Filling Gaps – 5 Posts from the Past to Keep You Occupied

I got a Droid X.  So today I'm probably going to spend a good portion of my time learning how to use it, downloading new apps, bragging to my family who still have clam-shell phones with no internet connection.

Fortunately (or unfortunately) for you that means I'm not putting new content up on the site.  

But – I'll let you peruse some oldies but goodies.  Below are 5 posts written 3 years ago that still resonate with me and hopefully will connect with some of the issues you're being faced with every day.

One Ring To Rule Them All

A review of the book "Halo Effect."  (FYI… links at the start don't connect anymore and I'm too lazy to go back and update the post – no effect on content though…)

Excerpt:

"The Halo Effect"  says there are 9 Business Delusions that deceive managers.   I have listed all 9 delusions and provided comments with respect to the motivation issue.  One point to make…many of the delusions are connected.  One delusion spawns another and once you fall into one – it is easier to fall into the next.  As one of the delusions references – there is no "one" delusion that rules them all.  But I am convinced (until proven wrong) that there is one ring that rules all performance issues.
 

How True It Is…

The issues that affect the advertising industry are exactly the same issues that affect the incentive industry – just a few years ahead of time.  Here's a great little video on the change in the relationship between the customer and the advertising industry.

Excerpt:

The incentive industry is the same – many current models charge a mark-up on the end deliverable – the award.  Again, the award is the tail – the appropriate design of the program is the dog.  If my premise is true the incentive and performance improvement industry is really going to have to invest in some hard-core soul-searching to find their real value. 
 

Targeting The Wrong Audience

Here's a post that talks about focusing on managers vs. rank and file employees to drive real performance change in the organization.

Excerpt:

If we want to impact employee engagement we need to impact the manager's performance.  Start with the root cause – don't just attack the symptom.
 

Kid Nation – or – What I Learned at Summer Camp

Many readers may not remember this one-shot series in the summer of 2007 but for me it was a great study in human behavior and organizational dynamics.  Take 40 kids, put them in an abandoned town with no adult supervision and film it.  In the post I highlight the various outcomes and connect them to our own business issues.  Some great learnings here for all of us.
 

Employee Radar

Employees are multidimensional – but our interactions with them rarely are.  This post explores how we can create a more robust view of how employees interact and engage with organizations (still one of my favorite posts of all time.)

Excerpt:

I see information on "work/life" balance and how that affects employees.  I'm seeing more and more on the need to measure and understand the social connections within an organization as a means to higher performance for the company.  I'm seeing a lot of discussion on the difference between engagement and satisfaction and how that affects a company's success or failure.  With the coming talent wars (whether you believe it is real or not – there are major changes coming) recruitment and retention are big issues.  There are many, many individual things that HR and Managers in general, need to be aware of to create sustainable performance within an organization.

What I'm not seeing is a comprehensive look at the employee equation.  If you know of one let me in on it.

Enjoy and next week we'll be back to our regularly scheduled posting (unless I'm still adding apps to the Droid X.)