NCEO Audio Files
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The NCEO offers audio files in MP3 format that you can download and play on a computer or portable listening device such as an iPod. The audio files, intended for anyone in an employee ownership company interested in organizational culture, allow you to listen to interviews of prominent authors and company leaders discussing their experience and insights. The interviews were conducted by Corey Rosen and Loren Rodgers of the NCEO.
The interviews include thought-provoking challenges to your assumptions about business and hands-on knowledge you can use in your own company. The topics covered range over management challenges, ownership design, systems to stimulate innovation, corporate governance, the meaning of ownership, compensation/bonus strategy, and lessons learned from decades of making employee ownership work. Each interview is between 25 and 40 minutes long.
The files are made available for download in a password-protected area. After you purchase access, you will be emailed an individual username and password to access the download area. Access is sold by calendar year. Thus, if you purchase access anytime during this year, you will be able to download the files through the end of December. See below for a description of each file currently available.
Pricing and Terms of Access
Access to the audio files during 2008 costs $50 for NCEO members and $75 for nonmembers. (If you are a nonmember but join when you order, you will receive the member price.) Click here to order online.
If you are not an NCEO member, your access to the files is sold to you as an individual, and is not to be shared with others. If you are an NCEO member, your access extends to everyone covered by your membership, which means (1) yourself only if you are a consultant member not in the Referral Service, or an academic or other individual members; (2) your office (but not other offices of your firm) if you are a consultant member with a Referral Service membership; and (3) your entire company at all locations if you are a company member (that is not a service provider in this field).
Files Available
The NCEO will continue adding new audio files to the list. The following files are currently available.
"What Makes a Great Place to Work," a conversation with Robert Levering, co-author of A Great Place to Work: What Makes Some Employers So Good-And Most So Bad
Robert Levering is the co-founder of the Great Place to Work Institute and co-author of the annual Fortune magazine 100 Best Companies to Work for in America® list. Robert is a featured speaker all over the world on workplace trends and management strategies aimed at improving workplace productivity. He has appeared on dozens of TV and radio shows, including Oprah, CNN, and CBS Morning News.
In this conversation, Corey Rosen and Robert focus on the key concept of building trust with employees by treating each employee as a whole person. Details on Robert Levering can be found here.
"Encouraging Innovation at Work," a conversation with William C. Taylor, co-author of Mavericks at Work
William Taylor is the co-founder of Fast Company, a widely published business columnist, and author of three books beside Mavericks at Work. That book was a New York Times best-seller and was named one of the top ten books of the year by the Economist, among many other honors.
In this conversation, Corey discusses with Bill what it takes to create a culture of innovation at work, including ways to make innovation part of all employees' jobs. For more on William Taylor, go here.
"Bridging the Knowing-Doing Gap," a conversation with Jeffrey Pfeffer, author of The Knowing-Doing Gap
Jeffrey Pfeffer is the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. He is the author of a dozen books, including such best-selling titles as The Knowing-Doing Gap, The Human Equation: Building Profits by Putting People First, and Hidden Value: How Great Companies Achieve Extraordinary Results with Ordinary People.
In this conversation with Corey Rosen, he focuses on the phenomenon that company leadership often knows that the best approach is to create high-involvement cultures, yet is unable to put that knowledge into effective practice. How can that gap be bridged? He also explores why companies rely too heavily on gut instinct rather than evidence and why the key to business success is getting more people to contribute more ideas. Details about Jeffrey Pfeffer can be found at here.
"Getting More People to Contribute More Ideas," a conversation with Dean Schroeder, co-author of Ideas Are Free
Dean Schroeder is the Herbert H. & Agnes S. Schulz Professor of Business as well as associate dean and director of the Graduate Programs in Management, College of Business Administration at Valparaiso University. With Alan Robinson, he is coauthor of Ideas Are Free, which we at the NCEO believe is the best book available on how to engage employees in the task of generating new ideas at every level. Schroeder is also the keynote speaker for the 2008 NCEO/Beyster Institute conference.
In this interview, Corey Rosen and Schroeder discuss why getting lots of small ideas is more important than just striving for a handful of breakthrough ideas. He gives specific examples of how companies have created effective systems to get the majority of the work force engaged in the task of thinking of new and better ways to do things. More information about Dean Schroeder can be found here.
Cecil Ursprung: "Governance and the Role of Employee Owners in an ESOP Company"
Cecil Ursprung is the retired CEO and board chair of Reflexite Corporation, headquartered in Avon, Connecticut. Reflexite, grand prize winner of the 2006 Innovations in Employee Ownership Award, has long been a leader in developing best practices in employee ownership.
In this interview, Cecil and Loren Rodgers discuss non-traditional ESOP parameters and the use of equity outside the ESOP; Reflexite's compensation strategy for executives and nonmanagers; the unique governance challenges in ESOP companies, including Cecil's philosophy on the responsibility of corporate directors, and the essence of the difference between an employee and an employee owner.
Joe Cabral: "Dealing with Hard Times, the Role of Corporate Boards, and How Employee Ownership Affects Corporate Strategy"
Joe Cabral, currently the chair of the Employee Ownership Foundation, is the retired CEO and chair of Chatsworth Products Inc. and the former chair of the ESOP Association.
Loren Rodgers asks Joe about his perspective on boards of directors in ESOP companies. They also discuss how employee ownership affects companies in difficult economic times and the impact of employee ownership on corporate strategy. Joe explains why he believes that the ESOP is not compensation and should not be treated as such.
Bill Carris: "Finding Ways to Involve Employees More–and the Founder Less"
Bill Carris is the CEO of Carris Reels, a manufacturing company in Rutland, Vermont. Carris is frequently cited as one of the most innovative thinkers in wrestling with difficult issues about employee involvement in decision making.
Bill and Loren Rodgers discuss some of the tools Carris has used to capture employee input, including the reasons Bill believes that systematically gathering employee input is simply a good hard-nosed business practice. The conversation covers social responsibility, the role of the founder in "working himself out of a job," and how leaders can respond to people who say "that's not my job."
