Ensuring A Successful CMS Implementation

The single most important factor in a successful CMS implementation lies with you and your people. Your staff members are the principal users of the system, and the SMEs in your organization are the secondary users. It is their adoption of the new processes and governance structures that makes or breaks a CMS implementation. According to some, process and cultural change accounts for 90%, while technology contributes only 10% to the success of a CMS.

Hamer, Emma C. Rockley Bulletin (2007). Articles>Content Management>User Centered Design>Collaboration

Implementing a CMS: A Game-Changing Corporate Initiative  

The success of a CM project depends not just on process management, but on change management as well. Discover the ways that an organization can help its staff overcome initial resistance to change.

Hamer, Emma C. Intercom (2007). Articles>Content Management>Project Management

Networking? or NOTworking?

Networking expands your resource base and enables you to make useful contacts in other companies, which, in turn, leads to your big break or an exciting new job. The prevailing attitude seems to be that it doesn’t really matter what industry you’re in, or at which level within a company your position is, just go out there and do it, and the results will follow. It does work, doesn’t it? Well, not really.

Hamer, Emma C. Hamer Associates. Careers>Collaboration>Community Building

Stand Out from the Crowd

Enhance your competitive edge by highlighting the talents and skills that make you unique. Understand what sets you apart, learn to articulate this, and find ways to market yourself.

Hamer, Emma C. Hamer Associates. Careers>Collaboration>Community Building

Understanding Workplace Dynamics

Building a team used to be simple. You assembled a number of people with the same tools, education, skills and experience, you told them what to do – and they went and did it. With the information revolution came new ways of working and managerial insights, and a complex minefield of individual competencies required to 'do the job.' Emma Hamer demonstrates how assessing and assigning team roles—determining how people will use their tools, and in particular how they will interact and work together towards a common end-goal—can improve the dynamic of a team.

Evans, Conni E., Emma C. Hamer, Rahel Anne Bailie and Elizabeth Babcock. Hamer Associates (2003). Careers>Management>Workplace

Workspaces, Collaboration, and Information Sharing — Interview with Emma Hamer

IT project teams often need to increase collaboration and communication, but they’re hampered by the cubicle walls and other physical silos they set up in the workplace. These physical obstacles force teams to have frequent meetings — which can be long and inefficient — just to keep each other updated. In this podcast, Emma Hamer talks about both physical and virtual workspaces that project teams need to increase their performance. She also outlines the rationale for teams to gather better feedback from users, project members, and others who aren’t domain experts.

Hamer, Emma C. and Tom H. Johnson. Tech Writer Voices (2008). Articles>Interviews>Collaboration>Online

You Can Do More: Exploring the Edges of Your Skills and Talents

When the going gets rough, the rough get out of their ruts and get going. When the economy takes a turn for the worse and jobs are scarce, it's time to look beyond the skill set described in the standard résumé. It's time to brush off the dust and re-invent yourselves, to make your not-so-obvious skills shine in markets where we can find employment.

Hamer, Emma C. Hamer Associates (2003). Careers>Education>Continuing

Managing the Change Most Forget

Unless your organization is large enough to support dedicated organizational development and/or performance specialists, you will need to bring in a consultant to help you manage the real change. The change most people forget about, until it’s too late.

Hamer, Emma C. TechCom Manager (2006). Articles>Management>Project Management

Outplacement: Why It Doesn't Work

If you are offered career transition support as part of your severance, do yourself a favour and opt out of the collective program, but find out how much has been set aside for the outplacement program. Then, ask your HR department to hold those funds for you until you can find an independent career consultant to work with, on an individual, tailored-to-your-needs, custom program. Independent career consultants like myself can work with you for a much longer period of time for the same budget the company is prepared to allocate to the big firm. When you find your independent, personal career consultant or coach, they can invoice your former company, and your ex-employer’s conscience can rest easy. And you can then arrange with your personal career coach when you want to start and how fast you want to go. At your convenience, not theirs.

Hamer, Emma C. Hamer Associates (2009). Careers>Unemployment>Advice

Management by Emotional Blackmail

Arrogance comes out in the apparent belief that whether the employee has any say in the matter, or has a better idea, is irrelevant in the manager’s mind. Might is right, and if the employee sputters, then the employee is clearly at fault, a troublemaker. The key to neutralizing this type of manager is for the direct reports to band together and decide what they’ll accept. And - as a cohesive group of employees - to work with your HR advisor to express your discomfort with the manager’s particular communication style. Because ultimately, this type of nasty manipulation is deeply disrepectful and dismissive of staff’s qualities and talents. Which makes this behaviour a significant negative factor in the retention of key staff - they will simply no longer put up with it.

Hamer, Emma C. Hamer Associates (2009). Articles>Management>Collaboration

Management by Proxy

Also known as ’The Wizard of Oz Syndrome‘ - this management style is similar to Management by Avoidance, except the ‘thing’ being avoided is corrective or disciplinary actions - or any kind of confrontation with staff, basically. The main theme is: get someone else to deliver the (unpleasant) message, whether it be about cost reductions, getting a slipping schedule back on track, or a lay-off, or resolving a simmering conflict. Why? When the Boss has a strong need to be liked - or feared - (rather than respected), the risk of any direct confrontation is that people might get upset and react emotionally. Especially for hyper-rational “geek” bosses - originally (software) engineers or accounting types - the messy gray area of human interaction is a scary place.

Hamer, Emma C. Hamer Associates (2009). Careers>Management

Review: Improving Individual and Corporate Performance

Managing a team (of writers) somehow is supposed to come naturally to those it is thrust upon. And, of course, it almost never does. Richard Hamilton has succeeded in coming up with a book that - quite effectively, and covering a wide range of topics - answers this ubiquitous question. In a very real sense, Richard’s book is the voice of experience and wisdom that should have been made available when you first got the promotion.

Hamer, Emma C. Hamer Associates (2009). Articles>Reviews>Management>Writing