I know someone needs to do the job and all but are Toll collectors hired for their lack of personality? Good grief, you can't even see their faces in their lofty perch when sitting in a small car.
There are daily contacts with public service employees and rarely do you get a smile or a hint of a personality. This gets me thinking that these employees are key to getting us all through the recession. Perhaps they should all be trained in empathy skills. Or even better, comedy skills! What fun it would be to see tube and rail workers doing a bit of stand-up or executing comedic pratfalls. Tube and train drivers making comic observations about the days events.
Hmmm... I see a gap in the market for staff training!
Thursday, 13 August 2009
organizational disconnect
Daily blogging will be difficult. Pointless unless there is something worth saying.
So what is it about organizational disconnect between the senior team and line staff anyway? You would think that with the deluge of leadership material available at your fingertips that senior leaders in companies would really figure out that connecting in a sincere way with staff and middle management shouldn't be left to high level pronouncements. In fact leaders should mix it up with people daily. Only if they really want to keep their finger on the organizational pulse.
All too often leaders are surprised when change weary staff lose morale and the culture takes a hit. Being surprised means they are disconnected.
So what is it about organizational disconnect between the senior team and line staff anyway? You would think that with the deluge of leadership material available at your fingertips that senior leaders in companies would really figure out that connecting in a sincere way with staff and middle management shouldn't be left to high level pronouncements. In fact leaders should mix it up with people daily. Only if they really want to keep their finger on the organizational pulse.
All too often leaders are surprised when change weary staff lose morale and the culture takes a hit. Being surprised means they are disconnected.
Monday, 27 July 2009
I want a Prezi!
There are so many resources available and finding time to squeeze them al in is difficult. But I spent a few minutes looking at Prezi.com which looks just amazing. A completely different approach to creating online presentations. Have a look at the demos at www.prezi.com to see what I mean. If I can get my head around how to use it I may very well switch away from PowerPoint.
Prezi is like using one surface and moving in multiple directions across the surface, zooming in and out as needed. Quite amazing and refreshing. Must look deeper into this.
Prezi is like using one surface and moving in multiple directions across the surface, zooming in and out as needed. Quite amazing and refreshing. Must look deeper into this.
Friday, 24 July 2009
It seems to be Delicious :) Have you seen TED.com? and what's your view of GoogleWave?
I've been checking out Delicious (http://delicious.com/). It's a social bookmarking site with what they claim are "The tastiest bookmarks on the web". What's cool about Delicious is that you no longer have to worry about your favourites strapped to your own PC. You just save bookmarks on the web and they become entirely portable. I really am beginning to like this.
And I came upon TED.com. A very cool website with loads of conference talks and performances on a variety of topics. Like YouTube but without all the rubbish. Loads of inspirational talks. Some not so useful but the variety is eye opening and it is a great place to learn about some interesting stuff.
Had a quick look at the blurbs on Google about Google Wave. This could be the answer for businesses as it seems to combine the social networking with IM and MS Office type tools for collaborative working. Early days but I want to follow this.
And I came upon TED.com. A very cool website with loads of conference talks and performances on a variety of topics. Like YouTube but without all the rubbish. Loads of inspirational talks. Some not so useful but the variety is eye opening and it is a great place to learn about some interesting stuff.
Had a quick look at the blurbs on Google about Google Wave. This could be the answer for businesses as it seems to combine the social networking with IM and MS Office type tools for collaborative working. Early days but I want to follow this.
Wednesday, 22 July 2009
Social networking tools are the way forward
Ok, let's start this blog with my current focus, using social networking tools for learning.
I am currently investigating these tools to see how they can be used for learning in the workplace. I am certain that this will need to be a sales job but that is Ok as the more I dig, the more apparent that this is the way forward. In a small company with international offices, I don't have the budget nor the inclination to be on a plane regularly to train people face to face. It isn't efficient nor effective with a workforce that are stretched and under pressure and thus with little time to attend formal training.
In fact, research seems to show that most people learn (circa 70%) via knowledge sharing on the job. Informal, practical, quick and dirty. But effective. Generation Y is expecting to do this and already do this. The technology is there so we need to grab it.
Our induction programme is a classic example. Currently we deliver it quarterly to a small group of new starters. It consists of a few hours of presentations about different aspects of the business by some of our key leaders. Yes, we basically AT people for 3 hours or so. Not great. Yeah there is a lunch at the end of it but feedback indicates that although the information is interesting, some would prefer this after they had been on the job for a while, others find it all too much to take in.
So, I think this needs to be completely online, in small bite-size pieces that people can access in their own time. I spent time talking to Phil Watten of WattenEarth this morning about how he can help me do this through video clips, interviews, key information completely online and accessable through the intranet. We shall see how it goes...
I am currently investigating these tools to see how they can be used for learning in the workplace. I am certain that this will need to be a sales job but that is Ok as the more I dig, the more apparent that this is the way forward. In a small company with international offices, I don't have the budget nor the inclination to be on a plane regularly to train people face to face. It isn't efficient nor effective with a workforce that are stretched and under pressure and thus with little time to attend formal training.
In fact, research seems to show that most people learn (circa 70%) via knowledge sharing on the job. Informal, practical, quick and dirty. But effective. Generation Y is expecting to do this and already do this. The technology is there so we need to grab it.
Our induction programme is a classic example. Currently we deliver it quarterly to a small group of new starters. It consists of a few hours of presentations about different aspects of the business by some of our key leaders. Yes, we basically AT people for 3 hours or so. Not great. Yeah there is a lunch at the end of it but feedback indicates that although the information is interesting, some would prefer this after they had been on the job for a while, others find it all too much to take in.
So, I think this needs to be completely online, in small bite-size pieces that people can access in their own time. I spent time talking to Phil Watten of WattenEarth this morning about how he can help me do this through video clips, interviews, key information completely online and accessable through the intranet. We shall see how it goes...
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