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One of the first things I notice in other people’s bathrooms is how they hang their toilet paper. I prefer the paper dispensed from the front of the roll and not the back.
Continue reading “This or That? Importance of Organizational Culture”Wrong recipient? Maybe
So, you received that awkward email. Here are some possible scenarios and followup actions:
2. Sensitive but not intended for you.
a. Delete
b. Contact the sender to alert him/her know that you were inadvertently copied on an email
3. Highly sensitive not intended for you and from someone senior to you.
a. Delete
b. If the person is in your building, pay a personal visit to inform of the mistake
c. If the person is not in close proximity, pick up the phone and inform the sender
d. In either scenario, do not discuss the contents
4. Highly sensitive and you were either Cc: or Bcc:
a. If Cc: it is informational only. Do not respond to the email
b. If Bcc: it is most likely not your business; however, the recipient probably thinks you should be informed in secret. Note the information, delete, but under no circumstance respond to ALL in the email
c. Contact the sender privately to either ask that you are Cc: in future communications if you believe you have a need to know.
5. You received an email that was intended for your boss to fire you!
a. I am going to let you work through this one on your own. Good luck with this one.
In all of these scenarios mentioned above, how you handle such situations will depend on your relationships with senders, recipients, the organizational culture, and your ability to manage or mitigate risks. Tone and empathy are very important because you might be the sender in some future case.
Stan Brooks, PhD
The In-basket Exercise. Leveraging the three Ds
Have you ever felt overwhelmed on your first day on the job? Did your manager log you into the computer and told you to go through all the unprocessed emails of your predecessor, then asked you to provide a summary of the most important correspondence in a couple of hours? Unfortunately, this scenario happens more frequently than we imagine. Here is a useful tip I learned while serving in the military. It is called the in-tray/in-basket exercise.
First, create a spreadsheet with the following column headings: disposition(do, delay, discard), priority(high, medium , low), generated_ date, from, to, subject, due_by_date, actions_required, notes
Next, use the three Ds approach to sort the correspondence: Discard, Delay, or Do.
Discard: Quickly go through the correspondence to identify non-significant emails. This might include FYI, sales pitches, advertisements, internal notes on company events, outdated invitations, etc. Flag them for delete as you scan and once you reach the end, delete this group. Do a second scan for the Delay.
Delay: This category of emails might include future actions, Cc: items, low priority items in the past. These items might need action but they might not be your immediate concern. Flag them and move them into a Folder (Delay). This should leave you with a stack of emails that might require your immediate attention.
Stan Brooks, PhD
Help! I’ve just landed a really cool project and I don’t know where to start!
Perhaps, one of the most frustrating and stressful things a new Project Manager faces is to arrive at an organization and be expected to jump right in, take over from the previous manager and keep the project on track. To compound matters, documentation might be lacking, processes not well defined, and the tacit knowledge left with the previous manager.
Here is a formula I have used occasionally and would love to share. I have used this method to get myself up and running quickly, and it has also worked well as a framework when I trained new Project Managers. I used the three Ps (Product, Process, and People) of understanding.
Product. My first task was to fully immerse myself in every aspect of the available documentation of the product or service being offered. I asked for all Business documents used for initiating the project, the Project Charters, Project Plans, and Business Analysts documentation, etc. If there was a corporate repository for the project and related projects, I requested access and I read, read, read. I made sure to make notes along the way and did my best to interpret in my own words what the project/s was/were about and then I found someone knowledgeable to verify my understanding. Once I had a good understanding of the scope of the project, I then turned to the Processes.
Process. Most of the large organizations where I worked had Project Management Offices (PMO) and Corporate Project Repositories. Both of these were usually great starting points to begin learning how projects were initiated, managed, deployed, and closed. Additionally, The PMO provided the corporate structure for change control and the processes for escalation when needed. Each organization had its own processes, so I had to be sure to probe to find additional processes. For example, how teams were notified to engage and how work passed from one team to the other. Once I had a fair understanding of the processes, I moved on to the stakeholders.
People. Work gets done through people. It was vitally important to know the Business or Customer. I learned the business relationships and how involved they were with the projects. I found the Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). These were the key individuals who provided expert knowledge and ensured the work got done correctly. I learned all I could about the supporting teams and how they interfaced and supported the projects. It was also important to know the support organizations like IT, Desktop Support, and similar agencies. Once I collected enough information about the key stakeholders, I made every effort to introduce myself to gain knowledge and build relationships.
Dr. Stan Brooks
Many scholars of tribalism suggested that when tribes(teams) sounded the battle cries, these factions were simply at war with each other and the impacts to the country(organization) were secondary to the trauma experienced between the tribes. However, I would posit, that tribes locked in a tug of war of wills were not pulling against each other, but rather, when tribes engaged in combat, they were, in essence, pulling against the organization.
As tribes became more entrenched in their stated or implied causes, they often lost sight of the bigger picture. For example, we have seen how sectarian violence in some Middle Eastern countries weakened the country so significantly that it invited entities outside of their countries to attack, disrupt, and take over their countries. Similarly, when teams in an organization became self-serving and created impermeable boundaries, that sort of tribalism caused significant damage to inter-organizational effectiveness.
Inter-organizational effectiveness can improve in times of tribalism if Intergroup leaders are trained, prepared, and willing to work across boundaries to ensure inter-organizational effectiveness. Competition in organizations is healthy when it has a specific purpose, is measured, and has definite outcomes. However, competition borne out of tribalism (us vs them) is counterproductive and will become a source of inter-organizational demise. Effective Intergroup Leadership, then, is key to ensuring understanding across boundaries, which ultimately improves inter-organizational effectiveness.
Stan Brooks, PhD