Here are some outstanding reminders about trust-building int he workplace from the folks at Great Place to Work:

INSPIRING – Employees learn and understand how their job has meaning for the organization and for society, beyond earning a salary and making a profit for the business.

SPEAKING – Management goes to great lengths to be open and transparent, offering access to information across the board, enabling and encouraging employees to contribute beyond the scope of a narrowly defined job.

LISTENING – Special open systems for incorporating peoples’ ideas, for including people in decision-making, and for airing concerns and grievances, are prevalent.

THANKING – Recognizes and rewards good work and extra levels of effort; strives to create a climate of approval.

DEVELOPING – Focus is on nurturing individuals’ gifts to foster personal growth and development as well as offering job-specific training.

CARING – A multiplicity of systems and programs are in place for creating a caring environment for the individual and his/her family. Includes diversity programs, work/life balance, and support in times of need.

HIRING – Focus is on hiring for potential and character of the person, rather than primarily on skill set. New employees are welcomed and assimilated into the team with orientation programs, personal sponsorships, and the like.

CELEBRATING – Celebrations of both personal milestones and company successes are built into the way people work together.

SHARING – Employees share in the fruits of their labor in a variety of ways; rewards are egalitarian in nature. Includes giving back to the community.

Paul Marciano is an organization development expert that works with a variety of companies across many industries. Among other things, he is on the leading edge with research regarding sustained employee engagement. This post features some information about his RESPECT Model, which is really quick and to the point:

The RESPECT Model is an actionable philosophy supported by more than a century of research on employee motivation and performance. It is not a program. Rather, it is an approach to leadership and corporate governance that appeals to and affects employees’ beliefs, values and sense of worth.

The Model is rooted in the premise that human relationships – both personal and professional – only “work” within the context of respect. Employee engagement depends upon the extent to which individuals:

• Respect their organization – its Mission, Vision, values, goals, policies and actions. Employees are proud to say, “I work for this company.”
• Respect the organization’s leaders, especially their direct supervisor – believing that he/she is competent, ethical, makes good decisions and treats people fairly.
• Respect their team members – believing that they are competent, cooperative, honest, supportive and willing to pull their own weight.
• Respect their work – finding it challenging, rewarding, interesting and as having value to both internal and external customers.
• Feel respected by the organization, supervisor and fellow team members

Critical Drivers

The RESPECT Model identifies seven critical drivers that influence employees’ internal assessment of respect and subsequent engagement:

Recognition: Employees feel acknowledged and appreciated for their contributions. Supervisors regularly recognize deserving team members and people are rewarded based on their work performance.

Empowerment: Supervisors provide employees with the tools, resources and training to succeed. Employees experience high levels of autonomy and are encouraged to take risks. Supervisors take the initiative to communicate with employees and ensure that they are equipped to succeed not fail.

Supportive Feedback: Supervisors provide employees with timely, specific feedback in a supportive, sincere and constructive manner. Feedback is delivered for the purpose of reinforcement and improvement – never to embarrass or punish.

Partnering: Team members and management collaborate to achieve common goals. Employees view supervisors as advocates for their development and growth. Team members and departments actively communicate and share information with one another.

Expectations: Supervisors ensure that goals, objectives and business priorities are clearly established and communicated. Employees know precisely the standards by which their performance is evaluated and are held accountable for meeting their performance expectations.

Consideration: Supervisors, managers and team members demonstrate consideration, caring and thoughtfulness toward one another. Supervisors actively seek to understand employees’ opinions and concerns and are understanding and supportive when employees experience personal problems.

Trust: Supervisors demonstrate trust and confidence in employees’ skills and abilities. Employees trust that their supervisor will “do right” by them. Leaders keep their promises and commitments, and, thus, are trusted by employees.

To learn more, Paul’s website can be found at: http://www.paulmarciano.com

What we do really matters! Recent validation of how relevant and crucial our Hospice services are came in the form of Harvard Business Review’s 2012 annual “List of Audacious Ideas,” which included Ellen Goodman and Susan Block talking about death/dying (Conversation Project) among its ideas that might change the world and business.

Here is an excerpt from Susan Block’s related blog piece, with links to more below:

No one wants to think about the stuff I do — death, suffering, pain, heartache, grief, sorrow. Individual reluctance is mirrored in the health care system’s belief that more care and technology can stave off death, and that what we don’t talk about won’t happen. And often that strategy works. But it always fails eventually, and when that occurs, our system, by and large, does a lousy job.

Others write about the uncertainty over whether and when someone will die (it’s real), the way financial incentives drive overtreatment (they do), and the lack of coordination of care for complex, seriously ill patients (absolutely true). What intrigues me is how our fundamental humanity undermines our ability to do our best for our patients.

Doctors, like most of us, are scared of dying, and prefer to think that everything can be fixed. This leads, I believe, to a misguided collusion of optimism between physicians and patients. It is no fun to talk with patients about their death. It is painful and makes them and us upset. Patients feel scared and sad and distressed; we feel guilty and disappointed in ourselves and our profession for not being able to do better. In order to help patients face these difficult realities, we have to overcome our wish to avoid this kind of distress — the patients’ and our own. We need a medical culture that is more open and direct about the end of life. Achieving this will be a huge stretch. But I believe there are some system changes that will help allow us to begin to overcome barriers to this culture change.

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Here is the link to pod cast with featured Hospice contributor (starting around minute 7): http://blogs.hbr.org/ideacast/2011/12/hbrs-2012-list-of-audacious-id.html

Here is a link to a three-part blob series also about the topic: http://blogs.hbr.org/innovations-in-health-care/2011/03/-the-stuff-i-do.html

Multitasking has been widely recognized as an important skill in today’s fast paced and competitive business environment. By completing multiple tasks simultaneously, the idea is that one can do more with less time and in the process withstand the multiple interruptions and pressures of the modern workplace.

However, new research indicates that multitasking not only results in the loss of time, but it reduces our overall effectiveness and the accuracy of our work. It turns out that the busyness associated with switching back and forth between tasks reduces the valuable self-talk and mental processing time we actually need to make good decisions. Rather than saving us time and money, multitasking can represent as much as a 40% reduction in our overall productivity. That’s not very efficient.

While channel surfing, reading a magazine and eating a snack on the couch at home is harmless, reducing your productivity at work by 40% could leave you out of a job. The next time you’re tempted to email, voicemail and rehearse a presentation all at once, think about the benefit of focusing on each task separately until they’re complete. It’s about going slow to go fast.