In any business we need our people to both work hard, and yet we need them to remain fresh so that the performance is sustainable – that means each employee having a healthy work-life balance.
Evidence from recent research suggests that there are more women in “balance” than men. The good news is that over the last 5 years the data suggests that we are getting better at achieving balance.
8 Comments | 
management | Tagged: HR, leadership, work-life balance | 
Permalink
Posted by Mike Morrison
While looking for some resources for a workshop I came across this wonderful graphic by FastForward Consulting Group:
This includes the 6 abilities:
To see the 6 abilities in all their glory, click on the image above.
The central image here is closely aligned to our Knowledge, Understanding Action model.
What the authors call Explicit knowledge is akin to our “Knowledge”
Tacit knowledge – “understanding”
and practical wisdom is similar to our “action”
7 Comments | management | Tagged: 6 abilities, action, knowledge, understanding, wise leader | Permalink
Posted by Mike Morrison
This is how I set my personal goals and make them as WACKY as possible. The WACKY’er the better!
Goals are the fundamental tool for personal and organisational development. After all, how can you know you have achieved something or even improved your situation at all if you have no target or benchmark to work from?
The most common business goal setting tool is known as SMART goals. The use of acronyms is very common in the business world and SMART goals are generally taken to be goals that are Specific, Measurable & Motivating, Aligned, Reachable and Time driven.
This is all well and good in the business world of performance management where by and large people want a stretch but not too much of a stretch. The risks of failure are sometimes high so the taking of chances is not encouraged by many managers. I personally view this as a huge deficiency in many organisations. Permission to try and to fail (and therefore learn) is not usually given.
Many people, through their experience at work, are therefore familiar and comfortable with the SMART goals approach. If they form any personal goals at all, they are likely to design SMART goals. If the same timidity and safety approach is applied to personal goals they are likely to be weak and not that motivating for the individual. Are these goals likely to be achieved? If they are achieved, are they going to rock your or anyone else’s world? My answer to both questions is NO!!
If you are going to pursue goals in your life then you had better make them huge, awesome, life-changing, jaw-dropping, pulse quickening goals that are worth your effort and time. Aim for the stars – even if you come up short you will still have had a hell of a ride and be higher than most everyone else. You will have learnt valuable lessons and be more than motivated to try again. In my opinion it is far better to regret the things you’ve done than live a life regretting the ones you didn’t try.
This is how I do it – using the acronym WACKY. I think that if a catchy acronym is used it will stick in your mind and you’ll find you can access it easily. Hopefully you’ll then use it all the time and spread the message to others.
I want people to think my personal goals are totally WACKY – that’s great – then they will likely be the goals that others may not have thought of or are too scared to try for themselves. I want to stretch myself – that’s the only way to grow and develop as a person and be able to help others more effectively. That’s always been my driving force. Partial failure of one of my WACKY goals will often be better than most people’s mediocre SMART goals – I’ll learn loads of good stuff and be that much closer to where I want to be. I also take my time to form them and that way I get the real honest from the heart stuff – it really works for me.
These WACKY goals are generally my over-arching long-range life goals so they will certainly contain lots of mini-goal stages – that’s fine – many small steps will add up to a huge journey. I try and make the small steps as WACKY as possible – it all makes life interesting.
Wonderful – it is meant to be a great goal so if my goal doesn’t fill me with wonder, what’s the point? It has to be something that makes my imagination work hard. I want it to play on my mind and draw me on down that road less travelled.
Animating – again, if it doesn’t get me fired up and raring to go and get started – I’ll find another goal that will. I want my pulse to quicken when I think about it. I want to be animated when I talk to my nearest and dearest about it and I want them to be amazed by it.
Colossal – I make it big, big and bigger yet. If it doesn’t make me stop and think “hold the phone, that’s big even by my standards – people will think I’m mad” then I rethink it and just make it bigger. I make it a huge hairy-assed goal that if achieved will make me think “Yeah, that was a good one”. If people saw my goal in the street they would cross the road to avoid it – it will be a kick-butt monster of a goal.
Killer – I try to make it undeniably unique and special; when achieved it will be well worth the sacrifice and effort. I’m a trend setter not a follower – I set great goals that I and others have not yet achieved.
Your – I own it with my heart and soul. It’s personal. I will pour my energy into it – failure is not an option. Roller skating up Everest is just not my goal – my goals have to be my goals. I have learnt over the years to pick goals that really do chime with my core values as an individual human being.
That’s it. This technique has taken me years to discover, formulate and learn and I am still trying to get it perfect. It is a life-long challenge. No one said it would be easy but I urge you – don’t be SMART be WACKY.
Try and design some of your own WACKY goals for your life – you will be surprised where they take you.
26 Comments | guest, management | Tagged: SMART goals, smart objectives, wacky, wacky goals, wacky objectives | Permalink
Posted by Mike Morrison
Retaining talented people is an important role of both line management and human resources. There are without doubt 100s of excuses people give when leaving a company, especially in “exit interviews”.
Exit interviews are great for the business and HR, but lets get real – most employees do not want to risk their reference on saying the boss was an idiot, or that it was a controlling environment and that the style of management actually stopped people from performing… now do they?
No – so the reality is – if you want real honest reasons for leaving – give an open regference first – then ask for “reasons for leaving!
In the mean time I have found this useful infographic on the reasons why people leave. Post your thoughts as comments below.
by visually via 
57 Comments | management | Tagged: human resources, Management, retention, talent, talent management | Permalink
Posted by Mike Morrison
RSS can look so boring, but can it be made more interesting?
I have been asked how I put the “ticker” in my footer on emails and on some article sites I post to.
It looks like:
Each time an article is added to the blog so the graphic is updated.
To get this just go to
http://www.rss-image.com
Add your RSS feed
you will be presented with an image address like:
http://www.rss-image.com/img/404614dbc1681494efe7bf98ab3804fa.gif
Simply create some simple HTML code around this image address:
<a href=”http://rapidbi.com/blog“> – where the address is your blog
Then add “><img src=” – followed by your image address
and close off with:
” /></a><br />
<a href=”http://rapidbi.com/blog”><img src=”http://www.rss-image.com/img/404614dbc1681494efe7bf98ab3804fa.gif” /></a><br />
This can then be added to many blogs, article sites and of course your email footer….And the best news is it stays up to date.
Simples 
7 Comments | management, Social Media | Tagged: blog, footer, rss, ticker, visual rss | Permalink
Posted by Mike Morrison
Often we have heard the phrase “tick the box” as a way of saying “well we have done enough to say we have done the task” – but have we really?
Many of us know that some jobs do only need a “tick in the box”, but sometimes we miss the point.
Last week while preparing for a business trip I was down my local high street (it’s just a few weeks to Christmas) and I noticed in our local shopping centre was a Santa’s grotto. Nothing unusual here except that, well I don’t know it just looked tatty. In previous years it has been a large and reasonably impressive looking grotto, more like a log cabin, not an open space with a Santa on a throne. In fact it was so bad I took a photo of it, intending to blog about this.
This week I have been in Dubai, A Muslim region, not a Christian one.
On a trip I went into a small local mall – not one of the big tourist ones, but a shopping mall used by people living locally. Looking at the shoppers there is a good mix of Muslim, Christian and other faiths here… but the grotto!
Now this centre is a small one, almost the same size as my local shopping mall back home. But what a difference.
In comparison, the UK grotto is “ticking the box” – the one in Dubai is “meeting & exceeding” the needs and wants of shoppers.
Which of these two images inspires children – well I know which one does for me. This is the difference between delivering on our promise and ticking the box.
Which would you take a small child to?
Just how often do we tick the box rather than understanding that image means a lot?
6 Comments | Date, management | Tagged: customer service, quality | Permalink
Posted by Mike Morrison
So just how to get 1000s of followers on Twitter.. quickly?Well maybe you can’t – at least not in the way you are expecting or many spammers will have you believe is possible.
One of the ways that smaller (and big) business can attract customers is through social media. Twitter for a variety of reasons has become very popular.
In the past when we wanted to market we needed mailing lists of thousands or tens of thousands. The reason for this was simple, as people and researchers discovered the response or conversion rate was often around the 1% mark. So doing the maths it was easy to calculate the size of the data base one needed to achieve the planned business goal.
Those involved in marketing have taken each new technology as it has come along and used it in their existing models.
What many have overlooked however is that twitter and other social platforms have their own “norms” and methods.
You see when you have a “list” many marketers will say that once they have trusted you to have their details they as potential customers are a warmer prospect – so they are more likely to buy from you – so for sake of argument let’s say that the percentage that responds changes from 1% to almost 10%. Now if that list contains only people that have bought from you before, or have significant experience of you to trust you – that response rate is higher.
Leaving the response rates alone for a moment (I will come back to that), have a think about referrals. For we know that both referrals and testimonials help in persuading potential customers into trusting us to make a purchase. Getting referrals however has often been difficult for many businesses.
Now imagine a way of having existing customers talk about your product or you as a provider on a daily basis – each time they tell many people they know. Also imaging that in time the conversion rate on that list becomes many times higher than the 10%.
Well welcome to twitter. If all you are thinking about is the number of followers you have- then I am afraid you have missed the point – and you may as well stop. Simply put, if you have 100 good quality followers, and each of them have 100 good quality followers then one great message has the opportunity of getting to 100,000 people – every day! Ok so realistically that wont happen, but then most people on twitter statistically have several hundred.
Many also say that it takes too much time – well the typical number of tweets from a user is just 10 a day.
The point here is to engage with your followers, not like other marketing channels where it is just about broadcasting.
Many are starting to use Klout scores – if you think this is important – then it is easier to have a higher score with a smaller audience than a large audience. Better to have 500-1000 people that you talk to, they talk to you, and they retweet your message – for this is a form of referral!
Some points to note:
- 67% of users are more likely to buy products from brands they follow on Twitter. This compares favourably to the 51% who buy products from brands they follow on Facebook (HubSpot, Edison Research)
- Companies that use Twitter gain twice the number of leads each month than their non-Tweeting counterparts (HubSpot, Edison Research).
- Twitter users are more educated than the general population. Just 12% of users report a high school education or less (HubSpot Internet Marketing, Edison Research).
- Twitter users have higher incomes than the population at large with nearly half of Twitterers earning $50,000 USD or more annually. This compares to 33% of the general population (HubSpot, Edison Research).
- Many Twitter users are considered early adopters with 19% among the first to purchase new products upon launch compared to 10% of the general population (HubSpot, Edison Research).
So while I started this article on how to get thousands of followers – you can, just with a few hundred – for the “followers” count is sheer vanity. There will be thousands of people that read your tweets that are not following you – and that is what you want. Build a reputation for great content, and good followers will find you, especially if you:
1. Tweet every day – just 5-10 times
2. Give useable/ valued information – not just promotions
3. Talk & engage with your followers – i.e. reply to them – help them, answer questions
4. Talk about things that are not about your company or product (show you are human)
5. Retweet other peoples messages
6. Give people links to sites other than your own
Twitter is not a quick win. It can take an account 9-12 months to be trusted. But when established the responses to things you put out can be very quick. If you are new to twitter and want quick responses then try another technology – if you are serious about engagement and growing your business then slow and steady wins the day
**sources:
http://www.sysomos.com/insidetwitter/#followersvstweet
http://www.socialtechnologyreview.com/articles/40-fascinating-twitter-facts
How to get 1000s of followers on Twitter…
19 Comments | management | Tagged: engagement, followers, social business, social media, twitter | Permalink
Posted by Mike Morrison
Often we talk about succession planning, or talent management and identification. But do we really know what talent is – or how to find it?
Many organisations use tools like the Nine Box Grid or one of the many other talent management frameworks to identify, map and ultimatly manage talented people.
But as the old saying goes – rubbish in — leads to — rubbish out.
So when we are looking to identify “talent” what are we actually seeking? talent for today, tomorrow or next year? How do we know what “talent” is required next? For example, five years ago many firms had not heard of twitter, and thought facebook was a passing fad – now no reputable marketing or customer services function would be without either. How can talent be planned for and identified for these “black swan” events, or even the new skills or technologies which are there but not yet recognised an important. Or is it that we treat talent as “leadership” – and senior leadership at that?
Its about how we see our individuals, our organization and the business environment in which we operate.
Many of us look at thinks and believe that what we are seeing is the “right” thing, it is only when someone shows us a different view that we sometimes change our perspective.
We have all seen the images that show the old woman and young girl – at first we only see one – but when shown we can see both. Once we are “educated” or we have “truly learnt” something it is very difficult to “forget”.
For example have a look at this Image:
16.. 17?
So how many did you see?
We need your FIRST thought.. what is your instinct, for this is the mental process we use to look for potential in people – or talent spotting if you like.
Has your view changed?
This image could be akin to an employee, a team, an organization or a market. Where the number of squares that we see is the capacity or potential of the individual, org etc. so in this instance the “potential” of this individual is 16, although some of you may have thought 17 – and the very odd few of you may have thought 30.. don’t worry, I will explain all in a moment.
Have a look at this page & return when done…
So what are your thoughts? Are you capturing the potential of your people? is your talent management system just managing that show “16″ – or is it really identifying those with much greater potential. Many mathamaticians will give you the answer 30, indeed if you look the puzzle up on the net you will see many that give that as the answer – but that is linear thinking, and identifying talent is not linear – we need to look at our resources in both creating and lateral ways.
Remember school grades rarely predicted career success – why would most talent identification approaches? As the world changes, so do the skills & attributes required. the skills that led to success just five years ago may well be the attitudes and behaviours that limit our growth today – and as for tomorrow – who knows.
In recent years Human Resources functions have been developing various competency frameworks, in which to identify and “box” talent for tomorrow. This is a little like taking the 16 boxes above in the grid and writing a competence for each.. however the competency that may give the organization the edge for the future may very well be one of the other 3000+ (or even conservatively the 14 “hidden” squares).
I would argue that actually there are only a few REAL competencies:
Ability to:
With these “base level” competencies a person should be equiped to meet any future need. the only real difference between people is the speed and willingness at which they adapt – for leaders we need people that recognise when change is required and adapt appropriatly – not too early – and certainly not to late.
Everything else could be argued that it is a behaviour (not competence) or a learned skill – in which case anyone can learn it if the culture, environment and motivation are in place.
And let me just point out one important factor – this is NOT an age thing – its an attitude and outlook approach. It is about being flexible and adaptable, and reacting to the changes that are put upon us – but also applying our knowledge and experience to good effect. this does not mean that we just change – but we adapt fully.
How we look at people, organizations and capacity is what will give us the competitive advantage, at an individual and organizational level.
19 Comments | management | Tagged: how many squares, lateral thinking, nine box grid, problem solving, succession planning, talent, talent management | Permalink
Posted by Mike Morrison
I have been asked on several occasions why I follow people. This list may seem strange to many reading this article, but it fits MY strategy for the @rapidbi account. It may not be right for you.
When using any social media/ social business platform or technology, it is important to understand its strengths and weaknesses in the organisation (or culture/ context) in which it is being used. Then for each of us to develop a strategy or methodology as to how we will engage or use it. Of course this approach will change over time, but having an idea of its application to meeting your needs is one of the key success factors.
The way Twitter used to work is that you follow people, and they follow you back, or vice versa. – This is no-longer true. To be honest it was never really intended to be that. It’s more a window looking into a person or organisation and their activities in a snapshot of time.
Sure there is the vanity of how many followers each of us have, but many overlook the purpose – engagement. The more followers you have the harder engagement truly is.
The reasons “why I should follow you in twitter” will vary for each of us. We are looking and using twitter for different things. I would go further than that. I have several twitter accounts, one with 30k+ followers, two around the 10K follower mark, one with 7k and one with just 60. Each account follows different people for different reasons.
1) You are a person whose content I have discovered and want to stay up to date with what you say – you inspire me
2) You tweet about or from an event I am at – watch the #hashcodes – common interest
3) You retweet (RT) my material (tweets) on a regular basis – you help my business
4) You #ff or give a shout-out about my tweets – recommendations
5) We have had chats & discussions I value on twitter – self development
6) People I respect recommend I follow you
7) You are a supplier & have given poor service – although I will unfollow later..
8) You +k on Klout - well maybe :0)
9) You add me to a twitter list- well maybe :0)
It is easy to get hung up or to overly focus on the metrics – how many followers you have and how many people you are following. I believe this is because these metrics are public and on our profile pages. There is another important metric which is easily available, but not used often… lists. How many people have you on lists. People can follow lists without following individuals. Being on a list is a recommendation, much more powerful than just being followed, as the user is making that list available to people they follow.
Other more important factors for business users of twitter include retweets. There are several sites that do this – some free, others paid for. http://www.tweetstats.com/ is worth a look.
Twitter is not about the inputs, or the process.. but the results you get. Those results may be leads, new friends, business, ideas etc.
So tell me… why should I follow you?
** please note items 8 & 9 on the list are meant as a joke, I’m not sure that tools like Klout, Peerindex etc are valuable or dangerous metrics and fads. Time will tell.
** please also read reasons 1-7 with a pinch of salt The reality is I will only follow you… and more importantly continue to follow you if the “relationship” is of value/ benefit – I look at more peoples posts through lists now – i have to with the number of followers I have I need a different strategy to most.
26 Comments | management | Tagged: follow, twitter | Permalink
Posted by Mike Morrison
Action learning is a powerful method of learning; a group of 6 or 7 people meeting on a regular basis to discuss work related issues support one another and take action. The process is non-directive, non-judgemental, supportive, and confidential. Set members present a current work issue they are experiencing and the other members of the group ask questions. The crucial point here is that the other set members are asking questions to further their understanding of the presenter’s issue and NOT give advice. The presenter identifies their own action and reports back on their progress at the next meeting. The process is powerful precisely because participants make their own decisions, take their own actions and are held accountable by their peers. And all managed within a highly supportive environment.
Action learning can be used on its own or as part of a larger development programme. It is a very effective learning tool when used as part of an organisation’s talent strategy, leader development and when instigating and managing change – BUT it needs to be set up and facilitated well.
Part 1 of this article provides learning and development professionals; training and OD managers and change specialists with the answers to the most frequently asked questions we receive on setting up an action learning programme.
Part 2 explores the role of the facilitator
1. Can I run an action learning programme internally for my organisation or should participants meet in a set with people from other organisations?
You can certainly run a successful action learning programme within your organisation provided that
a) The organisation is large enough to bring people together from different departments, and ideally different geographical locations
b) You observe the rule about peer groups – see point 3 below
c) Confidentiality of the group discussions is maintained. There is an exception to this in the rare instance that someone discloses potential harm to themselves, others or the organisation.
The advantages of running an internal programme is the positive impact on cross-departmental working and collaborative projects and the supportive networks that individuals have as a result of being part of an action learning set, in addition to the individual outcomes they achieve .
Of course there are also some attractive benefits to be gained from running a programme with colleagues in other organisations including the learning from being exposed to different perspectives and the insight into different organisational cultures and some set members feel less constrained if they are with people they don’t know and can therefore express themselves more openly about their work issue. Organising a programme with external partners brings a variety of challenges mostly to do with communication and time required when organising a group of external participants but it will be well worth the effort you will need to put in to the pre-programme phase.
2. How many people can I put into a set?
Typically, action learning groups, or sets as they are often called, comprise or 6 or 7 peers. I have known groups work well with 5 members but any less and you start to lose something from the process. And 8 is the most I would want to manage in one group, I find 6 people to be the optimum number for a set.
3. What do you mean by peers?
In an organisational context peers must work at the same level or grade. Set members can be from the same professional group or the groups can be multi-disciplinary. For example a set of Band 7 nurses in the NHS or a set comprising of department heads in a local authority. It is essential that there are no line-management relationships within the set. If a manager and their direct report are in the same group the work will be compromised and could potentially create risks for either or both parties. This must be avoided at all costs.
4. Do sets need a facilitator?
A skilled facilitator can make a huge difference to the learning experience and outcomes gained from action learning. It is very difficult for groups to maintain the non-directive approach which is essential to the action learning process without a facilitator.
The facilitator also helps the group to establish and maintain their ground rules, keeps time and encourages the members to reflect on their learning and provides notes and support between meetings.
Personally I would not offer a programme without set facilitators.
5. How many times should the set meet and how often?
This depends on a whole range of factors but my preference, and the approach I have found to be most successful is for the set to meet for one day a month for 6 months.
6. Where should the set meet? What facilities are required?
A room with enough space and chairs for the numbers in the group including facilitator, and natural light is always preferable. A table can be useful but not essential. The group will need plenty of breaks during the day so some thought to refreshments and cloakroom facilities are essential.
| Checklist for programme organisers |
| * Select potential participants ensuring they are all peers and from different parts of the organisation or from different organisations.
* Send out an overview of the action learning process and ensure potential participants are aware of the need for confidentiality within the group and the need to bring a current work issue they are willing to share with the group. * Identify a suitable facilitator * Identify an appropriate room for the 6 meetings, book refreshments |
Facilitators are responsible for:
1. Establishing the ground rules
Getting the ground rules agreed at the beginning prevents a lot of problems further into the programme. Essentials are:
2. Role-modelling the listening and questioning skills
Action learning requires well developed listening skills. Listening intently to 6 or more people presenting and discussing their issues, listening to the questions put and being able to summarise accurately takes high levels of concentration over an extended period of time.
Facilitators must be able to demonstrate useful questions which enable the presenter to gain a deeper understanding of their issue.
Facilitators must provide immediate feedback when a leading question has been asked, requesting the questioner to reframe the question. Typical leading questions include:
Facilitators must stop the group from descending into advice giving, reminding the group that they are to ask questions which enable them to understand the presenter’s issue, the presenter of the issue decides their own actions.
3. Managing the process and keeping the group to time
Here is a structure which works well for an action learning set with 6 participants:
So the process can be conducted in 30 minutes for each set member
This process is then repeated for each member of the group.
The group will need frequent breaks as concentrating for long periods is hard work.
The facilitator will need to provide some scene setting at the beginning of the day and provide an opportunity for the group to evaluate the session at the end of the day
4. Following up with notes after the meeting
Participants usually find it helpful if the facilitator sends out a list of actions agreed by each presenter. The facilitator will need to agree with the group the best method of communication and discuss any confidentiality issues. Set members should be actively discouraged from taking notes about each other’s issues but the facilitator can take brief notes of the issue, the discussion and most importantly maintain a record of the actions agreed. It can also be helpful to ask the participants to keep a log of their learning and moments of insight during this programme.
5. Managing the beginning and end of the programme
Facilitators need to give some thought to the structure of the first session. I have found it useful to provide a brief practice session on the questioning skills as even the most senior people can find this daunting especially if the organisational culture is directive.
A clear ending to the programme can be helpful to the set members, and I will often organise a lunch out on the last day or something to symbolise the end of the process. It allows for a sense of completeness. However many groups express the wish to continue beyond the life of the programme often saying they will facilitate it themselves. Few succeed in keeping to the action learning process as without a facilitator groups very quickly revert to advice giving. But having a supportive network of colleagues is very positive in itself.
6. Reporting back to the organisation
Providing the facilitator has agreed with the set members that the main themes are reported back to the sponsoring organisation then a short report can be submitted. This is particularly useful when a large programme is run involving numerous sets as patterns emerge and the organisation can then choose to focus its efforts and resources in areas where specific need has been highlighted from the programme.
There is a wealth of information about Action Learning available on the internet to aid your research including the helpful factsheet from CIPD http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/factsheets/action-learning.aspx (free registration required to see)
http://rapidbi.com/management/action-learning-sets/
http://rapidbi.com/management/action-learning-for-leadership-development/
15 Comments | guest, management | Tagged: Action learning, action learning sets | Permalink
Posted by Mike Morrison
Social media has changed the way many of us communicate, engage and collaborate, yet to many organizations “social media” is a dirty word. With many employers believing social media to be Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, IT departments all over are increasingly blocking employee access to these sites.
The simple reality is that organizations cannot stop staff from using social media, all they can do is help employees find increasingly innovative ways of accessing the platforms. If they cannot use a work PC, then they will use a smart phone.
Even these “very social” sites are creating lots of business and business opportunities.
By believing that social media is “the devils work”, that it reduces productivity, or that it undermines brand is at best short sighted. Social media can be used for business. Business productivity, through knowledge sharing and management as well as collaboration and of course marketing.
By training employees to harness social media TOOLS we build a solution that provides social business solutions, problem solving and most importantly knowledge management through collaboration.
IBM know this and have recently starting engaging with many bloggers and others active in the social media space to further understand the potential benefits both internally, and externally with clients and potential clients.
Below are two of the videos resulting from an event held last month.
The question is are you seeing the Threat or the Opportunity as the greater for you and your organization?
On another discussion recently one person asked about the difference between Brand and employee brand – well, if you have a poor reputation in the market place for your brand, employees, if given a choice will work for your competitors.
Remember no “noise” about an organization will seem like a “super injunction”. The new generation will look at potential employers, and if they can find no discussion openly about an organization (good or bad) they will assume the worst – a bit like a hotel or restaurant review – its its that bad people wont be bothers to comment!
To find out more about what IBM are doing join the discussion and debate:
www.facebook.com/IBMSocialBusiness
www.twitter.com/IBMSocialBizUK
22 Comments | management | Tagged: collaboration, FaceBook, IBM, LinkedIn, social business, social media, twitter | Permalink
Posted by Mike Morrison
The term Employee Engagement has been prolific over the past few years but what does it really mean? How can we use this to really make a difference?
This question was asked of me by a writer I have been in discussions with for some time, and she was surprised that we do not have the definition clear on this site. Well it was buried, but here puts it into context.
There are several definitions on the web including:
The Work Foundation’s definition:
Employee engagement describes employees’ emotional and intellectual commitment to their organisation and its success. Engaged employees experience a compelling purpose and meaning in their work and give of their discrete effort to advance the organisation’s objectives.
The Best Companies’ definition:
Engagement can be defined as an employee’s drive to use all their ingenuity and resources for the benefit of the company.
Kahn (1990:694)
defines employee engagement as “the harnessing of organization members’ selves to their work roles; in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performances”.
Indeed there are many academic attempts to define engagement, the Gallup approach was different in that its research started with identifying high performing/ productive departments in organisations and looked at the management and culture provided for people working there. The result was call “engagement as people were more productive than other departments/ functions.
For the team at RapidBI, we are not “academics” but pragmatists, when working with a range of “ordinary” businesses and organizations and in developing the EESS we wanted to look at employees from a practical standpoint.
Our initial definition, a working definition of employee engagement, and one that continues includes:
Engaged employee – An engaged employee is actively or fully engaged or occupied with their work, that like gears or cogs, they know their role and the impact it has on the people around them, and much like marriage between two people, an engaged employee “does that little bit more” because they are committed to the team and the idea in which they are delivering. We use the term “gear” rather then “cog” as a cog implied static rotation, where as a gear can be step “upped” or “downed”, to react to the situation or needs.
A mechanical business is one where “people” deliver the policy and procedure, however a business that people “want to do business with” is one where the customer can see the humans, and can relate. We all remember that train journey when the driver uses the PA to pass comment in a human, spontaneous way, or the humorous discussion with the fast food server. Often it is the engaged employee (knows their role, how they fit but adds their unique value) that really makes the difference.
Many organizations wrongly use the term “Employee Engagement” to describe ‘engaging with’ employees, they are missing the point of adding to both the customers and individuals experience. Human Resources (HR) needs to wake up to the fact that job satisfaction and happiness are not synonymous with employee engagement. Many HR writers (journalists or academics) not practitioners often cause Confusion by using the term interchangeably for other constructs, such as employee commitment, job satisfaction, employee happiness or internal communication.
When a term seems to be “trendy” or “trending”, many seek to re-brand what they are doing, without actually changing what they do!
Any survey used as part of developing and encouraging employee engagement needs to be based on actionable statements or questions, asking closed or emotional based questions captures data but provides no basis for action beyond having the data collected.
For more information see our EESS an affordable, practical survey tool to help kick start your employee engagement culture
10 Comments | management | Tagged: Definition, Employee engagement | Permalink
Posted by Mike Morrison
When it comes to business, one of the greatest tools you can have in your kit is the ability to network. It might sound obvious, but wherever you are on your career ladder, networking should always be something you can pull off. So, whether you’re in management or you’re at the start of your working life, read on to discover how to network effectively. After all, no one’s going to know how great you are unless you get out there and start letting them know…
Maybe you’re not a natural networker, fair enough. But if you want to get ahead in business you’re going to have to start pretending. So, the next time you receive an invite to a networking event, accept it and follow these simple tips –
Sometimes it can seem like everyone else in a room, besides you, knows everybody – probably because of the way they talk to each other. This definitely isn’t the case, it’s just down to conversation skills. If you’re a little rusty when it comes to chatting to strangers, try practising beforehand. Think about some openers you can use to strike up a conversation and then follow-up questions once the first bit of talk has ended – after a couple of minutes you’ll soon start feeling relaxed and will probably be able to ditch the one-liners and freestyle instead. Effective openers are often open-ended questions which gives the person you’re addressing the opportunity to reply with more than just ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Try openers like these –
Or, instead of using the situation you’re in as the starter, you can use something about the person you’re addressing. It’s best, though, to keep this as innocuous as possible as you don’t want to offend anyone from the off! Maybe they’re holding a book you’ve read – that’s a great way in, or perhaps they’re eating something you haven’t tried so you could ask them about that.
Try to avoid opening with ‘nice weather today isn’t it?’ as this requires minimal input from the person you’re addressing and most people can’t think of a quick response when it comes to a topic as dull as the weather.
Once you’ve found your way into a conversation things should start to flow more easily. However, as a fallback you can always rely on questions like, ‘So tell me a little more about…’ and ‘you mentioned you did such-and-such, how did that go?’ Basically, instead of worrying about what you should be saying, the best thing to do is to concentrate on other people. That way, they’ll think you’re the friendliest and most interested person out there and you’ll get to know plenty about them, and whether you could work together in the future. Obviously though, at some point you’ll need to start talking about yourself and this is where you’ll need to perfect –
You’ve listened to what everyone else has to say and now people are asking you what you do. Cue: the pitch – this is definitely something you should practise beforehand.
Your pitch should be short, succinct and honest. Don’t blow your own trumpet more than it needs blowing and neither should you give yourself a hard time. If you’ve achieved something in your work recently, slip it into the pitch naturally but don’t go on and on about it. Your pitch should ideally be about 20-30 seconds long (now that doesn’t sound too hard does it?!) – explain what you do, who you do it for, what you’re working on, and possibly what you’re hoping for in the future.
Remember, there’s a whole room of potential contacts to be made so don’t stay talking to one person for the entire duration of the event. All conversations must end at some point so don’t be afraid to hand your business card over, thank the person for their time and then move on. If you really need an excuse, you can use an empty glass (or plate) as one, or spotting someone you must speak to before they disappear.
If you made some useful contacts, don’t leave getting in touch to a few months later when they’re more likely to have forgotten you. Simply, drop them an email a day or so after the event to say how much you enjoyed talking and that hopefully you can do business in the future. It’ll be appreciated and it will help jog the memory of the recipient and keep you at the forefront of their mind.
12 Comments | guest, management | Tagged: art, effective networking, networking, social networking | Permalink
Posted by Mike Morrison
Following a post on connecting or more accurately not connecting on LinkedIn a few weeks ago, this prompted me to write a short series on other social networking tools.
Please read this in the context of how and why I use Twitter.
For me and the RapidBI team, Twitter is both a marketing and engagement tool. I (RapidBI) use twitter to reach potential customers or website users. My interest in you is as much about what you can offer me to help and grow as a professional, and how you can help my business in your small way by promoting or retweeting some of our posts (bonus points if you RT a blog post of ours). I will of course promote our products, as well as other interesting blogs/ articles from peers. I also tweet information I hope will be of value to people that are interested in HR, Training, Learning & Development, Organizatiional Development, Management, Leadership, Business etc..
Remember that I do not need to follow you to read your tweets. there are many ways to do this including having #hashtag searches on your desktop application, or searching for keywords…
A few the reasons why I may unfollow you:
Power of the crowd…
I also asked my followers and some of the first responses are included in the article below.
Difference – it is interesting and exciting to know that we all have different reasons/ motivations for unfollowing, This I suspect is based on our reasons and method of using twitter. There is no right or wrong reason for unfollow, other than purely people don’t follow back – I don’t! and for me that is not a valid reason to unfollow – there are people I follow that don’t follow back. We should only follow people that add value, and just because you add value to me, does not mean I add value to you.
By following some of the information given here you can minimise the risks of being unfollowed, however
It all depends on your reasons for being on Twitter, what you want to achieve and your plan or strategy.. you do have a plan or strategy for using twitter and other social media don’t you….
@HRUnique Lisa Windsor - @RapidBI So far, I have unfollowed for offensive language, biblical quotes and comments about tv!
@AngieStrader AngieStrader - @RapidBI I unfollow when I see excessive auto tweets for an MLM. They just clutter my feed and I hate clutter!
@GenPubs Patricia Venables - @RapidBI Anyone who thinks it’s clever to use bad language and swear words. I’m old fashioned!
@moxby_design Martin Oxby - @RapidBI unfollow with inappropriate profile imgs, spammy links/posts or if it appears most tweets are automated
@GrahamJHarris You Too Social Media - @rapidbi Foul language is top of my list. And I don’t follow people if they use TrueTwit. Thanks for asking this.
@BrendanD100 Brendan Dunne - @RapidBI Twitter is a social medium, if two tweeters are not listening to each other, there’s nothing social happening.
@Histerius histerius - @RapidBI a) no activity for weeks b) many spam retweets
@HR_Katherine Katherine Duff - @RapidBI I unfollow for lots of auto-tweets, excessive use of profanity, blatant broadcasting/no engagement & sometimes boring tweets!
@eiohel Miljenko Williams - @RapidBI I almost never do. If I do, it’s generally because Twitter does it by itself. And I am oblivious of it doing so, unfortunately.
@ajaybtraining Andy Blake - @RapidBI Constant self promotion, no interactions, dogmatic thinking all get me unfollowing…
@NerissaWilliams Nerissa Williams - @RapidBI lack of tweeting activity, automated “sales pitches” offensive content, general spamming and lack of engagement + discussion….
@mshawcoaching Madeleine Shaw - Unfolo 4 frequent crazE abbreviations 4 no rEson
Thanks for contributing.
What is interesting here is that there is a lot of common ground. So if you want to be unfollowed… follow the “guidelines” given here.
For me it is all about balance. If using twitter for business, show you are real, show you are human, show you are interested
Please feel free to add your own reasons for unfollowing below
Other (planned) titles in this min-series:
109 Comments | management | Tagged: LinkedIn, social media, twitter, unfollow | Permalink
Posted by Mike Morrison
Talent management and engagement are current buzz phrases and in this context employee engagement seems to be climbing up the agenda again.
The environment in which we operate is changing at so many levels at a political, environmental, social, technological, economic and legal. These changes mean we need to find ways of both changing and yet providing some level of stability or consistency.
Recently, several requests have been made on social networking sites asking for tips to increase employee engagement. I have contributed to these and thought that this list worth sharing with readers of this site and blog. I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
Here are my top 10 activities for developing and sustaining some level of employee engagement:
and by “tell” I mean by voice not e-message! Make sure the fully understand – i.e. check their understanding – communication is a 2 way process. Do they know what “success” looks, feels and sounds like?
11) Communicate..communicate..communicate..
12) Catch people doing a good job & praise them
Its not about doing these things once and ticking a box…. its about repetition, repetition, repetition and consistency.
For me employee engagement is not rocket science – its psychology. We are human beings and as a human we have several basic needs. Maslow has given us a basic tool to use, and that is great, but as an employee, many are through most of the pyramid, assuming work is reasonably stable, so we need to look deeper.
Dr Yasmin Davidd has an interesting approach to this
He suggests six human needs:
While some may not buy in to the model, we need to realise that as our society becomes increasingly fragmented, work as a structure and psychological ”crutch” and system is increasingly important. If we want to attract the talent we need, and more importantly retain that talent, we need to ensure that we do what is necessary to meet peoples basic needs.
People need to feel that they “belong” and are “loved” in the workplace. We need to feel that we are part of the workplace tribe.
They need to feel and believe that they know what is expected of them on a day to day basis. Some welcome the challenge of problem solving and uncertainty.
We all need to believe that the role we play is significant. The tale of when in the US the Kennedy administration first committed to putting a man on the moon, there were rumours that some at NASA weren’t dedicated to that vision. President Kennedy needed to beat the Russians, which required everyone at NASA be totally committed to that goal. He visited NASA to ensure that the goal was clear and understood by everybody. Upon entering one of the buildings, he met a janitor and asked, “How are you?”, The janitor replied, “I’m doing great. I’m putting a man on the moon.” This janitor didn’t see himself as just someone sweeping floors, but as someone who was involved in the vision laid out by President Kennedy. Looking at the Kennedy speech from 1961 when he proposed the lunar mission. He said, “In a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon … it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.” This clearly showed that everyone had their part to play.
Now was this story true? Does it matter, As long as every individual understand their contribution.
When people have contributed – then they need growth. Some only a little, others a lot.
What do you think are key ingredients for engagement?
See our other posts on Employee Engagement:
http://rapidbi.com/management/employee-engagement-morale-boosters-ideas-tips/
http://rapidbi.com/management/10-tips-for-engaging-employees-on-networks/
…. its often the little things that count… thanks for reading and hope to see you again soon
21 Comments | management | Tagged: communicate, Employee engagement, praise, reward, top tips | Permalink
Posted by Mike Morrison
Articles from our main site Training, Change and OD Consulting & OD
