News Article for Business

” Try starting with the positive for a change, academic advices” 

The NZ Herald, 5 May 2011, by Gill South,Cooperrider has been working with what is known as Appreciative Inquiry (AI) business theory since the 1980s. He says AI is about the search for the best in people, their organisations, and the world around them. It involves asking questions that strengthen a system's capacity to anticipate, and heighten positive potential. “I've come to the conclusion you can never change things by solving yesterday's problems. "You change things by assembling new combination of strengths and then creating fresh designs that establish the new and eclipse the old."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/best-of-business-analysis/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501241&objectid=10722083

“Investing in soft skills gets hard result “

The NZ Herald, 2 April 2011, by Steve Hart, Companies may be losing money and good staff due to their under-investment in training people in the art of soft skills, says Ronil Singh of recruitment firm Robert Half Finance. Singh says there is the bigger picture to consider, too. Because if soft skills limit people's ability to move up the ladder, then the company may be stifled as it may eventually lack future leaders with institutional knowledge. Read more

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10719491

“Companies setting themselves up to lose the battle for talent”

The NZ Herald, 13 September 2010, by Gill South "Most organisations have done nothing in the talent space to innovate," said Kleinert, who was part of the global group that prepared the report. The Deloitte research found only 39 per cent of executives surveyed reported their companies had a talent plan aimed at innovation. Read More

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10672399

"Managers need to look at the way ahead, rather than just responding to everyday challenges"

The NZ Herald, 9 August 2010, by Craig McIvor Ninety per cent of new initiatives fail to have a lasting impact in organisations, leadership guru John Kotter writes in his new book, A Sense of Urgency. One of the key reasons for such a poor success rate lies in the amount of time and effort that organisations put into strategic planning.Read More http://www.nzherald.co.nz/small-business/news/article.cfm?c_id=85&objectid=10664030 

"Know your faults to find your strength"

The NZ Herald, 24 July 2010, by Jasbindar Singh  “Self awareness is a powerful part of self-reflection, a practice most managers and leaders need to regularly engage in to stay on track with their goals. This ability to stand back and critically evaluate one's thoughts, assumptions, values and behaviour and take corrective action is the basis for problem-solving, building great teams and learning and development.”  Read More...http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10661316

"How to win the talent war" 

The NZ Herald, 18.6.2010, by Val Leveson, Manpower recently released a white paper entitled Teachable Fit: A New Approach for Easing the Talent Mismatch. It advises employers to broaden their search for candidates to include industry migrants, location migrants, role changers and workforce entrants. Training and development are key to successfully tapping into these talent pools. Read More...http://www.nzherald.co.nz/small-business/news/article.cfm?c_id=85&objectid=10652083

The complex dynamic of inner roles

Discover the value in this scientifically researched, contextual group model for personnel evaluation and development and its strengths-based relevance in today’s workplace.

Many of us are aware of some inner-roles such as the ‘ inner critic’, a commonly used term to explain critical attitudes, and self talk. As far back as 1921, the psychiatrist Dr. J. L. Moreno noted and identified the fact that we all have numerous such inner role systems. A single role describes a ‘unit’ of adopted inner qualities, which consists of interpersonal, social, professional and cultural elements.

We all have many of these inner roles which have complex interactions and relationships that are dependent on one’s immediate here and now context and their history of a lifetime of exposure and inter-relationships with people and circumstances.

The collective expressions of our inner roles vary greatly according to the nature of ones relationships, settings, and circumstances. These expressions may function either in support of desired outcomes or indeed be in opposition.

Moreno established out of his findings a scientific based group model called Psychodrama proving that each inner role does not act in isolation but is interdependent, formed and expressed through a lifetime of exposure and interrelationships with people and their environment.

Those who have been involved in organisational environments for any length of time will have developed some insight into their functioning. Just as with our inner world, they will have discovered a complex matrix of different roles, of structurally divided compartments and hierarchies, cultural differences and divisions. These all compete for often increasingly scarcer resources and rewards in an ever-changing system.

On a personal level we find ourselves divided by vast diversity in personality, race, gender, class, ethnicity, values, beliefs and socio-economics. This is further interwoven with the different attributes, talents and experiences which differentiate us from one another.

This complex dynamic of inner roles, personal differences and organisational matrix is often a source of potential conflict, and yet the same dynamic holds the biggest promise for our creative potential to enable us to individually - and more importantly, collectively - overcome challenges and turn visions into reality.

To quote the writer Walter B. Wriston: “A person who figures out how to harness the collective genius of his or her organisation is going to blow the competition away.”

Whatever decides the direction and utilisation of our diversities usually depends on our understanding of our own and others’ thinking, feeling and acting in the context of time and circumstance.

Many of us have become familiar with the organisational ‘voice’ which highlights our need to adjust our thinking and our approach to the global market trend. It asks for a collaborative organisational approach. Many leaders are seeking new responses to old situations in the quest to build organisations, which address the need for sustainability and success, yet remain flexible.

There is an increasing body of scientific evidence that the Morenian methodology offers a very real and valuable evaluation approach to the challenge of creating well-balanced, high-performance teams for today’s global market. It offers the wealth of knowledge and techniques towards the creation of well functioning teams, which are pivotal to organisational success. 

Ela Langford 2010