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10 Tips For Managing Your Time
10 Tips For Managing Your Time
By Mark Wardell
1. Plan the following day at the end of each day. This is the
time your mind is most clear. If you try to plan your day in the
morning, you become distracted by your e-mail, your...
Achieving Competitive Advantage through Collaboration with Key Customers and Suppliers
An Evolving Operational Focus
In the past when companies pondered corporate strategy,
operations had been peripheral to the discussion. Operations
were considered a technical matter with one way of doing things
and therefore not,...
Managers: You Know YOUR Job, but What About Public Relations?
Sure, you’re a business, non-profit, association or
government agency manager specializing in activities like
sales, human resources, distribution, finance, program
management or any of many other operating functions.
So you know what...
Small Business Q & A: The Business Autopsy: A Fact Of Life
Last week we discussed the importance of performing an autopsy on a dead business. No, I haven't been watching too many of those wonderfully graphic, TV forensic investigation shows. The reason I recommend you do a business autopsy is to uncover the...
What You Must Do for One Whole Day, Every Week for Your Business
Do you experience periods of feast or famine in your business?
Do you only think about marketing when you realize you are
running low on clients? Do you have some steady clients but
you'd love to have more? Or are you still struggling to...
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Change Management Can Lead to Rigidity and Resistance to Change
"Today's successful business leaders will be those who are most
flexible of mind. An ability to embrace new ideas, routinely
challenge old ones, and live with paradox will be the effective
leader's premier trait. . . Leaders will have to guide the ship
while simultaneously putting everything up for grabs, which is
itself a fundamental paradox." -- Tom Peters, Thriving on Chaos:
Handbook for a Management Revolution
Beware of formal organization improvement or "change management"
(an oxymoron) plans. Like strategic plans, organization
improvement or change management plans can reduce an
organization's effectiveness. They can lead to rigidity,
bureaucracy, and resistance to change.
This sounds like an argument against planning. It's not. We have
found that constant and ongoing personal, team, and organization
improvement planning is vital. But too many "change management"
and improvement plans are built on the same faulty premise as
strategic planning -- that there is a right path, which can be
determined in advance and then implemented. We often hear
managers declare that they have the right strategic or
improvement plan, but the reason things aren't going according
to plan is because of "execution problems." This is a deadly
assumption.
While there are many reasons for execution problems, one of the
key problems is a top-down improvement plan or "change
management" program. Because of their need for order and
control, many rigid managers try to use "change management" or
improvement planning to regulate and direct the random and
chaotic events swirling around them. They aren't comfortable
with letting
their improvement plan and path to higher
performance unfold and evolve toward their vision, values,
purpose, goals and priorities. In other words, they think they
can start with the answers. They're not comfortable with
learning.
Other organizations and consultants may have been down a similar
road to the one we're on. We have much to learn from their
experiences. But we can't follow their path. If we have never
been here before, we don't really know what the best paths and
approaches are. Our improvement path evolves as we get to each
fork in the road and get those people closest to the action to
help make the most appropriate choices.
We need an unwavering strategic focus on where we're going. We
need to set priorities, allocate resources, and put
implementation schedules in place. But exactly how we get there
can only be roughly sketched. Details get filled in as we go.
Most of the problems and opportunities can't be anticipated and
planned for in advance. We have to take advantage of the
unforeseeable opportunities that will quietly present themselves
as our journey unfolds. This is the paradox of strategic
opportunism. It is the path of learning and constant
improvement.
About the author:
Jim Clemmer is a bestselling author and internationally
acclaimed keynote speaker. During the last 25 years he has
delivered over two thousand customized keynote presentations,
workshops, and retreats. Jim's five international bestselling
books include The VIP Strategy, Firing on All Cylinders,
Pathways to Performance, Growing the Distance, and The Leader's
Digest. His web site is www.clemmer.net/articles.
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