Avert your eyes, something big is about to happen

Why do people who know one another, who work with one another, actively avoid eye contact, and what are the consequences of this?

One of the organisations that I work in has a long narrow corridor linking buildings. There are roughly 1500 people working there and, although I only work part-time, I reckon that I would recognise at least 2/3rd of them in context. The corridor is a main thoroughfare and it's almost impossible to walk along it without passing several people. Ever since I started working there I have noticed how people pass one another without making eye-contact. It's hard to describe but there is a palpable aversion to doing so. So what is going on?

Eye contact is a well recognised form of non-verbal communication which is known to have a huge impact on our social behaviour. It is quite well studied and we know that it has strong cultural significance. (Indeed, there are significant variations in patterns of eye contact across species!) We know that it begins to be effective in both directions from the age of three months.

In Europe, Australia and North America, eye contact plays a major role in establishing the emotional state of the other person, and we use it to convey our emotional state to the other person. Often, this is contextual. For example, extending the length of time that we hold someone in eye contact, can indicate challenge to authority, aggression generally, affection, and sexual interest all depending on the context.

Several studies have shown that eye contact has a strong positive impact on the retention and recall of information and on the efficiency of learning. That said, when asked questions, children who maintain eye contact with the interviewer give FEWER correct answers than those who look away once the question is asked.

There has been some interesting work performed lately in the area of eye aversion. No one was born eye averting. Eye aversion is not an uncontrollable movement of the body. It is a voluntary action programmed and conditioned unconsciously, provoked by a combination of cognitions (limiting thoughts) and limiting beliefs about the other person's reaction.

Most psychologists now believe that it is an acquired behaviour, often associated with feelings of guilt and shame, that stem from the negative responses to the individual from authority figures and peers when they were young. As adults, the aversion is an unconscious attempt to protect the individual from the reaction that they assume will come from the other person.

So what is going on in the organisation that I described?

Of course, we shall probably never know, because we're unlikely to conduct experiments there. However, we might hazard a hypothesis or two. A large proportion of the people in the organisation are scientists or technologists and highly skilled ones at that. It has been observed before that it is an organisation that is particularly low on EQ (emotional intelligence) and certainly there are a number of people who experience some discomfort in social interactions. I wonder whether these folks began to be stigmatised, alienated or bullied at school (and perhas even at home) for their apparent intellectual prowess and acquired the eye aversion behaviour as a way of avoiding this kind of response? The organisational consequences could be profound. One example would be the degree to which 'silos' form and how few people get to share and experience life in other parts of the organisation. Another is a general propensity to avoid change.

What could we do about this? For some time we have been offering a range of personal development programmes with attendance on a voluntary basis conducted by myself - a psychotherapist. I wonder if we should be considering ways of incorporating more of this material in mainstream leadership and management development programmes? Perhaps too, should we be incorporating far more psychological input into company-wide change processes? Another aspect would be to promote cross-functional relationships - perhaps, in this case, through technical seminars and other events?

In my experience, too many companies can be aware of a problem of this kind and yet lack the imagination or preparedness to do something tangible to address it. Perhaps this short article will stimulate a little more action.

Best wishes

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Helping people achieve things they never dreamt they could
t 07785 222380 | grahamwilson.org - inter-faith.net - thefutureofwork.org

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It ain't what you do, nor is it necessarily how you do it...

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When you are trying to convey your business proposition to a potential customer or referrer, it often helps not to tell them what you do or how you do it. Instead focus on what differentiates you - what your brand is all about. Even if you are a micro-business, you should have invested both intellectual and emotional energy in establishing what that is, and it is this that any prospect needs to know in order to distinguish between you and the competition.

Sy Oliver and, subsequently, Bananarama, used to say it ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it. It's a useful way of remembering the difference between task focus and process focus. When I worked in consultancy we used to use this as an important distinction between ourselves and the competitors. There were two firms in particular that we often used to find ourselves pitching alongside. They both emphasised their technical credentials - one was a Professor and made much of his long list of publications and another was a hands-on engineer who emphasised his wide range of practical experience. Yet, we would often find ourselves engaged to support the management team and asked to 'oversee' the work that these guys were doing on the 'shopfloor'. They really didn't understand this and would often throw their toys out of the pram before we could get started leaving us with the whole assignment after all. The point we made when presenting (for which we usually used practical exercises rather than Powerpoint), was that unless the people at all levels had emotional buy-in then the project was doomed, so we focused on the emotional stuff. Our 'brand' was about emotion and we tried to draw on it in all we did..

The other day I was at a networking event and watched two guys give their 'elevator' pitch. They were in the same industry, doing roughly (as far as I could tell) the same thing and yet one commanded LOTS of attention and the other didn't. One spent his time trying to tell us what it was he did and why it worked. The other devoted his time to telling us what was going on in their industry, how exciting this was, and how it was changing the way in which the internet worked, and in turn how it was affecting our businesses - even those with the most basic of internet presences. He spoke clearly and a little animatedly, but with enthusiasm rather than anger, and I was certainly left with the impression that it didn't matter that I knew nothing of what he actually did for his customers, but that he was going to be someone who would know what to do to help me and that he would continue to do so even in the face of change. His brand is his enthusiasm and his depth of knowledge of the future of his industry - that's someone I want around!

He left me with a few nuggets of how I could improve my own internet presence and I hope to start work on these later today, but above all he left me wondering how I present my own pitch and how I should change the emphasis myself. I have the elevator statement, "I get a real kick out of helping people achieve things they never dreamt they could." But I need to rethink how I follow that up, and instead of listing the ways in which I do so, spend more time focusing on my passion for it and why it is so important to them.

Best wishes

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Helping people achieve things they never dreamt they could
t 07785 222380 | grahamwilson.org - inter-faith.net - thefutureofwork.org

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Create a new window into your organisation

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Over the years I have written about quite a few organisations. Roughly half of these have been exceptional performers - ones that I feel should be heralded as exemplars to the rest of us. The other half have also been exemplars, but ones that I hope (no, make that desperately hope) none of us will emulate.

When you run a business you tend to focus on delivering something and certainly don't spend too long basking in the glory of knowing that you do it well or reflecting gloomily on your inability. Instead, you just get on with it, and when someone comes along who is upset or angry with you, the natural tendency is either to listen intently and take it all to heart, or to dismiss them as cranks, depending usually on your own state of mind.

I rarely come across organisations that can deal well with upset or angry customers. It seems to me that these customers, who are reduced to tears by your performance, deserve your concern and, in turn, you need to listen to them to find out whether their experience is unique or systemic. Not doing so, should be the recipe for a short-lived enterprise. Sadly, there are many more factors at play and there are organisations around who have successfully ripped off their customers year-in, year-out. Nevertheless, I keep on trying to point out the error of their ways in the hope that one day they'll be prepared to listen.

While some upset customers may simply be angry souls with no-one else to vent their feelings towards (and no-one helping them find its source), they nontheless provide a window into your organisation that it helps to look through from time-to-time.

Talking of windows on the organisation, many both in the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors these days, try to gather information about their customers' experiences of them. It's comparatively easy to set up surveys online or to employ call centres in far flung parts of the world to call and collect the numbers. But numbers have their limitations. If I was working in a supermarket, at an online insurance brokers, in a garage, or a coffee-shop, knowing that 79.1% of customers rated their experience on their last visit as 'expected or better than expected', it wouldn't really give me a warm glow of satisfaction!

Instead, I want to urge you to think of doing something radical - create your own window onto the organisation. I'd like to suggest that YOU (yes YOU the boss) go out and meet a handful of your customers. Be brave - go for a dozen. I'd like to suggest that you take a laptop and a webcam and point it at them when you talk to them. Find out what they like about the experience of working with your organisation. What they think of the people who serve them. Whether there have been any particularly positive encounters and what the story was behind it. Sure you can ask them for the disasters too, but it's the positives I'd like you to capture.

Then go back to the office and get someone to upload the highlights of those conversations to the company intranet. Not in some obscure place, but right there bang in the middle of the front of the intranet home page. And let your folks hear for themselves what GOOD looks like to your customers.

Now here's the rub... Once you have done this, I'm going to ask you to ask your direct reports (yes, that does mean those six digit salary Directors) to do exactly the same.

Of course, I realise that you don't often actually have to deal with customers yourself, but make a change for a day. Give it a go. You might be surprised at what you learn and you'll certainly improve the morale and motivation of your staff. And motivated staff perform better for no extra money!

Oh, and one other suggestion. Visit the customers in their own homes or offices. Don't send for them to come to you.

Enjoy. And do let me know how you get on!

Best wishes

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Helping people achieve things they never dreamt they could
t 07785 222380 | grahamwilson.org - inter-faith.net - thefutureofwork.org

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The Brain Machine interface

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As some of you will know, I have a particular interest in the future of human/machine interaction. Not from an ergonomics perspective, but from the idea that eventually, our thoughts, our feelings and our sense of connection with others will influence more overtly the world around us. I won't go into the spiritual aspects of this right now, but a fascinating piece of work was published this week (Nature Physics, DOI: 10.1038/nphys1099) that heralds this kind of future.

For all its sophistication and power, our brain is built from unreliable components – one neuron can successfully provoke a signal in another only 40% of the time. This lack of efficiency frustrates neuro-engineers trying to build networks of brain cells to interface with electronics or repair damaged nervous systems. Our brains combine neurons into heavily connected groups to unite their 40% reliability into a much more reliable whole. Now human engineers working with neurons in the lab have achieved the same trick: building reliable digital logic gates that perform like those inside electronics.

Built from scratch

Elisha Moses at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, and his students, Ofer Feinerman and Assaf Rotem, have developed a way to control the growth pattern of neurons to build reliable circuits that use neurons rather than wires.
The starting point is a glass plate coated with cell-repellent material. The desired circuit pattern is scratched into this coating and then coated with a cell-friendly adhesive. Unable to gain purchase on most of the plate, the cells are forced to grow in the scratched areas. The scratched paths are thin enough to force the neurons to grow along them in one direction only, forming straight wire-like connections around the circuit. Using this method the researchers built a device that acts like an AND logic gate, producing an output only when it receives two inputs.

Better together

The gate is made from a network of neurons in a square shape approximately 900 micrometres on a side. Three of the sides form a "horseshoe" 150-micrometres wide, and packed with neurons. On the fourth side an isolated neuron island is linked to the other sides by two thinner bridges (see image, top right). Neurons send their wire-like extensions that carry signals – axons – across those narrow bridges to the neuron island. When stimulated with a small dose of a drug, the neurons send signals around the circuit. An ion blocker is used in the centre of the horseshoe to electrically isolate one side from the other.

By changing the width of the bridges, the researchers are able to control how many axons link to the neuron island, and tune their device to behave like an AND gate. The neurons on the island only produce an output after receiving signals through BOTH of the thin bridges. Like a natural system, the device transcends the performance of individual neurons – achieving 95% reliability from a collection of 40% reliable components.

Brain interface

Rotem thinks that this provides a useful model for real brain function. "The existence of a threshold level for activation plays a central role in neuronal computation," he says. In his logic gates and real brains alike, many neurons contribute to generate a signal strong enough to excite another group of neurons, he says.

Charles Stevens at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, is not so sure, pointing out that real brain "circuits" do not resemble logic gates. However, achieving reliable performance from lab-grown neurons is still impressive, he adds; "There is a sort of fascination with neural networks grown in culture, and this paper improves on the usual random networks."

Rotem says that brain-cell logic circuits could serve as intermediaries between computers and the nervous system; "It's difficult to physically interface [neural prosthetics] with live neurons." Brain implants can allow the paralysed to control robot arms or learn to talk again, but suffer a drop-off in performance when scar tissue coats their electrodes. "An intermediate layer of in vitro neurons interfacing between man and machine could be advantageous."

Best wishes

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Helping people achieve things they never dreamt they could
t 07785 222380 | grahamwilson.org - inter-faith.net - thefutureofwork.org

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Insights on business from American Express

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Exceptional companies are based on four basic pillars - obsession with customers, empowerment of employees, inspirational leadership and extraordinary levels of innovation. American Express have recently been focusing on their customer service activities and have produced a smattering of videos on the subject, but they highlight how these things all overlap. You might find them interesting:

The leadership balance
Why we need to look harder at our promotional messages
The value (or otherwise) of social networking to business
The importance of DECENCY

Best wishes

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Helping people achieve things they never dreamt they could
t 07785 222380 |grahamwilson.org - inter-faith.net - thefutureofwork.org

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Balfour Beatty, serious fraud and a culture of deception

This morning's news is that the construction company Balfour Beatty has been fined £2.25 million through the Serious Fraud Office's (SFO) new powers to recover property obtained by unlawful conduct.

After investigating internally, Balfour Beatty reported itself to the SFO. It seems that a subsidiary body had carried out unlawful conduct after agreeing a contract with an Egyptian company seven years ago. The subsequent SFO investigation found no evidence of financial benefit made by any individual employee and established that most of the people involved had left the firm some time ago.

It seems that the documents prepared in connection with the contract were inaccurate and a number of payment irregularities were discovered. The company reported the matter to the SFO and under the terms of a consent order before the High Court agreed to a settlement payment of £2.25 million along with a contribution towards the costs of the proceedings.

Far more important, in many ways, is what has been done to prevent the same thing happening again. Essentially, the firm undertook to tighten compliance systems and to conform to external monitoring.

The SFO praised Balfour Beatty's transparent and responsible approach in self-reporting the issue and said it was satisfied the current management had demonstrated its desire to address necessary issues. In a press statement this morning, a company spokesperson said; "Balfour Beatty's policy is that all of its business should be conducted ethically and the highest standards of integrity are explicitly required from all of its businesses and employees."

Now, this is all very well, but I have serious doubts as to the effectiveness of these measures, and simply saying that the current management wants to address the issues doesn't reassure us that it has done so, or that whatever it does will be effective. Essentially, a group of people, involved in this major contract, colluded with one another to benefit the company (but importantly not themselves). People do not usually put themselves at risk without a personal incentive. If it is not directly financial or material then it usually revolves around a perceived threat to their ongoing employment. In such cases, either an isolated bully is involved or the culture of the organisation encourages this kind of thinking.

This case had gone for several years (perhaps five or more) before it was investigated and reported. Even if there had been tighter compliance systems, they only ensure compliance to a system, they do nothing to prevent the behaviour in the first place.

If payment irregularities had happened that will be prevented in the future by 'external monitoring', then surely the same external financial controls are in place today as were in place five years ago? So how are they going to be more effective now?

I'm sorry, but this sounds far more like a need for a serious reexamination of the firm's culture, the relationship between the leadership team and the culture, and some fairly incisive action to inculcate a far more open, honest, and trust-based one.

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GRAHAM WILSON
London + Oxford - 07785 222380
Helping People Achieve Things They Never Dreamt Were Possible
grahamwilson.org - inter-faith.net - thefutureofwork.org

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Leaders, Governance and the Chaplain

At the 9th World Congress on Corporate Governance, held at the Royal Overseas League in London last week, I was responsible for chairing a session on Social Capital. Asked by the organisers to introduce myself, it seemed a good idea to spell out why I was there as job titles, and lists of accomplishments say very little about our approach or interests. So why does a Workplace Chaplain have an interest in Corporate Governance?

"My name is Graham Wilson. Originally a behavioural scientist and subsequently trained as a psychotherapist, I am one of a team of part-time Chaplains to the leadership team at one of the largest defence and technology companies which is responsible for a substantial proportion of the primary research that goes on in the defence and security sector worldwide. We develop much of the technology used by soldiers, sailors, aircrews, spies and counter-terrorism agencies around the world, as well as an increasing proportion of quite extraordinary spin-offs in all kinds of different areas.

It doesn't take a PhD in rocket science (and we have quite a few of those) to appreciate the ethical dilemmas that daily face the defence industry, and the opportunities for corruption in its commercial dealings. Lord Wolff, in his study of the business practices of one of our competitors, demonstrated clearly the governance problems that face ALL organisations, but especially those in this sector.

Contrary to what company law would have us believe, businesses are NOT corrupt - they cannot themselves BE corrupt. It is usually one person (or at most two) within the business that is unable to control their own impulses when they see an exceptional opportunity. And, let's face it, we recruit leaders in organisations precisely because of their ability to seize opportunities.

Around these "mis-leaders" they have, through their inspiring leadership, created a small cohort of people who will comply with them - suspending their personal judgment of what is right and what is wrong. The more this has happened, the harder it is for anyone to put forward the voice of reason when something inappropriate is about to happen.

Most of us have dual standards as to what is right and what is wrong. One standard applies to what happens to ourselves and the other to what happens to society in general. For example, if someone parks outside our house we may get agitated and take it as a personal afront and yet we ourselves might easily pull up in our car where we shouldn't.

Mis-leadership in organisations tends to happen when these two standards become widely different. In this case, the mis-leader believes that they are right, indeed HAVE a right, to take risks whereas the rest of the world shouldn't do so to anywhere near the same degree.

Few of the business leaders who have been found to be mis-leading their organisations are obligate law-breakers - indeed many have strong personal moral codes which they confuse with those of society - sometimes even taking a moral high ground that the rest of society would consider extreme. This is particularly obvious when they take personally, something that someone has done with no intention of harming them, perhaps not even knowing they were involved.

As a chaplain, my job is to build a close working relationship with a handful of leaders in my organisation, providing them with a sounding board for their ideas, plans, strategies and tactics. Encouraging, even cajolling, them to consider the emotional, spiritual, ethical and humane issues that underlie their intentions. Although this is an unusual remit, it is not without precedent. Many military leaders, since 1914, have told in their memoirs how they were pleased to engage with the Chaplain who brought just this kind of kit-bag of interests. Even in the world of fiction, if that is what Star Trek was, the captain of the Enterprise had a personal leadership mentor in the character of Counsellor Deanne Troi.

No solution is perfect, and obviously my own organisation complies with all the basic governance standards expected of a multinational business (especially in our sector). Our role as Chaplains though is about the development of leadership talent, promoting a model of authenticity, openness and transparency, however as a consequence we act as a safeguard against that potential maverick mis-leader.

Hence I have an interest in corporate governance, from a people perspective, that is a long-way removed from tick lists, auditing, compliance and structured responses to questions from the procurement department of our customers.

Thank you."

Customer Contempt 3 : BT Broadband (British Telecom)

The action taken by BT last week demonstrates their complete antipathy towards customers. The 'anti-spam' move has meant thousands of customers who use POP3/SMTP to send email through BT, instead receive an 0x800CCC78 error. It perfectly qualifies them to be the next entry in my occasional series on organisations that show contempt for their customers...

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Sometime last week, probably on Thursday or Friday, without any warning, BT Broadband decided to change its policy with regard to the sending of POP3 or SMTP emails via the BT ISP servers. The result was that anyone using this approach received an 0x800CCC78, otherwise referred to as a 553, error when they tried to send email messages. They were still able to receive messages and their access to the internet was unaffected.

So who uses POP3/SMTP email? Well, over the years the number has grown phenomenally. Essentially, anyone who uses a transportable, personal or organisation-specific email address is probably using this approach. If you have your own domain name (my own is @grahamwilson.org, for example), if you use a free email and webhosting facility for a charity or sports club (a popular one is @freeuk.com), or you access work email from home, then you are one of these people. There are hundreds of thousands of us. You may not even realise it, but if you use Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express or any other 'email client' then they use this approach.

The downside is that POP3 is vulnerable to hijacking by the Spam fraternity. Though most ISPs have effective tools for screening much of this out. The upside to users is that these email addresses can be given out to anyone, used in advertising literature and so on, and don't need to be changed when you change your Broadband provider or the club changes its secretary etc. With the massive expansion of people working from home they are, of course, essential to the smooth running of many businesses.

As far as BT is concerned, of course, they are also a threat! A transportable email address is one less incentive to remain with any particular ISP. So, it is in BTs interest to make sure its customers don't use them, but instead use the ridiculously meaningless email address that was created for them when they opened their account with BT (typically something like theandersonfamily@btinternet.com or 242neasdenroadwapping@btconnect.com). Then, if people decide to leave BT, for whatever reason, though price and offshore call centres apparently are the commonest ones, they have to let all their friends, family, registered websites, banks etc know of the change - a major upheaval, which something like Plaxo (www.plaxo.com) can ease but is still a nightmare to achieve.

So, BT initiated a new step that everyone wishing to use one of these email addresses has to go through. Basically, you have to log on to your "BT Yahoo!" account (if you didn't realise you had one, join the club), then complete a tedious process to register each additional email address, be sent an email to it, copy a 'verification code' from this incoming email to a special page on the BT system and then you can send emails this way. For more details have a look at the blog by Phil Gyford (http://www.gyford.com/phil/writing/2008/03/22/beware_of_the_le.php).

Incidentally, did you know that BT has a complete infrastructure to handle disenfranchised customers? Apparently known as the "revenue protection" team, they are the people you get forwarded to if you call to request a MAC code to allow another ISP to take over your Broadband connection. A common reason for people to demand this code is that they have got thoroughly fed-up with the BT "offshore" (in other words, Indian) call centres. A technical problem persists with their BT access and they decide to go to another ISP to get better service. Personally, I am off tomorrow! It is only two months before the end of my contract term, and although I suspect I could pursue a court case for their breach of contract, it simply isn't worth the effort, and for the £35 or so remaining I'd rather accept the loss and go somewhere better. Of course, you're left with a decision as to which is the least worst of these alternative providers. In my case I'm going to give Fast a try.

Best wishes

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GRAHAM WILSON
London + Oxford - 07785 222380
Helping People Achieve Things They Never Dreamt Were Possible
grahamwilson.org & inter-faith.net

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Incentive and Reward - why organisation-wide schemes often fail

It's important to be clear about the behaviours that you are seeking to reinforce, the diversity of people and their tendency to find jobs that suit their personality, and to ensure that complex and conflicting desirable behaviours are suitably reinforced.

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Someone recently asked for assistance in designing an incentive scheme. Over the years, I've been involved in establishing quite a few, especially related to performance improvement, changes in culture (including the attitudes and behaviours that people demonstrate at work) and yet I often feel myself cringe when I learn of the schemes that some organisations put into place. Why is it so difficult to find a solution that works? Well, here are a few of the complexities...

Some types of people, who gravitate into certain types of role, are more responsive to certain types of incentive scheme. Organisation wide schemes therefore need to take this into account whereas schemes concerned with one area (eg Sales, Operations, or HR) each need to be tailored to the psyche of the individuals and their likely personal circumstances. (This is one reason for the popularity of "currency" schemes in the last few years.) For instance, sales people generally measure their self-worth in financial terms - that's why they are often driven [sorry!] to have better cars and more prestigious accoutrements. Operations professionals may get enormous satisfaction out of the buzz of day-to-day problem solving and love the thrill of tackling challenges, some of them seek similar excitement in their free-time, while others look for opportunities to enjoy the luxury of relaxation. HR staff often entered the profession because they wanted to see their fellow human beings treated fairly at work (sadly, today they quickly discover that this is not the role of HR, but that's another issue) and so they respond well to personal recognition and individual attention.

It is important to reward the right behaviours. A scheme for senior managers might reward demonstrable leadership skills, whereas one for front-line workers might reward team behaviour (IF they work in a team) or speed of processing (if they work independently). Most groups have a variety of behaviours that you are specifically trying to incentivise and so the scheme needs to reflect this overall.

However, there are some behaviours that you do NOT want to incentivise - not just because they are negative (eg bullying) but because they should be a part of "the way we do things around here" and therefore non-negotiable (for instance, taking the initiative in problem-solving).

Controversially, I admit, but I would argue that most productivity related bonuses fall into this category - we expect people to do their best and to pace their work to deliver the most performance in a given time. (This could be the only thing my management philosophy has in common with that of Alan Sugar.) This is non-negotiable and failure to do it might be considered a reason for management intervention (ie investigation or discipline) but doing it should not be incentivised.

Most schemes though have to compromise, as there are usually conflicting priorities in most jobs - this is why decision making is an important skill for managers or for people who are self-managing. Again, it's important for the scheme to reflect this underlying skill rather than (one or other of) the individual behaviours. The classic blunder of such schemes is to incentivise the sales force for sales value (period), where their efforts can easily cause untold problems in operations and ultimately lead to dissatisfied customers.

I hope this provides food for thought, as they say. To begin with, why don't you spend a few minutes reflecting on what would incentivise you to do something different with your time TODAY? That might give you an insight into the complexity of such schemes.

Best wishes

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GRAHAM WILSON
London + Oxford - 07785 222380
Helping People Achieve Things They Never Dreamt Were Possible
grahamwilson.org & inter-faith.net

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The ethics of false or grandiose claims in advertising...

I just followed a link on ecademy.com to a forum for business referrals. On it an individual has made an offer to provide a free video brochure for anyone who passes two business contacts who sign up for his video production service.

So far, so good. In the rubric of the posting he makes it clear that:

To date I have been working in the Defence sectors, but am now moving into local markets.

Unfortunately at the moment {the company} is just me and I am really stretched for time, what I am after is your business contacts for an introduction and for me to telephone and send video brochures, then follow up.

This is great. It is open and honest and, in my view, presents a very credible approach to the market.

However, when you follow the link to his corporate website (which is, incidentally, superbly produced and has clearly had a great deal invested in it), you find that it is uses "We" rather than "I", he introduces himself as the "Managing Director", and, most seriously, claims to have experience from Defence to Legal and "just about everything in between".

Now, last week, Virgin Atlantic were penalised by the Advertising Standards Authority for the inaccuracy of some of their claims for their Premier class - seats were only really bigger on 2/3rds of the fleet, dedicated cabin crew were seen serving passengers in other classes, and so on. They were found to have breached CAP Code clause 7.1 (Truthfulness).

To my way of thinking (which I fully accept is only my own), I can't help wondering whether the behaviour of the video producer is any more morally acceptable than that of Virgin Atlantic. It seems to me that, were there a body for internet ads to be referred to for adjudication, then a similar verdict would be passed.

And yet, how do start-ups promote themselves in an accurate way without grandiosity or false claims to experience that they aspire to but have yet to achieve? Some sectors seem to me to be highly aspirational in the claims that are made, while others stick very much to the facts and don't attempt to distort things. Is this a reflection of the character of those who run them or of the sectors involved?

So, let's all take a look at OUR advertising and ask ourselves whether our claims (implicit or explicit) are accurate or aspirational, grandiose or grounded.

Best wishes

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GRAHAM WILSON
London + Oxford - 07785 222380
Helping People Achieve Things They Never Dreamt Were Possible
grahamwilson.org & inter-faith.net

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Corporate Prosperity and Posterity

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Step back for a moment and ask yourself which companies YOU hold in high esteem?

The Forbes list of the World’s Most Respected Companies - based on CEOs' feedback – is a measure of their reputation among the wider business community. Forbes also publish a list of companies most respected by the investment community – an assessment of their long-term financial reputation. The annual “Great Places to Work” surveys rank companies according to how popular they are with their employees – one of few publicly available benchmarks of “employee engagement”. Membership of the lists varies and some are published globally whereas others are geographically restricted. Nevertheless there are some striking consistencies.

Companies regularly featuring at or near the top of all three lists, include the following (the date in brackets is the year they were founded):

IKEA (1943)

Samsung (1936)

PWC (1849)

Ferrero (1946)

Tesco (1919)

GE (1870)

Kraft Foods (1903)

Tata (1868)

Microsoft (1975)

Lego (1932)

Caterpillar (1925)

Coca-Cola (1886)

Mars (1911)

Since the work of Bob Waterman in the 1980s, it has been recognised that the short-, medium- and long-term performance of businesses is directly correlated with the degree of engagement of the employees, and that this in turn is directly related to the behaviour of the leaders within them. The shares of organisations high in engagement outperform the rest two- to three-times. With the exception of Microsoft, you will see that they also tend to have a far greater longevity. Companies low in engagement tend to last a few years and are then consumed or cease to trade.

What does ‘engagement’ mean? It means that employees trust the people they work for, have pride in what they do, and enjoy the people they work with, and central to this is the idea of trust.

So how, as leaders, do we build trust?

There appear to be five components to TRUST:

Credibility - Established through open and accessible communication, and carrying out the Vision with integrity and consistency.

Respect - Involving people in relevant decisions, supporting their professional and personal development and taking pride and an interest in the outcome.

Fairness - A balanced approach to reward and recognition, that is seen as fair and equitable by both those who do well and those who do less well.

Pride - An open, and two-way, interest in the work of individuals, their particular work area, and the organisation as a whole.

Camaraderie - A sense of ‘family’ and ‘team’ demonstrated in the day-to-day relationships among people.

Whether you run a multi-national corporation, a small or medium enterprise with a handful of employees or volunteers, some other organisation, or are self-employed yet somehow dependent on a loose association of suppliers and colaborators, it is worth giving a little time to consider how you build trust among the group of people on whom you depend and so ensure your own PROSPERITY and POSTERITY!

Best wishes

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GRAHAM WILSON
London + Oxford - 07785 222380
Helping People Achieve Things They Never Dreamt Were Possible
grahamwilson.org & inter-faith.net

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Priorities for business initiatives in 2008

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Have you given any thought to your priorities for business initiatives this year? Nowadays many companies have a multi-strand approach to business initiatives. Gone are the days of single major implementations. So, what are your priorities?

Information Security Management will be the most important initiative affecting IT strategy, investment and implementation in business organizations over the next 12-18 months, according to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' 19th Annual Top Technology Initiatives survey.

IT Governance moved up the list from sixth to second place this year, reflecting the market's renewed emphasis on corporate governance and responsibility.

"We believe this year's list is reflective of our environment, with the top four technology initiatives relating to strategies that safeguard an organization's assets and ensure its well being," said Barry Melancon, President and CEO of the AICPA.
"This survey enables CPAs to stay up-to-date on the latest technology initiatives to advise their clients, customers and employers on the strategies they should consider undertaking,".

The AICPA poll was conducted in late 2007 with ISACA, the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) and the Information Technology Alliance (ITA). Respondents identified the top 10 most important technology initiatives for 2008 as follows:

1. Information Security Management
2. IT Governance
3. Business Continuity Management and Disaster Recovery Planning
4. Privacy Management
5. Business Process Improvement, Workflow, and Process Exceptions Alerts
6. Identity and Access Management
7. Conforming to Assurance and Compliance Standards
8. Business Intelligence
9. Mobile and Remote Computing
10. Document, Forms, Content and Knowledge Management

"Recent studies show that investors are willing to pay a premium of up to 20 percent more for shares of enterprises with reputations for good IT governance practices; properly governed IT is critical to an organization's success," said Lynn Lawton, International President of ISACA.

Business process improvement was number five on this year's list, reflecting the significant focus placed on internal controls to reduce error and fraud by both public and private companies. "Clearly, business process and workflow documentation has increased in importance within organizations today," said Heriot Prentice, Director of Standards and Guidance for the IIA.

Mobile and remote computing was also cited as a priority. "Organizations are realizing substantial gains in efficiency and worker productivity through the extended office hours and increased flexibility that mobile and remote computing solutions bring," said Ron Eagle, ITA President.

Best wishes

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GRAHAM WILSON
London + Oxford - 07785 222380
Helping Organisations & People Achieve Things They Never Dreamt Were Possible
grahamwilson.org; inter-faith.net

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Keeping to your resolutions

It's that time of year again where folks traditionally relect and set themselves some goals or resolutions for the forthcoming year. It's also the time when most go by the wayside! So I thought I'd pass on some practical material which I hope will help you make sound resolutions and keep to them.

My own half a dozen tips...

To begin with, last year, I was asked to come up with half a dozen pointers for an in-house magazine. Here they are again:

Describe the resolution in terms of WHAT you will DO rather than the end-result. For example, I'm going to eat smaller portions, have a better quality lunch, and walk three tube stops towards home each evening, are much more likely to succeed than "I'm going to lose weight".

Commit your resolution to paper. Then put the paper somewhere that you can't help but see it! But be thoughtful - if you shower in the morning a note there will help you remember things for the day. Similarly a bit of tape stuck on the lid of a lunch-box might be right for lunchtime resolutions. If it's evening activities then leave a note for yourself on the doormat!

Share your resolutions with a real friend. It is always easier to achieve something if someone else is helping us. A real friend will gently keep us on track and be supportive when things slip a little.

Enlist an expert. If one of your resolutions calls for expertise, don't be afraid to ask for it. Experts can sometimes see quick ways to achieve things that you'd never guess for yourself. Whether it's a major change of career, wanting to get a more responsible role, a thorough re-shaping of your finances, putting a less-than-satisfactory childhood behind you, moving to a new home, a whole new fitness regime - check out the expertise that's available.

Set your sights high! Many people set resolutions that are relatively easy to achieve and yet don't do so because they are equally easy to put off to another day, and another day, and another... Instead be outrageous - set yourself an almost unbelievable task, you will surprise how far you can get.

The Science of Persuasion

If this wasn't enough, then you might like to have a look at this excellent article that appeared on the BBC News a day or so ago. It's based on the science of persuasion and has some useful material for anyone in business too:

Made a resolution? Here's how to stick to it

And, finally, if it's inspiration that you're lacking, try this for size...

It was sent to me yesterday by Bay Jordan, who's recently launched a novel accounting method that puts REAL value on the people in an organisation. It is a short video which I hope will make you think BIG!

212 - The Extra Degree

If anyone would like a little help with theirs, deciding what to commit to, making sure they stick, or understanding why they don't, do get in touch!

Have A Great 2008,
Best wishes

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GRAHAM WILSON
London + Oxford - 07785 222380
Helping People Achieve Things They Never Dreamt Were Possible
grahamwilson.org & inter-faith.net

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The role of the Chaplain at a Marriott Hotel

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There's a raft of confusion about the role and work of chaplains in 'corporate' settings. In reality, while there are some common threads, every situation is different. The North Texas Star Telegram newspaper this weekend, carried an article about the work of Baptist minister, Roland Barlowe, as workplace chaplain to the Courtyard Marriott hotel in Tampa FL.

While his role and approach are different from my own at QinetiQ, I think you'll find the article an interesting read especially if you've not come across this kind of work before.

Best wishes

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GRAHAM WILSON
London + Oxford - 07785 222380
Helping Organisations & People Achieve Things They Never Dreamt Were Possible
grahamwilson.org; inter-faith.net

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Hillary Clinton urged to model herself on Margaret Thatcher

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I've written before about the confusion of male and female personality stereotypes and how they don't necessarily help us to understand emotional intelligence. While no-one would dispute that there are harder, analytical aspects to personality and there are softer, more intuititive ones, assigning them to male and female personalities is not very helpful.

The distinction was felt strongly by Carl Jung, who proposed the words anima and animus to be used with these characteristics. In his school of analytical psychology, anima and animus refer to:

1. The unconscious or true inner self of an individual, as opposed to the persona, or outer aspect of the personality.

2. The feminine inner personality, as present in the unconscious of the male, is anima. It is in contrast to the animus, which represents masculine characteristics in the female. It can be identified as all of the unconscious feminine psychological qualities that a male possesses.

Speaking of male emotional growth, Jung said that confronting one's shadow self is an "apprentice-piece", while confronting one's anima is the masterpiece. To males, he saw the anima process as being one of the sources of creative ability.

The reverse could easily be applied too. In terms of female emotional growth, it might be argued that the masterpiece involves confronting one's animus and as a result being more independent minded, less socially subjugated, more internally aware of what she believes and feels, and more capable of expressing these beliefs and feelings.

Interestingly, in Italian and Spanish, anima is most closely translated as "soul", while in Latin , animus and anima may both be translated as "soul" or "mind", depending on context.

These distinctions have been a source of inspiration to psychologists for a hundred years. However, this significant distancing from male and female stereotyping, and the more profound aspect of self-growth, hasn't reached the US electoral lobbyists yet. As America gears itself up to an election from which their first-ever female president could emerge, her critics and advisers alike are urging her to adopt more feminine character traits. Fairly typical of this advice is this piece, written by Roxanne Rivera, that appeared in one of the US media columns a day or so ago:

"Acting like a lady will take you far. Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was known as a "lady" even while she met the challenges of her office head on. And being a lady didn't mean backing down from a fight. (One Soviet newspaper of the time even called her "Iron Lady.") Believing in yourself and in your inner strengths will set you apart as a lady. A lady knows and keeps her boundaries, has infinite grace under pressure, and takes care of herself. A lady never ridicules or bashes other women or men. A lady makes people feel at ease in her presence.

"I think these are rules to live by for any woman and especially for the one running for president," says Rivera. "Those aspects that define a lady are what will set Hillary apart from her competition. Jacqueline Ingrassia, the first female to win the Triple Crown, said of her career in the male-dominated world of horse racing, 'It has been a delicate balance of standing up for one's rights while maintaining dignity and class.' Those two things-dignity and class-are what can take Hillary to the top."

I'm not sure that I would agree that these characteristics are necessarily all enviable in world leaders nor, for that matter, would I suggest that Hillary Clinton should model herself on Margaret Thatcher!

Best wishes

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GRAHAM WILSON
London + Oxford - 07785 222380
Helping Organisations & People Achieve Things They Never Dreamt Were Possible
grahamwilson.org; inter-faith.net

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Investment Analysts need Emotional Intelligence (EQ)

According to Jonathan Clements, of the Wall Street Journal, writing in this Saturday's Kansas City Star, stock market professionals need to develop their EQ if they are going to be effective in their work.

He cites a study in the journal Psychological Science, in June 2005, which found that people with impaired emotional responses made more-sensible financial decisions. These individuals, who had brain lesions that limited their emotional reactions, were more willing to take gambles in which the potential payoff easily outweighed the potential loss. People with normal emotional reactions get discouraged when they lose and so stop gambling.

Similarly, investors with a strong emotional reaction to market swings often buy and sell at the wrong time and may trade more, thus building up substantial trading costs.

But, emotions can also help, because they provide the motivation to focus on our finances, plan for retirement, save diligently, and avoid excessive risk. While intense emotions can make us more engaged in what we are doing, we also need to understand what's going on with our feelings, and then limit the impact. It is this need to pinpoint our emotions and manage our responses accordingly, that leads Clements to the conclusion that EQ needs to be honed among the investment set.

John Ameriks, an investment analyst, speculates that it is the greater EQ associated with women that makes them less likely to be involved in the investment field. For example, in a market decline, women may be less likely to act rashly, because they have a better appreciation of why they are uncomfortable with their investments.

Are you in the investment business or were you? Does this make sense? Are you an HR professional in the investment sectors? How do you go about developing EQ among your staff?

Best wishes

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GRAHAM WILSON
London + Oxford - 07785 222380
Helping Organisations & People Achieve Things They Never Dreamt Were Possible
grahamwilson.org; inter-faith.net

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Emotional Intelligence (EQ) - is it a teenage thing?

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There's an interesting article in today's "Kauai Garden Island News". They've been running a series of columns where adults try to answer questions posed by the Hawaiian island's youths. The question today followed up an earlier article in which it was said; "...that humans have physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual bodies." the reply has been prepared by Annaleah Atkinson, the manager of the 'teen' court on one of the islands. It's a really nicely written article with plenty of down-to-earth information and advice for anyone baffled by other peoples' behaviour and emotional state.

One thing that she said though made me stop for a moment: "Adolescence is the time it takes for a child to become an adult emotionally and mentally. A 16-year-old may have reached his/her full growth, look like an adult and be able to reproduce, but may still not be able to understand what they or others are feeling. In some families, emotions aren't talked about. Hopefully, these children will be able to learn about their feelings from their friends' families, teachers or counselors. Feelings are natural."

She seems to be saying that children get to put the emotional parts of the jigsaw into place as a part of their adolescent phase. She is also implying that people with low EQ come from families where emotions aren't talked about. And finally, that an adolescent who is struggling in this way, may be put on the right track through interventions by friends' families, teachers and counsellors.

I'm not entirely sure that I agree and I wonder what you think?

Firstly, I know it is an extreme state but children are diagnosed with Asperger's (which she mentions elsewhere in the article) as young as 5 years of age. If this was an adolescent thing, why would we make the diagnosis at that early stage?

Secondly, I've come across folks with low EQ from at least two different home scenarios. One of these is where there is little emotional contact among the family. This doesn't mean emotions aren't talked about, the parents assume tha the child is as precocious in its emotional development as it will be intellectually. There is therefore little immediate opportunity for the child therefore to test out their feelings and their interpretation of them in 'real time'. Simple examples are the "latch-key" children of working professional couples. The parents expect the child to be mature beyond their age, reward academic and past-time achievements, but are not immediately there when the children need help validating their emotions. These children become isolated, retreat from friendships, and find it hard to relate to others. Their emotional radar may be highly developed but they find it hard to know how to respond to other people.

The other scenario is where the emotional contact is distorted - for example, a single parent treating the child as if they were an adult and trying to engage them in satisfying the parent's emotional needs before the child is equipped to do so.

It seems to me that the linking concept is that the children in both cases are expected to have developed emotionally far earlier than is reasonable, rather than the lack of dialogue per se.

If this is the case, then it seems a little unlikely to me that such programming will be restructured and a different set of pathways created by a few interventions by friends' families, teachers and counsellors. So far, my experience has been that it takes many iterative sessions with a psychotherapist before such adults, as they have usually become by then, can begin to reshape their thinking and behaviour by drawing on a repertoire of emotional states and the symptoms they use to detect them by.

Have you had different experiences? Have you been defined as low EQ? If so, does any of this make sense or have you a different view? Are you a professional in the field? What do you believe about the origins of low EQ and its effective treatment?

Best wishes

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GRAHAM WILSON
London + Oxford - 07785 222380
Helping Organisations & People Achieve Things They Never Dreamt Were Possible
grahamwilson.org; inter-faith.net

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Mayor's Office receives accolades for Six Sigma efforts

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Hot on the heals of the announcement, yesterday, that Ken Livinstone's equivalent in Erie NY, was appointing a Director of Six Sigma, we hear the results of the improvement efforts of Mayor Graham Richard in the Fort Wayne (IN) Journal Gazette. He retires next week after eight years in office and did not stand again for election. It seems he will be a tough act to follow. Colleagues from both sides of the political scene have been complimenting him for his efforts, which range from the major (he negotiated a major improvement project for the sewage system and other utilities) to the minor (a planting programme in civic sites). His proudest achievement is restoring public confidence in the Mayor's office, but it is perhaps the myriad of small scale initiatives that he will be remembered for - apart from the planting programme, he dramatically reduced the time it took for roads to be repaired, tangibly improved the delivery of public safety through the police, and virtually eliminated council worker accidents.

How did he achieve all this? You've guessed! When he took office in 2000 he launched a Six Sigma programme that has lasted throughout and has delivered all these improvements as well as saving tax payers $2M this year alone.

He turns 61 on January 1st and hands over the reins to his successor, but he won't be retiring entirely from the scene as his first book "Performance Is the Best Politics: How to Create High-Performance Government Using Lean Six Sigma" will be appearing soon and he has a series of videos planned for public release via YouTube!

Back in London, perhaps Ken Livingstone will be ordering a copy of the best seller?

Best wishes

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GRAHAM WILSON
London + Oxford - 07785 222380
Helping Organisations & People Achieve Things They Never Dreamt Were Possible
grahamwilson.org; inter-faith.net

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Ken Livingstone appoints Director of Six Sigma

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Alright, I humbly apologise for that tacky attempt to get your attention, but get this...

According to the Buffalo Times, this morning, Erie County Executive-elect, Chris Collins, today named Alfred Hammonds Jr. as his director of Six Sigma, the efficiency discipline that Collins wants deployed through the county bureaucracy. Erie County is an administrative area within the Buffalo district of New York State. Erie has had some pretty difficult financial affairs of late, and as a result a state-appointed control board took over scrutiny and management of the county finances. It is hoped that Collins plans to implement Six Sigma and Performance Based Budgeting will persuade the State to relax its control over the County.

Now, Six Sigma aims to ensure that key quality criteria are properly designed, implemented, and under sufficient control as to achieve less than 3.4 defects per million opportunities. So, I wonder for which quality criteria the Director of Six Sigma for a county council would strive to achieve this tough standard?

Perhaps we could draw up a list and propose it to Ken Livingstone.

Best wishes

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GRAHAM WILSON
London + Oxford - 07785 222380
Helping Organisations & People Achieve Things They Never Dreamt Were Possible
grahamwilson.org; inter-faith.net

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Preaching the Human Sigma Gospel

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A few years ago, the BBC ran a series of programmes looking at the real world of customer experience. They used a concealed camera to record a journalist's encounter with a variety of staff in different organisations. You may remember the frustrated steward in the Virgin Atlantic "Upper Class" Lounge who got pretty fed up with having to keep on restoring the executive toy train set back on its rails, and the young girl, who aspired to be an air hostess, who was sent by the cabin crew to offer our journalist friend an aspirin mid-flight! At least Richard Branson was candid enough to accept the issues and promised to do something about them (he went on to walk through economy and 'palm' a backpacker's watch off him (all in good spirit, of course)).

One of the other interesting examples was the pub chain (I seem to recall it was Whitbread but I could be wrong) who had developed an elaborate range of measures of the customer experience for punters going into their pubs. One that I remember was the time it took from entering the pub to getting eye contact and an acknowledgment from a member of staff. They had some pretty tough standards and the training to back it up.

Well, times move on, and these days many of our experiences as customers are online or, at least, on the phone. As we all know, many of these services have been outsourced to other countries where labour rates are lower. Even though I am well used to this phenomenon, I was taken a little by surprise the other morning when a call on my home phone turned out to be from an Indian gentleman speaking very poor English (obviously from a script) and asking for a range of information about my company. After several refusals until he told me why, he said that he was calling on behalf of Dun and Bradstreet verifying this information. Now I have no way of knowing whether this was true or not. I used to hold D&B in high regard, but this encounter has certainly dented their reputation as far as I am concerned. In just the same way as it is easy to build a presence on the internet, it is also very easy to damage your brand through cheapskate outsourcing.

But these online and phone based customer contacts are here to stay and it's time someone specifically addressed the impact on business of poor ones. So, the article in yesterday's Business Week, entitled "Preaching the Human Sigma Gospel" was fascinating.

John Fleming and Jim Asplund are the co-authors of Human Sigma: Managing the Employee-Customer Encounter. They believe that when it comes to the human experience - a company's employees and their relationships with customers - businesses have really lost the plot. Their view is that by moving the customer experience away from face-to-face, bricks-and-mortar channels and into call centres and Internet sites, companies have ripped the soul out of business. John and Jim contend that companies can put people back in business while simultaneously increasing value and profit provided that they do so swiftly and in a planned manner. They claim that by introducing a systematic approach to customer employee encounters, backed by clear and simple measurements, and a supportive improvement programme, companies are achieving growth rates of 26% in gross margin and 85% in sales value, above those of competitors who do not invest in such a programme. As they say, this isn't exactly Six Sigma, but it is informed by the same rationale and ethos.

So, what has your experience been? Do you know of any companies that have invested in these interfaces in recent years? If so, what kinds of improvement did they achieve?

Best wishes

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GRAHAM WILSON
London + Oxford - 07785 222380
Helping Organisations & People Achieve Things They Never Dreamt Were Possible
grahamwilson.org; inter-faith.net

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