Archive for January, 2010

Building Competitive Advantage Is Not Enough

As a business owner/leader I would guess that one of the things that probably frustrates you is that employees don’t think like you do.  That’s why you’re the owner, isn’t it?  You may have numerous examples of how your employees “don’t get it.”  If you had to rank them, what’s the most significant issue that employees don’t get?

 My guess is that the single most important issue that employees don’t understand is this:  competitive advantage is fleeting.  Organizations need to build the reality of having advantages only temporarily into how we hire, develop, allocate and manage resources. 

More than any other issue, I don’t think employees grasp this reality.  So, they wonder why you were pleased with last quarter’s results, but now you’re preoccupied with this quarter’s results.  You’re pleased that we signed two new good sized customers, but concerned about losing long-standing customers.

Do you agree/disagree that the fleeting nature of competitive advantage is the #1 issue that your employees don’t see?  If not this issue at the top of the list, what is the #1 issue that employees don’t see that you see?  Click on Comment and post your response.

Training Is For Animals

Training is often seen as the answer to many organizational challenges.  Besides, it’s less expensive than hiring a consultant, right?  When you look strictly at the outlay of cash, training may be less expensive than many other alternatives.  However, when you consider the return on your investment, which should repay your cash outlay and lost productivity many times over, training is often money thrown into the furnace.

Most training is so poorly designed that it is clearly a waste of every dollar spent on it. 

Trainers have learned how to use PowerPoint slides.  They’ve learned how to use stories to make concepts stick.  Some trainers are even very good presenters. 

But, oh so often, trainers fail to make the link between the knowledge they share and the change in beliefs that has to happen in a participants mind that will, ultimately, change a the participant’s behavior.

Here’s the formula:  Knowledge that changes beliefs will change individual behavior.  Change enough individual behavior and you can change organizational performance.  And, since organizational performance determines organizational results, effective training should help an organization improve it’s results. 

When selecting a trainer, ask for references who will say that the training provided actually helped improve the organization’s results.

Next post:  Do you need training or consulting?