Archive for the ‘Organizational Development’ Category

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Have a Magical Day, Folks!

Thursday, April 8th, 2010

That’s what the lovely young gentleman said to my family and I as we exited the boat that brought us from EPCOT back to our hotel at the Dolphin Resort. It brought an instant smile to my face! It reminded me of the many moments of magic that we had experienced that day together…were there line-ups? crowds? moments of exhaustion from the heat? Yes! And, there were many magical moments!!

It got me thinking also about customer service. Walt Disney World knows service! Perhaps some of you have had less than stellar experiences there; mine have been mostly positive – and many have been exceptional!

What is the secret to great customer service? I think it comes down to a few very simple things.

The first is – to smile. I wrote a post about the contagion theory related to smiling in late 2008. When you smile, it not only affects others in a positive (contagious) way, it also affects you!! It’s something we all ‘know’; even though we might not always remember to ‘do’ it. Want to feel better? Smile!! I was reminded recently of the power of a smile in a blog post by Christopher Peterson in Psychology Today. Dr. Peterson is among the most widely cited psychologists in the world, and he knows of which he speaks. Duchenne (genuine) smiles impact longevity! If we are talking about customer service, and the importance of customer satisfaction, and customer retention; I think increasing longevity is a very good thing!

My kids with their Duchenne Smiles

My kids with their Duchenne Smiles

The second simple thing for great customer service is – greet people when you see them. Look them in the eye, smile, and show them in your greeting that you are glad they decided to patronize your business rather than someone else’s. The theme parks of Disney do this very well. Not only do they have several people greeting their visitors daily, they also greet you (and wish you a great – or magical – day) when you leave!! Some might argue that they don’t have to do this at all, as they have pretty well cornered the market on the whole Disney thing!! Yet, they do it…and it keeps us coming back!

The third simple principle is to listen to your customers. I know…these are simple, right? When I viewed this video on youtube the other day, I thought it really made the point. Watch this and ask yourself…Is this the kind of listening that is happening in our organization?

The Break Up

Every day I am reminded about the power of really listening. If you want to increase your sales, grow your career, increase your tips, engage your staff in your new initiative, have a better day, get more of what you want, influence others…all you have to do is listen more (and better!)

What kind of world would it be if…
- every teacher looked every child in the eye, smiled, and said ‘I am glad you are here today’?
- every CEO in the elevator looked away from the blackberry long enough to stop, smile and greet the employee standing beside him?
- every store clerk had a Duchenne smile that made you feel valued as a customer?
- every nurse served her patient just like she was being served by her supervisor – with CARE?
Why don’t we find out?

Try these few, simple techniques tomorrow and tell me what difference you noticed (in your customers…and in your own energy!!)

And, finally…have a magical day, folks!

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Posted in Customer Service, Engagement, Organizational Development | 2 Comments »

Spirit Week…Every Week!

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

I read an article this week…from one of my internet Google Alerts.  It was one of those articles that struck me – instantly.  It was by Kim Smith and it was titled Sometimes we could all use a little spirit week.  Kim shared her findings from asking her daughter about her favourite part of spirit week.  You know what that is if you have children.  If you don’t have children, spriit week is a time (a week, actually) when schools engage in activities to infuse energy into the classroon…with friendly competition between classrooms and amongst the student-body as a whole.  Even my son, in middle school, has been heavily involved in collecting pennies ’so we can be the best classroom in the school!’

Kim’s daughter replied that the best part of spirit week was that all of the social rules disappeared and everyone was equal and everyone was focused on having fun.  ‘It doesn’t matter if I am in the band or I am a jock”, she said.  ‘Nobody cares about my clothes or anything.”  Kim’s daughter related that spirit week was about the team…doing what was best for the whole, and not worrying about individual, petty, differences.

I thought about that…and how true that was relative to my own children’s experience of spirit week.  Everyone is smiling, everyone is engaged, and everyone works together!  No one is left out and no ‘normal’ classes (the ‘populars’, the ‘nerds’, the ‘jocks’, etc.) exist.  We are just here, together, working together to achieve a common goal.  Not a bad formula for success in any organization, I think!!

While thinking about writing this post, my daughter came home from school (her first year in a new high school) and said ’Mom, I am so proud of myself!  I said “hi” to some people I don’t know really well … and they said “hi” back.  It was cool!’

So … next week, after you return from a weekend of thanksgiving celebrations with family, think about what you can do to make every week ’spirit week’ at your workplace.  Really…it doesn’t take much!  A smile, a ‘great to see you’, an engaged look in the eye…that’s it! 

Let me know how it goes…and I’ll do the same!

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Posted in Engagement, Happiness, Leadership, Organizational Development | No Comments »

Appreciative Inquiry “at Work”

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

If you have not already heard of Appreciative Inquiry, check out AI Commons and learn a bit about AI and it’s founder David Cooperrider.  I first became acquainted with AI from a colleague; that inspired me to attend the AI Conference in Orlando Florida in 2008.  Since then, I use the principles of AI regularly in the work I do with organizations.  This summer, I took extensive training with Jane Magruder Watkins and Maureen McKenna on using the theory of AI in practice.

Here’s a quick peek at the principles of AI:

  • organizations (and the humans within) grow in the direction of their most frequent inquiries; when we appreciate what is best about ourselves and each other, and ask questions about that, we get more of what’s best
  • we learn about and create more success by asking ‘what is the root cause of success?’  (as opposed to creating more failure by asking ‘what is the root cause of our failure?’
  • we get higher performance by focusing on our strengths, rather than ‘fixing’ our weaknesses (inquiring about weaknesses begets more weaknesses)
  • our inquiries are fateful…the questions we ask set the stage for what we find; instead of asking ‘what is stopping us from being successful?, we need to ask ‘what is contributing to our success?’
  • our perceptions determine reality (not the other way around)
  • we socially contruct our organizations (and families, and world); our interactions are the source for what is true for us; so AI requires that the entire system (organization, family) participate in the process
  • we create what we imagine…we will notice what we anticipate, positive or negative, so anticipating a positive image of ourselves, each other, and our organizations, helps us to create that reality
  • the phases of AI are Discovery (inquiring about what’s right, what our strengths are, what is occurring when we are at our best); Dream (imagining our organization as we desire it in the future); Design (identifying the elements that will construct the dream organization); and Destiny (realizing our destiny, as we have constructed it)

There is much evidence that what we think about affects our actions which in turn determine our reality.  Most of us would agree with this idea.  Now we have the practice of Appreciative Inquiry which provides us with a process that works!

 

 

 

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Posted in Change, Engagement, Organizational Development, Strengths | No Comments »

Positive Psychology in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Friday, July 17th, 2009

I recently returned from The First World Congress on Positive Psychology in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  In keeping with the P theme - one word encapsulates my experience there: Powerful!  What follows is a summary of a few of my key take-aways from the Congress.

Ed Diener spoke on ‘New Findings on Happiness’: there is a difference between wanting and liking…happiness is impacted most when we learn to WANT what we LIKE.  You might WANT the high-paying executive job, but not LIKE the work that comes with that job.  If you LIKE the outdoors, learn to WANT or desire finding work that helps you do what you LIKE.  He also shared some findings about the latest Positive Psychology research, like the study you might have read that said married people are happier.  Diener said the newest research is showing – not so much that married people are happier – but that happier people tend to be married!  Interesting…

Giovanni Fava, from Italy, spoke on ’Well-Being Therapy’: he shared a powerful example of how people can identify and modify dysfuctional beliefs (or thoughts) to positively affect their well-being.  For example, if you keep a journal of your internal dialogue throughout the day and you notice a thought like ‘I can’t do this’, you can immediately decide to change the thought to ‘I can do the best I can and see what happens’.  They key is to identify the dysfuctional thought and then consider a modification of that thought, and notice what happens in terms of how you feel.  One way to modify the internal dialogue is to write down what an ‘external observer’ might say about the situation that is causing you difficulty; record an alternative interpretation…then notice what might shift for you.

Michael Frese, from Germany, discussed positive psychology at work – his research confirms that people do best at work when they are active; being able to set goals and take personal initiative positively affect achievement at work.  There is a “clear and strong correlation between personal initiative (which engages and ignites positive emotion) and performance”. 

Raymond Fowler discussed positive health and positive aging in his session “how to die young as late as possible”.  He made a compelling argument to support the point that when you die is a matter of choice – or a series of choices (eating, exercising, all the stuff we all know).  Positive emotion is critical in a long life; happier people are healthier (fewer bad habits, better nutrition, take better care of themselves).  

Barbara Fredrickson discussed Positivity – the Pathway to Flourishing.  She shared her “positivity prescription” on 3 to 1 to reinforce that you need the levity of positivity to counterweight the gravity of negativity.  Fredrickson shared her ‘Broaden and Build’ theory of positive emotion; when you experience and express positive emotion, you live longer.  It’s not enough just to ‘be positive’, the positive emotion must be genuine and heartfelt.  To create a mindset of positivity. be:

  • open
  • appreciative
  • curious
  • kind
  • real (authentic)…sincerity counts!

Visit Fredrickson’s website for free resources.

David Cooperrider was a true highlight at the conference.  He completely captivated the audience with his hopeful message on ‘The Discovery and Design of Positive Institutions’.  Mr. Cooperrider, generous in nature, makes his slides from the conference available at aicommons@case.edu.  The message from Appreciative Inquiry is ‘change at the scale of the whole’.  Ai involves a shift to see the world anew.  Mr. Cooperrider shared with us a foundation of AI; that the question we ask determines what we find.  If we look for deficits (what’s wrong here?) we find more deficits; if we look for possibilities (what’s right here?) we find more possibility.  Most organizations look for what’s wrong and let strengths take care of themselves.  AI encourages us to focus on strengths and the weaknesses will take care of themselves.  The approach is 1) appreciate the best of what is, imagine what might be, design what could be and create what will be.  The key is in the inquiry…the inquiry must be the change we wish to see in the world (not the one we want to avoid or to eliminate).

The conference ended with some words from Chris Peterson that encouraged us to look in the mirror as we are the future, and Martin Seligman, renouned as the father of Positive Psychology, who introduced a new term, ‘Positive Neuroscience’.  I, for one, am looking forward to hearing more about that in the future.  What about you?

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Posted in Change, Happiness, Leadership, Organizational Development, Strengths | No Comments »

Happiness, Productivity and The Law of Attraction

Sunday, March 1st, 2009

I believe that most of us understand that, generally, happier employees are more productive; they achieve better results for themselves and for the organization.  There is a lot of research to support the importance of positive emotions at work.  Much of my work is with leaders in organizations, who certainly understand this connection; and who are curious about what they can do to facilitate, encourage, and nurture happiness at work.

The first piece of advice I have for these leaders relates to a fundamental belief I have about effective leadership: you must model the way!  If the leader is not experiencing happiness and positive emotion at work, it is highly unlikely that the team members will either.  It is not enough to say the right words at a meeting, hoping to inspire the team to be pumped up and excited about their work.  If the words are not connected to true positive emotion in the leader, they fall flat.  And…if the leader is not ‘feeling’ what they are saying, they are less able to attract that feeling in others.  Have you noticed how much more believable, inspiring, and attractive someone is who is truly congruent with the message they are delivering?  As I work with leaders across a variety of organizations weekly, I continue to confirm that every leader indeed WANTS a happy team…and also WANTS that same experience for themselves.

So, what can you do to begin to create it for yourself and your team?  Try the three principles of the Law of Attraction as outlined by Michael Losier in his book of the same title.  1) Identify your desires.  You might, for example, identify what it is that you want to see in your team.  “I want a happy, productive team; who are smiling, laughing, sharing information, and connecting to explore opportunities and solve problems.”  2) Give your desires attention.  Once you have identified your desires…see them, hear them, feel them.  What are the cues in your environment that provide the evidence you seek?  How will you know your desire is manifested?  How will you know it when you see (hear, feel) it?  3) Allow your desires.  When you focus on what it is that you want to see, hear and feel; that is exactly what you will notice and experience.  Your attention is diverted from what is contrary to what you desire, to magnifying those moments when what you desire is before you.  Your focus will help to grow, or magnify the experience; you’ll then experience more of it yourself, you’ll then put more of it out into the workplace (model it), then you’ll get more of it, and so on, and so on.  See it, be it, free it!

Try this out; and comment back with a story to share.

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Posted in Engagement, Happiness, Human Resource Development, Leadership, Organizational Development | 5 Comments »

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