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How To Be A Trusted Business Partner

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You have several business partners, but do they think of you as a trusted business partner and seek you out for your expertise, knowledge, and insights?

Years ago, I was hired to lead the Internal Audit Department at a bank. The group meticulously performed audits but wasn''t a 'œtrusted business partner' who was sought out. We changed our processes, developed the staff, and turned around our reputation. I knew that we had accomplished this because we started getting phone calls from the business requesting our assistance and participation on projects. There was mutual respect, and they knew that we had their best interests in mind to help them.

How well do you understand how the business operates? Is the business doing things the same way because they''re so busy, and that''s how they''ve always done it? Or are there ways to make those business processes more efficient and effective possibly by leveraging technology better? It''s difficult to help the business if you don''t understand its operations.

What I Do To Be A Trusted Business Partner


Man helps his friend climb a mountian

I like to walk around and see what the business and end users are doing and, more importantly, how they''re doing it. Gathering information, analyzing, and taking the time to understand their operations. Finding out their needs, requirements, issues, and challenges.

I create Visio workflows documenting processes (if they don''t already exist). This helps establish what is actually happening versus assumptions and perceptions. This needs to be a collaborative effort, so make sure the business reviews the workflows and confirms that the processes are accurate. You can''t fix it if you don''t know what''s broken. Once you understand what''s happening (or not happening), you provide insights from a different perspective. Offering innovative ideas including automation which can result in significant improvements.

The business may already know that some processes aren''t as efficient as they could be. Ask how they think you (or technology) can make their lives easier. For example, maybe human resources is burdened with a clunky applicant tracking process. Or finance has to pull data from multiple disparate and siloed data stores, and it takes weeks to process month-end.

If possible, give the business the autonomy to take care of themselves as much as possible. For example, can the website be revamped so that marketing can maintain it (consistently providing fresh content) themselves? Or can an intranet utilizing SharePoint Online with sites (such as department, project, and community) be created that can be maintained by the site owners?

Create a plan setting clear and achievable goals and a timeline that has been agreed upon together. Communicate, communicate, and communicate. There will be more trust as each goal is completed and delivered on time. Stay involved, and the business will continue to seek you out as a valued resource.

For more information on being a trusted business partner, follow me on LinkedIn!

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How Playing TETRIS® Teaches Lessons In Strategy
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How Playing TETRIS® Teaches Lessons In Strategy

Nearly every day, I play TETRIS® “B-Type” to awaken my brain. The games are short, and my goal is to clear three consecutive games.

Playing helps me with focus in beginning my day. The more successful I am at reaching my three-game goal, the more focused I know I am. Days when that goal is a challenge, I recognize I may not be fully present.

The game teaches me to remember strategy. As an engineering executive/project manager, strategy plays into my work daily. I am continuously working on how to position my team for the next challenge, how to prevent problems, and moving assets into place. Sound familiar?

What Is B-Type TETRIS®?

B-type Tetris

TETRIS is a geometric puzzle where pieces of various shapes drop to form rows. Each shape is made of four blocks, randomly presented for placement. When a row of ten blocks completes, they clear from the game board. Clearing multiple rows is strongly encouraged, and when clearing four rows in one placement, you have earned a “TETRIS.”

B-type TETRIS begins with random blocks and pieces already in place. The blocks fall to clear the “mess” given by the system. Users may select speed of how fast the blocks fall and select the level of height of the predefined blocks.

Winning B-type TETRIS is achieved by clearing 25 rows before stacking the pieces filling the board. If a piece falls immediately colliding with another piece, the game is over. When you win, the game rewards the player with clever Russian-style graphics.

TETRIS® & Strategy?

Tetris electronic game, video game

Project management and engineering are similar. Required work has a series of constraints at the beginning of every project (random blocks placed on the board). Each project is within a predefined time schedule (speed of the game). Each unplanned act of people or assets creates challenges (random pieces generated by the game).

Your goal as a leader… clear your 25 rows before ending the game. In a perfect world, you will clear rows cleanly eliminating all preplaced blocks at the same time. The execution of your project clears the game board.

Taking One Row Making Small Progress Versus A Full TETRIS® Clearing Multiple Lines?

Tetris

My goal as a teenager was to clear four rows with a “TETRIS” every single time! You build these patterns and drop a straight piece clearing four rows simultaneously! The screen blinks beautifully signaling your victory!

With B-type, you have the reality of obstacles. You cannot always build the perfect four-row structure to clear everything at once. You need to work sometimes one row at a time.

Working one row is more time consuming. You carefully place blocks into structures to eliminate your 25 rows with individual placements.

Building for the TETRIS takes strategy. You sacrifice clearing a row to allow the height to accumulate. You place blocks hoping to drop the straight piece and clear the rows. Then reality hits…

The system randomly generates blocks. What if the straight piece does not come? What if you only get square pieces three times in a row? How do you win if the system will not provide the piece you need?

Enter strategy… you may need to sacrifice the TETRIS you are building and only clear one or two rows. Other times, you may risk continuing to build height of the structure making losing more probable.

As a leader of multiple projects, I typically take the quick victories and clear the obstacles as I can. Making small progress is often better than losing the game entirely. I work through the little pieces in hopes the bigger issues will resolve themselves during the process.

When responsible, you need to weigh your options carefully. Make sure any single points of failure (the straight piece) has a back-up plan. Going for gold is sometimes your only choice. Simply step back and be prepared to pivot when the game does not deliver.

Waiting For That Perfect Piece To Clear A Roadblock…

Tetris puzzle pieces

With the predefined blocks set at random, the game often shows the player the perfect shape to clear a problem. The shape teases you showing how easy it is to clear the jam and provide more room on the board. It taunts me.

In complex projects, leaders often rely on the perfect piece. Sadly, the random pieces do not always come through. I have had some luck in my career in finding the perfect piece to clear my rows. More often than not, I work with what the game has given me.

If the game does not provide the perfect piece, how do you respond? You need to sacrifice a long-term goal (building a TETRIS) with a short-term gain (clearing one row). Leaders must recognize this missing element, and the hard choice is taking one row versus four.

What Happens When You Cannot Clear Your Lines?

Tetris video game

I lose more than I win. Somedays, my mind is unfocused and I do not win a single game.

I always work to build the lines and clear them consistently. I risk building a taller structure versus the consistent wins. My stack gets too high, pieces collide, and I lose. GAME OVER.

Is it really? I can press start twice and begin again. New game, new random pieces. I can change the rules by slowing the speed or lowering the height. I can manipulate variables to help me win.

Me, I am stubborn… fastest speed and tallest height every time. And I lose. Why do I continue to play with these constraints?

Projects come in all levels of complexity and development cycles. Most projects are highly complex and have just enough time to complete. Then, you add the random elements you did not anticipate.

In projects, you will fail. Missing a deadline, failing a test, forgetting a requirement, and simply missing the mark. Depending on your response, you can recover. You can ask the customer to play again. You can adjust the parameters. You can accept 23 of the 25 lines as success.

You can learn from the game not everything is a zero-sum total. You can plan for everything to be right and still miss because the perfect piece never fell. You can build that structure and create a collision.

By learning these lessons, I make better decisions in subsequent games. I learn from the mistakes when I play again. I never truly lose.

How Is Any Of This Gameplay Relevant To Me?

Tetris puzzle

TETRIS® is the mechanism I chose for some entertainment. Some fun as you read my words. The game is not important.

Projects are never linear; they are geometric. Time rarely runs in your favor and is often behind when you begin. The roadblocks to success provide obstacles within your path. Random pieces will fall towards you during the project.

The lesson… learn from the mistakes and make better decisions within the game. Use the applied knowledge for the next play. Take risks when it makes sense, and choosing quick wins can reap rewards.

TETRIS® is an amazing game, and the game will be played many decades from now. I enjoy the three-minute challenges it presents me daily. I love how it reminds me of life lessons to apply in my work. I challenge you to look at something you enjoy and see lessons it teaches you. I encourage you to play TETRIS—it may help with your strategy to deal with life’s challenges.

Good luck, and clear those lines!






6 Tips To Excel in Any Career
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6 Tips To Excel in Any Career

Finding a job may be easy, but landing a real career is a different story. Go beyond punching the clock and getting through the day and elevate your work experience by seeking to truly excel at your profession. Here are a few versatile tips that will help you succeed on any career path. Get to […]

The post 6 Tips To Excel in Any Career appeared first on Jobacle.com.

How To Motivate Disengaged Teachers
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How To Motivate Disengaged Teachers

During the pandemic, it was understandable that the focus for almost everybody, including educators, was on the health and well-being of friends and family. Post-pandemic, however, I’m noticing a troubling trend: some educators are still suffering from an ambition deficit when it comes to teaching.

Just the other day, for example, one teacher told me that they called out of work because the previous day there was a field trip and their feet still hurt. In professional trainings I have facilitated lately, I also have had teachers leave early because they felt “too tired” to go on. Teachers told me they were leaving; they didn’t ask. We are definitely in what Robert Glazer calls an “Ambition Recession.”

To be fair, there are many valid reasons why some teachers are apathetic and/or leaving the profession. I previously wrote about some of these reasons in my Work It Daily article “3 Reasons for the Big Quit in Teaching.” Yet, if we are to help students to grow and achieve, we need to get teachers back on the school improvement bus. However, this is not just the responsibility of individual teachers. What might school and district administrators do to motivate teachers to make a positive change?

Recently, I had the chance to listen to an episode of the New Yorker Radio Hour; the theme for that episode was change. During that episode, dance choreographer Akram Khan suggested that there are four—in my opinion, interrelated—reasons why people change. While he may have been talking about re-envisioning the ballet “Giselle” for the modern stage, I believe his thoughts are relevant to those in education who are charged with motivating teachers to participate, more fully, within the teaching profession.

Teachers Will Change When They Must

Teacher helps a student

The grass is not always greener on the other side. Now that many educators have moved out of teaching roles and have taken opportunities in the private sector (particularly in EdTech), we may see a boomerang effect. There is a certain amount of financial stability as a teacher. A teacher may not be making as much money as they would like but it is a constant. In contrast, when one moves into the private sector, financial compensation can ebb and flow erratically particularly when the threat of recession looms like grey clouds on the horizon. Teachers, like anyone, might then be happy to have a job and do more to maintain it.

Teachers Will Change When They See Enough To Be Inspired

Teacher smiles at her students

Traditionally, many teachers have been isolated within the four walls of their classrooms. Most still need to find adult coverage of their classrooms to take even a short bathroom break. How then might school leaders make internal exemplars of good teaching and learning more visible across the faculty? New Beginnings Charter School, in Brooklyn, NY, for instance, produces a weekly digital staff instructional newsletter that features classroom videos of their teachers using best instructional practices. They and ITAVA, in Queens, NY, engage in lesson study and open up model classrooms for teacher intervisitation. Lesson study is not the only way to coalesce teachers around a common goal; there are many additional ways to make teacher teams impactful.

The key here is that administrators need to plan deeply; they need to develop schedules that release teachers from the chains of their classrooms so that teachers can visit other classrooms and/or participate on ongoing teacher teams. Inspiration also requires triangulation of teacher development supports. For example, instructional coaches might consider referencing support materials/exemplars of best practice, provided in digital newsletters, during ongoing coaching feedback conversations. Help teachers become aware of where they can go for resources to improve their teaching craft and have multiple pathways for teachers to get there.

Teachers Will Change When They Learn Enough To Want It

Teacher educates her students on technology

When I worked with the Cristo Rey School Network, we were interested in learning how best to develop internal tutoring programs that would well serve students and prevent their exit due to poor academic performance. One of the most powerful tools we had in replicating a quality tutoring program, across the network, was the ability to draw upon the expertise of one of our schools that already had such a program in place. Providing a space for all our school leaders, and teachers involved in the tutoring of our students, to engage in problem of practice protocols proved pivotal for the replication of this one school’s tutoring model across multiple school sites. As our school leaders and teachers learned more about what already was working in-house, the enthusiasm to replicate said practices was infectious.

Networked learning can be internal—as in the case of Cristo Rey above—and/or external. The Canopy Project, a joint project between Transcend Education and CRPE, has, for example, over 200 member/school organizations interested in building transformative education environments focused on equity. It aims to do this by collaborating, not competing, on the development of best school design. How might school leaders include more teachers within internal and/or external networks of practice? The models for learning networks are out there.

Teachers Will Change When They Receive Enough To Be Able

Teacher educates his students on a new concept

Asked another way, are administrators and/or instructional coaches giving enough so that teachers develop efficacy? I’ve written elsewhere on how we might say that student learning is at the core of our work as educators but, in reality, this is not evident when we, as managers of learning, make time for everything but instructional observation and teacher coaching. Therefore, administrators would do well in developing a standing weekly schedule for themselves that prioritizes both informal classroom observations and feedback/coaching sessions with each teacher on staff. Move operational tasks to when instructional time is over for the day. Paul Bambrick-Santoyo discusses this, in great detail, in his book Leverage Leadership.

Kim Marshall further suggests that administrators, during mini observations, not write notes. Rather, later in the day, administrators might use a one-page staff list to record the day, date, and most relevant points from each visit. Later still, they can add a checkmark when feedback has been given to the observed teacher. Further, share anonymous instructional data, across classrooms, with teaching staff. Help teachers to understand why certain instructional priorities exist and solicit teacher participation in responding to the data.

If you would like additional ideas on how to impact student lives without sacrificing your own, and have a life teaching, check out my quick hack teaching courses here. You can also reach me on LinkedIn.