DDI’s Talent Management Intelligence

Driving and Sustaining the Work Revolution

By Barry Stern

Part Two: In Part 1 of this series, newly published author of The Work Revolution: Freedom and Excellence for All and Google alum Julie Clow made the case for why we need a workplace revolution.  In this second part of our discussion, I asked Julie to provide some practical tips for revolutionizing the workplace.  First, I asked her to comment on a very hot topic in the corridors of DDI and with many of our clients – innovation. I asked Julie for her perspective on what we can do to drive innovation.

 

The notion of creating an “idea-testing rather than an idea-judging culture” resonates strongly for me, and yet I am struck by how few leaders I’ve known through the years seem truly dedicated to creating the space for their folks to do just that without some fear of repercussion.  And breaking down the walls between organizational silos, sometimes even between cubes, is something many leaders at all levels seem to recognize and seek to impact.  Digging in further to the role of leaders, I was curious to gain Julie’s perspective on what leader actions it takes to drive a workplace revolution.

  

DDI has been espousing the notion of leaders “seeking” vs. “telling” for many years; however Julie’s words emphasize the aggregate strength in tapping into the collective energy and ideas of our employees.  And to leaders in the “never-off” world to which she refers in her book, it is easy to see why Julie would turn to the notion of prioritization as so critical.  

It struck me as our discussion unfolded that it would be interesting to get Julie’s take on what the role of HR might be in the Revolution, so that was where I turned to next.

   

So for Julie, it would appear the primary role of HR in this regard is to be the “culture carrier” and to put in place tools, systems, skills, and communications that support the more open culture she is asking us to create.  And, speaking of culture, I couldn’t help but wonder about what it was like to be inside the presumably open culture of Google.  Is it in fact that “revolutionized workplace” that we think it to be? We’ll get a peek inside the Google culture in the final installment of our discussion with Julie Clow coming up in the next week or so.

“Flattened” The Role of Today’s Middle Manager, from The Conference Board Review

"Does anyone ever dream of becoming a middle manager? Today’s middle managers don’t resemble those of workplaces past. Largely due to organizational flattening and decentralization, modern-day middle managers are being asked to do more than their predecessors with fewer resources."

In The Conference Board Review, DDI’s Tacy Byham, Ph.D discusses how this trend impacts today’s organizations and what can be done to prepare middle managers for the future. Below is an excerpt from the article, click on the title to read the full story.

Flattened: We ask too much of middle managers

Middle management is an awful phrase. No child dreams of growing up to be a middle manager. No child has ever dreamed of growing up to be a middle manager.

That doesn’t mean middle management has always been denigrated. For most of the history of large companies, middle managers were seen as vital—indeed, they were the people who basically ran the place. Rising up the corporate ladder, rung by rung, offered opportunities for increased responsibility and, importantly, put countless businessmen and their families on a path to the upper middle class.

 

Read the full article here

Fear of Failure: Lessons learned at Bersin Impact conference

By Jennifer Pesci-Kelly

What does agility mean for the talent industry? In a space where we thrive on process, measurement and discipline, how does agility fit into the mix? Josh Bersin kicked off the annual Impact conference with a challenge to all attendees to be more agile when it comes to talent to achieve organizational innovation. No one will deny that innovation is the key to the kingdom, but that mindset shift takes more than a line in a corporate vision statement. We heard over the course of the week about overhauling performance discussions, developing leaders as quickly as business is moving, and extending your leadership brand globally. The presentations focused on the willingness to throw out initiatives that aren’t working and to shift priorities to meet the needs of the business.

The final keynote gave everyone permission to experiment, to innovate, and even to fail while we’re doing it. Author Olivia Fox Cabane spoke about the mental side of innovation and the permission to fail.  

On the surface, failure is in direct conflict with the idea of a high performance culture. But Cabane pointed out that you have to remove the stigma of what it means to fail, because if you are going to innovate, you are going to fail. Most innovations are actually a succession of iterations of an idea—not a single breakthrough. (This really stuck with me that we’re not trying to come to that single brilliant idea, which makes innovation a bit more approachable). So at an organizational level, it’s not just about creating an openness to new ideas, but an acceptance of failure.

Cabane concluded with the idea that leaders have a direct influence on shifting the innovation mindset, and it comes down to their charisma and how it can feed into the spirit of innovation—or the crippling of innovation. We know many leaders who have charisma, but do they all drive innovation? She points out that there are different ingredients in charisma and it can be learned (Steve Jobs learned charisma piece by piece to build the charismatic profile he finally achieved to be the innovation leader of Apple). But with the ingredients of charisma, there are also types of charisma. For example, while authoritative charisma is great in a crisis, it is stifling for innovation. It’s visionary charisma that will feed the acceptance of new ideas.

But the key is that leaders can shift the way they lead, the way they listen, respond to ideas, relate to their teams and give permission to fail to feed organizational agility—and the innovation journey.

What do you think? Can a high performance culture make peace with—even embrace—failure? Share your thoughts in the comment section.

Starting the Work Revolution

By Barry Stern, Ph.D.

Part One: About two years ago, while at a conference, I figured I’d spend an hour listening to Julie Clow (then Director of Learning and Development at Google) to find out how she and Google approached the L&D function.  Afterwards, feeling inspired by her perspective, I put some of my reactions down in a TMI blog entry. Fast forward to today, and I’m proud to call Julie a friend and colleague, whose perspectives continue to push me to be circumspect about, as Julie might say, “This thing we call work.”  And so, when Julie informed me she was writing a book and asked me to offer feedback on formative drafts as well as write a sidebar I was ready to dig in with gusto.  And this week, Wiley has released her inspirational book, The Work Revolution: Freedom and Excellence for All. 

Armed with video cam, I sat down with Julie in DDI’s New York office and asked her to provide us some thoughts as well as extemporaneously expand on some themes from the book.   First I asked her, “What is this work revolution and why do we need it?”  Listen as she talks about the evolution of the workplace and the logic for invoking some “new rules.”

 

Of course, we all function in complex environments, many of them with long and hallowed histories, so I put the question to Julie, “How can one spark a revolution – while still staying true to company values and not incidentally losing one’s job?”

 

The notion of many small efforts reflects more of a day to day attitude towards work rather than getting too attached to any one idea which may or may not take off.  However, over time, were everyone to take more of the freedom they have to try new ideas, culture overall would certainly change, so that’s where I went with the next question. 

 

What can you do every day that will impact your company’s culture, even in small ways? You’ll hear more on this topic and others, including a peek inside the Google culture, in two more video blogs over the next few weeks.  Check back soon!

U.S. Manufacturers Are Hurting Themselves by the Way They Hire

The United States is at a dangerous juncture: Manufacturing jobs are on the rise, but the growth is still fragile. Given the hypercompetitive nature of global manufacturing, it wouldn't take much to kill this momentum and put the U.S. back to where it was a couple of years ago. That's why it's critical for American manufacturers to maximize the return on all their assets — including their workforces.

U.S. manufacturers have always been at the forefront in making efficient use of physical capital, but human capital is a different story.

Read the entire blog on HBR Blog Network

The Leadership Journey…Part II

By Mark Dembo

In Part I of this series, I wrote about the beginning of my journey moving from an individual contributor to a leader.  Now, several months into my new role, the assessment is that the transition has been both much easier and harder than I expected!   How is that possible, you ask – which is it?  As a leader, surely you need to be more committal than that, you say!

Well, let me provide some context.  I recently had the opportunity to speak with DDI VP Matt Paese and gain some of his insights into the trials and tribulations of leader transitions.   He helped to identify four key areas that would be important for me to focus on to make a successful transition and set the stage to be an effective leader for my team.

1.      Building the RIGHT networks; the networks to succeed as a leader can be very different than the networks I build in my role as an individual contributor.  Even while many of the players may be the same, the nature of my interactions with them could very well take on a different tone.   As Michael Watkins writes:  “Because you think you know everyone and everyone thinks they know you, it's easy to miss the fact that all your existing work relationships were shaped, in part, by the role that you previously played.”

2.      Coaching: perhaps the most important area for a leader is to successfully and PROACTIVELY coach the team for success.  This means more than just being the cheerleader, it’s getting to know each team member on a deep level – their strengths, their development needs, their career goals and aspirations, what motivates them and what de-motivates them – and then being the catalyst to help them achieve and perform.  

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3.      Recognizing that this transition is a two-way street.  The team is going through as much of a transition as I am.   They know me in my old role; but they may be unsure how will I be as a leader.  What will they need to know about me, and how I operate?  How is my style different than my predecessor?  Just as I am trying to figure all of this out, so too are they.

4.      Seek and act-on, real-time, in the moment feedback.   For me to adjust and adapt my style – and to get to know the team – I need to seek out and ask for their direct feedback, and create the safe environment in which they can feel comfortable to provide that to me.

In my conversation with Matt Paese, we agreed that while all of these areas are important, addressing my skills and abiltiies in coaching,  and establishing my role as coach with the team would accomplish several objectives.  It reinforces the new nature of my relationship with the team, it helps the team get better at what they do, and it signals my intentions and expectations of them and of how I will be as a leader.  

Mark Dembo is a Business Development Manager for DDI's Northeast District.

What Does March Madness Tell us About Leadership Promotions?

Bradford Thomas, Product Manager

Being from Kentucky—where we have no professional sports teams—March Madness rises to a whole different level. It’s our Super Bowl, our World Series and our Stanley Cup. Don’t believe me? Check out
this blog on ESPN.

The annual NCAA Basketball Bracket pool turns everyone into water cooler prognosticators. Annual bragging rights in the office pool centers on your ability to amass a lot of points by picking the early round upsets. For those novices reading this blog, it means picking lower skilled teams (10-16 seeds) over much more talented teams (1-4 seeds).

But does this phenomenon occur in the business world? You bet your college mascot it does.

Read the entire blog on Great Leadership.