Forget Flexibility. Your Employees Want Autonomy.

ut as typically happens with buzzwords, many different interpretations of flexibility are beginning to arise. For some, it means “the ability to connect and get work done from anywhere,” while to others it means “we’ll let you work from home a couple times a week.” As we’re beginning to find out, however, no one of these definitions is exactly what employees mean when they say they want flexibility. What it seems they really want is autonomy. Within the context of hybrid work, this means having the ability to be the primary decision-maker of where and when they do their work.

The More Senior Your Job Title, the More You Need to Keep a Journal

The French philosopher Blaise Pascal pointed out that “All of humanity’s problems come from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” He didn’t mean sitting quietly in front of a laptop responding to emails. The best thinking comes from structured reflection — and the best way to do that is keeping a personal journal.

Ransomware Attacks Are Spiking. Is Your Company Prepared?

These are unprecedented times in the world of cybersecurity, with ransomware attacks up 150% in 2020 and growing even faster in 2021. Most audit committees and senior management who have to make decisions around cyberattack say they never imagined they’d be in a discussion on whether and how much ransom to pay to hackers who are holding the company hostage. With good preparation and cybersecurity hygiene, and a plan in place, your company will reduce risk and be better prepared to deal with the unthinkable.

Harvard Business ReviewConcierge Notary ServicesSeptember 30, 2021concierge notary, technology, ransomware, attacks, small businessComment

Where Companies Go Wrong with Learning and Development

Not only is the majority of training in today’s companies ineffective, but the purpose, timing, and content of training is flawed. Want to see eyes glaze over quicker than you can finish this sentence? Mandate that busy employees attend a training session on “business writing skills”, or “conflict resolution”, or some other such course with little alignment to their needs. Like lean manufacturing and the lean startup before it, lean learning supports the adaptability that gives organizations a competitive advantage in today’s market. It’s about learning the core of what you need to learn, applying it to real-world situations immediately, receiving immediate feedback and refining your understanding, and then repeating the cycle. In order to begin practicing lean learning, organizations need to move from measuring credits earned to measuring business outcomes created. Lean learning ensures that employees not only learn the right thing, at the right time, and for the right reasons, but also that they retain what they learn.

6 Principles to Build Your Company’s Strategic Agility

Strategy is often taught in business schools as a cascade of choices around where to play and how to win. These choices are typically built into strategic plans that are devised and approved over a period of several months, and then executed over three or five years, before the cycle repeats. However, in a crisis, a strategic plan can easily become an anchor that locks an organization onto a path that is no longer relevant.

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