Year: 2010

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Manage Your Career Competitive Edge

Man in suit holding up a finger

Manage your comeptitive edgeCareer success does not happen just because one does good work. That is expected.

To get ahead and stay ahead, you must excel. Here are three strategies to manage your competitive edge.

1. Become a Career Entrepreneur

The business of career management is that—an independent business that you manage—even if you work for someone else. In this changing world of downsizing, restructuring, buyouts and mergers, you – not the company – must be in the driver’s seat of your career.

The key question is not where do I now stand on the organization ladder? Who knows if there will even be a ladder tomorrow? But rather: What do I know how to do? How well do I do it? Where else can I do it? Who is willing and able to pay me for it?

Look at your workplace as a marketplace of buyers and sellers. You are the seller-providing skills, experience and knowledge – to people who need what you have to offer. For example, if you’re an accountant then what is it that you offer that a buyer will pay for? In other words, what do you bring to the employment table?

2. Have Skills, Will Travel

You carry with you, wherever you go, a large portfolio or suitcase that holds all of your skills and accomplishments. What’s in your portfolio? Is it heavy with many skills or light with only a few? Do you know if it would be valued in lots of different places or just a limited number?

To be competitive, you must periodically audit your portfolio. How do you compare with your peers in terms of education, experience, training, career progression? Are you new and improved? Or, are you just the same person you were three, five, ten years ago? Do you have the right mix of skills, knowledge and experiences to position yourself for the future? Or, do you need to repackage yourself in some way? Getting ahead tomorrow means getting better today and throughout your work life.

3. Play the Career Game

What will keep you in the race as the rules of the workplace road continue to change? Initiative, adaptability and visibility are the foundation for career success. First, exercise leadership. You can’t afford to crouch behind your desk, buried in your everyday work and hope for the best. Go beyond your job description and direct your energy to the top priorities of your boss, your department, your team. Make yourself indispensable.

Next stand up and be seen. Promote yourself, not by your title, but by the outcomes or results of what you’re doing. You can start making a name for yourself by being involved in successful assignments that allow you to be visible to a wide range of people who could have an impact on your career. Your reputation can either pave the way or get in the way of your success.

Career Success Tip

If you don’t manage your competitive edge, your competitors will edge you out. So what are you doing to get ahead and stay ahead of the crowd? How well do you play the career game? Do you need to play it better?

Do you want to develop Career Smarts?

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Take Advantage of Crises to Grow and Learn

Crisis on a White Paper On A Vintage Typewriter

Crisis management continues after the problems are over

It seems counter-intuitive to some, but crises can present amazing opportunities to grow and learn. In a post on his Harvard Business Review blog, expert business consultant Ron Ashkenas explains the shift that occurs during crises, and gives some excellent advice on how to stretch it as far as possible:

People jump to respond to floods and snowstorms, urgent customer problems, financial challenges, or competitive moves. Levels of collaboration and creativity rise; a sense of urgency pervades the workplace; and everyone pitches in to resolve the problem or achieve the goal. But when the crisis passes, things revert to normal. The crisis becomes a part of the company’s folklore rather than a step towards lasting performance.

…You can capture the spirit and energy of a crisis and use it not only to achieve the immediate goal, but also to build new patterns of achievement over time. If you and your team have recently experienced a surge of performance due to a crisis, special deadline, or extraordinary challenge, consider taking the following steps:

1) Organize a post-crisis learning clinic. Include the key people w ho were involved — from your team, other parts of your organization, and even outside parties. Take stock of what you learned: What was done differently? What new patterns or innovations were sparked by the crisis? And most importantly, what new ways of working — individually or collectively — should be continued?

2) Identify a critical initiative that you want to accelerate. Carve out a stretch goal that will demonstrate progress in 100 days or less — and then consciously apply one or more of the new patterns to it. Use the next 100 days as a real-time experiment to build the new innovations into your team’s muscle memory, while also generating additional learning from the 100-day challenge.

Every time you face a challenge it is an opportunity to improve, but the vast majority of organizations are sorely lacking in this type of thinking. By taking the steps that Ashkenas recommends, you can take advantage of of the energy and creativity that is born during a crisis to strengthen yourself against the next.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. , an international crisis management consultancy, and author of Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training.]

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If I Am An Actor, Why Am I Here?

Two-male-actors-on-a-stage

“I y’am what I y’am, what I y’am.”

Now, I am an actor, a speaker, and a trainer–as well as a writer. When I act, I act. When I speak, I speak. When I train, that’s different, too. As I said earlier in my previous blog, acting is more than “being someone else” or “a scripted performance.” Keep in mind that there is a huge difference between those actors on film and those on stage–so don’t give me the unprepared actors’ speeches at the Academy awards routine.

Here’s something to think about: I use acting coaching methods to help speakers and trainers to better know how to interact with their audience.

While some people believe actors need a script to act, the best do not. There is a lot more to acting than some people think. Some actors can make it look so natural. Actors do interact with their audience (not always directly) and they damn well better be aware how they are affecting them.

Actors need to be sincere and real in their delivery as well; if they are not, believe me, they will get told by me as a performance critic that they are not doing their jobs. So it goes for anyone who is communicating with an audience. Trainers and public speakers come to mind.

There were some great comments and, unfortunately, some not so well-informed ones made in response to the LinkedIn question on actors and speaker differences that prompted the blog above. The very fact I come from an acting background and used “Acting Smarts” as the title of my company and blog may have made some “business professionals” think I teach only acting.

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Jack Shaw and Joy Blatherwick in PLAY ON! at Haddonfield Plays and Players. Photo by David Gold

I teach communication. I don’t make a speaker become someone else to deliver a message; I help that person use who they are–the best of who they are–to present his or her message. The ability to act only makes me more comfortable at connecting with my audience in a personal way.

We, actors, often reach deep inside and willing to share those truths. But the same can be said of many people and many professions, yes? It just happens to work for me and entertain as well.

We all need a reality check once in a while (trainers, too) and I’ve kind of made that my job in a few areas. I call it Shaw’s Reality. Check out my best-seller based on posts here, The Cave Man Guide to Training and Development, and my futuristic novel, In Makr’s Shadow, talks of a time when people no longer may communicate freely and socializing without being vetted and matched is a capital offense.)

By the way, my background includes a masters in social psychology as well as an interdisciplinary dual masters in English and Speech/Drama with an emphasis in performance criticism. As for practical application, I have 30+ years in government and the military (my “day” job) as a spokesperson, trainer and writer, and continued to freelance as an actor whenever possible.

Actors are not only actors, speakers not only speakers, and trainers not only trainers, but a polygamous marriage and more; each are communicators in his or her own rights, and the best of us do whatever it takes and learn whatever we can to get the job done.

This makes me think of a great follow-up: What makes a great trainer? What is the difference between a public speaker and a trainer? A speech or training session? Next time. I invite your comments and questions. And, if you are looking for someone to communicate to an audience any of these things, please let me know. Happy training.

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For more resources about training, see the Training library.

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Trainer, Speaker or Actor? Why Not Acting in Business? In Training?

A-group-of-people-listeninng-toa-trainer-address-them.

This all began as a comment to my LinkedIn colleagues of actors, trainers, speakers and assorted other related professionals. Someone had asked the question: In your opinion what is the difference between an actor and a speaker? It actually stirred up quite the controversy. Actors, speakers and trainers come from many different backgrounds as you will learn over the course of–not just this early blog–but others to come.

At first I was offended because many of the comments addressing the acting question showed a real lack of knowledge of acting, and in general, communicating. And, some of these people actually get paid to speak or train.

js-beard
Yes, that’s me from another time.

Any professional actor with training will tell you this: acting is not just about pretending to be someone else. It is reacting. Acting is not just a scripted performance, but an interactive experience with the audience–the same we hope for in training or public speaking.

Speaking from a script only sounds easy, but it’s not. Try reading aloud for an extended period of time. Now, put on the pressure of people you don’t know–mostly eyes watching you read.

For an actor, who sight reads really well it may not be that much of a jump; actors are used to words coming out of their mouths and having an impact on an audience. Reading a script is how an actor auditions for a role, especially for commercials. Then, remember how complicated good communication really is–with eye contact, movement, gestures and subtle interactions with the audience.

As trainers and professional communicators (that includes actors), we know better than to memorize scripts when speaking, except for a part of them. See my blog on memorizing. As an actor who speaks, I can tell you doing a speech or training session without a script is the best way to go.

If you memorize a script, don’t forget to memorize a characterization of another person as well as the stage movement motivated by the lines of your character. It is, of course, more work to do a scripted speech or training session, naturally, without sounding mechanical. To do that requires more than conversation, more than knowledge of a topic. It requires audience analysis, and you have to make the script yours otherwise it will sound artificial.

It may seem like I’m going off topic, but it seems the combination of acting and public speaking principles actually make for a pretty good trainer. Actors are not only actors, and speakers not only speakers; I’d bet the best of both professions, are not singular in their thinking about what works and learn from all areas that gets the job done. Granted, not all that an actor knows or should know to be a good actor is applicable in all circumstances; the same can be said of a good trainer or a good speaker.

I may have mixed up my education, but each of those parts help with the whole. The English and theater departments appreciated that I could bring a psychological perspective to literature, drama, and performance. The psychology department loved that I could communicate behavior.

And, to that, I say to all of you: Bring all your knowledge and skills to bear on your performance–be it as a trainer or speaker or actor. It’s all good. All of my blogs, including my blogs on training and development are on my website. Don’t be surprised to find some on acting and directing and theatrical reviews as well. Check it out.

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For more resources about training, see the Training library.

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Coaching Tip – Get an Accountability Partner

Business partners planning in an office

When I talk with people they state they are disappointed that sometimes they do not accomplish their goals – a promotion, start a business, run a marathon, go back to school, or whatever they set their sights on. They have great intentions and mean well, but they fall short on execution. What they set out to do doesn’t happen.

Accountability is one of the reasons why coaching works – clients have a partner to help them stay committed and take action on what is important to them. My clients tell me that our coaching check-ins help them keep their momentum.

Here’s a tip – if you do not work with a coach, I suggest getting an Accountability Partner – someone who will help keep you focused and in action. Another option is to form small groups of trusted colleagues that meet on a regular basis – Accountability Groups. You will find that you will be more successful in accomplishing what you set out to do when you stay accountable to someone.

Who will be your Accountability Partner?

For more resources, see the Library topic Personal and Professional Coaching.

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Pam Solberg-Tapper MHSA, PCC – I spark entrepreneurial business leaders to set strategy, take action, and get results. How can I help you? Contact me at CoachPam@cpinternet.com ~ Linkedin ~ 218-340-3330

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8 Guidelines for Managing Ethics in the Workplace

A businesswoman going through a file on her table

The following guidelines ensure the ethics management program is operated in a meaningful fashion:

1. Recognize that managing ethics is a process.

Ethics is a matter of values and associated behaviors. Values are discerned through the process of ongoing reflection. Therefore, ethics programs may seem more process-oriented than most management practices. Managers tend to be skeptical of process-oriented activities, and instead prefer processes focused on deliverables with measurements. However, experienced managers realize that the deliverables of standard management practices (planning, organizing, motivating, controlling) are only tangible representations of very process-oriented practices. For example, the process of strategic planning is much more important than the plan produced by the process. The same is true for ethics management. Ethics programs do produce deliverables, e.g., codes, policies and procedures, budget items, meeting minutes, authorization forms, newsletters, etc. However, the most important aspect from an ethics management program is the process of reflection and dialogue that produces these deliverables.

2. The bottom line of an ethics program is accomplishing preferred behaviors in the workplace.

As with any management practice, the most important outcome is behaviors preferred by the organization. The best of ethical values and intentions are relatively meaningless unless they generate fair and just behaviors in the workplace. That’s why practices that generate lists of ethical values, or codes of ethics, must also generate policies, procedures and training that translate those values to appropriate behaviors.

3. The best way to handle ethical dilemmas is to avoid their occurrence in the first place.

That’s why practices such as developing codes of ethics and codes of conduct are so important. Their development sensitizes employees to ethical considerations and minimize the chances of unethical behavior occurring in the first place.

4. Make ethics decisions in groups, and make decisions public, as appropriate.

This usually produces better quality decisions by including diverse interests and perspectives, and increases the credibility of the decision process and outcome by reducing suspicion of unfair bias.

5. Integrate ethics management with other management practices.

When developing the values statement during strategic planning, include ethical values preferred in the workplace. When developing personnel policies, reflect on what ethical values you’d like to be most prominent in the organization’s culture and then design policies to produce these behaviors.

6. Use cross-functional teams when developing and implementing the ethics management program.

It’s vital that the organization’s employees feel a sense of participation and ownership in the program if they are to adhere to its ethical values. Therefore, include employees in developing and operating the program.

7. Value forgiveness.

This may sound rather religious or preachy to some, but it’s probably the most important component of any management practice. An ethics management program may at first actually increase the number of ethical issues to be dealt with because people are more sensitive to their occurrence. Consequently, there may be more occasions to address people’s unethical behavior. The most important ingredient for remaining ethical is trying to be ethical. Therefore, help people recognize and address their mistakes and then support them to continue to try operate ethically.

8. Note that trying to operate ethically and making a few mistakes is better than not trying at all.

Some organizations have become widely known as operating in a highly ethical manner, e.g., Ben and Jerrys, Johnson and Johnson, Aveda, Hewlett Packard, etc. Unfortunately, it seems that when an organization achieves this strong public image, it’s placed on a pedestal by some business ethics writers. All organizations are comprised of people and people are not perfect. However, when a mistake is made by any of these organizations, the organization has a long way to fall. In our increasingly critical society, these organizations are accused of being hypocritical and they are soon pilloried by social critics. Consequently, some leaders may fear sticking their necks out publicly to announce an ethics management program. This is extremely unfortunate. It’s the trying that counts and brings peace of mind — not achieving an heroic status in society.

What do you think?

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Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD – Authenticity Consulting, LLC – 763-971-8890
Read my weekly blogs: Boards, Consulting and OD, Nonprofits and Strategic Planning.

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10 Top Tips For Implementing Quality Improvement Projects

Smiling woman explaining project to colleague

1.New Programs and Initiatives
The Quality Improvement Projects program (Lean, Kaizen, Six Sigma, Continuous Improvement, TPM etc) must not impose a completely new initiative on your business. Where possible use existing tools, terms and systems, especially where these are associated with good business results. It may be necessary to adapt the new program as necessary. If people feel the program is a process they are already familiar with, it avoids the “here we go with yet another extra-hot chilli flavour of the month” mentality.

2.A Solid Framework
A good “improvement mindset” or framework for a sustainable system must already exist within the business, where as many people as possible understand and are committed to continuing the process. As a minimum, the new system should encourage more idea generation, collection and selection, team formation and formal approaches to problem solving, recognition and communication and lastly tracking. Try to gain commitment from everyone in the business about the basic framework right at the start and ensure there is a common and agreed understanding about the big picture of how the Quality Management initiative will be applied.

3.Give Credit
In most businesses, Quality Improvement initiatives are not really brand new out of the box thinking, as many people have already been exposed to and worked on Quality Improvement concepts for a long time, and with some successes. It’ s important to acknowledge past achievements and recognise the champions who made it happen by assigning them significant roles for the new wave. If however, the approach has been fire fighting, you may want to build a different team and approach the initiative more proactively. If past projects were not successful then it’s important to show how the new initiative differs from the previous and why it stands a better chance for success.

4. Encourage Ideas
Ideas should come from anyone and no ideas should be turned away. Make everyone aware of the criteria for setting priorities and what the targets are for the Quality Improvement initiative. Assign responsibilities or sponsors who should stimulate the generation of ideas in their areas of influence. There should always be a surplus of ideas waiting for implementation. Any ideas that are rejected or put on hold should be fed back to the originator, explaining the rationale for the decision.

5.Individual or Pilot Project selection
Depending on your approach, it may be necessary to start off the program on a small scale or as a “Pilot”. If this is the case, the criteria for selecting the first projects should be based on a project whose results directly benefit and impact many people in the business, and where such results are visible within a couple of months. It’s worth selecting a purpose made “A Team” to spearhead the Pilot. This “Hit Squad” should comprise people who are ready to talk about what is going on to all their colleagues and people who want to see improvement happen.

6.Involve and Work through people
Avoid being prescriptive with each step of your approach, rather opting to use a facilitated approach to get support and buy in from the teams involved. Always be open to a team using a different approach though still aligned to the overall objectives. Forcing things down people’s throats doesn’t really work well. Good facilitation should allow for a team to reach a pre-conceived conclusion on their own accord. On the same vein, allow the teams to decide what tasks and actions are to be done and offer to help rather than allocate tasks directly to the different people.

7. Keep Everyone Informed of Progress and Results.
The success of a good Quality Improvement program depends on good feedback and communication surrounding progress. Reports on Progress can take many forms, as long as relevant and timely information is communicated. It’s also important to publicly celebrate any success coming out of the program. Lastly, where new records have been set and old Improvement Targets “smashed”, set new targets and make them known.

8. What Gets Measured Gets Managed.

Put in place a good monitoring system to track the number of ideas generated over time, the level participation of people at any one time and cumulatively during the process, the rate of implementation and the Return on Investment or benefits. Tracking and showing a direct correlation between efforts and benefits is the best way to sustain a Quality Program. Use agreed targets and KPI’s as your “dipstick” check. I recently posted an article on Why Your Business Should Care about KPI’s on my blog that you can refer to for more details on KPI’s.

9. Stakeholder Sponsorship
When it comes to supporting and sponsoring Quality Programs, Time Investment is worth more than its weight in gold in my opinion, especially if this “time” is offered by Top Management. A visibly committed top management always sends the right message throughout the organisation and demonstrates “walking the talk”. Sometimes it takes no more effort than attending and supporting a Project team session, meeting or gathering on a regular basis. A senior manager being seen with sleeves rolled up on the Gemba or shopfloor, frontline office is the best form of propaganda.

10. Fun & Relevant

A good way to keep your Quality Programs alive and a bit of a missed opportunity really, is the ability to tap into the use of modern technology and in particular the internet, Web 2.0 tools and smart phone applications. More and more people continue to use social networking platforms and smart phone applications as an extension and expression of who they are. There are huge benefits in using elements of these tools to support your initiative whilst keeping it relevant, fun and up to date. For example use Twitter to gather intelligence about what people are saying about your product or service quality, create Facebook pages for internal use, use YouTube to share and socialise results and of course use the hundreds of Free Productivity Improvement Applications available with most smart phone systems. What ever you do, have fun with your program.

How do you create a Buzz with your Quality Management Initiatives ?

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For more resources, see our Library topic Quality Management.
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How to Interview a Social Media Marketing Firm

Women sitting on a table conducting an interview

Start With Your Company’s Goals

In the last post, we discussed the importance of defining and articulating your company’s offline marketing goals and your social media marketing goals. Together, they serve as the target by which you measure success.

If a social media marketing firm doesn’t first seek to understand certain core fundamentals about your business and competitive environment, they are likely not a good fit for you. You’re looking for a firm that understands savvy, successful business as well as social media technicalities and online campaign execution. That’s a tall order. So it’s important to take time, interview several firms, and find the right fit for you. If you don’t put in this effort upfront, you may waste a lot of time, energy and money.

Example Interview Questions

Keep in mind that YOU are the hiring authority. Even though you may not know a lot about how social media campaigns are run, it is still the social media marketing firm that must pass YOUR scrutiny. So drill the questions at them and hold their feet to the fire.

Gather your management team together for each interview session. Many ears with different areas of expertise will hear the firm’s answers in different ways. Ask these questions:

  • How will you incorporate our company goals into online strategies and social media campaigns?
  • Do you have actual client campaign examples that got measurable results from your social media campaigns?
  • How did you measure results in those campaigns?
  • How did you determine success?
  • Have you had experiences in which clients did NOT achieve their goals, or were unhappy with their social media campaigns? Why? What would you do differently?
  • Do you establish baseline metrics to measure progress? Give me an example from a client campaign.
  • What has been your biggest client challenge or problem, and how did you solve it?
  • What methods have you used: To identify a niche audience and grow it? To engage that audience? To convert them into customers?
  • How will you go about determining the right social media campaign to reach OUR goals?
  • How do you price your services?
  • What if we’re not satisfied?

I highly recommend interviewing THREE firms. Ask all these questions verbatim. With your management team at each interview, have each person write down all the answers. After all the interviews are over, have your team pow wow to compare notes and discuss preferences. A clear winner will probably emerge during your discussion.

After all this, you will have gone up a very steep learning curve in a relatively short time period. It’s well worth the investment, because social media will continue to grow in importance for all companies around the globe.

What other aspects of a social media marketing firm interview have you found helpful?

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

.. _____ ..

ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman:

Ms. Chapman’s new book, How to Make Money Online With Social Media: A Step-by-Step Guide for Entrepreneurs will be available very soon. 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

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Leading Change

Change-word on a-wooden-background

Leadership Competencies and Change

The growing need for change leadership in organizations is widely acknowledged as some estimates are as high as 70% of all large scale change initiatives fail to meet the objectives delineated at the beginning of the process. The research and literature on change indicates that a primary reason for the success or failure of a change initiative hinges on the skills and knowledge of the individuals responsible for leading the change. In light of this, one obvious question arises: What leadership behaviors or competencies are most strongly associated with effectively leading or overseeing change initiatives?

In my opinion there are six competency areas that enhance the capacity of a leader to coordinate and drive organizational change: Systems Thinking, Strategic Savvy, Organizational Agility, Capacity Building, Creative Communication, and Courage. I am going to introduce the first three in this blog entry and will follow up with an overview of the other three next week. It is important to note that these competencies are intended to correspond most directly with individuals that are in a mid-level leader role, within medium to large organizations, and with responsibility for overseeing or leading the actual change initiative.

Systems Thinking

This is an advance understanding of how an organization is in fact an interrelated set of relationships, processes, strategies, and cultural influences. It is the ability to see the broader context of the organization and sensitivity to how the different elements are apt to influence and interact with each other when a significant change is introduced into the system. And while it is impossible for anyone to predict exactly all the ripple effects of change in a system – the leader with the capacity for thinking systemically will accurately anticipate enough of the ripples to make a significant difference.

Strategic Savvy

This is basically an advanced knowledge of the factors that are most critical to the success of an organizational change initiative. And it isn’t just the knowledge of these factors — it is the ability to use them in support of the change process. In essence, it is the understanding and wherewithal to develop and oversee a coherent change strategy. It is an appreciation for factors such as change sponsorship, communication strategies, and success metrics. And of course it isn’t just an understanding of the factors – it is the ability and willingness to leverage the factors to drive change.

Organizational Agility

This is about knowing who to get involved and knowing how to get them involved in order effect positive organizational change. It entails a finely honed understanding of the larger relationship network within an organization — and the requisite skills to navigate, influence, and establish the involvement and/or support of key players pursuant to the change initiative. The person that is organizationally agile has solid interpersonal influence and, what might be referred to as, an advance level of applied emotional intelligence.

Next Time

My next blog entry will describe the behaviors/competencies of Capacity Building, Creative Communication, and Courage. But in the mean time, it would be wonderful if any readers were willing to share their reactions to the first three and any other thoughts, questions, comments you may have about this idea of change leadership competencies.

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Steve Wolinski provides leadership development, organizational change and talent management services to numerous public, private and non-profit organizations.

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Linking Innovation and Operations

An-innovation-sign-on-wall.

Development is hard pressed to interface with operations. Yet it is extremely important that this interface be workable because developments are not relevant until they find their way into operations. This is the “reason for being” of development; to have new systems and adaptive processes and structures integrated, in the long run, to foster organizational performance and adaptation.

What’s The Difference?

An operation is charted to preserve the status quo, the current thinking and methods. Operations assumes this status quo as a “given” and works within current procedures to improve them and “operationalize” them with a high degree of efficiency. In most operations the problem is clear and solutions are knowable. Fast response is an overriding value in executing a “fix” and getting the operation back on-line.

Development, on the other hand is a constructive conspiracy. It is the development function, who’s job it is to replace the current ways of doing things, with new tools and assumptions more in line with changing business and organizational conditions. Development is rife with ambiguity; it is a searching and learning process. The overriding value is gaining commitment to change.

Innovation and Development is fragile, complex and conceptual. Nothing kills it faster than premature exploitation- rushing to capitalize on it too soon. Development is not charted but it is navagatable, it is a learned activity in action where hunches are tested and theory is developed in the process of action. The context of development is uncertainty. Operations on the other hand, works to reduce uncertainty to a program, an operational term.

Learning It While Doing It

Operations are based in control. Developments emerge and are always subject to un- intended consequences in action as development is moved toward its purpose. One of the themes of these essays is that developments are realized through the process of development, it is in effect learned in the process of doing it.

Usually there is not a great deal of organizational understanding and support for doing this. An often operation does not see the need or understand the purpose of the development itself. For this reason, development needs protection at a certain stage. Protection and understanding go hand in hand. As the development is understood the protection can be loosened which is necessary to gain the institutional support for prioritizing the resources for more disciplined development.

Boundary management means the protection and support of a differentiated development culture and the managed change of this culture when appropriate. Boundary management is a continual effort of judgment and balance because technical organizations optimize performance and their activities are always influenced by demands and feedback from a variety of sources in the global environment. Establishing and managing boundaries is both necessary and problematic.

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For more resources, see the Library topics Consulting and Organizational Development.

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Jim Smith has over 40 years of organization development experience in a wide range of organizations. He can be reached at ChangeAgents@gmail.com