Forum Corporation Blog Provides Thought Leadership in the Learning Space and More

The Forum Corporation blog offers some excellent content on such topics as learning, leadership, collaboration, enhancing customer experiences, and accelerating strategic execution. It is a collaborative effort by a number of the Forum team members. The Forum Corporation began in 1971 and it “helps senior leaders execute innovative, people-driven solutions that accelerate business growth, corporate change and overall performance.” I have known and respected Forum for some time as I competed against them in the 1980s when I was with Spectrum. See my post, Useful Guidelines and Metrics for Speeding Up Your Organization, for a review of their recent book, Strategic Speed: Mobilize People, Accelerate Execution.

Recent posts include, Why is it so hard to create a great customer experience? by Jane Marham Weinstein that makes a great organization structure point.  Customer experiences, whether viral or physical, generally require an end-to-end process that involves multiple departments. If the organization is structured around these different departments (e.g. marketing, customer service, order fulfillment) it can be like the blind men and the elephant with each department having a different, and incomplete perception or the customer. However, if the organization is structured around the customer experience, it can have a more accurate picture of the customer and provide a better and more coordinated customer experience.

The VUCA Future – Are You Ready? by Steve Barry describes the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous business environment. I have heard of complex adaptive systems for some time but this was a new term for me. Forum interviewed futurist Bob Johansen for his thoughts on VUCA and what lies ahead for business. Bob said that the term VUCA was coined at the US Army War College that is the graduate school for future generals. In a VUCA world the best leaders have vision, understanding, clarity, and agility.  Clarity and agility were two of the leadership characteristics promoted in Forum’s new book, Strategic Speed: Mobilize People, Accelerate Execution. The world is changing and leadership skills need to transition to adapt. The complete interview provides many useful insights.

In the post, New Motivation Theory in Business: n Lrn?, Jocelyn Davis builds on David McClelland (need for achievement, need for affiliation, and need for power) to offer a fourth motivation, need for learning. People moved by this trait “would have a strong need to collect and synthesize new information, to reflect on their experiences, and to master new skills.” I would certainly fall into this category so it makes sense to me.  Jocelyn goes on to compare these n Lrns (to use McClelland’s notational style) with those primarily motivated by the three original traits. 

For example, someone with the power motivation (n Pow) would be motivated to teach for the ability to influence while a n Lrn person would be motivated by what they could learn from the experience.  In contrast, someone with the affiliation need would be motivated to teach by the possible relationships they could establish. Of course, there can be more than one of these traits within an individual but one or two are often dominant.  While Jocelyn notes that there does not seem to be experimental evidence for this trait, it makes intuitive sense.  If you have employees with the n Lrn trait, then you need to make sure they are properly motivated in their work.

This is just a sampling. There is much more by additional authors. I would encourage you to explore if you are interested in the learning, leadership, organizational development, collaboration, and other related fields. 

Comments

[Steve Barry]

Thanks for this post, Bill, honored to be mentioned. Your blog's address - the intersection of Business, KM, learning, and Enterprise 2.0 streets - is quite an interesting and desirable location!