Welcome to the October 22, 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

NEW!  Check out our new flash presentation at Success Performance Solutions

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.  When flapping harder doesn't work, innovate!

2.  Perfect Labor Storm Warnings

3.  Innovation: The role of the modifier

4.  Quotes from the Hire Authorities

1.  When "flapping" harder doesn't work, innovate!

Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen has a little vignette in his book The Innovator's Dilemma about how people were trying to fly in the Middle Ages by fabricating wings, strapping them onto their arms, jumping and flapping real hard. For centuries subsequent innovators framed the problem as: The guys who died just didn't flap hard enough. Yet it still never worked. Once they understood that there were some basic laws of nature that they needed to account for, once Bernoulli understood fluid mechanics well enough to articulate his principle, then there was a law of nature we could actually harness.

A lot of good managers during these challenging times are flapping their wings. They are working very hard to fight some fundamental changes in the way we will do business when they should be harnessing the changes and identifying the opportunities.

Until this century, businesses executed change at a controlled pace.  Market strategies were developed years in advance, ergo product roadmaps extended years into the future.  Today, change in markets, technology, economies, and consumers' taste is continuous, complex, chaotic, and accelerating.  This rapid change has created a new set of challenges - very quickly.

   
In The Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink writes, "The forces of Abundance, Asia, and Automation turn goods and services into commodities so quickly that the only way to survive is by constantly developing new innovations, inventing new categories, and giving the world something it didn't know it was missing."  Obviously, traditional management practices, decision-making processes, and organizational hierarchies intended to execute long term strategies cannot deliver in the new economy.  Companies that are not well into the process of developing their next product or service when the release of their new product or service is announced are already behind the market. 

 
Learn more about The Innovation Equation and Innovate like Edison.

2.  Perfect Labor Storm Warnings   

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

Demographic realities have created a labor shortage for Energy Utilities that can no longer be ignored.

• 48 years is the average age of a utility employee.  Only one other industry, out of 54, has a higher average age-Real Estate.
• 19.2 % of the industry is within 5 to 7 years of retirement. 16,000 fewer 16 to 34 year olds work in the industry, compared to 1990.
• Since 1995, the number of workers, 55 and older has increased 2 ¼ times.  Older workers are the fastest growing segment within the industry.
• During the same time period, the 25 to 44 year old segment has contracted by 25%.  That means fewer managers and supervisors will be available to support increasing demand for energy and a seismic shift in the demand for skilled workers. 
  

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.  Innovation: The Role of the Modifier

Modifiers hold the key to the continuous improvement kingdom. They can be counted on for the constant tweaking, the little improvements, that are necessary to lower costs of production, marketing and management. Because their changes are rarely threatening nor intrusive into another's territory, they are usually liked.  

Modifiers are moderately creatrive and moderate on risk taking.  They take what exists and add to it.  Modifiers can take virtually anything and make it better.    The problem comes when others expect these masters of modification to come up with "brilliant solutions."  You might hear a manager or co-worker say, "You like changing things so much, why don't you come up with new idea."  But since modifiers aren't willing to take the big risks nor fight resistance, modifiers may not share a minor change that can result in a major improvement or cost-saving.  

Can you identity the Modifiers in your organization?

Creatrix Inventory is an extraordinary instrument that measures an individual's and a group's innovative capacity.  We believe Creatrix may be the single most important tool in assessing an organization's ability to seize new opportunities and execute strategic plans flawlessly through innovation.

As today's business challenges become increasingly difficult to manage, organizations need innovative solutions to stay competitive. But it is not enough to want to be more innovative.  Organizations need the right people on board; people who have the ability to be creative and the willingness to take risk, key elements of innovation. 

Learn more about Creatrix or call/email today to schedule a consultation today.

4. Quotes from Hire Authorities

"It's astonishing what an effort it seems to be for many people to put their brains definitively and systematically to work."

Thomas Edison 

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 only.