Product and Service Innovation Team-Building

Are you innovating in a vacuum?

When you read this question, the knee-jerk response is to say “Hey, Scott, I don’t innovate in a vacuum. I always ask several of my friends and close advisors their opinions of my new (product/service/website/store layout/etc.).

If you’re focusing efforts on innovation, I’ve got a question for you:

Who are you involving in the process?

Some people think that by involving a bunch of other people means that you’re got a “team” approach to innovation. I beg to differ. I conceptualize that you need different personalities to make sure you’ve evaluated the full spectrum of personalities and perspectives on the product or service you’re innovating. Who do I think ought to be on your team? Check out this list:

The 7 Core Critical Innovation Team Players

1. Idea People.

If this isn’t you, find a couple. I’m fortunate, in that I’m able to “get on a roll” when I start brainstorming. I’ll throw out one idea (which might suck) and that leads to another idea (which might be good). If you’re like me, and think of ideas, then great. Otherwise, get someone like me on your team!

2. Designers.

The next people you need on your team to innovate are designers. Notice, these aren’t operations experts, family members, or other people you might have claimed were your “A-Team” before reading this. Nope. Designers think differently. They stop verbalizing and start DRAWING. Designers think visually. I love designers, because designers think differently than the average person. Designers are visual. A designer will take a concept and immediately start drawing it or combining random objects to visualize, physically, what you’re describing. I’m not talking about a PROFESSIONAL designer. Many people with design thinking aren’t even considered design professionals. Several qualities good “design” thinkers possess include: (a)”can-do”attitude, (b) think and draw simultaneously, (c) simplify complexity, and (d) consistency in performance. Designers also help you make sure your outcome is visually more attractive. Always have one designer – if not more – on your innovation team.

3. Logistics Experts.

By logistics, I don’t mean a nay-sayer, but someone who can think through the critical process of discovering an obstacle – finding a workaround – creating a solution type thinkers. Logistics Experts understand operational process, and quite good at constructing things. These are the engineers, the builders, and also include people who can reverse-engineer. Find one or two of these people to add to your team, and you’ll eliminate problems in functionality.

4. Marketing/Copywriter.

You’re going to need someone who knows how to spin your pitch. Make sure you’ve covered your basis. Don’t try to write your own copy when an expert will help you sell 10x whatever you might otherwise. Tighten your pitch and get good copy. You’ll be thanking me later.

5. Legal adviser.

You will need legal on your innovation team for trademark search and filing when you’re creating a new name. Make sure you don’t get the whole product or service designed, labeled, and shipped and then find out your trademark is in violation of someone else’s name. This will save you money down the road.

6. Accountant.

Make sure you can produce your design or service economically. When you ramp to scale, you do need a bean-counter on the team to make sure your ideas will be profitable.

7. Test-users.

I’m always surprised how few people conduct field-testing before rolling out a new service, a new product, or other innovation. If you haven’t tested people’s reaction to (a) your pitch, (b) product/service, (c) name/slogan/copy, (d) buying process, (e) usability, (f) customer experience, and so forth, you’re leaving a loophole that kinda matters: what people who buy your product/service actually THINK about it. Without that data, how are you ready to release? Make sure you test FIRST. It’s like the old carpenter cliché: “measure twice, cut once” and it applies to your innovative team, too.

So, that’s the core critical 7 team members of who I believe you need on your innovation team. Do you have other people or personality types you’ve found useful to develop innovative products and services? If so, share your comments below.

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Copyright © 1999-2008 by ARRiiVE Business Solutions. All Rights Reserved. SUBSCRIBE.
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Executive Team Building - Don't Waste Their Time

In team-building exercises for executives, one of the biggest challenges is not in planning the event itself, but in properly structuring the activities and putting thought into how to facilitate your event.

It is not enough to plan a date to meet, invite your leadership team, schedule an outside expert, and then figure you'll discuss key strategic subjects and expect anything useful to result.

You can all go play golf together and you might get a little better at golf. Or, you can spend three days rafting down rivers and you might eventually get better at rafting down rivers!

When planning executive team building, more attention is often paid to the executive retreat location, the recreational activities and food choices than the substance and exercises to create results to the team's challenges.

Facilitated exercises must be more than justification for expenditures. They must be the core of the event!

If your company spends for a luxury venue but fails to set objectives, goes soft on facilitation, and dedicates only three hours or a half day for the key exercises, then I'd argue that you're really not doing the executive retreat to accomplish anything other than having fun together. There's nothing wrong with having fun - we all need to have fun as leaders in business just as in other parts of life.

But take the extra steps to ensure your executive retreat is planned properly, executed flawlessly, and thoroughly debriefed, and you'll likely learn a lasting result that can be developed further each year you get the team together.

If you're seeking a resource for your executive event, consider utilizing my friend Andrew Long's company, Critical Path Finders, to help you plan and facilitate your retreat. He's got the right perspective and does an excellent job!
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Copyright © 1999-2008 by ARRiiVE Business Solutions. All Rights Reserved. SUBSCRIBE.

Teams: Mother Natures Master Class, on ARRiiVE: Innovations In Business Show

ARRiiVE: Innovations In Business Radio Presents TEAMS: MOTHER NATURE'S MASTER CLASS, with Ken Thompson, CEO of www.Bioteams.com and www.SwarmTeams.com companies and websites.

Ken and Scott will discuss how we can make our teams and groups and communities much more satisfying, more productive and more agile by adopting some simple principles which Mother Nature has successfully evolved over millions of years to organize her teams (such as bees, ants and geese...).

The Show AIRS: Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at 2:00 PM PST / 5:00 PM EST

Description: Ken is a master of virtual communities and business/social networks. Ken has just published a major book through Megan-Kiffer Press (http://www.mkpress.com/) entitled ‘BIOTEAMS - a blueprint for building organizational teams, mobile workgroups, virtual communities and business networks that will prosper in the 21st century.’ Ken is also the founder and CEO of a new high-tech venture Swarmteams (http://www.swarmteams.com/) which is a mobile community engagement system developed on bioteaming principles.

Join Scott Andrews, Host of the show, as he interviews Ken regarding this exciting topic. This show promises to be educational, fun, and easy to participate.

How To Listen & Participate:

1. Visit Talkshoe (http://www.talkshoe.com/): Enter Talkshoe show ID 37798 to text comments and listen to the show from your computer.

2. Call in to join the show: Dial (724) 444-7444, enter show 37798 # 1 # if you wish to ask questions of the host or guest.

Also, you may click here to visit/follow the show: http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/37798 or http://www.arriive.com/arriive_liive.htm or listen in after completion of the show.

Some useful comments have been added to this show, if you missed it:
http://www.bioteams.com/2008/01/23/teams_mother_natures.html#comments

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Copyright © 2008 by Scott Andrews, CEO of ARRiiVE Business Solutions. All Rights Reserved. Build better teams: SUBSCRIBE to learn more.

Fear or Love?

Today, I spoke with a woman who has offered collaborative leadership team building coaching since 1970. She seemed quite "grounded" and centered in her approach to business and life. She was sharing her past, then I was sharing my model, business structure ideas, and collaboration tools I'm developing. We shared together for about an hour, when all of a sudden the conversation seemed to shift.

To what, you might ask?

To LOVE. She spotted the fact that I CARE DEEPLY about seeing organizations SHIFT.

And the challenge we started talking about is the biggest concern I have with anything I do at AspireNow or here with ARRiiVE Business Solutions:

How do we get organizations to STOP RULING WITH FEAR and START RULING WITH LOVE?

Isn't this our concern when entering new environments? Are they ruling with Fear or Love?

I've been employed in organizations whose leadership team literally made jokes about firing people on a weekly basis. Can you imagine that? I've been in environments where they talked about people hitting their goals or "the bosses would shut the place down" and lock the doors. Guess what? They NEVER DID shut the place down! It was just a fear-based message to try to motivate people.

I remember saying to that manager, "Fear doesn't inspire me. Love, on the other hand, DOES inspire me." He softened a little after that. The next boss sat there, smiling at the team, saying "I am here to help you succeed, make more money, and do good things for the team." The following day he told me, in confidence, that the entire team had to go, because they weren't typical for that industry (meaning, they wanted to stand for ethical business). His new methods involved using bait-and-switch tactics, something I don't condone. He lasted five months, before they brought in the next guy (who was worse, I'll add). This continued to get worse and worse until, finally, I got the heck out of there!

What was the final straw? I came back from vacation and my new boss (called affectionately by my peers, "Hitler") actually had the gall to accuse me of "not caring" about my work or being "lazy" because I'd been on vacation, took one sick day, and subsequently had surgery on an infected toe. This, all in one month. Of course, the day he accused me of these things, I was there at work, with my toe wrapped up in a bandage, on vicadin medicine just to get through the pain, doing my job. The only reason I was wanting to leave early was because I'd been invited to a wedding and it was incredibly important to several people that I be there at that wedding. He had approved my leaving early, then changed his mind as I was walking out the door! When I pointed out that I'd taken a larger share of responsbility than any other person there (I had the numbers to prove it) he told me to "get the hell out of there" and he'd see to it that I never worked there again. Keep in mind that I was his #2 salesperson at the time of this altercation.

I'll never forget how loving they were at the wedding. I said to my partner: I've never seen a more obvious example of the difference between fear and love in all my life!

The upper management later invited me back, "Hitler" later apologized, but it was too late. I never went back -- MY choice.

The type of environment described above is very toxic. At the point when I left that organization, my nerves were shot, I would wake at 3:00 a.m. in a sweat after a nightmare, and started grinding my teeth. It got ugly. If you are in an environment like this, I will encourage you to leave. Make sure you have a strategy to make money so that you don't go broke or hit hard times. But get out of there. Jobs and vocations DO EXIST where you CAN get treated right and make great money. Either start your own company or take one of those jobs. I believe that, ultimately, we'll make more money, and live longer, if we're happier and more loving.

We need to stand up for our right to BE LOVED AT WORK and TREATED WITH RESPECT FOR OUR CONTRIBUTIONS!

Why am I bringing this up? Because I believe we are spiritual beings. We are emotional beings. We are not intellectual robots who don't have feelings. Corporations must embrace this if they are to reinvent and become GREAT. It's what's required of executives to truly begin empowering their people: they must embrace both POSITIVE EMOTION and LOVING SPIRIT as part of the collective work experience.

I've been a believer for quite some time that powerful organizations have VISION. They ask better QUESTIONS. And they take ACTION. I used to describe this as VQA. But I'm going to go a step further and share that we need to add an "L" to the acronym. What does the "L" stand for? L-O-V-E. We need VQAL to have true success.

Does LOVE belong in the workplace?

Think about it. Which boss do you love the most? The boss who frequently threatened to fire you, or the boss who treated you special, listened to you, showed you respect, and led you to greatness through being a coach and a partner in your challenges? Tough question, huh!?

Which employees INSPIRE you the most?

Usually, they're the people who are most PASSIONATE or offer the most SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE. Am I right?

The people at work who've inspired me the most made me laugh. They hit numbers. They did it without lying or cheating. How? By being exceptional. My good friend, Grant Stellwagen, is the greatest salesperson I've ever met. What makes Grant such a great salesperson? First of all, he's funny. Second, he's sharp as a tack. Third, he understands the techniques of selling better than anyone else I know. He knows you have to give clients gifts to build stronger relationships. He knows you have to be creative and surprise people. He understands that you must ask intelligent questions to determine a prospect's needs. And he adds value and offers something different on every call.

Grant also knows that you can't win them all, but if you keep planting, watering, and fertilizing seeds, it is inevitable that at some point you'll grow some plants that will bear fruit. And he grew more fruit than anyone else at my company. To the tune of millions of dollars, in fact.

The last time I saw Grant, he and I stayed up until 2:00 a.m. talking in the hotel lounge and sharing ideas about what we felt was exciting about life at that time. I still remember that talk like it was yesterday. He showed me that he cared about me, my ideas, and what I was up to at that company. That's inspiring, isn't it?

Who inspires you?

I bet they are smart, fun, and loving.

If you're an executive reading this article, can I encourage you to put aside the old fear-based methods and embrace new ways to build more LOVE in your organization? It really is a better way.

In personal life, I will say that LOVE is the answer to what we're looking for.

Is it any different in business? In business, LOVE is the answer, too.
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Post by Scott Andrews, CEO of ARRiiVE Business Solutions.

ARRiiVE Business Solutions helps executives improve sales, launch products and services, and build dynamic, cross-functional collaborative teams. For more information, contact info (at)ARRiiVE (dot) com or call us at 1 (805) 459-6939.

Copyright © 2007 by ARRiiVE Business Solutions. All Rights Reserved. You may republish this article only if you publish in WHOLE with the COPYRIGHT and ALL ACTIVE LINKS intact.

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The Demise of the Dreaded Office Cubicle - Modern Approaches to Office Design

Cubicle offices are a downer, don't you agree? With wireless networking, we are now starting to see more and more the demise of the cubicle office environments.

In reading an article at Wired Magazine, entitled, "Sorriest Looking Cubicles" the thought occurred to me, "there are NO GOOD OFFICE CUBICLES. All cubicles SUCK! They are ALL sorry-looking!"

Picture (above) from Fotolia under license.

Have I struck a nerve?


Okay, for the C-level managers at companies like DELL, IBM, HP, Google, Time-Warner, AT&T, and just about every other major corporation in existence, they'll probably read this and go "oh my God, how can he say that?" because, you see, the top officers from most companies in the world (at least, the USA) WANT you to like working in cube farms. After all, it lowers their cost of office space. And, believe me, from an Human Resources and Facilities level, Sq. Foot per employee IS an important cost factor at most companies.



But, as both an employee, and as a manager, I've never liked cubicle environments. At least, not for salespeople and creative types. I've put together a list of the problems and possible remedies, here.


The top 7 reasons cubicle environments drain your productivity:



1. I can't hear myself think in a cube farm. Too many other people are talking around me, and their discussions are highly distracting to me working at optimum level. Yes, I'm auditory, and only about 20 - 30% of your workforce is auditory. But, that's 25% of your team who is impacted by the noise/disruption factor.

2. It is impossible to have a focused high-level conversation from a cubicle environment. The CEO will tell the sales team: yes, sell high, sell wide, and you'll have better results selling. I agree. But HOW are your top salespeople (or bottom salespeople, who aspire to become top salespeople) going to get there when they can't focus or hear their conversations? I recall my earliest days selling at Businessland: when I had to make outgoing prospecting calls, I did them from the CONFERENCE ROOM. Why? Because people would walk by my cube and yell things, or conversations would make it hard to hear my critical selling conversations. The problem isn't just outgoing calls, though, as what can you do when a CEO or important prospect returns your call? When you're in a cube, the answer is NOTHING.

3. Privacy doesn't exist in cubicle environments. For people who like to operate in stealth mode, privacy is critical. This can be true for your key developers, idea people, and others who might need more security. There is no security in a cubicle environment.

4. Absence of life! I also can open my sliding window and smell the fresh air - something absent from most corporate environments. How many corporate cube farms have plants of any kind within them? You'll notice lots of cartoons, as employees fight to keep their sanity in a cube farm. I suggest planting more real plants in portable, potted containers.

5. Lack of natural light. Cubicles block natural light. False light has been proven to cause an increase in depression. Depressed employees are less productive. I guess people forget this common sense when planning their offices. How many offices have rows of fluorescent lighting overhead, the little square ceiling tiles that cover the acres of cabling running overhead, and below that is spaced the little crammed-in cubicles that people are supposed to gratefully spend all these hours slaving away for their company? I'll tell you the truth: MOST OF THEM. It's disgusting, how few companies have made the small investment into natural lighting. In my home office, I have installed natural lighting wherever possible, and use my blinds from windows that face the ocean to control my lighting throughout the day. Now, while today is foggy, most days are sunny. I happen to LOVE the sun! How about you?



6. Class-system enforced through square-footage. If the CEO has the large corner office with the conference room, administrator, and special teleconferencing system installed, and you're in a 4x6 cubicle, with one little area for your books, a picture frame, and two filing cabinets, what does this say about your position versus the CEO's position? While I agree that the CEO may have different needs and different visitors to their office, nevertheless there ought to be an office for salespeople and creative types, too. If you want to create a paradigm-shift in how you structure your company, and go from top-down to inside-out (see the Diamond-Circle model I've created and offer consulting to implement), well, you can't do it if you're stuck in the old class systems.



7. A door gives privacy, security, comfort. Cubicles have no door! Talk about the perennial open-door policy. In evaluating every company I worked where I made sales, I experienced my greatest success when I had an office with a door that closed and windows to the outside world. When I didn't have the door and windows, I maintained my success by spending 8 - 12 hours per week working from my home office, even before it was widely accepted to do so.



So, these are the top reasons why cube farms drain productivity.



However, with the advent of "wireless" technology, there is good news for office workers:


According to an article from GovTech.com: The American worker hasn't had much to celebrate lately. Wages and salaries are declining, benefits are getting the ax, unions are struggling. But there's one workplace development likely to bring joy to more than a few: The demise of the dreaded office cubicle.

What's happening in office spaces is actually a bit encouraging: major corporations, like Capital One, Google, and others, are leading a revolution in office-space design. Spaces are becoming more open, more collaborative, even, dare I say it: more ALIVE.


Do you want suggestions for ways to improve your corporate environment?


1. Drop the walls. In environments where people NEED to communicate fast and need the interaction, consider lowering the cubicle walls. This creates a natural space where people can interact together. Another way to deal with walls are to create louvred walls, that can be raised or lowered depending upon the circumstance. According to the GovTech article, employees at CapitalOne found they had 87% more productivity when they dropped the walls. Instead of emailing back and forth, they could simply talk to each other. Certain environments - especially customer support and call center types of environments, thrive with an open room format.


2. Build different offices. Where you have salespeople and creative people who need to be most effective, offer more space for these people to get quality work done. I suggest a small office for a desk, two chairs, a filing cabinet, and a bookcase, at minimum, for basic offices, then a series of conference rooms that facilitate collaboration. Offer employees the ability to book conference rooms for various team activities and customer-related activities. Create entire centers to spark creativity and design collaboration with customers into your environment.


3. Create revolving-offices. Offer "revolving offices" for people who come and go from remote locations and home-office environments. Just make sure you have the correct number of offices to people. The only way you can know this is to measure the amount of people, the number of hours, and divide by offices. In fact, you might go a step-further and load balance, depending upon PEAK usage.



4. Offer creative "home-office" options. I've always liked having an office to go to, but I also love working from home, because it is the quietest place to work, in my experience. I get the most done there, and can complete most of my tasks in that time, alone, when working for a company. Now that I run my own operation, I still love working from a home-office. This is a good option for companies, because they save a considerable amount on square-footage. Just make sure you create the revolving office for people to work out of when they DO come in to the office.



5. Bring in more "home-style" furniture. I remember visiting Google's office headquarters in 2002. It seemed innovative at the time to see lava lamps and bean bag chairs in Google's corporate headquarters. But, really, I think this is how offices used to be, way back. They got away from it, with cube farms. An office will make you more relaxed and comfortable (read: more productive) if you have more natural furniture to work from. Make sure you have some "comfort" pieces around the office, and make sure your chairs support healthy posture.



6. Consider collaborative spaces. How do kids collaborate? In a play room? At recess? Around conference tables? Why not create similar work environments for your teams?


Additional ideas include the following:



7. Convert fluorescent lighting to natural lighting.


8. Install skylights.


9. Create an outdoor workstation environment as much as possible.


10. Offer more security for employees (lockers, files, etc.).


11. Bring in more natural plants that can live in limited lighting environments.


12. Take brainstorming sessions to a remote environment. Create brainstorming session areas within your office space, if possible.

It is important to take into consideration HOW your team works. Do you need some people left alone? Do you want others collaborating? Do you want some alone sometimes, collaborating other times? You'll need a variety of spaces to accommodate each of these needs.



The cubicle, to me, offers the least attractive office-space option. It isn't very flexible, it is loud, and yet you can't collaborate easily with anyone. If you haven't done it yet, consider dropping the cubicles out of your office environment, create more open space, more "alive" space, and more flexible office space, and see if you don't discover a boost in productivity.



If you have additional ideas on ways organizations can improve work conditions, please contribute your comments (below).


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Post by Scott Andrews, CEO of ARRiiVE Business Solutions.


For more information, contact info (at) ARRiiVE (dot) com, visit ARRiiVE.com, or call us at 1 (805) 459-6939.

Copyright © 2007 by ARRiiVE Business Solutions. References in this article to an article © 2006, The Philadelphia Inquirer. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via Newscom. No violation of trademark or copyright intended. All Rights Reserved. You may republish this article only if you publish in WHOLE with the COPYRIGHT and ALL ACTIVE LINKS intact.

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Top Rated Website and Blog Designs

Why I Like Designers

Have you ever noticed a website that you really liked, but couldn't put your finger on it? In fact, I'm pondering what to do with the design of the ARRiiVE: More Customers, More Cash, More Quickly BlogTM. Frankly, I like simplicity. And, I also have a lot to say. Putting those two things together in one site creates the challenge to appear PROFESSIONAL, SLICK, and HIP -- while avoiding sounding like an elitist snob. This type of work might just call for a professional designer.

Do you ever worry about your website design? The reason I study designs (and hang-out with artists and designers) is, well, first-off, because I find they think a little differently than I do. I'm very auditory, somewhat visual, and like to put my hands on things to feel them. That's how I learn. I have to write it down, or it just might get forgotten.

Designers are VISUAL. They think in pictures. I enjoy the company of designers, because they help me see the world in new or different ways than I might see it with my own eyeballs. Now, in case you're saying, "What does design have to do with building teams, increasing sales, or improving my marketing?"

ANSWER: Design has a lot to do with sales and marketing success. I'll get to team-building in a moment. But, yes, if your marketing is good, your sales ought to follow. Then, it is up to you to deliver the service that matches the marketing.

How can I say this without blinking an eye? Because, while on a search for the TOP BLOGS in the world today, I came across a post that features some very hip and smooth blog designs. Not surprisingly, these blogs were built mostly by photographers or graphic designers. But, what impresses me most, is these site designs are not only sexy web designs: they also draw HIGH TRAFFIC, too. Google PR 7, Google PR6, Google PR8, Google PR5, and so-on. Those kinds of numbers are worth money. So, yes, sales follow good design (a component of excellence in marketing).

Here are some of the examples I chose to share with you:

Odd-and-ends.net Clean & Nice. Excellent navigation. Not too slick, but you definitely get engaged to want to view the portfolio. And, if I'm selling photography, that's important. I had to take away a point from my 9 score on design for the CafePress products (I dumped them years ago for being too greedy and too expensive). I was touched by several things at this site. My Score: 9 for Design, Google PR5. Overall 7.

abriefmessage.com
Design: Clean, simple, with tons of white space. Large Fonts, bright, smart use of simple color-scheme. Black, white, and red links always has a cutting edge feel, to me. This site exemplifies one way designers think about presenting information. This blog is not yet getting what I call "Google Juice" but it sure has potential. They're getting a lot of comments on their posts (add mine to the list). My Score: Design 9, Google PR4, Overall 7. I wouldn't be surprised to see this go up...

A List Apart. The best of the lot. Not just visually attractive, but totally rich in content, without overwhelming me by any means. There's a lot any person developing a website could learn here from this site, alone. Simple control and navigation. Beautiful use of primary labels. Small, focused ad box. They pay for publication contributions, which encourages other authors to submit content. So, this is a collective - not a one-man shop, from what I can tell. I even like their shirts. Scores: Design 9. Google PR 8. Overall: 9.

SIDE NOTE: A List Apart featured the web's first ever panel of web designers, called The Web Design Survey, which surveyed almost 37,000 designers and came up with quite a large compilation of tips (over 33,000) that might serve as a somewhat bloated guide for many aspiring web designers. Kudos, again.

gizmodo.com. I know, I know. It's a geek site. But, you know what? They're probably the number 1 blog in terms of geek traffic. Every time I go there I find something new and cool that I like. Yeah, I like gadgets. And gizmodo is the king of online gadget info. They provide easy feeds, as if almost begging you to feed content off their RSS, which many, many tech sites, take advantage to gain cutting-edge content. They use a wide-format design which some users like and others don't. For their format, it seems to work. Design 7. Google PR 9 (traffic is off-the-hook). Overall 9.

Speaking of Google, how can you question the appeal in the massive use of white space and simplicity in their home page design? But Google also delivers on their promise: fast, quick, highly efficient search results. Google has captured the search market because of their site design. Sixteen words plus the search box is about as basic as it gets. It's what happens behind those words/links and the search box that matters most. Google's design is as much in their words and layout of the words and multi-colored logo. The layout conveys an inverse-pyramid (and implied pyramid underneath). This is a similar model to my own Diamond-Circle. Design: 10 Google PR10. Overall 10.

The Morning News. Clean design. Get out your reading glasses (small print). Black & White with some Red. Wide format makes me think "newspaper" when I read it, although they claim to be an "online magazine" published since 1999. Has an old-time feel in a modern approach. A pretty damned good site for what I think is a two-person shop. Succinct at what it's trying to do. Design 9. Google PR? Overall 8.

SimpleBits. This site is SIMPLE. They hit the nail on the head with their name and visual appeal. The logo I saw that they designed was nice. They've done work for MTV. Totally a pro shop. The bits are actually little fragments of articles, snapshots, books, speaking, and so forth. I don't quite understand why some of the elements are where they are... perhaps they can explain to me if I email. Design 9, Google PR2 Overall 7.

Where can you find a site where you might find a good designer? Well, any of the design-oriented sites I just mentioned might have resources for you, and if that isn't enough, here's another possibility: www.cpluv.com/.

I've used more than a handful of designers over the past eight years and don't regret any of them. I've gained designs or design ideas from each of them that I still use at AspireNow, Body, Black Market Trio, and ARRiiVE Business Solutions. Hopefully you can see the merit in shelling out some duckets to get a higher quality site and designer eyeballs on visualizing what you are doing with your blog or website. Your image might be the first (or last) thing your site visitors remember. What do you want to leave them with?

OH. One last thing: I bet you thought I forgot about teamwork, right? Remember the question? "How do designers impact TEAMS?" Simple. You gain someone who thinks in terms of elegant simplicity. You gain a visual thinker. Every team ought to include at least one designer. You're bound to see your project in a whole new light. And, who knows, maybe you'll get a new product design, logo, or website concept from them that boosts your team's results from survive to THRIVE.

Post by Scott Andrews, CEO of ARRiiVE Business Solutions.

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Great Leaders: Building An Organization Utilizing The Wisdom of King Solomon

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In the Old Testament of the Bible, King Solomon, son of King David (who wrote most of the Psalms) demonstrates wisdom rarely seen among today's leaders. Among Solomon's writing credits are most of the Proverbs, Song of Solomon, and perhaps Ecclesiastes. Solomon ruled the kingdom of Israel during the era of approximately 970 – 930 BCE. He is credited in I Kings 4:30-34 with wisdom greater than Eastern mystics and Egyptian scholars. He wrote more than 1,000 songs (or poems), most of which are no longer available to us. Solomon likely wrote Psalm 72 shortly after becoming King. While the book of Proverbs contrasts wisdom with folly, Solomon reportedly spoke 3,000 proverbs, and various kings all over the earth sought out Solomon for his knowledge. And Ecclesiastes contains some of the strongest philosophical insights into the human condition contained in the Bible. Any number of these writings can serve as inspirational texts for anyone aspiring to leadership positions.

Regardless of one’s beliefs and religious practices, Solomon’s ideas about how to build a kingdom form a relevant metaphor that we can easily apply to society’s secular world. Today, special interest groups, in the name of freedom of speech and plurality of all religions, are intent upon corralling religion into certain religious centers and away from government, business, and society. However, the path to building a kingdom, according to Solomon, is quite different. No matter what religion a person may or may not hold sacred, peeking behind the veil of knowledge possessed by Solomon illuminates ways to lead during a time so desperate for true leadership.

This article describes the methods Solomon utilized in taking power, the political savvy he demonstrated in allying with key leaders and countries, and the swift yet fair way he dealt with dissidents. Learn how to build your own organization with the wisdom contained in this Great Leader series article, by AspireNow.

Read more here: http://www.aspirenow.com/leader_0902_king%20solomon's%20wisdom%20to%20building%20a%20kingdom.htm

How To Build More Creative Collaborative Teams

There are ways to spur creativity amongst your teams. In fact, to spur creativity within your company, building COLLABORATION is critical.

A common myth amongst leaders is that competition fuels creativity. In fact, according to Teresa Amabile, who heads the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School, and one of the country's foremost explorers of business innovation, the opposite is more true: collaboration fuels creativity. It makes sense: people stop SHARING when they are competing. So, first of all, build COLLABORATIVE TEAMS to foster more creativity in your work environment.

Creative collaboration is a process to combine various team elements to facilitate the creative process and come up with better product ideas, strong service solutions, new sales techniques, and more. How do you do it?

Well, here is a list of 7 ways we suggest you can expand upon creative collaboration:

1. Opposites Attract. Hire people with opposing ways to looking at problems. Combine a "big picture" thinker with someone who processes "linear" thoughts. Combine the rational person with the abstract thinker. You may not have them agreeing on everything, but they'll come up with some interesting combinations.

2. Aliens Among Us. One of the beautiful things about the United States of America that I love most is the cultural diversity. While this is more obvious in major metropolitan cities than rural areas, nevertheless there is a wide diversity to choose from when making hiring decisions. My feeling: find people who come from different cultures, different backgrounds, and combine them to get more creative ideas. Asians think differently, in general, than Latin Americans. People from Russian think differently than people from France. Find people from different cultures, and rather the using that alien nature to divide, use it to find new explorations in service, product, and diversity.

3. Gender Bender. The most boring team I ever worked on was within a company where the management hadn't hired any women. I like women. I find their thoughts, ideas, and ways of thinking refreshing and even sometimes challenging. That's a good thing on collaborative teams. The movie "What Women Want" with Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt highlighted how entire marketing programs created by men have been dumped in favor of the way a woman might think, in order to embrace women. Embrace gender differences. It spurs more creativity.

4. Go Outside. Creativity is a two-step process that starts with collaboration. Start with a discussion with your team, your business partners, and people who can benefit the process you're trying to create. If you're finding elements of your team are competing, replace them with people who collaborate. Build upon the collaboration you start with. But beyond that, involve people who aren't normally on your teams. If you're in operations, bring in salespeople. Or, go an extra step, and invite customers and prospects to your planning meetings. You might be surprised by the refreshing ideas that occur - not to mention the empathy you'll gain from customers understanding the insights into what you're doing to meet their needs.

5. Plan Less, Do More. I'm not saying don't plan. I'm just saying plan only 10% of the time you spend on a project. Spend the other 90% doing. There are so many people who get stuck planning, and re-evaluating that they never do anything. In one job I found that for three months I was strategizing on the next way I was going to get my business. In the meantime, my co-worker signed $400,000 of business in accounts I'd previously called upon. Ouch. Get out of the office, drive out there and do what you need to do. If you want creativity, you can plan for so much, brainstorm to get things moving, then put things in action and find out if they work. It's the only way to know if you've got anything real.

6. Design Innovation. I once heard someone say that innovation happens spontaneously. Well, yes, this is true. However, innovation often comes from a spark from something someone has seen before. How do you handle a blank sheet of paper? In writing music, I find that usually, I'll start with something that feels good to me. Maybe a hook for a melody idea, or a rhythm on piano or bass. Perhaps I'll have a rhythm pattern on drums. But, I'll start with something. Do I want the song to feel Calypso? Do I want it to feel Gospel? I'll pick a genre, then try to create towards that. Some companies PLAN for innovation. Do you? Build elements that spur people to think in new ways in your own innovation teams. Is it round? Maybe square would be better. Is it red? Try making it yellow or blue. Is it faster? Maybe slower is more useful.

7. Remove Deadlines. People often think they work better under deadlines. Well, this isn't true. Just make sure people do something every time they meet to keep the idea moving forward. But deadlines don't spur creativity, they stifle it. Ever wonder why a musician can create a great CD, then once they are signed to a label, they must produce three albums in four years, and their music slips? It's because they're on a deadline. They HAVE to create. Someone is coming out with a new program enabling you to text in orders to restaurants to have your coffee or food ready when you get there. For people who like things fast, right? Well, for people who like to take their time with things, tea is better. Get your creative team in the tea modality and out of Starbucks modality. Take time with things that matter, such as creating.

You may find more ways to build creative collaborative teams in your own organization. But, for starters, try these:

1. Pair opposites together.
2. Pair different cultures, different ideas.
3. Put both genders together to spur creativity between the sexes.
4. Go outside your typical team and include outsiders.
5. Plan less. Do more. Plan no more than 10%, spend the other 90% doing.
6. Build innovation into your design. Plan ways to help spur innovation. Create tools, decorate walls, tear down closed spaces, or create labs where design or creative thought can more easily occur.
7. Remove deadlines. Give people the freedom to create within a structured environment on their own time.

According to David Kelley, IDEO CEO, "The more you experiment, the more you learn; the more you learn, the more you create." So make the effort to experiment with your teams. You just might be rewarded.

This article is by Scott Andrews, CEO and principal business advisor at ARRiiVE Business Solutions, helps executives build creative, empowered, and productive teams. Learn more about Scott's dynamic SEMANTIC COLLABORATION and CREATIVE COLLABORATION models and tools at http://www.ARRiiVE.com.

Team Selling in Enterprise Environments

Companies have been selling in teams since the dawn of IBM. But, with today's dispersed and global environments, an executive recently asked me: "Does Team Building work within enterprise selling environments, today?" My answer was "Yes, team selling can work, but you can only create the explosion of sales success by blasting away outdated systemic issues that block the natural flow of selling your organization to the client's organization."

I'm not providing statistics in this article. But I can tell you the challenges of selling in teams, and ways to overcome some of them.

Common problems with selling in teams include:

1. Structure of selling organization.

2. Problems with functional organization rather than team organization.

3. Job descriptions and the role of Human Resources aligning (or mis-aligning) human capital.

4. Compensation based upon functional output rather than team or cross-function output.

5. Focus on short-term results rather than long-term benefits to customer.

Now, if you drill down into each of these areas, I did a few searches on team building, and for kicks and giggles, came up with a few that I think illustrate my point well.

1. Structure of selling organization. Most problems in the business world, today, are systemic. You'll notice I said the structure of the SELLING organization, not BUYING organization. Why? Because the company you're selling to can structure however they want. A good sales team will be flexible and able to adapt to a variety of environments they sell within. The real issue is in how YOUR organization is structured to go to market.

Here (http://www.internetviz-newsletters.com/PSJ/e_article000415636.cfm?x=b11,0) is a URL with an article that is well-written, focused on team selling, and mentions key roles within the sales force team as:

• Specialist
• Market Researcher
• Business Developer
• Rainmaker

The problem with this list is it suggests team selling but only within functional roles of a the sales team function. It completely fails to consider that operations, services, administration, and management impact the sales process and half of the positions mentioned are not the mover/shakers who actually write sales deals or build customer relationships but the reporters/analysts who report on the deal or effect of the deal. The people who makes deals happen are the Rainmaker, and perhaps to a lesser extent, Business Development, but Research and Specialist are people who usually want to "see more" data before they'll move. One of the key people who can make a deal happen: Senior Executive, is missing from this list. The operations point-man and implementation expert is also not included here.

The author of the article went on to suggest bi-weekly meetings without stating an objective for the meeting. Rainmakers abhor meetings without purpose! This type of article is the reason for the problems in the current business environment with building cross-functional teams. They're only looking at the "sales" silo and missing the bigger picture. The author makes a good point about training the entire sales team, it just seems that training ought to expand outside the sales silo boundaries across the entire cross-functional team.

I've addressed this concern with my Sales Diamond Model which you can find at: http://www.arriive.com/sales_diamond_model.htm

2. Problems with functional organization rather than team organization. I came across this PDF, which is a reprint from a Sales and Marketing Executive Report from Darnell (http://baygroup.com/Articles/TeamSellingIsTodaysReality.pdf).

This article hits upon two problems I see: 1) Silo by organization function (sales, engineering, administration, etc.) when organizations try to get cross-functional, they haven't blended or created any type of system that enables teams across functions, (2) Lack of pay based upon team results. People are paid individual salaries based upon their job description. And the job description is, again, based upon function (sales, HR, Operations, Strategic Planning, etc.) without inclusion or consideration of payment for team performance or impact upon team's productive results. The other inherent problem within this is the fact that job descriptions are based upon general individual contribution within the function group rather than job description for unique capabilities and contribution to the whole, with a nod to the functional aspects. If companies were to shift this payment structure in their compensation plan, they will drive team-performance and create better cross-functional teams.

But if organizations create teams only within their functional groups, then they miss their opportunity to truly build an empowered environment. I once participated in a contest, and the Director of the project was brilliant to notice that EVERYONE wanted to participate in the contest. He made sure that each functional group got enough "points" from the contest to assure them a potential prize (i-pod, gift certificate) so that every employee felt the benefit of the contest. Yes, sales people had more opportunity to win than administrators, because they had more impact and pay scale, but every person came away with something for helping grow customers as a team. What I found interesting about the contest is that administrators started calling me with leads, operations people started to discuss ways to better help certain clients, and managers worked overtime with me to help me get certain deals structured to win for the customer. In short: it worked to drive more cross-functional performance, at least for a short period of time.

3. Job descriptions and the role of Human Resources and the utilization of human capital. As referenced in the article above, if job descriptions don't describe the accurate work that you expect people to do, then you'll get what you've asked for. It is about the law of attraction. If you point people at a tall building, tell them they have to sell your business services to the organizations in that tall building, then why would you be surprised when the deals they bring in are from the companies in that building? That's the whole idea, isn't it? Now, today's customers aren't all located in one tall building, they may be spread out over multiple cities, states, or even countries. In addition, it isn't just the customer's organization we're selling to within enterprise organizations, there also is the impact of outsourcing within the enterprise that affects how to go after deals. But, nevertheless, if your organization's job descriptions describe how people will interact with organizations you seek to do business with, then you're likely to produce a better result. I'm working on a software tool that will deliver a better team structure and enable organizations to track "jobs" or team projects by key words. That way, job descriptions may be re-written to include key phrases of the team and build better results.

4. Compensation based upon functional output rather than team or cross-function output. Now, this is always where the rubber meets the road, isn't it? If you have someone that you're paying to move a brick, and he grabs a hose and pours water instead, you'd ask him "Why didn't you move the brick?" Wouldn't you? I would. Yet, how many organizations are using the same re-tried compensation models promoting individualism, private results, and functional results? Almost ALL of them are using compensation models based around the results of individual or functional programs.

I tried to find an article discussing the impact on sales that EVERY function needs to own (administrative roles, operations roles, management roles, etc.) but couldn't find one. You know why? Because people have come to associate "salespeople" as the people who "sell" and the other people "just doing work" contributing to the company. It's a fallacy that has been created over time by sales v. operations battles, and as a result of bad habits. For example, it is a bad habit to think you don't have an impact upon selling by processing billing in accounts receivable. The billing people often find some of the greatest opportunities for a sales development. It's a bad habit to think upper management need not be part of the sales team. Upper managers want to meet with other upper managers. Use the cross-functional team but more than that ALL employees need to be actualized in the compensation process to also show the benefit to creating complete win-win solutions across the enterprise.

I see a need for compensation overhaul. If the client is measuring our success by delivering the benefits we promise them, then wouldn't it make sense to build our OWN compensation programs by delivering BENEFITS to the CLIENT? It's a whole new way of looking at compensation. I'm developing a payment description model and compensation model that rewards based upon client goals, rather than seller goals. It's exciting, and drives a considerably larger result to production with each employee.

5. Focus on short-term results rather than long-term benefits to customer. I dug around and found an article on sales teams that hit this problem square on the nose: the problem is FOCUS.

I think of the Buddhist and consider FOCUS to be part of the RIGHT THOUGHT structure of RIGHT THOUGHT, RIGHT ACTION, RIGHT SPEECH. Without RIGHT THOUGHT, none of the other desired results can happen. So, if you focus upon the right things, you ought to have the right results. This article (http://www.ivey.ca/publications/impact/vol3_22.htm) discussed the challenge that sales organizations are focused on hitting numbers. Those numbers are not numbers of benefits clients receive, but numbers of revenue dollars coming in from that account to the SELLING company's coffers. Focus on numbers might impact numbers, short-term; however, for the long-term it is the wrong focus. Yet, you'd be surprised how many meetings I've had with upper managers where all they look at is the NUMBERS! Crazy idiots, if you ask me. They ought to be focused on CUSTOMER BENEFITS. Because, if their organization delivers a high value of customer benefits, they'd likely hit MORE sales numbers as a by-product. Makes sense, doesn't it?

The quote that stands out to me from this article is:
"Developing a sales team can be very difficult in an environment unfamiliar with the team selling approach. The hurdle is shifting the mindset of an organization and its salespeople from lone rangers selling products to selling teams providing solutions for customers. 'Results from organizations who try this change actually show some organizations facing up to a 30 to 40 per cent turnover in their sales force,' says Barclay [the author of the article]. According to Barclay, organizations who implement true team selling must change to move from a short-term focus to a "continuous, evolving relationship with customers with the relationship building under the guidance of a selling team."

This is, in my experience, correct. Turnover may happen. But that type of turnover is healthy turnover if it results in a longer-term, more honest and responsible approach with the customer. This is the objective I've been working to implement with organizations through ARRiiVE Business Solutions (http://www.ARRiiVE.com). It's about the customer, it's about their needs, and the benefits they receive. Ah-ha! I've found a modern mantra for the modern businessman. Say it again with me: "It's about the customer, their needs, and the benefits they receive."

Time Wasters in Corporate America?

Every now and then an article comes up that catches my eye. Today, an article on wasting time in corporate environments lit up - because I hate wasting time. Time is the one resource we can never get back once it is gone.

The interesting thing about this report, sponsored and published by AOL and Salary.com, is the disparity between the amount of time employers (or HR) thought employees waste, and the amount of time employees actually admitted to wasting.

The report, originally published in 2006, quotes the following:

Average hrs. American worker actually wastes is 1.70 hrs.
Average hrs. American workers are expected to waste by HR .94 hrs.
Difference between expected and actual time wasted = .76 hrs.

That is 197 hrs. per year wasted MORE than HR people think is going to be wasted. Multiplying that out by the Average American worker's annual salary $16.86 per hour = $3,321 x the total number of American workers (non-farm) 135 million = $448.4 Billion cost to companies.

Wow. Okay, does it really matter? To a lessor extent, in every company, yes, it does.
Time wasted, to me, means one of three things:

1. Employee is bored, lazy, ADD, or underutilized.
2. Manager is not paying attention to how employee spends their time.
3. Employer is not structured to empower their employees.

Number one is somewhat rectifyable. Even lazy people will work harder if they are motivated. It is up to an employer to utilize their people's skillsets. Although, if you're an employee reading this and you're just not giving your best because, well, no reason at all, then shame on you. Get it together, work hard, do your best no matter where you are. But, the reality is, I think most employees actually DO want to contribute.

So, let's look at #2 and #3. #2 Manager is not paying attention to how employee spends their time. Well, if the manager is wasting time, too, this may be part of the problem. But, deeper than that, managers ought to know, at least to some extent, what employees are up to. There are ways to know: telephone reports, cell phone expenses, lunch expenses, customer reports, one-on-one meetings, etc. If a manager doesn't look at these to know that (a) the employee is actually doing work, and (b) the employee is putting the production or not, then the manager is in the wrong job. A manager who is motivating their team and utilizing their talents to the fullest will generally be the most successful manager. So, aim at ways to motivate and empower your team so they can make you the successful manager you want to be.

Last, #3 - Employer is not structured to empower their employees. This is the problem most organizations in America are struggling with today. EMPOWERMENT. Why? Well, they structure like a pyramid -- almost all of them. And, pyramid structures are great for creating an army of robots, but they aren't great for enabling people to be creative and innovative.

The solution to that problem? Structure in a new way. We're working on a structure enabling Semantic Collaboration to occur. Semantic Collaboration is a term we coined after reading about Web 3.0 Search becoming "semantic search" and relating what we're doing to build collaborative teams. Semantic Collaboration builds dynamic teams based upon skills and abilities rather than job description and title. It is a refreshing way to treat people. And, from our research, people respond with more innovation and higher productivity when semantic collaboration is embraced by an organization. So, for many organizations, structuring more creatively would allow far more innovation and productivity. I've published an article on a model of collaboration I call the Diamond-Circle model, which is the first step to implementing semantic collaboration in your organization.

The last key to avoiding waste of time is to promote an atmosphere of collaboration, contribution, and creativity. People ought to be able to waste *some* time if it is how they recharge their batteries, create friendships that allow higher quality of work, and build teams. So, that type of time may actually not be a waste, at all.

If you're in HR and wondering how to deal with these challenges, reach out to organizations focused on improving structure, process, and collaboration. If you're in upper management, avoid focusing solely on numbers. People ought to be rated for their human factor, too. But consider structuring from the inside-out, rather than top-down, to enable more collaboration and go to the "hot-hand" to meet the challenges and opportunities for your organization.

Last, if you're an employee, for pete's sake, either find a job that you love, or create one that you won't want to waste your time away -- after all, your time is your own. And, as Shakespeare once wrote, "to thine own self be true."

Are you struggling with high growth or massive change?

Have you noticed that most organizations are structured like a pyramid?

While the pyramid is useful to get many people following specific orders in a short amount of time, there is a problem with the pyramid stifling innovation and leaving people wondering "what else is there?" about their job.

Have you ever thought up an idea that could make or save your firm a lot of money, then sent that idea to your boss, then only have that boss "steal" your idea and claim it for their own?

I have. I know the feeling.

How are you keeping abreast with change? If you're like most busy executives, you're not able to cope with the massive amounts of information hitting your organization. We studied this and through evaluating usage of a business model we call the Diamond-Circle, we believe our results indicate your organization can not only stay on top of the biggest challenges and opportunities facing you today, but also move from being REactive to PROactive in tackling your biggest obstacles to growing a succesful organization.

How does it work? Well, the Diamond-Circle is quite simple, actually. Much like the "Triangle Offense" utilized by Phil Jackson, Head Coach of the Los Angeles Lakers (winner of SIX NBA titles on two different teams), the Diamond-Circle enables you to build teams around "hot hands" within your company. Your core is in the middle, not the top. Functions and Staff evolve around this core, depending upon skill set, not job title or category. The idea is to build a skills database that allows your team to respond to new opportunities, react to competitive threats, and build new programs based around specialized knowledge, skill sets, and other key contributing factors we've determined are useful in building interactive organization teams.

While the database might need to be tweaked by the type of organization you are operating within, there are basic functions that are always replicated across teams.

The value in utilizing a structure like this is that you build more empowerment. People's ideas on the teams are highly valued, and they can contribute in a safe environment without risk of termination, idea-theft, or other nasty things that typically happen in a pyramid environment.

In addition, your organization's ability to innovate is turned back on. Since when does the "your suggestion here" box work in a modern organization? Every "WIFFM (what's in it for me) meeting I ever intended was a way for a company to determine who was the squeaky wheel and get rid of people, rather than actually gather true innovation. Sound familiar?

I care about making a difference. I care about seeing human resource managers actually DEVELOP their employees, rather than just being the screener/protection/firing agent that HR represents in most organizations today. If you think I'm generalizing, well, then prove me wrong. I've lost count the number of "nice" human resource agents who entered HR to make a difference, only to find that all they do is "process" people, corporate rules, and firings. Isn't it nice to get smiled at when you're being "down-sized?"

Sarbanes-Oxley just made it worse, too. It seems to me that Human Resources managers would jump at the chance to truly make a difference and get teams working in their organization the way they envisioned when they entered their profession. HR isn't alone. Sales VP's struggle to motivate their teams to do more than take orders. CEO's struggle to stay on top of challenges to their organizations. Operations managers struggle with creating new ways to delivering solutions in the face of risk that a competitor will innovate and develop a way to beat them.

Innovation is an organization-wide issue.

By turning your organization from top-down to inside-out you dramatically change the way you can relate as teams. We're developing a software model to make this system even easier to implement. Want to get involved? Email me and I'll send you my non-disclosure agreement. In the meantime, I'm helping organizations build structure that sets-up innovation from the get-go. We've got to get innovative in a global economy. It's the only way to truly succeed in the face of high growth and turbulent change.

What do you think? Could the Diamond-Circle help your organization? Are you struggling with change? High growth? Ways to stay ahead of quick-and-nimble competitors? I welcome your feedback on this matter.