A growing reality might be that many people will be forced to stay at home until a vaccine is found, due to their risk of infection. Travel might become off-limits for many.

As we come out of the present crisis, we need to look at our social engagement and influencer profiles as we need to engage with the world differently. We will be in a greater world of virtual management, earning our “daily crust” from what we do at a distance.

This crisis period has become even more dominated by Social Media. What can this teach us?

What is being pushed towards us is overwhelming. We presently see the significant ramping up of webinars, @home advice, those multiple suggestions to fill our time but, is it making a real difference to you besides filling time?

It has one real problem. It is others talking to you. Your voice is missing most, and you need to be heard more than ever. You will need to begin to drive your significant engagement, not rely on others but your views and opinions!

All of this activity is being pushed towards you; you need to now organize yourself to “push back.” This is a time where you need to be seen and heard. You need to stand out and be recognized. This is a time for your social engagement.

It can be a time of significant distraction or time of thinking about what will help each of us to re-orient to a different set of realities and futures.

Are we ready for it, or did you merely ‘park’ your life on hold in these lockdown weeks? If we need to learn anything, it is simply that the world is going to be VERY DIFFERENT, so we need to start re-engaging differently.

How can we all be more productive now in what we do, learn, and get ready? We have become a “virtual online world,” and social media skills become increasingly relevant for each of us.

The changing world for Organizations- not physical events but becoming reliant on on-line and digital delivery

Many companies are struggling to keep themselves in ‘plain view’ to help continue their activities and shape the emerging needs when ‘lockdown’ or economic activity begins to return in the coming weeks.

The previous reliance on showcasing their latest products or technology will be less at physical events but in digital environments through a range of social mediums. They will be forced to ramp up their own social media present accordingly and many are badly prepared for this.

What about you as an individual, how will you be seen as “differentiated enough” to be part of the solution, not part of the problem? How can you be seen as leading and supporting your organization’s need for a “share of presence”, to step up and be seen as someone that could engage, amplify and influence others?

None of us remain unaffected from these unprecedented times

As we all re-evaluate our changing world there are realities that we all facing in this global crisis. We are about to meet some harsh realities that will mean we are all scrambling to rethink, to reposition ourselves to regain a new momentum after our economic lives have been shut down as well as our physical ones.

“Striking a balance between allowing economic activities and keeping controls tight enough to prevent a rise in infections “is likely to be the optimal strategy until effective vaccines become widely available, despite the fact that control policies, including social distancing, behavioral change, and public awareness will probably be maintained for some time”.- Guardian Article

We are about to enter a very different business and social world, where the name of the game will be to hold onto what we have got and fight for survival. We need to regain some level of control to balance our lives, as we feel that cold economic wind, one that will be blowing on us all. Will we find our income lost or that feeling that what we have known or achieved now seems all under threat? Possible, very possible.

A different business landscape could mean significant disruption to many of our own activities, all the way through to perhaps the end of this year, yes, the whole of 2020. We are facing a year of significant change in how we manage, prepare, interact, and provide value to others.

We are entering a highly fluid and rapidly adaptive world.

We are not returning to the old normal, that has gone, buried in the last few weeks. Where will our attention go, where will our creative energy be channeled, are we adaptive enough to make a switch, this is not a time for efficiency this is a time for being highly creative and very innovative. We all need to become far more “highly” creative to sense, respond, and react to very different marketplaces, to find our place within these.

The shift must be swift and decisive for each of us.

We must put on hold or totally abandon our past plans and goals. We must look to a  more ad hoc, opportunistic future to survive and respond. We can’t afford to be passive; we need to become personally engaged.

This is not just a wake-up call for the self-employed, or daily workers, this is about to sweep in and take many sitting in organizations.  Those that receive a regular salary perhaps about to face layoffs, downsizing, extended furloughs, and being told about all resizing that will all be very much in Corporate leader’s minds in the months ahead.

We need to recognize the economic tsunami coming towards us.  

We need a new plan. We need to get out there and present where we, as individuals, stand apart. We need to find creative ways to stand out. In many ways, social media has given us many of the tools and the abilities to shape our own futures, we are all on some level of “zero” or reset. We need to capitalize on our social contribution, we need people to see us and value this.

To be seen, we do need to communicate, or will we simply go back to being passive readers of other people’s thoughts and opinions? Or will we see this might become a “dog eat dog” world to climb back up the food chain?

Social media is in for a really very different onslaught of opinions, views, suggestions, appeals, and advice. There will be a very different set of winners and losers in marketing understanding and communicating their offerings. Can you position yourself to become active and engaged? We do need to get back out there and establish our presence.

What I think will not go away is the ones that position themselves in a new order of advocacy and influence. Emerging leaders or doers that offer an experience, not just “tweet” it on from someone else.

There is an urgent need to explore and experiment to determine your new “norm.”

All business activity has significantly dipped, in confidence and in the future, as so much is unclear, and regular activities are put on hold. Budgets and Resources will be reviewed continuously in this interim period of the remainder of this calendar year and beyond.

We all need an adaptive pivoting strategy that is continuously renewed. What can we provide in a world that is virtually online for some time and companies looking to re-engagement?

This is a time for the opportunity to develop new skills and communication capabilities in a world of changed expectations, where there is the need to act fast and decisively while maintaining flexibility in the face of uncertainties and making sure your views are heard.

Are you gearing up to a different world where you, as an individual, need to be seen, heard, and valued far more than ever before? My pivoting is very much a present work-in-progress, but I feel sure I am not alone in doing that.

The post We all need a different Social Media profile? Now. first appeared on Building Your Innovation & Ecosystem Intelligence.

Even if this is one month, two months, or longer, we need to become creative and innovative. We cannot be held in this “frozen state” for long without looking to become economically productive again. It may be in different ways, in new roles, or in transition until we have a higher “grip” of what we can achieve in a very volatile, challenging world.

If we remain in our present states, then what I suggest as a ‘frozen state’ remains, we default back to what we know, based more on repeating patterns, believing everything is orderly based on efficiency, effectiveness, and doing what is necessary to manage daily. Well it is not, we are in chaotic and unpredictable times.

This, regrettably, is simply not good enough in today’s world as it has changed so radically in these last few months.

We need to look differently at so much, but all of that comes in “good order.”

Do you recall Kurt Lewin’s model suggesting there are 3 steps to work through as a model: Unfreeze- Transition- Refreeze.

Firstly we need to unfreeze the existing situation the world finds itself in. We need to find a vaccine, we need to test for antibodies and “test, test, and test” to know where each of us stands in this coronavirus world we now live in. The difference is not just life and death that many are caught up with at this very moment.

We all are caught in this world crisis; we are in as much disruption and uncertainty as is possible, and “we” cant’ allow this uncertainty to manifest itself too long. We need to return to some level of certainty.

Let’s look at some thoughts on moving from uncertainty back to (a degree) of certainty.

We need to apply our thinking so we can begin to unfreeze, transition and refreeze

What does that mean? There are plenty of techniques to help in this, but I have taken innovation as the focal point as we all will need to become creative, adaptive, fluid, and flexible to changed situations. So to name a few:

We need to firstly unfreeze.

1. Burning platforms-  we have the most significant crisis this world has faced, as we have so much more dependency than in the past. At present, there are far more of those “burning platforms,” Burning platforms are potent drivers of strategic change. They are what happens when there is a real and immediate crisis, we are faced with difficult and challenging choice. Your choices might be irreversible and have a high risk of failure.
2. We have all been shaken out of our comfort zone.  What will help us unfreeze and capitalize on some rapidly emerging and “breaking” opportunities? Are we looking for these or staying immobilized in fear?
3. Provide your own proof points that the present situations you are facing are threatening- that cold hard evidence
4. Restructuring deliberately to force change into ‘our’ system in our thinking, in our habits, in our expectations
5. Revise and adjust past goals and visions to rethink immediate objectives- how do I/ you move forward?
6. Unlock and seek out opportunities to learn, to be trained in new thinking, different techniques and methods
7. “Nothing comes towards those that wait” we need to expect rewards far more on measured outcomes based on your own creative and innovative activities.
8. Recognize that many of what your previous contributions made do honestly make up the past, not so much the future of what is needed to be achieved, based on a very different understanding of growth and wealth creation.

Then we have to make a set of transition points.

These are the fuel to keep your innovation engine nourished and moving in the new innovation point of your direction.

1. How can you inspire others to achieve some remarkable new things to change the existing situation?
2. Can you act as the internal and external stimulus to others in coaching, inspiration talk’s, providing ideas, offering creative thinking, sharing with others to build different and valued new value, someone will buy or invest in.
3. Set about your own organized training and education program, understanding that this moves in steps of learning, so take this in stages of absorbing the lessons and then find creative ways to apply them.
4. Re-educate yourself by being more exposed, not staying in denial, to stimulate fresh alternative thinking, both with yourself and in areas of a business opportunity that you can ‘take, adapt and apply’ appropriately.
5. Offer open spaces, ‘safe’ environments to learn and experiment, to reach out and exchange with others. We all need to openly discuss within our “trusted networks” but also rapidly extend that network fast that we need each other. Each of us will need to experiment, to trial, and sometimes fail but learn from these moments the positives and re-apply them in new ways and lessons discovered. Be highly adaptive and flexible here.
6. Find your “innovation champions” to listen too and to learn from. Ones that can provide you the support environment to ‘go-to’ so you can relate and identify with. Just listening to others and their experiences can give you rapid insights.
7. Push beyond incremental creative innovation by slowing turning up the heat so it gets more visible and noticed. Start not slowly but announcing yourself to the new world and what you offer has some real depth of thinking behind it.
8. Learning to take first baby steps needs to be followed quickly as you need to keep improving the pace within your activities by applying the techniques of different experiments, prototyping, piloting methods, and approaches. Grow the confidence and talk of the learning from any failures along the way to improve. But keep reiterating like mad.

Lastly, we look to refreeze the ‘state’ into a new innovative one.

We actually do need to refreeze but in a more responsive, proactive, agile way – with clear innovation intent to achieve an end goal. In today’s world that is to secure reward, economic and regular work

1. We need to burn any bridges to ensure there is no way back to the old ways, where old dreams were based on those past days and reset these in new future-orientated ways, that are realistic and others can identify with.
2. Make sure you achieve the ‘show me the money moment’- your evidence stream of work activity and success.
3. Keep the focus on being ‘relentless’ and focusing on the future and why being consistently creative and innovative is an essential part of this in increased activity and performance and your sustaining value.
4. Keep returning to the ‘rationalization’ of this, re-evaluating and adjusting it to what you have learned, so each action is a validation of a path being traveled that gives you scale and scope to recovery, contribution, and offers your economic engagement.
5. Make sure rewards are aligned to any new ‘innovation’ ways, sometimes trading different forms that put food on the table, protect your family, and gives you various levels of economic bargaining points.
6. Build all the efforts over time, they will come by being determined, focused but highly adaptive.

Passing through these three learning stages

Unlocking any persons creative and innovating potential always needs to pass through different learning stages. Focus on  your ‘unlocking’ point in each of these three phases we all will pass through.

Do not let yourself by frozen in the past; we must all find ways to “unfreeze so we can pass through the transition phase and be well-prepared to “lock-on’ to new opportunities and then freeze these.

My final piece of advice is these are highly fluid times; we will continuously see shock and disruption, so keep a constant need to “unfreeze, transition, and then freeze until you need to do this again.

Eventually, we will get to a reasonable state of ‘freezing’ of feeling we are in a new norm.  Presently this is totally out of your hands in when the crisis is over, but your job is to rapidly pass through these phases to make your change and get you equipped early enough for a very different set of challenges in a new world, post Coronavirus.

****My next post relates to the Cynefin framework focusing on moving from disorder back into (some form) of order, we need to repurpose our lives beyond them being simply “on hold.”

The post Working through the current disorder we find ourselves in first appeared on Building Your Innovation & Ecosystem Intelligence.

To radically redesign the approach to innovation that today is constantly occurring in ‘discreet parcels’ of innovation activity within organizations. It is this ‘selective’ approach I certainly believe needs changing.

To achieve this I believe the middle manager in organizations needs to make some significant changes within their perspectives of ‘how’ innovation must fit within the design of their organization.

This will allow them to achieve a fundamentally different organizational state than many seemingly need but perhaps are stuck with existing designs at present.

Perhaps they are not seeing a different perscribed pathway to take- the innovation pathway suggested here http://bit.ly/dnCj1m and built upon here http://bit.ly/ikgR4f can serve as thoughts

Innovation in organizations does need fresh perspectives.

Jeffrey Phillips argues in his recent blog that “middle managers need new perspectives, new skills and new directions”. “We need to unfreeze the middle so the rest of the organization can adapt and change. Only then can innovation become what is needed it to be”- taken from his blog: “From smooth and steady to rough and ready”.  (http://bit.ly/OVsuX)

The question is how to unfreeze what we do today and relearn?
A good proven body of work has been built around psychologist Kurt Lewin’s suggested methodology that identifies the three stages of change that are still the basis of many approaches today- Unfreeze- Transition-

Refreeze.

Much of the fear in innovation lies in ‘what is appropriate risk’ not just for the individual but for their organization. We are ‘’creatures’ that still want to go back to being safe, so we can feel we have a handle on events to experience that sense of control we always seeingly search for. We normally do not like discomfort except in ‘given’ intense periods when we are being challenged or threatened.

The difficulty is you cannot maintain this ‘heighted’ threat, we seem to always (eventually) revert. What is needed is not to simply return to a former state but to replace that ‘state’ with a more appropriate platform of operating than before, built more on innovation for our future well-being and security.

The problem today, is that our world that we would love to be stable and be comfortable within, is being challenged more than ever. We need to find different positions of comfort to survive and thrive, innovation is in my opinion one of these.

The problem is innovation in itself, can be uncertain and often risky. I would argue though that this can equally be a new position of stability, if you seek to master innovation and know its strengths and weaknesses intimately.

If we remain in our present states, then what I suggest as a ‘frozen state’ remains, we default back to what we know, based more on repeating patterns based on efficiency, effectiveness and doing what is necessary to manage on a daily basis.

This, regrettably, is simply not good enough in today’s world. We need to change and in my last post I offered a number of approaches to structure this around change approaches (http://bit.ly/xfHWMM)

We need to make some real, significant effort to push ourselves into learning to ‘master’ innovation. We require both ‘push’ methods to get this moving- the organization sets innovation learning as a distinct goal for instance- and we need ‘pull’ methods to keep any momentum going until it instils itself as the new norm we identify with and get a different sense of yes, comfort, within ourselves over innovations critical position.

Lewin suggests 3 steps to work through as a model: Unfreeze- Transition- Refreeze.

Firstly we need to unfreeze the existing core.

There are plenty of techniques to help in this that have innovation as the focal point. To name a few

1. Burning platforms- create a crisis or agree there is a real crisis
2. Challenge the comfort zone and shake things up
3. Provide proof that situations being faced are changing- cold hard evidence
4. Restructuring deliberately to force change into the system
5. Offering fresh goals and visions for innovation as formal corporate objectives
6. Provide opportunities to learn, to be trained in innovation techniques and methods
7. Shift the rewarding metrics to outcomes based on innovation activities
8. Recognize that many of the existing contributions made do make up the past, not so much the future of what is needed to be achieved, based on growth and wealth creation.

Then we have to make a set of transition points.

These are the fuel to keep the innovation engine nourished and moving in the new innovation pointing direction.

1. Inspire the organization to achieve some remarkable new things to change the existing conceptions.
2. Provide internal and external stimulus in coaching, inspiration talk’s, providing an innovation knowledge site.
3. Set about an organised training and education programme for innovation understanding that this moves in steps of learning.
4. Re-educate by exposing more within the organization to fresh alternative thinking, both with your industry or in other sectors that you can ‘take and apply’ appropriately.
5. Offer open spaces, and ‘safe’ environments to learn and experiment, to trial and sometimes fail but learn from these moments the positives and re-apply them.
6. Establish innovation champions to be the support team to ‘go to’ for advice.
7. Push beyond incremental innovation by slowly turning up the heat so it gets more visible and noticed. See my blog on different dominant designs of organizations http://bit.ly/zdUhKp
8. Learning to take first baby steps, followed by improving the pace within innovation activities by using different experimental, prototyping, piloting methods and approaches. Grow the confidence and talk of the learning from any failures along the way to improve.

Lastly, we look to refreeze the ‘state’ into a new innovative one.

We actually do need to refreeze but in a more responsive, proactive, agile way – with clear innovation intent to achieve an end goal. For instance, the goal of being seen to have a set of clear competitive distinct positions, recognized and acknowledged both internally and externally parties and then, measured in clear ways that added value that is seen in results, not just talked about as a ‘future promise’ based on present planned activities.

1. We need to burn any bridges to ensure there is no way back to the old ways, where innovation was talked about but not enacted upon
2. Make sure you achieve the ‘show me the money moment’- your evidence stream of innovation activity and success.
3. Keep the focus on being ‘relentless’ and focusing on the future and why innovation is an important part of this in increased activity and performance
4. Keep returning to the ‘rationalization’ of this so each action is a validation of a path being travelled which encourages certain actions.
5. Make sure rewards are aligned to the new ‘innovation’ way, place rewards into the mid-term as much as the short term, often called golden handcuffs but valid in institutionalizing change through innovation.
6. Build all the efforts over time into the very social fabric of the organization and make the middle manager responsible for engineering and designing the innovation mantle needed to be worn by all.

Passing through the three learning stages

Unlocking the innovating potential within organizations always needs to pass through different learning stages. The middle manager lies at the core.

Focus on this as your ‘unlocking’ point and establishing a way to build in the necessary competencies and capabilities in a well thought through innovation development programme and process surely can allow innovation to take hold?

Until we approach innovation in a clear, methodical learning way, innovation, that deep capacity for innovation, will never fully ‘take hold’ in organizations as the middle of the core remains frozen in the past of efficency and effectiveness only.

We do need to change the innovation middle core.

The post Shifting paradigms, refreezing the organization for innovation first appeared on Building Your Innovation & Ecosystem Intelligence.