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BLACKBERRY CIVIL WORKS Blackberry Pie: A Savoury Slice February 2003 Volume 1, Number 7 |
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Openings: William Upski Wimsatt, a social activist, provides the following as an example of postings that he would like to see in all classifieds: JOB OPENING: Young visionaries
needed immediately in every field at all locations throughout world. Rewarding work; flexible thinking; no
previous experience necessary. Get in
on the ground floor of this growing, high-potential field. Apply in person at a problem near you. Compare this with your employment postings and think about what kind of people you are attracting. |
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Spotlight: The science of physics has proven, in recent years, that we live in a world that favours attraction. While repulsion does exist, it is not the first impulse of any system and requires more energy than attraction. In practical terms, this means that it is easier to get what you want rather than to avoid what you do not want. If we add to this idea the premise that an organisation’s success is defined by the quality of the relationships between its stakeholders, to be successful, an organisation must magnetise itself to attract and retain the right people. Enterprises expend a great deal of energy—marketing campaigns for customers, compensation packages for employees, and dividends for investors—to be attractive. In evaluating these efforts, it is the quality rather than the quantity of the people attracted that is important. This is true of all stakeholders. A customer that does not fit your business can be just as costly as an employee that does not fit. When quality rather than quantity is the goal, the message used to attract people must emphasise who you are—your uniqueness—over what you have to offer. While taking this approach may raise the cost of attracting people and reduce the number of people attracted, you are attracting people who are much more valuable to your enterprise. With a focus on attracting specific people, retaining these people requires less effort. Your retention strategy can be as simple as a continual refinement of your interactions and transactions. The beauty in this approach is that how you conduct business in all areas of your enterprise builds long-term relationships without a specific focus on stakeholder relations. As individuals and as organisations, we seek long-term relationships. Interpretations of present trends, suggesting that short-term relationships are becoming the norm, are at odds with the basic human affinity for long-term relationships. It is reasonable to envision enterprises built on loyalty if we recognise that we want long-term relationships and we accept that the universe conspires to give us what we want. The challenge is earn and reinforce your stakeholders' loyalty through each interaction and transaction. |
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Facts &
Figures: The next time you are stopped for a
traffic violation, you can take some solace for not having been stopped in
Finland. In Finland, speeding fines
are based on income and recently a Nokia executive, with earnings of $5.2
million, was fined $103,000. The fine
was later reduced to $5,245, which equates to approximately three hours worth
of the executives wages. |
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Lexicon: The word renaissance has a magical quality. At root, it means to be born again and it speaks to us of an awakening. After a period of darkness, there is often a revival, a remembrance of the possibilities that were always present and yet unseen. Particularly when your organisation is in flux, calling on the quality of renaissance can assist you to imagine today and tomorrow in the most favourable light. |
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Just For Fun: Are you finding that getting your team in tune and keeping them
in harmony is a challenge? http://svt.se/hogafflahage/hogafflaHage_site/Kor/hestekor.swf |
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Musings: In the pursuit of Humanly Engineered Solutions, science is one of the driving engines. Science assists us in explaining our world and determining what is true. Every time we combine two elements, such as people and products, in a unique way and attempt to predict the outcome, we are conducting our own science experiment. Just as the alchemist sought to turn lead into gold, we search to transform our organisations and ourselves. There are scientific theories that give us a better language to explain what a good business person has always known. Small differences can have arbitrarily large effects (chaos theory). A well functioning store feels very different from one that is not (field theory). A loose, rather than controlling, management style allows a business to quickly respond to new opportunities (self-organising systems theory). The laws of nature expressed in these theories are at work within your business and an awareness of them allows you to clearly annunciate your intuitions. All these theories confirm one very
unsettling truth: it is nearly impossible to predict an outcome. While accepting this uncertainty does not
provide you with any comfort, doing so lets you stop worrying about your goal
and get on with working towards it. |
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© 2003 Blackberry Civil Works |
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