Month: January 2017

Because of the GLS | A Hospital in Spain Serves Beyond Their Walls

Posted on January 16, 2017 by - Because of the GLS, Calling, Europe, Healthcare, Stories, Wellness, Western Europe

As the Global Leadership Summit grows around the world, more people from various sectors of society outside the Church are finding value in taking part in this leadership event. Not only are teams from the Church being equipped and encouraged, but more teams are attending from business, non-profit, government and education sectors.

In early November, the GLS in Spain attracted a 200 person team from The New Evangelical Hospital of Barcelona.

With a vision to treat patients holistically in both body and spirit, hospital Director Reyes Gualda used the GLS to equip her 200 person staff with the leadership skills required to accomplish this vision. Her team included the hospital leadership team, as well as the entire staff of both believers and non-believers.

“We want to build up a strong team of expert, caring professionals who give back to the patients of our hospital,” Reyes shares. “Our dream is to become a soulful organization with a skilled team that can change the world.”

2After the GLS, Reyes talked about her dream for the hospital to go beyond their borders of their building and their city, and help humanitarian charities provide healthcare and health education in developing countries.

With a commitment to building a great team through the GLS, Reyes believes her Grander Vision will soon come true.

When Cultures Clash

Posted on January 12, 2017 by - Articles, Conflict Management, Diversity, Leading Others

When conversations are difficult, cross-cultural issues can add to the complexity. Our favorite expert in Crucial Conversations, Joseph Grenny, explains an approach to build understanding in these difficult situations. The original post can be found on the Vital Smarts Q&A page here.

Dear Crucial Skills,

Our city has been struggling with a diversity initiative, and we’ve been going through the Crucial Conversations training to help address issues that keep our employees from working together because of cultural misunderstandings.

It’s been interesting to see people’s reactions to the terms “silence” and “violence” used in the training. It seems to be a matter of interpretation. For example, several people from different ethnic backgrounds say that being expressive and emotional is part of their cultural communication style–and yet people from other cultural backgrounds see this strong way of advocating as “violence” in crucial conversations language.

How do you address these differences in the way people define “silence” and “violence” when conversations are happening between people of different cultures?

Signed,
Culture Clash

Dear Culture Clash,

You raise a very important question—and one we’ve thought a great deal about since we’ve worked with these skills literally everywhere from Israeli software companies and Kenyan slums to Malaysian factories and Wall Street investment banks. Here is our considered response.

Your twin responsibilities in a crucial conversation are: 1) to maintain safety; and 2) to engage in and encourage the free flow of meaning.

All of the skills in Crucial Conversations are designed to accomplish these two tasks. Maintaining safety is hard enough when two people come from the same culture. It becomes even more complex when people come from a different culture. The reason is that people from different cultures tell themselves different “stories” about the behavior of others. Using active hand gestures while I speak might be seen as passion in one culture and coercion in another.

For example, I once worked with an Israeli software company that was acting as a vendor to an American telecom company. There were frequent crucial conversational breakdowns as a consequence of the widely different communication patterns used by the Israelis and the Americans. The Israelis were comfortable with relatively louder volume and more vigorous body language. The Midwestern Americans were intimidated and offended by this behavior. The story they told themselves about the behavior was that it was disrespectful and coercive.

How do you solve this problem?

First, by holding the right conversation. Don’t just talk about “content” (key issues you need to address). If you are aware that there could be cultural differences, you should pause occasionally and talk about those differences. Talk about your differing patterns of behavior. Ask people how you are coming across. Encourage them to give you feedback about behaviors that might make it difficult for them to engage with you around crucial topics. Ask them what various patterns of behavior on their part mean to them.

Second, when you are digging into crucial conversations about content, watch for signs that the conversation is not working. Watch for marked changes in others’ behavior or facial expressions. If, for example, they are usually expressive but become silent, you can bet that safety might be at risk. They may be interpreting your behavior as violent when you intend it as something much different. Or, if they become louder than usual, again this is a sign that safety could be at risk and you should step out of the conversation and talk about the conversation. Again, ask for feedback about how you’re coming across—either now or later when it might be safer.

Working across cultures requires the same two sets of regular conversations that working to build any sort of strong relationship requires. The first is healthy crucial conversations about key issues (content or relationship). The second is regular crucial conversations about how to correctly interpret your differing behaviors (pattern).

The reason for the first kind of conversation is obvious. But the need for the second is less so. Many people fail to help their colleagues or loved ones correctly interpret the intent and meaning behind their own behaviors. They leave them open to be interpreted in the worst way possible—often with disastrous consequences.

If you want to work well across cultures, don’t just talk issues, talk behaviors—what they mean and don’t mean–and what works for the both of you.

Thanks for raising an important issue. And best wishes in the vital work you’re doing to bring greater unity and productivity into our wonderfully diverse world,

Joseph

Because of the GLS | A Doctor in Congo Opens a Free Medical Clinic

Posted on January 11, 2017 by - Africa, Because of the GLS, Stories

When Pastor Crispin Mutanda heard Melinda Gates speak at the GLS in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he was inspired with a vision to do something more for his community.

Pastor Crispin is also a doctor, and despite his limited resources, he decided to organize a medical campaign, providing free first aid and checkups for the people living in poverty in his community.

Thousands of people from the area came to his medical center to receive free treatment. Some of them discovered blood pressure issues they didn’t know they had, and were grateful to the doctor and his staff for their care.

Pastor Crispin plans to continue more medical campaigns to serve his community and save lives in the days to come.

The outcomes of the GLS are truly inspiring. Can you imagine if each person who attended the GLS impacted at least 10 people within their sphere of influence, let alone a couple thousand? The ripple effect would reach more than three million people. You’re a part of something big!

Managing a Remote Workforce: 7 Things You Need to Know

Posted on January 10, 2017 by - Articles, Leading Others, Supervising People, Team Building

Jack and Suzy Welch’s best practices for managing remote employees apply whether your relationships are on the other side of your city or cross-culturally across the globe. The original post can be found on their LinkedIn Influencer page here.

Earlier this year, Suzy and I wrote an article discussing the benefits and challenges of working remotely. The bottom line was that while “commuting to the office in your slippers” definitely has some advantages; it also brings with it (potential) career limitations . . .

I’d like to pick up on this topic, but this time from the perspective of managing remote workers.

 

The Pros and Cons of a Remote Workforce

There’s little question that organizations can benefit from having some roles filled by remote workers. Fewer people in the office means less space is needed, resulting in lower real estate costs; time spent commuting in rush-hour traffic can be used for more productive tasks, etc.

But with the benefits come downsides. Remote workers are likely to be less engaged in the culture and mission of the organization; they miss the normal opportunities to build relationships, and they can’t easily go to co-workers to get help or share ideas. Yes, they’re a valuable part of the team – they’re just not THERE all the time.

Nevertheless, the trend of leveraging technology to work remotely is gaining steam and shows no sign of letting up. In the US, approximately one in five workers now work from home on a regular basis, and some estimates have this number increasing to 50 percent over the next decade. As a manager, you can’t ignore this trend. If you’re not already managing at least a few remote team members, you likely will be shortly.

 

My Own Experience

Our school, the Jack Welch Management Institute, offers a fully online MBA program. And boy, have we been growing! In just over five years, we’ve gone from fewer than 100 students to over 1400 students (all working professionals) who attend virtual classes. They do this from as far away as India and Russia and as near as down the road from our offices. And who is teaching these students? Our world-class faculty, now numbering over 80 strong and growing – all of whom, themselves, work remotely.

To successfully manage a remote workforce and continue to grow your business (while ensuring that quality and customer service don’t slip) you have to unleash every tool you’ve got to maximize socialization in ways that make sure the culture and spirit of your company, and its values and behaviors, are demonstrated and transferred.

 

Seven Tips for Managing a Remote Workforce 

  1. Take the “randomness” out of communication. In the same way that sales people use Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to manage their accounts, we use a similar system to ensure every faculty member has weekly interactions (via phone, email or video conferencing) with our Dean.
  1. Plan your connections. You can’t rely on the normal hallway interactions or spur-of-the-moment meetings to address issues. At a minimum, get your teams committed to weekly “huddles” (via conference calls, or preferably, using virtual meeting tools). But plan these meetings well. Establish clear expectations around key agenda items, and allow time for brainstorming sessions to share ideas.
  1. Use data to drive performance.At our school, we’ve built a dashboard that displays key metrics at a glance. We’re big fans of the Net Promoter Score (NPS). This is a simple way of measuring customer satisfaction (and, yes, we do view our students as customers, unlike many traditional universities), but we also track lots of other things like course completion and continuation rates. And don’t keep this data a secret. Team members deserve to know how their performance stacks up against that of their colleagues and what they can do to improve.
  1. Find opportunities for personal interactions.This includes celebrating promotions, birthdays, etc. I have often said that most work teams don’t celebrate enough. That’s doubly true if the team is remote. Yes, I admit that sending out congratulatory email blasts is not quite the same as taking the gang out for pizza, but it’s a start. You have to have fun at work.
  1. Set aside time (and budget) for the team to meet in person. Just because the day-to-day workflow is virtual, doesn’t mean you can’t bring the team together at least once or twice a year for a face-to-face meeting over a couple days. Yes, there are costs, but the benefits that come from building connections and strong bonds will far outweigh the expense.
  1. Build a mentor support network. The larger your remote team gets, the more challenging it will be to interact with everyone in the way you’d like to. If you’ve been tracking key performance measures (see #3), you’ll develop a clear picture of who your best players are. Leverage that. Using your top performers to coach and lead teams is a powerful way not only to strengthen connections, but also to increase your reach without adding unnecessary layers of management.  However, make sure you are identifying these team leaders on the basis of performance and behaviors, NOT on seniority. You want the “best of the best” mentoring others, not those who’ve simply been around the longest.
  1. And finally, be flexible. Never lose sight of the reasons why employees pursue roles that allow them to work remotely – flexibility of hours and geography. This may mean that sometimes they need to miss meetings, or they reply to emails at 2:00 a.m. rather than during “normal” business hours. If it becomes a problem, then, of course, address it, but sometimes a little (planned) flexibility on your part can lead to a lot of great work on their part.

All in all, there is a lot more upside than downside in allowing flexible hours and work locations. Not the least of which is that it gives employers access to a much wider pool of qualified applicants than they might otherwise have.

As long as the work gets done, and as long as team members and managers understand and address the challenges, the future looks bright for future generations of telecommuters.