Death and Twitter make for a horrid exchange

Yesterday, in South Africa, Manto Tshabalala Msimang died from a liver complication that had been plaguing her for some time now. She is a former health minister, and her time spent in that role was fraught with controversy because of her seeming lack of will to embrace ARV’s to treat HIV. Because of this stand, she has been accused of causing the death of thousands of South Africans. Some have even suggested she should be charged with crimes against humanity.

I think it’s important to note, especially in a South African context, that feelings about her were held by a cross-section of South Africa. The debate was fully inclusive and representative.

Yesterday as the news of her death began to seep into the media conversation (both non-non-traditional and non-traditional) Twitter began to heat up. There’s some speculation as to where it started? Just Curious does provide a view of the time-line and the heat generated by 5FM radio jock Gareth Cliff.

To get a view for yourself, see the search for ‘Manto’ on Twitter. Click here.

However you re-construct it, I was hit by some of the following:

• Death is a human thing. It’s not owned by one culture or one people group. Who dares to say that one group does it better than another? It’s very human. It reminds us all that we too one day will enter into it’s domain (www.we’lldietoooneday.com). Showing death some respect, and compassion to the family of those who have lost is not only right, it’s human.
• When someone dies, I find it pretty difficult to say anything to anyone. Silence seems to be not only an appropriate response, but the most gentle and caring. A hug, a gesture, just simply being present in the space of those who have just lost, seems to work best. It’s awkward, and it’s clumsy, but I find it works.
• If you do decide to speak, what words are sufficient to speak into what has just happened? You can’t do it in a sentence. So you end up bumbling along making a whole lot sound like not much at all.

So when the news broke on Twitter, and some people put their views out there, it did become terribly messy. There was huge emotion surrounding Tshabalala Msimang when she was alive. Those emotions were all still there after she had died. You can imagine what people end up saying when all you have is 140 characters? It’s blunt, it’s raw, it’s so in your face. There’s no place to explain, expand only express and explete.

The conversation one day later is whether people were right or wrong to put their views out there? Gareth Cliff has become the poster child for who did it bad.

I do think the exploration should be shifted slightly. It’s not about whether people put their views out or not? That’s inevitable. It should rather be around the forums we use and the timing of our comments? Would it have hurt to hold a negative, critical view for a day or two in respect of the family (at the very least)? Is Twitter a good forum for putting out such strong and potentially damaging emotions and thoughts?

The forums we use and the timing to speak by are age old questions. But they do need to be re-discussed from time to time. Especially in a world in which communication channels and platforms are changing as fast as they are.

In a Web 2.0 world, business has it’s head buried firmly in the sand

I’m curious. Curious about business’ lack of engagement with Twitter  / FaceBook / Tumblr / Google and everything else Web 2.0. I would have thought that any communication channel getting the sort of traction, focus, attention and subscription that these channels are getting, would have business engaging like a love struck teenager who’d just discovered their perfect partner?

But it’s not so. So not so. So far, the majority of my experience and observation is that business has been an extremely poor performer in these spaces. Take a look at these points from Jeffbulla’s Blog:

1. 73 percent of Fortune 100 companies registered a total of 540 Twitter accounts.
2. About three-quarters (76 percent) of those accounts did not post tweets very often.
3. More than half (52 percent) were not actively engaged (This was measured by engagement metrics such as numbers of links, hashtags, references and retweets.)

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S+B’s Best Business Books of 2009

Booz & Co’s Strategy + Business ezine is one of my favourites, and one I always make time to read. Last week’s edition looked at the best business books of 2009, selected by their top team, and helpfully categorised.

If you want to read their reasoning, and some excellent background comments, start here. All I am going to do is list the books (and make it easy for you to buy them – choose from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk or Kalahari.net – for South Africa):

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After Shock: the five trends disrupting business in the next 5 years

Updated in March 2010 (now with an added Executive summary in the PDF format)

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.

As the world slowly emerges out of recession over the next few years, it will become increasingly clear that this was more than just an economic downturn. Disruptive forces are significantly reshaping the world of work. Some of these changes have been brewing for a decade or more – and now this recession has exacerbated their influence and speeded up their effects. Companies that have survived the downturn need to shift their focus to surviving the upturn. We are not ever going to “get back to normal” – a new normal is emerging for everyone, everywhere.

Understanding the forces that are driving this disruptive change will give an organisation the insights needed to adjust their systems, structures and methods and gain a significant competitive advantage in the next 3 to 5 years. It will also set them up for longer term success in the next few decades. It is therefore essential to provide not just senior leaders, but all staff throughout your company, with a framework of thinking about this “new normal”. You want them to work together to take advantage of the opportunities that will emerge.

There are at least five key drivers of disruptive change that every organisation in every industry and sector needs to track. These are the T.I.D.E.S. of change. (It’s a corny acronym, I know, but hopefully it will help with both remembering the framework, as well as making it easy to use on a regular basis in team meetings and informal conversations throughout your organisation). Here then are the key drivers of disruptive change in the next decade, and some questions to ask yourself and your teams as you plan to respond to them:

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Book review: Upstarts

I was sent the following book review from a trusted friend. I have not read the book yet, but have it on order, and trust the guy who sent me the review. It looks like a good read…

Upstarts!: How GenY Entrepreneurs are Rocking the World of Business and 8 Ways You Can Profit from Their Success was written by Donna Fenn who has been an expert on small business trends and entrepreneurship for over 20 years. Buy this book at Amazon.co.uk or Kalahari.net.

In Donna’s book, she discusses how Generation Y is changing the business world and creating a whole new crop of entrepreneurs. Inspired by the success of past generations of entrepreneurs, these young entrepreneurs are creating cools startups that are changing the way we do things.

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25 “talented” people behind the meltdown

I’m currently researching and writing an article called “Talent has given business a bad name” and came across a really good article in The Guardian In this article Guardian City editor Julia Finch picks out the individuals who led us into the current crisis. Most of these individuals were the top of their class, hand picked individuals – talent who got it wrong! People like Andy Hornby, former HBOS boss so highly respected, so admired and so clever – top of his 800-strong class at Harvard – but it was his strategy, that got HBOS in the trouble destroying billions of pounds worth of wealth and thousands of jobs. The article by Julia makes a for a compelling read and names and shames a number of high profile business people and politicians

You can read the article below or click here to read article at The Guardian
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The James Martin 21st Century School – understanding the future

I am a huge fan of James Martin. Not the celebrity chef. Nor the inventor of the aircraft ejection seat. Nor any of the other famous James Martins. I am a huge fan of James Martin the futurist and author of one of the best books of all time, “The Meaning of the 21st Century” (see a previous post about the book here).

I recently discovered that a think tank “school” has been created at Oxford university, and named in his honour. It’s the James Martin 21st century school. It seems to be a fantastic institution. You can see an 8 minute video of the Dean of the school, ex-South African, Ian Goldin, speaking recently at TED. Follow the school at Twitter/21school.

The school’s aim is to tackle the toughest challenges of the 21st century, and provide input and resources for the Oxford university community on these issues (see the list below). They aim to formulate new concepts, policies and technologies that will make the future a better place to be. Very nice!

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Help! Linking Theory & Practice

I am attending a leadership symposium titled, Indigenous Knowledge and Leadership in Africa Colloquium: Leading in Africa hosted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal Leadership Centre and Africa Ignite. Gathered here are some of the Continent’s most impressive minds when it comes to the subject of African leadership.  Academics are a strange lot. They are a unique species with their own norms and ways of interacting and engagement. They have a hard language to understand, one they use effortlessly but one that can be somewhat exclusive and act as an intimidating ‘barrier to entry’. If you want to enter, to engage…you best learn the language. Speaking simply comes a distant second to complex terminology. Perhaps this is true of all knowledge enclaves be that accountants, lawyers, the medical fraternity and yes, consultants.

The challenge is that theory needs to inform practice and one without the other creates problems. As I listen to what can only be described as ‘deep knowledge’ I am challenged by how best to ensure this is translated, applied and expressed in ‘mainline’ leadership streams. This wisdom seldom impacts the corporate reality where it is so needed. Responsibility for this failure rests with both ‘sides’ and this ‘failure’ creates a new opportunity.

On the side of academia, there is the need to work harder to connect their knowledge by way of application to ‘the real world’ from which they extract their knowledge in the first place. They need to find ways to invite greater diversity into their discourses and deliberations. They need to open the greenhouse door to others who would benefit from witnessing firsthand the growth in knowledge as it occurs. They need to work harder at the ‘so what?’ question and look to connect their deep knowledge to a pragmatic context. They need to ‘interrogate’ (a popular academic word) the process whereby their own insights and understanding finds practical expressions. And just to answer the anticipated answer already forming on the lips of academics: Publishing journals isn’t the answer. Such publications serve to fuel internal debate and form part of the peer review knowledge process but, for the most part, remain secret code hidden and inaccessible to those who need it most.

On the other side, executive leaders need to do more to become learners and to engage in a learning process through which current assumptions and paradigms can be challenged and informed. All too often corporate leaders are seduced by the operational demands they face and so choose what they know (and the area in which they feel competent) over the opportunity to learn and explore unknown terrain. The learning journey is all too threatening to many senior leaders who for the most part give lip service to the need to learn.

And so the gulf widens. The two sides view each other with suspicion and an initial sense of helplessness as to how to embrace the value and lessons embedded within each reality, gives way to a denial that one has anything worthwhile to learn from the other.

This gives rise to the ‘opportunity’ that this divide creates. The opportunity is for bridge-builders, for interpreters to step into the gap: Those capable of translating the best of both sides for the benefit of both sides. Who are these people? I am not sure but one challenge they will face is how to develop and maintain credibility with both sides. Some attempts at translation have met with distain by academia, viewed as a type of ‘commercial sell-out’. ‘ In the same way, anything ‘theoretical’ carries little weighting in the fast paced and measured pragmatic world of the corporate.

So, fancy yourself as a ‘bridge-builder’? A start might be to attend some relevant symposium should you have a large desk and corner office; on the other hand, if your office is filled with strange trinkets and ‘stuff’ – as well as piles of papers, journals and books, best try to get into a board room sometime soo

The PM’s misspelt letter – a parable of modern Britain?

Poor old Gordon Brown. The Prime Minister of Britain just can’t seem to do anything right. This past week, he did what he always does, which is to hand write a letter of condolence to a bereaved family member. Every time a British soldier dies, Gordon Brown writes a personal letter to the family. But his past week he misspelt the name of the serviceman, calling him Jamie James, instead of Jamie Janes, in a letter to his mother. He had made this same mistake when he had read Jamie’s name in Parliament a s few days earlier.

Mrs Janes was outraged, and took her story to the newspapers (The Sun – the most sensationalist national newspaper available!). She made such a noise about it that Gordon Brown phoned her to chat about it (I do not say “apologise” because he refuses to accept he made a mistake). She then recorded the conversation and provided the recording to The Sun (listen to it here, while watching a video that includes a copy of the letter). Read more about the story here.

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The future for banks and a better way to pay bankers

POSTED 10 November 2009; UPDATED 11 November 2009

One story is going to run for the next 3-5 years at least: how to fix the banking system. The big media headline grabbing story is how to regulate bankers’ pay. It appears as if bankers don’t know how much their image has been tarnished, or how important trust is in their business – at least if their announcements of monumental bonuses to be paid out at the end of 2009 is anything to go by. The spoof magazine cover in this picture is just one example of how bankers are now less trusted than estate agents! (OK, that’s unfair on agents).

Whether or not they actually go ahead with this is irrelevant – the fact that they might have is enough. Change must come to banking and financial sector. It will come in the form of greater regulations in the background (linked to Basel II and other related legislation that will be coming). But in the glaring public eye, bankers’ remuneration is a key issue that will need addressing.

The CEO of Booz & Company wrote a great piece for their latest S+B ezine. Read it online here, or an extract below. Then, they followed that up with a further article about how banks need to change – read it here or an extract below.

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The Challenge for New Leaders

Before a new era can come into being, there must be a ‘new story’. Playwright Arthur Miller noted that we know an era has ended when its basic illusions have been exhausted. The challenge for emerging leaders within any organization is to be the standard bearers for the ‘new story’. How to be this; how to do this, is no easy matter. Challenging entrenched stories with their well worn and at times, well loved scripts, calls for courage, clarity and integrity of intent.

I know this because I am working in a leadership development programme where emerging leaders are beginning to understand and own the responsibility that they have  – the responsibility to, ‘write the new story’. It is a daunting task and yet one that is unavoidable as they assume the mantel of leadership and take the organization into the future. Just one of the things that has to change is entrenched gender discrimination. It is not malicious or even intentional, is usually wrapped in humour and falls completely into the blind spot of those for whom it has become ingrained behaviour. But it is there, and those who feel the sharp end of its destructive impact, know it has to change.

Being a leader who understands that the story has to change requires vision and intelligence. Cultural change within an organization is the responsibility of leadership and bringing about change at this level often leaves leaders with feelings of inadequacy and can prove to be exhausting. The response is often to ‘leave it to the experts’, to outsource the responsibility or to devise a ‘programme’ that includes all but the leaders themselves. Such responses are doomed to failure. Re-scripting the story, bringing about cultural change is a leadership responsibility. It happens because the leaders themselves recognize the shortcomings of their own attitudes and behavior and set about changing themselves.  For leaders this is hardest work of all and yet, in a context of change, it is the essential work of leaders.

1989 – a year that changed everything (everywhere)

Today is the twentieth anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down.

In just a few weeks, we’ll also celebrate twenty years since the Velvet Revolution (Prague, 17 November), the execution of Nicolae Ceau?escu (Bucharest, 25 December), and the release of Nelson Mandela (Cape Town, 11 February, 1990). So far this year, we’ve seen twenty annivesaries for Tiananmen Square (Beijing, 5 June), Ayatollah Khomenei’s chaotic funeral (Tehran, 6 June) and the Baltic Way (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania; 23 August) – all political revolutionary moments that changed their countries.

Add to that, the culture-defining events of Lockerbie, Hillsborough, the invention of the HTTP that forms the foundation of the Internet, the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, and the debut of The Simpsons, and you have quite a year! That was 1989 (and a few months on either side of it, for Lockerbie and Mandela).

In my studies of generational theory, it’s common to come across a variety of definitions of who fits into which generation. Different authors, desperate to prove their research credentials, define the start of “Generation Y” as anything from 1978 to 1996. Most go with 1984 – defined such because children born in 1984 or later graduated high school in the new millennium (hence the other name for this generation: “Millennial kids”). Yet, to me, 1989 is a much better cusp year.

The worlds before and after 1989 were very clearly different. That is why 1989 holds such an important place in my mind – it marks a real change in human history. It will be remembered forever. If you want to reminisce with me, you might like the following links:

• A detailed introduction to generational theory
• New Statesman magazine – 1989: The Year of the Crowd special edition
• Lead article from New Statesman 1989 special edition
• TIME magazine 1989 special edition
• A list of TIME magazine special edition articles – easier to access index
• Remembering 1989, The Times, UK

A Sandpit to Entice

Just been part of a conversation that happens all too infrequently. You know, one of those conversations that leave you buzzing, unable to sleep or concentrate on the ‘next thing to be done’. A conversation that ‘gets the juices going’ – a conversation in which you suspect the seeds of greatness sit; A conversation in which you see and sense the future. Around the table sat a person with years of experience of managing the Comrades Marathon, an Everest of event management if ever there was one. The other place at the table was taken by one of the most respected Educators in South Africa, a man who has presided over some of the best that SA schools have to offer. The subject? The need to rethink…to seriously rethink, how we go about leadership education.

The current models of leadership education are tired; they are not doing the job. There is lots of effort and endeavor but nothing much is changing. Imagination has given way to efficiency; conversation given way to curriculum; thinking given way to planning. Something is wrong but leadership education is big business and we all know that rethinking current ‘successful’ business models is not something we like to do.

This conversation will see other voices drawn into the mix. It will see a leadership ‘sandbox’ being build and just wait and watch what emerges from such a playground! The genie is out the lamp…it is going to be magic!

Office Technology, Boomers and Generation X & Y

For most Boomers (born 1950s and 60s), the office had the best technology – much better than they had at home. I started work at KPMG Johannesburg in the early 1990s, when they had just imported over 100 Apple System 7 “luggable” computers. This gave KPMG more computing power than the USA government had at the time (they needed special US Senate approval for the purchase)! I was a techie nerd as a kid (from my awesome first Atari 800SX, with green screen, to my AT computer in the early 1990s).

But I had nothing at home to match what I had available to me at work. And that’s not to mention the fax machine, the photocopier, the mainframe, the telex (OK, I’m not that old, but it’s the concept that’s important here), and other amazing technology available at the office. And the most up-to-date software too. I used to try and book an Apple out every weekend, and take it home with me to play on.

But now times have changed. Most of today’s young people come to work everyday, completely frustrated and irritated by the out-of-date technology available to them. Their office has worse technology than they have at home. And, even worse, restrictive IT policies mean that they can’t bring technology from home to the office, as they’d like to. IT requires them to use Excel and Word, when they’d prefer to use Google Docs. IT restricts their ability to load apps onto their machines – little programs that would help increase their productivity and efficiency. And, if they’re Apple fans, tough like if the company has chosen a PC platform. Standardisation trumps productivity and enjoyment!

This doesn’t make sense. If you can’t keep ahead (or even keep up) with current IT specs, then the least you should be doing is allowing staff to use their own technology. I know IT will faint and give 100 reasons not to do this (their starting point will be “security concerns”, I’ll bet). But IT should not have the final word here. There are other considerations, including the motivation and engagement of your staff, especially your top talent, productivity and efficiency, and the reduction of costs (why not let staff use their own technology and give them a small personal budget to get what they want for themselves).

The military needs to change

In our latest presentation, “After Shock“, we talk about the five drivers of disruptive change that are shaping the new world of work. One of these is institutional change.

The institutions of the world are the pillars of our society – things like the financial system, the political system, family structures, religion and so on. The military is one of these foundational systems. We cannot think of one system that is not currently undergoing a crisis of change. And these are not small crises either – the rules and structures of these systems are being radically rewritten. From the Pope announcing that Anglicans can be Catholics again (October 2009) to the Parliamentary expense scandals and the BNP being elected to Parliament in Britain (2009), and of course the banking crisis that will most likely lead to new rules and regulations in the next 3-5 years.

The military is changing too. No longer does the country with the biggest army and the most impressive weapons automatically win. America was the first to discover this as they rolled their military into Baghdad and had President Bush declare “Mission Accomplished”. That seems so long ago now, and yet this week saw more deaths in Baghdad. Terrorism, leaderless cells, counterinsurgency and “winning the peace” are now military institution issues.

Here is an excellent review of British involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, from the Spectator, arguing that the generals just don’t get these changes and share blame with the politicians for what is happening.

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What it means to “be British” – a response to Nick Griffin

Like 8 million other Britons, I watched BBC’s “Question Time” on Thursday night. Nick Griffin, the head of the British National Party (a right wing party who restrict membership to white’s only and want to keep Britain “British” – by which they mean white, Caucasian) was given a place on the stage alongside other panel members. Click here to see a list of uploaded YouTube clips of the hour long Question Time.

Besides the fact that the BNP’s central issue of race is abhorrent, it is also an impossibility for them to actually enforce (or even define). They want Britain to be for those who “aboriginal” Britons – for the “original inhabitants”. They claim that this goes back 17,000 years, and is irrefutably about white people (not English speaking, of course, but they come very close to claiming this in their made up histories on their website). They want a complete halt to all immigration, and a return to a white Britain.

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Halliburton, rape and mad Republicans

I cannot tell you how much I wish I was wrong. A large part of my job is to try and track trends – especially those issues that will shape the new world of work. Every now and again our team at TomorrowToday gets to check in and see whether we were right or not. Obviously, we want to be right – our reputation and ability to get work from clients depends on it.

But, today I wish I was wrong. You see, in April 2005 I did one of the most in-depth pieces of investigative journalism I have ever done, and put together an article entitled: Would You Work for Halliburton?. It’s worth a read – as we chronicle the nasty habits of this nasty company. In the article in 2005, I suggested that Halliburton would have trouble hiring the right kind of people to turn their company culture around, and that the future might be bleak for them.

It turns out I was horrifically accurate in this assertion.

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His finest hour

One year ago, Gordon Brown was being hailed by many as the saviour of the world’s banking system. On October 14 2008 Hank Paulson, the US Treasury secretary of the time, announced a rescue plan for America’s stricken banks. Germany, Italy, France and Spain had just done the same. All the initiatives had something in common: they looked very similar to the move announced a week earlier by the British prime minister, says George Parker of the Financial Mail.

It intrigues me that this is one of the political PR gaffs of the decade. On the face of it Gordon Brown may have saved the world for the brink of a financial catastrophe. Time will tell… Yet he has been unable to capitalise on this and be seen as a leader who acted decisively. Part of the problem is in Mr Brown’s behaviour. Finance is his natural habitat and it is even argued that, at the time of the crisis, he was more interested in settling long-term questions of financial reform than the nitty-gritty of winning a general election.

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Fly Me To The Moon

I love travel. The last 21 days has seen me board 12 flights, spend 83 hours in planes (plus 20 hours in nine different airports) and visit five countries on three Continents. That is a fair amount of travel by anyone’s standards.

The most common question: “You must be so tired?” and when it emerges that the two primary destinations were Hawaii and Rio, any trace of sympathy evaporates quicker than one can say, ‘Aloha’.

We live in a small world. One made accessible through the speed of connection, be that electronic or through travel. This can only increase with the passing of time and with it a new understanding of  ‘global citizenship’.  One of the research findings of the Education 2020 Conference (initiated and hosted by the East West Center in Honolulu) reveals societies of increasing complexity and a world where, in spite of increasing homogenization, difference matters.

Leaders and organizations that understand these emerging realities and how the rules of the game are constantly changing will be the ones that survive. Building adaptive character traits into organizations will become a primary focus for leaders and this will necessitate a shift in not only how we understand leadership, but also how we build organizations.

Leading adaptive change will demand of leaders an ability to hold lightly to past success as well as necessitate a need to be able to be comfortable with paradox. Less and less will appear to be ‘black and white’ and leading diversity in interconnected enterprises will evoke a whole new agenda for the Leader of tomorrow. It is an exciting prospect and the new agenda will challenge much of our conventional wisdom. The models of how we ‘learn leadership’ will have to change to keep pace with this new agenda and some of the current leadership educational giants in this area will be hard pressed to keep up with the change that is required.

Tired from the travel? Not at all! I have had the wonderful opportunity to see and experience different places; to engage in conversations with many smart people from all over Asia Pacific and to learn, unlearn and relearn. What a privilege, what a responsibility!

Tomorrow I will be delivering a key note address at a large conference at Sun City, South Africa  - presenting on,‘9 Global Trends Changing the Face of Business & Leadership’.  Can’t wait! This is the crux of the new agenda, a balcony view that will allow leaders to see the emerging patterns and then adapt accordingly.

There needs to be boldness in proclaiming and revealing this emerging brave new world. Some will embrace it; others will resist it; and many will remain uncertain.  As a Leader you have no choice: engagement is your only option. So what are the questions you are asking? What are you unlearning, relearning and learning? What are you reading and with whom are you conversing? What is your balcony and what is it you are seeing from this vantage point? These are just some of the important questions!

Please put your seat upright, ensure your seatbelt is fastened and tray table is stowed away…we are ready for take-off.

Good to Great… to Gone!

Jim Collins got it wrong. Not totally wrong, but wrong enough that we need to be careful (as always) about who we listen to when designing companies for future success. Too often, leaders take a shortcut and blindly apply models they find somewhere else, without doing the work to adapt it to their culture and context.

Jim Collins is, of course, the international superstar guru author of “Built to Last” (buy at Kalahari.net or Amazon.co.uk), “Good to Great” (buy at Kalahari.net or Amazon.co.uk) and most recently, “How the Mighty Fall” (buy at Kalahari.net or Amazon.co.uk). His first two books are the two best selling business books of all time. His latest is bound to follow suit.

I have to declare that I am not the wildest fan of Mr Collins. I have read too many reports from the research teams that have worked with/for him, and are very disgruntled at how he has used their work without giving them any credit. I also received my copy of “How the Mighty Fall” yesterday, and was amazed to turn to the back cover of the book and see a single quotation, made by none other than… Jim Collins. I’m still to read the book, but I wonder if “hubris” and “arrogance” are possible ingredients in how the mighty fall? (Certainly “humilty” was a key element of his “Level 5 Leadership” principle). I’ll say more on this at the end of this (long) post… (But, then again, maybe I’m just jealous).

That personal comment aside, though, the question nevertheless remains: Are the models Jim Collins presents worth following? This is especially important since two of his “Good to Great” companies have recently gone bankrupt, and on average the whole lot have performed WORSE than the general stock exchange index over the past year or so of the recession. Are the principles in Collins’ books eternal? Or do they belong to an era that no longer exists?

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Marcus Buckingham takes aim at women

The guy is no fool.

Marcus Buckingham, author and strengths uber-guru, knows what he is doing. He first shot to prominence with a series of books about personal strengths. I think that his book, “Now, Discover Your Strengths” (also sold under the title of “Strengths Finder 2.0″ – see Kalahari or Amazon to buy it) is one of the best personal development books ever written, and I regularly state in my seminars that I think everyone in the world should read it.

Now, he has released his latest book, and it is aimed at the lucrative women’s market (and has gone straight to paperback, too). The book is called, “Find Your Strongest Life: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently” (buy it at Kalahari or Amazon). I managed to get an advance copy, and really enjoyed it. It’s typical of his style – maybe even more chatty than previous books. It’s simple, down-to-earth, but amazingly insightful. And I think it will fly off the shelves into the many women’s groups that meet around the world every day.

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Star Workplace Article

I was published in The Star (South African newspaper) earlier this week on ‘diversity’. I’ve had a few requests from people who wanted to read it, but couldn’t find it online.

Our PR company (SimonSays Communications) scanned a copy and sent it through today. It’s missing one or two lines through the middle : ), But I’m fairly certain it’s still readable.

Click here to see the image (it’s a .jpg)

A web war between two countries

OK so the title of this post completely over-states what you’re about to read, but once you read it you’ll hopefully sympathise and appreciate the dramatic exaggeration : )

We’ve recently updated the look and feel of our brand to ensure a more consistent look and feel for our South African and UK offices.

Outside of the new look and feel, we created a single landing page from our historical web url (www.tomorrowtoday.biz) and from there offer two options:

• South Africa
• United Kingdom

Of course one of the first questions asked was which country get’s to be on the left of the page? The answer was simple. Our SA team designed the page we choose. However, our competitive streak entered the conversation and we agreed to track Google Analytics on each of the two country sites and whichever had the most hits, most unique visitors, most pages visited, longest time per page, etc, etc (a very complicated algorithm is always involved when Graeme’s involved) would get to be on the left.

This month (our first competing month) the UK won. It was tight and there is obviously a query from our side on a sudden very unusual spike in the middle of the month. But we’ve edited the landing site in the mean time, while we give our UK colleagues some time to come forward with the true story around that unusual black swan spike of theirs : )

Click here to visit the South Africa Web Site

Submitted by the TomorrowToday South Africa Team

: )

How will history view Labour’s and Brown’s legacy?

“It is the fighters and believers who change the world. We’ve changed the world before and we will change it again.”

I’m listening to Gordon Brown’s conference speech in Brighton, using the wonder of internet streaming. Brown has come out fighting and I have to say a lot of what he says makes a lot of sense. I know many people believe that Labour does not stand a chance of being re-elected under his leadership, and this may be the case. Gordon Brown has made mistakes as PM and Chancellor, but I can’t help wonder where the UK would have been had another political party been in power at the time of the credit crunch.

For all his faults, Brown responded quickly during the credit crisis, and with strong leadership. It could even be argued that he saved the day. He had two choices: adopt a laissez-faire policy and allow the markets to correct themselves, risking jobs losses and a slump into a depression; or, bail out the banks by coordinating a global response at the G20 summit and pumping millions of pounds into the failing finance system. We know which one he chose and I think many people can be relieved that they have their jobs today, because he made a swift actions. Although on the downside we are going to be paying for this decision for at least the next ten years. The reality – there was no easy solution. Both choices available to Brown a year ago had negative ramifications. He was in many ways dammed if he did, dammed if he didn’t.

It looks unlikely, based on current polls, that Brown will be able to pull a re-election out of the bag on the back of a powerful speech, but I sense from the tone at the conference that it will not be as easy an election win as the Torries want us to believe.

Gordon Brown has identified one issue that may be critical to his chances, connecting with people’s changing values. If he is able to do this and connect with the prevailing mood of Britain he may yet pull off one of the most unlikely political come backs. Mr Brown will be hoping his speech today can change that sentiment before the general election campaign begins. We will have to wait and see, it is going to be an interesting election

From Hawaii: Four Things About Globalization

The stated goal of the East-West Center’s International Forum for Education 2020 is, ”to address the need for new paradigms in higher education that will respond to transforming economic, social and cultural changes”. The belief is that the capacity to address these dramatic changes lies in the educational system. The challenge of course is the realization that in the face on unrelenting globalization and uneven change, the response needed goes beyond simply reforming existing institutions. A deeper level of transformation is required.

Naturally, much the same could be said of business and the challenges facing big business are no less daunting. However, what got my attention in the work being done by the 2020 Forum was the identification of four characteristics of a globalized world. As much as these four characteristics are occupying some of the best educational minds in Asia Pacific, I believe they are relevant to business leaders everywhere.

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Graeme interviewed on Hard Court Lessons Radio

Graeme Codrington was recently interviewed by Audley Stephenson for an online radio show, Hard Court Lessons. You can listen to the unedited interview here. The final version will be available soon.

The interview talked about how to lead different generations in the workplace.

A Talent Exodus ahead? Surviving the upturn

I am becoming increasingly concerned for my top corporate clients. As we rumble past the bottom of the business cycle and begin the long upwards climb towards recovery, many companies are starting to congratulate themselves. “Well done, we survived a Great Recession”. But I fear their celebrations may be premature.

Of course, the recovery will be slow, and that’s a factor to be considered when doing projections and budgets for the year ahead. But my fear is about their people. Readers of this blog will probably be in agreement with one of our key beliefs at TomorrowToday: people are central to both the long-term success of an organisation as well as its competitive advantage.

If that is true, then companies will be in significant trouble if they lose (or get rid of) their people. And that’s the problem I see brewing. Companies have had some tough years recently, and have asked a lot of their people. And, in return, they haven’t really been treating them well. Some leaders have even said this out loud: it’s great that the job market has turned in the employer’s favour again, and our people have nowhere to go… we can treat them how we like now. OK, maybe that’s a touch overstated, but I know of many companies where that sentiment is true.

And it isn’t going to last. Sometime soon the head hunters are going to start up again, and the phones are going to start ringing. And when they do, I fear that many corporates are going to see a talent exodus. They haven’t done anything these past few years to show loyalty, or go “above and beyond” for their staff, so now they’ll reap the whirlwind.

If you’re a company that has done some good things for your staff, now would be a good time to remind them of that fact! And start your “employee engagement and retention” programmes in earnest!

It’s gratifying that I was recently sent some really good research from Deloitte that takes my gut feel fear and puts some solid research behind it. You might enjoy (or be scared by) reading these reports:

• Where Did Our Employees Go? Examining the rise in voluntary turn over during economic recoveries
• Heading Off a Resume Tsunami: Act Now to Avoid a Future Retention Problem or Worry About It If and When It Hits?
• Managing Talent in a Turbulent Economy: Part 1
• Managing Talent in a Turbulent Economy: Part 2
• Managing Talent in a Turbulent Economy: Part 3
• Threading the Talent Needle: What global executives are saying about people and work

From Hawaii: What Survives?

Education is what survives when what has been learnt has been forgotten (Skinner). The real test of any educational programme can only be truly tested after a significant period of time. This makes a mockery of the way in which the majority of executive educational programmes are currently measured.  The measures are usually immediate and because there is a ‘programme’ mentality towards education in this context, there is seldom a process in place that would allow a more authentic measure, one that stands the test of time.

The implications of this are significant given the investment involved in such programmes coupled with the gaping need to develop adaptive leaders capable of effective leadership into the future. The heart of the issue is one of transferability: How to transfer knowledge from the classroom / learning environment to operational leadership. Whilst leadership pedagogy has shifted somewhat in recent decades from didactic teaching to highly experiential methodologies, nagging questions linger as to whether or not the shift has been sufficient and how best to measure the change. Applying the old measures to new methodologies is clearly problematic.

Three important questions posed to the Asia Pacific Leadership Program (APLP) fellows at the outset by Professor Nick Barker include:

• What do you think I want you to remember 10 years from now?
• What do you think you will actually remember 10 years from now? (Regardless of what I hope you remember). What will actually survive?
• Most important, how will you ensure that you remember a combination of what you want to remember and what I hope you remember?

Responsibility for learning rests with the Learner; Responsibility to provide a structure that develops a learning process rests with the organization; Responsibility to provide the material and learning stepping-stones on the learning journey rests with the Educators.

Certainly, if companies investing in executive leadership education are concerned about achieving greater, ‘bang for their buck’…some urgent questions need to be asked.

12 ideas that’ll have you thinking a little differently

I picked this link up off of Twitter (@tomorrowtodayza if you’d like to follow us). It’s from Wired and it’s a list of 12 counter-cultural ideas from various ‘experts’ in a variety of fields. If anything else it’ll certainly have you thinking differently for a little while. Had me!

Warning: The ideas expressed here may be dangerous. For this year’s list, we walked right past the usual suspects and went looking for trouble. We wanted radicals, heretics, agitators—big thinkers with controversial, game-changing propositions. We found a prison reformer who wants to empty jails, an economist who thinks foreign aid hurts more than it helps, and a military theorist who believes the US should launch preemptive cyberattacks, right now. Then there’s secretary of defense robert gates, who wants to win wars, not just prep for them. Risky? Sure. But this is no time to play it safe.

Complex Diversity even in Paradise

My current visit to the Asia Pacific Leadership Program is the eighth time I have had the privilege to visit Hawaii and experience the ‘aloha’ spirit. The traditional aloha greeting, goes far beyond the simple ‘hello’. The traditional greeting would involve a touching of foreheads in the course of greeting and aloha literally means exchanging breath (alo – the shape of face; ha – breath). It is a deep way of welcome, of union, and here it is not a greeting but rather a spirit. Those who get to experience the aloha spirit will be impacted for life.

But as with most parts of a connected world Hawaii has a complex and mixed background which for some, continues to be the source of anger and resentment. On Oahu where I am currently, the West side of the island is where one will encounter ‘authentic Hawaii’. I am currently reading Stu Coleman’s book, ‘Fierce Heart: The Story of Makaha and the soul of Hawaiian surfing’ which tells of life on the west side and some of the memorable characters that have left an indelible mark on Hawaiian culture.

The story of Makaha reveals a complex and often uneasy relationship with the rest of Oahu as the latter  has become increasing under the influence of what is viewed as an intrusive, and at times disrespectful cultural invasion from the mainland and beyond. When many think of Hawaii they conjure up images of Waikiki but the ‘true’ Hawaii is not to be found in such places. The diversity issues and tensions here are not uncommon to those found elsewhere. They invoke emotion and resentment and have no easy solutions. Change continues to happen regardless of the impact on those who see it as a bad thing as well as those would welcome it as a gateway to the future.

Today in the classroom of the Leadership Program I will get to discuss the future of leadership with a class that represents over 20 Asia Pacific countries. The world in a classroom…almost. It is a place of rich learning and one where I (the ‘teacher’) usually emerges having learnt the most.

Aloha