Welcome to the October 8, 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.  Innovation: the act of introducing something new

2.  Perfect Labor Storm Warnings

3.  Quotes from the Hire Authorities

1.  Practicalizers get it done!

Managing a business in today's tumultuous environment has frightening similarities to navigating a river of "permanent whitewater." Management under current economic conditions must be able to complete a lot of important work in a short time under harrowing conditions, on the basis of only a few hunches and a lot of instinct, none of them precise.
 
When the necessity to change in an organization moves from gradual to urgent, the need to have Practicalizers on your team is critical. 
 
Practicalizers are action oriented. They accomplish what they set out to do. Often they are the only ones who can get a change accepted. And although they are no more creative than the risk averse Planner, they make their ideas work because they are confident of their ability to produce.
 
Inside many boardrooms, Practicalizers are likely fighting through opposition from peers and bosses.  For every idea that he proposes, the Practicalizer is told "it might fly" but "let's not rush into it."   He's told to more slowly and consider how the rest of the organization will react.  While this advice may be sound in more stable times, it is inappropriate amidst the tumult of today's business environment.  When innovative thinking and impeccable execution are the only business-saving strategies available, .  Practicalizers should be in the driver's seat.
 
President Johnson said, "Politics is the art of the possible," and Practicalizers are the organization's politicians. They are rarely confused between the right thing to do creatively and what can be implemented. Practicalizers are confident that they will be able to convince top management of the need to make major changes. Practicalizers like taking ideas and driving them through the bureaucratic walls of the organization.
 
Because they are moderately creative, they recognize the gifts of the Innovator (who tends to be socially less acceptable) and of the Synthesizer, Dreamer, and Planner (who are preoccupied with the product/idea rather than its implementation).
 
The major weakness of the Practicalizer is that they may run right over ideas of the super creative person in a crunch because it may not be practical. Consequently, they sometimes miss the big payoff because they get stuck in reality and overlook the possibility.  But when they see the "light," the Practicalizer has a knack for making what seems like fluff and nonsense become pragmatic and successful.

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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

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

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.