Difference between revisions of "Sustainable Business - Learning Community Conversations"

Revision as of 16:49, 13 June 2012

Two primary questions ...

1) What do we really mean by sustainable business?

2) What kind of role will sustainable businesses have in creating a sustainable future for Detroit?

Additionally... What can we learn from each other? How do we support each other in growing our respective businesses to be more sustainable?

June 7, 2012 Topic: Recognizing Contributions; Celebrating Successes

Comments from last week's conversation on External Communication:

Re: Maker Studio:

Step 1: Getting clear yourself (and articulating) what it is that you are doing. Step 2: Conversation - First go through the network of people that you know and begin conversations. Next, invite people to tour the Maker Space, opening up more opportunity for conversation. Step 3: Announcement through Facebook/Twitter (possible future topic).

Topic for today: Recognizing Contributions and Celebrating Successes

• How to recognize contributions in a team vs. individually?

• How to identify and recognize people as a team? How to recognize those who contribute more?

• How to publicly acknowledge efforts? Squeaky wheel gets the grease….

Does everyone HAVE to contribute equally? How do you define effort? What's a full day? What about the guy who works long hours while others keep normal schedules? How do you recognize the members of a team when there is a variation in levels of contribution?

Situations and responses will vary - depends on the business, situation and people.

Recognition often depends on hours worked, quality of work put in, and/or what drives a particular person. In sales world, most of those people in those jobs are driven by recognition, some driven by money, some simply by the work itself. Trick is finding what drives certain people and trying to accommodate that.

Often people associate good work with hours worked which is not necessarily the case. Let's not confuse long hours with hard work, or hard work with results.

Should those not getting recognition speak out? Is it their responsibility? Should manager let people know that they need better results (they're not working hard or efficiently enough?)

Important to discuss up front the roles and expectations within a group. This conversation might have to be revisited every few months or so. If expectations and roles are understood up front, this will change the dynamic of the team (since they will know, for example, that Joe Smith will only be able to contribute 5 hours per week, and Mary can't work weekends).

Deming warned that incentives can be hugely destructive. In general , incentives result in unanticipated behavior and negative consequences that far outweigh any positive results. Weakest form of leadership possible.

What about incentives that are equally available to everyone? Evenly distributed, not contingent on your work? Having these kinds of company perks (free food in the cafeteria, a car available to pick you up if you need a ride, etc.) can make you feel more valued as an employee. They can create a quality of working life that make you feel happy and valued at work - make you feel appreciated. Also, you aren't competing with fellow employees for a "prize" incentive of some sort.

On Volunteers:

• You really want to make volunteers feel good because you want them to come back and enjoy being at your business. Value their time and contribution first. The reason you get people to volunteer and to continue to come back is because you value their opinion and use their input. Volunteers want to be in a safe/healthy environment and want to know that they can actually contribute. Valuing each interaction is what's important, knowing that you can make a difference in that group or in that space.

• If your contributions and goals aren't in sync, then maybe you're just not in the right group.

• Just take the time to ask a volunteer what they like to do - what gives them energy. What are you good at? But more importantly, what do you LIKE to do?

In small businesses, how do you create more enriching environments for employees or volunteers to be in?

• People just want to have some control and choice in their work environment.
• Remove barriers and make it easier for employees/volunteers to do their job.
• Don't assume as a manager that you know what people want. Ask employees what would make a difference, what they would like.
• You have to clearly define your goals (direction) so that they know whether or not they want to work with you.

If you're going to recognize someone for the work they've done, it needs to come very near to the event - not later. Seize the moment that someone is doing something well and let them know.

Topic for next week: Prioritizing leadership time

Future topics: Facebook/Twitter/Craigslist Healthy diversity

May 31, 2012 Topic: External Communication

How do we find a balance between external and internal communication? How do we share information about our business, successes, failures externally? With modern communications, how much of it is really helpful?

How do we define internal and external communications?

• Internal communications tend to be private and limited.
• External communications are more public/and/or more unlimited - open and available.

The "What's clear to me.." point: In any project, there is always a point where you reach a "what's clear to me is clear to me" moment. The language and context of the project is clear to those working on it, but to the person on the outside, what you are doing and the language you use to describe it may not be clear at all. How do you bridge that gap? It requires additional energy to explain your work to outsiders. These moments will happen naturally, and the boundary between those on the inside and those on the outside will change over time, but the gap will always have to be bridged.

Many of us are working on unusual types of businesses and it can be hard to explain them to outsiders. So how do you get external communication happening in such a way that the gap isn't so large and more people will want to become involved with your business, so you won't have to work so hard to bring people in? Tell the "story" of your business - create visual images through the context of your story to make it easier for others to "Picture" what it is that you do. When your external communication isn't effective, you can spend a lot of time trying to explain to others what it is that you do.

What is the new way to organize a business? Lots of people are working on this very question today.

Jeff and the Mt. Elliot Maker Space:

• Jeff's "open hack night" is a way of communicating what he does at the maker space; example of "porous fringes." Is there a way to do that more effectively? Train another tour operator, for example? Video? Fliers? Volunteers?

• How does he get the general public engaged enough to even come for "open hack night" or to watch a video? How do you rip a kid off Facebook and get them interested in something else?

• What has worked best for Jeff in the past? Can he replicate it? How did that happen organically? Word of mouth - Jeff talks a lot :) People that have come spread the word. Maybe he should use the assets that he has (people who are at Mt Elliot Maker) and have them communicate for him - it all goes back to story telling. Does Jeff need to develop his own elevator pitch? Different pitches for different audiences (adults vs kids, etc)? Certainly there's online stuff or media stuff but these might not work.

• Jeff's not always sure whether he can really do something or not, that is, there is a fine line between chilling and letting things happen naturally and "stoking the fire" a bit and making things happen. Sometimes you just have to go for it and sometimes it's just not appropriate. Have your interaction with the public reflect the reality of your business (Hannah).

• Many people can do the same thing but for different reasons. You really only need to share what you do, not why you do it (unless they specifically ask) because you want to invite people to do the same work, even if they have reasons that are different from yours. So why does Jeff do what he does? To create future geniuses; to bridge the gap between the capability of local kids and opportunity for learning, improve the quality of their lives. But he could simply begin with, "We're helping kids succeed." The sign on the door has to reflect what's inside: "it has to be accurate, but not complete"

External communication is "here" not "there" - and it's always happening. People who are at the Green Garage everyday spread the message - in their own, unique ways.

There needs to be balance and harmony in what you're trying to communicate about your business externally and the reality of the internal. For example, it was suggested that the Green Garage develop a mobile site, but we're just not mature enough yet to deal with what people might want from us. Another example: Mitzi has taken to twittering for the GG and it's worked very well because there is a natural energy for it. If there isn't a natural energy for communicating then forcing it doesn't work.

Monica owns a yoga studio and people have a very clear picture of what that is. But Jeff's maker space is a bit more difficult to understand for many people.

Next week's topic: Validation of people's work. How do we celebrate successes?

Future topic: Prioritizing one's time.