Replying to LO15857 --
>We are just now addressing those needs (finally, after years to trying)
>with Management Committee. In planning this training and speaking to
>managers, it amazed me to see how frightened those managers are of their
>employees. ...We are piloting this training with upper-managers as a first
>step...
Suzanne and other LO members,
Since you asked for some ways to handle this, I thought some very
practical efforts might be useful and I am better at those than creating
new theory (which is why I learn so much from this listserv)
Some years ago I was hired as the Director, Human Resources for a company
that had been created from 4 companies - 3 of which were direct
competitiors. And there had been some lay-offs among overlapping
functions, etc. One of my earliest tasks was to create a better climate.
Our President was a very shy man -terrible with people he did not know
although brilliant and witty with those he did. Managers were now
managing people who had been fierce competitors. The cultures of the
original companies had been widely divergent. We were in 3 different
locations in US plus 2 in London to add to the issues. From this comes
some of my suggestions for you.
1. We had Christmas parties already scheduled at several locations. I
changed management behavior at these by:
-announcing to all employees that we would all introduce ourselves and our
guests to everyone else at the party as if we were strangers - full name and
work unit - so that no-one would feel odd about not recognizing or knowing
full name of others. I modeled this by standing at entrance to ballroom and
doing so to everyone myself.
-telling all managers that they could not sit with any other manager from
their function and could not sit with their staff
-telling the President I would create a table for him of all our newest hires
(he asked for and got their resumes in advance to help him feel more
comfortable) and announcing to all employees that there would be a
President's table with those criteria but that all other tables were open and
should be mixed (as I had told managers)
Most people got into the spirit of this quite well (and I only had to
"remind" 2 VPs of the rules) and there was a lot of very positive feedback.
2. In early January we held a management meeting for all managers from all
locations (the biggest fight was the cost) and
- each function had to present information about itself, its goals, its
skills (to ensure managers knew and could talk about all the skills of their
employees), and its relationships with other functions (to articulate all
those known and to help identify others needed or existing but unrecognized)
- we had a series of exercises designed to help people use and respond to the
info they were receiving and to suggest ways to improve operations. These
included some which were intentionally silly but made a point - for example
we had a pile of "arrest forms" on each table to be used whenever someone
tried to kill an idea with the old standard negative responses.
- i ran a session on listening skills full of exercises to do there and to
use in office/at home
- I forced mixing at lunch by setting up exercises in mixed groups
- we had a big dinner where we changed seats at each course
I have done many other things like this and would be happy to talk to you
offline if I can help.
patricia frame
Strategies for Human Resources StratHR4PF@aol.com
Strategies for Human Resources provides consulting services and management
support to help high-tech organizations match their strategy and goals with
effective human resource management practices. 703/751-2832
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