What Really Matters! Volume 2, Number 3, 2010

What Really Matters!
Volume 2, Number 3, 2010

By
Gary Ryan

What Really Matters! Volume 2, Number 3, 2010 – is a compilation of selected
articles from The Organisations That Matter Learning Network from July 1st 2010
until September 30th 2010
By Gary Ryan
Published by What Really Matters Publishing
c/- Organisations That Matter
Level 8, 350 Collins Street
Melbourne, Victoria 3166
AUSTRALIA
Phone +61 3 8676 0637
E-mail: gary@orgsthatmatter.com

Copyright © 2010 Gary Ryan, Organisations That Matter®
All effort was made to render this ebook free from error and omission. However,
the author, publisher, editor, their employees or agents shall not accept
responsibility for injury, loss or damage to any person or body or organisation
acting or refraining from such action as a result of material in this book, whether or
not such injury, loss or damage is in any way due to any negligent act or omission,
breach of duty, or default on the part of the author, publisher, editor or their
employees or agents.

A note about ebooks
Ebooks provide a special function that traditional books cannot provide. The links
in this ebook are ‘live’, so if you read the ebook while online, you can immediately
access the reference material.

What Really Matters! Volume 2, Number 1, 2010

Who should read this ebook?
This ebook is for people who are interested in personal and professional
development, speciﬁcally as it relates to achieving career aspirations and enabling
the organisations within which we work to be better places for human beings. This
ebook represents articles from the third quarter of 2010 from The Organisations
That Matter Learning Network.

To join The Organisations That Matter Learning Network please follow this link.

Thank You!
Thank you to all our members of The Organisations That Matter Learning Network.
We hope that you will receive great value from this collection of articles compiled
in the third quarter of 2010.

Please respect our copyright. This means that if you are a member of The
Organisations That Matter Learning Network you have our permission to share this
ebook with your friends and to invite them to join our community so that they too
can enjoy this book.

Best wishes!

Gary Ryan

Table of contents
OTM Service Strategy®
1

Aker saga highlights the challenges of the 'Specialist' team role
3

Are you prepared to be vulnerable?
6

How ʻawareʼ are you?
9

Is the word 'customer' right for you?
10

Ben Cousins' documentary highlights the importance of balance
11

Service excellence guides resource allocation
13

Understanding expectations - it is where great service starts
14

Beyond a ʻOne Page Plan For Personal Successʼ
15
Step 1
15

Step 2
16

Step 3
16

Step 4
16

How 'Leadership moments' develop your capacity to lead
17

AFL Grand Final Draw Calls For Simple Leadership
19

Why low risk projects are a smart leadership tool
21
Step 1
21

Step 2
21

Step 3
21

Step 4
22

What are you excited about?
23

University Student Group-Work Starter Course
24

Online Courses
25


Webinars
25

What Really Matters For Young Professionals!
26
Online Checklist
26

This product is both for Young Professionals and/or their employers
26

About Gary Ryan
28

OTM Service Strategy®
Over many years we have experimented and developed our own model for service
excellence. Our model includes six re-enforcing elements. Like any re-enforcing
model, when performed correctly the model creates a virtuous cycle (things get
better and better).

On the ﬂip side, if any of the elements are missing or not performed correctly, the
model generates a vicious cycle, that is things get worse and worse.

The six elements of our
model include:
Understanding
Expectations
Service Standards
Develop & Recruit
Listen
Measure & Respond
Recognise, Reward &
Celebrate.

Each element includes a
series of sub-elements, the
contents of which provide the detail for implementing each of the six core
elements.

At the highest level the model itself is a story.

In order to best serve your customers you need to understand their expectations.
Once their expectations are understood the organisation can create appropriate
service standards that will give the organisations the best possible chance to meet
and/or exceed the expectations of its customers.

Existing staff need to be developed so that they have the capacity to meet/exceed
customer expectations and the organisations recruitment processes musty give it
the best possible chance to attract appropriate people to the organisation.

1


Everyone must listen. Management need to listen to staff, staff to management,
everyone to their stakeholders, colleague to colleague, department to department
and everyone to their customers.

The organisation must then be able to measure how it is performing against its
service standards and be able to swiftly respond if it discovers that it is off course.

Finally, the organisation as a whole must be excellent at recognising, rewarding
and celebrating great service. A culture that celebrates great service will re-enforce
the importance of understanding expectations and the cycle continues.

The OTM Service Strategy is supported by a 50 point assessment tool that can be
used to asses an organisation's current practice of service excellence.

Please feel free to comment on this article or to share your approach to providing
service excellence on a consistent basis.

Please feel free to comment on this article.

2


Aker saga highlights the challenges of the 'Specialist'
team role
The sacking this week of professional footballer, Brownlow medalist and three time
premiership player Jason Akermanis by the Western Bulldogs (Australian Football
League) highlights the challenges of being a 'specialist'.

Meredith R Belbin (www.belbin.com) has conducted a vast amount of research and
written many books on the subject of creating effective teams. Belbin's nine team-
roles include a role known as the 'Specialist'. A Specialist is a person who has
exceptional and rare technical skills that the rest of the team do not possess.
However, a specialist has a very narrow focus and tends not to be interested in the
many facets of being in a team that are being their role as a specialist. Teams are
able to tolerate specialists because of their technical brilliance, but that tolerance
can come at a cost when the team members are not aware of their various
personal team role
preferences.

This is one of the reasons
why we advocate that teams
should be aware of the
various preferences of the
individual members who
participate in the team.
Belbin's research shows that
teams can be successful
when a specialist is in the
team.

However, the specialist MUST be a true specialist (that is, they must possess a
current skill or technical ability that is currently rare and outstanding) and the rest
of the team MUST be able to accept that they will 'play' to different rules than the
rest of the team.

Jason Akermanis (Aker) is an example of a 'used to be specialist'. There is no
doubt that for much of his career he displayed a rare and exceptional skill set. So
much so that his individual approach was sustained by the teams with whom he
played. However, as he aged and his career progressed, his specialist technical

3


skills became less rare and his ageing body found it harder and harder to perform
at such a high level of individual talent.

As this occurred the tolerance of the rest of the team to him 'not playing by the
rest of the team's rules' became less and less. Until, of course, the tolerance for
his 'specialist behaviours' could no longer be outweighed by his lack of 'specialist'
performance. In other words, the progress of the game and Aker's age eventually
caught up with him - he was no longer a true specialist, yet he continued to
behave like one (which, of course is his preference so he was unlikely to change. In
addition, he had in fact been justiﬁably rewarded for such behaviour for 325
games, reducing further the probability that he would change his behaviour.)

If you watched the 'Footy Show' on Thursday night many of Aker's comments
were consistent with those of the 'specialist' team role. He mentioned that he
wasn't very interested in the feedback process meetings and that he still
considered that all that mattered was how he performed on the training track and
in games. This is exactly how a specialist views the world and there is nothing
wrong with that. Except, of course, when the 'specialist' no longer performs to the
exceptional standards of a current day 'specialist'.

Belbin's research highlights that a person can have a preference for a role and no
longer 'perform' according to the expectations of that team role preference. Belbin
goes on to say that the most damaging condition that reduces a team's
performance is when a team member has what is known as an 'incoherent team
role preference'. This means that the person's team role preference is NOT how
they behave. This underpins the great challenge of being a specialist. The minute
you know longer display rare and exceptional technical ability, no longer are you a
true specialist. The very nature of specialists is that they are unlikely to see this
change themselves. They will still see themselves as a specialist and will therefore
display the characteristics of an 'incoherent team-role preference.'

Another challenge of the specialist team role is that Belbin recommends team
sizes of no more than ten members. AFL squads include 40 team members when
'rookies' are included. Such a large team size increases the challenges of working
with specialists because the increase in numbers also increases the chances that a
number of tthe team members will not like having to tolerate the 'individual ﬁrst'
approach of the specialist. In other words, specialists must have other team role

4


preferences that they can also behave in alignment with, so that they aren’t ‘just a
specialist’ if they are to survive as team numbers grow.

The challenge of course for elite sport is that specialists have, over time,
contributed to team success. I do wonder if the evolution of the AFL is such that
the specialist team role preference (if that is the only functional preference of the
team member) is unlikely to be sustainable for long periods as the challenges of
working with a specialist increase the complexity of team cohesiveness.

That said, Belbin's research highlights that teams can tolerate and take advantage
of 'specialists'. In order to do so teams need a high level of both individual and
'team' awareness.

I appreciate that the concept of team-role preferences is foreign for a lot of people,
and that some people see this type of concept as 'ﬂuff'. However, in my 15 years
of Personal & Professional Development experience I have seen time again the
lack of awareness of these issues cause teams to perform well below their
capacity.

How aware of team role preferences are you regarding the members of your
teams? Do you talk about these preferences and how they manifest themselves in
how team members behave? If you do have a specialist in your team, how are you
managing the complexities that arise from such a preference?

Please feel free to share your experiences of working with specialists and/or how
you use team role awareness to enhance the performance of your team.

Anecdote
Gary Ryan has worked for several years in elite sport and currently sits on an
Advisory Board for the AFL Coaches Association.


5


Are you prepared to be vulnerable?
Over the past few weeks I have conducted a number of teamwork programs. One
of the activities that I enjoy facilitating is asking the participants to form small
groups and to identify the characteristics of the effective and ineffective teams of
which they have been members.

Examples can from from any
team experience and I
encourage participants to
broader their thinking about
their definition of a 'team'.
Some examples of this
definition include:
A workplace
A family
A university study group
A sporting team
A community group
Traveling with friends or family

After providing the participants with enough time to share their stories, I collect the
results.

An interesting characteristic that always comes up for effective teams is trust.
Similarly, a lack of trust is always raised as a characteristic of ineffective teams.

Trust. Easy to say. Hard to give.

Why? It is my view that trust involves a willingness to be vulnerable. In a team
concept, to trust your team members means that you have faith that they will do
what they say they will do to the best of their ability. When I ask program
participants to describe what it was like to be trusted, they say things like:

"He never looked over my shoulder. Even though it was the first time I was doing
this task, he asked if I needed any further help and I said that I didn't. He told me
that I could contact him at any stage if my circumstances changed. If I were him
I'm not sure that I could have trusted me like he did. And that was special. I think I
actually did the job better because I was trusted. I found it really motivating."
6


"She was the leader, there was no question about that. But when we allocated
tasks and she was clear that we understood what needed to be done, she let us
'go for it'. Her door was always open and we knew that, and from time to time we
would go to her for assistance, either physically or via email or on the phone. She
was always available when we needed her. But she never, ever behaved like she
didn't trust us. It never felt like she was looking over our shoulder making sure we
did it exactly how she would. And this was an important project. And we knew
that, and we respected that. That's why we created such a wonderful result. We
were a real team and she trusted us!"

You can't fake trust. It is either genuine, or it isn't. In today's complex world it is
nearly impossible to 'go it alone'. Leaders have to trust their team members to do
their job, even if the leader could do parts of the job 'better' on their own.

To trust, however, requires the leader to be okay with being vulnerable. Trust can't
be broken if it isn't given. So, by nature genuinely trusting someone means that
you are prepared for the possibility that they might break your trust, which in turn
makes you vulnerable.

In our world of accountability and responsibility, trust can become very hard to
'give'. If I'm the leader, the 'buck stops with me.' If this project fails, then it's my
fault. It's complex, isn't it.

I doubt there is any golden rule with regard to trust. I am a trusting person, but I
am not prepared to trust 'just anyone'. I use all my 'three brains' (I'll explain what
that term means in a future blog) to determine whether I will trust someone or not.

Each time I trust someone I am conscious of the choice that I have just made.
Trust is behavioural, so saying, "I trust you" means nothing, if (in a work example)
all I do is look over your shoulder every step of the way. Being prepared to be
vulnerable is a tension leaders have to grapple with.

Are you prepared top be vulnerable?

What are your experiences of trust both as a team member and as a leader?

How have you managed the 'vulnerability' tension?
7


The chances are that if trust is not present then high performance will be a long
way away. So what is the bigger risk, the preparedness to be vulnerable or the
preparedness to under-perform?

Please share your experiences, thoughts and comments.


8


How ʻawareʼ are you?
Today my family and I were at the airport saying good-bye to one of my nieces
who had been staying with us during the school holidays.

I was amazed at the number of times there were groups of people who were
collectively blocking the various thoroughfares as we were trying to make our way
through the airport. Each time we 'excused' ourselves to make our way through
these groups of people it struck me that each individual seemed to be unaware of
the impact that the group of which they were a member was causing the people
around them.

This caused me to wonder about personal awareness, particularly when people are
part of a larger group. In general, how aware are people of the impact of the larger
group on those around them? Do they even care?

'Awareness' is a Servant Leadership characteristic and includes a consciousness
of 360 degrees around us, much like a martial artist is aware of the full circle
around them. What is your level of awareness, both individually and when you are
part of a group? Is awareness a leadership characteristic that you have ever
considered? What experiences of 'awareness' have you had that you are
comfortable sharing with others?

If you have been part of a larger group and then you have become aware of the
negative impact of that group upon others, what you have done about that
situation? Has your awareness led to positive action?

Please share your stories.


9


Is the word 'customer' right for you?
Many people get hung up on the word ‘customer’. This is the challenge with the
concept of ‘customer service’ because many people don’t think that they have
customers. And maybe they don’t. Maybe they have clients, colleagues,
administrators, staff, stakeholders, lawyers, doctors, labourers, community
members, students, guests and any other label that you can think about. The issue
is not the label; the issue is the ethic behind how you treat people.

This is why we prefer the term,
“service excellence” over
“customer service”. Unfortunately
because many people don’t think
that they have customers
(because they use a different
term) they think that service has
nothing to do with them. But it
has everything thing to do with
them. Everyone is your customer.
Everyone.

Quote from a research participant
"You know that I can’t stand the
word ‘customer’. The people I
serve are staff, not customers. I
ﬁnd out what they want and I do my best to exceed their expectations every time.
So I wish people would stop saying that I have to be ‘customer’ oriented. I’m staff
oriented and that is what is important!"

What words do you use to describe your 'customers'?


10


Ben Cousins' documentary highlights the importance of
balance
Irrespective what you think about the content of the Ben Cousins documentary, a
powerful message that the program highlighted related to the importance of
balance as it relates to success.

Our society often applauds people for 'making it'; whether that be as an elite
sportsperson, a rock star, a movie star or in achieving a senior position in an
organisation.

Success is defined purely by career success. Yet as Ben's documentary
highlighted, career success doesn't necessarily mean that all other aspects of life
are in balance.

As the attached illustration highlights, balance consists of a number of elements:
health & fitness
career
education
establishing a clear plan for personal success
having the financial capacity to live the life that you desire
establishing and maintaining relationships for enduring success

If any one of these key
elements for success are not
addressed, the individual is
at risk of becoming stuck;
much like the person in the
background of the attached
illustration. The outward
appearance of being
successful can be
undermined by not having
had a truly balanced
approach to life.

Balance, in this context does
not mean that all the key elements for success are equal. Rather, it means that an
appropriate amount of focus is being applied to each key element for overall
11


balance in the context of the life stage that the individual is experiencing. For
example, university students will have a much larger focus on their education
elements than other people, while graduate employees will have a much larger
focus on their career activities than other people when they commence their ﬁrst
job. Likewise elite sports people will also have a much larger emphasis on their
career element than the average person.

Where people lose balance is that they tend to completely neglect some of the key
elements for success. So, while their career element is being addressed, poor
health habits, such as taking drugs as highlighted by Ben's documentary, can
undermine their life balance and ultimately, negatively affect their career. For some
people it is a complete focus on their career that causes them to neglect the key
relationships in their life, resulting in relationships breaking down.

If you are interested in ﬁnding out how to create a Plan for Personal Success that
includes a personalised approach to Life Balance, please email us at
info@orgsthatmatter.com .

Gary Ryan has assisted over 500 people in creating a Plan For Personal Success.
Gary's clients have included elites sports people and coaches including Troy
Simmonds (Richmond Tigers), Kane Johnson (Richmond Tigers) and Darren Harris
(Carlton Blues).

Please feel free to ask questions and/or to make a comment on this article.

12


Service excellence guides resource allocation
Organisations that are clear about meeting and exceeding the expectations of their
customers are also clear about where resources should be allocated. Maybe your
organisation has discovered that it
has a serious Service Delivery Gap.
Where would you allocate resources
if you discovered such a gap?

Clearly there is more than one answer
to this question and the actions that
may be taken and the resulting
allocation of resources will be guided
by the organisations overall business
strategy and the level of importance of
closing the Service Delivery Gap in the short term. In this example there may not
be a long term future for the organisation if it does not address the short term
Service Delivery Gap. In this context, a service focus enables short term decisions
to be made in the context of achieving the organisation’s long term desired future.

We’re a small operation. Just three of us operate the store. We know everyone who
works on the larger site; it’s like we are one community. Rather than spend our
money on marketing pamphlets etc we hired a student to work in the store with us.
We targeted one who was well connected within the community. It’s amazing how
much business she has brought in. It’s the smartest money we have ever spent and
all our jobs are just that little bit more secure!

What are your experiences regarding organisational resource allocations?

Once you have read the article please feel free to post a comment.

13


Understanding expectations - it is where great service
starts
This is the starting point for great service. If you don’t understand the expectations
of your customers, then everything that you do is likely to contribute to failing to
meet them. Customers will have expectations whether you understand them or
not.
They usually consist of
outcome factors and
process factors and have a
zone of tolerance for them to
be acceptable. The outcome
factors relate to the reliability
of the service/product and
determine whether the
service/product meets the
customers’ expectations.
The process factors relate to
the customers experience
and will determine if the customers’ expectations have been exceeded or not.

Once you realise that the starting point is understanding expectations, everything
else becomes a whole lot easier. All you have to do is ask people what they want,
and then do your best to deliver that to them.


14


Beyond a ʻOne Page Plan For Personal Successʼ
Have you completed a One Page Plan for Personal Success? If so, follow the
steps below to take your plan to the next level.

When completing your Plan for Personal Success it is critical that you take each of
the main strategies in your Prime Chart and create a Support Chart for them.
Support Chart timeframes tend to be less than your prime Chart timeframe. So, if
your prime Chart is for ten years, your Support Chart may be for three to ﬁve
years.

Support Charts follow the same structure as your Prime Chart.

Step 1
Complete the Title for your chart. This is the name that you have given the strategy
in your Prime Chart. Next identify which one of the Six Vital Strategy areas the
strategy directly supports, and write that in brackets next to the name of the
strategy. This helps to ensure that when you review all your strategies, you can
quickly determine if you have at least one strategy for each of the Six Vital
Strategies.

15


Step 2
Complete your Desired Outcome specific to this strategy. Be clear and as specific
as possible. As you did for your Prime Chart Vision, keep asking yourself why you
want what you are writing. This helps to uncover your real reason for wanting to
achieve this Desired Outcome and usually helps to clarify exactly what it is that
you are aiming to achieve.

Step 3
Complete your Starting Point/Current Reality section of your chart. Provide as
much information as possible that specifically relates to the Desired Outcome that
you are striving to achieve. What is positive about your present reality, and what is
currently a challenge.

Step 4
Determine your actions that will move you from your Starting Point to your Desired
Outcome. Upon brains-storming actions, review your list and identify which
actions will provide the greatest leverage. These become the most critical actions
to complete because all the actions will tend to fall into place.

Complete this process for each of your Prime Chart strategies and you will take
your Plan for Personal Success to the next level.

If you would like to know more about creating a Plan For Personal Success, or
would like to be individually coached through this process, please contact
Gary.Ryan@orgsthatmatter.com .

16


How 'Leadership moments' develop your capacity to
lead
Recently in the article How 'aware' are you? I explained that awareness is a
characteristic of Servant Leadership. Another beneﬁt of being 'aware' is that it
opens up the opportunities for you to develop your capacity to lead.

It is my view that too many people see leadership as only being in the realm of
formal roles. In that context, many people don't see themselves as leaders nor
their own capacity to lead because they have never held a 'formal' leadership role.
Of course this becomes a self-fulﬁlling prophecy and people who have this view of
the world and themselves rarely become formal leaders.

I would also argue that these people also miss opportunities to 'lead' when
'leadership moments' arise. Primarily because they just don't see them.

What are, 'Leadership moments'?

To me, a leadership moment is any time that a set of circumstances arise that are
quietly asking, or sometimes screaming for someone to take action. Just today at
my eldest son's Under 10s football match a barbeque had been prepared by two
of the parents at the conclusion of the game. Quickly a line formed as the children,
their parents and family members queued for some food. One of the 'cooks' was
called away due to an urgent issue. Suddenly there was only one person trying to
cook and serve food. The 'Leadership moment', while only 'visible' to some
appeared. What do you think that 'Leadership moment' was? Not everyone
noticed. Would have you? Even if you did notice the opportunity, what would have
done?

Stepping out of the queue and helping to cook the barbeque, or at least asking if
this action would be helpful, was what this moment was asking to be done.

'Leadership moments' call for someone to take action. Strangely, this can also
mean that you consciously choose not to take action (see How doing nothing can
be an example of leadership).

Other examples of 'Leadership moments' include:
You may be at work with a colleague who has a presentation and they are
expressing their concerns about the presentation to you. They express that they
17


don't think they are 'up to it' and you would do a far better job than them. Either
you can be 'caught' in their negative self-talk or you can remind them of the good
job that they have done in the past and support them through their presentation,
and then remind them at the end that they had not only survived but done a great
job. In this example it might be easier to do the presentation for them, but would
that really help them in their development?

You might be in the foyer of your ofﬁce building and you see someone who looks
lost. What do you do?

You are out with your friends and you can see that one of them is drinking too
much and is getting a bit rowdy. What do you do?

I am not suggesting that you should take action on every 'Leadership moment'
that presents itself to you. That might in fact be selﬁsh (others need to be able to
take opportunities to develop too). I am saying that if you consciously raise your
awareness of the 'Leadership moments' that are around you, and then you
consciously decide to take action or consciously decide not to take action, both
can be examples of developing your leadership.

After all, participants in the leadership programs that I facilitate often nominate
helping, guiding, taking action. foresight etc. as characteristics of leadership.

What are your examples of 'Leadership moments'? How have they helped you to
develop?


18


AFL Grand Final Draw Calls For Simple Leadership
As a guest of the AFL Coaches Association for their annual Awards Dinner during
the week, little did I realise that I would hear some fateful words of advice for the
2010 AFL Grand Finalists.

Legendary coach Ron Barassi was being inducted into the AFL Coaches
Association Hall of Fame. As part of his induction, premiership player (and later a
coach in his own right) Stan Alves was delivering a speech regarding the special
characteristics of his former coach.

Part of Alves' speech focussed on the 1977 drawn
Grand Final. Alves shared the absolute confusion
that swept the players and officials immediately
after the final siren sounded.

"We were spent. I was spent. None of us knew what
we were supposed to do. It was absolute mayhem."

Alves shared that when the players, officials and
supporters made their way into their rooms, the
confusion seemed more intense than out on the
ground. Then Ron Barassi did what he did best. He
focussed everyone on what needed to be done.

First Barassi asked the players to go into the
meeting room and to sit in the order in which they
had played.

"Henshaw, you were in the back pocket so you sit here, now everyone else sit in
your playing positions."

Club officials were then invited into the room and Barassi instructed that the
meeting room door be left open so that all the supporters who had entered the
rooms could hear what he was about to say.

Alves reported that this is what Barassi instructed his players to do.

19


"If you do the two things that I am about to tell you, and then you turn up to
training in the morning, we will win the premiership. Number one, turn up to the
club function tonight. Number two, go home at 10pm. Do these two things and we
will win the premiership."

Alves reported that immediately upon Barassi finishing his short speech, the sense
of confusion evaporated.

Barassi was able to get everyone, players, officials and supporters to focus on
some simple actions. Doing this enabled everyone to have clarity about what they
needed to do. In many ways the simplicity of the actions enabled everyone to say
to themselves, "Yeah, I can do those two things."

Barassi's actions highlight that keeping things simple and helping people to focus
on what is doable are magnificent leadership traits in the face of confusion and
uncertainty.

For those of you who don't know, Barassi's North Melbourne went on to win the
Grand Final Replay the following week.

I wonder how St Kilda and Collingwood are coping with their current situation? Will
similar leadership to Barassi's example be present?

What are your examples of leadership that enabled people to focus on simple
actions that helped them to cut through complexity and confusion?

Please feel free to add a comment to this article.

20


Why low risk projects are a smart leadership tool
As a People Leader/Manager do you have more ideas than you can implement?
Are you frustrated by not achieving as much as you would like?

Our experience shows that one of the Top Ten motivators for employees is
'opportunities for improvement'. Imagine if you joined these two factors together;
your frustration with not getting as much done as you know needs to get done,
with your team members desire for opportunities for improvement.

Below is a four step process for creating low risk successes from this situation.

Step 1
List all your ideas/actions for things that you believe need to be done.

Step 2
'Chunk' these ideas/actions into groups - these groups of ideas/actions form the
basis of possible projects.

Step 3

Using the attached matrix, identify whether or not your projects are:
High Risk - Hard Implementation
Low Risk - Hard Implementation
High Risk - Easy Implementation
Low Risk - Easy Implementation

21


High Risk means that if the project fails there will be a significant and negative
impact on the organisation.
Low Risk means that if the project fails there will be no major negative impact
on the organisation.
Hard Implementation means that the resources required to implement the
project involve both a lot of people and a lot of money/assets to successfully
complete the project.
Easy Implementation means that existing resources with minimal budgetary
impact can be used to successfully complete the project.

Step 4
Low Risk - Easy Implementation projects are your gold. These are the projects that
you can easily provide to your team members. Should the project be a success
then the organisations benefits (because it gets something useful that otherwise
may not have existed), the staff member benefits (because they have implemented
something that didn't previously exist) and you benefit because a number of the
ideas/actions that you had on your original list will now have been implemented.

The beauty of creating low risk projects is that they generate opportunities for
people to shine. If you have never tried a system like this before, try it out and
please let us know how you go.


22


What are you excited about?
This week my ten year old son headed off for his week long Year 5/6 school camp.
His week will be filled with hiking, canoeing, ropes courses, flying foxes,
storytelling, drama and all sorts of fun activities to thrill a ten year olds soul.

For weeks all he could talk about was
his upcoming camp. he was packed
(mostly) days before he was due to
leave. He couldn't get to school early
enough on the day the camp was to
begin. His excitement was tangible;
you could feel it.

Watching him got me thinking. Short
term goals are incredibly motivating. Having something to look forward to
generates the energy to sustain many of the more mundane activities of life. For
example I have recently launched my first book What Really Matters For Young
Professionals! and welcomed my fifth child to our family, another son. Both
experiences involved a long build up and great joy was experienced when both our
son and my book arrived.

Life is not just about achieving short term goals for the sake of achieving them.
Rather, the short term goals should be in the context of a bigger picture. For
example, my book is part of my career, business and finance strategies. Clearly my
son was about completing my family.

In this context, what are you excited about? How do your short term goals relate to
your bigger picture?


23


University Student Group-Work Starter Course
Are you frustrated by your university group/team work experiences?
Do you find them to be a painful experience?

Students report that university group-work is one of
their most dreaded experiences at university. Yet
employers highly value university group-work because
it is where students have to learn how to work with
different people, just like in the 'real world'.

This free two lesson introductory course will ensure
that you give your university groups the best chance
to achieve the success you desire. You will also learn
how to ask some critical questions that will help your
team to be successful. These questions are not unique to student groups - which
is why they are so useful to master while you are a student!

Learning how to influence the starting phase of a team in a positive and
constructive way that helps your team to work well as a team is a critical skill for
the success of your career.

So why wouldn't you want to start developing that skill now. And best of all, this
course is free!

Delivered straight to your inbox, you will receive the first lesson immediately upon
signing up for the course. The second lesson will be emailed to you in three days
time. So you will complete this course in four days!

Sign up for this free course here.

24


Online Courses
Organisations That Matter provides a wide range of Online Courses to assist you in
your personal & professional development.

Our courses include:
Creating a Plan For Personal Success
How to Create High Performing Teams
Weekly Inspiration
University Student Group Work For Success and much more

Please visit here for more information.

Webinars
A webinar is an online seminar. Providing you have access to a computer and the
internet, webinars are a simple, easy and cost effective way to access critical
information for your personal & professional development.

Samples from our webinar program can be viewed here. Please remember to view
the videos in fullscreen mode.

Please sign up for our newsletter if you would like to be invited to our upcoming
webinars.

25


What Really Matters For Young Professionals!
Are you taking full advantage of your first years of employment?

Are you consciously developing yourself and taking full advantage of the
opportunities presented to you?

Are you fully aware of the opportunities that you have to accelerate your career?
If you answered "No" to anyone of these three questions then we can help you to
master 15 practices that will accelerate your career.

"This book is the definitive tool for young professionals with loads of expert
knowledge who need to quickly develop high-level employability skills. It can also
be used by managers and HR professionals for induction of their graduate recruits,
or young at heard professionals willing to adjust to the contemporary workplace. If
you want to succeed in the 21th century as a high-performing individual I
recommend you read this book."
Renata Bernarde
Relationship Manager and Career Counselor

Online Checklist
Take the Online Checklist for the 15 practices that are explained in the book, What
Really Matters For Young Professionals! Your results will help to quickly identify
how you can use the book to accelerate your career!

This product is both for Young Professionals and/or their employers
What Really Matters For Young Professionals! How To Master 15 Practices To
Accelerate Your Career is a resource that will help Young Professionals (people in
the workforce with between five to ten years experience) to accelerate the speed
of their career progress.

While Young Professionals are unlikely to suffer the high unemployment rates of
previous generations in countries like Australia, this is not the situation in many
countries throughout the world.

In the USA and the UK Young Professionals are having significant challenges
finding employment. For those who are employed, even in Australia achieving
promotions are a challenge because of the high competition for these

26


opportunities. This is why continuous practical development is essential for career
progression.

What Really Matters For Young Professionals! is
both a resource for Young Professionals and their
employers. The book and Online Course create a
space for practical development to occur.

In these challenging economic times employers can
provide the course to their Young Professionals.
Alternatively, Young Professionals can invest in their
own development. At less than the cost of three
coffees per week over 16 weeks, the investment for
becoming a high performer is minimal.

If you are an employer and would like to discuss how the book and Online Course
can be packaged for your employees, please email Gary@orgsthatmatter.com .

"Wow! This book is jam packed with useful and practical strategies for young
professionals wanting to take the next step up in their careers. In a time where
young professionals are constantly asking for more mentoring and training, this
book is the perfect do-it-yourself manual to improve your employability."
Alicia Curtis
www.ygenclub.com

Out now!

27


About Gary Ryan
Gary Ryan is a Founding Director of Organisations That Matter. He is a consultant,
facilitator, author and speaker who helps organisations, organisational leaders and
employees to be the very best that they can be.

Gary is passionate about helping organisations to matter to their
people; to their stakeholders and customers; to their community and
to their environment.

Gary helps everyone from the executive team to the frontline to align
what they say with what they do. This ensures that everything he does is about
helping organisations matter!

With over 17 years executive management and facilitation experience, Gary has a
broad range of experience covering corporate, government, elite sport and
education. In addition, Gary has a passion for service excellence and has
personally led teams to four national awards.

Check out acceleratingcareers.tv for effective tips for your Personal & Professional
Development

Gary is also a Senior Assessor for the Customer Service Institute of Australia and
incorporates the practice of service excellence into everything he does. As a
Licensed 0-10 Relationship Management® Elite Trainer Facilitator, Gary is able to
assist organisations to achieve higher performance through improved internal and
external relationship management.

Gary’s recent clientele include:
National Australia Bank
Monash University (Faculty of Law, Faculty of Business and Economics,
Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ofﬁce of the Vice
President - Advancement)
Boom Logistics
Carlton Football Club
AFL Coaches Association
Commonwealth Car Service (COMCAR)
Hospira – Asia-Paciﬁc Region
RMIT University
28


Eastern Recreation and Leisure Services

Holding multiple degrees including:
Bachelor of Education in Physical Education (1994)
Graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management (2002)
Master of Management (2004)

Gary is a proud father of ﬁve and is passionate about maintaining a healthy
lifestyle. In this context Gary is currently training for his eleventh marathon.

29

What Really Matters! Volume 2, Number 3, 2010

Empfohlen

Empfohlen

Weitere ähnliche Inhalte

Mehr von Organisations That Matter

Mehr von Organisations That Matter (6)

Kürzlich hochgeladen

Kürzlich hochgeladen (20)

What Really Matters! Volume 2, Number 3, 2010