Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom

Should You Gamble on the Next Business Fad?

Corporate America as fun and games?  Maybe, now that gamification has come on the scene.

Gamification is defined as the use of game design techniques to engage audiences. Gamification encourages players to engage in desirable behavior by dangling the carrot otherwise known as “winning.”

The reason we like online gambling so much is that apparently, human beings have a psychological predisposition to gaming. And many organizations are jumping on the gamification bandwagon in order to motivate employees and combat disengagement. 

What's gamification all about?  Find out what I uncovered over at the AMEX OPEN Forum.

How to Save Your Culture from a Merger

I recently attended a networking meeting in downtown Chicago, and a mergers & acquisitions attorney told me that his business was booming.  It seems that in 2012, consolidation is king. Given that I write this column, however, I immediately thought about the impact of all of these mergers on organizational cultures.

A merger usually goes through because it looks great on paper.  All of the numbers line up, and it makes sense from a business perspective.  Unfortunately, many M&A teams fail to take into account how well or poorly two companies with legitimate cultural differences will integrate.

How can you save your culture from an impending merger or acquisition?  Check out my advice over at the AMEX OPEN Forum.

How Much Should You Care About Your Employees' Health?

There really is a consulting firm for everything.

Engaged Health Solutions provides health and well-being coaching and education to employee populations. The company engages a client’s employees in their own well-being and keeps them engaged as they set and meet their goals. “Employers investing in innovative, different programs that will impact their employees' health is definitely a 21st century best practice,” says EHS communications manager Libby Lowe.  But is it effective?  That is, should you invest in a similar program for your employees?

Check out my recent Culture Beat column for my take.

Why Hiring a Superstar Won't Improve Your Business

I don’t follow baseball.

So I was surprised when I got sucked into a recent Harvard Business School article by Carmen Noble detailing Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein’s two-year campaign to acquire star performers with extraordinary multimillion-dollar, multiyear contracts.

The piece describes one of the most expensive talent hunts in baseball history, starting with the signing of veteran pitcher John Lackey from the Anaheim Angels. Other high-profile hires followed, and baseball aficionados hailed the 2011 Red Sox as one of the greatest teams of all time.

To say the team didn’t live up to expectations would be an understatement. In September 2011, the Red Sox lost 18 of its last 24 games and lost a shot at the playoffs. The glittering, star-studded team was a failure.

The fall of superstars is common in business too. Just look at the number of CEO departures last year, like Leo Apotheker at HP, Carol Bartz at Yahoo!, Ernest Lieb at Mercedes-Benz and Tom Williams at Reader’s Digest, to name a few.

This year is not looking much better. According to placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, CEO departures are up 17 percent from a year ago, with a total of 227 departures tracked through the first two months of 2012 compared to 187 at the same point in 2011.

The most common reason cited is disappointing performance, which, in most cases, came as a surprise. The star, after all, was hired because he had a track record of extraordinary contributions at previous organizations. Why wasn’t he able to replicate that success here?

Find out in my recent AMEX OPEN Forum Culture Beat column, in which I discuss why hiring a superstar might not improve your business.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Virtual Teams

A virtual team is a group of people who work toward a common goal and are connected by technology though physically separated. Virtual teams scare a lot of people, who have visions of spending their time on all-night conference calls and not being able to trust team members they can’t see.

Nevertheless, the trend is coming at us like a full-speed train. A Google search of “virtual teams” revealed some interesting 2011 research published in Hypergrid Business, a magazine devoted to virtual teaming.

The study, “Virtual Work Environments in a Post-Recession Era,” conducted on behalf of Brandman University by Forrester Consulting, revealed strong adoption of virtual teams. Forty percent of survey respondents said that 40 percent or more of their company’s employees work in virtual teams today, and more than half expect virtual teaming to increase in the next one to three years.

Managerial concerns associated with virtual teaming are many. 57 percent cited earning trust, 49 percent cited communicating effectively, 43 percent cited managing projects and deadlines successfully and 43 percent cited creating consensus during decision making as among the top concerns.

Considering that virtual teams are so pervasive and so many managers are losing sleep over them, my Culture Beat column over at the AMEX OPEN Forum includes some virtual teaming best practices.  Hope you'll check them out!

4 Steps for Success Working Overseas

Whether you’re a small business owner or an employee in a cast of thousands, you may find yourself working overseas at some point.

According to PriceWaterhouseCoopers, a  major uptick will occur in the number of cross-national business assignments in the next 10 years. This is an exciting development for some people, and intimidating for others.

But working in a foreign culture is not so different than simply taking on a new role in your country of origin. You have to hone your general business acumen and your communication, language and problem-solving skills.

Check out my post at the AMEX OPEN Forum for four steps to help ensure that you can assimilate effectively.

Hire with Less Risk

In-person conversational interviews are notoriously ineffective for determining whether a new hire will be a good fit.  In many instances, a second interview is needed to more completely assess whether a particular candidate is well suited to an open position.  Work simulations, sometimes also known as case interviews, provide candidates with a real-life business problem similar to one that might be faced on the job.

Make it Real

Many experts suggest using real rather than fictional problems for work simulations, since real problems are always more complicated and difficult than anything you could make up.  For instance, if you are evaluating a marketing manager’s strategic thinking ability, perhaps you could have a candidate develop a potential launch plan for a product you rolled out last year.  On the other hand, if you need to test whether a bank administrator knows how to use your accounting software, you could ask him to complete an assignment using that tool.  If the position you’re hiring for isn’t your own, it’s smart to enlist the help of people currently doing the job in question in order to put together the most appropriate simulation.

Look at Process

While you should certainly be interested in the solution the candidate derives for your simulated problem, you should also pay attention to the process by which he arrived there.  Did he ask for a suitable amount of background information?  Were his questions pertinent and thoughtful?  Did he proceed through the right channels and call on the appropriate resources?  If relevant, did he develop a realistic timeline and budget?  Figure out how you will evaluate success on the simulation in advance (e.g. a rating scale from 1-5 on certain attributes, a checklist of completed steps).

Make Sure It’s Worth It

Work simulations are advantageous in that they showcase a variety of the competencies you’re looking for, and help candidates to understand exactly what the job entails.  However, they do take much more time and effort on behalf of the team leader, so you’ll want to make sure you reserve this type of interview for candidates who are under serious consideration.

This post was originally published on Intuit's Quickbase blog.

 

The 5 Most Awkward Conversations at Work

1. You asked your co-worker if she was pregnant, and she's not.
2. You asked your boss of eight years if he enjoyed his Christmas, and he had to remind you that he's Jewish.
3. Your co-worker is a touchy-feely type, and you just admitted it makes you uncomfortable.
4. A colleague just remarked on an unsavory habit of yours - like the fact that you bite your nails.
5. After going on about how much you dislike a new hire, your colleague informs you he's her cousin.

Okay, so maybe these aren't THE most awkward conversations, but they are certainly good examples.  In fact, I am certain there is no shortage of truly awkward moments that could occur at the office.  In order to make them less excruciating, here are some suggestions.

If Someone Made an Awkward Comment to You

Rather than acting offended or taken aback, keep your cool and be as gracious as possible.  Say something simple like "thanks for letting me know," or even something moderately tongue-and-cheek, like "thanks for sharing."  Then, proceed to change the subject and converse as if the awkward comment never happened.  Recognize that the other person is probably still uncomfortable, sol do your best to engage him or her in a discussion by asking questions and demonstrating body language that shows there are no hard feelings.

If You Made the Awkward Comment

Instead of standing there like you were the victim of a stun gun, make light of the moment in order to put both of you at ease.  My go-to phrase in this situation is, "well, that was awkward."  Smile and turn the conversation in a positive direction.  For example, in the case of the non-pregnant co-worker, you might say, "I guess you must be glowing for another reason.  What skin care regimen do you use?  I might have to try it."

Now more than ever, it's important to be mentally present for the person.  Don't let yourself get distracted by technology or other people during the conversation, and genuinely listen to what she's saying.  The more involved and attentive you are, the less likely you are to find yourself in the middle of another uncomfortable moment.

This post was originally published on Intuit's Quickbase blog.

 

Can Your Boss Count on You?

You know what I've realized in my tenure as a manager? The number one quality I appreciate most in a direct report is reliability.  By reliable, I mean a person who says she is going to do something, and then actually does it in the agreed-upon manner.

You’d think this one would be kind of a no brainer for employees, especially when it comes to the boss who hands out the paychecks. But time and time again, in both my personal and professional life, I come across people who nod and smile when I ask them to help out with something, make promises they never intend to keep, or volunteer to assist with projects because it makes them look good.

As a result, I develop the dangerous expectation that I can stop worrying about that particular aspect of the project, that I can count on this person to take care of it. And imagine how disheartened I am when the deadline approaches (or worse, passes), and I either have to nag my report to complete the task and put it back on my own plate. I’ve fallen victim to my mother’s old warning: “if you let someone else’s lack of planning become your emergency, you’re a fool.”

A lot of the time, people who don’t keep their word aren’t doing it maliciously. They fully intend to get the task done, but they forget, get distracted with something else, or keep telling themselves they’ll get to it eventually. Nevertheless, it’s exactly these types of situations that make me a manager who delegates reluctantly. I know that if a project is in my hands, I can control how and when it gets done.  But if I have to trust another person, it’s a different situation entirely.

I know that I’m not alone in this. If you want to be the kind of employee bosses love, do your job without being prodded, and once you agree to a task, don’t let it slide. Always meet your deadlines, and if something comes up that makes that impossible, give your manager plenty of heads up. Never underestimate the importance of being the person who brings peace of mind to the team, the person who makes it possible for the boss to ask once and then walk away confidently, knowing that the task in good, capable hands.