Mind Tools Newsletter 35 - 15 November 2005

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Contents: In This Issue... What's New Behavioral Assessments Mind Tools Store Find It Fast! Reactive Decision-Making A Final Note

In this issue, we update you on the latest articles we are currently adding to the “What’s New” section we told you about in the last newsletter. As part of our ongoing effort to provide useful information and powerful new tools to the Mind Tools family, we are adding new articles to this section each week. We will cover more than 300 topics in this new section, so make sure you visit it often.

And just in case you haven't seen it yet, we include one of these new articles (which we published on the site on 10 November). This covers a truly important subject for us all: "Reactive Decision Making: Making Good Decisions Under Pressure".

We also provide information and resources on personality testing and behavioral assessments. This information is accompanied by a great article written by Professor Adrian Furnham, of the University College London Psychology Department in the UK. A special thanks goes out to Prof. Furnham for working with us on this!

You are sure to find the book we review, "Find It Fast," by Robert I. Berkman both interesting and informative. Written by an editor and research specialist, "Find It Fast" shows how to uncover information in every area - fast. What's more, the book tells how to locate and access expert resources and provides a comprehensive list of the "best of the best" information-related websites. In "Find It Fast," Berkman even shows us how to determine if information is reliable, and how to take the expert information we uncover and organize it and write it, making important business projects and reports a breeze.

Best wishes, and enjoy this issue!

James & Kellie

What's New - 15 Nov 05
New tools on the Mind Tools site

• 10th Nov 2005 - Reactive Decision-Making - Making good decisions under pressure (see below)
• 8th Nov 2005 - Inductive Reasoning - Drawing good generalized conclusions from limited information.

What's New :
Behavioral Assessments
How personality affects the way people do their jobs
Introduction by Kellie Fowler. Article reprinted with permission from the author, Prof. Adrian Furnham. Psychology Dept., University College London.

[Note: In our 29 June newsletter, we looked at the Myers Briggs test. We hope you enjoy this slightly different perspective!]

Recently, there has been a great deal of attention devoted to personality tests and behavioral assessments. Many businesses are now relying on these “tools” to better determine which candidates to interview, to enable more successful job placement, to further develop existing employees, to assess and enhance listening and communication skills and to screen for conscientiousness and emotional reactions.

The following article, entitled “Square Holes for Square Pegs,” written by Professor Adrian Furnham, looks at the “Big Five” Model of Personality and makes sound arguments for personality assessment, or success profiling. This article is followed by a link to an amusingly-presented online personality assessment solution.

The “Big Five” Model of Personality:
According to the "Big Five" model of personality, the most important dimensions of people's personality in the workplace are:

• Introversion/Extraversion
• Agreeableness
• Openness
• “Natural Reactions”
• Conscientiousness

Introversion/Extraversion:
Some people are talkative, sociable, and socially self-confident.

They like other people and tend to be socio-centers. They are comfortable in groups and teams and enjoy intensive and extensive people contact. Others are quiet, retiring, and apparently shy. They prefer to work alone and have a much lower need for social contact of all kinds. This, of course, is introversion-extraversion.

The salient question here is about social contact at work: with colleagues and total strangers (i.e. customers). People can be excited, enlivened and energized by social contact, or frightened and exhausted by it. Long-distance lorry drivers, authors, and gardeners tend to be introverts; sales people, cabin crew, and hotel receptionists tend to be extraverts.

Agreeableness:
Next, some people tend to be sunny, cheerful, warm and empathic while others are dour, unsympathetic, and grumpy.

This is about being hard or softhearted. It's about sensitivity to and interest in the feelings of others. This dimension is called agreeableness. Nurses, social workers and school teachers, indeed all those dealing with the vulnerable, need to be agreeable.

However agreeableness can be a handicap when agreeable managers have to deal with recalcitrant, difficult and disagreeable staff. Their natural warmth and kindness may prevent them from ''kickin' ass'' as frequently as they should.

Openness:
Third, some people are curious, imaginative and artistic, while others are practical and focused.

This dimension is called openness to experience. The more open people are, the more prone to boredom they are. They think outside the box too much. You do not want creative airline pilots whose job it is to sit in small, dark, cool spaces watching computers for hours.

Nor do you want much openness in those dealing with rule-enforcement in security and safety. But you want it in 'shovels-full' in marketing and design.

But the last two characteristics are the most important - Conscientiousness and "Natural Reactions".

"Natural Reactions":
Some people are calm, contented and placid. They are stable under fire, resilient and emotionally robust. Others are easily upset, tense, anxious, moody and highly-strung. It is, in short, the ability to handle pressure and stress – we call this “Natural Reactions”.

Most jobs have some sources of stress. Tight deadlines. Disgruntled customers. Competing demands. Indolent staff. Tough performance standards.

At the extreme, people who can’t handle stress cave-in with psychosomatic illness, depression or erratic behavior. They can be a menace to themselves, their colleagues and the business.

Conscientiousness:
And finally, there is conscientiousness, the work ethic, diligence, and prudence. Some people are hard working, self-disciplined and well organized. Others are (alas) disorganized, easily distracted and undependable.

Conscientious people have self-discipline, drive and a sense of direction. They stay on and come in when required over and above what it says in their contract. They just need a direction and an appropriate reward.

Recommendations:

1. Do a job analysis: understand what and how people are required to do things and then search for those best fitted to the job.
2. Conduct a validation study - that is, test a group of your best employees to establish benchmarks against which to compare job applicants. This is called Success Profiling.

You can find a good “big five” test (with an enjoyably different, UK-flavored, James Bond spin to it) at the following address:
http://www.testsonthenet.com/MI5-r.htm.

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The Mind Tools Store:

• How to Lead: Discover the Leader Within You: Learn the 48 simple but essential skills you need to become an excellent leader in your corporation. More >>
  
  
• Stress Management Masterclass: This e-book shows you how to tackle the deep structural problems that cause stress in your working life. It introduces you to relaxation techniques, shows you how to win control of your job and career, cope with politics and manage stress effectively. More >>
  
  
• Make Time for Success: Make Time for Success teaches the 39 essential time management and personal productivity techniques that help you bring your workload under control and maximize your effectiveness, so that you can make the most of the opportunities open to you. More >>
  
  
• Personal Coaching from Career Excellence Professionals:Find career and life direction, bring your job under control, build self-confidence and put yourself on the path to long term success with a Mind Tools coach. Our coaches give you the focused personal coaching you need to make the very most of your career and life. More >>
  
  
• The Mind Tools E-book:All of the tools on the Mind Tools website in one convenient, easily-downloadable, easily-printable PDF file. We have excluded advertising to enhance clarity and have formatted sections to be easy to read, print and use. More >>

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Tool Reviewed :
Find It Fast
By Robert I Berkman
Reviewed by Kellie Fowler

In today’s incredibly information-rich age, getting our hands on the “right” source, the selected super-source, if you will, can be anything but easy. We are constantly bombarded with information and few of us have the time needed to sift through and find those cherished gold nuggets of information that will make our reports and our presentations truly extraordinary.

Furthermore, evaluating sources and determining accuracy is time consuming. So where is one to turn when solid information or a strong quote is needed from an expert? Sure, the Web and Google are great resources, as is the local library, but when you need to talk to an expert in a particular field, where do you begin? My suggestion: “Find It Fast,” by Robert I. Berkman.

“Find It Fast” tells how to track down information step-by-step, whether it’s consumer advice, job-related information for a project or obscure fact finding you need, you’re sure to find it all in this nifty little book.

Newly revised, “Find It Fast” gives expert advice on how to locate the best sources, how to find and utilize the professionals behind the sources and how to complete a thorough information search on any subject. There’s even useful information on how to evaluate Internet resources for reliability and hundreds of Web addresses that Berkman considers to be “best of the best.”

Berkman is a writer and editor who specializes in online research. As founder and editor of The Information Age newsletter, he writes on this subject regularly and has written several books on research, but “Find It Fast” is my hands-down favorite.

The book is broken down into two sections - Part 1: Unlocking the Information Vault; Part 2: Experts Are Everywhere. In Part 1, Berkman covers everything from how to identify and accessing experts to detailed information and samplings of sources in the U.S. government and throughout the business world. In Part 2, there is yet more information on accessing the experts and even sure-fire ways for getting what Berkman calls “insider information.”

Perhaps one of the most important chapters is in Part 2 and deals with information quality, specifically how to evaluate sources and how to determine accuracy – a real must! There is even information on how to organize the expert information you uncover, and how to write up the results. This is followed by a “researcher’s road map,” a guide on project planning and source selection, and a tips section that includes information on conducting “precision research on the Net.”

And, surprisingly enough, Berkman makes a strong argument for using the local library and includes information on all-purpose indexes (New York Times Index, Business Periodicals Index, Subject Guide to Books in Print and more) that are located in every library. There is also information on important magazine and newsletter directories found in your local library, as well as business and industry guides (Standard & Poor’s Register of Corporations, Directors and Executives; Wall Street Journal Index; Dun & Bradstreet Million Dollar Directory, Moody’s Manuals and more).

For less than $20 (USD), “Find It Fast” is an invaluable reference for anyone digging for information and is a true time-saving, life-saving tool I will never be without, for it remains on my desk with countless pages “dog-eared” and showing the wear and tear of an avid researcher at work.

Robert I. Berkman is a faculty member in the Media Studies Program at The New School for Social research, where he teaches Research Methods and New Media Ethics. You can buy Find It Fast at Amazon.com.

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New Tool:
Reactive Decision Making
Making good decisions under pressure

People tend to make decisions reactively when confronted with emergency situations or when a disaster unfolds. In these circumstances, the best decisions tend to be those that have been thought-through and rehearsed ahead of time, a good example being use of a pre-prepared evacuation plan when the office catches on fire.

The normal decision-making process generally involves:

1. defining the problem,
2. collecting necessary information,
3. developing options,
4. devising a plan,
5. executing and
6. following-up.

However reactive decision-making is… reactive. Because of this, there is not usually time to execute this full decision-making process, meaning that it’s all-too-easy to make a bad decision when under pressure.

What this means is that actions to be taken in an emergency should be carefully planned for beforehand so that you can act appropriately when an event occurs. This may include, for example, devising contingency plans for what to do when a supplier ships poor quality goods when you are on a very tight deadline, or planning how to get essential systems back online if your office premises are burgled and computers are stolen.

Planning For Exceptional Reactive Decision Making
When doing this, the first step is to look at the risks you face and determine if they have a high or low probability of occurring.

You can use a Risk Assessment Matrix (RAM) to do this. To create a Risk Assessment Matrix, draw a graph, matrix or simple table with a vertical axis marked as “Consequences” and a horizontal axis marked as “Probability”.

Use a simple scale of 0 (very small) to 5 (very large). “Consequences” are credible potential worst-case scenarios that may develop. “Probabilities” are your best assessments of the likelihoods that individual consequences will occur.

Now brainstorm the possible consequences to which you’re exposed, and then assess the risk of each consequence occurring. Where possible, base these assessment of risk on real-world evidence and experience.

Then plot these on the RAM. You'll find that that as you do this, your contingency planning priorities quickly become clear.

Keep in mind that using a Risk Assessment Matrix is not an exact science: What it is is a useful visual tool for looking at the relative importance of each risk. This will allow for better planning and optimal outcomes when reactive decision-making must be relied on.

But what to do when forced to make a reactive decision without having a plan in place? When this is the case, there is not time to complete a thorough RAM. Such a decision must be quickly made using appropriate reasoning, based on the best possible outcome.

Making Unexpected Decisions Under Pressure
For instance, a team leader unexpectedly walks off the job in the midst of the company’s largest project, jeopardizing the project’s outcome and negatively impacting other areas in which he or she is involved. Obviously, work must go on. This is when it is important to make a quick reactive decision based on perceived risks and possible consequences.

In such a case, it may be appropriate to gather the team and re-assign certain tasks so that everyone involved is taking up some of the responsibility left by the departing team leader. Or, perhaps appointing a new team leader is the best reactive decision to make. Whatever the decision, make sure to make it based on what’s best for all involved, while remaining mindful of the larger picture, i.e. possible risks and consequences. Here it’s often not possible to achieve a perfect outcome – what you’re trying to do is control damage as best you can.

Tip: Because reactive decision-making is based so much on people’s individual experiences, decisions made may vary from person to person. Also, because reactive decisions are often needed when emergencies occur, these can be some of the most difficult but important decisions one can make.

Key points:
A good manager or team leader will have plans in place for many situations that call for reactive decision-making, recognizing that there will not be time to assess and weigh the risks, consequences and necessary outcomes when a crisis occurs.

When devising such plans, drawing up a Risk Assessment Matrix can help you quickly spot and communicate the most important contingencies to prepare for.

A Final Note From James

I’m pleased to say that we have just completed an extensive server upgrade – this will make sure that the MindTools.com site stays flexible and responsive to cope with the ever-increasing number of people visiting. As you may have guessed, this has been quite an undertaking!

We extend apologies to anyone who visited the Mind Tools site during the last two weeks, and encountered any problems (there were a few, which were, unfortunately, unavoidable.) Please let us know if, in the future, you experience any issues, as we want to make sure that all the “kinks” are out and that everyone can get the very most from the site.

Also, we are in the process of changing the technology we use to send this newsletter. We certainly hope that you won't notice anything different. However, if you do and you find you have not received your next newsletter, please simply re-subscribe at http://www.mindtools.com/subscribe.htm.

As the holidays approach, this is a busy time for us all. With this in mind, you can look forward to upcoming newsletters with information on time and stress management. And, because we like to keep our readers “in-the-know” about what’s going on in other parts of the world, we would like to also provide information on the holidays as they are observed in various cultures, so please send us an email and let us know more about the upcoming holiday season as it is observed in your region!

As always, thanks for reading.

Best wishes, and until next time!

James & Kellie

James Manktelow & Kellie Fowler

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