Welcome to the January 30, 2008 issue of The Total View

Published by Success Performance Solutions, Written by Ira S. Wolfe

Visit our Human Resources Blog and Perfect Labor Storm Blog where we can post daily (and more often) human resource updates, news, and Perfect Labor Storm facts. 

Ira S Wolfe will be testifying this morning (January 30) in front of the PA House of Representatives Aging & Older Adult Services Committee.  Ira will be joining former U.S. Senator Harris Wofford, spokesperson for ExperienceWave.org.  Both Ira and Sen. Wofford along with four other panelists will provide testimony on the impact of the aging workforce and pending retirements on PA business. Watch for next week's The Total View for a free copy of Ira's presentation.

What's Inside this issue of The TotalView:

1.  Collaboration: What's in it for business?

Collaboration is a positive outcome of managed conflict.  

Unlike conflict avoiders, people who view conflict as a positive hear exciting, creative, enriching, energizing, clarifying, courageous, stimulating, and productive - very different responses than people who view conflict as bad. Conflict should therefore be encouraged, not avoided. 

To encourage conflict, managers and employees require the ability to manage it. 

When framing effective teamwork in today's workplace, employees rarely need to learn how to harmonize.  With few exceptions, people don't spend their day "itching for a fight." Most people inherently want to get along. I'm sure several of you are thinking, you haven't met my _________ (fill in the blank with co-worker, boss, spouse, child's name!). They fight and argue and become defensive because that's how they've been trained.

What employees really need is training in managing conflict, not creating harmony (aka conflict avoidance).  Managing conflict allows the expression and integration of different viewpoints toward a common goal.  That end could be accomplished by "team building" exercises except that most team building trainers and programs focus on getting everybody to accept differences, not managing them. That approach inadvertently creates the image of effective teams sitting around a campfire singing "kumbaya."  That's not only unrealistic but misleading.

By focusing on harmony as the end game, many employees hear "avoid controversy," "accommodate others," and "compromise."  That often works in the short-term but avoidance, accommodation, and even compromise when used at the wrong times means that individuals need to put personal interests and viewpoints on the back burner for the good of the team or organization.  That back burner seems to be overloaded in many organizations, just waiting for the spark to ignite all the pent-up and tabled baggage.

Conflict avoidance is a noble goal and okay to use when the stakes are not high.  But avoidance is ineffective when a significant change in strategy or performance is required.

For example, innovation requires employees to challenge conventional thinking.  To challenge the "if it ain't broken, don't fix it" mental model means fighting a few windmills, navigating around the silos, setting foot on another manager's turf, and pushing co-workers to speak their peace.  It doesn't take an expert to recognize that each of these tactics will incite a conflict. 

Traditional team building techniques inadvertently train people to avoid creating conflict thereby squashing innovation.  Only safe ideas and comments are offered. The most vocal employees state their positions and the less vocal and passionate ones follow.  When things don't work out, the most assertive blame the followers for not stepping up and the more reserved blame the most vocal for ramming the plan down their throats.  Avoidance, accommodation, and compromise are not effective solutions to cultivate and nurture innovation, the core driver of growth, performance and valuation.

What's becoming excruciatingly apparent in many organizations is the inability for employees to collaborate. Team building training should focus on collaboration, not harmony, if innovation and change is the required.  Harmony is not good enough. You might create a "great place to work" that fails to be competitive in the marketplace.

To achieve collaboration, trust among team members is what really counts. A pseudo-harmony can exist without trust but it puts productivity and innovation at risk.  The belief that teamwork equals harmony stifles change and innovation.

Collaboration, not teamwork, is an innovation catalyst.  How effective are your employees and managers at collaborating? Do you and your managers have the skill or potential to collaborate?  Do your staff or partner meetings feel more like dysfunctional family dinners than professional planning sessions?  Is innovation a critical driver of your future success?  Call us about building collaborative teams or hiring collaborative employees, call us at 800.803.4303 or 717.291.4640.

Collaboration is also a great recruitment strategy - Gen Ys are the most collaborative generation ever to set foot on this earth.  

Next week: More on Gen Ys.

Read Part 1: Effective teams focus on collaboration, not harmony

Read Part 2: Collaboration is a positive outcome of conflict. 

Read Part 4: The Millennials - The most collaborative generation ever?

2. Perfect Labor Storm Warnings   

Every day I receive dozens of stories highlighting

another shortage of workers. Each week I'll post

one or two of the more interesting ones.  This week's

post is:

Percent of surveyed hospitals reporting difficulty in filling RN positions for their units for daytime, evening and overnight shifts.
General medical/surgical 14%; 20%; 50%
Critical care units 10%; 6%; 66%
Specialty care units 12%; 10%; 26%
Perioperative 16%; 26%; 24%
Operating room 26%; 26%; 26%
Psychiatry 6%; 18%; 28%
Pediatrics 8%; 6%; 22%
OB/GYN-newborn nursery 6%; 8%; 40%
Emergency department 24%; 32%; 64%

Source: Greater New York Hospital Association

Read more about skilled worker shortages in the NEW Perfect Labor Storm 2.0 (soft and hard cover versions)

Now on Sale!  Perfect Labor Storm 2.0 (soft and hard cover versions)  

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NEW Chapters!  Generational Conflicts in the Workplace, Managing the Future Workforce, Attracting Young Employees in a Seller's Job Market plus hundreds of new facts, trends and stats.

View Table of Contents  

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To order Perfect Labor Storm 2.0, call 800.803.4303.  Discounts for orders of 10 or more.  Specify hard or soft cover.

3. New  innovation research: wide gap between aspirations and ability  

More than 70 percent of senior executives who took part in a September 2007 survey for the McKinsey & Company say that innovation will be at lest one of the top three drivers of growth for their companies in the next three to five years. At the same time, 65 percent of the senior executives were only "somewhat," "a little," or "not at all" confident about the decisions they make in this area.  

What explains the gap between the leaders' aspirations and execution? Nearly 94 percent of the executives agreed - people and corporate culture are the most important drivers of innovation.  

While these executives cite innovation as an important driver of growth, few of them lead and manage it.  About one-third say they manage innovation on an ad hoc basis when necessary.  (If it's one of your top 3 drivers of growth, wouldn't you think it would be a priority?) Another one-third manage innovation as part of the senior-leadership team's agenda. (And we all know how productive those meetings are.)  Based on the study, apparently one-third are getting it right.  

In a January 2008 article, Leadership and Innovation, the McKinsey authors ask: "How can something be a top priority if it isn't an integrated part of a company's core processes and of the leadership's strategic agenda?"   

I'm asking the same thing.  Make innovation a top priority in 2008. The execution of an innovation strategy starts with your people and culture.  Contact us today on how to build an innovative culture.

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5. Speaking Schedule: Ira S Wolfe

2008:

March 4 - Hiring Right is Not Kid's Play: Fitting the Right Pegs in the Right Holes Business Solutions "On the Road"  Harrisburg Regional Chamber.  Location TBA

March 6 - National Human Resource Association, Pasadena, CA.  Breakfast Keynote: Perfect Labor Storm 2.0

May 16 - Sovereign Benefits Solutions HR Conference, Hershey PA

October 2008 (tentative) - American Staffing Association Annual Meeting - Workforce Trends That Change The Way You Will Do Business  

Call 717.291.4640 to schedule Ira for your next meeting or conference.

6.  Behind the Scenes

Ira S Wolfe was a guest on "Behind the Lines" hosted by Diane Dayton.  Diane interviewed Ira about his new book, The Perfect Labor Storm 2.0. The show is being broadcast several times this month on Blue Ridge Cable 11.  

Ira will be testifying in front of the PA House of Representatives Committee on Aging and Older Workers on January 30.  He will address the impact of an aging workforce and pending retirements on PA business.  

And finally, Ira recently collaborated with Bonnie Kerrigan Snyder on a new book, The Coming Job Boom.  Bonnie is the author of The Public School Parent's Guide to Success. The Coming Job Boom is the "ying" for the "yang" of The Perfect Labor Storm.  While the Perfect Labor Storm is beginning to make managers feel like storm chasers looking for qualified workers, high school and college students must be smiling at this Upcoming Job Boom. For those young workers with the right skills and motivation, the job market will make these kids feel like  - well, like kid's in a candy store! The book release is scheduled for April 2008. Watch for more info in future newsletters.

7. Quotes from Hire Authorities

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

Winston Churchill

Permission is granted to consultants, managers, business owners and HR professionals to reproduce content from this newsletter for your internal publications, or to distribute copies to your workforce, on the condition that you reproduce the credits and contact information as follows: "Reprinted with permission from Ira S Wolfe and Success Performance Solutions. Copyright 2008 Ira S Wolfe."  We also hope you will forward the newsletter in its entirety and recommend to others that they subscribe.

Ira S. Wolfe Copyright 2007 - All Rights Reserved. Reprints and other distribution by permission