Category: Organisation Behaviour
-
Become Strategically Unavailable
First, you may ask, what is “Strategic Unavailability” anyway? What is Strategic Unavailability? If you say “yes” to every request for your time, money or attention you will have none for the areas that are your own personal priority. If you want to achieve success, you must retain most of your resources and dedicate them…
-
7 Signs that People are Engaged in Your Business
Are your people engaged? People consistently put in extra effort beyond what is expected. People are highly motivated to contribute to the success of the organisation. People consistently look for more efficient and effective ways of getting the job done. People have a strong sense of personal accomplishment from their work. People understand how their roles help…
-
Your Scarcest Resource
I know plenty of financial advisors who would love to spend a few hours reviewing my investments, cash position, investment goals and helping me make a realistic plan. I know how much I spent on food, travel, housing, school in the last month, year and if I did the sums I could calculate a rough…
-
The End of the Knowledge Worker
I hear that we are in the economy of the knowledge worker. Nope, we skipped that. We were supposed to be shifting from the manufacturing worker to the knowledge worker. All the big gurus told us of this shift. They tell me that it has been going on for 20 years. The only problem is that…
-
The Causes of The Great War
The First World War began in 1914. Today marks the day that Britain and Northern Ireland entered the war. Over 9 million soldiers died in the 4 years until 11 November 1918. Total direct casualties were over 37 million (source). My great grandfather Sidney was in the trenches in the Great War. He never spoke…
-
6 Key Characteristics of “A” Players
Everyone wants to be Bruce Lee, but few want to put in the 10,000 (or more) hours of practice and preparation. It is only when the bar is held high that we can consistently put in the practice and push our skills to the highest levels. What makes for an ‘A’ Player? The simplest possible…
-
The Abilene Paradox
When we all end up doing what nobody wanted to do I was out at a dinner with a large group of friends recently. At the end of the night I overheard two people talking about a local beach party. One said “these beach parties are a big thing here in Spain.” The other said…
-
UnProductive 101: Paving the Cow Path
When I worked at Accenture, we were often in the business of identifying the existing business processes and then analysing how we would enable these processes with technology. Sometimes it was putting a mobile phone purchase process onto Siebel CRM, sometimes it was putting insurance sales onto SAP ERP. A senior partner used to say…
-
Some Reflections On Good Strategy
What is Good Strategy? These points come from my notes from listening to a lecture by Prof. Pat Gibbon of UCD Smurfit Business School in Dublin during the Executive Edge day in May 2014. Good strategy begins with a clear diagnosis (widely accepted) of the real current condition of the business. If there is nothing…
-
No one buys a $57,000 watch to tell time
I came across this paragraph in a blog post by sales professional Grant Cardone. “No one buys a $57,000 watch to tell time. People buy things to solve problems. The cost of the item isn’t what matters. Once the buyer is able to see the problem the product solves, their decision becomes much easier to…