Omega Z Advisors – Mike Lehr

People with a best friend at work are “seven times more likely than the typical worker to be engaged on the job.” Socializing is one of two keys to job enjoyment. Herman Miller, the office furniture company, found that “fostering better social interaction equals increased contentment.”

The down side is when these relationships are bad. That is when we refer to them as office politics. Office politics are relationships gone sour.

We can use socializing at work as a teambuilding tool.

What Does Socializing at Work Mean?

Socializing at work can mean taking breaks together, sharing work tips and venting. It can mean talking about vacations, families, fashions, sports plus many others. The face-to-face contact that comes with this is very important. Simple social actions correlate to happiness and success on the job. “Those who sat at larger [cafeteria] tables were 36% more productive during the week.”

Socializing at work means sharing. Share ideas, tips and experiences. Share problems and solutions.

Turning Socializing at Work into Teambuilding Tool

People like breaks in training and seminars. They can network. They can socialize. This adds to the event and to job enjoyment and productivity.

There are many other ways to promote socializing at work:

• Form small project teams of two or three.
• Create smaller groups within larger teams and committees.
• Increase the length or number of breaks in meetings.
• Avoid always putting the same people together.
• In three-person teams put one quite different from the other two.
• Sometimes assign seats to break up cliques.
• Have teams share training, product, service or other ideas before the group.
• Assign coming up with a meeting’s agenda or content.

General Concepts

The idea is to encourage:

• Discussion
• Engagement
• Diversity
• Dissent
• Achievement

Small, diverse teams do well. Once groups get beyond three, it becomes too easy for some to become disengaged.

The task or purpose for the small team does not need to be grand. Teambuilding occurs from the process of working to a goal.

It is best if there is no single, obvious answer. The more teams must work together, the stronger they become.

How much does management by email affect unit relationships? Mike Lehr – OmegaZ Advisors

Posted ByMike Lehr

Management by email has a direct impact on team building activities.

There are many reasons why managers might prefer management by email (MBE). It is an efficient communication tool. It impacts teambuilding, a critical atom of organizational culture.

Email is a great example of the difference between efficient and effective. Its efficiency comes at the cost of effectiveness. This is seen in building relationships.

The Research

Alex “Sandy” Pentland cites his research in “The New Science of Building Great Teams”. He concludes that “the most valuable form of communication is face-to-face” and “email and texting are the least valuable.”

What does he mean by valuable though? He looks at teams. MBE harms teambuilding. Using email comes at the expense of the teambuilding glue: relationships. This shows up most as lower team engagement.

Digital Isolation

Walter Isaacson writes “Engage Face-to-Face” as one of “The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs”. Isaacson claims Jobs “knew all too well [the digital age’s] potential to be isolating.” Emails focus on ideas and thoughts. These do not flourish if relationships are mediocre.

It is easy to focus on ideas and thoughts. Much of the mainstream business literature talk about the importance of vision, strategy and process. Relationship and culture trump all three though.

Balancing Management by Email with Phone and Face-To-Face

This does not mean we do not use email. Pentland says there is a balance. He does not say what that balance is though. (This is probably for proprietary reasons.)

From my experience and research, in terms of time, a good phone and face-to-face (FTF) percentage will be in the 35-60% range. We can quantify email time as reading time. The average adult reads 300 words per minute.

Emails will still make up most interactions. Phone and FTF will be fewer but longer. Logistics will vary this percentage. For scattered teams, phone will substitute for FTF. Using the same content, phone calls are about half the time of FTF meetings.

These interactions do not have to be all business. It is better if they are not. They can be part of an overall teambuilding plan. Discussing vacation and family are effective teambuilding topics. There are many other tools.

There is power in our personalities. It comes to us free of charge. We use that power best in person.

Do you have a manager who always communicates by email? Do you feel like you can’t get your feet under you?

DEALING WITH BOSSES WHO MANAGE BY EMAIL (MBE)

Posted ByMike

A financial professional emailed me regarding bosses who “manage by email.” She implied that her boss rarely calls  or meets with employees. She asked, “What does this mean?” and “What should I do?”

First, email does provide certain efficiencies over personal interactions (phone calls and visits). However, from a relationship-building perspective the others are superior. Consequently, I advise managers to have at least one personal interaction with every employee every day.

Managers who MBE will do so for different personal reasons. Nevertheless, we can categorize them under one or both of the following:

• Wanting to minimize their personal interactions
• Liking something better about email communications

So, what do you do? Begin by uncovering the specific reasons under these broad preferences. Here are a couple sample questions to customize:

• What are the advantages of emailing on ____ over meeting to discuss it periodically?
• It seems you prefer to communicate by email; if so, would you share with me why so I can ensure I communicate effectively in them?

Their answers will give you a general direction as to what bosses like to see in their relationships. For instance, if he references efficiency, then speed might be more important than substance in his relationships. If she references documentation, she might prefer accountability, organization and recollection. If he references organizing or forming his thoughts, he might prefer control to spontaneity in relationships.

After gaining this insight, employees can initiate personal interactions and seek to deliver the attributes they’ve identified. Regardless, employees are wise to reverse the tables and make it a point to call or visit their bosses at least once a day. This will not only help protect their jobs but also help employees be happier and more successful in them.