All of us at Plus Delta Consulting have been reflecting on what we will do as we enter the New Year to improve performance in our organization – and with our client organizations. 2009 was a rocky year for many, and I for one am very glad to put it behind me. With that said, I’d be remiss if I simply said, “Thank God it’s over!” without doing any planning for 2010.

As we enter the New Year then, we’d like to recommend 5 simple steps for you to drastically improve performance in your organization. What steps have you taken or do you plan to take as you begin the New Year to produce better results? Please take a moment to comment below and share your own actions and ideas with us and all of our readers.  Until then, here’s our list!

1. Plan your future from the future:

If anything was possible for you and your organization in one year from now (or even 10), how would you have the future be? Suspend reality for just a moment, and don’t worry about being practical or even reasonable. Focus on defining your ideal future based on your most important values and longer-term business objectives. And don’t frame this as “fixing” something that already exists or working within your current constraints.

This is purely a process of creation. By the way, you need to enlist the support of your team and explicitly ask those around you what contribution they would like to make to the organization and the world around them – again given no constraints – to develop a shared vision for this ideal future. You’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish if you work together as a team to achieve this future from the future!

2. Conduct a “Quick Pulse” assessment of your organization:

Good health and wellness is critical to the success of any organization. If you want to produce better results, you need to determine what’s working well across your organization today as well as what opportunities exist to improve performance moving forward. This doesn’t have to take a long time. Just talk to some of your key managers and staff and ask them what they think. You can also administer an online survey to gather information quickly from a wider audience. Together, this process of listening to your people will help you understand their individual perspectives about organizational performance and quickly gauge what your organization needs to do differently in 2010. If you tie this information back to your company’s strategic objectives, you will have all the ingredients you need to create a recipe for success this year.

3. Talk to your people and become a mentor to them:

Do you have a forum in place today to tell your employees what they do well and what they aren’t doing so well just yet? Are you giving your direct reports the feedback they need to succeed? Feedback is a gift. At Plus Delta, we say “Feedback, Feed-forward”. If you don’t take the time to talk to your people, they won’t know what to continue doing nor will they know what to stop doing.

One simple activity is to conduct a quick goal-setting meeting with your employees in which you clarify what to Start, Stop and Continue doing in 2010 to be more effective. Match this against your more formal (or informal) performance review process, and you’ll be able to see where things are in alignment versus where they are not.

But remember, the process doesn’t stop here… Your employees need you to provide ongoing feedback and coaching throughout the year to stay on track. Being a mentor is not a one-time event, and creating sustainable results doesn’t happen after one sit-down together. Continue providing feedback to and mentoring your people on a regular and ongoing basis to produce long-lasting positive results.

4. Take a step back to examine how you’re managing performance from a company point of view

When we work with clients to help them improve performance management in their company, often their focus is on the question of “how do we raise the bar?” or “how do we have those ‘difficult’ conversations with poor performers?” or “how do we do a better job of defining and measuring goals, objectives, and key performance indicators?”.  But when we actually get into a conversation with them about what’s working and what’s not working, it turns out that their real issues are more related to managing organizational performance.  What we begin to hear are things like, “we have too many competing priorities” or “our project priorities continually shift, so we can’t help our employees prioritize what’s important from one week to the next” or “what are priorities for our group are not priorities for the other groups we work with.”

These are symptoms that the management processes for managing organizational performance are either not in place or not working effectively.  By management processes, I mean the mechanisms (i.e., meetings, forums, etc.) for the management team to meet to:  a) establish a “project portfolio management plan” of critical projects over the next 90, 180 days and beyond; b) regularly revisit that plan in light of constantly shifting priorities, marketplace dynamics, competitor plans, customer demands, etc. c) to re-prioritize projects, redistribute resources, and refine objectives and milestones; and d) re-communicate the outcomes of those meetings to employees so that their work activities are consistently prioritized, coordinated, and integrated.  While it may take some effort (and time) to establish and carry out these management processes, the overall savings of time and money on the organization through improved coordination of effort will bring a significant return on investment.

5. Evaluate your organizational strategy for using social and collaborative media:

It is essential for you – and your organization – to leverage new media for increased collaboration, networking, knowledge sharing, and improved productivity.  Whether it’s updating your LinkedIn profile, starting a new blog on a question or idea you have, or leveraging Facebook to promote your company brand, these tools can keep you connected with everyone around you.

Prior to launching a social media campaign, joining the relevant social networks, and becoming more interactive in the realm of new media, you have to determine your longer-term strategy, establish goals, and create a plan. Why are you doing this? Is it to keep your friends and family informed about what you are doing? Would you like to draw customers to your company? Are you looking to improve collaboration among members of a virtual team?  There is tremendous pressure to jump right into this game with both feet, but this arena has its own set of norms and rules and there are long-term implications for deciding to use these new media channels.

Interactivity with one’s key customers and/or encouraging internal collaborative efforts in your organization can be both rewarding and highly effective in all types of companies and communities. Understanding and establishing a set of common practices and policies on how you and your employees should use these tools is critical to the success of any such efforts though, so think first. If necessary, consult an expert to guide you before getting started.

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Edie Seashore (left) and Laura Horwitz (right)

As organizational psychologists, we look at human interactions as comprised of content and process. The OD Network conference was certainly chock full of great content, sessions that re-explored foundational theories, highlighted innovations, and introduced new applications at the boundaries of the field. And, with 800 participants, including many of organizational development’s leading theorists and practitioners, the conference offered a rare chance to connect with others who share my interests and values. Yet, as I reflect on my time in Seattle, what stands out about my first OD Network conference is not so much what I learned or who I met, but how I engaged with the content and process… through Twitter.

Now, as a recent adopter of this technology, I can imagine the skepticism of some non-tweeters as to how Twitter might apply to the work of OD professionals and what if any place tweeting has at a conference, one of the few face-to-face forums left in our increasingly virtual workplaces. For me tweeting at the OD Network Conference underscored the theories and values that drew me to OD in the first place. We are in the business of enabling individuals, groups, and organizations to better connect with one another so as to more effectively meet their goals. Relationships – whether forming new ones, enhancing existing ones, or untangling dysfunctional ones – lie at the heart of our work and the belief that relationships are foundational to change is, to me, one of the central values of our field.

Twitter, a tool that allows users to share brief thoughts with others in real-time, can be used for nothing more than navel-gazing and minutiae, but can also be harnessed to build dynamic and meaningful relationships with likeminded and geographically dispersed individuals. Twitter and other web 2.0 tools expand information access by minimizing the role of “expert” gatekeepers and empowering users to collaborate in the creation and spread of information in a self-organized way. These technologies embody many values central to organizational development, such as collaboration, transparency, and bottom-up engagement, and seem aligned with several theories and practices highlighted at the 2009 OD Network Conference, including Marshak and Bushe’s dialogic approach to organizational development, and those practices, like Liberating Structures and Positive Deviance, that draw on complexity theory.

I started a Twitter account (@ODforNonprofits) a couple months ago at the urging of my brother, a 2nd grade teacher, who uses his account (@globalrams) to connect with other educators and classrooms worldwide and incorporates tweeting into his teaching. Soon thereafter, I attended the National Conference on Citizenship at which participants were asked to “turn their cell phones on” and encouraged to tweet throughout the day. The conference organizers went so far as to take questions from Twitter, an approach that powerfully displayed the potential of web 2.0 tools to expand participation.

So when I learned about Flocking to Seattle, an action research project that aimed to explore the value of and influence the conversation over Twitter at the OD Network Conference, I was excited to continue my experiment with Twitter. I had two questions I hoped to answer by actively tweeting throughout the conference. First, I wondered if Twitter would prove a distraction or an enhancement to my conference experience. Second, I was curious as to whether tweeting would isolate me from or help me connect with other conference goers.
Linda Stone’s work on continuous partial attention points out the opportunities and pitfalls of a hyper-connected, information rich world. Stone explains that “in our effort not to miss anything” we fail to be fully present in our here and now lives, and also suggests that we can make strategic choices as to when partial attention is useful and/or desirable.

In my use of Twitter at the conference, I wanted to benefit from the connective potential of Twitter while maintain a “here and now” presence. I tried to accomplish this by approaching Twitter as a tool for taking notes in the sessions I attended. Doing so allowed me to stay focused on the content of the keynote speeches and sessions and benefit from the memory enhancing effects of note-taking, but also meant that my Twitter persona was one of providing information rather than connecting to outside content or with or among other users. As I learned from Rachel Lyn Rumson (@CosmoGenisis), there are developmental stages of tweeting behavior: initially, users generate content by telling what they are doing or hearing; next, users begin to point to resources elsewhere that connect to what they are experiencing; then, users connect other users to one another and connect across streams of thoughts by re-tweeting content and asking questions.

As far as the use of Twitter as isolating or connective, I found that my experience was “both/and.” Conference goers who tweeted were a small subset of mostly young professionals. Tweeting was a great way to get to know this peer group and allowed me to attend the conference as an individual but gain the benefits group association, such as splitting up for sessions and reporting back, and reflecting with others on the conference as a whole. At the same time, the twittering-conference-goers illustrated existing generational divides in the OD Network, and provided a bridge between tweeters and non-tweeters and among generations. Twitter served as a conversation piece that gave me, as a young professional and first-time attendee, a unique role and entry to conversations with experience practitioners that may not have otherwise been possible. Moreover, tweeting allowed me to feel that I was provided an important service to people who couldn’t attend the conference but hoped to follow what was happening.

In all, my online participation enhanced my offline experience and visa versa. My Twitter experiment at the OD Network Conference reaffirms my sense that the power of Twitter and other web 2.0 technologies lie in identifying and leveraging the nexus between online and offline connections. As Edie Seashore reminded us, Twitter is just a new tool for developing the support systems we consider foundational to personal and organizational transformation.

Laura Horwitz is a nonprofit professional with an MA in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University.  She tweets @ODforNonprofits.

I recently conducted a two-part interview with Juliette Powell (author of 33 Million People in the Room) at the OD Network Conference in Seattle, just after she delivered the final keynote speech, titled “The Technology of Relationships: Social Networking and the Future of Human Communities.” This first interview gives you a behind-the-scenes look into Juliette’s take on the field of OD after delivering the keynote and meeting with OD practitioners for several days. You’ll especially want to watch if you were at the keynote or you plan to watch it on YouTube when it gets posted by the OD Network. I highly recommend you watch that keynote address when posted; her points are crucial for OD practitioners to remain relevant in the shifting organizational and media landscape.

You won’t want to miss our upcoming blog post featuring the second interview. There she clears up the misconception from the keynote address around her provocative comment regarding the demise of traditional conferences. She also further elaborates on her upcoming Leadership Engine project – an exciting new development for OD.

Here is a quick glimpse of that comment regarding the future of conferences during the keynote address

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For those interested in the future of organizations with respect to the social-technological systems that enable people to be effective in the organization, and for those interested in the future of how conferences may be organized, be sure to visit this blog for our second interview with Juliette.

I was fortunate enough to spend some time with Juliette during the conference. She is a fascinating individual who is passionate about her work and is clearly making a significant contribution to the world. Our private discussions about our own personal transparency on the web may ironically become increasingly public, in that we may continue these discussions on various social networks and in public online spaces, as they may be of interest to others (she has already challenged me to change my personal Twitter handle from @rhetor to my full name). Perhaps it is not ironic after all, but rather a small example of the greater discussion around authenticity and community that Juliette challenges us to wrestle with as we strive to be effective and happy in our organizational and personal lives. I see the lines blurring between those we used to call “public figures” and “everyone else,” and maybe that can produce extraordinary results. If you have a strong opinion on this please be sure to comment on this post. Can it be taken too far? For an extreme example of such behavior, see We Live In Public.

During her keynote Juliette tells us that those companies who are at the center of their industries are ones that gather the most information, hence achieve the best results. One of the keys to arriving at the center of one’s industry is having the most connected employees, both online and offline. I would tell those companies who currently block social networking sites at their offices to promptly purchase Juliette’s book and reconsider their policies!

This week at the OD Network Conference, organization development consultants – -seasoned and newly inspired – gathered to hear one of our favorite thought leaders, Peter Block. Block spoke of the “collective possibility” to “create a future distinct from the past.” This conference, like so many others, lives off of this premise – that people come together to share experience, debate new ideas, learn from each other in order to move their cause, profession or passions forward.

Individuals gathered in “community” can be a powerful force to bring about change at the macro level. And, at the micro level, it simply rejuvenates the individual to be with those who share their interests. Conferences mimic real-life in this way, offering a myriad of concurrent sessions on different topics. When the doors close, the community filling the chairs reflects those who chose to put their time and energy into this particular collective conversation. For the next 90 minutes, the exchange will feed their need to learn, contribute, and form new opinion.

The need to connect with others in community is part of our DNA. In historical times, tribes and clans held us together. Other examples of our need to “belong” to a community include our choice of religion, our expression of our cultural heritage, our loyalty to our company, and more benign examples: college fraternities, rock band groupies, football fans, and those who won’t miss an episode of Heroes! Not only do we get new ideas, we also find information, support and a sense of identity within these groups. But community is not just about what we receive, it’s also about the fulfillment of giving. Consider those in public office or those who organize the local food drive. And each of us gives in small and fleeting community moments as well. Think of how you felt when you helped lift a suitcase into the overhead, or gave directions to a “stranger” on the street.

We see how the power of community plays out in organizations of all kinds. In our book, Social Media At Work, we share how social media tools such as wikis, blogs, and social networking sites accelerate the formation of community and improve performance. These tools enable people who would have never known of each other to connect, communicate and collaborate on difficult problems or new innovations. They facilitate learning and provide new ways for us to engage with each other, to receive and to give our ideas, our opinions and our insights. (Although we haven’t met, you’re reading this now!) This kind or community within organizations – large, small, public, corporate, social – will certainly super charge our ability to effectively “create a future distinct from the past.”

The other night we were honored to be invited to a mixer hosted by Plus Delta Consulting. There we met new friends and found old friends from the previous year’s conference. This new community exchanged ideas, shared wisdom from our experience, and sparked possibilities for new collaborations. Yes, like many others we met at the conference, we will keep in touch via the Internet. We will tweet and blog and join the online social network, and this will keep our community energized. But, we all know that there’s nothing like a good old-fashioned handshake. For that reason, we look forward to seeing everyone again next year to revel in the collective possibility and to continue shaping a future distinct from our past.

Are Web 2.0 and social networking technologies the next “great app” in the field of OD to enable self-organizing systems and to build better working relationships in the organization?

If I were a betting man, I would bet that half of the attendees at this year’s OD Network conference would click “Delete” on their email application if this showed up in their mailbox. The other half (or less?) would be intrigued and hit the “scroll down” button to read more. Are we at the “cutting edge” of OD by talking about the role of Web 2.0 technologies instead of talking about “authenticity”, “power and affiliation needs”, or “process facilitation”? Or are we so far off base in introducing this vernacular into the lexicon of OD professionals that we will see it fall off the radar screen of OD and into the abyss of other “flash in the pan” concepts?

Many OD professionals can’t tell you the difference between a “blog” and a “blob”. Or a “Tweet” from a “Twit”. But by now, it’s safe to say that most OD folks know “Google” and “Yahoo”. So what about these social networking apps like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, and others? Surely, most OD professionals have at least begun to recognize the value of having a presence on LinkedIn, as it is the leading professional networking application out there. It’s a great way to reconnect with colleagues, former college classmates, etc., and find out what everyone’s been up to, right?

And most folks who have been on Facebook or MySpace will tell you that these can afford great opportunities to keep in touch with family and friends, to reconnect for high school reunions, or to share family photo albums of last summer’s vacation. And most folks will have had the opportunity to use one of the many “instant messaging” applications for real-time communication with co-workers and friends.

But do these tools, and the use of these tools, need a close look in terms of the power they wield in aiding self-organizing systems? Some would say you should pick up the phone and talk to your co-worker, rather than “IM” them, but what if your co-worker is across the world, working on a software design problem, and happens to notice that you’re online and can probably answer a quick question? (Saves the embarrassment of waking your colleague up at midnight over what might seem like a trivial question). Are there “rules” or “best practices” that need to be developed for using Web 2.0 apps effectively? What about the questions of leadership, authenticity, power, authority, transparency, feedback, and trust while using Web 2.0? How DOES emotionally laden content get conveyed and filtered in a blog about healthcare reform, politics, or downsizing the company?

Click below to add your comments. We recognize that many of you may be reading this while at the OD Network Conference; now is the time for this conversation. See Michael Liskin’s post on the potential for this conference to become a tipping point for the introduction of web 2.0 into our field.

A current Yahoo news story reports:

“A new survey developed by Robert Half Technology suggests people who like to use social-networking Web sites while they’re at work could be violating company policy. Fifty-four percent of the companies surveyed said they prohibit the use of social-networking sites, like Twitter and Facebook.”

“There are some places that allow social-networking, but not many. About 20-percent allow employees to use social networking sites for work purposes only. Only 16-percent allow personal use.”

I attended a conference on Talent Management about a year ago, and a panel discussion debated whether or not such social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Second Life should be allowed in the workplace. The consensus?

There is none.

The fascinating thing is this whole generational difference issue. I mean, “old school” folks who are Baby Boomers and getting ready to retire, say, “No way! Facebook, Twitter, and all that stuff is a waste of time in a business setting!”.

Ask a Gen “X” or Gen “Y” employee, and they will tell you a different story. It’s the way they keep in touch with their peers in a virtual world. They will tell you it enhances their productivity because they can instantaneously access a peer across the world to get an answer to a quick, but business critical, question.

Ask anyone who has worked on global projects can attest, being able to interact virtually is mission-critical to getting work done.

But how does this play out against the question of “work-life balance”? Hey, as I write this blog, I’m watching a baseball game on TV at home (hope the Dodgers win), planning my calendar for tomorrow, and trying to carry on a conversation with my wife and college-age son.

Are there limits to social networking? When is it appropriate and when is it “too much”? Should social networking sites be allowed, or even encouraged, in the workplace? What are your company policies? Does your company’s IT security policy block access to these sites? Is it a terminable offense?

Or does your company condone, or even encourage social networking? How do you use these tools at work?