Re-Invented…and flowing with the Go!

Many years ago, my company office was a closed door affair. I’d work behind the scenes and occasionally I’d be interrupted by a phone-call or a knock on the door. The next evolution was to have an open plan. A contact of mine advanced the idea that we should knock down the walls and open up to new ideas. After flattening as many walls as we could without bringing the roof down on us, we settled down to business.

The next change was when I was asked to consider hiring people who were “off-the-wall” Well, with few walls to begin with, I hinted that we might as well consider the ceiling a `wall’ in that case; but I went along with the recommendation because I’m all about looking beyond the horizon.

Well, at the beginning of this month I stumbled on a new phrase that literally turned our conventional wisdom on its head. My HR team leader came to me and told me that we should consider hiring those people who could do the job “while standing on their heads” as he put it. It’s supposed to be so easy for the person, that they could do the job without having to think about it.

So, we’ve gone from looking forwards, being off the wall, to now standing on our heads around here. Some might think we’re nuts and I had a few comments when I published the internal newsletter with the articles upside down. My new motto is to flow with the go, because it’s better than going with the flow.

2 cents.

To those running around like chickens managing more than one social media account. Well, if it’s not your full-time job, it might as well be if you have more than five and you are not keeping a scheduled, disciplined approach to it. Since I am still the de-facto Virtual Assistant for some accounts, I find the only way to keep my head still screwed on straight after it all is to stick to a scheduled approach. Linked in gets priority because it’s a professional site and I value the people. Then Facebook, which I help manage pages, blog and keep an eye out on trends for people. Then Virb and others such as Tweeter, etc in descending priority. I find unless I do that, I’m strung out at the end of the day and I still have half of those FB blogs not written, status updates not done etc. I learned just how much work this is in January, because for the full month, I took over this responsibility for the company and realised just what a potential monster I had to tame. It took me until mid-February to do so, and the chart on the LCD display above my desk tells everyone just whose blog I’m working on when. It’s very much like a professional ER, where the surgeons are shown on which case in which ER and I now do Triage. Once I’ve done the effective Triage as it were, then the output from my desk goes to our VA who then organises it all and sees that it gets posted. I find that the Triage concept works well, though it was one of those skunk-works projects that evolved from the trenches as it were. It wasn’t until I descended down into the trenches that I realised the sheer volume of blog that our people generate. Mind you, we have a principle that our people are human first, business people second. That too is something we found was key to making our international scope work. Now try doing it on a global scale.. and in multiple languages…I only did it for our North American traffic. Now I’m working on a plan to spread it throughout the globe in an effort to take ourselves into a mobile organisation across the globe. Some tell me it’s a BIG Goal. I say it’s go big or go home…. And that’s my 2 cents.

Butterfly Dreaming: A Movie to think about.

Will Bosch Founder The WGB Group International Enterprise© wgbgroup www.wgbgroup.wordpress.com “Lle mae Ewyllys, mae yna ffordd” — Welsh Proverb: <<>> “Where there’s a will, there’s a way!”

Reflect on This

Will Bosch Founder The WGB Group International Enterprise© wgbgroup www.wgbgroup.wordpress.com “Lle mae Ewyllys, mae yna ffordd” — Welsh Proverb: <<>> “Where there’s a will, there’s a way!”

Master Mind Thinking… For the good!

UNLIMITED POWER MAY BE AVAILABLE WHEN TWO OR MORE PEOPLE COORDINATE THEIR THOUGHTS AND ACTIONS IN A SPIRIT OF PERFECT HARMONY FOR THE ATTAINMENT OF A DEFINITE PURPOSE.

A Master Mind alliance involves two or more people working together in perfect harmony toward the attainment of a common purpose. Such a partnership creates a superpower that enables each of its members to do far more than either would have been able to achieve separately. Choose your Master Mind partners carefully. Align yourself with people whose strengths complement yours. If you are a right brain person, for example, a logically-driven left brain person may be a perfect counterbalance to your creative bent. Above all, choose to associate only with people who share your positive values and your commitment to similar levels of achievement. — www.naphill.org

Start Thinking Mind Meld style

Will Bosch Founder The WGB Group International Enterprise© wgbgroup www.wgbgroup.wordpress.com “Lle mae Ewyllys, mae yna ffordd” — Welsh Proverb: <<>> “Where there’s a will, there’s a way!”

Eye Opener III

Well, Today marks the end of week one of the trials of the manager who decided to see exactly how his own virtual assistant worked by doing the job himself. Years ago, I had one and she helped manage everything, from correspondence to reminders and the works. Then she became virtual, working from a computer and I didn’t see her except at functions and very important meetings, yet she continued to work on improving the little touches such as remembering people’s names, faces etc. She became my virtual Rolodex as well, because I’d consult her to remember who I had e-mailed, phoned, google’d etc. This week, that all came home to me as I sat in her chair and she sat at my desk. Now I had to remember who she called and who I had running which project and where they were going to be and when their vacation started. Let me say this. She taught me in a hurry that a lot of what the VA does for a great boss, is to be their reminder focus. For the boss with a vision, it helps if she is a clairvoyant, because she seamlessly knows where to put all the pieces. For the Boss who is considerate, the VA is ;like an angel at his right hand, able to navigate the halls of power and seemingly like magic, make doors open and things happen. For the Boss, learning how to do it all over again, is a breath of fresh air. Now I know why I hired her. After sixteen years, she can still teach me a few things and that is why I am thinking of somehow making a new company so that she can head it in a direction she wants to go. That’s another topic for another time.

Let’s hear it for all the V.A.’s out there!! Let’s make it their decade, because without them, we’d be nowhere!

New Years Eve _ Eye Opener!

Ten years ago I challenged a small group of individuals I was with by thanking them for the success they had contributed to in making the little company we had founded into an organisation that was featured on the cover of Fortune 500 Magazine. I went around the table and each of the thirty I named by name and thanked them for the contributions they made that gave us the astounding successes. I praised them for their contributions and left myself for last, quoting Sir Winston Churchill, whom I will paraphrase here. He said, when speaking about WWII, ‘…that the rest of the free world had been the lion and that he had been glad to have been called upon to give the roar.” I said that as CEO it was my duty to spread the thanks, for without them, I was just one. With them as a whole, WE had made fortune magazine’s highest honours, to be featured on the cover. I literally went on my computer and created a false cover for my own edition of the fortune magazine to make it real for them in the presentation. Afterwards, when this presentation was reviewed, I was told I was an Anthony Robbins. Well, him I am not physically, though to be compared to someone who at the time was a mentor of inspiration, really cheered me on.

Now, Ten years later, I now realise that this is the sort of wisdom every CEO, every member of the company needs to have and to live, to really enjoy life, because isn’t that what it is all about in the end anyway? I am looking backwards from this time a year from now and thanking every one of you reading this blog, as you reflect on it, for having made me into a better person than I was when it was originally written. Each one of you, in your unique way, made me and the world a better place to be in. You continue to make it better every day, so thank you! Yes, It deserves saying again, Thank You!

Then, in the spirit of enjoyment, I am wishing you a happy 2011, and a happy 2010. 2009 was wonderful, 2010 was even better. Let’s go out there and make 2011 fantastic, by making every day fantastic by being fully involved with what our dreams are. Live them and they will be!

Eye Opener

Sometimes there are things that like a boot to the side of the head or a crash barrier right in front of you that make you stop and think. Today at 03:00 I had one of those moments. Starting January 1st, 2010, my organisation, that I put together out of a desperate idea that I was worth more than I was making will be 30 years old. What sort of legacy have I built in those 30 odd years? Well, I do know that I have made an impact on over 200 lives to the positive, but what else have I done that I didn’t, or didn’t know how to that would have been better served? That was the ton of bricks that whacked me in the head. It doesn’t matter what I didn’t do, it matters more what I do! The NOW, as in Eckhart Tolle’s book The Power of Now is where my focus must be. This very blog must now be aligned with what my vision is and that must be something that everyone, customers , me and my organisation must be able to understand.

So what am I thinking now? That I have a mission and that is to take it to the next level, find my “A” game and let practice and discipline take hold. Play with my heart in the game and win or lose, I will win and in the end that is what counts. Not the number of breaths I took, but quite literally how many moments took my breath away because of what they represented to me and those I cherish, whether they be family, friends, colleagues or customers. The clock is ticking>>> What are you doing NOW?

Eye Catcher:

I use a statement by noted science fiction author Robert Heinlein as part of my e-mail signature.  Recently though I thought that it needed updating to bring it up to the twenty-first century.  So here goes:  First the original quote is this:

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship,
design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying,
take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure,
program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

— Robert A. Heinlein.

I’d add the following:  write a blog, de-mystify geek, create an avatar, read and translate an e-book, Create a Powerpoint presentation, write a script, photograph and direct the film and then produce it, create an mp3 from scratch, create an e-group, moderate a discussion,.

what would you add?