People do like change.
What they don’t like is being changed.

What I like is the simplicity of this idea. In two sentences, he’s able to clearly define why organizational change initiatives fail. Too often, change initiatives are built in black boxes and then sprung on employees. Executives deliver the news which is laden with directives detailing what we’re doing and how we’re going to do it. Great…now prepare to go down in flames. Why? Because the assumption is that change is a rational process that moves in a linear pattern. But what happens when we consider that change is an emotional process? Usually, fear is the emotion we most often connect with change, but that ignores other emotional responses like excitement, happiness, anger, and frustration. A favorite book of mine that has become a well-thumbed reference for organizational change is The Change Monster by Jeanie Daniel Duck. As the book’s subtitle points out, there are human forces that fuel or foil any organizational transformation or change initiative.

If you’re in the process of planning (or to the point of implementing) change, here are some questions to ponder:

• What it will take to get your folks ready for the change?
• How can you help make the decision to change their decision rather than your mandate?
• Are you prepared for the emotional responses that are going to arise?

Thinking through the human factors of change will be critical if your plan succeeds or crashes.

From the latest issue of HBR, here’s some juicy thinking from Henry Mintzberg. It falls under the article title of Productivity Is Killing American Enterprise. Consider that our organizations are organic systems. They exist only because of the people who operate within these systems.

Here’s Professor Mintzberg’s advice:

Treat the enterprise as a community of engaged members, not a collection of free agents. Corporations are social institutions, which function best when committed human beings (not human “resources”) collaborate in relationships based on trust and respect. Destroy this and the whole institution of business collapses.

Take care of the organizational relationships that drive and sustain your business. It’s your people, not your profits, that will define your organization’s success.

The psychic rewards of this end of year cleaning blowout have been great…not only do I know where things are, I found a lot of items I had been searching for recently, including some past issues of my favorite magazines. Last night, with a glass of shiraz in hand and the girls in bed, I sat with the September 2006 issue of Fast Company which happens to be focused on customer service (it’s the one with Lewis Black looking like he’s in the first stages of trying to pass a kidney stone).

Inside the issue is an article on Danny Meyer, a successful New York restaurateur, who believes his winning edge comes down to hospitality. Big deal, right? We might expect a restaurant, as well as a hotel, spa, or even theme park to focus on hospitality. But, take a minute to fully consider Danny’s concept of hospitality:

Virtually nothing else is as important as how one is made to feel in any transaction. Hospitality exists when you believe the other person is on your side.

Danny encourages us to elevate the idea of a transaction beyond the usual impersonal financial payment for a product or service. All that typically gets us on the corporate side is a headache where the customer demands ever-increasing levels of service because they’ve handed over their hard-earned money. And who can blame the customer anyway? Many companies have done their very best to betray their customers’ trust by focusing only on the business’ end of that transaction (read: bottom-line profits). In the end, this narrow view of the transaction simply devolves into the all too-familiar customer/corporation antagonism.

Instead, what would happen if we think of the transaction as a binding force for a relationship? How would our business change if we acknowledged that a transaction is not only a financial exchange, but also an exchange of feelings, hopes, and dreams? What if instead of sitting across from our customers at the table, we chose to sit on the same side? A fella isn’t just buying a new silk shirt, he’s buying an image that makes him feel more attractive. A group of friends aren’t just eating dinner, they’re paying for an experience that accentuates their time together. A non-profit organization isn’t purchasing for a new piece of software, they’re buying a tool that will help them be more successful at delivering on their mission. There’s so much more to the customer’s side of the transaction, but it’s up to the business to learn what it is and make the attempt to fulfill it (fully bearing in mind that this ideal isn’t always possible).

As you begin plotting out business goals for 2007, consider the impact of sitting on the same side of the table as your customers. If you have a disgruntled customer or client, ask what it would take for them to believe that you are on their side.

What are you doing today to create an active spirit of hospitality?

Museum, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) in Britain asked librarians around the country, “Which book should every adult read before they die?” At the top of the list was To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, followed by the Bible and then The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien.

Here’s others – both classics and contemporary fiction – that made the list:

• 1984 by George Orwell
• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• All Quite on the Western Front by E. M. Remarque
• His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman
• Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
• The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
• Tess of the D’urbevilles by Thomas Hardy
• Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
• The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham
• Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
• Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
• The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
• The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
• The Prophet by Khalil Gibran
• David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
• The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
• Life of Pi by Yann Martel
• Middlemarch by George Eliot
• The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
• A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
• A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzenhitsyn

In the fall of last year, I received To Be of Use: The Seven Seeds of Meaningful Work, by Dave Smith. The title certainly was compelling and intimately related to my own philosophy toward work. The book is not only an autobiography of a man dedicated to making this world a better place, but a field guide for all of us to use to connect our work to something greater than ourselves. Dave Smith was the original founder of Smith & Hawken, a company dedicated to organic gardening (sadly, Smith & Hawken was bought up by Scott Seed and changed into the kind of empty Pottery Barn-like store that Dave fought against).

It has seven chapters with each one focused on a particular value or seed. And the chapters flow easily from one to the next: faith, hope, justice, temperance, prudence, courage, and love. In each, he offers his own personal experiences as a testament to what an individual can do with their life. He writes of how he left his high-paying job as a computer programmer to work for Cesar Chavez and five dollars a week. He speaks candidly about his spiritual wandering from a fundamentalist Christian upbringing toward Quakerism.

What I found most refreshing is his take on business and entrepreneurism. His story is an inspiring account of how business can be a force for good in the world and that a successful business can be measured by such ideals as responsibility, compassion, and service to the common good. At a time in our history when many companies are better known for their greed and maliciously competitive actions, we need more men and women to follow the path of Dave Smith.

A final quote, which I believe sums up the main theme of To Be of Use:

Meaning comes most naturally when we find and fulfill our purpose. This implies that there is an overall higher purpose, one beyond simply surviving and satisfying our own selves on what someone once called our separate little islands of commodities. We find our purpose in responsibility and service to others, living our values – making things better, fairer, happier for others.

As an association executive, one of the more challenging relationships we have can be with our volunteer leaders. For instance, there is a different type of connection between executive-volunteer than there is between executive-employee. With the latter, there’s a kind of institutional setup that facilitates an adherence to policies and agreement to action (in other words, you know who to report to and how to get stuff done). On the other hand, in associations the executive understands that the organization “belongs” to the volunteer. That doesn’t mean that the association staff are unimportant and that volunteers make all the decisions. As any association professional will confess, it’s way more complex than that.

Yet, the ability to effectively manage a diverse group of volunteers and member leaders is an essential skill. Enter Rosa’s book and the brief, related Manifesto at ChangeThis. It’s a powerful guide to using some of the best of Hawaii’s values to help recreate the executive-volunteer relationship. There will definitely be more to come.

Earlier, we found Seussvile which is a neat website with games, interactive stories, and all kinds of other fun stuff (I’m kind of partial to Catch a Thing).

I have to admit that I don’t know that much about Theodor Geisel and his biography on the site is a hoot. It seems he was destined to be Dr. Seuss. In his early years, his mother worked at her father’s bakery and would memorize the names of the pies on special each day and then chant them to customers. If young Ted ever had difficulty falling asleep, his mother would do her pie chants. He later credited her "for the rhythms in which I write and the urgency with which I do it." I think I’ll make learning more about him a higher priority.

And did you know this? One of Dr. Seuss’s publishers made him a bet that he couldn’t write a book using 50 words or less. Well, he did. Can you guess which book it is?

Green Eggs and Ham!

We’re all fortunate to have had Dr. Seuss in our world. What a creative, playful soul.

I’m reading Twyla Tharp’s book, The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It For Life, for the second time (my first read was through a copy from the library, but I recently bought it and now get to scribble notes throughout). It’s billed as a practical guide, which it truly is. She offers plenty of wonderful exercises to help stir the creative juices. One such exercise that I spent some time reflecting on today is a questionnaire she calls Your Creative Autobiography. Here are some of the questions she asks (there are 33 in all):

• What are your [creative] habits? What patterns do you repeat?

   

• What is your creative ambition?

   

• What are the obstacles to this ambition?

   

• What are the vital steps to achieving this ambition?

   

• Who is your muse?

Challenging stuff. For a long time, I didn’t think I was terribly creative. Growing up, I was complimented on my creativity; I liked to sketch, build, create little scenes as only a child can. It was all driven by an innate curiosity of how the world worked. Then I hit adolescence and I tried to cram all of this creativity stuff in a plain box and deny my own creative spirit. Yet, it was always there smoldering, ready to reignite. Thankfully, I’ve rediscovered those traits that make me unique. I like this quote from Twyla:

Each of us is hard-wired a certain way. And that hard-wiring insinuates itself into our work. That’s not a bad thing. Actually, it’s what the world expects from you. We want our artists to take the mundane materials of our lives, run it through their imaginations, and surprise us. (italics added)

Each of us who are passionate about what we do are artists. So what are you hard-wired to do? What kind of creative surprises can you create today?

Each time we read this book, we talk about enjoying the things we love to do, even if we’re not very good at them. For instance, I’m not a very good softball player (though there was a time I was a decent athlete). I usually hit the ball consistently to the shortstop and frequently overrun the ball when playing the outfield. But I really enjoy playing and try not to let my more competitive nature kick in.

We also talked about how there were always going to be "neighbors" who get angry or annoyed with us for not being good at something. These could be any number of people in our lives who think we should either give up or desperately try to improve. But they will always miss the point: it’s not whether you’re good at something, it’s about enjoying it.

The end of the book shows the neighbors and chicken sisters having a party together. The sisters serve burnt cookies, offer itchy wool party hats, and sing. And their neighbors appreciate it all.

Here’s the problem: We are not PRODUCTS. We have allowed the commercial and the economic to infiltrate even how we view ourselves. We might think we control the identity of our brand, but that’s unrealistic. When viewed in this light, the true valuators of our brand lie outside of us. No matter how much the folks at Coke try to build and rebuild their brand, it’s the consumer who determines whether it has any worth. And by allowing others to view us as a brand, we give them the same power to determine our worth. In the end, we become more about projecting an image and less about living and working toward our true purpose. In The Answer to How is Yes, Peter Block writes:

We become products measured by market value. And soon our relationships, our dreams, and even deepest insights become a means to an end.

Okay, so what’s the alternative? This is where I admit that I am still working on new ideas. Here’s what I do know: it must include a commitment to pondering meaningful questions, engaging in self-awareness, and slowing down from the hectic pace the U.S. culture demands. These three actions are not easily or quickly rewarded, but I believe the results will be far more enduring.