Leadership matters

Welcome to the August edition of Inside Knowledge magazine.

In what is traditionally a very quiet part of the annual calendar, with employees and employers alike enjoying the holiday season, or savouring some well-deserved (albeit brief) respite as they reach the end of their financial years, 2009 has been somewhat, well, hectic.

It seems that no sector has been immune to the recession – even those that have seemingly weathered the economic storm thus far are feeling the strain now, despite the numerous rumours of green shoots and ‘the worse is over’.

From a personal point of view, as a regular commuter into London, I feel rather put out by the announcement that one of the freebie evening newspapers will be shutting down in the near future. Not to divide opinion, but I’m sure I’m not the only person wishing that this fate had befallen ‘the other one’.

Of course, this is not a subject to be taken lightly. All over the UK, and indeed the world, organisations are suffering the same fate; and in those cases where profit margins do keep the company’s head above water, it is not always viable to stumble along in the same manner as before. Processes, products and, more importantly, people will need to change.

In this month’s cover feature, leadership guru Stephen Denning discusses the importance of leadership during periods of organisational change – in particular, how choosing your words carefully when communicating any aspect of a change programme or restructure can encourage genuine support from employees.

He puts forward the argument that effective change management is not about merely inducing staff to grudgingly comply with change, it is about inspiring them to embrace it with energy and enthusiasm – thereby becoming champions for the cause. It is thought-provoking stuff and very well worth the read.

As always, if you have a story that you would like to share, or would like to offer some feedback on the magazine, I can be contacted at kclifton@ark-group.com.

In the meantime, I hope that you enjoy the issue.

Kate Clifton
Head of Editorial

Features

Have you tweeted yet? This article is for subscribers only
Social networking is the hottest topic in digital media at present. A good mark of the importance of a product or service within the zeitgeist is the manner in which its name enters the everyday lexicon. So rather than record a television show, one might ‘TiVo’ it and rather than search the web one ‘Googles’. Similarly the new methods of communication through social media are becoming part of the daily vernacular. So posting to Twitter is commonly known as ‘Tweeting’ and connecting to a friend on a social networking site such as Facebook would be referred to as having ‘Facebooked’ them.

Case study: Norton Rose This article is for subscribers only
I was recently tasked with a project and given the brief “we want you to implement a WCMS [web content management system] and redesign the intranet to make it work for us”. My initial response was to think ‘what a great opportunity to do what I have always wanted – build a new intranet from scratch, with a user-friendly WCMS, and provide lots of user-focused dynamic content. That is the model that I believe we should aspire to, so that is what we need’.

Cover feature: Listen and help learn This article is for subscribers only
Leaders in today’s firms increasingly find themselves in situations where they need to persuade their staff and colleagues to change. Often the change involves new ways of doing things that are fundamentally at odds with the way things have been done in the past. As a result, the change is not always welcomed. The audience is often difficult, sceptical, cynical, or even hostile to what they are about to say. And if buy-in is grudging or low, implementing the change will be slow, difficult and costly.

Technology Q&A: Head in the cloud? This article is for subscribers only
Mark Lewis discusses the current hype surrounding cloud computing and some factors to bear in mind when planning an enterprise implementation.

Regulars

The Gurteen perspective This article is for subscribers only
For years, I have struggled, not knowing how best to label myself. Am I a teacher, a trainer, a coach, a writer, an author, an educator, an adviser, a consultant or a facilitator? Or am I some blend of all of these?
I am clearly not a teacher in the traditional sense and I am not a trainer (and dislike the word). It works fine for animals and athletes, little else. I am not an author, as I have yet to write a book, but I do write so I am a writer of sorts. An educator? Not really and given my lack of any serious academic qualifications or affiliations this label does not feel right either.

Thought leader Free
In general, Twitter usage by employees should be covered by existing web participation guidelines. As Twitter is a public forum, employees should understand the limits of what is acceptable and desirable. It is good practice to remind staff that the policies already in place apply to this new communication forum. If organisations have not defined a public web participation policy, they should do so as quickly as possible.