Greetings!
I was taken by a story in the new book, The
Future of Management by Gary Hamel.
When Jeffrey Severts, was appointed VP of
consumer and brand marketing, he learned that
his compensation would be linked to
performance. Since the teams that came up
with these projections were often off by 10
percent, this was not an ideal situation.
Severts heard James Surowiecki, author of The
Wisdom of Crowds speak. He was intrigued with
the notion that a crowd might outperform experts.
He tried an experiment. It cost $50 - and
didn't require anyone's approval. He picked
one area of the business: sales of gift
cards. This is a billion dollar part of their
business, and sales estimates for gift cars
were often off by just 5 percent. But 5
percent of a billion. . . . He invited a few
hundred people to estimate gift card sales
for the coming season. The person who came
closest to actual sales figures would receive
a $50 gift card. About 200 people responded.
When their guesses were compiled, they were
off actual sales figures by less than half of
one percent! Far better than the experts.
And I think the story just gets better after
that. If you'd like to know more, click here
to read my blog entry. Change
Management News
More on Gestalt
As you know, teaching at the Gestalt
Institute of Cleveland is a labor of love for
me. It's where I learned my craft and where I
continue to go to get renewed. To help people
understand Becoming an Effective
Organizational Intervener, a program that
begins in December, I prepared a web page
that includes a short audio by me talking
about why my training in gestalt has been so
important in my work. And there are links to
the program and to the Gestalt Institute of
Cleveland's homepage. BEI
Change without Migraines Formula
Progress Report
Well, I finally settled on a name for my new
product - The Change without Migraines
Formula. I hope to release it within
a few weeks. I am about to put the finishing
touches on the program over the next two weeks.
If you'd like to learn more about the final
stage of the development of this product --
and maybe be willing to answer a question or
two I might have as I near my deadlines --
please hit reply and send me an e-mail.
And you can always opt out if you find you
don't have time to read these short e-mails.
Interested? Just hit reply and let me know
you're interested. Thanks.
Sincerely,
Rick Maurer
Maurer & Associates
phone:
703-525-7074
