humanize worksheet: generative

8/4/2019 Humanize Worksheet: Generative

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Humanize: How People-Centric Organizations Succeed in a Social World I www.humanizebook.com I Generative Worksheet

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Humanize Worksheet: How to Be GenerativeThe worksheets which accompany Humanize: How People-Centric OrganizationsSucceed in a Social World are designed to help you start humanizing your organization,whether you are a top-level executive, in middle management, or a ront line employee.

The basic process or the worksheets is the same or everyone; but we do include

some additional inormation customized to these three levels because our goal is to

help you get the ball rolling in your organization, no matter where in the system you

might be.

Humanize spells out our key elements or humanizing organizations:

Open

Trustworthy

Generative

Courageous

This worksheet is about creating more generative organizations.

Were here to help. Contact the authors:

Jamie Notter

VP, Consulting

Management Solutions Plus, Inc.

[email protected]

(240) 404-6493

www.getmejamienotter.com

Maddie Grant

chie social media strategist

SocialFish, LLC

[email protected]

(202) 713-5343

www.socialsh.org

Copyright 2011, Pearson Publishing

humanize by jamie notter & maddie granthow people-centric organizations succeed in a social world
http://www.humanizebook.com/mailto:[email protected]://www.getmejamienotter.com/mailto:[email protected]://www.socialfish.org/http://www.socialfish.org/mailto:[email protected]://www.getmejamienotter.com/mailto:[email protected]://www.humanizebook.com/


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Overview of Humanize Chapter 8:

How to Be Generative

This worksheet assumes youve read the book, and it is probably a good

idea to re-read Chapter 8: How to Be Generative, beore you begin.

Generative organizations have cultures that embrace inclusion.

They seek out dierence wherever they can, knowing it drives innovation.

People are skilled in confict resolution so they can handle dierence.

Decision making is distributed and not in the hands o the same ew people all the time.

People are allowed to be themselves, both in the oce and online. Paradox is okay: people are sensitive, but dont hold back; people are proud but know theyre imperect;

people expect change but maintain a stable identity.

Generative organizations have internal structure and processes that

maximize collaboration.

Processes that used to be controlled are now opened up or collaboration across traditional boundaries.

For example, brand is now co-created with consumers and employees at all levels; it lives and grows,

rather than only being distributed by communication vehicles. And strategy actively connects the top and bottom o the system so the what and the how are

collaboratively dened.

In generative organizations, individuals have a strong capacity to build

relationships.

Individuals know themselves and understand others well enough to negotiate strong interpersonal

relationships.

They have advanced competency in communication because that is the oundation or strong relationships. They understand how networks work; its not just one-on-one relationships.

They leverage social media in their relationship building.
http://www.humanizebook.com/http://www.humanizebook.com/


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Humanize Worksheet

How to Be Generative

InstructionsBy ocusing on these concepts in the three areas o organizational culture, internal structure and process, and

individual behavior, this worksheet will allow you to assess your organizations capacity or being generative,

and come up with action items that will help you to move towards being more generative.

The purpose o this worksheet is ultimately to get you to do something. Reading our book is awesome (thank

you, by the way), but nothing changes by reading a book. Change happens when people start behaving

dierently. When people start working dierently. Our mantra: i you do what you always did, youll get what you

always got.

We eel strongly that our organizations need to be more human... Thats where you come in.

The worksheet is divided into three sections to be completed in order. They build upon each other to complete anal plan.

1 Your AssessmentStart by answering questions about you and your organization. Complete a quick quiz where you give

30 numerical ratings on being generative in terms o culture, process and behavior. Then there are our

open-ended questions or you to answer to ll in the gaps.

2 Conversations and DataThis section helps you have targeted conversations with others so you can collect necessary data

and brainstorm ideas or taking action. Well help you set up individual meetings, group meetings, and

produce summary reports.

3 Action PlanThis section will help you design an action plan or next steps to help make your organization more

generative. Well help you prioritize potential actions, both big and small, and map out what you are

going to do next.


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1 Your Assessment

Assessment Goals

a. To evaluate your organizations ability to be generative rom your perspective.

b. To identiy possible ideas or your action plan.

On a scale o 1 (completely not true) to 10 (absolutely its that way around here), rate the ollowing

statements in the context o you or your organization:

Quiz A: Culture

To Be Generative at the level o Organizational Culture:

Goal = InclusionSCORE

(110)

A1 The people we hire look, think, talk, and act dierently than the people at the top.

A2 Employees are ree to participate online and be themselves ully.

A3 Change doesnt reak people out.

A4 Confict is engaged reely, and not avoided.

A5 Lots o dierent people get to make decisions.

A6 We regularly bring in external voices to help us see particular issues through different lenses.

A7 We are not timid about our diversity conversations.

A8 Pride is not a barrier to collaboration.

A9We are less about integrating people into our system, and more about growing a new

system by bringing in new people.

A10 In the middle o all this change, I still know who we are as an organization.

QUIZ A SUBTOTAL (out o 100)


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1 Your Assessment continued

Quiz B: Process

To Be Generative at the level o Internal Structure and Process:

Goal = CollaborationSCORE

(110)

B1 People work together because they are excited about what new things will develop.

B2 Everyone knows both where we are competing strategically AND how we will compete.

B3 Who owns the process rarely comes up in management conversations.

B4 Our organizations identity is evolving in ways I cant always predict.

B5 We have processes in place that help us learn rom what we do.

B6 I dont need permission to work with someone rom another department.

B7 Were not threatened or defensive when we let consumers into our decision-making processes.

B8 Were comortable experimenting with online collaboration tools.

B9 We like the idea o external stakeholders shaping our brand.

B10Most of us inside the organization understand and are invested in the strategic

direction of our business.

QUIZ B SUBTOTAL (out o 100)

Quiz C: Behavior

To Be Generative at the level o Individual Behavior

Goal = Relationship Building

SCORE

(110)

C1 I have made connections online that helped me in my work.

C2 We communicate and handle confict well in this organization.

C3 I have a sense of how my organizations network is connected to other networks in my industry.

C4I know what other departments need rom me (and what I need rom them) and this is

common here.

C5 We oer sta training on how to use social media to communicate online.

C6 Im aware o who the online infuences are in my industry.

C7 I use social media to connect with people, not just to promote our products and services.

C8We routinely collect customer eedback through all kinds o channels, including social

media channels, and let people know what actions have been taken as a result.

C9I have made proessional introductions between my ellow colleagues and people I have

met online.

C10 The strong relationships we have in the oce help us get more done.

QUIZ C SUBTOTAL (out o 100)


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Compile your point scores

This assessment will give you a snapshot o how generative your organization is rom your own point o view.

Add up the points or each section, then add up your total point score.

Add up your three subtotal scores.

A QUIZ A SUBTOTAL (out o 100)

B QUIZ B SUBTOTAL (out o 100)

C QUIZ C SUBTOTAL (out o 100)

TOTAL (out o 300)

226300 pointsI you have more than about 240 points, please call us, because we want to eature you

on the blog as an example o a generative organization. Nice job.

151225 points Your organization is well on the way to being generative! You can reely concentrate onthe areas that scored lower than others.

76150 points

Not a bad start. Pay close attention to which o the three areas (or particular questions)

scored highest and lowest. Can you do more o the bright spots? Can you scrap some

things that are completely not generative?

075 points

This score assumes that you probably have lack o generativity issues in all three areas

o culture, process, and behavior. Youll need to pick your battles and gure out where

you can concentrate your eorts at rst.

What scored highest? What scored lowest? What are some areas you might be able to eect some

change? Are there high scoring areas you can do more o? Are there low-scoring areas where you canstart small but still have some impact? Focus on those as you complete the qualitative sel-assessment

in the next section.

Your notes:


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Qualitative Sel-assessment

Multiple choice quizzes are relatively easy. Your score should give you a little bit o quantitative insight into

how generative your organization is, and will become more interesting as you start to compare it with others

scores (see Section 2). But this exercise is incomplete without more qualitative thinking about why you rated the

questions above in the way that you did. Look back at your answers and write down your thoughts about theollowing questions:

Wherever you are on the generative scale, why is it that way? I youre horrible, then why are you

horrible? I youre awesome, then why are you awesome? What made you as generative (or not) as you

are today?

What is the most important area to work on in your organization when it comes to being more

generative? Why is that important? How will it matter to perormance?


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What are you doing personally that is contributing to a more generative organization?

What are you doing that is getting in the way?

Insights and Potential Actions

Take the answers to your essay questions and your own analysis o the mini survey and make a bulleted list o

observations o where your organization stands in terms o generativity, including your initial thoughts aboutwhat can be done to make the organization more generative. You dont need rm conclusions yet, but you

should be able to put some ideas down on paper. I you were going to start today, what could you do?

Youre done with Section 1. In Section 2, youll compare notes with others.


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2 Conversations and Data

Conversation Goalsa. To collect qualitative and quantitative data rom others in the organization evaluating your

organizations generativity.

b. To collectively identiy possible ideas or your action plan.

You are now ready to have conversations with others about generativity.

Step 1: Identiy who you want to meet with individually in your organization.

Exactly how many conversations you have and with whom will vary tremendously depending on your context.What works or a six-person nonprot will not be the best plan or a large corporation. More inormation to help

guide you on this is at the end o this section.

List their names here.

Step 2: Schedule INDIVIDUAL meetings.List the dates and times or each meeting with those you identied in step 1.

Name Date Time


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2 Conversations and Data continued

Step 3: Invite the individuals you have listed in Step 2 to complete Section

1 o this worksheet as pre-work or a discussion about generativity.

Their answers, compared with yours, will be the conversation starter.

Suggested agenda:

a. Quiz resultsCulture. Compare notes.

b. Quiz resultsProcess. Compare notes.

c. Quiz resultsBehavior. Compare notes.

d. Action Plan brainstorm. Compare and compile ideas.

Step 4: Record key ideas from your individual meetings.

Step 5: Schedule GROUP meetings.

Be sure to review the group meetings guidance in pages13-14 beore you schedule your meeting.

List dates and times or each meeting. Remember to invite participants to complete Section 1 o this worksheet

as pre-work or a discussion about generativity.

Name Date Time


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Step 6: List observations that you had rom your group meetings.Create a brie meeting report ater each group conversation. Here is a sample:

Meeting with (list names)

Date / Time / Location

Goals or this meeting

1. To assess, as a group, our organizations ability to be generative

2. To brainstorm possibilities or improvement

Culture (inclusion)

what are the bright spots?

what needs work?

Process (collaboration)


what needs work?


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Step 6: List observations Continued

Behavior (relationship building)


what needs work?

Specic areas that need urther exploration

Ideas or actions to be taken

Any and all ideas are welcome here.


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Guidance on individual and group meetings

Your goal or this section is to gather data rom other people in your organization, and to brainstorm ideas or

becoming more generative. Every business is dierent, and only you will be able to judge how best to conduct

these conversations.

- You could plan one or a series o meetings with individuals

- You could ask every department to have their own meeting and share results

- You could plan a hal-day workshop or the whole company

- You could use online tools to have an ongoing conversation

Depending on the existing culture, you may need to have a series o one-on-one conversations to start. Its

possible youll come across as the person who just got seminared and is trying to push an agenda on them.

Maintain a tone o curiosity in the conversation, and be open to the possibility that others wont see things the

way you do.

When you move to group conversations, we recommend you invite anyone who has an interest in the topic

o being generative in your organization to participate in these conversations. Being more generativemore

inclusive and more collaborativemeans inviting all kinds o voices to speak and participate.

That being said, in many organizations you will also want to have conversations within certain subgroups.

Both types o conversations are ne. Here are some things to think about as you plan these conversations,

depending on your level in the hierarchy.

Executives. This is a good opportunity to explore the senior teams true commitment to being generative

(think inclusion, collaboration, and relationship building). Without anyone else in the room, you might get

some more truth in the conversation, so have some courage to hold your collective eet to the re or a bit

and ocus on you (not the others who are out there and are the source o the problem). Youll need to be

clear on the ground rules, particularly condentiality. Youll need to come to agreement about what sort o

reporting out to people outside the room there will be.

But since this is about including others and collaborating, you obviously dont want to have all these

conversations behind closed doors. Still, we dont recommend running out and inviting in the managers and

line employees or an all sta meeting about inclusion and collaboration. Being generative is about creation

and productivity, so give some time to the other groups to start some conversations and actually invite YOU

to attend, rather than the other way around. Dont wait orever, but dont rush in to control it. The same advicerom the Open worksheet applies: be curious and dont dominate the conversations.

Middle Managers. O the our elements in the book, generative might be the one where the middle level

should really be taking the lead in the conversations. As a manager, youre a connector, which is critical to

being generative. Its sometimes easier or you to make the connections or collaboration or acilitate new

relationship building. So spend extra time thinking about who you want to include in these conversations so

that you get good content in the conversation AND start making connections that will help build the capacity

or being generative. And brush up on your acilitation skills!


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Front Line Employees. You have a lot to bring to the table as a ront line employee in the conversation about

being generative. So make sure you get to some o those conversations with managers and senior executives

so you can share your experience as someone who is implementing on a daily basis. Dont all into the trap

o nothing will ever change about inclusion, collaboration, or relationship building, and dont all into the

theres nothing I can do about anyway trap either. Step up and share your perspective about where you

can create new and exciting thingsand where those eorts are thwarted. And this is also a great topic or

engaging your co-workers who are more active in social media (or i thats you, making sure you share your

insight and experience with others). Thats a critical piece or generative action.

The ultimate goal o these conversations is to brainstorm actionable ideas, small and large.

I you eel you need customized consulting help to manage these conversations, contact the authors. Were

here to help.

Youll be done with Section 2 when you eel you have enough participation (buy-in) and enough ideas to want

to take action in large or small ways. In the nal Section 3, youll prioritize those ideas, and decide how you can

start.

Notes:


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3 Action Plan

Action Plan Goals:a. To prioritize actionable ideas

b. To identiy what YOU can do to get star ted.

Looking at all o the ideas that have come out o these conversations, we now need to gure out whats do-able

or YOU. What are you, personally, going to do? You can also take this action plan and complete one as a team,

or as a group. But ultimately, everyone who reads our book and wants to take action to help their organization

become more generative will start with the question, What can I do?

Based on the assessments and ideas youve collected, there are at least three ways to decide on a plan of action.

a) Figure out what is working, and do more o those things. Think FRY (Frequency, Reach, Yield)can you

be generativemore often? Getmore people to be generative in particular circumstances? Expand the areas

youre already generative? List the ideas here, rom the results o your group and individual brainstorming,

that all under this category.

b) Change small things that are not working. Find small victories and keep moving up rom there. Document

everything and use data to help you move the needle. List the ideas that all under this category here.


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3 Action Plan continued

c) Make big changes, as long as you have a good percentage o people invested. Involve everyone in the

process o choosing what changes to make. List the ideas that all under this category here.

d) Think about priority, and degree o difculty. O all the ideas youve brainstormed, are some more

important than others? What kind o resources need to be mobilized?

e) Think about sequence. Do some o your ideas need to be completed beore others can happen?

More Important

Less Important

Fewer

Resources /Easy

More

Resources /Hard


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Action Plan Outline

Ultimately, however, helping to make your organization more generative starts with YOU. List the ideas YOU can do.

Idea How easy/hard? Timerame

Can I do this mysel?

Who else do I need

to involve to make

this happen?

Culture [sample]

Invite an expertcolleague from adifferent industry toour next Research &

Development meet ing

[sample]

Easy

[sample]

Next month

[sample]

Yes, if theres nobudget involved.

Remember: a generative culture is about inclusion.


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Who else do I need

to involve to make

this happen?

Process [sample]

Start a small web

project to crowdsourceproduct ideas

[sample]

Need to research

options and cost.Need to gureout process forimplement ing ideas

[sample]

Live in 3 months

[sample]

Need IT involved;

budget approval.Maybe headcount tomanage the ideas.

Remember: generative processes enable collaboration.


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Who else do I need

to involve to make

this happen?

Behavior [sample]

Join an industrynetworking group

[sample]

Easy

[sample]

Immediately

[sample]

Yes

Remember: generative behavior focuses on relationship building.

Thank you or taking the time and eort to complete this worksheet and start the ball rolling towards

becoming a more generative organization.

There are three other similar worksheets accompanying Humanize: How People-Centric Organizations

Succeed in a Social World: a worksheet on How to Be Open, one on How to Be Trustworthy, and one on

How to be Courageous.

Good luck!


humanize worksheet: generative

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