{"id":34,"date":"2011-02-13T17:04:44","date_gmt":"2011-02-13T17:04:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/knowledgeetal.wordpress.com\/2011\/02\/13\/bu"},"modified":"2016-10-26T13:26:46","modified_gmt":"2016-10-26T12:26:46","slug":"bu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/?p=34","title":{"rendered":"“The best motivational message I\u2019ve ever seen…”"},"content":{"rendered":"

So says Lucy Kellaway in an article today on FT.Com Management<\/a> which draws on a \u201c\u2026standing on a burning platform..\u201d memo, sent to all Nokia staff by CEO Stephen Elop, to make this point:<\/p>\n

Fear of death is motivating; so is the truth. Most employees are fed on a never-ending diet of flannel, so when they are dished up a helping of stark truth, the effect can be invigorating.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When I first read the leaked memo at the end of last week what struck me was the CEO\u2019s use of a story at a critical time in the organisation\u2019s evolution or potential demise; it was as stark as that.\u00a0 Through the imagery of a burning oil platform it presented staff with a\u00a0 choice: jump into the freezing waters and potentially drown or remain onboard the platform as it is today and perish.<\/p>\n

Seemingly part of a well orchestrated internal communications programme the memo was followed a few days later by an announcement of a strategic development tie up with Microsoft in response to Apple\u2019s competitive edge in the smartphone and apps arena.<\/p>\n

Lucy\u2019s take (and I am paraphrasing) is that the use of fear is a powerful tool to cause a shift in approach.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a technique we\u2019ve used before to try and bring to life topics that normally switch off most senior managers when raised. I\u2019m referring here to records management.<\/p>\n

A couple of years back we used a picture (of the inside of a road tunnel) and asked the company\u2019s management to look at the picture and estimate how much the remedial work about to be undertaken was going to cost.<\/p>\n

The figure they gave reflected the fact that they had to strip down the tunnel walls to find out what was behind them; the records and plans were no longer to hand.\u00a0 Quite apart from the increased cost of the project there was a significant loss of productivity caused by the unecessariy lengthy tunnel closure.<\/p>\n

The picture and the supporting story were catalysts for a change in approach and the adoption of a new records management policy contributed to improved effeciency.<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen whether the \u2018burning platform\u2019 memo will have a more dramatic effect at Nokia; its safe to assume the image is planted firmly in the minds of most employees and stakeholders.\u00a0 I wonder if the next chapter in this unfolding story will be the release of a story based in the future?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So says Lucy Kellaway in an article today on FT.Com Management which draws on a \u201c\u2026standing on a burning platform..\u201d memo, sent to all Nokia staff by CEO Stephen Elop, to make this point: Fear of death is motivating; so … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[591,592,599],"tags":[24,77,97,108],"class_list":["post-34","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blue-sky-left-field-ideas-pro-bono-activities","category-business-issues-strategic","category-knowledge-techniques-technologies","tag-burning-platform","tag-metaphor","tag-records-management","tag-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2137,"href":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions\/2137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}