The family is gone, but I still gotta eat! Last night was beef night. Steak, more specifically. T-bone steak. And it was wonderful.
Tonight, though, I’m hitting the garden.
I’ve got some cherry tomatoes that need to be picked, I’ll grab some basil form the plants, and take an onion from the fridge.
This is the easiest pasta sauce… 2 handfulls of cherry tomatoes, about 25-30 fresh basil leaves, and half an onion. Coat the bottom of a deep frying pan (that has a lid) with olive oil. Heat on medium. Dice the onion, tear the basil leaves, and cut your tomatoes in half. Add the onion, garlic (to your taste – I add about 1 TBS of the pre-diced Costco garlic), and basil. Fry for a few minutes (I like my onion to be soft and translucent). Add the tomatoes, cover, and cook until it’s a little soupy, but the tomatoes are still recognizable. Add salt if you like. I generally like at least a little sea salt.
Cook your pasta of choice. Serve the sauce over the pasta. Yum.
No Comments Khalil on Jul 31st 2010
Elsevier has a staff member whose official title is Disruptive Technologies Director. Wow.
I’m not sure if I should be impressed or feel sorry for them. I’d really like to read the job description for someone with that title.
No Comments Khalil on Jun 14th 2010
So I needed a break from packing and thinking about what to eat for dinner… both are hard work.
I hit email, facebook, then twitter. Ok… I miss my family. Anyhow, I found a link @joegerstandt posted. By the way, if you tweet, are interested in organizations and difference/diversity, he should be on your list. Anyhow, he had a link to an article on The Conference Board Review‘s page about CEO’s who don’t see past their own glorious perspective of the world. As I read through the post, I hit a line that resonated with me. As an indicator of whether or not the CEO is open to feedback (or dissent, criticism, or simply alternative perspectives), they ask if meeting discussions are:
…dull and happy, and are really honest discussions the ones that take place after the meetings, when people secrete themselves in their offices and say, “Can you believe this?” Is that where the real animation is? That’s a sign that nobody wants to speak the truth in public, because it’s not worth it.
Of course, I thought back to a previous administrative position. Meetings were often pointless. Much of that which was discussed (I use the term loosely because what passed for discussions were rarely a mutual exchange of ideas, but the imposition of ideas and perspectives) could have been handed out in memos rather than gathering folk together and asking for feedback that was typically disregarded, minimized, or given a long (typically pointless or baseless) counter-example of why the employee’s idea wouldn’t work.
The real discussions, or responses to mandates issued at the meetings, were had during breaks and outside earshot of the manager or their henchman. Funny thing, though, this wasn’t a CEO, it was a lower-mid-level manager leading the shop. And as I think back further, this wasn’t my first experience with this behavior and likely won’t be my last (I just hope to never be a perpetrator). I’ve been fortunate to have worked with some really great supervisors who I’m happy to call leaders. Even in that last office, there was an amazing leader on the management team. I just didn’t report directly to them.
End of the day, it’s not just CEOs who disregard voices with which they disagree. It’s a power thing. And a perceived status thing. But the negative impact of giving your employees voice, not just the ability to speak their truths but also the knowledge that their truths will be given due consideration, costs organizations. Employees, or organizational members, need to be heard and voice is likely strongly related to issues of organizational justice as well as issues of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and duration of employment.
But it’s not just for the employees that a CEO/manager/positional leader should listen to organizational members. Being cocksure is certainly great in the short run, especially if you are right, but time and time again, it’s proven to lead to organizational decay and failure.
No Comments Khalil on Apr 24th 2010
Recently on HR Morning, there was a post regarding what should be mentioned in employee handbooks. It was in response to a question regarding whether or not specific disciplinary measures should be included.
They responded no, specific measures should not be included, but there should be mention that violations of employee policy would be met with consequences. Specifically, they encouraged organizations to avoid mentioning specific “punishments.” Interestingly, they also added that termination isn’t corrective action (I agree, but don’t hear that often).
This has been on my mind as I continue to reflect on the policy of at-will employment and observations on it’s misuse.
At-will termination allows a manager to terminate an employee at-will, with no cause. On the surface, it seems like a great thing… for the employer. But when you talk to folks who’ve been terminated through this, it’s not great. Not because they did or didn’t deserve to be terminated, but because they don’t get any meaningful feedback as to why.
I’ve watched this happen to at least three colleagues in the last year. Terminated, no real meaningful performance given to let them know they were actually on the chopping block, and to add insult to injury, they are given 30 days notice, expected to use their own resources to work from home.
How does this relate to the handbook question? Well, the writer asking the question was at least in the process of putting a handbook together. Kudos. I slightly disagree with the response – slightly. It’s unreasonable to both limit and constrain managers by having a cookie-cutter list of responses for policy violations or employee misbehavior. But it is worth while to set a standard in the handbook for the kinds of behavior that will and will not be tolerated as well as the general kinds of response one should expect if policy is violated. Employees should know, in a broad sense, what to expect and this wouldn’t be a huge burden on managers.
Since I’m dwelling on termination, and somewhat frustrated with at-will termination policies (at least in the public/non-profit/government sector), I’ll close with arguing that while termination shouldn’t be used as a punishment – it should be used with a specific end in mind and employees should know why they are being fired. If it’s performance or behavior related, managers should have the integrity to let them know so they can improve themselves. Of course, this implies there has been intervention if it’s behavior or performance that has occurred over time – in my experiences, these behaviors or performance issues are rarely addressed or meaningfully documented. If it’s budget, be honest, put it in writing. To use the at-will termination to fire someone and, for example, reclassify their job to something for which they could have been moved into is disingenuous to the employee and speaks volumes to managerial cowardice and ineptitude – especially when the employee’s personnel file and previous evaluations is void of documentation of problems, action plans, and so on.
No Comments Khalil on Apr 24th 2010
What I saw behind me as I was driving home to be with my family tonight.
No Comments Khalil on Apr 11th 2010
I didn’t realize how much I had to do, personally and with my family, today, but it’s been productive. Really productive. It’s nice to have a Saturday where I can feel like something good is being done and I’m not grinding my wheels. That said, the quarter is coming to a close and I need to draft my proposal a little more. I’m doing ok on the methods, the literature review feels like a puzzle that is starting to come together, but I’m not getting very far in the intro. Such is life, I suppose.
On my crusade to orient myself towards being a little more organized, I did want to share a few links. One I thought was a great reminder on how productivity should not be conflated with being busy all the time. I can’t remember who I should be tipping my hat to on either of these, but I really appreciated the first clip. The second is a keynote speech about community management. While I liked it for what it was, it spoke to me personally on a few levels about life as I narrow my focus and work at getting my collective poop together.
Well, the Saturday schedule continues. It’s off to do some nail clipping with the dog and my favorite oldest daughter. And perhaps a quick walk at the park on the way home.
Happy Saturday!
No Comments Khalil on Feb 27th 2010
I got a link today about a business professor who allegedly put a student on blast via email. It was an interesting read and I’m ashamed to admit that I found it horrifying and oddly affirming.
The affirmation comes from believing that it is important to have some lines and make some lines clear. While I’ve never quite eviscerated a student the way this guy allegedly did, as a student and instructor I’ve delivered uncomfortable messages to students. I can remember multiple occasions when, as an administrator, I told students I had to advocate for their removal from school. As an instructor, I tell people on a quarterly basis that they are not passing my class. When thinking about this guy’s alleged email, the closest I come to it is when students miss class and ask questions covered well by our textbook. I do have a tendency to ask if they’ve read or gotten notes from peers. If and when they say no, and they usually do, I tell them I’m happy to talk to them after they’ve read the text, but not until then. Call me mean, but I think it’s disrespectful to not do your part and monopolize class time.
The horror comes in how that message was conveyed. I know I can be a hardass, but that message was rough. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t disagree with the general idea, but as much as I laughed as I read it, I also felt for the kid on the receiving end of the email. There are a number of arguments that can be made around entitlement, for students and faculty, and I tend to meet the tone of those with whom I am communicating, but wow… as important as I believe it is for students to understand when they make mistakes and figure out how best to learn from them, I don’t think I could go that far. I may want to for a few minutes before breathing, re-centering, and realizing it’s not about me, but I haven’t and hope I never do.
At the end of the day, this kid was wrong. Not only in his assumption that it would be ok to behave as he did, but I think he should have given a little more thought to writing the prof with light chastisement for sticking to his guns. But the greater wrong, at least from my glorious perspective, is the public trashing this kid got as a result.
No Comments Khalil on Feb 24th 2010
So twice in one week I’m giving a shoutout to Joe. I’ve been having this discussion in a few forums recently and it was good to see it reiterated in his video from a recent presentation. If you have a moment (or three minutes), go check out his video and give his blog a read. It is well worth the time.
No Comments Khalil on Feb 24th 2010
Following the link from one of the brilliant folk I follow on twitter (@JoeGerstandt), I found myself digging into a website on employee engagement.
I downloaded a powerpoint from a recent webinar that outlined some of their research. Among some key points they offered are that:
- 1/5 employees are highly disengaged;
- 60% of employees are planning on a job or career shift upon economic recovery;
- Of people planning on leaving, disengaged employees are 24% less likely to quit than engaged employees and 25% of those employees noted as having high potential plan on leaving;
- Most importantly, when we look at managerial effectiveness around leading or re-engaging disengaged employees, 63% of managers are rated as ineffective.
This is interesting stuff and it struck a deeply personal tone with me in regards to some of my previous administrative work. I’m not really into programs that give things like the “6 Universal Engagement Drivers,” as they tend to seem a lot like quick fixes. Not that this is how the folks who developed this intend it, but more often the resources available to organizations to work towards solving long term organizational diseases are few. This, at least in my experiences, results in managers who want to throw a seminar or retreat rather than get reflective and work towards systemic change. These are the types of bureaucrats who blame the employees, then blame the system, and never take a look at what they or their henchpeople contribute to organizational dysfunction.
When I consider the opportunities for organizational growth in Quantum Workplace’s six principles, I am also mindful that my professional and volunteer life has been spent in public service. I’ve not worked in a for-profit organization, aside from consulting, since working menial food-labor work as a teen, and even that was short lived. As long as you can avoid the trap of thinking that Quantum Workplace’s checklist is not a simple cure-all for first-level (or surface level) change, they can be adapted to fit a number of organizational settings. It would not take much to tweak the “6 Universal Engagement Drivers” into something relevant for much of my professional experience. A few changes in terminology would do it. They would include:
- Caring and competent management and leadership;
- Effective managers who articulate organizational values, are aligned with those values, and foster such alinment among subordinants and colleagues;
- Effective teamwork is encouraged, supported, and rewarded across multiple organizational levels;
- Job enrichment and professional growth opportunities;
- Valuing and recognizing employee contributions; and
- A genuine concern for employee well-being.
Somewhere in here, though, there needs to be the recognition that there is a dual engagement for those in public or social service organizations. We are often engaged with our organizations – many of us have chosen to invest our talents, skills, and abilities in places where we are certainly rewarded with less than the market value for those talents – out of some kind of personal conviction. Now I’m not necessarily claiming that colleagues in for-profit organizations don’t seek some sense of value alignment out of their work (or that all public/social service employees do for that matter), but of all the people I’ve encountered in my life who are dissatisfied with their jobs, I’ve never had t a for-profit professional tell me that they hate their job/who they work with/their boss, want to quit, but stay because they have great customers. I have, however, heard folks in social services articulate their rationale for staying is rooted in relationships with clients, students, or the nature of the work while very thoroughly deconstructing their organization.
Perhaps that is the other side of the coin and calls for research into why disengaged employees remain in positions that leave them utterly uninspired. Granted, fear of change and fear of the market might outweigh their dissatisfaction and disengagement, but it would be an interesting study.
This is all fun stuff, but it begs the question – what engages you? What causes you to disengage? Does the list above resonate? Drop dime.