If you look carefully, there is an emerging commonality in supply chain issues and trust. Whether you’re a major manufacturer outsourcing production, or a local supermarket selling brands, the advantage of lowest cost production from sources with whom your customers have only no or little knowledge is diminishing.
The supermarket meat supply chain is called into question, and I suspect long term incremental changes in consumer purchasing and buying habits is resulting. Our local butcher has a supply chain extending about 3 miles. People know him, and walk past his stock every day. He’s never been busier.
Our “personal bank manager” is charged with selling us services he had no part in creating, does not fully understand, and has no ownership of. That’s a difficult way to make a living, let alone achieve any sort of satisfaction.
High Volume training, development and coaching businesses sell models designed by somebody else, to be applied cookie cutter style, for market conditions that are different to when they were designed. For those with no systems or routines, they do a job- but in the same way as a burger chain satisfied individual appetite.
The best work, and the highest satisfaction are derived from feeling involved. From a sense of co-creation.
More than ever, the things that people buy are determined by the distance they are from those who made it, geographically, emotionally and culturally. Trust, respect and love are powerful brand levers.
April 23, 2013
The Butcher, the Baker and the Co-Creator
March 5, 2013
The Line, The Glitch, and the Wardrobe
Here in the UK today, we are hearing proposals to increase goal thresholds for primary schools, predicated mainly of test results in English and Maths. It follows the same line that has gone so spectacularly awry in the NHS, and to a lesser extent in the extended supply chains of our supermarkets and food multinationals. They have gone so awry because of unintended, but not unforeseeable consequences – resulting from a blind unquestioning pursuit of one set of limited goals to an exclusion of an awareness of potential collateral damage. It sometimes seems that Ministers somehow feel they have their hands on huge, latter day Skinner boxes, and a behaviouralist mindset. See. do, get.
The Glitch is that this approach relies above all else on an assumption that extrinsic rewards rule; that we can take any field we like, apply incentives and SMART goals, and watch the results roll in. But we know from research that extrinsic rewards only work (and even then for limited periods) when the task in monotonous, routine and mechanical. Where the reward is intrinsic, where the task is a large part of its own reward, as in the case of most teachers, doctors, nurses, police and many of our public servants (excluding, maybe, many but not all of those who administer them) a focus on extrinsic reward is proven to remove the joy and meaning of the role, to replace it with the stresses, strains and disengagement of a goal dominated reward focused approach.
We have seen the results in the Health sector(most notably recently at North Staffs). As we now the allow and tolerate pursuit of the education sector, we may want to reflect that many of our most successful, and socially conscious entrepreneurs would fail the standards being proposed. Many entrepreneurs have educational “flaws” relative to the norms we set, but succeed in many ways because of it. Like most of the children who may fail the new level, (and cause their schools to be driven to Academy status and off balance sheet for the government), they are not stupid anything but – as Einstein observed, if you judge a fish by its ability to fly, it will believe it is stupid. That’s a sentence.
But we are faced with political window dressing, a veritable wardrobe of short term palliatives with an eye to the short term fortunes of ministers and their careers with little affiliation to their ministries other than their career path, controlled by the wardrobe masters of the whips office.
So we find ourselves demotivating and disengaging those whose instincts are for social contribution, to boost the motives and values that drove the bankers to opprobrium (they are not bad people – but a large organisational machine, and an eye on huge rewards, is a powerful anesthetic). Not only are we in danger of diminishing and alienating those who we need in the public sector, we are condemning a whole tranche of children to see themselves as “failures”.
Why?
February 28, 2013
What Success Actually Looks Like
February 13, 2013
The rise of 21st Century Craft and the end of “jobs”?
In old English, a “job” was a a consignment of things of limited worth that were moved from place to place – as in ” a job of coal”, or a “job lot”. A “Career” on the other hand, was a well laid road. Today, most careers, even in the professions, have morphed into jobs.
The world of work is an increasingly 20th Century concept. The reality is that there is little excuse today not to spend our lives doing things that fulfil us and contribute in some way to the greater good. The tools and resources that fuel this are widely available and mostly free, and being transformed on an almost daily basis by technological advance.
Today, the rise of “Craft” – which Richard Sennett describes as a “marriage of head, heart and hand” is increasingly evident.
But; theres a big BUT.
Almost regardless of age, we have been educated and trained to comply in one form or another. The vast majority of us are subject to what Roger Seligman labeled in the late 1960′s “learned helplessness”. It is a propensity to allow our environments and experience to convince us that we “cannot”, regardless of the reality. “I am not clever enough”; “I am not qualified “they won’t listen” and the like.
Many people have identified this in different ways, from the early philosophers to the work of cognitive neuroscientists. In the last fifty years, it has moved from the text book to practice, through the adaptation of Freudian psychology, to people like Michael Polanyi, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Stephen Pressfield, Peter Senge, Franz Johansson Seth Godin and Jonah Lehrer. In the arena of sport, people like Timothy Gallwey, Matthew Syed, Sian Beilock and Malcolm Gladwell have made real contributions, and Sports Psychology has become a major area of study. Great coaches, from Yogi Berra to David Brailsford have become cult figures.
We have come to realise that our careers and capabilities are not predestined. They are in our own hands.
However, the escape from our self imposed limitations is not easy. It requires a combination of great teachers, exemplars, support and self efficacy. Societal structures, from Schools and Universities, to Businesses, to Governments have a vested interest in the control and power that would have us believe in our own limitations, and that their authority and permission are the routes to progress.
The reality is different. Great Education is widely available through for example the Open University, through Open CourseWare from great Universities like MIT, to entirely free and certificated courses through the likes of Coursera. Spun out of sports psychology, executive coaching demonstrated the power of non instructive intervention to stimulate the creativity, action and performance that great teachers have always ignited in receptive school pupils. But coaching has only scratched the surface, and in so doing has become expensive, elitist and inaccessible. It has become a “profession” more than, like great teaching, a vocation.
But as technology has disrupted once great businesses, from Music to Photography to Publishing, it is now disrupting education and coaching. Technology allows us to disaggregate and deconstruct great teaching and coaching, and reassemble it to make it vibrant, accessible and universal.
The very greatest teachers and coaches, like the very greatest tenors, will always be in demand, but the vast majority can be disintermediated by the creative use of technology. Great teaching and coaching, along with great materials, will become as universal and affordable as Amazon has made great books – and in the same way, the market will be universally accessible rather than the arena for a few “stars” backed by major sponsors. Those with a message and a capability can be found and heard by those who wish to listen.
The potential for us as individuals, and the impact on organisations, seems likely to be profound. Within a generation, organisations are moving from seats of power to facilitators of purposeful talent. Those who do not make this journey seem unlikely to survive.
Individuals and Capital are highly mobile, and that talent will not tolerate indifferent or exploitative employers. Increasingly, a “job” will become a state of mind rather than a fact. We can, if we choose to, design and live careers.
What an opportunity.
February 8, 2013
Breaking Rocks
There are many people at work this morning breaking rocks.
They are intelligent people,with good qualifications, aspirations, ideas and passions.
They didn’t start with rocks. They thought they were creating sculpture, using their talents and ideas to create things of worth and beauty, and the were excited by the prospects of doing this and being well paid for doing it.
But as they became more experienced, they learnt that reward and beauty were a poor mix. The creation of beauty tends to cause problems in an environment where standardisation and process are key to efficiency; where the requirement is to produce goods and services to a measurable standard which is auditable, and where their performance can be demonstrably assessed compared to others, and rewards allocated accordingly.
So instead of using their talent to create unique pieces of beauty and value, instead of creating sculptures, they find themselves breaking rocks. Their passion and creativity finds new homes, outside of work, in other communities, in “tribes”, where they are recognised and respected for who they are.
The organisation they work for fares little better. It started out with a purpose, staffed by enthusiasts who believed in its mission.
Over time however, as professional managers were appointed who prioritised process over purpose, and who were rewarded by stakeholders with a singular focus on profit, the organisation inevitably develops a culture, a “dominant paradigm” that loses sight of the bigger picture in favour of short term goals, measures and rewards. The founders who injected the passion leave to start again, and Michaelangelo Partners becomes Rockbreakers Plc.
But when eventually the rocks are reduced to fine powder, and when the last ounce of value has been extracted from the market for ground rock, no level of efficiency or reward will fuel further growth. A dramatic change is needed.
The reality is that the Rockbreakers are still Sculptors at heart.
There comes a time, when we have enough (and enough is a personal unique measure) when we need to replace goals with dreams. To replace the hard edge of SMART goals with purposeful exploration, and clear destinations with a sense of direction. To travel with people who share our curiosity and purpose, and who will share with us and support us in our exploration.
Both Rockbreakers Plc and its staff have a decision to make. To continue to travel together and rewrite the rules and assumptions of that relationship or to go their separate ways. The market for Rockbreaking is done.
The journey back from Rockbreaker to Sculptor is a decision to commit to being an artist, not a labourer. It requires us to set off and be prepared to see the sculpture in the block of stone, and as Michael Angelo reputedly said, to remove all the stone that is not part of the sculpture.
The siren voices of what Stephen Pressfield calls “the Resistance” are loud and insistent at the beginning. They play to our fear, they insist we are foolish, and that we are safer with compliance and acceptance rather than inspiration and purpose.
But they are, of course, wrong – unless your vocation is Rockbreaking.
We need support during this period. Sometimes it may be friends, for some it may be a coach, whilst for others it will be an internal voice that is strong enough, driven often by frustration and an inner rebel, A commitment to painting in bright colours, rather than beige.
It does not have to be a giant leap. It is more often small steps, regularly taken, and steadily increasing in size until the landscape we see around us changes, and we can look for our new studio, and start sculpting.
A commitment, to ourselves or others at the start of the day will change the way we see the day, it alters our perception and enhances our mood and with it, the size of our steps.
Regular dialogue with someone we trust will allow us to see how far we have come, whether we are headed in the right direction for us, how far we have to go, and provision for the journey.
It’s often hard to start, but the journey is worth it.
It beats Rockbreaking.
The horse, the hospital and the black swan.
We know from research, best outlined in Alfie Kohn’s book “punished by rewards” that when we take jobs with real intrinsic reward, like teaching and nursing and overlay them with extrinsic measures and goals, and “motivate” through bonuses and other “rewards” we destroy the joy of the tasks.
When we apply continual pressure on a supply chain, and force suppliers to trim costs through ever riskier means, it is inevitable that refuge will be taken in specifications and blame, rather than innovation through innovation and risk ( and margin impact) sharing.
When we overlay initiative with process and annual appraisal, we end up with employee engagement levels at record lows
Nicholas Taleb has written fluently on the concept of “black swans”; those events which have real impact, but are seen as inevitable only in retrospect.
In economies under pressure, where costs and shareholder returns are given primacy, those of us with extended supply chains – product or service- should be paying attention.
The shadows of Black Swans can be detected, but only if we are prepared to question conventional wisdom. It’s a time for self assertion, self efficacy and speaking out. None of this should have taken us by surprise.
January 21, 2013
Sacrificing Certainty
The cover of this week’s “New Scientist” is emblazoned with “Sacrificing Einstein; why we need to let go of relativity”. It is referring to recent progress that suggests we have to move on from leaning on e=mc2 as a critical platform.
I hate that. It took me years to get to grips with the idea and its implications. And now I have to let it go?!!. Please!
But I do, just as we have to let go of how the Industrial Economy brought us unimaginable economic progress. They have both done their job, and put us in a place where we can dare to imagine letting them go. We wouldn’t be where we are without them.
But letting go is hard. All around, we see frantic attempts to improve the model we have to let go, in the hope that we won’t. But all the signals are there. It may hang on, but it won’t recover, and nobody is going to turn and say “relax everyone, is was right after all”.
The opportunities presented by the changes are huge, but letting go of our certainties, the crutch of what we were told was true, is hard.
January 17, 2013
The Perils of Process
The price we have paid for efficiency is well disciplined processes. The problem with well disciplined processes is that they often blind us to change and inhibit what we see.
As we listened to the news this morning, and heard the assertions that the problem with contaminated burgers lay somewhere down the supply chain, you could almost hear the patter of lawyers and a robust defence mechanism. Trouble is, we don’t buy from their supply chain, we buy from them. If you choose to focus on a rigid set of test protocols, and don’t explore, what else do you expect?
As HMV and Blockbusters call in the Administrators, you can hear the claim that they didn’t respond to obvious market changes. Why not, I wonder? Perhaps no medals for dissenting voices?
We are at the end of the farming phase of the industrial economy. It’s time for the explorers to set out for the uncharted corners of the connection economy.
January 13, 2013
Business Development in the 21st Century
In the Industrial Economy, business development is a process, a learned skill, supported by case studies, analysis, and qualification. It’s biggest problem, which is near terminal, in a connection economy, is that it is based on analyzing the future by looking backwards.
21st Century business development is very different, very messy and almost guaranteed to give corporate HR departments apoplexy.
Meaningful business development (versus tinkering at the edges) requires us to allow people to uncover four key attributes (note: they have to be there to be revealed; we cannot fake them, and they don’t get injected with an MBA).
It needs:
• Rebels. Frustration with the status quo, and a desire to do something about it, is a key correlate of creativity (defined herein Ken Robinson’s terms – the process of adding value to an idea). It provides the momentum, but is often not highly prized in organizations craving compliant competence.
• Explorers. The key attribute of an explorer is to be able to set off with a sense of direction, but no fixed destination. By definition, there is no more than a rudimentary map for where they are going. Their role is to make one. Ancient Seafarers labeled these areas with “here be dragons”. In a corporate environment with shareholder guardians, maybe not much has changed.
• Prospectors. There has to be something in it for us at the end. Research has shown that real entrepreneurs have “grit”. The ability to stick at it (that magical figure of 10,000 hours, originally popularized by Malcolm Gladwell in relation to Mastery) appears again.
• Naturalists. We need to have the curiosity, and ability, to see and catalogue new things on the expedition. Darwin set off to the Galapagos because he expected to find new things- but he didn’t know what exactly. If the prospectors are focused on gold, they might miss the diamonds they dig up whole looking for it.
These qualities are not those often required in organizations seeking efficiency, certainty and guaranteed, quantified returns. But we’re in a new age of exploration.
The economic “lands” that have driven the last 150 years of prosperity are grazed dry. We are looking for expedition leaders, adventurers and rebels.
We have enormous opportunity.
January 12, 2013
Wanted: Rebels with a Cause
The Connection Economy is replacing the Industrial Economy at a dizzying pace, whether we’re ready or not. The implications, and opportunities, are as enormous as they are unavoidable. And many of us are sleep walking into it.
Every day sees the collapse of an industrial era business, and the foundations of others undermined by a steady stream of disruptive ideas and businesses.
The last hurrah of the traditional Western Industrial business, outsourcing to low cost economies, is proving to be palliative care. Not only are costs in these countries rising, but the emerging economies have great energy and imagination, and are usurping and outperforming the Western businesses they have been hosting.(Vijay Govinderajan’s book “Reverse Innovation” is a great primer.)
In the West, the last ten years has seen an explosion of web based companies that have disrupted the print, music and distribution businesses and brought many to their knees. Witness Kodak, Borders and the like.
But this is only the start of it. The revolution is about to hit manufacturing, as the capabilities of micro manufacture increase exponentially, and costs of entry decrease dramatically. (Chris Anderson’s book “Makers” as an excellent introduction. Economies of scale, market share, and concepts of intellectual property are fragile shields.
In the face of this, the response of many established industrial businesses has been a combination of quiet, incremental innovation and an obsession with costs and efficiency, and an apparent unwillingness to recognize the scale of the challenge coming at them. They now find themselves efficient at what worked at their height, rather like the highly developed but inflexible machines they operate. They have strong financial balance sheets, but that will not provide the resilience needed in the face of the “Black Swans” gliding quietly towards them.
For twenty years, coaching provided an excellent way of stimulating senior management, and drove many of the initiatives that make the businesses as efficient as they are. Coaching, at its best, uncovers and releases the ideas, motivation and talent that can move a business forward.
But.
But much of coaching has now itself become industrialized. As it has grown, it has fallen victim to an obsession with standards, terminology, qualification, and “professionalisation” that is in danger of eliminating the capability to bring out the rebel, both in its own ranks, and in those of its clients, who can provide the perspective, leadership and vision to move the business forward as well as upward.
Coaching is in danger of becoming made safe, and controllable. A slow “death by tender”.
But it doesn’t have to happen. I know many coaches who are at the top of their game. Practiced, passionate, committed, articulate and imaginative they are I think the stuff of creative revolution, not machine minders.
One of the biggest challenges facing the coaching movement, other than its obsession with becoming respectable, has been its lack of scalability, and the subsequent inability to reach much beyond the senior ranks of management,or individuals who can afford it.
But.
But Technology will change that. The engagement and stimulus provided by great coaches is also present in video games, a fast growing sector set to be worth $84 billion in a couple of years. World of Warcraft has more in common with coaching than we think. The notion of Quest, Guilds, Goals and Rewards are relevant, and we know from research that the degree of “Flow” generated by these games would be the envy of the vast majority of current coaches.
Watson, IBM’s thinking computer has progressed rapidly from being the progeny of the “Big Blue” that transfixed the world of Chess, to beat the quiz show elite in “Jeopardy”, and is now set to pass the examinations of a medical practitioner in the USA. It will provide fast, highly researched, highly accurate second opinions to human practitioners. The prospect of an offspring of Watson and Apple’s SIRI technology may not be that far away. The ability to provide something similar for great coaches?
There’s an App for this.
In addition, technology offers coaches themselves the ability to connect with clients with for whom they can do great and joyful work, co-creating initiatives of real value and contribution. The treadwheel process of tendering for corporate business remains attractive for some, but increasingly it will become a choice, not a necessity.
Coaching, whether practiced as a professional coach or as a way of being by a professional in another sphere is at its best for Rebels with a cause.
As we move deeper into the connection economy, and the disruption and opportunities it will bring, there has never been a greater need.
We need Harleys in the Executive Car Park
