Four Groups

Archive for the ‘Psychology’ Category

Keith McGregor from Personnel Psychology NZ calls out some of the myths and mysteries around training and development and the prospect of realising change, or not…

Over the years we have run many management training courses and get wonderful feedback (causes a problem trying to get one’s head out of the door). We go back 6 months later and ask the manager how its going and they say “Great”. We ask the staff how its going and they say “How is what going?”. When we ask about the management training they say “Oh, so that where he was for a couple of days”. There may have been a brief flurry of activity and then normality prevailed. How many us can honestly say we have seen a permanent, positive change in managerial behaviour as a result of a management course? This is incredibly ego-deflating and a seeming waste of everybody’s time and money and yet the need is as strong as ever – in virtually every organisation there are people screaming out for ideas on how to manage difficult staff and deal with complex personnel issues.

Via the IONET Google Group

This is a cross post from 3ruce.com

Welcome to the first update of 2011, we have lots to get through so let’s get started.

Featured in this issue:

• The organisation as an ecosystem
• The neuroscience of change and innovation
• Rethinking promotion and recruitment
• The problem with creative types!

Articles are included from Clayton Christensen, Gary Hamel, Oracle, Strategy and Business, Wharton and Prof. Vlatka Hlupic.

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I came across this intriguing post from Robin Dickinson, asking about people measure the quality of their relationships.

This comment really caught my eye;

Given that we are empowered to make literally 1000′s of such connections [via social media], this then begs the questions – where do we best place our limited resources. Who do we invest our time in? How do we determine who to deepen (to use Brad’s quality indicator) our relationships with? Who do we say ‘No’ to and why? As this social connectivity continues to explode exponentially, it will be interesting to see how we humans address this question of quality.

Squaring the realities of near endless choice (online) with limited time opens up something of an interesting conundrum. Where is my time and energy best spent in order to maximise the happiness/satisfaction/productivity (etc. etc.) of any particular relationship that I choose to develop?

From a commercial perspective, how can I enhance my existing relationships and even start to predict the outcomes of new relationships that I might develop (e.g. recruitment, new project teams, restructuring etc.)?

Does a better understanding of relationships improve performance, save time and help enhance decision making? We’ve found various sources of research that suggests better relationships lead to performance improvements by 20 – 40% or more.

From Four Groups’ point of view, the Visual Team Builder offers one approach that sheds light on these types of questions.

There’s a now a video demonstration of 4G on the Management Due Diligence page. You can see the video below, or on the Management Due Diligence page.

Management Due Diligence Video Demonstration

A very thought provoking piece on talent from Magnus Holm, drilling into the details and questioning some of the assumptions.

In order to become great or excellent, you must keep practicing. Not mindless practice of course, but deliberate practice as Ericsson has described. Depending on the subject, the innate abilities or the physical attributes may help, but is not essential for reaching an expert performance. In many cases, having a talent makes no significant differences on the outcome, which therefore leads to the conclusion that, very often, “there is no talent”.

If talent doesn’t matter, what do you need then? Passion, passion and passion. By following your passion you will not only get better at things, but your life situation will also improve since you’re doing what you really want to do.

Might it be that passion is more valuable than talent? Are we inching our way past 20th century militaristic models of work or will there be a new ‘war for passion’?

Justin Kirby was very kind to do a writeup of our contribution to a NESTA funded research project he was involved in.

These ideas aren’t dissimilar to what I wrote about re: Jackie Orme and I’ve added a short extract below.

Many large organisations claim to have excellent and world-class capabilities in:

• Business processes
• Collaborative software (video conferencing, blogs, wikis etc.)
• Developmental support (workshops, training, coaching, learning etc.)

What appears to be missing from the client perspective is a methodology, system or tool (e.g. Kaplan Norton ‘Balanced Score Card’, Six Sigma, etc.) to help optimise collaboration, working relationships and productivity, particularly if a new
project is starting or a new initiative is under way.

So while the three areas mentioned earlier are very well understood by the majority of large organisations, a means or method to ‘scale’ collaboration and help enhance productivity in a systematic fashion is potentially a missing piece of the jigsaw.

By providing a systematic methodology and framework for decision making, research participant Bruce Lewin of 4 Groups has suggested that their 4G technology helps optimise the often ‘hard to manage’ or intangible elements of collaboration, namely working relationships, shared values and creative tensions that are part and parcel of any collaborative activity.

Welcome the second review of 2010. In this issue we have a ramble around current thinking on engagement, kick the tyres on organisational behaviour and give the old leadership tree a good shake. We’ll also explore the following themes;

• Engagement
• Strategic HR
• Productivity
• Complexity
• The Dunning Kruger Effect
• High Potentials

Articles are included from the likes of Accenture, BP, Charlene Li, Gary Hamel, Google, HCL Technologies, MIT, Sainsbury’s, Seth Godin and Strategy + Business.

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• Thoughts and ideas for 2010-07-24 http://bit.ly/cA3laS #
• @aclr8 could be either, or something else all together (strategy, lack of resources, changes in economics)… in reply to aclr8 #
• @aclr8 collectively we r #process experts (tangible) but modelling + predicting #relationships (intangible) is the gap (+ opportunity) in reply to aclr8 #
• RT @aclr8: @fourgroups When YOU find a breakdown do you attribute it to #systems + #processes or #people not working well together? #
• @VenessaMiemis define intelligence… successfully and measure it and win yourself a Nobel prize in reply to VenessaMiemis #
• RT @VenessaMiemis: RT @GaianCollective Neuroscientists can predict your behavior better than you can: http://bit.ly/aQo1tw #
• @VenessaMiemis I love the implications for #freewill in that piece in reply to VenessaMiemis #
• @DavidFCox that's special – that's magical and was impossible until very very recently in humanity! in reply to DavidFCox #

• Thoughts and ideas for 2010-07-23 http://bit.ly/cQCKzZ #
• @AchimMuellers no rush – take your time… in reply to AchimMuellers #
• @CIPD thanks for the mention – what is the purpose/outcome? in reply to CIPD #
• @bkeegan this now 404's – have the post taken it down? in reply to bkeegan #

• Thoughts and ideas for 2010-07-22 http://bit.ly/bqvG2a #
• @AchimMuellers can you elaborate at all? in reply to AchimMuellers #
• @CIPD 1. real time conversation with subject matter experts 2. real time globa? brainstorming and discovery, nothing else comes close… in reply to CIPD #
• @AchimMuellers grand – what is your blog addy btw? in reply to AchimMuellers #
• I'll be more than surprised if #Nokia recaptures the dominance in #smartphones it enjoy(ed?) in #candybar handsets #
• To truly fulfill the promise of social technology, we urgently need new governance models and new ways of creating value http://ow.ly/2fhG4 #
• @AchimMuellers I've found the blog address (silly me!) – looking forward to the post! in reply to AchimMuellers #
• @mattalder really enjoyed Kevin's input, looking forward to more #
• @bkeegan btw – what's the original link to the story? in reply to bkeegan #
• When will social media #predict the quality of the #relationship I have with other people (or does it do this already?) #socialcapital #
• @AreTheyRight 404? in reply to AreTheyRight #