Aussie Rules

Just wanted to give you a bit of advice: it’s the last chance for you to enter our Words of Bizdom competition. Get your favourite piece of business advice in by May 31 and you could win some great wine prizes, including a magnum of 2000 Grand Reserve Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon, courtesy of Pepper Tree Wines.

We’ve also put together a survey for Australian readers of BNET which closes at the end of this week, and we’d appreciate your input. Simply click here to be taken to the survey page — the process should take no more than 10 minutes, and if you leave your details, you’ll be in the running to win one of five AU$200 RedBalloon Days vouchers (which can be used for over 2000 experiences including jet boat rides, helicopter flights, snorkeling, romantic wine cruises, V8 race car driving and much more).

Thanks for your help, and feel free to leave comments about the site at the end of the survey. Your feedback is much appreciated!

A couple of years ago on a flight, Tony Buzan and I were duelling with puzzles. He stumped me when he asked what a “ghoti” was.

Apparently, George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was fond of pointing out the absurdities of English spelling by proving that “fish” could be spelled “ghoti”.

That is, gh as in rough, o as in women and ti as in palatial — easy, when you look at it that way.

Creativity is not normally seen as easy — as most people think it is hard to be creative or you have to be born that way. One approach in developing your creativity is to put some Energy into it; have the right Attitude that creativity is a skill we can all learn by Shifting our perceptions; and that You can do something small every day to increase your creativity.

How easy is that?

There are a mass of companies and products directed at improving time management and no doubt they all have their merits.

The thing is though, I’ve spoken with quite a few people in business who continue to struggle with time even though they’ve spent a fair chunk of it learning all about how to get a grip on it. So what’s going on here?

To manage time, we first have to know what we’re really trying to do with it.

Let me explain. Try this unfortunate little analogy:

You’re alone in a building when a fire breaks out. What do you do? Do you:

• Stare out of the window for a while?
• Call a friend and discuss what was for lunch?
• Hop into your email and read junk messages?
• Pop onto the Internet and surf aimlessly?
• Shuffle paper around the desk for a bit?

Of course you don’t. You get the hell out of the building.

You have a very clear vision (being outside), a clear purpose (following that vision, being outside, staying unharmed), clear goals (being outside in the next 30 seconds), and some tangible actions (smashing the window and jumping to the ground).

To stand any real chance of making effective use of time, we need at the core a vision that draws us.

A vision underpins everything. Without it we’re blowing in the wind — some days the wind is in our favour and we’ll make headway; other days we’ll get nowhere.

So what’s your vision and what are the steps and actions necessary to achieve it? Get clear on that and you’ll find the topic of time getting back under your control.

Professor Gary Hamel argues that it is innovation in management — rather than in operations, products or strategies — that will create long-term advantage and fundamentally new approaches to growing winning businesses.

“Today’s business leaders are being challenged to build organisations that are as nimble as change itself, to make innovation everyone’s job,” says Hamel.

Everyone, you ask? How can the receptionist, admin manager, IT support and the engineers all be innovative every day?

The key is in your definition of creativity and innovation. If you accept that creativity is about shifting perception (seeing something in a new way) then innovation is a simple matter of walking into the office/factory floor with new eyes, a fresh perception. It’s like starting in a new department or new company and immediately noticing things they do differently and then wondering how things might be improved.

Leading innovation head first is having the ability to allow everyone space and time to rethink where they are at and having a simple process for reviewing new ideas and insights.

(Gary Hamel visits Australia in August, 2008. )

When returning from parental leave an employee is legally entitled to return to the same or a comparable position. There have been many instances where employers have not complied with this obligation resulting in the courts awarding damages to affected employees.

In 2007, Nike was ordered to pay one of its employees almost $20,000 in damages for discriminatory conduct towards the employee on her return to work following maternity leave. When she returned, the employee found herself demoted to a role junior to the one she had held previously. The employee’s manager told her that her priority should be the care and attention of her baby. He further sent an email following the employee’s return to work saying “Please welcome Sally back to the office and if she s p e l l s e v e r y t h i n g o u t when talking to you please be patient!” This email was found to be patronising and inappropriately made a connection between the employee’s role as a carer of her child and her performance in the workplace. It was found that the employee was not appointed to the senior role because of her child care responsibilities and her manager’s beliefs about the effect these might have on her performance.

In another 2007 case, an employer was ordered to pay $55,000 to an employee by failing to allow the employee to return to work after taking maternity leave. The company employed a contractor to fill her position while she was on leave. The contractor was perceived to be a superior worker with greater experience to the employee on leave. When the employee attempted to return to work she was told her position had been made redundant. The court found that the real reason why the employee was not permitted to return to work was because the Company wanted the contractor to do the work instead. The company was found to be “insensitive” to the employee’s circumstances and was “dismissive of her as a valued employee”.

These cases demonstrate that employers must avoid relegating former employees who return from maternity/paternity leave to inferior positions without sufficient justification. A person’s status as a carer or parent should not be a substantial consideration when determining what position a potential or former employee should undertake.

1. King v Nike Australia P/L (Anti-discrimination) [2007] VCAT 70 (24 January 2007)
2. Iliff v Sterling Commerce (Australia) Pty Ltd [2007] FMCA 1960 (3 December 2007)

There’s just so much to distract us these days, isn’t there? Bring back the discipline of the typing pool I say.

Well, maybe not.

If we see distractions for what they are and confront rather than succumb, we can quickly get on with tackling our real business priorities. Here are some simple distraction actions that work for me:

1. Challenge and contain. The cause of distraction can be major or minor. The issue isn’t the issue, it’s the direction of your focus we’re pursuing. The task here is to challenge the distraction and create some containment — package the issue and put it on the shelf. Agree when you’ll get to it (if it really does demand your attention at some point) and get back to your most important work tasks.
2. Look for the cause. Often we’ll embrace distraction, choosing to stay busy with something minor in preference to confronting a greater challenge. It might be fear, it could simply be boredom. Ooh, is that another email, I simply must read it. Sure, certain actions in our business are less appealing than a fluffy distraction, but we know who’ll suffer ultimately.
3. Gain more perspective. It’s healthy to step back from issues and see them for what they often are — futile distractions that are doing little more than testing our resolve. Make sure you’re not falling into this trap. Have a little chuckle at the absurdity of your thoughts and get back to work.
4. Think beyond. A good exercise can be to practice an instant pause, when a new distraction pops up. Consider for a moment: If I go off on this tangent/get involved in this conversation/start pondering this issue, where is it likely to take me and is now the time to go there? Such mental ruthlessness is soon picked up by others and can dramatically stem the flow of distractions. The world is full of purveyors of distraction. Keep your head down; avoid eye contact (real or metaphorical); you’ve given generously already.
5. Set a daily theme. A daily theme can work if you’ve been sunk in the abyss of distraction for a while. As you’re shutting up shop, set yourself a theme for the next day. The challenge is to create a dominant feeling and hold it for the entire day. Today my theme is “clear the decks”. All my annoying little jobs and tasks are getting done.

OK, you’ve read enough. Get your head down and do some typing.

Forgotten projects, misplaced business cards and failure to remember someone’s name are all factors that undermine your success. Missed opportunities are commonplace but need not occur. Memory is a skill we can all develop and it’s vital for creativity.

People often ask me what the link is between memory, speed reading, creativity and innovation. Well, if you can remember something you have read, discussed, observed or did six days, six weeks or even six years ago and link it to a situation now, you will be much more creative.

How do you develop your memory? It is simply a matter of imagination and association.

Just like when you observe that you parked your car in front of a big tree, you create an image and connect it to something concrete.

To remember that a client’s address is 963 High Street, imagine the sum 9 - 6 = 3 floating high up in the air.

Or create a word/mnemonic like “scamper” to remember the key creativity tools — Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to other use, Eliminate, Reverse. We’ll talk more about how those tools work in a future post.

Many organisations have work experience placements that allow students to get a feel for different workplaces — enabling them to better make educated decisions on future occupations. What you may not be aware of, is that those host employers are required to provide the same occupational health and safety (OH&S) conditions to these students as they do to other employees.

A recent decision in South Australia found a fishing company guilty for failing to provide the information, instruction, training and supervision reasonably required to ensure a work experience student was safe from injury or risks to his health. The fishing company engaged a 16-year-old student for a period of one week as required by his school’s work experience curriculum. On his second day on the job the student injured his fingers when removing a rope from the stern of the boat. Although his injuries were fairly minor, there was a real risk of more serious injuries such as amputation of fingers or permanent nerve damage.

The company failed to provide the student with a full induction process prior to and upon boarding the boat (as they would do for new employees). No training was given to the student in relation to untying the boat and no demonstration was given of the safety features of the boat. Even though the company had an excellent safety record, with OH&S policies and procedures in place, it failed to implement these policies with respect to the student. The company’s line was that the student was merely directed to “stand back and observe”; the Court, however, recognised that the purpose of work experience is “to involve the student in participating in the daily routines of the industry” and therefore it was required to provide adequate instruction, information, training and supervision.

This case demonstrates that an employer’s OH&S obligations extend not only to employees but also to others in the workforce, including “non-traditional” working relationships such as work experience students. As these workers are generally young and, by definition, inexperienced, an employer must ensure its OH&S obligations are properly implemented and students in the workplace are monitored and supervised at all times.

Markos v Australian Fishing Enterprises Pty Ltd [2008] SAIRC 9

Whether you’re in the business of selling your expertise for money or selling products, it’s likely you’ll prefer an ongoing client or customer relationship, to one that’s more a “love ‘em and leave ‘em” encounter.

Alas, the love ‘em and leave ‘em strategy is often more a client behaviour than it is yours. There’s you jumping through hoops doing great work, meantime your client is flirting with someone new.

In my coaching dialogue with independent professionals, an area I regularly discuss is the topic of the “ideal client”.

Being very clear on who we want to work with is pivotal to creating a business where we can market effectively and comfortably.

OK, here’s the point of this whole language of longevity thing: You may want ongoing client relationships, but are you projecting that in everything you say and do?

Imagine wooing a prospective life partner. How do you behave if you genuinely want this person to be with you forever?

In case you’ve forgotten, let me help you. I reckon you’ll:

• Show great interest in the person’s family. His or her background and upbringing.
• Take care to find out what they love and what they hate.
• Look for common ground and cultivate it.
• Be open to new learnings and be willing to share your own experiences and knowledge.
• Be proactive in helping this person’s friends and family whenever you can.

… and you’ll always be looking and talking to the future — in what you say, what you write and how you behave.

Get the picture? If we want ongoing client relationships, we absolutely must embrace the language and behaviour of longevity.

Come across as a one-night stand and that’s what you’ll be.

A recent visit to Western Australia got me thinking about the impact of the tall poppy syndrome in innovation. While walking along the unique 40-metre-high platform in the Valley of the Giants (400-year-old Tingle Trees, some of the world’s largest), I was impressed with the innovative approach to preserve these unique trees from increasing number of visitors. It took courage and a unique perspective to solve the problem and then raise the funds to build this very successful project. Most innovative projects require enormous effort and championing to be successful. It is interesting to note that many people are hesitant in being linked to a successful project or getting a high profile in their organisation to avoid being seen as a tall poppy (someone that needs to be cut down to size).

Philip Bowring writes “But where once the ‘tall poppy syndrome’ was a source of pride for many Australians, it is now widely viewed as an obstacle to success, wealth creation and excellence. None other than [former] prime minister John Howard has argued, ‘If there’s one thing we need to get rid of in this country it is our tall poppy syndrome’.”

Food for thought …

Do you know of anyone who has suffered from the tall poppy syndrome?

What do you do to support your team and celebrate their success?

Do you need to rethink your attitude to successful people?