Parallel Worlds
By Jay Forte, Humanetrics, LLC
Art imitates life and life imitates art. And today, what works in business, now works in life and what works in life, now works in business. With the movement from the industrial age (we made things) to the intellectual age (we make ideas), work and life have become parallel worlds.
With the arrival of the intellectual or service age (industrial age moved out as most of manufacturing has moved off shore), our workplaces are now about people and relationships- in fact, humanity. Success in the workplace is now more directly based on our ability to know and understand our customers as people, create “customerized” service responses and build sustained relationships. This is also what we must do to have successful and fulfilling personal lives.
Let’s review several areas where the parallels between work and life now exist. At the center is building and maintaining strong (personal) relationships. As we learn how to build these in life, we now can apply them in work, and vice versa. Humanity, the human EDGE, is now center stage everywhere. Let’s review the three parallel areas of communication, focus on value and understanding talents and then wrap it up by creating a powerful Parallel Plan.
Communicate
“You never listen to what I say.” This could be a statement from a spouse or a customer. Both have critical consequences and the steps to improve them are virtually the same for each environment. Learning to ask great questions and then really listen is a millennial skill. Working diligently to be understood and to understand dramatically improves relationships, moves information drives performance. This means that learning great communication skills has very specific benefits in both environments.
Statistics indicate that over 60% of all problems happen due to faulty communication. Therefore, it must be high on each of our Parallel Plans to be understood and to understand others. Building strong relationships is the centerpiece of the intellectual or service economy….and communication is the most fundamental skill in relationship building. Learn how to ask great questions, communicate in the style of others (pace), understand your own style, eliminate the environmental distractions to communication and learn to listen. These tools will have specific and profound benefits in work and at home.
To improve, consider the following:
• Understand your communication style and how it similar and different from others. Learn to approximate the styles of others to improve understanding.
• Clear environmental barriers from your communication. Watch the time, temperature and temperament – they can inhibit our ability to speak, listen and understand clearly.
• Because communication is a process (it has a beginning and an end), speak only when you know the other party is listening. And listen when the other party is speaking. Start and end the communication process effectively.
Live and work on “Value”
This is the best definition of value: “Value is doing the right thing, for the right person, every day, all the time.” In other words, value is finding out enough information about another (using great communication skills) and then using the information to formulate the right response. This means that value is personal; value for one is not the same as value for another. And our success in today’s business world is to know what each customer wants, how they want it and when they want it. The more consistently we can do this, the more we prove to customers that we know their needs, interests and values and are committed to providing them. This develops trust, the relationship and works to create customer loyalty.
Now consider this same definition of value at home. If I know what value is for each of my children, and then work to constantly provide it, I have the ability of building trust, showing interest and building a powerful relationship between us. I know them as people and learn how to respond best to who they are. When we spend the time to understand the other (through strong communication skills) we are ready to develop the right response to what they need, feel, want and ultimately value.
Build value by doing the following:
• Commit to having a “value” conversation with customers and family. What matters to them? Why is it important? Commit to this conversation on a regular basis.
• Share what value is for you so that those around you (in work and life) can work to build a stronger response with you. The stronger the relationship, the more easily important information will and can move.
Focus on what you do best
We are in the intellectual age; the industrial age has basically ended as much of manufacturing has moved off shore. We are left with a more thinking, feeling and emotional (service) workplace.
Employees, to be successful in a thinking environment, must first be assessed to determine their talents (their natural thinking) and then be matched to a workplace role that allows them to use these talents. Each of us has gifts, talents and perspectives that others do not have…at least not in our combination. Where our talents, passions and value all intersect is called “congruence” by some, “flow” by others…but in short it is the place where the person becomes passionate about whatever he or she is doing. Employees who are properly cast in roles that make sense for them perform at great levels. They find the work moving, engaging and exciting. That also means that employees who are miscast or placed into the wrong roles do not easily find that high performance place and their days become tedious and boring. Thinking drives passion, passion drives performance. At work, commit to aligning employees to their passion or talent areas.
At home, think about what you love to do. Think about what your kids love to do. Do you find time to allow for as much of this as possible – such as gardening, cooking, dancing, singing, building, technology…etc. The way to help someone be great (at work or at home) is to help them see their talents (natural abilities), identify what they are passionate about and build it into the day as often as possible.
Find the passion place by:
• Identifying what moves you at home and at work.
• Discuss your role with your manager to include as many passion areas as possible.
• Have a family meeting to discuss passions and have the family work to create as many as possible for each family member.
• Meet with each employee to define and discuss their talents. Sculpt jobs for each to allow each to maximize their talents and passionate performance areas.
Build a Parallel Plan
Planning is the most fundamental component in all time management. Building a plan allows for the thoughtful achievement of activities and goals that lead to high performance in work and in life. Since life is not a dress rehearsal, why shouldn’t every day be as extraordinary as possible? This can happen by communicating more effectively, continually building value and focusing on passion or talent areas. This creates the possibility for us to have work and a life that is average or great, ordinary or extraordinary. But the choice to have this is ours. Each day we build and work our plan that commits to owning each day in life or at work.
We should embrace each day, be fully engaged and commit to largest slice of happiness and contentment we can achieve. Reach, challenge, drive and learn; step up to owning the great life you have. If work is not great, change it. If home is not great, change it. The lessons and education you find in one will drive your performance in the other. Learn what you can at work and apply it at home. Learn what you can at home and apply it at work. The center piece in both worlds is humanity – emotions, passions and relationships. So be human, dream, care, be excited and be passionate. Your family will love it…so will your customers.
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