I attended a program a few months ago by a professor sharing his latest research on virtual learning. He shared a fascinating application of technology for creating more enriched learning experiences for students. One comment he made really struck me. The project he had designed was for students to work in pairs to determine the flora and fauna of a region and howthey could be used for medicine. He showed them how to geomap the area and download information from the web to determine what would be useful for a hypothetical disease. He said the kids were so fascinated by the web and hand held device that they completely walked past the tree they were suppose to look at. Yes the kids were engaged in the task, but not looking up to see what was around them. They weren’t learning from the REAL reality all around them.
Here’s the interesting metaphor for us to ponder. How often do we get focused on the representation of things that we don’t stay open to the actual things that are presented to us. We spend time blogging, chatting, Facebooking about friends, work, romance, health, spirituality etc. How much time do we spend doing things that cultivate friends, health, relationships, spirituality? Have we focused so much on the technology that we don’t experience the REAL reality?
It got me to thinking of the difference between information vs. knowledge vs. wisdom. No doubt there’s a glut of information available at our finger tips. We no longer have to memorize a bunch of facts or instructions to do things, we simply look it up on the web. We have a vast library available to us of information, yet have we achieved knowledge about those topics? I asked the professor whether he thought the kids were learning how to gain information vs. knowledge from the exercise. He was a bit stumped. Knowledge comes from working with ideas, material, experiences etc. , getting your hands dirty so to speak, to have a deeper understanding of those ideas.
Now for wisdom. That is certainly not something that can be given to another. Wisdom is slow to develop and can require a high price tag since our greatest source of wisdom often comes from our mistakes or opportunities not well spent. Sharing wisdom is a way to connect with another more deeply. In the US we don’t have a culture or much tradition of learning wisdom from our elders, by listening intently to their stories, hearing their experiences, seeing the scars of their mistakes.
As much as the Millenial Generation may be the Digital Natives, and have information at their fingertips, they have a long way to go with gaining wisdom. My workplace has a potential for having 24% of employees retire in the next 3 years. That’s a lot of experience and knowledge walking out the door. I’m betting it’s also a lot of wisdom leaving too. What have you learned over the years of your work life about how to relate better to others at work? How to diffuse a tense confrontation? How to show your emotions effectively with your team mates?
I’ve been fortunate to have two really wonderful bosses over my career life. They’ve not only been mentors, but we had a sacred relationship. We were able to share more deeply who we were and be authentic with one another. We had a lot of trust and mutual respect and admiration. They were elders who shared their wisdom and experience and I eagerly listened to them. My work was enriched from those exchanges.
Think about how you gain or share your wisdom at work. How might this be a spiritual experience for you?
There are growing numbers of competency models and such that attempt to identify the key skills required or suited to the role of being a successful project manager.
As with many topics relating to project management, there is a great diversity of opinions as to the skills that are most valuable to the role.
My question is: what do you think are the top three skills of a project manager?
The principles of strategy are timeless. The following notes on the essentials of strategy are drawn from the great works of strategy… Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, Napoleon’s Maxims, Clausewitz’ On War. Though dating up to 2,500 years ago, the advice of these strategists is helpful today no matter your competitive landscape, from high tech to agriculture, from manufacturing to government.
1) An effective strategy is deeply understood and shared by the organization.
Genghis Khan’s Mongols defeated far larger armies because they were able to make adjustments on the battlefield despite ancient systems of communication that limited the way orders could be delivered to warriors already in action. The secret was instilling battle strategy in the hearts and minds of all soldiers so that they could make correct tactical decisions without direct supervision or intervention.
Like the mission statement published in your annual report or guiding principles framed in your lobby, a strategic plan itself accomplishes nothing. What matters is whether the people of your organization understand and internalize the strategic direction you have articulated and can make tactical choices on their own. Strategic plans must be articulated in a manner such that operational and tactical decision-making can follow suit.
As a strategist, you must count on the employees or members of your organization to make sound tactical and operational decisions that are aligned with your desired strategic direction. To ensure that these decisions are well made, your articulated strategic direction and strategic plans must be applicable and clearly related to the issues that people face.
Remember that an effective strategy provides a picture of the desired long term future. In order to make sound day to day decisions, all members of the organization must be able to begin with the end in mind. All steps must ultimately keep the company on course toward the long term objective.
2) An effective strategy allows flexibility so that the direction of the organization can be adapted to changing circumstances.
Watching the rise of Napoleon’s French empire in the first decade of the 19th century, the Prussian generals were anxious to do battle with Napoleon’s army because their soldiers were highly trained and disciplined in battle tactics that had succeeded for Frederick the Great fifty years before. It turned out, though, that the Prussian army was designed to fight “the last war” while Napoleon’s innovations, including soldiers carrying their own provisions instead of the supply train of impedimenta typical of the traditional European armies, allowed Napoleon’s troops to react and adapt to conditions far faster than could the Prussians. When the Battle of Jena–Auersted occurred in 1806, Napoleon’s army out-maneuvered their slow and plodding enemy and destroyed the Prussians in that pivotal confrontation.
A rigid strategic direction seldom turns out to have been the best course of action. To assure that your business is nimble and able to react to changes in the marketplace, it is essential that your strategy is flexible and adaptable. As a strategist, you will count on timely and accurate information about market conditions. It is essential to build and employ effective mechanisms for observing and listening to what is going on in the competitive environment. Real-time information, in turn must feed on-going strategic and operational shifts and deployments.
3) Effective strategy results from the varied input of a diverse group of thinkers.
Abraham Lincoln used the language of empathy and metaphor to communicate strategy to the Amercian people.
Moreover, participants in strategic decision-making must be unafraid to state contrary opinions. In Doris Kearns Goodwin’s excellent book Team of Rivals, she explains how instead of bringing in a cadre of leaders whose thinking closely matched his own, Lincoln made a point of surrounding himself with his political rivals, naming William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edwin M. Stanton, and Edward Bates – all of whom had opposed Lincoln in a bitterly fought presidential race – as members of his cabinet. Despite initial misgivings, this unlikely team learned that Lincoln valued their opinions, would consider and reflect on their disagreements and challenges, and would not stick unnecessarily to preconceived notions. Though the mix of personalities and opinions inevitably led to debate and verbal conflict, Lincoln was able to facilitate and mediate, tapping into a rich variety of ideas in order to find the optimal solution to political and military issues. Goodwin attributes this ability to manage disagreement and lead an effective decision-making process as perhaps Lincoln’s greatest strength as he led a troubled nation.
To ensure that your strategic team is ready to make effective decisions, look carefully in the mirror. Do you encourage debate, even argument, among your team about key decisions, or do you encourage toeing the company line? Remember that the well documented occurrences of groupthink – Kennedy’s ill-fated bay of Pigs invasion, NASA’s decision to launch the Challenger space shuttle, Bush’s reaction to presumed weapons of mass destruction in Iraq – occur not because of oppressive or stifling leaders. Rather, groupthink tends to occur when leadership groups enjoy collegial and fond relationships, leaving deliberants unwilling to rock the boat, or to voice contrary opinions.
4. An effective strategy follows a thorough and deep analysis of both the external environment and the internal capabilities of the organization.
This is the essence of the famous SWOT model (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats). The strategist must understand the effects and dynamics of external entities such as competitors, suppliers, regulators and strategic partners. A sound assessment of these external factors leads to a rich understanding of threats to ward off and opportunities to pursue. The strategist must also understand the internal capabilities of his or her organization. A realistic self assessment enables the organization to leverage the strengths of the organization and to shore up areas of weakness.
To take advantage of intelligence gained through a SWOT analysis, the strategist must ensure that intelligence does not sit idle, but is immediately mined for insight that can be used in strategic and operational decision-making. All historical stories of the great strategic achievements of history – from D-Day and the Normandy invasion to Napoleon’s greatest campaigns – include anecdotes of decision-makers poring over maps and data and striving to find the optimal course of direction and events.
5. An effective strategy identifies areas of Competitive Advantage
Writing in The Art of Wart of War some 2,500 years ago, Sun Tzu postulated two dialectic forces: Zheng is the “ordinary” element that fixes the enemy in place. Qi is the unexpected and devastating blow. Qi is indirect, unorthodox, extraordinary. Qi does not work, though, unless Zheng is able to hold the opponent in place until the decisive blow is struck.
To put this in the context of today’s competitive dynamics, understand that many aspects of business must be held at parity across a wide swipe of the competitive landscape. In business, this is called the “business essential” elements of organizational design. You don’t need to be world class at mundane business practices that are not your distinctive competence, but you must maintain standards of work equal to that of your competitors. That is, the organization must maintain parity with competitors in the ordinary and mundane matters.
But at the same time, every successful organization is able to explicate an audacious Qi or extraordinary force. You must be world calls at something that differentiates you from the competition. Moreover, all members of the organization must keep the uniqueness of their company in the forefront, always keeping competitive advantages unharnessed in order to compete in a vigorous manner. In short, every strategic plan must educate the full organizational team how it must use carefully identified competitive advantages in order to compete and win.
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Mark Rhodes is a highly experienced organizational strategy and design consultant with Strategy By Design. You can reach him via email at markrho@mindspring.com.
When Boards have recurring problems, such as poor attendance, low participation, high turnover of members or increasing conflicts, here’s a quick process that I’ve used successfully to “jump start” recovery.
Sure, the steps aren’t all of those needed for complete Board development — those steps would produce a blog post about 25 pages long. But the steps often are enough to get things going.
1. Propose a very brief Board evaluation as a “best practice.”
Don’t suggest it to “fix” a broken Board. Instead, suggest it as a “best practice” — members rarely refuse to do a best practice. Use a straightforward questionnaire that asks about occurrence of various “best practices.” The tool should not require more than 20-30 minutes for each Board member to do, because they’re all very busy people. Here’s some Board evaluation tools: https://staging.management.org/boards/boards.htm#anchor580514
2. Ask a couple of Board members to be an ad hoc “Board Governance Committee.”
The Committee compiles results of the evaluation and shows them to Board members in the next meeting. Don’t do a lot of analysis and interpretation of results. Just compile the results onto a couple of sheets of paper.
3. In the next meeting, show the results, then ask “What do we want to do?”
Be quiet and listen as Board members discuss what they themselves wrote on the evaluation — it’s their words that are being fed back to them, not the Committee members’. Ask “What if we do nothing? What do we want to do?” Usually, members want to do something, but they’re just not sure what to do.
4. So then suggest that they approve a simple “Board Development Plan.”
The Plan lists goals for improving the Board. The goals simply are the questions from the evaluation tool that now are reworded into goals. Don’t worry about whether there’s too many goals in the Plan. The real purpose is to get members energized and focused to improve their board.
5. On each meeting agenda, have “Status of implementing Board Development Plan.”
In each meeting, members are at least reminded that they could improve Board operations. That usually makes them mindful of improving the Board, or at least trying harder to do a better job as Board members. From there, members might get help if needed, but they’ll certainly have more focus and a much stronger vision for health of their Board.
The above steps might not be all that’s needed, but they’re often useful in doing just what this blog post mentions — jump starting activities to fix the Board for the long term.
Some Cautions — What Often Doesn’t Work
1. Don’t get caught up in analyzing Board members’ personalities.
When Boards struggle, members often start blaming each other. Don’t get caught up in analyzing the titillating psychodynamics of the interpersonal relationships of the Board members. Instead, move them away from focusing on personalities to focusing on plans and practices. The above procedure helps to do that. Often the most irritating Board members become the best ones when they see the Board is making progress.
2. Don’t do a one-shot Board training session.
Members rarely struggle because they’ve simply forgotten their roles and responsibilities. They need more than new knowledge from a training session — they need skills from practicing that new knowledge. So instead of a one-shot training session, they need Board development. Board development often includes a variety of “interventions,” for example, an initial Board evaluation, a resulting Board development plan, adopting various Board policies, coaching of Board officers over several months and even a post-evaluation.
3. Don’t just preach at, or continue to confront members — and don’t just try get them excited about their jobs.
Those tactics might work for a short while, but it’s very likely that motivation will quickly go away when members are back in meetings, faced with the realities of their ongoing roles and responsibilities. Board members rarely have chronic struggles because members just don’t feel good about each other, or because they’ve somehow completely forgotten the importance of their jobs. Instead, they struggle because they’ve gotten away from the basic structures, roles and practices that provide the framework and foundation within which they do their jobs.
Sometimes the best things in life are free. So if your preference is to find out what’s available on the web before investing in a business planning book (see previous blog entry for a list of books), here’s a quick list of ten “best” business planning web sites.
My next blog will indicate where you can find sample business plans.
Ten Painless Steps to Starting and Finishing Your Business Plan. Some good tips on how to go about researching and writing your plan.
Creating Your Business Plan, which also does a good job of outlining how to frame and get to work on your plan.
What Is A Business Plan?, from Palo Alto Software, the maker of the top-selling Business Plan Pro software discussed in a earlier blog. They also have a section called How To Write A Business Plan worth checking out as well.
There’s a wealth of information in these websites, some of it contradictory, which is part of the nature of relying on free business planning advice. So if you’re serious about creating a business plan, you’ll probably want to buy a book and possibly some software as well, but these sites should help you get started. Good luck!
The first major summer holiday, Memorial Day, has come and gone. Only two more such long weekends will be here and vanished before you know it. Long Live Summer!
In deference to the nice weather in most parts of the country today (okay, threats are out there but so are comfy highs) — and to give my dear readers a break from my incessant PR expertise, informed rantings and sidetracked observations — this media savant would like to share another voice about “How to Manage Your Own PR: Ten tips for running a successful public-relations campaign.” I found these to be ideal for start-up or small companies that cannot at this early stage shell out for professional services yet.
Direct from the recent pages of Inc. magazine, these 10 pointers you are sure to find helpful (granted I have touched on some of them already but it’s nice for you to know, based on these tips from a big deal business source, that I am not a professional PR gasbag with absolutely no grasp of the basics).
In the future, meaning before fall is in the air, It would be great to address any questions you have about public or media relations, so feel free to email me at mkeller@mediasavantcom.com, or leave a Comment at the bottom of this blog and I’ll try to answer your questions in a future posting, when the grill (or is it another weekend kids’ soccer tournament?) is not calling under a blue sky with light winds, low humidity and few mosquitoes.
Outstanding customer service strategies is making your customers feel like you understand their needs and their issues. There is another way of letting your customers reach out to you that is faster and more structured than an email exchange and more productive than a phone call.
Online Chat is a nice way to personalize your online exchange and enhance the timeliness of your communications. Bang, bang, bang and I can have my question(s) answered and proceed with my order. That is how fast a live chat session can work.
The cost can be approximately $99 per month per concurrent user. But, the benefits may outweigh the costs for your business. Productivity is one of those benefits. For example a user can typically handle up to 3 chat sessions at a time which is much better than the 1:1 ratio of phone calls.
3 Key Criteria to consider for servicing customers with live chat:
1. Are your users or clients on your website? Your chat sessions would have to originate from your website for this solution to make sense.
2. What kind of inquiries you are receiving now? If the inquiries are quick how-to, when and where type questions you can probably benefit from an online chat service. If the inquiries are detailed how-to, trouble-shooting questions online chat will still work for you but up to 3 sessions at once may be a stretch.
3. Having an ‘operator’ available during ‘regular’ business hours is a base requirement to getting the most out of your online chat service. This option is not ideal for a one-person office with other responsibilities away from the computer.
The little secret and value behind these online chat services is that you can build a knowledge base of ‘prepared’ responses for the user to drop into the chat sessions.
3 Benefits:
1. The true speed of responsiveness
2. Diminished need to type and re-type the same answers
3. With prepared responses you can ensure consistent communication from your company to your customers.
Free online chat services with Yahoo, Gmail and AOL are wildly popular in business settings, especially technology companies. Why? Because, they enable quick and concise communications that allow the users to continue making progress with the task at hand. Yes, chat sessions really do enhance productivity.
Isn’t that what you want your customers, clients, and shoppers to do? Live chat. Is it for you?
Are you the type of person that will not act until you have “all your ducks in a row”?
Successful people are the ones that move forward with their ideas, goals and endeavors even when they don’t have everything figured out. They focus on what they want – and take action.
Here are 5 tips to Bust Paralysis by Analysis that help my coaching clients:
1. Forgo perfection – strive to be your “best” rather that striving to be “perfect”. No one can be perfect. Expending your time and effort on perfection gets you bogged down.
2. Adopt the winning strategy of “Go-Ready-Set” versus “Ready-Set-Go”. Create momentum by getting started and take the first step. Once you begin, you can tweak your course along the way towards a successful outcome. As in physics, a body in motion stays in motion.
3. Set a deadline – realistically allocate how much time you will spend on a project or situation. When you are intentional about how much time you will spend you will find you can usually get it finished in the projected timeframe.
4. Get an accountability buddy – enlist the support of others (and your coach) to keep on task. When you are accountable to someone else, you are less likely to get mired down.
5. Make decisions faster – by making faster, wiser decisions you can take action quickly. Practice your decision making skills with simple everyday decisions – i.e. give yourself only 1 minute to decide what to order at a restaurant.
As Nike says – “Just Do It!”
How will you bust your Paralysis by Analysis today?
Pam Solberg-Tapper MHSA, PCC – I spark high achieving business leaders to get on fire about their lives, develop their leading edge, be extraordinary and do great things for the world. How can I help you? Contact me at CoachPam@cpinternet.com ~ Linkedin ~ 218-340-3330
Big brands, small brands, EVERY brand that is building a community of targeted traffic on a social media platform is also building intrinsic value for their company. Hooray! Their efforts actually equate to marketing power and real dollars.
Why? Because this community is comprised of potential customers, and reaching them has an equivalent offline media price.
Social Media Marketing Traffic Equals Value
Attracting eyeballs has historically cost advertisers hard-earned dollars in the traditional media world.
Now, these same advertisers capture the attention of their target market through social media platforms. I would go so far as to argue that social media platforms, if used wisely and strategically, can be more valuable than traditional media vehicles.
Social Media Marketing Traffic is Niche-Specific
Social media traffic can be highly niche-targeted, and those potential customers are usually eager to be heard, and want to engage in meaningful discussion. When a two-way interaction is initiated, the company begins to develop a very real relationship.
The Value of a Social Media Fan
For example, Facebook Fans (now “Likes”), have committed to the relationship by associating their own profile with that of another profile, often a business. Those commitments have now been valued. According to an AdWeek article by Brian Morrissey, quoting social media specialist Vitrue, the social media value of each fan (I use the term loosely, since Facebook converted to “Likes”) is $3.60.
Starbuck’s Social Media Value on Facebook
Vitrue arrived at its $3.6 million figure by working off a $5 CPM, meaning a brand’s 1 million fans generate about $300,000 in media value each month. Using Vitrue’s calculation, Starbucks’ 6.5 million fan base — acquired in part with several big ad buys — is worth $23.4 million in media annually.
ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman: With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com
Grants represent the most effort for the least predictable return.
The question, therefore, is to first determine what resources will be needed before an organization contemplates launching a grants program!!
Researching grant sources, planning projects, preparing proposals and budgets and managing funded programs all require a lot someone’s time/labor – all of those comprise the “opportunity costs.” What, then, will the nonprofit organization have to give up to work on preparing grant proposals?
As Hank suggested in his June 1 posting, cultivating major donors is (should be) a high priority for most organizations. Most fundraisers can judge how likely it is that their efforts will result in a gift, and they move ahead in their pursuit of potential donors based on that judgment.
Annual fund experience generally is predictable, and the organization can assess the return on its investment. Similarly, special events (especially those created by Natalie) yield results that can be consistent from year to year.
On an annual basis, only about 5% – 10% of grant applications are funded. That’s not very impressive, and a good reason why organizations need to assess the benefits they will realize from pursuing grants.
But, before they do that, they should have predictable, consistent sources of hard money income. That is, those sources of funds they can rely on from year to year.
If they are at a stage in their development where they honestly can say they can rely on their normal income sources and, if they can envision special initiatives that are beyond the scope of their operating revenues, they can consider if a grant program is warranted.
If it is, they need to devote resources to funder identification, proposal writing and grants management. Such infrastructure is necessary for the pursuit of grants. If these resources incur unacceptably high opportunity costs, the organization is not ready to engage in a grants program. Their efforts are better directed to more productive sources of funding.
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Have a question about starting or expanding your grants program? Email me at Andrew@GrantServices.com..
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