View some common management

      myths we blow up

There are too many myths and too much conjecture about the management of people.

Considering the sophistication of the tools and metrics commonly used in major companies—inventory tracking, logistics, customer experience management, and financial measures—most tactics and measurements for workforce management seem almost primitive. Thus few, if any, companies know the return on investment (ROI) on their various investments in people practices. The same thing is true for the people tactics that most often drive overall business results.

Ten years ago we set out to bridge that measurement gap, starting as a research and development group and gradually evolving into a consulting practice. Since that time we have worked with over a hundred global and national firms—some the best in the world, some average, some struggling. More to the point, we have had complete access to company data—covering more than 2 million employees—that enabled us to measure and define actual people management practices, how those practices affect the workforce, and what their impact is on business performance.

Along the way we have learned a lot about the process of discovering organizational realities and turning that knowledge into strategies for business success:

• Some of the most profound learning in business comes from understanding your own organization.
  
  
• The opportunity exists to capitalize on what others cannot possibly know about your business.
  
  
• New methods for measuring and optimizing your workforce practices are now available.

In place of platitudes or meaningless generalities, this book explains the new science for making fact-based, firm-specific decisions. Unlike most business books, it does not urge you to adopt practices used successfully at other companies or in other industries. There’s no reason to believe that those practices will work for you. Instead, this book gives you a framework for thinking strategically about the people side of your business and introduces you to new tools for measuring and managing your most valuable asset.

Whether you’re a CEO approving a $175 million initiative, a CFO trying to judge the return on investments in people, or a human resources chief who needs to make a compelling case for change, this book will show you new ways to resolve those issues—and to make smarter decisions. For the first time you will see how to understand and measure the contributions of human capital to business success. Not only will you see things differently (and better), you will think and talk about your business differently.

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