PROBLEM with PROBLEMS: Does your organization have a formal problem-solving strategy?
All organizations confront problems/challenges/situations or whatever you call them.
What is your organizations approach to solving simple or complex problems? If you had to think about your answer – your organization may have a PROBLEM with PROBLEMS.
Most nimble and accomplished organizations have a problem-solving methodology imbedded deep within their cultures. Any team member of a nibble and adaptive organization can be stopped at any point of their day and will be able to clearly articulate and describe how their organization approaches problem situations with a clear disciplined methodology.
Problem solving needs to be part of the core culture of any competitive organization. Effective problem solving involves a deep systemic dive into properly framing situations or problems. If ‘the problem” or “situation” is not framed properly with solution will create ongoing or new problems. In fact, properly framing problems/situations often involves a disciplined multi-step approach.
Furthermore, applying a methodology to identifying end state goals, identifying, and weighting multiple measurable solutions, and anticipating the impacts and risks of each solution are critical steps as well.
Organizations that turn problems into to genuine opportunities additionally apply strict and disciplined implementation methodologies to solutions and analytics to evaluating the results of their decisions.
Let Us Help
If you would like to learn how to create a 9-step problem-solving model and discipline for your organization or need help with the problem-solving process contact us.
Progressive muscle relaxation is a technique that will teach your clients to identify where tension is being held in your body, which will allow them to release it. Our Progressive Muscle Relaxation Exercise video will walk clients through each stage of this technique.
We suggest sharing the URL of this video with your clients so they can practice regularly. Progressive muscle relaxation is the most effective when it’s used daily. The positive effects of relaxation aren’t only active while practicing—they can generalize to the rest of the day.
Depression is a disorder that affects more than 10% of the population over the course of their lives, but it continues to be poorly understood. Those with depression, and their loved ones, struggle to understand what they are experiencing. It can be comforting to learn that they are not alone in their thoughts and feelings.
The What is Depression educational video discusses symptoms, causes, and treatments for depression in an attempt to help dispel negative stereotypes. We suggest this video be shared with those who have been diagnosed with depression, family members, and anyone else who’s curious!
When left untreated and unaddressed, anxiety has a tendency to grow. This is explained by the cycle of anxiety.
When the uncomfortable symptoms of anxiety feel like too much, one of the simplest ways to feel better is avoidance. This means avoiding the source of anxiety, or numbing the uncomfortable feelings. The good news is, avoidance works… for a little bit. The bad news is, the relief that avoidance brings is temporary, and the anxiety tends to come back worse than before.
The cycle of anxiety is a process where a person avoids their fears, and as a result, those fears grow increasingly powerful. Avoidance becomes increasingly difficult to resist, and the anxiety continues to grow worse. Many anxiety treatments work by breaking this cycle. They focus on facing fears, rather than avoiding them.
In this video, the cycle of anxiety is broken down and explained step-by-step, by Woody Schuldt, a mental health counselor.
Fair Fighting Rules tell us what’s OK, and what’s crossing the line, in an argument. They don’t tell us not to disagree — they tell us how to disagree without damaging a relationship. Couples can use this information to turn down explosive arguments, and focus on fixing problems. For more information or for more tips on how to fight fair schedule an appointment now online or contact us.
You must be a highly educated and experienced candidate, with all the right stuff for the position you applied for. You successfully responded to a job posting by using the right key words and phrases in your cover letter and resume. You filled out an online profile in a way that the online automated bots let a minimally qualified Human screener know you exist! Then you may talk on the phone with a screener with a minimal understanding of your field or the position, yet you make it to the next step.
The Interview.
It may be the only or first of many interviews. One thing is for certain, despite how qualified you are for the position you need to be prepared to demonstrate your qualifications and fit for the position based on whatever interview format/methodology the company uses. If your responses in the interview do not fit inside the adopted company format you WILL NOT get the job!
Common Practices
Behavioral interviewing is becoming common place with almost all companies. Companies take the concept of behavioral interviewing very seriously. Large and medium sized companies are investing hundreds of thousands of dollars training human resource staff and hiring managers on behavioral interviewing. Behavioral interviewing trainings are often multi-day or week events.
There are many reports of companies interviewing candidates that are considered industry pioneers or at the very top of their fields but were not selected because of their behavioral interview scores.
Behavioral Interviewing
Behavioral interviewing is not just a concept or a list of commonly phrased questions. Human resource and hiring managers are trained to ask deeper and deeper questions to identify a candidate’s real experiences and skillsets. Behavioral interview questions including follow-up questions are all weighted and scored. Leaving out a detail or one step could drastically decrease your overall score.
There are literally hundreds of behavioral interviewing techniques. In fact, there is an entire industry of companies with their own proprietary behavioral interview training packages. Therefore, every company can have a different behavioral interviewing scoring system.
Behavioral interview questions often begin with “tell me about a time when…” Candidates can find a plethora of sample behavioral interview questions on the internet. Behavioral interview questions are designed to not only help hiring managers understand the qualifications of candidates but also determine if candidates can think critically, apply what they know, solve problems, and fit into the company work culture.
There are three(3) common or key elements to all behavioral interviewing systems. It is very important that candidates respond to every single question with the following three elements:
Describe the situation or the problem: Describe the situation or problem with significant detail and depth. Describe what method you used to help you fully identify the root of the problem or describe how you decided to define the situation or problem. It might be useful to describe how the problem seemed on the surface and how you clarified the problem. For example, you may have applied the principle of “Five Whys”, used “Six Sigma” or other problem-solving methodologies.
Clearly describe how you determined what steps to take to solve problem. Describe how you weighted the options, alternatives, and the side-effects of each option or how each option would affect different stakeholders.
Evaluate or report how your decision worked out. Use metrics if possible. Describe what you could have done differently and what you learned from the process.
If you go online and find sample behavioral interview questions, be careful. Questions like: “can you give me an example of a difficult problem you solved at work?” or “tell me about a time you made a mistake?” are rudimentary behavioral interview questions that you need to be able to answer with the methodology above. However, you need to be prepared for very detailed questions directly related to your field and provide answers with significant detail using the format above. Interviewers will be well trained to score each answer and ask detailed follow-up questions.
Preparation
The best strategy is to create your own behavioral interview questions specific to your field. Practice answering the questions with one of your peers in your field. Have your peer rate each of your answers objectively on a scale from 1-5.
For example, If the candidate misses any one of the steps above, the entire question receives a zero. If the candidate states a problem and doesn’t discuss the process of how the problem or situation was clarified – deduct 2.5 points or 5 points. If the candidate does not discuss a series of solution(s) or consider different options to a situation or problem and does not discuss the side effects or effects on stakeholders deduct 2.5 or 5 points.
Your Questions for The Company
Even questions you ask at the interview may be scored. We encourage candidates reverse engineer your questions for the company. Reflect and clarify the answers that are provided to you. Ask detailed questions and follow-up questions to every answer.
Final Score
All your initial answers and follow-up questions will be scored by trained interviewers. Often companies do not permit interviewers to ask any questions outside their adopted format and hire solely on interview scores. You may be the most qualified candidate, but your interview score could eliminate your candidacy. Therefore, it is important that you have a full command of how to answer behavioral interview questions.
For more information about behavioral interviewing and professional interview preparation please click here or contact us.
If you are a business leader, do you have a best friend at work? Do you want your direct reports and team members to have peers at work that they consider best friends? Hopefully, you answered yes to both of these questions. You might be skeptical about this, but the fact is for more than a decade, the Gallup Employee Engagement Survey consistently reveals that one of the most significant indicators of top-performing teams is when employees have meaningful friendships at work. When employees have these deep senses of affiliation with some of their peers, they are more likely to “go the extra mile” and demonstrate higher levels of engagement in positive actions that benefit the organization that they would not have otherwise.
Problem
Globally, only 30% of employees strongly agree they have a best friend at work.
Challenge
Can employees of a remote workforce create these meaningful relationships and engagements? Probably not. There is evidence that some remote workforces are organized in way that can actually inspire disengagement, develop silos, cliques, and potentially drive volatility between groups or individual team members
How Big of Difference Can It Make and What Would It Mean For Your Business?
If an organization can move the ratio of employees that strongly believe they have a best friend at work to 60%, the organization could realize 28% fewer safety incidents, 5% higher customer engagement scores and 10% higher profit. How would these figures translate to your organization?
Employees with meaningful relationships at work are more connected to their peers, share trust and are more likely to engage in innovations that will benefit the efficiency and advancement of the company.
Furthermore, employees with meaningful relationships are more likely to have positive experiences during the day, enjoy what they do and are less likely to be actively looking for job opportunities outside the organization. Highly connected employees will experience less conflict, negative experiences, stress, feelings of tiredness, absences have a greater work-life balance. Consequently, highly connected employees will have less absences and be significantly more engaged.
Solution
First, friendships at work need to be put in the proper context. We are not suggesting that your should hire the outside friends of current employees. They type of friendships we are seeking are deep senses of affiliation around common goals.
Second, this type of sense of affiliation is difficult or even impossible to develop over the phone or through video conferencing. Leaders can not manufacture friendships or try to make everyone friends.
Third, leaders of onsite and remote workforces can periodically bring their teams together and create situations where they can get to know each other. Often such events are short and expensive to facilitate due to the costs of travel and venues, etc. Events with the intention of creating a culture of friendship and inclusions, and reinforcing deeper senses of affiliation with each other; need to be concise, profound and inspirational enough to gain traction to expand beyond a single meeting.
Bottom Line
How would 28% fewer safety incidents, 5% higher customer engagement and 10% higher profit translate to your organization? How would even a 10-20% increase in employee engagement effect your organization?
How would even half of these percentage increase translate to your organization?
Let’s Do It!
To find out how to get the best employee engagement outcome have us facilitate an Employee Engagement Strategy Event for you, contact us.
At some point, everyone experiences a dampening of their mood, such as sadness, grief or disappointment. However, when these feelings of depression persist, it can interfere with one’s ability to function. Depression may become so severe that keeping up with normal activities becomes unmanageable. Individuals may isolate from loved ones, feel sadness for most of the day, lose interest in once pleasurable activities, experience significant grief, feel guilty, and may even feel suicidal.
Depression is one of the most common forms of mental illness. There are different types of depression, including major depression, bipolar disorder, and dysthymia. Each of these varies in severity and symptoms. Depression develops from a complex interaction between an individual’s mind, body, and life situation.
Genetic makeup and health can precipitate the development of depressive symptoms, and in some families, depression can occur from generation to generation. One’s childhood experiences and social environment may influence the development of depression. For instance, the loss of loved ones and conflict with others can be especially difficult. Lastly, neurological physiology, such as neurotransmitter balance, plays a major role in brain function and depression. Understanding and identifying the actual causes of depression are important aspects of therapy.
Depression symptoms:
Depressed mood
Loss of interest in activities or relationships
Appetite changes and/or weight changes
Sleeping too much or too little
Fatigue or loss of energy
Feelings of worthlessness or guilt
Decreased ability to concentrate
Thoughts of death or suicide
Frequent variation in mood
Irritability, frustration, and anger
Low self-esteem
Feelings of grief and loss
Persistent physical symptoms that are not due to a medical condition, such as headache, digestive issues, and chronic pain.
Substance abuse
Depression Treatment
Engaging in counseling with a therapist has been shown to be an effective therapy for depression. Sean B. Jones, a depression specialist, takes a comprehensive and holistic approach to depression treatment. The goal of therapy is to help individuals identify the causes of their depression, to develop the necessary skills to cope with depression and to foster positive life changes.
Receiving therapy from someone trained to help facilitate appropriate changes in thinking, emotions, behavior, lifestyle, and relationships can alleviate depression. Sean integrates different treatment approaches, depending on your particular needs. He also incorporates lifestyle guidance, so you not only overcome your depression but can go on to lead a healthy and fulfilling life.
Working together, you will develop personalized strategies for coping with your emotional challenges and find the solutions you need for a better life.
