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I enjoyed watching the TV series –  LOST. Did you watch the final episode last weekend? The series provides great opportunities to talk about different characters and personalities, how they interact, and the strengths (and weaknesses) they bring to a team.  

As an accredited Belbin team roles assessor, facilitator and coach, I like to find teams that showcase the nine team roles discovered by Dr. Meredith Belbin.  The first thing that hit me was the “Hurley” is a teamworker!  Hurley can be counted on to build morale and calm the team when stress levels get high. In one of the earlier scenes, he got the survivors to play a game of golf on a lovely grassy plateau as a way to de-stress!

The other characters show behavioural traits associated with the nine team roles as follows:

I’ll be telling you more about Belbin and it’s nine team roles in my next series of blogs.  Check to see what role is missing from the list?  Some one who uses reason and logic to evaluate options. Who do you think fulfills the missing role?

Everyone has preferred roles that they naturally move towards and we can have more than one preferred role.  For example, Kate is often described as “spontaneous.”  What other role might that be? 

We all have least preferred roles?  (I can’t see Hurely as a Shaper, can you?)  What about you – what role(s) do you play on your team?  What about your team members - what roles do they play? If you are having trouble it could be that your team isn’t balanced.

If you are interested in finding out more check back next week! 

Joanne   (Accredited Belbin team roles assessor, facilitator, and coach)

It’s getting down to crunch time!  Are you ready for June 15, 2010 when Bill 168 on workplace violence and harassment comes into effect. Will you be compliant and thereby reduce your risk of fines or imprisonment should something happen at your workplace? As mentioned in previous blogs, bad things do happen at good workplaces.  So why not be prepared.

One of the obligations by employers is to educate employees about the violence and harassment policies and program.

What are you doing for Bill 168 training?

Most clients are conducting, what I would call, informational sessions for managers and employees. Some are spending more time training their managers (train-the-trainer) who will educate their employees/departments. Some have opted for on-line generic training sessions.

With a training and teaching background I know that “informational sessions” are not the best method for transferring knowledge for the long term. The best approach is a multi-pronged (blended) approach.  More intenstive training for management (and employees), on-line training as reinforcement, and an ongoing communication program for reinforcing and keeping the information in the forefront.

I spoke to a Regional Manager, and Health & Safety Inspector at the Ministry of Labour last week. Here’s how that discussion went:

Some organizations don’t think there is an urgent need to do anything with respect to Bill 168, what should I tell them?

We’ll be going out like a SWAT team on June 15th and afterwards, so they will have to do something then. The fines and penalities, like jail time, are onerous. It’s better to be proactive and get the policies and programs in place now then having to react later.

What are the requirements for training?

There are no specific requirements about how the training is conducted, but there is the obligation to ensure that employees are educated on the policies and programs.

How will you assess whether the legislative requirements are met?

We’ll be looking to see that the policies are posted. We’ll look at the documents and forms. We’ll check the records of who has been trained. So we’ll find out what the employer has done to comply with the legislation. But then we’ll go out and we’ll start asking employees questions.

What kind of questions will you ask?

We’ll ask questions like:

• What will you do if you witness a violent act at work?
• Who would you call immediately?
• What is workplace violence?

Questions like these will give us the real picture – whether the employees know about the legislation, policies, and programs, and whether they have been trained sufficiently or not.

What happens if the company “fails?”

They’ll receive orders on what they must do to pass. Like I said earlier, it’s better to be proactive now then having to react to something and have to implement policies and programs under pressure.

So, do you think you are ready for Bill 168?  Do you think informational sessions only will ensure you are compliant?  Need some help, give us a call!

Joanne

To find out more about Bill 168, our package, and what our clients are saying, click here.

Sometimes we think workplace violence and harassment won’t happen on the job.

 Imagine going in to work one day, just like any other day. You’re the Manager at a popular retail store. You get along well with your colleagues. In fact, you are especially close to one of your staff who has disclosed information about her relationship with her boyfriend. She recently broke up with him; he hasn’t taken the news very well; and she’s a bit scared of him.  Your intiution tells you that you should do something, but you are not certain what. Suddenly you hear gun shots and panic sets in. Customers run out of the store, and the first thought in your head is about your co-worker, you know something bad has happened. While you duck under the cash register counter, you’re frozen with fear and don’t know what to do next.

Unfortunately, this imaginary introduction is loosely based on a real incident that happened recently in Chicago, Illinios, where a man followed his estranged girlfriend into an Old Navy store where she worked and killed her in a basement area restricted to employees, before turning the gun on himself. While I don’t know all the details around the incident and whether the worker disclosed her fear to her employer, you can see how even though you might think this won’t happen here, it could. This is the type of incident that Bill 168 hopes to prevent. While this particular incident happened in a retail environment, that is usecure and open to the public, there are still precautions and procedures that could be put in place to help prevent violence and harassment in the workplace.

The first step to implementing Bill 168 is completing a risk assessment, and the incident above serves to remind us that we should think of all possible scenarios to reduce the level of risk. Isolated areas should have coded and secure access, there should be a means of communication located in the area, another exit point, and perhaps even video survelliance, and a panic button.

Another aspect of Bill 168 deals with domestic violence. Once the employee discloses that she is fearful about the possibility of “domestic” violence, the employer has a duty to act. That means discussing and creating a safety plan with the employee, referral to women’s support centres, counselling, providing information and documents about abuse, and changing schedules, or transfering to another store so regular routines no longer exists. 

If this incident happened in Ontario after June 15, 2010, and the retail company had done nothing about Bill 168, then the corporation, people in positions of authority (i.e. the store manager), could face fines, and the manager and/or executive of the firm could face jail time.

There may be more measures you could take. You know your workplace and industry better than anyone. Bill 168 isn’t really here to spoil your day. Rather, it’s being put in place because bad things do happen on the job. One in five violent incidents in Canada occur in the workplace. (Statistics Canada 2007). Maybe nothing could have prevented this incident from happening, but with training and education, processes and procedures, maybe, just maybe, the outcome might have been a little different. Taking the time and effort to ensure you are compliant is here for a very real reason.

What do you think?      Joanne

Hopefully you enjoyed this series about active listening skills. Are you a good listener? Have you been more aware of your listening skills over the past few weeks? Have you practiced?

The three basic skills of active listening are:

1. Attending behaviours
2. Using open questions
3. Paraphrasing

These three skills help to show the other person (your employee, customer, supplier, manager, etc.) that what they have to say is important.

It’s human nature to want to have our opinions and point of views listened to, but in order for others to really listen to us, we must actively listen to them first. By using these skills, you will excel at active listening, show empathy, and will learn a lot about a person, issue, or problem.

What do you do with all the new information you obtain from active listening?

Once you have this information, you can figure out ways to help with out giving advice. Because giving advice doesn’t work. You know what happens if you give advice and the advice doesn’t work out. Guess who is to blame – YOU!

So how do you influence another person to make the right decision. You can give facts, data, and information, and you can share your experience. What other skills can you use? Hmmm, how about asking logical consequence questions to guide their thinking?  But that’s an idea for another series of blogs!

Good luck practicing your active listening skills. Once you see the benefits, it will be hard going back to the old way of conversing – talking too much, interrupting, and being distracted. When you use active listening skills many good things come back to you – including enhanced and deeper relationships with people! 

And if you are still struggling, we’d be happy to facilitate our Effective Communications program on-site at your office!

Joanne