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The evolution of the Gen Y hipster

August 21, 2010 Dean van Leeuwen Generation Y, Generations No Comments

I came across a great post on Gen Y and being hip and cool, written by the brilliant Carol Philips Carol is one of the world’s leading authorities on Gen Y and I think her post succinctly captures who they are. I especially like the quote she uses from Outlaw Consulting, a consultancy that focuses on identifying youth market trends. They have captured Gen Y in a nutshell. This is one of the best descriptions of Gen Y that I have come across:

“Millennials, or Gen Ys, are definitely different. They seem to feel more empowered – and more entitled– than any generation before them. They have an innate team orientation that makes them excellent collaborators. And the ideas about issues like marriage and career are radically different. Their “American dream” isn’t about the picket fence; it’s a flexible freelance career and a life defined by passion. … Gen Ys see themselves as change-makers. But they’re also busy trying to have a middle-class life, so their protests take different form than youth protests of the past. They see corporation’s as having lots of power but little heart, and they try to create change by using their dollars. The “aha” for corporations is to recognize that values and authenticity are important to this generation — and that directly affects how they spend. American Apparel, for example, has been totally embraced by youth because of its labor practices. Shopping there make them feel like they’re spending money in the right place. Companies that really “walk their talk” about core values will be endeared. If you want to be relevant to Gen Ys, you need to understand their mindset.”

How’s this for an awesome picture, the Evolution of Hipster

You can read Carol’s full post below or click here to be taken to her post

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Men your time is up!

August 3, 2010 Dean van Leeuwen Boomers RetYrement, Connection Economy, Demographics, Diversity, Future Trends, Gender issues, Generations, Global View, Leadership, Strategy, Talent No Comments

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:
… Continue Reading

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Do we Twitter because we’re human, and are we human because we Twitter?

August 3, 2010 Barrie Bramley Ethics, Future Trends, General, Generations, Technology, Web 2.0 No Comments

Last year I read ‘Born to Run‘. If you’re a runner, or would like to be, and haven’t read it, then do yourself a favour, it’s a goodie. At the end of the book the author suggests that Homo Sapiens made it to where we have because we’re runners. And then drops this line that I’ve not forgotten, “We run because we’re human, and we’re human because we run.” Running is part of who we all are, and we only got here because of our ability to run. We dare not stop running. It’s more than getting fat and unfit. It’s about holding onto our human-ess.

For those who’ve peeked at my writing this year, you’ll know I keep suggesting that it doesn’t matter if Twitter /FaceBook et al, lives or dies! The real question to be asking is whether it’s changing us? Changing how we engage, relate, interact, etc?

I think it’s a great perspective for companies to consider. While you’re panicking about getting into or staying out of Social Media, you better be asking whether it’s changing your customers?

Of course I don’t think Social Media has reached the kind of gravitas running has, in the context of talking about what makes us human, but I still do like thinking about the direction we’re all headed. This weekend I picked up this article from The New York Times Magazine - I Tweet, Therefore I Am. You understand why it got my attention : ) A title declaring the connection between our Humanness and Social Media. The author picks up on similar themes:

The expansion of our digital universe — Second Life, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter — has shifted not only how we spend our time but also how we construct identity. For her coming book, “Alone Together,” Sherry Turkle, a professor at M.I.T., interviewed more than 400 children and parents about their use of social media and cellphones. Among young people especially she found that the self was increasingly becoming externally manufactured rather than internally developed: a series of profiles to be sculptured and refined in response to public opinion. “On Twitter or Facebook you’re trying to express something real about who you are,” she explained. “But because you’re also creating something for others’ consumption, you find yourself imagining and playing to your audience more and more. So those moments in which you’re supposed to be showing your true self become a performance. Yourpsychology becomes a performance.” Referring to “The Lonely Crowd,” the landmark description of the transformation of the American character from inner- to outer-directed, Turkle added, “Twitter is outer-directedness cubed.”

This for me is just another reflection. I don’t know where we’re headed yet? I don’t know if it’ll be good or bad for us? I don’t know if we’ll care? I do know it’s beginning to change some things. The NYT article suggests that ‘empathy’ may be a loser:

The risk of the performance culture, of the packaged self, is that it erodes the very relationships it purports to create, and alienates us from our own humanity. Consider the fate of empathy: in an analysis of 72 studies performed on nearly 14,000 college students between 1979 and 2009, researchers at the Institute for Social Research at theUniversity of Michigan found a drop in that trait, with the sharpest decline occurring since 2000. Social media may not have instigated that trend, but by encouraging self-promotion over self-awareness, they may well be accelerating it.

Let’s be careful out there. With each other and with ourselves. And perhaps, for now, don’t stop running : )

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Nine key workforce trends for the next decade

July 27, 2010 Graeme Codrington Boomers RetYrement, Connection Economy, Demographics, Diversity, Future Trends, Gender issues, Generation Y, Generations, Global View, Knowledge Continuity, Leadership, Organisational Design, Recession solutions, Strategy, Talent, Teams, Technology, Work-Life Integration (and wellness) 2 Comments

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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Women and the New World of Work

July 15, 2010 Catherine Garland Demographics, Future Trends, Gender issues, Generation Y, Generations, Organisational Design, Talent, Teams, Work-Life Integration (and wellness) 1 Comment

As it’s my very first post (ever, anywhere!), I thought it would be apt to come at it from a woman’s angle.

I have read two articles recently, both in the Times (and thus you need to pay for them – but I attach the links at the bottom of this post anyway.

The first is a piece about Generation Y Mothers (Sarah Harris, July 10). There isn’t much in the way of hard facts, but the content rings true – that Generation Y women are less career-orientated and approaching motherhood at an earlier age than the Gen X’ers and late Boomers before them.

Tom Savigar, strategy and insight director for the Future Laboratory says “Generation Y has decided to do things differently. Younger women have rejected the city-slicker aspirations of the previous decade and are now seeing the value of becoming a housewife as a career.”

The second piece is by Sarah Vine (July 12,) and focusses on the dilemma 35-45 year old (Cusper/Gen X) working women are now facing, with young children and careers that are taking off. This really struck home with me as I am one of these women and have just left my full-time career, which has been 20 years in making, to find a more flexible way of working and devote more time to my family. Frankly, the juggling just became too much and clearly I am far from being alone.

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A note to Generation X: Learn How to Manage Up

July 13, 2010 Graeme Codrington Boomers RetYrement, Collaboration and partnerships, Connection Economy, Generations, Leadership, Organisational Design, Talent, Teams No Comments

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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Top tips for Silent Generation online customer experiences

July 13, 2010 Dean van Leeuwen Customer service / experience, Demographics, Generations, Marketing and sales 1 Comment

This is the final series of four posts on how to strengthen the online customer experience for each generation.

You can read my other posts on Generation X , Baby Boomers and Generation Y by following these links.

Here are my headline top tips for delivering online customer experience for the Silent Generation:

Who are Silent Generation?

This generation were born during the Great Depression and World War 2. Called the Silent generation because kids born during this period in history were expected to be seen not heard.

Why is the Silent Generation important?

They are now in their late sixties and seventies, many of them have benefited from rising housing prices and are relatively financially better off than they ever expected to be, even after the economic crisis of the past two years. There is another reason to consider this generation when developing your online customer experience strategies. According to the National Statistics Silents are the fastest growing generational segment on the internet. Access by those aged 65 plus increased proportionally by 15 per cent, compared with an increase of 3 per cent for the 16-24 age group.

Online customer experience Top Tips:

1. What are the experts saying?: Silents respect opinions of experts
2. Celebrate your past: Highlight your past successes, Silents want to know about the awards you have received. Believe in winning – they value strength and achievement
3. Use the Queen’s English: Poor use of grammar and language is a deal breaker
4. They are concerned about the future: of their grandchildren therefore have a philanthropic approach. Highlight what are you doing to benefit the communities around you.
5. Take them on a journey explaining the benefits: They will often take a “wait and see” attitude with new products

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In solving the ‘Talent’ crisis, it’s time for South and North to jointly solve the ‘gravitas’ problem

July 12, 2010 Barrie Bramley Articles, Boomers RetYrement, Demographics, Future Trends, Generation Y, Generations, Global View, Knowledge Continuity, Strategy, Talent, Training and Education 3 Comments

If you take a look at the state of business education in the world today, you’d have to conclude that we’ve never been in a better position to take our organisations forward to places we’ve only dreamed of. There’s never been more business education available than there is currently. We have more business schools, both physically and on the internet. More people are going through these formal programmes than ever before. There’s also never been more access to information informally than ever before. Almost anyone can get access to some of the greatest thinking with regards to business.

And yet there’s a shortage of people to fill key positions in most organisation I speak to, no matter the continent they find themselves on. The opportunities abound and yet there aren’t enough people to take them up. However, I contend, it’s not that there’s a shortage of educated people to fill these spaces. The problem we have is that there’s a shortage of people who have the required depth, gravitas and experience. And in my opinion, no number of business education programmes can fix this problem.

Depth, gravitas and experience are not learned in a classroom (no matter how good it is). These characteristics emerge on the job. They develop through numerous and varied experiences over time. And if this is the main process by which you aquire them, then there are some interesting modern challenges and obstacles we have to deal with:

The length of tenure of many young people is getting shorter and shorter, before they shift jobs, companies and industries.
Companies have placed significant pressure and stress on their managers and leaders by thinning head count. ‘Grey Beard’ availability to transfer knowledge and experience is becoming scarcer and scarcer.
More digital engagement and therefore less personal engagement. Technology doesn’t necessarily add any extra value you weren’t expecting. It does what you ask it and then moves on.
From a demographics perspective, the developed world, first world, northern hemisphere (I know these descriptors are weak) has an interesting challenge. Theirs is a number problem. When you look at their demographic shape you notice very quickly that there are more Baby Boomers retiring than the number of ‘replacements’ coming through in Gen X. Where do they find the extra people they need?
Through the same filter, the developing world, 3rd world and southern hemisphere have the inverse problem. It’s not numbers, because their demographic shape is a pyramid. More than enough people but insufficient resource to train and develop this large number. Add to that senior people being attracted to the developed world to fill their numbers problem.

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Comparing the generations: From Silent through Boomer to Xer and Y

July 8, 2010 Graeme Codrington Demographics, Generations No Comments

This article was first written in 1997, and posted on an early blog I ran. I have not done much updating – it’s interesting to keep this as an archive record of what ‘generational theory’ looked like over a decade ago.

“Boomer”, “generation x”, “buster”, “gen y”, “millennial”, “silent”, “lost”??? What are all these titles, and to whom do they refer? Sociologists and the media have used these and other titles to refer to different generations of people alive at the moment. People have been broken down, roughly, into general generations, characterised by similar qualities and attitudes. These normally span a 20 year period. Although it is impossible to generalise accurately and describe each individual in a group of people, it is uncanny how different generational attitudes can be discerned, and characterisations can be made.

The importance of such classifications is that we can target our message (whatever that may be) at a specific target group, identifiable by distinct and
similar attitudes.

This paper tries to define how the different generations feel, react and what they believe and perceive regarding a wide variety of issues. The historical references are mainly focused on the USA, as this is where the original theory was developed. Since writing this paper in 1997, similar research has been completed in over 35 countries, and we have done a lot of work to apply the generations across different cultures and countries (see a “Detailed Introduction to Generational Theory“). I have not updated my earlier work below, but please read “Generations and culture“.

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Top tips for Generation Y online customer experiences

July 7, 2010 Dean van Leeuwen Customer service / experience, Generation Y, Generations, Marketing and sales, Web 2.0 No Comments

I’ve been invited to speak at the Online Customer Experience 2010 conference in London on the 12 July where I will be doing my Mind The Gap presentation on the different generations. Leading up to this event I’m going to be sharing some of my thoughts and ideas on how to strengthen the online connection you have with each generation.

You can see my other posts on Generation X and Baby Boomers

Here are my headline top tips for delivering online customer experience for Generation Y:

Who are Generation Y?

This generation were born at the turn of the century and have also been called the Millennial generation. Our research shows that in Europe and the UK Generation Y starts in and around 1990 and ends in 2007.

Why is Generation Y important?

They are the largest Generation since the Baby Boomers and because they are extremely confident, they have a big influence on household purchases. As they enter work their disposable income is increasing and are active online consumers

Online customer experience Top Tips:

1. Endorsements will work They look for heroes. This generation grew up watching Pokemond, Miley Cyrus, Big Brother and X-Factor. Ideally your celeb should be squeaky clean.
2. Helicopter parents have made them soft Gen Y have always had their parents hovering around nearby. Our research has even uncovered situations where they have taken their parents to job interviews! They are over-protected and when they get stuck they expect to be guided and helped along the journey seamlessly.
3. But don’t treat them like kids They are a hugely confident generation. They’ve grown up wired to the internet making them street smart.
4. Go ahead punk, make my day! They know their rights and will eat you up for breakfast if you try and take them for a ride. They fully understand the power that the internet has given them as consumers and they will not hesitate to hit the send button and take your brand down.
5. They are plugged in everywhere all the time: They want messages in sound bites on modern media and expect a “drill down approach” to information – limited info at first, with options to get much more than you think is necessary
6. They are time poor Time is their most precious commodity, not money. They are prepared to pay for convenience and time saving
7. Be stupid clever You can’t impress them so don’t even try. They like the original especially if it is an existing concept that has been cleverly tweaked and twisted
8. Push the boundaries: See if you can shock them, they will never admit that you have but they will get a kick out of seeing the shock on the faces of the other generations

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Top Tips for Generation X online customer experience

July 5, 2010 Dean van Leeuwen Connection Economy, Customer service / experience, Generations, Marketing and sales 2 Comments

Here are my headline top tips for delivering online customer experience for Generation X:

Who are Gen Xers?

Howe and Strauss define Generation X as those people born between 1961 and 1981. Whilst these dates may be accurate for American Gen-Xers our research shows that Generation X in the UK and Europe are those people born between 1964 (starting with the Profumo scandal) and 1989 (Fall of communism and the Berlin Wall). The term was popularised by Canadian author Douglas Coupland’s 1991 novel, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, concerning young adults during the late 1980s and their lifestyles.

Why is Gen X important?

Gen Xers are entering their peak years of product and service consumption. Although this generation staved off marriage and families, most are now entering the life stages of mid-life and established families. They are also entering positions of leadership and influence. The oldest of this generation, or its cuspers are becoming leaders of important nations. Prime Minister David Cameron and his Deputy PM Nick Clegg are both Gen X-Baby Boomer Cuspers. They bring with them a very different approach to work, family life and viewing the world.

Gen X view electronic media as a primary tool for conducting research and accomplishing a vast array of every day tasks and have embraced technology. For information on everything from parenting to consumer products, they go online. For them the Internet, along with mobile phones is a convenient way to shop, bank and network with peers.

Online customer experience top tips:

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Open letter from Peter Lindenburg to many British journos

June 29, 2010 Barrie Bramley General, Generations, Global View, Media tidbits No Comments

I met with Peter Lindenberg last week. It was an interesting meeting for me. He taught me to ski in the late 70′s. He was friends with my father and uncle, and I’d not seen him since that day on the Vaal. He reminded me about events around my family I had forgotten. What a memory he has.

We then spoke about him. What a story he has. A Springbok / Protea in 4 different decades. He’s excelled in power-boat racing and in motor-car racing. He’s been ‘dead’ twice, and he has anecdotes about his life that left me with no confusion as to why he’s been able to achieve what he’s been able to.

He told me he’d written an open letter to the British press. I’m not sure he meant all of them? Perhaps he hasn’t met any good ones. I on the other hand have, so I did suggest to him that perhaps it shouldn’t be aimed at all of them : ) Anyway, he offered to send me his letter. Here it is with his permission to post it. Having learned more about the man through his stories, and knowing what he’s achieved, I do think what he’s more than earned the right to say:

Having competed internationally in three different sports over a period of 27 years, amid sports boycotts and bannings, which I understood, I can no longer be silent in the midst of the unfounded and inaccurate media reports my country is receiving, when it has produced a standout sporting extravaganza of which any country in the world would be proud.
… Continue Reading

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Top tips for Baby Boomer online customer experiences

June 26, 2010 Dean van Leeuwen Customer service / experience, Generations, Marketing and sales 1 Comment

Here are my headline top tips for delivering online customer experience for Baby Boomers:

Who are Baby Boomers?

Depending on where you are in the world, Baby Boomers are those people born between 1944 and 1964. In the UK Baby Boomers can be divided into two distinct groups, those born during the post-war rebuilding Europe period of 1944 – 1952 and those born during the boom and swinging London years of 1953 – 1964.

Why are Baby Boomers important?

Baby Boomers control over 75% of the personal net wealth in the UK. Recent studies reveal that Boomer purchases account for:
- 80% of luxury cars
- 74% of prescription drugs
- 80% of luxury travel
- 25% of gadgets and toys

Online customer experience Top Tips
… Continue Reading

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UK and US Baby Boomers are not the same so please stop generalising generations!

June 26, 2010 Dean van Leeuwen Demographics, Generations, Global View, Marketing and sales 2 Comments

The theory of generations has proven to be extremely popular in the mainstream media and with pop psychologists who have picked up on labels like Baby Boomers, Generation X and Gen Y as convenient ‘sound bites.’ Of course, common sense tells us that we live in a diverse society – a broad label could never accurately describe an entire generation. Thus, the more these labels are hyped, the more suspicious we become of how generational labels can be practically applied in business. This suspicion is well founded and ultimately has resulted in the generalisation of generations. In a business context it would be wasteful to use generations in a generalised manner.

To make a valuable impact to your business generational theory needs rigourous application and in-depth understanding and insights. A generation is defined as “the average interval of time between the birth of parents and the birth of their offspring.” This makes a generation approximately 20–25 years in time span. While in the past this may have served sociologists well, for marketers, using these parameters would be ineffectual. Unlike the definition sociologists use, TomorrowToday defines a generation as a group of people who:

- Grew up during the same economic, educational and technological times
- Were shaped by the same social markers and events.
- Now share the same life stage
- Share a common worldview / set of values
… Continue Reading

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Baby Boomers will NEVER retire only “Re-tyre”, “Re-wire” and “Re-fire”

June 21, 2010 Dean van Leeuwen Boomers RetYrement, Generations No Comments

For several years we’ve been saying at TomorrowToday that Baby Boomers will never retire, they are just not wired that way, their value systems are at odds with the concept of retirement. Even if Baby Boomers think that retiring to the coast to play 18 rounds of golf each day is what they want to do, we’ve always joked that they will give that a go for about a month, and then will head back to the business world reinvent themselves as consultants, work half days and get paid double what they were being paid.

Today, an interesting article caught my eye on the BBC news channel, reinforcing our views. The article titled Retirement age ‘should be scrapped’ is a report from an Age UK survey that has determined that most people want to chose when to stop work and that most people want employers to lose the right to tell people when to retire. You can visit the BBC News website or read the article below, it’s brilliant and supports what we’ve been saying all along. Viva Baby Boomers and Long live Baby Boomers
… Continue Reading

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Fashion, Facebook & Leadership: What Goes Around WILL Come Around.

June 4, 2010 Keith Coats Generations, Leadership, Web 2.0 No Comments

A grainy photograph capturing my student days that had somewhat subversively surfaced had my kids laughing out loud at my then image. Ignoring for a moment my justifiable indignation, the reality is that little did my kids realize that one-day, they too would feel the scorn metered upon them by their own beloved offspring for their current high fashion sense. And of course then, even more so than now, there will simply be no place to hide with only one word needed by way of explanation: Facebook. As I watch my kids post images with manic frenzy to their Facebook profiles, it is hard to mask the smugness I feel as I witness the evidence of delayed retribution being so diligently compiled at their own hand. The irony of it all is perhaps a consolatory delight that comes with growing old(er). In this context one has to wonder if Facebook, will go from today’s best friend to tomorrow’s worse enemy it falls, as it must, into the ‘wrong hands’?

Indeed, what ‘goes around, comes around’! And what’s more, it is amazing how quickly the wheel of ‘cool to clueless’, of ‘hip to hopeless’ turns, sparing none in the process.

If it is true of fashion that what goes around will come around, is that the same for leadership? Identifying cycles, patterns and learning to connect the dots are all important landmarks that make up the journey for those wishing to be adaptive leaders. However, there is a stark warning for leaders relying on the wheel turning in order to get them back ‘in fashion’. Past wisdom, or what we label ‘experience’, isn’t always the leader’s alley. Peter Drucker warns on the danger of applying past solutions to current concerns in times of turbulence. Prevailing contextual shifts mitigate against the simplistic application of past solutions. Problems and solutions go hand in glove; new problems and old solutions less so. For leaders who have themselves stopped learning, the danger of applying past solutions to today’s challenges is even greater. This is true whether the leaders is confronting an economic downturn or devising a communication strategy.

The wisdom to distinguish between what will change and what doesn’t change is a leadership challenge. Laughing at old photographs is a given; understanding the nuances of what appears to be an ‘old problem’ is less so.

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‘Here come the girls’: How the recession has impacted men (and women) at work

June 3, 2010 Graeme Codrington Demographics, Future Trends, Gender issues, Generations, Leadership, Recession solutions, Teams, Work-Life Integration (and wellness) 1 Comment

At least three advertising campaigns are currently using the song, “Here come the girls” (remixed by the Sugarbabes) in the UK. Besides being slightly confusing, it is a reminder that indeed, women are coming to the workplace. They have been since the 1960s, of course, but there have been recent markers that are worth noting.

I recently discovered that almost every recession in the past four decades has had a bigger impact on men than on women. All around the world, men lose more jobs in recessions, and find less employment afterwards. This is just a part of a bigger trend of women dominating the workplace: America was the first country to have more women in the workplace than men (this happened in March 2010). Many countries will follow suit in the next few years. And the pay gap is closing steadily, too.

As the father of three daughters and the husband of one wife, this is good news for me. Of course, the job is far from finished. The future still looks rather bleak for women in executive positions. In the US, 50% of grads are women, 30% of managers and 10% of senior executives. The figures have hardly changed over the past few decades, and one recent prediction says it’s going to take 60 years for parity!

The article that brought all of this to my attention was in The Spectator last week. You can find it here, or read an extract below. You can also see additional information with graphs and data at the Spectator blog.

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Some (more) gems from our archives – valuable reading!

June 2, 2010 Graeme Codrington Articles, Best of, Book Reviews, Collaboration and partnerships, Connection Economy, Diversity, Future Trends, Gender issues, Generations, Global View, Innovation, Leadership, Organisational Design, Strategy, Talent, The Quick and the Dead - case studies No Comments

This blog has been running since 2003, and has nearly 2,000 individual entries. At one level it is a living library of the “new world of work”, captured as it emerges around us. I have recently taken some time to troll through the archives, from day one, and discovered again some remarkable gems. This is the second in my series of “gems from the archives”.

These articles from early 2005, are still well worth reading. They were prescient then, and remain important now, as we think about the implications of the new world of work that we find ourselves in. Enjoy:

The goal of diversity is not harmony
Cultural intelligence: Individual interactions across cultures
Would you work for Halliburton (This is even more relevant as it appears Halliburton are the ultimate cause of the current BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster)
Lessons from where you least expect them
The last man to wear pantaloons
Apres moi le deluge – dealing with short term thinking in leadership
Conversation vs Information
Chaotic management
Leading diversity: an invitation to leaders everywhere
Organising the future: The Individualized Corporation

Happy reading!

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Some hidden gems from our archives – valuable reading!

May 30, 2010 Graeme Codrington Articles, Best of, Book Reviews, Collaboration and partnerships, Connection Economy, Diversity, Ethics, Future Trends, Gender issues, Generations, Global View, Innovation, Leadership, Organisational Design, Recession solutions, Strategy, Talent, Teams, The Quick and the Dead - case studies No Comments

These articles from 2003 and 2004, are still well worth reading. They were prescient then, and remain important now, as we think about the implications of the new world of work that we find ourselves in. Enjoy:

Happy reading!

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Best blog posts of the last month

It’s been a long time since I have done a “best of” list, and today I plan to do two. The first is the best blog entries of the last month. It’s a been a good month for this blog, and maybe you missed a few of the best entries. Here’s my list, but maybe you think I’ve missed one or two – add your own thoughts below…

The Janitor: Why the World Cup Will Succeed – the most read article on our blog in the last month, this good news story by Keith Coats is gaining a life of its own as it spreads a good feeling about Africa
Sir Ken Robinson at TED again – the latest video from TED and the one that started it all. One of the best communicators you’ll see talking about the vital topic of how to develop creativity and the future of education
Synthetic Life created – this is a short entry, but added to this list because it is just such a huge story. Also read the further details in the comments
The second and third billion consumers – important insights into the developing world and the role of women in the global economy
Wreckamovie case study – crowdsourcing comes to Hollywood – my favourite interview of the month
Dean interviews Zappos and Harley Davidson Execs – this is my favourite interview from last month
A story before bed.com – my favourite company of the past few weeks – how technology is now connecting us
Just a Thought: Get Rid of Your IT Department – the post that got the most comments in the pat few weeks
Right brain people will be a-head in the future – the most retweeted article this month
When Retirement Stops: PODCAST – our most downloaded podcast this month

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Back to the Future: Rethinking Strategy

December 3, 2009 Keith Coats

How do you speak in a new way about strategy when an old language dominates the topic? This is a major obstacle standing in the way of thinking about strategy in a new way for a new world. Jamie Dimon, CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase was quoted in Fortune (January 26, 2009) as saying, “I [...]

Lessons from where you least expect them

April 27, 2005 Barrie Bramley

I spent 8 hours driving yesterday, to have a 90 minute meeting. Well an interview actually. I met with Thomas Schmuck. He manages a building supply store that is part of the Build It franchise (Click here for their web site). The store can be found in Vryheid. Somewhere in Kwa Zulu Natal. Actually a [...]

Change has changed

November 30, 2004 Graeme Codrington

One of the major reasons that interventions, training and change processes don’t work as effectively as we would like them to, is that we fail to take the time to create the necessary framework of understanding at the start of these processes. Simply put, we do not understand the nature of change itself. Too often [...]

The death of an agent

November 30, 2004 Graeme Codrington

The following article has received thebiggest response of the articles we’ve written so far. The style of the article is forthright and challenging, and its possibly the style, rather the content that has got people hot under the collar. We encourage you to read the article objectively, and then also to see the email response [...]

Thirteen things smart leaders know – How to thrive in a relational economy

November 30, 2004 Keith Coats

Leadership is about who you are. It is about character. It is about looking inwards in order to lead outwards. The best leaders are those know themselves, know their strengths and play to those strengths. They understand something of the connected, relational and paradoxical nature of the world in which they live and lead. They [...]