Innovative Concepts

Change

John Kotter outlines an eight-step hierarchy to create change and build a new culture.  If we isolate the first three steps, it is often the starting ground for a strategic initiative.  Developing a strategy if there is not a sense of urgency or critical people are missing from the team has less likelihood of maximizing its impact.  Just because we think an opportunity or challenge is urgent does not automatically make it so for others.  If we have a personal experience that illustrates the opportunity for change, we are much more likely to act.

Relationship or Compliance

IMG_0169My favorite causes to support with my time, treasure, talent, and touch are the enterprises where I have a  genuine relationship with an individual or more who is intimately involved within the organization.  I care about them.  I want them to have fuel for their journey.  We talk about visions and exchange details about our lives, even if they are delivered in synopsis.  The organization’s goals are intertwined with the people who represent them so authentically.  I am excited to hear their voice and support them even when they have moved on to the next chapter.

The causes that do not resonate with me entirely value transaction and compliance above relationship.  They frequently blast communications outlining the burning platform that faces them.  Driven by a fundraising goal, social media campaign, last effort to stop change, and anything else that puts their needs superior to those who they intend to cultivate.  Their annual report is a form of score keeping, what have you done for us in the past 12-months.  My ideas and networks are only valuable to them if they can be quantified in a return on investment metric.   The interactions are predictable, stagnate, and forced.

Much is revealed if people see you for who you are and not the form they wish you would take.  I may come and go from the inner circle of an enterprise but that does not mean our relationship is diminished.  When we stop communicating because I did not participate in the latest transaction or comply with an offer then there is little left to build upon for the future.

Be brave, build relationships that matter.

How to think like a scientist but talk like a truck driver

Net Neutrality can be complicated.  I was struggling to fully understand the ramifications of the currently proposed FCC legislation.  I spent a couple minutes watching ViHart’s video and was persuaded to act.  When complex ideas are presented in a meaningful way that are easy to use we empower those that are inspired to act.  According to John Kotter if we wish to affect change, we need to create a sense of urgency, build a coalition, and present a compelling vision.  If all of this can be embedded into a narrative that intersects with our own world view, we are liberated from a sense of fear and the unknown.

What is your edge?

Stars

Seth Godin posted about the concept of edgecraft a few weeks ago which offered a compelling insight into embracing that which makes us different. Along Seth’s philosophy, Jo DeBolt from La Piana Consulting asked an intriguing question today at the ED Sessions 2.0 in Boise, Idaho.

What is your edge?  How are you remarkably excellent?

Defining our edge clearly underscores how well we understand ourselves and the space we occupy.  Trying to be remarkable in a crowd is much like trying to identify stars in the night sky.  A few are remarkable because we understand their place in relationship to other night but they also dominate their location.

 

What is your edge?

What is Your Real Story

Real stories are authentic, mind blowing, perplexing, rough, silent, obscene, sudden, painful, long, joyful, and unique.  We have our elevator story, the synopsis of ours life that is worthy of a couple floors.  What is the story we would tell nightly dinner guests during a trans-Atlantic cruise?  A story so momentous that it requires breaks.  Where plot lines simply fall off into recessed depths (or do they rise out of sight) and yet we continue, undeterred.  People want to hear these stories.  The ones without editors or a communication departments.  One hundred and forty characters may grab a headline but it is hard to change my life without telling the rest of the story.

Predicting the Future

<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/89394659″>Watch as 1000 years of European borders change (timelapse map)</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/user7792440″>Nick Mironenko</a> on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a&gt;.</p>

Country’s borders are not static and the influence of many cultures shape our current map.  If we cannot readily predict the future of nation states then what makes us certain we can write a plan that has such clarity and certainty?  State your future potential and then take steps to move towards the destination but prepared to adapt and retrace your steps if necessary.  Who knows how the landscape will present itself tomorrow but your presence provides the meaning.  Select adventures that are worthy of your time and expertise.

Ideas that are stuck

IMG_5837I was running in Rome along the Fiume Tevere (the river dividing the city) and spied a rapid in the river’s channel.  Looking closer the wave was recirculating logs, enough plastic balls to start an amusement park, and a few assorted urban items.  The trapped pieces would be driven down underwater by the force of the rapid and then pop back-up downstream only to be drawn upstream by the hydrological force.  The cycle repeated relentlessly.

How many ideas containing little value within our enterprises circulate too often?  Discussions that find their way onto each agenda or become repeated off-topic discussion at meetings?  As long as the forces remains constant the recirculation continues.  Only if the river reaches flood stage, reduces it flow, or the channel is altered will the hydrological forces change.  Mixing up the pace and location of our deliberations leads to  new ideas.  Otherwise a static tempo ensures a continuation of the same.