[Editors note: The following is a journal entry addressing specific questions provided by the CPM course instructors for module 2.1. Suggested questions had not been provided at the time the post was published, so the author took the liberty of recounting key insights gathered from the three day instructional session and 215 pages of suggested readings.]
Character Trait Inventories
How many more character trait inventory surveys can we possibly take? So far I recall having done the following?
1.
Poster about ourselves
2.
Growth inventory assessment
3. Recounted our best management moment
4.
MBTI personality traits
5.
360 Feedback
6.
Values Identification Exercise
7.
Conversation styles in conflict
Fierce Conversations
The Fierce
Conversations book talked about by Betsey BeMiller looked like a repackaging of the Crucial Conversations methodology.
Fierce Conversations was just not as straightforward and with more steps
to remember.
During the discussion, I was able to track in parallel the
alignment of the Crucial Conversations methodology in the Fierce
Conversations material. I was pleasantly
pleased with how well I could remember the Crucial
Conversations material.
That the author of Fierce
Conversations was an executive coach, I found to be interesting.
I had just finished listening to Marshal Goldsmith’s What Got You Here Won’t Get You There
and so the topic of addressing targeted deficiencies was something that was
already on my mind.
The story of the executive who came to realize that he had a
alcohol problem, seemed like it could have come from either book. Both authors noted the inability of even successful people to identify our own shortcomings.
Mental Focus
One interesting parallel between Goldsmith and Cynthia
Shaffer’s presentation was the discussion about having the ability to mentally
focus. I was recalling Goldsmith’s
exercise of focusing on counting to 40 with your eyes closed and seeing how far
you get before your mind has wondered onto another topic.
I'm lucky to make it to the mid 20's myself and I have often heard people marvel at my ability to focus on particular tasks.
Tolerance As Not Positive
The “tolerance as bad” principle that was presented in class
seemed like a theory in need of further refinement.
Sort of a first draft of a masters or doctoral thesis. There is value in the concept
that “tolerating people” is less than the optimal method of interacting with
others, but it didn’t seem to have the depth or polish of a comprehensive
theory.
As I understand the concept presented, when we assess the differentiation between our
behaviors towards those we “appreciate”, “tolerate”, or “despise”; we clearly
want to be dealing with people in the “appreciate” manner and not to simply "tolerate" them.
Pretending everyone is your best buddy seems shallow and
contrived. Similarly, it would seem logical
that there is a place for reserved or guarded interactions with those for whom
the “cultural competency” has been as well developed.
Cultural Competency as Political Correctness
Also within this tolerance discussion, Mike made the interesting
observation of equating “Cultural Competence” as the current term for
“Political Correctness.” I thought this
was a very an insightful observation.
Political correctness has achieved a certain level of stigma
associated with its emphasis on refining our choice of words allowable to use
based on an approved and acceptable list.
I think we all expect “Cultural Competence” will become
stigmatized too, once it becomes another means of indiscriminately imposing the
philosophies of our cultural and academic elite upon the practically minded
masses.
Tips for Creating Job Duty Descriptions
Moving “Other Duties as Assigned” out of a job description’s
Essential Duties to the “Non-Essential Job Functions” seemed like a great
tip. The reasoning being that this might
help avoiding creating a situation of permanent accommodation which would
effectively invent a job, apart from what the original job was created to do.
The underlying principle is to keep clean and accurate job
descriptions. That way organizations can
be intentional about what ways they are serving their customers.
Harassment Game
The key concept I took from the Harassment Game was the
prerequisite condition of being able to identify the victim within a protected
group as the critical component of moving a case forward under a discrimination claim.
A tangential observations from the game was that the “Yes,
it was harassment” side won much more frequently, particularly when the “judge”
was emotionally interested in seeing the harassment. Strict adherence to the letter of the law in
the finding of a desperate class was not always the judges emphasis. I suspect this is truer to life that we would
hope.
Process for Conducting Investigations
The lecture about the steps to conducing an incident investigation
was excellent. Getting the slides in a
readable format will be worthwhile.
Cynthia emphasized that ensuring the parties achieve "Process
Satisfaction" by keeping them informed and making progress on the issue was
key. This ties in closely with
Herzberg’s dis-satisfier of “poor organizational processes”. Tangentially, it would also relate to
another satisfier of demonstrating “competence of supervisors”. Finally, the entire issue of resolving
interpersonal conflicts fits with the overarching theme of Herzberg’s emphasis
in the finding that the dis-satisfiers generally emphasis interpersonal
relationship aspects.
Using the phrase “your account of events” rather than “Your
story” or “your version” or “your side” when conducting an investigation was a
good tip. It makes it seem less
confrontational or accusatory.
ADA
Making ADA accommodations on a case-by-case basis without
regard to the precedent it would set for others, was troublesome but
understandable.
Andrew Neiditz
Andrew Neiditz presentation about his experience working is
City, County, and SouthSound911 was very interesting. The next few thoughts relate to his presentation.
City Government Configurations
Explaining the differences between county home rule charter
governments and City’s with their strong Mayor as opposed to Council/ City
Manager configurations was helpful.
Effective vs Efficient
Mr. Neiditz made the point that governments tend to be
oriented around Effectiveness rather than Efficiency. This is certainly something I have seen in my
limited experience.
Two derivative challenges are probably at play in this statement.
1.
This is not the intuitive expectation of our customers. People expect things to strive towards
efficiency and hence get frustrated when things are done with process and
effectiveness rather than with economy as the key constraints.
2.
As managers of limited resources, our ultimate function is to manage
those resources for optimum benefit (efficiency and effectiveness). At my next interview, I probably will not make the big selling
point , “I don’t really care how much gets done, but I’m
really good at following processes.”
“Decisions are Cumbersome”
This statement also is a great articulation of something
that rings very true. I’ve worked in
private firms that had nearly the same problem, but this issue is inseparably inherent to our representative form of American government.
Employee Orientation
Moving policy presentation out of the first day orientation
experience is a good idea. This would
improve the chance of this information being retained. It would also facilitate a further continued interaction between the new employee and HR staff about a month after starting. This then, focuses the employees first day on
relaxing and enjoying the first experience.
Tips for Dealing with Difficult Situations
If employees are unwilling to proactively address problems on their own, managers would need to move into the directing
mode.
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