Editor’s Choices for Week Ending Aug 3, 2012

Article of the Week
Is Busyness Bad for Business? (HBR Blog Network)
Big Idea: Perhaps we are not so much caught in a “busy trap”, as a “meaning trap”. A meaningful life involves pursuing what we truly value, a sense of contribution in our work, as well as time outside of work. It’s perhaps no surprise that the great leaders were also expert at modeling work-life integration; they valued not only busyness but also meaning. How did their emphasis on both impact the bottom line? Positively.

Editor’s Choice Articles
Let’s Bring Back Accountability (HBR Blog Network)
Big Idea: So, how do we help our cultures, ourselves, our people overcome the fear of failure and commit in a uncertain world? Deborah Mills-Scofield offers a few suggestions based on her experience in both accountable, and unaccountable, company cultures.

Why You Need Dissatisfied Employees (Forbes)
Big Idea: Consider all the money, time and effort companies pour into finding, training and retaining talent in the hopes of seeing performance rise. CEOs who want results must create a healthy state of dissatisfaction in the work environment. A credo of “Don’t worry, be happy” is a recipe for individual and organizational mediocrity.

Motivate Your Core Performers to Become Star Performers (HBR Blog Network)
Big Idea: You will be able to coax better performance from your team by treating your sales force like a portfolio of investments that require different levels and kinds of attention. Sales compensation plans that take into account the different needs of different salespeople — and that are based on real evidence rather than assumptions — will ensure that your sales department gets a significantly higher return on its investments.

Realizing the Value of People Management (bcg.perspectives)
Big Idea: There’s yet another compelling reason to remain committed to investing in people: companies that do so enjoy better economic performance. Those that excel in leadership development, talent management, and performance management, for example, experience substantially higher revenue growth and profit margins.

Transformational Leadership In Agile Manufacturing: Wikispeed (Forbes)
Big Idea: Wikispeed works in self-organizing teams with one week sprints. Using Scrum, the team iterates the entire car every seven days. That means every seven days they re-evaluate each part of the car and re-invent the next highest priority aspects to be worked on. This way of working radically accelerates the pace of innovation. Within each sprint, the teams use Kanban boards to picture and optimize the flow of work within those sprints.

Debating Disaster in Order to Prepare for It (HBR Blog Network)
Big Idea: Based on my long experience in a major, diversified global company, I strongly urge companies to have this type of carefully structured internal debate at the core of their risk management process. The constructive tension created by competing teams, and the strong encouragement and support of business leaders are essential. Without them, the risks of inattention, complacency and failure to examine key technical, financial or other assumptions can lead to a corporation’s people, facilities, information and supply chain being overwhelmed by events.