The 8020Info Water Cooler

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The 8020Info Water Cooler
Issue #94 - Vol. 6 No. 14
10 October, 2006

1. Why Most Change Initiatives Fail

Research suggests that between half and three-quarters of change initiatives fail. Reviewing that research and his own consulting experience, Jim Clemmer identified five top reasons:

Priority Overload: Many managers confuse motion with direction. They measure their effectiveness by quantity rather than whether real value is being added.

Partial and piecemeal: Many improvement efforts are too narrow and segmented, failing to address broad system-wide issues. Project teams attack the bits and pieces rather than focusing on overall processes and systems.

No Improvement Process or Infrastructure: A burst of energy gets some things done but the effort sputters because there are no ongoing improvement plans, habits or approaches to sustain the initiative. The change-makers also fail to systematically review effectiveness, and learn appropriate lessons.

Fuzzy Focus: Too many organizational improvement efforts are disconnected from the burning issues that keep senior managers awake at night. It's sufficient for such projects to simply "make things better." The customers or external partners are ignored and the improvement effort is not framed within the greater context of team or organizational needs and purpose.

Leadership Lip Service: The leaders aren't heavily involved, modeling and living the approaches they are asking others to use.

"Each of these failure factors are bad enough on their own, but the more of them you combine, the deadlier they become," he concludes on jimclemmer.net.

2. Four Ideas To Improve Marketing For Small Organizations Top

Speaking at a conference of design and engineering firms recently, consultant Virginia Daffron came up with four marketing tips that apply more broadly to professional firms and even other small organizations:

What you don't do is as important as what you do: Many firms engage in activities that they feel are obligatory or can't hurt, such as creating ads used only once or responding to long-shot RFP proposals, even though the effectiveness seems questionable. "For every marketing activity your firm undertakes, there's another activity you can't do. When your capacity is smaller, the importance of focusing that capacity in a productive direction becomes even more critical," she notes on RainToday.com.

A good public relations program offers terrific bang for your buck: Instead of paying for ads, look for ways to write articles for publications or have stories written on your company or leaders.

Create and maintain a web presence that makes you proud: If you don't feel good about your web site, it's probably holding your business back and should be improved. We need only reflect on our own buying process to recognize that web sites are central to how we make decisions about service providers.

Find the right balance between talking to many and talking to one: In marketing you often need to reach out to a lot of people, since at some level it's a game of numbers, but also must save your best energy and sufficient time to talk to the clients and prospects most likely to give you business.

3. Embrace The Ways
To Make Business Easier Today    Top

Put two businesspeople together and inevitably they will talk about how tough business is today. And that's true, to the extent that customers are more demanding, competitors stronger, and margins shrinking.

But consultant Donald Cooper notes there are also many inexpensive and readily available tools that make business easier today. You can better track selling, control costs in every part of your operation, and serve and communicate with customers as individuals. The Internet allows you to expand the market you serve. Financial statements are easier than ever to produce.

If you embrace those tools, he says, "running a business is ten times easier than it ever was." The question for you to answer: How successfully are you using them to control costs, productively serve your customers, make better and faster decisions, and grow your bottom line?

4. Dealing With Disengaged Employees    Top

Some employees are disengaged, treating their work as just a job. And most managers avoid dealing with the issue. In the Winning At Work Newsletter, Shaun Belding suggests that if the individual is otherwise a good employee, you should ask why she doesn't participate more. Listen to her answers, telling her you respect her reasons.

But then add, gently but firmly, that for the benefit of the team you need her more involved: "Jane, I respect what you told me. You're a valuable member of the team. As part of the team I do need to ask you to make an effort to get more involved. It's important to all of us. You are good at what you do and this will be a tremendous help. Will you try?"

5. Zingers    Top

If you find it difficult to get your mind back into work after a long weekend, Bob Walsh, managing partner of Safari Software, suggests cleaning out a messy drawer. After five minutes, the drawer will be better organized, and that little boost of productivity should get you going for the rest of the week.
(Source: To Do Or Else blog)

Consultant Jim Logan says businesses would get more out of their web sites if they oriented everything to either converting a prospect or supporting a customer. "It's obvious, but rarely done," he adds.
(Source: The Bizinformer blog)

When you send some material to people to read before a meeting, don't assume that they have -- or that if they have, the message has sunk in.
(Source: The Rhonda Report)

Pick a sport such as biking or swimming where you can let your mind wander if you want to come up with creative thoughts. "Great insights aren't likely to come from activities such as alpine skiing or rock climbing, where a mistake could break bones," notes writer Richard Lovett.
(Source: Psychology Today)

Presentation visuals must be accurate. But they also must be aesthetic, as attractive things make people feel good. You must touch them at an emotional level.
(Source: Presentation Zen blog)

6. Q & A with 8020Info    Top

Question: Is it better to be an optimist or a pessimist when faced with important decisions?

8020Info's consultant Harvey Schachter responds:

As that great philosopher Popeye says, "I yam who I yam" -- and it's difficult to change, particularly from optimist to pessimist. So it's probably more important that you know which you tend to be, and compensate.

I tend to be a pessimist, imagining the worse. So I have been trying to apply the third of 30 decision-making laws developed by Charles Foster of the Chestnut Hill Institute: Look for all the good things that can happen.

He stresses that you can slip into a bad decision because you fail to allow for the possibility of something wonderful happening -- and wonderful things happen all the time. "Make your decision as if you were scared of missing a wonderful outcome on the upside," he stresses. The fact it's his third law, built after monitoring more than 60 people for 12 years to catalogue how their big decisions turned out, suggests that a lot of us who have pessimistic moments can benefit from the advice.

Optimists, of course, need to focus a little less on all the wonderful things that can happen and consider the obstacles. What can go wrong? What would be the fallback? More than that, they need to consider why they are emotionally excited about an option or possibility, and whether they are being steered wrong by their heart. They probably also need to remind themselves that other wonderful opportunities can arise tomorrow, and if the one they are currently evaluating is only lukewarm, maybe they would do better to preserve their options.

Those downside issues shouldn't be considered to prevent action but just to avoid leaping without full thought, in the same way as Foster's third law keeps pessimists from routinely turning down good opportunities. In the end, we need to find a better balance between optimism and pessimism, even if that means moving out of our comfort zone.

7. News From Our Water Cooler    Top

Don't miss our next 8020Info Roundtable luncheon, Hot Tips for Top Presentations, coming up Wednesday, November 1st, at The Rivermill Restaurant in Kingston. Our small group discussion will focus on the challenges and best practices of presenting -- from the pitfalls of PowerPoint to the importance of a strong finish, from stagecraft to narrative and how best to use humour. The session will be hosted by 8020Info CEO Rob Wood together with Danielle Van Dreunen from the School of Business at St. Lawrence College.

As usual, our 8020Info Roundtable offers you a break from your busy routine and a chance to come together with other leaders, managers and entrepreneurs, sharing ideas and learning from each other. We invite you to join us for the luncheon at noon; the cost is just $20. If you're interested in attending, please reserve your place at the table by e-mail at: contactus@8020info.com.

8. Closing Thought    Top

"It's stasis that kills you off in the end, not ambition."
-- Bono