MAY 2007 LEARNING FLASH

Russell Martin and Associates Learning Flash May 2007 

 

VROOM! May is an exciting month in Indianapolis.  The Indy 500 happens at the end of the month including a parade, famous people, lots of parties, and everyone Back Home in Indiana.  Many of our friends will run their own version of the 500 during the mini marathon on 5/5.  GOOD LUCK and good weather!  Vija and I will each have a daughter graduating - a significant milestone.    To add to the excitement, my new book The 10 Steps to Successful Project Management is going to be out earlier than we thought – look for it in bookstores the first week of May (more info below).    Great project management by Mark Morrow at ASTD! 

 

In this issue:

  • My Entry In to the Race: 10 Steps to Successful Project Management

  • Get in the Race

  • Stress Relief: A Break From the Race

  • Bumped on the Track: Bosses Who Are Jerks

  • Help Wanted: Mechanics and Drivers

  • Winning Requires Communication, Even When Writing

  • Classics Like the Indy 500

  • Green Flag: How Important is Going Green to Business?

  • Next Race: Project World in June in Boston

  • Fast Decisions

  • Project Management: Speedy Solutions Aren’t Always Good

  • Talking to the Pit Crew: Communication Myths

  • Old vs. Young Drivers: Generational Issues

  • Race to the Contest

  • Driving in Two Directions at the Same Time? Stop Interrupting Yourself

  • Balloons Before the Race: A Behavioral Assessment

  • Lou is Racing Around… Join Her!

 

My Entry In to the Race: 10 Steps to Successful Project Management

 

This month my new book will be available.  If you have already pre-ordered through our website, expect delivery of your signed copy by 5/10/07.  If you haven’t ordered, well, I guess you need help with project management!  This book is fun and actionable.  You don’t have time to read, but you’ll enjoy the tips and techniques you gain from this book.  Check it out at our website.

 

In addition, we have a new workshop to accompany the book.  Available in a 1 day onsite workshop or a 5 week, 1 ½ hour webinar, reserve your place now.  Contact Margie at mbrown@russellmartin.com.

 

Get in the Race

 

As Joseph Jaworski says, "Anyone who walks into a locker room of a championship team can feel the energy, the excitement, the mutual trust and the extraordinary sense of the possible." How can you feel the same when entering your office?  We can help; contact Margie at mbrown@russellmartin.com.

 

Stress Relief: A Break from the Race

 

Just in case you are having a rough day, here is a stress management technique recommended in all the latest psychological journals. The funny thing is that it really does work. 

 

First, picture yourself lying on your belly on a warm rock that hangs out over a crystal clear stream. Now, imagine yourself with both your hands dangling in the cool running water. Birds are sweetly singing in the cool mountain air. No one knows your secret place. You are in total seclusion from that hectic place called the world. The soothing sound of a gentle waterfall fills the air with a cascade of serenity. The water is so crystal clear that you can easily make out the face of the person you are holding underwater.  

 

Bumped on the Track: Bosses Who Are Jerks

 

Professor Robert I. Sutton seeks to weed out the bosses in an organization who are either jerks or bullies.  Sutton says often the two are combined in the same person.  Sutton, a professor of management science and engineering at Stanford Engineering School, has heard it all while working on his recently released best seller, The No A--- Rule.

Sutton’s book grew from a piece he wrote for The Harvard Business Review in 2004 under the headline, “More Trouble than They're Worth”.   He defines work jerks as people who pick on those beneath them and leave others feeling belittled and sapped of energy. So what do you do?

 

Sutton argues that in normal organizational life, for people who have less power, the best thing is to get out. If you can't do that, try to avoid contact with the person as much as possible. You can also learn not to care, he added.  The other thing is to find little ways to get control and fight back. One woman whose boss was always stealing her food reshaped Ex-Lax to look like candy, then her boss stole it.

 

Sutton suggests companies perform an audit, quantifying in dollar figures how much a jerk's poor behavior costs. He then gives an example of a company that did, and figured one salesman's bad behavior had cost it $160,000 in a year. Instead of firing him, the company took about $100,000 out of his bonus. There's a test you can take; on Guy Kawasaki's blog, www.electricpulp.com/guykawasaki/arse/

 

Need some leadership training to make sure you are not a jerk?  Contact Margie at mbrown@russellmartin.com to learn more about our public and in-house leadership workshops.

 

Help Wanted: Mechanics and Drivers

 

Sales representatives, teachers, and mechanics are among the nation's most sought-after workers, according to Manpower’s 2007 Talent Crunch Survey released by Manpower Inc. The employment services company found that 41 percent of U.S. employers are having difficulty filling positions due to a lack of available talent. The 10 hardest-to-fill jobs, as reported by more than 2,400 U.S. employers, are sales rep, teacher, mechanic, technician, management/executive, truck driver, driver/delivery worker, accountant, laborer, and machine operator.

 

Winning Requires Communication, Even When Writing

 

Notice the difference when the punctuation gets switched a bit… from Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss

 

Dear Jack,

I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, and thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we're apart. I can be forever happy - will you let me be yours?

-Jill                                        

 

Dear Jack,

I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, and thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men I yearn! For you I have no feelings whatsoever. When we're apart I can be forever happy. Will you let me be?

Yours,

-Jill      

 

Could your staff use a writing pit stop?  Contact Margie at mbrown@russellmartin.com for our writing class options.                                   

 

Classics Like the Indy 500

 

May 5 [every year]: Cinco de Mayo
May 13, 2007 [May 11, 2008]: Mother's Day [2nd Sunday in May]
May 19, 2007 [May 17, 2008]: Armed Forces Day [3rd Saturday in May]

The mouse was invented in 1981 by Xerox PARC

Carlos Castaneda has been dead since 1998 (anyone read his books in high school?)

 

Green Flag: How Important is Going Green to Business?

 

Glaciers are melting and polar bears are dying, causing some employees to see green, according to Adecco, a Switzerland-based human resources provider, and Rochester, NY-based market researcher Harris Interactive.

 

One-third of Americans would be more inclined to work for a "green" company. A sizable number think their company isn't going far enough.  About half of employed adults, or 52 percent, think their company should do more to be environmentally friendly, and approximately seven in 10 employed adults, or 69 percent, know their company has an environmental policy. Only about a third (32 percent) knows what the policy is.

Employed men are more likely than their female counterparts to say they know their company's policy (35 percent of men vs. 28 percent of women).

 

Next Race: Project World in June in Boston

 

Join me at one of the best conferences, and one of the best cities. 

ProjectWorld & the World Congress for Business Analysts Regional

June 19-22, 2007, Marriott Copley Place, Boston, MA

 

This newly created regional event provides localized learning and credits. This event is geared directly to the overall discipline and rigor of project management and business analysis at both a micro and macro level. Don’t miss Lou Russell’s (me!) full day workshop on Tuesday, June 19: Leading Difficult and Unruly Project Teams.  Use Lou’s speaker discount priority code: SPKRM1910LR when registering and you’ll save 15% off the current price!  For more information and to register, please visit www.projectworldregional.com.

 

Fast Decisions

 

Hiring managers often know whether they might hire someone soon after the opening handshake and small talk, a new survey released by Robert Half Finance & Accounting reveals. Respondents polled in the survey, which included 150 senior executives with the nation's 1,000 largest companies; say it takes them just 10 minutes to form an opinion of job seekers.

 

Project Management: Speedy Solutions Aren’t Always Good

 

Check out this project for a quick laugh.  http://youtube.com/watch?v=1_t44siFyb4

How do you get rid of a dead whale?  Clearly, you blow it up.  And your contingency plans are?   Contact Margie at mbrown@russellmartin.com to help with your project success – the FIRST TIME!

 

Talking to the Pit Crew: Communication Myths

 

Thanks to Nadine Martin, one of our learning facilitators extraordinaire and expert communicator for this find…

 

Myth #1: Time heals all wounds. The truth is time usually deepens wounds. Proactively bring up issues and resolve them.

Myth #2: Don't Rock the Boat. The truth is if you don't rock the boat, the boat will probably sink.

Myth #3: Be Diplomatic. The truth is if we are too diplomatic, the person may not get the point and nothing may get resolved. Make sure the issue and what you want done is clear.

Myth #4: Sandwich what you want to really say between two compliments.

The truth is the "sandwich method" is so transparent that people immediately identify the strategy and feel manipulated. Tell people the truth.

Myth #5: More communication leads to resolution. The truth is just more communication can lead to wasting time and possibly more misunderstandings. From an article at www.StevenGaffney.com

 

Need help with your peoples’ communication? Contact Margie at mbrown@russellmartin.com.  We have a fun, fast, flexible and measurable solution just for you!

 

Old vs. Young Drivers: Generational Issues

 

The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), notes several similarities among the generations.  They may be different ages, but their values are often the same. Family is the value priority chosen most frequently by people of all generations. Other values important to people of all generations are integrity, achievement, love, competence, happiness, self-respect, wisdom, balance, and responsibility. It turns out different generations have similar levels of trust in upper management, namely not much.


It turns out young corporate dogs don’t like learning new tricks any more than old-timers do. "In general, people from all generations are uncomfortable with change," CLL points out. And, no matter the age, everyone wants a coach. "Everyone wants to know how he or she is doing, and wants to learn how to do it better," CLL reports. "Feedback can come in many forms, and people of all generations would love to receive it from a coach."

 

Need a coach?  Contact Margie at mbrown@russellmartin.com to find out about our phone and live coaching services. 

 

Race to the Contest

 

Thanks to last month’s puzzle winners who have won FABULOUS MECHANDISE: Karen Wester – State Farm Insurance, Kathy Franklin – National Life of Vermont, Dave Popple – Crossroads Consultation, Jim Pearson – John Deere, Peggy Dykstra – KODAK Dental Systems, Tara O’Donnell – Reliant, Greg Spaulding – State Farm Insurance, Jayne Mutascio – Chubb, Joseph Baugh – Sierra Southwest Cooperative Services, Tommie Krager – Cummins, Inc., Dan Brandon – AG Financial,Cassandra Myers – Ingenix, Anna Eddy – Learning Services by Design, Meg Morales

 

This month, our contest is about the Indy 500 of course!    It’s a race – if you are one of the first three to find out the hidden phrase and send it to Carol at cmason@russellmartin.com, you will win a free copy of Lou’s latest book 10 Steps to Successful Project Management.  Everyone who plays will win fabulous merchandise!

The Indy 500 is...

A Y T H C W E C G G E R E A B 
T N E S A A R A T R A S J R P 
S O A R E E R U I E C L A I T 
T T N I W R A T C L M C F E M 
A E I P D N U I R A C O A I N 
R E N I G N X O Y A D G H A R 
T X N T Y F I N Y E A K M O M 
C X P I E P E T C I D L S G X 
M I L K L X D A N S U T D S G 
B B B X L O P S E H R P I Y K 
O O A F O B S N R I D J M C M 
Q U R C W G I A H O A N V U H 
V M I G K G A S G Z B D W N B 
Q N Y K N B F E A I F A X V G 
A L L E Y Y M C V E D H N X G

 

Find each of these Indy 500 words and discover the hidden message: 
AGAIN  ALLEY  BACK  BORG  BUMP  CAR  CARB  CAUTION  CREW
DAY  ENGINES  FLAG  GASOLINE  HOME  HULMAN  INDIANA  JIM
MILK  NABORS  PACE  PIT  SHIRTS  START  TIRE  TONY  WARNER
YELLOW  YOUR
Hidden Message: __ __ __   __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __   __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __   __ __   __ __ __ __ __ __

 

 

Driving in Two Directions at the Same Time? Stop Interrupting Yourself

 

It was the mid-1990s, and Linda Stone, a Microsoft executive, noticed unlike her colleagues at Microsoft, who focused on one thing at a time, kids at New York University were paying attention to everything, all at once. She gave it a name: continuous partial attention. And, over time, she watched it spread like wildfire.

 

Ten years later, nearly everyone is addicted, with many of us paying a heavy price. "Connect, connect, connect has brought us to a place where we feel overwhelmed, over stimulated and unfulfilled," says Stone, who worked as an executive for Microsoft and Apple for nearly 20 years. "We’re under constant stress because our orientation is: ‘I don't want to miss anything.’"  Our manic multimedia dance has given us unimaginable access and freedom. But continue at your own risk. Keep it up, experts say, and you’ll undermine your ability to learn, think deeply and remember.   Faced with a flood of information, and an explosion in ways to get it, we’ve become a nation of compulsive multi-taskers.

 

Ten and a half minutes. That’s the time modern professionals spent on a project before being interrupted or switching to another. What’s more, they averaged no more than two minutes with any document or device, such as a computer or cell phone, before moving on or getting sidetracked. Excerpted from Kate N. Grossman’ article,
http://www.suntimes.com/news/otherviews/282054,cst-cont-info04.article   

 

Balloons before the Race: A Behavioral Assessment

 

A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and
spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted, "Excuse me, can
you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't
know where I am."

The woman below replied, "You're in a hot air balloon hovering approximately
30 feet above the ground. You're between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude
and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude."

"You must be in IT," said the balloonist.
"I am," replied the woman, "How did you know?"
"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically
correct, but I've no idea what to make of your information and the fact is
I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help at all. If anything,
you've delayed my trip."

The woman below responded, "You must be in Management."
"I am," replied the balloonist, "but how did you know?"
"Well," said the woman, "you don't know where you are or where you're going.
You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made
a promise, which you've no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath
you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position
you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it's my fault."

 

Lou is Racing Around… Join Her!

 

I would love to meet you while I’m at:

 

The IT Leadership Alchemy Academy                  5/1-3                 Indianapolis (public)

ERICSA: Games Trainers Play                            5/7                    Newport News, VA

Unexpected Project Manager Workshop              5/8                    Dayton PMI

Project Management Improv (Keynote)                 5/8                    Dayton PMI

Scenario Planning Workshops                            5/10                  Mid Nebraska PMI (Lincoln)

My Team: Can’t Live With ‘Em (Keynote)             5/10                  Mid Nebraska PMI (Lincoln)

Women’s Leadership Conference (panel)             5/16                  Indianapolis (www.cpsolutions.net)

Accelerated Learning and PM for Trainers

(workshop)                                                        5/18                  Cincy ASTD

IT Leadership: Systems Thinking / Scenario         5/23                  Office of Personnel Mgmt

            Planning                                                                              Denver 

The rest of the time I’ll by in Indy! 

Lou Russell 

President/CEO

www.russellmartin.com