The Role of Adaptability and Reinvention

A few years back, an engineer at SONY predicted that music CDs would eventually disappear, rendering the SONY Discman unusable. This was due to the rapid advancements in the internet and information storage and transmission. This is commonplace now, but imagine 10 years ago.

Word has it, the engineer suggested a switch to a device that would store and reproduce music, rather than a device that would depend on external means of storing data like discs and the like. SONY executives ignored him claiming that the switch would be too costly and that it went against Morita-san's original vision of the Walkman. Poor guy. And then came the Ipod and the rest is history....

The point here is that adaptability, reinvention, innovation and vision should be at the core of a company's development. I think the same of our career lives. Adapt and grow or risk stagnation. 

I previously mentioned the Adverting Age article Reinvention, Not Just for the New Year by Darryl Ohrt.  Darryl suggests innovating and revisiting various aspects of the company quarterly or biannually.  I suggest regularly revisiting the following points to avoid career stagnation:

Your brand: How are you seen by others or portray yourself within the organization?
Your operations: How can you innovate in your day-to-day activities to further improve?
Your role in the organization:  What other roles can you play to further contribute?
Your network:  How solid and updated is your professional network?


What can you adapt or re-invent to spice up your work?

Reinventing Rather Than Resolving

The first week of the year has gone by.  We're into a new decade and what a decade the last was. Have you kept up with those resolutions?  You may have started off  the year trying to lose weight and make up for the lack of exercise over the holidays.  By the way, my gym was deserted last week and packed today.  I knew it.

I would presume that most of the resolutions you made are either now history or will become a thing of the past in the coming days.  To give you the benefit of the doubt, let's say your resolutions like mine spread over the year rather than come alive by year end and die at the beginning of the new year.

I came across a great article on Adverting Age:  Reinvention, Not Just for the New Year by Darryl Ohrt. The article is aimed at small advertising agencies with the suggestion to revisit their brand, operations, employee relations and social  media presence every quarter, rather than annually in view of the drastic changes in social communication and the economic climate we now live in.

Darryl suggests ditching the resolutions and annual plans and going with clear conscientious revision and reinvention of these key aspects of the company.  The world as we knew it in 2007 or 2008 is no more, especially in the area of job estability and employment, so I would also suggest that we apply the same advise to our professional goals, ditch the resolutions and annual plans and take a more regular and proactive approach to our work lives.  More on that to come.

Forget New Year's Resolutions

It's that time of the year again: Celebration, gift giving, partying and well-wishing. All very well intended and deserved. Then, we are confronted with the reality of the reading on the meter below our feet and the prospect of going back to work after yet another holiday that came and went without us even noticing (or so we say).

But we can always come up with New Year's Resolutions to feel better after all the eating and drinking and lazing around during the holidays. I do not want to sound negative, but NYRs end up being just that, wishes made out of guilt or feeling that making a promise we will probably not follow through with will make us feel better, at least for a while. Where will the resolutions be by January 20th or so? Forgotten maybe?

Instead of New Year's Resolutions, we should identify, schedule and execute quarterly goals, even bi-annual and yearly goals made out of true resolution and objective planning, not guilt. Simple example: You should make it a point of updating your resume at by the end of every quarter to record achievements and successes (not just before applying for a job..which usually happens when you desperately need to....the worst timing ever). Have the discipline to schedule the 'Update Resume' task on your calendar and actually sit down and do it. Ask a friend or 'resume buddy' to work on his/hers with you and exchange feedback and views.

A resolution is just an empty promise if it lacks continuity and a clear plan or schedule for completion. Build accountability and support around any goal you set for yourself.

Thank you for your support this year and may 2010 be full of new challenges.