Today’s unfortunate reality is that many companies are forced to reduce their workforces. The names for this are ever changing—layoffs, RIFs, downsizing, redeployment, right sizing—to name a few. Workforce optimization is one of the newest ones I’ve heard, but the result is the same. People are losing their jobs and the individuals that remain, the survivors, are left wondering… Am I next? How will all the work get done? How will my job change? Who will be next? Should I leave before I’m selected?

After completing the difficult tasks of deciding who to release and how to distribute the remaining work, leaders are too often told that there isn’t money to invest in training or in developing the remaining workforce. This creates an additional burden of getting all of the work done without building their staff’s skill sets.

Stop and think about that. Every organization should be doing the opposite. During downsizing is the time to show the organization’s commitment to the survivors. It is these people the organization is counting on to pick up the pieces and do the work. I worked in Japan on a downsizing project that did just this — focused on engaging the survivors to build the new, leaner organization. The culture of forever employment demanded it, but every culture can take a page from their playbook. The people remaining in an organization after others are forced to leave need to be reassured that they are safe and important, and that they are going to be set up for success.

I encourage leaders to invest in the people who remain. Invest in the high potentials and the key performers so they will stay. Discover how to:

• retain knowledge
• generate new momentum
• engage and motivate the remaining workforce
• recreate the organization

These are fundamental challenges facing organizations after any downsizing. When a company invests in the survivors and builds their skill sets and knowledge, they generate loyalty and goodwill; they create ambassadors for their companies. This skill development is an investment and a message to these people they are the future and are critical to the success of the company and that the company wants them to stay.

Shown below is a popular change formula. In any change, all elements of the formula must be addressed to have a successful change, but when any one element is missing, the change can be easily and totally derailed.

When the SKILLS piece is missing, people first feel anxiety. They are fearful that they will fail and also lose their jobs. They also express confusion about what to do, and they can have low motivation and become discouraged or frustrated. Eventually, if their concerns are left unaddressed, they can leave the organization. Many good people leave organizations because they worry about what they do not know and do not feel the organization is committed to teach them. Leaders can address these fears by investing in their people in the tough economic times as well as in times of prosperity.

Is your organization doing everything it can to retain great people?

1. What is your employee development strategy during challenging business cycles?
2. Are your best resources committed to stay with your organization – how do you know?
3. What investment are you making in your people to assure they will stay?

Nancy Brown-Johnston has worked in the field of training and organization development in many companies around the world, including General Motors, Saturn Corporation, the US Army, and Delphi Automotive Systems. Nancy co-founded and served as the director of Saturn Consulting Services (SCS), where she led the development of the SCS courses. She also managed the marketing and consulting services to more than 200 external customers, including Chevrolet, Opel, Saab, Delphi Automotive Systems, the U.S. Army, U.S.P.S., and Zeneca Ag Products.

The TripleWin Academy’s Professional Development Program provides theories, models and skill development in problem solving and collaborative consulting. For more information, see www.triplewin.ch

I’ve been teaching consulting skills since the early 1980’s to both internal and external professionals. I have often asked participants, “What comes to your mind when you think of consultants?” Typically, the answers aren’t very flattering, words like: expensive, suits, PowerPoint decks, outsiders, seagulls, time tellers, and know-it-alls. Of course, as consultants, we want to be recognized as knowledgeable helpers, collaborators, and trusted advisors. Our goal is to add value to the organizations we serve.

I have found a collaborative consulting approach works best, as compared to the expert consulting approach used by most consultants. With collaboration, consultants focus on partnering with a client organization and figuring out how to use their expertise to supplement the organization’s resources and to match the needs of the situation.

Both the consultants and the organization share the responsibility of identifying issues followed by designing and implementing solutions. The consultants support the client so that when the time comes for the consultants to leave, the organization is fully engaged and owns the change. As a result, the change initiated by the consulting project is underway prior to the consultant’s departure.

The collaborative consulting process model below is pretty straightforward, similar to problem solving processes we have all used.

By using a collaborative consulting process, one of the biggest reported problems with the use of consultants can be reduced, if not fully eliminated. That problem is the low rate of successful implementation of consulting projects. With increased collaboration comes increased engagement and ownership. This directly translates into increased successful implementation.

How much collaboration is in your consulting approach?

1. Who does most of the work?
2. When the project is over, who owns the implementation?
3. How active is the client organization during the project?

If the answers to these three questions do not suggest full collaboration, consider re-contracting to increase involvement, engagement, and participation. The collaboration will pay off in improved and smoother implementation, a higher degree of project success, and often, longer term relationships.

Nancy Brown-Johnston has worked in the field of training and organization development in many companies around the world, including General Motors, Saturn Corporation, the US Army, and Delphi Automotive Systems. Nancy co-founded and served as the director of Saturn Consulting Services (SCS), where she led the development of the SCS courses. She also managed the marketing and consulting services to more than 200 external customers, including Chevrolet, Opel, Saab, Delphi Automotive Systems, the U.S. Army, U.S.P.S., and Zeneca Ag Products.

The TripleWin Academy’s Professional Development Program provides theories, models and skill development in problem solving and collaborative consulting. For more information, see www.triplewin.ch

The fundamental framework of TripleWin is the TripleWin Relationship Model. It anchors our philosophy and guides us in our consulting and training approaches. The model is a powerful description of the range of behaviors found in most organizations.

The TripleWin Relationship Model™

I’m astounded by the number of organizations that operate in an adversarial environment. I’ve worked in those types of organizations, and I personally hated it. I found it difficult to go to work every day, and on many days I dealt more with interpersonal conflicts than with my work!  Practices like employing win-lose power tactics, placing blame, and punishing mistakes certainly did not bring out the best in me. I am sure many people can relate to this.  This type of leadership and culture is one of the primary causes of dissatisfaction and disengagement in organizations today.

Unhealthy competition inside an organization wastes time and diverts energy from value-added work. Coexistence causes employees to avoid working with those they don’t trust or respect, and this can cause communication issues with big implications. It is this inwardly focused competition and unchecked coexistence that leads to poor performance.

The Alternative

By focusing on coordinating and collaborating with their colleagues, a healthier work culture can be created. This change shows up in performance numbers. Some of the outcomes are:

• One person helps another person to accomplish his or her goals or tasks
• An environment of partnership is created with shared goals
• Conflict becomes healthy and brings out new ideas
• Opinions are expressed and solutions to problems are found
• Resources and responsibilities  are shared and work gets done
• People are committed to the end result and accountability grows, often to the benefit of the customer
• People approach situations without internal competition saving both time and energy

Focusing on creating a win-win culture can fundamentally and quickly propel an organization forward; energy follows focus. Try it, it works. Look inside a healthy organization, and you will find them working on the right hand side of the relationship model. 

Here are some great questions to get you thinking!

1. Are members of your organization fully engaged in meeting your company goals and objectives?
2. Are your departments or functions more collaborative or competitive?
3. Do conflicts create pain or insight?

Nancy Brown-Johnston has worked in the field of training and organization development in many companies around the world, including General Motors, Saturn Corporation, the US Army, and Delphi Automotive Systems. Nancy co-founded and served as the director of Saturn Consulting Services (SCS), where she led the development of the SCS courses. She also managed the marketing and consulting services to more than 200 external customers, including Chevrolet, Opel, Saab, Delphi Automotive Systems, the U.S. Army, U.S.P.S., and Zeneca Ag Products.

TripleWin’s Professional Development Program is provides theories, models and practice sessions to support developing strong problem solving skills and personal accountability. For more information, see www.triplewin.ch

Are you a complainer or a problem solver? That is a pretty simple, straight-forward question, and your answer is probably, “it depends.” We have a right to complain, and complaining isn’t a problem until it becomes our standard response.

Complaining is becoming epidemic in our world and most of us complain more than we realize.¹ Here is a personal example:

One day on a commuter flight from Chicago to Nashville, I found myself growing impatient. The flight was almost full; I was lucky to be in the emergency exit row. Although we boarded on time, the plane was being held for a few late arriving passengers. I remember thinking, “they never hold the plane for me.” The seat next to me was empty. Then, down the aisle came three sweaty, stressed out passengers. One was a big guy with a big bag and coat. I remember thinking, “oh no, not my seat mate.” Of course, he was. He sat down next to me and immediately began to talk. I thought, “oh great, this is just what I need.” Are you counting? That’s three complaints in less than five minutes!

He told me he and his colleagues were traveling from Alaska to Nashville for a conference and that they had been traveling since early morning along with all kinds of weather and travel issues. They were so glad to make this flight. He was so friendly and nice, actually cheerful. I felt guilty for the initial bad thoughts I had about him. Then, it became even worse!

He was very extroverted and inquisitive and of course asked me all about my work and then told me all about his. After a few minutes, he got out of his seat and dug into the overhead compartment to find a book he wanted me to see. It turns out his company was implementing a “complaint-free culture,” and he was one of the facilitators. When he found out about my training background and work, he wanted to share this resource with me. I spent the next hour reading his book.

Ironically, the book was A Complaint Free World: take the 21-day challenge. The author, Will Bowen, defines a complaint as “an expression of grief, pain, or discontentment.” Bowen challenges his readers to go 21 days without speaking complaints, criticism, or gossip in order to form new positive habits, increase their consciousness, and become problem solvers. I’ve tried it and can attest it is difficult. It’s not impossible, but it’s not easy. I found the book to be confirming of my ideas about choice, complaining, and problem solving.

I have been working with the concepts of problem solving for years. I feel strongly that we can choose our behavior and approach to most situations. In our TripleWin program, Powered by 3 Wins, we define a framework of choice based on being Reactive or Proactive. We created the Choice Path™ to describe the difference between complaining and problem solving, advocating proactivity whenever and where ever possible.We have a choice in most situations of how to respond. When we take the reactive path, we take our experience and let our feelings drive our reaction.

In a sense, we ignore the actual issues and deny our involvement or responsibility in dealing with them. Eventually, it becomes easy to blame someone else. Given the same situation, with the intent to be a problem solver, we make a different choice. We recognize the situation and go into problem solving mode. We take ownership of resolving it. There is often satisfaction and pride gained by accepting responsibility and accountability for solving the problem.

 Are you making good choices?

1. Are you a complainer or a problem solver?
2. When was the last time you discussed how to solve a problem?
3. Are you satisfied with how well you are solving problems?

[1] – A Compliant Free World, Take the 21-Day Challenge, Will Bowen, 2007.

Nancy Brown-Johnston has worked in the field of training and organization development in many companies around the world, including General Motors, Saturn Corporation, the US Army, and Delphi Automotive Systems. Nancy co-founded and served as the director of Saturn Consulting Services (SCS), where she led the development of the SCS courses. She also managed the marketing and consulting services to more than 200 external customers, including Chevrolet, Opel, Saab, Delphi Automotive Systems, the U.S. Army, U.S.P.S., and Zeneca Ag Products.

TripleWin’s Professional Development Program is provides theories, models and practice sessions to support developing strong problem solving skills and personal accountability. For more information, see www.triplewin.ch

When I really need to get organized, I make lists. I create mental lists as well as physical lists. For some people, lists are a natural a way of staying organized and managing their everyday lives. In the language of the popular personality assessment tool, the Myers Briggs Type Indictator (MBTI), it is a life tool of the “J’s” – the Judgers. J’s are people with the preference for a well-planned, orderly, and organized life. They know the power of lists.

By preference, I am not a Judger, in MBTI lingo, I am a Perceiver or “P”, with a preference for flexibility, spontaneity, and living up to the last minute. I tend to let priorities sort themselves out, usually determined by when time literally runs out. My husband asks me if I like always being late, in a hurry, or running behind. That of course, is a typical J question to a typical P. On a typical day, I prefer not to be bound by lists and schedules, until pressure becomes too high. Then, I find the stress to be uncomfortable and to my rescue – a good list!

Like me, most P’s tend to be pressure-prompted. I like making a list in times of stress because once I create a list, my brain doesn’t have to remember or hold on to whatever it is I am trying to remember, and it decreases my stress. As long as I don’t ignore or lose the list, it reduces my anxiety, and I get back on track.

This weekend, when the pressure was high, the lists started to show up. I created silly lists as well as important lists. I wrote a top 10 list of How You Know When You Have Too Many Dogs to deal with my frustrations of living in a house with five dogs. Then, I wrote a top 10 list of How You Know When You Exercise Too Much to justify taking the weekend off from exercising. I also wrote three work related lists. To round off this list making marathon, I wrote this blog, including this list of my favorite kinds of lists and the reasons I make them!

My Favorite Lists

1. Check lists for packing for trips
   So I won’t forget to take something and have to buy it or do without it
2. Grocery store or shopping lists
   So I won’t have to go back or be harassed by my husband for forgetting things
3. Errand lists
   To save time and gasoline or my favorite, so I can send someone else to do my errands
4. “To-do” lists
   To set priorities, organize my day, not take on more tasks than I can manage
5. Lists of things to talk to the doctor about
   So I don’t forget to discuss all the things I need to cover
6. Gift lists
   Birthdays, Christmas, all the special events, not miss buying someone a gift
7. “Thinking on paper” lists
   Lists of all types, I think in terms of lists of bullet points, it is how I organize my thoughts
8. Emergency numbers lists
   In case they are lost or stolen (e.g., credit card and passport numbers)
9. Bucket lists
   A running list of things I want to do, see, learn, or read
10. Affirmation lists
    To read every day to feel good about myself

 
Are you a list maker?  What kinds of lists would increase your effectiveness and make your life easier? Go ahead, start a list!

Nancy Brown-Johnston has worked in the field of training and organization development in many companies around the world, including General Motors, Saturn Corporation, the US Army, and Delphi Automotive Systems. Nancy co-founded and served as the director of Saturn Consulting Services (SCS), where she led the development of the SCS courses. She also managed the marketing and consulting services to more than 200 external customers, including Chevrolet, Opel, Saab, Delphi Automotive Systems, the U.S. Army, U.S.P.S., and Zeneca Ag Products.

TripleWin’s Professional Development Program uses the Myers Briggs Type Indicator in all 6 sessions to assist in the personal and professional growth of the participants. For more information, see www.triplewin.ch

Organizations succeed when they focus on 3 Wins—A Win for the Customer, A Win for the Organization, and A Win for the Individual. Failing to focus on all three simultaneously causes the biggest challenges in daily operations and in long term performance. There is a constant balancing act required and when things are out of balance, issues pop up that must be addressed to assure the organization can reach its performance goals.

I had a conversation recently about a major global corporation that perfectly illustrates this premise. After interviewing 250 people from all regions of the company, the following issues surfaced:

• Lack of commitment to putting the customer first
• Inadequate engineering and quality assurance processes
• Conflict between key major parts of the business
• Competition within the executive team
• Short term focus of the top leaders
• Lack of training and development of people

As a result, the organization is out of balance and even with extensive effort throughout the organization, the sense of winning and success is not being felt. Organizational pride and confidence is low. All 3 Wins – for the Customer, the Organization, and the Individual – are missing.

To address these challenges, I suggest looking at the philosophy used to create and maintain Saturn Corporation’s culture from 1986 until the early 2000s when General Motors eliminated the Saturn brand.

A philosophy of collaboration and a commitment to seek win-win solutions was at the core of the Saturn culture. In my 15 years at Saturn, I helped define the meaning of the triple win:

• The customer is the ‘true north,’ and as such, a win for the customer is always inherent.
• It is necessary for the business to succeed, so the organization naturally is the second win.
• And finally, without every individual benefiting and being developed, the commitment to “do the work” falters, so the third win belongs to each contributing individual.

There was a history of coercion and unhealthy competition in every part of the General Motors’ system, but Saturn’s corporate strategy looked to change the automotive game and emerged as cooperation, collaboration, and a drive for co-ownership. Without cooperation and collaboration the 3 wins were impossible to obtain or maintain. This was the Saturn Difference.

Simply put, creating a TripleWin culture in your organization will make working together easier. The payback will be evident with every decision, every problem, and every interaction.

Can you benefit from the Power of the TripleWin?

1. What is your customer philosophy? Is your customer your partner?
2. What type of culture and environment exists within your organization?

If you aren’t collaborating today, what can you do to start?

Nancy Brown-Johnston has worked in the field of training and organization development in many companies around the world, including General Motors, Saturn Corporation, the US Army, and Delphi Automotive Systems. Nancy co-founded and served as the director of Saturn Consulting Services (SCS), where she led the development of the SCS courses. She also managed the marketing and consulting services to more than 200 external customers, including Chevrolet, Opel, Saab, Delphi Automotive Systems, the U.S. Army, U.S.P.S., and Zeneca Ag Products.

TripleWin’s Professional Development Program is provides theories, models and skill development to support developing and working in a win-win-win culture and environment. For more information, see www.triplewin.ch