ROA on dis-satisfied employees
Job satisfaction has reached pandemic proportions. More than half of all employees report being unhappy with their jobs, with the highest dis-ease (two out of three) being those member-facing employees under the age of 25. If you would like to work this ROA into a budget try this:
Multiply your total number of employees x 22%*. Then multiply that number by 1.5** times those employee’s average annual salaries. For a group of fifty employees earning $30, 000/ year the total cost of turnover would approach half a million dollars.
*Expected employee departure rate quoted in the January 5th PRNewswire report of research completed by The Conference Board
**The average cost of employee turnover according to J.D. Phillips in The Price Tag on Turnover.
The key to this problem lies not in better pay, benefits, hours or incentives, but one of greater understanding. My specific expertise is in helping organizations develop a culture of peak performance through self awareness. Happiness is a skill and like every other skill it must be learned; or to be more accurate, the habit of making ourselves unhappy must be unlearned.
Our relationship with others is always a reflection of our relationship with ourselves, and yet few organizations take the time to teach people how to be happy. If you would like your team to perform at their best, help them rediscover the fact that they alone are in the driver’s seat of their lives.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Saturday, March 6, 2010
The power of story in making learning irresistible
Since the dawn of time we have learned best through story. Story captures
our attention and involves us in an experience instead of submitting us to a
lecture. Stories also facilitate retention by creating neural connections
to familiar expereinces. Lastly well designed stories evoke emotion
providing powerful anchors to new ideas. We are not thinking beings that
have feelings, we are feeling beings that have thoughts. The feeling part
of us is far more powerful than the thinking part.
I have had clients express concerns about my focus on the "Affective"
component of communications as it relates to Content Vs. Emotion. Content
and emotion are inseparable. The emotional component is merely the weight
of the content and the "weight" is the inclination to act. We have all
heard the phrase "knowledge is power" but if we know things we don't act on,
are they really powerful? I believe our responsibility as a meeting
planner, speaker, teacher, parent is to communicate information in such a
way that action is irresistible. Daniel Goleman in his book Primal
Leadership reminds us that the most important responsibility of a leader is
to "Prime good feeling" in those he leads. I highlight this in my
presentations because it is the component most often overlooked primarily
because it is the most difficult. This is particularly true in times of
stress, when our primitive systems kick into high gear limiting our higher
cognitive abilities. A good friend of ours is the man who started Sylvan
Learning Centers. One of the great lessons he taught me, which is really
the foundation of Sylvan, is: "We don't teach people to make them
successful;we make them successful to teach them".
Since the dawn of time we have learned best through story. Story captures
our attention and involves us in an experience instead of submitting us to a
lecture. Stories also facilitate retention by creating neural connections
to familiar expereinces. Lastly well designed stories evoke emotion
providing powerful anchors to new ideas. We are not thinking beings that
have feelings, we are feeling beings that have thoughts. The feeling part
of us is far more powerful than the thinking part.
I have had clients express concerns about my focus on the "Affective"
component of communications as it relates to Content Vs. Emotion. Content
and emotion are inseparable. The emotional component is merely the weight
of the content and the "weight" is the inclination to act. We have all
heard the phrase "knowledge is power" but if we know things we don't act on,
are they really powerful? I believe our responsibility as a meeting
planner, speaker, teacher, parent is to communicate information in such a
way that action is irresistible. Daniel Goleman in his book Primal
Leadership reminds us that the most important responsibility of a leader is
to "Prime good feeling" in those he leads. I highlight this in my
presentations because it is the component most often overlooked primarily
because it is the most difficult. This is particularly true in times of
stress, when our primitive systems kick into high gear limiting our higher
cognitive abilities. A good friend of ours is the man who started Sylvan
Learning Centers. One of the great lessons he taught me, which is really
the foundation of Sylvan, is: "We don't teach people to make them
successful;we make them successful to teach them".
We all know people who are obsessed with activity. They are the busiest people on the planet and they are going to make absolutely sure you know it. They wear their "busy badges" like awards on a merit belt, and their favorite badges of all are their STRESS BADGES. They can tell you about the ones they got from their kids, their boss, their coworkers, their spouse, they can even tell you about the one they got on the way to work today. They love to tell you about them because they believe stressing and accomplishing are synonymous. The opposite is actually true. The more stressed we become the more our reptilian survival systems kick in reducing both cognitive ability and creative energy. Stress is not a result of our experiences, but our stories. Regardless of how accurate these stories might be or how deserving the "stressors", the physical stresses they generate do not come at us they come from us. Two years ago, this month, we made up our minds to fire our biggest client. The laundry list of their violations was long, egregious and irrefutable, but the stress created was entirely self-inflicted. We spent countless hours proving our "rightness" at the expense of our happiness. The experience was an invaluable, painful and irreplaceable lesson.
Here are seven ideas to reduce the stressing in your life:
1. Don't try and change your behavior, change your awareness.
2. Notice how you are thinking. Do your thoughts bring you peace or pain?
3. If your thoughts bring you pain, you are resisting what is.
4. By the time you resist anything it is already gone, and there is nothing you have ever done that has ever changed the past.
5. Accept the experience and look for the lesson. EVERYTHING happens to teach us something ABOUT OURSELVES.
6. Appreciate the gift of becoming conscious about your thinking. It is our unconsciousness that brings us pain.
7. Take a bigger view. Step back from the abyss of unconscious emotion and view the abundance of opportunity to grow from the experience.
Here are seven ideas to reduce the stressing in your life:
1. Don't try and change your behavior, change your awareness.
2. Notice how you are thinking. Do your thoughts bring you peace or pain?
3. If your thoughts bring you pain, you are resisting what is.
4. By the time you resist anything it is already gone, and there is nothing you have ever done that has ever changed the past.
5. Accept the experience and look for the lesson. EVERYTHING happens to teach us something ABOUT OURSELVES.
6. Appreciate the gift of becoming conscious about your thinking. It is our unconsciousness that brings us pain.
7. Take a bigger view. Step back from the abyss of unconscious emotion and view the abundance of opportunity to grow from the experience.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Turn the Lowest Job Satisfaction in Two Decades into good news
The January 5th lead article from PRNewswire quoted a survey for the Conference Board which found that only 45% of those surveyed were satisfied with their jobs, and that 22% did not expect to be at their current jobs in the next year. The report further revealed the lowest satisfaction ratings were found for those under the age of 25 and that “interest in work” was down almost 19% since 1987.
You might think that with actual unemployment figures hovering around 18% those working might be thrilled to have any employment; but in fact the opposite is true. Dissatisfaction is a contagion that knows no bounds and respects neither position, place, ability nor acumen. The solution is not one of action, but one of understanding.
The Employee Satisfaction Research Application Analysis is broken down into five components allowing you to select the area of interest and time allocated for study. I use the term “study” so you will not be misled to believe these are things you can check off your to-do list and move on to important things. These are important things. To appreciate the gravity of this report just take 22% of your employees and multiply that number by 1.5 times their annual salary and you will have some idea of the financial ramifications of this research, and that does not even include those “retired on the job”. I would encourage you to read the Disclaimer so you understand why this is so different from my keynote presentations, as well as the Ideas in Action article which provides an easy to follow ten-step process for putting these ideas to work for you.
1. Improving Job Satisfaction: an Employee perspective
2. Employers: Ten Actionable Ideas for improving Employee satisfaction
3. Disclaimer: Keynote vs written word
4. Ideas in Action: Ten steps for transforming your organization through Employee-conducted training.
5. A personal case study: How MSI is learning from our newest client.
You might think that with actual unemployment figures hovering around 18% those working might be thrilled to have any employment; but in fact the opposite is true. Dissatisfaction is a contagion that knows no bounds and respects neither position, place, ability nor acumen. The solution is not one of action, but one of understanding.
The Employee Satisfaction Research Application Analysis is broken down into five components allowing you to select the area of interest and time allocated for study. I use the term “study” so you will not be misled to believe these are things you can check off your to-do list and move on to important things. These are important things. To appreciate the gravity of this report just take 22% of your employees and multiply that number by 1.5 times their annual salary and you will have some idea of the financial ramifications of this research, and that does not even include those “retired on the job”. I would encourage you to read the Disclaimer so you understand why this is so different from my keynote presentations, as well as the Ideas in Action article which provides an easy to follow ten-step process for putting these ideas to work for you.
1. Improving Job Satisfaction: an Employee perspective
2. Employers: Ten Actionable Ideas for improving Employee satisfaction
3. Disclaimer: Keynote vs written word
4. Ideas in Action: Ten steps for transforming your organization through Employee-conducted training.
5. A personal case study: How MSI is learning from our newest client.
1. Improving Job Satisfaction: an Employee perspective
If you are looking for advice on poisoning or dismembering your boss, this will not be the place to find it. I have also chosen not to include tips on negotiation, boundary management, job hunting or dealing with difficult people. The only difficult person I will address in these ten steps is you. Believe it or not this is the best news you have heard in a very long time because the only person you will ever be able to change is yourself. The good news is you are the only person you need to change to have what Kenny Loggins described in his book as The Unimagined Life.
If the ideas make little or no sense or they make you angry, join the club. I have been studying these ideas for thirty years and continue to feel all of the above at times. If you would like to know more about the source of these ideas, read the personal section of this article. If you would like to discuss or debate the ideas add your comments to this blog, or contact me directly at randy@randymorgan.com.
Please don’t just discard these ideas. There are many easier, and as I have just been reminded by my staff, more commercial ideas I could share, but these are the ten I know can make the biggest difference.
1. LIFE IS A LESSON: It does not matter whether you believe there is a higher power or you are in this on your own, believing there is a lesson in all we experience is a powerful tool to opening your mind to new opportunities. Use this as a time not to take new action, but to create new understanding.
2. ACCEPT 100% ACCOUNTABILITY: Accountability is different than responsibility. Accountability has no history, no baggage. It does not matter how you got here, who your boss or coworkers are. You are the creator of your experience.
3. BE SELF EMPLOYED: Regardless of who you work for approach every day as if this is your own business. Whether your employer appreciates all the extra things you do is of little consequence. The important thing is who you become. Everything else can be taken away, but who you become in the process is by far your greatest job benefit. .
4. FORGIVE EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING ESPECIALLY YOURSELF: Resentment, remorse, blame, guilt, shame are on the very bottom of negative energy scale. Using these emotions to “motivate” change is like pouring gasoline on a house to heat it.
5. CHANGE YOUR LANGUAGE: We only have to listen in to any breakroom conversation to hear stories of how stressed, frustrated, bored, distracted, or 100 other _______ed’s people might be. Each loaded with negative energy and each blaming someone or something for their situation. The next time you are tempted to end your favorite adjective with a passive “ed” try an active “ing” for a more accurate description.
6. BECOME AN OBSERVER: Learn to observe your own inner dialogue. No one speaks to us more than we do, and yet most of the conversation goes on unconsciously and unchallenged.
7. TALK NICE: Studies have shown that more than 77% of our own self talk is critical in nature. We say things to ourselves we would never allow others to say, and then direct this dialogue to others as well. Every thought, every word has a resonance, and that energy that either builds us up or tears us down.
8. GIVE UP ATTACK: We never really attack others, but only the projection of ourselves within them. Consider this next time you are playing that mental game of mash the muggle. Is there a part of you that you see in this person? Also realize that when you get angry or depressed your hypothalamus releases peptides that stress every cell in your body. When you attack others you are literally attacking yourself.
9. VISUALIZE WHAT YOU WANT: See what you want in present tense in all the visceral detail possible. We are very good at picturing and feeling negative experiences, but each time we do so we draw them closer to us. Notice how many times you picture or “Fascinate” about a negative outcome. Then gradually catch yourself in the act, and replace the picture with what you do want.
10. BECOME A VORACIOUS STUDENT OF YOU: The average college graduate does not read one non-fiction book after graduation. We spend countless hours learning skills for everything from accounting to social networking, and yet little if any learning to understand how we think. Remember, “We feel the way we feel because we think the way we think”.
If the ideas make little or no sense or they make you angry, join the club. I have been studying these ideas for thirty years and continue to feel all of the above at times. If you would like to know more about the source of these ideas, read the personal section of this article. If you would like to discuss or debate the ideas add your comments to this blog, or contact me directly at randy@randymorgan.com.
Please don’t just discard these ideas. There are many easier, and as I have just been reminded by my staff, more commercial ideas I could share, but these are the ten I know can make the biggest difference.
1. LIFE IS A LESSON: It does not matter whether you believe there is a higher power or you are in this on your own, believing there is a lesson in all we experience is a powerful tool to opening your mind to new opportunities. Use this as a time not to take new action, but to create new understanding.
2. ACCEPT 100% ACCOUNTABILITY: Accountability is different than responsibility. Accountability has no history, no baggage. It does not matter how you got here, who your boss or coworkers are. You are the creator of your experience.
3. BE SELF EMPLOYED: Regardless of who you work for approach every day as if this is your own business. Whether your employer appreciates all the extra things you do is of little consequence. The important thing is who you become. Everything else can be taken away, but who you become in the process is by far your greatest job benefit. .
4. FORGIVE EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING ESPECIALLY YOURSELF: Resentment, remorse, blame, guilt, shame are on the very bottom of negative energy scale. Using these emotions to “motivate” change is like pouring gasoline on a house to heat it.
5. CHANGE YOUR LANGUAGE: We only have to listen in to any breakroom conversation to hear stories of how stressed, frustrated, bored, distracted, or 100 other _______ed’s people might be. Each loaded with negative energy and each blaming someone or something for their situation. The next time you are tempted to end your favorite adjective with a passive “ed” try an active “ing” for a more accurate description.
6. BECOME AN OBSERVER: Learn to observe your own inner dialogue. No one speaks to us more than we do, and yet most of the conversation goes on unconsciously and unchallenged.
7. TALK NICE: Studies have shown that more than 77% of our own self talk is critical in nature. We say things to ourselves we would never allow others to say, and then direct this dialogue to others as well. Every thought, every word has a resonance, and that energy that either builds us up or tears us down.
8. GIVE UP ATTACK: We never really attack others, but only the projection of ourselves within them. Consider this next time you are playing that mental game of mash the muggle. Is there a part of you that you see in this person? Also realize that when you get angry or depressed your hypothalamus releases peptides that stress every cell in your body. When you attack others you are literally attacking yourself.
9. VISUALIZE WHAT YOU WANT: See what you want in present tense in all the visceral detail possible. We are very good at picturing and feeling negative experiences, but each time we do so we draw them closer to us. Notice how many times you picture or “Fascinate” about a negative outcome. Then gradually catch yourself in the act, and replace the picture with what you do want.
10. BECOME A VORACIOUS STUDENT OF YOU: The average college graduate does not read one non-fiction book after graduation. We spend countless hours learning skills for everything from accounting to social networking, and yet little if any learning to understand how we think. Remember, “We feel the way we feel because we think the way we think”.
2. Employers: Ten Actionable Ideas for improving employee satisfaction
These ideas apply to everyone. Regardless of role or position we all benefit from a process of inspired collaboration.
1. LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN:“Our greatest obstacle to growth is not what we don’t know, but what we think we do know.” Use these Employee Satisfaction results as an opportunity to make sure your employees are enthusiastic, engaged and empowered. Use anonymous employee surveys and ask that all-important question “what do we do stupid around here”? (view this article to see how one manager creates an environment where 82% of employees rate their workplace either a 4 or 5 as a fun place to work, (5 being “it is so much fun I would pay THEM to work here!”). Compare that to the average work environment where only 20% are enthusiastic, 54% are disengaged, and another 17% are actually working against the system.
2. ACT: If you get feedback, whether positive or negative, appreciate it and act on it. Feedback from either customers or employees is a gift, treat it as such. Only one out of ten customers will tell you if they are unhappy; the rest will vote with their feet. Disengaged employees cost the American economy $350 billion per year in lost productivity. (The Gallup Organization)
3. BE 100% ACCOUNTABLE: It does not matter how you got this way, who your employees are or what the rest of the world is doing. Accept the fact that you create your experience.
4. APPRECIATE THE OPPORTUNITY: Deepak Chopra has a wonderful phrase we hold on to when times are the most challenging, “The best thing that can happen, is happening”. To tell yourself anything less is to tell yourself you are not enough and you don’t have what it takes. You are more powerful than you can even imagine, all you have to do is imagine it.
5. FORGIVE EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING ESPECIALLY YOURSELF: We all do the best we can at the time. There is no value in blaming, criticizing or judging anyone. ANYTIME you blame anyone you a physically attacking your own body.
6. TREAT EVERYONE AS A VOLUNTEER - because they are. People will do what is expected because they are required, but they will do the exceptional when they are inspired. Always remember “The deepest craving in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.” William James
7. GIVE UNREASONABLE FREEDOM: We all have rules imposed upon us that we can do nothing about we also have self imposed rules that inhibit performance, stifle productivity and produce unnecessary stress. The European Heart Journal, January 23, 2008 published an article revealing that “Workload or responsibility had little relation to stress levels. Rather it was how much control an employee had over the work he did and how he did it.”
8. DON'T TAKE FEEDBACK (ANYTHING) PERSONALLY: In Step 4 I said you have all the power which is absolutely true, but the only person you have that power over is you. In the same way you determine how you feel; your employees do the same. Great leaders help people understand the power of our personal stories. Stress is not a characteristic of our times, but of our stories.
9. SHARE THE SCORE: Examine your systems for measuring, sharing, engaging and rewarding employees for continually improving the process. 75-85% of the reason we achieve great results is through creating desirable consequences. See http://ServiceWOW.org for a free whitepaper to help you evaluate your systems.
10. BE A GREAT TEACHER: The ultimate goal of every profession is to make the world a better place. As a leader you have the opportunity to help your employees learn the most important lessons of all - lessons about themselves. When asked what people want most from their career they express a wide range of desires from challenge to authority, meaning, money, growth, and opportunity; but when asked why they want each of those things the answer comes down to one - they want to be happy. Great teachers, through experience and example, teach everyone they touch that happiness is always an inside job.
1. LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN:“Our greatest obstacle to growth is not what we don’t know, but what we think we do know.” Use these Employee Satisfaction results as an opportunity to make sure your employees are enthusiastic, engaged and empowered. Use anonymous employee surveys and ask that all-important question “what do we do stupid around here”? (view this article to see how one manager creates an environment where 82% of employees rate their workplace either a 4 or 5 as a fun place to work, (5 being “it is so much fun I would pay THEM to work here!”). Compare that to the average work environment where only 20% are enthusiastic, 54% are disengaged, and another 17% are actually working against the system.
2. ACT: If you get feedback, whether positive or negative, appreciate it and act on it. Feedback from either customers or employees is a gift, treat it as such. Only one out of ten customers will tell you if they are unhappy; the rest will vote with their feet. Disengaged employees cost the American economy $350 billion per year in lost productivity. (The Gallup Organization)
3. BE 100% ACCOUNTABLE: It does not matter how you got this way, who your employees are or what the rest of the world is doing. Accept the fact that you create your experience.
4. APPRECIATE THE OPPORTUNITY: Deepak Chopra has a wonderful phrase we hold on to when times are the most challenging, “The best thing that can happen, is happening”. To tell yourself anything less is to tell yourself you are not enough and you don’t have what it takes. You are more powerful than you can even imagine, all you have to do is imagine it.
5. FORGIVE EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING ESPECIALLY YOURSELF: We all do the best we can at the time. There is no value in blaming, criticizing or judging anyone. ANYTIME you blame anyone you a physically attacking your own body.
6. TREAT EVERYONE AS A VOLUNTEER - because they are. People will do what is expected because they are required, but they will do the exceptional when they are inspired. Always remember “The deepest craving in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.” William James
7. GIVE UNREASONABLE FREEDOM: We all have rules imposed upon us that we can do nothing about we also have self imposed rules that inhibit performance, stifle productivity and produce unnecessary stress. The European Heart Journal, January 23, 2008 published an article revealing that “Workload or responsibility had little relation to stress levels. Rather it was how much control an employee had over the work he did and how he did it.”
8. DON'T TAKE FEEDBACK (ANYTHING) PERSONALLY: In Step 4 I said you have all the power which is absolutely true, but the only person you have that power over is you. In the same way you determine how you feel; your employees do the same. Great leaders help people understand the power of our personal stories. Stress is not a characteristic of our times, but of our stories.
9. SHARE THE SCORE: Examine your systems for measuring, sharing, engaging and rewarding employees for continually improving the process. 75-85% of the reason we achieve great results is through creating desirable consequences. See http://ServiceWOW.org for a free whitepaper to help you evaluate your systems.
10. BE A GREAT TEACHER: The ultimate goal of every profession is to make the world a better place. As a leader you have the opportunity to help your employees learn the most important lessons of all - lessons about themselves. When asked what people want most from their career they express a wide range of desires from challenge to authority, meaning, money, growth, and opportunity; but when asked why they want each of those things the answer comes down to one - they want to be happy. Great teachers, through experience and example, teach everyone they touch that happiness is always an inside job.
3. Disclaimer: Keynote vs written word or (Where is the fun in this?)
The ideas in this series are presented without my trademark humor, but rather as a succinct resource for specific action steps. They are also not the easy Band Aid solutions which mask the underlying causation, but an opportunity to explore the core belief systems that shape our perception.
In keynote presentations I am a humorist. Humor and story are invaluable tools to break down barriers of fear and distrust, to reach core insights that allow for lasting transformation. These ideas have often been characterized as soft skills, but there is nothing soft about them. These are some of the most difficult and life changing skills of all. Peter Senge described these as “Master Skills” because their attainment multiplies the impact of all others. My particular skill is making complicated ideas seem simple. Through a process of mutual rediscovery we find they are skills we have had all along and just forgotten to use.
In keynote presentations I am a humorist. Humor and story are invaluable tools to break down barriers of fear and distrust, to reach core insights that allow for lasting transformation. These ideas have often been characterized as soft skills, but there is nothing soft about them. These are some of the most difficult and life changing skills of all. Peter Senge described these as “Master Skills” because their attainment multiplies the impact of all others. My particular skill is making complicated ideas seem simple. Through a process of mutual rediscovery we find they are skills we have had all along and just forgotten to use.
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