Newsletter: 2004 January Issue

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Newsletter

January 2004

Spotlight: Discover the Barbaric Yawp Within

What, you may ask, is a yawp — and what does it have to do with being able to communicate well as a leader? Senior managers who participated in a day-long Queen's Industrial Relations Centre program found themselves considering this recently. The answer: It has something to do with the “four I's.” ...more

This Issue: Whoa, that's change: Back by popular demand, three Warp Speed programs are set to run this Spring. ...more Healing Hawkesbury: How an Eastern Ontario hospital diagnosed its organizational woes and found a cure. ...more Our Director is in good company: Queen's IRC Director Carol Beatty is adding value in all the right places. ...more The four I's: We have some smart and soulful language tips for the leader in you. ...more

Upcoming Programs All - Toronto- Regina - Halifax Sept. 21 - 26, Kingston Industrial Relations Register Sept. 22 - 25, Kingston Building Smart Teams Register Sept. 23 - 26, Toronto Change Management Register Sept. 30 - Oct. 03, Regina Dispute Resolution Register Oct. 07, Toronto Performance Management Essentials and Strategy Register Oct. 07 - 08, Toronto Compensation Clinics (Performance+Group Benefits Programs) Register Oct. 08, Toronto Employee Group Benefits Register Oct. 15 - 17, Toronto Business Strategy Register Oct. 19 - 24, Kingston Negotiation Skills Register Oct. 21 - 24, Regina Building Smart Teams Register

One Strategy, Two Changes, Three Days

Our three-day Change Management at Warp Speed programs are earning quite a reputation for delivering fast and effective training to change agents. Based on our highly regarded five-day Change Management programs for change champions, Warp Speed includes briefings on change theory as well as opportunities to work on the Queen's IRC-designed Change-O-Meter computer simulation. It is an efficient way for several members of a change team to learn the same skills at the same table. We have four dates in 2004 in Toronto and Ottawa to choose from.

We are particularly pleased to announce a new program in the series, Strategic HR Leadership at Warp Speed, delivered in partnership with Human Resources Professionals of Ontario (HRPAO). This is a superb two-day program for HR pros wanting to ramp up fast in the strategy formation process. It will be led by Dr. Elspeth Murray from the Queen's School of Business and Brenda Barker-Scott from Queen's IRC, and based on our brand new computer simulation, Harmon Health. Strategic HR Leadership at Warp Speed is the first professional development program that HRPAO has ever offered before its big conference in February.

For information on the three-day Change Management at Warp Speed, go to: http://www.industrialrelationscentre.com/change-management/

The Prescription for a Hospital's Successful Recovery

For years, the Admissions department at Hawkesbury District General Hospital had been ailing. “Most of our complaints from patients came from there, so obviously, we were very concerned,” recalls Raymond Lemieux, Vice President, Human Resources Services, of the Eastern Ontario institution. “As well, all the employees in Admissions were really stressed, and morale was poor.”

One key problem was that in the four positions in Admissions, employees were continually shifting from one chair to another. The idea was that if everyone knew all four jobs, it would be easier to cover when someone was ill. But in practice, employees were so mobile they never could master any one job, which created errors and stress.

“We needed a way to make a change happen in a well-planned manner,” says Lemieux. The hospital decided to invest in a Queen's IRC custom change management program, which provided the diagnostics and tools to clear up Admissions' problems — and quickly.

“Before the training, we didn't have the programs or strategies we needed. But afterward, we had ideas and tools to give us direction,” Lemieux says. “We felt empowered and confident.”

Training sessions were held for the CEO and all managers, providing common tools, a common vocabulary, and a coordinated approach to change. Then the six-member change team began harnessing what they had learned to improve their own situation.

For example, the team employed a change formula introduced in IRC's program to ensure that stakeholders were onside. “We learned how important a sense of dissatisfaction and urgency, a clear vision, and the right first steps are to overcoming resistance to change,” says Lemieux. “We looked carefully at each of these elements, and applied the model.

“As a result, communications became a key component of our strategy, which it wouldn't have been otherwise. We acted on our new awareness of the importance of celebrating small wins before the end of the change process. Most amazing of all, applying the ideas allowed us to transform resistance into true partnership. One woman actually said, ‘I will lose personally in this, but this is good for the organization so I support it.'”

The custom program not only provided guidance and tools for improving the environment for patients and staff, but helped Hawkesbury District General's Admissions department to a speedy recovery. “We've made a big change quickly. We saved time because of this training: if we didn't have it, we may have zigzagged around instead of getting straight to the result we wanted.”

Since changes were implemented in November, there has been a dramatic change for the better in Admissions, Lemieux says. Complaints and errors are down and employee spirit is up. Out-of-the-box initiatives, such as a harpist playing soothing music in the waiting room, are giving the department a new reputation: it is now considered the best working environment in the hospital.

But Hawkesbury District General is not going to take its improved health for granted. Managers will revisit Queen's IRC training to ensure ongoing good performance, says Lemieux. “We plan to use the IRC tools to do a six-month, post-change evaluation in May 2004.”

For information on how Queen's Industrial Relations Centre can design a custom learning solution for your organization, contact Stephanie Noel at (613) 533 6000 Ext 77158 or sln@post.queensu.ca

Anyone See Carol?

If you have seen her in action, you would never call Queen's IRC Director Carol Beatty a shy sort. Known as a solid academic with high-level teaching skills, Carol enjoys the give-and-take interactions that come from being involved with a number of professional and industry associations. She recently agreed to sit on the 2004 Advisory Board of the Conference for Management and Executive Development, an association of directors and professional staff of colleges and universities across North America. Carol also serves on the selection committee for the prestigious Manning Awards for Canadian innovators, and on the Human Resources Advisory Board of the Department of National Defence.

Spotlight
Smart and Soulful Language Skills for Leaders

By Kirsteen MacLeod, Queen's Industrial Relations Centre Communications Team

What, you may ask, is a yawp — and what does it have to do with being able to communicate well as a leader? Senior executives who participated in a day-long IRC custom program found themselves considering this recently.

Let's begin with an explanation of “yawp”: it means “to bark or yelp.” A “barbaric yawp” is featured in a scene from The Dead Poets Society, in which an unorthodox English professor (actor Robin Williams) gives an assignment that terrifies his shyest student. He wants each person to write a poem, then recite it in front of the class. When the student says he didn't do it, Mr. Keating writes a line from poet Walt Whitman on the blackboard — “I sound my barbaric yawp.” Then, evoking the spirit of Whitman, Keating uses leadership coaching skills to help the boy to “yawp” and move beyond his resistance to create something original.

Okay, that brings us to the connection between barbaric yawping and leadership communications. The scene I've just described was one of four clips that IRC's trainers played for senior managers who were participating in the custom communications program. Each focused on one of the four I's, the key responsibilities of good leader/communicators: to ignite peoples' imagination; to invite them to participate in the enterprise; to inform them of the issues and facts; and to involve people by soliciting input and breaking imaginary barriers (ilustrated by the yawp example above).

In a very dramatic way, the clips clarified the critical role that leaders play in getting messages across and bringing about change. Participants were energized, setting the stage for two afternoon sessions to help them improve their leadership communications skills — a writing workshop, and a presenting workshop.

During the afternoon writing session, I was surprised to notice some participants seemed to be back to where had been at the beginning of the program: with doubts about the importance of leadership communications. When I began to talk about ways that good writing skills can support leaders in each of their four key roles, referring back to the film clips they'd seen earlier, one participant said: “Yes, that's fine when you are encouraging someone to yawp, or leading an army, but what has this really got to do with me in sewage services?”

We all had a good laugh: it was comical to picture Robin Williams using his over-the-top coaching technique to help staff members to find a new way to achieve productivity gains in municipal waste services. Okay, I said, you may not be saving the world. But you are doing something important, something that adds value to our society, and the principles of good communications are the same for you as they are for any other leader. If you can say it or write it well – clearly and in a compelling way – people are more likely to hear your message, and be influenced. We may not receive Academy Awards, but we can learn a lot from these leadership examples, extracting useful ideas about how to communicate better in everyday life.

Leaders don't always seem to realize that the way they communicate makes a huge difference: both to their ability to lead, and to the lives of the people who work for them. It's as though we get so task-focused and pragmatic that we forget all about the strategic, visionary aspect of leadership communications.

Good leader/communicators have great power to:

• Help to focus people on what's important
• Minimize speculation
• Create a sense of community
• Foster acceptance and ownership, and
• Keep people moving forward toward common goals.

There's a lot of untapped leadership communications potential out there. That's why in upcoming columns, we plan to apply the principle of the barbaric yawp to break boundaries and help unleash some of it. Just as Mr. Keating evoked the spirit of Walt Whitman, we plan to summon the powers of good storytelling, poetry, and figurative language to help you improve your skill as leader-communicators.

Communications techniques are changing, reflecting today's greater emphasis on authenticity, self awareness and relationships in business environments. We want to show you how the smart and soulful use of language will help you win your employees' minds and hearts, and make you a leading force for positive change within your organization.

SIDEBAR: On your mark, get set, write!

Let's try a quick “timed writing.” Like exercising or playing musical scales, timed writings build your abilities when done regularly: they will help you write more quickly, and with more ease and focus.

• Get a pen and paper. Make sure you won't be interrupted for 10 minutes. Now think for a moment about the writing you do in your job. How do you feel about your writing skills? Are you comfortable when preparing memos or other materials, or not particularly? What are some specific challenges you face relating to written communications in your job? (Perhaps you felt unable to convey your message clearly or in an interesting way – or even elated because you could.) How would you like to improve your writing skills?

• Now take five minutes to write down how you feel about writing in your job and what you'd like to be able to do better — without stopping to think or taking your pen from the paper to edit. Feel free to go anywhere you want with this: even if you end up writing about how you feel as you are doing the exercise, or veer totally off track – wherever you end up is fine. There is no right answer. What's important is that you don't stop writing for the full five minutes.

Timed writings are an easy way to improve your skills: make them a habit for writing you do in your job. Here's how:

• Choose whatever length of time you feel is appropriate to your writing task (perhaps five or ten minutes). For example, I chose five minutes to write the first draft of this exercise. You can use timed writings as a way to get down a first draft of short materials such as memos, or even to map out a structure for long reports.

• Get a pen and paper, and make sure you won't be interrupted during your writing time. Close your door; call forward your phone — whatever it takes.

• Now think a few moments about your topic, and your audience.

• When you are ready, check the clock, and begin writing. Put down whatever comes into your mind. Don't take your pen from the paper, and never stop to edit. This will be surprisingly hard to do at first, but just keep going. If need be, even write down negative thoughts that come up – I can't spell, this is a silly exercise, whatever – just keep writing until your time is up.

• Now you have something to work with, something creative and unhindered by thoughts about how the audience might react, perhaps, or your atrocious spelling. Invite your inner editor to join at the next stage: type what you like from your timed writing into your computer, and revise it from there.

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E-mail us: ircentre@post.queensu.ca