Using Employee Evaluations to Create High Performance Organizations

The employee evaluation tool is an invaluable score card for correcting mistakes and a tool to create high performance employees. Most employees, and supervisors, dread evaluations and believe they are a waist of time. Well, done improperly they are a waist of time. Now, let’s begin to change the perspective by making positive use of the tool.

You can begin to use the evaluation to create a high performance organization, one person at a time, using three simple techniques.  From the outset, look at the evaluation as a score card for what you have done correctly and then areas for improvement.

First, each week write a little note about a person’s performance. Write a date and if the action was positive or negative. In this way, as you begin to work on your evaluations they simply write themselves. You have already done the work documenting past performance, and now you simply transfer the information onto the evaluation form. You also have facts, with a date, to back up your rating. Instead of guessing and trying to remember behaviors and actions you have them in front of you.  If you can not spend a few minutes each week to write a note about your employees then you should look at how you are accomplishing your tasks as a manager or supervisor.

Second, use the tool to develop the employee so they can reach their goals. Ask the employee to create a one year and five year plan for their career. If you want to go the extra mile and show leadership, ask them about their five year life plan. Now they have a long term strategic target to shoot for. Now it is time to make actionable goals to reach the target. You will find people have dreams for their careers; however, they fail to meet those objectives because they were did not know where to begin, or they are actually afraid of success. You job is to help them be successful, if not; never say you are a leader.

Talk to the employee about their goals and help them to reach them by embedding the action steps directly into the evaluation. Tell the employee how you will obtain resources and training, if possible, for them to reach their actionable goals. Then, indicate what they are required to do to meet those actionable goals. At the end of the rating period, you have started to bring the employee along to meet their long term strategic target. Now that they see they are on the path to success, they will be more engaged to accomplish their regular tasks and energized to go the extra steps to reach their goals.

Third, during the evaluation conversations ask how you can improve. What areas do you seem to need improvement? First, this creates a connection between you and the employee. Together, you now have skin in the game.  This will also help to clarify any misunderstanding that may have developed during the rating period. If they believe they can talk to you about your own performance then trust develops. As trust develops, when you ask them to complete a project they are more willing to put more effort into the assignment. Lastly, we all think we perform at a certain level; unfortunately, most of us are not at that level. When we seek feedback from our subordinates we find out what we are doing right and wrong. Then, after taking the ego out, we can begin to reinforce our strengths and improve on our weakness. As we improve our team improves. When we use the evaluations as a tool to improve the employees, as well as ourselves, we begin to transform our mediocre companies into high performing cultures, all done one person at a time.

Two Methods for Evaluating and Increasing your Effectiveness

Understanding these two method can significantly change your level of success in your personal and business life. Review each one and then determine which is best suited for you and your needs.

RAP Method:

Review the Past:          How did you get here?

Analyze the Present:   Where do you stand now? What are your capabilities?

Plan the Future:           Determine where you want to go and make targeted steps to get you there.

Four R Method:

Reset:                         Intentionally, stop what your are doing.


Reassess:                    What was working and what was failing?

Reconnect:                Reconnect with yourself, communities, business, and people who can help         you meet your goals.

Reenergize:                Sell your plan, what’s in your “magic sauce” first to yourself, then to others,with long-term, medium, and short term goals. Your goals and plan should energize everyone around you to want to be involved.

New Challenges For Society In A Ever Technologically Automated World

From the invention of the first tool, man has been on a quest to find new processes and techniques to accomplish tasks quicker and more efficiently. As the industrial revolution came into full swing organizations were now able creates enormous amounts of products; however, industrialization required an enormous workforce.  As unions developed and organized groups realized their collective worth, they could demand higher wages and greater benefits. Fast forward, in the 1970’s robots started to be introduced into the assembly line process. At the time, most assembly line workers did not realized they were witnessing a revolution, which would ultimately destroy the “company town” and transform society.

In the past three decades more robots and autonomous assembly lines have been built. The upfront costs are significant; however, a robot has never complained about its counterparts, had work slowdowns, or gone on strike. Autonomous assembly lines operate 24/7 and produce a high quality product at a high rate of speed.  Robots do not require motivational speeches or need to attend leadership seminars. Their limitations on effectiveness are set by the quality of the programmer who created the instructions the machine follows.

For the business owner trying to maximize profits through reduced labor cost this is a utopia. But let’s take another perspective. As automation goes up, the numbers of people in the labor force declines. People in semi-skilled manufacturing jobs will be forced into the unemployment lines. In the future, people will have to carefully craft out their career choices.  You cannot simply graduate high school and then go to work at the mill. High school graduates must find either blue collar skills that cannot be easily replicated by robots, or go to college and join professions requiring a level of creativity not yet matched by computers.

Ultimately, the only professions which may be safe from automation are those occupations which require intellectual creativity. Successful people will be the ones who are able to visualize something, and then turn those thoughts and ideas into items that have meaning and worth, such as those created by artists, writers, engineers and architects.  

Currently, the President of the United States would like to turn America into a utopia for the working class. He argues on one had that workers should have good paying jobs in manufacturing, and on the other hand claims we cannot fall behind in the race for new technology. The new reality, in an automated world, is simply doing a factory job is now out of the economic equations. You must use your intellect to not only flourish, but simply survive. Many refuse to tap into their unique and innate ability to use their intelligence be creative. Most are not willing to burn a cerebral calorie in such an endeavor.  The truth escapes many, that with increased automation, many people will never be employed to their full potential. There are only so many fast food jobs to go around. Even so, no-skilled jobs only pay at, or slightly above, the minimum wage. How will society deal with an ever increasing number of jobless or under compensated people? How will this strain impact the financial burden the United States finds itself under? The technology revolution challenges the working class to evolve and find new opportunities to satisfy their basic human needs. In three decades we have changed the basic structure of society which took Milena to develop.        

Chapter 4: Occupy Protest - The "Sysmic Blast" heralds a new beginning.

The past five days were nerve racking for Pam and the rest of the IT department. Pam was concerned about adding more cyber security and the IT department hurried to check all of the systems for residual damage. Pam went down to John’s office and found him pouring through a pile of computer data. She said they were lucky to not have suffered major damage. John looked up from his pile and said, “Lucky? This thing blew past every major safeguard in the country, so it could simply create an annoyance, and be stopped in a few hours with a simple patch? I don’t think so. It was too good to be stopped so easily. It only targeted specific corporations. Something else is going on. I just don’t know what.”At 0001 hours EST, they found out. Sysmic Blast exploded in program files all over America.   

Outside Winchester VA, at the ultra-top secret NSA facility, the Genesis mega-super computer spots a flash in the electronic spectrum. Genesis is the NSA’s mega-super computer. It was designed to look at every electronic signal in the world. It instantly determines what level threat each computer, programs, and messages are to the United States. The computer had a ceramic plate ceiling and was buried under 20 feet of granite rock with to protect it from a physical attack. Between the granite and ceramic is sandwiched a electrified plasma layer that stops any outside signal from penetrating further. Genesis does not look for 1 and 0’s in computer programs like the worlds other defensive computers. Genesis looks into the electronic DNA patterns caused by nano-fluctuations in electronic wavelengths imbedded in every electronic message. Every computer is slightly different because no two computer mother boards and circuitry are exactly the same. Miniscule differences cause nano-fluctuations to be imbedded into each message or function in a computer program and create unique wavelength patterns. With every key stroke the nano-fluctuation creates a individual signal that can be traced back to the specific computer. As the programs go through different computes its add to the wavelength and creates an electronic spectrograph patterns that can be sliced and cut to determine each computer the program touched.

 Even with the latest hacker technology that masks the patterns of 1’s and O’s the Genesis looks for the electronic spectrograph that cannot be hidden. The spectrograph pattern, once identified, sticks out like a beacon in the night. As Genesis targets the spectrograph signal it ignores everything else, therefore allowing it to be the fastest computer in the world. In a nano-second, Genesis spots the flash of the Sysmic Blast explode through several multi-national corporation main frames and takes a snapshot of the program spectrum. The computer has the ability to anticipate the possible damage to the United States government’s communication pipeline and then recommends the unthinkable: Default Delta Zulu.   

At the NSA’s situation room the Duty Officer gasped as she read the Default Delta Zulu alert. It took a few seconds to realize and grasp the impact of the alert. She immediately ordered a confirmation as she hit the “alert one” button on her computer console. Within minutes the department heads of the NSA were headed to the secure situation room deep within the NSA headquarters. As the department heads arrived, mounds of data poured in confirming the alert warning.

The directors sat in their leather chairs stunned at what they were seeing on the video screens. The head of the Cyber Terrorist Unit, Fred Chatoga, rushed in to the room and threw a pile of papers onto the large oak table top. Fred looked up and said, “This is no joke, no anomaly, it’s the real deal. “As we know, last week, a nano-program worm infiltrated several corporation main frames, specifically financial companies and others who opposed the Occupy Wall Street movement. It was quickly destroyed, but it appears it had a Trojan worm attachment that evolves and replicates itself. It appears to attach through cell phones, emails, and attacking websites. This virus is currently destroying files and electronically wiping several corporations off of the map. We do not know if we can stop all of the replications before it hits our government main frames. Therefore, I have to concur with Genesis’s recommendation Default Delta Zulu. Bob, the White House representative yelled, “We cannot disconnect the governmental mainframes. The entire government social net, Social Security checks, Food Stamps, WIC, you name it will stop. Chaos will be created; people can not survive without the services of the government”. Alexander, director of security asked, “Is this a declaration of war”? Fred quickly replied, “Is there any other kind? This will make what happened to the Iranian Nuclear Facility look like child’s play. Whoever, or whomever, did this wants to take down our way of life. As you know we don’t simply arrest these guys. The CIA has been notified. When we find out who created this worm they’ll bring in ‘Cleaners’. For now, only Genesis will stay on line. It will watch the worm and analyze where it came from. If the worm attempts to attach Genesis, it will destroy it through breaking apart the code at the sub-atomic level. The President was listening in through a secured line; after discussing all of the options stated, “Pull the Plug”.

Pam was just waking up when she heard a loud pounding on her door. Angrily she went down stairs as her butler opened the door. Sarah barged in and said, “We have to go back to the office now”. John sent me to get you and stated we lost everything. Sarah rushed to get dressed and headed to the office. As she walked into the IT department she asked, “How bad is it?” John looked up from his screen and sarcastically said, “I hope you never down loaded nude photographs or made porno movies of yourself, because they are now out there”. Pam dropped her cup of coffee and said, “Out where?” John pointed out the window and smartly replied, out there; everything is now out there. The cyber attack we had last week had a Trojan worm. Every file, on every computer, hidden or not, has now been dumped into cyber space. Worse, it attacked our financials and instantly emptied our bank accounts. It is equivalent to an instant money laundering scheme. At this point I have no idea where the money is. We are now broke.” For once, Pam felt faint, “Broke”? “The accountants will eventually be able to find the money through our banks”, Pam replied. John sat back in his chair and said, “It appears you haven’t seen the news. Our banks were also hit. Their files and back up files have also been wiped out. They are trying to save themselves; they are not worried about us now”. The Sysmic Blast had accomplished its task. 

As news began to spread about the super computer crash, people began to run to the ATM’s and banks. They wanted their money. The small local banks had not been hit, but people did not take chances. Everywhere people began to panic. No access to credit cards or bank accounts meant no one could buy anything. How many people actually carry paper money today? Cars ran out of gas, people began a run on grocery stores. Normally law abiding people began to set fires and smash windows to businesses to keep the police and fire departments occupied, while they looted supply stores preparing for the unknown. Eventually even the police officers, with the slow break down of society, slowly will begin to stay at home instead of coming to work. Their priorities are to protect their families and then their immediate neighborhoods.

On MSNBC, the commentators will claim the cyber attack was staged by the Right Wing Extremists in order to take over the government. On Foxnews, the commentators claim it was a vast Left Wing Conspiracy perpetuated by the Occupy Wall Street Protestors in order to bring down the capitalist system. Regardless, at least for now, the government was no longer able to take care of people who were use to having everyone of their needs cared for. Middle class people living in the suburbs were just as susceptible. Their lives revolved around going in their cars to the grocery stores for food and worked in offices. They are not prepared for this. The only people who hunted, fished, and knew how to make goods, with their own hands, had an edge in this new world reality. Some people will actually flourish during this time.

 Don was an avid hunter and woodworker. He begins to trade meat from animals he kills for corn and grain and other supplies he could use as commodities. Maggie  had learned how to make moonshine from the grandfather while growing up in Franklin County. Don traded for supplies, corn, grain, and sugar; while, Pam made the highly coveted liquid gold. They opened a make shift tavern in their house to sell the moonshine and meats when Don comes back from hunting trips. They rightly believed, as normal society continued to crumble people would crave alcohol and food. People with goods will trade them for moonshine and meat. Others in the community will protect the tavern from outsiders. Just like centuries before, the tavern owners became rich by supplying a service people wanted. They are protected by their local communities who did not want to loose their supply of alcohol and food. The new communities are within walking difference and are forced to reconnect and take care of one another.  In the end, the Occupy Wall Street Protestors were able to bring down the financial system and force the rebirth of living within small communities. Maggie and Don became the faces of capitalism and new wealth. They were prohibited from changing their status under the old system but became the new face of capitalism for the future. In the end, the seeds of capitalism spouted anew. The game of society needs of equality versus the biological need of superior over subordinate did not end. The game of socialism versus capitalism simply reset.

Chapter 3: Occupy Protest - With the summer comes the "Sysmic Tremors"

Ivan taps on the last computer key and waits to insure the money had been transferred into his account. He taps his cigarette out in the ashtray next to his monitor. He then punches in the encoded commands and for the next 24 hours he will allow the use of micro-botnets from 14 computers, he controls, around the world to be used by the unknown third party. The actual owners of the computers do not know their PC’s have been hacked and infected with the micro-botnets.  Under the unlikely circumstances they were detected, Ivan had hundreds of computers under his control around the globe. Even with the large sum of money just wired into his account, Ivan doesn’t think twice about what the anonymous third party was planning to use the micro-botnets.  It had been a long winter in Moscow and now Ivan was going to warmer latitudes.

Jack, now working part time at a retail electronic box-store, continued to work on his secret part of the Occupy Protest. He realized that his was crossing the line, but in all successful revolutions someone has to step up and cross the lines, like Lenin and Mao. He had received his instructions and worked on his part of the program for the past three months. He speculated on how his program fit into the total programming package. He had finished the program earlier than expected but had been instruction to wait and send it today. He had bought a cheep computer from a guy downtown and he was pretty sure it was stolen. He took the local commuter bus and checked for unsecured internet network signals as he rode through different stops. After 18 stops, he found an excellent signal, hit enter, and then send the file. He then took a screw driver opened up the computer and removed the hard drive. He then threw it in the river and walked away. His job done, he could return to the street protests.

Maggie and Don Simpson are simply a working class couple trying to survive living from paycheck to paycheck. Maggie is a receptionist at a local dentist’s office and Don is a plumber. They have worked hard but the economy has taken an unthinkably tough hit on their family. Neither has had a raise in the past two years, as prices continue to rise. Simply, watching the price of gas go up, while the major gas companies make record profits, helps fuel their anger toward the current economic system. Don tried to join the capitalistic system by attempting to start his own plumbing business, but the banks denied giving him a loan. These are the same banks that were bailed out by the federal government. They were too big to fail and he was too small to give a chance. Maggie and Don are not radicals who are followers of Lenin or Mao; they didn’t even know who Mao was or where he lived.  They are common Americans getting rolled by a now corrupt system. Their frustrations at seeing the capitalist system manipulated to favor the wealthy have grown to anger. They don’t want to be millionaires; they just want an equal shot at the “American Dream”. On a Saturday, last fall, Maggie went to an Occupy Protest and found the protesters were not kooks, but rather people like her frustrated with the upper class manipulating the system at her expense. After, Don’s last rejection letter from a major financial bank, he finally became angry enough that he too joined the Occupy Protest movement. He realized, democrat or republican, the political elite were in the pockets of the financial elite. Something had to change; at one time one person could make a difference. The protests are the start of that change, once begun it can’t stopped as long as people still believe.

The programs had been delivered and reassemble to create a super worm computer virus program designed to cripple the electronic infrastructure. Programs like Red Cell were destructive, but the impact of this super worm would be unthinkable. The worm virus was labeled “Sysmic Blast” the worm would infiltrate targeted computer banks and then spread undetected. The worm had a five day dormancy period so it could spread through out interconnected main frames. In five days while it would be passed via email or other programs to other companies. It is easy to understand that people in similar organizations email or send each other files every day. They unwittingly were spreading the worm that would infect and destroy the current economic system.

Instead of simply annoying companies by delivering spam or adware, or for denial-of-service attacks on Web sites, this worm bypassed firewalls and once inside the main frames would split into two subprograms. One program would crash the systems.  Given five day waiting period, before each new activation, the worm can spread exponentially.  The second component, a Trojan, would masquerade itself as regular operating program, actually it would mimic as a clone of another operating program. The designers of the worm knew program patches would be immediately sent out to block the first worm attack. The patches and anti-viral software would miss this clone program and after five additional days it would replicate itself again. This second replication would slightly evolve, adding new code, and begin a second wave of attacks. Once infected, there was no way to stop or remove the program. No one knew if back up files had been compromised. The only way to no for sure was to upload the files and that would then become infected. No computer would be safe. People would be afraid to send or receive emails in fear of infecting their own computers. Specific companies who did not support the needs of their communities, such as providing for the homeless and needy, were initially targeted.  

The micro-botnets had been activated. The program was initially routed through ghost servers in Chagqing and Wanxian China.  These ghost servers randomly turned on and blasted encrypted code throughout the internet. The servers would then turn off and the connections electronically severed; the source site could not be traced back further than the region of origin. The worm had been set loose and was now heading to PC’s to be further directed by the hidden micro-botnets towards their targets. Once at their target sites, they posed as emails to the servers, or replicated as emails toward employees listed through other internet search engines. Someone would click on the email; it only took one person. Even cell phones were not safe. The virus was sent via smart phone apps to individual phones. Once the phone app was click on it would automatically send the virus to the address data files. It would then infect the files and send text messages and emails from the cell phone to people in the cell phone directory. Once they clicked on the message their computers and cell phone would be infected.

Pan went to her office. She felt secure that the Occupy Protests were going to fade away as the summer went on. She knew the protestors still needed to work to survive, they would have to give up or starve. As she walked around her large oak desk she pushed the button to turn on her computer. She looked out over the river as she waited for the computer go through initialize through its operating sequence. When she turned around she dropped her coffee cup as she read, “Resistance is Futile” displayed on her monitor.      

Horrified and angry, Pam immediately grabbed her cell phone to call the IT department, but the phone was silent. As Pam yelled for Sarah, her secretary, to call IT Sarah said she could not get a dial tone. Pam yelled, “God Damn it, someone in IT will pay for this” as she walked toward the elevator.  As Pam pushed open the glass door, entered into IT,  and said “Who’s’ tentacles am I going to crush”, she saw the IT department in complete disarray. IT managers and technicians were screaming and yelling to try different commands. At that, Pam understood the seriousness of the situation, and her powerlessness. John, the senior IT manager, an MIT graduate, walked up to Pam and said, “Here is the situation in 30 seconds. The system has been hacked by an unknown virus. It slipped past our anti-virus software, firewalls, and or proprietary protections. Once in it crushed the mainframe, and worse it even redirected itself to our cell phones. If you used your phone in the past 30 minutes your phone is infected. We believe it’s possible, if you use your cell phone to connect to other computers it can possibly pass the virus on. We just don’t know enough about it right now”. Then the conversation was interrupted, the national news was reporting cyber- attacks on major companies around the country. In the background you could hear, Oh, Jesus, this can’t be happening”.

The IT guru’s had a secure direct link landline telephone in their office in the rare case they ever lost cell phone capability. The landlines were copper cables that were not susceptible to cyber attacks. They had a direct line to their software companies and now everyone was listening in on the conference call. The software company’s super computer was already trying to identify the code and develop a patch. They were reassured that a patch would be available within a day. Pam yelled over the phone that a day was unacceptable. The voice on the other end came back with, “It may not be acceptable, but you better learn to deal with reality”.

Pam, realizing at this point  she could do nothing, relented, and went back to her office where her board of directors were already gathering. They watched the news as other businesses struggled to deal with their own computer meltdowns. Late in the day, John, rushed in and said, “We got the patch”. The virus has been identified and the patch is being uploaded. We will start running diagnostics, but everything should be backed up and running in the next few hours”.  A sigh of relief came out of the boards mouths. John stated it would take a while for the programmers to determine where the virus came from and how it beat the systems defenses”. As the patch moved through the programs the code could not notice another anomaly piggy backing. The first day had been a Sysmic Tremor, the system patch was taking the worm throughout systems in every company; Sysmic Blast was now set to go off.

A Machiavellian Perspective on Political Super PAC's

From a Machiavellian perspective political Super PAC's are great. The politician knows who his Super PAC supporters are, and they do the dirty work. They are not constrained by federal limits on donations, or how they use the money. The PAC's seize the moment and attack potential rivals like a virus. Meanwhile, the political candidate, stands in front of the voters and  says, “I am powerless to stop the Super Packs and what they are saying about my competition”. Invariably, an arms race develops when the other side creates their own super pack to retaliate. Eventually, you see mutual destruction rain down on both sides. The winner will be the candidate who has the most affluent friends who are engaged in his / her candidacy and are willing to invest early in the Super PAC.  It is not simply the one who gets the fires with the first super pack. It is the combination of early arrival combined with the financial firepower to eviscerate their competition; simply stated, fire early and often with the intent of ruthless destruction.    

Occupy Protests: A Common Family Perspective

Maggie and Don are simply a working class couple trying to survive living from paycheck to paycheck. Maggie is a receptionist at a local dentist’s office and Don is a plumber. They have worked hard but the economy has taken an unthinkably tough hit on their family. Neither has had a raise in the past two years, as prices continue to rise. Simply, watching the price of gas go up, while the major gas companies make record profits, helps fuel their anger toward the current economic system. Don tried to join the capitalistic system by attempting to start his own plumbing business, but the banks denied him a loan. These are the same banks that were bailed out by the federal government. They were too big to fail and he was too small to give a chance.

 Maggie and Don are not radicals who are followers of Lenin or Mao; they didn’t even know who Mao was or where he lived.  They are common Americans getting rolled by a now corrupt system. Their frustrations at seeing the capitalist system manipulated in favor of the wealthy have grown to from frustratin to outright anger. They don’t want to be millionaires; they just want an equal shot at the “American Dream”. On a Saturday, last fall, Maggie went to an Occupy Protest and found the protesters were not kooks, but rather people like her, frustrated with the upper class manipulating the system at her expense. After, Don’s last rejection letter from a major financial bank, he finally became angry and joined the Occupy Protest movement. He realized, democrat or republican, the political elite were in the pockets of the financial elite. Something had to change, at one time one person could make a difference. The protests are the start of that change, once begun it can’t stopped as long as people still believe. One person, just one person, can stand up and be the leader that corrects the system.

Three Lines Which Changed Peformance Management In Public Safety

In January 2010 three public safety organizations participated in a ground breaking study on engagement in public safety. In the course of the study over 600 police and fire officers and administrative staff responded to questions relating directly to their engagement. What made this study different was it was developed by serving public safety officers who have placed their lives on the line with the rest of their team mates. They not only know the culture, but have received advanced degrees in H.R, and so developed questions that were directly relevant to the professions. While most surveys take a top down approach to the engagement of the employees this study looked at engagement from the bottom up. Change your perspective and new insights arise in looking for  the causes of old problems. Then new solutions can be developed more likely to work instead of the same old solutions that may not be relevant to a new generation of workers.

The study included 49 questions pertaining to the level of knowledge employees had of their organization prior to employment, assessed their intentions to stay with their organization, as well as equipment issues, and internal communication issues. Some of the results of the study were published by the FBI in the December 2011 edition of the Law Enforcement Bulletin.

Conventional wisdom says employees begin work in public safety with enthusiasm and as the years go by their engagement slowly drops. Well , the research suggests otherwise. The problem on the loss of engagement is not solely with the individual but on the organization as well when it contributes to the disengagement of employees through the lack of responsiveness to the needs of employees.  When you look at the PowerPoint, at the bottom of the blog, you will see three lines. These are the three lines which redefine how we need to look at public safety engagement. The lines represent the question and results of the most important question in the study, what drives your engagement or disengagement:

• My organization is mostly responsive to my ideas and I have increased my performance and willingness to suggest ideas: 11.8% .
• My organization is mostly responsive to ideas and responsive to ideas and I am satisfied with meeting organizational performance standards and do not wan to suggest ideas: 2.3%.
• My organization is not always responsive to my idea, but O continue to suggest ideas and maintain my high level of performance: 51.1%.
• My organization is not always responsive to my ideas, but I will continue to maintain an acceptable level of performance and suggest some ideas: 27.4% .
• My organization is mostly responsive to my ideas and I have increased my performance and willingness to suggest ideas: 11.8%.

People do not simply give up when their organizations are not living up to expectations. No, they fight, scream, and kick, before they finally give up and sink into disengagement. People do try to suggest ideas and make changes which they believe will improve their organizations. It's when they feel they are ignored they begin to give up, and this is not something that starts at 10 years into a person’s career. We found it may begin immediately upon employment. That’s why it is so critical to be honest with applicants about who you, the organization, are and provide a realistic picture to perspective employees. Once someone is hired and they feel they have been misled to they are going to be upset and get angry. Do you want an angry, disengaged, employee who be on your payroll for the next 20 years. It's not worth it just to met your recruiting goals.  

As individuals move up their organizational charts with more responsibility, and take on a more strategic role, they begin to loose connections with the first line officers. As the commander makes long term strategic decisions based on his or her needs, and that of the organizations budget, they can forget that this decision making  has a real world impact on the officers and their willingness to perform. The officers in turn, try to either say, “I’m on board and let’s rock, “or “Hey this is a bad idea and I have a better, cheaper, way of doing something.” When the officers feel they can not get their feeling known to people who can make changes, or worse yet feel they are being ignored, they become frustrated. Frustrations turn to anger, and anger turns to disengagement.

This does not have to happen, but to avoid it the command staffs must open their eyes, and try new things. For instance, give up on out dated managerial ideas that were created during the “greatest generation”, and stop listening solely to professors who have little or no real world experience and even less in  public safety simply regurgitate ideas that worked in the past and rehash old studies in order to obtain job security in their university. No, simply think outside of the box. Better yet, create a new box for others to try and think outside of. Do something radical, get out of your office and talk to the officers. If they have an idea which makes sense, is financially viable, and benefits the organization, let them run with it. Take your egos out of the equation for the benefit of your most valued asset: your officers who do the grunt work everyday.

Take a look at the Power Point, again. If every organization is operating at the same effective level, imagine what you could do if you move simply 15% of the people who said their organization was not listening to them but they were fully engaged and move them to the 11% who stated their organization was fully responsive and they were fully engaged. You would be a Rock Star in the world of Performance Management, with only 26% of your organization stating they were fully engaged. People would be beating down your doors to find out how your organization is now the mega-star in public safety.  You can begin to do this by simply changing your top down perspective to a bottom up perspective and make the changes that need to be done.  If you don’t believe me, try it and see. If I am wrong then I guarantee you will have still learned something new about your organization. If I am correct, prepare to move into your new home, because your local government is going to raise your salary or a large organization is going to recruit you. It is your choice, to remain the same mediocre organization or seek to become the Rock Star Leader you have the potential to become.

"The Tribe": Dealing with Succession Management and Sudden Change

The branch on the already ancient oak tree slowly moved to the side as the moon light shifted on the waxy outer layer of the leaves, creating a clear view of the village for the scout. The caves and makeshift huts were silent and the fires had died down after a long night. The fire and encampment were not longer guarded and a sense of complacency had set in, no one thought it was important anymore. The rock caves walls, that use to provide protection, were about to become the very obstructions that kept the inhabitants from escaping. It was almost time to begin; the scout slowly moved back. In order to reduce any noise as he walked, he rolling his foot from the outside inward, so any leaves on the late fall ground would not crunch under his weight. His eyes had long ago adjusted to the night and he could make out the other members of his war party laying down in a gulley not far away. With a stick the scout drew in the dirt the layout of the village. Now the plan could be finalized and the group would slowly move up into position.

The village, once a beacon of wealth, and basic innovation, had become complacent in its success and now would pay a price. The war party understood that success would help ensure their success in the competitive environment in which they lived. The resources desperately needed where now at hand, and they planned on taking by force what they needed. It was a strategic decision to attack the village where the king made his seat. The tactics were planned and practices, and the time to act was now. They slowly moved up. The group now in place had everything covered. Most of the group would charge forward into the huts and caves. The stone walls would be used to trap their inhabitants as the outer dilapidated defenses would be overwhelmed. Others in the group would be stationed in likely escape routes to prevent anyone from leaving. To ensure their own safety, the group left a few raiders in the rear to guard their own backs, or move up and reinforce areas where the attack may be slowed.

The group moved in at a slow stalking pace through the woods till they hit the broken dirt, symbolizing the boundary of the encampment. Once at the line, they began to run as fast has as they could. The key target was Daniau, the King of the lower valley region, but the others sleeping were in just as much danger. They rushed in with hammers made from bone with either sticks or rocks tide at the top with sinew. In a few minutes it was over. People lay moaning or dead throughout the area, victims of their own complacency. The few villagers who woke up, and tired to escape, were ambushed by the raiders laying in wait at the escape routes.  King Daniau was dead. The lower valley region no longer had a king to keep the other tribes in line and focused. Now, challengers from the other tribes would meet to determine who would succeed to the throne. Chaos and inner warfare would erupt if order was not kept. Inner turmoil would allow outside tribes outside of the valley to invade.

Today, businesses face the same problems when they become complacent and lose their competitive advantage; or suddenly lose their key leaders. How do they replace the dead king? Option one, use existing lines of hereditary succession from within the owners? Option two, use the organizational hierarchy where someone who had been training their entire lives for this position? Option three, look deep inside the organization and pick someone who did not ask for the position, but had the necessary skills to take them into the future? Option four, go outside of the organization and bring in someone else to take over. The answer to the question of leadership succession creates the atmosphere for future failure or success of the entire organization, as it did millennia ago with Chief Ugh and “The Tribe”.  

"The Tribe": The Sudden Sacking of a Chief

The branch on the already ancient oak tree slowly moved to the side as the moon light shifted on the waxy outer layer of the leaves, creating a clear view of the village for the scout. The caves and makeshift huts were silent and the fires had died down after a long night. The fire and encampment were not longer guarded and a sense of complacency had set in, no one thought it was important anymore. The rock caves walls, that use to provide protection, were about to become the very obstructions that kept the inhabitants from escaping. It was almost time to begin; the scout slowly moved back. In order to reduce any noise as he walked, he rolling his foot from the outside inward, so any leaves on the late fall ground would not crunch under his weight. His eyes had long ago adjusted to the night and he could make out the other members of his war party laying down in a gulley not far away. With a stick the scout drew in the dirt the layout of the village. Now the plan could be finalized and the group would slowly move up into position.

The village, once a beacon of wealth, and basic innovation, had become complacent in its success and now would pay a price. The war party understood that success would help ensure their success in the competitive environment in which they lived. The resources desperately needed where now at hand, and they planned on taking by force what they needed. It was a strategic decision to attack the village where the king made his seat. The tactics were planned and practices, and the time to act was now. They slowly moved up. The group now in place had everything covered. Most of the group would charge forward into the huts and caves. The stone walls would be used to trap their inhabitants as the outer dilapidated defenses would be overwhelmed. Others in the group would be stationed in likely escape routes to prevent anyone from leaving. To ensure their own safety, the group left a few raiders in the rear to guard their own backs, or move up and reinforce areas where the attack may be slowed.

The group moved in at a slow stalking pace through the woods till they hit the broken dirt, symbolizing the boundary of the encampment. Once at the line, they began to run as fast has as they could. The key target was Daniau, the King of the lower valley region, but the others sleeping were in just as much danger. They rushed in with hammers made from bone with either sticks or rocks tide at the top with sinew. In a few minutes it was over. People lay moaning or dead throughout the area, victims of their own complacency. The few villagers who woke up, and tired to escape, were ambushed by the raiders laying in wait at the escape routes.  King Daniau was dead. The lower valley region no longer had a king to keep the other tribes in line and focused. Now, challengers from the other tribes would meet to determine who would succeed to the throne. Chaos and inner warfare would erupt if order was not kept. Inner turmoil would allow outside tribes outside of the valley to invade.

Today, businesses face the same problems when they become complacent and lose their competitive advantage; or suddenly lose their key leaders. How do they replace the dead king? Option one, use existing lines of hereditary succession from within the owners? Option two, use the organizational hierarchy where someone who had been training their entire lives for this position? Option three, look deep inside the organization and pick someone who did not ask for the position, but had the necessary skills to take them into the future? Option four, go outside of the organization and bring in someone else to take over. The answer to the question of leadership succession creates the atmosphere for future failure or success of the entire organization, as it did millennia ago with Chief Ugh and “The Tribe”.  

Occupy Protestors - The Spring Offensive

The protesters were gone, the parks clean again, and the winter with its snow storms was upon the city. After Pam’s car was vandalized, causing her a brief period of anxiety, she treated herself by taking a quick trip to the company’s compound in Jamaica.  Rejuvenated, Pam was ready to take her division into the future.  She had been infuriated with the Occupy protesters who blamed her for their own troubles. She laughed at the thought of the protesters outside of her building believing they were accomplishing something while she was relaxing on the beach. Unbeknownst to the protestors, while on vacation, Pam continued to send her limousine to the divisional headquarters on a daily basis to throw the protesters off.. 

After her short R & R she traveled to Malaysia where she was off-shoring many of her division’s jobs. The Occupy Protesters had pissed Pam off and someone was going to pay. The protestors had been more than an irritant, they had done more than call on their elected officials to make regulations, they wanted to take her money and power away; this was personal. The Protests in America were actually very mild in comparison to the overseas countries where multitudes had died and regimes overthrown. The true impacts of the protestors were on the local political level where leaders were forced to show their true colors. Across the country in countless political campaigns, political hopefuls proclaimed they were part of the people. During the protests their real characters were revealed. Some supported the protestors and blamed the police. Some pushed the police to crush the supporters. Others froze, unable to make decisions, afraid to offend someone. They are after all politicians, how could they be expected to make decisions? In fact, they all made decisions: support the protestors, big business, or do nothing.

Most international organizations knew this would all blow over in time. Weather, politics, and the natural human tendency to get onboard and move would bring things back to the status quo. Yes, modern society was connected through social media, but revolution required action and harsh enough living conditions that people were willing to suffer or die to make changes. In America all people have lives that the poorest resident of a third world country would kill to have. In America, the poorest people are given free houses, free food, and are connected to free cable television. They would not revolt, they had no reason to revolt and the multi-conglomerate executives knew that fact.  They understood this too would pass and with a wink business went on as usual.  Besides, people like Fred, the 21^st Congressional Representative, needed the donations of the multi-national conglomerates more than Jack’s feel good $20.00 donation. No meaningful legislation gets passed which will hamper business; the masses just don’t understand they have no say in government anymore.

Pam’s press secretary announced the creation of the Malaysian manufacturing facility. The jobs would cut costs, increase profits, a steady workforce, and the stocks responded in kind. The share price rose by 23% within hours of the announcement.  The number of jobs cut was set at 500, to avoid notice by major news organizations. Several more job cuts of similar numbers would be made over the next year.  People in the community would lose their jobs, but it would be drown out and melded with the news of other companies making similar cuts. Pam’s division was set to be the predominant player in her industry. She now had an American brand name and facilities in a country which did not accept employee revolts. She believed the protests were gone. Surely, in the spring, the President would not allow the protests to be resurrected and hamper his re-election, unless of course, it could be blamed on the Republicans.

Jack was now back living at home and full anger that the protests failed to bring about change. Spring was coming and the new offensive would begin. Even if the original Occupy Protest organizers left in the belief they had made their stand, it was not over. The ball had been set in motion and it would not stop. Jack had still not found a job and had given up looking. It was the government’s fault that allowed him to get in the financial crisis he was in. It was his university’s fault that let him obtain a degree that he did not afford him the opportunity to find work. It was Pam’s company that out-sourced jobs to other countries. Someone, everyone has to pay.

During the winter, like in the centuries of warfare before, both sides of the conflict rested until warmer weather and a new offensive. People like Pam forgot this fact and thought everything was over. Individuals like Jack, met with small groups over the internet. These small groups bonded with other groups to form communities biding their time. Commanders were designated, specialists were assigned, and multi-pronged attacks would commence at their designated times. Some people would demonstrate, they would feel good but the commanders knew this would only be a nuisance. Others would go to Washington and people like Fred would give them lip service in an attempt to placate them.  People like Jack had a different set of orders, more destructive. Jack, like many, while blowing off class in college learned how to hack computers. His assignment was to hack into the main frame computers of the multinational corporations and play havoc. People everywhere saw how the Israelis’ shut down the Iranian nuclear program for a time with a simple virus. Jack received his orders via from a source that could not lead back to the originator. He had chosen Pam’s division as his personal target and now waited orders to begin. As Pam’s anger towards the Occupy protesters played out onto the workforce Jack’s anger was exclusively focused on her.  The strategies were set and with spring everyone’s world would be rocked.   In a cubical of a national political headquarters hurriedly the phone hung up. The pieces were set and the game was about to begin.   

Understanding What It Means To Be The Leader Of The Tribe

I was sent a question asking for an explanation of Tribal Leadership. Simply stated, when you join an organization you are becoming a member of that tribe. When you join the tribe you give up simply being and individual and begin to take on the identify of the tribe. While some tribes are more cohesive and effective than others, the entire work group is a tribe; you are only as effective as your tribe. The tribe is focused on the success of everyone, and everyone of the success of the tribe. The leader of the tribe is much more than a supervisor or manager. The leader takes an active interest in all of the members of his / her tribal members. They are willing to learn about the individual and what motivates or de-motivates the individual. They have the ability to meld the individual, with their strengths and weakness, into a single group focused on meeting the needs of the tribe.

The leader of the tribe has many responsibilities. They do more than give out orders and create evaluations. The have to look at the individual and determine if they are low performers or not. If the individual is a low performer then they are actually hurting the tribe through low performance. The leader will then have to rectify the situation for the greater benefit of the tribe. The leader must actually develop two way communication pathways where open and frank discussions can occur. Sometimes the leader is wrong and must be willing to listen to the rest of the tribe, which takes courage and the ability to set a side ones ego.  During the evaluation process, the leader has the courage to ask the tribal member what they, the leader, is doing wrong and how they, the leader,  can improve. This one step, often ridiculed by managers afraid to move to the leadership level, is the greatest step towards building trust within the rest of the tribe.

The key to successful Tribal Leadership is to understand the personalities of the individual team members, and then creating a message and context that you are a tribe: together the tribe succeeds or fails.

Leaders in 2012 Must Learn and Embrace Diverse Cultures to be Effective

Leaders in 2012 face new challenges as work force demographics change and employees with different cultural histories begin to come into the workforce. I talk to managers and supervisors notice I did not say leaders, who say “foreigners” need to learn English, or why should I learn about their culture, they should learn to be American.  This is a very short sighted view. First, America was founded by people from somewhere else. Even the original Indian inhabitants came from someplace else. As a country we became diverse because people did not completely give up on their old traditions and cultures just to become an American. You do not, and can not, wipe your memories away when you become an American.  

The effective leaders understand and embrace having a diverse group of people working for them. They inherently understand diversity reduces the chance of “group think”. They also understand that their success is based on the actions of the individual employee. The employee’s actions are based on how they interpret the directions of the leader. Their interpretations are based through the context of past cultural experiences. Therefore, to be effective, the leader needs to understand the cultural history and context which develop the individual expectations of their employees. Then the leader can tailor their message to the individual employee. The overall message remains the same, but the individual meaning is shaped through the cultural lens.

It may sound like a lot of needless work, but it isn’t. By learning a basic level of the cultures of your employees the leader actually builds a greater credibility with the employee. The leader learns something’s that they may not have known, but more importantly, they have a new tool to put in their tool box. Leaders who not only develop their employees but also develop a cultural awareness of their employees become a “hot commodity” for their organization. Opportunities to grow, both inside and outside of their company, will most assuredly follow. So, from even an individualistic point of view, learning the cultural histories of your employees and how to lead them creates greater opportunities for you.  The leader who embraces these ideas will most assuredly create a greater Splash on the Matrix.