In July 2009, the BBC World Service reported a $180 million cost to United Airlines, when Dave Carroll’s viral video “United Breaks Guitars” led to a share price drop of approximately 10%. www.longislandexchange.com

Carroll’s band and other passengers witnessed guitars being thrown on the tarmac by careless baggage handlers before take-off, and reported this to United staff. Three people showed no interest in their plight, and United dodged his $1200 claim for a $3,500 guitar for a year before denying it completely. Carroll’s song (complete with the badly-mutilated guitar) is apparently destined to become a United training tool. Enjoy it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

Disengagement is a major business problem, with many causes. These include a lack of skillful management, selection/succession procedures that do not put the right person in the right job, and inattention to climate and culture. And, of course,  measurable, affordable and effective learning interventions.

CPS is privileged to work with some truly excellent companies, who drive engagement from the top, and have a strong awareness of the cost of disengagement, and its consequences.  They have put the real numbers on retention,  productivity, service, quality, innovation, on-going process improvement, collaborative intelligence and the on-going development of competitive advantage.

Those who want to drive change in the engagement issue do best when they produce the numbers. No one gets out of their comfort zone without a compelling case for action, and many of the people who make key decisions have a background of thinking in terms of numbers, not on whether their people bring their whole selves to work.

Give them the real, hard numbers, plus the basis on which those numbers were derived (c-psolutions has things like how to calculate the cost of turnover etc if anyone needs them). Show them the hard research on why people go through the motions at work or leave their jobs. Give them valid metrics on the impact of disengagement on sales, service and customer retention.

Theory speaks to some people, but the business case is the best and most compelling reason to take the action needed to engage our workforce.

And to stop people breaking those poor guitars.

CPS is eligible to provide custom solutions to clients with state funding assistance, and helps our clients to source these. As a values- and ethics-based small business, CPS specializes in affordable, lasting solutions to people and business challenges.

We build:

1) Our clients’ “IQ”, or conscious abilities to use a toolbox of various thinking skills, alone and with other people.

2) EQ or social and emotional intelligence: the competencies in the intrapersonal, interpersonal, cultural and communication skillls.

3) “TQ” or technological intelligence, the group of skills, knowledge and attitudes that are an essential part of managing information sharing, and executing collaborative work in the technology-based Age of Knowledge.

As our clients meet the challenges of the new economy, CPS supports them in retooling their people with the skills, knowledge and approaches that create success.

We also arrange the funding (from workforce development funding sources) to finance this work.

CPS does not only facilitate collaborative intelligence, we practice it. We partner with our clients to stay ahead of the curve, looking at how to build and maintain long-term competitive advantage in a new, uncharted economy.

IQ+EQ+TQ=CQ by Glynis Ross-Munro is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.c-psolutions.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.c-psolutions.com.

CQ, or collaborative intelligence, combines the ability to think well, and to think collaboratively with other people. It is a key to innovation, corporate earnings, individual wealth and national success in the 21st Century.

CQ is also a core factor in managing knowledge workers, nationally and internationally. High collaborative intelligence often includes skills for managing different generations, as different cohorts interact differently, share knowledge in different ways, and have differing ways of using technology.

CQ often has hard skills components too. These include the ability to write clearly and quickly, and to use communication technology easily and confidently. For instance, your business may have a very valuable,  knowledgeable, and highly-skilled thinker. This person might, however be a Boomer or older GenXer who is seriously under-performing simply because s/he lacks training and confidence in using in web conferencing or use of wikis, on-line project  management etc.

CQ and other ‘New Economy” skills developments are well-funded by local government programs in the Tampa Bay counties. CPS is ethically committed to help any company seeking funding for either “new” and “old” economy skills training or career retooling, whether CPS is a supplier of the training for the required skills or not. Please email glynis[@]c-psolutions or call me at 813-598-9184.