Technology, Design & Art Intersect to Inform Creative Leaders

John Maeda is the President of the Rhode Island School of Design. In this entertaining and humorous Ted Talk, he shares his thought provoking perspectives on the intersections between technology, design and art, what we can learn from those interactions, and how it can influence what he refers to as ‘creative leadership’:

Technology – makes possibilities
Design – makes solutions
Art – makes questions
Leadership – makes action

Jason Fried: You don’t create a culture

Great culture can’t be bought. While there are a few things companies can do to help promote a positive company culture, the foundation of that culture needs to happen naturally and it’s development needs to be organic in order for it to be truly authentic, and for people to buy in to it willingly.

Jason Fried excellently describes this concept in his post on how 37signals’ open, sharing company culture came to fruition:

You don’t create a culture. Culture happens. It’s the by-product of consistent behavior. If you encourage people to share, and you give them the freedom to share, then sharing will be built into your culture. If you reward trust then trust will be built into your culture.

Read the full post on Signal vs. Noise.

3 Rules for Giving Good Feeback

Employees need to get feedback on their work – if they’re not 100% sure of how they’re doing, how can they improve? Often, employees aren’t too shy about asking for feedback on their performance – Generation Y in particular. But sometimes it’s their peers and managers (especially new managers) that aren’t sure how to give good feedback, and how to make it useful and constructive.

So here are three simple rules to remember for giving effective feedback:

1. Make it specific

To avoid having the feedback come across as ‘personal’, the focus should be on the specific behaviour the person is exerting, and that behaviour should be referred to when giving the feedback.  Vague and generic statements such as “well done” or “good job” aren’t helpful, as the person can’t be sure of what exactly they did well, and then the positive behaviour won’t be reinforced.

2. Give examples and suggestions

An extension of making feedback specific – tell them exactly what they did well, or poorly, and tell them why. Going a step further, particularly if you’re a manager, give the recipient some advice on what they can do differently to improve in the areas where they’re struggling. As an employee, nothing is more discouraging than being told that improvement is needed, but being uncertain of how to get there. Failing to make suggestions for improvement is also likely to instill a fear of making mistakes, which is counterproductive and stifles innovation.

3. Make it timeous

Perhaps the most important aspect of giving feedback is to give it as and when an event occurs. When a person is given feedback or constructive criticism immediately, it means they can make a change and improve immediately. Giving positive feedback timeously is equally important, as the person will know that their good work is not going unnoticed, and their positive behaviours get reinforced. Waiting for someone’s performance review in 6 months time to tell them where they could have improved is too little too late.

Of course, feedback will be more meaningful and acceptable to the recipient if their initial goals and expectations are very clear. Providing clear expectations creates the context within which an employee should be given feedback, which ensures that it will be more constructive and effective.

How Facebook Innovates

Facebook comes out with changes and updates to their product so often that it sometimes feels tough to keep up. Clearly, innovation at the company soars – the question is: can other companies learn from what Facebook is doing to drive such continuous and impactful innovation?

Reena Jana recently sat down with Facebook’s Director of Design, Kate Aronowitz, and shares what Kate had to say in her HBR article ‘Inside Facebook’s Internal Innovation Culture’.

One interesting point Kate shares is that everyone is involved in designing and building their products – including the executives at the highest level. This way, the final decision makers are part of the process from the beginning, and aren’t making judgments and decisions that would otherwise be out of context if they weren’t involved from the start.

Unsurprisingly, Kate explains that the physical layout and environment is also an integral part of Facebook’s innovation culture:

“Your physical environment influences how you think and feel. If you want to build openness and collaboration, then the office must reflect that,” Aronowitz said. Although such an observation might seem painfully obvious in an era of open-plan seating, what sets Facebook apart is that engineering, management, and other teams at Facebook often physically move around their desks and furniture to focus on hatching fresh ideas by joining new groups — in person, and on a daily basis rather than moving back and forth from permanent desk locations.

It’s no secret that a flexible office environment like Facebook’s is a key factor in driving collaboration and creativity at work, as well as the bottom-line.

Have a look at Reena’s full article on the HBR Blog Network.

Performance Management Systems: 2 Key Facts

There are numerous HR systems and applications for all sorts of HR areas that are aimed at improving productivity and business performance throughout your company.

When it comes to performance management technologies specifically, there are two critical factors that must be remembered:

1. A system does not replace performance conversations

Face-to-face conversations between employee and manager are of the utmost importance to foster learning, trust, and performance improvement. Performance management tools should serve as a framework for capturing those conversations, as well as other feedback, so that no performance related data gets ‘lost’ or goes unheard. While it’s important to record these conversations, the system should not be the primary means of communication between employee and manager.

Nothing can replace the face-to-face conversation that must take place around performance management, but a useful tool can certainly facilitate the conversation.

2. Systems don’t fix people problems

The implementation of a system will not fix an existing cultural problem at your organization. If your company culture is one that lacks enthusiasm when it comes to sharing feedback, learning, and tracking and improving performance, no system or tool will mend the situation. Simply putting a tool in place that manages goals, feedback, and performance reviews for employees will not be helpful if the people behind it are not committed to gaining from it’s potential benefits.

The company needs to develop culture of feedback, performance improvement and career development that ought to be driven by key stakeholders at senior and middle management levels of the organization. If management doesn’t buy-in, how can they expect employees to do the same?

***

Quite aside from the tool or system that is used by your company to administer and record performance reviews, it is important to remember that performance management is not the responsibility of HR. While HR certainly has a role to play in the process, it really should be driven my managers and employees.

This post was originally published on 24 October, 2012.

Richard Branson: I’ve learned the art of delegation

“…as a leader of people, you have to be a great listener, you have to be a great motivator, you have to be very good at praising and looking for the best in people… People are no different from flowers – if you water flowers, they flourish, if you praise people, they flourish…”

Leaders: Help Your Employees be More Productive

There are a lot of tools and tricks people use to help themselves, and sometimes the people around them, be more productive. It’s particularly important for managers and leaders to know how they can help their teams be more productive and function at the highest level possible.

Janine Popick, CEO and founder of VerticalResponse, writes a great, succinct article for Inc.com in which she gives two ways managers and leaders can help their employees be more productive.

One of her tips is simply to make sure that you give your employees what they need to do their jobs. The other is to remove obstacles that get in the way of allowing them to do their jobs efficiently. As Janine says:

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I work for my team and one of my biggest goals is to remove obstacles for them so they can keep moving forward and meet their deadlines. There’s nothing worse than getting held up by some bureaucratic approval process, or having to do a “dog and pony” show for simple things.

There is also an important leadership lesson in what Janine says here – she “works for her team”.

Great leaders are not the ones who simply give commands, tell people what to do and make sure they meet their deadlines. Great leaders are the ones who help the people around them recognize their own talents and strengths, support them in building on those strengths, and help them develop their careers in the direction that the employee wants for themselves. The best leaders know that it’s not about them – it’s about the others.