What to Change? What to Change Into? How Do We Decide?--Proactive vs Reactive Change

Organizations are faced with important decisions.  What needs to be changed?  What do we need to change into?  How do we decide about the change?

There are many processes involved with change.  I have developed some tools that can help organizations explore the answers to these questions.  They are available for purchase on eBay.  The first is the Business Snapshot and the second is the Business Improvement Survey.  (Find them both--including links for eBay searches--on the Services page for DrM-Resources.)

How do we decide about the change?  Shared vision is important.  If people and organizations do not move through the trust-building steps required to come to a shared vision (slide 11), planned change will be hard (if not impossible) to implement.  When more than one person is involved, people need to move through the Organizational Change Curve (slide 9).

While these tools and concepts can help organizations facilitate change, the basic ideas raised initially need to be dealt with and a shared vision formed about the change for planned change to make progress.  We can sometimes see change happening around us and react to it--positively, negatively, or neutrally.  It is usually more effective to be proactive about change and to develop a plan to make the continuous process improvements needed to make organizations more effective.

Diagnostic Tools for Organizations Available on eBay

In order to make diagnostic tools more readily available to organizations, DrM-Resources has put three survey instruments on auction at eBay.  Multiple copies of the surveys are available.  See the photo below for the names of the surveys. 

(Double-click on the image to see it completely and separately.)

These surveys are sold under the category Specialty Services, Other Services on eBay.

While designed as self-help instruments, each can be supported by optional services from DrM-Resources.

Why would organizations want to make use of such tools?  These tools can inform an organization regarding important business indicators and can help decision-makers in the organizations make more informed decisions.  They are relatively inexpensive and, if someone who purchases an instrument on eBay chooses to receive additional services from DrM-Resources, that person is qualified for preferred pricing.

Learning Needs Analysis--Prerequisite for Learning Design

A Learning Needs Analysis (see Workforce Training Needs Survey) needs to be run formally or informally as a first step or prerequisite for Learning Design.

In order to create a series of learning activities that invite positive engagement using and building skills and perspectives which are needed on the job, clear needs and related goals are needed to start the process.

Learning and Change--Action Steps for Teams and Organizations

Teams and organizations are created for different purposes.  In general, they have goals and intend to work together somehow to achieve these goals.    This post is a continuation of yesterday's post on Learning and Change.  There is a follow-up post focusing on individual learning and change.

Sometimes teams are more successful than at other times in achieving their goals.  Over time meta-models have been created that help explain what is going on in the groups and teams that make some more successful that others.

The Team Tracking Tool (see slide 12) is reproduced below.  Notice the "Do Not Enter" sign at the top.  Many teams and organizations think they can go immediately from inputs to outputs without moving through the process steps required.  Almost 100% of the time this spells disaster and the team or organization has to undo or redo everything--as well as recover the lost trust that failure promotes.  Note the trust building elements of the tool.  Blake and Mouton developed a Managerial Grid explaining the different focuses of people and production in teams.  (A variation of that grid is reproduced below the Team Tracking Tool and a link to Blake and Mouton's model is also provided here.)

(Click on the picture to see it separately and completely.)

Blake and Mouton created a management grid to explain the relationship of people (maintenance) focus and production (task) focus.  The grid is reproduced on Wikipedia.

(Click on the picture to view it separately and completely.)

 Both task and maintenance functions are critical to the successful progress of teams and organizations.  Over emphasis on one or the other delays the development of trust and the effectiveness of teams.  In my early career in Change Management, I learned to make people my task--thus ensuring that both task and maintenance functions were completed.  Trust is the bonding that allows teams to function well and is a critical maintenance function.

(Click on the picture to see it separately and completely.) (See slide 11.)

 If trust is not allowed to develop, synergy--the energy that allows the output to be greater than what could be produced by the sum of its parts (people) will be missing.  As new people are added to a team, group, or organization and as the vision changes, building blocks of trust need to be revisited to allow for the group energy to move freely to the next area.

Marketing Consulting Services and Tools--the eBay Connection

In today's economy, many organizations are looking for ways to reduce their expenses and to do more with less.  Embracing that idea, I'm creating a series of self-help tools for organizations to use to diagnose challenges and opportunities and to begin to plan how to overcome the challenges and to take advantage of the opportunities.

This isn't a "quick fix" situation--I need to work with the tools and to make sure that people can understand them.  As a working prototype is developed, I am marketing it on eBay.  I'm sure the marketplace will give me feedback on how to improve the tools--and the services that complement the tools for those who want more than self-help.

Selling the tools on an eBay auction seems to be a first step.  I shared the DrM-Business Improvement Survey yesterday and today have released the DrM-Business Snapshot tool.  The DrM-Workforce Training Needs Survey is now available.

I've had feedback from some professional friends that I need to change the vocabulary in my questions.  At the same time, I have been developing the tools based on 40 years of experience in working with organizations in the area of development and change.  Sometimes the tools are "just right" for certain circumstances.

CBS is starting a new "reality TV" series called Undercover Boss (on Sunday nights).  I would be interested to see how these bosses could use the tools I am creating to help their organizations after their "undercover" experiences.

Business Improvement Survey--a New Product

I just created a Business Improvement Survey using Adobe Acrobat.  It was a challenge to create, though it seems to have good functionality.  Working from a variety of client experiences dealing with organizational development and change, I developed a six-part survey to focus on core questions that need to be resolved for change to be successful and supported.

I decided to market this survey via an eBay auction to get people to try the survey.  The cost will be small and it can be used as a self-help survey by most organizations needing to deal with change.

Of course DrM-Resources will provide support for those people trying out the survey if they should wish extra support.  The survey will get clients preferred pricing on any of the other services offered by DrM-Resources.

This blog entry is more than a promotion for the survey (though that would be a good use of the entry, anyway).  This marks one of the first times DrM-Resources has partnered with eBay to help consumers get access to affordable tools they can use to help their businesses improve.  Not only can they get the tools on eBay, they will soon get preferred pricing on the other DrM-Resources services soon to be made available on eBay. 

DrM-Resources and Joelmonty.net already use PayPal for invoicing and payments, and Skype for webinars and other interactive events.  It is only natural to add eBay to the mix.

Marketing on eBay--Products, Services, Combination

Exploring how to market my consulting services on eBay has led me to believe that it will be easier to divide the marketing into three components--products, services, and a combination of the two. 

Much of eBay is devoted to buying and selling products.  For this I need a quality product like an eBook or a questionnaire--something I would market and deliver electronically.  While consulting services are marketed on eBay, that is so far a very specialized market.  What may work best is a combination of an information product and an introductory service associated with the product.

I already have a PayPal account and am registered as a seller on eBay.  There is very little I need to change to get ready.  I am exploring a seven step process--answering questions for each of the seven steps--to get organizations ready to work with trusted advisors.  Now I have to determine how to convert the process into an information product which I can market on eBay and allow people to find out more about the consulting services I offer.

Consulting Services and eBay

Finding consulting clients is challenging.  Directing potential clients to websites is "ify" at best.  Many of the independent consultants I network with say that their new clients almost always come "by word of mouth" from existing or previous clients.

In exploring more options to "spread the word"--beyond social networking sites such as LinkedIn, FaceBook, and Twitter, I have signed-up my Joelmonty.net website for some promotional services to get them recognized more by search engines.

I am listening to an audio book where the protagonist has marketed an "off-beat" consulting service on eBay.  I already use eBay and get my billing and payments through PayPal.  It makes sense to work with eBay to market my consulting services, especially my virtual consulting services.

From what I have seen on eBay's Consulting Services pages so far there is plenty of room for my services.  Now I have to work on the most effective ways to use eBay to market these services.