Consultant Collaborative Gets Some Attention

Can a Bunch of Well-Meaning, Undermployed Business Consultants Really Make a Difference?

The perfect recipe, some would say: a group of highly skilled yet undermployed business consultants and some needy Non-Profits.  The marriage of needs seemed easy to predict.  It's called the Minerva Project.  (Minerva was the Roman goddess of wisdom and commerce.)

Two recent media outlets provided some "boost" to the program:

Press Democrat Piece (Sonoma County,A New York Times Paper)
KRCB Radio Piece NorthBay Report links for audio files. (This is an NPR affiliate.)

While the media helped to get some attention -- and draw in some more consultants and Non-Profits -- it was a validation for the members who've been working on organizing the Minerva Project. 

Non-Profits who are involved also get a rare glimpse into the behind-the-scenes workings; they see consultants brainstorming, planning, getting frustrated and arriving at some conclusions. 

But, can these Consultants really do anything of importance for the Non-Profit community and the societal good?  Can their own collaborations help their non-profit clietns?  We'll see.  For now, though, I'd say it's already working. 

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Minerva Meeting Report: 10 November 2009

Consultants Meet to Discuss Structure, Methods

Six consultants gathered at CAP Sonoma's Conference Room on November 10, 2009.  The purpose of the session was to figure out how to make the delivery of pro bono consulting services to Non-Profits more effective, more productive. 

Adhering to a model offered by member Merith Weisman, Sonoma State University, the group wrestles with a new approach: not just charity but collaboration and reciprocity.  The idea that both the consultants and the NP's are learning...from each other and the process.

Pictured from the left are: Julie Kawahara, Jerry Green, Doug McCorkle, Merith Weisman, Lomesh Shah.  Next meeting is 24 November 2009, 4pm at CAP Sonoma, 1300 North Dutton, Santa Rosa.

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Great Time for Consultants and Pro Bono Work

Organizing Help for Non-Profits in North Bay

Mark Your Calendar: September 2, 2009 - 10am to 11:30am: Consultants Help Non-Profits (see below for map link)

Sonoma County, California is home to a great number of non-profits.  Ecological centers; social justice causes; disadvantaged peoples; reducing gang violence; sustainability: many agencies are working against the odds while doing some good work.  I'd like to help them and hope I can interest you!

Tough times for these non-profits -- and everyone else too -- means...THEY NEED HELP!  That's what this post is about: using our talents to help non-profits who want that help. 

If you're a business, computer, management consultant, coach, I'm angling for you to get involved.  Are you interested?  Even if there isn't some financial payoff right now?  I'm hoping on that, though, at some point in the future: the long view. 

I like being used, having my talents exploited.  And, I assume I'm not that different from most other consultants: I believe most consultants are helpful folks, at their core. 

So, here is a chance to help, do some good work and get our talents exploited in the process. 

First meeting: we will be inviting forty (40) non-profits and about 30 consultants.  We're hoping to pair organizations in need with the skills and expertise of consultants through some fun exercises and methods. 

Could you do this where you live/work?  Create a forum for consultants and non-profits to get together? 

Sonoma Mountain Business Cluster Map

For more information, email me at
george@theapgconsulting.com
Subscribe to High Performance Organizations
APG Consulting Website
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Workers: "Jittery and Compliant?" What About Consumers?

Reports of Highest Number of Tax Extensions

A short meeting with our Financial Advisor, Jerry (not his real name), on Friday, yielded some fascinating information about the behaviors of consumers, taxpayers. A few months ago, I posted a piece about workers being "jittery and compliant" but consumers are showing signs of stress from financial woes --- in a slightly different way.

His report had to do with his own clients as well as those of his CPA peers. First, Jerry tells me, quite soberly, that his clients are cancelling appointments without decent reasons. And, when they do show up, many of them -- many more than usual -- are, sort of, dazed. The way he describes it to me makes me think of the deer or bunny, frozen in the car's headlights: paralyzed.

So, Jerry says they show up but they can't really talk about the situation, their situation. He's a sweet and gentle guy so I think he knows the limitations in this context. This is only one piece of the story.

The story's other source are the CPA's whom Jerry works with: their report is that they have never filed as many extensions as they have this year. Why? Their clients can't get their act together to bring in all of the paperwork; just can't pull the stuff together. Dazed, they say.

So, how has this state of affairs been so well shielded from the media? Is it possible that this is a story they're deliberately overlooking?

Does the Internet Have Any Compassion?

Music Store Puts in Question: Compassion in Commerce



"More Compassionate than the Internet" Reads Their Home-made Sign







Last Friday, as I was leaving a coffee meeting with a new business acquaintance, I was broadsided by the most simple, and perhaps clever, form of advertising: the sidewalk sandwich board.



Now, I'm left wondering: does the Internet have any compassion? Any at all? This blog entry, representative of more than a few minutes of my time (I have the hardest time getting pictures into these posts): will it get noticed? Will I get a response? Is it "monetizable?"



I think the music store with its board is making a point: the Internet is impersonal, uncaring. Unless one has an "inside guy," most of these sites are unapproachable. I thought it was a stroke of genius when PayPal got "Customer Service Reps."



The interesting piece of study for me is that the Internet, as a tool, as a device, is moving so swiftly forward that the inertia pulls up seeming neanderthals, like me, in the wind of its wake. Like a bullet train whisking me along; it's anything but friendly. Scary is more like it. Wild.



I love movies and, often, I'm educated by them and given lines that I like to share in conversation. This one comes from "Jurassic Park" when Jeff Goldblum's character, a Chaos Theory scientist, soberly states to John Hammond, the flea circus pioneer cum dinosaur cloner: You were so busy asking "could you" that you never thought to ask "should you." Reminds of large bank bailouts, too.

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Malcolm Gladwell: "Socially Horrifying" Tactics Can Yield Winners

David Beats Goliath More of the Time Using These Strategies

Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers and Blink, writes in The New Yorker on how the underdogs win battles, basketball games, simulated water wars.  What lessons from these illustrations can we apply to the business world? 

In Goliath's time, duels with Philistines were a formal affair: they began with the crossing of swords. David, a shepherd, "came at Goliath with a slingshot and staff because those were the tools of his trade." He brought a shepherd’s rules to the battlefield.

A young girls' basketball team in Redwood City, California -- while not as talented or as tall as their competitors -- used the "full court press" to bewilder their opponents and force them to make more mistakes.  The smaller girls would steal the ball and, then, make high-percentage layup shots.

Their Coach, one of the girls' dads, cricket and soccer player and new thinker/software pioneer, made his analysis: It was as if there were a kind of conspiracy in the basketball world about the way the game ought to be played, and Ranadivé thought that that conspiracy had the effect of widening the gap between good teams and weak teams.

Thirdly, a computer scientist named Lenat developed an artificial intelligence program to help win a war game competition. What he found proved to be "socially horrifying."

But, Eurisko didn't have that kind of preconception, partly because it didn’t know enough about the world.” So it found solutions that were, as Lenat freely admits, “socially horrifying”: send a thousand defenseless and immobile ships into battle; sink your own ships the moment they get damaged.

Detective of fads and emerging subcultures, chronicler of jobs-you-never-knew-existed, Malcolm Gladwell's work is toppling the popular understanding of bias, crime, food, marketing, race.  What does his theory about "socially horrifying" tactics tell us?  That there are "gentleman's rules" by which all competitions engage?  That there are tactics, while valuable and effective, which can be repugnant? 

Some would just call this stuff, these "inappropriate" methods  "out of the box" thinking.  I'd be in that court; time for some big change.  Break the norms. 

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Three Forces Shaping Business and Management "Technology"

Gary Hamel Offers Unique Perspective on Business Environment

Writing on his new thinking, Hamel shares some new ideas worthy of consideration for business managers and executives on "the technology of management."

"today, the overriding problem for every organization is how to change, deeply and continually, at an accelerating pace."

The three pressures that he elucidates:

1. We're facing a hypercompetitive environment and "relentless pressure on margins."
2. Workers are better equipped, than ever before, to collaborate due to social networks.
3. 20-somethings are more interested in performance than rank; they want to be recognized and compensated based on performance and contribution not credentials

How will these forces transform your management methods, style? Or, will it be a resister?

Gary Hamel, a consultant and educator, has been ranked as the #1 most influential business thinker in the world by the Wall Street Journal. For the whole piece, see the link below:


http://whatmatters.mckinseydigital.com/organization/three-forces-that-will-transform-management

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Three Forces Shaping Business and Management "Technology"

Gary Hamel Offers Unique Perspective on Business Environment

Writing on his new thinking, Hamel shares some new ideas worthy of consideration for business managers and executives on "the technology of management."

"today, the overriding problem for every organization is how to change, deeply and continually, at an accelerating pace."

The three pressures that he elucidates:

1. We're facing a hypercompetitive environment and "relentless pressure on margins."
2. Workers are better equipped, than ever before, to collaborate due to social networks.
3. 20-somethings are more interested in performance than rank; they want to be recognized and compensated based on performance and contribution not credentials

How will these forces transform your management methods, style? Or, will it be a resister?

Gary Hamel, a consultant and educator, has been ranked as the #1 most influential business thinker in the world by the Wall Street Journal. For the whole piece, see the link below:


http://whatmatters.mckinseydigital.com/organization/three-forces-that-will-transform-management

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Google: The Behemoth That Creates

Walking Directions in Beta

I am continuously impressed by the areas in which Google finds some opportunity to exploit, some service to provide.

I just went to Google Maps this morning for some idea on directions to a location I don't visit often. There it is: a little walking icon. And, a caution:


It's hard for me to imagine how a company so large and that has grown so quickly could continue to drive income and innovation simultaneously. Sort of mind boggling, isn't it? I mean, they dominate in many areas that they choose to serve and generate cash flow while supporting a high share price -- still hovering at around 330.

I think it's a good thing to wonder about companies like these from time to time. While we might be inclined to ask "how do they do it?", I think a more important question would be "why do they do it?" It reminds of the answer that Peter Block gave to a questioner years ago: "If you focus on the 'why,' the 'how' will take care of itself." That's a discipline I have incorporated into my life. For good value.

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Non-Profits Struggle During Challenging Times

California State Universities Work to Help Community

Went to a meeting at a University last week. An effort by part of their outreach function to link eco-minded community organizations with University faculty and resources. A nice idea. The last time they held a meeting like this was three years ago.

Until the folks convened, I don't think the organizers knew how they were going to run the meeting -- typical for academia? I hope not. But, it came off just fine. So much for me the Kilroy, the cynic, the naysayer. But, I told me so.

Anyway, all of these organizations whose mission was about outdoor education, sustainability, eco-commerce needed volunteers. What a way to start up a business: most of the work, at least some of the work, has to get done by folks who are doing it for the "feel good" of the exercise. Well, for some meaning, as well; we shan't forget that, shall we?

So, demand for services are up and so are the number of unemployed folks. While they can't put food on the table by volunteering, they can get some meaning, feel good, eh?

So much of what I'm thinking these days is just filled with so much uncertainty, so much that's not discernible. Overdetermined a good friend of mine called it. Overdetermined.

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