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What’s Up?
A Quick Review of Issues and Events Involving
People at Work
Interesting Ideas to Ponder
A Lot Easier Said Than Done: Parents Talk
About Raising Children in Today’s
America
http://www.publicagenda.org/specials/parents/parents.htm
No one ever said parenting was easy, but parents
in Public Agenda’s latest survey say that
American society is an inhospitable place to raise
children. Parents say they feel they can never let
down their guard in the face of popular culture,
drugs, and crime. In fact, nearly half the parents
surveyed said they worried more about protecting
their child from negative social influences than
about paying the bills or having enough time
together.
Interesting Articles to Read
Across The Board
www.conference-board.org
September/October 2002
Forced Ranking: Behind the Scenes
“Charlie’s better than Sam but not as
good as Mary.” In a nutshell, that’s the
operating dynamic behind forced ranking, the
management practice that requires supervisors to
assign employees into different categories based on
both past performance and leadership
potential.
At companies that don’t rank employees,
almost every worker can come away from a
performance-appraisal discussion feeling like the
children of Lake Wobegon, that he is above average,
particularly if a faint-hearted manager sets his/her
standards low enough that even the village idiot can
exceed them. With a forced-ranking system, however,
managers are required to bell-curve the
troops.
Business 2.0
www.business2.com
October 2002
The Management Secrets of the Brain
Lift the lid and take a peek at the messiest, most
complex organization around—the gray matter
inside your head. You could learn a lot from
something so well run. Your brain is the ultimate
example of a complex, decentralized organization.
Because we (usually) behave coherently, smoothly
integrating new circumstances as they arise, the
brain is also the epitome of an adaptive
organization, a learning organization, and a
shared-vision organization—in short, the ideal
modern company.
Fast Company
www.fastcompany.com
November 2002
Yamashita Wants to Reinvent Your Company
Keith Yamashita may be the most influential
consultant of whom you’ve never heard. For
nearly a decade, his firm’s eclectic team of
designers, writers, and technologists (plus a poet, a
sociologist, an ex-attorney, and not a single MBA)
has tackled tough problems for some of the
world’s most powerful companies. Working from a
sun-drenched, brick-walled loft space in San
Francisco’s warehouse district, this unlikely
band of strategists has produced a dazzling array of
inventive tools and artifacts, among them short
films, off-size books, gargantuan story scrolls,
dynamic Web sites, unconventional events, and
immersive customer environments. Less
visibly—but with even more profound
effects—Yamashita and his team have recast the
work of strategy as a rich, human-centered,
fast-paced, and results-oriented activity.
Forward to Basics
Operational innovation isn’t glamorous. It
doesn’t come up at cocktail parties, but
it’s the only way to win in the post-new
economy reality.
Forbes Magazine
www.forbes.com
November 11, 2002
Labor’s Lingering Monopoly
American unions continue to lose the membership wars,
yet some of them retain the power to put the economy
through the wringer.
Fortune Magazine
www.fortune.com
November 11, 2002
Between Right and Right
It’s time to face the music and realize that a
lot of business behavior that was commonly accepted
now may be judged on stricter ethical criteria than
ever in the past.
Jeep Builds a New Kind of Plant
Closely tied suppliers don’t make a
vehicle’s parts until it starts down the
assembly line.
HR Magazine
www.shrm.org
November 2002
Workplace Practices
Through preventive practices, HR can be the first
line of defense against workplace violence. An
anti-violence strategy, experts say, begins with a
zero tolerance policy and a written plan backing it
up. Must it be on paper? Absolutely, says Ron
Libengood, principal consultant at SecuraComm
Consulting in Pittsburgh, “A written plan may
not work as written, but an unwritten plan never
works.”
A typical zero tolerance policy prohibits
intimidation, threats of violence (bodily harm or
property damage), and acts of violence (regardless of
whether they cause harm or damage). Intimidation
generally means actions or words that cause another
person to reasonably fear for his/her safety or the
safety of others.
Extending the Olive Branch
Conflict resolution programs can defuse problems
before they escalate to strikes or lawsuits, as well
as improve employee morale, increase productivity,
decrease absenteeism, and lower turnover.
“Most senior managers and line managers
don’t recognize the incredible cost of conflict
to organizations,” says Stewart Levine, author
of Getting to Resolution: Turning Conflict into
Collaboration (Berrett-Koehler, 1998). “About
20% of Fortune 500 senior executives’ time is
spent in litigation-related
activities.”
Inc. Magazine
www.inc.com
November 2002
Employment Guaranteed, for Life
Are layoffs simply a necessary evil in today’s
business climate? This company’s founding
fathers don’t think so. And they’ve built
a culture to reflect that.
Keeping it Flexible
Imagine a workplace where employees decide how many
days a week they’ll work and how many weeks of
vacation they’ll take each year.
T+D Magazine
www.astd.org
November 2002
Change Leadership Today
Part one of a four-part seminal series on
change—what’s causing it, how to manage
it, and how to lead during chaos.
Interesting Places to Go
AQP’s 25th Annual
Conference
The Association for Quality and
Participation
http://www.aqp.org/conference/
February 24-26, 2003
New Orleans, LA
The keynote speakers for AQP’s 25th Annual
Conference are:
- Herman Cain: opening session on Monday,
February 24, at 8:00 a.m. Topic: “Leadership
Is Common Sense.”
- Coach Herman Boone and Coach Bill Yoast:
closing session on Wednesday, February 26, at 10:30
a.m. Topic: “Teamwork, Leadership, and
Diversity.”
Business Excellence and Customer
Satisfaction Conference
American Society for Quality
February 10-11, 2003
New Orleans, LA
Maintaining and enriching the customer experience
is critical to organizational growth and even
survival in the ever-expanding global marketplace.
Being able to share customer information across the
organization is another factor in managing the
customer experience. With major portions of the ISO
9001:2000 quality management system, Six Sigma
project requirements, and the Malcolm Baldrige
National Quality Award all calling for awareness and
consideration of customer requirements and customer
satisfaction, organizations are being required to
fully engage with their customers.
The 2003 Conference on Coaching for Business
Results: An Interactive Forum to Explore Issues,
Dilemmas, and the Future Direction of Executive
Coaching
The Conference Board
http://www.conference-board.org/conferences/conference.cfm?id=388
January 28-30, 2003
New York, NY
This session’s focus is the future of
executive coaching. Topics include:
- Building coaching capability into your
organization.
- Strategic e-coaching for organization-wide
results.
- What makes a great executive coach and coaching
relationship.
The 2003 Conference on Tough Issues in the
Workplace: Real Solutions to Real
Challenges
The Conference Board
http://www.conference-board.org/conferences/conference.cfm?id=377
February 24-26, 2003
New York, NY
In several facilitated sessions, participants will
learn the facts, practice skill building, and
exchange ideas with experts on workplace challenges.
Topics include:
- Disabilities in the workplace.
- The ethical workplace.
- Women in leadership.
Other Interesting Information
ASTD Announces Certified Performance
Technologist
The International Society for Performance Improvement
(ISPI) and the American Society for Training &
Development (ASTD) Certification Institute have
affiliated in the Certified Performance Technologist
(CPT) certification program. The CPT offers members
of both organizations and others in the profession a
new way to prove their value and gain recognition of
their professional expertise. Developed by ISPI and
launched in April 2002, the CPT certification was
created in response to requests from public and
private organizations for criteria to better
distinguish proficient practitioners of human
performance technology. The certification requires
three years of experience in performance improvement
work, demonstration of proficiency in 10 standards,
commitment to the code of ethics, and recertification
every three years.
The CPT designation is given to individuals who
satisfy a set of requirements. Proficiency in the 10
performance technology standards is assessed through
a combination of descriptions of previous work,
attestations by clients or employers, and a review of
documents by qualified reviewers. The certification
is performance based and not tied to specific
education requirements. Practitioners with at least
six years of experience may apply for the
certification under grandfathering
provisions.
For additional information on the CPT program or
ISPI/ASTD affiliation, visit www.certifiedpt.org
or e-mail ISPI at certification@ispi.org
or ASTD at cpt@astd.org .
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