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Archives for February 2008

Why NVQs are not enough

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I have just started working with a national charity to improve performance management through an investment in management skills. The HR manager who I am working with said

“All of our managers have been through the NVQ level 3 in Management – but they are still unable or unwilling to recognise and manage under-performers”.

This shows the dangers of pursuing qualifications – rather than pursuing performance. We seem to be trapped in a public policy for vocational education and training that puts qualifications above practice.

We are getting a more qualified workforce – but not necessarily a more able one.

Or am I wrong?

Venturefest Reflections

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This year was my first trip to Venturefest Yorkshire.  This is an enormous annual gathering of entrepreneurs, inventors and investors all looking to build the management and financial teams that they need for business success.  Both private and public sector were well represented.

It was free to attend and extremely busy!

A whole floor of the main grandstand was given over to ‘enterprising schools’.  When I visited the busiest stand by a long way was the ‘Robot Wars’ competition where a broad definition of enterprise was in evidence.  Lots of young people engaged in building robots and competing against each other  as well as collaborating to ensure that everyone had the equipment, time and space that they needed to keep things on the road.

Nothing was being bought or sold but enterprise and enterprise skills abounded.

Some of the quieter stalls had taken a much narrower definition of enterprise.  They made stuff (badges, t-shirts and fruit kebabs) and tried to sell them!  I hope that the young people on these stalls learnt a lot from their efforts.  They appeared to be having relatively little fun (compared to the Robot Warriors) and found selling in an exhibition environment to be extremely hard work.

I only hope that they were not put off the idea of enterprise.

David Maister on the Role of Management

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The role of management is to:

  1. Provide a clear purpose for the organization, so that the individual can decide whether that purpose is one they can believe in and contribute to;
  2. Help the individual find his or her passion, providing alternatives, encouragement, support during rough times;
  3. Provide clear and honest feedback;
  4. Enforce common standards so that the individual is part of a community of like-minded people of whom the individual can be proud.

Anything missed out? I’d love to hear your comments.

If you marked yourself (or your management team) out of ten on each of these four aspects, how would you score?

What could you do, most quickly and easily, to increase your score?

Is Enterprise Being Too Narrowly Defined?

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The Local Enterprise Growth Initiative has provided a welcome injection of cash to stimulate enterprise in some of the most deprived areas of England.

However I am worried that ‘enterprise’ is being too narrowly interpreted as ‘entrepreneurship’ and ‘starting businesses’.

The origins of the word ‘enterprise’ come from the 15th century when it was used to describe someone with a ‘readiness to undertake challenges’ or with a ‘spirit of daring’.

Only relatively recently has it become synonymous with business.

I think this matters because the ‘enterprise’ journey needs to start at a place that is right for them. The challenges that they undertake must be ones that they are equipped to tackle. For some, the challenge of starting their own business and earning a livelihood through their own skill and passion is appropriate.

For many more it is probably a long way down the road.

I am worried that some current enterprise interventions will encourage people to start their own businesses – regardless of whether this is the right challenge for them at this stage. The problem is exacerbated because service providers feel under pressure to get people to ‘start-up’ business as this is what their success is measured by.

This might mean that we have a number of businesses started by people who do not have the skills, passion, life expereince and emotional resilience to really make them work. They will find the whole experience unrewarding and may end up with extremely negative feelings towards ‘enterprise’ as a result. We may actually end with less enterprising communities as word of their experience spreads.

Surely there are a wider range of challenges that can be offered and facilitated in the name of developing more enterprising communities than just starting businesses?