Change is most definitely in the Air

Mark is right, Status Quo be gone!

The rules have changed and a few successful folk have made the transition.

Have you?

I reviewed a book some years ago where the young and athletic author tells of losing a foot race on the beach to a senior citizen. Why? He allowed the elder statesman to set the rules. "He who makes the rules, wins."

Getting some altitude is a great way to frame the real issues before us today. Yes, the stock market is once again above that somewhat enchanted 10,000 mark. But look at the companies that are doing well (with respect to stock price). $AAPL is at or near a two year high. $BAC not so much.

New rules, new leaders

In other words, there has never been a better time to take charge of one's destiny. In fact Mark, there are a lot of people in and out of industry that probably won't make it if they don't.


Jeff 'SKI' Kinsey, Jonah

Change Is In the Air- I Think....

It has been an interesting couple of weeks. I have heard from several people I am close to that they have found important new roles that they are pleased about. I have decided to make a change and sharpen my focus in my own endeavors. The stock market is up- at least temporarily. Many economists are declaring the recession over.

The first thing that is interesting to me is the issue of the economy. I have heard "experts" begin to refer to this as a "jobless" recovery. I don't get that. Is that like Jumbo Shrimp? How to we pronounce the recession over if we have large numbers of people who are still unemployed or underemployed? Because the stock market is up? How is that affecting your personal financial well being?

I read some information recently about a change that concerned me, but didn't shock me. The "change" was that the large financial players have been using the bailout money to fund investments in the market rather than reinvesting in programs and things that really benefit the average American. Coming from financial services recently that doesn't surprise me that much. Most financial service organizations stopped making their profits in the traditional sense; the "margin" between what they paid for deposits and what they make loans for some time ago. They borrowed some "creativity" from other industries and found that there are much better opportunities to generate fee income for "services" such as overdraft protection, ATM access, and other transaction fees.

The interesting thing to me is that they are missing huge opportunities to increase their income and benefit their stakeholders by utilizing things like supply chain management and TQM techniques, but they have been relatively slow adopters.

This weekend the House passed the most sweeping legislation since Medicare on health care reform. Depending on which side of the equation you represent this is either a huge step forward or the continuing "socialization" of our economy. I am suspending judgement. I think our current health care system has significant flaws in a number of areas, notably our ability to deliver high quality health care in an efficient and cost effective manner.

I had hoped that the recession might cause more employers to examine their relationships with stakeholders, especially employees and to address flaws in our models that have existed for years. In many cases I feel like we lost traction. We went back to the "be grateful you have a job model".

We need a new leadership model. Much of our leadership modeling is based on financial and economic metrics- i.e. a "jobless" recovery. When I read about the stresses and reactions from those stresses I am concerned that we are kidding ourselves.

I have decided to focus my "change" efforts at a very basic level, by hopefully effecting the way organizations select and orient their senior leadership teams in their hiring and selection process. My colleague, Joseph Skursky refers to this as "hire hard-manage easy".

I see things on the web asking whether it is OK to probe employee's values alignment with your organizational values before you hire them. My answer is "duh", of course. You can't and shouldn't get into protected areas, but do you really want people in your lifeboat who don't support or understand your core values? I have to tell you after thirty years of experience, changing somebody's values is really hard. It is much easier to align them upfront.

As an employer you also have the freedom within reason to set the values of your organization and require compliance if not commitment to those values. You aren't saying to those who don't share your values they are bad people, you are saying they would be better suited in an environment where they share the organization's values. Trust me, people who are technically competent , but don't represent a good "fit" will never really be outstanding performers.

So I think that we are at a stage where we accept the status quo or we become our own personal change agent. I know which choice I have made, what about you?

Mark Herbert

Idea Connection - CEN Navarra - 2009

It was a great session in CEN Navarra. We were presenting ideaCONNECTION services. I think the spanish market will start to see Colaborative Problem Solving as a real cheap investment for the return it presents. Innovation paradigm is on top of today's business news. Internal R&D departments have a great battle in front to prove and stop external and efficient tools, knowledge and processes to step in.
Let's see what happens.

Lawrence McDonald - Should Banks Break-Up

Google Wave presentation

Advance Review: Awaken Your Genius Awaken Your Genius

Thank you Ricardo Andorinho

We had coffee this morning, but Ricardo probably won't remember. He was in Portugal; me? I was in the USA. So, how did the coffee thing happen?

Like most mornings, I took a book with me on my coffee run. Today, it was hot off the press: Awaken Your Genius, by Ricardo Andorinho. Expected release date: November 30, 2009. Just in time for Christmas gift giving. In fact, the web site will be up in the next few days to accept advance orders.

So, how did I get my hands on a copy?

It is called an "Advance Review Copy" —it's where the publisher prints an early version of the book to elicit brief reviews that can be used to promote the book upon release. As the publisher, I made sure that I received the second copy of the book as it came off the press. Ricardo, the first.

I gotta tell you, it is better than I remember!

Ricardo poured his soul into the pages that make up this book. But don't take my word for it, consider this early review:

"This is not your grandfather's Business Leadership Guide! Ricardo challenged my thinking; even caused me to wonder if I should give even more thought to some of the decisions that cross my desk on a daily basis."
—Robert S. Wood, Proprietor, www.OldWestAntiques.biz


Need to take your life to the next level?

Drop me a line and request the link to the advance order desk.



Jeff 'SKI' Kinsey
www.throughput.us/contactSKI/

P.S. Seriously Ricardo, thanks for allowing me to help give birth to your first book. It is an honor. Plus, a special shout out to Sara Williams for her keen sense of editing. I ask that she use a light touch, to insure the book retained just a hint of the broken English that makes my conversations with Ricardo so enjoyable. Mission accomplished.

Creative Learning

Dear all,

It was a 2 day exciting event held in Lisbon about creative learning.

A great orgnization, rulled by the way human kind is able of integrating knowledge throught different kind of supports and driven by circumstances.

Informal learning is getting advantage in a digital era.

Antonio Nunez opened a great number of conferences and speaches.

George Siemens described the concept of Connectivism and showed us the importance of Network

The conference did cover a wide number of tools and aspects that might accelerate how we learn. Several projects using Moodle and Second Life were presented during the event.

It's our choice! We need to identify the tools that serve out best interest. We cannot run from what is happening around us! What I think we might agree is that our old school is loosing efficiency for each second consumed in our life time.

Best regards,
Ricardo Andorinho

Conference Call - Social Entrepreneurs

Dear Strategists,

We are organizing a conference call with brilliant people, for posting on our blog. If you are interested in attending, here you have the agenda:

Starts:	Sunday October 11, 2009, 04:00PM
Ends:	Sunday October 11, 2009, 05:00PM

Conference Dial-In: 1-218-862-7200
Conference Code: 802305
Time Zone: GMT Login: 10 minutes before to organize the call.
Agenda
- web 2.0
- Linkedin
- Global Entrepreneur Movement

Have a great month.
Look forward to hear your voice on the call.
MBUintelligence

In Search of.....?

I have always found August to be kind of an interesting month. I am naturally restless so I struggle with it. I like the fact that it is summer, but the fact business seems to slow to a crawl drives me crazy sometimes. I have too much time to spend questioning myself and my purpose.

I read an interesting book this weekend, The Geography of Bliss, by Eric Weiner. The author, who is a self professed "grump" charted his journey through a number of countries ranging from Bhutan to Moldova and the U.S. in search of what defines and creates happiness for people. It is a pretty interesting book that demonstrates that the correlation between standard of living, weather, and other factors is not nearly as absolute as we would think. It would seem that Maslow had it right.

The importance of relationships between people was a constant recurring theme. People and cultures with a strong relationship network are generally happier. When the author posed the question of whether or not there was a higher "state" of evolution than happiness to an Indian guru, the guru responded that love and relationships are indeed higher.

The other thing that was profound was the relationship between doing something you perceive as having a purpose you can personally align with had on happiness or contentment. I know it is critically important to me, is was interesting to have it "validated". It was also interesting that being able to share that purpose with others by talking about it or literally sharing the activity is very important as well. It would seem happiness is rarely solitary.

It was also interesting that happiness needs polarity. Happiness without sadness or emotional "pain" becomes vanilla or complacency. People who pursue things vigorously enjoy the benefits of both "poles" more than those who navigate only smooth waters.

Probably the most interesting place he visited to me was Iceland. It is dark and cold there a lot, it is a relatively small geographical area, but has a very high "happiness" index. I particularly liked the Icelandic perspective that experimenting with multiple careers and interests is encouraged, not based on your "talent", but rather your passion. Since I seem prone to reinventing myself perhaps that is why it resonates with me. Sounds like the Icelanders where embracing and celebrating "whole people" long before I began pursuing it.

So in the dog days of August I leave you with these reflections-

• Relationships really are important
• Doing what you love may bring you more happiness than doing what you excel at
• Sharing your passions and interests seems to multiply rather than diminish them
• Happiness without pain or sadness is like love without passion, a little bland

What do you think...?

Mark Herbert

Where did I put my keys?

And I search and search and finally find them.

It's every time the same. We need to use our keys to unlock certain things in our life's. And when we need it we can't find them. Or not few times we aren't able to identify those keys that allows us go through our needs and goals.

There are great human beings on this planet. But the opposite is also true.
There are great professionals on this planet. But the opposite is also true.
There is a small number of great sources of information available and a huge number of bad ones. The answer is easy to understand: Money.

How can we deal with this in a beneficial way?

Every individual possess his own keys to succeed in life. What has worked for someone may not work with another. That's the human nature. The good news is that everyone can learn everything they really want to. Depends on him/her.

I don't really like the word success because it is too difficult to measure and depends on subjective judgements. I prefer to talk about a different approach that is responsible for you to experience some success. Are you happy? Doing what you do. Is your effort recognized by you, your boss and your family? Are you really happy? If not, at least professionally, change.

Success will be always the consequence of doing something right. I don't really know to describe success using a different group of words.

It's much more important to look inside for something that you would love to do as a professional than trying to find what others did to excel. This approach may not work with you, regardless the importance it has for helping us in drawing a better way of doing it.

Until today my keys are these:

-Realize that YOU can’t know about everything in this life. It is just impossible-

1. Realize that half of the planet knows more than YOU around your core skills.

2. Learn how to improve your skills by focusing on the strengths of the people you meet during your life, personally and professionally. And practice every day.

3. Learn how to be flexible. If YOU are not able to change, YOU can’t launch any new projects. YOU will learn how to change, if YOU practice receptiveness. Receptiveness is the need YOU should have to understand the point of view of others. And practice every day.

4. Learn how to integrate others strengths into your way of seeing the exact same problems. Integrate rational and logical thinking processes and ignore superficial issues. And practice every day.

5. Apply what YOU learned in the previous points and measure the results (good or bad). Practice every day, focusing on the good and don’t forget to excel in the bad. And practice every day.

6. Help others and involve them in your decisions. YOU will get more knowledge. This will give YOU real oriented knowledge to implement in real life. Forget the theories. Life is a practical field. Practice every day with someone.

7. Study and Teach. It will make a life that can be really interesting. Your body will die one day but YOU may remain in the mind of millions.

This is a personal perspective and it is a small part of the book I am writing.
My best regards,
Ricardo Andorinho