10-2 -- Communicating Effectively

For this final Blog entry, I will talk about five key points that I think are important to keep in mind when communicating. Let's get started:

1. Email etiquette

Email is probably the number one form of communication in the business world today. Myself, I definitely send and receive more emails than phone calls, voice mails and faxes combined. It is important to maintain a proper email etiquette when communicating with supervisors, peers, subordinates and external resources. The spell check feature has saved me many embarrassing typos. A very good idea is to pause before hitting the send button, and quickly read that email again and also check to whom it is going. If you were talking about an attachment, make sure you attached that attachment!

Source: http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/e/e_mail.asp

2. Control Emotions

As part of this weeks Blog entry we had to watch a few videos and I would like to share one here that really impressed me:

Link to Video about keeping emotions in check

As we have learned, emotions should only last for 6 seconds. The advice given in this video to actually take a pause and tell someone we will call back or get back to them at a later time is a great idea to keep boiling emotions in check. I have faced and observed many situations in business before where people lose their emotions. While this is a sign that they take their job seriously, it can also damage vital business relationships with peers, superiors and suppliers or customers permanently. Taking a pause at the right time, calm down and then get back at the problem with emotions in check can save such relationships.

3. Active listening

Another good advice that was given in one of the videos is to listen actively. What this means is to focus on the person we are having a conversation with. Pay close attention to what the person is telling you. Then, give a feedback ensuring that you have been paying attention. These feed-backs can be both verbal and nonverbal. Repeat certain information you have been given and answer in ways such as "I understand, that what you are saying is....".

Here is a short video explaining active listening further:

4. Say something nice every day

This is something we all forget much too often. We should try to give at least one compliment every day. Communication can improve tremendously when we are actually trying to say something nice once in a while. I have had many frustrating business relationships, usually with vendors. When trying to fix them and confront a vendor, I made the most progress when I begun with something nice. Find some common ground. Try to find out why someone isn't performing the way you would like them to perform. Complement and focus on something that is working great. This opens opportunities and makes the message receiver more acceptable of requests too!

Also, if someone actually performs the way you expect them or you see them go the extra mile - mention it! We often focus on failures and improvements, but we need to recognize a job well done as well in order to make sure the quality remains the same in the future.

5. Communicate result driven

When you communicate, be sure you know where you want to get with the conversation. Keep your eye on the price. Here is what I mean by that in 1 Minute and 17 seconds:

Thank you!

This is my last post for this Blog and I would like to thank you for following me through my course. I had a lot of fun reflecting on the topics I reviewed in the text book and I hope I was able to make them a little more interesting by adding some fun artifacts.

Before I let you go, here is one more video that shows the importance of encoding a message correctly. It was actually forwarded to me by a German. The video starts with a supervisor instructing the new employee on all the different machinery... But see for yourself:

9--2 Models of Organizational Change

My personality makes me seek rewards. It's just who I am. Doesn't mean I am a materialist, because I don't always seek material rewards. They can be really anything. Extra time off for example. 

Source: http://www.ereleases.com/prfuel/10-ways-reward-employees/

So when ever it comes to changes in an organization, I tend to try and see the positive, the reward I will get from adopting to the change, which motivates me to actually "play along" and I feel it is much easier on me this way.

As a leader, I would probably use a similar approach to introducing change. I would most likely use Lewin's Model with a pull strategy. (description of pull-strategy)

Kurt Lewin 1890-1947

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kurt_Lewin.jpg

In order to successfully implement a change, let's assume I have 3 employees and I want them to rotate their job's every 3 months. The benefit to me is that all 3 employees are proficient in all three jobs and if an employee is off work because of an illness or vacation - the other two can chip in. This change would obviously mean that an employee now only performs "his/her job" 3 months and is performing another job the next 6 months.

1. Step - Unfreeze

At first I would promote the upcoming change. I would let my team know what is coming, when this new rotation will start, why I am doing this and, most important, what is in it for them.

Possible rewards can be less boredom or better chances for career advancement. As the manager I should probably know all three positions very well, so by rotating jobs, my employees will get to know what the whole department is doing, not just what they are doing. 

I would possibly allow them to gain external education in the jobs they haven't done before. This can be valuable within or outside the organization in the future.

2. Step - Change

The change phase would probably take 6 months in this case. Each employee has to get used to a new job when performing it for the first time. So the first two rotations will be creating some challenges and help from outside the department might be required. (For example on-the-job training, other employees within the company need to be patient,...)

3. Step - Freezing

Once the first cycle is done (after 6 months) each employee will be back at his/her original job for 3 month. During this time it will be important to emphasize the successes of the past 6 months. It will be important to stress that this program will continue and the next rotation has to happen after 3 months again.

An example when I faced changes in an organization is when I used to work as an Aircraft mechanic. The company I worked for did not have a lot of money to use as incentives for employees and had to find a way to motivate more mechanics to work more night shifts. The night shift pay-rate wasn't very good compared to other companies, so nobody really liked to work more nights than he or she absolutely had to.

The company then came up with a smart idea that was based on the pull strategy:

Two new mechanics teams with supervisors were formed that would only work night shifts, no other shifts. Sounds like a terrible deal, doesn't it?

The trick was, the teams would work 7 nights straight and then get 7 days off. This means every single week, employees would earn an extra day off, while still getting the same base salary and the night shift money for every night worked.

This was now a very attractive schedule, because all other groups schedules also changed, with lesser night shifts, but with shift changes during a work week. Before the change a group would work 5 days early shift, then 2 days off, 5 days late shift + 2 days off and 5 night shifts + 2 days off. The two days were barely enough to get adjusted to the next shift, but at least we only had to work night shift every 3 weeks.

Well, the new schedule asked for 3 early shifts, 2 late shifts and 2 days off. Then the opposite next week. This made adjusting to shifts less favorable and the newly created team even more attractive.

Many mechanics ended up joining the "night shift only teams" and it was deemed a great success.

I would like to end this Blog entry with another funny video. After all the theory I posted, here is something before you go:

Assignment 3

Please check out my Assignment 3 and leave a comment on my Blog so we can share ideas. 

Link to my Assignment 3

I have tried to keep it interesting with some pictures and videos. One video is created by students and focuses on do's and don'ts when in contact with Chinese businesses.

I am looking forward to comments and critiques - don't be shy! This is how we learn and improve.

8-2 -- Critical Incident Analysis

When working as a Maintenance Technician I was repairing a piece of equipment that was critical for production at that time. There was a problem with the part of the machine, that secures the raw material on the machine bed in order to CNC machine it to the final product.

The repair should have only taken maybe 30 minutes, but we did not have that critical spare part in stock, because the same piece just broke several days before this new incident happened.

Knowing about the timing issue I didn’t want to lose any more time, so I phoned around for a supplier who has the item in stock. I then jumped into the car, picked up the part on my personal VISA Card to safe the time to get a Purchase Order, went back to the shop and repaired the machine.
On that day, I had an argument with a co-worker earlier and he saw what I was doing on the machine.

This directly translates into my “lesson learned”. The next time I will face a similar situation I will try to communicate better and have the people that need to be involved in the process involved right from the beginning. My supervisor was on vacation, so I was reporting temporarily to his boss. I should have let the manager know, even if it would have taken an extra 5 minutes, of what my plan was, since he was now my direct supervisor.

When I went back to the office (the repair took a total of about 3 hours now and the office staff already left for the day) I had an email from my boss’ manager to see him at 8am tomorrow morning in his office.

I was given some heat about the long delay for the repair and had to justify every minute spent on that repair.

While I was under the assumption I have done everything I could to get the machine back up and running as quickly as I possibly could, the manager didn’t necessarily see the hassles I went through, but rather saw that it took a tremendously long 3 hours instead of an easy 30 minute fix.

I was under the assumption that he would understand why it took so long and he would be happy about me going the extra mile and get that part, but he was questioning if it couldn’t have been done quicker still.

Definitely the lesson I have learned from this incident is that I should have taken a few minutes to inform the manager and not only the shop supervisor, about what was going on. Rather than just thinking I do the best I can, I should have communicated better to prevent any such questions after. If this manager would have been in the loop right from the moment I discovered that we were out of stock, he might have had appreciated my actions much more.

Source: http://www.sapweb20.com/blog/blog/page/5/

6-2 -- Controlling for success

For this weeks Blog entry I just had to choose Tim Horton's. In our class we were talking about Canadian companies that are coming out of the recession as "winners". Personally, I have been a fan of Tim Horton's ever since I arrived in this country 4 years ago. In a matter of fact, it was the first thing I ever did in Canada, after immigration - drinking a cup of Tim Horton's.
During this recent recession it wasn't hard to see that many Canadians think the same way. No matter what time it was or what day of the week, I can always enter a Tim Horton's and it is never empty. I hardly ever walk right up to the front and place my order either! There are usually people waiting in line. Drive-thru? Even more people in front of me. Sometimes we would be "stuck" in traffic on our way to the grocery store because there is a line up at the Tim Horton's drive-through!

Certainly one of the many things Tim's does right is to introduce something new every once in a while. Because Tim's has such a big fan base, they basically get advertisement for free every time something new is available. Sometimes the new products are a hit, sometimes a failure. Speaking for myself, when Tim Horton's announced the addition of lemonades, I actually heard that on the radio. It wasn't a commercial either, it was THE NEWS! So sure enough I went straight to Tim Horton's to try the new product and - was disappointed. I didn't like it at all. But since I was there I also grabbed a Donut... Tim Horton's has the ability to have customers come back even if they had a bad experience. The core product group of coffee and donuts is well liked by many Canadians so it doesn't matter if a new addition is a success or a failure. Tim Horton's has the luxury of being able to make mistakes and still have customers come back on a regular basis.

A recent change was the change of the coffee cup sizes. Because us students read so much all the time, I like to provide videos in my blogs as a change. This one is more on the humor side too:

And here is the proof that News channels do the advertisement for the company. CBC news on the day the new cup sizes where introduced covered the story. Other companies pay a lot of money for 2 minutes prime time TV on a national TV station:

The Recession hit late in 2008. So lets look at what Tim Horton's did during this time:

2009
February 2009: Announced co-branding with "Cold Stone Creamery"

2010
January 2010: Announced addition of English muffin breakfast sandwich
October 2010: Announced addition of Real Homestyle Oatmeal

2011
March 2011: Announced addition of Real Fruit Smoothies
August 2011: Announced "Tim Hortons Double Double coffee ice cream" at Cold Stone
November 2011: Announced addition of Espresso machines producing "Lattes"
December 2011: Announced new "Egg white breakfast sandwich on whole grain English muffin"

2012
January 2012: Announced new cup sizes
February 2012: Announced addition of "White hot chocolate"
April 2012: Announced addition of frozen lemonade
April 2012: Announced lattes now available as "iced lattes"
May 2012: Tim Horton's now accepts VISA Cards
Source: http://www.timhortons.com/ca/en/about/news_archives.html retrieved June 25th, 2012

As you can see, Tim Horton's kept the attention of it's customers throughout the entire recession with new additions. This again triggered some free advertisement as the word of mouth, not only among the public but in morning shows of radio stations for example.
Not to forget are the "Roll up the Rim" contests in between, that draw a lot of extra coffee drinkers every year.
The prove that this strategy is working can be seen on the Tim Horton's stock price between February 2009 an today. With a value increase of more than 80% and Dividend amount more than doubled, I wish I would have put all my savings in Tim Horton's stocks:

Source: https://www.google.ca/financehttps://www.google.ca/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=maximized&chdeh=0&chfdeh=0&chdet=1340677583864&chddm=323920&chls=IntervalBasedLine&q=TSE:THI&ntsp=0&fct=big retrieved June 25th, 2012


The above announcements emphasize how Tim Horton's practiced an "Output Control" by releasing new innovative products at least twice a year and judging by how well the stock has performed - the management team has used this control method very efficiently! Keep posted for the next invention at our favorite coffee store!

4-2 -- Sustainable Policies

This week I will be making a suggestion for three sustainable company policies. Being a "Kevin O'Leary-type person" always worried about the bottom line, I think there is a huge potential for companies to combine sustainable policies with money savings, which means everybody wins!

Source: http://lifethegreenway.blogspot.ca/2010/12/dreaming-of-green-christmas-save-more.html retrieved June 25th, 2012

One sustainable policy that many companies have adopted, including the one I work for, is a sustainable travel policy. This one just makes so much sense. Technology today is so far advanced that often times travel isn't necessary. By holding meetings online the environment wins since there is less emissions, no hotel room to be cleaned with chemicals, and no taxi ride to the airport. The company probably wins even more since there is less time used by employees to get to and back from the meeting, and less money spent on travel, meals and accommodation. This policy has all four elements in order to be part of a sustainable strategy: it protects the environment by reducing waste, promotes social responsibility by showing that travel is only approved if absolutely necessary, it respects different cultures not more or less than a one-on-one meeting, and has an economic benefit as outlined above.

Another sustainable policy could be implemented as a purchasing policy. As an example a company could only allow to buy office supplies from recycled materials such as notepads, pens and even printer ink cartridges that are refillable. Obviously such a policy could be extended to other parts of the company. A manufacturer could use as much recyclable materials and packaging as possible for its products. By doing this, the company would not only send a strong signal to employees, but also to suppliers and customers outside the company. Such a policy, again, could have an economic impact as well. Part of the policy could be that only paper that is either used on both sides or contains confidential information can be disposed of. I am sure that such a policy would decrease the amount of paper used worldwide by hundreds of thousands of trees each year! This would also bring paper cost for the company way down.

A motivation to have a sustainable policy for energy efficient operation of buildings is the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Program by the U.S. Green Building Council.
If a company builds or renovates a building, they can get certified for energy efficient design and construction and operations and maintenance. There is a category for homes as well:

Starbucks, is one of many corporations taking pride in getting LEED certification for new and improved future stores as this video shows:

Having an energy efficient store or plant is another way to not only do something for the environment and take responsibility to do business sustainable, but also saves big amounts of money over the life-cycle of a building and gives companies a head start for possible future government requirements.

3-3 -- Short Essay

In order to describe “my company”, I need to provide some background about myself.

I have been thinking about running my own business for a while now. Given the fact that I grew up in a hockey town in Europe, I have been involved in the game from a very young age, just as many Canadians are. After my parents got divorced, my mom was never able to afford to put me into hockey, even though that is all I ever wanted to do as a hobby. I was playing street hockey with my friends instead, not owning much more than a stick and a ball. 

Now the story starts to become unbelievable:

One day, I was pushing my bicycle up a hill, and carrying all my gear to go and meet my friends for an afternoon full of hockey. There was an older couple walking on the sidewalk, noticing my hockey jersey of our local team and asking me which player I like the most. After a little back and forth, they asked to meet my parents. To make a long story short, they were Multi-Millionaires and wanted to do some good. They offered to pay for my gear and hockey fees and enrolled me in the junior team in town.

Today, I still believe this has done me incredible good and this fantastic couple has made sure my life stays on the right track. By playing hockey, I was able to learn team skills and have put my spare time to good use rather than ending up in drugs or alcohol down the road.

I think in Canada there are a lot of families who have a hard time putting their kids into hockey. Let’s face it, it is a very expensive sport.  

Based on the utilitarian model I would love to a have a youth hockey league where money and players skills aren’t the most important thing. It would be ethical to have all the players on the teams play the same minutes every game, no matter what their skill or status is. This would provide the greatest good for the greatest number of people. As a non-profit organization this league would depend on corporations such as the Flames foundation for life and 50/50 ticket raffles (See Flames Foundation for Life) to finance hockey for kids who’s parents can’t afford to pay for it. When I played junior hockey, we had up to 4 practices a week and a game every weekend. My league would keep it simple. There would be 1 practice a week per team and one game. This is enough for players who want to play the game just for fun and who’s goal isn’t the NHL or any other Pro-league. Coaches and Referees would be volunteers who might not be the most skilled either, but who recognize how important this 1 or 2 hour work out for the kids is.

My hockey league would follow the following code of ethics:

- We are a team on and off the ice, no one team member is better or worse than any other team member. 

- Our main goal is to have fun and we share our ice time evenly among all team members. 

- New team members are welcome at any time and can join and leave a team as they wish. 

- We take pride in helping each other as best as we can, because as a team we are all responsible for each others well being.

This youth hockey league would be a socially responsible organization because it would address kids needs to use their time for a meaningful activity, which would keep them away from trouble, teach them team and social skills they will need for the rest of their lives and give them a feeling of belonging.

The divorce rate in Canada is slowly declining since the late 80’s (See stats of divorce rates here) however, still more than 12% of marriages are getting divorced at some point. I am assuming that most of the time, money will be tight for both divorced parties, and even tighter if there are kids. This is something I have experienced myself and I see a need for such an institution. With the opportunity I have been given earlier in my life, it seems like the right thing to do, to pass some of my fortune on to the next generation. As we learned in our text book, this is what ethics is about – the right thing to do.