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Here is a familiar scene:
the boss comes to you and says
the company is going through
cost cutting measures. He is
putting you in charge of your
department. You are now
responsible for budgets,
contracts, purchasing and six
other people. He asks, “Can
you handle that?” No one in
his or her right mind would
say no. As you nod yes, you
say to yourself – “I’ll figure
it out somehow.” Change
happens.
We
are told that the biggest
problem in business today is
that employees are resistant to
change. “People don’t like
change.” We expect
resistance; we plan for it.
What if that isn't really the
problem? People love change.
They go to the grocery store
and buy something they never
heard of just because it’s
new, improved, different. We
demand new timesaving
appliances for our home. We
spend our leisure, vacation
time exploring places we have
never been to before.
The problem might be better
defined as people lacking the
training and education – the
confidence – to use electronic
business tools.
Education goes beyond the
training manuals and help
guides. When you learn to
perform a task by rote, it is
difficult to identify problems
or opportunities for
improvement. Learning how to
enter invoice information is a
lot easier when you are
comfortable with general
accounting principles; when
you know why you are doing
what you are doing. If
you use a list of instructions
to travel from one place to
the next, and something is
wrong with the instructions or
you encounter a problem, you
are in trouble. But if
you have a map, showing how
the streets interact with one
another - then you have enough
information to get around the
trouble spots, or perhaps see
a better way to accomplish
your goal.
Good education includes the
bigger picture, well-defined
goals, the confidence needed
to use new tools and the
motivation to succeed.
Out-Smart Your Competitors
There is a good chance your
competitors have the same
hardware and software you do.
What you achieve with those EC
tools depends on the
knowledge-base, creativity and resourcefulness
of your people. Vince
Lombardi, the
legendary Green Bay Packer
football coach, said their
opponents usually knew what the
next play was. His team
just executed so well, no one
could stop them.
What is your company policy on
education? More importantly,
what message are you sending
to your employees? Is it
acceptable to “blow off”
training because there are
more pressing matters? Was
tuition reimbursement one of
the first things to go when
the budget was shaved? Do
you encourage going back to
school in your employee
manual, but culturally admire
those individuals who figure
it out “by the seat of their
pants”? Maybe you are missing
out on the strategic advantage
that would allow you to
out-smart your competitors.
This might be a good time to
re-think your company
priorities. We all know and
admire people who, no matter
what their age, seem to
maintain a life-long passion
for learning. Perhaps that’s
the kind of person your
company should hire for your
new Vice-President of
Education.
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