Jacob Morgan's Blog, page 34

Creating a Boundaryless Organization

The first and most important truth any leader must understand is that the human beings who work inside every kind of organization possess unlimited potential. They have the ability to solve any problem and the adaptability to respond to unforeseen circumstances. It may be the most overworked truism in the business world, but employees are indeed the most valuable resource and asset that any company has.

The problem: most organizations today are unable to tap into that limitless human potential because of a series of self-imposed boundaries. Unlocking this potential means challenging the many assumptions that we have about work today: the incontestability of hierarchy, the importance of putting in time in the office, semi-annual employee reviews, valuing the voice of the customer but not of the employee, and the restriction of vital information to preserve rank.

Organizations and their leaders must strive to break three common boundaries in order to unleash all of the talent and contribution lying in wait. The first is role-based: communication and collaboration is restricted by seniority level. How could a lowly entry-level employee possibly engage with a senior manager or worse… an executive! The second type of boundary is around departments and function. Marketing folks stick with their peers in marketing, sales with sales, product development with product development and information and potential opportunities for innovation remain stuck within silos. The third most common type of boundary is geographic—employees in one office or location simply don’t “see” their peers in another.

Escaping these persistent and pernicious boundaries to communication, contribution and collaboration requires three key shifts:

From management to leadership

Lifting boundaries isn’t a matter of executive direction. It’s about re-thinking management and shifting perspective from telling people what to do to getting them excited to want to do it. We don’t need more managers, we need more leaders. Today, any employee can become that leader. Yet the norm in most organizations is to bring in more and more managers to oversee people and then more managers to look after those managers. The goal of all of this, of course, is to get a tighter grip on the organization, to enforce control. The original goal of management was simply to make sure that employees showed up to work on time to do their tasks, to not ask questions, to not cause problems, and then to leave and do that over and over again. Management wasn’t focused on innovation, the voice of the employee, engagement, or creativity. That was the case 100 years ago—and it’s still the case in too many organizations today. This is why it’s so crucial to create leadership capacity in every aspect of the business.

The leader challenges common assumptions around management and mentors employees to help them become successful. The leader has followers not because he commands them, but because he has earned them.

From “need-to-know” to collaborative technologies

The range of collaborative technologies emerging today allows employees to connect with each other and information, any time, anywhere, and on any device. While many leaders look at the onslaught of devices and apps and new technologies as a problem to be solved, the most effective leaders today aggressively support any tools that enable employees to connect, contribute, choose, and create. It needs to be easy for an employee in California to find a co-worker in Beijing. It needs to be easy for an entry-level employee to start a dialogue with an executive, even though they may have never met face to face.

Collaborative technologies are also crucial in developing leaders. In the new world of work, leaders create themselves. They share their ideas, content, and feedback in a public way, which attracts followers within the organization. Anyone can become a thought leader or subject matter expert.

From controlling management to boundary-breaking work

At every turn, leaders must ask themselves, “How does this support our vision of breaking down boundaries?” How can employee onboarding be changed? What about talent management? Perhaps when employees are brought on board they are taken through a collaboration scavenger hunt where they must find and connect with colleagues around the world; something telecommunications company TELUS does for new recruits. What if instead of semi-annual reviews, you go with a system of real-time feedback on a collaborative platform? Why not create a company leaderboard around health and wellness so that different geographic regions can see how they compare to one another. What if employees “narrated” their work in a public way so that everyone and anyone can see what they are working on? Every built-in management process is an opportunity for unleashing more human potential. The job of leaders and managers is to fundamentally rethink and re-design that core.

Unlocking human potential is the new competitive advantage. But it’s not as simple as expressing good intentions at the top. And it’s not enough to proclaim, “our people are our most important assets.” Every leader must do the hard work of breaking down boundaries and rethinking the most deeply held assumptions about work. It’s the difference between winning and losing in the future.

What are you or your organization doing to break down the boundaries that constrain human potential? Share your stories and ideas in the Unlimited Human Potential Challenge.

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The Employee-Employer Contract Has Changed

I recently had a conversation with Thomas Friel who is the former CEO of Heidrick & Struggles, a global executive search firm, they are the ones who got Eric Schmidt his job as the CEO of Google in 2004 and were at one point ranked by the WSJ as the top executive search firm in the world.  We had a long conversation about how the world of work is changing.

Years ago when employees would work at an organization there was an implicit contract between the employee and the employer.  The employee would be loyal to the company and provide their labor and attention.  In turn the company would take care of the employees for life.  Employees used to work at companies for decades and then collect their pensions.  They were loyal to the companies they worked for.

Today this employee-employer contract has changed.  We don’t see many life-long employees anymore and employees have moved away from committing and being loyal to companies to committing to managers, teams, products, and people.  Today employees are willing to provide some labor and attention but if things start going for them they leave and go somewhere else.   Employees will also leave if they feel like their talents aren’t being taken advantage of or if they aren’t interested in and challenged by the work that they are doing.

In a few decades we went from lifelong employees and company loyalty to a much more dynamic workforce which has new loyalties, new priorities, and new timelines for how long they are willing to and want to stay with a company.  What is your organization doing to adapt to this?

 

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Working at a Big Company Doesn’t Give You the Job Security You Think it Does

The assumption of working for a large established company has always been that there would job security. ”You should always take a job at a big strong company because at least you know will be there for a while,” is what people used to say. In fact, many people today still believe this. While it may have been true years ago it’s anything but true today.

Working for a large company no longer means job security, it just means you work for a large company.

Merck recently announced they are laying off 8,500 workers, Alitalia (the national airline of Italy) is proposing to lay off 2,000 workers, Blackberry is cutting around 5,000, Safeway is laying off around 6,000 (through their Dominick’s chain), Kelloggs is cutting over 2,000, Thomson Reuters is cutting 4,500, and Cisco is cutting around 4,000, EADS (the aerospace company) is cutting up to 6,000, and Qantas is cutting 1,000. The list goes on and on and I haven’t even included companies like Blockbuster that have completely gone out of business. Oh, and did I mentioned that these are just numbers from the past few weeks? These cuts are made by people in the finance department who are looking at balance sheets and data, not at people; in fact many call this “trimming the fat.” Where’s the job security at these companies? I think many of the companies today are actually in danger of a disappearing altogether, but that’s a topic for another post.

Still not convinced?

What about the fact that the average life expectancy of a company on the S&P 500 used to be 75 years. Today that number is just barely 15 years. Research shows that by the year 2027, 75% of the companies on the S&P 500 will be replaced. Take a look at the chart below from Innosight to see the trend.

This trend doesn’t show signs of slowing down.

Previous generations primarily valued working at larger organizations because it meant more money and longer term employment. That’s really the only things that mattered. Along with this job security facade we also see that the future workforce is prioritizing other things above salary. This includes things such as flexible work environments and doing meaningful work. It’s no longer just about a paycheck. This means that one of the huge advantages that large organizations have is gone.

In fact, I’d argue that many people may have more job security working for a smaller or mid-size company instead of for massive global organizations. Large organizations can make sweeping cuts to thousands of employees and it’s just a drop in the bucket for them. The trend I have seen is that smaller organizations find reasons to keep employees and not reasons to let them go.

The size of some of these behemoth’s is also mind-boggling. Some of the companies have tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of employees around the world, it makes you wonder if companies were ever meant to get that big and how much bigger they can possibly get. One would assume that after a certain point, once the companies go up, they must come down.

Pick a job that you care about, that offers you the opportunity to pursue your passions, and gives you freedom not the one that just has a higher dollar sign.

 

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The 5 Must-Have Qualities of the Modern Employee, Manager, and Company

Over the past few months I’ve written some articles for Forbes which have received a lot of attention, far more than I could have ever expected.  All three articles were about the future of work and explored what the future employee, manager, and company are going to look like from a high level.  I wanted to share some of that here and encourage you to take a look at the full articles over on Forbes.

The Future Employee

We are seeing dramatic changes in the way we work are being fueled by new behaviors and new technologies. Along with a set of new expectations and views around work the future employee is going to have to possess five qualities.

Ability to embrace change
Having a voice within the company
Being autonomous
Sharing and helping others
Filtering and focusing

You can read the full post on the 5 Must-Have Qualities of the Modern Employee on Forbes

The Future Manager

As the world of work continues to change so do the qualities and characteristics of the managers who are going to be leading our companies.  This means that just because managers were successful in the past doesn’t mean they will be successful in the future.  When it comes to evolving the way we work managers need to possess five qualities to help their organizations evolve and succeed in the future of work.

Follow from the front
Understand technology
Lead by example
Embrace vulnerability
Belief in sharing

You can read the full post on the 5 Must-Have Qualities of the Modern Manager on Forbes

The Future Organization

Companies themselves need to evolve and change so that they can not only attract and retain top talent, but so that they can continue to exist and thrive in the future.  Here are my 5 must have qualities of the modern company.

Supports flexible work
Operates like a small company
Prioritizes “want” vs “need”
Focused on the voice of the employee
Adapts to change faster

You can read the full post on the 5 Must-Have Qualities of the Modern Company on Forbes

 

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Telling Your Company Story to Employees, Not Customers

I’m in the process of reading the Brick by Brick: How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry, which thus far has been a very interesting read.  While reading it I was struck by something interesting.  New LEGO employees are told a story when they start working there about the history of LEGO and how it got to where it is today.  In fact, these new employees actually visit the original factory where Ole Kirk Christiansen, the founder of LEGO first set up shop (it burned down and Ole had to rebuild it and start from scratch).  While the story of LEGO is indeed fascinating and interesting it is but one story.

Organizations today spend a lot of time talking about and telling stories to their customers to help them make a purchase a decision.  But, what about telling stories to our employees?  How many organizations out there actually take the time to help employees understand what their organization stands for, how it was created, why it was created, and how it got to where it is today?

When it comes to the future of work and being able to attract and retain top talent, story-telling is going to be a huge factor.  Not every potential employee is going to resonate with your story and that’s ok.  That just means the employee is not a good fit for your organization.  But, those employees who do appreciate and relate with your company story are going to be able to do amazing things.  The only way to find out though is by actually telling and sharing that story with employees.

As Simon Sinek has said many times, people don’t buy from you because of what you do or what you sell, the because of WHY you do what you do.  I strongly believe this applies to employees as well.  Organizations of the future want to create a place where employees work there because they want to not because they need to.  To do this goes beyond workplace flexibility, salary, and benefits packages.  It’s also about helping employees understand WHY your company does what it does.  If your employees understand and can get behind the WHY, then they will help you figure out the how.

The future of work is about telling your story to employees, not just customers.

 

 

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Workplace Flexibility as a Competitive Advantage

Some people still look at workplace flexibility (the ability to work anywhere, anytime, and hopefully be measured by outputs not inputs) as a perk or a bonus whereas the future employee looks at workplace flexibility as a standard way to get work done.  The reality is that offering workplace flexibility is quite simply a competitive advantage.  Assume that you have employees interviewing at your company (which I’m sure many of you do, every day).  New, young, bright, and talented people who have a lot of promise to make valuable contributions.  These future employees are becoming pickier with where they want to work and if it comes down to working at a company with flexibility or one without it (even if the pay is a bit higher), most will chose the company that supports flexibility.  This means that your organization will have a hard time recruiting top talent.  Not only that but you can also expect to see many of your existing employees gravitating to competitive companies that offer flexibility, so not only will you have a hard to recruiting new top talent, you will also be shedding your existing talent.

Thanks to today’s collaboration technologies workplace flexibility has never been easier to deploy and make a reality.  I work and speak with companies all over the world who are quickly realizing the value of making this change and the absurdity of not making this change.

Still think workplace flexibility is just a nice perk?

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Five Trends Shaping the Future of Work

When it comes to the future of work there are a few key trends which business leaders need to pay attention to. Understanding these trends will allow organizations to better prepare and adapt to the changes which are impacting the way we work. These five trends are: 1) changing behaviors which are being shaped by social media entering the enterprise 2) new collaborative technologies 3) a shift to the “cloud” 4) millennials soon becoming the majority workforce and 5) mobility and “connecting to work.”

Behaviors shaped by social media entering the enterprise

Much of what we are seeing inside of our organizations as it relates to “social” collaboration is being fueled by what is happening in the consumer web. Technologies such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Foursquare and many others have given rise to more robust and business oriented counterparts such as Jive, Yammer, Chatter, and dozens of others. The technologies in the consumer web help encourage and support new behaviors such as creating communities, being open and transparent, sharing information and ideas, easily being able to find people and information, and collaboration. These behaviors (and technologies) are now making their way into our organizations and are helping shape the future of work.

New collaborative technologies

New collaborative technologies (some of which were mentioned above) are dramatically impacting the way we work and will work in the future. These technologies are now giving us the freedom and flexibility to work from anywhere, anytime, and on any device. Being able to find subject matter experts and connect with colleagues (known or unknown) across the globe is now a possibility that didn’t exist. Hierarchies are being flattened as virtually any employee can connect or communicate with anyone else at the company regardless of seniority and information is being opened up instead of being locked down. Systems are being connected and opportunities for business process improvement, customer experience, and overall efficiency improvement abound. These new technologies are also allowing simple actions to have big impacts, for example the CEO of a company “liking” or commenting on an idea that an employee might post publicly inside of the company. These same employees now have a voice within their organizations and have the ability to become leaders without having to be managers.

Shift to the “cloud”

Virtually every collaboration platform today has a cloud-based deployment option. This means that the barrier to entry is virtually zero. Business units no longer need to wait for corporate approval or the blessing of IT to make investments in these areas. Anyone with a credit card and access to the internet now has the ability to deploy whatever technology best fits their needs. This is a huge shift inside of organizations which traditionally had to rely on IT to deploy any type of new technology, the costs used to be high and the deployments complicated.

Millennials as the majority workforce

By 2020 millennials are projected to be half of the entire U.S. workforce. These are people who grew up with the many social media platforms that we use today. They are used to being connected, collaborative, and mobile. Millenials are used to sharing with each other, communicating through social platforms, working from anywhere, having a voice, and learning about what interests them. Most organizations today are struggling to adapt to this changing workforce as baby boomers are starting to make their way out. This is a big factor shaping the future of work as organizations seeking to attract and retain top talent are going to need to adapt.

Mobility and “Connecting to work”

Mobility is not just about being able to work and get access to people and information from a mobile device. It’s also about being a mobile worker which means you can work from anywhere, anytime, and on any device. The idea of “connecting to work” is become more prevalent within organizations as they are starting to allow for more flexible work environments. With an internet connection you can now access everything you need to get your job done. The notion of having to work 9-5 and commuting to an office is dead.

The smart and progressive organizations around the world have already been making the necessary investments to adapt to these changes. Some have been doing so for several years already whereas many organizations are still trying to educate themselves about what these changes mean. Regardless of where you are in this spectrum the future of work is something that you must plan for and adapt to if you want your organization to continue to exist.

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Should Employees Have Freedom at Work?

I just finished giving a keynote presentation on the future of work to a room of 200+ telecommunications executives and business leaders at the Glenn Eagles Resort in Scotland.  After my session someone stood up and asked a very interesting question about employees having too much freedom.  His basic question (slightly paraphrased) was: “there are a lot of employees that are already screwing around at work and doing nothing when they should be working, why do we want to give them even more freedom?”

The question got a lot of laughter from the audience, just imagine it being asked in a heavy English accent with a wee bit of profanity behind it.

I’m sure you can guess what I told him.  Yes, employees need freedom at work.  If you are hiring employees who are literally taking advantage of you then they are not good employees and they shouldn’t be working for you.  However, employees will always take breaks and mess around a bit which is fine and normal.  We are so used to having employees work like drones that we forgot what it’s like to have people be…people.  Even if you force employees to come to the office they can still “not-work” while they are there.  They can mess around on other websites, go hang out with co-workers, or do whatever else they want to do to avoid working.  Just because you see them and just because they come into the office doesn’t make them more productive or more efficient.  However, studies consistently show that employees given the freedom to work how they want are more productive.

If you want to attract and retain top talent, employee freedom and workplace flexibility is something that many value more than pay. If however, your hiring employees who are are screwing around and taking advantage of you, then that’s a whole other problem.

If you don’t want to offer workplace flexibility then don’t, nobody is forcing you, just don’t be surprised if nobody wants to work there.

 

 

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Old Management Ideas and Practices That Won’t Die

You can’t talk about the future of work without referring to many of the old and outdated management practices that are still the standard in most companies around the world.  Oddly enough most of the people who created these management ideas and practices are now dead. What does it say about our companies and managers when we continue to build upon ideas, principles, and philosophies that are not relevant anymore?  Management practices were created to be used during their present time during the then present condition.  Much has changed in just the past 5-10 years so shouldn’t the way we manage and lead our companies change as well?

We are too comfortable with staying the course and keeping our heads above water.  We innovate during catastrophes to bring us back to the way things used to be but we have a hard time innovating when things are going well.  The companies of the future aren’t going to be focused on staying the course and keeping their heads above water, they are going to be focused on flying above the water.

We can’t build new companies or evolve existing ones until we question the ways they are led and managed.  Outdated and obsolete management practices are all around us.

If it isn’t broken then why both fixing it?  Let’s not reinvent the wheel
You have to come into the office from 9-5
You will get performance reviews once or twice a year
Must create weekly status reports

What are your favorite management practices that just won’t seem to die?

The good news it that this is all changing.  Companies still implementing these are the companies barely keeping their heads above water, my advice to them…take a deep breath.

 

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The Want Generation Versus the Need Generation of Workers

Do you want to work at your company or do you need to work there?  If you are a manager the same question goes to you, do your employees want to work there or do they need to work there?

The assumption over the past several decades has always been that employees needed to work for their current employers and thus they are expendable and can be treated as such.  For the most part this has been true.  Employees needed a paycheck, they had bills to pay and expenses to cover.

However, now we are seeing that employees are starting prioritize meaningful work over pay. They would rather have a job that they enjoy and earn less money at then have a job that they don’t enjoy but pays them more.  This is a big shift which dramatically impacts how organizations hire and how they will attract and retain top talent.  The “need” generation of workers is on their way out and is being replaced by a generation of “want” workers.

Organizations that will continue to exist and thrive are going to focus on how to get employees to WANT to work there instead of assuming that employees NEED to work there.  The game has shifted and employees are not expendable the way they used to be.  They are valuable assets, team members, and resources.

So when looking at your company ask yourself, do people WANT to work there or do people NEED to work there?

 

 

 

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