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Organizational Change – Opportunity or Fear?November 5, 2008 | 11:04 AM
Organizational change is a given in corporate life, but today’s doomsday headlines have accelerated change for many organizations. As the media continues to feed the dialogue, how can leaders help employees move from a state of anxiety and paralysis to being able to overcome fear and look for opportunities to move the business forward? Good Business, Bad BusinessNovember 3, 2008 | 1:14 PM
Who dreamed up the job of sales manager?
As a front-line sales manager, you are part coach, part super-salesperson, part counselor, part administrator, part strategist, part parent, part mediator, part teacher, and-above all -the go-to person for executing your organization’s sales strategy. When it comes to crafting strategies to pursue new business opportunities, one of the more challenging decisions facing sales managers today revolves around the answer to one important question: “Is this good business to pursue or bad business to walk away from?” The Three Most Important Things a Salesperson Can Do in a Down Market!October 15, 2008 | 1:59 PM
The United States government defines tough times as two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth. On a personal level, you know when things are tough – the market feels soft, getting customer approval takes longer, and buyers negotiate harder than when demand is greater than supply. At this time, we have a whole generation of salespeople who have only sold during great economic times. We also have veteran salespeople who may have forgotten how to sell in tough times.
Leading In Tough Economic Times: 10 Steps For ManagersSeptember 19, 2008 | 7:53 AM
Listening to the media dissection of the most recent Wall Street meltdown, we hear a lot about poor leadership – bad decisions, greedy CEOs, “head in the sand” mentality and the list goes on. No doubt, these “leaders” should be held accountable for their actions (or lack thereof)... Educating Senior Management About Business GamesSeptember 9, 2008 | 6:05 AM
 In the early 90's, when we first started our business, it happened a lot. I would hear "We don't play games here at XYZ Company.we're serious about our business". Now, fast forward to 2008. Although the use of games and other discovery learning techniques is much more widely accepted, every once in a while I still encounter a company executive who objects to game playing as an educational approach. As a learning professional, you might also run into these objections. Here are some examples of issues I've encountered over the years and some thoughts on how to address them:
· Aren't business games more about fun than serious learning?" Well, not if they are designed to successfully get learners learning! When facing possible objections to games, I often use the phrase "sophisticated business simulation disguised as a board game" to get into the executive suite. I've found that if I can get a senior executive engaged in a demonstration of one of our "games", objections disappear pretty quickly. For example, I was recently able to take the CFO of a major company through a shortened version of one of Paradigm's business acumen simulations and he got so involved in the experience that his perspective changed 180 degrees. He saw that the game was an easy - and fun- way to convey some very sophisticated financial concepts. In fact, it was as if a light bulb went off. "This is what I've been attempting to get people to understand with my PowerPoint presentation for years!" So, one trick is to use your best persuasive approach to get past the initial objection so that you can get your executives playing the game you want to use. ·We've developed a program internally and think it's fine - Ownership pride is hard to overcome! Recently, a training director I know took a risk and persuaded two senior finance managers to "just take a look" at a business acumen game. The game would be an alternative to a program that they had developed themselves (A Powerpoint program, what else! ) Her persistence paid off. The two finance managers decided that they should have been using the game all along and said "this is not really a game after all! ". They became such advocates that they acted as subject matter experts for customizing the program to their financial metrics. So, sometimes, it's about being willing to take a risk in order to make your case. ·Can a complex subject really be taught in a game? - This is another common concern, especially around subjects like business acumen. Actually, complex subjects can often be learned faster and with much higher retention when they are presented in a game format. Learners are more motivated to learn, they have fun learning, and they are learning along with others. There have been studies showing, for example, that a discovery learning approach can improve retention by 70-80% over traditional learning methods. Games involve learners and make them think. They even exert a certain amount of "peer" pressure, since games are usually designed to be played with others in a time-compressed environment. So, what I've found is that using information from studies about the effectiveness of games and simulations and sharing the successes of other organizations can help overcome this objection. So I'm curious, have you had struggles getting games accepted for use in your business? What have you done to overcome objections? |
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