Leaving an impression

I then realise I am not in my dream but in my bed, awakening to the view directly above me through my Velux window. It’s 6.30am and the air is clear and quiet. So much so that I could hear the rumble of one of the jet planes.

As I watched them, one contrail was much thicker, one was thin and purposeful. The thicker one remained in the sky, while the thinner, more purposeful contrail moved quickly and disappeared quite quickly. This is simply a difference in air moisture and altitude.

As I lay there, waking up proper, it occurred to me that business people are similar the way they go through their business day. Some will speed in, make a lot of noise, some will “arrive” and leave a lingering impression well after they have gone.

So you could wonder which has the longer lasting impression? And which type of business person are you?

It all has to do with attitude (not altitude). If you are self confident and your self esteem is intact, little will hinder you, little will hold you back, and little will knock you down. All the negativity you experience throughout the course of your day, will roll off your back like water. Why? Because you have a thick skin, are well heeled, and trust in yourself, your abilities, your successes and your business.

And the other type? Well it’s hardly worth writing about because every person has the right to be successful, forward moving and confident in their abilities. But it is up to us as individuals to decide whether that is so. We can go with the consensus that the recession (or downturn, or economic collapse) has hit hard and of course there is no work out there, no contracts to obtain.

Simply ask yourself then, are you doing business the exact same way as before, when things were good, the economy steady (in theory) and there was planty of money around? If your answer is yes, then how can that way of business work now? When it’s hot, we turn on the air conditioning, when it is cold, we turn on the heating.

We need to adapt, change course, get creative but most of all, decide to believe that there is work out there to be had and contracts to be won.

Or has the world stopped completely?

Would love your views on how to best conduct business in this “cooler climate”. Please leave a comment below.

Those who are familiar with my posts will know that I write a bit about birds and business. The reason for this is simple – I have a garden full of birds, and I provide food and water so they entertain me while having my morning espresso. It’s a perfect relationship really, and I can observe them closely, as they are literally 2 metres from my sofa in the conservatory.

Whilst watching them the other morning, I began thinking about business and the best ways of obtaining business. I was watching closely the relationship between the various breeds, how they react to each other, and interact together.

The Tits are the smallest of feeders on the table. They are so small and fast that you would hardly notice they had been and gone. I have watched a Coal Tit single-handedly remove 30-40 seeds from the table and “hide” each one in a nearby bush or tree. He was not so clever when a rat noticed and promptly cleaned out his stash.

The Sparrows are widespread and their large numbers ensure that they are not endangered. They freely flit around and are very sociable; living is disorganised housing estates, breeding up to three times a year. The amazing fact about these birds, is that though they squabble like mad amongst themselves, they will form a major barrier against any external threats, using numbers and noise to discourage intruders.

The Finch on the other hand, is not as numerous as the sparrow, and noticeably more aggressive. They will forsake food if there is another bird on the table, spending its energy ensuring there is no competition. Meanwhile the seeds are quickly depleting, and the Finch is in danger of going hungry. They have recently been wiped out with a major recession, and have retracted back into the bushes to regroup and breed. They sometimes migrate, when things get a little tough in the cooler climes.

Sound familiar yet?

The Robin is an aggressive territorial marker. Therefore they are few in the garden of business.

My garden is big enough to sustain 2 robins, but oh-boy! when their paths cross, there is war. One steps on the turf of another, and we have all out war. However, alone it is a timid, lonesome bird, favouring the birdtable when it’s empty of the squabblers. It also likes to descend to the ground and collect the seeds that have fallen from the table.

However, another bird that favours this area is the Blackbird, a beautiful shiny-coated suitor. He spends his days singing to attract the girls, and chasing away any other blackbirds nearby. He ignores all other species, but when another blackbird arrives on the scene, he will use all his energy to chase him around in circles, literally!

And then there is the Wren. This bird produced 4 chicks last year in one sitting. This bird has the stamina and speed of a Cheetah; it’s the only bird that will activate the sensor light on my house, as he scans the gutters and eaves for insects.

I have heard that other gardens have problems with magpies and crows, but if I wave at a crow or magpie, they wont come back, the Blackbird, will fly away for a while and the smaller birds fly to the nearest tree, and are back to the feeding table within seconds.

So do birds do business?

Birds are so like humans, it’s uncanny. They eat, sleep, breed, even work for a living. They have ventured into comedy and entertainment for a few seeds.

What kind of bird are you? How are you doing business?

• Are you a Crow or Magpie – big in size but the slightest movement will scare you off forever more?
• Are you a Blackbird – spending all your time obsessed with wooing the ladies and staving off a single competitor?
• Are you a Sparrow – needing the community to survive yet held back by your team?
• Are you a Coal Tit – hiding all your ideas away to have them snatched by the rat (and he’s not even of the Aves class)?
• Are you a Finch – aggressive and full of hot air yet ready to bail out at the slightest drop in temperature?
• Are you the graceful Robin – working away on your own terms, taking opportunities when presented, focused and ready to back away when the time is right?
• Or are you a Wren – objective, opportune, progressive and wise? Working under stealth, getting the job done with fastidious clarity?

Be careful where you perch and how you preen your feathers. A bird cannot choose its species, but in the world of business, you get to choose who to do business with, and how you conduct your business. There will be external factors, suitors and rats along the way, but focus and goal setting helps us make the right decisions.

I haven’t mentioned the Swallows and Starlings as they are only holidaying here. As for the songbird Thrush, I have identified one, but am not 100% sure on this. I wouldn’t like to be accused of mistaken identity, so I will reserve judgement.

Well, have you decided which garden bird you are and how you wish to conduct your business?

VOTE for this post HERE and win great prizes!

This post is part of the SugarTone: Sweet Business Blogging Contest.

Any fool can be busy. Just as it takes no special talent to run around like a headless chicken, it takes no special talent to be consumed by other people’s deadlines.

I have no problem showing up for appointments that have been arranged with others. If I say I will be there, then 99% of the time I will indeed be present. Occasionally I will be let down by my own planning or technology or traffic; but those are rare instances and I cringe with embarrassment at the very recollection of such occasions.

But isn’t it amazing that I can still shrug off a development priority (whether personal or business) with hardly a murmur?

Whether it’s planning, team-development, writing an article, or improving the website; these priorities are easily replaced by the next deadline or the last email.

If we are not vigilant, delivery will always override development. This simple phenomenon accounts for more stress, overwhelm, endless feast-famine revenue cycles, exhaustion, frustration and broken resolutions than just about every other aspect of business life put together.

Recognising the truth of this changes nothing. Signing up for another development programme, reading another book, buying a franchise, embarking on an MBA: none of this helps… if we are not prepared to defend our development time and be accountable to somebody else.

It’s fair to say that if we don’t, nobody will complain. We may not even complain ourselves; we may instead justify the decision in terms of fees earned, people satisfied or goals achieved.

Over the past few years, I’ve got pretty good at defending professional development time. Now I would like to be equally vigilant with my personal development time. Specifically this means one hour every day, and a half day every weekend. I’m counting on you and a few thousand others to hold me accountable.

How do You want 2010 to be different?

In business and worklife, the same simple equation applies (c=e+b).  Changes are made up of endings and beginnings.  Upscaling, downsizing, merging, diversifying, divesting – they all begin with an ending somewhere.  These endings may be regarded as positive, negative  or both!  Either way, these endings mark the first stage of transition that people go through as they leave the old way behind and move towards the new.  If you would like to understand more about the vital role of human transitions in change management,  Managing Transitions by William Bridges is a seminal work.

Negative endings cause us losses

Negative endings cause us losses.  Such losses may be minor and manageable or they may be mind-numbing and incapacitating.  They may be anywhere in between the two.

These losses can strongly impact our view – both of ourselves and of the changing situation around us.  Our reaction to ( and our ability to cope with)  these losses,  is highly individual to us.  The same loss that devastates one of our colleagues might not affect us as much, or at all,  for a myriad of reasons.

The impact felt depends solely on the perception of the person suffering the loss.

Management Tip:  If your change initiative is frozen or failing, you are probably still stuck in the first stage of transition – you need to identify what endings and losses people have had to face, assess how they are coping, and understand how to manage them forward.

Typical losses caused by workplace endings might include, for example, changed or vanished relationships; diminished status; reduced responsibilities; and decreased benefits.

The short-term effect of experiencing such losses often manifests itself in the feelings described by the Kubler Ross grief cycle.  These can include shock, immobilisation, denial, anger, bargaining and depression. Anyone who has been in a workplace when a redundancy programme has been announced can vouch for this phenomenon – in both the victims and survivors.

On top of that you can usually bet that someone who is trying to cope with negative losses – and the feelings they create – is also probably experiencing other deep-seated emotions such as embarrassment, shame, wounded self-esteem, and maybe even desperation.

Have you ever seen someone ‘acting out’ in a workplace, and perhaps behaving quite out of character?  What endings and losses might they have been tackling?

Losses may be mind-numbing and incapacitating

One of the big challenges for managers who are planning and implementing change initiatives is that this is neither a linear nor a sequential human process.  Moreover, individuals in the same office or department can and do go through these cycles of feelings and emotions at different times and at different rates.  Some get through this first phase of transition quickly.  For others, even the slightest knock-back can send them back to their comfort zone where they strive to maintain their status-quo and may fiercely resist all efforts to change.

In Part II we’ll explore how business managers can avoid becoming stumped and frustrated by their organisation’s change efforts.  We’ll also consider some things that people who are struggling to cope with the effects of change can do to support themselves and their colleagues through tough transitions.

Well in the intervening period there have been a few conversations about this – on my own blog, on Twitter and on the IDA’s Innovation Ireland group on LinkedIn. We’ve talked about the idea of an online network for innovators that would be a forum for start-ups and individuals with ideas to meet, share and potentially develop partnerships.

There are some networks already, but it seems that most are not fulfilling the needs of many. Some people feel that we do not need yet another network (YAN), but that we should spend time improving what’s there or picking the best of each of them and aggregating them into a central resource.

However, among the inviduals who are bursting with idea’s there is overwhelming support for a new network that would help them bring their innovations to market. It seems that those who are already in start-up mode, who are already engaged with the various agencies, Enterprise Ireland or the County Enterprise Boards are well catered for.

Is this the case? Have you all the supports that you need already? Would you value a new online platform that would allow you to tap into innovation resources that could help you grow your business?

Two of the Enterprise Ireland activities that do appear to be meeting some part of the need are Ideagen which is an innovation roadshow touring Ireland at the moment, providing physical networking opportunities, and the Big Ideas Network which invites you to post some information about your big idea  in order to find the people with the commercial services you need. Have you availed of any of these? If so what are your thoughts?

“OK, great. So what is Innovation?”

Well, the answers are often not quite so forthright or clear in response.  Businesses move on and deal with day to day problems and quite rightly don’t spend much time on the unclear and ambiguous.

Is this an opportunity being lost? Well perhaps. Innovation is a misunderstood and perhaps overused term and has been devalued as a result. That doesn’t mean that the statements are untrue or that innovation is of little value, perhaps it means that a disconnect between the term and the value has occurred.

Innovation is only about value.

Innovation is the creation of new value and value for a business needs to be measureable in business terms:  Revenue and Profit.  Now if the output measures can make sense to business still the question still remains what is innovation?

1. Innovations are products or services that bring some new value to the market.
2. Innovation is a set of processes that reduce the risk for a business that seeks out new value.

Reconnecting to Innovation

Seeking out new value is an inherently risky business.  There will never be any guarantee of success but in business there are seldom guarantees of anything. If you wish to lead a market you need to be doing something better than your competitors. Have something that offers better value – have a better way of bringing it to market that allows for a more competitive price or better margins. These come from doing something or many things a little (or a lot) differently.

Modern Innovation techniques are about using the knowledge & patterns extracted from years of Human Invention. These patterns channel, focus and develop the natural creativity of teams in business to produce something new or solve a problem in a new way.

Irish Business must connect to practical and effective methods to solve problems and create new value.  Find the tools that can differentiate a company on a global stage. Push past the waffle and the sloganeers and find those who speak the language of business and understand the pressures.

The innovation resources in Ireland are highly trained and usually well tested in business.

The question is:  How do we connect?