Welcome
Welcome to the latest issue of
Bringing Work to Life. We explored the following topics in issues over
the past twelve months (all newsletters are available at
www.elsdon.com/newsletters.htm):
o
Who are you? (September 2005)
o
Leadership roles (August 2005)
o
Leadership courage (July 2005)
o
The real scoop (June 2005)
o
Listening to the organization (May 2005)
o
A kinder, gentler place (April 2005)
o
Accelerating into your new position (March 2005)
o
Workforce leadership (February 2005)
o
Searching for success (January 2005)
o
Ethics and leadership (Year End 2004)
o
Linking workforce development to value creation (November December 2004)
o
How to decide if an organization will be a good fit for you (October
November 2004)
This month we continue our
exploration of personal development with Nothing Business, It’s Just
Personal.
Nothing Business, It’s Just Personal
“Keep your work and personal lives separate.”
Those stout words were offered as advice to me and other new
supervisors during our first dose of supervisor training. That was in
the days when, after a two-year mating dance with the organization, and
being deemed acceptable, a thirty year process of sculpting to fit the
corporate mold began. It seemed odd at the time requiring a peculiar
separation of the brain (and heart). Today it is completely
unrealistic. Our work and personal lives are intimately intertwined.
Indeed when they seriously conflict, our exit interview studies show how
often we disengage from our organizations, to their detriment.
Many factors are pulling the personal and work
aspects of our lives together. Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi
in The Two-Income Trap (2003) point out how much less flexibility we
have today than a generation ago, as our discretionary income has barely
shifted but we now usually need two incomes to cover greatly increased
core expenses (such as child or elder care, or another car for a second
commute to work). The Warrens make this disturbing observation “This
year, more women will file for bankruptcy than will graduate from
college.” A stark reminder of the intertwining of work and personal
lives.
Constant, immediate and boundary-less communication
and information flow today lead others to expect response speeds that
dwarf those of a generation ago. It is challenging to disconnect from
work for long, even if we want to. If we do disconnect beware the
avalanche of e-mails waiting. Furthermore, the half-life of knowledge
and technology has fallen from several years to several months. This
means that we must continually re-learn, with learning becoming another
work related piece to continuously integrate into our lives. As one
person observed, we have moved from a four year degree to a forty year
degree.
Add to all of this the ability to work
independently of location and organization, supported by technology, and
our work lives may seem to surround us. Meanwhile our personal lives
may now include the need to care for aging parents as well as children.
This may mean being present for our families during otherwise
conventional work times. So we need flexibility of time and place to
make these accommodations work. We cannot simply exclude one of work or
personal life at the expense of the other.
Our response to these dilemmas, according to its
nature, can cause greater discord or greater harmony in our lives and
the lives of those around us. Harmony depends upon our being clear
about who we are. Today we are called to be ourselves as May Sarton so
beautifully observed (quoted in Parker Palmer’s Let Your Life Speak):
“Now I become myself.
It’s taken time, many years and places.
I have been dissolved and shaken,
Worn other people’s faces ….”
For it is in first becoming ourselves that we can
define how the pieces of our lives best fit together. Our personal
lives and our work lives come together and both become expressions of
who we are. Not as separate places but familiar rooms in the same home
that we inhabit as we need, freely moving from one to the other and back
again. Let’s explore how we can walk down this path.
Last month we looked at being clear about, and
honoring, what we stand for. There are other aspects of who we are and
how we can make that visible first to ourselves and then to others.
They call on our head and our heart, our intellect and our emotion. A
good starting point in this internal exploration is with books that
encourage reflection about purpose and meaning, Let Your Life Speak by
Parker Palmer and Passion for Life by Anne Brennan and Janice Brewi are
such books. Because others have walked a similar path before us we can
also use assessments that help in our quest for deeper self
understanding. Some we can access directly and others benefit from
interpretation and prior experience. We can explore these tools in
community with others, guided by wise counsel, or on our own according
to our preferences.
Some of these assessments may be familiar, others
new. Each can provide special insight, none are complete by
themselves. We can think of them in three broad categories starting
with the most analytical and moving to the most conceptual.
1.
Standardized assessments
o
Well constructed standardized assessments build on much
data gathered from surveying others, to create valid and reliable
instruments.
o
Generally results show our responses compared to the
results from many others. As Tom Ritchey (then President of Carlson
Learning) put it, they can address the “I wonder questions” such as “I
wonder why I behave the way I do.” “I wonder why others behave towards
me the way they do.”
o
Examples of such instruments include the Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator (from CPP,
www.cpp.com),
which provides insights into our personality and its meaning for our
work and personal lives; the Strong Interest Inventory (also from CPP,
www.cpp.com),
which highlights themes and work settings that are likely to appeal to
our interests; and the Personal Learning Insights Profile (from Inscape
Publishing,
www.inscapepublishing.com) that highlights how we prefer to
learn. There are many other comparable, standardized assessments
available.
2. Structured
assessments
o
Structured assessments build on concepts and frameworks
that often involve practical exercises such as card sorts. Some people
enjoy their tangible nature. While effective structured assessments are
based on extensive descriptive research, they lack the statistical rigor
of the standardized assessments. This may be offset by greater
descriptive breadth.
o
Examples of such instruments include Leadership Architect
(from Lominger,
www.lominger.com)
and SkillScan (from SkillScan,
www.skillscan.net)
both of which can help clarify our understanding of those things we do
well and enjoy doing, or those things that can cause burnout.
3. Conceptual
assessments
o
Conceptual assessments are based on descriptive approaches
that enable us to build a deeper understanding of ourselves - our
purpose, values and motivation. Through a window that may include
narrative or visual descriptions they draw on our work and life
experiences, to illuminate our hopes and our dreams. They are typically
quite unstructured calling on our creativity and insights. As such they
are the most personal of all the assessments.
o
Examples include assessments that explore our preferred
relationship with our work, learning from important life experiences and
past working environments, characteristics of an ideal work day that
could ignite passion within us, and an exploration of what we would like
to bring forth in our life and work (Susan Abbott).
These are examples of assessments that can help
build our understanding of who we are and the courage to be that
person. They can provide insights and a depth of self-understanding
that inform our decisions and strengthen our ability to communicate our
contributions. As such they can help us bring together our work and
personal lives so both benefit. It is in this sense of becoming, of
being part of the sculpting our lives that we can bring forth our beauty
and mystery. We can then express who we are for the benefit of
ourselves, those close to us, our organizations and our communities.
(Should you wish to know more about our
comprehensive individual assessment processes please feel free to
contact us at
renewal@elsdon.com, 925 838 2362)
Living in the Third World
Some events speak to us on a deep level, offering a
glimpse of grace while exposing our flaws. Recent hurricanes were such
events. In the midst of such dire need and terrible devastation we saw
heroism. The staff of the Hancock Medical Center in New Orleans staying
for their patients, treating 150 people in the first twelve hours after
the storm, for as hospital administrator Hal Leftwich said “Most of us
got into this profession to help people.” (MSNBC.com, Mississippi
hospital offers hope to survivors, September 2, 2005.”) And what a
wonderful act of courage by the staff of this hospital.
However, hurricane Katrina exposed an equally
terrible reality in our country, the chasm separating rich from poor.
The following figure (as with the other figures in this section) is
taken from “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance in the United States:
2004”, U.S. Census Bureau, August 2005. It shows a rapid rise in the
number of people in poverty since 2000 to 37 million people, up by 1.1
million people since 2003. The poverty rate also increased to 12.7% in
2004. This during a sustained economic recovery (for the wealthy). As
MSNBC points out “that’s a nation of poor people the size of Canada or
Morocco living inside the United States.” Poverty is defined as having
an annual income below a specified and low level, for example below an
annual income of $9,827 for a single person under 65 years of age.
It is perhaps not surprising to find Mississippi as
the State, on average, with the highest poverty level over the past
three years as shown in the following figure:
In parallel with this expression of dire poverty in
the midst of great wealth, we are failing to provide basic healthcare as
shown in the next figure, where the number of people uninsured has grown
dramatically since 2000 to reach a new high of 45.8 million people, in
the most advanced country in the world. 
It would seem that such a statistic would appall
our political leaders. That it doesn’t is perhaps explained by State
uninsured levels as shown in the following figure, where the percentage
of those uninsured in Texas far surpasses that of any other State.
Unfortunately, images of the U.S. after the
hurricane resembling a third world country are not momentary
aberrations. Rather our inequality of income and wealth distribution is
that of a third world country (see the November/December 2004 issue of
Bringing Work to Life). This gross inequity raises questions about how
we respond on a personal, organizational and community level. It means
creating policies in our society that adequately protect weaker
members. It means matching the personal courage of Hal Leftwich and his
colleagues in how we run our organizations. So that we build
organizations respecting the needs of all with whom they interface,
rather than simply lining the pockets of those who have grabbed power.
It means supporting those organizations such as Costco, Southwest
Airlines, and Starbucks where honoring employees is both a core
philosophy and an effective business practice. It means questioning
association with organizations having gross inequities (see the
September October 2004 issue of Bringing Work to Life for related
trends). In times such as these we are particularly called to grace,
to honor those who have suffered through tragedy, and to build a better
place for all of us.
Quote
“I hope we realize that the people of New Orleans
weren’t just abandoned during the hurricane. They were abandoned long
ago – to murder and mayhem in the streets, to substandard schools, to
dilapidated housing, to inadequate health care, to a pervasive sense of
hopelessness.”
Senator Barack Obama on the floor of the U.S.
Senate, September 2005, quoted in “The Other America” MSNBC.com,
September 19, 2005, Newsweek.
Upcoming Elsdon Organizational Renewal (EOR) Events and Recent
Mentions
Upcoming Events
·
“Building Affiliation”
presentation for Integrated Insurance Seminar, Ojai
o
October 5, 2005
·
“Emerging Issues for HR” panel
discussion for HR workshop, Cupertino
o
October 8, 2005
·
“Career Shifting for Engineers”
workshops for U.C. Berkeley, Haas School of Business, Berkeley
o
October 31, November 7, 2005
·
“Research in Career Development”
course for MA in Career Development, John F. Kennedy University,
Pleasant Hill
o
October, November, 2005
·
“Becoming Career Fit in
Turbulent Times” breakout session for John F. Kennedy University Alumni
Day, Pleasant Hill
o
November 13, 2005
·
“Career Transitions” workshop
for Experience Unlimited, San Francisco
o
November 24, 2005
·
Workshops for the UC
Berkeley/Columbia University MBA program on “Progressing in Your
Organization”, “Negotiating Entry” and “Accelerating to Opportunities”,
Berkeley
o
November 12, 18 and December 8, 2005
Recent Mentions
·
Reviews of “Affiliation in the
Workplace: Value Creation in the New Organization.” Ron Elsdon.
Praeger Publishers, Westport, CT (2003)
o
Harvard
Business School
·
HBS Working Knowledge: Organizations
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Global Diversity Institute
·
Global Diversity Institute - The Journal of Diversity Praxis
o
Journal of Asian Economics
·
ScienceDirect - Journal of Asian Economics : Ron Elsdon, Affiliation in
the Workplace: Value Creation in the New Organization, Praeger
Publishers, Westport, CT (2003) 280 pp. (hardcover), ISBN 1-56720-436-8,
$49.95.
·
“Building a Strong Workforce
Through Affiliation.” Chapter 26 in “On Staffing: Advice and
Perspectives from HR Leaders.” Eds. Nicholas Burkholder et al, John
Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken NJ (2004)
o
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0471410691,descCd-tableOfContents.html
·
The Alliance of Chief Executives
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Alliance of CEOs - Ron Elsdon
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“Integrating Into Your New
Position.”
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Article in September 1, 2005 issue of Career Tips and Tactics from
executiveagent.com
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Executive Career Strategies at ExecutiveAgent.com
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“Reaching for Our Deep Gladness”
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Article in May, 2005 NCDA Career Convergence Magazine
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http://209.235.208.145/cgi-bin/WebSuite/tcsAssnWebSuite.pl?Action=DisplayNewsDetails&RecordID=625&Sections=6&IncludeDropped=&AssnID=NCDA&DBCode=130285
·
Review of MBTI Step II workshop
o
CCDA News, April 2005
·
California Career Development Association - Articles
·
Recent mention in article on
cost of turnover
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East
Bay Business Times,
April 2005
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Turnover costs exceed employers' estimates - 2005-04-25
·
“Worklife Survival: Finding a
Fit”
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Article for HR West, February 2005 (Northern California Human Resource
Association)
·
http://www.nchra.org/StaticContent/Download/EXT0205007.pdf
·
Recent interview in the
education field “Affiliation as a Unifying Principle in Education”
o
Career Pro News
·
Affiliation and Education
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Review of ICDC Global Issues
Forum
o
CCDA, January 2005
·
California Career Development Association - Articles
About EOR: Our Value Contribution
We enhance your workforce,
leadership and organization by:
·
Using proprietary approaches to
understand workforce and leadership challenges
·
Creating tailored action plans
and solutions to strengthen workforce and leadership practices
·
Building individual capabilities
and contributions
We enable you to focus on
external results and building value, confident that your organization
and leadership are operating at peak effectiveness.
Our Mission
To support your organization by
enhancing performance, productivity and effectiveness through
revitalized workforce relationships and leadership practices.
Our Approach and Values
We tailor our engagements to the needs of each organization with a
process designed to surface critical issues, identify root causes, build
effective solutions, monitor progress and implement.
With a scope that ranges from system and organizational interventions to
work with individuals, our focus is on the heart of the relationship
among the individual, the organization and the community. We believe
that organizational and community prosperity are built on enabling each
person to fulfill his or her potential.
Our Services
We work with individuals and
groups in your organization to drive performance and development for
both the short and long term. As a result people will choose to work in
your organization and will prosper there.
We bring solutions when you need
to:
·
Reverse declining revenues and
performance
·
Revitalize your workforce
·
Stem the loss of key talent
·
Redirect your organization to
new areas
·
Stop losing customers or market
share
·
Penetrate new markets
·
Combat aggressive competitors
·
Handle major change
·
Break down communication
barriers
·
Energize your leadership team
·
Successfully build on an
acquisition or merger
Our proprietary services
include:
·
State-of-the-art tools to take
the pulse of your organization and then move to action
o
Web enabled systems
o
Experts to gather and analyze information, moving your organization to
action
·
Individual leadership coaching
to give you world class leadership capabilities
o
Leaders who know themselves and their aspirations, build their
capabilities and become catalysts developing others
·
Workshops to build interpersonal
skills in your organization so that:
o
Communication is timely, concise, accurate and personal
o
People listen to each other
o
Negotiations are quick and effective
o
Differences create rather than destroy value
o
Teams move forward, get results and quickly commercialize new products
and services
o
People understand and link their motivations to your organizational
needs
o
Your teams understand what it takes to create a committed, energized
workforce
o
People use their time well
·
Systems that make it easy to
drive performance and build capabilities by:
o
Linking objectives throughout the organization
o
Strengthening key competencies
o
Making sure you have the bench strength where and when you need it
o
Giving people tools to take charge of their own careers and development
and have a major long term influence on your organization
·
Proprietary simulation and
modeling techniques that let you explore how to maximize the value of
your workforce
o
Move from guessing what might happen to looking in depth at the
financial impact of different approaches
