Dan Erwin

CREATIVITY: THERE'S GOLD IN THEM THAR HILLS!

Tune up your creativity and get to work to get on an innovation team.  R & D can use you.  

Today's Wall Street Journal report matches that of last week's McKinsey survey.  The recession hits a lot of workers, but not those involved in their firm's research and development.  Here's the Journal's summary,

Wary of emerging from the recession with obsolete products, big U.S. companies spent nearly as much on research and development in the dismal last quarter of 2008 as they did a year earlier, even as their revenue fell 7.7%, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. The sampling looked at 28 of the largest U.S. R&D spenders, excluding deeply troubled auto makers and the drug industry, where R&D spending is dictated by government requirements.

Today, creativity and innovation are understood to be contact sports, not the work of the lone genius.  It's all very learnable. 

What steps are you going to need to take to get in on that largesse?

GEN-Y: LOOK WHO'S CENSORING THE INTERNET NOW

It's not just countries like Iran and China that are censoring the internet now.  You'd be surprised to know that among the list are France, India, Australia, Argentina and South Korea. 

Although some are censoring for pornography, that's not the whole story by a long stretch.  What gets into the picture are politics, gambling, and limits to Google and Yahoo because of certain celebrities that use their engines. 

The current article is free on Foreign Policy, and no registration is required.  Foreign Policy is an especially useful means for learning that our American culture's way of looking at society and culture is not the same way other cultures view their world.  The contrasts are always enlightening.  

Check it out.  Many of you either are or will be with internationals and the more we understand their world, the more productive our work relationships. 

LOSE YOUR JOB? SHOULD YOU STAY IN THE SAME FIELD?

In an informative post, Jason Alba of JibberJobber.com explores his feelings about an engagement at Columbia's top journalism school.  What will these grads do as newspapers go away?  

Is the sky falling?  Maybe they're (you're??) looking for the wrong job.

Go to the comments on the post where my own theories about career addresses his issue.  It should have been a post on this site.  Oh well. . . .

GEN-Y SKILLS: HOW TO GET LAID-OFF

If you get laid off, don't burn a single bridge. 

Getting laid-off in this economy can be a particularly gut-wrenching experience.  In contrast to quitting, it's more frustrating.  You're not in charge of the process, it's going to impact your financial security and you may have no opportunity to prepare for the conversation.  Furthermore, in a lay-off people watch you differently than if you quit.  Their defenses will be up and they may be tightly strung in preparation for an outburst.  Remember, those with the responsiblity of the lay-off also view the experience with a great deal of trepidation and angst.

In this economy, unless you have golden handcuffs or own the firm, I'd give a few minutes to thinking about a possible lay-off and make some notes in preparation.  As a consultant and specialist in communication, I'm aware that the average professinal gives little time to thinking about his/her conversations unless there's a court date or the CEO has asked for input.  A lay-off conversation of talking points is smart preparation.

This recession means you're liable to have little warning of a lay-off, so now's a good time to prepare for it.  More than 25 years ago, as a result of a tenure discussion it became obvious that though I could work out a relationship with the school, over the long term it would not be a happy situation.  I had given some thought to leaving for nearly six months prior to the discussion, and was well prepared.  The University president told me that my written and verbal resignation were the "classiest" in his experience.  As a result of my behavior, I am--years later--still able to access information and resources.  

Plan to make a good impression in the lay-off experience.  Thank your boss for the experience you've had at the firm, and be able to concretely detail your gains.  Handled with panache, a lay-off will provide you with a number of opportunities.  Five years ago, one of my small clients was having financial difficulty, and though I had a contract with him, I offered him a contract "furlough."  That experience is still spoken of with awe by my client.  I currently have a two year contract with the same client--essentially paid in advance.  Cool, eh?

You will want to be able to use your employer as a reference.  One manager not only agrees to serve as a reference, but also makes a number of perks available.  He offers his service to assist in fine-tuning a resume to show it off to best advantage.  Since a portfolio is a valuable resource for his employees, he makes electronic files of their work available.  Resume help is not necessary if you have an out-placement contract, but very few are that fortunate.

Recruiters often test a candidate's potential with this question of the former manager:  "Would you be willing to hire that person back in an upturn?"  Another of my clients informs the laid-off employee of his precise response should the question be asked.

You might top all this off with a hand-written note, indicating that you understand their financial position and sincerely appreciated the opportunities you had while working there.  That's a highly effective piece of street smarts that lets everyone know that you're mature, and have the ability to manage your emotions.

Don't burn a bridge with co-workers either.  Anyone you've worked with is a potential reference, and that's another reason to avoid griping in a work setting--even to your friends.    

Again, one of the top relationship skills applies especially well to a lay-off:  Never burn a bridge.

GEN-Y SKILLS: STREET SMARTS, VULNERABILITY & TACTFULNESS

An NPR conversation yesterday jogged me about an important subject in communication:  tactfulness.Two statements came immediately to mind: 

"You don't understand what I'm saying," versus "I'm not certain that I'm being very clear."

The first lacks street smarts, vulnerability and tactfulness.  The second statement will work well in most any setting.  The distinction, often labeled a lack of vulnerability, comes up regularly and in important, even strategic situations.  Trying to sell an idea, explain a difference of opinion, deal with a mistake, or, well, you name it, the contexts are endless.

I haven't heard the terminology in years, but the distinction I'm making is between "you" messages and "I" messages.  "You" messages are readily perceived as judgmental or accusatory, and they can quickly escalate a conversation.  "You" messages suggest blame.  They encourage the recipient to deny wrong-doing or misunderstanding and often result in an argument.  And, it would be a waste of time and energy that could be avoided simply by changing the pronoun when you initiate a statement.

Writing this post, I realized that this is an example of how language and understanding evolve over time.  What used to be talked about as "you" messages has become an issue of the "unwillingness to be vulnerable" in common parlance.  And business managers often move conversations about the failure to be vulnerable to a conversation about an employee's lack of street smarts.  Again, this is ultimately about whether you begin a sentence with "you" or "I" and follow through with the different implications of that pronoun.

FYI:  Learning to use the correct pronoun is not nearly as simple as this post makes it seem.  Linguists  tell us that we learn to speak and communicate by mimicking.  Once we've had a bit of success and start repeating a given format, brain scientists tell us that we're teeing up certain neurons that with repetition build a strong model in our brains.  Changing the model will take insight, practice, feedback, self-awareness and the willingness to become an effective "noticer."

And all this because of two pronouns, one of which gets us into trouble while the other will save the day. 

GEN-Y SKILLS: RESILIENCE, NETWORKING AND THE JOB MARKET

resilience:   an act of springing back: rebound, recoil, elasticity;  capability of a strained body to recover its size and shape after deformation, especially when the strain is caused by compressive stresses; the ability to achieve good outcomes after significant hardships

Things are really getting tough on the streets.  Like many of you, two of my friends have lost their jobs.

The current economy shows that resilience has become a needed commodity.

We now know resilience is not about doing it alone, but about growing with the help of others.  Like networking, resilience is about building relationships that make it possible to navigate the work world for the insight, support, help and optimism of others.  Access those networks for more than just a job! 

Intriguingly, studies in resilience have come up with two curious conclusions.  Resilience does not necessarily increase with age. 

So your older relatives and colleagues may not have much in the way of resilience to give you the smarts you're looking for.  Gray heads may be neither resilient nor wise.  In extensive German research at the famous Max Planck Institute, no evidence was found in four different studies that resilience or wisdom necessarily increase with age.  I used to think that as my hair turned gray and fell out, people would know it's a sign of great wisdom.  Once again, BIG MISTAKE.

A second study in the States found that you can vaccinate yourself with resilience at an early age.  There are three steps for vaccination:

• View a crisis as a problem to be addressed, and a puzzle to be solved.  So, get in the problem solving mode, keep adding to your fact base, and work at potential resolutions.
• Work with actions you can control.  Once you've identified issues out of your control, set them aside.   
• Go to relationships that grow you, not those that merely empathize with you.

Now that's encouraging!  And that's the kind of smarts needed today.

GEN-Y SKILL: SMALL TALK OR JUST GAB?

It's intriguing how often small talk questions and issues surface on Gen-Y blogs--and that's not the only place!  There's even a Small Talk Daily.  People across all generations struggle with small talk.   I've been hired by execs in their forties and fifties for the sole purpose of teaching them how to do small talk.  One exec in particular, a CFO at a nationally known firm, told me that his promotion meant that he would now have to be attending public events including cocktail parties, where small talk was needed.  He'd been chided by his wife because of his bystanding--and he was quite willing to pay an immoral fee to learn how to do small talk.  It had become a public relations issue for him.

But small-talk skills come up just about every week in the work setting.  And they're an imperative for network building, influence management, team building, employee assimilation and even managing people.  They are also phenomenally useful for initiating long-term client relationships.

Small talk, however, is profoundly misunderstood.  To get at that misunderstanding, I distinguish between small talk and gab.  Gab goes nowhere, whereas small talk is intentional. 

gab--to talk in an idle rapid, thoughtless manner; chatter. . . . he gabbed about his six kids. . . Edna Ferber referred to a gossip who had just heard something new. . . "She'll probably gab about it tomorrow until I have to shut her up."

In a business setting, gab refers to talk that is meant to show verbal facility, somehow capture attention, entertain a colleague or client, or disable shyness.  Human beings always seek to be in command of their actions.  Gab is a very common yet unsophisticated form of talk to express personal control of a situation, when reality may well be the opposite.  If you pay close attention to initial business conversations, you'll recognize that gab is far more prevalent than small talk.

In contrast, small talk, is highly intentional.  It is driven by purpose, and often strategic.  For example, in client relations, effective small talk is key to identifying common experience, surfacing thinking styles and decision processes, detailing fundamental values and piquing interest. 

It's rare for a professional to be aware of the different formats of normal conversation.  In today's world, where skills in complex communication are necessary for business, there are three forms of talk:  cliche, initiatory (small talk), and conversational leadership.   To get to conversational leadership, you'll always have to begin with cliche talk. 

When I'm in consulting mode and skip cliche talk, the nonverbals nearly always stop me.  They take the shape of something like, "Dan, aren't you at least going to say hello before we start all this work?"  I usually laugh, and do the requisite cliche talk.  In a recent conversation about these skills, a CIO told me that senior marketing people at IBM have become artistic in the use of these language technologies.  It's key to their success.

Cliche talk, those first few statements of low-level greeting includes such normal comments as, "Hello, how are you?  How've you been?" or "Hi, what's new?"  Cliche talk signals to the other person that your attitude is open and friendly, and, that if the situation permits, you're available for conversation.

The other end of small talk, conversational leadership, comprises sets of interpersonal and team skills such as problem solving, decision making, innovation and learning.

In the coming weeks I'll explore the small talk format, illustrate its uses and show, in a number of blogs, how to transition to conversational leadership.  Eventually there'll be at least one white paper on small talk with protocols and scripts that can be readily retranslated into whatever small talk situations you may face.

So, what questions do you have on small talk?

 

GEN-Y STREET SMARTS: HOW TO COMPLAIN

During deeply troubled economic times, professionals fortunate enough to keep their jobs while others get laid off often find that they are expected to do more--much more.  In a recent conversation with a client, he described the layoff scenarios at his firm expressing personal angst at his task.  But, he went on to say it had been made even more difficult by the complaints from a few of his people.  

Inevitably, in a layoff, work will be reshuffled and many are liable to end up with what they say is more than their fair share.  As with that client, several complained about the lack of fairness.  "Not too smart," I responded when I heard those tales.  The director knew exactly what I meant.

FYI:  Although many adults reason in terms of the fairness of decisions, sophisticated managers understand the notion of fairness to be simplistic.  They recognize it as a form of immaturity--a clue that an employee may lack the wisdom needed for the nuances of decision making.  As a result, when promotions or opportunities are considered by execs, they will often evaluate an employee's project readiness with a strategic put down:  "This guy can't do nuance, and doesn't know how to deal with ambiguity.  I don't want him on that project."    

While affirming my attitude toward complaint, the director's comment put a still different slant on the issue.  He emphasized that his people didn't understand hierarchy.  The reason we have hierarchy with managers and subordinates is that tasks occur in higher and lower degrees of complexity.  The director's job is to manage the team, while the subordinate's is to manage her project.  My client I both believed the complaints were out of line because the responsibility for project resolution belonged to the complainers. 

Here's why.

Professionals are hired to solve the issues they face--that's their responsibility.  Admittedly, the staffing had become more lean as a result of the layoffs, and that does not mean that a subordinate has to accept every new project that he or she is handed.  It does mean, however, that that subordinate needs to be open and creative in developing solutions that will satisfy both him and his boss.  After all a professional is an individual who puts the clients' interests first, who has an obligation to do right and do well for that client, regardless of that professional's own self interest.  And in a work setting, the clients are the professional's organization and boss. 

In other words, the shoe is on the employee's foot.  It's his responsibility to figure out some options, and then take those options to his boss to get buy-in to a resolution that will not stretch anyone too thin. 

There's a reason that data input and assembly workers no longer receive a decent wage.  Their work requires no expert thinking or complex communication skills--they are not professionals.  Their work load issues will always be decided by their managers.

The writing is on the wall.  Want a job with a decent salary that encourages you to demonstrate your talents, and rewards you for your problem solving and creative solutioning, and makes possible the career growth that will keep you employable the rest of your life?  Then resolve your work problems as a professional, and when you believe that you're being overstretched, get creative with solutions.  Then take your complaint, those solutions and your recommendations to your boss for final buy-in.

Never take a complaint to a manager without two or three possible resolutions for that manager's consideration.  That's your responsibility--and that's also good street smarts.