Mike Lehr's Blog

Management by objective is basic expectations setting 101; people will tend to achieve the expectations we set for them. Yet, when it comes to training sessions, we often don’t worry about any expectations until there are “cheeks in the seats.” At that point, we set them. The problem is that expectations for the training have already been largely set; it’s uphill trying to change them.

By this time, attendees have already read some sort of description of the training. Most likely, they’ve already heard their managers’ rationales for attending the training. If someone has already attended the training, the “grapevine effect” is in full force. Just as politicians, coaches and promoters work hard to set expectations before elections, games and events, the same should be done for training.

Here are some pointers on what to do prior to the training:

• Invest more energy on the training’s title than on its description; make it marketable yet accurate
• Script what managers or promoters of the training should say about it, including FAQ’s
• Give trainers as much access as possible to potential attendees (i.e. emails, promotional information, links)
• Ensure logistics (i.e. hotel, travel, directions, instructions) run soundly and a helpline exists
• Send a detailed agenda at least a few days prior
• If the training is part of a multi-day event, create opportunities for trainers to socialize with attendees
• Ensure all communication channels (i.e. materials, websites, announcements) are under control and delivering a consistent message

In short, the more you treat the announcement of your training as a marketing effort, the more likely you are to succeed in ensuring the right expectations are set when attendees walk through the door or log in.

Intuitive approaches require the identification of emotional drivers in influencing and problem solving. They generally work better than cognitive approaches because emotional drivers tend to impact behaviors, thoughts and decisions far more than logic, reasons and rationales. Therefore, if we want to effectively identify these drivers, we need techniques to help us. Our word choice is one such technique.

Generally speaking we can uncover feelings by simply asking, “How do you feel about . . .” If we ask, “What do you think about . . .” we’ll tend to receive a heady response rather than a heartfelt one. The word “believe” gives us more of a middle-of-the-road response. We need the mid-range approach because some people do not like to be asked how they feel about things. I once asked a woman how she felt about something, and she replied, “I hate it when you ask that question.” Therefore, we need a mid-range approach for these folks.

Furthermore, we can incorporate these words into our discussion, not just our questions. The more we use the word “feel” the more likely our discussion will hover on an emotional plane. Conversely, the more “think” is used the more likely it will hover on a logical one. In order to avoid redundancy we can incorporate more feeling words like emotions, empathy and sympathy. Thinking words would include reasons, rationale and logic and keep the discussion on a heady level.

If you will be teaching others how to use these words, you need to be aware that some people don’t like to even use the word “feel.” If so, they will have difficulty using this technique.

Here is a valuable problem-solving question:

How can a business maximize its profit every single minute of the day and still go out of business?

The answer is:

It can because it won’t be making any investments; those require expenditures and would prevent the maximization of profits every single minute.

The question has value as a problem-solving training exercise because it forces our attention on the relationship between profits and time:

If the maximization of profits every single minute causes a business to go out of business, what is the appropriate time frame to consider?

As we know, the financial markets like to scrutinize profits quarterly. However, is this really the best time frame? I once contracted for a private company that was positioning itself to be sold. The owner cut staff to the bone in order to beef up the financials and market value. He took a gamble that revenues could hold with the cutbacks at least for the near-term. If a sale did not materialize in the near term, he might have seen service quality suffer and eventually revenues. What did this bode for the acquirer? The implication here is that what we consider a “profitable company” is arguable depending upon the criteria we want to use. In other words, a profitable company could be as subjective as a work of art. Moreover, a costly investment in the near-term might be beneficial in the long term depending upon how we define the long term. Thus, the final question that all of this begs is this:

Over what time period should a business strive to maximize profits?

The mere fact we can debate the question suggests its arbitrariness and why a single business purchase could work for one person and not for the other.

Many things are obvious to us consciously but our actions often betray us. Initiating change among employees is one of those things. We might consciously know that people aren’t light switches but we often expect change as though they were. How often do we say to our bosses, “Yes, I told them about the new way,” in response to pressure as to why employees didn’t adopt a change? Such a response indicates we are expecting people to be light switches.

Switch (FIG #1)

Tomato Plants (FIG #2)

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Look at Figures 1 and 2. Which is more analogous to employees, the light switch or the tomato plants? If we select the plants, can we fully expect them to grow with only one watering or feeding? If we view them as light switches, then yes, we could. Flipping them to “on” has them adopt the changes we want and flip them to “off” has them stop the old habits.

As you can see, my wife is growing these tomato plants by having them grow within a circular, vertical wire frame. This allows them to grow taller so more vines can bear tomatoes. Yes, sometimes the vines extend out of the frame, so she works them back in to encourage them upward. She just didn’t plop down the frame and then expect them to follow it.

The same holds true for people. They require follow up and regularly observation. It usually takes at least five enforcements of the change over a couple months before the change becomes the new habit. Even then, depending upon the change, a periodic refreshing of it is needed. That is why as managers our follow up is more important than what we’ve said.

One of the best problem-solving techniques I learned is writing down the problem as specifically as you can. This technique helps find solutions by:

• Putting the problem in a form that allows you to see it
• Uncovering aspects of the problem you had not considered
• Encouraging you to think about the problem as you choose the right words
• Ensuring everyone is tackling the same problem in brainstorming sessions

My most successful use of this technique involved the design of a week-long seminar for top sales reps regarding some new product lines. I worked with the National Sales Manager to define the problem based upon the questions his people were asking. This question seemed to sum up the rest and became my definition of the problem:

How do we integrate our various products into our story and our presentations?

The training solution this definition gave me was focused on questioning, the premise being that the questions you ask say much about what you’re selling. Therefore, an integrated product line required integrated questioning. How did I arrive at this solution from this definition?

Basically, I contrasted the sales process his people were using with the question and saw something missing: the focus was on what to say about the products at an introduction (story) or closing (presentations) not what to ask, the most important part.

The training was extremely well received by the sales reps; eighteen product managers focused on questioning strategies that the reps could use to uncover problems. I provided the overarching questioning strategy to integrate those. By writing down the problem, I saw something missing. In this case what was missing became the solution.

Remembering names is important, but it’s challenging to do that. It does require time but less so as we train our minds. We do this in the same way we train our bodies for any athletic or skilled endeavor: practice, practice, practice.

Remembering five hundred employee names is quite doable. As proof, start listing all the people you know including celebrities, politicians and athletes. You’ll be surprised as to how many names you can remember. You’ll come very close to 500 if not more, and most of them are probably far less important to you than your employees.

Of course, there are many ways to “cheat” too:

• When you realize that you want to remember someone’s name but don’t, find it out as soon as possible; it’ll be easier to remember later.
• Ask help from others such as people’s managers, front office staff, human resources people
• Always review rosters of attendees for gatherings such as a conferences or seminars before you attend even if you don’t know many people; their names will be easier to remember when you hear them in meeting
• Before visiting, sort and review your contacts by location or department or secure a company roster; try visualizing each person on a roster; research those you don’t remember
• Create “seating charts” to help you by verifying your knowledge in the course of your normal work by using as cheat sheets before and during visits
• Immediately after your visit or attendance, review rosters and re-visualize each person you met; the sooner you do this the better

Keep your own notes on people – including fellow employees – that you can reference before visiting again

The way people look at things is greatly influenced by how they feel about us. People like to hear their names and to have them remembered. Therefore, you can influence their intuitive processes by doing these. While many of us know this, we don’t realize how important it is. It’s an effort very deserving of our time and resources.

In journalism class, instructors will tell students that using names in articles is critical to securing readers’ interest. At a party, someone told me his favorite class was statistics because the professor remembered everyone’s names. A college professor said that a student focus group told his colleagues that professors could improve their course evaluations and standing with students by simply starting to remember and use students’ names in class.

What do names have to do with enjoying statistics or evaluating professors? A lot. They affect people’s intuition which in turns affects their cognition. Their cognition is responsible for producing the rationales that support people’s preferences. The more they like the messenger the more likely they’ll like the message; they’ll learn material, adopt initiatives and perform tasks much quicker and more effectively.

However, remembering people’s names, especially all your employees, might be difficult, but virtually all of us, if we work at it and “cheat” a bit can remember close to five hundred names. First, it’s a matter of saying, “This is important.” Second, it will initially seem like a daunting task, but we become better as we train ourselves. In this sense, our minds work very much like our muscles. They become stronger through training and practicing.

Here are some techniques for using and remembering names.

Intuition’s most practical advantage to problem solving is the enhanced sphere of good solutions it offers. Generally, this sphere will produce five types of benefits. They will appear as solutions that can:

1. Address seemingly intractable problems
2. Save a tremendous amount of money
3. Reduce work and headaches to employ
4. Reach higher levels of effectiveness
5. Make objective- or scientific-based solutions better

Let’s look at some examples.

We can solve many customer service problems without necessarily solving them directly; we do it by listening, sympathizing and encouraging venting. We can save a tremendous amount of money on moral building efforts; we do it by employing our personal power to remember names, shake hands and extend “thank you’s” which don’t cost a cent. We can reduce the work and headaches involved in disciplinary efforts; we do it through the power of asking and of positive reinforcements. We can reach higher levels of effectiveness in change initiatives; we do it by organizing those emotionally adapt at change and by using compliments to encourage them. Any software rollout becomes better; we do it by selling the effort rather than commanding. Any training becomes better; we do it by influencing expectations beforehand and not just focusing on content and delivery during.

All these solutions employ emotional elements. Listening, sympathizing and venting encourage customers to feel better about a problem. Our personal power encourages employees to feel better about us at no cost. Asking and reinforcing encourages people to feel better about changing their behavior. Uniting emotionally similar people and complimenting them encourages them to feel better about change. Shaping how people feel about software and training encourages them to adopt the new practices.

In short, changing how people feel opens a vast, new sphere of solutions to the problems we face.