Above the fog

6 thoughts from Tom Peters

2009-12-31T18:12:00.000-08:00

Just looking at a few of my favourite blogs and came across Tom Peter's thoughts on the coming year. He wants to focus on these words:
Resilience.
Thoughtfulness-Civility.
Serve.
Contribute.
Learn.
EXCELLENCE.

This looks like a pretty good list to me as well.

Flaws in leadership development

2009-11-28T20:10:00.001-08:00

Ken Parry in the AFR on 19 Oct 2009 (page 28) said "There are fatal flaws on the leadership development industry".
His view is that leadership training is wasted in organizations where the organsations policies and procedures are so restrictive that they remove a chance of leaders realizing their potential.
He sugests that a lot of leadership training is in fact succession planning. but leadership is needed at all levels of the organisation.
The key he says is to fine-tine the organisation "to remove internal transaction costs and allow leadership to flourish from within".

Data visualisation

2009-07-19T01:25:00.000-07:00

Great stuff demonstrated at TED (www.ted.com). See www.gapminder.org

Defining leadership

2007-11-10T00:39:00.000-08:00

A couple of less common definitions from an Acronym post:

“The capacity of a system to sense and shape its future”
(attributed to Rosetta Thurman although maybe from Peter Senge or Otto Scharmer. See the post).

Also may be a variant on:
"the capacity in the human community to shape the future." from Peter Senge.

As commented by Jamie Notter in the post, the focus on leadership as a system role rather than as a heroic individual characteristic opens up thinking about 'leading organisations'. I've often seen and heard the concept of a leading organisation in purpose/mission discussions in associations. But there is rarely a sensible discussion on what this means - what work does this imply, and what responsibilities does it carry?

Top 100 Business Blogs?

2007-11-10T00:32:00.000-08:00

A list based on Technorati rankings of business related advice blogs.

Interesting that Tom Peters doesn't rank! But still an interesting list to peruse.

Email writing

2007-09-19T05:25:00.000-07:00

A nice piece from Wired on writing emails: Wired

However it does suggest you keep emails short and long! Maybe just re-read before sending would help. But hooray for the call for a subject.

Enterprise 2.0

2007-08-27T06:11:00.000-07:00

Things are serious business when KPMG talks about them. So the publication of a paper on all things Web 2.0 or Enterprise 2.0 (is there a difference?) means it is time for a heads up.
Enterprise 2.0 Fad or Future
And they put (some) of their views into practice with simultaneous publication of a podcast.
But there is a big temptation to revert to traditional models and assume its just another piece of software. As a commentator on the FASTForward blog notes (FASTForward blog) its got to be more than just an add on to a version 1.0 organisational culture.
The inclusion of social software is interesting as this has been a very troubled field for a long time. Many love the concept of a community of ideas which progresses through an open and polite discussion in which the rationally superior argument wins. Hmm...which utopia had this idea first?
The KPMG paper is more realistic in its identification of blame and recognition as barriers to adoption.
Still some way to go on social software but wikis especially look good.

Seth on Shortage

2007-08-27T06:02:00.000-07:00

Seth Godin neatly expounds on the effects of commoditization and is appearance in new settings: Seth scarcity link.

By taking the concept into new areas (lawyers!) it makes me wonder about the paths to successful organisations. Godin suggests it is about being first in a market and getting out quick.

So the real competitive advantage therefore is the creation of a new niche, or being a very early adopter. But there is high inherent risk in this. So the trick may be to be agile and operating in several areas simultaneously - allowing for many failures with a small number of successes.

Or is Godin too pessimistic about the growth of commodization?

Fantastic achievement

2007-08-25T02:45:00.000-07:00

In 1770 Daniel Solander with Joseph Banks on the Cook exploration of eastern Australia discovered 222 new species of fish, 110 unknown genera and 1300 new species of plants. In an age today when a single new species is news this is a staggering discovery. The achievement of dealing intellectually with such a huge addition to knowledge must be matched with the physical work of managing and cataloguing. How would we cope today with discoveries of hundreds of new species in one trip? This must rank as one of the great scientific achievements of the last 300 years, yet it seems to be unknown. A fantastic achievement.

(source: Australian Financial Review, 24 August 2007, Review page 5)

Above the fog

2007-08-22T06:24:00.000-07:00

This blog is my collection of thoughts and links to business related items I find interesting. The title harks to Beinhocker's concept of the strategist as an expeditionary leader trying to find the high ground in the fog.

While the primary focus is on business strategy there is no doubt that I will wander into all sorts of oddities which interest me at the time.

(Source: E Beinhocker, On the origin of strategies, McKinsey Quarterly 1999)