Blog entries

KPMG says B-BBEE is on track

Mags Shapiro — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:33:31 +0100

I still find a startling level of misinformation and misunderstanding among my clients regarding what B-BBEE is really all about. Somehow, apart from the person directly responsible for the B-BBEE scorecard, many think its still all about "being forced to sell part of your company to black people" and "reverse discrimination when it comes to recruitment."

Sigh.

I still say skills development plus enterprise development that works hand-in-hand with preferential procurement ...

Celebrating Youth Day: Aluta Continua

Ruwayne Kock — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:44:02 +0100

As we are celebrating youth day, we are reminded of the sacrifices the Soweto youth made to the liberation of South Africa. However, the most disappointing aspects of post-apartheid South Africa is extreme levels of unemployment, particularly less-skilled and younger Back people. These unemployment levels are further aggravated by the lack of infrastructure to equip these young people with the right skills. Therefore in the absence of effective infrastructure, structural unemployment remains ...

Debunking the Talent Retention Myth

Ruwayne Kock — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 01:16:23 +0100

With a slow upturn of the economy and limitations on job mobility, means that employees may become more despondent and even more unproductive in their jobs. The research conducted in the first South African National survey on employee engagement by Kock ...

The Power of Pause in a High Tech World

Mags Shapiro — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 19:32:53 +0100

Technology enables us to do more, faster. And so we do more... faster. But not better. And our quality of life is not better. In this powerful article by Barry C. Boyce we learn the value of the "pause". To be effective, it has to be your pause - you decide when and how long it should be...

"The best-known program in high tech for promoting wisdom practices is Google’s Search Inside Yourself, which was spearheaded by Chade-Meng Tan. Meng, as he i...

Values in Action - Hospice

Mags Shapiro — Sun, 29 May 2011 13:44:53 +0100

While engaging with the Hospice means I'm engaging with the very sad matter of my father dying of cancer, this has also been an amazing opportunity to be reminded of how real and strong values embedded across every touchpoint of an organisation is truly powerful stuff.

Every person, down to the gardener who stops raking and comes and sits next to you on the garden bench, the person who arranges the initial assessment who knows there's not my more to say than, "Aaaah, my lovey," the fre...

Sparking Creativity in Teams

Mags Shapiro — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 23:37:01 +0100

I have been working alot lately with teams in creative professions. Those maintaining a competitive advantage appear better at staying in the creative zone - whether consciously or not.

Marla M. Capozzi, Renée Dye, and Amy Howe share their insights for 'getting and staying in the zone' in McKinsey Quarterly. Some great ideas here, including "immersing your people in unexpected environments, confronting ingrained orthodoxies, using analogies, and challenging your or...

Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us

Mags Shapiro — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 19:03:00 +0100

This lively RSA Animate, adapted from Dan Pink's talk at the RSA, illustrates the hidden truths behind what really motivates us at home and in the workplace.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc

Performance Review - great way to start the year

Mags Shapiro — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 18:52:25 +0100

If you didn't get the chance to review performance before the silly season started, its a great way to kick start the year.

Here are some sample questions:

1. What are some of the highlights for you at work during the past year?

In one of the forums that I belong to, a frustrated member related her husband’s experiences of the job market. According to her he applied for a 6 month contract position that was a little below his level of experience. Although the rate wasn’t great he figured that it was better to earn some money rather than none at all. He felt that he could probably do the job relatively easily and still continue with his j...

The Long Term Approach to Excellence

Marion Stone — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 12:44:58 +0100

When I did a Google image search for ‘long term view’ the search results were filled with graphs and statistics. Funny, I was expecting to see sustainable forests, children and maybe property. Shows you how much money influences our ability to assess the long-term view!

We weigh up the long-term with the short-term on a daily basis. Raising children is not without its short-term rewards but as parents we look forward to the company of our grown...

Generosity as a Way to Excellence

Marion Stone — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 22:20:49 +0100

When times are tight people tighten their belts and go into survival mode. This can manifest itself in all sorts of different ways from the managers who hold onto information because it might give them an edge over another to the teams who won’t collaborate because they believe that they can do it better on their own.

Personally I believe that a survival mode is the road to mediocrity and mediocrity doesn’t survive in an economic downturn. Instead, let us look at generosity...

Trust as a Cornerstone to Excellence

Marion Stone — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 13:22:05 +0100

I like a clean and tidy house and although I am prepared to contribute to tidiness levels I would prefer to leave the cleaning to others! So I employ a great cleaning service that do a wonderful job of achieving my goal for me. Before I found my current cleaning service I struggled with another one (lets call them the ‘Come Clean Co’) that never quite delivered what I needed and in the end we just agreed to part ways.

My experience with Come Clean left me reflecting on what...

Why You're Doing Performance Reviews All Wrong

Mags Shapiro — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 13:50:57 +0100

By Kirsten Korosec on BNET.com:

http://www.bnet.com/article/why-youre-doing-performance-reviews-all-wrong/387717

Engaging Managers and Professional Skills in Client Organisation

Ruwayne Kock — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 15:54:44 +0100

Our client organisation adopted a talent management framework to deal with competitive reality in this raging war for talent. In spite of these efforts, the organisation had experienced high turnover amongst their management cadre. Consequently, the client commissioned an independent study to understand these turnover reasons and to generate action plans to mitigate this human capital risk.

Our locally validated employee e...

The Case for Managing Performance Part 3

Marion Stone — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:04:07 +0100

Reward and development are often overlooked as reasons to have a performance management process because they don’t solve immediate problems. The impact on motivation is even more neglected as a reason to manage performance because it is a ‘down the road’ consequence and it is not visible (unless you measure it). If we were all highly concerned about ‘down the road’ consequences, more people would stop smoking and drive more carefully! I touched on the subject in ...

Do Unlimited Vacation Days Mean Happier Employees?

Mags Shapiro — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 01:52:02 +0100

From 'In Good Company: Vault's CSR blog'

http://www.vault.com/wps/portal/usa/blogs/entry-detail/?blog_id=1462&entry_id=11721

The Case for Managing Performance - Part 2

Marion Stone — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:48:20 +0100

Reward and development are often overlooked as reasons to have a performance management process because they don’t solve immediate problems. If you set goals and direction for your employees you immediately have something that you can use to benchmark someone’s progress. It is an instant solution of sorts. Reward and development are more long-term reasons for performance management. If you have a process, then it will make your life easier in the long term with respect to iden...

The Case for Managing Performance - Part 1

Marion Stone — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 19:21:04 +0100

So why should you have some form of process for managing performance. The picture that is generated in everyone’s head when the words ‘system’ or ‘process’ is used is that of a bureaucratic administrative burden. It also conjures up images of conflict and not many people enjoy that! Business owners, managers and employees do not understand the benefit of having a process so everyone sees it as a ...