|
My digital workplace predictions for 2017
- Digital workplaces seize on AI in the “intelligent workplace”
When my GPS app Waze asks me as I start driving from London if I would like to “go home”, it is thinking for me (and learning from my patterns). Slack is the digital workplace service that most evidences this intelligent capability (so far) but all major enterprise technologies will become imbued with such “thinking for us” – and much faster than I had envisaged even 12 months ago. - Focus shifts from “firing up tech” to changing behaviour and culture
For one major pharma client in Germany, their new collaboration services were straightforward technically – but after evidence from their history that simply implementing new technologies doesn’t bring the much-touted benefits to employees, this time they turned to change management and culture as the levers they needed to tackle. This pattern will extend for many organizations and the so-called “soft skills” of digital workplace improvements will take centre stage. - Digital workplace strategy takes central role
In a supposedly sound bite and instant gratification world, one encouraging trend is the focus on medium-term planning, including roadmaps, future workplace programmes and well-constructed digital strategies for employees, contractors, freelancers, supply chain, partners and distribution. - Intranets keep getting better and stronger
Weren’t intranets supposed to have become extinct by now? Rumours of their demise have been around for 15 years or more. The reality is though that any well-functioning organization of any size still requires a robust, productive intranet, if only as a digital front door to the wider digital workplace. - The “centre of gravity” for work moves from physical to digital
I recently heard Accenture CEO Pierre Nanterme say of their 330,000 plus staff: “We are a virtual organization… our offices are tactically useful but strategically irrelevant.” Work has always been defined by location and now work itself has “left the office”. - Public and civic organizations transform their digital workplaces
One intriguing and encouraging development is that “non-corporates” are increasingly determined to drive their digital transformation agendas. Governments, parliaments, international non-governmental organizations and charities are showing strong ambitions and practice to reimagine their digital workplaces and their external digital services. - Leaders influence (rather than control) as leadership becomes digital
To make your leadership felt in your organization, leaders at all levels must be present digitally and not just physically. Becoming adept at digital leadership will increasingly be essential – and, with that, comes the need also to switch from dictating and commanding to shaping and influencing behaviour and focus for the workforce you lead. - Quality search becomes common
This has been many years in the making but finally we will start to see and enjoy search experiences that actually work well. Partly this has come about through human intervention in digital teams but also as the technology has improved – and the arrival of IBM Watson is certainly helping. - Workplace by Facebook disrupts the digital workplace industry
While the degree of success of the full launch of Workplace by Facebook will not be known for a few years, what is clear already is that there is a strong appetite across different sectors and sizes of company for a product that workers already know well. - Digital literacy becomes an essential competence
What is the “digital IQ” of your organization? We regard literacy in work to cover reading, writing and maths, but what of the digital literacy we need in order to be engaged and productive? The digital intelligence of your workforce is a new essential capability and, wherever you are now, the digital literacy skills will need to be raised.
My 2016 Scorecard (8/10 Correct)
Prediction 1 Employee experience will become the heartbeat of digital workplace strategies. ✓
Prediction 1 Employee experience will become the heartbeat of digital workplace strategies. ✓
Prediction 2 Digital workplace teams will envision new “digital headquarters” that mirror refashioned physical HQs. ✓
Prediction 3 Enhanced intranets as “front doors” into the wider digital workplace will gain importance. ✓
Prediction 4 Culture will take an ever more central role in digital workplace success. ✓
Prediction 5 Enterprise search will finally make significant progress due to powerful success stories. ✓
Prediction 6 Disappointing digital workplaces will harm recruitment, retention and engagement. ✓
Prediction 7 Microsoft’s dominance will open the way for viable alternative technologies. ✗
Prediction 8 Governance, strategy and measurement will set the world’s best digital workplaces apart from the rest. ✓
Prediction 9 Mobile workers will have deeper knowledge in their own hands digitally – further reducing and replacing many managers. ✓
Prediction 10 Our concept of the digital workplace will expand to include “machine to machine” (non-human) relationships. ✗
Prediction 3 Enhanced intranets as “front doors” into the wider digital workplace will gain importance. ✓
Prediction 4 Culture will take an ever more central role in digital workplace success. ✓
Prediction 5 Enterprise search will finally make significant progress due to powerful success stories. ✓
Prediction 6 Disappointing digital workplaces will harm recruitment, retention and engagement. ✓
Prediction 7 Microsoft’s dominance will open the way for viable alternative technologies. ✗
Prediction 8 Governance, strategy and measurement will set the world’s best digital workplaces apart from the rest. ✓
Prediction 9 Mobile workers will have deeper knowledge in their own hands digitally – further reducing and replacing many managers. ✓
Prediction 10 Our concept of the digital workplace will expand to include “machine to machine” (non-human) relationships. ✗
|
Soft drinks and snack foods don’t get the best press these days, but that hasn’t slowed Indra Nooyi’s campaign to restructure PepsiCo, one of the world’s largest food and beverage companies. Since she became CEO in 2006, the company’s global revenue has increased from $40 billion in 2007 to more than $63 billion last year.
Nooyi, named by Fortune in 2014 as one of the most powerful women in business, spoke at a View From The Top session this month, where she was interviewed by Walmart CEO Doug McMillon. Here are six key insights into management she shared during that conversation:
- Break With the Past
Conventional business thinking suggests that leaders of a turnaround need to preserve the history and culture of the company. But Nooyi said it’s a maxim that’s often overused and she sometimes wonders if old culture “is a ballast.” “I think if I had to do it all over again, I might have hastened the pace of change even more,” she added. - Don’t Be Too Nice
Steve Jobs, a famously short-tempered executive, told Nooyi that losing one’s temper isn’t always wrong. “Don’t be too nice,” she recalled his advice to her. “When you really don’t get what you want and you really believe that’s the right thing for the company, it’s OK to throw a temper tantrum. Throw things around. People will talk about it, and they’ll know it’s important for you.” - Be Personally Conservative
“We’ve just got to be careful about putting out personal messages,” Nooyi advises. But “personal conservatism versus taking risks with the business are two different issues. If you really want advantage, you’ve got to be the first mover. So I think on the product side and the product experience side, we can take as many risks as we want,” she said. - The Short Term Matters
Finding a balance between long-term and short-term initiatives is key when managing a large business, Nooyi said. “You’ve got to look at the investments you make in the company as a portfolio. There’s a bunch of stuff that delivers in the short term. That gives you the breathing room and the fodder to invest in the long term,” she said. - Be a Lifelong Student
“Our CEOs and leaders have to be lifelong students—not just students in the sense of attending courses or reading a book or two. You’ve got to learn how to read widely, walk the market, look at trends in the marketplace, make connections that don’t seem obvious,” she said.
Twenty years ago, side tables at PepsiCo meetings were replete with full-sugar beverages, Nooyi said. A few years later, diet beverages appeared and now people are drinking bottled water at those meetings. “The point I make is, ‘Guys, you don’t need to hire a consultant to tell you where the trends are. You just have to look at our side table,’” she said.
|
Setting aside 15 minutes a day can help you prioritize, prepare, and build a stronger team.
Productivity demands self-reflection. Harry Kraemer, clinical professor of strategy at the Kellogg School and former CEO of multibillion-dollar healthcare company Baxter International, would know. For thirty-seven years—ever since he was unexpectedly duped into attending a spiritual retreat with his future father-in-law—he has made a nightly ritual of self-reflection. “Every day,” he emphasizes. Stepping back from the fray is how Kraemer, once the manager of 52,000 employees, avoided “running around like a chicken with his head cut off.”
“Self-reflection is not spending hours contemplating your navel,” Kraemer says. “No! It’s: What are my values, and what am I going to do about it? Kraemer offers three ways that periodic self-reflection can strengthen leadership, as well as some of his favorite prompts.
- Know Your Priorities—and Where You Fall Short
Self-reflection allows us to understand what is important, and focus on what might be done differently. Of course, after priorities have been defined, it is important for action to follow. To prevent a gulf between word and deed, Kraemer writes out his self-reflection each night, creating a record of what he has done and what he says he will do. He also checks continuously with family, friends, and close colleagues to ensure he is holding himself accountable and “not living in some fantasy land.” - Minimize Surprise
Members of the United States military are excellent role models for self-reflection, Kraemer says. They forecast and plan obsessively in order to do one thing—minimize surprise. And self-reflection need not mitigate only out-of-the-blue disasters; it also prepares leaders for more routine, but no less insidious disappointments. Preparation has the added benefit of reducing anxiety about the possibility of things going wrong, says Kraemer. - Build Stronger Teams
Strong leaders, he says, not only practice self-reflection themselves; they also encourage their teams to do so. And of course, a self-reflective team is a team that has its priorities straight and arrives prepared to deal with any setbacks. “If I’m going to help you develop as a leader, one of the first things I’m going to try to do is to help you understand the tremendous benefit of self-reflection,” he says.
How can leaders get themselves, and their teams, practicing self-reflection?
Kraemer does not prescribe a specific process; how a person reflects, he says, is a personal matter. “The reason many, many people have trouble balancing their lives is that they have not been self-reflective enough to figure out what they’re trying to balance,” he says.
Still convinced you cannot fit self-reflection on your calendar? That’s often an excuse to avoid an uncomfortable exercise, he says. “There could be a pretty big difference between what you say is important and what you’re actually doing, and you may not want to confront that.”
No comments:
Post a Comment