Welcome to the October 1, 2008 issue of The Total View

Published by Success Performance Solutions

Major Sponsor of

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. Dreamers: To dream is easy, to find solutions requires persistence

2.  Perfect Labor Storm Warnings

3.  Quotes from the Hire Authorities

1.  Dreamers: To dream is easy, to find solutions requires persistence

Will Rogers once said, "Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."  Will was talking about the Dreamer, the high creative low-on-risk taker.  The Dreamer is one of the eight innovation orientations identified through the research of Dr. Richard Byrd and via the Creatrix Inventory.
 
Dreamers are strong on ideas, weak on making things happen. Dreamers are idea generating machines. (They wear the green hat in DeBono's Six Thinking Hats model.) Dreamers often hold the magic bullet. But because thy are often viewed as "crackpots," they are the organizational equivalent of buying the winning lottery ticket but never checking to see if you won. They are constantly thinking: "What are the other possibilities? Are there other ways to do this?"
 
Unfortunately they are most often known within an organization for their under-achievement and hare-brained ideas. Despite possibly having the next great disruptive innovation in their head, their lack of aggressiveness and fear of risk keeps it hidden and a best kept secret.
 
Dreamers are an organization's unmined gold, a source of virtually unlimited ideas. But many Dreamers really don't care if anyone knows about them: the idea in and of itself is enough reward to define success. They just like to tinker and come up with new things but never volunteer to show anyone what he's created.  
 
Dreamers are the antithesis of what embodied Thomas Edison's model of innovation.  Edison credited his remarkable facility for innovation to what he called his "mental kaleidoscope" - he was able to generate ideas, make create connections, and discern patterns.  This is compatibile with the Dreamer.  But Edison didn't stop with the idea. Even when an idea didn't work out, Edison kept going.  In his mind, failure didn't exist, because all outcomes yielded further data that he believed would ultimately provide solutions. While Dreamers feel the idea is the end goal, Edison understood creativity was only a means.
 
Whenever an organization is searching for major change or just incremental improvement, Dreamers excel. But it is most beneficial when Dreamers are paired with team members and supervisors who are Practicalizers.  Dreamers fit well in jobs that require planning, demand little risk taking and provide time to think. 

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:

Total Health Care Spending by State (in millions)  

1.  California............$166,236,000
2.  New York............$126,076,000
3.  Texas...................$103,600,000
4.  Florida.................$95,223,000
5.  Pennsylvania........$73,441,000
 

United States.......$1,551,255,000
   

These 5 states make up 36% of US spending  

Source: statehealthfacts.org

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. Quotes from Hire Authorities

The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must thing anew, and act anew.

Abraham Lincoln, Second Annual Message to Congress delivered on December 1, 1862

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