Farewell 2010

Last day of 2010.

Time to look back, to look forward.  Time to sum up the year's events, either personally or professionally, and to assess the prospects for the coming year.  Despite the change in calendar affording none of us sudden and remarkable new perspective or insight.

I suppose for me, like many, 2010 was not the best year, certainly not one that played out as expected or desired. But I am not sure that it is really all that important or necessary to sort it all out, to evaluate or interpret the events that transpired within the boundary of an artificial construct of the calendar.

I think sometimes we do ourselves a disservice with the need to summarize, to compartmentalize, to decode the events, relationships, or desires of our lives using externally devised deadlines.

Sure, it is the last day of 2010. But today, I am not sure I want to attempt to decipher 2010 and plan 2011.

Today I think I want to watch the snow fall. (Email and RSS subscribers may need to click through)

For the folks that have spent some time here in 2010, I offer my sincere thanks. I am very appreciative and grateful that you have decided to spend some of your valuable energy and attention here with me. 

I wish you a 2011 that is everything you dream it will be.

Emotional Spell Check (we are all really dumb)

In the world of office productivity software like the Microsoft Office suite of programs, (Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, etc.), the 'spell check' feature is so fundamental, so ingrained into our experience of using these tools that we probably can't imagine a word processing or other text-centric application lacking the capability.

At this point could anyone craft a 400 word email or 5 page quarterly report without running spell check at least two or three times?  In fact, spell check is so core to the process of content creation that we take it for granted, and some might contend when the capability is introduced to children in grade school via the use of common office productivity solutions that their ability to actually spell becomes diminished, as they come to rely on the spell check device too heavily.  This likely occurs in adults as well, but we often cleverly convince ourselves we don't really have a spelling problem, we have a typing problem, and that most of the corrections made by spell check are to words we really do know how to spell.

So if we can justify the heavy reliance on spell check as a mere productivity enhancer and not really a crutch, what possibly could we say about the newest 'check' solution launched recently, a product called ToneCheck, which is described as 'the emotional spell check'.  In the words of its creators:

ToneCheck™ is an e-mail plug-in that flags sentences with words or phrases that may convey unintended emotion or tone, then helps you re-write them. Just like Spell Check… but for Tone.

Does your first draft of that email message to your prospect read something like 'Come on already, quit wasting my time and jerking me around. Are you signing the contract or not?

Here is a screen shot of the ToneCheck plug-in activated on a possibly 'emotional' message:

A quick run of the ToneCheck plug-in can flag that passage as 'potentially angry' and suggest that you make some alterations to hit a more 'contented' tone. I suppose you probably knew the 'quit jerking me around' line did have the potential to seem angry.

This functionality has similarities to common features in HR Technology solutions for performance management, namely the 'legal scan' that catches managers from noting things like, 'Sally is really too old to grasp the technical complexity of this project'; and 'managerial helper' kinds of tools that suggest descriptive sentences and paragraphs to accompany objective or competency based ratings.

Having these kinds of helpers and filters and in the case of ToneCheck, a bit of a stop sign put up before you press 'Send' may be beneficial, but I can't help but wonder if these tools are really confirming something many folks often think. That is we really don't know what we are doing, we will quite likely get ourselves and our firms in big trouble if we are not monitored, and at the end of the day we really can't be trusted to spell, keep our emotions in check, and are in fact, really dumb.

Notes:

1.This post is about 500 words, I made 37 spelling mistakes that hopefully were all fixed by spell check.

2. I do not have 'ToneCheck' turned on in the comments, so please feel free to tell me what you really think.

Transforming Data into Information

Quick one for today, but aimed for anyone in a management or leadership role that has been handed a report, chart, spreadsheet, or pretty much any common or standard style collection of data that is meant to be informative, but really only leaves you asking, 'Just what am I looking at here?'

I have written previously about incorporating more creative and visually appealing approaches to what is typically flat, and even mundane data, data that really could tell a more interesting, evocative, and relevant story if only it was packaged in a more compelling manner.  So for your consideration, from the always entertaining Information is Beautiful blog, a re-imagining of the simple medical blood test results report checking for c-reactive protein, or CRP.

The kind of report that contains critical data, that needs to be interpreted, understood by non-experts, and offer the right kinds of recommendations and call to action.  Not unlike the headcount, turnover, and performance management process results that you may read every day.

The typical CRP test report and the starting point for the redesign looks something like this:

The redesigned and re-imagined report looks like this:

All of a sudden, the dull, difficult to interpret, and really sterile data is transformed to a bold, eye-catching, super-informative, piece of actionable information. The re-designed report accomplishes some simple, but important objectives where the old version of the report simply fails to do much of anything except confuse.

With the new report the patient now can better understand the background and purpose of test, visualize their result compared to norms and averages, provide context to other related and relevant metrics, and finally recommend a course of action (with expected and positive outcomes) based on the results.

Clearly the redesigned report is an improvement in every way.  I know I have said before, but it bears repeating - most organizations and Human Resources professionals are not suffering from a shortage of data, but rather a shortage of understanding.  Maybe the next 'critical hire' you can get approved shouldn't be another HR Generalist or Recruiter. Maybe a really good graphic designer is what the HR department needs.

A Lucky Christmas

My best wishes for a Merry Christmas, fantastic New Year, and small break from the grind of work, school, stress, looking for work, or polishing off that personal brand.

Maybe, if you have been good, and get really 'lucky', this guy will turn up at your holiday celebration bearing gifts- 

Flickr - jon williamson - ad from 1960

Man, the holidays really used to stink back in the day. Or maybe it was our expectations that led us to think Uncle Leo marching in with 12 cartons of Luckies just said Christmas.

Have a great, less Lucky Strike filled holiday!

Lessons from Roadhouse

You remember ‘Roadhouse’ don’t you?  A classic film from 1989 that starred Patrick Swayze as Dalton, a barroom bouncer, (or more accurately a’cooler’) who takes on the daunting assignment of cleaning up a rough and tumble dive bar/club called the Double Deuce somewhere in rural Missouri, USA. When 'Not nice' time arrives

After doing some field observations of the bar, the employees, and the clientele (mainly consisting of leaning smugly against the bar and looking on as a series of brawls erupt), Dalton assumes his role as the cooler, and conducts his initial meeting with the team of bouncers. This is Dalton, the hotshot new team leader, recruited by the company owner himself, to lead a group of miscreants that for the most part is not all the happy to see him there.

At his first staff meeting (or what passes for a staff meeting at the Double Deuce), Dalton makes a measured and forceful speech about his managerial philosophy, his expectations of the team, and his feeling that all issues can be resolved by practicing and applying his time-tested principles and processes.  Kind of like Six Sigma for beating up drunken customers.

The highlight of the meeting and speech, is Dalton’s explanation of the three rules of nightclub security, which were exercised with varying degrees of success in the film (meaning, hardly at all), and also provide potential lessons for more general management and leadership of any kind of organizational team.  They also rank high on the unintentional comedy scale, because immediately after stating there are ‘three’ rules, Dalton really explains four different concepts, (I’ll label the extra item 1a).

Whatever, he is Dalton, counting is for losers.

Rule 1 - Don’t underestimate your enemy

The bouncers at the Double Deuce were used to simple fist fights with local drunks.  A hassle surely, but nothing too terribly hard to handle.  Once Dalton comes to town, somehow the caliber of thug goes way up.  The bad guys now seem to know some freaky martial arts (leveraging the pool cue as a weapon), and are way more of a challenge.

The problem was once Dalton started making an impact, the competitors and enemies of the DD now saw them as a threat more than an annoyance. Maybe your organization is a little plucky start up, under the radar but growing steadily.  Be careful of what might happen next, you may think you are beating your larger competitors but chances are they have not really noticed you yet, and have not yet begun their part of the fighting.  

Rule 1a - Expect the unexpected

How long did it take after your last staff meeting or planning session that you realized the decision you just made or the approach you just agreed to pursue has to be altered due to some unforeseen circumstance?  Fifteen minutes?  An hour?  Whatever the duration, the value of lengthy planning and strategizing often evaporates once the real world sets in.  Dalton rarely holds formal ‘planning’ meetings, most of the time is spent ‘doing’, and most of us should probably do the same.

Rule 2 - Take it outside

Unruly patrons, excessively drunk buffoons needed to be taken outside so as the disturbance and inevitable fight would not have too much detrimental effect on the bar, in terms of broken stuff and collateral damage.  The good customers would only see that the problem was handled, that Dalton and the staff were in charge, and they could continue to have a good time.  Problems in the workplace with staff or with customers often need to be handled the same way.  The team needs to know you will take care of issues when they arise, but don’t usually need to see and hear all the details of how you manage these situations.  A related lesson comes from the Godfather, when after the meeting with Solazzo, the Don takes Sonny aside and berates him privately, not in front of the lower level soldiers that Sonny still needs to command.

Rule 3 - Be nice. Until it isn’t time to be nice

Probably the simplest of Dalton’s rules, but the one that was the hardest for the bouncers to embrace. Be nice to the drunk that just threw a beer at me?  Not easy to do.  But Dalton was wise to know that in the long view, being nice as the initial reaction to conflict and adversity is a more sustainable and sane strategy.  Sure, at the Deuce the ‘time to not be nice’ came pretty fact, usually before the ‘take it outside’ rule could be exercised, but still it eventually helped Dalton and the team reach their (admittedly low) goals.  In the workplace I would also substitute the word ‘panic’ for nice in the rule and it would also apply.

There you have it, Dalton’s rules of management.  Hopefully in your practice of HR or management, or leadership, or coaching your 7 year old’s soccer team you won’t have to put these rules to the test by breaking bottles of Jack Daniels over people’s heads, or crushing them to death with a giant stuffed polar bear.