|
|
|
|
“Mayo
is well qualified to narrow the gap between human value and the balance
sheet and his enthusiasm and considerable personal management nous keep
an information-heavy book readable. Gems of management learning scatter
the pages. "Draws
upon recent research and takes thinking to a new level. It provides
a useful synopsis of much modern thinking.
I'd
better start by coming clean about a halo effect. I have known Andrew
Mayo for many years and hold him in the highest esteem. I still find
the book he co-authored some years ago, The Power of Learning, the best
book ever written about creating learning environments at work. I also
had the privilege of working closely with Andrew when we, together with
other colleagues, created the Learning Declaration. At every meeting
of the group, Andrew could always be counted on to say sensible things
with a straightforward conviction. Then, about a year ago, Andrew sent
me an early draft of his new book and, flatteringly, invited my comments.
So, I have
been longing to get my hands on this book and have at least warned you
to be wary of my unrestrained enthusiasm.
As I reflect
on Andrew's book, three words, all starting with C, come to my mind;
it is courageous, challenging and compelling. Andrew has a mission to
change the mind-set that perceives people as costs walking around on
legs and to prove that they are assets with a unique capacity to build
value. The word 'prove' is important here. There is nothing remotely
fluffy about what Andrew is proposing. He understands full well that
managers are conditioned to working with numbers and that nothing has
a greater impact on them. In effect, he sets out to meet managers half
way - they with their 'measure it to manage it' mentality and he with
his 'measure it to value it' mentality. The meeting point is the place
where the worth and contribution of people is quantified.
The book
explores in detail a simple (but not easy!) model - The Human Capital
Monitor. Basically this advocates a blend of process (causal) and results
(effect) measures, with the emphasis more on the former than the latter.
The model urges us to have measures for a person's capability, their
potential, their contribution, their alignment to the organisation's
values and for the environmental factors that encourage or restrains
their performance.
The book
poses seven challenges (they rather remind me of the labours of Hercules)
which, in summary, are:
Each chapter
finishes with a summary of the challenges for action (see what I mean
about Hercules?). The whole book is peppered with suggested measures
of human capital (for example, the percentage of people with PDPs, the
percentage of people who complete their personal development actions,
the percentage of favourable press mentions, the percentage of repeat
customers, the percentage of sales from new products and services, the
percentage of business coming from referrals, the availability of one-stop
information sources, the percentage of on-time deliveries, the number
of young people given work experience - and so on, and so on).
I can't
remember where I got it from, but years ago I was taught that measures
should TURN. T is for trackable, U is for understandable, R is for relevant
and N is for not negative. The measures Andrew advocates all fit these
criteria - though his checklist of characteristics for good measures
is, as you might expect, far more comprehensive!
In the
introduction Andrew says that the book sets out to answer three questions
I believe his book answers all three admirably. But don't take my word for it, get a copy and see for yourself. |
   |
 |
|
