The Positive Brain and Productivity

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

I know you were expecting a follow up article from Ben regarding his last blog on Experienced Agent Recruiting. Ben is out of town and will pick up where he left off in the next WorkPuzzle edition. But, on an unrelated note…

I’ve never cared very much for books like, “The Power of Positive Thinking," or motivational speakers like Tony Robbins. I’m one of those guys who get a bit nauseous if a speaker asks the audience to perform some sort of goofy exercise to brighten our day. Maybe it’s my scientific background that makes me question the motives of people who are trying to sell happiness.

However, as you have probably gathered if you’ve been reading WorkPuzzle for very long, Ben and I occasionally supply you with hard research evidence regarding happiness, positive emotion, and success that should be made mandatory learning for anyone who manages people. Research over the last 15 years has mushroomed on the topic, and has supplied empirical evidence that should compel you to make a point of knowing, applying, and teaching about the this important link between happiness and success.

The latest summary of the research by Shawn Achor, a former Harvard psychology professor and author of The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology that Fuel Success and Performance at Work (Crown Business 2010) is a worthwhile, empirically grounded read.

Here he says what we all have witnessed: "You can take individuals of equal levels of intelligence, and you find there's dramatic variance in their success rates." If career success isn't primarily a function of intelligence, then what causes it? According to the evidence, Achor points to optimism, social support and whether we view stress as an opportunity or a threat.

The evidence is clear that, “Our brains are designed to work much better when they are in a positive state as opposed to a negative or neutral one," says Achor. "We find that when people are positive, it raises their productivity rate by 31 percent compared to when they're in a negative state of mind. Sales people sell 37 percent more than their negative counterparts. We know that doctors, when they're positive, perform diagnoses 19 percent more accurately."

There is a neurotransmitter called dopamine (related to pleasure) that is released in the brain when we’re in a positive state of mind. Furthermore, scientists have found that the brain can access all kinds of creativity, activate learning centers, and provide motivational energy when dopamine is naturally released in the positive state. As a result, positive brains see more possibilities, and productivity rises.

Does your office create positive states of mind? Are you mindful of working to keep your team positive, regardless of current stressors? The best leaders in history have had an uncanny way of providing this model and a path for those around them to experience the same. It’s a worthy goal.

Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Experienced Agent Recruiting: Turning a Failure Into a Success

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

I spend quite a bit of time talking to real estate managers and owners about the topic of experienced agent recruiting. This topic has been of particular interest in the last three or four years for many hiring managers.

The interest is most commonly driven by simple demographics. As the real estate industry started to decline several years ago, there were too many real estate agents for the amount of work that needed to be done.  As a result, many of the non-performing agents quickly left the industry, leaving a much smaller group of experienced agents to compete for a diminished number of opportunities.

Even with the smaller numbers, the 80/20 performance distribution still exists in most real estate companies (i.e. the top 20% of agents produce 80% of the revenue). The top-performing agents in any particular company are difficult to dislodge in the recruiting process. Why? They’re making a good income, things are typically going well, and they have no compelling reason to make a change.

As a result, most hiring managers (i.e. real estate office managers responsible for recruiting) focus their recruiting efforts on the next group of productive agents in a competitive company — The typical demographic of this agent is someone who has been a real estate agent for less than five years and is closing five to ten transactions per year. The hiring manager’s line of reasoning goes like this… "If this agent left their lousy company where they are marginally successful and stepped into my wonderful organization, I could help them double or triple their production.”

I suspect that greater than 90% of hiring managers in the real estate industry use this strategy. As a result, there is tremendous competition to recruit this relatively small group of agents. These agents get constantly bombarded with recruiting calls and emails. Those with even a remote bit of business acumen quickly realize they possess a desirable negotiating position. Even if you are somehow successful at breaking above the recruiting noise they hear every day, a discussion rarely leads to a new hire under desirable terms.

If this is your only strategy, you may be finding that your recruiting results are not meeting the mark. And, you’ll continue to be frustrated if this is the only methodology you use. As an alternative, I’d like to suggest you focus on a new group of agents in your competitors' companies—those who are failing.

In a typical real estate company, 40% to 60% of agents fit the following description–they have been a real estate agent less than three years, they complete fewer than four transactions per year, they have an ancillary source of income or a part-time job to make ends meet, and they often have no clue why they’re not successful.  Also, many of them regret their decision to go into real estate because of the time and resources they’ve wasted in attempting to make this career change.

In short, these agents are failures.

Here is an important recruiting question you should ask yourself: What if you figured out a way to reliably convert failures into successes?

That’s what we’ll be discussing in the next couple of WorkPuzzles. The reality is that most failures will remain failures. But, there is a small percentage of individuals who can become successful inside the right system and under the right coaching.

The key to picking these individuals is understanding both the nature of their failure (not all failures are created equal), and recognizing the common characteristics that some people possess which enable them to turn failure into success.

Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

How Real Estate Agents Helped to Bring Down Osama Bin Laden

Monday, May 16, 2011

Like most Americans, I’ve had a keen interest in the events that unfolded over the last couple of weeks regarding the death of Osama bin Laden. I was proud to see our military execute such a difficult and risky mission with such precision and expertise.

Of course, after the mission was complete, all the politicians and commentators jumped in to take credit and steer public opinion on this issue. Because of the spin and posturing, I’ve honestly been disappointed by much of what I’ve read on the topic recently.

That was true—until I picked up last week’s copy of Business Week. Across a bright pink cover blazed the title, “Why Bin Laden Lost.” The subtitle of the article was: Al Qaeda’s leader died because he was outgunned. He lost because he was wrong.

The article, written by Brendan Greeley, makes the point that while bin Laden made a profound impact on the world, his ideas have failed (and will continue to fail) to produce the results he had hoped for. Greeley put it this way:

“This is the lesson of the past 10 years, and one Osama bin Laden, a man animated by a grandiose vision of restoring a 7th century Muslim empire, never grasped. The most successful organizing principle the world has ever known is a simple guarantee that we can buy and do things that have no point greater than the satisfaction of our own happiness.”

Of course, Greeley points us back the our country's founding documents to make his point:

“The United States has no purpose. That is perhaps its greatest achievement. America's founding document, its Declaration of Independence, allows that a state exists only to secure life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

That's it. There's a curious lack of ambition in those words. The United States was not founded for the greater glory of anything, or as the necessary outcome of history, but for the freedom to collect figurines, to join a clogging troupe, to take a road trip.”

Greely then spends the next couple of pages developing the argument that the basic human condition is inconsistent with the bin Laden’s world view.

“…Osama bin Laden will lose because nobody actually wants to live in a cave. Even bin Laden didn't want to live in a cave. As Bloomberg News reported, in Abbottabad he sent runners out for equal amounts of Coke and Pepsi, for Nestlé milk and the good-quality shampoos. The societies that make these things do not turn up their noses at the consumer and his whims, the needs that lack any justification larger than the personal.”

Finally, Greely sums up his point by making the following statement:

"We humans follow base and pedestrian needs. We need narratives for our lives, and we look to the speechmakers, the prisoners of conscience, to write them for us. These narratives render our desires into abstract phrases. Freedom. Self-determination. Democracy.

All of which are means to an end. For us humans, the end is almost always just a house and some quiet to raise our daughters. Some friends, and a measure of something fermented. Someone to love.”

Do you look at what you do as a real estate owner, manager, or other participant in the real estate industry as an important part of the "end" that Greely references? If you're a WorkPuzzle reader who is not in the real estate industry, do you provide some other "base or pedestrian" need to our society?

If so, your contribution is more valuable than you may realize. As millions of us make these small contributions on a day-in and day-out basis, they add up to something quite significant–a society that was able to look down and defeat bin Laden's philosophy. Certainly there will be more battles to fight, but for now, pat yourself on the back and know that you are helping our country win the war of ideas that rages around the world. And then get back to work!

Read the full BusinessWeek article.

How to create change: Part 3

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

As I mentioned in the last blog, I am excited about this edition. (You'll see why in the "Build Habits" section below…) In the first two editions of this series (1,2), I introduced you to a well-constructed book by the Heath brothers entitled, "Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard."

As I mentioned before, to create change, you must impact both sides. The overpowering emotional side is identified as the "Elephant," and the rational, decision-making component sits atop the Elephant as the "Rider." When conflict arises between the two, the Rider is easily the underdog. (I addressed "the Rider" and "the Elephant" in the first two editions.)

Lastly, to create change, you must provide and shape a clear PATH. This means that you must provide clear direction. Sometimes change doesn't require anything we've described so far. Sometimes, it only requires providing a path that's clear, accessible, habitual and inherent in the culture. We all occasionally entertain the lazy habit of blaming character rather than environment when it comes to groups of individuals who may not be performing in the way we envision necessary. However, the following are ways that you can begin to make change easier.

Tweak the Environment. Did you know that the airline industry has a "sterile cockpit" rule that applies to any commercial plane flying below 10,000 feet? Apparently, the most accident-prone time is while a flight is either ascending or descending. Conversations that are not flight-related are not permitted at this time.

Similarly, the authors describe an IT group that had been unsuccessfully grappling with continually taking far too long in developing new products. They set out to reduce new product development from three years to eight months. They decided to adopt the sterile cockpit rule for new projects, establishing "quiet hours" on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday mornings, before noon. Making this simple tweak of the environment provided coders ample time to concentrate on complex bits of code without being interrupted, which turned out was the major culprit to slowing progress. Ultimately, the group achieved a nine-month development cycle. Not too shabby for a simple fix. This result reinforces the idea that what can appear as a people problem, is often a situational challenge. We all have a tendency to minimize, or ignore all together, the fact that situational forces can greatly influence and shape peoples' behavior. And often, just simple tweaks of the path can produce dramatic behavioral changes that we wouldn't otherwise expect.

Build Habits. When one has a habit, one has a sort of behavioral auto-pilot. Habits allow behavior to happen without taxing the rider or the elephant…Both are simply doing what they always do. Once habits are built, little energy is expended. There are several examples in the book that address companies helping their people develop habits. Your office/company can either help reinforce or deter successful habits. Paying attention to your power to do so, is vital.

To change anything, you must build habits. One way to help build habits is to set up "action triggers." Action triggers are behaviors that are always followed by the habit you want to build. For example, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the past 25 years, I have gone to the gym to work out. This is such a strong habit that I don't ever even consider placing something else in that time slot. These specific days/times of the week pre-load a decision to work out, and therefore prevent the Rider from scheduling over them. Setting up action triggers have been proven to TRIPLE the chance of successful goal completion.

So, while helping build your agents' business plan, ask them to specify exactly when they will perform each activity. Don't take a given time for granted…Instead ask, "After what activity will you do this? After brushing your teeth? After dropping off your children at school?" Etc. The authors offer several great examples of how you, as a leader, can help others to create habits and even "instant habits" through action triggers.

The authors then spend considerable time discussing the MAGIC, underrated, and sometimes despised tool…The Checklist!

Bear with me, and read further… This simple tool can make or break your company's success. Dr. Peter Pronovost of Johns Hopkins, was fed up with the finacial waste and human loss attributed to preventable line infections occurring in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). So, he finally resorted to demanding that all staff take the time to check off a simple checklist of routine, required tasks. It was a five-part checklist, containing items like, (1) Wash hands, (2) Clean skin with antiseptic, and so on… No new activities were added, rather, the expected routine was simply itemized out.

Eighteen months after the checklist was put into place by Johns Hopkins and some Michigan hospitals, $175 million dollars and 1500 lives had been saved. "Check lists are insurance against over confidence." I love that sentence. Print it out in bold letters and paste to your office door. If you think a checklist is for boring, menial jobs, then try your luck flying a 747. I can tell you, first hand, that the majority of recruiting efforts put forth by most real estate companies, involve completely flying by the seat of their pants. They not only don't have a checklist, but wouldn't know what items to place on their checklist if they were asked to create one. If you are a client of ours, then you know that we have built-in checklists (literally thousands daily – between our clients and us) that ensure that the best sourcing and the best recruiting can be accomplished.

The last way to change the clear the path is to Rally the Herd. There is no scientific fact more etched in granite than peoples' tendency to follow the lead of people in their immediate environment. This is another reason to make sure you churn out agents who stand around the water cooler too much and never produce. If 90% of your agents are working, most of the others will follow their lead. Find ways to instill a sense that "this is the way we do it here" and ensure that it's in fact done that way. Lead an Elephant on an unfamiliar path, and it's likely to follow the herd…

The authors acknowledge that change isn't always easy. But the evidence suggests that when change works, it tends to follow a predictable pattern. Visit the authors at http://www.heathbrothers.com.

How to Create Change: Part 2

Monday, May 09, 2011

In the first edition of this series, I introduced you to a well-constructed book by the Heath brothers entitled, "Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard."

The authors consolidate a lot of information about the major elements of change, including how to create change, in their very concise, easy to read book. The brothers liberally borrow their basic analogy around the elements of change from Psychologist and Researcher, Dr. Jonathan Haidt. They explain that change involves two parts of the whole person that we are all familiar with….a person's emotional side, as well as their brain's rational side.

As I mentioned before, to create change, you must impact both sides. The overpowering emotional side is identified as the "Elephant," and the rational, decision-making component sits atop the Elephant as the "Rider." When conflict arises between the two, the Rider is easily the underdog (I addressed "the Rider" in last week's edition).

Research tells us that in order to achieve lasting change, the Elephant and Rider need to unite. Lastly, you must provide a clear PATH. In this edition I'll provide for you some examples of motivating the elephant.

MOTIVATING THE ELEPHANT — The following are techniques that can help you tap into a person's emotional side (Elephant), which can spark actions that will lead to lasting change.

Find the Feeling. Most of you can relate to the necessity of "feeling" the need to change in order to provide the rocket fuel and begin the necessary work to actually make the change happen. I can personally remember, while in graduate school class, a guest lecturer spontaneously changing his topic from whatever practical, cerebral lesson he was sent there to instruct…to telling my class: "What you're learning here is less important than how badly you want to be good at what you do." He continued, "And furthermore, how good you are, will determine EVERYTHING… Your reputation, where you work, how much you make, your options in life, and most importantly, the satisfaction you will gain from a life well-lived." I can vividly remember him stating that, "Mediocrity will get you nowhere." After hearing this, I took a long walk and introspected more deeply than I had in a long time. Those words motivated the Elephant in me, and gave the Rider (my brain) the energy needed to alter my behavior (not only "getting through" school but excelling) and sustain my tenacity for a long time. It's not that the pure content lectures were unimportant, but this one altered something deep and enduring inside me.

Shrink the Change. In the book, the authors speak of a car wash that ran a promotion using loyalty cards. They tested two variations of customer cards to see which worked the best. One card was an 8-stamp card, earning a free car wash when the card is filled. Another card was a 10-stamp card, but already had 2 stamps completed, advancing them 20% toward their goal, but, in reality had the same amount required. Several months later, only 19% of the customers given the empty 8 stamp card had received a free car wash, in contrast to 34% of the head-start group. The authors state that this type of behavior is found in multiple studies. In other words, people find it more motivating to be partially finished with a long-term goal than to be at the starting gate of a shorter one. How could you motivate your agents or managers to achieve a long-term goal by highlighting what's already been accomplished toward its completion? To motivate an uninspired Elephant, shrink the change.

Grow Your People. Change is very difficult if people believe that they can't change, or that they don't have any influence. In past blog editions, I've written about the "Growth Mindset," an empirically verified set of facts that will determine the percentage of people who will thrive in your organization. The Heath brothers list several examples to further the power of believing that people can grow and change. Here's just one example:

In 1977 the St. Lucia parrot faced extinction. Despite laws and several "carrot and stick" attempts to change the fact that Island natives undervalued the bird, nothing changed. Some even continued to eat the bird as a delicacy, while others turned their backs. All analytical cases for protecting the bird had failed. So instead, the government implemented an emotional appeal. To do this they set out to convince St. Lucians that they were the kind of people who protected their own (there is much research confirming that people will live up to a collective belief system about "who" they are). They did this by making the public assumption that St. Lucians swell with pride over their exclusive Island parrot. The Parrot Campaign included T-shirts, bumper stickers and locally recorded songs about the Island's pride around their parrot. In fact, the bird became part of the natives' national identity and it was constantly being compared to other "uglier" national birds, including our own Bald Eagle. Stories published in 2008 noted that St. Lucians had not been caught shooting the parrot for the past fifteen years, resurrecting the species from extinction.

How can you find the feeling, shrink the change, and grow your people to accomplish the "impossible?"
I am very excited for the next edition…the final piece of change — Clarifying the Path.

How to Create Change

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

How many times have you thrown up your hands, as a manager, parent, or business owner, and said "I give up.. I've tried everything and there is no way I can change this culture… or this pattern of behaviors?" We have all, at some point, hit major road blocks in our quest to find ways to implement lasting change.

As a practicing Clinical Psychologist, I could point you to a large library of books about how to create change, written in thickly worded scientific language…but rarely have I seen a book written in layman's language that breaks down the process and elements of change effectively.

I am nearing the end of a such a book. This well-constructed read by the Heath brothers is titled, "Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard." It's one of those books I wish I had thought of writing (although I wouldn't have done nearly as good a job).

What they do, and do well, is manage to break down much of the information about the major elements of change, including how to create change, all presented in a concise book that's a joy to read. The brothers liberally borrow their basic analogy regarding the elements of change from Psychologist and researcher, Dr. Jonathan Haidt. The premise is that change involves two parts of the whole person that we are all familiar with — A person's emotional side, as well as their rational side ("the brain").

And to create change you must impact both. The overpowering emotional side is identified as the "Elephant" and the rational, decision-making component sits atop the Elephant as the "Rider." When conflict arises between the two, the Rider is easily the underdog. Research tells us that in order to make lasting change, the Elephant and Rider need to unite.

The last element is "The Path," or a VERY clear direction.

Over the next three editions, I'll share with you examples of appropriate uses of the following options:

   1. Directing the Rider – Analytical, Rational thinking
   2. Motivating the Elephant – Appealing to Emotion and instinct
   3. Shaping the Path – Providing clear Direction

1. Direct the Rider:

Finding the Bright Spots. In 1990, an international organization that helps needy children accepted a Vietnamese government invitation to decrease malnutrition. They were given only six months to make a difference. This short timeline made it impossible to end poverty, to purify water, or to build a sanitation system to address starvation. They had to find a simpler solution and find it fast. Most of us would waste precious time focusing on looking at, and even trying to magnify the problem. This organization didn't. Instead they traveled to a rural village and met with mothers whose children were thriving. They were obsessed with finding the "Bright Spots." Despite widespread malnutrition, they found them. They discovered that "bright spot" moms fed their children four times a day (easier on kids' digestive systems), vs. the standard two meals. Another finding was that bright spot moms added shrimp and crab from the rice paddies into their kids' meals. Cooking classes where bright spot moms taught other mothers how to prepare healthy meals for their children ensued. The mothers already had the emotional motivation (Elephant) in the form of their natural concern for their kids. They needed direction (The Rider needed a Path), not motivation. Six months later, 65 percent of the village kids were better nourished and stayed that way.

How often have you set out to find exactly what your best agents and managers do right…not just generally, but as specifically as possible? How do they organize their days? How many calls and emails do they make and to whom do they make them? Figure out the detailed formula utilized by the best of the best, and then deduce the common denominators.

Point to the Destination. In the mid 1980s, a major investment firm's research department ranked an embarrassing fifteenth among their banking clients. This coincided with the hiring of a new GM, labeled "The Company Coach." After discovering that the analysts of the company had become isolated from clients and each other, holding onto knowledge rather than sharing information and credit, he set the expectation for all analysts to initiate at least 125 client conversations per month. In addition, he required analysts to cite colleagues' work at least twice during presentations, thus promoting a team environment. He told everyone that he expected the firm to be among the premiere investment magazine's top five. He directed the rider by laying out clear expectations (make 125 calls and cite colleagues work), and he also painted the destination. In three years, the firm went from fifteenth to first place.

We have several clients who have done something similar to the above examples with regard to addressing goals around recruiting expectations. Is it possible for you to be even more enticing with a clearer, more compelling goal? Can you be precise about your exact expectations? Instead of saying, "Make more recruiting calls,"…say, "Make X number of calls and X number of appointments per week."

In the next edition, I'll discuss ideas around Motivating the Elephant.