104 Posts Found

Companies train people in their computer systems, HR policies, and more. They devote energy to optimizing production lines and supply chains. They invest in innovation workshops. Yet they seem to assume that the ability to effectively lead and participate in meetings is somehow embedded in the human genetic code. Perhaps it seems too basic a skill. However, if any organization adds up the amount of … [ Read more ]

Author: Eric J. McNulty | Source: “How to Maximize Meetings” | Original Publication: strategy+business | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior, Productivity/Work Tips

An excess of bureaucracy costs the U.S. economy more than $3 trillion in lost economic output per year. When you look at all 32 countries in the OECD, the cost of excess bureaucracy rises to nearly $9 trillion. To dismantle bureaucracy, the first step is to be honest about how much it’s costing your organization. These costs fall into seven categories:

1. Bloat: too many managers,

… [ Read more ]

Authors: Gary Hamel, Michele Zanini | Source: “Assessment: Do You Know How Bureaucratic Your Organization Is?” | Original Publication: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

Collaborating effectively requires helping others. And helping others requires compassion, which in turn means learning about who they are and what they want. So in order to help my clients, at the start of each relationship, I devote two or three hours to asking the following questions:

• What are your proudest accomplishments and biggest disappointments?
• Which activities energize you and which drain you?
• How do other people

… [ Read more ]

Author: Susan Cramm | Source: “What’s Love Got to Do with Business?” | Original Publication: strategy+business | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Personal Improvement

At Honda, employees wear white pants and white shirts with their first names embroidered in red on the upper right side. It’s the uniform that every Honda Motor Company employee, whether pipe fitter or president, wears on the job at every factory or office. This is intended to diminish the influence of rank; in the moment-to-moment give-and-take of Honda workers’ daily responsibilities, all points of … [ Read more ]

Author: Jeffrey Rothfeder | Source: “For Honda, Waigaya Is the Way” | Original Publication: strategy+business | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

Develop highly visible scoreboards, bulletin boards, or voice mail, electronic or printed announcements of progress toward team and organization goals and priorities.

Author: Jim Clemmer | Source: “Education and Communications Pathways and Pitfalls” | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

Employee resistance is the most common reason executives cite for the failure of big organizational-change efforts. Companies need to develop strong change leaders employees know and respect—in other words, people with informal influence. But there’s one problem: finding them. How can company leaders identify those people beforehand to better harness their energy, creativity, and goodwill—and thereby increase the odds of success?

One way we’ve found … [ Read more ]

Author: Lili Duan | Source: “Tapping the power of hidden influencers” | Original Publication: The McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Change Management, Management, Organizational Behavior

To foster staff longevity, organizations can arrange for group members to switch roles with one another. Google, for example, encourages employees to leave their positions and take on “bungee” assignments for three months to one year in different areas of the company. Employees can acquire new skills and find out whether they like a new job (or are good at it) before committing to it. … [ Read more ]

Author: Daniel McFarland | Source: “What Is the Secret to a Happy Collaboration?” | Original Publication: Stanford University | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior

Leaders can reduce the risk of losing good people for the wrong reasons by working with them to understand their passions and career goals and serving up challenging assignments that help them grow from where they are to where they would like to go.

Customizing opportunities to each employee requires understanding that person’s goals, motivations, and values. It’s a simple process, but very few … [ Read more ]

Author: Susan Cramm | Source: “Align with Your Star Employees” | Original Publication: strategy+business | Subjects: Leadership, Management, Organizational Behavior

It’s important for senior leaders to find a way that people can share information in reasonably efficient ways. I really like the example of Salesforce under Steve Greene and Chris Fry — they had a policy where engineers were free to change jobs within the company. So, every four months they’d have an internal job fair, like a bazaar with booths, where people would walk … [ Read more ]

Author: Hayagreeva Rao | Source: “How Do You Scale Excellence?” | Original Publication: Stanford University | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior

Two simple questions can help guide the process of eliminating or rewriting cumbersome policies. First, does the policy protect the organization from violating safety, legal, or regulatory standards? If the policy helps ensure compliance, leaders should still ask themselves if there is a better way to structure the policy to ensure compliance in the most efficient and effective way possible. Second, does the policy help … [ Read more ]

Author: Kannan Ramaswamy | Source: “Are You Your Employees’ Worst Enemy?” | Original Publication: strategy+business | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

One of the easiest and most effective programs to initiate is peer recognition. Peer recognition gives employees the power to reward each other for doing a good job. It works because employees themselves know who works hard and deserves recognition. After all, managers can’t be everywhere all the time, and employees are in the best position to catch people doing the right things.

For example, in … [ Read more ]

Author: Gregory P. Smith | Source: “Reward and Recognition Programs Increase Employee Motivation” | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

To minimize the “we-they” syndrome, have employees rotate jobs for one hour each week. For example, the person in the Sales Department works on the front desk. Someone from Maintenance will work in the Customer Service etc. This builds a stronger team and improves communication within the company.

Author: Gregory P. Smith | Source: “Reward and Recognition Programs Increase Employee Motivation” | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

Just as the Net Promoter approach has strong descriptive and predictive power with customers, it works just as well in the realm of employee engagement. Loyalty leaders measure engagement by asking a handful of simple but predictive questions: Would you ask your friends and family to work in this company? Why? And would you recommend our product or service to your friends and family? What … [ Read more ]

Author: Domenico Azzarello | Source: “The Chemistry of Enthusiasm” | Original Publication: Bain | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior

“The premortem technique is a sneaky way to get people to do contrarian, devil’s advocate thinking,” explains psychologist Gary Klein. “Before a project starts, say, ‘We’re looking in a crystal ball, and this project has failed; it’s a fiasco. Now, everybody, take two minutes and write down all the reasons why you think the project has failed.”

Author: Gary Klein | Source: “Taking the Bias Out of Meetings” | Original Publication: The McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

Ask participants to write down their initial positions, use voting devices, or ask participants for their “balance sheets” of pros and cons. “Frankly, I’m surprised that when you have a reasonably well-informed group it isn’t more common to begin by having everyone write their conclusions on a slip of paper,” remarks Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman. “If you don’t do that, the discussion will create an … [ Read more ]

Author: Dan P. Lovallo | Source: “Taking the Bias Out of Meetings” | Original Publication: The McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

A fearless workplace frees people to take the risks innovation requires. At W.L. Gore, the Delaware chemical products company famous for Gore-Tex and other high-performance products, mistakes made in the pursuit of novel solutions are accepted as part of the creative process. When a project is killed, staff members celebrate its passing with beer and champagne. When a project fails, a post-mortem is conducted. Flawed … [ Read more ]

Author: Jay Rao | Source: “To Innovate, Get the People Issues Right” | Original Publication: Babson Insight | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior, Project Management

Accenture ran a workshop on how to improve decision-making for the CEO of a global manufacturing company and 10 of his direct reports. At the very beginning of the session, attendees were asked, “What do you do that no one else in the company has the responsibility to do?” After 30 minutes of vigorous debate failed to produce any consensus, the CEO intervened and gave … [ Read more ]

Author: Joshua Bellin | Source: “Leadership Ensembles: Orchestrating the Global Company” | Original Publication: Accenture | Subjects: Leadership, Management, Organizational Behavior

We typically see organizational leaders tell two types of stories to inspire their teams. The first, the turnaround story, runs along the lines of “We’re performing below industry standard and must change dramatically to survive—incremental change is not sufficient to attract investors to our underperforming company.” The second, the good-to-great story, goes something like this: “We are capable of far more, given our assets, market … [ Read more ]

Author: Susie Cranston | Source: “Increasing the ‘Meaning Quotient’ of Work” | Original Publication: The McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Organizational Behavior

Office rumors can sap morale (do you think there will be layoffs?) and productivity (let’s ask everyone if they think there will be layoffs). And, of course, if everyone is talking except management, employees assume the worst. So instead of trying to stop the conversation, join it, advises Chip Heath, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. Create a “Heard on … [ Read more ]

Author: Chip Heath | Source: “Reining In Office Rumors” | Original Publication: Inc. Magazine | Subject: Organizational Behavior

The size of your organization and the age of your workforce dictates which type of rewards and recognition program works best. One organization improved motivation and almost eliminated turnover by creating a family environment including special incentives.

Every year employees celebrate their work anniversary with a cake and receive $100 for each year employed made out in a check.

Twice a year employees’ children receive a … [ Read more ]

Author: Gregory P. Smith | Source: “Reward and Recognition Programs Increase Employee Motivation” | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior