Maslow, Hierarchy of Needs, Toby Elwin, blog

The key to innovation may be better employee hygiene

Today’s drive for continual innovation, as taught or written or sought or crowd sourced, has a lot to do with early pioneers in management theory. For example, why is hygiene important to innovation? Key to innovation: motivation, And motivation needs hygiene to succeed. The humanistic management school emphasizes, however strange it may sound, the human aspects of organizations. The humanistic school stands in direct contrast to the mechanistic views of people, jobs, and organizations. A distinct management theory split from mechanistic to the introduction of humanistic views is usually assigned around the mid-1940s, or just after World War II. Who Punted My Cheese We all know the saying, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.  By blowing some of the dust off first edition humanist theorists we might highlight where we’ve come, what we’ve forgotten, and what we …

Googled, End of the World As We Know It, Ken Auletta, book, Toby Elwin, blog

Googled: the cost of culture

What does culture really costs a company? Is it worth investing in culture or passively letting culture form, also known as luck-based leadership? What is the cost of culture, in profit or loss? I found this one company a great example: Maternity leave: 5 months full salary Paternity leave: 7 weeks full salary Plus new moms and dads are able to expense up to $500 for take-out meals during the first four weeks that they are home with their new baby. Free meals, free snacks, free physicians (on site), free medical care (on site), massage (on site), gyms (on site), trainers (on site). On-site hair cutting, car wash, oil change, day care, dog care, and dental care. And what does this cost? Well, the percentage of revenue these perks cost the company each year starting in 2005 are as follows: …

herzberg, factor, job satisfaction, Toby Elwin, blog

The bottom line: motivation

Your organization is only effective when they feel like it.  Have you coached your management and executive team on how to motivate people around your vision?  The company’s bottom line is motivation, their motivation, not yours. A leader holds managers accountable to understand, commit, and own a manager’s role to translate an enterprise vision to their team.  Your management’s ability to own their role and effectively translate that to their team is the break point for organization success or failure. Leaders inspire, leaders role their sleeves up to involve themselves in gauging the pulse of their organization, division, their department, their team.  Leaders sit with their talent to out how they can lead better.  Leaders lead.  Managers manage.  Both motivate. Start Here, End There The alpha and beta of motivation in the workplace is Frederick Herzberg’s Motivation to Work study, published in 1959.  This 180-page book should reside on every leaders Kindle, iPad, …