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Andreas von der Heydt February 2, 2014 Shared by Michelle Bavester There was a strong agreement that in most organizations - and although people spend a substantial part of their lives working - a vast majority of teams and employees are not engaged at all. And as a result such organizations do not perform at their best. Let me share with you the main points we touched upon . . .

Written by Peggy Troyer, MSLOC Alumna March 18, 2014 "One of my responsibilities, as my company's Human Resource Partner, is to help managers make the right decisions on how they should reward their employees during our annual compensation review cycle. Over the years, a common assumption my managers may come to me for advice is, "How could anyone stay motivated to work if I don't give them a raise? Everyone must get something or they will surely leave." Is there more to a job than just money? Lately the people who have been awarded 5-8% pay increases have been the ones to leave our organization. In one recent exit interview, a high-performing employee said, "For some reason, I get paid exceedingly well for what I do, and though it was nice, I just didn't understand why the company won't use the money to hire more help." Interestingly, why do people still make the decision to stay with an organization after receiving no increase, while others leave after receiving an 11% increase in compensation and rave reviews?"

By Kelly Ross, MSLOC 2011 Today's increasingly global business world is resulting in more organizations sending employees to work outside their home countries as expatriates. Organizations incur tremendous costs to support expatriate assignments, which can be challenging for the employees. This study defines characteristics of successful expatriates and assesses how coaching can support the expatriate's success.

Author: Peggy Troyer (MSLOC Alum) Date: NA Shared by: Sandy Schwan (MSLOC Alum), on Evolvong Strategies blog Is there more to a job than just money? Lately the people who have been awarded 5-8% pay increases have been the ones to leave our organization. In one recent exit interview, a high-performing employee said, "For some reason, I get paid exceedingly well for what I do, and though it was nice, I just didn't understand why the company won't use the money to hire more help." Interestingly, why do people still make the decision to stay with an organization after receiving no increase, while others leave after receiving an 11% increase in compensation and rave reviews?

Author: Lex Sisney Date: April 17, 2014 Shared by: Andee Weinfurter, MSLOC student In a previous post I shared that every business has mass, which is a measure of its resistance to change. The challenge in getting an organization to change direction is the fact that its mass isn't neatly self-contained. Rather, it's scattered throughout its people, systems, structures, and processes - and the collective inertia causes resistance to change. In order to get the organization to execute on its strategy, you've got to get the mass contained and headed in one direction.

In This Issue Think Differently: How can organizations prepare change leaders for VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity)? Community Buzz - The power of being mindful in the workplace - Talent Management: Looking beyond the resume MSLOC Community Snapshots - People on the Move

In This Issue Think Differently: How can organizations prepare change leaders for VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity)? Community Buzz - The power of being mindful in the workplace - Talent Management: Looking beyond the resume MSLOC Community Snapshots - People on the Move

Results from 2013 survey of change management success, reasons for failure.

Purposeful organization through social technology Shared by Jessica Catz, MSLOC alum via Twitter on January 7, 2014

Article by Robert Kabacoff February 7, 2014 Shared by Amber Barger, MSLOC Student In study after study, strategic thinkers are found to be among the most highly effective leaders. And while there is an abundance of courses, books, articles and opinions on the process of strategic planning, the focus is typically on an isolated process that might happen once or twice per year. In contrast, a true strategic leader thinks and acts strategically every day.

By Aliah D. Wright in SHRM MSLOC alumnus, Judah Kurtz, is quoted in this article. Embrace the Inevitable For any of this to work, companies are going to have to take a leap of faith and embrace working in new ways. "To communicate more extensively and effectively, embracing technology inside the enterprise to leverage that is going to become that much more essential," said Judah Kurtz, senior manager of the talent solutions practice and an executive coach in the executive coaching practice at BPI group in Chicago. "If you can understand the knowledge and expertise of people throughout the organization … [they] are the ones who are going to be able to share information and documents and best practices and data or whatever ends up becoming an opportunity for us to have this back-and-forth dialogue," he said. Experts say that's when the real benefits begin.

March 2, 2014 Shared by Keeley Sorokti, MSLOC alumna "Over the last few years, there has been an enormous amount of industry discussion about how the digital world is changing the way we work. To any reasonable observer, the ways that we communicate, interact, and collaborate with each other are all in the midst of profound change. At least the why seems fairly clear. At at high level, there appear to be three major root causes for why collaboration - the very core of how people come together and function as a business - is in the midst of reinvention: Hierarchical management styles break down in the face of the inherent complexity and scale of the modern business environment. New digital tools have put us in constant and direct contact with nearly every person in the developed world at virtually no cost or effort. Thus businesses are now primarily subject to the power laws of networks, rather than the legacy rules of business. There has been a sustained shift in the power of creation, as the edges of our organizations and marketplaces now have readily in hand as much - and often more - productive power and reach than our institutions. The obvious cause is today's pervasive global platforms for self-expression (yes, by this I largely mean social media, but also all forms of digital connectedness.)"

11/25/2013 by Tim Kuppler on TLNT - The Business of HR

Shared by Maggie Lewis, MSLOC Instructor and Alumna "Culture is critically important to business success around the world. That was the response from an overwhelming 84 percent of the more than 2,200 participants in our 2013 Culture and Change Management Survey. The survey, conducted by the Katzenbach Center at Booz & Company, was undertaken to better understand global perceptions of culture, its impact on change, and the main barriers to successful, sustainable transformation. In addition to culture's critical role in the overall success of an organization, survey responses suggest strong correlations between the success of change programs and whether culture was leveraged in the change process. Our findings point to using a holistic, culture-oriented approach to change for the best results. Despite its critical role, however, there is a disparity between the way culture is seen by companies and the way it is treated. Less than half of participants report that their companies effectively manage culture, and more than half say a major culture overhaul is needed. How can companies close this gap, and begin to effectively leverage the power of culture to achieve more sustainable transformations?"

What really sets the best managers above the rest? It's their power to build a cadre of employees who have great inner work lives-consistently positive emotions; strong motivation; and favorable perceptions of the organization, their work, and their colleagues. The worst managers undermine inner work life, often unwittingly. As Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer explain in The Progress Principle, seemingly mundane workday events can make or break employees' inner work lives. But it's forward momentum in meaningful work-progress-that creates the best inner work lives. Through rigorous analysis of nearly 12,000 diary entries provided by 238 employees in 7 companies, the authors explain how managers can foster progress and enhance inner work life every day. The book shows how to remove obstacles to progress, including meaningless tasks and toxic relationships. It also explains how to activate two forces that enable progress: (1) catalysts-events that directly facilitate project work, such as clear goals and autonomy-and (2) nourishers-interpersonal events that uplift workers, including encouragement and demonstrations of respect and collegiality. Brimming with honest examples from the companies studied, The Progress Principle equips aspiring and seasoned leaders alike with the insights they need to maximize their people's performance. Teresa Amabile is the Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration and a Director of Research at Harvard Business School. Michelle Bavester, MSLOC student recommends this book. She says: "The Progress Principle by Teresa Amabile? Her book has a checklist of sorts for making work meaningful and igniting engagement in employees. There's a lot of real-life examples from her research that she uses to illustrate her points as well. It's a great read!"

Practical Issues for Organizations: An Open Online Seminar Fall 2013 Facilitators: Jeff Merrell, MSLOC & Kimberly Scott, PhD

By Jeanne Ebersole, MSLOC 2012 Few women hold roles at the top levels of organizations and of those who do, many have reported their intent to leave within five years. This study investigates the transition experiences of executive women who have opted out. It explores the genesis of their desire to opt-out, the support they received and would have liked to receive as well as the role of coaching in the process. Participants reported experiencing a distinct transition process with identifiable phases and that coaching would be useful in the transition.

Author: Phyllis Korkki Date: April 12, 2014 Shared by: Jessica Catz, MSLOC Student Who really makes the changes in an organization? It's not always the people with the highest executive titles. A growing body of research has pointed to the importance of informal leaders known to researchers as "brokers," who have the gift of connecting employees in productive new ways.

Author: Susan Scrupski Shared by: Jeff Merrell, MSLOC Faculty April 24, 2014 My friends and colleagues at Change Agents Worldwide are kicking off a "blog carousel" to address all these reasons why organizations can't change. This list was carefully compiled by a Product Engineer of the Milwaukee Gear Company in 1959. These objections still live on today in memos, meetings, analysis decks, and teleconference calls over a half-century later.

April 2014 Blog post by Swati Sarupria, MSLOC Alumna on Sandy Schwan's Evolving Strategies blog. "Values are enduring patterns of belief that we, as individuals, consider to be fundamentally important in our personal lives. They consciously or unconsciously guide our thoughts and actions. The alignment of values also forms the basis on which a group of people might flock together - like runners running for a common cause, or activists rallying against an unfavorable policy. Values influence who we get close to and forge stronger friendships with. In some ways, values help define our individuality. However, are values really only relevant to our personal lives? How many of us pay attention to values in the context of our jobs and organizations?"

Author: Nick Tasler May 7, 2014 Shared by: Robin Bellerby, MSLOC Alum Three pervasive myths continue to make strategic thinking an elusive skill set in today's organizations.