Management Stories

Jan 5th 2012 Would You Invest in Your Own Company?

The CEO of one company was determined that his employees understand the issues surrounding the company’s recent poor results and become fully engaged to help turn the company around. Here’s how he accomplished this.

The company held four brown bag lunch meetings over four weeks where employees could attend for free for one hour and hear from an outside professional about how to invest in the share market. Importantly, there was no obvious link between the meeting topic and the organization the employees worked for. At week three, they were analyzing annual reports and generally deciding whether they would invest in a particular company based on the information contained in the report. By the fourth week they were given another annual report and asked the same question, “would you invest in this company?” The answer was overwhelmingly no. And of course this last company was the one they all worked for, which brought them to the “Aha!” moment. Now the organization’s employees understood and were engaged and ready to become involved in turning the company around through teamwork and new initiatives.

Source: Are Your Communication Strategies Really Engaging Employees? by Marcia Xenitelis | LeaderValues, July 2011

146No Comments »Would+You+Invest+in+Your+Own+Company%3F2012-01-05+19%3A43%3A25Administrator Posted by Administrator / Communication and Management

Nov 1st 2011 The Importance of Self-Discipline

During the 1960s, psychologist Walter Mischel conducted “the marshmallow test” with four-year-olds in the preschool at Stanford University, to assess each preschooler’s ability to delay gratification. Each four-year-old was given one marshmallow. They were told that they could eat it immediately or, if they waited until the researcher returned in 20 minutes, they could have two marshmallows.

Some kids in the group just couldn’t wait. They gobbled down the marshmallow immediately. The rest struggled hard to resist eating it. They covered their eyes, talked to themselves, sang, played games, and even tried to go to sleep. The preschoolers who were able to wait were rewarded with two marshmallows when the researcher returned. Twelve to fourteen years later these same kids were reevaluated as teenagers.

The differences were astonishing. Those who had been able to control their impulses and delay gratification as four-year-olds, were more effective socially and personally. They had higher levels of assertiveness, self-confidence, trustworthiness, dependability, and ability to control stress. Their Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores were 210 points higher than the “instant gratification” group!

A key difference between successful people — leaders — and those who struggle to get by, is self-discipline. As Confucius wrote, “The nature of people is always the same; it is their habits that separate them.”

Source: Deepening Our Discipline by Jim Clemmer

143No Comments »The+Importance+of+Self-Discipline2011-11-01+15%3A09%3A23Administrator Posted by Administrator / Organizational Behavior / HR

Oct 15th 2011 Win-Win Negotiation Agreements

Take the classic fable of the two sisters, quarrelling over a single orange. The sisters, who focus too much on cooperating with one another, cooperatively agree to cut the orange in half – a compromise agreement. One sister uses the juice and throws the rind away; the other sister uses the rind and throws the juice away, and then they realize – too late – that both sisters would have been far better off by giving all the juice to one sister and all the rind to the other sister. This is what is meant by “win-win” negotiation agreements, which are described as outcomes that improve upon mutual settlement by identifying ways that both parties receive better outcomes than by simply compromising on the issues at hand.

Source: Why negotiation is the most popular business school course by Leigh Thompson and Geoffrey J Leonardelli

140No Comments »Win-Win+Negotiation+Agreements2011-10-15+10%3A24%3A34Administrator Posted by Administrator / Negotiation

Sep 12th 2011 Staying on Top

A turkey was chatting with a bull. “I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree,” sighed the turkey, “but I haven’t got the energy.”

“Well, why don’t you nibble on some of my droppings?” replied the bull. “They’re packed with nutrients.”

The turkey pecked at a lump of dung, found it actually gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree.

The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch.

Finally after a fourth night, he was proudly perched at the top of the tree.

Soon he was promptly spotted by a farmer, who shot the turkey out of the tree.

MANAGEMENT LESSON: Bull Shit might get you to the top, but it won’t keep you there.

Original Source: Rajat Khungar

1371 Comment »Staying+on+Top2011-09-12+17%3A59%3A38Administrator Posted by Administrator / Humor / Amusement and Management

Aug 16th 2011 Hey, You Got the Elephant

Recognition can be given in traditional ways—a complimentary e-mail, or a pat on the back for a job well done. But you can also get creative with it. One of my favorite examples is the one business consultant Alexander Kjerulf cites about a Danish car company that instituted “The Order of the Elephant.” The elephant is a two-foot-tall stuffed animal that any employee can give to another as a reward for doing something exemplary. The benefits come not just in the delivery and reception of well-earned praise, but afterwards as well. As Kjerulf explains, “other employees stopping by immediately notice the elephant and go, ‘Hey, you got the elephant. What’d you do?’, which of course means that the good stories and best practices get told and re-told many times.”

Source: The Happiness Work Ethic by Shawn Achor | ChangeThis, Jan. 19, 2011

134No Comments »Hey%2C+You+Got+the+Elephant2011-08-16+19%3A11%3A04Administrator Posted by Administrator / Management and Organizational Behavior / HR

Aug 9th 2011 The Best Bosses Shield those Who Work for Them

Annette Kyle managed some 60 employees at a Texas terminal where they loaded chemicals from railcars onto ships and trucks. In the mid-1990s, Annette led a “revolution” that dramatically raised her unit’s performance through a host of changes, including better planning, greater responsibility at the lowest levels, improved and more transparent metrics, and numerous cultural changes. She personally sewed “no whining” patches on workers’ uniforms, for example, to discourage the local penchant for complaining and auctioned off her desk to workers for $60 because, as she explained it, “I shouldn’t be sitting behind a big desk. I should be contributing to team goals however possible.”

This transformation virtually eliminated the penalties that were levied when ships arrived at the terminal’s dock but (despite considerable advance warning) workers weren’t ready to load them. These “demurrage charges,” which cost the company $2.5 million the year before the revolution, were down to $10,000 the year after. Previously, it had taken more than three hours to load an average truck. Afterward, more than 90 percent were loaded within an hour of arrival. Surveys and interviews by University of Southern California researchers showed that employees became more satisfied with their jobs and felt proud of their accomplishments. I asked Annette how she could make such radical changes in her giant company. She answered that her boss shielded her from top-ranking managers—he found the resources and experts she needed but never discussed these moves with senior management until they succeeded.

Source: Why Good Bosses Tune in to Their People by Robert I. Sutton | The McKinsey Quarterly

130No Comments »2011-08-09+16%3A48%3A13Administrator Posted by Administrator / Leadership and Management and Organizational Behavior / HR

Jul 25th 2011 Always let your boss have the first say

A sales rep, an administration clerk and the manager are walking to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp. They rub it and a Genie comes out in a puff of smoke.

The Genie says, “I usually only grant three wishes, so I’ll give each of you just one.”

“Me first! Me first!” says the admin clerk “I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a speedboat, without a care in the world.” Poof! She’s gone.

In astonishment, “Me next! Me next!” says the sales rep. “I want to be in Hawaii, relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of pina coladas and the love of my life.” Poof! He’s gone.

“OK, you’re up,” the Genie says to the manager.

The manager says, “I want those two back in the office after lunch.”

Management Lesson: Always let your boss have the first say.

Source: Original source unknown but this story was sent to me by a reader named Jitesh

127No Comments »Always+let+your+boss+have+the+first+say2011-07-25+14%3A38%3A39Administrator Posted by Administrator / Career / Employment

May 20th 2011 Where is the Glass?

John Sunderland, the former CEO of Cadbury Schweppes, often responded with a parable when an executive argued that the business could increase either margins or sales, but not both. Sunderland would remind the executive of a time when people lived in mud huts and struggled to get both light and heat: Put a hole in the side of your hut, and you let the daylight in, but also the cold; block the opening, and you stayed warm, but sat in the dark. The invention of glass made it possible to have both light and heat. He would then ask, “Where is the glass?”

Source: Getting Tensions Right by Ken Favaro and Saj-nicole Joni | strategy+business, Issue 60, Autumn 2010

123No Comments »Where+is+the+Glass%3F2011-05-20+16%3A09%3A01Administrator Posted by Administrator / Innovation and Management

Apr 3rd 2011 Skipping Design Research Can Be Costly

Skipping design research can be costly. For example, high-end German automobile manufacturers were stunned when U.S. customers would not buy cars without cup holders. While drinking coffee in the car seemed unthinkable to Europeans, it wouldn’t have taken much design research to learn how important it is to U.S. car buyers. The manufacturers, forced to retroﬁt, created some of the most complex, expensive, unreliable and least user-friendly cup holders ever produced. Design research ﬁndings are not typically assembled in the form of data and reports but are instead stories and characters, often captured on video. Such ﬁndings resemble and evoke real experience more powerfully than data and reports can, vividly conveying the desired emotional connections between people, products and services, and they help a company to triangulate these findings with appropriate technologies and economic objectives.

Source: The Evolution of the Design-Inspired Enterprise | Gabriella Lojacono, Gianfranco Zaccai | Rotman Magazine, Winter 2005

120No Comments »Skipping+Design+Research+Can+Be+Costly2011-04-03+22%3A23%3A18Administrator Posted by Administrator / Innovation and Marketing / Sales

Mar 7th 2011 Where’s the Brown M&M in Your Business?

In its 1980s heyday, the band Van Halen became notorious for a clause in its touring contract that demanded a bowl of M&Ms backstage, but with all the brown ones removed. The story is true — confirmed by former lead singer David Lee Roth himself — and it became the perfect, appalling symbol of rock-star-diva behavior.

Get ready to reverse your perception. Van Halen did dozens of shows every year, and at each venue, the band would show up with nine 18-wheelers full of gear. Because of the technical complexity, the band’s standard contract with venues was thick and convoluted — Roth, in his inimitable way, said in his autobiography that it read “like a version of the Chinese Yellow Pages.” A typical “article” in the contract might say, “There will be 15 amperage voltage sockets at 20-foot spaces, evenly, providing 19 amperes.”

Van Halen buried a special clause in the middle of the contract. It was called Article 126. It read, “There will be no brown M&Ms in the backstage area, upon pain of forfeiture of the show, with full compensation.” So when Roth would arrive at a new venue, he’d walk backstage and glance at the M&M bowl. If he saw a brown M&M, he’d demand a line check of the entire production. “Guaranteed you’re going to arrive at a technical error,” he wrote. “They didn’t read the contract…. Sometimes it would threaten to just destroy the whole show.”

In other words, Roth was no diva. He was an operations expert. He couldn’t spend hours every night checking the amperage of each socket. He needed a way to assess quickly whether the stagehands at each venue were paying attention — whether they had read every word of the contract and taken it seriously. In Roth’s world, a brown M&M was the canary in the coal mine.

Like Roth, none of us has the time and energy to dig into every aspect of our businesses. But, if we’re smart, we won’t need to. What if we could rig up a system where problems would announce themselves before they arrived? That may sound like wishful thinking, but notice that it’s exactly what Roth achieved. Surely, you won’t be outwitted by the guy who sang “Hot for Teacher.”

Where’s the brown M&M in your business?

Source: Business Advice From Van Halen by Dan Heath and Chip Heath | Fast Company, March 2010

117No Comments »2011-03-07+22%3A26%3A17Administrator Posted by Administrator / Management