Posts Tagged ‘Urgency’

For some time now, we have been hearing about a looming labor shortage in ‘10-15 years.’  That forecast has been out there quite a while now.  It seems odd that, even as we’re suffering higher unemployment than we are accustomed to, that this remains an almost certainty.

Why is that?  If you’ve not monitored labor trends, there are at least two key drivers.  One, is that the following generations (X-, Y-, …) are smaller than the baby boomer generation.  As the boomers begin retiring, there are fewer to replace them.  At the same time, other major parts of the world, such as India, China, and Brazil, are rapidly developing and more effectively competing for those same people we’d normally bring to the U.S.  Now, they’re returning or simply not coming to our shores to begin with.

Read the rest of this entry »

This paraphrases the situation a friend of mine, selling a sophisticated yet simple product, frequently encounters.  The fact the company he’s selling for can’t get past the objection reflects an indifference to customer sensitivity.  A lack of customer-centricity.

The question today is how to compete moving forward.  If you’re in a market like the U.S., Western Europe, or Japan, you face a mature slower-growing economic environment—current economic challenges notwithstanding.  Using the automotive industry as an example, growth of 20, 30% annually is considered good.  In North America, 2-3% is considered good.

So if your market is mature and you can’t count on a rising tide to float all boats, how do you prosper?

The days of competing primarily on product and price, particularly for commodity-oriented offerings, are dwindling.  If you’re selling a car, there are numerous ‘family sedans’ with almost identical feature sets, for nearly identical prices.

This suggests a new way of competing must become prevalent.

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You have goals, a dream, a direction at least, don’t you? We’ve all heard different studies emphasizing how few of us have goals, how many fewer yet have them written down, and how not having written them down means we really don’t have anything effective. Setting goals, picking a direction, is difficult because it requires quiet, time to think, and some effort. These are all things that require conscious effort and are in scant supply.

Years ago as a young man (I’m old enough now to not yet be ‘old’, yet appreciate the notion<g>), I struggled with Read the rest of this entry »

Would you rather have one thing done today? Or two, tomorrow?

In today’s age, we feel pressured, both by ourselves and our superiors, to ‘multi-task.’ Of course, no one truly can multi-task, countless studies and derivative articles have shown that (just do a search). What we really do, is focus on one item at a time, switching between tasks very quickly. The more items on our plate, the more complex, and the harder it is for our minds to push aside the current task and change to the next…or the next, or…

In the world of information technology it is increasingly common to expect we ‘do more with less.’ I’m sure you’ve heard it. This naturally translates to more multitasking, more complex tasks, and an expectation of quicker response times. As a manager, it is important to guard against your staff becoming over burdened as a result of your own actions or by their being self-imposed. Read the rest of this entry »

Perhaps a good place to start is to use a baseline definition for Open Education. Wikipedia defines open education as a collective term referring to forms of education in which knowledge, ideas, or important aspects of teaching methodology or infrastructure, are freely shared over the internet. From my perspective we need to clear up a misnomer or two. All too often when we see open, we think free. And when we see freely share, we’re thinking free for all.

With open education, the key focus needs to be improved accessibility (i.e. freely share) at a significantly lower cost (i.e. compared to conventional places of higher education). Employing contemporary technologies along with a new way of thinking, we might also see improved flexibility in education. Read the rest of this entry »

Preface:
Recently, I penned an article for the Motorcycle Sport Touring Association (MSTA), formerly the HSTA.  The topic is motorcyclists and their pursuit of mastery.  Whether you too are a motorcyclist or not, I think you will find there are strong parallels toward mastery of whatever you pursue.

Practice Mastery?

By J. T. Pedersen, 2009

We who make up the MSTA are as much a mixed bag of riding skills as we are the mix of faces populating the latest MSTA group photo.  Grab a cup of coffee, sit back in the swing on the porch, and look at the individuals milling around at a group event.  With some amount of rectitude, we can normally pick out who may be along for the ride, those who may be on the path, and those who are the masters of the sport.

Try Something Simple

Pick the bike up off the kickstand, hold the bike vertical, retract the kickstand, and sit there.  Simple.  Basic.  Perhaps the very first motorcycling skill you ever learned.  It wasn’t quite so simple the very first time you did it though.  I’m willing to bet you were torn between holding the bike up, and leaning your torso to the side, trying to look at what you were doing…complicating the process rather than helping.

You likely learned Read the rest of this entry »

It seems such a simple question, doesn’t it?  As the guy who brings you ‘technical business consulting,’ Removing Technical Impediments to Business Success, I also suggest this question is what’s on the ‘back side’ of the coin.

Think about it.  A technical impediment is not just ‘technology’, at least from my perspective.  A ‘technical’ issue is often any particular business problem you may be facing that is discrete, specific, and (today) almost always tied to the application of technology.  Most of the ‘technical impediments’ I have removed over the past 20 years have been the direct result of how one or more pieces of technology were being applied toward a business process.

Heads or Tales?  If you are having problems with how technology has been applied in your organization, then perhaps you are already asking yourself, “Is my technology really working for me?”  ‘Is your technology working for you,” then becomes Read the rest of this entry »

Thursday (3/26/09), I presented, “The Search for Work,” sponsored by Ann Arbor SPARK.  The strong interest expressed afterward has been somewhat surprising.

Given the number of requests and general interest, I wanted to make the presentation easily available, and without concern for email limitations.

Please know I am pleased so many of you felt the information was of value, of interest, and just possibly added a bit of bounce to your step afterward.

Please, download a copy.  I encourage you to make use of it.  Share it with friends.  If you re-use it publicly, or as the basis of your own presentation (perhaps at church, social groups, etc.), simply acknowledge my contribution.

Future presentations are currently being scheduled.  Any input you have for improving the presentation are welcome.  Areas of particular interest may include:

• Overall length (longer, shorter, just right)
• New content
• More/Less in a given area

Cheers!

Recommended Reading:

"A Sense of Urgency"
by John P. Kotter
ISBN-13: 9781422179710

This is a 3/4 size hard cover book of ~200 pages. The book analyzes three typical states of performance in any organization, complacency, false sense of urgency, and true urgency. Of course, a state of ‘true’ urgency is desired.

This is one of those books where, you’ve likely heard, read,  and seen much of the content before  Having someone put it together in a fresh package, and do a review with you, isn’t a bad thing.

The book is as applicable for an individual as it is an organization.  Some of my favorite aspects, are how Kotter puts together specific examples where un-urgency may be found, serving to act as a spark for action on your own part–on either personal or professional levels.