I’m moving in…
To any and all that stop by, I’m moving my blog. I have http://www.changeforge.com redirected, but don’t have a lot of the themes and plug-ins configured just yet… so I’ll be working on that over the next few days…
See you on the flip side,
Ken
Is Your Culture a Culture of Team?
I have been in the technology industry for around 11 years now, beginning in the United States Marine Corps. This was one of the most trying times of my young life, both personally, with a newly wed wife living 3000 miles away from home for the first time, and professionally - and a challenge was what I signed up for. One of the sayings of the Corps was, “Shared adversity builds team.” Boy, did the Marine Corps take advantage of this, and I will tell you that I worked with some of the best and brightest people I have ever had the privilege to serve with.
One of my regrets is that I was not mature enough at the time to appreciate what the value of a team offered as opposed to standing on your own against the odds. Sure, I got the idea of a fire team or squad, but I never truly understood what the Staff Non-Commissioned Officers (NCO’s) would always say, “The Marine Corps doesn’t take care of Marines, Marines take care of other Marines.” It is something that I am only starting to truly understand how profound a statement that was. I truly worked with one of the best teams known on this planet.
To say that, is to say that when I joined my current company almost 5 years ago, I have come to understand there are so many layers to building a true team. Through finishing a degree and attending various management seminars to building my own team, perhaps the most fundamental thing I have come to know is that people help other people; it takes the right people supporting each other in pursuit of a common vision that truly takes a team from good into the realm of greatness.
I am a big fan of Jim Collins book Good to Great. One of my favor parts is where he talks about getting the right people on the bus, in the right seats on the bus, and getting the wrong people off. We started along a path of building a great company many years ago, and it started with the founder, lived on with the new owners, and has not only been seeded in each of us at this company but has really taken root. It is not a fanciful wish or a begging question, but a resolute and humble knowledge that the passion of doing the very best job for those individuals that stand beside you makes you great!
While this post may sound a little cultish, almost as if I had ‘drank the Kool-Aid’, the team that I have had the privilege of working with and even building has turned out to be a greater honor than accolade. I have been humbled by the many trials I have been through and think of this current position as infinitely more complex and challenging than ever was the Marine Corps, but exceedingly more rewarding. It is the people that I hold up that in turn support me so that we may work towards a shared vision… and I have learned a valuable lesson that we stand stronger together than alone - a lesson both business and society-at-large can learn from.
Regards,
Ken
Does Software Solve Real Business Problems?
SFA, CRM, ERP, ERM, DMS, CMS, MPS, and SaaS… Wow, we hear these acronyms and probably use some versions of them in our daily business - and even to run our business. So what’s in a name?
Well, evidently a lot according to “them”, the software manufactures and industry experts alike. We hear all about the wonderful productivity enhancements and time saving tools there are, and don’t get me wrong… “they” may be on to something there. It’s a wonderful commercial the salesperson puts on for us, and we blindly subscribe to the fantasy while skipping lightly through strawberry fields.
Oblivious to the pending chasm we are hurtling towards, a reality of costly acquisition and lengthy integrations eagerly awaits the unwary. This grim picture painted, what really boggles my mind is how often companies do not have the stomach to keep down the ugly truth that you must understand where you stand before you can decide where you must step.
What does that even mean? What I see time and again is that companies fail to comprehend software alone cannot solve their problems, only focus and attention to aligning business goals and metrics to actionable and corrective plans. Software is much like a coat of paint. If you have spent time sanding and priming and buffing then a good paint job can bring new life to something; however, if you simply slop new paint over old to cover some rust spots the paint job will always look splotchy and eventually the rust spots will resurface.
My advice is to spend what is the hardest, but arguably the most rewarding, time in understanding why you run the business the way you do. Create metrics to help measure your business, like a report card, but do not let the metrics dictate success alone, as they are simply an indication of what is working and what is not. If the metrics indicate something is working, ask, “Why?” If the metrics indicate something is not working, ask, “Why not?” Perhaps, the most important advice I might offer is that change is inevitable and on going.
Remember, there is no magic bullet, but I’m sure you can find a silver lining if you know where to look.
Regards,
Ken
… Or Get Off the Pot!
In the interest of being honest, I am not a truly patient person in many situations. While I can display patience, my behavioral energy can be depleted and I tend to get a little frustrated. My deep desire to understand something from all angles often is my salvation and reprieve. What I truly get frustrated with is when people have the facts and can’t make a decision… by George, get off the pot!
This brings us to the point of this post, the very thing I must learn, change is not necessarily fast. In fact, quite often it takes much longer than I would care for. I don’t know if this is really anything exceptionally profound here folks… but in order for change to occur, people must be involved and willing to change. Sure we can pin someone into a corner and force an reaction (notice I did not say action), or we may have some power over a person (positionally or informationally), and require a person perform a certain task. However, these things, to me, are not to be confused with change.
Change requires individuals to sympathize and understand the value of adopting a different path, and a willingness to put the energy forth to walk that different path. Some changes are quick and painless - and even welcome. However, substantial change can be difficult, and I’m sure if you have ever tried to diet or adopt a new work-out routine you will agree.
So I say all of this to simply say that to change can be tough. Couple this with being a pioneer - ready to blaze that next trail, and you could be in for a world of frustration if you do not mentally prepare yourself for cultural, political, financial, and logistical challenges to arise throughout the adoption process; Additionally, change does not ever seem to happen overnight; change often occurs over years and decades with constant care and feeding to always adapt the change process in alignment with the strategic goals.
Regards,
Ken
Are You a Farmer or a Pioneer?
A colleague of mine once told me that people in the IT field were classified as one of two personality types: a farmer or a pioneer. He went on to explain that a farmer is one who patiently plows the land reaping small rewards and taking what nature gives him or her. The pioneer, however, is out exploring the vast and undiscovered wilderness, setting trails where no one has dared travel before.
I have worked with many people over my short career in technology, and what I have found staggering is the amount of individuals in IT that are just that – individuals. Let me explain… First, they do not participate as part of the larger team – and most certainly do not ‘get’ the grander business needs. Second, their customer service focus is wholly lacking so they often resemble the computer guy off of SNL. Third, they view themselves as guard dogs, taking care of the corporate computers – which is not an dishonorable position in and of itself; but they settle for the scraps of meat thrown from the corporate table…
With all this said, a bit tongue-in-cheek, many IT professionals still do not seek out ways to decrease costs, increase revenues, and improve employee job satisfaction through advances in USABLE business technology applications and initiatives. To some extent, I can understand the mentality of protecting your little corner in the maze of corporate cubicles, but what I cannot stomach are those that have no vision or inkling of corporate strategy and how to positively impact this. Instead, they plod along picking the land dry instead of blazing a trail looking for new paths that others may follow one day.
If you are a manager, director, or C-level individual – and are not a pioneer, you may want to stand up and peek outside your door to make sure there isn’t someone younger and hungrier coming your way! Get a clue people… align yourself to your customer and add-value to what you are offering; if not you may be put out to pasture like an old mule…
Regards,
Ken
Culture Is the King of Change!
I just recently had the pleasure of meeting a new friend, Corey Smith, at ITEX, who runs the Master the Business blog, through a colleague of mine, Darrel Amy, who owns Dealer Marketing Systems. He wrote a rather interesting article on his blog that I was thumbing through called ‘Does change always equal ROI?’
I responded back with some thoughts of my own:
I firmly believe change is hard, and people generally only want change because they are unsatisfied with the current situation, but is the grass really greener on the other side?
Of course, this is a rhetorical question in the grander sense of this reply, but a question that should, nonetheless, be asked by those change agents within a business and really examined. It is my humble opinion that only two things should dictate change: 1) an internal desire to positively impact the business and 2) an external market pressure or development that dictates change to survive.
People by their very nature are experiential. This is to say that they must generally experience a great deal of pain or pleasure to enable the catalysts for change to take root. It is my submission that change only occurs in any form of permanence with the former as it takes an increasing amount of pleasure to perpetuate lasting change (see economics 101: the law of diminishing returns).
So in a nutshell, change for its own sake never succeeds, and you are dead-on in stating change can indeed be painful. However, it is that very vision of change from the leader given to the troops, and reinforced by line managers that keeps change on track - along with a good business plan of course!
What I would submit to you is change management can be positive, much quicker to realize ROI, and much less painful, even to the point of being positive, if you have spent the time building a culture that is high capacity and dedicated to the grander vision of a leader…
You must consistently remind people why we are changing, but most importantly, as a technologist and business process improvement advocate, I have found that gaining not only C-level buy-in but grass roots buy-in to be the real key. This is why my number 1 metric is always long-term cultural adoption.
Communistic you say? Not in the least. I have found that your associates can often tell you what is screwed up most in the business. Why is this? Because they are often closest to your customer… This is of course to say you have built a high-capacity team and that you have the right people on the bus — and in the right seats on the bus (to use a line from Jim Collins).
Culture is king and how change can be accomplished in both good and bad situations.
Regards,
Ken
Hello World…
Well, hello world. I am pleased to launch the ChangeForge blog. We will see what the future brings, but my sole intent is to create a simple space to post my many observations and ramblings… More to come as I get settled into the routine of posting…
Warmest Regards,
Ken
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ChangeForge... a catalyst to affect the paradigm by Ken Stewart is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.changeforge.com. -
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