When times get tough, sometimes you just can’t help but roll with the changes. If only those pesky regulatory bodies would relax with you… These are the full versions of the “Drilling Deeper” news items that appeared as abbreviated versions in the print edition of PBOG’s June 2016 issue.
Hess is Oil’s Best “Corporate Citizen”
Hess Corporation (NYSE: HES) has earned a place as the No. 1 oil and gas company on Corporate Responsibility magazine’s prestigious list of 100 Best Corporate Citizens for 2016. The list recognizes public companies across the United States with strong performance in such areas as environment, climate change, employee relations, human rights, governance, finance, philanthropy, and community support.
Hess has been named to the list each of the past nine years, and is the No.1 oil and gas company for the third consecutive year. The company moved up 27 places in the ranking of all companies from a year ago to No. 26. Ratings are based on 303 data points of disclosure and performance measures from publicly available information.
“We believe that incorporating sustainability practices into our operations creates value for our shareholders and helps position us to continually improve business performance,” said John Hess, CEO of Hess Corporation. “Social Responsibility is a core value at Hess, and we are proud to have improved our standing since last year and be recognized for the quality of our environmental, social, and governance disclosure and performance.”
The 100 Best Corporate Citizens List ranks the Russell 1000 Index of publicly held U.S. companies. The methodology for generating the list is governed by the Rating and Rankings Thought Leadership Council of the Corporate Responsibility Association (CRA). The full list is available at www.thecro.com.
Are You Training the Right Things?
By Dan Black
Not long ago, a training consultant got a call from a sales manager who said, “We need sales training!”
The consultant answered, “Are you sure?”
The caller explained that some of their customer service reps were doing four times the volume of others. It had to be because they were better salespeople… right? So, the others needed sales training!
The consultant agreed to help, but insisted on observing the company’s top performers to get a better understanding of what sales techniques they were using.
As it turned out, the top producers weren’t better salespeople at all, but rather had developed a more effective method for processing customer transactions. Once the consultant recognized that, it was easy to document their techniques and build short training interactions around them. The result was an almost instant uptick in sales across their entire customer service rep population.
The message? To get the results you want, you need to understand the reality of your situation. Here are some non-obvious, commonsense steps to help you do that and avoid wasting time and resources.
Step One: Get Real Information
A modified version of DACUM (which stands for Developing a Curriculum) can be effectively used in situations like that one. DACUM, created by educators to design courses, analyzes what people really do and what they need to learn.
In stark contrast to getting only the leadership team or training department heads in a room, training designers should invite the “boots on the ground.” These are the top performers, the gurus, and the go-to people everyone in the organization knows and relies on. A facilitator leverages a process by which they can extrapolate all that delicious institutional or “tribal” knowledge that exists only in their heads.
Diversity of perspective is key here, so don’t be afraid to have a mix of people. Here’s a sample group:
- The new person who really gets it!—That person on your team who’s been in a role for six months to a year and really seems to get it. He or she provides a fresh perspective.
- The go-to person who has been there forever!—He or she can be described as having forgotten more about the job than most people will ever learn. They provide historical knowledge about how the role has changed over the years.
- An adjacent collaborator role—Don’t be afraid to bring in someone who is not in the role, but “close” to it. This individual can provide an outsider’s perspective and bring knowledge and experience to a different role.
- Key stakeholders—This group is essential because they need the results. They are often your champions who need to understand the process and often support your budget.
Step Two: Create an Occupational Definition
Get everyone in the room focused on the role and get discussions about leadership, work ethic, and good communication out of the way. You can use a simple quadrant matrix to document:
- Reporting lines—Who does the role report to up, down, and laterally.
- Critical knowledge and skills—What specific skills are essential to doing the job well?
- “Nice to have” abilities and traits—What type of person tends to perform well?
- Learned but wasn’t taught—What were those “a-ha moments” your group had on the job?
Step Three: Define the Body of Knowledge
A Duty/Task Matrix can be used to define the body of knowledge necessary to perform in the role. You only need some big post-it notes and sharpies. Get the information on the wall so everyone can see it. Put duties down the left, and tasks going across left to right. Here are the definitions and some examples:
- Duties—This is a something that is top-of-mind for the role. It doesn’t have a beginning or an end. It is ever-present while on the job and usually ends in –ing. Some examples:
- Restaurant Manager. Duty: Maintaining food safety
- Automotive Maintenance Manager. Duty: Selling products and services
- Tasks—These are processes or procedures that have a beginning and end. They usually can have a metric associated with them. These roles fulfill duties by repeatedly completing a series of tasks, usually four or more. A defined task requires an object, verb, and qualifier. Some examples:
- Restaurant Manager. Task: Wash hands properly
- Automotive Maintenance Manager. Task: Write a customer-facing estimate
When you identify all the duties and the tasks required to fulfill a role, you’ve documented the entire body of knowledge used by your experts in the room. You’ve also just blown your LT away, because they had “no idea!” your people did all this stuff!
Step Four: Understand the Gaps and Criticality
Your Duty/Task Matrix stands before you and now you need to know where the information is and what tasks have the highest impact on performance. Here are steps to follow:
- Draft a Gap Analysis—Go task by task. Where is it documented how to perform this task? In HR? Marketing? Sales? Ops? Or is it in one of your experts’ head? Has it been passed down over time? If it’s the latter, it’s a gap!
- Consider criticality—Everything in your Duty/Task Matrix is important… but what’s most critical? Use a simple rubric and define the impact to the business, performance, individual, or team upon failure. Ask the question: If the worker fails to perform this task, does anyone notice? Does it create some rework—possibly a lot? Will you lose a customer? Will someone get hurt?
Step Five: Build Your Plan
You now have all the information you need to build your plan. You know what the role looks like, contained in your Occupational Definition. You know the body of knowledge that needs to be learned, as described in your Duty/Task Matrix. You know what exists and what doesn’t, laid out in your Gap Analysis. And you know what information is critical to performance, as summarized in your Critical Analysis.
You can build your Learning Maps for the role, from beginner to expert. You can start to design and develop training around the gaps that really impacts performance. You can map these duties and tasks to competencies and leverage them in cross-team training interactions, and make decisions on the right method for delivery.
Now you are armed, much like a marketing department, with an analysis of your customer base and potential for results based on empirical data and not simply feelings. Now you can go to your LT with a plan that justifies a budget and will deliver results. Oh, and you’ve done it all in two days. Good luck!
About the Author
Dan Black is the Chief Learning Strategist at Tortal Training. He specializes in GSD—“getting stuff done,” and is recognized in the industry as a “pleasantly disruptive force” that challenges conventional thinking on training and talent development. Contact Dan at danblack@tortal.net.
API: Bill Strengthens Energy Renaissance
API Executive Vice President Louis Finkel, on an Apr. 21 conference call with reporters, reinforced the importance for modernized, bipartisan energy legislation that can grow America’s energy leadership.
“The United States is now an energy superpower, leading the world in oil and natural gas production,” Finkel said. “For the first time since the American energy revolution took hold, the House and Senate have passed bipartisan, comprehensive energy legislation.”
“Now is the time to build our energy infrastructure, expand exports and lock in the economic and geopolitical opportunities that our energy revolution has created.
“Exporting natural gas will create American jobs, grow our economy, strengthen the global energy market and bolster strategic alliances abroad—providing greater choice and helping U.S. allies break dependence on nations that use their energy resources as a political weapon.
“A concerted effort to improve U.S. energy infrastructure is essential in order to realize our true energy potential and provide consumers and businesses with the energy they need.
“We’re calling on Congress and the administration to build on the promise of this bipartisan legislation and seize the opportunity to put the interests of consumers first by putting aside politics over policy.”
API is the only national trade association representing all facets of the oil and natural gas industry, which supports 9.8 million U.S. jobs and 8 percent of the U.S. economy. API’s more than 650 members include large integrated companies, as well as exploration and production, refining, marketing, pipeline, and marine businesses, and service and supply firms. They provide most of the nation’s energy and are backed by a growing grassroots movement of more than 30 million Americans.
RELAX during a crisis? … Exactly!
by Gregory Lay
“Every day’s a crisis,” Jeff grumped to his car pool after work. “If it isn’t an urgent deadline, then the boss is mad, or equipment is on the fritz! I never get to relax, no matter how hard I try!”
From the front seat, Alicia gave a full-throated laugh. “Did you hear yourself? You can’t relax because you’re trying so hard to relax!”
“When you put it that way, it does sound silly,” Jeff admitted. “But it’s true. I know that when we’re stressed, we make more mistakes, but how do you get over the stress?”
Alicia shifted position to make eye contact. “Working under stress is like swimming in a tar pit. Even if you get to the other side, you’re too exhausted to appreciate the achievement.”
“That’s it. I do a good job, but never have time to enjoy the feeling.”
“How do you try to relax?”
“The usual,” he said and ticked off relaxation techniques: breathe deeply, drink water, laugh, music, quiet time, stretch, and go for a walk.
“Good activities,” Alicia nodded. “What do you think about while you do them?”
His silence told her what she needed to know. “Let’s help you relax your attitude as you relax your muscles. I’ll bring you a checklist.”
What Alicia understands is that stress is a choice. The brain must do something in a pressure situation, but it needs a better plan than just tightening muscles. That makes us look stressed and feel tired, even though we don’t realize it’s our own unconscious decision. Trying harder to relax does the opposite of what we need! When we try harder and harder, the job gets… harder and harder!
When Jeff slid into the back seat the next morning, Alicia quietly handed him a folded paper. Opening it, he found five ideas under the heading:
R.E.L.A.X.
Re-direct frustration.
When a situation, co-workers, or attitudes frustrate you, negative feelings don’t contribute to a solution. Name The Frustration and tell it that it’s now the solution! Energy you were giving to feeling frustrated now goes to feeling motivated! You’re too smart to waste emotions on negativity, so invite better attitudes with encouraging words. By choice, lazy becomes mindful, uncooperative turns into independent, or angry comes out as passionate.
When you see your attitude arrow pointing down, use language skills to rewrite it in a positive direction. This thought exercise will improve physical capacity and relationships with your team. Don’t feed frustration—redirect it.
Expect positivity.
When stress reigns, we look at anybody smiling and conclude that they don’t understand the situation. Optimists must be idiots, we say; this is a situation to take seriously. But “seriously” takes more energy than “lightly” and doesn’t move any faster. Expect yourself and others to arrive with a positive attitude and keep it all day!
Expect colleagues to respond to your smile and good attitude with one of their own. They probably won’t at first; frowning and pessimism are powerful habits. But keep expecting the best of them—that’s the positive thing to do—and over time you’ll be an instrument of improvement in many lives. To spread positivity, be positive from the inside out.
Lift a ton.
When a “ton” of work weighs you down—start lifting!
Nobody can lift an entire ton, but pretty much anybody can lift five pounds at a time. Measured progress toward a stressful goal takes attention away from the stress and puts it where it belongs: on your ability. Pick up what you can handle right now and carry it where you want it to be. Then go back for another load. You can lift a ton—and instead of being injured by unreasonable expectations, you’ll be strengthened by doing as much as you comfortably can, a little at a time.
People who tie themselves up with stress will urge you to join them in discomfort. Your healthy response is a smile and invitation to help you make reasonable, steady progress as you R.E.L.A.X.
Acknowledge little achievements.
When looking at a ton of a task, it may feel strange to celebrate an ounce of achievement. Waiting until the whole ton is done doesn’t provide enough encouragement. Start the applause when the task is begun and keep it going throughout the process.
Recognizing little tasks that have been done well become road signs that guide the team in the right direction. Withholding acknowledgment until you reach a major milestone is limiting the fuel needed to reach that milestone.
X marks the spot.
Treasure maps have an “X” to show where treasure is buried. Your treasure is a worthy long-term goal. Everybody on the team knows where we’re going and why. They want to enjoy the journey a step at a time, but the journey has a purpose and anybody who doesn’t keep goals in sight won’t stay focused on productive relaxation.
This is positive leadership. Not showing stress is showing your team how to get the job done without frustrating themselves.
Jeff folded the paper and said, “Cool acronym. I see how a relaxed attitude makes the physical actions more effective. Let’s see if I remember:
Re-direct frowns to your laugh muscle.
Expect positivity, starting with myself.
Lift a ton, a few pounds at a time.
Acknowledge small achievements.
X marks the spot of a worthwhile objective.”
“You’ve got it!” exclaimed Alicia. “Just remember that the most important time to engage your relaxation attitude is exactly when you don’t think you’ve got time for it!”
About the author:
Gregory Lay edits www.AccidentalCareer.com, a website for people who want to improve their job without necessarily changing employment. He’s an experienced employee, manager, journalist, trainer, speaker, and certified speaking coach. His training specialty is organizational understanding. Contact him at Gregory@AccidentalCareer.com.
More Dissent on Paris Agreement
Michael Nasi, General Counsel of Balanced Energy for Texas, issued the following statement upon the signing of the Paris Agreement on climate change:
“Balanced Energy for Texas is disappointed in [the] signing of the Paris Climate Agreement, a deal based on illegal and controversial regulations. At home there is a tremendous lack of support and legal uncertainty surrounding the Clean Power Plan (CPP), the centerpiece of the global climate deal.
“The Paris Climate Agreement is an unachievable, hollow pledge riddled with alarmist environmental rhetoric. Numerous independent analyses have shown that the United States will not meet the Paris pledge with current measures and that ‘additional measures’ will be necessary to have the potential to meet the emissions reduction goal. These additional measures and their effects on future U.S. emissions are unknown and highly speculative. A white paper released this week by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee argues that the Paris deal is no more likely to result in major GHG emission reductions than the 1997’s failed Kyoto Protocol.
“A study by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce shows that if the CPP is upheld, the United States would achieve only 50 percent of the Paris pledge.
“Restricting the least expensive forms of electricity to meet the targets of the Paris agreement will impose significant harm on the United States, raising electric bills, slowing economic growth and forcing millions, particularly the poor, into energy poverty. Policies similar to the CPP in Germany, the U.K. and California all demonstrate the negative impacts these policies have on ratepayers, especially the poor.
“Instead of setting unattainable and unenforceable agreements, the United States should instead focus on research in technology that can be exported to the rest of the world, achieving the dual goals of eliminating energy poverty and making ever-cleaner energy with fossil fuels. The recent passage of the Senate’s bipartisan bill, the “Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2016,” is a step in the right direction for energy policy, emphasizing an all-of-the-above strategy and energy innovation.”
Balanced Energy for Texas is a statewide coalition of energy consumers, producers, and providers committed to supporting policies that preserve and promote our state’s leading role in energy and economic development. For more information, visit www.balancedenergyfortexas.org.
To Lead Others You Must Serve
By Walt Grassl
Paul was 24 years old. He was shy and the youngest member of his workgroup. During lunch with his coworkers, the conversation turned to the recent promotion of his current supervisor, Charles. They speculated about who would replace him.
There was a major concern that a coworker, Terry, was lobbying hard for the position. Terry got along with no one. He was hoping to get the job, “So people will do what I want them to do.”
While the group was lamenting that possibility, Paul asked why no one there was vying for the position. One by one, they all had their reasons why they didn’t want it. Paul shook his head and said, “If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.”
Two weeks later—much to his surprise—Paul was called into Charles’ office and offered the job. He was shocked. While most of the group was under 30, one member was in his mid-40s. Paul thought, “I can’t tell my dad what to do.”
After sleeping on the offer overnight, Paul accepted, on the condition they train him to be a leader. Charles agreed. Paul aggressively sought training at work. He also read voraciously about leadership—for the rest of his life. Paul learned that the leadership was not about telling people what to do. He learned to be a leader who shares power, puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform at the highest possible level. He later heard these principles described with the term Servant Leadership.
Here are seven things servant leaders do, and why they are important:
- They sell, they don’t tell. The servant leader persuades others with inspiration, not force. The phrase, “Because I’m the boss,” never leaves their lips. That approach may get you what you want in the short term, but it won’t inspire others. A title doesn’t make you a leader. The ability to have an impact, to influence, and to inspire does.
- They value diverse opinions. The servant leader listens to others. They recognize that everyone has something unique to offer. They want to hear different points of view. They believe in the old expression, “Everyone is an expert within five feet of their workstation.” In meetings, they solicit input from the more reserved team members, who are often silenced by the more outgoing team members.
- They are humble. Servant leaders understand the importance of being humble and grateful. They know that without everyone’s effort, they simply won’t succeed. They make sure they consistently thank their team members, individually and collectively. A servant leader makes a conscious effort to walk around and catch people doing things right.
- They create a culture of trust. Servant leaders keep their work. They do what they say they will do, and they’re dedicated to doing the right thing. When the team fails, they accept the blame. When the team succeeds, they focus the credit on the team. They feel the tension between the needs of the bigger organization and the needs of the team and they seek balanced solutions. When decisions flow down from higher authorities, that may not make sense to the team, they explain the politics and the big picture. They don’t expect blind obedience.
- They see themselves as part of the team. The servant leader knows their team is their most important asset. The team helps them succeed. When the situation dictates, they roll up their sleeves and help get the job done. If some of the team is working on the weekend to save schedule, they show up to support the team.
- They develop other leaders. The servant leader doesn’t hoard knowledge in fear that they might be replaced. They know the best way to lead is to create other leaders. They don’t want to be the bottleneck to the team’s success. They allow their team members to present to senior leadership, to give them exposure.
- They think long term. Servant leaders focus on both the immediate task at hand and the important but not urgent activities needed for a healthy organization. They spend a great deal of their time sharing what they learn and helping others through things like career counseling, suggesting contacts, and recommending new ways of doing things.
Paul had a long, successful career as a leader. He inspired loyalty from the people he led. He mentored many employees that were his direct reports. Employees from other organizations were referred to him.
One time, Paul’s project team was given the challenge to accelerate a prototype product delivery. Paul did not immediately commit his team to do the impossible. He presented the challenge to the team and the team concluded it could, with a lot of overtime, meet the delivery. But the documentation would take one more week. Paul reported this to his manager, Bob, who agreed with this approach.
While the team was celebrating the successful accelerated delivery, Bob showed up and announced that they needed to complete the documentation in two days. Paul was furious about the bait-and-switch. When Bob left, Paul told his team not to kill themselves to meet the accelerated deadline. They had already gone above and beyond. He said he would take the blame.
The next morning he received an email from the head of his team. “We’re going to meet the new deadline. We are not doing it for Bob—we are doing it for you.”
Paul reluctantly let them push to meet the new deadline. As bad as he felt about Bob’s behavior, he felt good about his relationship with his team.
At the end of the day, we all want to succeed and be recognized. Being a servant leader is a great way to work toward creating a positive and productive workplace.
About The Author:
Walt Grassl is a speaker, author, and performer. He hosts the radio show, “Stand Up and Speak Up,” on the RockStar Worldwide network. Walt has performed standup comedy at the Hollywood Improv and the Flamingo in Las Vegas and is studying improv at the Groundlings School in Hollywood. For more information on bringing Walt Grassl to your next event, please visit www.WaltGrassl.com.