According to Kathy Kolbe, creator of the Kolbe System, “There is a major difference between the way you function when you are relaxed and at rest and the way you function when you take action. When you take action, when you strive, when you start getting things done in the way that feels most instinctive and natural to you, you do so through a mixture of four different Action Modes, with a strong likelihood of favoring one or two of these modes over the others. These Action Modes are not “personality types,” but instinct-based MO’s that can be expressed using a simple numerical system.”

Kolbe’s Continuum of Instinct-Based Action Modes

Those who favor the FACT FINDER Action Mode instinctively gather and share information. They need to investigate in depth. Are you more inclined to specify than to simplify? If so, you may favor this way of getting things done.

Those who favor the FOLLOW THRU Action Mode instinctively arrange and design. They need to seek a sense of order. Are you more inclined to systematize than to simply adapt to a given situation? If so, you may favor this modus operandi (MO).

Those who favor the QUICK START Action Mode are comfortable dealing with risk and uncertainty. They need to invent, brainstorm, and innovate. When faced with an unfamiliar circumstance, are you more inclined to improvise than to look for ways to stabilize the situation? If so, you may favor this approach to completing a task.

Those who favor the IMPLEMENTOR Action Mode are comfortable handling space and tangibles. They need to convert ideas into concrete form. Are you more inclined to build, repair, trouble-shoot and practice than you are to imagine or theorize? If so, you may favor this instinctive way of striving to complete a task.

As Kathy Kolbe is quick to point out, EACH OF THESE INSTINCTIVE WORKING STYLES IS “RIGHT” FOR THE PERSON WHO IS DRAWN TO IT. “Every numerical rating on the Kolbe Continuum” she reminds us, “represents and equally positive trait.” And here’s perhaps the biggest takeaway for those who are eager to launch a Great Workplace Revolution: Any healthy organization needs a team that can, communally, provide all four strengths!

THE INDEX

The Kolbe system is powered by a simple four digit summary that can (and, I believe, should) be rendered for any individual working for your team or applying for work for it. The summary is known as a Kolbe a ™ Index. I asked Kathy Kolbe, founder, how she would explain the index for someone unfamiliar with her work.

“The Index,” she said, “is designed to help you focus on your strengths, and thereby get a better understanding of how you do things when you are free to do these your own way. When you’re in the zone, in the glide pattern, when you are out of your relaxation mode and into your mode of striving for something, what do you do most and what do you do lest? How do you go about making decisions? What is your instinctive, preferred way of approaching a task? The Index answers these questions, and helps you celebrate your strengths by focusing on what you naturally do well.”

The Kolbe system does this by assigning numerical one-to-ten rankings in four ACTION MODES that reflect classic human problem-solving tactics. According to Kathy, understanding how we use these for M.O.’s – modes of operation – are essential to building and supporting any team.

“The Index,” she explains, “shows everybody on the team that everyone else is somewhere on the continuum in each of these four areas. Whoever you are is just fine for you. There is no good or bad, no right or wrong. Who you are is how you were meant to be. Understanding where you and others land in the four Action Modes means you are validating and celebrating strengths you can use in decision making that are always there for you and will always be there for you . . . recognizing that others have different strengths.

The four action modes that Kolbe a ™ Index measures go by the following labels:

FACT FINDER

FOLLOW THRU

QUICK START

IMPLEMENTOR

In a future blog, I’ll be sharing more about Kathy Kolbe’s descriptions of each of these modes of operation.

Kolbe’s system makes identifying the right person for the job, and assigning the right task to the right person, far easier and far less expensive than the “gut instinct” method followed by most entrepreneurs and hiring managers.  Kolbe’s tools allow organizations of all sizes to evaluate candidates not merely on their (stated) past experience, but on what ends up mattering far more in the day-to-day reality of the workplace: the natural instincts of each candidate and team member.

I realize that many people reading this will have done their own research on this important question of employee and applicant assessment and will have come to their own conclusions about what works and what doesn’t in the field of “personality type” identification.  What is important to understand is that Kolbe’s system works far better than the “personality type” programs because it does not rely on “personality types.”  It identifies four major ways of prioritizing people, activities and relationships based on the best current research on human brain function.

METHODS OF OPERATION

Instead of asking you to guess how well a current prospective employee will perform based on some arcane “personality type” that you must pull from a long list of such types, Kolbe helps you identify the methods of operation that the team member or candidate in question actually uses right now in whatever he or she is striving to attain, solve, or create.  All you have to do is become familiar with the four basic modes that relate, not to “personality” (whatever that is) but to these four scientifically verifiable human brain processes.  Kolbe’s statistically proven tools identify the individual’s level of proficiency in each of the four areas and assigns a numerical value to each mode for that individual.  This is a dramatically simpler, more accurate, and more effective approach than the complex, cumbersome systems offered by most “personality type” assessments.

The system creates a practical, realistic summary of strengths and potential challenge areas for each and every individual in the organization.  Any individual’s Kolbe result is so personalized that only 5% of the general population is likely to have one just like it.

Our own experience with the Kolbe system has been that it has dramatically enhanced retention, workplace efficiency, and job satisfaction.  And our company is not alone. According to Kolbe, one national financial services company using the system estimates saving more than $10 million between interviewing, retraining and downtime.  Another employer reports 0% of the employees hired using RightFit left for job-related reasons.  Yes, you read that right:  zero percent.

I was fortunate enough to interview Kathy Kolbe, founder of Kolbe Corp. and the creator of RightFit system.  In future blogs, I will share her overview of the astonishingly accurate assessment system she has developed.

We may convince ourselves that following the path of least resistance in our workplace will at least get us something close to the results we have gotten used to receiving, or that launching a revolution in the workplace is something optional, something we can do later on, if we feel like it, if things calm down and we aren’t quite as busy.  The truth, however, is more sobering and less accommodating.  The truth is that we have no choice.  Complacency in the coming years will lead to a casual lapse of failure.  Continuing to do what is familiar will cost us time, resources, people and most important, CUSTOMERS that we simply cannot afford to lose in the current environment.

LAUNCHING A GREAT WORKPLACE REVOLUTION IS A STRATEGIC IMPERATIVE

There are three big reasons that implementing the Twelve Great Workplace Essential Strategies is not something you can put off until tomorrow.  These aren’t the only reasons, of course, but they are the ones that I predict you’ll find hardest to forget.

1. Your most creative employees are going to notice if you don’t launch a revolution.  You will train them, get them ready for great things, and then watch as they walk out the door as they go do those great things elsewhere.
2. Your competition is going to notice if you don’t launch a revolution.  These may be competitors you know about, or they may be operating in some far-flung location you’ve never heard of.  Regardless, they will take advantage, directly or indirectly, of the talent leaving your organization, and will create (or adapt) products and services that cut into your market  making it harder for you to stay in business.
3. Your customers are going to notice if you don’t launch a revolution.  One of the things you will notice in the case studies I share with you here is a simple, predictable, and power formula:

CUSTOMERS ESTABLISH LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIPS WITH COMPANIES WHOSE EMPLOYEES HAVE LONG-TERM COMMITMENT TO MISSION.

The converse however is also true:  Companies whose most creative employees DO NOT have an enduring commitment to the organization will have a harder time holding on to customers.  “The customer is not number one,” in the words of Shep Hyken, author of The Amazement Revolution, the employee must be number one!  If you implement this counterintuitive principle, only then will your customers receive superior service delivered by your empowered employees.

If any one of these reasons cause you to pause – and all three should – then you are ready to make the commitment to take action, today, to implement the Twelve Great Essential Workplace Strategies.

There is evidence of a huge internal problem built into each of those requests. Can you spot it?

TRAINING IS FOR SEALS, BECOME A LEARNING ORGANIZATION

“Training” is a loaded connotated word. It implies dominance and removes the possibility of peer-to-peer relationships. Training is what animal wranglers do to make performing seals do a better job of balancing colored balls on their noses. It’s what pet owners do to ensure that their dogs and cats don’t “do their business” in the wrong place. It’s not – or at any rate shouldn’t be – what peers who respect one another do to each other in the workplace.

What are we really doing when we bring a group, large or small, into the so-called “training room”? Supporting ongoing growth and education? Yes. Sharing important best practices? Absolutely. Sharing critical market intelligence? You bet.

Training? I don’t think so. That word implies the rote repetition of certain habitual actions that have been drilled into the “trainee.” It certainly doesn’t imply any direct or indirect support of independent thought, critical analysis, or implementation of the creative process. If we want to attract and retain employees who think for themselves, who ask essential questions that others have overlooked, or who bring new and innovative solutions to the workplace, we must stop using terminology that treats them like performing seals!

I firmly believe that this is one of those areas of workplace life where the terminology we choose to use has a direct impact – for better or for worse – on the overall workplace experience of our employees. The fact that we are accustomed to using a certain term definitely DOES NOT mean that the term belongs on the workplace lexicon. In the case of “training,” I believe we can instantly improve workplace morale by simply replacing the word.

Does your organization currently have “training initiatives”? What would happen if you rechristened them “learning initiatives”? Does it “train people” in effective communication, selling, or anything else? What would happen if it “shared proven best practices” instead?

KEY TAKAWAY: Remove “Training” from your organizational vocabulary. Replace with words like learning, education and collaboration. Make that decision today!

Creating a great place to work is becoming more and more important as new generations enter the workforce with new priorities, values and goals for their career. Growth-oriented organizations will need to plan new ways to engage their employees in challenging, creative and worthwhile tasks. In The Great Workplace Revolution, we lay out 12 essential strategies for creating a great place to work in detail, but here’s a start:

1. Core Values: Identify the organizations’ core values and talk about them frequently with customers and employees.  These are the customer-focused values you will hire employees for . . . and fire employees for, if they consistently deviate from those values.
2. Creative Work Place: Design and refine a creative work space. This will attract and retain creative problem solvers and people who care.
3. Human Resource Right Fit: Put the right person in the right job. Use the personality tests at Kolbe.com as a resource to help you accomplish this goal.
4. Understanding your employees: Give constant attention and understand the needs of the whole employee as well as being intentional about learning their hopes and future career aspirations.  The result:  greater buy-in to the mission, deeper loyalty, and more intense commitment to the customer.  Other needs could include: flex time, shift swapping and extended leave when necessary.
5. Awards and Recognition: Build public recognition for a job well done into the culture.  Thank you cards and e-mails for colleagues (as well as for customers and vendors) need to become a part of daily life.  These should reflect authentic gratitude for any and every job well done.  “Most Valuable Player” awards promote an “all crew and no passenger” workplace philosophy, which ultimately serves the customer.
6. Collaborative Environment: Support a truly collaborative workplace, both physically and emotionally.  This kind of workplace design and interpersonal support promotes: problem solving, quality improvement, brainstorming, think tanks, and effective post-mortems when a project concludes.
7. Director of Fun: Appoint someone as “Director of Fun”. Whether it’s a full-time position or an addition to someone’s current list of responsibilities isn’t as important as your team members seeing, and experiencing first-hand, the positive experience they are supposed to be delivering to the customer.  Find new reasons to celebrate and new ways to enhance enjoyment of the job!
8. Creative after-work events: Create after-work events that involve direct personal contact with customers.  These kinds of events amount to a fun, collaborative team effort that improves all aspects of customer service. A few suggestions include: Bulls, Hawks, Cubs and Kane County Cougar games, as well as small group activities like golf, table games and picnics.
9. Community Service Events: Give something back to the community.  Doing this as a group improves team cohesion, gives you a great P.R. opportunity, and helps customers understand your values. A few ideas to try: helping out with local homeless support groups, food pantries, PADS and adopting a needy family each holiday season.
10. A Healthy Ergonomics Workplace: Ensure that each employee’s work space makes good ergonomic sense.  This reduces stress, improves morale, and improves the quality of our interactions with customers (and everyone else)!
11. A Learning Organization: Invest in ongoing education and personal development for all employees.  This pays off for everyone (Thomas University or Learning vs. Training).
12. Employee Feedback and Evaluation: Give employees regular feedback (recommended evaluation/review time:  every six months).  Evaluate them against your organization’s core values first and against performance metrics second.

That’s an unprecedented state of affairs, and one that is already leading to some major challenges in the workplace. Very often, inter-office conflict and miscommunication has roots in generational differences. Whether you are in leadership, part of a team, or even on the outside looking in, you should know whether your organization has internal obstacles that make communicating across the generations more difficult than it has to be.

ASSESSMENT: IS YOUR WORKPLACE GENERATIONALLY CHALLENGED?

Take this simple five-point assessment to find out whether your organization would benefit from a program for improving intergenerational communication.

1. You have heard, read, or seen someone in your organization over the age of 45 express resentment, disappointment, surprise or even anger about a younger colleague wanting too much too quickly (for example, “He’s only been here three months and he expects a raise/promotion.”). TRUE/FALSE
2. You have heard, read, or seen someone in your organization over the age of 45 complain about not receiving recognition or positive reinforcement in the workplace. (For example, “Would it kill her to give me a compliment once in a while?”). TRUE/FALSE
3. A younger employee has shown up for work in an outfit, wearing a hairstyle, or sporting some form of body adornment, that caused older employees to talk about him or her in an unflattering way. TRUE/FALSE
4. A group of senior employees or volunteers were asked to take part in a project overseen by a younger manager, and things didn’t go well because the older employees didn’t feel they were being shown the proper respect. TRUE/FALSE
5. A promising younger employee has accumulated significant experience with your organization in a very short period of time, and then left to work for another company with little or no advance notice. TRUE/FALSE

If you have experienced, observed, or heard about even ONE of these workplace issues, the odds are good that you have a generational communication problem in your workplace, but haven’t yet taken action to address it. To identify the real problems that gives rise to experiences like these, and to begin the process of building a workplace environment where good communication among the generations is a daily reality, check out THE GREAT WORKPLACE REVOLUTION.

Click here to learn more about the five generations that will be sharing the workplace in the year 2020 (Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, Generation 2020).

KEY TAKEAWAY: It is beneficial to appoint a generational coach/campaign to facilitate learning the languages and ways of each generation.

Coming soon to a workplace near you . . . .

Generation 2020: This highly educated generation, born around or shortly before the year 2000, will enter the workforce by the end of the present decade, during a period when many Traditionalists will likely still be quite active.  Analysts are still working out the common characteristics of this group.  Words that are being used now to describe their values include:

• Connected. Expect this group to be even more “wired” than the Millennials, because their entire lives have been spent under the powerful influence of the World Wide Web, on-line video games, social media, and virtual worlds like Second Life.  As you read these words, they are updating their Facebook status.

• Concerned. Members of Generation 2020 appear to be the most sensitive of all the five groups to environmental problems and related social issues.

• Careful. The recommendations of peers will carry enormous weight with this group.  Expect these workers to think twice before making big purchase decisions.  Unlike the Millennials, they are coming of age during a time of economic austerity.  They are likely to seek value and be much more cautious with economic and career decisions, and thus share some important values with Traditionalists.

• Collaborative. Like the Millennials, they are likely to be comfortable with collaborative endeavors, either face-to-face or virtual.

KEY TAKEAWAY: To work effectively with these young workers, you will have to be prepared to understand, and become part of, their network.

The Millennials are well educated (roughly 60% are college graduates).  Their primary values are FUN and CONNECTION. Many of these workers received significantly more parental attention and support in their youth than the Generation X workers did.

Millennials’ characteristics as a group are heavily driven by their upbringing. This generation grew up with constant positive reinforcement as well as computer games, the internet, and the World Wide Web.  They are not just comfortable with communications technology; communications technology is an important part of their identity.

They are tolerant, energetic, and demanding.  They have extremely short attention spans, thrive on visuals, prefer collaborative give-and-take to long lectures, and expect to see results more or less instantly.

Millennials will make up roughly 50% of the workforce by the year 2020, which means that ignoring their priorities and communication preferences is a big, and potentially fatal mistake for any business interested in retaining the most creative people.

KEY TAKEAWAY: To work effectively with Millennials, you must be prepared to entertain them and provide some form of social stimulation, because their whole life is about having fun and interacting with others.

More cynical than any of the other four groups, these workers are likely to have little or no initial loyalty to the company they work for.  Their primary value is INDEPENDENCE.

More than any other modern generation, their world is likely to be built around the concept of “looking out for number one.”  They expect to change jobs frequently and are deeply wary of promises made by authority figures.

Their characteristics include a comfort with multiple communication technologies, and they adapt to new media platforms fairly easily.

In any situation, they are likely to want to know “what’s in it for me.”   They are much more interested in short-term outcomes than in long-term outcomes.

KEY TAKEAWAY: To work effectively with members of this group, you must be able to prove to each individual Gen-Xer that you are worth his/her valuable time, attention and/or money.