Diversity Matters to Your Bottom Line

If you read our article: Do I Really Want to Work Here: What Are Your Diversity Practices Telling Me? ...  you may be thinking (well, or at least so some of you have told us) , “valuing diversity sounds great, but it takes work. How is embracing diversity going to increase my organizational performance?”

A few thoughts, on why embracing diversity is not just the right thing to do, but is imperative to organizational success…

Companies that diversify their workforces have a distinct competitive advantage over those that do not, especially in the coming years as the diversity of our population increases as does globalization in business. There are several predominant factors that motivate companies to see the importance of having diverse workforces. A recent report from the Society for Human Resource Management identifies six key reasons embracing diversity should be part of an organization’s strategic goals and objectives:

1) Greater adaptability and flexibility in a rapidly changing marketplace

2) Attracting and retaining the best talent

3) Reducing costs associated with turnover, absenteeism, and low productivity

4) Return on Investment (ROI) from various initiatives, policies and practices

5) Gaining and keeping greater/new market share (locally and globally) with an expanded diverse customer base

6) Increased sales and profits

In a quick search, we've found several other studies on the importance of diversity in creating a high performing organization:

• Leveraging Diversity to Improve Business Performance


• Diversity Initiatives  in the Workplace


• The Effects of Diversity on Business Performance 

Here’s hoping that most of you desire to be part of an organization that embraces diversity –and strive to create and maintain an organization where people really want to work!   What do you think are the impacts, if any, of not valuing diversity?

About Scott Span, MSOD: is President of Tolero Solutions Organizational Development & Change Management firm.  He helps clients to facilitate sustainable growth by developing people and organizations to be more responsive, focused, productive and profitable.

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*All Rights Reserved. Reproduction, publication, and all other use of  any and all of this content is prohibited without authorized consent of Tolero Solutions and the author.

Do I Really Want to Work Here: What Are Your Diversity Practices Telling Me?

Have you ever walked into an organization and just got that “Uh, why does everyone look the same” feeling… I know I have. You may have heard the expression, people are like snowflakes, and no two are the same – that's diversity folks. In today’s ever diverse business environment, for organizations to excel, they must pay attention to - and show they value - the diversity of employees and customers.

Infinite diversity in infinite combinations – Vulcan proverb

 

Many of us know from the first time we enter into an organization, whether as an employee or a consultant, that what they say is not what we see – or feel.  So, what are some things that may trigger your “where is the diversity…” feeling?

If you want high engagement, people need to feel as though they can “bring their full selves” to work! We realize it can occur because of many different factors – however - we are intrigued by organizations that don’t pay attention to diversity. Perhaps they just don’t notice what a negative impact lack of diversity appreciation can have?

Regardless, building a successful business requires more than just saying you value diversity. It requires creating and espousing the traits of an organization that embraces diversity, so employees, vendors, and stakeholders can feel safe and comfortable and “bring their full selves” to work –an organization that is respectful, appreciative, trusting, understanding and engaging.

So what won’t trigger that “where is the diversity” feeling and show those interacting with your organization that the organization does in fact value diversity?

High level – we’ll offer a few qualities that may trigger that “where is the diversity” feeling and a few that help create cultures that embrace diversity.

Doesn’t Embrace Diversity	Embraces Diversity
People don’t “bring their full selves” to work	People “bring their full selves” to work
Pay and promotion of one group over another	Equal pay and promotion based on performance
No visible diversity at all levels	Visible diversity at all levels
No diverse recruitment strategies	Diverse recruitment strategies
Homogeneous mentoring and coaching	Cross cultural mentoring and coaching
No supplier diversity programs	Dedicated supplier diversity programs
All people don’t feel equal and valued	All people feel equal and valued
Practices Oppression	Values Equality
Poor Engagement	High Engagement
Exclusive	Inclusive

 

So how do you create an organization that values and embraces diversity?

...for starters, begin with diversity in recruitment, we often use and customize, our Recruitment and Retention Lifecycle™ with our client’s.

Short answer – use the 3 steps below to develop and excel in the “embraces diversity” qualities listed above.

Policies and Initiatives: The first step in creating an organization that embraces diversity is for leaders and employees to create diversity policies Leaders and managers within organizations must incorporate diversity policies into every aspect of the organization’s functions and purpose and create specific diversity strategies’ and initiatives. Diversity needs to be defined broadly and should encompass a wide range of policies and initiatives that meet the diverse and changing needs of employees and customers – ranging from recruitment to engagement and retention. Leaders and employees should take active roles in defining and implementing these diversity policies and processes which, in order to succeed, should be fully aligned with the organizations strategies’ and objectives. In order to develop and maintain effective diversity policies, leaders should view employee participation as a necessary part of any diversity initiative. Diversity policies must support employees in learning how to effectively interact with and manage people in a diverse workplace. Policies should recognize and encourage employees to continue to learn new skills in dealing with and managing people. They should also recognize the impact that diverse clients will have upon the success or failure of the organization. Diversity policies should promote learning and education, equality, and appreciation.

Leadership Commitment: The next step to creating an organization that embraces diversity is to obtain leadership commitment. Accountability for achieving diversity goals and objectives needs to be directly tied to incentives and pay increases. The degree to your diversity initiatives will be successful relies on the involvement and commitment of leaders. Organizations which have leaders who are actively involved in implementing diversity initiatives create cultures that embrace diversity by inspiring their employees. Committed leaders champion diversity by infusing it into all organizational processes and ensuring that diversity is integrated into the core values of the organization. They recognize diversity as an important goal, and position the responsibility for meeting diversity goals not merely with human resources departments or diversity offices, but with top-level and senior executives – and themselves. Leaders that are committed to diversity provide the visibility and time and resources to make diversity happen. These leaders view diversity as both a top priority and a personal responsibility.

Engagement: The third step in achieving creating an organization that embraces diversity is - always focus on the people. We’ve said this before, and we think it so important we’ll say it again, organizations can’t exist without people. People make the difference in every business. Once you have diversity strategies and initiatives in place, and accountable and committed leadership, you need to engage employees in your diversity practices – and get them to engage with one another. Design ongoing communication systems to create and reinforce the workplace diversity commitment and practices to all employees with an emphasis on why it is important and what it means to the organization. These communication systems should encourage peer to peer learning and knowledge sharing increasing diversity awareness amongst employees. Additionally, training and empowerment initiatives provide a foundation, for all levels of the organization, to foster the accomplishment of diversity goals. These can include cross cultural mentoring and coaching and employee led learning events. Another way to engage employees in sharing and embracing diversity is via affinity groups or employee resource groups (ERGs). These groups can be groups of people with common interests, identities, and issues like African American, Women, LGBT or even more defined in scope as aligned to your specific organizations products and functions - such as Women in healthcare, Young IT workers etc. It is also helpful to keep the workforce engaged in diversity initiatives by developing organization-wide assessment and evaluation systems to monitor diversity progress throughout the organization.

Diversity: the art of thinking independently together. - Malcolm Forbes 

Here’s hoping that most of you desire to be part of an organization that embraces diversity –and strive to create and maintain an organization where people really want to work!  What triggers your diversity “gut check?” What do you think are the impacts, if any, of not valuing diversity?

Stay tuned for more articles in our “Do I Really Want to Work Here…?” series!

About Scott Span, MSOD: is President of Tolero Solutions Organizational Development & Change Management firm.  He helps clients to facilitate sustainable growth by developing people and organizations to be more responsive, focused, productive and profitable.

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*All Rights Reserved. Reproduction, publication, and all other use of  any and all of this content is prohibited without authorized consent of Tolero Solutions and the author.

 

Attention: Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) & SVP HR: 5 Ways Organizational Development Can Help To Achieve Your Goals

The chief human resources officer (CHRO), also commonly referred to as the SVP HR, is a coveted role for many HR professionals and whose primary work involves strategic management and departmental decision-making that affects the organization’s people and viability as a profitable enterprise. If you’re serving in this function – congratulations on all your hard work!

The role of the CHRO has shifted over the years from responding to employee needs, compliance and setting policies - to the more strategic objectives of helping organizations build capabilities and capacity, via a focus on people. In this capacity, you may be responsible for a strategic human capital plan; professional development, talent management and recruitment, retention and engagement, and culture – not to mention making sure all initiatives are aligned with the company's strategic objectives and goals.  Not easy tasks – and not tasks that can always be tackled alone. Good news Organization Development (OD) can help.

5 tips on how working collaboratively with OD colleagues can help you achieve your goals…

1) Strategic Planning: Sometimes strategic planning can be a daunting task and can make one feel quite overwhelmed. What goes into a human capital strategic plan? How does the human capital strategic plan sync up to the overarching company strategic plan? What HR and people focused goals, objectives and targets should be included? Who is accountable for achieving these and how is accountability determined? What is the structured process for strategic planning? How should the plan be communicated and implemented? By training and practice most OD professionals have a holistic or whole systems view.

• An OD professional experienced with strategic planning can help you with the process; they can assist with the design, development, integration, and deployment of a human capital strategy and associated processes and procedures – with a keen focus on any impacts to the people.

2) Recruitment: Recruiting today seems to be a rush job or a one size fits all approach. This HR function is often one of the first to be outsourced. Recruiters get a position description and scour the internet for a match. Recruiters find a CV that matches the position description and send an often canned, cold and generic email. Recruiting has become less and less personalized. Many companies do not embrace a diverse recruiting strategy that mirrors the current diverse pool of applicants. Not always the best approach.

• An OD professional can assist you in defining your organizational employee value proposition. What is it you can offer to employees, what’s in it for them to work for your organization?  Being on the same page up front will help to reduce retention issues later. Yes, this is a two way street. Once your employee value proposition is defined you need to determine what types of candidates have, not just the skills needed to fill a role, but also have the values and beliefs that align with your organizational culture and value proposition. OD professionals can assist you with candidate prescreening, assessment and selection. Many OD professionals also practice in the areas of diversity and inclusion, and thus can assist you with designing and developing targeted diversity recruitment strategies.

3)  Professional Development: Professional development is a key component of successful talent management. For employees to remain engaged and committed, they need to feel that they have opportunities to learn and grow and know that new challenges and opportunities are available to them within the organization. Professional development and training needs to focus on various areas. The most successful professional development programs are those that consist of a combination of technical, functional and people skills training. Organizations also tend to have lower turnover when they have coaching and mentoring programs in place. How do you know what your employees want in professional development? How do you determine your skill gaps and areas of improvement? What are the best methods and technologies for implementing professional development in your organization? How do you deliver coaching and mentoring? How do you measure success?

• An OD professional can assist you in up-front data collection and analysis. OD professionals can help you determine your skill gaps, further define the challenges your employees face and define and deliver learning opportunities to help meet those challenges – inclusive or measures of success. Many OD professionals are also skilled coaches and can help coach your employees (and leadership) to improve in specific areas to which other training may not address.

4) Retention and Engagement: Consistent employee engagement is an imperative human resources goal. Creating a work environment where employees are enthusiastic and engaged is a top priority.  Many human resources leaders describe their greatest challenge, as “keeping employees happy and retaining top talent.” HR can measure this quantitatively with respect to turnover and retention. Human resources goals concerning turnover and retention are marked, respectively, by the words “reduce” and “increase.” Attracting qualified applicants, motivating and engaging the existing workforce and inspiring long-term commitment are often goals regarding turnover and retention.

• An OD professional can assist with retention and engagement. Beyond data collection and analysis, as trained behavioral scientists, OD professionals have an understanding of fundamental human needs. Having an understanding of what makes employees feel valued, heard, appreciated, and significant is imperative to designing and developing retention and engagement strategies. OD professionals also have experience in understanding motivational factors, and many are certified in tools and technologies to help further identify areas of improvement.  OD professionals understand and practice in the areas of diversity and inclusion which is also of great benefit in designing and developing targeted diversity retention and engagement strategies.

5) Culture: HR is becoming more and more responsible for employer branding – defining the image and culture. Creating an employer of choice is a goal that often falls within HR. An employer of choice is the company employees are happy to be a part of, a company for which others want to work, and a company customers want to do business with. These things are all part of culture - the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization, or group. Simply put, “the way work gets done around here.” A company’s culture says a lot about an organization and the direction they are headed.

• One thing OD professionals know a lot about – creating a high performing culture. OD professionals can help you define the type of culture you want, often beginning with spelling it out in your mission statement – which should be created as part of the strategy. OD professionals can then assist you in creating and maintaining a culture of high performance. Culture is the identity of a company, and because of that, in some ways it becomes an identity of those who work there. The people end up affecting the culture as much as the culture is affecting them. OD professionals can help HR maintain a positive and high performing culture via assisting with recruitment strategies, retention and engagement, and professional development.

Strategic planning…recruitment…culture…professional development…retention and engagement – that’s a lot responsibilities; which are your priorities? Which areas do you find to be the most challenging? Could you and your organization benefit from consulting external OD support?  If so feel free to contact us with specific questions - we’re happy to discuss how we can help you and your organization to achieve your goal.

About Scott Span, MSOD: is President of Tolero Solutions Organizational Development & Change Management firm.  He helps clients to facilitate sustainable growth by developing people and organizations to be more responsive, focused, productive and profitable.

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An Improving Economy Could Mean Loss of Employees. Will They Stay or Will They Go? That’s Up To You.

When accounting for the costs (both real costs, such as time taken to select and recruit a replacement, and also opportunity costs, such as lost productivity), the cost of employee turnover to for-profit organizations has been estimated to be up to 150% of the employees' remuneration package. Can you afford that?

The US economy is improving. This is a good thing for companies and job seekers alike, though it’s also positive news for employees – employees who may have felt over worked and under-appreciated during the downturn.

Should you be concerned about retention and loss of employees?

Though employee engagement and retention should always be a focus for any high performing organization, additional focus should be placed on retention strategies during an economic uptick. When employees see external environmental factors such as the economy improving, and more opportunities available to them, organizations have to work harder than ever before to retain good talent. Many employees are willing to put up with job dissatisfaction during hard economic times for fear of losing their job and or not being able to find an alternative. Though an economic uptick is not a guaranteed sign that employees will jump ship, it is a contributory factor many consider when making a job change.

Though average employee tenure varies by work type and demographic; however, the days of long term tenure with an organization are not what they used to be.  Under stable economic conditions, it’s not uncommon for people to move jobs every few years. Factor in opportunities for new jobs presenting themselves, after years of stagnant wages and often increased workload and minimal recognition, and suddenly employee retention can become a serious issue.

“We are responsible for our own lives–no other person is or even can be.”
~Oprah Winfrey

It’s not just a poor economy that can lead to dissatisfied employees counting the days until their next opportunity. Many attributes of organizational culture, as well as leadership and management behaviors, contribute to employee dissatisfaction. Many of these attributes often tend to become enhanced and accepted in times of distress.  However, as the economy  improves, employee tolerance for many of these behaviors declines. As opportunities arise for employees to change jobs; these other non economic attributes that play a part in retention need to be reevaluated or addressed.

 Organizational Behaviors Negatively Impacting Employee Retention:

• Lack of honest and transparent leadership


• Poor communication top down, bottom up, and lateral


• Inflexible and un adaptable strategy


• Reduction in employee growth opportunities


• Unachievable performance goals


• Lack of recognition


• Reduced or non timely and relevant job training


• Minimal appreciation for diversity


• Non merit based pay


• Culture of distrust

I often get told “we can’t afford to keep our employees by offering higher pay and benefits.”  Sometimes an increase in salary and benefits is not a feasible solution to employee retention, particularly after several years of tough economic times. Now sure, will you lose some employees strictly due to salary and monetary benefits, of course. That said, you’d be surprised how understanding employees are willing to be if you show them you value them in other ways. That’s not to say money isn't a driver for many people, though it certainly isn't the only one.

So when options present themselves for employees to leave, what should you do to ensure you retain them, and the costly institutional knowledge they possess?

Organizational Behaviors Positively Impacting Employee Retention:

• Increase leadership honesty and transparency


• Reevaluate and ramp up organizational communications


• Revisit your strategy and targets


• Don’t reduce employee growth opportunities


• Have realistic performance goals


• Recognize, recognize, recognize!


• Provide training and learning opportunities


• Value and respect diversity


• Have merit based pay systems


• Create a culture of trust
  

  *For further details and actions regarding these behaviors see our

  
  

  Employee Retention Checklist: Organizational Behaviors That Positively Impact Retention

  
  

With the economy making a turn for the better, it’s largely up to you whether you make your employees want to stay or go. Do you have employee retention strategies in place? If so, have you revisited your engagement and retention strategies recently? Tolero Solutions can help you increase retention and engagement and design strategies best suited for your organization. With an estimated cost to replace an employee of up to 150% of the employees' remuneration package – can you afford not to focus on retention?

 

“The employer generally gets the employees he deserves.” ~Walter Gilbey

 

About Scott Span, MSOD: is President of Tolero Solutions Organizational Development & Change Management firm.  He helps clients to facilitate sustainable growth by developing people and organizations to be more responsive, focused, productive and profitable.

Email | Website | LinkedIn | Twitter | Blog | Facebook

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*All Rights Reserved. Reproduction, publication, and all other use of  any and all of this content is prohibited without authorized consent of Tolero Solutions and the author.

Goal Setting - Why Bother? Are You Setting Your 2012 Goals?

2012 is literally around the corner. The topic of goals and objectives arises frequently this time of year. Many organizations (and individuals) have begun to update their strategies and create new goals for the New Year, have you? Hopefully you have, and if you haven’t, well – you may want to add it to your ‘to do’ list.

 

"Goals allow you to control the direction of change in your favor." - Brian Tracy

 

So what are goals and why are they important?

A goal represents the “to be” state, not the action of getting to that state. Goals are the most important outcomes that need to be accomplished to achieve and maintain the vision of the organization. Goals are derived from the vision statement and must be addressed through the objectives of the organization and establish the long-term direction for the work within the organization. In short, goals are the desired end result. As Stephen Covey says, it helps to "Begin with the end in mind."

Goals should also decide the results that are wanted/needed and set a time frame for achieving results. Most importantly, goals must build in accountability and consequences for not achieving them. Performance measures are the best indicators of success in achieving goals and outcomes; they should be relevant and practical.

 

 

It helps to ask…do the goals:

• Address improvements in performance of mission?


• Address individual improvements in performance?


• Tie to the strategic objectives?


• Capture the requirements of external and internal customers?


• Emphasize the critical aspects of the organization?

Most leaders know that an effective strategic plan must contain measurable high level goals and objectives, though goals should not only be high level organizational in nature. I am often asked by leaders who have a developed strategy, “why do my people need their own goals – we already have high level strategic organizational goals they are expected to meet?”  My reply, goals tell you as an organization where you want to be and what you want to achieve – they do the same for your people. Employees must have goals and objectives, not only to help support the organization in achieving its strategy, but also to see how the actions they take in executing their roles and responsibilities directly contribute to the broader organization mission and vision.

In developing organizational and employee goals, it is important to ask, “Are we measuring the right things?” Program, departmental and individual employee goals should align to and support organizational goals and objectives. If the workforce cannot see themselves and their actions in strategic goals, then your organizational goals aren’t as likely to succeed. Personal goals, incentives, and competencies should be aligned with the strategy. Without individual goals tied to specific roles and performance, it is difficult for employees to gauge the impact they are making through their work.  It is also more difficult for them to see the WIIFM (what’s in it for me) for achieving high performance - without goals, it proves difficult to measure, evaluate and reward individual performance.

 "My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose - somehow we win out." - Ronald Reagan

Clear communication of goals and priorities is necessary for people to see how their goals are contributing to organizational success and why they are being measured and evaluated against them. That creates a win/win for both the employee and the organization. For goals to truly increase accountability, they should include baselines. Baselines are time-lagged calculations which provide a basis for making comparisons of past performance to current performance.  A baseline may also be forward-looking, such as when you establish a goal and are seeking to determine whether the trends show you're likely to meet that goal. Measuring performance at a specific time establishes a baseline and provides the starting point for setting goals and evaluating future efforts and overall performance.

Several questions to ask when developing and defining goals: 

• Does the goal support the mission?


• Does the goal represent a desired result that can be measured?


• Does the goal reflect a primary activity, a strategic direction, a strategic issue or a gap in service?


• Is the goal challenging, but still realistic and achievable?


• Is there at least one key goal for each program/subprogram, but not more than can be reasonably managed?


• Is the goal important to management?


• Is the goal important to the employee?


• Is the goal important to customers and stakeholders?

Tolero Solutions offers various frameworks and methodologies that can provide assistance with strategic planning and goal setting. Just as your final destination is important to your journey, your goals are important to your business and your people. They define your destination and shape what your business will become. So, as you and your organization wind down 2011, give some thought to where you want to be, how are going to get there, and how you’re going to measure success – set goals early and take one step closer to being set for success in the New Year! After all, “If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else."  - Yogi Berra

About Scott Span, MSOD: is President of Tolero Solutions Organizational Development & Change Management firm.  He helps clients to facilitate sustainable growth by developing people and organizations to be more responsive, focused, productive and profitable.

Email | Website | LinkedIn | Twitter | Blog | Facebook

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*All Rights Reserved. Reproduction, publication, and all other use of  any and all of this content is prohibited without authorized consent of Tolero Solutions and the author.

The Obama Healthcare Summit: An OD Perspective

I watched the Obama Healthcare Summit and on purpose watched it wearing my “OD hat.” It was a tough crowd, and although in my view Obama did a somewhat decent job of acting as facilitator and participant, as a trained behavioral scientist and a facilitator myself, I found it entertaining and painful to watch. My views are not intended to be partisan or take sides; however, they are intended to express certain observations.

For those of us who facilitate large group sessions, we know it can be a sometimes daunting and exhaustive experience. More things are at play than may meet the eye to an attendee or observer: politics, leadership, personalities, power, and diversity just to name a few.

Politics: As this was a political forum, naturally congressional politics was the basis for discussions and at the fore front of the event. However, what about personal politics? Most of those attending had a personal agenda, including the President. When acting as a facilitator, it is extremely important not to over-power the meeting with your own agenda. When at all possible, a facilitator should be a neutral party. Not only did Obama enter the summit with his own agenda, he entered it with a bill almost completely written. What message would this send to you if you were a participant who was in attendance to share your own ideas, whether in agreement with Obama’s or not? If it were me, I would tend to take a “why bother, he has his mind pretty firmly set anyway” view.

Leadership: Now, if in fact Obama had convened several neutral trained facilitators to lead the session, then he himself could have given his full attention to participation at the same level as those in attendance. When leading and facilitating a session with so much personal politics, it is important to set clear ground rules and expectations. Although topics and agenda were established for the summit on February 12th some participants were still unsure of the format on February 22nd. I saw no timeline of events, no “parking lot topics” list, and no clearly established ground rules. It’s no wonder some people got to speak for 5 minutes and some rant on and on. It’s no wonder Obama was interrupted on several occasions and it’s no wonder the entire summit ran over the scheduled time limit.

Personalities: When facilitating a session of this nature, it is imperative to have at least a basic understanding of the personalities of those in attendance, and more importantly, be able to manage them. What does it mean when Nancy Pelosi whispers and has sidebars? What does it mean when Eric Cantor rolls his eyes? What does it mean when John McCain grunts loudly? What does it mean when Joe Biden goes off on a tangent into the weeds? I saw several occasions where these and other behaviors occurred. In very few cases did they go noticed, yet alone even addressed. In my view, this is part of the reason the summit ran over the scheduled time and engagement began to decline in the afternoon session. People began to either “tune out” or just continually push their own agendas. I’m not saying that a facilitator should be able to notice and respond to everything, or know all the telling personality traits of participants; however they should have the time and ability to be able to address and manage behaviors that can derail the purpose of the meeting. When having your own agenda and serving as participant and facilitator this can often prove difficult and impede desired outcomes.

Power: Power and showing of power, both in subtle and non subtle ways was rampant at the summit. To an extent these things are to be expected given that the summit was convened by the most powerful politician in the country, and power and politics usually go hand in hand. I observed displays of power where some were acting like argumentative children and other instances were body language was a dead give away; some expressed power by not engaging. However, if trust does not exist amongst all parties, then open and honest dialogue is not likely to take place, particularly from subordinates up to leaders. Think of it this way, it would be like your CEO or direct boss trying to facilitate a session with you and your team to gain feedback on how they can best improve as a leader. If you don’t have an honest and trusting relationship with them, how likely are you to tell them how you really feel and offer constructive ideas for improvement? As they are in a more powerful position than you, you may be afraid that you could upset them or even lose your job. In the instance of the summit this is a reelection year after all! Though I didn’t notice Obama overtly throwing his power in the face of the participants, these feelings may have very well existed.

Diversity: Just because we now have an African American President does not mean we can stop paying attention to diversity. Yes we had racial minority and female participation at the summit; however, in watching who took up the most air time (with the exception of Obama) I felt as if I was watching “the white men network.” When facilitating a session of this nature, it is imperative to understand the cultural nuances. Different ethnicities, races, genders, age groups and even Myers Briggs types (MBTI) have different ways of expressing themselves and have different comfort levels with varying situations. Not all of those in the room may have felt comfortable interjecting or politely interrupting the president, or even volunteering to speak in such a forum. These traits do not mean, however, that these people did not have a desire to contribute. They may have just felt that they couldn’t get a word in or that they should wait to be called on by the President.

In closing, why are all of these things important?
It is a tough task to facilitate and participate and even harder when you have your own agenda. If organizing a large session/workshop with diverse participants and strong personalities, having a facilitator with the ability to maintain, an understanding of (and manage) personality, leadership, power, and politics issues is key to achieving successful outcomes.

What could have been accomplished with the help of trained facilitators and OD professionals? How might the result be different?
In my view I think that if trained facilitators and OD professionals had been present and engaged in the summit the meeting would have stayed on time, on track, and on schedule. Less ‘acting out’ behaviors may have occurred; more diverse voices would have had an opportunity to interject, and more constructive alternatives for a way ahead might have surfaced. This is not to say trained facilitators and OD professionals are miracle workers, however to highlight the importance of having those present trained in specific skills, with an awareness to notice, address, and respond to things that others to close to the issues may not be able to.

I hope this was as much a learning experience for the President as it was for me watching. If the Obama administration wishes to convene any more summits/sessions/major participative meetings – hire a skilled facilitator or an OD professional with the lenses of awareness to help reach the best possible outcomes!

Some helpful resources:

http://www.amazon.com/Skilled-Facilitator-Comprehensive-Consultants-Facilitators/dp/0787947237

http://www.amazon.com/Leadership-That-Matters-Difference-Organizations/dp/1576751937/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267210748&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Cultures-Organizations-Software-Geert-Hofstede/dp/0071439595/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267210788&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Groups-Context-Perspective-Group-Dynamics/dp/0819197955/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267210831&sr=1-2