HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER

Title: The Back Of The Napkin

Competencies: strategic problem analysis, driving change, vision/goal setting, oral presentation

Who benefits: entrepreneurs, planners, sales and marketing professionals at any level, internal and external organizational consultants, those who make oral presentations

Consultant Usage: highly recommended for organizational consultants, important skill for trainers at all levels, may be useful to coaching professionals

What’s it about? Awhile back in one of the lists I occasionally post, I mentioned this book and said I would put it on my reading list.  I did and I just finished reading it.  It’s terrific. 

I initially thought it might contribute to the competencies of strategic thinking and problem solving.  It did and a whole lot more.  Personally, I would like to see every employee in sales, marketing or customer service read the book.  They would be far better communicators if they utilized the information that is presented.

I would also commend this book to specialists who do group facilitation work and trainers who teach oral presentations.

I can’t emphasize enough my surprise, delight and the importance of this book to people teaching or giving oral presentations.  Even terrible speakers could look good if they could master the techniques and apply them to their presentations. 

The book itself is written in such a way that you can read it at two levels.  You really can skim the whole thing in 2-3 hours and come away with formats that are going to be useful on a regular basis.  Or you can spend hours reading and mastering the techniques (recommended for consultants).

The content is simple enough.  Roam says his book is about “Anytime, Anyone, Anywhere: Solving Problems with Pictures.”  The three main chapters are about (1) Discovering Ideas, (2) Developing Ideas, and (3) Selling Ideas. 

His goal is to get us to see problems in a new way and a new way of seeing solutions.  He starts with the process: look, see, imagine, show.  He discusses our built in tools of our eyes, our mind’s eye and our hand – eye coordination (which was of particular interest to me since I can’t even draw a straight line).  He incorporates in a new way of asking the old questions of who, what, when, where, how, and why.

And in the end it is a book that impacts in a powerful way.  If the topic is of interest, it is well worth your time.

I would also add a footnote for those of you readers who are external consultants.  I imagine that in these economic times it is more difficult than ever to bring in new business.  It seems to me that using the techniques the author describes would make your proposals/pitches more marketable.  You will need to adapt his ideas somewhat, but that’s where your skills meet his ideas.

Catch you later.

Technorati Tags: discovering ideas, discovering solutions, solving problems, selling ideas, strategic planning, planners, making presentations, oral presentations, creating visions, setting goals, consulting skills, bill bradley, william bradley,   bradley

“Only one man in a thousand is a leader of men — the other 999 follow women.”

Groucho Marx

A UC Davis Study of California Women Business Leaders in 2008 found that only 13 of California’s 400 largest public companies have a woman CEO and women hold only 10.9% of board seats and executive positions (10.4% in 2006 and 10.2% in 2005). 

Research has confirmed that only 6% of women stop working because the work itself is too demanding and only 74% of the “off-ramped” women who want to rejoin the ranks of the fully employed are able to do so¹.

So what do we know that is evidenced based about women leaders?

• A meta-analysis of more than 160 studies of sex-related differences found that women use a more participative or democratic and less autocratic style then men do (Eagly & Johnson, 1990).
• Women, on average, are more aware of their emotions, show more empathy and are more socially competent (Goleman, 1998).  Goleman also suggests that men, on average, are more optimistic, adaptable, self-confident and better able to manage stress.
• In another meta-analysis of 82 studies (Eagly, Karu, & Makhijani, 1995) found that male and female leaders do not differ in overall effectiveness and women are more effective when their are higher percentage of women or when the role requires greater requirements for cooperation and less authoritative control.
• A recent Catalyst (2004) survey reported that 46% of women leaders cited exclusion from informal networks as barriers to career advancement compared to only 18% of men.  This finding is important in light of research suggesting that interpersonal networks increase influence, power, information and expertise and access to job opportunities.
• Women report receiving less mentoring than their male peers (Ragins and Cotton 1991) but mentoring has been found to be more strongly associated with men’s career success relative to successful women (Lyness & Thompson, 2000). 
• Women are less likely than men to be given special assignments that are high risk to the company that typically provide visibility and recognition that often translates into career advancement (Lyness & Thompson, 2000).
• Women are likely to be siloed onto staff positions as opposed to line roles and females are less likely to be given international assignments despite studies that suggest that male and female MBA graduates express equal interest (Adler, 1994; Ryan & Haslam, 2007).
• Women typically have less mobility within and between organizations (Lyness & Judiesch, 1999).
• In a recent global study conduct by Catalyst, male managers gave job performance feedback to both men and women but discussed career paths and advancement opportunities only with male employees (Mattis, 2001).

In our own research using a validated managerial 360 feedback assessment (Manager View 360) we analyzed differences between 801 men to 417 women in leadership roles in diverse organizations.  Men rated themselves significantly better than their female counterparts on the competencies of Oral Presentation, Delegation, Conflict Management, Strategic Problem Solving, Decisiveness and Team Building (p < .01). 

However, when we compared ratings by managers, direct reports and peers on a cluster of leadership competencies we found that women were rated significantly higher than their male counterparts (ANOVA; p < .01).

Leadership development is a large and growing business with approximately $50 million spent in the year 200 alone².  What a waste.  Organizations should just promote women instead of spending this money on so many male competent jerks….Be well…..

Technorati Tags: emotional intelligence, competent jerks, stress, job burnout, leadership, women leaders, gender differences, preceived justice, productivity, advancement, off-ramps, mentoring, bad bosses, kenneth nowack, ken nowack, nowack

1. Hewlett, S. & Luce, C. (2005).  Off-ramps and On-ramps.  Harvard Business Review, March [↩]
2. Ready, D. & Conger, J. (2003).  Why leadership development efforts fail.  MIT Sloan Management Review, Spring, 2003, 83-88 [↩]

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER

Title: Why We Make Mistakes: How We Look Without Seeing, Forget Things in Seconds, and Are All Pretty Sure We Are Way Above Average

Competencies: self-development (primary); decision making and judgment (secondary)

Who benefits: anyone who finds the topic of interest

Consultant Usage: good background material for coaches; could be incorporated into training programs

What’s it about? Did you immediately form an impression about me when you saw the error in today’s title for this posting?  Did words like “stupid” or “idiot” pass through your mind?  Did you have a strong desire to immediately go to the comments section and write me a “constructive message”?  If your answer is yes to any of these questions, then you may be a good candidate for reading this book.  First impressions, ego, not seeing the big picture, not seeing the details are just a few of the predispositions we have to making errors.

The first half of the first paragraph hooked me.  “There are all kinds of mistakes.  There’s real estate you should have bought and people you shouldn’t have married.  There’s the stock that tanked….”  Hooboy, I can relate!  The author is three for three with me.

Journalist/author Hallinan has written a delightful book filled with wonderful stories about why we make mistakes.  But be forewarned, the book can be humbling.  (It took me two guesses to pick the correct US penny [among 16 choices]…which I have seen thousands of times but apparently never looked at it.  I won’t tell you how poorly I did on some of the other exercises!)  

You will learn all about your unconscious biases that lead you to make mistakes.  You will also learn why you are likely to repeat your mistakes.  (If you have ever locked your keys in your car or in your house, despite your oaths to never, ever do that again…you probably did – or will do so in the near future.)

You will learn that “(m)emory, it turns out, is often more reconstruction than a reproduction”.  And that plays a key role in why we make mistakes.

For me, perhaps not overly important in the greater scheme of things, I did learn how to better organize beer in the fridge.  That alone made the book worth the read!

I found something to love in each chapter of this marvelous book, but let me close with three of my favorite chapter headings:

1. We Look But Don’t Always See
2. We Can Walk and Chew Gum – But Not Much Else
3. We All Think We’re Above Average.

It would be a mistake not to read this book.  Catch you later.

Technorati Tags: mistakes, errors, to err is human, predisposition, first impressions, walk and chew gum, mistake prone, memory, unconscious bias, memory as reconstruction, bill bradley, william bradley,   bradley

“If you talk to God, you are praying. If God talks to you, you have schizophrenia.”

Thomas Szasz

In previous blogs I’ve mused a bit about the relatively high base rate of leadership incompetence (estimated to be 50%) and the challenge of predicting future leadership behavior.

Maybe praying for leaders can’t hurt–or can it?

I’ve become a bit more interested in the association between spirituality and religiosity with health given some research I am involved in with those who suffer from a pretty challenging chronic illness called Multiple Sclerosis¹.   In our own research we have seen that through a structured 12-week cognitive behavioral health program, clients with multiple sclerosis report enhanced spirituality and well-being at the end of the program compared to when they started.  I’ve also wondered alot about the relationship between being prayed for and recovery from a medical condition and illness.

Although a number of published studies have tested this hypothesis, only three have sufficient empirical  rigor to truly evaluate the impact of remote prayer on health and well-being  ((Powell, L., Shahabi, L., & Thoresen, C. (2003).  Religion and Spirituality: Linkages to Physical Health.  American Psychologist. 58, 36-52)). Two of these studies used similar designs and examined the impact of remote prayer on patients recovering in the coronary care unit.  Both of these coronary heart studies found those who received daily prayers from distant healers experienced significantly less complications and medical problems than the control groups.

The third study was with 40 patients with advanced AIDS who were randomized into a 10 week distant healing group or to a control.  Those prayed for had lower medical utilization, fewer complications and lower severity scores than the control group.

In 2008, a study including 1,802 patients in six hospitals by Hebert Benson and his colleagues at Harvard Medical School²  failed to show any impact of remote prayer although there has been some criticism of the study design (e.g., 45% of those invited to participate elected not to be part of the study, intercessors were not allowed to pray their own prayers and it was impossible to limit prayers for those in the “control” group). Benson’s study was supposed to answer once and for all whether remote prayer really could make a difference on those with an illness or not.

One unexpected  finding of Benson’s study worth noting was that those who knew they were being prayed for did worse than the other two groups.

Well, research on the link between spirituality and religiosity is pretty messy but all of studies mentioned above are hard to explain and the strongest evidence of significant findings seemed to be for outcomes that were mostly subjective, rather than, hard medical endpoints.  In at least a few studies, remote prayer did seem to impact some important aspects of patients medical course and conditions.

I’m sure many of us who have ever worked for difficult bosses went home after a long day were hoping that  spontaneous prayer by others might actually convert them  into caring, participative and involvement oriented leaders.  I guess it can’t hurt but if Benson’s research is spot on, we definitely want to keep it a secret….Be well….

Technorati Tags: emotional intelligence, competent jerks, remote prayer, stress, leadership, spirituality at work, talent management, engagement, productivity, bad bosses, kenneth nowack, ken nowack, nowack

1. Giesser, B., Coleman, L., Fisher, S., Guttry, M., Herlihy, E., Nonoguch, S., Nowack, D., Roberts, C. & Nowack, K. (2005). Living Well: An integrative approach to wellness with multiple sclerosis. Paper presented at Annual Conference of The American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM) Board/American Society of Neurorehabilitation (ASNR), Chicago, Illinois. UCLA Department of Neurology and National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Southern California Chapter [↩]
2. Benson H, Dusek JA, Sherwood JB, Lam P, Bethea CF, Carpenter W, Levitsky S, Hill PC, Clem DW Jr, Jain MK, Drumel D, Kopecky SL, Mueller PS, Marek D, Rollins S, Hibberd PL. (2006). Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP) in cardiac bypass patients: a multicenter randomized trial of uncertainty and certainty of receiving intercessory prayer. 151(4):934-42 [↩]

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER

Title: more decision making books and articles

Competencies:decision making, judgment, self-development

Who benefits: anyone seeking to improve their judgments and/or decision making abilities

Consultant Usage: significant listings of current reference material on the comptencies of decision making and judgment

What’s it about? I want to thank Time Magazine for doing most of the work for me this week. Last week I wrote a review of How We Decide and compared it to Blink.  Turns out that in February, Time Magazine did a comparison of How We Decide with three other books on a populist approach to decision making.  I made a “decision” to share their “catch phrases” with you and throw in one more populist book and some more traditional options as well.  First, the Time Magazine reviews:

Predictably Irrational – “If you want to know how our irrationality affects markets, try this empirical approach to the field.”  The book is also described as a bit “wacky”, which would appeal to me.

Nudge– “Save the planet, save yourself.  Do-gooders, policymakers, this one’s for you.”  It is apparently all in the little details, with an optimistic or diabolical plan to “gently” nudge people toward a point of view. 

Blunder – “Self-help for history buffs”.  The seven cognitive traps that cause us to screw up from time to time … or in some cases of people with low EQ, a lot.  The book is filled with historical, and in some cases hysterical, blunders.  This book goes to the top of my summer reading list.

 Sway – “If you think you know how you think, you’d better think again! Take this insightful, delightful trip to the sweet spot where economics, psychology, and sociology converge, and you’ll discover how our all-too-human minds actually work.”  This one is also on my summer reading list. 

If you are seeking more traditional applied business competency on decision making, these articles have recently appeared in Harvard Business Review: “Leader’s Framework for Decision Making”; “Hidden Traps in Decision Making (HBR Classic)”;” Who Has the D? How Clear Decision Roles Enhance Organizational Performance”; “Decisions and Desire” and more are available at decision-making.

Making Better Decisions: Leveraging Your Organization’s Data and Information –I pulled this book chapter out from the decision making list above because I consider it particularly important to those of you involved in continuous improvement programs (by any name).  It is from the 2008 book Data Driven: Profiting from Your Most Important Business Asset.

Wharton On Making Decisions - “Wharton on Making Decisions provides a unique blend of theory and practical experience. The authors’ insights are at many times humorous, always instructive, and definitely thought provoking.”  This 2001 book is still one of the most thorough and analytical books on the topic.  

Which one or ones to read (or not read any)…well that’s your decision.  Catch you later.

Technorati Tags: decision making, decision makers, crictical decions, judgment, risk management, continuous improvement, bill bradley, william bradley, bradley

“Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me.”

Unknown

Remember this old saying from childhood?

No doubt someone was saying something to you that could have been emotionally hurtful. Well, it seems this old saying really doesn’t have any scientific merit at all. In fact, recent research suggests that indeed feeling emotional hurt, being given critical feedback from your boss, having your ideas rejected by other respected colleagues, being made fun of, or being verbally abused all seem to have the same negative impact on our health.

It seems that emtional pain and physical pain both follow the same neuro pathways in our brain and can both lead to the same outcomes of depression, immune suppression and fatigue. In a nifty study by Naomi Eisenberger and colleagues at UCLA, she was able to use the latest technology to peer into the inner workings of our brain called funtional magnetic resonance (fMRI) while a team was involved in a social exercise designed to provoke feelings of social isolation and rejection.

She studied what part of the brain was activated while a group of subjects played a computer game with other individuals they did not know. She created two possibilities of being rejected–either actively or passively (she told them they couldn not continue because of some technical problems). Comparison of fMRI brain activity in the active exclusion group versus inclusion conditions revealed greater activity in the part of the brain that is associated with physical pain (anterior cingulate cortex). Additonally, the subjects who were rejected also reported feeing psychological distress based on self-report measures¹.

Recently four studies showed that recall of past socially painful situations elicits greater pain than reliving a past physically painful event and has greater negative impact on cognitively demanding tasks².  Maybe dying of a broken heart isn’t so crazy….

How often has critical, negative and awkward feedback been perceived to be hurtful by those we love, admire or even find challenging in your life?

Ever had a 360-degree feedback experience that left you feeling a bit numb (OK, you know the real reason for 360-feedback was to “out” the critics and provide supporters a vehicle to share how wonderful you are)?

OK, how about a performance evaluation meeting that just plain left you dumbfounded about why your boss mentioned something that might have occurred 10 to 12 months ago but never bothered to mention it to you? We are know that feedback is the key necessary (but not sufficient) condition to create awareness, insight and reflection to help us do things more, less or differently in the future–it really is the only way to enlighten those with the “no clue” gene. We also know the leaders in our lives that seemed to possess the emotional intelligence and skills to say just right thing in the right way to actually motivate us to want to change our behavior.

One of the most cited research studies on peformance feedback is based on meta-analysis by Kluger and DeNisi who reviowed over 3,000 studies (607 effect sizes, 23,633 observations) on performance feedback. They found that although there was a significant effect for feedback interventions (d=.41), one third of all studies showed performance declines³. Indeed, if performance feedback was a drug many of us could be easily sued for malpractice.

Although the authors speculated about many reasons why performance feedback led to actual performance declines in 33% of all studies they seemed to suggest that in most cases it leads to individuals feeling hurt, demotivated and emotionally upset. If Eisenberger and her UCLA researchers are correct in what they are finding (they seem to be replicating their results in several follow up studies), it would appear that indeed feedback in some cases might actually be harmful to your health.

I only wish I had a dollar for every time I was unable to “pull back” that comment, phrase or email that came from my mouth or fingertips….Be well….

Technorati Tags: leadership development, executive development, multi-rater feedback, bullying, performance feedback, emotional intelligence, emotional pain, engagement, retention, kenneth nowack, ken nowack, nowack

1. Eisenberger, N., Lieberman, M. and Williams, K. (2003). Does rejection hurt? An fMRI study of social exclusion. Science, 302, 290-292 [↩]
2. Chen, Z., Williams, K., Fitness, J. & Newton, N. (2008). When hurt will not heal. Psychological Science, 19, 789-795 [↩]
3. Kluger, A. & DeNisi (1996). The effects of feedback interventions on performance: A historical review, meta-analysis and preliminary feedback theory. Psychological Bulletin, 119, 254-285 [↩]

As consulting has expanded and morphed into so many different types of services being delivered under the same banner, it begins to dilute any meaning in the banner. What is consulting? To some it’s providing expertise or facilitating some process. For others it’s providing extra workers to staff a project or taking over a certain organizational function. Still for others, it could be training the employees in a compliance matter or helping an individual change dysfunctional behaviors. Today, it’s almost any “help” that can be bought. While each of these services can be quite helpful to an organization and can generally be “bought” in the marketplace, should that make them all consulting?

Perhaps we could reserve consulting for a class of services that add something new, change or improve functioning or re-create some aspect of an organization. And consider the other ways of helping as contracted services, part of professional services or other helping roles? Consulting would then have a generic focus on change or improvement by doing it for them or developing their capacity to do it. Something is getting fixed, changed, removed or created. Consulting has an end game of improving performance against some mission, not just continuing what exists.

Larger firms often diversify in order to even out economic cycles or develop more stable sources of revenue. These moves are for the purpose of improving their business returns. In fact in could be said that these are moving away from strict consulting services because of their economic dynamics. So when firms add outsourcing, venture capital, and other alternative revenue streams for their own business purposes, let’s not confuse those with another form of consulting.

If we could bound consulting in this way, it helps to see the client-consultant relationship as an important factor in how value gets added. Consultants have rarely had any authority and long relied on influence as their primary medium. Our effectiveness is often dependent on how well we can affect what clients think and do. This becomes particularly critical when something needs to be created, changed or fixed, requiring people in the organization to operate differently. If we are to influence, we have to develop a relationship with the client that allows for change, including such characteristics as credibility, trust, openness and goal alignment.

There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER

Title: decisions, decisions, decisions

Competency: decision-making

Who benefits: those interested in how each of us makes a decision

Consultant Usage: background material for coaching the decision-making competency

What’s it about: I love the numbers game “Sudoku”.  I play the game on the Internet as offered by two newspapers.  Thursdays and Fridays are particularly difficult.  I frequently get about 2/3 of the way through and get stuck.  The game is a game of reason, so I use all my rationality … and I am still stuck.  However, I have learned that if I relax, lean back and try to see the whole game at once, some flash of insight will lead me more often than not to the correct solution.

What do I see?  I don’t know.  I can’t prove my idea at that moment.  It was just something that I saw in a “Blink” of an eye.  Malcolm Gladwell (author of Blink) would know what I am talking about.

Not so fast would counter Jonah Lehrer, author of a new book How We Decide.  Lehrer posits that we are in a constant process of weighing reason and emotion to make informed choices.  He suggests that the more we understand how we actually go about making a decision, the better decisions we will make.  He says that those “Blink” moments are actually the culmination of the brain reasoning process…the moment of decision may be emotional, but there is a lot of reasoning going on right up to the “gut” decision.

About two months ago I wrote about the need for greater critical thinking skills.  I stated that in my opinion, one measure of intelligence is the ability to hold contradictory ideas in your head at one time.  Since then I have been playing with my own definition of intelligence: The highest level is the ability to hold two contradictory ideas simultaneously.  The mid level of intelligence is the ability to hold and understand one idea at a time.  The lowest form of intelligence is to hold someone else’s idea in your head.

If you have read Blink, this is a great opportunity to test yourself for higher level intelligence. Read a book that essentially counters what Gladwell wrote.  Can you accept the validity of both books simultaneously?  That is the test.

I’m not through reading Lehrer’s book yet, but I have decided that both authors have much to offer and much to consider.  You and I are free to pick and choose the ideas from both books that resonate with us. 

One thing the two books do have in common is “readability”.  Lehrer’s book has a more scientific, research base to it, but it is written in a clear and easy-to-read style.  And both authors are great story-tellers.  Lehrer takes on such burning issues as “Is expensive wine really better than cheaper wine?” and why those seeking a healthy diet will sit down and eat a piece of chocolate cake.  I love those stories!

Which book is better?  Both of them!  That’s my decision and I am sticking to it.

Catch you later.

“Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.”

John Lennon

Another edition of leadership and talent management “facts” from all over the world. Some intuitive and some not….what do you think?

1. “Most of the investment in organizational training and development is wasted because most of the knowledge and skills gained (well over 80% by some estimates) are not fully applied by employees back on the job (Mary Broad and John Newstrom in their book Transfer of Training).

2. Research indicates that, on average, less than 30% of what people learn in training actually gets used on the job (Dana Gaines Robinson in the book Performance Consulting).

3.  In a 2008 survey of 7,500 workers on four continents by Blessing White (two-thirds were from NOrth America and India and the others from Europe, Asia and Australia), 75% said they trust their manager and 60% reported trusting their most senior managers.

4. In 2008 training organizations will spend $1,075 per learner, an 11% decline over last year’s spending figure.  The average training staff per 1,000 learners in 2007-2008 is 7.0 for all companies and 3.4 for large companies over 10,000 employees.

5. The average training hours consumed per learner in 2008 for all companies is 25.0 hours.  The majority of this training was industry specific (21%), mandatory/compliance (14%), sales training (13%), management and supervisory training (13%), interpersonal/soft skills (10%), IT (9%), customer service (8%), executive development (4%) and other (4%).

6. Today, 35% of the U.S. adult population is overweight and 31% are considered obese, conditions that lead to diabetes, coronary artery disease, osteoarthritis, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and other chronic illnesses. The estimated percentage increase in annual healthcare spending associated with being overweight is 14.5% and with obesity is 37.4% with organizations picking up most of that tab¹. 

7. More than 60% of employees say that performance reviews really don’t do anything to help their future performance according to a recent survey by Salary.com.  In a recent 2006 study by SuccessFactors of over 1,000 HR professionals, 72% reported being only somewhat satisfied, not very satisfied or extremely unsatisfied with their current performance appraisal and evaluation process.

8. Krauthammer International recently did an online survey of 445 respondents (29% female and 58% worked for organizations larger than 500 employees) that the more “self-connected” employees are at worked the better their job performance.  Self-connectedness was measured in a series of questions looking at emotional stability, acceptance of unpredictability, resistance to stress and use of intuition.  66% reported they needed to “connect with themselves” to fulfill their potential and 33% were not confident they know themselves.  Finally, 64% reported following their intuition often or very often at work and 50% believe their boss would be sympathetic if they shared they aren’t feeling mentally well.

9. A UC Davis Study of California Women Business Leaders in 2008 found that only 13 of California’s 400 largest public companies have a woman CEO and women hold only 10.9% of board seats and executive positions (104% in 2006 and 10.2% in 2005).

10. In a 2008 BlessingWhite survey of 524 employees in diverse industries, approximately two in five (37.4%) reported their boss frequently or occasionally “micromanages” them.  Interestingly, 5.2% reported they “Don’t Know” and 57.2% reported “Never”.

11.  A survey by Accenture focusing on middle managers found that the most frustrating aspects of their jobs included: increasing workload (36%), not receiving enough credit for their contributions (32%), having no real clear career path (31%) and getting less support to do their work effectively (31%).

12.  Of the 144 talent management senior leaders who participated in the study “Ensuring Leadership Continuity: Current Trends in Succession Planning for C-Suite Executives by AchieveGlobal, slightly less than half (49%) do not have any established succession plan in place.  When asked what prevents organizations from implementing talent management/succession systems, 31% reported it doesn’t seem urgent (despite the fact that 16% reported an immediate executive vacancy and 37% anticipate a vacancy in 200(, 26% said it took too much time, and 21% reported it was too complex to do.

Off to get some new facts….Be well…..

Technorati Tags: talent management, succession planning, leadership development, succession planning, micromanage, performance review, performance appraisal, overweight, obesity, wellness, coaching, executive coaching, executive development, surveys, kenneth nowack, Envisia, Envisia Learning, leadership development, ken nowack, Nowack

1. Finkelstein EA, Fiebelkon IC, Wang G. National medical spending attributable to overweight and obesity: How much and who’s paying? Health Affairs website exclusive, www.healthaffairs.org. 2003 [↩]

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER

Title: book titles from Hell

Competency: sense of humor

Who benefits: those who need a laugh

Consultant Usage: entertain your friends

What’s it about? Being as this is the time honored day of acknowledging Fools, I thought a day of wacky book titles might be in order! 

Writing for this Blog takes me on some strange twists and turns through the world of books.  (I want to say literature, but many of the books I encounter aren’t literature…some aren’t even literate!)

Today I have no recommendations.  I just thought it would be fun to share with you some of the better book titles I have run across.  I have added links to each book, but please don’t construe that as an endorsement.  But do have fun looking at one or two.  I did.  

Stooples: Office Tools for Hopeless Fools; Okay, this book I recommend! It is short and hysterically funny.

Bad Bosses, Crazy Coworkers & Other Office Idiots: 201 Smart Ways to Handle the Toughest People Issues

My Reality Check Bounced!: The Gen-Y Guide to Cashing In On Your Real-World Dreams

The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t

A Survival Guide for Working With Bad Bosses: Dealing With Bullies, Idiots, Back-stabbers, And Other Managers from Hell

How to Work for an Idiot: Survive & Thrive– Without Killing Your Boss

The Business of Bullshit

You’re An Idiot, and People Talk About You Behind Your Back!

Throwing the Elephant: Zen and the Art of Managing Up

100 Bullshit Jobs…And How to Get Them [BARGAIN PRICE]

Officespeak: The Win-Win Guide to Touching Base, Getting the Ball Rolling, and Thinking Inside the Box

Stick it to the Man: How to Skirt the Law, Scam Your Enemies, and Screw Big, Fat, Stupid, Lazy Corporations…for Fun and Profit!

and finally, today’s winner:

You Corporate Bastards

Hope you had a “foolish” time.  Did you see any particular word coming up frequently?  Did you catch any themes?

Catch you later.

Technorati Tags: fools, idiots, dummies, bullshit, bastards, assholes, bosses, bill bradley, william bradley, bradley