Innovation Summit Manchester - Disruption Time

The next event on my June travels was the Manchester Airport Group (MAG) Innovation Summit. I had been asked to act as host and MC for the day. When I told that the event would take place in the shadow of Concorde (literally) and that Sir Richard Needham would be providing the keynote I was sold.

The event was attended by 300 people drawn from the North West's innovation community was kicked off by MAG's Strategy Director Andrew Cliffe who stressed the critical role innovation has had in enabling MAG to become one of the UK's leading airport companies. In his keynote Sir Richard focused on his experience with Dyson and what he referred to as "diamonds":

...who are the people in your business who are innovative and where are the project managers needed to turn their ideas into cash?

Sir Richard also made his views on current events in the USA and BP quite clear:

...how would we in the UK react if some broad Texan turned up in Cornwall telling us how he was going to solve all our problems?...

The solution? - "get the diplomats in, after all - all the political classes are good at is talking!". Works one way Sir Richard, but Obama isn't proving to be so good with words is he??

The event also included a panel discussions where Sir Richard was joined by Juergen Maier, Managing Director Siemens UK Industry Sector and Dr. Moneeb Awan, President of the Greater Manchester Chamber. This was really excellent as there were strongly contrasting behaviours and views expressed by the panel. The resulting "disruption" was refreshing.

Well done to MAG and their partners - great event and it was a pleasure to be there.

More information: Manchster Knowledge Capital

Executive Stretch Over St Paul's

I facilitated a "Force Fate" session for the Executive Board of a large insurance business last week. The Force Fate phrase comes from a Nike commercial made during the Vancouver games in which the notions of taking control and practice are brilliantly depicted in the context of ice hockey.

This particular Board were meeting effectively for the first time following a tough year (a "near death experience" as the CEO put it), restructuring and the appointment of several new Board members. Our location was a rooftop board room which looked out over the stunning St Paul's cathedral.

I had been asked to help them consider their current situation and to reflect on whether they were taking the appropriate levels of risk for their customers and shareholders. Given the context the CEO wanted to challenge the team by asking; "have we become too conservative?".

Force Fate set the session up really well and the ensuing discussion was broad and deep and covered pretty much all of the organisations portfolio. It was clear though, like other new teams, that the group still had some forming to do. With only a couple of exceptions the Board members stuck to their "knitting" only really expressing views about their own areas and not being too keep to take collective actions. This was fascinating and I really felt for the group (i.e. not quite a team yet), you could feel stress of the past 18 months in the room.

Whist the financial sector in the UK has taken some stick recently (much of it deserved) I really do think it is time to let them get on with their jobs. After all they look after our investments and pensions and without their efforts many of us would not enjoy a happy and financially secure future. The financial crisis has, without a doubt, been game changing and this particular company have a keen eye on their "social responsibilities".

Creative accountants - honestly

Known for their attention to detail and a fondness for numbers, accountants are often the brunt of jokes around the office. Such is their reputation that there has even been scientific research done to confirm their boringness which found them to be:

dull and uninspired, (who deliberately use) jargon-heavy language

My latest interaction with them proved the point wrong - thanks to a nifty trick I picked up from Made to Stick.

I had been commissioned to run an event for 50 odd accountants (based in Birmingham, UK) and my brief was to design a session for them that would "encourage them to be creative". Ah ha I thought - a blue sky thinking session - great I will give them lots of time and post-it notes and leave them to is whilst I chill with a coffee. Then I remembers Chip and Dan's words:

People are more creative operating within limits than with a blank slate

Initially I thought I would get them to run a Pecha Kucha session about the challenges they face as a consequence of Solvency II. I discounted this as being potentially lethal to the non-accountants in the room and I've never killed a delegate yet.

I ended up introducing the session with the story about geese (that I have blogged about before) followed by another old favorite; creating a team shield. I gave them 15 minutes to create a team shield describing their motto, unique selling points, skills and objectives.

The session was terrific and they really got into it. We had everything from rebellion ("we decided shields were too Scottish so we have described our team by using English football players as a metaphor") to "geese scape". Brilliant.

Further reading on Problem Solving can be found over at Brain Based Biz

Leaning towards Paris

I've had a hectic couple of weeks during which I have traveled more than 2000 miles, worked with over 1000 people and presented in 5 different cities.

My travels started in Paris, one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Our delegates were lean and 6 sigma specialists from France, India, The Netherlands and Belgium. The event focused on how technical specialists can improve their impact and delivery by deploying people skills to their projects. We covered personality types, Belbin, conflict styles, Minto and other tools over 4 days. The event culminated in a role play were the delegates had to present their ideas for improved business performance to a den of dragons .

All in all the event was a great success and it was especially good to watch a group of technical people suspend their disbelief and get right into the tools and techniques. Delegates have since provided feedback including worlds like "inspiring", "life changing" and "personally enlightening". The challenge now is to ensure that delegates are supported to embedding the learning. This will be interesting as as a group they are very very focused on benefit delivery and I'm sure their managers will present a good testing ground for their new found influencing skills.

Why the Engagement Agenda is Important to Business Success

All of us go in to work, but how many of us actually work throughout the day to the best of our abilities and capacity? The truth is, unless there is something at stake, we don’t feel the need to push through at work and give our best. So if you own a business or run your own operations, you’re bound to go all out because your bottom line depends on it. But your employees may not feel the same way; unless of course, their jobs or salary is on the line. This is where engagement agendas come into play – it is your responsibility to engage your employees in such a way that they are motivated to give their best at work.

It’s important to remember that you mustn’t confuse motivation with threats and coercion – while the latter two do tend to get the job done at times, they could easily backfire on you without a hint of a warning. Besides, employees who work only because they’re worried about recrimination and not because they enjoy their jobs tend to pretend to be productive when you’re peering over their shoulders or when they’re being supervised. If you want to motivate your employees, it’s necessary to:

Pay them well - No one wants to work for peanuts. So if you’re looking to boost the level of employee engagement, you must ensure that your people are paid according to industry standards and rewarded adequately for their work. When your employees know that their hard work is being noticed, acknowledged and rewarded through bonuses or other incentives, they are inclined to work harder and be more loyal to you.

Treat them well - No amount of money is greater than a person’s self respect. So no matter how highly paid your employees are, if you treat them like dirt, they’re not going to stick around; and even if they do, they’re likely to shirk responsibility and do less than a half-hearted job. So ensure that you treat your employees well without being patronizing.

Lead by example - And finally, the best way to get your employees to take their jobs seriously is to lead by example. When you prove to them that you’re not averse to doing anything to get the job done, if you roll up your sleeves and are prepared to fill in for an employee on a day that’s crucial, that’s when you make them look up to you and want to do more for the company. If you’re laidback and casual, then your employees are going to be paler versions of you, so it’s going to be a wonder if any work gets done around the office.

Engaged employees translate into better customer service and more satisfied customers. Your operations do well, and your profits soar. And when this happens, it’s easier to give out bonuses and pay hikes, which again boost employee morale and make them want to better themselves. Engagement agendas thus have a positive reinforcing effect on the state of affairs at your organization.

This guest post is contributed by Anna Miller, who writes on the topic at degrees online she also welcomes comments via anna.miller009@gmail.com

Engaging Questions - The Question is the Answer

I'm delighted to be included in the new ebook over at the Employee Engagement Network.

Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke - Letters to a Young Poet

As David Zinger puts it - too often we are in search of an easy answer. We hire experts to tell us what to do. We need to engage the question. Let us sit with the questions, voice our questions, and generate a range of responses rather than a simplistic easy answer to the complexity of employee engagement.

I encourage you to read this wonderful collection of questions offered by 96 members of the employee engagement network. Engage the questions, generate responses, and create greater employee engagement for the benefit of all