An interesting development has been taking place in my international projects, regarding the allocation of time. Many of us in the business of implementing projects have heard of that very useful device, the “triple constraint”, right? Simply put, it is a framework to help us balance the competing demands of the project by having customers and performers agree on the Scope, Time and Cost components. It is good guidance in our efforts to organize and subsequently deploy the project work, and can be used iteratively at many points in the project lifecycle.
Once the scope and durations for activities have been agreed, I notice that colleagues from some countries will work linearly, sticking closely to an order of events and to a critical path, while colleagues from other countries will work on two or three activities at the same time. This latter approach makes progress reporting a bit trickier, as parts of the project will start before their immediate predecessor has been completely finished. It also means that more of my tasks remain open at 75%, or 90%, taking longer to reach the full 100% completion.
This reminds me of buying cheese in Europe. At the cheese shop in Germany, little numbers were issued on entering the shop, and customers were served in the order of these numbers. As many cheeses as the customer wanted would get duly taken out of the refrigerator, unwrapped, sliced, and wrapped again once the customer got to the front of the line.
In Spain, while customers did queue, when the one at the front asked for a pound of Gruyere, the shopkeeper would shout: “Anybody else need some Gruyere?” He might then serve two customers at a time: the one at the front of the queue and another one from the middle of the line. I cannot imagine being successful in the German cheese shop if, from the back of the queue, I were to shout: “Hey, can you slice me a pound of the Gouda while it is out?” I am sure customers and staff would have been horrified at the mere suggestion.
The perception of time and how to fill it vary greatly by culture. Some countries value planning and organized execution tremendously. In some other countries, staying flexible, re-prioritizing at the last minute, and working on two things at once seems like a better system (By the way, I do think the Spanish shopkeeper sold cheese to more customers by the end of the day).
In our international projects then, what type of project manager will we be? The one that demands work be done in the exact order we have specified? Or a flexible one that allows for the different perceptions of time that different cultures bring, as long as the work gets done…. and all the customers get their cheese?
Leadership is a team sport not a superstar sport. What happens over time is that some managers begin to believe it’s all about them. It’s not, it’s just the opposite. It’s about the people they lead.
Allan Ditchfield, former executive at AT&T, realized that you cannot lead without getting involved.
“When leaders remain behind their desks, they loose touch with reality – the key issues with their employees, and most importantly, the key issues with their customers.”
So he created “Donuts with Ditch”. It was a regular scheduled coffee and donuts session with no more than 10 people, chosen randomly, from different parts of his business unit. It was a forum to hear people’s concerns and to gather information as well as get feedback about some of the real issues that are getting in the way of people’s jobs.
He asked one question:
“What’s getting in the way of you doing your jobs well and serving our customers?”
He listened intently, took notes and followed up with answers and solutions. The most important ingredient for success was not the donuts but rather the trust that had been established between him and the employees. He had what he called a sacred open door. No ones’ going to be hurt by what they say. That there will be no retaliation. He lived by that rule. He walked the talk and therefore people believed him and trusted him.
Management Success Tip:
This simple two way communication tool was the grease that kept the operational engine humming. It’s a great example of how leaders can build relationships with their people, create conditions that encourage two-way communication and also get real time information about operational and customer service problems before they turn into big hairy monsters that will eat up time, energy and resources. Also see Be the Boss Everyone Wants to Work For
Being a Success
According to Dr. Heidi Grant Stevenson, a blogger for Psychology Today and the author of an intriguing new book, Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals (2011), even very bright people are often clueless when it comes to understanding why they succeed or fail. Recent research on achievement shows that successful people reach their goals not because of any inborn traits or extraordinary IQs but because of what they do.
Dr. Stevenson identifies nine things that successful people do differently from their less successful peers. How many of these traits do you have as a grant proposal professional?
1. Get Specific
When you set a goal, you are specific as possible. Being concrete gives you a clear definition of success.
2. Seize the Moment and Act on your Goals
Because we are all very busy, we often routinely miss opportunities to act on our goals. To seize the moment, decide when and where you will take action to achieve a goal.
3. Know Exactly How Far You Have Left to Go
To achieve your goals, you must candidly and regularly monitor your progress and determine what remains to achieve your goal. “It will take 15 more hours to finish producing our grant application” enables you to adjust your behavior and strategies so that you are likely to succeed.
4. Be a Realistic Optimist
Positive thinking is very important in achieving goals, but you must be realistic about how likely you are to achieve them. Simply telling your proposal team that the “first draft must be finished today” is meaningless unless there is a high probability that this is possible.
5. Focus on Getting Better rather than being Good
Our talents and skills are very malleable. To improve, you should focus on getting better at doing something specific rather than just being good. This is a more realistic and motivating goal than trying to achieve some abstract standard of excellence.
6. Show Grit and Determination
Grit and determination are common characteristics of successful people, especially in the face of difficulties. By planning, by developing good strategies to accomplish difficult tasks, and by sheer persistence you often can succeed.
7. Build your Willpower
Successful people have strong willpower. They are determined to succeed. Identifying difficult challenges and satisfactorily addressing them will increase your sense of willpower and enable you to be more successful.
8. Have a Sense of Limitations
Today, it is fashionable to say that we all have unlimited potential. This is simply not true. We all have limitations, and we must understand and respect them.
9. Focus on What You Will Do, Not on What You Will Not Do
One of the best ways to succeed is to ask a simple question: “What can I do differently?” Focus on behavioral changes you realistically can make rather than on simply avoiding unproductive behaviors.
I think that Dr. Stevenson has identified nine important things successful grant proposal professionals do differently. As he concludes, “You usually do not have to become a different person to become more successful.”
All of us, however, need to do our grant proposal development differently – and better.
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Dr. Jayme Sokolow, founder and president of The Development Source, Inc.,
helps nonprofit organizations develop successful proposals to government agencies. Contact Jayme Sokolow.
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Look for Jayme’s ebook on Finding & Getting Federal Government Grants. It’s part of The Fundraising Series of ebooks
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Shady investigative practices land Harvard in need of crisis management
Digital privacy is certainly a hot-button topic these days, as Harvard administrators quickly found out after its search through archived emails of 16 resident deans not only without permission, but without any notification, raised a ruckus, creating a need for crisis management.
Harvard did issue a meandering, 800+ word statement, a mere 27 of which, by our count, had anything to do with apologizing, while the rest attempted, in a roundabout fashion, to explain the logic behind school administration’s decision.
Jonathan Bernstein, of Bernstein Crisis Management, says Harvard’s apology statement only gets a score of three on a scale of 10.
“I suspect that Harvard’s PR staff were not consulted, or were ignored, before the administration engaged in the secret search,” he says.
Employers could conceivably have lots of legal, moral and ethical reasons to search employee emails, Bernstein says, but Harvard didn’t make much of an effort to communicate what it was doing.
Compounding the crisis is the fact that the affected deans were not informed of the search even after it was complete, instead having to hear the news from media outlets and peers.
When dealing with the muddy legal waters that surround all things digital, from email and text messages to Facebook and Twitter, it is absolutely critical to set a clear policy, and communicate that policy with those to whom it applies.
This entire situation was originally part of an investigation into the leak of confidential files, but by choosing to take a shady route themselves and hiding the email search, even from those whose personal files were being breached, Harvard administration is left with no moral high ground to stand on.
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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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What is that exactly? Where do trainers come from? Are they born or made, as I like to ask my University students of “speakers.” Trainers are a little different. Trainers are made of parts, like the human body, and have many interacting functions or working parts. Without some parts they die. With others, they thrive.
Following the basic tenets of leadership, trainers, it seems, are:
designated or assigned
assumed as a matter of position
discovered as they emerge over time with the company
discovered as they emerge during a serious situation or crisis
educated to be trainers
Like leaders, trainers can be designated or assigned the task and have to learn the material or are a subject matter expert (SME) already. You could hold a high position that includes the training aspect and therefore it is assumed you are responsible–essentially, no training needed for you (not really), or after the company gets to know you and has seen you communicate and present material in a variety of ways perceives you to be a person who has qualities that may be deemed worthy of an in-house trainer. This would be an emergent leader. In your case, an emergent trainer. There is the leadership that emerges during a specific experience for example, a high-stress, extremely important problem-solving situation where your leadership/training abilities are noticed. That is known as situational leadership and let’s say trainer. Perhaps, you are too young for a leadership position, but training is a good place to start. There is another that might be compared to a company bringing in an outside executive. You just finished a graduate program in human resources and training. So, you are educated for the task.
It is nice to be put in the same league with leaders and in some ways I think just as important. Many decisions are made at that level that are not training issues that can be discovered before undertaking extensive measures to train staffs of managers and lower level employees. However, we run the gamut of the business, corporation, and non-profit world.
We are at all levels–entry-level to senior staff. Where we are in the organization depends a lot on where we came from–how we got to where we are. Some of us were so dedicated we learned all we could from books, courses, and other trainers. Some of us had a training plan all made out for us by our predecessors. Is that wrong? I’m not here to judge your work ethic; I’m just trying to provide some enlightening views. There are probably a lot more of comparisons I can make with leaders, but I won’t go into that now. I want to clear the air. Our goals are the same wherever we are placed in the company or organizational chart. Sometimes we have a chance to move mountains, sometimes not. I know what it’s like to be stuck. That’s one of the reasons why I write.
My interest in people is two-fold: how do people perform under pressure and what makes people act the way they do in a group.
Joy Blatherwick and Jack Shaw in PLAY ON! — photo by David Gold, HPP
After publishing almost 200 training and development blog articles, about a 100 theatre critiques and articles on performance, four books, including a novel, it is about time I introduced myself again and why I write about training as way I do–not as an expert on training with a lifetime of training experience, but more as an observer. If you’ve read my blog before you know my background as a communicator. As well as having done professional acting on stage, film and commercials, I teach at a couple of Universities when I have an opportunity as a visiting professor.
I am retired from the Federal government where I was “discovered” and made a trainer after the training officer saw that I had skills. It had taken a long time to emerge as a trainer over time. Human Resources is always slow in government. So why bother? I wanted to do something different. The signs were obvious it seemed to me; I was a public affairs officer with years of experience. Before that Federal job, as Air Force officer, I was selected to teach at the U.S. Air Force Academy and ran the Summer Survival Training Camp. I was recruited out of Officer Training School to give presentations about the Air Force around the country–later to talk and lead people through the inside of Cheyenne Mountain. My education is unique: an interdisciplinary dual Masters in English and Speech/Theatre and another Masters in Social Psychology. The interdisciplinary degree is in performance criticism.
I hope you can see why my focus is people-based. I don’t knock the use of technology, but I want to make sure it is getting through, that it is not part of the frustration of taking the training itself. If it is, I try to report it and offer ways to fix it. I know “learning theory.” I’ve had those classes. Maybe not couched the same way as in “Training Programs,” but, in fact, it was a very strong interest of mine, why I love teach as well my personal interest in classroom teaching. It may sound egotistical, but I’m good at it. I can talk. I was an actor and a director, a professional speaker, as well as a speech coach for executives. Would you expect anything less? I have to assure my University speech students this my speech classes are not performance classes, that their classes also have to do with organization.
As a trainer as well, in whatever kind of training I’m doing, I treat my trainees as individuals; they are not the company some people put on their resume. The company name does not go on my resume because I do custom work and that is confidential. That doesn’t mean it can’t or shouldn’t be on other resumes. It’s just me.
No one trainer can do it all.
I don’t feel classroom training is in lieu of any other kind of training. Not all training has to be done in the classroom. Some can be done on a handout–if you trust your staff to read and sign that they did, or a CD or DVD for them to see, or computer-based or a combination, etc. All this training depends on the type of business, company or organization we are talking about. Needs aren’t always the same.
I turn down work as often as I accept it; maybe, that’s the beauty of retirement, or a wife who is a working professional. If you are an in-house trainer, advise your boss on what you think is needed, but in the end, it is he or she who makes that decision. Again, it will depend where you are in the hierarchy.
To me, there is no one training product or system that does it all. No one trainer that does it all. I know some trainers and vendors will hate me for this: no long term contracts. I know there are in-house trainers who are so insecure they always buy off-the-shelf products or hire out-of-house services. All I can say at this point, is be careful. Try whatever someone is trying to sell in the short term, check references, and look for articles that may talk about the programs they use in an unbiased way. Obviously, not the vendor’s website.
As for me, the buzz word is customize. Customize with your own creativity. Create in the classroom. Problem-solve in small groups. Use products you know personally that work. Test products of which you’re pretty sure of the result.
A final reminder: I do have a website where you can find other items I have written, including coupons for my best selling, The Cave Man Guide To Training and Development and my novel about the near future, Harry’s Reality! You might even get them for free. Happy Training.
Want to start a small business, but missing some skills? Here’s one option: take some online classes, where you might learn what you need, for a fraction of the time and cost. Improve your business plan AND your business.
There are 100s of web-based business classes, many of them free (open source) or for a small fee. Many are taught through world-class universities, and offer more interactivity than you would get if you attended classes there.
Online Business Classes
Check out a few of them in “What’s Available Online?” Might just be one there for you.
Reputation management is a cornerstone of business, regardless of how big you get
Google will pay a $7 million fine to settle a multistate investigation into a snoopy software program that enabled the Internet search leader to intercept emails, passwords and other sensitive information sent several years ago over unprotected wireless networks in neighborhoods across the world.
The agreement announced Tuesday covers 38 states and the District of Columbia, part of the area where households and local merchants unwittingly had some of their communications on Wi-Fi networks snatched by Google Inc. from early 2008 until the spring 0f 2010.
We’ll leave the legal particulars to the judges and lawyers, what we’re interested in is the effect these findings are having on Google’s reputation. Already, the label of “serial privacy violator” is being used by critics, just take a look at this quote from the same AP article:
The penalty won’t be enough to prevent Google from continuing to be a “serial privacy violator,” according to John Simpson, privacy project director for Consumer Watchdog, a frequent critic of the company. “It’s clear the Internet giant sees fines like this as just the cost of doing business and not a very big cost at that.”
Is Google choosing the same path that many pharmaceutical companies seem to be taking, i.e. factoring fines into the cost of doing business, and reputation be damned?
If so, it’s certainly a risky strategy. It is true that when you dominate your market to the degree that Google does you gain a certain amount of wiggle room in terms of reputation, basically because no one mistake is going to create enough of a dip in users, customers, etc. to knock you off of your pedestal.
So what’s the big deal?
The danger for organizations like Google, Apple, Microsoft, and their ilk is in the slow buildup of negatives. At some point, especially in a society that is increasingly conscious of the practices and philosophies of the organizations they give their money to, unchecked negative sentiment will reach a level where it spills over and creates a crippling enough loss of reputation that a competitor is able to step in and take the lead.
The takeaway here? Even if you’re on top and the competition’s so far behind it’s not even in the rear-view mirror, your reputation counts. It almost brings to mind the image of a modern tortoise and the hare. The hare, knowing it’s a dominant leader, stops putting in the daily care and effort that’s required to stay on top. Meanwhile, the tortoise is creeping along, throwing its every effort behind building its reputation and waiting for that golden opportunity.
Google is certainly looking like the hare in this situation, and the tech world is no stranger to sudden upheavals of opinion that results in the replacement of a formerly dominant force.
Your reputation is, without a doubt, your most valuable asset. Protect it.
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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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An issue was raised on a listserve: “I have become more and more concerned about the exploitation of clients and “their stories” as fundraising tools.” “How do you counsel clients about the ethics/morality of using client stories as appeals?”
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Whenever a question is posed about ethics/morality that includes the words “using” and “exploitation,” it’s a pretty good bet that the writer has already made a judgment.
“Exploitation” was/is a favorite word used to describe/condemn how employers who use young (physically attractive) women to generate business. The word was never used by the employers (who increased the bottom line), the employees (who were being paid for their labors), and the patrons of the businesses (for their own reasons).
The word was only used by outsiders who did not and/or could not agree with the perspective of either of the three participants.
I am commenting, remember, on the use of a word, not on the writer’s discomfort.
Before using the word “exploit,” one should ask oneself what, if any, harm is being done. If no harm is being done… that’s your answer. And, if only an “outsider” is seeing the “harm,” is there really any harm being done?
In the case of using the story (with or without photos or live appearances) of a consenting adult (client-of-a-nonprofit), it would be incorrect to attach the emotional content of “exploitation” to the transaction — because it is, indeed, a transaction.
The client would agree to having his/her story told in exchange for something that makes him/her feel good — be that gratitude, a desire to give back, the understanding that s/he will benefit when the nonprofit benefits … or any other reason s/he might have.
That does raise a few questions: Have (for example) those starving, barefoot children in the tv solicitations given their consent? Are they capable of giving “informed consent”? Are they being harmed by having their stories told and their faces “displayed”? Do they benefit by having their stories told and their faces “displayed”? Are they being exploited?
What do you think ??
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Have a comment or a question about starting, evaluating or expanding your fundraising program? With over 30 years of counseling in major gifts, capital campaigns, bequest programs and the planning studies to precede these three, I’ll be pleased to answer your questions. Contact me at AskHank@Major-Capital-Giving.com
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Click this link to find descriptions of all the titles in The Fundraising Series of ebooks.
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In Wally Bock’s Three Start Leadership Blog, I saw this boss’s tip of the Day:
Boss’s Tip of the Day: Protect your people
So often we forget this. So often we worry too much about our own career and our own protection. We forget that our success is determined by their success.
This was a lesson I learned early in my career. Someone told me that as a manager, my success could only be measured by the success of my weakest team member. That took a little while to set in, but once it did and once I really understood its meaning, my team became much more successful. With that came my success.
Leadership has nothing to do with you and your title. Leadership requires that someone is following you and leaders who don’t protect lose followers. Protection builds trust and loyalty, things that also drive discretionary effort. If you want your people to put in the extra time or effort when needed, protect them. If you want them to stand up for you, protect them. If you want them to value your opinion or direction, protect them. If you want candor, protect them.
What advice for boss’s can you add?
heri Mazurek is a training and human resource professional with over 16 years of management experience, and is skilled in all areas of employee management and human resource functions, with a specialty in learning and development. She is available to help you with your Human Resources and Training needs on a contract basis. For more information send an email to smazurek0615@gmail.com. Follow me on twitter @Sherimaz
I very seldom write an article that spans across my Grandma Chronicles and professional -Nonprofit Blogs. But once in a while inspiration hits and out comes a blog post such as this one. It It is being published at The Grandma Chronicles and Nonprofit Capacity Building. The question is: “Should you and nonprofits get involved with mentoring?” It actually can be a lot of work to get started and sustained and takes a very strong leader who inspires, has good organization and is willing to work hard on the project for it to work. Sounds a bit discouraging, doesn’t it? But is it worth it? The answer is a resounding yes!
Two of my sisters that I spent most of the day with on our recent trip to Broadway. Here they are on the PATH on our way into NYC
First, the source of inspiration for this post. I am involved with the mentoring program at my high school, St. Vincent Academy in Newark, NJ. As a participant it is very easy and I just get to enjoy myself. But the leader of this program does an incredible amount of research, planning, budgeting, encouraging mentors, arranging group tours and making it happen. Twice a year, mentors – alumnae and members of the Advisory Board – go on trips with an equal number of girls who are currently high school students at St. Vincent’s. The alumnae usually range from those who are out of high school for 10 years to over 50 years.
Once a year we go to a Broadway show with dinner and on another day – one that is not a school day – we go on a full day outing that our leader, Mary Gannon, has arranged. We have gone to Yankee Stadium, the Botanical Gardens, museums, a Coast Guard station complete with touring two Coast guard boats and more. Mary always includes some browsing/shopping times which girls of all ages love and a morning and afternoon activity. Sometimes there’s a bonus like bowling or riding a merry go round.
We often get looks because we seem like an unusual group. There appears to be an almost equal number of older white women and mostly minority young women. We don’t look like a standard school trip because we are just all socializing together rather than being adult chaperones and students. There are also too many adults to just be chaperones. Sometimes someone will look for a few moments and then ask – “What kind of a group are you anyway?” We talk about careers, our families, raising families and having careers or being active with volunteering. We also get questions about what the prom was like back then and learn about what it is like now. Some of our mentors were star basketball players in their day and that always makes for an interesting conversation. I always like to see the imagining going on when a few girls learn that the woman who graduated over 50 years ago and now volunteers as a handbell instructor was a star basketball player. She is tall it is not hard for me to see it. But they look at her as if to say “Really?” and then do do say “Really?” If you need it, it’s a good opportunity to get a little smart phone tutoring. Did we have some of the older teachers? Some of us were students with one of their teachers. It is always the best day ever.
Mentoring doesn’t have to be based on tutoring, leadership development, careers or some other focused goal. I do and like that kind of mentoring too. But this bonding with girls that I have so much in common with and yet have differences with has something so special about it. I can’t find the few words to capture it. But we cross generations, cultures and economics and explore our common experience. They are interested in our past and we are interested in their future. Colleges and careers enter into easy conversation – not formal counseling.
I am looking forward to getting involved with a more formal mentoring program at St. Vincent’s but this will always be one of my favorite things to do.
So….Grandparents and nonprofits. I urge you to get involved in mentoring. It doesn’t have to be a formal focused program. It is not just rewarding – it is fun and will lead to new friendships that you never imagined. If you don’t know of a local program think about started one at a local nonprofit. I can’t just say, “Oh, it’s easy.” But I can say, “It’s well worth it.”
If you are interested in starting a mentoring program there are excellent resources available. Probably the best known is the National Mentoring Partnership – found online at http://www.mentoring.org/. They have remarkable resources and a huge network available to help you find a program near you or to start and sustain a program. Check it out.
My grandson, Zach, is three years old. Those of you who read this blog know that he is the joy of my life. I am also enjoying my time spent with teenagers. It is very different being in a mentoring role than an authority role. Even if you are busy, I highly recommend checking out mentoring opportunities. And please do share your mentoring activities with us by leaving your comments.
Enjoy!
Marion
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