How do you spend time prepping for a meeting? If you are like many of the leaders with whom I speak, you probably pour over your reports trying to memorize every data point. You know that is not particularly useful, but you’ve been burned in the past (or saw a co-worker burned). Someone asked for …
Read more “Memorizing metrics and KPIs does not equal understanding your business”
What’s the first thing your training people look at when reviewing a training program? My guess is that they look at the presentation. They check to see if it follows a standard template with standard colors. They’ll look for brand compliance. They’ll watch for consistency in capitalization, use of titles, and placement of graphics. They’ll …
Read more “When did instructional design devolve into presentation design?”
Do you use dashboards to run your business? Dashboards are a major improvement over traditional reports. Instead of presenting rows and columns of incomprehensible data, dashboards provide a simple view of key indicators and their status. What could be better? While there is a lot of hype around dashboards, they aren’t that new. Business dashboards …
Read more “It’s time to bring the “dashboard” into the digital age”
Are you getting crushed under an avalanche of “Big Data”? Are you finding that you have more information but fewer insights? Do you feel like you spend more time looking at numbers than making sense of them? If so, you are not alone. The emergence of “Big Data” has created a lot of “Big Stress”. …
The other day I bought an iPad. The entire experience from walking in to walking out took about five minutes. I wasn’t that surprised. In the past two months, I’ve been involved in the purchase of four products at an Apple store. All four experiences combined have taken less than thirty minutes. For other people, …
Read more “Sometimes the best way to add value is to get out of the way”
Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day. Here is my annual re-post in memory of the victims and in honor of the survivors. Leadership begins with respect for all people and a desire to make the world a better place. Never forget. **** A leader’s job is to create meaning and purpose for those around him or …
Companies are scrambling to board the Big Data train. Most of their efforts seem to be on building their big data production capabilities. Whether it be transforming their data management processes and tools, hiring “Data Scientists” or enlisting the services of “Big Data” consultants, companies want to squeeze ever bit of insight out of their …
NOTE: The point of this entry is to raise the question of how analytics are being used in the political process. The techniques described and concerns raised apply to all politicians and all parties. This is not meant to question any specific candidate but rather the system as a whole and the way that it is …
According to ASTD’s 2012 State of the Industry Report, in 2011 US companies spend just over $156 billion on training. That’s roughly equivalent to New Zealand’s entire GDP for the same year. The top of mind question for executives is what type of return they are getting for that investment. There is no question that …
Read more “Corporate training effectiveness – Optimizing the ‘last mile’”
Lack of answers is a common problem that leaders face during times of change and uncertainty. It’s not that they don’t want to provide answers. They just don’t have them. Like their people, they too are waiting for decisions to be made and solutions communicated. However, this shouldn’t be a reason to stop communicating with …
Read more “If you don’t have the answers, give them the questions”