This is a continuation of  January's Thought, "Conventional Wisdom is NOT Always Correct"

The Focus of Great Managers

Successful managers are able to create an environment where (when asks to rate/evaluate the manager) each employee can positively rate the answers to each of these six questions:

1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?

2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?

3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?

4. In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?

5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?

6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?

All of the data from the three studies is consistent with Choice Theory ®.  All workers have some sort of a Quality World Pictures that include being successful at what they do.  They usually include a sense of belonging with other workers, a positive, respectful relationship with the manager, to choose areas in which to continue to build skills and to have, at minimum, enjoyment at work.  This, of course, translates to a "need satisfying” work experience.

When managers can create a work environment that allows people to work with their talents, be successful and get-a-long, their own ratings, and personal satisfaction are also high.

The Role of Perceptions

The Gallup Organization identified 34 distinct talents (Rath, 2007, p. i).  As previously stated, talents are unique to each individual.  They determine to some degree how we see the world, process information and determine what situations we are comfortable in and which ones we aren’t.  This point is also consistent with Choice Theory and the Perceived World.

Based on the research, all of these studies challenge conventional wisdom and teaching.  The message is always to “overcome your weaknesses”.  Yet, in many cases this is not possible. 

A clarification of definitions will help clarify this point.

Skills are the how-to’s of a role.  They are capabilities that can be transferred from one person to another.

Knowledge is simply “what you are aware of.  There are two kinds of knowledge: factual knowledge – things you know; and experiential knowledge – understandings you have picked up along the way.

The power of knowledge and skill is that they are transferable from one person to another.  Their limitation is that they are often situation specific - faced with an unexpected scenario, they may lose much of their power.

Talents cannot be taught.  The power of talent is that it is transferable from situation to situation.

Rath (2007) concludes, “When we’re able to put most of our energy into developing our natural talents, extraordinary room for growth exists.  So, a revision to the “You-can-be-anything-you-want-to-be” maxim might be more accurate:  You cannot be anything you want to be – but you can be a lot more of who you already are.” (p. 9)

An Additional Thought for Parents and Educators Reflection

In the following point that Rath (2007) is making, he is NOT saying that students can’t learn to increase their knowledge and/or skills.  However he does make a cogent argument for developing and focusing on talents.

What’s even more disheartening is the way our fixation on deficits affects young people in the home and classroom.  In every culture we have studied, the overwhelming majority of parents (77% in the United States) think that a student’s lowest grades deserve the most time and attention.  Parents and teachers reward excellence with apathy instead of investing more time in the areas where the child has the most potential for greatness. (p. 7)

December

“10 Questions to help you find The SECRET

behind Writing Goals”

These are just some of the questions that can be used to help you, or others, identify  the motivating pictures in the

Quality World.

1. What will you have, if you accomplish your goal?
2. What will you get when you reach your goal?
3. What will you have when you get what you want?
4. What will be different in your life when you meet your goals?

After you reach your goal:

5. Who will you want to tell and why?
6. What will you be doing?
7. What will you be thinking?
8. How will you be feeling?
9. What will others behave when they are around you?
10. What will others say about you?

Bob Hoglund

November

Claude Levi-Strauss wrote that, “The wise man doesn't give the right answers, he poses the right questions.”  Dr. Deming adds, “If you do not know how to ask the right question, you discover nothing.”

In workshops, we teach the following questions to help people examine and evaluate the data they have collected.

First of all,  what is the question or, what is the problem we are trying to solve?

That is followed by:

1. What does the data tell us?
2. What does the data NOT tell us?

To continue the political theme from this month’s THOUGHT, these can be extremely valuable questions! 

1. What did the candidate’s message/answer say?
2. What did the candidate’s message/answer NOT say?

After every debate, speech and commercial, political pendants on both sides were scrutinizing every claim to be able to report what part of the message was true and accurate and what part had been stretched or was misleading.

I believe that asking questions promotes deeper thought, understanding, and responsibility.  The same questions can be an important, helpful part of your daily repertoire.   In workshops I encourage counselors, educators and business leaders to really listen to the answers they are getting (from their clients, student’s, employee’s) and ask themselves:

1. How does the person see the situation?
2. How did they arrive at that conclusion?
3. What is the evidence for their  perception?
4. What does their answer tell you?
5. What does their answer not tell you?

Your careful attention to these questions will help keep you focused on what your person (client, student, employee) is really saying or not saying.   They will also help you determine what question or line of questioning to pursue.

Bob Hoglund

October

Goal setting, whether long term or short term, is a process.  Whether setting goals ourselves, or helping others with their goals, the reality therapy questioning process can be invaluable to counselors, educators, and anyone that supervises people in the business world.

There are numerous ways to word or phrase each question.  It is the quality of the question that we ask our self or others that determines the quality of the answers.

Below is a list of five ways to ask the want, doing, and evaluation questions that will help you or the person you are working with to clarify goals.  There are 10 questions to help you or others develop action plans.

WANT:  What do you want?

Finding out what people want is crucial in the “Questioning Process”.  It is an attempt to find out, or clarify, what is in the Quality World of the person we are working with.  The client, student or employee will eventually be asked to evaluate how effectively he is matching these Quality World pictures.

1.      What do you want?

2.      What don’t you want?

3.      What do you want to achieve?

4.      What would you like to learn about?

5.      If you could change one thing, what would it be?

DOING:  What are you doing?

This question is used to gather information about behavior and perceptions of what is, or has been, happening.  The attempt is to get at the “facts” or “perceptions” of the student in any situation.

1.    How did you prepare for __________?

2.    What strategies have you used to reach your goal?

3.    Tell me how you have been following your plan.

4.    Were there any steps you skipped?  Any you repeated?

5.    What have you done differently than you did before?

EVALUATE:  Is it helping or hurting?

The effectiveness of this question comes from non-critically helping others evaluate whether or not what they are doing is effective.  The evaluation question attempts to place a value or importance on his/her choices, actions, thoughts, feelings, perceptions, pictures, priorities, etc.

No matter how much others tell us that what we are doing isn’t working, none of us will change our behavior until we decide that what we are doing isn’t working!

1.      Are you satisfied with the results?

2.      What part of the results are you satisfied with?

3.      Are there any parts of the results you aren’t satisfied with?

4.      How did this help you meet your goal(s)?

5.      Is this your best work or effort?

PLAN:  What else can you do?

In an ideal situation the client, student or employee would come up with the plan.  In some cases however, if the person knew what to do, they would be doing it already.  In this situation the counselor, teacher, or supervisor may suggest some options for consideration. It is best to ask permission before offering suggestions.

1.   What are your options?

2.   What (action) steps will you need to accomplish your goal?

3.   What knowledge or skills will you need to accomplish this goal?

4.   What resources do you need?

5.   What type of feedback do you want?

6.   How will you know if the plan is successful?

7.   What won’t help you accomplish your plan /goal?

8.   What is one thing (3 things) you can do to improve __________?

9.   What would you have to do __________.?

10.   Where will you keep your plan?

These questions can also be used for strategic planning, or as an assessment of the effectiveness of processes, policies, customer service, etc.

Bob Hoglund

September

Disruptions and Tardies

A few weeks ago a teacher wrote to me and asked several questions about issues that many educators and managers face on a daily basis.  While my answer is specific to education, managers and supervisors can follow the advice with little variation.

Teacher:  I have a few questions for you that relate to classroom management:

1.  How do you motivate a student who is ADHD to stay in their seat for four hours? 

     Many times the student is very disruptive in class, and he keeps others from  

    staying on task.   What is a possible solution?

2.  What has been effective for you in the past when it comes to dealing with

     students that report to class late on a regular basis.

Bob:  First of all,

1.  Separate the behavior into three components.

   1. Out of seat

   2. Disruptive

   3. Non-productive

2. Decide which one is the most troublesome – I’m assuming the disrupting others – and have a conference with him to develop an improvement plan that is measurable. 

3. Use the Data:  I would recommend some kind of chart to visually show him how often the behavior is occurring.  I would also recommend a control line on the graph (The acceptable # of disruptions as he makes progress.  For example, for two weeks, it is (not really acceptable, but tolerable) to have 1 disruption an hour…so the target line would be at 4.  After that perhaps that target could be lowered to 3 or 2.  It should not be tied to rewards or consequences, just the visual data.

The same process could be done with getting out of his seat.  Again, you and he will have to determine an acceptable amount, but 4 hours is a long time to sit…

Tardies:  Basically the same approach, but the conference would have the student answering these questions…

• Does the student want to be there?

• What factors are contributing to the lateness?

• How does the lateness impact him?

• What are the school’s expectations?

• What are some possible solutions?

• Which one will he commit to?

Again, visual data can be helpful!

You may also want to address a process for entering the room when he is late.   For example, it is important that he joins the class without disrupting others, and that he begins work immediately. 

Bob Hoglund

August

Start the Year with a Mission Statement

This month’s thought started with the question, “What is our purpose?”   This is a great question for educators as they start the school year.

School and Classroom Mission Statements provide the opportunity for teachers and students to find commonalities in what they want to accomplish this school year.  They may include how they would like things to be, academic goals, how they want to be treated, etc.

Two methods to develop the Mission Statement are an Affinity Diagram and Mind Mapping.  In both cases, the focus is on the “ideal” or “quality” school or classroom.

Samples:        

July

The PDSA Cycle (Plan, Do, Study, Act), originally the Shewart PDCA Cycle, can be quite confusing.   

The PDSA Cycle, originally developed as a business model for continuous improvement of quality, can easily be used in education and counseling with a little clarification.  In education, districts, schools, teachers and students can use it as a goal setting and tracking tool.  In counseling, clients can use it as a detailed specific method to plan and analyze progress.   

In order to increase it's understanding and effectiveness, I have written an explanation to clarify two confusing points.  

The first area of confusion is that PDSA is a six step process that sounds like four.

Plan includes: 

1.  Validating the need for improvement; i.e. What is the problem?

2.  Clarify the purpose, goals and methods to solve the problem. This would include the Action Steps that will be taken to reach the goal.

DO includes:

3.  Choose and deploy (implement) a means for continuous improvement.

4.  Align and implement actions 

This phase creates the most confusion.  It really means "Do it" or implement.  In actuality,when it is recorded, it becomes:

            what happened?,

            what steps were taken?,

            was the Action Plan followed?

            etc.

Therefore, it is easier to understand if PDSA stands for Plan, Did (What actually happened), Study, Act or Plan, Act, Study, Act.

Study:

5.  Analyze the results.

This is the clearest of all phases.

Act:

6.  Make adjustments and improvements, based on the analysis.

The Six Steps to Improvement slide was designed by Cindy McClung.

Bob Hoglund

June

Language, Perceptions and Behavior

On May 14^th, 2008, In the Opinions section of The Tempe Republic, columnist Richard DeUiarte wrote the following paragraphs about the retirement of Scottsdale Unified School District Superintendent, John Baracy.

"When he arrived, the district was a mess.  Shared vision didn’t exist.  Baracy lists as his top accomplishment ‘bringing everyone back together’.  We’re all going in the same direction for kids.’

He rebuilt the leadership team into one he credits for the all the successes that have followed.  He used a trick from Marketing.  Bus drivers became ‘Transporters of Learners.’ Secretaries became ‘Directors of First Impressions.’  Entirely hokey, but it made a point.  The District’s only purpose is the education of children and every employee plays a part.

It worked.  In a press release announcing Baracy’s retirement, the leaders of two employee groups were effusive in praising him."

The marketing tip emphasizes the importance of our perceptions.  When we process information from the world, we categorize and label information based on our experiences, beliefs, values, etc. 

Consider the following examples: 

1.  You are a student and you are going to have a “Guest Teacher” for the day.

a.    What are your perceptions?

b.    How will you, and other students, behave for a guest teacher?

2.  You are a student and you are going to have a “Substitute” for the day.

a.    What are your perceptions?

b.    How will you, and other students, behave for a substitute?

In both cases, the person is the same, but the information you attach to the label determines your behavior.

Here is another common school example.

3.  You have an assignment that allows you to “learn at home” (Home learning).

a.    What are your perceptions?

b.    Will you learn at home?

4.  You have a “Homework” assignment.

a.    What are your perceptions?

b.    Will you do your homework?

Did you have different perceptions based on the wording or labeling?

Think about this:  with the election approaching we have many candidates vying for our support.  Candidates state their ideas, proposals and ideology.  The same words are heard by everyone; yet based on your experiences, beliefs and values, you label each candidate as someone you support or don’t support.  Someone else, hearing the exact same words, comes to a totally different conclusion..

Bob Hoglund

May

Asking the Right Questions

If you do not know how to ask the right question, you discover nothing.

You should not ask questions without knowledge.

W. Edwards Deming

The Baldrige National Quality Program identifies seven connected, integrated categories that are essential to any high-performing organization.  Using these categories as a basis for self-assessment is one way to begin improving organizational practices, competency, and results.

These categories are not sequential.  For example, knowledge of the customer’s needs (Category 3) would heavily influence all of the other categories.  I have written some questions to help evaluate each category.

1. Leadership

   1. What are we doing to ensure that the vision, mission, and/or strategic plan are clear to the people we supervise?  

   2. Do we monitor and communicate progress toward our goals?

2. Strategic Planning

   1. What are our goals and strategies for reaching those goals?

   2. How well are our action plans being deployed?

3. Customer & Market  Focus

   1. How do we determine our customers’ needs?

   2. What processes/procedures do we use to monitor their needs and satisfaction?

4. Measurement, Analysis & Knowledge Management

   1. What procedures do we have to collect the data that we need to ensure that our strategic plan is working?

   2. How are we using the data that we collect?

5. Workforce Focus

   1. How do we ensure that everyone in our organization has what they need to succeed?

   2. How do we recognize and celebrate the achievements of our workforce?

6. Process Management

   1. What are our current processes, policies, procedures and practices?

   2. How do we know how well they are working?

7. Organizational Performance Results

   1. What are we measuring? 

   2. Are we getting the results we want?

The goal of data collection is using it to improve processes and results.  The obvious question to conclude with is:  What are you doing with the data?

“The key to wisdom is knowing all the right questions.”           John A. Simone, Sr.

Bob Hoglund

April

The involvement of the student is critical to the learning process.  It is also an essential element of teaching internal control and emphasizing the students role in their learning.

The following are suggestions to help minimize or reduce the use of bribes or rewards.

1.  Involve the student in setting goals to meet the learning objectives.

          a.  PDSAs

          b.  SMART Goals 

2.  Provide feedback data of the learning process, scores, etc.

3.  Analyze the data.

          a.  For instructional clues.

          b.  With the student to:

                    i.  self-evaluate the data, progress, effectiveness of the plan, etc.

                   ii.  receive direct help/instruction form you.

4.  Evaluate the plan.

          a.  Is the student following the plan?

          b.  If it is working, does it stay the same or need some slight modification? 

          c.  If it is not working, what adjustments/rewrites need to be made? 

                                            Bob Hoglund

March

Using Personal PDSA’s 

Last month’s tip was Using Personal SMART Goals.  The PDSA process can also be used personally.  My SMART Goal exercise plan that I wrote about last month is translated into a PDSA this month.  Since we are now into March, I had February’s data to identify what worked and what didn’t.

PLAN:

My Goal is:  I will exercise regularly this year, as evidenced by increased fitness, stamina and energy, and decreased anxiety and weight loss. 

     My Action Steps are:      

1.    Exercise an average of 30 minutes 5 times a week.

2.    Lift weights (push-ups/calisthenics) two days each week.

3.    Park farther from stores to increase walking.

4.    Record the number of minutes that I exercise each day in my exercise log.

5.    Review my data at the end of each month and make necessary adjustments to the plan.

     The data I will collect is:

1.    The number of times that I exercise each week.

2.    The length of time I exercise each week.

3.    Cardio and weight lifting sessions.

DO:

     I followed my Action Steps:

1.    I exercised 5 or 6 times each week.

2.    I lifted weights as indicated the first two weeks, but not the last two.

3.    I recorded and graphed my progress on a daily basis.

STUDY:

 After looking at the data, I think:

I accomplished the overall goal of exercising a minimum of five times per week and I’m already noticing an increase in energy and fitness. 

The graphs were VERY motivating because instead of no line showing on days I didn’t work out, I had the line or bar go to zero. 

I did NOT lift weights twice a week the last two weeks of the month when I was in Fort Myers because the hotel did not have weights available.

ACT:

     To improve, I need to:

Continue the Plan to exercise a minimum of 5 days a week.

I will replace weights with push-ups when I am traveling and the hotel does not have weights available.

Bob Hoglund             

February

Using SMART Goals In Your Personal Life

In December and January I was on the road (50% in December and 75% in January) and found many excuses to not exercise or to eat healthily.  The result was lost stamina and weight gain.

While teaching in Fort Myers, FL, I was continually talking about goals, data and using data to drive decisions.  It was there that I decided that I would write a SMART Goal, collect data and graph my progress.

Goal:  I will eat healthier and exercise regularly this year, as evidenced by increased fitness, stamina and energy, and decreased anxiety and weight loss.

Action Steps:

1.  Eat  healthier:

·         I will select and eat more vegetables, fish and lean meats.

·         I will eat smaller portion sizes at meals and snacks each day.

2.  Exercise regularly:

·         I will exercise an average of 30 minutes 5 times a week.

·         I will lift weights (push-ups/calisthenics) two days each week.

·         I will park farther from stores to increase walking.

·         I will record the number of minutes that I exercise each day in my exercise log.

3.  Data Collection Procedure:

·         Put an icon on my desktop to remind me to record my data.

·         Graph the progress in a run chart with a control line at 30 minutes.

·         Graph a yes/no for exercise each day.

Bob Hoglund

January

Setting Monthly, Weekly, and Daily Objectives

By Michael Masterson

After you've developed yearly goals, you need to break them down into manageable, bite-sized monthly objectives.

Let's say one of your yearly objectives is to get a business started. So you would break that down into 12 monthly goals - what you need to do each month to get your business up and running, from doing the initial research to the grand opening.

Then, break each of those 12 monthly goals into four weekly goals. For instance, if your first monthly goal in getting a new business started is to identify a good business opportunity, perhaps each of your four weekly goals will be to research at least 10 possibilities.

Finally, you work your way down to the action you will take each day to fulfill your weekly objectives. If you have made a commitment to research 10 business opportunities each week, one of the top priorities on your daily "to-do" list will be to research two possibilities.

Expect to spend a good chunk of time planning out your year. Once a month, you'll sit down for two or three hours to map out your goals for the next four weeks. Once a week, you'll spend one hour establishing your goals for the next seven days. And you'll spend about 30 minutes each morning organizing your day.

I know that sounds like a lot, but you're really spending no more than the equivalent of a few days a year to map out your strategy for achieving your long-term Life Goals.

This is how I establish my own goals, focus my objectives, and set daily tasks. It's not, by any means, an entirely original system. It's a patchwork of systems that have been developed by others and added to by me. But there is something about this particular system that seems to work.

It works so well, in fact, that I encourage everyone who works for me to use it. Those who do find that it works very well. I think you will too.

Today's the day that you take the first step toward guaranteeing your success by defining your long-term Life Goals and breaking them down into mid-term five-year objectives. (Finish the job of breaking those objectives down further - into yearly, monthly, and weekly objectives - during the coming week.)

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Bob Hoglund