Success Performance Solutions

Major Sponsor of
2008 Best Places to Work In Pennsylvania

Welcome to the May 7, 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. 

What's Inside this issue of The TotalView:

1.  Overcoming Team Dysfunction #1:  Lack of Trust

     by Marilyn Walker

In last week's column, I wrote about a client's team trials and tribulations. I had just shared how the team members came to the realization that they really like each other - it was just the customers that tired everyone out!  

Those revelations paved the way for this year's agenda: overcoming team dysfunctions. Using Patrick Lencioni's model for Overcoming The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, I initially suspected this team's problem was simply the 5th and final dysfunction: Inattention to Results.  That was until I saw the results of the team's anonymous pre-workshop assessment.

A significant number of team members admitted they were unable to ask for help, admit mistakes, or share concerns with the rest of their team.  Even though they enjoyed nearly everyone's company, their guard was always up.  Individuals on this team simply did not trust each other well enough to tell their "friends" what was on their minds for fear of not being liked.  

As it turns out, this team was far from being a functional team.  It was merely a group of people who liked one another. They were failing as a team because trust was missing.  Without trust, you can't even begin to consider overcoming fear of conflict, lack of commitment, and avoidance of accountability, the next 3 dysfunctions. And what about inattention to results?  Fuggedaboutit! Quite simply, there was no "object constancy" on this team - therefore that became the focus of this year's team building.  

So back to square #1 we went - trust.  

Before I begin, let me list a few symptoms of a team with an absence of trust.   Team members without trust:

• Conceal their weaknesses and mistakes
• Hesitate to offer help outside their own area of responsibility
• Jump to conclusions about the intentions and aptitudes of others
• Waste time and energy managing their behaviors for effect, not results
• Hold grudges
• Dread getting together for meetings with the team

My client exhibited several of these symptoms. It was time to prescribe a cure. I started out with an exercise designed to help group members show a little vulnerability, without expecting them to just dump all their personal baggage - this was a workplace after all, not a psychologist's couch. Besides I had the insight of the team's DISC behavioral style - letting their guard down was not going to happen overnight for this group.  

Each participant was asked to share three pieces of information about themselves:

1. Where they grew up.
2. The number of children in their family and their birth order - where they fell in the line up.
3. One challenge they experienced growing up.

Just these very simple statements revealed something about themselves that surprised many of their co-workers, even a few that worked together for years.  

It was a giant first step.  

Now that the "trust" door was opened and no one died from embarrassment, it was time to review the results of the team's CriteriaOne DISC reports.  DISC provided the group additional insight into the working - and not workings - of this team - 74% of the individuals on this team had a behavior style that leans toward suspicion and distrust. Ironically, this revelation was a positive - it reassured them knowing they were all floating in the same sea of skepticism.  

Following this first team exercise and DISC review I divided the team into work groups.  Each participant in each group was asked to identify on paper one way they utilize their strengths and one way they could improve upon one of their limitations. At the same time, each member was asked to acknowledge one strength and one limitation of his or her co-workers.  When the work teams came back together the participants shared the single most important piece of information they learned.  

Because it is essential that vulnerability is exhibited from the top down in order for it to be effective in all groups, the CEO and leaders fully participated in this exercise. The CEO's comment that sometimes she needed to "shut up and listen" was met by laughter - and indicated another giant step forward.  

Company B was on its way to developing trust and overcoming the 1st dysfunction. They did not sit around, hold hands and sing "Kumbaya." They did however admit for the first time a few individual challenges and limitations.  They took a risk at offering feedback to their co-workers without fear of reprisal or pettiness.  They not only survived but felt a sense of relief and renewed focus.

Admittedly this organization has a long way to go until everyone keeps their eye on the results without letting conflict and lack of accountability getting in the way. But they are for the first time overcoming the biggest hurdle for most team dysfunction - lack of trust.  

Just as children need to learn that their families will be there to take the good with the bad, employees need to trust that their opinions, values and differences will be accepted without reservation by other team members.  The team at work becomes a constant object.  

Call us today (800-803-4303) for a free consult or to schedule a workshop on overcoming The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.

2. Perfect Labor Storm Warnings   

Subscribe to the Perfect Labor Storm 2.0 blog and receive skilled

worker shortage updates like this:

The decline of fertility in the 20th century is a dismal reality.

Fertility rates were higher than 5.0 in both Europe and the

United States just a hundred years ago, but by year 2000,

they had plummeted to as low as around 1.5 in Europe and

2.0 in the United States. Many European nations experience

fertility rates far below replacement levels: Spain, Italy and

Greece dip as low as 1.3. Germany reaches an equally bleak

figure of 1.4. According to some estimates Italy will reduce its

population by half in the next 50 years.

New Perfect Labor Storm videos added. Watch now!

Listen to the Maintenance Worker Crisis

Song now available for easier viewing on YouTube.

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)  

Order today and save 25%.

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  

Save 25% off retail by ordering now.

Hard Cover: $29.99         Soft Cover: $19.99  

Your Price: $22.49           Your Price: $14.99

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

3. Register Today! ABC's of Assessments - May 21

During this workshop you will learn to:

• Assess your candidates.     
• Build effective teams.
• Choose the best assessment for your needs.      
• Bonus!  How to pay one low fee and get
  unlimited assessments for an entire year!
   

Join us on Wednesday May 21, 2008

8:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Location: TBD in Lancaster, PA

Fee includes free assessments for each participant (value-$500, 5 free DISC reports (value - $380), DISCovering Your Style manual, value -$55). The toal value of these services and products alone is $935. 

Registration fee is ONLY $350 which includes a continental breakfast and lunch.  

To register or for more information, call 717-291-4640.

4.  NEW!  Learning and Reasoning Report

The Prevue Learning & Reasoning Assessment provides critical information about an individual's capacity to learn and use information, develop skills, solve problems, and understand instructions.

Why is the Prevue Learning & Reasoning important?

"General Mental Ability is the best single predictor of performance, job competence and flexibility."

David Bartram, a world renowned psychometrician and former President of the International Test Commission.

This assessment examines four cognitive dimensions of General Mental Abilities: General Abilities, Working with Number, Working with Words and Working with Shapes.

What is General Mental Ability?

General mental ability is one component of "cognitive capacity," an individual's ability to handle complexity and ambiguity effectively and quickly. It is a measure of a candidate's mental horsepower. It looks at the person's ability to organize, extrapolate, and apply information in the making of decisions and solving of problems; to grapple with complexities of the job and your market. Individuals with high general mental abilities possess the ability to quickly and efficiently process large volumes of information of various types. They combine and synthesise information to develop plans, and define priorities and objectives quickly.

Learn more about Learning and Reasoning

5. Speaking Schedule: Ira S Wolfe

2008:

May 16 - Sovereign Benefits Solutions HR Conference, Hershey PA

June 3 - Hiring Tool Kit 101: PreEmployment Tests - Associated Builders and Contractors, Lancaster PA

September 8 - Electrical Generation Systems Association - "The Perfect Labor Storm"

Watch and listen to Ira speaking about the Perfect Labor Storm

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

6.  Hot Off The Press!  "Coming Job Boom" - Buy Today! 

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! 

Order Coming Job Boom today - only $10.95  

Save $2 and shipping costs - download the Coming Job Boom e-book now.  

7.   PayScale:  real -time salary data

One of your biggest challenges our clients face is creating compensation packages that reflect today's job market rates. I am excited to announce that we partnered with PayScale to provide businesses like yours with the real-time salary data you need to retain and recruit today's top talent! PayScale has agreed to give all of our Total View readers a free PayScale Employer Compensation Report on a job title of your choice. There are truly no strings attached.  

Here's all you have to do to get your complimentary report. Visit the PayScale website by going here. Once there, locate the link on the right-hand side of the page that says "Request a Free Trial Report." Fill out the form and within 24 hours, a PayScale product consultant will provide you with the information you need to create your own salary report.

8. Quotes from Hire Authorities

"If things continue along the same trajectories that we're seeing now, we're going to see major work-force challenges in the future."

Michael Thurmond, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Labor.

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