STUCK WITH TALENT THAT JUST WON’T GROW UP?

- Then Ditch Boomer Thinking in Favour of X-er Integration -

Diversity, innovation, six sigma, decentralisation, Jack Welch’s 70/20/10, Kai-Zen, Feng Shui. All of these (and others) are strategic focus areas that most companies have invested large amounts of resource and energy into with the intention of creating a distinctive value proposition. But the significant focus of the day has shifted and thanks to ‘The War for Talent’ – a well-written research document – ‘Talent’ has taken centre stage on the organisational agenda of precedence.

In a globalising world, with a shortage of numbers in the developed world, and a shortage of skills in the developing world, it’s right to ensure the attraction and retention of the best possible people inside of an organisation. Along with this and its associated challenges is the emergence of a new ‘kind’ of worker. From a values perspective they have been described as Generation X, with Generation Y following on their heels. A fundamental building block in engaging with the skills shortage crisis, is understanding these generations – specifically their value system and worldview. The challenge lies in building the best possible model to ‘attract, recruit and get the best from them’.

What then, is the younger set of today looking for? Insightful observations that can act as signposts include:

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Developing Corporate Leaders

The process of developing leaders for the corporate world has to undergo a radical transformation. Old mindsets and methodologies, the tried and tested will fail dismally to produce leaders capable of leading into the future.

In a world that is getting ever smaller cultures collide with increasing frequency. In this world of radical indeterminacy, paradox, diversity and acute uncertainty, leadership needs to transcend local context. In short, the ‘global leadership’ template is being re-written. Relying on what has worked in the past will be the surest recipe for failing in the future and avoiding this fatality requires a radical overhaul of our understanding of the context, task, challenge and measure of the corporate leader. Or in the words of Kenichi Ohmae in his book, The Next Global Stage,”Over the last two decades, the world has changed substantially. The economic, political, social, corporate, and personal rules that now apply bear scant relation to those applicable two decades ago. Different times require a different script.”

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Generation Y studied by Economist Business Intelligence Unit

One of the most common criticisms of generational theory is that it is nothing much more than pop psychology. While it is true that many people use generational theory in its crudest forms, applying it when all they know about it is what they heard in a one hour keynote session at a conference, this does not mean that the theory itself has no substance. It is also true that some people use it as a “blunt instrument” – applying it with no regard to other dynamics and segmentation models. Again, just because some people use it badly, doesn’t discredit the theory itself.

There are many formal research projects on generations, and almost all of them confirm the basic theory and its findings. A recent study now focuses on the younger generation, known as Generation Y. The global survey was conducted by the Economist Business Intelligence Unit and Genesys, an Alcatel-Lucent company. It looked at how consumers born between 1982 and 2001 will impact the customer experience, asking C-level and senior executives from around the world how they are creating a customer experience to attract and retain Millennials. Of the 164 executives who took part in the survey, 29% came from North America, 31% from Europe, 30% from Asia-Pacific and 10% from the rest of the world. Participants represented 19 different industries. One-third of respondents’ organisations had annual revenue greater than US$1 billion and just over one-half (51%) had less than US$500 million in revenue. Board members and CEOs comprised 30% of respondents. CFOs, CTOs and other C-level executives made up an additional 19%. The remainder was split among other senior and middle management functions.

The headline results and executive summary of the findings is very interesting:
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“Flowing” at work

Most sportsmen display passion and disciplined concentration. If cyclists, runners, tennis players, golfers and swimmers feel focused, inspired and energized by their jobs, why can’t people get that in their normal day jobs too? Why is the sporting world any different to the business world? Is that feeling reserved for sports people only or can other professions such as nurses, lawyers, accountants and secretaries feel it too?

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In Turbulent Times, People Matter

Now more than ever you need well trained, passionate staff, focused on delivering consistent, high quality service and products. Yet, just when you need them to be most passionate and focused, many companies are finding that their people are demotivated and distracted, especially their younger staff members. Getting the most out of them requires a changed mindset and improved management skills that every leader would do well to understand.

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Trends affecting the future of work

I found an excellent blog entry that goes into some detail about the process of developing scenarios for the future. It is entitled: “A Framework to Forecast the Future of Working“. (PS, my friend, Clem Sunter is one of South Africa’s top scenario planners, having spent most of his career being paid to do this at Anglo American. His website is one of the best on the issue: Mind of a Fox, and his books are superb).

I thought you might find the analysis of future trends at the “Future of Working” website interesting:

Gutenberg Take Two

It started with Gutenberg’s printing press, the ability to mass communicate information in the form of books and newspapers, a changing of people’s view of the world. Gutenberg is credited with enabling the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, and the Protestant Reformation (Harry Ransom Centre, 2008). Once again the availability of information has taken on a new level fuelled by the Internet. It is providing mass communication between everyone on the plant. Today we are going through the same quantum of change as the world did starting in the 1400s with the advent of the printing press. Kevin Kelly predicted back in 1997 that this level of change will be “momentous” and explained how the underlying driver of this was communication;
“The great irony of our times is that the era of computers is over. All the major consequences of stand-alone computers have already taken place. Computers have speeded up our lives a bit, and that is it. In contrast all the most promising technologies making their debut now are chiefly due to communications between computers – that is, to connections rather than to computations. And since communications is the basis of culture, fiddling at this level is indeed momentous.” (Kelly, 1997, page 140)

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ROWEing business towards success

Picture this:

You don’t have to get up at the crack of dawn every morning.  You can have a lie in.  If you don’t feel like commuting into work, don’t.  Go shopping, go to the movies, visit a friend or do some housework.  Only work when you feel like it.  As long as you achieve the work results that are expected of you, your time is your own.  Spend quality time with your family and friends, finish your chores and admin, focus on your hobbies while delivering good results and advancing your career.  You have work life balance and the company also prospers.  Everyone lives happily ever after.

A fairy tale? Bliss?  Utopia?  This is a true story.  It is called a ROWE and it works at Best Buy.  ROWE is a Results Only Work Environment.  In fact, it works so well that Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson, who implemented the system at Best Buy, have written a book to encourage other companies to do it too.  Their book is called ‘Why Work Sucks and How To Fix It.’

It is not pie-in-the-sky stuff.  People are talking more and more about focusing on outputs, results only and giving the new work force the freedom and flexibility which they seem to crave.  In the new world of work, more power is clearly devolving from the organisation to individuals because workers control the most lucrative means of production – their brains.  Leading management thinkers have predicted that temporary networks of talented people to work on projects will be more productive than the hierarchical, command and control hierarchy that characterized the industrial age workplace.   If this is how the world of work will look, then a move towards a results only work environment could be very effective.

Pictures of Amazon’s distribution centre in the UK

I love Amazon because it is so convenient and easy.  I can order books in three clicks of my mouse and the package is dropped through my door two days later.

Ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes?  Look at these ten pictures on the Guardian’s website.

The Net Generation: The kids are alright, OK?

In the latest edition of The Economist, there is a news of a massive research project recently completed on how the Net impacts kids.  It’s well worth reading, and supports the conclusions my co-author, Nikki Bush and I put in my latest book, “Future-Proof Your Child“. 

The net generation
The kids are alright

Nov 13th 2008
From The Economist print edition

WORRIES about the damage the internet may be doing to young people has produced a mountain of books—a suitably old technology in which to express concerns about the new. Robert Bly claims that, thanks to the internet, the “neo-cortex is finally eating itself”. Today’s youth may be web-savvy, but they also stand accused of being unread, bad at communicating, socially inept, shameless, dishonest, work-shy, narcissistic and indifferent to the needs of others.

 The man who christened the “net generation” in his 1997 bestseller, “Growing Up Digital”, has no time for such views. In the past two years, Don Tapscott has overseen a $4.5m study of nearly 8,000 people in 12 countries born between 1978 and 1994. In “Grown Up Digital” he uses the results to paint a portrait of this generation that is entertaining, optimistic and convincing. The problem, he suspects, is not the net generation but befuddled baby-boomers, who once sang along with Bob Dylan that “something is happening here, but you don’t know what it is”, yet now find that they are clueless about the revolutionary changes taking place among the young.

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Hot, Flat and Crowded

I am a big fan of Thomas Friedman.  He wrote the bestseller ‘The World is Flat’ and has recently published a new book called, ‘Hot, Flat and Crowded’. 

Follow this link to an hour-long presentation by Thomas Friedman. I read ‘Hot, Flat and Crowded’ in two weeks so, if you don’t have time on your hands, I highly recommend you watch this talk.  It is a fascinating, thought-provoking study of petropolitics, climate change, globalization and other similar themes.

On Saturday, I went to the local shopping mall in Wimbledon, London.  The central heating was so hot that it gave me a headache and I started to sweat in my big anorak.  The temperature of the entire centre is regulated centrally.rent a car bulgaria  While in the hair salon, I noticed it was a little cooler.  My hairdresser explained why – the air conditioner was on.  So the mall turns up the heating and the individual shops turn up their air conditioners. I am now writing to the mall management to complain about the unnecessary waste of precious energy and that is thanks to the insight I got from Thomas Friedman’s book.  It explained the implications of a hot, flat and crowded world and it scares me.  It will scare you too.

People Matter

Organisations get results when individuals, equipped with the right skills, are energized to do the right things at the right time. 

Keith Malo (Researcher at AchieveGlobal)

In the 21^st century, people matter.  In an economic downturn, people matter more than ever.

People matter because they put an organisation’s goals and strategy into action.  Ultimately people deliver results and they can get things done.  Many business leaders find this hard to accept because people are so difficult to understand and control.  But whether you like it or not, people affect your profitability, quality, customer service, productivity and economic resilience in a very big way.

When people are productive, they deliver results.  People will behave in a productive way if:

a. they know what you want them to do and why,       
b. they have the ability or potential ability to do want you ask and
c. they care about achieving the goal. 

You can’t control people but you can control the environment in which they work.  Behavioural researchers have proved the work environment plays a significant part in how people behave.

When implementing your plan of action for the tough period ahead, follow these steps:

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Recent media and web references

TomorrowToday UK and Graeme Codrington’s presentations have recently been commented on in the media and on blogs.  Here is a selection:

• Graeme interviewed for Management Issues podcast, on generational changes, the US election and managing young people. Listen to it here.
• Report back on sessions held at the Academy for Chief Executives.  Read it here.
• “Blanket advice ‘will not fill generation gaps’” on Citywire – read it here.
• The launch of Graeme’s new book in South Africa, “Future-Proof Your Child: Parenting the Wired Generation”.  Read it here.
• An hour long interview on ClassicFM with Dori-Anne Weill, on the launch of Graeme’s book, and how different generations deal with stress.  Listen to the hour long interview here.

What Consumers Really Think of Green PR

Here’s a great little entry from BNET Insights – read it here.

Here’s a quiz: which of the following environmental terms resonates most strongly with consumers:

Personality tests are missing something …

Don’t underestimate the power that the environment at your office has on the way people behave.

A group of social scientists, led by Philip Zimbardo, did an experiment in the early 1970’s.  They created a mock prison in the basement of Stanford University.  The cells looked completely authentic.  These scientists wanted to assess want makes prisons such horrible places. Was it the people that made it so awful or was it the environment that made the people become more horrible?

Zimbardo and his team hired 75 volunteers and split the people so some acted as prisoners and others were wardens.  Most of the volunteers described themselves as passive, self-controlled, happy people.  They were supposed to live in this prison for 14 days so that the scientists could monitor their behaviour.  After 6 days, the situation became so intense that Zimbardo had to call off the experiment.

The mock prison became so aggressive and it made previously controlled and passive people lose the plot.  They had to stop the experiment to avoid serious harm to the “prisoners” and “guards”.  The “guards” became increasingly abusive and sadistic and the “prisoners” were becoming more rebellious and unruly.

This experiment revealed some fascinating things about our character.  Zimbardo’s conclusion was that sometimes a situation is so powerful that it causes people to ignore their inherent predispositions.  Genetic predispositions and the environment in which you grow up form your character.  But, as Malcolm Gladwell says in his book The Tipping Point, ‘character is more like a bundle of habits and tendencies and interests, loosely bound together and dependent, at certain times, on circumstance and context.  The reason that most of us seem to have a consistent character is that most of us are really good at controlling our environment.’

I can personally relate to this.  I consider myself extremely honest and so are my friends.  I live in Raynes Park in London and it is a short train ride to the Wimbledon Tube.  There are no barriers at Raynes Park and so it is easy to slip on the train without paying.  I am shocked that some of my honest friends have done this and it scares me that I have vaguely contemplated it.  Our environment – no barriers – has made a few of my friends behave in ways I would never have predicted.

So you never know how people will behave when confronted with a certain situation or when they are not able to control aspects of their environment.  Personality tests give you insight into a person but they don’t convey the full picture …

President Obama – a surprise?

At our company, TomorrowToday, we track trends and try and make informed predictions about the future of work.  Recently, my colleague, Keith Coats, was traveling through the USA and was asked what “the world” thought about the elections.  His answer was that most international observers were surprised and concerned that Senator Obama was not predicted to win by a landslide.  That there was even a thought that another Republican, especially a war-mongering one who was trying to win by appealing to very conservative parts of “middle America”, even had a chance was a scary thought.

Of course, one of the issues is that America has not yet dealt with its racial history.  Even this morning, as Barack Obama’s landslide is now a reality, it is clear that he won less votes in the Southern States than any of the previous five Democractic candidates for President have done.  But that is another thought for another day.

This post is just to say: well done President-elect Obama!  Bring on the change.

Its also to say: we told you so.  I hope this doesn’t sound like many of the TV “political analysts” currently flooding the 24-hour news channels and sounding as if the results were assured.  But, its not easy being a futurist.  By the time you need your invoice paid, the future is not yet assured.  By the time your predictions come true, people have forgotten you made them.  So, unfortunately, we do have to sometimes say, “we told you so” just to remind people that we did actually spot the trends and call it correctly.

Those who know our work will know that even before Obama beat Clinton for the Democratic nomination, I was predicting a landslide win for Barack Obama.  Part of this prediction relied on the desire for change evidenced in all major democracies in recent months.  Part of the prediction relied on the fact that we have predicting some form of economic correction for some time (I wish we had been able to predict the timing and severity of the current downturn), part of it was that if and when the debate turned from international issues (America’s euphemism for foreign military interventions) to national issues (euphemism for America’s economy and self-interested self-interests), and another part was the impact of the generations (age) of each of the candidates on the voters, and a final piece of the puzzle was the new “Generation Y” voters who came out to campaign and vote in record numbers.

Obama by a landslide.  Not a surprise to us.  But certainly a relief that it is now reality.  America – the ever changing, ever adapting nation – is once again forever changed.