I have seen first hand the transformative power that technology has to change lives. I wake up every day passionate about discovering new ways to express that opportunity.Innovation is driven by a commitment to thrive and leverage knowledge in new ways. As an industry leader, Jared Mabry reflects on how to question the norm, harness your assets, and provoke disruptive innovation.
Unfortunately, some organizations tend to devalue upfront planning and analysis, opting for the ever-popular but oh so short-sighted "ready, fire, aim" approach. I'm not suggesting that organizations strive for perfection as they plan for and implement their Innovation Systems. Quite the contrary. But there is a balance to strike and that "right balance" includes a Readiness Assessment.
Read More
In Innovation Commitment - It Takes a Community, I shared three key roles that are both pivotal and complementary to the Change Leader Triathlete's crusade — Change Influencers, Change Champions and Change Implementers. While many community members will step into the implementer's role, only a small group (comparatively speaking) will fulfill influencing and championing responsibilities.
Read More
Not all organizations and cultures are created equal. Just because organizational leaders proclaim "We will innovate or else!", doesn't mean that innovation models, systems and labs will take flight and soar. Unfortunately many organizations cut corners during their initial "let's become an innovative organization" planning phase, where essential impact and readiness assessments and their accompanying mitigation strategies, are oftentimes overlooked. When we gloss over this work, we run the risk of developing misguided and half-baked transformational plans that ultimately cripple our innovation efforts, progress and outcomes.
Read More
hange is constant whether it's self-selected or mandatory. The challenge with change, or rather with our approach to change, is that intellectually we "get" the need for change, but oftentimes we either get stuck before we even start down the change path or we don't know or have what it takes to make the change stick. Before embarking upon that next great big work or personal life change challenge, factor the Four Imperatives into the equation if you truly want to succeed — Internal Motivation, Simplicity, Energy and Rewards.
Read More
Now that you’ve developed your “First 18 Months” StrengthsFinder Scorecard (refer to Part V in this series), the next step is to identify your key objectives, objective-attainment owners plus target dates. A word about objective-attainment owners — their role is to ensure that the work gets accomplished by holding others accountable to the individual tasks that must be tackled in order to achieve each objective. Owners must clearly state this expectation up front otherwise team members may incorrectly assume that the owner is the sole responsible party — the “doer” of each task.
Read More
The first step in developing any type of strategy is to define your end goal. The key question to ask yourself is “What do I hope to accomplish and what will success look like —what are my success criteria?” Specific to StrengthsFinder, your goal might be to create a high performing team. If that’s the case, your success criteria might take the shape of a scorecard similar to the one provided.
Read More
Most organizations barely scratch the surface when it comes to effectively leveraging the StrengthsFinder tool to achieve optimum value. Typically employees are asked to take the assessment, after which the results are discussed in private or group settings. In some cases, the results may be referenced down the road, but more as fleeting comments versus beneficial data points that lead to action and results. That’s where tool usage generally concludes.
Read More
Through Dr. Clifton’s extensive research, he and his colleagues identified 34 discrete talent themes, with talents being defined as people’s naturally recurring patterns of thoughts, feelings or behaviors that can be productively applied in the business environment. The theory is that the more dominant the theme, the greater the theme’s impact will be on that person’s behaviors and performance.
Read More
When evaluating which employment tests to leverage within your organization, it’s critical that, among other criteria, you research the test developers’ credentials. In the case of the Clifton StrengthsFinder Assessment, the test was developed and refined by Dr. Donald O. Clifton, who earned his University of Nebraska doctorate degree in educational psychology. Once he assumed the role of Professor of Educational Psychology within the same institution and teamed up with University of Nebraska Department of Psychology Chair Dr. William E. Hall (Ohio State University doctoral graduate), they began their evolutionary research into the key question: “what would happen if we actually studied what was right with people?” At that time, leveraging positive psychology to focus on human potentiality was a significant departure from the norm of diagnosing and treating people’s problems.
Read More
Outside of technology, one area of my role that I enjoy greatly is organizational development. Working to build strong, cohesive, and effective teams is something that I not only take seriously myself, but something I encourage each member of my teams to take seriously as well. One way in which to do this is through talent development, but training and mentoring aren’t always the answer without the right information to guide those activities. For this reason, I started doing some research and it’s not surprising to learn that hundreds of employment tests are available in today’s marketplace.
Read More