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In Summary
Today's organizations expect employees to come to work ready to put their full effort and energy into the task at hand. Maintaining solid personal relationships, taking an active approach to decision-making and working hard to make your choices of reality are all important keys to your success in the workplace. You have the power to make your personal life one of which you can be proud. Your well-ordered personal life will be reflected in your work and will ensure your future employability.
For more information and to help your organization move towards high performance, please contact us.
Until next time...
Sheryl Tuchman, SPHR, SHRM-SCP
http://tools2succeed.com/
There is a pitfall of group decision-making that all groups should carefully avoid. It is called "groupthink". A group makes a bad decision and later finds out that a majority of group members thought it was a bad idea all along but were afraid to speak up during discussions. The term is used when referring to the negative group pressure which causes bad group decisions.
Vietnam and The Bay of Pigs are classic examples of groupthink. A majority of the policy makers involved in each case felt very uneasy about the decision to proceed but did not share their concerns during deliberations. Some thought the group would make the right decision while others were afraid to confront the President or go against the perceived majority.
The tragedy of groupthink is that the group fails to make the decision that all of the individuals know is best. To avoid groupthink, it is important to encourage discussion and critical evaluation of ideas and to be sure to hear others' viewpoints. Consensus, when done right, helps groups avoid the pitfall of groupthink and arrive at good decisions.
Guidelines for Coming to Consensus
- Avoid arguing for your own rankings. Present your position as lucidly and logically as possibly, but listen to the other members' reactions and consider them carefully before you press your point.
- Don't assume that someone must win and someone must lose when discussion reaches a stalemate. Instead, look for the next-most-acceptable alternative for all parties.
- Don't change your mind simply to avoid conflict and to reach agreement and harmony. When agreement seems to come too quickly and easily, be suspicious. Explore the reasons, and be sure everyone accepts the solution for basically similar or complementary reasons. Yield only to positions that have objective and logically-sound foundations.
- Avoid conflict-reducing techniques such as majority vote, averages, coin-flips, and bargaining. When a dissenting member finally agrees, don't feel that he must be rewarded by having his own way on some later point.
- Seek out differences of opinion, trying to involve everyone in the decision-making process. Differences of opinion are natural and expected. Disagreements can help the group's decision because there is a greater chance that the group finds better solutions when they have a wide range of information and opinions.
Until next time...
Sheryl Tuchman, SPHR, SHRM-SCP
http://tools2succeed.com/
Depending on the level of the open position, you may wish to conduct more than 1 in-person interview. Multiple interviews are becoming more common today since there are so many well-qualified candidates from which to choose, making the decision that much more difficult.
Subsequent interviews help you to get to know your candidates better. Determine who is best qualified and will work best with the team. After narrowing the candidates to between 2 and 5, compile a list of outstanding questions or additional information you would like to obtain. Preparation for the second interview is just as important as it was for the first. Your objectives are to devote time to getting to know the candidate better, find out how interested he/she is in the position, and determine if the candidate would fit well with your team. If there are other employees involved in the hiring process that were not present during the first interview, the second interview would be a good opportunity to visit with the others.
Before calling any of your candidates, decide when the interviews will take place. Schedule them as soon as possible after the first interview and preferably all on the same day or on two days.
Tips for the second interview
- Reserve time to review your notes from the first interview.
- Review the resume again.
- Compile a list of outstanding questions or additional details.
- Have candidate interface with other decision makers if appropriate.
- Ask behavioral-based questions: "Tell me about a time when... "
- Consider a panel interview if there are multiple decision makers.
- Consider aptitude testing or behavioral assessments.
- Consider a business luncheon in a less formal environment.
- Provide the candidate with a tour of the facilities.
Until next time...
Sheryl Tuchman, SPHR, SHRM-SCP
http://tools2succeed.com/
