The Adversity Paradox, an Unconventional Guide to Achieving Business Success, by J. Barry Griswell and Bob Jennings (St. Martin's Griffin, 2010),  lays out what we all should know, but often don’t realize: you must experience adversity in order to accomplish (and enjoy) true success.

 

The authors posit that whether you are born to great wealth or you have been presented with various disadvantages and roadblocks, success only comes to those who overcome adversity. 

 

This book has a casual, conversational style, and gives us a framework for how to utilize what we’ve learned from our own adversity for greater success in business and life.

 

Implementing change on an organizational level can feel insurmountable.  As a matter of fact, the more successful companies become, the more difficult it is for them to change. 

 

Of course, the business ideologies that have driven organizations to success over time often contain specific ideas about organizational structure, performance measures, and hiring habits.  It's the "that's the way we do things here" mentality. 

 

So where is the problem?  Why even try to implement change? Here is the challenge: if large, successful organizations were trains, then many of them are coming to a screeching halt between stations.  Why?  Because the way we do business is changing, but the leviathans of business are not. 

 

So what can we do to embrace the changes we need, while preserving the core qualities of the organization?  Consider these questions to get started:

 

1. What do we (the organization) consider good performance?

 

2. Do middle managers focus on change or the status quo?

 

3. Historically, what skills does the organization value? 

 

And how can you instigate change and bring about transformation in your organization?  Consider these tips, given in a recent Harvard Business Review article: 

During times of organizational flux, it can become increasingly difficult to engage employees in learning.  Across the country and in a cross-section of industries, training budgets have become tighter than ever. In the midst of these challenges, training employees has become more critical, both to keep the company moving forward and to retain high potential employees. 

 

So, with a chiseled-down budget and waning morale, what do you do to engage the team in the training that they need? Here are some broadly practical takeaways that you can use in your training programs (or even presentations and conferences!) today:

 

1. Continuously emphasize the most critical concepts. Re-introduce concepts using multiple media and engaging as many senses as possible.

 

2. Create visual keys for abstract concepts. Many of today’s learners are visual learners.  A simple diagram can be more valuable than a thousand words.

 

3. Utilize in-class activities to reinforce newly presented material. After a new concept or subject has been presented via text reading, lecture, or class discussion, allow participants to put the concept into action by completing an in-class assignment.  And, as a bonus - Attendance tends to improve in courses that have in-class assignments!

 

4. Create links between concepts and information.  These overlaps build on information that has already been learned and helps learners acquire the new knowledge at the same time.

 

It seems that no workplace is completely immune to the ill effects of gossip.  Our situation this time is no different.  Christine has not ever gotten along with her boss, and feels confident that she is smarter and more competent than him.  When given the chance to work off-site at an industry conference, she was excited to get the ear of her boss's immediate superior. 

 

Taking charge of this opportunity, she gave him a complete description of all that had gone wrong due to her boss's actions, starting with the facts, and injecting her outrage as she continued.  You are the superior in whom she confided.

 

 

 

 

Use this invaluable resource to: