Labels: Health, Mega Planning, Sustainability, Vision

Labels: Health, Mega Planning, Sustainability, Vision

Labels: Earth Hour, Sustainability, Vision

Labels: 360 Facilitated, 360 feedback, Appreciative Inquiry

Labels: 360 feedback, Culture, Leadership

Labels: 360 feedback, Leadership, team facilitation

It's good to hear that the Senior Civil Service in UK has taken on a 360 degree feedback tool. They will be getting feedback on ‘how others in the team perceive their performance’ in five areas they consider are key: Strives, Communicates, Helps, Observes and Results. The focus is stated to be on 'leadership behaviour' and the feedback is intended to test how others perceive this in the team, how it translates into results, and how the recipient's work priorities match others’ expectations. Also how other perceive their behavioural style, and the impact they have on others. [I have added a comment on this below].

The UK’s National School of Government has put this together for Civil Service leaders based on the Cabinet Secretary’s new framework of leadership expectations and the requirements of Professional Skills for Government (PSG).

The tool was created by Julian Rizzello of the National School of Government. He explains: “360-degree feedback is proven to be a very powerful motivation for personal growth. Rather than attempt to measure a leader’s worth against a simple competency model, we have designed SCHOR360 to afford a deeper insight into leaders’ behaviour and its results, enabling participants to gain a clearer understanding of their overall impact.”

The profile includes the priorities for attention and also a mandatory coaching interview to interpret the results. Cost is reasonable.

Comment: it's always interesting to compare other 360 tools with the holistic Leader/Manager Model. As far as one can tell, 'Strives' is in Task Leadership, 'Communicates' is in People Leadership, 'Helps' is in People Management, 'Observes' is in People Management, and 'Results' is in Task Management. In contrast to many 360s it does at least have elements in all four quadrants (though how well each is covered is another matter). It is interesting to note, however, that 3/5 of it seems to be about Management and only 2/5 about Leadership. Maybe that's just as well! Anyway, it's a big step forward, and the coaching interview is a critical element.

Source: UK's Public Technology

Labels: 360 feedback, Leadership, Learning

Labels: 360 feedback, Health, Morale, Trust, Upward Feedback, Vision

Q&A

360 Facilitated® has been called the simplest way to bring about team and culture change, hence this section to rethink what we are about, giving some real answers to some of the real questions that come in.

Q: How does the manager make use of the Leader/Manager Types™ instrument?

A: There are thirty short questions in the L/M instrument – the kind where you have to choose between A and B (sometimes it's which one do you hate the least!). There’s a check on your years of experience and then you print the results. The manager brings the printout to the Debrief session with the Facilitator. The manager's job is to compare their preferred style on the Leader/Manager Types profile with the 'suggested change' from others that they see on their 360 Facilitated profile. Often there is a clear connection – e.g. the manager who prefers Task Leadership may have 'suggested change' concentrated in People Management - the opposite corner of the framework, and so on.

It’s a useful model, offering just 8 Types of manager, and has also value when used on its own. It even has value when used with a set of competencies from an unrelated custom questionnaire. It certainly gets managers thinking about how they manage, how they relate to others and what they might do differently with their team - and with different teams. And that is always valuable.

And then, if you can get the results for a team of managers, we can plot them for you on a Map. When you look at a group of managers, you may understand a lot about how they interact - the synergies, the antipathies, and even the gaps in the group's performance.
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Labels: Communication, Leadership, Teams

Six scientists from some of the leading scientific institutions in the United States have issued what amounts to an unambiguous warning to the world: civilisation itself is threatened by global warming.

They also suggest that the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) underestimates the scale of sea-level rises this century, that it will be not 40 centimetres but several metres. They see planet Earth as in ‘imminent peril’.

In an article in The Independent, Steve Connor writes that “Six scientists from some of the leading scientific institutions in the United States have publised this in a scientific paper in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. They call it the ‘gravest threat’ of climate change.

"Recent greenhouse gas emissions place the Earth perilously close to dramatic climate change that could run out of control, with great dangers for humans and other creatures, the scientists say. Only intense efforts to curb man-made emissions of carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases can keep the climate within or near the range of the past one million years, they add.

“The researchers were led by James Hansen, the director of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, who was the first scientist to warn the US Congress about global warming.

“The other scientists were Makiko Sato, Pushker Kharecha and Gary Russell, also of the Goddard Institute, David Lea of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Mark Siddall of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University in New York.

“The unnatural ‘forcing’ of the climate as a result of man-made emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases threatens to generate a ‘flip’ in the climate that could "spark a cataclysm" in the massive ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland, the scientists write.

"Dramatic flips in the climate have occurred in the past but none has happened since the development of complex human societies and civilisation, which are unlikely to survive the same sort of environmental changes if they occurred now.

"Civilisation developed, and constructed extensive infrastructure, during a period of unusual climate stability, the Holocene, now almost 12,000 years in duration. That period is about to end, the scientists warn. Humanity cannot afford to burn the Earth's remaining underground reserves of fossil fuel. To do so would guarantee dramatic climate change, yielding a different planet from the one on which civilisation developed and for which extensive physical infrastructure has been built, they say.

“Dr Hansen said we have about 10 years to put into effect the draconian measures needed to curb CO2 emissions quickly enough to avert a dangerous rise in global temperature. Otherwise, the extra heat could trigger the rapid melting of polar ice sheets, made far worse by the 'albedo flip' - when the sunlight reflected by white ice is suddenly absorbed as ice melts to become the dark surface of open water.

“The glaciers and ice sheets of Greenland in the northern hemisphere, and the western Antarctic ice sheet in the south, both show signs of the rapid changes predicted with rising temperatures.

“The albedo flip property of ice/water provides a trigger mechanism. If the trigger mechanism is engaged long enough, multiple dynamical feedbacks will cause ice sheet collapse, the scientists say, and we argue that the required persistence for this trigger mechanism is at most a century, probably less.

"The latest assessment of the IPCC published earlier this year predicts little or no contribution to 21st century sea level from Greenland or Antarctica, but the six scientists dispute this interpretation saying that The IPCC analyses and projections do not well account for the nonlinear physics of wet ice sheet disintegration, ice streams and eroding ice shelves, nor are they consistent with the palaeoclimate evidence we have presented for the absence of discernible lag between ice sheet forcing and sea-level rise.

“Their study looked back over more than 400,000 years of climate records from deep ice cores and found evidence to suggest that rapid climate change over a period of centuries, or even decades, have in the past occurred once the world began to heat up and ice sheets started melting. It is not possible to assess the dangerous level of man-made greenhouse gases.

"However, it is much lower than has commonly been assumed. If we have not already passed the dangerous level, the energy infrastructure in place ensures that we will pass it within several decades, the scientists say in their findings.

"We conclude that a feasible strategy for planetary rescue almost surely requires a means of extracting [greenhouse gases] from the air."
Source: Steve Connor, Science Editor, The Independent

Labels: Leadership, Sustainability

Labels: 360 Facilitated, Consultant, Culture, Learning

360 Facilitated^® has been called the simplest way to bring about team and culture change and, for that reason, it causes us to rethink what we are about and raises many questions. We thought a Q&A section with real answers to real questions we have received could be useful, starting now.

Labels: 360 Facilitated, 360 feedback, team goals, Upward Feedback

We put this together years ago. Makes the same sense now as then - want to sign up? You'll be your own witness. Spread the word.

The Stress Pledge

I ..............................................................................................

on ___/___/___ declare that these things are important to me:

• A healthy, happy life

• Harmonious relationships

• A rewarding involvement with people at work

• A world of peace

I commit myself to not putting unnecessary stress on others or myself.

Therefore:

I will be aware of the way in which I approach others - my voice tone, facial expression, body language and gestures, and the words I use.

If I have an issue to raise with anyone, I will do so by expressing my feelings first and what I am experiencing, avoiding telling the other person what to do, blaming them or making hostile or threatening implications.

I will talk about the issue as I understand it, without exaggeration or denigration of the other person's position.

I will seek to deal with my own stress rather than putting it on others, using whatever techniques I can - relaxation, meditation, exercise, walks, music, humour or whatever works for me.

In the event that someone approaches me in a stressful way, I will do whatever I can to bring the stress to their attention - by listening to them with empathy, by simply noting the stress indications that I am aware of, by pausing or ending the conversation, or by acting in any peaceful way that works, being prepared to create an angry response only when I have tried everything else I know.

"Let there be peace in this world and let it begin with me"
(Source: Japan)

Copyright © 1996, Leaderskill Group Pty Ltd,
www.360facilitated.com.au
Permission granted to distribute freely, retaining our name.

Labels: Health, Vision

Labels: 360 Facilitated, 360 feedback, Communication, Leadership

Labels: Appreciative Inquiry, Communication, Leadership, Learning

Not so many years back, "holistic" was a far-out and esoteric word nowhere to be found in management literature, derived as it is from the same source as the words “whole” and “holy” and therefore suggesting something beyond the individual entity. Now we have holistic all over the place – even to the point of “wholistic” (sic) dentistry.

In the manner of Fred Emery’s Open Systems, Garratt’s Learning Organization and Senge’s Fifth Discipline, we are encouraged to think further than the little bit of turf on which we stand. This broader way of understanding explains why so many worthwhile initiatives and restructures fail: they are overtaken by another part of the division, of the organization - or of the economy and society. They just didn't think that little bit further, in the US usually not beyond the three monthly reporting.

It follows that before we undertake any initiative we should look at where the organization is headed. Otherwise, the little pocket of holistic thinking that we create in a team (the Micro level) can easily be engulfed by the sea of short-term planning around it that struggles myopically, at best seeking success at the Macro level.

If we are really daring and truly aiming for long-term success, we should look at how the organization’s direction links to the society it inhabits and its sustainability. Yes, of course, that means we should begin by thinking Mega.

Once there is a direction for the organization that accords with societal good, then you have automatically created something that everyone can align with, feel good about and be proud of – you have kindled the flame of loyalty and passionate involvement in your people.

Our process of 360 Facilitated^® is then simply a means (and we think a very good one) of making that happen by helping people understand one another, work better together, contribute and use the best ideas available, and help the organization (their organization) be successful.

In this series we offered a brief article about rating managers as a means to improvement. It’s a good example of a non-holistic approach that hones in on just one subset of the manager’s behaviours. And it can have unexpected repercussions that range from knee-jerk reactions and camouflage to depression, revenge and retaliation.

We began the series by suggesting that leaders develop best when they face up to the real world – the people they lead, the tasks they are responsible for. Also that they are accountable for the totality of what they manage – both the task and the people. This is a holistic process for building leadership. It also builds leaders within the teams as people who put their hands up, step forward and play their part.

In Part II of the series we pointed out that this process is about overall performance improvement in which everyone (not just the manager) takes account of what must be done. The relentless monitoring of action plans ensures that these are completed (or updated and rewritten) and therefore lead to agreed results. Getting results is what we want and this is more important than the simplistic concept of putting numbers on managers.

In Part III we suggested that giving people opportunity within their team structure and supporting their ideas and contributions is actually a form of action learning. You give them the chance plus the resources to do the job and they produce the results - benefiting the team and the organization. At the same time they benefit themselves professionally and personally as they grow into the task.

We can't close without recommending that the organization continually measures its progress and prioritises its path to improvement within the framework of Mega Planning.
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Labels: Leadership, Sustainability, Vision

Labels: Communication, Culture, Health, Ritalin

Labels: Culture, Human Resources, Questionnaire, Ritalin

"Finally, he advises caution in choosing where [meaning in what environment] you want to lead: “The irony is that some big organisations say they want more leaders but their structures and cultures often... homogenise people. Leadership is about using our differences and humanity, but the organisation effectively kills off leaders and produces suits.” And who’d want to be a suit?"

Labels: 360 feedback, Culture, Leadership, Morale

Labels: 360 Facilitated, 360 feedback, Appreciative Inquiry, team facilitation

Labels: 360 Facilitated, 360 feedback, Learning

Labels: 360 feedback, Learning

Labels: Leadership, Strategy, Sustainability

- the easy-going team that had little change to suggest because it didn’t want to rock the boat and upset the low performing manager

- the demanding team suggesting a lot of change to a high performing manager

- the team suggesting a lot of change to a manager for problems over which the manager had no control – organizational issues.

The link to appraisal therefore is not the profile, but the output - the actions that are agreed by all parties as a result. This is what the manager signs off on, and this can and should be part of the performance management process: “You looked at the real situation with the team, together you created action plans – now what’s the result?” If performance management is truly about getting results, then this is the result we should be measuring.

To be continued…
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Labels: 360 Facilitated, 360 feedback, Learning

Labels: 360 feedback, Collaboration, Culture, Leadership

Labels: 360 Facilitated, 360 feedback, Leadership, team facilitation, Upward Feedback

Labels: Leadership, Strategy, Sustainability, Vision

Labels: 360 feedback, Learning, team facilitation

What feelings do managers have when their staff rate some of their behaviours at work? At the very best, there is some apprehension. At the worst, individual managers have shut themselves up in their office for weeks, sought revenge, or left the job. Not infrequently, the whole group of managers has decided “not to pursue” 360 further. The word “360” has been tarnished as a result.

What feelings do managers have when their staff suggest to them that they could do more or less of a full range of best practice management behaviours? Also some apprehension. Why? Because we often regard feedback as criticism (or praise) and fantasise about it if we don’t know the reason for it. Once we can sit down with the people who gave the feedback we can get past the fantasy and reach the facts.

Reality
And what are the facts? They are not necessarily the items that respondents ticked off on a questionnaire – that, for example, people could work better “if there were more regular team meetings”. No, but such a suggestion does trigger a lot of ideas about the real requirements of staff to do the job better. What gap in results are we aiming to close? What hinders it and how can we do it – and the answer you find may not lie in holding more meetings.

The approach that we are describing has been called an 'encounter with reality'. It brings everyone together to get past their usual judgements, perceptions and prejudices, and to work with the facts towards performance improvement. What almost always happens is an upwelling of enthusiasm for the job, and much greater goodwill between manager and team. And of course better performance. This is the approach known as 360 Facilitated®.

Measure people or measure needs?
With 360 Facilitated, we have made a sacrifice. We have given away the ability to stick numbers on people and say “this person rates 4 on our scale, as measured by staff, peers, etc.” We've gained the ability to say “We are able to measure how this team is performing in terms of outputs and performance indicators that have been agreed by all parties”. As a result, we create an open and enthusiastic environment with lower stress and greater productivity.

So do we really want to rate? Do we want to put numbers on people - or is our real intention to get results?
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Labels: 360 Facilitated, 360 feedback, team facilitation

Labels: Collaboration, Culture, Sustainability