Catalyze This

2007-08-15T13:05:00.000-07:00

Did you see Wednesday's Dilbert comic strip? In it, The Boss asks the administrative assistant, Carol, to set up a meeting with their technology review board to decide how they’ll decide on new technologies. Carol replies “Do you also need a meeting to decide how you will put together a meeting to decide how to decide things?” She grits her teeth and continues by suggesting that “maybe I should get some people together to help answer that question” – another *&$(*#$#$*&#% meeting!

We're all too familiar with pointless meetings that conclude with no tangible results, except perhaps a plan for another meeting. How many millions of dollars are wasted like this?

Here’s a link to an article that will help you look at your meetings, plan them to be more effective in the future – and save time and $: http://www.catadv.com/meetings.htm

Annina
ps. here's the "funny: www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/images/dilbert2003055270815.gif

2007-04-25T14:39:00.000-07:00

Recognizing How People Contribute

Effective assessments recognize HOW people contribute to the success of the organization, not just THAT they contribute. The HOW is about natural skills and talents, and how people put them to work towards the team’s effort. When people know HOW they contribute, there is a shift in perspective from simply doing a job to exercising their talents, and the results of employee engagement studies prove that as employee satisfaction increase, so do productivity and revenue.

When people feel confident in the way they contribute, it’s easier for them and for management to align tasks with natural strengths. There is a remarkable increase in “fit” within the organization, accompanied by greater productivity and sustainability as well.

When people know when to use their own strengths, and when to defer to their teammates, they’re happier and feel more valuable. This shared responsibility lets them see how everyone contributes to the success of a team through their unique skills, and how to apply them for the best results. And, as Jim Collins might note, it’s more about having the right people in the right seats on the bus.

- Mary Kay

2007-01-17T15:50:00.000-08:00

Conference feedback…

This is what we hear more and more from people who visit our booth, this is why Belbin is a perfect solution:

> People are getting tired of MBTI and DISC, they have taken them so many times... what they’d really like is a fresh, practical alternative. (Belbin focuses on work, it’s easy to understand and use.)

> They know how to get more resumes than they can read, but selecting the right person is like finding a needle in a haystack. (Belbin helps them predict and find the best fit.)

> They need a “secret weapon” to solve people problems, something their competition doesn’t have. (Belbin is used globally by successful businesses for this reason!)

Informal chat with booth visitors and blog readers help us stay in tune with today’s business challenges so we can then bend over backwards to help clients achieve great results! Thanks!

2006-11-07T10:23:00.000-08:00

Hire the Best Employees in 2007 - A fresh way to select the best candidates for jobs and teams

San Diego's jobing.com is sponsoring a 2-hour workshop with Catalyst Advancement. The focus will be on recruiting and retaining the best fitting, most suitable hires. With the cost of turnover so high, employers are looking for effective, novel approaches to maintain their most valuable asset: their people! Belbin team role methodology provides a precise process to resolve many such challenges facing businesses today.

From the jobing.com news story: (http://sandiego.jobing.com/news_feature.asp?story=2658)

This vibrant 2-hour workshop will help you prepare to tackle employee retention issues in 2007. Learn how to avoid the sources and high cost of employee turnover by identifying the “best fit” from a list of eligible applicants. You will leave with fresh ideas and a proven tool that you can implement immediately.

Mary Kay Mason and Annina Lukiini-Johnson’s presentation is spiced with the wisdom and knowledge gained from many years of experience in high tech, science, finance and academic environments. They represent Catalyst Advancement, a local consultancy that specializes in creating high performing teams, building employee engagement strategies, and matching the right people with the right jobs.

2006-10-25T13:48:00.000-07:00

Algorithms and Secret Weapons

Have you watched the TV show “Numb3rs,” in which the brilliant mathematician Charlie Eppes (David Krumholtz) always comes up with some sort of an impressive algorithm to solve the mystery? I love the show, and as I watched it last Friday, I began thinking about what I had just heard...

A couple of telecommunications sages were commiserating that executives of high-tech companies loaded with top talents are tearing their hair out trying to fix their people-issues. When the costs of conflict, turnover and absenteeism add up, they pay attention. Is there an algorithm for human behavior that would help them deal with it? If there is, do they need a PhD in psychology (or math!) to understand it?

That might be very helpful, but most of us just would like to have some practical, easy-to-use “cure” to plug in and help us make things better. Employers don’t need to in find out the deep secrets of personalities, they just need to tackle behavioral issues at work that end up affecting their bottom line.

Getting “the best people” also seems to be all the talk - but it’s not as simple as comparing lists of degrees and employers, the “fit” needs to be right. What does that really mean? We may read a ton of books, but often are left thinking “well, that was interesting. So what can I actually DO about it?” Can a person’s fit in a team or job really be measured?

The good news for the less mathematically-inclined is that Dr. Meredith Belbin’s extensive research (which likely included a boat-load of algorithms!) produced a practical diagnostic tool that evaluates how people behave in a work setting. It sort of codifies the role a person naturally adopts at any job s/he undertakes. It is a concrete way to measure and predict how a person will perform in a given job, how effectively a group of people will work together - and you don’t need a psych degree to utilize it!

So it helps take the mystery out of it… Hey, maybe there could be a story plot for the young Mr. Eppes? I can see it now: “Insert Belbin: HR’s secret weapon.”

-Annina

2006-08-23T17:26:00.000-07:00

I’m back from summer vacation, as are many friends, partners and clients. How was yours? Did you relax, or was achievement at the center of your holiday? Some people select their vacation spots so they can’t DO anything, just hang out. Others like to make sure they get the most bang for the vacation budget buck: they visit all the points of interest on the brochures, have a minute-to-minute program for every day, that sort of thing. Well, whatever it takes to charge your batteries, great! I do hope that you got to “be off the clock” though, so you felt refreshed upon returning to work.

My friend Eric told me a cute story about his boss Jim. Jim had been told that he’d better not drive his people and himself too hard, or they will all get burned out. After some time, Eric received a phone call from Jim who said “Guess what? I took the advice and I’m on vacation! I’m floating on a rubber mattress in the middle of a beautiful lake, the sun is shining …” Eric laughed and told me “he thought he was doing great, but not only was he out there with his cell phone, but a while later ANOTHER cell phone rang, and he ‘had to take the call’”… So much for work/life balance! What an image: a guy floating on a rubber mattress on a lake, with a phone on each ear…was he wearing shoes and a suit, too!?

On my vacations, I mix the relaxing and achieving … That approach is probably explained by my top Belbin Team Roles: Teamworker, Completer Finisher, Implementer….“Wanna hang out with people, but gotta get stuff done too!” It has been very liberating for me to understand my roles and how they explain why I am the way I am.

So needless to say, I was more than excited to spend part of my vacation in July at Cambridge University, participating in the Belbin conference. I attended presentations and workshops, and it was very exciting to learn how the Belbin Team Role Theory is used globally. Dr. Meredith Belbin said that understanding the team roles helps us “recognize the profundity of individual differences”…When people use their strengths and help others apply theirs, a workforce becomes more than the sum of its parts. Utilizing the Belbin Team Roles is a way to make individuals and businesses “world class”, to operate above the 96% level, and to beat the competition.

So that’s what I am back at work to do, with a charged battery and sharpened Belbin tools.

-Annina

P.S. Here I am with Dr. Belbin, who enjoys growth of both flowers and people’s minds.

2006-07-15T04:50:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since the last post. We are preparing for a great 2 day workshop, coming up, here, in San Diego. This will be a Belbin workshop, and we are making sure that everyone can squeeze the most valuable and useful knowledge out of this opportunity. The blog will be updated soon (the workshops are not far away!), and will be full of new information and new possibilities.

Until then, you may want to check out our updated website: www.catadv.com

Updates soon! Can't wait!

-Emily

2006-06-15T12:36:00.000-07:00

I had a great discussion with my friend yesterday. A more talented, enterprising entrepreneur cannot be found. His business is growing and naturally the number of people at the company must also grow. He's looking to hire a new software engineer, and has just started interviewing candidates. He's not yet found the right fit for the job, but he's done a commendable job avoiding the wrong, mis-fit. He told me about one interview in particular, describing the candidate in detail:

The guy talked. He talked a lot. He gave an elaborate discourse on his qualifications and told stories about his colorful experiences in a variety of jobs. Not only did he meet the requirements for skills and qualifications, he was overflowing with impressive credentials! He talked, though, and he talked alot. Everyone knows a person like this, and knows the critical detail that they often dismiss: you can, indeed, talk too much. In the same vein, you can also be too eligible for a job.

My friend and I have talked in the past about the Belbin Team Role methodology and the many ways it can be applied in business, which we use at Catalyst Advancement. Our most recent workshops have focused specifically on how Belbin tools can be used to successfully recruit and retain the right people for the right jobs: the "best fits".Best fits achieve and maintain their highest level of performance because they are both eligible and suitable for the job.

The talkative fellow whom my friend interviewed was highly eligible: he had all the skills, qualifications and experience necessary for the job. However, these factors, historical in nature, cannot predict future success, which is the role of suitability factors: A person's behavioral tendencies, natural motivations, and personal attributes. People are more likely to fit best if they are highly suitable but do not come with a resume jam-packed with credentials than if they are eligible but as unsuitable as a shark in a sardine can.

Within a few minutes of conversation, it was clear that the applicant was, in Belbin terminology, a Specialist. His previous ventures were all passionate pursuits of knowledge, he thrived on acquiring technical skills and in depth experiences. The mental image is of this Specialist talking for years about his passion, not concerned with the passage of time or, in this case, even the fact that he was being interviewed for a job where his passion would be unecessary and unheard of. He would be assigned specific computer programming tasks: what, how, when, where, and why to program. Belbin roles define a person's natural suitability traits, the strengths to build on and work with, instead of struggling with weaknesses. My friend knew that this outspoken specialist was much too unsuitable for the job, and he made his decision based on this. He was proud of making such a sound, informed decision, and I couldn't help but be pleased as well: the shark was released back into the ocean to pursue his passion, and the sardines remained, suitably, in their can.

-Emily

2006-06-08T00:53:00.000-07:00

Wow! This is growing at such a tremendous rate! Check out Catalyze This

2006-06-05T09:38:00.000-07:00

Such an exciting time is the best time to begin this blog. The Catalyst Advancement Team participated in the North County Personnel Association Summit, and we were honoured to sponsor the keynote speaker, Barrie Watson. Barrie presented to all participants about the Belbin Team Role methodology, specifically about how the methods can be applied for recruitment and retention purposes in business.

Here we are at the NCPA summit. Pictured Catalyst Advancement Team members: Annina, Mary Kay, Paula, Emily, Barrie Watson(from CERT Consultancy), and Jerry.

Here at Catalyst we've also had a workshop on this topic, part of our Belbin for Business workshop series. We are planning new workshops, and details of those will also be explained here, comments & discussion welcome!

-Emily