Plug and Play

It’s pretty obvious that every industry is a little bit and sometimes a lot different.  What works in one may not work in another and so on.  But sometimes there really are universal truths about certain aspects of business that can be applied across a wide spectrum of industries and produce very similar outcomes.  Having a template or a theory that can organize and focus learning rather than step by step answers can be very useful to help simplify the design and implementation process and eliminate the time and expense of reinventing the wheel for each business and industry.   Knowing the the right questions to ask can be far more useful than trying to implement a set of answers that may not work in your business or industry or be obsolete.  Former General Electric CEO says that learning faster is the key to staying ahead of the competition.  So, if you can accelerate and focus your learning you are going to be able to get better answers for your business and take action quicker.  Just remember that the answers for any business are temporary. Markets change, technology changes workers change and customers change so don’t fall in love with your answers.  There is one element that just about every business and industry has in common and that is people.  People are still the most valuable asset in any business but there are no easy answers about working with people.  However, there are some universal truths that need to be learned about the people that work in any organization in order for there to be an effective allocation of those resources and maximum development and output.   Business leaders need to be constantly learning about their workers needs and desired rewards for their work and where they will be the best fit within the organization in order to gain the most engagement and professional development.  Too often we look to incentivize workers to do what we want rather than finding out where their intrinsic motivation lies and finding the work that aligns with that.  That is when the organization will truly benefit the most from their workers and when the workers will likewise be the most fulfilled and developed.  

So, the “plug and play” is to plug into a learning template about your unique workforce and pretty soon you will have far more resources and talents to play with than you would ever have if you just dictate what you want from each.

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