Blanchard Perspectives and White Papers
The Ken Blanchard Companies synthesizes observations and commentary about business trends, organizational performance issues, and leadership challenges in a dynamic and globalizing workplace.
These articles often contain best practices for improving and maximizing performance, as well as expert insights on how best to build successful workplace cultures, and evolve behavioral change within organizations.
Employee Work Passion: Volume 4
What ’s important in creating a motivating work environment and whose job is it?
There’s a lot of buzz about the factors that lead to an engaging work environment and an equal number of prescriptions for what should be done to improve it. But what factors are most important, and who is actually responsible for creating a motivating work environment in today’s organizations? Is it an immediate manager’s responsibility? Is it senior leadership’s responsibility? What role do individual employees have in the process?
These are just some of the questions asked in a recent survey conducted by Training magazine and The Ken Blanchard Companies® as a part of Blanchard’s ongoing research into the factors that create employee work passion. More than 800 Training magazine readers participated in the survey sharing their thoughts on 4 key questions.
- What factors are most important when it comes to employee retention?
- Which of five Job factors do you feel is most important?
- Which of five Organizational factors do you feel is most important?
- Who has primary responsibility for seeing that needs get met in these areas?
A Leadership Imperative for the Oil and Gas Industry
Tightening the Connection That Optimizes Safety and Productivity
Leadership’s choices and the quality of these choices have a tremendous impact on safety and productivity at both the individual and organizational level. Of equal importance to leaders is the clarification of the core leadership values and principles that can have a positive connection to improving the systems and processes that lead to a safe working environment. Committed and skillful leadership drives not only safety and productivity but it also enhances employee development and engagement, thereby influencing the quality of decisions direct reports make in any given situation.
The imperative to safely produce oil and gas is at an all-time high across the globe. By challenging themselves to think of safety and productivity as harmonious and simultaneous concepts that enhance each other, leaders may find that they are able to optimize both. This white paper offers a solution and point of view for utilizing leadership as a catalyst for optimizing safety and productivity while engaging everyone in the process.
Making the Business Case for Leadership Development:
The 7% Differential
One of the biggest challenges training professionals face when they propose new leadership development initiatives is convincing CEOs of the financial impact of the proposed initiative. Without a clear sense of the positive financial impact, it is easy to dismiss a new proposal as being too disruptive, too expensive, or too time consuming.
A free online calculator created by The Ken Blanchard Companies might be just the tool that HR, OD, and training professionals have been looking for to help them make the business case for leadership development. An analysis of 200+ companies using The Ken Blanchard Companies’ new Cost-of-Doing-Nothing Calculator shows that every year of delay is costing the typical organization an amount equal to 7% of their total annual sales.
Employee Work Passion: Volume 3
New research from The Ken Blanchard Companies surfaces new factors that drive Employee Work Passion and explores the correlations between Employee Work Passion factors and intentions.
Research shows that intentions drive behaviors; Discover which factors organizations must focus on to move the needle in regard to employee endoresement, organizational citizenship, intent to stay, intent to perform, and discretionary effort.
Creating a High Performance, Values-Aligned Culture
Leaders who are clear about their company’s reason for being (purpose) and who define what “good corporate citizens” look like (values) are able to deliver and sustain both performance and employee satisfaction over time. The creation of a purposeful culture—one that holds employees accountable for exceeding performance expectations while modeling the organization’s declared values—is critical for business leaders in today’s marketplace. Developing a high performance, values-aligned culture requires three integrated steps. They are:
- Clarify performance expectations
- Define values in behavioral terms
- Hold leaders and staff accountable
Challenging Conversations—Strategies for Turning Conflict
into Creativity
It is an understatement to say that we are living in times of great turmoil, polarization, and change. It is a time when unresolved conflicts permeate our lives, our workplaces, our politics, our community. Very few systems are immune from the tension conflict generates. We watch helpless, as countries use war as a strategy for settling disagreements. Our news sources are glutted with escalating reports of physical violence used as a method to mediate disputes. Our schools have become battle grounds as students grapple with ways to handle conflicting emotions and divergent points of view. Our airlines sometimes get diverted due to a passenger who does not have the skills to deal with their anger. And tragically sometimes our workplaces break out in violence. Register for Access
Critical Leadership Skills in a New Business Reality
Globalization and the increasingly international nature of business is changing the face of leadership. More and more people from many different backgrounds, age groups, and cultures are stepping into management positions than ever before.
Bringing people together from a wide variety of different backgrounds creates tremendous opportunities for organizations, but also some challenges. Organizations can benefit from the new perspectives and possibilities that diversity brings if they are able to unite people with a common set of values and goals. If not, the result is misalignment and disorganized inefficiencies as people go off in different direction-based on their own individual backgrounds. Register for Access
Take the Fear Out of Feedback
Mention the word "feedback" and most people jump to the conclusion that they’re about to experience something uncomfortable or negative. But imagine a world without feedback— we would cease to learn, grow, and improve ourselves, our performance, our behavior, and our lives. Yet most of us resist giving and getting feedback because we fail to see the upside.
Research from The Ken Blanchard Companies indicates that the three main reasons people resist giving feedback are:
- They’re fearful the other person will get angry
- They’ve tried before and didn’t get results
- They’re not sure how to do it effectively
Giving feedback appropriately is a powerful skill. And it is a skill everyone needs to master—especially in the business world, where delivering feedback can make a marked difference in performance. The good news is it is a skill and can be learned.
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Building Trust
Trust has taken a hit lately in all facets of our life. Chalk it up to the combined effects of the economic meltdown, financial mismanagement, and an increasing sense that, in business at least, everyone seems to be in it only for themselves. The result has been dwindling levels of trust in organizations. In fact, a recent poll by Maritz indicates that only seven percent of workers strongly agree that they trust their senior leaders to look out for their best interest.
The good news is that if trust has been broken, your professional or personal relationship can recover. It takes hard work to build trust, especially after it has been betrayed, but it can be done. By being aware and using the TrustWorks! ABCD Trust Model and using the guidelines presented in this paper, organizations and individuals can watch for signs that trust is eroding, analyze where the breakdowns are occurring, and work to rebuild high levels of trust.
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Thriving in the New Business Reality
Organizations around the world are being forced to change the way they do business. Shrinking budgets, downsized workforces, customers who exhibit totally new buying behaviors and expectations, and employees who may be unclear of what's happening next are forcing organizations large and small to innovate and find new ways to save—and make—money while rallying their troops for what lies ahead.
There are key things that organizations and leaders can do to thrive in the new business reality. The first requires a shift in mind-set. The second requires creating a culture that supports the shift. The third is creating the capacity for change. And, fourth, is to cultivate the kind of leadership that can walk the talk of the culture and develop talent to its fullest.
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eLearning: An Effective, Engaging Solution for Boosting Training Participation and Completion
To gain a competitive edge in a dynamic business environment, leading organizations are looking for more cost-effective and scalable ways to train and develop their employees quickly and effectively. Blanchard offers an effective and engaging solution for boosting both the user experience and completion rates.
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The High Cost of Doing Nothing
Quantifying the Impact of Leadership on the Bottom Line
In this white paper you will learn about the impact that leadership has on employee productivity, employee turnover, and customer satisfaction. By looking at the effect that leadership has in each of these three areas, executives can identify strategies to recognize and quantify the impact of average versus best-practice leadership in their organizations.
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Virtualosity for Training Professionals
Virtual training can be faster and more cost effective, but that does not mean it is easier. As the trend toward Virtualosity accelerates, training professionals will rapidly need to acquire a new set of skills. Engaging design, skillful delivery, and creative reinforcement of learning take on greater importance when delivering content virtually. Like all good training experiences, if these basics are done well, the learning journey can be smooth and successful.
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A Fresh Look at Measuring the Impact of Training
This paper examines a variety of approaches that The Ken Blanchard Companies offers to clients to measure and evaluate training effectiveness and business impact, such as Success Case method, performance consulting, peer collaboration, impact studies, assessments, and anecdotal evidence. In addition, this paper explores opportunities for expanding Blanchard’s capabilities in order to better provide clients with multiple solutions for measuring impact including recommendations in this area to move forward.
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The Next Generation of Workers
Identifying generational distinctions can provide a useful framework for building awareness and understanding of the different viewpoints, attitudes, needs, and expectations among generations as well as the implications for future changes in the workplace. Understanding these unique generational differences can become a competitive advantage for organizations in terms of higher productivity and human performance. Also, the long-term costs related to loss of talent, higher payroll costs, poor customer service, derailed careers, knowledge transfer, and stress-related issues are enormous.
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Creating a Motivating Work Environment
Research conducted by the Office of the Future on Creating a Motivating Work Environment sheds light on the important topic of employee passion and commitment. What kind of environment do great leaders create, and how do they behave to foster a motivating environment? What differences appear across generational cohort, gender, and personality type? Register for Access
From Engagement to Work Passion
This 2008 study sheds light on the degree to which demographics influence Employee Passion. It also clarifies a definition for what engagement or Employee Passion is, and the process individuals go through in order to become engaged.
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Leadership Strategies for Making Change Stick
A study conducted by The Ken Blanchard Companies in 2008 paints a telling story about the challenges organizations are facing that demand effective change leadership.
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Managing Coaching for Results and ROI
This paper highlights the business issues that coaching addresses, the benefits of coaching, and the improvements in effectiveness and efficiency that can be realized through the Web-based Blanchard Coaching Management System. Register for Access
Employee Passion: The New Rules of Engagement
The Ken Blanchard Companies looked at the factors that influence employee engagement, satisfaction, and morale to create a new framework for assessing Employee Passion in your organization. Register for Access
The Key to Customer Loyalty
Customer loyalty is a powerful driver of organizational success, and losing a customer is a costly endeavor. It can cost six to seven times more to gain a new customer than to retain an existing one. Register for Access
The Leadership-Profit Chain
Learn why leadership skills are so critical to a company's P&L. The key to organizational vitality is creating an environment that allows employees to win and be passionate about what they do. By taking care of employees, leaders establish an environment in which the employees take care of the customers at a level that causes the customer to want to return year after year. Register for Access
The Leadership-Purpose Chain in Government Agencies
There is great debate in the literature about whether business practices can or should be applied to government agencies. So, as we began examining and applying this model and research to the public sector, we embarked on further literature review. Our review led to the belief that the theories of organizational function and leadership that work in the private sector will not work for the public sector unless they are modified to represent the needs and nature of that segment. Register for Access
How to Maximize Your Training Investment
Scott Blanchard and Richard Whiteley, best-selling author and principal with The Whiteley Group, conducted extensive research to identify the key criteria for helping organizations create a sustainable approach to training and close the learning-doing gap. Based on this research, The Ken Blanchard Companies has established a system for ensuring the transfer of learning from the classroom to the work environment. Register for Access
Emerging Trends and Demographic Forces
This report explores emerging trends and demographic forces that will be impacting the workplace and workforce over the next decade. After sifting through hundreds of pages of data, trends, and predictions, we compiled ideas and analyses from expert sources including the Institute for the Future, the American Society for Training & Development, The Futurist, The Herman Group, and others. In addition, we interviewed Blanchard associates and Blanchard clients on past, current, and future workplace issues, the results of which were incorporated into this report. Register for Access
Achieving Excellence, Virtually
Whether virtual teams are in the beginning stages, have recently taken on new members, or are in the process of troubleshooting team problems, leaders and managers can use the strategies described in this white paper to get teams off to the right start, address ongoing working relationships, and ensure that their teams achieve and maintain high performance.
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