Introduction


In the hectic pace of the knowledge economy, two things have become critical to every organization ‚ s success. The first is knowledge. The second is time. As a workplace learning and performance (WLP) professional, your role is to continuously improve the knowledge, skills, and performance of the people you serve. You ‚ ve felt today ‚ s hectic, never-ending pressure to do more with less ‚ less money, less time, and fewer people. And, it ‚ s not just you. Everyone around you is experiencing the same pressure as the knowledge economy speeds life up for us all.

When you finish this book, you ‚ ll have seen how to

  • understand the basics of the executive language of finance

  • search for and uncover hidden potential for value

  • demonstrate your value with a solid program around the numbers

  • leverage your most current business context

  • get your point across quickly in today ‚ s fast-paced world.

Communicating Value Well ‚ and Fast!

How can you communicate effectively in 30 seconds or less? Successful communicators rely on having a clear purpose; knowing their audience and their audience ‚ s immediate concerns; and organizing specific types of performance and financial information into simple, consistent formats so that they can rapidly communicate value. The key to their success is preparation.

This book will show you how to quickly and effectively communicate your financial value. Value communication is defined as clearly and succinctly describing the value of your WLP interventions in terms of the financial measures that your audience is judged by. For example, if your chief financial officer is judged on a financial measure such as return-on-assets, showing how your WLP intervention has improved return on assets is a powerful way to gain approval and support.

Figure I-1 presents a concise model for identifying, positioning, delivering, measuring, and communicating your value.


Figure I-1: The flywheel of the financial value process.

The groundbreaking book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don ‚ t (Collins, 2001) describes building phenomenal business momentum as a process of turning a flywheel to generate power. The first few turns of the flywheel can seem slow and arduous, but the more turns that are completed, the faster the flywheel spins and the more momentum the business gains. Similarly, in figure I-1 the financial value process is depicted as a flywheel. Stick with the concepts in this book. The first few times you go through the process can seem slow and arduous. But the more people in your organization that you can get to push the flywheel and the more turns you complete, the more power, speed, and momentum you create for yourself and for your organization or your client ‚ s organization.




Quick Show Me Your Value
Quick! Show Me Your Value
ISBN: 1562863657
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 157

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