Ember Carriers Blog | From Possibility to Results

How to Improve Communication within Your Organization

November 14th, 2011

Mary Hladio

What is your communication strategy?

It’s mid-season in the NFL. Where first year coaches are winning and rookie quarterbacks are making a huge impact.

CEO’s looking to improve communication within their organization and enhance employee engagement can adopt an easy-to-use communication blitz strategy of their own.

Ultimately, it can help the organization communicate comprehensively and release proactive messages to help manage any ongoing change.

Senior leaders develop a succinct, short message; divide themselves into groups; and go out into the work areas of the supervisors to discuss the message, receive feedback, and check for retention.
The supervisors meet with their employees in small groups and deliver the same message — the goal in this step is to have 40 percent retention, meaning that 40 percent of the employees can clearly articulate the message.

It is important for leaders to document how well their employees retain the message, and leaders must be careful not to measure the success of their communication based on their point of view. There are always opportunities to improve the effective delivery of a message, and the only way to avoid assumptions of retention is to monitor retention with the receiver.

Patricia Landry, who led the manufacturing excellence implementation at the Noranda Alumina processing plant in Gramercy, La., over the last couple years, says making communication clear and concise during a big project is the single most important factor in the implementation of change. Developing a blitz strategy for Noranda, where communication is not a strength, allowed the leaders of the company to focus on their audience, understand how to communicate the specifics of the project, and keep things simple. Most of the feedback was positive, and Landry says the company plans to use the blitz strategy in the future.

Looking for a way to increase productivity and communication within your company? Call a senior consultant with Ember Carriers at (513) 984-9333 for a 30-minute complimentary consultation to discover how to FUEL your business communications.

Reliable Plant (09/01/11) Mikes, Joe; Landry, Patricia

Web: www.embercarriers.com|Twitter: www.twitter.com/embercarriers|LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mhladio

The Future is not iPads – Does Your Business have True Vision

November 10th, 2011

Mary Hladio

I have to first say that I have iPad envy or any tablet like devices that is just plain cool. Last week, Microsoft posted a futuristic video which showed future-people working, playing, and living in a world filled with touch screens.

Many were impressed by the video and tweets went a flying amid the news of Goggle’s moe to pull gmail from Blackberry devices and how Siri is changing the world of SEO. Microsoft’s “vision,” of the world in 2019 seems like a logical extension of all the screens we touch and view every day.

However, former Apple human interface innovator (2007-2010), Bret Victor, was not so moved by Microsoft’s vision. He helped design the gestures and user interface of the iPad so he knows a thing or two on the topic. So he posted what he called an epic rant on his website detailing everything wrong with a future inhabited by “Pictures Under Glass,” representations of real world items on touchscreens.

Considering his opinion is incredibly informed its worth reading. It’s also challenging, given the iPad is essentially a display for “Pictures Under Glass,” as Victor says. I suggest you read the post in its entirely, first, make sure you see Microsoft’s video that he’s writing about.

Here are some of the good parts from Victor’s post:

On a future of touch screens: “This vision, from an interaction perspective, is not visionary. It’s a timid increment from the status quo…”

On touching tools: “Notice how you know where you are in the book by the distribution of weight in each hand, and the thickness of the page stacks between your fingers. Turn a page, and notice how you would know if you grabbed two pages together, by how they would slip apart when you rub them against each other…. There’s a reason that our fingertips have some of the densest areas of nerve endings on the body. This is how we experience the world close-up.”

On iPad: “I call this technology Pictures Under Glass. Pictures Under Glass sacrifice all the tactile richness of working with our hands, offering instead a hokey visual facade.“

“Pictures Under Glass is an interaction paradigm of permanent numbness. It’s a Novocaine drip to the wrist. It denies our hands what they do best. And yet, it’s the star player in every Vision Of The Future.”

Here’s the meat:

“And this is my plea — be inspired by the untapped potential of human capabilities. Don’t just extrapolate yesterday’s technology and then cram people into it.”

“Our hands feel things, and our hands manipulate things. Why aim for anything less than a dynamic medium that we can see, feel, and manipulate?”

“With an entire body at your command, do you seriously think the Future Of Interaction should be a single finger?”

As I think about organizational development and the struggle companies have to be truly innovative. Are we pushing the envelope or are we merely a “timid increment from the status quo…” Are we blazing a new path or running along side of already existing “vision.”

Does your business need a fresh perspective to move it to the next level? Call a senior consultant with Ember Carriers at (513) 984-9333 for a 30-minute complimentary consultation to discover how to FUEL your business.

Business Insider (10/09) Hamburger, Ellis

Web: www.embercarriers.com|Twitter: www.twitter.com/embercarriers|LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mhladio

A Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction Design (worrydream.com)
Former Apple UI designer thinks touchscreens are a “hokey visual facade”, calls for innovation in “tactile richness” (9to5mac.com)
Okay iPad Wannabes, What Are You Going To Do Now That Flash Is Dead? (GOOG, ADBE) (businessinsider.com)

How to Link Learning and Behavioral Styles to Improve Performance

November 7th, 2011

Mary Hladio

Learning and development professionals have long known that people learn in different ways. However, it is also true that people

Highlighting Performance

behave and respond to others’ behavior in a variety of ways.

Ideally, effective learning takes into account both a person’s learning style and behavioral style. Doing so results in improved reinforcement of learning and more effective organizations and teams. For example:

For people who concentrate on results, it would be worthwhile to demonstrate specific near-term benefits
Individuals who value facts and logic should be provided with case studies and fact-based support that documents the importance of the learning
People who are communicative and enjoy achieving recognition will be interested in programs that add a personal element.
Relationship- or team-building aspects will appeal to learners who naturally advocate such collaborative efforts.

It may appear difficult to accommodate different learners, but it is actually readily achievable. A marketing piece, for instance, can contain different components that appeal to people of each behavioral style. Each person with a particular style gets what they need and is motivated to attend, while no one is alienated. It is also important to ensure that post-learning support takes into account different behavioral preferences by offering such things as the ability to post comments and share tips, which can be modified to appeal to people of all behavioral styles.

Ember Carriers at (513) 984-9333 for a 30-minute complimentary consultation to discover how to use behavior analysis to improve your companies performance.

Chief Learning Officer (09/11) Mulqueen, Casey

Web: www.embercarriers.com|Twitter: www.twitter.com/embercarriers|LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mhladio

Learning-Styles Theory Questioned By Researchers (huffingtonpost.com)
Learning Styles (theheartoflearning.wordpress.com)

For Bright Ideas, Ask Your Employees

October 31st, 2011

Mary Hladio

According to Alan G. Robinson, a professor in the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, the

Inspire employees for to have great ideas

average U.S. worker sees his or her input implemented only once every six years. This is despite the having the opportunity to contribute ideas.

The most innovative companies do not merely comb the executive ranks for ideas on how to cut costs and create new products and services.. More companies have begun to realize the value of their workers’ ideas as a result of the emergence of innovation-management programs such as BrainBank, InnoCentive and Spigit, which help firms set up innovation systems for employees to enter contests, submit ideas and vote on the input of co-workers.

PricewaterhouseCoopers, which launched an idea-management website called iPlace two years ago, has received more than 3,300 new ideas, and has implemented 140;

Bruce Power in Ontario, Canada, which uses special kiosks in its plant, says some of the 11,000 ideas submitted over the past three years have led to millions of dollars in cost-savings.

A monetary reward might not be an effective way to encourage submissions because most people will be driven by a real desire to make their work easier or cut through hassle, adds Robinson.

Troyer Foods wants to make submitting ideas so ingrained at the Goshen, Ind., wholesale food distributor that it becomes “part of the job expectation and part of the performance review,” says CEO Becky Ball-Miller.

Great ideas can

come from unexpected places.

Would like help getting more ideas from your employees or some strategies to boost to your performance contact Mary Hladio, (513) 984-9333 for a 30-minute complimentary consultation to discuss a success plan.

Wall Street Journal (10/17/11) Silverman, Rachel Emma

Web: www.embercarriers.com|Twitter: www.twitter.com/embercarriers|LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mhladio

Talent Drain on the Brain

October 24th, 2011

Mary Hladio

Missing talent in your organization

As most American companies continue their ongoing emergence from the recession, they are faced with a significant problem: Despite persistent levels of high unemployment, there is an increasingly serious dearth of the highly skilled talent they require to remain competitive.

To some degree, the recession doubled as a nifty retention strategy; when there was nowhere else to go, no one wanted to leave and now that may now no longer be the case. Success-minded companies must determine who and what they need.

When it comes to their customers, most companies are clear about who their core customers are and what they require to remain customers. Companies should be equally analytical in identifying and segmenting their must-have key talent. They should consider developing the top-tier talent management programs that can attract and allow them to keep the critical talent they need.

Integral to any strategy for wooing, winning, and retaining key talent is an understanding of the critical talent’s “must-haves.” Understanding the different goals, ambitions, and expectations of the new multigenerational workforce is customary.

In Deloitte’s March 2011 global employee survey:65 percent of respondents said they are exploring their career options, and the respondents cited the following weaknesses in their companies’ corporate talent programs:

Uncertain career paths (57 percent of respondents)
Lack of trust in leadership (57 percent of respondents)
Difficulty keeping top performers (50 percent f respondents)
Inadequate training programs (48 percent of respondents)
Poor leadership development (35 percent of respondents)

Beef up your strategy to attract and retain the skills need for your organization, contact Mary Hladio, (513) 984-9333 for a 30-minute complimentary consultation to discuss an action plan.

Business Finance (09/11) Schwartz, Jeff; Erickson, Robin

Web: www.embercarriers.com|Twitter: www.twitter.com/embercarriers|LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mhladio

Managing the ‘Very’ Difficult Employee

October 17th, 2011

Mary Hladio

'Problem' Employees

A new study, by Susan L. Ettner, Joanna Catherine MacLean, and Michael T. French indicated that:

18 percent of adult men
16 percent of adult women

have personality disorders that adversely affect how they think and act in the workplace. The study examined personality disorders through face-to-face interviews using standard diagnostic tests.inflatable water slide canada

The disorders may cause a person to interpret memos in distorted ways, envision non-existent conspiracies, interpret innocent comments as personal insults, or refuse to accept simple changes in procedures.

The most prevalent personality disorder is obsessive-compulsive behavior, followed by general antisocial behavior and paranoia. Companies should note that once personality disorders are diagnosed, they are covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act and other state-level legislation.

Organizations might use their employee-assistance programs to help individuals identify their problems and seek treatment. Supervisors can also redesign such individuals’ jobs and tasks so they “fit” what they are capable of doing. However, supervisors may eventually need to meet with their legal department to determine how much variation from the norm they find acceptable.

Human Resource Executive Online (06/20/11) Cappelli, Peter