Better appraisals might raise your teams’ performance
Posted by Grant Brewer
I recently completed a performance review cycle and was left thinking about how much room for improvement there is in the processes we commonly follow in organisations when we try to evaluate people's performance, yet how important the results are to those being reviewed. Almost every organisation has performance reviews and their lack of success and lack of popularity is almost as universal.
Performance management seems to suffer from too much process. It is common to see organisations start off with a good process through which they manage the performance of employees and teams. It is also common to see those previously effective processes become increasingly bureaucratic and ineffective over time.
However, having no process at all might not be the best option either. With no process at all, you risk running into inconsistency and possible unfairness. Since as a leader it is your responsibility to establish a basis for selecting, developing and directing people in your organisation - the so called "talent" that became such a common way to describe people during the internet-era in the late nineties.
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management (3) | performance, (1) | performance (1) | appraisal, (1) | team, (1) | employee, (1)
Innovative strategy is more than passion
Posted by Grant Brewer
It is not unusual to see organisations that are struggling because they allow the passion and the belief in a new idea to masquerade as strategy. It is true that new ideas will almost always fail unless someone has the passion and the belief in the idea to stay with it through all the challenges. However, fresh ideas and people that are passionate about them are not uncommon, yet successful businesses built on these same ideas are a lot less common.
Innovation is more than ideas. Re-inventing an industry or a product category takes more than research and a fresh take on the business model. Managing innovation and implementing new business models is notoriously difficult -- regardless of whether you're an established business, a new business unit or a start up company. It is a common mistake to assume that sheer passion and belief will bring a strategy to life. New ideas need the passion and the belief -- they also need good strategy, leadership and implementation.
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Essays | Strategy | Intelligence Strategym
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implementation (10) | strategy (8) | leadership (7) | innovation (3) | management (3) | change (3) | project portfolio (1) | passion (1)
Freeing information from autocracy & over control
Posted by Grant Brewer
It is always striking how difficult it is to get hold of information from an organisation as a customer, or even as an employee. It is not unusual to be chased from call centre agent to call centre agent as you try to determine an accurate and truthful answer to your questions. Just as common is the employee that struggles to find the correct information such as the most up to date report or a contract. In today's post-information age, getting access to data in organisations shouldn't be this difficult. People have got used to the ease with which they find information with tools such as Google, and this expectation has got to be translated into organisations. Freeing information is about treating customers and employees as partners and with respect. It is about allowing them the freedom to define their own contribution to your organisation as either a customer or an employee.
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Essays | Strategy | Intelligence Strategym
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management (3) | information (2) | transparency (1) | access to information (1) | freedom (1)