Quality #14: Process Improvement and the 3E’s

by Tanmay Vora, Jan 25, 2009

When process improvement initiatives fail, it is typically due to the lack of one or more of the three E’s – Lack of Empowerment, Lack of Education / Training or Lack of Empathy. Upper management needs to show they are serious about process by allocating the right resources. Implementation staff need to understand what they need to do and why. Lastly, there should be realization across the board that one-size-fits-all approach will not work. Focus on the three E’s and your journey will become easier and fun. more…

BLOGTASTIC!: You have to give back!

by Rajesh Setty, Jan 25, 2009

In life or on your blog, there is more joy in giving than getting. Your blog expands your capacity to give. Invest some of your time expanding the capacity of fellow bloggers who need your help. You’ll quickly find that the effort will produce its own rewards. You will quickly realize that the incremental costs will be quite low for you to provide high-value to someone or some cause. more…

Change Management #1 – Leadership: Navigating with an Executive Map and Compass

by Gary Monti, Jan 26, 2010

Welcome! to the first post in the Change Management Series. This blog is a simple user’s guide to a change management map, compass, and navigation method. We will look at their make-up and how they work. Later blogs will go deeper into how they work.

In this post Gary talks about the three essential components required to lead your company through change – The Map, the Compass and the Navigation Method. In an ever changing environment (the map), you need to be able to adhere to your values (the compass) and adapt your (navigation) methods to reach the goal. more…

BLOGTASTIC!: Say more than “me too.”

by Rajesh Setty, Jan 26, 2009

You may come across blogs with great content and you may link to them. But if you don’t have anything original to say, your links won’t help much. It’s like giving somebody free movie tickets to a bad movie! Understand that the “me too” comments and links only add to the noise and don’t add value to the conversation. more…

Performance comes from Performing People

by Guy Ralfe, Jan 27, 2009

An organization’s goals and an individual’s aspiration will both be successful only if they intersect with each other. Guy illustrates this point in this blog through his recent experience on an airport ramp waiting to get into a plane undergoing tests to make sure the aircraft is clear to fly. more…

BLOGTASTIC!: All about comments

by Rajesh Setty, Jan 27, 2009

How do you create online conversations? Well, in the blogosphere, you do it via comments. Leaving comments on other blogs is a powerful mechanism to build traffic to your blog, build your credibility and in the process build valuable relationships. But before you start commenting, be sure to learn the basic commenting etiquette. more…

When Securing Your Data and Network, Just Look Inside

by Robert Driscoll, Jan 28, 2009

When securing data and network, the most obvious threats to guard against are the external intrusions. Studies have shown time and again that a great number of attacks originate from internal sources. You can safeguard against these risks by constantly reviewing your security policies, following a stringent hiring process and having more than one administrator for critical systems. more…

BLOGTASTIC!: The ultimate leverage engine

by Rajesh Setty, Jan 28, 2009

Whatever you do offline, you can leverage your online presence to your benefit. For example, you can use your blog to generate business or get speaking engagements. What you get out of it depends entirely upon you. You can read a good book and get nothing out of it. Or you can be moved to change the rest of your life. Same thing holds true for your blog. more…

Author’s Journey #6 – What’s the best size for your book?

by Roger Parker, Jan 29, 2009

Common thinking triggered by the word “book” is the long and never ending text books in school and college. Not true anymore. With the dawn of twitter and blogs, smaller books from 140 to 160 pages are popular. It takes less time to create, the cost to publish is lower and also the books are more focused. The trend is not to “tell all” but tell just what’s needed. more…

BLOGTASTIC!: Increase your capacity to do more good

by Rajesh Setty, Jan 29, 2009

You can use your blog for good causes too. In this post Rajesh talks about David Armano’s experience in raising money for a woman who recently separated from an abusive husband – through his blog. This illustrates that your blog can change who you are, your blog can change who your readers are and best of all, your blog can change the world! more…

Magesh is an accomplished software professional focused on building enterprise value through creative use of technology. Magesh enjoys working with people and is passionate about bringing out the best in everybody to achieve results that are larger than the sum of individual accomplishments.

Tagged as: active garage, BLOGTASTIC!, business, business planning, Business Strategy, execution, Guy Ralfe, himanshu jhamb, Magesh Tarala, Rajesh Setty, Robert Driscoll, Strategy, tanmay vora, Twitter, www.activegarage.com

This is part of the the book BLOGTASTIC! Growing and Making a Difference Through Blogging. You can read the table of contents and follow the book on this page:

See the table of contents for the book here: BLOGTASTIC project

Previous article: The ultimate leverage engine

BLOGTASTIC!: Increase your capacity to do more good

Imagine you are running a newspaper. Would you be willing to donate some space in the newspaper to a charitable cause once in a while? You probably would. Well, your blog is a media asset—whatever your circulation. A simple way to do good is to reserve some real estate on your blog to a charitable cause. Here is a story that touched my heart and demonstrates this point beautifully

David Armano serves as SVP of Edelman Digital. When he is not busy with his work, he blogs at Logic+Emotion. On Jan 6, 2009, David posted a message on his blog and titled “Please help us help Daniela’s family”)

Here are a few snippets from the post. You can read the entire post at
Logic+Emotion: Please help us help Daniella’s family

…Daniela is divorcing her spouse after years of abuse. In recent years her mortgage went unpaid and she’s lost her house.

Here’s what we are asking. Right now, Belinda and I are opening our home, but it’s tight as we have no basement. We’ve committed to giving as much as we can spare, diverting funds from other places. I’m asking if you could think about doing the same. Or at the very least, helping get the word out about this. We are looking to raise 5k for Daniela and her family. Enough so that she doesn’t have to worry about a deposit or rent for a while.

I know this is the worst possible time to ask for anything. But would you consider the following:

1. Giving whatever you can (“Chip in” uses Pay Pal and it’s very easy to donate and it’s secure)
2. Spread the word. Please, please blog this, tweet this, re-tweet this.
3. Help find a donor (maybe a generous company or individual)

I don’t have anything to offer back. Not an ego list or top donators directory. I can only hope that this thing we call “community” puts its money or heart where its mouth is…

Respectfully, David and family

I heard about this when my friend Liz Strauss re-tweeted a message for help. After doing my part, donating for the cause, I watched the story spread like a wildfire on the blogs and twitter.

As David himself would say in his subsequent blog post

Last night, all of us including Daniela sat in awe as my Tweetdeck went off all night long. Within hours, we saw her name rise to the number one spot of trending topics beating out CES and Apple’s product announcement. Translation? A LOT of you were talking about this and I was at a loss for words for how to explain this phenomenon to Daniela.

Long story short. David was wanting to raise $5K to help Daniela and in less than two days, they had raised $15,910.60 (318% more than the target)

It was a story that brought tears in my eyes. Hats off to David for leveraging his blog and his influence via other channels (most notably Twitter) to engage in a project like this. He set an example of how a blog could be used to increase our capacity to do good.

Here are a few more ways to do something good and meaningful:

• Provide a voice to people who are trying to spread a good message or important social issue;
• Dedicate part of the proceeds from your blog to your favorite charity;
• Invite people with great messages to write guest posts; or
• Announce your own affiliations to charitable causes—some of your fans may decide to support it too.

If you can only remember only three things about blogging, here they are:

1. Your blog can change who you are;
2. Your blog can change who your readers are; and
3. Your blog can change the world!

Don’t forget the importance of the third point. Make your blog impactful beyond just you and your readership.

Rajesh Setty is an entrepreneur, author and speaker based in Silicon Valley. He maintains another blog called Life Beyond Code and tweets as @UpbeatNow

Tagged as: blogging, BLOGTASTIC!, daniella, david armano, doing good, Rajesh Setty

Mention “book” to most people, and they immediately recall their endless lists of “required reading” in high school and college. Textbooks and required reading tend to be long, especially the classics.

Little wonder that most people don’t think they’re capable of writing a book, and even fewer think that they have time to write a book!

I’d like to counter the Moby Dick and Crime & Punishment mentality by recommending that you take a fresh look at the advantages of shorter and smaller books, i.e., books ranging in length from 140 to 160 pages.

The age of shorter & smaller books

As you’ve probably noticed if you’ve recently visited the Business books section at your local Barnes & Noble or Borders, books are getting both shorter and smaller. This is the age of the smaller, shorter book. Shorter, smaller books are “in” for several reasons:

• ŸLower cost - In a time of economic ambiguity, smaller, shorter books are more affordable for everyone involved. A smaller, shorter book represents less of a financial risk for publishers. At the same time, smaller, shorter formats can be sold for less, meaning the books will be affordable to a more cost-conscious buying public.

• ŸLess time – We are living in a time-starved environment. Time has never been as much at a premium as it is now. Your readers, especially your business readers, are interested in books that can be comfortably read in an airport waiting room or while flying. Readers don’t have time for theory; they are looking for short books with short chapters and practical, immediately actionable ideas. “Background information” isn’t as valuable as usable advice.

Evidence of the trend towards shorter, smaller books are on every business book shelf. Notice the shrinking size of Jim Collin’s books; [1] compare his latest How the Mighty Fall with his original Good to Great. Compare Bob Burg’s early Endless Referrrals[2] (288 pages, 6 by 9 inches) with his latest The Go-Giver[3] (144 pages, approximately 5 by 8), co-authored with John David Mann.

Implications

The implications of this societal need for economy of cost and economy of expression is a renewed emphasis upon the delivery of focused, actionable information. With few exceptions, the “textbook” era is over. Readers have problems they want to solve, and they want to get the necessary information- -and just the necessary information- – as quickly as possible.

Today’s books, as a glance at the many titles available in the Laura Lowell’s 42 Rules[4] series, for example, emphasize practicality and utility. The trend is not to “tell all,” but to tell just what’s needed.

By viewing complex problems and tasks from the point of view of a series of simple, step-by-step tasks, makes it considerably easier to write a brand building book. Authors with brands to build and information to share can easily take advantage of this emphasis on economy of expression by spending more time planning than writing.

Once an author identifies the steps their readers need to take to solve their problem or achieve their goal, fewer words are needed to complete the book.

Twitter’s role

Twitter has played an important role in the encouraging economy of expression. Twitter has taught us all how to condense and express big thoughts in 140-characters, or less. There’s more respect for brevity now, than ever before.

Entire books, and series of books, are being written in the Twitter format, such as Rajesh Setty’s pioneering Upbeat: Cultivating the Right Attitudes to Succeed in Tough Times[5].

In fact, I’m so impressed by the Twitter format that I choose it for my upcoming book on book titles, #BOOK TITLE Tweet!

The idea of a book

In many ways, the idea of a book is more important than its manifestation as a finished book. The goal of a brand-building book is to attract the attention of others who want to learn more about the problem or goal addressed in the book title.

The title is the idea, not the length of the book, or the size of the book.

Awhile back, I saw a Twitter reference to a book called 18 Rules of Community Engagement[6]. It’s subtitle was A Guide for Building Relationships and Connecting with Customers Online. Without knowing anything else, I not only ordered a copy, but contacted the author and requested an interview.

I was like your prospects! Before ordering it and contacting the author, I didn’t count the number of pages in the book, nor did I pay attention to its size. All I knew was that the title promised a practical look at a topic I wanted to know more about.

In other words, the title and promised efficiency of the “18 Rule” approach promised me a good reading experience and an opportunity to connect with someone knowledgeable in the field.

So, think smaller and think shorter!

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[1] http://blog.publishedandprofitable.com/2009/07/jim-collins-new-book-how-the-mighty-fall-suggests-that-authors-should-explore-the-advantages-of-smaller-and-shorter-books/

[2] http://www.amazon.com/Endless-Referrals-Third-Bob-Burg/dp/0071462074/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264358971&sr=8-1

[3] http://www.amazon.com/Go-Giver-Little-Story-Powerful-Business/dp/159184200X/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b

[4] http://42rules.com

[5] http://www.amazon.com/Upbeat-Cultivating-Right-Attitude-Thrive/dp/1935073036/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264360787&sr=8-3

[6] http://happyabout.info/community-engagement.php

Roger C. Parker helps others write books that build brands. He’s written over 30 books, offers do-it-yourself resources at Published & Profitable, and shares writing tips each weekday. His latest book is Title Tweet! 140 Bite-Sized Ideas for Article, Book, and Event Titles

Tagged as: active garage, author's journey, business writing, roger parker, Strategy, writing book, Writing for Business

This is part of the the book BLOGTASTIC! Growing and Making a Difference Through Blogging. You can read the table of contents and follow the book on this page:

See the table of contents for the book here: BLOGTASTIC project

Previous article: All about comments

BLOGTASTIC!: The ultimate leverage engine

You can use your blog as an outlet for your thoughts and ideas or you can make it something more.

Here are a few examples of what you can do:

• If you are an aspiring author, you can plan, design, and author a book using the blog (blook = blog + book). This very book originally took its shape as a series of articles on my blog–Life Beyond Code.

• If you want to start small, you can first start by publishing an e-book based on a series of your blog posts.

• You can plan your blog to be a portal to your life—linking to other places on the web where you have a presence.

• You can conduct a blog carnival and invite participation from bloggers around the world for articles on a particular topic.

• You can generate leads to your other businesses and/or use it as a platform to get speaking engagements.

Whatever you are getting out of your blog today, you can get more with some planned effort online (doing things on your blog and other outlets and linking them) and planned effort offline (doing something about your identity).

Think about new ideas yourself or brainstorm with people who are knowledgeable in the area for more ideas. But ultimately, please take action on one or more of those ideas.

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Blogging Tip: What you get out of something depends on you

On one hand, you could read a good book and get nothing out of it. On the other hand, you can be touched and moved and change the rest of your life. The same book can produce different results. Your blog is the same. You can be an “also ran” blogger, or you can use your blog to greatly enhance your power and influence. It is completely up to you.

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Rajesh Setty is an entrepreneur, author and speaker based in Silicon Valley. He maintains another blog called Life Beyond Code and tweets as @UpbeatNow

Tagged as: blogging rewards, BLOGTASTIC!, leverage, Rajesh Setty

Securing your company or organizations network and/or data is more critical today than ever.  Unfortunately, too often we take it for granted and don’t even realize that our environment could be easily compromised.  The worst thing that any person in the IT department can do is ignore the potential risks to their environments.  When it comes to security, the three easiest remedies one could do is:

• Monitor your security logs regularly
• Constantly update and patch your software
• Train your staff and regularly remind them of the threats to your network and data

Instead of writing about security threats in a general manner, I’m going to focus on one area and how to possibly help mitigate it:  insider attacks.

A study conducted in 2008 by the Verizon Business Risk Team noted that of the 500 intrusions they investigated over a four year period, 18% of them occurred internally by employees.  Of that 18%, over half of the breaches were done by employees in the IT department.  While most breaches occur in larger companies where it can be harder to track employees, they can and will occur in smaller companies as well. 

There are pros and cons to the number of people who have access to your company’s critical data and network.  The pros to a larger group of people having access to your critical data and networks is continuity in the event someone should leave or something happens to someone.  The obvious con is that you have too many people who have access to your critical components.  The pros to having a smaller group of people who have access to this environment is that you minimize the risk for an impact.  The flip side is that if you minimize it so much that you entrust everything to one person with no one able to back them up, it’s just a matter of time before disaster strikes.  Take for instance when the City of San Francisco was unable to access their WAN because of a rogue network administrator who blocked entry to anyone.  The network administrator was the only one who fully understood the network and therefore they were the gatekeeper.

So how do we minimize or eliminate these risks?

• Have more than one administrator – but not too many.  Always have a continuity plan in place.  Not only for your data and your infrastructure, but also for those who have access to it.
• Have a stringent hiring process.  If it’s critical environments that the person will be in charge of protecting, do the appropriate background checks (criminal, credit, etc…) before hiring them.
• Constantly review and update your security policies as well as providing periodic training to your employees to remind them and keep them aware of the policies that are in place.

When guarding your organizations critical data and/or network, never put your guard down and never put too much trust in to just one person.  There must always be checks and balances.  What commonality exists in all security breaches?  Most of them could have been avoided through reasonable controls.

This article was contributed by Robert Driscoll, co-founder of Active Garage. You can follow Robert on Twitter at rsdriscoll.

Tagged as: active garage, Business Management, business planning, Business Strategy, execution, http://activegarage.com, management, Robert Driscoll, security, www.activegarage.com

This is part of the the book BLOGTASTIC! Growing and Making a Difference Through Blogging. You can read the table of contents and follow the book on this page:

See the table of contents for the book here: BLOGTASTIC project

Previous article: Say more than “me too.”

BLOGTASTIC!: All about comments

Commenting on other blogs is such an important part of the blogging strategy that it warrants its own section.

Writing a comment on another blog is still a type of “new blog content.” By leaving the URL of your blog (i.e., the direct blog link, not the website link), your comments also drive traffic from other sites back to your own

If you are serious about driving traffic to your relatively new blog, I suggest you start commenting on a few blogs each week. Another powerful practice is to comment on threads that link to you or discuss you, your blog, (or your books in the case of authors), which will put you in contact with a steady stream of new blogs, represent you well to all readers of that conversation, and cement new online relationships. To be effective, comments need to be added in a timely fashion, which on high-traffic blogs translates to within 24 hours or even less.

Easy-to-use tools to make a quick daily check yourself include:

• Technorati
• Google Alerts
• Google Blogsearch

Through observation-conversation, you may discover that some of your target audience congregates in unexpected places. For example, your potential clients may enjoy golf blogs, travel blogs, or wine blogs. (Yes, there are blogs about everything.)

You may want to adopt the strategy of “fishing where the fish are” and creating a private list (for your bookmarks or RSS reader) where you can read and join the conversation. If you check back the day after leaving a comment, in many cases the blog host will have responded to you, since conversations can continue for some time in comments.

To make it easy for your readers to check back on the development of comments on your own blog, you can also enable a feature to “subscribe to these comments”, where readers can opt-in to receive updates to the comments by email. Comments are the first level of cross-blog conversation. The next stage is to seize good articles etc. and use your blog to comment on them, with a hotlink to the original. Cross-linking builds relationships, credibility (it is standard practice) and traffic.

A quick note on commenting etiquette:

Although commenting on other blogs is one of the best ways to become part of the community, there are a few guidelines for making sure your comments get noticed. As discussed earlier, writing “nice post” comment will not do much. Act as if you were having a face-to-face conversation. Point out exactly what you liked, or what you learned from another blogger’s post, and mention a post/article/personal experience that supports it.

Share something that’s relevant to the conversation. Or try to add to the discussion by showing another side of the issue. Comments should not be about selling your own blog or product. But, if one of your posts adds genuine value to the discussion, bring it up.

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Blogging Tip: Use comments effectively to elevate the level of conversation

The author of the original blog post will be happy to see a comment that will raise the level of conversation sparked by his or her blog post. It takes time, energy and dedicated effort to write comments that add value. Invest in that activity and reap rewards in the long run.

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Rajesh Setty is an entrepreneur, author and speaker based in Silicon Valley. He maintains another blog called Life Beyond Code and tweets as @UpbeatNow

Tagged as: BLOGTASTIC!, comments, etiquette, Rajesh Setty, Tec

Last week I was returning back from Europe to the USA via London’s Heathrow airport. I won’t go into the airport security experience, but to say that the whole security debacle, while necessary, produces such a negative image before you have even set foot in the country. My story begins after the pat down security screening. We cleared the gate and were walking down to board the aircraft when we were stopped at the entrance to the elevated gangway that connects the terminal to the aircraft.

Slowly the number of people backed up until there must have been around 40 passengers waiting to board. At this point an official notified us that we needed to wait a few minutes while some tests were conducted on the aircraft. A lady in front of me stepped forward and asked if there were any problems. The official discarded her request by saying it was just some routine maintenance checks. The lady returned to the line but was not quite at rest. Some time passed with engineers running back and forth past us out the gangway, before we were given a shouted out notice that they were having to start the aircraft engine to test it and the wait should only be another 10 min. The official disappeared but the lady ahead now looked decidedly uncomfortable.

When the official returned she asked him what was wrong? He responded routine maintenance again. She then became very concerned and began demanding that she see the signed maintenance work order, that she wanted to see the pilot’s signed approval. The official did not help the lady’s concerns and so she became louder and demanded even more proof of acceptance. The official said he would not be getting that for her but she then argued it was her right to see the authorizing paper. I am not sure if it was her right, but she now had 39 people focused on her.

I was intrigued watching the situation, now the other 39 people in the line were not concerned about the maintenance but rather was this lady going to cause a situation that delayed their flight? The official just wanted the lady to calm down and not work up a commotion among the crowd, he cared less about the maintenance – he was flying nowhere and just wanted this plane dispatched.

For me the intrigue was with the lady;

• she felt so strongly that she pulled herself from the conforming crowd to take care of her concerns at any cost
• in being so concerned she could not reason – no pilot would be taking-off if they had any doubts about the maintenance yet alone the 39 other passengers eager to board.

So where am I going with this observation? Following on from last week’s post Measure for Success, I have since been fortunate to participate in a strategic session based on the Franklin Covey designed, 4 Disciplines of Execution, methodology to align an Organization with its Goals/Objectives. This methodology is entrenched in setting up measures, more so it advocates the measurement of leading and lagging measures to help identify the onset of issues before they become issues. What my observation brought forward for me is that you need a methodology as a guiding principle for an organization but do not forget how that applies to the individual. Each person has their own set of concerns, part of this is their ambition and goals.

These concerns are what individuals hold most dearly and if we can align the correlation between the individuals concerns and the organization you can produce superior performance by the organization in the marketplace. If the lady did not hold her concern for safety she would not have mustered up the courage to go the extra mile and challenge the official – the other 39 people held the concern of getting out of the jetway, the same attitude held by your clock watchers in the organization.

This article was contributed by Guy Ralfe, co-founder of Active Garage and co-author of the upcoming book ProjectManagementTweets. You can follow Guy on Twitter at gralfe.

Tagged as: active garage, Business Management, Communication, concerns, execution, Guy Ralfe, motivation, organization, result orientation, Strategy

This is part of the the book BLOGTASTIC! Growing and Making a Difference Through Blogging. You can read the table of contents and follow the book on this page:

See the table of contents for the book here: BLOGTASTIC project

Previous article: You have to give back!

BLOGTASTIC!: Say more than “me too.”

Imagine you have free passes to a movie. You know the film will be bad, so you give the tickets away to someone else. The recipient initially feels great; they have free movie tickets! However, if they ever find out you intentionally gave them tickets to a lousy movie, they won’t be happy with the outcome. In fact, they will probably remember this punishment for some time to come.

One simple way to attract attention to yourself is to join an ongoing conversation of a hot topic. Chime in and link to other relevant blog posts. The trackbacks from your posts will bring you some traffic. However, if you don’t have something original to say, your links won’t help you much.

Before you invite anyone to your blog, you must put your house in order. That way, you will make a really good impression and encourage them to visit again soon.

When you add some original thought to the discussion, you will get noticed. Empty comments (such as “what a great post” or “you’ve got to read this”) add nothing to the conversation.

Remember, each person can only discover your blog once. During that first visit, they will evaluate your content. Only relevant and remarkable content will bring them back.

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Blogging Tip: Engage, not interrupt

If you decide to participate in a discussion, ensure that you take the discussion to the next level. If you don’t add value to the conversation, you are not engaging. You are interrupting. You obstruct the flow of ideas, because people have to deal with the noise you created.

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Rajesh Setty is an entrepreneur, author and speaker based in Silicon Valley. He maintains another blog called Life Beyond Code and tweets as @UpbeatNow

Tagged as: Attention, BLOGTASTIC!, engage, interruption, Rajesh Setty

Welcome! to the first post in the Change Management Series. This blog is a simple user’s guide to a change management map, compass, and navigation method. We will look at their make-up and how they work. Later blogs will go deeper into how they work.

In leading your company through change you have a lot in common with Medieval explorers who studied their maps and ventured into the unknown: On the edge of the known world cartographers wrote, “There be dragons!” The environment is exciting and scary. Like those explorers you need your own map, compass, and navigation method in setting a successful course through an ever-changing environment.

Introductory work helps since the three tools have a surrealistic aspect and take some getting used to. There are two reasons for this:

1. The tools function as a set. There is no one lead tool. Working well with one requires familiarity with the other two.
2. The simplicity of the tools can be deceptive. Leonardo da Vinci’s statement, “The sophistication is reflected in the simplicity,” sums it up well. There is much that needs to be taken into consideration and balanced. Progress isn’t linear and at times it can be frustrating. It’s not enough to see it all. It has to be seen differently.

Similar to early explorers, by keeping a steady eye on the goals while being persistent you can succeed…with the risk of becoming totally lost ever-present! The risk is worth it.  The success is not just more of the same. It is a success that is different in kind. A whole new frame of mind emerges.

Those Medieval explorers broke out of the Middle Ages and helped lay the foundation for the Renaissance. That’s the type of change you and your organization can make. Break into the unknown and thrive! Besides, you know that death is inevitable with standing still. So let’s begin.

The Map

In complex, changing environments the map is like something out of Alice in Wonderland. It is always changing. Anytime someone does something the shape of the map changes. The terrain is dancing – never sitting still. Just look at Napster and the music industry terrain. A student writes a peer-to-peer file-sharing program. Traditional CD music sales drop. People become used to getting only the songs they like. The iTunes store appears and legitimizes some of the change to the music environment. The terrain just keeps on dancing. Having up-to-date terrain information is critical. Now, here’s the most important point in making and using maps: everyone in the organization becomes part of a sensing organism watching and listening at different frequencies, feeding information to everyone else, and updating the map. A rigid, top-down, command-and-control approach will fail.

The Compass

You have a map, know where you are and where you want to go. Moving towards the goal requires the organization to orient itself and track its progress. A compass is needed. Like any compass it has 3 components:

1. A stable reference point- a magnetic north;
2. A device pointing consistently towards the stable reference point as position changes – a compass needle;
3. An indicator of the desired direction of travel – the arrow fixed on the front of the compass housing or the front of the ship.

In a changing situation the “magnetic north” of your executive compass comprises your values and beliefs. They need to be rock solid and visible to all. As the organization moves on the changing terrain this stable reference will help them orient and decide what the next action should be.

Your compass needle is the consistent aligning of actions with values and beliefs. As the terrain shifts you modify your behaviors to hold your bearing and stay on course. Those around you shift their behaviors accordingly. You can be trusted because you are walking the walk.

The compass arrow is the plan. It points the way. This plan is tied to the map and changes with the terrain. How fast the plan changes is critical. If the plan changes too fast and too frequently the organization drifts aimlessly. If the plan remains unchanged while the terrain shifts it becomes irrelevant. So, like something from a Salvador Dali painting the arrow changes with the terrain.

The Navigation Method

Moving on an ever-changing terrain requires unique skills and traits. A complex, changing situation has a unique characteristic, i.e., there is no one best path to get to the goals. Rather, there are multiple paths and some are better than others, for now, on this terrain.

Instead of marching in a straight line there is probing in different directions to see what works. Tactics change with the landscape. Where there once was a hill there now is a flat surface and movement is now unobstructed. The organizational structure shifts accordingly.

Here’s an example. Social networking increases the speed and simultaneity of disseminating information. Some organizations are adopting a more distributed structure where the speed and accuracy of local responses to customers’ requests increases while everyone maintains needed connections within the organization. In complexity theory this is called complex adaptive behavior.

Navigating towards goals in this manner requires a constant evolution. Here is where things can again become surreal with another unique characteristic of navigating a complex terrain surface. Taken to the extreme, the goals themselves can change if the organization is to survive. Monsanto shifted from being a supplier of commodity chemicals to being a biotech firm. It saw it was on a barren terrain and jumped to another!

This is not for the faint of heart. In fact, one might wonder why anyone would work this way and how the organization holds together. It has to do with the compass. By publishing your values and beliefs team members can compare it to their own. If they see a fit then they align their behaviors with yours. This is the glue that holds everything together as the organization goes through the stresses and strains of working towards the goals. It is called self-similarity.

Think of a couple bringing the first child home, then the second. A promotion occurs. A recession hits. Their lives can change in ways unimagined. It’s the self-similarity, the alignment of beliefs and values that holds them together. The organization continues in an almost constant state of flux.

In the next blog we will look deeper into the structure and operation of an organization undergoing change.

This introduction to the tools of change management can be taken further. In addition to being beneficial in business I find it quite fascinating. If you do too, send me an e-mail at gwmonti@mac.com or visit www.ctrchg.com.
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With over 30 years experience, Gary Monti consults/teaches/mentors/speaks in change management and project management with a focus on compassion and respect in the workplace. The work is grounded in project management, chaos and complexity theories combined with Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Tagged as: active garage, Alice in Wonderland, beliefs, Business Management, business planning, Business Strategy, Change Management, Communication, Leadership, Leonardo da vinci, management, possibilities, Social Media, Strategy, values

This is part of the the book BLOGTASTIC! Growing and Making a Difference Through Blogging. You can read the table of contents and follow the book on this page:

See the table of contents for the book here: BLOGTASTIC project

Previous article: Don’t apply the rule of reciprocation for blogs.

BLOGTASTIC!: You have to give back!

You will receive many benefits by actively participating in the blogosphere—many more than you can imagine. However, you will not achieve any of these results alone.

First, you need readers for your blog. Your readers are the ones who will help you grow your blog. Specifically, a blog reader can do one or more of the following:

• Participate in the conversation and enhance it via comments;
• Refer someone else to come and visit the blog;
• Spread the word through his or her own blog; and
• Bookmark your blog posts (or your blog) in social bookmarking sites.

Once you receive help, it is your turn to give back to the community. If you’re posting in your blog, you’re probably also reading blogs. You can do the same things that others do for you.

Think about it. How do you want people to remember you?

• For what you got out of the blogosphere?
• For what you offered to the world through your blog?

Most likely, you won’t achieve success without the help of other people who were ahead of you. So why not help people who come behind you—help them reach their potential. On many levels, the choice seems simple and straightforward.

There is no checklist for your generosity. Invest some of your time expanding the capacity of fellow bloggers who need your help. You’ll quickly find that the effort will produce its own rewards.

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Blogging Tip: Once you’ve built the foundation, incremental costs are low

In life or on your blog, there is more joy in giving than getting. Your blog instantly expands your capacity to give and make a difference. Surprisingly, the incremental costs will be quite low for you to provide high-value to someone or some cause.

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Rajesh Setty is an entrepreneur, author and speaker based in Silicon Valley. He maintains another blog called Life Beyond Code and tweets as @UpbeatNow

Tagged as: blogging, BLOGTASTIC!, gift, participation, Rajesh Setty