Constant Change must be a Continuous Business Process

At TomorrowToday we are convinced that the decade ahead will be the most turbulent that any of us have ever experienced. The change will not be spectacular (in the sense that there will be world changing changes), but rather that the speed and complexity of change will be incessant. The changes will come in small steps, but they will come so often that the effect will be of constant, disrupt change.

The pre-emptive management/leadership approach in such times will be to build the ability for constant change into the heart of your organisational processes. This is obviously easier said than done. Yet, it is not as hard as it might seem if it becomes a leadership focus. Booz & Co’s S+B e-zine recently featured an excellent article highlighting this very issue. You can read it online here, or an extract below.

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Insights into one of the most original strategic thinkers

Coimbatore Krishnarao (C.K.) Prahalad would have been 69 on August 8, 2010, but sadly he passed away from a sudden lung illness on April 16 of this year. Along with Gary Hamel and Peter Druker CK Prahalad has inspired much of my thinking and approach to management. He was one of the most influential and original strategic and management thinkers of the last 50 years. Here is one of the last interviews that he ever gave which I found in the latest Strategy + Business.

The Life’s Work of a Thought Leader (Strategy + Business)

Big Ideas from Simple Questions

S+B: Which of your ideas have had the most impact — and how did you develop them?
PRAHALAD: One would be the idea of core competencies in a corporation. That has had a long life. For example, it reappears as capabilities-driven strategy. Others included the bottom of the pyramid [the profitability in targeting the 2.5 billion people who make less than US$2.50 per day], co-creation [companies and customers innovating together], constrained innovation [typically used to develop very low-cost but functionally sophisticated products, like the Tata Nano], and dominant logic [the idea that companies are held back by their prevailing view of how to conduct business]. Everybody now talks about shifting mind-sets, which is essentially a dominant logic argument.

In developing all of these ideas, I learned not to start with the methodology, but with the problem. A lot of times, research tends to start with the methodology. I prefer to start with a problem that’s of interest and apply whatever methodology is appropriate.
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Talent teams vs Talented individuals

A new report is about to be released in Organization Science, entitled: “Too Many Cooks Spoil the Broth: How High Status Individuals Decrease Group Effectiveness” (Authors: Boris Groysberg, Jeffrey T. Polzer, and Hillary Anger Elfenbein).

Their Abstract says:

Can groups become effective simply by assembling high status individual performers? Though an affirmative answer may seem straightforward on the surface, this answer becomes more complicated when group members benefit from collaborating on interdependent tasks. Examining Wall Street sell-side equities research analysts who work in an industry in which individuals strive for status, we find that groups benefited—up to a point—from having high status members, controlling for individual performance. With higher proportions of individual stars, however, the marginal benefit decreased before the slope of this curvilinear pattern became negative. This curvilinear pattern was especially strong when stars were concentrated in a small number of sectors, likely reflecting suboptimal integration among analysts with similar areas of expertise. Control variables ensured that these effects were not the spurious result of individual performance, department size or specialization, or firm prestige. We discuss the theoretical implications of these results for the literatures on status and groups, along with practical implications for strategic human resource management.

This is an issue we’re convinced of at TomorrowToday. We have recently developed a presentation we’re calling, “The Talent Reboot“. Our message is simply that talent works best when it is part of a talented team, and not treated as an independent entity. This is true in the world of work, just as it appears to be true in the world of sport, or in Hollywood.

For example, think of the 2010 Football World Cup. The two teams that made the finals, Spain and Holland, did not have too many superstars, and their superstars did not overly shine in the tournament. Other teams were studded with stars, and merely stuttered along. Football is a team sport. The U.S. men’s 2004 Olympic basketball “dream team” was equally filled with star NBA players. Yet the team underperformed and only won the bronze medal. They didn’t play as a team.

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Men your time is up!

I came across a very interesting and well written article in The Atlantic which examines the world in which women have now emerged as the majority workforce for the first time in US history. This is an incredible milestone and here are a few of the facts driving this very positive trend:

- for every 2 men who get a college degree, 3 women will do the same this year
- women own 40% of privately owned businesses in China
- Most managers are now women in the US

As the knowledge economy becomes more and more entrenched, thinking and communicating have come to eclipse physical strength and stamina as the keys to economic success. The world of work has now progressed to the the point where societies can take advantage of the talents of all their adults. This is a very encouraging development and I’d encourage you to read this insightful article below or follow the link to The Atlantic:
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Are Most Big Corporates Really Psychopaths?

RANT ALERT. Most times I try to be a dispassionate researcher of the new world of work. But sometimes I just can’t take it anymore. Today is one of those days…

Almost every day I pick up a story on the Net of someone being fired by their company for some indiscretion related to social media or digital communications. I suppose people get fired every day for breaching company policies, but when you dig into most of these stories, you really get a feeling that the people in charge just have no freaking clue and are acting like reactionary, idiotic psychopaths.

A psychopath is “a person afflicted with a personality disorder characterized by a tendency to commit antisocial, perverted, criminal, amoral and sometimes violent acts and a failure to feel guilt for such acts.” (dictionary.com)

It may be a bit over the top to call the reflex firing of a person a psychopathic act, but it certainly is not the act of a rational, emotional stable or intelligent entity either. And when it is clear that someone has been fired largely because their employer just does not understand how social media or digital communications work, then I think you can label it antisocial, perverted, criminal and amoral. And normally there is no apology later. That’s a psychopath then!

Is your company a psychopath? You’d be surprised who else is…

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Voting for a tax rise? I think I know what will happen…

Watching the UK news this morning, I see David Cameron’s latest version of the “Big Society” (his code phrase for reducing the size of government and “handing power back to the people”) is to allow people to vote on whether they should have rises in their Council taxes or not.

Basically, the central government will set a cap on how much local councils can increase the Council tax (local municipality tax) each year. If the Council wants to increase it by more than that, it must hold a vote and get all the local residents to approve it. The proposal is that it will be a simple “Yes” or “No” ballot.

What are they thinking? What do you think people are going to vote?

This is the problem with society right now. What do we want? We want lower taxes! When do want them? Now! What else do you want? We want more services from the government! When do you want them? Also, now! OK, explain how that is going to happen…

For too long, “the government” has been seen as some magic mystery box. Somehow, from somewhere, it will just keep finding money to keep giving you everything you can imagine and dream of. Better schools, better hospitals, random wars in foreign countries to ensure you’re kept safe from terrorism, support for single moms, help for the elderly, pensions, drinking water, roads, police, libraries…. These are (mostly) all good things, and necessary too. But they need to be paid for. And the government isn’t some kind uncle with unlimited means who can just keep shelling out money. It’s got to get that money from somewhere.

It’s time for the government to metaphorically call the family into the sitting room and sit us down and tell us the bad news. “Kids, you know things have been tough the past few months. Daddy and mommy have been working hard, but you know we’re paying paid less and didn’t get a Christmas bonus last year either. We’ve run out savings, and no-one will lend us any more money. We’re going to have to cut back on our expenditure as a family, and really work together to get out of this mess. We’d love to go on holiday at the end of the year, but we just can’t. We’d love to send sonny here to a better school, but we just can’t afford it. We’d love to fix his skew teeth, too, but that will have to wait….” And so on. You might have had just such a conversation with your own family.

So, instead of going to the voters and saying: “Can we raise your Council tax, Yes or No?”, the government should go to the voters with a different proposition. Let’s say that every percentage point of tax increase is worth £ 10 million for a local council. They should have a list of things that £ 10 million could buy, and if you vote NO to the tax increase, you also have to indicated which activities of the Council you are happy for them NOT to do.

So, I vote NO to the tax increase. I then have to say whether I’d prefer my children’s school to not have any maintenance and lose 3 teachers, or to have the bins collected only every other week, or to not have the potholes fixed in my road, or to close the closest library to me.

You shouldn’t be able to just say NO.

And you also shouldn’t be able to say NO, and then still complain about the government at your next dinner party.

It’s time for voters to grow up. We’re living in the aftermath of the worst economic period most of us will ever experience. But it’s also time for the government to grow up, and start treating us like adults who can think, rather than pandering to the lowest common denominator of voter appeasement. Otherwise, this is all going to end in tears.

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SPAR, Good for You: Real Learning

“Let’s get rid of the tables” came the suggestion.  An innocent enough suggestion but one that signalled a significant shift had taken place. It was the SPAR Leadership Development Programme (SLDP) reunion and the 2009 / 10 cohort had organised a reunion. The room was full of expectancy and the event had been at the initiative of the group themselves to further their own learning journey and continue to share experiences and stories. To their credit, SPAR leadership had sanctioned the event and given it their blessing. Sitting in the board room style setting something just didn’t seem right – until that is the call was made, “Let’s get rid of the tables”. The circle was created, the connection made and the conversation sparked into life.

The SLDP has been an amazing adventure as a learning journey. Some innovative thinking is underpinning the programme and SPAR has been bold enough to experiment in a way that has enriched what it means to be learning how to lead. Significant emphasis has been placed on the need for emotional intelligence (EQ) as an essential ingredient in what is required to lead at a senior level within an organisation. Daniel Goleman, who has written extensively about EQ describes it as a persons ability to relate to both self and others. Goleman argues that there are five components to a person’s EQ. Three measure the self: self-awareness, self-regulation, and personal motivation. The other two components that measure one’s relationship to others are empathy and social skills. From his research into corporate leadership, the scope of which included a study of some 188 companies, Goleman concluded that the more one climbs the corporate ladder, the more important EQ is to effective leadership.

What SPAR have sanctioned is a willingness to explore ongoing learning that is driven not by programme experts but rather by the learning community themselves. Studies in resilience have shown that three elements are necessary in an environment in order to foster resilience. These are: caring relationships, high expectations and opportunities to participate. By encouraging this initiative Spar are inadvertently delivering on all three elements. They are in the process of developing resilience within the organisation and in turbulent times of exponential change, who wouldn’t want a resilient business?

Some good things will emerge from this initiative and I have no doubt that if carefully nurtured and developed, SPAR will stand to gain a tremendous amount from this investment of both time and resources. Essentially I am witness and part-participant to something very special happening; Something that has the potential to discover new frontiers in the territory of how leadership can be learnt.

The temptation of course will be to overlay the initiative with too much formality, to want to measure it too early and possibly control it through curriculum and agendas. That’s the temptation because that it how such ‘learning’ is normally justified and managed. If leadership is wise they will leave this one alone and allow it find its own pathway. To do so will be to be to light the fire of what it takes to be a learning organisation. It will also serve to build the muscle of self-directed learning. Such things go to the very heart of what it takes to be an adaptive organisation and it will be the adaptive organisations that survive the future.

SPAR, good on YOU!

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The Talent Exodus looms large

We’ve been talking almost since the recession began about a talent exodus. Our view has been that as soon as the economy begins recovering and companies start hiring again, there is going to be a tidal wave of staff movement. We’re calling it a talent exodus.

It should be obvious why this will happen. People have been overworked, and often abused, by their employers during the downturn. Imagine, for example, what it must be like to work for BP right now, when your boss has just announced his retirement at age 53 and a £ 600,000 a year pension for the rest of his life. You will be paying for that pension out of your salary, which has not increased in two years, nor will you get a bonus this year. Most other company examples are less extreme, but the same outcome exists – people are ready to look around at other options.

Secondly, when companies begin expanding and looking for new talent, they will not favour the currently unemployed. They will prefer to hire new staff from other companies, and they will not be constrained by industry boundaries either. So, your staff will be getting head hunter calls soon, and most will be willing to take the calls.

And now, a survey confirms our instinct. According to Deloitte LLP’s fourth annual Ethics & Workplace Survey, one-third of employed Americans plan to look for a new job when the economy gets better. Of this group of respondents, 48% cite a loss of trust in their employer and 46% say that a lack of transparent communication from their company’s leadership are their reasons for looking for new employment at the end of the recession.

It’s not too late to do something about this now! But you need to start now. This issue should be top priority and the head of every management agenda for the next year! If it’s not on your leader’s radar, your company is in big trouble.

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Nine key workforce trends for the next decade

Download a copy of this article in PDF format – right click here. The contents of this article can be presented as a keynote or a workshop for your team. Contact our UK or South African offices to find out how.

My company, TomorrowToday, researches the new world of work, and focuses especially on helping our clients to understand the disruptive forces that will change the world in the next decade. We use a variety of constructs or frameworks to help people understand and respond to these issues. One of my favourites is our “TIDES of Change” framework (read an extended article on it here).

I was recently asked to simply list some of the key workforce trends of the next decade. It was an interesting exercise. So, without much explanation or detail (search this blog site for more details on each of these trends), here is a list of the most important issues we’ll be facing in the next few years in relation to our employees, leaders and teams. There are obviously some variations in different world regions, but these are fairly general trends for the next decade:

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A note to Generation X: Learn How to Manage Up

The concept of “managing up” is well established in management and leadership theory. As someone who reports to a boss, you need to use many different techniques to get your boss’s attention, and influence your boss to act, think and react in certain ways. This is a critical skill for people at all levels of organisations.

It is only complicated when their is a worldview divide between boss and subordinate. This can happen when the people are of different genders, religions, cultures, personality types and different generations. This last item is one I have spent many years researching and helping clients to manage (see my book on how to “Mind the Gap”, and the many white papers we have written on this issue, for example).

A brief “management tip” by Tammy Erickson in a recent online edition of the HBR reminded me of how important it is right now for Generation X (born in the 1970s and 80s) to learn how to manage up, as they deal with the Baby Boomers (born after World War II, into the 1950s and 60s) who are currently leading their organisations. Here are a few key things Gen Xers can do to more effectively manage up to Boomer bosses and bridge the generation gap in understanding what your Boomer boss wants from you:

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Career Development: Understanding that you are paid to KIS

“You’re getting paid for your knowledge, intelligence and skills” was the message I heard a Director share with young staff that were on a two-year entry-level management development programme. He was encouraging those present to accept responsibility for their own development and he was right to do so.

Taking personal responsibility for the development of one’s own knowledge and skill set; taking responsibility for developing one’s own intelligences – be that emotional, adaptive, social or spiritual is a personal responsibility. Expecting ‘others’ – the organization, to be responsible for such personal development is flawed thinking. Some might even label it, ‘lazy thinking’.  But what smart companies do is to ensure that they provide abundant opportunities for such development to take place. Doing this increases the odds on attracting and retaining ‘the Best’.

Responsibility for learning sits with the Learner.  The responsibility that sits with those tasked with the architecture and shape of developmental programmes and education is to simply provide the environment that will facilitate learning.  Perhaps ‘simple’ is a misnomer as doing such is anything but simple. Learning programmes have been curtailed by past models of ‘how we do it’, the unwillingness to embrace discomfort as a friend to authentic learning and the reluctance to incorporate risk and experiential practices in the art of learning. Learning has become a science that is swapped by the need to measure and control the outcomes.

Things need to change with our approach to learning within organizations and as to what the ‘learning organisation’ looks like.  And here’s a thought for companies: these new insights concerning learning might come from unlikely sources; ones that include schools, the non-profit sector and the ‘two-thirds ‘world of developing nations.

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The Leader’s Challenge: Knowing What To Do When You Don’t Know What To Do

Author Max de Pree has said that the first task of leadership is to define reality.  For many in leadership today, the reality is they don’t know what to do in a turbulent, complex and dynamic world. Leadership is not what it once was and nor will it ever be that again. It has changed because the context for leadership has changed. There is a ‘new normal’. Understanding this new reality is both simple and complex – it is the Leader’s paradox and if you find yourself in leadership, it is one that requires your full attention.

Leaders are increasingly facing what Ron Heifitz of Harvard terms, ‘adaptive challenges’. In other words you are increasingly encountering situations that are unfamiliar, situations that you have never previously encountered. This is hardly surprising given that you are leading in the context of a world where exponential change is the norm.

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An Assassin, A Fishing Hook, The Power of Tribes and Two World Cups

The Assassin

The sun rose quietly over Dawn Park, a suburb on the outskirts of Johannesburg, South Africa. It was Easter weekend so most people were away on holiday. In many ways it was the perfect African morning. A refreshing cool breeze in the air gently hinted at autumn’s arrival, but it wouldn’t be long before the sun climbed higher, warming the African landscape. It was sure to be a beautiful day, Nomakhwezi, a pretty fifteen-year old girl saw it that way. She was waiting for her father, who had gone out briefly to buy a newspaper, to return. Her mother and sisters were away for the weekend and she had been looking forward all week to spending time alone with her Dad. Today he was going to be all hers, he’d promised. Nomakhwezi stood at the front door, she couldn’t wait for his return.

The year was 1993 and like the seasons, most things in South Africa were changing fast. Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress (ANC) had been unbanned in 1990 and the great man himself had been freed after 27 years of imprisonment. The ANC were now in a position to negotiate the transformation towards democratic and free South Africa. But progress had faltered. The Convention for a Democratic South Africa: CODESA I and II had seen parties walking away from the negotiating table. The ANC’s back up plan of rolling mass actions to bring the white ruling party back to the negotiating table was backfiring. Their mass action rallies had resulted in too much bloodshed and a recent confrontation with police in Bisho had resulted in twenty-eight supporters being killed. South Africa was on the tipping point and heading fast towards civil war. A group of right-wing extremists wanted to help give South Africa a push into racial turmoil. They’d drawn up a hit list of senior ANC officials. On the list were Nelson Mandela, South African Communist Party leader Joe Slovo and the charismatic ex-head of the ANC’s military arm (the Spear of the Nation or Umkhonto we Sizwe) and now Communist Party Secretary General Chris Hani was third on the list.

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The Silver Tsunami – managing older workers

One of the most important upcoming workforce trends is going to be companies’ ability to attract, retain, engage and effectively manage older workers. Multiple demographic trends are all pointing in this direction, and companies from many different industries would do well to start working on solutions.

You can read an excellent article on this issue at The Economist (login required), or an extract below.

The silver tsunami

Business will have to learn how to manage an ageing workforce
Feb 4th 2010, The Economist

MARTIN AMIS and Christopher Buckley are writers who are entering their silver years and are worried about the costs of an ageing population. Mr Amis… recently compared the growing army of the elderly to “an invasion of terrible immigrants, stinking out the restaurants and cafés and shops”. Mr Buckley devoted a novel, “Boomsday”, to the impending war of the generations…. Messrs Amis and Buckley are right to warn about the threat of the “silver tsunami”. Most people understand about the ageing of society in the abstract. But few have grasped either the size of the tsunami or the extent of its consequences. This is particularly true of the corporate world.

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Barack Obama rants against technology and releases Apps at the same time

Just a few weeks ago, America’s President ranted against technology. This surprised me because he is the first President to keep his mobile phone (it’s a Blackberry), made extensive use of the Internet (including social media) in his election campaign, and seems to be quite savvy about how to use new media to get his message across.

Then, last week, the White House launched an entire series of Apps (I have an iPhone, so know that the Apps work on that, but they seem to be for many different devices). All of this points to a government willing to embrace new technology.

Yet, the President had a good old go at technology in May. Was he just tired of how some of his detractors use the technology? If so, then why shoot the messenger? That is the title of a great little piece in The Economist from May 2010. I didn’t blog on it then because it was just a minor story. But given the release of these Apps by the Whitehouse, the irony of the story called out to me. So, read The Economist’s view from May here, or an extract below.

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How we use humour to deal with tragedy

This is one of those random blog entries I sometimes post with a half thought through point that I know is much bigger than I have time to deal with. So, duly warned…

It’s amazing to me that we use humour as a coping tool. Actually, it’s not amazing – humour really is a great coping mechanism. Not always appropriate, of course, and certain people’s senses of humour get them into trouble. It’s not good to make jokes about certain things. For example, I recently heard a talk by Gerald Ratner, who once owned the largest jewelry empire in the UK (and wasn’t doing too bad internationally, either). But then at a 1991 IOD dinner he said, “We also do cut-glass sherry decanters complete with six glasses on a silver-plated tray that your butler can serve you drinks on, all for £4.95. People say, ‘How can you sell this for such a low price?’, I say, ‘because it’s total crap’.” He then compared it to an M&S prawn sandwich. In the context of the speech, it was quite funny. But within days, his jewelry business had collapsed, and within months he had been ejected from the company he started, and lost almost everything. (He has since come back into the business with an online store, and seems to be doing quite well).

But given that high profile leaders should be careful of ill advised humour, the rest of us can happily chuckle at the clever, stupid and politically incorrect jokes that always seem to make the rounds just after a tragedy. Soon after the twin towers collapsed, the jokes started. Many of us battled to laugh at them, and I don’t think I was comfortable repeating them. But then that series of photos appeared. The premise was that someone had been standing on the observation deck of the Twin Towers and taken a photo as the plane was coming. Their camera had been found in the twisted remains of the building, and the photo miraculously saved. Was it a fake? No? Yes? (See it here). And of course within hours hundreds of rip off photos appeared. It provided a human face to the tragedy, allowed us to imagine that we might have been there, and hinted at the triumph of the human spirit – something had survived the tragedy!

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PODCAST – Graeme Codrington speaks to some trends around the New World of Work

Graeme Codrington’s website describes him as:

an expert on the new world of work and multi-generational workplaces. He is a keynote presenter, author, futurist, facilitator and strategy consultant working across multiple industries and sectors. He blends cutting-edge research, thought leading insights with humour, a conversational style and multimedia-driven presentations to create unforgettable experiences that add real value.

I’ve worked with Graeme for 8 years now, and without too much duress, acknowledge 99% of the description : )

He’s always an interesting person to speak to as he continues to bring new and interesting thoughts to the table. Not just in his subjects of passion, but in almost anything you’re talking about. It was therefore great to be able to track him down while speaking at a conference in Spain to ask him to talk more about the New World of Work.

If you’d like to listen to this audio track please click on the following:

• iTunes automatic subscription
• RSS Feed

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America’s (ongoing) dependence on (foreign) oil

The BP oil spill provides an opportunity for America to turn inward and think about it’s dependence on oil to make its economy work. Environmentalists have been saying for years that this is a cause of great harm to the planet, and now that such a harm befalls America’s shores maybe it’s time to have the conversation about alternatives. I don’t know what else it will take, since this is something America has been promising itself for decades.

Here are two great videos that highlight the promises of every American president since Nixon (yes, way back in the 1970s, and EVERY President since) to reduce dependence on (foreign) oil. Most have also promised to reduce dependence on all oil, regardless of source (i.e. it’s not just an oil supply issue, it should be an oil usage issue, too). So far, President Obama has simply used bluster to kick BP’s “ass”, rather than turn the conversation to where it should be. But maybe it’s too early for that. Hopefully a blackened southern coastline will help Americans have the right conversation.

Here then the two videos (you may live in a country where the Daily Show video is unavailable):
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Delivering Happiness delivers new insights into customer experience

Last week I was invited to speak at the Amdocs InTouch conference in Budapest, it was my first trip to Hungry and I’m hoping to visit again soon as it is a truly fantastic city. Whilst there I was able to find some time to read the CEO of Zappos, Tony Hsieh’s new book called Delivering Happiness. Now I’ve been a big fan of Zappos for the past three years, have blogged about them several times and often make reference to the great work that they do in my presentations. So I was thrilled when I received an advanced copy from the publishers. I have to admit my expectations were high and Tony did not fail to WOW me. Given Zappos’ reputation this should not surprise. But what did surprise me was the truly inspirational story of bravery and human endeavour behind Tony’s and Zappos’ success.

To be honest I had in my mind a picture of Tony being the kind of “lucky” person who whatever he touches turns to gold. After all, this is a guy who three years out of college sold his start up internet advertising business LinkExchange to Microsoft in for $265 million, and then in 2009 sold Zappos to Amazon for an incredible $1.2 billion. Talk about being an “Outlier”! What I hadn’t however, known until reading the book, were the incredible risks, hard work and sacrifices that Tony made. Like any entrepreneur it took sheer guts, determination and perseverance, a willingness to loose it all in order to win and above all a great passion to fight for what he believed in.

I’m going to reread the book and this time with a pen and highlighter as there are insights and nuggets of brilliance on every page. As I do I will collate the thoughts and ideas from the book and share them with you.

I highly recommend this book to anyone in business who is passionate about making a difference to the lives of their customers and the people they work with. It’s a must read for 2010!! Get a copy of the book at Amazon

Here are a few reviews of what other people are saying about the book:

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The modern business plan (by Seth Godin)

I’m a big fan of Seth Godin. I recently signed up to get his daily blog entry sent to me by email – these are often just thought bullets, but sometimes he writes a longer piece that’s very insightful and incisive.

A few days ago, he suggested a new approach to business plans. I have long been a critic of the type of strategic sessions that companies engage in – taking management teams away fr a few days to come up with a tweaked “vision”, “mission” and “purpose” statement, and a long list of strategic objectives. Watch a video of me having fun with this at a conference.

Seth, in fact, talked about this recently as well, saying:

But you’re not saying anything – [this] is the problem with just about every lame speech, every overlooked memo, every worthless bit of boilerplate foisted on the world: you write and write and talk and talk and bullet and bullet but no, you’re not really saying anything.

It took me two minutes to find a million examples. Here’s one, “The firm will remain competitive in the constantly changing market for defense legal services by creating and implementing innovative and effective methods of providing cost-effective, quality representation and services for our clients.”

Write nothing instead. It’s shorter.

Most people work hard to find artful ways to say very little. Instead of polishing that turd, why not work harder to think of something remarkable or important to say in the first place?

But, back to his thoughts on business plans, Seth suggest that we abandon the traditional headings in our plans, and develop them under five new ones.

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