Change sucks. 

Most people hate it and try to avoid it.  But it is a fact of life.

Life is change, no matter how we all want to think otherwise.   I’d love to keep many things the same but, no luck.

Recently I’ve been trying to keep this in mind.  When I’m aware that things are going to change, it doesn’t affect me as much when they actually do.  I can actually prepare for it and sometimes plan the direction it heads.

This is immensely helpful now a days in life and business.

Colin Raney wrote IDEO’s Axioms for Starting Disruptive New Businesses over at Fast Company’s CoDesign.

IDEO’s premise:  “Don’t wait for Perfection: Launch and learn.”  Design change into the business cycle.  Experiment and expect to fail sometimes.

Their actions steps:

1. Go early, go often
2. Learning by doing
3. Inspiration by constraint
4. Open to opportunity

How much easier would change management be if we were able to remain flexible enough to incorporate all this?  What kinds of problems might we avoid if we run our business in this manner?

But people will say that being flexible in organizations is hard.

It is, if flexibility is not build into the structure of the business.  Look at the large media publishers and what a difficult time they are having recently due to changes in reading habits.

However, changing structures is doable.  It just takes time, effort, and commitment like anything else.

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TED Talk: Chip Conley: Measuring what makes life worthwhile

“We count numbers. We count on people. What really counts is when we actually use our numbers to truly take into account our people.   I learned that from a maid in a hotel and a king of a country.”

http://www.ted.com/talks/chip_conley_measuring_what_makes_life_worthwhile.html

Here’s more information on Gross National Happiness
And the Center for Bhutan Studies’ website on Gross National Happiness.

“What can you start counting today?”

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Now this is what I’m talking about!

“At TEDIndia, Pranav Mistry demos several tools that help the physical world interact with the world of data — including a deep look at his SixthSense device and a new, paradigm-shifting paper “laptop”.”

[Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of 'SixthSense' technology; http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/videoshow_ted/5231080.cms]

Vision + Planning + Follow Through = Success

Can’t wait to see what’s next!

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We’ve all seen or been a part of an under performing team.  Sometimes when we are in one, we wonder how we got there.  Take a look at the list below and see if any or many fit your situation.

Some characteristics of low performing teams:

• No Outcome Frame;  “Where exactly are we going together?”

High performing teams are structured in a way that promotes lasting success.

• Griping about the Larger Organization; “They’re not supporting us like they should!”

• A Low Degree of Participation and Input; “My views are not important.”

• Poor Skills in Open Listening; “I only hear and agree with views that are like mine.”

• Low Commitment to the Objectives; “I don’t really care what we’re doing here.”

• Poor Problem-Solving and Decision Making; “I’m right, you’re wrong!”

• A Purpose which needs Clarification and Redefinition; “I can’t easily explain what we do.”

• An Underdeveloped Self-Assessment Process; “We think we’re on the right track.”

High performing teams are structured in a way that promotes lasting success.

They elicit participation and commitment from their members at the start.

They know exactly where they are going and how they will go about getting there.  Most times, the exact steps are not known at the beginning, but there is a process put in place on how they will come up with those steps.

Additionally, good teams are self-aware, review their progress at regular intervals, and make the necessary corrections when needed.

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Derek Sivers gives us a quick expose on how to challenge our assumptions.

[Derek Sivers: Weird, or just different? http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_weird_or_just_different.html]

What’s a juicy assumption you have that is worth exploring?

How might the opposite be also true?

If you look at each one closely and objectively, which belief is more useful?

What’s it worth to hold on to an old belief?

What’s it worth to adopt a better one?

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“We’re here to put a dent in the universe. Otherwise why else even be here?”

-Steve Jobs

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Over at MindingthePlanet.net, Nova noted some interesting insights on the evolution of the web and mankind itself:  What’s After the Real Time Web? Read Part 1 of this piece here.

The inter-connection of people/information/technology on the web, is hardwiring everything and everyone together.  There are more aspects of Nova’s ‘Collective Intelligence’ that will evolve in mankind, one is our effect on the Collective Consciousness.

Durkheim’s collective consciousness speaks of a ‘unifying force’ the shared by society.  The hardwiring of the planet will automatically begin this sharing of attitudes and beliefs.  Even if it is just exposing others to new ideas.  These will be added into the mix, and included in thought processes and decision making.

As this consciousness grows in size and complexity, the memes will change and value systems will evolve.  Before we know it, people will be thinking differently and behaving differently.

Not only will we change the collective consciousness, we will have greater access to it.

Once the mind is freed up from the ‘stupid mundane things’ that it no longer needs to worry about because it is being handled by a computer, other less used processes and senses will develop.  Perhaps people will begin to develop their access to Jung’s Collective Unconsciousness and other subtle fields.  This is the expansion of our awareness, the soft-wiring of mankind, to the cosmic Wi-Fi.

Western science has yet to validate these claims of many Eastern wisdom traditions, but didn’t Astronomy claim to be a closed science at one point?  New discoveries are always being made.   So we’ll see what happens.

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Ken Robinson gives a great treatise on Creativity.

Check out his definition of creativity (3:20) and think how this might impact innovation and creativity in yourself and in your organization.

[Ken Robinson on schools kill creativity (snippets) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuG1bSZHsHw]

How are you going to see things differently?

Where would you start? People talk about thinking outside the box, but how, really, is that done? There are processes that can accomplish this and effective coaching can ease the transition.

But just by asking the above questions, you have begun to change… How far are you willing to go?

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Over at MindingthePlanet.net, Nova noted some interesting insights on the evolution of the web and mankind itself:  What’s After the Real Time Web?

Nova contends that the current obsession with real-time web as the end-all-be-all, is “a bit myopic.”  I agree, but that is where we currently are in the evolutionary process on the web and we will grow out of it.
[Read more →]

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• How are we managing our resources and energy? Interesting article info even if you don’t want to look like these guys: http://bit.ly/HmvOV #
• Work / Life Balance Quiz: http://bit.ly/PCrcL Is there such a thing? #

• Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-10-11 http://bit.ly/EW1Pf #
• Gaining Insight. 4 steps to start realizing what’s really going on. http://bit.ly/2dKrJF #
• 5 ways the best get better and stay that way: http://bit.ly/Gp1cm #

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