Why do your best people leave?

Part I of II

 In My Opinion. . . .

They leave because one or more of the following workplace sociocultural behaviors is missing or randomly in evidence:

1. Lack of challenge.
2. Lack of recognition.
3. Lack of opportunity.

Now, many would argue “That’s just not true in our firm.”

Really?

Well, if there is challenge, recognition, and opportunity in your firm, and the individuals in question are not clear about what that actually means to them personally, e.g. it is not visible to them, then it does not exist.

And BTW, 2 out of 3 won’t work either!

Figure Cr.  www.business.unr.edu/faculty/simmonsb/badm720/orgsilence.ppt

Not infrequently, others have said that to assure their people feel appreciated, when senior managers meet casually with staff, they are prone to say things like ”Hey, nice work,” or “Keep up the good work,” or a favorite, “I’m hearing good things about you!

My advice?

The next time such passing remarks land in your lap, thank the manager, and then ask “Could you tell me what it is that I have done that merits this praise?” 

Then ask the question you really need answered:

“Would you tell me what I need to do better to be considered promotable within the next 18 months?

Part II of II

How do you  credibly engage your people such that, when they leave work on Friday, they come back to work that next Monday; not because they do not have a choice to go elsewhere, but in fact because they wouldn’t consider working elsewhere. . . . . . . . ..  .. . . . . . . . . . . . . More To Come.

In the latest issue of ASCE SmartBrief, I had to re-read the excerpt below 3 times to convince myself it was not a “test.”

ASCE SmartBrief, January 4, 2012

Where have all the heroes gone?[1]

“Workers in our future will not be looking for the man on the top floor; they will be looking for someone (a woman perhaps) just like them, who can point them in the right direction.”

So, just when it seemed that we had moved from the language of diversity to change that matters. . . .

Cr. Google Images 04JAN2012

In My Opinion. . .

There is nothing harder to change than our habits. By definition, that’s why we deliberately form certain habits.

e.g., the habit we form to verify and validate the basis of design prior to rushing into production.

But….there are habits we do not deliberately plan, they are adsorbed by how we were raised in the home, in the neighborhood, in classrooms, then eventually in the workplace. These habits are so very deeply ingrained they run on autopilot.

Your sisters, wives, daughters, granddaughters. . . all women in your life…need not suffer the neanderthals of the working world.

Speak up briefly, clearly, and compassionately.

Some habits are worth breaking once and forever.

“Consider just a handful of recent events: the financial crisis of 2008; the gulf oil spill of 2010; and the Japanese nuclear disaster, the debt-ceiling debacle and euro crisis this year. Constant turbulence seems to be the new normal, and effective leadership is crucial in containing it. Real leaders, wrote the novelist David Foster Wallace, are people who “help us overcome the limitations of our own individual laziness and selfishness and weakness and fear and get us to do better, harder things than we can get ourselves to do on our own.”

“As some talented research assistants and I worked on the study, I was struck by Shackleton’s ability to respond to constantly changing circumstances. When his expedition encountered serious trouble, he had to reinvent the team’s goals. He had begun the voyage with a mission of exploration, but it quickly became a mission of survival. This capacity is vital in our own time, when leaders must often change course midstream — jettisoning earlier standards of success and redefining their purposes and plans.

SHACKLETON can serve as a role model even though his expedition, judged by its initial objectives, was a colossal failure. His ship, the Endurance, never reached Antarctica.”

Entire article with photos:

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/25/business/leadership-lessons-from-the-shackleton-expedition.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=globaleua24   accessed 25DEC2011.

In My Opinion. . . . 

Leadership is not limited by a job title.

Whether we are considering matters that require committed followers for profession-wide, organizational, or program/project issues, the need for straight-talk is paramount. Sshackleton’s story offers encouragement and hope to those who have struggled with “Running the game down on the field” while those observers in the stands “cheer or jeer.”

It has been suggested that one profession-wide common barrier to change that matters is the “Culture of  Silence.”

Cr. Center for Conflict Dynamics at Eckerd College

Of course, I could be wrong.

A recent NSF call for proposals* had the following as one of their goals:

“* Determining how our built water systems and our governance systems can be made more reliable, resilient and sustainable to meet diverse and often conflicting needs, such as minimizing consumption of water for energy generation, industrial and agricultural/forest rangeland production and built environment requirements, reuse for both potable and non-potable needs, ecosystem protection, and flood control and storm water management.”

Please copy and then past the URL below to read the doc.

*Funding – Water Sustainability and Climate http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503452&WT.mc_id=USNSF_39&WT.mc_ev=click

Consider a visit to the site noted below.

While so very far from my own historical….actually, hysterical…past,

I’m interested to learn what you learned from the visit.

Photo Credit: http://www.psicopolis.com/senato/golemacchine.htm

cheers,

Bill

http://www.engineering.com/GamesPuzzles/PowerUp.aspx

Free webinar: What must happen to keep women in engineering?
While about 20% of engineering school grads are women, only 11% are practicing engineers. What are the factors that steer women away and what can be done? Find out in a free webinar, Stemming the Tide: Why Women Leave Engineering, hosted by Women in Engineering Pro Active Network, an ASCE strategic partner society, Thursday, Nov. 10 at 1 p.m. ET. As part of a study under the same name, the webinar will be facilitated by the study’s authors, Nadya Fouad, Ph.D., and Romila Singh, Ph.D, of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Download a free PDF copy of the study, and register for the free webinar, recommended by ASCE’s Committee on Diversity & Inclusion. 

So, we “allowed” women to be WWII nurses.

Then, we “allowed” women to help build airplanes for that war effort.

Now, it seems, we are ready to “allow” women to build facilities as carpenters, etc.

Hey, I wonder why “they” don’t become engineers, and lead the way?

Women in Engineering, Science and Technology

http://www.poly.edu/women

Find out what it is really like to be a woman in these fields and what career opportunities in engineering, science and technology there are for women today!

Find inspiration by attending NYU-Poly’s event, showcasing the accomplishments of women in engineering, science and technology. Take part in activities and meet female students, faculty and alumnae who are eager to introduce you to the world of science and technology.

Learn more about our scholarship program designated for Women in Engineering, Science and Technology.

Please RSVP by Friday, October 28th below or  call 1-800-POLYTECH

1st, please go to page 8 in the October 2011 Civil Engineering issue, “Letters.”

Title: “The inherent value of maintenance.”

Author: Dennis R. Randolph, P.E., M.ASCE, Belton, Missouri

More to come. . . .

"Broken"

p.s. Just in case it needed to be said,

after you read and consider the perspectives offered in Dennis’s letter,

please share your thoughts.

First, please read the entire article, with particular attention to graphics that tell the story for all to understand.

Beating the coming water shortage[1]

By Tara Moore

An expanding world population, extreme weather patterns, and industrial pollution are making water a scarce commodity. Opportunities exist for businesses that can figure out how to keep the pipes flowing.

 Water, water, in everything…

Cr. Fortune Magazine, October 17, 2011

With all the bottled water we swig and showers we take, you’d think individuals consume the most water. Actually agriculture accounts for 71%, and industry 16%, of all water use globally. A pair of blue jeans requires 2,906 gallons, most of it from growing cotton. A car requires 104,000 gallons, most of it from the rubber. It takes 71 gallons of H2O to produce a tall cup of coffee. Starbucks plans to cut its in-store water usage by 25% by 2015 with, for example, espresso machines that dispense less water.

Reality Check: Have you read the entire article, with particular attention to graphics that tell the story for all to understand?

“Yes, of course I did!”

OK then, proceed.

In My Opinion . . .

1st, understand my warped. . . occasionally . . . .perspective.

Had those early earthlings who formed a committee to name our planet had access to NASA photos, we most certainly would NOT have been labelled planet “Earth.” We would have been named as . . . wait for it. . . Planet Water!

Given the fact that water is one major element that supports life on our planet, and that it physically ties everyone, everywhere together, and civil engineers in collaboration with other disciplines are most qualified to sort through the issues, I ask:

1. Is there a global steering council of sorts that studies and then promotes shared understanding on a fact-basis?

2. If so, please let us all know how to connect  with them.

Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

A gas drilling site behind a farmhouse in Fairdale, west of Montrose, Pa.  Drilling and the businesses supporting it have lifted the Susquehanna County economy.

Please read the NYT article at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/15/us/hydraulic-fracturing-brings-money-and-problems-to-pennsylvania.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha23

In My Opinion. . . 

The article lays out the cyclical intersect between short-term financial gain versus the long-term “best interests of the public.”

As we learned from the “Pay me now or pay me later” approach to life, ”later” always includes 100 to 1000 times more cost, and at that later point-in-time, the label “cost” includes, and then goes well beyond what anyone . . . engineers as well (?). . . thought it to be.

LIFE-LESSON:

QUESTION.

Does anyone know of either an ASCE, NSPE, ACEC, NSF or other national engineering body that is, or has, taken a LOUD fact-based public position on the subject of “Life in the fracking zone. . . .yesterday, today, and tomorrow?”