A Quantum Voyage

Helping Us All

In Sharp Contrast

This past week, I was reminded of what good results can be achieved if we catch problems early and well in sharp contrast to what can happen if we don’t!

In the early part of the week, a client and I had a good conversation about his business, a non-profit organization, treating emotionally and mentally deficient children and their families. Our conversation focused on his successes. I found out that within this past year, eighty percent of his children with truancy problems, have returned to main- stream educational programs, entered a vocational high school, or earned their GED! Assuming these children continue on their uphill climb, they will become contributing, healthy citizens.

        Several days later, I was confronted by “the lifers” I see at a maximum- security prison when I volunteer.  Instead of becoming contributing members of our society, they cost our tax- payers approximately $40,000 per year and closer to $100,000 per year if they have chronic illnesses as many do.

        If we put our resources behind helping the young, we have a better chance of a positive outcome. The cost in dollars to provide this help when they are kids is a small investment that yields invaluable returns in terms of human lives and societal integrity. And as a by- product, we don't need to build more prisons. What a concept!

-RSL

Do you know?

Here we are, knee deep in a recession which is leading many to depression. Many of us don't know for sure how we got to this place. We're unsure which of our many decisions contributed to where we are right now. Maybe it doesn't matter, except as lessons learned. Our possible futures are really more important, as we can use our past to help us create a different kind of future. What we do with our possibilities depends on how much we believe in ourselves; how high our self-image is; and how willing we are to embrace some change.

“Without a system of goals, our only motivation is survival”. When I coined this phrase back in 1977, I didn't realize just how powerful is was. It was just something that came to me, a realization based on the transition that I was going through at the time. Its impact was brought home to me a few years later when a job candidate told me that the only reason she walked in the door of our somewhat tacky office was because she saw that phrase on a sign in our storefront window. That candidate went on to become a partner and very successful in her own right.

Several of our clients were able to exit their businesses by selling them to outsiders. They tell us that having a system of goals, both personal and business made this possible. Our clients who continue using our goal setting technology long after we've finished our consulting gig tell us that it is the difference between just accepting what they think will happen, and getting what they want. “A goal is what you want, not what you think you'll get”. Another of my epiphany type realizations. Instead of being a victim of your results, you become the beneficiary of your efforts to achieve your desired results.

Creating a system of goals, personal and/or business is no mean feat. It takes commitment, time, effort, thought, risk, and patience. Patience with yourself and with the process.

Now is the time to think about your possible futures. While you're in line at the unemployment office, or waiting for the person who will be interviewing you for a position. While you're watching a sporting event or catching a missed episode of your favorite soap. During your lunch break at your job, or while you're reading a book. Carry pen/pencil and paper with you and when an idea hits you, write it down! More good ideas have been lost on the way from the brain to paper than make the trip. From ideas and dreams come goals. From goals come successes, no matter how they're measured.

I'd be glad to share the entire goal setting process right here, however, you probably wouldn't take the time to read all 50 or so pages. There are many resources available that can help us get the job done and the Internet has made them easily accessible. Effective goal setting isn't taught in our schools and universities. Rather, we're told to set goals, but not how. The how is critically important.

When you experience and understand the value of this goal setting technology and what it can do for you, you “won't leave home without it”!

Richard S. Lewine is President of Quantum Voyage, Inc.; creator of GoalTrak^TM; principal at RSL Consulting Group; and co-founder of Pinnacle Power. He is based in Montgomeryville, PA and may be contacted at rslewine@rslgo.com

Our View of the World

Sam Palmisano, President & CEO of IBM, writing to the IBM Partner Network, reaffirming their continuing commitment to their Partners.

Excerpt:

“. . . because of the major shift now underway across the global economy. This is not simply a cyclical downturn. On the other side of the present turmoil, a very different world is taking shape. And together we are uniquely positioned to lead it.

The world is not just becoming smaller and "flatter." It's also becoming smarter. Through pervasive instrumentation and interconnection, almost anything - any person, any object, any process or any service, for any organization, large or small - can become digitally aware, networked and intelligent. And these new capabilities could not be more timely. Even in today's difficult environment, businesses are willing to invest in IT solutions - if they cut costs, drive efficiency and productivity, preserve capital and create competitive advantage. And that's exactly what "smarter" solutions do.”

We couldn't have said it better! A “New York Minute” has become an eternity. We now are dealing in nanoseconds regarding change. (Did you know that a nanosecond is the time it takes light to travel 11½ inches?). There's a bit of trivia.

As we manage our organizations, we're inundated with data that need analysis before we can reap the  benefit of having it. It needs to be in a form that we can understand and convert into usable knowledge. Then we can draw conclusions and make decisions. The closer to humanly understandable form these data are when they are generated, the more quickly we can take advantage of the knowledge buried there and make decisions that lead to actions which are goal directed. That is, after all, what our jobs are about. Take actions that lead to the achievement of organizational goals.

Since this blog is part of Quantum Voyage's raison d'être, I'm now going to suggest that you visit our GoalTrak^TM web site and avail yourself of some “humanly understandable” information. Register for our April 7, 2009 webinar and/or request a free 45 day trial of  GoalTrak^TMEV or GoalTrak^TMCV. When you do, you will have a unique experience in decision making capability.

Choosing to Evolve

So, what does one write about in this esoteric domain of organizational goal setting and development? It generally doesn't provide springboards like the sub-prime situation, or our most exciting primaries in decades. As we work with our clients, however, concepts take shape. New ways of looking at things generate new ways of articulating seemingly “of course” issues. Take using our untapped potential, for instance.

Our 30 years of consulting with myriad organizations of all sizes and shapes, made up of people with untold amounts of potential, has led us to codify the process of personal and professional development into a four step, open system, supported by the art of goal setting.

• Step 1. Choose: to be aware of who you are, where you are, to grow, to change, to be more, to tap your potential. This act of positive choice leads one to conscious thought about what could be and how to make it so. Starting with dreams and wishes, those who choose to evolve will set realistic goals to bring them to fruition.
• Step 2. Learn: about yourself, about new ideas, new concepts, new skills, new ways of doing things in your world and practicing them. Thinking alone, however, won't make it happen. Here's where goal setting begins to play a crucial role in developing capabilities. Crystallizing thinking to enable focus on the desired outcomes requires a clearly defined set of personal development goals that, when achieved, will bring you to the levels of competence needed to successfully implement new capabilities.
• Step 3. Apply: new skills, new ways of thinking, new attitudes, to all domains in your life, tapping your potential and getting more satisfying results. This provides new responses and feedback on your new behaviors and performance. When this feedback is integrated into your learnings, the learnings are enhanced, becoming part of the “new” you and supporting an evolutionary process manifested in your behavior. Goals become the vehicle of choice to determine the when, how much, where and why of application.
• Step 4. Evolve: to a higher level of self awareness with all the newness that you have learned, practiced and applied and on which you have received feedback; which brings you back again to making choices based on new, intrinsic values, developed as a result of steps 1 though 3. And the cycle repeats as long as you allow it to do so.

Goal setting is the most powerful tool available for human achievement. Whether you are reaching for personal, professional or organizational growth, it is the one tool that, when used consistently, works every time.

-RSL

Organizational Evolution

So, what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object? Nothing! “What does that have to do with Organization Development consulting and GoalTrakTM,” you might ask. Everything!

After 30 years of working with CEOs of small and mid-size organizations, I liken our experiences to the above old adage. Our initial involvement focuses on helping the people of the client organization to understand that just because they change what they do, or how they do it, doesn't mean that everything they've done till then was wrong.

Apparently, the human condition is such that allowing oneself to change is perceived as a sign of weakness, of ignorance, or perhaps, foolishness; so there is resistance to change. Unfortunately, this situation seems to be the rule, rather than the exception. The people in the organization are “comfortable”. The CEO, however, senses, or knows, that things need to change. Frequently, he/she is unsure as to the specific change needed, but absolutely sure that it must occur. It's an evolutionary process. That's why we were called in.

Organizational Evolution: The process of individual Awareness on the part of the leader, organizational Planning and leadership Development at all levels, yielding the trackable, manageable Results that you want.  Evolving from what the organization is at the moment (current state), to what it can be (desired state), at some predetermined time in the future. Transformation is the label frequently applied to this outcome.

Transformation calls for a process that looks something like this:

                  1- Leader's Personal acknowledgement that he/she must make some changes (prerequisite for success!).

This leads to → 2- Vision building which then requires →

                            3- Strategy Formulation supported by →

                                4- executable Goal Systems requiring →

                                    5- Leader/Manager Development that produces →

                                        6- Overall organizational effectiveness enhancement.

Slow and steady. The only way to ensure a successful transformation is to take evolutionary steps. Helping people to assimilate new information, systems, methods, and concepts takes time and persistence. Knowing how you're doing each step of the way and what progress you are making, is a necessity. Otherwise, how will you know what to continue or what to modify? Not knowing how you're doing is tantamount to suicide. Don't even start if you're not going to track your progress in tangible metrics. That's where GoalTrakTM comes in. It's a tool to let you know how you're doing at every moment.

-RSL