In a weakened economy, decreased resources produce stress. Devaluing behaviors, that are toxic to productivity, innovation and engagement, explode. Little Things Mean A Lot™ combats this problem with fresh, positive and proven approaches that put inclusion at the heart of performance.
Top-rated training design (94% of participants rate very good to excellent)
Designed by a leader in the field
Most comprehensive, innovative and professional package available on microinequities and micro-affirmations
Takes inclusion to the "next level"
Builds your business case
Offers tools and strategies participants put immediately to work
Flexible training designs for large scale roll-outs, team workshops and individuals
Special modules for executives and intact teams
Optional coaching and TTT
Proven impact: After a large corporate roll-out
100% said they understood microinequities (v. 53% before)
99% said they had inclusion strategies (v. 37% before)
Comprehensive, flexible training program includes:
22-minute DVD designed for flexible use
Leader's Guide:
Agendas for 3-hour and 1-hour workshops;
Detailed delivery notes for intact and executive teams
Can improve work environment but also relationships outside of work.by Reviewer of Training Med (Cambridge, MA)
Jan 9, 2009
The team meeting vignette about microinequities is an excellent way to illustrate the impact they can have. It shows how we can accept certain behaviors as the norm and forget the impact they have on others. The vignette concerned with macro-affirmations and inclusion is another great example that helps leaders recover from the effects of microinequities.
If your company has a diverse workforce or customer base, then you should consider investing in Little Things Mean a Lot. This training can help improve not only the work environment but also relationships outside work.
Count Me In®
For Engagement, Teamwork and Innovation
Don't let subtle exclusion and put downs become a major barrier to performance and innovation in your organization. Instead, discover the hidden yet pervasive impact of "microinequities," small daily acts of exclusion that damage morale, undermine teamwork and chip away at productivity and employee engagement. Unlike traditional diversity programs, our Count Me In® facilitators teach you how to counter this effect using micro-affirmations, small yet effective daily behaviors that value the differences among employees and increase employee engagement, productivity and creativity.
CMI® is available as a keynote presentation, a summit with keynote and small-group skills-building sessions, and a stand-alone workshop.
Discussion topics and activities:
All programs:
Selections from DVD: Little Things Mean A Lot™
Business case : linking inclusion with high performance teamwork and innovation
The climate for inclusion; how each of us contributes
How microinequities discourage performance, kill innovation and sabotage diversity efforts
Why we wall out differences and how to value them instead
The leader's role in creating a climate of exclusion or inclusion
Experiential activity: impact of micro-messages
Using micro-affirmations to promote inclusion
Additional topics covered in Summits and Workshops:
Dialogue and assertion skills geared to organization's or team's issues
Mini culture audit, specific to team or organization
Key take-aways: what you can do; what others can do
Keynote
1.5 hour session for groups of up to 300 delivered by Brigid Moynahan and/or Walter Manley. Includes dynamic and interactive presentation and integrated use of the Little Things Mean A Lot™ DVD
Summit
5-hour program with keynote kick-off, followed by small group skills-building sessions and interactive exercises, with PowerPoint presentation and Little Things Mean A Lot™ DVD, miniculture audit, collection and analysis of feedback and action planning
Workshop
6-7 hour full-day, customized training of 24 to 30 participants. Includes PowerPoint presentation, Little Things Mean A Lot™ DVD, awareness exercises, and skills training, miniculture audit, collection and analysis of feedback and action planning.
A positive, action-oriented approach to promoting inclusion and diversity, Count Me In® was featured at The Conference Board (2005) and The Catalyst Awards (2002). It was recently profiled by The Wall Street Journal and Chief Learning Officer. Unique amongst diversity initiatives, it consistently achieves outstanding ratings from participants in Fortune 500 corporations across industries and around the globe.
Brigid Moynahan Founder and President
Since founding The Next Level, Inc. in 1986, Brigid has designed and led pioneering programs on diversity, inclusion, mentoring and advancing women leaders for Fortune 500 companies worldwide. Brigid draws on her background as an actor in her engaging and highly interactive presentations, connecting with her audience to effectively communicate the importance of valuing the differences among us.
Walter Manley Director Diversity and Inclusion Offerings
One of the Next Level's lead facilitators, consultants and keynote speakers, Walter Manley has played a key role in the firm's pioneering work on microinequities. He has an extensive background in organization development, cross cultural dynamics, corporate communications, and human resource strategic planning. Walter's warm and open approach to the topic puts his audiences at ease and opens their minds to his message of inclusion.
Brigid Moynahan, Founder and President of The Next Level, Inc.
For the past twenty years, Brigid Moynahan has created innovative programs to advance diversity and leadership in a virtual Who's Who of Fortune 500 companies. Her work in this area is considered by many to be a "best practice." She and her programs have been profiled in The Wall Street Journal, Chief Learning Officer, and Diversity Inc. Brigid has designed and led more than 800 corporate programs on mentoring, coaching, team building, diversity, and leadership. Her work on microinequities was profiled as a key diversity initiative at The Conference Board (2005) and at the Catalyst Awards (2002). Her programs for executive women are widely praised in the business world. Prominent companies have adopted her company's LEAD™ coaching methodology and Leadership Futures™ mentoring programs as core management and succession planning tools.
A vital source of insight and encouragement, Brigid guides clients as they strengthen their leadership, develop others, and build powerful alliances that fuel growth and innovation. As a result, clients act and interact in ways that reflect their vision and values. Steeped in the science of management and the art of communication, Brigid brings a unique blend of experience, expertise, passion, intelligence, and commitment to her work.
Brigid is a Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, with advanced degrees and training from Hunter College, The Graduate Center, National Training Laboratories, the Tavistock Institute, the MIT Dialogue Project, The New York Psychoanalytic Institute, and Systems Centered Training (Yvonne Agazarian). She has taught communications at The New School, City College, and the New York Institute of Technology. Before founding her consulting firm in 1986, she served as an executive with Burson-Marsteller and the American Management Association in New York City.
Keynote Topics
Understanding Women's Leadership
What sets women leaders apart? Are their skills being used to maximum advantage? In this frank discussion, Brigid sheds new light on the challenges and opportunities that face today's female executives. Drawing on her groundbreaking work in this field, she empowers her audience to achieve greater heights.
The Power of Connected Leadership
Organizations today are rapidly evolving from simple and rigid hierarchies to highly complex systems of networks. Leading in the midst of the networked organization requires new skills in managing complexity through a vast array of interdependent relationships. In this presentation, Brigid discusses why connected leadership is so critical today, key influence challenges associated with this form of leadership, ways in which women are modeling the way in this new leadership form, and strategies all leaders can use in order to succeed in the networked environment.
Gaining Career Traction: Networking Your Way to Success
Many talented managers make the mistake of focusing on performance at the expense of cultivating influence and exposure. In this hands-on session, participants learn new strategies to communicate their leadership value by building a web of alliances that ensure greater influence and exposure.
The Secret of Self-Marketing: Defining Your Value Proposition
The world is changing too fast for leaders to wait to be chosen, recognized or promoted. Don't let yourself be overlooked or passed over. Instead, get clear about the value that you bring and make it clear to others in a simple and compelling message, spoken with
power and conviction. The result is greatly enhanced influence and visibility.
Unleashing the Power of Inclusion
There is tremendous untapped potential waiting to be expressed by people with divergent experiences. What gets in the way is our tendency to wall out differences in favor of what is similar. Don't let subtle exclusion and put downs build up to become a major barrier to performance. Learn to counter these "microinequities" using positive communications to enhance influence, strengthen relationships, and positively transform your workplace.
Engaging Employees: Pay Attention to Messages You're Overlooking By Brigid Moynahan
A significant yet hidden challenge facing businesses today is the impact of microinequities - small, subtle signals we send other people through our words and behavior that cause them to feel discounted, excluded, or devalued. These little put downs and acts of exclusion pile up, reducing productivity, communication and job satisfaction. Like water over a rock, microinequities have the power to slowly and methodically erode employee motivation and sense of self-worth. The end result costs companies millions of dollars in lowered productivity, absenteeism and the loss of valuable employees.
How Pervasive are Microinequities?
Like it or not, all of us commit microinequities. Do you go to lunch with the same people every day or meet the same group after work? Ever rolled your eyes at a co-worker's "off the wall" comments, only to later find yourself praising that same idea when offered by someone you trust? Do you share information with close colleagues, but delay in telling others? Do you rely on the same few people to get a job done rather than involving a broader, more diverse group? Ever deliberately leave someone off a group email? How about checking your watch mid-conversation just to let the other person know they are boring you to death?
When we use these subtle (and occasionally not-so-subtle) behaviors to exclude or devalue others we're engaging in microinequities. And though they can be hurtful, they are a routine part of life. Behavioral studies have shown that we tend to bond with those who look, sound, and act like us, and steer away from those who don't. This is the case with every one of us, making microinequities a universal issue. We've all committed acts of exclusion in the past, and we've all been recipients of those same de-valuing behaviors.
Reducing them is critical to creating an inclusive corporate culture.
Don't We Have Enough To Worry About?
With the economy in crisis and companies fighting just to stay in business, do we really have to bother about something as small as a microinequity? Actually microinequities become an even more serious problem in times like these because they tend to multiply when people are under stress and begin to neglect their relationships. I'm often asked what makes a microinequity different from run of the mill rudeness. To understand the difference, focus on the second part of the term - the "inequity." Rude behavior may be unpleasant, but it doesn't become a microinequity unless it undermines the equality of others by walling them out, damaging morale and contribution.
Embracing Difference: Breaking the Mold
Given our natural preference for the similar, finding ways to bring people together who look, sound, think, and react in different ways can be a lot of work. As a client at Shell said recently, "It's so much easier working with people who think and act just like you do. But the easiest way isn't necessarily the best way." Supporting that statement, recent research findings note that diverse teams are from three to five times more productive than homogeneous ones. They are also more innovative because creative answers come from accepting and leveraging new or different ideas.
"Microinequities exert influence both by walling out the 'different' person, and by making the person of difference less effective," explains Rowe, the MIT ombudsperson who for the past three decades has worked to educate individuals and organizations on the topic. In other words, microinequities can lead to poor employee performance - when a manager has low expectations, explains Rowe, "employees have a tendency to deliver what is expected of them." It's a downward spiral; the more I behave in ways that devalue you, the less confident you feel. The less confident you feel, the less you'll risk confronting issues or contributing innovative ideas. And the less you contribute, the less I'll value you.
The business case for eliminating microinequities lies in the negative impact they have on employee engagement. The Gallup organization has found that engagement is the biggest factor in determining a company's long term success. Over the years, Rowe has found that a major cause of employee attrition is that people feel "left out", or that their organization's culture is "cold". Whether or not employees feel engaged at work most often boils down to how well they are treated by the people around them. When they feel devalued by microinequities, their engagement plunges. When they feel encouraged by valuing behaviors, or what Mary Rowe calls "micro-affirmations", engagement builds. We validate this connection every day in our workshops on micro-messages when we poll employees about what makes them feel valued and devalued at work. Inevitably, in every group, people focus most on the daily messages they receive from others and whether it encourages or discourages their contribution.
Gallup Corporation data from a survey of 1 million employees worldwide shows that actively disengaged workers are less productive and more stressed than their engaged peers, have seven times more healthcare needs, and are three times more likely to quit. Inversely, companies where a majority of employees said they felt valued by teammates and supervisors had higher morale, retention, productivity, and profits.
Instituting Change
Recently, major companies like JPMorgan Chase, Chubb, Shell, and Johnson & Johnson have instituted training on microinequities in their global efforts to promote inclusion and diversity. These companies understand microinequities are indiscriminate - occurring in all cultures, within both genders and every age group.
Acknowledging the importance of microinequities is the first step to healing the damage they cause. The second is counteracting their effects by teaching people to use valuing behavior or what Rowe calls "micro-affirmations." Our firsthand experience delivering training in microinequities and micro-affirmations in hundreds of companies points to the benefits of this positive approach. Participants in our Count Me In programs report that training results in improved communications with supervision, better collaboration with team mates, and an increased sense of belonging and accountability..
At Chubb & Son, where "Count Me In®" training has been offered company wide, organization leaders are finding that micro-messages have universal application in improving engagement at all levels. Says Kathleen Marvel, Chief Diversity Officer and Senior Vice President of Chubb, "Count Me In® has the potential to address the concerns of international audiences as well as domestic. It encourages employees to speak from their own experiences about specific ways they feel included or excluded," and they "leave knowing that inclusion is all about them, that they can make a difference. It is a key component of our diversity strategy because it gets us to walk the talk and results in visible changes in behavior that improve the climate."
Making sure employees are fully engaged is absolutely critical for companies seeking to weather the storm of today's business environment. The good news is that we can accomplish this in simple ways, just by teaching people the power of the little things they do.
The top 5 factors affecting employee morale:
Having the opportunity to contribute
Being included in the decision-making progress
Being listened to
Being thanked
Getting credit for ones ideas
Do's and Don'ts to Eliminating Microinequities:
Don't:
Ignore, dismiss, interrupt, or talk over others
Get distracted with multitasking
Critique with nonverbal behavior, like rolling of the eyes or checking ones watch
Let stress undermine relationships
Fail to respond when others seek input
Do:
Take the time to listen with attention and respect
Seek input and credit people's contributions
Share the floor using inclusive meeting procedures
Use micro-affirmations often
Working as a Team:
Start a team discussion using the questions below. Go around the table asking each person to contribute.Then build a list of guidelines to ensure more positive interactions:
What is something we can start doing to make people feel respected and valued here?
What is something we can stop doing that causes people to feel excluded or overlooked?
What do we need to understand about the cultural and global differences that exist here?
What can we do to encourage greater participation?
Video-based Training on Microinequities and Micro-affirmations
Current state of the art video training on this topic is a DVD program entitled Little Things Mean A Lot, featuring Brigid Moynahan and offered through Learning Communications. This program combines a compelling business case with practical strategies individuals, teams and leaders can use to counter microinequities while building high performance work environments.
* Recognize that the way we treat each other at work - the little things we do - has a big impact.
* Learn to respond effectively to negative messages (microinequities) that can undermine our success.
* Equip yourself with simple tools and strategies to make the workplace more inclusive.
For more information contact Learning Communications at 800-622-3610 or www.learncom.com .
About the author:
For more than twenty years, Brigid Moynahan has provided consultation, leadership development, executive coaching and team consultation to a broad range of Fortune 500 and non-profit organizations. Brigid Moynahan, President, The Next Level, Inc., (973) 783-7675 TNL@the-next-level.com
A constant innovator, Brigid brings powerful new thinking and practices to her work with corporations. She has designed more than 1,000 programs on mentoring, coaching, team building, diversity, and leadership. Her work has been profiled in Working Woman Magazine, Chief Learning Officer, and the Wall Street Journal.
Before founding her consulting practice, she served as an executive with Burson-Marsteller and the American Management Association in New York City. She has taught communications at The New School for Social Research and The City College of New York.
