These are the leading articles from editions prior to
Cuttings 50. For the text of of the article, scroll down
the page
Lessons from a Principled Leader
- A story from the US school system on leadership
What Really Works - Results of a
Harvard study into the practices of successful organisation
The Cosa Nostra Consulting Group
- an announcement of this new force in organisation
consultancy
The 13 Characteristics of Successful
People - Yet another list, this time relating
to personal characteristics
Performance Management Again -
More surveys and comments on performance management
principles and practice
Free return tickets to Cape
Town... - Mathew Parris' salutory
tale from South Africa on the need for personal priority
setting
A lesson in linguistics - A
cautionary story from academia
Performance Management in Crisis?
- Organisations are not getting the benefits of performance
management
The Seven Habits of Successful Employee
Satisfaction - 7 factors for creating
satisfied employees
Collaboration is the key to organisational
change - An interview with Peter Senge
Learning from the best employers in
Europe - A survey of the employment practices
of the most successful European companies
The Power of Postitve
Thinking - Two recent
scientific research findings on thinking positively
Storytelling - A storytelling
story from the world of IT
Ethics for Everyman - A poem
written in 1917 which is surprisingly relevant today
Work and Life - Enabling choices
- Thoughts and ideas for creating a better work - life
integration
Acronymania - Abbreviations Rule
OK!
The biggest "Town Hall" meeting
yet - A report on the 5000 New Yorkers who
met to participate in a participative dialogue
Coaching - for corporate success
- Some results of research that shows coaching works and is
in demand
Think Internal in times of Crisis
- The need for good internal communications
Leadership - The end of
management?- Management is
an idea whose time is up; so say recent articles and books
Management Agenda 2002 - The
results of the annual survey by Roffey Park Institute
Fixes that fail - Quick
fixes are usually more expensive
A Different Negotiation - An
interesting switch to the traditional view of bargaining
Sources of Sustained Success - An
extract from Competitive Advantage Through People
High Value Management - Core
competencies for managers
The Competence Gap - Worrying
research about the growing gap between managers competence
and needs.
Asking questions - Some tips for
effective questioning
Three Challenges: Who are your customers? Adapt
or die. A new world view. - Three
challenging views of the world of work.
Lessons for managing remote
workers - Overcoming the reasons that remote
workers often 'switch-off'
People Matter! -
Motivation and jazz bands!
1000 Questions - The results of
Joyce Wycoff's challenge
Learning from Crisis: Closing down can be
inspiring ! - Lessons from
C&A and the Dome in motivating employees who are losing
their jobs
Flexible Pay - Semco's eleven
options for flexible pay
People Power - The Global Most
Admired Companies focus on people
The Flexible Executive -
Work-home balance for executives
A Living or a Life -
Investigating the evidence for reorganising work to suit
people
Good Days and Bad Days -
Appreciative Inquiry and Positive Psychology
Negotiation is at the heart of
civilisation - Quotation from Nelson Mandela
Leadership that gets results -
Damiel Golman's six leadership styles
Something to think about...- A
quiz to make you think
Where Radical is Routine - A case
study of a GE factory
More Questions - Questions that
cause us to think today as if tomorrow mattered
The Practice - Wise words and
actions from the Dalai Lama
The Value of the Question -
Continuing the theme on the importance of questions
Merger Mania - Making mergers
more successful
Processes for the Millennium -
The outcomes of an Open Space conference in Valbonne, South
of France
The Future of Strategy - Michael
Porter and Gary Hamel do battle over strategy
e-commerce the Cisco way - Learn
from a leader
Does your Organisation Flock? -
Lessons for the learning organisation from study of bird
behaviour - Arie de Geus
Have fun at work & The jester
- Two ideas to inject more humour at work
Hierarchies are here to stay
Moving and recruiting
Dilbert is alive and working near you
The Spelling Chequer
Themes for the 21st century
Knowledge management
The customer comes second
Coaching beats training
Key to success: people, people, people
Motivating people
Leading people
7 survival skills for a reengineered world
Timing is the key to effective training
Are you being served?
Accentuate the positive
All change at work
Mintzberg's management muses
Change management isn't working
Dilbert's great lies of management
Surviving in the new economy
The learning organisation
Eight steps to organisational change
The project manager is the new leader
Future search
Valuing differences
Survivor sickness
Teams
Inplacement or outplacement?
The marathon effect
Losing and finding jobs
Suppliers as partners?
__________________________________________________________________
LESSONS
from a PRINCIPLED LEADER
We learn enormously through stories, especially when we
apply some of the principles to ourselves.
This is the story of Fred Burton, principal of Wickliffe
Elementary School in Arlington, Ohio. Many in the school
system would recognise Burton’s description of his typical
workday as “a little like holding hands with a tornado.”
The school is home to last year's Ohio teacher of the year
and music teacher of the year. It has been recognised as an
Ohio BEST school, and National Public Radio spent an entire
day on site, interviewing students and staff for an
expanded feature on progressive education.
The story is about a principal and a school, but the
lessons apply to anyone who leads in a hectic, demanding
work environment with too many tasks, too many stakeholders
and customers, and too few hours in the day.
Stepping Out Of The Rush
As children head straight for the door to the playground,
Burton stands in the middle of the hallway, watching,
listening, saying hello and smiling warmly to all who pass
him.
He notices a small child picking up a student picture that
has fallen off the wall in the rush and carefully places it
back in position. And a few days later, at the weekly
school ‘town meeting,’ he tells all the students about it.
Being Present
Burton's leadership style can be summed up
in two words: being present. No matter how hectic things
get, he makes a point of reaching out to absorb all that's
happening.
He routinely leaves his office to spend time with students
and teachers. He's constantly looking for positive stories
(like the one about the artwork rescuer), and he makes a
point of telling them again and again. He devoutly follows
what he calls the 95% Rule: Spend 95% of your time trying
to understand people and 5% making judgements.
The Power of Positive Questions
When a parent is concerned about their child, the resulting
investigation and strategy is not a confrontational
inquest, instead Burton listens, asks questions, listens
some more. He becomes a coach, getting the teachers to
visualise a meeting with the parents with a positive
outcome and rehearsing the meeting.
Efficiency Vs. Effectiveness
“Organisations are not machines with precision parts,”
Burton says. “They involve people and relationships.” When
we hurry our conversations or avoid conversations
altogether, people feel dismissed - and might be back with
bigger issues and deeper problems. “We pay for our speed
later on.”
Technology doesn't help.
While it's tempting to dash off several quick e-mail
messages instead of calling or meeting someone, e-mail
gives the sender no opportunity to read non-verbal cues,
pose questions, engage in conversation, or make
discoveries. “Technology as a whole has increased speed,”
Burton says. “And speed is the enemy of quality.”
He recalls a visit from a Russian education administrator
who seemed stunned by all the beepers, laptops, and cell
phones. “You're too accessible,” the visitor said, shaking
his head. “You can never focus on things that matter.”
The Results of Being Present
Burton tells the story of an art class asked to draw a
tree. The children go about their work with impressive
efficiency. Within 10 minutes, everyone has a tree.
But after the teacher leads them outside, and they take
another, closer look at bark and branches, the smell of
wood and leaves - they look at trees - really look … for
the first time. When they return to class, their creations
are entirely different. The drawn and crafted branches leap
from the pages. What makes the difference? Burton says
“They took their time. By intentionally looking, they
created artwork that was very rich.”
What About Us?
It doesn't matter whether we work in a
school - or in an office, a factory, a restaurant, a store,
a hospital, or somewhere else. Every day offers a choice:
Will we be present? And while present, will we make a point
of spending nearly all our time trying to understand? Or
will we be obsessed with efficiency and controlled by our
to-do list?
What To Do:
7 Action Ideas
1. Reserve some quiet time and listen to your inner
dialogue.
2. Walk around, observe, ask questions. among the people
who do the work.
3. Expect to see fascinating things, then tell stories
about what you've seen.
4. Don't dismiss the "small" stuff. What you think isn't
important may be very important to someone else.
5. Remember that all organisations, no matter how bad they
appear, have things that are working. A well-framed
question can lead people to acknowledge what currently
works. For example: “Think back to a time in the
organisation when you were highly engaged, inspired, or
effective. What was happening?”
6. Recognise that even negative people are trying to say
something positive. If someone complains about dull
meetings, what they're saying is that they want better
meetings where they can communicate and engage with
colleagues. That's a positive.
7. Strive to live by the 95% Rule: Spend 95% of your time
trying to understand and just 5% of your time making
judgements.
I am indebted to Tom Terez for this story. For the full
version, and more, go to his website at
www.BetterWorkplaceNow.com
From Cuttings 49 December 2003
__________________________________________________________________
WHAT REALLY
WORKS
What are the management practices that truly produce
superior results? This sounds like the Holy Grail for
organisations - an opportunity to cut through the annual
cycle of finding a new initiative to stimulate the
organisation. It also sounds a bit like a death knell for a
lot of consultants whose income is based on finding a
winning 'flavour of the month', writing the book, and
retiring on the proceed. Well now the secrets are out,
revealed in an article in the July 2003 edition of Harvard
Business Review by three consultants (do I smell something
familiar here?!).
Based on a five year study of reasonably equivalent
businesses in tightly defined industry sectors, their
performance was tracked, and differences in their
management practices were analysed to develop the results:
and it seems that it matters not so much WHAT you do but
HOW you do it. It doesn't matter if you centralise or
decentralise - as long as the structure is simplified. The
technology doesn't matter - it's whether you implement it
well. According to the authors, if you get the basics
right, you have a better than 90 percent chance of
sustaining superior business performance.
So what are the basics? Four primary practices: strategy,
execution, culture, and structure, supplemented by two out
of four other supplementary practices: talent, innovation,
leadership, and mergers and partnerships.
The four primary practices:
Strategy Whatever the strategy, it will
work if it is clearly stated, well communicated and
understood by employees, customers, partners and investors.
Built on a clear value proposition for the customer and
developed outside-in based on what stakeholders actually
say, not on gut feel or instinct
Execution Develop and maintain a flawless
execution. 'You may not always delight your customers but
make sure you never disappoint them.' Put decision making
close to the front line, consistently meet customer's
expectations and reduce waste.
Culture Develop a performance oriented
culture. Inspire people to do their best, empower employees
to make independent decisions and reward achievement.
Establish and abide by clear values
Structure Whatever structure you choose
make sure it reduces bureaucracy and simplifies work - the
3 F's - fast, flexible and flat. Promote co-operation and
information sharing.
And any two of the four secondary practices (it matters not
which, according to the research)
Talent Winners hold onto talented
employees and develop more. Fill jobs with outstanding
internal talent wherever possible. Run top-of-the-line
training and development programmes.
Innovation Turn out innovative products
and services, anticipating industry disruption rather than
just reacting.
Leadership Find leaders who are committed
to the business and the people. Encourage strong links
across all levels of the company. Link pay to performance.
Mergers and Partnerships Seek growth
through M&A as well as through internal means. Find new
businesses that leverage existing customer relationships.
Partner to use the best of both partners' talents.
None of these management practices are new, nor is their
importance likely to cause any dispute. But, as the authors
point out, knowing them is one thing, putting them into
practice is another. Companies can all too easily forget or
ignore the basics. And maintaining a focus on them is hard
work. And whilst it is easy to fall down, it is not so easy
to climb back up again. For example, Nike was a high flyer
who failed to keep in touch with their target customers -
urban teenagers - who moved from sneakers to casual.
And it also lost sight of cost control. It's on its way
back, but it's been a hard journey.
What Really Works, Nitin Nohria, William Joyce, Bruce
Roberson, Harvard Business Review, July 2003
From Cuttings 48 October 2003
__________________________________________________________________
Cosa Nostra
Consulting Group
A special outcome from an Open Space conference at La
Bégude in the South of France, was the announcement of the
formation of the Cosa Nostra Consulting Group. a new
'family' of management consultants.
As a group of consultants, we have been aware for a number
of years that very often our best interventions occur when
we apply less of an expert role and facilitate an outcome
for the organisation. And even when it comes to
facilitation, it seems that the same principle of 'more is
less' is also true - the lighter touch is often the more
effective.
However, organisations have persisted in the measurement of
input as a means of justifying reward. They persist in
using outdated measures such as hours at work to reward
employees for their contribution, and not surprisingly use
similar input measures for evaluating the value of external
services like consultancy, they. The paradox is that more
reward ought to be based on outcomes not on inputs, yet
business will continue to measure inputs for sometime to
come.
So we are proposing a radical new approach to consultancy
charging: an inverse rule... the less we do, the more we
charge. This allows organisations to continue to measure
input, but ensure that the consultant gets paid what they
are worth.
Our family of consultants will also provide another
service: for a small, regular monthly payment, we will not
come at all, thereby ensuring the most effective
contribution. We will provide you with protection against
the exploitation by unscrupulous organisations who purport
to want to try to help, but will only mess you up.
The Cosa Nostra Consulting Group: You pay us to stay away -
or we send in the consultants...
It's an offer you can't refuse!
Contact us now with your details at
the_family@cosa_nostra_consulting.it or through any of our
branches - or we will find you. Payment by credit card or
cash. Personal collection service available
From Cuttings 48 October 2003
__________________________________________________________________
The 13
Characteristics of Successful People
Lists abound these days, and after the 7 Habits, the 21
Leaders, the 16 Personal Styles, the 4 Principles, and
others that inhabit my filing systems, comes the 13
Characteristics of Successful People. These have been
devised from the observations and research of Nigel Risner,
Speaker of the Year and Past President of the London
Chapter Professional Speakers Association. Nigel says that
Successful People:
1. Have a Dream.
2. Have Ambition.
3. Are Strongly Motivated Toward Achievement.
4. Are Focused.
5. Learn How to Get Things Done.
6. Take Responsibility for Their Actions.
7. Look for Solutions to Problems.
8. Make Decisions.
9. Have the Courage to Admit They've Made a Mistake.
10. Are Self-reliant.
11. Have Specific Knowledge, Training, and/or Skills and
Talents.
12. Work with and Co-operation with Other People.
13. Are Enthusiastic.
Magenta Circle weekly newsletter www.magentacircle.co.uk or
Nigel's own site www.nigelrisner.com
From Cuttings 48 October 2003
__________________________________________________________________
PERFORMANCE
MANAGEMENT AGAIN
In the last edition of this newsletter (Cuttings 46 March
2003), the lead article was on Performance Management in
Crisis. The first quarter must be the season for surveys
into performance management because a number of surveys
have appeared recently — and they confirm that this is
probably the only time during the year that organisations
and managers do focus on performance management.
“Employees expressed a range of concerns regarding the
performance management programs that affect their jobs,
their pay, and their career advancement,” says Rod Fralicx,
global employee research director for Mercer HR Consulting
who conducted one of the surveys. “Three out of four
employees indicate that they receive little in the way of
coaching, and nearly the same number question the
connection between their performance and their pay.” Beyond
these two areas, employees 70 percent report that poor
performance in their colleagues is not managed and two
thirds didn’t have a formal appraisal meeting.
So, even though 61 percent of the sample had clearly
defined goals and objectives, and knew how their
performance would be evaluated (the highest favourable
scores) they did not get any form of help during the year,
by way of coaching to set them up for success or feedback,
on their performance overall.
This is surprising when one looks at the direct link
between performance management and commitment and
satisfaction scores: 62 percent of employees who had a
formal performance appraisal in the last year expressed a
strong sense of commitment to their organisation, compared
to 49percent for employees who had not had one. 80 percent
of employees who are coached by their manager feel a strong
sense of commitment to the organisation, compared to 46
percent among employees who are not coached.
If good performance is recognised 81 percent express
overall satisfaction compared to 37 percent. If good
performance is rewarded 88 percent are satisfied vs. 47
percent. If employees have clearly defined performance
goals, only 18 percent are seriously thinking about
leaving, while 46 percent of those without clearly defined
goals are thinking of leaving. Likewise, employees who do
not understand how their performance is evaluated are more
likely to be thinking about leaving (18% vs. 41%).
“If ever employers needed a compelling reason to pay close
attention to their performance management programs, this is
it,” Dr. Fralicx says. “Effective performance management
has a strong connection to employee commitment,
satisfaction, and engagement, which, in turn, can affect
important business outcomes such as turnover and
productivity.”
Another survey of current views on Performance Management
conducted among clients of SHL Group plc found some similar
issues and also identified a number of paradoxes that exist
in organisations:
* Feedback and coaching are seen as key drivers for
organisational success, yet two thirds of organisations saw
improving the quality of feedback and coaching as a top
priority.
* Organisations know that linking individual objectives to
business performance indicators makes the biggest
contribution to the overall effectiveness, yet objective
setting is identified as a critical skill gap.
* Employees are more satisfied when performance management
operates as a continuous process, but less than half of
organisations hold frequent progress reviews.
* Separating the performance and development meeting drives
overall performance more effectively than combining them,
but three quarters of organisations are still combining
them
* Despite a clear need for performance management to be
line driven, it is still often perceived to be owned by HR.
* Some other key results that came out of the SHL study
included an approval for 360° appraisal systems - almost
twice the approval of conventional or upward appraisal –
and an indication that competencies are of growing
importance with three quarters of surveyed organisations
now using them. They also identified an interesting feature
of performance related pay: linking performance management
to salary increases the efforts of high performers, but has
little impact on low performers
Overall, a performance rating for organisations in the SHL
survey must be no better than ‘below standard - immediate
improvement needed’ especially as one third of
organisations admitted to being disappointed with how well
performance management achieved its primary objective of
developing people.
Worryingly with such a rating, organisations were planning
to use online systems more to drive performance. Yet
another paradox — all the evidence points towards more
investment in developing the face-to-face skills managers
in objective setting, giving feedback, conducting regular
informal reviews, and coaching staff to help them achieve
the results, yet the planned response is to make the
performance management system even more impersonal and
remote.
Perspectives on Performance Appraisals, December 2002, MSA
Interactive Ltd
People at work Study 2002, Mercer Human Resource Consulting
Performance Management – Current Practice, SHL Ltd, March
2003
From Cuttings 47 June 2003
__________________________________________________________________
Free Return
Tickets to Cape Town
…Imagine that this is a real headline. You would probably
enter, suspicious that there must be a catch. But suppose
there is no catch, and you won. Would you be delighted? Of
course.
“Yet,” writes Matthew Parris, political columnist of The
Times, “I have just come from Johannesburg airport along
with 35 other people, all of whom had been raging,
shouting, howling, and crying, because they had been made a
better offer than this one. All we were asked to do was to
postpone our departure to the following day. As I write
this by a hotel swimming pool on a glorious, South African
morning, friends and colleagues have been understanding,
the Earth is continuing in its orbit, and 35 people's
travel prospects for the year ahead are much improved.
The instinct which overtook us fascinates me. A
disinclination to unscramble plans already embarked upon is
responsible, I believe, for acts of tremendous stupidity
both on a personal level and at that of national political
direction. Wars have been started because the forward
planning was already in place. Schemes whose disastrous
nature becomes clearer by the day have been maintained for
no better reason than that they have already been begun.
‘Saving face’ is often an explanation for this behaviour,
yet on the roads, I am unlikely to be alone in the idiotic
habit of sticking to the route after taking a wrong turn.
The end-result may be a ten-mile detour, but this is easier
to countenance than stopping, turning round, and retracing
the few yards already travelled. As I do this when alone,
it is not 'saving face'.
Natural selection has probably bred this into us - in the
wild, the creature which stops too often to reconsider may
be more exposed to predators, while an instinct to dig in
and fight your way through the thicket, may be a more
productive rule-of-thumb.
But a marriage, a Millennium Dome, a Groundnuts Scheme, a
European Fighter Aircraft Project, a degree course, or a
career may not be like a thicket. For a piece of lifetime
advice to a favourite godchild, 'Abort!' may lack a
lapidary quality, but as one who has aborted careers - and
a Sunday-night flight to London - it is a piece of wisdom I
can recommend.”
From Cuttings 47 June 2003
__________________________________________________________________
A lesson in
linguistics
A salutary lesson for anyone wondering whether the tone of
voice is important in communications:
A linguistics professor was lecturing his class. “In
English,” he explained, “a double negative forms a
positive. In some languages, such as Russian, a double
negative is still a negative.’ “However,” he continued,
“there is no language where a double positive can form a
negative.”
A voice from the back of the class was then heard to
comment: “Yeah, right.”
From Cuttings 47 June 2003
__________________________________________________________________
PERFORMANCE
MANAGEMENT IN CRISIS?
You would have thought that the tightening of
the economy over the last couple of years would have
focused organisations' attention on effective performance
management. A survey conducted at the end of last year by
MSA Interactive shows this is far from the reality. A 'wake
up' call to everyone involved-HR and senior managers-to
look carefully at their performance management process and
overhaul it with some urgency.
Employees in the survey seem to feel that there could be
some value in performance appraisals, but it is seen either
as time consuming [19%], viewed with some suspicion [28%],
or considered not to deliver [32%].
More worrying is the managers' response: a total of 82% of
the statements about how manager's view performance
appraisals were negative. Managers were seen to find the
process stressful, [18%], a waste if time [10%], and yet
another task to add to their load [54%].
A clue to the malaise could be in that in 46% of cases,
department managers see appraisals as an HR function and
therefore it is difficult to get any ownership or
commitment to use the process or follow through
In the perennial issue of methodology, a full 40% of
respondents believe that their process is flawed by its
subjectivity as it is based on manager opinion, while a
further 15% had not thought about this aspect of the
process and 14% did not believe it matters, the latter
being yet another indication of the lack of 'buy-in' to the
process by managers.
It is clear from the current and future business
environment that performance management is here to stay,
but to make it effective we must address the bureaucracy
and management attitude associated with more traditional
performance appraisal processes that lead to superficial
and highly subjective assessments.
Only part of the success of a performance management
process comes from the system itself. The greater success
comes from line managers using the process proactively to
set meaningful, work related objectives and then coaching
people on an on-going basis to achieve these objectives.
Helping people to succeed not catching them fail. Matt
Barrett, MD of Barclays Bank describes the need for staff
to have a clear line of sight between their contribution
and the success of the organisation. This is what
performance management has to, and can, deliver.
Perspectives on Performance Appraisals, December 2002, MSA
Interactive Ltd
From Cuttings 46 March 2003
__________________________________________________________________
The Seven
Habits of Successful Job Satisfaction
Recent analysis has given us a list of seven factors
crucial to job satisfaction - and they are not all to do
with pay and benefits.
The first thing tat matters is the sector of the economy
you work in. The most satisfied workers in Britain work for
non-profit organisations. Those in charities are especially
happy and fulfilled. Self-employed people enjoy their jobs
hugely because they like the independence - many are not in
it for the cash; but for personal autonomy. Typically in
Europe, public sector employees enjoy their jobs more than
those in the private sector. But not in Britain where job
satisfaction collapsed in the 1990s.
Second, your own nature and characteristics can have big
effects on job satisfaction. Women enjoy their jobs the
most, possibly because men are more difficult to please, or
simply because they are better workers. Age matters:
satisfaction follows a U-shaped curve-it starts high, then
people become dissatisfied, and after their 30s, the
average person becomes steadily happier with his or her
job.
Third, the nature of your workplace has a striking effect
on whether you will be happy in your job. Employees in big,
impersonal environments are more likely to be fed up.
Fourth, who controls the pace of work? Satisfaction is low
in places where the boss controls the pace of work and is
high where customers or colleagues control how fast the
work is done. - we do not mind working hard for someone on
the same level as ourselves; it is pressure from above in a
hierarchy that upsets us.
Fifth, pay does make a difference, as one would expect, but
relative pay not absolute pay. It seems people create a
mental picture of individuals like themselves, with their
qualifications and experience, and they constantly compare,
subconsciously, what they earn with the picture of what
such a person should be paid.
Sixth, having qualifications that exceed those needed is
associated with discontent.
Seventh, major cities and their surrounding areas have the
lowest job satisfaction. This is partly because of the
commuting, which we know has a bad effect on people's
mental health.
So, what should you do if you want to be happy? Work for a
charity or become self-employed. Grow old. Work in a small
office. Don't become overqualified. Find a place where the
boss does not control the pace of work. Avoid London. And
be a woman!
The Quest for Job Satisfaction, The Times, February 2003
From Cuttings 46 March 2003
__________________________________________________________________
Collaboration is the
key to organisational change
It is some time since Peter Senge wrote his seminal book
"The Fifth Discipline" and started the world talking about
the learning organisation. Needless to say, Peter has not
sat back on his royalties, and still contributes to our
understanding of organisation change. In a recent interview
he shared some of his latest thinking about what it takes
for organisations to survive and thrive in the 21st
century.
"What any individual organisation, whether a school or
business, can do today to significantly break from the
cultural mainstream is small. Each one operates as if it
were tied with a rubber band. Even a group that innovates a
great deal for a while eventually gets snapped back to the
norm. Many extraordinary, innovative schools, for example,
in which kids are engaged and teachers love their work,
usually return to average within 5 to 10 years."
Why do organisations resist change? One reason, Senge
explains, is that most of us erroneously believe that
somebody - some senior leader or manager - must be
controlling the organisation's systems, in which we
ourselves feel overwhelmed. "From a systemic perspective,
the reality is just the opposite. Most large institutions
are so complex that no one person - no 'mover or shaker' in
a position of authority - can bring about the needed
change. Rather, large-scale transform-ation can only evolve
when lots of people at all levels of an organisation start
to do things differently."
Readers of these comments who have some understanding of
the dynamics of Large Scale Interventions such as Future
Search and Appreciative Inquiry will immediately recognise
the connection here. It is by engaging large groups
simultaneously in making creating and implementing the
change will it happen. That means that we don't want a
'mover or shaker' to make the change themselves, rather a
catalytic, facilitative leader or manager who trusts staff
to make their own decisions and creates the environ-ment
for this to take place. That's a different leadership to
that which usually hogs the media headlines.
Interview with Kali Saposnick in Leverage Points, Pegasus
Communications
From Cuttings 46 March 2003
__________________________________________________________________
Learning
from the best employers in Europe
A survey covering top performing companies across Europe
identifies focus on a careful alignment of people,
programmes and practices, with people the key strategic
asset.
In the best employers:
* Employees are more inspired and engaged
* There is a greater explicit and shared culture with is
performance oriented at an individual level
* There is a long term view on attracting and retaining
talent
* High potential development is not at the expense of
company-wide learning
* Promotion comes more from within
* There is a process that ensures all employees understand
the collective goals and aligns individual contribution
* Compensation is used as a tool for differentiation
* There is much more success in achieving employees'
desired work-life balance
Another 'wake-up' call on performance management. The best
employers and the top performing companies in Europe have
got the performance management equation right, and are
reaping the benefits.
Learning from the best employers in Europe, Hewitt, Bacon
& Woodrow, 2002
From Cuttings 46 March 2003
__________________________________________________________________
POWER of
POSITIVE THINKING
Using the Prisoner's Dilemma exercise,
scientists in Atlanta, USA, measured brain activity on an
MRI scanner, and found some interesting results: when the
gamers co-operated, the activity in their brains was
similar to the stimulation seen with drugs or food - both
of which fire up special circuitry involved with reward. It
seems that the brain pats itself on the back for
co-operating.
Researchers think this co-operation induced brain cell
activity may be unique to humans. If so, it could explain
why humans co-operate more than any other species. It also
suggests a way that altruism - which seems to contradict
the idea that natural selection promotes self-preservation
- could evolve. The anticipation of reward could be what
keeps subjects from being selfish and choosing immediate
gain over the long-term potential of a mutually beneficial
relationship.
It also seems that the social aspect of the co-operation is
a crucial element; playing the game and getting money
without having to co-operate didn't stimulate the brain as
much. When the subjects were told they were playing against
a computer, they were less likely to co-operate, and if
they did, only some of the reward areas lit up.
And some other US research suggests that the power of
positive thinking also has an effect on our longevity,
correlating long life with optimism, and with a lack of
hostility, anxiety and depression.
The most recent study of personality and longevity was
conducted among a group of 660 people over 50 in Oxford,
Ohio, who, in 1975, had answered questions having to do
with, among other things, their attitudes about aging. They
had been asked whether they agreed or disagreed with
statements like "Things keep getting worse as I get older,"
and "I am as happy now as I was when I was younger."
Researchers checked to see which participants were still
alive in 1998, and they noted when the others had died. It
turned out that those who viewed aging as a positive
experience lived, on average, 7.5 years longer than those
who took a darker view.
That is an advantage far greater, the researchers point
out, than what can be gained from lowering blood pressure
or reducing cholesterol, each of which has been found to
lengthen life about four years. It also beats exercise, not
smoking and maintaining a healthy weight, strategies that
add one to three years.
Optimism was linked to longevity in a study reported two
years ago by researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester,
Dr. Toshihiko Maruta, a psychiatrist, reviewed
psychological tests that had been given to more than 800
people in the early 1960's, and based on the people's
responses, he classified 197 of them as pessimistic. He
then checked to see how long they lived.
Dr. Maruta found that the pessimists had a risk of death
for any given year that was 19 percent greater than
average.
Rewards of co-operation may begin in the brain, study
shows, Dallas Morning Press, 22 July 2002
Power of Positive Thinking Extends, It Seems, to Aging, New
York Times, 19 November 2002
From Cuttings 45 December 2002
__________________________________________________________________
STORYTELLING
I have just returned from a holiday in Australia where the
aboriginal tribes, in common with many ancient cultures
have an oral tradition to pass on wisdom and learning. In
recent years we have seen the growing development of a
storytelling tradition in organisations, especially in
change, knowledge management and learning.
Corporate storytellers such as Dave Snowden from IBM and
Steve Denning (formerly of the World Bank) are sharing
their own stories out about their successes in introducing
the art and science of storytelling to business.
Storytelling can provide insights into the norms and values
of a group, and can be used to transfer knowledge that is
often difficult to quantify and document. Often they
provide a deeper understanding of the subject, and provide
a strong emotional link and bond...or sometimes they just
emphasise a learning point: Take a story from Dave Snowden
about object orientated programming:
Two development groups were tasked with producing a set of
reusable software components for the common features of a
range of applications. One group was a team of
world-leading experts in object orientated techniques. The
other was a team of programmers, whose experience was in
COBOL and data entry systems. The programmers were provided
with basic object orientated training.
Both teams had to create a piece of code that defined the
way in which data is presented to a file, printer, etc. The
experts created a wonderful piece of code. It was elegant,
it performed well and it only took two man months to
develop. The COBOL Programmers downloaded a good enough‚
list object from the Internet at a total cost of $5.
And the point of the story-the programmers understood the
purpose of object orientated techniques is all about reuse,
not reinventing the wheel.
www.ibm.com/news/se/2001/05/snowden-eng.html
www.stevedenning.com
information from eZine:www.skillgate.com
From Cuttings 45 December 2002
__________________________________________________________________
Ethics for
Everyman
Throwing a bomb is bad,
Dropping a bomb is good;
Terror, no need to add.
Depends on who's wearing the hood.
Kangaroo courts are wrong,
Specialist courts are right;
Discipline by the strong
Is fair if your collar is white.
Company output 'soars',
Wages, of course 'explode';
Profits deserve applause.
Pay claims, the criminal code.
Daily the Church declares
Betting shops are a curse;
Gambling on stocks and shares
Enlarges the national purse.
Workers are absentees.
Businessmen relax,
Different as chalk and cheese;
Social morality
Has a duality -
One for each side of the tracks.
Roger Woddis, New Oxford Book of Light Verse (written in
1917)
From Cuttings 45 December 2002
__________________________________________________________________
WORK and
LIFE - Enabling Choices
Earlier this year, I signed up to attend a conference in
Prague, taking the opportunity to take my wife and daughter
to one of our favourite cities for a weekend break (one of
the few times that our leisure and work patterns have
coincided in 16 years as a consultant!). As luck would have
it, the conference was cancelled, but we went anyway, and
had a great three days. On hearing this, the comment from
the organiser (Fran Wilson of the CIPD) was great "I love
real life examples of work life balance!"
Since then, I have noticed a number of articles,
research-and projects that I have been asked to work
on-that have work-life balance as a theme. It may be I am
more sensitive to the theme, or it may be that Generation
Xers and Yers are causing us to re-look at our employment
policies.
Linda Gratton of the London Business School certainly
thinks that much of our practice and thinking about work
and organisations is past its 'sell-by' date. Her research
shows the baby-boomers (now in their late forties and early
fifties) showing signs of stress, unwillingness to take on
further responsibility, and regret at some of their
previous life sacrifices. The Xers and Yers have seen the
sacrifices made by their parents and want a new deal with
greater flexibility and autonomy. But the economic
environment and pressures often cause organisations to
'batten down the hatches' and persist with inflexible
practices and structures, fearing the risk of change.
I have a personal dislike of the phrase 'work-life
balance'-it suggests that there is only life outside of
work, and tends to stop us looking for solutions that could
be about enhancing the work environment to make it less
stressful, rather than trying to increase non- work time. I
prefer the more positive framing of "integrating work with
life" as used by Sandra Colb and Naomi Johnson in their
article in the August 2002 AI Newsletter.
Colb and Johnson work for the US Department of Health and
Human Service, and used Appreciative Inquiry to address the
potential for integration rather than look at barriers to
take-up of flexible working programmes. Their pilot sites
also addressed some non-typical areas for introducing
flexible work patterns: an office staffed by professional
attorneys, the administrative centre of a hospital, and the
nursing staff on a paediatric ward where 24/7 cover was
needed. As well as work efficiency gains, measurements of
satisfaction rose from 38per cent to 67 per cent in one of
the pilots, whilst in another the success of a
tele-commuting option led to a doubling of satisfaction
ratings. Just having the choice made a difference-one who
did not telecommute, turned down a job offer as "Just
knowing that telecommuting is an option...is very
satisfying."
The ability to choose is highly motivating. Yet research by
the Leading Edge Consortium identifies that over 60 per
cent of employees have very limited choices at work. As
consumers we left the Henry Ford 'Any colour as long as
it's black' behind, but at work we are still confronted by
the same 'one size fits all' culture.
If changes in society and individual values are demanding
choice, it is the rapid rise in technology that is the
engine that drives the opportunity to transform the
relationship between employer and employee. Technology
enabled mass customisation in manufacturing in the 1990s
spearheading a customer service revolution, and now enables
variety and choice for employees as well.
If business leaders need any other reason to look at
enabling choice, they just need to read the numbers from
BT: 5,600 of their employees now work permanently from
home, releasing £220 million of real estate costs as well
as creating the highest productivity in the group.
If that doesn't convince them to confront their
paternalistic tendencies or fear of power shift, then they
need look no further than the news reports of the
increasing numbers of high-profile people who are leaving
their jobs. In recent weeks Simon Murphy has resigned as
Labour MEP leader in Brussels, Danny O'Neil stepped down as
CEO of Britannic Insurance, Trevor Philips withdrew his
candidature from the 2004 London mayoral election, Andrew
Dougal stepped down from CEO of Hanson, and Suma
Chakrabarti - one of the most senior British civil servants
took up his job only on the understanding that he only
worked his contracted 40 hours per week and was able to
have breakfast with his six year old daughter every day,
and read her a bedtime story.
Choice has been available for some time in terms of
flexible reward, and hours. We are now seeing the
opportunities provided by technology to enable choice of
location (working from home), job (BP operate a totally
open web-based internal job market), project (a similar
marketplace operates at McKinsey for all assignments),
project, mentor and coach, and learning activity.
The simple truth is that if employers don't provide choice,
employees will exercise their own.
A Stock of Options, People Management, August 2002
Integrating Work with Life: Using AI to Successfully
Implement Family-Friendly Policies, AI Newsletter18, August
2002
Daddy, come home, Guardian, 30.8.02
Route to the top..., Management Today, March 2002
From Cuttings 44 September 2002
__________________________________________________________________
ACRONYMANIA
My good friend, colleague and mentor, Walt Hopkins used to
finish some of his courses with a session he entitled
'acronymania'. One of his favourites was ROYAL (Rest Of
Your Active Life) referring to lifelong learning.
I recall working in Geneva with Walt running either a PPI
(Positive Power and Influence) or PNP (Positive Negotiation
Program) for DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) when one
participant responded angrily to another who had just used
a lot of jargon which he did not understand. "That's the
trouble with DEC, there are too many TLAs!" (Three Letter
Abbreviations!)
Earlier, in my days working with Esso Petroleum, the first
task of any new project team or study group was to come up
with it's acronym title, which in true acronym style had to
be a real word (an activity that often engaged the team in
days - even weeks - of strenuous activity). One was TIGER
(Training in Groups for an Effective Refinery) - which
later metamorphosed into Coverdale when its designer left
to set up his own eponymous consultancy.
According to the publisher Collins, the jargon term of 2002
is MVVD or Male Vertical Volume Drinker (heavy drinking
bar-hopper) - the ideal retail alcohol consumer as
described by the drinks industry.
Some old chestnuts come into mind:
BHAG - Big Hairy Audacious Goal
BOHICA - Bend Over, Here It Comes Again
WYSIWYG - What You See Is What You Get (interestingly
identified as a real word by MS Word spellchecker)
SPOC - Single Point of Contact
WIIFM - What's In It For Me?
NABA - Not Another Bloody Acronym!
Now on the internet you can find a website devoted to
acronyms (www.acronymfinder.com) which has a buzzphrase and
acronym generator which will instantly give you a
completely new acronym from its database.
IMHO (In My Humble Opinion) we can take heart that few of
the shorthand codes actually migrate into mainstream
English.
NRN (No Response Necessary)
Bizwords, Business Life, July/August 2002
From Cuttings 44 September 2002
__________________________________________________________________
The biggest
"Town Hall" meeting yet
How do you get buy in from a wide community on large-scale
change projects? In New York, they have just run a massive
participative event called Listening to the City, where
5000 participants engaged in dialogue about the proposed
re-development of the World Trade Centre site.
Five hundred tables of 10 people each with a facilitator, a
voting keypad for each person and a computer terminal
covered the main floor of the Javits Conference Centre. The
tables engaged in discussion on the various proposals for
the site, and more importantly started to express some of
their own thoughts and aspirations- what the people of New
York wanted to happen. They rejected all of the six plans
on offer and came up with three clear statements: none of
the plans met the public's criteria for a memorial; more
flexibility was needed to provide a mixed use site
including housing and culture; and the process should be
slowed down.
There are some lessons here: complex information can be
shared among large groups; large groups can operate
effectively; listening works; if you get people on your
side at the start, it saves a lot of difficulty later on.
Community Spirit, People Management, August 2002
From Cuttings 44 September 2002
__________________________________________________________________
COACHING -
for Corporate Success
Virtually all managers surveyed in recent Chartered
Management Institute research (93 percent) thought that
coaching should be available to every employee, regardless
of seniority. And a full eighty percent of executives
believe that they would benefit from more coaching at work
This is a massive vote of confidence for the success of
coaching as a not just another fad. It is a process which
is highly valued and is also valuable as a key partner in
any learning and development strategy.
On the positive side, evidence exists that shows that the
number of managers receiving coaching at work is on the
increase - up from 58 percent in 1966 to 77 percent in 2000
- the current findings reinforce the view that this
expansion could go wider and deeper, and have a significant
effect on organisation success.
Further evidence from the CMI research reflects the value
of coaching at work: 85 percent of managers identified
coaching's main value as enhancing team morale. 80 percent
identify it as good at generating individual
responsibility, and it is seen as very effective in
supporting individuals through restructuring and change.
With young managers identifying personal growth and
development as one of the three top reasons for choosing a
job (and choosing to move jobs) - the other two are career
prospects and the challenges in the job - it is easy to see
that coaching (and its stable-mate mentoring) is a tool
that every manager should have in her or his toolkit, and
also have available for them.
With almost a quarter of young managers saying that their
current job does not come up to expectations, and coaching
being identified as a key way to enhance individual
responsibility, the link is obvious.
So what is essential for coaching to be effective? Three
main things, according to managers who regularly act as
coaches and coachees:
1. Objectives must be agreed beforehand
2. Feedback is essential
3. Coaches must have training before they start to coach
someone
With only a small proportion of managers having the
opportunity to be coached by people outside their
organisations, the reality for most coachees (and the vast
majority in smaller organisations where external coaching
is rare) is that their coach is their line manager. The
training issue is therefore key, whether it is training
managers to coach other managers or to coach front line
staff. Managers themselves recognise that not everyone will
make a good coach, and certainly there are very few who can
hope to have the skills and attributes without some
training (or coaching) themselves. The demand is there.
In terms of feedback, it is also clear that there is a
training need to ensure feedback is given and received
effectively. Experience of many organisations is that
feedback is given too little, too late and too general to
be of use to people. Octavius Black of The Mind Gym offers
us some useful tips in giving great feedback in a recent
article:
"Do it often/ Give it promptly/ Be specific/ Avoid the
'feedback sandwich'/ focus on the impact of the
event/Praise the individual's strengths/ Positive feedback
should outweigh the negative/ Offer individuals the chance
to respond/ Find the right time and place/ Don't let your
personal prejudice get the better of you."
Readers of Cuttings will recognise my own bias towards
positive feedback in developing people. Just like telling
people not to think of pink elephants, telling people not
to do something (negative feedback) has the effect of
implanting that image into the brain. It is then harder to
overcome it (as any sports player will tell you).
Frighteningly, the ratio of negative to positive feedback
in primary schools is 19:1. I'm not sure it is much
different in many organisations. If we don't change that
dynamic we will not make much progress.
Next to IT skills, personal effectiveness, emotional
intelligence and assertiveness are the top perceived needs
of managers, showing the growing need for team working and
good interpersonal skills. By contrast, task specific
skills are seen as a development area by less than a
quarter of managers. But one of the difficult areas for
managers has been to address the 'softer' areas in a
coaching environment: feedback can be more subjective, the
subject areas are perceived as being more personal than
task related, and objective setting is notoriously
difficult. So often the coaching relationship does not
necessarily reach its full potential - staying at a task
level rather than driving down to the real developmental
opportunity.
So training is once again essential for managers to gain
confidence in coaching others on these personal development
areas - to be able to set behavioural objectives, give
objective feedback on behaviour and link behaviour to
organisation objectives.
The Coaching at Work Survey 2002, Chartered Management
Institute
Great Expectations? - what the future holds for young
managers, Chartered Management Institute, 32002
Achieving Management Excellence, Chartered Management
Institute, 2000
Route to the top..., Management Today, March 2002
From Cuttings 43 June 2002
__________________________________________________________________
THINK
INTERNAL IN TIMES OF CRISIS
In times of crisis, fast and efficient communication is the
key. But companies often neglect their most important
audiences - their own employees. For example. in January
2001, General Motors made the decision to close its
Vauxhall plant in Luton and cut 2,500 jobs in the process.
But the first most of the staff heard about it was on TV
and radio reports. The result was thousands of workers
marching in protest on the plant, an anti-GM website, and
truckloads of negative publicity.
Not communicating to employees is dangerous for other, less
public reasons: employees are very often also your
customers and shareholders. Employees are also the face of
your company to your customers and to the outside world -
to suppliers, the general public, shareholders and partners
as well as customers. And studies in customer service show
that people tend to tell bad news stories more often and to
more people than good news stories. One bad advocate will
tell a host of other people about their bad experience.
In times of change, people are more stressed by uncertainty
than by bad news. Employees know that businesses must make
tough decisions, but there is an emotional element that
must be addressed Keeping staff informed will help to
* stop the rumour mill
* maintain business operations
* refocus staff on business imperatives
* keep up staff morale
* show visible and decisive leadership.
Crisis need not mean disaster for companies and for leaders
insightful enough to recognise the importance of
communicating clearly and effectively with internal
audiences-employees and share-holders-as well as external
ones. A strong leader is one who thinks internally and acts
both externally and internally in good times and difficult
situations.
Contrast this story-and others you can think of-with the
positive outcome to the closure of the C&A department
stores in the UK as highlighted in Cuttings
E-xecutive Issue, May 2002, Management Centre Europe
From Cuttings 43 June 2002
__________________________________________________________________
LEADERSHIP-the end of
management?
When Kofi Annan addressed the 50tth anniversary of the UN,
he said that if the previous century had taught us one
thing it was that central planning does not work. This
statement is not controversial. Yet many of our businesses
and organisations are in essence centrally planned
economies. So muses Charles Handy in his review of the new
book by Kenneth Cloke and Joan Goldsmith entitled The End
of Management.
Cloke and Goldsmith's conclusion is that management is an
idea whose time is up. Knowledge workers want more than a
pay cheque, and are not prepared to put up with systems
that treat people either as idiots or as untrustworthy
slaves. Organisations who fail to recognise this will lose
their workers to those who do. At the other end of the
hierarchy organisations are having to abandon their
top-down processes as new information channels and the
speed of change makes them slow and ineffective.
One series well known to BBC viewers, Back to the Floor,
has been demonstrating the need for less management and
more leadership to selected Chief Executives for five
years. Almost without exception, the CEOs learn a painful
lesson: There are people at the heart of the organisation
who know exactly how to make the organisation better. But
between them and the people who can make it happen are
layers of management whose careers depend on sanitising
that information and making sure it doesn't get anywhere
near the CEO.
In an interesting parallel, when Robert A. Eckert took over
the troubled toy maker Mattel he spent a great proportion
of his first few weeks in the company cafeteria. Listening
to the real issues, trying out ideas, gaining the
commitment of the staff - all helped to turn round the
numbers and also cement Eckert's leadership style.
But the battle between leadership and management is not
new. Drucker's famous quote goes: "Management is about
doing things right; Leadership is about doing the right
things." The difference in today's business world is that
the leadership need is not just at the top of the
organisation pyramid. It is a skill that is required
throughout. With the speed and complexity of change,
decisions need to be made close to the coal-face and
leadership is therefore as essential there as it is in
creating the clear focus and direction for the organisation
as a whole.
Jim Collins' research for his latest book discovered three
factors that were common in companies moving from Good to
Great: Identifying something that they could be truly the
best in the world at; Discovering how they most effectively
generated cash and profit; and what they were deeply
passionate about. The translation of these factors into a
compelling vision for the organisation is the work of the
top leaders. Responding to the vision and creating the day
to day working models is the work of other leaders in a
strategic alliance of teams and self-managed operations -
not a centrally planned and organised workforce.
Supportive research comes from Leeds University. Looking at
bosses - not CEOs - who were seen as highly motivating,
Beverly Alimo-Metcalfe identified three clusters of
leadership qualities. First, personal qualities such as
integrity, openness, decisiveness and behaving consistently
with espoused values. Second, leading and developing
qualities such as valuing people, coaching, mentoring,
empowering, creating developmental opportunities. Third,
organisational leadership qualities: strategic thinking,
networking, prioritising, exchanging information, promoting
best practice. These are a long way from the traditional
promotion qualities that are more transactional.
Interestingly Alimo-Metcalfe comments "leadership qualities
are often found in organisations, but rarely at the top."
The National Health Service in the UK has been trying a
radical concept in leadership for its Primary Care Trusts
(responsible for high-street medical care). They work with
a triumvirate leadership team - typically a lay person, a
health service manager and a general practitioner. Each has
their own specific role in the job description, but there
is also considerable overlap written in for the incumbents
to negotiate for themselves. Early research shows that the
model is working better than expected.
Judging from the number of articles on the subject
appearing in magazines and the press in the last quarter,
this topic is scheduled to run and run.
A final thought: When the results of a Demos/Institute of
Management survey of leadership was discussed with army
officers at Sandhurst they confessed thay'd been putting
leadership first for decades, only recently starting on
management skills. Business, it seems, does the reverse.
The End of Management, Kenneth Cloke & Joan Goldsmith,
Jossey Bas
Down the Up Staircase, Fast Company, March 2002
Where Leadership Starts, Harvard Business review, November
2001
Good to Great, Jim Collins, Random House
Transforming leadership, Roffey Park newsletter Winter 2001
Let's give it a tri, People Management January 2002
Speaking out, Management Today, February 2002
From Cuttings 42 March 2002
__________________________________________________________________
Management
Agenda 2002
Internal rivalry, hidden agendas, lack of trust and
strained working relation-ships are rife in the workplace
at the beginning of 2002, according to a survey by Roffey
Park. This acts as a barrier to high performance, resulting
in inappropriate management styles, harassment, conflict,
values that are espoused but not practised, and resistance
to change.
The research does have a positive outlook: despite comments
about shutdowns, cost cutting, headcount reduction and
outsourcing, 69% of respondents claim to be optimistic
about the future. But 58% say they experience a culture of
'presenteeism', where they are under pressure to stay in
the office considerably longer than their contracted hours,
often regardless of workload demands.
Comparison with previous years' shows that work-life
balance is becoming such an important issue that many
managers are prepared to downshift in order to gain more
time for their other interests. They are no longer prepared
to make the heavy sacrifices that they made in the past.
The need to create a more diverse workforce appears to be
moving up the business agenda, though this often means
merely that there is an equal opportunities policy.
In a noticeable shift away from 'flatter structures', the
research reveals that organisations are reintroducing
structural layers in order to retain key employees in a
knowledge economy.
The skills and attributes that managers believe are
critical in today's workplace include networking,
flexibility, political acumen, the ability to forge
alliances, cultural awareness and extreme competitiveness.
As part of their role, the majority of respondents say they
are increasingly being expected to manage change, coach and
develop others and engage hearts and minds.
The research also suggests that HR is still perceived to
operate in a piecemeal, reactive way, with too many
initiatives being undertaken that don't fundamentally make
a difference to the business.
The Management Agenda 2002 is available from
pauline.hinds@roffeypark.com
From Cuttings 42 March 2002
__________________________________________________________________
Fixes that
Fail: faster is slower
Daniel Kim highlights a common problem: we get caught in
the dynamic of continually implementing quick fixes to
resolve recurrent problems.
Why does this happen? Suppose there is a slump in sales -
we respond with a quick marketing promotion. Sales improve.
The person who 'saved the day' is promoted. Our attention
is diverted away from the real problem - an ageing
production line. The hero's replacement then get s the
blame for the recurring problem, and again responds with a
quick fix to restore confidence. Kim suggests we need to
recognise this vicious cycle and take a more accurate
picture of "progress".
You may recognise a similarity with my own model of
effective problem solving Ready-Aim-Fire. The quick fix is
typified by the Fire-Fire-Fire culture where people
continue to work on the short term result without standing
back and looking at the big picture.
Daniel Kim, Fixes that Fail, The Systems Thinker, April
1999
From Cuttings 42 March 2002
__________________________________________________________________
A DIFFERENT
NEGOTIATION
Cal Boardman of the University of Utah, , has uncovered a
very different approach to bargaining in early Native
American cultures.
The bargaining would go like this: If you are offering me
an animal hide, as the buyer I tell you what a wonderful
hide it is, pointing out its qualities, and I offer to pay
you a very high price. You, as the seller, tell me what a
generous individual I am, and since I am so generous, you
cannot possibly take advantage of me, and as the seller
offer a very low price.
The bargaining zone is now set, but it is the buyer that
has set the high price and the seller that has set the low
price, just the opposite of our "modern" practice.
From this point, the parties bargain, the buyer extolling
the quality of the hide and the generosity of the seller,
while the seller in turn extols the generosity of the buyer
and insists the price should not exploit that generosity.
Eventually a mutually satisfactory trade is set and the
parties agree. But the context is quite different: in
"modern" bargaining both parties would be deemed 'losers'
as both would have got much better prices when they
started.
Of course, this only works if the norms are observed by
both parties, which explains a lot about the early
encounters with Europeans who had a different definition of
a good deal!
Cal found a modern example in Joe Rosenblatt who bought a
machine tool company in San Francisco in the 50s for more
than the asking price..
Joe's view: "If I had just given what was asked, and then
made a lot of money, the people running the company for me
would have realised I had not paid a fair price. It was far
more important to me that they felt I was generous in my
dealings, that they saw me as a partner in success, and
that they continue striving to make the business a success.
In the time I ran my business, I made far more as the
result of paying a fair price than I could have possibly
gained from paying an unfair price."
Contributed by Jack Brittan to the Appreciative Inquiry
ListServe
From Cuttings 41 December 2001
__________________________________________________________________
Sources of
Sustained Success
Following my lead article in Cuttings 40 on the work of
Marcus Buckingham of Gallup, my friend and colleague Brian
McEvoy of Brian McEvoy Consulting remembered (and also
managed to locate!) the following from a book published in
1994 ...
"Suppose that in 1972, someone asked you to pick five
companies that would provide the greatest return to
stakeholders over the next 20 years. And suppose that you
had access to books on competitive success that were not
even written. ...
Conventional wisdom would have you begin by selecting the
right industries. After all, "not all industries offer
equal opportunity for sustained profitability, and the
inherent profitability of its industry is one essential
ingredient in determining the profitability of a firm".
According to Michael Porter's now famous framework, the
five fundamental competitive forces that determine the
ability of firms in an industry to earn above-normal
returns are "the entry of new competitors, the threat of
substitutes, the bargaining powers of buyers, the
bargaining powers of suppliers, and the rivalry among
existing competitors." You should find industries with
barriers to entry, low supplier and buyer bargaining power,
few ready substitutes, and a limited threat of new entrants
to compete away economic returns. Within such industries,
other conventional analyses would urge you to select firms
with the largest market share, which can realise the cost
benefits of economies of scale.
You would have been very successful in selecting the five
top performing firms from 1972-1992 if you took this
conventional wisdom and turned it on its head. The top five
stocks, and their percentage returns were: Plenum
Publishing (with a return of 15,689%), City Circuit (a
video and appliance retailer; 16,410%), Tyson Foods (a
poultry producer; 18,118%), Wal-Mart (a discount chain;
19,807%), and Southwest Airlines (21,775%). Yet during this
period these industries (retailing, airlines, publishing,
and food processing) were characterised by massive
competition and horrendous losses, widespread bankruptcy,
virtually no barriers to entry (for airlines after 1978),
little unique or proprietary technology, and many
substitute products or services. And in 1972 none of these
firms was the market-share leader.
The point here is not to throw out conventional strategic
analysis based on economics but simply to note that the
source of competitive advantage has shifted over time. What
these five successful firms tend to have in common is that
for their sustained advantage, they rely not on technology,
patents or strategic position, but on how they manage their
work force."
The Competence Gap, Cuttings 40, September 2001
'Competitive Advantage Through People' by Jeffrey Pfeffer,
1994.
From Cuttings 41 December 2001
__________________________________________________________________
High-value
management
Some core competencies for managers in the leaner and
"smarter" business environment:
* Fully understands the skills and backgrounds of staff and
uses this information to best use talents and determine
those he may empower, and those who must be "managed" first
* Listens 'actively' and understands that it's often
appropriate to "share" leadership
* Operates "on purpose," understanding that there must be a
direct relationship between the tasks a staff member
undertakes and the objectives and goals of the organisation
as a whole.
* Emphasises growth and opportunity, projects optimism, and
invites staff to join in creating a winning organisation
with room for growth and development of the organisation
and the individual.
* Trains employees to think critically, and encourages them
to come up with new procedures, or practices that will
enable them to more efficiently do their work.
Re-engineering, for instance, often demands "change
masters."
Reuters, October 1, 2001
From Cuttings 41 December 2001
__________________________________________________________________
THE
COMPETENCE GAP
Worrying evidence from a survey conducted globally in over
500 member companies in March 2001 by the American
Management Association, validated in Europe by Management
Centre Europe, which shows a massive gap between the
perceived need and the operational reality on a large
number of key managerial competencies.
Not only is there a wide gap, in some cases it is a growing
deficit, and the competencies where there is a shortfall
are precisely those that are needed in times of economic
slow down. In short, it suggests that there is a massive,
immediate development need for today's managers if we are
to weather the storm effectively.
For instance: three of the main gaps are identified in the
areas of:
* Recognising problem areas and implementing solutions
(importance 94.7%; actual ability 45.5%)
* Using information to solve business problems (95.2%;
46.1%)
* Co-operation and commitment (93.0%; 53.7%)
Similar, potentially disastrous gaps occur in competencies
such as: customer focus, coaching and mentoring skills,
listening and asking questions, and identifying
opportunities for innovation
It is worrying that in a time of rapid change, there is an
increasing inability to recognise emerging issues and
opportunities and a reduction in the skills available to
communicate critical developments or do something
constructive.
Managers report spending most of their time fire-fighting
and wading through too much information generated by fast
IT and communication systems. Managers report a lack of
time to carry out the activity of coaching staff with the
increasing use of virtual teams making face to face contact
a rarity. When they do coach it is usually looking at
current issues not developing future capability.
So, even after the relatively high focus on development the
last few years, something is still not working. This
suggests that the training and development being offered is
not effective in developing the skills necessary for
today's managers' needs. The research comments about time
also suggest another area of focus: does the culture of the
organisation support and create the environment for
managers to develop.
The evidence from a number of surveys that acquiring new
skills and development are key are the elements of the
employment package that are valued most is backed up by
evidence that skilled workers are migrating to
organisations offering development. A significant number of
the Gallup Organisation Q12 (see below) factors that their
research finds are determinants of a strong and vibrant
workplace are to do with development.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12 Questions that determine whether people are engaged, not
engaged or actively disengaged at work:
1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. Do I have the right materials and equipment that I need
in order to do my job right?
3. Do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every
day?
4. Have I received praise or recognition for doing work in
the last seven days?
5. Does my supervisor seem to care about me as a person?
6. Is there someone who encourages my development?
7. Do my opinions seem to count?
8. Does the mission of my company make me feel my job is
important?
9. Are my coworkers committed to quality work
10. Do I have a best friend at work
11. Has someone talked to me about progress in the past six
months
12. Have I had opportunities to learn and grow in the past
year.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marcus Buckingham's research at Gallup throws up a number
of other interesting pointers in the debate: the workplaces
that had the top scores in Q12 were 50% more likely to have
lower turnover, 56% more likely to have higher than average
customer loyalty, and 27% more likely to report higher
profitability. And you don't need to look at your
competitors for the range: Buckingham also found that Q12
variations inside is greater than between companies.
Perhaps the answer is within.
The Yawning Gap Between Needs and Competence, E_xecutive
Issue, MCE July 2001 / AMA survey of management skills and
competencies: http://www.amanet.org/ research/summ.htm
Marcus Buckinghma thinks your boss has an attitude problem,
Fast Company, August 2001
From Cuttings 40 September 2001
__________________________________________________________________
Asking
Questions
Octavius Black of The Mind Gym shares some great thoughts
about questioning in the August edition of Management
Today:
The question begets the answer: If you don't like the
answer, think up a different question before you blame the
answer.
Know what you want: What is the essential question you want
answered? All other questions are means to get you to that
answer. (Reminds me of Steven Covey's advice to start with
the end in mind).
Start broad. That helps you to find out things without
necessarily revealing your own bias or assumption. You can
then focus down to the specifics.
Use questions that build on what the other person has said
in order to build rapport - this shows you are listening
and interested in what they are saying.
Tangential and hypothetical questions get conversations out
of ruts and encourage creativity - they can also get
tangential and hypothetical answers!
Asking beautiful questions, Octavius Black, Management
Today, August 2001.
The Mind Gym, www.themindgym.com
From Cuttings 40 September 2001
__________________________________________________________________
THREE
CHALLENGES...
1 WHO ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS?
Not the standard question about getting close to your
customer - this is a more complex one: who are your
customers going to be in five years time?
This is the question that Eamonn Kelly and his colleagues
at the Global Business Network have been struggling with in
recent months. They discovered in their research on the
future that in many industries a fear of new competition
was receding and a fear of the customer was starting to
feature. Organisations had no idea who and where their
future customers would be and how they would behave.
Eamonn has identified some propositions to help us think
through this issue - no answers, just some considerations
and trends:
1 The balance of power is moving from producers towards
consumers.
2 Customers will expect everything to be customised to the
unit of one.
3 Customers will express their values in their decisions
and their demands in different ways at different times
4 Value creation will involve co-creation, or interaction
between the producer and the consumer.
5 Customers are going to reward or punish companies for
their behaviour.
6 Corporations die. Survival isn't a right. Existing
companies face serious challenges to adapt and change.
7 At the end of the day, customers are first and foremost
people, so understand their fundamental needs and
motivations.
www.gbn.org
2 ADAPT OR
DIE
For Richard Pascale, the idea of a living organism is not a
metaphor for how organisations operate. It is the way they
really are. Gone are the management assumptions that
intelligence and leadership is at the top, change is
predictable and that you can cascade intention. That way an
organisation becomes captive of its winning formula and
settles into an equilibrium, which equals death in today's
environment.
In a biological model the question is whether we are merely
generating clones, or using cross-pollination to wake the
place up and disturb the equilibrium. For instance, GE
Capital makes about 100 small acquisitions a year to
refresh its gene pool.
Also the biological model suggests that we steer near to
the edge of chaos to invoke higher levels of mutation and
experimentation. This entails using tensions like
encouraging entrepreneurial actions to create your
competitive edge whilst stopping the organisation from
self-destructing.
Biological systems at the edge of chaos tend to
self-organise and allow the emergence of new organisms. In
business, there are countless examples of organisations
being frozen in their procedures and unable to organise for
the reality of the situation.
Finally, living systems cannot be directed along a linear
path - the leader's job is not to help the organisation
adapt and grow, not force it down a predetermined path.
Senge outlines three guidelines:
* Design, don't engineer
* Discover, don't dictate
* Decipher, don't presuppose
Fast Company, April 2001
www.surfingchaos.com
3 A NEW
WORLD VIEW
Remember the email that tried to relate the earth's
population to a village of 100 people? Apparently most of
the numbers did check out, and research by Fast Company
magazine has now updated the information backed by
statistical sources: A real challenge to our assumptions
and an identification of the need for acceptance,
understanding and education.
"If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of
precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios
remaining the same, it would look something like this:
60 Asians
13 Africans
12 Europeans
9 Latin Americans,
5 North Americans
1 Oceanian
There would be:
50 female, 50 male.
80 non-white, 20 white.
33 Christian, 67 non-Christian.
20 people would earn 89% of the entire community's wealth.
25 would live in substandard housing.
17 would be unable to read.
13 would suffer from malnutrition.
2 would have a college education.
4 would own a computer.
1 would die and 2 would give birth within the year."
Rekha Balu, Christine Engelken, and Jennifer Grosso, Fast
Company, www.fastcompany.com/keyword/email45
From Cuttings 39 June 2001
__________________________________________________________________
LESSONS FOR
MANAGING REMOTE WORKERS
Research by Robert Hersowitz has produced eight reasons why
remote workers 'switch-off' from their invisible manager:
* Misinterpreted, unintentionally 'hostile' emails
* Infrequent contact with the boss
* Lack of information about changes
* Lack of resources and back-up
* Failure to seek their views and opinions
* Vague or confusing objectives and instructions
* Informal appraisals and lack of recognition and praise
* Inevitable technical faults with communication mediums
Many of these 'switch-offs' relate to motivational factors
of achievement, and affiliation, which suggests that remote
managers need to revisit some of the more traditional
management principles. A lack of resources, unclear
objectives and infrequent contact are related to feelings
of under achievement. No information, consultation or
attempts to involve staff are clearly associated with
workers' needs for involvement. Whilst hostile emails, lack
of praise and poor quality communications are all symptoms
of poor affiliation.
To overcome these difficulties, the best solution is to
establish initial face-to-face contact. If this is
impossible, then our own research suggests that the manager
and remote team members need to invest at least the same
amount (and ideally more) of time and effort in building,
and then maintaining, the social and emotional environment
that would take place during face-to-face meetings.
Allocate specific time for non-business contact, and use
software to help by creating chat rooms and interest
groups.
Then after creating the environment, use the 'reasons for
switch-off' as a measure for improvement, learning and
self-awareness.
A rule of thumb for managers of remote teams: the more
'remote' staff there are, the more time you need to devote
to them.
The Invisible Manager, Robert Hersowitz, E-xecutive
Newsletter, MCE
From Cuttings 39 June 2001
__________________________________________________________________
PEOPLE
MATTER!
The Institute of Manpower Studies has claimed that the word
'motivation' is among the six most used words in company
documents. However, in a recent survey of 500 top UK
businesses, 95 per cent replied that their staff could be
more motivated. Hardly surprising when the London Chamber
of Commerce estimates that bullying in the workplace costs
£2billion a year through 19 million lost working days.
Looking at a success story - the largest advertising agency
in Britain, Abbott Mead Vickers- it is possible to see that
you can be nice and beat the rest. AMV prides itself on its
friendly, family approach to management in an industry that
is often seen as adopting a fairly cut-throat approach to
people. AMV is a lean operation, so staff probably have to
work harder than their colleagues in other agencies, yet it
has one of the best staff retention rates in the business,
all without coercion.
Co-founder Peter Mead rejects the notion that there needs
to be some unease to spur action: "There have been
management gurus who have claimed that conflict and anxiety
create energetic synergy. It's complete nonsense. Fear
paralyses rather than spurs people forward." For the same
reason, AMV spurns ideas like 'hot-desking' - it makes
people uneasy: "They like their own nests."
On a wider front, Fortune researches the World's Most
Admired Companies, basing its analysis not just on
financial results, but on the consideration of their
industry peers. The latest list has only 2 UK companies in
the top 50 (Shell and BP Amoco) which may show a general
bias towards US companies by a US magazine, but also
probably reflects the greater traditionalism this side of
the Atlantic. The admired companies are twice as likely to
use non-financial goals for their executives as other large
companies. (e.g. 66% have goals for building human capital
and 76% building customer loyalty compared to an industry
30% in both categories)
Many people have written on the need to revise the
psychological contract between employer and employee in the
light of the new economic realities. The old contract based
on loyalty in return for security allowed a lot of poor
performers to inhabit corporate havens, and the rash of
change in the 1990s marked the end of security. A new
contract is needed that allows current employees to meet
their aspirations and for employers to get a return. So
what motivates the new employees?
The much researched 'Generation X' reveals people who
become restless if they are presented with a lack of sense
of challenge, accomplishment or recognition. They seek
trust and autonomy to deliver results. Hardly surprising
then, that many organisations find they cannot retain staff
when they perpetuate control systems and bureaucracy.
Gen-Xers know what they want, are prepared to work hard for
it and show loyalty to their current employer, but are also
more likely to move to a new challenge and employer if
their needs are not met.
There is nothing new in this form of personal drive and
motivation. Having a clear goal has been recognised as one
of the main differentiators of the most successful people.
It is a key ingredient in recovery from serious illness or
disabling injury.
Putting that motivation to work in a corporate setting may
mean that we need to set up more human places for work and
organise more like jazz bands. Companies like Abbott Mead
Vickers and Medtronic (Fortune January 2001) have managed
to create environments and cultures that allow people to be
motivated, especially those independent contributors like
Gen-Xers, technicians, professionals and researchers.
Leadership has often been compared to conducting a symphony
orchestra, indeed Benjamin Zander, conductor of the Boston
Philharmonic is a well known speaker and writer on
leadership. For him, leadership is based on how much power
you can give away, empowering, trusting and coaching people
to achieve their best. This will be a pretty big step for
most MDs and CEOs and the analogy might work for them. But
not all of us are conductors of major orchestras - we are
not MDs, but we are leaders of teams in organisations.
That's where the jazz band analogy works best: here there
is an underpinning of trust in the band, a passion for what
is being done, and close contact with its customer (jazz
club not concert hall). The leadership and support roles
are interchangeable, with the members communicating and
collaborating around a minimal structure allowing everyone
to excel.
Here's to more jazz!
News Scan, Organisations & People, February 2001.
Orchestral Manoeuvres, People Performance
A Human Place to Work, Fortune, January 2001.
The World's Most Admired Companies 2000, Fortune, October
2000
Leadership, People Performance
On the Frontline, People Performance
Keep X on the files, People Management, July 2000
Perseverance? It's a tough call, Professional Manager,
September 2000
How to be nice and beat the rest, MT September 2000
The Psychological Contract, People Performance
From Cuttings 38 March 2001
__________________________________________________________________
1000
Questions
Joyce Wycoff of The Innovation Network put out a challenge
in January to start the new millennium with 1000 questions.
Her inspiration came from Michael Gelb who encourages
people to make a list of 100 questions in his book "How to
Think Like Leonardo da Vinci". The network didn't get to
1000 questions, but it made a good start. Here are some of
my favourites:
? What is the one thing I could stop doing, or start doing,
or do differently, starting today that would most improve
the quality of my life
? How can I get paid for doing what I love
? How can we remove more poisons from the environment than
we put in
? What would the world look like without hate
? What is "the good life"
? How can we eliminate poverty in the next 10 years
? What will our grandchildren think of us for what we are
doing to our planet
? What if we had an Olympics of collaborative games
And the meta-question:
? What assumptions are inherent in my questions
From Cuttings 38 March 2001
__________________________________________________________________
LEARNING
FROM CRISIS: CLOSING DOWN CAN BE INSPIRING !
What have C&A stores in the UK and the
Millennium Dome in London have in common? - They are both
closing down operations at the end of this year.
The Dutch owners of the C&A chain announced in June
this year that it was closing all of its UK stores by
January 2001. The New Millennium Experience Company who run
the Dome attraction in London were only going to be in
existence for a year to run the millennium celebration.
What they also have in common is the need to maintain their
staff's focus until the last minute so that the visitors to
the Dome are kept amused and customers at C&A are
served. The way they maintained their motivation is a
lesson to everyone who faces similar challenges caused by
restructuring or other changes. It is also a key lesson for
everyone who is in the leadership business.
At C&A, from the date of the closure, the Managing
Director of the UK operation, Neil McCausland tells of
losing all of his authority over the 5,000 staff overnight.
Why should they listen to someone who has just told them
they were all going to lose their jobs? At the Dome, the
media have relished in criticising its exhibits, its poor
financial management and its inability to attract the
planned number of visitors. This adds further pressure to a
staff who know they have no job on January 1, 2001.
One key opportunity that both of the leaders of these two
businesses have seized upon is freedom. Knowing that they
are going to close, it has given them the opportunity to
take risks that might not be tolerated in normal trading
environments. But risks we can all take.
At C&A, Neil McCausland offered staff a choice: be
de-motivated and angry, or try out new strategies to
achieve success in the final months. He pointed out that
the chances of taking these attitudes into job interviews
was very high, so the better option for them personally was
to adopt the positive strategy.
Focusing on the immediate concern, he promised help in
finding new jobs. Then he told the store managers to tear
up the rule book. No longer would they have to follow
corporate guidelines, they could run their stores
individually, just focusing on making profit. A monthly
bonus for managers and staff based on that store's success
replaced previous Europe-wide performance payments.
The result for C&A in the UK has been a 50% increase in
turnover, with the added irony that trucks have had to be
brought in from the group's European operations to help
with distribution!
At the Dome, there is a similar message to the 2,000 staff.
'This is a unique, one-off project where you can develop
better, more marketable skills.' The Dome offers training
in job applications and interviews and forged alliances
with its sponsors to generate employment opportunities.
This support is even more welcome to the staff as they had
been deliberately recruited from diverse and often
overlooked parts of the community (about 40% of them had
been unemployed for two years or more before the Dome took
them on) The training that the Dome provided was highly
commended in the national People Management awards, which
demonstrates the quality of the provision, as does the
general acclaim of visitors where 90% thought the service
was good or excellent.
It makes you wonder what you can do without a crisis...
Inside Track, ,Michael Skapinker, Financial Times, October
18, 2000
Hosts with the most, People Management November 2000
From Cuttings 37 December 2000
__________________________________________________________________
FLEXIBLE
PAY
You can guarantee that at Semco that they don't follow
convention. Ever since this remarkable São Paulo company
leaped to fame when its leader Ricardo Semler wrote an HBR
article about 'Managing without Managers' in 1989, it has
continued to question traditional employment practices.
Recently it extended its business from manufacturing to
internet services, and its learning is typically Semco:
"transformation is easy if you throw away your plans and
let your people lead you." When it comes to pay, Semco
allows choice from a total of 11 compensation options:
1 Fixed salary
2 Bonuses
3 Profit sharing
4 Commission
5 Royalties on sales
6 Royalties on profits
7 Commission on gross margin
8 Stock or stock options
9 IPO/sales warrants that can be cashed in when a business
unit goes public or is sold
10 Self-set annual review/ compensation where you are paid
for meeting self-set goals
11 Commission on difference between actual and three-year
value of company
...with any number of permutations and combinations!
"How we went digital without a strategy" Ricardo Semler,
HBR September-October 2000
From Cuttings 37 December 2000
__________________________________________________________________
PEOPLE
POWER
The 2000 Global Most Admired organisations identified by
Fortune magazine have a common emphasis on performance
measurement: they do a lot of it, and they also have a
balanced set of measures, looking at customer satisfaction
and employee satisfaction as much as financial results.
According to the survey consultants, Hay Group, "High
performing companies do walk the talk when it comes to
performance measures. It's clear that they are seriously
committed to the human elements that contribute to their
success."
In contrast with their peer companies, senior executives in
the Most Admired companies believe that many of their
performance measures encourage co-operation and
collaboration rather than competition. They find the
measures help them to focus on growth, operational
excellence, customer loyalty, employee and management
development and other critical issues, and therefore become
more strategic and forward looking in their decision
making.
And the measurement is not just through infrequent global
customer or staff surveys. For instance: every quarter BP
Amoco maps the progress of its people targets including:
innovation, mutual trust and respect, teamwork and
diversity. To BP Amoco achievement in these areas are just
as important to the success of the company as revenues or
profit.
BP Amoco is among the 40 percent of Most Admired companies
who regularly measure and chart employee-oriented measures
with equal importance to financial measures. That's a ful
