What's in a Name?

I see this happening in work places across the world. People remember names only when there is a designation associated with it. Have you ever wondered - do you name of the janitor who works on your office floor? What about the security card you met the other late evening who escorted you to your car in the parking lot? Do you remember him / her? Now, do you remember the VP you met in the elevator while you were going to your car? You remember his / her name right?

If the answer was YES then you are missing out on a major network that the executive work-force relies on - speaking to the janitors / cleaners / clerks / guards etc. etc.

This is what happens in the corporate world - there is a large web of reference networks that take place where your skills are referred to and you get a job but it is the "other" network that helps you grow in an organization. Think about it like this - if you need some face time with the CEO you better be nice to the Admin assistant sitting outside the CEO's office. She will tell you when the CEO is leaving to get into the car so that you can "accidentally bump into the CEO" in the elevator.

This is the story - the person who stops by your office to pick up the trash also stops by the VP's office to pick the trash. The VP relies on networking with the right folks at the right time. He / She asks the janitor his name and then next time on always speaks to him with his name, asking him how he is doing and so on.

So the story goes that one day the janitor tells the VP that he just picked up trash in your office and you were in a bad mood and yelling on the phone. You just blew that promotion because you, one, did not ever talk to the janitor, and two, you forgot the basic courtesy of greeting the janitor using his name.

So, the next time around, you see the janitor or the cleaner or the guard, take a minute to talk to him / her and help them help you. What's in a name you ask? Plenty I say. Think about it.

What went wrong?

How many times have you sat back and wondered at work - what did the team do wrong? Once you are done with collecting your thoughts you think it is time to get together with the team and have a "Lessons Learned Session". That is when things start to get messy.

So how do you go about telling someone that they made a mistake? There are multiple ways - the obvious ones are to tell the individual / team on their face. But what does that get you? In my opinion, this is the worst way to communicate and highlight a mistake.

I have seen this happening again and again, in various companies across the world - the Lessons Learned sessions are usually held after the project has gone live. The issue does not end there - the lessons are just documented and not learnt or implemented in the next project. But that is another topic all together.

So back to the fundamental question - how do you communicate hard-facts?

I have seen this work - Take the complete team offsite. Before the team lands offsite, set the agenda and the expectations on the objective of the offsite session so that the individuals can be prepared to have constructive discussion and are focused. Also, set the ground-rules that NEVER criticize the individual. Also, NEVER use the word "ALWAYS" !

Once the ground rules are set, lead the team in identifying the project items in 3 categories -
- What went good and should be repeated everytime
- What can be done better
- Never do this ever again

As a leader I see that quite a number of times, team-leads acknowledge the "Never do this ever again" however they do not celebrate the "What went good and should be repeated everytime" part of their deliverable.

Also, I see this happening everywhere - we do not communicate the good and the bad learning's at regular intervals. We usually save this activity to the end of the project. I feel that doing this as a regular activity specifically for long term projects is beneficial because it gives time to the team to learn and act therefore the leader is able to harvest the learning's on the current project itself.

So, the next time around, you tell someone "I always need to massage the data that you give me", are you criticizing the data or the individual - think about it !