Do You Have Bad Manners?

If I had one wish today it would be for every person that looks at their mobile device 4 or 500 times per day to really stop for a moment to get a glimpse of themselves.The average person with a conscience would be appalled how they really look when interacting with people who are not, well, rude to anyone else. When asked, most people can't even understand the words, bad manners, because we all have great manners.  Might be time to check that phone again for more accuracy.

Poor or bad manners occur 24-hours per day, no matter who you are, male or female, short or tall, black green, yellow blue or orange.  If you just take an hour, okay, 30 minutes away from your mobile device to observe human interaction -- you would be sick in your stomach. That's what most people with decent or good manners think about those with no manners or who are just plain rude.

Bad manners occur where we live, in the workforce, on public transportation, in hospitals, in restaurants, in our schools, in clubs and bars, in Whole Food or other food stores, while driving, while biking, while jogging or walking, while shopping for beautiful outfits and especially on the streets of San Francisco and every major city.

Case in point, this afternoon, I left out of my condo unit and looked dead in the eyes of a neighbor who lives 2 doors down. As usual, I said hello. He made a point to look at me and put his head down. By the way, that's being rude or just plain stupid. And just in case you are wondering, English is his first language and mine too. When such idiotic events happen, I usually smile and make a note to delete that person from my view forever. To be quite honest, if there was a major catastrophe I wouldn't bother to lift a hand to help or to alert him. Listen up people, when someone says hello to you, respond with a hello or hi or just give a fake smile and nod your head to acknowledge the other person. My dad taught me to be nice to everyone once. It doesn't matter if they are the President of a Fortune 500 company or the janitor cleaning toilets or the busboy in one of your favorite restaurants that most refuse to acknowledge. Everyone is important. Ever thought about what they could do to your food -- Yum!

 Go ahead and deny it, but here are a few tips that may indicate you may be RUDE: 

Flat Out Rudeness

Some people pretend no one else in the world is affected by their bad behavior, actions, and words. Don't ask rude questions that are none of your business. And if someone does something nice for you, say, Thank you, to show your appreciation. Or Excuse me, if you step on someone's foot.That shouldn't be too difficult to say -- Just 2 small words even if you don't mean it.

Cell Phone Conversations in Public
When you're talking on your cell phone in public, remember where you are. Don't discuss anything that the rest of the world has no business knowing nor do they want to know, like what your doctor said about your infection, your Brazilian waxing appointment, your baby's daddy in prison argument about money, in an Uber of Lyft auto, or the argument you had with your boss after you didn't finish your work. Wait until you get home – or at least in your car or on a street corner with no people around – before discussing such private stuff.

Barely Tipping in Restaurants
Remember that many people who rely on tips make below minimum wage, and they often have families to support. Tip according to the type and quality of service rendered. The latest bills also add it up for you whether you want to give 10%, 15%, 20% or more. Check the box and sign your name.

Taking Your Phone to Dinner to See Friends
What did these people ever do before texting and social media existed? I am sure we all notice couples sitting at dinner and both are on their cell phones and not looking at each other. Are you dating the phone? They probably had "real" relationships with "in person" people. If you are physical with someone, don't ignore him or her to text someone who isn't even with you.

Breathing Down the Back of Necks
When you're waiting for someone to finish his or her transaction with a cashier, give the person room to breathe. We are not in an overcrowded country. Everyone needs personal space when dealing with anything financial – even if it's the purchase of a burrito or Cosmo. Pretty sure you would hate it.

Unkind to Disabled People
When you spot a wheelchair-bound person in a grocery store, ask if you can help get something off a top shelf. That should take you about a second, and it will be good for everyone. Never park in a spot designated for a disabled person with the reasoning that, " I will only be a minute", unless you are disabled.

Respecting the Elderly
A big sore point for me is to see young or middle aged people sitting on their butts on public transit, looking at their phones and refusing to move over so that someone can at least take a seat on a crowded bus or subway. Many people pretend that they don't see older people struggling to hold on while standing on a crowded bus. Or my latest observation is when women are 6 to 8 months pregnant and no man or woman could consider offering them a seat. My only wish is if someone who is rude lives to become elderly, disabled or pregnant and that you be treated the same.

Screaming Children = Poor Parenting Skills
You know how frustrating and annoying it can be when someone lets their children misbehave in public or on public transportation while the parent is on his or her cell phone. Whether they're throwing a temper tantrum or running around and disrupting others, they get on other people's nerves. Before you bring your children to any public place, talk to them about their manners. If the child does not understand, perhaps you should not be in a restaurant disturbing everyone and ruining a great date.

Smart Grooming
Dress for the place and occasion. Follow the dress code at work and other places where people typically wear nicer clothing. Remember that casual Friday at the office isn't an excuse to be untidy. Regardless if you work for a high tech company, a startup or for a non-profit agency please take a shower, brush your teeth, comb your hair and for goodness sake wash your feet if you are going to wear flip-flops and prop your dogs on top of your desk because it's cool. Trust me, it's not.

Appreciation
After you receive a gift, send a thank you note. No need to write an essay, just simply thank the person, address the envelope, put a stamp on it, and stick it in the mailbox. Wait, you do know what a stamp is right? And a mailbox - It's that big blue box on most corners in most cities.There is an app for it. If you absolutely don't have the two minutes to spare, send an email. Email isn't the best , but it's better than nothing.

Using Profanity in Public
There is no reason to let loud foul language pass your lips when you are in a public space, especially when there are elderly folks and children around you. Losing control of your language is considered a weakness and screams insecurity,

Don't Touch Me
Get real people. If you ever been on public transportation during rush hour, everyone touches each other. The other day a young woman threatened to call the police if a woman touched her again. I couldn't help it, I just laughed out loud at the stupidity. As a result, everyone on the subway laughed too. Let's get real, if you don't like crowded buses or trains, drive on a crowded freeway. What! no car? Maybe you should never leave your house or apartment.

Mikael Wagner is a Communications Project Manager. For more information, visit us at www.promotionswest.com

Do You Love Your Job, or Hate It?

 

If you do, we should all come over to work with you. Seriously, if you love your job, tell me 3 or 4 things that you love about it and things that we should look for in a job.

For me, I love my work which has nothing to do with many of my co-workers is usually the answer I get from everyone when I am talking to them.  From communicating with many people these are a few things that I have discovered:

Why I Love My Job:

• My manager is a true leader who wants each team member to grow and to become a great leader.
• Laughter -- I always know that my co-workers will make me laugh, even when I am in a bad mood. It makes me so happy and I look forward to seeing them after the weekend.
• Being able to make an impact on people or communities that we are serving.
• Always learning new skills and being coached. If a mistake is made my manager says dust yourself off and let's try it again, maybe a different way but with the same goal.
• Directions are clearly defined with deliverables and due dates.
• Opportunity to talk to my manager and get honest feedback and share ideas on ways to accomplish projects more efficiently.
• Trust and Respect between staff and our Manager or Leader.
• Everyday is different, challenging and exciting.
• Knowing and seeing the people we are trying to reach actually get the message, smile and say thank you.

 

 

Why I Hate My Job:

• Lack of good communications
• My boss is a micro-manager and never trust anyone.
• My ideas are not appreciated, acknowledged or welcomed.

• Clear issues around discrimination and racism although it’s hard to prove.
• Managers with poor or no leadership or management skills.
• Retaliation if something is said that the boss does not like. We have been told that we should learn our place.
• Lack of recognition and security.
• Unable to use my skills, talents and expertise.
• Being Underpaid and overworked without compensation or acknowledgement.
• Lack of Flexibility with Benefits and Commute
•  Lack of Confidence

As a result, most of the people I have spoken to have quit their jobs without having another job in hand. When asked why – Because it would be more enjoyable to be a dog walker or a clerk at Walmart then to be abused day in and day out by a horrible and in many cases incompetent boss.

Remember, being miserable on a job can affect your overall mental and physical health. Several of the people that shared their stories with me have experienced stress, skin irritations, headaches, rising high blood pressure and overall depression of feeling stuck in a bad situation. It's a great opportunity to start planning your next step and consider what you really want to do. It's a wonderful opportunity to reimagine life and build a network of supporters to help you achieve your goals.

So What are your reasons for loving or hating your job? What are you going to do about it?

For more information, please free to email me at bmikael@promotionswest.com. Mikael Wagner is a Communications Project Manager.

Planning Your Next Project

Happy New Year!  It's a great time to kick off the new year with a solid plan that will drive your next project towards success. Planning is a key tool to include in all of your activities to reach your goals in a timely fashion. I hope that these ideas and tips will be beneficial in your next project planning effort.

The key to every successful project is in the planning. Creating a project plan is essential in developing your project or community event. Quite often, project planning is often ignored by most event planners and community organizers in order to focus on the work that may seem more important. In my early years of community engagement, planning was often the last thing considered. Most people often fail to realize the great value of having a project plan. A great plan can be beneficial for saving time, money and possibly many challenges that may be faced. There are several steps to planning a successful project that may be helpful:

Project Goals

• A project is successful when it has met the needs of the stakeholders or community gatekeepers. Stakeholders can be anyone who is directly, or indirectly impacted by the project. To begin, it's important to identify the stakeholders or gatekeepers in your project. Surprisingly, it's not always easy to distinguish stakeholders of a project that are indirectly impacted. Examples of stakeholders may include:
• The project sponsor or financial supporter
• The client or customer who receives the deliverable
• Users of the project output
• Project Manager or Project Team
• Board or Advisory group member
• Community leaders

After identifying your stakeholders, the next step will be to ascertain their needs. One way to identify their needs is by conducing key informant interviews with them.  During the interview process, it's key to discover the requirements that  create real benefits. Beware, sometimes stakeholders may discuss needs that aren't relevant and may not deliver benefits. From experience I have found that it's good to listen and hear what is being said by your audience.

Once all interviews have been completed, develop a prioritized list of needs. The next step would be to create a group of measurable goals that can be reviewed against the SMART principle. Once a clear set of goals have been established they should be  placed in the project plan. It's also helpful to include the needs and expectations of the stakeholders. This is the most challenging part of the  planning process. Here are the elements of the SMART principle:

Project Deliverables

• Once the goals are created, develop a list of items that the project will need to deliver in order to reach its goals. Remember to add all deliverables to the project plan with approximate deliverable dates. Try not to stress if the dates are not accurate. Every good plan should be flexible and adjustable in order to reach the overall goals of the project.

Project Schedule:

Now the fun begins - develop a list of tasks that need to applied for each potential deliverable or objective. For each task, make note of the following key items: 

• Amount of time required for completing the tasks
• Note who on your team will be responsible for each task and their role

This task will help to establish the amount of effort for each deliverable leading to a more precise delivery date. In developing your plan there are a number of project planning tools that may be used. Many of the tools are free. It's a great idea to check them out to see what feels right for you. There are a couple of tools that are more compatible for me that I will highlight, but please check them all or create your own tool. Here are some potential (free) project management tools for your review:

• Asana
• Basecamp
• Orangescrum
• Meistertask
• Wrike
• Smartsheet
• Slack
• Zoho
• 2-Plan
• Freedcamp

Other Resources:

There are a variety of plans that may be created as part of the planning process that can be included in the overall plan.

Human Resource Plan:

• Identify by name the team members and organizations that may have a leading role in your project. For each, describe their roles and responsibilities. Remember to identify the number of people needed for the project and if possible the amount of time to complete each task.

Communications Plan:

• Develop a document that reveals who should be kept informed about the activities of the project and how information will be distributed to them. Often, monthly or quarterly status reports are provided that describe how the project is performing, accomplishments and future work.

Risk Management Plan:

• Risk management is essential to the success of project management. It's imperative and highly recommended to identify as many risks as possible to your project. Planning ahead helps the project manager to be prepared and ready to deal with potential or unexpected challenges. Here are a few examples of common, everyday project risks:
• Lack of stakeholder input
• Poor communication leading to misunderstandings
• Stakeholders adding new ideas or activities after the project has began
• Not understanding the needs of stakeholders
• Unclear or misunderstanding of roles and responsibilities
• Unexpected budget cuts or budget delays
• Not enough time estimated in order to complete projects
• Disagreements between team members and/or stakeholders

Once you start working on your project, you and your team will identify other potential risks that may or may not occur.  It's a great idea to make a list of those potential risks and jot down notes of how each would be handled if it should happen during the project. You are now ready to get started in what will be a GREAT project.

Always remember:

For more information about project planning or planning your next community engagement or event, please feel free to email us at info@promotionswest.com.

Effectively Reaching Priority Populations

For the past 15 years, Promotions West has been working to engage agencies in understanding how to reach priority populations or as what it use to be called, communities of color.  A lot of jazzy words have emerged instead of just using the old term, outreach.  Today outreach workers are called navigators or community ambassadors.  Regardless, the message is the same.

When working with specific populations one of the most important keys is to develop and build trust. Over the years, communities of color have been raped by outsiders entering, offering gift cards and sandwiches for an invaluable amount of information on how they could make the community a better place to live and be healthy. In reality, many never returned once information was gathered and used, but not to benefit the audience answering all the questions and sharing great ideas. Why? Well, if you are a person of color you will understand that this has been the norm for years, the old bait and switch game. Soon, those needing that information became wiser and started hiring people who looked like someone from the community they are trying to reach.

What were the results? Same results, no one ever returned or helped to improve anything at all. Today, community members and stake holders are much smarter and aware of the games to rob them of their brilliant ideas. As a result, it's much harder to get into communities, regardless of what you look like or sound like. The secret is to be genuine when you go into any community. If not, you will be seen as a fake. Stakeholders and community members can smell fakes a mile away, trust me. The first few times you visit a community practice active listening to hear and to listen to what community members desire.

We put together a guide to help organizations reach African Americans or Black populations. We are in the process of updating that guide to include reaching the Latinx communities. The guide is free and can be downloaded from the Promotions West website. We also created a guide to help in the planning of successful focus groups with community members.

At Promotions West we are in the process of creating public relations and marketing workshops designed to equip organizations with the tools to strategically develop their communications and project plans in reaching communities of color. Remember, ethnic media is an essential partner to engage when reaching out to your audience.

As our audiences change, many engage in obtaining information through social media networks such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Snap Chat and YouTube. A good way to organize your social media activities is by using Hootsuite, an all-encompassing app to promote your messages easier. We facilitate sessions with small to medium-sized organizations about social media and how to get started. Usually Promotions West will create social marketing pages, develop social media templates for key stories and events, and develop a timeline with clear dates. After 3 to 6 months, agencies or organizations will feel comfortable taking the lead. It's our goal to educate, demonstrate and provide the tools for the agency to take the reigns.

Here are some helpful tips to reaching your audience:

Getting Started:

• After discussion with team members, identify who you are trying to reach and why
• Define the project 
• List the goals and objectives
• Brainstorm on ways to reach your audience
• Develop a clear message that you want to deliver to your audience
• Identify the amount of money that you are able to spend on this project
• List any ideas on ways to promote the message (WOM-Word of Mouth, Advertising, Radio, Television, Print, Outdoor Advertising, promotional items, community events, or via community outreach workers)
• Evaluation - Decide how you will know that your project or campaign is successful (Do you just want numbers of people reached or are you interested in the impact on a community?)

If you are unfamiliar with your audience, it may be helpful to conduct a community assessment or an ethnographic study of the audience that you are interested in reaching.  You may: 

• Search for the meaning of social and cultural norms and views
• Find reasons for the use of certain behaviors or practices
• Examine social trends and instances like divorce, illnesses, etc.
• Examine social interactions and encounters
• Better understand the roles of families, relationships, and organizations
• Outline the areas where your audience living
• What is the make up of the various communities? (Ages, Education, Countries people may be from or Regions of the country)
• Acknowledge the similarities and differences
• Ascertain how your audience get their information or receive news
• List community cultural events, fairs or potential community engagement events
• Include staff and board members in all discussions

Goals and Objectives:

Before creating an event you should develop a list of goals and objectives. Responding to the following questions will assist you in focusing on your event:

• What is the purpose of your event or campaign?
• What are the benefits for the community?
• What results or outcomes do you expect or desire?
• Is media coverage needed and why?
• How will the event be evaluated?

Active listening is extremely important to remember when working with communities. Often we tend to not ask the people that we are trying to reach what they want and what are the best ways to reach them. Then we are disappointed when no one shows up or likes the services that are being provided to them. 

Remember that communities, especially those of color come together around food and family activities and share information with other community members. Don't make the mistake of thinking that communities don't engage with other communities. Everyone connects or intermarry with other groups of people and share information with each other. Trust me it's beneficial in promoting your efforts.

The Promotions West guide will provide you with a number of ideas to be successful in reaching communities of color. If you are interested in being a part of a communications workshop on reaching your priority audience, please drop us at line at info@promotionswest.com. Stay tuned, we are working on finalizing details for our workshops in 2018. 

Training Gone Bad

How many of you have had the pleasure of attending a well-planned training session that inspired you to share the information with others?  Quite often most people take it for granted when a training is simply amazing and don’t think much about the work that actually goes into it.  Last week, I had the experience of attending one of the worse trainings in my entire life.

As a trainer/facilitator for over 15 years, I have learned from many of the best professionals in the field.  It’s also true that trainers can be the most difficult participants in any training because a good presenter knows from the start if the training is going to be fantastic or horrific.

Last week, after getting over the initial feeling of horror and wondering why the fire alarm hadn’t gone off so that we could escape the building and not return. If the windows had opened I would have pretended to commit suicide to save my colleagues and myself. Once returning to some state of sanity, I struggled to consider why I was mandated to attend this training from hell.  After a wave of depression, I realized what a great opportunity to watch the worse trainer ever for the next 4 days and to remember to learn what not to do as a facilitator. You are probably thinking that someone facilitating a training for 4 days should be able to get back on track after hearing the feedback from participants after Day 1, but it didn’t happen at all. 

Here are a few things that caught my attention that a good trainer should NEVER  do:

Lack of Planning:

• Failing to Plan is a Plan to Fail. We have all heard this before, but believe me, it’s true. It was clear that our trainer was unprepared and presented poorly and continued to get worse each day. It was later discovered that the trainer had missed every planning session and/or conference call with key staff that would have ensured a successful training that enabled participants to learn more about the topic.  It’s normal for a good facilitator or trainer to schedule planning meetings with the client and work out clear details of the scope of the training and how each day will be created and completed successfully.

Bad Attitude

• When a facilitator or trainer lacks the ability to be humble, the audience will feel disrespected and may lose interest in the entire training. When entering a room as the leader or trainer, all attitudes and big egos should be left in the car or outside of the door. After all, those negative characteristics were not invited or engaged to participate. Arrogance is not a positive trait to possess as a trainer.

No Icebreaker:

• Most training sessions usually begin with an icebreaker or an activity to create a fun and friendly atmosphere, especially when people don’t know each other well.  There are many great icebreakers or fun games to get people talking, laughing and sharing information that can help the trainer to make subtle changes in the presentation. There was no effort to create a warm atmosphere in this horrible training, and each day continued to be more miserable than the one before.

Expectations Exercise

• In an effort to ascertain the needs and desires of training participants, presenters often conduct an activity where participants can introduce themselves and give an expectation of what they would like to take away from the training. Often if the group is too large, they can be placed into smaller groups and share that information within their groups. Once coming back together as a full group, one member of the team will introduce its members and a couple of expectations. Notes are made on an easel and are reviewed by the trainer. Do I have to say it?  Well nothing similar happened at the training I attended. I watched many people who struggled in working with strangers, preferring to work with one of their co-workers instead.

Poor Introduction:

• Try to remember that the training is not for the benefit of the trainer but for the participants. Our imposter trainer was not concerned about finding out who was in the audience, nor why people had given up 4 days of work to be there. This trainer kicked off the training by giving a very dull self-centered presentation for 20 minutes or more. Everyone was totally turned off almost immediately and confused whether or not the topic was about the trainer’s life or about a family member being ill.

Inappropriate Language:

• Try to not use inappropriate language with speaking to training participants, especially when the relationship or trust has not been created with the team. Humor is always good in training if you are a humorous person with a bubbly personality. Without creating trust and a positive rapport, Trainers should avoid odd comments. My target trainer spent some time taking about the constipation of a relative when looking at the words To Do as part of the PDSA presentation on a slide and decided to explain in detail why the personal information was being shared. The PDSA cycle is shorthand for testing a change – by planning it, doing it, observing the results, and acting on what is learned.  This is a scientific method used for action-oriented learning.

Work Plan:

• Once the trainer got into the power point presentation, it was clear that they were unfamiliar with any of the information and started to make things up. I can’t repeat often enough that the trainer must be extremely well prepared and familiar with their slides. Not the case in this session. Lack of being prepared caused complete confusion among participants starting on the first day. The situation did not improve or correct itself over the next few days. Hard to imagine that it could have gotten worse, but it was on a downward path.

Respect:

• It can be disrespectful to argue with participants or try to shut them down from asking questions. The role of the trainer is and has always been is to support workshop participants and to make sure they leave the training more knowledgeable since they have taken many days from work for the purpose of attending a training to gain more information or skills to increase their job skills. A good trainer uses active listening when dealing with participants. When most people are speaking, those listening busy are thinking of their response. Active listening is listening 100% to what is being said or asked of you so that you can respond appropriately, correctly and respectfully.

Follow Through:

• As a trainer, facilitator, presenter or teacher, it’s important to always follow thru on what you promised to do for participants. It may help to put items on a parking lot – which can be on large white Post-it paper or a white board that will remind the trainer of things that need to be addressed. Quite often a good trainer will place white paper around the room so that participants can make comments throughout the training. Parking lot items may be reviewed several times during the training. Trust me, you will not see this at a bad training session.

Lying:

• My biggest gripe of all is when a trainer or facilitator share untrue information with participants or those in Leadership positions who are doing the hiring.  It’s a problem that could be eliminated if the leadership of any organization, large or small, would check in with staff or participants during or following a training to check to see if everyone was happy and to get feedback.  It’s important to do so because a bad trainer can do harm to participants and risk damaging staff morale while creating negative feelings and poor morale.

These are key reasons why everyone should all take a stand and voice when you are being exposed to a poorly presented training. Any leadership needs to know how their staff felt and were treated.  Firms that hire trainers or facilitators also need to find out how their presenter was received. Remember, evaluation is key to providing feedback that may make a difference in your next training session. Let us know what makes a training GREAT for you.

For over 15 years, Mikael Wagner has been a professional trainer, social marketing/media practitioner and project manager with Promotions West.