In my last article I wrote about the urgency of preparing our companies, agencies and schools for the future of work, and the business trends contributing to our generally unsatisfactory progress. My assertion was, and is, that in this new era the best way to advance the way we work is to manage the energy of our businesses. Doing so gives us the clarity to understand how things work, what gets in the way, and what it takes to more consistently achieve good outcomes and financial results. This article is an introduction to how Enterprise Energy works.

Enterprise Energy is a very real thing. In the world of physics, energy is defined as the capacity of a physical system to perform work. That definition carries easily into the world of business. In this world, the “physical system” is a company, agency or educational institution. Its level of energy, which is determined by the success of its collective work streams, determines its current capacity to perform work. To optimize capacity during any given time period, the trick is to generate more energy than you use in the performance of the work. For any business, the greater the net gain in energy, the more successful it will be.

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We find ourselves at the dawn of a new era in business when managing, transforming and preparing our companies, agencies and schools for the future of work is both urgent and essential. And, frankly, this preparation is hitting some serious speed bumps. Business is up against the stops and our traditional management practices aren’t getting us there.

A New Approach

Unlocking the hidden power of energy is a new approach that gives us the understanding we haven’t had and the wherewithal to move beyond the speed bumps. It’s based on a fundamental premise: If you want to achieve success in the marketplace, manage the internal energy of your business. This isn’t the kind of energy that runs your car or keeps the lights on. It’s the energy that permeates everything happening in your business. It works within a system, and if you learn to read the indicators of energy within the context of that system, you will have the insight and information to know why some things work and others don’t. You will have the tools to truly transform your business. Ultimately, you will have an advantage as you prepare your business and the people in it for the future of work.

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A Reliable Performance Improvement Approach

As the U.S. and other developed countries continue their evolution toward a service economy, the number of service groups is multiplying rapidly, and service group excellence has become essential. But what exactly is a service group? There are two types.

• External Service Groups: Have external customers, and include consulting and professional services groups.
• Internal Service Groups: Have internal customers, and include functional groups such as HR, IT, Finance and Legal.

Whether a service group is internal or external, it faces certain intrinsic challenges.
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Target Sales and Account Optimization

If you want your consultants to help up-sell and expand your current client accounts, don’t ask them to “sell”. The very word sends shivers up the spine of many consultants. Most react to the prospect of selling with all the enthusiasm of a turnip. Yet external service groups are ideally positioned to identify potential sales opportunities and influence client purchasing decisions. So how do you go about motivating and developing consultants to grow business?

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Optimize Your Consulting Skills Training

You may remember the nature vs. nurture issue in regard to where positive human traits (such as strong abilities) and negative human traits (such as diseases) come from. Those who land on the nature side of the argument profess that it is all predestined and based on our DNA. Those who favor the nurture side believe that how we are raised and what we experience is the primary driver.

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