Presenting TomorrowTraining

If you have been following Keith, Barrie, Graeme and Dean’s informative, intriguing, interesting and investigative antics via ezine over the past while, you are no doubt becoming familiar with what the New World of Work implies. You have probably been introduced to some of the challenges people face, in the vein of feeling like nobody really understands your perspective because you all labour away in multi-generational workplaces. The Tomorrow Today team have surely talked you through how the economy has changed over the last 100 years, from agricultural, to industrial to service-orientated to where we are today: in an emotional or connective economy. What’s fascinating now is how people’s collective behaviour has shifted in response to a more EQ based mindset in reaction to a need to build relationships because ultimately we are all emotional beings in a competitive market. We can access knowledge at the push of a button, so really to cope with the New World of Work one has to develop versatile and diverse skills, an open-minded attitude and appropriate values for this contemporary climate. Selling, in particular, in this connective economy requires a completely different focus and big players like Coca Cola; Pepsi Cola; JP Morgan and American Express have been selling charity to attract attention to themselves because consumers increasingly want to give back as they spend. Is this in response to what the world needs environmentally or are people just discovering their philanthropic side?

Being experts in societal change, generational clashes, people adaptability and communication Tomorrow Training can offer you and your colleagues a wealth of information, skills transformation and application tailor-made to suit your line of work in the context of the new world of work. Essentially we can provide your workforce with skills that will enable them to do things differently in order to increase productivity. Whether it’s working with your sales team, your call centre, your receptionists, your management teams, internally and interdepartmentally or with your clients, we can help you communicate more effectively. Whether that’s formally or informally, verbal or written communication, the insights we provide will prove invaluable to you as you progress through this ever-changing, fast paced, technologically driven, competitive global village that the world has become. We will help you see how this change is exciting and can be used to your advantage, rather than something to be afraid of.

For more information, to request details of our courses or to make a booking, please contact Laura Eickhaus in South Africa, or Dean van Leeuwen in the United Kingdom.

TomorrowToday’s Top 10 most read blog entries at the end of 2009

TomorrowToday’s blog has been up and running since September 2004. We have over 1750 posts on our blog, filed under 35 different categories. We’ve not done this before, but here are TomorrowToday’s most read blog posts as of 31 December 2009:

10.) Time Magazine – the future of work
9.) How’s this for the latest craze
8.) Tell me and I will forget show me and I may remember involve me and I will understand
7.) Navigating This Differently Connected World – exploring the impact of social software on business today
6.) ‘Weeping’ by Josh Groban, errr actually Bright Blue
5.) The Talent Reboot
4.) Good to Great to Gone
3.) Back to the Future – Rethinking Strategy
2.) Detailed Introduction to Generational Theory
1.) ‘After Shock’ – the five trends disrupting business in the next 5 years

So there they are. If there was a writing award in TomorrowToday it would certainly go to Graeme Codrington (based in the UK for now, and traveller of the world) for the most written and the most read. Correlation between the two? Me thinks so.

How, when and why I Tweet and Blog

I’m often asked how I use social media, so I thought it might be helpful to do a quick blog about it. Not because you really care about me, but because it might help spark some thoughts about how you use social media and because it might help you get more out of this website and TomorrowToday’s other resources.

Firstly, then, this blog site. I use it as my filing cabinet for good ideas and good stuff I’ve seen. I focus on tracking trends that are shaping the new world of work, with a particular focus on demography and shifting societal values. But I’m also interested in the impact of other major forces, such as technology, institutional shifts, the environment and ethical consumption. I use this blog as a way of capturing case studies, ideas, trends and especially for writing up bits and pieces that I can later use in longer articles, white papers and books. The categories on the right hand side are linked to existing and expected frameworks (which we use as presentations or workshops with our clients).

As an author, I try and keep a discipline of writing about 200-400 words every day. Sometimes these words are rubbish – those are filed in fragmentary documents on my hard drive. Sometimes they start something that then inspires me to develop an article length entry – most recently, for example, I wrote a monster entry about Good to Great – that took nearly a week to complete. But every now and again, the 200-400 words produce a great thought – and that becomes a blog entry. My aim is one of these every other day.

Our blog has an automatic widget that then reports the new blog entry on Twitter (the feed is at @tomorrowtodayza). I wait about 30 minutes and then Retweet that auto notice using my own Twitter account (@codrington).

… Continue Reading

A web war between two countries

OK so the title of this post completely over-states what you’re about to read, but once you read it you’ll hopefully sympathise and appreciate the dramatic exaggeration : )

We’ve recently updated the look and feel of our brand to ensure a more consistent look and feel for our South African and UK offices.

Outside of the new look and feel, we created a single landing page from our historical web url (www.tomorrowtoday.biz) and from there offer two options:

• South Africa
• United Kingdom

Of course one of the first questions asked was which country get’s to be on the left of the page? The answer was simple. Our SA team designed the page we choose. However, our competitive streak entered the conversation and we agreed to track Google Analytics on each of the two country sites and whichever had the most hits, most unique visitors, most pages visited, longest time per page, etc, etc (a very complicated algorithm is always involved when Graeme’s involved) would get to be on the left.

This month (our first competing month) the UK won. It was tight and there is obviously a query from our side on a sudden very unusual spike in the middle of the month. But we’ve edited the landing site in the mean time, while we give our UK colleagues some time to come forward with the true story around that unusual black swan spike of theirs : )

Click here to visit the South Africa Web Site

Submitted by the TomorrowToday South Africa Team

: )

TomorrowToday is getting a Billboard

TomorrowToday South Africa is getting a Billboard for 2 weeks in September. We did an exchange with INM Outdoor earlier this year. We did some work for them, and they’re doing some work for us. So a swap of sorts.

We’ve not had anything like this, and we’re looking forward to seeing what it does for business? We’re not even sure what we can expect? But we are excited, and it has been fun getting it all together.

It’s also been a great catalyst for us to get our international branding on the same page, and we’re starting this with look and feel driven largely by our websites. So by the time the billboard goes live we’ll have a new South African look and feel to our website, followed shortly afterwards by our UK office.

The billboard focusses on Talent and Leadership. In a business world with a changing worker (so called Talent) there has to be a rethink on how to lead. You can’t expect to lead a different group of people in same way. Can you? We don’t think so.

I’m sure we’ll post updates and results, if only to post our thoughts on the medium of outdoor advertising.

Watch this space…..

iTunes lists our PodCast Service

Last week TomorrowToday re-launched our PodCast service. Historically it was something we did out of our South African office, and we took a few months off to re-look at our strategy along with our UK office.

From now on the PodCast will have a distinctly ‘global’ feel to it as we get TomorrowToday thoughts from the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Of course it’s still a thin slice of the world, but nothing that time wont change as we find ways to include a larger network.

We’ve also got a listing on the iTunes store and you can click here to subscribe to our PodCast with iTunes.

If you want to go directly to the RSS feed, click here.

What 21st century business needs

A few weeks ago, I was discussing changes in the workplace with a member of my team, Julie Surycz. She went away and wrote this:

In 1943, the Chairman of IBM, Thomas Watson said, ‘I think there is a world market for maybe 5 computers.’

Thomas Watson was wrong. He wouldn’t recognize the world as it is today. Trade liberalization, globalization, advances in technology, the power of the Web, the rise of Asian competitors and more – the world has fundamentally changed since 1943. The strange thing is that the way in which we work has not kept pace. We generally still work in outdated traditional, hierarchical management structures that were designed for the mass-producing, industrialized 19th/20th century and not the flat, hyper connected 21st one.

But things are starting to change. We have reached the point where, unless we embrace a new world of work, business will not reap the competitive advantage, significant financial rewards and efficiency that management, employees, suppliers, customers and shareholders desire.

… Continue Reading

What we do?

Our office in the UK recently put some energy and effort into capturing ‘what we do’. An important piece of work to do regularly as a business. Isn’t it easy to end up doing things you didn’t go into business to do? Mostly it gets you into trouble, and of course from time to time it opens up new doors. Still, it’s an important reflection exercise to ensure you’re doing what you’re all about what you’re not, and what you’re capable of delivering on brilliantly.

“In turbulent times, people matter. When you’re trying to attract and retain staff and get them engaged and committed, or when you need to generate sales from new and existing customers, you have to understand what drives peoples’ attitudes and behaviour. This means that it is a business critical strategic imperative to understand their value systems. That is what TomorrowToday specialises in.

We inspire: Our professional speakers are amongst the best in the world, acting as catalysts to change. Through high energy, humour and entertainment our multimedia presentations convey powerful business messages at conferences and company workshops.

We inform: Our clients are quicker and better informed than their competitors about changing business, consumer and societal trends. Our diverse research simplifies complex trends and explains the “why” behind change. Once people understand the why, change is activated with energy and passion.

We impact: Through understanding, our consultants empower leaders and teams to create long-lasting and significant improvements in company performance. We help you analyse your current situation, identify opportunities and gaps, and empower leaders and staff with the skills to embed new thinking, structures, systems, processes, products and services.

We are world leaders in Generations: a valuable framework connecting companies, talented staff and valuable customers. We focus on understanding why people act and react as they do, and helping our clients connect with people more effectively for bottom line business improvement. By understanding their value systems, we can more effectively influence them, and develop high commitment while instilling passion in both staff and customers.”

TomorrowToday.biz Building Capacity in London and Europe

A JOURNEY TO A NEW WOLRD

Graeme Codrington moves to our UK branch in August this year. While not a permanent relocation, it’s expected that Graeme and his family will remain abroad for three to five-years. Already an internationally recognised expert on talent and the future of work, Graeme will continue to help organisations to understand global societal changes, and how these changes affect their staff, leaders and customers. While abroad, Graeme will periodically return to South Africa to honour requests from clients who wish to engage with him directly.

… Continue Reading

Another award for Dr Graeme Codrington

We have just been informed that Graeme has won The Academy for Chief Executives in the United Kingdom’s Speaker of the Year award for 2007. This award will be presented to Graeme in London on 26 November 2007.

This is another in a series of awards that Graeme has won recently as a top keynote presenter. Congratulations, Graeme!!

Catch the moment – Thanks for the opportunity Vicky

Rumour has it that one of our BOOMER sales people enjoyed the opening music of our newest presentation, PRIME TIME.

Caught this moment in the middle of our sales team meeting this past week.

Watch this space. This presentation is going to have the BOOMERS ROCKING.

Where in the world is Wally?

When we brought TomorrowToday.biz to life, we agreed to see ourselves as an international business. We knew there was no reason on the planet that a company grown out of South Africa couldn’t add value to organisations all over the world. Every now and then we have moments like this week, when we step back briefly and stand a little amazed that we’re doing it…

Toward the end of this week, Keith will be in Shanghai, China; Graeme in Melborne, Australia; and Barrie in Tokyo, Japan. Add to that the 35 odd people in South Africa, the UK and Hawaii, and it’s week worth smiling at : ) ‘Keep Walking’

TT.biz at the Zoo

Every now and then we load up the entire TT.biz team and head off to a Zoo in Jozi. Don’t ask me why we keep picking zoos to meet at? I don’t really want to go there. Last Sunday we went to the Pretoria Zoo ( 25°44′20.12″S, 28°11′19.79″E – check it out on Google Earth) and played the little known “Great Grand Zany Zoo Picture Picnic”. For more details drop me an e-mail and I’ll send the template. (but you gotta go to a Zoo to get the most out of it – and don’t hold your breath, it was built for 7 year olds)

Anyway it was a fantastic day. The weather gave us a little break in the middle of what’s been a very wet summer. Around 30 of us, including children, spent a fantasmo day getting to know each other a little better, learnt a lot more about Komodo Dragons and one or two got drilled by a frisbee.

If you want to see some pics (and we’re adding as they come in) check out our Flickr photo set.

Hello – Anyone home?

Where is everyone? TMTD used to be one of my favourite blogs – it had posts that were relevant, and participation was high if not always comfortable. Now it is comfortable, less relevant (the blog used to be ahead of me, now I seem to be ahead of the blog), and there is little feedback. The town square has become less a collection of voices and ideas and more a platform to shout your stuff in a one way dialogue – not because people cant answer back – but perhaps because they have no wish to. Why is that – did they get bored, were they discouraged, have they run out of things to say? The sad thing is that when the blog was very active it gave me a stronger feel of what TMTD was about and who the people were. More recently there seems to be a stronger HR/talent development focus to the website and even the blog, is this because these are areas of “expertiseâ€? of the bloggers, or is this more the focusing of the TMTD core business (is this the TMTD core business)?
… Continue Reading

Staying ahead

My understanding of the TomorrowToday value proposition to our clients is that we actively and purposefully monitor the shifts that take place in society that will have an impact on the way business is run. In doing so, we then advise and educate clients on how best to confront and deal with these changes to generate competitive value propositions of their own.

We have seen of late that changes in economies and the values associated with those economies turnover at a yearly rate like none of the predecessors. So, for the last 5 years of so we have been spreading the “message” of the oncoming connection economy, that we cannot continue to work the way we have, that the way we relate to people in organisations has to change profoundly. This is a message true of any economical shift of years gone by. But our message is drilled down further in terms of how companies need to connect better with employees, customers and suppliers.

… Continue Reading

Divide the Income, Not the Profits: A Financial Manifesto for the TomorrowGroup

E-ZINE ARTICLE, FEBRUARY 2006
Sign up for free e-zine at: http://www.tomorrowtoday.biz/newsletter/index.htm

by Dr Graeme Codrington

At TomorrowToday, we are very interested in what companies need to do in order to attract and retain talented staff. We spend a lot of our time working with clients to help them devise plans and processes to ensure that they find and keep the best minds in their industries – thereby greatly enhancing the potential to be the best amongst their competitors.

When we talk about attracting and retaining talent, we often talk (to ourselves and our a clients) of corporate culture, of policies and procedures, of providing space for personal growth and for expressions of creativity, of leadership styles and team dynamics, and of the working environment. We assume, of course, that companies will offer the talented staff at least market-related remuneration packages. There are many clever things that can be done with remuneration, and where our clients need assistance, we refer them to the experts in the field (we have a number of strategic alliances with remuneration consultancies). However, we have not often touched on the issue of ownership, shareholding and high-level, long-term financial incentives.
… Continue Reading

More on presentations

Following up on my recent post Why your conference sucks, here is a great list of tips and hints for presenters. There are a couple of reasons I think the source is cool – I found it via Steve Rubel’s blog, illustrating how social software often digs up “gem” resources out of nowhere (i.e. I would have never found this web page if not for Steve’s blog). Secondly, it is pretty old – ten years old I think – which explains the reference to the overhead projector. And yet, these simple principles are so often overlooked by even the best presenters.

Hope you enjoy it…

… Continue Reading

To meet, or Not to meet…..?

Every now & then an internal conversation happens in TomorrowToday that reflects some of the difficulty of moving away from the traditional business structure into a virtual & connection economy one. A recent conversation that did the rounds concerned whether we should have any more JIMY [Jedi Master Yoda - more on that in another post] meetings this year. JIMY is the closest thing we have to a management meeting in TMTD.biz, and to be totally honest I don’t know what was decided [hence the first line in the email below].

In most businesses today a ‘meeting culture’ prevails such that you can only get your real work done after hours, when everyone is at home [or at their desk too]. In TMTD.biz we have the opposite reality – we have very few meetings [and still happen to run a dynamic & fast growing business]. But, every now and then we need to have conversations around our meetings, and this is one of them.

The conversation started off as an honest question about whether the last two meetings of the year were necessary. It was an enquiry into whether we would be meeting for meeting’s sake. The conversation wound its way around the team and my response is below [you are essentially seeing this at the same time as they are]. In a nutshell my response is that sometimes we should meet for meeting’s sake because it gets us together for together’s sake.

So what do you think?

__________________________________
THE EMAIL

Hey Everyone

I’m not sure what was eventually decided
… Continue Reading

Crossing paths with Dr. Gustav Gous

Today I had quite a peculiar experience. I was sitting in the foyer coffee shop of the hospital, waiting for Fransie and working on my laptop. In came a smartly-dressed guy and sat with his back towards me. After a while he turned to me and asked whether I managed to connect to the wi-fi hotspot in the hospital. He was about to connect with his Vodafone 3G card when he realised that he could pick up a free wireless network. Then I recognised him – well-known and widely acclaimed Industrial Psychologist Dr Gustav Gous.

The funny thing, though, is that I had a coffee meeting with him while I was in my first or second year at varsity. My mother showed me a newspaper article that he wrote and told me that she thinks this guy does what I hope to be doing one day. So I phoned him and he agreed to have coffee and we talked about what he did for a living and what I need to do to do the same one day. That was almost ten years ago.

Now we sat next to each other in a hospital coffee shop where his daughter and my wife happen to have appointments at the same time. We had a great conversation about our profession, our businesses and our clients. Compared notes, shared ideas, discussed trends. They have a great new product to map culture in an organisation. The only tool of it’s kind at the moment. He does a lot of work in Dubai and Qatar. He knows about TomorrowToday.biz and that we are a strong player in the field. He knows Graeme’s dad Redge and he knows Michael and I suppose Michael’s dad Arnold as well. He was in Sonop Residence at Tuks many moons ago.

I think this is someone we could do some interesting work with. Either by being pulled in to help with his clients, or by pulling him in to help with ours. Check out his website

Talent Community: Face-to-Face

This evening marked the first of what I hope will be many insightful, interactive “real people” meetings for what has become known as the TomorrowToday.biz Talent Community.

Much has been said and done electronically leading up to this point, as the Talent Community has provided an accessible, interactive format for people interested in developing a relationship with the TT.biz network. However, the next, and most natural step was to connect face to face to integrate a human element into an already flourishing virtual community. Primi Piatti (The Zone, Rosebank) was our venue for the evening…

… Continue Reading

Language limits

Edward de Bono, the famous lateral thinking guru, suggests that language is really difficult to work with, and often doesn’t convey what we actually mean, or takes too long to convey complex thoughts and emotions without being misunderstood. Although I have not heard him make the connection, I think he is even more correct in his assertions as they apply to emails, blogs, texts, SMS and other text based communications. We all know how easy it is to be misunderstood, or for incorrect emotions to be read into our words (or lack of words, as the case may be). This is even further complicated by the multiplicity of languages in use in the world these days.

de Bono suggests that we work on an encyclopedia of code phrases, probably referenced by numbers, to help us deal with complex issues quite quickly. You can read about his thinking at http://www.thinkingmanagers.com/management/management-language.php and http://www.edwarddebono.com/concept4.htm.

Emoticons were a small step in this direction, helping to put some emotional content to stark words. But I like de Bono’s idea. Maybe its too tough to make a single, global encyclopedia of codes, but within a signle company it is certainly possible, and would grow as a collaborative effort. The idea would be to use a wiki, or similar technology, to collaboratively develop a set of codes that everyone can later reference.
… Continue Reading

The TomorrowToday.biz University

Post-graduate Programmes offered:

• Innovation

• Storytelling

• Leadership

• Diversity

• Generations

• Strategy

• Team dynamics

• Communication

• Learning

• etc.

Why not?

TomorrowToday.biz – the generations people

I am attending an innovation conference at The Innovation Hub. During tea time I talked to one of ABSA’s innovation managers. When he saw the company name on my name tag – he said: “Oh yes, you are the generations people.” After we talked about the different things TT.biz does, he commented on the fact that he will use us for generational stuff – and that’s it – Why? Because we are the generations people.

Lessons from this:

• Generational theory is perhaps the strongest dimension to our brand

• Positive: We have managed to create a niche where people regard us as the only players

• Positive: We can use and should use this niche gap to enter client-spaces and build wider relationships around that

• Negative: If we want to be the Connection Economy People, we cannot limit ourselves to generational frameworks. People are more complex than that

• Negative: When the generational wave has been surfed to the shore, what is our next niche curve?

9 Types of Silence

For the pro speakers who read this blog…

A few weeks ago I sat in a National Speakers Association meeting, listening to one of the world’s top voice coaches (that’s what he calls himself, anyway) talk about 9 types of silences. “Silence is the hallmark of great speakers. THE hallmark.” Silence allows inner dialogue in your audience, and inner interaction with you. If you’re going to use it, don’t be afraid of it – own it, own the stage, be in charge.

So, here is a summary of his wisdom:

… Continue Reading

Chaotic Management

In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink there’s a great chapter on a management style employed during a war game exercise called ‘The Millennium Challenge’ in 2002. The detail of the story isn’t important. It was the phrase that hooked me. ‘Chaotic Management’. Essentially it was described as a leader who trusted the people that reported to him. He knew that his team knew the intent of the exercise, and he then trusted them to get on with the job.

Tonight I read a great quote in an online Fast Company article (click here for the article – it’s a goodie on motor companies embracing the internet) that says it fantastically, Ibsen explains his management style this way: “The only way we can keep so many balls in the air is to have a lot of jugglers and to trust them — not always checking to see whether they’re juggling in the right way. Once we establish a common vision and a shared purpose, I don’t want to know what my team members are doing day to day. I trust them.”

A big statement. A gigantic statement actually. It’s not ever going to be easy to trust that the people who report into you are going to deliver on what you’re doing together. The humans I work with have been talking this kind of language for a while now. We’ve nailed it down to 3 words: Intent, Value and Trust. We’ve all got to know what the common intent is, know our value and ensure others in the network know it, and then trust each other to deliver.
… Continue Reading

What we do is so relevant

Yesterday while out riding at 6 am…(the things we choose to do to de stress ourselves) I rode along watching the sun rise over the sea – beautiful to say the least.

But during the ride I started unpacking the last few days, and what a week it has been for KZN.

Thursday the team did a Horse Whispering showcase. Watching people connect and build relationships with the horses and the in that process see Leadership principles that jump out and almost bite them is awesome.

Friday- started out with a meeting with Barrie and I at a food retailers, basically they were listing areas that they wanted TT.Biz involved in their group, from Logistics to Exec level. Barrie and Ziggie went on to a meeting with a clothes retailer group, who are asking for a bigger team involvement in a wellness project they want to launch. Keith and I went to a Credit branch of a bank, who want Generational impute into their whole Advertising and Marketing departments after what they learnt at our Mind the Gap workshop last month. I then joined up with Barrie to do a Enneagram workshop for the afternoon.

During all this I got 2 phone calls, one old and one new client, who both want Keith to do some strategic planning and facilitation with their Exec teams.

Why am I writing all this?

… Continue Reading

Conversations vs Information

Today I enjoyed a thought provoking conversation concerning the overwhelming amount of information that one is required to engage with in our world today. I don’t think I need to make a case for what certainly is a reality experienced by most. Not being connected today is as rare as an anartic heatwave. But there is a distiction between information and connection; between information and conversation.

We in TomorrowTday.biz have championed blogging. Rightly so. The potential value of blogging is awesome but there are also some dangers, dangers that perhaps are not yet self-evident as the ‘blog at all costs’ sweeps into vogue. Let me mull over a few dangers that are becoming more obvious to me.

Information out of context is problematic, even dangerous. Often (but not always) super-highways of information (like blogs) don’t or can’t provide context.

… Continue Reading

Wireless internet – recommendations?

In a few weeks time I’m off to the Berg for a bit of a holiday – but I still would like to have internet to keep on doing those vital website thingies and email and all of that (and to check I’m still alive). I know we all work virtually and many of us have wireless internet so my question is – what does the team recommend? I only need it for a few weeks and then it’s back to DSL…I’ve heard iBurst is pretty good and Telkom also offers something similar…suggestions?

A Virtual Champagne Moment

May was a great month for our company. We broke through a psychological income barrier and set a new monthly record. These are the types of things that should be celebrated in companies – but how do you do that in a virtual environment? This is one of the downsides of working in a virtual company.

What we ended up doing was transferring an amount of money into each person’s bank account (including some of our favourite suppliers and associates – all those who had contributed during May), instructing them to find a few friends and go out and celebrate on our behalf. There is something fun about that, and I think it has achieved the purpose of an organisational celebration, but maybe there are other things we could have done (or could still do). Any ideas?

Final thought: I console myself with the thought that most “normal” corporations do not have the celebrations at all anyway, so are still one step ahead.

Amazing opportunity at Tshwane University of Technology

Hi team, I had a great exploratory conversation with Hannelie Minnaar, the Assistant Registrar at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) this morning. I invited her to interact with us on this opportunity via our blogger so that these ideas can get a life of their own…as they usually do as soon as we start working through them.

The opportunity is this: To transform higher education in South Africa. The TUT understand the fact that we are entering a new world where relationships are critical and they want to totally transform themselves into a client-centered learning institution. Top management already bought into this although the new university Principle will only be appointed in the next two weeks or so. The opportunity is open for TomorrowToday to partner with the TUT throughout this process. They want to develop individuals that will be relevant and successful in the workplace of the future and they want us to help them on this journey.

… Continue Reading