Do some team building by asking the right questions

Wouldn’t it be good to know that every decision you take over the next 12 months will be the right one. This may sound impossible but there is a way to significantly increase the likelihood of your decisions being correct.

The secret is understanding. Without understanding we are very likely to make bad or the wrong decisions, with greater understanding we should have, not just the facts but also the instinct to make the right choices.

The key to gaining understanding is to ask the right people the right questions, whether they be staff, colleagues, customers or even our bosses. Here are some pointers towards asking the right questions:…

Fresh or Foolish? – A motivated workforce the Ricardo Semler way

The idea that staff set their own pay, come and go from the office as they please, all within a business that has no written strategy sounds like a recipe for disaster. Not the story of a company that’s gone from $4m to $160m.

Semco is no ordinary workplace, despite the fact that it operates in an industry as ordinary as engineering….

What are Belbin team roles?

Fresh Tracks uses ‘Belbin Team Roles’ to develop teams but what are they? For this months video blog actor Andy Taylor explains.

A Belbin team role as defined by Dr Meredith Belbin is: “a tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate with others in a particular way.”

Learning a lesson from TV land

If I think back to when I’ve seen people most stressed in my working life, the majority of instances were immediately before and during conferences.

Very often it’s not the speakers who’s nerves are showing or the AV technicians that are flustered, its the conference organiser.  These people know they are in the firing line if the lights go out or the timmings go aray.  They can often be heard to say “My job is on the line if this isn’t a success”.  Leaving unfair dismissal to one side the truth is there is little benefit in allowing the strain to show.

Earlier this week I was part of a live TV show in which the decision was made to rebuild the set 45 minutes before going on air, while rehearsals were still underway and the lighting and camera angles were far from set up.  Additionally the script was being adapted requiring changes to the autocue and the need to re-brief the presenter and guests….

If your team can’t get along you are in trouble!

No matter how good your project or the technology you have to work with, if your team doesn’t mesh – your project’s in trouble.

A recent research study on collaboration, conducted by BNET and Harris Interactive, revealed some illuminating facts about interpersonal team dynamics. Watch Stephen Howard-Sarin, Vice President of CNET’s business sites, on the video above as he shares the findings.

Please let us know what you think of this video by comments link below.

Characteristics of Successful Teams

The success of any business collaboration effort depends on three factors: the people, the technology, and the process. For a collaborative project to be successful, these three factors need to work together easily.

A recent research study on collaboration, conducted by BNET and Harris Interactive, shows why some teams are more successful than others. Watch Stephen Howard-Sarin, Vice President of CNET’s business sites, on the video above as he shares the findings.

Please let us know what you think of this video by comments link below.

Workplace stress – The silent epidemic

Research has shown that employers are unprepared strategically, unprotected legally, and underinsured with regard to tackling the growing phenomenon of stress in the workplace. Many simply do not understand its impact: they are either hoping it will just go away or paralysed with uncertainty as to how to handle it. 

So what is stress? According to the HSE, stress is ‘The adverse reaction people have to excessive pressure or other types of demand placed on them.’

Pressure is part and parcel of all work and helps to keep us motivated. But excessive pressure can lead to stress, which undermines performance, is costly to employers and can make people ill.

Why tackle work-related stress?…

Sleep more to raise productivity

If you felt too tired to get out of bed this morning, spare a thought for Michael Lusher who was shot in the head during the early hours of Sunday 20th May 2007, but he didn’t realize it until he awoke nearly four hours later and noticed blood coming from his head!

In our 24/7 world, time spent sleeping is in decline so it’s little wonder that some of us find it hard to wake up in the morning.  It’s reported that we sleep at least one hour less each night than we did a half century ago.

A recent American study found that during a two-week period, 40% of workers reported fatigue. Of those, 65% reported health-related lost productive time. According to the researchers, workers with fatigue cost US employers $136.4 billion annually in health-related lost productive time.

Two-thirds of adults report frequent sleep problems, however only one in eight says those problems have been diagnosed.  The ‘sleep deprived’ are also more likely to suffer from obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular, psychiatric and gastrointestinal disease, and impaired immunity.  So it’s not just the quantity of our sleep that matters but also the quality; snoring loudly, daytime dozing, trouble falling asleep or waking unrefreshed are just a few of the signs that a person could be ‘sleep deprived’

“Sleep is sort of like food,” says Robert Stickgold, a cognitive neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School.  He adds, there’s one important difference: “You can be quite starved and still alive. But many of us live on the edge of sleep starvation and just accept it.”…

Honours for Attitude

The recent news item about  a roadsweeper who is to be awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree by the University of Cambridge for his contribution to the city and the university is a great feel-good story. It also shows the value of a positive attitude towards your work and your environment. 

Allan Brigham has been clearing the Cambridge streets of litter for over 30 years; he also works as a tour guide and local historian. When interviewed by the BBC about his honorary degree, he spoke with commitment about how – through his roles as cleaner, guide and historian –  he felt he could make a positive contribution to the city and its colleges. 

Although intended to be temporary, his job as a roadsweeper has given him the opportunity to get involved and contribute to the city.  His positive attitude and focus on the results of his day-to-day work have won him praise not only from the university authorities, but also from local families and businesses who see him as someone who helps to promote their city to millions of visitors each year.

To view the article including a video interview with Allan click here.

Mayonnaise Jar and 2 Beers

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 Beers .

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was….