Thanks for checking in!

It's been some time since posting to this blog, it's time to start afresh!

Some of you know I was asked by the Governor to put my consulting practice on hold and help reorganize Florida's Office of Early Learning as it's Agency Director.  I promised a year and ended up spending 16 months in Tallahassee; while a great experience (I had 110 full-time state employees, 31 locally established Early Learning Coalition Boards across the state and a 1.3 Billion Dollar budget impacting over 250,000 children under the age of 5 in over 11,600 Florida settings), it was time to get home and back to my consulting, training and development practice.

Now that I'm back and we're about to begin anew, it's time to restart the blogging process.  So, beginning with the January 2014 "e-mel", I'll post new monthly messages, and even re-post some of my previously written articles and newsletters.

After 25 years of consulting, training and development, and as we head into 2014, I have come to see the wisdom in a simple three word mantra:

CHANGE OR DIE ...

The sentiment may seem harsh, but is indeed becoming a reality for today’s leaders.  During turbulent times, leaders are faced with tumultuous budget and productivity concerns.  Your HR and admin staff are feeling battered from reduction in workforce discussions.  What’s often left to chance, as leaders are stretched focusing on the fires of the day, is addressing those employees left to produce positive results  for your organization.  All too often it’s our most valuable resource, our remaining employees, that are not addressed.

One uninformed executive recently shared, “Heck they’re happy just to have their jobs!  I don’t need to do anything special for them.”  Really?!  Have I missed the reports of first quarter spikes in productivity, performance, and profitability in businesses across our nation?  It’s natural when employees find themselves in seemingly intolerable situations and feeling overwhelmed by tension, anxiety, and a sense of powerlessness to retreat, shutdown, and go into a self-preservation mode.  We create the exact opposite culture than we need to weather the economic storm and emerge victorious.  By not addressing employee morale, we engender a survival and victim mentality.

Over the past several months, we’ve been contacted by several leading organizations and had the opportunity to partner with them as they’ve realized now is a critical and pivotal time to capitalize on their most important resource, their people.  Although each solution has been tailored to the individual needs of client organizations, some of the strategies we’ve employed include:

• Culture Reconstruction: Building a Culture Where People Thrive.
• Positioning for the Future: Leading in Uncertain Times With Shifting Expectations
• Diversity: Differences seem to be magnified during times of Crisis. Tailored to the unique needs of your organization, we explore cultural, race, gender, and generational issues that can rob an organization of productivity.
• Denial – Not a River in Egypt: Reality discussions, facing facts, resolving roadblock issues, developing strategies, action commitments, and holding self and others accountable is no longer a luxury in today’s tough business climate.
• Change or Die: Success principles to Live By.
• "2020" Habits and Skill Development:  20/20 speaks to great vision ... but the year 2020 is closing in on us as well.  It’s not too early to identify and begin to develop, in earnest, the attitudes and skill sets that will be prerequisites to success in the future. You choose, be proactive and develop core competencies now; or, step into the reactive, victim role, forever being frustrated and playing catch-up.
• Character and Ethics: More than ever this is the desire and desperate demand of your customers (constituents), co-workers, and the community you function within.
• New Ways of Thinking for a Change: What type of thinking is most manifested in your organization?  Is it what will maintain your position and move you to the next level of excellence?  Are you firing on all cylinders when it comes to thinking – big picture thinking, creative thinking, realistic thinking, possibility thinking, and shared thinking?

Maybe you're looking for a topic that's not listed, that's not a problem.  Since 1991 we've been designing programs, events, and solutions around our customers concerns and needs ... I know we can do something special for you too!

From acting as a short-term organization morale officer, to offering action-oriented development sessions for employees, to one-on-one coaching, to offering follow-up support tools our organization is available to ensure your organization is maximizing your most valuable asset -- your talent pool.  Be it addressing  employee productivity or just providing blog essays for you to pass along, we’d be happy to discuss a tailored solution for the challenges you’re facing in today’s challenging climate.

Regards,

Mel Jurado

askdrmel@aol.com

(813) 985-4161