Imperative of Learning - Neglect of learning by Organizations

The Competitive Imperative of Learning.
By: Edmondson, Amy C., Harvard Business Review,
Jul-Aug 2008, Vol. 86, Issue 7/8



My research identifies a different approach to execution -- what I call execution-as-learning -- that promotes success over the long haul.


People don't have enough time to learn.

An exclusive focus on execution-as-efficiency leads companies to delay, discourage, or understaff investments in areas where learning is critical. It's a given that switching to a new approach can lower performance in the short run. The fastest hunt-and-peck typist must endure a short-term hit to performance while learning to touch-type, just as the tennis player suffers initially when shifting to a new, better serve. These are the costs of learning, which has its payoff in future performance. Managers who overemphasize results can subtly discourage technologies, skills, or practices that make new approaches viable.

When a major telecommunications firm launched the technologically new digital subscriber line (DSL) internet service in the late 1990s, it set ambitious production targets that failed to take the need for learning into account. The staff did not have sufficient time to work out how to implement new software and hardware that had to operate with customers' not always up-to-date personal computer equipment: The result was a customer service nightmare.

Amy C. Edmondson (aedmondson@hbs.edu) is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School in Boston. Her most recent previous HBR contribution was the March 2008 article "Is Yours a Learning Organization?" coauthored with David A. Garvin and Francesca Gino.

HBR Grads in HR

Why Did We Ever Go Into HR?
By: Breitfelder, Matthew D., Dowling, Daisy Wademan,
Harvard Business Review,
Jul-Aug 2008, Vol. 86, Issue 7/8

A career in human resources isn't the typical destination of a Harvard MBA. We're supposed to be employed as strategy consultants or investment bankers or, in the true spirit of the degree, general managers.

Daisy - Interesting HR assignment

With a British colleague, I'm scouting potential action-learning projects for the top 100 vice presidents at Goldman Sachs. The projects involve groups of six to eight VPs who tackle current business challenges. The aim is to develop their ability to lead complicated initiatives across business and geographic lines and, at the same time, generate real (read: P&L) value for the firm.



Matthew D. Breitfelder (mbreitfelder@mba2002.hbs.edu) is the vice president for management and leadership development at MasterCard Worldwide. He is based in Purchase, New York.

Daisy Wademan Dowling (dwademan@mba2002.hbs.edu) is a vice president of human capital management strategy at Lehman Brothers, in New York City, and the author of Remember Who You Are: Life Stories That Inspire the Heart and Mind (Harvard Business School Press, 2004). The authors received their MBAs from Harvard Business School in 2002.

Career Blues - Career Engagement

What are the Career Blues?

The career blues are marked by a loss of enthusiasm for work, a loss of a sense of purpose in work, and an emotional flatness regarding work that affect the use of time and talents, energy and effort, and aspirations and attitude while at work. People suffering the blues have lost their desire to go to work, view work as drudgery, and have no clear sense of how work adds value to their lives. They are going through the motions at work, and are uninterested, unenthusiastic, and unengaged.

Career Engagement

The opposite of the career blues is career engagement. People engaged with their careers are enthusiastic about their work, have a sense of satisfying purpose in what they are doing, and are able to draw on and continuously renew that sense. They effectively utilize most of their time, talent, and energy. They give an honest, focused effort in the pursuit of fulfilling personal aspirations. People engaged in their work enjoy it and invest in it.


Clinical Depression

Are the career blues different from depression? Clinical depression has become a major health concern, and is largely underreported in the workplace. As a significant contributing factor to lost work productivity, time, and even suicide, clinical depression is a health factor to which executives and organizations need pay more attention. One management observer recently reported that in a large high-tech company, "20 percent of the IT department showed signs of clinical depression."15 The article, "An Executive Guide to Workplace Depression," by Joseph Kline, Jr., and Lyle Sussman in this issue gives more insight on this challenging problem.

The career blues are not clinical depression; rather they represent a milder malaise in which one has lost one's sense of purpose in work. While the career blues may develop into depression, they are less severe and more easily dealt with.

Managing one's relationship to work can have a positive effect on the career blues, while clinical or biochemically based depressions need professional medical treatment.


Beating the career blues
James G Clawson, Mark E Haskins. The Academy of Management Executive. Briarcliff Manor: Aug 2000. Vol. 14, Iss. 3;


James G. Clawson is a professor of business administration at The Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia. He teaches in the MBA, doctoral, and executive education programs, and has published numerous articles and books, most recently, Level Three Leadership. He consults with a variety of organizations on leadership, careers, and leading change. He has a DBA from Harvard University. Contact: Jim Clawson@virginia.edu.

Mark E. Haskins is a professor of business administration at The Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia. He has worked for Arthur Young & Co. He is the coauthor of three textbooks and coeditor of The CFO Handbook. His interests include collaboration and international financial reporting. He has a Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University. Contact: HaskinsM@Darden. virginia.edu.

They Preach, But Do not Practice

All organizations now routinely say, "People are our greatest asset." Yet few practice what they preach, let alone truly believe it.

-Peter Drucker



Drucker. P. 1992. The new society of organizations. Harvard Business Review, 5: 95-105.

HBR Case Study November 2006

The Reign of Zero Tolerance. By: Gerson, Ben, Parker, Janet, Volokh, Eugene, Halloran, Jean, Cherkasky, Michael G., Harvard Business Review, 00178012, Nov2006, Vol. 84, Issue 11

Actions that damage a company and its employees should be stamped out, everyone would agree. But should the people responsible be stamped out, too?

Performance Measurement HBR 2006

Performance Measurement
Finding the Weak Links
Tom Atkinson and
Ron Koprowski
Forethought, July–August
Reprint F0607D

Human Resources - HBR 2006

Human Resources

The Great Intimidators
Roderick M. Kramer
February
Reprint R0602D

HBR Case Study: Old Hand or New Blood?
Frank V. Cespedes
With commentary by Alston Gardner,
Steve Kerr, Randall D. Kelley, and
Andrea L. Dixon
July-August
Reprint R0607A, Reprint Case
only R0607X, Reprint
Commentary only R0607Z

HBR Case Study: The Reign of Zero Tolerance
Ben Gerson
With commentary by Janet Parker,
Eugene Volokh, Jean Halloran, and
Michael G. Cherkasky
November
Reprint R0611A, Reprint Case
only R0611X, Reprint
Commentary only R0611Z

The High Cost of Cheap Chinese Labor
Paul W. Beamish
Forethought, June
Reprint F0606D

High Fidelity
A conversation with Ivor Tiefenbrun
Gardiner Morse
Forethought, November
Reprint F0611F

How to Fix HR
Gary Kaufman
Forethought, September
Reprint F0609H

How to Keep A Players Productive
Steven Berglas
September
Reprint R0609F

Interest Doesn't Always Compound
Marc Abrahams
Forethought, December
Reprint F0612B

Leadership Run Amok: The Destructive Potential of Overachievers
Scott W. Spreier, Mary H.
Fontaine, and Ruth L. Malloy
June
Reprint R0606D ♦ OnPoint 4486;
OnPoint collection "Power:
The Good, the Bad, and the
Ugly" 4524

Managing Middlescence
Robert Morison, Tamara
Erickson, and Ken Dychtwald
March
Reprint R0603E ♦ OnPoint 3536

Sleep Deficit: The Performance Killer
A conversation with Harvard Medical
School professor Charles A. Czeisler
Bronwyn Fryer
October
Reprint R0610B

Tapping a Risky Labor Pool
Brian Ballou and Dan L. Heitger
Forethought, December
Reprint F0612H

What Men Think They Know About Executive Women
Dawn S. Carlson, K. Michele
Kacmar, and Dwayne Whitten
Forethought, September
Reprint F0609F

Compensation - HBR Articles 2006

Compensation

Why Executive Pay Is Failing
Stephen F. O'Byrne and
S. David Young
Forethought, June

P&G and HSBC - Talent Factories - Some Observations

Make Your Company a TALENT FACTORY.
By: Ready, Douglas A., Conger, Jay A.,
Harvard Business Review,
June 2007, Vol. 85, Issue 6


Some companies face the future with confidence because they don't just manage talent, they build what we call "talent factories." In other words, they marry functionality, rigorous talent processes that support strategic and cultural objectives, and vitality, emotional commitment by management that is reflected in daily actions. This allows them to develop and retain key employees and fill positions quickly to meet evolving business needs.

In this article, we look at the people processes in two talent factories: Procter & Gamble and financial services giant HSBC Group. We selected these companies because even though they approach talent management from slightly different directions, both illustrate the power of a twin focus on functionality and vitality. P&G has established a plethora of elaborate systems and processes to deploy talent; HSBC has worked mightily to incorporate talent processes into the firm's DNA. Both companies can claim a free flowing pipeline of current and future leaders.

P&G offers formal training and development programs and sometimes sends managers to external executive education programs. The lion's share of development, however, takes place on the job, with the immediate manager's support and help from mentors and teammates. A typical marketing manager, for example, will have worked with a number of different brands over a period of time. A finance manager will have gone through various assignments, ranging from financial analysis to treasury to auditing to accounting. Most managers are also placed on important multifunctional task forces or project teams from time to time. New postings and task force participation are expected to challenge employees, and they signal to managers that P&G will always offer new opportunities.

The company also pays close attention to the effectiveness of its recruiting processes. P&G interviewers record detailed assessments of each candidate and assign them a quantitative score, using uniform criteria. The company then regularly assesses performance against the baseline set during the interviews. P&G also evaluates the success rate of its key promotions, using quantitative and qualitative measures that cover a three-year period. Managers who improve the business and its capabilities are deemed "successful"; the company has a success rate that exceeds 90%. When derailments occur, P&G conducts a thorough "lessons learned" review.


Douglas A. Ready (dready@icedr.org) is a visiting professor of organizational behavior at London Business School and the founder and president of ICEDR, a global talent management research center in Lexington, Massachusetts. He is the author or coauthor of several HBR articles, including "How to Grow Great Leaders" (December 2004).

Jay A. Conger (jay.conger@cmc.edu) is the Henry R. Kravis Research Chair in Leadership Studies at Claremont McKenna College, in California, and a visiting professor of organizational behavior at London Business School. He conducts human resources research with the Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business, in Los Angeles. His most recent article for HBR is "Developing Your Leadership Pipeline," with Robert M. Fulmer (December 2003).

Operations Principles Applied to Talent Management

Talent Management for the Twenty-First Century.
By: Cappelli, Peter,
Harvard Business Review,
March 2008, Vol. 86, Issue 3

Operations Principles Applied to Talent Management



A supply chain perspective on talent management relies on four principles, two that address the risks in estimating demand and two that address the uncertainty of supply.

PRINCIPLE 1
Make and Buy to Manage Risk
A deep bench of talent is expensive, so companies should undershoot their estimates of what will be needed and plan to hire from outside to make up for any shortfall. Some positions may be easier to fill from outside than others, so firms should be thoughtful about where they put precious resources in development: Talent management is an investment, not an entitlement.

PRINCIPLE 2
Adapt to the Uncertainty in Talent Demand
Uncertainty in demand is a given, and smart companies find ways to adapt to it. One approach is to break up development programs into shorter units: Rather than put management trainees through a three-year functional program, for instance, bring employees from all the functions together in an 18-month course that teaches general management skills, and then send them back to their functions to specialize. Another option is to create an organization-wide talent pool that can be allocated among business units as the need arises.

PRINCIPLE 3
Improve the Return on Investment in Developing Employees
One way to improve the payoff is to get employees to share in the costs of development. That might mean asking them to take on additional stretch assignments on a volunteer basis. Another approach is to maintain relationships with former employees in the hope that they may return someday, bringing back your investment in their skills.

PRINCIPLE 4
Preserve the Investment by Balancing Employee-Employer Interests
Arguably, the main reason good employees leave an organization is that they find better opportunities elsewhere. This makes talent development a perishable commodity. The key to preserving your investment in development efforts as long as possible is to balance the interests of employees and employer by having them share in advancement decisions.



Peter Cappelli (cappelli@wharton.upenn.edu) is the George W. Taylor Professor of Management and the director of the Center for Human Resources at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School in Philadelphia. He is the author of several HBR articles and the book Talent on Demand, forthcoming from Harvard Business School Press, which further develops the ideas presented in this article.

Consistent human resource practices

Consistent human resource practices
James N Baron, David M Kreps.
California Management Review.
Spring 1999. Vol. 41, Iss. 3; pg. 29, 25 pgs

This article is an edited version of Chapter 3 of Strategic Human Resources: Frameworks for General Managers, which was published in the Spring of 1999 by John Wiley & Sons.

Because of its strategic importance and because of the interactions with "the rest of the business," HRM should not be left to HR specialists. Human resources should be managed by general managers, who integrate HR strategy with the broader business strategy of the enterprise.

Hewlett-Packard: A Model of Consistency