Looking to connect.... not so much

I received an email once from a prospective employer wanting to see if I knew someone interested in a job that they were offering in a suburb far away from me. Now, this may seem like the new way of doing things, and a way to network, however, it does stump me quite a bit and leaves me perplexed. Looking at the copy of the email you can see that the Recruiter, in this case, was confident that this methodology is effective. When in reality, it deterred me from answering his email and passing it on to others.

As part of my studies with Emotional Intelligence, we are to assess the feelings of others and adapt our actions to bring forth an understanding between two parties. One thing on a personal and professional level that I do not do is to send “job offerings” to people I know because unemployment can be a sensitive topic one in which can cause distress and conflict. The “Drama for your mama” as many would say, opening one up to all types of issues that the Recruiter if doing their job properly would take the time to search for possible candidates instead of trying to refer that responsibility on others.

Plus, this raises the question if this recruiter “noticed” my skills and to use their words “great minds think alike” why even mention anyone else? Another question is if he wanted me to recruit a candidate for him, where is the detailed information regarding the position? And I do mean details, within the email, not a hyperlink. Details in which catch the reader’s attention, the possible candidate’s attention or the next person who is interested. Many organizations can learn from something like this when reaching up to probable candidates, details are key to gaining interest and receiving the action or actions that they want.

Everyone, every organization knows the first contact, the first impression is everything, this email does not need an Organizational Development Perspective to tell one that there was something “off” and that is why it did not hit its mark.

Classes done for now, and a lesson in Organizational Development

Finally got done with class for the semester I do not restart until wayyyyyy far into the future. This is due to scheduling irregularities and the fact my University placed my degree programs under a Business section (wing) disrupting all of my classes. This is great material for blogs into the future because I was not told that the “switch” would disrupt my program and it almost added another term to my degree plan!

Keeping all stakeholders informed regarding any Organizational changes and how it will affect them is fundamental in Organizational Development so it is kind of funny or ironic that this is happening with this program! I nearly had my graduation date pushed back three extra months. When dealing with any organization that you invest a huge deal of time and money in like education, you really need to be on top of the people on the administrative side. Some employees feel the effects of their organization’s company culture and it can disrupt what you are trying to do as a customer.

The best thing I can advise when dealing with an organization that may disrupt your plans, whether it is scheduled completion dates to simple task activities always take it seriously, manage your time as if you will need to do double the work to complete it and get everything in writing! When you do so in Organization development you just line yourself up for success, and you also reduce the risk of wasting precious resources like time and money.

I should have some new posts up here soon with links to free downloads, Organizational Development tips and other discussions about various articles which professionals in the field have a hand in dealing with.

Organizational Clarity: Hurricane Awareness does your Organization have it?

In an article from the Articulate community, one of the examples that they use for their Rise program is a website called: “Hurricane Safety: Are You Prepared to Weather the Storm?” Now it is a great example of what the product can do however it is a great to prepare organizations located in hurricane prone areas. One of the things Organizational Development deals with when trying to combat a lack of production is external factors, and the weather is a major external factor!

I worked for one organization that had at least five sites in Florida and one in Chicago, every time during Hurricane season it seemed that the organization just did not have a plan for backing up the official duties of the employees employed in the Florida sites. There was always this season of chaos that went hand in hand with the Hurricane Season, everyone scurried around to figure out how the Chicago location employees would handle the employee duties of the affected sites.

In other words, if the East side of Florida was affected by a major hurricane this would mean at least three sites would be affected and therefore the employees in Chicago for every department would have to handle their workload and that of at least three other employees. I believe this is because the organization just did not have the right information on how to deal with a Hurricane, this website has tons of information regarding hurricanes! In fact, this website could be a great tool for helping employees and the organization on the proper procedures of evacuation and proper storage of the organizational property and equipment.

Although it would not cover the practical solution of dividing organizational operations over more geographical locations, most organizations cannot afford it nor have the organization culture to allow this to happen.

If you want to know more about Hurricane preparedness or maybe try to create something for your organization just click the link here:

http://articulate-heroes-authoring.s3.amazonaws.com/Trina/View%20this%20in%20action/hurricane-safety-are-you-prepared-to-weather-the-storm-scorm12-zIWw5Oi9/scormcontent/index.html#/?_k=cktn7x

A favorite in my playlist called Organizational Development?

Easy question to answer, I think this is a really fun video and straight to the point, discussing “What is Organizational Change?” from Mavim B.V. I love the engaging interaction, smooth animation, and great quick delivery. I believe in trying to get management and employees in a resistant organization, you need to have small baby steps to gain these groups’ trust and cooperation.   

This video easily puts into perspective the fact that change is constant, and that change is needed for a business to remain competitive. Add with that the advent of social media customers have a larger voice than ever before so communicating with them has changed and an organization must be able to change to communicate with those customers properly.

You can find all of this information in the video, “What is Organizational Change?” just click on the hyperlink below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xsPLr-q_Nk&index=7&list=PLl128ljkxUxp5-MqyB_uGXEDCK4cVwGKw

Special event? Time for Morale boosting!

When dealing with Organization Development it is important to keep those people within the organization or working with you on a special project energized and motivated to keep productivity at levels that you can gain the highest ROI (return on Investment) rate possible.  Yes, you will always have certain managers who will state that having a job should be motivation enough, but for the majority of workers out there that is not enough. Working on assigned teams or in a profession with high specialization there is a need to work upon morale to keep these individuals motivated, doing the same tasks with the same people day in, day out, becomes repetitive. So there is a requirement to liven things up, to break the monotony of the every day for one’s team, to keep innovation and productivity at acceptable or even extended levels.

Special events are a great time to break things up,when it comes to “special events” most commonly in organizations we were are talking about holidays. These are times in which employees, people can be highly emotional and be disrupted from their usual performance due to personal issues outside of the workplace. Now, when I state this I mean it can range from either clinical depression to something we all might think as minor as buying the right Christmas toy for a nephew. In either case, the stressors are there to throw the “monkey wrench” into any project manager’s schedule, or organizations plans to end a quarter well.

In many cases celebrating special events by an organization can bring a welcomed distraction to these special events, and lighten the mood in the workplace. In fact, throwing Halloween parties or allowing decorations in the workplace can brighten the office as well as fight the woes of the season or day. I speak from experience working in Retail to the Education-Corporate arenas there are different ways organizations celebrate special events. In the Retail arena it is a time to exploit the holiday or special event to make money which is the goal of most organizations, however the employee’s well-being at this time is not taken into account. In the Education-Corporate arena, employee well-being and engaging the employee on some level occurs during the holidays or the special event in some way, shape or form.

Focusing on the Corporate arena, the organization that allows the employees to decorate their cubicles may seem like an action that will have the least likely impact. However, it has been my experience that decorating cubicles, does, in fact increases employee engagement with one another and in fact does lighten the mood in the office especially when the organization is facing the crunch of meeting goals or its projections for a productive fourth quarter.

Building morale increase the likelihood of decreasing employee turnover rates, in the example, I am using many employees have been with the organization for more than four to five years. Servicing students in any regard can be taxing especially when lining up organizational year end budgets and goals with financial aid year deadlines assigned by the federal government are never in line. Why? Because in this case, the deadlines that each of these internal and external stakeholders had in mind are never parallel or congruent with one another making pleasing each group a challenge for the average employee. This added stress mixed with the monotony of the doing the same tasks day in day out very taxing and stressful. Therefore, when these employees have the chance to say participate in Halloween costume or decoration contests the morale and the productive of these employee increases. Not only due to a change in routine but a focus upon the employee.

We as individuals do not befriend or fall in love with other individuals outside of our families for example because they are there… but because they focus attention on us. Thereby the same concept is in play here, by putting a spotlight upon the employee, in turn, gives them a sense of importance to the organization. The organization reaps the benefits of this simple engagement in terms of productivity, the spotlight boosts the morale of the employees, and it is a win-win situation for all.  In the example I mentioned, employees were falling over backward to complete their tasks for the day, just so they could decorate their cubicles or assists others of their team to create theme based setups for Halloween. Individual employees who usually you could not pry two words out of were discussing multiple ideas of how to decorate their cubicles, win office contests, and even discuss what plans they had for that day!

This built a sense of synergy amongst them, and in which lead to an increase in their communication skills, and discussion of how to solve issues that they faced throughout the day, in a more effective manner, through the increase of all-round information sharing that happened as a result.  My point is if you want increases in innovation, communication, and productivity look to special events and/or holidays as ways to bolster your attempt. Having something that most individuals are geared up to participate in is the most effective way implement any program that will produce the results that you want to achieve and give the employees something to look forward to.

Quick question: Has there been a time, that you have participated at a special event at work and morale has improved at least for a short time? For example, around Halloween or St. Patrick’s day?

Cultural Intelligence: Why we try to include different cultures in the workplace.

The reason why we celebrate different cultures upon this blog is not only to be thoughtful of others but to also be inclusive than exclusive, to understand others as we want to be understood. There is a thing called Cultural Intelligence that is taught in the field of Organization Development specifically, with Coaching or Executive Coaching. Basically, we used this term in business, academia, etc., to gauge the individual, or organizational ability to work, function and communicate across different cultures.

As organizations and individuals thanks to the internet, have increased their global connective abilities the idea of cultures interacting has become more of a reality than ever before. In past history, such connections would be utter fantasy, trade routes of the British Empire in the early 1700’s to 1800’s were established to reach other cultures and to combine those cultures with their own.

Of course, this has been the technique of every empire through history, never have we have been able to effectively to measure the exposure of the impact of different cultures upon the individual through this communication. Organizational Development through its practices and techniques tries to measure and increase the effectiveness of the organization’s and individual’s cultural intelligence.

Through such posts is a way to show or to acknowledge other cultures, to educate those who may find difficulty in being accepted or for those who have a desperate need to learn more about other cultures they are in immediate contact with. Thus, these posts are merely educational tools so that we all can gain tolerance and increase our Cultural intelligence, information that now has a focus and an explanation of how it can be applied. This is something that is usually not found on the internet, hopefully, posts such as this will be effective in its purpose.