Before you start any reorganization in your company, you have to know all the organizational issues that your company has and address these issues. It is the only way by which you will make any effective change in your company.
Every company has their own organization issues and these issues are unique. So the solutions are can be modified depending on the company's needs and wants. Usually, practitioners observe the company close hand and then they draw traditional and current theories which are applicable to the issues at hand. These theories can be applied to the company's social structure which is based on the tasks, specialization, hierarchy, power and endurance of the current organization of the company.
Usually, the organizational issues evolve around these factors: size, span of control, technology, tasks, environment, business strategy that is employed by the company and so many others. To be honest, there are so many issues that surround each company that it is crucial to identify which ones affect the company and the people who work on it the most.
Those who handle these organizational issues are experts on assessment, organizational structure, operations, transitions and change. It comes with years of practice and studying. They know that they do not go straight to technology. They address the issues first. Before they can address the issues, they need to identify them first. Hiring people who can do this are worth it. They will bring about the right kind of change and they will help bring back the company to the right path.
Cheryl Forbes writes about organizational issues at her website smart-organizational-change.com.
Wednesday
How to Separate Work and Home
A busy businessman finds it hard to separate work from home. Leaving the stresses of the job is easier said than done. But learning to separate work from home is actually the key to a happier home life and quality time with family. The blur of work and home can easily make the boundaries disappear over time.
Here are a couple of tips to leave work at work.
1. Physically relieve yourself the stress of work at work. After long hours of working, try a simple breathing exercise. Picture yourself in a solitary place. Listen to your breathing. Steady your mind by steadying your body.
2. Stretch. This helps relieve tension in mind and body. Stretch your arms and legs. Visualize the negative energy leaving your body.
3. Use pen and paper. Write notes on what you have to do tomorrow. Put them in a place where you know you look first thing in the morning. Your desk will do well. Then visualize your home and the people in the house.
4. Plan the transition. Mentally list your routine from work to home. Then use it as a signal to leave one behind.
5. Never over do the unloading process to your spouse. This creates tension in the marriage or relationship. Try to set a limit on how many minutes you will talk about your worries so that your partner will not feel like you are bulldozing her emotions. She, too, experiences stress on a daily basis.
6. Take a breather. Do not worry too much about tomorrow or its problems. It will come.
These are just a few things you can do. Feel free to improvise.
by Summer S.
The author is a SME for an account in Voiceville Communications, Inc. Think Better Life. Think Voiceville. http://voicevilleinc.com/
Here are a couple of tips to leave work at work.
1. Physically relieve yourself the stress of work at work. After long hours of working, try a simple breathing exercise. Picture yourself in a solitary place. Listen to your breathing. Steady your mind by steadying your body.
2. Stretch. This helps relieve tension in mind and body. Stretch your arms and legs. Visualize the negative energy leaving your body.
3. Use pen and paper. Write notes on what you have to do tomorrow. Put them in a place where you know you look first thing in the morning. Your desk will do well. Then visualize your home and the people in the house.
4. Plan the transition. Mentally list your routine from work to home. Then use it as a signal to leave one behind.
5. Never over do the unloading process to your spouse. This creates tension in the marriage or relationship. Try to set a limit on how many minutes you will talk about your worries so that your partner will not feel like you are bulldozing her emotions. She, too, experiences stress on a daily basis.
6. Take a breather. Do not worry too much about tomorrow or its problems. It will come.
These are just a few things you can do. Feel free to improvise.
by Summer S.
The author is a SME for an account in Voiceville Communications, Inc. Think Better Life. Think Voiceville. http://voicevilleinc.com/
Tuesday
Workplace Burnout: A few solutions before you say something you might regret
This has always been an area of struggle for me, but I have found some ways to alleviate the burn out from one day to the next especially when I was working in some pretty stressful atmospheres with phones ringing, bosses yelling, and crazy people staring at you with nothing to say that made any sense.
One of the things I did was remove myself from the situation that was causing me stress. I would politely ask my boss, "Am I free to go at this time? Need to take a breather..." My bosses usually understood, because not to long after I got back they disappeared for awhile too.
The second thing I did was take a book with me to work, so that I could escape thoughts of work during my breaks.
Although I didn't always take my break like I should have, I tried very hard to use them. Legally they are yours so why not take them? Those breaks helped me often especially when I wanted to really express how I felt about an event or something someone said to me.
The last thing I did was visit a few places I had never been to before during lunch, on off days or after work. Sometimes a change of scenery will make you forget about some of those things that put you in a bad mood in the first place.
Nicholl McGuire
http://associatedcontent.com/nichollmcguire
One of the things I did was remove myself from the situation that was causing me stress. I would politely ask my boss, "Am I free to go at this time? Need to take a breather..." My bosses usually understood, because not to long after I got back they disappeared for awhile too.
The second thing I did was take a book with me to work, so that I could escape thoughts of work during my breaks.
Although I didn't always take my break like I should have, I tried very hard to use them. Legally they are yours so why not take them? Those breaks helped me often especially when I wanted to really express how I felt about an event or something someone said to me.
The last thing I did was visit a few places I had never been to before during lunch, on off days or after work. Sometimes a change of scenery will make you forget about some of those things that put you in a bad mood in the first place.
Nicholl McGuire
http://associatedcontent.com/nichollmcguire
Thursday
Don't Handle Objections
The corporation needed sales reps to sell its product. Prospects who would not buy were a problem. Sales experts then anticipated all of the potential reasons a prospect might not buy and came up with approaches to address these objections. If the prospect says they can't afford it, say this. If they say they need to check with someone else, say this. When in doubt, use the "Feel, Felt, Found Formula" which goes like this: Really Mr. or Mrs. Prospect. I understand how you feel. Many of our customers felt the same way, until they found..." Successful sales reps came home with the order or the contract.
Handling Objections is Nonsense
In today's post-modern world, handling objections is nonsense. Avoid anyone who tells you they will train you or your people on handling objections. Success today is not defined by how much you sell but by how well your solutions get implemented and the success you bring to your clients. Consequently, the quality of your sales matters more than the quantity. Of course, quantity matters. You have to make your targets. But you must make your targets by delivering real value.
Real value is delivered over time. Superficial value does not stand the test of time. If you do not deliver real value, your brand will suffer. In this age where everyone has a voice and anyone can amplify their voice, you can't afford to deliver superficial value. This means that you must partner with your prospects to ensure you can deliver value to them and to minimize the risk of delivery.
Rather than "handle objections", the focus of your sales effort in the latter stages of the sale, must be on mitigating risk. Rather than wait for the prospect to bring up reasons why they are apprehensive about proceeding and being forced into a reactive position, why not partner with your prospect and proactively address this issue?
Risk Mitigation
Prior to signing the contract, schedule a meeting with your prospect to address the issue of risk. You are in the business of helping your clients solve their problems. Remember, the issues you address are not your problems. They are your client's problems. This is an important realization. The burden is not on your shoulders; it's on your prospect's shoulders. You are there to help them remove the burden. Home Depot has the right idea. Their slogan is, "You can do it. We can help." You are there to help not to do everything. Sales professionals who don't realize this take on too much responsibility for the solution. Prospects knowingly or unknowingly collaborate with your sales rep to shift the burden of responsibility to your company. When things go wrong, you are to blame.
You Can Do It, We Can Help
Your sales team should make it clear to the prospect that your company is there to help. They should also make it clear that risk is involved, Based on their experience, they should proactively tell prospects the nature of the risks they believe the prospect will face and solicit input, based on the prospect's knowledge of their environment, of the risks they believe they will face. Once all the risks are on the table, they should be grouped into categories based on severity and likelihood. Together, the sales rep and the prospect should develop approaches to deal with the potential risks.
This approach keeps the responsibility where it belongs - with the prospect. It also develops trust and respect. More than ever, prospects are looking for partners not pitches. When you handle objections, you broadcast that you're only interested in making a sale. When you broadcast that you are only interested in making a sales, you trigger your prospect's defense mechanism. When you help your prospect mitigate risk, you broadcast, very clearly, that you are sincerely interested in building partnership. When you broadcast that you are interested in building a partnership, you inspire your prospect to connect with you.
Adrian Davis is a business strategist and trusted advisor for chief executives and business owners. He is a thought-provoking speaker and is frequently called upon to address senior management teams and sales groups on the subjects of corporate strategy, competitive advantage and sales excellence. To sign up for his monthly newsletter, please go to http://www.whetstoneinc.ca
Handling Objections is Nonsense
In today's post-modern world, handling objections is nonsense. Avoid anyone who tells you they will train you or your people on handling objections. Success today is not defined by how much you sell but by how well your solutions get implemented and the success you bring to your clients. Consequently, the quality of your sales matters more than the quantity. Of course, quantity matters. You have to make your targets. But you must make your targets by delivering real value.
Real value is delivered over time. Superficial value does not stand the test of time. If you do not deliver real value, your brand will suffer. In this age where everyone has a voice and anyone can amplify their voice, you can't afford to deliver superficial value. This means that you must partner with your prospects to ensure you can deliver value to them and to minimize the risk of delivery.
Rather than "handle objections", the focus of your sales effort in the latter stages of the sale, must be on mitigating risk. Rather than wait for the prospect to bring up reasons why they are apprehensive about proceeding and being forced into a reactive position, why not partner with your prospect and proactively address this issue?
Risk Mitigation
Prior to signing the contract, schedule a meeting with your prospect to address the issue of risk. You are in the business of helping your clients solve their problems. Remember, the issues you address are not your problems. They are your client's problems. This is an important realization. The burden is not on your shoulders; it's on your prospect's shoulders. You are there to help them remove the burden. Home Depot has the right idea. Their slogan is, "You can do it. We can help." You are there to help not to do everything. Sales professionals who don't realize this take on too much responsibility for the solution. Prospects knowingly or unknowingly collaborate with your sales rep to shift the burden of responsibility to your company. When things go wrong, you are to blame.
You Can Do It, We Can Help
Your sales team should make it clear to the prospect that your company is there to help. They should also make it clear that risk is involved, Based on their experience, they should proactively tell prospects the nature of the risks they believe the prospect will face and solicit input, based on the prospect's knowledge of their environment, of the risks they believe they will face. Once all the risks are on the table, they should be grouped into categories based on severity and likelihood. Together, the sales rep and the prospect should develop approaches to deal with the potential risks.
This approach keeps the responsibility where it belongs - with the prospect. It also develops trust and respect. More than ever, prospects are looking for partners not pitches. When you handle objections, you broadcast that you're only interested in making a sale. When you broadcast that you are only interested in making a sales, you trigger your prospect's defense mechanism. When you help your prospect mitigate risk, you broadcast, very clearly, that you are sincerely interested in building partnership. When you broadcast that you are interested in building a partnership, you inspire your prospect to connect with you.
Adrian Davis is a business strategist and trusted advisor for chief executives and business owners. He is a thought-provoking speaker and is frequently called upon to address senior management teams and sales groups on the subjects of corporate strategy, competitive advantage and sales excellence. To sign up for his monthly newsletter, please go to http://www.whetstoneinc.ca
Monday
Overloading - A Simple Solution to Reduce This Workplace Problem
What?
What if by simply drawing a line you could reduce the suffering and anguish of thousands and save lives in the process? Wouldn't you think it was a good idea?
In 1874, seafarer Samuel Plimsoll did just that. Plimsoll found a way to prevent ships from being overloaded and sinking under the weight of excess cargo. Literally thousands of lives were saved because Plimsoll Lines, indicating the maximum vessel load capacity, were painted on the side of ships. Given today's overloaded workplaces and lifestyles, we can learn a lot from Plimsoll's approach. We can learn to draw a line indicating our maximum capacity and prevent the negative effects of personal overloading. The Plimsoll Line is a 19th century solution to a 21st century problem.
So What?
Although overloading can enter your life in different forms, it typically creates the same kind of problems for the person or object being overloaded. Overloading creates a burden that is too great to bear and the consequences of that excessive burden negatively impact your life. That is as true today as it was in the 1800s. You might think we are the first generation to find ourselves trapped in this overloading dilemma, but history tells us otherwise. Overloading was actually a much more serious problem in earlier times. Rather than being a matter of getting smoothly through the day or coping with stress-inducing technology, overloading was literally a matter of life and death. This was especially true in the world of shipping.
When it comes to matters of staying afloat, a brief review of Archimedes' principle is in order. Archimedes discovered that a body immersed in a fluid is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the displaced fluid. Apply this to the world of shipping, and the consequences of overloading are clear. Ships sink when they weigh more than the water they displace. Ships will actually float at different levels depending on water temperature and type. Therefore, a ship loaded to capacity in a North Atlantic saltwater port would be in danger of riding too low and possibly sinking in a freshwater port in the tropics.
In earlier times, with only hand tools for the job, it took years to build a ship. Moving only under the power of wind and sails, it took months or years to sail across the sea and return. It made sense that ship owners and sailors would take extra precautions to assure the safety of their vessels. Unfortunately, ship owners did not always care. Why? As seafaring commerce developed, insurance coverage on the ships and cargo underwritten by such entities as Lloyd's of London often enticed ship owners to overload their ships. If the ships arrived safely, the payoff was greater for the more heavily loaded ships. If the ships sank, insurance covered the loss.
Also, in the mid-19th century the Irish potato famine reached its peak. Irish land owners, eager to shift their focus from potatoes to wheat and livestock, looked for ways to clear their land of Irish paupers made destitute due to the devastation of the potato crop. Landlords either evicted paupers with no promise of support, or packed them into unseaworthy vessels with phony promises of assistance in British North America, sending them out to sea. You can probably guess why these overloaded vessels were known as coffin ships. Many people lost their lives on these dangerous voyages. Eventually the general public became concerned enough about the loss of crafts, crew and passengers that British Parliament was forced to appoint a committee to investigate the growing number of sinking ships.
Enter Samuel Plimsoll. As a young man Plimsoll was fascinated with the problems of shipping coal to London. The main problem that attracted his attention was the simple fact that too many ships were sinking. In 1868, Plimsoll was elected a member of British Parliament. He immediately began to campaign for legislation to protect seamen. In 1873, he published a book titled Our Seamen that documented the fact that every year nearly 1,000 sailors drowned on ships near and around the British shores. These numbers did not include casualties from British ships that sank in locations other than the British coastline. Fishing vessels were excluded from this total and so were non-British ships that sunk.
Plimsoll's solution was simple: determine the maximum safe load a vessel could handle and make sure the vessel never exceeded that load. He proposed that a mark or line be painted on the side of all ships to indicate the limit to which the vessel could be legally loaded. If the weight and buoyancy of the ship caused it to dip below the line - referred to as the Plimsoll Mark or Plimsoll Line - the ship could not set sail. The Merchant Shipping Act of 1876 made these load lines compulsory. Unfortunately, the line's actual position was not fixed by the 1876 law. As might be expected, the ship owners loosely interpreted the law and painted the line wherever they wanted, until the position was finally fixed by another law passed in 1894. It is estimated that this simple line has saved countless lives since the late 1800s.
Now What?
So here we are at the beginning of the 21st century. Many of us live nowhere near the sea. What can we learn from the Plimsoll Line story that will make our lives better?
Acknowledge that consistently overloading yourself is a form of dysfunctional behavior driven by irrational thinking. Therapists usually embrace one of two approaches when trying to help their clients solve such behavioral problems. They focus on the past so their clients can understand more about the source of their behavior, or they tell their clients to "forget the past" and work mainly on changing the unproductive behavior going forward. Here are examples of each of these approaches that you might consider trying:
By studying the history of shipping in the 1800s, Samuel Plimsoll began to understand why so many ships were sinking and developed a simple solution to the problem of overloading. If you are struggling with problems related to overloading, it is a good idea to study your personal history and discover past events and decisions that led to your present dilemma. One bad habit or decision rarely creates an overload of demands on your time and energy. It is usually a combination of many decisions and patterns of behavior. For example, people-pleasing behavior, and the inability to say "no" when it is appropriate, can create overloading. Study your personal history and see if you can identify specific decisions that are creating an excessive workload. I know this strategy sounds a bit oversimplified (somewhat like drawing a line on the side of ships and saving countless lives), but here's an idea for you: Stop making those same decisions if you want to eliminate overloading in the future.
Forget the past and just experiment until you discover your personal Plimsoll Line. Make a commitment to work no more than eight hours most days. You are kidding yourself if you think working 12, 14, 16 or more hours per day is a productive use of your time. Doing this sounds impressive to some people, but not to those who understand how the various systems of the human body work to optimize your performance. Your productivity plummets when you exceed your optimal workload. You will eventually sink. Try breaking an eight-hour day into 48-minute segments (there are, of course, 10 of these segments available). Make a commitment to spend at least 48 uninterrupted minutes tomorrow working on the most important things you need, want, or have to do to be successful. Then operate in your normal manner for the rest of the day. The next day go for two 48-minute blocks of highly focused time. My suggestion is that you draw your Plimsoll Line at about three 48-minute blocks of focused time most days. I am not suggesting that you only work 144 minutes each day. I am simply suggesting that you mentally designate three highly focused periods in a workday as a highly successful day. Then, cut yourself a little slack and stop pushing yourself so hard.
In the end remember that overloading is an upstream problem. When the ships began sinking in the warm freshwater due to being overloaded in the cold saltwater ports, it was a little late to start working on a solution to the problem. It would have been better to prevent the problems before the ships embarked on the voyage. The upstream issue that leads to work overload is making the decision to take on any additional tasks. If you are already overloaded, start focusing on how to eliminate tasks, not increase them. Start making sound decisions today to prevent overloading in the future.
Chris Crouch has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being more productive. He shares his discoveries through books, articles, presentations and training materials.
This article is an excerpt from his book Being Productive: Learning How to Get More Done with Less Effort available through Amazon.com
What if by simply drawing a line you could reduce the suffering and anguish of thousands and save lives in the process? Wouldn't you think it was a good idea?
In 1874, seafarer Samuel Plimsoll did just that. Plimsoll found a way to prevent ships from being overloaded and sinking under the weight of excess cargo. Literally thousands of lives were saved because Plimsoll Lines, indicating the maximum vessel load capacity, were painted on the side of ships. Given today's overloaded workplaces and lifestyles, we can learn a lot from Plimsoll's approach. We can learn to draw a line indicating our maximum capacity and prevent the negative effects of personal overloading. The Plimsoll Line is a 19th century solution to a 21st century problem.
So What?
Although overloading can enter your life in different forms, it typically creates the same kind of problems for the person or object being overloaded. Overloading creates a burden that is too great to bear and the consequences of that excessive burden negatively impact your life. That is as true today as it was in the 1800s. You might think we are the first generation to find ourselves trapped in this overloading dilemma, but history tells us otherwise. Overloading was actually a much more serious problem in earlier times. Rather than being a matter of getting smoothly through the day or coping with stress-inducing technology, overloading was literally a matter of life and death. This was especially true in the world of shipping.
When it comes to matters of staying afloat, a brief review of Archimedes' principle is in order. Archimedes discovered that a body immersed in a fluid is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the displaced fluid. Apply this to the world of shipping, and the consequences of overloading are clear. Ships sink when they weigh more than the water they displace. Ships will actually float at different levels depending on water temperature and type. Therefore, a ship loaded to capacity in a North Atlantic saltwater port would be in danger of riding too low and possibly sinking in a freshwater port in the tropics.
In earlier times, with only hand tools for the job, it took years to build a ship. Moving only under the power of wind and sails, it took months or years to sail across the sea and return. It made sense that ship owners and sailors would take extra precautions to assure the safety of their vessels. Unfortunately, ship owners did not always care. Why? As seafaring commerce developed, insurance coverage on the ships and cargo underwritten by such entities as Lloyd's of London often enticed ship owners to overload their ships. If the ships arrived safely, the payoff was greater for the more heavily loaded ships. If the ships sank, insurance covered the loss.
Also, in the mid-19th century the Irish potato famine reached its peak. Irish land owners, eager to shift their focus from potatoes to wheat and livestock, looked for ways to clear their land of Irish paupers made destitute due to the devastation of the potato crop. Landlords either evicted paupers with no promise of support, or packed them into unseaworthy vessels with phony promises of assistance in British North America, sending them out to sea. You can probably guess why these overloaded vessels were known as coffin ships. Many people lost their lives on these dangerous voyages. Eventually the general public became concerned enough about the loss of crafts, crew and passengers that British Parliament was forced to appoint a committee to investigate the growing number of sinking ships.
Enter Samuel Plimsoll. As a young man Plimsoll was fascinated with the problems of shipping coal to London. The main problem that attracted his attention was the simple fact that too many ships were sinking. In 1868, Plimsoll was elected a member of British Parliament. He immediately began to campaign for legislation to protect seamen. In 1873, he published a book titled Our Seamen that documented the fact that every year nearly 1,000 sailors drowned on ships near and around the British shores. These numbers did not include casualties from British ships that sank in locations other than the British coastline. Fishing vessels were excluded from this total and so were non-British ships that sunk.
Plimsoll's solution was simple: determine the maximum safe load a vessel could handle and make sure the vessel never exceeded that load. He proposed that a mark or line be painted on the side of all ships to indicate the limit to which the vessel could be legally loaded. If the weight and buoyancy of the ship caused it to dip below the line - referred to as the Plimsoll Mark or Plimsoll Line - the ship could not set sail. The Merchant Shipping Act of 1876 made these load lines compulsory. Unfortunately, the line's actual position was not fixed by the 1876 law. As might be expected, the ship owners loosely interpreted the law and painted the line wherever they wanted, until the position was finally fixed by another law passed in 1894. It is estimated that this simple line has saved countless lives since the late 1800s.
Now What?
So here we are at the beginning of the 21st century. Many of us live nowhere near the sea. What can we learn from the Plimsoll Line story that will make our lives better?
Acknowledge that consistently overloading yourself is a form of dysfunctional behavior driven by irrational thinking. Therapists usually embrace one of two approaches when trying to help their clients solve such behavioral problems. They focus on the past so their clients can understand more about the source of their behavior, or they tell their clients to "forget the past" and work mainly on changing the unproductive behavior going forward. Here are examples of each of these approaches that you might consider trying:
By studying the history of shipping in the 1800s, Samuel Plimsoll began to understand why so many ships were sinking and developed a simple solution to the problem of overloading. If you are struggling with problems related to overloading, it is a good idea to study your personal history and discover past events and decisions that led to your present dilemma. One bad habit or decision rarely creates an overload of demands on your time and energy. It is usually a combination of many decisions and patterns of behavior. For example, people-pleasing behavior, and the inability to say "no" when it is appropriate, can create overloading. Study your personal history and see if you can identify specific decisions that are creating an excessive workload. I know this strategy sounds a bit oversimplified (somewhat like drawing a line on the side of ships and saving countless lives), but here's an idea for you: Stop making those same decisions if you want to eliminate overloading in the future.
Forget the past and just experiment until you discover your personal Plimsoll Line. Make a commitment to work no more than eight hours most days. You are kidding yourself if you think working 12, 14, 16 or more hours per day is a productive use of your time. Doing this sounds impressive to some people, but not to those who understand how the various systems of the human body work to optimize your performance. Your productivity plummets when you exceed your optimal workload. You will eventually sink. Try breaking an eight-hour day into 48-minute segments (there are, of course, 10 of these segments available). Make a commitment to spend at least 48 uninterrupted minutes tomorrow working on the most important things you need, want, or have to do to be successful. Then operate in your normal manner for the rest of the day. The next day go for two 48-minute blocks of highly focused time. My suggestion is that you draw your Plimsoll Line at about three 48-minute blocks of focused time most days. I am not suggesting that you only work 144 minutes each day. I am simply suggesting that you mentally designate three highly focused periods in a workday as a highly successful day. Then, cut yourself a little slack and stop pushing yourself so hard.
In the end remember that overloading is an upstream problem. When the ships began sinking in the warm freshwater due to being overloaded in the cold saltwater ports, it was a little late to start working on a solution to the problem. It would have been better to prevent the problems before the ships embarked on the voyage. The upstream issue that leads to work overload is making the decision to take on any additional tasks. If you are already overloaded, start focusing on how to eliminate tasks, not increase them. Start making sound decisions today to prevent overloading in the future.
Chris Crouch has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being more productive. He shares his discoveries through books, articles, presentations and training materials.
This article is an excerpt from his book Being Productive: Learning How to Get More Done with Less Effort available through Amazon.com
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