McArthur's Rant - Human Resources, People Development and HR 2.0

Gamification - that's the name of the game HR

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McArthur) — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 12:04:00 +0000

I have to be honest and say that I am seriously excited about the potential for the use of games in the HR field. Gamification is the use of game-thinking and game mechanics in non-game contexts in order to engage users and solve problems. There seems to be the beginning of movement developing lead by the likes of Professor Byron Reeves and supported with some excitement by Gartner, Deloitte, NixonMcInnes etc. etc. Here is a short video by Professor Reeves:

Virtually all areas of business could benefit from gamification as it can help to achieve three broad business objectives 1) to change behaviour; 2) to develop skills; or 3) to enable innovation.

Changing Behaviours - The most common use of gamification is to engage a specific audience and encourage them to change a target set of behaviours. By turning the desired behaviour change into a game, people become engaged and encouraged to adopt new habits. For example:

• Brands can leverage gamification to engage consumers to better understand their products, and become advocates for the brand to provide product endorsements, and drive customer loyalty.
• Companies can use gamification to improve employee performance and to motivate adoption of new business processes.

Developing Skills - Gamification is increasingly being used in both formal education and in corporate training programs to engage students in a more immersive learning experience. While many approaches are being used, they can generally be divided into two categories:

• Building a game layer (more on what this means coming soon) on top of the lesson material, where competition and/or collaboration between students is encouraged with game mechanics such as points for actions, badges for rewards and leader boards for competition.

• Turning the lesson into a game, where in addition to the game layer of points and badges, simulation and animation is used to immerse the students in the environment and allow them to practice new skills in a safe, virtual environment that provides immediate feedback.

Enabling Innovation - Innovation games are typically structured quite differently than games designed to change behaviour or develop skills. Innovation games use emergent game structures that provide the goals, rules, tools and play space for the players to explore, experiment, collaborate and solve problems. Innovation games generally use game mechanics to create a more engaging experience, but the key is to engage lots of players, solving problems through crowdsourcing.

As I said earlier, I'm really excited about this new field and about its potential for HR professionals. However, a word of warning; Gamification is not easy. According to Gartner 80% of current applications will fail to meet business objectives largely due to poor design. In the past 12 months I have spent time developing a relationship with games organisation Quota in the delivery of Sales Force Development solutions. The potential results for HR professionals and their organisations are immense but - I promise - so is the learning curve!

The Importance of Seeing Things As Others See Them

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McArthur) — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 12:03:00 +0000

This presentation focuses on what I call the "Golden Rule of Communication". It's a much talked about theme, but one which many many companies and leaders seem to forget when they are communicating to their people.

The "Golden Rule" of Communication on Prezi

Good Day at Work Annual Conference 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McArthur) — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 23:13:00 +0000

I am going to be chairing a session at this tremendous conference on the 1st of November.

If you are interested in well-being at work please come along and hear from the likes of Will Hutton, Cary Cooper and John Timpson.

Twitter In Real Life

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McArthur) — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 18:05:00 +0000

I use Twitter and, of late, I get something out of it....but when you think about it sometimes it's just daft

I'm on Twitter as @Scott_McArthur follow me if you dare.

The Now Is Bright

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McArthur) — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 21:15:00 +0000

I love this little story about what makes now such a good time to be alive.

Challenging the Talent Management Myth

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McArthur) — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 09:38:00 +0000

I was recently asked to review an organisation's Talent Management process and come up with some recommendations from "best practise". I sat down and read the policy then spoke to several of the "star" performers in an attempt to find out how effective the process was.

After much discussion and research it became pretty clear that the organisation's approach certainly provided the HR department with a sense of control over the process. However, from an employees point of view it was seen as a route to development opportunities and, in their view, very little else. Indeed even people on the "star" programme had low expectations of what it would do for their career at this particular employer. It also doesn't take a genius to imagine the effect it was having on "non-stars"!

When working with individuals and firms in this context I always ask 2 critical questions:

"Who do you work for?" and

"How much do you spend on your personal development every year?"

In my experience how people answer these questions is critical in understanding weather or not they are likely to succeed in an organisation. By this I mean, if someone appreciates that they are working for themselves and sees the necessity of investing in their own development then they are set to progress.

So what do I advise? To be honest, I'm still thinking about that. However, a recent article published by the Fast Company by David Clutterbuck suggests 4 things that represent are a pretty good start:

Start thinking of talent and succession as complex, adaptive systems. Stop trying to control them and focus instead on enabling talent to make itself visible. Think of talent as a wave: energy that needs to be pointed in the right direction.
Instead of filling vacancies with people like the previous incumbent, encourage people to propose how they would transform those roles. Take more risks and don't panic when a few fail spectacularly--that's still better than a lot of mediocre performances!
Open up a wider, more honest dialogue with employees about talent and put more effort into supporting them in managing their own career development.
Look for talent in less obvious places. For example, in many organisations there is informal, often unrecognised leadership emerging every day in the intranet-based social networks. This leadership is distributed, has no respect for hierarchy, and can be the main source for innovation.

Sculpture Consulting's Solution Portfolio (Prezi version)

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McArthur) — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 20:40:00 +0000

I've had a go at a presentation about my Company and what we do using the presentation technology called Prezi. Like often happens when designing such things I found the process really helpful in getting my "story" right.

Hope you find it interesting and your feedback would be appreciated.

Sculpture Consulting's Solution Portfolio on Prezi

Fun Theory and Behavior Change - Using Fun To Change Peoples Habits

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McArthur) — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 09:15:00 +0000

My current commissions are almost exclusively focused on effecting behaviour change in challenging environments. This is a tough ask at the best of times but one which I am usually able to help my clients with. One issue that I often face is initativeitis - where client shave been there done that and are looking for new ideas

Volkswagen (or rather ad agency DDB Stockholm) appear to have come across a way not only to create viral video and so build brand awareness and sales but also to change people behaviours. Their new campaign “The Fun Theory” is a series of experiments, captured on video, to find out if making the world more fun can improve people’s behaviour. The top video, Piano Stairs, has achieved over 1 million views on YouTube.

Among the experiments: does turning a set of subway stairs into a real-life piano encourage people to use them (answer: yes, 66% more). Another experiment asks whether making a trash can sound like a 50ft-deep well will make people pick up their trash. Yet another encourages people to obey the speed limit by entering the compliant in a lottery in which they share the offenders speeding fines.

I think this is fascinating and can see how this methodology could be used the change behaviour at work in the context of issues such as process change, systems implementation, sales etc.? Change Managers and HR Directors get your thinking caps on!!

The brand placement is as subtle as it could possibly be: a simple VW logo dropped in at the end. And yet the content carries that logo all around the web, as tens of thousands of people pass around the video, along with their positive associations for the VW brand. Isn’t that the definition of a perfect brand campaign?

The Memory Palace - Elementary Trick of the Mind That Actually Works

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McArthur) — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 19:01:00 +0000

The technique known as the memory palace (or as Mindstore's "house on the bank") was depicted in the BBC series 'Sherlock' in "The Hounds of Baskerville", where Holmes uses his "mind palace" to seek important facts and associations in his memory relevant to the case. Just what this "palace" is and how it can be applied is detailed in this TED talk by Joshua Foer.

Relationship Mastery - David Fraser Tells Us How

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McArthur) — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 14:03:00 +0000

During a recent trip to Glasgow I had the pleasure of meeting with Dr David Fraser, author of Relationship Mastery: A Business Professional’s Guide. David is a genuine force for good and his book is a really useful guide to going about improving your relationships - both personal and professional. In this interview David shares some of his thoughts on this fascinating subject.

1. As someone with a background in engineering and management, how did you get involved in relationship work?

Well, I learned eventually that being a good engineer, manager or even leader wasn’t enough: it was how well I dealt with other people in general that determined whether I was successful or not. It was my ability (or inability) to handle all the complex relationships involved that determined the outcome.

2. So what did you see as the problem?

I felt I had never really received an education in this. Life most professional people, my training had emphasised first the technical and later the managerial skills—loosely-speaking, all the “left-brain” stuff. I felt there was a crying need for a methodical “how to” approach to the “right-brain,” subjective, emotional side.

3. How did you set about solving the problem that you saw?

I was fortunate to meet a great teacher of practical psychology, NLP, mindfulness and other aspects of what I would refer to as ancient wisdom. Not only did that help me with the issues I had at the time, I also thought this was much of the answer I was looking for. I gradually gathered from what I learned over about a four-year period in what I call a formula.

4. So what is the formula for relating well to other people?

You can see this as both a family of skill areas and a series steps in a learning journey. It begins with paying proper attention to other people—bluntly, getting out of our own heads—then upgrading our attitude and developing our self-control. Then we have several aspects of understanding what makes people different and how to tune in to that. Working with what’s important to people comes next. After that, there’s understanding what people say at a deeper level, then what’s important to us and how we balance all that. And finally—the thing that rounds it all off—how we handle our human interconnectedness. That in the end is the most powerful thing. That’s the formula in outline. Every element merits learning and practice in itself.

5. What makes the most difference at first, do you think?

Well, the first step in the formula is first for a reason. The thing that makes the most difference most of the time is being conscious of where our attention is—on ourselves or the other person. That sounds elementary and yet doing a great job of putting the other person first takes great skill and discipline, especially when the situation is difficult. And that’s when it matters most, of course.

6. What kind of effect can this systematic approach have?

It changes dealing with other people and the emotional side of that from being a mysterious, nebulous problem to an area of life that we can understand, enjoy and excel at.

7. How can we learn these skills for ourselves?

The first step is just to switch on to the subject. Much useful wisdom is hidden in plain sight. I’ve gather what I’ve found into my book Relationship Mastery: A Business Professional’s Guide, which is available anywhere books are sold. I run workshops and things like that too, of course. More information at http://www.drdavidfraser.com.

How Does Social Media Effect Recruitment?

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McArthur) — Fri, 04 May 2012 11:36:00 +0000

As the world of social networking shows no hint of slowing down, it is about time we took a step back and inspected just how much of a role social networking plays upon our lives.

Although people seem to be spending more and more time logging on to the digital world during their private time; just how much influence does it have upon our professional lives?

Although there are systems in place, such as Recruiting Software with CIPHR, it has been discovered that more and more employers are turning to social networking to screen potential candidates in their search for the perfect employee. Thanks to a survey which interviewed three hundred randomly selected employers, we can now get an insight into just what role social networking is having upon the employment industry.

Out of the three hundred, 91% of employers were found to have screened a candidate through their social networking pages. Out of the social networking websites used, 76% screened via Facebook, 53% utilized Twitter and 48% used LinkedIn.

Out of those three hundred, a massive 47% screened candidates almost moments after receiving a candidate’s application and a massive 61% said that they had rejected candidates because they had viewed their social networking pages

13% of employers rejected candidates because they were found to have lied on their social networking pages.
11% had rejected because inappropriate photographs, comments, poor communication and comments about a current or previous employer.
10% rejected because of blatant references to drugs and 9% because of excessive references to alcohol.
Another 10% had also rejected candidates because they had found discriminatory comments on a potential employee’s social networking page.

The news isn’t all bad however as a greater number of employers had been found to accept candidates than those who had rejected. Coming in at 68%, we can see just how candidates benefited from social networking pages.

· 39% of employers accepted candidates because they showed attractive personalities.

· 36% hired because candidates’ profiles supported the qualifications shown during the application process. Another 36% accepted because they found the candidates to be creative within their pages.

· Another 33% were accepted through screening because they had shown to have good communication skills.

· Interestingly, 24% of employers had found hidden qualifications and awards which had appealed to them.

If anything, the survey shows just how powerful social networking sites such as Facebook can be, whether we are aware of this influence or not.

Social Media in Recruitment by Ciphr

Wrapping a SCARF Around Maslow Can Lead to Real Change

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McArthur) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:21:00 +0000

I've spent a lot of time lately looking into the science of change and reflecting on whether or not the traditional change models actually work. Change is no trivial matter and one thing that is for certain is that it is VERY difficult to change people's behaviours.

Take for example heart attack victims - even in this case where there is compelling and potentially lifesaving reasons why people should change their diets following a heart attack the shocking fact is that only 1 in 9 people are actuially able to effect such a change. So perhaps it is no wonder that so many change programmes in organisations fail (just how many actually fail is open to debate - some new reserach woudl be helpful in this space).

The good news is that there is hope out there in the scientific community. One of the best writers and thinkers in the field is David Rock who has produced several tremendous "how to" books focused on personal, organisational and leadership change. In this short video David introduces his SCARF model. I will leave it to David to explain the acronym but what is fascinating is that research is suggesting that the classic Maslow pyramid of needs may need tweaked in a pretty fundamental especially in the context of "hygiene factors". David suggest that what Maslow refered to as "Esteem" matters such as status and fairness are in fact more important to people than food!

This is pretty fascinating work and it just might be game changing for Leaders and HR professionals.

Why You Will Fail To Have a Great Career

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McArthur) — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:54:00 +0000

Simple, funny and to the piont - passion in life, work and personal is critical to success - what are you passionate about?

To Your Success

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McArthur) — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 10:55:00 +0000

One of my fellow bloggers, Terrence Seamon, with whom I have spent several years on this blog journey has just published an interesting new book. When I heard Terrence say that the book is intended as a motivational guidebook for anyone who is 'in transition' searching for meaningful work I just had to find our more.
What were your motivations for writing the book?

Scott, Thanks for this opportunity to spread the message about my new book To Your Success! My motivation for writing the book is to help others who are in transition. Knowing that, here in the US, 14 million Americans are out of work and struggling to make ends meet and find their next position, I felt I needed to offer my input. My book is based primarily on my own experience of being downsized, going through the transition, and coming out stronger.
Who is it aimed at?

The book is aimed at those who are looking for work, as well as those who may be working right now but are unhappy and are seeking more meaningful work.

Why did you decide to self publish?

I decided to self publish because you can. I know that may sound flippant. But the publishing paradigm is shifting as we speak. In this new era of social networking, anyone who has a book inside of them can publish if they are motivated to do so.

If there was one message that you wanted people to take away from your book what would it be?

The one message I want people to take from my book is Believe In Yourself. Though it's tough, especially if you have been out of work for a while, you have to stay positive. You have to be enthusiastic about what you bring to the table.

Any further plans for a follow up?

Yes, I do have plans for a follow up. In fact, I have two books in mind. The next will be on leadership. Then will come the book on change. Stay tuned.

Terrence's book can be purchased here.

Urban Poet Steven Duncan on Diversity

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McArthur) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 17:47:00 +0000

I had the pleasure of sharing a stage with this chap last week. Steve exudes thoughtfulness and vulnerability and his words are simply inspiring. 300 people were captivated and I am now officially a fan.

Steven has had a tough journey to this point and I wish him well with this exciting new stage in his life. Certainly if talent means anything we are watching a star in the making.

More from Steven: I Am Africa & Diagnosis of the Youth

1 in 3 UK Workers Say Bosses Don’t Care About Workplace Wellbeing

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McArthur) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:56:00 +0000

New survey results released today by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) reveal around one in three UK workers (35%) say bosses don’t care about their happiness and wellbeing in the workplace, with more than two-thirds (67%) claiming their organisation doesn’t offer any opportunities to get fit and healthy (1). As part of National Heart Month the BHF is now urging employers to think more about workplace health and join their free Health at Work programme (2).

Over 2000 workers from bankers to healthcare professionals were surveyed for Health at Work which is sponsored by Legal & General (3). Almost a fifth (18%) of employees rated their daily stress levels as seven out of ten or above. Respondents reported that stress from work spilled over into their home life and free time. Over a third (39%) claimed stress from work made them feel more tired than usual, and more than a quarter (29%) said they find it difficult to sleep.

The survey also found that more than one in 10 (11%) workers fail to do any exercise on an average working day and over a third of workers (34%) also admit to taking one or more sick days during an average month.

Lisa Purcell, Project Manager for Health at Work at the BHF said:

“These survey results paint a worrying picture of workplace health. Workers seem to be suffering a toxic combination of unhealthy foods, lack of exercise and high levels of stress. Many of us spend 60% of our waking hours at work and the daily grind can have a serious impact on the health of workers across the UK.

In the current financial climate it’s clear that the focus must be on productivity in the workplace. But employers must realise that a healthy workforce is key to less stress, better team work and improved motivation, which results in increased productivity and fewer sick days.

This National Heart Month we’re calling on the bosses of Britain to help get their employees fit and healthy. When it comes to thinking about your health, your heart is the best place to start and a few small changes can make a huge difference.”

The BHF’s Health at Work programme is free to join. To help employers get their workforce fit and healthy the BHF has launched its Mission Very Possible resources. The free resources include a quick start guide, posters, keep fit guides and much more bhf.org.uk/healthatwork.

Social Media Policies: Promoting v Regulating Use

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McArthur) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:46:00 +0000

Business leaders want guidelines in place for regulating employee use of social media outlets on personal and company accounts alike. But while regulation-focused policies protect an organization against any potential social media blunders, they cast a shadow over the shoulder of every employee who uses the internet on a daily basis (shudder). This approach often prevents the company from seeing any benefits whatsoever from employee use of social media. My suggestion: If your employees are already using social media while at work, why not make the most of it?

Though there's certainly more than one way to skin this cat - there isn’t one universal social media policy that works for all, right? - there are a few things to consider when creating a more forward-thinking policy:

You, your leaders, and your people need to know what you want to accomplish through social media. For many, the first step in creating a social media policy is to define the who, what, when and where of social media usage in the company. But according to Maren Hogan, Chief Marketing Brain of Red Branch Media, “that’s doing it a little backwards.” With a clear purpose informing your policy, people will have an easier time understanding and following your guidelines.

Get proactive, and establish a hierarchy of ownership – that way, your people will know when to talk to whom about what. “When social media issues arise,” says Hogan, “who do you go to for help?” Assign responsibility to the most sensible parties and provide a course of action for addressing mishaps and escalating issues when necessary.

Bottom line: Your policies should be driven by what to do, rather than what not do. Structure is certainly important, and defining who is authorized to access various platforms makes sense... but “Our brains don’t work with don’ts--they work in a positive way,” says Rob Garcia, VP of Product at UpMo. “Policies that limit and regulate are bound to be unsuccessful.”

Hands-down, the hardest part when creating, implementing and supporting an official social media policy is building a company culture that embraces a social mindset, one driven by the sharing of ideas and information. With that in mind, leadership should lead the charge in adopting your social media policy, paving the way for the rest of the organization.

About the Author: Kyle Lagunas is the HR Analyst at Software Advice – a website that reviews talent management and human resources software.

Further Reading - An HRD's view over at Annette Hill's Blog

Get Into The Groove - Flow in Motion

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McArthur) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 09:27:00 +0000

You just know when someone is a master at what they do. This little video taken by Julian Burton demonstrates beautifully the notion of Flow proposed by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi.

Flow is the mental state of activity in which a person is fully immersed in a feeling of energised focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity.

I love this example and the glint in the chaps eye in the last frame is fabulous.

Lies We Tell Ourselves About The Brain 2 - "Flashbulb Memories" Are Highly Accurate

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McArthur) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 11:23:00 +0000

A flashbulb memory is a highly detailed, exceptionally vivid 'snapshot' of the moment and circumstances in which a piece of surprising and consequential (or emotionally arousing) news was heard. We all have memories that feel as vivid and accurate as a snapshot, usually of some shocking, dramatic event—the assassination of President Kennedy, the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, the attacks of September 11, 2001, the death of Elvis. People remember exactly where they were, what they were doing, who they were with, what they saw or heard. But several clever experiments have tested people’s memory immediately after a tragedy and again several months or years later. The test subjects tend to be confident that their memories are accurate and say the flashbulb memories are more vivid than other memories.

Vivid they may be, but the memories decay over time just as other memories do. People forget important details and add incorrect ones, with no awareness that they’re recreating a muddled scene in their minds rather than calling up a perfect, photographic reproduction.

Can flashbulb memories be improved? Although additional information about a specific event can then be researched or learned, the extra information is often lost in memory due to different encoding processes. A more recent study, examining effects of the media on flashbulb memories for the 9/11 attacks, shows that extra information may help retain vivid flashbulb memories. Although the researchers found that memory for the event decreased over time for all participants, looking at images had a profound effect on participants memory. Those who said they saw images of the 9/11 attacks immediately retained much more vivid images 6-months later than those who said they saw images hours after they heard about the attacks. The latter participants failed to encode the images with the original learning of the event. Thus, it may be the images themselves that lead some of the participants to recall more details of the event. Graphic images may make an individual associate more with the horror and scale of a tragic event and hence produce a more elaborate encoding mechanism.

Furthermore, perhaps looking at images may help individuals retain vivid flashbulb memories months, and perhaps even years, after an event occurs.

Next Up - It's All Downhill After 40!

Source: The Smithonian

This Time There Really Is A Need To Change How We Do Business

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McArthur) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 12:36:00 +0000

Tomorrow is the 203rd anniversary of the birth of one of my heroes - Charles Darwin. Today, perhaps more than ever, his brilliant speculations, now recognised as fact by all but the most extreme of religious fundamentalists, remain the cornerstone of our understanding of life on earth. Though what he meant by "evolutionary change" is often misquoted, he did suggest (in his Red Notebook) that "one species does change into another" when explaining the geographical distribution of living species.

Darwin's thinking provides a useful lens through which to view the current state of business and I believe that we really are in the middle of a change equal to anything seen in the business world since the recessions of the early 20th century.

In the past 12 months I have worked with several clients who are quite literally reeling from massive cuts in their budgets and/or reduction in sales volumes. Those who have survived are now looking for a way forward. What is obvious is that the tools and techniques adopted during the course of the past 30 years - underpinned by the manipulation and exploitation of money and often by political shortermism and 1/4 on 1/4 pressure applied by City analysts for shareholder value - are likely to be at best short term solutions and at worst fatal.

What is exciting is that the new paradigm for business (and I use this word as it was originally meant to be used) is being forced to become much more self conscious. Organisations are starting to focus more and more on humanistic values such as ethics, trust, honesty, transparency and relationship building. The consequence could be a "values driven business environment" deploying a whole new set of ways of working focused on people rather than bank notes. Whilst this will leave many feeling uncomfortable and a little unsure I believe it could be a change well worthy of comparison to Darwin's big idea.

The Future of Selling - Social Selling

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McArthur) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:03:00 +0000

In a similar vein to my last post this review presentation considers the impact of social media on how, to whom and where we sell our services. A good general introduction to the emerging discipline of "Social Selling".

Selling Your Services to the Board

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McArthur) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:24:00 +0000

Selling to the Board of an organisation can be a daunting prospect. In fact ,selling your services can be nerve jangling at any level. This excellent review of "Selling to the C-suite" provides some useful tips and hints.

Looking to Improve Employee Engagement? Keynotes and Seminars That Will Help

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McArthur) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:03:00 +0000

I'm delighted to announce that Sculpture Consulting (my Company) and Delta 7 (the best strategic artists in the business) have teamed up to offer a number of talks/keynotes and seminars for 2012.

If you are looking for some inspiration, challenge, or to raise employee engagement levels in your organisation please get in touch. Our style is interactive, humorous, very visual and we promise that death by powerpoint is not an option!

Here are a selections of the topics available:

Creating instant rapport through the use of strategic art.
Relationship Management – how knowing your personal style can improve your effectiveness.
Developing Trust – how little steps can create big opportunities
Is Business Process Outsourcing good for your organisation, your people, your IT department or consultants selling solutions?
HRBPO - are we kidding ourselves?
Presentation techniques - back to the future - making your presentation work for your audience
10 myths about the brain and their impact on the workplace
Applying psychology to the workplace – from group size to personal traits , how understanding how we tick makes business sense.
The Secret of success in business – how enthusiasm can be developed and applied to your organisation
Time Travel Strategy - how organisations can create their future history
Putting Business into Social Media - shifting the paradigm for business professionals
3 Steps to Employee Engagement

If you would be interested in a discussion about how we might be able to help you please call Scott on +447807 646 508 or email scott@sculptureconsulting.com

Transformative HR - Evidence Based Change

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McArthur) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 10:40:00 +0000

Transformative HR by John Boudreau and Ravin Jesuthasan , shows how some organisations are redefining HR leadership by using evidence–based change to optimise efficiency, effectiveness, and strategic impact. They present a fascinating view on the impact of "mental models" on how HR's positioning. The authors go on to claim that there are five principles to the "new HR decision science":

Logic–driven analytics, segmentation, risk leverage, synergy and integration and optimization.

At this point that I have to press the pause button. What on earth does all that mean?

The authors go into each of the 5 principles and describe what they mean and how to implement them. The problem I have is - why on earth do such clearly intelligent HR thinkers have to resort to such horrid language and expect the reader to possess translation software to understand their point? I worry that the "mental model" being taken here is academically focused - this is fine but it also feels like it is attempting to give HR practitioners a new language that can can be used to impress their organisations and colleagues. The fact is – the more someone understand something the simpler the language they are able to use to describe it. In this context at least, I’m afraid the book fails to demonstrate much true understanding.

All-in-all I feel a little frustrated by this book, especially as it had some very useful ideas and interesting in–depth case studies of companies such as Coca–Cola, IBM, Royal Bank of Canada and Royal Bank of Scotland.

Come on chaps let’s have a shorter, clearer, follow up – we really are interested in your thoughts.

The Joy of Statistics - Hans Rosling's Brilliant Approach

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McArthur) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 10:57:00 +0000

I love how simple this video presentation is particularly like how Han's natural enthusiasm helps to make, what is obviously, a very complex story very engaging. Makes you wish your maths teachers could have been like Hans doesn't it?

Source: BBC