I went to the symphony a few weeks ago with my sister- something we have been doing about five times a year for about twenty years now.  Lang Lang was playing, and everybody in the crowd was blown away.  It struck me how many people and how much imagination went into creating that experience.  The obvious creators are of course Beethoven, Lang Lang, the orchestra and conductor, but I thought too about the people who designed and built Roy Thomson Hall, the music teachers, the craftsmen who made the instruments and all of us in the audience that night.
 
It goes that way in business too.  None of us is an island- our clients and suppliers are the obvious co-creators of our business experience, but we rely on a much broader network too.  Our colleagues, partners and mentors inspire us with great ideas and serve as role models. The larger community supports us in a million ways every day.  It works mostly because all of us are working in some way for everybody else. The more we acknowledge and celebrate how interconnected we are, the better connections we’ll have.

Sally Fazal

Some people think the point of networking is to develop new business opportunities and to win contracts. While this is partially true, the real reward of networking is the connections that we make – or remake if we haven’t been in touch for a while. It’s the mutuality of finding out what someone you possibly used to work with is doing now and to let them know the same about you. It’s the chance to have some informal input into a great new idea that someone you know or have just met is working on – even if you never know how your comments may have shaped the direction that their initiative takes. It’s the way to re-introduce yourself to people who have known you in another context but don’t really know what you do in your professional like. The new tools like LinkedIn that support networking in the 21st century are great but it’s the human connections that make it fun.

Jane Rounthwaite

The Board of Directors of The Osborne Group recently announced that Jane Rounthwaite has been named to the position of President of The Osborne Group. In this role, Jane will be responsible for the overall strategy and implementation of the company's business development.

Jane succeeds John Annett who has been President since the founder, Don Wood retired in the spring of 2010. John is returning to the role of Vice President, a position which he held for many years when Don Wood was President.

 The Osborne Group 

Energy. Its expensive and with recent supply changes quickly becoming more so. I regularly suggest to clients that every organization undertake an “Energy Assessment” which might cover these vulnerable areas.

• Energy expense impact on the corporate income statement – Is it visible and monitored?
• Is the natural gas supply reliable and is there any pricing stability measures in place
• New capital equipment impact on your energy demand
• Personnel awareness and skill training
• Heated water system management status
• Waste energy capture status
• Electrical rate pricing optimization
• Electrical facility safety upgrading requirements
• Energy Management System status

Every step towards a well thought out energy management plan saves your organization money and reduces your greenhouse gas emission footprint! It’s easy to rewire your organizations’/operating disciplines to consume less and reuse what we waste but you have to make the first step. Start with an assessment and finish with happy shareholders! 

David Rankin

Change management can be described as bringing a lot of people from different starting points to a single destination.  So often companies and not-for-profit agencies use a one-size fits all approach to communicating change or transformation to employees and stakeholders.  Of course, everybody is not starting in the same place, either in terms of capacity to adapt or in understanding the goals.  Realizing that we have to meet people where they are (and hear where they are), rather than where we would like them to be can be a real epiphany in change initiatives.  We’re leading real people and not their job descriptions.  A sensitively managed change project will reach out to people through multiple channels, multiple times.  Most importantly, though, successful change initiatives are based on effective and active listening to people.  

Sally Fazal