The second wave of biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol, algae and others bypass the food vs. fuel controversy and are on the cusp of commercialization. This webinar will review the latest developments in the advanced biofuel space with leading companies more...
Join Intelligent Utility managing editor Kate Rowland, along with a panel from PHI including Rob Stewart, manager of technology evaluation and implementation, and Todd McGregor, AMI director, for an interactive discussion about this company's work to build a more intelligent more...
Join industry leaders and Marty Rosenberg, Editor-in-Chief of EnergyBiz magazine, for an interactive discussion about the critical relationship between transmission and distribution (T&D) investment and smart grid success. As the energy enterprise gets smarter toward the consumer end with smart more...
This webcast should be attended by those individuals that are responsible for identifying, planning and evaluating Smart Grid solutions, including those that empower and engage consumers and are easily assimilated with existing or new technology and business processes. more...
ACI's Smart Grid Revolution February 18-19, 2010 A two day strategic event bringing together utility professionals, government & state officials & consultants involved in deployment of the smart grid. To learn strategies which will improve energy efficiency programs & operations, more...
In 2009, a global economic meltdown collided with an energy crisis to turn the world on its ear. In the United States we've witnessed an unprecedented spending on energy resource development and infrastructure. As a result, a new energy architecture more...
CERAWeek, IHS CERA's 29th Executive Conference, is recognized as a leading forum offering insight into the energy future. Each year senior policymakers, energy and power executives, and financial and technology leaders from over 55 countries engage with CERA experts in more...
The conference will provide a comprehensive analysis of the thin film industry and its key challenges in an interactive manner. Leading companies will share their experiences through panel debates and high-level presentations. A great opportunity to network with the whole more...
Gas and Electric Business Understanding provides a comprehensive overview of the natural gas and electric industries. Position yourself for career success by gaining a solid understanding of how each business works, including key physical, market and regulatory aspects, as well more...
Gas Business Understanding provides a comprehensive overview of the natural gas industry. Position yourself for career advancement by gaining a solid understanding of how the gas business works including key physical, market, and regulatory aspects and how market participants navigate more...
Electric Business Understanding provides a comprehensive overview of the electric industry. Position yourself for career advancement by gaining a solid understanding of how the electric business works including key physical, market, and regulatory aspects and how market participants navigate this more...
Gas Market Dynamics offers participants an in-depth understanding of North American natural gas markets and how they function. Enhance your career by furthering your knowledge of market structure, supply and demand, services offered in gas markets, and how various participants more...
Kevin Herring is co-author of Practical Guide for Internal Consultants, and President of Ascent Management Consulting. Ascent specializes in workgroup and business unit performance turnarounds through breakthrough leadership, workplace cultures and organization systems.
Kevin can be contacted at 520-742-7300, kevinh@ascentmgt.com or www.ascentmgt.com.
Articles
1.19.10
Management In Real Life: Use It Or Lose It
Topic: Business & Corporate Article Viewed 960 Times;
1 comments Peer into the windows of most any office in the evening and you'll see accountants and managers working late trying to manage what's left of this year's crumbs and assembling a budget for the coming year. All told, the process makes for an amazing fish bowl view into the social system of an organization and what should be a wake up call to executives.
11.19.09
Management In Real Life: My Contribution
Topic: Human Resources Article Viewed 1380 Times;
Comment on this article Have you ever sat around griping about a boss, manager, or co-worker who doesn't "get it" or acts like they know it all? You're not alone; my hand goes up, too. Once when I was dosing out a hefty portion of criticism about an executive I found difficult to work with, a good friend of mine asked, "So what are you doing to contribute to the problem?"
10.16.09
B-29 Leadership
Topic: Human Resources Article Viewed 1618 Times;
Comment on this article After nearly 25 years of working with leaders I know I can get a bit obsessed with extracting leadership lessons from some of the most obscure experiences. But these lessons leaped right out when a World War II veteran described his experiences as a member of a B-29 bomber crew.
9.21.09
Management In Real Life: You Just Hired Jack the Ripper
Topic: Human Resources Article Viewed 2046 Times;
Comment on this article Eccentricities don't just belong to individuals, however. Glance into your organization's practices and I'll bet you can spool a healthy list. Consider what you're most worried about when you hire someone. Are you mostly afraid you'll get someone without the right competencies to do the job?
6.30.09
Let's Talk Commitment
Topic: Human Resources Article Viewed 2190 Times;
Comment on this article The entire nation watched in awe as General Motors filed for bankruptcy in the largest manufacturing bankruptcy filing in American history and the latest casualty of the economic downturn. Tagging along with the bankruptcy filing came more gloomy announcements of additional production cuts and factory closures.
5.18.09
Management In Real Life: If Only I Had Known
Topic: Human Resources Article Viewed 2735 Times;
Comment on this article "If I had only known..." How many times have we said that when we messed things up while trying to be helpful? It reminds me of the time when a couple of core employees at a smelter made some changes to a metals refining process to get faster results.
2.20.09
Management In Real Life: A Year of Opportunity
Topic: Human Resources Article Viewed 2466 Times;
Comment on this article To say it's been an interesting year for business would be an understatement, to say the least. Industry collapses, credit crises, and stock market crashes have most of us sitting up and paying attention wondering what's in store for 2009.
11.6.08
Management In Real Life: Utilization and the Human Capacity Gap
Topic: Human Resources Article Viewed 2513 Times;
1 comments When leaders talk about capacity and utilization they want to know how many widgets are possible and how many widgets are being produced relative to that number. They aren't usually discussing capacity and utilization in the context of human potential and output even when talking about labor utilization. Here's what they're missing.
Management In Real Life: Psychologically Invested?
Topic: Human Resources Article Viewed 2650 Times;
Comment on this article What kind of employee are you? Do you begrudgingly drag yourself into work each day? Do you resent feeling obligated to show up? Or do you enthusiastically hop out of bed itching to get to work and into the next exciting task? And what about your work team members? How do they stack up?
7.15.08
Management In Real Life: Driving Out Leadership Fear
Topic: Human Resources Article Viewed 2601 Times;
Comment on this article "Drive fear out of the workplace" was one of W. Edwards Deming's fourteen mantras for total quality management. Of course, he was referring to core employees who grew up in highly controlling, initiative-stifling work environments, causing them to be afraid to innovate or make suggestions for fear of being labeled by management a dreaded troublemaker, or worse.
6.10.08
Management In Real Life: Secrets to Employee Performance
Topic: Human Resources Article Viewed 3063 Times;
Comment on this article With all the mystery surrounding the issue of how to manage employee performance we might expect to find a book on the subject adjacent to a Tom Clancy novel in the MYSTERIES section of the bookstore. Today, however, we’ll stay in the NON-FICTION section and discuss some basics of employee performance in plain terms.
5.27.08
Management In Real Life: Better Than Musical Chairs
Topic: Human Resources Article Viewed 2948 Times;
1 comments Everyone is looking for ways to squeeze out a little more productivity these days, and moving people around is a whole lot easier than trying to change management practices and core worker attitudes. And how the boxes on the organization chart are arranged can influence employee experiences and their work.
5.12.08
Management In Real Life: From Strategy to Execution
Topic: Human Resources Article Viewed 3390 Times;
Comment on this article It begins with an email addressed to "All Employees" announcing an important meeting the following Friday. Extracting bits and pieces of the generalized message, core employees are able to pick out phrases like "future of the organization" and "positioning ourselves to compete." They conclude that the meeting relates to the next big thing in company strategy.
4.14.08
Management In Real Life: Partnering
Topic: Human Resources Article Viewed 2679 Times;
Comment on this article Brushing the dust from his clothes, the line worker asked me if I had a few minutes. From the look in his eye and the sound in his voice, I knew he didn't call me over to talk about the upcoming Super Bowl.
3.25.08
Management In Real Life: Top Communicators
Topic: Human Resources Article Viewed 2929 Times;
Comment on this article Ah, the power of information! Both research and experience tells us that when employees understand how the business operates, can connect their work to company financials, and know what has to be done for the business to compete, they are likely to be more engaged. Why? Because they have context for what they do each day and the ability to contribute more.
3.12.08
Management In Real Life: Passing the Baton
Topic: Human Resources Article Viewed 2703 Times;
1 comments In today's businesses, we hear of employers everywhere griping about not being able to hire enough engineers, programmers, and other technical people. Their concerns are supported in magazines that report U.S. employers will be short 10 million skilled workers by 2012.
2.18.08
Management In Real Life: The Status Quo
Topic: Human Resources Article Viewed 2891 Times;
1 comments Ever feel like there's not enough time in the day? Wish you had an extra hour or so to keep your head above water? Sometimes we think getting a handle on emails, meetings and paperwork is all it takes, but for most of us, the problem isn't so simple.
1.22.08
Management In Real Life: Internal Service
Topic: Human Resources Article Viewed 2786 Times;
1 comments It's a face-off at the table as design team members line up on one side and production team members line up on the other. At one end sits the head of the design group symbolically digging in, both feet pressing into the carpet. Directly across at the opposite end sits the leader of the production team, leaning forward as if preparing to spring across the table at the first sign of attack.
11.26.07
Management In Real Life: Staff Group Accounting
Topic: Human Resources Article Viewed 2680 Times;
Comment on this article A company of one. It may begin this way - an entrepreneur, an idea, a garage, a little money, and, as many often say, a bit of luck. Initially, the successful entrepreneur may build the product and spend most days trying to peddle it. If all the pegs fall into the right holes, the business succeeds and begins to grow - both a blessing and a curse as trying to manage everything can become overwhelming.
9.25.07
Management In Real Life: Leadership Choices
Topic: Human Resources Article Viewed 3232 Times;
Comment on this article Sue's left hand is on the keypad; her right hand is holding the handset. She starts to dial the number for Dave, one of her managers. It's the end of the month and Dave is scrambling. The shop floor is chaotic with people running everywhere; the stress level is high.
8.13.07
Management In Real Life: What Matters Most
Topic: Human Resources Article Viewed 3308 Times;
Comment on this article "How do you motivate people?" I asked a group of leaders. And, no surprise, I received the usual response that comes from years of attending $100 seminars: "You find out what's important to people and provide it as an incentive."
7.3.07
Management In Real Life: Keep Your Eye On The Puck
Topic: Human Resources Article Viewed 3374 Times;
1 comments "Always keep your eye on the puck." If I said it once, I said it a hundred times when I introduced my family to one of my favorite sports - ice hockey. The action is at the puck. And where the puck ends up determines who wins. People new to hockey seem to have a hard time following the puck. The same can happen in a business.
6.12.07
Management In Real Life: Not Just Talk
Topic: Human Resources Article Viewed 4785 Times;
Comment on this article Few would want to swap shoes with David Neeleman whose JetBlue Airlines was flying high until Valentines Day. Some passengers described the experience as a repeat of the historic massacre as they sat stranded for 8-plus hours on planes planted on the JFK airport tarmac.
5.16.07
Management In Real Life: Automated Employees
Topic: Human Resources Article Viewed 3101 Times;
Comment on this article We've all experienced dysfunctional organizations as unfortunate customers, but what, if anything, do we learn from the experience beyond confirmation that it's time to hit the road and go elsewhere? Is the problem really employee incompetence? Is it a lack of concern for the customer? Or is there more to the problem than meets the eye?
4.25.07
The Engineer as Plant Manager
Topic: Business & Corporate Article Viewed 3696 Times;
Comment on this article "All things being equal, if you had to choose between an engineer with highly trained technical competence but only average ability to motivate and manage people, and an engineer of only average technical ability but with superb abilities to motivate and organize people, who would you choose to manage one of your plants?"
3.21.07
Management In Real Life: Credibility
Topic: Human Resources Article Viewed 3283 Times;
Comment on this article Coins, votes, and strange-looking birds are a few of the myriad methods leaders use to make decisions. Of course, some methods have proven more credible than others. Reaching back into history we find the account of Alexander the Great and his bird-omen.
2.27.07
Management In Real Life: Leadership Humility
Topic: Human Resources Article Viewed 2994 Times;
Comment on this article We've all been taught that seeing is believing. But what if we're paying attention to the wrong information? A general manager who hired me to "fix" his management team was convinced he needed to "clean house." He said he wanted to give his staff one shot at turning themselves around before dropping the axe.
2.7.07
Management In Real Life: Knowledge Leadership
Topic: Human Resources Article Viewed 4001 Times;
Comment on this article Over twenty years ago, I interviewed for a job with a large regional accounting and consulting firm. I still remember the facility tour hosted by a managing partner who showed me how each floor of the new office building had been carefully designed with small Dilbert-like cubicles arranged in groups around the perimeter of a circle.
Management In Real Life: Where have all the heroes gone?
Topic: Human Resources Article Viewed 3712 Times;
Comment on this article Here we go again. Another diatribe about how the human resource department can become like other, more successful, overhead functions. 'Kind of drives you crazy, doesn't it? This past week I heard about how HR needs to show how managing people effectively saves money as if that should somehow grab the attention of a CEO concerned about declining market share, delays in new product development and persistent customer complaints.
9.13.06
Management In Real Life: Grupo Semco
Topic: Human Resources Article Viewed 4492 Times;
3 comments Just when you think you've heard everything, along comes another surprise. Then again, you probably hadn't heard of Grupo Semco in Brazil. Semco is a Sao Paulo business run by Ricardo Semler, a bright Harvard MBA (at age 20) who took the reins when his father transferred ownership and management to his son.
8.21.06
Management In Real Life: Leadership
Topic: Human Resources Article Viewed 5909 Times;
2 comments One of my most memorable job interviews occurred many years ago with a CEO by the name of J. Burgess Winter. I had completed most of my scheduled interviews and had taken some time to explore the community when the Corporate VP of Human Resources asked me if I could change my flight arrangements in order to stay another day.
7.26.06
Management In Real Life: Company Vision
Topic: Billing & Customer Care Article Viewed 4684 Times;
Comment on this article How would you feel about a company vision that looks something like this? "Our vision is to become a firm that pays the very lowest wages possible, charges the highest prices the market will bear, and divides the spoils between stockholders and senior executives, mostly the latter." Change guru John Kotter uses this example to slam business leaders launching into transformation mode for the primary purpose of feathering their own nests.
