ciChange is a not-for-profit forum for ideas and discussion, about all aspects of Change Management, including people, processes, teams and leadership. It is a place to share and exchange models, papers, ideas and information about change. We welcome participation from a broad audience, including business and change leaders as well as project & change providers.
Sunday, 9 October 2011
The power of sharing ideas
If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.
Monday, 3 October 2011
Leadership lessons from the Dancing Guy
Leadership lessons from the Dancing Guy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPShQ_hVJqY&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLE039B3B562A1A888
No need to say anything, the video says it all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPShQ_hVJqY&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLE039B3B562A1A888
No need to say anything, the video says it all.
The role of a Manager
The role of a Manager is to ensure that the following questions are answered positively, and if not, to make the necessary changes.
a)I know what is expected of me at work
b)I have the materials and equipment I need to do my job right
c)I have the opportunity to do what I do best every-day
d)In the last 7 days I have received recognition or praise for doing good work
e)Someone at work encourages my development
f)At work, my opinions count
a)I know what is expected of me at work
b)I have the materials and equipment I need to do my job right
c)I have the opportunity to do what I do best every-day
d)In the last 7 days I have received recognition or praise for doing good work
e)Someone at work encourages my development
f)At work, my opinions count
Saturday, 1 October 2011
What should go into a Business Plan?
What should go into a Business Plan?
Having done an MBA I know that the answer is "…it depends.." indeed when you've done an MBA you realise that this is the answer to every possible business question. I loved doing the course, and got a lot from it but having an MBA doesn't make you Alan Sugar or Richard Brandson. Indeed I think I know every possible way a business might fail, but I don't have a recipe for guaranteed success.
The same might be applied to a Business Plan, I know what a bad one is, but its hard to prescribe an ideal one that would suit everyone. The key is to address the external environment (PESTLE) and internal resources (SWOT) and some up with a Strategy (Long Plan) Aims (Medium Plan) and Objectives (Immediate Plan) to use your resources to best advantage delivering a Product or Service to a Customer.
There are lots of lists and models you can use to inform your business planning. My favourite models are EFQM Business Excellence Model and Balanced Scorecard. They can be really helpful to thinking through the issues and picking the elements that are most appropriate to the circumstance.
Key rules
1. The business plan should tell a compelling story about your business, explaining who, what, when, where, how and why.
2. Your plan should be focused and clear. It’s not about the number of pages or style of the cover.
3. The plan should define specific business objectives and goals with general parameters to guide the organization.
4. Writing a business plan should force logic and discipline into a business.
5. A good business plan is a living document. It should be updated regularly.
A simple list of contents might be as follows, but the content will be different of the intended readership is the Bank (for a loan) or the staff (to direct activity)
Executive Summary
Business Description & Vision
Definition of the Market
Description of Products and Services
Organization & Management
Marketing and Sales Strategy.
Financial Management.
Another great resource is bench-marking: Look at the published business plans or strategy announcements of companies you admire or compete against. Look also at the plans or announcements of your customers and check that your strategy fits their needs!
Best books include Exploring Corporate Strategy (Johnson and Scholes) and Operations Strategy (Nigel Slack)
Having done an MBA I know that the answer is "…it depends.." indeed when you've done an MBA you realise that this is the answer to every possible business question. I loved doing the course, and got a lot from it but having an MBA doesn't make you Alan Sugar or Richard Brandson. Indeed I think I know every possible way a business might fail, but I don't have a recipe for guaranteed success.
The same might be applied to a Business Plan, I know what a bad one is, but its hard to prescribe an ideal one that would suit everyone. The key is to address the external environment (PESTLE) and internal resources (SWOT) and some up with a Strategy (Long Plan) Aims (Medium Plan) and Objectives (Immediate Plan) to use your resources to best advantage delivering a Product or Service to a Customer.
There are lots of lists and models you can use to inform your business planning. My favourite models are EFQM Business Excellence Model and Balanced Scorecard. They can be really helpful to thinking through the issues and picking the elements that are most appropriate to the circumstance.
Key rules
1. The business plan should tell a compelling story about your business, explaining who, what, when, where, how and why.
2. Your plan should be focused and clear. It’s not about the number of pages or style of the cover.
3. The plan should define specific business objectives and goals with general parameters to guide the organization.
4. Writing a business plan should force logic and discipline into a business.
5. A good business plan is a living document. It should be updated regularly.
A simple list of contents might be as follows, but the content will be different of the intended readership is the Bank (for a loan) or the staff (to direct activity)
Executive Summary
Business Description & Vision
Definition of the Market
Description of Products and Services
Organization & Management
Marketing and Sales Strategy.
Financial Management.
Another great resource is bench-marking: Look at the published business plans or strategy announcements of companies you admire or compete against. Look also at the plans or announcements of your customers and check that your strategy fits their needs!
Best books include Exploring Corporate Strategy (Johnson and Scholes) and Operations Strategy (Nigel Slack)
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Technically Competent versus Socially Cool, lessons from the bikeshed
Technically Competent versus Socially Cool, lessons from the bikeshed
There a great article about bike-shedding here
http://h30565.www3.hp.com/t5/Feature-Articles/What-Can-Your-Team-Learn-from-a-Bike-Shed/ba-p/456
In essence the article suggests that sometimes it is easier to get agreement to something complex, like a million pound nuclear PowerStation than to get approval for a bike shed. This is because people don’t understand nuclear PowerStation’s but everyone feels that they can understand, contribute and improve upon a bike shed. So the latter occupies the time and attention of the stakeholders where the former does not.
I’ve seen this manifest itself in many forms. I’ve sat at a board meeting which included an agenda of many weighty business subjects and the non-executives would pontificate on the artistic merit of a design and give no more than scant attention to a complex technology project which was essential to corporate survival. I have also seen technical or business reports scanned for grammatical and spelling errors but not debated on fact.
I recommend reading the book True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society
http://www.amazon.com/True-Enough-Learning-Post-Fact-Society/dp/0470050101
This book suggests that rather than burden ourselves with the effort of real understanding, people will believe something if it is plausible, rather check if it is true. This explains why people will accept and regurgitate statistics, headlines, phone calls or catch-phrases because it is simpler than finding the truth. Vick Reeves once said “67.5% of statistics are made up.” So people base their values and assumptions on sound-bites, or whom they heard it from rather than the truth.
It seems that more are interested in celebrity, being cool, being liked than being factual. It seems we prefer media studies, hair and beauty, and being alternative, which are Socially Cool than science, maths, logic or engineering which are Technically Competent.
In an earlier article I talked about the MyersBriggs Personality types. Less than 2% of the population are INTJ the ‘Masterminds’ who are planners, thinkers, organisers.
http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/
I have also written about the Colour based Personality types: Yellow (happy, engaging, sunny) Red (dominant and driven) Green (homely peace-makers) and Blue (detail, data and routine). It seems the more of population are Yellow than Blue and perhaps these facts alone explain an apparent preference amongst many for “doing things together” rather than “doing things correctly”. http://www.mrdynamics.com/Insights/Insights-Discovery-R
In the Project and Change Management business this can lead to an over emphasis on being liked than addressing complex or difficult challenges. The story of the emperor’s new clothes is not just a nursery storey (http://deoxy.org/emperors.htm). I’ve seen business lose thousands of pounds and projects fail when they lose objectivity.
This ends up being a debate about style over substance, and both are important, but I can’t help feeling that there is an over-emphasis on the former and a lack of attention to the latter.
If you read to this point, and clicked on all the links you are BLUE.
Now go an validate all the facts!
Tim Rogers
Mobile - +44 7797 762051
Skype - timhjrogers
There a great article about bike-shedding here
http://h30565.www3.hp.com/t5/Feature-Articles/What-Can-Your-Team-Learn-from-a-Bike-Shed/ba-p/456
In essence the article suggests that sometimes it is easier to get agreement to something complex, like a million pound nuclear PowerStation than to get approval for a bike shed. This is because people don’t understand nuclear PowerStation’s but everyone feels that they can understand, contribute and improve upon a bike shed. So the latter occupies the time and attention of the stakeholders where the former does not.
I’ve seen this manifest itself in many forms. I’ve sat at a board meeting which included an agenda of many weighty business subjects and the non-executives would pontificate on the artistic merit of a design and give no more than scant attention to a complex technology project which was essential to corporate survival. I have also seen technical or business reports scanned for grammatical and spelling errors but not debated on fact.
I recommend reading the book True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society
http://www.amazon.com/True-Enough-Learning-Post-Fact-Society/dp/0470050101
This book suggests that rather than burden ourselves with the effort of real understanding, people will believe something if it is plausible, rather check if it is true. This explains why people will accept and regurgitate statistics, headlines, phone calls or catch-phrases because it is simpler than finding the truth. Vick Reeves once said “67.5% of statistics are made up.” So people base their values and assumptions on sound-bites, or whom they heard it from rather than the truth.
It seems that more are interested in celebrity, being cool, being liked than being factual. It seems we prefer media studies, hair and beauty, and being alternative, which are Socially Cool than science, maths, logic or engineering which are Technically Competent.
In an earlier article I talked about the MyersBriggs Personality types. Less than 2% of the population are INTJ the ‘Masterminds’ who are planners, thinkers, organisers.
http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/
I have also written about the Colour based Personality types: Yellow (happy, engaging, sunny) Red (dominant and driven) Green (homely peace-makers) and Blue (detail, data and routine). It seems the more of population are Yellow than Blue and perhaps these facts alone explain an apparent preference amongst many for “doing things together” rather than “doing things correctly”. http://www.mrdynamics.com/Insights/Insights-Discovery-R
In the Project and Change Management business this can lead to an over emphasis on being liked than addressing complex or difficult challenges. The story of the emperor’s new clothes is not just a nursery storey (http://deoxy.org/emperors.htm). I’ve seen business lose thousands of pounds and projects fail when they lose objectivity.
This ends up being a debate about style over substance, and both are important, but I can’t help feeling that there is an over-emphasis on the former and a lack of attention to the latter.
If you read to this point, and clicked on all the links you are BLUE.
Now go an validate all the facts!
Tim Rogers
Mobile - +44 7797 762051
Skype - timhjrogers
Monday, 12 September 2011
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I have blogged about DISC as a means of categorizing people according to their behaviors. Dominance - direct, results-oriented, strong-wille... -
I saw a link about The Buurtzorg Model: Self-management, continuity, building trusting relationships, and building networks in the neighbou... -
I read a LinkedIn article (link below) and posted a lengthy reply. However, the immediate response and small window did not allow me the tim...