Manage To Change

Anderson, Gladwell, and Godin - Oh My!

Image via CrunchBase

As many of you know, there has been an interesting and spirited debate going on around Chris Anderson's (pictured) new book Free: The Future of a Radical Price, Malcolm Gladwell's review of that book, and Seth Godin's rebuttal to Gladwell's review.

Those arguments speak for themselves and you can see them on this Squidoo lens started by Seth Godin.

What I find interesting are that the tactics being used and the roles being assumed look very much like those employed during a change management effort within an organization.

There are people advocating, recognizing, and interpreting change (Anderson and Godin) and there are those seemingly resisting change or debating its impact (Gladwell).

Those that bring up alternatives or poke holes at the new direction are regarded by the "change visionaries" as resistant, threatened, or sometimes, simply ignorant.  Often, while some are truly resistant to change, many are simply raising issues and perspectives that haven't been fully considered by the change management effort.

On the other side, change visionaries are often resistant to considering anything contrary to their position. Adaptation or adjustment of the change being implemented is viewed as selling out or lacking faith.

It's the healthy debate between these groups, and the shades of gray between them, that allows the organization to find its way and avoid some costly mistakes in the process.

As General George S. Patton said, "If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking."

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Communication is Key

We hear it all the time.

Without effective communication every interpersonal relationship, every goal, every strategy, every organization, is at risk.

Misunderstandings, poor morale, and ineffective relationships rooted in poor communication are commonplace.

Effective communication is hard.  It can be uncomfortable.  It can make people angry with you.

But, it's the only way to solve problems.

When times are difficult and emotions are running high, how can we be sure we're communicating effectively (and respectfully)?

It's time to get back to basics. 

Listen to what others are saying.  Adjust your style to try and connect with them effectively where they are. 

Don't think it's the other person's job to communicate with you no matter where you are on the organizational chart.

Remove yourself emotionally from difficult conversations, at first.  Listen. Ask questions. Stick to the cold, hard facts when assessing a situation. 

However, when it comes time to implement a decision it's time to let emotions back into the picture.  

If you find that a conversation or a topic is annoying you in some way, get another person's perspective.

Effective communication is like exercise.  We all know how to do it.  We all know that we should do it. Yet it's often neglected.

Communication: Know What You Know

Image by maveric2003 via Flickr

Not everyone in a company hears the same thing at the same time.

Everyone hasn’t gone to the same meetings, had the same hallway conversations, seen the same PowerPoint decks, read the same emails, or had the same amount of time to digest the information.

This impacts change initiatives, including “restructuring efforts”, in several ways.

We can’t expect people to understand actions for which they have no context.

We can’t get frustrated when someone asks us questions about something we feel pressured to accomplish quickly.  We certainly can't get defensive.

We can’t keep information about changes from the people they impact and then expect them to jump off a cliff with us with confidence in the depth of the waters below - especially when, if we're honest, we don't know how deep they are either.

Times are tough and there are difficult decisions to be made, but people can support decisions they understand, and to which they've had some input, even when they don't like them.

When you've been included early in the communication chain, and understand the context of the message, it’s hard to be patient with those just hearing about it.

What can we do?

Include people at different stages of the thought process to properly assess the impact of the change, worry about accuracy more than secrecy.

When it comes time to spread the word more broadly, take a deep breath and remember the thought that went into defining the action. 

Remember what you know and the process your team went through to come the decision, and try to give your colleagues, audience, staff, the context they need to understand the change in front of them.

Virtual Brainstorming: Expect the Unexpected

Image via Wikipedia

Most of us have brainstormed with a group. 

Someone puts an idea out there, someone adds to it or adjusts it, and the group iterates through possibilities. 

Many ideas come to surface.  Some are “good” (meaning that for our particular purpose they have potential application). Some aren’t.

Until recently what we’ve called brainstorming has usually occurred with a limited number of participants, often people we know, over a fixed time period.

But social networking has changed all of that.  If you allow them to be, social networks can be giant brainstorming sessions. 

Throwing around ideas with a changing group of people we know, don’t know, and know of, but never actually met is a tremendous source of both innovation and energy. 

We can churn through concepts, tools, business models, or whatever interests us over an indeterminate amount of time with whom ever happens to be available.  At any time we can jump off with an idea and play with it in another context. 

It's experimentation and idea sharing that's completely organic, unstructured, and "open source."

Everyone has access.

All we need to do is stay connected to the group and see what happens - because I'm willing to bet that we’re no where near done yet!

Now, isn't that exciting!?

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The Future of Education?

Except for the Super Bowl, I never show much interest in TV commercials.  But last week two new spots from Kaplan University got my attention.

I don't know enough about Kaplan to know if they can deliver on these messages. What I do know is that these messages are on the right track.

Education must change to provide our children with the skills they'll need to collaborate, compete, and flourish in the new world.

Jeff Jarvis did a post called "Hacking Education" where he also included a third video posted on YouTube by Mike Welsh, an Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University.

They're worth watching.

GIIS: Colin Hughes, The End of Newspapers as We Knew Them

Colin Hughes, Managing Director of The Guardian Professional presented the keynote at GIIS Thursday morning.

To understand The Guardian, Colin believes you must understand its roots.

John Edward Taylor, after witnessing the Peterloo Massacre, feared that Parliament would not get an accurate report from the press.  He wrote an account himself and got his report into Parliament before any press reports had been received. The Manchester Guardian was founded in 1821 two years after this event.

From the beginning, The Guardian existed to challenge authority.

CP Scott was the editor for more than 50 years and bought the paper in the early 1900’s.  Upon his death, fearing the newspaper’s safety and independence might someday become vulnerable, his heirs created the Scott Trust by forfeiting their inheritance.

According to Colin, “newspaper companies are simply unprofitable.”

While The Guardian may have been “least hit hard,” the decline of print and an advertising recession has left their marks. But rather than worry what they need to cut, The Guardian’s philosophy is to determine “what are we going to look like coming out of this.”

From 1999 to 2007, The Guardian’s online readership rose to over 21M users per month and is expected to more than double by 2020.

Apart from the BBC, The Guardian is the only news service increasing their coverage of foreign events. Most of their online readers are outside of the UK. 

In fact, 5.7M of them are in the US.

Colin feels the Americans like them because The Guardian is “distinctive, authentic, trusted, and original.”

“Everything that we are naturally associated with…is what those readers want…rather than respond to these challenges by shrinking we’re in a fantastic position to expand what we do.”

The lesson: Opportunities to expand are present but they may not be where we’ve traditionally expected them to be.

GIIS: Ammy Vogtlander of BlueInsights

Ammy Vogtlander, Managing Director of BlueInsights, participated in a panel discussion on copyright at the Global Information Industry Summit (GIIS).

According to Ammy, networks of people with common interests (like LinkedIn), information sharing communities (like YouTube or SharePoint), and groups that organize information (like Connotea) are merging.  That’s why she co-founded BlueInsights.

As these groups and tools converge to enable “social discovery,” networks increasing become potential content discovery platforms.

And with ease of discovery come issues around copyright.

Different platforms have taken different approaches to protecting copyright.  You tube, for example, is reactive.  They take down infringing content if there is a complaint.
 
MS SharePoint doesn’t really do anything to prevent infringement.

There have been other companies (like Ezmo - no longer in business) that interpret copyright themselves and limit the number of people with whom someone can share copyrighted material.

While publishers often see online communities as a threat, Ammy fears that they may be underestimating their value as a forum for peer recommendation.

She also believes there are opportunities to develop standards to minimize copyright infringement and that, addressed correctly, online sharing as a form of promotion can generate quality traffic and increase revenues.

Read more about GIIS Day One on the Really Strategies Blog.

GIIS Keynote: Hugo Dixon from Breakingviews.com

Wednesday, the Global Information Industry Summit (GIIS), started with a keynote by Hugo Dixon, Editor in Chief and Chairman of Breakingviews.com (BV), a fully electronic publication of real time financial analysis.

“For me content is indeed King,” says Hugo and he believes in charging for it.  BV sells team and enterprise subscriptions, can boast 5 million subscribers, and reports a 95% renewal rate the first half of 2008.

With a strong initial launch, early partnerships with newspapers, a commitment to recruiting and developing top talent, and now 8 years of consistent insights, Breakingviews.com has become a strong brand.

According to Hugo, BV’s strength is its commitment to producing “agenda setting insight.”

BV seeks not only to be first to offer their views, but they also value their subscriber’s time, remain independent, and try to be entertaining.

The key to BV success has been recognizing that the professional market is very different from the consumer market.  Professionals value quality AND they’re willing to pay for it.

Read more about GIIS Day One on the Really Strategies Blog.

A plan gives us something to change

Creating an execution plan forces us to consider options and alternatives, weigh current information, and make decisions. 

Without perfect information, however, those decisions are an educated guess.

Today, with fast moving markets, the information explosion, and people getting stretched thinner as “project resources”, priorities are in constant flux and plans that span beyond days are almost guaranteed to need adjustment.

Does that mean we shouldn’t plan?

Absolutely not!

It means that the role of planning has changed.  And even more importantly, the role of those managing plans has changed.

Practical Advice
When possible create shorter duration project plans, measured in weeks. Understand that beyond a certain time horizon, the plan becomes less concrete.

Don’t beat dead horses.  In areas where there are unknowns or change is probable, consider the two or three most likely outcomes, build the plan to address them, and move on.

Simplify complex situations into actionable items.

Reassess planned actions continuously.  Collaborate on and communicate all required changes.

Redefine failure. Missing a date on a plan is not failure.  Failure occurs when we don’t incorporate new information and continue down an outdated and incorrect path.

And finally, the best known advice for project planning: Under promise and over deliver!

Disclaimers
This isn’t easy and requires both intuition and analysis.

Redefining failure is very dangerous.  Spinning our wheels and producing nothing is certainly not success either.  We need to discriminate between legitimate flexibility and the inability to execute.

There are many different kinds of projects with different levels of unknowns. 

• The plan for a product development effort in an emerging market will likely change a great deal.  It should be planned as a series of small steps and evaluations. 
• A project to implement a well established software system may have fewer unknowns and should change less. 

Now it’s your turn.

Do you have practical advice or disclaimers to add?

What I Learned on My Summer Vacation

My three-day vacation was somehow no vacation at all, except for one thing: my approach to work.

I felt justified in being unavailable at times, didn’t answer every email immediately, shut off IM for blocks of time, and took time to reflect on longer term ideas that I’d been pushing aside for weeks. 

This is how I should work all the time.