Telephone tag: global style

Not that long ago, telephone conversations, email messages, fax messages, couriered packages and of course, “snail mail” were the principal means of communications in business. I remember being impressed when a major transnational client placed me on their intranet. Even then, the most important meetings took place face-to-face, which involved extensive travel on everyone’s part.

The Art of Collaboration

Most plans for success call for collaboration among interested parties. Conversely, there are many examples of conflicts arising from the unwillingness or inability to collaborate. It seems we are programmed to look after our own self-interest regardless of the costs. The way most of us define “successful” communications is by being able to “get our message across”; which is essentially adversarial.

The range of situations is endless.

I have a dream

Why Martin Luther King, Jr. did NOT say “I have a plan.”

In the past week, I have been reflecting on the 50^th anniversary of the historic civil rights march on Washington DC; the one where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made his historic “I Have a Dream” speech. I won’t claim to have been present though I was at the time, in Boston, labouring in the community development trenches. I was more inspired by the speech than the march itself. I took pieces of it with me every day and used it to start conversations and to encourage others to believe in what it described.

During the week, I encountered an article (posted on my Facebook page and LinkedIn company page) written by Daniel Burrus, entitled “Why Martin Luther King, Jr. did NOT say “I have a plan.”

ORGANISATION RENEWAL SERIES: DIAGNOSIS AND ENROLMENT

THIS WEEK we will look at the initial stage in Organisation Renewal: Diagnosis and Enrollment.

The process begins with an executive orientation where they are briefed and coached on what they must do to ensure the integrity of the process.  At this orientation, they also help to plan and approve the implementation.

Next, they must communicate the need for everyone’s cooperation and commitment as a keystone for success.  Stakeholders such as suppliers, sponsors, investors, governments and families of employees

Personal Power Tools

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Observe – Describe – Disclose

An antidote to ass/u/me (making an ass out of you and me).

The problem with making assumptions is that it leads to errors and mistakes. Far too many people make assumptions and the result of this is that people are not in the habit of observing.

They get into talking about what should have happened, what did not happen, what they would have done, and what went wrong. They have low skills in observing what actually did happen.

ORGANISATION Renewal: Change with a difference

WHEN it is time to make change, most of the people who will be affected by it – know it.  While the need to change is continuous, there are circumstances that signal a need for drastic, immediate change.

Here are some of the symptoms:

What’s the Value Proposition?

The concept of value propositions seems omnipresent in many conversations these days. It comes up when people are asking how they will get value for money spent. It comes for vendors of products and services as they try to make pricing decisions. It comes up when trying to make realistic projections about how to deploy scarce resources.

In this technological age, we are bombarded with offers of products and services, requests for sponsorships and enticements to participate in organizations and movements. Each of these is seeking some measure of our time, talent and treasure (money).