As managers (or for that matter effective staff members) it is a wise career move (our responsibility) to make up for our personal inadequacies from a work point of view. We can do this by seeking professional advice in the specialist areas that are critical to our department’s, division’s or company’s success. Some questions we should be asking of ourselves:

Do we currently invest astutely in developing the areas outside our technical area of expertise?

When looking for training, public relations, advertising, marketing, financial or accounting advice is it just a tender process where we choose the cheapest, or is it a… ‘they are the best in their field’, decision?

Are any of these other areas of expertise sometimes ‘in company service departments’, used as a dumping ground for inadequate individuals so we can avoid the hard decision of sending inadequate staff on their way?

If we seek advice do we then learn from the advice we are given or do we ignore it because we don’t like to change?

A real example:

A now non-existent finance company I once worked for sent a senior technical expert to conduct a study overseas on trends in his field. He came back told the company what they had to do, which included the setting up of an ‘out of the hierarchy’, non standard business department. Someone was going to lose control of a major business area and have his traditional power base eroded. So the answer was no…! The ‘expert’ left and went to a very small competitor who within 6 months was making nice profits from the new business opportunities developed, probably in excess of those of our entire operation. How dumb is that! The same finance company commissioned an in depth study of their business practices by a world-renowned leader in their field (at the behest of a major shareholder I believe) and then refused to implement the recommendations. The reason for the failure to adopt the new ways of doing things was that it was going to cost too much and again (probably more importantly) dismantle some traditional power bases. Two years later when the company was still struggling the consultants where back to do the expensive survey/study again… too late the 40% major shareholder became the 90% shareholding parent and intervened with its own rules, suddenly they just a department of ‘the bank’.

DON’T ASK QUESTIONS IF YOU DON’T INTEND TO LISTEN TO ANSWERS AND… NEVER STOP QUESTIONING!

So what are the issues we must think about to avoid being myopic and locked in the past and what are the causes of financial trouble directly attributable to inept management?

1. Lack of foresight or disinterest in the future (other than how to get the next promotion)

2. Inept or even zero monitoring of the market and incorrect use of the gathered information.

3. Allowing dangerous or incorrect debt levels in relation to our operation.

4. Failure to address financial issues including constantly asking if our debt to equity ratio is reasonable or how adequate is our return on funds invested, or are we using short term borrowings to fund long term projects (and all that other boring stuff)?

5. What about technology, are we being bypassed or are we leveraging on the new technologies available?

6. How are our key relationships… key clients, financiers, suppliers and distributors? Are we, to use an old example, Ford and do we use Firestone tyres on any of our products? I wonder if ford and firestone (little “f” s intended) have ISO certification.

7. Quality Quality Quality is a must and I don’t mean certifications, I mean a management and staff attitude that really puts quality as a priority. I once watched as a file was quickly constructed a day before a quality audit (to serve as a good example), the audit was passed and the few hundred other files where never touched. Now is that quality or Bullshit Baffling the Brainless (big “B” s intended) and pardon my language.

Also we need to consider (if the surveys on failure are correct)…

8. Whether we expanding too slowly, or too quickly?

9. Linked to that are we so diversified that we’ve walked away from our core competencies, and or are we even aware of what our core competencies are?

10. We need to ensure we are not too dependant on one customer (or supplier), the finance company I mentioned lent an amount approximately equivalent to its paid up capital to three major borrowers in one industry, all of whom went bankrupt… oops!

11. We should also constantly check to see if we are overstaffed (the American Government and the Australian Public Service perhaps?).

12. We constantly need to check that our control systems are adequate, does our accounting, manufacturing, sales activity system give us the answers we need on a day to day basis?

13. What is the profit per employee, what is the ratio of sales staff to administration, how big is the personnel department and do we have a bureaucratic purchasing department?

14. Finally the team… is there dissension among the management team (or is it a team at all?) or has the team and our business reached the “level of its own incompetence”?

15. The big issue of course is to decide if there is a lack of leadership by the senior executives, or worse the chief executive. One small example of a leadership failing: Do we have a problem if all the middle management attends major training programmes because it is compulsory however the senior management doesn’t come because it’s optional? If training (and the change process) doesn’t start at the top the participants are likely to say things like “that’s OK in theory, ‘but’ that’s not how the boss acts back at the office” and a disconnect between what is needed and what actually happens occurs.

PHEW… no wonder effective managers are busy!

Cash flow and sales… next post!

Refs:

http://www.tuta.hut.fi/studies/Courses_and_schedules/Isib/TU-91.167/Old_seminar_papers/Ojala_Juha_final.pdf

Time to question where you are? Resume Blank | Resume Form | Resume Examples | Resume Sample | Cover Letter Fill in the free online blank resume form (positive statement examples), a handy self-analysis to evaluate the commercial realities of what you have to offer current or potential employers.

Quote: ‘To empower employees, managers need to create a nurturing environment in which staff can learn, grow, improve, and function effectively.’ “Staff empowerment gives employees a sense of trust, importance and capability, thus creating a positive work environment.” (Ref “xnet.kp.org/permanentejournal/fall03/staff.html”)

Quote: “To feel empowered, employees must have a sense of self-determination, competence, meaning and influence.  Employees’ sense of self-determination is the perception that they are free to make choices and that their actions are not [over] controlled by policies, systems or managerial dictates.  Granting autonomy to employees helps them feel a sense of self-determination.  The higher employees’ competence, the more they appreciate and thrive when given autonomy. As long as employees perceive that doing their job satisfies important needs of internal or external customers, they’ll see the meaningfulness of their work.” (Ref: www.wright.edu/~scott.williams/LeaderLetter/empowerment.htm)

The article in wright.edu also points out the basic requirements of being systematic and consistent and that any empowerment program needs to develop their competence and confidence.

Managers who want to empower their staff must either be be trainers themselves or at least provide some competence development input and know how to acquire the training required by their staff.  Now you would think this would be a “no brainer” however in my experience mangers often neglect this duty and if we are looking at soft skill development, will actively reject it on the excuse that their staff/department is too busy to attend. Often then if new skills and knowledge are gained, when the employee gets back to work managers will still neglect to implement the ‘new ways’ of doing things. This is often because implementation of the operational changes desired/required will can be time consuming and and can be seen as risky to make . This is why the development of an organizational culture of empowerment that all managers buy into is so important. Managers must also become proficient in, as wright.edu puts it, ” telling them what they will be learning and why, providing information and demonstrations, allowing opportunities for practice” and finally “providing feedback on performance”. Confidence obviously comes from successful performances (either their own or as observed in others) and from encouragement by those who are respected and and seen as mentors.

One final definition of empowerment:

Empowerment is the process of enabling, through the development of competence combined with the authorizing of an individual to think, behave, take action, and control work and decision making in autonomous ways. The payoff for the organization, a more effective and presumably customer oriented operation and for the employee a feeling of being self-empowered and being able to influence the outcome of their own future.

Empowerment  is not something someone (a manger) bestows on the people who report to him,’ it is a personal development process undertaken in an atmosphere of mutual, trust, understanding, learning and shared responsibility. The organization’s management has the responsibility to create a work environment which helps foster the ability and desire of employees to act in empowered ways through the removal barriers that limit that ability.

Not feeling empowered? Time to update your resume? Free blank resume form/template.

One article (“smartmanager.com”) I read suggested that “Empowering people is closely aligned with facilitative leadership.” Essentially facilitative leadership is all about helping your staff reach their potential and therefore improve operations. The article continued “If you look at leadership skills along a continuum from persuasion, through collaboration to facilitation, most managers would be required to engage a variety of approaches at different times”. If you take the “Situational Leadership” (Hershey Blanchard) approach of course you would only pass on authority to an individual in the task area in which they are fully competent.

An essential ingredient for any empowerment is an effective training process which tests for competence. As well as the technical skill training you will need to ensure staff have access to the information they require to make confident decisions plus a clear understanding of their boundaries. In addition you must develop a culture of accepting mistakes or errors of judgement as being a legitimate part of the learning process. Obviously one of the boundaries needs to be that the same mistake twice is not acceptable.

Empowerment can be a gradual process. As an example as a lease manager when I worked for a finance company some years ago empowerment for my staff could mean that staff member “A” was able do lease quotes and a second staff member “B” would then check them. The real empowerment came when member A was granted the right to check the quotes and give the quote to the customer. As a checker you had both responsibility for the accuracy and the authority to act. Similarly, when granting loans was the issue, the first step was to give the staff member the right to decline loans to see what the lending competence was. Lending approval limits where then given (real authority) after reviewing the loans that the staff member had declined.

Empowerment of course is not for everyone. Some years ago I had the opportunity to watch as a large international/US hotel company tried to introduce an empowerment program worldwide. I was living on an island in Malaysia at the time and the staff to be empowered where “locals”, mostly from the island itself. These people were bought up in a culture of “do what you’re told” with a strong religious tradition that reinforced compliance to strict rules that to my mind limited the development of their emotional intelligence. The program was a complete disaster for this particular hotel. The empowerment of staff will only occur and be effective if the staff are willing to take authority. Don’t get me wrong they all craved status (manager on their business card) however they definitely did not want either authority or responsibility for outcomes. Emotional intelligence as well as technical skill should be assessed before any though of empowerment can be undertaken.

Finally many see delegation as empowerment and it is not. Sure delegating is part of the overall process however there is much more to real empowerment.

For the employer: (as “about dot com”) puts it, “Empowerment is the process of enabling or [and] authorizing an individual to think, behave, take action, and control work and decisionmaking in autonomous ways”. For the employee: “It is the state of feeling self-empowered to take control of one’s own destiny”.

Here are a few issues you will need to address if you a setting up an empowerment program:

Assign tasks that will allow your subordinates to grow.

Explain why task being assigned to them and highlight “what’s in it for them.”?

Give very clear and detailed directions (the what, where, why, how and when of the tasks) and allow and encourage questions.?

Introduce the empowerment process in stages and allow reasonable time for the process.

Demonstrate that you trust those you are empowering or those process will be nothing more than a waste of time and energy.

Solicit suggestions from your employees as to better ways of completing the project.

Follow up on progress, act as coach however don’t constantly look over their shoulder and always be accessible when those being empowered need help.

Pay a great deal of attention to ensuring employees feel (and are) rewarded and recognized for empowered behavior.

Feeling less than empowered and that its time to move on? Use the resume template and perhaps empower yourself.

The legendary Army Ants gain their fearful reputation and devastating power because they are driven by an obsessional purpose combined with an extremely high level of determination and use what is known as their collective intelligence. The amazing thing is that this all happens with no one individual taking control. Instead they all act as individuals and control (or lead) themselves. “Collective intelligence is a shared or group intelligence that emerges from the collaboration and competition of many individuals. Collective intelligence appears in a wide variety of forms of consensus decision making in bacteria, animals, humans, and computer networks” (ref: Wikipedia). In other words Army Ants really do practice management from the bottom up where each individual is empowered to act.

If we as managers and leaders are to implement effective empowerment and invert the corporate pyramid to put the customer at the top, as current business realities demand, (as does proper thinking), we must ensure that staff develop the right attributes. If those at the customer interface don’t have (or develop) their own sense of being powerful, are unwilling to be obsessed with the customers needs and wants, (as against stroking the boss), are not effectively inspired to use their own positive levels of motivation and don’t feel free to inform enthusiastically what the customers are saying, (good or bad), no collective intelligence will occur.

We often talk about staff empowerment in modern business however ants have achieved this state naturally. If simple ants use it so effectively, why can’t the intelligent top of the food chain… us… do it so well? Because we humans are totally driven by our need for self-satisfaction or gratification… we are basically selfish! So what can we as leaders do to at least move a little further along the evolutionary path (remember ants have been around 100 million years) and thus achieve at least some of the team sophistication levels of ants? Here are a few suggestions… never discipline in public, encourage the free flow of ideas, destroy inter-staff rivalry, reward teams rather than individuals, encourage those who encourage others, revere those who act in the common good, beware of creating states of ‘group think’ and never implement a ‘staff member of the month’ program or a competitive sales incentive scheme and always…

VIEW MISTAKES AS LEARNING, NOT AS A REASON (OR EXCUSE) TO WHACK SOME FOOL!

Ants management and moving (scurrying on) update the resume resume time?

To measure your performance from an entrepreneurial point of view  you need to conduct performance assessment based on personal (and team) customer satisfaction levels, rather than comparison to some pre determined performance management system. In addition non-managerial, professional career schemes will need to be available to ensure a motivating future with appropriate rewards that can be envisaged/embraced by all stakeholders.

In the “old days” as a traditional manager you were expected to control inputs and encouraged to reward those who learn and posses the best process skills. Functional responsibilities were to control the people, oversee organization roles and ensure the correct skills were applied to the task at hand.

As an entrepreneur will you need to manage outputs, reward achievement, develop market-focused competencies (knowledge and skills applied to the task at hand) and develop and lead an appropriate value system.

By the way…

Direct page viewers can go to main blog to check out other posts by clicking on the white “orglearn.org” in the header panel above!

While you’re here take a look at the free blank resume form!

Entrepreneurial Characteristics

Risk taker that can live with uncertainty

Adaptable to change and able to improvise

Can see how new innovations satisfy a market

Interested in effectiveness rather than efficiency

Either creative him/herself or able to utilize those who are

Has a desire to lead in his/her area of operation or market

A continuos learner willing to make and or tolerate mistakes

Flexible, willing to change direction as the circumstances dictate

Self possessed of a sense of urgency and stimulates that sense in others

Recognizes his/her shortcomings and empowers others who compensate

Finally you need to understand that as an entrepreneurial manager you need to develop a creative outlook on what is to be done in response to and as a result of interacting with a fast changing environment. You must be very conscious of the effect of your old paradigms (norms) on how you see things an overcome the need for stability and a reliance on systems. An ability and willingness to follow hunches is essential for an entrepreneurial manager.

The following nine points are an adapted from an old however very good, must buy book – Mitch McCrimmon’s – ‘Unleash the Entrepreneur Within’

Remembering that the only way to improve is to learn and the only proof of learning is a change in behavior, how can we create organizations that learn and more importantly change?

1. Budget, time, money and manpower to achieve both individual and organizational learning – ensure management and ALL employees see learning as a ‘real target’ and set up mechanisms to ensure accountability and to measure results. Many organizations seem to talk about being learning organizations however if it isn’t budgeted for, invested in and measured it is just a farce. Each manager needs to have learning and knowledge retention listed in their key responsibility areas and be assessed on their performance in this area at performance appraisal time.

2. Identify strategic learning areas for your business and where new products or product innovations are likely to yield the quickest and greatest payoff – invest most of you’re resources in these areas. It is also important to look at the long term learning issues that your organization needs to address.

3. Empower your work force to take risks in the market by decentralizing decision making – particularly encourage those in areas of key knowledge. As I have written in previous posts now is the time to wholeheartedly adopt transformational leadership practices in day to day operations and as a management policy.

Note: Many empowerment programs in Asian operations of international organizations run in to problems because of cultural attitudes (and beliefs) related to power and responsibility, be careful in implementing this option!

4. Set up a system of on job training, job rotation, provide incentives and support for personal development – initiate a PD (personal development) discussion process. PD discussions need to be taken seriously with personal targets set and behavior changes measured and rewarded.

The only way to improve is to learn and continuous learning is not a perhaps or maybe… today more than ever its an imperative!

**Link for direct page viewers return to main career success blog to check out other posts!

If you aren’t lucky enough to be working for a learning organization and need a change it may be time to update your resume so when you’ve finished the article take a look at the free blank resume form!

To continue…

5. Form learning partnerships with suppliers, distributors, and customers – set up feedback mechanisms such as focus groups, R&D joint ventures and customer survey mechanisms. Remember your organization can learn as much if not more from complaints as it can from compliments. Be sure that bad news is seen as an opportunity to improve and learn not only as a reason to discipline someone.

6. Have all positions applied for and include outsiders in our recruitment drive – only appoint the best in their field and avoid the all to familiar ‘best of a bad bunch’ in times of competence shortages. Promotion from within only should be a dead policy.

7. Benchmark your culture against other entrepreneurial firms – seek ways to understand key success factors for the market leaders in our field and study the oppositions’ successes. This is an area that seems to most difficult for many companies so a project team needs to address this as a serious and essential activity.

8. Set up a readily accessible knowledge bank and ‘experience’ network of mentors, gurus and experts in their field. Make sure the knowledge accumulated by expert staff doesn’t walk out the door with your retirees. With the “same old same old” mistakes made by bankers as evidenced by the recent meltdown shows that this industry particularly do not take learning and knowledge retention seriously.

9. Celebrate and recognize attempts to learn by employees who take a market risk and publicize within our organization by initiating fast real world feedback mechanisms. With today’s communication technology this is easier than ever however, someone still needs to initiate the action.

The nine steps for setting up a learning organization can at least give a good starting point for you to create a true learning organization however, it will take great effort and enormous commitment.

Old style leadership anagram

Despotic Anagram (old thinking)

Dictatorial & commanding
Evaluates rather than values
Suspicious and cynical
Power seeking & taking
Oppresses differences
Total control seeker
Intrustive & instructive
Cold and calculating

Nothing too inspiring about despots!

“THE WORLD THAT WE HAVE MADE AS A RESULT OF THE LEVEL OF THINKING WE HAVE DONE THUS FAR CREATES PROBLEMS THAT WE CANNOT SOLVE AT THE SAME LEVEL AT WHICH WE CREATED THEM” – Albert Einstein

So what we need is great teams leveraging on each others ideas and talents inspired by great leaders.

Leadership Anagram (new thinking)

Love of followers is demonstrated
Empathetic with individuals at all levels
Able to create vision & achieve the mission
Democratic decisions & communicates
Empowers & encourages others
Resilient, overcomes setbacks
Sharing, provides for followers needs
Hopeful, positive & future driven
Intelligent, uses the head and heart
Persistent, sticks to the task, never gives up

SO WHICH ONE IS MORE LIKE YOU? – (ACCORDING TO THE STAFF?)

The short wall sign you should put up in your office if you want to learn the formula to becoming a great leader!

A personal oath you can make to yourself if you want to become a great leader:

I will take a long term view, conceive and communicate a well thought out and positive vision that is tested and supported by an appropriate set of values

I will always be innovative and take care to effectively decide what is important and what is just clutter and I will actively promote that which is important.

I will readily elicit and accept help and will stay close and constantly listen to and consider the suggestions made by my key players.

I will strive with passion to build a team (rather than a group) where reward is linked to outcomes and continuous learning is the norm.

I will take care to see, recognize and celebrate the best that followers contribute and allow others to shine and share in the spotlight.

I will actively remember that now is the only time we ever have will always live in the present

I will ungrudgingly be willing to make personal sacrifices to actively ensure the best outcomes for my followers.

So do you really want a leadership role?

**Link for direct page viewers return to main career success blog to check out other posts!

While you’re here take a look at the free blank resume form!

Leadership takes competence and confidence so remember:  “The most important words you will ever hear are those that you say to yourself about yourself when you are by yourself.” source unkown.

Ric (orglearn)

Couple of quotes:

“Murdoch said, “We’d rather have fewer people coming to our website, but paying.” User pays and internet… almost an oxymoron in the context he’s talking about it?

“They [users] can also, if they choose, have only a small summary of their content indexed.” Aha written ‘sound bites’ and teasers… nope I’d go once and then forget their site totally… not smart Mr Murdoch!

The telling thing for me was the level of communication or quality (or lack of it) of his speech. Looks like and icon is fading to me. Pity needs to hand it over to someone a bit younger perhaps and I’m a pretty old guy myself so it hurts to say that about anyone let alone Rupert Murdoch.

Ric (orglearn) **Link for direct page viewers return to main career success blog to check out other posts!

While you’re here take a look at the free blank resume form!

In classical neuroscience, the adult brain was considered an immutable machine, it was all about evolution and genes, what you got you were stuck with. Additionally it was believed that every part had a specific purpose, none could be repaired, IQ was fixed and that was that. Great news IT’S NOT TRUE!

Myths of the Brain

Old theory: Different parts of the brain control different parts of our body. Wrong.

Past belief: After a serious stroke, a person was crippled for life with minimal improvement likely. Wrong.

You have been told: That mental decline in old age is inevitable and if you are predisposed to it’s just bad luck. Wrong.

The Positive Side

Today’s much more sophisticated equipment and modern experiments have proven that the brain is malleable and able to change and grow. Not only is it able to respond to injury with amazing functional reorganization, it can actually respond to changes in input by coming up with a new anatomic configuration. It’s a “use it and grow it” versus ‘use it or lose it” deal, pretty much the same rule that applies to every other organ and muscle in the body.

Knowing this we, if we are smart can come up with various methods that we can consciously apply to reshape and ‘improve our brain. Dr Doidge’s book “The Brain that Changes Itself” gives insights about learning and shaping our mind and if applied in a positive way how we can help us improve our chances for a more successful rewarding and even happier life. The book is very uplifting as we explore all the possibilities we can exploit because of the way we can improve our brains performance and even repair it through mental exercise if it is damaged. ‘Doidge is positive in his outlook presenting ideas on how our thoughts can switch on specific genes and alter our brain anatomy.  He presents a sound case for how intelligence can be improved with brain exercises, how we can improve our cognition, perception and talents even by allowing our imagination shape our minds’. I guess this is similar to the old idea of imagined performance which is all positive in outcomes and how mental practice can be a great adjunct to actual physical practice which creates varying inputs based on actual outcomes that will range from poor to excellent.

There are many therapies explained in the book however the one that stands out for me is the story of the amputee that has 10 years of excruciating “phantom” pain in his missing elbow. When he is assisted by putting his good arm into a box lined with mirrors his brain is fooled into thinking it is his missing arm and he does some stretching exercises and the within a month his brain reorganizes its misfiring brain circuits and the illusion of the arm and its pain vanishes. Pretty powerful stuff.

What it Means for Managers Insights from: Agile Advice Dot Com

Agile Brains – Agile Teams

http://www.agileadvice.com/archives/2007/07/the_brain_that.html

‘Insight: Practice and practice. The method here is to follow an exact and complete set of rules until they are perfected and only after that try variations. By perfecting the rules, we allow our brains to demonstrate that we have truly internalized (or mapped) the knowledge’ i.e. put it into long-term memory and created a habit.

‘Insight: Practice as it relates to time and frequency. Shorter iterations allow for more repetition of the basic rules and structures, which allows for more effective internalizing. Under the right conditions, brain maps change quickly (minutes), but in order to “stick”, the changes have to be reinforced over the course of months.’

‘Insight: The importance of practice when we are delivering training (rather than when we are coaching a team). Instruction will be much better if it is simply packed with a mini project that is executed over multiple extremely short iterations.’

The Learning Mind has a Downside

Doidge also explains how the plastic nature of the mind affects mental mind maps in even mundane daily activities.  Societal and cultural differences and behaviors can have as much impact on the mind as trauma and physical injury which means our attitude and abilities are constantly changing in line with our personal experiences, indoctrinations, social differences or environment.

As one reviewer of the book put it: “These implications of rewiring the mind however, are also to be cautioned.  The brain is actually so malleable it is also quite vulnerable to its surroundings and seemingly little impact input to the mind can make a drastic change to the way we perceive and handle the world around us.  The impact of media and television are showing significant impact and damage on the mind leading to disorders become more and more prevalent in today’s young people. This is something to be cautious of as people can highly influence and shape the mind as well.  Parents, peers, and leaders all make a significant contribution to the structure of our brains and while it can be changed, it is not always easy to do so.”

From this still relatively new experimental data,  “the entirety of human experience: creativity, love, addiction, obsession, anger” and particularly the all important issue of human empathy and compassion “can be seen as a series distinct electrical associations are manipulated by the brain itself and of course by the brains, thought and actions of others… for better or worse”.

Neuroplasticity well may prove a curse as the brain can also as Doidge puts it “think itself into ruts”, ‘with electrical habits difficult to eradicate’.

So here’s the reason for the headline: ‘the implications for external re-engineering of the human brain are ominous, for if the brain is malleable it is also endlessly vulnerable, not only to its own mistakes but also to the ambitions and excesses of others, whether they are misguided parents, well-meaning cultural trendsetters or despotic national leaders’.

The real cruncher comes in the Appendix which is a must read where Doidge explains the indoctrination techniques of North Korea and how the brains of the North Koreans have been physically altered to such an extent that no reasonable use of logical argument will ever change their attitude to the outside world. So what you might think… then ask yourself what is happening to home schooled kids in America or Madrassa indoctrinated single view kids in Pakistan or single view of the world children of some other Middle Eastern countries.

Suddenly your optimism may dissipate.

Doidge’s book tells us that our brains are remarkably flexible, malleable… plastic and provides an enlightening and hopeful portrait of the endless adaptability of the human brain, until you think about the ramifications of the information presented in the Annexure.

This “neuroplastic revolution,” (or discovery) has dramatic implications for the future of our children in a more and more polarized and violent world. There is great potential for misuse of the brain’s plasticity – brainwashing being the assumption – Doidge leaves speculations about the future of neuroplasticity to us, the readers.

“In-house experts, with their specialized knowledge and skills, could be invaluable to both colleagues and managers. But often workers who could use their help in other departments and locations don’t even know they exist.”

Great article talks about assisting staff and mangers to locate the expertise they need within their own organization.

“..so-called expertise-locator systems have become a hot topic in corporate IT. To date, most such systems are centrally managed efforts, and that’s a problem. The typical setup identifies and catalogs experts in a searchable directory or database that includes descriptions of the experts’ knowledge and experience, and sometimes links to samples of their work, such as research reports.”

The article goes on to explain the shortcomings of this traditional approach.

It then discusses the value of social networks, blogs, wikis, tags and web pages. Actually a great solution is coming in the form of Google Wave which may actually the dramatically change way we all collaborate in the future… it really is a wave of innovation. Google it and watch the video.

The rest of this very informative article is here-> http://bit.ly/3JmGOD Sorry you will need to cut and paste however the article is worth it!

So who knows what in YOUR organization and are you able to put your managers in touch with the expertise they need?