NOBL Academy

Navigating the Conflict Between Innovation and Focus

If there’s one thing leaders know about success, it’s that you have to focus on doing the one thing that you do best. If there’s a second thing leaders know about success, it’s that you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket.

Explainers

How Annual Performance Reviews are Changing

The annual performance review is the latest traditional management practice being questioned, abandoned, or reinvented.

Explainers

How Much Should You Pay for Org Design & Development?

Org Design services may seem costly now, but without a focus on how your teams work best together, the results may ultimately be far more expensive. Moreover, now is an opportunity to hone OD as a competitive advantage in your market while your competitors are unaware of the opportunities and still question the returns.

Explainers

The Limits of Measuring Engagement

Since Gallup started tracking engagement in 2000 with its famous 12-question survey, we’ve been through two recessions and recoveries, a dot-com bubble (and might be in a second), the proliferation of smartphones and social media… And yet for 14 of those 16 years, employee engagement has been flat, with “engaged employees” hovering between 28% to 32% of the workforce.

Tools

How to Build the Right Product with Pretotyping

Pretotyping can help save your team money and time on product development by validating assumptions about consumer behaviors before moving into a more elaborate prototype.

Tools

Build a Better Brainstorm by Flaring and Focusing

In order to manage dozens, if not hundreds, of ideas from a brainstorm, take time as a team to get intentional and systematic when prioritizing ideas. Don’t default to the easiest idea to implement or the shiny new bullet.

Explainers

Short and Frequent: How to Communicate Change to Employees

How do you keep people moving forward with change, week after week? And while it’s one thing to acknowledge the fact that organizations must constantly change, how do you get the people actually doing the work comfortable with constant change? We usually have a step-by-step guide for you, but today we’re giving you one simple rule: think dolphins, not whales.

Explainers

Use Checklists to Guide New Team Habits

Adopting new behaviors can be challenging, but a simple thing like a checklist can help you transform a need for change into a concrete, repeatable new behavior.

Explainers

How to Disagree with Your Boss

If you disagree with your boss, don’t panic, and don’t be too hasty. Calmly and respectfully disagree with them in order to open up a productive discussion.

Quick Studies

How Airbnb Uses Culture to Reduce Complexity

Culture can’t just be a poster, or a one-time meeting; it’s a way of doing things that is reinforced (or diluted) every day. To make sure you’re encouraging the right behavior, think about culture on a longer timespan: what should your team be doing 10 or 20 years from now?

Quick Studies

How Jaguar Changed Its Manufacturing Culture

When you want to make a major change, it’s essential to get buy-in and make sure everyone’s aligned. And remember, change is a marathon, not a sprint.

Quick Studies

How the US Military Is Revamping Talent Retention

No matter how traditional your organization is, there’s always room for change. If you need to convince others on the team, make a case using examples from other organizations and entities that are facing similar challenges.

Explainers

Pause Before You Draw that New Org Chart

Every leader faces a moment where the way you organize your teams feels either like your biggest barrier or biggest opportunity. Before you rush into drawing new boxes, reflect on how the way you divide people and resources impacts your strategy.

Quick Studies

How The Hartford Set Up a Reverse Mentoring Program

The big idea your company needs can come from an employee at any level. Organized reverse mentoring is an effective method for sourcing those ideas to drive company-wide innovation and change.

Quick Studies

How Cisco Set Up a Reverse Mentoring Program

Reverse mentoring can provide real value to the organization, but like any program, it needs metrics and senior-level support to succeed.

Quick Studies

What You Can Learn from Culture Decks and Employee Handbooks

As more organizations understand culture as the competitive tool it is, they’re openly sharing “culture decks” or employee handbooks to attract like-minded employees and customers.

Quick Studies

How Google Ventures Uses Design Sprints to Get More Done

Google Venture’s sprint method will give your team the momentum and motivation they need to present a quality product prototype to stakeholders in a week. Remember, the plan above isn’t an exact science. You may substitute methods for your own or shorten the time spent on one stage, but make sure to go in order.

Quick Studies

How Etsy’s Office Hackers Reimagine the Workplace

Take a systematic and employee-obsessed approach to improving the conditions for creative work. Whether it’s a dedicated team or well-oiled feedback loop, workplace innovation can be a shared responsibility across teams and departments.

Explainers

How to Motivate Your Teams With Intrinsic Rewards

What would you do if you had to convince people to work with you, without getting a paycheck? Yes, explaining purpose—how their work contributes to the bigger picture—is a good start, but it may not be enough. Individuals respond differently to different forms of motivation, and part of your role as leader is to figure out the right mix for your team.

Quick Studies

How Apple Reduces Turnover at Its Stores

Starting at the store level, companies have opportunities to empower employees in a way that improves local and global performance.

Impossible is temporary.

Navigating the Conflict Between Innovation and Focus

How Annual Performance Reviews are Changing

How Much Should You Pay for Org Design & Development?

The Limits of Measuring Engagement

How to Build the Right Product with Pretotyping

Build a Better Brainstorm by Flaring and Focusing

Short and Frequent: How to Communicate Change to Employees

Use Checklists to Guide New Team Habits

How to Disagree with Your Boss

How Airbnb Uses Culture to Reduce Complexity

How Jaguar Changed Its Manufacturing Culture

How the US Military Is Revamping Talent Retention

Pause Before You Draw that New Org Chart

How The Hartford Set Up a Reverse Mentoring Program

How Cisco Set Up a Reverse Mentoring Program

What You Can Learn from Culture Decks and Employee Handbooks

How Google Ventures Uses Design Sprints to Get More Done

How Etsy’s Office Hackers Reimagine the Workplace

How to Motivate Your Teams With Intrinsic Rewards

How Apple Reduces Turnover at Its Stores