Welcome! And a BIG THANK YOU for the visits to my Blog. This blog is specially for Professionals or anyone who wish to post ideas, or insights to be shared to others. Those who are out of/ looking for ideas can also benefit to this blog as the moderator would post input from Management & Leadership Gurus from around the world! Feel free to post your thoughts, ideas, and/or issues on LEADERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, ORGANISATION, PEOPLE, LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT. Happy blogging!
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
24 Lessons from World Greatest CEO – Jack Welch -10
Pouncing everyday means moving faster than competitors to win business, please customers and snap up opportunities.
· Live urgency – don’t waste time
· Make decision faster – don’t sit on decisions. Empty that in-basket so that you are free to
search out new opportunities.
· Work harder – When you are ready to go home after long day of work, stay a few minutes
more and get a jump on the next day’s work
· “Don’t sit still. Anybody sitting still, you can guarantee they’re going to get their legs knocked
out from under them.”
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
24 Lessons from World Greatest CEO – Jack Welch -9
· Spend an hour per week learning what competitors are doing
· Offer a reward for the best idea
· Work for organizations committed to training and learning
- “…the desire, and the ability, of an organization to continuously learn from any source, anywhere-and to rapidly convert this learning into action – is its ultimate competitive advantage.”
Monday, November 16, 2009
24 Lessons from World Greatest CEO – Jack Welch 8
· Hold a”why do we do that way?” meeting
· Invite colleagues from your department to contribute one idea on changing something
important at the company
· Do not be afraid to buck conventional wisdom
· “Shun the incremental and go for the leap”
Sunday, November 15, 2009
24 Lessons from World Greatest CEO: Jack Welch -7
From “Command and Control” (The stripes on your shoulder) to “Boundaryless”
· Never lead by intimidation
· Let others know exactly how their efforts are helping the organizationSend handwritten thank you notes to colleagues and customers
Saturday, November 14, 2009
24 Lessons from World Greatest CEO: Jack Welch -6
· Know that change is here to stay
· Expect the least expected, but move quickly to stay a step aheadPrepare those around you for the inevitable change that will affect their lives – talk about change in a positive light so people do not fear it. Speak of it as an opportunity, not threat.
Friday, November 13, 2009
24 Lessons from World Greatest CEO: Jack Welch -4
Look at things with a fresh eye
Do not fall into the ‘false scenarios’ trap
Leave yourself with several options – the best time to change is when you want to, not when you have to.
24 Lessons from World Greatest CEO: Jack Welch -5
Simplify the workplace – eliminate or improve complicated forms, processes and ways of doing things.
Make meetings simplerEliminate complicated memos and letters
Thursday, November 12, 2009
24 Lessons from World Greatest CEO: Jack Welch -3
Drop unnecessary work – workout to determine current which can be either eliminated or improve
Work with colleagues to streamline decision making
Make your workplace more informal – Send handwritten notes instead of memos, keep meetings conversational and encourage dialogue up and down the corporate ladder.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
24 Lessons from World Greatest CEO: Jack Welch - 2
Brainstorm with colleagues and bosses
Hold more informal meetings
Consider a once-in-a-while informal get together
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
4 Lessons from World Greatest CEO: Jack Welch -1
It is all about leadership, not management.
Leader – someone who could express a vision and then get people to carry it out.
The hero is the person with a new idea
New ideas as a lifeblood of the organization
Articulate a vision, and spark others to execute it
Do not manage every excruciating detail
Involve everyone and welcome great ideas from everywhere
Monday, November 9, 2009
Don Kirkpatrick's 4 Level of Evaluation
Have a reading pleasure!
Don Kirkpatrick: The Father of the Four Levelsby Daniel Margolis Don Kirkpatrick wrote the book on evaluation in learning and development, literally. Developed in the 1950s, the Kirkpatrick Model, often referred to as the Four Levels of Evaluation, is the standard for training evaluation and is still being taught and read today.
Kirkpatrick himself is now an elder statesman of corporate training. Asked his age, he said "I'm 80," before pausing and adding "five." But the octogenarian is still active in the field. This year, he taught two sessions at the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD)'s annual conference, as he has every year since 1960. "I've been in training all my life," Kirkpatrick said. "My feeling is that training is absolutely necessary for companies to keep up to date, to meet competition. As far as the curriculum is concerned, it must be practical.
Many programs have been just enjoyable; the teacher is out to get good ratings on the reaction sheets." That type of complacency is just what Kirkpatrick's four levels set out to address.
The levels measure:
1. Reaction: what students thought of the training.
2. Learning: the resulting increase in knowledge or capability.
3. Behavior: the extent of behavior and capability improvement and implementation.
4. Results: the effect on the business resulting from change in students' performance. "It used to be that trainers would feel, 'If we get a good reaction and teach people the skills and knowledge they need, that's all we can do.
We have no control over them when they go back to their job,'" Kirkpatrick said. "My philosophy is, yes, you have no control over them, but you must have influence on them, because unless that training gets used on the job, it's really worthless." Kirkpatrick believes that conception is the biggest challenge for learning and development in the corporate arena, and one that organizations across the board still grapple with in evaluation. "Many companies still are doing just Levels 1 and 2, but the trend is certainly for people to get up to Levels 3 and 4, because otherwise the training is really not worth it," he said. "Top management, we call it the jury, is not going to approve the budget unless you can prove that when people go back to the job they're using what they learn, and that's going to accomplish the results that they look for.
" A Life in Learning Begins Kirkpatrick began his college education in the wake of World War II. He received a bachelor's degree in business followed by an MBA from the University of Wisconsin in 1948 and '49, respectively.
Upon receiving his master's degree, Kirkpatrick was given a choice of paths.
"A professor said to me, 'Don, we have two opportunities. One is for you to go to a training program at a company and move up the ladder and become a manager of some kind,'" Kirkpatrick said. "'Two is to go with the Management Institute at the University of Wisconsin to teach and train supervisors and managers to do their job better.' I chose the second one because I had a desire to teach, and this was not only a teaching job, but it was a practical job.
I wanted to teach supervisors and managers to be more effective. I felt in a university you teach one course, and who knows what happens to [the students] - how does that apply to their whole life?" Kirkpatrick immediately began teaching seminars at the school's Management Institute, then decided to get his Ph.D. "I was one of the fortunate ones who picked a dissertation that would pay off in the future; [it] was on evaluating training programs," he said. "I felt as long as I was teaching, why not evaluate it?" Kirkpatrick remained there until 1960, when he took a job as a training manager at the International Minerals & Chemical Corp. in Chicago. In 1963, he became personnel manager at manufacturing and engineering company Bendix Corp. in South Bend, Ind., before returning to the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee.
He remained there for two decades, eventually becoming professor emeritus, before retiring. In the meantime, Kirkpatrick's status in learning and development grew via his published work. In 1959, he received a call from Robert Craig, then editor of ASTD's journal. Craig knew Kirkpatrick had done research on evaluation and asked if he'd contribute an article. Kirkpatrick shot back that he'd write four articles. "So I wrote one on reaction; one on learning; one on behavior; and one on results; and it took off like wildfire," he said. "I never called it the four levels, I never called it the Kirkpatrick Model, all I did was teach it in certain places where I had the opportunity. "[As] soon as that article came out, I was on national conferences and invited into many companies to do the program. A guy at Ford Motor Co. said to me, 'Don, what you've done is taken that elusive term 'evaluation,' which we all talk about in training, but we were all talking in a different language, and now you've given us a language of four simple practical terms that everybody can understand,'" This new notoriety gave Kirkpatrick's career as a business consultant so much momentum that his published work faded from view. "I didn't even write my first book until 1993 - 33 years later," he said. "Someone said to me 'Don, people can't find your articles anymore.
They keep quoting from [them] and people talk about the levels, but where can they find from the horse's mouth what you really came up with?
'" That book, Evaluating Training Programs: The Four Levels, is now in its third edition and has been translated into multiple languages. More books have followed, some co-authored by Kirkpatrick's son Jim, vice president of global training and consulting for SMR USA. A New Piece of Equipment Kirkpatrick is still a big believer in classroom-based, instructor-led training. "As a matter of fact, I'm so old-fashioned I still use the overhead projector instead of PowerPoint, which ASTD and others don't like too well, but [that's] the way I teach best," he said. "I tell people, 'Here's a new piece of equipment. You call it the overhead projector,' and they get a kick out of that." He said e-learning, while convenient, is limited by the learners' willingness to teach themselves: a fatal flaw.
"There are limitations in what you can do on the computer, and unless people are really motivated, it's not going to work very well, and you don't get the interaction either," he said. "That's one of the problems with e-learning, is to try to get metrics. When you do it on the computer, you've got a lot more problems in trying to get people to reply to surveys because they're so busy. It's much easier to do it when you've got instructor-led programs."
According to Kirkpatrick, the state of measurement when he started in learning and development was limited to measuring reaction of students and what they had learned. "To some extent they were using pre-tests and post-tests to try to measure learning, but there was very little of Level 3 and Level 4 - going out on the job and working with managers to get them on board so they can help you evaluate programs and also help you implement them," he said. Kirkpatrick relayed a story from early in his career when he asked a group of supervisors he was training what their boss was likely to say to them when they returned to work.
Kirkpatrick was told: "Well, he's probably going to say, 'Boy, the work piled up while you were gone. Hope you had a good time; now, let's get to work.'" "And I thought to myself, 'What a mistake,' because many of those people were sent to programs because the personnel department had signed them up," he said. "And their manager didn't even know the content; the supervisor was forced to let them go and was not too happy." Thereafter, Kirkpatrick began advocating for management to speak with people before they're sent to training, encouraging them to enjoy the experience but letting them know when they returned they would be expected to report what they learned and apply it on the job. "And then we've got to measure that," he said. "We've got to determine to what extent have they applied it on the job, and we do it by going out or doing surveys, asking them to what extent they've applied [training] and getting their managers to say to what extent they've applied it. Unless those people change their behavior, the program really is of no benefit to the company." Kirkpatrick believes that senior management should take a similar approach and get out in front of the development of training. He said any training program should begin by asking executives what they expect to accomplish with the learning intervention, what success will look like and what results they hope to achieve. "We try to start with the people who are going to judge it, and then back up," Kirkpatrick said. "We don't just sit in our office and have curriculum design people design the content of the program." The Next Generation Asked what young learning and development professionals - people coming into the industry this year - should think about in terms of their job role and their approach to measurement, Kirkpatrick said they should learn the four levels. As fundamental as they are, some companies still struggle in their application. In particular, end users often think they can skip levels, but this will blur measurement or render it useless.
"I had a lady from Microsoft one time call me and say, 'Don, we've measured Level 1 and Level 2, is it OK to go to Level 4 and measure results?'" Kirkpatrick said. "I said, 'No, it is not OK because you don't know where the results came from.'" "We call it the chain of evidence. You get evidence on Level 1 that they liked the program - they thought it was practical; Level 2 that they learned the knowledge, skills and attitudes; Level 3 that they changed their behavior; and Level 4 that you're going to get the results from it." Kirkpatrick acknowledged that when learning and development professionals have mastered the four levels, they may choose to depart from them or further the methodology, citing research published by Jack J. Phillips in 1996 titled "How Much Is the Training Worth?" Phillips suggested a fifth level: ROI. Here, the results of training are converted to monetary values and compared with the cost of the program itself, thus quantifying the true contribution of training. "Now if you want to get to Jack Phillips' ROI, that's up to you, but that's a very complicated process, and it isn't that easy to do," Kirkpatrick said. "Anybody in training, you better start with the four levels, and then you can take off from there any way you want to." What should young learning and development professionals think about in terms of their job role and their approach to measurement? Kirkpatrick said they better learn the four levels before choosing to further the methodology.
[About the Author: Daniel Margolis is a managing editor for Chief Learning Officer magazine.]
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Premise of HR Value
Another input on HR Value Proposition
Value is defined by the receiver, not the giver, any value proposition begins with a focus on receivers, not givers.
HR needs to be open to what others want!, then defines beliefs, goals and actions on others
Question to ask in developing HR Value Proposition
Who are the key stakeholders I must serve?
What are the goals and values of the receiving stakeholders?
What is important to them?
What do they want?
HR
- With Employees: …Should demonstrate that being more productive will help the employee stay employed
- With Line Managers:…Need to show to line managers how investment in HR work will help deliver business results
- With Customers:…need to remember that their interest in customers must create value to their product or services customer receive.
- For Shareholders:…Must create an organizations that deliver results today and intangibles that give owners confidence that results will be delivered in the future.
Starting HR Transformation with value proposition has six (6) important implications:
First: Human Resources work does not begin with HR-it begin with the business “We do not need to aspire to be partners in the business. We are the business”
Second: The ultimate receivers of business reside in marketplaces that company serve.
HR must begin with the line of sight to the marketplace.
HR must create a line of sight to the multiple and frequently conflicting demands of stakeholders ranging from internal clients such as managers and employees to external clients such as customers and investors.
HR professionals must have knowledge of external business realities before they can frame, execute, and create substantive value through even the most basic of HR agendas.
Third: Framing HR as a form of competitive advantage.
Competitive advantage exists when a firm is able to do something unique that competitors cannot easily copy; and what it does better than what competitors can do. This is called a “Wallet Test”
“Wallet Test” e.g. An internal operation passes the wallet test if it inspires customers or shareholders to take money out of their wallets and put it into the firm’s wallet instead of into the wallet of competitors.
If HR is to create competitive advantage, it must create substantial value with similar concrete results.
HR passes the ‘wallet test’ when it creates human abilities and organizational capabilities that are substantial better than those of the firm’s competitors-and thus move customers and shareholders to reach for their wallets.
Fourth: HR professionals must align practices with the requirements of internal and external stakeholders.
Fifth: It directs HR professionals to acquire the personal knowledge and skills necessary to link HR activity to stakeholder value.
When HR fails to make this linkage, it allows “noise” to occur between HR practices and stakeholders demand
Noise may be a lack of knowledge of external customers and shareholders, business strategy, or new HR processes.
Sixth: It leads HR professionals to view a company’s key stakeholders from a unique and powerful perspective.
Unique- implies that other functions or members of the leadership team do not share this same perspective and do not realize they need it.
Powerful – implies that this perspective adds a substantial value in helping the organization succeed.
HR professionals must be able to understand and value the finance and sales perspectives, but they must also add their own point of view.
E.g. HR perspective that are both unique and powerful is one that establishes the linkages between employee commitment, customer attitudes, and investment returns.
With a unique and powerful perspective of their own, HR professionals will see aspects of the business environment that go beyond what other business disciplines bring and that add substantially to business success.
Source: Dave Ulrich, etc, etc.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
HR Transformation
- Many attempts at HR effectiveness start without defining value
E.g. some companies invest in e-HR services such as portals and online employee services and believe that they have transformed HR, but they have not. - While e-HR may be part of an overall transformation, it is merely a way to deliver HR administrative services.
- HR transformation must change the way to think about HR’s roles in delivering value to customers, shareholders, managers, and employees and not just about HR how services are delivered and administered.
- Moving toward service centers, centers of expertise, or outsourcing does not mean that HR has been transformed.
- HR transformation changes both behavior and outputs. The changes must improve life for key stakeholders in ways that they are willing to pay for.
- Changing any single HR practice (staffing, training, appraisal, teamwork, upward communication) does not create a transformation. Unless the entire array of HR practices collectively adds value for key stakeholders, transformation has not occurred
- Transformation requires integrating the various HR practices and focusing them jointly on value-added agendas such as:
- Intangibles
- Customer connection
- Organization capabilities and
- Individual abilities - Questions to ask when developing HR strategy
- Our goal is to be a……
- We will do this by leveraging…..
- And we will ensure that we anticipate…..
- And we will invest in…..
- And we will be known for…..
- And we will work with unyielding…. - Transformation requires whole new agendas, thoughts, and processes across the entire department, not just on the part of a few individuals.
Cheers.
AMT
Friday, November 6, 2009
Defining & Measuring Human Capital
Definition of Human Capital
In our research work at CIPD, we have found it helpful to describe human capital as one of three elements to make up intellectual capital. Intellectual capital describes the knowledge assets that are available to the organisations and is a large part of intangible value. It can be described as:
Human capital – the knowledge, skills, abilities and capacity to develop and innovate possessed by people in an organisation
Social capital – the structures, networks and procedures that enable those people to acquire and develop intellectual capital represented by the stocks and flows of knowledge derived from relationships within and outside the organisation
Organisational capital –the institutionalised knowledge possessed by an organisation which is stored in databases, manuals etc. This would also include HR policies and processes used to manage people.
In order to be effective, organisations must be able to understand the relationships between these different forms of capital. Human capital alone will not create value. People have to be motivated and managed by the use of good HR practice and given the opportunity to develop and use their skills to create goods and services which can be sold. If the knowledge they are creating cannot be embedded in goods and services that are in demand, then this human capital will have no value to the business.
Measuring human capital
Once people have been recognised as assets, it then becomes important to be able to quantify the value of this asset. This is vital for informed decision making about how to manage, and maximise the return on investment. Most human capital measurement has been designed with the aims of proving the value of people - assessing the impact of human resource management practices and the contribution of people to bottom-line performance.
However, the methods of measurement differ from company to company. Research carried out for CIPD in 2001 concluded that there was no single measure or set of measures that would provide a value for human capital.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Defining Human Capital Management
In our research work at CIPD, we have found it helpful to describe human capital as one of three elements to make up intellectual capital. Intellectual capital describes the knowledge assets that are available to the organisations and is a large part of intangible value. It can be described as:
Human capital – the knowledge, skills, abilities and capacity to develop and innovate possessed by people in an organisation
Social capital – the structures, networks and procedures that enable those people to acquire and develop intellectual capital represented by the stocks and flows of knowledge derived from relationships within and outside the organisation
Organisational capital –the institutionalised knowledge possessed by an organisation which is stored in databases, manuals etc. This would also include HR policies and processes used to manage people.
In order to be effective, organisations must be able to understand the relationships between these different forms of capital. Human capital alone will not create value. People have to be motivated and managed by the use of good HR practice and given the opportunity to develop and use their skills to create goods and services which can be sold. If the knowledge they are creating cannot be embedded in goods and services that are in demand, then this human capital will have no value to the business.
Measuring human capital
Once people have been recognised as assets, it then becomes important to be able to quantify the value of this asset. This is vital for informed decision making about how to manage, and maximise the return on investment. Most human capital measurement has been designed with the aims of proving the value of people - assessing the impact of human resource management practices and the contribution of people to bottom-line performance. However, the methods of measurement differ from company to company. Research carried out for CIPD in 2001 concluded that there was no single measure or set of measures that would provide a value for human capital.
History of OD
OD developed primarily in the USA out of a number of different schools of thought and practice that have included social psychology, systems thinking, and psychotherapy. More recently, this has also included newer developments such as business process re-engineering, story-telling and large group interventions.
Putting OD into practice
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
What is Organisation Development - OD?
- A long-range effort to improve an organisation’s problem-solving capabilities and its ability to cope with changes in its external environment with the help of external or internal behavioural-scientist consultants, or change agents as they are sometimes called. (Wendell French)
- An effort (1) planned, (2) organisation-wide, and (3) managed from the top, to (4) increase organisation effectiveness and health through (5) planned interventions in the organisation’s ‘processes’, using behavioural science knowledge. (Richard Beckhard)
- A system-wide process of data collection, diagnosis, action planning, intervention, and evaluation aimed at (1) enhancing congruence among organisational structure, process, strategy, people and culture; (2) developing new and creative organisational solutions; and (3) developing the organisation’s self-renewing capacity. It occurs through the collaboration of organisational members working with a change agent using behavioural science theory, research and technology. (Michael Beer)
OD applies to changes in the strategy, structure, and/or processes of an entire system, such as an organisation, a single plant of a multi-plant firm, a department or work group, or individual role or job.
- helping members of the organisation to gain the skills and knowledge necessary to solve problems by involving them in the change process, and
- by promoting high performance including;
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Strategic HRM and Business Performance
Since the mid 1990s, CIPD and others have been generating evidence for the impact of people management practices on business performance. Much emphasis has been put on the importance of ‘fit’. In other words it is argued that HR strategies much fit both with each other and with other organisational strategies for maximum impact.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Strategic HRM and Human Capital Management
A number of writers have argued that strategic HRM and human capital management (HCM) are one and the same thing, and indeed the concept of strategic HRM matches that of the broader definition of HCM quite well as the following definition of the main features of strategic HRM by Dyer and Holder shows5:
drawing attention to the significance of ‘management through measurement’, the aim being to establish a clear line of sight between HR interventions and organizational success
providing guidance on what to measure, how to measure and how to report on the outcomes of measurement underlining the importance of using the measurements to prove that superior people management is delivering superior results and to indicate the direction in which HR strategy needs to go reinforcing attention on the need to base HRM strategies and processes on the requirement to create value through people and thus further the achievement of organizational goals defining the link between between HRM and business strategy
strengthening the HRM belief that people are assets rather than costs emphasising role of HR specialists as business partners.
Hence both HCM and HRM can be regarded as vital components in the process of people management and both form the basis for achieving human capital advantage through a resource-based strategy. An alternative way of looking at the relationship between strategic HRM and human capital is in terms of the conversion of human capital into organisational value. Human capital evaluation is useful in that it provides information about the current and potential capabilities of human capital to inform the development of strategy. Business success will be achieve if the organisation is successful at managing this human capital to achieve this potential and embed it in products and services which have a market value. Strategic HRM could therefore be viewed as the defining framework within which these evaluation, reporting and management process take place and ensure that they are iterative and mutually reinforcing. Human capital therefore informs and in turn is shaped by strategic HRM but it does not replace it.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Strategic HRM and Business Strategy
A good business strategy, one which is likely to succeed, is informed by people factors. One of the driving factors behind the evaluation and reporting of human capital data is the need for better information to feed into the business strategy formulation process.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Strategic HRM and Business Performance
Since the mid 1990s, CIPD and others have been generating evidence for the impact of people management practices on business performance. Much emphasis has been put on the importance of ‘fit’. In other words it is argued that HR strategies much fit both with each other and with other organisational strategies for maximum impact. The main areas of practice which all the researchers agreed have an impact on performance are around job design and skills development. However, CIPD work found that practices alone do not create business performance. They can create ‘human capital’ or a set of individuals who are highly skilled, highly motivated and have the opportunity to participate in organisational life by being given jobs to do. However, this will only feed through into higher levels of business performance if these individuals have positive management relationships with their superiors in a supportive environment with strong values. All these factors will promote ‘discretionary behaviour’, the willingness of the individual to perform above the minimum or give extra effort. It is this discretionary behaviour that makes the difference to organisational performance. The ‘people and performance model’ generated from CIPD-sponsored work at Bath University6 emphasised the importance of individual HR strategies which must fit with each other operating in a strategic framework which incorporates both people and business issues.
Strategic HRM, What is it?
What is strategic human resource management?
Strategic human resource management is a complex process which is constantly evolving and being studied and discussed by academics and commentators. Its definition and relationships with other aspects of business planning and strategy is not absolute and opinion varies between writers.
The definitions below are from the CIPD book Strategic HRM: the key to improved business performance1 within which there is comprehensive coverage of the various definitions and approaches to HRM, strategy and strategic HRM.
Strategic HRM can be regarded as a general approach to the strategic management of human resources in accordance with the intentions of the organisation on the future direction it wants to take.
It is concerned with longer-term people issues and macro-concerns about structure, quality, culture, values, commitment and matching resources to future need.
It has been defined as:
All those activities affecting the behaviour of individuals in their efforts to formulate and implement the strategic needs of business.2
The pattern of planned human resource deployments and activities intended to enable the forms to achieve its goals.3
Strategic HRM can encompass a number of HR strategies. There may be strategies to deliver fair and equitable reward, to improve performance or to streamline structure. However, in themselves these strategies are not strategic HRM.
Strategic HRM is the overall framework which determines the shape and delivery of the individual strategies.
Boxall and Purcell4 argue that strategic HRM is concerned with explaining how HRM influences organisational performance. They also point out that strategy is not the same as strategic plans. Strategic planning is the formal process that takes place, usually in larger organisations, defining how things will be done.
However strategy exists in all organisations even though it may not be written down and articulated. It defines the organisation’s behaviour and how it tries to cope with its environment.
Strategic HRM is based on HRM principles incorporating the concept of strategy. So if HRM is a coherent approach to the management of people, strategic HRM now implies that that is done on a planned way that integrates organisational goals with policies and action sequences.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Are we busy accomplishing goals or busy solving problems?
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
How to deal with time wasters
Planning takes time but proper planning will save your time at the end. If you are action oriented and therefore, do not plan, you need to place more emphasize on the results and not just on activities....
Anonymous.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Enemies of Learning
Not having questions about our questions
Cannot admit that we do not know
Cannot admit or recognize that someone else may know
We do not give others the permission to or authority to teach us
We confuse knowing with having an opinion
We confuse knowing with having the truth ...I am right
Self-doubt and lack of confidence
Trapped in the judgements of others...I need to be perfect, I need to be right
Comparing ourselves with others
Jumping to conclusions
Addicted to answers.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Spirit of Performance
Morality, to have any meaning at all, must not be exhortation, sermon, or good intentions. It must be practices, specifically:
a.The focus of the organisation must be on performance
b. The focus of the organisation must be on opportunities rather than problems
c. The decisions that affect people
d. Finally, in its people decisions, management must demonstrate that it realizes that integrity is one absolute requirement of any manager, the one quality that he has to bring with him and cannot be expected to acquire later on.
So, Focus on PERFORMANCE, OPPORTUNITIES, PEOPLE and INTEGRITY
Source: Peter.F. Drucker
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Parachute
Do you constantly ask questions? Are you open to new knowledge? Do you strive to try new skills? Open your mind and you will find that opportunities are unlimited.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Pareto's Principle: 80/20
A lot of things we do can be called trivial. Only a few things are really critical. Are you able to differentiate between the two at work?
Even a small increase in critical activities will produce a huge result. While lots of time spent on trivial things will probably produce very little result.
Learn to recognize what are the few critical things in your own job. Concentrate on them and try to spend more of your time on them.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Anytime
Most people make the mistake of perceiving that they have sufficient available time to complete all that they have to do, yet at the end of the day they realise that the time has gone...and yet the activities are still not completed!!!
The main problem is because they are unable to see in great detail the quantum of work that they have in hand. They accept new tasks and make commitments blindly, only to have to say later, that they need more time.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Winning & Persistence
One of the problems with people is we want something but after sometime, we tend to forget about it. The other problem is we do not know why we want it. Hence, we must constantly explain it to oursleves.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Self Discipline
1. Formulate mission statement
2. Develop role models
3. Develop goals for each task - set your 'big rock'
4. Develop action plans to achieve goals
5. Use visual and sensory simulation
6. Search for pleasure within the tasks
7. Compartmentalize spheres of life
8. Minimise excuse-making
Source: Andrew J. Dubrin
Ask the right question! The DOs of Effective Questioning...
The DOs of effective Questioning:
a. Think First
Where the time, place and person for a conversation with a purpose is known in advance. Normally, the more we think and plan the conversation, the more effective will be.
b. Think Open Question
Bring them (problem holder) to the heart of the matter...the right questions can lead to the right answer to the problem holder.
c. Avoid Leading Questions
Leading questions can be phrased in a closed or open style and are the antithesis to promoting discovery or every problem solving because they push or lead to the 'one right' answer.
e.g. " Definitely you don't have problems about out targets?"
d. Avoid logical closed alternatives
e.g. " Well, it is clear that we have to either reduce costs or increase sales. Which do you prefer?"
e. Use perceptive probing questions
A perceptice probing questions is one that you can only ask when you have become a good listener...
f. Use the right wording
g. Keep questions simple
h. Keep questions single...one at a time
i. Provide answers, when asked
j. Practice - Being an effective questioner (and listener) does not come naturally to most of us. The only way you will improve is to practice, practice, practice and practice again...
Shaping the Hearts not Modifying behavior
One of the key updates was for the team members to recall on what was their promisses to be delivered upon completion of the prime workshop. The first workshop was 5 months back which for me it's the a cool right time for the team to sit and discuss back on the outcomes.
What triggers me during the follow up session was, each and every team are so excited to present their results by putting a nice and flowery powerpoint slides. Again, that's a really a hard work to do it. It was already mentioned before the session for each team member to present the outcomes. I chose not to use powerpoint slides like others, for my team. Instead, I insisted to just showing back on what we promised to deliver and to explain and declare what we have done and the one that still yet in place!
My point is this: When we talk about high performance culture, it strongly link with the values, organisational shared values, values that a team members shall internalise and practice it. To get to this level, be it values internalisation or values practices an individuals and team must reach the followings:
a. To really understand and aware of organisational shared values
b. To agree, wholeheartedly on the values
c. To openly and honestly practice and show on the values
My other points based on the above needs, values internalisation is something that people need to respond through his/her behaviour, not reacting owing to instruction or punishment by an organisation if fails to adhere to the values.
The above expectations will only genuinely shown when people realised its importance and accepted by their hearts and mind, not by forcing or repriminding. Of course, the values are expected to be shown from people's behavioral change. But do not forget that a real behavioral changes will only happen based on individuals will....change...from their heart.
So to speak, to drive people to internalise the new shared values toward high performance culture is by shaping their heart...not modifying their behavior! by doing this, you will get a long term commitment on a high performance driven culture. Plus, avoiding a symbolic change in the organisation...and i a few months after, it lose its grip or the burning fire wont last..
Friday, June 26, 2009
Learning from the mountain- Set a common goal!
Remember the very first step: Planning
The mount climbing project was actually an unplanned activities by a group of people among my college mate. So happenned the College Head was announcing that each student shall involve at least in one co-curricular activities to enable them to complete the college certification. In the beginning, I was stunned that a total of more than 50 activities was made available for students to choose. However, not even one of it interest me!
Then, over a supper time, we have a chat with a few closed mate on how to go about addressing this, since we share the same opinion of not joining any of the 50 activities. Rather, to propose new activity for us to do! With less than half an hour, we come into conclusion to propose the group to go for Mount Climbing which is more challenging and interesting. Apart from that, we managed to come up with a draft of proposal defining project objectives, plans and also defined members roles and responsibilities.
My finding was, the group then change to team!. Why.... because we have common interest, share the same objective and expectation, we began to talk on the same subject and we commit into it!
Back to our corporate working environment,...
Do we set a goals?
Do we share the goals among team members?
Do we involve the team members when formulating the team goals?...to get the buy in...
Does the team members understand and buy the ideas?
Do they have the same values be practice among members?
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Teamwork; Learning from the Mountain...
When I was in college, I love to climb a mountain together with college mate. However, only few mountain I climbed, later It became my dormant hobby..Well, as time goes by the body structure and stamina doesn't allow us to be active in this arena.
Back to the experience, the first mountain I climbed was Mount Tahan. I still remember the preparation and steps we made:
1. Planning and preparation
2. Training and learning the tools and technique
3. Final Physical and Mental Preparation
4. Climbing = Performing
5. Team and Synergy challenges
6. Celebrating Success
7. Moving forward....Parting new Milestone!
I will share with you on this blog on how teamwork was established and realized among team members on every stages. So, see you on the next blog!
Engaging People
Connecting People
What I have observed is, no matter how frequent we engaged with people management programs, the CHANGE will always depends on own motives to connect with people. Means, whether it is practice due to professional reasons or due to personal reasons.
Reasons why I said so because, I can still see people connects when they found similarity -I would say a genuine match, whether they have or had a same experience or same roles; role as a Father, mother, brother, sister, son/daughter, friends and so forth.
My point is, when we want to engage to people, we must explore on his/her circle of concerns, better still explore in his/her circle of influence.
The Key Points:
1. Know your Circle of Concern and Circle of Influence!
2. Know other people's concern and cirle of influence!
The Gen Y Workplace
Gen Y Workplace
Employers listen up: Raised in comfort and with the Internet, this generation expects work to have deeper
personal meaning
Gwendy Donaker, a quintessential Generation Y-er, decided to defer a prize job offer at management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. just after graduating from Pomona College in California. Instead, she went for a Fulbright fellowship and a year in Venezuela, working with a development bank on issues of sustainable development and renewable energy. A year later, Donaker, 25, joined McKinsey, but quit after three months.
"I soon realized that it just wasn't worth sacrificing two years working so hard on issues I don't care about just so the firm could pay me to go to B-school," says Donaker, who's now a full-time graduate student at New York University's Wagner school studying nonprofit management and who hopes to start an organic food and cultural center.
Does Donaker's experience offer a glimpse of how her generation will deal with work and career issues? Shockingly so, experts say. It's already being repeated at thousands of companies across the nation. It's causing hand-wringing among top executives at corporations and creating worry lines in the foreheads of deans at business schools. Companies are finding it harder to hire and retain younger people, and applications at business schools are plunging. 70 MILLION STRONG. Nick Hahn, a managing director at Vivaldi Partners, a New York consulting firm, remembers just a decade ago when he was looking for a job, how most college graduates would have given almost anything for a top-paying spot at a big-name investment bank or consulting firm. It was taken for granted that to climb the corporate ladder they would all work 80-plus-hour weeks.
That's beginning to change. Increasingly, "today, college grads ask: 'what can your firm do for me' to help them lead a more purposeful and meaningful life," says Hahn. Such a dramatic attitudinal shift toward work will have far-reaching implications for society at large. Gen Y is one of the most closely watched age groups because it's among the largest -- almost three times the size of Generation X. Born from 1977 to 1997, they're 70 million strong and are also known as echo boomers because they're the closest in population size to the 75 million baby boomers.
With both parents working and more disposable income than previous generations, Gen Y has often been branded as an overindulged, spoiled, and disengaged group that looks at the world through a prism of self interest.
Having grown up with the Internet, it's also the first generation that's completely comfortable with technology. And marketers say Gen Y'ers lack attention spans and absorb information in very short chunks.
BEYOND MATERIALISM. As the Gen Y-ers begin to marry, have families, and confront the challenges of parenting and career juggling, experts believe they'll bring radically different demands and attitudes to the workplace than did previous generations. Maria T. Bailey, CEO of marketing firm BSM Media and author of Trillion Dollar Moms, says they'll definitely work more on their own terms. She also believes that their command of technology and having experienced affluence so early in life puts them in a unique position to negotiate those demands.
Ironically, that affluence has given many of them a bad rap, especially with the conspicuous consumption associated with the likes of the Paris Hilton-Nicole Richie set. Still, for many, comfort has led to a move beyond materialism, because it means they can focus on bigger and better goals.
"They have experienced personal prosperity and already have their Coach bags, so they can now turn to social issues," says Bailey.
Others agree. This is a generation whose career choices and behavior are driven, first and foremost, by their quest for opportunities to play meaningful roles in work that helps others, say authors Bruce Tulgan and Carolyn A. Martin in their book Managing Generation Y. In essence, they want to be "paid volunteers," joining an organization not because they have to, but because they really want to, because something significant is happening there.
STRAIGHTER ARROWS. Members of this generation volunteer in their communities more than any other in American history. Teen sexual activity is on the decline, and virginity is on the rise according to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. Teens now form the most religious age group in the U.S., and their participation in church groups rose to 28% from 17%, while drinking among college freshmen is the lowest since 1966.
This social consciousness can be attributed to self-esteem-laced parenting, educating, and counseling of the 1990s, Tulgan and Martin say. In their book, they say Gen Y kids are responding to messages from schools, homes, and churches that they can make a difference -- from toy drives to working for better child labor laws; from supporting local recycling programs to calling for corporate ecological standards.
They've been hearing these messages repeatedly all their lives. It's little wonder that Gen Y'ers exhibit an altruism that embraces the environment, poverty, and community problems. At the same time, two life-altering events the last few years played a big role in shaping the consciousness of this
generation-- the terrorist attacks of September 11 and the shootings at Columbine and other American schools.
THE APPEAL OF ARTISTRY. Take, Ji Park, who graduated from Yale University in
2002 and worked at the bond-trading desks in Wachovia Bank and another New York brokerage. She quit earlier this year to pursue her passion -- to start a restaurant. Park, 24, is trying to learn the business from the ground up and is working in two kitchens at restaurants in Philadelphia. She hopes to join the Culinary Institute of America next year.
"It's not like I didn't like working in finance, but when I evaluated my life and thought about what I wanted my life to end up being, I knew that the corporate check just didn't compare to the artistry of being a chef,"
says Park, who has noticed that many of her peers are making similar career switches. She acknowledges that September 11 has played a role in making Gen Y a more introspective generation.
Is Corporate America ready for them and their new attitude toward work?
Heidi Locke Simon, a partner in the San Francisco office of management consulting firm Bain & Co., hears the same refrain during campus recruiting.
"Instead of a simple 100-hour week, now the model is: work 60 hours a week, devote 20 hours to nonprofit, and spend 20 hours writing a plan to start your own business," says Simon, whose firm offers employees a flexible work schedule that's individualized according to their needs.
Companies will have to respond to this as long as labor conditions remain tight. And it would be smart for executives to check in on human resources and consider rewriting a few policies to prepare for and to capture the talent of Generation Y.
By Pallavi Gogoi in New York
Edited by Beth Belton