Unnecessary detail, pseudo accuracy, jargon and ambiguity – it is any wonder that project stakeholders lose the plot?

Lynda Bourne’s article Communicating Upwards for Effect on PM World Journal is a salutary reminder of some of the simplest communication techniques and their potential impact on sponsors and other stakeholders. Big projects are complex enough without confusing people – often those who may not share your native language – with careless expressions or ambiguous figures. Read it, reflect and act. Her advice is bang on. Lynda Bourne is author of Advising Upwards and Stakeholder Relationship Management.
 

What is it that the Millennial Generation wants?

As one of the baby boomer generation, I freely admit that sometimes I have struggled to keep up with the mindset of Generation Xers, let alone the newest generations that have followed, so I found Alexander Manu’s thought piece on how brands can engage the Millennnial Generation a great source of enlightenment – not least because I am beginning to understand and embrace some of the concepts such as gamification to which he alludes. If you are involved in any aspect of brand management, marketing or design, do take a moment to read it. Alexander Manu’s new book Behavior Space: Play, Pleasure and Discovery as a Model for Business Value is published in December.

Understanding just where risk management is going

Matthew Leitch (author of Intelligent Internal Control and Risk Management) is running the workshop ‘Essentials of Embedding Enterprise Risk Management’ at the IBC 2013 Risk Management Congress. The programme for the Congress provides a really good sense of the current emerging themes within risk management with papers on risk appetite, risk and strategy, measuring risk, tail risk, fraud and cyber risk. I find it paticularly encouraging to see that Gower have the ground covered with our titles: A Short Guide to Risk Appetite (Hillson and Murray-Webster), Risk Strategies (Coleman), Estimating Risk (Garlick), Countering Catastrophic Loss (Ivantsov), A Short Guide to Fraud Risk (Iyer and Samociuk) and Demystifying Communications Risk (Johnson).

     

Be ready (and be allowed) to get it wrong

Philip Weiss’ presentation at a recent event in Brussels picks up a theme that has been around for a number of years but, one that I still think organizations have difficulty accommodating; even thought it is pretty much basic common sense. Innovation involves trial and error and innovation in the context of accelerating speeds of change involves plenty of opportunities for geting it wrong. Every organization needs to work out the dimensions of their own particular tightrope: play it too safe and you’re soon out of the game; overcomplicate the whole process or fail to learn from your failures and it’s also ‘game over’. Philip is author of the forthcoming book Hyperthinking: Creating a New Mindset for the Age of Networks.

The Importance of People in Energy Reduction

Kit Oung’s Guardian Professional article The Importance of People in Energy Reduction accurately reflects my own experience. We have done a lot since we moved to our new premises to reduce our energy consumption and pretty much all of that has been motivated by the employee team who make up our green committee. The message is unequivocal: spend time thinking about the human factors, they are far and away more significant than technology-based solutions for most businesses. Kit Oung is author of the forthcoming Energy Management in Business: The Manager’s Guide to Maximizing and Sustaining Energy Reduction.

Gower author and editor appears on BBC Breakfast News

Distinguished professor at Lancaster University Management School, Professor Cary Cooper is a regular guest on  BBC Breakfast News. This morning he was there to discuss how to create motivation at work and keep sickness absence low. In April he was there to underline the importance of taking holidays. Despite the current climate,  Professor Cooper says “research shows it’s good for you, both physically and mentally.”

Cary Cooper, who specialises in Organizational Psychology and Health, has authored over 150 books pertaining to psychology and was heralded the ’5th Most Influential Thinker in HR in 2011.’

Risk management is an ongoing concern for modern organizations in terms of their finance, their people, their assets, their projects and their reputation. That’s why the research and exploration detailed in the series edited by Professor Cary (Psychological and Behavioural Aspects of Risk) is so important.