Diamonds to You

I hope you are continuing to enjoy my newsletter and that you find the substance of value. Some of my advisors have suggested (strongly suggested!) that it’s too long and that people only want to read sound bites on line, but I think you, my friends and colleagues are really interested in ideas and depth. So, once again, this is too long according to the experts.

Again, I remind you, please feel free to send copies of this newsletter to others, and also remember, I thrive on your business referrals. Keep them coming.

Last month I wrote briefly about mergers and acquisitions and the change management issues involved. In my experience all too many companies are reactive to the problems as they erupt, rather than proactively trying to deal with them. Some of you agreed with me and sent me some examples of horror stories that occurred when your companies were merged or acquired.

I started this newsletter thinking I would share some of your examples as well as some horror stories from my own consulting practice, but two pages into my typing I changed my mind and deleted the examples. Instead, I thought it would be more helpful to reprint an article I wrote last year on organizational change.

The article, Managing Organizational Change will be one of the chapters in my book CEO: Creatively Energized Organizations. The book will be a compilation of the information I learned interviewing CEOs about managing for creativity, and my own materials from my management training workbooks. I hope to complete the book before the end of the year, along with a few others I’m still completing.

So, when you read the article, please think about it as being part of a book—and send me your suggestions for examples, success stories, horror stories, and of course improvements on the theme.

Before you read it though, I encourage you to think about your own behaviors when it comes to changes you wish to make. How easy was it for you to quit smoking? How far do you get with your New Year’s resolutions? How easy is it for you to revert right back to the behaviors you vowed you’d change?

Workshops and Speeches

Speaking Engagement: On June 6, 2006, I will be speaking once again for CSIX. This is an open invitation to anyone wishing to attend. CSIX is a wonderful volunteer organization that provides information and support to job-seekers. They meet every Tuesday from 10:30 am to 1:00 pm at the House of Sichuan (Chinese Restaurant) at 20007 Stevens Creek Blvd, Cupertino, CA. (cross street Blaney) Although I haven’t chosen the exact title of my talk yet, the topic will be on successful networking and job interviewing.

Corporate Workshops: I am currently offering a series of management training courses to my organizational clients. The courses are for managing people, products and processes and are highly interactive. They have been very successful and references/testimonials from satisfied C level executives can be found on my website, or by contacting me directly.

Another series of workshops are on Legal Compliance Issues regarding personnel and include training about diversity, discrimination, sexual harassment, safety, drug-free workplace, and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Either of these workshops can be offered to your employees in groups of 15–25 people. The management training courses generally require 12 three hour sessions, but can also be broken down into one day per month sessions for 4 months. The Compliance Issues workshops range in time depending on the needs of the company, the level of knowledge and professionalism of the employees being trained, and the prior training received.

Please contact me so that we can determine your specific needs and design a program especially for your people.

Recent Publications

• I’ve recently been quoted in ExecuNet: Career Smart Advisor, Strategies & Solutions for Your Career Success. It is the May 1, 2006 edition and the name of the article is “The Right Questions Lead to the Right Job,” by Robyn Greenspan.
• I’m pleased to announce that my second book, The “Please” and “Thank You” of Fundraising for Non-profits, is now available.
• You can also purchase my other book, Training Your Board of Directors: A Manual for CEOs, Board Members, Administrators and Executives of Corporations, Associations, Non-Profits and Religious Organizations.
• “Finding Success through Succession” an article I wrote for Security Management Magazine can be found in their February 2006 issue.
• “What’s Creating All the Conflict and What Can We Do About It, Part II” is now available in the Women in Consulting (WIC) Best Practices which should be released by them this month.
• For books by Dr. Diamond please visit productivepublications.com
  “Separate Wish List Demands,” in the December 2005 issue of ADA Compliance Guide, published by Thompson Publishing (only available to subscribers of their service). This article is about how to write job descriptions that do not demand unnecessary skills, thereby ignoring potentially good clients.
• Other articles and articles in which I have been quoted recently can be found by a Google search.

Managing Organizational Change

Today’s rapidly changing technology; people working together from all over the world, representing different cultures, ages, genders, beliefs and work styles; the constant mergers and acquisitions among companies, upsizing, downsizing and resizing, political changes throughout the world; terrorism and the responses it has wrought; and natural disasters—which appear to be on the increase; have forced almost all of us to change, in some cases almost daily.

Adapting to new demands is an important mechanism for both personal and organizational survival. Individuals and groups that do it well seem to be more successful than those that resist and accept the inevitable slowly, if at all.

Read the entire article...

So, how can I help you?

Let me again quote a client:

ArLyne is completely qualified to serve as confidant and mentor for senior, mid-level, and professionally degreed individuals. Her breadth of understanding people, conflicts, motivation, and the business cycle have rather uniquely enabled her to add insight and valuable input into many aspects of driving an organization forward in a fast-paced environment.

Let me be your Aufin—your advisor to Kings.

ArLyne Diamond, Ph.D
ArLyne@DiamondAssociates.net