Some learning from Last Week's Australian Open Finals!

Some learning's from today's Australian Open Match Roger Federer Versus Rafael Nadal (29 Jan 2017)

1. You don't have to be top seed to deliver top performance. You just have to give your best shot

2. Whatever be the position always remember the opponent has some new trick coming up. Keep your eye on the target (ball) always. The shot in the unexpected direction is when you lose the point.

3. Whatever the rivalry and intense competition a fair game with full involvement is loved by all.

4. Respect your opponent. At time of shaking hands on winning the tournament the two players displayed lots of professionalism in the manner which they shook hands and rubbed shoulders.

5. Age is no bar for performance. Even in a competitive sport like Tennis we are inclined to believe that you have to push the envelope after 28 or 29 but today the champion beat the opponent at the age of 35 to bridge this record after over 40 years.

6. Being humble makes others respect your leadership. Federer referred to the concept of draw and said that if such a thing existed in tennis he would love to share the same with Nadal. So much respect for the opponent.

And of course...as one of the anchors put it

No better Reality TV than Sports

For more blog posts and views

Even Inventing is a process.

Your attitude will get you there..

Performance Management: Misconceptions and Realities

Wishing you a very happy year 2017.  This is going to be a milestone year for HR and Performance Management in particular. Performance management is at a stress point.  Fissures have been visible over the past 2 to 3 years and the cracks are now being acknowledged by company after company that gave up their existing ways of doing things when it comes to managing performance The popular press (sic !! Experts on social media) and also the fourth estate makes it look like companies are abandoning the appraisal process.  Look at below four examples among hundreds of misleading titles and excerpts "Microsoft and Dell are ditching employee performance reviews" (Source) . "Similar to the visionary Adobe and Accenture are dumping and redesigning annual performance reviews, Deloitte long knew that their old performance management approach neither boosted employee engagement nor high performance."  (Source) Reinventing the Wheel: How companies like GE, Adobe, and Deloitte get rid of the performance review with one on ones   (Source) Starting September, multinational management consulting firm Accenture will officially get rid of its performance reviews as part of a “massive revolution” in internal operations. (Source) One would get an impression that companies are giving up the performance review process. Managers and employees are saying "Ahaa.. finally we don't have to go through the boring motions of appraisals" In fact the opposite is true. Companies are not giving up rather they are making it more focused, more relevant and more aligned to the business.  This will actually mean managers, employees and leadership will have to spend more time, undivided attention and bring in more rigor into the process The systems will have to be more agile,  fact based,  evidence driven and outcome focused.  All this will mean more work.   Remember what gets focus gets attention and what gets attention gets done. That's exactly what's happening. Lets look at what will change. 1. Goal setting and reviews will be more frequent.  Biannual,  Half yearly etc will now become monthly, quarterly and feedback will kick in more often than ever experienced except at some very agile (few that may be countable on your fingers) organizations 2. Discussions will be more focused on all round focus of development,  performance. More evidence based data driven scenarios have to come into the picture.  Focus will not only have to be on what was achieved but also why and how.  (means to the end more relevant in a performance driven organization) 3. More stakeholders will need to validate the performance outcomes and specially the focus on process (why and how) .   Peer reviews, customer feedback (internal), stakeholder surveys etc will be more commonly used in organizations. 4. With the five digital forces staring at us from all sides, a data driven analytics based approach to data will be the key way in the future.  This is so true as my favorite quote I use in my PM sessions.  "In general we can argue but with data we can dialogue".  When we have a data driven approach dissonance will be low and both outcome like engagement and productivity will see a positive shift. 5. One on one's will be key: in the days to come.  The one on one's will focus on key issues relevant to the day to day job and core need of the individual employees when it comes to his or her work. This would mean that work gets discussed in context of how it gets executed removing the uncertainties, addressing the stumbling blocks and getting things to move forward for the organization Thus we can say that performance reviews are only going to transform and not vanish.  Time will show who stands out. Organizations that understand it and take it seriously will surely stand strong vis a vis the also rans who try quick fix and patchy solutions to the key DNA of the organization (Managing Performance)

Vital 3 elements for career management

Organizations are often interested in designing career management or career progression frameworks, Whatever be the sophistication that you want to build into it there are three basic factors that must go in to the design considerations to ensure that from a people perspective these systems can attain desired success (goals of your framework or system).

a) What the individual wants (Aspiration)

b) What he / she brings to the table (capability or Competency)

c) What the organization wants (Need)

If you have an imbalance or misalignment between these three you are bound to fail in meeting either the individual or organizational need

For simplicity call them ACN.

The three need to be in alignment for an kind of successful program you want to drive. If you have identified A and C but there is no N then for the organization there is no meaning to invest in the same.

Similarly if individual wants A and there is N but no C then it is a decision about whether to Train and Build and at what Cost.

Organization may have the N and individual the C but the individual has a different A then you run the risk of losing the employee so look for other individuals with the same A.

Pretty Simplistic indeed, but in hindsight doesn't everything look so.  

Knowledge Management,How HR can Influence

In an earlier post I had written about Knowledge Management and how it is relevant today and can't be ignored in the context of today's business.  Read Here.

In this post I will try to explore how HR can play a role in facilitating knowledge management.  While the context may be more specific to services industries it can be extended to any other industry.

As companies have diversified and spread their operations across geographical and state boundaries and as technology has provide ample ways to stay connected and share work seamlessly, it is very common to find teams working across multiple locations requires remote teams to come together and deliver solutions and it is here that knowledge management processes play a key role in the collaborative effort.   In such an environment the willingness of team members (employees in general)  the aspect of give and take needs to be forthcoming.  The willingness is addressed by driving the culture of sharing and caring.  Explained below, are seven areas of influence whereby  the HR function can play an important role in enabling learning and sharing knowledge through a collaborative effort.

Creating a Culture for Knowledge Sharing

Espoused Value of Learning & Sharing: HR Should Influence That

As highlighted earlier, culture plays a significant part in ensuring sustenance of the knowledge management effort.   The effort to create a culture of learning and sharing starts right from the directional strategy of the company. The organization should design and deploy experiential and cognitive learning programs  throughout the year to sharpen the understanding of the core values of the organization understand how learning and sharing as a value is manifest in resultant behaviors and to  percolate the values into day to day working.  Through these programs employees can be made ready to deal with situations when there is a defocus or a deviation from the very values you want to promote and instill among your teams.  The knowledge management efforts get a key boost through the value of  Learning & Sharing.   Apart from a pivotal role of being custodians of the processes to ensure value adherence  HR can play a key role in embedding the knowledge sharing culture by reinforcing this in induction and hiring process.  

Create a Knowledge Sharing Platform

HR can influence knowledge sharing through appropriate reward and recognition programs that Communities of Expertise (CoE’s) can aspire for and thereby bring together people working on related areas of functional and technical expertise.  These can be areas for e.g. Engine Optimization and tuning in an automobile company,  or infection prevention post surgery in a hospital ICU, or process throughput design in a process plant.

Apart from sharing explicit and tacit knowledge the CoE’s also help in creation of knowledge assets and artifacts like case studies,  white papers, Points of view etc.  Some companies have even gone to the extent of aggregating these expertise platforms and created learning universities or knowledge universities that drive creation and sustenance of knowledge within the organizations.

HR needs to implement a structure to sustain these knowledge platforms by designing appropriate governance structures and putting right kind of metrics in place to drive effective implementation and roll out.  These kind of processes and structures are not easy to copy and duplicate.  It is culture specific and driven by the fact that the substance is more important than the form that these systems take.

Capability Building

In a diversified multilocation organization dispersed organization learning will be effective only if it reaches the audience irrespective of time, space and distances.   HR Technology enablement  focus should ensure the deployment of learning through e-Learning modules accessible seamlessly across the globe.  Technology today can ensure right access to learning modules, libraries and other learning platforms that are accessible across the globe and available real time to employees.  

Compliance and Intellectual Property

Another important role for HR is by being an integral part of addressing any issues on violations of  knowledge copy rights and intellectual property. Any transgression or violations are addressed and necessary action is taken by the company's Ethics Redressal Committee of which HR is usually a key governance stakeholder.   The HR team should ensure  that principles of natural justice are followed during any such scrutiny in alignment with the corporate guidelines on value and ethics. 

Staffing & Resourcing Intelligence

One of the key areas by which HR can influence knowledge management is by ensuring  visibility on availability of right competencies across businesses and ensure staffing on a real time basis.   HR can also play a pivotal role in creating this internal system that provides various resourcing and staffing managers and business leaders with information on the availability of right resources and capabilities that are required for the delivery of customers’ business requirements. 

Facilitator & User

While HR plays a role in enabling knowledge sharing, the HR function is also a significant user of  the knowledge management framework and infrastructure.  All HR communication to the associates on various organizational policies, processes,  procedures,  change initiatives etc, are communicated through multiple collaboration mechanisms such as Email,  Bulletin Boards on the intranet, web chat tools,  the Knowledge Management portal etc.  There is a significant use of collaborative tools such as Pod Cast and Webcast Sessions for sharing and communicating information on real time basis with participants across the globe and these are extensively used by the HR teams.   By being an early adopter and consistent user of the KM tools HR has the onus to lead by example in driving the culture of  knowledge sharing.

Conclusion

As highlighted in previous sections HR does play a key role in driving an organization’s knowledge management efforts. HR can set an example by being both a proponent and user of the knowledge management processes.   HR can play an active part as a custodian of key processes that facilitate knowledge sharing as well as facilitate the creation of a culture for knowledge management.   Operationally organizations face a challenge of lack of time or less  band width of managers.  It is here that a robust communication effort and creating awareness by sharing and highlighting success stories, case studies, informal sharing etc., are vital.  HR can also influence the adoption of knowledge processes by including relevant component in the performance appraisal thereby driving adoption and usage in the early stages of adoption.  Thereafter it is the constant reinforcement of practices, recognizing and rewarding adoption of knowledge management processes that would play a key facilitation role.   In the coming years with more and more emphasis on knowledge and management of knowledge for competitive advantage HR will play a vital role in enabling a key and vital strategic lever. 

Comfort Zone Trap and How to Get Out of It

Comfort Zone can be understood as "a settled method of working that requires little effort and yields only barely acceptable results".   As humans we often get into this trap (whether in personal or professional life) and need to be egged on or put in substantial effort to get out of the same.

Is it possible to come out of the comfort zone?  Experience and research shows yes. You can get out of a comfort zone surely... but to do that you need to understand what is your comfort zone and gauge and understand where you stand.  Measuring your comfort zone is really possible.

To understand a bit about comfort zone...

Generally we feel "bit nervous" and it is a likely indication we are not in our comfort zone. It is a mental condition where we believe we 

Problem Elimination, Not Problem Solving Should Be the New Focus

I met Ballu, a good friend, sometime back.  He happened to be of the very sociable types who always had a tale or two to tell.  Here is an interesting one he narrated.

"Some time back I happened to be in a review meeting and one of the things being discussed was a tool to automate some of the work being done by the people engagement managers.  The biggest selling point was that there are many problems that the team had to address and hence an automated tool would help them manage this in a manner that is simple, gives them flexibility and lets them be mobile and at the same time come up with wonderful snapshot of the problems solved.  This was the problem solving mind-set. And the natural tendency is for people to feel very happy to able to help address and solve problems. And our systems recognize this.  People are rewarded, they are encouraged, they are praised. And the problems continue to appear… from somewhere or the other….and it seemed like there is a factory for manufacturing problem that keep appearing and people waiting to solve them."

Our conversation continued… “How long will this solving the problem stuff continue?.  The next thing was to look for an alternative which was “eliminating the problem”

What we realized was that the more people came up with stories of how they solved a problem the more they were rewarded the more they were glorified…. they were promoted,  they had a great future....and That was the problem.

We needed to change our view point and look at focusing on “problem elimination”. rather than "problem solving"  Remember from my earlier blog on FOCUS.  (Click Here To Read the Focus Blog). So if your choice can be from among two things…solving the problem to eliminating the problem then the one you focus on gets the attention. .

There are some of you (or many..) who would have experienced that the same problems are recurring time and again. What problem we solved last year is up again the next year.  The problems faced by the predecessor are repeated just the way it happened earlier. 

When we focus on “problem elimination” the attention shifts from the problem of how to handle problems to a new way of looking at it… how to eliminate the problem.   What problem elimination means and how it can make our lives (both working and otherwise) more relaxed and enjoyable is what we shall explore in a coming post.

Wearables in the Workplace: What you can expect

Wearable devices are gaining ground all the world over.  India is not far behind.  As per IDC Data published recently, in Q1 of FY 17 over 400,000 wearable devices were imported into the country.   While the early adopters of wearable devices are fitness enthusiasts and other experimenters soon the world of work will find them make a foray on the floors.   Some of the ways in which organizations can think about wearable devices to help improve the work organization are captured below.

a) Link fitness to incentives:   While few innovative organizations have started off by linking fitness to  external social responsibility and causes like sponsoring NGO's for miles clocked in future there will be lot of pressure to link fitness adoption to incentives. This will help directly bring down the cost of health insurance for the company.  Wearable devices will play a key role in this with real time data from employees being used to track adoption as well as adherence to wellness program and fitness regimes.  With escalating health care costs and insurance bills it would be the right direction for organizations to encourage and incentivise fitness.

b) Tracking employee movement and Safety:   Organizations can track movement of employees,  track entry and exit within the organization space and this can be a key tool to monitor safety of employees.  This could be very important in times of emergency situations needing evacuation of people at organizations.  If wearable devices are registered against individual names and consent provided to use the data it would be a great way to work collaboratively in the work space to track, monitor safety.  Those not registered could continue the manual route.  

c) Always Clued in:  Employees would get real time information relevant to their work wherever they move away from their desks or work stations.   Unlike laptops and tablet devices It is much easier to move around with a wearable and probability of being away is far less.   Email alerts, Flash information from organization communication channel or even push messaging can be easily enabled for all key relevant stakeholders in organizations.  Remember the days of pagers... similar scenarios can be worked out by organizations.  Hotels,  Hospitals,  Retail Stores, Airline operations can all benefit from such configurations. 

d) Mobile Learning:   A good start to real time mobile learning can happen through wearable devices.  There are complicated troubleshooting on shop floors which may need access to data which can be readily transmitted to the wearable for quick response on the shop floor.  Similarly information needed for spot decisions can be pushed on the wearable device for situations where there is need such as pricing negotiations,  deal closing,  evaluating alternatives etc.

There will be a sea change in the way people work and relate to their organizations.   Of course there would be some downside also on the organization behavior side with some feeling too much intrusion in their work space and spillover into their personal time.  Remember there was a time, not long ago, when you left office and were completely disconnected with whats happening at work.  Today you are almost all the time in extended office and work space including on weekends and holidays and cant' afford to be left out of the action and if you do stay out it is at your own cost sometimes.