• How to Unleash Unlimited Possibilities

My friend Joan Steidl was recently asked about her thoughts on the election. She responded, “We are living in a rapidly changing world. Both parties are offering old solutions that haven’t worked. What we really need are some new ideas.”

Her words have haunted me.

Our traditional semi-free market approach isn’t working as demonstrated by the problems surfacing with big corporations these last few years. Socialism on the other hand has never worked and many European Socialist countries are moving towards more semi-free markets. Both of these approaches have been hierarchical, top down, command and control models that favored big business and big government.

At the same time, the world seems to be collapsing before our very eyes. Industries are failing, people are losing their jobs, our government grows ever bigger and demands a bigger portion of our resources while our political leaders are telling us that Bank of America, AIG, General Motors and others are too big to fail. Enough is enough!

The models we have used and are using date back to the late 19th century when the problem was how to get semi-skilled workers to do the same things over and over again, consistently and efficiently. The hierarchical models of leadership in business and government are no longer appropriate in today’s world. This is especially true when you realize today’s economy demands innovative, individualized solutions. It is time for new ideas... and new faces.

The basic truth is that big organizations are sluggish, have big problems and the potential for big corruption. Small organizations are agile, have small problems and the potential for corruption is kept small.

One of the lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan has been the success of more efficient and effective methods to achieve the objective while minimizing collateral damage. We have seen the transition from massive carpet bombing to individual smart bombs, from large helicopters and planes to small unmanned drones and large troop movements to small special operations units.

In science there is a growing interest in Quantum Physics (the study of the smallest individual units of energy) which is radically different than the science we have known.

The time has come to move away from large, slow moving, corrupt institutions to smaller more adaptable, innovative and agile ones. Large entities must be reduced into smaller more malleable units. Then if they fail, the downside is minimized. More smaller organizations will innovate and try different approaches giving us more options from which to chose.

If you incorporate the idea that the future of products and services lies in more customized solutions. Smaller more focused and adaptable organizations are the only solution.

• Service Update

Even in down economies there are opportunities. For me, there has been a growing interest in my “Inventor Coaching” program. It seems that people are looking for alternative ways of generating income and want to explore how to capitalize on ideas they have for new products and services. This is a program that I have been presenting at Lakeland Community College and more recently for Geauga County Community and Economic Development as well as with individual inventors. Email me for more information about the program.

Improving Productivity, Performance and Profitability is always of interest in any economy. I have an employee survey that consists of 25 questions. When completed and returned to me, I am then able to provide an analysis that shows areas for improvement and provides potential productivity, performance and profitability benefits that can be derived from further initiatives in specific areas. If you would like to learn how you can improve productivity, performance and profitability in your organization, call me toll free at (866) 598-8450 today.

Have a subject you would like to see covered in future issues of “Taking Aim”? Please send me an email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .