Preparing for the Upswing & a Change in Direction
From an organisational perspective it is pretty common for senior managers to spend significant energy considering when to upgrade plant and equipment, be it machinery, vehicles or IT infrastructure. The upgrades can occur on the run (in response to a surge in demand for instance), as a result of necessity (say as a result of a breakdown or unexpected damage) or as a planned development. The farming sector are very good at upgrading equipment in response to expected demand whilst also having a great handle on plant servicing and repairs. The current manufacturing sector is more cautious and most will upgrade as needed, holding off for as long as possible until confident a surge in demand is emerging. But what about your people? How many organisations ‘upgrade’ their people talent in time?
The interesting thing for me is that whilst new machinery can be up and running quickly or new IT can roll out with an incumbent system in place, the people elements can take a little longer. Which poses the question, at what point do you prepare your people for a change or an upswing?
Training and people development ought to be an ongoing thing. Sadly, it’s not. Formal and informal training elements can be developed and programmed. In much the same way as you maintain plant and equipment, maintenance and upgrading of the capabilities of your staff ought to occur consistently. There are THREE core areas that you can focus on: Strategic capability; Operational capability; and Execution capability. You’ll note that for most organisations, the belief is that ‘execution’ is the role of ‘Operation’. NOTHING can be further from the truth. The Organisational Evolution Model highlights the flaws in thinking that ‘Ops’ is where things get executed.
So the time to prepare for the upswing and changes in direction, is NOW. And tomorrow, and the day after that. Training is not a cost centre, its a development centre. If you put it off you’ll constantly be playing catch up to competitors who are already ‘ready’. Significantly, by the time an opportunity is spotted it’ll have likely sailed by before you can respond effectively. So be smart – Strategic, Operational, and Execution training ought to be a constant area of development.
For those of you that follow me on other platforms, you’ll have seen, heard or read some of my thoughts on the lab grown proteins from firms like #ImpossibleFoods or #BeyondMeat. I’m a fan of those lab grown protein concepts arriving at that position whilst undertaking a Master of Science in 2004 in which…
Read More >Trying to understand something you’ve never experienced before can be a real challenge. In this post the #Covid19 #pandemic is explained using cars and traveling Your body is your car – it’s your mode of transport in this life. We want to treat it well and insure it and ideally we want to be able…
Read More >There’s a significant disconnect with a number of articles on ‘Hybrid Workplaces’ and it’s really disappointing to see SO MANY large consultants pump out articles that ignore reality. So this is a short take to offer an additional perspective. 1) Hybrid workplaces have existed for centuries, they are not new, though the sudden interest is…
Read More >Hi everyone – though a focus on particular those of you in Victoria, Australia who have an idea related to sports, active living or recreation that they might like to convert into a business. Sportstech & Active Living Pre-Accelerator program is being run by the Australian Sport Technologies Network (ASTN) and the Global Sports…
Read More >Old normal, new normal, normal normal. As some businesses aim to rush back to ‘old normal’ they’re likely missing a key opportunity to define, perhaps for the first time, what a new normal should look like for themselves. This Workforce Planning framework should help As a CEO or senior manager, here’s questions I’d want…
Read More >As Covid19 variants continue to emerge, the cause of which can be fairly placed at a lack of social distancing and slow vaccine rates that allow ‘mixing’ of viral strains in social settings, India is on the brink of a healthcare collapse and the implications for Australian companies, especially in the tech sector, are huge.…
Read More >What does the future hold for Australia in the next 3 months, to 3 years? Travel, work, living… Recording to the one hour session inc a Q&A Here’s the Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/pBJqFvN_yZVrktNsN2xWRE7heUTpr226GtyjJpiChG8yZA2D3qEHpACjm8TpMfxd.67Jj1DNSPserOvpZ Passcode: 1DPi*.$Z
Read More >Sometimes the words come to you readily and this small piece has me thinking about what I’d like to say at a time when maybe I’ve lost the cognitive ability to do so Before I was Me Before I was Me I used to be fit, and even quite smart; We’d chat about love,…
Read More >I was doing it well before then and there’s clips of me online going back as far as 2010 or so, railing against the idea of human resources as a label and the insistence by HR managers or CEOs that only people who work ‘in the office’ are going to be productive. It Is A…
Read More >Like lab grown meats, Vertical Farming is going to be part of the future of food. For now it might be best to compare them to small scale battery storage on the electrical grid that can help balance out spikes of demand in the system and provide an output directly where needed. Eventually (like…
Read More >