Wednesday, 28 March 2018

There's more than one right answer (with gratitude to Dewitt Jones)

I love this presentation.

Our vision (what we see now, have seen, dream to see) becomes our perception which becomes our reality.

"Every day we get to choose what lens we see the world with." says Dewitt and "there's more than one right answer."

More from Dewitt Jones.

Who will you become?

What will you do next?

Be remarkable.

Monday, 26 March 2018

Moving on from the misleaders (with gratitude to Hector Macdonald)

I'm currently studying this remarkable book. It will definitely make my recommended reading list, and at this stage my top 21 list.

This is a highly valuable work for our time in history.

You can get this book yourself here.

I find the idea of competing truths compelling. It's an concept that explains a lot.

Competing truths - legitimate ways of describing a person, event, thing or policy.

I love Hector's three types of communicators:

"Advocates: selecting competing truths that create a reasonably accurate impression of reality in order to achieve a constructive goal.

Misinformers: innocently propagating competing truths that unintentionally distort reality.

Misleaders; deliberately deploying competing truths to create an impression that they know is not true."

This is not a book about fake news or post-truth. It's a book the truth.

The misleaders seem to dominate the daily news.

I've decided that I am not going to allow my television screen, so-called smart phone or any other machine to give the misleaders air time.

I've moved on from the misleaders. I believe all caring citizens of our world need to move on from the misleaders by voting them out, leaving their employ, not buying their products. Whatever it takes in good human being ways.

Who will you become?

What will you do next?

Be remarkable.

Friday, 23 March 2018

Wednesday, 21 March 2018

Why not test your theories Prime Minister?

My observation is that politicians waste a truck load of time, energy and money in so-called debate. The end result is often mediocrity (and more waste) because the eventual action is so watered down from the original proposal.

Why not test theories instead, have after-action reviews and then implement further?

In Australia right now there's "debate" about more tax cuts for companies with our Prime Minister and his side arguing such will lead to more investment and more jobs. This was the other major parties position too once. Of course now they are the alternative government and an election looms so they couldn't possibly agree with the government! Yes I'm sceptical of politics and increasingly becoming cynical.

How about in your business? Are you listening, testing and reflecting?

Who will you become?

What will you do next?

Be remarkable.

Monday, 19 March 2018

Story Driven is a remarkable book by Bernadette Jiwa

Here's my Amazon review of this remarkable book.

In a business sense we should be driven by our unique reason for being, not by what other businesses are doing.

The insights in this book will help.

Bernadette says "Great companies have something in common: they don't try to matter by winning. They win by mattering."

Who will you become?

What will you do next.

You can get Bernadette's book here.

Be remarkable.

Friday, 16 March 2018

We need a human revolution not another industrial one

I love this Jeremy Rifkin documentary that you can watch yourself here.

I first posted about Jeremy's work 8 years ago here.

I also love The five pillars from Jeremy's 2011 book Third Industrial Revolution. These are:

"1) shifting to renewable energy; 

2) transforming the building stock of every continent into micro-power plants to collect renewable energies on site; 

3) deploying hydrogen and other storage technologies in every building and throughout the infrastructure to store intermittent energies; 

4) using Internet technology to transform the power grid of every continent into an energy-sharing intergrid that acts just like the Internet (when millions of buildings are generating a small amount of energy locally, on site, they can sell surplus back to the grid and share electricity with their continental neighbours: and 

5) transitioning the transport fleet to electric plug-in and fuel cell vehicles that can buy and sell electricity on a smart, continental, interactive power grid.”

— Excerpted from The Third Industrial Revolution: How Lateral Power is Transforming Energy, the Economy, and the World, by Jeremy Rifkin

While there's evidence of progress with the above they're a long way from reality.

We need a human revolution not another industrial one

The World Economic Forum were on about a fourth industrial revolution in 2016 which I thought was nonsense and said so in several posts. Rifkin and others pushed back on the idea believing we’re still to complete the third.

Despite my respect for Rifkin I hate the idea of further industrial revolutions.

I believe they are in the main a form of control by greedy old men and a whole bunch of technological people who are just as greedy (there are some exceptions)

I believe that unless we have a human revolution, digital, data etc will only bring grief (think Facebook/Russia influencing the last American election).

There's already trouble with many. Uber for example where clearly some people are earning under award wages

In all previous industrial revolutions despite the wonderful progress they brought people suffered and the scale this time is unimaginable.

Who will you become?

What will you do next?

Be remarkable.

Wednesday, 14 March 2018

What takes your breath away?

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

My breath is taken away when I observe humans full of the joy of life and being the best version of themselves.

What takes your breath away?

Be remarkable.

Monday, 12 March 2018

All leaders must be ethnographers

Another reason I loved David Snowden's Tedx talk here is his reference to ethnography.

A key component of ethnography is observing from the point of view of the subject.

Image courtesy of

I believe all leaders must be ethnographers. It is a key to being empathetic, one of the must have skills of leadership in the new world of work.

The Ready includes working as ethnographers in their approach to working with clients. Me too!

Who will you become?

What will you do next?

Be remarkable.

Friday, 9 March 2018

The simplicity of complexity and the wonderful work of David Snowden

I love this Tedx talk.

I also love David's dry humour.

David's use of engineering as a metaphor is compelling. Using accountancy or law would be equally compelling I reckon. A generation of CEO's have been engineers, accountants and lawyers. There's exceptions of course yet as a general rule there's a lack of understanding of people in these three disciplines.

Every problem/challenge in your world including your business is a human problem. The solutions are simple yet complex!

Who will you become?

What will you do next?

Completing the following statements with your employees are a great place to start.

Our business solves the following human problems/challenges ...

Our solution/s embody the following characteristics of fully alive human beings ...

Be remarkable.

Wednesday, 7 March 2018

Why human-being centred workplaces outshine the rest

Broadly speaking there are 3 kinds of businesses:

1) those focused on profit,
2) those focused on the product/service, and
3) those focused on people (particularly customers and employees)

Those focused on people are what I refer to as human-being centred workplaces. These outshine the rest.

In my work with clients my focus is on helping employees to be remarkable and to do work that's meaningful for them and highly valuable for others. These three I've found to be a sure-fire way to achieve better business results at less personal cost than the past.

These are based on a fundamental success principle, who before do.

In the service of your customers your employees must be being and doing what your competitors employees aren't or being and doing better, differently or more uniquely. 

In addition to this whatever is automated or where humans aren't involved better be aligned with where human-beings are involved, otherwise the inconsistencies will cost you.

Who will you become?

What will you do next?

Be remarkable.

Monday, 5 March 2018

Why after-action-reviews are critical conversations

In The Appreciative Leader handbook I discuss eight conversations that really count in performance leadership and ensuring both personal and business relationships are highly valuable and mutually rewarding.

A key characteristic to the success of these conversations is making sure that they are candid and convivial. 

This post focuses on After-Action-Reviews. 

After-Action-Reviews are just one of the conversations we can have that are far more valuable than feedback, which I think is valuable, yet the least most valuable of the eight conversations.

In a great book Who Do We Choose To Be? Margaret Wheatley suggest four great questions for After-Action-Reviews:

1) What just happened?
2) Why do you think it happened?
3) What can we learn from this?
4) How will we apply these learnings?

You can apply these questions to any actions. Try them. And please let me know how you get on.

Who will you become?

What will you do next?

Be remarkable.

Friday, 2 March 2018

The vital differences between customer service & the total customer experience

Our neighbour Patrick is the new chef and part owner of landmark Cafe Zero near our home.

My wife and I have lunched here twice in a week!

Great food and the total experience excellent. People are noticing. Restaurant full today.

In the past we didn't rate this restaurant. What's changed? Three things are now distinctive:

1) Patrick is a very experienced chef so the food is above average and nuanced.

2) The service is prompt, friendly and attentive. More than just good service that is a given anywhere today. I'd just finished saying to my wife if the food arrives now it will be just right and it arrived right then!

3) When I paid the bill the young woman was genuine in her conversation with us.

What's in the above for you?

There must be at least one-thing distinctive about your product or service that is above the norm otherwise your business is in trouble and may never recover.

Who will you become?

What will you do next?

Be remarkable.