A few quiet trends taking the forefront for 2010

In 2010, I anticipate that there will be a couple "quiet" trends dominating the business landscape. If you have been waiting for our economy to return to business as usual, you will suffocate while holding your breath. "Business as usual" is gone for this millennium and a few under-reported trends lead in terms of economic and social recovery. Here are some of the many changes you can expect to see in the next two to five years:

1. Creativity will lead performance. If you don't believe this, just take a look at how creative organizations must be to survive this economic downturn. Many have changed their focus, broadened their offerings, and updated their strategies to be more responsive to volatile market changes. Why? Many left-brained, task-oriented jobs are being consolidated, automated, or shipped overseas. The current economic changes require that we reposition our skills and industries to be more creative. As I wrote in an earlier blog post, people are the most important asset in any organization. The ones who can think creatively and bring results are the ones who will lead.
2. Job titles will be reduced to a tagline. It will be more important than ever to get the right talent into the right positions within organizations. If innovative, performance-driven organizations want to attract the right people, then traditional top-down title systems won't capture attention. Job titles will be crafted to connect with the role that the individual plays within the organization. Each job title will reflect that the organization appreciates the three key areas of expertise needed in all successful organizations: strategists, integrators, and implementers. With these three areas working together in an organization, the "level" of someone's title will mean nothing.
3. The veil of intimacy created by social media will disintegrate. It's already starting to happen. Just because you're connected on Facebook or Twitter does not mean that you know someone or that you have a relationship. Individuals will increase their efforts to connect in person. Networking events saw a huge spike in attendance in 2009, simply because people were starving for true intimacy. The resurgence of networking, along with face-to-face meetings and phone calls in lieu of text messages and email, will help people reconnect with the subtleties of true relationship building and proper etiquette.
4. Social media will finally get relevant. On the flip side of intimacy, people are getting busier every day. Social media and technology tools will finally become integrated tools instead of separate things to do in the success of individuals and organizations. There are no social media experts. No doubt that phrase will be taken out of context. The truth is that there are marketing, business, communications, relationship, sales, and other experts out there who know how to successfully integrate social media tools into reaching goals. They will help everyone make better use of the time to connect in more meaningful ways. Do we care that @tsuluwerks is eating split pea soup for lunch. I'm sure that at least 90% of you are saying 'Of course not!' But if that split pea soup is part of a special sales effort to help feed the homeless, you might just want to join @tsuluwerks and have a bowl, too. And unless that relevancy is made in 140 characters or less, the rest of the online community will tune out.
5. Everyone will have to get flexible. That means that mom will have to check her Facebook account to keep track of her children (tactfully please! No mushy wall posts!) And the twenty-something aiming for the board room will have to accept that it's rude to check emails during a strategy session. Even making "cold calls" for sales people will mean making a call, sending a tweet, drafting an email, and using text messaging until you know which methods your target prefers. Systems and processes will require updating to ensure that you're reaching who you want in the best way that works for them, not you. So even if you hate picking up the phone, your best customer or top vendor who prefers to hear your voice will know that you're focused on the relationship above all.

I hope that these five of just many trends will help you prepare for the new year and build great relationships with team members, customers, investors, and family.

Happy holidays to all!

Tie Strategy to Performance with The Strategy String

I am excited to announce that on January 10, 2010, my new book The Strategy String will be shipping. The book is available for pre-order now on our web site. Here's a summary:

Our economy is driven by small businesses and organizations. That has become increasingly evident in this last recession. Small organizations, those with fewer than 500 employees, accounted for 50.6% of the non-farm jobs in our economy at the last census count. Unlike past recessions, during which small businesses only accounted for 9-12% of job losses, that number escalated to 45%. It will take two to five years for existing organizations to recover from this economic blow and start hiring in numbers again. Without small business to absorb the job losses from larger organization layoffs, we can expect new for profit and nonprofit organizations will flood the market. It’s happening right now, and unemployment figures don’t account for these new starts and existing entrepreneurs.

As these organizations emerge and existing ones seek to strengthen their strategies, they don’t have the luxury of spending 12 to 18 months developing a strategy like most large organizations. And new leaders don’t have the time to learn the ins and outs of business jargon to translate their visions of a successful organization into results-driven plans of action. They need to shape and launch strategies quickly, yet that will endure and deliver results.

That’s where The Strategy String shines. The author, Tracy A. Corley, has tested this concept and can guarantee that a small organization can craft and launch a strategy string in under eight weeks. Quick action is needed to be competitive in today’s market. Action backed by direction ensures that no activity is wasted and that the results can be easily measured.

The Strategy String: An Organizational Primer for Tying Strategy to Performance makes it simple for organizations of any size to develop and execute a performance-driven strategy. The Strategy String translates the concepts created by business thought leaders like Jim Collins, Michael Gerber, and Kaplan and Norton into easy to understand, ready to use modules that businesses can immediately put into action within their organizations. This book takes the best of the best, simplifies it, and combines it with easy-to-implement activities that time-starved leaders can get.