Managing Change and Technology

Mistakes: Making, Avoiding and Dealing with Them

pdejager@technobility.com — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 08:40:49 -0500

If you're human - you make mistakes... and you likely have a great deal of difficulty admitting to those mistakes. In this session we'll take a look at several different categories of mistakes, and what we might be able to do to avoid some of them. We won't suffer under the delusion that there is a silver bullet that will allow us to avoid all mistakes - that might perhaps be the biggest mistake we could make in this type of presentation. The more useful portion of the discussion revolves around how we deal with mistakes once we make them... and we will make them - so we'll have lots of opportunity to practice any advice we might stumble across.

The Art of the Pitch

pdejager@technobility.com — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:06:36 -0400

You've spent days, weeks or months developing your great idea and are ready to take it to senior management. Chances are, you're so close to it you haven't asked yourself ten basic questions that can make the difference between failure and success. Veteran journalist and marketing writer Bob Scheier offers ten quick tips for making sure your idea is as clear, compelling and brilliant to the listener as it is to you. I'm pleased to welcome Bob Scheier as our second webinar guest. Bob is a veteran information technology journalist and marketing writer. A former senior writer and editor for PCWeek (now eWeek) and Computerworld, since 2000 he has produced marketing collateral for top IT providers including Microsoft, EMC, AT&T and Symantec. In addition to continuing to write for top IT trade publications, he blogs on marketing and technology trends.

Just Trust Me

pdejager@technobility.com — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:06:03 -0400

What is 'Trust'? Why should 'Trust' be a topic of interest to us as managers or as employees? What do we even mean when we talk about 'Trust'? What can we do to build it... and how do we erode it? I think those are good questions to get us started - but are they enough to get anyone to devote an hour of their time to listening to a webinar on 'Trust'? That all depends on whether or not you 'Trust' me to deliver something of value. And that self referential loop is what we're going to build upon. If you decide to register for this session? Then your responses to some of the questions during the registration process will shape the conversation/direction of the webinar. In other words - we will end up exploring how we use Trust to make decisions. Will it be a good use of your time? You'll just have to Trust me...

Mind, Management and Misdemeanors

pdejager@technobility.com — Fri, 7 Aug 2009 10:51:37 -0400

This month's webinar was a special event. I decided to bring on a Guest Speaker, Jamie O'Boyle from Cultural Studies and Analysis. Enjoy. Over 90% of our thinking occurs below our conscious threshold. That means that 'facts' are what we use to validate decisions that we have already made at an unconscious level. Jamie O'Boyle, an expert in human thinking processes, values, and behavior, will analyze the 'black box' of the human mind on projects - The unconscious assumptions, cognitive defaults, and cultural biases that influences how a group makes decisions, for better and for worse. This process begins by comparing the ideal project with the way project implementation actually works in real time and space, and, most important of all, how the project operates inside the brain. Human factors include loss aversion, how people project the future (poorly), how we estimate probabilities, hierarchy, estimating value, and other unconscious processes that affect our decision-making without us being aware of it. The best-planned project can fail unless it appreciates and incorporates a working knowledge of the way people actually think about and act to realize any project, large or small. Understanding human factors is essential. Anything people have been doing for the past 35,000 years isn’t going to change anytime soon. There is something wrong with the video format - I am trying to get this fixed. It downloads... but does not get sent by iTunes to the iPod. If there's an iPod expert in the house? Contact me... I could use some help!

Time Management for those without any

pdejager@technobility.com — Mon, 6 Jul 2009 09:01:48 -0400

We are each given a score and four hours each day - with the exception of frequent fliers who sometimes get more, and sometimes get less depending on whether they're flying East or West. It's a rare individual who has more time than they need. Most of us would willingly buy more time if such a thing were possible, but we can't... so? How do we use what we have as efficiently as possible? Yes, this session will cover some of the more obvious solutions, but as always I hope to bring some lesser used strategies and tactics to the discussion. Some that immediately come to mind? The Virtue of Laziness, Leverage, Drastic measures, Pretend you were to die tomorrow!, a Stoic approach, some simple arithmetic and of course... some surprises. So? If you can find the time? (If you can't then it obvious you really should...) Take a listen

7 Simple Strategies for Solving any Problem

pdejager@technobility.com — Mon, 1 Jun 2009 09:57:24 -0400

We all Solve Problems on a daily basis - in fact, if it wasn't for problems to solve - most of us wouldn't have jobs. But how good are we at solving problems? Based upon my experience, most of us tend to jump into a problem with both feet and seldom do much thinking or analysis before we start wrestling a problem to the ground. In this session we looked at some very simple, yet powerful ways, to approach a problem. We tried to provide a few ways to sneak up on a solution, rather than charging at it. In short? How to think differently once you discover the old ways aren't working!

Managing Change via Influence

pdejager@technobility.com — Fri, 1 May 2009 12:10:14 -0400

While we often don't have any authority or power to initiate a Change, we always have influence. Regardless of where we sit in the power structure, it is possible to become a driving force for Change.

It's not easy, it might cost us more than we are willing to pay, but making Change happen is always an option. All you have to have is a passion for the needed Change and a willingness to make an effort, sometimes a supreme effort, to make that Change a reality. This session will draw on my experience, your stories, proven techniques, guerilla tactics and of course - some subversive ideas... in short? A collection of ideas that will either get you fired... or possibly result in the Change you're passionate about.

Lost or Losing your Job

pdejager@technobility.com — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 08:06:35 -0400

Of all the Changes we experience in the workplace, job loss is the most devastating. The Change involved in implementing a company wide ERP system, pales next to the harsh reality of Job loss. This is not a motivational rah! rah! talk. The reality is that your employment status will be the same after, as it was before, you listen to this webinar. What I offer instead of clichés and platitudes are some insights into how we respond to these events, and how we might better deal with the turmoil going on between our ears. In other words? This webinar is not be about finding employment, but about dealing with the chaos inside so that you're better able to focus on the task that you're really interested in... finding employment. If you know someone who might benefit from this presentation? Please help them find this recording

Creating Good and Bad Presentations

pdejager@technobility.com — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 13:49:11 -0500

Have you ever sat through a good presentation? How about a Bad one? One where you shake your watch in disbelief saying to yourself "It MUST be broken... time cannot be moving this slowly, or painfully!" - In this session... yes... we'll cover the basics ie. Know your material, use of humor, Use of Threes - but we'll also focus on how presentations can go wrong... and some of the subtleties of communicating from the stage AND in casual conversation.

The Building Blocks of Resistance

pdejager@technobility.com — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 15:32:25 -0500

We don't resist Change as much as we resist being Changed... We like to have a say in what Changes we embrace - and for good reason - this mini-presentation will explore a dozen or so aspects of Change that motivate resistance - such as risk, ambiguity, fear etc. as well as how those reasons make themselves known and more importantly what we, as Change Agents, need to do to minimize their effects.

So? You're a Change Agent - How's that working out for you?

pdejager@technobility.com — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 15:28:53 -0500

The title 'Change Agent' is an embedded part of the Change Management lexicon. What does it mean to be a 'Change Agent'? What is our role? Who are (or what are) we responsible to? What are the challenges? Pitfalls? Bear traps - in our path? How do we (can we?) avoid them? If you're interested in a different perspective all this all too commonly used term... then pull up a chair and stay a while.

On Predicting the Future

pdejager@technobility.com — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 15:18:53 -0500

Have you ever wondered why it's so difficult to predict the future? Aside from all the obvious reasons? In this session, partly tongue in cheek - but mostly an honest look at how we fail, and how we succeed at predicting what might happen - I'll offer a few ideas, a few musings, some real life examples, some observable patterns in how we look at what might be, and finally a few lessons to take away and apply to our thinking. My goal is to poke fun at ourselves and arrive at a few ways to look at the future that will make 'predicting' less embarrassing and more useful.

7 Ways to Communicate a Change

pdejager@technobility.com — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 15:13:10 -0500

Ask anyone what is involved in the successful implementation of a Change and they'll respond... Communicate! Communicate! Communicate! - but ask most managers what they should communicate, or how they should Communicate, and you'll draw a blank stare. In this webinar - we'll list some good, and some oh so bad ways to communicate a Change.

Out Out de Box - an exploration of the Creative Process

pdejager@technobility.com — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 14:57:16 -0500

Ever get stumped coming up with a new idea? Or a way to solve a problem that you've had on your plate for a while? This presentation will cover a number of simple techniques to take your thinking to new and scary places.