November 2009 Newsletter

The Best Places to Work Roadmap: Organizational Values and Leadership Modeling

Over the next five editions of our newsletter, we will discuss the five qualities that make an organization one of the "Best Places to Work" and dive deeper into what each means, how to create this quality and the first steps too.

At Priority Learning we spend most of our working hours listening to people discuss their work successes and/or challenges. Additionally, as we watch the work places with the most successful reputations, financial growth and stability you start to see patterns that align with the successes of these same people. These patterns cross boarders so we know that the formula for success is not geographical. In other words, what plays well in Maine also plays well in Massachusetts or Arkansas. We also know that someone who is not valued or considered successful at one organization can go to a different organization and, while doing the same task, they will thrive and succeed. Over time some things become very clear. We determined that this is more than coincidence and as we furrowed our brows trying to understand why this might happen we discovered answers. Answers we hope will have some value for you and your organization.

In the beginning we suspected that successes were a testament to just good people who would work hard regardless. That concept felt pretty good because, as most of you know, we do a sizable amount of work with individual development. Good people who are willing to do the extra effort work and travel the extra mile are like savings accounts for their organizations. They gather interest and are always there on a rainy day. These high quality folks are the life blood of any good institution and as we continued our search we found out that the places that they worked had a lot to do with why they were so good.

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The Art of Appreciation

Appreciation as defined by the Merriam Webster dictionary is an expression of admiration, approval, or gratitude. Appreciation in the workplace is not only valuable but necessary. Appreciation is the "Thank you for a job well done" and other gestures that are displayed at work. Seems pretty simple, right? For something that seems so simple, it often becomes a challenge during day to day work lives. It is often assumed that the only way to truly appreciate people is through financial means. It would only stand to reason that during tough economic times everyone just wants more money. Most studies show that Appreciation and Participation are very important to employees' happiness in any organization.

When we think about Appreciation, we may more often think of our personal lives. We have holidays and birthdays to show our appreciation, admiration, and love to those close to us. When we don't recognize our loved ones on these few holidays, the chances are the relationship might strain and the "You don't appreciate me!" comments might start. It seems like, when the "honeymoon" years have gone by, Appreciation can sometimes go by the wayside. As in our personal lives, we can sometimes forget to appreciate the people we spend time with at work, day in and day out.

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Growing a Family and a Business

Balancing your home life and your work life while raising children and expanding your business can be a daunting task. Many of you may be thinking about making the move to "work at home parent" but are asking yourself "Can I build a business and raise my family at the same time?" I'm here to tell you yes! Although it is hard, it can be done and in my opinion it is one of the most rewarding things you can do as a parent and an entrepreneur.

I started my business nearly four years ago. Having gone to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and majoring in animation, I have a background in both art and technology. I knew that these skill sets could be useful to many organizations, especially with the explosion of the web. I started out calling myself a "Graphic Designer", going after web design, print and illustration jobs, though I quickly realized that this industry was a lot different than I had anticipated. Web design was clearly the most profitable and enjoyable of the three, yet in order to be competitive in this market, I knew that I needed to know more.

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Team Learning and Developing, using Myers Briggs

We came up with an inexpensive way to help teams and departments to understand diversity (in self and in others), create clear expectations, give and receive feedback, design guidelines for handling conflicts and turning team/departmental challenges into strengths using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), which most of you know is our favorite diversity tool. We decided that we needed to spread the word about how successful this process has been for many of our clients.

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Book Of The Month: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: