Getting Things Done.

The common theme of the week this week in many of the articles that I read on the web would appear to be about getting things done.  The first common theme that I noticed was two separate articles on using the power of influence to get results.  The two articles, one published by ILM and the other by Booz&Co remind us of the requirement for all managers to develop some influencing skills to get things done.  

In all modern organisational structures we do not have direct line management control over those that we need on our side in order to deliver the goals and targets for which we are responsible.  The need to influence people in other departments or business groups and often at different management levels than ourselves (sideways, upwards and downwards) is a skill that can be learned but requires regular practice.

The two articles are complimentary and cover the do's and don'ts of becoming a good influencer.  Influencing will become much easier when the people you are trying to influence believe that your course of action is the most appropriate to take......and this conclusion will best be reached if there is a healthy mutual respect between you and you shared sense of commitment, loyalty and trust.

Read the ILM Edge Online article "How To Influence" here.

Read the Booz&Co Strategy and Business article "Using Influence To Get Things Done" here.  (Note - you will need to sign up for an account if you don't already have one).

Whilst these first two articles focus on the "softer" side of influencing people to get things done, the third article, again by Booz&Co, approaches the issue from a slightly different stance.  The article features an interview with Adam Kahane, author of Power and Love: A Theory and Practice of Social Change (Berrett-Koehler, 2010) and looks at the balance that high performing leaders must strike between being "people-centric" at one extreme and "goal-centric" at the other.

To quote the article "This is a concept that business leaders need to understand, because in times of crisis (and afterward), the people of an enterprise are put under a great deal of stress. Many people in major corporations today are still wondering if they will lose their jobs. A system that follows only the impulses of compassion and solidarity (which Kahane calls love) will lose its competitiveness; a system that follows only the impulses of resolve and purposefulness (which he calls power) will sacrifice its people heedlessly and risk its capability for growth and recovery. A mix of power and love, however, becomes a stance that a leader can hold, and this stance may, in the end, be the single most important factor in enabling a leader to accomplish great things."

This third article "How to Balance Power and Love" can also be read in full from the Booz&Co Strategy and Business E-Zine.

Health and Safety - Risk Verses Hazard ?

Chris Grayling, the Employment Minister has today announced a number of measures aimed at cutting the bureaucracy of health and safety.  Announcing the changes Grayling suggested that the plans "shift the focus of health and safety activity away from businesses that do the right thing, and instead concentrate efforts on higher risk areas and on dealing with serious breaches of health and safety regulation".

The measures include a register for Health and Safety Consultants to ensure that advice given in this field is better regulated and also a reduction in the number of health and safety inspections carried out in workplaces with the remaining inspections focused upon the "high risk" workplaces.

Press reports can be found <here (Yahoo)> and <here (CIPD)>. 

The roots of these changes date back to the Lord Young report entitled Common Sense - Common Safety which was published last autumn.

Whilst I am a great fan of simplifying systems to make them more helpful to industry and cutting red tape I do have some concerns over these measures and, more specifically, their interpretation.  The key question that I have is the definition of "high risk" workplaces.  Having worked for many years in the chemical industry I am well aware that this industry deals with some fairly significant "hazards" but through tightly controlling their operations the "risk" posed to employees and the public is kept at a very low level.....however the public perception of the industry is still that it is a "high risk" industry. 

A simple search through the Health and Safety Executive's press releases shows that the vast majority of businesses that are taken to court over breaches of health and safety law or as a result of injuries or fatalities to employees are not the "high hazard" industries but normal business such as garages, engineering firms, building sites, haulage depots and the like.  The most common themes would (not unsurprisingly) appear to be working at heights, working with moving vehicles and working with unguarded machinery, issues that are present in the vast majority of UK businesses and all of which have been on the HSE's hit-list over the last few years.

So, coming back to Grayling's quote to "shift the focus of health and safety activity away from businesses that do the right thing, and instead concentrate efforts on higher risk areas and on dealing with serious breaches of health and safety regulation" I can see a major Catch 22 situation.....without inspections being carried out by the HSE, how do you know which business to target?  I hope that the answer will be a practical one and not a political one.

2011 - The Year of Engagement ?

This week my posts seem to be focusing quite heavily upon employee engagement and this is also a central theme in this weeks ILM "Edge" ENewsletter with an article entitled "Time for the Engaging Leader".  The thrust of the article is that in these difficult times it is more important than ever to have your workforce on your side.  To quote the article:

"Gaining the trust and confidence of employees means seeking their views and feedback, understanding any issues they have and seeking to address them. It’s about making open and honest dialogue the cornerstone of a stronger working relationship that will steer the organisation through uncertain times.

This is the time to build or strengthen a culture of real engagement at all levels of the organisation. There’s no doubt that this requires careful handling: leaders must seek to inspire employee confidence and commitment at a time when many uncertainties remain. But unless they realise and respond to the need for more proactive engagement, they will be leaving employee confidence to chance. And that’s too great a risk to take."  

Without doubt, this is a theme that I fully endorse.  Where organisations focus upon engaging their people I find that this release their knowledge and creativity and generates practical and workable ideas and solutions. Not only does this generate better ideas, it ensures that the solutions will have grass roots support at the point of implementation and therefore a strong commitment to make them succeed.

So, to help you succeed in 2011.....are you doing all you can to engage your people ?

Cutting Costs or Cutting Numbers ?

More good stuff from ILM this week on managing the activity of cost reduction.  This weeks Edge Online magazine has a good article on the pros and cons of cutting numbers as part of a cost reduction exercise.  The conclusion (perhaps not unsurprisingly) is to keep numbers and ensure that the workforce are fully engaged in and committed to the cost reduction exercise.

To quote the article:

• "Reducing costs through redundancies can be a false economy, according to Colin Barrow, author of Cut Costs, Not Corners. “Research suggests that it’s moderately ineffective and you end up with a demoralised workforce looking for another job,” he says."
• "It is vital for managers to communicate the business case for making cutbacks to staff. “They should also involve employees in identifying and evaluating the options,” Barrow says. He recommends that managers encourage staff to come up with effective cost-saving ideas that can be implemented."
• "Once the cost-saving areas have been identified, the next stage is implementation. This is where leadership and communication skills come to the fore, says Layman. [Alan Leaman, chief executive of the Management Consultancies Association] “It’s about respectful communications, which are absolutely key to implementation of cutting costs. It’s about getting serious buy-in and consent from employees.”

As I discussed in my post yesterday, difficult times call for strong leadership that knows how to get the best out of the workforce.  Don't alienate your workforce....utilise  them !

Conflict - Avoidance or Management ?

This week the CIPD issued their latest report on Managing Conflict in the Workplace.  (The report can be seen <here>.)

There are a number of very interesting observations in the report which shows that between 2007 (when their previous survey was completed) and 2010 most respondents are saying that there have been sharp rises in the use of disciplinary action, grievance procedures and the use of mediation measures.  The data also shows significant rise in the time taken to prepare Line Managers to handle conflict situations and time taken by HR professionals in helping to troubleshoot in conflict situations.

It is perhaps not entirely surprising that these results coincide with one of the most difficult trading periods that most companies have seen for more than a generation.  The requirement to tighten belts in many organisations has lead to reduced tolerance of poor performance (and corresponding rise in disciplinary action) and also many a hastily implemented organisational change leading to unhappy employees and a rise in grievances.

One very interesting point of note is organisations suggesting an increase of "vexatious claims", people adding on a (false) accusation of discrimination in order to strengthen their grievance or tribunal claim and there is, in fact, little to stop employees doing this and potentially large benefits to be gained if a tribunal can be convinced to find in their favour.  There are strong parallels in Lord Young's report "Common Sense - Common Safety" issued last year in which he suggested a link between the rise in "No Win - No Fee" type litigation as being a driver for more and more companies and organisations to hide behind Health and Safety red tape.

Lord Young's executive summary states "Today accident victims are given the impression that they may be entitled to handsome rewards just for making a claim regardless of any personal responsibility – adding to a real sense that we live in an increasingly litigious society."

The CIPD report also discusses arbitration as a measure to help manage workplace conflict and whilst this has a place I believe that the report focuses too heavily on retrospective measures.....things to be done AFTER a conflict has arisen.  What can companies do to AVOID conflict ?  Even in difficult times, the likelihood of conflict within an organisation becoming a significant issue can be minimised by good leadership that includes active employee communication and engagement.  I do not suggest that good leaders can turn bad news into good, but they can ensure that the impact of bad news is effectively managed such that the negative impact is controlled and minimised.

Are your managers ready for this challenge ?

The Rise of Generation C

If you have not yet heard the term “Generation C” then you need to sit up and take note.  Generation C is the term given to people who live their lives through the internet…..connected, communicating and computerized.  LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are just the beginning!

As a rule, Generation C people were born after 1990 and by 2020, they are predicted to make up 40% of the population in the US, Europe and the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China).  By then, they will constitute the largest single group of consumers worldwide and they will be taking a more and more significant position within the business community as employees and managers.

How will employers need to change to accommodate this increase in Generation C staff?  How will commerce be affected?

Booz & Company recently produced a very good report on the rise and rise of Generation C in their Strategy & Business online magazine.  Read it <here>.

(Note – You may need to sign up for an account…..it is worth it as they produce some very good reports!)