Mark and Brodie's Christmas Message

Have a Blessed and Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year. We look forward to serving you in 2012 as we continue to build business, build community and build the Kingdom!

12 trends to watch in the coming year

Photo by Frank Hermers • sxc.hu

The website trendwatching.com released its free year-end Trend Briefing. The company’s head of research and analysis, Henry Mason, said, “Even with the backdrop of nations defaulting, we see more opportunities than ever for creative brands and entrepreneurs to deliver on changing consumer needs.”

Here’s a summary of the 12 trends. You can find the full report at trendwatching’s website.

1. Red Carpet
Many firms, including Hilton, Starwood and Harrods are providing tailored services for Chinese visitors. Travel from China is up 20 percent from 2010, and The World Tourism Organization estimates the total number of outbound tourists from China will reach 100 million by 2020.

2. DIY Health
Consumers are taking advantage of technology to track and manage their personal health. Apple’s App Store already offers 9,000 health apps.

3. Dealer-Chic
Deals are now about more than saving money: it’s the pursuit, the status, and the perceived smartness. Consumers are looking for more personalization and more loyalty schemes, and are putting more pressure on brands to deliver brilliance.

4. Eco-Cycology
Companies are increasingly taking back their products for recycling, and do so responsibly and innovatively. Nike, for example, recycles rubber from its shoes into artificial track surfaces.

5. Cash-Less
Coins and notes won’t disappear completely, but cashless payment systems have gone mainstream, with MasterCard and Google working on a system of payments, rewards and offers around mobile technologies.

6. Bottom of the Urban Pyramid
The majority of consumerism is urban, yet in much of the world city life is chaotic, cramped and none too pleasant. Low-income urbanites look for innovation tailored to their unique circumstances, from health issues to lack of space to the need for durability. Opportunities for brands catering to such needs are unprecedented.

7. Idle Sourcing
Making it simple for consumers to contribute will be more popular than ever in 2012. Smarter mobile device sensors will let consumers broadcast information about where and what they are doing, to help improve products and services. For example, Boston now has an app that uses smartphones’ accelerometers and GPS to detect potholes.

8. Flawsome
Consumers think brands that behave more humanly, including exposing their flaws, are awesome. Brands that are honest about their flaws, that show some empathy, generosity, and humor will win over consumers. Domino’s, for example, mounted a news scroll in Times Square showing both compliments and complaints from its customers.

9. Screen Culture
The proliferation of touchscreen devices is bringing about a culture that is not only more pervasive, but more personal and immersive than ever. Companies taking advantage of this trend range from those who make screen-friendly winter gloves to a restaurant chain that installed teleconferencing capabilities.

10. Recommerce
It’s never been easier for savvy consumers to resell or trade in past purchases, unlocking the value in their current possessions. Car dealers aren’t the only ones who can take an old product and offer credit toward a new one.

12. Point & Know
Consumers are used to being able to find out just about anything that’s online or text-based, but 2012 will see instant visual information gratification brought into the real and visual world with objects and even people. Some of these technologies, like face recognition software, are already in the market.

11. Emerging Maturialism
Yes, we’re out of order here, because this one … at the risk of editorializing, it’s hard to address to Christian businesspeople. The folks at trendwatching tell us that, “While cultural differences continue to shape consumer desires, middle-class and/or younger consumers in almost every market embrace brands that push boundaries.” If you read the trendwatching report, you’ll find some of those boundaries might have been better left alone. This idea will be harder for Christian businesses to adopt. But we’d love to hear your ideas about it.

View all 12 full trend descriptions, including examples of brands from around the world already implementing them, at www.trendwatching.com/briefing.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving

A business lesson from Steve Jobs

By Kristen Stieffel

The last lesson Steve Jobs had to teach us wasn’t about technology, or industrial design, or following your heart and intuition. His final lesson was about plain boring old succession planning.

Steve Jobs. Photo by Matthew Yohe

Many businesses fail after the death of their founders simply because not enough thought was given to that big, ugly “what if?” Steve and his colleagues at least had the advantage of not being taken by surprise.

At my company, we were not so lucky.

As hard as it must have been for Tim Cook to write that Oct. 5 memo, how much harder was it for Whit Shaw, now the head of American City Business Journals, to write a similar memo one Monday morning two years ago, informing his employees of the weekend death of founder and chairman Ray Shaw.

His father.

Ray died suddenly, unexpectedly, almost stupidly — of complications from a bee sting.

We all felt great sadness at Ray’s loss, even though most of us had never met him. And uncertainty about the future goes without saying. But there was no fear, despite the abruptness of the change, because we trusted in the succession plan. We trusted Whit and the other leaders to be wise. And they have been.

Apple shareholders must now trust that Tim Cook and Jonathan Ive and the company's other leaders will be wise.

As a business leader, do you know whether, if anything were to happen to you, the leaders you leave behind would lead wisely?

It is vital for any businessperson with more than a few employees to have a succession plan. If you’re a one-person operation -- a freelancer or consultant -- then you are the business. But if the business can and should survive you, plan for that. It won’t happen by accident.

Steve’s succession plan was in place because he’d been dealing with cancers since 2004. But even though Ray’s death was an unpredictable fluke, the company leadership was nevertheless able to move forward because a plan was already in place.

Trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding, yes. But also use the brains He gave you. To be good stewards of our businesses, we must consider those big, ugly “what ifs.”

Because someday, whether through retirement or illness or death, you will no longer be there to lead your company. You, or someone else, will write a memo to inform your employees.

What will happen after that?

5 keys insights for working with digital natives

By Michelle Manafy

Neustockimages — iStockphoto

Between all generations lie gaps. Yet today many individuals and businesses face a massive one. The digital native generation -- those who grew up immersed in technologies such as computers, mobile devices, and social networks -- are becoming our dominant employee and consumer base. That means digital immigrants -- those of us who didn’t grow up plugged in -- must navigate an altered landscape to successfully work with them. These insights will help you understand how to leverage the digital native worldview to achieve your business objectives:

1. They live publicly online.

Businesses must address the expectations of those raised in social networking environments, in which they routinely share activities and opinions with a potentially limitless group of friends.

Tip: Capitalize on digital natives’ openness. Understand their inclination to live publicly, and guide those activities so they are consistent with business objectives. Structure employee activities and customer interactions to put this openness to good use.

2. They share knowledge.

Despite much hyperbole about social media and marketing, many organizations limit or ban the use of social networks on the job. This shows a fear of exposure and a lack of understanding of how to channel this generation’s knowledge-sharing inclination.

Tip: Craft guidelines for appropriate use of social networks. Social media and collaborative ways of working can help companies capture otherwise transient knowledge. The old adage was “knowledge is power.” For digital natives, “knowledge shared is power.”

3. They believe transparency yields trust.

Because digital natives live publicly and value knowledge sharing, organizations that demonstrate transparency will attract and retain them as employees and customers. Digital natives make new friends, followers, and fans every day. Remember that it takes a lot of work to maintain a genuine relationship. If digital natives dislike your brand, they will make it publicly known. Luckily, the reverse is also true. Ultra-connected consumers look for organizations that listen, respond, own up to mistakes and maintain authentic relationships.

Tip: To attract and retain this generation as employees, recognize that the best of them monitor opportunities and discuss employers online. For recruiting, this can provide insights into who are the best, brightest, and most social-media savvy. For retention, employers can leverage these same tools to ensure they are competitive in the market.

4. They are timely, not time-managed.

While most people are painfully aware that the line between "at work" and "off duty" is increasingly blurred, digital natives will move beyond work-life balance to a new sort of work-life integration. Work and social activities are with them anywhere, anytime. Digital natives may log more hours at their computers during the course of a day than those in previous generations, but switch back and forth between work and leisure in short bursts. Though this may strike some managers as inappropriate, it helps to realize that while an older worker might head to the break room or a co-worker's desk to clear their head, natives are more likely to catch up on a quick burst of Facebook updates.

Tip: Companies that emphasize collaboration, learning, and socialization will see benefits in comparison to those that focus solely on productivity. Work can be constructively influenced by the expectations of younger workers.

5. They believe in interactions, not transactions.

With all this socializing, one might begin to wonder how any business gets done. But it does. Organizations that develop good social skills will have a competitive advantage over those that don’t. One essential quality is recognizing that this generation is not interested in transactions -- exchanges of money for goods and services. This generation is interested in interactions.

Tip: Unlike a transaction-based system, an interactive one is based upon social currency. Businesses will need to embrace interaction, from marketing to product development and content creation. This generation wants to do business with companies it views as friends and expects to see its ideals and objectives reflected in the companies it chooses to do business with.

While many digital immigrants whole-heartedly adopt digital tools, it is not simply emerging technologies that must be mastered. Lifelong immersion affects the mindset, behavior, and expectations of digital natives. To succeed in business with them, we must understand and build models based on this native culture.

            

Michelle Manafy is director of content for FreePint Ltd. and co-author of Dancing With Digital Natives: Staying in Step With the Generation That’s Transforming the Way Business Is Done.

Do you have expert advice to share? E-mail Kristen.

A Labor Day Prayer

Father, thank you for blessing us with talents, abilities, spiritual gifts, passions and drive so that all of our efforts may bring glory and honor to You. We thank you for those who have maintained employment through these tough economic times. We pray that You give us the privilege to reflect Your character to our employees, employers, co-workers, clients and customers.

For those who have lost their jobs and are seeking employment, Father please give them the peace that passes all understanding. We ask that You meet the needs of their families and encourage them to seek to open doors of opportunity.

For all of us Father, may we never see our worth and identity in the jobs or careers that we have, or don't have, but in Your sacrifice and love for us. Finally Father, we pray that You continue to use our chamber to be a catalyst for encouragement and commerce as we desire to reflect You as we build business, build community and build the Kingdom. Amen.

Tips for Launching a Startup

By Cynthia Kocialski

gunnar3000—Fotolia.com

I love startups and all the wonderful gadgets they make. The problem is, most of these wonderful things never make it because the entrepreneur is in love with the technology and lacks an understanding of the business. It’s one thing to develop a product that does something cool, but entrepreneurs need to ask whether it actually solves a problem. Ultimately, the business determines the ultimate success or failure of the product.

Here are some tips for anyone considering launching or financing a startup:

It’s Not About the Product

The product may be the heart of the company, but the product no more makes a company than a heart makes a human being. There are many components to a company that all have to work together harmoniously to succeed.

Have the Courage to Discover

The early-stage startup process is one of discovery, not step-by-step execution. Many first-time entrepreneurs believe you come up with a great product idea, then a detailed business plan, and finally hire people to execute the plan. Discovery is the starting point from which the product and business will evolve, iterate, and be refined as the concept meets the customers, the market, and the investors.

Retool and Revise

The first idea is never the final product. The worst work you will ever do is the first work you do. Press forward past the first iteration, and make use of the lessons you learn along the way.

Build Your Team

You need a team, but not just any team. You need the right team for that stage of a company's life. You wouldn't hire a college professor to teach kindergarten. For that, you need early elementary teachers. Startups also need to find the right people for the right jobs. Those people need to have the right attitude and need to be at a stage of their careers that makes them a match for a startup.

Think Like an Investor

Investing in a startup is risky. If investors wanted a moderate return, they'd invest in public companies like IBM and Coca-Cola. What entrepreneurs don't get is that, to an investor, the company is the product. Entrepreneurs need to understand the investor's perspective. Entrepreneurs create end products, but they also need to create the company. Investors buy companies, not products. For an investor, the best-case scenario is a tested, proven business with a market poised to grow rapidly.

The spirit of American business is embodied in the startup. Innovation and guts are the foundation of the startup, and those qualities also happen to be characteristic of the most successful mega-firms. Let those qualities form the dynamic of your startup. and you’ll be off to a good start.

Cynthia Kocialski has founded three high-tech companies and now is a consultant for startups. She is the author of Startup from the Ground Up.

C12's 2011 Leaders Conference back in Central Florida

Kzenon — Fotolia.com

C12 launched here in Central Florida in 1992. Now, after hosting its national conference in cities across the U.S., the 2011 Leaders Conference: Standing in the Gap will be held here, at the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center in Kissimmee Oct. 27-29.

This event is a time of targeted, practical equipping for both superior business performance and workplace ministry. Attendees will also experience rich fellowship with like-minded peers from across America and from abroad.

The conference kicks off Thursday with a keynote dinner featuring Kris Den Besten, an Orlando Christian CEO and author of SHINE: Five Empowering Principles for a Rewarding Life.

Friday features a full day of conference and breakout sessions, wrapping up with a fellowship dinner.

The conference concludes Saturday morning with a plenary session, followed by the C12 Open golf scramble at Celebration Golf Club from 1-6 p.m.

Special room rates of $129 are available. Early registration discounts expire Sept 15. Details are on the C12 website.

The C12 Group of Central Florida is a personal advisory board of Christian business owners and CEOs, all committed to your personal, business and eternal success.

Kris Den Besten to speak at next Chamber luncheon

Kris Den Besten

Kris Den Besten, president & CEO of Vermeer Southeast and author of the book SHINE, will be our keynote speaker at the Sept. 8 Business-Building Lunch. At our November 2009 lunch, Kris shared how God brought him, his family and his company through some very dark times; now Kris returns to tell the rest of the story!

SHINE is not simply a how-to formula to make you employee of the month or salesperson of the quarter -- although that could happen. Rather, it is a Bible-based, Christ-centered approach for transforming your attitude about work: from that of making a living to that of making an eternal difference.

Join us Sept. 8, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., in Faith Hall at First Baptist Orlando. The doors open at 11 a.m. if you want to get in some extra chat time. Cost: $25 for chamber members and first-timers, and $40 for nonmembers. Registration deadline is noon on Sept. 6. Register online, or call the office at (407) 814-1124. Table sponsorships are available to members only; a table for eight people is $200. Sponsorships are sold only by phone.

Here's a sample of the wisdom in Den Besten's book:

Credible workers get things done. They do not make excuses but always come through by meeting or exceeding expectations. They are prompt, they meet deadlines, and they can be counted on at all times. They do not take shortcuts or skimp on quality. They do not grumble and complain. Rather, they display an eagerness to model Christ with positive words and actions.

Please join us for what is sure to be an inspiring session.

Blessed Are The Peacemakers

endostock — Fotolia.com

Ken Sande, president of Peacemaker Ministries, will give the keynote at the Aug. 11 Business-Building Lunch. Too often we hear about Christian brothers and sisters using the judicial system to solve disagreements. Mind you, that’s not a new problem. Paul wrote to the church in Corinth about it. You would think we’d have learned by now…

Sande is passionate about bringing the life-changing power of the gospel and God's peacemaking principles into the lives of Christians and their churches to solve this ancient problem. Over the years, he has ministered to parties in hundreds of conflicts ranging from simple personal disputes to complex church and legal conflicts.

Ken Sande

Sande is a consultant to churches and Christian leaders and has written numerous resources about conflict resolution. He has co-authored two books: Peacemaking for Families and The Peacemaker Student Edition for teens.

Come hear Sande speak about solving conflict Biblically Aug. 11, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., in Faith Hall at First Baptist Orlando. You can register online.

Preventing Everyday Conflicts

Conflict seems to be everywhere: in our homes, our workplaces, and especially lately, in our government. But it doesn’t have to be a part of your daily life, according to Tim Scudder. His firm helps companies and executives handle workplace conflict.

Dan Tero — iStockphoto

He says conflict anywhere can be an opportunity to resolve long-standing issues and can help us lead more productive lives. It’s not just about resolution. It is also, he says, about learning to have nicer conflicts.

Scudder is CEO of Personal Strengths USA and co-author of Have a Nice Conflict: A Story of Finding Success and Satisfaction in the Most Unlikely Places. “As one set of conflicts is resolved,” he says, “others will take their place, so it’s important to learn how to make conflicts productive and positive, instead of allowing them to distract us from our goals.”

Scudder shares five keys to conflict:

Anticipate. Know who you’re dealing with. Consider how differently others might view the same situation. When people see things differently, there is potential conflict. Keeping that in mind can give you a good shot at steering clear of it.

Prevent. Use deliberate, appropriate behaviors in your relationships. A well-chosen behavior on your part can prevent conflict with another person. But sometimes, you also need to prevent conflict in yourself. That might have more to do with choosing your perceptions than choosing your behaviors.

Identify. There are three basic approaches to conflict: rising to the challenge, cautiously withdrawing, or wanting to keep the peace. When you can identify these approaches in yourself or others, you are empowered to handle the situation more productively.

Manage. This has two components: managing yourself and managing the relationship. Create conditions that empower people to manage themselves out of the emotional state of conflict. It’s also about managing yourself out, which can be as easy as taking time to see things differently.

Resolve. To reach resolution, we must show others a path back to feeling good about themselves. When they do, they are less likely to feel threatened and are free to move toward compromise and resolution.

“Unresolved or poorly managed conflict costs companies in ways they can’t even calculate,” he adds. For example, recent research shows the top reason people leave jobs is poor relationships with supervisors. “Lost institutional memory, low productivity, bad morale, high turnover all cost real dollars.” But well-managed conflict can not only prevent those losses -- it can also promote higher productivity and a stronger bottom line.

Maybe Scudder should visit Washington, D.C.


Tim Scudder is a CPA and president of Personal Strengths Publishing Inc. Since 1995, he has focused on helping clients improve relationships.

For more about resolving conflict, join us at the August luncheon,
where Ken Sande will talk about peacemaking.

Do you have expert advice to share? E-mail Kristen.

Helping people find their purpose

If you heard Kevin McCarthy speak at the chamber luncheon last September, you know his mission is to help others be on-purpose.* Many of us have been through the On-Purpose Leader Experience, a transformative seminar that helps people focus on their purpose, vision, and mission.

Kevin is looking to broaden the On-Purpose reach with a small group study, and has applied for a grant from Intuit, maker of Quicken and Quickbooks software. To get the grant, Kevin's company,  On-Purpose Partners, needs votes:  http://bit.ly/khwhji.

If On-Purpose Partners wins the grant, it will fund completion of the small group materials for his book The On-Purpose Person. This would be a great resource, so I encourage you to support the endeavor.

* If you didn't hear Kevin speak at the chamber, here's a link to a replay.

Listening to Your Customers

By George F. Brown Jr.

Successful business strategies build upon shared successes. When your strategy creates value for your customers, your firm also gains value.

Photo by Carl Dwyer | sxc.hu

One tool critical to such strategies is customer-based insight. Many businesses have some kind of Voice of the Customer program to gather insight from customers. There are three primary goals for such a program:

Gain customer input.

Learn the customer’s perspective on the future business environment and their most pressing needs. This brings insights about product innovation, critical services, trends, and more. These insights can help you get ahead of opportunities and strengthen your value. The key is to keep looking forward, rather than focusing on past performance.

We’ve all had “Duh!” moments—when an insight that should have been obvious was overlooked. One of my Duh! moments (and I admit to many) occurred in a company I was running some time ago, when we faced major challenges keeping up as our customers expanded globally. The Duh! moment came when a colleague asked, “Have we ever asked our customers about their expansion plans?” We started to do so, and the problem never resurfaced.

Effective listening doesn’t stop with direct customers. It’s necessary to listen to all of their customers. Pay attention to the entire customer chain: the path that leads from your customers all the way to the final users of their products. Perspectives vary at each stage, with implications that ripple backwards and forwards. Remarkable insights can be gained simply by asking customers at each stage what they would like to know about the other stages.

Learn what makes a best-in-class supplier.

Identify the metrics customers use to evaluate their suppliers, then develop internal action plans to meet those targets. Blue Canyon Partners identified three clusters where such metrics are concentrated: relationships between suppliers and customers, the suppliers’ ability to meet customers’ expectations, and suppliers’ ability to deliver high-value innovations.

Two things make this a challenge: First, while the three metrics clusters almost always apply, actions to be implemented differ from one customer to the next. Customize your program to gain insights about individual customers. Amalgamated data can yield an outcome that is right on average, but missing the mark with each individual customer.

Second, it takes insights from many people to get an overall picture. A customer’s perspective is shaped by the experiences of many people: designers, engineers, salespeople, and so on. Rarely does any individual know all the details relevant to every dimension of the supplier’s relationship with their company. It takes a lot of listening to understand what matters to a major customer, but that effort is required if a solid portrait is to be developed.

Fix what’s important to the customer.

Too often, this is the only goal addressed by the Voice of the Customer program. It is important, but is third in terms of long-term impact. It requires focusing on what can be improved along all the dimensions of customer interaction. There are three keys to doing this without focusing on the past:

First, topics should only be brought up after discussions about the future environment and the characteristics of best-in-class suppliers have been completed.

Second, distinguish between generic wishes for “better” and situations in which current performance is bad compared to competitors or a meaningful benchmark.

Third, learn whether customers will reward a supplier for improvements in metrics where they say they want “better.”

Select a few targets in which to invest management attention. Narrow the focus to action plans where improvement will provide a payoff. Learn what the customer would do differently if a certain change were made. If the answer is “nothing,” then the change should be reconsidered. On the other hand, if the customer can explain with clarity how the change would leave them better off, then the change has the potential to create value for both firms.

George F. Brown Jr., along with Atlee Valentine Pope, is the co-author of CoDestiny: Overcome Your Growth Challenges by Helping Your Customers Overcome Theirs, published by Greenleaf Book Group Press. Brown is also CEO and co-founder of Blue Canyon Partners Inc., a strategy consulting firm.

Do you have expert advice to share? E-mail Kristen.

Support team for elder care needs

By Mark Goldstein

If you were at the chamber Business-Building Lunch in April, you heard me tell how Cathy Crossman and her staff at Transition Options not only helped us find the assisted living facility that best suited my parents, but negotiated with them to save us $1,500 up front and another $800 every month.

Andrejs Pidjass
Fotolia.com

Transition Options has helped not only Rhawnie and I, but also my parents, during their transition into assisted living. I must admit, we were woefully unprepared for the challenges of the past few months. As most of you already know, my mother has Alzheimer’s disease and my father is in very poor health. Cathy and her team have been there for us every step of the way.

When my parents moved, my mother had difficulty adjusting because of the disease. Transition Options gave additional personalized care, and they continue to provide much-needed services, allowing Rhawnie and me to focus more on chamber needs. It’s said that the biggest concern for caregivers ends up being the quality of their mental health. In our case, we are at complete peace knowing we have our “back-up plan” in place with Transition Options.

The bottom line: If you, or anyone you know, are having to care for the ever-increasing needs of your parents and have not already created a “back-up plan,” I strongly and enthusiastically recommend that you contact Cathy Crossman at Transition Options. She will custom-tailor a plan that will meet every care-giving need. You can contact her at 407-629-5233.

If someone has gone “above and beyond” to provide you with outstanding service, please let us know.

Go also the second mile

By Mark Goldstein

Kotangens - Fotolia.com

I’ve been trying to help my mother and father through their transition into assisted living. They have both reached a point where they need special care in every aspect of their lives. Needless to say, this has put an extra burden on me. Fortunately there are many caring people who are helping greatly.

An example of this happened when I was washing my parent’s car and realized that the registration expired in February. Checking further, I found the insurance had lapsed also. After going online to re-register the car, I immediately called my friend Angie Martinez, principal of Florida Chartered Insurance Group in Oviedo, and explained the situation. She contacted Jacqueline Eiermann, a senior agent who specializes in auto and home insurance.

Within one hour, on a Sunday afternoon, Jacqueline had secured an insurance policy for the car. But here’s the best part: Since my parents had let their insurance lapse, they should have had to pay a large penalty. However, Jacqueline was able to add me to their policy, and the company accepted this as continuous coverage. What’s more, she had already gotten me a quote with that company, and even though I hadn’t switched yet, that company still offered a multi-car discount. Talk about going the extra mile for a client!

The bottom line is that when you approach the renewal date on your home or auto policy, I would strongly recommend that you first contact Jacqueline Eiermann. She will not only get you the best value, but as you can see, she never stops working for her clients. You can reach her at 407-278-0423 or by e-mail.

…and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.—Matt. 5:41 NRSV

Have a great story about one of your fellow chamber members? E-mail Kristen.

Sabbaticals: A Strategic Tool for Improving Bottom Line Results

by Rita Foley

Corporations that offer sabbaticals don’t do it as a nicety. They do it because it’s good for employees, for the company, and for customers.

Laurent Hamels -- Fotolia.com

Most of us have worked since we were in our late teens or early 20s, so of course it’s natural to crave some time off. Here are six reasons more companies are implementing sabbatical programs:

Employees return rejuvenated: Close to 100 percent of sabbatical takers return to their companies with higher levels of engagement, loyalty, motivation and appreciation for their employers. Research shows a high percentage of promotion and improved performance levels among sabbatical takers. But companies that provided sabbaticals only by exception, rather than as policy, had more sabbatical takers who did not return to work or remain employed with the company.

Clients will allow it: Some companies, especially professional firms, say the intense one-on-one relationship with clients prohibits sabatticals. The reality is many such firms offer sabbaticals. One law firm partner told me that sabbaticals actually help neutralize the ego factor. “It’s not healthy for the firm if a client gets too dependent on just one person.”

It can be cost efficient: This is another one that is especially hard for lawyers or other firms who share profits. But if everyone takes a sabbatical, then, at one time or another, each will cover for another and the profit washes out. Some companies offer only partial pay for sabbatical takers, but even for those who offer full pay, a sabbatical program shouldn’t cost you. Maybe at a clerical level you might have to hire a temp, but with careful preparation and juggling, work can usually be covered by existing employees.

Implementation is essential: It’s all in the preparation. The companies I spoke to have a very simple and effective system. Upon approaching the sabbatical year, an employee writes a memo to their boss requesting the specific time off. They then meet and outline coverage.

Stagger sabbaticals: In a formal program, one of the main concerns is how to start the implementation with tenured employees who have passed the five- or seven-year mark -- some many times. Most companies simply stagger leaves over a three-year period.

The bottom line: Our nation will lose its innovation and creativity if we don’t invest in our most important asset: our employees. We tune up our PCs, our cars, and our home heaters. Why not encourage people to give their minds and spirits a tune-up? Time and time again, sabbatical takers return as more interested and engaged employees, more loyal and more creative. Sabbaticals broaden a company by bringing in new ideas.

Loyalty alone should justify implementing a program. The cost of hiring and training a new employee can be 1.5 times a departing worker’s salary. Sharon Allen, Deloitte’s chairwoman, said her firm’s sabbaticals and flexibility policies had saved more than $45 million a year by reducing turnover.

A sabbatical program is a wonderful tool for checking an organization’s depth and breadth. Managers must proactively focus on developing their staff, complete succession planning, and provide training and exposure to teams. Sabbaticals promote teamwork and better decision-making.


Twenty per cent of the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For offer fully paid sabbaticals. If you want to be a workplace of choice while still adding to the bottom line and the company’s future, consider implementing a sabbatical program.

Rita Foley is an adviser with Crenshaw Associates and is a co-author of Reboot Your Life: Energize Your Career and Life by Taking a Break.

Do you have expert advice to share? E-mail Kristen.

Five Common Sales Team afflictions

by John R. Treace

Problems in sales teams can be found to some degree in almost every organization. Smart managers are aware of this and work to avoid the potential reduction in morale and performance. Any one of these problems will not necessarily hurt sales efforts, but multiple conditions at once can be extremely harmful.

Affliction 1: Wasting time

Endostock -- Fotolia.com

Forcing salespeople to perform non-sales tasks such as making accounts receivable collections, managing product recalls, or filling out reports unrelated to the sales process may be a waste of their time. Consider delegating these tasks to non-salespeople. If you divert five percent of a sales team’s time to collections, you effectively reduce the number of feet on the ground by the same amount. The reverse is true as well. It’s worthwhile to audit processes to see whether non-sales tasks can be re-assigned. Relieving the sales team of such tasks will result in increased sales.

Affliction 2: Poor sales meetings

The objective of any sales meeting should be to increase sales. Period. Every high-performing salesperson in a meeting thinks, “Is this meeting making me money, or is my time being wasted?” Powerful salespeople are self-motivated and intuitively know if their time is being wasted. If it is, management is hurting morale -- and sales. To ensure effective meetings, develop a strategic intent that includes clear success metrics. Define in specific terms what metrics are needed to determine whether goals are met. It takes a deep understanding of the business, the market, and the competition to do this. Powerful sales meetings produce sales and keep morale high.

Affliction 3: Poor strategy

Ineffective marketing or sales strategies will always hurt the sales team. This is especially true for teams selling commodity products or services. A player with small market share who enters a commodity market without a well-defined and well-implemented strategy can be assured of certain death. These types of companies usually say, “It’s a huge market, and we can grab some of it,” but it’s not that simple. The sales team will recognize ineffective strategy and will lose faith in the managers who developed it.

To compound the error, companies often try special promotions to save sagging sales on ill-conceived products. Some promotions can be effective, but managers should never call for a pointless charge of the light brigade. Sending the sales team to support a poor product or service is a severe tactical error. A successful sales effort hinges on good strategy. Companies that fail in this regard severely handicap their sales teams.

Affliction 4: Capping or reducing income

Powerful companies have managers who do not envy large sales force paychecks. Managers who resent highly paid salespeople often respond by reducing commissions, capping earnings, reducing territories, or removing products. Avoid these practices. They destroy morale. Powerful salespeople want to leverage today’s efforts into greater sales and income for tomorrow. If their earnings are limited, they will feel that ability has been taken away. High performers will soon look for employment elsewhere.


Affliction 5: Favoritism

We all have favorites in life, and that’s normal, but playing favorites on a sales team is destructive. Salespeople want to work for companies that keep the playing field level. If select salespeople are given extra incentives, benefits, or favors not available to others, management is creating a privileged class. Managers can’t build loyalty by strengthening a small political power base. Keeping the playing field level will pay big dividends.

Wasting time, poor sales meetings, poor strategy, capping income, and playing favorites are, with few exceptions, situations to be avoided. They are destructive to morale and lead to poor performance. Effective managers avoid these situations, and astute salespeople will bring these practices to the attention of management for correction.

John R. Treace is the founder of JR Treace & Associates, a sales management consulting business. He is the author of Nuts & Bolts of Sales Management: How to Build a High-Velocity Sales Organization. Website: www.treaceconsulting.com.

Do you have expert advice to share? E-mail Kristen.

A Culture of Trust Boosts Employee Performance

If employees don’t trust a company’s leaders, they won’t feel safe—and when they don’t feel safe, they spend all their creative energy covering their -- selves. They don’t take risks. And where there is no risk, there is less innovation and less “going the extra mile.”

John Hamm, author of Unusually Excellent, says “Without trust, people respond with distraction, fear, or paralysis.” This produces behaviors like sandbagging quotas, hedging on goals, and avoiding commitment.”

He says leaders become trustworthy by building a track record of honesty, fairness, and integrity. Cultivating trust isn’t just a moral issue; it’s a practical one. Most employees have been hurt or disappointed at some point in their careers by a leader. That’s why leaders are often in “negative trust territory” from the start.

Hamm offers these tips on building trust:

Model trustworthiness. This doesn’t mean you must be warm and personable if that’s not your personality. On the contrary, many trustworthy people can be harsh, tough, or socially awkward. But promises must be inviolate and decisions fair. People who can be trusted are more likely to gain the respect of others than the nicest guy in the room, says Hamm. “You can be authentically whoever you really are. As long as you are fair, as long as you do what you say consistently, you will still be trusted.”

Reveal vulnerability. Allow others to see authentic (not fabricated) weakness or emotion. This helps people relate to one another.

Be transparent. Tell the truth, match your actions with your words, and match those words with the truth we all see in the world: no spin, no justifications, no revisionist history.

Allow good failures. Hamm says punishing failure is one of the stupidest things organizations do, and it happens all the time. “Good failure” is a term used in Silicon Valley to describe a business or initiative that is well planned, well run, and well organized—yet for reasons beyond its control, fails. Good failures occur when you play well but lose. Punishing employees for good failures instills a fear of risk-taking, and stifles innovation.

Instead, says Hamm, strive for a “digital camera” culture. There is no expense associated with an imperfect digital photograph. Just hit delete, and it disappears. No wasted film. So people take many more digital photos than they would with film. If failure is “free,” we take chances, and can get that one amazing picture that we wouldn’t have if we were paying for all the mistakes.

Allow people to bring bad news. Shooting the messenger results in messengers who won’t bring the information you need. They’ll protect their -- selves. Instill confidence that leaders value facts, truth, and speed of delivery over judgments of good or bad.

Beware shortcuts. When victory or failure is in sight, there is a vulnerability to abandoning values in the name of expediency. That can set a precedent and lead to corner-cutting even in operations that aren’t at a critical stage. Plus, when employees see you betraying your values, they see you as less trustworthy.

Recognize whom to coach and whom to let go. You cannot “fix” a thief, a pathological liar, or a con artist. “There are three failure modes that I will decline to coach: integrity, commitment, and chronic selfishness—manipulating outcomes for individual gain,” says Hamm. These are character traits, not matters of knowledge.

But that doesn’t mean we can doubt or distrust someone because their performance disappoints, he adds. “Performance problems should be managed fairly and with little judgment of the person’s character, unless that is the root of the trouble.”

 “Everyone fails to achieve perfection,” Hamm says. So a leader’s goal is to make wrong choices rarely; admit them quickly, completely, and with humility; fix them quickly; and make full recompense when possible.

In a working environment of trust, Hamm says, teams stay focused, give their utmost effort, and do their best work.”

Do you have expert advice to share? E-mail Kristen.

Seeking great entrepreneurs

Byryo — iStockphoto

Entrepreneur magazine looking for business owners to enter its Entrepreneur of 2011 contest sponsored by The UPS Store. The contest seeks small business owners who can share how their business makes a difference in their industries and communities and to their employees.

The criteria for the three award categories is as follows:

Entrepreneur of 2011: No more than 100 employees; gross sales revenue of at least $3 million in 2010

Emerging Entrepreneur of 2011: No more than 12 employees; at least $350,000 in gross sales revenue in 2010.

College Entrepreneur of 2011: Entrants must be either an undergraduate or graduate student between the ages of 18 and 25 during the time of submission. College students may pitch their business ideas for a shot at $5,000 in startup capital.

Last year's winners included Entrepreneur of 2010 Daniel Lubetzky of Kind Healthy Snacks, Emerging Entrepreneur of 2010 Derek Zobrist of Enovative Kontrol Systems, and College Entrepreneur of 2010 Allen Kim of Bebarang. Learn more about their businesses, read their stories and watch videos about their experiences at the magazine's website.

Judges include representatives from Entrepreneur's editorial department and Mail Boxes Etc. Inc., franchisor of The UPS Store. The panel will base its decision on several criteria, including business growth, effect on industry, community, employees, and customers.

All three winning entrepreneurs will receive two round-trip tickets within the continental U.S. and a profile in the January 2012 issue of Entrepreneur magazine. The three winners will also be honored at an awards luncheon and ceremony in January at Entrepreneur's fourth-annual Growth Conference. In addition, the winners will receive a gift certificate for $500 in free services at The UPS Store, a three-year subscription to Entrepreneur magazine and a selection of Entrepreneur Press books.

Entry criteria and the complete rules can be found on entrepreneur.com/e2011/rules, or for the college contest, entrepreneur.com/e2011college. The deadline is June 15.

Advisors for women business owners

Francis Black • iStockphoto

The Center for Advanced Entrepreneurship at Rollins College seeks applications from women-owned businesses who wish to participate in a year-long program designed to increase growth and profitability.

The AthenaPowerLink Program provides guidance to female business owners whose companies are ripe for growth. Each advisory panel is hand-selected based on the needs of the business owner. Over 12 months, each volunteer panel serves as mentors and advisors at no charge to the owner.

Application Criteria:

• Must be 51% owned and actively managed by a woman or women
• Must have been in operation at least two years
• Must have at least two full-time employees (including the owner), or a number of employees whose total work hours add up to two full-time positions
• Annual revenue of at least $250,000 for retail or manufacturing or $100,000 for a service business
• The owner must have clearly defined objectives and specific reasons for seeking an advisory panel

The application period is April 1-30, 2011. Applications available at the AthenaPowerLink website.

Doing your brother’s dishes

The principles of the office kitchen are well-known:

• Don’t eat other people’s food.
• Clean up after yourself.
• When you take the last cup of coffee, make another pot.

Michal Zacharzewski | stock.xchng

They are also widely violated. Someone working late will “borrow” a sandwich or soda to get through the evening. Someone late for a meeting will leave dirty dishes in the sink. And someone who thinks she’s the only one who could possibly be drinking coffee at this time of the afternoon will leave an empty pot for that fella who’s working late.

Any time one of these things happens, it spurs a round of grousing and, often, a terse e-mail from the human resources department about respecting the kitchen rules.

But a servant mindset allows us to take things to another level.

What if, upon finding our soda missing, we said a prayer for the one who was so desperate (or absent-minded) to have taken it?

What if, on finding dirty dishes in the sink, we were to wash and dry them so the owner finds them clean on his return?

What if, when two cups of coffee are left in a 12-cup pot, you put in enough grounds and water for 10 cups? (Or, if it’s really late in the afternoon, just 4 or 5 cups.)

Jesus was called to serve, and so are we. It's tempting to vent our anger when someone violates the kitchen rules. But preserving relationships with our co-workers is more important than venting anger, which does not bring about the righteous life God desires (James 1:20). A servantlike approach redirects our anger into service for others. And that, in the long run, is much more satisfying.

Four ways to accelerate cash flow

© Okea - Fotolia.com

"Traditional methods to increase cash flow are not working," said Lisa Anderson, founder and president of LMA Consulting Group Inc. "When customers demand increased service and value, innovative strategies are required to succeed."

There are countless ways entrepreneurs can increase cash flow through supply chain improvements, but it's important to prioritize in a way that will drive results. "Resources are lean, so it’s vital to focus on what provides the best return on investment," said Anderson.

Here are a few strategies she says drive the bulk of results:

1. Inventory management

Anderson said the key is not only to reduce inventory but to do it while improving customer service. Otherwise, you lose valued customers. Each company requires a different approach, but, said Anderson, "After reducing inventory levels 40 percent or more in multiple companies in various industries, I've found that big picture areas were identical: people, processes, and systems."

2. Supply chain collaboration

Anderson shares some collaboration case studies: “We implemented vendor-managed inventory with a key customer, improving not only our cash flow but also the customer's. In another example, we partnered with suppliers and customers to develop innovative product and packaging that reduced cost -- increasing cash flow -- and improved performance. Lastly, we partnered with key customers and carriers to develop a transportation model that reduced freight costs -- increasing cash flow -- while improving service."

3. Know when to fire a client

Not all customers are good customers. "Negative profitability customers should be reviewed in detail. Is there a compelling strategy to keep them? Focus efforts on profitable customers," said Anderson. Similarly, if a few customers are tying up significant amounts of cash, try to improve the relationships.

4. Cost cutting isn’t everything

Even Anderson admits that cost reduction can’t be the sole focus in improving cash flow. “If you spent the same amount of time and energy on increasing revenue, you could be one of the companies to leapfrog the competition in the new normal."

Do you have expert advice to share? E-mail Kristen.

How I learned to stop working

A counselor once taught me three important things.

Photo by magurka | stock.xchng

Stop multitasking. It doesn’t help.

Many studies back her up in this, and it’s a frequent subject of time management and productivity articles like this one: “10 Ways to Multitask Better,” which is really about how to not multitask.

When we try to do several things at once, we just wind up doing them all poorly and taking more time than if we had done each in turn. Now, this does not stop me from tossing a load of clothes in the dryer before I sit down to write this. But instead of jumping up in the middle of my writing to see if the shirts are ready to hang, I will finish this first. Then I will get the shirts from the dryer and hope I don’t have to iron them.

Moving other things to the back burner -- especially if you’ve written them down so as not to forget -- lets you focus on the one thing that needs doing right now. And focus improves results.

Spend the last half-hour before bedtime doing something relaxing.

The counselor pinpointed my insomnia as the result of going full tilt until well after the last minute. Work a day job, come home, wash a load of clothes, cook the dinner, pay the bills, edit something, put a load of clothes in the dryer, write write write until my husband says “isn’t it bedtime?” and then remember the laundry and go hang it up.

Then I would go to bed with all the undone items on my to-do list banging around in my head, and wonder why I couldn’t sleep.

My counselor advised taking a half-hour to wind down. Have a cup of tea, read a book, knit -- OK, she didn’t say knit, but that’s what I do. It relaxes me. To make myself feel better about it, I include my knitting projects on my to-do list.

Some people call this building in margin. I call it Rest. Just as we need a Sabbath day once a week, I think we need some Sabbath time at the beginning and end of each day to Be Still. It has made my life slightly less stressful, and improved my sleep tremendously.

The third thing I learned from her: It’s not a disaster if the laundry doesn’t get done.

When to pay bonuses despite posting a loss

One of the many great things in Kris DenBesten's book SHINE is the account of how he surprised his employees one year by giving bonuses even though the company had posted a loss.

I thought of that this week because of two very different news stories. First, my colleague Adam O'Daniel at the Charlotte Business Journal reported that Bank of America's board awarded its CEO, Brian Moynihan, a $9 million stock bonus, even though the bank posted a $3.2 billion loss for 2010.


Then, Bloomberg reported that Lockheed Martin's CEO, Robert J. Stevens, asked the board to keep his pay where it's been for three years. The company won't award raises to any executives at the level of vice president and above, because although it did have a profit last year, the profit margin was too narrow.

Lockheed Martin's bonus policy "accounts for individual performance and the performance of the company, or business unit."

Lockheed Martin's policy makes sense. I, too, work for a company where bonuses are not issued unless financial goals are met. And BofA? What a crock. How do you award a bonus when there's a loss? If there's no profit, there can be no bonuses.

Then I remembered SHINE.

Mind you, there's a big difference between DenBesten's company and Bank of America, and it doesn't only have to do with how many digits follow the dollar sign.

BofA paid its executive bonuses because, as we have seen so often lately, that's just what banks customarily do. In the world of high finance, you don't withhold an executive's raise or bonus. It's part of that culture. Defense contractors and newspapers have a different culture.

And so, I think, do equipment companies.

When DenBesten handed out those bonuses, he was acting on his own principle of serving others. It's exactly the kind of radical step of faith we're called to take, especially when times are tough.

Six lessons for building successful virtual teams

The office of the future is no office at all. Many of us work from our homes, hold client meetings at coffee shops, and have a business address that’s a post office box. Without an office, we frequently rely on phone and e-mail to communicate with collaborators.

But Darleen DeRosa and Rick Lepsinger warn that the vision often falls short of reality. “Virtual teams” may be popular, but they’re not always successful.

spekulator | stock.xchng

DeRosa and Lepsinger wrote Virtual Team Success: A Practical Guide for Working and Leading from a Distance to help businesspeople create teams across distances. They say too many companies treat virtual teams the same as teams that share the same location.

“Frankly,” says DeRosa, “that just doesn’t work.” Leaders who understand the different needs of virtual teams are the ones whose teams succeed.

DeRosa and Lepsinger’s company, OnPoint Consulting, studied 48 virtual teams to find the success factors of top performing teams. Surprisingly, 27 percent of the teams were not fully performing. The authors identified these pitfalls:

• Lack of clear goals, direction, or priorities
• Lack of clear roles among team members
• Lack of cooperation and trust
• Lack of engagement

The authors identify these points of success:

1. Focus on people. Compensate for the inherent lack of contact by supporting team spirit and trust.

• Develop a team web page where team members can get acquainted.
• Use communication tools like instant messaging, Facebook or Twitter to create a virtual water cooler.
• Build a collective online “resource bank” to share information and experiences.
• Create ways to virtually celebrate successes as a team.

2. No trust, no team. Task-based trust is one factor differentiating top performing teams. In virtual teams, trust seems to develop more readily at the task level than at the interpersonal level. DeRosa says trust “doesn’t simply develop because a team has been working together for a while.”

• Make sure teams meet face-to-face at least once early on to build relationships and learn about one another’s capabilities.
• Empower team members to make and act on decisions. Beware of micromanaging.
• Proactively manage conflict.

3. Soft skills are essential. Virtual teams that have been through team-building and interpersonal skill development activities perform better than those that have not. Selecting team members based solely on technical skills without considering interpersonal skills is a mistake.

• Include characteristics like effective communication and collaboration in the selection criteria.
• Use team-building sessions to strengthen relationships and create momentum.
• Assess development needs for team members and team leaders and conduct training on these areas.

4. Watch out for performance peaks. Teams who have been working together for more than three years tend to be more successful than teams working together for less time, but many teams peak around the one-year mark. After that, performance tends to level off or decline.

• Clearly define team roles and accountabilities.
• Review and refine processes regularly.
• Periodically examine the level of team performance. Collect feedback from various stakeholders to assess the team’s performance.
• Identify barriers to high performance and steps that can be taken to overcome these barriers.

5. Create a “high touch” environment. The technology that makes virtual teaming possible it is not a perfect substitute for human interaction. Arrange for virtual team members to meet in person at least once a year. “Virtual teams that invest in one or two such meetings per year outperform those that don’t,” says Lepsinger.

• Use electronic bulletin boards to create a sense of shared space.
• Choose communication technologies that are most appropriate to the task. E-mail is good for sharing facts, while conference calls are better for sharing ideas and plans.
• Use videoconferencing. Teams that use video technology outperform those that don’t.

6. Leadership matters. Leadership is the factor most important to the success of virtual teams. Virtual team leaders must be especially sensitive to interpersonal communication and cultural factors. “Organizations can avoid this performance barrier by selecting team leaders who not only have the necessary technical skills but also the soft skills required to effectively lead in a virtual environment,” says DeRosa.

• Set clear goals and direction and revisit these as priorities shift.
• Engage team members in developing strategy.
• Provide time for team building.
• Provide timely feedback. Be responsive and accessible.
• Emphasize common interests and values, and reinforce cooperation and trust.
• Create a system to easily integrate new team members.
• Teach the importance of conflict resolution.
• Celebrate team achievements and successes.

Lepsinger says, “organizations start virtual teams in response to an opportunity or problem without planning or proper follow-up—never a recipe for success.” DeRosa adds, “Better planning could dramatically improve their odds for success.”

Six key steps to working out customer service kinks

Author Maribeth Kuzmeski shares this anecdote to show that customer relationships are made or broken when something goes wrong:

While at a hotel, getting ready for a crucial business meeting, you turn on the hairdryer, but the power goes out. You call the service number and hear "Someone is on the way." After twenty minutes and two more calls, anxiety turns to anger, when a "service" person asks, "What do you want me to do about it?" Finally, the power comes back on, and a maintenance man explains it wasn't his fault and makes excuses about what went wrong internally. No one acknowledges or apologizes for your inconvenience.

Brian A Jackson | iStockphoto

“If a service recovery plan isn't understood by the entire staff, everything snowballs,” says Kuzmeski, author of ...And the Clients Went Wild! How Savvy Professionals Win All the Business They Want and The Connectors: How the World's Most Successful Businesspeople Build Relationships and Win Clients for Life. The hotel incident actually happened to one of her associates.

"If you don't have well-developed service recovery techniques in place, you'll lose the customer every time," she says. That leads to angry customers vowing never to return—and maybe decide to share their anger with countless others online.”

Kuzmeski offers these tips for service recovery:

1. Recognize and truly understand your customer's situation. Provide individual care. People with children have very different needs from busy businesspeople. Train your customer service people to recognize key differences and adjust responses accordingly.

2. Make sure what you're saying is happening is really happening. Customer service is more than following a script. "When the hotel guest made the second call, it's likely the front desk representative didn't check to see where the maintenance man was," says Kuzmeski. "Taking the time to locate him would have gotten the guest the service she needed."

3. Be specific about how the problem will be handled. Let the customer know what will happen and when. The more information customers have, the less anxious they feel.

4. Complaint number two is an emergency. Most people can forgive one mistake, if it’s addressed promptly. A second complaint calls for emergency mode. If you want to keep your customer, you must take care of the problem immediately.

5. Make sure the service philosophy permeates the business from top to bottom. The hotel in the anecdote is part of a chain with a rewards program for repeat customers. When the guest called to complain, the rewards people understood the inconvenience and tried to make it up to her by offering additional rewards points. "They hadn't properly trained their onsite staff,” Kuzmeski says. It’s crucial that everyone understand the customer service plan and be able to solve problems.

6. Don't assume customers will give you a second chance. If a customer takes the time to call you about a problem, you are lucky. You don't always get a chance to make it right. Often, customers just move on. And the real concern is that it takes only one dissatisfied customer to create a public relations disaster. Dissatisfied customers have created blogs and YouTube videos sharing their tales of bad service with the world.

Kuzmeski says customer loyalty is achievable, “but you have to have the service chops to take care of them. Make your customers and your relationships with them a priority—always! When you do so, you can create clients for life."

Hiking up recovery mountain

If your business, like so many others, is still hurting, you may wonder what the economists are thinking when they talk about our economy being in recovery.

According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the recession ran from December 2007 to June 2009. If we've been in recovery for a year and a half, why does it still feel like a "recession" to so many?

It's important to understand what economists mean when they speak of "recession." If you graph them, periods of growth, or expansion, are rising lines leading to peaks. Periods of contraction, or recession, are descending lines that lead to troughs.

The GDP, one of the main factors in measuring economic growth, has been rising since June 2009. Though that growth was sometimes small, the numbers were positive, as opposed to the negative numbers seen during the recession.

So why does recovery seem so crummy?

Photo by Christophe Libert
stock.xchng

Imagine you're climbing a mountain. When you reach the peak, you stand in the bright sunshine and can  see for miles.

Then you fall. You roll down that steep slope for a year and a half. You land in a valley. Bruised, but not broken, you stand up. That mountain behind you now blocks the sun. You're in shadow.

You can't go back the way you came. Ahead of you is another mountain -- maybe not as tall as the one you fell from. It has a shallower slope. You begin climbing. Slowly, surely, you ascend. You leave the valley floor behind. But the next peak is still far away, and you are still in shadow.

In The Great Reset, Richard Florida compares the 2007-2009 recession to earlier ones. "Recovery from both the Long Depression of the 1870s and the Great Depression of the 1930s -- the First and Second Resets -- took the better part of two or three decades."

He says forecasting where we'll be once the present crisis is history would be like predicting "the full flower of postwar suburbanization from the vantage point of Franklin Roosevelt's inauguration day in 1932."

Florida goes on to identify the forces "that will almost certainly power a real Great Reset and a more sustainable new way of life." I have yet to finish this book, but I suspect Florida's observations will be instructive for all of us as we climb through this long recovery.

And as we go, let's remember that we have a mighty counselor who climbs with us out of the valley. "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned." — Isaiah 9:2