History & New Technology

New technology kicked off the first Industrial Revolution.  Historians may debate its actual starting point, but there is no doubt that the perfection of James Watt’s steam engine in 1782 played a key role in its expansion.  Before this, work in Olde England was mostly performed in agrarian cottage industries.  People made their living as weavers, seamstresses, candle makers and blacksmiths.  The introduction of Watt’s steam engine displaced thousands of these manual jobs.

Consequently, labor moved into factories.  The resulting growth in productivity gave rise to industrial centers.  The potential for exporting surplus goods called for rail and sea transport, which in turn created transportation hubs and financial centers.  Where a comparative handful of manual jobs were lost in this transition to new technologies, millions of new and diverse jobs were created.

Industrialization in America began around the same time, but by the 1870s half of the American population was still involved in farming.  Continued mechanization of agriculture after the Civil War, however, freed people to go off and do other jobs.  Today just 2% of the American population is involved in farming and the agricultural output far surpasses what it did 150 years ago.

In addition to agriculture, another American industry decimated by new technology was whaling.  At its height in 1846, whaling was the fifth largest sector of the American economy.  The industry boasted 742 vessels – more than the rest of world combined times three.  It employed tens of thousands of people and was worth hundreds of millions of dollars in ships, outfits and cargos.  To serve the fleet globally, scores of American outposts were established throughout the world in Atlantic and Pacific harbors.  Just 50 years later, however, the industry was dead.

The reason?  Electricity. 

In addition to bone, meat, and ambergris for perfume, one of the key by-products of whaling was oil.  Many American cities and most American homes at the time used whale oil to light their streets and their lamps.  In 1879, however, the city of Cleveland became the first in America to light its streets with electric arc lamps invented by Charles Brush.  In just a decade, his invention transformed street lighting throughout the world.

In the same year, the California Electric Company in San Francisco became the first to sell electricity to home-consumers, which eventually put an end to the need for whale oil.  However, despite the huge number of jobs displaced, the world is certainly a better place without the whaling industry, and the number of new jobs created through the launch and distribution of electricity is immeasurable.

The fear of computers displacing jobs took hold 100 years later.  When the earliest computers and robots appeared in offices and on factory floors, President John F. Kennedy prophesied that one major challenge of the 1960s would be to “maintain full employment at a time when automation…is replacing men”.  The later appearance of desktop computers in the 1980s, thanks in large part to people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, amplified these worries. 

Among the earliest casualties of computerization were jobs in the banking industry.  Front-line tellers, long-accustomed to taking deposits and cashing checks, were easily displaced by ATMs.  By 1988, the number of bank tellers was reduced by almost 50% in most American branches. 

However, the reduced cost of running a branch allowed banks to open more branches.  Rather than being displaced, bank teller roles were remixed by ATMs.  As a result, their work focused less on routine tasks, and more on sales and customer service – things that the new machines were unable to do.

At no point in history has there ever been mass unemployment resulting from the introduction of new technologies.  In fact, it has actually been the opposite.  New technologies have created new jobs that had previously been unimaginable.

The same lessons hold true for our current transition to automation.  According to Manpower Group’s 2017 report on upskilling for the future, 65% of the jobs that will be performed by Generation Z (those born after 1996) have not yet been invented.  Companies today are already hiring for positions that did not exist just five years ago.  Who could have previously dreamed that their children would be getting jobs as Social Media Marketing Specialists or Geo-Immersive Data Producers (read: Google Maps Drivers)?

The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2018 also presents a positive outlook for future employment.  By 2022, while 75 million jobs may be displaced by automation, another 133 million new roles may be created as labor adapts to the new interface between people and machines.

Many jobs performed by humans today can and should be displaced just as new technology displaced whaling jobs in the 19^th century.  Jobs that are methodical (accounting), routine (electronics assembly), dangerous (mining) and degrading (trash & hazmat removal) could be performed more efficiently and safely by robots and computerization. 

When this happens, the workplace becomes a more socially active, relationship-based environment.

And this is why communication skills will be among the most critical for the future workplace.

AI, Robotics, and Job Displacement

Prepare yourself -- robots and artificial intelligence (AI) are stealing your jobs.

According to the Kazanah Research Institute, more than half of all current jobs in Malaysia are at high risk of being affected by automation in the next one to two decades.  While this may appear to foreshadow a decrease in the number of foreign workers, four out of five of the jobs at risk are semi-skilled, and 90% of all semi-skilled jobs are held by Malaysians.

Meanwhile, more than 670,000 jobs have already been displaced by automation in the United States.  As the number of robots is expected to increase by a factor of four by 2025, an estimated 3.5 million more American jobs will be lost.

Recent research by the Mckinsey Global Institute estimates that by 2030, up to 800 million jobs will be displaced by automation globally and 30% of the workforce in economies like China, Japan and Germany may need to switch occupational categories and acquire new skills.

It’s highly likely that you or someone you know has already lost their job to automation.  Accountants, restaurant staff (been out for sushi lately?), travel agents, factory workers, taxi drivers, agricultural workers and retail cashiers have all been displaced, and the list of occupations at risk continues to grow longer.

What the science fiction writers have told us is true: Robots are taking over the world.

Or are they?  Maybe there is a reason why we call it science fiction.

Experts surveyed by the Pew Research Center in 2014 seem to be more optimistic about the future than science fiction.  While 48% of the respondents predict massive job Pdisplacement, income inequality, and even breakdowns in the social order, a slight majority (52%) predicts that new technologies will actually create new jobs, industries, and ways to make a living, just as it has been doing since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution.

In other words, new technologies will create new jobs.

Just as it has since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, new technology will adequately provide sufficient employment and undiscovered jobs for new generations of workers.

Next week we’ll take a look at new technologies through history.

Facilitating Group Development

The role of a team leader overseeing the development of a new work group is similar to the role of a drum circle facilitator guiding a group of new drummers to their greatest musical potential.  Like a capable team leader, a facilitator who is mindful of what the drum group needs at any given time knows exactly what intervention to provide that will bring them to their next performance level.

Master facilitator and percussionist, Arthur Hull, has defined the roles of the facilitator for each step of the drum circle’s musical development.  First, he says, when the group is forming, they need a Dictator.  The Dictator’s role is to set the norms of the group, to make introductions, and to teach the basic body language signals that the group needs to follow.  This is done through full group interventions so that the whole group responds the same way at the same time.  As they do this they develop group consciousness, and become synchronized.

To reinforce this, the Dictator becomes a Director.  The group benefits by knowing how its individual parts are contributing to the whole, and the Director’s job is to demonstrate this to them.  By sculpting out specific sections of the drum circle (e.g. the bass drums, the hand drums, the bells) and allowing them to perform alone, the Director provides insight into what the music is composed of, and the group progresses towards ensemble consciousness. 

When the music shows up, the Director becomes a Facilitator.  By creating moments of success and setting up rhythmical dialog between the drummers, the Facilitator develops the group’s musicality and provides them with opportunities to improvise.  The Facilitator’s ability to monitor and listen deeply to what the group is playing is tasked at this stage since each intervention presented is intended to move the group to full orchestrational consciousness.

Once this level is achieved, the facilitator’s job is complete, and like a successful team leader managing a high-functioning work group, s/he may now step back and fine-tune the drum circle’s performance and work with what they give.  The new group of drummers has become a performance-level percussion ensemble in full flow.  The Facilitator, now Orchestrator, can play with the group’s music and allow individuals to gradually take over leadership roles.

Whether it’s developing a new work group or maximizing a group’s musical potential, the process of facilitation is the same.  The team leader and the drum circle facilitator must both have their radar on at all times so they know exactly what to provide in order to move their respective groups to the next level of development.

And this is why your company’s team leaders would benefit from training in drum circle facilitation.

Rhythmic Teambuilding

Much of what happens at work follows rhythmic patterns that we can recognize and improvise to ensure continued productivity.  Back in 1965, Bruce Tuckman recognized that small-group development also follows a rhythmic pattern which he codified into a clever model that’s still relevant after more than 50 years.

When a group first engages, he wrote, they are forming.  During this stage, team members get to know each other, the tools they’re working with, and the task at hand.  Some may be highly excited about the new challenge at hand while others may be equally apprehensive.  Team leader roles at this stage are to provide instructions and to build group cohesiveness.

As the team begins working together, they begin storming.  Here, conflicts in personalities

and working styles may surface.  Competition and petty jealousy may arise as members compare abilities and challenge each other.  Team leaders may also be challenged as members question their authority or the value of the objective.

Differences are gradually resolved as the team begins norming.  The objective is clearer now and the methods to achieve it are more familiar.  Relationships are stronger so team members work together, appreciate each other’s strengths, and resolve conflicts quicker.  Team leaders monitor progress, stepping in when necessary to provide advice, correction or praise.

When the team reaches a state of flow, they are performing.  Everyone realizes their individual roles in contributing to the whole and disruptions of work flow are few.  A team “culture” emerges that new members can easily recognize and adapt to.  Team leaders can step back at this stage, and even delegate leadership roles to other team members.

Forming, storming, norming, performing. 

A rhythmic teambuilding metaphor that clearly illustrates and teaches this clever sequence is a one-hour community drum circle.  In a teambuilding drum circle, participants who usually know little about drumming get together with music-making as their objective.

Just like a new team, drum circle participants begin by forming.  They learn about each other, about drums, and about drumming.  The team leader, or facilitator, teaches group norms through body language, and quickly moves them on to storming.  In this stage, participants notice various levels of ability throughout the group and begin making comparisons.  Self-doubt may arise, so the facilitator must acknowledge progress and small successes.

As they continue, the group entrains, the music shows up, and they begin norming.  The facilitator may begin challenging the participants with more complex interventions now and help ease them finally into the performing stage.  The participants have reached their music-making potential and the facilitator may step aside, intervening only to orchestrate.

Are you developing a new team or trying to invigorate one that’s already working together?  A teambuilding drum circle is a hands-on (literally!) rhythmic process that brilliantly illustrates how successful teams form, develop, and create beautiful music.

Stressed Out on Customer Service?

Let’s begin today on the bright side.  If you’re working in customer service your job is to make people happy.  Throughout the day, you’re in constant communication – either on the phone or in writing – with the people that your business depends on the most.  Your customers’ satisfaction is what helps keep you in business; therefore, your business success depends on the service you provide

Now let’s examine the dark side.  Working in customer service means listening to people complain, sometimes angrily.  If your skin isn’t thick enough, this can lead to stress.  In fact, statistics show that one third of all customer service agents miss an average of five working days per year due to stress.

Many customer service training programs offer tips on how to alleviate stress on the job ranging from meditation to keeping a laugh diary.  The truth is, however, that the best way to avoid customer service stress is to provide good customer service.

Most of the time, customers who complain have good reason to do so.  But whether the complaint is angry or reasonable, it’s your job to respond by overlooking the personality and the emotion and focus on the person with the problem.

Your response to a customer complaint -- whether written or over the phone – needs to be sympathetic and understanding, but also must reflect the level of accountability that your organization actually bears.  You probably have policies that you can follow to help you express your accountability and provide a solution.  You should also have guidelines in place for dealing with complaints that might not be justified, such as when your customers’ expectations go beyond your level of accountability.  To prevent making promises you can’t keep, you’ll need to be careful about accepting liability and even, sometimes, apologizing when your organization may not be at fault.
 

Providing good customer service also means openly telling your customer what you can do and will do and avoiding what you cannot do.  Positive service solutions like this help to soothe your customers’ frustrations, even when their expectations cannot be fully met.

To be good at customer service requires passion for finding solutions that help people.  By the time your task is through, your customer will no longer have reason to complain.  A full day of responding to customer complaints successfully means that you’ve done your part in maintaining their loyalty and keeping your company in business.

And that’s no reason to be stressed.  In fact, that ought to let you sleep pretty well tonight.

 

How to Respond to Complaints

If you work in customer service or even if you know somebody who works in customer service, you’re probably familiar with a story or two about customers from hell whose sole objective in life seems to be making work miserable for customer service representatives.  Whether on the phone or in a letter, these customers do nothing to hide their anger and frustration and spare no words letting you know what they think of your product or service.

It’s natural that your response to complaints like these will reflect the tone in which they were written.  Angry letters, after all, get angry responses.  When you’re responding to complaints, however, your professionalism hangs on whether you can overlook the anger and emotion customers have shoved in your face and focus on the issues and the solutions.  After all, the people you’re dealing with are probably very nice face to face.  The anonymity of telephone calls and letters, however, allows them to vent their frustration with impunity.

Remember, although you needn’t agree with your customer’s point of view, responding to a complaint successfully means that you do need to understand their situation and their feelings.  In this way, regardless of whether the customer’s expectations or demands for a solution were completely met, you can still go a long way towards soothing their anger and disappointment.

All communications with complaining customers, therefore, must be expressed in an understanding tone, whether you are speaking with them on the telephone or writing to them in a response letter.  That’s why now is a good time to read through the dusty old response formats your company has been sending to complaining customers for ages and see if the language you’re using to express your empathy is current, new- millennium, business English.

Once you have responded to a customer’s complaint, take ownership of it and follow through to the end.  If you ensure that your company does the right thing by your customer and then call to check that the issue has been resolved to their satisfaction, you will consolidate your relationship and keep this customer for life.

Complaining customers aren’t really trying to spoil your day.  They just need to be understood.  If you can genuinely empathize with their problems and provide what they need, they may become more loyal than they were before complaining.

Complaints: What, Who and Where?

Today, three answers to three questions about complaints: What, who and where?

First, what’s better, complaining by phone or by letter? 

If your problem must be resolved urgently, use the phone.  In all other circumstances write a letter.  Among the many reasons for this is simply to make it easier for the organization to handle your complaint.  They probably require facts and written records for their complaint processing and letters provide a more reliable way to deliver these than phone calls do.  You may also keep a copy of the letter for your records so you always have something to refer back to.

Telephone calls are less controlled and allow emotions to take over.  Letters, on the other hand, allow you to plan exactly what needs to be communicated.  You can sit, calm down present your case in the best possible way. 

Second, once your letter’s written, to whom do you send it? 

 

The head of the customer service department at the branch office nearest you is where you start.  These are the people most prepared to help you because this is what they do.  Writing to the CEO or the MD should be saved until the problem gets worse or remains unresolved.  Writing to the top of the organization too early will only get you referred to the customer service department by the CEO’s PA anyway.

Third, where do you complain if the organization fails to satisfy you? 

 

Before you take your complaint too far, stop and ask yourself, is it really worth the effort?  Is your need to push onward fueled by emotions or by a genuine need for resolution?  Remember, some battles with giants aren’t worth fighting, so it may be in your best interest to walk away.

Some things, however, are worth fighting for.  If you feel the need for a personal crusade, use the media to broadcast your situation.  This will get the attention of the organization you’re complaining about.  Write letters to government regulatory bodies and ensure that you present clear records of everything that has transpired so far.

Remember, the higher you go with your complaint, the more professional and authoritative you will need to appear.  Your further letters, therefore, will need to be objective, factual and error-free.  As you may attract media attention, the image you present should be one of a consumer wronged rather than of a whiner and whinger.

Filing complaints when necessary is a legitimate part of doing business.  That’s why we have customer service departments.  To ensure that your complaints are honored and resolved, remain objective and follow due process.  Remember, most companies would rather keep you happy.

Filing a Complaint? Stop Complaining!

When you need to file a complaint, writing a letter is usually the most effective way to accomplish this.  Unlike phone calls and e-mail, complaint letters explain your situation in black and white.  Holding your letter in their hands makes your complaint feel substantial to your readers.  As a result, a well-written letter adds gravity to your complaint and makes it feel more serious.

A well-written complaint letter, however, is not an angry letter.  To be successful with your written complaints, it’s helpful to remember that your reader is another human being who’s doing his or her job to the best of their ability.  Confrontation, therefore, is unproductive.  No matter how angry you may feel, a good complaint letter will take the feelings of your reader into account.

This is why the most effective complaint letters are concise, authoritative, factual and friendly.

Complaint letters need to be concise so your reader can easily understand and respond to your problem.  You may feel a need to be long-winded in your explanation of why the product failed to meet your expectations, but this isn’t what your reader needs.  The main idea of your letter must be understood within the first few seconds so that your reader can begin planning your solution immediately.

Good complaint letters are also authoritative.  The presentation of your complaint must establish your credibility.  This is why it’s helpful to use letterhead on quality stationery.  Professional sounding language and correct grammar are also essential.  Remember, the way you write will make an impression on the reader, affecting their attitude and their response.

In addition, your complaints must be factual.  Relevant names, dates, prices and details must be included.  The facts you present will justify whether or not your complaint should be resolved as you wish.  Therefore, allow your facts to speak for themselves and build your case.  Facts provide objectivity where emotions do not.

Also, remember to be friendly with your complaints.  Being negative, terminating the relationship and taking your business elsewhere will give your readers little incentive to make any adjustments for you.  Express your desire to remain loyal, and the customer service agents will do their utmost to maintain your loyalty.

Customer service agents are doing what they can to help you, so don’t take your frustrations out on them.  When you write a complaint, be concise, authoritative, factual and friendly and you’ll be more successful in getting the solutions that you want.

Complaints: It's All About Loyalty

One of the most important principles you can remember for your business communications is this: If you want to get people to do what you want them to do, you have to make them feel the way you want them to feel.  In other words, you must create the desire within others to take action. 

It’s obvious to see how this principle applies when you’re motivating or persuading.  It’s less obvious, however, to see where this applies in your business writing.  So today we’ll discuss applying this principle in one very common area of business writing, and that’s writing complaint letters.

If you want to get people to do what you want them to do, you have to make them feel the way you want them to feel.  Let’s imagine that you want to write a complaint.  Maybe you bought a new handphone that needed servicing and after you waited for three weeks, the authorized service center returned it to you still malfunctioning.  You need to express your dissatisfaction.  So how do you go about writing the complaint letter?

Research shows that more than half of the complaint letters that customer service people receive are expressions of anger.  Many go on to insult the company or even the customer service agent reading the letter.  Letters like this are not helpful to you, however, and are unlikely to get the results you want.  Angry letters, after all, will receive angry responses and angry customer services agents will be reluctant to make any adjustments on your behalf.

So ask yourself, how do you want the reader to feel?  If the customer service agent is going to respond positively to your complaint letter he or she has to understand your needs and feel a sense of responsibility or even accountability on the company’s behalf to keep you satisfied as a customer.  Your job as a letter writer, therefore, is to make the reader feel understanding and accountable.

How can you do this?  Most importantly, remember that your complaint letter is about YOU, the customer, and not about their product.  The reader needs to sense that you are a loyal customer whose expectations were unmet.  You can do this by explaining your normally happy experience with the product and expressing your disappointment that this time your experience is different. 

Be friendly when you suggest a solution.  Your objective is to make your reader feel obligated, not forced.  Making demands is less effective than explaining what it would take to make you happy again.

If you want to get people to do what you want them to do, you have to make them feel the way you want them to feel.  To make people feel good about responding to your complaints, make them feel good about you first.

The View from the Top

A few years back, I spent ten days in Scotland attending a conference with 50 other trainers.  The October weather was cold, windy and rainy, so we all spent much of our time working indoors.  By the fourth day, missing Malaysian sunshine, I developed cabin fever and needed a long walk.  I put on boots and raingear and headed for the hill behind our venue.

As I trudged upwards, the rain subsided and gave way to breezy, cloudy skies.  It seemed for a moment that the sun would actually break through, but before I knew it, I found myself in the rain again.  From the time I began walking to the time I reached the top of the hill, the weather had changed a dozen different times.

It wasn’t until I reached the summit, however, and turned to see the valley spread out before me that I got the big picture.  All over the valley, different areas were experiencing different weather patterns depending on the position of the clouds above.  A patch of sunshine would move across the valley floor giving way to more rain.  A windy patch would blow through the trees for miles before dying out.  A field full of grazing sheep would get soaked under a passing shower. 

From my perspective climbing from the bottom of the hill, all of these changes were happening to me alone.  From my view at the top, however, I could see how the moving clouds affected changes in the weather throughout the whole valley.

Change management in your organization works the same way.  From your view at the top, you can see how changes that you initiate or respond to are going to affect, and maybe even benefit, different parts of your organization.  From the bottom, however, the view is different.  Your staff experiences the change without the benefit of the big picture.  For them, change means disruption in the familiar environment, disturbances in routine schedules, and stressful adaptation to the unfamiliar.  It’s no wonder that change is often met with resistance.

Ultimately, organizational change is about people and that’s why your prime consideration needs to be the impact of the change upon your staff.  To help you change their resistance to acceptance, remember to keep them informed and updated.  Highlight benefits and success, but be honest with bad news as well.  Your enthusiasm for the change will be infectious, so be a model for dedication and get complete investment from your senior management as well. 

Delegate responsibilities to the staff most affected by the change to guarantee investment and ownership.  And most importantly, keep the channels for feedback wide open to allow honest communication back and forth between you and your staff so you can monitor the impact of the change.

It’s easier to see patches of sunshine from the top than it is while standing in the rain at the bottom.  For the benefit of your people, keep this in mind when you plan you change initiatives.

Change Management: One Size Fits All?

Choosing a t-shirt at the night market is easy.  Everything is free size.  Choosing the right change management strategy for your organization is not so easy.  One-size-fits-all won’t work.  The strategy you choose needs to suit the unique characteristics of the change you’re introducing and the needs of your organization.
 
Three different strategies you can choose from to implement change are persuasion, adaptation and coercion.  Persuasion means providing your staff with lots of information, explaining the benefits of the change and providing incentives for improved performance.  Adaptation means making incremental changes, redeveloping your processes slowly and retraining your staff so that they gradually accept the new status quo.  Coercion means exercising your authority and making unilateral decisions for change, imposing sanctions and eventually expecting compliance.

Although each of these strategies may be implemented in various degrees, choosing which one to use will depend largely on five different characteristics of your organization.  The first is the degree of resistance.  Weak resistance may allow for adaptation.  Strong resistance, on the other hand may call for strong persuasion or coercion, depending on what your employees best respond to.

The second characteristic to consider is the size of the group affected by the change.  Larger groups will call for a greater mix of the three strategies.  Persuasive incentives may need to be combined at times with a bit of enforcement.

The time frame is your third characteristic.  If you have a longer time frame in which to introduce the change, adaptation will work well.  A shorter time frame, however, means less time to plan.  Coercion may be necessary to implement the change in the short run and you can hope for adaptation in the long run.

Your fourth consideration is the level of expertise within your organization.  Greater expertise in change management and in the areas affected will allow for a greater mix of persuasion and adaptation.  Less expertise, however, may call for coercion to be thrown into the mix.

Your final consideration concerns levels of dependency.  If your organization is more dependent on its people, management power is weaker and persuasion will be more effective.  If the people are more dependent on the organization, however, people power is weaker and coercion may be more effective.

Every change management initiative is unique and the impact of each change on your organization may vary.  Ensuring that the change management strategy you choose fits the characteristics of your organization can make the transition smoother.

Planning Change Around Situation, Structure, and Strategy

An organization that is prepared for change knows how to strategize and manage change.  Since each project or change management initiative is unique, however, each may require separate and unique planning.  To ensure that your change management initiatives are most effective, remember these three criteria to plan around – Situation, Structure and Strategy.

Situation planning helps you understand the nature of the change that you are initiating or responding to.  Is the change a formal project?  A company-wide campaign?  In any case, knowing the characteristics of the change being introduced will help you recognize its scope and impact.
Situation planning also means understanding your organization.  Is your organizational culture accepting when change is introduced?  How has change been managed in the past?  The more responsive your organization is, the more successful your change initiatives will be.

Situation planning also means knowing which groups in your organization will be affected by the change.  Some groups may be more affected by others.  Knowing who will be affected and how they will be affected helps you customize your plan to ensure buy-in from everyone.

In addition to planning around your situation, it’s also important to plan your working structure.  This takes place on two levels – the teams responsible for the work and the management on board.
 
Individuals working on change management teams must be carefully chosen from the most affected groups to ensure full energy investment.  Likewise, management must also be fully invested to build support and communicate openly with their respective audiences.

Once you understand your situation and your structure, your final criteria to plan around is your strategy.  This will help you determine how the change will be implemented based on factors such as risk and resistance.  Dramatic, wider-reaching changes will have higher risk.  Greater resistance from the organization will also mean higher risk.  Both of these will affect your change management strategy.

The specific change initiative you’re implementing will determine the special tactics required.  This may involve training, choosing appropriate channels of communication, delegating responsibilities to the right people and status monitoring and reporting.  While your overall strategy shapes your plan, your tactics determine how the plan will be implemented.

Adapting to and initiating change is always a challenge for your organization.  But, knowing how to plan around Situation, Structure and Strategy helps you meet that challenge with greater success.

Fixed or Fluid: What's Your Perspective?

Heard this one?  How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?  Well, only one, but the light bulb has to really want to change.

Light bulbs aside, it’s difficult to find people who want to change because, generally speaking, we look at life from a perspective that we call “fixed’.

If you have this perspective, you see life as static and nicely packaged with clear boundaries that define YOUR job, YOUR business, YOUR responsibilities and YOUR reality.  In other words, the fixed perspective draws a sharp line between the YOU ‘in here’ and the rest of the world ‘out there’.
Also, from the fixed perspective, time, for you, is a linear experience.  Events that have occurred in the past are separate from each other and may have no bearing on events occurring now or in the future. 

Change, as a result, is probably something that you dislike and resist if you can.  Change is something that happens to you from the outside and requires you to make unwanted adaptations.  As result, change is something to be avoided whenever possible.

The fixed perspective is the ‘default setting’ for us as human beings.  Much of what we do is motivated by the desire to maintain things as they are.  Consequently, the fixed perspective is also the ‘default setting’ for most businesses.

For you and your business to survive and remain relevant in a perpetually changing environment, the first change you can make is in your perspective.  Rather than seeing life as fixed, see it as fluid.

Developing this perspective enables you to view life as changing, moving and evolving.  Life, in other words, is a process for you rather than a thing.  As a result, time is less linear and more interconnected. 

From the fluid perspective, you see change as the natural order of your environment and change, therefore, defines your participation within it.  Because change is something you and everyone else will inevitably experience, you develop strategies to adapt to change when it comes and initiate change on your own when necessary.

Because the fluid perspective recognizes change, it also allows you to anticipate and prepare for change.  And this is why your business will thrive and remain relevant if you encourage the development of a change culture.

Change, after all, is no longer the exception.  It’s the rule.

How Adaptable is Your Corporate Dinosaur?

In July, 2011, 45 scientists from around the world pooled their data and confirmed that the extinction of the dinosaurs and 70% of the species living on earth was caused by the impact of a gigantic asteroid 65 million years ago.

According to their calculations, the scientists speculate that the asteroid was approximately 9.5 km across and traveling at the leisurely speed of 69 thousand km per hour.  It struck off the east coast of what is now Mexico, leaving an impact crater 38 km deep and 200 km across.

The pressure wave and the resulting fireball probably cleared most of the forest cover from the North and South American continents.  It took 15 million years for the planet to recover.

The dinosaurs, however, never did.  The resources required to maintain their massive bodies were gone.  The species that survived, however, were more adaptable to the abrupt change that had taken place around them.  The demise of the huge and powerful dinosaurs allowed for the emergence of the smaller, quicker mammals that inhabit the planet today.

Charles Darwin said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones who are most responsive to change.”  In other words, external environmental changes must initiate internal changes for the organism (or the organization) to survive.

Now, take a look at your organization.  Are you now or are you becoming a corporate dinosaur?  Have your policies, processes, behaviors and cultures evolved enough to ensure that you can adapt to the changing realities that we experience more and more frequently in business today?

Most of us like to think we’re prepared, yet studies show that 70% of all business change management initiatives FAIL to deliver the promised benefits.
 
Mathematician and philosopher John Allen Paulos wrote, “Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security.”
 
This means that for your organization to remain productive and relevant today, you must be changing and changing regularly.  And this is especially true in large businesses, where your challenge is to keep your people thinking smaller and quicker.

After all, you never know when the next asteroid might come and wipe out a few more dinosaurs.

How to Handle Hair and Hands

Centuries of scientific research has proved conclusively that men and women are different.  Surprised?  I didn’t think so.  I could elaborate on this topic for the rest of the year.

But, the topic I’ve been discussing with you recently has been non-verbal communication through body language, and since I’ve only got room for a few paragraphs, I’ll quickly explain gender differences between the most distracting aspect of body language in business presentations.  For women, it’s hair.  For men, it’s hands.

Women: If you have short hair or traditionally keep your hair tied up at work, you’re unlikely to encounter this distraction.  If your hair is long and free-flowing, however, your may be inadvertently sending subtle signals to your audience that are out of alignment with your message in your business presentation.

Imagine this: You lean forward over your laptop and click to forward to the next slide.  Your hair, as a result, falls over your shoulder and into your face.  When you stand up and begin presenting again, what’s the first thing you do?  You either brush your hair with your hand or toss your head to flick it all back.  Outside of the context of your business presentation, what message might these gestures otherwise send?  To help you ensure that your signals always send what you want to say, a simple no-nonsense hair clip will do the trick.

For men, however, the problem is not so easily solved.

Men: Have you ever noticed that when you get up to deliver a business presentation, you suddenly don’t know what to do with your hands?  You clap them and rub them together, you scratch your forearms, and you wave them aimlessly in front of your body or towards your PowerPoint slides.  And yet, those hands still feel like gangly appendages that you have suddenly sprouted from the ends of your arms.  Unfortunately, a simple, no-nonsense clip won’t get them out of the way.

The messages you send with your hands at times like these tell your audience quite clearly that you are uncomfortable, nervous, and probably lacking confidence.  So what do you do?  Well, after you try clasping your hands in front of you and then again behind you, you finally slip them into your pockets.  Which is fine, until you find a 20 sen coin in there and nervous energy goes back to work.  Imagine how this might appear to your audience.

To help you relax, remember: the most natural-looking posture you can assume is to drop your hands straight down at your sides.  If this feels uneasy, press the tips of your index fingers and your thumbs together.  This completes a circuit and helps you feel ‘in touch with yourself’.  The best part is, it controls your hand gestures so they don’t distract your audience.

Yes, men and women are different.  But, no matter the gender, the need to get your non-verbal signals straight makes all presenters the same.

Congruency: The Simple Lie Detector

Do you watch CSI?  Of course you do.  It’s arguably the best TV drama on crime forensics ever made (sorry, Jack Klugman fans).  The science is mind-boggling and sometimes you wonder if the technology they’re using really exists.

Get out of the laboratory and leave the technology behind, however, and you’ll see another science at work on CSI that’s much more subtle, but just as mind boggling.  It’s the science of congruency.  Let me explain how it works.

Jim Brass from CSI Las Vegas takes a suspect into a small, dark room outfitted with nothing but a table and some chairs.  This is his laboratory.  He starts asking some simple questions and watches for the suspect’s reactions.  Then the questions get tougher and Brass finally comes out and accuses the suspect of the murder or crime in question. Now he observes carefully, because without fail, this is where the suspect will deny. 

When he does, Brass is paying attention to five of the suspect’s communicative signals – word choice, tone of voice, facial expression, eye contact and body posture.  If all five of those signals send the same message at the same time, then Brass knows that the suspect is telling the truth.  The suspect’s signals, in other words, are congruent.  However, if one of those signals is even the slightest bit out of alignment, Brass can detect that.  He’s professionally trained to do so.  When the suspect’s signals are not congruent, Brass leans harder and asks even tougher questions until the suspect finally cracks.

Believability in your business presentations works almost the same way.  Even though your audience might not be professionally trained in congruency, they can still detect if one of your communicative signals is out of alignment with the rest.  Maybe your facial expression and your words are sending different messages.  Perhaps your body posture is betraying a lack of confidence.  Or possibly, just at that critical moment, you broke eye contact.  As insignificant as these incidents may seem, they play a big part in congruency, and therefore in getting your audience to believe you.

To ensure that your signals are in alignment with each other, the most critical step for you is to know your material inside and out and to anticipate any questions that may arise.  This will elevate your confidence levels and will immediately show up in the way you address your audience.
 
Speak with clarity and project your voice throughout the room.  Stand up straight, elevate your chin just slightly and lift your shoulders back.  Then, face your audience directly, make eye contact, and greet them with a smile on your face. 

Now, that would impress Jim Brass.

Say It on Your Face

Paul Ekman is one of the 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century.  Through his work on human emotions, he has determined that the meaning of facial expressions is universal across cultures, and therefore, that they are biologically determined and not culturally determined as previously thought.  By showing photographs of different facial expressions to people from different backgrounds, Ekman found that basic emotions such as anger, disgust, fear, sadness and surprise were recognized across cultures.
 
Every facial expression you can imagine has been programmed into Ekman’s Facial Action Coding System, or FACS.  Using the FACS, experts can tell you precisely how certain muscles in the face move to create a recognizable expression.  The smallest movements, or microexpressions, may even be used to determine whether a person is telling the truth.  Through his work, Ekman has demonstrated how facial expressions are the window into human emotions.

You don’t need to be an eminent psychologist like Ekman to know this, however.  Facial expressions tell you how people really feel about what they have to say to you, and you can sense this without expert training.  Knowing this can also help you send messages more effectively when you deliver your business presentations.  If your facial expression matches what you have to say, people in your audience are more likely to believe you.

When you begin your presentation, for example, telling your audience that you are very pleased to have the opportunity is only half the game.  As you say this with words, you must also say this with your face.  If you really are pleased, you need to look pleased.
 
Most of the time, it’s not even necessary to mention the emotion you’re attempting to deliver.  Suppose you’re presenting a drop in your quarterly sales figures to the sales team than you manage.  This is serious business, and the expression on your face needs to tell your sales team that you’re concerned without your having to say so.

When you have exciting news, look excited.  If the trends you’re presenting are worrying, look worried.  Emotions can be infectious.  During your most effective moments in your business presentations, your audience should not only believe what you’re saying, but should also feel what you’re feeling.

When you speak with people in normal face-to-face conversations, your changing facial expressions are natural and spontaneous.  So think of your business presentation as just another conversation.  The more naturally you express yourself, both verbally and facially, the more likely it is that your audience will believe you.