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By Mary Kelly
An effective team fosters creativity and takes advantage of diverse strengths and experiences. Working as a group can produce results beyond what any individual member could do alone. However, some teams thrive while others flounder. Creating a collaborative environment takes work, and many obstacles can undermine the process. Maybe negative competition runs rife. Or perhaps your organization could benefit from investing more time in teaching team-building skills. Situations like these can take a heavy toll on job satisfaction and productivity. Learn how to spot and overcome 3 of the most common obstacles to team building. Vague Goals Teams must understand their goals before they can commit to them. While work groups may function independently in some ways, they still need senior leadership to provide adequate direction and support. Use these strategies to ensure that everyone on the team is on the same page:
Lack of Trust Cohesive teams trust each other. They create an atmosphere where members feel safe to share information and take risks. Developing healthy relationships makes it easier to tackle any task. Try these tips to build trust within the team:
Ineffective Communication Friendly and respectful communication makes employees feel like they belong. Team members feel more driven to achieve their common purpose. Keep these effective communication techniques in mind:
Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success!
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By Shep Hyken
You may or may not know that I’m a magician. Some of you may know that I’m also a musician. But today I want to talk about being a magician. Growing up throughout high school and college I performed at parties, corporate events and comedy clubs. That experience in show business gave me the stage chops to start my business as a professional speaker. I share this background to give you some context. Many of my friends are professional entertainers. A friend I’ve known for years is Jeff McBride, an amazing magician who performs throughout the world and resides in Las Vegas. I was reading an article by Jeff in a magic magazine. He was writing about the business of a magic show, but his concept applies to business in general. His comment was, “The show starts when the phone rings.” He was referring to clients who call him for private engagements. The point he was making was that the customer experience begins the moment the customer connects with you, not when they see you on stage or in person. The way the phone is answered is really your opening act, and the manner in which you conduct yourself from that point forward, all the way up to taking the stage, is part of the overall show experience for the client. I’ll also add that every interaction that comes after the performance on stage is part of the show. We can call that the encore. It’s the same in business. Our customers may find us as the result of a Google search or a recommendation from a friend or colleague. They land on our website. Look around and research. They may call us or visit us. At some point, they move from thinking of doing business with us to actually buying whatever we sell. Depending on what we sell, whether B2B or B2C, the buying cycle may take more than one visit. It could take weeks or months … maybe even longer. So, when does the customer start making the decision to buy? Long before they actually make the purchase. It happens between the moment the customer thinks of you and the time they actually buy. And, it’s probably much earlier in the process than you think. Everything that happens leading up to the sale is part of the customer experience. And, that includes customer service. Most people think service happens after the sale. The reality is that every interaction leading up to and after the sale is part of service and experience. That first time the customer lands on your website or makes a phone call – that’s the opening act. From that point, the show has started. In business, the show never ends. There’s the follow-up, customer support and repeat business. For some, this is common sense, so consider this a reminder. For those who haven’t thought this way, this could be an epiphany. So, here’s to strong opening acts, standing ovations and encores that get your customers to come back again and again! Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Courtney Clark
When I married my husband, he was really good cook. I could feed myself but I was not (okay, I still am not!) what anyone would call a really good cook. I am the person who lit the toaster oven on fire when I was in college! Apparently, too much cheese dripped down into the coils. But the good news is I learned how to use a fire extinguisher that day! That’s a life skill. When my husband and I got engaged, I thought, “I am going to learn how to cook. I think that would be a good skill for me to have. I’m going to learn how to cook.” I started taking cooking classes. I learned how to roast a chicken. I learned how to hold my knives, learned the most efficient way to chop an onion. I felt like a real grown up. My cooking got incrementally better with practice, but it was still just… okay. I was practicing all the time – I worked fewer hours than he was, so I’d pull out the Cooking Light magazine and cook us dinner most nights a week. He’d cook about once a week, and his food was just better than mine. Significantly better. He was so confident in kitchen, and his food was so full of flavor. And then we went on our honeymoon. We ended up in Italy, where I ate 5 meals a day, 4 of them pasta. Our first Sunday home after we got back from Rome, we were grocery shopping. There, at the checkout, was a copy of Gourmet Magazine: “The Pasta Issue.” And the photo on the cover was of penne salsiccia, which I’d had a LOT of in Italy. I thought to myself, “Oh, this is a sign.” I threw that magazine down on the conveyor belt and committed to reading it cover to cover. The next Sunday, I had my grocery list ready. I was going to make that Penne Salsiccia from the cover. I was so excited. My husband and I were going around the grocery store shopping. We pick up the sausage. We pick up the cheese. I grab the heavy whipping cream. It was when I was putting the heavy whipping cream in the cart that he looks at all the heavy ingredients, looks back at me and he goes, “Is this from Cooking Light?”. Since that’s where almost all of my recipes came from, he was surprised. I said, “No, this is not from Cooking Light. This is from that gourmet magazine. We’re going to make real Italian pasta like we had on our honeymoon.” That evening, I was so excited to get started. 6pm. I’m starting dinner. This recipe calls for VERY expensive, very fragile threads of Saffron to be soaked in water. I’m trying not to panic. 6:28. I’m trying not to scald the heavy whipping cream in the pan. 6:47. I’m trying not to overcook the pasta 6:52. I carry the plates out to the table. I set them down with a deep breath. For a moment I consider letting my husband take the first bite and tell me what he thinks but then I think FORGET THAT THIS WAS MY IDEA I MADE THIS MEAL. I put the bite in my mouth and I turn to my husband in shock. I can’t believe what I’m tasting. “I don’t stink at cooking! Cooking Light must stink at cooking! Because I. am. AMAZING” I would have said more but I needed to use my mouth for the important work of eating my phenomenal pasta. Here’s what I realized: I had a materials problem. I had been trying for years to solve it with more skills training. I’m sure nothing like that has ever happened to you has it? No workplace of yours would EVER try to solve a materials problem with more skills training, right? <wink, wink>. But that’s what happens when we jump to solve a problem too quickly, “Oh, I know what the problem is. I know what the problem is.” Action bias is a common impulse. It’s a feeling of being compelled to act quickly and solve a problem, and psychologists think it happens in order to regain a sense of control over a situation. There’s a cultural conditioning that can occur, where we learn as children to favor action over waiting, because waiting could be interpreted as “laziness” or “indecisiveness.” So action bias isn’t just internal – there’s a lot of societal pressure to take action! In some cases, we can even be rewarded tangibly for being the kind of person who leaps to action and solves problems quickly. If we want to thrive and be successful in an uncertain environment (like we’re all in right now!), we need to give ourselves time to experiment. Time to think about what the problem could really be and what else we could really do about it so that we’re certain we get to the right answer. If the past two years have given us anything, it’s the opportunity to take a moment to make sure that we’re solving problems the right way and not the wrong way. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Steve Gilliland
How are the moments of your precious life? Each one is beautiful, you know. And, while some are admittedly better than others, to squander away those moments is a crime we commit against ourselves. The past year did not help us regarding the issue of time. Experts who study time have seen some disturbing patterns. Some experimental psychologists specialize in time, and among the best is Dr. Ruth Ogden. In 2020, Neuroscience News published a survey Dr. Ogden conducted of more than 600 adults. It was her finding that more than 80 percent “felt their sense of time was distorted, with half of them feeling like time had slowed down, and the other half like it had sped up.” When she drilled down a bit, the results were a combination of good news and troubling news: The days seemed to pass more quickly for people who were more socially satisfied, busier, and had less stress, which were primarily younger people. The days seemed to pass more slowly for those experiencing more stress and who had fewer tasks, which in this survey were mostly older people. Five Minutes The theory Dr. Ogden has advanced is one that even those of us who do not have advanced degrees in psychology can well imagine: “When we are bored and socially dissatisfied, we have lots of spare cognitive (reasoning) capacity; we then use some of that capacity to increase our monitoring of time.” In other words, when we allow ourselves to get bored with life, we have plenty of time to sit, think and feel sorry for ourselves. Time passes slowly. In fact, during the worst of the lockdown, Dr. Ogden concluded that “the negative emotions associated with isolation, boredom, sadness, and stress may have contributed to a slowing of time.” Here’s the problem, of course, and anyone who has ever made a five-minute poached egg will readily understand this: whether you are a 60-year-old with an incredibly packed schedule or a 60-year-old who is isolated and bored, the five-minute poached egg takes…well, five minutes. The Hourglass Every life is lovely and valuable, especially yours. In that regard, we are all alike. However, none of us knows how many hours we have. We are the only beings on the planet (insofar as we know) that fundamentally understand that the moments of our lives are limited. Whether you are a movie star or Olympian, a neurosurgeon, a nurse, or a carpenter, you must appreciate that one day the sand in the hourglass will dwindle. In the quote from Carl Sandburg’s classic poem, one of the interpretations is that he is talking about time, relationships, love – and, if you’d like, our very reason, our purpose for being on this Earth. What will we do with those precious moments from this very second from now on? We could, as Sandburg suggests, “spill and spend.” It has never been easier to do that. The Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology recommends limiting the use of social media to 30 minutes a day. It leads to better mental health outcomes. What is the average amount of time we use social media? About two hours a day! The average American spends five to six hours a day on their cell phones. About 90 percent of younger Americans sleep with their cell phone nearby, while about 50 percent of adults who are 60 sleep with cell phones at hand. Why is credit card debt so high? More precisely, due to social pressure, online promotions, media influence, and wealth. Psychologist I. Durmonski wrote for Psychology that the chief reason we buy so much unnecessary “stuff” is that we’re bored and want to feel good. When we add it up, many of us are spilling and spending our precious moments by flipping, clicking, and spending. Add Value Let us now turn to those who search and save. Here are three facts about the value of your moments:
We have a clear choice. No matter our age, we can positively influence lives with our moments or selfishly hold onto them and be bored in them. Meaningful memories are made by precious moments. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Laurie Guest
Our beloved dog Otis has started to show his age. With his 12th birthday coming up next month, he has taken on the attributes of a true senior. He wants to eat dinner at 4:30, go to bed by 8, and is slow to get up from a resting position. Over the past year, his appetite has diminished significantly. One day I opened a piece of string cheese, Sargento Colby Jack, and he didn’t care enough to bolt to my feet with those begging brown eyes. That’s when I knew we had a problem. The next day, the vet confirmed our fears: Otis is sick. He had a tumor the size of lemon in his spleen, and after much discussion, our family opted for surgery in hopes we can extend his life a little longer. A week later, when the veterinarian was sharing the results of the pathology report, she made a profound statement that may become my new personal motto. When I asked if there was anything else we could do for him, she replied, “Yes. Don’t be stingy with the treats.” Of course, that was her polite way of confirming what we already knew: Otis Campbell Guest is in his sunset years of life. I jokingly said to a friend, I wish someone would give ME that instruction when my time comes! That’s when it occurred to me that the word “treats” can mean so much more than sweet calories. A treat is anything that makes us as happy as a Milk-Bone makes Otis. My first book, Wrapped in Stillness: A personal retreat guide, has a chapter on figuring out what makes you happy. It includes an exercise to help you identify the things that bring you joy and asks a few probing questions to wake you up a bit. For example, when is the last time you did “that thing” that makes you happy? Over the years as a professional speaker, I have talked with a lot of people side-stage. That’s the moment right after a speech while the room is clearing out and a few people come up to the platform to share a private thought or tell me a tale they know I will enjoy. I cannot tell you how many times a person will share a story of being unhappy in some way— with their job, their boss, even their own actions. I can see it in their eyes, each one is hoping I have a special piece of advice that will make it better. Here is what I know for sure: Happy doesn’t come and knock on your door and say, “Hi, I’m here!” We must go and seek it. Seeking happy might mean setting stronger boundaries in your personal life. Do you need to stop saying yes to every request made of you? Happy might mean a controlled calendar. Who can have a slice of your time and who can’t? Happy might mean planning special events or meet-ups you had to postpone over the past year. Are you ready to take the first step to make that happen? For me, the happy moments are found in quiet times. After several decades of a hectic balancing act of family life versus a career on the road, I realized I’m tired! The silver lining of 2020 was having the chance to rest guilt-free. I took up a new hobby that I love. I’ve completed tasks that have been patiently waiting on my to-do list for years! And, most importantly, I’ve had quiet time to think and plan on what the next phase of life looks like at the Guest House. What’s your definition of a treat? Whatever it is, give yourself permission to be generous in consumption. Now is not the time to be stingy. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Kenneth Kaufman
For a very long time, hospitals have been organized around three principles that inform the way they run their organizations, and how they conduct themselves in the management suite and the board room. The first principle is the desire to maintain organizational control. This principle has come about in large part because the clinical enterprise is inherently risky. Therefore, leaders do not want to be in a position where they don't have control of the clinical enterprise. That principle has extended beyond specifically clinical matters to all aspects of operation. Maintaining organizational control has come to mean minimizing organizational risk. The second principle, which goes along with the first, is to minimize enterprise risk. Hospitals have always been very risk-averse organizations. Over time, as different concepts have been introduced, organizations have had to be talked into doing things that allowed more risk, and that could result in better financial results from that risk or better strategic results from that risk. The third principle is maintaining operational flexibility. Management teams and boards don't want to get caught in a box when difficult or bad things start to happen. This has to do with the public and reputational notion of running a hospital. Management and boards want to have the operational flexibility to take the actions necessary to resolve any situation that could harm the reputation of the organization. These three principles are all well and good, but they have to be maintained and enforced. And it is expensive to maintain control, minimize risk, and maintain maximum operating flexibility. In general, leaders may believe that these very high levels of healthcare cost come from the way provider organizations are run. But that’s not true. Leaders make decisions every day in which they actually pay to allow those three principles to be in full flight. Let’s look at a metaphor for this situation. If an organization is focused on maintaining control and eliminating to the greatest extent possible the externalities that limit control and increase risk, then when it comes time to finance, that organization will tend to look toward a 30-year fixed-rate transaction, because that transaction eliminates the risks of externalities. However, if an organization wants to lower the costs of that transaction, the organization would do a variable-rate transaction or use certain hedging strategies. But getting those lower costs invites in the externalities of the world—the kind of externalities we saw in 2008 and 2009. So management teams and boards that don’t want to bring in those externalities look toward a 30-year fixed rate transaction at a higher cost. This is a metaphor for all the other operating decisions that a hospital makes. If an organization’s approach is to eliminate risk to the degree possible, and the leaders apply that approach to all their decisions, then the organization can purchase that increased control and minimized risk. But those decisions will result in higher costs. We have recognized for many years that not-for-profit healthcare is expensive. There is a fundamental philosophical reason for that situation. Organizations are trying to maximize the principles of maintaining control, minimizing risk, and maximizing flexibility, and they are paying up to do that. There are hundreds of examples of situations in which organizations have to decide: Do we enforce these three principles? Or do we back off these three principles in order to reduce the overall costs of running the organization? However, if we continue to proceed on this operating philosophy, we will continue to have the high operating costs that are directly correlated with that operating philosophy. If we want to get to a healthcare system that has a different operating cost point, then we have to rethink these operating principles. Also, these operating principles create a perspective in which the needs of the organization are given a higher priority than the consumer’s needs. That’s the opposite of what a company like Amazon does. Amazon’s mantra is, first figure out what the consumer needs, and then figure out what Amazon does. When you insist on organizational control and low enterprise risk, the decisions that are being made in the board room are being made on behalf of the organization, and never really on behalf of the consumer. And that’'s a very unfortunate competitive place to be right now. This is just not the way the American economic model works anymore. The dominant model is the way that Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon behave every day. And in the past year, the dominance of that model has dramatically accelerated. Now, in order for healthcare organizations to take advantage of certain critical opportunities, they are going to have to accept less control, to take more risk, and to reduce their operating flexibility. In particular, that will be necessary in order to reduce cost materially. We’ve picked almost all the low-hanging fruit when it comes to costs, but costs are still too high. And that’s because now we have to attack the operating principles in order to reduce costs more. Next, hospitals will need to take a truly consumer-first attitude. Research shows that what consumers really care about is how they feel as they walk away from the interaction. Not how they felt when they first got there. Not how they felt while the transaction was happening. It's how they feel about the last mile. This has not been an area of focus for healthcare organizations. That last mile may be smooth from the hospital’s perspective, but is the consumer truly happy when the encounter ends? For a company like Amazon, there is an extraordinary focus on making that last mile better and then better still. The changing American economic model is incredibly fluid right now. It’s highly dependent on technical competency and accumulated intellectual capital. Why has Amazon been so extraordinarily effective during the pandemic? Because they accumulated this extraordinary technical competency and this unbelievable intellectual capital, and then they were able to combine that competency and capital, and roll it out during the pandemic. And that was what consumers wanted. Which is why Amazon’s revenue was up 40% in the first quarter of the pandemic and while performance metrics fell through the floor for businesses using traditional business models, or businesses without the necessary technical competency and intellectual capital. Hospitals don't have the technical competency and accumulated intellectual capital to be truly competitive in the dominant economic model. So hospitals will need to be open and experimental about possible partnerships and joint ventures to get that technical competency and intellectual capital. There are so many strategic needs and opportunities in healthcare now. The need to deliver a better experience to consumers. The need to reduce operating costs. The need to integrate digital health into the care process. It's naive to expect that the average American hospital could do all these things themselves, which means that there are going to be many kinds of joint ventures and partnerships to accomplish these things. But in order to do those partnerships and joint ventures, it’s inevitable that hospitals will have to accept less control and take much more risk, and accept reduced flexibility. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By LeAnn Thieman. This was originally published on LeAnn's blog.
There is a lot in the media these days about being physically healthy, but what about mental health? And what is it really? Take a deep breath and read this definition from the World Health Organization: Mental health is a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community. That’s a goal we should all shoot for. Mental health doesn’t mean we’re happy all the time, but that we should be able to function well in our personal, social, and work lives. Here are 10 tips for taking care of your mental health:
Pick one of these things to do today. Do another tomorrow…then another the next day…then another… Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By John O'Leary. This was originally posted on JohnOLearyInspires.com. When John O'Leary was 9 years old, he suffered burns over 100% of his body and was expected to die. He is now an inspirational speaker and bestselling author, teaching more than 50,000 people around the world each year how to live inspired. John's first book, ON FIRE: The 7 Choices to Ignite a Radically Inspired Life was published March 15, 2016. John is a contributing writer for Huff Post and Parade.com. John is a proud husband and father of four and resides in St. Louis, MO. Order John’s book today anywhere books are sold.
What truly matters most right now? In the race through the day, it’s not a question most of us ask often. But it’s one I was liberated to answer last week. The week was packed with activities: Coaching calls, podcast interviews, virtual speaking events, pre-conference calls and team meetings. There were articles to be written, content to flesh out, emails requiring response, strategy to be clarified and problems to navigate. In other words: work. And in the midst of work, there are also the profoundly important needs beckoning within my community, my family, and my personal life. The awesome responsibilities of raising, educating and guiding four children to their potential. There is the desire to connect with, love well and still actively date my wife. There are personal goals to strive toward, problems to overcome, distractions vying for attention, Royal Family disputes, and never enough time to get it all done. In other words: life. The most successful afternoon I’ve had recently didn’t include a to-do list, 5 a.m. wake-up call or even a laptop. And it can all sometimes feel like a bit of a grind. It’s easy to simply race through the day, check off the to-do-list, go to bed exhausted, wake up tired, wash and repeat. We seldom pause and ask the question, “What truly matters most right now?” In the midst of that race last week my mom asked if I could sit with Dad Wednesday. With Parkinson’s disease, he just can’t be left for long periods by himself. I was thrilled to do it. Figured we’d have a meal together, visit for a bit, and then I’d get back to all my important work. But as I left the office for their house, I chose to leave my computer behind. Instead of bringing work, I brought a couple of chocolate milkshakes and some BBQ. Instead of achieving anything professionally or striving personally, I prepared Dad lunch, assisted with his medicine, and helped him navigate the complexities of using the restroom. Instead of doing much of anything, we just visited, sometimes speaking, sometimes listening, sometimes laughing. But mostly just sitting, together. When work and life get too busy we forget what truly matters. And it was one of the most meaningful, beautiful, successful days I can remember. My friends, while racing through life, and creating checklists, and checking boxes, it’s easy to lose sight of who and what matters most. It’s common to buy into the lie that the more we accomplish and accumulate the more successful we’ll feel. The global pandemic over the past year has taught us much. One vital lesson we would be wise to remember is the fragility and preciousness of life. Sometimes we can only recognize the grandeur of that miracle by slowing down long enough to take inventory of our blessings, the gift of relationships and the power of love. And one of the best ways to celebrate those blessings is to choose to be fully present with the individuals who matter most. This is your day. Live Inspired. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! |
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