aCE talentNET Professional Edge May2010
The latest Organisational Development Thinking, from the desk of aCE talentNET…
Well another busy month comes to an end. This month aCE talentNET has invested in two Government tender submissions, prepared a Proposal for a Victorian Government Coaching Panel; submitted a Proposal for an exciting leadership development initiative with a multi-national; and is awaiting responses from clients on OD and HR consulting resource requirements (to name but a few).
This is not to say that the HR, OD and L&D market is awash with funds OR that this signals a return to the buoyant days of old, but rather we see clients priorities as a careful and considered investment in key people management and development platforms, namely human resource management, learning infrastructure, leadership development; coaching etc. As this is aCE talentNET’s niche… we are well placed to assist clients meet these needs!
I was also able to enjoy a short mini-break in NZ recently and was reminded of the importance of staying connected to our roots. It was with this in mind that I re-read aCE talentNET Consultant, Karen Curnow’s heart wrenching article having survived the Victorian bushfires, and her subsequent reflections on how her experience changed her view on how organisations should approach change management. A thought provoking article that I would encourage you to read.
Wishing you all a great month as we speed all too quickly towards the financial year end!
Deirdre
continue…
Bankrupts and You?…
This piece from The Age on Monday is starting to sound a little scary. The old living beyond your means, and when the means shift, who’s left scrambling to work out what to do. I, for one, would hate to be in that situation. It’s pressured enough being the sole breadwinner without overextending and having to worry about that aspect too.
…insolvents were increasingly from higher status occupations, had higher levels of personal and household income, and had rising asset and property ownership levels.
A major cause of rises in bankruptcy among the middle class, said Professor Ramsay, has been due to unsustainable home loans. Excessive use of credit as a cause of bankruptcy has jumped significantly in recent years, he added.
Insolvents were also becoming older, he said, and tended to increasingly have dependents, which added financial pressure for many families…
read on…
“Higher status occupations” hey?
And who said having a job made Life more secure. Sounds to me like it’s a false security because when you get paid anyway, as long as you roll up and keep up your end of the employment bargain. But when the other party does not stick to their end, or the goal posts and rules around you move… let the trouble begin!
Time to seriously reconsider that “business” question.
How long can you afford not to be in business?
aCE talentNET AdvantEdge May2010
The latest aCE talentNET AdvantEdge is available…
How many projects have you been
exposed to since the start of the year?
Which ones could you have passed on to the aCE talentNET Referral Program? And be well on the way to making yourself passive income… isn’t that what we’re talking about!
Connect aCE talentNET with Client projects you may not have the time or resources or expertise to provide, and earn referral fees through the aCE talentNET Referral Program. Click here for details.
How the Black Saturday bushfires changed my experience of Change…
Ever doubted if your approach delivering the results you anticipated? After surviving the Victorian “Black Saturday” bushfires of February 2009, aCE talentNET consultant Karen Curnowreflects on how she chose to cope with this truly life-changing event and the lessons and reminders it offers to all of us involved in managing change…
…I’m not advocating that everyone should think and feel as I do but I am suggesting that this is what worked for me and that how I chose to think about and feel about this sudden, abrupt change in my life deeply shaped my recovery and influenced the subsequent choices I made about my life. Many months later, it has also caused me to reflect on my previous work in organisational change management and to wonder how I could ever have imagined that I could manage anyone else’s change.
To be clear, I haven’t suddenly decided that all forms of organisational change management no longer work. I just believe that in many cases we get the emphasis wrong… keep reading, it’s worth it.
‘STATUSPHERE’ how and where your customers are finding their status fix…
The latest from trendwatching.com…
Whatever industry you’re in, in the end, everything is about status. And since what constitutes status in consumer societies is fragmenting rapidly, like it or not, the need for recognition and status is at the heart of every consumer trend*. Status is the ultimate (hidden) motive, a subconscious but ever-present force.
Now, in a traditional consumer society, where consumption is one of the leading (if not the leading) indicators of success, those who consume the most (and especially those who consume the rarest and most expensive), will typically also attain the highest status. This is why brands have, for decades, gladly provided people with goods, services and experiences that help them (boldly or subtly) impress their peers and help alleviate their anxieties about how they’re perceived by others.
However, mature consumer societies are changing, and so is the ‘STATUSPHERE’: an increasing number of consumers are no longer (solely) obsessed with owning or experiencing the most and/or the most expensive. Our definition:
STATUSPHERE | As consumers are starting to recognize and respect fellow consumers who stray off the beaten consuming-more-than-thou-path, ‘new’ status can be about acquired skills, about eco-credentials, about generosity, about connectivity… All of this makes for a far more diversified ‘STATUSPHERE’ than most brands and organizations have traditionally catered to. Time to really figure out how and where your customers are now finding their status fix.
Stay-at-home moms launching businesses…
Stay-at-home moms are more and more turning into work-at-home moms — using their education and pre-motherhood job experience to launch magazines, develop new products and otherwise remove the stigma of being absent from the 9-5 world by writing their own paycheques.
A survey done by Leger Marketing for eBay Canada ahead of Mother’s Day found that 33 per cent of Canadians know a mother who has either started her own business or would like to — though only 14 per cent have done so.
that’s where the entrepreneurial mother mentoring program comes in…
lets get this party started!
You can have it all, just not all at once…
not sure I agree with all of this… but each to their own
well worth sharing nonetheless
…The real “unfinished business of the feminist movement”, says Phillips, is flexible work patterns for men as well as women, so dads can take on the role of full-time carers.
Without the involvement of men – the ones who run companies, the ones who lead the country and the ones we live with – the lot of women will not improve….
10 tips for Mums Who run Businesses
Being a Mom and running a business is like having two full-time jobs. Inc.com asked women who do it for their advice on how to juggle running a family while building a business…
Katherine Reynolds Lewis, founder of CurrentMom.com (who I used to write Travel Tuesday for) was happy to oblige with the 10 tips…
great work!
Brand Butlers – why Serving is the new Selling
The April 2010 edition of trendwatching.com is well worth reading, as always…because
It has never been more important to turn your brand into a service. Jaded, time-poor, pragmatic consumers yearn for service and care, while the mobile online revolution (it’s finally, truly here!) makes it possible to offer uber-relevant services to consumers anywhere, anytime. Basically, if you’re going to embrace one big consumer trend this year, please let it be BRAND BUTLERS!
and of course this applies to internal and external customers, plus all elements of your brand whether it be corporate, employer and even Brand You!
read on…
Mums Need Better Incentives to Work…Really?
Interesting article in TheAge.com on Sunday… seems that the only option open to mothers is working in a part time job, together with all the associated costs and time constraints etc based around that choice… but as all entrepreneurial mothers know, a part time job is not the only choice, and nor will it pave your way in gold; there is another choice where such considerations do not warrant a second thought…
One of the questions at its heart is the affordability of work.
It’s a funny one – the government needs as many people as possible to work for as long as possible to raise money to run the country; most people need to work to raise money to run their household.
Despite these apparently complementary aims the government makes it difficult for many parents to work by paying them with one hand and taking back the money via taxes with another. It’s called churn and the Henry review will examine the problem.
The complicated relationship between taxes and family benefit payments becomes a problem when mothers go back to work. Most mums do, about the time their child turns one, and they go back part-time.
read on…
The other choice…Don’t work, build a business; your own business.
It’s the only way you can work your designated hours, and leverage the dollars per hour you can make.
Once established, hire the mothers who do want part time work, to work for you!
Now there’s a plan.
