Motivated Innovation

In good times and in bad, it is always important to know one's craft.  As a job applicant seeking employment or a professional seeking clients, knowledge and wisdom in one's field are critical to one's credibility and success. Yet, knowledge is not enough, nor is wisdom everything else.  Over the past 10-15 years, the buzz has been about "networking"--i.e. "it's not 'what you know', it's 'who you know'."  Communicating with numerous contacts opens up doors not seen by regular sight, as contacts can help a person uncover job and business opportunities.  Plus, communicating with industry experts can help a person compensate for a lack of experience. With that said, 'what you know' and 'who you know' are clearly important.  However, relying solely on 'what you know' and 'who you know' is not enough.  In today's evolving economy, the business world is changing.  Conventional knowledge sometimes

A long-standing adage states that, "Time is money."  If that is the case, do companies or governments evaluate decisions based on time or just based on money? Certainly, there are instances where there is minimal time to make a decision; the only practical consideration of 'time' is that there is little available.  Meanwhile, a number of useful calculations exist in finance and economics to consider number of years spent on projects and the time value of money.  Accounting practices also consider concepts such as appreciation and depreciation. Still, companies and governments must consider the results and consequences of their decisions.  What may save time now may cost time later.  Again, what may save time now may cost time later . Let's consider the following example.  Things are somewhat hectic for a company right now.  The company has found several new clients and is scrambling to hire the personnel to meet the new work demands.  With new employee trai

Over the past 20-30 years, companies and other work functional groups have taken note of organizational culture.  Mission statements, visions, and values have been formalized and emphasized in new employee training and restructuring efforts.  Meanwhile, human resource departments have emerged as critical to company compliance and environmental stability.  At the same time, interpersonal communication--at varying levels of organizations--continue to shape employee attitudes and behaviors.  As companies aggressively or passively develop organizational culture, they risk the emergence of counterculture. Counterculture arises as two or more people find disagreements with company objectives, company operations, supervisory/co-worker attitudes, and other primarily internal concerns.  Specific issues include company rules, disciplinary actions, quotas, and communication (or lack thereof).  In some cases, managers and peers notice resistance developing and seek to squash it.  At other times,

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!  With the American celebration of the Thanksgiving holiday comes the American retail industry's biggest day of the year: Black Friday.  In preparations for the big day, retailers have immersed consumers with multimedia communications, using online, print, and television advertisements to lure consumers to their stores. While it is clear the concept of "sales" is present on Black Friday, oftentimes "sales" is overlooked outside of traditional business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) transactions.  If a product or service is not being sold, it is regularly believed that "sales" is neither present nor needed.  However, the opposite is true: "sales" is everywhere. Workers apply for jobs.  Managers give instructions to subordinates.  Students write papers.  Journalists write articles.  Actors, musicians, and athletes perform.  There are an innumerable amount of other examples.  Regardless of the

Through school, work experience, and social life, communications skills are emphasized, taught, and learned.  We talk; we listen; we write; we gesture.  Whether spoken or not, communication is made.  Simply put, communication is everywhere.   While we communicate on a daily basis, much is said about professionalism.  With that in mind, what is 'professional communication'?  Oftentimes, professional communication is said to be conveyed by speaking in standard, non-slang, non-obscene language (verbal/written) and "dressing for success" (nonverbal).  Allegedly, by following these principles, we are professionally communicating.   Likewise, what is 'effective communication'?  Oftentimes, effective communication is said to be providing accurate words to express a message.  If people say what they mean to say, then it must be effective. To some degree, these statements about professional communication and effective communication are true.  Professional co

*Originally published on Helium.com in 2011 (c) 2011 Richard A. Fajardo Taught at an early age to fit inside the box Shown that life is linear and systematic Get up, work hard, get paid, go home Everything is so automatic Quickly, this turns out to be a dangerous path The emptiness and boredom are problematic It's amazing, all the coping mechanisms I see People fighting pain with the troubles of an addict Be a robot or a puppet, don't take the lead? Do all the dirty work, how tragic Daily survival and building towards the future Now seem impossible, where’s the wizard's magic? Follow the leader, follow, follow Isn't it so simple and pragmatic? Follow this path of least resistance The status quo is not enigmatic Gloom, gloom, gloom, gloom The sadness is emphatic Doom, doom, doom, doom The mediocrity is emblematic What seems so sure is so blurry The sound of boredom is static Gloomy skies bring forth worry The prison cell is psychosomatic

Everyday, we face challenges.  Adversity is everywhere.  There are many reasons to question and to doubt.  Yet, the road to success does not always have to be complicated.  Why believe you can't when you can?  Why believe you cannot when you can?  "Can't" is a contraction; contractions are complex.  "Cannot" is a six-letter word with two syllables; "can" is a three-letter word with one syllable.  Keep it simple; save your breath.  Believe in yourself; think 'I can'.

Earlier today, I read an article/presentation overview from 2006 entitled " How to Become a Thought Leader ".  The site RainToday.com interviewed established blogger/businessowner and marketing/lead generation thought leader Brian Carroll.  The article was great to read to learn more about how to establish oneself and one's organization amidst the realms of blogging, writing, and public speaking.  An interesting point was raised about "branding" and "reputation". Nowadays, the terms "branding" and "reputation" typically get lumped together.  The terms are often used synonymously in conversation.  Yet, Carroll comments that branding is more focused on a consumer's feeling--which impacts short-term transactions--while reputation comes into play for more complex decisions and purchases.  As such, reputation--which sounds less formal in business lingo--is more important than a brand name. When taking a look at the various aspec

People familiar with the field of Organizational Development are most likely familiar with the Burke-Litwin Model of Organizational Performance and Change.  Although people not familiar with OD are most likely not familiar with the Burke-Litwin Model, the model contains underlying principles for success that are discussed in business and society. A key component to the Burke-Litwin Model is that it distinguishes between transformational and transactional dimensions.  In layman's terms, organizations focus on both longer-term, bigger picture concepts and shorter-term, day-to-day tasks and details.  In business, sports, and military language, much is said about strategy and tactics.  Strategy deals more with mission, values, and overall goals, while tactics involve actions to achieve the goals and carry out the mission and values.  Other parallels include 'revolutionary vs. evolutionary' (radical change vs. gradual change) and 'leadership vs. management' (again, l

In today's business world, there are an innumerable amount of client relationships through partnerships and outsourced services.  While oftentimes the term 'outsourcing' brings up thoughts of overseas workers speaking different languages, a great deal of outsourcing actually occurs domestically.  Yet, while in the U.S. these different partners speak the English language, each company creates its own terminology.  Thus, there still is a need to understand other languages, even within one traditional language such as American English. Providing 'value add' to a client's or partner's operations goes beyond asserting position as an industry knowledge leader or collecting multitudes of information.  Yes, being an industry knowledge leader brings instant credibility to an organization.  Likewise, an organization able to gather a variety of useful information is one that can help itself and other organizations.  However, it can be quite damaging to a relationship

Over the years, much has been said and done regarding creating organizational structure, developing chains of command, standardizing jobs, and eliminating unnecessary thinking from daily job tasks. In particular, successful companies in the business world preach the value of well-defined organizational structure, with organizational charts often being referenced during times of evaluation and change. While the aforementioned concepts can definitely be good, is there a point where too much structure is bad, supervising requirements are excessive, job standardization is demoralizing, and employee thinking becomes devalued? In developing a sound organizational structure and organizational culture, more should be said about the concept of "structured freedom" . From an organizational standpoint, structure needs to be present, as it helps define workers' roles and shapes various group decision-making processes. While structure gets continuously recognized for its value in bus

***This is a revision of a blog post I originally shared elsewhere on 12/14/2009. Thank you to those who granted me permission to re-share the content of this post.*** In the weeks leading up to graduation, I reflected on the various lessons I had learned while in graduate school. In my preparation for job interviews, I anticipated facing a very open-ended yet deep and meaningful question: What is the most important lesson I have learned from my graduate school experience? As an MBA student, it could be expected that I mention something about management, leadership, economics, politics, professionalism, or etiquette. In class, we spent much time looking into the value of business ethics towards business success, as the rise and fall of Enron revealed a number of ethically questionable decisions. We also experienced the mortgage & housing financial crisis of 2008, with insightful presentations by former Lehman Brothers executive Lawrence McDonald and BGSU Professor Dr. Timoth

To some, education is one of the most valuable assets of individuals and society as a whole. To others, education is just a useless and misguided waste of time. Obviously, this blog site embraces education--numerous lessons learned from traditional schooling and/or the school of life can be readily applied to the challenges ahead. One academic subject that is embraced by some and rejected by others is "history". History includes a review of cold, hard facts as well as interpretations and opinions. On one hand, there is a cliche that says, "History repeats itself." Mark Twain softened this stance by stating, "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." On the other hand, history is just a bunch of names, dates, facts, and figures. As another cliche goes, "Don't dwell on the past." As education should be embraced, the current U.S. economy reflects the importance of studying history. In his book Aftershock , Professor Robert Rei

I, Richard Fajardo, start this blog without any official representation of any specific employers, religious organizations, political organizations, student organizations, civic organizations, or other social organizations. I write here from my own perspective--my own perception and my own judgment. As an aspiring business leader and aspiring Organizational Development specialist (I hold the credentials of a Master's degree in Business Administration and a Graduate Certificate in Organizational Change), I seek to bring hard work and critical thinking to light in order to lead to positive change in business and society and inspire additional hard work and critical thinking. I promise to be as respectful as possible in my posts, although I am certain that there will be differences of opinion when reading some of my writings. Signed this day, August 21st, 2011, Richard Fajardo