By inviting, you’re dis-inviting

I heard an advert on the radio yesterday. It was put together by one of our government departments. The message was around ensuring that our children go to school, stay in school and do well in school. The ‘carrot’ was by doing that we’d ensure our children have a brighter future with great opportunities.

It’s a great message. It’s a critical message for a country like South Africa. But it was how they communicated it that made me pause and reflect on how easy it is to dis-invite through invitation.

In this case they did it by holding a promising future up against the hard reality of the parents of some of the children they were talking about. There were one or two fathers talking about how terrible their lives were, and how bad their jobs were. They went to work and were told what to do by their bosses. They were shouted at and treated badly. And it was all because of their education or lack of it. What a sad picture for many working people out there. I wondered how they processed this advert. Not a terribly clever one in my opinion.

I’ve picked the theme of invitation leading to dis-invitation, but there are multiple themes to explore here. I’ll leave that to you.

I remember doing some work with one of the larger South African retail companies. We were talking to the Organisational Development Director about the various development programmes they were running. he spoke of the difficulty in inviting 30 people to join one of the programmes. The problem was that they were part of a pool of 70 people. By inviting 30 you were dis-inviting 40. You were sending a strong message, like it or not, to the other 40.

It’s a little like the ‘Talent’ debate at the moment. The so called ‘War for Talent’ being waged out globally. By identifying talented people, you’re dis-identifying non-talented people. What is the impact of that in the short / medium / long term?

I’m not sure how you get around it? It’s certainly a reality. There are some cultures that would simply pass it off as ’survival of the fittest’ and ‘that’s just how it is, deal with it’.

I’m not sure. Is there another way?

Sawubona (Zulu greeting: “I see you are not my enemy”)

I have been black for as long as I can remember, yet it would seem of late with the introduction of technology, education and westernised worldview, that reality is consistently being challenged. I grew up in Soweto with the values of the struggle being continually reinforced along with those of simply living in community with others. I guess you can call that Ubuntu but that term is undergoing huge fatigue and is progressively losing currency.

One of the key values that drove my upbringing was a message that everyone who is older than you is your father and mother. I guess by in large this spoke to the value of respect and pure manners. It was that if an older person was in the room you’d stand to greet them; if you were in a bus they came through, you’d offer up your seat; it was that you address them by their title or at the very least add a prefix to their name – Bra so and so, or Mr Sibanibani, Ubaba ka Sibanibani (Mr or the father of so and so).
We enter into a new corporate era where it is fast becoming company policy that we should address each other by first names. It is quickly breeding a culture where as young as we are, we are finding ourselves in positions of leadership that by default sometimes mean we have older people below us. How then should we address them?

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Yes, it will cost more

I spend much of my time helping companies to create corporate cultures that will attract and retain talented young people. This involves looking at everything from terms and conditions of employment, remuneration policies and bonus schemes, to office layout, use of technology, management styles and team dynamics. One of my biggest frustrations is that very often those within an organisation who understand what needs to be done to get top talent to work there are overruled by those who are focused on saving money, efficiencies and creating “lean and mean” environments.

We live in an era where competitive advantage is found less and less in the products and services a company offers – mainly because the competitors are so closely aligned that the market can’t tell the difference between them. We live an era where technology is pervasive, markets open, and global competition the norm. In such an era, the only really sustainable competitive advantage is your people. This is why there is currently a “war for talent” in every industry across the globe.
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Leading the Whatever Generation – the ‘Bright Young Things’

Leadership in today’s world is not easy. I suspect it has never ‘been easy’ but with the contemporary levels of complexity, connectedness and ubiquitous change these are indeed unique times in which to live and lead. The twin challenges that leaders face, that of leading diversity and understanding the inherent paradoxes, demands from leaders new mindsets that lead to new behaviours. All of this converges, like the Leader’s personal perfect storm, when it comes to leading Talent, or those we refer to as the, ‘Bright Young Things’. This article article explores six keys to understanding and leading Talent. It may even shed some light on those ‘Bright Young Things’ who inhabit your household! … Continue Reading

They drive me crazy!

Boomers (in their 40s and 50s) and Xers (in their 20s and 30s) have very different communication styles and needs. In the workplace, they can drive each other crazy. Barrie Bramley provides some excellent insights into why this communication gap exists, and gives some great practical solutions for Boomers and Xers.

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Whining, Moaning, and Achieving: Dealing with frustrated talent in the workplace

In sessions that we conduct on Talent management with both those who lead talent and those who are considered talent everything goes brilliantly until the end of the day when we ask: “So, what are you going to do now?” At this point there is generally a throwing up of hands into the air and a frustrated whining sessions begins. What it basically boils down is the passing of the talent ‘hot potato’ from one person or group to the next. Executives say HR has strategies in place, HR says it is the role of line management, line management says that they are disempowered by top-down processes or too busy with operational delivery to do anything differently…

As we facilitate these sessions we come in first hand contact with the frustrations that sit in this space. This article briefly deals with the conversations and frustrations most commonly raised. It will then propose options and actions that should be considered by the various stakeholders in this dynamic, from executives and other leaders right down to the talent themselves.

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Assessing Wisdom Continuity within your Organisation

Recognised experts in any field often rely on nothing more than a hunch. Time (and hard work by others) typically proves them to be right. Where does that innate gut instinct come from? Can you learn it? Can it be transferred? These are questions that get Aiden Choles interested in investigating wisdom continuity as a critical organisational capability.

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A is for Apple, BEE is for Business. Part 3: The Solution

In the past two e-zines, John Maxwell has outlined the BEE question and the BEE problem. Now, in this final contribution, he focuses on one of the possible solutions to BEE. He is involved with an innovative Trust that is changing how BEE is done, and taking it to where it was intended to be: grass roots upliftment of South African society. TomorrowToday does not necessarily endorse John’s trust, but we fully support innovation and community development. Read and enjoy!

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NOT always better on the big screen

South Africa’s top cinema chain, Ster Kinekor, uses the tagline, “Always better on our big screen” in their advertising. Well, the last few times I’ve gone out to a cinema, I’ve had exactly the opposite experience.

I have previously complained on this blog about the way in which cinemas lie to us. They don’t let us take in food and drinks bought outside of their own concession stands, and they make up all sorts of stupid reasons for this. The real reason, of course, is that they charge a small fortune for their food and drink, and make a hefty chunk of their profit there.

But last night’s issue was that in a 16 rated movie (The Last King of Scotland), a woman came in with her husband/boyfriend, another female friend and a toddler who couldn’t have been more than 2 years old. The guy went to sit down near the middle of the theatre, and the women sat at the back. As the movie started, the woman walked down, and dumped the child on the guy’s lap and then went back to her seat. The child was niggling, crying and chirping all the way through the movie. The guy was disinterested, then just allowed the toddler to wander around the cinema. The child was friendly enough – climbing onto people and talking to everyone.

Meanwhile the mother was taking phone calls on her mobile!! What chaos and distraction! My wife actually went out to call cinema staff, but they did nothing.

If cinemas want people to flock to their venues, they are going to have to create an envrionment where it is better on their big screens. At the moment, it is not!

Wikipedia: Are you who you say you are?

A few days ago, a senior Wikipedia editor was “outed”. Essjay, as he was known, had claimed to be a professor of religious studies. In fact, his name is Ryan Jordan, and he is a 24-year-old college drop-out. An interesting question arises about how Wikipedia works and about the information it makes available. Ryan, although not who he claimed to be, was actually a pretty good editor, by all accounts, and did a great job of fixing up entries and applying the stringent Wikipedia encyclopedia rules for content, style, format, referencing, etc.

Wikipedia allows for anonymity, and, in fact, almost every one of its editors uses a pseudonym – in fact, their identities are jealously guarded. This assists in making sure that any editing decisions are dealt with (more) objectively than they might be, if there was potential for personal appeals. The anonymity creates a phoney equality, putting everyone on equal level. I wonder if this incident will change how Wikipedia works, with some Big Brother top-level/behind-the-scenes vetting of (at least) the editors? I doubt it. In this connected world, people are judged more on their outputs (the value of the job they did) than their qualifications or inputs. But, the fact that Ryan lied and therefore displayed a lack of integrity should raise some concerns. Given how Wikipedia operates, one wonders why he felt the need to do that in the first place.

Some interesting ethical issues await…

As an aside, the fact that at least one editor is very much NOT who he claimed to be is worrying. And a little disturbing for people (like me) who have had entries removed from Wikipedia for spurious (IMO) reasons.

Why have a “Take your kids to work day”?

This is a really nice piece from the Christian Science Monitor, from the April 27, 2006 edition.

Gen Y’s opt-out vision
By Courtney E. Martin
BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day (April 27) would be a great idea if the contemporary workplace was actually a place where we wanted our daughters and sons to end up. Unfortunately, for the second-wave feminists who created it, and fortunately, for the third-wave feminists who aren’t having it, this “special day” is about as relevant as a traditional Southern coming out party.

The “opt-out revolution,” first coined by Lisa Belkin in her New York Times Magazine story in October 2003, has since been discussed by feminists and antifeminists alike in countless news features and opinion pieces. The trend of young women rejecting the traditional workforce is, indeed, real. But this trend isn’t limited to young women. What social commentators are failing to point out is that both young men and women are not just opting out, we’re not even buying in.

Read the rest of the article.