Niall Ferguson teaches history and business administration at Harvard and is a senior research fellow at several other universities, including Oxford.
Hours worked is not an indicator of productivity in the knowledge economy. Yes, you do need time to do work that is creative, that requires your mind to explore ideas, identify possibilities and weigh choices, but adding more hours to the workday does not automatically make you more creative. Management guru, Peter F Drucker, Productivity of knowledge work therefore has to aim first at obtaining … optimum if not maximum quality Only then can one ask: ‘What is the volume, the quantity of work?'
Management guru, Peter F Drucker, Productivity of knowledge work therefore has to aim first at obtaining … optimum if not maximum quality Only then can one ask: ‘What is the volume, the quantity of work?'
This model focuses on the Division of Labor and specialization into different functional units. The units work together in a workflow Which is managed typically by a hierarchy over each unit Which has its own production goals and bonuses for achieving those specific goals (specialization) That essentialy become silos To improve they focus on repeating the workflow but attempts to improve it with best practices This does becom repetitive work Which leads to disengaged and dispassionate employees
This model focuses on the Division of Labor and specialization into different functional units. The units work together in a workflow Which is managed typically by a hierarchy over each unit Which has its own production goals and bonuses for achieving those specific goals (specialization) That essentialy become silos To improve they focus on repeating the workflow but attempts to improve it with best practices This does becom repetitive work Which leads to disengaged and dispassionate employees
the ability to create social networks by finding people and expertise, and by identifying relationship the ability to gain skill and insight from people and data in the social network, continuously and reliably the ability to recognize networking opportunities and deficiencies and improve responsiveness and accuracy the ability to evaluate and recognize ideas, people, and data to share expertise across the social network the ability to gather stakeholder input, convey authority for, make, and disseminate decisions using the social network the ability to use social networks to form groups, discover available resources, and execute work items across organizational structures
Employees with influence in social networks can come from anywere in the company They have already spent the time and effort to build their digital eminence They are the lightning rods of your organization for attention
Personal data from online activity creates [a] new asset class touching all aspects of society” Need an End user-centric view of transparency, trust, control, value Juggling priorities and loyalties – to employer, to self, to communities [ Personal Data: The Emergence of a New Asset Class World Economic Forum 2011 ] To keep with the pace of social network activity, there’s increasing need for frequent of task & context-switching and cognitive load management of these priorities and loyalties - Future Work Skills 2020 Institute for the Future + Univ of Phoenix Research Institute, 2011
Need an End user-centric view of transparency, trust, control, value
“ ‘ Social’ is the word that is transforming almost every talent practice and training is no exception.” - Bersin & Assoc. The Corporate Learning Factbook 2012
This 15 th century master artist is shown working on a painting of the Madonna and Child while an apprentice is busy grinding pigments behind her. To become a master in a particular craft, one had to serve an apprenticeship under a master. A major part of the training of the apprentice was devoted to technical aspects like the preparation of materials. Source: Medieval Guilds and Craft Production - http://employees.oneonta.edu/farberas/arth/arth200/artist/guilds.html
SXC Health Solutions is a terrific example of a company that has embraced the philosophy and platforms to engage their employees and their customers… and it is working! SXC has grown at an astounding pace. Between 2005 and 2010, their revenue has increased at 3400%. Their revenue has grown from 1.9B in 2010 to about 4.8B in 2012. Fortune Magazine recognized them as the #1 fastest growing company in the US.SXC's Pharmacy Benefits Management (PBM) service is the largest, and most rapidly growing portion of their business and depends on delivering two things to their customers: TRANSPARENCY is the key driver at SXC. They encourage transparency through employee and customer conversations, sharing valuable information such as pricing in a clear open manner. Client Info Center is the way SXC supports its broad range of customers via sales, customer support, etc. SXC also guides conversations in the Client Info Center related to government policy and regulation positoins “ Why guess what your customers are thinking” is a motto they repeat. INTERNAL TRANSPARENCY It all starts inside of the company. Transparency is more than a behavior you show your customers. It starts internally in how you work with your employees. For example, if you have a group of employees that are unhappy, why would you want to GUESS at the reason? Rather, you should build an environment that is conducive to allow the employees to ask questions and express themselves. If you do not, the employees will find other groups or employers that will. So as an employer, SXC has decided it can respond to the needs of its employees… only if it is aware. SXC uses IBM Connections to aid in expertise location with internal experts, product development teams, customer support specialists and sales teams. EXTERNAL TRANSPARENCY (LEFT HAND SIDE OF SLIDE) In that same vein, "SXC does not want to guess at what its customers want." To the contrary, it focuses on building an environment that allows customers to tell SXC what they are looking for. Communities allow customers to interact with SXC and with one another. These customers may be government agencies, employers, health plan administrators, or retail pharmacy chains. SXC has created an engaging environment where customers can "Pitch and Catch" in a very transparent manner. SXC says it gets its best ideas from its customers, even before SXC asks. Moreover, because SXC hosts a large number of conversations, it also gives SXC an important way share information related to government policy and legislation. They use exact same social technology internally and externally, making them much more efficient
Joseph Nye, Distinguished Service Professor at Harvard University and former Dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Power is the ability to influence the behavior of others to get the outcomes you want. several ways one can achieve this: you can coerce them with threats; you can induce them with payments; or you can attract and co-opt them to want what you want -- Soft power
