AchieveGlobal Blog

By Chris Blauth

Your garage is probably much like mine – a humble space stuffed with cars, bikes, paint cans, scrap two-by-fours, and much, much more. Every so often I haul everything out, sweep, purge, and donate. And no one cares except my family.

Yet many see one extraordinary garage as a national treasure: 367 Addison Avenue in Palo Alto, California, where Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard founded their company. 

Innovation poured from that garage, as it does now from HP locations worldwide. Today, 367 Addison symbolizes the lone genius – or pair of geniuses – whose ideas and their tangible expression leave an indelible mark on us all.

But a recent AchieveGlobal study adds new kinks to that inspiring story. We set out to discover what today’s mature and emergent organizations do – garage or no garage – to reap the rewards of innovation. Since lone geniuses are tough to track down, we interviewed executives and managers from top companies – leaders who play a central role in innovation, and who share DNA with the Hewlett and Packard of Addison Avenue.

This worldwide primary research found four main conditions that support innovation today:

• Environment. This is the cultural side of innovation – the expectation, the encouragement, and most of all the permission to question and offer concrete alternatives. In a note of caution, many veteran innovators told us that creating the right culture can be challenging for an established, by-the-book company with a history of success.
• Systems. Along with environment, systems and processes aligned with culture often came up as a necessary condition for innovation. The main message? Culture without discipline stifles execution. As a Takata manager told us, “That loose environment on the front end and tight environment on the back end helps the products to go through.”
• Top-down support. In the past, innovation at the front line didn’t’ t require much buy-in from executives. Today, passionate executive commitment is vital. “Without that, you can’ t do anything,” said a manager at Gale. Only executives can make innovation a priority and align leaders at all levels. Said a Stabilo executive, “All decision makers have to believe in what you’re doing. They need to be as courageous as you are.”
• Collaboration. Leaders told us that innovation requires collaboration within groups and among departments, functions, divisions, brands, sites, and countries. “There’s almost nothing you could achieve by your own knowledge or expertise,” said a Toshiba manager. To encourage collaboration, innovative leaders find ways for all to learn from technical experts, experienced hands, customers, and even competitors.

All this is a long way from my cluttered garage – just as modern companies, including HP, are a long way from 367 Addison. While innovation at its root hasn’t changed, rarely now does the lone genius emerge with a world-beating product, or even a fully-developed idea. Today’s complex global challenges require motivated groups to collaborate across boundaries in a conducive environment, with needed systems aligned, all driven by the passionate support of executives. This is the core message of our research for all who would equal the achievements of Hewlett and Packard.

By Craig Perrin

It’s at the foundation of our view of leadership, an article of faith at AchieveGlobal – a “Basic Principle,” even: “Maintain the self-confidence and self-esteem of others.” To my knowledge, no one has ever questioned Basic Principle 2, so I expect to be burned at the nearest stake for the following account of recent family events.

This Fall my son Greg began studies at a well-known music conservatory. We’ll call his violin teacher “Professor V,” an octogenarian and living legend who still performs and often gets calls from the world’s top soloists seeking performance tips.

I went with Greg to his first lesson with Professor V, lasting four hours, during which I directly observed his stamina, clarity of mind, and teaching methods – all since confirmed by Greg in many phone calls and a beautiful essay he wrote about Professor V for a humanities class.

Let’s not mince words: Professor V is the most brutal teacher I have ever met. More brutal even than my college mentor-slash-torturer, who used to skewer me intellectually, in public, like the Olympic fencer he had been. Professor V does not give a fig about maintaining the self-confidence and self-esteem of others. From Greg’s essay:

The freshman, visibly nervous, again plays the first bars. Laughing, Professor V interrupts: “You speak the language, but you have no idea what you are saying!” He demonstrates on his violin. “Now play!” The student imitates his teacher’s playing. Professor V shouts, “No! Don’t just copy me! Use your imagination and phrase according to what the composer wrote!”

Compared to Greg’s reports and what I saw, this episode is mild. When a student displeases him, Professor V can explode –in shouts, sarcasm, or both – with the sharpest criticism that I’m sure these young people will ever hear. Students occasionally cry during a lesson.

Yet talented young musicians from all over the world flock to Professor V, if he will have them, and most have impressive careers after their time with him. Why? Again, in Greg’s words:

I sense a profound love that Professor V has for his students. All his criticisms, painful as they may be for students to hear, reflect his many decades of performing, teaching, and observing. Today, all is focused on requiring this student to rise to the highest standards and realize whatever promise he may show. To conclude two hours of brisk instruction and unvarnished criticism, Professor V says, calmly, “I want you to succeed. I am on your side. But I am preparing you for the people who aren’t.”

The devotion that his students show, the results that he gets, and the love that he expresses so ferociously – I saw it as well – all lead me to ask, Is it always best for a leader to maintain the self-confidence and self-esteem of others?

By Jack McDaniel

We used to think that multitasking was a great idea. Hey, I’m going to text my buddy about the World Series, finish up the PowerPoint slides for my client presentation on Thursday, and look over that manual on the latest router application, all while “participating” in a Webinar on how to improve our productivity. And why not throw in eating lunch and buying the latest best-seller on Amazon while I’m at it?

The problem is, data is emerging that indicates multitasking has some serious downsides (here and here, for instance).

It turns out that the brain experiences “brownouts” when you’re multitasking. Just like a brownout on the electrical grid, energy flows from active processes to bolster new processes. The more processes you have, the less energy you have to fuel them all. The lights go dim, and that’s bad!
What to do? The answer, obviously, is to stop multitasking.

Yeah, right.

Multitasking is NOT going away. So what can you do to protect yourself from mental brownouts?
One key is organizing. Make a list of what you have to do and then prioritize it. Let go of the stuff you can’t get to, the stuff that’s lower on the list. Don’t try to do something vital (negotiate a hairpin turn at high speed on a foggy Swiss mountain in your Super Trofeo) while doing something not-so-vital, say ordering pizza on your cell phone. I know it’s deep dish Chicago-style, but still…

Another key is to minimize distractions. If you can stay focused on an important task, you’ll actually gain energy from the sense of accomplishment when you finish it and confidence as you head into the next thing on your list. Just ignore that last text.

Finally, be kind to yourself. Take breaks and relax. Exercise and treat yourself occasionally. No one’s going to do this for you, and unless you take regular self-checks – and check yourself out of work when you need to - you’re likely to go from brownout to burnout.

It doesn’t always work. Too often you’re going to find multitasking is the only way to get things done. But once you’re aware that it’s not the best way to work, you can take proper precautions – and still have time to enjoy that latest best-seller while eating a slice in your Alpine chateau.

by Mike Smith

I’m sure most AchieveGlobal Blog readers enjoyed the Olympics, in particular the extraordinary achievements of U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps.

For each Olympic fortnight, Michael trains for four years following a grueling routine of Sleep, Swim, Eat, Swim, Eat, Sleep (repeat) with the sole purpose of remaining the fastest swimmer in the world.

So how does he know he has achieved his goal? One simple metric: time – to thousandths of a second, of course – with a different target for each of his disciplines. When he exceeds a target, he sets a new one and the process continues.

If only business metrics were that simple. We all recognize the value of measurement, and we wrestle every day with how to do it accurately and consistently. Corporate Dashboards, KPIs, ROI, EBITDA – pick your buzzword and/or acronym –  are all (should I say it?) immeasurably more complicated than Michael Phelps’s time in 100m butterfly. It’s a wonder we get anything done apart from the measurement alone. What we do with that information, well, that’s a tale for another day.

The cynic might say, after Mark Twain and others, “You’ve got three kinds of lies – lies, damned lies, and metrics.” For what it’s worth (recognizing you can manipulate data to support a fundamentally wrong decision), I believe that metrics tell the truth. The question is, “Which truth?” Measurement is complex because organizations are complex, with multiple ways to measure multiple causes of every aspect of performance. How do we sort through the white noise of multiple measures and get to the true performance?

One thing is for sure, that task is a lot more complex than watching the Olympic stopwatch.

by Todd Beck

This question assumes that the organization’s goal is to retain an employee through training - perhaps to signal that the organization is investing in the employee’s future, or that the organization itself is dynamic and can learn, so that jobs are safe with no threat of layoffs.

Put yourself in that employee’s shoes. Which option suggests that my personal value to the company is higher - sending me to a 3-day classroom program or emailing me a link to a library of 3,000 elearning courses and saying, “OK, have at it.” Or to be more fair, a 3-day classroom program vs. a 3-hour elearning program.

All else being equal, in this simple example, in your gut - which one sends the better message that the organization values that employee?

Granted, it’s not fair to blame the medium of elearning for all the faults in training implementation and plain old bad management of change. But it’s been my experience - and I’ll bet it’s been yours - that organizations that use a lot of elearning do not choose elearning for its intrinsic instructional effectiveness. They choose elearning because it’s cheap.

So, when you want to retain your BEST employees, be honest - will you choose elearning or classroom? Choose wisely, because your BEST employees will figure out why you chose classroom or elearning, and will use that perception to guide their own decisions to stay or to leave.

NOTE: You wouldn’t want to be in Jack’s shoes in this video where I debate him on AchieveGlobal Island in Second Life.

by Jack McDaniel

As a leader, if I had a retention issue, I would look at giving my employees clear line of sight to what we could offer them, to make it attractive for them to stay. I’d align learning with job roles and allow employees to see what it takes to advance. These programs are best created with elearning, so that employees can access them anywhere, anytime.

If employees feel they have a career path, with a clear view of what they have to learn to get to the next level, they have something to work toward. That kind of personal vision keeps them engaged. And if they’re able to access learning at their convenience, it increases their personal satisfaction.

Finally, elearning helps learn in a safety bubble. By practicing in a virtual environment, learners feel they can get a step ahead without being criticized before they’ve acquired the skills to be a viable candidate for the next position. This doesn’t mean that you just throw up a thousand courses and give everyone open access. It involves creating meaningful programs aligned with defined roles, and showing employees what’s in it for them to enroll in and take the programs. This approach not only gives employees the feeling that they have somewhere to go, it gives you qualified candidates when you need them.

Watch this this video in which Todd needs a safety bubble and a cone of silence when I debate him on AchieveGlobal Island in Second Life.

by Jack McDaniel

The generation coming up in the workforce is learning to learn in a virtual world. IDC research shows “that 45% of companies have workers blogging, 43% use RSS feeds, and 35% of companies have employees using wikis.” IDC also reported that company executives and CIOs are often unaware of employee use of tools on the other side of the firewall. As corporations, we need to embrace the tools workers are using, make it safe to use them, and give workers opportunities to use them to learn.

Secondary and post-secondary schools are increasing the number of on-line and virtual classroom sessions. Would any of us feel comfortable sending our kids to a school that did not teach and incorporate computer skills and virtual research techniques? The next generation expects to learn virtually.

In addition, as companies are becoming much more global, with work groups that span the country, if not the entire world. Managers manage virtual teams, the service industry is becoming more and more a remote business (with offshore and virtual customer service groups), and sales are moving more toward on-line, with greater emphasis on reducing travel budgets. Corporate decision-makers may be located in three different states, or countries. If the next generation needs to learn to bridge distance and communicate virtually, so why wouldn’t training (including real-time skills practice) be virtual?

The new generation is equipped to learn via elearning techniques, they are more comfortable learning via simulations, and they have virtual social skills that will need to be refined for the business world. So the best way to train them is in their native environment… online.

If you’re a digital native, or hope to be one in your next virtual life, watch this video in which Todd has no chance of winning this debate with me on AchieveGlobal Island in Second Life.

by Todd Beck

You can all throw gray goo or nuke me, or however else you choose to grief me, but I’ll say it anyway: I think generational differences are over-hyped.

People are people, and have been for thousands of years through renaissance and revolution and countless arguments about how parents just don’t understand. We’ve always needed help improving personal interactions, and we always will need help. In fact, if the simplest information exchanges are moved to technology, then face-to-face (or phone-to-phone) will inherently become the really meaty discussions.

So what training do today’s workers need? The interpersonal skills needed 50 years ago will be needed 50 years from now. People need to be able to ask questions to better understand needs, create messages that push the right buttons (pun intended), read how the other person is responding, help the other person manage emotions productively, and motivate desired behaviors.

Perhaps most important, they need to learn that all these skills apply to all these media. That the way you interact with me via instant messaging has to create the same feeling I get from you when we’re face-to-face. And only classroom will allow me the chance to practice those vital face-to-face interactions.

Check out this video where I grief Jack during our debate on AchieveGlobal Island in Second Life.

by Todd Beck

I’d like to separate the two points—“engage learners” and “motivate them to apply new behaviors in the workplace.”

The motivation part is no secret–it’s all about what’s in it for me. So when a behavior leads to more money, more recognition, less work, and fewer complaints, then a learner will absolutely apply that behavior. Motivation is not a training issue. It’s a management issue that determines the success of training. And it applies equally to classroom or elearning.

I think, though, that learners infer a lot from the organization’s willingness to invest in training, and if elearning is seen as the cheap, low-priority method, then learners infer that the skills taught are low-priority. There’s something about my boss scheduling me to leave work and spend time in class that says, hey, this behavior must be important either to my boss or to somebody even higher up. And that means it’s important to me.

As for “how to keep learners from being bored,” I think either classroom or elearning can do that equally well, if properly designed.

If you’re bored, you should check out this video where Jack and I engage each other in debate on AchieveGlobal Island in Second Life.

by Jack McDaniel

Regardless of the learning modality, the best ways to engage learners are to 1) make the content relevant to their jobs, and 2) make learning highly interactive.

Simple techniques, such as a case study real to the learner instead of a generic situation or a skill practice that resonates with the learner’s real-life situation, can make a world of difference. This kind of learner engagement can be accomplished easily in either classroom, virtual classroom or self-paced elearning. But it’s in the follow-up and reinforcement where the learning modality can make a difference – and using technology is clearly superior. Just look at the effectiveness of blogs, EPSS, discussion forums and communities of practice.

A comment about this question: While it’s true that relevant content engages the learner, organizational commitment is even more critical. This commitment reveals itself in the importance that the organization puts on learning, the rewards that come from improved performance, and endorsements and follow-up from the executive team down to the manager. Management teams must be engaged. They must help coach and reinforce the behaviors before, during, and after the learning, regardless of the modality.

If learner engagement is relevant to your business, watch this video in which Todd and I continue this debate on AchieveGlobal Island in Second Life.