Co-authored with Dr. Johanna Anzengruber

This is article 4 of 6 in the Organization Capability series. The first article, Organization capability: The missing piece connecting organization design and the operating model, introduced the series. The second article, Resolving confusion about organization design, the operating model, and organization capability, defined the three domains. The third article, The operating model and organization design strengths and weaknesses, compared those two key parts of the organizational system.

Co-authored with Dr. Johanna Anzengruber

This is article 2 of 6 in the Organization Capability series. The first article, Organization capability: The missing piece connecting organization design and the operating model, introduced the series.

Organization capability has to fill the gap of optimizing processes and rewards while the work is taking place — a gap that is left by the way most leaders approach the operating model and organization design. Effective organization capability means processes and rewards work well, and are mutually reinforcing. And that can only happen once a great deal of learning about the new ways of working has happened.

In Part One I covered the need to:

• Beware the leader who is convinced they know exactly what the solution is to the problem. Watch out for competing objectives and conflicts among leaders in different parts of the system.
• Zoom in and out; look left and right, up and down.
• Be aware of interdependencies among the parts of the system.

In Part Two here I address the rest of the systems diagnosis coaching guidelines

Co-authored with Max Blumberg

In recent years, as the global economy expanded, interest rates were low, and companies had a relatively easy time making money, the size and breadth of People Analytics (PA) groups seemed to be ever-increasing. As a result, even with the economic disruptions of the Covid-19 pandemic, jobs in PA were plentiful, and there appeared to be ample opportunities for PA to demonstrate value to the business. This was especially true when wrestling with hybrid work and taking the temperature of the workforce during global disruption and turmoil.

Yet now that the pandemic is receding and economic storm clouds are gathering, the stock market has sunk, interest rates are rising, and companies are looking to conserve spending wherever possible, is PA positioned to thrive in tough times? Or are PA groups everywhere about to find their necks on the chopping block, just like all the other functions that struggle to prove they provide core economic value when budgets and headcount are being slashed?

It’s been almost a quarter century since McKinsey coined the phrase “war for talent,” which also birthed the field of talent management in organizations. Since then, HR has made great strides in defining and improving how talent is managed and developed, yet substantial gaps remain.

My colleagues and I at the Center for Effective Organizations (CEO) have been doing a lot of research and consulting in the talent space in recent years, and have identified the following key challenges facing our business and HR leadership

This article first appeared in Harvard Business Review and is co-authored with Jennier Mueller and Sarah Harvey.

When organizations need to solve a problem, they often create a task force, selection panel, or steering/advisory committee. These groups are tasked with developing consensus around new ideas, such as procedures, policies, products, or services.

Unfortunately, research shows that consensus-based problem-solving groups are often where innovative ideas go to die. These groups are highly prone to groupthink – quick agreement around status quo solutions with little discussion or deliberation.

This blog was originally published in HRZone and is the second in a series. The first one is on how long until the new normal.

When Covid-19 gripped the global economy in the first half of 2020, there was an immediate shock to the economic system because the “price” of doing work in person was suddenly, and quite dramatically shifted. If the virus mitigation measures and vaccines rollouts over the past 19 months had put the world on a path to sustainable economic recovery heading into 2022, the negative economic impacts would be going away quickly right now. Yet they are not because we are faced with a prolonged period of the virus disrupting economic fundamentals. And the longer-term impacts on consumer and labor markets are only now starting to emerge.