Stephen Harvard Davis

Over the last few weeks I’ve become increasingly frustrated dealing with financial services companies and banks that have “Rules” that suit themselves and NOT the customer!

One company has dealt with me through their call centre and despite asking on a number of occasions “Is there any more information you need?” seemingly can only request oner item at a time! As a consequence I’ve written four letters to them on different topics, sent off proof of identity twice and made num,erous calls. In fairness they have dealt with my complaints and even sent me £60 in compensation for mistakes they’ve made.

Play the game of “Frustrate the customer as much as we can!”
I have been told that relpying to a letter could take between 10 and 50 days! (Seemingly the management haven’t heard of email)

Then today I go in to pay a cheque into my own bank account, having been a customer for 20 years, to be asked do you have “Proof of identity”.
The told that it will take five days for the cheque to clear.

Has the world gone mad in this electronic age of the internet, immediate messaging, email and smartphone. Or do the Banks and Financial Institutions hate their customers so much that they play a game of “Frustrate the customer as much as we can!”

“Who’s your business fool?” was a question I asked a senior Executive yesterday

“I don’t expect you mean that idiot in HR!” came the reply

“Indeed not” I replied, “In days gone by Kings employed what was called ‘the fool’ to keep them company. Now these people were, in fact, no fools, they were intelligent enough to contradict, insult, comment on court politics and advise their masters, on things that others would consider life threatening, and they did so without losing their heads. The use of the fool to the King was that they could be honest and provide an alternative and independent point of vie because the fool had no lofty position to protect, no personal power to promote and no allegiance to anyone but the King.”

What should your fool tell you about your latest idea?

Question to think about
I continued, “So my question is who do you ask when you’ve got an idea, plan, change in procedure or direction to provide unbiased, truthful criticism and observation. In other words do you have an intelligent fool that’s able to tell you the truth and help you avoid costly business mistakes and who won’t get his/her head chopped off?”

If you want to know more or find out “how to find and recruit your fool” you can email me at stephen@assimilating-talent.com

“How much time do your people waste reading information that has ZERO value for the way they do their job?” Was a question I posed a team leader last week.

It really is important because the average employee has to wade through huge amounts of information each day from paper, email, web and other distractions and unless the information is useful then it wastes their time and harms the company’s profits.

Indeed it’s been calculated that: Two days at work is unproductive

• The average worker receives 300 pages of information each day and yet only uses 5
• The average worker loses about three hours each day trying to figure out the meaning of what they’ve received, what needs their attention and what to do with the information.

The total time taken to determine the information received eats up 15 hours each week.
So two days a week is unproductive time

Waste paper not worth the read

Question two
The second question I posed the team leader was “What would be the increased profits of the business if the amount of information sent to each employee was reduced by just 10% and how could it be achieved?”

I was talking to a Chief Executive yesterday about his team efficiency and he wasn’t surprised when I told him that almost everything at work, workstations, business processes, team personnel is often so poorly designed that it actually harms productivity.

Who gets most attention to help them?
I told him of some research done by the Jensen Group some time ago that asked a large group of people

• Which group consistently gets the most attention paid to simplifying things for them?
  Answer: 85% said Senior Executives
• Which group consistently gets the least attention paid to simplifying things for them?
  Answer: 85% said the Workforce

Solutions:
Naturally he asked me for some solutions and one that I gave him was to insist that whenever a new process or step is introduced into the workplace that the designer has to identify one that needs to be removed.

Much of my time is spent mediating team problems it never ceases to surprise me how often people become annoyed by “things that don’t matter”.

Sometimes, more often than you would think, a very small problem escalates into a large one. Too often I’m called in when the situation is about to end up in a tribunal, legal letters and a complete breakdown in the relationship. At that point it’s often too late to resolve and it wastes money and valuable management time.

Yesterday I was asked for my top tips on being diplomatic at work…so here goes

1. stick to facts and avoid name calling or statements such as “You always do that when…”

2. Even when you disagree with a colleague’s viewpoint or decision, it’s
   important to allow superiors, subordinates and coworkers to express
   themselves unhindered by interruptions or counter-arguments, and to show that you have digested and understood what they have communicated.

3. If a problem arises, don’t assume that It’s a personal
   attack on you. Investigate the matter by
   speaking directly, and in private, with the individual(s).

4. Avoid involving coworkers or your supervisor in the conflict unless necessary. Trying to gain verbal or actual support from coworkers and friends only increases the problem and will upset the other party.
5. Remain calm. Always maintain a relaxed stature and never raise your voice or lose your temper.
6. Meet the other party as soon as possible and express a desire to solve the problem amicably.
7. Be ready to apologize if YOUR communication has been interpreted badly. Many emails are read in a different way than the sender intended. Be prepared to admit your fault. In fact always finish an email with a polite ending such as “Best wishes” or “looking forward to meeting up on…”.
8. Avoid being a gossip. Remember that if you listen to someone gossip about coworkers the gossip is also telling others about you!
9. Don’t be too fast to criticize change, decisions or actions. Find out the background to the decision or change before pointing out potential pitfalls.
10. Be generous with praise. Invite people to join in your successes and promote other people’s good work. Give other people opportunities to shine.
    
    Have you any other suggestions?

in this current financial climate there’s a danger that we can lose our sense of humor (spelt Humour in UK). We have all becoming increasingly entertained by the incompetence of the Government when they all suddenly pretend that their favorite food is Cornish pasties. But how important is humor in business?

Business Humor?
I’m not talking about playing jokes or being silly at work. I mean the humor that attracts people to it and relieves pressure and stress of day to day work. That management encourages humor and is even prepared to initiate it rather than take itself too seriously. 

Let me give you some examples:
Given the choice of two networking meetings which would look most attractive to join?
A group talking seriously with each other or another group that’s obviously having a good laugh and being entertained as in the picture above.

At work do you mix with the individual who’s always smiling or the person with a depressive nature who when he smells flowers looks around for a funeral.

Humor and success
In my experience I often note that the person with appropriate business humour skills, as well as qualifications and experience, is the individual that’s more easily promoted.
The problem with so many people at work is that they have great senses of humour, but manage to hide it well.

What are your experiences of humor and success and your favorite stories?

The news that Bob Diamond of Barclays Bank is set to receive a bonus of £17.7 million caused a heated discussion in a friend’s house over the Easter holiday.

As reported in various newspapers as well as Management Today the bonus is despite further claims of mis-selling, falling share price and opposition from various shareholders. A number of questions unrelated to shares and the bank’s performance were raised by some of my friend’s teenage sons.
 
In just fifteen minutes…
“It takes a person on minimum wage nearly five hours to earn the what Diamond does in a minute…in fifteen minutes he can earn more than a nurse, health worker or teacher do in a day of hard graft”

Bob Diamond

Another statement was the social responsibility of banks and bankers. "You never hear of bankers creating foundations to help the poor or relieve suffering like Bill Gates and David Beckham have established. Perhaps with so much money they have no social conscience!"

Even when brilliant!
In the current climate it's difficult to present a rational argument against such statements. I'm in favour of bonuses but I do find myself feeling uncomfortable at the scale and size of some bonuses. In my dealings with teams I often have to help a team consider alternatives for the leader when one retires, leaves or needs replacing. I've never come across a situation where there is no alternative to the current situation, even where the jobholder is seen to be brilliant!

The answer that's arrived at is that there's always a willing replacement available!

Most of my time is spent working with team managers to make their teams more efficient and productive. It’s work that gives me huge satisfaction and enjoyment. The process generally starts with a meeting where the team leader explains the problem/s. Then I’m asked what training, changes and so on I can deliver to “change the team around”.

Someone else’s fault
I comes as a huge surprise that often I’ll say “I’m not sure I can do anything to help them but I can do something to help you”. My reasoning is that it’s not unusual for team leaders to take poor team performance and people problems as someone else’s fault but with the results affecting them personally.

For example:Take the team leader who heard last week that a key member of staff was leaving, “That’s ruined my day, I’m getting a headache and going to take the rest of the day off!”
or
the team leader who’s heard that the team failed to meet target. “All the training and time I’ve given them and they do this to me!”

A lesson to be learned
One of the first lessons that team leaders need to understand is that the team hasn’t underperformed nor decided to leave to intentionally upset the leader. However, having said that the phrase “people don’t leave the company, they leave the boss” is true and underperformed teams is often due to poor resource being available.

That’s why I enjoy mentoring team leaders. 

The current fuel crisis in the UK where car drivers are panic buying and hoarding petrol when there’s not even a strike has been blamed on Government Ministers using inappropriate language and predictions of shortages.

Team Panic
Panicking a country seems to be quite easy with a few ill-chosen words and a news hungry media ready to report any impending crisis even where there isn’t one.
But I’ve been thinking, We’ve all experienced a situation when a team becomes concerned, team members start to leave and even down tools but “How easy is it to panic a team?”

A must watch and very funny video
A video that clearly demonstrates how individuals will follow the majority (or perceived majority) can be seen HERE. Whilst it’s very funny, think about it! It’s called the elevator experiment on group behaviour. It shows that people will conform to a norm.

In a wider context the more a team behaves as one the greater the chance that it will influence others. So when a Government panics, it will panic the country.