Culture

14 augustus 2015 by Arjen van Berkum Leave a Comment

Empowering cultural behaviour as driver for diversity

Cultural fit

Put a group of people together and you will discover there are many corresponding and contradicting characteristics, believes and opinions in that one room. These can level, reinforce, but also sabotage a situation. If you want to strengthen your business, how can you ensure that the first two values, the ones that create synergy, will dominate within your organisation? It’s all about behaviour and the culture that is steering that behaviour.
Recently I read an article on Linkedin about Michael Jordan’s attitude as a ‘jerk’ and how that was actually empowering his team, not sabotaging it. The writer states that hiring for cultural fit is overrated. Is it? In sports you often hear outrageous behaviour from leading talents. What happened first, their success or their jerky, arrogant outbursts? So you could question what causes what in these cases. How does this work within companies?

26 mei 2015 by Arjen van Berkum Leave a Comment

The ingredients for building an innovation culture

In today’s dynamic business environment, every organisation must continuously change to stay competitive. How do you maintain the advantage on your competitors? If you can’t make it as a market leader, make sure you at least stay on par with competitors. How? It starts by thinking tactically and strategically from an innovative angle. You are never alone in an ecosystem. Competitors, customers, suppliers, employees and other stakeholders, they are all influenced by the way you act and the other way around. The dynamics of the environment that surrounds your business should be defining how you set up your processes. This ecosystem requires you to clearly position yourself. As an innovative business you should outline who you want to be and define how leading you want your role to be in the market. Looking at the innovation culture you want to build, what place in the ecosystem will suit your business best?

27 februari 2015 by Arjen van Berkum Leave a Comment

Do you dare to let go of company rules?

Brazilian entrepreneur Ricardo Semler has built a global empire by engaging to two things: trust and constantly asking himself how he – as an employer – could contribute to his employees’ happiness. He even developed innovative schools to institute this mindset. The idea was to start teaching people this way of thinking as early as possible – in kindergarten.

Nowadays his employees choose their own hours, salary and boss. What? Yes, they really do. Besides that, they have the opportunity to learn how to make choices and how to take responsibility. Bureaucracy has been diminished to a minimum. Less company rules and supervision appeared to be a great recipe for productive and happy employees. What can we learn from this innovative success story?

4 februari 2015 by Arjen van Berkum Leave a Comment

KPMG gives away the unique HR opportunity

Let HR and innovation go hand in hand

Recently I read an interesting whitepaper published by KPMG. Culture and HR outlined in one paper as drivers for innovation. Splendid. Not so often you get so clearly explained how HR as a strategic can drive innovation. I share most of their view on the subject. The paper illustrates why innovation matters and how HR can play a role in these processes. Or should I say, must play a role?

Innovation is not about copying successes of other organisations. On the contrary, because it could end up in a disaster for you. Each company should develop its own approach to innovation, given the unique set of circumstances they have to anticipate on. The organisation’s (desired) culture is a significant factor for this approach. It is not only about employees being able to identify themselves with the organisation. Also collaboration and acceptance of failure are key; these two are prerequisites for an environment that needs to encourage creativity, to drive innovation.

How can top management, employees and process reach that optimal synergy? What key questions should an organisation answer before setting the scenario? How does innovation expands?

I truly recommend reading the whitepaper ‘HR as a driver for organizational innovation’ and think about how you can create your unique opportunity.

Culture

Let HR and innovation go hand in hand

► Download KPMG’s whitepaper

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