Finding Recognition Everywhere

Effective recognition relies heavily on intrinsic motivation. Each employee has individual needs and expectations that motivate their actions.

Most people are intrinsically motivated by varying degrees of achievement, affiliation, or power/control. Supervisors present workplace goals based on these motivators.

Additionally, they must use extrinsic motivation properly by incorporating meaningful recognition into bonuses, incentives, contests, and prizes. Employees can also receive recognition that works by providing quality products and services to customers.

A workplace that allows people to contribute in a meaningful way will give their job purpose. Managers should find ways to help their employees take pride in their work and boost their team or organization's reputation in the community.

Creating an atmosphere of trustworthiness is a powerful form of intrinsic recognition. For example, Best Buy uses a system called ROWE ("results-only work environment"), in which employees chose how, when, and where their work is performed.

Supervisors only measure if the work is accomplished. This system demonstrates trust in employees and has reduced voluntary turnover and increased productivity 42 percent.

An organization can also show employees they are recognized by providing opportunities for growth. In-house vocational counselors are essential to helping employees find new areas of challenge and advancement.

People often leave a job to pursue growth opportunities in their career. By proactively encouraging and creating career furtherance from within, organizations retain valuable employees and foster company loyalty.

Fair pay, benefits, health insurance, vacation time, and a quality working environment also affect whether an employee feels recognized. People do not necessarily receive recognition from a fair salary and healthy work environment, but their absence will be perceived as a lack of recognition.

This article is based on the book 'Make Their Day!' The book summary is available online at Business Book Summaries.

Anyone Can Have a Great Career

Having a great career entails making unique and useful contributions to an organization, in addition to instilling strong feelings of loyalty and trust within others. The unique and useful contributions make up the "what" of an individual's career.

The contributions themselves come from an individual's specific mix of passions and talents. The loyal and trusting relationships make up the "how" of an individual's career.

These flourishing relationships are the result of an individual's character and conscience. Because anyone can make unique contributions and maintain trusting and loyal relationships, anyone can have a great career.

Individuals need to practice and improve their skills to be able to contribute effectually to the organization, and they need to have a character that is worthy of the loyalty and trust of others. Career-seekers also need to maintain the right kind of ambition.

If someone is ambitious solely for financial success and is not willing to work hard for it, their ambition will likely destroy their career and make them miserable. However, if they are ambitious to make a positive and helpful contribution to their organization and the public as a whole, they will be much more likely to experience success and fulfillment both in their personal lives and in their career.

By committing to doing what is right, individuals will become driven to contribute more, feel better about themselves, earn more money, and have a wider range and greater number of positive opportunities. The landscape of the global economy is experiencing a shift from the Industrial Age to the Knowledge Age.

The Industrial Age used machines to increase productivity and required workers to fulfill specific roles and complete very specific tasks. In the Knowledge Age, however, people are expected to choose the problems they work on.

They need to make unique and effective contributions by using their own skills and talents to solve the issues at hand. And because of the dependence on skill and knowledge rather than machinery, there is no limit to the number of contributions an individual can make so long as they continue enriching themselves.

While it is true that the current state of the economy is resulting in a decrease in job security, it is also true that organizations still face a wide variety of problems, and by making oneself useful by posing solutions to those problems, they can ensure the security of the position they already have or obtain an entirely new position. Many employees feel as though they are just going around in circles, getting nowhere with their career.

They feel imprisoned by their job description, they limit themselves and their abilities to so that they can fit within the constraints they've imposed upon themselves. These employees need to realize that their jobs are no longer defined by their job descriptions, and that if they truly are dissatisfied with their line of work, it is never too late to reassess themselves and their career and begin the search for a position that melds better with what they have to contribute and what they would like to achieve.

In the Knowledge Age, individuals can challenge old assumptions and bring new insight to the table, they can stop pigeon-holing themselves into unsatisfying jobs, and they can address problems with a ride range of easily available informational resources. Individuals need to ask themselves what their actual contribution will be, not what their job description says.

Those stuck in the Industrial Age believe that they are their function, that they are a job seeker, or that they are simply a gear in the organization's machine, while those moving into the Knowledge Age know that they should make significant contributions, that they are a problem solver, and that they are a human being with a unique and useful set of strengths.

This articles is based on the book "Great Work, Great Career." The book summary is available online at Business Book Summaries.

Making a Career Satisfying

The ideal career is an enjoyable one that utilizes a person's skills and abilities in a pleasant environment with good co-workers. However, a self-defining career that brings joy is unattainable for most people.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 67 percent of American workers are unhappy on the job because they dislike their boss or co-workers, the duties they must perform, lack of a challenge, and other reasons. To better understand why two thirds of Americans are dissatisfied, interviews were conducted with individuals experiencing both joy and disdain for their careers.

One worker enjoyed her job because of some of the conditions: decent pay, an easy commute, and prior knowledge of what she was expected to do. In addition, despite feeling a little bored about the work itself, she appreciated having the job during a period of high unemployment.

At the other end of the spectrum, another worker cited politics, too many changes, and 60-hour workweeks as reasons for the stress and dread he faced each day. Instead of appreciating what he had, he felt the company owed him more.

The first challenge around the aspect of career is for both employers and employees to ask the hard questions to better understand the roots of any dissatisfaction. Employers should consider whether or not they are respecting their staff by providing fair wages, competitive benefits, clear expectations, the right tools to do their jobs, recognition for their work, and opportunities for them to voice their opinions.

Employees are recommended to explore the following questions:

* Are you giving it your all? In other words, workers need to determine if they are performing to the best of their abilities, doing an honest day's work, and surpassing both their supervisor's expectations and their own.

* Would a different job matter? People who stay in unsatisfying positions are not helping themselves, their bosses, their customers, or the company as a whole, and would be better off making a change. Showing up at any job with the wrong frame of mind contributes to a culture of disengagement.

* Is it time for a change? Some workers fail to realize that what started out as a "job," has turned into a "career," and that it is not the right fit for them. Perhaps they lack the skills to excel and make a contribution, knowledge of their industry, or the motivation to deal with office politics or other challenges. The other challenge is to continually focus on one's own personal growth. By enhancing their own skills, employees not only add value to their company and earn more appreciation and respect from their bosses, but they prepare themselves for more satisfying opportunities that become available.

Here are some good action items:

* Pursue training offered by the company. Employees should take advantage of learning opportunities, especially those that enhance their job performance or teach transferable skills.

* Take advantage of online training opportunities. Instead of wasting their computer leisure time at social media sites, people should look into taking online courses, many of which are free or affordable, and offer more flexibility for people who lack the time and resources to head over to a college campus. Sometimes training is not offered by the company, so employees must take the initiative to learn themselves.

* Read a book a month. Reading is one of the best self-paced methods of personal development. Some self-improvement books can be borrowed from the library or a friend for free. You may also want to sign-up for book summaries available on Business Book Summaries.

Finding Synthesis in Dealing with Dilemmas

Finding synthesis and creating options are the two "pillars" of dealing with dilemmas. Finding synthesis means going beyond analytics and thinking outside the box to form new solutions and perspectives, rather than making straightforward choices.

Let's take a look at German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's dialectic of thesis-antithesis-synthesis. Thesis refers to the prevailing view or common wisdom.

But it typically carries disadvantages that cause others to develop an opposing viewpoint, or antithesis. While this may solve the original disadvantages, it typically brings new ones, creating a dilemma between thesis and antithesis.

At this point, however, there is not an either or choice. A synthesis can be arrived at, generating a new thesis.

Consider again the top down or bottom up dilemma between the financial and business process perspectives. There is the traditional "thesis" that upper management should set strategic objectives and that the rest of the organization should become aligned with them.

This centralization allows for more uniformity, economies of scale, and greater control but has the disadvantages of reduced flexibility, a reduced focus on changes in the market, and a lack of empowerment for middle management to find alternative solutions to opportunities or problems. Out of this comes the "antithesis" of decentralization, a bottom up approach that brings the decision making power closer to market opportunities and allows for more agility and growth.

But this may bring the disadvantages of fragmentation and higher costs from inefficiency. The two approaches appear to be mutually exclusive; the advantages of the thesis are the disadvantages of the antithesis.

But perhaps synthesis can be achieved with standardization. A standard is a "a uniform approach for people to apply in different situations."

Standards can help maintain some uniformity while still empowering people to tailor solutions to specific situations. Standardization becomes the new thesis which will eventually be challenged by a new antithesis.

For instance, how should a company deal with exceptions in a standardized environment? Will standardization stifle innovation?

A new synthesis will have to be developed.

Resolving the dilemma of value or profit requires the same kind of thinking. If business is thought of as a zero-sum game in which the customer's gain in value is the company's loss in profit, the dilemma will never go away.

What needs to be found is a synthesis of how profit can be made while also giving value to customers and others in the value chain. For example, Apple's iPod is a synthesis of the you-and-me dilemma between the customer's value of free downloadable music and the industry's need for profitability.

On one hand, Apple considered that embracing the trend of free downloadable music might create customer value and might allow it first-mover advantage in the market, but it was not clear how to compete with free. On the other hand, trying to maintain the industry's existing model would keep profitability and control of the end product, but it risked creating greater numbers of unsatisfied customers and becoming a market casualty.

Again, the choices appear to be mutually exclusive, but Apple challenged the assumptions to find the "and." How could the trend be maintained and be used to generate profit? The company noticed that free mp3 files were not always high quality and were often difficult to put onto mp3 players.

Apple found synthesis by 1) integrating hardware and software with its iPod and iTunes store to meet the needs of the demand chain and 2) by making music highly available through distribution contracts on the supply chain. By uniting integration and distribution, they were able to charge a modest price for each track and make a profit.

Value and profit were both achieved. Finally, the inside out or outside in dilemma (the tension between the back office and front office) must also utilize some kind of synthesis.

Organizations cannot really choose one or the other; they must be both efficient and effective, focused on streamlined business processes and meeting customer needs. One strategy companies have used to synthesize these competing demands is through mass customization principles, where each transaction is customizable and customers have greater self-service abilities.

This article is based on the book "Dealing with Dilemmas." The book summary is available online at Business Book Summaries.

The Quiet Revolution of Women

A 1978 study of accomplished women, which became known as the Imposter Phenomenon, revealed behavioral patterns indicating a lack of confidence. Women at that time felt they were tricking others into thinking they were smarter than they actually were.

They also believed their promotions were due not to their ability but to luck and timing. Women carefully calculated every move, including how they expressed themselves, fearing that others would realize they had given them too much credit.

Throughout the 70s and 80s, women who chose to work often felt they had to emulate men in order to achieve success and be accepted into the corporate world. They wore traditional, dark-skirted suits with shoulder pads.

Women also adopted a masculine communication style, getting into verbal arguments and discussing sports. Women who have a drive for success still deal with stressful situations related to their careers, but their needs have evolved.

They seek challenges to show off their skills and to avoid boredom. They also want to establish clear career paths, and they want the ability to communicate in a manner that will ensure others take them and their ideas seriously.

Women feel entitled to receive job satisfaction and opportunities; they will move on if the current organization does not support their needs. One should not mistake this sense of entitlement for laziness.

High-achieving women work hard to attain their desires. There are five drivers of both success and difficulty for modern, high-achieving women:

1. Extreme confidence. This positive attitude compels women to work hard for what they want; however, it may lead them to work too hard and to take on projects that are too difficult.

2. Constant need for new challenges. Women seek to meet their needs with successive accomplishments, possibly leading to frequent job changes without careful planning.

3. A strong drive for recognition based on performance, not gender. Women are more concerned with proving their own unique abilities, rather than those of females in general. This attitude may cause others to perceive them as harsh and insensitive.

4. Work is their life's blood. High-achieving women might only feel pleasure from their accomplishments in the working world. They might lose sight of the big picture and become disconnected from the rest of the world.

5. Experience is the best teacher. Learning comes easily and quickly, but this ability could lead women to believe they are self-sufficient, rejecting the advice and support of others.

Since the mid-80s there has been a profound change in working women, particularly those who are high-achieving. They no longer leave their professional personas at work; they are stronger as individuals, and their careers define who they are.

While this is a significant advancement from working simply to cover financial obligations, it has left many ambitious women unable to separate themselves from their work. This change can be attributed to four major shifts in society.

The first is the widespread teaching of self-esteem. From the time they are toddlers, women have been taught they can do anything and their opinions matter.

Not only are they instructed not to rely on others, but they are frequently told they are better than their peers. This teaching has resulted in a generation of mentally strong women who are so obsessed with their quest for excellence they push themselves too hard.

The increase in competitive sports for women has also been significant. Sports have taught women to fend for themselves, both mentally and physically.

Another factor is the growing number of women holding advanced degrees, which increases their earning potential and available job opportunities. The final factor is the positive support women now receive.

Their predecessors were not expected to excel in the work environment. Now, people believe that women can work and also be good at it.

This article is based on the book "Wander Woman." The book summary is available online at Business Book Summaries.

Success in the Training Industry

While organizational leaders understand the importance of training, they often wrongly assume that training automatically results in improved performance. The training industry has struggled to demonstrate success in the past because organizations measure the quality of training and not the resulting impact on performance as the indicator of training's effectiveness.

The training industry borrowed its fundamental concepts from higher education. The industry boomed in the 1980s and 1990s as a result of corporations hiring externally to meet their growing training needs.

In response, training companies watered down their models to a "one-size-fits-all" approach. Training models fail when the training does not align with business goals, and misguided measurement processes do not represent return value--the primary benchmark for which training should be measured.

Measurement should focus not on the training itself but on the resulting impact on employee performance. True corporate learning can only occur when employees take ownership for their learning, an internalization that distinguishes learning from training.

In order to reach employees and influence such ownership, corporate trainers must connect with employees through experiential instructional methods, allowing trainers and employees to find a common ground. As a result, employees will feel ownership of their new skills and motivation for continued learning.

Malcolm Knowles, the father of adult learning theory, advocated for learner-centered instruction, where the instructor is a facilitator instead of a lecturer. He believed ownership of the learning process was central to learning, a departure from traditional instructional theories of "leading the learner."

Knowles's theory evolved into the action learning model, resulting in a learning system that begins with a shared experience, engages employees with corporate strategy, and leads to reflection, learning, and new application. The new application, which ends in a new experience for learners to share, completes the action model.

Trainers are called to recognize learning research, realize that adults have different learning styles, and adapt training models to interactively engage and motivate employees. Additionally, they are encouraged to take responsibility for transforming their traditional models of training into learner-centered models to extract a greater ROLI.

This article is based on the book "Corporate Learning Strategies." The book summary is available online at Business Book Summaries.

Animal Spirits and Their Effects

Animal Spirits dissects standard economic theories and demonstrates their failure to account for human emotions, even though emotions have a large impact on the economy. Traditional economic theory operates under the assumption that individuals act rationally and make economic decisions based on purely economic reasons.

These economic theories are widely accepted by professional economists and are utilized in governmental policy-making. Unfortunately, traditional economic theory does not examine how the economy behaves when individuals make rational decisions based on non-economic reasons, irrational decisions based on non-economic reasons, or irrational decisions based on economic reasons.

In the quest to make economics a more scientific and calculable study, economists have largely left out the single largest influence on the economy: the animal spirits of human emotion. All animal spirits fall into one of five different categories: confidence, fairness, corruption, money illusion, and storytelling.

All of these categories have strong effects on the current economy, and their influence must be taken into account when creating government policy and making economic predictions. Ignoring the fact that human emotions affect purchasing and financial decisions only serves to create policy that will not hold up to these constantly-changing animal spirits.

By accepting and understanding these emotions, however, economists and policy makers can create more effective policies and plans. These policies and plans will not be permanent, however, and should change according to the cultural, economic, and emotional climates of the time.

For example, when banks stopped becoming mortgage holders and just became mortgage initiators, policy did not keep up with this change. Traditionally, banks would approve individuals for mortgages and then hold the mortgages themselves.

Because they held the mortgages, it prevented them from writing mortgages that people could not afford because they did not want to end up with the property or losing out on mortgage payments. Then, in the 2000s, banks began to sell the mortgages they had to other financial institutions.

These financial institutions did not know about the fiscal standing of the mortgages they held because the banks had divided individual mortgages into parts and sold the different parts to different institutions. Because of the large signing fees the banks earned when they approved individuals for mortgages, and the fact that they planned on selling the mortgages after they were signed, the banks approved people who could not actually afford them.

Because policy did not take this into account, the real estate bubble grew and eventually crashed once the individuals who received mortgages they could not afford began to have their homes foreclosed upon. This is just one example of the many ways in which animal spirits can affect the economy.

This article is based on the book "Animal Spirits." The book summary is available online at Business Book Summaries.

Clarifying Intent

A very important aspect in the art of convening is defining the desired result or intention of the meeting. This step is necessary because if a leader does not fully consider the intention of a meeting, the intentions can be confusing or conflicting.

The biggest challenge conveners face when trying to define their intent is doubt. Doubt can manifest itself in the form of fear.

It is important for a convener to be fearless when examining their intentions and to consider how those intentions align with who she is by asking the following questions:

• What are my intentions? 
• Are they in line with who I am? 
• How will we relate to one another? 

By clarifying intentions, meeting leaders identify motives or desires that might distract them or others from the primary goal. It takes patience, but conveners should try to look past their immediate conclusions and try to examine their deepest intent.

Armed with the knowledge of their true intentions, conveners will have confidence and energy to pursue the next steps toward authentic engagement. One good way for meeting leaders to do this is to sit down and write for at least 30 minutes.

They should first ask themselves, "Who am I and what am I doing right now?" Then, they should take that self-knowledge into consideration while writing down an intention for their next meeting or gathering.

This article is based on the book "The Art of Convening." The book summary is available online at Business Book Summaries.

The Need for Effective Execution

The failure to execute is a common problem among healthcare organizations. The barriers to effective execution are well understood and include an incredibly complex healthcare system, splintered leadership, strategies that vacillate between financial goals and patient care, and a lack of external pressure strong enough to force change.

However, external pressures that will eventually force change in the system continue to build. Unsustainable cost growth and uneven quality of care cannot continue.

In the face of a rapidly changing business environment, many progressive healthcare delivery organizations are now seeking a path to become "high-performance" health systems. A high-performance health system can be defined as one that helps everyone lead longer, healthier, and more productive lives.

To achieve such a system, four core goals must be met:

• Access to care for all 
• Safe, high-quality care 
• Efficient, high-value care 
• Continuous innovation and improvement 

To achieve this status, many healthcare organizations will have to change dramatically to become true "health systems," instead of facilities that focus on curing the sick. Finding more efficient ways to reduce purchasing and operating costs will be required.

Meeting marketplace and regulatory demands will also be factors in transforming the organizations. Healthcare organizations that can develop and effectively execute their plans will thrive, while those that cannot will struggle and eventually be absorbed by more effective competitors.

The systems that support the effective execution of strategy are well known and practiced by many of America's more successful corporations spanning various industries and sectors. These systems can be used to successfully manage healthcare delivery organizations as well.

Four key components lead to effective execution:

• Developing a focused strategic plan. 
• Applying contemporary business methods of execution. 
• Leading individuals and the organization for effective change. 
• Achieving an integrated system for execution.

This article is based on the book 'Make It Happen.' The book summary is available online at Business Book Summaries.

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The Power of Search Engines, Contextual Advertising, and Online Communities

Given the advent of the Internet, transforming customer relationships into an online community is more important than ever before. Digital tools are enabling businesses and individuals to develop powerful brands.

When a person uses an online search engine, the results are a mélange of corporate content, blog postings, and customer reviews. All the results appear to have equal weight and importance, creating a level playing field for content creators.

In this environment, traditional mass media advertising and communications become ineffective. This is fundamentally changing business, how people communicate, and how people buy.

By using digital tools, companies can build awareness and beat the competition. One of the goals is to help businesses produce valuable online content and become their own media channels.

One way to begin is through contextual advertising: an organization buys a targeted keyword from an Internet search engine and when a user searches with that keyword, the company's ad appears in the results.

The power of contextual advertising is twofold:
1) it appears when a prospect is in search mode and
2) the company only pays for the advertisement if the user clicks on it.

Most companies do not have a strong enough presence in search engines, leaving opportunities behind for competitors. Every business and entrepreneur should have their own unique digital footprint, defined by the first page of search results that appear in a search engine.

This article is based on the book "Six Pixels of Separation." The book summary is available online at Business Book Summaries.

A Company to Admire

By the end of 2007, Toyota was the dominant automobile company in the world. Far more profitable than its major American competitors, Toyota had been continuously profitable for almost 50 years, a record that rivaled that of any global 1000 firm and was unheard of in manufacturing industries.

Toyota's record for building quality products and achieving high levels of customer satisfaction drove its growth and profitability. Its customer loyalty was the best in the industry.

Toyota has changed the way a large portion of the world thinks about quality and how to continuously improve any process. Toyota set new standards for operational excellence by revolutionizing manufacturing, process engineering, and quality.

These standards have become the goal for companies in many industries, although few companies implement these concepts to the extent that Toyota has. Companies from various business sectors spend billions of dollars to understand, learn from, and replicate the Toyota model.

To fully understand what happened at Toyota from 2008-2010, it is critical to first study Toyota's history. Toyota was originally a Japanese manufacturer of looms, which started in the 1800s.

In the early 1930s, the company expanded into other sectors of manufacturing. By 1937, Toyota's automobile manufacturing division had already become the center of Toyota's business.

During the start-up of the automobile manufacturing business, company leaders laid out an operating philosophy and introduced new concepts about quality and inventory management, including processes to eliminate mistakes and implement just-in-time inventory. The company realized that, to maintain a commitment to catching and fixing problems and operating inventory with a just-in-time approach, it required a systematic process to solving problems throughout the company.

Through the years this problem-solving process evolved to today's version, called the Toyota Business Practices, which entails the following steps:

Plan
* The process begins with a statement of the problem, including the gap between the actual and ideal conditions.
* This gap is then broken down into the most important problems that can be acted upon.
* These specific sub-problems are then analyzed by asking "why?" until the root cause is found.
* Alternative solutions and countermeasures are then identified and evaluated.
* The best solution is chosen, based on what is currently known.

Do
* The chosen solution is implemented on a trial basis.

Check
* The results and impact of the trial implementation are monitored.

Act
* Adjustments are made based on the results, the new processes are standardized and disseminated throughout the organization with further adjustments being made until the gap is eliminated and the next challenge identified.


The Toyota Business Practices (TBP) broadly applies the problem-solving philosophy to the entire enterprise. Toyota believes that this problem-solving process is essential to leadership and requires all of its leaders to become masters of the process.

As demonstrated by its remarkably consistent growth and profitability, Toyota has built a culture that constantly renews its commitment to excellence and to its core principles, instilling those principles and passion into each new generation of employees and leaders. The combination of production processes, TBP, and its culture (collectively known as The Toyota Way) became the competitive advantage that allowed Toyota to become a successful manufacturer in Asia and eventually in the U.S.

This article is based on the book "Toyota Under Fire." The book summary is available online at Business Book Summaries.

YES! Space

In the unpredictable art of improv, actors walk onstage without scripts, props, or costumes. They take cues from audience members as they provide ideas for characters, subject matter, and plot.

While members of the audience believe that improv troupes must rely on countless tricks and skills, improvisers apply concrete guidelines that allow them to create impressive, often unbelievable solutions to the unpredictable scenarios in which they find themselves onstage. By studying and implementing the same guidelines employed by improvisers, managers and employees can begin to establish a network of trust in their workplaces.

Yes! Space is an improvisational concept that refers to members of a troupe committing to a performance by first saying "yes." Yes! Space consists of three parts: say yes, put the critic on hold, and make it public.

1. Say yes. Saying the word "yes" is foundational in establishing a collaborative atmosphere and trusting space; additionally, it brings the speaker into a world of possibilities. Positivity feels unnatural to humans, who must exert a concerted effort to avoid reacting negatively to situations.

Several studies reaffirm how positive attitudes result in higher levels of trust and stronger relationships, which in the workplace end in higher productivity and sales. Hough references appreciative inquiry, the notion that by focusing on what they are doing right, companies can grow their strongest business practices.

Saying "yes" means the speaker is open to exploring a possibility, which results in employees understanding that all of their ideas are valued and will be considered. An important side effect of this is that it makes employees themselves feel valued.

Improvisers believe that it is critical to acknowledge ideas, fellow actors, and audience members with "yes;" rejecting ideas would result in a dead-end improvisation. Saying "yes" also necessitates that the troupe work as a team.

In trainings, hearing "yes" in response to ideas shows employees, especially those reluctant to participate, that they are valued and that they will not be ignored or judged. Creating a safe environment by responding with "yes" fosters participation, employee confidence, and idea-sharing, all of which contribute to a more collaborative, productive workplace.

2. Put the critic on hold. The second step in creating Yes! Space is encouraging people to silence the critic in their minds. Saying "no" is a natural defense mechanism that causes people to reject ideas that push their boundaries.

However, the habit of reacting with "no" stifles creativity, innovation, and productivity. Workplace training and academia teach the importance of critical thinking; unfortunately, the intense focus on identifying problems results in a propensity to reject ideas, often hampering participation and collaboration.

Instead of jumping to critical conclusions, good listeners acknowledge that it is more productive to fully listen and critique later, providing more time for reflection and fostering confidence and trust in the speaker.  Readers should react differently next time they feel the instinct to respond with negative words like "no," "but," and "however" and negative contractions like "can't" or "won't."

Replacing these negative words with expressions such as "Help me understand" prove to be much more useful in encouraging collaboration and productivity. While it may sound simple, adjusting one's language can be quite difficult because it first requires adapting one's mindset.

3. Make it public. All people are capable of creating Yes! Space within themselves by reaffirming ideas with positive thoughts, accepting surprises openly, and silencing internal critics. However, Yes! Space is a fundamentally collaborative experience and the positive exchanges translate to an open, accepting, productive organization.

Employees who work in organizations that value Yes! Space feel valued because they know their leaders and colleagues acknowledge and consider their ideas. Furthermore, the positive reinforcement they receive when they contribute encourages them to continue to contribute in the future.

Importantly, Yes! Space is contagious. The more participants demonstrate the powers of positivity, the more employees witness the benefits and demonstrate the concept's application to others.

Hough stresses the importance of leading by example when creating Yes! Space in the workplace and asks readers to consider their attitudes at work and to increase the frequency of rewarding ideas with praise. Managers can effect positive change—including better retention and higher revenue—simply by saying yes, putting the critic on hold, and making it public.

To apply Yes! Space behaviors at work, employees can:

• Practice positive reactions to ideas, for example, "Yes. Great idea. Please tell me more."
• Remain present in conversations and resist judging an idea while still listening to the speaker share it.
• Praise good work, share excellent work with colleagues, and share superior work with higher-ups.

This article was based on the book "The Improvisation Edge." The book summary is available online at Business Book Summaries.

Networking Basics

The core element of networking is doing for others. No one wants to form a relationship with someone who is only looking to benefit themselves.

The key is to build a network of people before any favors are needed. Networking is not selling, asking for a job, soliciting a donation, or securing funding.

It is referring a service, suggesting a restaurant, picking up a neighbor's mail, answering an email, returning a phone call, bringing a cup of soup to a sick friend, or joining a non-profit board. Networking is an activity, hence the "ing."

It requires active participation to be effective. The goal is to find a group of people who want to see each other succeed, both professionally and personally.

They share knowledge, ideas and are willing to lend a hand. It is all about building the relationships before one needs them. After that, asking for help takes only a phone call.

Everyone gets more done with less effort.

Marketing, Networking, and Selling are interdependent upon each other; without the other two, one is less productive.

Marketing educates the target market and creates awareness.

Networking connects people who can solve problems for each other.

Selling fills a need.

This powerful trio works when all the pieces are played in order. It may be tempting to skip a step or two to get directly to the desired end result, the sale.

This leads to one feeling like they are being sold. It is much easier when the target market is already aware of the services being offered and has received a referral from a trusted source.

By the time the client gets to the buy stage, the due diligence period is over and the decision is made. No hard selling required.

Networking is often confused with schmoozing. Schmoozers are superficial and are only looking for how quickly they can benefit.

Typically they are only heard from when they need something. Networking is relationship based and is mutually beneficial.

While it need not be constant, when the need arises the connection is there. Time is precious and tough decisions are required.

Make time for those:

• who make time for you
• who leave you feeling positive, energized and worthy
• who offer value
• from whom you can derive benefits

Send anyone who falls outside these areas to the acquaintance network. While they are not completely brushed-off, they do not deserve the time and energy required for those within the true network.

This article is based on the book "The Networking Survival Guide." The book summary is available online at Business Book Summaries.

It's the Sale, Stupid.

Salesmanship should be the first, not the last, step in the marketing process. Marketing should lead to sales.

Otherwise, it's just a waste of time and money.

Sales should not be removed from the marketing process, as it is in many companies. Certain steps should be taken so that a company or a person becomes a customer or a client.

These include:

Developing a strategy for winning new business based on value proposition. You have to know that one reason why people should do business with you, and not with your competition.

Let your market know. So you have determined your value proposition. Now let them know every way you can.

Let them love you. Court your market. Let them fall in love with you. Overcome barriers to sales by lowering prices, offering additional services, extending warranties, or giving trial period.

Moreover, don't put the burden of a sale on a prospective client. That's your job.

Ignore the competition and start from scratch.

Never start the marketing process by what the competition does. That limits creativity.

Rather, like Albert Einstein, "think outside the box." Use your imagination to achieve results.

Step beyond existing models and be creative.

This article was based on the book "Your Marketing Sucks" by Mark Stevens. The book summary is available online at Business Book Summaries.

Getting Started with Culture Change

Most executives know how a great culture "looks and feels," but they are uncertain about how to implement one. The task is large, but definitely worthwhile.

Some clues can tell executives when a culture change is necessary or appropriate: the company is being outperformed in its category, key positions experience high turnover rates, satisfaction surveys of customers and employees are consistently low, or the company demonstrates poor or declining financial performance. Typically, any of these issues can result from an ailing culture and can be addressed by changing the culture.

Every company already has a culture, so its executives can begin the change process by letting employees define the culture that already exists. The next step is to identify the culture that will best drive the organization's success.

The ideal is a high-spirit culture where everyone is engaged for the good of the company, aiming for the same goals and helping each other succeed. An amazing transformation in enthusiasm and behavior occurs when values and culture are clearly defined.

For culture change to be successful, the company must involve its best front-line people to ensure the culture becomes tied to what is most important: giving customers such a satisfying experience that they will do business with the company again and again. The top front-line people are eager to inform their leaders, and they command the respect that will lend instant credibility to any changes that are instituted based on their suggestions.

From that initial process will emerge a Values Blueprint that codifies the values the company's people agreed upon and the behaviors that exemplify those values. Subsequently, the values can be explicitly incorporated into daily operations by tying them to expected behaviors and rewarding employees for living them.

The Values Blueprint method of changing culture has been used successfully by many companies to create values-rich cultures. These companies are large and small, for-profits and non-profits, and operate in various industries.

Even though each company defines its own culture using different sets of values, six fundamental principles informed every successful values-based culture change.

A company cannot force culture; it can only create environment. Culture is a culmination of the leadership, values, language, people processes, rules, and other conditions within the organization. Leaders can only create the right conditions and working environment that will help the desired culture to emerge and flourish.

The service a company provides to its customers will never be greater than the service it provides to its employees. A company cannot create a great customer service organization if it treats employees badly. The companies that excel in customer service also excel in how they treat their employees.

Success is doing the right things the right way. Redefining corporate values helps companies make better decisions. Clearly defined values and the expected behaviors based on them empower employees to handle problems personally and immediately and simplify the day-to-day tasks of decision making.

People do exactly what they are given incentives to do. A values-rich culture succeeds when it rewards the behaviors that the company wants, taking into account how those behaviors lead to desired outcomes. Values will be perceived as hollow and meaningless unless the company bases compensation and rewards on expressions of the behaviors that mesh with the values. Hiring, promotion, and appraisal methods must be revised to select people who already display the values that are important to the company.

Organizations will get out of this process only what they are willing to put into it. A company never finishes defining and fostering a values-rich culture; it must always be vigilant against digressions into its old ways. Companies must regularly monitor their progress toward fully implementing the model, developing value-based leadership, and planning for leadership succession.

The desired environment can be built on shared, strategic values and financial responsibility. Conscious action, beginning with determining a set of shared values, can set up the necessary condition for encouraging a culture that will make an organization a leader in its industry. Those values should also be vetted in terms of responsible fiscal management; however, financial concerns should not derail the process in its infancy.

Culture change will likely save money as turnover and training costs are reduced and customers become more satisfied. Values are most critical when making tough decisions, but that is also when they illuminate the way forward.

This article is based on the book "Built on Values" by Ann Rhoades. The book summary is available online at Business Book Summaries.

Leader Detoxification: Strategies for Transforming Toxic Leaders and Organizations

The best solution for toxicity problems is transforming toxic leaders through detoxification. Author Alan Goldman describes detoxification as "the umbrella term for directly addressing dysfunctional decisions, policies, oversights, miscalculations, avoidance behavior, and leadership and follower behaviors that contaminate employees and operations."

Detoxification is a complex process that involves both leaders and their organizations and is a "process that calls for coaches and consultants who are able to identify the multiple sources and players that contribute to toxicity within a system." Without assistance, leaders should refrain from attributing the cause of dysfunctional behavior to a single event or person.

A troubled leader may wield an extraordinary level of toxic influence; however, the detoxification process often uncovers multiple and interdependent sources. Even the most poisonous acts may be symptomatic of orders dispatched from the top of the organizational hierarchy making the source of toxicity less obvious at first glance.

In fact, blaming the most visible and obvious cause and perpetrators and responding slowly to dysfunctional behavior are actually ways to accelerate toxicity and make it extremely difficult to address internally. Goldman says, "The shock and dismay expressed by clients who identify their organizational pain as already reaching into the lymph nodes of their operations is testimony to the need for a detoxification process that incorporates affective coaching and consultation."

The most successful consultations result in collaborations between internal or external consultant and organization, and stimulate positive transformations of both the toxic leader and the company. There are deficits and negative organizational behaviors that must be overcome by toxic clients in order to reach a state appropriate for a positive transformation.

There can be numerous roadblocks, rationalizations, pseudo-interventions, ulterior motives, and acts of sabotage and resistance that can undermine the best of intentions. Organizations that suffer from high levels of toxicity are immersed in systems of deficit thinking and behavior that affect leadership, human capital, operations, and policies.

When deficient systems engulf the workplace, negative organizational behavior becomes the rule. A myriad of dysfunctions can affect relations between leaders and subordinates, research and development, work teams, and customer service, and result in a toxic system.

These can include prolonged conflict, sabotage, the abrupt hiring of mercenary CEOs, and savage overnight re-structurings. These acts all constitute extreme deficits and are on the short list of prime sources of toxicity in many organizations.

This article was based on the book "Transforming Toxic Leaders" by Alan Goldman. The book summary is available on the Business Book Summaries website.

A New, Improved Business Book Summaries Website to Serve You

The team from Business Book Summaries is very pleased to let you know that we have a brand-new, enhanced website to serve you better! Please read on and let us know what you think.

What we believe: 
At Business Book Summaries, we believe people become better professionals through learning. We believe that business books contain some of the best and most current business thought.

We believe that summaries of the best business books help people to learn more efficiently and more effectively. We believe that a summary can provide the basic overview of the book, and give you insights into the author’s ideas.

Nothing substitutes for reading the book, but we believe our summaries will help you to get a solid grasp of the lessons in the book, so you can decide which books to read and when to read them.

What we do: 
We provide you with the best summaries of the best business books, every day. We enable you to acquire business knowledge faster, and with more understanding.

We provide our summaries to you in over 30 languages through a range of media, from PDFs to MP3s, on a range of devices, from PDAs to desktops.

What you can expect from the new website:

• The site will be updated with 5 new summaries each week.

• There are over 1,000 summaries in the catalogue.

• Users can use keyword searches using the search box or search by category

• Many summaries have audio available.

• All recent summaries (going back about 5 months) have HTML fulltext, so if a summary does not have audio, users can take advantage of our text-to-speech technology.

• Translation is offered for more than 30 languages including Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French, Spanish, Italian, and Indonesian

• Users will receive a weekly newsletter informing them of the new summaries that week with links to each one.

For corporate customers:

• Users will have the ability to comment on summaries and post in the forums.

• Companies will get an autologin link to post on their intranet page.

• We can create reading lists for companies and target summaries of interest.

If you would like to check out or subscribe to business book summaries, please visit Business Book Summaries online.

The Cost of the Generational Divide

The generation gap is most often noticed when older workers are trying to mentor or motivate younger workers, and younger workers are not receptive. The younger workers complain they just want to hear the company goals and be set free to work rather than be forced to sit through a pep rally.

The older workers complain the younger workers do not respect tradition and have no sense of teamwork or any work ethic, for that matter. This kind of miscommunication happens all the time in companies all over the nation.

Every employee is valuable and brings skills and talent to the table. Miscommunication and conflict across generations impact a company’s productivity and bottom line.

Lost revenue and turnover, costly consequences of the generational divide, can be averted if managers learn to bring employees together.

Generational harmony impacts a company’s profitability. In 2005, it was predicted that unemployment would be at five percent at the end of 2006.

Low unemployment and steady job growth usually makes employees comfortable enough to look for jobs with better opportunities and better benefits. It was predicted that by 2010 the United States would be short 10 million workers with the right skills.

The U.S. was short only three to four million workers in the late 1990s, and hiring managers were scrambling to fill empty chairs. Organizations need a plan to recruit and retain employees from all generations with the right skills.

Turnover is expensive, costing “50 to 150 percent of a departing employee’s annual wage.” It is time for organizations to assess the demographics of their workforce to make sure they have the “bench strength” for projected retirements.

Managers can take the following actions to immediately improve retention:
• Evaluate age of workforce.
• Develop strategies to attract and retain those about to retire.
• Identify ways to operate more efficiently.
• Create a formal process to assess manpower over the next five to 10 years.
• Evaluate current turnover.
• Establish two-way communication on all issues.
• Assess skill development commitments.
• Proactively work to retain talent.

Managers should be developing strategies to coax ready-to-retire workers into semi-retirement so they can mentor younger workers to do their jobs. Employers should not only be thinking of ways to retain quality employees, but also how to retain valued customers and colleagues. Generational misperceptions can injure these critical business relationships.

People are a business’s key resource. It is the people that make a company successful. Managers need to understand the demographics of their workforce, and to do whatever they can to retain and develop the skills of all their employees, regardless of generation. This plan of action will minimize turnover and increase the bottom line.

Bridging the Generation Gap was written as a reference tool for managers confronted with recruiting, retaining, and balancing the needs of five generations of employees. To access the book summary, please go to BusinessSummaries.com.

The 10 Attributes Of An Offer According To A Blur World

Let us take a look at all these attributes, keeping in mind that the most essential feature of all offers is that they are connected.

Anytime
Accessibility by users at any time of day is becoming a must-have for offers of all kinds.

Real Time
This need for Speed of response in today’s business environment puts a premium on systems that can operate in “real time”.

Interactive
Another great benefit of online systems that eliminate the middle person – travel agent, bank teller, stockbroker (and sometimes maybe even the physician) – is that they can easily be made interactive.

Anyplace
Hand in hand with anytime access goes anyplace access; this is the other half of the mail-order boom. The trick is being able to service anyplace access effectively – anytime. Is your offer available to customers wherever they are?

Learning
Offer really start to get interesting when they make it possible to learn; that is, when they can not only capture information about their use, but make adjustments or initiate action in line with that new information.

Anticipating
Once offers have the ability to learn, it’s just a short step to give them something even more blurred: the ability to anticipate.

Filtering
A special form of customization is the filtering of the wide range of information and choices that increasingly confront users.

Customizing
Customization is a major theme running through the offers cited so far, whether they involve computers, jeans, or books.

Upgrading
One distinctive feature of software products is the constant stream of upgrades they spawn. Once you’ve bought a program, it isn’t necessary to make a whole new purchase when its functionality is improved.

In this groundbreaking book, Stan Davis and Chris Meyer deliver more than a guided tour to these momentous shifts. They offer readers a working model to illustrate and benefit from the new rules of the connected economy, where advantage is temporary and nothing is fixed in time or space. To access the full book summary, please visit BusinessSummaries.com.

Respecting Employee Diversity

It has been previously mentioned that the larger the organization, the more diverse the workforce and the more varied the type of personalities that are present. In addition to ethics training, a highly-effective and complementary practice is to offer diversity training as well.

By recognizing employee differences, celebrating them, and teaching individuals how to respect them, it is more likely that teams will be more collaborative and employees will be able to work together more effectively.

There are two primary goals for diversity training:

1) eliminate values, stereotypes, and managerial practices that inhibit the personal and professional development of diverse employees, and

2) allow diverse employees to contribute their best efforts for achieving superior organizational performance.


As with ethics training, there are a wide number of exercises and workshops that organizations can hold to encourage more effective diversity management. When individuals within a company are able to respect each other for the behavioral choices they make, as well as for the cultural differences they may have, a more cohesive unit can be formed for greater efficiency.

The Essentials of Business Ethics by Denis Collins takes an in-depth look into the many ways companies can incorporate an ethical mindset into their business. To access the full book summary, please visit BusinessSummaries.com.

Emotional Intelligence: The New Science of Success

Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to control and use one’s emotions in a constructive—rather than destructive—manner. This allows an individual to achieve his best performance, while inspiring others.

EI is a composite of many other qualities, such as effective oral communication and an ability to respond well to setbacks, which distinguish the competent from the truly successful. While success has basic threshold requirements—technical skills, for example—the truly crucial characteristics are those that enable people to manage their emotions rather than be derailed by extreme or upsetting circumstances.

Fortunately, there are strategies to improve one’s emotional intelligence. It is important to understand the four domains of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. Self-awareness and self-management are related to one’s own personal competence, while social awareness and relationship management have to do with one’s competence in the social arena. One can improve behaviors in each of these domains to develop better overall emotional intelligence.

Ready to increase your emotional intelligence? More resources are available at BusinessSummaries.com. BusinessSummaries.com is a business book summaries service. Every week, it sends out to subscribers a summary of a best-selling business book chosen from among the hundreds of new books released in the United States. Simply go to http://www.bizsum.com for more details.

Moving to Telework

Why move to telework? Telework has environmental and cost benefits.

According to a Harris poll, U.S. workers waste an estimated $4.3 billion in energy costs each year and generate 32 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions from this energy consumption. From a business prospective, the benefits of telework include gains in productivity, the ability to access a global talent pool (including people with disabilities who find it difficult to work in an office environment), lower overhead costs, and a hedge against the risk of natural or manmade disasters.

The authors liken a successful telework leader to a symphony conductor who brings together a diverse group of musicians to play a complex piece of music successfully. The leader must be able to get all employees (both those who telework and those who do not) to work off a common platform of clear, open, disciplined, and deliberate communication.

Before even implementing a telework arrangement, the leader must ask if the workforce or team has the skills, abilities, commitment, and time to learn and use both the technology and communication skills required for telework. Then, if the company decides to implement telework, the leader must make sure that all employees understand both the why and how of telework.

The authors’ advice is to communicate, communicate, and communicate again. Since everyone processes information differently, it is important to use many different means of communication (e-mail, company blogs, podcasts, etc.) for the same message.

Closely linked to communication is change management. Leaders must work through barriers of resistance for many employees to accept telework and for telework to be successful.

Change management might include celebrating small successes, using hard data to create a case for change, and using interpersonal skills. An organization’s or team’s culture is important to the success of telework.

Culture can propel people forward in the desired direction or serve as a roadblock. Culture influences and reinforces behaviors without the need for formal documentation or guidelines.

When telework is in conflict with the corporate culture, teleworking arrangements are likely to fail.
Recognizing an organization’s culture requires recognizing what the organization truly values.

For an organization that values a lot of face-to-face time, telework is a hard fit. The authors note that although successful telework cultures vary, they generally have several things in common.

Looking for more resources on that will help boost your career? Look into business book summaries found on BusinessSummaries.com.

Organize According To Your Priorities

Living a clutter-filled life requires no particular skill – anyone can get the hang of it. Who is the most likely to be unorganized?

It’s those who have not identified their priorities and established supporting goals.

To organize effectively, it helps if you identify your priorities. Otherwise, you’re organizing without a goal.

Priorities are broad elements of life.

They are so basic that you can often misplace them somewhere in your go-go schedule. Start identifying
your priorities, and you’ll realize that much of the clutter you have collected does not serve you or support what you have deemed to be of importance.

Much of what you have assembled in the places and spaces of your life is useless!

The five-step procedure that follows is simple and direct and will help you to establish priorities.

1. Write down everything that is important to you, assigned to you, or that you seek to achieve. Feel free to make this list long and involved.

2. Several hours later or even the next day, revisit your list. Cross out those things that, on second reading, are not that crucial. Combine any items that appear similar to each other. The object of this second encounter is to dramatically pare down your list. If you have too many priorities, you are likely to feel anxious and frustrated. We can’t all be Superman.

3. Now, restructure, redefine, and rewrite your list if necessary; seek to streamline it. When in doubt, toss it out. If you’re unsure if an item belongs on the list, chances are, it doesn’t.

4. Put your list away and take it out the next day or the day after that. Now review it as if you are seeing it for the first time. Can any items be combined? Can anything be dropped? Should anything be reworded? As always, if something seems as if it is not that important, it probably isn’t, so feel free to drop it!

5. Go ahead and make a working list of what you feel are your priorities at this time. Yes, things will shift and change as time marches on, but this is your list for now.

The 60 Second Organizer is a valuable resource and a daily action guide to help you become a more organized person in your workplace and make it a total and effective lifestyle. To read a book summary of 'The 60 Second Organizer' please visit BusinessSummaries.com.