Hire Gumby!

I just got back into the office from getting a coffee, and some fresh air (haven't left the office since 8 this morning). While out, I pondered the items on my 'to do' list, and came up with the following:

- Create a Workshop around Creativity and Innovation
- Create another around Teamwork
- Research and Develop a Scorecard
- Plan upcoming Marketing Initiatives.

On top of all that, I had a call from a client which ended up focusing on the need for increased 'flexibility' of the employees at his organization, as well as the logic around divesting some of the 'workload' to their parent company.

After the phone call, I couldn't help but remember a quote from Tom Peters' Re-Imagine! "The military - like all enterprises - is best fit to fight the last opponent". He then goes on to say that organizations/armies must recruit a new kink of 'soldier' what the US Army calls "An Army of One".

NOTE: Fluidity and Flexibility are cruicial competencies in business today. Look for wide open skill sets, and you will build a strong organization.

NOTE: The workload is never going to go away. If you're smart you'll offload the unimportant stuff, so you can work on the GREAT stuff.

Going forward...

Get your people to think

Build Networks not Teams.

Measure, track, and measure again.

Market this mindset ferociously within your organization.

Trendy Little Update

Since the incident regarding Trendwatching.com's October newsletter, a couple of things have come to mind, and many more things have actually happened.

First of all, if this doesn't prove just how powerful the Internet is for democratizing information, I don't know what will. Seriously, what are the odds that I receive an email newsletter from a company that barely knows I exist, with copy I WROTE in it? Fluke? Thousands read this blog? Millions even? Hmmm... I'm impressed.

Secondly, I flipped an email to our good friends at Trendwatching, and they have now updated their copy on their site to include little ol' me as a source. Neato. Check it out below.



So, with these things said, I want to thank the kind folks at Trendwatching.com for their support through this incident. Sign up for their newsletter, personally I'm quite impressed with some of their sources for material ;)

Seriously... it's a great read, sign up.

Imitatation is the greatest form...

WOW!! I'm having a much better day now. I'm published, internationally. Well, to be honest.. my words are.. the problem is that nobody knows it but me.. well, and you.

See, it happened this way. I get a monthly newsletter from Trendwatching.com. This month, as I scrolled through I noticed a picture of a shoe. Wait, that's like calling a Kleenex a tissue, or a Hoover a vacuum. I saw a Fluevog. So, as a fanatic fan of Fluevogs I scrolled further to read about my favourite footwear company. And there they were - MY WORDS. Yes, I have been published, word for word. The irony, yes - there's ALWAYS irony, is that the October issue of Trendwatching's newsletter (please note: TREND-WATCHING) contained my blog post from MAY 17th. Yes, if my math is correct, that is 5 months ago. Who's the Trendwatcher now???

Anyway, I am very happy that my idea resonated with Trendwatching.com, and am even more pleased that this was shared with thousands of readers around the world.

Here's what they posted:

Sure, sure.. there's a whole rest of the newsletter, and I edited it to make a point. I'm proud, what can I say?

If you want to see my origninal post, click here.

Thanks for reading.

If you want to read Trendwatching's whole newsletter, click here.

Chopping Block

They (business gurus, authors - people in the know) talk about life spans of corporations. One of the stats you might hear us quote is the average life span of a corporation on the S&P 500 has shrunk to 11 years. These days, I find even that to be far fetched. (Collective sigh of relief from the readership..) WRONG way… I think that a coporation’ life span is 1-2 years.. (I even still consider this to potentially be high). Last week, while I bought a coffee in the Mid-west, there was a display for WEST COAST CHOPPER merchandise. Yes, in Harley Country, they’re all wearing WEST COAST CHOPPER gear.

My point, is that for the past couple of years, Harley-Davidson has been cited as a best in class organization. Nowadays, the guys down at Orange County Choppers and West Coast Choppers are making up ground FAST. They make a remarkable product. They involve their customers in the design and creation process (via the TV show). Harley, on the other hand has relied on tradition and heritage. This is great and all when you’re appealing to the Boomer generation. However, they are losing ground with the youth market. Which, will look forward to buying a custom chopper for the next 15 years, all the while buying merchandise to support their fanaticism to the WCC brand.

I wonder if Harley knows where it will be in 11 years?

High Energy, High Focus

Isn't it amazong how irony rears its ugly head?

Let's start this off with some context... I'm having a bad day. On the way into the office this morning, I pulled the quintessential weekend warrior move, I tried to drive into the parking garage at the offfice - with my bike on the roof of the car... yup.. having a bad day. Bike is destroyed.

So, I move on. Whoops. BIG WHOOPS!!! But, I have work to do.

No sooner do I log in to my computer, than I open up our newsletter copy, to put some finishing touches on it.. wouldn't you know it, the book of the month is 'A Bias for Action'. In it, the authors talk of four types of leaders.. today, I am 'The Purposeful' - high energy, high focus. I have a job to do. I can't cry about my bike all day. I have to be focused.

Obstacles, and distractions come up, all the time. You must remain focused on your goal.

At work today, be purposeful.