Change Management

Mar23

Learn how to set goals that motivate you 5.

Goal setting traps for the inexperienced.

Despite the benefits of goal setting, there are a few limitations of the goal-setting process

First, combining goals with monetary rewards motivates many organization members to establish easy rather than difficult goals. In some cases, employees have negotiated goals with their supervisor that they have already completed. 
Second, goal setting focuses employees on a narrow subset of measurable performance indicators while ignoring aspects of job performance that are difficult to measure. The adage “What gets measured is what gets done” applies here. 
Third, setting performance goals is effective in established jobs, but it may not be effective when organization members are learning a new, complex job.  

Posted in Change Management, Innovation

Jul06

Managing Know How

Fix the processes before you try managing by objectives

Managing Know How

When Rudy is not changing the world of business for the better, he is busy changing the world of junior football for the better. Rudy is the president of “the most progressive junior football club in Australia”; I know the club is, because he told me!  Seriously Rudy is not given to hyperbole and relies on measurable data to support his claim. Over 600 boys and girls have directly benefitted from the dedication and commitment he has shown over the past three years.

Posted in Change Management

Apr05

If you build it they will come - the affect that beliefs have on performance

People who believe intelligence can be developed perform better

If you build it they will come - the affect that beliefs have on performance

 

Research on how high school students' beliefs about intelligence affect their math grades found that those who believed that intelligence can be developed performed better than those who believed intelligence is fixed.

The findings come from two studies conducted by researchers at Columbia University and Stanford University, and were published in the journal Child Development. Vol. 78, Issue 1 in 2007.

One study looked at 373 12-year-olds over two years of high school. All students began the study with equivalent achievement levels in math but the students who believed that their intelligence could be developed outperformed those who believed their intelligence was fixed. Furthermore, the researchers found, the gap between these two groups widened over the two-year period.

Researchers concluded that the difference between the two sets of students stems from the fact that students who believed their intelligence could be developed placed a higher premium on learning, believed more in the power of effort, and had more positive and constructive reactions to setbacks in school.

A second study looked at 91 12-year-olds in two groups, both of whom had shown declines in their math grades. One group was taught the expandable theory of intelligence as part of an eight-session workshop on study skills. Another group participated in the same workshop, but did not receive information on the expandable intelligence qualities of the brain. The students who learned about the intelligence theory reversed their decline and showed significantly higher math grades than their peers in the other group, whose grades continued to decline.

"These findings highlight the importance of students' beliefs for their academic progress," said Carol Dweck, one of the researchers and professor of psychology at Stanford University. "They also show how these beliefs can be changed to maximize students' motivation and achievement."

Perhaps one of the greatest gifts that teachers and parents alike can provide students and their children is the belief that they can achieve what they set out to do.

Posted in Change Management

Jul06

Cost Reduction Programs Fall to the Antecedent Effect

Cost Reduction Programs Fall to the Antecedent Effect

According to global management consulting firm McKinsey and Co only 10% of cost-reduction programs sustain their results three years on. In particular areas such as sales, general, and administrative costs are particularly hard to shift  while manufacturing efficiencies are easier to shift.

Posted in Lean, Change Management, Performance Improvement

May28

Generating Momentum In Organisational Change

Generating Momentum In Organisational Change

Momentum is a word often bandied about in relation to organisational change. In my experience it is often used when momentum is absent; i.e. after any effects of the initial launch have worn off and a change initiative has stalled. Executives will then mistakenly suggest activities like a re-launch in order to generate momentum. It is obviously a desirable quality in any change, and I know when it is present because a change seems to be driving itself and does not need to be continuously poked and prodded.

In trying to produce a more scientific definition of momentum I remembered that I actually studied Physics at university and there found all the guidance I needed.

Posted in Change Management

Jan28

Recipe for creating a culture of innovation

Recipe for creating a culture of innovation

1) Teach people how to brainstorm ideas.
2) Allow them the time and budget to experiment.
3) Provide expert help if required - make it easy for your people to ask for help.
4) Do not punish them if they fail.

Posted in Business Management, Change Management, Innovation