One of the hottest trends in organizational development is the emergence of Social Networking. This is NOT the world of Facebook or MySpace. This is the world of the networks that exists in companies, communities, organizations, etc. Who knows who and who are those that have clout, power, insights and information.

One of those in the middle of all of this is a local by the name of Valis Krebs. Recently I found a blog that he is associated with (see my post below). http://www.networkweaving.com/blog Watch for this trend of Social Networking to seep into business, especially as people figure out how to do it with out threatening everyone who is outside of a given network.

Kordell

In the early 1990 the use of a power-based social network was fused into traditional sales strategies. The premise was that if you could figure out who were the individuals that had clout and power in any organization, that the principle of “where Eagles gather” would take over. Find one point of political power and that person would then lead you to all of the others who had similar power.

Another principle was that these individuals got power because they knew how to manage the risks the business experienced by adding additional value add both internal to the organization or by outside vendors, partners or other service providers.

Trust. If you are going to bring in outside “value add” and you are a person in power. . . you have got to trust, indeed even know that they can indeed bring value.

Trust worthiness then as at the core of anyone being able to expand your value into a client, customer or organization.

Kordell Norton

www.KordellNorton.com

Home Depot . . . .the fish stinks from the head down

Our washing machine crashed and burned.

After researching we headed off to the big box stores in search of whiter whites.

We ended up at Home Depot to experience a wonderful experience by a truly great sales person. As a professional speaker I was looking forward to using the whole buying experience in my seminars. So last week I stopped back at the store to gather some information. The sales representative indicated that because we had bought the appliance from her, she had won a sales award.

After congratulating her, we headed back to a copy machine to get extra copies of some documents for me. We stopped at supervisors office to use said copier only to have him very rudely shut the door in my face.

There should be a new term out there. When upper management loses touch with reality, I propose a new description for that person as. . . . pulling a Nardelli (after the ousted former CEO at Home Depot who drove off the customers, Wall Street and public opinion.

It is too bad that when you find a great resource that they have to work for a boss who is a clod.

A few weeks ago I was working with 20+ executives who ran small utility companies. Many of them owed their income stream for government "endowments" and awards that are almost 100 years old. They have lived in a protected world so long that their business growth muscles were flabby and weak from underuse. To get them to think about the the potential for the business was difficult.

Change. It is like a drug for everyone these days. Who is doing what? What is new? Finding the New new thing.

I tell people in my seminars that 1 year of change for us today is equal to what your grandfather experienced in 70 years. That is 3 days per hour.

So is change good or bad? A long argument could ensue but that fact is that it just is.

I work with companies and people who have the self confidence to pro-actively take change into their hands and move forward with courage into the unknown. And isn't each new day an unknown?

Those who don't manage change to the positive will most likely react to the negative change that results in their life.

Have a great day.

Kordell Norton
www.KordellNorton.com