Why Managers and Supervisors ARE NOT the Best Communicators During Times of Change

Marcia Xenitelis — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:40:22 -0400

Everywhere you look these days the focus in Human Resources and Employee Communication is managing change within organizations. But most of these programs fail to achieve their objectives. During bad economic times the focus is usually on providing coaching on understanding the emotions people go through during change, helping employees deal with the complex emotions of watching colleagues leave, communication strategies that utilise management hierarchies to communicate face to face with their teams on what is happening next in organizational restructures and so on.

How To Cascade Messages via Managers To Employees

Marcia Xenitelis — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:38:58 -0400

One of the common mistakes people make when designing a change program is assuming that if a person is a team leader, supervisor or senior manager they should naturally know how to communicate face to face with their teams. However communication skills are rarely one of the key competencies that is taught or measured by organizations. There is however a very easy way to ensure that there is structure and content that make it very easy for managers at all levels to follow.

How To Engage Employees With Technology Based Change

Marcia Xenitelis — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:33:51 -0400

When you think about the millions of dollars organizations spend each year on IT programs of work, wouldn't it be prudent knowing that employees actually understand and most importantly embrace the reason behind the changes? There is one way of ensuring that employees and their managers have got the message and truly understand the reasons for the new system implementation. And that is the means that you communicate change.

Change Management and Employee Communication Strategies

Marcia Xenitelis — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 17:09:49 -0400

If your employee communication strategy to communicate change focuses on stakeholder communication plans, an intranet site, CEO forums and Staff Information Bulletins via email stop right there. Your efforts are focused on information, not communication and the likelihood of engaging employees in change is remote.

The Value of Employee Engagement Surveys as Part of a Change Management Strategy

Marcia Xenitelis — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 17:06:30 -0400

One of the things that continues to surprise me is that when times are bad organizations still spend money on employee engagement surveys. A general look around the office or factory and tea room discussions would make it obvious to all that wanted to see it that employees are not so much engaged as they are worried about their jobs. This leads us to two major issues to consider during tough times, the first is how we inspire confidence and innovation in an organization that appears to be in freeze mode. The second is what you should measure as an indicator of employee engagement.

Sensible Investing 2007

Fast Company staff — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:37:39 -0400

The Brand Called Obama

Ellen McGirt — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:37:29 -0400

"Whatever you do, don't hurt Barack!" It was the afternoon of Super Tuesday, and the Chicago sky threatened snow. Senator Barack Obama had just returned to his hometown as voters in 22 states were making history by choosing between a black man and a white woman to be the Democratic nominee for president. The road-weary candidate put off calling fund-raisers or leading one last rally. Instead, he headed over to a downtown gym to play basketball with his nephew, his brother-in-law, and a few buddies.

Dead Man Walking

David Case — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:36:17 -0400

In May 2007, nearly six months after he was hired, AOL chief executive Randy Falco gathered his employees together for an "all hands" meeting at the company's Dulles, Virginia, headquarters. Until then, Falco had remained a mystery to much of his team, often holed up at the New York offices of Time Warner, AOL's parent. He had spent 31 years at NBC, rising to the top as the network was sinking to fourth place. Many in Virginia wondered why the board had chosen this old-media type. There were rumors he barely used email.

Heroic Checklist

Dan & Chip Heath — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 18:35:14 -0500

Quick, a word-association test. What word comes to mind when we say "checklist"?

Here are some candidates: "basic," "routine," "dull." But what if we asserted (with a great dramatic flourish) that your first associations should be "lifesaving" and "game changing"?

Yes, we really are that nerdy. But we mean it.

Scuttling Scut Work

Arianne Cohen — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:05:21 -0500

Come 3 p.m. each day, workers staring at computer screens everywhere share the same dream: a magic button that says click here, and someone else will do this annoying project for you.

ps: by 9 a.m. tomorrow.

Yahoo's Rally Cry

Patrick J. Sauer — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:05:20 -0500

Sports Fans love a cinderella story. From the 2004 Red Sox coming from down 3-0 to beat the Yankees to the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team trumping the Russians, the rule remains the same: Always root for the underdog.

Resolution or Goal? You make the Call.

Fast Company staff — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:05:19 -0500

Wal-Mart
The retail giant has put the power of publicity and accountability behind its green mission, setting specific benchmarks such as eliminating 25% of solid waste from U.S. stores by 2009. Answer: Goal.
Disney Channel
read more

The Hours

Margaret Heffernan — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 09:18:00 -0500

"Your people do turn up for work, don't they?" I was once asked by the chairman of my company. He was peeved. In his own office, he'd come in very, very early -- and not see anyone. When he left at night (very, very late) he couldn't see anyone either. He worked every waking hour. Why didn't everybody else?

Embracing the Hard Part of the Job

Jena McGregor — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:43:03 -0500

A former vice chair of Fannie Mae and deputy attorney general under Janet Reno, Jamie Gorelick was a 9/11 Commissioner and the blue-ribbon panel's only female member. Over the course of two interviews, including one in the swank Washington D.C. offices at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, where she is currently a partner, Gorelick spoke with Fast Company about consensus building, leadership, and additional lessons from the Commission's report. Below are excerpts from the two interviews.

Merger Meltdown

Ryan Underwood — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:42:24 -0500

The merger monster that threatened to swallow the world two years ago is dead.

In the first five weeks of 2000, merger mania got so hot that more than $500 billion worth of merger deals were announced. Just two years later, Thomson Financial reported that global merger-and-acquisition activity for the first quarter of 2002 totaled $89.2 billion. It was the first time since 1995 that the quarterly figure had not blown past the $100 billion mark, a milestone achieved in any one of those first five weeks of 2000.

Beyond Reengineering

Fast Company — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:39:57 -0500

In this age of management turmoil and turnover, strategic consultants peddle reengineering as the science of success. But technology doesn't trump talent, and no science can lock in winning results 100% of the time.

Fast Company has grappled with reengineering since its first issue -- covering those who conceived it, implemented it, and got it terribly wrong. Is this the fad that forgot people? Or the future religion of Silicon Valley? Or neither? You be the judge.

November 1995

A Change Will Do You Good

Keith H. Hammonds — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:39:56 -0500

Book: Tempered Radicals: How People Use Difference to Inspire Change at Work
Author: Debra L. Meyerson
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
Price: $24.95

The New Face of Leadership

Rekha Balu — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:38:25 -0500

Steve Miller understands the power of diversity. Back in 1998, when Fast Company profiled Miller for the "Best of the Best" issue, he was a senior executive at one of the most powerful companies in the world. As group managing director of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies, Miller was responsible for transforming the company's "downstream" operations -- everything from selling gasoline at the company's 47,000 filling stations to selling lubricants to factories. His model for change?

Essential Reading for Change Agents

Anni Layne — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:34:39 -0500

"Sustainable change must take place on three levels: the head, the heart, and the hands. The people leading and experiencing change must understand their role in the change initiative, they must work through their internal resistance to the change, and they must hone the skills needed to make that change take form."

Genius at Change

Anni Layne — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:34:23 -0500

Bill Strickland sparks revolution from the inside out. He is a change agent with more than 30 years of experience, but he resembles no other change agent in any industry, any company, or any government agency -- because Strickland's "inside" is not IBM, Ford, or the U.S. Mint. His transformations and insurrections affect whole families, communities, and cities. He is a change agent for society.

Greg Bachman

Fast Company — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:31:55 -0500

The least developed Florida cell, Greg Bachman's Tallahassee group compensates for its dormancy with a great deal of motivation. Though unable to schedule a formal, mutually agreeable meeting time, the Tallahassee cell has engaged in several casual, scattered conversations, one of which connected Bachman to a fellow Fast Company reader finishing his doctorate at Florida State. The two discussed an article Bachman had written titled "Value-Added Brainstorming," and scheduled a time for Bachman to lecture an Organizational Development class at FSU.

Come Together

Anni Layne — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:31:52 -0500

Q: What is the value of "community" in business, and in Florida business circles specifically?

Distinguishing Features

Anni Layne — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:31:50 -0500

Q: How does your region differ economically and socially from other areas of Florida and others parts of the United States?

Numbers Count

Anni Layne — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:31:48 -0500

Q: Why do you feel Florida is not commonly ranked among the nation's top business regions? What do you feel can be done to improve the state's reputation and business atmosphere?

The Business of Partnerships

Christine Canabou and Julie Piotrowski — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:31:34 -0500

Business leaders, educators, government officials, and technology experts are forging partnerships to advance their city and curb communication "turf wars" that have halted past development. Now, college professors are lugging their lesson books into the corporate trenches, techies are educating locals about e-commerce, and community alliances are cutting across divisions and advancing a shared vision that will help New Orleans get down to business.

Organizational change