In this interview, we ask Desiree Jonek , co-founder of WoMentor and the author of the brand new paper “5 effective measures to navigate the shift to an inclusive and performing corporate culture “, 3 big questions about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI):
Long-term OKR scheduling
Long-term scheduling makes it easier to adjust to spontaneous changes on short notice. OKR meetings should become a routine. Habits, once achieved, require little energy. When team members have learned that, for example, the OKR quarterly planning meeting is always on the last Thursday of the quarter and an OKR check-in meeting is scheduled every other Thursday in between – OKR becomes a no-brainer.
Experience has shown that only the timely meetings are a challenge due to many other planned events. If you always send the appointment invitations for the entire next year, the company will get used to it and you will have more energy for content-related work.
Very practical are serial appointments with individual corrections, e.g. if they fall on holidays or on the Christmas vacation.
The optimal OKR meeting size
4 – 8 participants are an optimal size for quarterly planning meetings, in order to consider sufficiently different perspectives on the one hand and to be able to discuss actively and time-efficiently on the other. However, if the team consists of fewer members, that is also OK. 2-3 people can manage with much less time.
In planning meetings at higher hierarchical levels, such as when developing the OKR set for the entire company, more people often want to be present. This is understandable, since the quarterly priorities are set for the company.
However, discussions with more than 8 people can be lengthy or lead to different levels of participation.
One proven way to keep the number of participants low is for owners of similar departments or functions to take turns participating. If you personally do not have a place in the next meeting, you can make your wishes known in advance via the backlog list or another representative.
Never has it been more important to adjust continually to a dynamic environment. OKR proves to be a great method to overcome crisis situations – read more about it here.
Discuss your progress regularly
Choosing well-worded OKRs is one side of success, the other is discussing progress regularly, e.g. bi-weekly. For this, it helps to visibly grade progress. Some prefer to work with color codes from the beginning. I.e. all Key Results start in red and partly reach the colors orange, yellow and green during the quarter. Others prefer to work with the numbers 0,0 – 1 during the quarter and use the colors only at the quarterly review. A third possibility are progress bars, where the filled area increases step by step.
Progress visualization increases motivation because messenger substances such as dopamine and endorphins are released in the brain.
CEO | MDI Management Development International
Gunther Fürstberger is a management trainer, author and CEO of Metaforum and MDI – a global consulting company providing solutions for leadership development. His main interest is to make the world a better place through excellent leadership. He has worked for clients including ABB, Abbvie, Boehringer Ingelheim, DHL, Hornbach, PWC and Swarovski. His core competence is leadership in digital transformation. He gained his own leadership experience as HR Manager of McDonald’s Central Europe/Central Asia. At the age of 20 he already started working as a trainer.
Authors: Josef Wegenberger, Oliver Wegenberger
Society for Business Psychology and Organizational Dynamics
Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of a company from the 1980s. TECHNIK AG is a typical large company with several thousand employees. The order situation is stable, the personnel is well qualified for the tasks through school and professional training. All leaders are “masters of their trade”, have essentially all the necessary knowledge and are thus predestined to act as “superiors” in the respective department. Personnel development is limited to training and continuing education, and even this is the exception rather than the rule. Discussions with employees are event-driven, and structured employee appraisals do not actually take place in practice. Further training events for very specific target groups are “prescribed” and centrally controlled.
In the mid-1980s, training needs are surveyed – if at all – by well thought-out training needs surveys using questionnaires sent to all managers. The human resources department evaluates these and prepares a preliminary training budget. Budget planning is then decided for the entire company; changes and budget reductions are reported back to the divisions and departments. After this, the specific training and development measures are planned and implemented by the end of the year. The remaining planned measures are postponed to the next year or are no longer current. Short-term training needs are covered by reallocations or cannot be realized.
The case study is constructed. However, it shows the cycle of two to three years from training needs assessment to implementation and evaluation.
Our case study – TECHNIK AG is still operating successfully in the market. It is now divided into numerous subsidiaries and cooperates with numerous partner companies and start-ups.
The environment is VUCA
The year 2020, with the COVID pandemic, has once again reinforced the rapid pace and dynamics of changed and changing conditions.
Statements, such as “speed kills” and “the big will not eat the small, but the fast will eat the slow”[1], are no longer slogans [but] reality.
[1] Based on Eberhard von Kuenheim [*1928] Chairman of the Board of Management [1970-1993] and Chairman of the Supervisory Board [1993-1999] of BMW AG.
Rapid and flexible cycles in target management [agreement – delegation – implementation – review / evaluation], virtual leadership, networking, etc. are changing the world of work and thus teamwork management at all levels and in all areas. TECHNIK AG has already converted performance management to quarterly cycles and coordination takes place in “daily standings”, weekly and monthly team meetings and individual discussions between leaders and team members.
Talent and competence management is still lagging behind somewhat and still opts for the more classic methods of assessing the current situation – apart from a few exceptions and “experiments” – by means of standardized appraisal interviews and assessment centers or potential analyses. However, all those responsible in the company are aware that agile talent and competence management will become a critical factor for success in the future.
Exactly the opposite is the case. Only through precise planning as well as a goal-oriented and consistent approach can the benefits of agile management be exploited.
Target management must not be a “one-time” thing at the beginning of the fiscal year”, but must be an integral part of “daily business” at all levels.
However, the application of the various, small-scale methods of competence development, such as micro-learning, learning nuggets, e-learnings, webinars, intensive coaching elements, etc., requires a continuous assessment of the current situation. This includes the competencies relevant to the requirements [personal, communicative, methodological, special, technical and management competencies].
is also due to the fact that the investment costs are to be used efficiently and the “return on investment” is to be made at the earliest possible point in time.
The assessment of the current situation is the basis for recommendations for further development and clear development target agreements, which – analogous to target performance management – are evaluated, for example, on a quarterly basis:
The graphic shows the control loop of agile competence management, with the starting point of the site assessment (Standortbestimmung) in the form of the agile competence evaluation. (Kompetenzentwicklung) The result of the competence target/actual comparison (Erfolgskontrolle) leads to recommendations for further development. (Feedback) These are to be converted into concrete learning objectives, which form the basis of competence development
is the monitoring of the success and effectiveness of the learning content. The methods used for this purpose include self-assessments, specific test procedures, work samples, and even [interim] examinations as part of training courses. The feedback between manager and team member is the starting point for further competence evaluation and the continuous learning process can start again.
The role image of team members continues to develop “from employees to co-entrepreneurs“. For the area of competence development, this means increased self-responsibility for their own development and career. Continuous learning will [have to] become a matter of course for all employees.
Our Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D Consultant Marina Begic is currently focusing intensively on “The Future of Workplace Learning”.
Fast and targeted learning, especially for leaders, is becoming increasingly important in an intensifying digital and agile world. Therefore, Marina shares her personal learnings with us. Let’s get started with the topic “Digitization Boost”.
By the way, we’ll soon continue with our second part: “Why you can do without Learning managment systems? (LMS)” We’re looking forward to it already!
If you would like to exchange thoughts and ideas about “Agile Leadership Development”, please send us a request. We are looking forward to you and your valuable impulses!
Who doesn’t know this or a similar situation? The newly announced learning platform, which has been around for 2 years now, “will change the learning culture in the company in the long term, teach us innovative things and save us a lot of time”. Finally it comes out with the first two e-learnings: Fire Protection Ordinance and Compliance…
While you read the bubble text about “maintaining a safe distance from machines in production”, you can visibly see that a lot of effort has been made to maintain the corporate design and the new diversity policy, right down to the avatar named Lucy. After successfully completing the first two courses (there is no other way, since you can click around, until you find the right answer in the final quiz), the third one comes out 3 months later…
by finding the announcement mail with the link to the platform, one looks with joyful expectation and sees the only new e-learning course is on the topic of “IT security”. The deadline for completion is by the end of the quarter, so there is still enough time. We quickly close the program again. However, this time we set our favorites, so that the next time we do not have to look trough all our mails. In addition our e-mails do not become less and there is still so much to do for the upcoming presentation of a new project this week…
Three days after the end of the quarter comes the third “friendly reminder” from the supervisor, this time in red and capital letters. It tells us to complete the e-learning course “IT Security”, otherwise the quarterly commission cannot be paid on time if the learning objectives have not been achieved.
In the 21st-century-skills (P21) the following 4 skills were defined in the area of learning to be able to participate in modern working life:
The model has been extended, discussed and modified many times, but it is remarkable that the active and interpersonal part has always remained. Experts agree that learning alone is no longer sustainable in the 21st century.
With the breaking down of technical barriers thanks to cloud solutions, more stable and faster internet, learning management systems (LMS) have become increasingly popular. The Corona pandemic gave the perceived need for LMSs another boost.
Face-to-face training sessions have had to be cancelled from one day to the next, and to ensure that learning doesn’t stop, numerous programs have helped to ensure that knowledge building, training and skills transfer can still take place. In other words, synchronous or asynchronous formats were put in place.
In Jane Hart’s annual international study of the “Top Tools for Learning” in over 45 countries, it can be seen that learning in the workplace does not happen only or only to a small extent via LMS.
The majority of learning does not take place via formal tools, but via informal and, in particular, via active tools, i.e. by trying things out for oneself and talking about them or sharing them!
Top Tools for Learning 2020 (Hart, 2020)
Despite many proven advantages such as cost savings, increased learning transfer, more flexible learning through location and time-independent learning, it was only the Corona pandemic that made the necessity of digital learning formats apparent to even the very last companies.
Two-thirds of companies are planning to move employees to remote working in the long term. It is now known that the half-life of knowledge is decreasing insanely fast and that one must continue to learn continuously in one’s working life.
A century ago, it took about 35 years to correct or replace half the knowledge an engineer learned in college. New estimates put the half-life of an engineering degree between 2.5 and five years. The basics remain, but other things evolve.
“Those who don’t evolve with the times will soon no longer be able to do their jobs.” (Jane Hart 2020)
Digital Business Development Expertin und Senior L&D Consultant
Marina has been working on new, effective learning methods and the future of corporate learning for over 15 years. In her current role, she is responsible for Digital Business Development at MDI, where her focus is not driven by the current buzzwords, but primarily on the feasibility of digital transformation for clients such as Erste Group, Lenzing, Semperit, Deutsche Bahn, Andritz AG, Uniqa, Mayr-Melnhof, Frequentis, RHIM. Her greatest strength is bringing loose ends together, which she impressively demonstrates time and time again with her big picture view and multi-dimensional approach. Her greatest passion is to provide learners not only with an experience, but also with real, lasting value for their real challenges.
We help make leadership development more agile with our digital training formats:
– we have just the right thing for your needs!
Many businesses are currently reinventing themselves. Most companies have been undergoing massive changes since the beginning of 2020. Many of them are actively trying to shape the digital transformation.
In this blog post Anita Berger, Gunther Fürstberger and Masha Ibeschitz, share 4 agile change management tools that help to consciously initiate and manage change:
Executive Coach, Consultant, Trainer & Managing Partner MDI
Anita Berger is an executive coach, consultant and trainer specialising in leadership development and international human resource management. She is a partner of MDI Management Development International. For more than 15 years she has worked in management and leadership positions (among others as HR-
Director at Coca-Cola Hellenic and HR Manager at Konica Minolta Business Solutions).
CEO , MDI Management Development International
Gunther Fürstberger is a management trainer, book author and CEO of MDI, a global leadership development institute and managing director of Metaforum. His core competence is leadership in the digital transformation. He gained his own leadership experience as HR manager of McDonald’s Central Europe/Central Asia, among others.
Founder and CEO , Think Beyond Group
As an executive coach, consultant, key speaker and reflection guide for top executives, the graduate in business administration is active worldwide and accompanies her international clients through the challenges of the “VUCA world”. Masha Ibeschitz is the founder and chairwoman of the Think Beyond Group and a shareholder of MDI. She is also the author of several non-fiction books (“Success Reloaded”, “Impact”)
Organisations can use these four tools to reflect on the transformation so far and to set the next steps.
In order to even decide whether agility is needed in a company or specific area, the “land/water metaphor” helps:
If you operate in a reasonably stable environment, you can build on solid ground and will be well served by a traditional management and leadership philosophy. Too agile methods would even irritate in such a company.
On the other hand, if you are exposed to one wave of disruption after another, you better learn to surf soon. This means that such a corporate unit must be constantly on the move in order to remain in balance.
Ambidextry – the art of ambidexterity – is essential for many organisations. They need both the ability to manage the present and the artistry to tap into the even more uncertain future opportunities. The answer to land and water is the right combination of stability and agility.
One hand represents the ability to establish a stable foundation. It is about introducing clear processes, not reinventing the wheel, establishing a system of key figures – in other words, a structure that you can stick to.
The other hand stands for the ability to drive change, to be attentive to the disruptive waves coming in, to select and ride the right ones. It is about speed, optimal adaptability, continuous interaction and proactivity.
Agile transformation does not mean that every business unit should be maximally agile.
Rather, it is the movement towards the ideal combination of agility and stability. For example, a retail company may realise that it can secure its own future by providing a combined shopping experience of online world and physical outlets, while the corporate culture evolves from “command and control” to a fruitful co-existence of agile and stable elements.
Covid lockdowns add to the need for companies to be able to switch quickly between different service offerings. Retailers need webshops and good distribution, but then they need their branches again. Seminar providers need to be able to switch from face-to-face to virtual and hybrid solutions within a few days.
Transformation, iteration and empowerment are the three main principles of agility that can be found in all agile tools. They are suitable for defining the ideal level of agility in a company’s culture from today’s point of view. What is considered “optimal” differs depending on the industry. In the financial sector, for example, there are justified restrictions regarding the transparency of information. Companies determine for themselves what they currently consider to be the ideal degree of transparency, iteration and empowerment. The following scale questions, for example, are suitable for this purpose:
The answers come together to form a detailed goal picture – the vision of the transformation process. The shared vision is one of the most important motivational foundations needed to muster the necessary energy for change.
The Transformation Navi (based on ideas from HR Pioneers and McKinsey) helps us navigate progress on our agility journey. It is a matrix whose horizontal axis represents the transformation areas and whose vertical axis represents progress over time.
Every company can decide to add or omit certain areas of transformation. It should not orient itself exclusively on its own sector. Perhaps the company currently sells products such as training and in the future will mainly offer software solutions that largely replace the previous products.
In the last column, the maturity level is entered. This results from the average of the answers to the previously described position-finding questions: On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 = optimal transparency, iteration, empowerment), where do we stand today?
In terms of transparency, organisations should make the transformation navi visible to all employees. At least once a quarter, a team representative of the business units meets to look back at what has been achieved and define what will be tackled in the coming quarter.
A well thought-out and lived KPI system ensures that the continuous measurement of progress is based on an objective and stable foundation. This KPI system mostly includes metrics related to financial, customer and employee satisfaction, productivity and innovation and, in addition to the intended agility, contributes above all to stability.
Not everyone is always convinced that change is needed. Transformation is often met with active or passive resistance. The stakeholder commitment analysis serves to get a picture of the overall situation. Agile transformation is often not imposed from above, but driven by leaders and employees at different levels. Therefore, the ability to gain commitment is needed as a lateral leader. So if you want to drive transformation, you can put yourself and the key stakeholders on the chart.
Commitment is made up of two components: We are convinced of the sense of the project and we trust the person who wants change. If we place the different stakeholders in the four fields of the diagram, it quickly becomes clear whether the majority supports the change or rather wants to prevent it. The dashed diagonal line marks the equilibrium line. Whether the entire field tilts to the lower left towards resistance or to the upper right towards commitment at the moment of analysis also depends on the weight that the individual stakeholders or stakeholder groups bring to the table based on their positional authority, expertise and personality strength.
Based on this positional analysis, you can now take accurate steps to increase the commitment of the stakeholders. There are many ways to do this, such as holding conversations to build trust, understand interests, explain your own intention and work together to find solutions that optimise the collective benefit of all those affected by the transformation. However, it may also be useful to recruit new stakeholders who support the change and already have relevant experience. If a high level of resistance to change has been cemented in, it may ultimately be necessary to work on getting preventers to leave the field. But in most cases, a clear analysis of the situation and convincing and empathetic dialogue lead to good results.
