If I had my way, there would be a recommended book, everyone would read it and deepen their understanding… but this isn’t how the world works. Instead, I’m taking a two part approach. First, let me encourage each and every one of you to read A Conflict of Visions. Second, I’m going to try to give you a little taste of an important mental model in MBM that is pulled from this book: constrained vision versus unconstrained vision. Hopefully the video will inspire you to read the book (or at least watch the full interview with the author).

My supervisor has a habit of doing a formal RR&E review in January (with ongoing conversations throughout the year as things change). What this means for me is that the past couple of years I’ve gotten to take a look at my RR&E summary document from a year ago and think about what I want my future RR&Es to look like. While I’ve already decided not to make any personal new year resolutions, as I stare at my past RR&E it seems like a great chance to think about some professional new year resolutions.

Career development (or looking to what one might contribute in the future) has been one topic folks around my office have been talking about quite a bit lately. There is much to learn from free societies about career development (don’t worry, I’ll get back to RR&Es in a second).

“A truly free society rewards people according to their individual merits, not by what group they are associated with” (Science of Success, 84).

Most MBM organizations don’t have formalized career development curriculums because formalized curriculums, career paths and other mass-standardized programming doesn’t allow us to think about INDIVIDUALS and what they have or may have the potential to contribute in the future.  This can be frustrating for some people who have a history of working with more formal, group-based measures. Instead, MBM organizations tend to rely on supervisors to help individuals identify and develop what capabilities can best help them contribute in the future. To give you an idea of the differences in approach, here are some examples.

• Traditional/Group-based Approach: Employees come in on a pre-set career path. Accountant I becomes Accountant II and so forth when certain pre-set requirements are met.
• MBM Approach: As a supervisor and employee learn more about the employee’s capabilities, an individualized career-path is forged.
• Traidtional/Group-based Approach: Employees are put into cohorts (usually based on title or tenure) and put through a pre-set training curriculum.
• MBM Approach: A supervisor and employee work together to determine what classes, mentoring, on-the-job-training, or other methods will help that individual best develop his/her capabilities for the future. 

These are simplified examples, but I hope you get the flavor of the individualized nature of the MBM approach. What this means for employees is that there are many different ways to achieve his/her career goals. What this means for supervisors is there is a time/energy investment focused on the future for each employee.

Okay, so what does this all have to do to with RR&Es and new year resolutions? The RR&E is a great tool to help supervisors and employees be deliberate about what investments are going to be made into the employee’s career development. It can be as simple as a bullet point at the bottom of the summary document that outlines what the employee will be working on and the expectation for that. In other words, as you think about your professional new year resolutions, use the RR&E as a tool to help you really go after it this year.

Below are a few tips I’ve found helpful. Please leave your tips/ideas in the comments:

• Focus your career goals on the type of work and work circumstances you want. The job market changes too fast to get locked into one dimensional thinking about titles.
• When prioritizing what you want to work on, focus on individual capabilities. [Individual Capability: demonstrated and sustainable ability of an employee to perform a type of work in a way that creates a competitive advantage compared to others in the marketplace who do this type of work. Most employees have multiple capabilities.]
• Pick one capability to focus on – the mental model of personal knowledge teaches us that most people need focused attention to learn something deeply. Trying to change/grow too many things at once usually results in lackluster (if any) results.
• Keep talking to your supervisor and/or direct report(s). We live in a dynamic world where opportunities and ideas are constantly changing. The RR&E is a great tool to keep the conversation about career development going.

The end of 2012 has been quite a whirlwind for me, and I apologize for the lack of posting. 2013 is going to bring even more changes my way, and I’m working on re-thinking how to approach this blog and the online MBM-related material in general. Feel free to leave a comment or email me if you have any ideas. I have an opportunity to pitch some ideas about online resources to some decision makers early in January. Any thoughts you have would be welcome. For now, below are some MBM-related videos, links and whatnot that have been gathering in my inbox.

I wish I could have seen this video years ago. There are many people I’ve interacted with on projects that would have benefited from it (myself included!).

Here’s an article about comparative advantage called “You’re Dividing the Chores Wrong.”

The annual “Will Christmas Cost More Than Last Year?” calculations came out earlier this month. It’s an interesting and festive way to think about changes in prices.

Have a safe and happy holiday season!

Best wishes to those of you in the path of Hurricane Sandy. Stay safe and, assuming you still have power, below are a few things to think about while you wait out the storm.

Some people are trying to find the silver lining in light of Hurricane Sandy by making some claims that we may see GDP increase or at least stay the same. Here are some resources that examine this so-called “silver lining” mentality when it comes to both man-made and natural disasters:

• The Broken Window Fallacy (video)
• “That Which is Seen, and That Which is Unseen” by F. Bastiat
• “Destroying Property Does Not ?Promote Economic Prosperity“

On a lighter note, have you ever wondered if fantasy football and economic freedom are connected somehow? Here’s a light-hearted and informative article called “Touchdown for Freedom.”

Have you found any interesting articles or video clips that can help us better understand economic freedom or MBM? Leave us some links in the comments.

In a previous post, I mentioned that there have been some recent revisions announced. I was referring to the revisions in the MBM Guiding Principles. Over the next couple of weeks, I’d like to take a closer look at some of these updates and give you “Ann’s two cents” on a couple of the changes. As mentioned previously, I think the changes fall loosely into three categories.

1. Our thinking has evolved because the world has changed, and we must change with it.
2. Our thinking has evolved because we’ve found a better way to do things.
3. Updates reflect a better way to articulate or communicate what is already there with little or no substantial evolution in the body of MBM knowledge.

Some of the revisions to the MBM Guiding Principles are because of reason number 2: Our thinking has evolved because we’ve found a better way to do things. I think the best example of this is the Guiding Principle of Fulfillment.

Fulfillment
Find fulfillment and meaning in your work by fully developing your capabilities
to produce results that create the greatest value.

There are a couple of key concepts that are new to this Guiding Principle: meaning in your work and individual capabilities. The previous version of this Principle mentioned realizing potential and creating value — two concepts that can be connected to meaningful work — but did not explicitly bring the concept to forefront.

Meaningful Work
Since this Guiding Principle was originally drafted (many years ago, I couldn’t pin down an exactly year), the MBM Philosophy had not yet full incorporated many of the ideas of meaningful work. Since that time, much thought and study has gone into understanding meaningful work. The core concepts about meaningful work come from the work of Abraham Maslow. As Maslow consulted with successful businesses, he noticed a connection between meaningful work healthy employees and businesses. He generalized this connection to all types of work:

“All human beings prefer meaningful work to meaningless work …If work is meaningless, then life comes close to being meaningless. Perhaps here also is the place to point out that no matter how menial the chores – the dishwashing and the test-tube cleaning, all become meaningful or meaningless by virtue of their participation or lack of participation in a meaningful or important or loved goal. For instance, cleaning up baby diapers is repulsive work in itself, but it can be very lovingly done, it can be a beautiful thing for a mother who loves her baby. Washing dishes can be the most meaningless chore or it can be a symbolic act of love for one’s family and can therefore take on great dignity and can even become a sacred activity, etc” (Maslow on Management, 39). 

Maslow’s examples above focus on work that contributes to one’s family, which is important and incredibly meaningful for most people. But how might the work one does in a role at a company be meaningful?  Maslow used an illustration of the importance of meaningful work for individuals:

“I can use here my case of a woman who develop an anhedonia (loss of zest and pleasure in life) because she had a job as a personnel manager in a chewing gum factory and simply couldn’t get excited about chewing gum. She might have enjoyed very much exactly the same kind of work in a more meaningful (to her) factory” (Maslow on Management, 39).

This example shows there are many facets to meaningful work and meaningful work will vary from person to person as it is based on one’s subjective value. Aspects of meaningful work may include the employee’s responsibilities in relation to one’s abilities and preferences, how an individual’s values align with the values of the organization and understanding how one contributes to value creation. One type of work may be exciting for some and not others or working for a particular company may evoke pride in one person and self-loathing in another.

Incorporating the idea of meaningful work into the Guiding Principles is not meant to say, “Whatever you are doing, find meaning in it.” Instead, it’s meant to convey the idea that employees should be seeking out the roles and responsibilities that are meaningful to them. Not every part of one’s job is going to be meaningful, but at the end of the day, people are more productive (and usually happier) if they can see how what they do makes a difference in the world — how they create value.

What do you think about making meaningful work being part of the Guiding Principle of Fulfillment? What do you think employees can do to figure out what work (or types of work) have meaning for them?

In a previous post, I mentioned that there have been some recent revisions announced. I was referring to the revisions in the MBM Guiding Principles. Over the next couple of weeks, I’d like to take a closer look at some of these updates and give you “Ann’s two cents” on a couple of the changes. As mentioned previously, I think the changes fall loosely into three categories.

1. Our thinking has evolved because the world has changed, and we must change with it.
2. Our thinking has evolved because we’ve found a better way to do things.
3. Updates reflect a better way to articulate or communicate what is already there with little or no substantial evolution in the body of MBM knowledge.

First, let’s take a closer look at one revision that reflects where our thinking has evolved because the world has changed. The place this is most stark is in the Guiding Principle of Integrity, which now reads:

Integrity
Conduct all affairs with integrity, for which courage is the foundation.

The addition of courage into this Guiding Principle articulates that in today’s world we must be able to stand up in the face of danger or fear to do the right thing. This has perhaps always been true (and I would argue courage has been an important characteristic for people within MBM organizations), but you can see from quotes below, that the author of the Science of Success has found in recent years, the need for courage has become more apparent:

“One of my greatest frustrations in recent years stems from the lack of courage shown by many businesses.

Rather than set a good example and stand on principle, far too many successful companies have decided to cave when faced with criticism from the media or the government – even when those businesses have done nothing wrong.” (link to full article)

The MBM Guiding Principles are meant to articulate our rules of just conduct along with shared values and beliefs. It is now clear that courage is a core value for MBM organizations and an expectation for all employees to demonstrate courage when we have to do in order to do the right thing.

What do you think about the addition of courage to the Guiding Principle of Integrity? Do you feel the world has recently changed in a way that requires people to show more courage in order to do the right thing?

Many of you probably know by now that there have been some recent revisions and updates to the MBM Philosophy. Later I’ll post about some of this specific revisions. I want to use this post to try to answer the question, “Why does MBM get updated?” The short answer is in the title of the post. One of the core aspects of MBM (and free societies) is discovery. We’re committed to using the best ideas and mental modes (that are consistent with the MBM principles), so naturally there are going to be times when better thinking emerges. Focusing on reality and being committed to change when better things come along naturally lends itself to an evolving philosophy.

While these types of revisions/updates may appear to be only-once-every-so-many-years, the reality is the thinking behind the changes is continually evolving. (In other words, there is a “Republic of Science” of sorts focused on learning more about MBM). At some point, after the thinking is tested and accepted, the changes become official. This is why it seems as if every-so-often changes are happening — the official announcements are only every-so-often. If it was announced every time a new idea or new potential mental model might become part of MBM or testing a new method/tool was happening, you’d be covered up with announcements.

Looking at the most recent revisions, I’d loosely put them into the following categories:

1. Our thinking has evolved because the world has changed, and we must change with it.
2. Our thinking has evolved because we’ve found a better way to do things.
3. Updates reflect a better way to articulate or communicate what is already there with little or no substantial evolution in the body of MBM knowledge.

As you learn more about revisions and updates to the MBM philosophy, I encourage you to engage in the challenge process to study and understand the changes. I promise you any revisions made go through a great deal of challenge and are not done lightly.

In the next few posts, I hope to point out and get discussions going about some of the specifics of the revisions. I’ll do my best to point out at least one from each of the categories above. As always, feel free to leave comments if you have specific thoughts or questions.

Ever wonder how inflation is related to economic freedom? Check out the video below for a quick primer on inflation.

(Via EconomicFreedom.org)

I can’t watch “Antiques Roadshow” without thinking about subjective value. If you’re interested in spotting some examples of subjective value, take a look at the clips below. I saw several examples of subjective value in each clip.




Have a safe holiday weekend!

When I saw this Ikea ad, I couldn’t resist posting it here. Pay particular attention to the tag line at the end.

Ikea- The Life Improvement Store

I don’t know if Ikea has an articulated management philosophy or if the folks who created the tag line had value creation on their mind, but I like how it ended up.