Right People; Supporting Roles

As many of you who know me I love a good football match (or soccer for those completely North American-ized). I was coaching my U10 Development team 'Strikers FC' last night when the team captain asked for the opportunity to play keeper.

He's a strong player on the ball and a natural centre mid-fielder. He also calms down the play when we are under attack and is often in on our scoring attempts. So what is a coach to do?

Life is a leason on risk. Those more risk adverse may wait for another opportunity to put their key players into a supporting role, especially in a close match. However there was an opportunity here with very little to lose (except some pride) to reward a key player and see how the rest of the team gels when faced with some adversity.

Obviously the game changed. It always will. An emphasis was put on the defensive.

About half-way through the second half an interesting twist occured. Teams at this level are used to having a team play defensively. Our opponents got frustrated and then we started to get the odd offensive chance -- naturally. I was on the sideline saying little and just watching this occur.

We scored the only goal of the second half and as a coach I was proud to see how the team performed. Not as individuals but really in adjusting to what was required by the team in the moment.

All too often we may lean too much on our key players in our organizations and don't know how the team will come together if they were to leave, go on vacation, etc. When there is an opportunity to see how the team can perform without -- try it! In most cases we think there is too much to lose, however if you truly look at the situation more often than not it is just some pride at stake.

The 4 Horsemen of Change

I've read numerous books on change: the impacts of change, the importance of change, what happens if people don't change, how to get people to accept change, ...

Recently I find myself reflecting often on change as organizationally things around me may be changing in the coming months. For those who don't know, I've been working with VOXCOM for the past year as part of their executive team focused on Strategy and Planning. In April another Income Fund tendered an offer to purchase the VOXCOM Income Fund. If the purchase goes through then change will be part of the package.

I'm unsure if there is a mapped out 'stages of change' similar to death but I found that there seems to 4 general reactions to change.

Fear of change: This reaction may be the most normal for people. What does this change mean to me? How does my life or the lives of others I care about change? Why can't it not change?

Denial of change: Perhaps the most unhealthy reaction is ignoring the fact that change is either not occuring or convincing yourself that it won't. For those suffering from Denial of Change the book 'Who Moved my Cheese' would be a good resource.

Apathy of change: You'll notice I don't use the word 'acceptance' as three of the reactions accept change is happening. With Apathy the person is just indifferent to the change. This can be the most dangerous of all reactions since often people suffering from Apathy have seen too much change and may have an opinion of 'ride it out and it will change back'.

Change-Addict: This is someone who seeks out change. Someone who, on the positive side, is always innovating and seeking new ways of doing things, but on the negative side, is never comfortable with something that works. These people are great when tempered with someone who is suffering with Fear of Change to balance them out a bit.

If you are wondering how I see myself, I see myself as a Change-Addict. I love change! I crave it! I get frustrated when I'm in a scenario that change doesn't occur quickly enough. There may be good reasons but I'd much prefer to fail at something then not change because I was afraid of change. So over the past month, and for the coming months, I have to school myself on patience.

I you believe there is someone in your organization that is a Change-Addict, recognize it. There is a chance that this person will create their own change if not allowed to lead change within your organization. These people are often your intrapreneurs!

Web 2.0 in the Entreprise

I think I mentioned before that there is a plethora of business people talking about the changes within the digital home industry here at CEA Connections. For me, leading that group is a prominent business leader named Daniel Scheinman from Cisco.

Dan had a keynote address yesterday in which his focus was the changes ongoing in the digital media arena and the strategies that service providers need to evaluate to be successful as their markets look for information, including advertising, in different manners. The most part of the presentation for me was how he viewed the evolution of the value chain.

Old Internet-based value chain:

Universities -> Entreprises -> Service Providers -> Consumers

New Web 2.0 value chain:

Universities -> Consumers -> Service Providers -> Entreprises

His insights are meant to make many ponder the role of social communities and web 2.0 tools. For many here (who are Service Providers) it is about how to address this flux of Consumer driven applications. For me it opened up the door to ask how will Entreprises adopt web 2.0 collaboration tools.

Cisco has (according to Dan) approximately 1,500 employees using Facebook today within the organization. With entreprises being focused on process, control and rules can open collaboration tools thrive? How will it change the organization?

I truly am led to believe that the one who can answer these questions will have a great opportunity when the value chain turns to Entreprises and their needs to be more creative, innovative and nimble in a very new digital media world.

The importance of Crowds

For a business, the concept of going with the crowd isn't always a bad thing. In fact when we are the one leading the pack it can be a very lucrative proposition.

I'm in Santa Clara this week at CEA Connections, a conference on the digital home, and there has been several conversations about standards. Now this a plethora of high-speed connectivity options, including a variety of ways to pull it all together in the home, many companies are out there trying to differentiate themselves on the fact that they are different.

How are they doing? Most have a great story to tell but no great revenues to speak of.

Think back to the battle of VHS vs. BETA. It didn't matter that BETA was better quality... what mattered is that people were adopting VHS; rental stores, manufacturers, end consumers, all wanted a single working platform -- and VHS was eventually just that.

I don't claim to know how to get yourself in a position to lead the pack, but if you find yourself walking away from the pack, all alone and can't figure out why you aren't succeeding, have the courage to admit your vision may need some tweaking before it is too late. The crowd may just dictate that your concepts are before their time and they want a 'lite' version, or the product in blue, or a phone that just calls people...

Seth mentioned in his blog this morning that 'The last 75% of [The Davinci Code] sales were made to people who never ever buy books. They bought it because 'everyone else was buying it.''

The Crowd can be your friend and an invaluable guide -- especially if they don't agree with your business.