Picture this:
You don’t have to get up at the crack of dawn every morning. You can have a lie in. If you don’t feel like commuting into work, don’t. Go shopping, go to the movies, visit a friend or do some housework. Only work when you feel like it. As long as you achieve the work results that are expected of you, your time is your own. Spend quality time with your family and friends, finish your chores and admin, focus on your hobbies while delivering good results and advancing your career. You have work life balance and the company also prospers. Everyone lives happily ever after.
A fairy tale? Bliss? Utopia? This is a true story. It is called a ROWE and it works at Best Buy. ROWE is a Results Only Work Environment. In fact, it works so well that Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson, who implemented the system at Best Buy, have written a book to encourage other companies to do it too. Their book is called ‘Why Work Sucks and How To Fix It.’
It is not pie-in-the-sky stuff. People are talking more and more about focusing on outputs, results only and giving the new work force the freedom and flexibility which they seem to crave. In the new world of work, more power is clearly devolving from the organisation to individuals because workers control the most lucrative means of production – their brains. Leading management thinkers have predicted that temporary networks of talented people to work on projects will be more productive than the hierarchical, command and control hierarchy that characterized the industrial age workplace. If this is how the world of work will look, then a move towards a results only work environment could be very effective.
If you’ve picked up a 
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You only get one chance to make a first impression. The old cliché could not be more true, or more important, in a world where we compete constantly for customer’s attention and connection. Dr Graeme Codrington looks at some first impressions you may not be considering, and suggests that this is so important that it should be a top strategic priority.
Older supermarket workers, at Britain’s Tesco, are being given a guide to youth slang to help them understand younger colleagues and customers, in the form of a pamphlet handed out to staff. The pamphlet is being tried out in some of Tesco’s 1 500 stores with a high proportion of employees over retirement age.
I was recently sent the outline of a book, “The Ten Faces of Innovation”, by Tom Kelley with Jonathan Littman (Profile, 2005) - buy it online at 
Aiden Choles, an expert in the use of narrative techniques in the corporate world, argues that the rise of the corporate autobiography as bestseller is proof that we need stories, rather than benchmarks, and human connection rather than policy and procedure manuals. In his usual insightful way, Aiden highlights the leadership implications faced by corporates today.
Mbeki seems to be one of those public figures who has a polished public narrative. This is evident in how people defend him. Another such character is that of our famed Minister of Finance, 
Every marketer says that they do. Companies swear that they know their customers. But, as a fantastic article from Fast Company shows, most organisations are just fooling themselves. Its a long read, but well worth it - from Fast Company, Issue 34, April 2000. 
Penguins represent a paradox of innovation and narrative in organisations. Penguins are considered one of the most sociable species on the planet, and often live as a flock on an iceberg or cliff. Both fear and food reside in the same place - in the water. The fish as food and the sharks as fear.So now, how do you get the first of the flock into the water? The answer: the flock pushes the pengiun closest to the edge into the water to see if it is safe. This paradox is ironically labelled as “co-operation in a competitive envirnment”. It is the same paradox we find in organisation when they have to innovate i.e. “great idea Bob, you go ahead and try it!”
More often than not the accussation of “telling tales” reminds us of our childhood when our parents would admonish us for being naughty and use this phrase in a far-from-covert ploy to get us to tell the truth. Well, 
John Cusack is one of my favourite movie stars, and he turned 40 on 28 June. OK, so’s he’s not quite A-list, and I don’t think he’s ever got a big payday role ($ 10 million or more). But he’s an amazing presence in the psyche of Generation X. His roles have mirrored our lives and our own development. You can see his bio and entire 51 credit filmography at 
The caption reads, “It’s about a building with 88 stories and a boy with just one”.
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