  hear  so  many  more  statements  than  questions.  And  there  are  many  opportunities  to  get  a   better  outcome  by  asking  a  question  first.

Today,  thousands  of  mangers,  team  leaders  and  business  people  have  been  trying  to  get  people  to   understand  them  by  telling-­‐telling-­‐telling.  And  then  when  they’re  not  heard,  they  try  telling  it  all  over   again,  but  LOUDER.  You  can  probably  hear  some  of  them  from  your  desk!

Yes,  there  are  open  questions  to  gather  information  and  open  up  the  conversation  (who,  what,  when,   where,  how,  why,  tell  me  about...)  and  there  are  closed  or  confirming  questions  (is,  are,  did,  would,   could,  can).       Did  you  know  that  when  you  don’t  think  about  the  questions  you  ask,  you’re  more  likely  to  ask  a  closed   question?  (That’s  a  closed  question;  answer  yes  or  no).  What  might  you  and  your  team  achieve  if  you   planned  for  and  then  asked  a  mix  of  open  and  closed  questions?  (Yep,  that’s  an  open  question).

Questions  aren’t  a  sign  of  not  knowing.  They  won’t  show  you  up  as  the  dumbo  of  the  team.  They’ll   actually  help  you  get  to  where  you  need  to  quicker  and  with  far  less  pain  than  telling,  telling,  telling,   arguing,  debating,  telling  some  more,  deep  breathing  and  then  fuming.

Here’s  why:  a  few  questions  at  the  start  of  a  meeting  with  a  peer  (What  are  you  hoping  to  get  out  of  our   catch  up?  What  are  the  challenges  that  are  most  pressing  for  you  at  the  moment?  How  is  your  team   responding  to  the  restructure?)  will  reveal  so  much  more  and  prepare  a  fertile  ground  for  you  to  plant   effective  statements  when  you  need  them.

Last  week  I  had  a  meeting  with  a  colleague  who  had  just  completed  a  poor  performance  conversation   with  one  of  their  team  members.  My  colleague  had  been  all  about  telling  the  team  member  what  wasn’t   working  and  then  telling  them  what  they  had  to  improve  on.  Yes,  oh  so  engaging  for  the  team  member.   Buy-­‐in  level  =  15%.  Enthusiasm  level  =15%.  Opportunity  for  trying  something  different  next  time  =  100%.

The  conversation  (that  means  two-­‐way  folks!)  could  have  involved  some  questions  up  front  and  then   based  on  the  answers  and  responses,  the  conversation  could  achieve  much  more  –  for  both  parties.       ‘How  have  you  been  finding  the  changes  in  your  role  over  the  past  few  months?’   ‘What  have  you  enjoyed  about  the  role?’   ‘What’s  challenging  or  frustrating  for  you?’   ‘What  areas  of  your  performance  do  you  think  we  could  discuss  and  work  on  today?’     These  can  help  set  an  agenda  for  the  meeting  and  focus  on  engaging  the  team  member  to  buy-­‐in  to  the   fact  that  this  is  about  them.  It’s  not  about  the  manager  telling  them  what  to  do.

Some  organisations  call  these  coaching  conversations  and  will  give  you  a  little  laminated  card  with  cheat   questions  on  it  so  you  know  what  to  ask.  That’s  great  –  at  least  you  can  do  some  thinking  before  the   meeting,  interaction  or  conversation  about  the  questions  you’ll  ask.

I’m  sure  there’s  plenty  a  notebook  or  Ipad  in  your  organisation  today  with  a  list  of  key  points  to  be  ‘told’   at  the  next  meeting.       So  for  the  next  meeting  you’re  at,  prepare  a  list  of  questions  you’ll  ask  people.  You’ll  be  more  engaging,   they’ll  be  more  involved,  the  interaction  will  truly  be  an  interaction,  and  you’ll  be  getting  focused  about   the  information  you  need,  before  you  launch  into  a  statement  or  two.

How  does  that  sound?  Do  you  think  that’s  something  you’ll  be  able  to  put  into  practice  for  your  meeting   later  today?  What  things  might  get  in  the  way  of  that  happening?  Would  you  let  me  know  how  that   goes?

Keeping Calm - Visual Thoughts...

I thought I'd share this little illustration I drafted up recently to provide to a client for a customer service 'reminder' for the team. As well as some other key actions for the team to remember, like answering incoming calls swiftly, supporting the team and thinking of the customer in each interaction ... this one struck them. They said it was a great reminder to just .... breathe. Keeping calm sometimes gets pushed out of the way as we rush to fulfil a request or complaint or just respond to an email. Many things happen so quickly that we're barely conscious of doing them. So for today, and many days and moments beyond today, keep calm...

Training is not a presentation

Several times in recent weeks I've been working and consulting with teams and organizations who see 'training' as delivering a PowerPoint slide show. And handing out copies of the slide deck as 'the workbook'

Such a presentation can be information transfer, it can be knowledge sharing. But rolling through 65 slides in two hours doesn't transfer skill or build capability.

This approach - of an expert, in full-flight 'tell' mode - is a presentation. It's ok to call it that. You can call it a briefing or a lecture too. But don't mislead managers, people leaders, or employees by calling it training, or worse, a workshop and lifting their expectations that they might get to participate or contribute - and then not allow that to happen.

Whether your organization's learning and development team are involved or not, be clear about what is building capability in your business and what's sharing information, what is changing attitudes vs what is shifting behaviors.

Then design your learning and training experience from there. There will likely be segments where you'll have to tell participants some content, but there are endless ways to engage with people and 'ask' them what they know and share that knowledge. Then reinforce that with a concrete application of the message or chunk of content. And it doesn't need to involve any PowerPoint slides!

A structured process for adult learning can create engaging, creative and changing experiences. So have a look through the latest training session you're working on. Is it all tell and no ask? Is it you the expert rather than you the facilitator of learning? Is it full of PowerPoint slides?

Then pull the plug and start again!

Your "participants" will love you for it.

Fulfilment is the basic expectation

Fulfillment is the basic expectation

When I order something online, I expect it to arrive. Fulfillment is a basic part of business – it means satisfaction and completion but it seems it’s too often delegated to logistics companies and that’s where the responsibility lies.

When something doesn’t arrive, it reflects on the logistics company and on the distributor from whom I bought the product. Their fulfilment process was flawed. If something goes wrong, they need to rectify the situation.

Resissue? Cancel and start again? Try a different delivery company?

To deliver is part of your responsibility. You've taken our money, now deliver it. Don't blame the courier. You chose them. They are part of your fulfilment process. They are part of your distribution channel. Expect high standards from them or move along and use a service that you can rely on.

If I’d embarked on a 21 day cycling adventure I would have got my delayed product quicker. The 2000 km it travelled took three weeks. A commercial airfare and two cab fares would have resulted in quicker and more positive fulfilment than the service provided by one of the world’s leading logistics businesses.

Would I use or recommend either company now? The logistics firm? No. Never. The interactions with them about said product were less than fulfilling! And the distributor of the product? I’ll recommend the product, but I won’t speak well of the backend of the business.

Is the product good? Sure, it's doing the job but it has this bad aura around it when I look at it. It’s as if there’s writing on it that says "not cared enough by the seller or the logistics company". Instead of an addressee, does it read "who cares, there are plenty more customers out there”?

Some in the industry may say, you got it, you're lucky. Do you know how many of those pesky brown packages we freight around this massive globe? And the sales targets we have to reach and the shareholders we have to appease? Do you? It's a tough work world out there.

It is a busy world out there – so busy that I had three other packages swiftly arrive from other corners of the globe all the while I was waiting for that ‘other one’. Big bulky packages. Arrived, quickly, simple, no hassle.

That is fulfilment. I bought products and they arrived, as promised. In fact, they arrived quicker than promised. That is fulfilment, completion, satisfaction.

Facilitating Onboarding or Induction

After recently completing a big project where more than 110 induction and onboarding sessions were facilitated, I wrote an article published here in Human Capital.

Too often the PowerPoint data show gets plugged in, new members of the team walk in to a darkened theatre and the ‘on boarding’ begins. It’s ‘oh so boring’.

Facilitated discussions, questions and interactive activities can very much be a part of onboarding, inductions and other welcome sessions in organisations. If the excuses are about budget or timing or urgency, then the development team just isn’t being creative enough. If you want to invest in the new people joining your team, start with some of the first experiences they’ll have with you - make these sessions engaging and interactive using talented and capable facilitators who can work with structure as well as uncertainty. It will be a nice change from those passive information sessions that ran in too many organisations this week that are called ‘onboarding’.