Today is the first day of the rest of MAPping Company Success’s life and there are changes for 2012, some of which involve you.

As most of you know Jim Gordon simultaneously got married and retired from drawing mY generation. I have two excellent Creative Commons sources from which to draw comic commentary, however, I would much rather invite one of you.

If you feel an affinity to drawing a comic based on your experiences in the workplace please call 360.335.8054 or write me. And remember, it’s more about your sense of humor, irony and irreverence than your drawing skill!

I’m also looking for guests who want to share their own experiences in areas of interest to my readers. These include culture, management, motivation, people acquisition and retention and startups in all their gory glory. Whether you are a boss (at any level), a worker or a founder and you have an interesting story, lesson learned or anything else to share please contact me.

Readers seem to have a preference for shorter posts, 300 to 500 words or less; what I’m not interested in are thinly veiled promotional posts, whether for products or services, although I will include links in your (brief) bio.

Wordless Wednesday is history, although Miki’s Rules to Live By will randomly continue as before. If you have a great rule of your own please send them to me, I am always looking for additional useful, pithy and/or irreverent rules to live by.

Also, don’t hesitate to share any suggestions you have for making MAPping Company Success more relevant and useful.

Personally, I’m looking forward to more input, commentary and interaction with my readers.

I hope you had a great holiday and accept my wishes for a happy, healthy, wealthy and successful 2012.

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Why in the world would I choose a poet who’s life barely reached into the Twentieth Century (1850-1919 to provide insight to both workers and mangers? Because real wisdom is ageless, what changes are the words and style used to communicate it.

You’re already familiar with Wilcox through paraphrasing of some of her work; for example, “Laugh and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone; For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth, But has trouble enough of its own”

Life is full of choices and the way we choose is dictated by our MAP, or as Wilcox said, “’Tis the set of the sail that decides the goal, and not the storm of life”

I’m a big proponent of deep thinking, something that can’t happen when you are wired and connected. Wilcox made this point beautifully in this short rhyme.

“When the great universe was wrought
To might and majesty from naught,
The all creative force was -
THOUGHT.”

Thinking goes hand in hand with learning and then sharing what is learned with others. The problem is that some people want to share first and these words seem written especially for them,

“Live to learn, and learn to live
If you want to give men knowledge
You must get, ere you give.”

Here’s some great advice for managers, “A pat on the back is only a few vertebrae removed from a kick in the pants, but is miles ahead in results.”

Finally, here are six words that can serve as a foundation for both entrepreneurs and companies working to create a culture of innovation, “Change is the watchword of progression”

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The thing she [behavioral psychologist] taught me—and this sounds obvious—is that behavior is a function of consequence.  We had to change the behavior in the organization so that people felt safe to bring bad news. And I looked in the mirror, and I realized I was part of the problem.  I didn’t want to hear the bad news, either. So I had to change how I behaved, and start to thank people for bringing me bad news. –Joseph Jimenez, chief executive of Novartis

The behavioral psychologist was brought in after a consulting group was paid to provide “better, more robust process, with more analytics,” which changed nothing.

When we started RampUp Solutions in 1999, we spent a good deal of effort coming up with a tag line that easily explained the services we provide.

After several iterations we finally settled on “To change what they do change how you think”

Over the years, I’ve heard and read story after story of how all kinds of changes—from turn arounds to improved productivity to retention—all started with a change in the way the boss thought.

And that applied whether the boss was CEO, team leader or somewhere in-between.

Stories and discussions about change tend to focus on the actions that bring about the changes, instead of starting at the beginning with the hardest work,

Work that requires the boss, at whatever level, changing the way she thinks and then dispersing and embedding those changes throughout her organization.

So before you hire expensive consultants or seek help from advisors look in the mirror to determine how much of the problem is you.

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This article was originally published as The Cost of Being Comfortable on Technorati.

I read an interesting article from a Forbes advisor called A Young World is No Place for Old Corporations; in a nutshell it talks about nostalgia for “what the WSJ calls America’s  ‘Midcentury Moment’, those post war  “golden years of the 1940’s, ‘50s and early ‘60s?” The boom years when Americans forged the world’s new super power, as those in Europe diminished.“

It goes on to say, “During this time US companies became dominant corporations on a world stage, strongly influencing how business was conducted all over the world.

Fast forward to 2011, America now competes in a fierce global market against young and dynamic economies.”

It lauds the dynamic spark that drove the US economy; a common theme, but one I get tired of seeing.

Tired because it only tells only the upside of the story and ignores so much.

I am neither an economist nor an historian, but here is my view of the same history.

• European industry didn’t diminish, it was crippled by WWII.
• The US became dominant because we were the only country in a position to produce as opposed to spending our efforts and money to rebuild.

In other words, in comparison to the material and psychological devastation experienced by the rest of the world what the US suffered was more like a serious inconvenience.

But not too inconvenient, since we kept on producing and selling.

War’s end left us in the cat-bird seat—not rebuilding, just retooling to sell what the rest of the world needed to rebuild.

A lack of competition breeds arrogance, sloppy practices and fat—fat management and fat labor; it is easy to succeed in a world with little-to-no competition.

When countries no longer needed us because they produced their own we were surprised; when they went beyond and more efficiently produced what we produced and innovated where we had not bothered we were shocked.

When comfortable, we humans seem to believe that some version of what is will always be; it isn’t that we don’t believe in change, but we seem blind to radical change.

We are taken by surprise when it happens and long instead for whatever version of the “good old days” brings us back to our (false) comfort zone.

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A few weeks ago I was talking to “Carol,” an entrepreneur, about the problems she was having launching her product.

Based on feedback from her market I suggested that she needed to change some parts of her customer service. Carol rejected the idea of changing because the new approach wasn’t in her plan.

She called this week and said she was implementing what we talked about after hearing a discussion on the importance of knowing when to “pivot.”

“Pivoting” is the new term for a bit of wisdom that’s been around for more than the 30 years I’ve known it.

Pivoting refers to changing the plan, and usually the vision, of your company to reflect major changes in the market/economy or from customer feedback; Groupon is a good example.

Carol said that she appreciated my help, but that she would have moved faster if I had explained that the customer feedback required her to pivot, instead of saying that she should change the plan.

I replied that she did change the plan, but Carol insisted she didn’t change it, she pivoted and that was different.

And before you condemn Carol as an idiot, please note that over the years I’ve had hundreds of similar conversations with all kinds of people in various positions and at all levels.

The point is that while terms change, so it’s important to listen to what’s being said, not just the words used, but the meaning of those words.

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There has been much written about implementing change in an organization. I’ve written several articles on change focusing on the need to change yourself before you can expect those around you to change and I stand by those. (Two of them are here and here.)

And as you know I often link to articles and offer my take on them. The trouble with that is that many of my time-pressed readers read what I wrote and promise themselves that they will read the link later, but never do. They either forget or the reminder gets buried under a never-ending avalanche of new stuff to read.

I think today’s link is important, so I’m not going to comment or offer a few quotes.

Since this post is only 188 words, you’ll have time to click and read That’s the Way We (Used to) Do Things Around Here: With a little knowledge of neuroscience, reframing behavior can be the essence of organizational change.

You also might want to consider signing up for strategy+business; you may not always agree with them, I don’t, but I believe you will find them useful.

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Last week Craig, a senior manager I know, referred one of his direct reports to me.

During the annual review Craig had warned “Jim” his department’s turnover was unacceptably high and that he was tying 15% of Jim’s annual bonus to his hitting the retention numbers they discussed and agreed upon during the meeting.

Jim asked Craig if the company would be willing to pay for a coach, because he was unsure exactly how to improve retention and hadn’t found books on the subject of much use.

Craig said the company wouldn’t, but he knew someone affordable and called me.

I agreed to have an exploratory conversation to be sure that we could work together and that I could help.

When I talked with Jim he said he believed that in order to do what Craig wants he needed to “get rid of more dead wood and bring on people who will jump on his ideas, aren’t afraid of hard work and understand loyalty.”

However, doing so would preclude any chance of his meeting the retention numbers, especially since, based on past experience, he would be forced to turn several of the new hires, too.

After hearing a good deal more about what he had tried that didn’t work, I explained how I work, costs, etc.,

I warned him that I’m pretty blunt and suggested he check out this blog for a window on how I think and my approaches and that we both think about it to decide whether we could create a productive relationship that would achieve what he wanted.

Jim called yesterday and the upshot is we will be working together to solve his retention problems and I have his permission to share parts of that with you over the next few months.

It should be interesting.

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Earlier this week I mentioned that changes were coming to MAPping Company Success.

The main reason for the changes is I’m bored and if I’m bored I’m sure to bore you. Additionally, with the release of Option Sanity™ I’m more involved with startups and entrepreneurial issues (meaning startups that are focused on becoming sizable enterprises as opposed to small biz or home-based biz).

However, my focus on MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) and its effect on company culture, management, retention and motivation is applicable to anyone, whether in a startup, self-employed or working for a larger organization.

There are some specific changes coming.

Wordless Wednesday will focus more on applicable or interesting videos (you have no idea how difficult it is to find good subjects for WW).

As I mentioned yesterday, Leadership’s Future will be come an occasional feature on a different day and Thursday’s focus will be on the stories of specific entrepreneurs.

Sunday’s Quotable Quotes will occasionally share its day with a new feature focused on odd facts and stats.

Tuesday’s Ducks in a Row, about culture, and Saturday’s Expand Your Mind, with links to articles of interest continue.

Another change is to invite guest posts from you, my friends and readers. 500 words or less on a topic of your choice, as long as it is relevant to the broad focus of MAPping Company Success and you believe it would be of interest to others.

Of course, none of this is carved in stone, so I would love to hear additional suggestions from you.

Last, but certainly not least…

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I wish you and yours a healthy, happy, adventurous, exciting and successful 2011!

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It is the time of year that we look back, marveling at the speed with which the last 12 months have past and forward, wondering and planning for the next 12. Whichever direction you choose to focus, the one thing that is guaranteed is that there has been/will be change.

Arthur Schopenhauer summed this up quite pithily when he said, “Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.”

And although change is constant, it is good to keep in mind Ellen Glasgow’s wise warning, “All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward.”

Even when change does facilitate growth and moves you closer to your goals it may still be a difficult path to follow. As Arnold Bennett points out, “Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.”

I don’t really agree with Thoreau’s view, “Things do not change; we change.” Perhaps it was true then, although I doubt it, but it certainly isn’t true today.

What is true was best phrased by Dean Acheson, although I’m sure it’s been said in many ways before and since, “Always remember that the future comes one day at a time.”

Each of us is changing every second of every minute of every day; Gail Sheehy says, “If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.”

Bruce Barton states the same thought, but more pithily, “When you are through changing, you are through.”

But it is Gandhi who offers up the most powerful reason to change, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

Consider it; make 2011 the year you change yourself and in doing so you will change your world.

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Oh, to be a teenager again and know everything.

Or twenty-something in a first job with the sure knowledge that if we were the boss everything would run perfectly.

Or able to quit when bored or annoyed because there is no mortgage, kids, spouse-or-equivalent; no responsibility for anyone else and able to move back home if necessary.

We often look back and wonder why, why we changed, what went wrong.

We blame ourselves and forget that our world changed, too.

Sometimes those changes are bad, often they are good and more often they are a just a function of shifting priorities over time.

We forget that the world itself changed and too often we minimize the effect of those external changes if they don’t hit us directly.

We tend to forget that we are no longer the same person; that who we are today not only doesn’t do the same things as our past self, but, upon close inspection, doesn’t even want to do them.

Would you really give up who you are today? Because doing so means giving up all the experiences and relationships that shaped the current you.

It seems smarter to change the specifics with which you are dissatisfied and to do so with surgical precision, after all, if your finger were broken you wouldn’t amputate your arm.

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