Don't Ever Change Babe...!

Don't Change - Why You Should Avoid Organizational Change 
 
Arlington, VA - May 15 2006 - Financial advisor, Kay R. Shirley quoted in The Washington Post (5/7/06) said that many of her client’s portfolios have been destroyed by pride. “There’s this ‘I’m different’ feeling. . . People see mistakes others have made, and they think they’re immune or it’s not going to happen to them. I advise my clients to, when they’re considering an investment, double your emphasis on the negative and halve you’re your interest on the positive, and see if your judgment would be the same.” Now she tells me.

 

This advise – which comes from the relatively new field of behavior economics -- can teach us something about leading change.

 

Consider this: only about one-third of all major changes in organizations actually are worth the effort. Most people I work with can tell you exactly why most of these changes fail. It’s resistance – and they can tell you why resistance comes up and how it destroy us otherwise decent ideas. And yet, they somehow believe that they can ignore what they know about resistance and make this change work.

 

I like Shirley’s suggestion. The next time you or I consider a major change we could ask ourselves: what if the worst that could happen was actually twice as bad as we imagine – and what if the benefits were only half of what we anticipate? Would we go ahead? Or might these simple questions cause us to slow down and examine this change more closely. I didn’t think so, but I thought it was worth a shot.

 

Rick Maurer
author of Beyond the Wall of Resistance, Why Don't You Want What I Want?, Building Capacity for Change Sourcebook, and advisor to organizations on leading change 
 
(rick@beyondresistance.com)
Maurer & Associates
Arlington, VA  
Phone : 703 525-7074
Fax : 703 525-0183 

It's Not Your Father's Penthouse Magazine...

Penthouse

 

by Larry Dobrow, Tuesday, May 2, 2006
I'VE BEEN STUCK READING some awfully dull magazines recently. Today, I'm treating myself to some boobies.

 

When one thinks boobies, one thinks Penthouse. And so it was that on a sparkling spring afternoon, I grabbed my walking stick, donned a porkpie hat, pinned a carnation to my lapel, and strolled down to the local magazinatorium to buy some pornography. Oh, the pageantry.

 

Since the shelves at Barnes & Noble were mostly populated by the March issues of European fashion titles, I marched towards the dude on the corner and loudly requested the most recent issue of Penthouse, thus horrifying the petite young thing tucking cash back into her purse after snapping up a copy of Domino. Further hilarity ensued when I asked the guy for a receipt; apparently few of his regular Penthouse, Barely Legal and Black Tail customers ask for written documentation of their purchases.

 

After unwrapping the June issue, however, I found myself a little confused by its cover lines. "Mission: Impossible III"? "First Look at the 'Da Vinci Code' Game"? What about the boobies, man? Won't somebody PLEASE think about the boobies?

 

Turns out that Penthouse has undergone 73 editorial iterations since I last flicked through its pages. The Gucciones seem to have been unceremoniously deposed (I remember reading something about a bankruptcy skirmish involving a mansion in Westchester--can somebody fill me in here?). In their place has arrived a decidedly well-intentioned crew of scribes determined to enlighten boobie-seekers about movies, video games, CDs, cigars, wine, health, girls, fitness, grooming, gadgets, sports, motorcycles, cars and the Internet.

 

Sound familiar? Take Maxim or FHM, subtract all traces of wit and personality and add a smattering of nudie spreads, and you've got the new Penthouse.

 

On one hand, give 'em some points for at least trying to make the title relevant to a younger audience. The June issue features a generous helping of gurus-in-their-field like Harry Knowles (the aint-it-cool-news.com proprietor checks in with wittily curt summer-film blurbs and an interview with "Mission: Impossible III" auteur J.J. Abrams), plus interviews with a different breed of celebrity (Godsmack singer Sully Erna) and the occasional sharply observed piece of reporting (Kristen Ulmer's look at the sad decline of Yosemite National Park).

 

But Penthouse somehow finds a way to drain these theoretical successes of their allure. The mag buries the Yosemite piece deep in the issue and illustrates it with generic photos. The Abrams interview devotes three full pages to blithe prattle about "M:I III" but ignores the director/writer's other pursuits, like "Lost." And does the mag really believe its readers give a hoot about the Godsmack guy's embrace of Native American spirituality?

 

The "Game Time" survey of the month in sports reads like Sports Illustrated's "Scorecard" section as interpreted by somebody who gets all of his information secondhand, while the "Full Frontal" take on crotch-rock bands presents The Darkness-- who broke in the U.S. more than three years ago--as a recent find. To give the mag an excuse to throw a bunch of unrelated crap (a bike, walkie-talkies, an outdoor beer dispenser) into a single product spread, the mag groups it under the all-encompassing but ultimately meaningless heading of "Technomania." Penthouse must assume an IQ ceiling of 75 among its readership.

 

As for the mag's randy content, well, it is what it is. Penthouse appends its increasingly chaste pictorials with girlie quotes like "sometimes, my late-night study sessions can get a little wild!" Dude, mine too--last week, we ordered both pizza AND hummus. I'll say this: if Penthouse truly wants to go upmarket, it should probably ditch the call-me-for-69-cents-a-minute come-ons.

 

And really, the mag should fight the temptation to overplay the boobies card. The photo that precedes the otherwise parchment-dry "Woods Warrior" camping-accessories spread, which depicts a silhouetted couple merrily boinking away in a tent, proved the only thing in the issue that made me laugh. I'm guessing that wasn't the intention.

 

In one of the June issue's venerable "Forum" letters, a reader (wink, wink) writes, "She knew what I wanted, and she was going to make sure I got it." If only Penthouse were quite as knowing about its readers' desires.

 

Larry Dobrow is a Contributing Writer.

 

Magazine Rack for Tuesday, May 2, 2006: http://publications.mediapost.com/

 

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