Jul 23, 2008
Shift
A person is a top performer. An organization is excelling. A company is a leader in its industry.
But then it happens.
A shift occurs. The game changes. There is a new set of rules.
The shift could come from things like……
- advancements in technology (think telephone, television, internet, wireless)
- new software capabilities (think Windows, Excel, e-mail, instant messaging, social networking)
- generational changes (think Baby Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y, Retiring Baby Boomers)
- cultural / socio-economic changes (think Agricultural Age, Industrial Age, Knowledge Age)
The shift could happen……
- gradually (like the shift caused by the internet)
- quickly (like the shift caused in the wireless phone industry by the release of the iPhone)
Excellent employees, excellent organizations, and excellent companies are not immune from it.
If you are excellent when the shift occurs, and you…….
- fail to recognize it
- or worse, recognize it, but fail to adjust
then your excellence will soon turn to ineffectiveness, mediocrity at best.
No related posts.
Experiencing this right now actually. We are working to justify why our church needs to go to mobile with apps, content, etc, more blog style communications, improved event and content subscription interaction, improved community tools.
We need to learn more about our attendees and future-attendees, what they want to do online, offer our weekend message content in any format desired. I would also love to deliver our Children’s & Student service and small group learning content online or even television.
Anyway, bottom-line is we are behind and sometimes it’s hard to convince upper mgmt to invest in new innovation. Then the “shift” occurs and everyone is wondering why we are behind?
Good stuff, really. A constant beautiful struggle. Keeps us on our toes for sure.
@Larry
I’m experiencing a similar thing at work right now
A few of us recognize that we could be better at executing our system development projects if we changed the way we work
Technology now allows us to take our work to the next level with online collaboration, blog and Twitter-like communication, online knowledge sharing, online project portfolio management, etc.
We have some excellent people with lots of talent, but I am worried that our excellence will turn to mediocrity and our talent will be wasted if our organization fails to recognize this ’shift’. A ’shift’ that is happening whether everyone likes it or not.