Motivating employees to align their behavior with the organization’s strategy (strategic alignment) and give their best efforts (employee engagement) is one of the challenges of senior leadership. Typically, leaders and stars feel connected to the organization but research shows that 75 percent or more of the employees do not. Because they don’t feel connected, over time they gradually stop caring, they stop aligning their behavior with organizational goals, they stop giving their best efforts and they stop fully communicating. One serious consequence of the break-down in communications is that decision makers don’t get the information they need to make optimal decisions. These conditions lead to underperformance at both individual and corporate levels.
Tag Archives: Innovation
Free Download for GAO
Today I’m speaking at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) in Washington, DC. The GAO is known as “the investigative arm of Congress” and “the congressional watchdog.” It supports the U.S. Congress in meeting its constitutional responsibilities and helps improve the performance and accountability of the federal government for the benefit of the American people. (Note: The free download was open for two days which has now expired.)
Employee Engagement: Assessing the Evidence
Frequently I’m asked if I can produce research that proves employee engagement affects economic profits. My answer: social science research can’t prove it with certainty but the sheer amount of evidence makes it “beyond a reasonable doubt” that some causation exists. The challenge with social science research is that it’s impossible to isolate the effect of one factor. To get a sense for some of the supporting research, take a look at these links to research summaries from Winning Workplaces and DDI (see “Building the Business Case” on pages 5-6).
Jim Blasingame Interview: Learn From Great Leaders
Today Jim Blasingame and I discussed how leaders can learn by reading about the stories of other great leaders from business, government, the social sector and sports. Our conversation was broadcast on Jim’s popular, nationally-syndicated radio program “The Small Business Advocate.” You can hear the interview by clicking on the “listen now” button below:
Health Care Employee and Patient Satisfaction Linked
The Forum for Performance Management and Measurement, part of the Department of Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, recently released a research report that shows a positive link between the level of employee satisfaction among health care workers and the level of patient satisfaction. You can download the report here.
On October 14, I’ll be giving the keynote address on leadership, employee engagement, productivity and innovation at the Forum for Performance Management and Measurement’s annual Think Tank held at the Union League Club of Chicago.
Federal News Radio Interview
Here is a link to the interview I did with Francis Rose of Federal News Radio.
Google Beams, Curiosity and Innovation
Last week when I toured Google’s corporate headquarters, the “Googleplex,” I was shown a monitor that had an image of the planet earth with multicolored beams of light shooting up from the various contintents. The beams represented Google searches that were presently being conducted from those locations. (For example, when I searched on Google this morning for an article on “augmented intelligence,” it would have appeared on Google’s global search monitor as a beam of light shooting up from Greenwich, Connecticut where I live.)
What stood out to me when I observed Google’s global search monitor was that locations such as North America, East Asia and Western Europe were aflame with Google beams of search activity whereas some regions like Africa and much of South America were largely dark.
If Google searches can be thought of as a proxy for curiosity and learning, then locations (nations and organizations) that are aflame with search activity are preferable to locations that are dark.
Speaking at Google: The Force of Connection
Intrapreneurs: Find a Work Environment to Help You Thrive
If you aspire to be a successful intrapreneur, seek a healthy work environment. There are organizations with healthy work environments that energize employees and others that suck the life out of them. Unfortunately, the latter dominate. According to research from Gallup, over the last decade, 75 percent of American workers reported that they were not engaged in their jobs.
Here’s what you should be looking for in a work environment that will help you thrive.
D-DAY: Honoring the Courage and Ingenuity of Allied Soldiers
Tomorrow is the anniversary of D-Day when 160,000 Allied troops landed on French beaches and began the march to defeat Hitler. The Army has a website devoted to D-Day that I hope you will explore. The visual images, accounts and statistics testify to the courage of Allied soldiers. In addition, the story that I tell in a SmartByte video recorded for Athenaonline.com entitled Voice and Culture describes the American Army’s culture of ingenuity that historian Stephen Ambrose wrote was largely absent in the Nazi army.