Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants

When Meetings Are a Waste of Time

I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say, "I can't wait to have another meeting!" That's because so many meetings drag on too long, have no real focus, and accomplish little of substance. Part of the problem is that many groups don't work together efficiently.

A recent study shows that teams tend to spend most of their time in meetings rehashing information that the group already knows, instead of bringing new points forward. Teams that meet more often aren't always sharing much of value, which leads to longer and less productive meetings. Of course, you have to bring everyone to a common level of understanding; but for many teams, that process takes too much time.

The study also found that meetings are more productive when participants engage in so-called "intellective tasks," meaning they attempt to solve a problem for which a correct answer exists--as opposed to seeking a consensus opinion or judgment.

Meetings are a fact of business life. To boost the success of your next meeting, resolve to do three things: Use a structured method for imparting shared information quickly; focus the group's energy on solving specific problems; and remember that more talking rarely means better results.

This study is reported in "Information Sharing and Team Performance: A Meta-Analysis," by Jessica Mesmer-Magnus and Leslie DeChurch, Journal of Applied Psychology, vol 94(2), March 2009, pgs. 535-546.

Teamwork

Sometimes things don't go exactly the way you'd like.

Maybe a colleague misses a deadline, or a client team member forgets to mention an important detail in a crucial meeting. How do you react?

Most of us recognize bumps in the road as an inevitable part of any project. And we make adjustments, even though it can mean extra work for us.

But there are also people who take a more selfish point of view and focus mainly on the impact the unexpected event has on them.

One certainty in our line of work is that surprises always pop up. I think that how we handle these moments of stress defines our ability to function in a team environment and to call ourselves professionals. Our responses also say a lot about who we are as people.

A colleague, who knows far more than I do, once summed up his perspective on being a team player by saying:

In a consultant's professional life, you have projects, clients, and colleagues. Treat them all the same way, with a spirit of collegiality and a predisposition to trust, and make every transaction a positive one.

I agree.

Laughter

It's time like these that people really need a good laugh, and the tiny town of Manzanita, Oregon (pop. 600) has taken up the challenge. Each Thursday at 12:05pm, a few dozen people gather in the town center for a mirth break.

After a quick countdown, the crowd erupts into spontaneous laughter for exactly three minutes. At 12:08pm, a whistle blows, the laughter winds down, and people go back to their daily activities, feeling a little bit better about the world.

Besides the documented health benefits of laughter, it's fun. Have you laughed yet today?

CEOs Sweating Bullets Too

You're not the only one who's concerned about the state of the economy. In a global survey of CEOs by PricewaterhouseCoopers, only 21 percent of CEOs are very confident about the growth prospects for their companies in 2009.

In response to the weakening economy, look for CEOs to hunker down by attempting to maximize returns from existing markets, rather than expanding into new ones. In the short-term, CEOs are working to maintain sources of credit, preserve revenue, use working capital more effectively, and manage costs. Translation: Expect more layoffs to roll through the economy.

On a separate note, a survey of public opinion by PR firm, Edelman, shows that statements by corporate chiefs concerning their businesses are considered to be extremely or very credible by only 17 percent of respondents, a six-year low. It was hard to believe that anyone would spend more than $87,000 on an office area rug, as the former CEO of Merrill Lynch reportedly did.

Top Consulting Firms to Work For

When Fortune magazine released its annual report of the "100 Best Companies to Work For," consulting firms were featured prominently among the best of the best companies.

 

Boston Consulting Group (BCG) claimed the number three spot on the list, edging out contenders like Google and Cisco. The most common job at BCG is consultant, and the average salary for that role tops $140,000.

 

Accountants and consultants at Plante & Moran appeared on the list for the 11th consecutive year at the 42nd spot, followed by Ernst & Young (51), Booz Allen Hamilton (52), and KPMG (56).

 

In a year of turmoil for many firms, executives at KPMG doled out bonuses totaling more than $100 million. And Dennis Nally, audit firm chairman at PricewaterhouseCoopers (58), told employees, "We have no plans to downsize, rightsize, or reduce our staffing levels."

 

What these firms understand is that in a time of economic stress, retention of people remains a strategic priority. Instead of simply slashing payroll, they look for other ways to tighten their belts. And that behavior will serve these firms well once the economy turns around.

Dubious Cures for Jet-Lagged Road Warriors

Jet lag is a familiar malady to most anyone who flies across time zones. And it's been studied by scientists for years. The first study on the effects of jet lag, which the FAA conducted in 1965, found that all test subjects felt fatigue and experienced significant impairment of "psychological performance."

Over the past few decades, researchers have completed dozens of studies, using humans and lab animals as test subjects, without much luck in finding a cure. One such study found that jet lag in hamsters was reduced when they ingested small doses of a well-known erectile medication. For humans, that treatment has obvious drawbacks. Who comes up with these ideas anyway?

One study, published in the May 2008 issue of the journal Science, reported that fasting for sixteen hours before a long-distance flight might enable travelers to better resist jet lag. The theory is that fasting can reset the brain's internal "clock," helping it adjust faster to a new time zone.

I'm sure most flight crews would dread any flight carrying large numbers of passengers who were starving before they even boarded the aircraft.

So if you have your own method for overcoming jet lag, stick with it for now. Science isn't ready to help out the road warrior yet.

The Silicon Ceiling?

According to a report by the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology at Stanford University, almost one-third of women in high-tech careers plan to leave their current positions and look for other options because of frustration about barriers to their advancement.

The report also said that men are nearly three times more likely than women to attain high-level technical positions. Also, women make up an "increasingly smaller proportion of the workforce at every level" in technology firms.

It's not like women haven't been trying to make their marks in IT organizations. More than two-thirds of the women surveyed reported that they deliberately put off having children to pursue their careers. The result: Women in IT are skeptical that employers fairly reward work based on merit, and they believe that employers view them as "less technically competent" than their male counterparts.

You'd think IT executives would get a clue that they need to do a better job of keeping good people, especially women. Women make up 46 percent of the US workforce, and that number is growing. If you have IT clients with a talent shortage--or one looming on the horizon--take a look at how your clients help their professionals manage their careers.

And don't just stop once you learn about the "extensive retention" program most organizations claim to have. Those programs may look good on paper, but this problem is likely rooted in corporate culture and subtle behaviors that an HR mentoring program can't change. Organizations that address this issue will find themselves with one less strategic problem on their hands. But hard work lies ahead to get it done.

Memo to Women Consultants: Planning for Retirement

According to a new study by Hewitt Associates, which looked at almost 2 million employees at 72 large organizations, women are less prepared for retirement than men.

Hewitt's study not only found that women need to save more for retirement than men, but it also concluded that the gap between the amount women need to save and the amount they are actually saving is larger than the same gap for men.

The study's authors report a number of reasons why women aren't well prepared for retirement. For example, though women's incomes have jumped in recent years, their earnings are still lower than most men, and that makes saving for retirement more difficult. Women also tend to live longer than men, so they often need a bigger nest egg to secure retirement than men do.

Hewitt's advice for women is to begin investing for retirement earlier, and more vigorously. By starting a retirement fund two years earlier than planned, the resulting fund can be 18 percent larger at retirement, according to Hewitt. And by boosting the percentage of your annual income that you place in a retirement account, even by a small amount, you can make a big difference in the balance at retirement.

The report also suggests that women could choose to stay in the workforce beyond the typical retirement age. But there must be a better way than that.

The report is available at www.hewittassociates.com.

Workplace Monitoring

Trying to squeeze more productivity out of workers, some employers are using finger-recognition technology and other electronic tracking systems to make sure people are present and accounted for when they're supposed to be.

The theory is that if you have to put your thumb on a sensor whenever you enter or leave the office, you will use your time more efficiently. Or at least look like you are.

These new systems are a far cry from the venerable tradition of punching in and out on a time clock. For one thing, your buddy can't log you in without your digit. And managers have instant access to the data on who's where and when.

The real difference with the high-tech systems, though, is in how managers use the information. And unlike the time clock, it's not for payroll.

In some businesses, managers use such systems as a "persuasive management tool." In other words--get your lazy ass back to work or start looking for another job.

In one firm that uses this technology, an employee said that the tracking system has increased her awareness of taking breaks, and she admitted, "I do rush at lunchtime if I go out." That, of course, doesn’t guarantee that she will accomplish any more when she returns.

Some people will work hard and be productive whether some spying, mid-level manager is watching or not; others will find a way to game any system employers come up with. Using high-tech systems for security is one thing, and that has become a real issue for many organizations.

But it’s folly to suggest that biometric tracking systems will increase employee productivity. It’s more likely to spur top performers to jump ship to organizations that don’t feel the need to behave like Big Brother.

On that note, I think I'll put my feet up and take a break.

Don't Ask or Tell?

According to a recent study, almost half of the US companies that solicit employee feedback on surveys seem to be ignoring the results.

What’s interesting is that the study found a strong correlation between an organization’s responsiveness to employee surveys and positive employee perceptions. In companies that acted on results from employee surveys, 84 percent of employees said that the changes had a positive effect on them.

Maybe managers aren’t really ignoring the results of their surveys. But, they’re not doing a good job of communicating the actions they’re taking as a result of the feedback, which could be worse than ignoring it.

A similar study in the UK shows how employee feedback impacts change initiatives there. In the UK, only 32 percent of respondents felt that their organizations managed change effectively, compared with 63 percent in the US.

What explains the difference in results between the UK and the US? In the UK, only 43 percent got to contribute their views before changes were made to their jobs, versus 62 percent in the US.

Want to make a simple, high-impact change to your projects? Go to the people who will be most affected by an initiative and ask for their views before you launch it. And, be clear about how you eventually use that feedback. If perception is reality, why create a negative one?