Friday 27 May 2011

Making an Impact

Last night was the AGM of the Lancashire Branch of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).  As I'm a committee member, I attended the meeting, part of which was a short presentation by Chris Kelly of Voiceworks.  His topic was 'Making an Impact' and Chris's background in acting and radio journalism gave him a unique slant on a well-established topic.  Often, effective training is not in what you say but how you say it, and Chris took some familiar aspects of presenting powerfully and provided new insights through his creative and engaging style.  Using a spectrum of 'expressiveness' he was able to highlight differences in presenting styles but also how the roles of presenter and audience move further apart over the course of a presentation - unless the presenter takes corrective action.  He dealt deftly with both internal factors and behaviours that can affect the impact someone is having.  A few simple exercises provided immediate benefits; for example an activity which required the talker to say out loud 'I pause and I breathe' at the end of each sentence, quickly showed how 'Ums' and 'Ahs' could be eliminated, sentences shortened and overall a more powerful impact could be achieved.  This was all done with great humour (and skill) and judging by the audience's reaction he was modelling what he advocated. 

Underlying his approach is the idea that if the impact of a presentation is constructed between talker and receiver, then it is more helpful for the presenter to think about the impact he/she wants on the audience, rather than the other way round (which is what leads to nervousness and stress).  You can find out more about Voiceworks at:

http://www.voiceworkslondon.com/

For more on CIPD Lancashire branch click on the following link.  They put on some really good workshops (Check the previous blog post about Tony Whalley of Achieve Dynamics).


http://www.cipd.co.uk/branch/lancashire

Miles


http://www.voiceworkslondon.com/

Saturday 21 May 2011

The role of HR in creating innovative organisations

'Charting the Territory for HR' a workshop on the role of HR in creating innovative organisations

20 May 2011, Innovation for Growth Project, Lancaster University Management School

Speakers:  Prof. Paul Sparrow, Centre for Performance-led HR, David McNerney, Executive Director of HR, Sellafield Ltd.

This was the first in a series of workshops exploring the people aspects of innovation.  It was a fascinating introduction into the macro and micro factors that need to be considered in attempting to construct innovative organisations.  The starting point is that innovation is a 'people-centric' issue.  Macro elements discussed included the requirement to move away from traditional business models, to consider different organisational structures and to 'institutionalise' innovation within a company.  Micro factors included training of leaders, creating climates to support innovation and recruiting (and supporting) innovative people.

Some interesting dilemmas facing organisations seeking to become innovative.  For example, organisations that have honed themselves to perfection/optimal efficiency may also be insufficiently flexible to cope with unforeseen, step-changes in the trading environment.  (Consider the current recession or the effect on the auto-trade and computer chip industries as a result of the tsunami in Japan).  Organisations seeking to increase their level of innovation have to find a balance between creativity and control, cost and risk (and the associated difficulties in managing an increasingly complex organisation), managing the conflict between pursuing innovation and other strategic imperatives, and effective resource allocation (innovation inevitably comes with a degree of failure).

Six business models for innovation were discussed briefly, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.  Delegates were invited to think about ways of remodelling their product offering.  This was linked to the idea of 'product service innovation'; the notion of product is changing from one of design and functionality to one where the consumer assesses it in terms of the access it gives to other services and technologies.  Consider the iPhone, for example.  It is well designed (aesthetically pleasing) has good functionality (and reliability) but also is a platform for other designers to distribute 'apps'.  The phrase, 'the democratisation of innovation' was used to describe how new technologies are changing the face of innovation from 'closed' to 'open' approaches.  (Read Chesburgh's book, 'Open Innovation' if you want to find out more).

At the micro level, some interesting research by Fiona Patterson was used to show that traditionally desirable personality traits such as 'agreableness' and 'conscientiousness' may not actually be high scoring traits in innovative people and as a consequence, organisations may be deselecting innovators by default.  Changing recruitment policies and adopting different development approaches for innovators may be necessary.  That implies organisations need to develop flexibility for managing diversity too.

A really fascinating workshop, and I haven't really done it justice here, but it provided real food for thought.  It was a challenge to HR professionals, in particular those who communicate the psychological contract to employees.  While the current narrative is a plea for trust and engagement, we were asked to be more honest in recognising the heightened levels of risk and uncertainty for employees and the need to drive for greater flexibility.  You can download a copy of the white paper, 'The Innovation Imperative:  Charting the Territory for HR' from the Centre for Performance-Led HR's website:

http://www.lums.lancs.ac.uk/research/centres/hr/WhitePapers/

There are three other workshops in this series:

1.  A HR strategy for Innovation (8th June 2011)
2.  Leading for Innovation  (15th June 2011)
3.  Innovative People  (22nd June 2011)

Contact ifg@lancaster.ac.uk for further details.  If you decide to attend, put up a summary on this blog.  Let's get the world inventing!

Miles

Tuesday 17 May 2011

Making a sale despite the salesman

Here's a short story about the difference between selling and meeting customer needs.  One of our team bought a new car recently.  In the end she got the deal she wanted, but left feeling dissatisfied and uncertain about visiting that dealership ever again.  In truth the deal could have been done in about 15 minutes.  Our colleague had done her research, knew her budget and had identified a specific car she wanted to buy.  All the dealer needed to do was give her a test drive in the new car, give her a price for her current vehicle and then do the paperwork.  Job done.  The deal took nearly 90 minutes, 75 minutes longer than was necessary.  Much of this extra time was taken up with the salesman leaving to deal with other customers.  Sure, they may have been short-staffed, but the numerous 'Back in 5 minutes' promises soon started to wear thin when it became evident that '5 minutes' was a label for any time period longer than this.  Lack of product knowledge, inconsistent information and poor customer service, including after-sales support (which involved an extra trip back to the dealer to collect a missing part, plus attempts by the dealer to renegotiate on price and a correction to the money drawn from our colleague's account) all led to a feeling of frustration.   In addition, the salesman seemed intent on giving the buyer his 'sales script' rather than tuning in to the real needs expressed by the customer. 

How can it be that a customer can get the deal they want yet leave with a negative experience?  Two oft-quoted phrases in sales training are 'People buy people first' and 'A customer buys on emotion and justifies with logic'.  This story illustrates just how important it is for the sales person to pay attention to the relationship and the emotional impact of his/her behaviour.  Truly listening to the customer, making them feel valued and responding to their needs will cause the customer to leave feeling satisfied with the deal they have struck and with a good impression of their experience which they may pass on to friends and family.  You could argue that the salesman got what he wanted - a sale.  But what about all the add-ons?  Servicing?  Future sales? Recommendations to others? Or as in this case, recounting a less than positive story to others.  (People tend to tell many more people about their bad experiences than they do their positive ones). 

Selling is a skill not a technique.  Real selling is about identifying customer's needs, having the acuity to notice what the customer is responding to and then having the flexibility to adopt a complementary approach. 

Post up your stories (good or bad) of your own sales experiences!
Miles

Thursday 12 May 2011

Starbuck's Chief Exec Warns of the Risks of Success.

After stepping out of the day to day running of the Starbucks business, Howard Schultz famously wrote a critical memo in 2007 to his senior management team saying that "in the headlong rush for growth, Starbuck's had lost it's soul".  Schultz suggests that growth and success can cover up issues and that the arrogant feeling that may come with success is not good either for an individual or organisation.

Schultz stepped back into the running of the organisation, ( after Starbucks experienced a tough time with the market and adverse publicity) to now re-establish the view that the organisation wants to be 'invited' into where they do business, he says "to be thoughtful and respectful as a brand and to earn the respect and trust from a community".

To listen to the complete interview join this link at 30:45  http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b010y30t  Schultz has just launched his business strategy book titled 'Onward'.

Wednesday 11 May 2011

ILM reports Apprentices 'bring fresh ideas to businesses'

While much is being made about the cost of University education and how it will limit the ability to gain the appropriate knowledge which then contributes to our overall economy, spare a thought for the Apprentices and the schemes available to get our future leaders into work, (no I'm not talking about the Alan Sugar roadshow here!)  Not only do individuals gain key skills but the ILM reports that they can give a new perspective to the organisation they are working for - it's a win win if we make sure we listen to and value their feedback!   http://bit.ly/jVgMg5

Kate Peacock

Tuesday 3 May 2011

The upside of conflict

Interesting article from Harvard Business Review by Nilofer Merchant, on why we need to address conflict and not ignore it.  Denial, 'sweeping it under the carpet' or 'hoping for the best' are ineffective strategies for dealing with conflict and will ultimately lead to a lack of organisational alignment.   You can read the full article at  http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/05/we_cant_agree_to_disagree.html

Miles Peacock

You don't need to do it on your own!

Much is spoken of team work and now more than ever relying soley on top performers and exeptional talent is not enough.  Collaboration is the way forward and builds ever further on the active development of our social networks. People Management Magazine suggests "HR has been obsessed with high performing individuals for too long.  The real engine of creativity and organisational success is to be found in internal networks of friendship and collaboration" http://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/pm/articles/2011/03/organisational-learning-the-social-network.htm

This may sound a twee concept but think about it, would you share an idea or proposal with someone you didn't trust.  How many of us use our trusted colleagues and networks as a sounding board to try things out before putting them forward to the board or our manager?  What this means is that the concept gets improved and honed to the point of commercial/business reality.

Steve Jobs was asked by Business Week what was the "seed" of innovation at Apple Inc he said "Innovation comes from people meeting up in hallways or calling each other at 10.30pm with a new idea.  It's adhoc meetings of six people called by someone who thinks he has figured out the coolest thing ever and wants other people to think of his idea".  Apple seem to be getting it right we could take a leaf out of their book?

Kate Peacock