Welcome to Threee

Its always nice to do the first blog - the first marks in a blank workbook, first tracks in the snow, kind of thing. This is not my first actual blog (james-hayton.com has some earlier items), but this one might be more coherent in its goal, which I will share with you here. The goal of the blog will explain the blog's title: threee, as in Three E, actually as in e-cubed or e to the power of 3.

I am a researcher of organizations and particularly focused on managing people and the formal and informal systems that influence their behaviors. I believe that, within all the complexity inherent in organizations, we need to focus on three levels of analysis, which 'magically' can be captured by the three e's.

External alignment of people management practices with strategy, structure, culture, and competitive environment of the organization. We tend to focus on strategy, and this may be most significant. External alignment or fit between how we manage and reward and the goals of the organization seems like common sense, but is often more complex that first appears.

Engaging employees in the organization. Again, obvious, but not so easy - especially when no one can even agree on what engagement actually is or how it is defined.

Finally, energizing: yourself, the group in which you work, and the organization. Energy is a very personal and direct experience and has recently received some attention by researchers - including a colleague at University of Michigan, Theresa Welbourne who is running a project called 'leadership pulse/leadeship team pulse.' Full disclosure - I am also involved in this project and hope to share some of the insights from our part of the project here in this blog.

The core idea is that all three levels of analysis are significantly influencing performance whether or not you pay attention to them. Furthermore, the idea that they are interdependent means that there will be synergistic effects from paying attention to all three levels. The question is, how can you leverage these dimensions to produce superior performance?

This is the substance of threee.
More later