I have been asked quite a bit lately if I could provide a link to, or some additional information regarding body language as a result of our discussions with clients. Please find below a great starting point, from Allan Pease. I hope you enjoy the book, How to read others thoughs by their Gestures - Allan Pease.

Body Language - How To Read Others Thoughts By Their Gestures - Allan Pease

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3 Reasons why management need to focus on leadership and review organisational focuses and strategy.

3 Reasons why management need to focus on leadership and review organisational focuses and strategy.

1. Effective Organisations and Leaders Have Higher Retention

Infinity Performance Solutions consulting and training programs will help you and your organization by:

·         Developing the hidden talents of individuals and teams

·         Teaching your executive leaders the power of empathy

·         Creating an environment of respect, trust, and mutual support

·         Focusing leadership on change that can improve retention

·         Encouraging open communication

“A Gallup Organization study of two million employees at seven hundred companies found that how long an employee stays at a company and how productive she or he is there is determined by their relationship with their immediate boss.”

 Your competitors are not just trying to lure your customers, but your top employees and managers as well with promises of bigger salaries and better benefits. At the same time, your customers are demanding better and faster products and services. If your leaders and associates aren't happy, they are not likely to make your customers happy.

Your company’s years of investment in growth and industry leadership can be overcome without a concerted effort to improve leadership skills. This is the area where EI will help to improve the performance of your organization by increasing employee retention, customer retention, and ultimately shareholder value.

  2. Effective Organisations and Leaders Are More Productive

Leadership and Organisational development is about training prospective leaders to deal successfully with other people, to manage themselves, and to motivate others by understanding their own feelings and appropriately responding to the everyday environment. Ineffective strategies in the workplace are the most common cause of productivity decreases and Infinity Performance Solutions training is focused on eliminating these destructive behaviours.

Top performing sales clerks are 12 times more productive than those at the bottom and 85 percent more productive than an average performer. About one-third of this difference is due to technical skill and cognitive ability while two-thirds is due to emotional competence (Goleman, 1998).

An executive leadership development strategy should be a top priority of any company, and by incorporating effective leadership and organisational development into the training culture, the organization can enjoy higher productivity.

3. Effective Organisations and Leaders Exemplify Greater Customer Service:

Customers are impressed with energized employees and with companies that “walk the talk” in the area of leadership development. In fact they more often than not demand it. Excellent customer service turns new customers into repeat customers.  Organisational and leadership training enable corporations to enhance their image in the eyes of their customers and, as a result, increase repeat business.  

The reasons for losing customers and clients are 70% EQ-related (e.g., didn’t like that company’s customer service) (Forum Corporation on Manufacturing and Service Companies, 1989 – 1995).

Employees need support and leadership because customer service starts at the top.  Every management decision makes employees' lives easier or ties their hands.  If your management focus is on creating a company culture of service, you must motivate, train, and enable your leaders to deliver excellent customer service. Infinity Performance Solutions leadership development programs help your professional staff make this kind of positive contribution to the company image and value.

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The Art of Leadership through Golf.wmv

Open letter to a Management Client "Managing Change"

Dear Management Client,

You may recall that during a meeting earlier this year we discussed the constant change occurring in your business and I mentioned that managing change of an area of expertise. I committed at the time to writing to you and sharing with you the way change management theory may be of use. Let me start by saying I wish I could say that I am about to give you the solution to all issues you discussed with me, unfortunately as I know you are aware that is certainly not the reality of managing change. Here I hope to summarise the change management considerations I was exposed too. In doing so I have endeavoured to provide links to the references mentioned so that you may review further any of the theories that may assist you in your current organisation, you will also find at the end of this letter a list of references that may be of use.

I recall you mentioned a number of change factors both internal and external that were driving change in your organisation. External change influences including competitor activity such as price reductions and the introduction of new products to market; Customer behavioural change, preferences or perception of value changes; Economic influences including the recent ‘global financial crisis’ which impacted your sales with a 10% drop in a month; Legislative influences including changes to laws such as industrial relations. Internal influences included efficiency and productivity initiatives as well as suggested improvements coming from internal customers (or staff) based on your total quality management program. One could add to his list of change drivers to include, technology; social, culture and the exponential growth of access to information (Graetz et al. 2006, p. 40). You discussed the pain this constant change creates in terms of increased anxiety and the unanticipated consequences that result. I hope below to provide a summary of the key themes that may assist with the issues you articulated, or at least promote consideration for options available.

The key themes I would like to cover include the need to understand change, strategy and change, organisational change theories, change management tools, human resources influence on change, organisational culture, leadership, organisational politics and the measurement and evaluation of change.

As you well articulated there are a myriad of influences for change and so I will not take up your time restating these. Rather I would make the statement that change involves a complex set of interacting influence. One may propose then that the goal should not be to understand the change process per se but rather to enhance the understanding of change more broadly, of the necessity for it, and the inevitability of it.

The context of the change is one such consideration, it may be incremental, continuous, singular, transactional or transformational (Graetz et al. 2006). Understanding the type of change you face has ramifications for the approach to managing change. The organisational context for change must also be considered, Salman and Asch (2003) discuss changeas involving organisational structural change, a process change, a cultural change or a combination of these. One can see how the outcome or goal of your change initiative based on the context above can assist in the management of change by enhancing an awareness of both the desired outcome and the reason for the change. An enhanced understanding also results in consideration of appropriate methods for managing change, the time that may be required and the level of consultation that may be needed for success to result. Managing any change successfully will require a conscious awareness of these contexts; if this awareness does not exist one could see how anxiety, conflict and resistance would permeate the environment. To understand change one must be reminded that change is in fact a human process and as such one must consider human behaviour in the change process, particularly the, reason for and adjustment to change (Graetz et al. 2006, p. 334).

In fact here we begin to see the impact of leadership in this process. An interesting consideration is raised by Barker and Sarros (2002, pp. 3) in their review of ‘transformational leadership’ defined as a style of leadership that it is future orientated and change focused and that generates followership through personalised interactions, consistency and situational specific motivations. The authors describe well the behaviours required of such a leader in a constantly changing environment and include leadership behaviours that exhibit, role modelling, consistency, reinforcing their future visions, transparency, integrity, effective communication, taking time to know followers, encouraging others to think of new ways and then encouraging rather than disparaging unsuccessful attempts and breaking down barriers to change. These behaviours highlight the impact a leader may have on creating an environment conducive to change.

With such complexity, taking a strategic approach to change, meaning taking a systematic approach to capturing information, analysing and making decisions based on this analysis, is a key consideration. Change is non-linear, but dynamic and flexible (McMurray, Morgan & Deftereos 2009, p. 14) and as such to reduce ambiguity in the environment taking a strategic approach to managing change can reduce negative impacts such as unanticipated consequences for both people, the organisation and the resulting success of the initiative. Strategic approaches may include a personal change approach, such as the four-stage personal change model discussed by Carlopio, Andrewartha & Armstrong (2005), who suggest organisations don’t change it, is people that do. This four-stage approach includes Unlearning, Changing, Relearning and Institutionalising change, and is, based on Kurt Lewin’s three step model, generally including the Unfreezing, Moving and Refreezing. Each stage has a set of criteria that must be achieved in order to progress to the next. Lewin’s stages were based on force field analysis theory which describes the balance between driving and opposing change forces (Graetz et al. 2006, p. 114; Burnes 2004) and is a useful way of analysing and understanding change, preparedness, progress, rate and probability of success in an organisation.

An alternate to personal change theory is, organisational strategic planning such as Mintzberg’s, ‘Five Ps Strategy’ for organisational change defined as a plan, a ploy, a pattern, a position and a perspective (Graetz et al. 2006, p. 73). This approach focuses more on the organisation process and systems that must be employed to manage change. A limitation however here is that change is not an either / or process as these models might suggest. Change may also not be a process conducive to the prescriptive approaches described in these theories; it is perhaps the combining of these approaches that may yield most benefit. The combining elements of linear and adaptive strategic views are discussed by Weick (2001) and assist with the attempt to understand the chaos that is the organisation.

The concept then of ‘strategic thinking’ (Graetz et al. 2006, p. 79) then emerged with a focus concerning the constant shifting and evolutionary requirements of the modern organisation, as opposed to the traditional longer term strategies previously proposed. Strategic thinking is concerned with enabling ‘dynamic abilities’ (Graetz et al. 2006, p. 78) of those in the environment to plan for, deal with, manage or lead the inevitable and necessary change. Perhaps this is what John Kotter had in mind when developing, ‘The 8 step process’, which he describes as a holistic approach to managing change (Kotter 2010).

Another approach to organisational change theory was Dunphy and Stace’s situational model (Stace & Dunphy 2001) here an explanation is offered for how different management strategies relate to the differing circumstances an organisation may be faced with at the time. That is, that a different approach to managing the change may be required dependant on the scale of change (Stace & Dunphy 2001). However a concern with this approach may include the inconsistency of management practice and the effect this may have on stability for the relationships between leaders and followers in the organisational environment. A more balanced approach that includes consideration for the politics of change, the context of change and the substance of change may be found in Dawson’s processual framework (Dawson 2001). While Dawson considers situational factors as in Stace and Dunphy model there are key differences. Including managers becoming facilitators of the process rather than the doers; change is considered a continuous process best occurring in small to medium increments engaging multiple levels of the organisation where change focus is more politic-social than analytical-rational. Key activities include continuous information gathering (both external and internal), analysis, communication, discussion, engagement, and learning. This approach appears to have merit based on the rate, speed and constant change requirements that a modern organisation faces.
You discussed your organisations utilisation of change management tools and specifically discussed total quality management; a consideration to make here is the application of the tool. Widely regarded as the father of the continuous improvement movement Edward Deming’s TQM model must be considered for appropriateness in the following contexts. Firstly Deming was a man of his time, where it may be argued that change was not occurring at the exponential rate that we experience today. With this in mind whilst the principles may still be valid the timeframes with which we have to apply the principles should be considered. Further the cultural context where the principles are to be applied should be reviewed. Much of Deming’s quality movement was based on his work in the Japanese culture (Graetz et al. 2006, p. 125), a collective society with considerably differing cultural attribute to our individualistic society and workplace. These cultural differences should be considered when reviewing the stringent and systematic requirements of TQM particularly when combined with the requirements for precise and uniform application of outcomes of TQM by the workforce. Perhaps we should also be reminded of Deming’s other key contribution to continuous improvement, the, Plan, Do, Check and Act (PDCA) cycle, and in fact consider (the Check phase) if the TQM model in its traditional form is the most appropriate model for the organisation.

Another interesting theme is the need to continually review and align the human resource management of our organisations with the organisational strategy. As I am sure you have already picked up throughout this letter change management in the modern context is heavily concerned with the development of individuals in the environment to deal with, manage, contribute to or lead change. With this in mind the approach of human resource management must be to ensure alignment of HR strategies to the requirements of the organisational strategy. Perhaps HR’s role could best be redefined as facilitating the emergence of the learning organisation with the goal of an organisations ability to learn faster than its competitors being considered a source of competitive advantage (McMurray, Morgan & Deftereos 2009, p. 30).

The final topic I wish to include is leadership; in fact this really is three topics in one as leadership arguably depicts organisational culture, politics and the measurement and evaluation of change. One may suggest that leadership really sets the environment that enables these themes to contribute positively to organisational change or not. Some key questions to ask to this regard might include the following; are we managing an organisation which is highly focused on maintaining a status quo or are we in fact leading an organisation which as I referred to early as future and change orientated? Has the leadership defined an overarching consolidating goal that allows collaboration across the organisational functions? Has the leadership allowed for the inclusivity, empowerment, and collaborative efforts of all the human resources of the organisation to engage in the necessary and inevitable change of a modern organisation? To what extent has leadership within the organisation considered the impact of power and politics on the success or otherwise of change? A review of these aspects may reveal whether a shift from an old style of high command and control management that may not be conducive to change practice in the modern workplace to a more conducive collaborative approach has occurred.

I know I have not here provided the silver bullet that will reduce the pain you so clearly articulated that your organisation is feeling. Based on the numerous and complex interacting internal and external change drivers you articulate however, I hope I have been able to provide some themes for you to consider and a summary overview of a number of aspects that may move an organisation toward embracing change as an inevitable and in fact necessary way of organisational life.

I wish you all the best in your endeavours to manage change in your organisation and encourage you to review some of the references and visit some of the links provided in this letter.

Yours Sincerely,
Tony Pearson
www.ipsgroup.com.au



References
Barker, C. & Sarros, J. 2002, Inside the minds of Australian Executives (online), http://www.aim.com.au/research/AIM_abls_whatausleaderswant.pdf [Accessed 1 September 2010]
Burnes, B 2004, Managing change: a strategic approach to organisational dynamics, 4th edn, Prentice Hall, Harlow, pp. 288-316.
Burnes, B 2004, 'The planned approach to organisational change', in Managing Change : a strategic approach to organisational dynamics, 4th edn, Prentice Hall, Harlow, pp. 267-285.
Carlopio, J, Andrewartha, G & Armstrong, H 2005, 'Chapter 12, pt.4. Group skills', in Developing management skills: a comprehensive guide for leaders, 3rd ed, Prentice Hall, Frenchs Forest, pp. 660-673.
Dawson, P 2001, 'Organisational change', in Wiesner, R & Millet, B (eds), Management and organisational behaviour, Wiley, Milton, pp. 211-223.
Graetz, F, Rimmer, M, Lawrence, A & Smith, A 2006, Managing Organisational Change, 2nd Australasian edn, Wiley, Milton QLD.
Kotter, J 2010, Kotter International, Because change is essential, The 8 step process, viewed 2 September 2010, http://www.kotterinternational.com/KotterPrinciples/ChangeSteps.aspx.
McMurray, D., Morgan, K. & Deftereos, C. 2009, MNG00166 Managing Change: Study Guide, 3rd edn, Southern Cross University, Lismore.
Salaman, G & Asch, D 2003, Strategy and capability: sustaining organisational change, Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 1-22.
Southern Cross University 2009, Book of Readings, MNG00166 Managing Change, 3rd edn, Lismore
Stace, D & Dunphy, D 2001, 'Translating business strategy into action: transitions, transformations, turnarounds', in Beyond the boundaries: leading and re-creating the successful enterprise, 2nd ed, McGraw-Hill, Sydney, pp. 103-149.
Weick, K 2001, 'Chapter 15. Substitutes for strategy', in Making sense of the organization, Blackwell, London, pp. 345-355.

The Art of Leadership through Golf

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Infinity Performance Solutions Online Nationally Recognised Qualifications now available

Infinity Performance Solutions Online Nationally Recognised Qualification
Training Solutions now available.


Online: ELEARNING PROGRAMS

Infinity Performance Solutions is currently offering the following Nationally Recognised Training solutions via our online learning platform supported with monthly webinars for support:


BSB40807 Certificate IV in Frontline Management
BSB40507 Certificate IV in Business Administration
BSB40607 Certificate IV in Business Sales


These courses are supported with 8, 2 hour monthly webinars. Participants are able to complete training and assessment activities with the flexibility that online learning provides. A 2 hour webinar with an allocated trainer/assessor each month for 8 months provides participants support with training content and assessment activities that are integrated into the online elearning.


To simplify the process for you Infinity Performance Solutions will:

1. Assisting you to source funding through our preferred Apprenticeships centre

2. Organising your accredited training through our preferred RTOs

3. Support participants over the duration of the learning toward successful completion.


The employer benefits by:

1. Increased performance

2. Improved productivity

3. Higher profitability

4. More motivated staff

5. Improved staff retention

6. Becoming an employer of choice.


The accredited employee benefits by:

1. Nationally recognised qualification

2. Job satisfaction

3. Promotion prospects

4. Up-to-date skills.


Investment Options

IPS Certificate IV qualifications have a course fee of $3900. We have 2 payment options:

1. A single upfront payment which attracts a discount to a total of $3500, or,

2. An upfront enrolment fee of $500, then 8 x $425 payable prior to monthly attendance for each session, total investment $3900.

* All fees are non-refundable.


Note: For all eligible participants the Federal Government Funding of $4000 per eligible participant will cover in full the course cost over the duration of the training.


Next step:

Contact us to find out more, check out our website for more details (www.ipsgroup.com.au) or complete our Eligibility Assessment Form and return via fax or email.


ELIGIBILITY CONFIRMATION PROCESS

You will be contacted within 3 days by an Infinity Performance Solutions representative with advice on your Eligibility Form and Federal Government Funding opportunities

Thank you for your participation, please return this questionnaire as soon as possible to secure your position as numbers are limited.


*Australian Apprenticeship Incentive Program Guidelines are subject to change at any time without notice.


COURSE OFFERINGS

Full details of each course can be found at www.ipsgroup.com.au.


Nationally Recognised Qualifications Webinar Commence Dates:

Cert IV in Frontline Management
12th August 2010

Cert IV in Business Administration
13th August 2010

Cert IV in Business Sales
16th August 2010

WEBINAR AND ELEARNING DETAILS

Venue confirmation based on final numbers and will be sent through upon course application after eligibility assessment

Webinar Timing: 10:00 am – 12:00pm on a monthly schedule supplied upon enrolment. Invitations to webinar are sent monthly.

ELearning Platform: Infinity Performance Solutions will send an invitation to enrol you into course, upon successful application. At this point you will be able to access all learning and assessment activities for your qualification.


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Infinity Performance Solutions

Tony Pearson

Director / Corporate Consultant

Mobile: 0412 412 577

Tel: 02 9863 1536

Fax: 02 9896 0357

Web: http://www.ipsgroup.com.au

Email: tony@ipsgroup.com.au