Management Consulting News

"Groom those bushy eyebrows with ease," declared the email that slipped past my junk mail filter.

Reflexively, I fingered my eyebrows to see if I needed this "innovative" ten-piece grooming kit. Then I snapped out of it and pressed the delete key--again.

As a newsletter publisher, I'm buried in spam. Almost 70% of the email I receive is spam, pitching things like low-cost narcotics, home loans, body part enlargement and those solid investment opportunities in Nigeria.

The avalanche of spam is so severe that voters pushed the US Senate to pass the so-called Can-Spam Act by a 97-0 vote. Among other things, the bill calls for the creation of a national do-not-email list, modeled after the do-not-call registry that was designed to rein in telemarketers. A recent survey showed that 78% of email users would sign up for a do-not-email list.

As expected, the law has dissenters. Robert Wientzen, President of the Direct Marketing Association, supports the bill but doesn't like the do-not-spam provision saying it "would punish law-abiding small- and mid-sized companies, who are trying to break into the marketplace, while doing absolutely nothing to stop the most egregious perpetuators of spam." He goes on to suggest, "Spammers show no signs that they would suddenly comply with a no-spam list."

Maybe I'm missing something. I don't expect laws against thievery to prevent a criminal from picking my pocket. But if the thief is caught, it's gratifying to know that there is a legal remedy. Isn't it the same with anti-spam laws? They may not stop the problem, but at least we have some alternatives when we catch spammers.

What do you think? Will a do-not-email list be a waste of taxpayer money, or will it help slow the pace of spam? Send me an email with your thoughts. And if your eyebrows need help, I know just the thing.

Last month, the email poured in with opinions on Accenture's recently announced branding campaign featuring Tiger Woods, and the tag line "Go on. Be a Tiger." Those opinions weren't mixed, though. Every person who wrote would advise Accenture to rethink its branding strategy, saying that it was an unnecessary transfer of wealth from Accenture to Tiger Woods.

Few people have contributed more to our thinking on managing transitions than William Bridges. His insights have shaped hundreds of reorganizations, mergers, and strategic shifts. Bridges is one of the most widely quoted of management advisers and he's the author of ten books, including his best seller Transitions, now in its forty-seventh printing. Bridges brings his unique insights on managing client transitions to this month's featured interview.

If you are interested in pursuing a career in consulting, you'll find it encouraging that recruiting is picking up considerably. But before you get too far into the search process, be sure to register for Top-Consultant's email course for aspiring consultants: http://www.top-consultant.com/get/fast_track_advice.asp.

William Bridges is an internationally recognized authority on managing change in the workplace. For more than two decades, he has been helping clients with mergers, reorganizations, leadership changes and cultural shifts.

Bridges is the author of ten books, including the best sellers Transitions and Managing Transitions, which was updated and expanded for its second edition in 2003. He is a frequent keynote speaker at corporate meetings and professional conferences, and the Wall Street Journal named him one of the ten top executive development presenters in America.

MCNews had the opportunity to get both practical and inspirational tips from Bridges about how consultants can improve results for clients in a world of continuous flux.

MCNews: Why do so many change initiatives seem to cost too much, take too long and fail to meet their objectives?

Bridges: Because they do only half the job. They are change-heavy and transition-light. Change and transition are different, and both are necessary for any significant change to work.

As I use the term, change is a shift in the externals of any situation: a new boss, setting up a new program, the death of a relative, a move to a new city, or a promotion. By contrast, transition is the mental and emotional transformation that people must undergo to relinquish old arrangements and embrace new ones.

Transition has three phases: an Ending, a disorienting sort of "nowhere" that I call The Neutral Zone, and a new Beginning. If people don't deal with each of these phases, the change will be just a rearrangement of the furniture. And then we say, "It didn't work."

Maybe we start over again, or maybe we throw more resources at the problem, or maybe we fire the original consultants and hire a new batch. In all those cases, the change exceeds the time and cost estimates. And in most of them, the change doesn't do what we said it'd do. Look at the batting average in Mergers and Acquisitions. Look at those "big reorganizations" that were supposed to save tons of money. Look at how often joint ventures and outsourcing projects fail to meet the promised profit or cost figures.

Bridges: Well, the first difference is the one I just mentioned--change is the way things will be different, and transition is how you get people through those three stages to make the change work. But there are other distinctions too. Change is made up of events, while transition is an on-going process. Change is visible and tangible, while transition takes place (or more often, doesn't take place) inside of people.

Change can happen quickly, but transition takes weeks or months or even years. Change can, and usually should be, speeded up. Transition, like any organic process, has its own natural pace. Change is all about the outcome we are trying to achieve; transition is about how we'll get there and how we'll manage things while we are en route.

MCNews: Often, the biggest challenge to change is an organization's legacy of change initiatives. How can a consultant help an organization overcome the track record of the past and put a change program on a solid path?

Bridges: Our initial assessment of "transition readiness" provides an important early indicator of what lies ahead, and one of the things we inquire into is the organization's history of changes, both those that worked and those that didn't. Both the successful and the unsuccessful ones leave scars. And part of leading an organization--which is, of course, leading individual people--is dealing with those scars and showing people, with action more than words, that this is not just the same old same-old.

MCNews: When you work with executives sponsoring change initiatives, what's the most common area you see that needs improvement?

Bridges: Not surprisingly--given what I've already said--it's that they are so obtuse about the human side of the change they are trying to bring about. Too often, they just don't recognize that unless people, real live individuals, stop doing things the way they've been doing them, new things won't take root. They don't understand that "explaining the change" and "justifying it" do very, very little to encourage people to let go of the assumptions they've always had, the relationships they've always depended on, or the behaviors they've always used to get results.

These executives' detachment from the everyday work-work, which is so often defended as necessary to be "strategic," keeps these people from understanding what has to happen for changes to work as planned. But it is no accident that the great leaders, from Moses and Caesar to Lincoln and Lee, were people who deeply understood the people they were leading.

MCNews: The consulting industry is full of "change" consultants. How would you assess their competence?

Bridges: As experts on the planning and execution of change, some are excellent and others aren't. As people who know how to help an organization carry out a change, from first concept to final action, they are, by and large, very weak. But I shouldn't complain. I've never had to do any formal marketing for my transition-management services because I've gotten so much business from organizations that spent big bucks with well known consulting firms, and then called me up at the eleventh hour and said, "The change isn't working like they promised it would."

MCNews: What is the appropriate role for a consultant in a change initiative?

Bridges: The "right way" flows naturally from recognizing the transition-dimension of the change in question. It starts by encouraging the change leaders to ask "Who has to let go of what for this is to be successful? For this to happen, what has to end? What is it time for people to let go of?"

Once that is clear, the consultant then helps the client consider how to lead people through the ending and to manage the losses that people experience in that phase. Chapter three of the book is about "How to Get People to Let Go." These things aren't hard to do, but people don't do them because they are so intent on change and so unaware of transition.

MCNews: If you could give a program manager one piece of advice as they wrap up a change initiative, what would it be?

Bridges: It would be to do a careful debrief of what worked and what didn't. Usually, companies are so anxious to get on to the next change that they fail to learn from the last one. I first realized that after helping a 50,000-person technology company close a fabricating plant. It went very well--they actually doubled productivity per person during the closedown process! But when they called to ask for help in shutting another facility, I discovered that they had "forgotten" what they had done with the previous shutdown.

Organizations won't learn to manage change (and, of course, transition) until they treat every case of it as a tutorial program set up especially for their edification. What worked? What didn't? What surprised us? What 'mistakes' turned out to be fortunate ones? What assumptions almost sank us?

Bridges: I still read the business pages and I check out several magazines whenever I fly, but I've pretty well stopped reading business books. The "blockbuster!" mentality, the "hottest new idea" approach turns me off. In the past five years, I've found myself reading a lot more fiction and poetry. It feeds my heart better than business books, and the business world is seriously short of heart these days.

I think that if I was in charge of an executive development program, the first book on my reading list would be Roger Housden's Ten Poems to Change Your Life. I think the next book that I write--if there is one--will be a novel for young people. It's strange, but you can say much more important things to children than you can to adults.

You can find out more about William Bridges, his books and services at http://www.wmbridges.com.

The Secrets for Getting Covered on the News

By Jeff Crilley, TV Reporter and Author of Free Publicity

Many consultants have a great idea for a story, but no clue how to get it in the news. Are you tired of pitching press releases the news media simply ignores?

After twenty years of beating the street as a TV reporter, I have a scoop for you: media outlets need good stories. But most stories are pitched so poorly, they are lost in the blizzard of faxes that blanket every newsroom.

So, here are five steps to increase your chances of getting covered that even some PR pros don't know.

Be Unusual

The old adage about "man bites dog" still holds true. The news doesn't cover what's normal; we cover the abnormal. Make a story extraordinary, and the media will be instantly sold on it.

Be Visual

Reporters tell stories with pictures. If the pictures aren't there, chances are the reporters won't be either.

Choose the Right Reporter

Perhaps the most common mistake even some PR pros make is trying to sell a good story to the wrong person. Most reporters have a specialty, like "crime" or "business."

So, seek out the reporter who will have the most to benefit from your story. Start studying the news. Before you call a TV station or try your pitch on a newspaper, become familiar with a reporter's work. Don't try and sell an investigative story to a reporter who covers entertainment.

Write Like a Reporter

If I were going to send a press release to a reporter, I'd write the kind of headline that a newspaper would run. And I'd make the rest of the release so conversational that a TV anchor could read it right on the air.

Why is this so important? A major-market newsroom gets hundreds of press releases every day. Often the decision on whether to cover your story is made in a matter of seconds. Many times that well-crafted sentence in the third paragraph of your press release is never read.

Wait for a Slow News Day

The holidays are the slowest "news times" of the year. When government offices are closed, so are most of our sources. Take advantage of it.

In fact, take out your calendar and begin circling government holidays. If the government isn't making news, reporters are scrambling to find something to cover. Pitch even an average story on a day when the media is starving for news, and you're much more likely to get coverage.

There you go. Now you're armed with knowledge that even some well-paid PR pros don't wield. If your idea is unique, visual, and pitched to the right person when the supply of news is running thin, you're in!

Jeff Crilley is an Emmy Award winning reporter and author of Free Publicity: A TV Reporter Shares the Secrets for Getting Covered on the News. It's available at bookstores everywhere or online at www.jeffcrilley.com.

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Do People Trust the Boss?

In a recent survey on workplace issues, 354 people were asked how much they trusted their boss. The majority of responses (58%) indicate that workers don't find their bosses very trustworthy:

29% - I sometimes wonder if I can trust my manager
20% - I usually can't trust my manager
9% - I never trust my manager

When asked how often managers thank people for their work and publicly acknowledge contributions, 66% of respondents were less than enthusiastic about how often their efforts are recognized:

24% - Sometimes Recognized
33% - Rarely Recognized
9% - Never Recognized

And finally, out of the 64% of respondents who believed their boss had made a very bad decision or mistake that seriously affected employee morale, almost 70% said the boss either blamed someone else for the problem or totally ignored it.

22% - Blamed someone else for the problem
45% - Totally ignored it

Consultants can apply some sound advice from this survey to their work with clients: Do the easy things with people, like acknowledging a job well done, accepting responsibility for your decisions, and not taking trust for granted. And keep in mind that if people don't trust the boss who hired you, it's possible that you might get painted with the same brush.

The survey was conducted by Robert M. Galford and Anne Seibold Drapeau, authors of The Trusted Leader, with help from the online networking organization, WorldWIT™.

For more information, click here http://www.thetrustedleader.com/survey-press-release.html.

According to the top executive at BearingPoint, Inc., China will become the fastest growing market in the Asia-Pacific for the US-based consulting firm. The move follows closely on the heels of the rush by other consulting firms to China to capture a share of the services market.

But, in the face of competition from approximately 100 foreign firms, Chinese consulting firms won't sit still. They'll differentiate themselves by stressing their deep understanding of the local organizational culture and management style, enabling them to offer more realistic solutions. Oh, and they'll probably compete on price too, as the hefty fees charged by foreign firms could easily create sticker shock among prospective clients.

Jupiter Research reports that only 14% of consumers say that personalized offers or recommendations lead them to buy more often from shopping Web sites, and just 8% say that personalization increases their repeat visits to content, news or entertainment Web sites.

The research finds that building and operating a personalized Web site can cost four or more times as much as operating a comparable dynamic site. Most sites that use personalization have realized inadequate returns on their investments.

Most Web site operators would be better off if they focused on making key tasks easier for users to accomplish, like site navigation, usability and faster-loading pages, rather than personalization.

Tom Sant, who has been called America's foremost practitioner of proposal writing, knows the secrets for creating winning proposals. He shares those secrets in a thirty-four page presentation, "How to Write a Winning Proposal." You can find the presentation at http://www.santcorp.com/tip/Sant-How_to_Write_A_Winning_Proposal.pdf.

An interview with Sant was featured in a past issue of MCNews. To read the interview, click on this link http://www.managementconsultingnews.com/sant_interview.php.

Author and communications coach, Nick Morgan, knows that consultants and other professionals are often expected to speak on public occasions with little preparation time. For some sure-fire tips for speeding up your speech preparation, click here: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/pubitem.jhtml?id=3707&t=career_effectiveness.

Morgan was also featured in a recent issue of MCNews. To read that interview, follow this link http://www.managementconsultingnews.com/morgan_interview.php.

On November 1, 1884, Greenwich Mean Time was adopted at a meeting of the International Meridian Conference. Since then, the Greenwich Meridian, or Longitude Zero degrees, has marked the starting point for all twenty-four time zones in the world. Talk about a real global initiative. http://greenwichmeantime.com/

On November 4, 1879, James and John Ritty patented the first working version of a mechanical cash register. James Ritty invented "Ritty's Incorruptible Cashier" to combat stealing by employees in the brothers' Dayton, Ohio saloon. http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/ritty.html

On November 17, 1970, the computer mouse (AKA the X-Y Position Indicator for a Display System) was patented. The inventor, Doug Engelbart, and his lab colleagues called it a "mouse" because of its tail-like cable. The first mouse was a simple hollowed-out wooden block, with a single push button on top. http://web.mit.edu/invent/www/ima/engelbart_intro.html

In Re-Imagine!, his first book of the post-Enron, post-boom, post-9/11 era, Tom Peters, America's most influential business thinker, proclaims that the old business playbooks are useless in a new world that's messy and chaotic.

In our exclusive interview, Peters shares his views on what he sees happening in the world of business and what consultants must do to thrive in this new era.

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." - Winston Churchill

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