Now look, I admit I’m not an MBA.  I’m not a CEO of a fortune 50 company.  I haven’t even slept at a Holiday Inn Express recently.  And here at Meaning to Work financial forecasting isn’t our specialty (our specialty is focusing on how to free employees to be better, to become more productive.)  So I may be stepping out of my element (financially speaking.)

But I don’t see how raising rates, while reducing service is any way to improve your financial situation.

No matter what industry you are in, you have to serve your customers.  And you definitely can’t annoy your customers.  Without your customers, there is no one to buy your products or services.  Even if you despise your customers (and hopefully you don’t, because that would tell us you’re in the wrong industry), you must find a way to offer your customers what they want.

This is especially true in the “internet age.”  Thanks to social media more people have more access to more products and services.  If you aren’t providing them with what they want, then they have a choice.

This is true for the post office and it’s true of your consulting business.  It’s true of churches and it’s true of hospitals.

This is obviously disruptive for huge bureaucratic organizations like the Post Office, or gate keeper organizations like Hollywood or recording studios.  But for the rest of us, this is fantastic news!  It means if we can find a way to offer customers what they want, then we can have a successful business (or church, or hospital.)

(And by the way, “giving customers what they want” isn’t always about finding the lowest common denominator, sacrificing your beliefs, or hiding your motives.  In fact, it rarely, if ever, is.)

image from the public domain

The irony is, everyone has always lived in interesting times.  The world is in a constant state of change.  That’s no more true today, then it was 100 or 1000 years ago.  What is different is the speed of that change.  It took hundreds of years for society to go from using polished bronze to silver backed glass to create something you and I use every day.  The mirror.  In less than 40 years we went from going to the moon to having humans live permanently in orbit around the Earth.

But this is life.

And it’s always been this way.  And it will always be this way.

When we tell ourselves that things won’t change we’re lying to ourselves.  But more importantly we’re preventing ourselves from learning the new skills to compete, or to create new business plans, or even just building the psychological resources we’re going to need to deal with the stress of change.

So the next time you sit back and think “things will never change” realize that change is really just right around the corner.

photo provided by flickr user árticotropical

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And while there’s certainly a place for that type of thinking and action, conflict is not one of them!

Conflict generally causes two casualties.  First, we run the risk of ruining our project, our business, or our goals.  In other words, the things we’re trying to accomplish, our tasks, are at risk.  The second casualty is more obvious, and that’s relationships.  How much conflict you have, and how you resolve that conflict go a long way in determining how relationships survive (or die.)  Ask anyone who is married, and they’ll tell you just that.

In general there are 4 strategies to dealing with conflict. Each of these strategies impacts this task / relationship dynamic.

1. Equity Focus happens when everyone gets a say in the conflict.  Their ideas are listened to (and more importantly) valued.  However, not everyone gets a final say in the decision.  The ultimate decision rests with usually one, but sometimes, several key decision makers.  Despite what you may think, this is the most useful for improving both Task and Relationship outcomes.
2. Group Democracy appeals to us, because as a culture we’re told that everyone’s opinion is equal, and everyone should get a say.  Using this one-to-one vote system to determine the outcome of conflict is useful for improving Task outcome but not relationship outcomes.
3. Equality (not to be confused with Equity) is all about maximizing the benefits to the individuals, at the expense of the task.  It’s about making sure everyone’s feelings are handled and cared for.  Even if it comes at the expense of the project.  As you can imagine, this works well for maintaining relationships, but not so much for your tasks.
4. Ad Hoc is all about doing things randomly.  For every conflict a new way of “handling” it is tried.  Different people get the final say.  There is no consistency.  And not surprisingly, Ad Hoc reduces both task AND relationship performance

The next time you find yourself confronting a challenge, whether it’s on a project, getting the budget you need for your work, or even fighting with your spouse over what to eat for dinner, just remember these four strategies.  And whatever you do, don’t make a decision randomly!

Behfar, K. J., Peterson, R. S., Mannix, E. A., and Trochim, W. M. K. (2008.)  The Critical Role of Conflict Resolution in Teams: A Close Look at the Links Between Conflict Type, Conflict Management Strategies, and Team Outcomes.  Journal of Applied Psychology.  93, p. 170-188.

image provided by flickr user Robert Whitehead

The technical term for this is “in group” vs “out group”.

In Group’s experience stronger community, more sharing, they get along better, and they have more access to resources, cooperation, and responsiveness.  If you’re in the “out group” you pretty much experience the exact opposite.  You lose opportunities to influence, have reduced resources, etc…

All of that is fairly common.  And you’ve probably experienced it if you went to something I like to call, “high school.”

What was interesting about the study is what happened to the remote workers in the “out group.”  They actually developed their own “in group” with their fellow remote workers.  It seems that we all have a natural desire to become part of a crowd. And we’ll even form a new “crowd” if we’re rejected.

This has a practical application for organizations.  Simply put, organizations need to be aware of the culture they promote. For instance, if you’re moving to flex time and remote workers (as most organizations are) then you’re going to have to make sure you’re not accidentally creating rival groups within your own company.

That’s the “bad” news.  The “good” news is that the goal isn’t to reduce the creation of in-groups.  (Remember, they tend to bring a lot of good benefits with them.)  The real goal is to increase the size of the in-groups.

In the case of remote workers – it’s not that the remote workers are less qualified, or less helpful, it’s a matter of proximity.  The closer the proximity, the better the relationships and the better the communication.

Organizations, if they want to have the benefits that come with remote workers, are going to need to improve the way they communicate.  Communication, celebrating accomplishments, rewarding and recognizing success, are all going to have to become part of the organizations culture.

And the only way to do that is to set up measurements that track, and reward, the interactions between onsite workers and remote workers.

Remote workers are going to increase, not decrease.  So finding a way to deal with these challenges now will only save you work (and money) in years to come.

image provided by flickr user Payton Chung

Take your own work for a moment.  Have you ever wondered why your work email can’t be as functional as your Gmail account?  Or why your company’s website search doesn’t work like Google?  Or maybe you just want a place for customers and employees to socialize with the ease of Facebook.

If you’ve had those thoughts, you are not alone.  Employees (and employers) often wonder why their IT departments can’t provide such “simple” solutions.  In fact, the unwritten expectation from customers all the way to coworkers is to expect your company to compete with the likes of billion dollar organizations.  Is that realistic?

Of course not!  But we are being shaped by these outside forces whether we realize it or not.

This poses an obvious challenge for organizations.  Research repeatedly shows that when people have unmet expectations at work bad things happen.  In a “best case” scenario employees simply quit.  They leave their jobs and move on.  But in reality, very few people just quit.  Especially in bad economies.  More likely they remain in the organization as angry, unsatisfied, and unhappy employees.  This in turn leads to complaints, lower quality work, and rising sea levels.  OK, maybe not the last one.  But overall unrealistic expectations have terrible consequences for organizations.

The sad reality is that unrealistic expectations can turn people against us.  The employees, who were once our biggest supporters, soon become our biggest detractors.  Organizations need to spend time thinking about how they deal with expectations.  Especially around technology.  Because organizations that avoid dealing with expectations will find themselves struggling with much harder problems to solve.

This is part 1 of a two part series on unrealistic expectations.  Next week we’ll look at how to stop the bleeding by creating realistic expectations.  (Part 2 of this series can be found here.)  Photo provided by flickr user Zyeneeep.

If you haven’t heard, the Apple / Google wars heat up.  Both of these companies are poised to become huge players in the emerging “super phone” market.  Which means that billions, if not trillions, of dollars are at stake.  This is why Apple’s lobbing of legal grenades is so important.  With filings targeted at Google’s phones (specifically the HTC models), Apple is saying they won’t take iPhone encroachment lightly.

This isn’t new.

Apple and Microsoft used to be at war.  Google and Microsoft used to be at war.  Microsoft and Sony are still at war.  Every major company seems to go to war with its competitors.

Of course the people who get hurt in these wars are you and I, the consumers.

So why do it?

Because companies are afraid.  They are afraid of the economy.  Of losing market share.  Of not making money.  And when we are afraid, we demand more control. This is especially true when we are the “big player” in the conversation.

Apple is no longer the underdog.  They are what Microsoft was in the 1990’s: the dominant market player.

But this isn’t a knock on Steve Jobs (Apple CEO).  We all fight the temptation to power up out of fear.  When something is uncertain we try and grab a hold of as much as we can.  We figure the more we can control, the better we will be.  When your kids start acting out what do you do?  You put them in time out or ground them from TV.  When new technology is introduced into the workplace, how do companies respond?  By banning employees from using Facebook or locking down the internet.

But what if that’s the wrong strategy?  What if the way to unleash your real potential – the way to get out of trouble – is to let people have the freedom to do what they do best?  What if instead of micromanaging we allowed our employees to innovate?  What if instead of trying to manipulate the market we just own up to a bad product and redouble our efforts to build a better product?

Of course that takes work.  And there isn’t an immediate satisfaction of “getting even.”

The best and brightest don’t want to live in a climate of fear and control.  Microsoft discovered that in the 90’s as a lot of the best and brightest left and went to work for Google and Apple.  You know who stays behind in a climate of fear and control?  The people who can’t find jobs elsewhere.

So the next time you find yourself wanting to power up, ask yourself, am I seeking control or my own destruction?

photo provided by flickr

But for the people directly impacted by the economy this has been a painful time.  Downsizing often brings health problems (headaches, physical illness, sleeping issues) and emotional problems (depression, anger, stress).

Many people turn to alcohol and drugs to escape these feelings.

As I was thinking about this, it occurred to me that much of what we experience comes from the fact that we’ve been told our jobs give us meaning.  That unless you have a certain job, you aren’t worth anything.  Is it any wonder that people react so strongly when they are laid off?  Their identities are literally being ripped away from them.

For many people, once they lose their job they have nothing to hold onto.  They have nothing bigger than themselves to believe in.  And so the loss of a job becomes more than just losing a pay check, it becomes the destruction of a world view.

When meaning comes from our work it defines us.  When meaning comes from who we are, we define work.

That is a huge difference.

Fortunately if you find yourself downsized, there are a few things you can do to minimize all those negative feelings and reactions.  These may not solve the root problem (getting your meaning from work vs. taking your meaning to work) but it will help you cope with the hardship of losing your job.  Here are six things you can do to deal with downsizing:

1. Immediately tell your family
2. Evaluate the reasons for losing the job
3. Deal with the emotions that come with the layoff
4. Prepare for your layoff (if you can) by negotiating for a severance package, using outsourcing programs and getting references
5. Take some time off to rest before looking for new work
6. Make a plan and go forward with confidence

(Beyer, C., Pike, D., & McGovern, L. (1993).  Surviving unemployment.  New York: Henry Holt.)

Now I know not everyone can do these steps.  But if you can, take the opportunity and do them.

photo provided by flickr