Blog – Four Groups

Skin in the Game

Michael Folkman — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 19:27:46 +0000

It has long been a held belief that to fully motivate executives, they need to have a financial commitment to the business. For example, private equity investors will often require that the menagement team make a significant personal investment in the buy-out that they are backing. This may be in the form of re-mortgaging the family house or other sizable commitment. The reasoning being that in…

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Hiring and Acquiring – Two Sides of the Same Coin?

Michael Folkman — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 10:49:51 +0000

It is hard to imagine two organisational activities that result in more high profile, costly failures and reputational damage than corporate acquisitions and senior level recruitment (although culture change probably comes close). Situations where high hopes and strong rationale underpinning an acquisition or senior level hire can quickly give way to the realisation that a big mistake has been made are all too common. At first glance they may not seem to be too similar; yet both activities share some of the same fundamental problems and issues. Given that failure in these activities is hugely damaging to businesses, isn’t it time businesses changed their approach to hiring and acquiring? Continue reading →

Hiring and Acquiring – Two Sides of the Same Coin?

Michael Folkman — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 11:31:30 +0000

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HR and Big Data; Jumping the Gun?

Michael Folkman — Thu, 11 Jul 2013 14:46:27 +0000

Big Data is unlikely to lead to the breakthroughs in understanding of what makes success unless organisations start to take into account the key intangibles such as relationships and culture. To understand performance or lack thereof, we need to look far beyond the capabilities, characteristics or behaviour of individuals. Instead, relationships, culture, other intangibles and contextual factors play a larger role in understanding performance. Continue reading →

Rethinking the War for Talent

Michael Folkman — Mon, 24 Jun 2013 13:02:58 +0000

Despite advances in technology, selection methods and years of cumulative experience; organisations continue to struggle squaring the recruitment and talent puzzle. Arguably, with all the tools currently available to them, businesses are no better at recruiting than they were 20 years ago. Whilst new technologies and social media have widened the net, there is little evidence to suggest that decision making is improving or that organisations are better at understanding what makes a successful hire. Maybe it is time that we re-frame the talent question and look at recruitment decisions through a different set of filters? Continue reading →

3 Barriers to Adaptability and Change

Bruce Lewin — Thu, 09 May 2013 12:21:14 +0000

There are 3 barriers to adaptability and change. Building on a post from Gary Hamel on the Hacking HR site, the 3 barriers typically serve to undermine or stall attempts at creating adaptability and change. Let's examine each of these three factors in turn, how they feed off each other and how they create barriers to adaptability. Many of the highest profile companies are also public…

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Can You Predict Team Performance?

Bruce Lewin — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 15:58:28 +0000

Following on from a discussion on Linkedin, Steven Forth, co-founder at Nugg recently asked the following: This question gets to the heart of the recent ideas around predictive team analytics and the notion of a 'Physics of People'. It also follows on from another piece from Steven where he wrote: In addition to the points raised by Steven is research from Harvard, MIT and others…

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The Complex Drivers of Performance

Michael Folkman — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 15:04:23 +0000

A recent post by Om Malik (here) sets about dissecting the recent departure of JC Penney CEO Ron Johnson after only two years in the job. Formerly the head of retail for Apple; clearly it was expected that he would be able to bring some of the Apple retail magic to JC Penney. Malik's assertion that spectacular success is as much down to the collective efforts of groups and contextual factors as it…

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Actionable and Predictive Team Analytics

Bruce Lewin — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 12:00:57 +0000

I've been thinking a lot about the value of actionable and predictive team analytics recently and a post from Naomi Bloom struck a chord. From her piece: The significance of actionable and predictive team analytics cannot be understated. Tools that offer decision makers simple, actionable, valuable and consistent advice is key. Additionally, these capabilities have arguably been missing from…

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A Physics of People and The 5 Criteria to Transform Business

Bruce Lewin — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:08:05 +0000

Based on the recent comments from Stowe and Justin, the idea of a Physics of People is both valuable and represents something potentially unique. Given that the idea has the potential to transform business, the following post outlines the five criteria by which any transformation might take place. Although there is no shortage of models, assessments, psychometrics and techniques that help…

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