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Twelve Days of Budget Cuts and a Crow in a Dead Elm Tree (Partridges and Pears Were Too Expensive)
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Three Secrets to Thriving in an Organizational Matrix
First, recognize that almost all medium to large organizations are actually matrix organizations. Most of these organizations have a direct “vertical” reporting line based on one organizational dimension and at least one “horizontal” based on another dimension. Sometimes the formal vertical is a function like development, production, marketing, sales, etc. Sometimes it’s geographical or line…
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It’s Time For You to Think About Hiring Four-Dimensional People
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Four Reasons Why Annual Performance Reviews Fail and What To Do About It
Teague Hopkins on my advisory board flagged this Washington Post story about Accenture throwing out most of its current process for doing annual performance reviews (APRs) and rankings for employees. With 330,000 employees, Accenture figured that since the process wasn’t actually improving performance and it was costing huge amounts of time and money, it was time…
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What One Horse and an Open Sleigh Taught Me About Change Management
Too many managers seem to think that people ought to let them drive the corporate strategy based on what really amounts to blind trust. “I know what I’m doing. I have a vision. Just focus on the future and where we are heading. Trust me.” I learned the painful consequences of this approach early in life from…
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Transparency is a Great Way to Start Growing a Company Culture, But It’s Only a Start
What does transparency mean in the context of growing a company culture? A high degree of transparency means that how the company operates is visible to all employees and in some cases to customers and stakeholders. Transparency means that not only can people see our results, but how they were achieved. They can “see through” the surface…
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Growing a Company Culture: What Kind of Trellis Are You Building?
I have been talking with my advisory board a lot about company culture lately. I recommend Teague’s recent post in which he explains why he thinks you can’t “build” company culture, you have to “grow” it. I like his analogy of training a bonsai tree or cultivating a vine on a trellis. It takes patience and…