StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 43b – An Interview with Diane Katz, author of Win at Work!, part 2 of 2
StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.
Special Edition 43b – An Interview with Diane Katz, author of Win at Work!, part 2 of 2 examines how to deal with workplace conflict in a non-confrontational manner that enables everyone involved to win and the organization to function more productively. During our discussion, Diane Katz, author of Win at Work!: The Everybody Wins Approach to Conflict Resolution
- an 8-step, non-confrontational method for resolving conflict in the workplace – The Working Circle
- actions leaders should take to improve their conflict resolution skills
- additional actions leaders should take to help their peers and employees better handle conflict
Additional Information
In addition to the invaluable insights Diane shares in Win at Work!
Final Request…
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About the Author
Diane Katz is author of Win at Work!
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StrategyDriven Editorial Perspective – Expanding Uncertainty in the U.S. Financial Sector, part 2
Common sense suggests that individuals and organizations would only seek to borrow or be lent money that they could with reasonable assurance repay. In the wake of the housing market crash of 2008, we learned that financial institutions frequently provided mortgage loans to those they knew could not afford to repay them. Common sense certainly did not prevail and, in this case, contributed to the devastating economic conditions we now face.
Armed with this knowledge and experience, reasonable people would seek to avoid creating conditions that could lead the recurrence of such reckless lending and place at risk our entire financial system and economy. Indeed, only a little common sense is required. It would appear, though, that common sense is in short supply in Washington D.C.
Section 342 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act sign into law on July 21, 2010 by President Obama directs Federal regulators to allocate credit by race and gender rather than on a systematic evaluation of risk and financial soundness.1,2,3 Race and gender are simply not financial qualifiers. Thus, this dubious approach to lending will either result in the loan applications of qualified non-covered individuals being rejected or the extension of funds to covered individuals who cannot afford to repay the loans. The credit market will subsequently become too tight, stifling economic growth or too loose, creating a similar set of circumstances that caused the financial meltdown this legislation is intended to prevent.
StrategyDriven Recommended Practices
The significant marketplace uncertainty created by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act will not end anytime soon. It is clear that the law itself will create conditions that threaten the future stability of the U.S. financial markets. In addition to our previously recommended actions, StrategyDriven suggests organization leaders:
- Monitor the market for indications of continued, extensive sub-prime lending and the use of other potentially new financial vehicles that provide individuals and companies with funds they cannot afford to repay.
- Critically assess your organization’s financial standing and the risk involved with projects and ongoing operations; limiting borrowing to that which is reasonably prudent.
- Be mindful of your organization’s portfolio of liabilities – lines of credits from suppliers, loans from financial institutions, bonds issued to stakeholders – when evaluating your company’s financial standing and the prudency of expanding is overall liabilities.
- Honestly evaluate your customer’s ability to repay loans or lines of credit so to not place them and your company in a position of excessive financial risk.
- Provide employees with financial advisory services benefits so to help them understand how to borrow responsibly.
Final Thoughts…
We cannot leave this topic without first addressing the issues of discrimination the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act creates. In a letter to Senate leaders, several members of the United States Commission on Civil Rights cite their belief that “the likelihood [this act] will in fact promote discrimination is overwhelming.” 4 And we at agree. Directing the establishment and reinforcement of quotas based on race and gender runs counter to our nation’s founding principle that all people are created equal. It puts in place a system by which people are judged based on their race and gender rather than on their capabilities, achievements, and the quality of their character.
“It would be unadvised to attempt to set up any one race above another, or one religion above another, or prescribe any on account of race, color or creed.” 5
Frederick Douglass
Our Composite Nationality
delivered December 7, 1869
Boston, Massachusetts
StrategyDriven believes only those societies and businesses embracing diversity and inclusion will realize great success. It is our assertion that all leaders should support the behaviors, systems, and policies that promote greater diversity and inclusion within society and its member organizations. In our opinion, quotas do not serve to promote diversity and inclusion but rather serve to create discrimination and divisiveness. It is simply not humanly possible to divine a quota that ensures all individuals will be treated equally according to his or her abilities, achievements, and character. Quotas therefore establish conditions where individuals from either the covered or non-covered class are not afforded equal opportunities which itself is discriminatory and engenders a resentment within those so discriminated that promotes a divisive environment. Thus, we believe Section 342 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act will serve to further divide our nation and our business community rather than ensure the fair inclusion of all individuals in the financial markets as was intended.
Again, StrategyDriven strongly believes in the power and strength of a diverse and inclusive marketplace and is committed to furthering its promotion. We hope you’ll take time to read our many Diversity and Inclusion articles to better understand what it means to be a truly diverse and inclusive business and promote such practices within your organization.
In the coming editions of the StrategyDriven Editorial Perspective, we’ll look at the potential impacts of several provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act including:
- extension of government control beyond direct players in the financial market
- impacts of ‘too large to fail’ provisions on market risk
- proportionately larger burden of the new law on small companies
As always, we’ll provide our thoughts on how business leaders can best prepare for the implementation of the financial reform law and weather the storm in the long-term. We also hope you’ll share your thoughts, lessons learned, and recommended resources with us and the StrategyDriven audience.
Final Request…
The strength in our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. Please consider rating us and sharing your perspectives regarding the StrategyDriven Editorial Perspective podcast on iTunes by clicking here. Sharing your thoughts improves our ranking and helps us attract new listeners which, in turn, helps us grow our community.
Thank you again for listening to the StrategyDriven Editorial Perspective podcast!
Sources
- “Politicizing the Fed: Congress seeks more control over the 12 regional banks,” The Wall Street Journal, June 14, 2010 (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704575304575297130299281828.html)
- “Racial quotas as financial services reform?,” Horace Cooper, The Washington Times, July 15, 2010 (http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/watercooler/2010/jul/15/racial-quotas-financial-services-reform/)
- “Race, Sex, and the Dodd-Frank Financial Regulation Bill,” Roger Clegg, The Federalist Society, July 12, 2010 (http://www.fed-soc.org/publications/pubid.1912/pub_detail.asp)
- “U.S. Commission on Civil Rights demands changes to Democrats’ financial reform bill,” Caroline May, The Daily Caller, July 14, 2010 (http://dailycaller.com/2010/07/14/u-s-commission-on-civil-rights-demands-changes-to-democrats-financial-reform-bill/)
- “Our Composite Nationality,” Frederick Douglass, TeachingAmericanHistory.org, December 7, 1869 (http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=2464)
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Diversity and Inclusion – Return on Investment, part 2: Employee Distraction Reduction
All workplace environments have distractions that divert employees’ attention and diminish productivity. Some of these distractions are simply a part of the human condition, our physical, intellectual, and social needs for diversionary activity. Others, however, are induced by workplace structures, policies, and employees (executives, managers, supervisors, and individual contributors). Of these, one of the most harmful yet preventable are the disrespectful and demeaning acts committed against employees.[wcm_restrict plans=”75943, 25542, 25653″]
Acts of incivility vary in their impact on employee productivity. At one extreme are the unintentional insults that are quickly recognized and frequently atoned for. These generate some, often short-lived, work distractions. Workplace bullying and other intentional disrespectful and demeaning acts lie at the other end of the spectrum. These later acts create a hostile work environment that drives employees to spend significant non-productive time worrying about and avoiding these situations.
Cost of Distraction
Employees not fully dedicating their time and energies to the achievement of the organization’s goals because of workplace incivility represent a real and significant opportunity cost to the company. In 2002, The Orlando Business Journal cited a survey of 9,000 federal employees that revealed a $90 million per year loss because of employee distractions associated with disrespectful and demeaning acts.3 These costs are derived from a multitude of sources including:
- Distraction from tasks on the part of the victim, bully and witnesses
- Absenteeism
- Time spent at work looking for different work
- Time spent at work talking about being bullied instead of working
- Time spent at work by others gossiping about the bully and his or her behavior
- Time spent by other employees and management calming and counseling victims
- Time spent by management appeasing, counseling or disciplining bullies
- Time spent soothing victimized customers, suppliers and other key outsiders
- Time spent reorganizing departments and teams
- Time spent interviewing, recruiting, and training replacements for departed victims, witnesses and bullies
- Anger management, communication, leadership and other training
And then there are other qualitative impacts that potentially distract employees including:
- Reduced psychological safety and associated climate of fear
- Loss of motivation and energy at work from victims and witnesses
- Stress induced psychological and physical illness
- Possible impaired mental ability4
Considering the large number of physical and mental distractions associated with these inappropriate workplace behaviors, it is easy to understand how an organization can incur considerable incivility-related employee distraction costs.
Acts of incivility are the unwelcome, unjustifiable, and unreasonable behaviors intended to create feelings of humiliation, hurt, embarrassment, and degradation. They can be exhibited by executives, managers and peers. Such acts differ in their intensity and severity. Some are blatant acts directed at a specific individual or group while others are unthoughtful or inconsiderate behaviors. Collectively, they represent a spectrum of uncivil actions:
Blatant Management Acts of Incivility
- Setting impossible deadlines
- Constantly changing targets
- Deliberately withholding work-related information or resources
- Continually giving tasks that are meaningless or beyond a person’s skill level
Blatant Acts of Incivility
- Losing one’s temper or yelling at someone in public
- Consistently criticizing
- Making someone the ongoing brunt of teasing, pranks, or practical jokes
- Rude or obnoxious behavior in the workplace
- Badgering or back-stabbing in the workplace
- Withholding important customer/client information
- Sabotaging a project or damaging someone’s reputation
Subtle Acts of Incivility
- Arriving late to a meeting
- Checking e-mail or texting during a meeting
- Not answering calls or responding to emails in a timely manner
- Ignoring or interrupting a colleague in the workplace
- Not saying “please” or “thank you”1, 2
An Abusive Work Environment
A recent survey of 800 people by Christine Pearson and Christine Porath revealed that 10 percent of those interviewed witnessed acts of incivility in the workplace daily and 48 percent said they were treated uncivilly at least once per week.5 A similar study conducted by The Center for Human Capital Analytics established the link between these disrespectful and demeaning behaviors and workplace diversity:
- 54 percent perceived the behavior to be based on gender
- 43 percent perceived the behavior to be based on race
- 41 percent perceived the behavior to be based on age
These disrespectful and demeaning acts were also found to have a profoundly negative impact on employees:
- 10 percent reduced the effort they gave at work
- 12 percent considered leaving to avoid the bully
- 14 percent decreased their commitment to the organization
- 16 lost time worrying about the bully6
Clearly, acts of diversity related incivility result in lost productivity because of time spent worrying about and avoiding the bully.
Calculating Diversity and Inclusion’s Return On Investment – Employee Distraction Reduction
Workplace incivility contributes to employee distraction which in turn directly impacts the organization’s bottom line. These occurrences present leaders with an opportunity to realize financial benefits from investments aimed at improving the workplace environment. Estimating the return on investment for such initiatives involves the following steps:
- Determine the portions of the workforce impacted by hearing about, witnessing, or experiencing workplace incivility weekly – This rate can be calculated using workforce surveys or interviews. Since surveys and interviews seldom cover the entire workforce, it is important the sample data taken be representative of the employee population as a whole.
- Identify the amount of time per week impacted employees spend on non-productive time related to uncivil acts by impact category – This time can be calculated using workforce surveys or interviews, typically the same one used for Step 1. Again, since surveys and interviews seldom cover the entire workforce, it is important the sample data taken be representative of the employee population as a whole.
- Identify the initiatives to be implemented in order to improve workplace civility – Expert advice from individuals/organizations specializing in the field of diversity and inclusion should be consulted to identify those initiatives best suited to address the organization’s unique needs and circumstances.
- Estimate the cost of implementing these initiatives on an annual basis – Use standard project management cost estimation methods to determine the expected monetary cost of all resource expenditures expected to be made during implementation of these initiatives on an annual basis. Alternatively, expert advice from individuals/organizations specializing in the field of diversity and inclusion could be consulted to determine this variable.
- Estimate the reduction in individuals impacted and distraction time caused by workplace incivility – This will vary based on the nature of the initiatives undertaken and their impact on the number of uncivil acts occurring per week. Expert advice from individuals/organizations specializing in the field of diversity and inclusion should be consulted to determine this variable. The derived value is likely to be largely related to the number of experienced incivility acts, moderately related to witnessed acts, and minimally related to discussions of the acts. Consider using category relationship data gathered in the survey/interview questions of Steps 1 and 2 to form a mathematical basis for the reduction estimate to be combined with the judgment and experience of expert advisors when determining the final value.
- Determine the annual value of improving workplace civility through distraction reduction – Use the StrategyDriven Cost of Employee Distraction Nomograph to determine the annual cost reduction of employee distraction based on the size of the organization, percent of employees distracted, and the average employee salary. Care should be when selecting the appropriate nomograph to ensure the estimate can be made directly or extrapolated (a multiple or divisor of the nomograph’s output) based on the average employee distraction time reduction per week and the time basis of the nomograph.
- Determine the component of Diversity and Inclusion’s return on investment value to the organization resulting from reduced distractions – Subtract the cost of the workplace civility initiatives determined in Step 4 from the annual value of improving workplace civility through distraction reduction determined in Step 6 and divide the result by the cost of implementing the workplace civility initiatives determined in Step 4. Multiply this value by 100 to convert to a return on investment percent.
Example Return On Investment Calculation for Employee Turnover Reduction
Background
Organization Size: 400 employees
Average Employee Salary: $43,000 / year
Length of Year: 50 weeks (average employee works 2000 hours per year)
Calculation (Illustrative)
- Portion of the Workforce Discussing, Witnessing, or Experiencing One or More Acts of Incivility per Week: 58 percent
- Average Amount of Time per Person Spent on Worrying About or Avoiding the Bully: 2.5 hours / week or 30 minutes / day
- Workplace Civility Initiatives to be Implemented: workforce training, executive/management coaching, performance appraisal system upgrade, new diversity and inclusion organizational performance measures implemented, Diversity and Inclusion Council established
- Annual Cost of Implementing Workplace Civility Initiatives: $300,000 / year
- Estimated Reduction in Incivility-Related Distraction Time: 1.25 hours / week or 15 minutes / day
- Annual value of Workplace Civility Initiatives from Employee Distraction Reductions: $311,750
- Annual Return On Investment of Workplace Civility Initiatives: A 3.9 percent return on investment.
Final Thoughts…
Workplace civility improvement initiatives have a far more expansive impact than just reducing incivility related distractions. In previous and future articles, we’ll discuss how to calculate these benefits to determine the total financial benefit of these initiatives.
Lastly, we presented a strong financial case for implementing programs aimed at improving the workplace environment. However, we at StrategyDriven believe such programs are not only the financially prudent thing to do, they are the morally and ethically right thing to do. All employees should be treated with the utmost respect, not because it is financially beneficial to do so but because as fellow human beings they deserve to be treated as such. It is our sincere hope that all leaders will work to end workplace abuse, bullying, and discrimination and that they and their employees will respect and value their colleagues.
Sources
- “The Brutus SyndromeTM,” Craig B. Clayton, Sr., The Sp@rtacus Group, January 2005 (http://www.hrm-ri.org/whitepapers/dEPS_White_Paper_Ver.12.2005.v17.pdf)
- “Workplace Incivility on the Rise: Four Ways to Stop It,” Diane Berenbaum, Human Resources iQ, March 23, 2010 (http://www.humanresourcesiq.com/article.cfm?externalid=2014)
- “Workplace bullying’s high cost: $180M in lost time, productivity,” Liz Urbanski Farrell, Orlando Business Journal, March 15, 2002 (http://orlando.bizjournals.com/orlando/stories/2002/03/18/focus1.html?page=1)
- “The Cost of Workplace Bullying: How much is your corporate bully costing you?,” Catherine Michael Mattice, NoWorkplaceBullies.com, July 2009 (http://noworkplacebullies.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/Whitepaper_CostofWorkplaceBullying.183131417.pdf)
- “Workplace Incivility on the Rise: Four Ways to Stop It,” Diane Berenbaum, Human Resources iQ, March 23, 2010 (http://www.humanresourcesiq.com/article.cfm?externalid=2014)
Note: Numeric survey findings taken from The Cost of Bad Behavior by Christine M. Pearson and Christine L. Porath
- “The Brutus SyndromeTM,” Craig B. Clayton, Sr., The Sp@rtacus Group, January 2005 (http://www.hrm-ri.org/whitepapers/dEPS_White_Paper_Ver.12.2005.v17.pdf)
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StrategyDriven Podcast Receives Top Honors in July
The StrategyDriven Team would like to thank you, our listeners, for helping us achieve the second place ranking for the StrategyDriven Podcast from among the over 2,900 business podcasts listed on Podcast Alley in July! Additionally, the StrategyDriven Editorial Perspective Podcast placed fourth among all business podcasts in only its second month.
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Leadership Inspirations – Getting to the Top
“I found that the men and women who got to the top were those who did the jobs they had in hand, with everything they had of energy and enthusiasm and hard work.”
Harry S. Truman (1884 – 1972)
33rd President of the United States