Bright Operations

05/27/2015

What do Healthcare & Construction have in common?

l've recently read that the US Bureau of statistics says that in the years 2012 – 2022, the fastest growth in US employment will take place in health care, healthcare support, construction and personal care fields. If you are a construction company what does that mean to you and your hiring and training practices. The talent war is on!

02/05/2015

I just read a book Project Management for Profit which focuses on making course corrections in real time. So current! http://ow.ly/Ivqtp

Find new ideas and classic advice on strategy, innovation and leadership, for global leaders from the world's best business and management experts.

01/07/2015

Love What You Do: To engage team members is to increase their happiness and fulfillment at work and that turns into profits. 30% of employees in America feel engaged at work (2013 Gallop report). 70% of American workers are disengaged? Really? We can have one of the greatest economic booms of our time if we figure this out! Read more here: http://brightoperations.com/2015/01/love-what-you-do/

I certainly got that message from my mom growing up and it is certainly the mantra of younger generations. It is a wake up call to organizations. ...

01/06/2015

Crowd Wisdom: Get out and talk to your team and other experts! There are two kinds of leadership: Those who make decisions in an “isolation chamber” and those who ask everyone to weigh in. Two-thirds of executives only consider one option when making decisions, according to Chip and Dan Heath, co-authors of Decisive: How to Make Better Choices. However, successful leaders recognize that the best solutions are the result of many minds. Managers who proactively develop connections and relationships with other experts and tap them for help with completing critical tasks increased “idea flow” resulting in more creative solutions. In addition, the more diverse social networks of these star managers enable them to have various perspectives, i.e. that of customers, competitors, and other managers. The best decisions result from constant social exploration – the process of gathering, examining, and testing out ideas from other people. It allows decision makers to tap into the “wisdom of the crowd.” I’m not saying to let others make your decisions for you, what I’m suggesting is that you proactively listen to the thoughts of others and then armed with that additional perspective craft solutions that are the result of broader thinking. This is when it is dangerous to work with “Yes men” but that is the topic for another blog. (See previous blog on Engagement or Divorce).

01/06/2015

The Mother of Reinvention: I see many firms anxious to sell what they do as opposed to offer what clients really want. I get that what they do is important but what the client wants may be a 10% shift that can make all the difference in the satisfaction of the client and your distinction in the market. I was reading an article by Miles D. White, Chairman and CEO of Abbott Laboratories in Harvard Business Review (November 2013 – The Reinvention Imperative), and he was talking about Abbott’s reinvention strategies. He said something really important: “What have we learned along the way? More than anything, how essential it is to get beyond pride in “what we are really good at” – which can blind people to changes in what the world needs and customers value most, and turn a onetime differentiator into the ball and chain of “the way we’ve always done it.”

Go back and read my blog about maple tree sap Even Mother Nature is urging a rethink to the way it’s always been done.

01/06/2015

The Sales Gene: Some people are just naturally good salespeople. Why is that? Well, it may be that they have a particular gene that is responsible for that talent. I had never thought about genetics’ role in being a good business developer but sure enough I read an article that stated that the 7R allel of the DRD4 gene is associated with “customer orientation.” In other words, it allows those with the gene to have a willingness to interact with customers and learn about their problems in order to meet their needs. BINGO. In that same study, led by Richard P. Bagozzi of the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, the team found that the A1 variant of the DRD2 gene, sometimes makes people cognitively inflexible, that is they tend to try to persuade customers to buy a given product rather than listen to their needs. UGG! We know in this day and age the ability to listen to clients and understand their needs is HUGE. Now I am curious about what gene controls buying decisions! Crazy huh!

01/06/2015

Born Leaders: There are some people who are natural leaders: they have those instinctive qualities that just make you want to follow them. What are those qualities, you ask? Believe it or not, in a study by John Gerzman outlined in Inc. Magazine (Between Venus and Mars: 7 Traits of True Leaders, June 2013, author Leigh Buchanan), 64,000 people from 13 countries were surveyed regarding leadership traits. Half of those surveyed were asked to classify 125 traits as masculine, feminine or neutral. The other half of the group were asked to rate the importance of the traits to effective leadership. The survey revealed that feminine traits were more likely to be strongly linked to leadership. The words chosen were: empathetic, communicative, reasonable, loyal, flexible, intuitive, patient, passionate, selfless and plans for the future. Compare your own leadership style and the style of your managers or boss to these words. There are few folks that I think would score very high against those traits but this is a clear message about what people want from their leaders! Chose one time today when you can practice some of these traits.

01/06/2015

Don't Be A Sap: I was floored reading an article in The Week recently called Recharting the Flow of the Maple’s Sap. I read that for the last bizzillion years real maple has been tapped from the bottom of a tree because it was believed that sap flows downward. “It’s just always been done this way,” says a Vermont syrup maker. Now researchers from the University of Vermont have figured out that sap flows up from the ground so that tapping from the top of young (chest high) trees can produce 10 times more syrup per acre than mature (tall) trees. Uh, hello? That is a bit embarrassing. This finding has turned the syrup industry on its ear. From a business perspective, doing things the way it’s always been done will continue to yield the same results. When you are tempted to say, “because we have always done it this way”, bite your tongue and take another look!

01/06/2015

Work Smarter & Faster: You know I am on this brain kick. Here is another brain fact: New studies suggest it may be time to return your focus to one thing at a time. “Interrupted workers lose an average of 25 minutes each time they switch gears – get things done faster, one item at a time. Imagine how many of those 25 minute pockets of time you rack up in a day trying to do everything all at once, but can’t get your brain wrapped around all those tasks. “Your brain needs at least 15 concentration filled minutes to get into the zone where you are truly focused and doing your best work. Time blocking sets the stage for that to happen,” according to an article in Fast Company by Gina Trapani, Founding Editor of Likehacker. I have to say I am using this tip to change the way I do things. I got to the office today at 7:20 and it is 8:45 and my work on blogs is almost done. I have not checked email yet and won’t for another 15 minutes.

01/06/2015

Engagement or Divorce - More on Change: I was doing some reading on successful ways to make change in an organization. Engaging with influential peers and non-leaders is a great place to start. According to an article from Training & Development Magazine (April 2011, by author, Phaedra Brotherton) employees are often skeptical of proposed changes, and downright distrusting of firm leadership until they see influential peers or non-leaders accepting change efforts. “83% of US employees accept change when supported by influential non-leaders”. One of the reasons I think leaders run into such resistance is their lack of involving influential non-leaders in shaping change. Leaders often forget the critical role these people have in how well the plan will be received by others, or how they have fresh perspectives and ideas or even that they are also part of the team that will have to implement the plan. All of us want to see our handprint on the future – I certainly want that – don’t you? The lesson here is that change is inevitable and rather than making decisions in a vacuum, bring your influential team members straight into the process of carving out change efforts.

01/06/2015

Get Ready For Change: Look up and out and learn about other business – the best medicine for being more comfortable with change.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” Charles Darwin

Time and again, I have witnessed resistance to corporate changes. Is it human nature to resist change? I think one reason that change is so hard is that people do not see it coming. Most of us rarely read journals about social changes, learning changes, economic changes - all things that are clues to how we will have to change. So we aren’t informed as the whys of the need to change. We are buried in doing our job as it is and often feel there isn’t enough time to just get that done! So we rarely look up until something is broken and to fix it will require – wait for it -- change. So read magazines from other industries, read about issues in learning, talk to your clients about their businesses and their roadblocks. You will provide them better results at the same time you will see changes coming and you will be more prepared to be agile and take on the change.

01/06/2015

Mentoring – a soft skill that will produce hard results: Today, take a moment to notice: are you mentor or are you always talking in an effort to teach people or just tell them what to do? Do you listen? Do you ask questions? How are you engaging and helping people be successful? Each day, practice the idea of mentoring, regardless of your level in a company. London Business School professor Lynda Gratton, says, “Younger workers value a highly skilled “master” who is capable of mentoring instead of “someone who simply keeps track of what they do.” Who wouldn’t? I liken this to a trend in education where teachers are being asked to mentor and help students understand and do problems based on the online teaching they got the night before at home. (See blog Teach an Old Dog New Tricks). How many of us know how to mentor? This skill is wildly important for the future and for the success of the relationship amongst the different generations in your office. You want to start fortifying for the talent wars ahead? Start engaging with your peers and teams in a different way. You will never be sorry you do this but you may be very sorry if you don’t.