Category: employee engagement

Book Review: The Positive Organization by Robert E Quinn

So many business books leave you wondering “…but how does that work in reality?” That’s not a problem with The Positive Organization – this short book (less than 160 pages from cover to cover) is packed with ideas, examples, case studies and practical exercises, written in an engaging and straightforward style.

Throughout, Quinn challenges us to consider a different way of thinking, and to think about how we can effectively participate in building a positive organisation. A key strength of the book is that it has actionable lessons for all, regardless of job role or responsibility, from board room to shop floor. Each chapter concludes with a tool to use with teams in self-assessment and development, as well as questions to encourage the reader to reflect and set aspirations, to deepen learning.

The central premise of the book is that building a positive organisation requires accountability and authenticity, that for it to be successful it has to be emergent and self-generating. This approach is built on listening, consultation and empowerment at all levels.

What marks this book apart from many others is both the effectiveness of Quinn’s model, as well as the Positive Organization Generator – over 100 real-life examples of how organisations have successfully increased their positivity.

Mental Maps and bilingualism

Quinn suggests that the culture of an organisation can be summarised in a mental map – an indication of what a company believes and assumes, covering domains such as Motivation, Status and Change. Most organisations, and most leaders, operate using what Quinn calls a Conventional Mental Map, a top-down, traditional hierarchy. He contrasts this with the more complex Positive Mental Map, focused more on networks and relationships, and a focus on the common good and authentic communication.

However, this is not a binary state – Quinn suggests a successful leader needs to be ‘bilingual’ able to speak the language of both maps depending on the need of the people they are working with, to find the right tools for the right occasion.

A question of balance

Quinn provides us with a further analysis of organisational culture – the Framework of Organizational Tensions. Quinn groups organisational characteristics into two opposing lists, for example Individual Accountability and Cohesive Teamwork. If taken to extremes either of these positive characteristics could be negative – conflict on the one hand or group-think on the other. To illustrate the need to maintain balance between these positive forces, Quinn separates each pair on opposing sides of a disc, with an outer ring of negative forces that may arise if the positive force is over-developed.

This idea of tension and balance is crucial to Quinn – organisations are not static, they are dynamic, and to effect positive change we have to consider the whole system, that positives can turn into negatives.

A call to action

Having developed these models, Quinn turns to a number of key issues in developing a positive organisation, in chapters that focus on how to drive organisations forward by developing and promoting authenticity, creating a sense of purpose, fostering bottom-up change and collaborative development. He uses a range of interesting and relevant examples, referring back to the models at every stage.

In these sections he is challenging and insightful on the role of the individual, on our willingness to work for the common good, our ability to leave our ego and control behind when trying to develop an organisation that thrives. He is also realistic about human nature, and how difficult meaningful change and personal authenticity may be, but makes clear the benefits of developing leadership capabilities and organisational positivity.

Over to you

Quinn concludes by sharing with the reader his Positive Organization Generator. Designed to confront sceptics and resistance, he provides 100 examples of where an organisation has made positive change (from a range of industries, and with links to further articles on each of them). This is an amazing resource that gives readers a real opportunity to understand “how it works in reality”. Rather than just adopting these ideas, his instruction to readers is to re-invent them – to be inspired by the examples, extract the principle and re-imagine it for your own context, moulding and adapting to fit.

Robert E. Quinn’s website www.bob-quinn.com provides you with the resources from the book, including the Positive Organization Generator.

Or you can buy the book from Amazon UK or Amazon USA.

For more ideas you can also follow his daily blog: www.thepositiveorganization.wordpress.com

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Formium Development helps individuals and organisations to harness their strengths and improve their performance and culture. We know change can be hard, so we can bring our expertise to help you with organisational development – such as implementing the ideas in The Positive Organization.

Click here if you’d like more information on how we can help you and your team analyse, assess, challenge, innovate, communicate and develop.

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5th July 2018
You only win when you’re singing
In Britain, football crowds have songs for every occasion. If your team overturns a losing position, to taunt the opposition fans now sitting in crestfallen silence, you bellow at them: “You only sing when you’re winning” (improbably to the tune of a traditional Cuban song, Guatanamera).

But have the fans got this the wrong way round? Some recent research highlighted on the informative website The Conversation suggests that you only win when you’re singing. Having studied the 2016 European championship, the academics Slater, Haslam and Steffens reckon you can predict the result of an international football match by how passionately the teams sing their national anthem (regardless of how good the team is perceived to be).

So, apart from giving you a fun game to try at home during this World Cup, what impact could this study have for you as a manager or leader?

1. The best results are achieved by the most passionate

This aligns with a key concept of positive psychology, that we do our best work when we are doing something we are really engaged with. We’re not saying you need to come into your office singing everyday, but that you need to find a role or tasks that you believe in, that positively challenge you, that gives you the opportunity to reach a state of ‘flow.’

If this doesn’t sound like you, then you could analyse your strengths (e.g. using the VIA survey) and see if you can more closely align your work with your strengths – a short-cut to working with passion.

2. It has to be real

One of the interesting findings was that there was no benefit when the players were instructed to sing up (as England players were memorably asked in 2014). The passion of the singing is a direct result of the underlying camaraderie and team spirit.

So think about your team development – what could you do to create the conditions in which your team can organically grow?
- Create opportunities for natural social interaction – e.g. a drinks break in a team meeting
- Assign two team members to work on a task together, to build familiarity and trust
- Establish collectively a clear team goal, with everyone understanding their role
- Use an Appreciative Inquiry approach to help each team member understand the input, perspective and value of each other
3. Don’t ignore a bad team spirit

I’ve met many managers who are happy to treat their team as a group of individual performers, not bothering if there is antagonism in the team, providing the work gets done. Slater et al’s study suggests they’re wrong – that how a team interacts really does impact on performance. It may be hard work, but addressing team conflict and proactively encouraging a better team spirit will pay dividends in the long run.

4. Actions speak as loud as words

The study indicated that body language and non-verbal cues were important, not just singing. The challenge for you as a manager is to keep your eyes open – be sensitive to how your team members interact, not just what they say to each other.

Help is at hand

If you want advice or help in building your team, Formium Development can help with guidance, facilitation, executive and team coaching,.

Check out our resources on teams:

10 actions to build a strong team
Checklist for a Positive Team Meeting

Eszter Molnar Mills is a strength-based leadership and organisation development specialist and founder of Formium Development. A qualified executive and team coach, she helps organisations and individuals reach enhanced performance by reflecting on what works, and developing skills and strategies for improvement. Through team coaching and facilitation Eszter also helps organisations and teams work together to develop positive and productive cultures.
19th June 2018
The future of learning and development?
The days are numbered for sheep-dip, classroom-based training courses, chosen by the L&D team, and often forgotten by the following week.

Well, maybe not numbered, but the recent CIPD/ Towards Maturity report – Driving Performance and Productivity provides evidence that companies relying on old-fashioned models of learning and development are being outstripped by those embracing a learning approach that is more collaborative, multi-channel, integrated and accountable.

The report’s message is that the top 10% of companies, for performance and productivity, are benefiting from using these modern methods – sometimes 3 times as much as the average, and massively above those in the lowest 25%.

Here’s a few key findings:
- 76% of the ‘Top Deck’ (highest performing 10%) are confident in incorporating the use of new media in learning design (33% average, 14% bottom quartile)
- 62% routinely collect information on the extent to which learning points have been understood (30% average, 5% bottom quartile)
- 71% collect information from learners on the extent to which learning points have been applied at work (24% average, 2% bottom quartile)
- 73% involve learners in the design of the most appropriate learning solution (25% average, 1% bottom quartile)
So the challenge to L&D teams is – how can you harness these approaches so that your company benefits? How can you incorporate these ideas into your strategies, and how to shift the culture towards collaboration, individual accountability for learning, and greater integration into strategic and operational needs?

The report provides compelling ROI evidence that I’m sure will help those arguing for greater resources or the input from colleagues. But the important takeaway for me is the change management and strategic thinking that will be required to embed these ideas. It is about changing the perception of learning and development from a top-down obligation to a more bottom-up opportunity to thrive.

Eszter Molnar Mills is a strength-based leadership and organisation development specialist and founder of Formium Development. She helps organisations and individuals reach enhanced performance by reflecting on what works, and developing skills and strategies for improvement. Eszter leads our learning partnership work; contact us to discuss how we can support your learning and development strategy.
21st May 2018
7 questions for impactful leadership

Review of the Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier

Your team sometimes just need a bit of support to shine. You can provide this support through changing your leadership approach to coaching.

Helping people to find their own solutions is more impactful than giving advice, providing rules or direction. You can coach anytime, anywhere, and with the 7 simple questions that Michael Bungay Stanier suggests for supporting your team, your session will be both easy and effective.

The Coaching Habit is a lean, inspiring and practical book. In the first few chapters you can learn about habit building and change in order to make the move from the directive habit of a lifetime. The book then outlines the benefits of coaching before you get the tools, the questions and ways of putting them into practice.

The following seven chapters are about the seven essential question you should ask in order to help your colleague to identify and solve their own difficulties. Bungay Stanier added exercises between the questions to help leaders master asking them effectively.

Michael Bungay Stanier’s book is a practical, engaging read encouraging immediate application. It is packed with useful resources and exercises, and should have a place on every leaders’ bookshelf.

We had the privilege of interviewing Michael on the coaching habit, so you can also hear him talk about the habit changing process and how to do more great work.

The Coaching Habit is available on amazon.co.uk and amazon.com.

7th September 2016
The best LinkedIn Influencers

LinkedIn is the most known professional social networking platform; it encourages the world’s leading thinkers and innovators to be Influencers. As “leaders in their industries and geographies”, they explore news and trending topics. We recommend to follow these 7:

Ryan Holmes, CEO of Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a social media management resource, and its CEO is an excellent Influencer to follow. He often publishes interesting and colourful pieces on leadership, management, success, career and other topics.

Gretchen Rubin
A best-selling author who also has a fantastic podcast on habits and happiness. In her various posts on LinkedIn, she gives tips, tricks and ideas to shape habits and ‘boost the happy factor’.

Daniel Goleman
Psychologist, prize-winning author and science journalist, he regularly posts insightful writings on the topics of emotional intelligence and leadership; on how to be a more effective leader and self-aware.

Bernard Marr
Best-selling author, keynote speaker and leading business and data expert, Marr publishes posts mostly on leadership and Big Data. He reflects on popular topics and connects them with his fields of expertise; who knew that Big Data and Valentine’s day can work together in a post.

Jeff Haden
Business and leadership ghost-writer, speaker, contributing editor at Inc. Magazine. He publishes pieces on hiring, success, leadership and various business topics.

Liz Ryan, CEO of Human Workplace
The founder and CEO of the publishing, career coaching and consulting firm has an engaging and inspiring writing style. Ryan writes about job hunting, toxic workplaces, careers and much more.

Bruce Kasanoff
The career coach and social media ghost-writer posts about how can people achieve success, how to be a great leader and bring out the strengths of our people, how to find talent and more. His articles are not only interesting but humorous too.

Who influences you the most on LinkedIn?

Tweet us at @FormiumLtd

29th June 2016
Ensure that people know what is expected of them

When I talk to managers and leaders, the theme of high performance is a frequent topic of conversation. We can all agree that being an excellent organisation and delivering exceptional products or services are very important, but does everyone we work with know what we actually mean by excellence in the day-to-day?

6 methods to set obvious expectations for high performance
Too often, managers seem to lead through mental telepathy. Without clearly communicated expectations– in terms of standards or the milestones against which we analyze our progress – team members may not know what to do and how to do it. This can result in uncertainty, undermining effective teamwork, initiative and productivity.
Properly setting expectations for employees or team members is a critical dimension in quality workplaces, according to a large research of managers undertaken in the 1990s by The Gallup Organization. Underneath are a few ideas on setting clear expectations that will set standards for excellence and outcomes.
1. Begin with creating a compelling goal. Describe and explain what you want the end result to look like. Not just what you want done, but the purpose and the results you want to achieve when the project is finished and the responsibility of everyone in its achievement. People want to know that their job, whether large or small, makes a difference.
2. Talk about what you mean by “excellent performance”. This step is needed to make the vision ‘actionable’ and translate it into tangible performance measures. Set metrics where possible, paint a complete picture of the requirements you are expecting. Refer to your performance review form or competency framework for behavioural standards.
3. Concentrate on the required outcomes, instead of on the exact steps you want your people to take. Think of this as coaching rather than controlling. Encouraging your people to design their own way of delivering positive outcomes allows each team member to use their strengths to their fullest potential.
4. Provide regular feedback. The yearly appraisal or performance review is insufficient and often too late to let staff members know how and whether they are meeting your expectations. Give feedback along the road: define the context, refer to the vision and give your reasons for the feedback. Next plan for a way forward, ask for more or less of what you observed. Take a coaching, rather than disciplinarian approach. The more two-way communication, the greater the clarity around the expectations.
5. Give positive encouragement. Until you are particularly experienced at giving feedback, don’t use the ‘sandwich’ of positive– constructive– positive comments. As Ken Blanchard suggest in One Minute Manager, catch employees doing things right and you’ll get even more of it.
6. Give people the flexibility to perform well. As soon as the expectations are clear get out of the way and let people to meet them. Having set clear standards, milestones or due dates, every member of your team will have the ability to track their own progress, check whether they are meeting the milestones and behavioural standards. This approach also allow individuals be accountable for delivering their own work, so that they can course correct where needed or stay on track to make their full contribution.

To find out more about Positive Leadership view our webinar.

26th April 2016
Positive Change Management webinar replay

In today’s fast changing environment agility and the ability to make change effectively is a key organisational requirement. According to research many change management initiatives fail, risking employee’s resistance and change fatigue.

View this webinar recording to explore:

• The key change management mistakes to avoid
• Successful approaches to effectively leading change
• How to minimise resistance, engage and motivate your people
• Positive change management methodologies

The accompanying guide to better understanding your stakeholders – and the presentation slides – can be found here.

12th April 2016
5 of the best…influencers on Twitter

Exceptional leaders hardly ever stop learning, they know they can always improve themselves. Twitter is a great resource for thoughts, ideas and good examples. Here are just some of the top influencers that we follow and retweet on leadership skills or company culture. Check out our selection:

Through Alison Green’s Ask a Manager profile you can ask her a question like ‘this is what my boss says, what does it mean?’ Send her your questions or learn from others’ cases.

Based in London, David Shepherd tweets tweets about Human Resources, employment law, pay, benefits, the labour market, data services, b2b media, and a whole lot more.

Aadil Bandukwala is a social recruiting consultant with a history in Talent Acquisition and Social Media. Worth your while following him if you want to know everything about recruiting.

Lolly Daskal’s Twitter feed is about coaching, management, leadership, consulting. You can find truly informative posts, inspirational quotes and pictures shared by her.

Dan McCarthy , self-described leadership and management development geek. His profile has everything that has to do with leadership and management.

Who is missing from our list? Let us know in the comments below!

23rd March 2016
3 ways to create a high performance culture
Does culture matter? Recent research carried out by James Heskett at Harvard Business School suggests that 20%-30% of corporate performance can be attributed to a positive, strong performance culture. As Edgar Schein, probably the most prolific and oft-quoted researcher and author in the area of culture, suggested: “The only thing of real importance that leaders do is to create and manage culture. If you do not manage culture, it manages you and you may not even be aware of the extent to which this is happening.”

High performance cultures embrace innovation and empower people to contribute to that innovation. They espouse values on taking calculated risks, being innovative, being supportive, and being a learning organisation. Amanda Whittaker Brown of IDeA identified four specific signs of a performance culture and a culture where high performance is an integral part of how the organisation works:
- People feel comfortable talking openly about performance.
- Individuals know how what they are doing makes a difference.
- People share a commitment to achieving shared objectives.
- When there are problems, people work together to resolve them.
There are three specific actions leaders can take to create a high performance culture in their organisation:

1. Co-create the desired culture
Involve others in designing and shaping the team or organisational culture. In order for you to be able to identify and articulate what a desired culture would be, you need to understand and be able to communicate the vision for the organisation, its purpose and how individuals and teams can contribute. Your team need to be able to understand the difference that they are making.

Once the vision for the organisation or the team is clear, consider whether the current culture, norms, and behaviours serve it, or whether you need to make some changes. Talk to your team, customers, senior management or board about how they see those objectives and aims being delivered, what your core values are and what type of underlying culture is need.

Invite your colleagues and stakeholders to co-create the desired culture through conversation. Identify what works well and where changes are needed to enhance individual and organisational performance. Teams and staff can take part in this conversation and feel ownership and accountability, which in turns underpins a performance culture.

Once you have identified the desired culture, make sure that you are modelling, not just communicating new values and behaviours. If you’re asking other people to change, you need to remember that that will require quite a significant change on your part as well. Agree and describe what high performance looks like, agree how people will work and behave as part of the culture.

2. Replace a culture of blame with empowerment and accountability
Develop a culture of empowerment instead of blame, which stifles innovation and creativity. Enable people to take responsibility, to make decisions, to take action. At an organisational level, empowerment is supported by management commitment and relatively few layers of hierarchy. It’s important that people are supported with the right skills so they can take advantage of empowerment. Provide development on teamwork, communication skills, decision making, and risk management or other appropriate areas.

Ensure that your team has clarity of objectives and corporate priorities and that they are rewarded for doing the right things. Accept mistakes and ensure that people learn from their mistakes.

Accountability is equally important. It’s not quite enough, from a cultural perspective, for people to be accountable to you because you’re their boss. They actually need to be accountable to each other, so they can say, “We each understand what everyone else’s role is and we each commit to delivering our individual role for the benefit of the team.”

3. Set high expectations and enable people to meet those expectations
Maurizio Freda, Estee Lauder CEO said: “You need super talented people who know they need to do fantastically well. When your leadership team takes the same attitude, you create a culture where each one can give his or her best. In particular, you have to find the strengths of each individual in the organisation and then you can create magic.”

Choose people with lots of potential who have some of the strengths that you’re looking for, and allow them to play to their strengths.

Provide a combination of high support and high challenge. Set the expectation that people have to do well in this organisation, that you are aiming for excellence and that you trust that people can meet these expectation as they are supported and set up for success. People can meet those high expectations because they get to play to their strengths, they get the development that they need, and if they make mistakes these are looked at as learning opportunities.

These three leadership activities help you embody Schein’s statement that “Leaders are the main designers and builders of an organisation’s culture.”

Eszter Molnar Mills is a strength-based leadership and organisation development specialist and founder of Formium Development. A qualified executive and team coach, she helps organisations and individuals reach enhanced performance by reflecting on what works, and developing skills and strategies for improvement. Through team coaching and facilitation Eszter also helps organisations and teams work together to develop positive and productive cultures.
9th March 2016
The magic of freedom?

British training company Happy Ltd has been rated best for customer service and work/life balance among many other awards. Henry Stewart, Chief Executive, has written a book about the story of Happy and its achievements. The book has a clear tone, comes with real-life examples, provides evidence where required and poses thought-provoking questions – overall an enjoyable read. From the title you can guess you will find a public declaration of the methods, views and motives of the author.

Stewart’s Happy Manifesto is based on ten points:

Most of the points are about giving freedom to your people and trusting them. With his book Stewart aims to help the reader put in place the structure that makes freedom and trust possible in his/her organisation.

The Happy Manifesto shows an aspirational alternative, it can help some managers and organisations but it is still not a panacea which will “Make Your Organisation a Great Place to Work – Now!” Don’t get me wrong, it is a great book, the idea has potential but I can’t see how it could be applied in every case. I find it hard to believe that all employees can work without rules, and in my experience not every manager has the freedom to influence the structure, choose their people and put together a dream-team. If managers don’t have the freedom to choose people for their team, or if they inherit an existing team with set preferences and habits, further work will be needed before they can provide the level of freedom suggested.

It is apparent throughout the book that Stewart believes in guidelines rather than rules. He says managers don’t give enough freedom to their staff and it could be much more effective if your people made most decisions themselves. Stewart describes the hierarchy of management needs, based on Maslow’s well-known pyramid, which highlights workplace safety, comfort, reward and communication as necessary but insufficient for motivation.

Stewart proceeds to expand on organisational approaches to develop challenge, support, trust and freedom as the management behaviours leading to high performance.

Book details:
Henry Stewart: The Happy Manifesto: Make Your Organization a Great Workplace;
Kogan Page; 1 edition (3 Jan. 2013)

24th February 2016
Showing your appreciation

Whatever you think of Valentine’s Day, it is mid-February and love does seem to be in the air. In this article we look at the five languages of appreciation you can use to show your ‘love’ to engage and motivate your colleagues.

Making your employees feel valued is an essential skill for any manager – but what is the best method to express appreciation for a job well done or gratitude for a commitment to quality? Length-of-service awards, employee-of-the-month recognition and merchandise rewards do not always appeal to everyone in the whole organisation.

In their book The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace, Dr. Paul White and Dr. Gary Chapman highlight that different people have different ways they find appreciation most meaningful. They suggest you will get the best results if you choose the approach to recognition most valued by the recipient.

According to White and Chapman, the five languages are:

Words of affirmation

Praise, thanks and specific positive feedback shared one-to-one or in front of a group.

Quality time

Time spent in conversation, mentoring or working together – some of your colleagues feel valued if you take the time to spend with them.

Acts of service

Supportive actions, helping out when needed – some of your people will strongly feel that actions speak louder than words.

Tangible gifts

Giving the right gift that the recipient wants, which may be time off or a development opportunity, can send a powerful message.

Appropriate physical touch

A handshake of congratulations or a sincere pat on the shoulder.

By showing sincere appreciation and personal recognition to your staff you can enhance engagement and motivation.

Our challenge to you is this:

How can you express appreciation more often – and in the ways that are most valued by your colleagues?

10th February 2016
Book Summary: Switch – How to Change Things When Change Is Hard
Over the last few decades a dispiriting body of research has been amassed, which suggests that the vast majority of change programmes fail, or fail to reach their intended outcomes. In their book Switch – How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, academics Chip and Dan Heath address this challenge head on.

The authors argue that we all have both an emotional and a rational side, which they portray as the elephant and the rider – for their relative roles and power.

They suggest that the emotional (elephant) and rational (rider) sides have different needs and limitations that we have to address for change to be successful. Furthermore, we can also smooth the path to make change as easy as possible.

The Switch model outlines three sets of actions to support each of the elephant, rider and path. The aspects of the model are therefore to:

Direct the rider by
- Following the bright spots: ‘Investigate what’s working and clone it.’
- Scripting the critical moves by specifying the exact desired behaviours.
- Pointing to the destination, making the desired outcome, its purpose and benefits clear.
Motivate the elephant by
- Finding the feeling: allowing people to feel an emotion about the subject, rather than just think about it.
- Shrinking the change into a manageable size until it ‘no longer spooks the Elephant.’
- Growing your people to meet the challenges through development and encouraging a growth mindset.
Shape the path by
- Tweaking the environment so that it supports and encourages behaviour change.
- Building habits, so that the new behaviour becomes automatic and no longer requires willpower.
- Rallying the herd through modelling the new behaviour approach and building on social pressure to help it spread.
The Heaths have created a leadership book with great – but all too rare – balance. The Switch model and their recommendations are based on robust research from business, management, psychology and even international development.

These are then presented in a very accessible and readable book with lots of case studies and illustrative examples that both ‘point to the destination’ and allow us to ‘find the feeling’, resulting in an inspirational and immediately actionable read for leaders looking to make organisational or personal changes.

Switch – How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath is available at amazon.co.uk and amazon.com. Additional resources are available from heathbrothers.com. The book is reviewed by Eszter Molnar Mills.

Eszter Molnar Mills is a strength-based leadership and organisation development specialist and founder of Formium Development. She helps organisations and individuals reach enhanced performance by reflecting on what works, and developing skills and strategies for improvement.
15th January 2016