Formium Development

Category: change

  • Towards Leadership 4.0 – 3 challenges for Learning & Organisational Development

    Towards Leadership 4.0 – 3 challenges for Learning & Organisational Development

    Industry 4.0 is not just about technology – this preliminary research identifies 3 key challenges for Organisational Development professionals to support managers build a workforce with the right skills, knowledge and approach. Photo by Lenny Kuhne on Unsplash.

    Recent years have seen such an ever-greater use of technology in manufacturing that some declare it as a ‘fourth industrial revolution’ or Industry 4.0. While multiple definitions abound, most people agree that Industry 4.0 is characterised by capturing data (using the Internet of Things) throughout a product’s journey and using that data to maximise process efficiency and meet customers’ increased expectations of bespoke solutions.

    As Judit Nagy summarises, Industry 4.0 represents a revolutionary change for organisations:

    • New technology (such as RFID sensors enabling real-time tracking of products and materials during the manufacturing process)
    • New procedures (e.g. enhanced data analysis, machinery programming)
    • New organisational capabilities (e.g. proactively providing life-long learning to support adaptation and continuous innovation)
    • Potential for new business models / organisational structures (e.g. partnerships and JV)

    It’s not just about technology and machinery

    Industry 4.0 is often portrayed as all about technology and machinery, systems and processes. It’s even been suggested that there’s been less academic research about the human factors, which is worrying, as we should all know that whatever change you want to make, you need to focus on the people – they’re the ones who’ll make it work or not. This has been a cornerstone of change management for a long time – since at least Leavitt’s Diamond in 1972. So, as Organisational Development professionals, I think we need to be asking questions and looking for ways to help smooth the interaction between ‘technology solutions’ and ‘human resources.’

    The significant opportunities and risks inherent in I4.0 make this one of the most fascinating business transitions and I am keen to better understand the needs of organisations, and of leaders in particular. As part of my visiting lecturer role at the University of Debrecen, I recently delivered a conference presentation on this subject at New Trends and Challenges in Management – Special Focus on Industry 4.0 – conference hosted by the University’s Faculty of Engineering. I’ve summarised my results below, which included a preliminary survey of managers in organisations and/or sectors affected by Industry 4.0 – though the small size and range of roles/seniority precludes any deep statistical analysis.

    I’d love to hear your views – especially from managers and Organisational Development or HR professionals working in Industry 4.0 environments. Do you think that the human factors have been neglected? What are the leadership characteristics that you think are most important? How do we best support managers in I4.0 environments?

    The importance of human factors

    If the literature has placed less importance on human factors, we wondered how managers viewed them? We asked them a series of questions covering obstacles to Industry 4.0, how staff might react, and what support they as managers would value. In each case, it was clear that workforce issues were raised most frequently, so deserve attention.

    Now this is probably influenced by perspective – the managers we asked should have had good knowledge about their teams whereas they may have not been sufficiently senior to appreciate some of the other issues we raised (e.g. financial and organisational risk factors such as ‘fear regarding loss of IP control’)

    Interestingly, managers anticipated that their workforce was more likely to see the positive impacts and opportunities generated by Industry 4.0: more interesting work, career progression, making existing jobs more interesting, job enrichment and learning opportunities. Yet the highest negative potential staff reaction was ‘slow to engage with L&D’ – which could conceivably undermine all of these potential positive reactions.

    When it came to obstacles, themes about staff quality, quantity and outlook ranked highly – but most telling was that ‘distrust’ was chosen by the highest number of respondents (at 64% this was almost 20 percentage points higher than the second place item). With ‘uncertainty’ also scoring highly, it suggests that managers have work to do in bridging the gap with the workforce.

    Leadership characteristics for industry 4.0

    Competency frameworks and leadership behaviours are used extensively for recruitment and development. While these are bespoke to each organisation, there is usually a commonality of behaviours and attitudes that are sought. However, there does not yet appear to be a consensus on the leadership characteristics required for the new approaches, dynamics and realities of Industry 4.0.
    It’s worth bearing in mind Richard Kelly’s idea that for each phase of the industrial revolution there’s a dominant leadership characteristic:

    • First (mechanisation): Charismatic leadership – the personal characteristics and actions of the leader drove and mobilised the organisation.
    • Second (mass production): Directive leadership – more scientific management and top-down approaches became embedded.
    • Third (automation & information): Relational leadership – including transformational leadership (stimulating followers to be more autonomous and creative) and transactional leadership (achievement of followers’ goals)
    • Fourth (inter-connection and integration): To be confirmed? It’s suggested by Valeria Guzman that this will need to build on and surpass the transformational leadership of the Third industrial revolution; for example Saqib Shamin suggests Industry 4.0 managers will need to champion learning and innovation to a greater extent than before.

    We anticipated that leadership for Industry 4.0 will cover two distinct aspects – the first around thinking skills, analytics, creativity and innovation, the second around relational, people-focused skills. Therefore we asked the managers to assess the importance of ten leadership characteristics identified by Guzman from the literature.

    The results (below) were interesting – there was some consensus around the importance of these characteristics, but none were identified as clear outliers. Although 4 characteristics were deemed ‘moderately or less’ important by the majority, none of them were rated as less than moderately important.

    While the sample size and scale precludes any meaningful analysis, we can say that anyone developing a leadership behaviours framework suitable for Industry 4.0 should consider aspects from all of these behaviours.

    Learning & Development needs to up its game

    One of the few clear messages that came through the survey was the extent to which managers consider that Learning & Development is central to the success of Industry 4.0.

    When asked to consider how their staff might react to Industry 4.0, “Slow to engage with development and learning” came joint second. This could be driven by a host of conflicting supply/demand factors (e.g. quality / quantity of opportunities or workforce attitudes and expectations). However, it appears that both were similarly important – in the question about obstructing factors (see chart above) an almost equal number of managers chose ‘old-fashioned training and ‘lack of continuous learning demand’.

    This was reinforced by a further question on managers’ support needs, where the greatest need identified was in developing their staff’s technical skills and knowledge – and in shifting the culture. When it comes to the manager’s own skills, it is notable that a need to improve their ‘management and leadership skills’ far outweighed change management and technical skills.

     

    The three challenges for L&D professionals

    While we must not forget the limited scope of the research sample, it appears that there is a clear challenge for L&D professionals to:

    1. Offer training and development opportunities that are relevant, up-to-date, attractive and effective.
    2. Work with managers in creating a culture of continuous learning and development.
    3. Develop managers’ own management and leadership skills.

    It would be great to hear your views on these three challenges. Are they relevant to your situation? Have you already taken steps to address them? Are there other bigger human factors? Please comment on the article and let me know

    Complete the survey

    If you have time, it would be great if you could complete the survey – or share it with colleagues.
    https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/4thindustrialrevolution

     

    References

    Guzman, VE; Muschard, B.; Gerolamo, m.; Kohl, h.; Rozenfeld, H. Characteristics and Skills of Leadership in the Context of Industry 4.0. (2020) Procedia Manufacturing 43; 543–550

    Kelly, R. Constructing leadership 4.0. Swarm Leadership and the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Palgrave Macmillan. 2018

    Leavitt, H.J. Managerial Psychology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972

    Nagy, J.; Oláh, J.; Erdei, E.; Máté, D.; Popp, J. The Role and Impact of Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things on the Business Strategy of the Value Chain—The Case of Hungary Sustainability (2018), 10, 3491

    Shamim, S.; Cang, S.; Yu, H.; Li, Y. Management Approaches for Industry 4.0, IEEE CEC (2016) 5309-5316Towards leadership

  • Are you ready for another ‘new normal’ ?

    Are you ready for another ‘new normal’ ?

    A few weeks ago, I heard a business leader referring to life at the moment as the ‘interim normal’ because he didn’t want to accept that this was ‘the new normal.’

    I’ve got some sympathy with this approach – the last year has seen deeper and wider changes in organisations, management and leadership than we’ve seen in any other twelve months. People have endured almost constant change, with plans made one week being totally revised the next.

    Labeling this as an ‘interim normal’ can help people cope – it won’t be like this forever.

    But the danger is going too far the other way – many people seem to think that we’ll all be back in our offices soon, and the ‘old normal’ will return. But it’s clear to me that home-working is here to stay – whether it is full-time, part-time or occasional activity. Organisations and employees are keen to maintain the advantages of home working such as less time commuting, a reduction in expensive office space and access to a wider recruitment pool.

    But let’s not forget that the shift to home working has come at a cost. I’ve seen companies taking a hit on productivity, teamwork, collaboration, morale and innovation. Many of these organisations, leaders and teams seem to be relying on temporary fixes, superhuman effort, adrenaline, desperation and a hope that they can keep treading water until the ‘old normal’ returns.

    But if the ‘old normal’ isn’t coming back, the big question is – how many of the supposedly ‘temporary’ fixes are fit for the long-run of hybrid office-home working?

    My challenge to you is to spend a few minutes thinking ahead, and wondering:

    • What short-term pains are you putting up with, that really can’t become long-term problems?
    • What temporary patch-up job was good enough for crisis management in 2020, but not suitable for steady state operations?
    • Where are you relying on unsustainable effort from individuals rather than well-balanced workloads, skills and expertise?
    • What are your plans for dealing with the problems of increased home-working, such as difficulties with on-boarding new staff, promoting morale and managing performance?​

    I’ve been helping staff from a variety of organisations to adapt to some of these remote leadership challenges, to work smarter and implement new ways of working. So often when we try to address problems we focus on the gaps, on what is missing or working badly. Whilst this is a natural reaction, I’ve seen a real opportunity for leaders, managers and organisations to benefit from a remote leadership and change management approach that focuses on strengths and builds on what is already working.

    The more I’ve heard about these issues with remote leadership, the more I thought about putting together some kind of program that would let me help others using the experience that I’ve had myself.

    So I’m currently developing a series of online workshops and coaching that will help managers and leaders overcome the challenges of remote leadership and put positive leadership in practice.

    To hear more, come along to my Remote Leadership Masterclass – a free 60-minute webinar on Monday 29th March at 1230 BST.

    You’ll learn:

    • A surefire technique for assessing your remote leadership to work out where you’re doing great, and where you could do better.
    • The new risks your organisation face when changing to hybrid working.
    • A different way of thinking about leadership that will help you build an integrated and successful team.
  • Change under pressure – 10 lessons from the NHS response to Covid-19

    Change under pressure – 10 lessons from the NHS response to Covid-19

    We’ve all heard inspiring tales of resourcefulness and innovation in the face of Covid-19, from people, communities, companies and institutions across the globe. I found this recent report, Providers Deliver, from the UK’s National Health Service to be a fascinating selection of how local hospitals and health teams, working with their staff and partnerships, have managed to successfully change under pressure.

    Here are the 10 key lessons that I’ve identified in the report:

    Have a clear goal – the Countess of Chester hospital introduced a revolutionary whole-hospital rota to maximise use of their resources. Darren Kilroy, executive medical director, stated this was designed to ensure “everyone would be focused around one common goal” of helping meet the needs of Covid-19 patients.

    When faced with so many competing issues, having a single clear goal makes it easier for people across roles, teams and departments to accept the need for change, and fully embrace a new way of working. Darren considered the single aim had a major impact: “people learned new skills, and as it got going the junior staff enjoyed being part of it because they were dealing with something very real and making a difference. It became a really enjoyable roster to be involved in as everyone was really engaged.”

    Have clear parameters – in the press we sadly saw many stories where a company tried to help out but were impacted by the rigorous demands of medical or regulatory requirements. Understanding the constraints is vital to achieving effective change. It is notable that the provision of PPE in Northumbria and the repurposing of the sleep apnoea machine in Leeds were undertaken with close attention to these quality standards.

    Find and work with partners – the only silver lining in the tragedy of the early months of coronavirus was seeing how individuals, communities and companies rallied round, trying to do their bit to help.

    Faced with a shortage of quality PPE, Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust developed an eye-catching solution – working with a PPE manufacturing consultant to establish its own network of textile manufacturers. Eventually the partnership has set up a bespoke factory, generating jobs and providing PPE for regional customers.

    London Ambulance Service NHS Trust took an radical approach to partnership working: firstly 170 mechanics from the Automobile Association supported them to keep all their ambulances on the road, reconditioned 50 newly-sourced second-hand vehicles and refitted some non-emergency transport vehicles.

    But it wasn’t just about the vehicles, a creative approach was needed for staffing. Chief executive Garrett Emerson explained: “I then had a conversation with the commissioner of fire services about using firefighters to work alongside our clinicians and increase the numbers of ambulances we could deploy in London. We just agreed to get on with it and make it happen.”

    This is another newly-forged partnership that will have long-term benefits: as Garrett Emerson comments, they hope “to keep a small number of firefighters on a rotational basis continually within the service, keeping their skills up with the ability to stretch to larger numbers in the event of pressures.”

    Value your people – “to influence and drive change, [your staff] have to be well cared for” – Patrick Scott, Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust.
    It’s like that old saying, ‘treat your employees like they can make a difference and they will’. The report highlights that it’s not just about basic welfare in a hazardous and stressful situation, it is also about really listening, communicating proactively and giving employees responsibility and authority to make changes.

    Give people space to innovate – many of the examples show what people can do when tasked with solving a specific problem, within clear operational parameters, and outside of usual protocols/constraints for e.g. funding, staffing or governance. The advice from Julian Hartley, chief executive at Leeds Teaching Hospitals is telling: “You don’t micromanage or try to second guess everything. If you have the necessary cultural ecosystem, the set of relationships feeding off one another, and technology and innovation in one branch of medicine, it can cross-fertilise very quickly into another.”

    Break the silo – so often when I’m working with large institutions, I’m asked about breaking down boundaries, so it is fascinating that most of these examples show how a crisis can spark people working across traditional divides.

    In Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust staff developed a new multi-agency mental health service to reduce pressure on A&E. Saskya Falope, manager of this new mental health urgent care hub stated “It has allowed us to think differently about how we use our resources and has allowed partnerships to really come together, using everybody’s expertise rather than working in silos.” And this working across boundaries has positive results – “Working with colleagues in social care, housing and acute trusts, gets patients the right care that they need rather than the fallback always being A&E in an acute hospital.”

    Reflecting on the Countess of Chester hospital’s new whole-hospital rota, Darren Kilroy stated: “there’s been a much more cohesive sense of shared understanding across traditionally quite disparate groups of staff, and there’s a much clearer understanding of how a hospital has to work together to get the job done”.

    Use your existing resources better – focusing on what you have rather than what you haven’t is a great way of thinking differently about a problem. This was exemplified by the staff at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust who took their stock of an obsolete sleep apnoea machine and worked with the mechanical engineering department of University of Leeds to repurpose it to make up for a shortfall in ventilators.

    This is not just a local success story though – by continuing their research, the University has designed a device that is sufficiently cheap and quick to manufacture that it could help lower-income countries across the world.

    Ask your end-users – for a change to be really effective, engaging the people who use the service can reap rewards. When setting up the mental health support hub in Leicestershire, the manager Saskya Falope said they “started collecting patient feedback and ideas from very early on…we asked patients what do you like or not like about A&E? How can we do it differently?” Asking such open questions can generate unexpected insights, such as changing the bright lighting usually found in A&E to something more soothing.

    Bring your people with you – The University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust innovated by installing temperature scanners at access points, aiming to reassure the public that the hospital was still safe for patients with non-covid health issues. To ensure it would be successful it was piloted in an administrative area, and thought was given how to get the staff on board – as Tracy Bullock, chief executive commented: “Making sure you’ve got the right engagement with the staff and making sure you’ve got their buy in and they understand the standard operating procedure that runs alongside it is essential… it’s getting your comms right.”

    Staff at the Countess of Chester hospital knew a change to a radically new way of working rota could be problematic, so prepared the ground carefully, as Darren Kilroy explains: “quite a few weeks of engagement, sharing with the juniors what the roster would look like, undertaking the comms that would inform how this would work, and making sure it was attractive to those members of staff who were going to work on this roster who weren’t used to dealing with patients of this kind”.

    Don’t be afraid to change – a highly-regulated sector such as healthcare can discourage the risk-taking that is inherent in change, but the teams in this report were able to harness the compelling purpose and unprecedented situation. Tracy Bullock at University Hospitals North Midlands sums this up: “We were definitely a bit nervous at first, because we knew no one else in the NHS had done this before. But there was something about just biting the bullet. It’s intuitive, if it goes right and you think it’s going to help, you have to just go with it. That was the key bit of learning for me.”

    Reflection

    What I really value in this report is the range of changes: from smaller-scale and temporary solutions to those with long-term and even global benefits. The report reinforces that the ability to change under pressure is underpinned by the organisational culture and individual skills, abilities, relationships and experience.

    I know for many people and businesses this is a desperate time without any upside, and my heart goes out to you – I don’t want to minimise your situation. But I am fascinated by how some organisations have been able to change under pressure, so my question is: how have you changed the way you work, and how is it having benefits for you, your customers and community?

     

    Picture credit: Edgar Soto on Unsplash

  • Appreciative Inquiry: Strength-based organisational influence

    Appreciative Inquiry: Strength-based organisational influence

    We’ve all been there. You are tasked with delivering a significant change to processes, products or ways of working. Before you even start you are told by colleagues or staff that this will never happen, it’s impossible to do and all you feel is push-back.

    Leading change can feel like pushing a boulder up a hill with the risk that it will roll right back down at any moment.

    I’m sure this sounds familiar, as it is derived from two commonplace issues – that people often fear change and resist it, and that most organisations introduce changes by focussing on existing problems and shortcomings, such as John Kotter’s famous ‘melting iceberg’.

    But what comes of this approach? A negative atmosphere as everyone tries to dodge responsibility, and you impose a top-down change that will hopefully fix the problem. And how many times do you fix one problem only to find that you’ve now created another? Or find that people resist adopting your solution at all?

    If you think about how we apply the idea of strengths for a person – that you can deliver better change and growth by harnessing strengths rather than focussing on weaknesses – then you can imagine there is a similar approach for teams and organisations.

    Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is that approach – it focuses on finding out what already works, and how to leverage those successes and strengths. It is a collaborative approach, because unless you have everyone involved, you can’t effectively incorporate the multiplicity of perspectives. By co-creating a vision as well as the approach together, you’ll reduce resistance to change and have a more effective and lasting solution.

    The theory and research underpinning Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is extensive, as is the track record of AI being used effectively in a whole host of settings across industries, countries and sectors.

    The Appreciative Inquiry process starts with a positively stated topic choice or inquiry question, such as: “How can we deliver maximum value for our customers within our existing resources?” or “Creating innovation through collaboration with other departments or organisations” or “Becoming a high performing and fun team.” Its power comes from the combination of focusing on what works and approaching changes with an open, enquiring mind.

    The AI process then uses a simple 4D model to address the topic – Discover – Dream – Design – Deliver

    This may not seem that different from a range of other such models, until you look at what happens in each phase.

    Traditionally managers would use root cause analysis to try and understand problems. In Appreciative Inquiry, this phase is about looking positively at what is already working, helping us identify the key ingredients of success for this team or organisation. It embraces the positive traditions and stories that they have about themselves.

    Looking at existing success helps engagement and creativity and generates confidence for the next stage. You may find those existing examples of collaboration or of innovation that can act as the template for wider improvements.

    Rather than the narrow focus on solving problems with the minimum effort in the minimum time, this visioning phase is about using the positivity so everyone feels safe in challenging the status quo, in thinking about the big picture, and creating a vision that reaches into the future.

    We ask questions like “How does our version of excellence on a budget look, and crucially why does it matter?”

    When you’re grounded in what’s worked, and because you’re involving everyone, you can build a compelling dream that generates commitment to action.

    The Appreciative Inquiry approach is to focus on bridging the gap to your dream, while making sure there is alignment with values, strategy, structures and processes.

    Co-creation means working with all involved, which ensures that you don’t ‘rob Peter to pay Paul,’ and generates crucial buy-in and joint-ownership of change.

    This stage is when you work together to translate the vision into action plans and share roles and responsibilities in making it happen.

    You’ll need to maintain the momentum – keep talking together, challenging each other, reaffirming commitment to change.

    Agree how you will hold each participant accountable for delivering their commitments, but don’t fall back into negativity and top-down power.

    Reflect back on what you’ve learned about the traditions and stories people tell about themselves, and use them to overcome any obstacles. Continue to celebrate successes.

    Appreciative Inquiry is effective

    As an external facilitator who has used an Appreciative Inquiry approach with many teams, I can tell you that it works. So many top-down change programmes fail because of the fear, resistance or lack of ownership. With AI, that initial focus on ‘what works already’ gives people security, helps them understand that their particular perspective is valued. This enables them to be creative, to see the big picture and to consider what they individually need to do for the team to reach their compelling vision.

    While Appreciative Inquiry works exceptionally well on large-scale change or organisational development programmes, it is not just about externally-driven change or solving specific challenges. Some of my best experiences have been using AI approaches in team away-days to help them reflect, define their own vision and agree how they will act differently in the future, all based on what they were already great at.

    Many of my clients use an external facilitator because it helps create a level playing field for all participants, and because we can more easily ask the big questions and identify the ‘we’ve always done it like that’ assumptions. But any manager can learn how to use an AI approach – there’s a wealth of accessible resources to help you – books, websites, videos, webinars.

    Eszter Molnar Mills is a strength-based leadership and organisation development specialist.

    She helps organisations and individuals reach enhanced performance by reflecting on what works, and by developing skills and strategies for improvement.

    Through Formium Development, Eszter supports organisations, teams and individuals through consultancy, executive and team coaching, and facilitation.

    If you’d like help or advice on implementing the Appreciative Inquiry approach, then please get in touch.

     

     

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  • Book Review: The Positive Organization by Robert E Quinn

    Book Review: The Positive Organization by Robert E Quinn

    So many business books leave you wondering “…but how does that work in reality?” That’s not a problem with The Positive Organization – this short book (less than 160 pages from cover to cover) is packed with ideas, examples, case studies and practical exercises, written in an engaging and straightforward style.

    Throughout, Quinn challenges us to consider a different way of thinking, and to think about how we can effectively participate in building a positive organisation. A key strength of the book is that it has actionable lessons for all, regardless of job role or responsibility, from board room to shop floor. Each chapter concludes with a tool to use with teams in self-assessment and development, as well as questions to encourage the reader to reflect and set aspirations, to deepen learning.

    The central premise of the book is that building a positive organisation requires accountability and authenticity, that for it to be successful it has to be emergent and self-generating. This approach is built on listening, consultation and empowerment at all levels.

    What marks this book apart from many others is both the effectiveness of Quinn’s model, as well as the Positive Organization Generator – over 100 real-life examples of how organisations have successfully increased their positivity.

    Mental Maps and bilingualism

    Quinn suggests that the culture of an organisation can be summarised in a mental map – an indication of what a company believes and assumes, covering domains such as Motivation, Status and Change. Most organisations, and most leaders, operate using what Quinn calls a Conventional Mental Map, a top-down, traditional hierarchy. He contrasts this with the more complex Positive Mental Map, focused more on networks and relationships, and a focus on the common good and authentic communication.

    However, this is not a binary state – Quinn suggests a successful leader needs to be ‘bilingual’ able to speak the language of both maps depending on the need of the people they are working with, to find the right tools for the right occasion.

    A question of balance

    Quinn provides us with a further analysis of organisational culture – the Framework of Organizational Tensions. Quinn groups organisational characteristics into two opposing lists, for example Individual Accountability and Cohesive Teamwork. If taken to extremes either of these positive characteristics could be negative – conflict on the one hand or group-think on the other. To illustrate the need to maintain balance between these positive forces, Quinn separates each pair on opposing sides of a disc, with an outer ring of negative forces that may arise if the positive force is over-developed.

    This idea of tension and balance is crucial to Quinn – organisations are not static, they are dynamic, and to effect positive change we have to consider the whole system, that positives can turn into negatives.

    A call to action

    Having developed these models, Quinn turns to a number of key issues in developing a positive organisation, in chapters that focus on how to drive organisations forward by developing and promoting authenticity, creating a sense of purpose, fostering bottom-up change and collaborative development. He uses a range of interesting and relevant examples, referring back to the models at every stage.

    In these sections he is challenging and insightful on the role of the individual, on our willingness to work for the common good, our ability to leave our ego and control behind when trying to develop an organisation that thrives. He is also realistic about human nature, and how difficult meaningful change and personal authenticity may be, but makes clear the benefits of developing leadership capabilities and organisational positivity.

    Over to you

    Quinn concludes by sharing with the reader his Positive Organization Generator. Designed to confront sceptics and resistance, he provides 100 examples of where an organisation has made positive change (from a range of industries, and with links to further articles on each of them). This is an amazing resource that gives readers a real opportunity to understand “how it works in reality”. Rather than just adopting these ideas, his instruction to readers is to re-invent them – to be inspired by the examples, extract the principle and re-imagine it for your own context, moulding and adapting to fit.

    Robert E. Quinn’s website www.bob-quinn.com provides you with the resources from the book, including the Positive Organization Generator.

    Or you can buy the book from Amazon UK or Amazon USA.

    For more ideas you can also follow his daily blog: www.thepositiveorganization.wordpress.com

     

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    Formium Development helps individuals and organisations to harness their strengths and improve their performance and culture. We know change can be hard, so we can bring our expertise to help you with organisational development – such as implementing the ideas in The Positive Organization.

    Click here if you’d like more information on how we can help you and your team analyse, assess, challenge, innovate, communicate and develop.

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  • 7 questions for impactful leadership

    7 questions for impactful leadership

    Review of the Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier

    Your team sometimes just need a bit of support to shine. You can provide this support through changing your leadership approach to coaching.

    Helping people to find their own solutions is more impactful than giving advice, providing rules or direction. You can coach anytime, anywhere, and with the 7 simple questions that Michael Bungay Stanier suggests for supporting your team, your session will be both easy and effective.

    The Coaching Habit is a lean, inspiring and practical book. In the first few chapters you can learn about habit building and change in order to make the move from the directive habit of a lifetime. The book then outlines the benefits of coaching before you get the tools, the questions and ways of putting them into practice.

    The following seven chapters are about the seven essential question you should ask in order to help your colleague to identify and solve their own difficulties. Bungay Stanier added exercises between the questions to help leaders master asking them effectively.

    Michael Bungay Stanier’s book is a practical, engaging read encouraging immediate application. It is packed with useful resources and exercises, and should have a place on every leaders’ bookshelf.

    We had the privilege of interviewing Michael on the coaching habit, so you can also hear him talk about the habit changing process and how to do more great work.

    The Coaching Habit is available on amazon.co.uk and amazon.com.

  • Business approaches for tackling poverty

    Business approaches for tackling poverty

    The authors suggest that few of the most sustainable and scalable solutions to poverty and deprivation are those based on business – instead of charitable – methods. This chimes with Melinda Gates’ TED talk about adaptable strategies from Coca Cola that could make non-profit organisations more effective.

    The practical guide, Scaling Up includes a wide variety of case studies of both the families this kind of approach has helped, and the organisations and social entrepreneurs who have successfully applied it. The book comes across as an extremely well researched while written with the practitioner in mind. Examples from around the world including India, Latin America and Africa range from the more familiar cases of microfinance and housing to community savings and utilities.

    The authors recommend a range of strategic and market-driven approaches which can help people at the bottom of the economic pyramid, effectively challenging many assumption of the traditional charitable / donor-reliant approach to NGO-led development. The opportunity to achieve scale is explored both as the traditional scaling of the organisation itself, and as increasing its influence on the ecosystem.

    The contents are practical, addressing core management problems just like finance and marketing in a new context. The book is very well structured, the only tougher aspect to its presentation is the excessive amount usage of acronyms, which grates in spite of a glossary at the front of the book.

    Reading the book is more than likely to be of instant benefit to managers already working in social enterprises or the third sector, but Scaling Up is a remarkable read for any leader curious about the economics of social justice.

    The book is available on amazon.co.uk and amazon.com.

  • Positive Change Management webinar replay

    Positive Change Management webinar replay

    In today’s fast changing environment agility and the ability to make change effectively is a key organisational requirement. According to research many change management initiatives fail, risking employee’s resistance and change fatigue.

    View this webinar recording to explore:

    • The key change management mistakes to avoid
    • Successful approaches to effectively leading change
    • How to minimise resistance, engage and motivate your people
    • Positive change management methodologies

    The accompanying guide to better understanding your stakeholders – and the presentation slides – can be found here.

  • The magic of freedom?

    The magic of freedom?

    British training company Happy Ltd has been rated best for customer service and work/life balance among many other awards. Henry Stewart, Chief Executive, has written a book about the story of Happy and its achievements. The book has a clear tone, comes with real-life examples, provides evidence where required and poses thought-provoking questions – overall an enjoyable read. From the title you can guess you will find a public declaration of the methods, views and motives of the author.

    Stewart’s Happy Manifesto is based on ten points:

    The-Happy-Manifesto

    Most of the points are about giving freedom to your people and trusting them. With his book Stewart aims to help the reader put in place the structure that makes freedom and trust possible in his/her organisation.

    The Happy Manifesto shows an aspirational alternative, it can help some managers and organisations but it is still not a panacea which will “Make Your Organisation a Great Place to Work – Now!” Don’t get me wrong, it is a great book, the idea has potential but I can’t see how it could be applied in every case. I find it hard to believe that all employees can work without rules, and in my experience not every manager has the freedom to influence the structure, choose their people and put together a dream-team. If managers don’t have the freedom to choose people for their team, or if they inherit an existing team with set preferences and habits, further work will be needed before they can provide the level of freedom suggested.

    It is apparent throughout the book that Stewart believes in guidelines rather than rules. He says managers don’t give enough freedom to their staff and it could be much more effective if your people made most decisions themselves. Stewart describes the hierarchy of management needs, based on Maslow’s well-known pyramid, which highlights workplace safety, comfort, reward and communication as necessary but insufficient for motivation.

    Stewart proceeds to expand on organisational approaches to develop challenge, support, trust and freedom as the management behaviours leading to high performance.

    Book details:
    Henry Stewart: The Happy Manifesto: Make Your Organization a Great Workplace;
    Kogan Page; 1 edition (3 Jan. 2013)

  • Book Summary: Switch – How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

    Book Summary: Switch – How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

    Over the last few decades a dispiriting body of research has been amassed, which suggests that the vast majority of change programmes fail, or fail to reach their intended outcomes. In their book Switch – How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, academics Chip and Dan Heath address this challenge head on.

    The authors argue that we all have both an emotional and a rational side, which they portray as the elephant and the rider – for their relative roles and power.

    They suggest that the emotional (elephant) and rational (rider) sides have different needs and limitations that we have to address for change to be successful. Furthermore, we can also smooth the path to make change as easy as possible.

    The Switch model outlines three sets of actions to support each of the elephant, rider and path. The aspects of the model are therefore to:

    Direct the rider by

    • Following the bright spots: ‘Investigate what’s working and clone it.’
    • Scripting the critical moves by specifying the exact desired behaviours.
    • Pointing to the destination, making the desired outcome, its purpose and benefits clear.

    Motivate the elephant by

    • Finding the feeling: allowing people to feel an emotion about the subject, rather than just think about it.
    • Shrinking the change into a manageable size until it ‘no longer spooks the Elephant.’
    • Growing your people to meet the challenges through development and encouraging a growth mindset.

    Shape the path by

    • Tweaking the environment so that it supports and encourages behaviour change.
    • Building habits, so that the new behaviour becomes automatic and no longer requires willpower.
    • Rallying the herd through modelling the new behaviour approach and building on social pressure to help it spread.

    The Heaths have created a leadership book with great – but all too rare – balance. The Switch model and their recommendations are based on robust research from business, management, psychology and even international development.

    These are then presented in a very accessible and readable book with lots of case studies and illustrative examples that both ‘point to the destination’ and allow us to ‘find the feeling’, resulting in an inspirational and immediately actionable read for leaders looking to make organisational or personal changes.

    Switch – How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath is available at amazon.co.uk and amazon.com.  Additional resources are available from heathbrothers.com. The book is reviewed by Eszter Molnar Mills.

    Eszter Molnar Mills is a strength-based leadership and organisation development specialist and founder of Formium Development. She helps organisations and individuals reach enhanced performance by reflecting on what works, and developing skills and strategies for improvement.

  • 5 of the best…resources to keep resolutions

    5 of the best…resources to keep resolutions

    How are your New Year’s resolutions coming along? January is the month of getting fit, being more productive, having a new frame of mind. We collected five resources that can help you keep the resolutions you choose to make, and for sustainably improving habits.

    Better than before – Gretchen Rubin on habits
    “Habits make change possible by freeing us from decision making and from using self-control.” – says Rubin. She provides resources to help you understand your preferences and choose habit strategies that will work for you. Also look out for her podcast.

    MindTools
    New year, new me. How can you renew yourself most easily? With learning a new skill for personal or career development. Since 1996, Mind Tools has offered practical online training to individuals keen to excel in the workplace. Join them!

    FlexScore
    Did you promise to yourself to be better at managing your money? FlexScore is a website that shows you how are you doing financially and how you are doing compared to your peers. The best part is that you get a free, update financial analysis that helps you understand how purchases affect your financial future.

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    100DayChallenge
    A radically different approach helping you keep your New Year’s resolutions. The organisers claim that you can get more done in the first 100 days of 2016 than most people do in 10 years. This is an online programme with a daily video lesson and a specific call to action.

    HeadSpace
    Did you have a stressful 2015? Did you promise that you will give more attention to mindfulness and meditate? HeadSpace is a personal trainer for your mind. You can choose different sessions to suit your mood and lifestyle. You can take a break anywhere and anytime since HeadSpace is available for iOS and Android as well.

    +1 Strengths Challenge 2016
    The list would not be complete without our featured interviewee, Michelle McQuaid’s program. Join if your resolution was being more happy and energized at work. We took part last year and we can tell you that it has had an impact.