"This movie - Rise of the Planet of the Apes, through it's engagement with creatures emotions via the very clever replication of eye contact has the ability to impact the psyche of the human race and encourage a change for the better"

Grant Crossley, founder Total Executive

Are your leaders connecting with the inner desires of your staff - a willingness to connect with our environment, community and nature...

How are your leaders engaging staff?

Are they communicating sincerely - looking them straight in the eye?

Are they still tied up with the antiquated historic style of management - ruling by Carrot and Stick?

So your staff always need to watch their back...

Do your leaders leave staff distant?

Wanting to start an Uprising?

Or, do your leaders engage with compassion...

Encouraging engaging conversation...

Building an environment of collaboration

Is your business encouraging engagement with community, staff and our environment as is an underlying theme for Rise of the Planet of the Apes?

Think about how your leaders are engaging with staff? Do they need a helping hand?

If so, Contact Us to discuss Responsible Leadership

And make sure you check out this Movie of The Year:

http://www.apeswillrise.com/

All images above sourced from http://www.imdb.com

Why A Framework?

Green ICT – sometimes called Green IT – is a much-discussed topic, in the ICT industry and beyond. The problem is, it means different things to different people. There are too many definitions, and not enough definition.

This lack of definition has made it difficult to measure the effectiveness or the extent of an organisation’s implementation of Green ICT. As the old saying goes, you can’t manage what you can’t measure. And you can’t measure what you can’t define.

To many people, Green ICT is only about reducing the energy consumption and carbon footprint of the ICT function within the organization. ICT is a significant consumer of electricity worldwide, on a par with the airline industry. Therefore it makes sense, as emission reduction becomes desirable and even mandatory, that ICT users should look at ways of reducing the energy consumption of their systems.

But there is more to Green ICT than that – which is why Green ICT is becoming an increasingly important issue. Green ICT goes beyond the ICT function and the ICT department – in many ways ICT, and Green ICT, is a central enabling technology to many aspects of sustainability. In very many cases ICT provides the measurement tool, the data repository, the reporting mechanism and the mitigation techniques that make sustainability possible.

Green ICT is becoming an important issue for many reasons. Data center power bills are soaring as electricity prices go up and new server technologies pack more and more processors, which consume more and more power, into less and less space. Water cooling is making a comeback to handle the heat dissipation issues. At the same time tough economic circumstances are putting a greater focus on running costs, and power consumption as a component of those costs is becoming more visible. Reporting requirements are becoming more stringent and there is an increased awareness across business and society of the unsustainability of many current consumption patterns.

ICT as a low-carbon enabler is an important component of the Green ICT Framework. It is not enough simply to reduce ICT’s carbon footprint – to make a real difference, ICT must be harnessed to greater purposes.

This process includes...

Equipment Lifecycle

This pillar covers the acquisition and procurement of ICT equipment, and disposal or recycling at the end of its lifecycle in an environmentally responsible fashion.

ICT equipment, like all other equipment, passes through a lifecycle. It is manufactured, sold (and for every sale there is a purchase), used and often reused, and then ultimately disposed of. That disposal may mean it is discarded or destroyed, but it may also be sold or given to another person or organization, where it has another lifecycle contained within its larger lifecycle.

End User Computing

End User Computing is that part of the ICT process which the end user controls. There are four areas – personal computing (desktop), personal computing (mobile), departmental computing, and printing and consumables. For each of these there are a range of different technologies and techniques that can reduce the organization’s power consumption and carbon footprint. End User Computing is especially important because, as the only part of ICT that exists outside of the specialized ICT function, it has the greatest effect on the wider green attitudes and behavior of the organisation’s workforce.

In many organizations, particularly larger ones, there is a significant amount of computing that takes place in end user departments away from the control of the ICT department.

Printing and Consumables

Printing is one of the largest consumers of resources in the IT function. There are a number of factors, of which the actual power consumption of printers is just one. Printers are very inefficient users of energy. They are usually left on, and consume significant amounts of energy even when idle. But there are many other factors which, while they do not directly affect the organization’s power consumption, have a significant effect on the environment.

Enterprise Computing

Enterprise Computing is that part of the ICT function controlled directly by the ICT department – typically the data center, networking, software development and outsourcing. In organizations large enough to have a data center, the effective management of the equipment within it and its environment can be one of the most important aspects of Green ICT.

Data Center ICT Equipment

The two most important types of ICT equipment in the data center include servers (including mainframes) and storage devices. Servers are usually the biggest consumers of power, and that power consumption continues to rise as more powerful processors are used inside them, and as the number of servers proliferates.

The average power consumption of a rack of servers has increased fivefold over the last ten years.

Data Center Environmentals

Quite apart from the ICT equipment in the data center, there is the issue of the data centre itself. The data centre’s non-ICT infrastructure can quite easily (and most often does) consume more power than the ICT equipment within it. There are three main aspects:

Networking and Communications

Communications – the “C” in ICT, plays a significant role in modern ICT. There are a number of green issues specifically to do with communications. These include:

Outsourcing and Cloud Computing

Outsourcing has been one of the big issues in ICT since the industry began, with computer bureaux, in the 1950s. The issues have evolved as the technology has evolved. Ultimately, all outsourcing is a make vs. buy decision. Is it more effective to make or do something yourself, or have someone else build it or do it for you? The equation keeps changing, depending on a number of factors.

In ICT, outsourcing discussions have traditionally centered around the issues of cost and capability. The cost argument usually runs along the lines of the outsourcer having economies of scale that are unavailable in-house, and the capability argument along the lines that the requisite skills are not available in-house.

The rise of sustainability as an issue has added a new dimension to the ICT outsourcing debate. Many facilities management companies are now highlighting their green credentials and building energy-efficient data centers that they say will enable users to lower their overall carbon footprint.  That may well be the case, but the traditional make vs buy arguments still hold. One key issue with outsourcing, and one that is overlooked surprisingly often, is that of measurement. It is impossible to tell if outsourcing is a good deal or not financially if you don’t know the real cost of what is being outsourced. Similarly, you can’t tell if an outsourcer is going to reduce your carbon footprint if you don’t know what it is to start with.

Recent complication to the outsourcing debate is the emergence of cloud computing, where processing takes place in the “cloud” – somewhere on the Internet far from the user. Cloud computing is not necessarily outsourced, but it very often is – making the debate even more complex.

Software Architecture

Computer systems consist of software running on hardware. Indeed, it is often argued that the software is the system, and that the hardware is simply an enabling technology. Most discussion about Green ICT refer to hardware, but software is also a factor.

The software architecture often determines the hardware architecture, which in turn may have a significant effect on the amount or type of hardware used – with all the consequences of the energy consumption of those systems. The way software is developed and used is significant – code can be efficient, or it can be “bloatware”. Systems can be developed from scratch, adapted or borrowed (with “objects”) from other software, or purchased off-the-shelf. Each approach has consequences for energy consumption.

ICT as a Low-Carbon Enabler

It is generally agreed that ICT is responsible for around 2 percent of the world’s carbon emissions – mainly through the usage of electricity to run the hardware, much of which comes from carbon-emitting power stations. That means that even if the carbon footprint of the entire world’s ICT function was halved, overall emissions would fall by only 1 percent.

The real potential benefits of Green ICT are in using ICT as an enabling technology to help the organization, and the wider community, reduce its carbon emissions. That is covered by the fourth pillar of the Framework.

Governance and Compliance

Many organisations nowadays are conscious of the desirability of being a good corporate citizen. Increasingly, that means acting in a green and sustainable manner. Publicity about climate change and related issues has greatly raised the profile of sustainability, and virtually all organizations are attempting to boost their green credentials. In some cases they do it because they are forced to, in some cases it is a case of “greenwash” or paying only lip service to environmental matters. But in many cases the organization’s management sincerely wants to do the right thing.

There is now an increased awareness that, when it comes to the environment, everybody is a stakeholder, and that good corporate governance also includes good environmental management. Green ICT is in many ways a management and governance issue. I

Teleworking and Collaboration

The term “teleworking” covers a range of technologies and practices that have to do with working at a distance or working remotely. Varieties of teleworking include telecommuting, teleconferencing and videoconferencing, and telepresence (a form of high-resolution videoconferencing).

Collaboration tools and techniques enhance the capability of a group of people to work together. There are a great many ways to do this, but all of them entail being able to share documents an processes and information, making their business processes more efficient (see below) and reducing the need for physical contact. In that sense, collaboration is a teleworking, with all the benefits of that process.

Business Process Management

Business Process Management (BPM) is the process of improving the ways an organisation or an individual does things – making them more efficient, with fewer steps or greater effect. The term is used in both a specific and a general sense. The specific sense refers to a management discipline called BPM, which typically identifies five phases: Design, Modeling, Execution, Monitoring and Optimization. In the general sense, BPM refers to the overall process of managing and improving business processes. ICT has a major role to play in improving most business processes. It provides both the tools for modeling the processes and many of the enabling technologies for execution.

Business Applications

Most organisations run a number of ICT-based business applications. The range varies greatly depending on the industry sector, but typical applications include Financial Management Information Systems (FMIS), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Many organizations also run more specialised or even custom applications specific to their industry, or to provide them with competitive advantage.

ICT is very important in each of these applications, which are essentially specialized business process management exercises. Managers seek greater efficiencies in every phase of every process. The fewer times and the shorter distance physical items have to be moved, the better. The fewer transactions that need to be made, the better.

Very small improvements can have a significant effect, because of the scale of the operation and because of flow-on effects further up (or down) the supply chain. Green ICT has a very important role in improving the efficiency of many industrial and commercial processes specific to individual industries, such as the manufacturing process, electricity distribution, and engineering and construction. Every industry has unique processes which can be made more efficient through the application of ICT – and efficiency means green.

Carbon Emissions Management

Carbon Emissions Management is an emerging discipline which focuses on the management – and ultimately the mitigation – of an organization’s carbon emissions. This includes the use of ICT systems specifically designed to reduce the carbon footprint, rather than doing so as a byproduct of greater efficiency. A key ICT application is Carbon Emissions Management Software (CEMS), which provide a compliant and consistent format for presenting greenhouse gas emission data to executive management and regulators

As the carbon emissions regulatory framework continues to evolve, CEMS is becoming an increasingly popular tool to manage the carbon emissions lifecycle. The market will continue to mature and will most likely consolidate around major technology vendors and a smaller group of niche or vertical industry players, and CEMS products will become a functional component within many organizations’ application portfolio. Envirability has researched the CEMS market, and written a major report on the background to CEMS and how to select and implement a product. See www.cemsus.com

Resource Sources:

[i] Williams, E, (2004) Energy Intensity of Computer Manufacturing - Environmental Science and Technology, 38, 2004. Iowa City. IA, USA ACS Publications

[ii] www.epeat.net

[iii]  http://ewasteguide.info

[iv] Koomey, J.G. (2007) Estimating Total Power Consumption by Servers in the U.S. and the World Stanford CA, USA. Retrieved 13 January 2010 from

http://enterprise.amd.com/Downloads/svrpwrusecompletefinal.pdf

[v] Gantz, J. (2009), The Diverse and Expanding Digital Universe, Framingham MA, USA. IDC

[vi] www.corpgov.net

[vii] www.itgi.org

[viii] www.telework.gov

[ix] Philipson, G., Foster, P. and Brand, J. (2010) CEMS: A New Global Industry”, Sydney, Australia. Envirability.

Source:

Graham Philipson
Envirability

Competitive advantage through people has always been a goal of modern leadership and becomes more critical as product and price differentiation narrow.  Traditionally, the role of creating more skilful and focused people has been given to HR and training.

Research tells us that classroom training (whether it be real or virtual) is only appropriate for 15% of development needs  (Rummler 1995).  Not only does this cause concern about the use and abuse of training events, it also raises the tantalising question of what is appropriate if training is not?

The broad answer is workplace rather than classroom development.  To explore this more closely, the researchers seem to indicate that regular interaction, rather than one off events, leads to enhanced skills and increased performance.

The diagramme above has been created as a result of applying a range of performance improvement techniques to varying organisations over a 20-year period (www.prosell.com).  It indicates that with a “clean sheet of paper” (i.e. no preconceptions or bad habits, as with new starters or new roles), people can more easily accept, in a training environment, that specific skills and approaches are correct and need to be mastered.

With individuals that already have a perception of what is right and wrong and in some cases extremely entrenched opinions, a different approach needs to be used.  Not only do we need to explain why new skills are needed, we also need to sensitively reassure people that they and their (old) skills are not redundant, but need to be adapted and updated.  If we are attempting to change behaviour, as opposed to initiating it, coaching is shown to be a more effective tool.

In order to develop further the rationale for this model and the positioning of coaching, we need to be familiar with the relationship between management intervention and performance/behaviour change.

The US organisation Technikron conducted research into the level of intervention needed to drive behavioural change.  (Technikron work with performance measurement and feedback systems in contact centres.  The research was conducted in 1997.)

They concluded that to change behaviour the manager needed to interact with the individual, on average, 2-3 times a week.  This raises serious concerns about the effectiveness of more traditional performance management tools, such as annual appraisal and performance reviews (Appraisals – A Good Investment?  Prosell Research, 1993).

Whereas we accept that most good managers talk to their people more often than just at appraisal time, our experience tells us that this is not a series of regular interactions which are carefully planned to reinforce changes in behaviour and provide input (coaching), when needed.

Coaching also has greater impact in terms of immediacy of resolution and as such, should be a primary development tool.

Danger of re-training 

There seems to be growing evidence that organisations accept that people will go through the same training (level and subject matter) at regular intervals (apart from compliance training).  This implies a number of unhealthy traits within the organisation:

• there is no consequence for not applying skills in the workplace; and

Once this becomes accepted practice it also has an impact on the quality of training delivered.  If people are not measured in their application of what they have learnt, then the training does not need to ensure comprehension, let alone competence.

The other major implication is centred on who is nominated for training in the first place.  Research suggests that the primary reason for training is performance discrepancy or skill weakness.  Those with skill weaknesses or areas for obvious development are not those who implement training well and willingly in the workplace.  There is clear evidence that, “those who need it most use it least” (Dettaman and Steinberg, 1993).

Questions must therefore, be raised about both the economics of re-training and the validity of the practice.

The Skill Development model and its implications

The model opposite shows that individuals go through three stages when acquiring skills.  Typically, the first and last stages, those of awareness and application, are workplace activities and in the main, management responsibilities.

The two figures on the left hand side of the model above illustrate important points.  The 35%-40% marks the point where people end up after training (on a competence scale of 1%–100%).  This means that the majority of the acquisition of competence takes place in the workplace.

This is broadly accepted within the training fraternity.  Whereas training allows people to explore new ways of doing things and hopefully exposes them to “best practice”, it does not create experts.

If expertise is acquired in the workplace and not the classroom, then we must accept that specific things need to happen in the workplace.  Primarily, people need to be coached and given feedback on their competence.

Our 20 years experience tells us that, proportionately, the following time and effort needs to be expended to successfully take an individual through the skill development process:

• Awareness     25%
• Practice         35%
• Application     40%

The second figure (5%-9%) is where the research tells us people end up if nothing is done in the application phase.  This is typically between unconscious incompetence and conscious incompetence.  This typically happens with 4 – 5 months.  This is a startling figure and perhaps explains why many people in business have a cynical view of the value of training.  It seems they are right.  Without specific application strategies, companies are wasting between 91 and 95 cents of every dollar they spend on training.

Practice and Feedback

It is commonly understood that people develop skills through one primary mechanism, practice and feedback.  Conventional training tends to be squeezed for time and it is inevitably the practice sessions that are sacrificed.  Too much content and not enough practice creates uncertainty in application, through issues of confidence and competence.  If a person cannot, through practice, feedback and practice again, achieve a point of competence (“I have practiced this to the point where I feel competent to do it in the workplace”), they have no confidence in applying skills.  The implications of this are that many people (over 75% in one study) actually avoid applying skills trained because they have no confidence that they will be effective.  Those organisations that use coaching as a development tool do not seem to face these issues.

Near and Far Learning

Noted behavioural scientists, Detterman and Steinberg, published a book in 1996 entitled Transfer on Trial.  The book focused on the issue of learning transfer (the measurable transfer of learning and skills from classroom to workplace).  Their research had concluded that 86% of training did not transfer effectively.  There were a variety of reasons for this – measurement, support, feedback (all key components of coaching).  They also spoke about the difference between near and far learning as a critical issue.

Far learning means completing exercises which are broad, generic and explore our understanding of principles.  Detterman and Steinberg’s research concluded that people found it difficult to relate broad principles to specific work situations – and as a result did not apply skills effectively.

Near learning produces significantly better results.  Near learning is practicing the specific skills needed, through customised and intelligently constructed exercises, so that the individual is practicing exactly what they are being asked to do in the workplace.  Coaching is the ultimate example of near learning – it says to the individual, “We are going to practice this until you feel you are doing it effectively and then evaluate as you do it live”.  As a result it is significantly more effective in ensuring learning transfer.

Performance Management and Coaching

Performance management practices (appraisal, review, goal setting, etc) all become uncomfortable, bureaucratic exercises if those responsible cannot add value and direction through coaching.  If neither party feels value is being added by the other, then both parties view the process as lacking in worth and tend to avoid it.

This also is reflected in a more serious deficiency that is commonly observed in management practice.  If a manager cannot rectify a performance deficiency they seem to imply that this is not their responsibility but solely that of the individual.

These situations end up with a management style of “I point out your weaknesses and you have to fix them”.  If one considers the fact that research tells us that the main reason people leave jobs is dissatisfaction with the way in which they are managed (Institute of Directors, UK survey, 2001), then managers’ inability to coach and develop may be having a much more serious impact.

Conversely, a good coach does more than just coach.  In order for a coach to be effective they must have a reasonable grasp of:

• Performance management;
• Motivation;
• Counselling;
• Development and support;
• Evaluation and feedback;
• Performance measurement;

Feedback also tells us that competent coaches add value to staff and have much better relationships with their people.  Creating a competent coach therefore, also creates competency in a number of essential areas.

Edward Johnson, one of the founding members of the Johnson and Johnson empire, was famously quoted as saying, ‘Leadership is cause, all else is effect.’  Leaders of people must all be aware that it is their behaviour, not the training department, which determines whether your people will out-perform the competition.

References

Douglas Detterman and Robert Steinberg, Transfer on Trial: Intelligence, Cognition and Instruction, Ablex Publishing, 1993

Geary Rummler and Alan Brache, Improving Performance: How to Manage the White Space in the Organisation Chart, 2^nd ed, Jossey Bass, San Francisco, 1995.

Source:

Peter Fullbrook, Founder, Prosell