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Must I work this bit alone?

September 14, 2011 by Rosa Say

This is a question I’d love to have more people ask themselves, asking it not in a general way, but with much more specificity, action by action, decision by decision.

Who can give you your second opinion?
Who can tip those aha! moments you have when you get stuck at work?
Who can you bounce an idea off of, feeling free to question it, or laugh about it?
Who might champion it with you, adding their unbridled enthusiasm to your own?
Who can you learn from?
Who can brighten your day in moments with their presence?

More often than not, the answer to these questions will be, “Come to think of it, several people can.” You simply need to get out of your chair (or away from your work station, whatever the case may be) and go to them. Break your orbit and be more comet-like.

An ‘Imi ola life — that ‘best possible’ life — is NOT a solo proposition.

Another way to ask this collection of questions, would be, Where’s the Aloha?
…and, Are you getting some, and giving some?
[ Your Aloha Spirit, Tightly Curled and Regal ]

One of the reasons I’m so bullish on The Daily Five Minutes, stems from the alarming trending I continually see in ‘digitally savvy’ workplaces toward solitary, independent work. I call this the “Downtown yet No Town” weirdness, because in my workplace visits, people will continually tell me how they feel the cubicle mentality still thrives, and is in fact, their world: They go to work each day, and sit at a workstation or in their office with nose to the grindstone as much as 95% of their day. Scary. And sad. Thanks to email, texting and social media (yes, I’m being sarcastic, for it’s no thanks), they aren’t even on the telephone much anymore. I push D5M with them because I know of its power in getting people together again, simply starting with getting out and about, to Hō‘imi — to actively look for those 5 minutes of found time when they can converse with another human being face to face.

“I dress up for work even tho i hide behind my desk all day.” — mmmony on Tumblr

Forget all the D5M framing if you must — just talk to people more.

Conversation, talking story, and good habits like The Daily Five Minutes are ‘Imi ola triggers: They will elevate the quality of your day, for all work — all good, feels good work — is some balanced execution of what we do on our own and what we do with others. As a workplace culture coach, much of the workplace unhappiness and discontent I see, is clearly the result of an imbalance toward the solitary, where people feel they go it alone. They might be surrounded by other people, but they feel alone most of the time — “Downtown, yet No Town.”

A good number of managers look to solve this by focusing on team dynamics, and yes, by all means, keep group interaction dynamic and vibrant too. Have good huddles. Bring back the staff meeting. Learn to love projects. But understand that people may still feel they disappear in the chaos of a whole team: We all need one-on-one time. If you must choose one over the other, focus on improving your one-to-ones, whether with D5M or other kinds of in-person conversation.

There is so much to be gained from collaborative work, starting with that simple act of asking another person for their opinion — their sharing of knowledge, with you.

Huddle up

April 29, 2011 by Rosa Say

When you look at this picture, what do you see?

Café Il Mondo Pizzeria

I see a place of great potential, possible anywhere you can surround a table, any table, with some chairs. With any seats at all… we seem to sit on overturned buckets and coolers quite a bit here in Hawai‘i!

I see the possibility of sitting down, and having all kinds of talking story discussions. I see having coffee. I see breaking bread. I see tearing out flip chart pages, and laying them flat where everyone can keep drawing on them, and keep talking about their images, words and ideas.

I see Wow! Projects starting to happen in a very natural way, pulling in the participants they’re meant to pull in, and others too, people pulled into the action by the energy magnet you have created… chairs get kicked back at times like those. They get pushed away so people can stand as their excitement propels them to their feet, and so more people can get closer, standing side-by-side, and not behind the gate-keeping protection the chair may have started with. A comfort zone opens up. It doesn’t matter if you were there in the very beginning, or jumped in later.

But there has to be that beginning. Someone has to start.
Why not you?

Don’t waste the potential of any table or circle of seats you have in your workplace.
Use them today.
Invite others to convene with you, to converse. To go wayfinding.

Do it right now. Why wait?

Ideas are fragile, and inspiration is perishable.
Conversation is easy.

Having their Morning Coffee

Value Alignment for 2011

January 1, 2011 by Rosa Say

A question came up in one of your email responses to my wayfinding post yesterday;

“No monthly values for 2011 Rosa? Now that you’re blogging again, will your ‘Value Your Month to Value Your Life’ program return too?”

I’ll share my answer here on Talking Story too just in case others are wondering.

Yes and no”
Yes, I’ll be blogging here again. I’ve missed it a lot — and I’ve missed all of you! Writing is one of those ‘better habits’ in my wayfinding intentions, and blogging figures prominently in the writing I eagerly am choosing to do.

No, my ‘Value Your Month to Value Your Life’ program will not be resurrected in 2011, at least not in the same way as before — but don’t let that stop any of you! Adopt and adapt the program for your own work team: Getting started is easy. Here’s the Take 5:

  1. There are 19 values covered in Managing with Aloha, including Ka lā hiki ola in the Epilogue. Choose the 12 you feel would benefit your work team most in the coming year, and assign them to the months you think they will align with best seasonally, or per the demands of your business. For narrower, but more extensive focus, choose just 4 — 1 per quarter.
  2. Then very important, make your intentions known to your team. Get everyone involved in some way. Tell them why you want to “value the month” and ask them how they’d like to participate. Say yes to every idea which comes up and ask people to be that idea’s leader: As the Alaka‘i Manager you’re facilitating this, and you can’t do it all (nor should you” grow your team.) Teams I have coached in the past have found great success in assigning values as the steering for specific projects. (More on that tomorrow: now posted ~ Value Alignment for Projects)
  3. Stick with it, and go the distance. Use that value to theme everything you can think of within that alignment period of time you’ve chosen. EVERYTHING. You’re going for value immersion. You’ll be surprised how much you can do. Here is a good article Joanna Young wrote for Joyful Jubilant Learning on Why I Write to a Theme.
  4. Be sure to incorporate the value you choose into your language, for it’s powerful (Review Key Concept 5; Language of Intention). You’ll start to hear where you’re effective, and you’ll miss hearing where you aren’t, and need to engage more.
  5. Reach out to me, or to others in our Ho‘ohana Community (link to our LinkedIn Group) anytime you have questions or need help, especially when you feel energies waning, for remember: Leading is about generating energy as your greatest resource, and Managing is about channeling it. (Review: 3 Ways Managers Create Energetic Workplaces.)

Value alignment is the best ‘channeler’ I know of! Which, continuing on, brings me to another Yes”

Yes, I’ll be working on value alignment too! Try and stop me” As our 3rd Key Concept for Managing with Aloha I’m on automatic pilot with it in my life, and that’s a habit which has been a really, really great thing. Each year I challenge myself to evolve with it though, and so in 2011 my value alignment will set sail in the spirit of the wayfinding I wrote of yesterday. We’ll see where the journey takes us!

Two of my “best clues” (a reference to yesterday’s post, if you missed it) are Abundance and Context.

  • Abundance is connected to (aligned with!) Palena ‘ole — our MWA 9th Key Concept of Unlimited Capacity. One of the reasons I no longer choose only 12 values for my blog-writing is that they can be too limiting in my contexts here — opposite of how they will give a specific work team laser-like focus in the Take 5 above. Yesterday for example, we aligned wayfinding with three different values; Ka lā hiki ola, Ho‘ohanohano, and Alaka‘i. When I dig deeper, I can surely align wayfinding with every value in some way, and so can you; sometimes minimally, sometimes significantly, and then
  • Context moves me toward choice and action. Thinking about all of this can be mind-blowing, but you don’t want it drive you crazy either! So take aim and pull the trigger… Within all the Palena ‘ole/9th Key thinking you did, what will you take action on quickest and best? Why, and with who? You will become more decisive, and your value alignment will be directed toward the specific relationships or projects you have in mind. Practical and useful.

So consider the possibilities with value alignment, then choose your best habit this year, and take action.

How will value alignment work for you in 2011?

Go back to yesterday’s post if it helps: Do you already have clarity on specific goals, or is the wayfinding more attractive to you too? Your answer is the right answer.

A Hula Honeys Makeover

More value alignment; I Aloha-tweaked my cigar box of index cards I use as a perpetual calendar as my New Years Eve day project yesterday :)
Visuals alone can add so much, and index cards rock.

Postscript: If you are reading this via RSS or email, take a moment to click in and review the right-side column of the blog. I have a bit of updating I still need to do there, but I’ll be sure to leave the links parked there for you to find the 9 Key Concepts easily each time you return. You’ll see the value index links there too.

Postscript 2: I had the link for my free ebook on becoming an Alaka‘i Manager in the Take 5 above, but then I decided to drop it down here, for I don’t want you to feel you have to go through that whole 5-week program first and not start NOW with your value alignment. Go for it!

Feeling Good Isn’t the Same as Feeling Strong

February 23, 2010 by Rosa Say for Say “Alaka‘i”

I’m working with a management team taking pause this first quarter of their year to inventory their strengths. They wish to mix things up a bit, opening their thinking with cross-functional teams assigned to specific projects in March and April, and they hired me to help them approach their re-teaming in a way which will better leverage the strengths each person is anticipated to bring to each project team.

Smart strategy. They feel confident in their workforce, and they’re sure there are strengths they’ve not tapped into yet: They are determined that 2010 will be the year everyone’s strengths are encouraged to come out and play.

Fun stuff too, very encouraging for those involved, and we’ve celebrated some true aha! moments just one session into it.

There was one insight in particular that I’ve seen come up before with other groups, a very helpful awareness to have, when you feel you have begun to close in on identifying your own strengths:

Feeling good isn’t necessarily the same as feeling strong
—and your strengths do make you feel strong.

Let’s think about that specifically in regard to leadership today, and keeping our Alaka‘i leading-as-verb definition in mind: When managers lead, they create workplace energy. Energy is our most importance resource in moving work performance forward in a positive, and productive way —more than time, more than finances, for when we have positive energy, we optimize our time and financial resources; having them is just the beginning.

Leadership is riddled with “should-ing” expectations: Everyone has some kind of an opinion about what leaders should do and should not do. Even if we only consider the positive expectations, and what others want from leaders, we can separate those wants into two classifications:

  1. There’s acceptable behavior according to social norms (e.g. decorum, civility, ethics, community responsibility), and
  2. There’s accomplished behavior, where leadership ventures above and beyond, and enters that stratum of success, volunteerism, social entrepreneurship and giving to mankind.

One you admire —it’s good. However the other inspires you —as the strength it truly is.

Acceptable behavior delivers maintenance-level energy to a work culture, whereas accomplished behavior delivers the higher-level energy which makes that work culture vibrant and dynamic: Within a workplace, it is the high energy of accomplished behavior which delivers true performance excitement and growth. People stop thinking work and begin thinking legacy.

So let’s bring this back to you, as an Alaka‘i manager giving your 30% to leadership intentions. Here is the aha! awareness to have, if you are to leverage your strengths too:

  • You may feel good as a leader (you may feel very good) because you are living up to other’s expectations of you, expectations you do share with them, and have agreed to make good on. You demonstrate acceptable behavior, and you may even have nailed maintaining it at a constant level, both for you and the organization you lead. You are reliable in that way, you are trusted, and you are admired.
  • You will feel strong as a leader when you’ve entered the realm of accomplished behavior. You are living up to YOUR expectations of you, AND you are consistently working within those activities which capitalize on your strengths. You feel great because you feel the accomplishment delivered by your strengths, and you are now eager to explore the further depths of your full capacity [More on Palena ‘ole in the footnote.] You are more than admired; you are inspiring.

Accomplished behavior does a LOT for your Aloha Spirit as well. Aloha comes from within you; it helps you live from the inside out, fortifying your personal energies. And what is inspiration? A noun which means “in spirit.”

“There are four telltale signs of a strength. The acronym SIGN is a good way to organize and remember them: S is for Success, I is for Instinct, G is for Growth, and N is for Needs.

Putting these four signs together, the simplest and most useful definition of a strength is this: your strengths are those activities which make you feel strong” In the language of SIGN, you need to be acutely aware of your Instinct, your Growth, and your Needs, because they drive your success.”

—Marcus Buckingham, Go Put Your Strengths to Work; 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance

I highly recommend Buckingham’s book if you cannot hire a coach to help you identify your strengths, and match them up to your Ho‘ohana strategies. But don’t just read it: Study it and personally apply it. Work on you as your best project this year.

For now however, read his quote again: The success, instinct, growth, and needs of which he speaks is all about YOU, and leveraging your strengths for the accomplished behavior which requires you work harder, and KÅ«lia i ka nu‘u, strive for the summit.

Is that the leading you apply yourself to?

A last word (well, for today :) This is good news and should not intimidate you, for it’s all about you! It is also a daily journey you will enjoy, and be fulfilled by. Connect this article to these other discussions we have had here:

  1. What Your Big Ideas Do Best: “Our big ideas don’t have to change the world. They just have to move it along.”
  2. Small Wins Create Big Domino Effects: A “Small Win” is not small as in insignificant. It is small as in, you cannot fail unless you completely go lazy on me or get stuck in procrastination.
  3. Who leads? You do. In the Sweet Spot: The trouble with “all or nothing” is that it is often too intimidating to choose all, making it much too easy to choose nothing.

Photo Credit: Day 232 Participant by lintmachine on Flickr.

Footnote: We have themed our February somewhat, starting with this posting: February’s Strengthening. We know it as Love. However strengths-management is a constant discussion here on Talking Story, for it is one of the 9 Keys of the Managing with Aloha philosophy in shaping workplace culture:

7. Strengths Management:

Keys 1 through 6 have put a great foundation in place for your business to thrive within: Together they have created the best possible launching pad for your organizational culture. Now we turn to bigger investments made in each employee, business partner, and stakeholder involved, so you can truly say, “Our people are our biggest asset” —and mean it. Cooperation, connectivity and collaboration evolve to optimization and co-creation.

From December, 2009: Find Your Strongest Life. Yes, You. A book review on a follow-up book that Marcus Buckingham had written for women.

This discussion today also pertains to Key 9:

9. Palena ‘ole (Unlimited Capacity):

This is your exponential growth stage, and about seeing your bigger and better leadership dreams come to fruition. Think “Legacy.” Create abundance by honoring capacity; physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual. Seek inclusive, full engagement and optimal productivity, and scarcity will be banished.

What will be the result you achieve when you work to manage with Aloha? New learning, increased energy, passionate commitment to vision, and dramatic shifts in personal engagement. Said another way, you will grow as you learn the Ho‘ohana of self-management and self-leadership as you make extremely valuable contributions to whatever organization you are presently involved with.

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RSS Current Articles at Managing with Aloha:

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