The People Factor: Collaborative Decision-Making

We all generally get the 'doing' just fine: we know how to introduce strategic initiatives, how to begin the implementation process, how to offer our people 'change management' programs so the new systems (or whatever) are up on time and do what they are supposed to do. But how do we help our people adjust, and do a competent job, when we are asking them to simultaneously work with new people, new technology, new vocabularies, new outcomes, and new job descriptions – and aren't teaching them how to juggle all of that while maintaining their daily job requirements?

Managing Change: Principles for Success

Despite the wealth of books written on the subject of change management, many change initiatives still go off the rails. A rule based guidebook approach is no longer enough to ensure success in today’s complex environment. By living out certain key change principles, you and your team will be able to fill in the gaps and provide a much needed human dimension to organizational change. Find out what core principles you need to adopt and model for your change program to make a positive impact in your organization.

The New Feudal Society: How to Prosper in the Coming Age of Poverty and Privilege

Are we are entering a New Feudal Society? As an example of what is occuring in our national economy, median househould income (adjusted for inflation) topped-out in 1999 and has been declining ever since. It is now 3.8% below the 1999 peak. This is unheard of in the post World War II era. This is in addition to substantial rising benefit costs to employees. In this environment the new lords will be those people who can quickly discern, adapt to,and exploit the unpredictable movement in the turbulent flow of life

Going For Growth: Debt, Rate-of-Return and Risk

All businesses make investments in both plant and equipment, and also in their employees. Depending on the type of enterprise, some businesses will have more invested capital than others. No matter the type of business, the primary question remains the same. The question is - what is the purpose (or goal) of any business investment? The answer - the purpose of any investment is to increase the net worth of that investment. The question then becomes--how to finance it?

Golden Rules of Problem Solving – A Great Tool to Help Dissolve Those Management Problems

1. As a manager do you feel isolated? 2. Do you experience problems, whether it be staffing, policy, communication etc on a regular basis with no one to discuss them with? 3. Do you have a thirst to meet with like minded individuals who are committed to finding solutions? 4. Is the glass half empty or half full? 5. Do you think every problem/issue has a unique and elegant solution?

Ten Signs That It is Time to Sell the Family Business

A Business Owner's Toughest Decision is deciding to sell. In many cases he ignores some market dynamics that fortell difficult times ahead. Those difficult times often result in a significant drop in the value of the business. This article will help you identify some of those signs.

Convert Ideas into Growth

Ideation is the flow of ideas that can be converted into growth on a consistent basis. Ideas for new products and/or services can come from two places: inside your organization or outside of it.

Aligning Your Company With Your Brand for Profit

If your business provides products and services to other businesses, you can achieve the benefits of a strong brand identity in customer loyalty, buying preferences, and referrals to other customers. However, the relationship with your customer is far more complex than when compared with consumer product relationships. Business to business service companies must innovate above and beyond just satisfying the client's transactional needs to create positive brand loyalty over time.

How to Design a Good Incentive Plan

Incentive plans should not result in arbitrary distributions of money casually decided upon by senior management. Instead, a good incentive plan must be quantified, must be a predictable result to the employee and must be directly related to measurable performance beyond the norm. This differentiates incentive plans from savings or retirement plans.

Change Management Issues in Small Service Clubs

Change management issues can be just as serious in the private nonprofit sector as they can be in corporate America. Change management is not often talked about in the nonprofit sector but I have seen firsthand how some groups slide downhill

Change Management and Politics

Each time we throw a scoundrel out of public office we see the problems of disruption in organizational capital and in business we too see this all the time with management turnover, mergers or simply normal attrition. In the Public Sector it can be far worse as one team or staff is not re-elected by their constituents and a team is voted into office

Change Management in Government Purchasing

Change Management in Government Purchasing sure causes chaos indeed. In fact we have a whole company under investigation who will be paying 100s of million dollars in fines because it hired a government purchasing agent from the United States Air Force to come work for them and she took the job while she was still working on other military contracts and procurement solicitations which involved the very large Aerospace Company she went to work for.

Resilience: The Key to a Successful Today and Tomorrow

Success in business and in life comes to those who can sustain energy, creativity and passion in the midst of continual change, stress and competition. Information overload leaves us struggling to sustain that passion and drive and achieve the work/life balance that is essential to our growth and well-being. We are being bombarded with information every day and are working in different environments that require more accountability and have higher expectations than 10 years ago.