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Silos Form Everywhere
You wouldn’t think a small business could experience silos and develop organizational myopia, but it can happen.
My wife and I also own an equestrian facility called Fine Print Farms. After reading Overcoming Organizational Myopia, it can be easy to spot silos as well as identify whether they’re causing myopia in any business.
Fine Print Farms only has about 12 employees, but distinctly different groups exist: Owners and Employees; Barn Management; Property Management; Office Management; and Trainers. These “silos” exist because that’s how we organize and effectively manage operations at the farm.
Myopia sets in when these silos stop working together to achieve the mission and only focus on their own areas. These silos must work together to be effective and sometimes what they do might work against each other.
This book teaches how to identify the root causes of organizational myopia and deal with it.
Confusing Signals?
Confusing Signals in the Office?
Consider your message and signal change appropriately.
Have you ever been driving on the highway and some driver suddenly cuts across from two lanes over to exit, nearly causing an accident?
Ever sat at an intersection waiting for a car to pass so you can get out, when that driver turns at your street without signaling?
How about pushing your grocery cart through the store and someone suddenly stops right in the center of the aisle to grab something off the shelf?
Imagine running your business like this? Starting and stopping, turning, and changing…all the whole time forgetting to signal your actions to your employees and customers.
When you’re planning a change in business, consider all the ways to signal the change. Think of all the trouble it won’t cause!
Tearing Down Silos
Listening to another leader proposing to solve their organizational problems by “tearing down the silos.”
Stop tearing down silos!
Overcoming Organizational Myopia shares how silos are just expected in an organization, but we expect them. We, as humans, have a desire to belong. If we don’t belong to our team, then it is much more difficult to effectively perform.
Thus, silos always form. Breaking them down only causes confusion and angst as employees rebuilt their connections (and silos reform).
Learn why organization lose sight of the long range, strategic view and become “myopic.” Then learn how to go about solving it without resulting to drastic and unproductive measures.
Find the Errors
Alright you super sleuths, who can find 12 or more things wrong with this picture?
As a business coach and consultant with Crosscutter Enterprises, it is important for me to find the smallest irregularities with a business. This way they can be fixed.
Impress me with your ability…
Training Symposium for Veterans
Attention Military Small Business Entrepreneurs!
The National Veteran Small Business Coalition (NVSBC) created the Veteran Entrepreneur Training Symposium (VETS) to help you accomplish your small business goals. The conference will provide you with the information you need to navigate the Federal acquisition process – from the government perspective as well as from successful veteran small business owners.
May 29 – 31, 2019 in San Antonio, TX, is a Business Development Conference created by Veterans for Veterans.
Ten Exhibitor Slots still open! Already over 400 attendees signed up!
Register today at:
https://www.veterantrainingsymposium.com
Great Find from Disney!
Have you ever seen this from Disney?
I know this was the first time I saw it!
On the Gallup Q12, Question #8 asks, “Does the mission/purpose of your company make you feel your job is important?”
I’ve studied the Gallup results and looked at many top performing and low performing companies. There are four things that drive engagement in an organization and mission / purpose is the number one.
If Question #8 is a disagree or strongly disagree, the rest of the survey will follow suit.
However, having a strong mission/purpose is only part of the story. Some organizations have done a phenomenal job identifying a very purposeful mission. Then, they fail to effectively communicate it and their leaders fail to live it.
How is your organization’s engagement around its mission and purpose?
Get the book today:
Overcoming Organizational Myopia:
Breaking Through Siloed Organizations https://www.amazon.com/dp/1945151005/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_p7UXCbNQ4RTBH
Scenario Planning for Alien Abduction
What if aliens teleported away all your employees?
Obviously, this isn’t realistic, but scenario planning can be a crucial benefit for your organization.
Looking at some of the challenges you currently face, such as have one person that handles a crucial job, or having limited access to people who can do important work that your company does. It’s situations like these that lend themselves to scenario planning.
In the example of someone one deep in a critical position, your scenario could be that that individual just got hit by the “lottery bus.” It’s great to take that concept and put it in front of your executive team. This allows them to really think about what they need to do to protect themselves from failure if something like that were to happen.
A lot of times businesses don’t think about what could happen, and these are the kind of things that really bite them in the butt when they do happen. Often, it’s things that were fine when you started business but now are making your life difficult.
Thinking about these scenarios is very helpful from a planning perspective. Make sure that you keep scenario planning realistic (i.e., not aliens stealing employees). I encourage you to add it to your business planning.
Struggling With Social?
Using social media for business? Struggling?
Who doesn’t?
We all can’t be like Gary Vaynerchuk and Neil Patel Digital overnight. But here are some simple rules to help you.
1. Video & Imagery is King! Sharing Sucks! All social media platforms want original content on their site…not shared from another site. Videos (Live #1) are top and then pictures (post the picture first) are second.
2. Engagement keeps it alive! Getting people to Like, Comment, & Share pushes your post into other’s feeds, so you reach an audience you’re not connected with. I had a simple update post that went viral because of this and had over 41K views on LinkedIn.
3. Connection Power works! Obviously, the more people that are connected to you and follow you, the more people see what you post. Connection can be through Business Pages and Groups too. Always be building your connections.
4. Recency Importance! Always try to post when YOUR audience is reading their news feed. It’s more likely to be seen. The longer it’s out there, the less people will see it.
5. Monitor your performance! Pay attention to anything that the platform will provide you with as performance metrics. Watch what works and doesn’t work.
Do you have another suggestion? Comment below 🔊👇
Frustrated with the Hiring Process?
As a professional coach and mentor I often work with people who are trying to find a job in the corporate world. They are often frustrated with the hiring process and struggle.
One of the most frustrating things is being declined without even a phone call.
Here’s some situational advice…
Large companies often post jobs externally and internally at the same time. However, they will often look at internal candidates first before they look at external. If they find someone that fits internally, they will hire them first.
If you are looking for jobs on search engines, like indeed and LinkedIn, chances are that job has been posted for a while and the company paid to expand the search. People who have a job alert set up with that company posted long before you did.
The most important thing in job hunting is to create and leverage a network in the companies you want to work for. If you don’t have strong, personal connections then you are fighting with those that do.
Not tailoring your resume? Shame on you! You have to adjust your resume for every job. Make it easy for recruiters and boolean search engines to pick your resume out of the stack.
Finding a job is a full time job in itself. Align yourself with an expert who has successfully sat on the job search side and hiring side. Hiring is a process…once you understand it, you can beat it and not let it beat you!