Have you changed how you approach your business in the last few years? Have your products and services shifted to meet a changing customer expectation? What kind of new innovations or initiatives are you working on to increase market share? Most businesses are operating quite differently than they have in the recent past and they may no longer have the right talent fit for these new approaches.

To retain your top talent in a free agent market it is critical to know how to align your business strategies with the right talent. One of the greatest frustrations to both employees and executives occurs when the talent is a mismatch with the strategies of the company.  Granted if you are transforming an organization there will be a period of time adjusting the alignment of strategy and talent, and as long as everyone is being continuously informed of this transformation while they are going through it, they will tolerate that ambiguity for a time.

The Right Talent with the Right Initiatives

Look at the five top initiatives that are driving your business this year. I’m guessing your marketing is taking a more Internet and social media focus. I would imagine your customer care is elevating for better communication, less wait time and customer expectations are setting a greater need for directly communicating with a knowledgeable employee. I am willing to bet you have moved innovation up the ladder of priorities. These are the types of changes most organizations are seeing to be competitive at the speed of change. As you upgrade your initiatives to reflect the increasingly competitive marketplace you have to ask, is my talent upgrading with the expectations?

Once upon a time longevity was a desired trait in employees but at the pace of change today longevity is only as good as the employee is willing to upgrade his skills. Let’s say, you have a marketing director that has been in that position for 20 years. Good for him, but how well does he understand the seismic shifts happening in marketing with social media? Does he know how to use a QR code? Does he even know what a QR code is? If you have a marketing director who still places ads in the newspaper and on local cable channels as his first choice for his budget dollars, you have to ask if he is the right talent for the times.

To execute your initiatives with maximum returns you have to have the correct fit of talent for the desired results. If you want to be innovative, create an innovative work environment and employee innovative minds. It’s time to evaluate your talent and see how well they match with what you are trying to accomplish.

The Right Talent with the Right Customers

How well do your customer-contact employees relate to the customers you are trying to attract? How well have you defined the “new customer?” Are you attracting a particular demographic of customer? Typically, customers today want to deal with an employee who has very good interpersonal skills and is knowledgeable of the products and services being offered. Customers calling call-centers want quick answers and an easily understood person to speak with.

Now look at your workforce. Are your customer-contact people the most personable? Do they enjoy solving problems for others? Can they handle a confrontational conversation?   Are your employees capable of sending away an unhappy customer satisfied with the response they received to their complaint? The brutality of customers’ comments take a specific type of person with the talent to manage these situations. It has less to do with their technical abilities and much more to do with their talent to communicate and interact with the customer. Are you still asking for job experience on your job applications? Experience no longer speaks to capabilities in the new economy. Hire for talent, you can train for skill.

The Right Talent with the Right Leadership

I met with an executive of a company who proudly told me, “I am president of a pure cutting-edge innovator company. I surround myself with innovative thinking people. I absolutely love the creative process.” Then why were the majority of his current innovative creative-thinking employees significantly dissatisfied? Why were those who left in a mass exodus the year before so vocal about their negative experience under his leadership? It seems this executive felt that innovative thinkers suffer from unbounded thinking and can easily be distracted and miss deadlines therefore they need a tight structure and someone to provide discipline to the process.

This speaks to the fear of many command and control style managers: If I don’t contain them, nothing productive will get done. The fact is, innovative thinkers do not work well in cages or with someone cracking a whip behind them. Yes, a tiger in the wild will roam the wilderness, but putting him a cage or in the circus under a constant watchful eye does not make him a better tiger. Creative people need room to roam, innovators need to be able to work through the process, and talent needs an environment that allows them to grow. Understanding the talented people you are leading is most important to unleashing the best their talents have to offer. Some talent works best in a private office without interruptions, some talent likes open unbounded work space, and some talent must have constant human interaction. Know your talent needs. Know how to lead them and know how they fit well with your initiatives and you will create a comfortable work environment and create great success for the organization.

How do you fuel a 54-hour weekend work project team? Legal methamphetamines, of course — more on that later. This past weekend I participated in a Startup Weekend event, where web developers, designers and business types paid a nominal fee to gather at 6 pm on Friday for a competition to take an idea from concept to launch by Sunday night.

From concept to business launch in a weekend — that’s impossible, right? For old school business thinking, this is an impossible request. (I know executives who can take a month simply to return a phone call!)

So how did five teams create viable startup businesses complete with live demos of their products, completed websites, social media marketing and financial projections in 54 hours? By using the new business methods required for creating an agile business.

Start with Swarm Intelligence

Swarm intelligence is where a collective group of talent assembles to address an issue. In this case, take an idea from concept to launch. On this Startup Weekend, teams were formed by each individual choosing the idea they felt drawn to and then offered his/her talents to the team. No job descriptions, no assigned roles. People were able to participate at their preferred level of involvement, interest and excitement.

Swarm intelligence in a business setting would work quite the same way. Post a specific project you want to accomplish, such as how to reduce customer wait time in your call center. Determine the talents you will need on this team, and open it up to participation.

The team selects the leader, the leader sets up job tasks within the team, and people volunteer for the part of the project they are most interested in working on. Each subgroup begins work on their section, and the overall team meets hourly to touch base to make sure everyone is traveling in the same direction. Toward the end of the project, the pieces are strung together for a final creation.

Now imagine asking your swarm team to work on this project over a weekend for no pay? Immediately, I can see the head shaking by old school executives as they exclaim, “This will never work!”

If I learned nothing else from this weekend experience, I learned this:

• Really great talent finds its happiness in execution.
• People are willing to work insane hours and put forth incredible effort for something they truly believe in.
• A gathering of a team of people who have never worked together can accomplish an incredible success when everyone is committed to the outcome.

The old school business model of top-down thinking is flawed. Giving people a space to think for themselves, use their talents to the best of their abilities, and be proud of what they do is more about the employees telling us what they want to work on and what the best use of their talents is.
When someone is fully invested in the idea and is willing to volunteer their talents and work hard for no immediate compensation, you have a talent worth keeping.

If you post an idea for a weekend swarm project and no one signs up, you learn you either have the wrong talent in your organization, or as more often is the case, you have the wrong work environment for encouraging people to volunteer their talents. Either way, it is an indication of not being ready to compete in the new economy.

The Right Work Environment

The old school work environment is predicated on distrust — time clocks, set hours, closed door meetings, having to ask the boss to schedule time off, electronic pass keys, and the hierarchy of approval. The old school has personnel policies and restrictive codes written for the offending few at the expense of the many who can be trusted. This structure puts employees in a box, and they are told to do what they are instructed to do. Not much room for self expression or talent, is there?

“If my soldiers were to begin to think,
not one would remain in the ranks.”

– Frederick the Great

Employees are no longer low-skill, low-educated workers that populated factories 60 years ago. They are intelligent, skilled people, and the best talent of these is thinking at a high level.

The new work model appeals to those who have great talent. Companies who attract the best talent are the ones who are going to be the most successful in the new economy. Shifting from distrust to trust is important to creating the right work environment. The weekend work environment in which I participated was much more trust based.

So, what was provided for this weekend of work that I took part in?
Access to the workspace was 24/7, and no one had set hours. Mentors were available for questions, input and troubleshooting, but none were telling any team what to do or how to do it. Good food was brought in for meals at 8:30 am, 12:30 pm, and 5:30 pm.

An open space was provided for papering the walls with good ideas, a powerful wifi connection was maintained, small tables were easily moved to wherever they needed to be, and minimal oversight was given, other than to let people know when food had arrived.

Snacks were readily available for whenever someone felt the urge without having to feed a vending machine. A beer fridge was available, and the privilege was never abused. An iced down cooler with the sign “Free Legal Methamphetamines” offered ample amounts of 5-hour Energy Shots, Red Bull and Monster energy drinks.

People were given the freedom to work at their own pace, and the collaboration was constant. After years of advising old school businesses, I was floored at the potential of what could be accomplished by people motivated, talented, and ready to make something happen by Sunday night.

The new model of business success is dramatically different than the old school style, and is designed for success at the speed of change that is happening in the new economy. Are you ready to get on board? Let’s talk!

Technology is driving the pace of change at speeds the human brain can hardly keep up with. Change is happening with the subtlety of a hurricane. No longer are we able to make mere modifications to try to keep up. At this pace we have to be making transformations.

Transformations are not quiet or gradual. They rip and tear. They remove comfort zones in a whoosh of activity. They leave those who prefer the “old ways” screaming and hollering for what used to be.

What we are seeing happening in Madison Wisconsin is just the beginning of numerous transformations we are going to see for years to come until dramatic transformations are the norm.

The Great Recession wasn’t just a corrective action; it was a signal of the beginning of transformative times. A goliath organization like GM filed for bankruptcy, the American economy teetered on the brink of disaster requiring banking policies to be rewritten, and the foundation of the American dream, increasing home value and stable jobs, was turned to ruble and has to be rebuilt. We thought these things would take years to happen, not weeks. This isn’t a shift; this is what transformation looks like.

The protesters and fleeing elected officials of Wisconsin are feebly trying to stop a category 5 hurricane with protest signs and loud words. Instead, they need to be spending time on working how to thrive once this transformation removes unions as they know them. Other state governments will soon be following the same path as Wisconsin. Are those unions preparing for the transformation or preparing to battle to stop the transformation? You can’t stop progress.

What used to take decades to change is now happening in a matter of months. It’s not just products such as the iPad being made obsolete within weeks of its debut (by the iPad 2) it is all aspects of our lives. We are now seeing the pace of change in this century. How we work, how we spend money, and how we interact is in the process of transforming. It’s going to be quite a ride.

Every year at this time people make personal resolutions. Business owners and leaders also set expectations and have high hopes for the new year. Studies show on the average people give up on their personal resolutions by the end of a month and businesses reach the end of the first quarter playing catch up.

Why not try something different this year that will have real meaningful impact on your business?

Instead of trying to set resolutions or hoping business will improve ask yourself the most important business question of the year:

If I were to start my business from scratch with the knowledge I have today, how would it look different?

Most of us who have successfully owned a business for a long time are constantly looking to improve, upgrade or grow the business we have. Sadly, that isn’t enough in today’s business environment – ask Blockbuster.

Blockbuster created an industry and dominated it, and then technology shifted. Blockbuster was the best distributor of VCR products. Every year they worked to improve their title offerings, make their locations more customer friendly, and their staff more knowledgeable. The problem was they were asking the wrong questions. Instead of asking what can we do to be better, they should have been asking: If we started today how would we be different?

Netflix showed them how a new start up thinking fresh can completely change the marketplace leaving the industry leader filing bankruptcy – because they failed to ask the right question.

Netflix learning from Blockbuster’s mistake are now asking this all important question again and forcing their organization and entice customers to join them on the video on demand trend with streaming video.

Look at your business. What are you upgrading you need to overhaul? In what ways are the new competitors kicking your butt? Can’t see it? Don’t believe it? Look harder! Try these 25 questions on for size.

Guarantee: If honestly answering all of these questions doesn’t dramatically improve your business write me at Russell@RussellWhite.com and tell me about it. I will make a donation to your favorite charity in your name for wasting your time!

What new technology makes your systems crap by comparison?

What hours should you be open for business to maximize revenue?

What leadership skills and energy level should be at the helm of your business?

What does your web presence look like?

What social media maximization are you working on?

Where is your mobile phone app?

How are you hiring people differently today?

Are you still wasting time on reading/reviewing resumes?

Why are YOU leading your business? (Remember the bulletproof feeling you had when you started your new business or new position? How does that feel now?)

Do you clearly know your customers?

If you didn’t own/run the business would you still want to be a customer of your place?

Why do you sell your products the way you do?

Does that approach even apply today?

Why are you selling the products and services you are currently offering?

What do you call marketing these days? Why are you using those methods of getting the word out?

How is your product packaged? Why?

Who are you employing? Why?

How often are you completely changing your customer approach?

What in your business is a “VHS tape” in a digital video world?

When was the last time you learned a brand new skill that impacted your business?

If you had an unlimited budget to make a commercial, what would it look like?

How can you make close to that with what you can afford right now?

How can you create such customer draw they will stand in line to get what you are offering?

What corners are you cutting because you are lazy/tired/it’s the economy/it’s good enough/I am just not as committed as I once was?

What process/employee/product/system has a lot in common with a full diaper but you just do not want to face the fact you need to do something about it?

As fast as the pace of business is moving, it’s easy to fall behind the leading edge. If you stop to wait and see what you should do next, you can become obsolete just that fast. Look at your products and services from the customer’s perspective. Evaluate your marketing strategies and ask if they are still fresh. You also should be constantly experimenting with new offerings.

Wasting time has always been a pet peeve of mine.  Being placed on hold with a customer service department is a great example.  I recently needed to call my local utility company and based on past experiences, I decided to make good use of the time I would be on hold. Before I placed the call I opened a document on my computer which I could work on while listening to the elevator music on my headset.

The only thing worse than others wasting my time is when I waste my own time. We’ve all heard the phrase that “time is money” so look around your office. Where are you wasting time waiting?  Perhaps you’ve grown accustomed to the wait and you don’t even recognize it anymore.  Here is a short list to get you started in identifying those wasted moments:

1. Using the “search” function to find an E-mail or a document on your computer – It is estimated that we spend 150 hours each year looking for misplaced information. That’s almost four work weeks! Take the time to properly name a document or to place an E-mail in its proper file.
2. Sluggish computer – A slow computer not only wastes time but causes frustration. Remove any programs or software that you no longer use and contact your computer geek to perform a tune-up.
3. Waiting for a return phone call or E-mail – If the response you need is an urgent one, avoid  E-mail. Instead, use the phone. Your message should specify the urgency of your need. In order to help others from wasting time waiting on you, turn on your E-mail auto responder and record a specific voicemail message any time you’ll be away for a half day or more.
4. Signatures – Sometimes the wheels of Corporate America grind ever so slowly due to a heavy layer of signatures required. Suggest a review of the signatures required in order to gain efficiency in a process and to keep projects moving forward in a timely fashion.
5. Waiting in queue for a printer or fax machine – If you’re spending a great deal of time standing around the department printer, begin documenting the time. Many companies have taken the lean approach in reducing the number of printers/faxes available to their employees. However, they may not be aware of the amount of time people are standing around waiting. Investing in a few additional pieces of equipment will make better use of their employee’s time and cut down on everyone’s frustration.

As I wrap this up, I’ll leave you with this thought: If you learned to save just 15 minutes a day, you would be saving 75 minutes each week which computes to 65 hours over the course of one year. Wow – that’s a lot!  Now who can’t use a little more time?

Audrey Thomas, CPO®, is a national speaker, author, and Lean Office expert.  She is the author of Buried Alive!: Surviving the Avalanche of Paper and E-mail and Getting Organized with MS Outlook and serves as Past-President of the National Speakers Association-Minnesota. A frequent speaker at conferences and sales meetings, Audrey also coaches individuals who want to improve their productivity and get more done in their day. Contact her at Audrey@OrganizedAudrey.com 1-866-767-0455 or visit www.OrganizedAudrey.com

Have you ever watched a movie or listened to a speaker at a conference that put you to sleep? You just get numb from the uninspiring information and delivery. A bad economy will do the same thing to your business. After 18 months of recession slow down and back-stepping, business leaders can get into a malaise that feels like the numbness experienced listening to that boring speaker.

Once this habitual plodding happens, business leaders miss good opportunities because their minds are more focused on just getting through one more month instead of looking for big jump opportunities.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Is your budget for this year set with expectation of improvement or with the fear of repeating 2009?
• Do you have wiggle room to capitalize on a fresh opportunity or do you feel overwhelmed in time and financial resources; therefore, you only hope to make it through the year?
• Are you on high energy rush and expecting to have a record performance year, or are you using the same mindset you used to survive 2008 and 2009?

Opportunities for every business will be available this year. Those leaders who are looking for them will find a way to take those opportunities and turn them into long-term success. Others will be waiting on the right time to take on such new ideas, which means those business executives will go lacking while the aggressors take more market share.

Use this month to awaken your senses, get your people vibrant in their attitudes once again and grab your share of opportunities that are ripe with potential. In talking with a gentleman who owns 600 rental properties, someone asked him if he was feeling the pinch of the economy where people were not paying or he was left with open properties. He didn’t even respond to the question, he just offered a different perspective.

He said, “I’m not worried about how many open properties I have because now is the time to focus on the great opportunity to buy more properties, so I’ve been on a buying spree getting some great deals.”

Think of your perspective. Are you more focused on the negative impact the economy has had on your business, or are you focusing on the opportunities that can be grabbed while everyone is looking the other way? This is your wake up call.

Chip Conley, the CEO of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, shared his internal struggle with posting his Burning Man pictures on his Facebook page at http://bit.ly/2qIml5 His pr advisors told him those pictures and his CEO persona could cause a misunderstanding about what is proper behavior. (I think it was his tutu picture that was the point of the discussion.)

Burning man is a one week retreat in the middle of a dust bowl with no food, no water, no showers, no cars, just what you carry in on your back or bike. It is intended to be an “out there” experience and from what people who have attended told me, you will see anything and everything going on at this retreat. When I say everything, suffice it to say, it is impossible not to be shocked at Burning Man because it attracts the freest of the free spirits and the edge is pushed more and more each year. I would guess not many CEOs attend Burning Man.

Which brings the question for all executives: What is proper to share on social media? The challenge with social media is that your personal and professional lives collide and for the “In the full disclosure of who I am” category it is actually a great resource for people to investigate who you are. Everything about who you are.

Employers are looking at social media pages such as facebook, twitter, and linkedin to see what employees and prospective employees are saying. The same goes for executives who are being “checked out” by employees, clients and competitors.

I have a number of clients who follow me on my personal pages as well as my fan page www.facebook.com/russelljwhite2 and they get the full me. But where is the Too Much Information (TMI) line drawn?

Would I share about my Saturday night in the strip club where I got 5 lap dances, had 8 beers, and was escorted out of the club by the bouncer for rude behavior? Would I share my disappointment about my employees letting me down? Would I go on a rant about how I hate Mondays?

Curiously, I have read each of these remarks by people who at that moment were employed somewhere. Is there a different standard for executives? I don’t think so.

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In other words: How to prevent the competition from telling everyone about your weakness.

The Verizon map ads seem to appear on TV every 10 minutes. Their unrelenting message caused AT&T to fight back with Luke Wilson ads that just don’t work. Why? Because Verizon found the glaring weakness of their competitor and cleverly got the word out to potential customers while the AT&T ads are just attacks on a competitor. Sour grapes does not gain market share.

What is AT&T going to do about this?

AT&T Will Spend $2 Billion To Improve Wireless Network http://bit.ly/d8db63

Now they are making upgrades they should’ve done before. Instead of gaining momentum with upgrades it appears they got caught with their pants down and appear to be reacting to the competitor’s ads. Meaning, instead of gaining customers for the upgrades they appear to be simply trying to keep the customers they have. That is a dramatically different return for a $2 billion investment.

How could they have prevented this from happening?

1. Be honest with yourself about shortfalls

When I work with organizations on strategic planning we often discuss the problems they have in-house and problems the competitors have. Which list do you imagine is longer? Many executives are blind to their own in-house problems and seem more focused on justifying why their situation is like it is.

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