Category Archives: 21st Century Organization

Life is about Experiencing, Learning and Moving On To Next

Posted by Frederick Miller on June 16, 2011 None comments

The JOY of it all

Tears are filling my eyes.

I can feel the room full of people getting ready to move on. It is a big room, actually a hockey rink most of the time, a hockey rink where in an earlier time I watched Kamen play on community and school teams from age 6 to 17. And it is where I have watched Rensselaer play for the last dozen years. But today it is so different – no ups and downs, no mistakes, no cheering when RPI scores and being disappointed when the other school accomplishes the exact same feat.  No wondering about the outcome. No winning and losing.

Everybody is a winner today. There are only ups, and that is why the tears are flowing down my face.

There are not many occasions where the joy is so pure. Even weddings have that sense of the loss of what was. And even on this day of so much joy there is probably some sorrow…the passing of an era in a family, in a person’s life…but the sorrow is hard to find, hard to feel, hard to hear because the JOY is so loud. 

There are 758 people waiting to walk across the stage to receive their college degrees. Many times that number are sitting in the stands with smiles on their faces and pride in their hearts and hopes about the future in their thoughts. As one of the trustees of the Sage Colleges, I march down the aisle and take a seat on the stage. This is my fifth year of this graduation ceremony, this community joy.  It brings tears every year, starting with seeing the grads line up outside, then walk in with such pure joy – a joy I have experienced nowhere else.

I have had the privilege of witnessing the birth of a child, and nothing is so precious and filled with such awe. But a birth is a private, intimate revelation, rarely shared with more than a few. It is not, at least in our culture, a public event.

This is a different experience. The sheer volume. The number of people who are experiencing joy all at the same time. Everyone in the Fieldhouse is happy. Thousands of happy people in one place, being joyous about life and about the achievements of people.

The cheers are fun to hear. As people walk across the stage, family members or friends in the audience call out their names. There is yelling and applause – just for them. How many times in life do people walk across a public stage and have other applaud them? For most, not too many times. For some, it is the first and possibly the only time it will happen.

And the grads …they can’t stop smiling. Some have writing on their caps. Others are wearing very special outfits, dressed up for their big day…maybe the biggest day of accomplishment in their lives so far. And for some of the families, they are seeing the first person in the family history achieve a college degree, or a masters or a doctorate.

The air is alive with joy. I feel the joy in all of my being and I am overwhelmed with a feeling of life in one of its finer moments. Seven hundred and fifty eight new graduates celebrating themselves, with their loved ones there as witnesses to the moment.

In this sacred space, all I can do is let the tears flow and know how blessed I am to experience such a moment and to share it with thousands of people in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Hockey Fieldhouse in Troy, New York. And in that moment, I realize we are not alone in our joy. Graduations like this are happening all over the country and the world. It is one of the gifts we give ourselves as human beings.

A different time ………A different way to respond………

Posted by Frederick Miller on December 8, 2009 None comments

Although the students arriving on campuses this year cross the starting line of both generations Y and Z, (having been born between 1990 and 2004), they are a generation of tech savvy, socially networked, communicative thinkers whose use of PDAs is as natural as their next breath. In fact, the majority of these thinkers sleep with them by their sides and sleepily text, post and tweet intermittently during the night.

They grew up in a world where everyone gets a trophy, where competition is no longer the main focus of group activities and sharing the win, sharing the loss, working as a team is the norm. They are in constant communication with many of the adults in their lives and consistently want their “friends” to know about everything they do and want to hear what they are doing, too!

This generation embodies and embraces the idea of impermanence. They will work, live, do what they want and they have little to no sense of failure if they have to move back home with their parents, and some just never move out at all. They seek support and encouragement from everyone in their lives. Their social networking abilities are constantly at their fingertips, and the exchange of information and connection is happening at lightening speed.

Here is a generation who has spent their whole lives thus far in a world that has been at war. This generation has been living and trying to play in a context of global unrest, from Desert Storm to 9/11 to the second Iraq War and Afghanistan; they have been here for all of it. They have not known life when the United States was not at war. As parents, relatives and neighbors, how do we release our children into this world? It is our natural instinct to protect and nurture them, to want to ensure their safety; yet we are living in a society that sensationalizes its violent acts and where conflict and personal tragedies ring out from TV and the Internet.

How will these young people be successful in college when they have no idea if there will be a job waiting for them when they get out? How will they repay their student loans? Support themselves? What industry will be left for them to work in? For this generation, the future is not a bright light. It is a daily headline of stocks crashing and major companies closing or going bankrupt. The opportunity to own a home, make a major purchase or live a better life than their parents is almost impossible to fathom. They have seen their parents and relatives losing their jobs. What possibilities do they have?

We want the next generation to be successful; we want them to grow into productive adults who have a passion for life. And we, as parents, relatives and neighbors, also want to make all of the transitions in their lives seamless, smooth and even a little bit easy. But we know we have to let them stumble; let them find their own way. How do we release them to find their way when the world seems so unsafe and uncertain?

As they enter the workforce, organization leaders will need to keep up and will need to change their style and approach to what is coming and how best to harness the energy and ideas of this new generation. Information and knowledge will need to be available and interesting. We—parents, leaders, supporters and society as a whole—will need to stimulate this group of thinkers or we will lose them.

Leaders in organizations will be faced with needing new ways of managing and engaging. This generation has been taught to not only seek out, but also to expect to receive feedback daily. They have lived in a social fluidity that has allowed them, and at times encouraged them, to change their mind, their major, their circumstance and their job based on how they feel and what will “work” for them. While they may have had the opportunity to see someone hold the same job for most of their lives, they do not aspire to do the same, nor does it seem to be an option even if they wanted it to be. This will be a generation of multiple careers and interests, and a confidence that celebrates that wide breadth of choices and experiences.
This generation is no doubt our fastest growing and changing element that will impact the success of not only our, but also future, organizations and our society. In order to gain as much as we can from them, we need to recognize this change and be prepared for it. The question to us all is—are we ready?

What happened to vacations?

Posted by Frederick Miller on October 22, 2009 None comments

…I didn’t get the memo…but I know something’s changed

When was the last time you took a vacation? I mean a real vacation, where you put aside your work, physically and mentally? Do you recall a time when you were able to unplug from your office, without feeling obligated to check in? A time when you could totally unwind, allowing your mind to rest? Let’s face it folks, in the United States, those vacations are a thing of the past.

We know that time to relax and refresh ourselves is critical to well-being and high performance, yet we continue to downplay the importance of “down time.” We live in the only economically “advanced” country that does not guarantee its workforce vacation time. Britain guarantees 20 days of vacation time, Germany 24, France 30 and Holland 50 days a year for government workers. For one of the richest countries in the world, this discrepancy is staggering. Yet, because it is “just vacation,” we treat it as a trivial matter to be ignored or brushed off.

As companies grow, so does the workplace culture that rewards individuals who continually work without taking time off, do not unplug when they get home and are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Profit or productivity may play a part in the development of the “accidental workaholic” as people work more hours not because they want to, but because they feel they have no choice. As companies place more and more value on those who rarely or never take a break, more people see no choice but to allow work to creep into many if not all areas of their lives. The boundaries between work and personal life continue to be blurred, crossed and swiftly eliminated.

While companies play a major role in the elimination of true down time, we as consumers are a contributing force. The U.S. culture relies on the market that is open 24 hours a day and expects businesses to be open every day. We need to have access to everything at all times. Could our culture support a month long shut down the way they do in Europe? Could we accept not having access to the places we shop every day and could they handle the possible financial shortfall?

We are a technologically equipped society in constant contact with many organizations. We can be reached by a multitude of devices. With cell phones, BlackBerry® and the iPhone, we are vibrating and ringing along lake sides, while we are on the water, at dining tables, bed side and even in the bathroom. We can and do conduct business anywhere, anytime and we are suffering from it far more than we realize. The time that is spent working 12-15 hour days and through our weekends, and our activity formerly known as “vacations” is keeping us from fully engaging with our families, our friends and ultimately ourselves.

What is the ultimate price we are paying for eliminating rest — one of our basic survival needs? If we don’t rest, how do we protect our health? Our well-being? Our personal lives? How do we not only maintain business, but also move forward? We are not Energizer Bunnies®, we cannot continue to go on and on without refreshing and replenishing our energies. There is no easy way out of this culture that we have created.

As organizational leaders and team members we are faced with this challenge and we must find a way to incorporate down time into our plans and our lives. We must look at the benefits that well-rested, refreshed members bring to the table. And we must also recognize within ourselves that our goal is not to just survive, but to thrive. In order to do that, unplugging and refreshing are as necessary as the air we breathe and the cell phones that are affixed to our ears.

FROM Scarcity TO Abundance

Posted by Judith Katz on December 14, 2007 None comments

katz_judith.jpgIs there a limit to how many ideas you can have in one day? To dreaming new dreams? How many ideas have you had today? In the last five minutes? Ideas are infinite – leading to innovation, greater creativity and new ways of doing things. The challenge, of course, is how do we create an environment in which people feel safe enough to “think” not just alone but together? How do we create organizational environments that can really capitalize on the intellectual genius of their workforce? That is the challenge for the 21st century; and we are still very much in the infancy of this major revolution.

In previous posts we talked about the shift from the Industrial Revolution—an age in which mechanization ruled and people were seen as little more than hands and feet. Organizations are now struggling to make the transition to this new age where a person’s value is measured by their intellectual contributions, of which there are no restrictions or boundaries.

We are transitioning from a model of scarcity—of old mindsets of limitations, production and control to a new mindset of abundance in which competitive advantage comes from individuals’ and teams’ ability to outthink their competitors if given the right supports, systems and processes. We are moving to an age in which our capacity to innovate, and the need for speed of knowledge transfer and application will determine the ability to succeed which means we must trust one another and successfully share ideas and thinking more rapidly. Clearly if there are no limitations to our ability to think then there is no limitation on our ability to be innovative and creative.

The challenge, however, is that while we‘re moving towards a place where our best asset is our intellectual capital, organizations haven’t figured out the many ways to capture and capitalize on it. Mass collaboration and Global Co-Creation enabled by social networking platforms and Web 2.0 technology are a start, but they need to become a way of life inside organizations to make a difference. Most of the performance management and reward systems, promotion systems and structures are not yet designed to embrace and support our ability to think and ideate in organizations. When was the last time you actually had thinking time in your day-to-day work schedule? When was a meeting structured in such a way that people were able to bring their best thinking and not just top-of-mind answers as they hurry through their day?

Ask yourself again, “Is there a limit to what I can think?” If the response is “no,” then in that answer exists the crux of this revolution of ideas and intellectual capital

There are many things that need to change within organizations to make sure it is safe enough for people to share their thinking, and to capture and best leverage this intellectual capital.

Where would you start?

The Game Changing Generation

Posted by Judith Katz on November 30, 2007 None comments

katz_judith.jpg“Over the next two decades, 76 million Americans will be retiring and only 46 million will be entering the workplace to replace them, according to the American Society of Training and Development. The vast majority of those 46 million workers will be from Generation Y, also known as the Millennial generation.” (from Management Techniques for Bringing Out the Best in Generation Y)


In the 1970s, organizations were beginning to focus on the need to be more diverse in response to consumer demands. Now more than ever, it is the marketplace of talent driving the need for diversity and organizational change. Because of the imminent talent shortage caused by the retirement of 76 million Americans over the next 20 years, the Millennial generation is in a position to challenge workforce conventions and make organizational demands that previous generations had no leverage to make. These demands include fast-track career positioning, greater life work integration , additional training and cutting-edge technology, but the demands don’t stop there.

The Millennial generation is working to change the rules. They see themselves as consumers in a different sense – they are CHOOSING where and how they are going to work. This generation is unwilling to be pioneers of diversity and inclusion. Many of them watched their parents play those roles and their expectation is that organizations have become more diverse, instituted workplace flexibility and removed the barriers that have been identified over the past twenty plus years. They know they are expected to deliver – and they expect organizations to live up to those same rules. They are ready to contribute.

A recent New York Times article discussed one such example of Millennial expectations. Stanford Law students have undertaken a project to evaluate and hold accountable the prestigious law firms for their results with respect to diversity (the numbers of women, people of color and gay lawyers who are partners) and inclusive practices (including workplace flexibility and the number of required billable hours) by handing out “diversity report cards” to the big law firms

Beyond refusing to accept positions at firms that scored poorly, these “best and brightest” students have bigger plans. They will be lobbying top schools and universities to restrict recruiting by firms who scored in the bottom of the rankings. The students also have plans to send the scores to the general counsels of all Fortune 500 companies with the recommendation that the rankings be considered when selecting lawyers and law firms.

This is the first generation who can say, “Here are the rules we want to play by, so if you want the best and the brightest you need to be positioned to utilize our talents.” For this generation, it’s not all about the money; it’s about a healthy life work integration, an inclusive environment that is conducive to collaboration and innovation, a culture that invites their voice, their input and their ideas and most importantly, it’s about feeling valued and able to contribute.

“Firms that want the best students will be forced to respond to the market pressures that we’re creating,” said Andrew Bruck, a law student at Stanford and a leader of the project. This is just one more example of how the game is changing for organizations, and for those that say they just need more time to make improvements, it just might be too late.

Elephants and Giraffes and Diversity in a Box

Posted by Corey Jamison on November 26, 2007 None comments

jamison_corey_web.jpgToo often, organizations conceive of their diversity and inclusion efforts as pre-packaged, isolated programs that will, in a few simple steps, make the organization diverse. From a consultant’s perspective, to be working at a strategic systems level and trying to have the right conversations is frustrating when an organization is mired in an event-based diversity mindset; when what the organization really wants is diversity in a box.

Just when I think the conversation about inclusion has finally progressed passed the insulting Diversity in a Box portion, I’m reminded that many organizations are still not only working within this framework, but certain that it is the right thing to do. One of those reminders came last week during a potential client presentation.

Upon arriving on site I was greeted by a member of the organization’s Diversity Council and I asked her how that day’s event aligned with and connected to the organization’s inclusion efforts and diversity strategy. I learned the organization used to have diversity awareness months during the year; each month dedicated to and celebrating a different group. For example: Hispanic Month, Asia-Pacific Month, Disabled Month, and GLBT Month. But if that wasn’t bad enough she told me that the organization recently consolidated all its diversity into one month.

Now intrigued I pushed and asked what other efforts had been made to work towards a more diverse and inclusive culture and was told associates participated in an exercise during which they wore blindfolds and earmuffs so they could better empathize with those who are blind and Deaf. During a similar exercise in futility the associates pretended they were elephants and giraffes and together had to figure out how to build a house that would accommodate both.

At this point I was in a surreal situation that epitomized every stereotypical “Diversity in a Box” effort there is. I often joke about organizations having ethnic food months; but they were actually doing it. How about a Diversity through Poetry Monthly Newsletter? They’ve got one. Just when I thought it couldn’t get worse; it did.

The Supervisor of the Diversity Council member with whom I was speaking walked up and introduced herself and I thought; “Now I’ll get the real scoop on what efforts are really being made.” After explaining to me how the firm has affinity groups that work with the Marketing Department to tell them how to market to their people (groan) she abruptly stopped and asked me, “Do you have any advice with what we should do with our Asian population?” What we should DO with the Asian Population? Beyond being speechless I was disheartened that this organization, one that is widely recognized for doing Diversity well, is still doing it in a Box.

Diversity is not a problem to be managed; it is an opportunity to be leveraged for business growth and performance enhancement. To approach it in a segmented fashion, with a numbers driven approach, is an approach that is doomed to failure and also illustrates a complete misunderstanding of the meaning of leveraging diversity.

A truly diverse organization moves well beyond numbers and pockets of effort; it explicitly ties the essence of diversity – valuing people – to its mission, vision and purpose. Diversity can not be reached through newsletters and ethnic food month and is not an end unto itself; it is a vehicle for invigorating the organization and improving it in every way.

Change in the Middle

Posted by Corey Jamison on November 5, 2007 None comments

jamison_corey_web.jpgRadical transparency is a management method where nearly all conversation and decision making is carried out publicly. According to Clive Thompson’s article The See-Through CEO Southwest Airlines has an internal blog on which employees ranging from marketing executives to ticket agents post about their jobs and personal lives. When CEO Gary Kelly posted about Southwest possibly adopting assigned seating – ending its first come, first seated policy – more than 600 people commented. At firms like Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh experiments with levels of disclosure that most executives would consider inappropriate. One example is their internal wiki that allows staff members to complain about problems and suggest solutions.

This morning I had a break-through conversation with the CEO of one of our clients. Through the course of our intervention this organization has spent millions of dollars, taken people out of the field for days at a time and expended valuable time and resources to distribute the message of inclusion in a meaningful way. Yesterday though, he got feedback about an incident that happened out in the field from some people who have not yet been involved in any of the work or education regarding inclusion. Since one of the individuals involved was considered by the others to be “a friend” of the CEO there was a feeling that nothing should be said to him. The unspoken message was that the person involved should be handled with kids gloves because of his friendship with the CEO. The key element of the incident though was that the individuals affected by this incident thought that senior management, including the CEO, talked a big game around inclusion but really didn’t care; that the CEO had a sliding scale of inclusive values when it came to the old ways and those with whom he had a personal relationship, yet this could not be further from the truth.

One of the most difficult parts of working with organizations is keeping leaders engaged when there is a ripple effect in terms of how long it takes the new inclusive culture, mindsets and behaviors to reach people in their day to day lives. For senior leaders like this CEO who are taking time away from running the day to day business and expending tremendous resources, not to mention taking personal risks to challenge and evolve their own thinking, mindsets and behaviors, it’s terribly frustrating for them to hear that there persists a perception that they don’t care. Additionally, these same core leaders will feel as if their efforts are not only going unrecognized, but that the overwhelming reaction of the people of the organization is that they aren’t doing anything at all; that the work on inclusion is nothing but lip service for appearance sake.

To keep the senior management team engaged and effectively communicate the efforts around inclusion across the organization I recommended to this client that he open up, be honest, show that he cares and reach directly to the stakeholders in such a way that is shocking and against the old way of thinking that pervades the organization’s culture. I recommended that he, like other CEOs struggling with difficult issues, start Blogging to circumvent the effects of the lag time.

The real issue is that people within the organization don’t feel the change or even realize change is occurring around them because as Kaleel used to say, “Change in the middle feels like failure.” There is a natural lag time, or rather a disconnect, between when leaders feel like they’re making change and when change becomes evident.

Social networking platforms such as blogs can engage a younger audience while providing an opportunity for leaders to think differently about how they connect with their people—and likewise how their people connect with them. They also provide an opportunity for leaders to express real emotion and to pull back the curtain of their mythological image and reveal their true selves to their people while fighting the organizational “mythologies” and old mindsets about them.

By blogging candidly and truthfully about not only incidents like the one that just occurred, but also about his reaction to them and about the continuing efforts to create a more inclusive environment for all its people there would be shortening of the timeline between when the leaders start to change and when the organization catches up.

Seven Things Organizations can do to Enable Women’s Success

Posted by Judith Katz on October 16, 2007 None comments

katz_judith.jpgRecently while reading an e-newsletter from a professional organization, I came across yet another article about a mentoring program for women in the workplace. Although the article itself—about an approach to mentoring women in the workplace—was useful, I found myself upset, not by the content, but by the underlying mindset and approach.

For over 20 years, organizations have been implementing mentoring programs to support women’s and people of color’s ability to succeed in the workplace. Yet it is still quite clear that women of color, white women and men of color have not attained the level of success of their white male counterparts. With all the effort, you’d think we would be doing better by now – and although women and people of color have had some success moving into more senior leadership roles, we are far from having equity in the workplace.

The real issue is that we continue to misdiagnose the problem, leading us to use programs and approaches that only address a small part of the challenge. You can’t stop a boulder with a pea shooter and in many ways that is what we have been doing as organizations have worked to address the “women” and “people of color” “problem.” Although this blog is focused specifically on the question of systemic barriers for white women and women of color much of the same could be said about the barriers that men of color experience as well.

I was pleased to see a recent Harvard Business Review article that spoke to this very issue. ”Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership” discussed the fact that calling the barriers that women experience a “glass ceiling” actually is a misnomer; that the real experience is a labyrinth—a maze in which every twist and turn presents challenges and obstacles to success. By mislabeling or misdiagnosing the issue, we have been formulating simplistic approaches to a much more complex set of challenges. Many of the approaches focus more on tactics organizations and individual women can use rather than addressing the systemic issues of organizational policies, practices and structures just don’t work to enable and foster women’s success. Combine that with biases about women’s leadership styles, the lack of flexibility in many organizations and a lack of recognizing the real barriers that still exist for women and a maintenance of systems that are mired in the past without much hope of real change.

While mentoring is important, mentoring is only a small part of the solution. Women’s roles, styles and leadership are still often relegated to second-class status in the workplace and mentoring simply will not change the systemic structures that perpetuate this disadvantage. While organizations do need to consider how they can allow, support and have the flexibility to value and recognize differences, the real question for organizations is “Are you really committed to having a more diverse workforce and making the structural changes needed to support women and people of color to succeed?” If so, it will take radical change and a very different set of assumptions about flexibility, what constitutes a career, leadership styles and contribution.

Here are seven things an organization needs to do if it really wants to enable and support women’s success

1. Focus on output and added value rather than on fitting in and face time. Evaluating individuals based on contribution rather than how well they fit or how much face time they can offer can provide the needed flexibility to enable women to excel and succeed.

2. Assure that policies and practices in place create flexibility. Flexibility can be increased through support for on and off ramps in one’s career; part time and job sharing positions while staying on a career track. Create policies that enable women to contribute while recognizing that, at different stages of their career and life, they may need a career track that enables them to address both work and life responsibilities.

3. Develop competent managers who know how to coach and mentor a diverse workforce. Ensure all managers have the skill set to coach, mentor and develop women in the workforce. This includes their ability to manage flexible work arrangements and to support individuals’ career growth in career paths that are cutting edge in the 21st century.

4. Make sure women are working with colleagues and leaders who actively support them. You know who your supportive of a more diverse workplace leaders are—make sure women in the organization are not teamed or paired with leaders who will not actively support them.

5. Broaden the perspective of an effective leadership style to include styles that foster teamwork, engagement and collaboration. Leadership styles need to recognize and reward the different style and approach that women bring.

6. Understand and address that women of color and white women have a differentiated experience. Assure that approaches to women’s success examine and address the differentiated barriers that women of color experience from those of white women.

7. Remove barriers and biases that impact women differentially than men. Some actions to overcome these barriers include ensuring that women receive “stretch” assignments at the same rate as their male counterparts; aggressively auditing women’s and men’s career paths to see if men are progressing more rapidly through the organization; and, auditing compensation to ensure women are receiving equitable salaries. Make sure there are no overt or covert biases impacting women’s success. For example, are women penalized for taking time off for maternity leave or family time?

The conversation about women’s success in organizations has been going on for over 30 years. Many organizations are moving along the path with respect to their desire to retain and promote women, but it’s time to both diagnose the challenges appropriately and to create comprehensive approaches to achieve real and sustainable change.

We Are Building A Village And Its Name Is Kaleel Village

Posted by Corey Jamison on October 1, 2007 None comments

jamison_corey_web.jpgWe are building a village. Its name is Kaleel Village and when I close my eyes I can see it. In time it may have roads, buildings, streets and subways, but still I stand here today with tools in my hands because when I close my eyes it is already built. There is hustle and bustle, great conversations of all kinds and the sparks of innovation cascading from every word, thought, and idea; and though we have yet to put our shovel in the ground when I close my eyes I can see Kaleel Village.

Kaleel Village will be many things to many people, but above all Kaleel Village will be about community; an inclusive community that unites and connects people in new and engaging ideas for organizational and community change. A village that will develop into what community means to you, to me, and to others who will join and connect with us. Kaleel Village may start small, but it will grow; the village will grow. When I close my eyes I can see the community; every person, thousands of them. People who want to show up completely, people who want to be present in life, people who want to start a new conversation about organizations and their culture, people who want to make a difference in the world and people who want to give back.

I want to build a village where the source of wisdom comes not from a select few but from the whole and where the spirit of problem solving and creation is collaborative; a place where everyone contributes and everyone is valued. In Kaleel Village members will communicate and share ideas with each other. Its members will explore new angles and generate new ideas. Members will evaluate new perspectives and begin new conversations.

The foundation of Kaleel Village will be social media architecture. That will be the primary tool to integrate, create, build, construct and develop Kaleel Village. We believe social networking, a virtual village, is central to the vision of what Kaleel Village can accomplish, and how it will bring people, ideas and collective action together to make a difference in people’s individual lives, their communities and their organizations.

Kaleel Village will be a different kind of community; a community of effort. One that will be a portal to connecting the dots between people, ideas, projects, groups, organizations and what we all care about the most; Inclusion, being seen, valued and respected for who we are. A village where people can come to contribute in many ways and then take action.

Kaleel Village is not a complex model. Remove the technology aspect from the equation and what you have left is community. Kaleel Village is about community. I want to build a village so here I am entreating you, each of you, to put your shovel in the ground next to mine. Together we will build Kaleel Village.

Three Profound Books

Posted by Frederick Miller on July 24, 2007 None comments

Fred MillerOver the last 25 years there have been three books that have profoundly changed the way organizations operate, the way they engage people inside the organization and how they collaborate with the global community.

Kenneth H. Blanchard and Spencer Johnson in The One Minute Manager (1981) discussed the traits and behaviors of successful managers, which include talking to your people, establishing challenging, but attainable expectations and rewarding individuals when they achieve those expectations. The aspect we tried to introduce to that thinking was diversity. It was, and still is, important to recognize that the people with whom managers speak will not always look like them, act like them or even come from the same cultural background. Managers not only need to communicate with their people, but they also must recognize the diversity of these individuals and appreciate how that diversity can influence the interaction and the individual’s success.

Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman in In Search of Excellence (1982) redefined the characteristics of organizational excellence. Based on a study of some of America’s best-run companies, it established the basic principles that when implemented would almost guarantee a higher probability of success. The fundamental message I took from the book, though, was the concept of zero defects and achieving higher levels of performance. At the time quality and excellence, to American companies, meant “good, but with acceptable defects.” The book challenged that norm and insisted that excellence meant “zero defects,” even pointing to Japanese manufacturers who were achieving this goal as an example. The sea change caused by this book resulted in “zero defects” being the only measure of organizational quality and a new standard for operational performance excellence in organizations. They established a new operational performance bar for organizations.

A monumental shift in how we as humans will interact differently than we have in the past and how this will change the way we do business was predicted in 2006’s Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams. Knowledge is no longer exclusively internal and organizations that do not tap the global knowledge existing outside their four walls will not survive in the 21st century, according to the authors. In this new era of innovation the concepts of open-sourcing, mass collaboration and co-creation are inseparable and can establish every business as a global business. In the past, the giants of industry could make it difficult and expensive for a start-up to establish itself, essentially blocking competition. However, the Internet has flattened the world and has become the key tool of globalization. It has so decreased the price of entry for businesses establishing themselves in the global marketplace that every organization must now operate as if competitors are being born every day.

The messages in The One Minute Manager and In Search of Excellence are as relevant today as they were 25 years ago while the projections in Wikinomics are as revolutionary and groundbreaking as any I have seen. If you are part of an organization that is ready to learn about the necessary mindsets, skill sets and competencies that will prepare you for the demands of business in the 21st Century, then I encourage you to pick up a copy each of these books.