The Astron Road Show
This year’s luncheon speaker will be Galen Kirkland, Commissioner, and New York State Division of Human Rights. Commissioner Kirkland will discuss the Division’s priorities and accomplishments and share his vision for the Division’s future. Please click here and join us in this wonderful event! Then, April 28th – 30th, National Director Jennifer Loftus and Technology Supervisor Brendan Williams will be exhibiting at the SHRM Staffing Management Conference in Las Vegas, NV. They’ll be meeting and greeting with attendees and demonstrating our BlackBerry compatible Flare™! Jennifer will also present A + B + C = Wow! Using Total Rewards to Your Strategic Advantage Wednesday at 3:30 PM. If you’ll be at the conference, stop by for excellent discussion, fun times, and valuable prizes!
Fact or Fiction?
Fact! How did April Fool’s day start? Well there isn’t a specific answer to that question, but the Museum of Hoaxes has a couple theories. “The most popular theory about the origin of April Fool’s Day involves the French calendar reform of the sixteenth century. The theory goes like this: In 1564 France reformed its calendar, moving the start of the year from the end of March to January 1. Those who failed to keep up with the change, who stubbornly clung to the old calendar system and continued to celebrate the New Year during the week that fell between March 25th and April 1st, had jokes played on them. Pranksters would surreptitiously stick paper fish to their backs. The victims of this prank were thus called Poisson d’Avril, or April Fish—which, to this day, remains the French term for April Fools—and so the tradition was born.” (Citation courtesy of the Museum of Hoaxes.)
Dear Committee Members:
Save the date! October 4-6, 2009 Join Astron Solutions along with HR expects, practitioners, and researchers as we discuss how to maintain organizational effectiveness during the tough economic times. Hear from these experts in over 25 workshops, seminars, and network sessions. They will be discussing:
• Strategy Development/ Strategic Planning
If you register before May 1st you save $100 on this great deal! For more information click here or call (202) 785-2060.
Getting to the Heart of the Matter
By Charlie Allenson, Chief Improv Officer (CIO), Improving with Improv
These days, just about everyone is not just being asked, but being told to do more with less. So the one thing you cannot afford, to quote Led Zeppelin, is a “Communications Breakdown.” Yet it’s precisely in times like these that rapid and clear communications are more critical than ever. Communication, along with mental agility and adaptive thinking, can help get you more easily to do the “more” that’s being asked of you. We’ve all been here: the meeting that defies the time/space continuum. You can tell you’re in one of those meetings when everybody’s hands, except the person speaking, slide down under the table’s edge. That can mean only one thing: texting their friends. Texting about how this meeting will last until your next birthday, and you just had one. Texting about sports. Shopping. OMG he did what? One of the reasons for this is that the person speaking is having a communications breakdown. They can’t seem to get to the heart of what they really want to say, what they really need to be actionable. And that is why that almost everyone’s attention is now slyly focused on their smart phones in their laps. So, speaker, what do you do? How can you “train” yourself to take an idea -- even if it’s represented by a single word – and craft it into a cogent, actionable message just a few sentences long? Imagine if you could do that, (A) how much shorter meetings would be, and (B) how much more meaningful participation would occur. Here’s a thought. Take a page out of the improv comedy handbook. In improv there’s an exercise that requires taking a one word suggestion, and in three, not four or five, but three lines between two people, establish what:
• the relationship is between the two people (boss/employee, parent/child, Alpha chicken/beta chicken),
For example, if the word suggestion is “candle,” the scene could play out like this: “Mom, all the kids here keep asking about the extra candle on my cake.” “Ah, honey, the extra candle stands for good luck.” “But mom, I never have any good luck.” So what do we have? A Mother and child relationship, a kid’s birthday party for location, and a scene that can play out about how this poor kid has nothing but bad luck. You can do something similar in a business setting with a little more latitude. Not too much more or the texting starts. Let’s say you have to talk about increasing market share. Don’t head right for the PowerPoint. Head, instead, for the main point. Talk to your people. Presumably they all know how to read. So perhaps not reading the PowerPoint word for word is a good idea. They can do that on their own. Talk to them as human beings. Because they’re the ones who have to make it happen. Make eye contact. Tell them your market share is X and you need to reach Y. That tells them their location. Then tell them how they stack up to the competition. That’s their relationship. Then get them involved by asking how they think they can make it happen. That’s where the scene plays itself out with everyone participating. And you’ll probably end up with a better solution. By letting your people fill in the blanks themselves, and reach their own conclusions, they’ll feel like they are an important part of the process. And because they feel more attached to the process (that waaay overused bit of corporate speak “ownership”), you’ll find a stronger retention of the message and greater willingness to sacrifice to get it done. The Roman philosopher Seneca wrote, ““Life's like a play; it's not the length but the excellence of the acting that matters.” So if you’re running a meeting, getting to the heart of the matter quickly is beyond critical. Because it isn’t the length, it is the excellence of the outcome. And the more to the point you can be, the faster your people can come back with a solution. Charlie Allenson is the owner and Chief Improv Officer of Improving with Improv, a business skills/creative thinking workshop that uses the techniques of improvisation comedy. His client list includes GE, Accenture, the law firm of Lowenstein Sandler, and Coach Leather. You can visit Charlie on the web at www.improvingwithimprov.com.
April Fools Day:
Employee Morale and How to Kill it in 5 Easy Steps
 For our first article in April, in recognition of April Fool’s Day, we’ve decided to make light of a serious topic. As an
August 2008
Training Trends e-newsletter
pointed out, there are “countless articles and books that promise to
tell employers how to boost employee morale.” Why not take a shortcut
from buying and reading all of those books and take a look at the top 5
ways to kill employee morale?
5. Make Empty Promises During orientation of new employees, empty promises are the first step in killing morale. There’s nothing worst than being disappointed. By providing these new employees with dreams of promotions and promises of better benefits in the future, morale will begin to drop soon after they realize their dream of a corner office will never be. Many employees leave perfectly good jobs because they feel as though they were mislead, or the job wasn’t as they thought it would be. 4. Promote Favoritism One definite way to kill employee morale is to promote an environment of favoritism. By doing this, you are telling your employees that only a few will be successful… and it will be those whom upper management likes, regardless of actual job performance. Further, imagine the distraction to employee performance if they feel that their boss does not like them? Playing favorites is a surefire way to lower employee morale and performance. 3. Never Give Any Feedback Performance reviews? Who needs them when you’re trying to drive employee morale into the ground? One article published by Entrepreneur magazine pointed out that in order for employee morale to be high, an employee need to know two things from their employer. One is what their employer expects from them on the job. The second is how well the employee is doing to meet the employer’s standards. Without this vital information an employee will either overwork into exhaustion or under perform. An organization without proper feedback will develop a culture of constant worry and uncertainty. By failing to provide such important information to employees, both upper management and HR members will be considered quite controlling! 2. Institute and Encourage Micromanagement Leave no stone unturned. Nitpicking at every action an employee makes is a perfect way to lower morale at work. Not only does it demoralize and pressure employees, it also causes the employee to become distant. Employees will also lose confidence as you bombard them with commands and constantly looking over their shoulder. Further, they may lose confidence in the leadership HR is supposed to provide. 1. Devalue Your Employees The number one way to destroy employee morale is to devalue the employees. Making workers feel as though they are replaceable will not only destroy what little morale they may have left, but it will also cause them to be disloyal. There is nothing worst than the feeling of inferiority. Further, by not giving praise and recognition to employees when it is rightly deserved, expect to effect an employee’s work production, too. All kidding aside, no organization wants to have unmotivated employees with low morale. Not only does the entire organizational structure become unbalanced, the long-term damage may be irreparable. As HR professionals, it is our responsibility to promote healthy practices in regards to employees morale in order to create a more cohesive and successful organization. If you’re looking to build a happy and progressive working environment, avoiding these 5 mistakes is the first step in becoming successful. In this day of economic confusion, organizations have to do all they can in order to keep the talent that keeps the organization strong. Talent retention is a serious issue despite the economic downturn. Organizations are still hiring. The demand for key talent never goes away. In order to rise to the retention challenge, organizations are looking intently at human resource departments and how they deal proactively work to keep employees as motivated as possible when being bombarded with less than positive news through water cooler chat and the media. What has your organization done today to boost employee morale? What has your organization done today to kill employee morale?
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Astron Road Show
Fact or Fiction?
Telecommuting: Is it plausible for your Organization?
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