While the need for planning may seem obvious, the pressure to react quickly to the economic environment has prevented many companies from devoting appropriate attention to contingency scenarios.  I found Hewitt’s new research on Cost Reduction and Engagement insightful–it indicates that companies that do workforce scenario planning, drawing on data and skills needs assessments, and proactively communicate how changes will position the company for the future set themselves apart. These organizations can maintain morale with a right-sized workforce, improve focus on strategic priorities, and are positioned to emerge with a competitive advantage after the downturn. This webcast will cover which industries are meeting the challenge and which continue to be most challenged. You’ll hear how leading companies, such as Nissan, have leveraged Hewitt’s benchmark findings to drive important internal decisions for their business and talent management.  Presenters
Anish Baijal , Director of Talent Management and HR Services , Nissan Motor Co. ,
Michael Marzano , Principal, Market Team Leader/Talent & Organization Consulting , and Jim Bloom Principle Consutant at Hewitt , will share their success and findings.  

HCI members, please add your postings, comments and questions about these topics below, or start or join a related discussion group at www.humancapitalist.org    

When properly managed, goals are strategic tools to gain the maximum output from the collective contributions of all individuals in an organization. Goals direct use of time, attention, effort, and resources. They help to ensure that everybody in the boat is rowing in the same direction. When individuals understand how their efforts connect to others’ and the goals of the organization, they feel more valued and appreciated. They are more likely to be engaged in their work and perceive it to be more meaningful. Aligned goals synchronize the strokes each individual makes to race across the finish line. Is your company’s crew ready to compete?

Webcast presenters Tim Wright and Rod Schlottman will share insights about:

• Determining if goals are organization-centric with a clear line-of-sight between the work produced by individuals and the aims of the company.
• Tracking goal linkages and aggregate results into a reportable form for each successive level.

HCI members, I hope you’ll post your thoughts, experience, comments and questions below and join or start a related discussion group at www.humancapitalist.org

HCI members ask:

1. Knowing and feeling that you are contributing to something greater (that you believe in) makes “work” feel less like work.  Are organizations who make this dynamic part of their culture able to show more productivity?  How do companies go about collecting data about this?
 
 
2.  Today, the “connect-feel” part of work is becoming more important as millenials expect this… for boomers, it was once enought to “understand” the big picture.  How can companies keep the “understand” big picture part prominent in millenials’ mindset, and re-engage boomers to motivate them to postpone retirement or mentor? 
 
 
3.  Re fluid goal setting,  inevitably business targets move, how does your company manage the “re-alignment” of goals as needed?
 
4.  Re the dependence-interdependence of goals,  how has highlighting this improved internal customer relationships as well as meeting needs of your key external customers?

Three differentiators of the high performance organization correlate strongly with emotional intelligence-emotionally intelligent talent, the nature of the work they do, and the purpose people see in their work. Selecting emotionally intelligent talent (especially for managerial positions), and designing work to encourage creativity both contribute to talent who aspire to a larger shared purpose. In a webcast  special guest presenter, Dr. Steven Stein, co-author of the international best-seller “The EQ Edge: Emotional Intelligence and Your Success” and more recently author of the newly released “Make Your Workplace Great: The 7 Keys to an Emotionally Intelligent Organization” will cover research findings from thousands of organizations on their talent management practices, and showcase those who leverage emotional intelligence to achieve high performance.

If you’re responsible for organizational effectiveness or talent leadership, we hope you’ll share your insights and experiences by posting comments below– or join or start a related discussion group at www.humancapitalist.org

HCI members ask:

Question from Lisa: What are the connections/similarities/differences with EI and employee engagement?

Question from Todd: How do you involve everyone in decision making when some critical decisions (such as org design) belong at the higher levels?

Question from Glendola: Are there 2 or 3 ways that EI can inform higher education?

Question from Kevin: How do you account for, or pull out, the effect of personality variables when you say that EI leads to higher performance?

Question from Diane: Is there a connection between EI and institutional socialization?

Question from John: It seems that successful people in their careers must be in the right jobs for them and that fit would drive their success. So do people who are highly emotional intelligent have a better self-awareness particularly in the career area? Or, do people who are emotionally intelligent do better no matter what job they are in?

Question from Lisa: When talking about EI and success- Is it a best practice to assess the organization’s EI first, and then identify EI characteristics that fit the organization best?

Question from Dawn: How do you get your organization to go down the path of looking at emotional intelligence?

Question from HCI member: I see a strong connection between EI and integrity. Has there been any research done and shown a strong correlation?

Do your team members begin the week with high energy, enthusiasm and productivity? Are survivors’ stress and dysfunctional viruses such as whining and gossip sabotaging the spirit of the winning workplace you want to create? If values are left out of the equation, your managers are not inspiring workforce transformation. And in a knowledge economy, if your talent isn’t applying everything they know, your organization isn’t running on all cylinders. Managers and leaders (and those who develop managers’ competencies) can inspire team members to bring all of their passion, commitment, and competencies to the workplace every day.  

Hear webcast presenter Roxanne Emmerich, author of  ” ‘Thank God It’s Monday’- How to Create a Workplace You and Your Cusstomers Love”  share insights about:

1. Why many of the standard business practices for managing people are actually sabotaging your results…and what to do instead
2. Why 1 out of every 3 payroll dollars is lost due to disengaged employees and how to get most of it back…and fast
3. How to reengage those left behind after a layoff with twice the work and half the friends 
4. How to stop “energy vampires” in their tracks…once and for all
5. Start having fun again and create massive results in spite of challenging times
  

HCI members, what’s your perspective?  Please post your comments, experience and questions below, and join (or start) a related discussion group at www.humancapitalist.org

With team members dispersed globally, how do you ensure they work together effectively to achieve shared goals? A variety of tools and approaches help different type team collaborations move projects forward, but understanding which approach to take across the variety of teams used in today’s global company is challenging. How is knowledge effectively conveyed, exchanged, and confirmed between multiple members?  I’ve invited Audrey J. Murrell, Ph.D. , Associate Professor of Business Administration, Psychology , University of Pittsburgh to present her views in today’s webcast.   You’ll discover if your global team collaborations are getting the maximum impact from using the technologies that help move their work forward.

HCI members, please post your experiences, thoughts and questions about these ideas below, and start or join a related discussion group at www.humancapitalist.org
1. What are the key drivers for effectiveness across different types of global collaboration
2. Best tools and strategies to increase performance of cross-functional project teams
3. How communities of practice can be supported for effective problem-solving and innovation
4. Insights into group mentoring across geographically dispersed teams

HCI members ask:

If an organization had a cross-functional product team with members around the globe, would a project team or COP team be better suited for them?

How might organizations communicate these different types of team opportunities? Who influences or owns which type of team(s) form? OD? Leaders?

How best to help an organization transition from Project model to Community of Practice model?

How can I organize communities of practice efficiently? What are the tools? How do I manage all the information that generate the communities?

Talent potential not only impacts what your strategy is but whether you can achieve it. Companies that achieve their strategic objectives depend on performance scorecard metrics so their talent clearly understands what they contribute to results. When organizations integrate talent management into business performance they drive value creation for talent, customers and shareholders.  Our special webcast guest, Joseph Cabral , VP & Chief Human Resources Officer , North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, will cover how leading companies link industry challenges and business direction with talent capabilities and their dashboard measures of progress. 

HCI members we look forward to your comments, insights and questions below– or start or join a related discussion group at www.humancapitalist.org

As companies slash jobs, reorganize and wonder how they will take on the troubled economy, they could be overlooking a high payback investment– the single best way to focus efforts on building your organization is giving real recognition. When managers overlook informal daily recognition practices they miss the opportunity to engage discretionary effort and build talent loyalty. If goals are “the what” your organization wants to achieve, recognition is a critical part of “the how.” This webcast will cover the easiest investment to make with the highest payback, by leveraging the value of real recognition. Roy Sauderson, President of the Recognition Management Institute, will share concrete and strategic steps for making recognition happen in your company.

HCI members we look forward to your thoughts on:

1. The impact employee recognition really has on people
2. How employee recognition influences and propels performance
3. Effective strategies for getting the most return from your recognition investment
4. How you position your company for post-recession opportunities

HCI members comment and ask:
Question: We are looking at ways to enhance our current practices.
Answer: thanks, Cindy that’s good to hear!

Question: it’s the quality of the conversation… to discover underlying behaviors that contribute to results…sometimes a manager doesn’t know so has to engage in conversation and ask the person for their thoughts…

Question: Managers may be in the habit of recognizing results and leave out the effort that led to those results… thoughts?

Question: How do you suggest an organization make peer recognition part of the culture?

Question: Great idea beginning meetings with recognition! thanks!

Question: Peer recognition?–try org e-mail where individuals give “kudos” to someone who has gone above their job to assist another peer. This might get folks into the culture change
Answer: thanks, Sherry!

Question: What would you recommend for recognition of associates who work remotely and don’t have direct, daily (or even monthly) face-to-face contact with management?

Business professionals face increasingly complex problems, as they adapt to rapid economic, technological and cultural changes in a global business environment. The price of decisions made through trial and error is high, making this a costly way to learn. Case analysis offers realistic opportunities to develop problem-solving, decision-making and teamwork skills by analyzing a fictional problem. With e-learning, this respected approach can be used in individual just-in-time or group training. This interactive webcast offers easy-to-adapt strategies for using case methods with the e-learning technologies you have available at all times. Your organization can draw from fictional problems based on fact to transfer and execute on strategic initiatives for your company.   Presenter and facilitator Janet Salmons will demonstrate using a case study on coaching talent, and you’ll leave with practical ideas for developing and increasing your organization’s problem-solving using on-line resources.

HCI members please post your insights, experience and questions below about how you use on-line resources for problemm solving, or start or join a related discussion group at www.humancapitalist.org

HCI members ask:

1. How can case studies be used to improve individuals’ and team performance? ie what if several people on the team at different times were floundering in team leader role?

2. Question: How does this type of learning accelerate learning transfer on the job (shift from e-learning to e-working) to improve job performance?

3. Question: How are case studies similar to or different from simulations, both which have the goal to improve jability to deal with situations likely to encounter in job performance?

4. Question: How do case studies develop the competency called “critical thinking”?

5. Question: What is the role of the trainer or facilitator?” “What do managers/supervisors need to know?”

6. Question: Are there any good locations (search engines) to go to online to find a case study that meets the need of the training course?

7. Comment: I think that there is wonderful potential for using case study method to support online collaborative learning. The key benefit that I see is that it can provide useful substance and content that engages participants in thinking and exploring. So much online learning is presentaion based and this provides an opportunity, if well done, for interaction and exploration - both real time and asynchronously. Your steps are helpful in outlining a process for this.

Increased recognition of the need for talent development places a greater demand than ever for mentors.  More than ever there is a need to address creative approaches to recruiting mentors, including resourceful approaches such as reaching out to retirees and alums to mentor the next talent generation and how offering mentoring opportunities helps re-recruit “boomerang” talent. Successful efforts such as these triple the ROI (for mentee, mentor, and for the company, as fulfilled mentors refer additional mentors).  

Our webcast presenters and corporate practitioners Fran Smith , Manager of Leadership Resources , at Navistar and Patrick Dailey , Director of HR , First American Corporation will address:

1. Ways to increase your mentor pool
2. Leverage multiple mentors with various expertise
3. Reach Gen Y with mentors
4. Stakeholder ROI and metrics on the value of mentoring

HCI members, we hope you’ll add your ideas and questions below, or start or join a related discussion group at www.humancapitalist.org

HCI members ask:

Jill asks: how many years has the Menttium advisory board been in place at Navistar?

Kristin asks: How do you track results from the program? Do you survey?
Victoria asks: A challenge in academic medicine is the perception that mentoring may take too much time away from patient care, securing grants and publishing for the mentors. Did I hear correctly that your mentors knew that mentoring wouldn’t take a lot time? How did they know this? What were the structures of your mentoring relationships? . Are your results published?

Diane asks: I am looking for a C-suite level woman who can mentor a C-suite succession candidate (female). How can I use Menttium or other resources to locate someone?

Diane asks: In mentoring relationships is there a concern about age
Debbie asks: I would also wonder how many formal vs. informal mentors individuals have had

Question: Johns Hopkins has developed a learning culture through mentoring, they say “everyone can learn from everyone”

Question: When matching is limited to matching like gender and race with like, that can limit the mentor pool, in contrast to “matching” different backgrounds by intention… thoughts?

New research reveals that talent with limited networking skills have a negative impact on business operations in a wide variety of arenas - retention, management, decision-making, business development, and productivity. Networking is not just a job-finding skill. Networks help your employees get the job done and tap into knowledge for both small to global enterprises. Knowing how to create, cultivate, and capitalize on networking opportunities is critical to building thriving communities of practice that extend beyond your organization. You may be surprised to realize how little your employees know about this critical networking competency. Discover the learnable behaviors that underlie networking competency.

How can your get organization started, or further down the road, when it comes to leveraging networks for productivity?  Webcast presenter Lynne Waymon shares ideas with us…

Please post your comments questions and experience below and start or join a related discussion group at www.humancapitalist.org