Times are tough these days, and people are stressed.  According to the American Psychological Association, almost 50% of Americans say that they are increasingly stressed about their ability to provide for their family’s basic needs; 80% say that the economy is a significant cause of stress (up from 66% in April); 56% are stressed about job stability; roughly 62% housing costs; and about 67% about health problems affecting their families (Oct 7, 2008, APA, “Annual Stress in America Survey Shows Increasing Stress Takes Toll on Physical and Emotional Health”).

Last month, I commented that this stress must be impacting employees’ productivity, their ability to serve customers/stakeholders, and their overall effectiveness on the job.  And I shared some thoughts about how employers might create a work environment that reduces work-related stress (Why Work Stinks: http://www.councilforquality.org/about_newsletter.cfm).  This month, I’d like to build upon that theme and offer some thoughts about how individuals might systematically control the frustrations they experience every day – which can help reduce stress on-the-job and in your personal life.

A few weeks ago, we featured a dynamic speaker at our Rochester Area Quality Council monthly meeting.  In fact, Anna Maravelas, founder of Thera Rising (“thera” is Greek meaning “to heal”), has sold out our Minneapolis, St. Paul, and TWO Rochester sessions over the last few months.  Anna is a licensed psychologist who also has a quality background (don’t we all need that blended perspective?!); in fact, she has studied Deming and some of the other quality gurus, and you can see it in her work.  (Anna will be featured in a full-day special workshop next month: “Self-Defeating Habits of Otherwise Brilliant People: Pulling Together When Things Fall Apart,” December 9 in the Twin Cities and December 11 in Rochester; see article #2 below for details.)

Anna has accumulated considerable research that stress (or more specifically: stress caused by workplace hostility) is taking a substantial toll on American workers.  Consider these statistics:

• The average employee spends more than 2 hours per week dealing with conflict.
• 70% of employees see dealing with a conflict as a “very” or “critically important skill,” but
• 88% of employees feel their manager is unskilled at handling conflict.
• And it’s not just manager-to-employee: 60% of new nurses quit their first position within six months due to nurse-to-nurse hostility, and 34% of nurses that experience bullying take more than 50 sick days a year.
• In addition, a study of 1,305 workers (in 2001) found that 42% of respondents said there was yelling and other verbal abuse in their office, 23% said they had been driven to tears because of workplace stress, and 10% said employees had actually resorted to physical violence.
• In a different study, researchers found that more than 50% of 1,500 workers interviewed said they had lost time at work worrying about rude behavior directed toward them.  And about 33% admitted to intentionally lowering their commitment to their work because of rudeness.
• Employees who were forced to work in negative climates reported they got less done when fuming about it (50%); no longer did their best work (20%); were less committed (37%); thought about quitting (46%); or actually resigned (12%).
• The cost of workplace violence to employers is estimated to be between $6.4 billion and $36 billion in lost productivity, diminished image, insurance payments and increased security.
• And to make matters worse, hostility in the workplace definitely bleeds over to impact the organization’s relationships with its customers: 60% of customers claim that they take their business elsewhere when they are treated rudely by an employee -- even if they have to drive further or pay more for the same service.
• And 75% of disgruntled customers walk away without telling the manager or supervisor whey the company has lost their business.

Unfortunately, there is considerable hostility in today’s workplace, and it seems only to get worse during tough times.  The impact on productivity and the organizational bottom line is perhaps obvious.  But the impact on American workers – the actual individuals – is equally concerning.

Anna’s research shows that – during times of stress (including organizational hostility and conflict) the heart literally speeds up, pounding at between 100 and 165 beats per minute (“resting” heart rate is typically between 60-80).  Your body’s hormones change, adrenaline and cortisol are secreted, your blood pressure mounts, and your nervous system is stressed.  Cortisol, by the way, is related to rapid aging.

But get this: the chemical residue created by a moment of stress lingers for up to two hours.  Think about that.  When someone at work makes you angry (or someone cuts you off on the highway, or your spouse says something hurtful, etc.), the physiological after-effects can last for up to two hours, with each incident building on the previous one.

Making matters worse: there are estimates that we all experience about 30 stressful frustrations every day – little ones from the toilet paper running out to bigger ones like road rage to still bigger ones like hostility or violence in the workplace.  Thirty times we get stressed (Anna and other psychologist label it “flooding”), and 30 times we create a physical response that increases your heart rate, changes your chemical balance, and raises your blood pressure.

Some research (“Deadly Emotions,” Don Colbert, M.D.; A. Spiro, “Health Psychology”) indicates that hostility may be a better predictor of heart disease than cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol.

So not only is stress and hostility impacting the organization’s productivity and bottom line, but it’s also impacting its employees’ health and well-being. 

What can we do about it?  Last month, I outlined several things leaders can do to create a work environment that maximizes employee engagement, increases workforce satisfaction, and expands overall accountability (see Why Work Stinks: http://www.councilforquality.org/about_newsletter.cfm).  Anna recommends a simple – yet highly effective – process that stops the natural but deteriorating cycle of hostility.  It goes something like this…

When you experience a frustration (at work or at home) – be it a disappointment, a demand placed on you, a disagreement – your natural, psychological tendency is to be reflexive.  In other words, you focus on the personality: you blame others (“I’m suffering because of their stupidity”) and then you blame yourself (“I’m so stupid…it’s just another thing I screwed up…I’m such a loser”).

Think about an example you experience recently.  Maybe it’s a bad performance review at work.  Isn’t it natural to first blame others – to blame the situation?  “They just don’t understand how much I contribute…these 360 ratings are all wrong…they don’t get me.”  And then eventually – maybe later in the day or after sleeping on it – you begin to blame yourself: “I can’t believe that I’m not going to get that raise…if I only would have tried a bit harder on that project instead…I’ll never get ahead in this company; I’m such a loser.” 

Or maybe it’s a personal example.  You come home from work and your spouse tells you that your kid got a bad report card.  You do what?  You naturally blame the kid: “he/she doesn’t try hard enough…they are too involved in other activities…they are lazy…”  And then you start blaming yourself: “If I didn’t work so much, I’d have more time for junior and his homework…”  And sometimes, it even iterates back to blaming others: “Well, I have to work so much to make ends meet and pay the bills…but why doesn’t my spouse get a job to help with the finances?  He/she is wasting their time and putting the stress on me…and now our kids are failing…”  And so forth.

It’s natural, but it’s unhealthy.  Blaming others in this pattern leads to hostility, indignation, and flooding.  Blaming yourself can eventually lead to depression or hopelessness (or at least self-deprecation and confidence issues).  Eventually, if the cycle continues, you begin to avoid the other person(s), attack his/her reputation, or – worse yet – result to negative behaviors (like violence).  And the impact of blaming yourself: withdrawing and/or giving up.

Anna’s solution is to stop the cycle by resisting the impulse to be reflexive, and instead be reflective: instead of focusing on the person(ality) given a frustration, you focus on the problem.  Instead of blaming others and then yourself, you get the reason behind the problem.  (In quality, we call that getting to the “root cause” – see the embedded thinking?)  Instead of hostility and indignation, you are calm, concerned, and even curious as to what’s behind their behavior.  And instead of avoiding or attacking the person (or withdrawing or giving up on yourself), you open a dialogue and search for solutions.

Sounds simple enough, but keep in mind that you’re fighting your natural physiological hardwiring here!  It takes understanding; it takes time; and it takes practice.  It also takes “two to tango”: while you CAN have an impact by practicing this process yourself, it is a whole lot more effective if the entire work environment (or home environment) is on the same page!  Think of the impact this change of behavior can have on workplace productivity (people are now problem-solvers and solution-finders rather than back-biters and antagonists), on employee satisfaction (you no longer feel hostility toward coworkers and managers, but work together to address issues), and on results (you are focused on issues rather than people, presumably spending more time and energy on the organization’s business rather than the politics of the workplace).  And think of the impact this change can have on people’s well-being and health during these tough times.

Yours in Improvement,

Brian S. Lassiter

President, Minnesota Council for Quality

www.councilforquality.org

Workplace conflict is a commonly overlooked but costly phenomenon in business today (perhaps more significantly today, as employees are asked to do more and more with less and less).  But indeed frustrated leaders and employees can avoid the behaviors that fuel destructive disagreements rather than wasting profits and time resolving them.

The Minnesota Council for Quality and our affiliate, the Rochester Area Quality Council, are pleased to announce a special full-day workshop: “Self-Defeating Habits of Otherwise Brilliant People: Pulling Together When Things Fall Apart.”  The workshop, December 9 in the Twin Cities and December 11 in Rochester, will be facilitated by Anna Maravelas, founder of Thera Rising (Thera is Greek, meaning “to heal”).

An expert in workplace conflict resolution and a devotee of Deming, Maravelas will share how to create emotionally resilient teams, avoid risk factors for heart disease and depression, eliminate five root causes of simmering hostilities, and maintain your integrity by sidestepping invitations to blame.  Rather than undermining relationships by “searching for stupidity,” Maravelas introduces techniques for avoiding blame and self-righteous indignation and focusing on the true causes of workplace inefficiency and waste.

Learn how to turn workgroups away from incivility toward collaboration, skilled communication and respect.  Discover how leaders can short-circuit blame and resentment—reactions that derail even the best people and projects.  These strategies last a lifetime.  CEOs, executives, and front-line employees rave about these techniques in their professional and personal lives.

Thera Rising has an international reputation, in workplace conflict resolution, team building and leadership development.  The founder, Anna Maravelas is the author of, “How to Reduce Workplace Conflict and Stress” (Career Press) which readers rate a five-star “must read” on Amazon.com.  Anna’s work has been published in the NY Times, Oprah Magazine, and MSNBC.  More information on Thera Rising can be found at http://www.therarising.com/. 

Speaker: Anna Maravelas, founder of Thera Rising
Dates: Tuesday, December 9 (Metro); Thursday, December 11 (Rochester)

Time: 7:30 Registration, networking, breakfast; 8:00-4:00 Program
Location: TBD (Metro); Heinz Center (Rochester)

Cost: $150 members; $225 members of partner organizations; $300 non-members

Why is it some people act consistently strong during times of inconsistency?  Why do some remain resilient despite negative odds?  Everywhere you look  -- markets, politics, society in general – there is upheaval and change.  In times like these, why do some emerge as leaders and others succumb to the pressure?

What would it be worth to you as a leader to heighten your – and your organization’s – ability to deal with change more effectively, more consistently, and more rapidly?

The Minnesota Council for Quality is pleased to welcome John Baker, founder of READY Thinking LLC, to our December 4 PIN meeting.  READY Thinking™ is when opportunity or fate occurs and you decisively act!  Being ready requires preparation and training, but more importantly, it requires a state of thinking that enables us to confidently take action. The READY Thinking program includes short, interactive exercises designed to introduce a new, motivational framework of thinking that makes the difference in times of change.  These exercises are proven:  they were developed in real-life circumstances.  And, these exercises are practical:  they have been tested in pressure-filled situations.  The charter of READY Thinking is to enhance organizational response to both setback and opportunity. 

Remember a time when you felt ready?  How did you feel?  In all likelihood there were many unknowns:  change was occurring.  Yet despite the pressure, or unexpected setbacks, you were inclined to do something:  to resolutely move forward and to take the lead.  READY Thinking™ examines the behaviors surrounding our sense of “ready” and provides tools to replicate the experience as we face future challenges.

The discussion is from 8:00-9:00 a.m. on December 4 (networking and continental breakfast begin at 7:30 a.m.) at the Minneapolis Community and Technical College (MCTC), 1501 Hennepin (15th and Hennepin), downtown Minneapolis, Room L3000 (Wheelock-Whitney Library). 

Admission to PIN is FREE for Council members; $10 for partner organizations; $20 for the public.

The recent economic challenges are impacting all types of organizations, but some -- like healthcare -- have unique challenges in terms of disbursement, capacity-constrained workforce, and regulations.  Many organizations are simply seeking to survive during these tough times, but some -- like the Benedictine Health System out of Duluth -- are continuing to strive for excellence.

The Minnesota Council for Quality is pleased to Jeri Reinhardt, director of quality, Benedictine Health System, to our December 10 St. Paul PIN discussion.  In this session, Jeri will describe the journey of a “good,” values-driven, geographically-diverse organization (Benedictine Health System) and its adoption of the Baldrige Healthcare Criteria.  Jeri will share BHS's initial steps in their journey to excellence, and will focus on several areas including leadership strengths, strategy alignment and, an integrated measurement system.

The discussion is from 8:00-9:00 a.m. on December 10 (networking and continental breakfast begin at 7:30 a.m.) at Metro State University, 700 E 7th Street, downtown St. Paul. 

Admission to PIN is FREE for Council members; $10 for partner organizations; $20 for the public.

"Hindsight", the saying goes, "is 20/20."  But imagine what could you accomplish if you could plan all your projects with 20/20 vision at the outset?  What if you could have project clairvoyance?

The Rochester Area Quality Council, an affiliate of the Minnesota Council for Quality, is pleased to announce its December 2 program: “Project Clairvoyance: Scope -- Simple Steps for Successful Project Teams to Specifying Solutions of Excellence.”  The discussion will be facilitated by Christian Milaster, certified Project Management Professional (PMP) at Mayo Clinic. 

Our professional and personal lives are full of projects -- temporary endeavors undertaken to achieve unique outcomes: Whether it's family vacations, weddings, or buying a new car or whether you are developing new products, new services, undertaking a process improvement initiative, or submitting a quality award application -- most of what we do in today's world is a project.  Planning any kind of project produces many important deliverables: schedules and budgets, contracts and staffing plans, risk and quality management plans.  But without an accurate definition of the project's scope, your project plans will just build the wrong thing faster and cheaper.  Whether you call it scope planning or scope definition, business analysis or needs analysis, requirements development or solution design -- the most critical activity at the beginning of any project is to figure out what's really needed and which of those needs are really important.

Speaker: Christian Milaster, Project Management Professional, Mayo Clinic
Date: Tuesday, December 2
Time: 7:30 Registration, networking, breakfast; 8:00-9:30 Program
Location: University Center, Coffman (CF) 206/208

Are you looking to improve your organization in these tough times?  Are you looking for a strategic planning consultant?  A consultant with Six Sigma, Lean, Balanced Scorecard, Baldrige, or ISO expertise?  A consultant or trainer on leadership Organizational Development, or change efforts?

The Minnesota Council for Quality -- in cooperation with the Delaware Alliance for Excellence, the Kansas Center for Performance Excellence, the Michigan Quality Council, the Ohio Partnership for Excellence, Quality Texas Foundation, the Vermont Council for Quality, the Washington State Quality Award, and the Wisconsin Forward Award -- is pleased to offer a free on-line service, the Consultant Referral Network©, to help organizations find experts to help them improve their business.

Located at www.consultantreferralnetwork.org, the Consultant Referral Network is a dynamic, web-enabled search tool that connects organizational improvement experts to client organizations seeking them.  This service allows clients to outline their needs in terms of subject matter expertise sought, type of assistance desired (consulting, training, coaching, speaking, or facilitating), sector/industry expertise required, size of consulting firm desired, desired location of consulting firm, and years of experience preferred.  The client can also weight the relative importance of each variable.  The tool will then identify up to five consultants or firms that best match the client’s needs.

Organizations can also peruse a directory of all consultants, sorted by subject matter expertise, location, and other factors. 

Many people who attended the November 6 PIN meeting on “Communities of HOPE: Using Strategic Management Tools to Break the Cycle of Poverty in Detroit” commented on how they wished others in their organization would have been able to attend.  Now they’ll have that opportunity.  The speaker, Bill Barberg, will be repeating the presentation as a Webinar at 10:00 AM Central Time on November 25, 2008.  The presentation, including discussion, lasts 60 minutes.

Presentation Summary

Scorecards have been used in a wide range of organizations—from large corporations to government agencies—to successfully execute positive transformations.   Yet, many of the biggest challenges facing our nation are not “owned” by any one organization.  One reason that problems such as poor high-school graduation rates, the rapid rise in preventable chronic diseases, and urban blight have proven so intractable is that the responsibility (and ability) to address them does not belong to any one organization.  As a result, strategies to overcome those problems are fragmented at best. 

The Minnesota Council for Quality is pleased to welcome Bill Barberg, President of Insightformation, a firm that has been leading a pioneering effort in Detroit to creatively use modified versions of leading strategic management tools to coordinate the effort of a wide variety of stakeholders to address the multi-faceted challenge of breaking the cycle of poverty.  This effort (dubbed “Communities of HOPE”) focuses on transforming many of the city’s low-income, government-subsidized properties into truly supportive environments that help people improve their lives and raise healthy families.  It blends a corporate transformation, social entrepreneurship, mass collaboration and leading-edge technologies to demonstrate how a strategy-centric approach (rather than an organization-centric approach) can offer promising pathways for success.

Presentation Outline

• Introduction to Insightformation
• Facing the Overwhelming Challenges of Poverty in Detroit

• Using Six Strategic Management Techniques and Tools

• A Game-Changing Strategy: Shifting to a Population-Centric Approach

• Achieving Competitive Advantage: Targeting a Focused Population and Unique Allies
• Strategic Innovation: Focus on Value Creation
• Strategic Innovation: Building Social Capital
• Use State-of-the-Art Strategic Management Tools: Advanced Strategy Maps
• Leverage New Software Technologies: InsightVision, Basecamp, SurveyMonkey, Google Maps and more.
•  The Case Study of Communities of HOPE in Detroit

• The Levers of Change
• Example of Focusing on a Root Cause: Food Deserts
• Example Community Strategy Map: Healthy Eating
• Example Organizational Strategy Map: Premier Property Management’s Theme of “Four Star Living”
• Example Program Strategy Map: Youth Mentoring Program
• Managing Complex Balanced Scorecard Cascading
• Using Strategic Management Software: InsightVision in action

• Next Steps in Detroit
• Early Plans for Replicating this Approach in the Twin Cities

The Minnesota Section of the American Society for Quality (ASQ), an alliance partner of the Council, is pleased to announce its next monthly program on December 9.  The talk, “Achieving Excellence in Minnesota: The MN Council for Quality and ASQ as Partners in Quality,” will be facilitated by Brian Lassiter, ASQ member and president of the Minnesota Council for Quality.  Brian will share the Council’s vision for excellence in Minnesota, along with the Council’s plans for helping organizations, individuals, and communities reach higher levels of excellence.  Mr. Lassiter will also provide an update on the Council’s new (and modified) services, and will engage the participants in a dialogue about how ASQ and MCQ can build upon its past and current partnership to collaborate at a deeper level in the future.  Come learn how the Council can help you and your organization, and explore how ASQ and MCQ can together accomplish its goals.

The after dinner topic is Raediant Cindy Rae on “Creating a Lasting First Impression.” 

Both discussions will be December 9 at the Fort Snelling Club: 6001 Minnehaha Avenue, Building 89, St Paul, MN 55111.  Check in and networking begins at 5:00.  Pre-Dinner presentation is at 6:00, dinner at 7:00, and after-dinner presentation at 7:45.  Cost is $25 for ASQ members, $30 for non-members, $5 students.

For more information, visit http://www.mnasq.org/. 

The Association for Strategic Planning-Minnesota Chapter, an alliance partner of the MN Council for Quality, is pleased to announce its next meeting: “New Approaches to Management Education in a Global Environment.”  Scheduled for December 16, the discussion will be lead byJulian Schuster, Dean and Professor of Economics, Hamline University School of Business. 

How will the MBA have to change in a global environment?  Learn about the impact on management and how management education will look to impact the global economy.

Enterprise Minnesota, formerly Minnesota Technology, Inc. (MTI) and a partner of the MN Council for Quality, is pleased to present several events, all focused on using Lean or other methods to improve organizational performance:

• Dec 3: Lean 101 - Perfecting Efficiencies in Production, Duluth
• Dec 10: Doing Business Globally, Twin Cities
• Jan 21: The Talent Pipeline - Developing Business Leaders, Twin Cities
• Feb 18: Green Manufacturing, Twin Cities
• Mar 14: Improve Office Productivity through "Lean Office", Hutchinson
• Mar 18: Innovative Product Marketing, Twin Cities

For more information on these programs, visit  http://www.enterpriseminnesota.org/Training-Events.aspx. 

The University of Minnesota’s College of Continuing Education, an alliance partner of the Council, is pleased to announce their fall improvement and business courses.  Council members receive a 10% discount on all CCE courses.

11/20       Increasing Power and Influences through Listening $395

11/20       Writing Correspondence for Internal and External Audiences $395

11/21       Project Control and Closure $395

12/2         Leading Through Change $395

12/2         The Human Resource Audit $395

12/3         Small Group Professional Communication $750

12/3         Coaching for Excellence $395

12/4         Process Innovation $995

12/4         Capstone in Management $750

12/4         Capstone in Supervision $750

12/5         Project Management and New Product Development $395

12/9         Performance Management Process $395

12/9         Leading Individual Change Interventions – Advanced Coaching $750

12/10       Exercising Organizational Influence $395

12/10       Eight Steps of Instructional Design $990

12/11       The Recruiter as Talent Adviser $395

12/11       Human Resource Management $395

12/11       Writing Business Reports $395

12/12       Project Management and Chaos Theory $395

12/16       Strategic Human Resource Planning $395

12/16       Applied Project Management $395

12/17       Legal Issues for Managers and Supervisors $395

12/17       Verbal and Nonverbal Communication Skills $395

In addition, CCE is pleased to announce the following evening courses:

11/19       Project Management and New Product Development $395

12/2         Small Group Professional Communication $750

12/2         Performance Management Process $395

12/9         Project Control and Closure $395

12/10       Project Negotiation and Conflict Resolution $395

Normandale Community College, an alliance partner of the Council, is pleased to announce three upcoming programs.  Council members receive a 15% discount.  The programs are as follows:

12/15-16              ScrumMaster Certification, $1260 (15% off for MCQ)

1/15-2/6              Six Sigma Green Belt Certificate Class (8 sessions), $3355 (15% off for MCQ)

South Central College is pleased to announce their fall quality and performance improvement curriculum.  Council members are entitled to a 10% discount.

The following courses will be held at the Faribault campus (prices before member discount):

12/2, Lean Application, $235

12/3, 8-Discipline Problem Solving Tools & Methods, $235

The following courses will be held at Mankato campus (prices before member discount):

12/10, Project Management, $235

12/17, Understanding & Implementing ISO 9001:2000, $235

12/18, Internal Auditor Skills, $235

For more information, please contact Laura Hardy at 507-332-5802 or at laura.hardy@southcentral.edu or contact Brian Knutson at 507-332-5874 (brian.knutson@southcentral.edu).  You can also find more information on the Council’s Clearinghouse at www.councilforquality.org/improve_events.cfm.

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