October 1, 2008

Table of Contents:

Keeping Up: Current Events

Behavior over Experience

Major restaurant chains have found that the impact and importance of training programs trump experience when building a reliable workforce. Bubba Gump Shrimp is a case in point. The company has reduced its recidivism rate from 16% to 8% by switching to a behavior-based versus an experience-based set of priorities in its hiring system.

Training Pay-Off

A joint APQC, IBM and Workforce Management data collection initiative with more than 200 participants indicates that investment in training pays off in the bottom line. ROI on employees that have been given at least five hours of training is consistently over one-third higher than the ROI on employees that have not been given training.

Virtual Resources

According to The Harvard Business Review, businesses should be considering ways to create and exploit virtual places that mirror real life. Companies are already using virtual venues to collaborate and learn. IBM personnel meet on a private island that IBM owns in Second Life. BP uses precise terrain and infrastructure data to place a future oil pipeline in existing surroundings, allowing engineers thousands of miles away to roam freely and identify safety and constructability issues.

Time for Success

"Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least."
– Goethe

Anchoring Time in Your Core Values

The challenges of time management are indisputable; take, for example, the available sea of books, seminars and management programs that focus on time management. How are we doing? With all of these systems and theories, have we come any closer to getting a handle on our time?

Each morning, you may be asking yourself questions like, "What can I do today, right now, with the phone ringing and three people waiting for a return call or meeting? How can I organize my calendar more efficiently? How can I pack more productivity into my day?" The truth is this: You can adhere to whichever system works for you, as long as it is rooted in this one, simple concept...

Leadership Advisory: Being a Teammate Rather Than a Hero

As a leader, what do you do when it's time to step up and address a challenging situation? Are you able to inspire your co-workers and subordinates to get involved and contribute to the solution, or do you dive in and take over?

If you feel you are the only one left at the helm during these times, then you may be taking on heroic responsibility. At first nod, this sounds like a positive trait, but read on to find out how it detracts from your own results and alienates those around you.

When leaders take on heroic responsibility for critical choices facing their organizations, it is often the beginning of a mass team exodus. Why is this? Isn't becoming a heroic leader what we've all been practicing for?

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Editor’s Note

As witnessed in the past few weeks, the financial crisis creates very uncertain times. And, during these times, employees are even more disengaged than usual. A Towers Perrin study of 90,000 employees in 18 countries from November 2007 found that 71% of the employees were not actively engaged. The Gallup Organization estimates the cost of disengagement to corporations at $300 billion per year. That’s about half the bailout every single year! EDSI has always maintained that the accountable employee is the engaged employee and our course Increasing Personal Effectiveness® builds accountability and 26 other competencies.

Book Report

Executive Warfare
David D’Alessandro

Executive Warfare (McGraw Hill, 2008) is Author David D'Alessandro's latest work in his series of Warfare titles joining the popular Brand Warfare, and Career Warfare. Billed as "...the advanced class for the truly ambitious" the Executive version gives us more of D'Alessandro's career advice in his aggressive, no-nonsense style.

With an opening line from blues master BB King in his Acknowledgement of "Nobody loves me but my mother, and she could be jivin' too" it's safe to say that D'Alessandra is not in the market for new friends...

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Situation Room
Sensitive Material Mishandling

Sean holds an important position in a your very busy office. He supervises a staff of approximately 30 employees who do a variety of things including some frontline service, phone support, records management, and others. Your office works with sensitive data that needs to be protected for legal compliance, and a smooth workflow between employees makes it all possible. Making sure work gets done efficiently and records make it to their destinations is a key of the department, and thus everyone’s jobs.

As the department manager Sean wears several hats and has a difficult job. He manages vendor relationships and works with senior management, however a good amount of his day to day work is in coordinating the overall workflow of the office. He’s often called in to help with projects or to answer compliance questions – sensitive documents leaving the office need his signature.

Recently you have noticed unusual bottlenecking in this department, and you spoke with Sean about it to see if there was anything specific causing the problems. He mentioned that a few newer employees weren’t up to speed but that he was “working on it”. Several weeks passed and the situation worsened. In passing you ask one of the newer employees how the training was going and to your surprise they tell you that they have yet to begin, and that Sean hasn’t scheduled anything to date. She then apologizes for an incident that happened the previous week where she had gotten a folder back from Sean and handed it to a client only to find later that day that it contained the confidential information of another client. They were trying to get the folder back but the unintended recipient had yet to return it six days later. This is a potentially serious infraction, and required your direct attention and some documentation immediately. It was the first you had heard of it.

You make your way to Sean’s desk, and can tell by the look on his face that he knows why you are coming. When you inquire as to why you were not informed immediately of the error Sean tells you that he didn’t want the employee to get reprimanded for what amounted to his mistake. In regards to getting the files back he also tells you in a way that reminds you of your previous conversation regarding training that he is “working on it”. Sean has never had an issue regarding his work before.

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Author Q & A

Five Questions with Jim Horan

Our expert author this week is Jim Horan, President and CEO of the One Page Business Plan Company and author of The One Page Business Plan … the best selling business planning book on Amazon.com. He is also the developer of The One Page Planning and Performance System.

He was good enough to lend us some of his time for our "Five Questions" section this week, and although his business planning process can capture business’s entire future on a single page his answers here provide volumes of useful information.

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