Category Archives: relationships

How to Piss Off Your Internet Customers

Posted on January 23, 2012 | 6 Comments

I don’t like to use my blog as a soapbox for complaining. I like to use it as a soapbox instead. But recently I got perturbed by a company’s shoddy website design, which made me feel like they really just didn’t care to have me as a customer.

Please view this as an exercise in how _not_ to treat your customers. The actions applicable to your company are left as an exercise for the reader, but this at least:

Make sure your organization’s feedback mechanisms are actually working. Yours are? Really? Prove it.*

Update: I have a call with Martin, a customer service rep from Indigo, scheduled for this afternoon. They’ve done at least one thing right: monitoring the social media for signs that things aren’t going well. Good catch. I’ll let you know how it goes. 

Update #2: Just finished my call with Martin, a pleasant CSR who walked through all my issues with me and documented them for his Vice President. After my initial experience I have to say I’m impressed. They were on top of things right away, and even if the website is a little kludgy, they’ve won me back. I’ll try again. Thank-you.

“Dear Unnamed Traditional Bookstore Trying to Claw Back Market Share From Amazon,

Why are you making it so hard to use your website? There’s no reason for it and it just makes you look stupid, as if you don’t want customers, or both.

1) When hitting the feedback button, and I’m ALREADY SIGNED IN, why do I have to fill in my name and e-mail address again? You already know who I am.
<Yes, I realize I’m shouting. there’s no reason for bad interface design. This is bad design at it’s worst: punishing the user for your lack of forethought. Ever heard of a “use case“? They’ve been around for a while.>

2) My original challenge was to add an existing reward card to my account. In this regard the help is less than helpful. Telling me that I can do it, but not telling me how or providing a simple link to the appropriate form is just malicious. Hunting around the “My Account” pages (which also has dead links, by the way) hasn’t endeared me to your company either. Maybe it’s there, but I can’t find it. MAKE THINGS EASY FOR YOUR CUSTOMERS PLEASE!

3) I received an e-mail from you because of my in-store rewards card. The e-mail led me to a website that encouraged me to create an account, which I did. I now have two reward card numbers? Really? Isn’t that just confusing for your customers and a headache for your staff? Isn’t the cost of administering two numbers for one customer driving up your cost and reducing your responsiveness?

4) When I finally hit the submit button I expect my feedback will actually submit. Instead it gets stuck in limbo and never actually reaches your company servers. That’s time and effort I’m never going to get back.

I came to the website looking for an e-reader, ut if you can’t run a simple retail website why should I trust you with my money? Retail e-commerce is not that easy, but it’s not like you’re inventing the wheel here, is it? It’s been done before.

I was sceptical that I wanted an e-reader to begin with. Some of my clients and peers told me I should really try it out. I like books. I like the feel, the weight, the fact that I can write in the margins and turn down the pages. That I can go back years later and re-read my favourites, lend them to friends, or even pass them down to my children.

You think I’m kidding? My wife has a cabinet with glass doors dedicated to her grandmother’s leather bound books. That grandmother was one of the first women to graduate from McGill University at the turn of the last century with a degree in literature. We don’t have a family room downstairs. We have a library with room for a TV and a sofa.

I’ll stick to my real-life books for now**, and you’ve lost a revenue stream.

In summary:

1) Stop wasting my time (like identifying myself more than once, looking for simple functionality that doesn’t exist, submitting feedback that doesn’t get to you)

2) Stop doing things more than once (like issuing more than one loyalty number to a customer)

3) If you want feedback, please make sure the mechanism for submitting that feedback works so you can identify and fix issues.

Kindest Regards
Bernie May

* This post started with me actually filling in the feedback form on the Indigo / Chapters / Coles “Plum Rewards” website. When I hit the submit button it didn’t actually go anywhere. That’s when my calm became damaged.

** Just in case you think me a Luddite, I begin my professional life as a programmer. Most of my hesitation about getting an e-reader centre around Digital Rights Management, which have real-world impacts.

→ 6 Comments

Posted in customer relations, listening, relationships, selling

Tagged , ,

Creative versus Planner: How to Get Along

Posted on December 12, 2011 | Leave a comment

I’ve been accused of being “pie are squared”, a little too much of a colour-inside-the-lines kind of guy. Which is fine. If I’m trying to get something done I set my goal, set out the steps, and start ticking things off my to-do list. That doesn’t mean that I always succeed, but I enjoy the process of steadily making progress towards my goal, and the anticipation of completion.

Which is why I couldn’t figure out why how entrepreneurs were just as successful with their approach. It seemed to me that they couldn’t make up their mind, didn’t know were they were going, and changed course at random. Their approach was puzzling to me until I realized they just go through life in rapid-prototype mode.

They start with were they are, figure out what they have, and try to put it together in strange and interesting ways to see what happens. If something useful comes out of it, so much the better. If not, they’ll quickly drop it and go onto the next thing. They’re the creative types.

So if you’re a planner working with a creative type, remember that they don’t think in terms of process, but in terms of what if. For you this means you have to figure out what you (collectively) are trying to accomplish in the long term, which will give you a context for figuring out where the hell that latest idea came from and what it means to you. It also means that you need to check in with the current environment often, to make sure the plans haven’t changed. Sometimes this means waiting a day or two to see if the latest idea stuck, but also be ready to move quickly on it.

For you creative types working with us planners, please remember you’re working on a team now. If you could do it all yourself you wouldn’t need to hire other people. Let them know where you’re going, and try to cross the finish line with all of your people together. There’s no point finishing the race if the rest of the company is still in the parking lot tying on their running shoes. And remember: all those good ideas mean nothing if you can’t make them reality.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in emotional intelligence, engagement, relationships, self-awareness, teamwork

Tagged ,

What Does Your Reality Look Like?

Posted on November 14, 2011 | Leave a comment

“You can ask me for anything you like, except time.” – Napoleon

I was having a beer with a former Scout of mine last night at a local brew pub. He works as a pyro-technician full-time and he’s been running his own little business for the last ten years. As a kid he was fascinated with fire, and had set up a forge in his backyard when he was sixteen so that he could make swords. You can imagine what his mother had to say about that.

Currently he owns and runs his own storefront selling swords, armour, and chain-mail to the medieval re-creationist market. His store, Dark Age Creations, is doing  well and he’s plowing all the profits back into the business.

Turns out he’s a good salesman and understands how to make money. He has no problem calling others when they don’t do what they said they were going to do, and he surrounds himself with people who support what he’s doing. In five years he wants to sit back and collect dividend cheques while the store runs itself. Not a bad plan really. Better than many I’ve heard.

Pay Attention to the Numbers

Problem is he needs an accountant, but he hasn’t done anything about it. He doesn’t even know what his tax liability is going to be at the end of the year! I pointed out the irony (between holding others accountable and not himself), gave him a figurative smack upside his head, and told him to get straightened out now.  It was like being back in the days when he wasn’t taller than me.

He’s been lucky so far, but no business can base its success on the hope of an unbroken string of charm and good luck. Even when we’re doing what we love and living our passion the tax-man and the landlord are always ready to step in when they think they’re not going to get theirs. It only takes one “bad quarter” to put you out of business.

Sense of Urgency

So I told him the story of one of my former clients that allowed their CFO six months to report on the year-end. They were unable or unwilling to do what was necessary to get things moving. When the year-end was finally ready, they had lost half a million dollars on the year – on $15M of revenue. Not something that a company that size can easily swallow.

It was a big lesson for me – all the vision, people and customer focus in the world is useless if you’re not on top of the cash. Yes, you need a higher purpose – other than just making money -  to inspire and motivate. One that engages your clients, employees, and shareholders. All the enduring, profitable companies have one. That’s not going to make you feel better when you’re emptying your desk because your company’s gone bust.

Face Reality Quickly and Constantly

I lost that client, but I learned a valuable lesson that day. Face reality, and face it quickly. Business has enough uncertainty and risk without ignoring what is right in front of us. We can’t control everything, but we’d better be paying attention to what we can control.

Put another way, as I said it to him: “Pay attention to the freaking numbers. Don’t be those other guys who didn’t know they’d lost half a million dollars.”

Relentlessly face race reality. Be skeptical. Don’t take hand-waving or indefinite answers. Have the difficult conversations when you need to, and while you’re holding others accountable, hold yourself accountable too.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in communications, delegation, engagement, mentoring, relationships, values

Tagged ,

How Your Body Language Is Hurting You

Posted on October 24, 2011 | Leave a comment

Imagine the following unfolding in a boardroom: the CEO is holding his head in his hands, both palms covering his entire face. The person reporting to him is leaning back in his chair, ankle on knee, hands behind his back. The subordinate seems to be totally oblivious to the CEO. Even without hearing the words being spoken, what conclusions can you draw from this scenario?

My perception of the message was: “To hell with all of you. I didn’t meet the commitments I made. I don’t care, and there’s nothing you’re going to do about it.” Without intending to, and totally undermining his own credibility and long-standing relationships.

Was this his intended message? Probably not. He works in a high-stress, highly volatile, deadline driven world. He’s good at what he does. I assume he wants to see the company succeed and grow. So why the subtle but loud message that contradicts this?

Bottom Line:

1. Watch your own body language. Especially when you’re under the gun.

2. You get paid for results, not effort. When reporting, give the results first and the story second.

When you’re reporting to your boss, you’ve either delivered what you promised, or you haven’t. If you haven’t and you start be describing all the effort (not the result) you’re not fooling anybody. If you have and you start with the story, you’re giving the (false) impression that you’re making excuses.

Further Reading:

Body Language Basics for Dates and Job Interviews

How Science Can Teach You to Spot a Liar

How To Build Relationships Without Talking

 

→ Leave a comment

Posted in behaviour, communications, conflict, emotional intelligence, engagement, influencing, listening, relationships, self-awareness

Tagged

Building Relationships in Meetings

Posted on September 26, 2011 | 1 Comment

Here’s a quick but powerful tip for building relationships, even while you’re sitting in meetings all day:

Pay attention to the person who’s talking.

Sit up, shut up (your electronics), turn your chair and actually face them. Make eye contact. Not the stalker kind of eye-contact, but enough so they know you’re paying attention to them.

Don’t believe it’s that simple? Next time you’re in a meeting, take a look around at who’s paying attention or not. Not just turning their head, but actually turning their entire body and facing the speaker. Now compare that to somebody who’s merely turning their head. While this is better than not paying attention at all, just turning your head gives off the  body language “I’m better than you” message.

Try it and see what difference it makes in the follow-up relationships you have with the people you meet with regularly.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in behaviour, communications, engagement, influencing, relationships, self-awareness

Tagged ,

How to Get the Credit You Deserve

Posted on June 20, 2011 | 1 Comment

A couple of weeks ago I got an  e-mail from a former co-worker asking what shy employees could do to get the credit they deserve for the work they do. The past couple of weeks I’ve talked about

Which is all great, but shy people are shy. Which means marching into your bosses office with a year’s worth of accomplishments isn’t really in the cards. Not that I would suggest that you do that anyway.

Manage the Relationship

Relationships are funny things. They don’t just happen. At least, not usually. Some people seem to be able to walk into a crowded room of strangers and come out with a dozen new friends. They’re lots of fun to be around, for sure, but at least half of the world is not like that.

So what does this half of the world do? For us, relationships are a matter of trust built over time. The more time we spend with somebody, the more we trust them, the stronger the relationship.

Ideally you shouldn’t have to manage your relationship with your boss  by yourself. You and she would be managing your relationship together. By which I mean you would be getting half-an-hour of face-time with them, one-on-one, every week. If that’s already happening for you, that’s fantastic. Stop reading here.

If not, and the thought of asking your boss for a half-hour commitment once a week scare the bejesus out of you, then start smaller. Take that summary you’re getting from your weekly plan/do/review exercise, and e-mail it to her.

Write a Weekly E-mail

It doesn’t have to, and really shouldn’t be, a long detailed e-mail. Just enough detail that you can recall what you were talking about a year from now. Hit the highlights:

  • what did you get done last week, and
  • what are you going to focus on this week.

End of story. If you have more than a three or four sentence paragraph consider editing it down.

First and most important, it ensures you are working on the right thing. No point in putting in all that effort if your boss needs you to be working on something else. And didn’t realize you weren’t working on it. Imagine that going on for weeks or even months and then them finding out you weren’t working on what they thought you were . . . Oh, you don’t have to imagine it? Oh dear.

Secondly, it keeps you top of mind with your boss and all the things you’ve accomplished in the last year. Especially when it comes time for that all important performance review and bonus and raise (or even, as I was discussing with a family friend this weekend, departmental budget discussions)

Third, it made it easier for your boss to write your performance review. All they need do is pull up all e-mails from you titled “Weekly Status Update” and start remember all the wonderful things you accomplished. With enough specifics and details to justify the high rating you now deserve.

When You Become the Boss

Ideally this conversation would be taking place face-to-face, one-on-one with just you and the boss every week. In half-an-hour or less  you’d cover a lot of ground. But most bosses are very hard to convince that giving up a half-hour slot for every direct report they have every week to do a status update and maybe even some coaching and mentoring. What they don’t realize is that this is a viable alternative to spending their time  running around with their hair on fire.

The hair-on-fire-dealing-with-the-latest-emergency-and-oh-my-god-I-have-500-e-mails-in-my-in-box happens in part because they don`t manage their employees. They think they do, but they don’t deal with setting priorities, reviewing work, assigning work, coaching, mentoring, and giving feedback in a one-on-one situation with each of their direct-reports every week, they`re not. If they did that, their hair wouldn’t be on fire in the first place.

So we’ll help them as best we can by keeping communications open.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in communications, continuous improvement, effeciency, effectiveness, engagement, feedback, influencing, mentoring, performance appraisal, performance review, productivity, relationships, self development, self improvement

Tagged , , ,

Manage Your Boss

Posted on June 6, 2011 | Leave a comment

Last week I promised that I would talk about managing your boss. I’ve written about this in the past, albeit in bits and pieces.

The first step, of course, is to actually do your job.

The second is to communicate to your boss on a regular basis, at least weekly. But first, an important message:

“Managing Upwards” is Stupid and Dangerous

In most cases most of the time your boss is your boss because they’re good at their job and they get things done. Acting like you think they need to be “managed” will only piss them off when they figure it out, and they will. This is a person who has control over your addiction to food, clothing, and shelter. Acting like you think they’re a moron that needs to be controlled is not a good strategy.

Besides, we can’t really control how other people behave. Trying to do so is futile and counter-productive.

What Can You Do?

We can deliver, we can manage the relationship between the boss and ourselves, and we can communicate.

Assuming that you’re competent at your work, whatever that might be, productivity shouldn’t be the issue. If it is, work on that first. Being somebody who delivers what they’re supposed to when they’re supposed to gives you credibility.

Without that credibility, whatever else you do to influence the relationship is just manipulative. In the worst sense of the word. Don’t think people don’t notice. They do.

Deliver The Right Thing

There’s no use climbing the corporate ladder (or getting through the daily grind) if your corporate ladder is against the wrong wall. You may be great at your area of expertise, or maybe you were hired because you certain skills and influence, but . . .

Being really good at your job and delivering the right work products are two different things. I’ve been guilty in the past of working on the things I enjoy doing. Which was fun for me. Not so much for some of my early bosses.

Some of them had the intestinal fortitude to give me the feedback I needed and set my feet upon the right path. The conversation wasn’t always pleasant at the time, but in hindsight I am grateful to them.

What Are Your Boss’s Priorities?

Bosses have priorities, trade-offs, and pressures too. Do you know what keeps your boss up at night? Do you know what company strategic priorities she’s responsible for delivering on? Do you know how what you’re doing supports what she’s trying to accomplish?

What are your company’s, division’s, department’s, and team’s priorities? If you don’t know, how will you find out? Does your organization have them? What is your boss trying to accomplish?

Whether you’re a machinist or a technical writer you probably have the skills, experience, and knowledge needed to perform your job. If you’re really good you’ll understand your part in what your company is trying to do and adjust your priorities and work to line up with what it’s doing.

Shouldn’t that be enough? Unfortunately, it isn’t.

Next Week

Communicating with your boss: do you know their preferred style?

→ Leave a comment

Posted in behaviour, influencing, productivity, relationships

Tagged ,

Who Are Your Best Employees?

Posted on May 30, 2011 | Leave a comment

I got an e-mail from a former colleague of mine, a wonderful if quiet lady who was instrumental in supporting a major bid I was the proposal manager on several years ago. She wrote to ask me some career questions:

Hi Bernie,

I have been reading your articles from your company pages on LinkedIn. Good articles by the way! I quite enjoyed them. I have a question that comes from your article on employees being treated “fairly”. By the way, I totally agree with the philosophy — each person has to be recognized for their contributions, or punished for messing up, in an appropriate manner. The “how” they are praised or punished has to be appropriate for each individual. What I still don’t see is how the person who harasses someone in an office gets the promotion while the person who was harassed got fired. I also wondered at how one person, who works hard all day and has excellent quality, doesn’t get recognized for their work while the person who is exceptional at politics (and doesn’t work all day, less output –with the same quality level) gets kudos for their work. Is this where the interpretation of “unfairness” comes in? This is also where the following question comes in.

Have you done any research on how managers might help people who are not outgoing, i.e., extroverts versus introverts? Another subject that comes to mind are those people who suffer from anxiety and panic disorders. They are so different in how they are (or not) able to interact that they must be handled differently also. How do managers help build up confidence in these people? This question comes to mind because I read some statistics the other day about how 4-5 people out of 10 have physical disabilities whereas 7-8 out of 10 have mental (anxiety/panic, bipolar/schizophrenia and depression) disabilities. This was quite a surprise to me and yet we still don’t address it or recognize it as being a major part of our society and how we function.

I feel managers have a major part in recognizing these employees and should have strategies to help them. After all, extroverts may be the ones to come up with all the ideas but it’s the introverts who are able to carry through and get the work done.

X.

She’s absolutely right. It is the job of managers to get the best out of the people working for them. Everybody has strengths and weaknesses. Managers get the best out of their staff by recognizing those strengths and weaknesses and adjusting the work-load, training, and coaching to get that best.

The Effect of Poor Promotion Decisions

I see this often in my current consulting work. People have been promoted as a reward for doing good, or because they are good at convincing their boss they’ve done good. You might say their strength is managing the relationship.

This isn’t always what’s best for the company. Especially when the newly minted manager doesn’t realize that their rôle and the skills required have fundamentally shifted. At best they are only mildly effective.

At worst, they are actively holding back the company, wasting time and resources, demoralizing others, and blocking advancement to more deserving employees. Plus the job they used to do so well is being left un-done or done poorly.

Let me say this as clearly as I can: Managers Manage People.

Managers Manage People

They don’t manage departments, or projects, or work product, scope, quality, schedule, or cost. They manage people, and everything else is managed by proxy through those people. Once you’ve gone beyond the level of individual contributor, the tools and techniques will fundamentally change. You now lead the collaboration.

Collaboration, team-work, relationship building- they’re all especially important in intellectual, knowledge-based, and innovative workplaces. It’s only going to get more collaborative as the Chinese and other formerly third-world economies come on line. Everything eventually becomes commoditized and sub-contracted.

One of my clients is currently in India talking to his drafting department. Don’t think he isn’t trying to figure out other ways to reduce his costs, work internationally, and grow his business. They have a low-bid Chinese competitor working on the building next to theirs spurring him on every day. The Chinese product’s installation may suck right now, but their people will get better at it.

Once you’ve gone beyond the level of turning a wrench, running the cash register, or writing that report, you’re effectiveness depends on “using” your people most effectively.

Let the Facts Speak For Themselves

Recognize and develop the people that actually do the work, based on facts and measures. Don’t get suckered into favoring the ones that have the skill to build a relationship with you. You will lose credibility.

I’m not saying that staff shouldn’t have the ability to build relationships. Certainly it’s a strength and a skill. I’m saying they shouldn’t be promoted based solely on the strength of their relationship with you.

As managers we shouldn’t have to judge the people that work for us. The facts, presented fairly, will do that for us. That’s why properly performed performance reviews are not just an annual event. They’re a process. One that you need to pay attention to every day.

Managing Your Relationship With Your Boss

My first response to Lady X (sounds mysterious doesn’t it?) was:

. . . . there’s a podcast I’d like to recommend to you called “Career Tools”. It can be found at http://www.manager-tools.com/podcasts/career-tools , and also on iTunes if you listen to podcast on your iPod or other technology. Of particular interest to you I think would be the “Professional Updates” episode: http://www.manager-tools.com/2008/11/boss-one-on-ones-professional-updates .

I’ll be writing more next week about how employees can help themselves, and about dealing with different behaviors and personalities most effectively.

In the meantime consider this:

How Should We Judge Managers?

Imagine you’re a manager. The CEO has decided your promotion and bonuses are now based on the fit and performance of the people you hired in the past. In other words, every year you will be evaluated by how well the people you hired into your company are doing, whether they still work for you directly or not.

You’re being evaluated on how well you pick and develop talent. How would that change how you whom you hire and how you lead them?

→ Leave a comment

Posted in coaching, coaching, developing staff, engagement, influencing, leadership, mentoring, productivity, promotion, relationships, selecting talent, teamwork

Tagged , , , ,

To Touch or Not To Touch

Posted on May 15, 2011 | Leave a comment

I recently got an e-mail from a former co-worker and current friend, who asked:

Do you think managers should be more ‘touchy-feely’? Here is a pretty interesting collection of studies, summaries that have looked at the power of non-sexual touch.

http://bit.ly/hBIOME

Gord

Hi Gord,

I’ve done a little experiment since you sent this link to me. I’ve reached out and touched some of my clients at the end of our sessions – usually a full open palm on the back, shoulder, or arm. It’s had mixed results. Some seem to welcome the touch. They know that we’re connecting and supporting each other. Others seem to tolerate it, or wonder what I’m up to. I’m not a touchy-feely guy by nature, so my first advice would be:

It Depends

Some people will welcome it and need it. It’s reassuring for them. For others it’s threatening and unwelcome. Likewise unconsciously pulling away from somebody with whom you’re trying to build a relationship, and who reaches out to you, is counter-productive. So my second piece of advice would be:

Watch Carefully

Watch carefully how they react and watch carefully how you react. It comes back to being mindful of what’s happening around you. For those of us who are task/doing oriented versus people oriented this is a conscious effort.

I’m not saying you should start working the room and back-slapping it that’s not your nature (or stop if it is). It might be as simple as not making a face when somebody shakes our hand for a little too long (or noticing when somebody is being uncomfortable with your too-long-for-them handshake).

If you’re more people oriented remember, not wanting to be touched doesn’t mean we don’t like you. Your enthusiastic approach to life is great, but there are some out there who might misinterpret your intentions.

Be Sincere

So if you’re trying to fake sincerity, and if you do you’re going to get busted, you’ll be harming the relationship. If somebody suspect on a subconscious level that you’re hamming it up just to influence them, even if that isn’t your intention, the trust you’re trying to gain will be lost instead. You’re better off keeping your hands to yourself (if that’s who you really are) than coming across as awkward and fake.

The opposite is also true – if you’re an outgoing person by nature, being stiff and formal will be odd, and people will notice. Like a tie that doesn’t match your suit. Better not to wear the tie than to try to fit in.

If you’re Bill Clinton or Tony Robbins, this advice doesn’t apply to you. Influences of that skill and depth have their own personal reality-distortion fields. If you’re not, don’t try and fake it.

In order to influence people, we have to make them feel comfortable and safe. So my last piece of advice is:

Pay Attention

Adjust your behaviour to your audience. Drucker said “Communication is what the listener does.” In this case it means learning to adjust our style on a moment-by-moment basis to the people we’re with and the situation we’re in. Nothing tells somebody we care as much as paying attention to them. There are no cookie-cutter solutions when it comes to people. You want to influence them? Pay attention.


→ Leave a comment

Posted in behaviour, body language, communications, conflict, emotional intelligence, engagement, focus, listening, relationships, teamwork

Tagged , , , , , ,

Working in Small Teams

Posted on April 24, 2011 | 1 Comment

What is the right size for your team? Is your organization too flat and the team too big? Can your company become too big?

Vladimir Lenin once said

“Quantity has a quality all its own.”

He was talking about guns and tanks, of course, but it holds true for people too. Adding somebody to a team doesn’t just increment the complexity  and communication within that team by 1, it increases it by the size of the team plus one. For example, if there are two people working together, there is 1 path for communication. Three people, 3 paths (an increase of 2). Four people, 6 ways to communicate (and mis-communicate). Five people, 10 ways and so on.

One More Makes All the Difference

By adding one more person, pretty soon the number of relationships to keep track of becomes very crowded. One of the principle of Scouting laid down by it’s founder was “working in small groups”. He knew from his previous experience that both adults and youth work best in groups of about eight or so.

Years later research came up with the “seven plus or minus two rule“*, which tells us that our brains can hold about seven pieces of information, or deal with seven people (give or take) at the same time. More than that, and we start to lose track of what’s going on.

In Real Life

As a Scout leader I had the unique opportunity to observe the affect of adding or removing and individual Scout to or from a patrol. Just by changing one person the dynamic of the group changed entirely. An energetic, disruptive kid would make the patrol energetic too. Not always a bad thing mind you.

Now, in my work as a consultant I work with many executive teams that come in different sizes and configurations. I’ve noticed that when there are three or fewer people in the room the interaction, conversation, challenging ideas just don’t take off with any energy. At nine or more it starts to break down again. People don’t get heard, one or two people  dominate the conversation, there’s just too much going on to capture it all in a meaningful way. The ideal number of thinking, contributing, energetic people in a room has an upper and a lower limit.

Your Actions

Are your teams the “right” size for your organization? Are you trying to get too much done by stuffing as many people into the room as possible, and therefore slowing things down and falling into the trap of a false economy? Or are you trying to “keep people focused” by making your team too small, and then losing out by excluding people them instead of getting them engaged and switched on?

*Later research showed that short-term memory capacity is probably closer to four “chunks” rather than seven.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in communications, engagement, influencing, leadership, productivity, relationships

Tagged , , , , , , ,