Human Resources, Training, and Labor Relations Managers

Disaster Recovery 101: What You Need to Know

2011-11-17T07:13:00.000-08:00

Computerworld, 11/16/11 - With various parts of the country still reeling in the wake of tornadoes, earthquakes, too-early snowstorms, hurricanes and wildfires, the past few months have taught us that no geographical area is safe. There's never been a more compelling time to develop or fine-tune a disaster recovery and business continuity plan for your business.

Disaster recovery is, quite simply, being able to continue your mission-critical business operations after an interruption of some kind. Companies must be able to resurrect their applications and processes -- their entire business operations -- at the point they were before the outage occurred, says Robert Amatruda, research director for data protection and recovery at IDC. And this is true whether the outage resulted from a natural disaster, a server or storage system malfunctioning or "someone pulling a plug they shouldn't have," he says.

While business continuity is about being able to keep functions going, disaster recovery means being able to get everything back to whole again, explains Carl Pritchard, senior risk-management consultant at advisory firm Cutter Consortium. "The difference is business continuity is keeping the patient alive. Disaster recovery is getting them back to being healed and walking again," says Pritchard, who is also the author of Risk Management, Concepts and Guidance, 4th Edition.

Fantastic Quote to Remember!

2011-11-17T06:48:00.000-08:00

"There is no such thing as can't, only won't. If you're qualified, all it takes is a
burning desire to accomplish, to make a change. Go forward, go backward.

Whatever it takes! But you can't blame other people or society in general.

It all comes from your mind. When we do the impossible we realize

we are special people." --Jan Ashford

CEO Confirmation

2011-11-17T06:39:00.000-08:00

Last week I met with a good friend of mine to discuss his business and what I have been doing since I left the corporate world. This person is a CEO of a couple of Internet business all linked to the same type of information. Needless to say he is ultra successful and has capitalized on data streaming over the Internet.

Our discussion went from business strategy, to joint ventures, to new opportunities, and to HR. The discussion on HR really re-enforced what I have been saying since 1978. An HR professional needs to be head deep into the business, know all the ins and outs, products, development, and how to market. This person and I worked together for a couple of years after we bought his company. Since I had an opportunity to meet him early on doing the due diligence and acquisition of his $300+M company, he forged a great working relationship and respect for one another.

His comment to me said it all" you are a business person with great knowledge and understanding on how to run a successful business". This is what a CEO should say about his/her CHRO. Does your CEO say that about you and what have you done to fully understand your business and integrate yourself into the day to day operations? Oh, don't forget talent management, succession, and all the other CHRO duties!!

Employee Engagement? In a Business, It Needs to Start at the Very Top

2011-11-15T07:25:00.000-08:00

A fish rots from the head down, as the saying goes from my friends in Maine. While the word rot sounds offensive, let’s just say it starts from the top.

This week, I was having a conversation with a good friend of mine who is the CEO of a major company , an a true entrepreneur when I mentioned employee engagement. This is a topic I have blogged about now for over 3 years and is still top of mind in the HR world as it should be. This friend jumped on the topic and went on for 40 minutes on what CEOs should do to drive employee engagement from the top.

This CEO met with the senior staff and employees daily and kept in front of them on the business climate, strategy, and new product development. He also had many teams of employees testing products, and asked them to act like consumers. Employee surrounded themselves with the business, and I will tell you even during these economic anemic times his business is going strong at 15% year-over-year growth.

How does your CEO engage employees?

Moving from HR Data to Organizational Insight

2011-11-14T08:03:00.000-08:00

Over the last few months, I have been presenting and discussing the topic of HR analytics.

I feel that as a profession, HR is stuck. I think we have "got" the measurement part down pat. We can measure turnover, we can measure cost per hire, and time to fill.

But it's not really about these activity based measures anymore. It's about what you actually DO with the data.

You have to use the data in context with other data in order to really get to impact. For example, using customer satisfaction data and performance data to understand who is delivering the best experience to your customers and further determining how to sustain that experience over time...that's impact.

I have been giving some thought to why we are stuck at the Phase 2 on the above analytics roadmap. Why can't we make it faster to phase 5, where HR provides the business with BUSINESS INSIGHT that has significant IMPACT to the business.

Here are some of my initial thoughts:

1) It's the data excuse-Stop the madness. HR has more data than most departments. The issue is the condition of the data in most cases. Also, we have data in so many systems it is difficult to bring it all together. NOT IMPOSSIBLE just difficult.

2) It's the talent excuse-I don't have analytical people on my team. See last week's post on how to accomplish this one from two very smart HR professionals from Wells Fargo.

3) It's the "I don't have time excuse"-Find time before someone else takes over your data and does it for you. Enough said...

4) It's the "I can't get the data I need from other departments" excuse-Make a clear business case or state a compelling question that you need to solve that has impact on the business. State this at a high level meeting to get buy in and interest.

5) It's the "it's not important" excuse. keep thinking this while HR tasks are being outsourced and HR is suddenly being staffed with non-HR professionals who get analytics. Nay, it's not important.

I believe HR has the chops and smarts to get this done. Start small with one business problem that needs to be solved like:

1) How can I get my production workers to be more productive and get orders fulfilled on time when absenteeism is at an all time high and morale is at an all time low?

2) How do I increase our market share in a new market, where our competition has a strong hold and we have had problems recruiting talent that we need to make this happen?

3) How do I increase customer satisfaction in our call center, it has been dropping for two quarters straight?

Each one of these issues can be looked at with metrics and then analytics. It just takes asking the right questions, getting the right data and telling a great impactful story!

Why are you stuck? or...How have you moved past being stuck?

Traditionalists Will Not Succeed in HR In Today's Environment

2011-11-07T10:02:00.000-08:00

This is not a controversial subject at all I would think given the environment today. If you want to get into HR today, you need to understand business and economics, and I do not mean just the rudiments. You also still have to be people oriented but that is not why you get into this field. Here is why traditional HR people will not succeed today:

Your CEO wants business people, not just people people,
You have to have a close and intimate working relationship with your CEO and executive team,
HR should not be focused on administration like it was 10, 15 or 20 years ago,
You have to think like a business person and understand the economics of business,
You have to talk business speak, not HR speak and people need to know you can back up your business speak,
You have to add immediate value and ROI in everything you do,
If you do not understand and grow and retain talent, you are out,
You need to be smart about social media and how to attract the right talent to your business,
If you do not understand global competition and exchange you lose,
You have to know how to adjust to changing environments like driving a Formula One race car,
You need to be flexible, act with speed, and decisiveness and have the RIGHT answers and solutions,
You need to be compassionate yet honest in your discussions with people, not beat around the bush like most HR people,
Phoneys will not make it today and that will cut out about 50% of the HR people in corporations today,
You have to be someone who could potentially take the COO/CEO position some day.
You need to understand and explain balance sheets and corporate accounting & finance.

And you can fill in all the other blocks on how to make it today in HR. This is just the tip of the iceberg on what it will take to be in HR today. Do you agree?

Human Capital Metrics Conference: It's about Value

2011-11-07T09:36:00.000-08:00

The Human Capital Metrics Conference was awesome this year. Check out my recap of Day 1, here.

Day 2, did not disappoint either. Michael Echols with Bellevue University began his keynote with a very profound point for me and for all HR professionals.

See my tweet below:

"The opportunity is to create FUTURE value from current human capital investments."

Boy, do I believe that. That one statement gives HR measurement a whole new perspective. It's not so much about what has already happened, it's more about WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN. Don't our CEO's want to invest in whatever will give him/her the most return? We are in "predictive" land now.....say goodbye to HR tracking metrics...it's over. (Thank goodness).

The second highlight for me on day 2, came from two very smart women from Wells Fargo. Natalie Tarnopolsky and Kathy Doan delivered a great presentation on "Building a TRUE HR Analytics Team." It was not only a good presentation but entertaining as well. Yes, they made analytics entertaining.

Natalie and Kathy outlined their 9 step process used at Wells Fargo:

1) Assess your analytical capabilities. Where are you today (reporting) and where would you like to be (optimization)?

2) Assess your foundation. Conduct a gap analysis of your foundational building blocks. (foundational data, vision, key questions, truths i.e. cost and value per FTE)

3) Strengthen partnerships. Identify stakeholders, build relationships, determine goals and share, build credibility and communicate loudly!

4) Have a clear plan and ensure sponsorship. Review HR organizational structure, accountability, and create business case.

5) Select the right technology. Decisions on build or buy with right people involved in process.

6) Support self sufficiency. You must control demand or increase manager self sufficiency in the reporting area.

7) Secure the right analytics team based on the following key skills: business acumen, people influence, communication effectiveness, data manipulation, financial acumen, analytic rigor, and critical thinking.

8) Outline the analytical process. Clearly plan and communicate what the key question is, the assumptions and approach that will be used to answer the questions and the potential value that can be derived.

9) Conduct analysis and share the results. Spend time in prepping the data and previewing the findings.

I like their process as I believe it will work for large and small companies alike. It was one of the most popular topics on the twitter feed for #tcbhcm.

I look forward to next year, as I see HR professionals and the C-Suite embracing HR Analytics more and more every day. It's very exciting to see this topic finally get its fair share of attention.

I believe analytics are no longer a nice to have.....they are a must have for competitive advantage, no matter your industry.

What are your thoughts? Are HR Analytics a fad or here to stay?

Have You Hardwired Your Workforce?

2011-11-03T11:52:00.000-07:00

In an economy like what we are experiencing today, good news today, bad news in Europe tomorrow after the bell, one of the first budget cuts we see is usually in training & development. As all HR and astute CEOs know, training is one of the key life bloods of an organization that builds your workforce skills and is a launch pad for growth.One of the key elements for continuing training of your human capital is instilling that training is important to them and that they should take the time to expand their skills, grow their competencies, and make it a ritual in their working lives. It is an investment in their capital assets. So how do you do this? Here are a couple of important guidelines:

make sure there is a solid training strategy that ties to the corporations' goal/objectives
keep the training budget as much in place as possible
make sure your managers buy into the training strategy
managers must emphasize that training is important to them
offer eLearning options for your employees through companies like SkillSoft
provide time each week for learning
show the outcome of skills training so people see the end result
post notices on your intranet regarding skills training
make sure that you subsidize if not pay in full the training that people take that is relevant to their current position or one that in next in line for them. There has to be a solid ROI.

These are just a few areas where you as managers and leaders of organizations can ensure that you build and maintain the most competent workforce that will help you drive revenues and profits. It will also help reduce turnover and build loyalty within the organization.

Human Capital Metrics Conference: Recap Day 1

2011-11-03T08:47:00.000-07:00

I was honored to be asked to serve as the official blogger for The Conference Boards's Human Capital Metrics Conference, today and tomorrow in NYC. HR Metrics are definitely a passion of mine...so I am thrilled to be here especially hanging out with Dr Jac Fitz Enz.

To see more specific insights go to twitter and search on: #tcbhcm....interesting observations, check them out!

Last year, I was also serving in the same capacity. Below are observations I have noticed as differences in 2011 vs. 2010:

1) There are definitely more people here. Small talk contributes this increase to a slightly better economic situation and an increased interest and focus on HR metrics and analytics.

2) The conversations are not about tracking measures, or even dashboards and scorecards...it's about making BETTER BUSINESS decisions. I love this as it puts context around HR and their role in the organization. Michael Gregoire, CEO Taleo said it best:

"Business Strategy and HR Strategy should be ONE!"

3) Last year, I didn't even hear the word social media and its impact on talent management. Today, I have seen how smart companies like Juniper are leveraging technology to manage talent, leading to engagement, leading to desired business outcomes. AWESOME!

4) Lots of talk around HR metric standards. The over arching opinion is that they are coming...from industry experts. My question around this topic is, why hasn't SHRM taken a lead on metric standards? I know they have finally developed a standard around cost per hire. YEAH, but guess what? We have moved on from that metric...#toolittletoolate

The audience was polled and 54% were involved in HR Metrics but only about 1/2 as many involved in predictive analytics. I mention this because HR must get to "predictive" in order to assist CEO's in making better decisions. Mike Echols of Bellevue University said it best....

"HR needs to be better competitors for organizational investment capital"

If that is to be the case, as the money is certainly there on US balance sheets for the taking, then HR needs to make a business case. That business needs data most of the time and what the predicted outcomes will be so that CEO's can make informed decisions on resources.

I think this need for talent management investment must be HR's driver to get on the analytics train.

I always like to know what is next...what's the next topic after we leave tomorrow. Dr. Jac said he is thinking about, "How to build and analytic culture." OMG....2 of my fave topics all in one. Please can I come back?

Ok, so here are some other thoughts regarding today's sessions:

1) I think there is a need to use other Talent Management examples besides training. I believe you can look at examples for rewards/recognition, engagement, performance management, etc and show how companies have linked those to bottom line results as well.

2) I think one big example of aligning strategy to HR strategy and then analyzing MULTIPLE HR investments against desired outcomes would be great. Even better, how to choose between competing HR initiatives. If you have identified through strategic mapping that you may need a training program or a rewards/recognition change, how do you use data to pick the one that has the "most bang for the buck" (discussed by attendees at my lunch table as a suggestion)

3) Dr Jac had a great slide demonstrating linkage between employee investments, operational outcomes, customer outcomes and finally financial results. This really drives home the need for HR strategy and business strategy being one. This idea supports it's not about alignment really but about integrating HR's strategy into the business strategy.

4) Talent management data is not business intelligence by itself. It's just another siloed data set that needs context. It needs to be analyzed with its other data friends...customer, operational and financial data.

Bottom line...a company's competitive advantage is not about services/widgets...it’s the people. Don't you need to know how that investment is performing for you? Don't you need to know how to increase that asset's performance?

The only way to answer those questions is through analytics.

How Quick Can You State Your Strategy?

2011-11-03T06:59:00.000-07:00

I have had a couple of exchanges on Linkedin regarding my post that if you cannot explain your strategy in 20 minutes you don't have a coherent strategy plan at all. Larry Bossity said this 10 years ago ""If you can’t describe your strategy in twenty minutes, simply and in plain language, you haven’t got a plan."

The comments from my Hr practitioners and constituents have said that if you cannot explain your strategy in 5 minutes you don't have a plan. well, I disagree because I be neither of the two who said it should only take 5 minutes couldn't even talk fast enough to get the strategy plan out in 5 minutes. I am not totally contradicting them but questioning how comprehensive their strategy would be if they had 5 minutes to tell it to the board or executive team.

Now, I will say that I am talking about an HR strategy not an overall corporate strategy. I am also not saying that an HR strategy should take any longer but when you piece all the components together that will take more time as they weave into the corporate strategy.

Tell me what you thoughts are on this issue either on Linkedin (www.linkedin.com/williamgstevensjr) or at wgstevens2@gmail.com

HR Metrics: Q&A The Conference Board

2011-11-02T04:40:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, I will be attending the HR Metrics Conference hosted by The Conference Board in NYC.

Dr. Jac Fitz Enz, the "Father of HR Metrics" will be in the house.

I can't wait...I met him last year and yes, I am a groupie. For those that know me, HR Metrics are a passion of mine. Call me, geeky, I don't care.

I thought this opportunity would be a great time for my readers to get their pressing HR Metrics questions answered.

So let's have them....what do you want to know about HR Metrics....

Follow #TCBHCM on Twitter for real time insights from the conference.

CHROs Leadership

2011-11-01T17:35:00.000-07:00

Courage, Now...

No doubt, CHROs and their leadership teams are facing unprecedented pressure to make decisions and deliver results in uncertain and vexing times.It made us think of Harry Truman as he as he contemplated actions to end WW II.

"To be able to lead others, a man must be willing to go forward alone."

Courage, not a fear to act, is at the top of the agenda for CEOs and their CHROs.

The Koblentz Group, wish to share two leadership trends that we are observing in our most forward thinking and courageous clients. Each trend suggests opportunities for CHROs to deliver tangible value.

**CEOs are under increasing pressure from their boards to become truly serious about succession planning and talent management.

Many CEOs speak about the value of leadership capital but few have supported the investment of organizational commitment and funding, to make it work. Boards are demanding tangible plans and now are tying CEO compensation to talent accountability.

CEOs are taking notice! And, CEOs are looking for your guidance.

This creates a real opportunity for CHROs to create significant value by advising their leadership on all the elements of developing and instituting an effective process, investment and benefits.

**As the economic malaise continues, our clients are laser focused on leveraging the basics.

CEOs are asking CHROs to provide key insights on the strategic use of their organization's associates.

"Do we have the "right" talent, in the "right" place to “leverage” the current uncertainty?"

"Can we, as company leaders, put aside politics, personal ambitions and corporate fiefdoms to assure we see issues, challenges and opportunities with clear optics?"

These questions are often over looked or too easily dismissed as simple. This introspective exercise creates opportunity for CHROs to create value with their leadership by reexamining what is presumed to be obvious.

It takes courage for any CHRO to challenge the "givens" and the "simple." Yet, Koblenz's clients who are willing to invest in digging deep on fundamentals have found this type of "examining our basics" approach, yields significant results.

No doubt 2012 will be challenging.

Times will not always be as in the current.

reprint from the Koblenz Group Blog

Creating a Culture of Recognition

2011-10-31T04:58:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure of attending Globoforce's workshop on Building a Culture of Recognition last week. The workshop itself was conducted by Derek Irvine and was very well done. Derek set expectations for the "desired behaviors" for attendees upfront and then used recognition throughout the workshop to encourage attendees to participate. They definitely practice what they preach.

The premise for building a culture of recognition is that recognition leads to a more engaged employee and that engagement leads to better customer service and an increase in profits and revenues.

Another interesting tenet of their philosophy is that more employees need recognition not just the usual top 10%. Globoforce believes that in order to truly MOVE engagement scores you need to recognize those employees that are in the middle of the bell curve. Those employees that are your steady workers, the ones that show up everyday and do consistent work. We need those employees to keep our organizations moving. Often this group of employees is overlooked in most rewards and recognition programs as most are focused on the top performers.

In most organizations the middle of the bell curve represent consistent, average performers and that can be on average 60-70% of the workforce.

The question then becomes: if you want to move engagement scores higher, do you focus on your top 10%, who are highly engaged anyway, or do you move to the 60-70% group that can use recognition? Think about this question for a moment...it really makes sense.

That is a premise that we at Intellectual Capital Consulting believe in as well.

Derek outlined a framework for building a culture of recognition:

1) Tempo begins at the top. Leaders have to give and receive recognition.

2) Must be tied to strategic goals and objectives. Metrics must also be created.

3) Involve program participants and invite their input.

4) Call all managers to training. Enough said!

5) Establish key indicators of success early and measure often

6) Touch as many people as possible as often as possible.

7) Promote program or it will perish.

8) Match recognition with achievement

9) Ensure a recognition moment. Making sure the employee receives a personal message either public or private with the reward.

10) Right currency and reward of choice. Make sure reward is meaningful to the receiver.

I will be reading Derek and Eric's book, "Winning With a Culture of Recognition." Stay tuned for a review when I finish.

What are your thoughts on recognition? Best practices?

HR Themes from 3 Conferences

2011-10-24T04:56:00.000-07:00

The conference season is in full swing and I had the opportunity to attend three wonderful conferences last week.

1) SHRM-Atlanta's HR Conference

2) The Performance Institute's Performance Conference

3) The University of Alabama's HR Management Conference

It is so interesting to participate and listen for themes to emerge. As I wrote notes for each one of the workshops/keynotes I attended, I began to see familiar topics. Here are the common themes from all three conferences:

1) Alignment-seemed to be the most popular theme. Whether it is alignment of organizational goals to the departmental level or aligning HR activities around organizational goals, the topic was mentioned at each conference. My personal opinion is that HR has a huge opportunity in the alignment area. As execution is the reason strategy fails...HR can exercise its strategic muscles in this area. "Execution trumps strategy every time," Rich Berens, Root Learning at the Performance Conference.

2) Engagement-is no longer a nice to have. Engagement is now a must have for a company's competitive advantage. Speakers at all three discussed engagement in the following ways:

1) Employees must be engaged with their work

2) Employees must be engaged with their manager

3) Employees must be engaged with an organization's strategy

4) Employees must be engaged with their team

Tracking and acting on engagement data is key so that those things that drive engagement can be identified and sustained.

3) Focus-such a simple word, but yet so hard to do. Speakers discussed the recent economic challenges forcing companies to get focused on what is truly important. Instead of rolling out 10-12 objectives, speakers discussed the necessity to simplify and focus on the top 3-5 strategic objectives. By focusing on a smaller number, it really makes an organization pay attention to what matters most. Whether it is an individual's goals or an organization's goals a smaller more manageable number keeps everyone's eye on the desired target...organizational success as defined by the strategic plan.

The next time you attend a conference, sit back and listen...listen to common themes across presentations.

For those of you that attended conferences over the last few months, what themes did you hear? Do tell...

HR You're A Rockstar

2011-10-17T18:26:00.000-07:00

This week I am attending/presenting at three conferences, SHRM-Atlanta, The Performance Institute and The University of Alabama's HR Management conference.

I am always excited to attend these conferences as I meet great people and learn a ton of new things.

Today, at SHRM-Atlanta's conference the energy was high and so was the knowledge sharing. If you want to check out the twitter stream, follow hashtag #shrmatl11. With record attendance with over 1100 HR professionals and resource partners, the day was off to a great start. Kat Cole, President of Cinnabon gave the opening keynote. She is fantastic, and at 33, what a dynamo. Kat talked about an organizational learnng building competence, confidence and connections to the business.

I guess what impressed me most today were the great conversations that I was able to participate in. They inspire me and validate for me that the work that I do is truly important. Here are some snippets from my conversations today:

1) The economy is still a hot topic especially around Atlanta. Most individuals I spoke with whether employed or not, whether a practitioner or a vendor, seemed to be surprisingly upbeat. Even with the news media and politicians talking about a double-dip recession, I certainly didn't feel that opinion coming from today's attendees.

2) Engagement and training are still important even with tight budgets. Smart companies are paying attention to engagement because they know this economic situation will pass. And when it does, employees will have choices. Smart companies are still investing in training to increase the skills and knowledge of their employees. Leaders know that making investments now will pay off in productivity and retention increases later.

3) HR peeps are Rockstars! I had so many conversations about business issues. Not just people issues but issues involving market share, mergers and acquisitions, capacity planning, customer retention, product development and many others. I was so excited to hear my fellow HR comrades having a business discussion without mentioning the words "policy", "procedure" or hear it comes...."seat at the table."

I can't wait to see what the rest of the week brings....

A big shout out to my blogger and twitter friends...@jheineck @havrilla @mattcharney @mikehaberman @mgrindell @teelajackson @incblot @debdooken @jennyinthesouth @JenniferAMartz.

One More Great Lesson From Steve Jobs: Innovation Begins As A Social Movement

2011-10-17T11:15:00.000-07:00

Why is the loss of one CEO the cause for universal mourning? Because he symbolized the kind of entrepreneurial capitalism that generates the fun that comes with creating the new.

Hardly anything unites Americans anymore--except for the death of Steve Jobs. His passing and the deep mourning for him across political, generational, and cultural divides remind us that we all can agree on one thing--that it is Jobs’s kind of capitalism, entrepreneurial capitalism, that we love, because it generates the incredible fun that comes with creating the new. His death reminds us that the big, disruptive innovations almost always come from entrepreneurs who embody their following and enable the dreams and talents that they have inside and haven’t yet expressed. It reminds us that all net new job growth in the U.S. comes from startups and businesses five years old or younger that begin in garages, college dorm rooms, or Starbucks cafés.

Above all, Jobs’s passing reminds us that entrepreneurial capitalism is not simply some rational economic market phenomenon but a social movement that binds groups of people together in communities of like interests and deep emotions. Think of the important innovations of our day that are changing our lives--Facebook, Twitter, Zipcar, YouTube, eBay, Amazon, iTunes/iPod/iPhone/iPad--and you find new social communities interacting on new platforms. Add them all up and you see entrepreneurial capitalism itself as a social movement that we join, participate in, and help create ourselves.

Contrast that to the crony capitalism that Occupy Wall Street is protesting against. This kind of capitalism has Wall Street no longer allocating capital to businesses so they can grow--which is its central economic and social function. With crony capitalism, banks and hedge funds trade for their own account--often with government-guaranteed savings and with government safety nets if they fail. With crony capitalism, big businesses, with a handful of exceptions, stop innovating and no longer generate jobs, income, or taxes for America. What crony capitalists have come to excel at is to game the political, regulatory, and tax system to favor their special interests. This anger against crony capitalism crosses the political spectrum.

Both Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin, on the right, and Occupy Wall Street protesters, on the left, specifically decry crony capitalism and celebrate entrepreneurial capitalism. Nearly all of my socially liberal design students at Parsons support Occupy Wall Street and, at the same time, want to launch their own startup businesses. And that is where the role of design in capitalism is becoming ever more important. The new surge in startup culture among the young, the turn of design toward new business, not just big business and the overall collision of creativity with capitalism now under way, is the best way for us to rebuild our country. This will require reframing capitalism as the space for creators, not traders, for risk-takers, not risk managers, for community-builders, not destroyers.

Steve Jobs, like all entrepreneurs, had an entirely different set of competencies from CEOs and managers of big corporations. His ability to be attuned to his following, his framing of the problem (it’s people’s experience with the product, not the functionality and technology, that’s key); his obsession with the look, feel, and materiality; and the charisma of his leadership generated an “aura” around Apple products. That aura extended to Jobs himself, which is why we feel so emotional for the passing of this particular CEO and not any others.

The most successful entrepreneurs, from Thomas Edison, who was called the “Wizard of Menlo Park,” to Steve Jobs, portrayed as a secular prophet holding the iPad as a religious tablet on the February 2, 2010 cover of The Economist (“The Book of Jobs”), are often described in transcendental terminology. They have an aura that directly connects them to their followings whom they embody. These “visionaries,” “prophets,” “wizards,” “oracles” (the “Oracle of Omaha”) have a secular priest and laity relationship with their following. The priest promises the laity a coherent vision of the world, a way to release inherent hopes and talents while curbing existential angst, and a community to which to belong. The laity offers fealty in return. Prophets, religious and secular, tend to arise in moments of social and economic breakdown, which helps explain why there is a surge toward entrepreneurialism today.

In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Max Weber says that Calvin believed that people lived in a radical state of uncertainty about going to heaven. So they had to work extra hard to get there. Work becomes a calling. Today, we are living through yet another state of uncertainty. Innovation and entrepreneurship are our calling.

It is not an accident that so many of our startup founders (Tumblr, Twitter, YouTube, Airbn, Slideshare) have design backgrounds and share so many of the competencies we associate with Jobs. The fact that design is being recognized in the startup space is a major victory for the field. But the real power of design may well lie in its reform of the venture capital process, which has traditionally been defined in terms of technology and functionality. Bringing design into the VC process early to define opportunities (identifying those who embody new groups and new cultures) and keeping it through the business development phase, has the potential to increase the dismal 10% success rate dramatically. India’s innovation and design consultancy Idiom has an 80% success rate in “designing out” new companies.

The movement of design toward big business led to a focus on process and a promise of rationality and routinization of inspiration into products. In the end, we didn’t get much real innovation or the economic value that comes with it. The recent turn of design toward new business is leading to a focus on capitalism as social movement, and a promise of charisma and embodiment generating spectacular experiences that enable and delight. That’s why Steve Jobs and his entrepreneurial capitalism are so important--and why we mourn for him.

BRUCE NUSSBAUM

Bruce Nussbaum blogs, tweets and writes on innovation, design thinking and creativity. The former assistant managing editor for Business Week is a Professor of Innovation

Love Poems From The Heart

2011-10-15T10:50:00.000-07:00

Check out poems on my poetry blog at www.williamgstevensiipoems.blogspot.com

What Guy Kawasaki Learned From Steve Jobs

2011-10-14T06:30:00.000-07:00

Many people have explained what one can learn from Steve Jobs. But few, if any, of these people have been inside the tent and experienced first hand what it was like to work with him. I don’t want any lessons to be lost or forgotten, so here is my list of the top twelve lessons that I learned from Steve Jobs.

Experts are clueless.

Experts—journalists, analysts, consultants, bankers, and gurus can’t “do” so they “advise.” They can tell you what is wrong with your product, but they cannot make a great one. They can tell you how to sell something, but they cannot sell it themselves. They can tell you how to create great teams, but they only manage a secretary. For example, the experts told us that the two biggest shortcomings of Macintosh in the mid 1980s was the lack of a daisy-wheel printer driver and Lotus 1-2-3; another advice gem from the experts was to buy Compaq. Hear what experts say, but don’t always listen to them.

Customers cannot tell you what they need.

“Apple market research” is an oxymoron. The Apple focus group was the right hemisphere of Steve’s brain talking to the left one. If you ask customers what they want, they will tell you, “Better, faster, and cheaper”—that is, better sameness, not revolutionary change. They can only describe their desires in terms of what they are already using—around the time of the introduction of Macintosh, all people said they wanted was better, faster, and cheaper MS-DOS machines. The richest vein for tech startups is creating the product that you want to use—that’s what Steve and Woz did.

Jump to the next curve.

Big wins happen when you go beyond better sameness. The best daisy-wheel printer companies were introducing new fonts in more sizes. Apple introduced the next curve: laser printing. Think of ice harvesters, ice factories, and refrigerator companies. Ice 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. Are you still harvesting ice during the winter from a frozen pond?

The biggest challenges beget best work.

I lived in fear that Steve would tell me that I, or my work, was crap. In public. This fear was a big challenge. Competing with IBM and then Microsoft was a big challenge. Changing the world was a big challenge. I, and Apple employees before me and after me, did their best work because we had to do our best work to meet the big challenges.

Design counts.

Steve drove people nuts with his design demands—some shades of black weren’t black enough. Mere mortals think that black is black, and that a trash can is a trash can. Steve was such a perfectionist—a perfectionist Beyond: Thunderdome—and lo and behold he was right: some people care about design and many people at least sense it. Maybe not everyone, but the important ones.

You can’t go wrong with big graphics and big fonts.

Take a look at Steve’s slides. The font is sixty points. There’s usually one big screenshot or graphic. Look at other tech speaker’s slides—even the ones who have seen Steve in action. The font is eight points, and there are no graphics. So many people say that Steve was the world’s greatest product introduction guy..don’t you wonder why more people don’t copy his style?

Changing your mind is a sign of intelligence.

When Apple first shipped the iPhone there was no such thing as apps. Apps, Steve decreed, were a bad thing because you never know what they could be doing to your phone. Safari web apps were the way to go until six months later when Steve decided, or someone convinced Steve, that apps were the way to go—but of course. Duh! Apple came a long way in a short time from Safari web apps to “there’s an app for that.”

“Value” is different from “price.”

Woe unto you if you decide everything based on price. Even more woe unto you if you compete solely on price. Price is not all that matters—what is important, at least to some people, is value. And value takes into account training, support, and the intrinsic joy of using the best tool that’s made. It’s pretty safe to say that no one buys Apple products because of their low price.

A players hire A+ players.

Actually, Steve believed that A players hire A players—that is people who are as good as they are. I refined this slightly—my theory is that A players hire people even better than themselves. It’s clear, though, that B players hire C players so they can feel superior to them, and C players hire D players. If you start hiring B players, expect what Steve called “the bozo explosion” to happen in your organization.

Real CEOs demo.

Steve Jobs could demo a pod, pad, phone, and Mac two to three times a year with millions of people watching, why is it that many CEOs call upon their vice-president of engineering to do a product demo? Maybe it’s to show that there’s a team effort in play. Maybe. It’s more likely that the CEO doesn’t understand what his/her company is making well enough to explain it. How pathetic is that?

Real CEOs ship.

For all his perfectionism, Steve could ship. Maybe the product wasn’t perfect every time, but it was almost always great enough to go. The lesson is that Steve wasn’t tinkering for the sake of tinkering—he had a goal: shipping and achieving worldwide domination of existing markets or creation of new markets. Apple is an engineering-centric company, not a research-centric one. Which would you rather be: Apple or Xerox PARC?

Marketing boils down to providing unique value.

Think of a 2 x 2 matrix. The vertical axis measures how your product differs from the competition. The horizontal axis measures the value of your product. Bottom right: valuable but not unique—you’ll have to compete on price. Top left: unique but not valuable—you’ll own a market that doesn’t exist. Bottom left: not unique and not value—you’re a bozo. Top right: unique and valuable—this is where you make margin, money, and history. For example, the iPod was unique and valuable because it was the only way to legally, inexpensively, and easily download music from the six biggest record labels.

Bonus: Some things need to be believed to be seen.

When you are jumping curves, defying/ignoring the experts, facing off against big challenges, obsessing about design, and focusing on unique value, you will need to convince people to believe in what you are doing in order to see your efforts come to fruition. People needed to believe in Macintosh to see it become real. Ditto for iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Not everyone will believe—that’s okay. But the starting point of changing the world is changing a few minds. This is the greatest lesson of all that I learned from Steve.

"Lost Talent"

2011-10-12T08:18:00.000-07:00

I had lunch yesterday with a good friend who is currently looking for a new position. Our discussion went from who we worked for in the past, real funny stories I must say, to current employment opportunities, to what we plan to do in the future. One topic lead to another and then "lost talent". Yes "lost talent". He shared with me his concern that the longer he was out of work the less marketable he felt he would be. How true that is in today's world. Articles abound on how companies are reluctant to hire individuals with great talent, skills, and work ethic.

As we discussed this disturbing issue from a top HR executive level (which we both were) we got more and more concerned that companies are really missing the boat. They are also telling the out-of-workforce you are not valuable. Knowing people who have been out of work for several years that is as far from the truth as can be. What we concluded was that we could not change current hiring principles.

I have to say some companies are hiring talented 1+, 2+ out-of-work workers and encourage those companies to continue to hire those talented extended unemployed.

Companies must think out of the box to stay competitive and this is one way of staying ahead of the competition. While these people were out of work what changed, we thought:

software may have been upgraded in companies
companies may have gone virtual or mobile
dress codes may have changed
resized companies have reduced workspace
some key players in target companies

What hasn't changed:

company values
the skill set of the unemployed worker
the network the worker had in prior work lives and what has been gained during the unemployed period
eagerness for these unemployed to add value to the hiring company
not much else has changed.

So rethink your position on culling out those individuals who have been out-of-work for 1+ years. You are missing great talent and valuable contributors and we can save this "lost talent" from just dropping out of the workforce completely.

Thanks Matt for this spirited, sobering, mind stimulated, and content laden luncheon discussion.

To Succeed Today, Forget The Old Business Myths

2011-10-11T14:29:00.000-07:00

Alexandria Levit found myths that people believe, even though they do not work for 98% of all truly successful people. She decided it was time to debunk these myths because they are more dangerous and less viable than ever given this post-recessionary climate of ethical scrutiny and intense competition.

Myth 1: Overnight success is possible

Most people persevere for a long time and experience several setbacks before achieving an objective level of success. You’ll be best served if you are able to move your dream forward a little bit at a time and are able to cope when things temporarily go south.

Myth 2: Controversy will propel your career

Being controversial usually generates attention for a little while, but people will probably not trust you in the long run. Instead, work to incorporate the tried-and-true values of honesty and authenticity into your daily work life.

Myth 3: Employers want you to be yourself

While employers value the unique set of skills and experiences you bring to the table, they expect you to tow the line with respect to company rules and conduct. You won’t get away wearing ripped jeans to a client meeting because that’s your personal style, and you must learn to be politically sensitive and diplomatic even if someone has wronged you.

Myth 4: Being good at your job trumps everything

You can be the most effective employee your company has ever hired, but if your contributions aren’t visible and people don’t value what you do, it simply won’t matter. So instead of slaving over your job, spend a little more time devising ways to promote the great work you’re doing.

Myth 5: It’s best to climb the ladder as fast as possible

Getting promoted year after year requires a near-constant vigilance as well as a laser sharp focus on work—often to the detriment of everything else in your life. Higher titles usually bring longer hours, heavier responsibilities, and more politicking with them.

Myth 6: You’ll get more money because you’ve earned it

The media is full of stories of people who rake up six- and seven-figure salaries because they played their cards right. But what about the unsung millions who came to the table with the same hand? More often than not, compensation is about business realities, HR mandates and office politics—not performance.

Myth 7: The problem isn’t you—it’s the organization

People job jump constantly because of this one, but the truth is, the same situations crop up in Corporate America over and over. Don’t handicap your progress: Learn self-awareness and change your own thinking and behavior instead of waiting for the company to adapt to your needs.

Myth 8: You won’t get laid off—you’re too essential

People should aim to be indispensable at their jobs, but company loyalty to employees is a thing of the past. While consistently trying to add value to your organization is a good move, sometimes it isn’t enough. You need to be able to recognize when you’re on the chopping block and take active steps to prevent a bad outcome.

Myth 9: If only you could break out of Corporate America, everything would be perfect

Running a business is harder than it looks, and entrepreneurship is not for everyone. In fact, most people are better off working for large companies and receive substantial perks, like benefits, discounts and contacts which you might not want to live without.

Myth 10: Do what you love and the money will follow

Just because you have a passion for a particular area doesn’t mean you will automatically make money doing it. Some things are better off left as hobbies, but if you really think an income is possible, keep your day job and test the waters first.

Alexandra Levit, author of Blind Spots: The 10 Business Myths You Can’t Afford to Believe on Your New Path to Success

Red Hat Buys Gluster For Scale-out Storage

2011-10-11T12:16:00.000-07:00

Red Hat is buying Gluster and its open-source storage know-how. The acquisition will give Red Hat a strong play in thescale-out file system space as it steps up competition against incumbent IT vendors to host the next generation of enterprise applications.

In a statement, Red Hat CTO and VP of worldwide engineering Brian Stevens said: "Our customers are looking for software-based storage solutions that manage their file-based data on-premise, in the cloud and bridging between the two. With unstructured data growth (such as log files, virtual machines, email, audio, video and documents), the 90′s paradigm of forcing everything into expensive, single-system DBMS residing on an internal corporate SAN has become unwieldy and impractical."

This $136 million cash deal is just the latest instance of a big vendor buying its way into the hot scale-out storage market. Last year, for example, storage power EMC bought Isilon for its scale-out expertise. Before that, Hewlett-Packard bought Ibrix. IBM’s purchase ofStorwize and Overland Storage’s acquisition Maxiscale were all part of this cloud-inflected, scale-out storage land grab, too.

In the pricier, traditional scale-up model, lots of new nodes are piled up behind a few big, pricey controller servers. In scale-out storage, companies can add more inexpensive commodity server nodes horizontally, and such additions tend to be relatively easy and inexpensive.

Red Hat said it will continue to sell and support Gluster’s existing products, and it will also incorporate Gluster technology into other Red Hat solutions. It will sell Gluster’s services via Red Hat’s usual subscription model. Sunnyvale, Calif.–based Gluster claims 150 customers, including streaming music pioneer Pandora.

By Barb Darrow Oct. 4, 2011, 6:56am PT

Leadership, After All

2011-10-11T11:05:00.000-07:00

The noted artist Willem De Kooning, as he aged, commented that, "you have to change to stay the same." Sometimes, as leaders, we find wisdom in rediscovering what we already know.

Having met with numerous Board members and corporate leaders recently, many seem to be off put off by the loss of control over many of the circumstances that previously could be “managed”. Many are questioning whether the old standards still apply.

We were struck by the following insight.

Recently, we asked several CEOs about future commitments, i.e. just how far forward they feel comfortable in predicting outcomes. The answer from most was one quarter... three months... astoundingly short given that when we asked this same question a few years ago, the answer was, on average, four quarters.

This suggests that in a time of uncertainty, in spite of the strength of current quarterly results, whether the light at the end of the tunnel is recovery or an out of control train speeding in our direction?

And, that it is very easy for CEOs and their boards to resist the falderal of the moment and be more easily influenced by the herd.

Our experience suggests that the most successful leaders actually embrace uncertainty. They see it as an opportunity for a re-commitment to the building blocks of excellence. As one notable CEO said to us, “the basics always win out.”

We know that ethical corporate cultures win out. We know that deep dive rigor and commitment to operational excellence, wins out. And we know that well disciplined and effective corporate governance is a huge plus in dealing with the unknown. All of this takes work and extraordinary discipline, especially today with daily fluxes and contrary information that impact how businesses do business.

The best leaders, we have observed, don’t become unbalanced by conditions that they can’t shape. They know their troops are observing whether they are being led with calm and confidence.

However, “back to basics” doesn’t mean that leaders should stick their heads in the sand. Rather, it means stressing the “known” while being flexible to address matters beyond a leader’s control.

Today, though, there is a tendency to try and outsmart current conditions hoping to gain advantage. Many CEO’s have a fear of being left behind, and being criticized by their boards for not being more proactive. It is impossible to “map” uncertainty.

So, here's our prescription for CEOs and Directors.

Because you can't control the unpredictable, rely on what you know... that means drill deep in your business…then dig deeper.

Don’t outsmart yourself or believe that you can outsmart the markets.

For Directors, demand transparency of your CEO and be prepared to invest extraordinary time to fully comprehend the various levers of your company's value… know the how and when.

For CEOs, demand deep dive information and dig in yourself. Set the pace of expectations. Demand excellence. Redouble your effort to communicate to all “stakeholders.” Be clear about issues, challenges and opportunities with your board and your senior team.

Be consistent, focused and relentless. Isn’t that what leadership is all about?

By Joel Koblentz on October 11, 2011, Managing Partner of the Koblenz Group

The How-To's of Deliberate Culture Creation

2011-10-10T06:37:00.000-07:00

Last week I wrote about culture, specifically discussing if it is created or does it just happen by chance. Most responses I received via comments and twitter stated that culture is created.

So my question to you last week was:

What is the formula for creating a culture that is a competitive advantage for your company?

I wanted to share with you the responses I received and then add my two cents:

1) The values of an organization must be articulated to employees (how business owners want to conduct business)

2) Those values must be cascaded into everyday processes, policies, procedures, relationships, etc.

3) Human performance has to be aligned with the values as a way of doing business.

(thanks to Debbie King of Evolution Management for 1-3)

4) Hire people that are aligned with the organizational values

5) Review values regularly with all employees by CEO (even review at the beginning of team meetings)

6) Employees should be empowered in the decision making process to determine how decisions align with organizational values.

7) Communication and leadership are key in the process. Leadership must demonstrate behaviors that are expected in the organization.

(Thanks to Melany Gallant with Halogen Software for 4-7)

8) Values that truly connect with people's higher aspirations (to improve, to serve, to create a better tomorrow) are easier to build culture on as employees can get behind these. Companies that have a more profit mind set might find it more difficult to build culture around.

(Matt contributed #8, no last name or company)

Ok.. here is my two-cents:

I agree with everything mentioned above. Culture must be grounded in values that drive behaviors. Employees need to understand those values and behaviors and the consequences of not behaving according to values. Managers have to make decisions based on those values and hold others accountable for the same.

Culture is a very delicate thing. It takes constant reinforcement and deliberate "care." But, the rewards are many. Just look at those who get it and do it right....the return is huge.

Who wouldn't want to work for Zappo's? The Ritz-Carlton?

Why do customers love the Zappo's and the Ritz experience? You can buy shoes and get a room anywhere...it's the employees delivering a world-class customer experience grounded in a culture that values the same.

The Top Ten Lessons Steve Jobs Taught Us

2011-10-06T06:16:00.000-07:00

a reprint from Forbes.com

Here are the Top Ten Lessons Steve Jobs taught us:

1. The most enduring innovations marry art and science – Steve has always pointed out that the biggest difference between Apple and all the other computer (and post-PC) companies through history is that Apple always tried to marry art and science. Jobs pointed out the original team working on the Mac had backgrounds in anthropology, art, history, and poetry. That’s always been important in making Apple’s products stand out. It’s the difference between the iPad and every other tablet computer that came before it or since. It is the look and feel of a product. It is its soul. But it is such a difficult thing for computer scientists or engineers to see that importance, so any company must have a leader that sees that importance.

2. To create the future, you can’t do it through focus groups – There is a school of thought in management theory that — if you’re in the consumer-facing space building products and services — you’ve got to listen to your customer. Steve Jobs was one of the first businessmen to say that was a waste of time. The customers today don’t always know what they want, especially if it’s something they’ve never seen, heard, or touched before. When it became clear that Apple would come out with a tablet, many were skeptical. When people heard the name (iPad), it was a joke in the Twitter-sphere for a day. But when people held one, and used it, it became a ‘must have.’ They didn’t know how they’d previously lived without one. It became the fastest growing Apple product in its history. Jobs (and the Apple team) trusted himself more than others. Picasso and great artists have done that for centuries. Jobs was the first in business.

3. Never fear failure – Jobs was fired by the successor he picked. It was one of the most public embarrassments of the last 30 years in business. Yet, he didn’t become a venture capitalist never to be heard from again. He didn’t start a production company and do a lot of lunches. He picked himself up and got back to work following his passion. Eight years ago, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and told he only had a few weeks to live. As Samuel Johnson said, there’s nothing like your impending death to focus the mind. From Jobs’ 2005 Stanford commencement speech:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

4. You can’t connect the dots forward – only backward – This is another gem from the 2005 Stanford speech. The idea behind the concept is that, as much as we try to plan our lives ahead in advance, there’s always something that’s completely unpredictable about life. What seems like bitter anguish and defeat in the moment — getting dumped by a girlfriend, not getting that job at McKinsey, “wasting” 4 years of your life on a start-up that didn’t pan out as you wanted — can turn out to sow the seeds of your unimaginable success years from now. You can’t be too attached to how you think your life is supposed to work out and instead trust that all the dots will be connected in the future. This is all part of the plan.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

5. Listen to that voice in the back of your head that tells you if you’re on the right track or not – Most of us don’t hear a voice inside our heads. We’ve simply decided that we’re going to work in finance or be a doctor because that’s what our parents told us we should do or because we wanted to make a lot of money. When we consciously or unconsciously make that decision, we snuff out that little voice in our head. From then on, most of us put it on automatic pilot. We mail it in. You have met these people. They’re nice people. But they’re not changing the world. Jobs has always been a restless soul. A man in a hurry. A man with a plan. His plan isn’t for everyone. It was his plan. He wanted to build computers. Some people have a voice that tells them to fight for democracy. Some have one that tells them to become an expert in miniature spoons. When Jobs first saw an example of a Graphical User Interface — a GUI — he knew this was the future of computing and that he had to create it. That became the Macintosh. Whatever your voice is telling you, you would be smart to listen to it. Even if it tells you to quit your job, or move to China, or leave your partner.

6. Expect a lot from yourself and others – We have heard stories of Steve Jobs yelling or dressing down staff. He’s a control freak, we’ve heard – a perfectionist. The bottom line is that he is in touch with his passion and that little voice in the back of his head. He gives a damn. He wants the best from himself and everyone who works for him. If they don’t give a damn, he doesn’t want them around. And yet — he keeps attracting amazing talent around him. Why? Because talent gives a damn too. There’s a saying: if you’re a “B” player, you’ll hire “C” players below you because you don’t want them to look smarter than you. If you’re an “A” player, you’ll hire “A+” players below you, because you want the best result.

7. Don’t care about being right. Care about succeeding – Jobs used this line in an interview after he was fired by Apple. If you have to steal others’ great ideas to make yours better, do it. You can’t be married to your vision of how a product is going to work out, such that you forget about current reality. When the Apple III came out, it was hot and warped its motherboard even though Jobs had insisted it would be quiet and sleek. If Jobs had stuck with Lisa, Apple would have never developed the Mac.

8. Find the most talented people to surround yourself with – There is a misconception that Apple is Steve Jobs. Everyone else in the company is a faceless minion working to please the all-seeing and all-knowing Jobs. In reality, Jobs has surrounded himself with talent: Phil Schiller, Jony Ive, Peter Oppenheimer, Tim Cook, the former head of stores Ron Johnson. These are all super-talented people who don’t get the credit they deserve. The fact that Apple’s stock price has been so strong since Jobs left as CEO is a credit to the strength of the team. Jobs has hired bad managerial talent before. John Sculley ended up firing Jobs and — according to Jobs — almost killing the company. Give credit to Jobs for learning from this mistake and realizing that he can’t do anything without great talent around him.

9. Stay hungry, stay foolish - Again from the end of Jobs’ memorable Stanford speech:

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960′s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

10. Anything is possible through hard work, determination, and a sense of vision – Although he’s the greatest CEO ever and the father of the modern computer, at the end of the day, Steve Jobs is just a guy. He’s a husband, a father, a friend — like you and me. We can be just as special as he is — if we learn his lessons and start applying them in our lives. When Jobs returned to Apple in the 1990s, it was was weeks away from bankruptcy. It’s now the biggest company in the world. Anything’s possible in life if you continue to follow the simple lessons laid out above.

Boil the HR Ocean - Internally

2011-10-06T06:08:00.000-07:00

I am sure you have heard that term before and if not, it was derived from group process thinking at IBM.

I had a conversation with a good friend who is working in Houston who said he is changing everything the company is doing from an HR prospective. He is boiling the ocean and has the support of the CEO. But not so fast, does he have a strategic plan on changing how HR operates. Certainly there is a strategic plan for how HR integrates with the company strategy but the day -to-day stuff, is there a plan or is he going about it as he looks at each element of what the HR team does?

My thought is he does. So I will ask each of you do you have a plan when you go into a new organization on how you change the day-to-day operations? I hope so. I would think that the process or outline on the strategy would first be based on the following in descending order after you get buy-in from the executive team:

What does the company need or want
What non-technical programs/systems can stay as is
Do you have a budget
what software programs/systems will support the change and subsequent changes
Do you have the right people in the right jobs
Are you prepared to hire the right people
Will the changes dramatically change the face of the department and value to the employees/company
Can you implement this in a timely and effective manner
Do you have measurements in place to determine the net effect?

I am sure you have all looked at this, but how many of you have truly implemented an internal change plan in a gross and effective manner?

Please let me know your thoughts at wgstevens2@gmail.com

Are You Up, Down, or Sideways?

2011-10-05T07:28:00.000-07:00

There are no guarantees in life. We can be proactive, but there are some things that are completely outside of our control. So if we can’t be proactive on everything, we can, Mark Sanborn suggests, be interactive. We must learn how to interact with the forces in our life that are bigger than we are to create the outcomes we desire. No matter where we are—up, down, or sideways—there are things we can do to mitigate the downs, take advantage of the ups and maximize the sideways times in our life.

Up, Down, or Sideways by Mark Sanborn is a thoughtful book born of experience and based on sound principles. It would be a mistake to think of this as another business book. It is, in fact, a lifebook that will deeply impact your business.

To be interactive, you first need to define your scorecard for success. Most people don’t live the life they imagined because “they are stuck using a scoring system that doesn’t fit the game they want to play.” Sanborn guides you in developing a scoring system that is meaningful, long-term, and personal.

Besides a clear scoring system, your success also depends on your attitude. You must develop an optimistic attitude. “The way you look at yourself and the world around you affects your success regardless of the circumstances.” We can choose what we focus on.

Another important mindset is that of the lifelong learner. “The more you learn, the more prepared you are for whatever comes your way. And the more you learn, the more you develop behavioral flexibility that provides a distinct advantage over your competition.”

Sanborn offer six methods to succeed when times are Up, Down, or Sideways.

Produce Value. Value keeps you in the game. But value is a moving target, so “if you want to mitigate the downsides and increase the upsides, you need to recognize that value is the currency that gets you a seat at the table....keep your pipeline full of the things people value and the people who value them.” Continue to create value in an ever-changing environment.
Create and Keep Connections. “When we create value and deliver it with service and love, we develop connections that increase our value to others and we multiply their impact on our value.” While creating connections is easier than maintaining them, take special care of the relationships that matter.
Continuously Innovate. Best practices are not enough. Better to work on “better practices and next practices.” Sanborn asserts that the “purpose of innovation is distinction.” But, and this is important, “it’s not enough to be different. Being different without being valued is being weird. Distinction is being different and valued.”
Build Reserves. “You protect what you value by building reserves.” We need to build financial, physical, psychological, and spiritual reserves.
Practice Gratitude. Gratitude is the antidote to negative thinking. In Sanborn’s insightful way, he writes that gratitude is a gift. It is the gift of perspective, energy, guidance, and resilience. Make gratitude something you do and not just feel.
Embrace Discipline. “Success isn’t based on what we know, believe, or intend; it’s a result of what we consistently do.” Consistently act on your intentions until they become habits. Make time for the most important things.

Sanborn gives some final reminders: When you’re Up, you need humility and perspective. So surround yourself with people who keep you grounded. When you’re Sideways, you need a boost. So surround yourself with people who challenge you to keep moving in the right direction. And finally, when you’reDown, you need hope. So surround yourself with people who life your spirits.

Certainly this is an important book for these times, but this book is meant to help your thrive no matter what life throws your way. You need this book—young people need this book—to prepare for the rest of your life, whether you are Up, Down, or Sideways. Read, reread, and refer.

a reprint from Leadershipnow.com

Cathy's Vents for the Week

2011-10-04T06:43:00.000-07:00

I need a place to vent and what a better place than my blog. Sometimes you just need to get a few things off your chest.

1) I do not like this cold weather in HotLanta! More summer please.

2) Please, please quit asking me for free consulting. We are still in a dismal economy and I still have a kid in college.

3) Mediation is a place where you go to argue with rules

4) My dogs need a haircut

5) I don't watch Dancing with the Stars and I probably never will. So quit asking me, "Did you see Chaz Bono last night?"

And sometimes you need to be reminded of your blessings....

1) Our business has survived 14 years :)

2) My son is in college and he seems to like it :)

3) I get a new beginning at 47 years old :)

4) My dogs love me :)

5) We live in a country where you can be yourself...whomever that is :)

Ok, I feel much better!

Culture: Nature or Nurture

2011-10-03T07:03:00.000-07:00

It's funny how topics come up in discussion in several venues over a short period of time. As you have read in a past blog post, I was at the Halogen's user's conference a couple of weeks ago, where I was on a blogger's panel. We discussed the topic of culture and how you can leverage culture to your benefit as a company in the recruiting and retention areas.

I also had the privilege to teach the PHR/SPHR preparation class and the question about measuring culture arose in a discussion.

Lastly, I was presenting to a group last week on how to create a "High Performing Organization" and of course culture came up in that discussion.

I guess the most common theme was the idea of culture creation. More specifically, "Are cultures created or do they just happen?

In each venue we discussed companies that had a very strong well known culture. The following companies were mentioned:

1) Nordstrom

2) Publix

3) Ritz Carlton

4) Chick Fil A

5) Zappo's

6) Home Depot

7) Quick Trip

8) Apple

Some on the list were the usual suspects, but some were surprises (Quick Trip and Chick Fil A). So I had someone ask, "Did they create their culture on purpose?"

Such a simple question, but huge on impact.

My answer is a resounding YES. You have to be deliberate in creating your culture OR you get one that is created for you. In my experience the latter is not a positive culture or one that is aligned with the organization's mission and values.

So of course the next question is, "How do you go about creating a culture that is positive and one that can be a competitive advantage to your organization like the one's mentioned above?"

I have some ideas, and have had some interesting discussions on the topic, but why don't you all help me out here....

What is the formula for creating a culture that is a competitive advantage for your company?

You can give me your thoughts and I will compile them in a blog post for next week.....I love it, I have just given my readers some homework! :)

Decision Outliers- Their Impact on Team and Organizational Effectiveness

2011-09-29T12:53:00.000-07:00

guest post from Beth Armknecht Miller

In the book Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell, many of the stories focus on those outliers who were successful, often due to circumstances and luck. What if you have an outlying preference that holds you back? A behavior that if modified, moves you closer to the norm and makes you more effective?

Let’s take a look at Decision Outliers. We’ve all experienced someone who either makes decisions too quickly or too slowly and for some of us we actually may have one of these tendencies ourselves.

Some of us are quick to decide while others take a much longer time to decide. In either case, our personality preferences and past experiences have a strong influence on how we make decisions. If we tend to be an outlier on either side of the bell curve, decision making can be holding us back from being successful and getting to the next level of leadership. Do you know if you’re a Decision Outlier? And if you are one, how is your decision making style impacting your relationships and job performance?

Slow Decision Outliers

Those who are slow decision makers often need a lot more data and information than others, before making a decision. Making a decision without all the data creates too much risk for the slow decision outlier. The data needed can come in the form of hard and soft data. Hard data being metrics, facts, and measurements and soft data being feelings and the impact a decision will have on others. Slow decision makers who are driven by how others will feel about the decision, look for and desire a consensus decision making process. They want all in agreement before making a decision.

And in the extreme, Slow Decision Outliers can become No Decision

Outliers, stuck and unwilling to make a decision based often in fear of change and letting go of what is known and fully understood.

How does slow decision making impact you and your performance?

In this rapidly changing world, slow decision makers can be at a huge disadvantage. New information is coming at them faster than ever before and without self imposed time limits, opportunities will pass them by-both personally and professionally. If they are working in a team environment, they are probably frustrating their team members who want to move forward with the project.

If you consistently meet the description above then here are some tips to move out of the outlier range of decision making. Thoroughly explore all the benefits of making the decision which would create change. And realize that not making a decision brings its own set of risks. Identify these risks of maintaining the status quo.

Fast Decision Outliers

Fast Decision Outliers can find themselves making decisions with not enough data. These decision makers don’t like lots of detail; they are often driven by the end result. And if the decision is about something that doesn’t have a big impact on them, details get in the way.

Change is not stressful for them, yet they often are oblivious of the impact that change has to others around them. They can be creating stress with other tema members

These decision outliers can be viewed as autocratic if they aren’t willing to listen to others ideas and information that would be helpful to the decision making process.

Outliers’ Impact on Team and Organizational Effectiveness

Slow Decision Outliers can slow down progress and create frustration with other team members. If a leader is a Slow Decision Outlier, miss market opportunities, slow to change, will often want to decide using consensus-can’t please everyone

Are you a Decision Outlier? And if so what changes can you make to be a more effective leader?

Beth Armknecht Miller, of Atlanta, Georgia, is Founder and President of Executive Velocity, a leadership development advisory firm accelerating the leadership success of CEOs and business leaders. She is also a Vistage Chair and Executive Coach. She is certified in Myers Briggs and Hogan leadership assessment tools and is a Certified Managerial Coach by Kennesaw State University. Visithttp://www.executive-velocity.com or http://executivevelocityblog.com or follow her on twitter at SrExecAdvisor.

Data Based Decision Making: HR You're Up

2011-09-27T06:05:00.000-07:00

I have noticed a by-product of the recession is the way C-Level executives make decisions. The decisions can be about investments, people, markets, pricing, marketing, well just about anything. I believe the reasons for this shift is that the C-Suite is a lot more risk adverse than pre-recession. Gone are the days where decisions are made by "gut-feel" and "by the seat of the pants."

Boards of Director's and consumers have demanded more and more fiscal responsibility and ethical behavior.

What does this shift mean to HR?

1) HR must be able to make a business case for people related investments. Just as marketing outlines it's expected ROI for marketing related spends, HR must do the same thing. For example, if HR proposes organizational wide training, what is the expected return in terms of sales, productivity and performance.

2) HR needs to get its HR data house in order. Historically in HR we have stored data in many disparate systems. I see this issue is changing with talent management systems that integrate many HR functions in one platform. Data also needs to be standardized across platforms so that analysis can be performed. One more issue with the data..it needs to be clean. Data integrity and data entry standards must be addressed.

3) HR must perform analytics on its own data. I know I beat this drum loudly and I know I have a bias to action in this arena. However, we HAVE to provide insight to our C-Suite when it comes to people related data and information. In most service related companies the people spend can be 50-80% of budget. So, understanding how that spend is performing is crucial information our C-Suite needs and wants.

4) HR must make decisions based on data too. HR has been guilty over the last few decades of using gut feel to make HR related decisions. I "feel" like we need a wellness program instead of "if we implement a wellness program it will save $500K in insurance expense per year and only cost us $250k to create."

So, what are you hearing and observing regarding data and decisions? Is your leadership team asking for more or less data? What are you doing about it?

Image source: http://www.funderstanding.com/v2/gurus/decision-making-and-right-brain-left-brain/

patriot voices

2011-09-25T08:39:00.001-07:00

patriotvoices

8 Stats and Facts - Jobless Recovery Here to Stay?

2011-09-22T07:34:00.000-07:00

It seems that on this Labor Day weekend, the jobless recovery is here to stay. 14 million people remain unemployed. The unemployment rate remains at 9.1%. Politics aside, should we be surprised? It seems that many signs pointed to such a recovery starting with previous recessions and slow job creation since 2000.

1. It took roughly 6 months for employment to recover to its pre-recession level after each postwar recession through the 1980s.

2. It took 15 months after the 1990-91 recession and 39 months after the 2001 recession.

3. Between 2000 and 2007, the U.S. posted a weaker record of job creation than during any decade since the Great Depression.

4. Total employment increased by 9.2 million, or 7%, less than 1/2 the rate of increase in preceding decades.

5. At the current pace of job creation, it will take a minimum of 5 years for employment to recover. (That calculation is based on total net job creation of 117,000 jobs per month.) More and more forecasts look to 2018 or later until we return to full employment.

6. The unemployment rate for adults 25 years and over with a bachelor’s degree and higher remains constant at 4.4%, below the baseline of full employment.

7. For adults over 25 with less than a high school education, the unemployment rate is 14.3; with only a high school diploma, the rate is 10% with not much light at the end of the tunnel. For teenagers between 16 and 19 years old, the rate nears 25%.

8. This year, the share of young people who were employed in July was 48.8 percent, the lowest July rate on record for the series, which began in 1948.

By admin on Sep 3, 2011 in Facts and Stats, workforce trends

Source: McKinsey Global Institute, Bureau of Labor Statistics

Is Your Talent Pipeline at Risk? Engaging High Potentials

2011-09-20T14:43:00.000-07:00

Organizations that effectively engage employees realize a significant advantage over competitors — including performance gains that lead directly to improved financial results. Without a strategic approach to talent that includes a focus on employee engagement, many companies fail to ensure employees are satisfied in their roles and committed to achieving key strategic goals — risking turnover of key players and the inability to meet overall business objectives. Adding to this challenge is the fact that many disengaged workers are actively seeking new opportunities as the economy grows, while competitors are looking for ways to gain an edge by actively pursuing your high performers.

a reprint from the Human Capital Institute

Day 1: Halogen Conference Recap

2011-09-19T11:03:00.000-07:00

Halogen's User's Conference kicked off last night at the Atlanta Hyatt. With over 300 attendees, the conference was off to a great start.

This morning we heard opening remarks from Paul Loucks, CEO of Halogen. He spoke of his customer focus. Paul was just not saying "nice to hear words." He was actually giving examples of their customer intimacy strategy citing examples of user advisory boards, customer account managers and actually giving customers their product development person's name. It was refreshing. This strategy has certainly paid off as Halogen has been growing at 40% per year.

Paul also discussed Big Picture Talent Management. The idea is that by linking your typically siloed HR functions like compensation, recruiting, onboarding, succession planning, to your organizational strategy you will have the platform to build a world-class workforce. Halogen gets linkage and their software is built in a way that allows their company to leverage talent in a world-class way.

I had the honor of presenting the keynote this morning. My topic was "HR's 5 Most Important Roles in Talent Management." The roles we discussed were:

1) Strategic Role-Be a strategic planner and an executer

2) Performance Manager Role-Pay for performance and mean it

3) Goal Cascader Role-Make sure all employees know what is expected and how they will be measured.

4) Talent Manager-Hire the best, Succession planning is a must to be competitive. Talent mobility allows organizations to be flexible and competitive.

5) Metrics Guru-Tracking measures like cost per hire and days to fill are no longer enough. It's all about being predictive using analytics.

I had the pleasure of attending a Session conducted by Sean Conrad and one of Halogen's customers, Scott Chase, Human Capital Manager at INTRAA. Their session was on goal alignment. My big take-away there was that not only do you cascade goals down from the organizational level to the departmental level but you also need to cascade goals up from employees to managers. The reason for this is so that employees are ENGAGED with their own goals. Makes perfect sense!

To round out the day, I participated on a bloggers panel that included:

1) Kris Dunn from the HR Capitalist

2) Chris Havrilla from Recruiting Chicks

3) Mike Haberman from HR Observations

With Kris as our ring leader discussing "Tools to Attract and Retain Your All-Star Talent Pool." The panel discussed interesting ways to attract and retain talent in a medium sized business environment. Company culture was also discussed as an attraction and retention tool.

"Culture has to be created deliberately or one will be created for you."

I wonder who said that very wise statement....

If you are interested in reading all the tweets, check out the back channel at #HSUC11.

Global CXO Global Strategies Outlook for 2012

2011-09-17T16:47:00.000-07:00

Over the past decade, the art of doing business has changed. Companies are re-shaping strategies to innovate and compete globally. New methodologies, new opportunities, new markets, new technologies, and new practices are being brought into play with an eye on boosting profits and curbing costs.

Forbes Insights, in association with Wipro, conducted an exclusive survey of more than 300 CEOs and other C-level executives at global enterprises ($500M-plus in annual revenue). The key findings of this survey include:

• Strategic innovation is more important than ever to driving growth. This commitment to innovation will impact how companies approach environmentally friendly, or green, business practices, as well as how they manage their expansion into global emerging markets. For example, in some cases, companies are using so-called reverse-innovation, taking innovative products and services from their emerging market efforts (such as in China) and commercializing them elsewhere in the world.

• C-level executives see innovation as a way to differentiate their businesses, particularly following the 2008-09 recession. Fully two thirds of the executives said they believe that innovation is more critical than ever because of the economic downturn of 2008-09.
• Speed-to-market is necessary for successful innovation. More than 80% of survey respondents agreed that getting a product or service swiftly out to market is a critical business innovation tactic.
• Cost remains the biggest hurdle to fostering innovation. It topped the list of innovation barriers cited by C-level executives, followed by issues related to the regulatory environment, and finding and retaining top talent.

• Paying attention to best practices is the most effective way to foster innovation. Other innovation tactics promoted by executives included technology, data-based decision making, and customer collaboration.
• Executives see a very clear business case for using “green” business practices. The most important factors they cited include reducing costs, improving operational efficiency, and meeting customer demand for more environmentally friendly products.
• Embracing green business practices as part of a corporate innovation strategy is essential to their success.

Overall, nearly three quarters of C-level executives indicated their companies had incorporated environmental elements into their innovation strategies.
• Green IT is a priority for more than three quarters of companies. Their strategies in this area include reducing data center footprints, greater use of server virtualization, and greater use of cloud computing.

• Executives see investment and expansion into emerging markets as crucial to their strategies today and in the near future. More than half believe China holds the greatest opportunity, followed by India, Southeast Asia, and Eastern Europe.

• Expansion into emerging markets is being driven by lower costs and a higher rate of growth, according to executives surveyed. Potential barriers to strategic success in these areas include poor distribution channels, unstable political environments, and a shortage of skilled talent.

Do you agree with these findings? Let me know at wgstevens2@gmail.com

reprint from Forbes Insight and Wipro. William G. Stevens is a contributing member of the Forbes Advisory Committee

Are You In The Cloud?

2011-09-16T09:25:00.000-07:00

Everyone is getting their heads in the Cloud and HR should be no exception. It may be the Cloud buzz (Cloud computing), and SaaS (software-as-a-service) and a host of other reasons, mostly to reduce expenses and increase IT department efficiency. The two major changes noted above are making inroads the way employees, individuals, and companies manage their processes critical to meet the competitive and innovative demands that businesses are challenged with daily.

For those not current on what the Cloud is here is a tactical definition: the Cloud is where data and apps ca be stored remotely and accessed via the web.

Human Resources is no exception and should not put their heads in the sand over Cloud computing. SaaS and iCloud are changing the way businesses operate and HR is no exception to this change. These technology changes are driving traditional IT departments to rethink how they operate, save data, and utilize manpower and the constant fixed costs of software updates and security patches. SaaS can change a stagnate organization into a nimble, effective and innovative machine as well as controlling operational costs. It can also create improved service levels and eliminate SLAs that mean nothing. Thinking farther, SaaS is scalable where some traditional organizations are not. That changes the competitive landscape dramatically.

So, if you as the HR executive think that only you or your company must have proprietary data storage, think again. Take a look at SAP, Oracle, and the other major players. The world will change and you better think differently and change with it or be left behind. To quote John Malikowski, "SaaS is an efficient way to accelerate HR transformation and capture value faster".

How 9/11 Changed HR

2011-09-14T12:48:00.000-07:00

I am sure that there will be some HR practitioners who will not agree with me here but I have been struggling to put this piece together for 10 years. We will "Never Forget" and our hearts go out to the victims families as they continue to grieve every day.

The tragic events of 9/11 have changed us as a nation and individually forever. Life has not been the same since. Some will say for the better, and I mean being more safe domestically. Some will say that there has been over precautions taken that have slowed down our ability to move freely throughout the world. I agree with the former, I would rather be safe than not.

HR played a key role in the events following 9/11. I know from my own direct experience, facing the loss of two key employees on Flight 11 (Jeff Mladenik & Andrew Curry Green) and having to account for 50+ employees scattered from Battery Park to Brooklyn and to help move those 50+ employees from the devastation of the Ground Zero area from Rector Street and Trinity Place to our Park Avenue South office. It is a role that they (HR) has really never had to play before. How to logistically coordinate the safety of an entire company as well as those traveling throughout the world. HR sat at the table that day even if they were not there before & some are still at the table today. What HR did was provide strategic information, leadership to the top, and overall communications coordination usually relegated to the PR/Comm groups not only to the corporation but to the employee's families.

as I recall, I worked diligently with my Chief HR executive for all of that Tuesday until 10PM and then back at 11PM until 1 AM on Wednesday accounting for everyone. It was a task that I hope never has to be repeated.

So here is my call to all the HR executives, aspiring HR executives, and those at the middle ranks. You should get training on how to manage disaster situations, and they do not teach that in college or through SHRM. Learning and doing from a fire hose is not the best way to get experience. However, I was one of the lucky ones, I had that training on my prior roles at other companies and 10 years prior to 9/11.

So how did this change HR. HR managers, directors, and some CHRO's learned that there is another dimension to strategy, communications, and accountability that we never hope to have to use.

I welcome your thoughts on this sensitive topic.

Every Challenge is A New Opportunity for Change!!

2011-09-14T12:25:00.000-07:00

Find this hard to believe? Stay with me for a few minutes and just open your mind to the possibilities that there is a new opportunity regardless of the challenge you are facing today!

Now my head is not in the sand…I read the newspaper, listen to my friends, family, coaching clients and colleagues all facing insurmountable challenges in their life with major loss such as job, income, decline in their 401k, lost homes to foreclosure, serious illness, loss of a loved one, divorce…you name it…it is not good news! Hopelessness, sadness, depression, fear, doubt and obstacles keeping us stuck!

Then you have some “optimist” that says…there is an opportunity here really!!! Think about it-what goes up must come down, without success there is no failure, no pain- no gain, without bad you don’t experience good…you get it! These things are the same just opposite sides of the spectrum and it is all how we perceive them…without one, we wouldn’t have the other!

This is not the view of an optimist (although we live by it) it is the “Law of Polarity”….a matter of fact no two ways about it. It’s a universal law and like all universal laws…you cannot change that fact that they exists. You cannot manipulate, fool or escape it so work with it! So how do we create opportunity?

First step is awareness…really what is happening here? Take a few minutes to assess your situation and ask yourself what do I want instead? If I have what I want instead, what does that look like for me? How will I feel if I experience the opposite of what I am experiencing today? Now decide on what you want and make the choice….yes, it is that simple to make the choice to change your current outcome. It all starts with this step!

The fastest and least painful path is the power of acceptance. Did you know that acceptance of what you currently are experience acts as the polar opposite of resistance and will help you attract more of what you consciously desire! One of my favorite sayings is ‘what we think about comes about’. It starts with our thoughts, beliefs, feelings and actions. And, I also believe our state of mind and thoughts change our outcome the second you change your thoughts. There are times when I act “asif” it has already happened by working from the end result.I naturally assume it is happening and more times than not….the results show up! It’s one of the major gifts of life that works like magic..really!

You have the power of choice to how you experience life. Consider the possibilities, opportunities and change in your life you want and put your Intention, Attention and Action to changing just ONE thing that is challenging you today. Write down all your beliefs about the situation and include all the frustration, anger and disappointment and release the negative thoughts. Get a new piece of paper and create your desired outcome as if the choice is all yours (because it is!) and start creating what you want.

a repost from Caole M. Sacino's blog

7 Deadliest Sins of HR Metrics

2011-09-12T06:33:00.000-07:00

When it comes to HR Metrics these days there is no shortage of information, opinions and blogs like this one. What I have learned after reading, teaching and presenting on the subject for almost 10 years is that in order for HR to be considered a player and a rock star, you must measure your impact. All the other functions measure, so why not HR?

In my travels I have heard many excuses, and even written on that subject here. But, I have also seen some really BAD practices when it comes to HR Metrics. Please don't commit these deadly sins:

1) Thou shall not measure meaningless crap (not measuring what is tied to impact)

2) Thou shall not measure endless crap (measuring too many things that don't matter)

3) Thou shall use valid, reliable and clean data (enough said)

4) Thou shall display the data in a meaningful way to those that use the data (stop with the rows an columns, it's boring)

5) Thou shall tell a compelling data story that leaves managers and leaders wanting more (tell them something they didn't already know, and it's not cost per hire)

6) Thou shall balance your metrics measuring both efficiency and effectiveness

7) Thou shall never start measuring until you map your organizational strategy first.

I am very encouraged to hear so many HR professionals embarking on the metrics journey. I get many questions on how to start (see #7). The point is, HR is at an important juncture, we have been through the personnel phase, the get a seat at the table phase (please say that's over) and now I believe we are at the influence phase.

Influence (transitive verb): to affect or alter by indirect or intangible means

I love that definition as HR has always had the word "intangible" associated with it. Intangible doesn't mean you can't measure it. Indirect doesn't mean you can't measure impact. You just have to know what questions to ask and which connections to make. HR is perfect for this task.

Let's use our influence to make a difference in our organizations...

Remembering 9/11 Ten Years Later

2011-09-11T06:59:00.000-07:00

Our thoughts are with all the families who lost loved ones on that terrible day.

Unplugged and Loving It!

2011-09-08T07:19:00.000-07:00

I went to the beach this past week for Labor Day and I made a conscience decision to leave my work at home. This situation as a business owner is one that is very difficult as you think you (I) must be connected at all times.

I did take my Iphone of course, but I didn't go to my LinkedIn, Twitter, Foursquare or email accounts. I did post some cool places I visited on the beach on my Facebook account so my friends and family knew I was still breathing.

It was by far one of the best, stress free vacations I had been on in a long time and I was in the middle of a hurricane!

Here are the lessons I learned from all of this:

1) I am not that important...and as I watched the other A Types in restaurants on their phones and checking emails it just made me LOL. There was one dude on the beach with his laptop, I am not making this up.

2) If you are good at what you do, it will be there when you get back. No one got mad or upset that it took me 3-4 days to respond...work still went on.

3) Your friends and family appreciate it when you are fully engaged with them and not your social media tools. I mean sometimes....I didn't even know where my phone was. Imagine that.

4) I feel like I actually had a break. I think this one is most important. I feel my battery has been recharged and I am ready to get back to work!

Now, this morning, I had about 450+ emails of those I need to answer maybe 100 or so. I had 45+ Facebook invites, messages etc. Not feeling too inclined to respond to those. I had 50+ Twitter connection requests and several LinkedIn messages. It will probably take me until lunch to get through all of this, but hey I am doing it with a smile and sand still in my shoes.

I have a big presentation to finish today and tomorrow and I feel like my creative juices are flowing once again. So, here is my advice to all you Cathy's out there....

Unplug...it does a body good!

Crowdbooster Makes Social Media Campaigns Smarter

2011-09-05T14:26:00.000-07:00

Brands are flocking to social media to extend and strengthen their relationships with consumers. But while many are happy to work with the flood of analytics information coming from their activity on social networks, some want more than just data and web monitoring tools. They want guidance and recommendations.

That’s the bet of Crowdbooster, a Y Combinator start-up, which is publicly launching a new social media optimization platform today that pairs analytics with tailored recommendations about how to employ social media. The company, which counts the Los Angeles Times, JetBlue and Ben and Jerry’s as customers, is looking to stand out by telling customers what to do and when. And it just raised an undisclosed seed round from some respectable names to expand its business.

Crowdbooster, which has been in private beta since November, will now surface the most popular links and find the best content for cross-posting based on content and fit for a certain audience. And it will tell customers when the best times to tweet and post are. It will notify customers when influential users according to Klout follow them and will allow customers to respond to missed tweets and thank engaged users all from one dashboard. Ricky Yean, co-founder and CEO of Crowdbooster, said the recommendations get smarter over time as customers use it more.

“Social media managers frequently suffer from information overload, preventing them from effectively engaging with priority customers. Analytics provide significant insight, but they are simply not enough,” says Yean. “Our customized recommendations surface the best content to share and suggests when to publish for maximum exposure.”

The new recommendation features work alongside Crowdbooster’s other analytics tools, which tracks the effectiveness of outreach on Facebook and Twitter. Crowdbooster graduated from Y Combinator in the summer of 2010 and has just secured a seed round from investors including Steven Chen, co-founder of YouTube, Esther Dyson, Charles River Ventures, Quest Venture Partners, StartupAngel and others.

Crowdbooster is just one of many companies like Hootsuite and Socialflow trying to capitalize on the opportunity in social media marketing. Some like Socialflow are also are putting more intelligence into social media marketing tools, helping explain when they most effective times are to target users with the right message. This is where social media monitoring is going, from analytics to a lot smarter decision-making for customers.

There's A Salesman In Every HR Professional

2011-09-04T10:15:00.000-07:00

There's a salesman in all of us.

I downloaded this pic for another post and, in a desire to not offend all the sales representatives in the space, elected not to use it. It's been in my picture folder sitting and waiting for just the right time.

That time is now.

Give me the best sales line you've used on a friend, child, colleague, boss or other HR professional. You were selling, they weren't buying and you were looking to close a deal. What stops did you pull out?

Here are a few of mine:

To a community colleague discussing the pros of a local HR department, "It's a very progressive human resource department." What?! Tell me what organizational HR department is progressive.

To my young daughter at the top of a water park body slide,"Just slide nd you'll be out and in the pool before you even know it. Nope, it's not too dark in there at all." Successfully hiding my own claustrophobic fears, this backfired on me as the 4 year old went down and I simply had to follow her down the tube of doom.

To the Eddie Bauer sales clerk explaining how my husband's new shorts split up the side seam, rendering them unwearable,"I was pulling him behind the boat on a tube and overestimated the speed needed for a fun turn. Well, last thing I saw was him cart-wheeling across the water. Oh wait, that was the truth.

Your turn. Give me your best shot.

Photo credit iStockphoto
Blog by Lisa Rosendahl

HR Metrics: Tracking vs. Insight

2011-08-29T05:24:00.000-07:00

HR Metrics have been a passion of mine for several years now. It seems that HR Metrics have gained a lot of momentum in the last 2 years. I get many requests to speak on the subject and our company has increased projects and workshops in this area.

What bugs me the most, is the same issue I observed 5 years ago...

HR departments are not providing insight to leadership they provide tracking to leadership.

Yes, leadership wants to know something that impacts results or something they didn't already know. Here are some examples of things leadership is not (typically) waiting on pins and needles to see:

1) days to fill

2) # open reqs

3) # of training participants

4) turnover % for entire organization

5) hiring ratios from recruiting sources

But give leadership some insight, and you will be a rockstar:

1) turnover % of high performers with reasons for turn and an action plan to improve

2) HR forecast with new hires projected over next 12 months with staffing plans attached

3) ROI of recent training initiative with % increase in productivity and $ revenue increase

4) Average performance rating of new hires with baseline revenue/employee (to see growth over time)

5) Analyze new hire recruiting data and performance data to create a "success profile" for candidates increasing hiring success rate and decreasing cost per hire.

I was at a metrics conference last year and an attendee asked me the following question:

"Our team spends hours on our metrics, we have over 100 HR metrics we provide to our management. I send the document with a return receipt request to over 50 managers. I had 2 people actually open the document." "How can I increase the number of managers that use our data?"

I said, start over. After some more questions I found that ALL of the metrics were tracking metrics. If you were a CEO would you want to see how many transactions accounting processed last month, or so you care about receivables outstanding and what the impact is to the business? Same thing with HR. Yes, those tracking metrics are important to your department to make sure we are delivering quality service efficiently BUT what really matters is impact.

You have to start with strategy and work your way to metrics. By mapping your organizational strategy and then aligning HR to that strategy...the metrics that your leadership cares about become crystal clear.

Don't just start measuring for measuring's sake....you will wind up with way too many measures that don't tie to anything. Make your metrics matter by aligning them to your organizational strategy.

Life - by Steve Jobs

2011-08-25T16:22:00.000-07:00

Sometimes people say great things and they should be spread around the world. This I thought was brilliant.

“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” --- Steve Jobs

The Phantom Has Returned!!!

2011-08-25T10:41:00.000-07:00

Phantom stock – it's alive!

There are signs of a spectre walking the halls of Corporate America. A tool which has languished in obscurity at public companies – phantom stock – recently has shown signs of emerging. While the reasons for turning to phantom stock are varied – uncertainties in the financial markets and insufficient authorized shares for actual stock awards are two for public companies – we believe that the compensation device deserves more consideration. Phantom stock can provide valuable attributes of equity and can help with motivation, focus, and retention of recipients.

What is phantom stock?The basic concept of a phantom stock program involves a company's agreement or promise to pay a recipient of an award an amount equal to the value of a certain number (or percentage) of shares of the company's stock. Commonly structured through the award of units, a phantom stock program enables a company to make an award that tracks the economic benefits of stock ownership without using actual shares. Since phantom stock is a contractual right and not an interest in property, the tax event for the executive and the employer occurs at the payment in settlement of a properly designed phantom stock arrangement.

Phantom stock plans are shadows that mimic their real equity counterparts; phantom stock and shadow stock are terms that are often used interchangeably. Although shares of real stock can be traded at will, phantom shares or units take on value only when key contingencies or vesting conditions are met. A phantom stock plan typically does not require investment or confer ownership, so its recipient does not have voting rights. It is essentially an upside opportunity, as participants' investments are typically limited to their services; they stand to gain from any upside growth of the company.

In making awards under a phantom stock plan, there is a determination of the value of a phantom share or unit in connection with awards to one or more participants. Valuations also will be needed for periodic reporting to participants (and to actual shareholders and the Securities and Exchange Commission if used by a public company) as well as for determinations of amounts payable at the time of settlement.

Phantom stock programs can be simply designed. However, they should be created to meet the company's specific needs and objectives in protecting the unique knowledge and skill base that is represented by those key employees selected for awards. The two types that are most prevalent are (1) the 'appreciation-only' plan (much like a stock appreciation right), and (2) the 'full value' plan, where the award includes the underlying value of the unit (like a restricted stock unit).

Generally a phantom stock plan or agreement spells out how the program operates and how payments are determined, along with various other details, often including:

Eligibility criteria

Vesting schedule

Valuation method or formula

Settlement and payout events

Handling of various termination events, including retirement, death, disability, dismissal and resignation

Restrictive covenants

Form of payment

Provisions for the sale of the company

Any funding vehicle

Spooky designs and accounting monsters...
One of the key challenges of inviting a phantom into your offices is that it may come with another ghoul – the accounting monster. Historically, phantom plans have been viewed as undesirable from an accounting perspective because of the resulting liability (variable) accounting treatment. This creates volatility on the company's income statement, which is something that concerns most chief financial officers. Generally, for financial accounting purposes, phantom shares must be treated as an expense over the required service period, and the company does not receive its income tax deduction until the benefits are paid out. This timing is similar to other equity awards but can prove to be not as advantageous in periods where the value of the award increases. With liability accounting, the accounting expense and corresponding tax deduction will be the same. When real equity is used, the company may get a tax advantage as the expense can be locked in at grant while the tax deduction can grow as the value of the equity grows.

In addition, coming up with cash to cover phantom payouts can be tricky. Phantom stock plan gains (in appreciation-only programs) or current fair value (in full value programs) must be paid by the company versus the public markets which is the case when using publicly traded equity. Finally, phantom stock programs typically are subject to the often complex rules applicable to non-qualified deferred compensation under Internal Revenue Code section 409A, so care must be taken in their design.

Why use phantom stock for LTI awards?Phantom stock can help in getting an executive team to think and act like equity partners. It creates a sense of ownership in the success of the business because having phantom stock means the participants have 'skin in the game.' The concept of being an equity partner by having phantom stock can create the same feeling of connection as the more traditional equity tools such as stock options and restricted stock.

In addition to its incentive components, a phantom stock program involves deferred compensation and can act like golden handcuffs in retaining key executives. Phantom stock most often is used by privately held companies, but some publicly traded organizations are using phantom stock or similar cash based long term incentives as well.

Phantom stock plans can be especially useful in providing the economic benefits of equity without diluting shareholders. Because recipients of phantom units lack voting rights, a company can issue these units without altering the governance of the company, or worrying about dilution issues. Phantom stock does not directly dilute the value of real outstanding shares. Phantom stock awards do, however, have a significant effect on cash flow at payout. This is why some plans have a conversion feature, and may pay out in actual stock.

Another advantage to a company is the ability to design an award so that an executive receives no benefit unless vesting conditions are met and, under the appreciation-only model, the company's value has increased. The fair market value of the stock is commonly used by public companies, while private companies have various approaches. For example, a professional valuation may be preferred but viewed as too costly; many companies then turn to book value. Other approaches include a formula using revenue, EBITDA, net income, or a combination of relevant measures; a formula also can help with consistency of the valuation over time.

There are many reasons a company would consider a phantom stock arrangement:

A public company may find that it has insufficient authorized shares to award the desired amount of awards that require actual stock

A company's leadership may have considered other plans but found their rules too restrictive or implementation costs too high

The owner(s) may desire to maintain actual and effectual control, while still sharing the economic value of the company

There may be ownership restrictions for certain types of entities (i.e., sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability company), such as the S corporation 100-shareholder rule

The objective is to provide equity-type incentives to a restricted group of individuals

     - A corporate division that can measure its enterprise value and
       wants its employees to have a share in that value even though
       there is no real stock available

- A desire to focus on an event or contingency, such as a sale,
merger, IPO, etc.

A phantom plan can typically provide a more flexible alternative that is not subject to the same restrictions as most equity ownership plans. For many, the simple desire to use an 'equity-like' vehicle without giving up true ownership may be reason enough to implement.

Pros and cons of phantom stock
Advantages	Disadvantages
Allows employees to share in the growth of the company's value without being shareholders No equity dilution as no actual shares are awarded Powerful retention tool when combined with vesting Board/compensation committee has flexibility to design plans based on their own discretion Can be tied to overall company or business unit results No employee investment required Can provide for dividend equivalents Design can permit phantom stock to be converted into actual equity No income tax until proceeds are converted to cash or real stock Potential tax deferral of employee compensation Retirement benefit opportunity	If paid in cash, can be a financial drain on the company's cash flow At a private company, may require outside valuation on an annual basis Company needs to communicate financial results to participants Payments to employee are taxed as ordinary income May impact the overall value of the business in a transaction IRC section 409A rules add complexity and difficulty in achieving objectives

Who is using phantom stock?Phantom stock is not only a private company phenomenon. According to our research of recent proxy filings, some well-known, publicly traded companies are using this tool to attract, retain, and motivate select groups of employees.

No need to fear the phantom
Phantom stock is a traditional long-term incentive vehicle, and not a fad du jour. While trends may come and go, cash based LTI plans do have a place in the executive compensation portfolio. While these plans are generally simple, and do provide flexibility to the company, they can also raise various issues that must be considered carefully. In the appropriate situation, a phantom stock plan can keep the company spirit alive in the executive suite.

a reprint from the Hay Group - August 2010

Post-Crisis Strategy Moves

2011-08-22T09:25:00.000-07:00

U.S.

business leaders, and HR recognize the increased volatility associated with the post-crisis economy and are approaching their companies’ most strategic initiatives with more caution than ever before. Risk aversion still dominates corporate psyche especially HR, but concerns over risk are shifting from avoidance to successful management. Executives, reflecting on lessons learned in the downturn, are concerned about the impact of failure as never before. As a result, many are assuming a corporate strategy of “perfection,” tightly scrutinizing how capital is being spent.

It is no wonder three quarters of companies have changed their approach to strategic initiatives in the past year, according to the latest FD/Forbes Insights Strategic Initiatives survey of 180 C-level executives, senior strategists, and communications professionals. The study, done with the Council of Public Relations Firms and the Association for Strategic Planning, also uncovers overall optimism that well-considered plans can still yield productive initiatives. Respondents believe there is room for growth, but they are being more selective and taking careful steps to be more informed and better prepared than in recent years.

What are your thoughts on this post-crisis dilemma?

Are Your Skills Really Transferable?

2011-08-22T09:18:00.000-07:00

If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a thousand times. You, the job seeker, announce with confidence: “I can do the job. I know I can. I just need someone to give me a chance.”

But in a tough economy full of qualified job seekers, skills don’t need to transfer. That’s because there are plenty of well-trained people with the right company background, certifications, and experience to meet and exceed the job requirements.

Those candidates don’t need training. There’s no delay in the new person’s affect on the department, and no risk for the hiring manager.

That makes it an easy decision for the hiring company.

• Are your skills transferable? Probably.
• Can you do the job if given the chance? Likely.
• Will you be given the chance? Unlikely.

So, if your skills are not transferable in a tough job market, what can you do?
Pursue jobs in your field, at your level, and in your function

While it’s exciting to try something new, in a tough job market you need to stay focused on where you are immediately relevant. Sounds limiting, I know. And it can be frustrating to hear. But companies are looking for specialists these days, not generalists. And transferable equals general.

Consider delaying your career change
I’m not saying give up. But maybe it’s time to establish a longer time horizon. If you decide to delay, here are a few steps you can take today to create longer-term momentum: get a certification, attend a seminar, volunteer, or accept project work to get experience or exposure in the new industry or function.
Stop applying for jobs unless you’re truly qualified
Tighten your focus around your true strength areas and work more aggressively to create a relevant target company list. Once you have it, begin a push to network with everyone you know who can get you introduced or considered for jobs where you are highly qualified.

Employ a dual strategy
If you’re committed to making a change sooner rather than later, apply for jobs in your current field or function. Even if you don’t accept that job offer, at least you will have some options to consider when money gets tight.

Go get a job and then transfer, over time, to the new one
One way to reduce risk for a hiring manager is to get a job in your strength area and then, over time, apply for other jobs within the same company. This way, once you’ve established social credibility within a company, you can apply for other internal jobs. They’ll know you and your work. You can also be a star on cross-functional teams to expose your brand to other departments.

One other theory is to apply for everything and let the hiring company decide whether you have the necessary qualifications.

To Coach or NOT to Coach

2011-08-22T06:37:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure of speaking at a lunch and learn last week at one of my favorite company's headquarters here in Atlanta. The topic was coaching and the audience consisted of HR Managers and Directors.

Most of the discussion centered around how HR can influence managers to use coaching to increase performance.

After reading a lot of material on the subject and a really good recent blogpost from Kris Dunn, I have decided there are 2 camps on this subject:

1) Get rid of the performance review and replace it with coaching sessions

2) FORCE managers to coach in the current performance management process

I think there is a happy medium that uses coaching skills to produce RESULTS. Really? Coaching can impact results and that is how HR can influence managers to be coaches. I think HR managers must educate line managers on the benefits of coaching employees:

1) Employees have cited the need for feedback as an engagement driver. X'ers and Y'ers have come into the workplace expecting feedback. Managers have not been trained on effective coaching skills...so there is a disconnect...big time.

2) Goal attainment. Think about a sports coach with the goal of winning. There are countless hours spent on coaching the athletes getting them ready for the game.

3) Employee Development. Managers can coach employees on many subjects but the WIIFM for the manager is an employee that has developed a skill that he/she didn't have before.

Back to the lunch and learn....when asked why managers DO NOT coach employees, the audience said:

1) Managers don't have time

2) They don't like confrontation

3) Our culture is one of getting things done and fast...all about results.

My answer to the objections above are...you have to make the time because employee's engagement at work is stronger when feedback is 2-way. Coaching is not confrontational it is collaborative. And for #3...coaching is about getting those results, with clear goals and objectives set, results will follow.

Sometimes, coaching is seen as a punitive activity. "We do coaching when someone is going to get fired as a last step." If this sounds familiar, then some education has to be created around why coaching is positive and needed in the organization.

So I ask you, coach or not to coach?

Who Is that Leader in the Mirror?

2011-08-19T05:33:00.000-07:00

"Mirror, mirror, on the wall," asked the Queen in Snow White, "who is the fairest of them all?"
Things got sticky when the Queen got the answer she didn't want to hear, but at least her mirror was honest. Too many bosses are looking in the mirror and being told that they're doing just fine, despite evidence to the contrary.

An article in Training Magazine titled "The Blind Leading the Company" reported on research into manager confidence in their skills and the accuracy of their self-perception. Here's the money quote.
"97 percent of the managers who think they are “good” or “excellent” also believe they know their strengths and development areas. Compare this to only 63 percent of the managers who think they are “fair” or “poor.” Data reveals the managers most confident in their skills are also most confident that they see themselves."

I don't find this surprising at all. Study after study shows people in all kinds of situations are likely to over-estimate their abilities and underestimate the need for improvement. But if you're a boss and you want to be a good one, this research has three powerful implications.
You can't trust your mirror. No more excuses. After reading this post you can't fall back on the "nobody ever told me I overestimated my abilities" excuse.

You must commit to the rigorous and discomforting process of getting the true picture of who you are and how you're doing. Seeking feedback must become a habit. Hearing the feedback and acting on it, hard as it is, must be part of your plan. You can get some help from Mary Jo Asmus' excellent post, "The Value of Knowing Exactly Who You Are."

You must commit to the difficult habit of getting better. As you grow and develop, that target will move as Marshall Goldsmith wrote in What Got You Here Won't Get You There.

Boss's Bottom Line
Lieutenant General Robert Forman summed it up: "In the pursuit of excellence there is no finish line."

Posted by Wally Bock at 8/18/2011 3:42 PM

Have You Addressed the Digital Skills Inventory of Your Employees?

2011-08-18T12:18:00.000-07:00

Since it seems forever HR has touted, or should I say professed, the need for skills inventory and training to keep employees competitive. Surely, you have addressed this over the years and even with the extreme cutbacks over the last 2 years you have continued to develop your people either with a decent training and development budget or one that may be something less than a shoestring.

Today, both on the talent acquisition side or the talent management side you need to take a serious look at the "digital skills" inventory of your new hires, key executives, fast start employees, mid-level management and sales teams. This is not your average skills inventory but one that your company will benefit from for years to come. If you have not looked at this important element then here are a few of the key components of your new "digital skills" inventory checklist:

how to get connected to the Internet, both on the road, in the office and at home. This may seem basic but if your employees cannot do this "you lose!!"

how to use basic collaborative and knowledge exchanging tools for on-line meetings. This is important for non-centralized management teams, sales people displaying products and product testaments;

mail - yes as simple as logging into mail systems, company proprietary, or products like G Mail, Hot Mail, or Yahoo Mail;

how to capitalize on your company's internal social network (Facebook and Twitter, NSS), PeopleSoft/Oracle or other data gathering systems that employees would use;

Smartphone and other mobile apps that are important for the company or employee to use; and

searchable databases external to the company utilized databases.

All of these are important for your company to be competitive in today's world and to make your employees more valuable to you in generating additional revenue or product launches. In this effort your goal should be to be "digital" across the board.

You should do a search on Google to see what other companies are leading the way in "digital skills". One company that is leading the way in P&G, and I am sure you are not surprised at that.

I would appreciate your comments on this post and what your company is doing in defining and managing "digital skills" inventories.

Telling A Great Strategy Story

2011-08-16T15:15:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, there was this big company. This company wanted to grow into a bigger company, so it huffed and puffed and blew its competition over...THE END.

I wish I had $100 for every time I have heard, "Our organizational strategy is stuck." "We did our planning, but it was just that, planning and no execution."

What we have found, with some of our clients is that strategy gets stalled. And it gets stalled somewhere between the top and the employee, who by the way has to actually execute on that strategy. The problem is, in my opinion that leadership understands the strategy and doesn't do a good job of translating it for the next level. The 3 ring binder with all the initiatives, the vision, the mission, values etc is great. Except....when no one knows what to do differently.

So, why not explain the strategy in a simple, easy to understand way. I know....what a novel idea. Use a story, with a beginning (current state) a plot (what we will do differently) and an end (what we will look like when we are finished).

Employees will be so grateful. No more strategy by PowerPoint...just an easy to understand story.

HR is great at this, so get your strategy documents and start writing!!

I wish strategy execution was as easy as telling a story, but it's not. There are several other critical success factors for a successful implementation:

1) Make sure strategy is understood by ALL employees

2) Make sure ALL functions, departments, and divisions have mapped their strategy and understand how their contribution impacts the overall strategy

3) Make sure goals and objectives are tied to performance management system

4) Make sure metrics are created and tracked

5) Accountability for results is a must

Don't let all your planning be in vain...be deliberate about your execution!

Tell me about your challenges and successes with strategy execution....

From Freelancers to Telecommuters: Succeeding in the New World of Solitary Work

2011-08-15T12:30:00.000-07:00

As the economy flirts with a double-dip recession and cost-conscious companies hesitate to re-hire, the workplace for many Americans has shifted away from crowded offices to a new world of solitary work. From freelancers to telecommuters to laid-off workers making do with temporary jobs, an increasing number of Americans are reporting to work each day from a corner of their home, a space in the garage, a private office or even a table at the local coffee shop.

For some, it's a dream come true. But the transition isn't smooth for everyone.

"It's easier to get in the mood to work when everybody else around you is working," says Maurice Schweitzer, a Wharton professor of operations and information management. Without an office, "you have to create that entire structure yourself."

For solitary workers, re-creating the workplace goes beyond buying a phone and a laptop. Lone workers must also take greater responsibility for their own professional image, networking opportunities, training and daily motivation, experts at Wharton and elsewhere point out. If they don't, they risk missing out on important social connections and possibly career growth. Companies, too, should mind the gap. Despite the apparent cost savings of offsite workers, remote connections could possibly lead to miscommunication, and threaten productivity in the long run.

It's unclear how many Americans work in isolation. According to the New York-based Freelancers Union, independent workers make up about 30% of the American workforce, although this figure does not include telecommuters who are part of a company but work from home. Also, many independent workers -- including freelancers, part-time workers, consultants, independent contractors, contingent workers, temps and the self-employed -- work on job sites with other people.

Being physically apart from co-workers creates challenges both internally and externally, Wharton experts note. One of the most basic: Without a physical office, it can be difficult for some workers to find a balance between work and play. The isolation raises "the whole question of how you manage the boundaries between work and the rest of your life," according to Wharton management professor Stewart Friedman, who studies how leaders integrate the four domains of work, life, community and self. For those who are independent-minded, working from home can be more productive than working at the office because it frees them from distractions and allows them to work as they please. For others, home life gets in the way. "You have all sorts of other activities that might be a distraction from the work. So how do you focus your attention on the things that matter, when they matter? You need to have a greater sense of discipline about creating those boundaries."

Some people require more boundaries than others, points out Wharton management professorNancy Rothbard, who has studied how people blend or separate their work and personal life. "People actually have different preferences for how they manage these boundaries," she says. "There are some people who like to blur the boundaries between personal and professional -- people who prefer to integrate their work and life domains.... Then there are people on the other end of that spectrum who really strongly want to keep their work and personal lives separate." For the latter group, working at home would be "a disaster," Rothbard adds. "It's going to be very distressing to them. It's going to be hard for them to manage."

A New Way to Define Your Career

Monica McGrath, a leadership consultant and adjunct management professor at Wharton, recommends a dedicated space at home or a shared office -- not the ubiquitous coffee shop, which is filled with distractions. "If you shift to a home-based business, it is quite easy to assume all you need is a phone and a desk. What you actually need is a new way to define your career," McGrath notes. Without the structure of the office, solitary workers can succumb to "the distraction of the laundry, the pets, the neighbors, friends looking for company, boredom and other types of demands. While all these things can distract your mind at work, the fact is, you can't really do the laundry at work."

For independent contractors and freelancers, work-life boundaries can blur not only in space but time. Since contractors paid by the hour tend to become very focused on how they use each minute, they sometimes end up working more, according to Wharton management professor Matthew Bidwell. "It becomes more salient to them if they're not working," says Bidwell, who has done extensive research on contract workers in the IT sector. "If they take off an afternoon to do something fun, it is much easier for them to put a dollar figure on how much that costs."

Money matters also lead to meaning-of-life questions for workers who are on their own. Susan J. Ashford, a professor of management and organizations at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, believes that questions about purpose and meaning come up more easily to workers who have no organization behind them. "Our argument is that your ego is very invested in the work because it's just you," she notes. "There's nobody there to tell you that what you're doing is great even though profits are going down."

In a study recently presented at the Academy of Management, Ashford conducted in-depth interviews with solitary workers about how they stay motivated, and discovered that many needed to create a larger narrative of meaning behind their work. For some, such as a rug maker who likened her basement workshop to Picasso's studio, the stories were strictly imaginary. Others created ego-boosting surroundings, like the financial analyst who set up his office to feel like the cockpit of a jet plane. The narratives helped sustain motivation when money got tight or stress levels rose. "When you are on your own, meaning-making feels much more necessary to your work life than when you're in an organization," Ashford says. "The more freedom you have in your work, the more you have to do this."

Creating Virtual Face Time

Managing personal time, space and motivation is just the first step: Lone workers also have to work to keep themselves on other people's radars while battling the misperception that they are not really working.

"There's a sense of illegitimacy about it," notes Debra Osnowitz, a sociology professor at Clark University and author of Freelancing Expertise -- Contract Professionals in the New Economy.Offsite workers have to make extra efforts to communicate that the job is getting done, Osnowitz found from interviews with freelance writers, editors, programmers and engineers. "Their being offsite and out of sight means needing to be accountable and clear," she says. "You can't depend on just being there to indicate that you're attentive to what your client wants."

Wharton management professor Peter Cappelli agrees. "In many organizations, if not most, there's still a premium based on face time. The more we see you, the more we think you're working or are valuable -- particularly in jobs that don't have clear performance measures."

Indeed, a study released this month by WorldatWork, a nonprofit association that examines workplace issues, found that the number of people who worked from home or a remote location for an entire day at least once a month declined to 26.2 million in 2010, compared to 33.7 million in 2008. A higher rate of unemployment is believed to play a role in those numbers, the association reports; but so is anxiety over job security and the widespread belief that visibility creates awareness of a worker's value to a particular company. Although the total number of "teleworkers" decreased, the percentage of people who worked remotely more than once per month went up, from 72% in 2008 to 84% in 2010.

Distance can also create gaps in communication and training opportunities, Cappelli notes. "You kind of lose out on the office politics in terms of knowing what's going on. It's still true that people who are liked get more opportunities." And skills can diminish without easy access to training and new projects. "You get hired as a contractor to do the work essentially that you did before," Cappelli says, "so you could become obsolete pretty quickly ... unless you do things to [increase] your skills."

Lack of face time also makes it more difficult for offsite workers to cultivate professional relationships that can grow a career. "Face-to-face communication allows people to build trust and communicate more completely than they would otherwise," according to Schweitzer. When it comes to building lasting work relationships, the most important communication is that which is not related to work -- the handshake, a pat on the back, jokes and office chitchat that disappears when workers are only remotely connected. "Non-task communication is what goes missing with this distant work," Schweitzer says. "So in the absence of non-task communication, we don't build that relationship -- that rapport -- and ultimately we don't build that trust."

Over time, lack of contact could shrink a lone worker's professional network and the benefits that come with it, Friedman points out. "You lose so much of the benefits of social interaction ... the serendipitous contact with other people that might lead you to resources and connections." With fewer chance encounters in elevators, lunchrooms and daily meetings, it becomes more difficult to build one's reputation, find mentors or mentor others, or seize the chances to contribute to other people's welfare and success. "It's more difficult to effect that building of social capital," Friedman says. "If you're working in social isolation, you have to make an extra effort to connect with people."

Distance creates not only a potential problem for workers, but also for the teams and clients they support. Without face-to-face, in-person contact, important pieces of communication can get lost. "Emotions are information ... and emotions influence performance," notes Wharton management professor Sigal Barsade, who researches emotions, organizational culture and team dynamics. More than half of communication about emotion is transmitted through facial expression; about one-third comes from tone, and less than 10% comes from what is actually said, she points out. That means people who communicate primarily through phone and emails are at a disadvantage because they aren't getting complete information from each other.

The solution is not to stop telecommuting, but for management to be "hyper-vigilant" about potential communication gaps and take steps to prevent them or compensate, Barsade says. "If you can't get the full information about people's emotions, ultimately that will affect your performance, their performance and the performance of the organization."

Top 10 Reasons NOT to Measure HR

2011-08-08T04:33:00.000-07:00

I speak and write on the topic of metrics a lot. And I always ask where individuals are on their "metrics journey." I get answers from beginners to "we are using data to be predictive." I also get "we aren't measuring anything." I always ask, "Why not?" Here is my unscientific list of why HR professionals do NOT measure:

1) It's hard

2) Don't know what to measure

3) My leadership doesn't understand why we should

4) Our data is in too many places

5) We do not have anyone analytical in our department

6) We are swamped, don't have the time

7) We used to measure a few things, but no one did anything with the data

8) You can't measure the impact of HR, it's too soft

9) Finance is doing that!

10) We don't have the technology to do that

Ok, now for my answers to the "excuses" above

1) If you can't do basic statistics, or even just formulas, partner with an analyst in your company to mentor you. Take some classes, be curious

2) Start with organizational strategy and work your way to metrics from there

3) Find something in the data that your leadership didn't know....you will be a rockstar and in a better position to ask for resources.

4) Data is scattered in an organization. Getting it in to one repository is challenging but really worth it. Access and Excel are 2 choices that most everyone has on their computers right now.

5) See #1, find someone within the company, an intern, learn by doing....

6) Metrics allow you to focus on what is important, you can't afford not to make the time

7) It's all about the data story and how you present the data. If you use rows and columns then expect no one to act on it.

8) You can measure the impact of HR, it just takes time to understand causal relationships and then testing those hypothesis. Today with most companies spending 60-80% of budget on HR related costs, you have to understand the ROI of this investment.

9) Finance can and will do this if we don't start measuring ourselves. Enough said...

10) Start in Excel it is powerful and available...

If you aren't measuring today, start by mapping your organizational strategy within your HR department. Mapping is a great way to illustrate what is driving your strategic initiatives. This exercise will also assist in the discovery of what metrics matter to YOUR organization.

Ready, set, start measuring....

Are CIOs Missing the Cloud?

2011-08-06T07:26:00.000-07:00

Four disruptive forces are causing executive teams to reconsider how the CIO function will add strategic value in a world where cloud computing, distributed architectures and mobile ubiquity are givens for future competitiveness.

· Rising Server-to-Admin Ratios

When 25 physical servers for each IT admin was the norm, CIOs built organizational structures suited to that reality. Hiring, training, reporting lines, compensation, key success factors, annual reviews, career advancement and social norms were all built around that 25:1 ratio. Now, enterprise IT is facing the near-term reality of ratios that are 100:1, 500:1 or even 1,000:1. Google is rumored to be aiming for a 10,000:1 goal.

This massive increase in administrative density signals wholesale changes in the enterprise IT org chart. It changes who is hired, what skills they must have, how they will be trained and managed, evaluated and compensated, how they interact with and support business units, and what their long-term career paths will look like.

· IT Becomes a Variable Cost

In the early 90s, when the CIO title was gaining popularity, the chief driver for bringing IT into the executive suite was the massive capital allocations required to give organizations a competitive advantage through rapidly changing technologies. These technologies demanded larger and larger percentages of the corporate budget, so a direct line to the president or CEO was paramount in justifying these spends.

Cloud and next-generation IT strategies dramatically change this. What was once CAPEX increasingly becomes OPEX, and long-term risk falls accordingly. So, where’s the strategic value in having IT in the executive suite? Arguably, it’s more important than ever.

The increase in business agility and responsiveness that cloud computing makes possible shifts the strategic value of the CIO from a technical role to a business role. CIOs must understand the functions they support, so they can help these functions quickly put the infrastructure and applications in place to support quickly moving new ideas to market, testing them, and iterating them to general release. Competitors will be doing this (and already are, in several industries).

· End-User Auto Provisioning

End users are gaining a level of power that makes past demands for integration of Blackberries and iPhones seem whimsical by comparison. CIOs accustomed to pushing back against new ideas based on security threats and support burdens will increasingly find themselves cut out of the deal by end users who can go online and provision SaaS (software as a service) and IaaS (infrastructure as a service) with a credit card.

As Vivek Kundra, until recently the White House CIO, has said, “the more a CIO says ‘no,’ the less secure his organization becomes.”

· Infrastructure Becomes Commodity

New — and largely uninvented — processes are required to deal with all of this change. Governance, compliance and security are all matters that 20 years of client/server policy is ill equipped to deal with. On top of this, CIOs must develop policies for the rapid growth of collaboration technologies (and, yes, social media) that employees will increasingly require in order to do the job the CEO is asking of them.

These shifts signal the need for the new CIO to bring an entirely new set of skills to the game. Yes, the new CIO’s job will continue to require an understanding of infrastructure and architecture, but a knowledge of how to turn the dials and knobs will be far less important tomorrow than it was yesterday. Tomorrow’s winning CIO will bring an MBA’s understanding of finance, marketing, operations, HR and the other functions. CIOs will understand how to say “yes” to new services that make their companies competitive, while mitigating risks and allowing for small-scale failures in the pursuit of long-term success.

Written by Scott Bils

Scott Bils is a partner at the Everest Group, an IT consulting firm.

10 Principals of Employee Engagement

2011-08-02T06:13:00.000-07:00

Here are 10 principles of employee engagement that David Zinger outlined as part of his Employee Engagement Network, located in Winnipeg Canada. I encourage you to determine your own or to add yours as you comment on this post.

Employee engagement is a human endeavor. Engagement is depersonalized when we refer to employees as human capital or human resources. I manage capital or resources, I work with people!
Employee engagement must create results that matter. This means results that are important to the employee, manager, leaders, organization, and customers. There is little point in having engaged employees if they are not contributing and creating significant results. In addition, if the results only matter to the organization and not the employee – or the employee and not the organization – employee engagement will not be sustained over time.
Employee engagement is connection. Connection is the key. Authentic employee engagement involves connection to our work, others, our organizations and ourselves. When we disconnect we disengage. Read this short post on employee engagement and connection.
Employee engagement is fueled by energy. We must pay close attention to mental, emotional, and spiritual energy at work. In addition we need to enhance organizational energy through meaningful connection and high quality interactions.
Employee engagement is more encompassing than motivation. Employee engagement embraces our emotions about work, how hard we work, how much we care about the organization, etc. I think it is a richer and more complex concept than simply using motivation to look at work.
Employee engagement is specific. We cannot sustain engagement all the time and everywhere. When we talk about engagement we need to ask: Who is engaged, with what, for how long, and for what reason?
Employee engagement requires purposeful disengagement. We need periods of rest, recovery, and rejuvenation to sustain engagement over the long term. Theoretically we may be able to work 24/7 but practically we work best when periods of full engagement are punctuated with periods of disengagement from specific work or tasks.
Employee engagement makes a difference. Employee engagement can improve organizational performance while also contributing to individual performance and satisfaction.
Employee engagement is vital in recruitment, retention, and satisfaction. I believe the majority of workers want to be engaged and look for work that will engage them. People will often leave organizations when they feel disengaged. It may even be worse for all if they remain when they are disengaged.
Employee engagement is now. Look to the now. Don’t wait for some survey results or diagnosis from a management consultant. Look at the work you are doing right now and determine how you can engage with it more fully. Look at who you are working with and determine how you can help them to be more engaged. In addition, look at what you are engaged with now and make sure the results matter!

I encourage you to leave a comment about the principles you follow for employee engagement activities at my email address wgstevens2@gmail.com

David Zinger is an employee engagement expert committed to moving employee engagement into authentic and significant workplace engagement with benefits for all

Day 1: HR Strategy and Metrics Recap

2011-08-02T04:02:00.000-07:00

Today I had the pleasure of facilitating a HR Strategy and Metrics workshop for the Performance Institute in Washington DC. I had just over 30 attendees that were eager to learn more about linking HR strategy to organizational strategy and how to measure the execution.

The majority of the day was spent on a tool we use, called the Business Strategy Map. I have written on this topic here.

The participants were engaged as they brought their own strategic outcomes from their companies to gain hands on real time experience with this process.

After we spend the majority of the day on this process I asked the participants what the good, the bad and the ugly was...here is what they said:

1) It's hard, really hard but worth it

2) I can see how this could be a communication tool in the area of strategic execution

3) It can be a collaboration tool between functions as most organizational strategies require interdependency between functions

4) HR coud be instrumental in leading this process (YES!)

5) It identifies gaps in the understanding and interpretation of strategy by different functions and leaders

6) It serves as a visual clear line of sight that can be shared with all employees

So tomorrow, we will use the maps and determine the necessary metrics that need to be tracked and analyzed from an HR perspective...I can't wait!!

It was more than evident in the room that no matter if you are a large corporation, a non-profit, a government agency or an educational institution this process is needed because strategy if not executed is useless.

Drilling down and mapping the strategic details is where the rubber meets the road and where your front line employees begin to behave with purpose.

I believe that spending a few days on mapping strategy is well worth it...

Information on our next HR Strategy and Metrics bootcamp can be found here.

10 “Don’ts" When it Comes to HR Metrics

2011-07-31T16:02:00.000-07:00

I am asked what lessons I have learned when it comes to HR metrics a lot when I am speaking. There are so many lessons as this field has come such a long way in such a short period of time. When I first started reading and speaking on the subject back in the late 1990’s the top HR measure was cost per hire. Fast forward to today and we can analyze things like: PREDICT ING who will be successful in our organization by using recruiting and performance data and we can PREDICT who is at risk for leaving our organization. Fascinating, and the possibilities are endless.

Here is a shortened version of my lessons learned in regards to HR metrics. (They are in no particular order)

Don’t just start measuring the usual suspects, start with your organizational strategy and work from there
Don’t copy your neighbor’s HR metrics for the reason listed above
Don’t use benchmarks for the sake of benchmarking because average does not equal better result
Don’t just email metrics out and expect your managers to understand them. Make sure the metrics tell a compelling story
Don’t celebrate metrics that aren’t impactful. No one cares how many days it takes you to fill requisitions on average or if you have 100% participation in the performance management process. They care about what impacts revenue, profit and costs-DIRECTLY
Don’t use unreliable data or data that has not been verified. This will make you lose credibility points fast
Don’t go through a lesson in correlations and regressions…no one cares. Just tell the story on how the data analysis has uncovered something that impacts the business
Don’t measure for measuring sake. Tracking hundreds of metrics is not smart nor does it move the dial. Determine what are those levers that move your organizational success factors and measure those
Don’t use fancy technology when an Excel spreadsheet will do. Start small and if you get traction and buy in organizational wide then move to a more robust solution
Don’t depend on current staff to have the analytical muscle to perform statistical testing. Not everyone is a quant jock…if you have that talent on staff great, but that skill set is not one that is usually found in HR departments.

I would love to hear your lessons out there…I am sure you have your own metrics stories…do tell!!

Six Employee Engagement Ideas to Help Re-engage Your Employees After An Economic Crisis

2011-07-27T12:24:00.000-07:00

A lot of what you hear today from HR executives and consultants is the issue of employee engagement. Are your employees engaged or does it just seem that way? Do you feel your employees get what the company strategy is and are they helping to really achieve it?

This is a re-post but I still believe that we are all facing uncertainty within our workforce. I feel as though we are seeing things improve (slowly) but many of our employees are still not sure of their future. If you are looking for a few ideas to re-engage your employees, read the list below to see how you can make a difference.

For your employees, for your leaders as we optimistically look for a more solid recovery from this economic crisis:

1. Increase employee communications

· Bad news is better than no news

· Build trust - be open and forthcoming with information

· Seek feedback from direct reports

· Be innovative – design new methods for employees to communicate with management

· Be a good listener - allow employees to vent and express their concerns

2. Understand and plan for future staffing needs today

· Continuously assess employee workloads

· Downsizing or ‘rightsizing’ causes stress

· Job consolidation causes stress

· Stress impacts quality and productivity

3. Continuously coach employees and managers who have not worked during an economic crisis

· Purpose is to maximize core strengths and minimize weakness

· Teach active listening skills

· Offer group sessions to talk through different economic issues impacting the business

4. Emphasize training & development

· Identify and better utilize the strengths of existing staff

· Focus on developing existing talent through ongoing training

· Assess those who may have skills that may be needed elsewhere in the company

· Shift your highly flexible and cross-trained workforce to other functions as needed

5. Strategically add and/or upgrade your staff

· This activity will strengthen your company when the economic recovery begins

· This kind of thinking enables competitive advantage

· Place an emphasis deploying a more highly skilled workforce

6. Focus on retention efforts to deflect the higher turnover rates expected as the economic recovery takes hold

· As more jobs become available, turnover risks increase

· Focus on your top talent to ensure that they stay with your company as outside opportunities increase

What are your thoughts on this and are you making headway in getting your employees really engaged?

Posted by Lisa Wojtkowiak, SPHR

Identify Your Managerial Style - Who Are You?

2011-07-27T10:06:00.000-07:00

Since there have been numerous articles on retention of employees every HR executive should be asking 2 very important and mission critical questions as a strategic partner with your CEO: (1)what kind of manager am I?, and (2) what kind of managers do I have in my organization? (this includes your CEO too). As we all know, the biggest untapped opportunity within your organization is how managers and you as a manager shape the way people work together to deliver results. So, what kind of manager are you?a micro-manager (you know what this is), an arms length manager (macro-manager), a cloistered manager, a secret manager (never tell the staff anything even the need to know stuff), a good people manager, a task master, an on and on. Well, I extend the challenge to each of you to look inside yourself and ask those 2 very important questions. Then you should reflect to see if your style is getting the best results from each individual, department, group, and business. If the answer is yes then you win the lottery and you have tapped the greatest opportunity in business by unleashing the energy, creativity, and knowledge of your workforce. If the answer is no then you really need to reassess how you manage, as well as your managers so you get the best results, return on your investment, employees that are engaged, and limit your turnover.

You should ask yourself these two questions every year because as we all know we change and when upper level management changes, so do we and how we operate.

Your comments and opinions on this post are welcome to wgstevens2@gmail.com

Performance Management and The Atlanta Public School System

2011-07-25T07:11:00.000-07:00

Our Atlanta City Public School System has been in the news lately for its highly publicized cheating scandal. You can read about this here and here.

Being an Atlanta native, it breaks my heart on many levels, the worst being what this has done to our children and all for what? More dollars in the bonus checks of high-ranking APS employees. I cringe every time I see that logo. "Our focus...Student Success," at what cost?

I do not have all the facts in this case, all I know is what I have read and heard on our local and national news on the subject. But at the heart of the matter, these teachers and schools were being rated and bonused based on CRCT standardized test scores.

Of course, that made me think as performance management is something I do know a little something about. Did anyone at APS ever hear that, "What gets measured gets done?" And just sometimes employees take this to the extreme to make more money.

I have no idea what the teacher's and principal's performance management system looks like. I do know that there are many other factors that play into this mess, like integrity and chain of command issues and culture. But I also know that a balanced set of performance measures might have tipped some folks off that something wasn't right.

I think about performance management systems for our military, it is very structured and highly technical like our men in uniform. A one size all approach is definitely not the answer at APS or really anywhere I can think of.

One article cited above stated that the "culture of fear" and "higher than attainable growth targets" as the root causes for the crisis. I am sure this situation will be dissected to near death, but at the end of the day....you have some management basics that were either ignored or not acted on. WHAT A SHAME!

When you are designing performance management systems you must consider these basics:
1) What is at stake (revenue, profits, people's lives, children, homeless individuals, etc.)?
2) What behavior do I want repeated in a consistent manner?
3) How do I incent that desired behavior and keep that going?
4) How do I measure desired behavior and other business results (operational, customer, etc.)?
5) How do I stop/track/punish unwanted behaviors (cheating, dishonesty, etc)?
6) Goal setting is an art and a science. You set them too low and you have under performance, you set them too high....and you can have an even worse situation given the right circumstances.

I don't think that a performance management system could have prevented this debacle as there are many things that led to something like this. But, if you have great leadership, that instills a culture of TRUE accountability, with rock solid VALUES that are rewarded though a highly customized performance managements system....then you have won about half the battle.

The other half is that you must HIRE the people that can execute ON and IN the above described situation.

And if they don't fire them instead of promoting them!

APS...call me!

Capacity for Change: New Skill Set for Employees?

2011-07-18T05:26:00.000-07:00

I thought long and hard last week about an individual's capacity to handle change in the workplace. So many times when we are called in on a project we are changing something in the organization. Whether it is strategy or a performance management system. The way things used to look, now look different. And every time we are involved in a change project, we have those employees that embrace change and those that go and hide in a corner.

I am wondering if through this recession, we have increased our personal capacity for change?

I mean people have lost jobs, people have lost their homes and finances....but I hear stories of resilience and perseverance.

Then, I thought about my own situation I am going through all of life's greatest changes all at once and I feel I have a different perspective on change. It almost makes me feel like if change isn't happening something is wrong.

Back to the organization...change is here to stay and I believe change is even more prevalent now. Companies have to course correct and react to competition and environmental issues. They have to do this quickly or be left behind. They depend on their employees to make this shift.

If this is the case, how do you "train" your employees to handle change? Is it change management training? How do you hire employees that can handle change?

Maybe we become "change seekers" by experience. Like in my example, this year I think I have experienced about as many changes as a person can. I feel it has made me stronger and has given me perspective. It makes a new organizational change seem like child's play.

We use an instrument called the CSI, Change Style Instrument, that assesses your style when it comes to change. I like the instrument because it is all about awareness and how you can communicate change to people that have different change styles. Here are the styles CSI has indentified:

My question is this...are we all moving to an "originator" style, based on our experiences? Can we be a conserver and then over time become an originator?

What are your thoughts on the subject of change capacity....

A Day in the Life of a Consultant-Post Recession

2011-07-11T21:33:00.000-07:00

So you think you want to be a consultant. You better think about it long and hard. It's not the glamorous "get on an airplane and bill $3K a day life" that has been rumored.

It's tough out there. Clients are more informed than ever, competition is stiff and pricing is all about who is the best negotiator. We have been involved in bidding where large companies "give" the business away because they have extra capacity and they "just can." TOUGH!

Before you order those business cards, here is a day in the life of Cathy Missildine-Martin, Consultant and HR Rock Star!

A typical day starts (7:00AM) by scanning Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, WallStreet Journal and Google to see what's going on in the business world. Then, if it is blog day, I have to get inspired to write something interesting that HR professionals will read and retweet. This inspiration usually comes in the shower or from something experiential from a client, colleague or student. I love to write now, I thought I would never say that.

After all that, it is time to start the clock ($$$). This year it is all about content. So, whether I am developing a keynote address or a customized training session, or an all day HR Boot Camp, I am building content 24x7. I am thinking about content in my sleep and how to design interactive activities in the shower...it's crazy.

My partner, Barbara Hughes and I decided to write a book this year. It has been a great experience, but very time consuming...again more and more content. (I secretly love this process as well, but don't tell her!)

Most of my days are spent marketing, networking, meeting, chatting, and conferencing with potential new clients. it is very challenging and yes sometimes frustrating, in this environment. CEO's are more demanding as far as HR deliverables go, so that is great as that usually comes in the form of HR metrics which happens to be a passion of mine. We see more and more clients focused on their organizational strategy and more importantly, the EXECUTION of their current strategy. I believe this is a result of our current economic environment, companies must be able to change direction when necessary and do it rather quickly. Again, this is good for us, as we love this type of work!

You never can stop the marketing process, it's all about the pipeline and keeping it full of interested possibilities. I feel that if you have something interesting and relevant to say, that is half the battle.

After all of that, I then am off to a SHRM meeting or to teach HR certification or maybe to have drinks with some of my collegues to discuss what's hot in HR.

At the end of my day it may be 10 or 11PM, but I put my head down at night, knowing that I do what I LOVE, with whom I want to work with. Even in a recession, I will take this job over any other!

Can you say that?

You As A Manager

2011-07-07T09:03:00.000-07:00

How many times have you asked yourself how am I as a manager? I can tell you that I asked that question to myself at least once a week for 30 years in business. I am sure you are like me, you want to constantly improve as a person and as a manager so that the people that work for you respect you and not fear you. I also asked my subordinates how I was as a manager once a month in our staff meeting to make sure that we were(1) on the same page in tasks and timetables,(2) that we were moving in the same direction on projects and people issues,(3) we were aware of each others issues so we did not bump into each other or do double work.

I always made sure that I was a boss first and friend second. I really do not have to go into the details of how you do that or discuss why you may think it should be reversed. And with that here are the challenges you may face :

co-worker issues
motivating team members
performance reviews
providing enough resources for workers to succeed
career pathing where your co-workers feel they are moving in a positive direction at a speed they are comfortable with based on their skills
no being a good listener
providing positive or negative feedback
following through on promises

I think you have to let your co-workers be in the forefront and let them shine and be recognized for their work. Stretch their comfort zone so they grow and feel comfortable in that growth mode. Complement them in public and any negative feedback in private. Does this all sound familiar, what do you think or add to this blog post?

2011-07-04T07:29:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July America