AchieveGlobal's blog

Powerful Underground River?

By Craig Perrin

I'm tempted to begin this entry, "You'll have to excuse me - I'm from California." As someone trained in interdisciplinary thinking, I'm usually pleased to see connections among things.

Here's an example. My son Greg on his own recently decided to study the Bhagavad Gita, the ancient Hindu text, which I've known since my late teens and read with college students when I taught world religions in my early career. So Greg and I have been discussing how its advice and underlying philosophy might make him a better musician.

There's a connection pleasing to me: between ancient Hindu scripture and violin-playing. And here's a California footnote: The Bhagavad Gita is the only book that resides in full on my hard drive. I find it both soothing and challenging, often on long flights. Then last week I ran into this article in Business Week: "Karma Capitalism: Times have changed since Gordon Gekko quoted Sun Tzu in the 1987 movie Wall Street. Has the Bhagavad Gita replaced The Art of War as the hip new ancient Eastern management text?" http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_44/b4007091.htm Frankly, I'd never thought of a connection between "the Gita" and business. (How did I miss THAT?) And while the Business Week article dates from 2006, its major points seem even more relevant in our current economic muddle.

Beyond the wonderful points raised in the article, I see other connections with today's business challenges:

• The new picture of 21st-century leadership emerging from AchieveGlobal's worldwide study earlier this year - particularly in the areas of "Society," "Introspection," and "People" - has incredible resonance with ideas in the Gita.
• I've been thinking about a new AG statement on work/life balance. The Gita - with its idea of "work without attachment to the fruits of work," or (in California lingo) "it's the journey, dude, not the destination" - could be the nucleus of a fresh new perspective.
• The mainstream business schools drawing from the Gita - Harvard, Wharton, and Kellogg (none of them in California!) - may be on to something. Could ideas contained in the Gita serve the twin goals of reduced stress in our global recession and reduced risk of repeating the mistakes that brought on the recession?

I do not think the Gita or any other book is the sole answer to our problems. At the same time, I'm beginning to see the essential advice in the Gita as a powerful underground river that business leaders might dam up and channel for a greater good.

Leaping Forward by Staying Connected

By Jack McDaniel Being part of a virtual team is a reality for most of us these days. The nature of virtual teams presents challenges that our parents and grandparents never faced – chief among them the hurdle of feeling “out of touch” with team members. Staying connected in a virtual environment requires planning, effort, and the right tools. Last week, a virtual colleague and friend brought a new connectivity tool to my attention. HP has unveiled “HP SkyRoom.” It’s been hailed as “Skype meets WebEx,” but that may sell it short. The tool was used by DreamWorks Animation during the production of “Monsters vs. Aliens.” HP boasts that its technology was developed in support of NASA’s Mars Rover program. Those are powerful bona fides! In an excellent review from Creative COW Magazine’s Ron Lindeboom, the author asserts the following:

Well, let's just come out and say it right here: Live Office and iChat aren't Skyroom. Skyroom is Live Office and iChat on steroids after working in the gym with trainers. It also isn't one of the many freeware or shareware applications or subscription-based services like GoToMeeting.com.

The differences between other collaboration tools and SkyRoom are significant. It’s not a subscription-based service, the software itself is affordable (under $150), its technical requirements are reasonable (Intel® Core 2™ Duo 2.33-GHz or equivalent processor with 2 GB RAM, a webcam and Microsoft Windows® XP or Vista®, and a broadband network with a minimum transfer rate of 400 kbps), and the visual quality is… well, what you’d expect from software used by DreamWorks. In 2002, I witnessed a demonstration of a “virtual meeting” conducted at a learning seminar. Dozens of cameras in two separate locations, each powered by a roomful of computing and processing power, “joined” two men in two offices hundreds of miles apart. It looked pretty good. Sure, it wasn’t exactly seamless, but it did look like two guys in the same office. Our collaboration tools aren’t there yet, but the industry is making significant strides, enough so that our children and grandchildren should find it both easy and natural to stay connected in virtual teams.

Burying the Lead

By Jack McDaniel

In a recent InformationWeek article, W. David Gardner reports on a recent governmental meta-analysis and review of online learning studies. Mr. Gardner’s lead assertion is that:

Online education has been achieving somewhat better results than classroom education, according to a recent report prepared for the U.S. Department of Education.

Dire news for all of the classrooms! However, when I took a closer look at the study itself, I found so many caveats and conditions placed on this finding that, like the ornaments covering Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree, you can no longer clearly delineate the tree itself. Let’s take a few of these ornaments down from the tree for closer inspection:

• The study was not focused on adult learning. The primary focus for the US Department of Education was to measure the effectiveness of learning modalities for K-12 public school students. As an aside, the researchers were chagrined to find so few applicable studies for this population that they found themselves repeatedly admitting that “…caution is required in generalizing to the K–12 population because the results are derived for the most part from studies in other settings.”
• Business skills were only a small part of the curricula studied. Out of nine curricula listed, “business” was mentioned last. While this may not indicate that it was the subject least studied, it does dilute the findings considerably – especially given the importance of curriculum to learning outcomes. “The most common subject matter was medicine or health care. Other content types were computer science, teacher education, mathematics, languages, science, social science, and business.”
• Time on task skews the results in favor of online learning. The studies assumed a huge advantage for learners who were able to spend large chunks of time with online tools materials. “Studies in which learners in the online condition spent more time on task than students in the face-to-face condition found a greater benefit for online learning.” In the business world, the perception that time spent on training – either online or face-to-face - equals lost revenue pushes solutions that include the “benefit” of less employee time off the job.
• The medium is not the message. Time on task, pedagogy, and curriculum are more important conditions than whether the learning was delivered online or in a classroom. “Despite what appears to be strong support for online learning applications, the studies in this meta-analysis do not demonstrate that online learning is superior as a medium.”

In my view, the true lead has been buried: Blended learning is more effective than either classroom or online learning by themselves. The researchers found that:

In recent experimental and quasi-experimental studies contrasting blends of online and face-to-face instruction with conventional face-to-face classes, blended instruction has been more effective, providing a rationale for the effort required to design and implement blended approaches.

What do you think? Is blended learning the wave of the future or a passing fad? What impact will social interaction tools like Twitter have on business learning? What will the adult learning landscape look in 2, 5, or 10 years?

The Virtues of Business

By Jack McDaniel Sometimes, the deep past offers a powerful lesson for the present. In The Virtues of War, Steven Pressfield’s fantastic novel about Alexander the Great, the Persian emperor Darius III brought a supply caravan 1½ miles in length with him to the decisive Battle of Issus, fought in 333 BC in modern-day Turkey. This retinue wasn’t for Darius’s army of over 100,000 fighting men – it was his own personal household coterie. The baggage train included cooks, perfumers, hairstylists, talking macaws and panthers in cages, astrologers, butlers, and the emperor’s favorite wives – who had attendants of their own. In contrast, Alexander’s band of 50,000 Macedonians and their allies traveled light and fast, knowing that they had little time to achieve their goals before the difficulties of remaining in enemy territory hundreds of miles from home would overwhelm them. So how did this band of Macedonian upstarts defeat the mightiest army in the ancient world? By using what Pressfield calls the Virtues of War: blinding speed, superior tactics, and versatility on the battlefield. In response, the Persian army was heavy, slow… and doomed. Speed, tactics, and versatility. Aren’t these virtues the same for business? In any economy – much less today’s globally challenging one – organizations need to be nimble, able to move quickly to take advantage of changing market conditions. They must have a superior vision that serves as a guidepost in a murky landscape. And the most successful organizations incubate change leaders who aren’t afraid to try new strategies, learn from their setbacks, and set an example for their colleagues. An organization’s most valuable asset is its people. Alexander knew how to maximize his investment in this asset. Although the Battle of Issus took place over 2,300 years ago, we can learn from his example.

A Loyal Customer is a Happy Customer

We’ve all heard the popular statistic: “happy customers tell one person about a good experience and unhappy customers tell ten about a bad one.” The best companies find ways to tune in to customers' voices everyday and equip employees with the skills they need to create favorable, lasting impressions with clients. In today's highly competitive business arena, customer loyalty means the difference between an organization that struggles to survive and one that thrives. Motivating employees in this economy will not be an easy feat without having a skilled leadership team to support initiatives. Leaders must be able to inspire cross-functional teams to deliver their value proposition across the entire customer experience. Data mining and customer relationship management (CRM) systems can be valuable, but the ultimate test of loyalty lies in what a customer tells others. In a recent poll, 80 percent of dynamic retailers reported pursuing Customer Experience Management to boost sales. What actions is your organization taking to increase revenue and operational efficiency?

Soft Skills: Lace Ruffles in Today ’s Economy?

By Jack McDaniel I’ve always been slightly troubled by the fact that I work on the “soft skills” side of performance improvement. It doesn’t have a manly resonance. I’ve given some thought to wearing a red flannel shirt and cutting down a mesquite tree (we have more than a few of them in Texas) every time I create a new customer service simulation. Maybe I can work in a power tool or two in our next leadership skills model… “As you can see from this diagram of a table saw, our next key action is all about cutting through your organization’s barriers to success.” Maybe not. OK, so I’m probably overreacting. But it does raise a question of apparent value. How are “soft skills” like leadership and customer service perceived in today’s turbulent and alarming economy? Is there a place for them, or are they merely decorations in an organization’s HR wardrobe? Some would make this case. In scary times you have to pull back, conserve what you have, and resist the overreach. Forces beyond your control lead to uncertainty, and every one of your actions is fraught with unintended consequences. On the other hand, I would make the case that “soft skills” are what will see us all through hard times. With soft skills you not only retain your talent, but you grow it, benefitting both the organization and your best people. Those with leadership abilities will steer their ships though these stormy seas to safe and prosperous harbors. How else will an organization retain its external customers – and keep its internal customers happy – if not by honing their customer service expertise? And sales professionals who cannot span the gap from transactional to consultative selling will be hard-pressed to remain employed. Hard skills are necessary. The people in your organization need to know how to fulfill their job functions. But there is a danger in dismissing soft skills as lace ruffles, as mere decoration. I’d rather think of them as layers of armor, shielding your troops from the arrows of a global recession. That’s a much more masculine picture. Maybe I don’t need to chop wood now.

A 21st Century Equation for Organizational Change

By Craig Perrin To get a sense of the reappraisal now underway in change management circles, consider another reappraisal – at the dawn of modern physics, one hundred years ago. By 1900, physicists had been applying Newton’s laws of motion for 200 years to predict natural events and fuel the industrial revolution. Yet a few scientists had grown uneasy because Newton’s laws failed to explain various newly-observed phenomena. Then, in 1905, Albert Einstein reframed their notions of space and time and paved the way for some startling achievements – among them, releasing the power of the atom. Today, many change leaders feel a similar anxiety. Having seen the failure of important initiatives, these leaders now question some time-honored “laws of change.” They believe that new demands require new ways to conceive and guide their efforts. In the past, leaders counted on periods of stability, assumed that change took time, saw change as a process, saw change leadership as a special role, gained support with a clear business case, and succeeded by delivering customer value. Today, leaders face constant overlapping changes, need quick wins to build momentum, see change as the permanent landscape, see change leadership as everyone’s role, appeal to the emotions as well as the mind, and succeed by meeting threats and opportunities. Like Einstein’s relativity, these new rules may seem no rules at all. But neither Einstein’s world nor this world is anything new. In 500 BC, the Greek philosopher Heraclites said, tersely: “All is flux.” Modern change management, like modern physics, is a sharper image of the world as it is – in constant movement, with every part affecting every other part. If “all is flux,” then no one can reasonably expect to succeed solely with a standard project plan, no matter how detailed. Instead, leaders and employees must respond flexibly to dynamic conditions within and outside the organization. In contrast to a “Newtonian,” phased-based approach, modern change management has a new central task: developing change-capable people who alone can build a change-capable organization. Consider a final parallel with modern physics. To the naked eye, an object, say my desk, appears solid and permanent. At the atomic level, however, my desk is a mass of moving particles, loaded with kinetic energy. In the same way, an apparently stable organization is a mass of individuals, each a force either promoting or opposing needed change. The sum of these forces for change might be described in a kind of equation:

C = LE²

The change capability of an organization (C) equals the quality of leadership (L) times the square of the energy of all employees (E). As Einstein’s famous equation describes the enormous power of the atom, this equation describes the enormous power of the individual – if we can release it – for positive change.

Lies, Damn Lies and Metrics

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.

Execution ' Uber Allen ' - A Thousand Action Steps

By Mike Smith A friendly cynic recently gave me his perspective on ‘Project Management'. Execution ‘Uber Allen' he said.......a thousand action steps! What he meant was do we really need all this process and action stuff?My answer....'well that depends?' It depends on whether you want to achieve your goals or not! At the end of the day all organizational initiatives whether they be new product introductions, organizational restructures or training and development initiatives, need to get RESULTS. Now the type of results may vary widely depending on industry sector, departmental and organizational goals but the fact remains we must see an impact from our hard work. If you don't have a robust implementation process and team of skilled individuals trained in executing (Project Management) the chances you'll achieve the results you are looking for are minimal. There is only one way to ensure the success of a complex and comprehensive initiative and that is to manage it well. Project management may not be your strength but you had better find resources that fit that mould and give them the responsibility for delivery. Without those action steps (the right ones of course) I wouldn't bet my mortgage on the results.