Office Culture Archives - Page 7 of 8

October 5, 2016September 18, 2016

News You Can Use: 10/5/2016

Here’s What It Takes For Your Company’s Culture To Survive An Acquisition

Start small. Talk to your employees to identify their top concerns over an acquisition. Brainstorm some ways to keep the best aspects of both cultures intact, always looking for points of commonality. And over-communicate—every employee needs to understand what goes into an acquisition and what they should expect, and as those details change, team members need to know how and why.

https://www.fastcompany.com/3063644/heres-what-it-takes-for-your-companys-culture-to-surive-an-acquisition?partner=rss
Why healthcare needs to care about Google’s acquisition of Apigee

Healthcare has been relatively slow to adopt open API standards. Unlike social media and e-commerce, healthcare is mostly a closed ecosystem of proprietary software, notably electronic health record (EHR) systems that do not permit the free exchange of data. This has been the subject of much discussion and debate and has drawn the attention of the Office of the National Coordinator of Healthcare IT (ONC). The ONC has been pushing for more open standards to unlock the value of digitized medical records sitting in proprietary systems that can unleash innovation in healthcare and positively impact costs, quality and experience (the triple aim) in healthcare.

http://www.cio.com/article/3120434/healthcare/why-healthcare-needs-to-care-about-googles-acquisition-of-apigee.html
How To Manage Technical Teams When You Don’t Share Their Credentials

Whenever you lay out a plan that affects the work that technical team members will have to do, figure out what’s most important to you and do that first. You may find that the things others push back about aren’t especially critical to you, and that you can satisfy everyone’s interests without too much pain.

But that means you need to distill whatever the ultimate goal is in your mind beforehand. Decide what’s absolutely crucial, and what’s negotiable will be come clearer. This way you can also give technical employees as much leeway as they need to figure out the “how,” which they’ll likely appreciate.

https://www.fastcompany.com/3063554/lessons-learned/how-to-manage-technical-teams-when-you-dont-have-their-tech-credentials?partner=rss
HPE Aruba Unveils Flexible Network Procurement Models Enabling Enterprises to Innovate at the Rapid Pace of Mobile and IoT

To remove unpredictability in IT operations and spending, Aruba is taking a software-based approach with its Mobile First Platform, enabling IT organizations to quickly respond to new requirements as they emerge, minimize capital expenditures, and maintain a competitive edge. Customers benefit from customized options for obtaining and managing their networks with Aruba’s portfolio of programmable IT networking products for Wi-Fi, BLE, wired and wide area network (WAN) connectivity, and consulting, support and technology services from its key alliances.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160912005258/en/HPE-Aruba-Unveils-Flexible-Network-Procurement-Models
Worst.Headline.Ever
How to Strengthen Your Personal and Executive Presence

Here’s an example: Martha is the CIO of a large financial services firm. After discussing her personal brand and talking to some of her colleagues, boss and staff, it became clear she was respected by the people she worked with. However, her current executive presence wasn’t sufficient for her mandate to transform the way technology was implemented and used within the business.

In short, Martha’s current brand was seen as being “a manager who effectively problem solves and is known for hands-on implementation.” Not a bad brand, but insufficient for the task entrusted to her.

How did Martha change her brand?

One of the projects involved a series of town hall meetings designed to get her team excited about the IT transformation and buy in to supporting it. In alignment with her goal, Martha created a fun and inclusive agenda for the meeting and a highly visual presentation — the opposite of the usual boring, text-oriented presentation staff were used to.

So… a “fun” meeting got the job done? No.
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/278159

Photo: Finn Hackshaw

September 21, 2016September 18, 2016

News You Can Use: 9/21/2016

Salesforce announces new role: Chief Equality Officer

This move, while notable for its diversity efforts, reflects Benioff’s continued contribution to community. TechCrunch noted Salesforce’s 1/1/1 charity program, which has over the years given “over $128 million in grants” and allowed employees to volunteer more than 1.6 million hours in their communities.

http://www.hrdive.com/news/salesforce-announces-new-role-chief-equality-officer/426278/
Is Technology Making Procurement Professionals Lazy?

More astute procurement professionals may be compelled to move towards more sophisticated technology which may be overly complex for the issue you are trying to solve. If you are trying to get adoption across your organisation versus a subset of power users, then make sure your specification is fit for purpose in order to maximise the impact across the organisation. Broad adoption is highly correlated to ease of use and buying a “spreadsheet on steroids” will likely mean you need an analyst to answer every executive’s question about your procurement spend.

One of the great challenges procurement leader’s face is that they are often compelled to use procurement tools affiliated with their ERP provider. Most of these tools were born during the days of “Feature Wars” where more and more complexity was added to the tool until it became almost unusable without heroic manual effort. Where leaders have the influence to pull it off, they should explore best of breed, built for purpose tools.

http://www.procurementleaders.com/blog/my-blog–guest-blog/is-technology-making-procurement-professionals-lazy-639415
How Long Until Hackers Start Faking Leaked Documents?

Forging thousands—or more—documents is difficult to pull off, but slipping a single forgery in an actual cache is much easier. The attack could be something subtle. Maybe a country that anonymously publishes another country’s diplomatic cables wants to influence yet a third country, so adds some particularly egregious conversations about that third country. Or the next hacker who steals and publishes email from climate change researchers invents a bunch of over-the-top messages to make his political point even stronger. Or it could be personal: someone dumping email from thousands of users making changes in those by a friend, relative, or lover.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/09/hacking-forgeries/499775/?utm_source=feed
This is a great question, I have to imagine it has already happened.
Why Supply Chain Managers Are Psychopaths

A study of 261 corporate professionals working in supply chain management found that 21 percent of those individuals had clinically significant levels of psychopathic traits, such as insincerity, lack of empathy or remorse, egocentric behavior, and the ability to be both charming and superficial.

The study found the supply chain management professionals had similar levels of psychopathic traits to the broad prison population.

http://www.sdcexec.com/news/12256445/why-supply-chain-managers-are-psychopaths
Difference Spin on the same study:
One out of five American CEOs might be a psychopath

“A really interesting question is whether psychopathy can be a positive thing. Some psychologists would say yes, that there are certain attributes like coolness under pressure, which is sort of a fundamental positive. But Robert Hare would always say no, that in the absence of empathy, which is the definition in psychology of a psychopath, you will always get malevolence,” Ronson told Forbes.

“Basically, high-scoring psychopaths can be brilliant bosses but only ever for short term,” he added.

http://www.zmescience.com/science/psychology-science/psychopathic-executives/
Do You Have A F*cking Problem With Swearing At Work?

But be careful who you swear around. The Wrike study revealed that of the 43% of those who do not use profane language in the workplace, 36% are bothered when others drop the F-bomb, and 20% would consider filling an official complaint in regards to their colleagues’ language. On the other hand, 33% of respondents would not consider a position at a workplace that strictly banned swearing, so you can’t f*cking win either way.

https://www.fastcompany.com/3063775/do-you-have-a-fcking-problem-with-swearing-at-work?partner=rss

Photo: Ian Schneider

September 14, 2016September 10, 2016

News You Can Use: 9/14/2016

5 Tips For Sourcing Success When Your Employer Brand Is Poor

Instead of: providing a generic pitch to candidates of what a great employer you are, what great benefits you have, how much people enjoy working there, when you know you can’t do so with any real enthusiasm,

You may try to: accentuate the positive aspects by speaking glowingly of the hiring manager and how dedicated he is to mentoring his direct reports. Also, you may try to highlight how much the specific division the job sits in has been outperforming the rest of the company, the unique culture of this particular team, division, and office, and how much this specific position, with this specific hiring manager, in this specific division, in this specific office, presents an exclusive opportunity for the right candidate to advance his career.

http://www.eremedia.com/sourcecon/5-tips-for-sourcing-success-when-your-employer-brand-is-poor/
The jobs we’ll lose to machines — and the ones we won’t
To avoid supplier disputes, VW reconsiders procurement strategy

The Irish Times explained that it is a popular practice within the auto industry to try and steer clear of relying too heavily on a single supplier. This decision, the source noted, is fueled primarily by the dispute that occurred between VW and Prevent – the parent company of the car maker’s two suppliers, Car Trim and ES Automobiluss – when Prevent licensed Car Trim to manufacture parts for luxury brands of vehicles. People familiar with the matter, the source explained, said that Prevent “retaliated by moving some of Car Trim’s financial claims against VW to Automobilguss.”

http://www.strategicsourceror.com/2016/08/to-avoid-supplier-disputes-vw.html
GE buys supply chain software provider ShipXpress

ShipXpress provides cloud-based software solutions, which allow transportation, industrial, and commodities businesses to effectively operate and collaborate with their supply chain partners.

The deal is said to expand GE Transportation’s portfolio of solutions into the logistics value chain, helping to deliver information and transaction services for railroad customers across the globe.

http://supplychain.logistics-business-review.com/news/ge-buys-supply-chain-software-provider-shipxpress-310816-4992923
If You Work From Home, Do This Every Day

The art of not working requires discipline of a different sort than working. You have to discard the entrenched belief that being present at a desk is the same as being productive. And you have to become intimately acquainted with your mental needs. When it’s time to rest, you need to learn to do so without guilt. As a native New Englander raised with the classic Puritan work ethic, I can attest that this is harder to do than it looks.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/280641

Photo: Ian Schneider

June 8, 2016June 3, 2016

News You Can Use: 6/8/2016

3 Unrealistic Career Goals You Need To Abandon

Creating career deadlines is all about balance. Planning ahead is a solid way to visualize what you want to achieve, but it can lose value if you only see those deadlines in black and white. Often times, new opportunities and unique ideas come from the gray areas, and strict schedules don’t always encourage that creativity. If you have a milestone you keep missing, remind yourself that it may not really exist and consider taking it off the list.

http://www.fastcompany.com/3060096/how-to-be-a-success-at-everything/3-unrealistic-career-goals-you-need-to-abandon
IT career roadmap: Technology evangelist

“You’re drawing on aspects of a bunch of different fields, technology, sales, marketing, psychology, even acting. You not only have to have technical depth and credibility, but also polished sales and marketing skills so that you can handle objections, you can promote messaging in a non-threatening way. And you have to know a lot about the business climate you’re operating in — what’s the market like? What are the circumstances that have brought a company to where it is?” Sage says.

http://www.cio.com/article/3075440/it-skills-training/it-career-roadmap-technology-evangelist.html
Operating with Empathy: How to Build Organizations for Real People
Is Workplace Culture Overrated? (Infographic)

Culture often influences an employee’s decision to join a company, and small perks go a long way. Two-thirds of employees with access to free food say they’re very happy at their current jobs, and workers who have strong relationships with their colleagues feel 50 percent more satisfied than those who don’t.

Check out the infographic in the link to learn more about the benefits of fostering a healthy company culture.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/276152
U.S. CIO aims to cut legacy spending, proposes IT modernization

The administration’s proposed solution is an IT modernization fund (ITMF) that would be subject to oversight of an independent panel that would help prioritize the most pressing technology projects while also evaluating the business case that the agency makes in pitching a project. And, crucially, agencies that dip into the $3.1 billion fund would be expected to repay the initial outlay for the IT project back into the fund over time, as operating savings materialize.

http://www.cio.com/article/3075842/government-use-of-it/u-s-cio-aims-to-cut-legacy-spending-proposes-it-modernization.html
When This Boss Walks 10 Miles a Day, She Leads a Much Healthier Team

A study by the University of Minnesota showed treadmill desks boost job performance, and we who work and walk are a testament to that fact. We not only feel great, we’re knocking it out of the park, with creative and innovative design ideas that come to us while walking/working. Leading by example is important for every business owner looking to improve his or her team’s health. Being fit and happy is contagious.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/275036

Photo: Will van Wingerden

April 27, 2016April 23, 2016

News You Can Use: 4/27/2016

Stop Treating Your Employees Like Mushrooms
What is a “mushroom”?

You’ve probably heard the expression “feeling like a mushroom,” which is to say feeling kept in the dark, left uninformed and fed a bunch of sh–. Think shittake mushrooms.

Why is it bad:
1. 1 in 4 employees surveyed has quit, or knows someone who has quit, due to a lack of transparency and communication in the workplace
2. Only 10 percent of employees surveyed were aware of their company’s progress in real time.
3. More than 4 out of 5 employees surveyed wanted to hear more frequently from their bosses about how their company was doing.
4. More than 90 percent of employees surveyed said they would rather hear bad news than no news.
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/274279
Apple’s organizational cross roads

Apple employs what is known as a “unitary organizational form” — U-form for short — which is also known as a “functional organization.” In broad strokes, a U-form organization is organized around expertise, not products: in the case of Apple, that means design is one group (under Ive), product marketing is another (under Schiller), and operations a third (under Williams, who is also Chief Operating Officer). Other areas of expertise represented by the members of Apple’s executive team include Software Engineering (Craig Federighi), Hardware Engineering (Dan Riccio), and Hardware Technologies (Johny Srouji).

What is most striking about that list is what it does not include: the words iPhone, iPad, Mac, orWatch. Apple’s products instead cut across the organization in a way that enforces coordination amongst the various teams.

https://stratechery.com/2016/apples-organizational-crossroads/
Future trends of procurement every customer-centric industry should know

2) Adopt a Nimble Approach to Strategic Decision Making

The past complexities of supply chain management resulted in rigid contracts and raised the cost of switching vendors. This concept needs to be replaced with a flexible yet dependable sourcing model that focuses on reducing supplier proximity for enhanced visibility. This less extended approach will condense the product lifecycle and bring the vendors closer to the companies.

http://www.sourcingfocus.com/site/opinionsitem/future_trends_of_procurement_every_customer-centric_industry_should_kn/
Your Office Has Its Own Microbiome, And It Comes From Your Coworkers’ Skin

The people who inhabit an office have some influence, too. Across all nine offices, human skin bacterial communities “were the largest identifiable source” in the samples. About 25% to 30% of office microbes come from human skin. Even grosser? “The human nasal microbiome also appeared to be a small but consistent source of office surface microbial communities.” (Memo to staff: Stop picking your nose.)

http://www.fastcoexist.com/3059111/your-office-has-its-own-microbiome-and-it-comes-from-your-coworkers-skin
4 ways to apply SLAs to shadow IT

By creating specific SLAs for shadow IT and including these non-IT delivered capabilities in operating level standards, IT can align overall goals and targets with shared objectives, such as 100 percent compliance with change and release management procedures. “For external functions (to the extent possible) align SLAs within underpinning contracts to defined outcomes compatible with SLAs,” advises Wright. “And where SLAs are non-negotiable establish responsibilities and supporting organization objectives or OLAs for shadow and core IT to provide an effective bridge from the non-negotiable SLA to the required outcome.”

http://www.cio.com/article/3059270/it-industry/4-ways-to-apply-slas-to-shadow-it.html
6 Prophetic Supply Chain Quotable Quotes

“If you had to wait a week for Google to respond, would you use it?” Dominic Thomas, VP Business Consulting, Kinaxis and Supply & Demand Chain Executive magazine 2016 Provider ‘Pro to Know’

I was fortunate enough to hear Dominic present and when this line came out I committed it to memory. My immediate thought was the supply chain planning community is either extremely patient or has surrendered to Excel and legacy planning systems. This gets back to starting your supply chain conversation. Today asking a supply chain question like, ‘what’s the impact of a 20% demand increase?’ could mean another meeting while those who have to answer try and piece the response together. I didn’t include it as one of the quotes but I once heard a supply chain executive say, “It takes me three weeks to get the wrong answer.” Future supply chain planning processes should no longer include ‘waiting’ as one of the squares on the Visio flowchart.

http://blog.kinaxis.com/2016/04/6-prophetic-supply-chain-quotable-quotes/
How Do Con Artists Fool People? They Listen.

We tend to think con artists are smooth talkers and persuasive sellers, but listening is their most essential quality, says Maria Konnikova, who has written a new book on con artistry. Here she discusses the case of Victor Lustig, a Frenchman who sold the Eiffel Tower twice for scrap metal to two different buyers. Too embarrassed at being taken in, the buyers never reported Lustig.