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Developing People in Internet Time
How CNET Attracts and Retains Top Talent
by Alan Meeker
CNET is the red-hot e-corporation at the leading edge of media companies. Standing between buyers and sellers, CNET produces Internet network and television programming for both targeted and general audiences. Online and on television, CNET is the leading authority on computers, the Internet, and digital technologies.
In this astonishingly dynamic, volatile, rapid-growth environment, change occurs every hour (think Internet time). In the Internet marketplace, survivors must do many things well—including developing and retaining their people, and maintaining alignment between company and individual goals.
Few companies understand this as well as CNET. The company is a Wall Street star and is growing at a blistering pace; only seven years old, CNET already has a staff of 535. Vice President of Human Resources Heather McGaughey recalls when the start-up organization realized they needed to move to the next stage. “We wanted to focus on and develop our most important assets—our people—but we didn’t want to lose our entrepreneurial flair, because that’s what really makes us successful.”
CNET also wanted to give its people a common language and approach for managing performance, improve cross-functional teamwork, and develop people as managers and coaches. Basic management training was especially important. “Our fast pace can result in quick promotion, and people often move up without the management experience they need to really succeed,” McGaughey explains.
Above all, training had to fit CNET’s warp-speed culture. “Internet time is faster than any time you can imagine,” says McGaughey. “We chose Advantage because they understood our business issues and could help us work more effectively and efficiently—not impede our speed.”
Keeping Fast-Paced Learners Engaged
CNET employees are young, intelligent, passionate about their work, eager for development—and naturally skeptical. “These are the new knowledge workers. They readily push back if they don’t like what they see,” says Advantage partner and Performance Management Practice Head Alan Meeker. “Traditional training doesn’t begin to engage this kind of person, but experiential learning does. I knew that the Real Learning Company’s Performance Mastery Suite (Symphony, Conductor, and Performer) would be a great fit.”
Real Learning Company President Dick Hodge is the mind behind the Performance Mastery Suite. He and Meeker surveyed CNET employees to identify a baseline of attitudes, obstacles, and opportunities. Then they focused the training to match.
A Metaphor is Worth 1,000 Pictures
Take note of the Performance Mastery Suite’s musical metaphor: these rich experiential simulations are all about orchestration. Symphony provides a replicable, organization-wide process and common language for managing performance gaps. “It applies a ‘systems thinking’ approach to performance management,” says Meeker. During Symphony, CNET participants learned how to resolve individual and team performance challenges. They also created departmental and cross-functional business plans to learn how to align individual, department, and company goals.
Conductor develops managers’ coaching skills, and Performer helps individuals make a better connection with their managers and take responsibility for their own development. All CNET managers have been through Symphony and Conductor. Since managers are also performers, everyone is participating in the Performer simulation.
“People have really appreciated and benefited from the training,” says McGaughey. “They say that now they have something they can use as a common language and process, powerful tools they can use every day.”
That is no small feat in today’s e-corporate environment. Meeker explains, “The issues for organizations like CNET are: In a dynamic environment, how do you compress the time in order to manage through change; keep your teams aligned with constantly changing corporate strategies, tactics, and goals; and keep your people engaged? That’s what the Performance Mastery Suite is all about.”
At Internet speed. Stay tuned.
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 Symphony helps organizations orchestrate and align the goals of teams and individuals.
Conductor builds a culture of “world-class” coaching.
Performer builds employees’ self-awareness and helps them work with managers to bring out their best performance.
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