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Yet, one simple "rule of business" remains constant. Your organization's ability to execute is the ultimate determinant of your success. And, when it comes to effective execution your potential roadblocks are many.
At Ford Business Consulting, our specialty is helping organizations overcome obstacles to superior execution by tuning the human system to support the business strategy.read more...
At Ford Business Consulting, our specialty is helping organizations overcome obstacles to superior execution by tuning the human system to support the business strategy.read more...
Can Schultz put the buzz back in Starbucks coffee?
It's happening again – another founder returning to the helm when things aren't going well. Can Schultz do for Starbucks what Jobs has done for Apple?
Today's Wall Street Journal (January 8, 2008) notes that Schultz plans to improve the customer experience and streamline management. His objectives include "re-igniting the emotional attachment with customers." Sure sounds like culture to me.
One of the most common challenges with the transition from the founding CEO to his replacement is that the culture has developed around the CEO's personality, style, and values. Some of that may be conscious and explicit but much of it "just happens." The organization often isn't aware of the specific assets and liabilities of the culture until well into the transition to the new CEO.
In the case of Starbucks, some of the internal practices (aka culture) that made Starbucks a huge success slowly drifted away under new leadership. Like Jobs at Apple, Schultz has a distinct style, his mojo, that helped make the organization successful. Can he reignite the organization with that style? My bet would be yes, he can. And that's a solid start to getting the numbers back on track.
How is your personal leadership style reflected in the way your organization does business? If you had a "culture balance sheet," what would your assets and liabilities be?
Linda Ford, PhD
read more...
Today's Wall Street Journal (January 8, 2008) notes that Schultz plans to improve the customer experience and streamline management. His objectives include "re-igniting the emotional attachment with customers." Sure sounds like culture to me.
One of the most common challenges with the transition from the founding CEO to his replacement is that the culture has developed around the CEO's personality, style, and values. Some of that may be conscious and explicit but much of it "just happens." The organization often isn't aware of the specific assets and liabilities of the culture until well into the transition to the new CEO.
In the case of Starbucks, some of the internal practices (aka culture) that made Starbucks a huge success slowly drifted away under new leadership. Like Jobs at Apple, Schultz has a distinct style, his mojo, that helped make the organization successful. Can he reignite the organization with that style? My bet would be yes, he can. And that's a solid start to getting the numbers back on track.
How is your personal leadership style reflected in the way your organization does business? If you had a "culture balance sheet," what would your assets and liabilities be?
Linda Ford, PhD
Labels: change, corporate culture, leadership
read more...
Performance Feedback - it's up to you!
OK, I've been traveling a lot these days. You know what that means --- I'm reading USA Today because that's the paper that shows up on my doorstep at the hotels.
Today I read that only 39% of companies provide formal performance feedback on a quarterly or biannual basis. The rest provide annual feedback or none at all. The good news is that's up from 29% five years ago. The bad news is that organizations are leaving a lot of potential on the table by passing up so many good opportunities to improve performance. Frequent and open dialogue about strengths and weaknesses is vital to your organization's success.
Regardless of the rhythm of your company's formal system, how often do you have a focused one-on-one dialogue with members of your team about their successes and their development opportunities?
I challenge you to find the time to have that conversation at least once a month and see what a difference it makes. Let me know how it goes.
read more...
Today I read that only 39% of companies provide formal performance feedback on a quarterly or biannual basis. The rest provide annual feedback or none at all. The good news is that's up from 29% five years ago. The bad news is that organizations are leaving a lot of potential on the table by passing up so many good opportunities to improve performance. Frequent and open dialogue about strengths and weaknesses is vital to your organization's success.
Regardless of the rhythm of your company's formal system, how often do you have a focused one-on-one dialogue with members of your team about their successes and their development opportunities?
I challenge you to find the time to have that conversation at least once a month and see what a difference it makes. Let me know how it goes.
Labels: change, corporate culture, leadership, learning
read more...
Friendly Skies? It's not in the culture.
Today's Wall Street Journal (Aug. 28, 2007) ran an interesting piece about Capt. Flanagan who "goes to bat for his harried passengers." I was struck by how ordinary his actions would be if he worked for Southwest Airlines. Why is his behavior front page news? Only because it's not the norm at United. The difference? Culture.
At Southwest, friendliness and creativity are just part of the job. Flight attendants, pilots, baggage handlers, gate agents. They all "get it" that these things matter. There is a box of "Fun-LUVing MINTality" mints sitting on my desk. I happened to be flying from Dallas to Austin on Friday over a holiday weekend and a Southwest employee was bouncing through the terminal, handing out these mints. It made me smile. Smiles matter at Southwest.
Capt. Flanagan is flying in the face of a different culture. He's decided that no matter what the norms are, he wants his job to be fun and his passengers to be happy. He cracks jokes and goes out of his way to meet his passengers' needs. He seems to have some nominal support from management. They pay for some of the goodies he gives away. The "Chief Customer Officer" commends his efforts. But when the WSJ article talks about what the CSO is doing to "boost customer service," the main item mentioned is technology improvements to give employees more information about delays and problems.
Nice idea but it won't change the culture. The 800 pound Gorilla at UAL knows that smiles don't matter. Until that changes, the technology won't help much. Leaders must truly value customer relations. When leaders at UAL (both formal and informal) are telling the stories of how great Capt. Flanagan is, bonuses and raises are based on customer satisfaction, senior executive meetings start with a discussion of customer relations, hiring is based on customer focus and people skills --- then UAL might get back to being the Friendly Skies.
Does your company have a Fun-LUVing Mintality? Or is there something else distinctively wonderful about your culture that provides a competitive edge? I'd love to hear what you're doing to maintain that.
Linda Ford
read more...
At Southwest, friendliness and creativity are just part of the job. Flight attendants, pilots, baggage handlers, gate agents. They all "get it" that these things matter. There is a box of "Fun-LUVing MINTality" mints sitting on my desk. I happened to be flying from Dallas to Austin on Friday over a holiday weekend and a Southwest employee was bouncing through the terminal, handing out these mints. It made me smile. Smiles matter at Southwest.
Capt. Flanagan is flying in the face of a different culture. He's decided that no matter what the norms are, he wants his job to be fun and his passengers to be happy. He cracks jokes and goes out of his way to meet his passengers' needs. He seems to have some nominal support from management. They pay for some of the goodies he gives away. The "Chief Customer Officer" commends his efforts. But when the WSJ article talks about what the CSO is doing to "boost customer service," the main item mentioned is technology improvements to give employees more information about delays and problems.
Nice idea but it won't change the culture. The 800 pound Gorilla at UAL knows that smiles don't matter. Until that changes, the technology won't help much. Leaders must truly value customer relations. When leaders at UAL (both formal and informal) are telling the stories of how great Capt. Flanagan is, bonuses and raises are based on customer satisfaction, senior executive meetings start with a discussion of customer relations, hiring is based on customer focus and people skills --- then UAL might get back to being the Friendly Skies.
Does your company have a Fun-LUVing Mintality? Or is there something else distinctively wonderful about your culture that provides a competitive edge? I'd love to hear what you're doing to maintain that.
Linda Ford
Labels: change, corporate culture, leadership, strategy
read more...
Circuit City - You call that leadership?
Yesterday, Circuit City announced that it plans to lay off over 8% of its in-store staff and replace them with lower paid employees. Seems their current staff were earning more than market rates.
Here is the question for Circuit City:
You are #2 in your market, behind Best Buy. Best Buy's leadership continues to invest in making their company a fun place to work and shop. Do you think you can pass them and be #1 in your market when your employees really don't want to be there and will leave for a better opportunity when they can?
My answer?
Not likely. Look at great companies like Southwest Airlines who understand that happy employees make for happy customer. Check out the growth of 1-800-Got-Junk?, with a key slogan of "It's all about people." Companies like these can create a market and then dominate it because the people are invested in the success of the company, not because they can hire cheaper labor than their competitors.
Circuit City's move is short-sighted. While I admire their honesty about the reasons, it's not likely to fuel their growth or help them be #1 in their market.
And, a footnote. You gotta wonder how those employees' salaries got out of line? I'm thinking there were some management decisions and processes involved there, right? Maybe instead of firing the people, Circuit City needs to fix the processes, leadership, and culture issues.
Many executives think they can succeed by managing finances, products, and customers. What they fail to see is that the fourth factor -- culture -- can undo their best efforts in managing the first three factors. Circuit City has just declared their willingness to fall into that abyss.
Linda Ford, PhD
read more...
Here is the question for Circuit City:
You are #2 in your market, behind Best Buy. Best Buy's leadership continues to invest in making their company a fun place to work and shop. Do you think you can pass them and be #1 in your market when your employees really don't want to be there and will leave for a better opportunity when they can?
My answer?
Not likely. Look at great companies like Southwest Airlines who understand that happy employees make for happy customer. Check out the growth of 1-800-Got-Junk?, with a key slogan of "It's all about people." Companies like these can create a market and then dominate it because the people are invested in the success of the company, not because they can hire cheaper labor than their competitors.
Circuit City's move is short-sighted. While I admire their honesty about the reasons, it's not likely to fuel their growth or help them be #1 in their market.
And, a footnote. You gotta wonder how those employees' salaries got out of line? I'm thinking there were some management decisions and processes involved there, right? Maybe instead of firing the people, Circuit City needs to fix the processes, leadership, and culture issues.
Many executives think they can succeed by managing finances, products, and customers. What they fail to see is that the fourth factor -- culture -- can undo their best efforts in managing the first three factors. Circuit City has just declared their willingness to fall into that abyss.
Linda Ford, PhD
Labels: change, corporate culture, leadership
read more...
Applying "Customer Oxygen" to Change Management
After last month's teleseminar with Sam Decker, I had conversations with several participants about the change management ideas embedded in Sam's "customer oxygen" concept. There were some gems! Three stood out for me.
Personas
Marketing folks now use "customer personas" to create more compelling, three-dimensional views of different customer types. Apply this concept to your change initiative. Instead of talking about "employees" or "the field," identify key segments and describe them in detail. Not just "a service rep" but "a 27-year-old female service rep with a liberal arts degree who is married and doesn't have children" or "a 39-year-old single male service rep who has a two year degree in business." You get the idea. This should help you relate more concretely to the needs and frustrations of employees and thus drive your change more effectively.
Watching customers talk to each other
We see this online in the "customer reviews" on sites like Amazon. When we design new strategies within the organization, employees are the customer for the change process. Think about an employee survey vs. a free-form discussion space where you can see what employees say to each other. They're already doing this in their personal blogs and on social networking sites. If you can open a channel where you are part of the conversation, you'll learn much more than you can with a survey. And that knowledge will help you manage the change with less effort.
Woodpeck and Peacock
This is not a new idea but it's a clever, memorable handle. To woodpeck (yes, Sam uses this as a verb) means you create a steady rat-tat-tat about the change -- it's persistent and maybe even annoying. To peacock (also a verb) is to create a big, showy spectacle that gets noticed. Successful change management requires both.
Thanks for the thought-provoking ideas, Sam!
Linda Ford, PhD
read more...
Personas
Marketing folks now use "customer personas" to create more compelling, three-dimensional views of different customer types. Apply this concept to your change initiative. Instead of talking about "employees" or "the field," identify key segments and describe them in detail. Not just "a service rep" but "a 27-year-old female service rep with a liberal arts degree who is married and doesn't have children" or "a 39-year-old single male service rep who has a two year degree in business." You get the idea. This should help you relate more concretely to the needs and frustrations of employees and thus drive your change more effectively.
Watching customers talk to each other
We see this online in the "customer reviews" on sites like Amazon. When we design new strategies within the organization, employees are the customer for the change process. Think about an employee survey vs. a free-form discussion space where you can see what employees say to each other. They're already doing this in their personal blogs and on social networking sites. If you can open a channel where you are part of the conversation, you'll learn much more than you can with a survey. And that knowledge will help you manage the change with less effort.
Woodpeck and Peacock
This is not a new idea but it's a clever, memorable handle. To woodpeck (yes, Sam uses this as a verb) means you create a steady rat-tat-tat about the change -- it's persistent and maybe even annoying. To peacock (also a verb) is to create a big, showy spectacle that gets noticed. Successful change management requires both.
Thanks for the thought-provoking ideas, Sam!
Linda Ford, PhD
Labels: change
read more...
McDonald's focus on better not bigger
Kudo's to Jim Skinner (McDonald's CEO) for tackling an issue that many CEO's just won't touch - what Skinner calls "the growth story." (See Wall Street Journal article.) He has gotten a number of things right in his approach to this issue.
(1) Skinner recognizes that change in an organization of this size will take time.
(2) He is clear that McDonald's needs to remember its core business - "We have to remember who we are … a hamburger company."
(3) In his "Tips for managing a turnaround," Skinner puts a focus on people at the top of the list.
And still he has missed the 800 pound Gorilla - corporate culture. There are two aspects to Skinner's turnaround that will require significant culture change in the organization.
First, he is intent on shifting the focus from bigger to better. When an organization has focused on bigger for many decades, getting attention for better takes more than just a plan and new metrics. Skinner will have to embed the focus on better in every aspect of culture. Of course metrics, plans, and policies are a part of that. But culture shapes behavior more than policy and structure shape behavior. Just saying it is so doesn't make it so. When culture and policy are in conflict, culture wins every time. If Skinner doesn't work as diligently on the informal drivers of culture as he does on policies and metrics, the Gorilla just may sink his plan.
Second, Skinner is shifting the focus from burger to choice. The McDonald's menu and marketing messages have been driving this shift for several years. And yet I have to ask whether the managers and executives all over the organization really live and breathe choice or whether they still think in terms of "4 billion burgers served?" It's one thing to change the marketing message and yet another thing to get everyone inside the organization to wake up thinking about choices for consumers.
So, Mr. Skinner, you've clearly taken on the Gorilla at McDonald's. And as you've pointed out, this is a very large organization so its Gorilla will be very large too. Don't forget to tame the Gorilla while you're working the plan.
By Linda Ford, PhD
read more...
(1) Skinner recognizes that change in an organization of this size will take time.
(2) He is clear that McDonald's needs to remember its core business - "We have to remember who we are … a hamburger company."
(3) In his "Tips for managing a turnaround," Skinner puts a focus on people at the top of the list.
And still he has missed the 800 pound Gorilla - corporate culture. There are two aspects to Skinner's turnaround that will require significant culture change in the organization.
First, he is intent on shifting the focus from bigger to better. When an organization has focused on bigger for many decades, getting attention for better takes more than just a plan and new metrics. Skinner will have to embed the focus on better in every aspect of culture. Of course metrics, plans, and policies are a part of that. But culture shapes behavior more than policy and structure shape behavior. Just saying it is so doesn't make it so. When culture and policy are in conflict, culture wins every time. If Skinner doesn't work as diligently on the informal drivers of culture as he does on policies and metrics, the Gorilla just may sink his plan.
Second, Skinner is shifting the focus from burger to choice. The McDonald's menu and marketing messages have been driving this shift for several years. And yet I have to ask whether the managers and executives all over the organization really live and breathe choice or whether they still think in terms of "4 billion burgers served?" It's one thing to change the marketing message and yet another thing to get everyone inside the organization to wake up thinking about choices for consumers.
So, Mr. Skinner, you've clearly taken on the Gorilla at McDonald's. And as you've pointed out, this is a very large organization so its Gorilla will be very large too. Don't forget to tame the Gorilla while you're working the plan.
By Linda Ford, PhD
Labels: change, corporate culture, growth, McDonald's, strategy
read more...
Leading Change - Gorillas Hate Change!
Corporate culture is like an 800 pound Gorilla – with some interesting characteristics. This gorilla is bigger than any of us, it hates change and it’s invisible. If you’re launching an initiative, get the Gorilla on your side.
Tips for making the Gorilla your ally:
1. Congruence – The Gorilla is watching to see if what you say and do is congruent. The old "walk the talk" thing still matters.
2. Communication – The Gorilla makes its own explanations of your actions unless you interpret them explicitly. And the may not be the explanations you’d like or expect!
3. Consistency – The Gorilla doesn’t like change but consistent signals will shift it. Use your behavior, the grapevine and both formal and informal systems to keep sending the same message over and over.
Don’t tangle with your Gorilla, tame it!
Linda Ford, PhD
read more...
Tips for making the Gorilla your ally:
1. Congruence – The Gorilla is watching to see if what you say and do is congruent. The old "walk the talk" thing still matters.
2. Communication – The Gorilla makes its own explanations of your actions unless you interpret them explicitly. And the may not be the explanations you’d like or expect!
3. Consistency – The Gorilla doesn’t like change but consistent signals will shift it. Use your behavior, the grapevine and both formal and informal systems to keep sending the same message over and over.
Don’t tangle with your Gorilla, tame it!
Linda Ford, PhD
Labels: change, corporate culture, leadership
read more...
Sam Decker (Bazaarvoice) on customer centricity and culture
I recently had a conversation with Sam Decker, Vice President of Marketing & Products for Bazaarvoice, about culture, customers and marketing. Sam is a thoughtful businessman who's been involved with both startups and large companies. He has a good eye for the business side of things as well as the human side. See what he has to say.
You have some experience with pushing at culture from a marketing perspective. For example, when you have tried to get an organization to become more customer-centric, what culture barriers have you bumped into?
Each person, each group, each function you interact with has their own perspective and paradigm which likely represents a gap to the customer perspective. These perspectives are usually driven by internal metrics which are lagging indicators of the group's definition of success. Ultimately this perspective and the measures lead to their functional success in a silo as defined by themselves. But if you add up the functional performance of all silos they don’t necessarily translate into the most customer friendly company.
The barrier to overcome is to bridge how individuals or functions measure your performance to how customers measure your performance. Ideally you identify their WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?) and bridge the performance measurement of internal processes to performance measurement that is success in the eyes of customers. The win/win is when you can marry the two into a new process and measurement. Then, customer centricity is part of employees’ day to day concerns.
I’m excited about what Bazaarvoice is doing. Seems to me the potential goes way beyond customer reviews for products. Tell me what you envision in the bigger picture of customer-centric organizations and how that will change the culture of your client companies. (No, Sam didn't 'plant' this question. It's just where I wanted to take the conversation when I understood what Bazaarvoice is doing.)
Ok, you’re the first to uncover the exciting truth of Bazaarvoice. Product Ratings and Reviews are just the beginning, fortunately that pays for itself as a marketing strategy. But here is the macro-view of putting customer conversations on your own site. It is a Trojan horse strategy for bringing operational customer oxygen into the company.
I describe it this way because the customer voice will be alive on the site that you, your employees, your executives, your peers, suppliers and partners will view every day. This has far more impact than a one time customer research study, because it is operational. It can become part of multiple functions’ day to day reality. They can gather qualitative and quantitative insights from authentic customer conversations – not from customer to company (sometimes tainted), but their truthful opinion of your products as published on your site.
Product Ratings and Reviews (and similar strategies) are what I call an operational customer centric strategy – balancing a healthy day to day diet between the under-consumed customer perspective to the over consumed internal measures of a company processes.
As VP of marketing, how do act as a change agent, both inside Bazaarvoice and in the marketplace?
Within our company and with our clients I try to broaden perspectives and widen the impact our solution can make in a client company, as well as push the impact each of us can make within our company. We also need to eat our own dog food, bringing a steady diet of our clients' and markets' perspectives into our product roadmap and be as transparent as is prudent to our market. We host client webinars, a blog (perhaps the first blog for an Austin Ventures company!), and are in constant communication with our clients through product management and client services. I also participate in discussions at a CMO-level with our clients on multiple ways to leverage customer conversations in a strategic way, understanding their issues in driving customer-centric culture change and how our solution can help them. I can help them bridge between what our solution can do and the language of the executives and business systems.
read more...
You have some experience with pushing at culture from a marketing perspective. For example, when you have tried to get an organization to become more customer-centric, what culture barriers have you bumped into?
Each person, each group, each function you interact with has their own perspective and paradigm which likely represents a gap to the customer perspective. These perspectives are usually driven by internal metrics which are lagging indicators of the group's definition of success. Ultimately this perspective and the measures lead to their functional success in a silo as defined by themselves. But if you add up the functional performance of all silos they don’t necessarily translate into the most customer friendly company.
The barrier to overcome is to bridge how individuals or functions measure your performance to how customers measure your performance. Ideally you identify their WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?) and bridge the performance measurement of internal processes to performance measurement that is success in the eyes of customers. The win/win is when you can marry the two into a new process and measurement. Then, customer centricity is part of employees’ day to day concerns.
I’m excited about what Bazaarvoice is doing. Seems to me the potential goes way beyond customer reviews for products. Tell me what you envision in the bigger picture of customer-centric organizations and how that will change the culture of your client companies. (No, Sam didn't 'plant' this question. It's just where I wanted to take the conversation when I understood what Bazaarvoice is doing.)
Ok, you’re the first to uncover the exciting truth of Bazaarvoice. Product Ratings and Reviews are just the beginning, fortunately that pays for itself as a marketing strategy. But here is the macro-view of putting customer conversations on your own site. It is a Trojan horse strategy for bringing operational customer oxygen into the company.
I describe it this way because the customer voice will be alive on the site that you, your employees, your executives, your peers, suppliers and partners will view every day. This has far more impact than a one time customer research study, because it is operational. It can become part of multiple functions’ day to day reality. They can gather qualitative and quantitative insights from authentic customer conversations – not from customer to company (sometimes tainted), but their truthful opinion of your products as published on your site.
Product Ratings and Reviews (and similar strategies) are what I call an operational customer centric strategy – balancing a healthy day to day diet between the under-consumed customer perspective to the over consumed internal measures of a company processes.
As VP of marketing, how do act as a change agent, both inside Bazaarvoice and in the marketplace?
Within our company and with our clients I try to broaden perspectives and widen the impact our solution can make in a client company, as well as push the impact each of us can make within our company. We also need to eat our own dog food, bringing a steady diet of our clients' and markets' perspectives into our product roadmap and be as transparent as is prudent to our market. We host client webinars, a blog (perhaps the first blog for an Austin Ventures company!), and are in constant communication with our clients through product management and client services. I also participate in discussions at a CMO-level with our clients on multiple ways to leverage customer conversations in a strategic way, understanding their issues in driving customer-centric culture change and how our solution can help them. I can help them bridge between what our solution can do and the language of the executives and business systems.
Labels: change, corporate culture, interviews, stakeholders
read more...
Corn, cars and concepts
Sick of the whole “new economy” thing? It was a bit overdone in the 90’s… But there is some relevance to the “new economy” as we navigate continuing economic shifts. I’m not an economist, so this isn’t going to be a diatribe about macro economic theory or some such thing. For me, as a businessperson, it boils down to “corn, cars and concepts.”
First, we had the agrarian economy – all about corn. People related to their families or village. Their lives were pretty much regulated by Mother Nature. Get up with the sun, milk the cows, work the soil, go to bed with the sun. Life and work weren’t “balanced” – they were integrated—parts of a whole that were shared through stories and handed-down wisdom. You didn’t need a “take your daughter to work” day – she worked with you every day.
Then, along came cars. OK, lots of other things came along about that same time – and the industrial economy overtook the agrarian economy. Relationships broadened to include folks at the factory, and sometimes throughout a whole city. You had contact and connections with way more people across a much larger geography. Mother Nature as regulator was displaced by machinery—Get up with the alarm clock so you can be at the factory before the whistle. Work and life became separate; labor unions were born to protect our lifestyles from our work. Child labor laws kept you from taking your daughter to work.
Today it comes down to concepts. Some call it the “information economy” or the “imagination economy.” I suspect history will have to decide what this era really is. But what is clear for now is that just as corn was displaced by cars, concepts now rule. Not computers or information, but concepts. That’s where all the new juice is. We can have relationships with anyone in the world and at the same time many of us are somewhat isolated – telecommuting or free agents, living alone. Mother Nature and machines have been replaced by the mass media as the main regulator of day-to-day reality. Our work and lives are once again more connected as more of us work at home and telecommute. Now, we need a “take your daughter to work” day because they’re gone, while we labor at home on work that is more abstract, more conceptual. Our kids aren’t in touch with it. They ask “what do you do, Mom?” And we have a hard time explaining.
Concepts are hard to explain, but they are the fuel for the current economy. Want a place in the current economy? Be adept at working with concepts – inventing, adapting, managing, cataloging, implementing concepts –. The more sophisticated or novel the concept, the more unique your role will be. As Daniel Pink points out in A Whole New Mind, with concepts we use mostly our right brain , but in the early stage of the information age we used our left brain skills. So, there is a shift we need to make.
The shift to concepts as the “main ingredient” of the economy also necessitates a shift in organizational culture. “Data driven” can be a good thing, but it’s not the only thing. In an economy where concepts rule, we need to return to our “corn” roots and rediscover and communicate the stories, intuition, feelings and wisdom that now hold the “concept” economy together. This shift isn’t just about individual skills, it’s how our organizations work.
read more...
First, we had the agrarian economy – all about corn. People related to their families or village. Their lives were pretty much regulated by Mother Nature. Get up with the sun, milk the cows, work the soil, go to bed with the sun. Life and work weren’t “balanced” – they were integrated—parts of a whole that were shared through stories and handed-down wisdom. You didn’t need a “take your daughter to work” day – she worked with you every day.
Then, along came cars. OK, lots of other things came along about that same time – and the industrial economy overtook the agrarian economy. Relationships broadened to include folks at the factory, and sometimes throughout a whole city. You had contact and connections with way more people across a much larger geography. Mother Nature as regulator was displaced by machinery—Get up with the alarm clock so you can be at the factory before the whistle. Work and life became separate; labor unions were born to protect our lifestyles from our work. Child labor laws kept you from taking your daughter to work.
Today it comes down to concepts. Some call it the “information economy” or the “imagination economy.” I suspect history will have to decide what this era really is. But what is clear for now is that just as corn was displaced by cars, concepts now rule. Not computers or information, but concepts. That’s where all the new juice is. We can have relationships with anyone in the world and at the same time many of us are somewhat isolated – telecommuting or free agents, living alone. Mother Nature and machines have been replaced by the mass media as the main regulator of day-to-day reality. Our work and lives are once again more connected as more of us work at home and telecommute. Now, we need a “take your daughter to work” day because they’re gone, while we labor at home on work that is more abstract, more conceptual. Our kids aren’t in touch with it. They ask “what do you do, Mom?” And we have a hard time explaining.
Concepts are hard to explain, but they are the fuel for the current economy. Want a place in the current economy? Be adept at working with concepts – inventing, adapting, managing, cataloging, implementing concepts –. The more sophisticated or novel the concept, the more unique your role will be. As Daniel Pink points out in A Whole New Mind, with concepts we use mostly our right brain , but in the early stage of the information age we used our left brain skills. So, there is a shift we need to make.
The shift to concepts as the “main ingredient” of the economy also necessitates a shift in organizational culture. “Data driven” can be a good thing, but it’s not the only thing. In an economy where concepts rule, we need to return to our “corn” roots and rediscover and communicate the stories, intuition, feelings and wisdom that now hold the “concept” economy together. This shift isn’t just about individual skills, it’s how our organizations work.
Labels: change, corporate culture, innovation
read more...