Pearl Zhu's Blog, page 1402
September 25, 2015
The Weekly Insight of the “Future of CIO” 9/25/2015
The most critical and yet overlooked foundation to being a real leader is in choosing a destination that creates a better world!
The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.1 million page views with about #2150th blog posting in 50+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. blog posting. The content richness is not for its own sake, but to convey the vision and share the wisdom. Here is the weekly insight of the “Future of CIO” blog.
The Weekly Insight of the “Future of CIO” Blog 9/25/2015What Drives you to be a Change Leader: Change - big or small is inevitable. You can’t step into the same river twice, meaning that everything is always in a state of flow. A change leader/agent is a problem-solver, enjoy understanding the complexity and guide people through it; finding common ground and initiative dialogues. Turn around the tough situations. Three Questions to Assess a Person's Ability to think strategically: There is no doubt that strategy becomes more important, not less in organizations large or small today, because of the fierce competition, rapid changes, and hyper uncertainty. Digital professionals have to continuously set up standards of competence and having capabilities to think strategically, but is there such one question to ask to determine a person’s ability to think strategically? Vision vs. Strategy: Vision is where or who you want to be and Strategy is how you can achieve or reach your goal. An unclear vision leads to defective strategy. Visions inspire; strategies compel; vision comes first, but sometimes vision appears and gets clear by working on the strategy. What’s your Organizational DNA and Personality: Organizational culture is the collective mindset, attitudes, and the set of behaviors, expectations, and assumptions that people have for "how things are around here." Further, it is like an iceberg where the visible elements, such as behaviors, make much sense without recognizing and understanding the underlying mindsets, expectations, and assumptions. How to communicate effectively in today’s digital dynamic? The speed of change is significantly increasing. Decentralization, globalization, and diversified workforces can all be practical reasons for communicating barriers. How do you communicate a common message across the globe with empathy, and, in particular, make sure the message you want to communicate resonates effectively?
Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking and innovating the new ideas; it’s not just about WHAT to say, but about WHY to say, and HOW to say it. It reflects the color and shade of your thought patterns, and it indicates the peaks and curves of your thinking waves. Unlike pure entertainment, quality and professional content takes time for digesting, contemplation and engaging, and therefore, it takes time to attract the "hungry minds" and the "deep souls." It’s the journey to amplify diverse voices and deepen digital footprints, and it's the way to harness your innovative spirit.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.1 million page views with about #2150th blog posting in 50+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. blog posting. The content richness is not for its own sake, but to convey the vision and share the wisdom. Here is the weekly insight of the “Future of CIO” blog.
The Weekly Insight of the “Future of CIO” Blog 9/25/2015What Drives you to be a Change Leader: Change - big or small is inevitable. You can’t step into the same river twice, meaning that everything is always in a state of flow. A change leader/agent is a problem-solver, enjoy understanding the complexity and guide people through it; finding common ground and initiative dialogues. Turn around the tough situations. Three Questions to Assess a Person's Ability to think strategically: There is no doubt that strategy becomes more important, not less in organizations large or small today, because of the fierce competition, rapid changes, and hyper uncertainty. Digital professionals have to continuously set up standards of competence and having capabilities to think strategically, but is there such one question to ask to determine a person’s ability to think strategically? Vision vs. Strategy: Vision is where or who you want to be and Strategy is how you can achieve or reach your goal. An unclear vision leads to defective strategy. Visions inspire; strategies compel; vision comes first, but sometimes vision appears and gets clear by working on the strategy. What’s your Organizational DNA and Personality: Organizational culture is the collective mindset, attitudes, and the set of behaviors, expectations, and assumptions that people have for "how things are around here." Further, it is like an iceberg where the visible elements, such as behaviors, make much sense without recognizing and understanding the underlying mindsets, expectations, and assumptions. How to communicate effectively in today’s digital dynamic? The speed of change is significantly increasing. Decentralization, globalization, and diversified workforces can all be practical reasons for communicating barriers. How do you communicate a common message across the globe with empathy, and, in particular, make sure the message you want to communicate resonates effectively?
Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking and innovating the new ideas; it’s not just about WHAT to say, but about WHY to say, and HOW to say it. It reflects the color and shade of your thought patterns, and it indicates the peaks and curves of your thinking waves. Unlike pure entertainment, quality and professional content takes time for digesting, contemplation and engaging, and therefore, it takes time to attract the "hungry minds" and the "deep souls." It’s the journey to amplify diverse voices and deepen digital footprints, and it's the way to harness your innovative spirit.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
CIOs as Agility Leaders: How do you Identify Agile Experts
There are lots of people who talk about agile with all different roles: attitude and mindset are really hard to train. Experience and skills, are much easier. If you're looking for someone to help, which would you think you should hold onto more tightly? Or to put simply, how do you define an Agile expert?
Agile Expert is someone having a passion to learn and to continuously improve. Expertize and to become agile is coming with time by learning + doing. A real expert is someone who's done it with many groups, with the actual processes tailored to the needs of the group in question. Some consultants are experts since they saw different companies and different models and they may train you and teach you, show a direction to go. What about the people who know more but understand less? People, especially people in a business situation, tend to be insecure, self-centered, ambitious, self-serving, lazy, self-protective, wary, distrustful, etc. Each of the normal human traits is an anathema to highly successful agile performance. The 'agile expert' will know the enemies of agile through experience and interchange with others who experience. However, that expert may apply his or her expertise by simply advising others to be aware and avoid such personal traits, or simply say, 'stop doing it if you want to do agile successfully. Change for the sake of change is not the right flavor of agile. Customer-centricity is a core principle of Agile.
Those who understand its principles, strengths and weaknesses and use the technology of real applications of merit earn the respect as an expert. Agile is a broad term. It connotes many skills, much knowledge and several abilities that must be coupled with the experience gained on a project to make the person an expert. For example, it requires leadership, communications (includes listening as well as talking) and design/programming/test skills. It requires knowledge of agile principles as well as the application domain and organization to succeed. Finally, it requires the ability to organize the team and motivate teammates to get the job done. An expert is someone who has internalized a process, skill, or idea across a wide range of contexts and is no longer bound by a set of rules. Instead, they are able to intuitively understand what is needed for an entire context of agility.
An agile expert is somebody that has made many mistakes trying to be agile, not just doing Agile. The more you know, the more you realize you don't know. Stand on a molehill and your horizon is only slightly greater than on flat ground. Stand on a mountain and you can see much more land than you can ever get completely familiar with. Yet you keep climbing. And you begin to notice other people on other mountains. It is very possible to get to such level with hard work and dedication. However, like any other title, it means nothing unless the community benefits from such person's expertise. On the other hand, real experts should be appreciated for what they are since they have spent significant time and effort in order to share with everybody else what they have learned.
The agile experts are able to work with groups and develop solutions and ideas that work for each unique group instead of listing a bunch of rules that should be followed. Agile Expert must also know how to work closely with a dedicated subject matter expert to get work well done, they are influential to build an agile culture, and they have expertise to coach, facilitate and contribute to not just doing one single Agile project, but running an Agile organization.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Is There a Common Solution to Meet the Need for Creativity
Creativity has a language, but it is altogether different from the one found in the business environment.
As businesses get more cut-throat and it is understandable for them to push employees doing more with less, this puts stress on the labor force that is not conducive to relaxed or experimental thinking. And unfortunately, it stifles workforce creativity and business competency for the long term. So the creativity dilemma facing in any organization include: On one hand, the budget is tight, on the other hand, organizations desperately need the new ideas for long term growth. So, "will you allow people to make mistakes? Spend time on something with no guarantee of a ROI? Work on what interests them?" Or is there a common solution to meet the need for creativity?
Creativity is, by nature, unique to each person. There is no template which you can apply and suddenly have a creative workforce. It must be done slowly, patiently, and individually. That is why so many companies won't do it. Creativity has a language, but it is altogether different from the one found in the business environment. Generally speaking, you must allow room for failure, for tangents, for being "different." Creativity is a long-term endeavor. It must be cultivated, but most businesses measure success at the end of every growth cycle. The best way to foster creativity is to help people to communicate in a way that instills confidence, not fear. Unfortunately, the competitive, trying-to-get-a-leg-up atmosphere in many companies squashes any tiny seed of creativity.
Creativity has a language, but it is altogether different from the one found in the business environment. There is an idea of 'productive friction' as a way of encouraging and instilling a creative innovative environment. In a world of continual change, no one has all the answers. In fact, solutions often come from the floor and not the ceiling. Therefore, organizations need to support the process of improvisation which means "Accept what is given," "Yes and…," "Build on what you have." However, most businesses value monoculture, in the organizations that are pretending to be interesting in employee creativity, they will roll out half-hearted attempts that are more theater than reality. It just wastes everyone's time and energy and the employees will eventually see through the sham.
Build a culture of innovation and encourage free thinking and experimenting. Part of creating an organizational environment that facilitates creativity, involves paying attention to employee wellbeing and building individual emotional resilience to generate more positive emotions and reducing unnecessary organizational pressures. This helps facilitate creativity because the research indicates that when we are experiencing higher levels of positive emotion, we are more open to experience and more likely to be creative in the workplace. . Another factor to bear in mind when creating organizational environments is the vital role that knowledge plays in the creative process, creativity is all about dot connecting, the more interdisciplinary knowledge you have, the better opportunity to get connected and create something new.
There is no global solution to meet the need for creativity, and HR is most certainly not the place to build innovation and creativity. They don't have the credibility. It's a function of each manager to establish an environment where people can grow and develop--no matter what the corporate culture might be. Creativity is a synthesis of two qualities: imagination with which you create new ideas and the concreteness with which you can transform ideas into real works. Some of us are mostly imaginative, other practical: only very few possess both qualities in equal, high, measure. But it is practical to set creative groups in which, under the guidance of a charismatic leader, visionary people work together synergistically with practical people to achieve a shared mission.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
As businesses get more cut-throat and it is understandable for them to push employees doing more with less, this puts stress on the labor force that is not conducive to relaxed or experimental thinking. And unfortunately, it stifles workforce creativity and business competency for the long term. So the creativity dilemma facing in any organization include: On one hand, the budget is tight, on the other hand, organizations desperately need the new ideas for long term growth. So, "will you allow people to make mistakes? Spend time on something with no guarantee of a ROI? Work on what interests them?" Or is there a common solution to meet the need for creativity?
Creativity is, by nature, unique to each person. There is no template which you can apply and suddenly have a creative workforce. It must be done slowly, patiently, and individually. That is why so many companies won't do it. Creativity has a language, but it is altogether different from the one found in the business environment. Generally speaking, you must allow room for failure, for tangents, for being "different." Creativity is a long-term endeavor. It must be cultivated, but most businesses measure success at the end of every growth cycle. The best way to foster creativity is to help people to communicate in a way that instills confidence, not fear. Unfortunately, the competitive, trying-to-get-a-leg-up atmosphere in many companies squashes any tiny seed of creativity.
Creativity has a language, but it is altogether different from the one found in the business environment. There is an idea of 'productive friction' as a way of encouraging and instilling a creative innovative environment. In a world of continual change, no one has all the answers. In fact, solutions often come from the floor and not the ceiling. Therefore, organizations need to support the process of improvisation which means "Accept what is given," "Yes and…," "Build on what you have." However, most businesses value monoculture, in the organizations that are pretending to be interesting in employee creativity, they will roll out half-hearted attempts that are more theater than reality. It just wastes everyone's time and energy and the employees will eventually see through the sham.
Build a culture of innovation and encourage free thinking and experimenting. Part of creating an organizational environment that facilitates creativity, involves paying attention to employee wellbeing and building individual emotional resilience to generate more positive emotions and reducing unnecessary organizational pressures. This helps facilitate creativity because the research indicates that when we are experiencing higher levels of positive emotion, we are more open to experience and more likely to be creative in the workplace. . Another factor to bear in mind when creating organizational environments is the vital role that knowledge plays in the creative process, creativity is all about dot connecting, the more interdisciplinary knowledge you have, the better opportunity to get connected and create something new. There is no global solution to meet the need for creativity, and HR is most certainly not the place to build innovation and creativity. They don't have the credibility. It's a function of each manager to establish an environment where people can grow and develop--no matter what the corporate culture might be. Creativity is a synthesis of two qualities: imagination with which you create new ideas and the concreteness with which you can transform ideas into real works. Some of us are mostly imaginative, other practical: only very few possess both qualities in equal, high, measure. But it is practical to set creative groups in which, under the guidance of a charismatic leader, visionary people work together synergistically with practical people to achieve a shared mission.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
How to Criticize Strategy via Questioning
The strategy is a living ever-evolving pivoting mechanism.
A common definition of strategy is the choices made by a firm on where and how it chooses to compete and cooperate in order to achieve its goals and objectives and strive to fulfill its mission. Businesses all need some sort of strategy since anything is easier to steer once in motion, but much of the joy comes from the journey, not the destination, The road to somewhere can be arrived at by many different routes. Nowadays, agility eats strategy for lunch, should you still make a plan, and how to criticize via questioning, and make a truly executable strategy?
Make time to step out of the daily running of your business to criticize your strategy via questioning. Doing this will definitely pay huge dividends. “What don't I see?" means "Where is the potential?" In other words, what strategy, product, or initiative is not evident now but, with a few adjustments or redirection, can emerge. Here is a set of critical questions that a strategy formulation addresses, but it's very tempting to 'pull the structure lever' too early before you have decided on:
Which products/services in which markets with what emphasis?
Which capabilities need to be developed or acquired to make that happen;
Which do processes need to be improved or transformed?
What capacity - for marketing, sales, manufacturing, etc., and for projects and management - will you need?
What structure will move these products to these markets with these capacities and processes?
In any organization, there are many obvious Undesired Effects (UDEs) that must be addressed because doing so creates value, improves EBITDA, FFO or ROI. Looking for something you don't see is profound in theory but not practical in reality, because this would suggest a lack of strategic direction. Hence, you always need to be curious and ask yourself this kind of question, otherwise you will miss the upcoming opportunities and threats for your company, product, and business model. if you know exactly what you are looking for (problem or UDE) you are more apt to recognize it when you see it. Start with the symptoms and drill down, you will be able to find and resolve the UDEs through Root Cause Analytics (RCA). With business environments changing at an ever faster pace, the strategy must be understood as a dynamic living problem and less of an asynchronous plan-then-execute task. For sure, a sound analysis is required to formulate some options for a winning strategy (the 'science'), but "you cannot prove a victory before it is won." So strategy needs to be conceived of as contingent, as a 'going-in' position to take to market. What's required then is an attentive engagement with the target environment critically.
Apply the logic process and the strategy building tools in crafting an effective strategy. "Strategy" is definitely a different beast nowadays, because the speed of change is accelerated, it might be less about five years planning horizons and more about how to continually adapt to changes in the marketplace caused by disrupting technologies and consumer behaviors. Also, strategic development is too often seen as a linear process, but it is, in fact, a cyclical process that needs constant attention and tuning within bounds. This process defines an approach which will flush out the important issues such as SWOT, PEST, Blue Ocean, etc. So the “art” comes in both aspects - initial strategy formulation is a highly creative process, and so better strategic options usually result from a more creative and open process. Strategic foresight is a methodology by which an organization anticipates a range of alternative futures and then scenario-based planning to adopt a strategy that enables an adaptive stance for the organization, from which it can flex plans and execution as the actual future unfolds. A more cyclical approach also allows more checks and balances and makes it easier to evaluate progress vs. reality and market trends, which are moving too quickly to be taken for granted.
A strategy is a combination of an origin, a destination and a route to get from origin to destination. If it were possible to have a perfect strategy, then it should start with a very precise and accurate evaluation of where you are now (origin) to be continued with a relevant and realistic objective (destination). Then you may find the route based on the right means and capabilities. However, since we are living in a highly dynamic digital environment, there will be many different routes and so strategy and execution are no longer linear steps, but a dynamic continuum.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
A common definition of strategy is the choices made by a firm on where and how it chooses to compete and cooperate in order to achieve its goals and objectives and strive to fulfill its mission. Businesses all need some sort of strategy since anything is easier to steer once in motion, but much of the joy comes from the journey, not the destination, The road to somewhere can be arrived at by many different routes. Nowadays, agility eats strategy for lunch, should you still make a plan, and how to criticize via questioning, and make a truly executable strategy?
Make time to step out of the daily running of your business to criticize your strategy via questioning. Doing this will definitely pay huge dividends. “What don't I see?" means "Where is the potential?" In other words, what strategy, product, or initiative is not evident now but, with a few adjustments or redirection, can emerge. Here is a set of critical questions that a strategy formulation addresses, but it's very tempting to 'pull the structure lever' too early before you have decided on:
Which products/services in which markets with what emphasis?
Which capabilities need to be developed or acquired to make that happen;
Which do processes need to be improved or transformed?
What capacity - for marketing, sales, manufacturing, etc., and for projects and management - will you need?
What structure will move these products to these markets with these capacities and processes?
In any organization, there are many obvious Undesired Effects (UDEs) that must be addressed because doing so creates value, improves EBITDA, FFO or ROI. Looking for something you don't see is profound in theory but not practical in reality, because this would suggest a lack of strategic direction. Hence, you always need to be curious and ask yourself this kind of question, otherwise you will miss the upcoming opportunities and threats for your company, product, and business model. if you know exactly what you are looking for (problem or UDE) you are more apt to recognize it when you see it. Start with the symptoms and drill down, you will be able to find and resolve the UDEs through Root Cause Analytics (RCA). With business environments changing at an ever faster pace, the strategy must be understood as a dynamic living problem and less of an asynchronous plan-then-execute task. For sure, a sound analysis is required to formulate some options for a winning strategy (the 'science'), but "you cannot prove a victory before it is won." So strategy needs to be conceived of as contingent, as a 'going-in' position to take to market. What's required then is an attentive engagement with the target environment critically.
Apply the logic process and the strategy building tools in crafting an effective strategy. "Strategy" is definitely a different beast nowadays, because the speed of change is accelerated, it might be less about five years planning horizons and more about how to continually adapt to changes in the marketplace caused by disrupting technologies and consumer behaviors. Also, strategic development is too often seen as a linear process, but it is, in fact, a cyclical process that needs constant attention and tuning within bounds. This process defines an approach which will flush out the important issues such as SWOT, PEST, Blue Ocean, etc. So the “art” comes in both aspects - initial strategy formulation is a highly creative process, and so better strategic options usually result from a more creative and open process. Strategic foresight is a methodology by which an organization anticipates a range of alternative futures and then scenario-based planning to adopt a strategy that enables an adaptive stance for the organization, from which it can flex plans and execution as the actual future unfolds. A more cyclical approach also allows more checks and balances and makes it easier to evaluate progress vs. reality and market trends, which are moving too quickly to be taken for granted.
A strategy is a combination of an origin, a destination and a route to get from origin to destination. If it were possible to have a perfect strategy, then it should start with a very precise and accurate evaluation of where you are now (origin) to be continued with a relevant and realistic objective (destination). Then you may find the route based on the right means and capabilities. However, since we are living in a highly dynamic digital environment, there will be many different routes and so strategy and execution are no longer linear steps, but a dynamic continuum.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
September 24, 2015
Has Customer Service Become Better or Worse Today
Digital is the age of customer-centricity.
Being customer-centric means from strategic making to execution, Customers are the focal point from the cross-functional perspective, and customer delight moves from customer service to customer experience and customer success. However, many customers complain that customer service does not become better but turns to be worse, what are the biggest challenges in improving customer services, and how to overcome the challenges?
It's all about putting back the human factor and mutual respect in our Society. Respect is a must regardless of the customer's approach, not only for the customer but for yourself and the reputation of the company you are representing. Without respect and empathy, Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) could make it worse. CSRs need to remain calm and be courteous at all times. Often, the organization’s focus is on making short-term profit, and being profitable. But money doesn't buy well-being, self-fulfillment or long-term prosperity. Customers want to be looked upon as human beings, and treat customers as you want to be treated.
One of the biggest challenges with today's customer service is that today's customers become much “picky” than ever. You have legitimate complaints from rational customers. These are easy to resolve. Then you have complaints from irrational customers who wish to rant and rave in anger. They make the practice of peasant, accommodating, and gracious customer service quite an unpleasant challenge. In either case, customer service requires, first and foremost great listening skills. In the end, the most important questions to be answered are "why did this complaint exist in the first place and how can we ensure that it never happens again."
A true professional has to be able to deal with every type of customer. Nothing depends by the processes; the Customer Service manager has to know the product/service provided by the company, from A to Z. Each possible customer's query has to be anticipated; you actually have to know more than product managers, because you are the ones dealing directly with the customers pre-sales/after sales. Understand your customers, treat them same by treating them differently. For example, many manager knows there are different ways to manage younger vs. older employees. And emotional types vs. analytical types. Doesn't make one good or bad or better or worse. Just makes them different and the truly skilled manager can support all types and ages. But there are different things that need to be done and taught. In addition, many metrics to measure customer service is quantity driven, not focus on quality, and some are even nothing to do with customers. Rather than using standard metrics, you can build your own custom metrics that suit your organization.
Customer Service needs to be shifted from reactive to proactive mode; from one department’s job to cross-functional collaboration; from “we always do things like this,” to data and analytics driven. Using data and feedback, a company can show agility in providing what the customer is looking for in products and services, and build a customer-centric, high-performing, and high-mature organization.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Being customer-centric means from strategic making to execution, Customers are the focal point from the cross-functional perspective, and customer delight moves from customer service to customer experience and customer success. However, many customers complain that customer service does not become better but turns to be worse, what are the biggest challenges in improving customer services, and how to overcome the challenges?
It's all about putting back the human factor and mutual respect in our Society. Respect is a must regardless of the customer's approach, not only for the customer but for yourself and the reputation of the company you are representing. Without respect and empathy, Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) could make it worse. CSRs need to remain calm and be courteous at all times. Often, the organization’s focus is on making short-term profit, and being profitable. But money doesn't buy well-being, self-fulfillment or long-term prosperity. Customers want to be looked upon as human beings, and treat customers as you want to be treated.
One of the biggest challenges with today's customer service is that today's customers become much “picky” than ever. You have legitimate complaints from rational customers. These are easy to resolve. Then you have complaints from irrational customers who wish to rant and rave in anger. They make the practice of peasant, accommodating, and gracious customer service quite an unpleasant challenge. In either case, customer service requires, first and foremost great listening skills. In the end, the most important questions to be answered are "why did this complaint exist in the first place and how can we ensure that it never happens again."
A true professional has to be able to deal with every type of customer. Nothing depends by the processes; the Customer Service manager has to know the product/service provided by the company, from A to Z. Each possible customer's query has to be anticipated; you actually have to know more than product managers, because you are the ones dealing directly with the customers pre-sales/after sales. Understand your customers, treat them same by treating them differently. For example, many manager knows there are different ways to manage younger vs. older employees. And emotional types vs. analytical types. Doesn't make one good or bad or better or worse. Just makes them different and the truly skilled manager can support all types and ages. But there are different things that need to be done and taught. In addition, many metrics to measure customer service is quantity driven, not focus on quality, and some are even nothing to do with customers. Rather than using standard metrics, you can build your own custom metrics that suit your organization. Customer Service needs to be shifted from reactive to proactive mode; from one department’s job to cross-functional collaboration; from “we always do things like this,” to data and analytics driven. Using data and feedback, a company can show agility in providing what the customer is looking for in products and services, and build a customer-centric, high-performing, and high-mature organization.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
The Culture of Learning
Culture is the residue of learning.
Culture is the collective mindset, attitude, and behavior. Culture is the residue of learning. In other words, leaders set a culture based on their vision and leadership substance and style. Much of this becomes "the way we do things around here." What are the factors that shape up an organization's culture? What are they, and how to change organizations and for that matter societal culture to become more learning agile in order to adapt to the "VUCA" characteristics of the digital age? And how can you align business scorecards, awards and recognition, policies and procedures which drive behaviors from the "old" culture, to reinvent the digital culture of learning?
Creating a learning culture requires a seismic shift in leadership and management attitudes and behaviors. The spirit comes from the top. Managers need to be role models and coaches of innovation and improvement and take calculated risks. Errors/failures can then be seen as opportunities and drivers for learning and improvement - and not reasons to blame and punish. Learning, innovation and improvement will come from all of the workforce and not just the chosen few who believe they have all the answers. And at the core of all of this learning needs to be a deep understanding of systemic thinking and the psychology of how people learn. Learning is a lifelong process, not one-off events. To create a culture of learning means having the right pro-learning mindset, particularly from leaders and managers. Culture is about values and behaviors, so you can't just rely on processes. Start with developing leaders that value learning, then find a way to evaluate the benefits, so that everyone can see how it works.
The thought leaders are empowered and curiosity is encouraged in building a culture of learning. Most of the hierarchical organizations are process and control driven. Emphasis is on compliance with the result people forget to think freely. Why organizations are not realizing that the very process and controls instituted emanated from the thought process of people and to be robust and helpful must allow people to think and contribute to the design and restructure the process. But to enable lateral thinking, opportunities must be created for learning both within and outside. Most of the organizations do not think on these lines. They feel it costs a lot of money and serves very little purpose. What a short-sighted view and an outdated idea! Despite the fact that it is proved time and again that organizations attaching great significance to learning and training go a long way and are leaders.
The culture of learning fosters openness, information sharing, critical and independent thinking. In a positive working environment, people focus on the learning opportunities offered by assignment, rather than on the status quo that goes with them. The “we always do things like this,” or the graduation attitudes are discouraged, ideas and experience are shared, communication and collaboration are harnessed, and the positive energy flows like water and innovation sparks like rainbow. So there is no space for the negative emotions or behaviors, such as envy, gossiping or any kind of unprofessionalism. The organization’s learning culture is the basis of the company diversity of staffing, outlining the types of duties assigned to perform with the requirement of job details, and it takes the high innovative and intelligent methodology to achieve workforce success.
A learning culture is something that must be ubiquitous in the organization, and this is not an easy task, people at the top must be on board, bought in and role modelling to encouraging the 'new way of doing things.' Making learning a priority helps with succession planning and knowledge transfer. Be open to learning and sharing new knowledge. A focus on learning and development reduces attrition and has a great quantitative ROI. Culture innovation comes from the top and any time there is a shift in culture, it can take years to establish the trust required to make it work. However, for business or society’s long-term prosperity, it worths the effort.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Culture is the collective mindset, attitude, and behavior. Culture is the residue of learning. In other words, leaders set a culture based on their vision and leadership substance and style. Much of this becomes "the way we do things around here." What are the factors that shape up an organization's culture? What are they, and how to change organizations and for that matter societal culture to become more learning agile in order to adapt to the "VUCA" characteristics of the digital age? And how can you align business scorecards, awards and recognition, policies and procedures which drive behaviors from the "old" culture, to reinvent the digital culture of learning?
Creating a learning culture requires a seismic shift in leadership and management attitudes and behaviors. The spirit comes from the top. Managers need to be role models and coaches of innovation and improvement and take calculated risks. Errors/failures can then be seen as opportunities and drivers for learning and improvement - and not reasons to blame and punish. Learning, innovation and improvement will come from all of the workforce and not just the chosen few who believe they have all the answers. And at the core of all of this learning needs to be a deep understanding of systemic thinking and the psychology of how people learn. Learning is a lifelong process, not one-off events. To create a culture of learning means having the right pro-learning mindset, particularly from leaders and managers. Culture is about values and behaviors, so you can't just rely on processes. Start with developing leaders that value learning, then find a way to evaluate the benefits, so that everyone can see how it works.
The thought leaders are empowered and curiosity is encouraged in building a culture of learning. Most of the hierarchical organizations are process and control driven. Emphasis is on compliance with the result people forget to think freely. Why organizations are not realizing that the very process and controls instituted emanated from the thought process of people and to be robust and helpful must allow people to think and contribute to the design and restructure the process. But to enable lateral thinking, opportunities must be created for learning both within and outside. Most of the organizations do not think on these lines. They feel it costs a lot of money and serves very little purpose. What a short-sighted view and an outdated idea! Despite the fact that it is proved time and again that organizations attaching great significance to learning and training go a long way and are leaders.
The culture of learning fosters openness, information sharing, critical and independent thinking. In a positive working environment, people focus on the learning opportunities offered by assignment, rather than on the status quo that goes with them. The “we always do things like this,” or the graduation attitudes are discouraged, ideas and experience are shared, communication and collaboration are harnessed, and the positive energy flows like water and innovation sparks like rainbow. So there is no space for the negative emotions or behaviors, such as envy, gossiping or any kind of unprofessionalism. The organization’s learning culture is the basis of the company diversity of staffing, outlining the types of duties assigned to perform with the requirement of job details, and it takes the high innovative and intelligent methodology to achieve workforce success.A learning culture is something that must be ubiquitous in the organization, and this is not an easy task, people at the top must be on board, bought in and role modelling to encouraging the 'new way of doing things.' Making learning a priority helps with succession planning and knowledge transfer. Be open to learning and sharing new knowledge. A focus on learning and development reduces attrition and has a great quantitative ROI. Culture innovation comes from the top and any time there is a shift in culture, it can take years to establish the trust required to make it work. However, for business or society’s long-term prosperity, it worths the effort.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Three Aspects in Running a Digital IT
A Digital IT needs to focus on the business priority, and build a competitive set of the business capability.
IT plays a pivotal role in organization’s digital transformation, but first things first, IT has to transform itself to increase agility, innovation, and maturity. To be successful, IT leaders must support the existing environment, to keep the light on, provide a reliable secure infrastructure, and maintain the application portfolio, while deploying innovative value generating, such as business cost optimization and revenue generating initiatives that are leveraging SMAC (Social, Mobile, Analytics, Cloud) technologies. What are the effective ways to meet these challenges and strike the right balance of running, growing, and transforming?
Optimization: IT management innately know the top challenging problems and processes to slow down the speed and stifle innovations. But why don't more leaders make targeted time to review, examine, and adjust the processes and systems? A perception of high workloads can also lead to nonoptimal responses. Pausing to create a list to adjust via human workflow to process automation can be thoughtful and rewarding. Unfortunately often in IT there is the presumption of being able to do everything by yourself or with excel at the same old software. But IT department is less open to trying new stuff because they think it is risky to leave the known for the unknown. It 'a process that must begin by the CIO (top-down) that forces IT optimization from his/her team to have realistic and reliable data in order to be able to decide. The pervasive digitalization or IT consumerism require the balance of “old experience” and “new way to do things,” the “learning and doing.” We have more computing power, greater connectivity, more data, greater potential empowerment of the worker, etc. But more of something isn't always necessarily good. The emergence of potential opportunities for exploiting digitization is likely to follow a nonlinear pattern or exponential speed, as the pervasiveness of an organization's digitization journey increases. How these ideas are recognized, filtered and dealt with will as well become a crucial factor in an organization's success in running a balanced IT and producing digitized products and services.
Automation: The first stage in the journey to automation must be to examine every process and identify how it can be made more efficient and how it connects to other processes. Many IT departments operate in silos with separate teams delivering separate functional tasks: backup, monitoring, security, server administration, mail administration. Effective automation should first examine these functions and understand the connections and define any constraints in the system. Identify and remove the inefficiencies and rationalize the manual actions first. As this process goes along, see what can be automated by scripts or just by using the automation available natively within many of the tools you already have, but don’t use it because you don’t examine the processes from a holistic viewpoint on a regular basis. Often times the simple act of reviewing, connecting and rationalizing will itself improve efficiency and introduce elements of automation that have not previously existed. One of the key areas to examine when undertaking this review is not just the effort involved in any tasks, but the time impact in subsequent tasks having to wait for key tasks to be completed. Identify any constraining tasks and look to automate these first to reduce the overall delivery cycle for a task.
Value-creation: Business and IT integration is critical along with consistent reality checks and communication from both top-down and bottom-up. The closer they are the higher the success rate and less likely transformation will stall. A strategic business case creates a narrative that places a proposed investment within its competitive context. Most commonly, the narratives within strategic business cases reflect the follow business value pathways: responding to mandates by external circumstances (GRC discipline); upgrading existing technologies; making business process improvements; responding to a business necessity; gain a competitive advantage; and, generating options for provisioning the full set of business capabilities. Every IT initiative is business initiative, for example, storylines might be developed around themes such as: how the initiative ensures the organization’s compliance with regulatory requirements; how the initiative restores the organization to competitive parity by reversing erosions in customer loyalty and in profit structures; how the initiative builds business processes that differentiate the organization from its major competitors; and how the initiative situates the organization within a growing and highly profitable product-market niche. Developing a compelling strategic business case is especially critical when an initiative is difficult to monetize - that is, attaching believable dollar values to identified benefits flows. Compelling financial business cases describe the initiative’s benefits and costs flows. It is important to be as comprehensive as possible in monetizing costs flows so too-optimistic cost projections are (sooner or later) recognized, seeding doubts about an initiative in others’ minds. On the other hand, it is important to be as conservative as possible in identifying and monetizing benefits flows because too-ambitious benefits flows are easily countered.
A value driven Digital IT needs to understand stakeholders’ expectations and propose a service/solution portfolio that correspond to both demand and cost drivers with a focus on business priority, and build competitive business capability. IT develops the professional competencies needed for successful business solution delivery, IT captures organizational knowledge and leverage analytics tools for identifying and tracing through the manner by which an IT initiative impacts an organization’s bottom line, continuously improve performance, IT- Business relationship needs to be shifted from alignment to integration, business as a whole has fine-defined objectives, processes and indicators with clear accountability and responsibility to deliver business objectives and implement business strategy steadily. Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
IT plays a pivotal role in organization’s digital transformation, but first things first, IT has to transform itself to increase agility, innovation, and maturity. To be successful, IT leaders must support the existing environment, to keep the light on, provide a reliable secure infrastructure, and maintain the application portfolio, while deploying innovative value generating, such as business cost optimization and revenue generating initiatives that are leveraging SMAC (Social, Mobile, Analytics, Cloud) technologies. What are the effective ways to meet these challenges and strike the right balance of running, growing, and transforming?
Optimization: IT management innately know the top challenging problems and processes to slow down the speed and stifle innovations. But why don't more leaders make targeted time to review, examine, and adjust the processes and systems? A perception of high workloads can also lead to nonoptimal responses. Pausing to create a list to adjust via human workflow to process automation can be thoughtful and rewarding. Unfortunately often in IT there is the presumption of being able to do everything by yourself or with excel at the same old software. But IT department is less open to trying new stuff because they think it is risky to leave the known for the unknown. It 'a process that must begin by the CIO (top-down) that forces IT optimization from his/her team to have realistic and reliable data in order to be able to decide. The pervasive digitalization or IT consumerism require the balance of “old experience” and “new way to do things,” the “learning and doing.” We have more computing power, greater connectivity, more data, greater potential empowerment of the worker, etc. But more of something isn't always necessarily good. The emergence of potential opportunities for exploiting digitization is likely to follow a nonlinear pattern or exponential speed, as the pervasiveness of an organization's digitization journey increases. How these ideas are recognized, filtered and dealt with will as well become a crucial factor in an organization's success in running a balanced IT and producing digitized products and services.
Automation: The first stage in the journey to automation must be to examine every process and identify how it can be made more efficient and how it connects to other processes. Many IT departments operate in silos with separate teams delivering separate functional tasks: backup, monitoring, security, server administration, mail administration. Effective automation should first examine these functions and understand the connections and define any constraints in the system. Identify and remove the inefficiencies and rationalize the manual actions first. As this process goes along, see what can be automated by scripts or just by using the automation available natively within many of the tools you already have, but don’t use it because you don’t examine the processes from a holistic viewpoint on a regular basis. Often times the simple act of reviewing, connecting and rationalizing will itself improve efficiency and introduce elements of automation that have not previously existed. One of the key areas to examine when undertaking this review is not just the effort involved in any tasks, but the time impact in subsequent tasks having to wait for key tasks to be completed. Identify any constraining tasks and look to automate these first to reduce the overall delivery cycle for a task.
Value-creation: Business and IT integration is critical along with consistent reality checks and communication from both top-down and bottom-up. The closer they are the higher the success rate and less likely transformation will stall. A strategic business case creates a narrative that places a proposed investment within its competitive context. Most commonly, the narratives within strategic business cases reflect the follow business value pathways: responding to mandates by external circumstances (GRC discipline); upgrading existing technologies; making business process improvements; responding to a business necessity; gain a competitive advantage; and, generating options for provisioning the full set of business capabilities. Every IT initiative is business initiative, for example, storylines might be developed around themes such as: how the initiative ensures the organization’s compliance with regulatory requirements; how the initiative restores the organization to competitive parity by reversing erosions in customer loyalty and in profit structures; how the initiative builds business processes that differentiate the organization from its major competitors; and how the initiative situates the organization within a growing and highly profitable product-market niche. Developing a compelling strategic business case is especially critical when an initiative is difficult to monetize - that is, attaching believable dollar values to identified benefits flows. Compelling financial business cases describe the initiative’s benefits and costs flows. It is important to be as comprehensive as possible in monetizing costs flows so too-optimistic cost projections are (sooner or later) recognized, seeding doubts about an initiative in others’ minds. On the other hand, it is important to be as conservative as possible in identifying and monetizing benefits flows because too-ambitious benefits flows are easily countered.A value driven Digital IT needs to understand stakeholders’ expectations and propose a service/solution portfolio that correspond to both demand and cost drivers with a focus on business priority, and build competitive business capability. IT develops the professional competencies needed for successful business solution delivery, IT captures organizational knowledge and leverage analytics tools for identifying and tracing through the manner by which an IT initiative impacts an organization’s bottom line, continuously improve performance, IT- Business relationship needs to be shifted from alignment to integration, business as a whole has fine-defined objectives, processes and indicators with clear accountability and responsibility to deliver business objectives and implement business strategy steadily. Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
September 23, 2015
Science vs. Philosophy
Science without philosophy is lame, philosophy without science is empty.
Philosophy is the history of ideas and an ongoing inquiry into the nature of things based on abstract reasoning rather than empirical methods. Philosophy involves examining basic concepts such as truth, existence, reality, causality, and freedom. Philosophy comprises logic, aesthetics, ethics, metaphysics, ontology, and epistemology. And science, which was formerly labeled natural philosophy, is now studied separately. Talking about science, it claims to be based on two types of reasoning (a). Inductive: If something has been happening in a particular fashion since time immemorial, it will keep on happening in the same way. (b). Deductive: These are deduced from inductive laws by using a toolkit called mathematics. Science vs. Philosophy, are they competitive or compatible disciplines, and how to leverage them in solving complex problems?
Science is an objective matter and field of study. Philosophy is a subjective matter and field of study. Observations and conclusions in the field of science are either right or wrong according to knowledgeable experts. Observations and conclusions in the field of philosophy may be acceptable or unacceptable to different people of different social and ethnic backgrounds. Science always needs philosophy. If there were no critical philosophy to add to the brainstorming, science will in the end loose ground. Unfortunately, the hardcore scientists do not always want to listen to what the philosophical critique of their science is. How to bridge this gap and make it work in real life is an enormous challenge.
Science without philosophy is lame, philosophy without science is empty. Philosophy is the mother of all sciences even presently philosophy seems to be the completely different discipline from science. Philosophy is a Greek portmanteau of the love of wisdom. All the academia claims to love the information- knowledge - wisdom. All sciences, should they be political, nautical botanical or any other are philosophy. Questions are raised by philosophers and once they are able to find an answer, it’s a turnoff for them. They immediately declare it to be science. Mathematics is the science of structure. It studies structural relations. So it can also be described as the science of complexity ('complexity' just means 'a lot of structure'). One reason for the difficult relationship between mathematics and philosophy is that philosophers are trained to a certain blindness to structure. Philosophers love abstraction and hate complexity. They want to see complexity explained away in terms of a few simple principles an issue cannot be attained.
Science is grounded in philosophy. Does science need philosophy? Yes, of course, it does. It cannot reason, deductively or inductively without logic. The theoretical groundings of science as a methodology to gain knowledge empirically about physical reality are in epistemology and ontology. For example, mathematics is the science, mathematics is the design, construction and operation of deductive systems, based on the principles of logic and the patterns of nature. Patterns, real and abstract, are the very essence of thought, of communication, of computation, of society, and of life itself. Mathematics helps us understand our perceptions of reality. Mathematics encompasses arithmetic and algebra, geometry and trigonometry, calculus and analysis, statics and dynamics, probability and statistics, and operational or operation research. The taught subject now extends to so-called modern topics including sets and groups, vectors and matrices, and topology and non-Euclidean geometry. Mathematics is not usually classified as a science because it does not rely on an experiment in the traditional sense. And the structure and structural relations are not its only concerns.
Philosophy predates science and they were once basically the same. Philosophy is the foundation upon which science has been built and continues to put forth the questions which help move science onward and upward. They are not only compatible but in many ways they need one another to continue to advance.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Philosophy is the history of ideas and an ongoing inquiry into the nature of things based on abstract reasoning rather than empirical methods. Philosophy involves examining basic concepts such as truth, existence, reality, causality, and freedom. Philosophy comprises logic, aesthetics, ethics, metaphysics, ontology, and epistemology. And science, which was formerly labeled natural philosophy, is now studied separately. Talking about science, it claims to be based on two types of reasoning (a). Inductive: If something has been happening in a particular fashion since time immemorial, it will keep on happening in the same way. (b). Deductive: These are deduced from inductive laws by using a toolkit called mathematics. Science vs. Philosophy, are they competitive or compatible disciplines, and how to leverage them in solving complex problems?
Science is an objective matter and field of study. Philosophy is a subjective matter and field of study. Observations and conclusions in the field of science are either right or wrong according to knowledgeable experts. Observations and conclusions in the field of philosophy may be acceptable or unacceptable to different people of different social and ethnic backgrounds. Science always needs philosophy. If there were no critical philosophy to add to the brainstorming, science will in the end loose ground. Unfortunately, the hardcore scientists do not always want to listen to what the philosophical critique of their science is. How to bridge this gap and make it work in real life is an enormous challenge.
Science without philosophy is lame, philosophy without science is empty. Philosophy is the mother of all sciences even presently philosophy seems to be the completely different discipline from science. Philosophy is a Greek portmanteau of the love of wisdom. All the academia claims to love the information- knowledge - wisdom. All sciences, should they be political, nautical botanical or any other are philosophy. Questions are raised by philosophers and once they are able to find an answer, it’s a turnoff for them. They immediately declare it to be science. Mathematics is the science of structure. It studies structural relations. So it can also be described as the science of complexity ('complexity' just means 'a lot of structure'). One reason for the difficult relationship between mathematics and philosophy is that philosophers are trained to a certain blindness to structure. Philosophers love abstraction and hate complexity. They want to see complexity explained away in terms of a few simple principles an issue cannot be attained.
Science is grounded in philosophy. Does science need philosophy? Yes, of course, it does. It cannot reason, deductively or inductively without logic. The theoretical groundings of science as a methodology to gain knowledge empirically about physical reality are in epistemology and ontology. For example, mathematics is the science, mathematics is the design, construction and operation of deductive systems, based on the principles of logic and the patterns of nature. Patterns, real and abstract, are the very essence of thought, of communication, of computation, of society, and of life itself. Mathematics helps us understand our perceptions of reality. Mathematics encompasses arithmetic and algebra, geometry and trigonometry, calculus and analysis, statics and dynamics, probability and statistics, and operational or operation research. The taught subject now extends to so-called modern topics including sets and groups, vectors and matrices, and topology and non-Euclidean geometry. Mathematics is not usually classified as a science because it does not rely on an experiment in the traditional sense. And the structure and structural relations are not its only concerns.
Philosophy predates science and they were once basically the same. Philosophy is the foundation upon which science has been built and continues to put forth the questions which help move science onward and upward. They are not only compatible but in many ways they need one another to continue to advance.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
IT Governance as a Fundamental Business Necessity: How to Get it Right?
One of the most important aspects of any governance discipline is to optimize decision making.
IT plays a pivotal role in leading organization’s digital transformation. IT Governance is like a steer, to ensure IT running with the right speed smoothly. IT governance is no longer just a theoretical concept, it is a fundamental business necessity, and an iterative process which requires senior management commitment over the long term in order to see results. IT governance also shouldn't stifle innovation and performance, so how to get it right?
Understanding business as a dynamic and adaptive complex system is the starting point. Consider that: unpredictability, uncertainty and the probability of surprising emergent properties increase with the complexity of the systems. Complexity is a measure that depends on the number of system components with interdependencies and their interactions. And complexity is, in itself, a source of risk. That, unidentified is, at best, unmanaged and, at worst, mismanaged by the application of knowledge that, however well-intentioned, results in 'unintended consequences. Unmanaged endogenous risk does not dissipate but is communicated and amplified through multi-scalar interactions.
One of the most important aspects of any governance discipline is to optimize decision making. For if the effective IT governance put in place, they would be capable of doing agile decision-making. "Optimal" decision-making mechanisms ensure decisions occur as fast as they possibly can - with the speed being in perfect balance with cost and risk for the given decision situation. The problem is, governance is almost always associated with compliance and control. Given many organizations don't view governance as "decision-making optimization," their governance efforts usually devolve into time-consuming, costly, overbearing bureaucratic constructs.
IT governance comprises "value delivery to the business" and the "governance of risk management." The management of risk could be organized around business risks, but better still, it should be aligned to the corporate balanced scorecard. By implementing a centralized IT governance program, corporations can deliver immediate benefits to the entire organization. From a measurement perspective, IT governance Scorecard is an important contribution to reinforcing the concept that financial focus myopia is now superseded by the additions of a balanced scorecard combined with finance benchmarking.
Governance is like a steering wheel, to keep business toward the right decision; high effective IT governance must create good IT performance, not only for keeping the light on, but especially for the long run business growth. Further, IT governance is converging with corporate governance. The companies which have great performance must have good governance structure and behavior as well.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
IT plays a pivotal role in leading organization’s digital transformation. IT Governance is like a steer, to ensure IT running with the right speed smoothly. IT governance is no longer just a theoretical concept, it is a fundamental business necessity, and an iterative process which requires senior management commitment over the long term in order to see results. IT governance also shouldn't stifle innovation and performance, so how to get it right?
Understanding business as a dynamic and adaptive complex system is the starting point. Consider that: unpredictability, uncertainty and the probability of surprising emergent properties increase with the complexity of the systems. Complexity is a measure that depends on the number of system components with interdependencies and their interactions. And complexity is, in itself, a source of risk. That, unidentified is, at best, unmanaged and, at worst, mismanaged by the application of knowledge that, however well-intentioned, results in 'unintended consequences. Unmanaged endogenous risk does not dissipate but is communicated and amplified through multi-scalar interactions.
One of the most important aspects of any governance discipline is to optimize decision making. For if the effective IT governance put in place, they would be capable of doing agile decision-making. "Optimal" decision-making mechanisms ensure decisions occur as fast as they possibly can - with the speed being in perfect balance with cost and risk for the given decision situation. The problem is, governance is almost always associated with compliance and control. Given many organizations don't view governance as "decision-making optimization," their governance efforts usually devolve into time-consuming, costly, overbearing bureaucratic constructs.
IT governance comprises "value delivery to the business" and the "governance of risk management." The management of risk could be organized around business risks, but better still, it should be aligned to the corporate balanced scorecard. By implementing a centralized IT governance program, corporations can deliver immediate benefits to the entire organization. From a measurement perspective, IT governance Scorecard is an important contribution to reinforcing the concept that financial focus myopia is now superseded by the additions of a balanced scorecard combined with finance benchmarking.
Governance is like a steering wheel, to keep business toward the right decision; high effective IT governance must create good IT performance, not only for keeping the light on, but especially for the long run business growth. Further, IT governance is converging with corporate governance. The companies which have great performance must have good governance structure and behavior as well.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
How do you Take Long Term View to Drive Workforce Performance
Workforce performance improvement must take the long view and may require a core DNA transplant.
Performance Management is a significant management discipline in the business system. It’s the management practice that does not have hard coded programming like other business systems but directly drives corporate mindset, attitude, and behavior. How to drive workforce performance? Is it a one-time thing or continuous effort, how to reward strong performance consistently? Do you only measure performance quantitatively, or how to measure it qualitatively, in order to improve corporate culture and building a high-performing and high-mature organization?
At its core, performance management is about creating a work environment that helps your company meet its business goals. It's more than just a collection of tools and processes, although there are many that can help you meet your goals. It's a philosophy that informs everything you do. There isn't any general rule on how to drive workforce performance, a process could be put in place to understand what flaws are in place, impeding a good performance and its improvement. It's important to identify a list of them from organizational process, procedure, people, leadership sides. For example, the obstacles from people side include: lack of workforce flexibility (both attitude or know how); interpersonal relationship drift/ issues; job-employee talent match or engagement trends. Then identifying for each and any of these main key impediments for a pragmatic solution.
You cannot command innovation and adaptation, but can enable, encourage, inspire and even lead for improving workforce performance. Also, you can't command someone to be creative or adaptive. People must have other intangible performance drivers that get them motivated every day with ambition and creativity. Designing a performance management system that makes sense for your company depends on many factors, including the nature of your business, your company culture, and your mission. In some cases, a more traditional method might make sense, but with increasing speed of change, the performance of Performance Management needs to be continuously assessed and adjusted as well. If you ensure the individuals have the autonomy within their tasks or projects, you will be able to address performance on an equal partnership basis. It seems simple as it is, and it has many different additional advantages of encouraging knowledge transfer within the team, engagement and so on.
Workforce performance improvement must take the long view and may require a core DNA transplant. There is no single initiative or program or the "theme for the year" that will suffice to raise the performance of a company or business unit. The key, of course, is not to choose one path over the other, but to tailor the solutions depending on the situation and advantages you want to gain. When everyone has the same vision, when everyone is treated as a "partner," when communication flows from the top to bottom and from the bottom to top, when people no longer say “I have a job,” but a purpose, when management is not about paperwork and leadership is more about people, and when individuals/teams/departments are taught to solve daily operational problems, when people can "become brilliant on the basics," and when everyone understands how the business operates - then you will see a workplace with respect, genuine engagement, mutual understanding, trust, optimism, and absolutely the best customer service -and that is the competitive edge.
Each higher level person must be capable of managing a more ambiguous/longer time frame set of issues than those for which s/he holds subordinate accountable. You can't "drive" performance without mutually accepted goals and expectations. It's almost impossible to measure performance objectively, but goals and expectations help. You have to be realistic and measure the improvement continuously.You also need to identify the bottom box performers. If a bottom box performer has not evolved to an average performer or an average performer has stayed at that position for a long time, it always impacts the top performers. Recognizing your performers and keeping them motivated along with keeping the average and bottom box performers on toes are two leadership styles you will have to maintain simultaneously.
Using the forces of respect and care for every employee, versus fear and punishment. Belief in the high value of both TEAM and EACH individual to improve the profits and business performance. This is the long view and takes some courage and faith to develop, but it ultimately releases the highest potential of each employee. Rewards systems are in place, and rewards are tailored to the individual instead of one-size-fits-all. Living out a flatter organization. An "Us," (vs. Us vs. Them) and "every person is a Stakeholder" culture, through celebration, open door listening, transparency ("we have a problem to solve together") and mutual sharing in successes. It engenders intangible, almost unmeasurable beneficial qualities or attributes like genuine engagement, mutual understanding, trust, optimism, deploying forces of love and respect.
The best performance management system needs to tie everyone in the organization to company’s profit and also company’s rewards, and at the same time, there are individual performance incentives which are measured against personal goals. This keeps all employees working together while at the same time push the individual to exceed their personal goals. It is a win-win for both individuals and the organization.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Performance Management is a significant management discipline in the business system. It’s the management practice that does not have hard coded programming like other business systems but directly drives corporate mindset, attitude, and behavior. How to drive workforce performance? Is it a one-time thing or continuous effort, how to reward strong performance consistently? Do you only measure performance quantitatively, or how to measure it qualitatively, in order to improve corporate culture and building a high-performing and high-mature organization?
At its core, performance management is about creating a work environment that helps your company meet its business goals. It's more than just a collection of tools and processes, although there are many that can help you meet your goals. It's a philosophy that informs everything you do. There isn't any general rule on how to drive workforce performance, a process could be put in place to understand what flaws are in place, impeding a good performance and its improvement. It's important to identify a list of them from organizational process, procedure, people, leadership sides. For example, the obstacles from people side include: lack of workforce flexibility (both attitude or know how); interpersonal relationship drift/ issues; job-employee talent match or engagement trends. Then identifying for each and any of these main key impediments for a pragmatic solution.
You cannot command innovation and adaptation, but can enable, encourage, inspire and even lead for improving workforce performance. Also, you can't command someone to be creative or adaptive. People must have other intangible performance drivers that get them motivated every day with ambition and creativity. Designing a performance management system that makes sense for your company depends on many factors, including the nature of your business, your company culture, and your mission. In some cases, a more traditional method might make sense, but with increasing speed of change, the performance of Performance Management needs to be continuously assessed and adjusted as well. If you ensure the individuals have the autonomy within their tasks or projects, you will be able to address performance on an equal partnership basis. It seems simple as it is, and it has many different additional advantages of encouraging knowledge transfer within the team, engagement and so on.
Workforce performance improvement must take the long view and may require a core DNA transplant. There is no single initiative or program or the "theme for the year" that will suffice to raise the performance of a company or business unit. The key, of course, is not to choose one path over the other, but to tailor the solutions depending on the situation and advantages you want to gain. When everyone has the same vision, when everyone is treated as a "partner," when communication flows from the top to bottom and from the bottom to top, when people no longer say “I have a job,” but a purpose, when management is not about paperwork and leadership is more about people, and when individuals/teams/departments are taught to solve daily operational problems, when people can "become brilliant on the basics," and when everyone understands how the business operates - then you will see a workplace with respect, genuine engagement, mutual understanding, trust, optimism, and absolutely the best customer service -and that is the competitive edge.
Each higher level person must be capable of managing a more ambiguous/longer time frame set of issues than those for which s/he holds subordinate accountable. You can't "drive" performance without mutually accepted goals and expectations. It's almost impossible to measure performance objectively, but goals and expectations help. You have to be realistic and measure the improvement continuously.You also need to identify the bottom box performers. If a bottom box performer has not evolved to an average performer or an average performer has stayed at that position for a long time, it always impacts the top performers. Recognizing your performers and keeping them motivated along with keeping the average and bottom box performers on toes are two leadership styles you will have to maintain simultaneously.
Using the forces of respect and care for every employee, versus fear and punishment. Belief in the high value of both TEAM and EACH individual to improve the profits and business performance. This is the long view and takes some courage and faith to develop, but it ultimately releases the highest potential of each employee. Rewards systems are in place, and rewards are tailored to the individual instead of one-size-fits-all. Living out a flatter organization. An "Us," (vs. Us vs. Them) and "every person is a Stakeholder" culture, through celebration, open door listening, transparency ("we have a problem to solve together") and mutual sharing in successes. It engenders intangible, almost unmeasurable beneficial qualities or attributes like genuine engagement, mutual understanding, trust, optimism, deploying forces of love and respect.
The best performance management system needs to tie everyone in the organization to company’s profit and also company’s rewards, and at the same time, there are individual performance incentives which are measured against personal goals. This keeps all employees working together while at the same time push the individual to exceed their personal goals. It is a win-win for both individuals and the organization.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
