When companies and employees want the same thing, great things happen. We call this IVY Alignment, or the alignment of an employee's ideal vision of themselves (Ideal Vision of Yourself) with a Company's goals, objectives and way of operating. The concept of IVY appears subtle, yet its influence on day-to-day decisions is significant. The differences between IVY (link to IVY page) and a traditional mindset can be 180 degrees apart... Read More
As a service company tries to scale up, barriers to growth are encountered. Faced with these barriers, companies often drag out the usual suspects: Sales, Marketing, Human Resources. However, working harder rarely has a lasting impact. Most companies have already been trying without success, yet remain convinced that if they could just try harder, then eventually success will materialize... Read More
Successful companies make their employees successful. This is easy to understand. However, it is not so easy to do without understanding the fundamental forces at play. A 2018 Neilson poll found over 50% of Canadian employees want to change jobs. In 2011, Psychometrics Canada study found 69% of Canadians indicated that engagement is a problem in their organizations. 43% of millennials expect to leave their job within two years, and only 28% expect to stay beyond five years, according to a 2018 Deloitte study. This is somewhat like playing on a hockey team where half of your players... Read More
I find this chart useful in understanding how management's information technology decisions, relative to the expectation of autonomy, impacts employee empowerment. The bottom axis represents how autonomous managers wish their employees to be. The left axis represents the amount of information management is willing or able to share with staff. If managers operate in a command-and-control, low autonomy environment, where employees are micromanaged, and very little information is provided beyond the minimum they require to follow orders, employees may feel paralyzed... Read More