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Duck Tales

January/February 1998

Knowledge is Power!

With approximately two-thirds of all U.S. employees working in the service sector, knowledge is fast becoming our most important product. Consider these staggering facts: The amount of information doubles nearly every five years; more information has been produced during the last 30 years than in the previous 5,000.

These realities demand a new kind of organization and a new kind of employee. Old Manco Duck® has always advocated lifelong learning and open-door policies. Now, if organizations want to succeed, they have no choice: They must share knowledge, embrace teamwork, and open their minds to possibilities they cannot even imagine. The world is changing rapidly, and learning is the key that enables organizations to adapt to the dizzying speed of change.

After reading this issue of Duck Tales, please do your feathered friend a favor. Look closely at your organization and ask yourself how you can broaden your company´s knowledge and ensure people are excited about learning. How can you encourage open, honest communication? How can you get people to share ideas and think critically? How can you foster a love of learning? Look at your culture for clues. Teamwork and empowerment are critical components of a learning culture. They build trust, allowing people to take risks, ask questions, and grow. So if you want to survive in the new global era, think "learning culture."

Groups Give Rise to Genius
In our culture, genius is considered a lonely business. Einstein puttering in his study, fixated on formulas. Edison in his laboratory, putting his singular brilliance to work. We picture Michelangelo laboring alone on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel - but in reality, 13 people collaborated on the project. Genius is not limited to individuals, it can also happen in groups. Just ask Bill Gates and Paul Allen and their team at Microsoft.
Some organizations breed genius. Great leaders influence great followers, who become great leaders themselves. Because these individuals tend to have strong anti-authoritarian streaks, such groups may not have a hierarchy per se. Instead, they are often governed by a visionary and a protector. The visionary recognizes and cultivates talent, bringing creative rebels into the fold. The protector is something of a gatekeeper. He or she regulates the flow of great ideas into the practical mainstream. The individual members are often diamonds in the rough. They may lack traditional credentials, may exist on the margins, and are usually young. These characteristics often spark a sense that anything is possible.
But for all the opportunity that great groups provide, for all the strides that genius takes, there is also a great deal of responsibility and pressure. And that´s a balance that´s hard to achieve, and harder still to maintain.
A Healthy Dose of Conflict
When people work together on teams, disagreements and conflicts are inevitable, but they also can be beneficial. The challenge is to encourage team members to argue productively, without damaging their ability to work together. These techniques can lead to constructive arguments:
Supply teams with more information. Contrary to what some might expect, the more information teams have to work with, the better. A large amount of data helps people focus on facts, not on personality differences.
Give them more alternatives. A variety of options usually leads to constructive discussions. Teams that debate just two options tend to focus on who´s right and who´s wrong, whereas teams with multiple alternatives put their energy into solving problems.
Establish a common goal. When people argue about how to do something instead of what to do, it´s important to get them back on track, reminding them of the common goal.
Have fun. Humor is the best antidote to tension and stress, two common symptoms of decision making. People who can laugh manage better to separate themselves from threatening situations and remain objective.
Balance the power structure. Everyone´s opinion should be equal in weight. It´s not uncommon in group discussions, however, for some people to be more vocal than others. Team leaders should encourage everyone to speak up.
Don´t force consensus. Sometimes it is plain impossible to get everyone to agree on an issue. To avoid endless haggling, the leader simply may have to make the final decision. In many cases, the team will accept the decision without hesitation - it just wants a solution.
Dispelling Myths of Empowerment
How do you empower people? You don´t, says one expert. Workers already are empowered--during the 128 hours per week they´re not on the job. People make crucial decisions daily, from evaluating purchase options to planning for retirement. Many companies wrongly assume that effective empowerment requires employees to be formally trained. Save your money, advises the expert. An empowered work culture is not about learning new skills. It´s about learning new ways to use existing skills. How do you get there? Start by dispelling these common misconceptions:
Empowerment requires upper-level management support. Not necessarily. The most critical ingredient is the agreement reached between a supervisor and individual employees about how to share responsibility, authority, and accountability. Change has to happen at the individual level or, chances are, it won´t happen at all.
Empowered employees risk failure--and punishment. Nothing is more counterproductive than fear of failure. Empowerment is fueled by trust. Employees need to trust that a failed experiment will not result in punishment. Supervisors need to trust that workers won´t abuse whatever new authority they are given.
Sharing power shouldn´t be difficult. But in practice, sometimes it is. It takes a good amount of self-discipline, restraint, and trust for many supervisors to share authority. Being aware of the inevitable initial discomforts will help both supervisors and workers create solutions together.
Coaching for Success
Don´t confuse the role of a sports coach with that of a corporate coach. While a football or basketball coach issues directives, a corporate coach helps people develop their own solutions through two-way dialogue. Coaching is catching on in the workplace because it is one of the most effective management tools for successful teamwork. Here are some basic coaching rules that one consulting group subscribes to:
Listen.Perhaps the corporate coach´s most important role is to listen so carefully as to form a mental picture of the situation.
Dig for information without being accusatory or judgmental. Say, "Tell me a little more about your idea," rather than "Why would you do that?"
Know that the coach is not in control. Just as a tennis coach doesn´t hit the ball over the net, the corporate coach does not control the conversation.
Encourage the other person to come to solutions. Instead of, "Don´t you think you should try it this way?" say something like, "Tell me what options you´ve thought about."
Be aware of your own personal feelings. Good coaching can take place only when you can look at a situation with freshness and impartiality. Forget about how the co-worker has let you down in the past or how your company usually handles such situations.
Do as you say. Your colleagues will respect your coaching skills if you practice what you preach.
Friendship at Work
While some managers believe that greater productivity is achieved by keeping friends apart at work ("they socialize too much"), others believe that friendship inspires trust, which ultimately leads to higher productivity. So who´s right? A new study at the University of Minnesota finds that friendship is indeed good for business. Researchers observed 53 teams of three people performing two tasks. Half the teams consisted of acquaintances who barely knew each other, and the other half consisted of people with solid friendships.
In the first activity, teams were asked to build specific models out of Tinkertoys. The second task, which tested collective decision making, had the teams rank people applying for MBAs; the rankings were then compared to those of a real university. Groups made up of friends completed an average of nine Tinkertoy models, while the acquaintances completed only 2.45 models. In the other activity, the friends matched approximately 60 percent of the actual committee´s decisions, compared to the acquaintances´ 41 percent match.
The researchers believe that the friends worked better together because they were able to draw on existing trust, respect, and honesty. In the groups of acquaintances, people were almost too polite and were afraid of offending someone. The lesson here? Organizations should foster cultures that promote friendship and trust. Company-wide social events, like softball games, holiday parties, and various celebrations, are perhaps the best way to build and maintain friendships at work.
Cultivate Curiosity
A man and his young son were taking a walk one day, enjoying the fresh air and exercise. "Daddy," said the boy, who was looking up at the telephone wires, "how does a telephone work?" "Don´t know," said the father. "Never thought about it." They continued walking, and the boy asked what caused thunder and lightning. "Don´t know," said the father. "It just happens."
The boy asked several more questions, none of which his father could answer. Not surprisingly, it was just a matter of time before the boy stopped asking questions altogether. The lack of response from his father had dampened the boy´s spirit and suggested to him that curiosity and knowledge were of little value.
And so it is in the business world. Leaders who do not respect and reward curiosity in their employees may discover that they inadvertently teach employees not to ask why or solve problems. People are born with a natural curiosity, a natural desire to understand their environment. Management needs to encourage employees´ pursuit of knowledge and respond favorably to their questions and challenges responding to questions and concerns, but also encouraging employees to attend seminars and training sessions and rewarding those who solve problems and offer good ideas. Only through continuous learning can individuals and organizations improve and prosper.

Sincerely, Your Friend
Manco T. Duck