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Before You Try to Change Your Organization, Understand Why People Fight it So Fiercely

Change is hard. Changing your organization is even harder – sometimes, nearly impossible. In doing the research for my new book, I discovered that a study at livescience.com revealed that nearly half of all smokers who have had surgery for early stage lung cancer go back to smoking in just a year!

So even the threat of death isn’t enough to force some people to change. And yet we all know that in today’s world of disruptive, 24/7 change, responding well is critical to our success. So as you struggle with your employees, associates, bosses, and others to try to shift your organization’s thinking – and before you jump out a window in frustration, it’s good to have a reminder of the reasons people work so hard to resist change. Figure out which of these applies to you, and how to overcome it, and you’ll be well on your way to seeing the birth of a transformed organization.


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About the Author

Phil Cooke is a television producer and media consultant at Cooke Pictures in Burbank, California. His new book is ‘Jolt! Get the Jump on a World That’s Constantly Changing.‘. Find out more at philcooke.com.

Do You Make Things Happen or Just Fill Time?

Innovative gadgets and mobile devices have brought great ease and efficiency to the workplace, but I’m convinced they’ve also become huge time-wasters. How often do you spend hours answering email and think you’ve actually accomplished something? Are you spending time in endless meetings to avoid actually making decisions? Do you have beautiful ‘to-do’ lists, but don’t actually finish anything?

I have 5 suggestions to help you quit your wasting time to boost your productivity. After all, you don’t want to get to the end of your life and realize your only real accomplishment was sending and receiving 10 billion email messages:


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About the Author

Phil Cooke is a television producer and media consultant at Cooke Pictures in Burbank, California. His new book is ‘Jolt! Get the Jump on a World That’s Constantly Changing.‘. Find out more at philcooke.com.

Is Email Taking Over Your Life? 7 ways to get your life back

During a recent film shoot in Tucson, Arizona for a new Internet project, I woke up at 4am unable to sleep. So as millions do when our sleep is interrupted, I got up and started wading through my cluttered email inbox.

Email consumes enormous amounts of time (some studies indicate that 40% of a typical employee’s day is spent sending and receiving email).

Yet we rarely think about strategies to use it more effectively. In addition, research shows that a significant amount of email is misinterpreted, leading to embarrassment and sometimes being fired. A few simple guidelines can keep you from wasting enormous time, and protect you from humiliation, frustration, and even legal issues. So try out these ideas and see if you can begin to gain some ground in the daily email war:


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About the Author

Phil Cooke is a television producer and media consultant at Cooke Pictures in Burbank, California. His new book is ‘Jolt! Get the Jump on a World That’s Constantly Changing.‘. Find out more at philcooke.com.

The Dark Side of the Digital Revolution

Recently, The Los Angeles Times reported on cell phone use in Korea and revealed remarkable information about where our digital culture may be heading. They discovered Korean teenagers make up to 90 cell phone calls a day, and social scientists are now beginning to correlate high cell use with rising rates of depression. For some time, I’ve noticed that many young people value their digital life as much (if not more) than their real life. A friend of my daughter sent 3,500 text messages in a single month, (that’s more than 116 per day, and not unusual for today’s teens).

Add that to another recent study released by the Knight Ridder news service that Americans are reporting fewer and fewer close friends. In 1985, pollsters noted that the average person reported having three close friends, but today, it’s only two. And the number who say they have no one to discuss important matters with has doubled to one in four. The social implications are significant, from no friends to visit people in the hospital, weakened bonds during crisis, fewer watchdogs to deter neighborhood crime, and a lack of community.


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About the Author

Phil Cooke is a television producer and media consultant at Cooke Pictures in Burbank, California. His new book is ‘Jolt! Get the Jump on a World That’s Constantly Changing.‘. Find out more at philcooke.com.