What Really Matters! Volume 3, Number 1, 2011
By Gary Ryan
What Really Matters! Volume 3, Number 1, 2011 – is a compilation of selected articles from The OTM Academy from January 1st 2011 until March 31st 2011 . By Gary Ryan Published by What Really Matters Publishing c/- Organisations That Matter Level 8, 350 Collins Street Melbourne, Victoria 3166 AUSTRALIA Phone +61 3 8676 0637 E-mail: info@orgsthatmatter.com Copyright © 2011 Gary Ryan, Organisations That Matter® All effort was made to render this ebook free from error and omission. However, the author, publisher, editor, their employees or agents shall not accept responsibility for injury, loss or damage to any person or body or organisation acting or refraining from such action as a result of material in this book, whether or not such injury, loss or damage is in any way due to any negligent act or omission, breach of duty, or default on the part of the author, publisher, editor or their employees or agents.
A note about ebooks Ebooks provide a special function that traditional books cannot provide. The links in this ebook are ‘live’, so if you read the ebook while online, you can immediately access the reference material.
What Really Matters! Volume 3, Number 1, 2011
Who should read this ebook? This ebook is for people who are interested in personal, professional and organisational development, specifically as it relates to achieving career aspirations and enabling the organisations within which we work to be better places for human beings. This ebook represents articles from the first quarter of 2011 from the OTM Academy. Specifically, senior and developing leaders who believe that enabling people to shine is the key to organisational success will benefit most from the contents of this ebook. To join the OTM Academy please follow this link.
Thank You! Thank you to all our members of the OTM Academy. We hope that you will receive great value from this collection of articles compiled in the first quarter of 2011. Please respect our copyright. This means that if you have received this ebook you are free to share it, providing you do not change it in any way. Keep learning! Gary Ryan
Table of contents Great service starts with identifying expectations
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Australia Day - a time to say, “Thanks!”
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Formal learning ʻon the jobʼ a success
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News flash - great service attracts customers
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Great service identifies what we shouldnʼt be doing
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OTM Academy Member Cecilia Chan wins AusCham Scholarship
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Creating shared value contributes to creating an organisation that matters! 8 Why developing your people is at the heart of great service Success lessons from comic Marty Wilson
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Would you like your team, department and/or organisation to be able to have conversations about the things that matter for your organisation? 10 Service standards exist to enable you meet and exceed customer expectations 11 Are your actions undermining what you have asked your team members to do?
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A retail MBA in an article - BRW interview with Janine Allis
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The problem with taking sides is it usually means winners and losers 16 By Ian Berry
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Is there something wrong with me? - I don't seem to be able to answer questions about my vision
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Mission's matter - mission statements don't
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By Ian Berry
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What Really Matters! Volume 3, Number 1, 2011
Emerging Leaders Report by Alicia Curtis
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Understanding Innovation
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Monash University PAL Program Leaders prove that we are in good hands with Gen Y 24 Re-discovering the 'non-virtual' world
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Who is on your “Personal Success Team?�
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If you listen, service excellence follows
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Online Courses
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Webinars
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What Really Matters For Young Professionals!
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Online Checklist
About Gary Ryan
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Great service starts with identifying expectations This is the starting point for great service. If you don’t understand the expectations of your customers, then everything that you do is likely to contribute to failing to meet them. Customers will have expectations whether you understand them or not. They usually consist of outcome factors and process factors and have a zone of tolerance for them to be acceptable. The outcome factors relate to the reliability of the service/product and determine whether the service/product meets the customers’ expectations. The process factors relate to the customers experience and will determine if the customers’ expectations have been exceeded or not. Quote from a research participant Once you realise that the starting point is understanding expectations, everything else becomes a whole lot easier. All you have to do is ask people what they want, and then do your best to deliver that to them. Please feel free to comment on this article.
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Australia Day - a time to say, “Thanks!” Not that we should limit ourselves to saying "Thanks!" to one day per year, but Australia Day offers an opportunity and a reminder to be thankful for what we have. Recently I posted an article titled the Thankful List. Think about the things for which you are thankful and offer a genuine "thanks!" to at least one person today. Why not! For those of us who live in Australia we recognise that we are very lucky to live in a country full of opportunity and potential, while still remaining relatively safe. I too would like to thank you for making the effort you are making to help make your organisations, institutions and centres of learning better places for the people who work/study there and the people you serve. You can never underestimate the positive difference that a lot of people doing a lot of 'little things' can make over time. Enjoy today and once again, thank you! Please feel free to comment on this article.
Do you have a plan for personal success? Check out how an OTM Plan for Personal Success™ can benefit you!
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Formal learning 驶on the job始 a success Much of our tertiary education system involves a separation of theory from practice. Recently, however, a new experiment to bring a fresh stream of talented people into the teaching profession has shifted from the traditional approach. The Teach For Australia initiative selected 45 top university graduate students from 750 applicants across a wide range of course backgrounds. Despite wide criticism of the program, these students were then placed into an intensive 6-week teacher education program at Melbourne University. The students were then sent to 'Associate' teaching positions in Victoria's toughest schools. Throughout their practical teaching experience the students continue to study and undergo a formal mentoring program. In many ways this initiative mimics the style of training and development established in the vocational education system. The bottom line is that the students are learning by doing, supported by continued development of their knowledge of theory. After the first year of the program, 95% percent of the students are continuing into the second year of teaching which is an outstanding achievement and highlights the value of mixing theory with practice. As a qualified teacher myself (my first degree was a Bachelor of Education majoring in Physical Education) I have often thought that the 'apprenticeship' style of formal education might be better suited to the development of teachers. I have often thought the same about management development. One of the great challenges for management development is the separation between theory and practice. When you are the only manager from your area completing a graduate management program it is very difficult to apply what you are learning in the workplace. It is even more difficult to discuss with colleagues why you are doing what you are doing. It is for this reason that formal corporate education programs where teams of people from the same company receive formal management training as a cohort have the potential to significantly enhance the transfer of theory into practice. 3
What Really Matters! Volume 3, Number 1, 2011
Looking back at the education example cited above, let's consider some of the reasons why this program has been successful despite it being highly criticised when it was introduced. I will take a Systems Thinking perspective on my analysis. The system required that the students who applied for the program had to be graduating from their current courses with high grades. This meant that the system was attracting students with a proven capacity to learn in a university environment. The students were aware from the outset that the program required them to teach in 'difficult' schools and that this commitment was for a two year period. In other words the students were highly aware of the 'big picture' into which they were enrolling. The students would be paid $45 per year for being in the program. This is a reasonable wage for a graduating student and what better way to receive a formal education than to be paid for doing it! The factors listed above meant that you had highly self-motivated people enrolling into the program. When only 45 positions were available and 750 applications were received the intrinsic value of the system was in evidence by the sheer numbers of applicants students could see the long term value of the system. Continuing the formal teaching education after the initial six week university program meant that students could discuss and reflect 'in class' on real teaching situations. Theory and practice had become one. The formal mentoring system meant that the students were 'not alone' on this journey - while they may have been alone in the classroom, help was never far away. It is heartening to see such a modern approach to formal education and my hope is that more university courses follow this approach, and management is a particular area that could benefit from tightening the relationship between theory and practice. You can read more about the Teach For Australia program here. Please feel free to comment on this article. 4
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News flash - great service attracts customers Leonard Berry (author of On Great Service, 1995) has long advocated that great service attracts customers. This is because there are so many companies who are poor at service delivery. It is therefore easy for customers to differentiate between good and poor service companies and providing the benefit that the customer receives is more than their burden for obtaining that service or product, customers will continue to be attracted to great service. Berry also highlights that a large benefit of great service is that positive word-of-mouth advertising is generated by great service. In short, great service attracts customers. Quote from a research participant For a long period of time my friend had been telling me about this bakery near where she lives. Finally I went there. She was right! The people and the ‘taste bud delights’ were fantastic! You should go there too! Please feel free to comment on this article.
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Great service identifies what we shouldnʼt be doing Just as great service tells us what we should be focussing upon and where our resources should be allocated, great service also helps to identify what we need to stop doing or what we should not start doing in the first place. Southwest Airlines is an example of an organisation that is clear about the service that its customers want. They want safe, regular, reliable services that will get them to their destination on time delivered by genuine, caring and courteous staff. Everything else, the in-flight food, the styling of the tickets etc. is all secondary to the main expectations of its customers. Southwest’s Customer Charter outlines how it respects and addresses the expectations of its customers. You will not find Southwest Airlines placing a lot of focus on in-flight food. While it is available, it is not the main focus of their service. So they don’t put any more effort than is required into that part of their service. Southwest’s service focus enables it to know what to do and what not to do. Quote from a research participant After we had expelled three members from the centre and fully refunded their memberships (even though they had already used 90% of their time) we were approached by more than 30 members who told us that if we had not acted and expelled the three people, then they would have all gone and joined another centre. It really re-enforced that our members’ code of behaviour was there for a reason. The worst thing we could have done was to have turned a blind eye to it. It would have cost us. Please feel free to comment on this article.
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OTM Academy Member Cecilia Chan wins AusCham Scholarship OTM Academy member and a recent interviewee on the Leadership Insights Series Cecilia Chan has been awarded one of the 15 inaugural scholarships by the ChinaAustralia Chamber of Commerce. Cecilia will spend nine months based in Beijing. "The Scholarship is a comprehensive career development platform aimed at fostering the next generation of Sino-Australian business leaders. Each year the scholarship will bring to China Australia’s top graduates across a range of academic disciplines to undertake a full time 9 month graduate traineeship. During the traineeship, they will receive Mandarin language training, access to the Chambers professional business network, mentorship and sponsorship to attend business and industry seminars. At the end of the internship, exceptional individuals will be offered full time positions in the companies China operations." We wish Cecilia every success on this new chapter in the evolution of her career and we look forward to receiving some updates on her progress. Please feel free to ask questions and/or to make a comment on this article.
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Connect with Gary here.
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What Really Matters! Volume 3, Number 1, 2011
Creating shared value contributes to creating an organisation that matters! Michael Porter and Mark Kramer have released an interesting article about organisations creating shared value in the Harvard Business Review. Â Porter and Kramer argue that organisations need to operate from a new paradigm. One where value creation is not just about profit generation but also about how organisations can contribute to solving community and societal problems. They are not talking about social responsibility either. Â They are talking about a genuine paradigm shift in which profit and social responsibility create equal value and they argue that it is possible to create such an organisation. Shared value provides value to the organisation achieving its objectives, provides value to the employees of the organisation in helping them to contribute to worhtwhile projects and provides value to the broader community in contributing to solving social problems. You can access the full article here. Establishing the skills to create an organisation that matters is paramount to being able to create shared value. Yet most organisations are unaware of the skills required to undertake such a paradigm shift. Developing the skills to dialogue is one of the critical skills required. You can learn more about the seven skills of dialogue here. What are your experiences of creating shared value? Once you have read the article please feel free to post a comment.
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Why developing your people is at the heart of great service Existing staff need to be developed so that they have the capacity to implement your Service Strategy. This will result in them having the capacity to understand the expectations of their customers and being able to develop appropriate service standards from that understanding. New staff need to be recruited through processes that identify their alignment with your Service Strategy. This means that the organisation’s recruitment processes must reflect a process that is seeking the best possible people that it can find so that its Service Strategy can be implemented. Quote from a research participant Our recruitment policy used to be, “Do you know anyone who has a heartbeat and is available?”. Me, I’d been here 20 years and had never been on any training. I never realised how bad we were until I honestly thought about whether I’d like to be a customer of my own team. My answer was no! How are staff recruited and developed in your organisation? Please feel free to comment on this article.
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Success lessons from comic Marty Wilson Marty Wilson interviewed over 400 inspirational people to write his best selling What I Wish I Knew series of books. As an author and stand up comic, three of the key lessons that Marty discovered from his research were: 1. Take risks Successful people take risks. They don't die wondering. Marty explains that risk taking is not about jumping out of aeroplanes. It could be as simple as being yourself at work and not following the crowd. 2. Recruit mentors This is no suprise to me but successful people actively seek mentors and learn from them, both their successes and failures. Do you have a mentor? 3. Lighten up Yes Marty is a comic, but the it was his interviewees who told him that laughter and the capacity to see the lighter side of life was critical to success. Sometimes, on the rough road of life, laughing is the only way to survive. If you would like to read the full article by Dale Beaumont in his Business Blueprint online magazine, please read it here... Please feel free to add your comments to this article.
Would you like your team, department and/or organisation to be able to have conversations about the things that matter for your organisation? If so, learn about OTM Strategic Conversations® here
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Service standards exist to enable you meet and exceed customer expectations Service standards are the in-house systems and processes, policies and procedures that your organisation has created to give it every possible chance of meeting and exceeding the expectations of its customers. They create the possibility of consistency while allowing the people in your organisation to make decisions that lead to improved service outcomes. It is not always necessary to create new service standards; many of them already exist in operating manuals, rules, procedures and policies. The challenge is to determine whether they support or hinder great service. The ‘bureaucracy busting’ of the GE Workout program (Ashkenas, Ulrich, Jick, & Kerr, 1995) is an example of a process that at its very heart was about ensuring the company’s systems and processes remained aligned to serving people and achieving the organisation’s goals. Quote from a research participant We think that it is great when a new person starts work here. We encourage them to ask questions. So they do. “Why does this policy and that policy exist?” That’s what they ask. And if we haven’t got a genuine answer, then we seriously look at the policy or procedure and change it if it is no longer helping us to serve our customers. How do your systems, policies and procedures enhance your capacity to meet and exceed the expectations of your customers? Please feel free to comment on this article.
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Are your actions undermining what you have asked your team members to do? One of my coaching clients is a coach of a semi-professional sporting team in Melbourne, Australia. We were having a conversation about the excuses that he is receiving from players regarding their inability to make it to training. He was planning to 'have a go at them for their lame excuses' at their next training session. He provided an example that one player had told him that he couldn't attend training because he would be attending his niece's birthday party. My client was frustrated. He felt that such excuses were pretty lame. "I would never have missed training for my niece's birthday party. How lame!" Just as I asked him if it was possible that this player did in fact place his niece's birthday party as a higher priority than training, at least for this one day in the year, my client's phone rang. It was one of his assistant coaches so I encouraged him to take the call. After a few minutes he came back. "Gee. The excuse was true. His sister is extremely unwell and her daughter is without her mum on her birthday. He's doing the right thing." I couldn't have been more excited. The information that my client received was perfect for what I was about to ask him. "What have you asked your players to do if they can't make training?" I asked. "Ring or text me" he replied. "Is that what they are doing?" "Yes". "So they are doing what you have asked them to do?" I re-enforced. 12
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"Yyyeeeesssss?" He said, his brow slightly furrowed. The penny had not yet dropped. "It seems to me that your players are doing exactly what you have asked. They are ringing you or texting you when they cannot attend training and providing their reasons. Yet your focus has shifted to the content of their reasons. You are focussing on whether or not you think their reasons are valid. As this example with the niece has shown, clearly you thought the excuse was lame, but when you found out the whole story you found out that it made sense." "What if," I continued, "you stopped worrying about the content of the excuses you are being provided. Why not believe whatever they tell you, even if it doesn't make sense to you. This example shows that the player involved was being honest with you. Ultimately, isn't that what you want?" "Yes it is" he replied. He then said, "If I had used the niece's birthday party as an example of the types of excuses for not training that I was getting, as I had planned to do, and I had ridiculed such an excuse I could have ruined my relationship with that player and shown the players that I didn't really want them to be honest with me. Maybe I could use this example to show that I will believe whatever they tell me. Ultimately, if players want to lie to me, that's about them, not me." He continued, "I was getting pressure from the other coaches to stop accepting all the 'lame' excuses we believed we had been getting, but training attendances are actually far exceeding those of previous years. The collective data on the whole group is actually very good. I want the players to be honest with me and that is what they have been doing. I can see how easily I could have changed that behaviour and inadvertently encouraged them to tell me what they thought I wanted to hear. I'm glad we've had this chat!" If you have ever played sport, or acted in a play or played in a band and felt the 'sweetness' of perfect timing, this is how I felt at this point in the conversation. I see this a lot in my work. Leaders asking their people to do something, which they then do, but the leader loses focus on what they had asked their people to do 13
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and shift their focus onto something else, albeit closely related. But they effectively 'move the goalposts'. This causes confusion and triggers the "Guessing Game". Team members start guessing what the leader really wants. This is extremely destructive. Yet the leader, from my experience, has little awareness that they had in fact moved the goalposts. Â One of the great challenges for leaders is to maintain behavioural alignment between what they say and what they do. Fortunately, in the above example my client was able to maintain his. Â What are your examples of this challenge? Please feel free to add a comment to this article.
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What Really Matters! Volume 3, Number 1, 2011
A retail MBA in an article - BRW interview with Janine Allis Rarely is an article written that captures the essence of what it takes to be a successful business person. This recent article in BRW is an exception. Kate Mills is able to draw from Janine Allis, founder of Boost Juice the core principles of her success, which include: 1. Maintaining focus and not being distracted from your core products/services 2. Understanding the basic factors that exist in the industry within which you operate 3. As an owner you have to really understand your business - including the parts that may not be in your areas of strength 4. You have to have and look after the right people 5. You must be tight with your spending 6. Focus on making the customer a fan 7. Look outside your box for ideas as catalysts for innovation 8. The willingness to work cannot be underestimated 9. Allis' principles of success - her five Ps (People, Positioning, Product, Price, Promotion) This article is well worth the five minutes it will take to read. Let me know what you think!
Please feel free to comment on this article.
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The problem with taking sides is it usually means winners and losers By Ian Berry I have been involved in sport all my life for enjoyment, fitness, and the life-long friendships that have been the result, and because in sport winners and losers is OK, it’s the nature of games. The same cannot be said for politics where the model of government and opposition rarely means the best ideas get adopted because unless the opposition agrees with the government great things rarely happen, like in Australia right now where the government and the opposition are fighting over how to help people devastated by floods and cyclones. It’s a joke. The monumental failures of dealing with climate change and fixing the broken financial services system are just two more examples of the many. The troubles in Egypt of the past few weeks further demonstrate the problem with taking sides. I wish for democracy everywhere in the world, however my kind of democracy means everyone wins or at very least there is equity of opportunity. Put religion in the mix and you often get more trouble if this means people debating the undebatable about whose God is the right one and killing one another as a consequence. Now I am not suggesting for one moment here that we don’t take a stand against injustice, tyranny, inequality, or any other of the world’s issues. I am suggesting we find better ways to live in our world. Business may well be the last bastion of hope. Enlightened business leaders create shared value, i.e. everyone wins. Creating shared value is so important I have dedicated my life to it and made myself an authority on how to create shared value or CSV as it is sometimes called. In a recent Harvard Business Review article Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer refer to CSV as The Big Idea. What are you doing in your business and in your life to create shared value? 16
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The future is not about taking sides for the consequences are winners and losers. The future is not about who is right and who is wrong. The future is not about politics or religion, although both have their place. The future is about finding ways to live in harmony which each other and our planet, and where everyone has the opportunity to win. Be the difference you want to see in the world Ian Berry Founder Differencemakers Community The Change Master™ - catalyst for changing what’s normal for the good of people, our planet, and for profit Please feel free to comment on this article.
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Is there something wrong with me? - I don't seem to be able to answer questions about my vision Guiding people through the process of creating their OTM Plan for Personal Success is one of the most rewarding aspects of my work. I especially enjoy helping people who have the courage to ask questions when they are 'stuck' throughout the process that I guide them through. Tonight a participant in the program I was conducting asked me if there was something wrong with her because she hadn't been able to answer the questions that I had been asking that are designed to help people to work out their personal vision. Sometimes up to one third of program participants report this challenge. Which is why it was so important that that Lilly asked her question. You see, in answering Lilly's question other participants were also able to 'unblock' themselves from their challenge. When I inquired with Lilly about why she had struggled to answer the questions, I discovered that Lilly had been letting her present reality 'get in the way' of defining, and physically writing down what she really wanted. This is common. Our present reality is so 'real' that it can be very difficult to set it aside and write down what we really want. Fortunately I was able to help Lilly see past this challenge so that by the end of our short conversation she was flowing with answers that related to her personal vision. When we create a personal plan for success we have to focus on what we want. After all, who is going to put into action strategies that are going to create who you don't want? Not me, that's for sure. Finally, creating a personal plan is like any skill. The first time we do it we are not as good as we'd like to be. This is normal. Which is why personal planning needs to be practiced and, especially in the first years of living your OTM Plan for Personal Success, I recommend updating your plan every six to 12 months. 18
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Please feel free to comment on this article.
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Mission's matter - mission statements don't By Ian Berry I came across a brilliant blog via a discussion on LinkedIn group Association & Convention Innovators. The blog by Dan Pallotta in Harvard Business Review Do You Have a Mission Statement, or Are you on a Mission? hits the target on why some organisations are thriving, others are barely surviving, and some are going South at a rapid rate, namely talk and no action. You can read Dan’s blog here. Here are my thoughts on the pointlessness of vision, mission, and value statements unless they are lived.
In The Culting of Brands Douglas Atkin asks: What’s your cause? What do you want to have happen? If you’re not out to cause anything then you might as well go back to bed. What’s your cause, your mission? and, did you leap out of bed today with it at the forefront of your mind? and, are you living it, every minute, of every day? Be the difference you want to see in the world Ian Berry Founder Differencemakers Community If you have a deep hunger to: make a real difference leave a legacy do something pioneering, breathtaking, and truly innovative do well by doing good i.e. thrive in your business and solve a problem in your world at the same time then please review all the details here of a year of changing what’s normal and get in touch with me without delay. 20
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Emerging Leaders Report by Alicia Curtis Folks, Â Both experienced and developing leaders alike will gain a lot of value from reading Alicia Curtis' Emerging Leaders Report 2011. Â This is the second of Alicia's annual reports and is based on survey responses from 204 emerging leaders. Â The report includes information on: * the biggest challenges for young professionals in the workplace * the barriers to entering leadership positions * the best resources to help young professionals in their leadership endeavours * the greatest training needs * the most preferred learning mediums * and broad career goals I thoroughly recommend the report and you can download it here.
www.otmacademy.com
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Understanding Innovation Innovation is considered to be one of the most defining characteristics of a successful organisation. From an individual perspective, the capacity to be innovative defines your employability. So what is innovation? In simple terms innovation is the ability to take something, and to place it with something different in a way that provides some form of value. For example, the classic paper bag and gift wrapping paper existed separately for 100 years. Then, one day, they were put together and the Gift Bag was born. On many levels this is an example of linear or incremental innovation. After all, both wrapping paper and the classic paper bag were both made of paper. The Sony Walkman of the 1980s is another, non-linear outcome of taking something and placing it with something different. This time it was adding a music player to the concept of portability. In many ways the iPod is an incremental innovation that evolved from the original Walkman. Yet it is also an example of non-linear innovation. In this example the portable music player was added to a computer and the internet and the iPod was born. So how do you develop the capacity to innovate? Practice. Each time you confront a problem or a challenge ask yourself what two or more things could I put together to solve this problem or just add value to my present circumstance? While non-linear innovation is regarded as the step-change or game-breaking type of innovation, incremental innovation is also valuable. Conscious practice of 22
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innovation is what builds its capacity. How often are you and/or your organisation practicing it? Â If you're looking for something to read on this topic, it is still pretty hard to go past Gary Hamel's book Leading The Revolution. Please feel free to leave a comment on this article here.
www.otmacademy.com
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Monash University PAL Program Leaders prove that we are in good hands with Gen Y My work results in me working with Gen Zers through to Builders. Not a bad spread, is it! Often Gen Xers, Baby Boomers and Builders bemoan Gen Y. "They want everything now", "They are selfish", "They don't understand loyalty", "It's all them!" are statements I regularly hear. But Gen Y are as selfless, community focused and loyal as any other generation. I have proof. of the work I do with developing leaders has me working with students in various leadership programs for universities based in Melbourne, Australia. One such program, the PAL Program for the Faculty of Business and Economics at Monash University has students experiencing a range of developmental programs over a three year period. In their final year of the program the students create community based projects. They give up their time to generate and manage sustainable projects. Last weekend 56 students gave up half of their Saturday (it was a beautiful 29 degree day too) to go through a facilitated process to create projects. Next Saturday the students will complete the first phase of this process as each 'project team' will participate in a workshop to 'launch' their project and enhance the probability of achieving their desired project outcomes. Each project must fulfil at least one of the following principles: 1. Enhance the students to student experience 2. Enhance the student to faculty experience 3. Enhance the Faculty/University to community experience
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The projects often end up raising awareness for charities and/or current domestic/ world events. Ultimately, the students do make a positive difference through their actions (which are all in addition to their studies, part time work and anything else they might be doing with their lives). If nothing else their projects create a sense of community and belonging for students, factors that are extremely important and cannot be underestimated in terms of student well being and mental health. A significant purpose of the program is to enhance the employability of the students by providing them with real opportunities to do real work. Universities recognise the importance of creating well rounded students who understand theory and are also able to put theory into practice. Over many years of facilitating these programs I can say that they do enhance the employability of the students. The lessons that arise from working with other talented people, within tight timeframes and limited resources (often there is no money available for the projects - the students have to generate the income they require for the projects to be funded - which create a wonderful 'mind-shift regarding money that is invaluable) are practical, real and powerful for the students. After each day of completing my work with these students I always walk away with high energy levels and heightened sense of positivity regarding our future. These students do care about more than themselves, they are selfless and willing to give of their precious time for a higher purpose and most importantly they do make a positive difference. Our future really is in good hands. Please feel free to comment on this article
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Re-discovering the 'non-virtual' world You may find the title of this article intriguing, "Re-entering the 'non-virtual world." What is the 'non-virtual' world? For me it is the present world, the real world. Early this week I was walking across a bridge over the Yarra River. The early morning sun was rising in the east to a back drop of a beautiful clear sky in various hues of blue. The Melbourne city skyline looked magnificent. At first I continued walking. After all I still had a bit of a walk ahead of me before I reached the building in Melbourne's financial district where I was to meet my client. As I walked I had been going over my preparation for my meeting. The view I saw was so stunning that I stopped. I remember thinking, "Gary, this is beautiful. Why don't you stop and just take it in."
You know the energy that you get when you see something beautiful. That's how I felt viewing what was before me. Then I noticed that everyone was rushing past me, seemingly unaware of the beauty before them. At a closer look I noticed the ear plugs. A very high percentage of people had them in their ears. Then I noticed something else. Despite the high number of people passing me, I didn't hear a word of conversation. I decided to take a photo of this beautiful scene using the camera in my phone. As I'm not a photographer my photo doesn't do the view justice, but it is not too bad just the same. 26
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As I reflected on this scene I began to wonder about the percentage of our lives that we live in the 'non-virtual' world. In other words, how much of our time is actually spent in the present? The present is a place where the world is alive right now. There is literally no past and no future. Just now, just this moment. In terms of work this relates to our awareness of what is happening right now. How engaged are people with this meeting right now? How honest are people right now? What is the 'energy' within our office space like right now? How are staff treating each other right now? As a fairly high user of the virtual world myself I am not advocating abandoning it. On the contrary I believe it has a valuable place in our lives and social media is just one example. What I am talking about is balance. Sometimes I run with my iPod, but most often I don't. I want to be in the present when I'm running, and I want to be able to use all my senses when I'm in it. Being in the present means that I increase my chances of seeing and then being a part of beauty. It was amazing how the energy that I received from the view from the bridge that morning sustained me through the day. What are your experiences of re-discovering the 'non-virtual' world'? Please feel free to comment on this article.
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What Really Matters! Volume 3, Number 1, 2011
Who is on your “Personal Success Team?” Over the past few weeks I have helped over 100 people create their first ever OTM Plan For Personal Success™. The process for creating these plans have ranged from large group facilitated workshops to one on one executive coaching. One of the fascinating and recurring themes of my work in this space is that people do not have mentors currently present in their lives. Yet everyone with whom I have worked over the past few weeks (to a person) has agreed that they need other people to help them to achieve their success (and in turn recognise that they too should assist other people in achieving their success). Dee Hock, the founder of VISA International considered mentors to be crucial to anyone's success. I agree. In fact I currently have three formal mentors in my life, each of them adding clear and distinct value to my success journey. The insights, practical steps and good old fashioned 'sounding boards' are but a few of the benefits I have received as a result of conversations with my mentors. These days most of the conversations I have with my mentors is over Skype. (While all three of my mentors reside in Australia, one lives in Melbourne but some distance from me, another lives in Adelaide and the third lives in Perth). It is such a simple and effective tool for these types of conversations. The challenge for most people is that each of us have to take personal responsibility for recruiting our mentors. One of the success tools I use in the OTM Planning For Success™ program is called Establishing Your Personal Success Team. This is a group of people who have either holistic and/or specific skills that can contribute to your success. Mentors, coaches, advisors, partners and close friends fit into this category. Establishing a list of the sort of roles people will need to fill is a great first step to creating your Personal Success Team. Once this list is established, it becomes obvious that mentors will need to be sought. So, how do you find a mentor? One way is to ask people. Another way is to find suitable people and pay them for their value (as I do). The more I study success, the more I am discovering that successful people never stop seeking help from other people. Ever. 28
What Really Matters! Volume 3, Number 1, 2011
So, who is on your Personal Success Team? If you don't have anybody, what are you going to do about it? Please free to comment on this article.
Are you a Senior Manager and/or Business Owner and would value an independent perspective on your alignment between what you say and what you do? If so, browse our Executive Services here.
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What Really Matters! Volume 3, Number 1, 2011
If you listen, service excellence follows The capacity to listen is probably the most important skill that relates to service excellence. Without this capacity staff will not know the expectations of their customers, each other, or the key stakeholders of their communities. Organisations that provide great service are fantastic listeners; to their customers, to their key stakeholders and to each other within the organisation. William Isaacs (1999) notes that our culture is dominated by sight. Light moves at 186,000 miles per second, yet sound only travels at 1,100 feet per second. In summary, William Isaacs says that in order to listen we must slow down.  How do you and/or your organisation slow down to listen? Quote Our hearing puts us on the map. It balances us. Our sense of balance is intimately tied to our hearing; both come from the same source within our bodies...Hearing is auditory, of course, relating to sound. The word auditory...most ancient root means “to place perception.� When we listen, we place our perceptions. (William Isaacs, lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management, consultant and author) Please feel free to comment on this article.
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What Really Matters! Volume 3, Number 1, 2011
Online Courses
Organisations That Matter provides a wide range of Online Courses to assist you in your personal & professional development. Our courses include: Creating a Plan For Personal Success How to Create High Performing Teams Weekly Inspiration 16 Lesson What Really Matters For Young Professionals! eCourse University Student Group Work For Success and much more Please visit here for more information.
Webinars
A webinar is an online seminar. Providing you have access to a computer and the internet, webinars are a simple, easy and cost effective way to access critical information for your personal & professional development.
Samples from our webinar program can be viewed here. Please remember to view the videos in fullscreen mode. Please sign up for our newsletter if you would like to be invited to our upcoming webinars.
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What Really Matters! Volume 3, Number 1, 2011
What Really Matters For Young Professionals!
you taking full advantage of your first years of employment? Are you consciously developing yourself and taking full advantage of the opportunities presented to you?
Are you fully aware of the opportunities that you have to accelerate your career? If you answered "No" to anyone of these three questions then we can help you to master 15 practices that will accelerate your career. "This book is the definitive tool for young professionals with loads of expert knowledge who need to quickly develop high-level employability skills. It can also be used by managers and HR professionals for induction of their graduate recruits, or young at heard professionals willing to adjust to the contemporary workplace. If you want to succeed in the 21th century as a high-performing individual I recommend you read this book." Renata Bernarde Relationship Manager and Career Counselor Online Checklist Take the Online Checklist for the 15 practices that are explained in the book, What Really Matters For Young Professionals! Your results will help to quickly identify how you can use the book to accelerate your career! This product is for both Young Professionals and/or their employers What Really Matters For Young Professionals! How To Master 15 Practices To Accelerate Your Career is a resource that will help Young Professionals (people in the workforce with between five to ten years experience) to accelerate the speed of their career progress.
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What Really Matters! Volume 3, Number 1, 2011
While Young Professionals are unlikely to suffer the high unemployment rates of previous generations in countries like Australia, this is not the situation in many countries throughout the world. In the USA and the UK Young Professionals are having significant challenges finding employment. For those who are employed, even in Australia achieving promotions are a challenge because of the high competition for these opportunities. This is why continuous practical development is essential for career progression. What Really Matters For Young Professionals! is both a resource for Young Professionals and their employers. The book and Online Course create a space for practical development to occur. In these challenging economic times employers can provide the course to their Young Professionals. Alternatively, Young Professionals can invest in their own development. At less than the cost of three coffees per week over 16 weeks, the investment for becoming a high performer is minimal. If you are an employer and would like to discuss how the book and Online Course can be packaged for your employees, please email Gary@orgsthatmatter.com . "Wow! This book is jam packed with useful and practical strategies for young professionals wanting to take the next step up in their careers. In a time where young professionals are constantly asking for more mentoring and training, this book is the perfect do-it-yourself manual to improve your employability." Alicia Curtis www.ygenclub.com Out now!
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What Really Matters! Volume 3, Number 1, 2011
About Gary Ryan
Gary Ryan is a Founding Director and owner of Organisations That Matter, a boutique management consulting firm that assists individuals, teams and organisations to achieve high performance through aligning people, strategy, systems and processes. Why? When alignment is achieved organisations behave in ways that matter to the people working in them, the people the organisations serve and the broader community. Ultimately alignment matters if the organisation wishes to achieve its financial, social and environmental outcomes. Utilising his diverse skills, experience and training, Gary helps organisations, leaders and team members achieve maximum performance as a professional management consultant and a dynamic facilitator and presenter. Key to Gary’s success is his passion to influence behavioural change that aligns what individuals say with what they actually do. Gary is committed to helping organisations to really matter to their people; to their stakeholders and customers; to their community and to their environment. With over 17 years executive management and facilitation experience, Gary has had broad exposure to the private sector, government bodies, elite sporting and educational environments. In this capacity, Gary has designed and facilitated the NAB Future Leaders Program and the NAB Mentor Program, the Leadership Development Program at AFL club Richmond, whilst performing as Keynote Speaker at the NAB TEDx TALKS and Monash University Postgraduate orientation program since 2008. Gary has also provided culture assessment programs for Boom Logistics and Executive Coaching services to a broad range of senior managers. Gary Ryan is a Certified What Makes People TickŽ Facilitator and has served as a Senior Assessor for the Customer Service Institute of Australia with considerable expertise in developing service excellence. Gary is also a Licensed 0-10 Relationship ManagementŽ Elite Trainer Facilitator, enabling him to assist organisations optimise performance through improved internal and external relationship management.
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What Really Matters! Volume 3, Number 1, 2011
Gary is the Author of What Really Matters For Young Professionals! How to Master 15 Practices to Accelerate Your Career and has also written a series of e-books, What Really Matters available here. Gary has studied extensively, initially attaining a Bachelor of Education, and a Graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management, holds a Master of Management from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Gary’s areas of specialty cover service excellence development, assessment and facilitation, program design and development, and relationship management development and facilitation. Personally, Gary Ryan is happily married and a proud father of five children. He is dedicated to maintaining a healthy lifestyle and is currently in training to run his eleventh marathon. Contact Gary at info@orgsthatmatter.com or join him on LinkedIn.
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