Regular readers know I’m a big proponent of Big Data – especially Big Data for HR. It’s catching on and in a big way.
This article in the New York Times shares several examples of the benefits of workforce science, which it defines as:
It adds a large dose of data analysis, aka Big Data, to the field of human resource management, which has traditionally relied heavily on gut feel and established practice to guide hiring, promotion and career planning.” Read more…
Business heroes are often the innovators and the visionaries that set the next strategy. Yet, 90 percent of strategies fail because of execution.
We’ve heard this surprising statistic for a few years. Surely, we’ve changed our ways.
Ron Johnson, the former CEO of JC Penney, is a case study in a strategy not realized – or at least not realized fast enough.
Johnson had a bold strategy to not only redefine JC Penney, but the entire department store concept. His goal was to change everything from store design, marketing, promotion and reinvent the brand. All at once. Read more…
One of the things that I observe over and over again is just how much help highly successful people get from others.
Whatever they are doing, they seem to have a vast cross-functional team of people at many levels, from many organizations, who are part of an unofficial project team that helps them achieve their objective.
I refer to this as your “extra team.” (There’s a section about this in RISE in the Get Help chapter.) Read more…
I’ve always found it difficult to pinpoint my core values because I believe that as humans, we are always changing and adapting to our environment.
Then, I happened to catch Jerry Maguire while flipping through television, right at the pivotal scene in which Jerry admits that he’s not happy with the state of his life or his job:
Two nights later in Miami at our corporate conference, a breakthrough. Breakdown? Breakthrough. It was the oddest, most unexpected thing. I began writing what they call a Mission Statement for my company. You know — a Mission Statement — a suggestion for the future. What started out as one page became 25. Suddenly I was my father’s son. I was remembering the simple pleasures of this job, how I ended up here out of law school, the way a stadium sounds when one of my players performs well on the field… And suddenly it was all pretty clear. The answer was fewer clients. Caring for them, caring for ourselves, and the games too. Starting our lives, really. Hey, I’ll be the first to admit it. What I was writing was somewhat ‘touchy feely.’ I didn’t care.” Read more…
Today, I’d like to share with you a case study on the importance of values and how you make them real.
I’m using as my case study company Guidewire Software, which I learned of through a New York Times Corner Office interview with CEO Marcus Ryu.
In the interview, Mr. Ryu shares how the six founders of the company created their values and their culture:
We said we have to consecrate our principles in a document that we will refer to over and over. This will be our DNA and every new person who joins the company will read the document. We put a great deal of thought into this, thinking of it almost like a constitution that will guide our future actions.” Read more…
Blue jeans in the office? Sneakers in the boardroom?
How much should you tolerate before you start cracking down on your employees’ casual clothing?
The answer, I would argue, is a lot.
In most industries, you don’t select employees based on their good looks or great style. In most industries, you hire the best person for the job, and do everything you can to have them work as hard as they can for as long as they can without burning out.
We see media coverage nearly every day about horrific behavior, a rogue employee or deeper criticisms about the culture of an organization.
This week is no different as we prepare for college basketball’s Final Four.
Rutgers University fired their basketball coach Wednesday after a video of his incredible behavior shoving players, throwing basketballs at players and downright degrading his team was shown on ESPN’s Outside the Lines and later went viral.
It followed initial notification about this behavior to their management last summer and a suspension for three games in December that’s put their Athletic Director on the hot seat for not administering a more severe punishment — now that the video is public. Read more…
Are company retreats a good idea?
Ask yourself: Does it really make sense to pack up your team and their gear, ship them off to a hotel somewhere nice, and spend a few days developing a long-term vision, cranking out a new product, or getting to know each other better without outside distractions?
Or, would it make more sense to save your money, spend a little more on the perks you know your team enjoys, and focus on building a stable, scalable, in-it-for-the-long-haul company culture?
Let’s take a look at both sides of this issue. Read more…
Second of two parts
I once had a client – a large commercial bank – whose managers were fond of urging employees to “run it like you own it.”
Employees didn’t own it, of course — shareholders did. Some employees had equity holdings, but those accounted for a small percentage of the institution’s total shares.
What the managers wanted was for employees not to act like, well, employees. They wanted people to behave instead as if they had a larger stake in the prosperity of the company and therefore a greater responsibility to go beyond the minimum daily requirement of effort to serve customers and husband the assets of the organization. Read more…
Harvard Business School recently issued a new business case study on The LEGO Group, makers of the famous toy plastic building blocks.
I’m sure most of us recall LEGO’s with great fondness (except, perhaps, for the parents who step on forgotten blocks in their bare feet in the middle of the night).
In its nearly century-long history, LEGO transitioned from family leadership to external leaders, and found itself in need of not one, but two turnarounds. It’s the driving reason for the second turnaround that got my attention: Read more…
“Wait a minute - Lots of Jesuits are on LinkedIn! See: www.linkedin.com/pub/tom-smolich/43/825/904 www.linkedin.com/in/markpott”
— Ed on Everything That You Really Need to Know About LinkedIn, 2 hours ago
“Excellent Post - wish others would follow this! Several high quality candidates are continuous lost due to the poor way . . . ”
— Eric on The 5 Rules of an Engagement-Oriented Recruiting Strategy, 4 hours ago
“Yes, my experience is that most people do like getting paid to think. Kudos to you for actually doing it! . . . ”
— Crystal Spraggins on Five Reasons Your Employees Like It When You Stay Home, 4 hours ago
“Truth truly is stranger than fiction. Psych 101, folks. Just because your subordinates laugh at your jokes does NOT mean . . . ”
— Crystal Spraggins on Sex Jokes, Sexual Harassment Make For a Bad Workplace Combination, 4 hours ago
“Yeah, I know some of our staff love it. Others prefer not to take advantage of it. It's thinking time. . . . ”
— VidCruiter on Five Reasons Your Employees Like It When You Stay Home, 4 hours ago