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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...
Breaking a typecast - it's your career!
Did you happen to see the piece in today’s Wall Street Journal, “To Break Typecast, Know the signals you may be sending”? (“The Jungle” column, by Erin White, p. B6). In case you missed it, let me sum up Ms. White’s advice. If you’ve been typecast (say as “just an accountant”), get a makeover and all will be well. Seriously! What an appallingly superficial bit of advice!
So, let’s talk typecast and breakout strategy for real! Best advice – prevent it before it happens to you. How???
- Be the person who takes your group’s message to the staff meeting in another department.
- Ask the “big picture” questions when you’re talking to colleagues or bosses about an issue.
- Read outside your field, especially general business publications like Business Week, Fortune or The Economist.
- Offer to go on a sales or support call with the field person in your area.
Any of these ideas are likely to be a better career investment than just a makeover! And guess what, if you’ve already been typecast, start doing some of these things immediately. Your next promotion may depend on it!
Now, how about the bigger question. An organization in which people are routinely typecast likely suffers from a serious case of silos. When individuals are typecast, groups probably are too. This means that there are serious barriers to innovation and the free flow of information. Both of those can be deadly for organizational performance.
What to do?
If you are a leader in such an organization, encourage everyone to take the advice above. It will make a start towards revitalizing your whole organization.
For more on how to keep your organization fluid and innovative, email me and I’ll send you a short article with practical advice.
read more...
So, let’s talk typecast and breakout strategy for real! Best advice – prevent it before it happens to you. How???
- Be the person who takes your group’s message to the staff meeting in another department.
- Ask the “big picture” questions when you’re talking to colleagues or bosses about an issue.
- Read outside your field, especially general business publications like Business Week, Fortune or The Economist.
- Offer to go on a sales or support call with the field person in your area.
Any of these ideas are likely to be a better career investment than just a makeover! And guess what, if you’ve already been typecast, start doing some of these things immediately. Your next promotion may depend on it!
Now, how about the bigger question. An organization in which people are routinely typecast likely suffers from a serious case of silos. When individuals are typecast, groups probably are too. This means that there are serious barriers to innovation and the free flow of information. Both of those can be deadly for organizational performance.
What to do?
If you are a leader in such an organization, encourage everyone to take the advice above. It will make a start towards revitalizing your whole organization.
For more on how to keep your organization fluid and innovative, email me and I’ll send you a short article with practical advice.
Labels: miscellaneous, silos
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How do you know who matters most?
Check out "The Office Chart That Really Counts" in BusinessWeek online (article dated Feb. 27, 2006). The notion is that the informal web of relationships at work has more to do with what gets done than the official org chart. Now that's not exactly "new news." The most noteworthy bit in this article is the thoughts about who is threatened by having a map of the informal system, why they feel threatened and how they are managing it.
As the article notes, social network analysis has been around for years in the social science world. However, it's now being used in business settings to better understand what's actually happening in organizations. Imagine what you might do if you had such a map. Would you promote individuals who are better connected? Who would you send to the next really interesting technical conference? Would you find the existence of such a map threatening?
This map of informal networks would also tell you a lot about the culture of the organization. Silos would be immediately visible on the map. The concentration of information in the hands of a few would jump out at you. By noting whether the map changed significantly over time, you could see whether the information structures are fluid or fixed.
Although you don't likely have a scientific chart, you could probably draw your own view of the network in your organization. What would you see in that chart???
read more...
As the article notes, social network analysis has been around for years in the social science world. However, it's now being used in business settings to better understand what's actually happening in organizations. Imagine what you might do if you had such a map. Would you promote individuals who are better connected? Who would you send to the next really interesting technical conference? Would you find the existence of such a map threatening?
This map of informal networks would also tell you a lot about the culture of the organization. Silos would be immediately visible on the map. The concentration of information in the hands of a few would jump out at you. By noting whether the map changed significantly over time, you could see whether the information structures are fluid or fixed.
Although you don't likely have a scientific chart, you could probably draw your own view of the network in your organization. What would you see in that chart???
Labels: corporate culture, silos
read more...