• What are the strategic objectives of your organization?
• What is the greatest challenge to achieving them?

The answers you commonly hear to these questions are: The economy is bad, our competition has a new product or service, or our team is in transition.  While certainly these issues will have a negative effect on your business, our experience has been there is a much greater obstacle to your organization achieving your strategic objectives.

That obstacle is the status quo. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status_quo.  The Ideas Evolving team collaborates with organizations ranging from small non-profits to large publicly traded companies. What is the commonality between these organizations?  They are intractably tied to their existing method of thought and how they execute tasks and activities on a daily basis.

Will maintaining the status quo allow you to achieve your strategic objectives?

You hear people say: We just purchased the latest technology… Our business is constantly changing….. These statements are undoubtedly true, but they beg the questions:

• Did you reengineer your business process to align with your new technology?
• Did you leverage the change in your business to become more efficient and support your stakeholders in a way that positively affected the valuestream of your business?

If the answer to these questions is NO, the next question is WHY NOT?

More often than not, we find that the answers to WHY NOT are quite simple: “Change is too hard” or “Now is not the right time”.  What happens? The organization buys the technology or facilitates a “Change Management” exercise, but does not dig in and do the hard work of driving true change in the organization.

A thought: Get your key team members in the room and start listening, start talking, start writing on the white board, create a mind map.  BE FEARLESS!!!  Break the “Status Quo” create a clear path to achieving your strategic objectives.  If the first path does not work, load up and chart the next course.

“We cannot discover new oceans unless we have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” – Andre Gide

We wish you all the best on your journey and we look forward to you sharing your experiences on “Fearlessness” and breaking the status quo in your organization.

Social networking tools provide options for bringing people together that were unthinkable less than 10 years ago.  No matter how your organization achieves it (Rotary Club, LeTip or Linked In): The “Power of Collaboration” to inject new ideas, create additional revenue, and increase the value of your organization remains constant.

Ideas Evolving is using social networking tools (Linked In, Facebook, Twitter, etc) to expand our network of collaboration partners.  The following is an example of the results we have experienced through use of  social networking platforms.

While planning a vacation to Grand Rapids, MI; I used Linked In’s www.linkedin.com speakers and panelists group to search for a speaking engagement. I made a connection with a fantastic collaboration partner, Lynne Jarman Johnson http://www.thejjway.com.  Lynne and I were Co-Presenters at a workshop on July 8th in Grand Rapids and are looking forward to a “Road Show” this fall in Michigan.

One of the attendees at the event, Ken Jacobsen Jr., Director of Sales and Marketing for The TM Group http://www.tmgroupinc.com was kind enough to blog on what he experienced during the presentation and how it affects The TM Group’s stakeholders.  http://www.erpsoftwareblog.com/2009/07/get-the-rust-out-with-dynamics-gp/.

What set this chain of events in motion? One new connection on Linked In.  The question for your organization:  Will embracing online collaboration enhance the valuestream of your business?

Ideas Evolving has increased our pipeline and been introduced to new market opportunities by making connections on Linked In, Facebook, Twitter, and Biznik www.biznik.com.

Whether you want to meet at Starbucks, send messages via Carrier Pigeon or connect online;  the Ideas Evolving team looks forward to collaborating with you in the near future.

There are two unique opportunities for organizations and individuals looking to meet at that intersection:

1. Working with organizations that have a vision of how they can increase profitability by bringing alignment to People, Process and Technology.
2. Working with organizations where the leadership has never uttered these three words together in a sentence before today.

With either opportunity, one thing remains the same:  change management.

Let’s review some examples from our experience:

Bob is working diligently in his cube at his large company when his manager John comes around looking to improve office efficiency.  John asks, “Why are you doing your task that way?” Bob responds, “This is the way we have always done it.”

This is an opportunity for change, a signal that the team has not recently taken an in depth look at how People, Process and Technology could be used to solve a problem more efficiently.

This organization has the ingredients for change: smart people, understanding of process, and solid technology.  The barriers to change include: Lack of resources, political issues and risk aversion. What are the barriers in your organization?

Large organizations are not alone in finding solutions to the issues that stop them to making positive change to their operations. Smaller organizations also face the challenges of bringing People, Processes and Technology together to achieve their objectives.

Let’s look at Sue’s Small Shop.

Sue’s manages a profitable service business, but there is change on the horizon. Let’s see if they can pass “The Lottery Test”.

Question to Sue: “How do you dispatch your service people and manage your accounting process?”   Sue responds, “Sharon (the office manager) does that work and she is fantastic, she would never let us down.”

We agree!  Sharon is terrific and would never let you down.

Good News!!! Sharon won the LOTTERY!  Bad News…… She said “Adios” to Sue’s Small Shop and headed to Mexico with her new found wealth.

Question: Does Sue have the people in place to take over Sharon’s workload?  Do they understand the business process and technology used to manage this profitable business?

As we see time and time again, the answer is “NO!”

The examples above are experiences that our collaboration partners face every day. (Personnel change to be sure, winning the Lottery…..)

The question to you: Are you facing these challenges?  If you are, how are you addressing them?

We look forward to having a conversation of how great organizations can collaborate to bring People, Process and Technology together to achieve strategic objectives.