ASAE Day 1 of Learning

I have the awesome opportunity to attend the ASAE and the Center for Association Leadership Annual Meeting. This is the Mecca of association meetings that provides the opportunity for networking, learning, and everything associations. 
 
Today's general session keynote speaker was Bill George, former CEO of Medtronic. Coincidentally, I sat next to him on the plane from MSP to LAX last night and had a wonderful conversation. His talk focused on leadership, obviously, but said that everyone is a leader, not just the senior staff or the CEO. I will also provide you with a few bullet points of his talk
- the industrial way of work is DEAD. Command and control is DEAD, and if it isn't at your organization, it should be
- Put the org ahead of your interests 
- Choose the correct leaders for substance, quality and integrity
- Be true to your life story. 
- Values of the organization should be the same around the world. 

The only learning lab that I attended was a discussion of the results from an ASAE survey titled "The Decision to Learn". Here's a few tidbits to share
- respondents stated that access to professional education programs is important! 
- when responding on a 5-point Likert scale with 1 being low and 5 being high physician healthcare executives prefer to learn from Practicioners! (4.63 out of 5) 
- the biggest barrier to learning is travel and fees, including lack of support from employer. 
- millennials want to increase competence in job and are more likely to be motivated by a pay raise
- millenials perceived different barriers to learning including the inability of disposable income to pay their own way, don't have the time to devote to learning, and state that their employer doesn't recognize benefits of professional education (I wonder if that is because millenials want education outside of their core responsibilities)
- learners don't like tests or quizzes.

I hope that you found this useful. I will write another post tomorrow sharing my takeaways. 

Benefits of Google Voice for Workshifters

Hi all! I was asked by the folks on the Workshifting blog to provide some content after I wrote my own post about virtual presence. Check out my blog post on their website and share your comments!

Quantifiable benefits of workshifting

Below is a brief summary of Citrix Online's excellent report of workshifting. What are your thoughts? Did any of the findings surprise you? Reaffirm what you're feeling and seeing in your workplace? I welcome your thoughts and feedback and hope that you'll make use of this report.

A summary report of the Citrix Online 2010 report:

In “TeleworkResearchNetwork.com (Kate Lister & Tom Harnish, 2010) Workshifting Benefits: The Bottom Line” the authors attempt to quantify the benefits of workshifting --working from anywhere-- for employers, employees, and the community. Workshifting is recently a new concept, formerly referred to as telecommuting or teleworking. It has increased by 74% from 2005 to 2008.

Why allow workshifting and who benefits?

Employer (quantifiable benefits)

• Increased productivity
• 27% more productive
• less distractions
• more effective time management
• longer hours
• If 50 employees were permitted to workshift at least 50% of the time, the company would see an increase in productivity of $288,176 per year.
• Decreased real estate and related costs
• Hard for the employer to scale down office offerings
• less purchase costs (furniture, parking, supplies, security)
• If 50 employees were permitted to workshift at least 50% of the time, the company would save an average of $151,846/year in electricity alone.
• Decreased turnover
• Reduce attrition by 25%; average cost of turnover = 138% of wage
• Average wage = $32,136
• 2/3rds of employees on this survey report that they would leave their current job to ease their commute
• Projected annual savings to the company = $38,046/year
• Decreased absenteeism
• Average cost of an unscheduled absence = $310 per absence
• Telework is the second most effective method of reducing absences Reduce the number of hours wasted in meetings
• Able to handle personal appointments without losing time; able to work at home when sick and not infect others.
• If 50 employees were permitted to workshift at least 50% of the time, the company would save an average of $56,700/year in reduced absenteeism.

Employer (non-quantifiable benefits)

• Ensure continuity of operations
• Snow and ice storm, H1N1 flu, major road construction - NO PROBLEM with workshifting
• Sick family member that needs to be cared for - NO PROBLEM with workshifting
• Base productivity on results; not time in the chair (performance based management)

TOTAL EMPLOYER BENEFITS

Half-time home-based workers	50	100
Productivity increased	$288,176	$576,351
Electricity savings	$151,846	$303,692
Absenteeism savings	$56,700	$113,400
Turnover savings	$38,046	$76,092
TOTAL SAVINGS	$534,768	$1,069,535

Employee

• Use and spend less on gas
• The average commute = 30 miles/day (a third of commuters have longer drives = 60 miles/day)
• If an employee telecommuted at least 50% of the time, the employee would save an average of $362/year ($18,080 for 50 employees)
• Incur less work related expenses
• Parking, food, clothing
• If an employee telecommuted at least 50% of the time, the employee would save an average of $3,841/year ($192,086 for 50 employees)
• Get more time back in your life
• Commutes
• Low = 29 minutes
• Average = 52 minutes
• High = 79 minutes
• Better work life balance, happier, and healthier individuals

How I manage my virtual presence

Are you familiar with this term? Wikipedia doesn't actually define it. I would define virtual presence, in terms of instant messaging technologies (i.e., Skype, AIM, MSN Chat, Google Chat, Facebook chat, etc...), as your availability, and sometimes willingness, to engage in virtual conversation. You'll note that I have not included e-mail in my examples because e-mail is considered an asynchronous form of communication.

So how do I manage my virtual presence on these days I work remotely and travel? Oftentimes, I am logged into our internal chat system (Spark) and onto Skype. However, I'm continually changing my status on both when performing various activities. Here's a brief summary of how I manage my virtual presence.

• When I arrive in the office, I log onto both programs and set my status as available. Spark has an option that says "Available - Free to Chat" but I always select available. I can't think of a time where I was "Free to Chat". I have too much work to do.
• When I'm on the phone or on a webinar, Skype is set to "Do Not Disturb" and Spark is set to "On the Phone - Busy". When I finish up with the call, I often move immediately to "Do Not Disturb" because I'm wrapping up my notes and finishing my thoughts.
• When I'm in the office but at a meeting in a conference room, someone else's office, or I'm having a meeting in my office, both Skype and Spark are set to "Away"
• An additional rule that I follow; don't chat with someone or immediately respond to an IM when your status is anything other than "available". I equate this to responding to an e-mail or picking up a business related phone call when you are on vacation or taking PTO. Immediate responses mean that your status doesn't matter. Simply give it a few minutes, change your status, and chat with the individual. If it was truly an emergency, I would be called.

How do you manage your virtual presence? Do you follow these general guidelines? Do you have additional ones to share?

I hope you share your thoughts and comments.

Next stop: your website

I recently joined a website as a new member but found the site overwhelming. Where am I going to start? How do I really know what I'm looking for and how are you going to ensure that I find it? Here are a few tips for web developers and content generators.

1. Make sure that your search function is working

If I go to your website and type something into the search box I'd like to have a list of resources on your website.

2. Consider a short instructional video giving me a tour

Typically when I register for a website I'm asked what my interests are. Why not have a guided tour created in a program like Adobe Captivate that can give me a quick overview of where I can find your content.

3. Have your contact information readily available, mainly, an e-mail address

Since I'm busy and on the go, if I'm looking for a resource at your website, I'll most likely send you an e-mail and expect an answer, not a generic response, within 48 hours. If I'm really under pressure, I'll pick up the phone, but don't make me search for it because I might not be back.

4. Don't make me scroll through pages of text.

I'm not a fan of scrolling through pages of text to see what's new. Keep a list of trending topics at the top of your page and link me somewhere else instead of posting five, two-page stories on a single web page.

5. Make sure your web developers aren't in a silo.

A web developer may be great at their job but are they a content expert? Have they obtained input from the content expert or end user on how they'd like content posted and displayed? Talk to one another before you make something final and come to find out that it's nonsensical and nonfunctional.

What do you expect from websites? Do you have examples of great sites to share?

2010 Great Ideas Conference Experience

I had the opportunity to attend the ASAE Great Ideas Conference in Colorado Springs over the last 3 days. I attended sessions on social media, online communities, crowd sourcing, staff and volunteer satisfaction, tweetups, and the future of publications. Several individuals have already written blogs with their perspectives. I am now offering my own.

My biggest takeaways

1. Don't worry be crappy.

It pains me so much to continue to delay launch dates because everything has to be perfect. I would rather roll out a partly completed product or service, allow members or staff to provide feedback and provide opportunity for feedback and improvement. Holding back in this area continues to stifle innovation and further delay the indispensability of an organization to its membership.

2. Thank your staff and vounteers

No matter the commitment for volunteers (a single day, week, month, or multi-year commitment) say thank you. If you or your organization brought a group of people together to develop a product or offering, share it with he volunteers for free instead of having them come to you.

3. Lack of autonomy in the work place

Look at all your organization's rules that hinder autonomy. Why do you have the rules you do? Dress code? Personal use of work equipment and time? Consider reviewing these rules and see if they are really needed. Releasing the control may show your employees that you care about them as people, not just machines and blobs.

4. Print isn't dead?

I heard that print will be dead when ALL text books go digital or when all the individuals that love paper, magazines, newspapers, and printed documents are dead. While I see some truth to that statement I think that more options need to be given to association members to opt out of print publications including journals, newsletters, fliers, brochures, promotional materials, etc... Most, if not all, of these documents are created in programs that can be made into PDFs. You'll even have additional functionality by turning on live links and continuing to give your members a tour of your website.

Organizations also need to be better about providing tables of contents with relevant, chunked information where members can cherry pick what they'd like to receive electronically.

5. Member satisfaction

My favorite idea lab that I attended gave 9 great questions for assessing volunteer satisfaction within your organization. These questions each have a 10-point likert scale where 1 is strongly disagree and 10 is strongly agree.

a. Staff and senior volunteer leadership acts with authenticity and inspires trust.

b. Negative volunteers are not promoted into leadership positions or indulged for their behavior.

c. The organization provides a wide variety of ways to get involved as a volunteer with a range of time commitments.

d. The organization supports and nurtures the personal and professional development of volunteers.

e. Staff makes an effort to understand the intrinsic motivations of each volunteer and to ensure that their personal goals for volunteering are met.

f. There are many ways to volunteer with a wide variety of commitment levels.

g. The organization provides an environment that actively encourages the development of personal and professional relationships between volunteers.

h. Volunteers are routinely given fun, creative, and rewarding work to do.

i. The organization and staff demonstrate genuine appreciation for volunteers and their contributions.

I would highly recommend this conference to you and your colleagues. ASAE & The Center provide a great atmosphere for networking, growth and learning, within your area of focus and outside of it, and top notch speakers at opening and closing sessions. Thanks to each and every one of you who shared your great ideas with me. I hope to see you next year at the BROADMOOR resort in March 2011.

Virtually ~ Tom

"Working" multiple jobs

I was surprised to hear that individuals in MN are among the highest in the nation to work multiple jobs. I provided my perspective today and found this story fascinating. What are your thoughts? Do you work multiple jobs because you need to, want to, or that's just how you are?