Johnny Whitmire is a story of Muncie, and Muncie is the story of America. In this place--dubbed "Middletown" by early 20th-century sociologists--people have lost faith in their institutions. Government, politics, corporations, the media, organized religion, organized labor, banks, businesses, and other mainstays of a healthy society are failing. It's not just that the institutions are corrupt or broken; those cliches oversimplify an existential problem: With few notable exceptions, the nation's onetime social pillars are ill-equipped for the 21st century. Most critically, they are failing to adapt quickly enough for a population buffeted by wrenching economic, technological, and demographic change.
Showing posts with label Current Events. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Current Events. Show all posts
Monday, January 21, 2013
Monday, November 5, 2012
Economy
The Federal Reserve Board announced its third round of quantitative easing (QE3) at the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in September.
This inflationary move helped send the price of gold up, but the price of gold has fallen, partly on the suspicion that GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney will win the election and "fire" Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his wimpy FOMC "doves," who keep voting for cheap money - and LOTS of it!
The most amazing series of quotes in the minutes from that FOMC meeting profiled the Fed's admission that the economy is expanding at a "moderate" pace, with household spending growing "a bit more quickly."
In other words, we don't face an official recession, but the Fed still voted to buy an extra $40 billion of Treasury bonds each month, while also announcing that it will keep short-term interest rates near zero for another three years, through at least mid-2015. To many observers, this isn't really QE3, but rather QE4-Ever, an ever-expanding supply of fiat money seemingly "forever."
Editor's Note: Economist Unapologetically Calls Out Bernanke, Obama for Mishandling Economy. See What They Did
The Fed will likely continue QE3 indefinitely, since the FOMC is "concerned that, without sufficient policy accommodation, economic growth might not be strong enough to generate sustained improvement in labor market conditions," and that "the Committee expects that a highly accommodative stance of monetary policy will remain appropriate for a considerable time after the economic recovery strengthens."
In brief, look for a rally in gold if President Barack Obama is re-elected and Bernanke enjoys four more years of job security.
If Romney wins, gold might take a temporary dip, but as soon as investors realize that a new President Romney might not REALLY fire Bernanke and we remain in a recession, we could see a delayed rise in gold under a Republican President and a compliant Republican Congress.
Will the Dow and Gold ever "Cross" Again?
On one day in January of 1980, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the price of gold met at about 850 Dow and $850 gold. This "crossing" of the Dow and gold has never happened again, before or since, but the ratio has undergone three major cycles of extreme highs and lows in the last century.
When gold was $20.67, the Dow reached a peak of 389 in 1929 for a 19:1 ratio. The ratio fell down to 2:1 in 1932, when the Dow bottomed at 40 and gold was $20.67.
The next peak came in 1966, when the Dow reached 995, while gold was $35, for a ratio of 28:1. Then came the 1980 "crossing," followed by the greatest gold discount in the last century, in late 1999, when the Dow was 11,000 and gold was $252, for a 43:1 ratio. The recent ratio is 7.7:1 (13,100 Dow vs. $1,712 gold).
Here are the extreme ratios of the last three cycles and where we may be headed next:
Year
Dow
Gold
Ratio
1929
389
$20.67
18.8
1932
40
$20.67
1.9
1966
995
$35
28.4
1980
850
$850
1.0
1999
11,000
$252
43.7
2012
13,100
$1,712
7.7
Gold's peak in Dow terms came during two election years that were major "game changers": the 1932 election of Franklin Roosevelt over the failed Republican Herbert Hoover, and the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan over the failed Democrat Jimmy Carter.
In that context, this election does not constitute an economic low point, similar to 1932 or 1980, but we might be historically "on the way" to such a convergence, and that could be the best time to buy gold.
If gold and the Dow ever cross again, it would likely fall somewhere between $2,000 and $10,000.
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Editor's Note: Economist Unapologetically Calls Out Bernanke, Obama for Mishandling Economy. See What They Did
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Take your guess, but the Dow fell to 6,500 in 2009, so that is a possible target in another severe financial crisis. Perhaps gold and the Dow will meet at $6,500, for a 50 percent decline in the Dow and a 280 percent gain in gold.
Even if we reach the 2:1 ratio of 1932, we could see $5,000 gold and a 10,000 Dow by 2016, most likely if Obama wins in 2012, but possibly no matter who wins - as long as the Fed gives us QE4-Ever.
About the Author: Mike Fuljenz
Mike Fuljenz is a member of the Moneynews Financial Brain Trust. Click Here to read more of his articles. He is also the editor of the NLG award winning Michael Fuljenz Metals Market Weekly Report. Discover more by Clicking Here Now.
Mike Fuljenz
Source Citation (MLA 7th Edition)
Fuljenz, Mike. "Mike Fuljenz: Is QE3 Really QE4-Ever?" Newsmax 31 Oct. 2012. Communications and Mass Media Collection. Web. 5 Nov. 2012.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA307067338&v=2.1&u=22054_acld&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w
Gale Document Number: GALE|A307067338
This inflationary move helped send the price of gold up, but the price of gold has fallen, partly on the suspicion that GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney will win the election and "fire" Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his wimpy FOMC "doves," who keep voting for cheap money - and LOTS of it!
The most amazing series of quotes in the minutes from that FOMC meeting profiled the Fed's admission that the economy is expanding at a "moderate" pace, with household spending growing "a bit more quickly."
In other words, we don't face an official recession, but the Fed still voted to buy an extra $40 billion of Treasury bonds each month, while also announcing that it will keep short-term interest rates near zero for another three years, through at least mid-2015. To many observers, this isn't really QE3, but rather QE4-Ever, an ever-expanding supply of fiat money seemingly "forever."
Editor's Note: Economist Unapologetically Calls Out Bernanke, Obama for Mishandling Economy. See What They Did
The Fed will likely continue QE3 indefinitely, since the FOMC is "concerned that, without sufficient policy accommodation, economic growth might not be strong enough to generate sustained improvement in labor market conditions," and that "the Committee expects that a highly accommodative stance of monetary policy will remain appropriate for a considerable time after the economic recovery strengthens."
In brief, look for a rally in gold if President Barack Obama is re-elected and Bernanke enjoys four more years of job security.
If Romney wins, gold might take a temporary dip, but as soon as investors realize that a new President Romney might not REALLY fire Bernanke and we remain in a recession, we could see a delayed rise in gold under a Republican President and a compliant Republican Congress.
Will the Dow and Gold ever "Cross" Again?
On one day in January of 1980, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the price of gold met at about 850 Dow and $850 gold. This "crossing" of the Dow and gold has never happened again, before or since, but the ratio has undergone three major cycles of extreme highs and lows in the last century.
When gold was $20.67, the Dow reached a peak of 389 in 1929 for a 19:1 ratio. The ratio fell down to 2:1 in 1932, when the Dow bottomed at 40 and gold was $20.67.
The next peak came in 1966, when the Dow reached 995, while gold was $35, for a ratio of 28:1. Then came the 1980 "crossing," followed by the greatest gold discount in the last century, in late 1999, when the Dow was 11,000 and gold was $252, for a 43:1 ratio. The recent ratio is 7.7:1 (13,100 Dow vs. $1,712 gold).
Here are the extreme ratios of the last three cycles and where we may be headed next:
Year
Dow
Gold
Ratio
1929
389
$20.67
18.8
1932
40
$20.67
1.9
1966
995
$35
28.4
1980
850
$850
1.0
1999
11,000
$252
43.7
2012
13,100
$1,712
7.7
Gold's peak in Dow terms came during two election years that were major "game changers": the 1932 election of Franklin Roosevelt over the failed Republican Herbert Hoover, and the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan over the failed Democrat Jimmy Carter.
In that context, this election does not constitute an economic low point, similar to 1932 or 1980, but we might be historically "on the way" to such a convergence, and that could be the best time to buy gold.
If gold and the Dow ever cross again, it would likely fall somewhere between $2,000 and $10,000.
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MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
Editor's Note: Economist Unapologetically Calls Out Bernanke, Obama for Mishandling Economy. See What They Did
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Take your guess, but the Dow fell to 6,500 in 2009, so that is a possible target in another severe financial crisis. Perhaps gold and the Dow will meet at $6,500, for a 50 percent decline in the Dow and a 280 percent gain in gold.
Even if we reach the 2:1 ratio of 1932, we could see $5,000 gold and a 10,000 Dow by 2016, most likely if Obama wins in 2012, but possibly no matter who wins - as long as the Fed gives us QE4-Ever.
About the Author: Mike Fuljenz
Mike Fuljenz is a member of the Moneynews Financial Brain Trust. Click Here to read more of his articles. He is also the editor of the NLG award winning Michael Fuljenz Metals Market Weekly Report. Discover more by Clicking Here Now.
Mike Fuljenz
Source Citation (MLA 7th Edition)
Fuljenz, Mike. "Mike Fuljenz: Is QE3 Really QE4-Ever?" Newsmax 31 Oct. 2012. Communications and Mass Media Collection. Web. 5 Nov. 2012.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA307067338&v=2.1&u=22054_acld&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w
Gale Document Number: GALE|A307067338
Monday, June 11, 2012
The character of communication: a new study reveals how leaders usecommunication and change management to build sustainable performance
Whether it's about the business or the employee experience, there needs to be a sense of direction and steps to follow.
In a challenging and dynamic business world, success depends on establishing a dear path to navigate through complexity. Organizations and their leaders wherever they are and whatever business environment they face--must be able to chart the right course and deliver results.
We know intuitively--and research confirms--that effective leaders can create true competitive advantage. Leadership is the top global driver of employee engagement, according to the Towers Watson 2010 Global Workforce Study. High employee engagement, in turn, translates to better financial performance: In Towers Watson's Global Normative Database, companies with high employee engagement generate operating margins nearly 1.5 times higher than companies with low engagement.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Specific directions vary according to each company's strategic imperatives, but regardless of focus, the best leaders create a clear path forward for their people. Towers Watsoffs 20112012 Change and Communication ROI Study sheds new light on how leaders are using change and communication
processes to demonstrate these leadership characteristics.
How do you do it?
According to Towers Watson's Global Normative Database, highly engaged employees at high-performance companies rate leaders as having these characteristics:
* Principled--driving the company from a shared set of guiding principles by clarifying values, operating with integrity in everything they do and showing an unrelenting commitment to the customer.
* Agile--managing the challenges of ongoing change effectively; and supporting the organization to evolve in new and innovative ways.
* Trustworthy--stressing fairness in decision making and empowering people in their roles.
Leaders who are seen as demonstrating these characteristics use communication and change practice to produce:
* Clarity--conveying the direction of the business along with ways they can contribute to the enterprise.
* Confidence--following a disciplined process for changing and communicating to create greater certainty, confidence and engagement among employees.
* Community--building a sense that employees and leaders are in it together and share both the challenges and rewards of working.
The Change and Communication ROI Study demonstrates that effective change and communication practices also help the bottom line. Organizations that are highly effective at both communication and change management are more than twice as likely to outperform those that are not effective at either. This holds true in any industry, region or economy.
Creating a clear direction requires conveying a consistent story about the business; creating greater certainty, confidence and engagement among employees; and building a shared experience across diverse audiences.
Creating clarity
Leaders at highly effective organizations demonstrate their integrity by being clear about the future with their employees, even when markets or strategies are in flux. Whether it's about the business or the employee experience, there needs to be a sense of direction and steps to follow. With help from communication professionals, leaders must stand on firm values and point the way forward.
The study found that just over half of participants are effective at these fundamental practices. Most organizations continue to rely on one-way electronic media, such as email or intranet pages, while relatively few ask senior leaders to deliver messages about the organizational culture and values. This is a missed opportunity: Senior leaders and managers are ideal conduits to build common understanding around culture and values.
Organizations that do communicate effectively use a mix of media--including interactive electronic media and social networking--to reinforce messaging from the top among increasingly diverse and selective audiences.
Leading with confidence
As the world grows more complex, demands more numerous and media more varied, the basis for agility is fundamental, even old-fashioned. The best organizations see an opportunity, build a plan, and are disciplined in following it, measuring results and making course corrections. They engage stakeholders in the process, especially managers and leaders. By taking these fundamental steps, they reduce the level of uncertainty, indicating that someone has a firm hand on the wheel--which breeds confidence.
Leaders who deliver confidence have a significant impact. Employees at highly effective organizations are 2.5 to three times as likely to report that their leaders are authentic and transparent in delivering messages when compared with organizations with low effectiveness. In addition, their leaders are accessible and responsive to employee ideas. Creating a dialogue with employees takes time from a busy leader's schedule. However, the data show a good return on this investment (see chart on facing page).
The most productive organizations follow a disciplined process for change management and communication to create greater certainty, confidence and engagement among employees. Communication professionals can help the organization set a course, correct along the way and apply what they learn toward future efforts. When compared with companies with low change management and communication effectiveness, those that are highly effective at change management are nearly five times as likely to create an integrated communication and change management strategy--and more than eight times as likely to continue to exhibit new behaviors and use new skills after changes are made.
Building community
What do leaders do to build community? First, they recognize that a shared experience and purpose are important to the business. They understand that building trust requires an ongoing conversation. They do not shy away from connecting with employees, and they have the courage to address controversy.
Most organizations aren't fully leveraging leaders to create community and grow trust. Two-thirds of all participants in the study report that they are using leadership visits to create a shared experience among employees, although most seem to be focused on business results. While business results are important, integrating new employees and seeking key feedback about the company's plans and progress also help build a long-term, trusted relationship between senior leaders and employees.
Of course, a healthy community cannot be driven simply by leadership. It emerges over time from a myriad of interactions. Social media extend existing social networks beyond face-to-face interaction and enable audiences to segment automatically. While social networks are ideally suited to building community within an organization, overall just over half (51 percent) of the study participants use it for this purpose, and only about one-third of those find it effective. Not surprisingly, among companies that are highly effective at communicating, we find a higher frequency of use and effectiveness. Social media are also well suited to support collaboration, and here we find a similar trend across all organizations.
How do you make communication training effective?
Many organizations are training leaders on communication and change management, yet few find it effective. Here are some guiding principles that characterize effective training:
* Stay focused and be specific. Document learning objectives, tie them to organizational goals, and build content around those objectives.
* Mix it up. Everyone learns differently, so a mix of learning experiences provides better results. Build a curriculum that includes self-service (e-learning, book summaries, articles, videos) and classroom-based programs. Above all, keep it fun and interactive.
* Take breaks. For instructor-led training, limit each module to 90 minutes. With e-learning, keep it to no longer than 45 minutes.
In their book Manager Redefined, Thomas Davenport and Stephen Harding note that as a leader, "your job is to lead your organization to the promised land of marketplace advantage. This means looking behind every tree and under every rock for a competitive advantage."
The Change and Communication ROI Study indicates that effective communication and change management practices are core to that advantage. The best recognize that the demands and pace of change in business don't always (or even often) coincide with employees' needs and capacity for change. Effective business leaders know this. They understand the benefit of hearing the perspective and counsel of communication and change professionals--of being not only informed of employees' readiness for change and capacity for training, but also educated in the nuances of message, media and manager support that mark successful change efforts.
Principled, agile and trustworthy leaders use effective communication and change management practices to create a clear path and build sustainable performance. Helping leaders improve their effectiveness in communication and change makes good business sense.
Finding the link between communication and effectiveness
Towers Watson's 2011-2012 Change and Communication ROI Study looked at data collected in April and May 2011 from 604 organizations in various regions around the world. Industries represented included manufacturing, financial services, health care, IT and telecommunications, and the public sector.
Most questions in the survey used a five-point Likert or effectiveness scale. Where high and low effectiveness were compared, the study showed how many of the organizations designated as having high or low change or communication effectiveness responded to the item with a 4, a 5 (agree/strongly agree or effective/highly effective) or a yes answer.
Defining communication and change effectiveness
Highly effective firms represent the top third of study participants, with the highest overall communication effectiveness or change effectiveness scores based on their responses to the survey items that measure these areas. Less effective firms represent the bottom third of participants, with the lowest overall effectiveness. Researchers looked at the financial performance of the companies in the highly effective group to measure the relationship between financial performance and communication effectiveness.
Assessing effectiveness and performance
In order to conduct the analysis, participants were divided into three groups based on their self-reported financial performance relative to their peers'. The three groups are defined as follows:
* High performers are those organizations that report performing substantially above their peer group.
* Average performers are those that report performing about the same as or slightly above their peer group.
* Below-average performers are those that report performing slightly or substantially below their peer group.
Using this information, Towers Watson confirmed the strong link between change and communication effectiveness and better financial performance:
* Companies that are highly effective at communication are 1.7 times as likely to be high-performing financially than companies that are not highly effective at communication.
* Companies that are highly effective at both communication and change management are 2.5 times as likely to be high-performing than companies that are not highly effective at either.
Effective leaders are authentic, accessible and transparent
The Towers Watson study asked participants to describe the
communication skills among their organization's leaders as follows:
Leaders at my organization are:
Overall High Low
communications communications
effectiveness effectiveness
Authentic in delivery
of messages 49% 72% 24%
Accessible and
responsive to employee
ideas or questions 49% 71% 28%
Transparent in
messages to employees 42% 66% 19%
Creating a dialogue
with employees 41% 63% 21%
Note: Table made from bar graph.
Leading through change
Leadership activities, such as those noted below, are among the primary drivers of overall change success, and they are most important during the planning phase of a change initiative. While most of the study participants reported that they're effective at finding executive sponsorship for a change, only 32 percent are effective at creating strong employee motivation for making the change happen. Given this insight, it's not surprising that less than half of participants are able to keep their change initiatives on schedule and on budget. Rational and tangible activities--like documenting a vision or creating a project plan--are important and relatively straightforward for most. Leaders and managers may need extra help with the emotional elements of change that are key to motivating employees to embrace new behaviors.
Effective companies engage in leading activities to drive effective
change management
Study participants were asked: How effective is your organization
at the following?
Overall High Low
change change
effectiveness effectiveness
Developing a clear
vision of desired
organizational change 48% 84% 19%
Creating strong
employee motivation for
making organizational
change 32% 67% 9%
Finding executive
sponsorship for
organizational change 56% 85% 26%
Creating an integrated
communication and change
management strategy 37% 72% 15%
Note: Table made from bar graph.
Effective companies involve the communication function early in the
change process
It's important to note that change work is not owned by the C-suite.
Data show that communication and change management professionals play
a critical role. Highly effective firms recognize this fact and
involve the internal communication function early in change planning.
Study participants were asked: When your organization makes changes,
at what phase does the internal communication function first become
involved in the decision-making process?
Overall High Low
change change
effectiveness effectiveness
Identifying
the problem
or opportunity 14% 22% 9%
Identifying
possible
approaches to
address
the issue 26% 29% 20%
Selecting the
approach to
address
the issue 10% 11% 6%
Planning the
implementation 20% 18% 22%
Implementing
the change
Only if a
problem arises 6% 2% 10%
Not applicable 7% 5% 13%
Note: Table made from bar graph.
learn more Download the 2011-2012 Change and Communication ROI Study and an addendum on effective change management at www.towerswatson.com.
Kathryn Yates is Towers Watson's global practice leader for communication and change management, and is based in Towers Watson's Chicago office. She has more than 25 years of experience in communication and operations management.
Source Citation
Vallas, Sara, and Kathryn Yates. "The character of communication: a new study reveals how leaders use communication and change management to build sustainable performance." Communication World May-June 2012: 23+. Communications and Mass Media Collection. Web. 11 June 2012.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA288428898&v=2.1&u=22054_acld&it=r&p=PPCM&sw=w
Gale Document Number: GALE|A288428898
In a challenging and dynamic business world, success depends on establishing a dear path to navigate through complexity. Organizations and their leaders wherever they are and whatever business environment they face--must be able to chart the right course and deliver results.
We know intuitively--and research confirms--that effective leaders can create true competitive advantage. Leadership is the top global driver of employee engagement, according to the Towers Watson 2010 Global Workforce Study. High employee engagement, in turn, translates to better financial performance: In Towers Watson's Global Normative Database, companies with high employee engagement generate operating margins nearly 1.5 times higher than companies with low engagement.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Specific directions vary according to each company's strategic imperatives, but regardless of focus, the best leaders create a clear path forward for their people. Towers Watsoffs 20112012 Change and Communication ROI Study sheds new light on how leaders are using change and communication
processes to demonstrate these leadership characteristics.
How do you do it?
According to Towers Watson's Global Normative Database, highly engaged employees at high-performance companies rate leaders as having these characteristics:
* Principled--driving the company from a shared set of guiding principles by clarifying values, operating with integrity in everything they do and showing an unrelenting commitment to the customer.
* Agile--managing the challenges of ongoing change effectively; and supporting the organization to evolve in new and innovative ways.
* Trustworthy--stressing fairness in decision making and empowering people in their roles.
Leaders who are seen as demonstrating these characteristics use communication and change practice to produce:
* Clarity--conveying the direction of the business along with ways they can contribute to the enterprise.
* Confidence--following a disciplined process for changing and communicating to create greater certainty, confidence and engagement among employees.
* Community--building a sense that employees and leaders are in it together and share both the challenges and rewards of working.
The Change and Communication ROI Study demonstrates that effective change and communication practices also help the bottom line. Organizations that are highly effective at both communication and change management are more than twice as likely to outperform those that are not effective at either. This holds true in any industry, region or economy.
Creating a clear direction requires conveying a consistent story about the business; creating greater certainty, confidence and engagement among employees; and building a shared experience across diverse audiences.
Creating clarity
Leaders at highly effective organizations demonstrate their integrity by being clear about the future with their employees, even when markets or strategies are in flux. Whether it's about the business or the employee experience, there needs to be a sense of direction and steps to follow. With help from communication professionals, leaders must stand on firm values and point the way forward.
The study found that just over half of participants are effective at these fundamental practices. Most organizations continue to rely on one-way electronic media, such as email or intranet pages, while relatively few ask senior leaders to deliver messages about the organizational culture and values. This is a missed opportunity: Senior leaders and managers are ideal conduits to build common understanding around culture and values.
Organizations that do communicate effectively use a mix of media--including interactive electronic media and social networking--to reinforce messaging from the top among increasingly diverse and selective audiences.
Leading with confidence
As the world grows more complex, demands more numerous and media more varied, the basis for agility is fundamental, even old-fashioned. The best organizations see an opportunity, build a plan, and are disciplined in following it, measuring results and making course corrections. They engage stakeholders in the process, especially managers and leaders. By taking these fundamental steps, they reduce the level of uncertainty, indicating that someone has a firm hand on the wheel--which breeds confidence.
Leaders who deliver confidence have a significant impact. Employees at highly effective organizations are 2.5 to three times as likely to report that their leaders are authentic and transparent in delivering messages when compared with organizations with low effectiveness. In addition, their leaders are accessible and responsive to employee ideas. Creating a dialogue with employees takes time from a busy leader's schedule. However, the data show a good return on this investment (see chart on facing page).
The most productive organizations follow a disciplined process for change management and communication to create greater certainty, confidence and engagement among employees. Communication professionals can help the organization set a course, correct along the way and apply what they learn toward future efforts. When compared with companies with low change management and communication effectiveness, those that are highly effective at change management are nearly five times as likely to create an integrated communication and change management strategy--and more than eight times as likely to continue to exhibit new behaviors and use new skills after changes are made.
Building community
What do leaders do to build community? First, they recognize that a shared experience and purpose are important to the business. They understand that building trust requires an ongoing conversation. They do not shy away from connecting with employees, and they have the courage to address controversy.
Most organizations aren't fully leveraging leaders to create community and grow trust. Two-thirds of all participants in the study report that they are using leadership visits to create a shared experience among employees, although most seem to be focused on business results. While business results are important, integrating new employees and seeking key feedback about the company's plans and progress also help build a long-term, trusted relationship between senior leaders and employees.
Of course, a healthy community cannot be driven simply by leadership. It emerges over time from a myriad of interactions. Social media extend existing social networks beyond face-to-face interaction and enable audiences to segment automatically. While social networks are ideally suited to building community within an organization, overall just over half (51 percent) of the study participants use it for this purpose, and only about one-third of those find it effective. Not surprisingly, among companies that are highly effective at communicating, we find a higher frequency of use and effectiveness. Social media are also well suited to support collaboration, and here we find a similar trend across all organizations.
How do you make communication training effective?
Many organizations are training leaders on communication and change management, yet few find it effective. Here are some guiding principles that characterize effective training:
* Stay focused and be specific. Document learning objectives, tie them to organizational goals, and build content around those objectives.
* Mix it up. Everyone learns differently, so a mix of learning experiences provides better results. Build a curriculum that includes self-service (e-learning, book summaries, articles, videos) and classroom-based programs. Above all, keep it fun and interactive.
* Take breaks. For instructor-led training, limit each module to 90 minutes. With e-learning, keep it to no longer than 45 minutes.
In their book Manager Redefined, Thomas Davenport and Stephen Harding note that as a leader, "your job is to lead your organization to the promised land of marketplace advantage. This means looking behind every tree and under every rock for a competitive advantage."
The Change and Communication ROI Study indicates that effective communication and change management practices are core to that advantage. The best recognize that the demands and pace of change in business don't always (or even often) coincide with employees' needs and capacity for change. Effective business leaders know this. They understand the benefit of hearing the perspective and counsel of communication and change professionals--of being not only informed of employees' readiness for change and capacity for training, but also educated in the nuances of message, media and manager support that mark successful change efforts.
Principled, agile and trustworthy leaders use effective communication and change management practices to create a clear path and build sustainable performance. Helping leaders improve their effectiveness in communication and change makes good business sense.
Finding the link between communication and effectiveness
Towers Watson's 2011-2012 Change and Communication ROI Study looked at data collected in April and May 2011 from 604 organizations in various regions around the world. Industries represented included manufacturing, financial services, health care, IT and telecommunications, and the public sector.
Most questions in the survey used a five-point Likert or effectiveness scale. Where high and low effectiveness were compared, the study showed how many of the organizations designated as having high or low change or communication effectiveness responded to the item with a 4, a 5 (agree/strongly agree or effective/highly effective) or a yes answer.
Defining communication and change effectiveness
Highly effective firms represent the top third of study participants, with the highest overall communication effectiveness or change effectiveness scores based on their responses to the survey items that measure these areas. Less effective firms represent the bottom third of participants, with the lowest overall effectiveness. Researchers looked at the financial performance of the companies in the highly effective group to measure the relationship between financial performance and communication effectiveness.
Assessing effectiveness and performance
In order to conduct the analysis, participants were divided into three groups based on their self-reported financial performance relative to their peers'. The three groups are defined as follows:
* High performers are those organizations that report performing substantially above their peer group.
* Average performers are those that report performing about the same as or slightly above their peer group.
* Below-average performers are those that report performing slightly or substantially below their peer group.
Using this information, Towers Watson confirmed the strong link between change and communication effectiveness and better financial performance:
* Companies that are highly effective at communication are 1.7 times as likely to be high-performing financially than companies that are not highly effective at communication.
* Companies that are highly effective at both communication and change management are 2.5 times as likely to be high-performing than companies that are not highly effective at either.
Effective leaders are authentic, accessible and transparent
The Towers Watson study asked participants to describe the
communication skills among their organization's leaders as follows:
Leaders at my organization are:
Overall High Low
communications communications
effectiveness effectiveness
Authentic in delivery
of messages 49% 72% 24%
Accessible and
responsive to employee
ideas or questions 49% 71% 28%
Transparent in
messages to employees 42% 66% 19%
Creating a dialogue
with employees 41% 63% 21%
Note: Table made from bar graph.
Leading through change
Leadership activities, such as those noted below, are among the primary drivers of overall change success, and they are most important during the planning phase of a change initiative. While most of the study participants reported that they're effective at finding executive sponsorship for a change, only 32 percent are effective at creating strong employee motivation for making the change happen. Given this insight, it's not surprising that less than half of participants are able to keep their change initiatives on schedule and on budget. Rational and tangible activities--like documenting a vision or creating a project plan--are important and relatively straightforward for most. Leaders and managers may need extra help with the emotional elements of change that are key to motivating employees to embrace new behaviors.
Effective companies engage in leading activities to drive effective
change management
Study participants were asked: How effective is your organization
at the following?
Overall High Low
change change
effectiveness effectiveness
Developing a clear
vision of desired
organizational change 48% 84% 19%
Creating strong
employee motivation for
making organizational
change 32% 67% 9%
Finding executive
sponsorship for
organizational change 56% 85% 26%
Creating an integrated
communication and change
management strategy 37% 72% 15%
Note: Table made from bar graph.
Effective companies involve the communication function early in the
change process
It's important to note that change work is not owned by the C-suite.
Data show that communication and change management professionals play
a critical role. Highly effective firms recognize this fact and
involve the internal communication function early in change planning.
Study participants were asked: When your organization makes changes,
at what phase does the internal communication function first become
involved in the decision-making process?
Overall High Low
change change
effectiveness effectiveness
Identifying
the problem
or opportunity 14% 22% 9%
Identifying
possible
approaches to
address
the issue 26% 29% 20%
Selecting the
approach to
address
the issue 10% 11% 6%
Planning the
implementation 20% 18% 22%
Implementing
the change
Only if a
problem arises 6% 2% 10%
Not applicable 7% 5% 13%
Note: Table made from bar graph.
learn more Download the 2011-2012 Change and Communication ROI Study and an addendum on effective change management at www.towerswatson.com.
Kathryn Yates is Towers Watson's global practice leader for communication and change management, and is based in Towers Watson's Chicago office. She has more than 25 years of experience in communication and operations management.
Source Citation
Vallas, Sara, and Kathryn Yates. "The character of communication: a new study reveals how leaders use communication and change management to build sustainable performance." Communication World May-June 2012: 23+. Communications and Mass Media Collection. Web. 11 June 2012.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA288428898&v=2.1&u=22054_acld&it=r&p=PPCM&sw=w
Gale Document Number: GALE|A288428898
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
Making House Calls Via Home Computers
Online disease management programs help the chronically ill closely monitor their conditions
IT'S BEEN THREE MONTHS since Shirl Hutton received a free personal computer from LifeMasters, a disease management company, and began using the Internet to track and monitor her heart condition. At 76, she feels more aware and in control of her health thanks to the Internet, but less in control of her new habit: Web surfing and e-mailing her children and grandchildren.
"Being on the Internet is great, but it cut into my reading time, so I've cut hack." said the energetic woman in a recent interview in her sunlit home facing the Pacific ocean in Santa Cruz. Calif. After years of taking medication for a weak heart valve, Hutton. a trim and stylish swimmer and walker, suffered a heart attack a year and a half ago.
LifeMasters, based in Newport Beach and South San Francisco, Calif., was founded in 1994 but just started marketing its programs about a year ago. Initially it is working with its HMO customers to serve patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) and diabetes, but it plans to eventually include those with lung disease and other chronic conditions.
The company appears to be the first player in the field to introduce an Internet component--thanks to an investment by Intel Corp.--to its disease management programs. Some rivals, including Cardiac Solutions, based in Buffalo Grove, ill., are planning to follow suit.
Physicians whose patients enroll in a LifeMasters program lay out a treatment program, and the company's nurses teach patients to monitor their health at home between office visits.
For those who have never used a computer or the Internet, LifeMasters' technical staff offers computer training to get them started. (Beyond the specific Intel-funded pilot programs, LifeMasters does not plan to give away PCs to patients.)
Then, like Ms. Hutton, patients log on daily from home to their password-protected, customized Web site, designed by LifeMasters, and take a few minutes to measure and report their vital signs and answer a few questions regarding their illness.
Patients are assigned a personal LifeMasters nurse (whom the company likens to a personal trainer for weightlifters), who calls them whenever they answer "yes" to the final question or report any aberration.
Nurses also call their patients every week to discuss their health in detail, including their medications and any visits they have made or might need to make to their physician.
LifeMasters executives are betting that, of the estimated 100 million chronically ill patients in the United States, the large percentage who are not in critical condition are healthy enough to use a computer and thereby take more control of their medical care.
Most of the patients it targets are over 50, and many are in their 70s and 80s.
Intel knows well that the elderly are taking to the Internet in droves. That means the promise of more Intel-inside computers, and more internet-aided LifeMasters SelfCare programs in U.S. households down the road.
According to market research firm Jupiter Communications, 14.8 percent of people over 50 have an online account. That number is expected to rise to 33.6 percent in 2003.
Hutton is one of about 150 CHF patients in Santa Cruz whom LifeMasters has enrolled in a pilot study, largely funded by Intel, through Physicians Medical Group.
A third of the patients were randomly selected to use computers to track their disease; another third are using an automated telephone system, and the rest are a control group, receiving daily calls from staff nurses.
Chris Selecky, president and chief executive officer of LifeMasters, said it's too soon to tell if patients using the company's Web-based program are making doctor or emergency room visits with less frequency, but they are clearly entering their vital data at least as regularly as they would using the more conventional interactive voice response (IVR) method.
"Our philosophy is to do whatever it takes to make patients successful," Selecky said. "That's why we use multiple systems--the phone, IVR, the Internet, and eventually paging devices. The Internet is the most cost-effective means."
The advantage of using Internet technology, she said, is that it already exists, it's flexible, it's nearly ubiquitous, and it offers the opportunity for community.
For community-building measures, LifeMasters provides bulletin boards and chat rooms for its Web-connected patients, and it encourages them to contact each other directly and to access health-related Web sites.
Selecky said managed-care companies and agencies have begun embracing the disease management concept in the past six months, partly out of a "huge backlash in public opinion" against HMOs and demands for better care, especially for the chronically ill. As part of that trend, she said, "there's been a real sea change [by health organizations] to incorporate the Internet as a tool."
Rich Jacobsen, an investment banker at Bear Steams who follows the health care industry, said LifeMasters' foray into cyberspace is well timed. With HMOs trying to cut costs, and with doctors less willing to assume the risks they might have accepted a couple of years ago, HMOs are looking for outside vendors such as disease management companies to help them improve care while curbing costs, he said.
"In general, disease management companies are offering the prospect of higher-quality care at lower cost," Jacobsen said. "LifeMasters is ahead of the game, in general, in its move to an Internet-based strategy."
The Internet strategy has helped woo investors, too. LifeMasters has received three rounds of private financing, from Weiss Peck & Greer, Pacific Venture Group, InnoCal, Vantage Point Venture Partners, and Piper Jaffray Ventures; last year Intel added to its health care investments with an undisclosed handout. Other funders did not disclose their amounts either.
And what about an "exit strategy" in this frothy market? "At this stage, I don't want to predict whether the next step will be an IPO or an acquisition or what. We're all certainly open to all those," Ledecky said of LifeMasters, which is unprofitable on top of scant, and undisclosed, revenue.
LifeMasters' key rival, Cardiac Solutions, is less enamored of the Internet. The company serves roughly 10,000 chronically ill patients, most of them suffering from heart failure.
Jean Fultin, head of marketing for Cardiac Solutions, said the company plans within the next year and a half to incorporate some aspects of Internet technology into its programs.
"We'll incorporate technology where it makes sense," Fultin said. "One pitfall of technology is that with some disease states commingled (diabetes and congestive heart failure, for instance), lots of human intervention is needed to pick up on subtle questions."
search: PERSONALIZED SERVICES
Source Citation
Moran, Susan. "Making House Calls Via Home Computers." Internet World 3 May 1999: 44. General OneFile. Web. 5 Mar. 2012.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA54613008&v=2.1&u=22054_acld&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w
Gale Document Number: GALE|A54613008
Online disease management programs help the chronically ill closely monitor their conditions
IT'S BEEN THREE MONTHS since Shirl Hutton received a free personal computer from LifeMasters, a disease management company, and began using the Internet to track and monitor her heart condition. At 76, she feels more aware and in control of her health thanks to the Internet, but less in control of her new habit: Web surfing and e-mailing her children and grandchildren.
"Being on the Internet is great, but it cut into my reading time, so I've cut hack." said the energetic woman in a recent interview in her sunlit home facing the Pacific ocean in Santa Cruz. Calif. After years of taking medication for a weak heart valve, Hutton. a trim and stylish swimmer and walker, suffered a heart attack a year and a half ago.
LifeMasters, based in Newport Beach and South San Francisco, Calif., was founded in 1994 but just started marketing its programs about a year ago. Initially it is working with its HMO customers to serve patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) and diabetes, but it plans to eventually include those with lung disease and other chronic conditions.
The company appears to be the first player in the field to introduce an Internet component--thanks to an investment by Intel Corp.--to its disease management programs. Some rivals, including Cardiac Solutions, based in Buffalo Grove, ill., are planning to follow suit.
Physicians whose patients enroll in a LifeMasters program lay out a treatment program, and the company's nurses teach patients to monitor their health at home between office visits.
For those who have never used a computer or the Internet, LifeMasters' technical staff offers computer training to get them started. (Beyond the specific Intel-funded pilot programs, LifeMasters does not plan to give away PCs to patients.)
Then, like Ms. Hutton, patients log on daily from home to their password-protected, customized Web site, designed by LifeMasters, and take a few minutes to measure and report their vital signs and answer a few questions regarding their illness.
Patients are assigned a personal LifeMasters nurse (whom the company likens to a personal trainer for weightlifters), who calls them whenever they answer "yes" to the final question or report any aberration.
Nurses also call their patients every week to discuss their health in detail, including their medications and any visits they have made or might need to make to their physician.
LifeMasters executives are betting that, of the estimated 100 million chronically ill patients in the United States, the large percentage who are not in critical condition are healthy enough to use a computer and thereby take more control of their medical care.
Most of the patients it targets are over 50, and many are in their 70s and 80s.
Intel knows well that the elderly are taking to the Internet in droves. That means the promise of more Intel-inside computers, and more internet-aided LifeMasters SelfCare programs in U.S. households down the road.
According to market research firm Jupiter Communications, 14.8 percent of people over 50 have an online account. That number is expected to rise to 33.6 percent in 2003.
Hutton is one of about 150 CHF patients in Santa Cruz whom LifeMasters has enrolled in a pilot study, largely funded by Intel, through Physicians Medical Group.
A third of the patients were randomly selected to use computers to track their disease; another third are using an automated telephone system, and the rest are a control group, receiving daily calls from staff nurses.
Chris Selecky, president and chief executive officer of LifeMasters, said it's too soon to tell if patients using the company's Web-based program are making doctor or emergency room visits with less frequency, but they are clearly entering their vital data at least as regularly as they would using the more conventional interactive voice response (IVR) method.
"Our philosophy is to do whatever it takes to make patients successful," Selecky said. "That's why we use multiple systems--the phone, IVR, the Internet, and eventually paging devices. The Internet is the most cost-effective means."
The advantage of using Internet technology, she said, is that it already exists, it's flexible, it's nearly ubiquitous, and it offers the opportunity for community.
For community-building measures, LifeMasters provides bulletin boards and chat rooms for its Web-connected patients, and it encourages them to contact each other directly and to access health-related Web sites.
Selecky said managed-care companies and agencies have begun embracing the disease management concept in the past six months, partly out of a "huge backlash in public opinion" against HMOs and demands for better care, especially for the chronically ill. As part of that trend, she said, "there's been a real sea change [by health organizations] to incorporate the Internet as a tool."
Rich Jacobsen, an investment banker at Bear Steams who follows the health care industry, said LifeMasters' foray into cyberspace is well timed. With HMOs trying to cut costs, and with doctors less willing to assume the risks they might have accepted a couple of years ago, HMOs are looking for outside vendors such as disease management companies to help them improve care while curbing costs, he said.
"In general, disease management companies are offering the prospect of higher-quality care at lower cost," Jacobsen said. "LifeMasters is ahead of the game, in general, in its move to an Internet-based strategy."
The Internet strategy has helped woo investors, too. LifeMasters has received three rounds of private financing, from Weiss Peck & Greer, Pacific Venture Group, InnoCal, Vantage Point Venture Partners, and Piper Jaffray Ventures; last year Intel added to its health care investments with an undisclosed handout. Other funders did not disclose their amounts either.
And what about an "exit strategy" in this frothy market? "At this stage, I don't want to predict whether the next step will be an IPO or an acquisition or what. We're all certainly open to all those," Ledecky said of LifeMasters, which is unprofitable on top of scant, and undisclosed, revenue.
LifeMasters' key rival, Cardiac Solutions, is less enamored of the Internet. The company serves roughly 10,000 chronically ill patients, most of them suffering from heart failure.
Jean Fultin, head of marketing for Cardiac Solutions, said the company plans within the next year and a half to incorporate some aspects of Internet technology into its programs.
"We'll incorporate technology where it makes sense," Fultin said. "One pitfall of technology is that with some disease states commingled (diabetes and congestive heart failure, for instance), lots of human intervention is needed to pick up on subtle questions."
search: PERSONALIZED SERVICES
Source Citation
Moran, Susan. "Making House Calls Via Home Computers." Internet World 3 May 1999: 44. General OneFile. Web. 5 Mar. 2012.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA54613008&v=2.1&u=22054_acld&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w
Gale Document Number: GALE|A54613008
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