• Your sales compensation plan may not only be driving the wrong behaviors, but may be costing your organization more money than the revenue it was intended to incentivize!
• The majority of your management team may be leading people based on a set of assumptionsabout employee motivation that are not only outdated, but that are likely de-motivating in the long run!
• If your company cannot point to any products, services, or activities that are socially redeeming and that contribute to “the greater good” of society at large, your employees are likely going to “underperforming”.
• If managers do not understand the difference between “carrot and stick” motivation and the intrinsic, deep-desire people have to direct their own lives and live a life of purpose, they will fail to realize the full potential of their employees, and companies will fail to realize greater productivity from those employees.

Pink hits a home run! Look at the success of Google, Wikipedia, Zappos, and other companies that have become enlightened to the notion of providing employees with greater autonomy and discretion in how they do their jobs so long as their work adheres to the value of contributing to the greater good!

One of the greatest examples offered is that of TOMS shoes. Every time they sell a pair of shoes to you or me, they give away a pair of shoes to a young child in a developing country! Profit and charity can live hand in hand, because TOMS shoes is a profit-making business by design.

Leaders take note! Your company is doing exactly what it was designed to do TODAY! Whatever results your company is achieving are results it was designed to achieve! If you want different results, your company needs to be designed differently.

Here are some questions for organization leaders to consider.

• Do your managers understand that their job is to understand employee motivation, and to create the conditions of work that will lead to a state where employees are not only productive but thrilled to be working for your company?
• Does your Human Resource department understand that its purpose is to advise leadership on how to lead, motivate, hire, develop, and compensate employees in a way that achieves a climate where intrinsically motivated employees can thrive?
• Is your leadership team aligned on the company’s strategy for leading, motivating, hiring,  developing, and compensating employees in a way that…..(ok, you get the idea……)
• How do you begin the “journey” to get your management team and employees “on board” with these powerful concepts and put them into action?
• What are the challenges your company faces in becoming a more “socially redeeming” enterprise?

I highly recommend this book for any organizational consultant, HR specialist or business leader.  And if you aren’t  an avid reader, listen to Pink’s TEDTalk on the surprising science of motivation instead.

For the last 10+ years I’ve been managing client relationships and selling Change Management consulting and training solutions to organizations that want to adopt a common approach to manage change.   It continues to fascinate me that despite the increased focus and discipline applied in this field, implementation efforts continue to fail because of human factors.  Organizational Change Management as an industry has existed for 40 years if not longer.  Over the past 10-15 years it has become increasingly more common for large organizations to recognize the need to manage the human issues when implementing large-scale change (i.e. ERP or technology implementations, mergers and acquisitions, culture change, reengineering or business process change, downsizing, organization redesign, or any project that involves changing the way people do their jobs).   Much has been written about why implementation efforts fail.  Statistics continue to illustrate that approximately 80% of change efforts fail to meet budget, target dates, or key objectives. It is also well documented that the highest risk of implementation failure is on the human side, and not with the technology.  Many Fortune 500 organizations today understand that by applying a structured approach or framework to manage the human side, the chance of a successful project will substantially increase.  Then why aren’t we learning from our past mistakes?

Change Agents assigned to projects are generally viewed as being responsible for completing the change management tasks.  Often they are seen as the experts.  Plus, it’s “their job”!  This does not mean, however, that the rest of the organization is exempt from change management responsibility.   Organizations will often inaccurately assume that it’s primarily the job of the Change Agent to “do the change management stuff”.  Then when the tasks are completed and the “boxes are all checked”, the organization will magically transform into being 100% committed to the change.   This flawed thinking can lead to underestimating the levels of resistance that exist, and ultimately a failed project.  If you’re old enough you may remember the quality efforts back in the early ‘90s. Organizations would frequently hire a Quality Manager with the false belief that this one individual could solve the quality issues that existed within the organization. We now know that everyone impacted by quality improvement needs to be on board and held accountable, and the same holds true for Change Management.

Adopting a structured change management approach, and being successful in doing so, requires the engagement of a larger audience than just the core project team or a handful of  Change Agents.  True accountability for project success resides with both the Leaders and Change Agents responsible for the implementation.   However, the Leaders and Change Agents should first be educated on their roles and what is required of them to actively and effectively lead this process.  Additionally, resources that reside in the business areas where the deployment of the system will occur must also be assigned as key Leaders and Change Agents on the project. 

Below are five steps that an organization can take to avoid repeating the same implementation mistakes of the past:

1. Educate the project team and broader leadership team on the Change Management framework or methodology being applied to manage the human side. This will create a common language and a common understanding of the approach, as well as a clear and consistent understanding of the roles on the project.   Leaders need to understand what they need to say and do in order to lead a successful implementation.  By educating a broader audience, individuals also will learn a repeatable process that can be used on future implementations. 
2. Create an implementation “role map” which identifies Leaders, Change Agents, and Users impacted by the change.  Pay particular attention to where the Leaders reside in the business areas and if any ‘gaps’ exist where project commitment may be weak, thus requiring additional attention or resources to lead the change.
3. Key Leaders must be open to Change Agent feedback on how to be better sponsors of the project.  Change Agents are closest to the project issues, and they need to have an open dialog with key Leaders, along with a mutually-trusting relationship.  When Leaders are kept informed, they can then take the necessary steps to resolve implementation issues before or as they occur.
4. Don’t underestimate the level of resistance that may exist.  Resistance should be surfaced and not suppressed or ignored.  Communication should be two-way and include feedback loops whenever possible, encouraging involvement and communication from affected employees and end users.  The goal of the communication plan should be to drive behavior change and surface resistance, and not just to communicate information.
5. The Change Management framework should have a heavy emphasis on reinforcing behavior change. Change Agents will need to ensure that Leaders are effectively rewarding desired behaviors as well as discouraging old behaviors.  It’s the role of the Leader to apply reinforcements, both to reward people for the behaviors that are consistent with the change, as well as to discourage them from falling back to the old way of doing things.  Reinforced behavior change is a key component to sustaining the change and achieving project ROI, and it’s the role of the Leaders to apply these reinforcements.

In conclusion, if we were to look at the items above collectively, it is my belief that the primary reason organizations aren’t learning from failed implementations has to do with the lack of leadership commitment.  If leadership commitment plays a primary role in project success, then do you believe the problem is caused by a lack of willingness to change on the part of the leadership team or a lack of knowledge, not possessing the skills or demonstrating the required behaviors to sustain the change?   What do you think? 

As Gandhi said, “We must be the change we wish to see in the world.”  This must be applied to organizations as well as the Leaders that run them.

This guest post was generously contributed by David Nielson, Executive Consultant at Plus Delta Consulting.

For any of us in the field of management consulting, the issue of sales and marketing is usually a challenge. We’re often so busy delivering services directly to our clients that there is little time to focus on developing new sales. Sales, though, isn’t just about contract negotiations and closing the deal. It’s about relationships! So what are the criteria for building – and maintaining – effective relationships?Given that there are many answers to what only at first glance appears to be a simple question, I’m going to narrow our discussion considerably to the relationship between a client wanting to hire and a consultant. More specifically, even before the relationship begins, what would cause a prospective client to purchase the services of a consultant?

Plus Delta’s Cris Hagen, recently blogged about the notion of regulating/licensing Organization Development consultants – a great blog post, and Cris raised great questions. That debate fits nicely in the context of what I’ll propose here.  As a management consultant for the past twenty plus years, I’ve worked in the field of Organization Development and Change Management in a wide variety of organizations and had to apply my former career – sales – in order to survive. Fortunately over the years, I heard yes to proposals, more often than no. What caused prospective clients to say yes, issue a P.O., and be willing to engage my services? From feedback I’ve received – even when I heard no – I believe the answer is fairly simple.

Before I offer it up, it might be interesting to hear two of the most common answers I’ve heard when I’ve asked this question in informal discussion settings. The first common answer is “price”. What I have come to believe is that a “no answer” is seldom about the money. Even in these recessionary times, if the correct criteria are met for the client, they will find the money. The other common answer is something related to a “value calculation” – ROI or some similar metric. What I’ve seen over the years is that most consultants or firms, if they are sustainably successful, have the capability to put together convincing proposals. They get good at speaking convincingly about the value they bring. This notion is related to what I believe the answer is but not the core issue.

In my opinion, the real difference between yes and no, when a client is in the market for a consultant, is what I call The Three C’s – Chemistry, Competence and Confidence. Now there may be a lot more behind these, but together they produce a level of trust which will make it much easier for a prospective client to say yes. A prospective client is asking consciously or subconsciously, “Can I trust you?” In a simplistic way, it can be like a mathematical equation –  3C = T.

Let’s look at the C’s individually:

• Chemistry – I suppose one can say first impressions and image come first. Next, does this person “fit” our culture? Does his/her language patterns work well here? Can we comfortably imagine spending time with this person? There are numerous other chemistry factors you could identify, but simply stated, “Does it ‘feel’ right?” For most of us, we just know when it does and when it doesn’t. And if we don’t make it past this first C, the next two likely won’t matter.
• Competence – On the surface, this is usually easy for a client to address through a resume or CV.  Beyond that, interviews can focus on specific experience and examples of specific accomplishments.  For most consulting opportunities, I believe day-in-the-life experience will trump academic credentials. Simply stated, a prospective client wants to know whether or not you done something before which will provide value in MY PROJECT being successful.
• Confidence – Were the first two C’s achieved in a way that the prospective client can confidently say, “This individual will solve a problem for me – or add value to my project.” The first two C’s are pretty critical to the third – even prerequisites I’d say. I imagine we all can think through a process to measure how we will do in a selling or proposal situation. In that way, the requirements become the metrics, so the prospective client must be confident in YOU to say yes.

The degree of trust in any relationship is paramount, and I believe the better you “score” on the 3 C’s the greater the trust will be. And of course as consultants, we take a page from the medical profession in that we must “First, do no harm”.

To conclude, think back to the questions I started with – in particular, your reflection on your own successful personal relationships. Do you see a pattern? Could this work for you in your business? More importantly, do you think “I’m smoking my shoes” – or does this concept have merit? How can you add to it? What am I missing? Please share your comments with us below.

Whether it’s a skater or skier or snowboarder or other, everyone who won a Gold Medal in Vancouver recently is a role model for us all. Practice, patience, persistence, and passion – the 4 P’s of Olympic Gold – are likely mantras for all these winners. Shaun White, in particular, is a true living example of exactly what every senior executive and business leader should be focused on creating in their organizations – not because he won gold on the half pipe, but because he won gold after winning gold on the half pipe!

That’s right.  Shaun White was standing at the top of his second and final run when the results came in, and he found out that he already won the gold medal without even completing his last run. In that very moment, he had a choice- walk down the mountain a victor with snowboard in hand or deliver what he came to deliver for the crowd. After a 2-minute pep talk with his coaches that seemed to last forever, he did exactly that. Deliver!

Shaun White was not just in it to win it. He was in it to bring it! Winning the gold almost seemed to be an unnecessary bonus for him as he stuck the landing on his final trick. Click on the following video to watch this incredible “double gold” performance.

Link to NBC Footage of Shaun White’s 2010 Olympic Performance

So what can we learn from Shaun White and all the other Olympic Gold Medalists this year?  The following 4 P’s of Olympic Gold are critical for anyone to be successful in fulfilling their dreams and achieving their objectives in today’s fiercely competitive business marketplace:

1. Patience – Gold medal performances don’t come overnight. Be patient and remain focused on your end goal.
2. Persistence – As a follow-up to #1, success requires long-term and unwavering commitment. Don’t give up even if you hit a few road bumps along the way.
3. Practice – Practice, practice, practice… Gold medals only come from taking risks, reaching beyond your comfort zone, and learning new skills over time.
4. Passion – And finally, passion! As Jim Collins writes in his best-seller Good To Great, you can achieve anything you set your mind to if you are passionate about it. Without passion, you are far more likely to throw in the towel on the 1^st 3 P’s before you achieve your objectives.

If you are interested in engaging in a powerful and stimulating conversation about how best to groom the next generation of Gold Medalists in your organization, join us and the OD in LA MeetUp group next Tuesday, March 23^rd at 6:30pm. Plus Delta’s President and CEO Samantha and Jeremy Lurey will be hosting a World Café forum to discuss this very subject with some of LA’s finest organizational consultants. Click here for more info.

Should the profession of Organization Development (OD) require professional certification or licensing for practitioners to practice?

As we look to the future of OD, some questions come to mind :

-  Should anyone wanting to “hang out a shingle” as an OD practitioner be allowed to do so?

-  Should there be minimum educational requirements?  If so, what should they be?

-  Should OD practitioners be licensed through a formal licensing or certification process?

-  How would a governing body for licensing or certification be “selected”?

-  What risks to the OD profession are posed if licensing or certification is required?

-  How do you market your practice to differentiate and distinguish yourself?

Having practiced in the field for 30 years, now, I have seen OD grow to encompass a broad range of “specialty” areas beyond its origins in the area of “group dynamics”, “human relations research”, and “action research” back in the 1940’s and 50’s.  (See the Wikipedia article on OD here). Over the past nearly 60 years, the field of OD has grown and expanded to include a multitude of “sub-disciplines”, including organization design, change management, executive coaching and development, team building, appreciative inquiry (AI), future search, systems theory, employee engagement, organizational culture/climate, employee surveys, performance improvement, process improvement, strategic planning–the list goes on and on.

As with any field – whether it be medicine, law, chemistry, biology, engineering, etc. – this trend toward increased specialization affords exciting opportunities for people practicing in these fields to deepen their skills and knowledge in areas that are valued by society.  Just as deepening the field of medicine in, say, the specialization of oncology, can lead to new and more effective treatments for cancer, so can deepening the field of OD in, say, the specialization of organization design, can lead to new and more effective organizational forms.

But imagine that you are a potential client for a project that requires you to hire an OD consultant, and that project is going to cost your business $500K for the next 6 months.  You put out a request for proposal (RFP) stating your requirements, wait for the proposals to come in, and then interview the top finalists.  How do you, the somewhat uninformed client, know how to identify the right consultant or consulting firm?  They all claim to be OD consultants.  They all claim to have the right experience.  Each one of them tells you a different story about your problem, one saying that it’s a “performance management” problem, another saying that it’s a “reengineering problem”, and yet another saying that your executive team needs team-building or executive coaching.  How do you, as a client, know how to sort through the inevitable “BS” and make an informed buying decision?

Now, imagine that you’re the OD consultant!  How do you avoid being a “Johnny-one-note” with a “pet solution” designed to fit every problem?  (In other words, a hammer in search of a nail!)  Or how do you differentiate yourself from “OD wannabees” who have had little to no formal education or training in OD without sounding arrogant or prideful?  Or how do you market yourself so that you demonstrate depth in key (hopefully marketable) areas, without becoming so narrowly specialized that you miss out on potentially interesting and profitable consulting opportunities?

Paradigm shifts aside, for now let’s consider the future of OD as a cohesive “field”: OD “purists” and those who teach in academic institutions continually emphasize the need for empirical research and scientific methods in the field of OD to establish the validity of OD interventions and give the profession its due credibility in the business world.  But as a seasoned OD practitioner, how often are you asked for scientific evidence for your recommendations, or for the statistical validation of the efficacy of your group facilitation techniques?  I would imagine, however, that you have been asked to share specific examples of where your efforts have led to measurable improvements in business results and/or increased employee engagement. I am eager to hear from other professionals and engage in a debate on these matters!

(We encourage public comments! Private comments may be sent to Chagen_at_PlusDelta_dot_net)

Current science has legitimized the power of thoughts, words, breath, meditation, and world-view to have direct and lasting effects on our performance, happiness, and well-being. As studies in neurobiology, behavioral genetics, and quantum theory begin to confirm what has long been known by practitioners of—sometimes ancient—wisdom, we may see a new acceptance of ideas embraced by those who were once chided as “touchy-feely” types. Below I’ll provide a “top 7” list of areas to consider and specific solutions that may make a difference in your life—but I would be doing you a disservice if I were to rank-order these solutions or tell you what works “best,” rather than provide you with a call-to-action to reflect on your life, explore these options, and find what resonates for you as initial steps.What are you doing lately to develop yourself, your habits, and your overall well-being? How are you integrating such practices at work and in your personal life? To what degree are you committed to leading the life you’ve always wanted?

Let me be clear: This is not about what some call the “self-help” movement or such potentially misleading films as The Secret. Thoughts create new openings for actions, and that step may have been lost on some. For that reason, one can deride many of the over-simplified, extreme, or blatantly scheming claims of similar material, and by so doing, overlook the core ideas that Aristotle would call Phronesis, or practical wisdom. We just need a guide to separate the charlatans from those who provide value to those of us who want to get things done in spite of increased stress due to the increased speed and complexity of our professional and much of our waking lives (e.g.  entrepreneurs, job-seekers, or employees in general). How often have you experienced a fight or flight response in the last year? Alternatively, how often have you found yourself in optimal flow (see the work of Mihály Csíkszentmihályi)? Be honest.

Has your workplace sent you to any workshops or seminars to calm the mind, raise the spirit/vitality, or unlock your potential? Beyond the classic productivity workshops such as David Allen’s Getting Things Done, Mission Control, or Franklin-Covey, have you participated in anything designed to either: A) train the mind to maintain focus during times of increasing amounts of informational load? or, B) raise our level of understanding that we create the world through our words and actions, and that what used to be a passé understanding of the power of what they called “positive thinking” is actually a reflection of how the world really works? That’s right. One need not agree with the more spiritual views of Integral Psychology (see Ken Wilber) to recognize that our thoughts and actions as we grew up believing in them from a basic Newtonian physics model are not quite what we experience in the world today. The world works differently than we thought it did!

While philosophical discussions of serendipity, coincidence, and the quantum nature of reality are far too ambitious for an introduction of this size, for future discussion we can reflect on and eventually share our most profound experiences with self-development and humanistic approaches toward well-being, as well as the correlation to the scientific articles we often see via the Internet or in books or journal articles.

Here are seven categories, each of which deserves in-depth future discussion:

• Healthy Body/Healthy Mind (eg. Cardiovascular exercise and its effects on the brain; the effect of sleep on brain function )

• The Science of Breath (eg. Coherent Breathing of Steve Elliot; Sudarshan Kriya breath technique of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar)

• Awareness Training (eg. The forum; therapeutic and emotional intelligence work; cognitive-behavioral techniques)

• Nutritional Optimization (a variety of movements that largely focus on the benefits of more greens and less animal products in one’s diet; herbal and other supplements often called “neutraceuticals”)

• Biofeedback and Meditation (eg. Computer-assisted EEG neurofeedback such as BrainPaint; meditative practices; auditory meditation such as from the Monroe Institute)

• Electrical Devices (eg. Light boxes; Cranial Electrical Stimulation devices)

• And even the more common forms of gratitude and prayer, often via religious or spirituality practices

Science and ancient wisdom are merging on a set of ideas that may reach a tipping-point sometime soon, whereby many more people will understand that they have both high-tech and low-tech options with which to redirect their focus, optimize their performance, and train their body and mind to cultivate an energetic and creative well-being, including the potential for mitigating illness and disease. How would it look to create a path for yourself and your life that extends far beyond what you thought was possible? New possibilities appear when you’re “there” to meet them.

Public comments are encouraged. If you would like to privately share your experiences, please email me: mliskin-at-plusdelta-dot-net

Here is an excerpt of a recent discussion about the Best Recognition and Rewards Programs for the Post-Recession Economy:

[Jeremy Lurey]: A couple weeks ago, I facilitated a great session with a local NHRA (National Human Resources Association) chapter. The topic was Recognition and Rewards programs, and we used a World Cafe (see www.theworldcafe.com) format to bring everyone – and their richly diverse perspectives – into the room. During the World Cafe rounds, groups were asked the following 3 questions:

1. What are the top three MONETARY recognition and rewards approaches that you use in your company?
2. What are the top three NON-MONETARY recognition and rewards approaches that you use in your company?
3. What are the underlying assumptions of your recognition and rewards system, and does the absence of receiving a reward equate to PUNISHMENT?

Provided below are some of the key themes that emerged from the group. I’m curious if this is in line with your experiences or if you have other “best programs” you would recommend.

- MONETARY programs included spot bonuses, spot awards of all denominations, sales incentives, and structured commissions for sales people. Some of the best suggestions actually included having the program guidelines approved by management but then having the awards themselves appointed by others without management intervention.

- NON-MONETARY programs included everything from hand-written Thank You cards from senior leadership to deserving employees to more visible Employee of the Month/Year awards to more individualized service pins and other tokens of recognition, including honorary parking spots. Some of the best recommendations were actually based on assigning special project tasks (i.e., Tiger Team assignments) to people to recognize their abilities and unique contributions.

- Some of the final thoughts about PUNISHMENT may have been most interesting of all. A significant number of participants remarked on how many rewards were removed in 2009 due to the economy and how this simple act of cost-cutting was experienced by many as punishment. So the resounding recommendation of the group was to not implement something that may not be sustainable, because any improvements in organizational culture and performance that may have been gained initially surely would be lost – and then some! – as soon as those rewards were taken away.

[Future of OD Member]: This sound[s] like it would have been [a] fascinating meeting. I couldn’t agree more with the final comments. Once the bar has been set, anything that lowers the bar is experienced as either punishment or taking something away. We create the expectation of recognition when we initiate a recognition program. If we, for any reason, have to stop that program, we then fail to meet the expectations that we have created. This gives us a very fine line to walk, but it’s worth it if we can find our way.

[Jeremy Lurey]: Thanks (Member). It really was a great meeting. Not often, we as professionals get a chance to focus on knowledge transfer and learning in this type of intimate group forum. And the ideas that came out of the discussion were powerful and tremendously rich. Everyone very much agreed with what you just described which is the basic tenet of “Don’t do it if you aren’t serious long-term” and “Fight to keep it once it’s already in place.”

So what are your thoughts about recognition and rewards for the post-recession economy? As you can see, we are blogging about a discussion that is now taking place online even though it originally formed from the ideas discussed in a separate in-person group. Help us continue the conversation here via this communication media by commenting below. Or better yet, take an excerpt of this blog post and start another discussion in yet another form. We welcome it!

Many organizations have realized that green business practices provide a competitive business advantage. It’s an opportunity to make a real difference in a way that benefits not only bottom line results, but also fosters stronger employee engagement, improves community relations, and creates a sense of corporate responsibility.

Some companies have integrated their green initiatives into every aspect of their business, and have even resulted in the addition of innovative products and services to boost bottom line results. In most cases, though, it’s not easy to come up with potentially significant contributions that result in a measurable impact to cost or profitability.

Plus Delta Consulting recommends collaborating with all of your stakeholders — employees, customers, vendors, and business partners — to gather input, ideas, and perspectives. Educate your stakeholders about sustainability and the company’s vision, and then involve them so everyone feels like they are contributing to the goal. They will be much more engaged in the process and will be much more likely to participate in any new initiatives.

Whether your organization is looking to implement green initiatives as part of a large-scale transformation, or just at a grassroots level, Plus Delta suggests the following idea starters to…… get you “going green.”

1. What can I do individually? How can I change my  behavior or ways of working to contribute to the organization’s sustainable business practices?
2. What can our department do? What opportunities do we have within our department’s operations or processes to support the company’s vision of going green?
3. What opportunities exist between departments? Can we create efficiencies or new processes in how we work with other departments?
4. What divisional or company-wide opportunities exist for efficiency? Where can we create efficiencies that benefit both the company and the environment?
5. How can we reduce our energy consumption? Are there low-risk opportunities to use less electricity, fuel, renewable energy sources, etc.?
6. How can we reduce materials or waste? What are the low-risk, high-value opportunities in how we produce our products or services?
7. How can we create a more efficient infrastructure? Are there opportunities to reduce, reuse, or recycle within our systems?
8. How can we improve the design of our products or services? How can we make our products or services even better and more environmentally friendly at the same time?
9. What new products or services could we offer? How can our company provide “green” products or services to new markets and customers?
10. What new products or services could we create that might also be patented or licensed to other companies? What are the opportunities for government funding for these in our market or industry?
11. How could we reduce our carbon footprint? What key functions or areas of the company could we analyze and target first?
12. How could we partner with our vendors and business partners on collaborative green initiatives? What green initiatives are they implementing? How can we collaborate and support each other?

Can Plus Delta Consulting help your organization “go green”? Our consultants are passionate about helping our clients implement sustainable business practices, so please do let us know. If you have implemented green practices, please share your “green” organizational experiences with us!

Due to the popular demand we received from our clients last month, we are extending our New Year’s offer for FREE 360-Degree Leadership Excellence Surveys for anyone who starts a new Executive Coaching program. Plus Delta’s coaching programs range from 6 months of rigorous support to help you and your senior leaders develop the skills you need to ensure the success of your organization to our much more targeted “Quickstart” program. Either way, Plus Delta’s talented executive coaches will help you leverage the tools and insights you need to bridge the gap between more traditional managerial roles and your new responsibilities as business leaders in this post-recession economy. And to make sure these programs deliver long-term sustainable results, we’ll include not only a FREE 360-Degree Leadership Excellence Survey but also a one-year subscription to ThinkBox – one of the most powerful online, on-demand learning and development resources around today – with every program.

Interested in learning more? Ready to invest in yourself and invest in your leaders? With Plus Delta’s Executive Coaching programs, you can improve the performance of an individual leader or an entire executive team. Give us a call at 866.PLS.DLTA (757-3582) or send an email to info@plusdelta.net and get started today. Believe it or not, our Quickstart programs begin at just $1950 per leader, so you don’t want to miss this amazing opportunity!

Thank you,

Plus Delta Consulting Team

Every major consulting or research firm has the data to prove it.  Engaged employees are not only happy employees, but they are much, much more productive employees. They make companies more profitable, and shareholders richer.  (Click here to download a Gallup white paper on the power of employee engagement as a core business strategy.)

I think that most leaders are coming around to believe that this is a truth:  engaged employees are a good thing for the business. The problem is that many leaders have trouble figuring out what it takes to get those employees  “engaged”.

Let’s make it clear.  “Engaged” employees are emotionally involved with their job, their company, and their co-workers. Some of their co-workers become friends outside the workplace, and they care about and support one another.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not saying that HR departments in companies should start planning weekly company picnics or make a return to “fermentation Fridays”.  I’m not suggesting that we run a “social Meet Up” application on the company intranet.

We don’t need to run “team building” meetings and ropes courses in every department to get employees engaged.  And no, we don’t need executives to do a weekly “lunch with the President” meeting (UNLESS the “Pres” is willing to stick with the program and actually follow through on his/her commitment to meet with employees, get to know them, and do something about their suggestions).

What I am saying is that the major reasons employees:

-         Enjoy being at work

-         Are willing to give more effort to work

-         Feel good when they tell their friends and family about their work

…are that they:-         Enjoy working with the people they work with

-         Feel pride in the workspace that they occupy

-         Feel that the work they’re doing is important and meaningful

-         Relate to the work they do and identify with it on a deep level

Just read some of the top survey responses related to employee engagement in the Gallup survey for evidence to support this:

-         At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.

-         My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.

-         The mission or purpose of my organization makes me feel my job is important.

-         I have a best friend at work.

-         This last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow.

Is this so hard to understand?  Probably not for most readers.  And while it looks good on paper, it’s often difficult to make happen.

And that is what we as OD practitioners do for a living. When given the opportunity to partner with visionary leaders, we can and do make it happen.

Our job is to size up a company, understand the business, get a sense of what employees are thinking and feeling, assess what it is that needs improvement, align leadership on their vision and purpose, and then to put into play a uniquely tailored strategy to completely change the relationship that employees have with one another, with their work, and with the company.

Sound a bit like marriage counseling? I suppose it is. Some marriages get better after counseling, particularly if the couple involved wants things to get better. Some marriages get worse, and people leave the relationship.  The same thing happens when employees leave for another job.

(I’m reminded of the old joke, “How many therapists does it take to change a light bulb? Only one, but the light bulb has to really want to change).

The key to achieving engagement is to change the conversations that employees and leaders have about the business. It’s about making time to talk, listen, and take action on what workers will tell you about how to improve the business, the work environment, and the culture of the company. It’s simple, but oh so complex in execution. These conversations can lead to changes in business processes, job design, organization design, systems, policies, management practices, hiring practices, and a number of other things. But the key ingredient is getting employees involved (and, dare I use the word “engaged”) in changing the conditions in which they work…for the better. More than just a “suggestion box” program, the idea is to change that conversation that employees and leaders have about the business.  This is “business as unusual”.

Don’t be over-confident though. While some leaders have the intuition and the experience to lead these kinds of change initiatives, it is often advised to have an experienced OD professional assist in conducting these conversations to move from talk to action. Leaders will find value in having an experienced set of eyes and ears looking at the same situation they are looking at, and seeing it with a professional perspective.   And a good OD professional will bring a variety of new approaches to consider – not just a “one-size fits all” solution.

So what are some simple things leaders can do without an OD professional to offer support?  No surprises really.  Here’s a short list:

1. Encourage people on your team to form the natural friendships that foster a positive working environment.  (Or at least don’t discourage it).
2. Encourage discussions about how current work processes might be improved, particularly with cross-functional work processes
3. Set up a peer recognition program.
4. Hold regular discussions with your employees about ways they can continually improve their skills on the job.  Consider job rotation or cross training.
5. Listen to your employees’ ideas and, when possible, implement them

Frankly, I get discouraged working with leaders who don’t “get it”. Many leaders simply equate employee engagement initiatives with an increase in the training budget or consulting expenses. And while these may, in fact, be outcomes of an employee engagement initiative, there is a reason for that. It’s because to get a return, you need to make an investment – an investment of time, money, and effort. All leaders ask for the ROI. And so they should. Well, the ROI is there. The research proves it. If a company can get a 10% or 20% improvement in productivity, sales, revenue, profitability, market share or any other key performance indicator, would it be worth the investment?

What does your leadership team have to say about the importance of employee engagement? And if it they see engagement as something of value, what strategies are they using to more fully engage the potential of the workforce?