Historically Human Capital has been viewed by organizations as a pool of labor from which to gain productivity. This historical view brought about all kinds of human productivity measures much like the way industrial organizations measured the productivity of machines. Furthering this view we saw incentive schemes…

In today’s marketplace organizations cannot afford to simply manage by results. An organization’s results are the effect of cumulative interactions between people, processes, markets, and the organizations strategy. Managing by results usually means adding or subtracting to reach a desired…

Everyday people go into the “job cage" and jump on the same wheel they ran on the day before. Management measures the output of all the wheels collectively then attempts to optimize each wheel to improve the whole. What management doesn't realize is that by tinkering with each wheel they are sub-optimizing the whole.

The "job cage" is the environment we are bound to…

Much of the mental models, and subsequent behaviors, of modern corporations are actual left over from the days of feudalism. This is how leaders of corporations (lords) came to believe employees (vassals) were given jobs (fiefs) but the corporation owned the person(s) skills and knowledge that performed the work.

Feudalism describes a set of reciprocal legal…

Smarter Companies Community Update

Robert Thomas writes in HBR “Collaboration as an Intangible Asset” : Intangible assets are all the rage these days on Wall Street. Investors grapple daily in an effort to figure out how to value companies whose accounting…

How many times do people say "I am going to exercise and lose weight" but they never really acquire the habit of exercise? More people do not than those that do. The reason is simple. They don't believe the new habit will ever replace the old habit because they have tried before and failed so they give up before they even try again.  

The habit of failed…

We tend to idolize companies and brands as if they were capable of actually creating something worthy of our time, attention and money. The fact is a corporation is just a container of human capital that is used to create value for consumption. When the people leave the building the containers are nothing but empty shells.

A brand, whether it be Apple, Google, Ford, Amazon or any…

The system by which organizations measure performance and the related "expenses and invested capital" that drive performance is archaic.  It simply does not "account for" what value creates the results rather the accounting system simply keeps score of the results.

Business, markets, wall street, the entire economy are driven by results.  News of any event that could…

Today’s technological changes will be made a mockery of by what the advancements create tomorrow.

Imagine what your great grandparents would think if you were able to tell them that everyone would be connected to everyone and everything in the future. What if you told them that people would use a device in their hand that allows them to do voice & video…

With so much knowledge being distributed through social media everyday what is it that helps us assimilate knowledge into meaningful use?  Knowledge is not useful unless it has meaning to us and meaning comes from relevance.

Relevance means the ability to "connect" something or somebody to our interest at any given time. Our interest vary at any moment and the variables that influence…

I’m a little obsessed about the untapped intangible capital inside organizations. This IC represents potential growth, innovation and the prosperity we crave for our communities. But it often lies fallow because management and even the employees themselves fail to understand their collective power.

That’s why I…

Some executives think this thing called "engagement" is something either  HR needs to manage or marketing needs to do. Few understand the intangible value of engagement converts into tangible  bottom line results.

The Towers Watson 2012 Global Workforce Study — 32,000 employees across 30…

Why don't you simply go get a job? I don't want a job I just want to work.  What is the difference?

The difference between a job and work is a labor of love vs. simply labor. A labor of love is when we are given the freedom to choose the type of work we love to do and work we can become masters at doing.  When we are enabled to do what we love and empowered to become better…

We are taught to know what we are told we need to know. The historical methods of learning have taught us what others think we need to know.  What we don't know is then up to us to learn.

Before the internet we learned from institutions, friends, family and co-workers.  Learning was a process largely influenced from local resources; schools, work, communities and civic activities.…

IC is the unique set of knowledge assets held by a person or a group (a team, an organization, a corporation, a city, a state, a nation). Today only 20% of the value of the average U.S. company is on its balance sheet. The remainder (80%!) is IC.

What does the "I"…