Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

Author: Karl Edwards

  • No Excuses in 2008!

    No excuses in 2008!

    Instead of a long list of well-meant resolutions, let’s launch the new year with a single intention: No excuses in 2008!

    Others may let me down, circumstances may conspire against me, but I will make no excuse for my own choices. Not in my work, not at my home, not in my attitude.

    Though I may face harsh realities outside of my control, I still control my response to those difficulties. Like the tennis player in a difficult match, I do not choose what comes at me. But I do choose whether or not I will stay in the game. I choose whether I will stay prepared and alert for the unexpected. I choose when my reactions remain primarily defensive and when I turn the tables to take the offense.

    No excuses.

    I will make bold decisions, and I will accept responsibility that those decisions affect the quality of my life and work. The more I recognize my own responsibility in the story, the more I discover my own power to change the story.

    Even through the storms of workplace conflict, career suffocation, stagnant economies, or unexpected job loss, I make no excuses. I will expand my repertoire of responses. I will get help from friends and associates. I will invest in myself and my career. I will try new approaches. I will be honest with myself about what is not working well and try something different. I will learn from my mistakes.

    No excuses.

    I will stay in the game. Let’s make 2008 the best yet.

    On your side,

    – Karl

  • Question of the Week

    What one change to your leadership style will you experiment with in 2008?

  • To Upgrade or Not To Upgrade? Is That Really the Question?

    It’s tempting to reduce software or hardware upgrade decisions to simple purchase choices. Can we afford the sticker price?

    Talking with software developer Jorge Rosas in this week’s podcast, there are two problems with this strategy. 1.) There are also indirect costs, such as helping users get up-to-speed and adjusting business processes impacted by the upgrade. These are more difficult to calculate, but need to be considered. 2.) There are also indirect benefits, such as staying connected with support services to help solve problems and mitigate disasters.

    More helpful might be to ask whether the upgrade will result in an “arithmetic benefit” or an “exponential benefit.” Arithmetic benefits include such things as: speed increases, feature enhancements, and quality improvements. Exponential benefits involve changes that permit you to eliminate entire business processes, reorganize for slimmer staffing, stop using paper or making certain telephone calls altogether.

    As a rule of thumb, I wait for something to provide an exponential benefit before investing in extensive change.

    How do you evaluate upgrade decisions?

  • Trust the Employees or Trust the Controls?

    What would happen if you made additional tools and support available to your employees without dictating to them how or for what to use them?

    See what IBM experienced when it made various publishing and broadcasting tools available to its employees and trusted them with the uses. Read Eric Eggertson’s insights into how building a corporate “culture of trust and authenticity” will result in unanticipated creativity and buy-in.

    People are not an interchangeable commodity whose energies we exploit as long as we can get away with it. They are our primary asset, a source of infinite energy and creativity, IF we come to terms with the reality that core to their (our) motivation is the opportunity to contribute and make a difference.

    Try an experiment of your own and see what amazing new improvements, initiatives and/or innovations emerge from your team.

    On your side.

  • Listen In -> Tech Changes #3: The Upgrade Quandry

    Upgrade decisions are a fact of life in the fast-changing tech world.

    Are you torn between wanting to stay abreast of advances in technology and wanting to keep spending to a minimum? When does an expense shift from being a resented and avoided intrusion caused by others to an investment that is anticipated and incorporated into one’s business strategy?

    This week software developer Jorge Rosas and I tackle the upgrade investment quandry. We discuss decision-making criteria that lead to solutions that fit, not pre-fab solutions that force you to fit into some rigid upgrade formula.

    Listen in.

    powered by ODEO

  • Christmas Eve Leadership Lesson

    It was the night before Christmas, when all through the house
    Not a creature was stirring, except that I was lying awake thinking about my unmet goals for the year.

    Tomorrow morning, the kids will revel in the gifts and delights of the a holiday key to our family’s faith. I will muster my focus to participate fully and set aside the concerns that I did not accomplish all I set out to in 2007.

    What does the coming of the Christ Child represent if not the abrupt intrusion of the unexpected gift we need most?  We learn that we are not alone and because we are not alone there is always hope.

    And so, I do not beat myself up over missed targets. I learn. I get help. I look forward. I keep moving forward.

    There is always a way forward. Even if it is not the path I had originally planned.  I adjust. I try again. I stay in the game.

    I find my energies and efforts renewed by knowing that I am not alone and that there is always hope.

    I think I will have no problem being fully present with my family tomorrow morning. I hope you will learn from your 2007 as well, so we can all show up for a more vital 2008.

    Merry Christmas.

  • Inspirational Quotes on Failure

    Check out these “Go For It” quotes I came across on Phil Gerbyshak’s Make It Great! site.

    He, ironically enough, chooses three quotes on failure to exhort us to aim high. Rosalynn Carter, Henry David Thoreau and Robert Kennedy.

    Here is my own: Fear of failure sabotages. Planning for failure instructs.

    On your side.

    Karl

  • Listen In -> Tech Changes #2: Gadget Obsession or Early Adoption?

    Innovation is a double-edged sword. New gadgets can enhance effectiveness or undermine focus.

    In this week’s interview with software developer, Jorge Rosas, (a self-confessed innovation addict) we discuss the difference between the type of early adopter—whose play leads toward multiplied productivity—and those whose fascination with new gadgets results merely in distraction and loss of focus.

    The point is not to label ourselves so much as to help those of us fascinated with all things new to recognize when this passion is serving us well and when it is luring us off track.

    Listen in.

    powered by ODEO

  • Question of the Week

    In what ways do you resource others to ensure they meet your performance expectations of them?

  • No Magical Answers for Tech Change

    Instead of joining an extremist camp: either always buying the latest innovation as soon as it comes out, or always waiting as long as possible before making a change, we need our own decision-making criteria.

    Our needs are different than anyone else’s. Our financial resources are limited. Our teams’ openness to change and learning new things is a factor. Our industry might be one of relative stability or rapid innovation.

    In this week’s podcast with software developer Jorge Rosas, we discuss three “tension spectrums” across which to consider our next decisions:

    1. Risk versus reliability. Can you or your firm handle some of the inherent risks associated with emerging technologies while the kinks are being ironed out? Or do you need a certain level of reliability which would suggest that you wait?
    2. Focus versus distraction. Do new features help you get more done or distract you? For some of us, innovation is key to how we increase our personal and professional productivity. For others of us, new things take our eyes off of our goals, and we lose precious time and energy playing or forcing solutions that don’t really fit.
    3. Arithmetic versus exponential benefit. Unless an innovation provides an exponential increase in value to one’s productivity, internal processes, or company capabilities, you may want to reconsider the money investment, the learning investment, and the investment in team morale that any technology change brings.

    What criteria informs your decisions about adopting new technologies?