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Management
The only way is ethics
Jan 12th
The Ethics Research Center (ERC) based in Arlington, Virginia, has just published its latest National Business Ethics Survey® (NBES) – the ‘barometer of workplace ethics’. (You can download the full report, free of charge, here).
The current findings have taken the ERC by surprise – all the metrics have diverged from the patterns of previous years and some interesting mixed messages have emerged. In particular, the ERC notes that two key influences stand out in the unusual shift in trends highlighted in the report:
The economy
The survey’s findings show that companies behave differently in economic hard times and that these behavioural changes are perceived by employees as ‘a heightened commitment to ethics’. More than four in 10 employees (42 percent) say their company has increased efforts to raise awareness about ethics. Employees respond by adopting a higher standard of personal conduct. While misconduct witnessed by US workers is at an historic low, reporting is at a near high.
Active social networkers in the workplace
Active social networkers are defined by the ERC as those who spend 30%+ of the working day engaged in social networking activity. Key findings suggest members of this group have a distinctly different view of ‘ethics’ to those of ‘non-active’ colleagues. They are more likely to report negative experiences in the workplace, and are more likely to experience pressure to compromise ethical standards. At the same time, they are more tolerant of what others may consider ‘questionable’ activities. For example, 42% of them stated it was acceptable to blog or tweet negatively about their employers, compared to just 6% of non-active social networkers. 46% felt it was acceptable to take company software home to use on a home computer (compared to just 7% of ‘others’).
Employers beware!
The report, which is sponsored by large businesses including BP and Walmart, suggests that employers may need to find new ways to work with new types of employees – those who may ignore social media policy but who are equally willing to whistleblow when they are unhappy with the organisation’s own ethical behaviour. As ‘work’ and ‘life’ merge, it seems that some employees at least are setting their own ethical frameworks in the workplace – organisations ignore this group at their peril.
McKinsey’s ‘most read’ of 2011
Jan 3rd
The lull between Christmas and New Year is an excellent time to carry out some work-focused housekeeping duties. I took the opportunity to spend a few hours reviewing my RSS feeds as well as many additional subscriptions to e-newsletters, daily updates, and press releases. I took the time to consider which resources had provided real insight and impact in 2011.
One subscription that really did ‘keep on giving’ in 2011 was McKinsey Quarterly. The latest quarterly update features links to the most popular articles of 2011. Appearing in the top 10 list, and first published in January 2011, this article on recovering from information overload was discussed in this blog in February. The popularity of the article suggests that there are many opportunities for information professionals to provide guidance to colleagues on managing information flows.
Some other key themes emerge in the top ten articles, pointing the way to what is exercising those leading teams and organisations.
Creativity – information overload is identified as something that can stifle creativity – but what can spark it? In Sparking creativity in teams the authors review the latest research and present four techniques to improve creativity, including the use of analogies and creating constraints. In Seven steps to better brainstorming the authors recommend the asking of better questions, as well as ensuring that the right people are ecouraged to to participate in the process.
Strategy – in Remapping your strategic mindset, the author describes how executives can benefit from better mental (‘rooted’) maps to help them identify opportunities and threats. In The perils of bad strategy UCLA’s Richard Rumelt summarises the differences between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ strategies and helps readers identify examples of both, while Have you tested your strategy lately provides 10 tests to help executives ensure their strategies are ‘roadworthy’.
All of the top ten articles are well worth reading and McKinsey Quarterly remains on my ‘must read’ list for 2012. Other subscriptions were not so lucky, but that’s another story!
Making better decisions – in search of the seven ‘x’ factors
Nov 15th
What are the best models for good decision making processes at the top levels of business and government? A research report aims to provide practical guidance on how both business and government can increase their chances of making better business decisions.
The report is a result of a collaborative project between Ashridge Business School’s Public Leadership Centre and the Whitehall Industry Group. The researchers interviewed about 60 senior level decision makers in both sectors to explore key decision making processes. They also conducted extensive literature reviews. The final report, overseen by a high-powered editorial panel, includes some interesting mini-case studies and identifies the critical success (or ‘x’) factors for successful decision making.
These seven ‘x’ factors are:
- clarity of objectives and goals combined with a well articulated communication strategy
- early interaction and good communication with trusted stakeholders
- relentless focus on priority issues
- good team working with the right mix of expertise, experience and trust
- providing opportunities for exploration of risks and frank challenge
- clear, practical implementation with accountability
- effective evaluation and review
Terminal 5 at Heathrow
One of the case studies included in the report looks decisions made that led to the well publicised problems that befell the 2008 opening of Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5. The opening experienced a combination of ‘decision-making traps’ including over optimism about IT; a reduction in staff training time and insufficiently expressed dissent.
A further case study looks at changes made in the training of junior hospital doctors (again ‘over optimism’ emerges as a key factor).
The report is fascinating reading and is free to download here.
Word of mouth really matters
Nov 9th
When it comes to ‘mission critical marketing’, there are a number of tools and techniques that libraries can use to retain and gain customers. Beatrice Pulliam and Jenifer Bond wrote about strategic marketing for us last month and shared their experiences and ideas for ‘spreading the word’ at ILI2011.
Meanwhile, some interesting research was released this week by Keller Fay – a consultancy and research company that focuses on the power of ‘word of mouth’ marketing.
They have been conducting tracking studies in the UK and have just announced some of their latest findings at a conference in London, along with a list of the ‘most talked about brands’.
The study suggests that ‘the average UK adult’ talks about brands 78 times per week, and that 94% of these ‘mentions’ happen in face-to-face situations.
Positive word of mouth is extremely powerful. Recipients attribute credibility to personal recommendations. According to Keller Fay, organisations and marketers must learn what actually triggers the conversations (advertising/social media campaigns for example).
Happy consumers of your products and services really are a wonderful asset!
Challenges faced by marketing sound familiar
Oct 13th
IBM has just published its 2011 Global Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) 2011 report (called From Stretched to Strengthened). Over 1700 senior marketing staff in 64 countries were interviewed about the transformations and challenges they and their businesses are currently facing.
The CMOs identified four big ‘game changers’
- data explosion
- social media
- proliferation of devices and channels
- consumer demographics
They also identified key areas for focus and development, including understanding customers and delivering value to them; creating lasting relationships; and the necessity for measuring ROI. This focus on ROI reflects a move from marketing being seen as a ‘cost centre’ to focusing on customer centric initiatives. In fact, it’s all sounding rather familiar.
The report synthesises the wisdom of the respondents to suggest nine strategic imperatives. These too are relevant to information professionals. These include:
- focus on creating value to customers as individuals
- capitalise on new digital channels to stimulate customer conversations
- use advanced analytics and compelling metrics to improve decision making and demonstrate accountability
It seems there are opportunities for information professionals to help senior marketing colleagues understand the potential impact and deliver the benefits of social media and to support them as they attempt to meet the challenges of data explosion and analysis.
Nurturing creativity
Mar 1st
Creativity is seen as vital to organisational success. In a recent IBM survey of 1500 CEOs ‘creativity’ was named as the single most important attribute for success in leading large corporations in the future. The challenge however is not in acknowledging creativity’s importance but in actually fostering creativity.
Jennifer Mueller (a Wharton management professor) along with colleagues conducted some research into creative leadership and came up with some worrying findings. The full findings, to be published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, suggest that individuals who express more creative ideas may be viewed as having less leadership potential. Separate studies, conducted in India and the US, suggested that creative people were actually ‘penalised’ when others appraised their leadership potential.
This could be changed however if participants were specifically asked to focus on ‘charismatic’ leadership potential. Mueller believes that organisations should look at their performance appraisal systems and review the attributes that are being considered when it comes to identifying potential leaders. Some people may feel uneasy when they actually encounter ‘creativity’ because they are less comfortable with uncertainty and organisations should acknowledge this and adjust their thinking accordingly.
The full story is published here.
There’s no ‘I’ in innovation – or is there?
Feb 16th
Are group dynamics the enemy of innovation? Writing in the Financial Post, Mitchell Osak refers to a research study that suggests this is the case.
The researchers undertook experiments that compared two innovation processes:
- A team centred model, in which peers were encouraged to collaborate to produce new ideas
- A hybrid individual team approach, in which individuals were encouraged to brainstorm and refine new ideas alone and then present them to groups for development
Despite the fact that current innovation ‘good practice’ recommends team based processes, the experiments concluded that the hybrid approach generated significantly ‘better quality’ ideas – and more of them.
Professors Terwiesch and Ulrich (Wharton College), who write about their research here, believe that a hybrid approach encourages more ‘out of the box’ thinking, whereas group dynamics can be harmful to innovation. Peer groups can fall victim to self censorship and or to overpowering individuals.
However… the answer is, it seems, not to dismiss the collaborative approach altogether but simply to devise tools and processes that can help minimise the potential negative elements of collaboration by bringing more objectivity to the innovation process. Suggested techniques include ‘online suggestion boxes’ or ‘innovation tournaments’ where ideas compete for resources.
It’s quite game of Osak to write about this, especially as he happily admits he himself has advocated the collaborative approach to creativity on his own blog. He quite charmingly refers to himself as an ‘un consultant’!
Step away from the BlackBerry
Feb 2nd
The perils of information overload are discussed in the latest issue of McKinsey Quarterly, the business journal for senior executives.
The ‘always-on’ culture created by multiple communication channels can fragment our attention and impede effectiveness. The article points to recent research that suggests that multitasking can actually slow us down rather than increase effectiveness. Not only this, it can also hamper creativity and has been shown to be addictive.
The authors argue that it is for senior managers to ‘reset’ the information culture in their organisations. They spoke to several senior managers asking them for their top tips for coping with information overload. Interestingly the responses seem to mirror Peter Drucker’s classic 1967 guidance on how to be an effective executive and could be summed up as follows:
Focus, Filter and Forget
Managers should grant themselves blocks of time when they are not accessible and become more ruthless about stepping back and delegating appropriate tasks and decision-making. Colleagues should be encouraged to self edit what they send to your inbox.
Leaders should create an information culture that encourages and enables focused reflection as well as enabling efficient information flows.
Perhaps we should start a new trend – an intermittent ’closed-door’ policy
‘Educated Change’ to build brands
Dec 17th
Kevin Bryant (@kbrantuk), of Educated Change, stepped in last night for a sick colleague to speak at a Chartered Management Institute professional networking event.
His theme was how organisations can use social media tools to enhance brand value. His organisation focuses on helping organisations make the changes that help them maximise social tools. The tools are a part of a move away from ‘command and control’ to ’collaboration and conversation’ and some organisations may find the changes more painful than others! But Kevin showed that even firms that might be considered ‘traditional and hierarchical’, for example, law firms, are using such tools as Twitter extremely effectively.
The tools can also help smaller organisations, ‘punch well above their weight’.
The key messages of the evening were:
- organisations should aim to get a balance between ‘listening’ and ‘broadcasting’
- the ROI is difficult to measure and will be medium to long term rather than delivering immediate results
- a certain level of ‘personal’ engagement is required – not just one single corporate voice
- appropriate use of the tools us ‘common sense’ but organisations can, if needed, develop social media guidelines for staff
There were plenty of questions from the audience and conversations continued over drinks and networking after the formal event ended. A really good evening!
Fortune 500 favour Twitter
Nov 29th
The number of Fortune 500 companies actively using Twitter has increased significantly in the last twelve months.
B2B reports on the results of University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth study showing that 60% of these top companies now regularly use Twitter compared to 35% a year previously (2009).
The rate of public facing blog usage is increasingly much more slowly, with 23% of organisations using blogs, compared to 22% in 2009.
