Oct 27, 2009 | Leadership, Management
Yesterday I received a number of communications, by various means that broke all the accepted rules of grammar, spelling, and what an old fogey like me considers common courtesy, and it got me thinking.
Email, phone text, and now twitter and its ilk have had an adverse impact on our more traditional skill of communicating via the (pen and paper) written word. The substitute is a shorthand that breaks the basic rules of grammar, construction of sentences and paragraphs that evolved to clearly and unambiguously convey a thought.
And why is it that courtesy that we would normally be extend in a face to face encounter is ignored in an “e-exchange”?. The “e-shorthand” may work in the group where the jargon is understood, but often not in a wider context.
The use of electronic communication and its potential for misunderstanding due to the use of e-shorthand is now central to the way our communication works, so rather than trying to buck the trend, I concocted a few rules that may make email more receiver friendly, unambiguous, and easy to read for the non speakers of any particular jargon.
- Ensure the subject line states what the email is about.
- Never use the subject line to convey the message.
- Only communicate one thing in an email, anything more complicated requires a different form.
- Remember that the receiver needs to understand the context of the message, so ensure it is clearly expressed.
- Use numbers rather than words to convey quantitative issues (sales are up 35%, not sales are up substantially) to ensure understanding
- Keep it as short as possible
- Never send an email with emotional content immediately, leave it in draft form until tomorrow, to prevent regrets.
Oct 26, 2009 | Leadership, Management, Marketing, Strategy
Remember your history teachers, one who just had you remembering the dates of events, hard work remembering, and why bother anyway, but what about the one who told you about the people, and engaged you with the stories around the dates and events? It became easy to remember the details because you had the human stuff that went with it.
Building brands is the same thing, don’t just give out the facts, provide the stories that go with the facts, the human dimension.
Businesses have the same challenge when they set out to build a culture, it does not happen overnight, but when the stories that reinforce the culture are told, and celebrated, the behavior becomes embedded over time.
Building a brand, or a corporate culture takes persistence and consistency, and is a task that is never completed, just a work in progress.
Oct 20, 2009 | Leadership, Management, OE, Operations, Small business
Yesterday, I wrote about the process jig-saw that supports an implemented ERP system as it works to drive efficiency, but deliberately left out the hardest bit.
The most challenging changes necessary to make an ERP implementation deliver the value promised are the behavioural ones.
You can buy all the software in the world, but junk-in still generates junk-out.
Most ERP systems I have seen, if you take a wide view of what constitutes “ERP” is done on Excel. I have developed simple routines for SME clients using Excel, that whilst not fancy, automate parts of the operations planning processes, and generate substantial benefits.
Most sophisticated systems from the well known SAP to less fancied packages all have large chunks of data delivered by to them by a range of means, mostly spreadsheets, and the temptation for the individual is to leave well enough alone, and resist the dropping of their routines in favor of the expensive ERP package. Allowing this parallel system to survive beyond a short validation phase is always a mistake, as people revert to what they know as soon as there is an issue. When you jump in, you need to go all the way.
Oct 15, 2009 | Innovation, Leadership, Management
It is not the words of a company vision that count, as much as the conversation that goes on around the water cooler about the purpose of an organisation. The notion of including all personnel in a conversation about business purpose is very effective.
Sam Palmisano, current CEO of IBM conducted a “Values Jam” on the IBM intranet over 3 days a few months after his appointment. This generated 40,000 “conversations” about purpose across the business, with Sam acting as both participant and final arbiter.
The outcome is a set of words that has stood IBM in great stead over the last 6 years, and all employees know, they have the opportunity to contribute.
Subsequently, the “jam” concept has been used by IBM to inform a range of other issues from their internal innovation “jam” in 2006 which resulted in 10 new businesses with $100 million in seed funding, to the 2008 “habitat jam” held on behalf of the UN.
These activities only work because they unleash the power of a common purpose in their participants, have you considered how to unleash the power of your networks?
Oct 7, 2009 | Leadership, Management, OE
Organisation charts almost always depict organisations as an equalateral triangle. It is a simple change in perspective, to see it with a third dimension, like the Egyptian pyramid. Suddenly, it is clear that the guts of the organization are largely hidden from view.
It also becomes clear that enterprises can really only work when there is engagement across the third dimension, with all the complication that engagement implies.
This simple act, of thinking about the organisation and how it works including the third dimension is an easy way to recognise the complications inherent in the management processes and decision-making necessary to make the thing effective. Cross functional co-operation then becomes an obvious necessity, not something mandated by someone with a good idea.
Oct 6, 2009 | Leadership, Management, Strategy
One of the most widely known strategy tools is the SWOT, but it is widely misunderstood.
Often there is confusion about what is a strength, and what is an opportunity, similarly, what is a weakness, and what is a threat.
Strengths and weaknesses are internal to the business, they are under the control of those in the business, and a strength is not just something you do well, that is like having a watch that tells the time, it is something that makes your business distinctive.
Threats and opportunities are a result of external conditions, and usually there is little a business can do to create them, the best they can do is anticipate and manage the adverse impacts, and leverage the opportunities.
Most businesses automatically set out to build on their existing strengths, when often improving on their weaknesses offers a better return on the resource investment necessary. Turning a weakness into a strength also has the potential to create surprise, and the resulting competitive edge, simply because it is unexpected.
