Another interesting and quick video - this time by edelman london with Clare Chapman talking about the relationship between engagement, empowerment and intrapreneurialism. 

Thanks to Raffaela Goodby for the link - this is the first of many (I'm hoping) videos from the Engaging for Success Practitioners Group.

By the way, if you're intending on sharing I'm suggesting we use the hastag #e4s. Thanks!

Another good employee engagement video, this time from the Birmingham Post, with David McLeod talking with business leaders.

He makes some great observations and points about how to engage employees, with in my opinion, the most important;

You cannot do this unless you have a sincere respect and belief in the welfare of your people.

Leadership doesn't always start at the top, but it's vital you employe leaders who genuinely care for other people, rather than just considering them as a 'depreciating asset'!

An interview with David McLeod first broadcast in 2010 on bnet.com. Very useful if you are new to employee engagement or would like to benefit from David's simple, clear summaries of what it really means to how we work.

Want to know more? Follow me here and then visit here

People ask me, why is my twitter name @theintrapreneur? Have you made a typo? ;-)

Well, no. Here is the answer:

Intrapreneur - The spirit of entrepreneurship within an existing organisation. An intrapreneur is a person who focuses on innovation and creativity and who transforms a dream or an idea into a profitable venture, by operating within the organisational environment.

“Intrapreneur’s Ten Commandments” developed by Pinchot:

1. Come to work each day willing to be fired
2. Circumvent any orders aimed at stopping your dream
3. Do any job needed to make your project work, regardless of your job description
4. Find people to help you
5. Follow your intuition about the people you choose and work only with the best
6. Work underground as long as you can – publicity triggers the corporate immune system.
7. Never bet on a race unless you are running in it
8. Remember it is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission
9. Be true to your goals, but be realistic about the ways to achieve them
10. Honour your sponsors

In his classic book, Austin (1978) distinguished four levels of serendipity or chance. They can apply to individuals, but a team provides more opportunities for them to happen – look for the similarities with what happens on social networks.

Have a read and then let me know your thoughts – how do you leverage your networks to improve opportunity?

Chance 1 – ‘blind chance’ or accident. By sheer luck you just happen to find yourself in the right place at the right time. Nothing to do with your lifestyle, though you had the presence of mind to take the opportunity when it appeared.

Chance 2 – wide-ranging exploration. A wide-ranging, energetic, enquiring lifestyle will tend to generate opportunities for useful chances to happen (though it can also result in lack of focus – you have to achieve a balance). As Charles Kettering, the engineer, put it: ‘Keep on going and the chances are you will stumble on something, perhaps when you least expect it. I’ve never heard of anyone stumbling on something sitting
down’ (quoted in Austin, 1978).

Chance 3 – the prepared mind. ‘In observation, chance favours the prepared mind’ (Louis Pasteur). Specific, highly developed interests and background make you more likely to notice chance events relevant to that background. 3M’s Arthur Fry had been looking for uses for Spence Silver’s semi-sticky glue, so when the bookmarks in his choir-book kept falling out, his ‘prepared mind’ made the link to the idea of the now ubiquitous Post-it note.

Chance 4 – individualised action. This combines Chance III with an enhanced version of Chance II – you not only have a ‘prepared mind’, ready to respond to relevant opportunities that emerge, but also have a lifestyle that makes ‘relevant opportunities’ more likely to happen. This may be, for example, because you increase your networking and communication, or put yourself in more places where you are likely to be exposed to input you can use.

(Thanks to the Open University Business School).

By Rich Baker

One of the areas I am studied as part of my MBA involved a look at how innovation and creativity manifest themselves in individuals and organisations.

Part of this considers the perception we have of intuition. Rather than it be a ‘magical’ ability that some possess and others do not, it is argued that intuition is more a matter of ‘expert recognition’ i.e. a ‘by-product of of training and experience that has been stored as knowledge’. (Simons, 1988).

Traditionally, in the West we have always sought to rationalise decision making, and this has implications upon the value placed upon both individuals in organisations, and the role they play. I have a friend who has little ‘formal’ education, but is an insightful people manager who always seems to know what to say and when to achieve the best out of people, in sometimes complex political environments. Luckily the organisation in which she works recognises this, and she holds a senior leadership position.

Similarily, our judgement is affected by patterns that might seem rational, are in fact a product of what we might expect to happen.

Try this test;

Which of the following birth orders is more likely?

BGBBGB

or

BBBBGB

Most people assume the first, in actual fact both are as likely to happen.The same would be true if we were to toss coins. This is what is called representativeness bias. (Thanks to the Open University for the exercise).

I’m interested in the impact this has not only on the individual, but also upon decision making in organisations. How do we reduce bias, but harness and leverage intuition?

Thoughts? Does your business/organisation place value upon tacit knowledge or ‘intuition’?