The Engaging Brand

Baby Boomer Retirement - Problem or Opportunity?

I read regularly about the impending crisis when the baby boomer's retire, but I wonder whether it is a negative crisis or a positive chance for real change?

We talk about developing talent, we talk about collaboration, we talk about the use of technology, we talk about the wisdom of crowds....often though within many corporations this stops at just 'saying that words'. In many ways, people see it as turkey's voting for Christmas(UK!).

Well when change is slow, often it needs a crisis to make that change stick.

With the baby boomers due to retire, business leaders are faced with such a situation. The drain of experience, of talent will mean that both work and work practices will have to change. There will be no choice. When you can see that happening I would much rather design the future than wait to see what happens....

Businesses that change before the crisis will get an early lead in the search for talent. The great news for companies is that many social media tools exist to help this transition - wiki's as a way of holding on to knowledge and for collaboration.....podcasts as a modern communication and development  medium...blogging as a way of communication without the layers.

Change now...it is not turkeys voting for Christmas, it is the sign of a turkey as a manager if you don't!

7 Deadly Sins of Change Management

Last week I wrote about the 7 Deadly Sins of Marketing, today I thought I would touch on change management.

1. Change management is not about projects its about people. People will make the change happen not documents
2. Change is frightening to anyone. As a leader you need to help people face the fear, by explaining what the change will mean for them and how they will benefit.
3. Don't announce the change...only the need for change because of (4)
4. Change needs engagement, engagement needs understanding, understanding needs many conversations.
5. Don't think as a leader you have to have all the answers...the leaders need to concentrate on having the right questions.
6. Change cannot be shoe horned into a time period, it evolves over time.
7. Talk about what success will feel like, what success will look like to each person. Focus on the difference, focus on the benefits...rather than the budgets, the constraints, the action lists, the past, the timelines. They are all important in their own way, but again....

their success will be delivered by people who have emotional needs....focus on the emotional to deliver the financials.

Business Change means Social Change

Businesses are constantly looking for new ideas, new markets, bigger profits, improved efficiency in all these cases you are looking for change. However,  business change cannot be  delinked from social change. Social change is the catalyst for the improvements. To enable the social change you need to

• Create the reason for change at the business level.
• Create the reason for change at the individual level.
• Work with people to enable the change - listening and speaking with people is critical to success.
• Provide benefits both financially and emotionally for each person when they create that change.
• Track and celebrate progress.
• Deal quickly with people who do not want to be part of the future - not people fearful of change that is normal, I mean the people whose values do not match the values that the business stands for.

Choose leaders that have strong communication skills and emotional intelligence. This is about people and you need leaders that can connect with people, communicate with people and believe in people.

To change or to adapt that is the leadership question

No one likes change, change seems to have this  negative imagery surrounding it. I once asked my  good old Dad how to cope with change and he said "If you continually adapt, you have less times when you have to change.....adapting allows you to control your destiny. To be successful in any of area of life you need to continually adapt...if you don't people will demand you to change. I know which I prefer"

I like that idea, I like the fact  that if  you see yourself as a continuously adapting work of art  then  you can adapt with trends, with strategy, to relationships and with the future. I find that if you attempt to shape and create the future each day then you have less  major changes to make. 

You are recognising that the world is changing each day and that you need to grow with it....by growing a little each day in your thinking, your learning, your view of the future what you are doing is controlling your own destiny. Adapting and being an adaptor  gives you the control and helps you decide which paths to take, .....the majority of the time, leaving you with the strength to cope with major change that is outside of your control.

Wise man my dad....although I am not sure that I realised it as a child!

Birthday Thoughts

Yes, that is right I am 21 again today...and don't look a day over 83!

As you celebrate life you tend to look back and think about how the world has changed. Work is so different now then when I joined the business world and that was under 20 years ago.

Here are some old styles vs new styles as I look down memory lane.

 

• Used to be rules now boundaries
• Manage by fear now ignite the passion
• 9 to 5 contract of employment now flexibility built around a  lifestyle contract
• We need their hands but now we need their minds
• Tell now Sell
• Organized work now controlled chaos
• You are lucky to have a job now you are lucky to have my talent
• Monotony now autonomy
• "Just do it, don't think!" now "Think, don't just do it!
• Admin rule now simplicity rules

The final one I thought of while looking in the mirror - age brings experience yes, but wrinkles too. 

Changing culture

Following on from the last post, I see culture as an outcome as well. You cannot change culture per se....what you can do is look at the actions of the senior management and the effect on how people work and experience the company.

If you have tulip seeds and want a rose.... you cannot feed the tulip to become a rose, you need to plant new seeds. That is how you change culture, you look at the inputs that create the output. 4 great places to look are the 4 C's and review what people are saying and doing. You can only review by being honest, not seeing what you WANT to see, but looking and listening to the reality that people experience.

Cross functional working - is this really occurring? Are people encouraged to work together rather than a silo mentality? When people are together do they sit in their own teams, do they fight over who gets the credit, do they work together for a solution for the business as a whole?
Creativity - Does the words and actions that you say or do show that creativity is at the core,do people know that they will be supported if it fails? Do you allow expression, is your building one that oozes creativity on its walls etc
Contributions - Do people feel comfortable giving their ideas, is there a one way or two way conversation? People not speaking or always agreeing is not contribution.
Continuous Improvement - Are people given the opportunity and authority to make changes, are they encouraged to look to simplify, and involved in the quality process?

When I coach companies on the 5 ways to boost profits, time and again my work involves closing the gap of what senior management think is happening and the reality of the employee experience. The second key areas is the gap between the words and the actions....all of which once recognized is relatively easy to put right!

What you can learn from being ill!

I have been quite ill over the last 3 days, in ways that I won't share with you! But as I lay in bed it made me think about business and how companies who are struggling can learn from a human being recovering from sickness. I know I need to get a life!

The importance of basics - cut the fancy food and get back to plain simple foods. When a company is struggling it needs to ensure the basics are working - Are you delivering what the customer needs, when they need it, at a price they want and how they want it? It is no good concentrating on branding campaigns etc if the basics are not in place.

Don't run before you can walk. I wanted to be well so I kept trying to get on with work - all this did was keep knocking me back as my body was tired. Build your strengths slowly and systematically.

A body will reject food that it is not ready for....just like in business when human beings will reject ideas imposed and not wanted. Impose because YOU think it is a good idea and it will only produce a smelly, awful mess!!

Anyway feeling brighter today and watch out I will be back up to full strength tomorrow. In the meantime I know I have a lot of outstanding e-mails - I will get back to your all this week.

Involving People in Change

Change is a word that I do not feel comfortable with, I don't like it. Change immediately makes me feel defensive and I am a positive person! I much prefer evolve and evolving your business to succeed. So if you want to succeed in evolving your company to create future success, you need to involve people. Here is an idea that I have used that excites people, the team I was leading was a customer service team and the goal was to improve our interaction with the customers. Here is what I said at a team session
"I need your help, I know that we need to improve and learn how to succeed in the future. You are the guys at the coal face, speaking to the customers, you know the problems and I wbelieve that you are the best people to come up with ideas that will continue to take this team forward. I want you to make teams of 6 people - use it as an opportunity to work with people that you don't normally work with - and here is £200 for you to go out, spend a day in the retail space to look for answers. Look for how people interact with you, what makes you feel special, what makes you feel devalued as a customer. The only thing I ask is that you come back and give me a taste of what you learned during the day - present solutions that you believe will work. We will all see each others work and then we will give a team vote to decide on the top 3 priorities that we will work on together"

Did it work - I have never seen so much effort - outside of work hours usually! - put into a presentation. The top 2 ideas were the major factor in increasing customers satisfaction by 15% within the year. The best bit is that we created "change" in our process and everyone wanted it to happen....morale up, cross team working up, the list goes on....

The Engagement Paradox

I talk about how employee engagement makes a huge difference to the bottom line - not just smiles on the employees face but the investors as well.

The paradox is this C + SQ = P....any clues ?

Well it stands for change plus status quo = profit ! And therein lies the paradox. Let me explain...

You are trying to EVOLVE (less fearful than change!) to create LOYALTY in both employees and customers (You don't want them to change you want them to grow). Both of these are in the search of PROFIT.

If you understand this formula, you will ease the change program to keep the loyalty of the customers and employees. You need to bring both parties with you, both in your thinking and in your actions.

Advice from Winston Churchill

This week has been manic, I mean very manic. Brilliant, wonderful, energizing, engaging, but busy, busy, busy. And I loved almost every moment of it

When you are busy, doesn't a problem appear so much bigger?

I had an issue with my podcast host not solving some technical issues at their end and struggled to find time to get them to sort it out. The problem was not huge, but the impact was huge to me....and yes there was at least one occasion when I just thought "Is this hassle worth it?" A second(!) later I realized of course it was  - this is my passion, my love and I was not giving in to technology...

It reminded me of a quote from Winston Churchill

"Never give in never, never, never in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense"