Coaching for Learning Teams

Learning teams must be introduced to the various methods for teaming. For resource allocation, nature of work in projects as well as the diversity of people must be taken into account. Work may be process oriented or specialist oriented. Work may be innovative or competitive in spirit. People in the team may be from various cultures and locations on the globe. People may also  belong to different generations working toward a common goal in the projects they work on.

Consider a project to improve or upgrade the business HR system with outdated technologies. This is a project that can be accomplished by adopting established analytical thinking methods, information gathering techniques as well as proposal writing guidelines. Teams may consist of specialists from the business side and technologies side familiar with Human Resources functions systems. A project manager or leader who understands the process to get the product functionality right is the added asset for a team. The project can progress with structured methodologies in spite of being a unique project for the specific business.

The Netflix competition of 2008 to improve the movie recommendations system to customers is a very different project  launched by the business. The project is characterized by several new approaches to meet the objectives. It is a crowd sourced, predictive analytics based, global contest project in action. Following the course of actions of the company and the teams to face the grand challenge is a lesson in teaming. The basic requirement for teams working on this project was to think effortlessly outside the box with no prior knowledge of the subject matter.  The teams demonstrated competition and cooperation to collaborate depending on the need of the hour. People from various nations united and managed to merge and blend among themselves to achieve this common goal at different stages of the project. There was meta learning to ensemble models to achieve the goal and win the prize. The approaches are not limited to a predictive analytics competition, several mergers and acquisitions that happen in the business world have valuable lessons to offer in teaming.

Connecting with a diverse group of people including different generations at the work place virtually or face to face is a challenge. Resolving conflicts to lead and being led is not easy. With high achieving and performing teams, there is an added challenge of the paradox of self versus the team's achievement. Shifting perspectives from the truths that worked before will require changes as the teams transition thru stages of their own lives as well as those of others.  Several insights and perceptions on how people think about others and themselves need to be cleared by education and learning.

Training effective teams to prepare for higher education settings as well as the workplace need to consider the multi dimensional factors that come into play for teaming. Teaming can be an effective tool by itself to handle life and work challenges, assimilating best practices in a short term when several people with varied interests come together to get work done.

Feedback

Accepting and giving feedback is viewed as a measure to reflect on the growth as well as the strengths and weaknesses in an organization. The purpose of feedback remains the same although new approaches and means to collect information and data about the person's performance increased over the years.

Feedback process has undergone transformation from keeping a record of the employee's performance for the year (aka performance review) a one on one contract for performance to a 360 degree viewpoint observing interactions, work ethics of the person on the job over a period of time.
Feedback in both virtual and real world situations is not very different. Tracking and observing the performance online is much easier in a given setting, especially a classroom.

As long as all these measures work towards the progress of the organization and the individual, everything is taken in the lighter spirit of things. It is an enjoyable and encouraging conversation, with much to look forward to whether it is cash or comfort. Friction arises when feedback process is used as a means for any other purpose where the emotional, behavioral and several other relationship dimensions figure in the process beyond the tolerance levels of the individuals involved.

In order to get work done, anyone undergoes certain amount of pleasure and pain along with said and unsaid motivations and brickbats. While every piece of work may not result in praise and recognition, taking criticism is not usually welcome even though it is well intended. Underlying theme for criticism should be constructive towards achieving the work ahead and nothing else. Unfortunately, people dynamics vary in every situation. Feedback of peers or superiors varies to some extent on their own perceptions and understanding at a given point of time.

I doubt if  collecting more data along with involving more people in soliciting feedback material helps the person's growth or the health of the organization. When feedback promises are not kept or followed up from either side focusing on the purpose of feedback, it is just a piece of paper to be cherished or put aside by the individuals. Healthy organizations must invest time in allowance for deeper insights with the motivations and talent of the individual. Compromises made are tolerable until the tension and stretch are in balance for the greater good of the individual and the organization. Otherwise, the process can lead to leaks and breaks.

It is up to the individual to keep it in perspective that the feedback has its due place and value. To use it for constructive growth for one's own sake is always beneficial. Key to this is to be able to put aside the obstacles and barriers of words and deeds that happen as part of the process.

References:

Heen, S., & Stone, D. (2014). Find the Coaching in Criticism. Harvard Business Review, 92(1/2), 108-111.

 

Ten (more) balancing tactics for starter's advantage in an organization

 - Learn to start writing on simple issues first

- learn how to write a status report
- learn how to make a mark (aka impress) in the organization
- learn how to align your own goals with the organization's goals
- understand the blurring boundaries - primary and secondary responsibilities.

- learn how to make listening as well speaking clearly a habit...
- Be neither too enthusiastic to express,  nor be too aware to take a back seat
(this looks contrary to the norm on the surface, but can be useful tactic)
- Avoid making statements without substantial evidence
- Learn to deal with being at cross roads (which route to take, how to get there when "there" is not defined?)

Handle difficult issues next.
- handle debates between being academic and being intellectually active
- handle debate between being popular and being sought after
- learn to judge the situation and act for achieving the higher purpose
- understand priorities of stakeholders (teams, managers, leaders, other organizational staff)
- Realize there are generation gaps in thinking in an organization
- Stand up for an ideal and strongly believe in it.

- Accept that it takes time to build one's foundation in an organization
- Understand that it requires decisions to embrace as well as quit the organization.

Recognize the individual's journey in the organization. Organization is a catalyst for one's own journey.

Lessons from the music industry

Focused  thinking is essential for getting from point A to point B. But what if B vanishes while one is on the path? Managing oneself to be flexible, adapting to change is very important for uncertain, chaotic industry/ work environments the students of today are getting into. Knowledge to change gears and ride the tide is key to survival. The player has to prepare to be a star in many dimensions for growth.

Music industry is an example of the transformative, game changing happenings in the industries. 

One of the primary messages of the music industry is that without many reasons of concern (economic, operational methods for example), there have been dramatic changes in this industry. There is acceptance of new wave of technologies throughout the supply chain. Business models are changing at lightening speed. There are many ethical issues surrounding this industry[Reference: Ripped, how the wired generation revolutionized music by Greg Kot]

In the current times, every one must have thorough knowledge about the business they are getting into whatever the role/ "actor" they want to play. This is the challenge for today's students. They have added responsibilities of their own portfolio management. It is quite clear that no one can flourish on their laurels for long periods of time. Important thing is to confront this with a "facilitating" approach with individual students. Advisors can share experiences and dwell on broader themes.  The course/ road map will have to be co-designed with the student with provisions to change direction. 


 

Preparing for effective digital workplace

Every organization/ workplace is unique. There is no debate on the fact that  technologies enable organizations to move forward with efficiency and effectiveness in whatever stage the organization could be.

Social, mobile, cloud and data analytics cannot be dismissed as yet another cycle for the role of technologies. When technologies themselves transform to the stage that businesses can internalize their processes with technologies, new thinking arises that can bring change with unforeseen opportunities. 

What could be the role of the convergence of these technologies to the enterprise?

At each step of the process and stage of the product life cycle, questions can be asked how specific can it get to with technologies to serve the customer. What has been done at the workplace can be seen as a prototype for the last 50 – 60 years with software  technologies. Now is the time to get to details and more specific for the new digital workplace.  

Key opportunities  exist for the social workplace with applications over the platform and social as the layer. This requires planning for turning things in silos to putting them to use smartly for the employees, consumers and at the workplace. There is much to experiment, fail and try again in order to look for effectiveness in the digital workplace


[Ref: The evolving digital workplace, KMworld, Oct 2012].

Visual aids

Senior professionals at work are not very different from teachers. They love to watch a novice junior explain the concept clearly with the help of simple diagrams. 

Complexity arises due to the detail. It takes years of apprenticeship to reach mastery levels to deal with complexity. Yet it is the simple concept that lays the foundation of these complexities. 

Steady and composed students/ professionals who explain the concept clearly are always respected for the clarity they bring to the table. 

Visual aids are one of the best means to achieve clarity. Complex topics have a simple structure at the foundation usually. Once the focus is on the foundation of the topic, representing any branches of it visually becomes easier.

Choosing the method to represent the topic under discussion comes with knowledge and experience for the professional. I would call this the art of clarity. Paying attention to convey what needs to be conveyed with clarity may take time, but it is worth the practice.

Several design methods books and templates, tools and techniques fill this need.  Whether it is a geographical map to aid a traveller to go from place to place, a logical data flow model to represent how information is organized for data management, it is the picture that helps convey the message across. 

Escape Velocity and Benefits Management

I find that Geoffrey Moore's Escape Velocity and John Ward's Benefits management provide the links to IS/ IT portfolio management in the context of business. These two books are a good reference for teaching topics such as Strategic context for IS/ IT applications and portfolio management.

The book titles convey the authors intent and context.

In physics, escape velocity is connected to kinetic energy related to moving bodies. It is the energy needed for a body to escape the gravitational field of earth or any frame of reference. The frame of reference for Geoffrey Moore's Escape velocity is the pull of the past portfolios for businesses to move forward. Moore discusses the position of the business in terms of category power, company power, market power, offer power and execution power (table of contents of his book). How to re engineer the portfolio management is the major topic discussed in the chapter on category power. He cites several examples to highlight the need for constant vigilance over portfolios and provides methods that make a difference for the business.

Business needs and applications translate to IS/ IT investments and technology applications for the business.
John Ward discusses this topic on understanding the strategic context of IS/ IT applications. He categorizes the applications by strategic importance, their potential to take the company forward and those that are getting to be obsolete. Based on that the discussion is led to the why, what and how of investments.

Exercises on the portfolio management can be more complete when these two approaches are combined.

Question arises: how does this knowledge help an IS professional, whether independent or working for an organization?

It helps understand the organizational priorities when an employee puts himself as the leader of the organization. It helps provide clues to understand the position of the person and the type of work he is involved with through the lens of the organization. It helps predict what next for career growth in that company. The answers may not be straightforward, but the guidance that an understanding of portfolio management provides is immense throughout one's career. 

Transitioning as a routine

Transitioning has become a routine for all levels of professionals in the global business world. Add to this the flavor of eastern work philosophy with the western business structure [Reference 2]. This may be the recipe for chaos at the work place.

Leaders and followers tend to forget that both sides are transitioning in their day to day operations [Reference 1].  It matters for everyone to have goals to achieve and schedules to adhere to. It is not astounding that leaders do have their own goals towards their success. In their ardent desire for quick success, they cause chaos to their followers with their view points and decisions. They tend to forget often that their success depends on the success of their followers in most situations. Change and chaos have become synonyms mostly because of this rapid success paradox in global professional services firms. This unhealthy trend needs to be addressed.

It is common for leaders  to set false schedules and priorities for their teams to achieve high performance on projects. The priorities set for their teams may not truly reflect their or their clients' priorities. When this approach is taken too often, regular work at the organization turns into a  struggle for performance. This could also result in burn-out of the team members. Leaders need to take quick measures to regain normal work routines and environment when teams work in graveyard shifts to oblige their leaders and clients.

I hear that some of the IS/IT professional services firms at Hyderabad are preparing to address such situations. One of the measures seems to be timely vacations instead of  the cash option for vacation especially towards the end of the year for the employees. This is a good change to start with to regain normalcy.

To avoid chaos, leaders must be deliberately empathetic towards their followers. Leaders must self reflect regularly as to what their leadership means to their followers. Otherwise, ugly consequences could result when job responsibilities and work ethics cross boundaries. In a global business world, the individual's work life can become quite complex with unforeseen changes due to people and their processes. It matters much to address such issues that arise at the workplace with care and attention to detail.

The eastern work philosophy, confusions about work ethics and job responsibilities require attention in global organizations - big and small. The adaptability and flexibility of  followers to become self organized professionals at the workplace is a more complex and bigger topic. They are separate discussion topics for another post. 

References:
1. Van Buren, M. E., & Safferstone, T. (2009). THE Quick Wins Paradox. Harvard Business Review, 87(1), 54-61.
2. Office Tigers, Documentary Review 
3. Is Something Wrong with the way we work?

Proficiency

How long to stay in the job, how long does it take to step up the ladder, which path to take for transitioning are the most common questions a new professional ponders on.

Issues that rise in the process are the peer pressure and misinterpreting proficiency. Peers question each other on the stagnation if a couple of years passes without major changes on the job front. Proficiency is taken for granted based on time frame. The focus needed on the skills to be acquired and the practice needed for achieving proficiency is put aside.

The high school and under grad. college mentality continues at work. The reason I attribute this thinking to high school mentality is this. Most high school students ask similar questions in a different context. How long do I have to study for history? Why is it that calculus teacher expects ten problems solved every day? When will this class end? When will I move on to the next grade?

Being in high school and college teaches the student to produce work meeting objectives in structured environments and given schedules. Most often, teachers convey what skills the student is achieving in set times by explaining the course design and objectives. They also convey what rewards are in store when certain level of skills are achieved with their testing.

Educational institutions also provide schedules for celebrating achievements. Most times, the student is rewarded for the hard work done. There is celebration termed as "graduation" at set intervals of time. The student moves forward achieving success as per the standards set by the educational institution.

This background is part of the mind set that every student and aspiring professional operates on the way to graduating high school and college. The visible differences between educational institutions and work places are quite clear to the new hires and aspiring professionals by this time. They are aware that they are on their own to look forward for their advancement. They are also fit to take on the responsibilities offered at work. All this is good.

Questions arise when the expectations for timely rewards and celebrations continue in different settings. If the current work place does not seem to offer what they are looking for in their own terms, the aspiring professional looks out for "better" opportunities.

Job switching is the most popular approach to achieve the novice professional's timely rewards. This is quite troublesome for the newly hired, for there are no "graduation ceremonies" awaiting them in general after timely job switching other than monetary rewards in many cases.

Organizational training and educational institutions have a responsibility early on to attend to this trend for the professional health of the individual as well as that of the organization they work for. The skills that are required to the healthy growth need to be nourished from an early stage for the individual in the organization. Several factors need to be taken into account with proper planning and collaboration on an individual basis.

Points to Ponder:

1. How does one pave his/ her way to proficiency?
2. How do high school students choose their path towards proficiency introspecting their own mind set towards career aspirations?
3. How does the reward at school or at work help towards achieving proficiencty of the individual?
4. What "staying" factors help the individual to help make decisions to achieve satisfaction while studying or at work?

Reference:
How Rapid Job Switches Dent India's Competitiveness (and their own) by Prof. Frank C. Schultz, UC Berkeley

Trends

Many new opportunities are discovered watching for trends. The aspiring professionals need not take new trends as a burden if he/ she are watchful with their own expectations. A key to this is to take reasonable time to figure out one's own mindset as part of preparation.

As part of the exercise to arrive at one's own preferences, keeping notes on ideas is useful. Questioning on the ideas regularly will help. Not to forget to keep notes on the questions too. While looking for answers to the earlier questions, new questions arise. Time spent on keeping notes never goes waste, for it helps achieve clarity over a period of time.

Once convinced of an area of interest, pursuing to learn more about it is the next step. Training and experience are part of the process for preparation to learn better. High school education teaches us the value of lab work and writing along with learning theory.

Applying what is learnt gives immense satisfaction. High school and college education seem to take us so far successfully.

Every new hire wishes the transition from the ideas discovered on trends to reality is smooth and that one's own boss/ or organization provides the environment and enable the transition. However, many of the lessons learnt with education and training become questionable in the hidden "real" world.

The most disturbing trends to watch for are the changes happening with leaders and organizations. The interests and fit of the new hire is not properly tracked and the employee-organization relationships are not mutually valued.

Confusion results in turmoil when leaders are not clear themselves about trends. If leaders themselves resort to short cuts instead of taking responsibility for themselves and their organization, the effect on the new entrants can be fear, turmoil about their place in the organization.

Many questions arise during preparation for change. This seems to be the most accepted part of transitioning.


Points to ponder:

How can leaders lessen the new entrants confusion on trends?

What can an organization do to capitalize on the opportunities with new trends without affecting their people negatively?

Who is responsible to avoid confusion - leaders, new hires themselves, education, training system, organizations?


Some inspiring examples where ideas took shape to reality:

Ideas Worth Spreading

Never mind Textbooks


Breaking the barriers with sound

Fitting in an organization

This is the soul game between the employer and the employee. It is about contributing to the employer organization's values. It is also about adjusting to the environment, eating, drinking and living the stuff.

For a new employee there is a "freshman period" and requires a fitting in process in order to be more effective to the organization. The process must be able to support and enable conditions necessary with utmost clarity. Training for the new employee what ever be the level will be necessary to make the process smoother.

Andrew McAfee author of Enterprise 2.0 presents a case study of how the problem of new hire effectiveness was addressed in VistaPrint at the management level. They questioned themselves on what is necessary for a new hire from time to time and the questions produced several topics. They found that wiki technology was suitable for "organizing and capturing" such knowledge. The company's engineers contributed to the content McAfee notes that the process of understanding the problem at hand and not forcing a design for the layout resulted in the above solution.

Questions:

Comment on how the new hire effectiveness is addressed at your workplace?

Describe a day of the new hire at your company? How does it change in a week, month and three months?

Openness

A lot can be interpreted on the word "Openness" at the work place. Doors seem open but one cannot really enter. Eyes, ears and the mouth don't seem to exhibit their nature of work at work!

One gets exposed to several unique people at work. Work place provides learning experience that cannot be obtained elsewhere.

There is an inherent confidence and authority that one's position gives the person at work place. This also places a "mask" and turns issues that need attention as areas that can be deliberately overlooked.

Harvard Professor Amy Edmondson, in her lecture titled "Can Complex Organizations Learn" discusses this topic in detail and uses the term "psychological safety" which people resort to at work place where no questions are asked, no problems get solved and no feedback is taken and addressed and everything appears simple.

Several of Professor Amy Edmondson's articles can be found for further reading at the site for Harvard Business School Working Knowledge.

People will not be able to develop a healthy outlook towards their organization in such a work atmosphere. They slowly tend to attend to themselves and their own well being rather than develop the broader outlook towards their organization.

What is better - self centered employees or those employees who can risk their own self interest and work towards the greater good of their organization with openness?

How can organizations truly adopt openness and transform for the better?

Do Web 2.0 technologies help build the confidence and trust among employees to embrace openness?

Work Experience

Many students and aspiring professionals I come across express concerns about work experience.
Most of the learning we experience at the work place is also due to our interacting and imagineering with knowledge sources (including people). What one claims as one's own experience is quite limited compared to the vast experience one assimilates and gathers belonging to the community of knowledge sources.

There are a number of knowledge resources such as books, industry magazines and periodicals, blogs, wikis and several social media tools, open source products and communities to learn from and experiment with. Tapping into these resources and using them to the best of one's capacity can be a very rewarding experience.

Viewing the cases from magazines such as cio.com, eweek.com, baseline.com, computerworld.com as stories of the industry, building upon the stories and resolving their problems as if they are one's own is one of the best ways of learning and gaining experience.

Understanding work and organization

Many aspiring IS professionals juggle with fixed routines as well as creative problem solving and decision making to some extent at work. Most of them would like to achieve efficiency and expertise in ther profession.

Training on the critical techniques that are helpful, the mind set required for differentiating and balancing the left and right brain activities with the right mix of joy that is derived out of one's own accomplishment is quite rare to find in organizations. Higher education also tends to neglect this aspect expecting that the general studies curriculums cover these areas to the fullest.

The fuzzy and complex problems usually have no predetermined structure to follow as with the routine and repeatitive problems. In organizations - structured as well as unstructured, it is mostly left to the individuals to figure out to handle themselves while at work solving complex problem areas.

The activities for creative problem solving require time, focus and the discipline for experimenting. The definition of failure is not related to hindering progress in this context. Activities that require new ways of thinking and solving problems to come up with something new also require organizational support in different and innovative ways.

Many of the related topics useful for individuals and aspiring professionals to understand better about themselves and their work and organizations are discussed in two books that I came across by Daniel Pink.
They are "A whole new mind" and "Drive". Daniel Pink attempts to bring in higher awareness and provides clues about the mind set, techniques and tools for turning what is deemed as mundane job into spirited work that can be achieved and cherished whatever be the type of work.

Both are business books with evidence of organizations, individuals and leaders attempting to address the most fundamental issues of every aspiring professional's quest to work better and contribute to his/ her organization.

Managing Scope

The purpose of defining scope either for projects or for any other issue in an organization is to provide means to control and manage the issue at hand.

Scope control/ management is not only important for software development or project management but also for several work related issues at the organization level.

Many times software engineers land in dilemmas of limiting or expanding the features they are handling. Project schedules, management concerns and peer related reviews pose dilemmas about which route to take. At such cross roads, the best action is to document such issues and follow up at a designated time.

If the organization and management have processes that allow room for failures, limitations and have procedures for follow up, that is a blessing. If not, documenting for future follow up is the best option.

Scope management is a required skill for any professional in the software industry. It requires support and commitment at the organization and management level. The individual/ professional must be willing to face obstacles along the way to follow up and resolve pending issues.

Leadership roles in a global setting

It is quite common for everyone to admire a favorite actor/ actress. I have nothing to criticize on this aspect. In fact, I admire people who strive to have role models and play dream roles at work. A mundane job at hand becomes work when people have ideals and dreams. So the debate is certainly not on the efforts of the leader to play his/ her role.

What is hilarious is when a senior executive secretly seems to play his favorite actor's role at the meeting table in his/her office setting with a mix of fellow team members from different parts of the globe.

Imagine the show - it is a cinema with local flavors being watched by a global audience with an amateur director at the center! Some of the audience are quite familiar with the gimmicks/ gestures while others have no clue as to why the leader talks/acts a certain way. The audience are quite confused and wonder if their actions have caused this display!

Many leaders in the global setting of the IS profession believe they are in the knowledge industry and don't pay much attention to their tone and mannerisms.

Points to ponder:

How can a leader translate his/ her gestures from a local setting to a global setting?

How about the leader paying some attention to his/ her own gestures.

Any training/ expectations in this context?

Team Work

I believe that in addition to individual skills and traits of team members, organizational politics, culture as well as evaluation processes define team work.

Things fall apart while working in teams when leaders and seniors focus more on competing for recognition, lack adequate knowledge to work and lead in the given setting for long periods of time, lack trust and judgment about themselves and their teams. Junior members struggle with incompetent seniors and with peer evaluation when peers play to the tunes of organizational politics.

Organizations reflect people's culture and processes they follow to achieve results and keep track of progress. I use culture as a broad term to hint at the personality, behavior and etiquette followed by professionals including behind closed doors.

Most successes and failures of teams can be attributed to qualitative skills such as collaboration, trust and judgement among the members and their organization. These qualities are intangible assets for an organization and are hard to measure. Knowledge and experience of members of teams also fall in a similar category. These aspects are the most difficult to recognize, measure and understand at various stages of work by the IS professional teams.

A project leader/ manager who can relate to these aspects will be able to lead and join his/ her teams in enabling a smooth journey towards effectiveness, progress and achievement. This requires a willingness to learn new approaches to team work, practice proven techniques and tools in order to reduce the pains and perils of working in teams.

Several materials and tools can help build and retain effective and performing teams. All it requires is the urge to learn, improve and put oneself to work for work's sake and to give his/ her best to the teams.

Some references along these lines are given below.

References:

1. Title: How far is too far? Lessons for business from ultra-high-performing military teams
Author(s):James D. Eggensperger
Journal:Team Performance Management, Year:2004, Volume 10; Issue:3/4, Page:53-59

2. Title: Global virtual teams: what impacts their design and performance?
Author(s):Krishna Prasad, K.B. Akhilesh
Journal:Team Performance Management, Year:2002, Issue:5/6, Page:102-112

3. When Teams Work Best
6,000 Team Members and Leaders Tell What It Takes to Succeed
By: LaFasto, Frank; Larson, Carl. Business Book Review Library, 2002, Vol. 19 Issue 9, p1-8, 8p.

4. Hot Spots: Why Some Teams, Workplaces, and Organizations Buzz with Energy—and Others Don't.
By: Gratton, Lynda. Business Book Review Library, 2007, Vol. 24 Issue 26, p1-13, 12p;

5. The Power of Minds at Work.
By: Albrecht, Karl. Business Book Review Library, 2002, Vol. 19 Issue 33, p1-9, 9p;

Concentration and Attention

Some of the daily work demands concentration and there is always much to attend to for the IS professional.

I will expand on this with a couple of examples keeping a software engineer in view.

The software engineer is working towards developing a module that resolves the inefficiencies of a current business activity (let us say, processing a loan application). Let us assume that this module is part of an information system being developed for the future. He / she designs the interfaces and functionality meeting several requirements for the module. It is part of the day to day activity of the engineer to "concentrate" and pour in one's capabilities/ faculties to achieve the development of the software module in focus.

As a fellow team member/ employee of the organization, the engineer has to "attend to" the team members' questions/ requests or oblige the commitments towards the organization. This is part of the daily activity too. It requires attending to the needs of customers, listening to the suggestions of fellow colleagues. Many times, what is started is put aside.

Points to ponder:

Any tips from senior professionals regarding balancing the need for concentration / attention? How would one fit the contradicting roles in a day's work schedule?

There is plenty of literature on work / life balance. How about some information on balancing work itself. For example, how do we get down to work soon after a meeting where everything else other than "your work" is discussed.

How does one's education help in being able to manage the host of activities that judge one's "fit" in the organization?

Does knowledge about the human brain's role towards handling multiple, complex and contradicting activities help ?

Reference:
1. Quote from Jiddu Krishnamurthi's teachings on Awareness
"Attention is a state of mind in which there is no contradiction"

IS Professional - Code of conduct

What is the code of conduct among professionals when reporting, giving feedback evaluating performance?

I have seen and heard confusion, raised voices, satire and glimpses of mistrust, laughing at failures even in simple settings and scenarios such as weekly reporting or a meeting among the professionals. This type of behavior is found in both structured and unstructured as well as mid to large scale organizations.  It prevails across cultures, geographical regions and people of all levels of experience.

This is probably where the soul and culture of an organization sets the measure and standard. Openness in communication does not mean crossing the limits and boundaries of professional communication. Every employee of an organization cannot afford to delegate and leave things for his group to handle everything from resolving issues to ensuring code of conduct and behaviors.

Setting the tone, culture, behaviors among professionals can go a long way in determining the success of an organization. It is the responsibility of the senior leaders of an organization to pay attention to the core values they believe in and ensure code of conduct among professionals in their organizations. It is critical for a growing organization to pay attention to these details.

Almost every organization emphasizes and sets goals, drives its employees for results. The process to get to destinations, to reach milestones is a struggle that the employee undergoes either alone or as a group that he/ she can place trust in.

A little morale booster on a regular basis can certainly help!



Questions:

What kind of boosters help the employee keep up with the turmoil during the process of reaching goals and achieving results?

Is it the sole responsibility of the employee to keep up his/ her enthusiasm that prevailed on the first day of work?

Is attention paid to the code of conduct among professionals when reporting, giving feedback evaluating performance?

How do trend setters, leaders enable refinement of style and behavior in an organization?

References:

1. 10 reasons to design a better corporate culture
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5917.html

2. http://about.zappos.com/jobs/why-work-zappos/our-ten-core-values

IS professional at work

How many of us echo within ourselves “one step at a time” during our daily work?
One step at a time could be a powerful way for achieving results.
What exactly is the step? Answer to this can be approached with the following question.

Where is the employee's center of gravity? Where does it match the firm's needs? Building on just that important step is probably the key to achieving equilibrium. The rest can be taken care of with lower priority, later in the day/ week.

One can draw something like a co-ordinate axes / spline chart and have several points/ lines (solid, light, bright, broken lines) for each of the areas one is juggling with interdependencies to start with. Soon it can be found the cluster of true activity is happening more at one place and the other areas slowly fade away. They will eventually not take up one's time. He/ she will soon get rid /delegate them. True, effective work evolves from understanding this "one step". One can drive and not get driven with practice and patience.

Team work, outsourcing have added to the complexities of working for all levels in an organization. The value proposition of these approaches is enormous. However, many practical problems exist. If efforts are not taken up to resolve the day to day problems that arise due to people and processes, employees will be struggling to accomplish anything substantial and innovative.

Reference: The idea of spline chart and center of gravity is from CK Prahlad's “The New Age of Innovation” book.

Points to ponder:
Can strong, committed leaders be able to address these complexities by working with their employees at an individual level?
Does this mean that the employee wins consistently with the one step at a time “mantra”?
What could be the formula for winning/ achieving at work?
Can work inherently be meaningful and a game to play?
How is work/ life balance achieved?
Is "work" different from "job"?