Organizational Development

Listening, Understanding and Collaborating

Becausebusiness@gmail.com (Be Cause) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:38:00 +0000

This talk was delivered at the Early Words Toastmasters club at the Monticello Hotel, Longview, Washington, USA on Tuesday, March 24, 2009. Listen to the live talk at http://becausebusiness.com/files/articles1.html

Many people have lost jobs, savings and their homes. Everyone is being affected in some way. It appears that we are in the midst of transformation: financial, ecological and cultural. What could we as Early Words Toastmasters (and people everywhere) do to make a difference in our communities?
A fundamental purpose of our club is the development of our speaking and leadership skills. We can each help in our own ways, here in Toastmasters and in the other groups to which we belong. We can stimulate discussion and dialogue. What is possible and what can we envision creating? Via the Internet and through our professions we have access to broader communities whom we can inspire. We can make a difference!

The Need Is Urgent

Businesses, jobs, investments and financial security seem to be at risk. Our relationships with neighbors, family, friends and our personal sense of well-being, at times, feel threatened. There are things we can do. Fear and uncertainty must be faced. Complacency must be put aside. We in this room are leaders.
Practical collaborative action can lead to innovative new possibilities. We can practice these methods explicitly in our groups and when facing dilemmas arising at work and at home.
First practice listening to the concerns, fears and ideas of others. Repeat aloud what has been said so they know and feel they have been heard and understood. Ask for solutions and next steps. How else might the situation be understood? Research how and what others have done. Get outside opinions. Consider with the group the strengths and weaknesses of each alternative and generate new possibilities. Seek to establish a common objective that could engage the group or a larger team solving the issue collectively.
Are you an active participating member of this group or assisting it from outside? To whom might you refer the group for additional resources? Support members in identifying, negotiating and agreeing upon next steps. Members committing to accomplish a narrowly-defined, realistic project together is a major step toward the solution.

Align Finance to Action

Next, the group can begin measurable goal setting. Align appropriate financial management with the next steps to reach milestones en route to the goals. Celebrate together as you progress, comparing weekly and longer term results to earlier plans and adapting as necessary. Practicing these methods in small groups strengthens everyone’s appreciation of what’s working.
Focusing upon the common good inspires cooperation and moves action forward. Sidestep identified differences for later resolution. Break big project ideas that might be controversial into smaller manageable tasks. Agree to have differences while keeping a sense of humor and being generous with respect, praise and acknowledgement. Can you operate from “abundance” rather than “victim” thinking? Trade favors and be loose with keeping score.

Work With “The Enemy” Because There Is No “Enemy”

Former competitors are current industry colleagues when facing common crisis. In this case, clearly identify asset and skill differences. Find work for each other. Collaborate, cooperate and build each other up. Practice complimenting the contributions of others. Accept praise graciously.

This Is a Call for Action

Listening, understanding and collaboration are essential to building communities. Our Early Words Toastmasters can make a bigger difference in Longview and Southwest Washington.
How could our club’s collaboration help others? Whom might we support? What is a “common good” to which we are committed?
How is our Thursday evening Toastmasters group faring? Are there high school or college students we might invite to attend? How about business owners, employees and retired friends from Castle Rock, Rainier and Cathlamet? Let’s invite them to our meetings or to the Thursday evening gatherings.
Our Toastmasters District has committed to do a membership outreach in Cathlamet at the Wahkiakum Business Fair on April 18th at Norse Hall on Puget Island. Our Longview clubs will benefit. We can encourage participants of the Business Fair to consider joining Early Words, possibly starting their own chapter.
Strengthening our Early Words Toastmasters and other surrounding clubs will build our personal speaking and leadership skills and assist other groups and our larger communities. Can you, will you commit to attend to answer questions and meet new friends? Will you commit to use your skills for the common good?

By John E. Anderson
John@BeCauseBusiness.com

Simple Business Plan Outline

Becausebusiness@gmail.com (Be Cause) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 05:47:00 +0000

2009 Plan
Business Owners’ Names
Business Name

This Simple Business Plan Outline is an outgrowth of an earlier article posted Wednesday, January 7 at 9:43 a.m. - "Write Your Business Plan."

How to begin:
Define your objectives for 2009.
Personal Objectives-

Business Objectives -

Why these objectives are realistic?
Personal Objectives -

Business Objectives -

How will you reach your objectives?
Personal Objectives -

Business Objectives -

From your answers to these questions you can produce a basic plan. Begin your plan work with a few thoughts or sentences for each of the categories below. Complete all the categories so it can be saved on your computer and printed on a single sheet of paper.

A Business Plan Outline
1. Executive Summary – brief description of your business, what you do and how you do it.
2. Customers – who are they, their needs and how you fill those needs.
3. Competition – know everything about them, strengths, weaknesses, pricing and costs.
4. Suppliers – strengths and weaknesses.
5. Marketing – sales channel, how you reach customers, what is your value proposition message, how you communicate to them and do you have the funds to do that.
6. Staff – Key staff strengths and weaknesses, what functions do you outsource?
7. Processes – methods, policies and procedures, employee job descriptions and duties.
8. Financial – forecast for 3 to 5 years. Profit and loss and balance sheets.

Actions to take to achieve personal objectives:

Milestones to reaching these objectives:

Vital Survival Strategy

Becausebusiness@gmail.com (Be Cause) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 05:38:00 +0000

Change: A Vital
Survival Strategy

Customers Are Our Business Lifeline

By John E. Anderson, MS - Management

During times of great change, business-life is like being in rough seas wearing a life preserver. If we are thrown a lifeline, we must focus and catch it.

Knowing what to focus upon and how to adapt to change can mean life or death to our business. Our customer and their sales purchases are like a lifeline for our business. In our talk today, we will discuss that lifeline. What do you offer customers and how do they use it?

How have recent market changes affected your customers and their purchases from you? The lifeline metaphor works both ways. Sometimes it’s like you’re in the water being saved by customers and sometimes you’re throwing the lifeline with your goods and services and saving your customers.

Sales from customers drive business. Without sales, everything else can be perfect and you still have accomplished nothing. Recent economic events have affected all of our sales and the sales of virtually everyone. These are blows we are taking. Like physical hits, these economic developments have certain characteristics. They are abrupt and dramatic. We’re in the midst of a series of these business “events.” We must keep our wits and shake off the blows to recover our bearings and regain our composure. We must continue thinking, analyzing and creating. Our customers still have needs and it’s our job to fill those needs.

• We must know our personal and our business situation
Where are you in your personal life and career?
Does your business have a strong foundation?
Are you completely committed to your customers’ survival?

• We must know our customers’ and their changing needs
Identify your typical clients’ apparent, shifting and deeper needs
Communicate your commitment to fulfilling customers’ needs now & tomorrow
Collaborate with customers to solidify these crucial relationships

• We must know what we sell and how our customers benefit from it
Remember the less obvious needs of customers
What is a way you can add noticeable value
Innovate in ways your competitors haven’t or can’t

• We must engage our employees’ wisdom to solve the customer satisfaction puzzle
Staff delivering products and services must be 100% certain of satisfaction
Making work easier can improve employee attitude, delivery time and margins
Train staff to meet customer needs in relentless pursuit of customer satisfaction

• Evaluate key performance indicators as you experiment with building repeat business
Create customer lock-in
Determine acquisition costs
Generate referrals – ask customers for referrals, then deliver; make them proud

Today, we have reflected upon the changes that affect your business and personal future. It’s important to gauge the length of time you personally, intend to remain in business. From this you can better understand the commitment level you’re prepared to continue making, so you can remain in business successfully.

We talked about refining your product and service delivery to satisfy customers. It is a success fundamental. Focusing upon basic business values, like customer satisfaction, is always “good business”. During challenging economic change, it’s a vital survival strategy.

Our daily work has become seeking to learn about how our customers’ needs are changing. To avoid playing catch-up, we must gain industry insight so we can predict how customers’ “deeper needs” will be in the future. How might you better educate staff to adapt our products and services to fulfilling customers’ hidden and shifting needs?

With these conceptual tools you can design and manage your sales and margins for improved sustainability with reduced risk.

Improve Employee Productivity

Becausebusiness@gmail.com (Be Cause) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:52:00 +0000

By John E. Anderson

Effective leadership is having a clear goal that inspires your group to quickly achieve it. How can you support your group taking action in their departments and thereby reach the company-wide goal?

Milestones Guide Progress
Establishing agreed upon milestones for the group can reduce confusion and disagreement about the sequence of action steps. Strike a balance between control and direction to avoid confusion. Invite the group to create a map to reach the goal.
Too much control and you stifle their leadership training and the value of new ideas that may hold greater possibilities than you currently see. Too little direction and the group’s diversity may result in discord and lost time. Your leadership here is crucial, and we’ll talk more about that in subsequent articles.

Develop Leadership Skills
One way you might move forward is to teach your group the leadership skills necessary to plan and budget their departments. It benefits you in two ways: you can observe and guide how they do it now and you make the group more self-managing in the future. The pleasure they get contributing to charting the direction of the organization inspires them to improve. If done consistently over time, they will require less of your time to be more successful operating the venture.
One goal of leadership is to decrease your importance in daily operations. This frees you to work more on company direction and the future. The value of your company is inversely proportional to your daily involvement in operations. Become least important to achieve greatest rewards.

Simple Written Plans
Encourage your group to read “Write Your Business Plan” and apply it to their department activity drafting their “Simple Plan Outline” for your review and comments. Ask department supervisors to rough out their ideas for the year and first, second and subsequent quarters.
Sales targets and marketing plans can be tied to purchasing seasonal stock with ideas for clearance of slow stock. Department purchasing budgets can be tied to these simple department plans. Once every three months the sales and actions accomplished can be compared to the plan and budget to evaluate and apply what’s been learned to the next quarters. In this way, annual department targets can be better accomplished by routine achievement of milestones. Plans must be flexible to adjust as new opportunities or difficulties arise. You may be planning an employee meeting. This article could contribute to that meeting. Let me know and we can discuss and modify instructions and outlines for your different departments.

john@BeCauseBusiness.com
800.249.1622

Write Your Business Plan

Becausebusiness@gmail.com (Be Cause) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:43:00 +0000

By John E. Anderson

Why write a business plan? There are two main reasons. A business plan helps entrepreneurs to improve operational sustainability while reducing risk. Banks and investors typically require a business plan to demonstrate the business has been carefully designed and possible difficulties have been identified and solutions considered.

How to begin:
Define your objectives.
Are these objectives realistic?
How will you reach your objectives?
From your answers to these questions you can produce a basic plan.

A Plan Outline
1. Executive Summary – brief description of your business, what you do and how you do it.
2. Customers – who are they, their needs and how you fill those needs.
3. Competition – know everything about them, strengths, weaknesses, pricing and costs.
4. Suppliers – strengths and weaknesses.
5. Marketing – sales channel, how you reach customers, what is your value proposition message, how you communicate to them and do you have the funds to do that.
6. Staff – Key staff strengths and weaknesses, what functions do you outsource?
7. Processes – methods, policies and procedures, employee job descriptions and duties.
8. Financial – forecast for 3 to 5 years. Profit and loss and balance sheets.

Completing this plan will clarify your objectives. It will be a dynamic plan, changing every day.
Keep your plan up to date with a quarterly, annual and multi-year perspective. Refine and develop the plan each 90 days to reflect changes.
As you develop your plan, consider your personal objectives. What personal lifestyle, investment and retirement goals do you have that you would like your business to help you achieve? Your business is your profit engine to create greater personal wealth and security.

Create Cash Reserves
Building a secure, personal investment portfolio and cash reserve will enable you to make loans to your business as it goes through varying economic circumstances. Being a successful business owner requires strategic, long-term planning with preparation for booms and busts in the marketplace.

Anticipate the Unexpecteded
You owe it to your family, employees and customers to anticipate and prepare for all eventualities. Training and development of key employees for succession includes your transition out of daily responsibilities at some point. This planning and employee training is a critical responsibility best done over many years to insure a successful continuation of the firm.

john@BeCauseBusiness.com
800.249.1622

Adapting to Change

Becausebusiness@gmail.com (Be Cause) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 04:36:00 +0000

This article was first presented as a talk December 16, 2008 at 6 a.m. to Early Words, a Toastmasters International group, at the Monticello Hotel, Longview, Washington. An audio of this article is available at www.BeCauseBusiness.com by selecting the title above - Adapt To Change.

Adapting to Change in Challenging Times

By John E. Anderson

Economic concerns have become frightening. The news has been bleak nationally, globally and locally for credit, investments and rising unemployment. Today's news is wildly conflicting. Manufacturing in the U.S. is at it's lowest level since 1948, on the one hand. And GM and Chrysler received their initial bridge loans prompting the stock market to surge 200 points, the largest rally since November. Our economy is on a roller coaster of ups and downs.

As a management consultant and business coach, I have been advising clients throughout 2008 to trim expenses, particularly payroll. In the last weeks of the year, I've been speaking to business groups urging owners NOT to cut payroll. Instead, focus upon how to improve products and services, specifically by quickly improving the training and development of staff, and thereby increase customer satisfaction.

What do your clients value most in what you offer? How might you add value? Communicate directly with your clients. Collaborate with them closely in the products and services which they need most. This is the time to insure your customers know you're there and focused on meeting their most crucial needs. Meet with your employees to engage them. If they wish to remain employed, they must focus on better serving customers deepest needs. Make your workforce more productive. Additional layoffs will weaken your firm's profit engine and only accelerate the economic decline and worsen foreclosures and the economy.

Today I'm going to talk briefly about three business concepts which I consider particularly relevant: creative destruction, appreciative inquiry and project management.

Creative Destruction

One way we may look at this current economic period is as a time of "Creative Destruction." The idea of creative destruction was introduced in the 19th and early 20th centuries by Mikail Bekunin, Friedrich Nietzsche and Werner Sombart. Sombart wrote Krieg und Kapitalismus (War and Capitalism) in 1913 (p. 217), where he wrote: "again out of destruction a new spirit of creativity arises." Companies and products that once dominated socieites and cultures are replaced. Examples of companies include Xerox in copiers and Polaroid in cameras. Walmart has replaced Montgomery Ward, KMart and Sears by using superior marketing and management of inventory and personnel. Product examples include cassettes replaced by 8-tracks, then CDs and now mp3s.

Successful innovation leads to market power which erodes the profits of existing giants only to itself succumb to the pressure from new entrants to the field. General Electric is the third largest company in the world. It has survived by routinely reinventing itself. GE has used the principle of creative destruction with their product lines scaling back and then discontinuing products which are still profitable if new innovations are not introduced. This is done to keep their lines fresh, creative and dynamic.

Appreciative Inquiry

Appreciative Inquiry is building on what's working, not fixing what's broken. What is working best and how can you expand that in your company? Work with your employees to identify what your customers love most about what your firm does. Collaborate with them on how to deliver it faster, better and cheaper. Then, collaborate with your customers on how those products solve their problems and together figure out how to meet your clients' deeper needs faster, better and cheaper. Innovate to survive.

Project Management

Project Management is a science of getting things done with groups of people. Every organization has stalled projects and dilemmas. Learn more about project management methods to accelerate your project completion. I am one of a group of consultants offering free workshops on a variety of management methods to help groups adapt to our challenging times. We connect businesses with the exact skills and knowledge needed via networks of business resources.

Free Business Assessments

We offer free business assessments to collaborate with owners, evaluating what projects hold the greatest promise for their business sustainability and survival.

To conclude, an attitude of aptitude is essential to avoid depression when chaos is everywhere. Each of us must be leaders, take control of our direct individual situation and makle the best we can with it. We can't just give up, sit in bed and pull the covers over our heads. Yes, there are problems, so what there have always been problems. Let's look at what is working. With credit stopped, we're reducing debt. Is it hard? Of course, but it'll force us to be more creative and value what we have.

How do I provide value and to whom?

Can I meet my clients' needs more effectively? What would help my clients fulfill their needs better, faster or cheaper? Promotion of our staff, product and service will capture clients' attention. Then as the market recovers, our market share will expand and we will have grown and benefited. The time is NOW to organize priorities, establish what's needed and train staff to take responsibility to do the same with their departments. We can do this! What's next? What can we do together? Where shall we start?

john@BeCauseBusiness.com
800.249.1622

What's Important, Setting Goals, Establishing Priorities

Becausebusiness@gmail.com (Be Cause) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:58:00 +0000

Determining What Is Important,

Setting Goals and Establishing Priorities

As a successful entrepreneur, you perform these three actions every day, all day. Much of the time you do this tactically to achieve short-term objectives. Of course, running in the background is your strategic perspective. How today’s and this week’s achievements will fulfill your long-term targets for the month, quarter and year.

Today, right here and now, I invite you to put these ideas in writing. You know the power of written goals. Many studies have shown that written goals are much more frequently accomplished than great ideas merely thought or spoken. Many opportunities and brilliant plans are lost because they are not captured and acted upon.

Spend a few minutes now and draft out some ideas. What’s important? What are your goals? What are the priorities and sequences necessary for producing the results you see as possible and desirable? These can be for your business or personal life or both.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Develop Talent and Make Room

Becausebusiness@gmail.com (Be Cause) — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 06:26:00 +0000

Determine what processes could improve the flow of work accomplished and customers served. Add value while you streamline actions.
Redesign your job descriptions and duties. Reconsider how the jobs interact. How is work handed off from one process to the next?

What are the skills and talents needed by a worker to best perform each job? Advertise for those abilities and recruit them. Then enhance the training you've done with crafted, written explanations to get consistent results.

As you groom your talent, you must make room for them to move up. To make room, you will need to get out of the way.

Exit planning, succession and transition strategy is a key to growing your venture.

Step into Tomorrow - Begin Exit Planning Today

Becausebusiness@gmail.com (Be Cause) — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 03:30:00 +0000

This is the official announcement of our Business Exit Planning seven-class series from January 23 through March 5^th. I love new projects and this one with Dr. Gary Reiss has been very interesting over the last six or more months. It has been challenging putting together the business issues like delegation, compensation, and accounting together with the psychology of what stops us and conflict resolution.

The last few months have been hectic and exciting. We are working with several new clients using strategic planning around exit issues like succession, partner responsibilities and buy-sell issues, to name a few.

When we do exit planning we’re thinking of tomorrow for ourselves as owners, as well as for our customers, employees and community. Exit planning is recycling companies instead of just closing them and throwing years and years of good work away.

Environmental and sustainable consciousness is particularly critical for business because of how much business impacts the planet and all of us. But, what makes a company green? How green is a company shipping containers of goods thousands of miles and printing thousands of color brochures? Who decides what’s “green?” We believe “green business” is a gradual process in which we are becoming conscious of our footprint. Then we can begin to figure out ways to consider what we might do better. Every business wants to be sustainable, at least on a financial basis, having repeat and referral customers, employees who are competent, stable and have high integrity.

Exit planning is particularly important given current demographics. There are so many businesses owned by folks 40 to 80. Creating a bigger conversation about adequate planning may contribute to more ventures being effectively transferred to younger partners, kids and employees. Without planning, there will be many companies closing and disruption to customers, vendors and the natural environment.

Delegation and compensation are employee issues for all organizations, but for exit planning they are particularly relevant. What are the actions that a company needs to prosper and grow? Have you and your employees clearly identified these key behaviors? Do they have deleterious side effects? What are the behaviors that your company is rewarding? Let us tell you about the traits research has found contributes to a climate that fosters employee enthusiasm and productivity. Before you leave your business infuse it with possibility.

Come explore these and other topics in our Business Exit Planning series.

Research and Development

Becausebusiness@gmail.com (Be Cause) — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 16:33:00 +0000

Tell me about your research and development projects. I'm curious about the next products and services you are envisioning. Explain the features and benefits and exactly how they improve the lives of your clients.

Rank the importance of the projects you're considering. Which is first and why? What resources do you need to advance this best, next project? What are the capital and expertise needs? What technical or operational challenges are before you? How will you address them?

Who have you been depending upon to advance this, to make it real so far? Are you utilizing your network as a research and development team? Do you offer your help to them with their projects? If they are employees, does your firm offer the training and mentoring support to enable them to maximize their potential?

Forming explicit R & D relationships might noticeably improve your project success. How might you recognize and express your gratitude for the contributions your associates are making?

What's next? I' m curious.

John Anderson
John@BeCauseBusiness.com

Alan Weiss Talk in Portland

Becausebusiness@gmail.com (Be Cause) — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 21:58:00 +0000

I had the good fortune of hearing Alan Weiss address the Institute of Management Consultants in Portland yesterday speaking on building relationships and value based consulting.

Alan has written 16 books and 500 articles on building successful companies. He had some very interesting comments on self esteem, professional development and balance in life. Self esteem, he said is increased when we add discrete skills. Professional development is important for all of us to schedule and value given the rate of cultural and technological change. Healthy non-business activities increase our perspective to make wiser choices in business and elsewhere.

Not a bit bashful, Alan recommends coming right up to the edge between confidence and arrogance. A couple of consultants in the audience asked him if perhaps he's "over the line." He responded one must be comfortable "standing up in a breeze."

Weiss loves his Ferrari, Aston Martin and expensive lifestyle. He asked rhetorically, "Do clients want a successful consultant, or the cheapest?"

Accepting New Clients

Becausebusiness@gmail.com (Be Cause) — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 00:37:00 +0000

We are ready to meet some new business owners eager to take their venture to the next level. Our passion is collaborating with leaders who want to improve their capacity to serve and satisfy more customers using improved systems.

The inspiration to innovate, followed by the commitment to reshape one's thinking is bold and courageous. How can we reduce inputs while increasing outputs? It's a puzzle we love exploring with our clients.

Best to you all this Father's Day. Mid-june and we're here on the glorious Oregon Coast with blue skies, bright sun, mid-70s and a light breeze kicking up some white caps looking south across Coos Bay. It's a great day to celebrate life, family and looking forward.

Send us an email, give us a call. Let's see how you might benefit.

John@BeCauseBusiness.com - 800.249.1622 - Skype Be.Cause
Technorati Profile

A Different Perspective on Employee Evaluations

Becausebusiness@gmail.com (Be Cause) — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 22:21:00 +0000

By Kathleen D. Packard
kathleen@BeCauseBusiness.com

Employee evaluations are typically anticipated with dread by employees and managers alike. Managers see them as a time when they must be tough and judgmental. They must look for what’s wrong in the employee’s work and then they must point it out. Worst of all, there must be some threat, subtle or otherwise, that will motivate the employee to change.

Employees are typically clueless as to what is going to come up in the review, but they know they can look forward to having their deficiencies exposed. There will be discomfort for both parties, they will stumble through the encounter, then both will heave a sign of relief that it’s over and they’ll try to put it behind them like a bad dream. The next time there will be no memory of what was discussed previously and they’ll go through the whole unpleasant experience again, with no progress toward what either party really wants.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Rather than positioning the manager as the executioner and the employee as victim . . . oops, sorry, that’s my own experience. Let’s say . . . rather than positioning the manager as “doer” and the employee as “done to,” you can approach the process from a more collaborative coach/player perspective. This is how you do it.

In your first meeting with the employee, both of you reach agreement on what goals or actions are appropriate to work on and what time frame is reasonable for completion. Next, decide together what behaviors or indicators you will use to know when that target or goal is reached. Third, agree together on what the consequences will be if the target is hit or the target is missed. This doesn’t need to be a raise or a demotion or anything so dramatic. It can be a small acknowledgment or a simple reward or “punishment.” But it will be something that both of you agree on. Lastly, ask the employee what kind and how often they want feedback. It might be daily, weekly or monthly. How do they want that feedback delivered? It might be a daily question, a written note, or a two-minute meeting. Business coach Richard Reardon says that 25% of success can be attributed to having goals, but 75% is the result of feedback.

It must be the manager’s absolute commitment to follow through with what has been agreed upon. Otherwise, there can be no expectation for commitment from the employee. And the performance review will be a review of the performance of both the coach and the player. In this setup, everyone knows what is expected of them and by when.

Remember that as a coach, you will be prodding your employees to stretch themselves. As they become comfortable with the process, you will find that they will push themselves. Everyone wants to feel like they are headed somewhere. And everyone wants to know where they stand. Bring the process into the open and everyone’s experience will be positive. Share with the employee the goals you have for the company and the goals you have set for yourself as the owner. And ask the employee for feedback on the process itself. Together you can move the company forward and use your roles as vehicles for your own personal growth.

Google's Shared Docs and Sheets

Becausebusiness@gmail.com (Be Cause) — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 18:49:00 +0000

Google's shared documents and spreadsheets are wiki files that are great for team collaboration.

I set up shared spreadsheets for my clients to begin tracking sales, costs and profit and set the stage for doing forecasting. These spreadsheets are also a great way to involve staff, giving them a turn at the controls to run the venture, set destinations and steam towards far away lands.

Google documents are great for collaborating with team members on Job duties, work processes and frequently asked questions. They clarify what's expected and how to get things done.

I encourage my clients to have their staff post their questions in a FAQ format; when the employer answers the question, the knowledge is captured. Staff gradually builds a library of FAQ. When new employees come aboard with questions, the experienced staff can respond, "Let's look in the FAQ. Here's that question and an answer." or "Great question, you can add it to the FAQ; then we'll get the answer from the boss." Gradually, there is less time spent answering the same questions. Life is good!

Wikis for Be Cause Clients

Becausebusiness@gmail.com (Be Cause) — Mon, 14 May 2007 05:18:00 +0000

I set up a wiki for a Be Cause automotive repair client Saturday. We set it up as an internal company knowledge base.

We included pages for worst and best vehicles to repair, job descriptions and procedures. This week employees will be encouraged to begin adding insights and their frequently asked questions; the owner will post his answers.

The Be Cause Wiki is moving forward; see links at www.BeCauseBusiness.com

I finished reading "Wikinomics - How Collaboration Changes Everything" by Don Tapscott and William Anthony (www.Wikinomics.com). It's a thought provoking book on where participative management and Web 2.0 tools are leading business and culture.

I'm now reading "Publish & Prosper - Blogging for your Business" by DL Byron & Steve Broback. I am eager to dialogue with others about ways to enhance participative management. Cheers...

What am I creating?

Becausebusiness@gmail.com (Be Cause) — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 16:16:00 +0000

In recent weeks, I've been writing on how organizational development can lead to sustainable prosperity.

Friday and Saturday we participated in a program called The Experience Training in Salt Lake City. Our dear friends and colleagues, Bob Adams and Diane Cole, assisted. In the training, we did extensive reflection and dialogue about our lives, dreams and purpose.

Afterwards, my partner Kathleen and I drove 12 hours from Salt Lake City to Longview, Washington. Below are some rambling "stream of consciousness" thoughts from the drive.

Sustainable prosperity is abundant wellbeing that continues indefinitely. Sustainable means something that continues in perpetuity. While something sustainable may fluctuate in strength, it is resilient. Built into a sustainable system is self-regulation so it can grow and renew itself. It is adaptable and flexible.

The term sustainability is usually associated with the environment. Our dependence upon autos and industry appears to be causing global warming. If so, these behaviors are not contributing to a sustainable environment.

Nature has been sustainable for tens of thousands of years. Imploding meteors may have triggered global climate change and the end for dinosaurs. This was perhaps the latest in a succession of explosive episodes in the earth’s history. Nature has been quite stable until the last 150 years. Beginning with the industrial age and accelerating with the atomic age, our modern culture has resulted in unprecedented rates of environmental change.

I have learned that the effects in nature we see today are caused by events which took place 50 years ago. This has been called the “butterfly effect:” Small changes can have large consequences. A butterfly in China flapping its wings results in storms and high winds far away in the United States. Weather is a complex adaptive system. Simple causality is not adequate to explain today’s reality. Perhaps a better way to express this is our complex understanding requires sophisticated explanations.

A report on global warming released in England earlier this year, calls for dramatic changes by governments and industry to avoid huge economic shifts 50 years from now.

Another recent event is the success of the film and book “The Secret” about the “Law of Attraction.” Newsweek and others have criticized it as simplistic, wishful thinking. Positive thinking, affirmations and new age philosophy are denounced in the popular press.

This is a volatile time. War in Iraq and Afghanistan has been longer than World War II with three thousand American troops dead, hundreds of thousands wounded and ten times those casualties and dead for the local people.

Congress and the president are at war over the direction of our government.

Perhaps we need some “wishful thinking.” In conversation with a dear colleague and old friend, he suggested that a more thoughtful criticism for positive thinking is it doesn’t take into consideration the place of tragedy in human life. Instead, it covers over or ignores it.

I say there is no “unified field theory” for life. There is no single explanation or methodology to guide us despite the appeal of such an idea. Perhaps the closest I have come to it is the only moral decision is to do good. The Buddha’s final words, “Be a lamp unto yourself.” Shakespeare said, “To thy own self be true.” Jesus, Mohamed, Patanjali , the Sikh gurus and all the spiritual teachers have aphorisms we can live by. These guiding principles have profound meaning. From their work we have elaborate systems, codes, rules and laws.

These very beliefs have us at war with Al-Quaeda and some Islamic leaders. Their idea of heaven and ours contradict. Yesterday within a hour I heard two dramatically different news items that reflect what is so. A vanload of people in Iraq belonging to a minority religious sect, presumably was killed by another sect. An American woman, raised in a large Catholic family, converted to Islam and has been elected president of the American or North American Islamic Society. This is the first time for this society to elect as president a woman, a convert and a non-immigrant. There was an extended interview of her on NPR’s “Speaking of Faith.”

Today it is one week since a lonely Korean attending Virginia Tech killed 32 on that campus. In this event are stories of tragedy, evil, heroism and good. Horrible and glorious events are unfolding all around us. Our stories to understand them follow. We are awash in communications, adrift seeking meaning and direction.

A fundamental question is can we learn to live together? Can we serve another while caring for ourselves? I suppose an answer is that we are, it’s not always pretty, polite or comfortable. Can we do better? Obviously and we are. This is a process.

Population is increasing, therefore as a species we are succeeding. What is the price of this success? What is the quality of our lives? Each of us must ask and answer this question or face ongoing depression and confusion.

My reply is, “I create meaning and beauty in the face of temporality.” I am choosing to consider what is balance and harmony in my life experience? How may I serve, live simply and prosper. How may I sustain prosperity? My reply is what I think, speak and do. Today, my partner and I will visit her 29-year old niece that the doctors say is dying of cancer. Today she is alive. She’s happily married with two small children. They are a happy family. Her time is apparently quite limited. Today she is alive. Is this a tragedy? Is it stupid and crazy that this could be true? Her immediate and extended family is in deep grief. Everyone is hurting. Today she is alive.

Today I am alive. What will I do? What am I creating? Can I find balance? How may I contribute more than I consume?

I am creating my today and thereby my tomorrow. I live in a complex circumstance. This is life, my life, our life. I chose to serve small businesses improving their sustainable prosperity.

To create business models which are sustainable and prosperous is the goal of small business to support families of owners and employees while serving customers and their broader community.

Salt Lake City - Experience It!

Becausebusiness@gmail.com (Be Cause) — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 01:30:00 +0000

Salt Lake City - Experience It!
Today we arrived in Salt Lake after a midnight blizzard in Southern Idaho. It was white-out, blowing snow last night on I-84 east of Boise. Packed snow on the signs prevented us from knowing exactly where we were.

Stopping at midnight for gas and directions, we were told the weather would be worse for the next 100 miles. We decided a warm bed was the wise choice. It was!

This morning the sun was bright and except for packed snow and ice on portions of the highway the roads were clear. Like yesterday when we crossed the high deserts of eastern Oregon, the drive to Salt Lake was spectacular. Broad expanses of wide, open country that make me take a deep breath looking at the fields, mountains and open prairie.

We're here for visioning with Bob Adams and Diane Cole, the Be Cause Team tax strategists, about the challenges facing businesses and how they might actualize sustainable prosperity using organizational development.

Bob and Diane typically find $2,000 in additional tax refunds in 60% of the prior year tax returns they review. They look at tax returns for the three prior years at no charge and with no obligation.

Most wage-earning people (80 million Americans) are aware of only three basic
deductions: dependents, mortgage interest and education. This is part of the two tax systems of America. Fourteen million American taxpayers have businesses and can start with 157 possible deductions.

What is possible for organizations? What can we create?

We are considering questions:
1. If you had all the money, education, resources and abilities you would like to have or feel you need, what would you spend your life doing?

2. If you were suddenly told you have a year to live, what would you do?

3. If the doctor said you have a month to live, what would you do? Who would you communicate with? What would you say? What important dreams have you wanted to accomplish? What would you do?

We invite you to answer these questions and email your thoughts to us. For the next two full days, Kathleen and I will be in an "Experience It" training here to presence new possibilities we can bring to our "research and development team." We are organizational developers for sustainable prosperity!

Creating New Possibilities

Becausebusiness@gmail.com (Be Cause) — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 02:46:00 +0000

Lots of new learning at the International Association of Facilitators Conference March 7 - 10 in Portland with 400 participants from over 60 countries. Sessions I participated in were:

Eye of the Storm: Advanced Facilitation Skills
Boundaries of Facilitation
Web 2.0 for Facilitation
Virtual Teams

Kathleen's sessions were:
Effective Facilitation
Tools for Decision Making

Then I took a 2 1/2 day Communications Course: Access to Power in Seattle offered by Landmark Education March 31, April 1 and 5th.

New books are:
"Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything" by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams.

Wow! Wild Web News

Becausebusiness@gmail.com (Be Cause) — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 15:31:00 +0000

Envisioning what's next or for that matter, trying to get hold of what's now is making me dizzy. I love a fast dynamic, but whaoo, what I'm seeing is something else.

Last night I had a long phone conversation with my 26-year old son, Esana Anderson (digital media geek) and we took a spin across the Internet, he in Orlando and me in Oregon. Over a couple hours he introduced me to a number of new destination sites, programs and methods for gathering and sharing information.

We started at www.Digg.com. This site features listings of Internet news-like stories rated by how many people "dig" them by voting. The top stories are the most votes in the most recent past. Talk about breaking news, this is it and it's on ALL kinds of information.

He had me do a search of a couple topics that interest me, like coaching, management consulting and group facilitation. There are search options like last seven days, weeks, months or forever and more.

He had me download Vienna software on my Mac G4 laptop, then showed me how to transfer the RSS feed from Digg subject searches. Now when I run Vienna it links automatically to the Digg subject searches and I see breaking news on the exact subjects I'm interested in.

Boy, I can't wait to show my clients how they can stay up to date about breaking news in their various industries. Heh heh

Building Healthy Organizations

Becausebusiness@gmail.com (Be Cause) — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 15:52:00 +0000

Conflict is a normal part of all relationships. Despite its normalacy, it's frequently not fun or comfortable for most of us. We have conflict within us, or at least I do. I can't be sure about you.

I believe that our different learning and personality "styles" create misunderstandings between us. It's easy to ask, "What's wrong with you or them" when the other doesn't do things as we think things "should" be done. Add to this limited time, resources and many options. Instead of, What's wrong with you?" more productive questions might be, What is most important? What are our priorities?

One way to make conflict work for us, instead of against us is to value the energies driving conflict. If people don't care and care deeply and passionately, it doesn't matter. So we can respect conflict. Honor these energies as sacred. They infuse life and lead to purpose.

Clarifying what each voice wants is a good first step. Everyone must be heard. Out of this sharing, opportunities can be found, agreements can be reached on measurable goals by fixed dates. Strategic and tactical planning establishes the milestones and action steps necessary for buy-in by everyone. Negotiation is required to achieve consensus.

In management circumstances, establish written expectations for job performance. Match responsibilities with adequate compensation and benefits. Most frequently forgotten in small organizations, is performance evaluations, done in a supportive environment.

New employees require training, direction, supervision and correction. As quickly as possible to maintain enthusiasm, shift from telling to inquiry. What does the new hire see with their fresh eyes, that you as expert do not? These are precious, valuable moments to gain competitive advantage towards better serving your customers. You have a baseline for each position, a minimum requirement for the job. Now ask and stand in the question, "What is possible and currently impossible but something we could reach towards in this activity?" Don't rush for answers. Keep asking and encouraging your new hire to create options, ideas and what-ifs.

As an employee gains skill and mastery, healthy management methods are less directing and increasingly encouraging, supporting, coaching and facilitating. The manager becomes a resource provider, consultant, advisor and problem solver to partner with advancing what is so and what could become.

Our culture is demanding that we all become creative, learning organizations to thrive today. When performance evaluations can be conducted from an "appreciative inquiry" perspective, performance increases. Conflict between can transcend personalities and become the quest and struggle to let go of certainty and habits to consider how valuable the unknown can be.

Welcome to Being Cause

Becausebusiness@gmail.com (Be Cause) — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 05:00:00 +0000

Crafting your plans in narrative and numbers can be exciting and daunting. Getting started is the hardest part. We at Be Cause Business Resources reduce the stress, time and risk and improve your results.

This blog is a chance to express yourself and exercise those creative mental muscles. Try it, you'll like the results in your bank account and investment portfolio. Let's hear from you!