Completed Staff Work: A Habit of Excellence

Printable copy Completed Staff Work_Spring 2015

Completed Staff Work: A Habit of Excellence

 We are what we repeatedly do.

Excellence, then, is not an act

but a habit

Aristotle

Completed Staff Work is where nothing needs to be added.  It is a finished product.

Who:

Individual contributors who assist the principals in an organization and who are looking to increase their value. Promotion into leadership is learned through follower-ship demonstrated in Completed Staff Work.

What:

The seminars will cover the art and science of providing advice to the decision maker. The staffer will learn the steps in Completed Staff Work: the presentation of a path to solve a problem. At the conclusion the attendee will learn how to provide well thought-out support to the leader to accomplish organizational goals

When:

Last Thursday of every month March to June:

March 26^th, April 30^th, May 28^th, June 25^th

10am to 3pm. Lunch will be provided.

Where:

AUL

655 15th St NW, Suite 410

Washington, DC 20005

Phone 202.289.1478

Why:

Leaders today have an overload of information and options. Good staff can act as a filter to separate the valuable ‘signal’ from the distracting ‘noise.’ Managers need mature researchers to gather, analyze and consider options then to make a signature-ready recommendation. Leaders do not have time to do these tasks. This takes training.

However, quality instruction for staff is beyond the budgets of most not-for-profits. AUL is hosting these seminars to help sister organizations to become more effective the execution of their respective goals.

How Much:

The course is available at no charge, but space is limited. E-mail Twanna Spurgeon to hold your seat and to clear security. Contact Jack Yoest Yoest@cua.edu for questions.

Instructor:

John Wesley (Jack) Yoest Jr is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Management and Deltak Fellow teaching graduate business students at The Catholic University of America. He is also the president of Management Training of DC, LLC.

Professor Yoest is a senior business mentor in high technology, medicine, non-profit and new media consulting. His expertise is in management training and development, operations, sales, and marketing. He has worked with clients across the USA and in India and East Asia.

He has been published by Scripps-Howard, National Review Online, The Business Monthly, The Women’s Quarterly and other outlets. He was a columnist for Small Business Trends, Business and Media Institute and was a finalist in the annual 2006 Weblog Awards in the Best Business Blog category for Reasoned Audacity at www.yoest.org which covers the intersection of business, culture and politics. The blog has received one and a half million unique visitors.

Professor Yoest served as a gubernatorial appointee in the Administration of Governor James Gilmore in the Commonwealth of Virginia. During his tenure in state government, he acted as the Chief Technology Officer for the Secretary of Health and Human Resources where he was responsible for the successful Year 2000 (Y2K) conversion for the 16,000-employee unit. He also served as the Assistant Secretary for Health and Human Resources, acting as the Chief Operating Officer of the $5 billion budget.

Prior to this post, Professor Yoest managed entrepreneurial, start-up ventures, which included medical device companies, high technology, software manufacturers, and business consulting companies. His experience includes managing the transfer of patented biotechnology from the National Institutes of Health to his client, which enabled the company to raise $25 million in venture capital funding.

He served as Vice President of Certified Marketing Services International, an ISO 9000 business-consulting firm, where he assisted international companies in human resource certification.

And he also served as President of Computer Applications Development and Integration (CADI), the premier provider of software solutions for the criminal justice market.

Professor Yoest served as an account manager with Menlo Care, a medical device manufacturer. While at Menlo, Professor Yoest was a part of the team that moved sales from zero to over $12 million that resulted in a buy-out by a medical division of Johnson & Johnson.

Professor Yoest is a former Captain in the United States Army having served in Combat Arms. He earned an MBA from George Mason University and completed graduate work in the International Operations Management Program at Oxford University.

He has been active on a number of Boards and has completed a number of 26.2-mile marathon runs.

Professor Yoest and his wife, Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D., who is president and CEO of Americans United for Life, a public interest law firm, live in the Washington, DC area with their five children and dog, Captain America. Their three older children are Division I recruited athletes. First-born Hannah rowed at the University of Virginia and was a member of the 2012 NCAA D-I National Championship Team. John pitches for the College of William & Mary baseball team. Middle daughter Helena will row for Bucknell University in the fall of 2015. Their two youngest children in middle school remain uncommitted.

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Seminar Number One

Completed Staff Work: A Habit of Excellence

Completed Staff Work is where nothing needs to be added. It is a finished product.

Who: Individual contributors who assist the principals in an organization and who are looking to increase their value. Promotion into leadership is learned through follower-ship demonstrated in Completed Staff Work.

What: The seminars will cover the art and science of providing advice to the decision maker. The staffer will learn the steps in Completed Staff Work: the presentation of a path to solve a problem. At the conclusion the attendee will learn how to provide well thought-out support to the leader to accomplish organizational goals.

Leaders today have an overload of information and options. Good staff can act as a filter to separate the valuable ‘signal’ from the distracting ‘noise.’ Managers need mature researchers to gather, analyze and consider options then to make a signature-ready recommendation. Leaders do not have time to do these tasks. This takes training.

However, quality instruction for staff is beyond the budgets of most not-for-profits. AUL is hosting these seminars to help sister organizations to become more effective the execution of their respective goals.

This seminar series will be divided into four sections:

I. What is Completed Staff Work?
II. Problem — Why Completed Staff Work?
III. Path – How to Manage Completed Staff Work?
IV. Presentation — How Do I Manage My Manager?

I. First Seminar, What is Completed Staff Work?

A. CSW Defined

1. The one word that describes Completed Staff Work is “Anticipation.”
2. Completed Staff Work is doing the work so that the manager can make a decision.
3. It is finished, there is nothing to add under the constraints of,

a. Time
b. Talent
c. Treasure

B. CSW Examined

1. Not Charted? Not Done. ‘Submit Button’ from Google Interns https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bxugmx4BD-mcQmV6TmFxV01qZ2c/edit
2. Manager of the Problem: Plan, (what); organize, (who); lead/motivate (why); and control (how).
3. Acting as the Boss’s Deputy Doing what the Boss would do if he had unlimited time. Acting as a manager using;

a. Power; the ability to influence
b. Authority; appointed or implied

C. Ground Rules

1. Policy

a. Rules of the Road
b. Set by higher authority
c. Management by Exception to Policy

2. Procedure

a. How a policy is implemented
b. Carried out by lower authority
c. Governed by Standard Operating Procedures

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Completed Staff Work, Seminar #2 of 4.

II. Problem — Why Completed Staff Work?

Introduction, Radar O’Reilly in M*A*S*H shows anticipation and action. The only work that the boss does is to make decisions. Video https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bxugmx4BD-mcM29DUEZhV0xVamM/edit “Completed Staff Work, MASH”

A. Virtue as habit

1. The Good Thing to do
2. The Right Thing to do
3. Self interest, rightly understood

B. Organization Effectiveness

1. Accomplish organization’s goals
2. SWOT analysis

a. Strengths
b. Weaknesses
c. Opportunities
d. Threats

C. A Problem defined is half solved

a. Usually revolves around costs/expenses too high; and-or
b. Sales/revenue/income/budget too low; and-or
c. Time constraints

D. Self-interested, rightly understood

a. Always volunteer
b. Make the boss look good; make him ‘dispensable’
c. Love the process; the numbers will follow

E. WIIFM

a. Increased value to the manager
b. Low maintenance
c. Trust

1. Connection — rapport
2. Character — integrity
3. Confidence in your recommendations

F. Completed Staff Work at work https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bxugmx4BD-mcM29DUEZhV0xVamM/edit

1. Introduction Bumper
2. Signing
3. Anticipate
4. Blank Check
5. Protect the Boss
6. Sign for the Boss
End

From People Magazine,

During his seven-year stint as the sensitive Cpl. Walter “Radar” O’Reilly on the hit TV show M*A*S*H, Gary Burghoff played a character who was a model of military precision.

“Radar was the one who could get things done,” says Larry Gelbart, executive producer of the Korean War series, which aired from 1972 to 1983. “You had the feeling he made the camp run.”

http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20128915,00.html People Magazine August 9, 1999.

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Completed Staff Work, Seminar #3 of 4.              Jack Yoest Yoest@cua.edu

III. Path – How to Manage Completed Staff Work?

A. Stop the Dithering Boss

1. Debate

a. Numbers
b. Persuasion
c. Alliances

2. Decide

a. Options
b. Results
c. Deadlines

3. Do

a. RedLine
b. Debate stops
c. Execution begins

B.  Get promoted; be your manager’s deputy

1. Child

a. Quiet
b. Noisy
c. Nervous

2. Teen

a. Suggests action
b. Awaits approval
c. Monitored close

3. Adult

a. Takes action
b. Informs
c. Loose monitoring

C. Write Your Own Letter of Recommendation

a. Problem
b. Solution
c. Result

Larry the Cable Guy, Git-R-Done https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TU-li1BqZ4

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Completed Staff Work, Seminar 4 of 4.                Jack Yoest Yoest@cua.ed

IV.  Presentation — How Do I Manage My Manager?

I agree with you, I want to do it, now make me do it,

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1932

What does Completed Staff Work look like? “Radar” O’Reilly from M*A*S*H shows us anticipation. And sales.

A.  Rapport

1. Trust

a.  Like

b. Respect

2. Track Record

a. One Buyer

b. Cannot ignore the manager

c. Manager sets the priorities

B. You must demonstrate value to the manager

1. Multiple influencers
2. Influence
3. Network

a. Yours
b. Your Boss
c. Assistant
d. Peers
e. Support Staff

C. Sales is the transference of emotion

1. Communication
2. Persuade, Last King of Scotland persuasion
3. Define the problem in one sentence
4. Credit everyone
5. Update
6. Close
7. Sign/OK
8. Verbal
9. Assumed
10. Franklin
11. Already begun
12. Alternate close
13. Impending event
14. Bear trap
15. Bluff/depart
16. Small bite/trial balloon/process
17. Unless Otherwise Directed U Know Dear
18. What do you want me to do?
19. Indecision, Let me think it over…
20. Confirm value
21. Strip line
22. Is it over?
23. Decision
24. Win—Support the boss
    1. Execute the action because it is your own
    2. Humble
25. Lose—Support the boss
26. Execute the action as if it were your own
27. Loyal

Completed Staff Work: Relationships and Getting the Pre-signature, from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Season 7, Episode 6; 1999; Treachery, Faith and theGreat River; Synopsis: 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gqaoffu5twuep3l/Completed%20Staff%20Work%20DS9.mp4?dl=0