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Found this article and thought the annual reviews paragraph was interesting.

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Hated by bosses and subordinates alike, traditional performance appraisals have been abandoned by more than a third of U.S. companies. The annual review's biggest limitation, the authors argue, is its emphasis on holding employees accountable for what they did last year, at the expense of improving performance now and in the future. That's why many organizations are moving to more-frequent, development-focused conversations between managers and employees.

The authors explain how performance management has evolved over the decades and why current thinking has shifted: (1) Today's tight labor market creates pressure to keep employees happy and groom them for advancement. (2) The rapidly changing business environment requires agility, which argues for regular check-ins with employees. (3) Prioritizing improvement over accountability promotes teamwork.

Some companies worry that going numberless may make it harder to align individual and organizational goals, award merit raises, identify poor performers, and counter claims of discrimination-though traditional appraisals haven't solved those problems, either. Other firms are trying hybrid approaches-for example, giving employees performance ratings on multiple dimensions, coupled with regular development feedback.

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Hated by bosses and subordinates alike, traditional performance appraisals have been abandoned by more than a third of U.S. companies. The annual review's biggest limitation, the authors argue, is its emphasis on holding employees accountable for what they did last year, at the expense of improving performance now and in the future.

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I've read this before I've taken this course and still find it a good fit with out lesson plan.

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Human beings all deeply want to believe in something. It's in our basic human nature. If you want to motivate your employees and attract customers and investors with ease, one of the most vital things you can do is give them a "why" to believe in.

There is a fascinating study done by Dr. Adam Grant and his colleagues who worked with call center employees at the University of Michigan. These employees had the unenviable task of cold calling alums to ask for money. One of the groups in this study was able to meet a scholarship recipient and talk to him first hand. The scholarship recipient talked about how much the scholarship had changed his life, and he thanked the people in the call center for their hard work. Once the call center workers realized how their work had an impact, they became motivated to work harder and the group's weekly revenue increased an amazing 400%.

In another study, when nurses assembling surgical kits met the health-care practitioners who would use their kits, the nurses worked 64% more minutes and made 15% fewer errors than those nurses who did not meet the "end user " (Belle, 2013).

In national surveys over the past three decades, the vast majority of Americans have identified meaningful work as the single most important feature that they seek in a job. One of the easiest and most powerful ways to imbue a sense of meaning in work is to put employees in touch with the end user.

For example, Deere & Company invites farmers who are buying tractors to visit the factories with their families. Assembly line employees get to meet the farmers, hand them a gold key, and watch them start their tractors for the first time.

At Olive Garden, managers share with the staff letters from customers describing how they chose to celebrate meaningful events at the company's restaurants.

Great leaders know that people are intrinsically motivated when they understand why they are doing something, and the best leaders put the correct conditions in place to ensure people gain this deeper connection.

According to Dr. Grant, a face-to-face meeting has the strongest emotional impact on an employee, particularly when the employee does not normally interact with the end user.

A Microsoft lab manager interviewed by researchers Michael Cusumano and Richard Selby explains that after seeing an end user, developers "immediately empathize with the person. The usual nonsense answer; 'Well, they can just look in the manual if they don't know how to use it,' or 'My idea is brilliant; you just found ten stupid people' just goes out the door." Grant adds that "a face-to-face connection with end users appears to elicit empathy among the developers, motivating them to design software with users in mind."

As a leader, ask yourself "What are the ways I can engage end users with our employees?" One start up in Silicon Valley invites current and potential clients to a monthly happy hour event with employees.

Another solution is to harness some of the information you may already have. If you have letters from satisfied customers, positive feedback, gratitude, or even data showing the impact of your products and services, share this information broadly in your organization. As Bonobos CEO Andy Dunn shared with me in an interview, "There are no diminishing returns to specific positive feedback ." It's a free, unlimited resource that many leaders are not leveraging as well as they could.

Another option is to turn employees into end users. Encouraging employees to try the product for themselves is the easiest way to create this conversion. Not only does the company receive additional feedback on its products, but the employees have a better understanding of the user experience.

Sending employees out into the field is another way to connect them with end users. Chris Hendriksen, the CEO of healthcare company VRI, says he spent his first few months at the company riding in the truck, visiting end users, and participating in the actual customer experience.

Regardless of the specific approach you take, the research clearly demonstrates that a simple yet powerful way to decrease burnout and greatly increase the motivation and satisfaction level of your team is to give them a "why" to believe in. And one of the easiest ways to do this is to connect your employees with your end users.

​ ​

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Human beings all deeply want to believe in something. It's in our basic human nature. If you want to motivate your employees and attract customers and investors with ease, one of the most vital things you can do is give them a "why" to believe in. There is a fascinating study done [...]

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Quite the read but a lot of take aways from the article. Theres a link in here and what was taught in class.

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Learning Objectives

1. Explain the concept of emotional intelligence.

2. Describe the four types of communication in the workplace.

3. Explain the various communication styles and identify your own style.

4. Define nonverbal communication and describe the importance of it in an HR setting.

Communication and Emotional Intelligence (EI)

One of the most important aspects to good communication is emotional intelligence (EI). Emotional intelligence is different from IQ. First, EI predicts much of life success, much more than IQ, in fact (Goleman, 2005). According to Daniel Goleman, a researcher on EI, there are five main aspects or domains to EI:

1. Knowing your emotions

2. Managing your emotions

3. Motivating yourself

4. Recognizing and understanding other people's emotions

5. Managing relationships

First, let's discuss knowing your emotions. If we don't know how we feel about something, it can be difficult to communicate. It may seem obvious to know what we are feeling from moment to moment, but oftentimes we do not. How we feel impacts our body language as well as our verbal communication. For example, let's say you just got home from work and had a really crummy day. When you get home, you find that your spouse has not unloaded the dishwasher yet, as you had agreed. Tie this with a crummy day, and you might communicate differently about it than if you had a great day.

On the other hand, if you recognize that you are tired and a bit cranky, your awareness of these emotions allows you to manage them. The third aspect of EI, motivating yourself, goes without saying in a management or human resource role. This is the key not only to career success but also to personal success.

The last two domains of EI revolve around being able to see and understand emotions in other people, which in turn can benefit the relationship. Let's say, in the situation above, you get home and the dishwasher isn't unloaded, but you recognize immediately through body language and facial expressions that your spouse is extremely upset by something. Seeing this emotion in someone else may help you decide if you should mention the dishwasher-or not-at this specific time. But what if you didn't recognize this emotion and raised your voice to your spouse about the unloaded dishwasher? It will probably result in an argument. Using this example, I am sure you can see how this translates into the workplace. Emotional intelligence allows us to work better with people, understand them, and communicate with them.

Human Resource Recall

Do you think you are a good communicator? What could you improve?

Communication Directions

As you already know, communication in companies is key to having a successful organization. Those companies who communicate well with their employees end up with more loyal and motivated workers. Those that don't communicate well, though, see increased turnover, absenteeism, dissatisfied customers, higher product defect rates, lack of focus on business objectives, and lack of innovation ¹. Proper communication can result in a sense of belonging and self-worth, leading to less turnover and absenteeism, which is mentioned in the opening scenario. These issues are also discussed in Chapter 7 "Retention and Motivation". In Section 9.1.3 "Communication Styles", we discuss some of the ways we can stay connected with our employees.

Four main types of communications occur within a company: upward communication, downward communication, diagonal communication, and horizontal communication. Each type of communication can serve a different purpose in human resources, and many messages may be sent in a variety of ways.

Upward communication is when the lower levels of an organization communicate with the upper levels of an organization. Some examples might be an employee satisfaction survey using online survey tools such as SurveyMonkey. These kinds of tools can be used to determine the changes that should occur in a company. Oftentimes human resource departments may develop a survey such as this to find out how satisfied the employees are with things such as benefits. Then the organization can make changes based on the satisfaction level of the employees. Employees might also engage in upward communication in a given work situation. They might tell their manager their plate is full and they can't take on any new projects. This is considered upward communication, too.

Downward communication is the opposite of upward communication, in that the communication occurs from the upper levels of an organization down to the lower levels of the organization. A manager explaining how to do a task to an employee would be considered downward communication. Development of training programs to communicate safety in the organization might be another example. A change in a pay or bonus structure would be communicated using the downward approach as well.

Figure 9.1 Types of Communication Flow in Organizations

A diagonal communication approach occurs when interdepartmental communication occurs with people at different levels of the organization. When the human resources assistant speaks with the marketing manager about the hiring of a new employee in marketing, this would be considered diagonal communication.

Horizontal communication occurs when people of the same level in an organization, for example, a marketing manager and a human resource manager, communicate usually to coordinate work between departments. An accounting manager might share information with a production manager so the production manager knows how much budget they have left.

Within all the communication methods we discussed, there are a variety of approaches. Of course, the most obvious is the informal communication that occurs. An e-mail may be sent or a phone call made. Meetings are another way to communicate information. Companies can also use more formal means to communicate. A blog would be an example. Many companies use blogs to communicate information such as financial numbers, changes to policy, and other "state of the business" information. This type of information is often downward communication. However, blogs are not just for upper management anymore. Companies are using microblogs more and more to ensure that people in various departments stay connected with each other, especially when tasks tend to be very interdependent.

Companies also use social networking sites to keep in touch, such as Twitter and Facebook. For example, Alcatel-Lucent, a 77,000-employee telecommunications company in Europe, found that using social media keeps a large number of employees connected and tends to be a low or no-cost method of communicating. Rather than sending e-mail to their employees telling them to expect updates via these methods, the news is spread via word of mouth as most of the employees blog or use Facebook or other social media to communicate. In fact, Alcatel-Lucent has over eight hundred groups in its system, ranging from business related to ones social in nature (Gaudin, 2010). Use of this type of technology can result in upward, downward, horizontal, and diagonal communication all at once.

Companies also use intranets to communicate information to their employees. An intranet is an internal website, meaning that others generally cannot log in and see information there. The intranet may include information on pay and vacation time as well as recent happenings, awards, and achievements.

Communication Styles

In addition to the communication that occurs within organizations, each of us has our own individual communication style. Many organizations give tests that may indicate their candidate's preferred style, providing information on the best job fit.

Our communication styles can determine how well we communicate with others, how well we are understood, and even how well we get along with others. As you can imagine, our personality types and our communication styles are very similar. Keep in mind, though, that no one person is "always" one style. We can change our style depending on the situation. The more we can understand our own dominant communication style and pinpoint the styles of others, the better we can communicate. The styles are expresser, driver, relater, and analytical. Let's discuss each of these styles next.

People with an expresser communication style tend to get excited. They like challenges and rely heavily on hunches and feelings. Depending on the type of business, this can be a downfall as sometimes hard data should be used for decision-making purposes. These people are easily recognized because they don't like too many facts or boring explanations and tend to be antsy if they feel their time is being wasted with too many facts.

People with a driver style like to have their own way and tend to be decisive. They have strong viewpoints, which they are not afraid to share with others. They like to take charge in their jobs but also in the way they communicate. Drivers usually get right to the point and not waste time with small talk.

People with a relater style like positive attention and want to be regarded warmly. They want others to care about them and treat them well. Because relaters value friendships, a good way to communicate well with them is to create a communication environment where they can feel close to others.

People with an analytical communication style will ask a lot of questions and behave methodically. They don't like to be pressured to make a decision and prefer to be structured. They are easily recognized by the high number of questions they ask.

Table 9.1 Which One of These Communication Styles Do You Tend to Use?

Definition

Communication style in which you put the rights of others before your own, minimizing your own self-worth

Communication style in which you stand up for your rights while maintaining respect for the rights of others

Communication style in which you stand up for your rights but you violate the rights of others

Implications to others

my feelings are not important

we are both important

your feelings are not important

Verbal styles

apologetic

I statements

you statements

Nonverbal styles

looking down or away

looking direct

staring, narrow eyes

Potential consequences

lowered self-esteem

higher self-esteem

guilt

pitied by others

feared by others

Let's discuss an example of how these communication styles might interact. Let's assume an analytical communicator and a relater are beginning a meeting where the purpose is to develop a project time line. The analytical communicator will be focused on the time line and not necessarily the rapport building that the relater would be focused on. The conversation might go something like this:

Relater:
What are you doing this weekend? I am going to my son's baseball game. It is supposed to be hot-I am looking forward to it.

Analytical:
That's great. OK, so I was thinking a start date of August 1 st for this project. I can get Kristin started on a to-do list for the project.

Relater:
That would be great. Kristin is a really hard worker, and I'm sure she won't miss any details.

Analytical:
Yes, she's OK. So, your team will need to start development now with a start day coming up. How are you going to go about this?

How do these two personality styles walk away from this conversation? First, the relater may feel ignored or rejected, because the analytical communicator didn't want to discuss weekend details. The analytical communicator may feel annoyed that the relater is wasting time talking about personal things when they have a goal to set a project time line. These types of small miscommunications in business are what can create low morale, absenteeism, and other workplace issues. Understanding which style we tend to use can be the key in determining how we communicate with others. Here is another, personal example of these communication styles and how a conversation might go:

Expresser, to his partner:
I am really excited for our hiking trip this weekend.

Driver:
I still think we should leave on Thursday night rather than Friday.

Expresser:
I told you, I don't think I can get all day Friday off. Besides, we won't have much time to explore anyway, if we get there on Thursday, it will already be dark.

Driver:
It won't be dark; we will get there around 7, before anyone else, if we leave after work.

Expresser:
I planned the trip. I am the one who went and got our food and permits, I don't see why you have to change it.

Driver:
You didn't plan the trip; I am the one who applied for the permits.

Strategic HR Communication Style in Organizations

(click to see video)

This video addresses the importance of determining company communication style.

How Would You Handle This?

She Said What?

As the HR manager, you have a meeting scheduled in a few minutes with Adeline. Adeline is the accounting manager for a small firm in Boise, Idaho. She has four people who report to her, Alan being one of them. Alan manages three people in his position as account director. Adeline just left a meeting with one of Alan's employees, who complained of Alan's communication style and threatened to quit. She said that Alan belittles them and withholds information. She also complained of Alan making inappropriate comments, which were meant as a joke but were offensive. How would you handle this?

How Would You Handle This?

https://api.wistia.com/v1/medias/1360833/embed

The author discusses the How Would You Handle This situation in this chapter at: https://api.wistia.com/v1/medias/1360833/embed.

Figure 9.2

What Are Each of These Images Telling Us?

Figure 9.3 Active listening involves four phases (Steil, et. al., 2011).

Key Takeaways

Emotional intelligence can be improved over time, unlike IQ, which stays stable throughout life.

Emotional intelligence includes knowing and managing your emotions, motivating yourself, recognizing and understanding other people's emotions, and managing relationships.

There are four types of communication at work: downward, upward, horizontal, and diagonal. All types of communication can happen at once, especially with the use of blogs and social networking sites.

Companies that use good communication tend to have less turnover and less absenteeism.

There are four main types of communication styles: expresser, driver, relater, and analytical. The better we can understand our own style of communication and the communication styles of others, the easier it will be to communicate with them.

Passive, aggressive, and passive-aggressive behaviors are not healthy ways of communicating. Assertive behavior, on the other hand, respects one's own rights and the rights of others.

Nonverbal communication is one of the most important tools we can use to communicate how we feel. Watching others' body language can give us signals as to how they may really feel.

Listening is also an important part of communication. Active listening occurs when we are interested in what the other person has to say, and we check with the speaker to make sure we understand what they have said. Competitive or combative listening is when we are focused on sharing our own point of view. Passive listening is when we listen to someone, but do not verify that we understand what someone is saying.

Exercises

1. Learn more about your EI by going to http://www.queendom.com/tests/access_page/index.htm?idRegTest=1121 and taking the test. Then answer the following questions:

1. What did the test say about your EI?

2. What are some things you can do to improve your EI? What strategies might you use to improve your EI?

2. Which communication style, the expresser, driver, relater, or analytical, do you typically use? How can you get better at understanding other people's style and get comfortable communicating in their style?

3. Do you tend to be passive, assertive, or aggressive? Give an example of when you used each style and discuss the result.

4. Take a few hours and watch the body language of the people in your workplace or personal life. Pay careful attention, really being aware of body language. What was the situation? What kinds of body language did they show?

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Explain the concept of emotional intelligence. Describe the four types of communication in the workplace. Explain the various communication styles and identify your own style. Define nonverbal communication and describe the importance of it in an HR setting. One of the most important aspects to good communication is emotional intelligence (EI).

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After finding videos of Organizational Structure and Processes it hard to go back to reading.

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Great short video for Quality Management, however got the vibe that it was also a add for IBM.

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A brief and simple explanation of Quality Management.

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Was looking for a article or cartoon but found this, will post something later.

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While I may be a long way from being the CEO of a company, I found this article on how to be successful as a global manager interesting. I think 10 points out a good point. Face to face meeting have an impact on employees.

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Companies are well aware that hidden in their dispersed, global operations is a treasure trove of ideas and capabilities for innovation. But it's proving harder than expected to unearth those ideas or exploit those capabilities in global innovation projects. Some of the challenges of global projects are familiar: figuring out the right role for top executives, for example, or finding a good balance between formal and informal project management processes.

But although the challenges may be familiar, the solutions are not; what works for an innovation project conducted in a single location doesn't necessarily work for one dispersed across many sites around the world. That's partly because many important enablers of innovation happen naturally in colocation. Single location projects draw on large reservoirs of shared tacit knowledge and trust, and when issues arise, senior management is on hand to make decisions and provide direction and support. Team members share the same language, culture, and norms, enabling flexibility and iterative learning as the project unfolds.

When a project spans multiple locations, many of those natural benefits-often taken for granted-are lost. Part of the challenge of dispersed innovation thus becomes how to replicate the positive aspects of colocation while harnessing the unique benefits of a global initiative. To explore this challenge, we spent more than a decade doing field research at 47 companies around the world, including Citibank, HP, Hitachi, Infosys, Intel, LG Electronics, Novartis, Philips, Samsung, Siemens, Vodafone, and Xerox. In 2004 we teamed up with Booz & Company to conduct a global survey that was completed by 186 companies from 19 countries and 17 sectors, with a combined innovation spend of more than US$78 billion. We draw on that work to present a set of guidelines for successfully managing global innovation projects.

1. Start Small

One of the chief enablers of dispersed innovation is the experience of the participating sites in working on global projects. No matter how strong technical capabilities or customer knowledge may be at a particular site, employees will struggle to make a contribution to a global project commensurate with their skills if they have had experience only in colocated development. That's because on single location projects, team members benefit from collective tacit knowledge and a shared context, both of which support rich communication and help build trust and confidence among coworkers. Projects that span multiple sites and time zones are often hobbled by differences in workplace practices, communication patterns, and cultural norms. In the absence of everyday interactions and encounters, people struggle to signal trustworthiness and demonstrate competencies. Making matters worse, many teams are used to competing for resources with teams at other sites, and this creates yet another barrier to trust and collaboration between sites.

To be effective, dispersed teams have to develop a new set of collaboration competencies and establish a collaborative mind-set. This can be done by running small, dispersed projects involving just two or three sites before a project launch. Schneider Electric and Toshiba, two global electronics manufacturers, took this approach when they formed a joint venture, STI, to develop electrical drives and inverters. Although management was enthusiastic about the new partnership, engineers at the two companies were not. To build trust between sites, STI organized a series of small, noncritical joint projects under the close scrutiny of senior managers. By the end of the first project, the teams had already begun to feel comfortable collaborating with colleagues at other sites. They quickly established consensus on working practices and protocols, reinforcing trust and providing a good foundation for the more complex global initiatives to come.

2. Provide a Stable Organizational Context

During periods of major organizational change, such as restructurings or acquisitions integration, the complexity of dispersed innovation escalates. Top managers are likely to be focused elsewhere within the organization, leaving their global projects orphaned. Critical decisions are frequently left hanging, and problems often go unaddressed. In a climate of organizational uncertainty, turf battles can flare up, and project team members may become concerned about job security and lose focus.

Consider a global electronics firm we'll call Elecompt. It launched a global innovation project at a time when new acquisitions were being integrated and a major reorganization of R&D was under way. Although the project was of strategic importance, management focus was understandably elsewhere. Problems came to a head when, prompted by fear of job losses, large numbers of highly skilled engineers at one site left the company, causing significant delays.

Of course, it's not possible to undertake global innovation projects only in times of sustained stability, so managers need to anticipate the possible toxic side effects of reorganization on global innovation and shelter teams as much as possible from disruptions. They should focus on creating an atmosphere of stability and bolster employees' sense of self-worth and loyalty to the firm. This will be particularly important for firms that are expanding R&D in China, where competition for talent is so intense that loyalty to employers rarely has time to develop.

3. Assign Oversight and Support Responsibility to a Senior Manager

When the knowledge base underlying a project is fragmented and project teams are scattered over multiple locations, miscommunication, conflict, and stalemates over crucial decision making are much more likely. Project teams often struggle to handle these problems constructively over a distance, especially when disagreements become personal, and so senior managers have to take on a formal role as arbiter, risk manager, support provider, and ultimate decision maker.

Contrast this with the more familiar world of single location projects, where senior managers can give the go-ahead to an innovation project and then step back and let the team get on with it. This hands-off approach works because on-site executives can rely on informal communication and feedback mechanisms to maintain oversight. Being on the spot, they're more likely to become aware of difficulties early on and can intervene when necessary to resolve them.

Companies that are smart about global innovation create an explicit role for senior executives in their projects. For example, at Essilor, a global corrective lens manufacturer, an executive team member is assigned to head up every international project. He or she monitors project progress and is responsible for making key decisions and ensuring that the project meets the firm's strategic objectives.

Essilor undertook a project to develop photochromic lenses with partners PPG and Transitions Optical. The project involved more than 20 sites around the world. To ensure first mover advantage, the schedule was extremely aggressive. Once the project was under way, it became clear that to hit the launch date, the production ramp-up phase would have to be reduced. This could be achieved only by taking shortcuts in the production validation and evaluation processes. None of the managers of the 18 production facilities were comfortable with that kind of risk.

With loose executive oversight and unclear decision rights, the project might have stalled or derailed before the issue came to the attention of senior management. But the executive responsible for the project saw the dilemma immediately and took it to the executive committee. Because time to market was critical, the committee agreed to the shortcuts and made it clear that the risk belonged to the project, not to the production sites. The problem was resolved without any disruption to the work flow, and the product was launched on schedule.

4. Use Rigorous Project Management and Seasoned Project Leaders

In addition to a fully engaged senior manager, a global innovation project requires a strong project management team to drive the project on a day-to-day basis and strong team leaders supported by robust tools and processes. These are necessary to impose discipline, structure, and a shared sense of purpose across the locations.

Firms can approach these challenges in a number of ways. Some adopt rigorous quality programs to provide formal project management for global projects. Siemens uses Design for Six Sigma to define common analytical tools, provide coaching, and set targets and timetables for feedback meetings. Those processes are then adopted across all sites.

Alternatively, firms can build a corporate project-management capability. Essilor, the lens manufacturer, has a corporate unit that runs global projects. The unit includes staff members from all functions and geographies-many of whom spend several years as project managers of global innovation efforts before returning to their area of specialty. These positions are desirable ones: Project managers value the opportunity to work closely with the senior executives assigned to their projects. And because the roles involve extensive travel and exposure to different parts of the firm, project managers leave the unit having built strong cross-cultural skills and robust relationships and networks all over the world.

It's important to note that global innovation projects are so complex that standard tools and processes don't always work well. At the joint venture STI, a project manager realized that misunderstandings resulting from e-mail communication between teams were causing the schedule to slip. With senior management support, he successfully introduced a protocol requiring that all initial communication on a topic be voice-to-voice. At the software firm Synopsys, the global development of a new product ran in parallel to the incremental development of an existing product, a traditional approach at many firms. Concerned that this would lead to an "us versus them" culture, the project manager organized work spaces to mix up the two teams.

5. Appoint a Lead Site

Each site involved in global innovation will see the project through the prism of its own contribution and context, rather than putting the bigger picture first. That's why all sites can't carry equal weight, even if their experience and expertise are equivalent; one has to be designated the lead. That site takes responsibility for delivering the project on time and on budget.

Let's compare the approaches taken by Elecompt on its global project and by Schneider on its STI joint venture with Toshiba. Each site involved in the STI project was a global leader in its field. However, the French site, which had been heavily involved in defining the new product requirements, was given responsibility for the project: coordinating the project management team, integrating the work of the other sites, and making final decisions. Having a clear lead site ensured prompt decision making and a project successfully delivered on time and on budget.

At Elecompt, each site had equal weight in making decisions and managing the project. That meant that every decision and aspect of cooperation had to be negotiated among multiple sites, at best a slow and cumbersome process. With each site defending its own corner, stalemates were common. One engineer noted that "there was an escalation of problems without corresponding solutions." Two years into the project and with renewed senior management focus, the necessary management structures were finally put in place to enable the project to progress.

6. Invest Time Defining the Innovation

Anyone who has worked on a single location project knows that the product or service delivered isn't always what was anticipated at the outset. This is actually one of the great benefits of colocation innovation. Because everyone involved is under the same roof and in frequent communication, continuous learning and adaptation can take place, allowing the design of the product or service to improve over the course of the project.

When a project is split over time zones, cultures, and languages, there is very little latitude for iterative learning. Instead, everything must be defined up front: the product or service architecture, the functionality of individual modules, and the interdependencies and interfaces between modules. In addition, process flows, timelines, and knowledge requirements need to be thoroughly understood so that everyone working on the project has the same understanding of the goals and their individual contributions to them.

Although there is a natural temptation to dive into development as soon as possible, studies show a positive correlation between investment in defining goals and technical specifications and the successful outcome of projects. In the case of Essilor's photochromic lens, despite having less than two years to deliver the new product, the project team invested nine months in defining the modules and multiple interfaces that would be handled by specialist teams from around the world, thereby building a solid foundation for success.

During the definition process, representatives from each project team were colocated for short periods of time. In addition, the constantly globetrotting project managers held frequent on-site meetings and spent time conferring face-to-face with team members. We believe that a global project can't be effectively defined without some degree of colocation between the different functions and sites involved. Colocation builds relationships and trust up front and supports the sharing of complex ideas and concepts.

7. Allocate Resources on the Basis of Capability, Not Availability

The question of how best to staff a project rarely arises when only one location is involved: That location has presumably been chosen because the teams there have the requisite skills and experience. The effective staffing of a global project, however, requires a great deal of attention in order to select and integrate the best possible knowledge and capabilities.

But all too often, firms see global projects as an opportunity to make the most efficient use of human resources. Teams are selected not because they are the best qualified but because they are available at the time. The consequences of this approach can be seen in the Elecompt project. One of the sites, a U.S. team, was asked to develop a critical piece of software because it had the most staff availability, even though it lacked the required experience, and it struggled as a result. Eventually, when resources became available elsewhere, this module was moved to a team that had the necessary capabilities-but by then, morale had been dented, time wasted, and costs increased.

This availability approach to staffing projects completely undermines the basic rationale for global innovation-to bring together distinctive and differentiated knowledge and capabilities from around the world to create unique innovations. If teams are selected merely because they aren't doing anything else at the time rather than for their distinct capabilities, the project will take on a lot of risk for little benefit.

8. Build Enough Knowledge Overlap for Collaboration

Although sites involved in a project should be selected on the basis of the unique capabilities and knowledge they can bring, there also has to be a small degree of knowledge overlap between sites. Without this, critical interdependencies between modules may not be apparent until the integration phase, when problems are costly to rectify. This doesn't mean replicating the other sites' knowledge, but understanding enough of what they do to anticipate potential interdependencies and interfaces in the development process.

At Siemens, virtual cross-functional teams provide knowledge overlaps to help avoid such problems. Each module is developed by a specialist team and overseen by a virtual team comprising representatives from each of the other modules. This allows potential problems to be flagged and resolved as they arise.

9. Limit the Number of Subcontractors and Partners

In most innovation projects today, part of the work is outsourced or undertaken by development partners in order to access specific competencies, reduce development time, or cut costs. The final consideration in staffing global projects is selecting these external collaborators.

Managing relationships with external parties takes time and energy. So it makes sense in global projects to limit the additional complexity and management burden by keeping the number of subcontractors or partners to a minimum. And just as it's essential to use internal sites that have experience working together, it's easier and less risky to turn to external firms that are trusted and familiar. Choosing partners or subcontractors located close to one of the internal project sites will likewise reduce the potential for cross-cultural misunderstandings and will support face-to-face communication.

An example of the problems that can be caused by involving too many distant external partners in an innovation project can be clearly seen in Boeing's 787 Dreamliner project. This ambitious effort aimed to develop a new plane with significantly reduced operating costs by using innovative composite materials. The project involved over 50 main partners across the U.S., Europe, and East Asia, each charged with developing different subsections.

Coordinating that many partners was difficult, and Boeing had little insight into what was happening at each site. Integration proved extremely complex and constant modifications were required-for example, the new materials initially made it impossible to attach the wings to the fuselage. To get the project back on track, Boeing resorted to colocating its partners for six months. Although the final product was a success, it was delivered almost three years late, during which time Boeing lost orders to the Airbus A350.

10. Don't Rely Solely on Technology for Communication

In the end, the successful execution of a global project remains dependent upon communication channels that go as far as possible to replicate the richness of colocated communication. In single locations, a shared context-cultural, organizational, functional, and technological-makes it easier to discuss complex ideas and resolve problems informally. Because communication in this environment is second nature, managers tend to underestimate the challenge of scaling communication globally.

Information and communications technologies, or ICTs, including e-mail, web meetings, social media platforms, online forums, and video conferencing certainly have a role to play, but those tools shouldn't be overrelied on, because they tend to mask differences between locations, leading to misunderstandings and tension. In addition to ICTs, the communication armory for a global innovation project should include a generous travel budget for face-to-face site visits, project team meetings, and temporary transfers for key people. Also, to encourage team members to feel an allegiance and sense of belonging to a global project rather than their local site, a web of cross-site reporting lines can be put in place. This has the added advantage of forcing communication and knowledge sharing.

Successful globally integrated firms understand the importance of an extensive communications approach. Tata Communications, for example, has a highly dispersed structure that enables it to access the best competencies and market knowledge around the world. Even its top management team is dispersed across the globe. The company has invested in a raft of ICTs to support everyday collaboration, but this is in addition to hefty travel budgets for vital, regular face-to-face communication to drive projects forward, share knowledge, and reinforce trust.Together, the 10 steps we have outlined represent the foundation for successful global innovation projects. Adopting only one or two may result in fleeting success in some projects but will not produce a stream of positive outcomes. These best practices all need to be put in place and honed over time. It's not easy to build a global innovation capability, but for companies that don't have the skills and processes in place to manage global innovation projects, the future offers a stark choice: Continue with only colocated projects, in the hope that they will fill the innovation pipeline for a few more years until global competition intensifies and makes local innovation a niche activity. Or begin building a capability in global innovation now to take advantage of lower development costs, faster time to market, and, most important, the ability to leverage dispersed knowledge to gain competitive advantage.

A version of this article appeared in the October 2012 issue of Harvard Business Review.

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Companies are well aware that hidden in their dispersed, global operations is a treasure trove of ideas and capabilities for innovation. But it's proving harder than expected to unearth those ideas or exploit those capabilities in global innovation projects.

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Since we were learning about Ethics and Corporate Governance I thought it would be nice to read an article that shows what that their are good companies out there still.

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From sexual harassment allegations at Fox News to widespread fraud at Wells Fargo, we saw no shortage of corporate scandals in 2016. But year after year, many firms also show a strong moral compass. This week Ethisphere launched its annual list of the world's most ethical companies. Now in its 11th edition, the list isn't a ranking, but includes 124 companies deemed to be the most ethical. To see the full set, view the bottom of this post.

To be considered for the list, a company must answer a 200-question, exceedingly detailed survey, explaining how it addresses ethics in the normal course of business. Ethisphere independently verifies those responses with outside sources like SEC filings and by asking companies for supporting documentation. And Ethisphere's analysts research companies' reputation, history of litigation and ethical track record.

There's also an application fee-firms with less than $500 million in revenue must pay $1,000 to apply for a spot on the list. Larger firms shell out $1,500. Ethisphere is a private company that makes money through products and services like conferences, event sponsorships, subscriptions and advertising. It says its business relationships with its clients have no impact on whether they make the list.

Through its ethics survey, Ethisphere evaluates firms on five criteria, which roll up into a single Ethics Quotient (EQ) score. The first and most important topic is a company's ethics and compliance program, which accounts for 35% of the EQ. Firms must answer questions like whether they track gifts received by employees and what resources they offer employees for reporting misconduct.

Ethisphere observed an interesting trend in the data in 2016: more companies disclosed information about misconduct to their own employees, telling them how many complaints were filed and what was done about it. Previously, firms tended to keep such matters confidential, says Michael Byrne, Ethisphere's general counsel. "Essential to an effective compliance program is people feeling comfortable expressing a concern ... One of the best ways to [do that] is to shine a light on it."

The second factor in the ethical list scoring, accounting for 20% of the EQ, gauges whether ethics are embedded into a company's culture from top to bottom. The third element, corporate citizenship and responsibility, includes questions about what methods companies use to measure their environmental impact.

Corporate governance is the fourth criterion. Ethisphere's survey asks whether a company's CEO and board-chair roles are held by separate people. This year, Ethisphere also placed an increased focus on diversity in board and leadership positions.

The final element is leadership, innovation and reputation. Ethisphere asks if companies have been named to top business lists, such as Forbes' own Most Trustworthy Companies , and whether its executives have spoken at high-profile conferences like the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Of the 124 firms on this year's list, 13 have made the cut every single year, including: Aflac, Deere & Company, Ecolab, Fluor, GE, International Paper, Kao Corporation, Milliken and Company, PepsiCo, Starbucks, Texas Instruments, UPS and Xerox.

Eight firms on the list are newcomers: Brightstar, Edwards Lifesciences, Eli Lilly, Grupo Bimbo, Praxair, Republic Services, RTI International and VF Corporation.
World's Most Ethical Companies - Full List

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From sexual harassment allegations at Fox News to widespread fraud at Wells Fargo, we saw no shortage of corporate scandals in 2016. But year after year, many firms also show a strong moral compass. This week Ethisphere launched its annual list of the world's most ethical companies.

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Read this article and thought this would be a great example for module one

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Much has been written about the qualities that make a great manager, but most of the literature overlooks a fundamental question: What does a great manager actually do? While there are countless management styles, one thing underpins the behavior of all great managers. Above all, an exceptional manager comes to know and value the particular quirks and abilities of her employees. She figures out how to capitalize on her staffers' strengths and tweaks her environment to meet her larger goals.

Such a specialized approach may seem like a lot of work. But in fact, capitalizing on each person's uniqueness can save time. Rather than encourage employees to conform to strict job descriptions that may include tasks they don't enjoy and aren't good at, a manager who develops positions for his staff members based on their unique abilities will be rewarded with behaviors that are far more efficient and effective than they would be otherwise.

This focus on individuals also makes employees more accountable. Because staffers are evaluated on their particular strengths and weaknesses, they are challenged to take responsibility for their abilities and to hone them.

Capitalizing on a person's uniqueness also builds a stronger sense of team. By taking the time to understand what makes each employee tick, a great manager shows that he sees his people for who they are. This personal investment not only motivates individuals but also galvanizes the entire team.

Finally, this approach shakes up existing hierarchies, which leads to more creative thinking.

To take great managing from theory to practice, the author says, you must know three things about a person: her strengths, the triggers that activate those strengths, and how she learns. By asking the right questions, squeezing the right triggers, and becoming aware of your employees' learning styles, you will discover what motivates each person to excel.

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Much has been written about the qualities that make a great manager, but most of the literature overlooks a fundamental question: What does a great manager actually do? While there are countless management styles, one thing underpins the behavior of all great managers.