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
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)
o
Confronting one of our fears as leaders - the fear of public speaking
(September October 2004)
This month we begin an
exploration of personal development with Who Are You?
Who Are You?
Tears in her eyes spoke to hurt as we loaded her
belongings into boxes. A photograph, some books, those personal
fragments that make up a life. I was here, for the first time, part of
an outplacement team at that time, present at that moment of job loss.
Ready to assist, feeling inadequate, imagining the pain of her loss. No
simple resolution with ruffled hurt resolved. Perhaps this parting
would be well given time, but the buried memory of that hurt would
likely not go slowly. And the space left in the organization would not
fill easily. Is this the kind of work world we choose? We deserve? Is
it beyond our control? Let’s reflect on this.
He met his spiritual icon and it was a surprise. A
colleague, Dick Snowden, speaks of his experience meeting a well-known
spiritual leader whom he had wanted to meet for many years. Through a
mutual friend he was able to arrange an appointment while traveling.
There was one problem. The appointment was only for five minutes. With
months of advance preparation Dick thought how he could best use this
glint of time. He thought of all the profound questions he could ask
and stored these away.
Finally, the day came and Dick left for the meeting
with rising expectations. He was ushered reverently into the spiritual
leader's presence acutely aware that he had only five minutes and
determined to use it well. The scene was as he expected with the
spiritual leader looking scholarly and thoughtful while seated
cross-legged in an elevated part of the room. Dick was not sure how to
start the conversation when to his surprise the spiritual leader said,
“How are you doing?” The conversation continued in this vein for about
four minutes and Dick despaired that his chance to touch profound
thinking was evaporating. And then it was almost over, a bell rang and
his time was up. He rose to leave but as he was about to open the door,
the spiritual leader looked up and said to him: “I have one question for
you to take with you. Who are you that they are who they are?” Then it
was over and Dick took leave.
I find myself coming back to this question often.
To a question that at first seemed confusing, and then relevant to so
much of life including our work. When confronted recently with the
possibility of losing sight in one eye as the retina was detaching, I
saw the response of others often reflect my demeanor, whether calm,
anxious or ultimately thankful for the skill and responsiveness of our
medical professionals. And I saw a variety of responses in those
medical professionals, from the smile and easy banter of one nurse,
probably tired after a long work day, but still able to create a caring
presence. To a companion unwilling to ease another nurse’s burden as
she wasn’t yet “on duty.” To the harried surgeon, willing to be there
when it would have been easier to delay, and the anesthetist staying
late so this team could save my sight. To my wife who was a constant
source of support and colleagues who helped in our navigation of the
healthcare system.
So it is with a profound sense of gratitude that I
recall this experience. And a certain knowledge that many may not be so
fortunate. Those 45 million people in the U.S. without health
insurance. The disenfranchised, those migrant workers working for a
widow’s mite and their children. Those who lose their jobs and soon
their health care. This in a world where the net worth of the world’s
476 richest billionaires exceeds the combined income of the poorest 2.5
billion people and the income gap between the top and bottom fifth of
the world’s population has more than doubled in the last generation
(Marian Wright Edelman in The Impossible Will Take a Little While,
Edited by Paul Rogat Loeb, Perseus Books Group, 2004). I am not sure
which is worse the fact of this, or our claim to be living in a just and
free society.
And so as I look into our eighteen month old
granddaughter Emma’s eyes, those beautiful inquisitive, hopeful and
joyous eyes, I wonder what legacy and world we will give to those of her
generation. Who are we? It is in asking the question “Who are you?” of
ourselves that we can begin to craft that world. It requires that we
squarely look at what we stand for in our lives and in our work. It
means asking what we can do to build a work world that values each
person, built on compassion not greed.
It is good to see examples of others doing this at
different places in our organizations. For example, Jim Sinegal, the
President and CEO of Costco, the 29th largest company in North America
based on revenue, and highly successful, accepting a salary of $350,000
and a comparable bonus, putting his compensation in the lowest 10% of
his peers. Meanwhile the average hourly wage of Costco employees is 39%
more than its rival Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club, and benefits are much better.
“that they are who they are” a motivated workforce
propels profits per employee at Costco 24% higher
than at Sam’s Club. Jim Sinegal living the value of frugality that is central to Costco’s
success and respecting the needs of Costco’s various constituencies:
employees, shareholders and the communities within which it operates.
He was recently quoted in the July 17, 2005 New York Times saying
“Having an individual who is making 100 or 200 or 300 times more than
the average person working on the floor is wrong.” By way of
comparison, the ratio in the US in 2001 of CEO pay to average worker pay
was over 400 (see the September/October 2004 issue of Bringing Work to
Life). The Costco example reaches beyond the organization in unexpected
ways. A colleague recently declaring that she bought Costco’s shares to
honor the organization’s supportive employee environment. This small
step of leadership is causing others to consider doing the same.
This brings us face to face with choices in the
personal path of our work lives. In particular how we spend our time,
give of ourselves and gather and distribute our resources. I have been
fortunate recently to be with a team of people coming together to
provide human resource support to a non-profit organization. Each
person has a busy personal and work schedule and yet each willingly
gives time and expertise to an organization that in turn supports others
struggling to gain a foothold in the work world. In making these time
commitments team members also give of themselves, whether in their
ability to work with others in the organization, with each other, or to
bring their special knowledge to the organization.
What to make of this? How does it relate to our
own lives and our own stories? Let me suggest the following in
approaching our relationship with our organizations:
·
Take the time to understand what is personally important
and why. Read, reflect, use assessments, discuss and learn from the
lives of others. Be clear about what you stand for and draw on inner
courage to be true to that person.
·
Look around and know what is happening in your
organization. Be ready to champion needed change.
·
Question the status quo and work to change it if it needs
to be changed.
·
Question what is proposed and proceed only if you are in
agreement.
·
Join those organizations that speak to the strength and
compassion within you and leave organizations that don’t.
·
Ask each day “What can I do to make the lives of those
around me a little better for our having been together today?”
In the words of Howard Zinn (also from The
Impossible Will Take a Little While) “The future is an infinite
succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should
live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous
victory.”
(Some of this article is excerpted from Affiliation
in the Workplace: Value Creation in the New Organization, Ron Elsdon,
Praeger, 2003.)
Pulse of the Company Environment
A recent McKinsey study (Global Survey of Business
Executives, McKinsey Quarterly, July 2005) provides some insights into
the current global working environment. Probing such areas as
confidence in the global economy, and communication challenges this
survey of 7,800 executives from 132 countries, with one fifth at the CEO
or other C-level, showed:
In adopting these practices HR practitioners can
further align with organizational purpose, and materially contribute to
organizational prosperity.
Quote
“I beg you … to have patience with everything
unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if
they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language.
Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now,
because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live
everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the
future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into
the answer …”
Rainer Maria Rilke (Letters to a Young Poet,
Translation by Stephen Mitchell, Random House, 1984, Quotable cards).
Upcoming Elsdon Organizational Renewal (EOR) Events and Recent
Mentions
Upcoming Events
·
“Using Measurement to Guide
Employee Development and Training” Strategic Metrics and HR Measurement
Conference, NCHRA, Sir Francis Drake Hotel, San Francisco
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August 31, 2005
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NCHRA Professional Development - Strategic Metrics and HR Management
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“Networking and Connecting”
presentation for U.C. Berkeley, Haas School of Business Alumni, Haas
School, Berkeley
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September 20, 2005
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“Rising and Falling Tides”
presentation for East Bay Association of Career Management
Professionals, Walnut Creek
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September 22, 2005
Recent Mentions
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Reviews of “Affiliation in the
Workplace: Value Creation in the New Organization.” Ron Elsdon.
Praeger Publishers, Westport, CT (2003)
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Harvard
Business School
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HBS Working Knowledge: Organizations
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Global Diversity Institute
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Global Diversity Institute - The Journal of Diversity Praxis
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Journal of Asian Economics
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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)
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http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0471410691,descCd-tableOfContents.html
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The Alliance of Chief Executives
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Alliance of CEOs - Ron Elsdon
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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
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CCDA News, April 2005
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California Career Development Association - Articles
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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
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“Worklife Survival: Finding a
Fit”
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Article for HR West, February 2005 (Northern California Human Resource
Association)
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http://www.nchra.org/StaticContent/Download/EXT0205007.pdf
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Recent interview in the
education field “Affiliation as a Unifying Principle in Education”
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Career Pro News
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Affiliation and Education
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Review of ICDC Global Issues
Forum
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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
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Penetrate new markets
·
Combat aggressive competitors
·
Handle major change
·
Break down communication
barriers
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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
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Experts to gather and analyze information, moving your organization to
action
·
Individual leadership coaching
to give you world class leadership capabilities
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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
