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Monday, November 16, 2009

Key Concepts for Surviving Organizational Change

Start with “Why change?” Change is expensive, dangerous and uncomfortable. The only thing more expensive, dangerous and uncomfortable than changing is not changing when necessary and trying to live with the results.
One key is first understanding our current mental model for how we work, and then fashioning a model that addresses how our work is changing. Repeatedly defining the best way to work makes the definition process easier, faster, and more valuable. The ability to create a new model when needed is a significant competitive advantage.
“It's my conviction that slight shifts in imagination have more impact...than major efforts at change.” Thomas Moore - SoulMates (Preface)
Automation is cutting the time required for repeating processes. The time saved is used for better customer contact.
• What does more valuable customer contact look like?
• What skills are required for better customer interaction?
Peter Drucker says, “You manage things, you lead people.”
Don't change old habits. Replace them with new activities.
Communication is an area that is changing rapidly. Communication is not just talking. Communication is transferring information in usable form to get a desired result at best cost.
Casually asking a busy person to do something for you has less than a 50% chance of success. What can you do to increase the chances of their remembering, understanding correctly, taking appropriate action, and getting you what you wanted?
Eli Goldratt in The Haystack Syndrome defines “information” as “the answer to the question asked.”
I find a lot of opportunities for improving communication come from social media. Thinking through and executing a social media strategy can have impressive results. We are developing standards for effectively using social media, which remind me of developing standards for email ten years ago, and voicemail etiquette ten years before that.

3 comments:

  1. Dick Good Stuff

    Can you point to the new standards in social media that are developing?

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  2. I echo Jim Dixon's comment and also his question. I would like to know what the "new standards in social media' are.

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  3. The standards are a moving target, and each person uses social media differently and to get different results. Here are some of mine:
    Try to move the conversation forward. Optimistic is good.

    Try to keep to a schedule. People express disappointment when I'm not posting.

    Comments are a tremendous part of the value of a post.

    I'm amazed and saddened at the "sales" posters who don't try to be fun and enlightening. My experience is people buy from posters who are fun and enlightening.

    Figure on 100 readers watching for every post and comment. The watchers figure the comments are part of the entertainment.

    Work smart and hard to get people to try your blog, website, LinkedIn page. Then work smart and hard to give them a reason to keep coming back.

    Heard a good one this morning at the Web Managers Roundtable. "When you say something for the 27th time, you're only getting warmed up!"

    Others?

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