Thought leadership

I’m sensing an increasing premium on thought leadership at the moment. We’re living at a time of significant change. A time of opportunity surely, but also danger.

Anything that supports and develops better and more creative thinking should be encouraged. There’s a lot more value in thinking differently at the moment. There’s a lot more value in thinking for ourselves. That’s why I love Twitter as a channel for connecting with a wider perspective on what’s happening in the world. Individual ‘tweets’ may be low value, but hearing how others are thinking makes you think differently. Valuable thoughts emerge from the diverse and potent mix of stimulating ideas. It can’t be premeditated though! You just need to let it happen.

In this spirit, here is an intriguing conversation with  Robert Sapolsky (a Stanford neurobiologist) about Toxo!

http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge307.html

It probably has very little to do you’re day job. Unless you’re a neurobiologist!

But I hope it makes you go “wow”. I hope it makes you think about how little we know. I hope it creates an openness to different ideas. I hope it stimulates a curiosity to learn more. I hope it helps you to be a stronger thought leader. And I hope you find it stimulating enough to subscribe to edge.com.

Post growth society

I see September’s HBR focuses on the ‘green’ economy and life in the post growth society. Yes the idea of limitless growth seems to have been exposed as a myth over the last 12 months. But post-growth society?

There will be growth alright, it just won’t be evenly distributed. While the ‘net’ might be flat, some will grow strongly and others contract significantly. I’m already sensing an inspiring and revolutionary undercurrent of activity and change. Expect a significant redistribution of capital and wealth. Keep your eyes open. Stay light on your feet. Make sure you’re on the right side!

Materialism has taken a heavy blow though. About time. Don’t think that will change any time soon.

iLove U.

One the best things I did this year was switch to Apple. iMac and iPhone ilove U.

Apple has just released its new Snow Leopard operating system. It’s radical. Not because it’s bloated with new features. But because it just faster,smaller, cheaper. Never been done before. Congrats Apple. The New York Times reviews it here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/27/technology/personaltech/27pogue.html?_r=1&em

It’s a great example of the power of simplifying. Getting back to what really matters.

Might be useful to consider our own operating system.

What are the few things that make the difference in how we operate in our world?Perhaps we should focus on them. Strip out, outsource or ignore the 80% that generates little value for us. Double the 20% that matters. Would 20% to 40% of our effort improve our result by 60%?

HR2.0

I spoke yesterday at HRINZ on change and HR. It was version 1.o of some thinking I’ve started on these two topics. It was a start. One of upsides of the current economic turmoil is that its forcing individuals and organisations to think again about ‘value’.

I often encounter unflattering comments about HR’s value from senior and line managers in organisations. I wonder if HR has become overly preoccupied with process, systems, tools, technologies and frameworks.  It reminded me of the IT industry. And led me to thinking about how pervasively we use the web today. It’s a long way from the IT industry I knew in the late 80’s.

The internet has transformed itself from simply a transport mechanism into something that delivers real value to people. The current term being used is Web2.0.

Web2.0 is about technology:

• as a platform for it’s users to create individual value (eg Flickr)
• as an architecture of participation (eg blogging)
• as a means of harnessing collective intelligence (eg Wikipedia)
• providing users with a rich user experience (eg RSS)
• letting users pull information to meet their immediate demands (eg Google)

WEb2.0 has lead to an exponential rise in the use and creativity of the web. No change management plan here!

What would HR2.0 look like?

As a starter I’d suggest that HR 2.0 could:

• insist managers are responsible for achievement of goals aligned with the overall strategic intent of the organisation.
• let individual managers decide what they need (from HR and others) to achieve those goals. And who, when and how those needs are met.
• focus at least 70% of their effort and resources (budget) on meeting the individual in-action needs of managers striving to achieve clear goals.
• work within an organisational framework of clear values, culture and shared sense of accountability.
• offer a suite of useful tools, frameworks and resources without advocating any.
• inspire people to be bolder in their sense of possibility and potential.

Interested in talking with anyone interested in further developing this thinking.

Inside the box

It’s a cliche today to “think outside the box”. Everyone seems to want creative, innovative ideas. Few are prepared to invest in making them happen though!

I had lunch with a friend last week who talked about her boss’s interest in thinking outside the box. Liz had a different point of view. Liz was passionate about the need for more thinking “inside the box”.

I have just finished reading John Seddon’s book “Systems Thinking in the Public Sector”. It’s a sobering critique of the British government’s reform agenda. He uses some compelling examples of how ideological approaches to improving public services are in fact increasing cost and lowering quality. He takes a systems approach and draws on the thinking of Edward Deming and Taiichi Ohno. Ohno was the developer of the Toyota Production System.

Anyway, here’s a quote from Ohno.

“Everything you need to know in order to make improvements will be found in your own system. If you go looking elsewhere, you will be looking in the wrong place”

Liz is right, lets think inside the box! I think Liz sees plenty of opportunities for improvement right in front of her.

Borrowed creativity.

I was speaking today with a prospective client about some coaching.

We ended up discussing an individual’s personal brand.

I’ve always liked the idea of expanding the idea of a communication objective from a specific piece of communication, to a longer term communication strategy. Like a personal brand.

In essence, over time and many interactions, how do individuals want others to:

• think about them
• feel about them
• act towards them

Of course, your audience matters too. What do they want and value?

One of the attributes valued highly these days is creativity.  Perhaps I’d like people to think of  me as creative! I’ve written before about creativity, and the importance of  listening to others for ideas. Rather than coming up with ideas all by yourself!

So, in the spirit of borrowed creativity, here is Fast Company’s Top 100 Most Creative People (to listen to).

http://www.fastcompany.com/100/mcp.html

Borrow, learn, distil, reapply, combine, but most of all enjoy.

Working the room!

Yesterday, I spoke to a group of independant professional advisors/counsellors. The topic was networking, as a marketing tool. I made three points:

1. The predominance of social networks can be seen as much more than a marketing tool. I think they are becoming an extension our brains and are making us more intelligent. Our intelligence afterall, is the result of the brain’s complexity – the billions of neurons interacting with each other. By connecting to other individuals we significantly multiple the possible interactions. Connecting our neurons to neurons outside our brain. The beginnings of a global brain (see Peter Russell’s “Global Brain”  http://www.peterrussell.com/GB/globalbrain.php).
2. But, chemistry matters. The chemistry that connects the neurons in our brain to each other is a complex bio-chemistry. The neurotransmitters that pass signals across the synaptic gap (between neurons) has to work. Or we don’t think effectively, or at all! Between people that chemistry is the chemistry of conversation. Important elements of the chemistry of conversation include – effective questioning, active listening and empathy. That chemistry has to work too.
3. And, that chemistry also includes ‘attitude’. Someone spoke of those who think of networking as “working the room”. If that’s your attitude, I doubt the conversation chemistry will work. I find it best to leave your agenda at the door. Just talk to people, enjoy talking to them, be curious, be yourself . Let any business opportunities emerge. Don’t work the room!

As always, interested in your perspectives.

The group goes west

I was involved in a facilitation recently. There was a point in the facilitation where it was obvious the facilitator had a clear direction.  The group wanted to go in a different direction. It wanted to go west and the facilitator wanted to go east. The facilitator pushed and group pushed back. The facilitator conceded. We went west. In fact we went so far west, we ended up east!

It was a reminder of the power of going with the flow. But staying aware of the ultimate objective. A great outcome was achieved. Albeit by taking a different path. Well done and thanks Barbara.

Whether facilitating, influencing or leading – start with the direction your audience wants to go. It’s probably easier and you can still get a great outcome.

Connecting things

My daughter said to me recently “I’m not creative”. That is an interesting decision to make about herself. Especially these days when every job stresses creativity and innovation. She meant creative in the sense of  creating products and ideas that are original and/or aesthetically pleasing.

Well apart from thinking everyone is creative, it made me think about what creativity is these days. Firstly, what I think it isn’t is, individuals thinking in splendid isolation until the ‘aha’ moment arises. And something beautifully complete emerges. Everyone goes ‘wow’!

That’s not creativity anymore. Perhaps it was once. Today almost all the interesting thinking is collaborative. It reminded me of Steve Job’s quote “creativity is just connecting things”. Once it might have been connecting things in one’s own brain. Today it’s more about connecting lots of things in lots of brains – to yours.  That’s why the Twitter phenomenon is so interesting.

So what are the skills that make you creative these days. I’d say the main ones are  questioning, listening, observing, reading widely, indulging in a range of experiences, and taking a non-judgemental and  open  attitude to life. Then the ideas emerge.You can see what’s already there. Because there seems to be no shortage of ideas out there. And very few are originally crafted by individuals.

So if you’ve convinced yourself that you’re not creative, it doesn’t matter. Take someone else’s ideas. They’re probably not using them anyway. Outsource your creativity to your network, because ideas aren’t in short supply. What is in short supply is the awareness, courage and the ability to successfully implement them. Creativity is just a commodity, but making new ideas happen is still a very rare ability. Practise that.

A different conversation

If you didn’t hear this interview with Sir Ken Robinson, it’s worth listening to. You can also find him on ted.com

http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon

Some of his messages are about:

• reclaiming our creativity (defined by Sir Ken as new ideas that have value)
• changing the education system to focus on developing skills for the future, rather than the past (industrialism).
• The role of innovation and entrepreneurship in creating vibrant communities.
• the importance of developing individual talents that make you unique.

Love this last point and see this as a major responsibility of leaders. To create the conditions for people to rise to their potential. Lot’s of opportunity here I suspect.