Wow, this week flew by! But it was packed full of good meetings and opportunities. It will be capped off by a great Consulting Alliance Luncheon today.

What a great week, short, but great! Working with SUNY Delhi class with Robert Braathe, sharing concepts of business sustainability to the Small Business Strategic Alliance, developing proposals and management training, BRNG Luncheon, working on a book project with Melange Press, and facilitating personal life planning. Great week!

Having a busy week with many meetings and networking events. MBPA, Stakeholders CSI, Morrissey Group, Consulting Alliance, RPI EMBA, GREAT WEEK!

I'm having a great day - it's MBD and I'm Having a Party - all day long! Check out the Business Boardroom article in the Ballston Journal (or www.CapConsult.blogspot.com)

Business – It’s Complicated (and personal)

The following was published in the Ballston Journal - Business Boardroom:

Business is complicated. That is not news or a surprise to any of us who have been in business for any length of time. It really does not matter what size business you are in, or what your industry is, it is complicated. For those of us who are small business owners, we have to do all the “jobs” in the business, or we need to manage the outsourcing of those tasks we do not like to do, or we are not equipped to do. For those of us who are in organizations of any size, we also know that it is complicated, primarily due to the very thing that was highlighted in the movie “It’s Complicated” with Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, and Steve Martin. Unfortunately, small business complications are not a popular comedy, but a stark reality.

Business is complicated by nature, because it is about personal relationships and people are complicated. Even for small business owners, there is the mix of your own personality and relationships with those of your customers, suppliers, and the interrelationships with your own personality. For larger organizations, add the dynamic of employees with those of customers and suppliers.

So, what then separates the “great” from the “good” from the “just making it”? If business is complicated for all businesses, regardless of size, what really can be the discriminating factors in success? What can you do as a business leader to ensure that you and your organization are achieving the level of success that you really want?

To find the answers, I believe the first place to look is inside. Inside yourself that is. We have all heard it said that “Attitude determines Altitude,” “You get what you are looking for,” etc. I believe these are more than just trite statements or phrases. There is real truth in them, yet for many of us, we lose sight of these simple truths. If we think of the world as abundant, then we will look and act as though there is plenty to go around and we will share that with others. If we look at the world as scarce, then we will tend to hoard and not share.

So what does this have to do with the way we run our businesses and organizations? Answer the following questions truthfully to get closer to your inner self:
• Do we try to hoard information and only let out small bits just to get other things we can hoard? Or do we share information and let people see all the details they need to be fully successful themselves and at the same time make us more successful?
• Is our attitude one of real appreciation for others and what their role is in our business?
• Do we share that appreciation with them in ways that are really meaningful to them?
Psst: The only way we will know that is to be really observant and listen to them with open ears and minds.

I believe that is one of the many messages in the movie “It’s Complicated.” It appears that in their marriage, Jane and Jake didn’t have a common vision and set of objectives for themselves as individuals or as a family. As the movie unfolds, each had come to realize more about what they wanted for themselves, and thus could examine what they really appreciated in each other. I won’t say more about the movie, as I don’t want to give it away. The point is that appreciation is directly linked to attitude, and we do tend to find what we are looking for. If we look with appreciation, we see more positively. If we are more appreciative with our view of customers, employees, and suppliers, we tend to get more abundant results. If we share information to enable each to have a richer experience in their respective roles, we tend to get better results. An appreciative approach strengthens the bond of a relationship.

Think for a minute or two about some of your experiences. In those experiences where you felt really appreciated, where people really took the time to get to know you, or explain how you were an important part of their business, most likely you felt very good about being part of their business. I expect you told others and may have even gone out of your way to contribute to the success of the organization/business even more.

On the other hand, think about a different experience where you were “just a number” or “just a part of the process.” In this case, I expect you felt neutral or negative about the experience and did not go out of your way to do any extra to contribute to the organization’s/business’s success.

I have many experiences and stories to relate from both perspectives, and as a business leader, I like to share the positive stories of how people and organizations grow through appreciation. My colleagues and I, along with a number of others, call that Appreciative Leadership, and it comes from looking at all aspects of business with a view and focus of appreciating what everyone does.

A very successful businessman and friend of mine was a veterinarian. When we first met, he was a self proclaimed “Seagull Manager.” He would fly into the office making all kinds of noise and activity, then crap on everyone and fly out. You can imagine what that office looked like. Then he realized the impact that an Appreciative Leadership approach could make. He took the time to work with each of his employees so they understood the very important and even critical role they played in the total business success. He was able to link their individual success to the business success and show the reciprocal affect on their individual success. He made a fundamental shift in his practice and it was definitely reflected in the positive impact on the top and bottom lines of his business. It was all about personal relationships and truly appreciating everyone and what they could contribute.

By taking the time to understand the relationships and appreciating and reinforcing the positive, the real art of business becomes just a little less complicated and certainly more enjoyable for everyone involved. In the end, business may still be complicated, but with appreciation and understanding by all, it will be more understood, easier to manage, and certainly more fulfilling.

First Session of Webinar "Launching Your Consulting Career" went rather well. Some audio difficulties, but we have solved those. It is not to late to join us for the evening session! Register at: http://consultingalliance.org , then when you get your confirmation email from the Consulting Alliance, be sure to make the final registration with GoToWebinar by clicking the link near the bottom of the confirmation email. That will get you registered within GoToWebinar. Join us at 8pm!

Sustainability - Personal Application of a Very Large Concept

Sustainability is a word we often hear these days and yet, I suspect that you, like me, may easily dismiss whatever comes after that word because we do not know how to personalize the meaning. I certainly did not know how to get my head around the term until very recently. Now I see the meaning and application in almost every conversation, almost every situation, almost every day, much like you notice all the red vehicles after you buy one, when you did not notice them before.

As I continue to ponder and reflect on what sustainability truly is for me, one of the first realizations that I come to is that true sustainability requires thinking way beyond ourselves. Three recent yet seemingly unrelated events shape my thoughts in this regard. First was the passing of my father and my brother this year. Second was the opportunity to sit quietly on the family farm, some 15 feet up in a tree stand, for two days and look over the farm that my parents bought in 1950. The third event was this past Friday: we received a call that my mother-in-law was hospitalized in New Jersey and spent the weekend traveling and sitting with her. It was from the hospital that I wrote this article in quiet contemplation. As I reflected, it became clear to me that in order to even begin to think and act in ways that are sustainable, we must first think beyond ourselves and our current situation, then act in the present, in ways that support that much longer term thinking.

My parents did that as they bought and worked the farm. As they thought beyond themselves, they created a family farm trust that ensured the farm could remain in the family for generations to come. They thought beyond the current season, and each year they made long term decisions coupled with short term action to build up the nutrients in the fields to support the various crops we grew. I became acutely aware of their prior actions as I sat in the tree stand and looked over what they worked hard for and what they provided to their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.

As we traveled to New Jersey, I seemed to be more aware of not only the physical environment, but the activities of so many people who were both contributing to and detracting from true sustainability for future generations. I was reminded again of two organizations whose collaboration embodies sustainability: The Natural Step and Comparison International.

The Natural Step (www.naturalstep.org) is a non-profit organization with the vision of creating a sustainable society. It was founded in 1989 by Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt in Sweden, The Natural Step has offices in 11 countries and a list of partners that includes some of the world’s leading brands. They have developed a lexicon and framework for understanding the basic principles of sustainability.

Comparison International (comparisoninternational.com) is a benchmarking consultancy based in the UK. With offices in the United States and Australia, Comparison's benchmarking tools are used globally in industries across the board. Their PROBE (PROmoting Business Excellence) methodology for benchmarking supports business development and growth by improving performance through the transfer of "Best Practices." PROBE tools are utilized by governments, industry specific organizations, research collaborations, individual firms and global institutions. Over the last 5 years the company has become one of the leading suppliers of "Best Practice" benchmarking in the world.

These two organizations are collaborating to provide education, training, and perhaps most importantly, assessment and action planning tools to help individuals, companies, organizations, and governments understand the underlying principles of sustainability and build implementation action plans to implement practical sustainability practices.

The Natural Step has approached sustainability from a perspective of science and systems thinking. They have developed a framework and four system conditions for understanding sustainability. In a sustainable society, nature is not subject to systematically increasing:

1. concentrations of substances extracted from the earth's crust;
2. concentrations of substances produced by society;
3. degradation by physical means;
4. and, in that society, people are not subject to conditions that systemically undermine their capacity to meet their needs.

Comparison International, in its collaboration with The Natural Step, has developed practical assessment tools which any organization can apply to determine the current level of sustainable practices, processes, and performance. These tools are comprehensive as they examine the four critical best practices aspects any organization must consistently evaluate if it is to survive in the long term:

1. Mission, Vision & Context;
2. Leadership & Mobilization;
3. Products, Services, & Business Processes;
4. Business Continuity.

These tools enable the forward thinking and action planning today that truly support sustainability for the organizations for generations to come.

The combination and collaboration of these two organizations provides an extremely scalable thinking process that we can apply to our personal and business life by thinking of the four system conditions and the overarching aspects. This model gives us a practical way to routinely assess and adjust our business actions and performance in support of business, community, and global sustainability for generations beyond ourselves. Just as my parents did for us, and generations before them, so we can do for generations that follow us, but only if we think and act with that view in mind.

To learn more or have Ray speak to your group or organization, please email or call him at (518)227-0224.