Organizational Clarity: “How to Deal With a Boss Who Judges You By the Company You Keep” article

Although I usually do not prescribe to some of the issues brought up in this article some of these arguments are valid. It is very often that upper management does lump employees in together, the whole “guilty by association” assessment is done far often than we care to admit (Boinott, 2017). This article does have some good points in keeping it professional at work and keeping co-workers at a distance, mainly because some of them you need to. There are many individuals who you can trust, and there are others you simply just cannot.

Then adding alcohol to the mix can redefine a situation in the worse way, things that are usually kept to oneself just slips out into the open and probably shared with others who will simply, in turn, share with upper management. I have dealt with co-workers who were usually the “devil’s advocate” for upper management and other misshapen factors that made the workplace unbearable and although I gave them a chance to connect I simply knew after a while to drop them as “good” friends. Meaning I kept everything with these individuals professional and usually let them get burnt by their own devices, in the same professional settings, while dodging them or leaving them out of personal events. 

Keeping away from certain individuals because of fears that you may be lumped into a wave of retribution from upper management, is maybe one great reason to stay professional at work. However, realize that these same individuals may do irreparable damage even outside of the workplace, becoming distractions to us from developing ourselves professionally and personally. In the end, as the article states it is best to know who these “distractions” are and maintain the proper relationship (whatever that may be) with them, i.e., one with distinct boundaries.

Boitnott, John (2017) “How to Deal With a Boss Who Judges You By the Company You Keep” February 21, 2017, Entrepreneur Media, Inc Retrieved from  https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/289367

Organizational Clarity: "Confidential Survey" article

After reading this article about not completing the “confidential employee” survey, I realized although I have never been in a situation of having two dual entities warring to have me complete a survey to prove their points. I realized that whenever I was given a “confidential employee” survey, I did not complete it because I was always hounded (like the person in the article) to complete the survey. My question then was how confidential was it, if everyone and their mother knew I did not complete it?

I always wondered why organizations would use a “confidential” survey to create an illusion that this process is secret when is not. When a one-on-one with supervisors and their employees would, in fact, increase morale, improve human performance, and communication wherever the concentration existed. Creating this falsehood only disillusions the stakeholders of the organization and creates a breakdown of communication and trust. This is reaffirmed in the Forbes article listed below.

Add to that my studies within an Organizational Development program you start to understand when surveys such as this should be used and how unfortunately, it is not how most organizations use this tool. Instead of employee development and integrating employees into the organizational culture surveys are used to root out the “troublemakers” and to dissuade dissenting opinions or voices for needed change.

Rooting out these “troubled voices” in the eyes of the organization is cheaper and far easier than creating actual organizational change, than retraining managers and maintaining an atmosphere of cooperation. The hierarchy structure of most organizations is highly prized no matter how the organization states it is closer to the Clan structure characteristics with a “family” type atmosphere; no organization wants the inmates running the asylum. So there is no reason that any of us will see an end to these “confidential employee” surveys anytime soon.

This is the Forbes article which discusses how this gentleman will NOT participate in “confidential employee” surveys:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizryan/2017/02/21/no-i-wont-complete-the-confidential-employee-survey/#38020e856187

Organizational Clarity: Having anonymous interactions can be a great thing when you need feedback for your organization.

Having an Online presence does give one a sense of online anonymity and gives one a sense of freedom this can enhance the interaction process between an organization and its employees by giving an open forum to discuss issues with a strong sense of truth than if the employees were asked face to face (Allen, 2011). 

One of the issues that faces the Organizational Development professional is the challenge of getting a major quantity of feedback that is mired in truth and has nothing held back. Using an unknown identity or alias for this purpose can take out the factors found in the workplace environment and the pressure to conform to socially and/or organizationally established norms.

This allows for active collaboration and the user to openly be creative in their expression upon subject matters cover during these interactions. This new Self-definition in where one can be themselves is in the end very helpful and meaningful for the OD professional with employees not hindered by necessary social graces and the fear of retaliation can get the data they so desperately need (Allen, 2011).

Employees completing anonymous surveys or using anonymous aliases on Organizational forums can expose issues that deal with possible unknown problems with productivity to inter-office lapses of communication between departments that are not uncovered for the fear of being ousted as a trouble maker by management or a snitch by fellow coworkers.

 In all, giving employees the option to express their voice(s) collectively in an anonymous way gives them the ability to be Autonomous and shows the organization trusts them enough to go the distance in giving feedback, that was not there before (Allen, 2011). Meanwhile, it also provides a way to learn express, and gain an increased amount of data that was not an option in the traditional sense and free of the constriction of the workplace environment.

Reference

Allen, M. W. (2011). Michael Allen's 2012 e-learning annual (Vol. 54). John Wiley & Sons.

Employees going Berserk at a Holiday Party: something for the Organizational Development Professional to consider.

I read an article regarding a fight at a company Christmas party at a high-end restaurant in New York, it is interesting how this sometimes occurs in during these events. As an Organizational Development (OD) professional one must think of such occurrences or keep them in the back of your head as you plan morale building or holiday events.

Usually, issues like this happen when alcohol is involved so having a boring, non-alcoholic party may not be on the top of anyone’s list as fun, but it saves the organization from bad press such as this. As an organization one cannot condone violence in the workplace or outside of it at company functions, therefore limiting alcohol, unfortunately. must be a possibility that the OD specialist must recommend to their clients.

At least it gets the professional in the clear of any blowback if a client rejects such a suggestion and this type of event occurs at the event the OD professional has created. What are your thoughts?

Here is the hyperlink to the article from the New York Post I mentioned above:

http://nypost.com/2016/12/17/ex-goldman-guy-went-beserk-at-holiday-party-punched-exec-in-the-face-suit/

Interviews: a tedious process

Interviews, of course, we have all went on at least one or two in our lifetimes, but a question I wonder about is: How many interviews do you go on before you change the way you do things?

I remember one time I applied for an Account specialist position with American Express a few years ago, strangely I went on not one, not two, but three interviews with the same interviewee! Now I have been through a phone interview, then face to face interview with an HR representative, then an interview with a hiring manager. But this was one of the most frustrating strings of happenings among many of the times I was looking for employment. 

So near the end of the third interview when the interviewee made it known there would be a fourth interview, and at he looked forward to talking with me again, he wanted to ask one final question. That question was “What is your pet peeve?” I told him that, “…going on too many interviews because they are very stressful...” of course, after that day I did not hear from him about the position again. What I did there was made my intentions known that I could not go to a fourth interview, there were other opportunities that were offered at the same time and I had a lot of difficulty scheduling other interviews around the AMEX interviews.

Making your intentions known during interviews is not something that you should shy away from, that way you can see if it is the right opportunity for you. This was something I learned to do since then because it freed up my schedule for looking into other opportunities including those which lead me to pursuing my education in Organization Development. Changing the way I approached interviews has evolved since then, I have created a set of standardized questions to ask during interviews, I have made sure that if there is a second interview I had another suit ready to go and that was of articles of clothing that was totally different than before. I have been able to “see” now if the positions I have applied for are right for me with more clarity than ever before, just by changing up the way I approached the interview process.

From an Organization Development standpoint, a candidate who comes in asks questions about the organization, the position, and states what they are looking for right off the bat is a godsend. It means that the candidate is serious about the process, serious about their interest in the positions and makes filling that position with the right candidate so much easier. Every Hr representative or hiring manager should be looking for someone like that, why would you hire someone that is counterintuitive to that?

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.