Bold decisions that drastically change what is taken for granted have always been traits of leaders that attract and inspire people. The rise of social media and other means of online communication such as blogs, online communities and intranets allow leaders to spread bold ideas and big plans easier than ever before to their target audience and the wider public. On the one hand, this tremendous speed of communication is a powerful lever to mobilize people and initiate change on a level and magnitude never seen before. On the other hand, change is always accompanied with unintended consequences that backfire, if not handled properly.
Soft skills also called people or management skills get increasingly important in our 21st knowledge economy. In contrast to many hard skills, management skills cannot be substituted by technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and search engines. This is reflected in an ever growing demand for online and face to face management training programs. As a result, hundreds of millions of Euros are invested in management training activities every year. However, only a small fraction of the training content is transfered back on the job (Griffin, 2011) or adds value to the training participants. Drawing and theory and science, we derive six criteria you should look for when selecting a good management training program.
Management trainings are an important part of most corporate training programs. However, in a VUCA world, organizations are more and more starting to move from a management training to a management learning approach. We have a look at the shortcomings of traditional management learning and introduce a new approach of management learning that puts emphasis on knowledge quality (evidence), applicability in daily business (context) and adaptability (agility). We do this from a knowledge worker's point of view during an product introduction project.
Organizations utilize personality inventories such as the Five Factor Model of Personality for a range of purposes including selection and recruitment and employee management. Over the last twenty years, HRM scientists and practitioners have identified the Five Factor Model as a useful tool in predicting employee performance across a range of jobs and settings. This blog post describes the Five Factor Model also called Big Five and how the model can be utilized to increase organizational effectiveness.
I attended an instructor led leadership training session a couple of weeks ago. The training was well-organized, the training material of good quality and the trainers applied various training methodologies such as presentation sessions and interactive group work activities. However, there was one thing that really struck me.
We have already arrived there. Long lost are the days where achievement, wealth, and position relied solely on an individual, or entity’s, capacity to rival against another to obtain the optimum available resources for themselves. Such an orientation primarily defined material success in the industrial and post-industrial eras and had its remnants extended into the beginning of the 21st century. It served its purpose in the frame of reference of the predominant capitalist’s value-system that prevailed in societies. But as we already entered the knowledge economy, recognized by its rapid technological advances, globalization, and extended communications networking and infrastructure, we cannot help to become increasingly aware of rapidly changing trends that kick dust in the eyes of the rat-race that once was.
Money makes the world go round? No way. Motivation makes the world go round! Motivation is an invisible force hidden in every single one of us. It’s the fire in us that determines our actions and decides where we invest our time and energy. We are motivated to a greater or a lesser extent depending on our respective daily condition, the environment, and interests. At times of high motivation, even difficult tasks can be a piece of cake and we are able to achieve incredible things. What’s behind the motivation mechanism? How can we increase motivation based on scientifically substantiated findings? We will get to the bottom of these questions in our current blog.
Strategy is a term usually connected to top management, long-term planning, goals, and consulting. This view dominated strategic management in theory and practice since the middle of the last century. Strategy as practice, SAP in short, is a new approach that questions this dominance. In this blog we present to you what’s actually behind SAP.
Exchanging knowledge is a great way to learn from and with other people, generate innovative ideas and solve complex problems. In addition, we all bring a vast amount of knowledge and experience with us that can add tremendous value to each and every member of a team or group that participates in knowledge exchange sessions. However, the benefit of structured knowledge exchange sessions goes far beyond that. We are all human beings and thus it is also a great deal of fun meeting other people, sharing knowledge and enjoying the time while learning from each other.
Lean and Agile approaches are currently on everyone's lips. While Lean is still often associated with production optimization and the automotive industry, Agile appears to be closely linked to software development and IT. This understanding has, however, changed since Lean and Agile are successfully applied in areas such as Lean start-up, marketing and project management. In this blog, we would like to introduce you to both approaches and present a new learning model based on Lean and Agile or "Leagile Learning", which can be implemented quickly and efficiently.
