Daniel Pink, author of “Drive” and other books, says that people have three basic wants. They are Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose. You might remember that a little better if you think that people like to be “AMPed”. I wonder what he might have said about gamification. As far as I can tell, gamification also fulfills […]
Technology is looked upon as a multiplier, and of course it is. We expect it to expand our businesses, get us more customers, help us deliver better products, services and outcomes for our stakeholders and help us manage our businesses better. Just get some technology and…voila! Problems erased. Our quality goes up, capacity is increased […]
I truly am. For good reason. During those times when you had been made to feel good, maybe with goosebumps all over you, what was one positive growth outcome you experienced? Lasting growth experience, not a bout of I’ll-do-it-because-I-feel-so-amped kind of thing? Right. I didn’t think so either. Anything wrong with feeling good? Obviously not. […]
I came across an HBR post written in Jul 2012 by Ron Ashkenaz calling for the return of the General Manager. With “specialization” being all the rage, I wonder what the take-up rate for General Managers will be. I’ve been in enough positions akin to the General Manager – or GeM, as I’ll call it […]
An article in Harvard Business Review says that “Leadership is more than interpersonal skills“. That said, you jolly well better have good interpersonal skills if you want to get people “…to do what you want because they want to do it”. We need to stop having such divided minds and start recognizing that in many […]
Today I overheard someone saying “Oh, but we have to do all that extra work! We are ISO 22000 certified, you know!”. That set me thinking. Do we strive so hard to get certified and then spend the little that is left of the rest of our lives groaning under the strain of fulfilling all […]
I am sharing Alan Weiss’ “Monday Morning Perspective” for this week in this post. You may download the pdf here. If you find Alan’s memos useful, as I do, you can subscribe via this link: http://summitconsulting.com/databack/index.php Have a great week ahead!
It was Mark Twain who said “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society”. Was it only dress he was talking about? Does what we wear define us, or do we wear whatever expresses our quintessential selves? If our workplace has a dress code, does that inhibit our creativity? If […]
Intrapersonal Intelligence is listed as one of Howard Gardner’s “Multiple Intelligences”. With all the talk about “flatter” organizations, self-directed staff and learners, and connectedness amongst and across organizations, it is time to start looking at organizations as living organisms, if you haven’t started to yet! Some people already have, of course. For instance, there has […]
Do you look forward to meetings at your workplace, or do you dread them? This is regardless of whether you just attend them or you actually convene and chair them. For those who dread meetings at your workplace, why? If you say that they are a waste of time, how did they turn out to […]
How essential is IT to your business? Pretty much, I take? Well, whether you run a small business or a large enterprise, IT is definitely part of your outfit in one way or another. I would just invite you to consider – is it a servant or has IT become your master? Do you make […]
Are you perplexed? Run into some things that are too complex for you? Even the dictionary has gotten the words mixed up! Well, not to worry, it’s pretty simple, really. Just as contentment is not the same thing as complacency, complexities are not the same as complications. Complexity involves the integration of things and systems […]
There seem to be more advocates for open-plan offices than for closed and/ or mixed plan offices. Amongst all the arguments in favour of open-plan offices, ease of collaboration and a greater degree of creativity seem to be at the fore. Well, if that is so, then many offices resemble Tactical Operation Centres, and I […]
When working with Kenneth Kwan, pictured below, I was introduced to the concept of “Lead Measures” and “Lag Measures”. While the concept was not totally new, I had not articulated it in the manner described heretofore. So, what are “Lead” and “Lag” measures? They have to do with goal setting. While some may argue that […]
Do you grow vegetables? We do, in the narrow corridor fronting our very urban apartment. We grow them in pots because there’s no space otherwise. We can’t grow very much, of course, but we grow the vegetables in order to get some hands-on experience. There are some things you can learn from growing your own […]
Yes, you read that right. Do you know people who are like that? People who never seem to get anything done and yet claiming to be “creative”? People who can tell you all about how to do your job better, but who can’t even remember the main decision from the last meeting? If you have […]
Are you an innovative person? Is your organization innovative? What, in any case, IS innovation? Well, I think most of us would agree that innovation is introducing change, organic or otherwise, that would help make things better, faster, smoother, more efficient, more effective, more user-friendly, more cost-effective, or a combination of the above. We hear […]
Thomas Malm’s blog of 09 Feb 2013 mentioned silos and synapses, and immediately sparked off this post. When “silo” is thrown your way, what comes to your mind? Do you have negative feelings? Well, “silos” and structures resembling “silos” are actually pretty essential in many instances. If our esophagi (gullets) and tracheae (windpipes) didn’t function in […]
We would usually only ask if a lady were expecting if she happened to be a close relative, a close friend or perhaps a workplace colleague. Of course, all of us would be expecting a bundle of joy to be delivered and inquire as to the date and probably give lots of advice as to […]
I’ve always been just your normal everyday Grunt, never been a Special Forces type, but I do hold them in high regard. So this post is in no way a “dig” at my friends in the Special Forces. But I do think it’s urgent. Randy Ottinger, Executive Vice President at Kotter International, recently wrote something […]
“HR seems to place more obstacles than provide solutions”. “Finance is utterly inflexible. Can’t they see what we need?” “We need to deliver the goods NOW! Why does Logistics take so long?” “Silo mentality” is a common complaint that we don’t want to hear about every day. Of course, any business would like to break […]
We are often exhorted to “Find what you love and do it”. Less often do we hear “Love what you do when you’re in it”, meaning learning to love your job, whatever it is! Some of you might know the story of the bird that failed to fly to warmer climes for the winter. Shivering […]
“The good is the enemy of the best”. What is your definition of the “best”? It is the same question as “What is your definition of success?” As usual, people seem to be divided into two or more camps about this. One camp says that we should always go for what is best all the […]
Have you come across people who say things like that? They claim to be “practical” and “hands-on” people who “get things done”. Now, if only those people in charge of the planning would get their act together and produce plans that actually work instead of having to be made to work! This seems to be […]
I find it hard to believe that so many people find work so onerous. Is it true that so few of us actually enjoy our work? The amazing proliferation of all things to pamper at leisure seems to be a firm testament to that state of affairs. Sad reality is that we often need “…a […]
No, I am not talking about listing your business on the Stock Exchange. I am talking about Leading In Small Things We all know intuitively that a leader who takes care of the small stuff is a leader who can be trusted. “Small stuff” includes what others might also see as “small people”. Are you […]
Picture this. Head office of an MNC in Boston faces issues with silo mentality existing between a few Divisions which actually need to work together. Team-building, team coaching and leadership programs have so far failed to bring about any changes of note. In desperation, the CEO throws up his hands and barks to his HR […]
I was reading a post in Seth Godin’s blog. Seth was talking about going from general to specific and vice versa. Reading widely and reading other people’s blogs can certainly spark off ideas which you can use yourself. You don’t need to agree with everything someone else says. You can find areas of overlap that […]
Yes, really, how lucky are you? How lucky have you been? Will you continue to be lucky in future? Will you start getting lucky? We all know Seneca’s quote. Do we all practice what it says? In my last newsletter I talked about “Deliberate Delegation” and attached the story of “A Letter to Garcia” in […]
No, that’s not a tongue-twister. In fact, it’s something for you and I to focus on. Focusing on this will help a lot in freeing us to be and do all that we are meant to. Ready? Say it out loud, now, “yt ilib isnop serym siti!”. Hmmm…let’s do that again, shall we? With a […]
I’ve been hearing talk about organizations being “too big”, resulting in challenges with internal alignment, communications, slow turnaround times, etc. To all those, I say: Go Talk to a Blue Whale! A blue whale doesn’t need half an hour to change course, it just changes course! It doesn’t have to wait a week before all […]
Heard of Teenagers? Well, this is not about young swinging twenty-somethings. It’s about all those times in-between. Are you familiar with them? Those times in-between when you are waiting for a call from an important client, when the someone you’re supposed to meet suddenly has to reschedule at the last minute, and when you arrive […]
It’s amazing, the number of people who can get their priorities straight. Amazingly few, that is. People seem to need a lot of help understanding what their purpose in life really is. This lack of clarity as to purpose in life always translates into fuzzy career and business purpose statements as well. Goals for the […]
I last wrote about this on the Lifeskills Enrichment blog (now defunct) on 7 Apr 2010. Since then, a lot has taken place and I’d like to add one or two more thoughts to what I’d already recorded. On 20 Apr 2011, I had the privilege of being at a talk by Professor Peter Hawkins […]
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