Choosing Everyday Courage: Speaking Up and Standing Out Competently at Work
|
|
In this session, we’ll talk about how to be competently courageous – that is, how to create positive change at work without putting oneself at undue risk. Competent courage isn’t rooted primarily in something innate that people either do or don’t have or can or can’t do. It reflects attitudes and behaviors that can be learned and cultivated.
We’ll talk about how competently courageous people create the right conditions for action; how they carefully choose their battles; how they maximize the odds of in-the-moment success and how they follow up to preserve relationships. Participants will be encouraged to think about the specific types of speaking up and standing out they’d like to do more of, and how to take specific steps to increase their capacity for doing so skillfully.
Presenter: Jim Detert, Professor of Business Administration, Darden School of Business
When: May 17, 2021, 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Details: Zoom access information will be provided to registrants prior to event.
|
|
National Showcase - UVA Advancement ‘Reimagining the Workplace’ Plan
|
|
University Advancement (UA) and Organizational Excellence recently partnered to showcase UA’s ‘Reimagining the Workplace’ plan to a national cross industry group of change leaders. The showcase was part of a change management advisory board workshop, and included representatives from healthcare, manufacturing, technology, financial services, insurance, energy, and higher education.
UA’s change challenge was a common one. On March 15, 2020, University Advancement, along with the rest of the University, had to rapidly pivot to an online working model. Leadership in the organization saw this crisis as an opportunity to accelerate existing plans to move to a hybrid model. Beginning in 2017, University Advancement started developing a hybrid model with the vision of offering modular, flexible work environments where people could work from anywhere. Space planning indicated that about 400 advancement staff could share 250 office spaces, saving the organization over $1 million per year in space costs.
The plan includes several foundational guiding principles:
- Work with Purpose: Develop a business case for taking a hybrid work approach with articulated goals shared widely by senior leaders.
- Prioritize Inclusivity and Diversity: Solicit input and feedback from the entire group, including collecting survey data from members of the organization. The data informs decision-making and team members are updated on how the information will be used.
- Start with Empathy: Design with the goal of supporting team members’ success and carefully consider change impacts on team members’ work and home life.
Julie Featherstone, Associate Vice President of University Advancement, notes “I really felt a shift in the organization when people understood that we are facing a fundamental change in how we run advancement. There’s a significant leadership component to this plan, too. Some leaders are defaulting to things ‘going back to normal.' Julie shared that “good leaders do want to know what their teams need to be excellent and produce. Not-so-good leaders can be influenced by the coalition you build around these initiatives. If leaders are to speak to and on behalf of their organizations — input is key. This is DEI. Diverse perspectives bring the best and most innovative results.”
UA and OE used the Prosci ADKAR framework to showcase how each phase of change is planned and executed. This begins with awareness of the plan, where team members are learning the nature of the change, why the change is needed, and the risks of not changing. It continues through the reinforcement phase, where the change is sustained through accountability and assessment. The ‘Reimagining the Workplace’ plan considers organizational and individual impact and outcomes.
For more information about how OE can partner with your organization to develop a change plan, please email us at OrgEx@virginia.edu.
|
|
Boost Ideation with Constraints
|
|
“The best way to have a great idea is to have a lot of ideas.” - Linus Pauling
|
|
|
Have you ever struggled with brainstorming? You are asked for ideas and you simply can’t think of anything. Many OE partners engage others to generate ideas for improvement. There are different ways to solicit input and here is an approach that the Student Health Collegiate Recovery Program, the Boar’s Head Resort, and the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce have recently applied. This framing provides some structure to help everyone access their creative capacity.
“Grid”eation Tool
This tool can assist individuals and groups to tap into new perspectives and open up new ideas. It’s appropriate for any context of ideation and innovation - ideas to improve a service or process, ideas to execute goals, ideas for a more effective program, etc. It can be completed in about 20-25 minutes and works well in a virtual or in-person setting.
|
|
Step 1: Have every person individually draw a 4x4 grid.
Step 2: Each person thinks individually and puts one idea in each of the boxes across the top row for a total of 4 ideas. Allot about 3 minutes for this step.
|
|
|
Step 3: In the bottom row, a constraint is introduced for each idea. Hint: Have everyone complete the top row first. Then, give instructions for the bottom row and reveal each constraint one at a time. While it may seem counterintuitive, a constraint can actually enhance creativity. Allot about 3 minutes for this step
|
|
Here are some sample constraints that you might consider:
- Visual element
- Game-like
- Involves partnering with another unit
- Start doing tomorrow
- Unlimited resources
- No additional resources
|
|
|
Step 4: In groups of 4, everyone shares their ideas. As a group, they mashup, refine, and generate new ideas building off of the individually-generated ideas. Each group sifts through ideas and decides upon 4 of their best collective ideas to share with the whole group. This round is about 8 minutes.
Step 5: Share and cross-pollinate the group ideas. Affinity grouping is a way to notice the similarities and differences. Sharing should take about 5 – 7 minutes depending on the number of groups.
.
|
|
RESOURCES
Can we persuade people to rethink their positions? Read about some approaches in this Harvard Business Review article: Persuading the Unpersuadable. |
|
|
|
|
|
