The View from Harvard Business

Many of us have spent what seems like a lifetime at conferences over the years. I have been to more than a hundred since the 1980s — at least three a year. That’s about 800 hours worth.

The sad part is I can hardly remember a memorable one. Sure, some speakers and panels have been great. But not many. Not really.

So what can you do to up the memorable quotient next time you are asked to organize a conference? Start by breaking the mold, something the TED conference is so good at doing.

Harvard Business Publishing’s Nick Morgan offers Three Ways to Make Conferences Better. His first suggestion I like a lot.

Conferences should tell a unique story.

“A conference should tell a story, one that unfolds and builds from the initial moments to the close. Like any good story, there should be moments of high excitement, followed by moments of relative calm,” says Morgan. “That’s different from panic and boredom in ceaseless alternation.”

There are multiple benefits to this approach. Imagine I am putting together a conference on “The Future of Newspapers.” Instead of offering keynotes and panels discussing the usual subjects (”Will People Pay for Content?”) the story line might be about identifying the critical decisions that must be made for industry growth over the next 10 years by the next generation of newspaper owners and editors.

A story line engages the audience, making it easier for them to digest the information and eager to get to the next “chapter.” The story approach also allows the organizer to expose the audience to speakers and views they’ve not heard before. In the future-of-journalism case, for example, we could bring in management experts on strategy development and innovative business models. How about a panel representing non-journalism companies (Apple) or industries (steel producers) that have successfully rebuilt for the 21st century?

Morgan also suggests conferences have a master of ceremonies who ties themes together and advances the story line, as well as a plan to involve attendees in running the conference and developing a network after the event concludes.

What are your ideas for making conferences better?

I’m not a WWII historian, but the story of General George S. Patton and his self-destructive leadership has always fascinated me. He was a tremendous motivator of troops, but at the same time he had a dark side that allowed him to slap a sick soldier in an infirmary because Patton thought him a coward.

The same virtues that earned him the admiration of his people, bravery and loyalty, turned into bullying and ostracizing when Patton felt challenged. So thanks to Gill Corkindale for shining a light on this common failure in many of us that turns our acknowledged strengths (enthusiasm/charm/focus) into weaknesses (volatility/manipulativeness/passive aggression). Writing on Harvard Business Publishing, Corkindale observes:

“All too often (leaders) are aware only of the positive effects of their personalities, screening out the negative impact on those surrounding them. If they remain impervious to feedback — or the organizational culture doesn’t support individual feedback — then senior leaders can be in serious danger of sabotaging their careers as well as their companies.”

How does this happen? Corkindale posits that we are so praised on these strengths throughout our career that we become blind to their “shadow side.”  If you have a reputation as diligent, you might at times slop over into perfectionist without really knowing.

Read Corkindale’s post, Don’t Let Your Strengths Become Your Weaknesses, for the best ways to check these tendencies in yourself and others. One tip: The anonymous 360-degree review provides one way your reports and peers can be honest in their observations of your performance.

Have you noticed a boss whose best traits morph into something more dark?

(Patton image by Paul Keleher,  CC 2.0)

A recent Gallup Healthways survey of 100,000 Americans reveals what we need at work to bring us the most joy, realized through less stress and more health.

The key ingredients: autonomy, influence, and a sense of meaning.

“Supervisors are better-off than the supervised, and entrepreneurs are the best-off of all,” remarks Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter.

“This suggests that exerting leadership is the surest route to joy (other than going fishing). The key is setting the agenda and starting the pieces moving towards a purpose-driven goal. If 90% of success in life is just showing up, Monster.com founder Jeff Taylor advises that when you show up, you might as well run the meeting.”

Read her post, Top 10 Ways to Find Joy at Work.

I recently posted on the subject of creative sabbaticals and moaned about how difficult it is for people other than Bill Gates to find time to get away and think about the work they are doing, or want to be doing.

I also asked readers what they do for reflection, and the responses ranged from annual personal getaways to making better use of commute time. Victor, for example, finds a little quiet time useful as he drives to work.

“I have almost completely stopped listening to audio books, lectures and the radio during my one day a week two hour commute. Gives me a lot of time to think, to enjoy to sights, sounds and smells, and to just be.”

But others of you schedule personal retreats or take regular time outs.

“I book time during my New Year break and set aside a few hours with my calendar. As I review my calendar (which was paper-based back then and is electronic now) I type out a running commentary of what I remember. I write this fairly free-flowing (no judgments) and talk about what I recall and what I feel or think about what I recall. Seen from the perspective of the present, the past year’s events take on new meaning.” –malleck

Mauramater often does her best thinking while exercising.

“I find that while walking on the treadmill, i can break through whatever creative blocks are in my head, or clean up the ‘mental mess’ in there, and all of the sudden, solutions emerge. Another thing i have started doing, is refraining from checking my email or phone messages for a half hour after the gym. rather than jumping right back into the fray, I enjoy the relaxation, and allow my brain to wander, dreaming about the big picture for my company or whatever creative problem (i’m a designer) is in front of me.”

Some other comments:

• “I have always worked retreats and dedicated quiet time into my life (while in a demanding job and a demanding volunteer leadership position and raising a family). There are trade-offs, but the sanity and centeredness that come from taking a time out benefit every aspect of my life. I’m glad Bill Gates’ example is drawing attention to this valuable non-activity! People make time for things that matter.” –aliaskate
• “I’ve started a work “book club” which I request employees to read a few selected works and schedule a time, uninterrupted to really focus on some of the challenges we are facing as a group. They understand its an opportunity to talk about frustrations and things “not quite right.” They know that “no executive decisions come from the book club.” These opportunities are times where I see the most innovation from my staff, and where I can challenge them to take personal interest in making a difference.” –pwizzy

But the most innovative suggestion came from jsacco, whose ritual involves a spreadsheet, a local diner and his wife.

“Once every six months, I schedule time for business planning and problem-solving and attack the problem on a vacation day. Usually, I can solve my issues in just a couple of hours. I wake at the same time as a work day, go through the usual routines and head off to a coffee shop instead of the office. In this environment I still get the morning hustle and bustle of the office, so it puts me in the right frame of mind. I have a defined list of long-term and short-term items to tackle that morning and I’m methodical at listing all possible solutions. I list them on a spreadsheet that I’ve templated for just such a task. Then, I take them home and discuss them with my wife — she always has great perspective from her former high-pressure career! By noon I’m done and able to enjoy the rest of that vacation day unencumbered by lingering “problems” from the office.” –jsacco

Just goes to show that if you apply the same creativity and innovation you use use at work, you can find the time you need to reflect, problem solve and, yes, relax.

One of the under-appreciated side effects of the financial crisis has been the promotion of employees into management roles for the first time. It’s hard enough for a rookie to assume command when times are good. These days it must seem like being thrown head first into a spinning clothes dryer.

I recently ran across two great pieces of advice for new managers. The crux of it: Slow down.

1. Check Your Progress. Harvard Business School’s Linda Hill, who literally wrote the book for first-time managers, says rookies try to do too much, which causes them to lose sight of their goals. Every two weeks they should step off the treadmill and assess what they have been doing and where they are headed within the context of the goals of the organization.
2. Three Tasks a Day. New managers face a million things to do, so pick out the most important three things each day and get them done. That’s the advice of Susan Ashford, a professor of management at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

Both these insights are explored in an excellent article written by the business staff at the Associated Press, Surprise! You’ve become a manager. Now what?

These are important lessons not only for new managers but for also for the seasoned vets who manage them. Make sure your newbies aren’t overstretching themselves. If they are, help them focus on what is important and on achieving results, even if it’s just a few accomplishments a day.

Are you a new manager? How are you prioritizing your work? Any advice from our veteran managers?

BTW, Jessica Stillman over at Entry-Level Rebel has a nice conversation going about shortcomings in training for new managers. Take a look at Readers Diagnose “New Management Syndrome,” Offer Cures.

(Dryer image by rocknroll guitar, CC 2.0)

Great thinkers often are clairvoyants, too. With their deep understanding of the past and present, they can spot future trend lines as they converge toward the horizon.

Peter Drucker, one of the great minds of business management, who died in 2005, was one of these savants. So Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter was asked by Harvard Business Review to look at today’s business environment and consider what Drucker would say.

Here are several of her conclusions:

• Executive Bonuses. “He held that the role of executives was to coordinate the actions of others whose motivation (and thus compensation) was necessary to get the job done. But he also held that pay should be associated with performance; that was a major point of management by objectives, perhaps his best-known practical management contribution.”
• American Auto Industry. “Years ago, he warned of troubles ahead if GM executives remained stuck in memories of previous successes and failed to ask his famous ‘what to stop doing’ question. GM was an iconic example of failure to see the need for significant innovation; its structure had become ossified, and its top management couldn’t consider a change.”
• U.S. as Global Competitor.  “Drucker sounded early warnings that competition from emerging markets would eventually challenge the United States’ global economic dominance. He observed that newer economic powers were adopting American management lessons that Americans were forgetting, as his own ideas spread widely and were consumed eagerly in countries with aspirations to grow their economies.”

Drucker had blind spots as well, she continues. He believed in the manager as logical being, so was not attuned to how factors such as emotion, personal bias and events in the world cloud our decision making.

It’s an interesting read. Check out  What Would Peter Say?

There are only three objectives that need to be accomplished in most meetings. Communicate. Discuss. Decide.

So why are many meetings so inefficient? So long? So arduous?

They don’t have to be, if you stick to the magic three goals, says Tony Tjan, CEO and Managing Partner and Founder of VC firm Cue Ball. The goals are:

1. Inform and bring people up to speed.
2. Seek input from people.
3. Ask for approval.

“Use this as a filter to determine why you are having a meeting and explain that purpose to your audience. Your meetings may often cut across multiple objectives but forcing yourself to clarify the agenda into these three purposes can result in more effective meetings.”

This is great, usable advice for structuring most meetings, I believe.

Read his full post, The Key to Shorter, Better Meetings.

How do you organize your business meetings? What’s the best meeting you’ve ever been to, or the worst?

You’ve probably read that Bill Gates takes an annual sabbatical so he can think about the future, catch up on important reading, and return to work energized for another year.

And you’ve probably thought, as did I, it sure is nice to be one of the world’s richest people who control their own schedules. I got the same feeling reading Gina Trapani’s post on Harvard Business Publishing about designer Stefan Sagmeister, who every seven years shuts down his studio for a year of “creative rejuvenation.”

But this is just a fantasy for most of us. How do we accomplish this same goal of taking time off, or reallocating work time, for a battery recharge? Time we can use for raising our heads above the administrivia? Yes, vacations help, but these are often taken with family. It’s tough to be meditative riding the spinning teacups at Disney World.

My solution has been to schedule my own private sabbatical at work — a two-hour block once a month — that I devote to thinking about the big picture, thinking creatively for the longer term, or just wrestling with a messy problem.  Because I need structure, I write an agenda, so that I’m prepared to use this outing to maximum effect.

My agenda might be as simple as this:

(more…)

It was bound to happen. Companies are starting to use Twitter to advertise open jobs. But that’s not all. At least one company is requiring applicants to have a certain number of Twitter followers to qualify for a position.

According to employment experts Jeanne C Meister and Karie Willyerd, Twitter is becoming a major tool for job recruiters. They blog on Harvard Business Publishing that:

• Companies find Twitter useful for  attracting people who are not reading job boards.
• Small companies use Twitter to level the playing field to recruit against the big boys.
• Best Buy used Twitter to crowdsource a better job definition and qualifications for an emerging media marketing position.

Oh, by the way, the requirements for the Best Buy job as defined by the crowd included 250-plus followers on Twitter. “Yes that’s right: the number of followers you have on Twitter is now finding its way into a job description,” according to Meister and Willyerd.

Read their intriguing post, How Twitter and Crowdsourcing Are Reshaping Recruiting.

Tweeting All Job Seekers

But what about people seeking jobs. Can a Twitter account give you an advantage?

Certainly.  If you are following the right companies, you might receive news of job openings as soon as they are made public, giving you a first-mover advantage.

What do you think? Would you use Twitter (or other social networking technology) to help your job hunt?

My blog post Why Are Women So Unhappy at Work?, around the research of Sylvia Ann Hewlett, hit a nerve with both men and women that even today, with 150 comments from readers, refuses to quiet down.

Clearly many women are unhappy in their organizations. That said, men are, too. Commentators observed that the recession has robbed some companies of their core values, that the focus now is all on the bottom line rather than on purpose. And that makes for a dismal workplace. “Probably far more fruitful,” observed Tony Wanless, “would be a question about how to build a workplace that is more humane, less ferociously competitive and more collaborative as required in this century.”

Granted, but I also asked you to tell me what a female-friendly company would look like from scratch. How would it act differently? How would it feel to work there? Your comments were amazing. One reader, Manabozho, even suggested this new female friendly corporation would have a much different organizational design, with “a large proliferation of titles and modifiers, and branching organization designs.”

Here are some other highlights:

• A female friendly company would most certainly be a flexible workplace that allowed for those with families (and those without) to be measured on results, not “butt in chair.” Again, having a woman leader doesn’t guarantee this. –EJEDoherty
• Female CEO? Not really a good motivation. I am doing research on Gender related aspects. From most of the literature that I have studied it boils down to one thing, balancing work and household demands. If I were to start my own company todady the first benefit would be to offer women flexible hours.–theflo1
• 1. Flexible scheduling. If I have to leave early to pick my kid up from school, let me. And trust that I can still get my job done, during the hours that work best for me and my family.
  2. Project-based assessments.  As long as I’m getting my work done, who cares how many hours I work? If I can complete a project in 20 hours, do I need to work a 40 hour week?
  3. On site daycare / nearby daycare / daycare stipends. The salary of many working mothers barely covers daycare bills. And certainly doesn’t make up for missing out on that time with the kids.
  4. Discounts on maid service / dinner service. I realize this is simply a pipe dream, but it would sure take a large burden off our backs!
  5. Understanding. Recognizing that work is work. It is not my life. And while it is a priority, it is not my top priority. So don’t think I’m crazy or think less of me when I have other, personal things to take care of. –Vickibug
• Women want to be rewarded equally as their counterparts, and any good CEO whether male or female, who recognizes talent, hard work, integrity and gives flexibility, won’t have women abandoning ship. –Sharronm
• I think there is a fundamentally different paradigm that can exist in female-oriented workplaces and it takes us away from the whole aggressive, money and progress-oriented approach to work. It is a collaborative, nurturing, fun approach which, while achieving goals and earning a living, isn’t centered or structured the same way — it’s like a circle, not a hierarchy and goes to heart of our culture like the Gaia paradigm in environmental studies. It is so foreign to our male dominated culture that we would have trouble establishing it I suspect! –Lesley Whitteker
• A woman-friendly company should have a lot of cultural commitment to acknowledging feelings and validating them — especially when a difficult decision has to be made. –Manabozho

Where Women Go

What about those who do choose to leave: Do they find fullfillment — and if so, where? In an email to BNET, CSDunford told us she took a demotion in order to improve her work environment — and she couldn’t be happier.

“The reason I left was lack of challenge and a lack of recognition. I moved to a new job where I had to take a downgrade to get in the door, but my options for upward mobility are much better — in fact, I’m already earning several times what I did before at the old job. I have more responsibility and I get to exercise the gray matter. It’s a very rewarding position and I wouldn’t go back to the old job even if they offered me double what I’m earning now.”

For many, the perfect company is the one they create for themselves. “Leaving to form my own freelance design company helped me put the balance into my life that I’d been trying to achieve…” wrote Maura Mather in an email to BNET:

“I was always late to work when I was punching the clock for someone else.  But I discovered that the only way to do all that I had to do during the day for my family and myself was to literally make my own schedule. I still work just as hard, and in fact I work much harder. But I don’t have the guilt of disappointing my boss every day by showing up late, I don’t get the angry silences from co-workers that result from childcare emergencies, and I can take care of my daughter and husband at the standards i set for myself. In addition, my business is booming.”

And Vicki F. echoed the thoughts of more than a few women on the thread that putting up her own shingle was the ultimate answer to the question, “Why are women unhappy at work?”

“When my company downsized I volunteered to take a severance package — I intended to work with my husband in his consulting business. But as it happened I ended up finding consulting work in my same field — in fact my first project was working on the same product my former company sells and implements.  It’s only been a few months but so far it’s worked out very well. I really can’t see going back to being an employee again, certainly not any time soon.”

Are we done with this fascinating conversation? I hope not. I’d love to hear more of your thoughts on building a female-friendly company. And tune in next week, when we’ll have a follow-up guest post from Hewlett herself.