Summer doesn’t last long in Canada. It’s a brief interlude in what the world considers is a long cold season. During summer, most Canadians are on a vacation. We at the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce utilize this period to plan for the future.

Recently, our board unanimously adopted the newly drafted bylaws for the Chamber that will take immediate effect. One component of the bylaws is to fix a membership registration deadline to June 30. As 2016 is the inaugural year of the new bylaws and to provide our membership with a reasonable notice of this change, the board also concurrently passed a unanimous resolution to extend the membership deadline date to July 15, 2016. any persons or members wishing to vote in the Annual General Meeting must be registered as a member, or have submitted their membership application to the Chamber by no later than July 15, 2016 at 5:00pm.

While our programming component in summer is not as active as it otherwise is, we do have a steady stream of events coming up during the next couple of months. The first is the recognition reception for our volunteers. This is an annual event we started in 2012, and has become an important part of our programming calendar. This is because our Chamber survives and flourishes on the contributions of our volunteers. Right from the President to the member of the several committees, we depend on the time that volunteers are able to give to our Chamber. 

The Art and Science of Transformation

In this framework, we define the “science” of transformation as the use of change- management tools, methods and techniques, such as those set out in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) and including for example planning, resource estimation and risk analysis.

We define the “art” of transformation, in contrast, as the softer, people-related skills and attributes that are often personal in nature or develop from experiential leaning. These include communications and inter-personal skills, leadership and the types of attributes sometimes referred to in terms of “acumen” or “emotional intelligence.”

Not all transformations require the same input or combinations of art and science: the required skills and the balance of art and science will vary depending on factors such as project complexity, numbers and characteristics of stakeholders and perceived business risks. In any organizational transformation, it is crucial to achieve the right balance of art and science.

This often has much to do with mindsets as with specific skills or expertise: the Art and Science of Transformation requires the application of both “right brain” and “left brain” thinking. From the perspective, the art of change represents the more holistic, quantitative approach, while the science represents the more analytical and logical approach.