Interesting Links (January 2008)

As attention focused on annual SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant & Time-based) goal setting - Jon Ingham suggests an alternative framework (particularly for knowledge workers) - MUSIC

Motivational: focused on what would truly inspire the individual to go beyond simply doing his or her job.

Unusual: good performance management systems already stress that performance management objectives should not focus on part of the day jobs, but should reflect new or increased responsibilities or requirements. In performance leadership, we may need to extend this further to ensure that each individual is set objectives that are different to other peoples' or what they have done before.

Sensory: one of the reasons that SMART objectives have been quite useful is that they extend the pyschological priming effect that simply having a clear set of goals provides (just having goals can sometimes be all that is needed to make them happen as the brain starts to unconsciously guide action towards their achievement). But this is even more effective when the goals are supported by thinking about the sensory evidence that would come with their achievement (NLP practitioners will know what I'm talking about here).

Individual: I've already said that goals should be unusual, and it is their focus on each individual, their own particulaly skills, motivations and interests, that provides this.

Congruent: This isn't about people going AWOL, goals still need to relate to the business plan, but they come from the individual and the individual's insight into how they might play the greatest role in delivering the business strategy, than from a piece of paper produced by people at the top of the organisation who don't know the details about what people lower down the organisation do

...could be helpful to re-energise those who have been hearing about SMART for the past decade ?!


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Here is a website focused on Talent Management that was recently brought to my attention - from a quick scan there are some interesting articles for HR/L&D colleagues posted here !

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Harvard Business School - Working Knowledge start 2008 with an interesting article on 'Does Judgment Trump Experience' providing an executive summary of the current scholarship from Warren Bennis and Noel Tichy.

..... the authors have undertaken the formidable task of describing judgment and how good judgments are formed and carried out, based on observations of successful and unsuccessful leaders. They assert that "making judgment calls (especially about people, strategy, and crises) is the essential job of a leader" and go on to say that "with good judgment, little else matters; without good judgment, nothing else matters."

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Many folk provide predictions on the direction of L&D in 2008 - here is one such thought-prokoving article:

"We believe the bigger business issues relating to boomers leaving the workforce is how we will continue to get access to talent and how we will manage that talent. The transformation to a global workforce is already under way. Companies are solving the talent access problem by going global and getting skilled labor wherever it is available. Collaboration and telecommunications technologies allow us to have employees anywhere in the world. So, how do we recruit and train employees in a global workforce? This is the challenge facing the training industry."


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For L&D colleagues - the following link provides a helpful glossary of terms relating to e-learning