In these challenging times of complex and continual change, how can we differentiate ourselves and our region in the global context?  How can we create an advantage as a region?

Today, the speed to which we can organize ourselves as a group, committee, task force, or team will directly impact our ability to capture, capitalize and execute on emerging opportunities.  Time is the most precious commodity any of us have.  We need to compress the time that it takes to accomplish our work.  This saves valuable time, dollars and resources and gets us to market quicker.  In addition, we need to insure that the efforts we do together, pay off.  So when we work together, we will have a higher hit rate.  Through this, we will create a distinct competitive advantage.

I have a dream.  I have a dream that we can be a Kolbe Community.  Why Kolbe?  First of all, Kolbe is the right tool because it describes how we work with each other, how we talk to each other, and how we get things done.  It’s also simple to understand and simple to use.  People who make things simple in today’s world will win.  Second, as a region, PSG began introducing this tool to us close to 20 years ago.  There are many people in the region who are familiar with this tool, understand the vocabulary, believe in the value, and have seen the results where they live, work and worship.  More than 20,000 people.  They come from profit and non-profit organizations, many who were early adopters who have already gained an advantage from the vocabulary to enhance team and collaborative work.  I shared this dream with others and received much positive feedback.  Here’s what one of our supporters said:

In the old economy, things such as roads, utilities and buildings served as the primary building blocks for the industrial revolution.  What is “infrastructure” for the new economy?  In the creative economy infrastructure is those things that we commonly use in order to facilitate commerce and community in a more effective and efficient manner.  One of these is vocabulary.  Having a common vocabulary enables us to reduce the friction of connecting, engaging and acting.  Kolbe is vocabulary about people, teams, organizations and initiatives—especially here in West Michigan.  We have a significant infrastructure advantage in the tens of thousands of us that have taken the Kolbe index and can speak this language.  We need to leverage this advantage by increasing the transparency of this information as we interact with one another.  We all stand to benefit from this improved infrastructure.  Look for opportunities such as your LinkedIn profile, Facebook page, resume and personal bio to share your Kolbe profile so we can communicate more effectively, invest our talents more wisely and compete more vigorously as a region.
Mike Morin
My Kolbe MO is 4194
SVP Business Development
Mediaguide, Inc.

I’m involved with the Women’s Enrichment Forum and we have challenged each other for Inspired Learning and Inspired Action.  I have a dream, but it requires action.  Inspired action.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 3:24 pm and is filed under Articles.