The Two Sides of Teams

Collective wisdom outweighs individual insights

Most of us believe that collective wisdom outweighs individual insights – or do we?

Perhaps the biggest shortcoming of agile development practices is the way in which teams decide what to do. What product should be built? What features are most important? What consumer experiences will work best? These are the most important questions for the success of any product, and yet for the longest time, answering these questions have not been considered the responsibility of the development team or the DevOps team.

Historically, someone with the role of business analyst, project manager, or product manager made the critical decisions about what to build. Or maybe some third party wrote a specification. While the technical team might question or push back on product decisions, too often the ideas and priorities were expected to come from outside. For example, the Scrum Product Owner role is often implemented in a way that favors individual insight over collective wisdom when it comes to critical product ideas and priorities.

Until recently, there hasn’t been a practical process for tapping into the collective wisdom of everyone on the development team when making key product decisions. But now there is: it’s called the “Design Sprint.”[1]  Combining a design thinking approach with the timeboxing of an agile sprint, this is a process that captures the collective wisdom of a diverse group of people. During the five-day process, the group not only makes critical product decisions, it creates prototypes and validates hypotheses with real customers as part of the process.

Design sprints were developed by Google Ventures to help the companies in its portfolio uncover a variety of product ideas and quickly sort out the good ideas out from the mediocre ones. Design sprints have been used at hundreds of companies with amazing success. While the Lean Startup approach starts by building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to test ideas, design sprints are a way to avoid building the MVP until you are sure you are starting with a good idea. They help you sort through a lot more ideas before starting to code.

Where do all those good ideas come from? Design sprints do not depend on individuals or roles to generate ideas; the ideas are generated and validated by a diverse team tackling a tough problem. The insights of engineering and operations and support are combined with those of product and business and marketing to create true collective wisdom.

There are a couple of roles in design sprint; one is a “decider.” The decider generally avoids making any decisions unless called upon by teams that do not have enough information to make the decision themselves, yet need to make a choice in order to proceed. In a small company, this might be the CEO; in a larger company it is more likely a product manager. But let’s be clear – the decider is a leader who articulates a vision and strategy, but she does not usually come up with ideas, set priorities or select features. That is what teams do.

Another recommended role is someone Google calls a “sprintmaster” – a facilitator who plans, leads, and follows up on a five-day design sprint. This person is almost always a designer, because the facilitator’s job is to help teams use design thinking and design techniques to answer key product questions. For example, on the second day of the sprint, everyone develops their own ideas through a series of individual sketches; on the third day, teams review the sketches jointly and create a storyboard for a prototype – or maybe a few prototypes. On the fourth day, the prototypes are created, usually with design tools. On the fifth day, the prototypes are tested with real consumers as the team observes. When most of the people on a team have no design experience, it helps to have a designer lead them through the design process.

Really good teams generate a lot of ideas. These ideas are quickly validated with real consumers and perhaps 10 or 20% of the ideas survive. This low survival rate is a good thing; investigating a lot of ideas dramatically increases the chances that one of them will be a winner. The trick is to have a very fast way for teams to generate, validate, and select the ideas that are worth pursuing – and the design sprint provides one good option.

Of course, success requires a lot more than a diverse team and a good process.

Deliberation Makes a Group Dumber

Most of us would be surprised by the idea that deliberation makes a group dumber. But that is the conclusion reached by respected authors Cass Sunstein and Reid Hastie in their sobering book Wiser: Getting Beyond Groupthink to Make Groups Smarter. The two set out to study the cognitive biases of teams, and found that groupthink plays a bigger role in group decision-making than most of us realize.

There is no advantage in diversity on a team if those who are in the minority – those who are different or soft-spoken or are working in their second language – do not feel comfortable about sharing their unique perspective. Yet Sunstein and Hastie note that in most groups, deliberation is very likely to suppress insights that diverge from the first ideas expressed (anchoring bias) or the majority viewpoint (conformity bias).

Brainstorming has come under criticism – for good reason – as a technique that favors talkative and confident team members over thoughtful members and those with undeveloped hunches. Brainwriting[2] is an alternative to brainstorming that gives individuals time to think individually about the problem at hand and come up with ideas based on their unique background. Brainwriting is used during on the second day of a design sprint, when individuals sketch their solution to the chosen problem. This gives everyone the time and space to develop their ideas, as well as a way to have these ideas anonymously presented to and discussed by the group.

After a brainwriting exercise, a group will have generated maybe 40% more ideas than brainstorming. Typically, a technique such as dot voting is used to prioritize the many ideas and select the best ones to pursue. Unfortunately, this is another technique that favors groupthink. Voting is likely to weed out hunches and fragile ideas before they have time to develop, so outlier ideas that come from those who think differently tend to be lost in a voting process.

The lean approach to product development is pretty much the opposite of voting. Instead of narrowing options early, the lean strategy is to pursue multiple ideas that span the design space, gradually eliminating the ones that do not work. In a lean world, teams would not prioritize and select the most popular ideas after brainwriting – selection at this stage would be premature. Instead, teams would identify several very different ideas to explore, making sure to include outliers.

It is important to ensure that the ideas which survive the selection process span a wide range of possibilities – otherwise much of the benefit of brainwriting is lost. One way to do this is to select ideas that have a champion eager to pursue the idea and one or two people interested in joining her. If small sub-teams are encouraged to explore the possibilities of outlier ideas, the group is more likely to benefit from its diversity. By giving those with minority opinions not only the opportunity to present their ideas but also the time and space to give their ideas a try, a much wider variety of ideas will be seriously considered.

Consider this example: Matthew Ogle joined Spotify’s New York office in early 2015. For years he had been working on the problem of helping people discover appealing music, most recently in his own startup. He joined a Spotify team developing a discovery page, but he thought the process involved too much work – he thought discovery should be automatic. This was a radical idea at Spotify – so luckily, Ogle’s team did not vote on whether it ought to be pursued, because it would probably have died.

Instead, Ogle joined Edward Newett, an engineer and expert at deep learning who was experimenting with the idea of a discovery playlist, to explore the possibility. When Ogle realized that algorithms could generate a playlist that was uncannily well matched to his tastes, he knew they were on to a good idea. The next step was to find a way to check out these magic playlists with more people.

They tried an unusual approach – they generated playlists matched to Spotify employees’ tastes and sent them out with an email asking for feedback. Almost everyone loved their playlist, and it became clear that this idea was a winner. Through a lot of quick experiments, the idea was improved, and soon playlists were delivered to a few customers under the name “Discover Weekly.” As it scaled up, Discover Weekly proved to be wildly popular and has become a dramatic success.

The Two Sides of Teams

There are two sides to teams. There is the side that needs to make its own decisions and the side that can turn decision-making into groupthink. There is the side that wants to leverage diversity and the side that tends to ignore the input from team members who are different. The point is this: if you believe in collective wisdom, be sure to collect all of the wisdom that is available. If you look closely and honestly at your current processes and team dynamics, you might be surprised at how much wisdom is locked in the minds of individuals who don’t feel comfortable participating in the give and take of a dynamic team.

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Footnotes:

[1] See: Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days  by Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, and Braden Kowitz. For a quick “how to” summary, see: https://developers.google.com/design-sprint/downloads/DesignSprintMethods.pdf

[2] Brainstorming Doesn't Work; Try This Technique Instead

Eight-Point Plan To Build A Powerful Team

Take some quality time to read the book by C. Elliott Haverlack, Unbunde It, because it explores the issues you face as a leader with a twist that is different from many other leadership books.  Throughout, the book offers suggestions on how to overcome the burden that complexity creates in our lives and businesses.

Most intriguing for me is Haverlack's straight-forward, unbundled insights on teams.  "The healthiest teams trust each other," explains the author.  "When we trust, we tend to be more transparent and are more likely to share the hurdles we need to leap.  And, once trust becomes a competency, accountability comes much more easily."  And, accountability is the key to delivering results.

Haverlack's eight-point plan for a powerful team is:

1. Engage a group that shares your core values.
2. Set aspirational yet achievable goals for the company and every individual.
3. Create an environment that encourages and rewards trust.
4. Empower every individual to create and achieve greatness.
5. Persuade them to stretch.
6. Love them when they fail.
7. Create an environment that encourages and rewards self-discipline.
8. Have the courage to exit those from the team who do not fit.

Other particularly useful sections in Unbundle It are the ones on:

• Tips for excellence in the email world
• Ground rules for meetings
• Coaching

Another of my favorite parts of the book is what Haverlack titled, The Silence Is Deafening.  He writes, "One of Colin Powell's leadership principals is, 'The day soldiers top bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care.  Either case is a failure of leadership.'"

Haverlack continues to say, "We can apply this same sentiment to business.  If your employees stop sharing their thoughts and concerns with you, you are failing to lead.  Allowing your people to think you're incompetent or uncaring is not acceptable."

Best Leadership Quotes From 5 Levels Of Leadership Book

Here are some of my favorites quotes from the book that I believe should be a must-read book by any workplace/organizational leader -- John C. Maxwell's book, The 5 Levels of Leadership.

1. Good leadership isn't about advancing yourself.  It's about advancing your team.
2. Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others.
3. Leadership is action, not position.
4. When people feel liked, cared for, included, valued, and trusted, they begin to work together with their leader and each other.
5. If you have integrity with people, you develop trust.  The more trust you develop, the stronger the relationship becomes.  In times of difficulty, relationships are a shelter.  In times of opportunity, they are a launching pad.
6. Good leaders must embrace both care and candor.
7. People buy into the leader, then the vision.
8. Bringing out the best in a person is often a catalyst for bringing out the best in the team.
9. Progress comes only from taking risks and making mistakes.
10. Leaders are measured by the caliber of leaders they develop, not the caliber of their own leadership.

16 Ways To Build Trust

You can't lead if your employees, team or followers don't trust you.

Building trust takes energy, effort and constant attention to how you act.

To help build trust, follow these 16 tips, recommended by author Susan H. Shearouse:

1. Be honest
2. Keep commitments and keep your word
3. Avoid surprises
4. Be consistent with your mood
5. Be your best
6. Demonstrate respect
7. Listen
8. Communicate
9. Speak with a positive intent
10. Admit mistakes
11. Be willing to hear feedback
12. Maintain confidences
13. Get to know others
14. Practice empathy
15. Seek input from others
16. Say "thank you"

10 Ways To Build High-Performing Teams

According to Ron Ricci and Carl Wiese, authors of the book, The Collaboration Imperative, high-performing teams have the following characteristics:

1. People have solid and deep trust in each other and in the team's purpose--they feel free to express feelings and ideas.
2. Everybody is working toward the same goals.
3. Team members are clear on how to work together and how to accomplish tasks.
4. Everyone understands both team and individual performance goals and knows what is expected.
5. Team members actively diffuse tension and friction in a relaxed and informal atmosphere.
6. The team engages in extensive discussion, and everyone gets a chance to contribute--even the introverts.
7. Disagreement is viewed as a good thing and conflicts are managed.  Criticism is constructive and is oriented toward problem solving and removing obstacles.
8. The team makes decisions when there is natural agreement--in the cases where agreement is elusive, a decision is made by the team lead or executive sponsor, after which little second-guessing occurs.
9. Each team member carries his or her own weight and respects the team processes and other members.
10. The leadership of the team shifts from time to time, as appropriate, to drive results.  No individual members are more important than the team.

Today's Five Leadership Quotes

Some of my favorite quotes for leaders are:

1. A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit -- Arnold H. Glasgow
2. I praise loudly, I blame softly -- Catherine II of Russia
3. Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress -- Mohandas Gandhi
4. A long dispute means that both parties are wrong -- Voltaire
5. The least questioned assumptions are often the most questionable -- Paul Broca

These and many more compelling quotes can be found in Susan H. Shearouse's new book, Conflict 101.

How To Improve Your Connection Skills

"Connection is what transforms a dog-eat-dog environment into a sled-dog team that pulls together," says Michael Lee Stallard, author of the book, Connection Culture. "Connection builds an emotional bond that promotes trust, cooperation, and esprit de corps among people in the workplace."

Based on shared identity, empathy, and understanding, connection moves primarily self-centered individuals toward group-centered membership.

"Without that sense of connection, employees will never each their full potential," states Stallard.

The 10 ways you can improve your connection skills are to:

1. Recognize varying connection needs
2. Be present in conversations
3. Develop the ability to empathize
4. Develop the habit of emphasizing positives
5. Control your tone of voice
6. Negotiate with the mindset to solve a problems rather than to win
7. Provide autonomy in execution
8. Learn to apply the five languages of appreciation 
9. Apologize when you make a mistake
10. Develop social skills and relationship skills, and recognize the difference between them

"Creating a connection culture is a new way of thinking about leadership, employee engagement, and organizational health," says Stallard. And, that "human connection affects much more than the bottom line."

In addition, the five primary reasons connection cultures need to be a high priority are that employees who feel connected:

1. Perform at the top of their game.
2. Give their best effort.
3. Align their behavior with organizational goals.
4. Help improve the quality of decisions.
5. Actively contribution to innovation.

In the book, Stallard also focuses on the six universal needs humans have to thrive:

• Respect
• Recognition
• Belonging
• Autonomy
• Personal Growth
• Meaning

As you read the book, you'll learn the:

• definition of connection and its effect on organizations and individuals
• 24 character strengths necessary for building a connection culture
• roles that committed members and servant leaders play in shaping an organization's culture
• leadership qualities needed to transform workplace cultures
• practical actions to implement a connection culture in your organization

The book includes Study Questions for book groups. Plus, you'll likely also enjoy reading Stallard's examples of well-known leaders who created a connection culture, including:

• Bono of U2
• Alan Mulally of Ford
• Coach K of Duke men's basketball
• Ed Catmull of Pixar and Disney Animation

Stallard is co-founder and president of E Pluribus Partners. He is the primary author of Fired Up or Burned Out. 

Partnering with Stallard on Connection Culture are authors Jason Pankau and Katharine P Stallard.

How To Be A Manager With Class

AMACOM's (of the American Management Association) sixth edition of the best-selling book, The First-Time Manager -- originally published in 1981 is a must-read for new managers and leaders in business.

One of my favorite sections of the book is the one about class in a manager:

• Class is treating people with dignity.
• Class does not have to be the center of attention.
• Class does not lose its cool.
• Class does not rationalize mistakes.
• Class is good manners.
• Class means loyalty to one's staff.
• Class recognizes the best way to build oneself is to first build others.
• Class leads by example.
• Class does not taken action when angry.
• Class is authentic and works hard at making actions consistent with words.

The Ten Laws Of Trust

The new book, The 10 Laws of Trust, is a timely and critical guide to investing in high-trust relationships and reaping remarkable gains in reputation and the bottom-line.

"Trust works to everyone's benefit," explains book co-author Peterson. "It benefits individual contributors, work groups, customers, suppliers, vendors -- and the betterment of the whole organization."

"High-trust organizations are focused on empowering people to do their best." Additionally, explains Peterson, "trust is the number one leadership competency needed today, principally because of how it affects every other competency leaders need to have."

Joel Peterson

Co-authored by David A. Kaplan, the evidence-based book covers these 10 laws of trust:

1. Start with personal integrity
2. Invest in respect
3. Empower others
4. Measure what you want to achieve
5. Create a common dream
6. Keep everyone informed
7. Embrace respectful conflict
8. Show humility
9. Strive for win-win negotiations
10. Proceed with care

David A. Kaplan

Other valuable takeaways from the book include:

• The gap between what a leader says and does is at the heart of trust.
• A leader can't build trust on skills, charisma, and expertise alone. Trustworthy leaders show respect, consider the welfare of others, and keep their word.
• Trustworthy leaders are intentional about "fixing things" in themselves, about receiving feedback, and about making changes based on that feedback. 

Thank you to the book's publisher for sending me an advance copy of the book.

Seven Things Motivated People Do To Stay Motivated

This month brings the new book, High-Profit Prospecting, by Mark Hunter. It's a powerful read that includes counterintuitive advice and cutting-edge best practices for sales prospecting in today's business world.

Soon, I'll provide a fuller recap of the book, but today, I share one of my favorite sections of the book where Hunter describes his seven things motivated people do to stay motivated:

1. Motivated people ignore voices in their lives. These might be people in the office and friends who have bad attitudes. They're out there, and if you're not careful, they'll control you, too.
2. Motivated people associate with highly motivated people. Just as there are negative people in the world, there are also positive people. Your job is to make sure you spend as much time with the positive people as possible. 
3. Motivated people simply look for the positive in things. Positive people count it an honor to live each day, learn from others, and impact positively those they meet. Positive people take great satisfaction in helping others achieve success.
4. Motivated people don't worry about what they can't control, but are quick to accept control of their worlds. They don't pass the buck to someone else, but are willing to be accountable in everything.
5. Motivated people are continuously learning. The benefit of the learning they do each day is how they use it to improve themselves even more.
6. Motivated people know there will be tough times, but they know tough times don't last. They're aware they need to stay focused on the solution, not the problem. Motivated people always view things in a longer time frame than negative people, who dwell on the negativity of the moment they're in.
7. Motivated people set goals and are focused on achieving them, and along the way they celebrate each positive step. The goals they set are designed to both motivate them and drive them to higher levels of success than others might achieve.

Eight Behaviors To Show You Value Your Employees

There are eight specific actions business leaders can take to show that they value their employees, according to Andrew Leigh, author of the book, Ethical Leadership -- Creating and Sustaining an Ethical Business Culture.

Those eight behaviors are:

1. Attention -- Pay attention to what people say to show your interest.
2. Listen -- Make time to hear what colleagues, peers and employees have to say to show you care.
3. Positive Language -- Find words and phrases to show employees they're needed.  Examples are, "We couldn't have accomplished this without you," "That was really useful."
4. Document -- Put praise in writing to increase its impact.  Make clear where the credit belongs.
5. Micro Sessions -- Create two-way communication sessions.
6. Visits -- Schedule visits to teams and work areas.
7. Stories -- Share stories that highlight unusual contributions and provide your personal response to them.
8. Invite -- Ask people to contact you directly with their issues and concerns -- not to bypass the normal channels, but in addition to those channels. Then, set up systems to respond quickly and positively when people show the courage to contact you direct.

Leigh is a founder of Maynard Leigh Associates the United Kingdom development company.

He is author of over 20 books on management, many translated around the world. His book, Charisma, has been translated into over 17 languages and his long running Essentials of Management was short-listed for Book of Year award by the Chartered Institute of Management.

Originally trained as an economist, Leigh has an MA in the field of Human Resources, and is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Eleven Key Principles From Battlefield To Boardroom

Ken Marlin's new book, The Marine Corps Way To Win On Wall Street, is all about a Marine-turned-banker's tactics for succeeding ethically, and more specifically about 11 key principles from battlefield to boardroom.

Ken Marlin

"I wrote the book in part because of the bashing that corporate executives and Wall Street bankers have been receiving for many years in the press and in political circles. I wanted to show people a way to be successful on Wall Street and on Main Street that works better than the current system -- and allows you to be proud of how you did it," explains Marlin.

The 11 key principles Marlin covers in his book are:

1. Take the long view
2. Take a stand
3. Be the expert (or use one)
4. Know the enemy
5. Know what the objective is worth
6. Know yourself
7. Control the timing
8. Negotiate from the high ground
9. Seek foreign entanglements
10. Trust and verify
11. Be disciplined

Ken Marlin

Between 1970 and 1981, Marlin rose from the enlisted ranks to become a Marine captain and infantry commander. Since then, he's been an entrepreneur, a tech company CEO, a senior corporate executive and, for the past twenty-plus years, an investment banker on Wall Street.

While in the Marines, Marlin first learned the difference between leading and managing.

"Most managers, politicians and bankers tend toward inertia. They try to maintain whatever momentum they have -- moving in the same direction they're already going -- and work within the realm of what they see as possible or reasonable, believing that they are constrained by the facts on the ground and their bosses," explains Marlin.

"Marines (and other leaders) see those same constraints and motivate the people they're working with to find ways to overcome them. They don't quit easily. Leaders also understand that they are not the center of the universe and act accordingly. They cannot solve everything -- but perhaps the various experts on their team can. The team is their weapon; the power of the team exponentially multiplies the power of individuals," adds Marlin.

Thank you to the book's publisher for sending me an advance copy of the book.

Ten Tips For Projecting An Effective Professional Image

From Jay Miletsky's book, 101 Ways to Successfully Market Yourself, here 10 tips for projecting an effective professional image:

1. Discipline yourself to be positive and enthusiastic.
2. In tense situations choose positive responses by maintaining perspective and getting along well with others.
3. Acknowledge mistakes and shortcomings and learn how to correct them.
4. Develop a reputation for being a resourceful problems solver.
5. Leverage your strengths and expertise to have maximum impact on the decisions you make.
6. Be organized, efficient, flexible, and self-motivated.
7. Master your tasks and fully expand your area of expertise so that you can boost your output.
8. Keep up with the latest developments in your company and in your field.
9. Cultivate unique talents that give you a definite edge.
10. Gain visibility by taking the kind of action that will propel you into the right sights of management personnel.

Today's Two Leadership Quotes

"The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and the self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it." -- Theodore Roosevelt

"Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand." -- Colin Powell

Seven Attributes Of Meaningful Work

There are so many good things to learn in the book, Helping People Win At Work, by Ken Blanchard and Garry Ridge. Among those is the section about how to define meaningful work.

Their definition consists of these seven attributes.  Work is meaningful when it:

1. It is conducted in a manner that is "good and proper" in all respects.
2. It positively affects our company and our communities, giving our work an impact that extends beyond ourselves.
3. It provides learning and growth, offers challenges, requires creativity, pushes us to surpass limits, and creates exciting results.
4. It provides recognition and rewards for our achievements.
5. It allows us to succeed as a team while excelling as individuals.
6. It allows us to enjoy the ride, bringing humor and fun into our work.
7. It fuels passion!

Six Key Ways To Make Your Customers Fall In Love With What You Do

"Customers fall in love with or hate brands because of customer service," explains Flavio Martins, author of the book, Win the Customer.

Customers call it quits when brands neglect them and fail to deliver what they need and want. If you are leading a company, focus on these six key ways to make your customers fall in love with what you do, says Martins:

1. Deliver awesome service with awesome value.
2. Make sure your product or service is at its best.
3. Create interesting, engaging content that matters.
4. Participate in interesting, engaging conversations that matter to your customers.
5. Over deliver on your promises.
6. Encourage feedback, do something about it, and then let the customer know what you've done.

Leadership And Life Quotes From Leading With Grit

In addition to Laurie Sudbrink's, Leading With GRIT, being a great book for leaders, it's packed with powerful leadership and life quotes. Here are some of my favorites:

• Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are - Kurt Cobain
• The respect you show to others (or lack thereof) is an immediate reflection on your self respect - Alex Elle
• You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view - Harper Lee
• People only see what they are prepared to see - Ralph Waldo Emerson
• We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give - Winston Churchill
• If it doesn't challenge you, it won't change you - Fred Devito
• The secret of change is to focus all your energy, not on fighting the old but on building the new - Socrates
• The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to rely - Anonymous
• Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity - Simon Weil
• Good leaders inspire people to have confidence in their leader. Great leaders inspire people to have confidence in themselves - Eleanor Roosevelt
• The only thing worse than training employees and losing them is to not train them and keep them - Zig Ziglar
• You can't change what you refuse to confront - Gina Senarighi

Hold Getting To Know You Conversations With Your Direct Reports

To help you bring out the best in your team, you need to get close and understand their skills, abilities, and motivations. So, the authors of the book, Your First Leadership Job, recommend you hold getting-to-know-you conversations with each of your direct reports.

Ask these open-ended questions. Let each team member know the purpose of the meeting in advance. And, don't cheat by adding in work-specific questions.

1. What do you enjoy doing most as part of your work? Why?
2. What do you  miss most about the jobs you've had in the past? Why?
3. What things about your current job do you enjoy the least? Why?
4. How do you cope with or relieve stress?
5. To help you do your job, what could I change about: Your work environment? The content of your work? How you get your work done?
6. What form of recognition do you prefer or not prefer?

The Importance Of Employee Wellness Programs

Today, I welcome Heidi Smith with her guest post on Employee Wellness. Heidi is a certified integrative nutrition health coach, certified corporate wellness specialist, certified meeting professional and author.

Employee Wellness --Why Should Employers And Employees Care?

By: Heidi Smith

What does employee wellness mean? 

At its core, employee wellness is a philosophy based on the notion that by investing in a health and wellness program, employers can create a healthier workforce through: 

• Behavior modification
• Use of better preventive care
• Better healthcare choices
• And healthier lifestyle choices

The next question is, “Why should you care?” Well, by having an employee health and wellness program at your workplace it can help you to:

• Reduce your risk of developing a chronic disease
• Lower your medical costs
• Improve your productivity
• Have a happier and healthier environment at work

After all, most Americans spend about 8.9 hours per day at work so wouldn’t it be nice if your work environment was supportive of healthier lifestyle choices?

Today, employers are focusing more on employee wellness programs because of the increasing cost of healthcare, the increase in chronic conditions that are preventable and the rise in healthcare consumerism.

Cost drivers to employers are the cost of employee medical costs and the cost of medical insurance.  Did you know that health insurance premiums have increased nearly 200% since 1999?  That increase is staggering and can be devastating to some organizations.

Employee wellness programs can help employers to control direct and indirect costs of employee healthcare by reducing the risk of employees developing preventable diseases and chronic conditions. They will help employees to engage in healthier lifestyles and use recommended preventive care which will keep them healthier and more engaged at work. Wellness programs will also help to identify any risk of potential chronic conditions earlier so there is more opportunity to “nip it in the bud” before it turns into something that will cost the employer time, money and lost productivity.

 The statistics about employee health are powerful: 

• 13% of employees are at risk for developing diabetes
•  40% of cancer is preventable
• 66% of American employees are overweight 
• 80% of heart disease and stroke are preventable

More than 75% of all healthcare costs to employers are due to preventable chronic illnesses. What is a preventable chronic illness? It is a non-communicable illness that is prolonged in duration that does not resolve spontaneously and is rarely cured completely.  Tobacco use/smoking is the SINGLE MOST PREVENTABLE CAUSE OF DEATHin the USA. 

• $5.6 billion dollars are spent on heart disease related illnesses in this country every year and at least least 10% of that cost would be eliminated if adults started walking regularly.
• 70% of the 50 million adults in the US have not controlled their blood pressure.
• 30% of deaths from colorectal cancer could be prevented with regular screenings.
• Women between 40-50 years’ old who get a mammogram every 1-2 years can reduce their risk of death from breast cancer by 15%.
• An even bigger killer than smoking is a sedentary lifestyle! More than 5.3 million people die each year from not moving enough.

The numbers are even higher for women in the workplace than for their male counterparts these days. There are seven major causes of death for women now which include hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Alzheimer’s disease and lung cancer. A large part of these conditions are preventable, again, by controlling lifestyle behaviors and obesity.

For all employees, poor health, unhealthy behaviors, obesity and stressors can lead to reduced productivity and/or individuals leaving the workplace. It is often compounded for women as they are also, most often, caregivers at home as well so the stressors and unhealthy behaviors can be even more exaggerated with that added role.

What can employees to do stay healthy at work?

·        Move more!  Take the stairs, park as far away from the entrance as you can. Do some squats while you are on the phone. Stretch between meetings. Incorporate some easy yoga moves into your day to stretch your muscles or go for a walk during lunch.

·        Standing desks! If your employer will allow this in your setting, get one. The opportunity to get blood flow to your legs during the day is great. Stand on your tippy toes and stretch those calf muscles. Good circulation will help to prevent blood clots or diseases like DVT (deep vein thrombosis).

Eat health foods!  If your employer does not have healthy options in vending machines or the cafeteria, bring your own food to work. Eating a clean diet will make sure you are putting good fuel into your system and will help you to have lasting energy throughout the day.

·        Ask about your wellness program.If you are not already involved in a wellness program through your employer, ask if there is opportunity o create one. Even small businesses can put policies and plans into place that will help their employees to be healthier and happier.

For more information on healthy eating, better lifestyle choices or employee wellness programs, feel free to contact Heidi at the Integrative Wellness Studio at 832-777-6669 or heidismith@integrativewellnessstudio.net.  

Heidi Smith is a certified integrative nutrition health coach, certified corporate wellness specialist, certified meeting professional and author.  You can find her book Milk. Toast. Available now on Amazon.com and at www.integrativewellnessstudio.net. 

Six Powerful Questions To Ask As A Leader

From Sydney Finkelstein's book, Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, comes these great questions you should routinely ask yourself as a leader:

1. Have you answered the "why do we exist" question for your team? Could all of your team members share this answer with you right now?
2. Do you have people on your team who have followed non-traditional paths to their jobs, or do you find yourself attracted to cookie-cutter backgrounds?
3. Are people on your team energized to come to work in the morning? How would you even know?
4. Are you inspiring people to believe that they can achieve great things?
5. Are you removing the bureaucratic barriers and hierarchy that get in the way of meaningful interaction and getting the job done?
6. How often do you actively teach people how to do something, as opposed to just telling  people what to do?

Paul Smith Teaches You How To Sell With A Story

This is a great week. Because, Thursday, September 8 brings the official release of Paul Smith's new book, Sell with a Story: How to Capture Attention, Build Trust, and Close the Sale.

I'm a big fan of Paul's earlier best-sellers, including Lead with a Story and Parenting with a Story. And, the newest installment in the series is equally good, informative, practical and actionable.

Drawing on hundreds of interviews with procurement managers, Paul teaches you how to:

• Select the right story
• Craft a compelling and memorable narrative
• Incorporate challenge, conflict, and resolution
• Use stories to introduce yourself, build rapport, address objections, add value, bring data to life,  and create a sense of urgency

Storytelling definitely works in sales, explains Paul, "because a great story changes everything. It causes buyers to put down their defenses. It helps them relax. It engages their minds and their hearts by appealing to both their intellect and emotions. A great story builds credibility and properly positions you in the eye of the buyer."

Storytelling is a skill. A skill like any other skills needed for successful selling. Salespeople should, therefore, invest the time to learn how to do it well, and then practice it, so they can master it.

Paul's new book includes:

• Model stories
• Skill-building exercises
• Enlightening examples from Microsoft, Costco, Xerox, Abercombie & Fitch, Hewlett Packard, and other top companies.

Today, Paul kindly answered the following questions about his new book:

Question: What drove your decision to write this book?

Paul: Unlike my first two books, Sell with a Storywas actually a commissioned title, meaning my publisher asked me to write it. (The first two books were my idea, which I had to pitch to them.) Specifically, the idea came from someone in the sales department who’s in touch with the market and booksellers and what kind of books they think readers want. Also, I think after publishing my first two books, Lead with a Story and Parenting with a Story, they thought sales was the next logical place to leverage storytelling skills. 

Paul Smith

Question: Which of the three books (Lead with a Story, Parenting with a Story, Sell with a Story) was the most challenging to write and why?

Paul: Lead with a Story was the most challenging from a time and effort standpoint. But that’s only because it was my first one. I was just learning how to write a book. Plus, I still had a full-time job, so I could only work on it nights and weekends. The whole process from idea to seeing it on a bookstore shelf was 30 months. By book number three, I had that down to 18 months.

But this most recent one, Sell with a Story, was the most challenging in other, perhaps more interesting, ways. Since it wasn’t my idea, I had to generate interest in and passion for the project. Writing a book is a labor of love, and it’s a lot easier to love your own idea than someone else’s idea. And I’ll admit, I had some initial hesitancy about this particular idea.

My first barrier was that if I was going to write a second book about how to craft a business story, I had to admit that I hadn’t done that perfectly well already in the first book, so there would be room to improve on it. There was plenty of room, of course, but I had to get my writer’s ego there. (It didn’t take long).

What took longer was actually convincing myself that writing a book teaching salespeople how to be better storytellers would make the world a better place. Storytelling is a powerful tool. And like all powerful tools, it can be used or misused. Putting that tool into the hands of business leaders to make them better leaders, or parents to make them better parents, seemed like obviously places to make a positive difference in the world with low risk of misuse.

But for some reason, the thought of arming salespeople with that powerful tool gave me pause. In my worst-case scenario, I imagined in some corner of the world I would be better equipping an unscrupulous charlatan to fleece unsuspecting widows out of their life savings. And I had to consider if I wanted to be a part of that.

As I thought about it more, I realized that I was worrying about the small fraction of salespeople who might be unscrupulous, when I hadn’t worried at all about the same small fraction of business leaders and parents who might also misuse the power of story. That wasn’t fair. I was writing my books for the vast majority of leaders, parents, and salespeople who would do wonderful things with what I was teaching them.

That realization went a long way to allaying my fear. But it didn’t eliminate it entirely. I still had some lingering doubt. After more thinking, I concluded the most likely cause of storytelling being used in ways that I would not be proud of was not intentional misuse. It would be unintentional, because most people just haven’t thought much about the ethical and unethical uses of storytelling. Including me. So I did.

Then I decided to make that one of the topics covered in the book, spanning two different chapters. I dedicated one entire chapter to the dangers of embellishing a story to the point that you’ve stretched the truth too far, and how do you know how far is too far. I provide a simple litmus test to decide, plus several solutions to avoid crossing that line. 

And in the chapter on emotion, I address the other major area of storytelling abuse: emotional manipulation. If you’ve simply told your listener a sob story to get them to buy what you’re selling, it might work. But if that distracts them from more important decision criteria, then you’ve abused the power of story. In that chapter, I discuss several tools to help you legitimately enhance the emotional content of your story, and several techniques to make sure that emotion doesn’t become unfairly manipulative.

I think most people who want to learn to be better storytellers want to do so in a respectable way. By including those two additional chapters, I felt like I was giving them a powerful tool, but with the training and wisdom to use it responsibly.

After that, I thoroughly enjoyed writing the book, and am convinced it’s my best work on the subject. 

Question: How has social media influenced the landscape for salespeople and storytelling?

Paul: For the kind of sales storytelling I’m talking about, I don’t think those changes are very relevant. For the purposes of this book, I’m talking about the kind of stories a salesperson tells a prospective buyer either face to face, or over the phone. I’m not considering things like television ads here. That’s marketing, not sales. Similarly, social media is generally the work of the marketing department, not the sales department.

Most real selling still happens in those face-to-face meetings with the buyer or over the phone. Sure, that face-to-face meeting might happen over Skype from a thousand miles away, or that phone call my technically be carried over the Internet instead of a phone wire. But it’s still an oral story told from one person’s mouth to another person’s ear.

The exact same tools and techniques I teach in the book for how to structure and craft a great sales story will work just as well for the marketing and social media folks. I just haven’t included those as examples and haven’t structured the book around that audience. 

Question: Why is capturing attention and building trust so important today versus a decade ago?

Paul: It would be easy to answer by claiming that today people are far more distracted, have shorter attention spans, and are much less trusting than they were a decade ago. And I think that’s definitely true. But if my answer ended there, it might suggest that if that trend reversed itself, storytelling would no longer be as important. And I don’t believe that. It’s the oldest form of communication known to man. We’ve been telling stories since we were drawing pictures on cave walls. I advocate better storytelling because it works, not because it’s trendy. 

Question: What's the best way to tell a quick story in a cold-call email to help gain the attention of a prospective customer?

Paul: In the research for the book, I concluded there are 25 different kinds of sales stories that all salespeople need to have in their repertoire. Those stories span the entire sales process from introducing yourself to a buyer, to building rapport, to the main sales pitch, to handling objections, to negotiating price, to closing the sale, even to service after the sale.

That cold-call email is a good place for two of those 25 stories: 1) an “Explaining what I do simply” story, or 2) a “Who I’ve helped and how I’ve helped them” story.

The first one is a very short, simple, hypothetical story to illustrate what you do instead of confusing and boring your reader with management speak like this: “I represent a company that’s best in class at optimizing the distribution channels between the core manufacturing center and the desired consumer experience.”

The second one is a more detailed, true story about a current customer of yours. It provides a specific example of a problem they had and how your product or service solved that problem. This will be a far more compelling thing for them to read than a list of features and benefits. 

Paul Smith is one of the world’s leading experts on business storytelling. He’s a keynote speaker, storytelling coach, and bestselling author of three books on harnessing the power of storytelling for some of the most important work we do as humans: Lead with a Story, Parenting with a Story, and Sell with a Story. He can be found at www.leadwithastory.com.