I think you need an account to view this, but here are highlights of the research:

• McKinsey research shows that initiatives to address "soft" management issues- such as talent, culture, and values- may have a direct financial payoff
• There seems to be an especially strong link between the bottom line and efforts to invest in skills, improve reporting relationships, increase the flow of ideas, and measure performance and risk.

I wonder how many more studies it will take before we stop spending money on (repetitively) establishing that "soft" is actually the real  hard stuff. But one more research in my arsenal, so I'm not complaining.

Plus the second point actually includes a great list for managers and enablers (HR/OD people) to focus on:

1. Invest in skills: hire people with the right competencies, train people for skills strategically critical for the organization and the industry, and position people so as to get the most leverage out of their skill-set.
2. Improve reporting relationships: these three words represent 2/3rds of the corporate world's woes. Most negative work behaviors, absenteeism, slacking, and turnover can be linked to poor relationships between employees and their managers. And a lot of the time what's causing the friction isn't the people in the relationships at all. Its the structure they are part of. The implications of the vertical reporting structure or the "I am your boss" syndrome, the lack of support provided to the manager, and performance monitoring systems that take control away from the employee. Good news: structure is easier to change than personalities!
3. Increase flow of ideas: when people hear this today-- their minds jump to forums, wikis and blogs. Which is a great direction to head into, but the fundamentals of creating a learning organization haven't changed: reward risk taking, reinforce open communication, and create dialogue around the big picture, aka, business strategy.
4. Measure performance: traditional performance measurement systems don't work. The much touted forced ranking systems don't work, not in the long term anyway. There is no simple solution here: good performance measurement takes lots of work. It takes constant monitoring, improvement and dialogue.

Sorry for the management ideas overload. I actually just intended to share the McKinsey report- but the points they touched on are so fundamental to organizations, that the thoughts just came tumbling out!

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