OK, here is a big statement. You may or may not agree with it but if you would kindly indulge me for the time being I would be most grateful.
A CEO, in virtually any organisation, has primarily one role. She, or he, is the person who has to find and implement the most efficient methods of consolidating, directing and dispersing knowledge. Internal communications to you and me.
Firstly, let us assume you think there actually may be something in this? As evidence to confirm our suspicions let me offer up this. A recent survey of the CEO's of 100 of the Fortune 500 companies by Boston Consulting found that they thought that, 'they could do better with corporate communications' and that it (communication) was one of their top five priorities. I draw two conclusions from this; Firstly, you can make a lot of money by carrying out studies of the obvious, and secondly, they didn't ask the right question. Interestingly, the other four items on the list, the usual suspects of profitability, cost reduction, sustainability and innovation, can only be influenced if you manage the knowledge flow in the organisation in the first place. You can argue about that over your next strategy/ priority meeting.
While you are doing that and mulling it over, you may also choose to reflect on the overwhelming obviousness that Intellectual Property is probably the only asset that gives your company its value. It isn't your bricks and mortar, your inventory, your capital investment. Another survey states - and this one is actually much more telling - that Knowledge accounts for, on average, 67% of the net worth of every corporate entity. So, if I was you, I'd better start looking after it. if you haven't already started. You may have a facilities manger but where is your knowledge manage? And if you have one, are they in the right place and are they actually managing knowledge.
It probably isn't surprising then that many companies - at least those who have got the point - have established a board position with responsibility to manage the knowledge processes, and implement those strategies and processes that will enhance this value further. The postings come under various business card guises; CEO, Knowledge Manager VP's, Chief Information Officers, Innovation Managers, Front Line Change Coordinators. If the company body have really been thinking with their heads on and not taking the first answer that they think of then hopefully have figured out that these positions do not necessarily have to fall within the shadow of the IT department. (Maybe I don't have you explain why to you but if I do drop me line and I'll send you my paper on the subject).
Internal Communication is often seen as something of an organisational poison chalice. And everyone, but absolutely everyone thinks they can do it better than the next person and has some, often less than constructive view, on it. How IC effectively works isn't just about intranet usage rates, or cascading briefs, the software, usability, or sorting data. That is, to be honest, the relatively easy bit. The real difficulty is the effect of the 'social software' within an organisation. What happens in and around and despite these mechanisms. Add to this the truism of every organisation, that everyone wants to change but nobody wants to change themselves. Getting people do something real and positive about improving communication requires developing a set of skills which is more akin to duck herding. Trying to get lots of individuals, with their own sensitivities, experiences, references and paranoia's and trying to get them all talking and moving in the same direction ( known as Quacking and Flapping in IC parlance). You need to delicately move them forwards without moving too quickly yourself so they all end up in the same place, without scaring them off to fly off somewhere else and onto somebody elses pond. Some people are really good at it. Most of us actually aren't, including many 'people persons' who truly believe they are.
With that in mind I've put together a few tips, which may or may not help people in coming to terms with their new job specification and working in the 21 st Century. How communication can effectively harness the talents of your colleagues and generate a truly innovative and empowered culture.
These are the twenty (or so) CEO/CIO/Knowledge manager's , or indeed any managers management principles of.. err...management
1. Don't always question.
I know it is what most of us do, and what the Gurus told you do in the old days of last year's fad management strategy. They implored us to 'Question everything. Challenge every assumption'. You still do that, just don't get obsessed with it. Instead, revitalise the casual conversations and information sharing as a normal business practice. And devote as much as half of your time to developing that dialogue. You can't expect to learn a lot just by challenging your staff. They will, more often than not, give you the answer they think you want, especially if they have to give answers off the cuff. Welcome, unreservedly, anothers thoughts and opinions and give them time to respond.
2. Establish a nil tolerance for Mediocre Practice but don't polarise the process and focus too much effort on establishing Best Practice.
Instead focus on ways to eliminate worse practice. When is best good enough anyway? A Best Practice will invariably come out in the end if you are initiating the other 19 ( or so) principles. Incrementally eliminating worst practice is a much quicker fix, for both you and the customer. In any case the question you should be asking is 'whose best practice are you adopting? Are you benchmarking yourself against the mediocre, the safe, and the obsolete? Is it a 'me too' action. Do you want to give Karaoke performance of Britney Spears or Ella Fitzgerald. For a lot of people Britney is good enough. But for some....?
3. Actions SHOUT.
I'd like to introduce you to the CASER principle, with apologies to Gordon Gould, the first man to use the word, laser, whose acronym I have blatantly hijacked. (Laser actually stands for Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation for all you pub quizzers out there, which is why you shouldn't really spell it with a 'z'.)
A CEO, in virtually any organisation, has primarily one role. She, or he, is the person who has to find and implement the most efficient methods of consolidating, directing and dispersing knowledge. Internal communications to you and me.
Firstly, let us assume you think there actually may be something in this? As evidence to confirm our suspicions let me offer up this. A recent survey of the CEO's of 100 of the Fortune 500 companies by Boston Consulting found that they thought that, 'they could do better with corporate communications' and that it (communication) was one of their top five priorities. I draw two conclusions from this; Firstly, you can make a lot of money by carrying out studies of the obvious, and secondly, they didn't ask the right question. Interestingly, the other four items on the list, the usual suspects of profitability, cost reduction, sustainability and innovation, can only be influenced if you manage the knowledge flow in the organisation in the first place. You can argue about that over your next strategy/ priority meeting.
While you are doing that and mulling it over, you may also choose to reflect on the overwhelming obviousness that Intellectual Property is probably the only asset that gives your company its value. It isn't your bricks and mortar, your inventory, your capital investment. Another survey states - and this one is actually much more telling - that Knowledge accounts for, on average, 67% of the net worth of every corporate entity. So, if I was you, I'd better start looking after it. if you haven't already started. You may have a facilities manger but where is your knowledge manage? And if you have one, are they in the right place and are they actually managing knowledge.
It probably isn't surprising then that many companies - at least those who have got the point - have established a board position with responsibility to manage the knowledge processes, and implement those strategies and processes that will enhance this value further. The postings come under various business card guises; CEO, Knowledge Manager VP's, Chief Information Officers, Innovation Managers, Front Line Change Coordinators. If the company body have really been thinking with their heads on and not taking the first answer that they think of then hopefully have figured out that these positions do not necessarily have to fall within the shadow of the IT department. (Maybe I don't have you explain why to you but if I do drop me line and I'll send you my paper on the subject).
Internal Communication is often seen as something of an organisational poison chalice. And everyone, but absolutely everyone thinks they can do it better than the next person and has some, often less than constructive view, on it. How IC effectively works isn't just about intranet usage rates, or cascading briefs, the software, usability, or sorting data. That is, to be honest, the relatively easy bit. The real difficulty is the effect of the 'social software' within an organisation. What happens in and around and despite these mechanisms. Add to this the truism of every organisation, that everyone wants to change but nobody wants to change themselves. Getting people do something real and positive about improving communication requires developing a set of skills which is more akin to duck herding. Trying to get lots of individuals, with their own sensitivities, experiences, references and paranoia's and trying to get them all talking and moving in the same direction ( known as Quacking and Flapping in IC parlance). You need to delicately move them forwards without moving too quickly yourself so they all end up in the same place, without scaring them off to fly off somewhere else and onto somebody elses pond. Some people are really good at it. Most of us actually aren't, including many 'people persons' who truly believe they are.
With that in mind I've put together a few tips, which may or may not help people in coming to terms with their new job specification and working in the 21 st Century. How communication can effectively harness the talents of your colleagues and generate a truly innovative and empowered culture.
These are the twenty (or so) CEO/CIO/Knowledge manager's , or indeed any managers management principles of.. err...management
1. Don't always question.
I know it is what most of us do, and what the Gurus told you do in the old days of last year's fad management strategy. They implored us to 'Question everything. Challenge every assumption'. You still do that, just don't get obsessed with it. Instead, revitalise the casual conversations and information sharing as a normal business practice. And devote as much as half of your time to developing that dialogue. You can't expect to learn a lot just by challenging your staff. They will, more often than not, give you the answer they think you want, especially if they have to give answers off the cuff. Welcome, unreservedly, anothers thoughts and opinions and give them time to respond.
2. Establish a nil tolerance for Mediocre Practice but don't polarise the process and focus too much effort on establishing Best Practice.
Instead focus on ways to eliminate worse practice. When is best good enough anyway? A Best Practice will invariably come out in the end if you are initiating the other 19 ( or so) principles. Incrementally eliminating worst practice is a much quicker fix, for both you and the customer. In any case the question you should be asking is 'whose best practice are you adopting? Are you benchmarking yourself against the mediocre, the safe, and the obsolete? Is it a 'me too' action. Do you want to give Karaoke performance of Britney Spears or Ella Fitzgerald. For a lot of people Britney is good enough. But for some....?
3. Actions SHOUT.
I'd like to introduce you to the CASER principle, with apologies to Gordon Gould, the first man to use the word, laser, whose acronym I have blatantly hijacked. (Laser actually stands for Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation for all you pub quizzers out there, which is why you shouldn't really spell it with a 'z'.)
I have made up my own version. CASER which stands for Creativity Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Results.
If you can vividly show the effect, good or bad that results from the implementation of their ideas then you reinforce the feed back of the original signal. Which is how a laser works. Show them that you take their ideas seriously, and they will trust you more seriously to share their ideas. It is absolutely not about a new staff suggestion scheme.
3. Actively Look Out.
Scan the horizon, not just through the myopia of market analysis or the telescope of your marketing or sales department. That is an awfully narrow field of view.
And have regard not just for at the usual suspects, the competitors in your field or your own market. Navel gazing eventually makes you look silly or deranged.
Most of the good ideas don't come from your own staff (Or you for that matter). You are not the stewards of all things 'magnificent'. Humbleness is truly attractive and inspiring. Acknowledgment of others contribution wins friends and accomplices, not just internally but with the external stakeholders too. Your customers will have way more ideas do how you product is and could be used.
4. Experiment Persistently.
Enlightened trial and error outperforms the planning of intellects however flawless their rationale.You can, and must, plan ahead to know where you want to go, and what steps you will have to make to get there. But then put the plan aside and focus on the first steps. Regularly stop to reflect on the action and repeat the process.
3. Let go of the need to be right. It's OK to make mistakes as long as you learn from them.
Your mistakes are your experience. Pass it on. If you malign failure, you destroy entrepreneurship, snuff out innovation and in the end you harm the company. If you "forgive and forget" because you want to be that great boss you always wanted to work for, that same mistake will be repeated twice or a dozen times. Failure is normal, accept it, move on but demand that lessons be learned and communicated through the entire organisation.
Expect no less from everyone in your organisation.
4. Empower but support
It is absolutely all right, positively, to give assignments to people who have never done that task before. The codicil is that, if you do, then it is your absolute responsibility as a manager to provide them with a network of expert advisors whom you trust. Legitimacy lies in competence as much as position in the organisation chart. Position without competence results in disaster. Competence without position results in helplessness.
5. Don't refer to the 'Internal organisation'.
Talk about specific people. Referring to other organisations of the company as "them" is laying the ground for future excuses about the lack of results for everyone.
Organisations are almost inevitably impersonal, complex, and change every 24 months anyway. People and communities however are far more stable, resilient and trustworthy.
7. Kill off internal client-supplier relationships.
The internal market approach is the very worst possible form of internal collaboration. A client-supplier relationship in a monopolistic environment is the epitome of bureaucracy. It damages the social network and value of the company and paralyzes its ability to solve problems for the customer. If you want to reinforce the silo mentality then ignoring this is the very best way of doing it.
8. Before deciding on a plan, always ask with whom the plan was discussed.
The raison d'etre of the corporate manager is not to come up with the bright ideas, but with ideas shared with other stakeholders. Reject all proposals and action plans bearing only the signatures of your staff or the CE0 for that matter. Ooop's, Did I say that out loud?
9. Involve people collectively in your thinking.
If you merely want compliance (at best) rather than real commitment then use managerial authority to deploy programs and plans from the top-down. Then you can buy a ticket and sit back and watch it all unravel. If you want people to adopt your views and act accordingly, you must engage in meaningful conversations with them, and not "cascade down" or "communicate messages"by e-mail. If you have a teenager you will l know exactly what I mean.
If you can vividly show the effect, good or bad that results from the implementation of their ideas then you reinforce the feed back of the original signal. Which is how a laser works. Show them that you take their ideas seriously, and they will trust you more seriously to share their ideas. It is absolutely not about a new staff suggestion scheme.
3. Actively Look Out.
Scan the horizon, not just through the myopia of market analysis or the telescope of your marketing or sales department. That is an awfully narrow field of view.
And have regard not just for at the usual suspects, the competitors in your field or your own market. Navel gazing eventually makes you look silly or deranged.
Most of the good ideas don't come from your own staff (Or you for that matter). You are not the stewards of all things 'magnificent'. Humbleness is truly attractive and inspiring. Acknowledgment of others contribution wins friends and accomplices, not just internally but with the external stakeholders too. Your customers will have way more ideas do how you product is and could be used.
4. Experiment Persistently.
Enlightened trial and error outperforms the planning of intellects however flawless their rationale.You can, and must, plan ahead to know where you want to go, and what steps you will have to make to get there. But then put the plan aside and focus on the first steps. Regularly stop to reflect on the action and repeat the process.
3. Let go of the need to be right. It's OK to make mistakes as long as you learn from them.
Your mistakes are your experience. Pass it on. If you malign failure, you destroy entrepreneurship, snuff out innovation and in the end you harm the company. If you "forgive and forget" because you want to be that great boss you always wanted to work for, that same mistake will be repeated twice or a dozen times. Failure is normal, accept it, move on but demand that lessons be learned and communicated through the entire organisation.
Expect no less from everyone in your organisation.
4. Empower but support
It is absolutely all right, positively, to give assignments to people who have never done that task before. The codicil is that, if you do, then it is your absolute responsibility as a manager to provide them with a network of expert advisors whom you trust. Legitimacy lies in competence as much as position in the organisation chart. Position without competence results in disaster. Competence without position results in helplessness.
5. Don't refer to the 'Internal organisation'.
Talk about specific people. Referring to other organisations of the company as "them" is laying the ground for future excuses about the lack of results for everyone.
Organisations are almost inevitably impersonal, complex, and change every 24 months anyway. People and communities however are far more stable, resilient and trustworthy.
7. Kill off internal client-supplier relationships.
The internal market approach is the very worst possible form of internal collaboration. A client-supplier relationship in a monopolistic environment is the epitome of bureaucracy. It damages the social network and value of the company and paralyzes its ability to solve problems for the customer. If you want to reinforce the silo mentality then ignoring this is the very best way of doing it.
8. Before deciding on a plan, always ask with whom the plan was discussed.
The raison d'etre of the corporate manager is not to come up with the bright ideas, but with ideas shared with other stakeholders. Reject all proposals and action plans bearing only the signatures of your staff or the CE0 for that matter. Ooop's, Did I say that out loud?
9. Involve people collectively in your thinking.
If you merely want compliance (at best) rather than real commitment then use managerial authority to deploy programs and plans from the top-down. Then you can buy a ticket and sit back and watch it all unravel. If you want people to adopt your views and act accordingly, you must engage in meaningful conversations with them, and not "cascade down" or "communicate messages"by e-mail. If you have a teenager you will l know exactly what I mean.
Think about the power of stories. No-one is won over by a PowerPoint slide, a chart, other people's quotations, or an Excel spread sheet. Well they shouldn't be. Nor will they ever adopt for themselves another persons goals. Intellectually in the short term it may possibly: the short term in this case being the five minutes after the Ra-Ra speech until the next problem hits them as they get back to their desk. For medium or long-term participation you need to connect emotionally. How to do that? Well that is the tricky part and the reason why 99.999% of all managers, including you and me are not Steve Jobs.
10. Management is not so much about delegating to individuals than about organising and empowering groups.
Effective action ("execution") in any organisation is all about coordination and synchronization. Speed of execution is best achieved by self-synchronisation of competent people who understand and trust each other. The first job of a manager is to detect who these people are and make sure they work together in the right setting (working group, project team, community of practice...) Or separate them if they or in a dysfunctional group. .
11. It's not about giving objectives.
It's about making sure they understand your intent. If they really understand your goals and if it makes sense to them, they will figure out what to do by themselves. It is by far more difficult to articulate a clear intent than to give objectives. Those that figure out that particular trick are the true leaders. Remember the power of the story in communication of this intent.
12. Never give targets without negotiating them first.
Giving measurable quantitative targets without negotiating them with those responsible for making it happen is just bad and poor management. But negotiate hard and if you do shift their comfort zone, give them the support to deliver. Not an excuse to fail.
13. Don't Squirrel knowledge
Don't think that you always know what information is 'good' for your staff. Let them know what you know, give them access to every document you have, unless it is explicitly confidential or for a damn good reason. Don't work on a "need to know" basis. No one ever said 'Oh, that Barry bloke, he communicated way too much'. Let them sort out the information overload. There are plenty of tools and tricks to help them. Even if you do cocoon them they will always find out indirectly but via the noise half-truths, conjecture, second-guessing, the water cooler whispers and arrive, probably, completely at the wrong picture. Paranoia is a part of almost every human activity so don't give it more oxygen. It is far easier to manage any fallout than motivate the disenchanted.
14. History is good- Look back.
Balance market studies, action plans, specifications etc. with case studies, lessons learned, good practices. Spend some time reflecting on past experiences. And ingrain all new employees and stakeholders with the story. Encourage the promotion of the myths and legends. Commitment to the past reaffirms the company's culture and the brand.
15. Don't promote people that sound smart, but those who make sure that smart things happen.
The company's promotion process is the primary driver of employees' emotional positivity. It isn't, no matter what you may think about money, or perks or glory, at least the truly valuable people in your organisation. It can build or destroy confidence or simply reinforce the CGAS attitude.(CGAS is an ancronym I will let you work out for yourself)
16. Don't expect dedication from someone who fears for his job.
All efforts are stalled by the fear of job loss. If you need to fire people, do it at warp speed, and make sure it appears to all as an exceptional event. Don't subscribe to the deadly spiral of cost cutting.
17. Never manipulate your staff. You actually can't!
Employees are hypersensitive to inconsistencies and incoherence across an organisation. They immediately detect every ripple of manipulation when they hear conflicting messages. Largely, because they are looking for them and we come circling right back to the paranoia thing again. Establish trusted relations with your peers first. Trust is the bandwidth of communication.
Juts one big note. Poor e-mail communication, drip feeding strategies, poorly timed. (Never send mission critical stuff out on Friday) is the fuel of inconsistency. Fast isn't always best.
18. Get yourself a knowledge technology coach.
Communication and collaboration technologies are dramatically changing. E-mail is becoming extinct. You need to up your game.
19 and 20. Ask yourself and everyone else you can think of, this question
What are you going to do to make sure you and your organisation have mastery of the flow of knowledge, bearing in mind that this skill will probably be your only competitive advantage next year?
OK, maybe you wont get around to it all by next Thursday.
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