Six years ago, Cleveland Clinic got rid of all its employees. This was no small task. Cleveland Clinic is the second largest private employer in Ohio. We had 40,000 people on our payroll. But as of 2
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How you can improve focus in organizations and align for success
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Billy R Bennett
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Global organization development company offering performance interventions, organization design, and processes to algin people to new strategies and markets Delete the scoop?
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Weaving a greater mission into your financial goals can help get your team, customers and community involved to grow your bottom line. Via Andy Jones
Billy R Bennett's insight:
Do you need a "higher purpose" to round out your alignment efforts? Here is a great perspective. Make "mission" a part of your mission. In other words think about the charities (called non-profits in the USA). I've found two things that get employees to "up their game" more than any other "lever" and engage at higher levels: 1. Emotional connections with Customers 2. Emotional connections to Community or Charity giving. If people have the opportunity to go beyond the job and beyond the "contract" and deliver a better experience...or a better life... to someone they can see personally, then you will see excitement and passion blossom. So, why don't we include both as major drivers to our business? Not just afterthoughts when a customer complains, or during holidays when giving to others (or tax season) is more on our mind. This article really gives some great advice for how to include this into your business. Plus I will let you into a secret -- if you want to have an edge in recruiting under 30's then you will have an edge if you do this now! Go on do good... people will follow! 
Andy Jones's curator insight,
May 13, 1:45 AM
The world needs more creative thinkers committed to "As you are going..." theology and praxis. Delete the scoop?
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By Billy Bennett There is an interesting discussion going on at the Harvard Business Review on this topic " THE FUTURE OF TALENT IS CLUSTERS" . The idea posed by is that we should be considering...
Billy R Bennett's insight:
There is an interesting discussion going on at the Harvard Business Review on this topic "THE FUTURE OF TALENT IS CLUSTERS".
The idea posed by is that we should be considering hiring "clusters" (aka teams) instead of individuals. Or at least considering it. To me it is an "everything old is new again" conversation. ...And that is a very good thing.
In the 90's we gained a lot of information from an intense period of study on teams. When I say we I mean those of us who were fascinated about advancing knowledge about group work and dynamics. However, we lost the way a bit.
We lost the momentum when other forms of collaboration we seen as equal to the power of the autonomous and self managing team. I'm not sure that's the case. In fact, I am certain of it. However, the HBR article is an example where the opportunity to learn is again coming to the forefront. If you think this is unusual - hiring a "cluster" or team as an intact unit - I have seen it. We worked with a client who designed one of the most successful autonomous team workplaces to date. They were written about in journals and feted at three national conferences. However, when the client decided to build a new, more automated facility too far away for team members to relocate, the company worked with local businesses to find the team members new employment.
Here is where I witnessed a first for me (and I think maybe a first in modern era business)... the reputation of the teams were so great and impressive in the region that some of the teams were hired as "intact" teams. They were asked by their new employers to bring the skills and capabilities to the new job. I lost track of what happened to the team members, but they certainly learned team skills at the most advanced level I had seen before - or since. They had developed an ability to go into any situation and begin assessing how they could make things work better and how they could be successful doing the work. What business could not use that? Have you ever seen a work group so impressive that others wanted to hire them away - intact? That was the ultimate praise.
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"@joycecherrier: Achieving Without Goals http://t.co/N7NEciVOdZ via @zen_habits" an alternative perspective on goal setting and success
Billy R Bennett's insight:
A little too "Woo, Woo" for you?
In this context, I somewhat agree... end goals are redundant and unnecessary. However, progress goals are certainly a big help. This is good thoughtful writing about concentrating on important. The principles suggested are important aside from any goals. In the spirit of the writer, I am going to do a little curious exploring of my own... In the background of reading this I have also been thinking lately about concepts I have often used as guides in organization design and change management: Pareto and "loose-tight" Most are familiar with Pareto - the "80/20" relationship of most things - for example, 20% of your problems produce 80% of your pain. Its been stated and transformed into charts so often that I'm sure people have forgotten the thinking behind it. Conceptually It implies don't try to micro-resolve every issue that comes your way - go for the important ones... the ones with impact. The other concept of "Loose-Tight" relates to designing control into organization management - it implies a sense of balance. Loose equates to innovation and spontenaity, Tight equates to control and discipline. I've seen little understanding of the balance and situational application of disciplined control versus requirement to protect spontaneous innovation. Organizations (and their leaders) often err to one extreme or the other. It is as if they are both religions or political parties. Where leadership becomes both art and science is in designing and building the balance and acceptability of both. A time to be loose... and a time to be tight - focusing on the 20% that requires discipline, attention and deliberate action. If in your organization, you have no purpose... If you have no principles... You do not know how to assign importance to any issue, process or activity. You only wait for a failure or complaint to tell you what you should do. Why is this important? Some of our organizaitons are expressing desires for innovation while heading to extremes of "tightness" controls on activity and decisions. The results are claims of engagement while proceeding on a path that does nothing but disengage and disempower. Now do you see why his blog post drew me in. By Billy Bennett Delete the scoop?
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Why companies need to change the way they change Fortune This is particularly true for aspects of the management model that HR controls, such as change management, organizational design, talent acquisition and deployment, learning and development,...
Billy R Bennett's insight:
An interesting event is about to start. Gary Hammel, professor at the London Business School is a Co-Founder. The event is an "HR Hackathon" I've signed on...perhaps you should too. Delete the scoop?
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An organization must first exemplify characteristics of a social business if they truly want to be an effective social brand and ultimately achieve an alignment between an engaged internal organization and its ability to ...
Billy R Bennett's insight:
Are you catching up to the need to add social media to your alignment strategy. If you think social media is just about liking pictures of cute babies you may miss what's coming next. This article is a good checklist of topics to consider when your boss asks you "What's our social media strategy?" Delete the scoop?
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Cultivate Customer Connections and Grow Your Business TIME Connie Certusi, the executive vice president and general manager of Sage's Small Business Solutions, believes that building closer relationships with your customers will set you apart from...
Billy R Bennett's insight:
When aligning people within the organization, a good place to start is making sure you are aligned with your customer! Social media tools give you the opportunity to be a great facilitator between your customers and your people. Get your staff involved in working on social media projects and developing real relationships. Have them field questions, share insight, develop conversations. It does not matter what your product or service, customer-employee social bonds will only help both the organization and the client. Do you have an example? Delete the scoop?
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Building a New Nonprofit Workforce With Millennial Leaders
Billy R Bennett's insight:
More Thoughts on Leadership... My favorite quote... "Our continued reliance on top-down decision-making given today's rapidly changing environment is a recipe for disaster" While the author used this comment to chastise non profits (charities) the truth is that many Millenials are headed to these organizations because the freedom to create and grow something significant has become much greater in this world than in the corporate world. If you are a not for profit or an edgy start up technology company, you may not recognize what I am talking about. If you are not in one of these two camps you may want to look at what is happening in these organizations - it is where you people go when they want to find meaning and growth. Delete the scoop?
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Human Resource Executive Online
Billy R Bennett's insight:
A Very Good Review If you are about to begin a new leadership development program or are evaluating the success of your current program, you will benefit from a quick read of this article. Dip Training? The basic takeaway from this article is that a successful leadership development must focus on the individual in development. Leadership is a multifacted, situational, and diverse art. There are basics that can be taught and learned but each person brings personal assets into leadership. The shaping of those assets into a style and a career is an individual effort. However, there are rarely development options beyond signing up for the course. We used to call this "dip training"... you know, "they just need a dip in the training pool" We have helped with developing and implementing Leadership Development Programs for clients and the most successful programs allow for individual progress with workshops, job challenges experiences and coaching. If you are not moving beyond the classroom you need to take another look Billy Bennett Delete the scoop?
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As resources tighten, strategic learning offers advantages Federal Times With uncertain or negative answers, you'll know that your strategic learning is not aligned with your organization's goals and mission, and that it must be retooled to fit...
Billy R Bennett's insight:
Don't wait for your funds to be pulled out from under you to do the right thing with development. Take smart risks today to spend money developing capability that will be invaluable to you when you have no choices remaining. Money well spent today develops the capability of your leaders to teach and engage the people around them in achieving purpose. How much of that are you doing today? Delete the scoop?
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Single focus work weeks to get you the breakthrough you need.
Billy R Bennett's insight:
This is a "2fer".... First, Factory Weeks. We mentioned these a few weeks ago in a scoop.it we curated. The idea is simple. Getting all of the people needed to get that one big breakthrough. A Hackathon for your organizations big headaches. Programmers do it... Kaizen events were built this way. What I have noticed over the years is that as we become more and more distributed and distracted, we need more times of complete focus. We have been doing this for years and we have developed quite a skill set at both the prep work as well as the facilitation required. You see, as a facilitator of one of these events you must have skills and tools that allow adapting to changes. You must be good at getting decisions made for the next step to keep things moving. It is a highwire act not for the faint-hearted. Second, Haiku Deck This is a great tool for the Ipad user. it forces you to keep words to a minimum (hence the Haiku connection...my English teacher's would be so proud that I got that). We will be using this in an upcoming workshop introducing techncial trainers to tools that will help breakthrough the barrier of "too much work" to create content. and here is the rest of the 2Fer... Back to our Align People topic... As a leader you need to think like a producer and a marketer. Get people engaged with short interesting messages that reinforce key themes. Get everyone developing messsages that share interpretations of those themes. You will end up with content that will payback multiples. Delete the scoop?
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Leaders in emerging markets must fit in with the country and the corporation.
Billy R Bennett's insight:
This is a good Alignment topic. There is a huge upside to moving high potential leaders around the various countries of an organization. However, don't forget a stint in the home country of the organization. Relations still take time and "face" time is one of the most important. Knowing language is not knowing culture - that must be experienced by being in the culture. Delete the scoop?
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Effective Leadership in a Virtual Workforce Delete the scoop?
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Why Aaron Muderick believes hiring more than 500 special needs employees is good for business.
Billy R Bennett's insight:
I love this story. Matching the best talents to the job...regardless of the "packaging". Good business...great leadership. How "out of the box" are your hiring practices? Delete the scoop?
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Globe and Mail
Billy R Bennett's insight:
Be hopeful...or else! Sounds a bit contrary doesn't it? However that is absolutely correct. Seeing positive and hopeful rays of hope when everyone else is seeing big black clouds of doom is true leadership. It is not about painting a picture of denial... it is about painting of picture of opportunity/ It is about stating that
My Experience with Hopeful Leadership Many months ago my father was told he had a serious form of bladder cancer. At his age, and with a prior history of prostate cancer his doctor told him he his surgical options were very limited. I remember sitting with him as he asked the doctor... "So what would you expect?" The doctor clarified "Are you asking how long?". "Yes, what's usual?" he said, calmly and clearly. She said "13 months... But YOU are NOT a number." I guess my father agreed. He is now approaching two years and the cancer disappeared with no signs. He continues to be diligent about his health and we just scratch our head, and enjoy the time. At every step his doctor was honest with the facts and always pointed out the opportunities to survive. My career has been working with people who believe change is not possible...options are limited... and control belongs to fate.. or others. In every case we have been brought in by leaders who refused to accept the numbers and wanted allies to create survivors. It has often been difficult, but most often sucessful - more than anyone ever thought possible. The one thing I have learned, If you do not believe there is a way out... there won't be. If you do not point out the one door to success partially open... no one will take it. Delete the scoop?
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By Billy Bennett Some leaders are not leaders at all. They are " Mis-Leaders ." HR leaders often know about managers who defy gravity... they are abusive and they suck the life out of people...
Billy R Bennett's insight:
Management Jerks - very difficult people in the workplace - should be classified as Mis-Leaders. There have been interesting studies quantifying the costs. Here is a report on one of them. Coaching can yield results, so can education for the mis-leader and his or her team. However, if change does not come, then do not hide behind the "but he's so technically talented" excuse. The costs of the toxic mis-leader are far greater than peviously thought - now we know he or she can be contagious. Scary thought isn't it. 
Billy R Bennett's curator insight,
May 8, 4:59 PM
Management Jerks - very difficult people in the workplace - should be classified as Mis-Leaders. There have been interesting studies quantifying the costs. Here is a report on one of them. Coaching can yield results, so can education for the mis-leader and his or her team. However, if change does not come, then do not hide behind the "but he's so technically talented" excuse. The costs of the toxic mis-leader are far greater than peviously thought - now we know he or she can be contagious. Scary thought isn't it. Delete the scoop?
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Essential Tools of Talent Management Forbes Here the company assigns a more senior and experienced executive to develop a relationship with one or more high-potential individuals within the organization.
Billy R Bennett's insight:
From time to dime we repackage and reframe activities into new functions. "Talent management"an example. Many organization reduced human resource management and limited it to transactional activities. What was lost in the process? The development of people with the skills and capabilities of fulfilling the purpose, strategies need future needs of the organization. Talent management is struggling to grow out of this and to return to building talent that creates and sustains growth...not just attempt to follow or keep up. Here is a short article that gives you a few things people are including in the role of talent management. One thing to note Talent Mapping... Visual succession planning and projecting future growth area. Delete the scoop?
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Scaling Enterprise Collaboration Success Across Platforms Wired Many organizations believe that they don't have the time or the money to properly plan out and manage their systems — they deploy tools and processes without proper consideration of...
Billy R Bennett's insight:
The analyst firm Gartner Research says that most social collaboration initiatives fail “because they follow a worst practice approach of ‘provide and pray’, leading to a 10 percent success rate.” Almost every project methodology, whether some version of agile or the waterfall method, advises the need for adequate time up front for planning, as the cost of a change increases dramatically over time. Even the most agile management methods rely on strict planning and constant prioritization. Delete the scoop?
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4 in 10 firms struggling to align talent strategy with business objectives: Survey Canadian HR Reporter Major organizations increasingly seek to align their talent management strategy with their business objectives, according to a survey by Right...
Billy R Bennett's insight:
Ouch! Are we incapable of leading? Ok, some of these results should not shock us. However, it still should at least slap us in the face with a cold dose of reality. We have just gone (some of us are still going...) through the worst recession of our lifetime. Businesses have become very focused - right? Well, I guess the answer is 'Wrong!" Here are the 7 greatest "shortcomings" of strategy in the respondents to the survey (do any describe your organization):
So let's turn these into action statements...
Sometimes people make too much ado about strategy - when they have no intention of doing anything with one. Delete the scoop?
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Fortune (blog) Delete the scoop?
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The Star Online Leadership lessons from an orchestra conductor The Star Online According to Talgam, the best orchestra conductor understands his people, allows them to develop, treats them with respect, and yet gently nudges them towards the goal...
Billy R Bennett's insight:
By Billy Bennett The Orchestra Conductor Model This article reminded me of a paper I presented at the Work Teams Conference sponsored by the Center for Collaborative Studies at the University of North Texas. It was 1994 and we were looking at how the organization might evolve beyond the self managed team structures that were becoming more popular. In that paper I compared the evolution of organization strucutures to the evolution of groups of musicians from orchestras to jazz groups. In my view, Jazz collaboration was... and is still one of the most collaborative forms of group structure. The article reminded me that two things have happened since then... Orchestras have become much more collaborative - while most corporate strucutres have become much less collaborative. Hmm. Not what I expected. However, much has happened in the last 20 years. Fiscal control legislation has had a tremendous impact on organization policies and procedures. IT systems have driven organization design to fit the system rather than the organization. Put these two things together and you see large organizations with more managers making decisions two to three levels below their own - "micro managing" because they think they can and should. The problem is that while they are doing the jobs (badly) of those reporting to them, they fail to do their own. In this article, one example was of the 700 person orchestra that asked their conductor to resign. That is much more freedom and unity than you would think to find in a "top down" leadership model. So in that respect orchestras have changed. The reason given by the orchestra members... they failed to be developed by their leader.
If your organization was an orchestra how well would you survive the vote of confidence? Delete the scoop?
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The way most of us go about trying to influence others is exactly backwards, says a new book. Here’s how to get it right.
Billy R Bennett's insight:
A familiar story... How many times have you seen this... a company repeatedly attacks the same poor performing unit by sending in new managers with the instructions to "turn things around." You would think that when two managers fail in succession then the INSANITY alarm would go off - (you remember "insanity is doing the same things over and over again expecting different results"). Perhaps someone would say Hmmmm, that didn't work we must try something else. But NOOOOOOO! That does not happen...usually. In fact, we frequently see the pattern of continuing to replace managers until...
The costs of each of these options is large...VERY LARGE! Customer issues, waste, error rates... costs, costs, costs.
Several years ago the Benelux GM of client said to me "Billy, we have replaced four managers of this facility in under 3 years. Before I place one more in there to fail, do you think we could try something else?" We did. He had the courage to bring in resources and we were a part of that. The result was an operating unit going from last palce to the benchmark for all other operations. They were not only fixed - they became models for everyone else. Here are the steps that might help you:
You do not have to keep the insanity going by continuing to do the same thing over and over again. Bad operations can be fixed more often than you think... but not by revolving door managers. We put "intensive care teams" into failing units. It is a unique approach but it does work. Delete the scoop?
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Valentine’s Day. A day when you will think about hearts. Candy hearts. Plastic hearts. Neon sign hearts. Big paper hearts inscribed with the declaration of devotion, “ from your...
Billy R Bennett's insight:
Valentine’s Day. A day when you will think about hearts. Big paper hearts inscribed with the declaration of devotion, “from your Valentine…” However, the original story of Valentine's Day was not a story of romance, but a story of service and sacrifice.
When you read the story you will think differently about the day - you may even think differently about your leadership. You will certainly think a little differently about signing "Your Valentine" From your Valentine... We Delete the scoop?
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The disruptive social cloud of people and data that is today's Internet has created all new business possibilities. Speakers at Oracle #CloudWorld this week explored how enterprises can organize better to take advantage of these opportunities.
Billy R Bennett's insight:
Dion Hinchcliffe posts an excellent summary of issues relating to the emerging thinking around developing the social business. For years we have been working to move the needle in collaboration, participation and engagement. What is becoming more obvious is that these topics align perfectly with the evolution of social business...connecting people to people in a way that rises above and enhances functional groups and delivery processes. However, the issues and barriers are the same as they have always been... Understanding the power shift in organizations and the resulting problems of resistance. Delete the scoop?
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Forty six percent of companies increased their investments in social business in 2012, while 62% said they would do so in the next three years an IBM report has found..
Billy R Bennett's insight:
75% of companies are under prepared for the culture changes needed to succeed with social business... And my thought is the other 25% don't have a clue. In a massive denial of change, companies have placed fingers in their ears and "la la la"'ed themselves through the social media revolution. The irony: the same consumers embracing social media daily are also the people making up the labor and leadership within these companies. Hello! Social business is a tsunami change... it is not going away. This is a change or die situation. You must start today. Worry less about metrics and more about stimulating purposeful action. I am all in favor about metrics but honestly, most organizations don't know enough to select metrics with meaning. Instead, but the top priorities on observing and developing communities with purpose. Identify and support natural work groups with open communication tools... Encourage in everyway possible knowledge sharing via social media... Find social media "naturals" who can model for others and promote, promote, promote them. Get your people talking now... and make sure you are participating in the discussion. However, if the only way you are participating is via email... maybe you need to sit down and let the "20 somethings" explain what just what is this thing called "social". We help organizations make changes in behavior that change culture. If we can help you, we would love to chat... even by phone. Delete the scoop?
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