The Velvet Revolution at Work

This year’s Simply Summit (26th/27th April, Prospero House, London SE1) looks very good indeed. Along with speakers such as Euan Semple and Jim Ylisela, there is a wonderful programme exploring emerging developments in employee engagement and organizational social media. Plus delegates will have the chance to hear John Smythe talking about his research and the subject of his forthcoming book: The Velvet Revolution at Work: The Rise of Employee Engagement, The Fall of Command and Control. Simply Communicate, who host the event put on extraordinarily good and thought-provoking events so I am looking forward to it. We’ll be exhibiting copies of The Gower Handbook of Internal Communication and offering a draw to win free copies.

 

 

Managing Presenteeism

There is plenty of research, as well as books and conferences on employee engagement but not a great deal out there to help employers with the flipside: ‘Presenteeism’. Sharon De Mascia has been involved in a useful discussion paper, published by Business in the Community and The Centre for Mental Health, which provide a great place to start. Sharon is a author of Project Psychology: Using Psychological Models and Techniques to Create a Successful Project, published by Gower and out in December.

Hoshin Kanri Takes Off at Gatwick

It’s rare for a Gower title to feature on broadcast television so it is particularly rewarding to see Stewart Wingate, CEO of Gatwick Airport, training his senior managers in Sky TV’s programme: ‘Inside Gatwick’ using David Hutchin’s book Hoshin Kanri as the basis of his message. Stewart and the Gatwick team have adopted the Hoshin Kanri concept as a basis for helping ensure that everyone across the business is pointing in the same direction; interesting programme … and a wonderful platform for this Gower book.

Interview with Penny Pullan

Gower author, Penny Pullan talks about A Short Guide to Facilitating Risk Management with co-author Ruth Murray-Webster, explaining how their ideas came together to create the finished book . Penny’s video interview along with the transcript can be found here: pm4girls.

 

Is Employee Well-being the Key to Successful Engagement?

Bridget Juniper’s article on the Simply Communicate website offers a fascinating and, I think, previously unconsidered perspective on the topic of employee engagement: that of employee well-being. Some organizations may find this a step too far but, on the other hand, the logic of Bridget’s position is very strong. Think about your own mental and physical state of health for a moment and you’ll understand that it directly affects your ability and willingness to work and, particularly, to handle risk, change and innovation … all currently listed as fundamental for the success of organizations as they strive to sustain a competitive edge. Simply Communicate is run by Marc Wright, Editor of Gower’s award-winning Handbook of Internal Communication.

The key to effective global communication networks

There is surely no factor that’s more problematic in a commmunications campaign than the challenge of making it work globally. Many large organizations now work across borders and cultures and face the difficult task of making these global networks effective. Bill Quirke’s article in Strategic Communication Management on how to work together in communications globally is, as you’d expect from one of the leading thought leaders on communication, sensible, pragmatic and great read. Bill Quirke is author of Making the Connections: Using Internal Communications to Turn Strategy into Action.

“It’s all happening on the Equality front” says Tony Morden

Weak people who are a waste of space in business! Rape cases that are not so bad, and rape cases that are not so good! Elderly disabled people in Birmingham on the receiving end of threatened budget cuts to the (totally essential) care that they receive. Women even being told they shouldn’t wear mini skirts after 35, or bikinis after 47, or high heels after 51. (Ageist, eh? I wonder what Joan Collins would say to that?). Housemaids in the Middle East being treated like slaves (really very nasty indeed).

I don’t think that you should cherry pick your prejudices. You can’t pick on the weakest. You can’t reserve your Duty of Care remedies for some and not for the others, or create special cases. If you do you will inevitably get into difficulties. You need joined up thinking. Repeat, you need joined up thinking. Otherwise you will get Equality Risk. You will lose hard-earned reputation (as in the case of the Toronto Police or Birmingham City Council). You will get into trouble with all sorts of people and the media, or you will have to eat your words (Ken Clarke MP please note).

The lawyers, who are paid to know exactly what they are doing,  will always cost you lots of money.

All of the topics above are current scenario’s being reported in the media and Tony Morden has covered such cases in his book A Short Guide to Equality Risk. In it, Tony analyses components of an Equality, Diversity, and Discrimination (EDD) Agenda: equality, diversity, opportunity, and discrimination to assist you in protecting yourself and your organization from this politically sensitive, and high risk subject.

Four leadership approaches to engagement

The reason why John Smythe is one of the most successful commentators on the whole subject of employee engagement is surely down to his ability to express ideas in ways which seem intuitive and yet, often, profound. In this article he explains his four leadership approaches to engaging employees in strategy and change. John Smythe is a co-founder of Engage for Change and author of The CEO – Chief Engagement Officer: Turning Hierarchy Upside Down to Drive Performance.

Making the most of what happens anyway

Don’t imagine that because the networks we use to communicate nowadays are often informal, personal and ad hoc, that you can’t plan and develop them for the benefit of your employees and your organization. Bill Quirke’s article ‘Building an Internal Communication Network‘ covers the how to, the pitfalls and includes some great examples. Bill Quirke is Managing Director of Synopsis Communication Consulting and author of Making the Connections: Using Internal Communcation to Turn Strategy into Action.

The 10 most common myths around employee engagement

I suspect that, for many organizations, the toughest obstacle to culture change and, specifically to engaging employees, are the entrenched myths amongst senior managers. The good news is that, if you can provide the Old Guard with cogent arguments to debunk these myths, at least some of them will thank you for it. John Smythe’s (The CEO: Chief Engagement Officer) company, Engage for Change, articulates these myths very convincingly on their website. Expressing and defining the myth is the first stage towards debunking it so I hope that HR, change and internal comms people will find this list a useful starting point for their campaign.