Human Factors in Project Management E-Book

Zachary Wong

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 582

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Beschreibung

In Human Factors in Project Management, author ZacharyWong--a noted trainer and acclaimed leader of more than 250project teams--provides a summary of "people-based"management skills and techniques that can be applied whenworking in a team environment. This comprehensive resource bringstogether in one book new and current models in team motivation andintegrates the most significant concepts in team motivation andbehaviors into a single set of principles called "Human Factors."Wong shows how these factors can be applied to the most challengingissues facing project managers today including * Motivating a diverse workforce * Facilitating team decisions * Resolving interpersonal conflicts * Managing difficult people * Strengthening team accountability * Communications * Leadership

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Acknowledgments

Dedication

The Author

Introduction

ORGANIZATION OF THIS BOOK

ADDITIONAL ASPECTS OF THE BOOK

chapter ONE - Emergence of Human Factors

SUMMARY

chapter TWO - Human Factors and Team Dynamics in Project Management

SUMMARY

chapter THREE - Key Elements of Team Performance

DEFINING CONTENT

CREATING CONTENT

SUMMARY

chapter FOUR - Key Elements of Team Performance

GOOD AND BAD PROCESSES

ESTABLISHING GOOD PROCESSES

CORE PROCESSES OF A HIGH-PERFORMING TEAM

SUMMARY

chapter FIVE - Key Elements of Team Performance

HOW TEAM BEHAVIORS AND PROCESSES ARE RELATED

TOP SIX TEAM BEHAVIORS

THE TRUE TEST: INCLUSIVE TEAM BEHAVIORS

SUMMARY

chapter SIX - Secrets of Managing the Three Key Elements

SEPARATING CONTENT, PROCESS, AND BEHAVIOR

BEHAVIOR VERSUS CONTENT

PROCESS VERSUS CONTENT

PROCESS VERSUS BEHAVIOR

SUMMARY

chapter SEVEN - Key Stages of Team Development

FORMING

STORMING

NORMING

REFORMING

PERFORMING

SUMMARY

chapter EIGHT - Moving the Team Forward

SEVEN KEY FACILITATION CONCEPTS AND TECHNIQUES

GO SLOW TO GO FAST

WORK ONE PROCESS AT A TIME

USE PROCESS CHECKS

AGREE ON THE 80:20 RULE

LEARN TO PARK ISSUES

KNOW HOW TO OPEN AND NARROW THINKING

BREAK TEAM STALEMATES

SUMMARY

chapter NINE - Personal Space

CULTURE

EXPERIENCES: GENERATIONAL DIVERSITY

PERSONALITY TYPES

PERSONAL VALUES VERSUS ORGANIZATIONAL VALUES

SUMMARY

chapter TEN - Team Conflicts

GOOD AND BAD CONFLICTS

CONFLICT OF CHANGE

CONFLICT OF VALUES

CONFLICT OF BEHAVIORS

TEAM SYNERGY AND ANTAGONISM

SUMMARY

chapter ELEVEN - How Conflicts Affect Personal Space

PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE THRESHOLD MODEL

FEAR FACTORS AND PERSONAL SPACE

CONFLICTS AND PERSONALITY TYPES

SUMMARY

chapter TWELVE - Expanding Your Space

TANGIBLE BENEFITS OF EXPANDING PERSONAL SPACE

HOW TO EXPAND PERSONAL SPACE

DETERMINING YOUR CONFLICT MANAGEMENT STYLE

SUMMARY

chapter THIRTEEN - Managing Good and Bad Behaviors

DEALING WITH DIFFICULT PEOPLE

TECHNIQUES TO HELP THE TEAM STAY IN THE UPPER LEVEL

SUMMARY

chapter FOURTEEN - Raising Your Game

SHAPING YOUR UPPER-LEVEL BEHAVIORS

RISE ABOVE TO GET BEYOND

RAISE YOUR GAME

SUMMARY

chapter FIFTEEN - Those Who Break Through Will Never Go Back

BREAKTHROUGH OF A TRAPPED GUARDIAN

BREAKTHROUGH OF AN ISOLATED RATIONAL

BREAKTHROUGH OF A RUNAWAY IDEALIST

THE IDEAL GUARDIAN

BREAKTHROUGH OF A SUCCESSFUL ARTISAN

WHAT THESE STORIES HAVE IN COMMON

chapter SIXTEEN - Hearts and Minds of Human Factors

MANAGING THE MIND AND EMOTIONS IN CONFLICT

HOW INTELLECTUAL AND EMOTIONAL NEEDS ARE COMMUNICATED

SUMMARY

chapter SEVENTEEN - Personal Leadership

THREE SPACES OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT

THREE KEY ELEMENTS OF TEAM PERFORMANCE: CONTENT, PROCESS, AND BEHAVIORS

FIVE STAGES OF TEAM DEVELOPMENT AND MEETING FACILITATION

PERSONAL SPACE: CULTURE, EXPERIENCES, PERSONALITY TYPE, VALUES, AND BEHAVIORS

FOUR TEMPERAMENT TYPES: RATIONAL, IDEALIST, GUARDIAN, AND ARTISAN

PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE THRESHOLD

EXPANDING YOUR PERSONAL SPACE

MANAGING GOOD AND BAD BEHAVIORS

RAISING THE GAME AND SET POINT

INTELLECTUAL AND EMOTIONAL NEEDS OF MOTIVATION

SUMMARY

EPILOGUE

REFERENCES

INDEX

Copyright © 2007 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Wong, Zachary.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-7879-9629-1 (cloth)

1. Project management. 2. Teams in the workplace. 3. Employee motivation. 4. Personnel management. I. Title.

HD69.P75.W656 2007

658.4’04—dc22

2007010273

HB Printing

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book would not have been possible without the love and support from my family. I owe my deepest happiness and success to my wife, Elaine, a dedicated teacher, the heart of our family, and a loving mother to our two daughters, Amy and Sarah. To Amy, my idealist and athlete of the family, thanks for showing me what teamwork really means and what it means to have a great heart for others. Sarah, my favorite artisan and running buddy, you have always been the spirit and fun behind my book. I have learned much from our life experiences together as a family, and I look forward to many more adventures. I thank my dear mom and dad; my grandmother; my siblings, Reynold, Pamela, and Gary, who all remain important in my life; and my extended family, Bob, Marilyn, Tom, and Marguerite, for their affectionate support, and my nephews and nieces.

Special thanks to my friend and best colleague for over thirty-five years, Rich Clark, who has never forgiven me for spewing water all over him in organic chemistry and continues to be there for me. To my good friends at Chevron who helped shape my career and thinking, with sincere gratitude to Judith MacGregor; Manfred Michlmayr; Kathy Dougherty; Mark Keller; Jeet Bindra; Pete Stonebraker; my colleagues in health, environment, and safety; and my team in Toxicology and Health Risk Assessment, pound for pound the best team in Chevron. It is a pleasure to share this book with longtime friends, Steve and Mary Jane Lundin and Chuck and Cathy McGinnis. Thanks for your friendship.

This book was in my head for many years but did not come to light until I was given an opportunity to present it at the University of California at Berkeley. My gratitude to the many dedicated people there, especially Clara Piloto, for giving me the opportunity to teach. My sincere appreciation to Cindy Andallo and Michelle Ragozzino and my fellow instructors: Jim O’Donnell, Terry Hird, Cheryl Allen, Pamela Dryer, Martha Haywood, Barbara Blalock, and Lifong Liu.

My personal thanks to my colleagues for reading the manuscript and giving valuable feedback: Rich Clark, Jerry Miller, Wendy and Vernon Harmon, Jim O’Donnell, Hank McDermott, and Elizabeth King. I want to recognize my editor, Neal Maillet, for believing in this book and making it happen, and the team at Jossey-Bass: Jessie Mandle, Beverly Miller, Cathy Mallon, Bernadette Walter, Diane Turso, Amie Wong, and Brian Grimm. Special thanks to Jonathan Rose, who took my idea forward at Wiley.

Finally, this book was truly inspired by my students in Human Factors and Team Dynamics for Project Management at UC Berkeley. You gave me the energy and insights to create it. You helped me rise to a higher level.

To my wife, Elaine, and our daughters, Amy and Sarah

The Author

Zachary Wong is a manager at the Chevron Energy Technology Company in Richmond, California. He is a highly acclaimed instructor of human factors and team dynamics at the University of California at Berkeley Extension. Wong has over thirty years of managerial and project management experience. He has held senior positions in research and technology, strategic planning, business analysis, and risk assessment. He has extensive experience as a team facilitator and project leader.

In 2002, Wong was selected as an Honored Instructor by the University of California at Berkeley Extension and has received numerous teaching awards. For over fifteen years, he has taught a wide range of courses in health sciences, economics, business management, leadership, and human factors. In 1978, he received his Ph.D. in toxicology and pharmacology from the University of California at Davis. He has served extensively on project teams, executive leadership teams, and decision review boards of public committees, industry associations, and academia.

INTRODUCTION

This book is a synthesis of key concepts, tools, and techniques for motivating high performance in self-managed project teams. Over the past three decades, project management has benefited from numerous people-based strategies, such as quality management, facilitative leadership, reinforcement-based leadership, and performance management. These strategies have resulted in greater employee empowerment and dependency on self-motivated project teams, cross-functional teams, and global networks. Despite this tremendous growth in using teams, there has been a lag in new thinking about team motivation. This book presents new ideas and models in team motivation and applies them to the most challenging issues facing project managers today: motivating a diverse workforce, facilitating team decisions, resolving interpersonal conflicts, managing difficult people, and strengthening team accountability, processes, and leadership. It integrates the most significant concepts in team motivation and behaviors into a single set of principles called human factors. A simple definition of human factors is the study of the interactions among people and systems. Human factors are the underlying elements of human behavior that affect organizational performance. This book is designed for people who want to improve their interpersonal skills and techniques when working in a team environment. It provides strategies and techniques for strengthening personal competencies and confidence when working with others. Regardless of your occupation, background, and work experience, this book will increase your ability and power to influence others in more positive ways.

This is a handbook for managers, supervisors, team leaders, project managers, and people who want to improve their teamwork and motivational skills. It explores individual management styles, leadership skills, team facilitation techniques, conflict resolution, decision making, and project team management.

Historically, human factors have been applied to engineering, design, construction, mechanical systems, and industrial processes. Its application to these processes was driven by the need to ensure that equipment and operations were efficient, safe, and compatible with employees’ work habits and physical ergonomics. It is now recognized that human factors are important not only in design and operations but also in how people work together within a given system. System refers to a group of interrelated things that operate together, such as an organization. The interactions among people are simply the collective behaviors of those people. Behaviors are the things that we see, hear, and feel from others. Organizations are composed of structure, processes, and technology. The key structure in essentially all organizations is the team. So in the context of this book, the objective of human factors is to maximize teamwork and relationships in an organization toward achieving common goals.

The subject of human factors is not formally taught, and most people are not aware of them. Yet human factors are the most important keys in building relationships, teamwork, and motivation. We spend a great deal of time in relationships at work, yet we know little about what motivates our colleagues or what may motivate our own behaviors. We judge others only through our own eyes and quickly draw conclusions about them. We are inclined to compare and contrast behaviors against our own values.

In business today, the emphasis is not on behaviors but on strategies, projects, and time lines. Behavioral elements are often ignored. Yet behaviors—not strategies, processes, and structures—make or break organizational performance.

Most companies recognize diversity as a key corporate value. They sponsor employee clubs, networks, cultural events, and even ethnic lunches to celebrate diversity. These activities help to raise awareness and intracultural sensitivity, but how well do companies promote and integrate diversity in business and project management? Do we truly value diversity in our organizations and teams? Diversity goes well beyond differences in ethnic, cultural, and professional backgrounds, extending deep into human factors. Human factors are the values, work styles, emotions, and experiences that power behaviors and relationships with other people. Human factors are about individual differences and similarities and the need to consider these factors when working in an organization or team. Nothing is more important to our success than being able to recognize and understand human similarities and differences. We recognize human differences all the time, but do we understand them? Why do we like or dislike certain behaviors? Why do we enjoy or disdain certain types of work? Why do we respond to stress differently? Why are we afraid of conflict? Why are some people aggressive, or timid, at work? Learning the strategies and techniques of human factors will help broaden your awareness and understanding of the differences and similarities that exist among people. These differences and similarities are the basis for understanding interpersonal behaviors and motivation.

Behaviors are elements that have an emotional and lasting impact on teams and people. It is true that what you see is what you get, but it is those things that we do not see which matter most. These are the underlying elements that trigger behaviors. We are born with a set of behavioral tendencies that are shaped by life’s experiences and human interactions. Human factors are inside all of us but hidden from view. If we could see them, we would be more understanding and forgiving of others. We would have much better relationships, teamwork, and managerial abilities. It would be very powerful to possess such insights into others. Managing human factors is an art rather than a science, because it requires insights into and understanding of human expression. What would you give to have the power to see the motivations behind people’s behaviors? This is the power of human factors and the key to project success.

Human factors bring out the best and worst in people. Some people are naturally competitive, which gives them great drive to succeed and win. Yet too much competitiveness can drive others away and reduce teamwork and success. Increasing our knowledge of human factors increases our ability to cope, influence, and motivate. It is the foundation of teamwork, collaboration, leadership, and personal power. Collectively, human factors are the set of relationships, behaviors, and interactions of an organization or project team. It is about our interface with our work environment on a day-to-day basis. They are the relationships and interactions that we look forward to or dread each day. Ultimately it is about how we feel about ourselves when we finally leave the organization.

Many books and articles have been written about teamwork, diversity, quality management, personality types, organizational behaviors, project management, facilitation, and organizational capabilities. But none puts all of these topics together. This book takes concepts from all of these areas and organizes them into simple strategies that can be used daily. The intent of this book is to help people develop their managerial skills and interpersonal relationships. These concepts are aimed at helping people improve their view and understanding of themselves and others and how they can use that knowledge to maximize their influence and happiness.

ORGANIZATION OF THIS BOOK

The key concepts of human factors are presented in a sequence of seventeen chapters. Each chapter builds on the previous one and expands on concepts presented earlier. Therefore, it is best to read the chapters in the order presented.

Chapter One reviews the emergence of human factors and discusses the important changes in management styles and team dynamics. We have gone from a top-down, rules-based, autocratic management style in the pre-1970s to one that is team based, values driven, and participative. Companies are no longer driven by fiats and autocrats but by systems and teams. In the past, the approach was to impose rules, policies, and standard operating procedures to standardize behaviors—to shape people to fit processes rather than shape processes to fit people. We have learned that when power is restricted to the top few, creativity and discretionary performance suffer. Because of the rising cost of doing business, the pace of globalization, and increased workforce diversity, companies have been forced to shift from a hierarchical system to a more leveraged, cross-functional, team-based system of operation. This new interdependent structure demands greater skills in teamwork, motivation, and organizational behaviors. When people understand each other and processes are in place to support them, enormous energy and productivity are created. When people are in conflict or are forced to fit into processes, tremendous opportunity is lost.

Chapter Two clarifies the role of human factors and team dynamics in project management, both critical elements in project management. Every team has the same basic goal: to meet the objectives and expectations of the project. Yet each project team is unique and works on a project differently. Also, each person is unique and pursues the goals of the project differently. Project teams are influenced by three conceptual spaces: organizational space, team space, and personal space. These are the interactive spaces of project management. To bring out the best in people, we must have a good management system and a work environment that supports the diversity of human factors. Our challenge is to learn how to operationalize diversity in our work environment and integrate diversity in our management of projects.

Organizational space encompasses the project’s objectives, strategies, goals, work plan, technology, budget, time schedules, policies, performance standards, and procedures, all defined by the organization. These are the hard skills and processes of project management. These areas of project management are enormous and well covered in many books, articles, and periodicals, and are outside the scope of this book. This book focuses on the two primary spaces of human behavior in project management: team space and personal space.

Chapters Three, Four, and Five reveal the three key elements essential in running a successful team: content, process, and behavior. These three elements apply to all industries, companies, organizations, and projects. They are interdependent variables and must be managed well for the team to be successful. When things break down on a project, this failure can be attributed to one or more of these three elements. To achieve high performance, a team must learn how to recognize and distinguish these three factors when problem solving and making decisions. The strength of the team lies in the management of these three elements.

Chapter Six presents the secrets of managing the three key elements of team performance. These are the motivators and demotivators of people and drive the level of collaboration and success of a team. Knowing how to separate and manage these three elements is key. This chapter provides tools, techniques, and strategies on how to use these elements to diagnose and solve relationship and team problems.

Chapter Seven examines the five key stages of team development. It is natural for teams and organizations to go through periods of good and bad teamwork. This chapter breaks down this natural cycle into five distinct stages of team development and productivity: forming, storming, norming, reforming, and performing. Each stage is unique and requires skills in team building, leadership, communications, conflict and stress management, management of change, and achieving team expectations. Understanding this team development cycle helps us better manage team conflicts and work pressures.

Chapter Eight covers the secrets to moving a team forward and describes many of the best tools and techniques in facilitation. It brings together the best team processes for opening and closing team discussions. Team leaders tend to spend too much time on forming content and too little time on forming team processes. People seem to know how to set up a team meeting and know what they want it to accomplish, but it is facilitating the people to get there that is hard: this is process. Having the right processes enables a team to convert strategies and information into decisions and actions.

Chapter Nine demonstrates how personal space and values drive behaviors. How people act and work with others may appear to be natural and spontaneous, but they actually come from a set of acquired and learned responses driven by basic individual values. Values are fundamentally created and shaped by genetic makeup, life experiences, and culture, and these values are inherent in behaviors. Values are what people believe in and demonstrate in their everyday interactions. These values are the underlying human factors of behaviors—the hidden truths. A key determinant of values and behaviors is temperament type. There are four distinct temperament types as identified by David Keirsey: Rational, Idealist, Guardian, and Artisan. Each type has distinct preferences for learning, processing information, communicating, and interacting with others. Each temperament brings different but very valuable skills to a work team. If the goal is to bring out the best in people, maximize performance, and build high-performing teams, then we must respect and understand individual differences in personal values. This chapter reveals the power of life experiences, culture, and temperament types in shaping personal space and values.

Chapter Ten offers effective strategies in understanding and managing team conflicts. The majority of conflicts fall into three main areas: change, values, and behavior. A change conflict usually originates from organizational space and challenges people’s abilities to adapt to a new environment. Values conflicts occur between people or between people and an organization. An organization imposes values through its system of policies, decisions, and actions. The most common conflict is behavioral: people do not get along. Behavioral conflicts come from personal space. In conflict situations, each temperament type demonstrates different coping and interactive behaviors. In a team setting, certain conflicts are healthy, but taken to an extreme, each can lead to antagonism and team breakdown. The desired state is team synergy, where breakthrough performance is achieved.

Chapter Eleven explains how fear of conflict affects personal space. Behaviors are often driven by fear: fear of conflict, rejection, failure, embarrassment, and accountability. Nothing grips a team more than conflict. People avoid confrontation and conflict because they often lack the emotional strength, skills, and confidence to resolve it. Fear is a human factor that creates bad team behaviors. It can even drive people to behave contrary to their own beliefs. When they let outside factors drive their behaviors, they lose personal space and self-confidence. Each personality type displays a different set of fearful behaviors. By understanding them, teams are able to address team conflicts more effectively.

Chapter Twelve discusses how to expand personal space to strengthen your abilities to influence others and manage conflict. Expanding space means to reach beyond yourself with positive influence into team space and organizational space, where behaviors have a positive impact on others. Expanding personal space builds informal power, reduces incoming conflicts, motivates others to want to work with you, and gives you inner strength. This chapter provides seven key strategies for expanding your space.

Chapter Thirteen examines the good and bad levels of personal space. Each temperament type has strengths and weaknesses. Everyone possesses positive upper-level behaviors and negative lower-level behaviors. This chapter defines the upper and lower states of human factors and how these states drive behaviors and interactions with others on project teams.

Chapter Fourteen provides strategies and techniques on raising your performance level in teams (in other words, raising your game). Each personality type has a different set of upper- and lower-level behaviors. Whether a person is upper-level dominated or lower-level dominated at any given time is a matter of personal choice. People in their lower state are poor listeners, impatient, self-centered, defensive, frustrated, and fearful. People in their upper-level state are open-minded, tolerant, giving, and collaborative. They naturally move to their lower state when they are stressed and insecure. People reside in their lower levels because they choose to be there. Ironically, people are less stressed and more secure when they are in their upper state. To avoid the lower level, people have the skills and internal strength to take the upper path or receive help from others to do so. This chapter shares numerous techniques to raise your behaviors.

Chapter Fifteen presents the stories of five people of different temperament types and the power of human factors in improving their personal behaviors. These are people who struggled with longtime personal issues, adopted the concepts of human factors, and experienced breakthroughs in their lives.

Chapter Sixteen explores the hearts and minds of human factors. The continuing need for intellectual and emotional fulfillment is the basis for motivation. High-performing teams always show two strong intellectual traits—clear vision and an ability to solve problems and two emotional traits—a positive mind-set and inclusive behaviors. Intellectually, people want to be challenged and connected to the team’s content and processes. Emotionally, they want to feel appreciated and valued by others. Each temperament type has certain intellectual and emotional needs. In seeking to fulfill those needs, they send messages through their behaviors, which can have positive and negative impacts on others.

Chapter Seventeen shares the human factors behind personal leadership. Personal leadership has influence in all three spaces and makes things happen. It has power, authority, and great influence on behaviors. Leaders guide behaviors by setting the vision, direction, expectations, and processes. Each personality type brings different leadership styles to an organization, and each can make good team leaders. Yet all good leaders seem to share some common human factors and leadership behaviors. No matter how strong a team is, good leadership is essential in achieving team success, and poor leadership can single-handedly bring a project down. Leaders can bring out the best and the worst in people.

ADDITIONAL ASPECTS OF THE BOOK

In the future, a key organizational challenge will be managing human factors. Teamwork and collaboration will remain core values in successful organizations. Teams are a group of people who have been assembled to work toward a common purpose or project. An entire company can be viewed as a team with a common purpose or a small group of people working on a project. In this book, team refers to a group of people with a shared objective.

One aspect of this book that I am sensitive about is the use of generalizations and stereotypes. I believe generalizations, when used constructively to raise awareness and sensitivity, are educational and justified. Diversity is about differences, but it is also about similarities. Observing and understanding different types of personalities, generations of people, and behaviors increases our social and behavioral intelligence. We are all diverse in the same way. We seek the same things in life and work: to be appreciated, loved, valued, and accepted. However, each of us pursues it differently. That pursuit consumes and generates a lot of human energy. That is what gives power to human factors.

Too often, books tell you what you need to do but never any specifics on how to do it. This book covers both the whats and the hows in managing behaviors and team dynamics. It is intended to increase awareness of individual diversity and behaviors. It contains strategies, concepts, and techniques for improving interpersonal skills and team management. In this book, the concepts are presented in the context of an interactive project team, where a high level of human interaction occurs. Projects fail because of poor execution, and poor execution occurs because of poor people management and performance. To put it simply, projects fail because we fail to manage human factors.

chapterONE

Emergence of Human Factors

For over two decades, the successful teachings and practices of Edward Deming, Joseph Juran, Quality Management, Total Quality Management, and Six Sigma have been key drivers in shaping business culture. They have helped improve business productivity and enabled change through greater strategic alignment, customer focus, and continuous process improvement. These concepts have greatly contributed to the global competitiveness and success of international companies. They have provided philosophies for effective strategic leadership, systematic methods for improving business processes, and tools for driving performance improvements. Most important, they have advanced the concepts of teamwork in organizational performance.

In the past three decades, business management has dramatically changed. Prior to 1970, management was predominantly top down, rules based, and autocratic. A militaristic philosophy was common. This changed as companies realized that when power was restricted to the top few, creativity and discretionary performance suffered. In the 1980s, team-based, values-driven organizations appeared. More employee participative philosophies were introduced. Companies were no longer driven by rules and autocrats but by systems and teams. They were still managed by rules, policies, and standard operating procedures. The effect was to standardize behaviors and shape people to fit processes. The visionary 1990s inspired a shared mission, vision, values, and objectives approach and opened the process for greater employee participation. With a shared vision and plan, people were considered in sync with the direction and priorities of management—a new shared ownership of objectives. But this shared ownership turned out to be insufficient, and new tools and processes to execute these objectives were needed. Enlightened companies soon recognized that old command-and-control processes did not work well with their shared strategies. Also, companies faced pressures of rising costs, product cycles, globalization, and a rapidly changing workforce and were forced to adopt a more distributed, leveraged system of operation. In other words, they had to make every employee count. A key enabler of this change was technology, which provided the connectivity and critical tools to make dramatic improvements in information sharing, work productivity, communications, and rate of change. Another key was building organizational capabilities around core businesses and technologies.