Daniel Day-Lewis as President Lincoln in one of his negotiation moments

Multiparty negotiation is the essential framework when it comes to achieving agreement between multiple competing interests.

Hardly a day passes without we seeing it at work in the various high profile meetings that dominate our news screens.

On the international stage, the G8, G20, UN Security Council, Ecofin gatherings, are all characterised by multiple rounds of compromise – in establishing the needed consensus between members.

While, closer to home, much of the engagement we witness at the Labour Relations Commission, Constitutional Convention, North-South Ministerial Council, etc., involves a similar dynamic.

And what a timely coincidence that the movie that swept the boards at this year’s Oscars, should have drawn most of it drama from similar historical strands.

For the spine of Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln story is the wily negotiation manoeuvres the eponymous President uses to get the Slavery Abolition Amendment over the line in the winter of 1864 – in the face of opposing positions held by the different shades of Republicans and Democrats then holding sway in the Congress.  

He knows his only chance is to get it passed into law before the impending end to the civil war – so that when the peace talks begin he can present it as a fait accompli  to the Confederate leaders.

He and his able Secretary State, William Seward, set about building a coalition to secure sufficient votes in the Congress.

To this end, they have to balance their negotiations with three disparate factions:

1. restraining the Radical Republican group who are opposed to any peace talks until the Slavery Amendment is passed,

2. approving the  Conservative Republicans, who want an immediate end to the war, with or without abolition, to  initiate feelers to the Confederate side, and

3. picking off any lame duck Democrats - who, having recently lost their seats in the election to the next Congress, are open to trading their votes for federal jobs.

When it finally comes to a vote their shaky coalition just about holds together: the Slavery Abolition Bill passes with two votes to spare.

And, so the movie underlines that Lincoln’s idealism is more than matched by his pragmatism.

He certainly doesn’t flinch from having to trade and negotiate with all sides to secure his goal.

His philosophy is well captured is one of his many memorable quotes from the movie:

“A compass, I learned when I was surveying, it’ll… it’ll point you 
True North from where you’re standing, but  it’s got no advice about
the swamps and deserts and chasms that you’ll encounter along the way.
If in pursuit of your destination, you plunge ahead, heedless of obstacles, 
and achieve nothing more than to sink in a swamp …
What’s the use of knowing True North?”

PS. For details of a related Torc training programme, please leave a request for brochure in comment box below. Title: Learning From The Movies© – Negotiation Skills

PPS. For related negotiation blogs, please click on the following Torc links:
1. Pride as a negotiating pitfall
2. Cool Hand, Hustle & Sting
3. Women make better negotiators
4. The art of the haggle
5. Negotiating – eyeball to eyeball
6. Humphrey Bogart’s dual duel
7. Negotiating: when the stakes are high
8. Streetwise tactical negotiation
9. Stand-offs … & face savings

 

Extracted from a Josh Bersin contribution to Forbes.com

In most companies the largest expense is payroll, yet few organizations can accurately predict whether a candidate will really perform well in the organization.

Bersin gives the example of a financial services company which believed that employees with good grades who came from highly ranked colleges would make good performers and their recruitment process was based on these academic drivers.

Following a statistical analysis of sales performance over the first two years of a new employee and correlating performance against a variety of demographic factors this is what they found:

What did drive sales performance:

An accurate, grammatically correct CV

Having completed some education from beginning to end

Having successful sales experience in high priced items

Demonstrated success in some prior job

Ability to work under unstructured conditions

What did NOT matter:

Where the candidate went to school

What grade they achieved

The quality of their references

We now have vast amounts of data on employees, performance, educational history and other factors – if we can apply analytics to selection, development and alignment of people, the returns can be tremendous.

 How to do it…….

We have the data (employee demographics, performance ratings, talent mobility, training completed, age, academic history etc) but we are not asking the right questions. The HR function needs people who can bring this data together, analyse it and interpret it to help inform the talent management agenda.

How to use it……..

Employee retention – what creates high levels of engagement & retention?

Leadership pipeline – who will be good leaders and will be developed?

Talent gaps – where can we predict talent gaps in coming years?

Candidate pipeline – what is the quality of our pipeline, how do we better attract and select people who we know will succeed in our business?

Business performance – what factors drive high performing individuals and high performing teams?

Conclusion

Big Data in HR is here; and the ability to use it to measure and predict talent performance is a major opportunity for HR leaders to create real value for the organization.

Bill Gates explaining his interest in Leonardo Da Vinci's diaries on 60 Minutes

Last evening’s 60 Minutes show on CBS gave a fascinating insight into Bill Gates’ second career  – as the world’s leading philanthropist.

While, outwardly,  he appears to have mellowed somewhat, from his hard-charging Microsoft days – inwardly,  the same old competitive streak still beats away.

One gets the impression that his exacting standards haven’t waned one iota – though he readily concedes that he is now more wont to teach than to criticise when he engages with colleagues.

This teaching trait is noted by his wife, Melinda, who stresses that: “he loves to teach”.

Hence his voracious reading (all manner of books on the subject of fertilisers are a current favourite, apparently) – together with the attention he devotes to spreading his message through his thegatesnotes blog.

A second trait of his that is also very much on view in this 60 Minutes’  interview is that of the impatient optimist – the title of his 2012 book.

This optimism is born out of his deep belief that science and innovation will deliver the big goals he has set for himself in terms of Third World development – eg. to eradicate, from the face of the earth, polio & tuberculosis by 2020 and malaria by 2030.

The impatience part of his optimism is painstakingly project managed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, comprising 1,200 executives organised with the same corporate precision as if it were  just another Microsoft.

This enables a laser-like focus on bringing forth practical solutions within the timeframes set – in true venture capitalist style, seeking out & funding the potentially transformative innovations that will eradicate, once and for all, the underlying problems of the Third World.

Some of the enabling technologies that he is especially excited about here, include:

- a low temperature thermos container capable of storing/transporting vaccines for up to 50 days without any external energy source

- a toilet that works without plumbing, to alleviate a major source of pollution in poverty stricken countries

- a laser-based  bug-zapper designed to shoot down malaria-carrying mosquitos in mid-air

- a nuclear reactor capable of running on depleted uranium & needing to be refueled just once every 60 years.

These are just some of the building blocks he is betting on to transform the lives of the world’s bottom 2 billion inhabitants, as he puts it.

All in all, this 60 Minutes’ interview is well worth a watch – not just because of the generosity & dedication to a great cause depicted, but also (from the viewpoint of career planning) for the spotlight it turns on second careers & post-retirement years, in general.

PS. For tips on navigating some key career hurdles, please click on the appropriate line here:
1. interview preparation
2. panel interviews
3. assessment centres
4. career change.

PPS. For related Torc case studies, please click on the following links:
1. psychometric tools and interview prep
2. coaching for a panel interview

Talent Acquisition can be defined as “a strategic approach to identifying, attracting and bringing on board talented people to meet changing business needs”.

Recruiting is a subset of Talent Acquisition incorporating sourcing, interviewing, selecting and hiring new staff; however Talent Acquisition is a much broader concept as it includes other strategic ‘corporate’ elements such as:

Employer Branding – those elements that define a company’s image and reputation, organization culture and differentiators which help attract quality candidates.

Candidate Targeting – defining and understanding the audiences which need to be engaged with to source specific talent.

Sourcing Strategies – different approaches need to be developed and applied depending on the audience which is being targeted.

Candidate Relationship Management – ensuring a positive candidate experience whether they are hired or not.

Metrics & Analytics – tracking the overall recruitment process throughout to make improved recruitment decisions, improved quality of hire and aid retention.

Onboarding – ensuring the candidate has a smooth introduction to the organization, handover to the hiring manager and department colleagues.

In addition the selection of tools, technology, recruitment and/or outsourcing partners are other important elements of a company’s Talent Acquisition strategy.

*Aadpted from  a blog  from Bersin by Deloitte

M*A*S*H's Father Mulcahy faces up to the job's credibility challenge

Army chaplains serve an intriguing role – as friends, counsellors and allies to the regular troops. 

Many are honoured in history for acts of immense bravery and gallantry; none more so than the 4 ministers on board the Dorchester troop carrier that was sank in the North Atlantic in 1943.

All four were last seen giving up their own life jackets to save the crew, before joining arms in song and going down with the ship.

The world of business takes many an organisational lead from military practice and much of its vocabulary too – but the role of the chaplain is a bit of a missing link.

Or is it?

For all intents and purposes, the executive coach is not too far removed from our image of the chaplain – certainly as portrayed in film over the years.

Father Mulcahy from the hit comedy series, M*A*S*H, comes to mind – the boyish padre looking after the spiritual needs of the wacky field-hospital  camp.

In one episode he tries to counsel a young soldier, Private Fitzsimon, who is so severely shell-shocked that he turns up in sick-bed, having deliberately shot himself in the foot.

But Fitzsimon refuses to open up to Mulcahy  – believing that a chaplain without front-line experience couldn’t understand what he was going through.

Father Mulcahy takes the point to heart and lobbies Colonel Potter to let him serve with the troops at the front, so he can better understand their predicament.

The Colonel refuses, but Mulcahy disobeys the order – sneaking away to accompany Radar on a field ambulance trip.

They soon pick up a soldier in need of an immediate trachiotomy.

For Mulcahy, it provides the opportunity not only to show his mettle but also to experience what it feels like to be a soldier in the heat of battle.

Without any medical training, and under intense enemy fire, he cuts open a hole in the soldier’s throat with his penknife  – & inserts an eye-dropper from his pocket to provide the all-imporant air-vent.

On his return to camp, his valour in saving the soldier’s life is duly celebrated by all.

But Mulcahy’s greatest satisfaction comes,  when  the heretofore, clammed-up Private Fitzsimon greets him with a big smile … and with the three little words he had been waiting to hear all along:

“Let’s talk, Father”.

PS. For related coaching tips, please click on the following links:
1. Emotional Intelligence Personified
2. Employee Engagement: An Unlikely Role Model
3. How To Rebuild Group Morale
4. Learning From The Movies

Ulster's Paddy Jackson recently fast-tracked onto the Irish rugby team

High potential individuals (HiPo’s),  can be found in any section/team in an organisation.

These are the individuals whose contributions are often a multiple of their run-of-the-mill fellow workers.

They constitute a distinct subcategory of any succession planning programme – ie. those  2-5% of the workforce, deemed promotable by 2 levels within a 4 year timeframe.

The challenge for an organisation is how to fast-track them to roles that maximally leverages their contribution – without demotivating the rest of the staff.

The key guideline here is to ensure that any HiPo programme doesn’t exist in isolation – but is anchored to one’s normal succession planning framework.

Specifically, this means it should embody all the normal rigours involved in establishing talent pools for each potential opening, developing competencies to match each targeted role, and operating open transparent competition in the filling of all jobs, etc.

And, of course, it should reference only those potential job openings projected from the strategic plan (so one is always starting with the end in mind, targeting the specific future needs of the organisation).

The key wrinkle in a HiPo programme, of course, is that one is looking at a 2-level jump rather than the more normal 1-level or lateral level move that dominates the more normal succession planning framework.

This means a HiPo individual may well be leapfroging past his present boss within a relatively short timeframe.

Accordingly, then it is usually the boss’s boss that is involved in establishing any development programmes in readying the HiPo individual(s) for the various talent/bench pools being targeted.

But, the key takeaway should be: if you’re embarking on the establishment of a HiPo programme, think of it as an add-on to, and not a replacement for, your normal succession planning framework.

PS. For related Torc case studies, please click on the following links:
1. Career Mobility & Talent Management
2. Assessing Organisation Skill Levels
3. 360-Degree Feedback & 1st 100-Days
4. Coaching With Psychometric Tools

The smartphone camera offers new revolutionary uses

The smartphone’s camera has opened the way to many new productivity apps.

Some of the more useful examples include:

Shoeboxed
This bills itself as one’s fulltime filing assistant. Its basic feature acts as a business card reader –  extracting the contact details for importation into one’s Address Book and other databases (eg. Salesforce,  Constant Contact, etc.) and, automatically sharing your own contact information with your new contacts. The fully featured offering expands into all other categories of paperwork you might have – extracting the scanned data, human-verifying, categorizing & sorting, and securely organizing in the Shoeboxed.com cloud.

eFax
This allows one to send a captured image from the phone’s camera via fax. It is a subscription service costing €11/month for transmission mode – with the “receiving-only”  option coming free of charge up to a limit. Email attachments or documents stored in the cloud can also be faxed.

Prizmo
This uses optical character recognition (OCR) to convert a print or written image into e-text – useful for grabbing and editing any amount of document or whiteboard content, etc. It requires good lighting, recognises 10 languages and costs $9.99.

Vignature
This is a clever way of getting a document signed through the internet – using a verifiable image of the signer. The image is collected through the signer’s smartphone camera in real time. Not only do you get a verifiable signature, you get an audit trail that shows the time and geographic location where the signing occurred.

Google Translate
This is one of a family of apps (others include PicTranslator & Babelshot), that allow you to take a close-up picture of a piece of text in one language and have it reproduced in a second language. 50 languages can now be handled and an audio read-out is also included.

Magnifying Glass
This enlarges the camera image to make small print more readable – with a zooming capability of up to 6x. Because of the built-in light capability of the smartphone, it is especially useful where the problems of small print are exacerbated by poor lighting as well.

PS. For related Torc articles, please click on the following links:
1. When’s a Smartphone a Gadget
2. Which Brainstorming Apps?
3. Smartphones & Personal Productivity
4. Decision-Making: New iPhone Apps
5. Cloud Computing & Personal Productivity
6. Career Management: New iPhone Apps
7. Interview Tips: New iPhone Apps
8. No More Meetings, Bloody Meetings
9. Working Against The Clock

The College of Cardinals assembling to elect Pope Francis

This week’s Papal election carries some important decision-making lessons.

In essence, the job of the conclave was to make a choice between the 115 Cardinals present – any of whom, in theory, could have been chosen.

No doubt, the range & diversity of candidates made for deep deliberation. Yet, the whole thing was done and dusted in little more than 24 hours.

Moreover, Pope Francis, had not been considered one of the favorites – being ranked only 9^th by the bookies, with odds of 20/1.

So, all in all, the college of Cardinals surprised the pundits with the speed and reach of their decision-making – using a multi-voting process that has stood the test of time, since 1621 at least.

This process allows for one ballot to be taken on day 1 and four ballots on each of days 2 & 3, of the conclave.

Then, one-day adjournments are mandated between any subsequent bouts of seven ballots.

If after 34 ballots, there is no clear-cut winner (ie. a single name holding two-thirds support of the College), then a run-off between the top two names is mandated in a final ballot.

In the workplace, variants of this process can be similarly exploited to maximise the efficiency of team decision-making.

The better known examples would be: the Nominal Group Technique (NGT) and the Deplhi Method.

NGT starts with a round-robin process where each team member publicly nominates and clarifies an option to be considered.

NGT then asks all members to rank their individual preferences for the various options nominated.

These weighted preferences are toted to produce a consolidated ranking for the team.

A second round of rankings, restricted maybe to the top ranking 30-60% from the first round, is then held and the process is continued through multiple rounds, as necessary, until a clear winner emerges.

The Deplhi Method is broadly similar, except the nomination part is skipped – to ensure absolute anonymity on each member’s position is established from the start.

Instead, nominations are received by balloting members, in confidence, to produce an initial ranking, based on the number of nominations each option receives.

As in the case of NGT, further rounds of balloting then ensue – again possibly, restricting each subsequent ballot to the top ranking 30-60%  from the preceding round, until as before, a clear winner emerges.

The first documented account of NGT is found in the Journal of Applied Behavioural Science from 1971.

The Delphi Method dates from a little earlier – apparently, having been invented as a forecasting tool by the US Military in their efforts to come to grips with the Cold War.

Sidney Lumet’s 12 Angry Men, also dating from the 1950’s, provides another variant on the use of voting to drive team consensus.

Here, the setting is the jury room and the challenge posed is to come up with an unanimous decision: guilty or not guilty.

The jury got there in 96 minutes with 5 rounds of balloting – coincidentally, the same number as used in this week’s conclave.

PS. For related decision-making tips, please click on the following links:
1. Decision-Making: New iPhone Apps
2. Decision-making: types, tips & traps
3. Choosing between a rock & a hard place
4. Problem-solving: forensic style
5. Prejudice, emotion & bias

We explore whats on the talent agenda for progressive organizations during 2013 ……………

The following is a summary of the latest thinking and observations gathered from leaders in global organizations by Bersin* .

Backdrop
The global economy has started to recover, only to be upset by continued high unemployment, imbalances in standards of living and the uneven growth of emerging economies. Businesses, while responding to market changes, find a shortage of talent and leadership holding them back.

This is the “talent paradox”. Companies need skills, yet unemployment remains high. There is more of a skills shortage than a jobs shortage.

Response
There will be a new focus on developmental and skills training, facilitated talent mobility programmes, career management, leadership development and reengagement of workforces.

Business Agility
There is increasing interest in ‘agile’ management practices – continuous feedback systems, social recognition tools and expert-focused leadership approaches. Continuous recruiting, continuous learning, continuous management and feedback and continuous recognition and rewards define the new agile model for HR.

HR Transformation
HR functions need to become more data-driven, proactive, business-aligned and strategic in nature. Rather than focusing heavily on administrative process, we need to build agility and deep expertise into the HR function – enabling HR business partners to truly help the business to improve.

Leadership Competencies
Businesses express a need to build a deeper, more scalable global leadership pipeline. This demand, coupled with a new set of 21st century leadership competencies, makes leadership development a high priority for 2013.

Continuous Learning
Given the global talent challenges which organisations face (and the explosion of online tools, content and systems), many high performing companies are re-thinking their whole L & D strategy. In 2013, companies should focus on learning on-demand, advanced learning technologies and developing a strong learning culture. It is possible to build a whole architecture of L & D offerings and solutions – these new programmes are social, mobile, continuous and highly integrated with talent management strategies.

Specialisation and Career Development
Jobs are becoming ever more specialised. Largely because of telecoms tools, companies can create highly specialised roles and enable experts to collaborate and support many teams and projects. In tandem, modern career development programmes have tremendous impact on performance, retention and engagement – companies should invest in these programmes in 2013.

Talent Mobility
Architected talent mobility is now a core talent management practice. In 2013 companies will likely expand their views on job mobility to enable a richer and wider variety of career models in their workforce.

Talent Acquisition
Companies are turning to professional networks, social media and candidate relationship models (CRM) as routes to source candidates; consequently the agency model and job boards are both declining.

Employer branding has become very important in creating the image of the organization as a great place to work and helping the engagement process internally and externally.

Companies need to make full use of the huge expertise of their external consultant involving them fully in the recruitment and selection process.

If you require advice or assistance on any aspect of Talent Management please contact us on 01 662 3020, pc@torc.ie.

* Extracted from “Predictions for 2013”, by Josh Bersin, Bersin by Deloitte, January 2013

NASA Director, Gene Krantz, works against the clock to save Apollo 13 crew

“Time is money” is one of the most perennial of workplace mantras - dating from Benjamin Franklin’s 1748 opus, Advice to a Young Tradesman.

And so, it is hardly surprising to see torrents of time tracking apps appearing today, to address this timeless (if you pardon the pun!) need.

A few examples (representative of some different genres) include:

Giant Timer
As the name indicates this is designed to stand out.

It is a simple timer that covers the entire iPad screen and is visible from over 100 feet!

So, it is suitable to display at any time-bound group gathering (meetings, competitions, examinations, assessments, etc.).

It has two settings, stopwatch and countdown.

Timer With Sections
This is equally handy in meetings and workshops, as it allows one to control the running sequence and durations by setting up various time slots for agenda items,  presentations, etc.

During the meeting you can make adjustments as needed, pause or skip sections or reset altogether.

 And, setups can be saved, edited and re- used again.

HoursTracker – Timesheet & Time Tracker
This provides a simple way to keep track of hours worked and earnings accruing on individual jobs, projects, etc – invaluable for contractors and employees, alike.

Data can be exported via e-mail in text or CSV format.

It handles multiple payment & overtime rates and rolls up intervals across project periods, in sync with billing periods – weekly, biweekly, monthly, as appropriate.

Alarm Clock Pro
This is a multi-featured app that goes way beyond its alarm clock name.

It can be programmed to ensure you wake up listening to your favourite music, for instance.

It functions as a world clock – displaying local times in global times zones and cities – and as a project clock (as in 3 above), for tracking due dates, etc.

Through GPS positioning, it also gives you instant access to your local sunrise, sunset, high tide and low tide, for any given date.

PS. For related Torc articles, please click on the following links:
1. When’s a Smartphone a Gadget
2. Which Brainstorming Apps?
3. Smartphones & Personal Productivity
4. Decision-Making: New iPhone Apps
5. Cloud Computing & Personal Productivity
6. Career Management: New iPhone Apps
7. Interview Tips: New iPhone Apps
8. No More Meetings, Bloody Meetings

PPS. For related training programmes, please click on the pertinent links here:
1. Mastering Personal Effectiveness
2. Management Supervisory Skills
3. Effective Interpersonal Skills
4. Business & Report Writing