What does Stooge hygiene have to do with employees?
Closing out 2012, I look back at the year’s most viewed posts as a chance to reflect on different blogs topics of interest and what people most view.  Here as part one, 2012 top blogs, 10 to 6.
Why were some viewed over others: topic, time-of-year, day-of-week?
In descending order:
10. The 2 most important learning metrics —
Quantify learning? It is a tall task, but one necessary for any professional who deserves a seat at the business table.
Of course metrics to measure impact are important: money spent on training is money unavailable for another opportunity.
If you had time with your CEO would you know the most important items on their wish list?
No worries, ROI Institute and Chief Learning Officer magazine have a study recap [link no longer valid, sadly] I’ve referenced.
As this post was originally written in 2010, looks like learning justification is still an important topic.
And just to keep things on the up-and-up, of course, this post talks about the Kirkpatrick Model.
9. The key to innovation may be better employee hygiene —
Hygiene, not the minty breath and clean hands type of hygiene, but the classic Herzberg/Maslow hygiene. Though we get the latest digital updates of Harvard Business Review, McKinsey Quarterly, or Who Moved My Cheese, I talk of the hygiene both Maslow and Herzberg separately espouse as the foundation discussion that began with these modern management theorists, and of names anyone in people-related roles (see: everyone) should familiarize themselves with:
- Abraham Maslow
- Frederick Herzberg and his famous work Bernard Mausner and Barabara Bloch Snyderman
- Douglas McGregor
- Elton Mayo, and
- Mary Parker Follett
These humanistic thinkers are in direct contrast to their mechanistic contemporaries:
- Frederick Winslow Taylor,
- Henry Ford, and
- Alfred Sloan
Again, though written in 2010, this blog still resonates. I should say, management theories written by folks a half a century ago, that I refer to, still carry the day.
8. 4 tips to use Twitter for project management —
A blog I wrote that has found its legs on other sites and continues to gain traction.
I have used Twitter, extensively and written many times about the value of effective communication.
Most everything we do in organizations today is through a project and projects either: improve something that exists or create something new, so either require a lot of communication. Communication is critical, so how can we cut through the clutter and communicate: TWITTER!
Twitter is my 140 character noise filter. I feel this 2010 post still has reader response as the post combines both social media trends with tactical ways to manage projects as with resources available to anyone within any size organization.
7. Scope or: how to manage projects for organization success, part 1 —
Top Reasons for Project Failure
So, again in 2012, this project thing seems to have a sustainable interest as both this post and the one above were both written in 2010.
Why is scope important? Projects all start with the best intention along the way time, resources, and expectations start to change.
The culprit: scope.
Without a detailed scope management plan is the difference between getting a project done or getting a project accomplished.
Projects, most likely fail, when scope is not clear. Scope is not clear when sponsors, stakeholders, and customers are not involved.
Any and every modification to scope adds project risk down the project’s life cycle. The further along a project is, the more trouble any, and every, change causes.
This post is 1 of 5 posts in the Scope or: how to manage projects for organization success.
6. The cost of culture, a 50% turnover of the Fortune 500 —
Culture. Talked a lot about, but rarely with an intentional effort to map, modify, or address.
This post has caught some nice attention and both cited and noted in a new book, which is nice. Why the attraction? Well, every decade, the the Fortune 500 turnover 50% of their companies. The answers could keep a Board of Directors or CEO up at night.
This blog, again written in 2010, took very little research to find the turnover. 2 of my sources are great influences of mine: MIT Sloan School of Management professor, Peter Senge, who presented the average life of a Fortune 500 company is 30 years and Jim Collins, author of Built to Last, who notes only 71 companies on the original 1955 Fortune 500 list are there today.
Change is constant, it is a mantra I carry forward. Change without diagnostic inquiry remains only as effective as the doctor who asks about the entire well-being of the patient, lasting change has to begin with well-crafted appreciative inquiry.
Next: Top 10 blog posts for 2012, 5 to 1
Compare to: Top 10 blog posts for 2011, 10 to 6
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