It s a shame I've been sitting on this book for about two years now. A friend of mine gave me Never Eat Alone , by Keith Ferrazzi a couple years ago (thanks Rey), and it s been on my bookcase ever since. It was resting there not because I didn't want to read it, but because I already had so many others in the pipeline. I finally got around to reading it last month and I definitely recommend it. In very simple terms, Ferrazzi explains why networking is important and how to do it. From how to make call lists to planning dinners to personal branding to goal setting, it s all here. He also maintains a valuable blog .
Inevitably there will be times when you have setbacks or things don t go your way. Maybe you didn't get a job you thought you were sure to get. Maybe you lost a job unexpectedly, didn't win a contract, or lost a major client. Your car always seems to break down right after you've had some other unexpected expense. These kinds of situations immediately place us in crisis. They don t feel good, but sometimes they re what we need in order to grow. The beautiful thing about crises is that they force us to take a step back and reevaluate what s going on in our lives and rediscover what we truly want and need. When we get over that initial shock and feeling of disappointment, we might realize that maybe that job wasn't really the best for us anyway. Maybe, just maybe, that wasn't what you really wanted to spend your life doing. Maybe that friend was holding you back instead of pushing you forward. The way I deal with crises of these sorts is simple: If something doesn't go my way professionally, I try to create a situation that would be more rewarding than the situation originally planned. A while ago, I was offered a job that looked very promising. After I accepted the offer, they pushed the start date back three times, later informing me (via e-mail) that they wanted to bring me on in the near future but I should feel free to explore other options. I was extremely disappointed. I felt disrespected and angry, but decided to make the best of the situation and follow my dream of working internationally. I then flew to Santiago, Chile and had great professional and personal experiences I wouldn't have had otherwise. Later, reflecting back on the original opportunity, I realized that working for a company that avoids a start date three times and then can t pick up the phone to explain the situation is probably not where I need to spend my time. Use setbacks as an opportunity to put your goals in order and act on them. In the moment, it s difficult to look at a setback as temporary, but they are. They happen to everybody. It s how you respond to them that will determine how they affect you.
To all of you planning on coming out to West Seattle to support Village Green…thank you. By sharing our time, experiences, and dollars, we are doing more than infusing a locally owned and operated business with cash. We are making a clear statement that we value our small businesses, our community, and ourselves.
The first time I met Vera, I knew there was something special about her. Before learning about her fight for fair banking practices, her dedication to her communities, and her activism, I knew she was a special type of individual.
This weekend, we join forces. This weekend, we make a difference.
Logistics:
* Pleas arrive at Village Green just before 2:00. This way we can enter the nursery in a group and have a large presence.
* While there, try to speak with at least two (2) people you don’t already know.
* If you have any questions, feel free to call me at 214.609.0151.
* At 4:00, those who wish should head over to the after party at Company Bar.
* Twitter hashtag = #SeaCashMob
* Have fun!
To all of you planning on coming out to West Seattle to support Village Green…thank you. By sharing our time, experiences, and dollars, we are doing more than infusing a locally owned and operated business with cash. We are making a clear statement that we value our small businesses, our community, and ourselves.
The first time I met Vera, I knew there was something special about her. Before learning about her fight for fair banking practices, her dedication to her communities, and her activism, I knew she was a special type of individual.
Organizational change management—what does it mean? As one who appreciates language, I like to break down words and look at how their individual meanings affect how we perceive it. When I think organizational change management I think there is an inherent assumption that change must be “managed.” At least in our culture when projects are managed, they are typically done so with a top-down approach. Although there has been significant progress in terms of including a more complete set of stakeholders when developing identifying issues and developing questions, solutions, processes, etc.
The second thing that comes to mind when I think “manage” is that there is a perceived limit in which change should be contained. At what point do we put a halt to change? Do we, say, only tolerate a delta of 30% when transitioning from one process to another? When I set out to start Menrva Labs, I had a general idea of what I wanted to do, but I allowed as many ideas and iterations to pass for it to become everything it could be. The idea of change is included in the name—labs infers that we are always trying something new. Some things will succeed and others will fail. However, we cannot be afraid to try something as long as it contributes to promoting organizational change by increasing social awareness.
At the inception of the idea, the name was actually Global Mind Frame. I, however, found the term “frame” to be too limiting and looked for ways to express the more open nature of the vision. Maybe we should instead say organizational change. Is that sufficient? I don’t know. I think it’s closer to what we hope to accomplish, but still not an accurate reflection of the work and deliberateness in which we must approach such an undertaking. This past Monday I taught my first personal branding workshops. The first was a class through Goodwill.The second was the first in a series I started. Those two classes offered me the most rewarding experiences I have had in a very long time. Not because of the feeling of “helping” or “giving back.” In fact, I feel that the use of those terms is largely detrimental in that they typically come from a place of perceived superiority.
These classes were rewarding because I felt a “oneness” with the people I was working with. I’ve found that we spend so much time trying to communicate how we are different from each other, preserving a building a sense of self, that we don’t stop to realize the oneness to which we exist. I don’t mean oneness to mean sameness. When I say oneness, I mean the connectedness we between each other, to nature, to the world. This oneness acknowledges and respects the differences as well as the similarities. Traditional organizational change theory looks at people as a means to an end. As with profits, we tend to look at the change as the goal rather than the outcome. In strong organizations with strong people and a strong mission, profit is never the goal, but rather an outcome.
I feel the same should be true in change management. The change should not be the goal, but a result of strengthening the people, technology, and structures within it to align more closely with a shared vision. By treating people as the ends, investing in them in ways to make them the most creative, skilled, and happy individuals they can be, we create a culture that facilitates the change unlimited in scope.