Forum

Skip to content
Find location

Blogs

Archive for October, 2009

AsiaPac Webinar questions: Using Climate to Drive Employee Engagement

October 29th, 2009 by Forum Corporation

For every webinar that Forum hosts for a North American and European audience, we also host a separate version for our audience in Asia-Pacific. The Asia-Pacific webinars include presenters, insights, and case studies from across the region. Recently we hosted a webinar called Using Climate to Drive Employee Engagement for Asia-Pacific  (click here for a recording). The audience included participants from Delhi to Sydney, from Tokyo to Singapore.

We were asked a number of questions at the end of the webinar—more than we had time to answer. Here are the ones we couldn’t answer in the webinar:

1. How do you weight the value of training managers in emotional intelligence in relation to the value of training them in change management?

Change management often focuses on the process. Though it’s an essential part of any change initiative, if we don’t address people’s emotional resistance and comfort zones, the process will struggle—or fail. A truly successful change initiative must address both the process and the people to ensure that it has the buy-in required to make it work. This is the value of incorporating emotional intelligence into our initiatives. For specific weightings, look at each organisation/team individually to discern the level of EQ and understand the climate.

 

2. How do you bring managers to embrace the tremendous impact they have on climate?

We help them see themselves as leaders of people—not just managers of a process. Many managers move into a people-leader role because they want to make a difference or a positive impact. We need to empower them to do just that.

 

3. How do you remain optimistic and create a positive climate when you are under-resourced, with no sign of any resource changes in the future?

First of all we need to accept this as the new business reality and get clear about what the opportunities are. Don’t underestimate the impact of the leader buying into the “new” way of doing things. We may not agree with it—but we must accept it as the way things are. How do we make the best of it? How do we use this challenge to grow our leadership practice? We need to invest time daily in developing an optimistic mind-set. Then it is essential that we take the “chess” approach, building on our people’s strengths. It does require an investment up front and a deeper level of strategic thinking, but it will help us and the team to maximise our leverage in all our activities and create a greater level of engagement.

  

4. What different or additional management practices can be used to address a climate in an M&A situation?

Change and ambiguity create stress because we feel as if we are not in control. We feel as if things are happening to us. As leaders, we need to bring back a sense of control, a sense of certainty. If we don’t, we will create a leadership void, and someone or something will fill that void—usually at the watercooler, in less-than-optimistic conversations. Here are four key steps we can take:   

  1. Manage our personal climate. Be in a resourceful, grounded, optimistic state.
  2. Communicate clearly and regularly—even if it is only to say that nothing has changed. Do not allow rumours and gossip to take root.
  3. Set short-term measurable (achievable yet challenging) goals to give the team a sense of accomplishment on a weekly basis.
  4. Shift the focus to what the opportunities are and how we as a team add value to the organisation, the M&A process, and our customers. Ask our team (and ourselves), “What are the opportunities here? What can we learn from this?”

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in climate | No Comments »

Strategic Speed in 140 Characters or Less

October 27th, 2009 by Steve Barry

by Steve Barry 

As text-messaging and Twitter slowly take over my life (and my thumbs), I’ve begun to appreciate writers who express themselves with the power of brevity.  I recently saw an example of their writing in one of the core tenets of a church near my house:

 

 “In essentials unity, in non-essentials diversity, in all things charity.”   

 

I write about this not to advertise for any religious institution, but rather to express my pure admiration for the simplicity and elegance inherent in this statement of beliefs. 

And when the “H” in charity is swapped out for an “L”, we get:

 

“In essentials unity, in non-essentials diversity, in all things clarity.”    

 

That phrase is the pure, boiled-down essence of strategic speed.  Of course, there’s a lot more to it than that, but what do you expect in less than 140 characters?  To hear more about how top performers in our research attained strategic speed, please attend our webinar (register here), The 10 Ways Fast Companies Accelerate Strategy Execution, October 28th at 11 A.M. EST or November 10th at 10 P.M. EST.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Accelerating Execution | No Comments »

How is Climate Different from Culture, or Engagement?

October 23rd, 2009 by Forum Corporation

by Tom Atkinson

For a recording of the North America and Europe webinar, click here.

Here are some more questions raised by participants in our recent Forum webinar for North America and Europe entitled “Using Climate to Drive Employee Engagement.”  I was joined by climate expert Henry Frechette of Forum and by Joe Price of Aflac—which has recently boosted the performance of its sales force by helping managers shape climate.

How does climate differ from organizational culture?

The concept of organizational climate was developed by George Litwin and Robert Stringer in the late 1970s.  Their goal was to identify factors that made a workplace motivating (or de-motivating) for employees.  They found that an organization’s climate—what it feels like to work in the organization—could be measured.  More importantly, it could be shaped by the manager in a way that increased motivation and improved performance.

Climate differs from culture in that it is much more easily changed.  Think about the tone set by a new manager, for example.  Imagine working on a team whose manager sets a clear direction, encourages members to offer ideas, empowers members to resolve customer problems on the spot, and recognizes members’ accomplishments publicly.  Now imagine a new manager who keeps secrets, shows no interest in team members’ ideas, requires members to seek approval for the smallest decision, and rarely offers praise or recognition.  Not only would team members quickly pick up on the different atmosphere of the second manager, most of them—especially the most talented—would be heading for the exit.

Culture, as opposed to climate, refers to values, norms, beliefs, and other aspects of the organization that tend to be enduring, such as whether it values customer intimacy or product innovation, whether it values individual contribution or team effort, whether its people tend to gather for regular face-to-face meetings or instead work remotely, and whether these people value competition or collaboration.  These cultural factors affect motivation and performance, but they generally take a long time to change.

How does climate differ from employee engagement?

In recent years a lot of attention has been paid to the concept of employee engagement—the extent to which employees show real dedication to their job and exert discretionary effort (as opposed to just showing up—and even being counterproductive).  We know that climate affects motivation directly, and so it sets the stage for employees to become engaged.  If employees find their environment motivating, they are more likely to invest their energy in it and show signs of engagement.

Many companies conduct employee opinion surveys to size up employees’ degrees of satisfaction or engagement.  These surveys ask about a range of things that might affect satisfaction:  physical working conditions, compensation, opportunities for advancement, and so on.  Our research has found consistently that managers have the biggest effect on climate:  about 70 percent of variation in climate scores is attributable to managers’ behaviors.  And so we focus on the manager’s actions as levers for changing climate and conduct surveys that provide managers with information they can use to make immediate meaningful changes.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in climate | No Comments »

How to Measure and Get Buy-in on Climate

October 21st, 2009 by Forum Corporation

by Tom Atkinson

For a recording of the North America & Europe webinar, click here.

I recently hosted a Forum webinar for North America & Europe entitled “Using Climate to Drive Employee Engagement.”  I was joined by climate expert Henry Frechette of Forum and by Joe Price of Aflac—which has recently boosted the performance of its sales force by helping managers shape climate.

The webinar participants represented a range of companies and industries, but almost all were focused on preparing their company to drive growth as the economy improves.  Almost half identified their single greatest challenge as strengthening their relationships with customers or fostering innovation.  And most agreed that establishing the right climate was critical to retaining talented people and delivering on their growth strategies.

Here are some of the questions the participants raised, along with our responses:

How do you get senior management buy-in to climate?

Climate sounds like a “soft” concept.  It can be difficult to get senior managers to pay attention to it at first.  The best way to get their attention is to “connect the dots” to business results.  Decades of research in multiple industries has shown that climate drives motivation and performance.  But rather than simply citing research studies, we recommend you begin with the business strategy and then “work backwards” to determine its implications for managers and employees.  For example, if the company’s goal is to compete through superior service, the only way to achieve it is to create a climate that fosters high levels of customer focus.  Unless managers have the skills and information they need to build a customer-focused work unit, the strategy is at risk.

Climate has some distinct advantages:  it’s fast, it’s cost-effective, and it’s under the control of individual managers.  It does not require widespread organizational change or investments in infrastructure.  The business case for senior managers is they can reduce risk and increase the effectiveness of strategy execution by preparing their managers to shape climate.

How do you measure climate?

Forum’s Climate survey asks employees to describe their actual team climate and also describe an ideal climate, by answering questions that address six dimensions of climate:

  • Clarity: The individual’s understanding of the organization’s goals and policies; the individual’s clarity about his or her job; the individual’s feeling that things are organized, that they run smoothly, that they are not confused.
  • Commitment: Continuing commitment to achieving goals—which is related to the realism of the goals, the individual’s involvement in goal-setting, his or her acceptance of the goals, and continuing evaluation of his or her performance against them.
  • Standards: The emphasis that management puts on setting high standards of performance; pressure to continually improve performance.
  • Responsibility: The feeling of taking personal responsibility for work; the individual’s sense of autonomy—which stems from real delegation and encouragement of his or her initiative.
  • Recognition: The feeling that people are recognized and rewarded for doing good work—as opposed to the feeling that criticism for poor performance is more likely than recognition for good performance.
  • Teamwork: The feeling of belonging to an organization characterized by cohesion, mutual warmth and support, trust, and pride.

The survey also asks employees and managers to rate their manager’s use of a set of management practices that relate to these six dimensions (such as “establishing clear and specific performance goals for people’s jobs”).

Managers receive a Forum feedback report that provides a picture of their team’s current climate, along with guidance on specific practices they should change in order to move the climate in the desired direction.

Whether the company is experiencing dramatic growth or downsizing, managers can use the Climate feedback report to focus their energies in the areas that matter most to their creating a positive and motivating environment.  For example, in a high-growth situation, managers may need to focus on providing high clarity about direction, as well as on encouraging people to take initiative in solving problems for which there are no “problem-solving policies.”  In a downsizing situation, managers may also need to provide clarity about how the team is performing against its goals, along with fostering teamwork and rewarding initiative.

For a recording of the webinar, click here.

Tags: , ,
Posted in climate | No Comments »

To Tweet or Not to Tweet?

October 13th, 2009 by Forum Corporation

by Matthew Allen

Twittering for business: Is it worth it? Okay, so I’m admittedly taking out my paddle here and beating a dead horse. No doubt you have read your share of blog posts on the subject of Twitter—arguably the most prominent and powerful of the Web 2.0 giants that have stormed the social media scene in the past 3 years. At the ripe age of 25 (yup, first-generation Facebook user here), I feel fairly confident in my understanding of the ebbs and flows of social networking. However, only recently, as a Forum employee, have I had the opportunity to tap into the “professional” side of twittering. As I see it, Twitter users generally fall into five categories:

  • The lurker: Either shy, new, or just looking for quality online reading material, the lurker rarely tweets, but instead enjoys the ramblings, perspectives, and nuances of others.
  • The marketer: Whether selling a product, service, or just out for general publicity and popularity, the marketer is constantly tweeting about the latest and greatest happenings in his or her world.
  • The nostalgic: You know the type. Nostalgics want to reconnect with old and new friends alike … by any means possible!
  • The curious (aka the celebrity follower, aka Mom or Dad): The curious have heard about this Twitter thing, but aren’t completely sure what to make of it. They do know, however, that their neighbor told them it would be a good way of keeping tabs on Johnny while he’s off at college.
  • The techie: He or she who claims to know the difference between a petabyte and a mashup. The techie always wants to be involved (and highly knowledgeable about) tech trends and fads.

But what about:

  • The business professional? He or she who doesn’t want to mix business with pleasure, but does think that there’s a real opportunity to connect with colleagues and grow business opportunities through social networking.

 Business execs (outside the Marketing department!) everywhere, whether they admit it or not, have asked themselves the fundamental Twitter question at one point or another: “To Tweet or Not to Tweet?” Generally, this initial question leads to further questions: Do I put in the time to figure out this twittering thing? How do I make it worth my time? What type of return am I looking for? Can I expect a tangible return for my efforts?

A demographic study done by Strategy Labs in 2009showed that almost half (47 percent) of all Twitter users are between the ages of 18 and 34. So does it make sense for the more “polished” types (those who barely have enough time to check their Blackberry in-between meetings) to be tweeting? The answer to this question is not black and white. Despite what many would have you believe, whether to twitter as a “professional” is not a one-size-fits-all decision. If you do decide to make the effort to become a Twitter aficionado, I’ve outlined some guidelines and suggestions that should help in your pursuit of a successful Twitter business account.

  • Maintain a voice: Though every tweet doesn’t need to be about the same industry or subject matter (keeping your followers interested is key!), you do want to come across as somewhat of a subject-matter expert, or at least someone who has a reliable and unfailing opinion or slant.
  • Be consistent: Potentially the most prevalent issue among users worldwide (and maybe the easiest obstacle to overcome) is needing to be consistent with tweeting. In other words, to spark a following, you must be consistent in your tweets. It’s hard to follow (and believe in) someone who only sporadically contributes thoughts and perspectives.
  • Set your goals up front: What are you trying to achieve with this account? When you start with a goal in mind, it becomes much easier to define what you need to be tweeting about to achieve the goal.
  • Think about your audience: Like goals, audiences need to be thought about pre-tweet. In other words, you need to figure out who you are trying to appeal to. What would your desired audience find of interest?

Once you’ve settled on a Twitter business strategy, buckle up and enjoy the ride. You’ve committed to making this social networking thing work, so why not have some fun with it, right?

 Want to keep the conversation going? Follow me on Twitter@maallen15. Looking for more on the people side of strategy execution? Well, then check out @TheForumCorp.

Tags:
Posted in learning | No Comments »