Creative Reaction

Owners and Mangers, if you aspire to motivate your teams; if you need them to commit to a vision or a greater purpose, read this Simon Sinek account of “servant leadership”.

Sinek witnessed first-hand an important, yet from a strictly personnel standpoint, costly Marine Corps policy, which exemplifies their culture. The lesson?

The strength of an organization is easily measured by the steps it takes to look after its own.  To what lengths does a company go to show its people that they matter?  An organization that shows commitment to its people can expect its people to show commitment to them.

If you are having morale, motivation and turnover issues within your organization, Sinek gives us plenty to chew on.

This really interesting article by CCL popped up in the newsreader today, explaining the hidden costs of companies which insist on over-managing their employees. These are the companies which feel they need to tell their employees (grown adults, mostly) exactly how their jobs should be performed. While “process” plays an important role in certain industries, not leveraging the experience of employees is shortsighted.

Anybody who does a job eight hours a day is going to see ways in which that job could be improved or simplified…

This is particularly true for Professional Knowledge Workers, where the costs are huge:

At best, it limits growth and innovation. At worse, it solidifies inefficiencies, undermines company goals and creates an environment where employees are unmotivated and disengaged.

So be sure to give some thought to employee engagement and motivation. It is far better for everyone to be working together toward the same vision. It could very well mean the difference between success and failure.

When leaders give people control over their work, stop telling them how to do their jobs and focus on the goals, the hidden costs are replaced with numerous benefits. Employee stress goes down, absenteeism decreases and engagement goes up. Productivity improves and innovation is possible.

Lean Startups follows up with a Part II to a great post from last Summer, How a foosball table can kill your startup.

At issue is motivating employees, but not in a way that hurts morale or adversely affects work. I agree with everything Apollo says. Focus on teamwork, health, having a life outside of work, and developing relationships with clients.

Every company has its own culture and needs. Maybe a foosball table or an espresso machine makes sense for you. The important thing is to choose what is best for your team members as individuals – people with mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual needs –  and in ways that allow them to be engaged in their work.

Back in August, I wrote that Netflix’s HR Guidelines Could be a Covert Recruitment Pitch when I read TechCrunch’s commentary on the slides and browsed through them myself. (“Reference Guide on our Freedom & Responsibility Culture” can be found here.)

Over the past weeks, not only did I read all 128 slides, I also transcribed them because I found them to be so inspiring. I then edited the resulting text quite a bit so it would make better sense to me, made some of the grammar a little more consistent, and added a few notes of my own, especially in the “Development” section, with which I have some issues. It was quite a project and it really opened my eyes. I’m a fan of Netflix and admire the company, but until now I did not realize what an outstanding culture they have.

The slides were intentionally uploaded by Netflix and contain no copyright. One important purpose of codifying a company’s culture is to attract talent which can self-identify with a company, so it is my hope that Netflix  continues to attract high-performance talent by posting my edited  and notated transcription below.

(PLEASE NOTE: Many of the notes are my interpretation. They clearly do NOT represent official Netflix policies, OK? Links to the original slide deck are above.)

—————————————————————————–

A Reference Guide for our Culture of Freedom & Responsibility

This Guide is for our salaried employees, as hourly workers have more structured jobs.

Q:
What gives Netflix the best chance of continuous success for many generations of technology and people?

A:
Culture.

Culture is how a firm operates.

Culture gives Netflix the best chance of continuous success for many generations of technology and people

For Netflix, continuous success = continuous growth in revenue, profits, and reputation.

Netflix needs a culture that supports rapid innovation and excellent execution, which are both required for our continuous growth.

There is often tension between rapid innovation and excellent execution, similar to the tension between creativity and discipline.

The culture must support effective teamwork of high-performance people, which can also provide tension, as high-performance people are very passionate.

The culture must avoid the rigidity, politics, mediocrity, and complacency that infects most organizations as they grow.

7 aspects of Netflix’s culture (a work in progress as we continue to refine it)

1. Emphasis on Values
2. High-performance (Employees)
3. Freedom & Responsibility
4. Context, not Control
5. Highly aligned, Loosely Coupled model of organization
6. Top of the market Salaries
7. Promotion & Development

VALUES
Nine behaviors and skills we value in fellow employees.

Judgement:

• Making wise decisions despite ambiguity
• Identifying root causes
• Thinking strategically and articulating what you are and are NOT trying to do.
• Knowing what must be done well now
• Knowing what can be improved later

Communication

• Listening to better understand, and not immediately reacting
• Being concise and articulate in speech and writing
• Treating people with respect regardless of status or agreement.
• Showing poise in stressful situations

Impact

• Accomplishing amazing amounts of important work
• Performing in a consistently strong manner so that others can rely on you
• Focusing on results (rather than process)
• Showing bias-to-action (rather than over-analyzing)

Curiosity

• Learning eagerly and rapidly
• Understanding our strategy, market, subscribers and suppliers
• Being broadly knowledgeable about business, technology and entertainment
• Contributing effectively outside of your specialty

Innovation

• Re-conceptualizing issues to discover practical solutions to difficult problems
• Challenging the prevailing assumptions when warranted and suggesting better approaches
• Creating new ideas that prove useful
• Keeping us nimble by minimizing complexity and finding time to simplify.

Courage

• Saying what you think even when it is controversial
• Making tough decisions without excessive agonizing
• Taking smart risks
• Questioning actions inconsistent with our values.

Passion

• Inspiring others with your thirst for excellence
• Caring intently about our success
• Celebrating wins
• Being tenacious

Honesty

• Being known for candor and directness
• Not being political when you disagree with others
• Only saying things about others that you would say to their faces
• Being quick to admit mistakes.

Selflessness

• Seeking what is best for the company, rather than yourself or the group
• Putting your ego aside when searching for the best ideas
• Making time to help colleagues
• Sharing information openly and proactively

Judgement. Communication. Impact. Curiosity. Innovation. Courage. Passion. Honesty. Selflessness.

We want every employee to embody these nine values.

A characteristic of Courage:
Questioning actions inconsistent with our values.

This one is especially important.
Akin to the honor code pledge, “I will not lie, nor cheat, nor steal, nor tolerate those who do.”

We are all responsible for consistency in our values.

Values are reinforced in our rewards, promotions and even how we fire.

HIGH PERFORMANCE
Imagine if every person you work with was someone you respect and learn from…
Imagine if all of your colleagues were stunning.

This is how we define a Great Workplace.

We do not define a Great Workplace by having benefits such as day-care, espresso, health care, sushi lunches, nice offices, or big compensation. We only do what efficiently attracts and keeps stunning colleagues.

We practice the art of hiring well.

We also have another practice:
(Merely) Adequate performance results in a generous severance package.

We are like a professional sports team (not a family).

Like a Professional Sports coach, managers must recruit, hire, develop and cut smartly to have excellent players in every position.

Who makes the cut?

This is the Keeper Test:
“Which of my people, if they told me they were leaving in two months for a competitor, would I fight to keep?”

Any people who you would not fight hard to keep need to be offered a generous severance package to make room for an excellent colleague.

You are responsible for your job security.
Ask your manager from time to time, “If I told you I were leaving, how hard would you work to change my mind?”

Q:
“Isn’t Loyalty good?”

A:
Loyalty is good; it is a stabilizer. As individuals and as a company, we will all hit rough patches. Star employees will be given an opportunity to prove themselves again. Loyalty however must have its limits.

Q:
“What about Hard Workers?”

A:
Hard work is about effectiveness, not effort. It is not about working long hours. Measurements can be based on how much, how quickly, and how well work is done, especially under a deadline.

Q:
“How do we handle brilliant jerks?”

A:
Some companies tolerate them; not us. The cost to teamwork is too high. Everyone must embody all nine values, and being a brilliant jerk contradicts many of them.

Q:
Why do we place such a premium on high performance?

A1:
For procedural work, the best perform at 2x average.
For creative work (“knowledge work”) the best perform at 10x average.

Q:
Why do we place such a premium on high performance?

A2:
We define a Great Workplace as having stunning colleagues.

FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY
Characteristics of the rare responsible person:

• Self-motivated
• Self-aware
• Self-disciplined
• Self-improving
• Behaves like a leader
• Proactive
• Considers everything “his job”
• Picks up trash
• Behaves like an owner

Responsible people thrive on freedom and are therefore worthy of freedom.

Our model is to increase employee freedom, rather than limit it, to continue to attract and nourish innovative people, to have a better chance of continued long-term success. (Most companies restrict freedom as they grow.)

The relationship between growth, chaos, and restrictions:
Growth increases complexity and shrinks talent density, which leads to errors and chaos. Often rules and procedures (process) are created to avoid chaos. Procedures drive the talent away. Process inhibits innovation.

A better option.

• Ever-increasing performance, rather than rules, to fight chaos.
• Ever-increasing performance, which outpaces complexity.
• Running informally, utilizing self-discipline to fight chaos.
• Minimizing complexity.
• Valuing simplicity.
• Enabling and attracting creative talent by running informally, high compensation, and offering the freedom to make a difference.

Two types of necessary Rules;
Those that prevent disaster

• e.g. Incorrect financials
• e.g. Hackers steal CC data

Those that spell out immoral, unethical, and illegal behavior

In a safety-critical or manufacturing industry, preventing errors through procedures is mission-critical (or at the very least the most cost-effective)

In knowledge work/creative environments, “rapid recovery” is the best model.
Besides, high-performers make fewer mistakes.
If mistakes happen, high-performers fix them quickly!

Is a Process Good or Bad?
Good processes help talented people get more done.

• Updating a web site at regular intervals instead of randomly
• Keeping spending within budget
• Having regularly scheduled strategy meetings

Bad processes try to prevent mistakes which are easily recoverable.

• Pre-approvals for spending
• Multiple required sign-offs, projects
• Permission needed to hang a poster

Bad processes tend to creep in because preventing errors is so attractive.
(They often result from knee-jerk reactions to embarrassing mistakes)

Rules and procedures should be questioned and eliminated whenever possible.

Our culture is Results-Oriented

• No 9-5 work days.
• No vacation policy.

Netflix’s Expensing, Entertainment, Gift & Travel Policy is five words long.
“Act in Netflix’s Best Interests”

This generally means:

• Expense only what you would otherwise not spend, and is worthwhile for work.
• Travel as you would if it were your money.
• Disclose non-trivial vendor gifts.
• Take from Netflix only when it is inefficient and inconsequential to not take.
• To avoid using the company phone for personal reasons may be an inefficient use of time.
• To avoid using the company printer for personal reasons may be an inefficient use of time.

Summary:

• Minimize Rules while growing.
• Fight chaos with ever more high-performance people.
• Stress flexibility more than efficiency for long-tern success.

CONTEXT. NOT CONTROL
High-performance people will do better work when they understand the context.

The best managers set the context, rather than resorting to control.

Control-driven means:

• Top-down decision-making
• Management approval
• Committees
• Planning and process are valued instead of results
• (Do it because I say so.)

Context-driven means:

• Strategy
• Metrics
• Assumptions
• Objectives
• Clearly-defined roles
• Communication of what is at stake
• Transparent decision-making
• (Do this because it aligns with company objectives)

Control can be important under the following circumstances:

• In an emergency (procedures and commands must be followed.)
• When someone is in training (they need to learn context)
• When a colleague is temporarily in a position that is ill-suited.

If a talented employee does something dumb, a good manger will question the context (conditions) he set.

Instead of giving into the temptation to control, a good manger will put the desired results in context.

Managers must articulate goals and strategies.
Managers must inspire people to meet goals and follow strategies.

Proper context involves:
- Linking to functional and company goals
- Articulating importance and time-sensitivity
- Describing the desired level of precision and completeness

• No errors are permissible
• Errors can be corrected later
• Draft quality

- Pointing out the key stakeholders
- Explaining the metrics
- Defining a successful outcome

Investing in context is exemplified in:

• Training
• Openness to better strategies
• Focus on results

HIGHLY ALIGNED, LOOSELY COUPLED MODEL OF CORPORATE TEAMWORK

This is contrasted with the following models:
1) Tightly-coupled, Monolithic Model, where

• Sr. Mgt reviews and approves most tactics
• There are lots of cross-departmental buy-in meetings
• Keeping groups in agreement becomes as important as pleasing customers
• (which is dangerous and inefficient)
• Mavericks burn out
• Centralization allows for high degrees of coordination at the expense of agility

2) Independent Silo Model, where

• Each group executes its objectives with little central coordination
• Work requiring coordination suffers
• Alienation and suspicion between departments takes root
• Success occurs only when a conglomerate has companies in disparate markets

The Highly Aligned, Loosely Coupled Model

Goal: to be big, yet fast and flexible.

Teamwork effectiveness is dependent upon
1) high-performance people and
2) proper (good) context

Highly Aligned

• Strategy and goals are clear, specific, and broadly understood
• Team interactions are about strategy and goals rather than tactics.
• A large investment in management time is required to be transparent, articulate, perceptive and open

Loosely coupled

• Minimal cross-functional meetings except to get aligned on goals and strategy
• Trust between groups on tactics without previewing/approving each one – groups can move fast
• Leaders reaching out proactively for ad-hoc coordination and perspective as appropriate.
• Occasional post-mortems on tactics necessary to increase alignment

TOP-MARKET COMPENSATION
A core value of a high-performance culture.

Financial incentive from an Accounting perspective:
One outstanding employee gets more done and costs less than two adequate employees.

Instead of only making the hiring process market-based, Netflix also applies the same principles to its “Annual Compensation Review” (essentially re-hiring each high-performance employee for another year for the purposes of compensation.)

Top-Market Compensation Goals:
1) Every employee is an outstanding employee.
2) Every employee is paid his or her top-market rate.

(By the way, titles are not helpful when determining compensation.
Not every “Major League Pitcher” is equally effective or equally compensated.)

Three-part Compensation Test for an outstanding employee
1) How much would this employee be paid elsewhere?
2) How much would we have to pay to replace this person?
3) How much would we pay to keep this person if another company was “head-hunting”?

Three Corollaries:
1) Pay him more than anyone else likely would
2) Pay him (at least) as much as a replacement would cost
3) Pay him as much as we would pay if another company was “head-hunting”

Corporate Guidelines:

• There are no centrally-administered budgets.
• Each manager must use the above guidelines to align each team member’s compensation to “top-market” for his market and for his area each year
• Compensation is based on market value, not Netflix’s Success
• Managers should not use “fairness” or formulas such as percentiles or across the board raises

Therefore:

• Some team members’ compensation could rise dramatically based on their value in the marketplace (Also driven by their skills)
• Some team members’ compensation could remain flat or even decrease, while still remaining top-market

If managers use the three-part Compensation Test accurately, the following will be true:
1) Any employee leaving Netflix for another company will not be compensated as well
2) We will rarely need to counter an offer from another company for one of our high-performance employees
3) Employees will know they are being paid well relative to other options.

This compensation model is better than the traditional model, where employees automatically receive a raise each year based on good performance, for the following reasons:
1) Employees can become grossly over- or under-paid over time
2) Under-paid otherwise satisfied employees will seek employment elsewhere
3) Overpaid, unsatisfied employees become trapped.

(These conditions also contribute to low morale and “poisonous” employees)

In our model, employee success is a major factor in compensation because it influences an employee’s market value.

(This also motivates an employee to improve his skill set and grow personally in ways that increase his value)

By the way, Netflix considers it to be a healthy idea, and not a traitorous one, for an employee to understand his value in the marketplace, by talking to peers at other companies and even interviewing with them. (An important exception is interviewing with direct competitors who may be trying to gather information that is confidential.)

Additional information about our compensation model:

Netflix focuses it’s compensation on the highest possible salary in the following ways:

• No free stock options
• No bonuses
• Great Health Plan options with intentionally higher Co-Pays (to keep the premiums lower)
• No company matching of specific benefits

This compensation model is most efficient the following reasons:

• Salary offers the highest motivation of any other form of compensation
• It simplified by not offering bonuses (saving the company labor)
• Paying for stock options (with pre-tax salary) is another form of motivating an employee to participate in the company’s future success.

In addition, the employee has more freedom to spend his salary as he sees fit.

• The mix of stock (or Stock options) is the employee’s choice
• Since there is no company matching of specific benefits, the employee is not pressured into a means of compensation he does not want or need.
• Since there is no company matching of specific benefits, the employee does not feel that others who want or need those benefits are better compensated

(On the other hand, the employees may want benefits that are not offered. Pre-tax medical accounts and pre-tax retirement accounts, for example, offer financial advantages that an employee could not otherwise obtain on his own, negating a top-market salary. In this case, his peers at another company would have a financial advantage.)

(It might also be that the health and financial stability of employees, conditions that improve physical and mental well-being, are possibly not being encouraged by offering benefits. A lack of physical and mental well-being will adversely affect a person’s work and the company. It is in the company’s interest to promote physical and mental health.)

Employees choose the degree to which they want to link their financial future to Netflix’s success or failure by choosing for themselves the amount of Netflix stock (or stock options) they would like as a component of their compensation.

PROMOTIONS AND DEVELOPMENT

Promotions
At times, and within certain groups,there will be opportunities and growth. Some people, due to timing and talent, will have the opportunity for extraordinary career growth.

Baseball Analogy: Minor & Major Leagues

• Only the very talented play in The Show. (The Majors.)
• Even the most talented are subject to timing and opportunities
• Some players move to other teams when opportunities arise.
• Some Minor League players keep playing because they love the game.

There may not be enough growth opportunities for everyone who deserves a promotion, in which case we should celebrate when someone leaves the company for a bigger opportunity elsewhere.

Two conditions necessary for promotion:
1) The job has to be big enough
2) The person has to be a superstar in the current role and talented enough for the new position

If a talented employee meeting the above criteria needs to be promoted to keep them from leaving, the manager should look for opportunities to promote him now, rather than wait.

Development
We develop people by giving them the opportunity to develop themselves, by surrounding them with stunning colleagues and giving them the opportunity to work on big challenges.

Mediocre colleagues and unchallenging work kills the progress of a person’s skills (as well as his morale)

Because formalized development is rarely effective, we do not pursue it. No courses, mentors, working in multiple depts.

(Sorry. I’m not going along with this! Any broadening of skills, better understanding of others’ roles, personal development is completely helpful, enriching all of a person’s life, not just his career! Take a look at Pixar University, as an example.)

High-performance people are generally self-improving through experience, observation, introspection, reading and discussion, as long as they have stunning colleagues. (OK, but give them some opportunities to do this at work, too!)

Individuals should manage their own career paths, and not rely on a corporation for planning their careers. Similar to retirement planning – largely a matter of individual responsibility. (Still, both should be encouraged)

(Yet many people would benefit greatly from career planning, mentoring, financial planning, marital counseling, first baby counseling, all of which would make for better employees and many of which would reduce health care costs and absenteeism. Read Brain Rules by John Medina)

An Individual’s economic security is based upon his skills and reputation. We try hard to consistently provide opportunities to grow both. (Maybe these opportunities should be listed. The above statements seem to contradict this.)

Much has been written about the transformation from an industrial/manufacturing economy to one of knowledge-based work, and yet many of our management practices cling to the past, especially in the way employees are motivated and compensated. In this TED Video, Daniel Pink discusses the “mismatch between what science knows and what business does”.

As it turns out, financial incentives are OK for mechanical and methodical tasks, but for for jobs where creativity and cognitive skills are required, such “extrinsic” motivators can actually dull creativity. For jobs where there are no clear methods and where every task requires a creative approach, the only worthwhile motivations are those that are intrinsic. Unless your employees understand their purpose, and work for a cause larger than themselves, it doesn’t matter how much money you pay for their talent; you won’t get their best.

(And boy did I grin when Pink mentioned “Results-Only Work Environments” and Google’s “20% Time”, both of which have been covered here at Creative Reaction.)

Managers and owners, your business’ survival depends upon you watching this 18:36 presentation. Schedule a time and a place to watch it. You’ll be glad you did.

Believe, and help others see why they should, too on the Management-Issues blog offers some excellent advice on creating a passionate, self-motivated team.

Quoting the article, “effective managers and leaders know what they believe and why they believe it”, though success lies beyond confidence and a positive attitude. The key is hiring the right people for the job, showing that you have confidence in them, and helping them find their own motivations to follow the leader’s vision. Good stuff.

(Peaceniks, bear with this; there’s some excellent advice!)

I was a bit surprised to see this at Harvard Business Publishing, yet it makes perfect sense.

Why the Military Produces Great Leaders makes a case for “servant leadership“, a concept which I imagine appeals to those of us who cringe every time a CEO  grinds a company into the ground for personal gain, then seemingly gets away with it.

Quoting Colonel Tom Kolditz, author of the post, “military leadership is based on a concept of duty, service, and self-sacrifice”.

“When serving in crisis conditions… transactional sources of motivation (e.g. pay, rewards, or threat of punishment) become insufficient… When followers have trust and confidence in a charismatic leader, they are transformed into willing, rather than merely compliant, agents”.

This is called “transformational leadership” – the kind of leadership that inspires everyone in a company to give his best.

Go read the article. It has additional insights and asks some thought-provoking questions. You’ll be a better leader for it.

“Don’t care what people say, I got my attitude”
-”Attitude” by Bad Brains

I’m definitely not one of those vapid “positive attitude” people. While a positive attitude is foundational to shaping thoughts and leading to actions, it means nothing in and of itself.

So when I clicked on Phil Gerbyshak’s 5 Ways to Make a Positive Attitude and it opened by wishing me a “Happy Positive Attitude Day” I almost closed the web browser window in disgust. Once I realized it was grounded with elements of gratitude and perspective, I continued to read.

I find a lot of what passes for “Positive Attitude” is actually perspective. Good things and bad things of various degrees happen to everyone every day; keeping things perspective helps us moving forward through the bad stuff. I would put the first three tips into that category. So, here they are:

1. Reframe the situation.
2. Count your blessings.
3. Give thanks to those who’ve helped you.
4. Read or listen to something that makes you smile.
5. Smile or make a silly face for no reason.

So why am I blogging about this? As owners and managers, our attitudes have an huge impact on everyone around us; it is vital for us to keep our attitudes in check, if for no other reason than that it’s good for business. (See my Day-to-Day Management Affects Creativity series, Part I, Part II and Part III  and Negativity is Poison!)

In this MediaShift post, Mark Glaser explains his methods and motivations for deliberately going off-line for 24 hours once each week. 

More often than not, external forces are at play when we are away from the technologies we are (overly) dependent upon; the theft of a CrackBerry, a power outage, or a natural disaster. As one of the subjects of the post puts it, “the truth is that we don’t want to be disconnected, though we desperately need the break”.

The article profiles both those who purposely disconnect, and those who feel they are unable to do so. Very thought-provoking.

Technology is neither inherently good nor bad; we simply need reminders to keep it’s usage in perspective. There are times where connectivity enhances relationships, and times where connectivity distracts us from focusing on friends and family in our midst. Connectivity allows us to work from home, though it can also bring work into any environment at any hour, leading to workweek creep. 

As business owners and managers the example we set for our co-workers and employees sends a powerful message. We need to show that we have clear boundaries between work life and personal life, while enabling and encouraging our employees to have the same. It’ll do us all some good. (See here and here.)

Some interesting thoughts today from Seth Godin. He says, “There’s a huge gap between most how-to books (cookbooks, gardening, magic, etc.) and business books… The gap is motivation.”

“The stakes are a lot higher when it comes to business. Wreck a roast chicken and it’s $12 down the drain. Wreck a product launch and there goes your career…”

Rather than summarize, I’ll just link. It’s pithy and valuable.

Harvard Business School Working Knowledge has an article today on creativity within business, featuring HBS professor Teresa Amabile, whose research we mentioned in September 2006.

The article largely focuses on the environment created by managers, and its effect on employees’ “inner work lives” – “thoughts, perceptions, emotions, and motivations”. This inner work life “directly influences creativity and other aspects of performance.”

Quoting professor Amabile, ”managers are not in tune with the inner work lives of their employees; nor do they appreciate how pervasive the effects of inner work life can be on performance.” Ouch.

So what should managers do? ”Support employees’ progress in their work every day. Set clear and meaningful goals for them; provide direct help, versus hindrance; offer adequate resources and time; respond to successes and failures by drawing on the experience as a learning opportunity, not just a moment to praise or reprimand; and establish a culture where people are treated with respect.”

There’s quite a list there; perhaps one thing to work on each day or week or month. Clearly, sharpening these skills is well worth the effort, as this kind of culture provides what may be the best work incentive available, “the desire to do something because (the employee) find(s) it deeply satisfying and personally challenging” which “inspires the highest levels of creativity, whether it’s in the arts, sciences, or business”

Lots of meat here. Digest it slowly.

Last Thursday’s post was about a Harvard Business School study (in progress) on “how the work environment can influence the motivation, creativity, and performance of individuals and teams”.

In our third and final installment we look at what people term, “having a good day” or “having a bad day” (and I’m going to use that word again) – this is something we need to be sensitive about.

The researcher, Professor Teresa M. Amabile, said in an interview,
“We analyzed the connection between the daily events that people reported, their reactions to those events, and the effect of those reactions on their performance, including their creativity as a central aspect of performance”

“There are three main points…

One, people have incredibly rich, intense, daily inner work lives; emotions, motivations, and perceptions about their work environment permeate their daily experience at work.

Second, these feelings powerfully affect people’s day-to-day performance.

And third, those feelings, which are so important for performance, are powerfully influenced by particular daily events…

An example of the influence of these feelings on performance is my finding that if people are in a good mood on a given day, they’re more likely to have creative ideas that day, as well as the next day, even if we take into account their mood that next day. There seems to be a cognitive process that gets set up when people are feeling good that leads to more flexible, fluent, and original thinking, and there’s actually a carryover, an incubation effect, to the next day.”

Lets do what we can to enable our coworkers and staff to have more “good days”. Re-read Last Thursday’s post to remind ourselves what we can do. Pick one thing. Make a conscious effort. And try to tell us it didn’t help…

Yesterday’s post was about a Harvard Business School study (in progress) on “how the work environment can influence the motivation, creativity, and performance of individuals and teams” and specifically we spoke of the positive behaviors that managers exhibit to positively impact creativity.

Today we look at negative behaviors we all hope to avoid.

Again, quoting the researcher, Professor Teresa M. Amabile:

“We found three leader behaviors that had negative impact.

One was the under- or overspecification of assignments… giving people either too little guidance or too much guidance…

The second one is monitoring in a negative form—that is, checking on assigned work too often or not often enough. Or, checking on it for too long, like hanging around and going too much into the details of what people are doing, and giving unconstructive feedback.

The third negative (behavior) has to do with problem solving—either avoiding solving problems that crop up in the team or the project, or creating problems.

Seemingly ordinary, trivial, mundane, day-by-day things that leaders do and say can have an enormous impact. My guess is that a lot of leaders have very little sense of the impact that they have. That’s particularly true of the negative behaviors.”

Wow. Heavy Stuff. This, coupled with yesterday’s post shows there’s something to be said for “being sensitive”, particularly if you do not feel compelled to be the sensitive sort. It looks like that’s something we need to consider if we want to be successful. Again, a direct link between “people skills” and good creative.

Are we aware of how our behavior affects our coworkers and staff in negative ways? What are we doing to remedy the situation? If you have any advice or anecdotes, please tell us for the benefit of all (in the comments).

A Harvard Business School study (in progress) on “how the work environment can influence the motivation, creativity, and performance of individuals and teams” is already yielding some encouraging, and sometimes sobering, findings.

The link above is to an interview with the study’s researcher. Since it involves research, it is dense with insights, so we’ll stick to one insight per posting.

Todays thought: “ordinary, seemingly mundane things (Managers) do or say carry great influence on workers” We’ll focus on the positive behaviors today.

Quoting the researcher, Professor Teresa M. Amabile:

“There are five leader behaviors that have a positive influence on people’s feelings…

One of these is supporting people emotionally.

The second is monitoring people’s work in a particularly positive way… giving them positive feedback on their work or giving them information that they need to do their work better.

The third behavior is just plain recognizing people for good performance, particularly in public settings.

The fourth is consulting with people on the team—that is, asking for their views, respecting their opinions, and acting on their needs and their wishes to the extent that it’s possible.

And the fifth category was a grab bag of things. But the most important aspect here was collaborating—that the team leader rolled up his or her sleeves and actually spent time collaborating with somebody on the work.”

(Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that it’s uncanny how much of this parallels the Dale Carnegie classic, How To Win Friends and Influence People published in 1936?!)

As we see, there’s a direct link between “people skills” and good creative. What are we doing to improve our skills? If you have any tips, please post them in the comments.