Thought for the Week: “Imagination Sharpens the Dull Blade of Routine.” - Terry Braverman

Keeping employees energized, enthusiastic, and engaged in their work is a constant challenge in these shaky times. I have ventured into countless numbers of companies to facilitate seminars, where cultures of terminal seriousness are pervasive, and staff looks as if theyre on death row. A recent study showed that almost 80% of all work-related injuries, and illnesses, are stress-related. Companies are starting to acknowledge the need to "lighten up," and inject some fun into the fundamentals of business. Here are just a few suggestions that can improve morale, teamwork and productivity

Start a Monday morning off with humor impact aerobics. Within a time frame of two-three minutes, this will re-energize your staff after a long weekend and re-connect everyone in the spirit of teamwork. Everyone stands next to each other in a line or circle. Direct them to raise their right arm and shake out their hand, then left arm/left hand. Now have them shake out their right leg, then left leg. Next, right arm/right leg, left arm/left leg, right arm/left leg, left arm/right leg. It will look like an epileptic support group, and the room will fill with laughter as some struggle to maintain their balance. Now, using their right hand, they take the left hand of the person on their right, and shake their hand (the person on their left will be shaking their left hand). Finally, have them face the front of the room and take a deep breath with a slow exhale. Now they are primed and pumped for the days tasks!

If you find staff morale or energy levels sagging in mid-day, take them aboard the massage train. Have them stand one behind the other, throw their hands way up in the air and stretch, then drop the hands onto the shoulders of the person in front of them and rub. Then reverse the line 180 degrees and repeat the process. This need not take more than a few minutes, just to reignite the energy level via some fun interaction by kinesthetically connecting everyone.

An employee at a local department store found a fun-filled answer to the problem of learning new company guidelines for clerks. She's also an aspiring singer, and with management's blessing, created a "compliance choir" that sang the new guidelines over the store's sound system just prior to opening the store. The tune was not only catchy, but the clerks caught the message as well, and there were far fewer mistakes made during new policy changes.

Much resistance can show up when implementing new company guidelines and policies, blocking retention of information. One time I was hired to announce a company's new safety regulations as several of the celebrity characters that I do. This not only entertained and disarmed the disgruntled staff, but it proved to be effective in helping employees retain the new information, because they connected it to what my characters (Jack Nicholson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Julia Child, and other celebrities) said about it.

You may want to render your own version of what I call the "Worst Work Experience of the Week Award." I worked for a bank that was beset by low morale among the tellers, who constantly feared dealing with troublesome customers. So on Fridays we started to reward the teller who was voted the best (most horrific) story about a difficult customer with a prize. It dramatically improved morale and increased customer satisfaction because tellers were now seeking out those hard-to-please patrons to win the award. Customers responded by becoming more civil, as a result of the increased attention.

When appropriate humor and fun becomes embedded in a companys culture, employees feel more relaxed, resourceful, and ready to contribute to the business.

Service with a Smile

A couple years ago I was the Sunday guest speaker at a church service. My topic was, “The Healing Power of Humor”. After the service I was standing outside chatting with the minister. A few feet away from us was a young boy, staring at a plaque on the church wall. The kid came over to the minister and asked, What is this plaque on the wall for? The minister responded, Why son, thats to honor all the people we knew and loved, who died in the service. The little boy replied, Which service? The nine oclock or the eleven oclock?

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in the USA is tackling vague “no gossip” policies. It is part of a focused effort to prevent employers from violating sections of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Their concern centers on employers who maintain overly broad “no gossip” policies and suspend and terminate employees for violating ambiguous policy.


At the heart of the controversy was Joslyn Henderson, who, in 2007, was an admissions representative at Laurus Technical Institute. At the time, the employee filed a sexual harassment and retaliation suit with the EEOC against her employer; however, during the investigation of the incident, the employer reprimanded the employee for speaking to a manager outside her “chain of command.” Ms. Henderson was told she could not discuss the suit or any of the alleged events with anyone other than her direct supervisor, the HR director or the CEO.


The technical institute then implemented a “no gossip policy,” stating such personal and unprofessional communication would not be tolerated that employees found to be “gossiping” would be disciplined. Their definition of gossip included “talking about someone’s personal life when he wasn’t present; talking about a person’s professional life without a supervisor being present; making negative, untrue, or disparaging comments about other people; and creating, sharing, or repeating rumors about others.”


Some time later, the technical institute replaced several admissions representatives and the HR director. Ms. Henderson and other remaining co-workers discussed the situation and their concern for their continued employment. When she took medical leave, her supervisor was told she had solicited employees to leave the institute and instigated a work slow-down. When she returned to deal with an issue about her medical leave she was suspended. Soon after, her employment was terminated for “willful breach of company policies and counter-productive behavior,” including violating the no-gossip policy.


But the NLRB Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) determined the “no gossip” policy violated the NLRA because it prohibited employees from speaking to co-workers about discipline and other terms and conditions of employment.


According to the ALJ: “A thorough reading of this vague, overly-broad policy reveals that it narrowly prohibits virtually all communications about anyone, including the company or its managers. In fact, read literally, this rule would preclude both negative and positive comments about a person’s personal or professional life unless that person and/or his/her supervisor are present.”


Since the NLRB is expanding its role (even into non-union settings) to protect employees from policies that are overly broad or too ambiguous, is it time for “no gossip” policies to be scrapped? Were they ever realistic or enforceable in the first place?
(Reprinted from Linked-In HR Group)


MEMORABLE QUOTES ABOUT GOSSIP

Show me someone who never gossips, and I'll show you someone who isn't interested in people.
--Barbara Walters
 

No one gossips about other people's secret virtues. --Bertrand Russell

The only time people dislike gossip is when you gossip about them. --Will Rogers

If you haven't got anything nice to say about anybody, come sit next to me. --Alice Roosevelt Longworth

(Reprinted from Entrepreneur Magazine)                                                                                                                       Brent Gleeson, Internet Marketing Inc.

San Diego-based digital marketing agency IMI is the second company started by Gleeson, who served as a Navy SEAL before setting his sights on the business world in 2005 with NewCondosOnline.com, a real-estate search engine he founded with business partner Brandon Fishman. That same year, as the housing market took a turn for the worse, they diversified into digital marketing. That's when things really took off: IMI has doubled in size every year since 2007, with projected 2013 revenue of $25 million. With a staff of 65-plus already, Gleeson is constantly recruiting talent from bigger-name agencies and beating them out for enterprise accounts, including the likes of Belkin, Polycom, Time Life and a major credit card company.

On creating opportunities:

Brandon and I both have finance and economics backgrounds, and we always keep an eye on opportunities. When we saw what was going on in the market, we thought about alternative services we could offer. We'd learned a lot about SEO and driving traffic to our site, which had helped us become digital marketing experts. So we started IMI as a small agency for clients we already had, and kept expanding from there.

On keeping employees inspired:

Obviously, my background as a SEAL is something I use to motivate myself, but the most difficult thing about motivation is consistency. People won't come to work motivated every day, so you have to do different things because everybody responds to different motivators. Maybe it's letting someone speak at a trade show, or offering a flexible schedule or having a fitness-oriented culture.

Our philosophy on motivation is not about running around being like Tony Robbins. First of all, we recruit the right types of people that fit our culture, but one thing that motivates is providing employees with resources for learning and professional development. As the owners, Brandon and I set guidelines for strategic direction, but we try to let employees be entrepreneurial within IMI. Directors have their own budgets, allowing them to be creative and drive their own business. And we do knowledge shares, where employees present new topics to others.

On attracting clients:

We want to create business partnerships, and they know we care. When we pitch someone, we talk about creating opportunity for everyone, to create jobs. I think we motivate clients by creating a personal connection. We win when we pitch based on passion and performance.

LEADERSHIP LEVITY

It's hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse. - Adlai Stevenson

The key to being a good manager is keeping the people who hate me away from those who are still undecided. - Casey Stengel

When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that person is crazy. - Dave Barry

The leadership instinct you are born with is the backbone. You develop the funny bone and the wishbone that go with it. -  Elaine Agather

Only one man in a thousand is a leader of men -- the other 999 follow women. ~ Groucho Marx