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V O L . X X I I I N O. X I M AY 1 5 , 2 0 1 7 10 B U S I N E S S M A I N E B U S I N E S S M A I N E B U S I N E S S N E W S F RO M A RO U N D T H E S TAT E vision of providing critical care and medi- cal transport to every person and every community across the state of Maine. Mount Desert Island Historical Society announced it entered into a partnership with HistoryIT in Portland to create a plan for a history trust, which would offer the ability to main- tain independent collections while benefi tting from collective preservation and digitization efforts. Fifteen inde- pendent local organizations on Mount Desert Island will participate in the preservation and digitization efforts. Grants up to $500K available to Maine communities e Federal Northern Border Regional Commission has announced a new round of development and infrastruc- ture grants for Maine communities, with the maximum grant for any applicant being $500,000 for infra- structure projects and $250,000 for other projects. e commission's grant programs cover 12 Maine counties: Androscoggin, Aroostook, Franklin, Hancock, Kennebec, Knox, Oxford, Penobscot, Piscataquis, Somerset, Waldo, and Washington, according to Mark Scarano, the federal co-chair- man of the commission. Eligible grant projects must focus on revitalization of infrastructure, enhanced telecom- munications, energy cost reduction, business and entrepreneurial assistance, leadership, and information sharing. In six years, the NBRC has awarded 114 grants amounting to $20.6 million. Since 2010, the NRBC has provided $5.4 million in grants to Maine proj- ects, which in turn received more than $20 million in matching funds. N O T E W O R T H Y N O R T H E R N & E A S T E R N Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor opened modernized cardio- vascular services patient care in the Penobscot Pavilion, bringing leading- edge technology to patients in a mod- ern, comfortable setting that improves the timeliness with which patients receive care. www.norrisinc.com 1-800-370-3473 info@norrisinc.com SMCC, YOUR TRAINING PARTNER Partner with SMCC to upgrade your employee's skills and gain a competitive advantage. OUR TRAINING IS: • Affordable • Flexible • Local • Hands-On Grant funding available! TO LEARN MORE visit www.smccME.edu/training or contact us at 207-741-5951 or bdowney@smccME.edu Q: My employees do good work, but they waste a lot of time bickering and complaining to me about each other. I feel like a kindergarten teacher sometimes. How can I make them stop? ACE advises: 1. Teach your employees simple negotiating skills, and perhaps add confl ict resolution and teamwork training. Offer the training in the spirit of enhancing the group members' good work, not as punishment for communicating poorly. 2. Facilitate the group to set norms for effective, productive interpersonal com- munication. Help them create norms that state specifi c, desired, observable behaviors, not general statements open to interpretation. "Be respectful" means many things. "Listen quietly when someone else is speaking" is clearly seen and heard. 3. Set expectations for them to try working it out by following the norms before coming to you. Coach them as they prepare, if they want that, then step out of the way. 4. If you must get directly involved, act as a mediator rather than the problem solver. You are the neutrally supportive presence who will help them feel safe as they learn to fully resolve their confl icts. 5. Model the behavioral norms the team created when you have your own dif- fi cult conversations. In my experience, teams set very high standards when they set their own norms. Expect that they will not be easy to live up to — probably not for you, either. Reward all efforts in the right direction; bumps and short-term failures are part of learning new behaviors. A S K AC E A n s w e r e d b y S u s a n d e G r a n d p r e , C o l l a b o r a t i o n C o n s u l t i n g The Association for Consulting Expertise (ACE) is a non-profit association of independent consultants who value "Success through Collaboration." The public is welcome to attend its regular meetings to share best practices and engage with industry experts. For more information go to www.consultexpertise.com. If you have a question for an ACE expert, contact Jim Milliken at jim@millikenproject.com. N O R T H E R N & E A S T E R N

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