thinzine™

Greetings!

We’ve been asked by many of our customers for periodic, no-nonsense emails with just-in-time information for managers and knowledge workers on how organizations work. This is our 2nd issue and we hope you enjoy it.

If you would like to remain on the email list there is no need to respond. If your email address is included in error, we apologize for the oversight. Click on unsubscribe below to remove your email address.

What We're Reading

Absolute Honesty by Larry Johnson and Bob Phillips. AMACOM, 2003

I had the privilege of meeting Bob Phillips recently as he lives in Bend. We chatted about our respective books and I sat down to read his and Larry’s book on ‘building a corporate culture that values straight talk and rewards integrity. It resonated with me and tackles some of the issues we raise in The Thin Book of® Naming Elephants, in a skill building manner. For example, here are the 6 Laws of Absolute Honesty:

1. Tell the Truth
2. Tackle the Problem
3. Disagree and Commit
4. Welcome the Truth
5. Reward the Messenger
6. Build a Platform of Integrity

While these sound familiar, the authors do a nice job of giving specific, concrete suggestions on how to do it. They have excellent and relevant examples that most of you can relate to. Of course, absolute honesty depends on Trust. Here are some ideas for you on building trust. If you wish to know more about Absolute Honesty, contact Bob at www.rwassociates.net.

Building Trust at Work

Through a year of research, we found the following factors to be the most common among all (hundreds!) of the definitions of trust:

• Willingness to be vulnerable to another person,
• You believe there will be a positive outcome,
• You believe the other person is doing things for cooperative reasons or for a greater good, and
• This person accepts you for who you are (i.e., cares for you as a person).

Here are some practical ways to build trust:

1. Time: It takes time and experience to build trust. For new employees, you will want to spend more time communicating your expectations and giving feedback on how they are doing in order to build trust.
2. Proximity: Be there for people. Trust is ‘relational’ meaning it builds with relationships. Go to their space, call them and have a live conversation. Send Instant messages to show you are thinking about the person’s challenges. With so many virtual teams, it’s even more important to reach out to those who you can’t be in the same physical space to show you are still ‘there’ for help and questions.
3. Shared Identity: What is the identity you have in common with others? Are you on the same task force? Work team? People feel like they are cared for as an individual if they feel like they have something in common with others at work.
4. Common Goal: Ask the person, what is the goal we have in common? This is especially important when two departments or teams seem to be in conflict. Ask each other, what is the goal we have in common that serves the organization rather than our individual departments?
5. Keep Confidences: As our associate Dr. Cathy Royal says: "get Permission to Publish". Ask explicitly if you have permission to share information with others. If you break a confidence, go back and apologize and explain why. This is one of the biggest trust busters at work, and the root cause of many ‘difficult conversations.’ It can happen very easily in a fast-paced world and the person always find out

Thinbooks Delivered Live!

A Thin Book TeleClass is a live, interactive, 55 minute training class conducted through teleconferencing. You will receive cutting edge information, practical tips, tools, strategies and techniques that can benefit your organization immediately. Unlike many TeleClasses, ours are not ‘veneers’ for marketing our products.

We have two TeleClasses that are free; the rest are $10 per participant. Try them out and you'll you’ll see that our TeleClasses have the same high quality content you already receive in our books and live workshops.
Here's the December schedule:

• Dec. 5 - Virtual Team Building: How to Make 3 Cultural Differences Explicit
• Dec. 6 - FREE - Five Critical Tips for Building Trust at Work
• Dec. 7 - The Leader's Role: How to Engage Employees
• Dec. 12 - The Courage to Speak Up: How to Assess Risk & How to Say it
• Dec. 13 - FREE - The Five Most Common Unnamed Elephants Roaming in Your Workplace
• Dec. 14 - Virtual Team Building: The Role of the Leader
• Dec. 19 - FREE - Five Critical Tips for Building Trust at Work
• Dec. 20 - The Leader's Role: How to Engage Employees
  

Happy Holidays! Thanks for your interest and support.

Sue Annis Hammond
email: news@thinbook.com
phone: 888.316.9544
web: http://www.thinbook.com