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In an effort to avoid stagnation and regret, there is one powerful question that professional gold medal-winning Olympic athletes have used that will help with your planning and allow you to assess your decision-making and choices leading to long-term success, according to a recent article on Entrepreneurs.com.  

Ask this One Question if You Want to Succeed explained how former British competition rower and Olympic champion, Ben Hunt-Davis, had been on the British national 8-man rowing team for nine years and was on the team when they won the gold medal in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. The most inspiring and motivating thing about his story is not that they won, but how they won after 88 years of losing. How the team became triumphant after not winning in the Olympics for 88 years is said to have been based on one question that determined all of their decisions for the two years leading up to the race.

How? By asking one simple question before every big and small decision: “Will this make the boat go faster?”

The team knew that if they wanted a different result, they had to do something different daily, Hunt-Davis stated in a YouTube video. The team knew they needed to make a “jump” to the next level.

Mr. Hunt-Davis proceeded to point out in the video that most people think winning at the Olympics is about what you do in the minutes of the race, but it isn’t. In comparison, it isn’t the specific moment you land the $1 million contract. It’s what you do in all the hours, days and years leading up to it. And that’s what the Olympic team focused on changing, he stated.

“Before we’d all get on the rowing machine to practice for 70 minutes, we’d ask, ‘Will it make the boat go faster?’ Unfortunately, yes. So that’s what we’d do.” Hunt-Davis explained. “Before going to the pub, we’d ask, ‘Will it make the boat go faster?’ Unfortunately, no. So, we didn’t.”

The team asked each other this question for every decision during all the months leading up to their race. This one question kept them focused and gave the men on the team a strong bond, knowing they were all using the same criteria to determine any actions they took.

In summary, the video is about how to plan and focus in order to stay on track and achieve your goals. And how it’s something we can all train ourselves to do.  

What power question can you apply? “Will this grow my business to $5 million this year?” or “Will this make my body healthier?” or “Will this help me attract and retain more customers?” or “Will this get me where I want to go?” 

Once you have your question, the power is to apply it to every decision you make. For example, you may want to scroll on social media for hours. But will it make the boat go faster? No, so you don’t. When you’re tempted to skip exercise training at the gym, will skipping it make the boat go faster? No, so you go to the gym and train hard.

It’s important not to fall into the trap of thinking your “little” decisions aren’t important. Moving forward, try strategically planning for success and using your power question and see the difference it makes in your business, choices, actions, and life.

As you wrap up 2022 and prepare to take full advantage of all the new year has to offer, contact us today so we can help you initiate the steps required to ensure your business with a clean bill of health that empowers superior performance, develop a strategic plan, and use your power question to stay on track in 2023 and beyond!

To begin your strategic plan development process, contact iSeek at info@iseeksolutionsinc.com, visit our website, subscribe to our blog or follow us on LinkedIn.

As you prepare for the year-end closeout and begin planning for 2023, assess your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Ask questions that include the following:

What does my organization need to successfully close out the year? 

What planned goals and objectives were not achieved this year?

What worked well this year that I should carry into 2023?

With less than two months remaining in 2022, the sooner you get going with your 2023 business planning, the more momentum will build up behind your efforts and the more likely you’ll be to achieve your 2023 goals. Begin by asking what changes if any, you will be making in your business. By thinking ahead and creating your business plan now, you can use November and December to initiate change, deal with false starts, and get the mindset needed to make the big shifts that can lead to big successes in your business. 

Your business plan is like a compass that points in the direction your business should be heading. Consistently monitoring and reviewing your business plan will alert you when a change in course is needed. Research shows that 80% of people abandon their New Year’s resolutions by February, so thinking ahead and starting early will provide time to reset, restart, course-correct, or adjust your SMART goals as many times as you need to.

Being proactive and starting now allows time to slow down, step back, and wash away some of the pressure that a time crunch can bring. Taking a deep dive internally into your business can prove to be beneficial. By January 1, 2023, you’re not making a list and wishing for the best; you’re in forward motion. Your company will also have a head start while others are just starting their goals/resolutions, you’ll be relishing in results. Being intentional early will allow you to start the new year stress-free, aligned with your company and goals.

Now is the time to conduct a Year-End-Project Review, an iBPA© – Business Performance Assessment – is an in-depth assessment of an organization’s operational effectiveness (what went well and what didn’t), and aligns/realigns vision, mission, goals, and initiatives to enable winning outcomes.

Consider iSeek’s Strategic Plan Development Workshop – This interactive workshop positions your organization to effectively develop the five best practice components of a strategic plan, prioritize business objectives and make informed decisions.

iSeek’s resources and expert consultants can help you Align, Optimize, Empower, and Succeed! Here are a few of the benefits: 

• Assess, mature, or develop your organization’s strategic plan 
• Help you gauge the value of opportunities that come your way
• Construct business and technology roadmaps that enable strategic objectives
• Ensure organizational governance and stakeholder engagement
• Analyze business impacts that may impede progress in 2023
• Evaluate operational effectiveness
• Ensure processes are adequately documented
• Lead and manage transformation and growth initiatives
• Measure the actual performance of your business against pre-determined goals and objectives

If you need a “running start” or motivation to make positive and powerful changes in the life of your business/organization, iSeek Solutions will equip you with the right tools and strategies to help you get ahead! To increase your chances of success and staying on track in 2023, try using this month as your Fall season jumpstart! 

To learn more about iSeek Solutions, read our case studies that provide insight into some of the challenges we have helped our clients successfully overcome. Review our resources, and contact us today to get started! 

How is quiet quitting affecting your business? Eight ways to combat it.

“Quiet Quitting” – to mentally check out, but still physically present, “Quiet Firing” – leaders who penalize or ignore employees in hopes they’ll leave of their own accord, and “The Great Resignation – where employees were quitting and leaving corporations in record high numbers in 2021, are all new workplace trends/buzzwords in business and in the media that have emerged since the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Last year, around this same time, the workplace trend was, “The Great Resignation”. In line with the topic, iSeek Solutions hosted a live Zoom webinar event titled, ‘Retention: How to Stop the Employee Exodus’ (Keeping the people while Changing the Culture) during our WINning In Twenty-Twenty WON webinar series. During the online seminar episode Chris Craft, Entrepreneur/Leadership Speaker, asked important questions, “In today’s malleable society where many employees seem to be looking for the “perfect fit,” how can we influence the right people to stay with us for the long term? How do we foster commitment in an age where de-committal seems to be the norm?” “How can we create a culture that keeps the bottom-line profits, while encouraging employees and staff members not to run across the street for just an extra incentive?” 

“If you would like something to change, then something needs to change and it has to start with a leader,” Craft stated in the  ‘Retention: How to Stop the Employee Exodus’ webinar – click the link to watch the full webinar series available on our iSeek YouTube channel.

In a world and time where everyone is constantly going, hustling to get more work done, and striving to rise up the ranks, quiet quitting is a trend focused on doing sort of the opposite – only what is expected of you and nothing more. 

Employee disengagement – doing the bare minimum. 

In the article, What Is “Quiet Quitting”—The New Workplace Trend Taking Social Media by Storm the trend was previously called “work to rule”, and involves doing only the tasks that were strictly under the scope of the job to protest against worker issues. In 1968, employees of Air Canada carried through this tactic and strictly adhered to company guidelines to protest against a labor issue. Prior to this, they were made to use whatever means necessary to keep passengers moving at a fast pace. “Quiet quitting” is a new term, but the tactic is nothing new. Today, the trend has made a comeback because of pandemic-induced burnout and as a way to resist the hustle culture in the workplace, according to the article. 

According to research conducted by the Harvard Business Review, quiet quitting has to do with those in management positions. The study found that three out of four cases of quiet quitting happened in companies with inefficient management. The same research also suggests that 62% of employees were willing to go the extra mile for managers who balanced work outcomes with employee relationships. In short, the lack of employee motivation can be a direct consequence of the behaviors of the company’s upper management.

How can your company solve the quiet quitting problem? Let’s look at an outline of the eight ways to avoid this style of quitting in the workplace and on your team from Entreprenuer.com.

1. Encourage Open Communication
   -Employees who can approach their managers openly are far more likely to discuss issues that matter to them, affecting their engagement at work.
2. Promote a healthy work-life balance
   -Ensure that your team can take vacation days, sick days, or personal days as they need.
3. Make sure employees feel valued
   -Ensure employees are given both positive and constructive feedback to keep them motivated.
4. Avoid overworking your team
   -You should avoid scheduling too many overtime hours or putting too much pressure on employees to meet unrealistic deadlines. 
5. Don’t buy into the hustle culture mentality
   – Work towards creating a healthy workplace culture that places value on employee well-being and healthy boundaries.
6. Listen to your team
   -You must listen to what your employees say and consider their suggestions.
7. Be flexible
   -Being open to different arrangements can go a long way in keeping employees happy at work.
8. Create opportunities for growth
   -Create opportunities for employees to grow and advance within the company.

Based on the above mentioned, quiet quitting is an organizational problem rather than blaming employees for their passive attitude toward their jobs. The management level should establish a sense of trust with the employees and try to understand their goals and aspirations. 

Has your business/organization experienced “Quiet Quitting” or any of the buzzword trends previously mentioned? iSeek can help you mitigate the risk of having employees quietly quit on you. 

Perhaps, you need an expert business health check (iBHC). Our iBHC© – Business Health Check diagnostic tool is used in associating and comparing your business purpose and desired objectives to actual outcomes.

A business health check, like a physical health exam, should be conducted regularly, no less than annually. A health check ensures the business is tracking towards its goals. It delivers insight into the overall performance of your business, uncovers opportunities for improvements, measures employee health and the end-user experience, and assesses the organization’s culture, engagement, and alignment. It’s an opportunity to make course corrections, mitigate or exploit risks, market changes, or take advantage of new and innovative solutions.

Don’t wait until the New Year or when your organization is sinking, make sure your business’ performance is on the right track as the fourth quarter of 2022 begins.

Purchase our iBHC resource from our catalog of resources or contact us directly for a customized consulting engagement.

Flashback to the 1950s: In an effort to find new ways to reduce waste and increase efficiency, Japanese auto manufacturer, Toyota, sent a team to Michigan, USA, to learn American manufacturing techniques from Henry Ford and Ford Automotive. Taiichi Ohno and his colleagues, however, did not find all their answers in the American method of automobile manufacturing. Instead, they found inspiration at Piggly Wiggly supermarket. Ohno was intrigued by the visual clues Piggly Wiggly used to indicate that a product should be reordered and restocked. He observed cards strategically placed on certain food containers within each section of product. The product was not reordered and restocked until the tagged container was reached.

Ohno’s observations laid the foundation for Lean manufacturing and Kanban (from the Japanese word meaning “signboard”). The resulting Toyota Production System built upon the framework of “just-in-time” manufacturing, that is, responding to market demand without wasting time or resources by creating surplus. According to Toyota’s The Toyota Production System – Leaner Manufacturing for a Greener Planet, the basic concept was to make only what was needed when it is needed, and not to stockpile by making automobiles or ordering raw materials in advance. Much like Piggly Wiggly, Toyota placed visual cues at the point at which more cars would need to be manufactured and additional raw materials ordered. By doing this, Toyota’s just-in-time manufacturing method would significantly eliminate waste.

Fast Forward to the 2000s: Ohno intuitively suggested that industries beyond vehicle manufacturers could benefit from the application of Lean principles. His assumption was correct, and in the first decade of the 21^st century, other industries, including IT, were adopting Lean and Kanban concepts.

Kanban must not be thought of as a software development lifecycle process or a project-management process. Kanban is a change-management technique that requires making alterations to an existing process.

David J. Anderson, Kanban

David Anderson, originator of The Kanban Method and author of KANBAN: Successful Evolutionary Change for Your Technology Business, created the “virtual Kanban board” when he made work processes visible to his team of developers. In traditional forms of project management, when a developer completes a project task, they push the work to the owner of the next related task. Anderson’s concern was that work would pile up on the recipient’s desk before the developer had time to get to it. Kanban practitioners believe that much of this piled-up work, in addition to traditional project management planning activities, represents wasted energy and overhead.

People uniformly spend too much time estimating the size, costs, and impacts of their work. They over plan up front and as context changes, they find themselves endlessly modifying their original assumptions. Planning should occur with minimal waste; it shouldn’t become overhead.

Jim Benson, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life

A Kanban board contains columns which represent the workflow process and cards (such as sticky notes, etc.) which represent work items. When a Kanban team member completes one work item, they move the item on a physical or digital board to a holding column from which team members select or pull, their next task based on the current urgency of, or demand for, the work. This limits the work in progress to smaller, bite-size amounts and improves workflow.

A Kanban system is more than sticky notes on a wall.  Visualizing workflow is the basis of Kanban.  Visualization is also integral to keeping  Kanban’s pull system effective. To provide more context, below are the six practices at the heart of Kanban (from Kanbanize.com):

1.     Map Workflow

Carefully and precisely plan the workflow. Create columns on the board that accurately represent each stage of the work process.

2.     Establish Pull

After setting up the Kanban board, stop pushing work and start pulling it only when there is a demand for it.

3.     Limit Work in Progress

Control the amount of work that gets in and out of the workflow by placing limits on the number of work items in progress (WIP) in each column. This will reduce work item lead time and ensure the workflow is as smooth as possible.

4.     Break Down Work

Break down work into tasks that require only a few days to move from the first to last columns. As a result, not only will the cycle times of work assignments be reduced, but the bandwidth of your pull system will increase.

5.     Apply Pull Signals

Pull ‘signals’ will allow a team to understand when a task is ready to be moved to the next workflow stage. Create additional columns, such as “Review” or “Validate”, to function as pull signals on the board. This indicates to the team that these work items are ready to pull forward.

6.     Manage Bottlenecks

Even with workflow precisely represented on a Kanban board, bottlenecks can happen. If a bottleneck is identified, find the source of the problem and determine the measures that should be taken to prevent or remove it.

When these practices are followed, the Kanban team should notice the following benefits:

• Increased visibility of the workflow
• Improved delivery speed
• Alignment between goals and execution
• Improved predictability
• Improved dependencies management
• Increased customer satisfaction

For more information on Kanban or other Project Management tools and techniques, reach out to iSeek Solutions’ Project Management Team @info@iseeksolutionsinc.com.

Small business owner, Dan, has identified a strategic IT project that must be completed as soon as possible. The project’s successful implementation will position his company to meet certain strategic goals for the following year. However, Dan doesn’t have a certified project manager on staff and is concerned that he doesn’t have the time or resources to find one. Therefore, he has identified two internal candidates for the role of strategic project manager. 

Katie, a recent college graduate, is eager and motivated and gets along well with her colleagues. But Katie has never been part of a project team, let alone managed one. She has never interacted with executive level stakeholders. And she’s never scoped or sized a project or managed a project budget.  On the other hand, Jaylon has been with Dan’s company for 10 years. He manages a team of technical analysts. He is well known for his technical skills but not for his soft skills. And he sidesteps administrative tasks at every turn because, in his opinion, they are monotonous and unnecessary.   

Is Dan comfortable with putting this strategic project, and its potential impact on his business’s future, in the hands of Katie or Jaylon?  Would you be? 

In the early days of project management knowledge development, before professionals with credentials such as the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification were widely available, businesses looked to hard-working, well-meaning employees to lead their project efforts.  And businesses still do.  In the Entrepreneur.com article, 4 Product Management Mistakes That Will Drive You Crazy, entrepreneur and angel investor Andrew Medal lists the number one mistake that small or start-up business owners often make, that is, picking project managers out of convenience and not based on skills or qualifications.

Today, however, a business can engage a skilled project management practitioner to provide oversight and produce results for the duration of a strategic project.  Henry Mintzbert, author and professor of Management Studies, contends that management is ‘a practice where art, science, and craft meet.’  This is true indeed in project management.  Day in and day out, certified project managers expertly juggle the many moving parts of their projects thanks to their command of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) and their keen ability to tailor the PMBOK’s dynamic tools, techniques and outputs to suit each project they manage.

In the role of project manager, certified, experienced professionals constantly juggle multiple projects and responsibilities using a vast array of skills, including

• Project Planning
• Delegating
• Budgeting
• Monitoring
• Scheduling
• Collaborating
• Connecting with Leaders
• Assessing and Mitigating Risk
• Managing Vendors and Procurement
• Leading Teams
• Negotiating
• Motivating
• Prioritizing
• Managing Conflict

A PMP certification requires that candidates have extensive project management and leadership experience before applying to take the exam.  Applicants are also obliged to have appropriate academic credentials, to complete specific project management education, and to continue their education throughout their professional career.  Despite these rigorous requirements, the PMP designation is the most recognized and demanded certification within the project management field.

Using expert PMPs for project management not only impacts your business but also the way your clients view your business.  Your use of project management can…

• Attract more clients.  Because PMPs reduce the risk on any given project, clients are setting PMP certification as a requirement for businesses they work with.
• Prove your company’s dedication to meeting project goals, objectives and requirements.  Using project management professionals indicates to your client that your company can understand and meet complex project goals and satisfy detailed project requirements.
• Demonstrate your company’s commitment to proven project management processes and quality deliverables. Clients will see the value that project management brings to their projects when your company meets deadlines and delivers quality products. Clients will be more likely to work with your business than companies that don’t use experienced PMPs.

Why put your strategic projects in jeopardy?  Reach out to the Project Management team at iSeek Solutions where certification, experience, and proven results converge to provide a level of project management that will position your business for strategic success.

Please visit our website to learn more about iSeek Solutions, check out our project management resources and read our case studies that provide insight into some of the challenges we helped our clients successfully overcome. Or contact us at info@iseeksolutionsinc.com.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the world basically shut down. Many businesses were forced to close their doors. Those whose employees could work from home started to do so right away. Companies were forced to quickly figure out how to communicate, collaborate, share documents, and manage teams virtually. Truthfully, many companies are still “figuring it out”.

As we learn to live and work in an ongoing COVID-19 environment, we’re still grappling with numerous challenges. For many companies, the biggest challenge is reimaging how work gets done – in-office, hybrid, or remote.

Surveys show that most employees want a permanently hybrid work environment – or at least more flexible workplaces. This is a shift that has been coming for some time – the pandemic simply accelerated it.

An article from Insperity, an HR Solutions consulting firm, provides insightful ideas and strategies on gaining and retaining success in a hybrid work environment. It’s a great read! If you’re grappling with how to reimage how work gets done in your company, I highly recommend it. Below are some of its key recommendations.

If you’re a leader in a hybrid organization, you likely see both the benefits and the challenges. On one hand, you’re able to give your employees the flexibility they want, potentially enhancing overall productivity and increasing retention in a tight job market. On the other hand, you’re tasked with fostering sustainable communication, employee engagement, collaboration, and culture growth in an unmapped context.

To make your hybrid employee work environment a long-term success, you’ll need strategies for:

• Making your team more cohesive
• Leveling the playing field across remote, hybrid, and full-time office dwellers
• Elevating the engagement and productivity of your team

Here are 10 tips you can use today to build a successful hybrid work environment.

1. Focus on the core: employee engagement

Proximity is not necessarily a requirement for creating a work environment with high employee engagement.

Focus on the core elements, ensuring your employees:

• Have the tools and resources they need
• Know what is expected of them
• Feel that their opinions matter
• Experience opportunities to learn and grow
• Receive recognition regularly for doing good work

Granted, this is not easy work for managers under the best conditions, but it’s work that delivers results worthy of your efforts.

2. Do away with “top-down” communication

“Top-down” talk is history. C-suite leaders of today’s organizations are chief catalysts, connectors, and communicators. More than ever, dispersed employees need tangible threads to an organization’s direction, purpose, and values.

3. Acknowledge the human experience

Remember the first month we all started working from home? We collectively pulled back the big curtain on our life-beyond-work selves. In the months that followed, we navigated a myriad of challenges, from stress and overwhelm to homeschooling, financial pressure and health concerns – and we confirmed that we are human.

Hybrid work environments require leaders and colleagues to lead with empathy, listen and see the humanness in each other.

Organizations have added fresh benefits such as extended parental support, mental health resources, Peloton equipment and even “pawternity” leave for employees to spend time with a new family pet.

The best hybrid workplace leaders are finding authentic ways to show that they care about each employee’s human experience.

4. Create community

Social media has shown us that we can create strong community bonds across the miles when there are shared values and a palpable culture of belonging.

Empower your employees to create communities in your organization. Special interest groups (e.g., hikers, gardeners, kids’ coaches, DIY-ers, etc.) can create connectivity and camaraderie.

Take on a cause or two as an organization and empower your team to find ways to contribute that suit their talents, passions, and work mode. Connecting people to create good in the community (inside your organization or in your neighborhoods) benefits everyone.

5. Be mindful about time

Time is not replaceable. Now is the only currency you have. Be intentional about how you manage your time and how your team spends their time.

Carefully consider when your team should:

• Collaborate
• Buckle down to focus
• Reflect
• Recharge

Don’t bring everyone into the office just to have them sit in cubicles all day with their headphones on. Managers must be more proactive and efficient than ever to identify in which context work, creativity and collaboration are fostered.

6. See and use the whole playing field

Just like it’s easy to focus on the offense and top scorers in a football game, it may be easy to focus on the employees who are leading big projects or coming into the office every day.

Take time to acknowledge the contributions of all team members, near and far. Tell short success stories that demonstrate the connection and engagement of a broad array of team members. Seek out ideas from every corner of your organization. Check alignment with the big company scoreboard.

Connect talent to talent and watch productivity multiply.

7. Define outcomes and let your team deliver

Autonomy is the breakfast of champions.

A flexible work environment can spark innovative thinking and doing. New processes, better communication flows and more efficient use of resources are often the result of team empowerment.

Yes, some teams and individuals require more support and structure in fluid work environments. But resist a prescriptive solution. Flexibility fuels performance in a hybrid workplace.

8. Value people over desks

We are not where we were in the spring of 2020.

Many of us have hired new team members who don’t live within driving distance of the office. Other team members moved to far-flung locations during the pandemic and are no longer able to commute into the office. Teams that had a few remote workers are now comprised of more than 50% remote team members.

What brings us together is our culture. Culture was never about the desks, the fifteen-minute massage Fridays or the IPA on draft in the break room. Culture is about how we connect, how we communicate and how we see, trust, and treat each other. Culture can transcend time zones and miles.

Remember: It’s not about the office space. It’s about the people.

9. Up your meeting game

Reduce waste, and get rid of most of your meetings.

When you do have them, be intentional about how, why, and how long you sit in meetings. Schedule 25-minute meetings where 1-hour meetings used to live. Master the digital communication tools at your fingertips, and expect your team to do the same. Maximize face-to-face time by doing work that is truly done best in person.

Many companies are scheduling face-to-face business unit or company-wide meetings several times a year to leverage that premium connection time for the team.

Regardless of how you meet, be fully present. Say, “I see you,” with your voice, words, tone, and body language. Don’t multitask. Show up wholly, and show that team member 260 miles away that you care.

10. Be less supervisor, more coach in the hybrid work environment

Finally, we can rid the world of the term “supervisor.”

Whether your team members are in a cubicle eight feet away or in their home office 800 miles away, they need someone who clarifies direction, provides resources and offers recognition for doing great work.

In other words, be a coach who:

• Helps team members be daily learners and stretch themselves to be their best today
• Engages in two-way conversations that offer mutual benefit

When people see that you are invested in them and their growth, their trust, engagement, and productivity can soar – even while you’re sitting in the Houston office and they’re in their home office in Park City, Utah.

Summing it all up

Learning how to manage the new hybrid workplace requires a re-thinking of how work gets done, where and why. Mastering this shift can lead your team to greater productivity, stronger engagement, and a more satisfying experience.

iSeek Solutions is a boutique consulting firm, combining the latest technology and business practices with a personal touch that our clients appreciate. Our expert services, resources, know-how enable our clients to Align, Optimize, Empower, and Succeed.  To learn more about us, visit our website or contact us at info@iseeksolutionsinc.com.

apathy

• a behavior that shows no interest or energy and shows that someone is unwilling to act, especially over something important

Mark Feldman is the Founder and Managing Director of Cause Consulting, a social impact strategy and communications firm dedicated to simultaneously strengthening business and impacting society.

When reading Mark’s article, several points resonated with me. They’re aligned with my position on corporate responsibility as it relates not only to their shareholders and employees, but also to the causes that are important to their employees, community, and other stakeholders. Below are excerpts from Mark’s article:

During uncertain and potentially polarizing times, people will look for comfort and alignment with their beliefs. Their voices around the social issues that are important to them will rise even louder as they get more inspired and passionate, especially if they are scared. We need to be prepared to answer what our companies and brands stand for.

In the face of the many complex challenges that lie ahead, it might be easier to passively observe and wait for the pendulum to shift back, but ultimately that means being left behind. The role of corporate America around social issues is too important – and the opportunity too great — for us not to take carefully considered, strategic action.

Having worked with executives who act boldly and make a difference, here is what I optimistically expect to see more of from companies in the future:

• They will be open about sharing their purpose and values. If they haven’t yet developed them, this is the time to do some corporate soul-searching and define what the organization or brand stands for. For companies with strong corporate citizenship programs, I expect to see increased articulation of their values and purpose, and even greater communication around their social impact work.
• They will cultivate deeper engagement with stakeholders. They’ll listen to people and the frustrations of those who feel “unheard” by leadership. Many companies already have channels for soliciting and acting on stakeholder feedback and incorporating what they learn into business decisions. Those that don’t will need to create them.
• They will recognize that a deep understanding of social issues is critical to their ability to make a difference. They will be more focused and strategic. These businesses will be more effective and smarter about their corporate citizenship thanks to this expertise.
• They will take leadership roles around issues that are most important and relevant to their employees, consumers, and other stakeholders. Building upon years of corporate responsibility innovation, companies will apply a broad combination of expertise, product, financial, and advocacy resources to drive social impact.

Our task this year is to look deep inside our companies and ourselves and ask what is truly important. We’ll need a point of view, a lens to make decisions, and at times, the guts to go outside our comfort zone and stand up for what we believe in. I hope we will all choose to capitalize on opportunities to both strengthen business and impact society.

action

• the process of doing something, especially when dealing with a problem or difficulty

iSeek’s Business Health Check resource is designed to take the pulse of your organization. The Health Check is a customized assessment that analyzes areas such as

• How is the business dealing with the external factors beyond its control? Like environment and social impacts, competition, customers, including owners/shareholders.
• What do you want the future of the business to be about?
  Objectives, Strategies, Purpose and Values: What actions do you need to take to make this vision a reality? 

To learn more about iSeek Solutions, please visit our website or contact us at info@iseeksolutionsinc.com

“Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.”

-Joel A. Barker

At iSeek, we’ve been fortunate to partner with numerous great companies on impactful and innovative initiatives. Each initiative started as a vision and through the actions of many became a reality.

As a boutique consulting firm, we’re often looking forward for that next great opportunity. Today, I’d like to look backward at a few of the initiatives where iSeek played a major role in turning vision into reality.

City of Birmingham Police Department

The Birmingham Police Department’s world-class Real Time Crime Center utilizes technology and data driven intelligence to aid in prevention of crime and the apprehension of the offenders responsible. The technology provides immediate real time intelligence to responding officers and investigators on high risk calls for service which improves situational awareness and increases officer safety.

With the combined efforts of iSeek’s Enterprise Project Management Group, the Birmingham Police Department’s Technical Lead, and the City’s Capital Projects project manager the Real Time Crime Center went live in October 2021. [read more]

The University of Alabama at Birmingham

The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is a world-class educational and research institution with an innovative Information Technology (IT) organization. UAB IT, as a technology enablement organization for the campus, endeavors to align itself with the needs of the students, faculty, and staff by developing and maintaining solutions that support the ever-changing environment with applications, tools, and access to technology.

UAB IT partnered with iSeek to design a customized shared governance framework that aligns people, process and technology to the University’s enterprise. [read more]

Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County

The legislative voting system at the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County (a.k.a. “Metro”) supports 40 Council members and several Metro departments as they develop important legislation for more than 700,000 constituents. The system is required to perform the essential functions critical to running a Council meeting, tabulating, and recording Council votes, as well as controlling display monitors and microphones. When the system began experiencing audio and technical failures, the Clerk’s Metro Office recognized the need to evaluate their options. In addition to the technical failures, the legacy solution lacked important functional features, such as storing information and automating any part of the legislative process.

After an extensive search, Metro selected iSeek to coordinate the effort, locate vendors, and oversee the implementation process. “We needed a partner to help us properly identify, procure, and deploy a fully integrated solution,” said Shannon Hall, Metro Clerk. “It was clear that iSeek understood our vision, could serve as liaison to external vendors, and would help us put the new system in place successfully.”

Cleary, our iSeek team is very thankful to have played a part in these and many other foundational, as well as state-of-the-art initiatives. We’re proud of the measurable results we produce and the personalized service we provide. We’re confident our clients feel the same about our contributions.

Please visit our website and read our case studies to learn more about these and other impactful iSeek engagements. Then contact us at info@iseeksolutionsinc.com to assist you in taking your initiative from vision to reality.

It has been difficult to predict what the first quarter of the new year would bring for business owners, employees, and investors. COVID-19 has lingered, evolved, and has remained unpredictable over the past three years with minimal signs of letting up. The pandemic combined with supply chain issues and restrictions, The Great Resignation, and labor shortages higher prices across the board seem inevitable. The pandemic has accelerated several technology trends including health care innovation, sustainability, digital transformation, and remote/flexible work environments that drove many businesses into the digital era.

However, the most important question is – How is YOUR business performing so far – steady, growing, or stagnant? Organizations and business owners have learned during these challenging and pivotal times that to accelerate your business performance, an organization needs to understand the business’s current performance and future potential. Management guru Peter Drucker is often quoted as having said, “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” and our iSeek Solutions team couldn’t agree more.

iSeek helps improve and accelerate your business by analyzing your year-to-date performance. We peel back the layers and review the health of your organization. Assessing health and performance early often will boost your business’ performance, resilience in such unprecedented times, and long-term growth.

Our free iBPA© – Business Performance Assessment provides an in-depth assessment of an organization’s addressable spend, organization alignment, and human capital. We discover cost savings, uncover revenue potential, increase operational effectiveness, and align vision, mission, and goals to enable winning outcomes.

Our iBHC© – Business Health Check diagnostic tool is used in associating and comparing your business purpose and desired objectives to actual outcomes.

As mentioned in our blog Early Detection may Save Your Life… and Your Business! a business health check, like a physical health exam, should be conducted regularly, no less than annually. A health check ensures the business is tracking towards its goals. It delivers insight into the overall performance of your business, uncovers opportunities for improvements, measures employee health and the end-user experience, and assesses the organization’s culture, engagement, and alignment. It’s an opportunity to make course corrections, mitigate or exploit risks or market changes or take advantage of new and innovative solutions.

Don’t wait until the next quarter or when your organization is sinking, make sure your business’ performance is on the right track as the first quarter of 2022 comes to a close.

“Return to normalcy” was United States presidential candidate Warren G. Harding’s campaign slogan for the election of 1920. He was considered a long shot at best, but turned the corner just weeks before the nominating convention when he said these words in a speech in Boston in May 1920:

“America’s present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration.”

The country was emerging from the devastation of World War I, which claimed 117,000 U.S. lives, and the Spanish flu pandemic, which claimed the lives of another 675,000 Americans (and an estimated 50 million around the globe).

As for Warren G. Harding, his was a case study in being careful what you wish for. A return to normalcy for him meant scandals and ill health. The 29th president caught the flu — not the Spanish flu, but a descendant — just two years into his term and never recovered. He died at 57 in August 1923.

Fast forward to March 2022. We’re all exhausted from the impacts and challenges of COVID pandemic. And we frequently say that we want to “return to normal.” But do we really? Ask yourself these questions from the Times News, February 24, 2022, Print Edition:

Do we really want to return to normal in politics where politicians are more concerned with getting reelected than doing what is best for the country (which is its people) regardless of the political consequences?

Do we really want to return to normal work where people (are required to) commute every morning from home to office and commute back every night from office to home?

Do we really want to return to a normal healthcare system where many people do not have adequate health care, and where too many have no health care?

Do we really want to return to normal where we give up what we have discovered that is useful, that makes our lives easier?

• Like Zoom, which allows us to participate in events whenever we cannot be there physically, as when visiting distant relatives, traveling on business, or enjoying a vacation.
• Like ordering food from our favorite restaurants and grocery stores through their apps and then picking it up at a time convenient for us, or having it delivered to our homes.
• Like the option of remote learning when weather or personal circumstances prohibit our children from physically being in school.

The pandemic shed light on issues that were either typically sidestepped or accepted with little resistance. Like mental health, wealth inequality, underpaid work, racial injustice and equity, and lack of diversity. Will returning to normal life mean sweeping these hard conversations back under the rug?

Truthfully, it’s way past time we stop using the term “return to normal” because we cannot. We can only live in today’s normal and work to make the societal changes necessary so that tomorrow’s normal is what we want it to be.