Done in Paper by Fifty Three, text in Photon.

The Problem with Flying by the Seat of One’s Pants

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Let’s Shake on It ® – and Work Together from There

Posted on August 31, 2014 by portfoliolongo.com

Are you sick and tired of initiatives, projects, programs, and assignments that go nowhere simply because of someone’s inability or unwillingness to get along with others even when the others are on the same team? Now with Let’s Shake on It ® you can finally single out individual team players who possess both the skills and the motivation to collaborate.

Simply attach the adhesive sensor to the palm of your right hand, make sure the jack is plugged in, the cable is running up your sleeve, and it is connected to your iPhone. The Let’s Shake on It ® software takes over from there. All you need to do shake hands with potential partners. {A wireless version is in development.}

The Let’s Shake on It ® software is touch activated. The palm sensors will assess the other person’s collaboration disposition using a continuum developed by Arthur Himmelman. If an individual scores 1 out of 4, that means he or she is only willing and able to network, that is, exchange information for mutual benefit. A score of 2 out of 4 indicates that the individual can network with others and coordinate, that is, alter his or her activities for mutual benefit to achieve a common purpose. An individual scoring 3 out of 4, accordingly, can network, coordinate, and cooperate, which means that he or she is also inclined to share resources. Now, when an individual scores a 4 out of 4, it is time to take notice. In addition to having what it takes to network, coordinate, and cooperate, this person can collaborate, can execute all the above and more driven by the desire to grow and the commitment to take part in the growth of team mates and partners in the very process of working together!

When the sensors have identified a collaborator, the Let’s Shake on It ® program will chime. Do not let go of that hand!

Nobody Likes Change (or Complexity)

Posted on January 14, 2014 by portfoliolongo.com

I once heard a change-management consultant tell a conference room full of hospital administrators, physicians, and staff … “the only person who likes change is a baby with a wet diaper.” (Hey, I subsequently dealt with this image, click here to see.) I was one of those administrators in that conference room in New Orleans about six months after Hurricane Katrina at a hospital whose survival depended upon a very deliberate and systematic organizational transformation; and yet the natural forces of resistance to change – among the victimized and exhausted few who were not temporarily or permanently displaced – were functional and ready for a good fight. It’s only natural. However, there was no alternative in this case. The organizational and structural changes simply had to take place and the resistance to change had to become collaboration in change; and this happened in large part due to an extraordinarily unique combination of chronic passion (joie de vivre) and acute Katrina fatigue in an extraordinarily unique context in an extraordinarily unique city.

However, when the need for change is perceived as optional and any sense of urgency is a matter of opinion, development efforts can drag on for years, resistance to change can become business as usual, and collaboration can be confined to ongoing turf battles. Even when complicated baseline findings of the communities’ perceived needs are available and displayed along side the communities’ complicated aspirations for all to compare, there can be voices crying out for simplicity and ease … but not for change.

If I ever do this again, I’ll try to remember to start off with that catchy quote about the baby, the diapers, and change, which reminds me of a drawing/post I have up my sleeve about calzones and how I suspect that this term, which means pants, really comes from little, little pants…diapers? The fullness of diapers?