I wish you all the best with your business, please let me know how it progresses.

Shaun Nugent

Posted by Mark Garrahy via the LinkedIn Group Retail Nation – Australian National Retailers Association
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Posted by Howard Davies via the LinkedIn Group International Executive Interim Society
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I fully agree with the advantages, but would like to add one, basically ‘on top of the fresh pair of eyes’. Every organization lives with a set of paradigms. Now, if you would like to achieve a major change, e.g. seriously improving your processes with an open mind, hire an experienced interim manager, who is able to find your paradigms, to discuss them and open your eyes for new opportunities that are currently outside of your frame of reference. 80% Of the greatest successes in my projects were due to achieving paradigm shifts, introducing solutions which were out of the box. They were not so much out of my box though. I had seen ‘something similar’ before, or combined pieces of knowledge and experience that simply belonged to my frame of reference. It’s a creative process.

My clients laid the foundation for the paradigm shifts by hiring an interim manager who matched all qualifications for achieving successful change with no strong experience in their business. They wanted “a fresh pair of eyes”, because the problems they experienced were introduced by people from their business, possibly including themselves. They realized that hiring experience they already had available in their organization, would not add anything to it. If and where needed it would be easy to inform the interim manager about it, because experienced interim managers tend to quickly understand how things work and what’s going on in an organization.

Your problem then still would be: how to find that interim manager?

I would suggest that you apply the pitfalls as criteria in the selection process. For instance: the ‘right person’, will dig into your strategic goals, and what you hope to achieve. He or she will ask questions about your ambitions, your core values, the sponsorship, how you envisage to run the change process, whether you are prepared to put in place the required conditions, etc.. This goes for all four pitfalls you mention. There can be quite a gap between goals and the change readiness of an organization, and a mature interim manager will try to figure that out before he accepts the assignment.

I would add pitfall no. 5:

“Don’t look for somebody who knows everything about your business. It doesn’t add anything and it brings in the blinkers your organization already possesses.”

Best regards,
Fred van Vliet

Posted via the LinkedIn Group International Executive Interim Society
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I’m not sure whether this post is written by him as no one else know such detailed about my problem. You’re incredible!

Thanks!

I guess the Interim market in Oz is relatively immature compared to Europe where issues relating to the hiring and general ‘marketing’ of Interims still rolls on and on and on. You might find some useful references to some of the various discussions in the Linked In API Group.

In the meantime, it’s taken many years to get over the withdrawal symptoms of leaving Perth WA so if you need a good interim, call me!!!

Posted By Richard A Fox via the LinkedIn Group Interim Management for Hire

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Thanks for your comments. Agreed, it’s critical that all parties get agreement on the project plan and execution strategy. This can often be achieved in either 2 hours or at the most, a half day workshop. From experience if more time is spent then either the top three questions haven’t been answered or there isn’t clear agreement and it’s unlike that agreement will be met. Outside of that, extra time should fall into the scope of the work and therefore be chargeable.

Regards

Richard

Getting prospective clients to actually sit down beforehand and develop a brief that clearly articulates their answers to the first three questions (at the very least) is a constant challenge.

How much free time should an interim spend consulting on a potential assignment, in order to teach the client how to identify their needs and ask for help properly? – so the interim can then say yes to the assignment.

Cheers.

Posted by Sherry Wallace via the LinkedIn Group Retail Industry Professionals Group

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By Elizabeth Limardo Shaver via the LinkedIn Group Retail Industry Professionals Group

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Posted by Mark Garrahy via the LinkedIn Group Retail Nation – Australian National Retailers Association

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I believe there is a lot of value to telecommuting, including controlling the bottom line on office cost, as well empowering disciplined employees to work in ways that they can be most productive based on their individual situations.

If the leadership is not 100% behind this though, and the company doesn’t have a formal telecommuting policy, this is not a recipe for success.

Posted by Christopher McLendon via the LinkedIn Group Retail Industry Professional Group

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Posted via Jackie Bueg via the LinkedIn Group Retail Industry Professionals Group

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Posted by Leah Kinthaert via the LinkedIn Group Retail Industry Professionals Group

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Posted by Jackie Bueg via the LinkedIn Group Retail Industry Professionals Group

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Like always, the answer is to bring about moderation, a balance of risk and development governance. I think it is time to review the necessary procedures, weigh in the value of each, jetison those that can be, to loosen the shackles that prevent growth and workplace engagement and excitement. Keeping the right amount of audit to ensure things don’t return to the conditions that led to the governance reaction of a decade ago.

Taking into account that many employees may be disgruntled, there was feedback that suggested that the Yahoo office was not a social or necessarily productive environment. Trusted as responsible adults and given ongoing performance targets to achieve, many employees are actually more productive with the more flexible arrangements. I see the “hours” worked as an old fashioned notion as presence in an office does not always equate to output.

For positions that can be done with more flexible arrangements I do believe that a balanced approach, with some face to face time scheduled with team members is important to keep a check on group thinking, as a social matter and to ensure at least some routine maintained. Offices can be a distraction to productivity if businesses are not careful and I found certain tasks were better completed away from that environment.

I understand the legal caution but believe that too often a less than ideal policy can stem from such a secondary matter. It would be better to spend time on developing clear policy and sign off regarding safety limitations. A more important commitment from businesses would be to move with the times and use the technology available to significantly reduce traffic where possible by mixing in a degree of communication traffic instead. To hang on to old work practices for only reasons of not being adaptable to changes of management style will ultimately fail.

All said, a business has a right to run how it wishes as long as they don’t whine if there are negative consequences or are prepared to admit if it did not work and change, or find a new CEO!

New employees experience company culture even before they commence employment. Ideally this is part of what attracted them to the company in the first place.

New starters will feel the culture in their first week, no matter what you hang on the walls about strategy, values and codes of conduct, actions speak louder than words. Management need to walk the talk and model the behavior and values they wish to encourage.

The new starter induction is critical in demonstrating the company culture. However, rather than leaving the new employee to sit on their own reading through a new starter manual for days, ensure this is balanced with interaction with management and the team. Meeting coworkers who display consistent behaviours will demonstrate the way you work and your culture. You want the new employee to go home excited about what they’ve learnt and experienced.

I know a number of MDs and CEOs in national companies who ring new starters (based in a different location) on their first day to welcome them to the company. A simple gesture with a big impact!

By Blair Bennett via LinkedIn