Business at Work: Need Help

Dealing with diversity differences can be stressful on the entire organization. This one topic indirectly affects the changes a company needs to make to remain competitive with other companies. It takes all of the members of the organization to pull together to get certain jobs done. One of the problems I've experienced is that people do not know how to communicate with one another face to face. It's a shame that the only way a person can be accepted is on the internet. It takes a moment to be kind to someone and speak an encouraging word. It takes an hour and sometimes days to get over a conflict about who should be first to go to lunch. Hairstylist are to lowest people on the salary chart but they are the friendliest people you could have an encounter with. They only concern themselves with making everyone look and feel good about who they are and I think people in corporate occupations could learn a few interpersonal skills from them.

I'd add: Embracing new technology at work - and getting the tech-challenged on board.

I like the dealing with generational tension in the workplace idea. Going back to Forrester Research "technographics" research in the '90's- with Gen-Y being the most technographic generation yet born ! You know that there will be differences in experience, differences in expecations. That includes expectations socially, as well as in business.

1.Dealing with a younger boss
2. how we measure our contributions
3. Nepotism
4. bonuses in the down turn

+ Personal and professional lives converging through social media

+ Entrepreneurship vs intrapreneurship in the workplace

+ The acceptance of blogging, wiki's, forums, Twitter as a means to communicate inside and outside of work

-www.personalbrandingblog.com

It may fit under one of your bullet points but I think that communications are still a big problem within many companies.

It's especially frustrating when there is a shift going on from top-down to bottom-up in the online world, yet we continue to live in the former model at work.

More real collaboration would be good. It can't be quite as democratic as the web is aiming to be but it could be much better.

I'd add results oriented work environment (ROWE) to the discussion....and while approach is a logical, if culturally challenging solution, I believe many of the issues you want to address would be listed. Check out: http://caliandjody.com/blog/

p.s. Nope, don't work for anyone related to this. ;)

I second Corinne's suggestion. I was going to call it "leveraging technology with a tech-insulated staff."

Looking just at the new is looking at only half the picture. A long period of attrition is starting to hit the workforce as the baby-boomers start to retire. This in itself is a subject. But my allusion is to a worker's favorite lament, "What about the good old days before all this technology?" Indeed, what are the things of yesteryear, before Google, before the Internet, before Blackberry, that we as professional businesspeople must not forget? What are those critical, unchangeable, immutable elements of business that make or break success?

Lawrence J. Caldwell
Author & Speaker
Lead System Engineer

http://www.biblicalquality.com

I second Dan Schwabel: What happens when your boss tells you that your Facebook and Twitter profiles are suddenly part of your company's communication strategy?

What schools in the country are best preparing students to enter the new workplace?

What jobs and job titles have changed the most in the past few years in terms of responsibilities and performance success metrics?

How about keeping it interesting?

I heard a statistic recently that people entering the workforce now are likely to have between 10 and 14 jobs over the course of their career (sorry I don’t remember the source). People switch jobs for a number of reasons and compensation is not always the top reason. Many times they just get bored!
They want a challenging and interesting job – something that is rewarding. How do employers balance those needs with the needs of the company? A few companies are using the statistic to their advantage. They are putting career development plans and rotation programs in place that make it easier for employees to move internally. Big companies like IBM and Accenture have had programs like this for a while, but it is time for companies of all sizes to start putting programs in place. Addressing this problem requires the company to invest in processes and technology, and it would need support from the highest levels of the organizations.

I'd add 2 additional comments for consideration, which are slightly at odds with each other: (1) Life Expectancy at Work (assuming that the length of time of Individual X at Corporation Y is much less than it was Z years ago) and (2) Evolution at Work (for those individuals who remain at a corporation for an extended period - how do they evolve with the company).