A great example of interaction

Sports watchers and followers can be pretty wild and open about their opinions when it comes to sport.  Usually the referee is the one that cops the blame for any problems, mistakes or losses.

In 2011 the NRL has made a move to quieten the barrage of complaints by getting the referees boss - to explain the situation.

What Bill Harrigan does is explains why decisions were made in a certain way and clarifies any calls that may have been seen as being wrong.  This is one of the greatest communication strategies in sports today.

This works.  Why?

• Open communication.  fans know what decisions have been made and why.
• Honesty.  Being open and telling people about what decisions you made and why is integral to gaining peoples trust.
• The ability to admit you are wrong.  Yes, we got it wrong.  Nothing speaks louder than apologising if you get it wrong.
• Speed of communication.  Fans want to know right now what happened.  They will use social media, radio, newspapers - whatever it takes to share their opinions about the state of the game.  It is vital that if there is a particular area of your business that acts as a lightning rod - then my recommendation is to be proactive.
• Proactivity reduces the need for reactivity.  Speed to react and communicate is vital.  Shut down negativity before it begins.
• Feedback.  Both sides of the game/business have an opportunity to speak their mind and understand where each other is coming from.  So what ultimately happens is that the game becomes seamless.  Players, managers, referees and fans all get the ability to interact in one giant semaless community that is called sport.

I giving this idea by the NRL two thumbs up!  And go the mighty NZ Warriors!

Podcast review - "Creating Enchantment" by Guy Kawasaki.

I enjoy running.  Running is a great hobby because it only requiires you (one person) some shoes and some exercise.  One of the benefits of running is the time that you have available to think, reflect or listen.

The Stanford Entreprenurial Thought Leaders series is one pocast that I have been listening to for the past 12 months (ever since I finally managed to get an iPod).  And for the past 12 months this series of podcasts has continued to be listened to - week in and week out.

I was blown away by the awesomeness that is the podcast by Guy Kawasaki.  This is a totally well rounded speech delivered by the consumate professional that is Mr Kawasaki.

What is delivered is a 60 minute master class in both management and innovation techniques, as well as a tutorial in how to write a speech, create a presentation and how to pull it off with ease.  This presentation, I think, was set up as a sales pitch for the new book "Enchantment" by said author stated above.  What really happens is the presentor takes the big lessons of the book, breaks them down into a series of easy to understand points and leaves the listener with the challenge of applying all the lessons to themselves.

Here;s some background on Mr Kawasaki -

"Guy Kawasaki is the co-founder of Alltop.com, an “online magazine rack” of popular topics on the web, and a founding partner at Garage Technology Ventures. Previously, he was the chief evangelist of Apple. Kawasaki is the author of ten books including Enchantment, Reality Check, The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way. Kawasaki has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College."

(Source: http://www.guykawasaki.com/about/)

So if you a) enjoy running, b) enjoy great presentations or c) want management advice - then I recommend you download this podcast.

Here is the presentation - http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2669

Cards anyone?

Personality Poker - 5 deck set

Product description

Personality Poker by Stephen Shapiro

5 deck set includes: 5 decks + instruction manual  + streaming video

If your organization is having a difficult time staying ahead of the curve, it’s probably suffering from sameness—the widespread condition in organizations where commonality is valued above individuality. Unbeknownst to most, chronic sameness destroys innovation and creative thinking. 

Introducing Personality Poker, the playing card tool for driving high-performance teamwork and innovation. 

 

http://changethis.com/product/show/4-Personality_Poker___5_deck_set

The Weightless Economy

Until this morning (call me ignorant) I had not come across the concept of the 'weightless economy'.  It was mentioned by an economist while talking about the recovery of the New Zealand economy.

So what is it?  I honestly don't know but I have a book on reserve at the local library that I am going to get out shortly (within the next hour) and will start reading.

Here is an excerpt from an article published in The Economist -

What is the weightless economy?

"By the weightless economy, I mean that part of the economy comprising the following four categories:

1. Information and communications technology (ICT), including the Internet.

2. Intellectual property, including not only patents and copyrights but more broadly, namebrands, trademarks, advertising, financial and consulting services, health care (medical knowledge), and education.

3. Electronic libraries and databases, including new media, video entertainment, and broadcasting.

4. Biotechnology, which includes carbon-based libraries and databases, as well as pharmaceuticals.

(Source: http://econ.lse.ac.uk/~dquah/tweirl0.html)

Here's my hypothesis - a weightless economy is one that uses and embraces the knowledge economy and virtual skills of people to generate revenue and ultimately create wealth.

The idea of an economy that is not centred on bricks and mortar, buildings or manual trades strikes me as being real common sense.  It also begs the question - are you lowering or increasing your weight as a part of the economy?

Am I right - let's wait and see.  In the meantime here a few websites I found that focus on the aformentioned concept -

http://www.nzinstitute.org/index.php

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/w/weightless-economy.asp

http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=399092&section=1.3.4

 

Musings on Making Meetings Effective

Some thoughts:

1. Have an agenda.  To make the most of your time you and everyone else need to know what you are talking about, why you are talking about it and keep it moving.
2. Move quickly through items that are of no consequence.  Keep the main thing as the main thing.  Allow time to discuss the big items and those things that require more indepth discussion.
3. Set up working groups.  If an item can be discussed at a different time or if the meeting group don't all need to be involved - then establish a working group.  Findings and resolutions can then be fed back to the main group.
4. If there are follow up actions - remind people.  It is good to turn up to a meeting knowing that actions required from the last meeting have been finished off.  Starting a meeting empowered is the best way to finish as well.
5. Start the clock.  Record how much time you spend on each of the agenda items and reflect on which agenda items actually add value and which ones don't.  Then work on reducing or removing those items from future meetings if they aren't required.

6 Thinking Hats & Instructional Design

One of the great tools that we as managers can use when analysing different situations and scenarios.  This method was designed and created by Dr Edward de Bono.

If you look through the slides you will see how it worls and the general headings for the various methods of thinking.

Here's my recommendation - make small reminder cards.  Take these with you in your wallet or in your briefcase and then whip them out the next time you are sitting in a meeting or working on a project and things aren't progressing.

Try it out with your team too.  Try working on a project or problem area and use the six hats thinking to create new ideas and ways of moving forward.

Interestingly my daughter is also studying these different thinking strategies at the age of 9 years old.  So if she is able to harness these thinking patterns at a young age she will be well equipped in later life to look at problems in a different way than others do.

(Thanks to @tabitharoder for sourcing the powerpoint too).

Consultants - Friday Funny

 

(source: pinoytux.com)

Creating and Leveraging Networks

When you have a project or an issue in front of you that you don't know how/where to start on - what's your approach?

I like to think in terms of sets of people. 

1. People I work closely with.  This is usually the first place we start.  We look at the people around us, ask a question across the room or throw an idea out there for a response.
2. People I know in the organisation.  Not in my direct team but people
3. People spread more widely in the organisation.
4. People I know outside the organisation.
5. People I don't know at all.  This is the best bit.  By belonging to groups and asociations you can gain access to people's contacts and details with ease.  One great example of this is LinkedIn and another is Twitter.  With LinkedIn you can look at your friends friends and try and source an answer that way.  The other more informal network I use is Twitter.  What you can do is tweet a question, hash-tag (#) a particular word for emphasis and see what the Twitter universe throws back at you in the way of an answer.

I love throwing out emails to random people whom I have never met and have no idea about who they are or what they do.  Sometimes the results can be simply amazing.

 

QUIT WASTING MY TIME!

Of the 60+ meetings per month attended by professionals, research indicates that over 50 percent of this meeting time is wasted.
That translates to 4 days of lost productivity per professional every month if each meeting is one hour long!
Can you afford not to invest in more effective meetings?
Do the math for yourself. How much could you save with even a 25% improvement in the productivity of your virtual and in-person meetings?
(Original post: http://myriam-musing.blogspot.com/)

What are you looking at?

Do you lead forwards...

Or backwards...

Some managers enjoy having reports that quite clearly state where the company has already been.  They pour themselves into how the financials are performing for the past quarter.  They love seeing statistics appear in front of their eyes that tell them where they have come from and where they have been,

The rear view mirror exists to enable you to be aware of what is behind you and serves as a reminder of where you have come from.

I prefer to manage by having reports that look forwards.  Have you ever noticed that the windscreen is always at least 20x bigger than the rear view mirror?  When you drive where is your attention focussed?