James Bottomley posted a blog postMythBusters: Containers EditionContainers present a number of benefits, due to their versatility and just-enough virtualization. Between this and their novelty in the enterprise sector - containers are what everyone is talking about. However, because this rogue technology is new to the enterprise, it has perpetuated quite a few myths recently.Putting aside the novelty and the hyper - there are five in particular that we can debunk.Containers are not Reliable enough to Support Mission-Critical Workloads  It’s hard to understand where this myth comes from. Hosting service providers have been using the technology to lower operational costs and increase efficiency with virtual private servers (VPSs) for over a decade. VPSs are used to provide companies with web and other services like processing credit card transactions. All of which are incredibly mission critical for a business.Containers are not Secure While still a myth, this one has a few likely origins. First and foremost, VPS hosting environments were initially largely developed out of the Linux mainstream. Security was not of critical importance in the first Linux containers, so the there’s a perception problem with modern containers. In the past three years - Parallels, Google and a host of other companies have been working on pushing all the necessary security technologies upstream. As a result, today’s upstream kernel has enough security technology to make containers highly secure and isolated. The other origin for the containers security myth is based on the granular property of the technology. You can set up a fully-secure, fully-isolated operating system container - but you can also set up a very porous one. There can be good reasons for doing the latter, but it’s not always done on purpose. And with most computer systems, security relies on following best practices. These aren't always obvious or followed by people new to containersRunning Containers inside Virtual Machines adds Efficiency The belief here is generally that you can overcome the first and second myths by running containers inside virtual machines. While you can do this, you won’t actually add efficiency since you lose the density and elasticity of the container system - arguably the two biggest benefits of the technology. When you run containers in a virtual machine, the final properties are dependent on the hypervisor, which supports less density and is inelastic. Additionally, you add a second layer of virtualization technology, creating more physical and management overhead and three separate technology layers to manage.Anything a Container can do, a Hypervisor can Do In the abstract, this is true because they’re both computing environments. But thinking practically, if you give hypervisors and containers similar density and elasticity, you strip down the guest and host of a hypervisor to a point where they become mere shells of themselves. And even after doing this, you still don’t have the granular and just-enough virtualization properties of containers. It’s a bit like beating a square peg in to a round hole; with a big enough hammer you can do it, but it may not be the best way of achieving the desired outcome.A Container is a Container With all of the hype lately about containers, it’s not surprising that there’s a lot of misinformation being communicated about the technology. Perhaps the best example is how often we hear the phrase: "Docker containers". The truth is - Docker itself is not a container. It is making strides in helping the technology reach a broader audience, but Docker is actually an application packaging and transport system. It relies on the just-enough virtualization properties of containers to function. This confusion often feeds the four myths we referred to above, and can help skew the containers perception problem.There you have it, five common myths debunked. Now there will always be people willing to compromise on density, elasticity and granularity to ensure that hypervisors are used for specific workloads. However, there are a growing number of use cases that call for mixed environments. And while both technologies have their place, myths aside, containers are making strides to unseat hypervisors as the dominant virtualization technology because they can go places, and do things, that hypervisors just never could. That’s the truth.James Bottomley is CTO of Server Virtualization at Parallels. Read more: http://insights.wired.com/profiles/blogs/what-is-all-the-container-hype?xg_source=activity#ixzz3SslsCGV2 Follow us: @Wiredinsights on Twitter | InnovationInsights on FacebookSee More

Maybe I’m naïve, but I don’t believe that employees consciously show up the first day on a new job and say "I don’t care if I am engaged or not, I just need to collect a paycheck." Okay, so there are some people who ultimately end up feeling that way and have chosen to emotionally quit while still physically sitting in their chair at work but that’s not usually how the journey begins. We start off by wanting not just to date, but also to get married to our company’s mission, vision and purpose.  We all desire to feel highly connected with what we do. Engagement is what motivates people not only to feel dedicated to their job and their life, but also to feel rewarded by what they do and how they do it. It pushes people to look at things differently and go above and beyond, not because they have to, but because they want to. Engagement is buying in, going all in, and remaining within and contributing to the passion and mission of our company. It’s what separates the striving companies from the thriving ones, the happy folks from the unhappy ones, the smiles from the frowns, and the success stories from the shattered dreams.  The end of the journey should be to find an environment where you can thrive, not just survive day-to-day. Engaged employees have 3 main characteristics in how they show up and behave at work. They are: Collaborative Creative Loyal They look forward to working with others for the good of the organization and are filled with ideas about how to make it even better.  They are aligned with what their company stands for and are fully committed to making them successful. As with any long road trip, things can happen along the way to derail the journey.  You might run out of gas, come upon a detour or unknowingly hit a pothole that leaves you with a flat tire.  These are all analogies for falling into disengagement on the job, no matter the reason why. How can someone tell if their employee (or themselves) have indeed hit that proverbial pothole in the road? Here are my 7 warning signs to look out for on your ‘dashboard’ of engagement. An ‘I don’t care’ attitude More frequent episodes of lateness, leaving early or calling in sick Productivity declines along with quality Frequent mood swings Isolating themselves from others Lack of creativity Lethargic, low energy One doesn’t need to have all 7 of these warning signs to show up to signify disengagement.  As with any kind of dashboard warning sign on a car, even one light can signify a problem that needs to be checked out.  The key is to do proactive maintenance to ensure that the journey ahead will be a smooth one.  Baring that, then quickly recognizing the potential problems and taking steps to fix what’s not working is the best way to get back on the road to engagement. Today’s high tech cars all have dashboard systems that are designed to quickly diagnose a problem and let the driver know something is amiss before it becomes too big a problem to handle. It’s too bad we don’t have those same sensors in the workplace so it’s up to our managers to know the warning signs to look out for before it’s too late and the journey ends badly for all involved. If you are wondering what’s going on with you or someone that works for you and want to do some diagnostics before the problem gets too out of hand, just shoot me an email at ruth@rsquaredresources.com and I will be happy to send you my Invisibility Index™ tool to help you identify if disengagement has set in.  

This is the first of a two-part series on a topic that’s near and dear to leaders everywhere… but one that may have become overly complex and burdensome. In this first installment, I’ll provide a simple roadmap for ensuring coaching success and I’ll begin to deconstruct the process.  Next week, I’ll complete the model and explore its varied uses. Coaching may be a leader’s most powerful and useful skill. Whether focused on bridging a performance gap, elevating the level of contribution possible, or pursuing career goals, coaches help others make change - change that profoundly affects the individual and the organization as a whole. But, with countless workshops, webinars, and certifications, have we complicated the process to the point where busy managers may sense that it’s too hard and feel less inclined to engage with employees in this transformative experience? Perhaps it’s time to strip coaching back to its simplest, most essential core and offer an easy-to-remember process for supporting others to make the change they desire. Demystifying Coaching Coaching is the process of helping others understand where they are, where they want to be, and how they want to bridge the gap. It’s just that simple… and just that challenging.  Coaching is not about getting people from point A to B… it’s about helping them recognize the chasm and supporting them in choosing how to span it.  Fundamentally, coaching comes down to supporting the direction and means of the other person’s choice. And coaches can do this with the help of a simple, easy-to-remember model: WoW - The ‘what’ or ‘where’ of the desired future state Now - The current state How - The steps for bridging the gap WoW (What or Where) The best and most effective coaching conversations begin with the WoW - what the person wants and where he or she might want to go. Starting by defining the future state and looking out at the goal or destination is essential because: It lays a clear and compelling foundation for the conversation. Brain research confirms that talking about goals, dreams, and aspirations activates the parts of the brain that enable us to think creatively. This constructive future focus releases chemicals that literally let us see more possibilities. Beginning the coaching conversation where many leaders naturally do - focusing on where the coachee is today, what’s got to change, how to fix problems - shuts down the brain’s ability to function optimally. "Talking about your positive goals and dreams activates brain centers that open you up to new possibilities. But if you change the conversation to what you should do to fix yourself, it closes you down." - Richard Boyatzis (as quoted by Daniel Goleman in The Hidden Driver of Excellence) So, effective coaching involves: Getting people thinking and talking about that positive future… and envisioning themselves in it. Helping them really wallow in that, anticipating what it will feel, look, and smell like. Guiding people to connect to their WoW emotionally. This sort of emotional connection to the goal is key to supporting and sustaining the motivation required to make real and sustained change. Prompts that can help guide others to the WoW include: Describe your goal in as much detail and as vividly as you can. How exactly do you want it to be? How will you be different when that happens? How will it feel when this becomes a reality? What else will you be able to do then? The phrase Stephen Covey coined, ‘start with the end in mind,’ applies here. The future is the foundation of effective coaching. Once the WoW is established and firmly entrenched, it’s time to move on to the Now. Check in next week for that.  But, in the meantime, what about you? How to you help others get in touch with the future they envision? Image: www.dreamstime.com The post Coaching: Made Easy - Part 1 appeared first on Julie Winkle Giulioni.

While it probably doesn’t feel like it in many parts of the world, there’s no denying that the calendar has turned the page to April and spring really has arrived. My friends in the Northeast are rolling their eyes at me right now as the vestiges of this horrible, never-ending winter are just starting to melt, literally! What would you say if I told you that the weather can have an affect on how engaged you or your employees are? During the winter season, there are a number of people who suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), and yes it is a real affliction. Its symptoms can mimic that of depression, which also are very similar to those seen in people who are disengaged. SAD is in fact a subtype of depression and happens to people when they don’t get enough sunlight. Some of the symptoms of people who suffer from this are: Irritability Tiredness or low energy Problems getting along with others Oversleeping Having difficulty concentrating When people suffer from low engagement, they exhibit a number of the same symptoms as those listed above, in addition to isolating themselves from others, mood swings, low productivity, lack of creativity and an ‘I don’t care’ attitude. If you see the warning signs, either in yourself or in others you manage, here are some of my favorite ways to spring-clean your way to engagement. Put a ‘spring’ in your step and take a walk There’s nothing better than getting out of the workplace and breathing in the (hopefully) warm air. Don’t order lunch in, go out and get it. Conduct a meeting while walking outside. You will be less distracted by the phone or your computer, and more able to connect to that person on a one-to-one basis. There’s also a great benefit when it comes to weight loss if you walk a lot! Clean out your workspace My father used to love to say that ‘a sign of a sick mind is a clean desk’. While I might have believed that when I was younger, as I spent more time in the workplace I came to realize that clutter was just a way for me to get out my frustrations. Looking back, I can see now that when I was really passionate and engaged in my work, I kept a much more organized and clean office. I wanted to be able to come in and easily find what I needed to get started on the work. When I wasn’t as engaged, my inbox would overflow with things that didn’t seem to have a home and I spent more time moving paper around then actually doing something with it. Making a conscious effort to clean up your workspace is a great way to get rid of those things that aren’t that important and put the engaging stuff front and center. Plant some seeds and let them grow Engaged employees ignite growth; disengaged employees extinguish the spark. When you are passionate and committed to what you are doing, you usually aren’t okay with the status quo. It’s a time to be creative and innovative and see what can happen. Change doesn’t happen overnight but sometimes just planting one new seed is all it takes to reengage your spirit. It’s about making some small changes and then nurturing them along to create an environment in which you can do your best work. Exercise your mind Get out of your comfort zone and do something new. Take a class. It doesn’t have to just be related to work. It can be personal in nature. Start writing more, be it a blog post, a journal entry, an article for a trade publication or just a plain old business memo. It’s a great way to clear out the cobwebs in your brain. Read more. Try some challenging puzzles. Whatever it is, do something new (or reengage an old habit), to exercise your brain. Reconnect, both with yourself and with others My secret sauce for engagement is all about going back to basics, which is simply connecting with someone. That can be your boss or a loved one, a friend or a colleague, a spiritual advisor or a teacher. In our fast-paced, tech driven lives we’ve unfortunately forgotten the fine art of simply connecting with another human being. It’s all about creating an environment where great conversations can take place. It’s about asking the right questions, and then listening, both to what is being said but also what is left unsaid. It’s paying attention to what you heard, but also what you saw when connecting. Spring is a great time to look forward with hopes and dreams of a bountiful garden of abundance. Don’t waste time stuck in the winter doldrums of disengagement, but rather look at this as the season of full bloom, and get out there and engage.

John Winsor's blog post was featuredGetting Your Car Stolen in Mexico and Other Fun Stories About DisruptionMy car was stolen in Mexico. It’s a crazy story but I learned some good lessons about disruption, innovation and dealing with the unexpected.A week ago I was on my way to my favorite surf spot, which is about a 20-minute drive from my house in Mexico. During the drive, I decided to catch up on a few calls. One call was with Jon Balck, the president of our agency. We were talking about disruption and whether it was good or bad. After a good conversation, we agreed it’s neither good nor bad. It’s like a glass of water. You can look at it as half full or half empty. Innovation is the thing that you decide to do to overcome the disruption.What I didn’t know at that time, was that the next few hours would unfold a new lesson around disruption that centered on a stolen car. My car. Here’s what I learned.1. It pays to be nice. As I hung up the phone with Jon, I walked onto the beach and put my phone and my car keys into my bag. The beach was empty and there were only two other surfers out - a couple from Victor, Idaho. We had a really nice chat before they got out of the water and headed up the trail.The waves were small so I only caught a few more. When I got out of the water, I saw that my bag was gone. It’s happened before but not in quite a while. I ran up the trail to catch my new friends, thinking I’d need a ride back home only to find my car was gone as well. Jen and her husband were great and gave me a ride to another friend’s house.2. Build your network before you need your network. I’ve built a pretty big network in our little town of folks so when I got to my friend’s house, he lent me his car. Then he got on the phone with some folks he knew, and I did the same. Another good friend had a friend in the police department. Everyone was alerted about my missing car.3. Create alternatives. Your first path isn’t always the best. We drove around looking for the car with no luck but a few hours later someone found it and reported it. By the time we arrived at the location the car was spotted, it had been impounded. Now, the work began. There are lots of ways to recover a stolen car. Some take a long time and some are much faster.4. Patience. Government and corporate bureaucracies are the same. They want all of the i’s dotted and t’s crossed. Getting mad that things aren’t going as planned doesn’t help the process.The next 24 hours was taken up by negotiating with a few different departments to get them to agree to release my car.5. Focus on your goal. There are always several paths to get you to achieve your goal.In 36 hours I had my car back with a lot of help from a lot of folks. There was some stuff missing. I didn’t get my phone back.Overall, it was an incredibly positive experience. I learned a lot about the Mexican justice system and got to know a lot of folks much better.And in the end, I learned an important lesson that can be applied to the practice of disruption. Disruption is going to happen to all of us, both professionally and personally. What counts is how you react to it and what you do to overcome it.John Winsor is founder and CEO of the open advertising agency Victors & Spoils, as well as the Chief Innovation Officer of the ad holding company Havas.See More

Engagement doesn’t happen without ownership and hard work. It can’t just fall on the shoulders of one person, but rather requires equal but different contributions from senior leaders, managers and employees alike.  That’s how you can create the magic of an engaged and committed workforce.  While everyone needs to be responsible for engagement, I’d like to focus today on the critical role that one of these three groups needs to take on to create an engaged workforce, and that’s managers. But before we dive into the 5 Must Do’s, we need to answer an important question, why are managers like an accordion? Think about it this way, in order to make sweet music (aka engagement) come out of that cumbersome instrument, both sides need to be embraced in perfect harmony. The left keyboard on the accordion stands for top management, handing down a mandate to produce more, in a faster timeframe, all the while keeping resources flat or even reduced. The right keyboard stands for employees who require more of management’s time, energy and support. Each side relies on the other for that sweet music to be made. Therein lies the lasting conundrum. How are managers supposed to keep both of these sides playing in harmony, creating in-tune music together that results in higher engagement, increased productivity, customer satisfaction and increased revenue? Managers can’t play a harmonious tune if even one person on their team is disengaged. It’s like trying to play a song on a piano missing a key. In today’s tough business environment, managers can’t afford to have a team working for them that is not fully engaged. Even worse, if your manager is operating on a low battery, then how can you expect him or her to charge and reengage others? Managers have my greatest respect as they play an enormously important role in the journey toward reaching full engagement. Here are my 5 Manager Must Do Tips to create an engaged workforce. 1. Managers are the catalyst for linking people to work People want and need to feel emotionally connected to their work and the workplace environment. Their direct manager is the conduit to making that tight connection. If the connection is frayed, the rope linking them together will break. 2. A good manager makes people feel valued How hard is it to show people that they are appreciated for the work they do? It doesn’t take much to convey that they are valued through a word or gesture of thanks. A surefire technique to make someone feel less valued is to micromanage him or her. 3. Instill trust through transparency Similar to what is expected of senior leadership, line managers should uphold the company’s commitment to transparency by being honest and forthright with their employees. You don’t want to be the one to start the water cooler chatter by creating an environment of secrecy and closed-door conversations. 4. Give employees the tools and processes they need to be effective in their jobs How many of us can remember starting a new job and not even having a computer or access to the company’s systems on day one or two or three? I know I can. There is nothing worse than being expected to perform a task for which you have no training or tools to accomplish your goals. 5. Paint an exciting picture for the future of what could be and should be, regardless of what is. Like an exciting journey, it all starts with a roadmap that may involve some detours along the way. But, regardless of the obstacles that prevent themselves, managers should always have an ultimate goal in sight and navigate their employees there. I believe so strongly in the critical role that front-line managers have in an organization, particularly around the quest for high engagement that I am thrilled to announce that we have created a half-day managers workshop called Coming Alive: Creating An Engaged Workforce, set to debut in May. For more details on the program shoot me an email at ruth@rsquaredresources.com or give me a call at 415-308-3344.

This is the second of a two-part series on a topic that’s near and dear to leaders everywhere… but one that may have become overly complex and burdensome. In the first installment published last week, I provided a simple roadmap for ensuring coaching success and began to deconstruct the process.  Here I’ll complete the model and explore its varied uses. Coaching - the process of helping others understand where they are, where they want to be, and how they want to bridge the gap - is a leader’s most powerful skill or tool. But, as humans frequently do, we’ve complicated something that is fundamentally very simple. Coaching effectiveness can be greatly enhanced by following this straightforward conversational model: WoW - The ‘what’ or ‘where’ of the desired future state Now - The current state How - The steps for bridging the gap Starting with the other person’s vision of the future has been scientifically proven to activate the brain centers that promote creative thinking. It’s a hopeful, optimistic, and productive way to lay a foundation for change. And with that foundation laid, the coachee is ready to confront the Now. NOW Developing clarity about the current state - how things are today - helps others understand where the journey to WoW begins. A realistic snapshot of how things are now is the counter-balance that will drive action. Coaches can support others in making change by helping them develop an appreciation of the ABCs*: Abilities & skills - Understanding both their strengths and opportunities for improvement Blind spots - Patterns, trends, and behaviors that might not be obvious to the individual Conditions that are currently in play, holding them in place It’s important to remember that individuals may be limited in terms of their insights around these ABCs.  Even the most self-aware people understand that they’re not completely objective. They know that the ‘reality’ others experience of them may be very different from the intentions they act upon. And this is where coaches can make their biggest and most frequent mistake. They stop asking questions and move into expert telling mode.  Certainly there are times when coaches have information that they’ll want to share with the people whom they coach. But, it’s rarely helpful to do the work for others by pre-digesting the insights and defining their current state. This robs others of the chance to deepen their ability to reflect and generate self-awareness. So, effective coaches keep their focus on questions like these (rather than providing answers themselves): What’s your experience today? What do you think you’re particularly good at? What do others count on your for? What do you struggle with? When coachees don’t have answers, they may need to gather information from others. Placing responsibility for gathering feedback where it belongs - with the person being coached - teaches a valuable, lifelong skill set and builds buy-in for the information that surfaces.  It expands networks and builds the bridges and support they’ll need as they make the desired changes. HOW With a clear, compelling, and emotionally enticing picture of the future and clarity about the present, it’s the perfect time for the coach to instigate conversations that get people to start moving toward bridging the gap. Making significant change generally requires a plan, specific steps, and some accountability in term of deadlines or timeframes. Otherwise, the best intentions can be obscured by the other more urgent priorities. Most people - even those who are new to the workforce - have at least some ideas for bridging the gap between where they want to be and where they currently are. And coaches can mine that with questions like: What steps do you need to take? What skills must you develop? Whose support will you need? How will you measure your success? By when will that happen? These questions get others thinking very concretely about the How… and gently guide them toward an action plan that will bridge the gap. Coaching is a key leadership responsibility; it’s also a tool to drive remarkable individual and organizational results.  And while there are nuances and next level skills that can enhance a coach’s effectiveness, at its core, coaching is fairly simple. Just help others get in touch with their WOW (what or where), NOW, and HOW… and you’ll be on your way to POWerful results. What about you? What makes a difference during your coaching conversations? * Beverly Kaye & Julie Winkle Giulioni, Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go: Career Conversations Employees Want Image: Liz Price The post Coaching: Made Easy - Part 2 appeared first on Julie Winkle Giulioni.

Michael Ni's blog post was featuredThe Services Economy’s Playbook Is Changing: New Ways to Find and Retain CustomersThe proliferation of online services, from SaaS, to Information Services, eBooks and even Legal Services, has become so pervasive that users don’t give a second thought, even as they consume these innovations. Whether it is listening to an Internet radio, virtually hailing a car service, deploying security as a service or accessing affordable legal advice online, the global playing field is now driven by services - otherwise known as the New Services Economy.The rules of the New Services Economy are here to stay, and they are rewriting the playbook. As new plays make their way onto the field, it is imperative that companies more actively manage their customer relationships in order to be successful on game day. Similar to how EA Sport’s Madden NFL lets players pick and choose their lineup, today’s New Services Economy allows consumers to drop businesses with the flick of a finger. Customers are now being engaged with across multiple platforms, and businesses need to be able to adjust their game plan to go beyond marketing growing points to interact and service customers on their terms.While navigating this new playing field may seem intimidating, Avangate has developed a New Services Economy Playbook to give today’s companies a competitive edge and ensure that they’re always on their customers’ active roster:1. Call an Audible on Customer OptionsGiven the fact that most are unfamiliar with the new services being offered, coupled with the sheer number of online services available, potential buyers often hesitate to commit to a purchase decision. To combat this, companies should employ try-before-you-buy options and add-on features that get their products off the bench and onto the playing field. The freemium model, which offers the option to test drive a service before purchasing or upgrading, is fundamental to attracting and retaining customers. With more than 60 percent of Americans admitting they would consider a paid service only if they had the option to test it as a free service first, offering these features becomes crucial to succeeding in the New Services Economy. Companies like Netflix and Hulu have perfected the art of freemium models and add-on options. With Netflix, users have the option to sign up for a 30-day free trial and test out their services before having to commit to purchasing an ongoing subscription. Running option plays also provides customers with the freedom to adjust their free trials and subscriptions to their personal preferences.2. The Best Offense Starts Local and Blitzes GlobalWith online and direct payments fundamental to serving their customers, more companies are exposed to the limitations of traditional payment processors. Very quickly, they need to consider a more integrated commerce strategy. Payment processors are pros at what they do, but when it comes to going global, they don’t quite make the starting lineup. Going international requires companies to truly understand how local customers buy and how to best manage their on-going payments. Practice by creating consistent, targeted customer interactions and streamlining recurring payments across payment types, even before going global. Once ready to sell internationally, companies need to have a business infrastructure in place that can easily conform to new country regulatory environments. Anyone can accept credit cards, but the ability to complete a transaction and accept local payment methods in the way that local buyers prefer is critical to succeeding in new markets and significantly lifting revenue. Having access to new intermediaries like local affiliates, who have local insight and the ability to drive regional buyer demand, provide both a great way to quickly penetrate, as well as dominate highly local markets.Be aggressive when taking an organization global, and always make sure that your company has the right backend in place to support its international growth.3. Game-Winning Plays Need The Support TeamWhen preparing for a big game, players "get in the zone," and commit to putting their best foot forward - from initial kick off to the very last pass. Despite this game day mindset, 61 percent of Americans identify customer support as the biggest missing feature from their online service providers. In the New Services Economy, where services are delivered daily, it is no longer enough for online businesses to score a touchdown and then leave their customers to fend for themselves. Companies need to be present throughout their customers’ entire purchasing journey, from initial purchase to using and growing with add-ons, through to retention… or risk facing defeat.With so many services now offered on a "pay-as-you-go" basis, buyers are in more control than ever before, and their expectations of how online services should be sold and delivered to them are changing. They are not only expecting to be able to service themselves any time of the day, they expect to reach customer service with ease and have their issues resolved quickly and efficiently, often as an extension of what they started themselves on self-service channels. Convenience is paramount, and when users have an exceptional customer service experience, they are more likely to make repeat purchases and even endorse the service. Being present and responsive to customers and their needs is often just as important as the service itself.Succeeding in the New Services EconomyThe power to grow smart and keep customers engaged and satisfied is crucial to the long-term success of a company. Commerce, the ability to interact and exchange value with the customer at every touch point, has become much more than just a transaction and accepting credit cards, especially when companies are expanding internationally. By rethinking commerce and realizing the need to run new plays to grow and retain customers, any business can expand into new markets and compete in the big leagues.Michael Ni is Chief Marketing Officer/Senior Vice President Marketing and Products at Avangate.See More

It was so nice to speak to Chris Dyer from PeopleG2 on his podcast the other week. Coonoor Behal, the Founder of Mindhatch, joined me on the podcast and we both discussed employee engagement and leadership in the workplace. You can now listen to my interview on Talent Talk Radio on their website.    

Alan Todd's blog post was featured4 Ways Technology Can Bolster Executive Education and Impact Company StrategyIn a recent post, I explained that executive education is falling short today because it pulls busy executives away from day-to-day work rather than providing context-relevant learning that equips them to solve the business challenges they face every day. Although the challenge is obvious, and the opportunity, profound - solutions haven’t come as easily.Ten years ago, many saw online learning as a panacea. More recently, MOOCs for business have been held out as the solution du jour. As CEO of a learning technology company, and a student of learning in organizations, I’ve witnessed the hype cycles and emergence of new models firsthand. The good news is that historic investments in online learning have taught us a lot about what works — and more importantly, what doesn’t.Today’s corporate learning bears little resemblance to approaches embraced just 5 years ago. Smart strategies are blended, gamified, and social. And smart companies, like Coca-Cola and MasterCard, are providing a deeper, more meaningful learning experience for leaders across their organizations. Fortune 500’s most innovative chief learning officers understand that technology can enable executive education and development that meets leaders where they are, and delivers a direct impact on company strategy. Here’s how they’re doing it:1. Providing access to experts. For the last fifty years, most companies were forced to select just a few rising executives for the opportunity to continue their education with leading minds at institutions like Harvard, Stanford, and Wharton. The impact of these programs was, by definition, limited. Today, however, technology allows organizations to share the insights of top thinkers on supply chain leadership development, sales negotiation, and employee engagement. But it’s not just about expert content. Today’s corporate learning tools leverage innovations in consumer tech to move beyond static, one-way presentations—pairing expert content with expert facilitators who can help busy leaders to not just understand, but activate leading-edge business research, theory, and strategy.2. Delivering problem-based learning. The most effective learning organizations tailor content based on industry- or vertical-specific case studies and projects that address a specific enterprise challenge. As industries continue to change at break-neck pace, Netflix-like content curation helps corporate leaders adjust and measure the impact of content on-the-fly so that it’s continually based in problems and examples that are relevant to today’s challenges and opportunities.3. Integrating learning with work. Learning doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Today’s corporate learning occurs on-demand, as a part of one’s job—not in isolation at a week or weekend-long residential program. The historic distinction between strategy setting - and strategy activation - has collapsed. When the lines between learning and doing are blurred, employees are equipped to make a real impact on business outcomes. Real-time delivery requires an unbundling of content. Today, we’re helping companies to deliver courses in multi-modeled, bite-sized chunks that keep the pace with real business decisions, and enable employees to apply their learning instantly.4. Getting serious about social. The success of any company comes down to the employee’s ability to collaborate and work with others. Corporate learning has to build not only content knowledge of employees, but also social skills. Corporate leaders of tomorrow are not just digital -but social natives. They understand how to tap the collective genius of friends and peers; skills that translate well into the workplace. Social learning networks bring people together across the company, giving employees tools to connect, form networks and share ideas. The effects are particularly profound with millennial workers. Grouping learners together in social networks that mimic real workplace teams can enable employees to further their professional development, amplify contextual learning and improve decision making.As I’ve mentioned in past blogs, not all technology is equal. But technology is a powerful tool when incorporated as a part of work-integrated approach to developing new leaders. The best corporate learning I’ve observed blends together best-in-class content with pedagogy rooted in the science of learning—and technology makes such an approach possible for organizations today. Companies that can pivot their learning strategies stand to benefit from a new generation of engaged, equipped leaders.Alan Todd is founder and CEO of CorpU.See More

This article originally appeared at SmartBlog on Leadership in August 2012. Career development appears at the top of many lists. Unfortunately, they tend to be lists focused on what employees desperately want but are not getting from managers. As for managers, most appreciate the value of career development and really wish they could do it more frequently and more effectively. But let’s face it: A manager’s day-to-day reality is a kaleidoscopic blur of meetings, responsibilities and shifting priorities. Helping employees to develop and grow is one of many activities that is continually pushed out in time to that elusive "someday" that too rarely comes. How can managers get past this conundrum? How can they make career development happen within the pressure-cooker reality that is business today? The answer is definitely not new systems, checklists, processes or forms. Those have actually contributed to the problem. Instead, the answer lies in a new mindset — a different way of thinking about what career development is — and a few key behaviors: Transfer ownership. Managers don’t own their employees’ careers. Employees do. All that managers can (and should) feel accountable for is guiding, encouraging, collaborating on and supporting the effort. When a manager really internalizes this reality, it can produce a powerful energetic shift. The weight of responsibility lifts, allowing managers to approach this task with greater energy and creativity than when it was another of their many "duties." This transfer also ensures that employees have some skin in the game. Personal ownership enhances their engagement, interest, commitment, and results. Cultivate curiosity. When ownership for development is transferred to the employee, career conversations suddenly become a lot easier and less stressful for managers. Managers don’t need to have all the answers. But they must be ready to pose the right questions. Questions are the most powerful tool managers have to support career development. And cultivating a genuine sense of curiosity and interest in others and their goals sets the tone for the most productive conversations possible. Iterate the IDP. Many organizations have formal individual development planning processes, during which managers engage in a lengthy annual analysis and career discussions with each employee. For the manager, it’s a huge time sink, and for the employee, it’s frequently like drinking from a fire hose. So, break it up. Do a little bit each month — or better yet, each week. These smaller, iterative chunks better accommodate the cadence of business. Perhaps more importantly, they better accommodate how development really occurs: little by little over time. Engineer experiences. Many managers avoid career development conversations because they believe that to make employees happy, the goal of such conversations is to provide ideas about how to move up or around in the organization. That’s simply not part of today’s de-layered, leaner approach to business. So how then does development occur? Through experiences that leverage talents and build the skills that employees need. It might be leading a team, analyzing data, or getting to know new customers. Jointly arriving at development experiences is smart business because while the employee is developing, important work gets done simultaneously. Seize coachable moments. Career development opportunities occur countless times each day, but only when managers are sensitive to the cues around them and are willing to seize coachable moments. When an employee shares a new interest, is starting a project, has just come back from training or has experienced a set-back — all of these are career development cues. A 1-3 minute conversation in the flow of the work that needs to be done can help employees reflect, analyze, consider and plan their career development. There’s no need to wait for some big career meeting (that likely won’t occur anyway). Managers who consistently find the time to engage in career development that employees appreciate don’t have more time than others. They have a mindset that allows them to deploy the little time they have toward efficient high-value conversations that drive employee ownership, reflection, motivation, and action. In fact, it’s the busiest managers who realize they don’t have the time not to develop those around them. The post Confronting the career-development conundrum: 5 tips for busy managers appeared first on Julie Winkle Giulioni.

Okay, I know I need to go to a treatment program for this, but every once in awhile I get this urge to bust a few myths and shake things up. In particular, I like to do this around the topic of employee engagement. I can’t help myself. If you think that the great ‘engagement fairy’ is going to fly down and wave their magic wand and proclaim that you are suddenly highly engaged at work, life just doesn’t work that way. Back in my days as a senior human resources executive, I came across so many employees of all ages who truly believed that they were entitled to the big office, a huge raise, promotion to their bosses job or the best parking space in the garage.  My favorite were the people who came in to interview with me and spent more time asking what our company could do for them, versus what they could do for us.  How much do you want to bet that this group of ‘entitlement seekers’ was some of your least engaged employees? Engagement isn’t a right, its something that happens because you are working in an environment that allows you to do the best work you can. Employees want nothing more than to be part of something meaningful and feel like they’ve had a hand in making a difference. They want to be part of something bigger than themselves and part of the underlying success. They want to be energized by their job and look forward to going to work, willing to put in the extra effort it takes to make their organization a success. No one group alone can own 100% of engagement, there needs to be some level of ownership from senior leadership, managers as well as individual employees. However, there are some really important things that each employee can personally do on their journey to attain high engagement. Here are my top 4 steps for employees to take to reach this goal. Employees need to take personal accountability for their engagement at work.  Just sitting back, waiting and hoping for divine inspiration will not lead to engagement. It takes an effort from each and every employee to move the needle. Employees need to identify the motivation triggers that matter most to them and help their manager to understand what they need.  No one knows what you need to be engaged better than you. Find your voice and speak up. Most managers are not mind readers. Employees need to know how to work well with their boss. Management is not a one-way street; it requires participation from two people who both believe they have a stake in the outcome of the relationship. Employees want to be part of something bigger than them — something for which they can be proud.  Finding meaning in your work is one of the major cornerstones to achieving the magic of engagement. If you believe in the work you are doing and the mission of the company, it is easy to engage with the work. No one knows what it takes to engage you but you! It’s time to step up and stop waiting for someone else to do it for you.

Ali Behnam's blog post was featuredFull-Stack Business Is the Future of RecruitingNest, Netflix, Airbnb. I bet you’ve heard of those. And often. Full stack startups are all the rage these days. In fact, A16Z is on record with identifying the Full Stack Startup, cryptocurrency and transformation of the data center as the three areas that have the potential to create some of biggest disrupters and winners in tech industry.For those who are unfamiliar, a full stack business is a technology-enabled product or service that directly provides the full solution to the end customer unlike other technology startups that sell their product or service as a technology for internal use typically to the CIO. A full stack business doesn’t charge for the use of the software.Instead, they charge for the transaction (booking a room in the case of Airbnb) and can grab the full economic benefit of the service. They are the hardest services to get right given you need to get the software and people side right, but if you get it right, they are the hardest business to replicate based on all the interlocking aspects of the business.Consider for a moment the taxi, real estate and finance fields.There have been a number of startups that have built software to make the taxi services more efficient, realtors more accountable and finance management more attainable. The problem was these businesses didn’t believe technology could provide a competitive advantage.Plus, they had to overcome huge cultural issues with the adoption of this tech internally (sound familiar?). So the firms that built the software to enable these businesses never grew to be anything meaningful. Now think of Uber, Redfin and Wealthfront-all wildly successful full stack startups in these exact markets.I have first-hand experience with the traditional software as OEM service approach. I cofounded a startup back in early 2000 that tried to build software for staffing firms. It didn’t work. One thing we learned was never build a business based on selling software to recruiters-they are the worst clients.As a full stack business, recruiting becomes much more efficient and cost-effective, because operating an end-to-end requires standardized and repeatable processes and a consistent methodology. And you have to be willing to share data and information throughout the entire team-which is not at all the way traditional recruiting works.The thing is, traditional recruiting is broken. Most recruiting firms are aggregation of individuals with individual goals-the classic real estate model. And recruiters are inherently paranoid, which doesn’t allow full transparency for clients to really see what’s going on, and doesn’t provide the best experience for candidates.But when you create an ecosystem with your own people, processes, systems and data, you get a cohesive, collaborative environment with everybody rowing in the right direction. You have a uniform database with all the data (and over time data gets better and better), and have a uniform way to evaluate matches.Recruiters can spend less time on inefficient and administrative tasks and more time building relationships with clients and candidates. It’s more transparent for clients and less invasive for candidates, since you only reach out when you have something and only if it’s the best possible match.Everybody wins.Ali Behnam is the co-founder and managing partner of Riviera Partners.See More

This article first appeared at Lead Change Group in July 2012. Ever wonder why there are more than 350,000 leadership titles on amazon.com? The plethora of models, seminars, speakers, authors, and books on the topic confirms something I’ve been thinking for a while: leadership is less a science (or even an art); it’s more an individual expression… as unique and one-of-a-kind as a snowflake or a leader’s own fingerprint. No wonder so many people have such different takes on it! This expression of leadership is born from the full range of our experiences. Upbringing and parents. Relationships.Work. Other responsibilities. We can each trace our own ‘leader-prints’ back to a complex web of factors unique to our own lives. My expression of leadership has grown from three key roles I’ve held outside of the corporate environment: teaching, parenting, and volunteering. Early in my career, I was a high school teacher and then a college professor. My students were great teachers, since I was learning right along with them. I quickly discovered that me telling them only went so far. My fascinating and well-researched lectures sustained their interest for a nano-second… but when students got involved - when they were working with others, when they were hands-on - interest, retention, and fun skyrocketed. Then came my own children, who taught me more about leadership than any training course ever could. I remember reading when they were young that we teach the life we live… and that quickly played out day after day. "Do as I say, not as I do" didn’t work any better with kids at home than it did with employees in the workplace. Modeling - whether how to use manners at the dinner table or get along with friends - was the only way to achieve sustainable results. Along with my own kids came countless opportunities to volunteer. This is where my most powerful leadership lessons were learned. Volunteers don’t do it for the glamour or the paycheck. They have many other organizations vying for their time and talents. And they stick around only as long as their needs are being met. So, how do these three lessons come together in my ‘leader-print’? I am compelled to get people actively involved - not talking about things but taking action toward joint goals. I lead from the middle, shoulder to shoulder with others in the effort. And I treat everyone - paid or not - like they’re volunteers who are getting nothing out of the experience but a sense of satisfaction and appreciation. So, what’s your personal expression of leadership? How did you arrive at your own unique ‘leader-print’? The post What’s Your ‘Leader-Print’? appeared first on Julie Winkle Giulioni.

I know I don’t. I know most of my friends who are also baby boomers don’t. We, of a certain demographic, are leaving Corporate America in droves. Every week I’m meeting up with friends of friends who want to hear my story of why and how I left and what it takes to go out on your own. That’s been steadily going on now over the last four years since I pulled the plug on my corporate human resources career. We all joke about "voting ourselves off the corporate island," but the situation really isn’t funny. In the last year my tea dates have gotten younger and younger while, (sigh) I still get older. The millennials are now joining the party in large numbers. As numerous recent articles and studies are showing, millennial workers are saying that they simply don’t aspire to take on senior level roles. It’s not that they don’t believe they have the skills and smarts to do the job, many just don’t feel that it is the right path for them and worth the effort. Years ago someone thankfully kicked the crap out of the old notion of a career ladder where you moved up one rung at a time. Instead we all began to focus more on building a portfolio of skills and taking lateral moves to gain additional experience to broaden our skill set. But, what didn’t change was the thinking that eventually you’d end up at or near the top. Until recently, that is. Now, people are saying, both with their voices and their feet that their goal isn’t to rise to the top. So, is this all due to the massive percentage of workers that identify themselves as disengaged or other factors? Frankly it’s a bit of everything. With 68.5% of the US workforce disengaged according to the Gallup Institute (87% globally), it’s easy to simply lay blame here, but I’m also hearing from engaged people who just don’t have the desire to take on the stress and pressure that comes with the top jobs. When I talk to my peers who have walked away, I hear things like "I have nothing left to prove" and "I want to do something that has meaning and I can change lives." Perhaps to combat the epidemic of disengagement or it’s just the world we live in today, there is an overwhelming number of people jumping on the bandwagon to talk about how we need to have meaning at work, find our purpose and be happy. Every day I get an email with links to articles on these subjects or inviting me to attend conferences or webinars designed around passion and happiness. Admit it, our curiosity gets peaked when someone promises us we can be happy at work instead of sad, frustrated and miserable. Of course, in the moment we forget that we also have to pay the bills and have health insurance. What my friends and I have figured out is that it is so much better to work to thrive, rather than work just to survive. However, being the more conservative types that most baby boomers are (having had parents that were depression era babies), we saved a lot to be able to have choices later in our career. What scares me a bit, but also makes me jealous, is that millennial workers are not worrying about having the money to make life changing career decisions, they just do what feels right for them in the moment. Given this, how can companies hope to keep them around while grooming them for more responsibility? It starts with figuring out what makes them tick, what makes them excited to get up in the morning and come in to work, what is going to give them meaning and purpose in the workplace. It also starts with figuring out how they can have a successful career while not sacrificing their life-work balance outside of the office. And while we are on this subject, let’s not forget about our GenXers. They sometimes get lost in the squeeze of worrying about losing the incredible knowledge and experience of the baby boomers and the potential of the millennial generation. We need to turn back to the basics of creating an engaging work environment where people of all generations can buy in, go all in and remain within while contributing to the passion and mission of the company and worry less about what their job titles are, now and in the future.

Mike Tippets's blog post was featuredBlended Learning Is New AgainIn today’s connected world it seems almost nonsensical that an organization would rely solely on the classroom to instruct their workforce. Why ignore the ability to deliver content outside of the classroom, making the in-classroom experience better.Blended Learning has some very wide interpretations. Some will say that it is a mixture of brick and mortar classroom with online content. Others will say that it is a brick and mortar classroom that also includes computer lab time in the classroom. Still others will claim that it is any instruction that includes the use of online media and web technologies to instruct.I most closely align with the first group - except that I count virtual, distance learning classrooms as part of the classroom portion of Blended Learning. I believe that this is the most effective and realistic training and education model for distributed businesses (and I include government agencies and non-profit groups in this as well).Whether in-person or virtual the classroom is the most expensive portion of training. You are consuming the time of the learners and also the subject matter experts. This time should be used more as a workshop and not a lecture hall. Using online delivery of material allows learners to consume the material in advance of time with the instructors. It allows the learners to consume at their own pace. Then when they are in the classroom they are ready to ask questions, share their ideas and participate in meaningful learning exercises.The phrase, "Consuming at their own pace," may mean that the learner is reading a little bit each night when they have free time. Or it may mean that they are reading and re-reading the concepts until they feel they have mastered the concept and are ready to participate in a workshop on the topic. Online delivery of the material means that students can consume in their preferred method and timing. It breaks away from the "one-size-fits-all" lecture hall method.The ratio of classroom time to online material will depend on the type of training being done and the learner’s ultimate use of the training. If you are training an employee on how to use internal systems (e.g. POS register, time clock, etc.) then you likely can use more online media for the training, because it is really a rote understanding of how to accomplish certain tasks. But if you are training the employee on how to handle customer complaints, then you may want to expose them to some pre-recorded situations and then in the classroom let the group share thoughts and various experiences with the instructor moderating the discussion and making sure that standard company practices are the foundation.The point of this post is to show how blended learning is being used and also to make the point that there is a significant resurgence in the discussion of blended learning as a method to make sure you are creating the most successful training and learning solution possible. Even in the K-12 education systems, there is an increasing emphasis being placed on the use of online tools to help the student master key skills outside of the classroom. In this scenario, students treat learning math like they did learning to ride a bicycle. They can simply continue to try a concept until they have mastered it. If the students are allowed to practice and master outside the classroom, then the teacher can use the class time to mentor those who are struggling, give examples of where the concept can be used and lead a discussion. Rather than teaching to the lowest common denominator or worse, leaving behind those who cannot keep up with the class.There are many technologies that can be used to accomplish blended learning, but the use of technology should be treated as a secondary component of the solution. Decide what you want the learning outcome to be and then choose technology and the ratio of in-classroom to online delivery based on that learning objective.And stop waiting - the great thing about this type of learning delivery is the flexibility to change based on results. Start a program, evaluate the results, adapt and continue. Learning will always be dynamic and the delivery of that learning should be dynamic too.Mike Tippets is vice president of the Business Solutions Group, North American Division at Hughes.See More

I was asked the other day if I thought I had left a legacy at my last job or frankly in a broader context, throughout my entire career. My quick answer was yes, no and maybe. Legacy is one of those funny words that has morphed over time. According to Webster’s Dictionary, it is anything handed down from the past, as from an ancestor or predecessor.  Today, we tend to think of a legacy as the way in which we impacted those around us and the ways we inspired others. I do believe that I did some things that had a positive impact on the businesses I supported from an HR perspective and with certain people that I frequently interacted with. Is that a legacy? No, not really if I was completely honest.  That doesn’t diminish what I brought to the table every day or the things that my team and I accomplished but I question if I changed lives or perhaps inspired lots of people at some point during my career. My views on leaving a legacy changed the day my husband died.  I had always believed that he was an amazing person who was thought highly of by those who came in to contact with him, but I truly had no clue at the magnitude of the impact he had on people.  From the moment the news started to get out about his passing, I was inundated with calls, texts and emails from people around the country who were friends, colleagues or clients of Sandy’s.  The comments were similar and centered around the kind of person he was and the way that he changed people’s lives. He was admired, respected and loved by such a diverse group of people, including some of this country’s top executives, sports figures and politicians, but also the people who interacted with him on a daily basis whether at work, at our neighborhood dry cleaners, our favorite restaurant, the hair salon, gym or the local Peet’s coffee shop. What I learned during those hectic first few weeks was that my husband touched so many people in a positive way. He didn’t save lives, defend the innocent or make a million dollars a year. What he did do was to be the voice of reason and the peacemaker who others looked up to. He was a source of inspiration to others. He made others look good every day, both literally and figuratively. And most importantly, he was a friend to countless number of people.  Now that’s how you leave a legacy. In today’s cutthroat business environment, my husband was an outlier. He wasn’t outwardly aggressive and competitive. He had an inner drive that I, and others close to him, knew about and admired but he didn’t throw it in people’s faces.  Perhaps it’s something we can all learn from, that the loudest person in the room isn’t always the most important one. Sometimes silence truly is golden. As I go forward in my life as an author, speaker, daughter, sister and friend, I can only hope to leave a legacy as powerful as my husbands. Steady, calm and humble trumps frantic, crazy and egotistical any day.

Metrics and data are the name of the game today.  Since what gets measured gets managed, organizations and the leaders running them are constantly searching for ways to quantify the impact of their initiatives and efforts.  Some dimensions - like sales or customer service - are fairly easy to wrap numbers around.  Others present real challenges.  And career development is in this latter group. We know that career development - like eating vegetables - is good for us. Global data builds a case for it.  But what about at an individual organizational level?  How can anyone - from the CEO to a frontline supervisor - gauge the success of career development? It is possible to evaluate the effectiveness of career development efforts through the use of lagging and leading indicators.  Lagging indicators are things that change after career development improvements take place while leading indicators are those factors that change before career development follows that trend. Non-Indicators The problem is that too many organizations are skipping an exploration of either lagging or leading indicators, instead choosing to study non-indicators.  Too much emphasis is placed on a variety of administrative factors that have no relationship to real career development results:  ‘People development’ as a core organizational value. Nearly every organization espouses a commitment to development. The walls of all executive office halls are covered with plaques (and frequently platitudes). But, putting it on paper doesn’t necessarily mean that you are putting it into practice. The number of development plans in the system. There is no correlation between physical plans and authentic development. In fact, many busy managers invest their limited time in completing the forms they’re accountable for… at the expense of engaging in authentic development. Documented IDP conversations. Managers are held accountable for having the conversation… but there’s no accountability for quality. As a result, these tend to be mechanical exchanges that in no way move the needle toward greater career results. Training rosters. It’s easy to think that if employees are being trained, then career development is happening. Not so! The bulk of development happens through experiences and activities on the job. Formal training is important, but only a small part of the overall development picture. Lagging Indicators A quick look in the rear-view mirror can reveal a lot about how career development is going in your organization. Employee opinion surveys and climate studies reveal a lot about how effectively your efforts are being received. Since there’s a clear link between career development, employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction, these metrics can be instructive. Retention and voluntary turnover statistics speak volumes about the extent to which your career development efforts are hitting the mark. Take a look at the ratio of internal versus external candidates placed in open positions.  Organizations with a commitment to (and satisfaction around) career development will find that larger numbers of current employees are prepared to take on new roles. What do your bottom-line business results look like?  There’s a direct connection between performance and career development. Who’s been promoted or moved? Creating a quick ‘family tree’ for each leader, indicating how employees have grown and transferred is a powerful visual of development in general - and a snapshot of those in your organization who are driving development results. What about innovation? How many new products or services are you launching? What kinds of improvements are in process? It’s those who are developing and growing who are likely delivering these sorts of results. Leading Indicators Why wait to look backward at your efforts when you can explore real-time factors that will predict the trajectory of career development today? Leading indicators allow you to more proactively address this pressing priority. Follow the engagement. Deloitte, Right Management, and others have clearly identified a link between career development and engagement. As the needle moves on one, it generally moves on the other. Wellness factors might predict career development effectiveness as well. How is absenteeism trending? What are your safety or injury trends? These feed into the engagement-career development mix. And quality can suggest the direction of your career development. When errors are down and quality is up, you may find that career development success follows. The indicators you choose depend upon your organization and the data that’s available.  But choose something. What gets measured gets managed. And career development is clearly worthy of management. What about you? How do you measure and predict career development success? Image: Liz Price The post Measuring Career Development Success appeared first on Julie Winkle Giulioni.

Martin Pasquier's blog post was featuredCoworking Spaces Are the Future of Work... Until Their Own DisruptionA few weeks ago we attended Asia’s first "Coworking Unconference", set in the idyllic island of Bali in Indonesia, organized by Hubud (Hub in Ubud), with the support of Hub Singapore, Hubba in Thailand, Hub Australia and Comma from Indonesia.Beyond the issues addressed by the 120+ attendees - most of whom were coworking operators, a key topic was about the future of work. Work as we knew it so far, and as our parents knew it, is on the verge of being disrupted strongly by a few trends, and a new generation.Seven Percent of Gen-Y  Want to Work in a Fortune 500 CompanyThis statistic, served as an appetizer of the conference by the keynote speakers, is not an alarm bell: it’s already the symptom of a work culture gone wrong in the corporate world, where too much management, hierarchy, processes and pressure can’t innovate enough in front of the hugely successful tech companies of the last two decades.Two key trends can explain such a tectonic move. First, of course, digital technologies. The huge decrease of prices and increase of computing capacity of computers as well as smartphones made starting up an easy thing (making a successful is another matter). Work from home can now be a lifestyle for some months or years, whether you’re a digital mum or a digital nomad. Platforms such as Elance-Odesk or even Fiverr can bring you revenues all over the world, clients and money not being anchored in a given territory anymore.The second innovation, it’s the budget airlines. 20 years ago, it was still costly to cross the Atlantic, not even talking of reaching remote places in South-East Asia, Latin America or Sub-Saharan Africa. Today with the likes of Ryan Air in Europe, SouthWest in the US and AirAsia in South-East Asia, it’s both easy, cheap, and convenient to go from country to country. It helps us individuals to reach even more freedom when it comes to work, of course.As a result, or a corollary, coworking spaces have been booming for the last decade. The word itself has been crafted in 2005. Since then, the number of coworking spaces have doubled each year. Not decelerating recently. And those spaces tend to specialise, with coworking spaces for social entrepreneurs, SMEs, tech startups, big or small, in the downtown area or in the remotes islands of Thailand…Can the Coworking Culture Help the Corporates?A recurring topic for coworking spaces, still in their infancy, is their sustainability. With more migrants all over the world, it’s not easy to maintain financially a place where people can stay one week or one year, especially in cities which are always more crowded and, as a result, more expensive. Singapore, Beirut or Lagos are expensive places for different reasons, but they all get crowds of freelancers dropping by and in need of a place where they can create, collaborate, and move forward.Many of these coworking spaces hunt for "partnerships", although it becomes more clear with time than the relationship is not so unbalanced as it may seem. Yes, coworking spaces need money, and corporates have some left. But for corporates, the risk of losing talent to tech startups, freelancers and SMEs is acute. In one talk we’ll be giving next month in Paris for one of the top French companies, we’ve been explicitly asked not to talk about coworking spaces, not to create frustrations among the audience.Beyond corporates, local government can also find a new ally with coworking spaces, where the creative and collaborative communities can often solve social, environmental or policy issues debt-burdened governments can not always afford - not even talking of their skills or decision speed to do so.Coworking Culture TomorrowTo conclude the conference, a few developments on the future of coworking.One big idea many want to achieve, but no one has really been able to do is the coworking visa. A mythical item which would allow any coworker from any country in the word to swap freely and easily places with other fellow coworking spaces in a distant country. Mobility is perk, but to grant it to their users, coworking spaces will need a lot of effort on their data and payment infrastructure first, and try avoid end up like airlines and their miles program, a pain for users.Coworking spaces are a success, and as any successful phenomenon, they attract competition. Real-estate specialists, from banks to "desk sellers" to government, are rushing into this opportunity to fill their buildings, make a profit on shorter-terms leases, and create entrepreneurial communities through space. "Megaspaces", as one speaker of the conference named them, are on the rise, even though they rarely convey the feeling of a community traditional coworking spaces offer, probably one of their key strengths.Coworking spaces have one key to the future of work, but as any trending phenomenon, they, too, can be disrupted.Martin Pasquier is the founder of Innovation is Everywhere, a project that explores the startup scenes of emerging markets, one country at a time.See More

Given all the material that is out there these days on employee engagement and my unabashed love of acronyms, I started playing around with an A-Z list of words and thoughts tied to this subject.   The first two letters of the alphabet came easily for me since they are things I always talk about. A stands for Alignment, which is all about ensuring that employees understand where their company is going, how they will get there and where they fit in. B stands for Buying In, which is having employees who truly believes in the mission, vision and purpose of the organization they work for. It’s when I got to the letter C that my keyboard stuck and my brain went into overdrive. I truly believe that as a general rule of thumb, amazing businesses succeed in creating engaged organizations by focusing on these six C’s: Collaboration Employees don’t just work together; they are vested in each other’s success. Collaborative organizations know there is more power in ‘we’ than ‘I’. Creativity Employees are heard and their ideas are valued. Engaged employees are more likely to be innovative and creative. Connection Engaged employees create happy customers who create more sales and ultimately increased revenues and shareholder value. There’s no denying the cause and effect of this relationship. Celebration We need to celebrate successes along the way so that employees can feel a sense of accomplishment and recognition. There’s nothing better than having a reason to celebrate. Community It’s important to forge the connection between employees and the communities in which they live and work by giving back. Here’s where your work and personal life can come together in brilliant harmony. Saving the most important ‘C’ for last, let’s talk about the one thing that can make or break a company’s ability to create a workforce of engaged employees. Context The simple act of providing context for decisions is the most powerful thing a leader can do to foster the right environment where engagement can thrive. Nothing rips at the fabric of trust more than not knowing or understanding why a decision was made. It’s okay to share the bad news, but at least let employees know the reason behind it. If you have to announce layoffs, explain the business reason driving that decision. If you are granting employees something positive, like a performance-related bonus, give them the facts behind the decision so they can see how their hard work is paying off with strong results for the company. If you remember nothing else from this post, never forget to give people context. It works in your personal life as well. No matter the situation, everyone wants to know the why behind the what. Context helps to provide clarity, direction and meaning as it serves to get everyone aligned on the same page. If you ask parents how many times they heard their children respond "Why?" to a request, the answer will probably be "too many times to count." However, if you provide the context beforehand you might be able to lessen the number of whys down the road and head off that headache before it starts. Since my keyboard is stuck, I am giving up on the rest of the alphabet for now. I hope these 6 C’s become your foundation to creating an environment where passion, performance and productivity come together in an abundance of engagement.

This article originally appeared at SmartBlog on Leadership in November 2012. After dedicating a large portion of my professional life to helping leaders develop new skills to improve workplace performance, I’ve come to a startling (and perhaps career-limiting) conclusion: Employee engagement, motivation, and results are less about introducing new leadership behaviors and more about just stopping the stuff that makes employees crazy. Let me frame this as a little parable. Leaders in a mythical company worked diligently to create a lovely gardened footpath. They design it to honor, inspire and rejuvenate the workforce. But no one used it. Why? Because — unbeknownst to the leaders — the employees were walking around every day with sharp stones in their shoes. All of their energy was focused toward relieving or coping with that discomfort; so taking additional painful steps — regardless how lovely the path — didn’t even occur to them. Employees can’t appreciate the "extras" that leaders may offer through enhanced skills and abilities if they are distracted (or pained) by their own significant irritants. Obviously employees will benefit when leaders attend training, learn important skills and apply new approaches to their roles. But where organizations can realize an even greater return on their investments (of time, energy, and money) is isolating and eliminating the five most significant de-motivators and impediments to employees joyfully and fully contributing their talents to the cause. Unclear expectations: The vast majority of employees want to do a good job. They want to contribute and perform well. What hampers that is a lack of clarity about what the outcome should be, what the standards are, what success looks like and how they’ll be evaluated. Withhold this information and you’ll undermine performance — and make employees nuts. Underutilization: It’s critical that employees feel that they are bringing the best they have to offer, particularly as workplace demographics shift toward younger workers. Study after study confirms a connection between employees feeling that their talents are being fully tapped and greater engagement. Underutilization of skills, capacities and people sub-optimizes results. And it makes employees nuts. Unnecessary systems, rules and processes: Many organizations find themselves overlaying rules and systems without thoughtful reconciliation. Got a problem? Introduce a new process! As a result, they become like those states with antiquated statutes. Perhaps there was a reason to enact a law about not looking a donkey in the eye on Sunday, but it doesn’t make sense today. And it makes employees nuts. Unproductive use of time: Little is more frustrating to employees than wasting time — Meetings that start late, projects that go nowhere, reports that are filed without review or consideration, fire drills that force people to scramble for no real reason. Those "five minutes here" and an "hour there"build up over time, undermining organizational credibility and results. And it makes employees nuts. Unrelenting change: Don’t get me wrong. Keeping pace with today’s dynamic marketplace demands a commitment to change. Yet many organizations have developed an affection for switching things up, redesigning structures, revising the schedule, redefining direction, etc. Sometimes it’s just change for change’s sake. The problem is that people become change-resistant. They internalize a sense of impermanence that causes them to resist or simply ignore the steady stream of changes washing over them. Unrelenting changes hurts genuine organizational transformation efforts. And it makes employees nuts. As a leader, what may matter more than what you do is what you un-do. Make it a priority to address the five factors that make employees nuts. Help remove those sharp stones from their shoes. You’ll see remarkable results… step by step. Going nuts yourself? As an employee, what factors undermine your motivation and ability to deliver results? What sharp stones are you stepping on each day? Image: www.dreamstime.net The post Stop Driving Employees Nuts appeared first on Julie Winkle Giulioni.

Paul Clarke's blog post was featuredWhen the Internet of Things and Smart Machines CollideSlowly at first and then suddenly -- that’s the signature of exponential growth. Out at sea, a tsunami is an almost imperceptible swell. But when it rises up and hits you, unlike a normal wave it just keeps on coming.We are all constantly bombarded by hype on technology trends but there are two genuine technology tsunamis heading our way right now, namely the Internet of Things and Smart Machines. Where these two forces collide with one another and with us, they will create an explosion of new opportunities in areas as diverse as entertainment, healthcare, disaster management and smart cities. If you thought the mobile revolution has had a huge impact on individuals and businesses, you ain’t seen nothing yet!At a recent Ocado conference, we gave all the delegates a small electronic gizmo and asked them to put it behind one of their ears. We then demonstrated that we could locate them and remotely sense information such as their heart rate, temperature, stress and arousal levels. The demonstration was in fact a spoof, not because anything we did was impossible just that doing it for real would have been challenging in terms of the size of the device and its cost; but all that is changing.There are already relatively low cost consumer EEG brain sensing devices available that can feedback your stress level and its only a matter of time before it becomes practical to do the sort of sentiment analysis we pretended to demonstrate. Indoor location is ironically harder to do than outdoor location, especially in environments such as our highly automated warehouses (we call them Customer Fulfilment Centres or CFCs), but new technologies are becoming available and their cost is falling.The last ingredient was two way communication to a dense population of thousands of sensors. Imagine a restaurant where the lighting, music, decor, temperature, humidity and even smells are controlled by feedback from wearables attached to customers. Or a nightclub where the music and lighting are controlled by the movement and bio-feedback of the dancers. However what if you wanted to do the same for a large rock concert, or the real time control a herd of robots on an automated construction site or choreographing a swarm of nanobots cleaning up an oil spill.Those are genuine Internet of Things challenges where conventional communication solutions won’t cope with the density of devices. It’s actually a problem Ocado has just had to solve for our next generation of CFCs and the solution we have created has far wider applications.So what about the second tsunami, smart machines. For a system to be considered a genuine smart machine, I believe it needs to do something that previously you would have thought only a human could do and it must display a high level of autonomy. Products such as Google Now or Microsoft’s Cortana are smart(ish) machines that give us a sense of what truly smart machines will be able to do for us in areas such as proactive search, cognitive analytics, digital assistants and smart agents.We already employ a lot of machine learning, optimization and data science techniques to make our end to end solution very smart but like the holes in the proverbial Swiss cheese, we can see so many opportunities where advances in areas such as deep learning will enable us to make it much much smarter. These are the sort of technologies we are building into our new Ocado Smart Platform, to put grocery retailers around the world online using our disruptive business model.But the really exciting opportunities come where these two tsunamis collide. Then we will have smart machines talking to all these internet enabled devices and in so doing, becoming much more aware of the world around them. And smart machines will be talking to other smart machines, creating a lattice of smart machines and devices all talking to one another.Let’s imagine you are driving to work and your smart car develops a fault. The smart engine management system communicates with the car manufacturer and additional diagnostics are downloaded and run to identify the cause of the fault. A repair is required and your car communicates with your garage to find a suitable service slot tomorrow. The necessary parts are ordered from the manufacturer. Your car is aware that its MOT and annual service are due soon, so it arranges for these in to happen at the same time.Your car contacts your digital assistant at work. You have an early meeting this morning that needs to be cancelled as you will now be in late. The digital assistants of the other meeting attendees are also contacted to handle the consequences of the meeting cancellation. You had a one day business trip arranged for tomorrow and your digital assistant knows you were planning to drive to and from the airport. Since your car will be unavailable, it asks if you would like to go by train or taxi. Having opted for the train, your smart luggage is re-programmed accordingly.You were due to collect the kids on your way back from the airport which now you won’t be able to do and so your partner’s digital assistant is contacted to arrange for them to do the school pickup instead. You have an Ocado order booked for tomorrow afternoon but since now neither of you will be around, your digital assistant asks if you would like it moved until later or converted to a click and collect delivery.A temporary digital key is downloaded to your car to allow the garage to collect it from the roadside. Your home management system is alerted to allow the garage to open your gate and drop off your car in the afternoon. Your digital assistant knows you like to watch Suits tomorrow evening but since you will be back late, it records the episode for you. As nobody will be around to give the dog her second walk, your digital assistant asks if you would like the dog walker contacted. Finally it’s your partner’s birthday tomorrow, so your digital assistant reminds you to buy a present and asks if you would like dinner booked for the two of you; and so on. The initial car fault is like dropping a stone into a pond, with the implications rippling out and being handled by a lattice of smart machines and devices.So who will build out this smart internet of things? The rise of mobile app stores and cloud services has democratized the art of the software start-up, making it genuinely possible to setup a multi-million (or even billion) dollar worldwide business from your bedroom. In a similar way, the explosion of low cost hardware platforms for embedding computing have democratized building the internet of things, enabling SMEs, start-ups and even makers to be players in this revolution. This will be an innovation battle fought with asymmetric warfare.So what are the implications of all this technology coming our way? Well one of our holy grails is using technologies such as deep learning to process all the data we collect to predict what our customers want before even they have clue. And then we need to integrate with our customers’ increasingly smart worlds. Here smart packaging is really exciting. Imagine a portal in your home that warns you when products enter that might trigger your child’s peanut allergy. And forget fizzy drink bottles with your name on and think about smart labels that interact with you.And smart packaging will interact with smart utensils. And smart packaging and smart utensils will interact with smart appliances and robotic cooking assistants. Devices that require supplies, such as your coffee machine or your dishwasher, will be going online and taking responsibility for replenishing themselves. And all of this is part of the fabric of the truly smart home. And smart homes, smart offices and smart communities will be part of smart cities and smart countries.Many of us already inhabit a hyper-connected always-on world with mobiles next to our beds but wearables are going to take this to a whole new level and with it, data overwhelm. To the rescue will come another breed of smart assistants, the Smart Agents. These will help you manage your data privacy and when you finally get tired of splurging all your personal data over social media, these agents will negotiate what data you are prepared to share with whom. And since these data have value, they will also administer the auction to get the best deal for selling them.So what are the next steps? Well if you are up for building this stuff, then there are some capabilities to go shopping for such as data science, natural language processing, machine learning and deep neural nets. This is a revolution where fortune is going to favor the early adopters and those willing to get their feet wet experimenting before these technologies mature.Returning to the theme of tsunamis, the water is drawing back now, the tsunamis are on the horizon and the time to act, is now.Paul Clarke is Director of Technology at the UK online grocery giant Ocado.See More

I joined LJNRadio to offer insight on employee engagement. You can listen my interview here: LJNRadio

Daniel Ingevaldson's blog post was featuredWhat’s Lurking in the Deep End of the Internet?Last month, a jury convicted Ross Ulbricht as the ringleader of the notorious Silk Road website. The largest online black market, until it was shutdown by the Federal government in 2013, was the poster child of the so-called "Deep Web" and was best known as a platform for selling illegal drugs. Meanwhile, Darpa unveiled on 60 Minutes recently that the agency is developing a new search engine (Memex) that aims to make it easier for law enforcement and government to track illegal activity on the Deep Web. So what exactly is the Deep Web?Like an iceberg, the vast majority of the Internet is obscured from easy view. This unindexed section of the Internet is dubbed "the Deep Web." Experts agree that it is impossible to accurately gauge the exact size and scope of the Deep Web, but some dare to put the figure at hundreds of times the size of the visible or "surface" Internet.  While most of this content is innocuous, more and more criminal activity is moving away from the light of day and into to the shadowy corners.Accessing the Deep Web requires specialized knowledge and tools, as well as an anonymity network to guarantee privacy protection for users. Tor is an example of such a vehicle. Developed by the U.S. Navy more than ten years ago, Tor (The Onion Router) was designed to prevent browsing activity from being traced back to the user. Silk Road was operated as a Tor hidden service, enabling users to browse it anonymously and securely.In addition to the skill and infrastructure needed to access a deep web presence, black market operators generally take additional security procedures to ensure their sites are not found and shut down by the authorities, and that users’ identities are protected. These measures may include hosting sites with bullet-proof servers, where the host agrees not to reveal information about the people using the platform, regardless of the circumstances.The underground markets have long become gathering points for hackers wanting to buy and sell information, while enjoying anonymity and escrow services from operators.  These markets continue to grow more sophisticated every day, and are developing into a ‘supply chain’ for all kinds of illegal activities, where each party within the chain specializes in their unique piece of a nefarious puzzle. For example, hackers who are skilled enough to breach a network and extract information may not have the interest or the resources to then use those credentials to steal actual funds. Instead, they are increasingly finding it more profitable to go into the Deep Web and find a buyer for the information (credit card numbers, Social Security Numbers, other personal data) and sell it to them.Today, the Deep Web has evolved and has turned into an immense information-sharing tool that is making it easier for criminals to do their job more thoroughly. For example, someone may purchase your Social Security Number from one data broker. Then, in order to buy a car under your name, they may need to know information such as your physical and email addresses, phone numbers, current and historical career history, and answers to security questions. Putting the information together from multiple data brokers (typically from multiple breaches) can provide these criminals a comprehensive, credible dossier that makes it far easier to impersonate someone.The recent evolution of the Deep Web has allowed fraud to become increasingly commoditized and easier to do, simply because there are many ways to monetize the fraud process itself. As it continues to mature, we expect to see increasingly sophisticated fraud based on the ability to mine the Deep Web for a variety of information. The Darpa Memex project is a great first step in leveling the playing field. But it will take a coordinated effort between government and the private sector to catch up to the very large lead that the hacker community has been building. Daniel Ingevaldson is Chief Technology Officer of Easy Solutions.See More