Welcome to the September 10, 2008 issue of The Total View

Published by Success Performance Solutions

Major Sponsor of
2008 Best Places to Work In Pennsylvania

Edited and Written by Ira S. Wolfe

Visit our Human Resources Blog and Perfect Labor Storm Blog where we can post daily (and more often) human resource updates, news, and Perfect Labor Storm facts. 

What's Inside this issue of The TotalView:

1.  Are You Prepared As A Company To Innovate?

Innovation is not something you do at will.  Innovation is often associated with the light bulb that is switched on suddenly to energize a business and jump start growth.  To the contrary, innovation describes a company culture, a philosophy.  Innovation is not something you turn on when profits are dropping, products are not selling or you don't know what else to do.  For the slow change-risk adverse business, innovation can't and won't start with the flick of the switch.

Southwest Airlines didn't just decide one day to change the way passengers fly.  At the heart of Southwest's success is its business model and culture.  "What a stupid idea" is what I'm sure executives at TWA and Pan Am thought when they first heard about Southwest Airlines.  Look who's laughing now!   

Imagine yourself being the executive selected to tell your board of directors for the first time the plan to force passengers to become their own travel agent.   "That will never work" must have been going through the board room at American, Delta, Northwest, US Airways and the like after they heard about it.  But Southwest embraced the concept and decided to have passengers make reservations online and entice them with Internet only fares.  

You then explain to the directors that first come, first serve for a ticket doesn't reserve a seat.   "We're going to make them go back to our website 24 hours before departure time to retrieve their boarding pass," you tell the directors.    Finally you remind them that the boarding pass still doesn't reserve the best seat.  Passengers will have to get to the airport early to stand in front of their respective A, B, or C "cattle line"   Crazy idea when you think about it, isn't it?

But who could have imagined that forcing people to be their own travel agent and board plane in cattle lines would not only be accepted but change the way people traveled.  Southwest Airlines not only altered how people flew but has been the only profitable airline for nearly twenty years.

The name most synonymous with innovation has to be Apple, Inc., the company formerly known as Apple Computer until recently.  The name change represents who Apple really is:  a culture of continuous innovation.  Starting with the Mac, then the iPOD, and now the much anticipated iPhone, Apple is always seeking the next new thing.  Apple's business is not products, it is innovation.

Dell, on the other hand, changed the way people bought and ordered computers and led the industry for years.  But over time, all innovation gets commoditized.  Dell stopped innovation - or at least it stopped innovating fast enough to stay ahead of the competition. Competitors copied the Dell model and Dell lost its edge.  It failed to reinvent the exceptional customer experience it created.  

Like Dell, core businesses are being disrupted by globalization, technology shifts, and new competitors.  Business model innovation is essential to retaining a competitive position but that is simpler said than done.  The scope of changing business models is larger and execution more complex.  

Business model innovation is a perpetual quest for renewal.  Complacency is a business killer.  Harvard Business School Professor John Kotter in his newest book, A Sense of Urgency, why urgency is the antithesis of complacency. Urgency is becoming an organization's most important asset.  

Kotter describes urgency as the combination of thoughts, feelings (gut level determination) and actual behavior (hyper-alertness to what's going on).  Urgent people come to work each and every day with a commitment to make something important happen. They emote a sense to other people that you've got to get going.

Absolutely essential for innovation are leaders who have both an innovative mind-set and sense of urgency. We're finding a lot of leaders don't have it.  When they do, many of their managers don't.  The implications are enormous.  

How does your management team stack up?  Do your managers have what it takes to innovate and keep pace? 

Are you prepared as a company to innovate? To unleash your untapped creativity?  

Call us today at 800.803.4303 or send us an email.

2.  Perfect Labor Storm Warnings   

Subscribe to the Perfect Labor Storm 2.0 blog and receive skilled worker shortage updates like this:

Percent of Children Under 6 Years Old With All Parents in the Labor Force 

States with highest percentage

• Delaware - 71.8% 
• North Dakota - 71.6%
• Iowa - 71.0%
• South Dakota - 70.6%
• Nebraska - 70.4%

States by lowest percentage

• Washington - 54.0% 
• Arizona - 53.8%
• Nevada - 52.2%
• Idaho - 49.6%
• Utah - 47.5%

(FYI - Pennsylvania is 39th at 58.5%)

Learn more about workforce trends. Purchase the NEW Perfect Labor Storm 2.0 books (soft and hard cover versions) at PerfectLaborStorm.com.

New Perfect Labor Storm videos added. Watch now!

3.  Firms Fight Generation Gap

Central Penn Business Journal, Aug 22, 2008   

When different generations meet in the workplace, the encounters can easily create attitude wars. The conflict is a result of differing values, cultures and lifestyles that characterize each of four separate age groups, several staff-development consultants said.

Battles over work ethics, language differences or greeting styles can interrupt the atmosphere and productivity of a staff whose ages range from early 20s to mid-60s. The key to creating positive relationships is increasing awareness, understanding and acceptance, they said.

"Companies want us to change attitudes," said Ira Wolfe, president of Success Performance Solutions of East Hempfield Township, but the change must be in expectations of one another.   

Read more about generation gaps.     

Free Generation IQ Quiz - Test your knowledge about the generations.   

Generational Style Assessment - Understand generational differences and identify ways to "flex" your own behavior.

4. Geeks, Geezers and Googlization

When Old and Young Workers Collide
 

Schedule Your 2008-2009 Presentation Today!
 

We live in interesting times, indeed. Four generations are co-mingling in the workplace, each bringing with them different managerial approaches and working styles. Capitalizing on each generation's strengths is a must. Minimizing generational clash-points is a necessity. Finding common ground is critical. How do you keep Veteran workers, Baby Boomers, Gen-Xers, and Millennials all engaged, motivated, and on the job?  

During this presentation, participants will learn from workforce management expert/author Ira S. Wolfe about workforce trends that are changing the way employers will do business followed by a lively and interactive discussion about the newest challenge facing managers: managing the four generations in the workplace.  

Topics to be discussed:

• Learn how workforce trends will change the way you do business
• Why "walkers" will outnumber "strollers" in years to come
• What's up with the "incredible shrinking workforce"?
• Exploring differences between the four generations at work
• Keys to Managing "Clashpoints" in a Multi-Generational Workforce

Call 717-291-4640 or click here to schedule Ira S Wolfe for your 2008-2009 meetings and conferences

5. Quotes from Hire Authorities

"As the scut work gets off-loaded, engineers and programmers will have to master different aptitudes, relying more on creativity than competence, more on tacit knowledge than technical manuals, and more on fashioning the big picture than sweating the details."

Daniel H. Pink, The Whole New Mind 

Permission is granted to consultants, managers, business owners and HR professionals to reproduce content from this newsletter for your internal publications, or to distribute copies to your workforce, on the condition that you reproduce the credits and contact information as follows: "Reprinted with permission from Ira S Wolfe and Success Performance Solutions. Copyright 2008 Ira S Wolfe."  We also hope you will forward the newsletter in its entirety and recommend to others that they subscribe.

Ira S. Wolfe Copyright 2008 - All Rights Reserved. Reprints and other distribution by permission