Managing In The Digital Era Cheat Sheet (Page 2 of 2) in pdf

Managing in the Digital Era

Cheat Sheet

Ten management tips for better business performance

Kill the job description

Job descriptions were designed for the production era of last century when

management decided exactly what people should do and how it should be done.

Except for jobs where you want no variation, in today’s fast-moving, hyper-

connected environment, job descriptions will hamper the organisation’s ability to

be agile, responsive and innovative.

Don’t focus on talent

Talent programs give organisations a false sense of control over performance.

They lead to decreased diversity, they create an invisible layer of internal

competition that undermines social cohesion – both diversity and social cohesion

being proven factors in high organisational performance – and they

overemphasise the abilities of the individual at the expense of other factors, like

culture, which have a higher correlation to high performance than talent measures.

Retire the performance review program

The annual (or bi-annual) performance review is problematic in many ways. For

example: its feedback is based on the past; its judgmental nature treats

performance as weaknesses to be fixed, prompting an unconscious ‘fight or flight’

response that inhibits openness and honesty in both the reviewer and the subject;

and feedback linked to salaries and bonuses leads to decreased performance and

motivation. Instead, just like your favourite video game, systemise feedback so

that people can identify both wins and improvements as they go.

Create a positive culture

When you do away with the controls – like job descriptions and performance

reviews – you may wonder how you will manage your people. The answer is

through the culture. A values-driven culture tells people what your business

stands for so they can figure out how things should be done. It builds trust and

engages people to want to help you succeed.

Open up

If you depend primarily on the skills, experience and resources within your

organisation you could be leaving yourself so intellectually under-capitalised it

could be fatal to your business. In today’s connected world there is unlimited

expertise outside the organisation, and the winners are those who invest in an

infrastructure of skills (like collaboration) and systems to utilise all available talent.

Managing In The Digital Era Cheat Sheet Page 2