Manager expectations define employee performance

There was a study carried out by psychologists at Minnesota University in 1977 that demonstrated how other people’s expectations of us influence how we behave. It is as if we sub-consciously pick up how others view us and start to behave accordingly.

Those of you familiar with the Iceberg Theory from the Governing Change management training program will recognize the first law of the iceberg; “We always influence and there is always a reaction (either conscious or sub-conscious)”. From a management perspective the study supports the fact that our expectations of our employees influence their performance. If we see them as high performing they will be. If we view them as ordinary, they will be. I am a firm believer in ‘People are only as good as they are allowed to be.’ When employees are marked as a 3 out of 5 (which is most of them) in their annual appraisal what is the subtle damage to morale and self-esteem? How challenging are people’s goals? What do managers delegate as a result of low expectations?

It is important to expect the best and provide the right resources and encouragement. Change your expectations and change performance.

Happy 100th Birthday Peter Drucker!

Peter Drucker, the man who is credited with modern management thinking would have been 100 years old last week. Let's not forget his vision and wisdom. Here are some quotes from many of his writings and interviews.

"In fact, that management has a need for advanced education – as well as for systematic manager development – means only that management today has become an institution of our society."

"The best way to predict the future is to create it."

"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things."

"What's measured improves."

“Efficiency is doing better what is already being done."

“People who don't take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.”

“The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said.”

“The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.”

“When a subject becomes totally obsolete we make it a required course.”

"Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility."

"To focus on contribution is to focus on effectiveness."

"People in any organization are always attached to the obsolete – the things that should have worked but did not, the things that once were productive and no longer are."

"Wherever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision."

“The worker's effectiveness is determined largely by the way he is being managed.”

“A superior who works on his own development sets an almost irresistible example”

How Long Should a Leadership Development Course Be?

You have been asked to find a leadership development programme for the managers at your organisation. The choice is bewildering, with companies offering a host of courses which last from one day to six months. What factors should guide your decision making?

First consider what you want the target group to be able to do at the end of the course. If you are looking for them to behave differently when they get back to work at the end of the leadership development programme, and for their new behaviour to be profitable for the company, then the chances are they’ll need more than a two day course.

If you went to university, how long did you spend there? The chances are you were there for three years, and possibly longer. What about other professional training you might have done, whether in the forces, medicine, or in areas such as accounting, corporate finance, etc? How long did it take to gain the relevant experience there? When viewed from this angle it is difficult to see how two days, no matter how engaging they may be, will develop something as demanding as leadership.

What’s the minimum time required for a leadership development course to be effective? Kevin Yates, Managing Director of leadership consultants Mitchell Phoenix, thinks that five or six days over five or six months is the optimum length for a leadership development programme. “The only way we learn and develop something like leadership is to put the principles into practice in the workplace and then to regularly report back on results achieved to a group,” he says. “This requirement to perform, to adapt one’s behaviour and create results through doing so, is only achieved in leadership development courses which are run for a day a month for five or six months. Anything shorter than that, and gains may be made in the first few weeks after the course, but after that they will quickly fade and the investment will be lost.”

Interim CEO Ross Stuart, who has used Mitchell Phoenix in a number of companies including Astir, Linpac and Alderley Group, agrees: “One of the unique features of Mitchell Phoenix courses is that they are done over 6 months, 1 day per month which allows the techniques and training to be used in between sessions and each manger reports back on their successes, embedding the techniques much better that the normal 3/4 day courses.”

What is the effect on delegates? Darren Lewitt, a director at Midwich Ltd, sums up much of the feedback Mitchell Phoenix receive, “I have been on a number of courses in my time. Forget the rest, this is the best. It holds your attention all the way through. Unlike other courses, you are not distracted or fighting to get out. An amazing experience.”

The Four Secrets of Choosing Management Development Programmes

Have you been tasked with choosing a management or leadership development programme for your people? Are you uncertain about what to look for? What are the pros and cons of sending your people to a hotel for a five day residential or a back to business school?

Follow these four simple steps to ensure you make the right choice:

1. Choose a programme that produces business results. Why do you want your people to become better leaders and managers? So that they create stronger business results. A course that does not produce results will not justify the expenditure. Choose a course that produces tangible results in your business from the very first seminar – after all, why wait to see the ROI?

The material covered in Governing Change can be turned into results quickly. This is why my interest remained for days 1-6. The theory can be put into practice and, to paraphrase my own presentation, I have the results to prove it.
Tim Palin, The Metal Centre

2. Look for robust, proven content. If your people are going to create real results, they’ll need practical input which they can implement quickly and effectively. It will be hard for your people to call complex models and abstract theories to mind when they are under pressure – and when they are under pressure is precisely when they’ll need to use what they’ve learned from the course they’re attending.

For any manager it bears relevance to their principal objectives for success. Every session had content that I could relate to my everyday working environment and equipped me with the tools to improve myself and my team between each session.
Jane Bradshaw, Gould Alloys

3. Insist on a structure which demands that delegates implement what they are learning back in the workplace, and supports them in doing so. The best structure for this is a day a month. That way delegates can experiment in modifying their approach, create results, report their progress back to their group, and build their understanding over five or six months, rather than attending a three day event and then not implementing half of it and forgetting the rest.

Anyone in management, no matter what level of experience they have, will learn from this course. This is not a course where you go away feeling inspired but then never apply what you’ve learned. The course forces you and supports you in developing your skills.
Sophie Davies, Victim Support

4. Ensure that the programme is run by people who are expert in developing the leadership and management capabilities of others, rather than experts from your particular industry, who may have little to impart other than a dressed up version of their autobiography.

A 6 month Mitchell Phoenix management programme that, frankly, changed my life. It broadened my outlook and since completing it my enthusiasm soared and the techniques he showed us to deal with difficult or sensitive management challenges have been invaluable to me, and of course my business.
Ian Ford, Watts Group

Finally, if you are looking to develop not only a group of individuals, but the whole culture of your organisation, choose a development initiative which is robust enough to scale up to produce an organisation-wide effect.

The Governing Change training course has equipped our managers with the necessary tools to manage their teams and achieve a high level of success. It enables all of us to take a consistent approach when managing our people
Andy Howitt, Regional Director, Aalco

And of course, treat any tangential approach with caution. A programme which seeks to achieve improvements in the business environment through participation in an unrelated activity, such as outward-bound sessions or actor’s trust games, is unlikely to create lasting results.

Having been on numerous training courses I have no hesitation in recommending the Mitchell Phoenix Course as the best yet. There is no management-speak or pointless exercises - instead the course is tailored to each and every delegate due to the focus on practical results and making improvements in your workplace.

Mark Lowe, Midwich Ltd


Can You See the Business Opportunities?

As economic conditions improve, it will be those managers and organisations which can see the opportunities which will flourish. And what we see is a function of how we think.

We normally imagine that things work the other way round: that we see, and on the basis of the evidence in front of us, we alter our thinking. But without a certain level of understanding, we cannot interpret the evidence we are looking at. It is tempting to think that Galileo looked through his telescope and saw the evidence for the Earth orbiting the Sun. In fact, if he had not had the benefit of Copernicus’ theories which argued that that this was so, Galileo might have looked through his telescope and not understood what he was seeing. In other words, Copernicus thought it, then Galileo proved it – not the other way around.

What do most senior managers think? They think that they have been in management, and been successful at it, for long enough that they don’t need any further input to sharpen their thinking. Or they think that there is no-one out there who can develop their understanding in such a way that when they look at their business again, they see it with fresh eyes.

With most senior managers thinking this way, this in itself is an opportunity to gain an advantage. Where can you find a programme which will develop senior managers’ thinking, and create results as a consequence? Mitchell Phoenix have been developing the leadership and management capabilities of senior managers for over twenty years, opening their eyes to new possibilities:

Puts a completely new perspective on managing. A truly inspirational course.
Paul Skipton, Aalco

The course has allowed me to look at myself and others in a differing way and will allow both my own and others’ potential to be fulfilled.
Robert Hillman, Watts International

The course is excellent in opening your mind to managing your business, people, targets, time, etc and is invaluable in everyday use. I would recommend this to anyone who would like to develop as a manager and personally.
Paul Temple, Aalco

How equipped are you to see the opportunities – both internal and external - which will arise over the next period? How sharp is your thinking? Can you see
the way forward?

When Vision does not Equal Reality, Innovate

Mitchell Phoenix believe that organisations should Govern Change, which means anticipating and responding actively and flexibly to the changing circumstances in which businesses operate. In doing so, companies create an advantageous, profitable future for themselves. Blind adherence to past processes and procedures, failure to ask searching questions about our business and the environment in which it exists, and unwillingness to really listen to those around us are all factors which can prevent us from Governing Change successfully.

In Innovation and Entrepreneurship Peter Drucker explores a number of situations where there was an incongruity between business’s vision of reality – of what they thought was happening – and the actual reality which was unfolding around them. In the following three examples, Drucker shows how certain businesses identified gaps between their vision and the true reality, and then responded creatively to effectively Govern Change.

1. Incongruity Between Reality and Assumptions About It

When erroneous assumptions are made about reality, businesspeople are not concentrating their efforts on areas which will generate results. Those who see the true reality may also see the opportunity to innovate.

For example, in the early 1950s ocean freighters were thought to be dying. They were a slow, high cost method of transport. Why was this? The shipping industry had made an incorrect assumption – they had focused their efforts on reducing the cost of running fully loaded freighters at sea, by developing smaller, faster ships which ran on less fuel and required fewer crew. But the reality was that as a piece of capital equipment a ship is most expensive when it is not working, and ships were spending significant periods of time queuing at ports waiting to load or unload. This time spent queuing was the main reason why freighters were deemed to be so slow and expensive.

So instead of focusing on reducing the already low cost of running a fully loaded ship at sea, it was decided to uncouple loading from stowing, and container and roll-on, roll-off ships were born. Queuing time at ports was reduced, and freighters became more profitable. Crucially, the techniques for doing this were already in use in the railroad and trucking industries; they simply had to be applied to shipping.

2. Incongruity Between Perceived and Actual Customer Values and Expectations

No customer is as immersed in or committed to the product as the supplier, and therefore often what the customer buys is not what the supplier thinks the customer is buying.

Drucker argues that the prime motivation of those who work in the large financial institutions on Wall Street is to get rich, and that they therefore assume that this is the prime motivation of all their customers. He then charts the rise of a securities firm which appealed not to customers who wanted to become rich, but to customers who wanted to protect their money. These customers included local professionals, small businesspeople and substantial farmers. The firm’s strategy was based on protecting its clients’ money, and because of this only one eighth of its business was stock exchange business.

Drucker goes on to underline the power of those who see a mismatch between what suppliers think customers want and what they actually want:

“The big Wall Street houses cannot even imagine such customers [who want to protect their money rather than get rich] exist because they defy everything the houses believe in and hold true.”

If your competition cannot even imagine your customers exist, it will be difficult for them to steal your market share.

3. Incongruity Between the Rhythm or Logic of a Process

A manufacturer of lawn care products had a similar catalogue to its competitors, composed of fertilisers, pesticides and the like. All the competition promised ‘scientific’ products which had been extensively tested and would make your lawn look fantastic. Precise instructions were given on how much of each product should be applied to your lawn, depending on soil conditions and the desired effect.

Customers bought the products because of the promised benefits, and were receptive to the idea that each fertiliser had been scientifically developed to deliver those benefits. But when it came to actually applying the products, the logic of the process fell down. Customers found it difficult to be as scientific as they felt they should be in putting the correct amounts onto their lawns. Then one particular manufacturer produced a ‘Spreader’. This was a lightweight wheelbarrow with adjustable holes which would deliver exactly the right amount of product as the customer walked over the lawn. The ‘Spreader’ boosted sales significantly.


What can we learn from Drucker’s examples? Asking open questions about the environment in which we operate, listening, and remaining open to new ideas and approaches will all help us to capitalise on situations where the vision of what is happening around us does not match the reality. How close is the relationship between your vision of what is happening in your business environment and the reality? Which of your past processes and procedures are holding your organisation back? What can you change tomorrow in order to take advantage?

Management Development or How to Make a Soufflé

The Four Pillars of Successful Management Development

Pillar 3: Structure

You are choosing a management development programme for yourself or others in your organisation. Of all the factors you take into consideration – the cost, the content, whether the course is residential or not, whether you’ll be able to swim and sauna before the gourmet evening meal at the venue –probably the last thing to cross your mind will be the structure of the programme.

Of course, you might discount a week-long programme on the basis that you can’t afford the time out of the office (or alternatively you might choose to shortlist it because you’ll do anything to get away for a few days). But beyond the length of the time commitment, what else is there to consider?

Management and leadership are activities which are done, not known. It is one thing to know the recipe for a soufflé, for example (any good cookbook or search engine can furnish you with the relevant knowledge), but it is something else to be able to walk into a kitchen and make a soufflé. Similarly, it is one thing to sit in a seminar room and receive input on how to lead and manage a team, and it is another to go back into the workplace and actually lead and manage your team.

You would not teach someone how to make a soufflé without asking them at some point to go and make a soufflé. There is little to be gained from management development programmes which do not demand that managers to go back into the workplace and apply what they have learned to create results. This is like training chefs but never asking them to cook, like coaching golfers but making sure they never go out on the golf course, like banning aspiring swimmers from getting wet.

The only structure which will produce a real return on investment in development is a structure in which delegates attend the first part of a programme, then go and apply what they have learned in the workplace to create results, then attend another section of the programme, then go and apply what they have learned in the workplace, and so on. This is the only way we learn how to do anything – from our own experience. If opportunities to accumulate experience – and a strong demand to create results – are not built into the structure of a management development programme, you can be certain that no real experience has been gained, and no results created.

After over 25 years in management development, Mitchell Phoenix’ Managing Director Kevin Yates is convinced that the only viable structure is a day a month. “A day a month is often as long as senior people can be away from the office,” he says, “and it keeps the focus firmly on the delegates and their responsibility to use the material to create results. The quality of the results which come back gets stronger and stronger as the programme goes on and participants gain in skill and experience, so that the results on day 6 are often much more sophisticated than those reported on day 2. The whole process is cumulative, and designed to spotlight the participants and how they are changing and adapting what they are doing in the workplace.

“On the other hand, programmes which are geared towards input for the delegates, rather than output from the delegates (ie results), are often more cost effective and conveniently accessed via a book.”

Few CEOs Cite Paint-Balling as their Chief Leadership Influence

The Four Pillars of Successful Management Development

Pillar 2: Robust Content

Few CEO’s Cite Paint-Balling as their Chief Leadership Influence

Rare quotations:

“I paint-balled my way to the top”
“karaoke made a leader of me”
“I now run all meetings on an assault course”
“all new employees have to fall backwards off a desk”
“the Captain and flight crew improved safety 14.6% by singing light opera”

One morning, walking back to your cubicle from the kitchen, you detect a subtle change in the atmosphere of the office. You look around and realise none of your colleagues are at their desks. A fan buzzes. On a notice board, sales targets flutter in the breeze. The first pellet catches you on the leg. The second and third thud into your chest, splattering blue and yellow dye. A fourth pellet smacks into the mug you are holding, and you feel a scalding sensation as you throw coffee all over your shirt and tie. “That leadership through paint-balling course,” you think to yourself, “has caused more trouble than it was worth.”

For comedians training is one of the most fertile areas of business life. The tenuous links made between a host of activities – from actors’ trust games to orienteering – and our working practices are hilarious because we can all recognise the scenario. Whether it is making the accounts team go through an army assault course or asking the production division to do a karaoke for leadership programme, everyone knows someone who has done something ridiculous in the name of development, or – worse still – has had to take part in something ridiculous themselves.

And, if you have spent your development budget on paint-balling, cooking and actors’ games, you should have gone to the pub instead.

If you want a development activity which is useful, rather than simply entertaining, what should you look for? After more than 25 years in development, Mitchell Phoenix’ Kevin Yates concludes that there are four pillars of successful development programmes. “Look for expert facilitation, an unwavering focus on the creation of results, a structure which will allow the creation of results, and tried and proven content,” he says.

What should this content consist of? First of all it should be usable in the workplace. Under pressure in a real life work situation, anything overly complicated, such as a theoretical ‘model’, will not come to mind or be used. Second, content should be useful, so that when it is applied it will solve a problem and/or generate concrete results. This means the content should focus on how to conduct the key activities managers and leaders undertake. Whether the focus is delegation, persuasion, motivation or anything else, concrete detail on how to do each of these things is vital. It is not enough to define the problem, the content must take us towards the solution and then prompt us to take action back in the workplace.

“Perhaps most important,” says Yates, “is that the content is based on strong, ethical business principles which senior managers can relate to, and on which they can build. They must see clearly how what is being suggested to them fits with the business principles they already hold, or with principles they aspire to and are likely to adopt.”

Management Development and the Middle Ages

The Four Pillars of Successful Management Development

Pillar 1: Focus on Results

Businesspeople are good at measuring a return. Stereotyped from at least the Middle Ages as bean-counters with abacuses, the Blackberry-wielding modern version of the medieval merchant knows how much things cost and how many of them s/he is selling. You measure the impact of lean manufacturing techniques on the bottom line. You measure the ROI of developing and marketing a new product. You can even measure how much each individual salesperson pulls in for the business.

But modern businesspeople are useless at measuring the return on investment in management development. Research conducted by DDI found that only around 25% of organisations formally measure the results of leadership development programmes. A recent IRS survey polled 74 organisations which ran management development programmes, out of which 13 said they were a failure, 22 said they hadn’t achieved a return on investment, and only six believed their programmes had been a great success. Both sets of findings suggest that today’s management development is a long way from the shrewd calculations of yesterday’s merchants.

What can the past teach us? In the times when Powerpoint, flip-charts and break-out groups didn’t exist, the closest businesspeople got to management development was the apprentice system. Of course, no-one would advocate asking managers to live in poverty for seven years, sleeping on their boss’s floor and only having Sundays off if they are lucky (if you recognise any of that, it’s time for a move - depressed job market or not). What is instructive about the apprentice system is that it asked apprentices to produce something to prove they had learned the skills of their trade. This “masterpiece” was visible proof of whether the apprentice had become a master or not.

Management development programmes which do not create measurable results are like apprenticeships where no masterpiece is required. In fact, they are like apprenticeships where no work is required at all. What guildsman would accept an apprentice into the stonemasons’ guild without visible evidence that he could carve stone to an acceptable standard? As turnaround specialist Ross Stuart observes, “if you can’t see any results, you have to question whether there are any.”

Management as we know it did not exist seven hundred years ago, but Mitchell Phoenix’ Kevin Yates is convinced that we should judge the development of our managers by the same yardstick that guildsmen used: the evidence of our eyes. “Only by creating results in response to the challenges of the workplace can managers truly measure their development,” he says, “and that’s the only way you will be able to accurately judge ROI.” Because of this, Mitchell Phoenix programmes are designed to create results from the first day. “Focus on results is one of the four pillars of successful management development programmes,” says Yates, “and in conjunction with a unique structure, robust content and expert facilitation, they will repay your investment many times over.”

Management Training Needs Expert Facilitation

When choosing a leadership and management development programme, one is likely to encounter courses which promise “facilitation by experts.” The experts will have a background in a particular industry, and will draw on this background as they develop managers from the same industry on their programme.

In this way, ex civil-servants will train other civil servants, ex manufacturing directors will instil leadership and management disciplines in those working in manufacturing, ex-lawyers will develop other lawyers, and ex IT professionals will inculcate “soft skills” in current IT professionals.

When the development focuses around technical information, it is easy to understand why those with a background in a similar industry might be preferable. Non-lawyers will have no grasp of technical aspects of law, non-IT professionals will know little about the technical issues facing those working at the front line of IT.

Where leadership and management attitudes and skills are to be developed, it is less clear why those with a particular industry background will be a useful choice. An impressive track record working in a particular industry suggests a person is expert at working in that particular field, rather than in developing others to do so. Further, the more impressive the track record, the stronger the hold it will exert over the person’s thinking. Hard-won experience is even harder to relinquish. Yet anyone who wishes to develop wider understanding must do just that: let go of the particular, loosen their grip on their individual insights and begin to see further than their own autobiography.

Developing and inspiring others is not the same as doing oneself, as footballers who turn to management often discover. Who had a better track record than Sir Bobby Charlton? In terms of industry experience, of “been there, done it, got the medals to prove it,” at one stage he was peerless in the English game. His management career underlined the gap between doing oneself and mobilising others. (His choice of subsequent activities shows how fast he learned this, and how shrewd and adaptable he is.)

What qualifications should one look for from those involved in management development? Expert facilitation: facilitation by those who are expert at facilitating, rather than those who are expert at something else, however relevant that may appear. Development by those who have a proven track record of developing others, and who can show measurable results from their work. Management based on principles which hold true for any environment, rather than tactics which worked in certain circumstances, but may not in others.

Phoenix or Leopard?

This morning the New York Times made the most promising noises yet, that the recession may be about to end. Unemployment is down, house prices are rising, productivity is up; all positive indications that things are improving. President Obama gave a stirring speech in Cairo committing to greater efforts for peace. GM’s Chief has told Congress “it’s our obligation to be open and transparent in all we do to reinvent G.M.”

It seems that we are on the brink of a new era. New thinking, new goals, new plans….change. A chance for us all to make that ‘New Year’s resolution”. Who of us has consistently stuck to their resolutions?

So there is the rub. What has business learned over the last 18 months and what will be the commitment to be different in the future?

The meaning of the phoenix in Mitchell Phoenix is derived from ancient mythology; the sacred firebird. The phoenix is a bird with beautiful gold and red plumage. At the end of its life-cycle the phoenix builds itself a nest of cinnamon twigs that it then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix arises. The bird was also said to regenerate when hurt or wounded by a foe, thus being almost immortal and invincible. The phoenix is a symbol of rebirth, regeneration and renewal.

If we view the recent past as a cathartic experience, emerging purged and refreshed, we have tremendous opportunities to be even stronger as a business. We can seize the moment to Govern Change, pro-actively operating in different ways at higher levels. It is also possible to let out a huge sigh of relief as we emerge from the bunker into watery sunlight, hand shielding the eyes, squinting at the sky. “Right! Where were we?” is the first phrase spoken on the road ahead.

What is the old saying about a leopard and spots? Be a phoenix instead.

Leadership - We Know It When We See It

Amid the public outcry over MP’s expenses and their discontent at the conduct of the Speaker, those seeking lessons on leadership might be forgiven for looking anywhere other than the Houses of Westminster at the moment.

And yet the Speaker can furnish us with some useful insights into what is required of leaders. His recent behaviour in firstly being unwilling to see the importance of the brewing scandal over MPs’ expenses, and then in savaging members of his own party when they questioned his judgement on the issue has dissipated his authority. The result of this has been a loss of confidence in the Speaker among MPs and calls for his resignation.

We might justifiably ask ourselves how this has happened – after all, it seems that he has done no more than misjudge the public mood and respond cantankerously to some hostile questioning. But in fact, he has not offered the leadership his position demands.

In business a position of authority is bestowed on a manager by those above him or her in the hierarchy. This authority is accompanied by a set of responsibilities and a level of trust. Should the manager then break this trust, it will not be long before he or she loses the job.

In order to successfully wield the power which accompanies a position of authority, a manager also needs the respect of the people below him or her in the hierarchy. If this respect is lost, the manager’s ability to exercise the power of their position is greatly reduced.

While the Speaker’s office is more complicated than that of a hypothetical business manager, the lesson for business people is that it is not enough simply to occupy the position of authority and wield the accompanying power.

Kevin Yates, Managing Director of Mitchell Phoenix, explains, “leadership is not simply an idea, nor is it expedient - something we can believe in one day and not the next. People will see straight through that. It has to be visible, applied, and strong enough to gain the respect of the people you lead.”

In fact, argues Yates, after it has been bestowed one then has to prove one is worthy, and to do this, one has to display the fundamental qualities of leadership: a sense of purpose about what it is one wishes to achieve, decisiveness in fulfilling that purpose, the ability to mobilise others in adversity, and a character which commands respect.

Sustainability in Business – What does it mean?

Sustainability is an increasingly common term in today’s world. It is most widely used to communicate goals around ‘saving the planet’, renewable energy and feeding the Earth’s population. The concept of sustainability refers to the ability to maintain balance of a certain process or state in any system and is central to studies of ecological and biological systems.

If we see business as an organism and start to explore sustainability as an overarching goal we will find that this idea has been around for hundreds of years. At Mitchell Phoenix we often ask people to consider ‘What is the purpose of Management?” the ultimate conclusion being “To secure the future”. If we accept that our purpose is to secure the future, then what is the implicit responsibility? It is to Govern Change.

Governing change is the act of generating sustainability in business through being pro-active. Adapting to change is evidence that learning has taken place Reacting to change based on how we have always done it simply stores up the need to handle the same thing again in the future. The ability to change and adapt is the key to sustainability.

President Obama, since his election, has made several speeches and has often used the question “Will our children thank us?” around difficult issues that need addressing now. Business needs to start thinking more about what it is creating rather than what it is taking, not what it is losing but what it is gaining. Change is often seen as a cost rather than an investment. “I haven’t got time” is a basic example.

We can wait for change to force our hand, new legislation, for instance, and conform. We can see the writing on the wall and reluctantly implement measures in readiness, ruing what once was. We can embrace change and make it our strategy, forging ahead with clarity and purpose. Already, corporate governance is upon us. We need to educate our people over Diversity and demonstrate our policies. Social Responsibility will become more and more of a requirement and managing our carbon emissions will be a burden or a boon.

If we want an adaptable, sustainable organization, Governing Change has to be core thinking for every business. In his book, “The Future of Work”, Tom Malone from the Harvard Business School explores in one of the chapters, putting human values at the center of business. By nurturing, growing, planning a legacy, preparing the future, he states that it is highly likely that we would automatically embrace and adopt principles and policies that are currently being legislated.

The World Commission on Environment and Development has articulated what has now become a widely accepted definition of sustainability: "[to meet] the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Sounds like a plan to me.

Susan Boyle and Untapped Potential

By now you can't have failed to hear about the incredible story of Susan Boyle. She is a 48 year old unemployed lady who lives with her cat, Pebbles in Blackburn, Scotland. Just over a week ago she became a singing sensation when she appeared on the TV show, 'Britain's got Talent. Miss Boyle blew away the audience and the judges with her powerful and moving rendition of 'I Dreamed a Dream' from the musical 'Les Miserables'.

She is an incredible discovery and has become an overnight celebrity. A question that needs to be asked is 'How many other Susan Boyles are out there in any capacity in life and especially in business?'

What are companies doing to ensure that they are aware of the business talents of all their employees? One of the most effective tools is The Appraisal, only companies don't know how to run an appraisal system effectively and continue to miss out on the rich potential their people represent.

An appraisal that follows a printed document designed to capture information for posterity is, as most managers will tell you, a waste of time. An appraisal is the one time during a year where bosses can truly listen to their employees. They can find out what they enjoy doing at work, what motivates them, what they take pride in and what sort of challenges they would like to face in the future.

So why not treat your Appraisal system as a "My Company's Got Talent" show and allow people to reveal their potential.

For those of you still unfamiliar with Susan Boyle here's a link to her performance on YouTube Susan Boyle - I Dreamed a Dream

Off Track: How Many of the Tech 100 Will Survive?

When the Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100 was published in September last year, Lehman Brothers had just collapsed, $85 billion had been spent bailing out AIG, and the UK government was just over a week away from announcing their £400 billion rescue plan for the British banking system.

Against an economic background like this the unspoken question was: which of these companies will still be in the top 100 next time around?

Many of these businesses are growing fast because they have a powerful idea which they have made into a profitable business. To maintain their momentum, especially in a recession, they will need more ideas – about both their core business and also about how they run the rapidly growing organization which has built up around it.

“When companies grow to a certain size,” says Kevin Yates, Managing Director of Mitchell Phoenix, “they can no longer rely on a handful of individuals at the top of the company for all of their innovative thinking. They need to create a culture of innovation and the capability to implement those new ideas throughout the whole business.”

Yates argues this is even more important during a recession. “In difficult times the quality of ideas can make or break a business,” he explains, “after all, ideas and the ability to put them into practice is all that separates companies from their competition. Now is the time to ensure that your business is set up to foster and implement innovative thinking.”

When faced with recession in the early 1990s Microsoft, which now sponsors the Tech Track 100, invested in developing the culture and the people within the organization.

“Mitchell Phoenix did extensive work on individual and team capability and performance development,” comments David Burrows, Managing Director in Government Industry at Microsoft. “There was a good focus on delivering usable value to the business, and a willingness to adjust to accommodate client need.”

“Microsoft understood that it was important to place innovation and the implementation of new ideas at the centre of their culture,” says Yates. “They knew that a high performance environment is only developed consciously and deliberately, and they set out to do just that. In many ways this was one of the foundation stones for their success.”

The Unexpected Success- Notes from Peter Drucker's work

Drucker writes that this is the most fertile area for successful innovation, and yet managements often miss or actively reject the opportunity an unexpected success presents.

Example:

A major clinical instrument producer developed a new line of machines for performing biological and clinical tests in hospitals. The line sold steadily. Then, unexpectedly, the company received a number of orders from industrial and university laboratories. The company did not seize upon this unexpected success. This new market – separate from the hospital market for which the products had been developed – was not exploited. Salesmen did not target the new opportunity, and relationships were not forged with the new customers. A few years later a competitor took over the university and industry markets, and because they proved to be very lucrative, it then invaded the hospital market - in which the original company had previously had the largest share.

Reasons why unexpected successes are often missed:

• Existing reporting systems often do not report them – especially if the success is qualitative rather than quantitative (eg a new kind of customer for a product, as in the example above)
• Anything which we have become used to in the business world is taken to be a constant – an immutable law – and therefore anything which contradicts this immutable law is deemed to be unsound, abnormal or simply wrong
• Top management may have spent their careers managing specific products or services in a specific way, and are sometimes unwilling to change what has always worked in the past
• An unexpected success places a question mark next to the management’s judgement, and they may answer with a question of their own: “if this really does present an opportunity, surely we would have thought of it before?”


An unexpected success is often an indication that our Vision is not equal to Reality. There is something about Reality – market conditions, consumer decision making – of which we are not fully aware.

The hospital equipment manufacturer mentioned in the example had not realised that users of scientific equipment no longer existed in distinct, discrete groups: hospital, university and industrial. Now they were all part of a single market – users of scientific instruments. The change produced two outcomes. First, a line of equipment designed for use in hospitals could now be sold to other customers. Second, the market niche the company had previously occupied had been swept away: they were now in competition with a number of other manufacturers of scientific instruments. By the time the company had realised this, Drucker informs us, it had lost a large part of its market share.

Conclusion 1: the unexpected success is not simply a pleasant opportunity to generate further revenue. If we are determined to retain and grow our market share, we must innovate in response to unexpected success, otherwise we will be left behind. It is not enough simply to react to change when it knocks down our front door – that will be too late. We must Govern Change if we are to survive.

This does not mean responding to unexpected success half-heartedly.

Example: In the 1950s there was a demand for university degrees which could be undertaken in the evenings after the students had been to work. One university designed a programme to cater for this demand, received a very high number of applications and found that the evening undergraduates performed better than their counterparts who attended normal daytime courses.

Now the university had a choice to make. It could meet the considerable demand for evening programmes, which would entail a substantial outlay at the expense of their traditional, daytime undergraduate facility. Or it could terminate the new initiative. Rather than deciding boldly, the university compromised and staffed the evening programme with cheap, second rate tutors. This ruined the evening programme, which subsequently closed, and also significantly damaged the university’s reputation.

Conclusion 2: The unexpected success must be taken seriously and the appropriate resources must be allocated. Drucker reminds us that it is not enough to pay lip-service to opportunity, it must be pursued vigorously.

Questions:

1. What is an example of an unexpected success in my business?
2. In what areas are unexpected successes occurring? What structures are in place to identify and research them?
3. How can an unexpected success be converted into an opportunity?
4. What would it mean to exploit this opportunity, and where would it lead us?

The Several Habits of Highly Effective Organizations

Constancy of purpose, to take a leaf from Dr Edward Deming, is one of the prime contributory factors to business success. It is a commitment to the long-term and connected with a continual improvement ethos. In order for any organization to become highly effective at sustaining its constancy of purpose it has to develop several habits.

The first of these habits is Strategy. Strategic planning and on-going reference to strategy is central to mobilizing people, empowering them and maintaining a greater level of control over results. Strategy as a habit is akin to taking regular compass bearings to ensure the venture is heading in the right direction. Companies should strive to become accomplished at strategic thinking as far down their organization as possible. The greater strategic awareness, the more attention to detail is paid. Detail is competitive edge.

In order for Strategy to be effectively put into action, a second critical habit needs to be developed. Culture. The way people think, communicate and act will also determine effectiveness. If Culture is a conscious habit, then there will be a consistency of approach throughout a business that reflects a common set of values and beliefs. It makes for the possibility of an environment in which people can excel. A great Culture is the product of great leadership.

If ‘Change is the only constant’ (Heraclitus), then it should be embraced. Change is another habit of highly effective organizations. They decide for Change rather than having to always react to it. It becomes a habit coupled with regular reference to strategy and the ability to move quickly because of a strong culture. Change, if it is a habit, is seen as positive and quickly adopted. Standing still in business is the same as dying.

Highly effective organizations are in the habit of referencing Principles. A business that is guided by Principles is able to make quicker, more confident decisions. A decision is a pivot between the past and the future. Strong, confident decision making is a reflection of clear strategic focus and translates into more committed action. Recognized Principles communicate integrity and unite teams. A Principle is only a Principle until it costs you something.

When things go wrong highly effective organizations listen. Real listening is linked to Openness. When a company sees success and failure as two ends of

the same stick, everything is simply information. Not only does openness allow focus to quickly move to solutions, it reflects confidence and security in its ability to cope with a setback. A blame culture cannot exist when the habit is to seek to understand, make a new decision and Govern Change. An organization is able to learn. Openness is the gateway to creativity and innovation.

Future Orientation is at the core of any effective enterprise. Habitually focusing on the future prompts the question ‘How do we move forward?’ and is action oriented. Future orientation is a reflection of a strategic organization with a culture and principles that propel it forwards. When a business is Future Oriented it will use time better and achieve more. Turn hope into expectation.

All organizational habits are characterized, exemplified and adopted by people. One more habit is finding, developing and retaining the Right People. Highly effective organizations are uncompromising in their recruitment. It is more about cultural fit than technical fit. They create a learning environment and encourage involvement. Training is a commitment to the people and appraisal is looked forward to. Management is rewarded and feedback is on a regular basis. People work without fear. It is people who deliver an organization’s results.


It is possible to build these habits deliberately, quickly and easily into any organization. Mitchell Phoenix has been transforming businesses with core business strengths for over twenty years.

Earth Hour 28th March 8.30-9.30pm

It is 'Earth Hour' this Saturday 28 March. The whole world is being encouraged to switch off all its lights from 8.30 to 9.30pm in an effort to encourage awareness over Global Warming. 2,848 cities, towns and municipalities in 84 countries have signed up so far.

When you create common goals for good its easy for people to sign up to them. Business take note.

Will you be switching off this Saturday?

Visions Are a Load of Nonsense

We are in an unprecedented period in world economic history. Banks have failed, companies have failed, the system has failed. It is being propped up with a $900 billion finger in the dyke and a prayer that it will hold. We've moved from Worldcom and Enron, who illegally pillaged the system, to the legal marauders who have now brought us to our knees.

Where did it all go wrong? Here is an example of why we are in the pickle we are in.

"General Motor’s vision is to be the world leader in transportation products and related services. We will earn our customers’ enthusiasm through continuous improvement driven by the integrity, teamwork, and innovation
of GM people."

Vision. What a crock that is! It is supposed to be the basis of strategy and here we have an example from one of the great businesses of the age demonstrating that vision in business is not understood.

The statement is mostly about them. What do we, the customer, get out of it? Enthusiasm! Look at where the vision has taken them...to the brink. You could also argue that not many people in GM were aware of the vision judging by their track record.

A vision like GMs is as good as useless to a business. Their vision is a goal with a bit of 'mission' thrown in. There is nothing in the statement to show what their contribution is going to be. A vision is not what can the world do for you, it is what can you do for the world.

Interestingly, as a result of the economic crisis and the car industries' begging bowl being held out that a truer vision is emerging in relation to greener policies. A vision should help business get what it wants, only make sure that there is also a contribution in return.

Management Fads Fade Fast

How is it that management fads come and go so quickly? See what Mitchell Phoenix have to say in their latest press release. Click here