Thank you, dear readers, for another fascinating year of serving you. We certainly have grown, together, haven’t we?
I greatly appreciate your sharing both encouragement and insights with me, throughout the past 12 months.
When I first started this blog in 2009, I predominantly wrote about why Us versus Them mindset was a less-than-adequate model for innovation. In fact, that type of mindset was – and still is – unsustainable, now more than ever.
In 2009, I focused on the communication and collaboration impasse when attempting to traverse the sales-engineering interface®. In 2012, I wrote a book, Do YOU Mean Business? about how to overcome Us versus Them mindset. In 2014, as I continued to speak, write and consult for organizations, and coach their leadership, I observed the profound impact that digital transformation had on the entire workforce.
I took a concept from Do YOU Mean Business? and applied it to the type of holistic and transformative collaboration strategy that was called for in the digital business ecosystem. As a result, the foundational premise of One Millimeter Mindset™ speaking, coaching and writing evolved.
Consequently, rather that being an either-or sales or engineering issue, Us versus Them mindset as its own phenomenon remains ubiquitous within and across departments. The more digitally connected we are, the more our biases and baggage will be challenged by connectivity and the need to collaborate.
Thus, in 2015, I began a business pivot. Publishing organizations recognized the distinct voice I brought to cross-functional collaboration and, as clients, requested that I write about workforce-related issues. I adopted their requests, applied them to my IT- and engineering-intensive constituency, and adapted my focus towards the industrial Internet of Things ecosystem. After all, the IIoT is the ultimate proving ground for the sales-engineering interface. I met a lot of tremendous resources and thought leaders along the way and enjoy their brain power and insights as we continue to kick around ideas throughout the year.
In 2016 and 2017, I came full circle back to where I started some 25 years ago: customer retention within the IIoT ecosystem. After all, this environment brings technical and non-technical co-workers together each day, challenging them to be innovators rather than order-takers (the subject of one of my original 2009 posts).
Finally, I focused on just what it takes to retain customers in a tech-laden, digitally-connected ecosystem: people. As a result, when I work with you, I continue to promise to leverage collaboration to catalyze professional innovation, workforce engagement and customer retention. No matter how much technology you throw at a strategy, the character and values of the people involved in executing that strategy are, ultimately, what matter most.
We live in a fast-paced, often unpredictable world. No matter how much confidence each of us has, sometimes our self-belief is challenged, if not shaken. Collaborating together, we are stronger than we are as individuals. It is through the power of our collaboration that we build a firm foundation of stronger values and even more remarkable outcomes for our colleagues and clients.
I wish each and every one of you a Happy Holiday Season, leading into a New Year of Joy, Hope and much-needed Peace.
I look forward to serving you, and working with you, in 2018.
My very best wishes,
Babette
Babette Ten Haken serves organizations as a corporate catalyst and innovative speaker, strategist, coach and storyteller. Babette’s One Millimeter Mindset™ Workshops and Speaking programs leverage collaboration to catalyze professional innovation, workforce engagement and customer retention, especially in challenging Industrial Internet of Things environments. Babette’s playbook of IIoT team collaboration hacks, Do YOU Mean Business? is available on Amazon. She is a member of SME, ASQ, SHRM and the National Speakers Association.
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