For those of you who are wondering what happened to the September issue of this newsletter, I have been busy dreaming.
Dreaming, not sleeping! It's all because I have been reading The Dream Manager, by Matthew Kelly. This slender book offers an important message for companies faced with turnover issues and recruiting challenges. The Dream Manager is a "business parable" concerning the works of fictional cleaning firm Admiral Janitorial Services and their 600% annual staff turnover challenge.
I hope you will read this book. Not to spoil the ending, I will tell you that the central thesis revolves around the need for organizations to care, pay attention to and even facilitate their employee's dreams. Kelly makes a convincing case for this as he takes the reader through the stages of disbelief and mild acceptance to full blown involvement by the 500 employees and a skeptical CEO and senior team.
This is my reader's pick for 2008 and an excellent stocking stuffer for that HR director or CEO on your list for holiday giving.
Gordon
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What's your new paradigm going to be?
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Paradigm is defined as 'a change in basic assumptions.'
Originally used only in discussion of scientific change or theory by Thomas
Kuhn the term paradigm shift has made its way into the general vocabulary as a way to describe any shift in thinking, attitude or idea.
These shifts are visible to us in every day life as
changes in products, processes and possibilities. The first time I heard the
term used was in about 1987 when a speaker I was listening to at a conference,
talked about disposable razors. The paradigm shift he was describing was the
change in manufacturing from what was essentially an instrument made almost
entirely of steel and designed for a lifetime of use, to one that was now
almost entirely plastic and designed for a use cycle of only a few days.
Building our personal paradigm shift requires desire and
courage. The desire is a desire to fundamentally challenge one's comfort level and
belief system and then have the courage to actually make what may be a life changing change.
While out for dinner last week, I was talking to our hostess
about the local professional arts scene. She was unaware that I had some first
hand knowledge through my previous career as an arts manager. Her surprise was
I think more about the 'big shift' I had made then it was about the specifics.
I was also looking at a list of clients and consulting projects completed in the last five years and realized that while many of the
clients remain the same, the work I am performing is radically different than
it was even three years ago. Today, the majority of my consulting is based
around the changing work force and how organizations and individuals respond,
react and build for the future.
This reinvention started some seven years ago with my
interest in the now here, but then impending, baby boomer retirement phenomena.
Reinvention or changing that personal paradigm is, I believe, the number one skill for success
and personal fulfillment we must master for the future. Without the ability to instigate your
own personal paradigm shift/ reinvention we run the very real risk of being
left behind as our organization finds its own new paradigm shift.
Desire and
courage take centre stage in the reinvention drama being played out in the US
financial system. With tens of thousands of job losses happening almost daily,
there is going to be a profound reorganization of labour within this sector.
Those with the ability, desire and courage to reinvent will ultimately be OK.
Those that look back, and wait for the change to stop and their jobs to return
will find themselves in a fundamentally difficult place both personally and professionally.
A successful career is no longer about "Pick and Stick" and
the lifetime employer. It is about making smart decisions, looking to the
horizon and managing your own paradigm shift providing value in your current
position but always being aware of what that value is worth.
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