Connected Intelligence – Leveraging Collective Wisdom
Vasu Srinivasan for ChangeThis.com
The World is Flat, declared Thomas Friedman.
It is a Long Tail, says Chris Anderson.
Everything is Miscellaneous, avers David Weinberger.
Seeing it as The Wisdom of Crowds was a profound insight from James Surowiecki.
Their perspectives addressed several aspects of business, life and the human condition in general.
The truth is that we have reached not one era, but a multitude of eras, all at once and in a time-space compressed fashion. This has caused a shift in our expectations and our practices that impacts how we work, what we consume and how we live life.
Currently, the only tool that we have in our hands to combat this phenomenon is Change Management. It is a linear response to the non-linear set of changes happening in this Poly-Era (or Era containing multiple Eras). It is so Newtonian. We need a holistic new paradigm.
Complex Systems, on the other hand, has the beautiful notion of Emergent Structures, which are patterns not created by a single event or rule. Instead, the interaction of each part with its immediate surroundings causes a complex chain of processes leading to some new order.
The Connected Intelligence System is a practitioner-centric corporate operating system that augments Knowledge Work. The principal components emerge out of simple interactions of fundamental components and are based on Complexity Thinking.
It provides tools to address the changes that have taken place all at once in the human enterprise due to the coming of the Poly-Era in a holistic fashion… read on
The Creation of Conscious Culture through Educational Innovation
Michael Strong for ChangeThis.com
…has a vision of schools which will promote authentic learning for our youth. He has a vision of creating institutions that model positive behavior. He believes that our society doesn’t provide this guidance early enough to help form the futures of children who are starved for meaning and inspiration. In this expansive manifesto, he calls for a diverse educational market in terms that any business person will appreciate… read on
How Starbucks’ Growth Destroyed Brand Value
some interesting reading for you…
many lessons to be learnt from the story of Starbucks
Posted by John Quelch for Harvard Business Publishing
Starbucks announcement that it will close 600 stores in the US is a long overdue admission that there are limits to growth.
In February 2007, a leaked internal memo written by founder Howard Schultz showed that he recognized the problem that his own growth strategy had created: Stores no longer have the soul of the past and reflect a chain of stores vs. the warm feeling of a neighborhood store. Starbucks tried to add value through innovation, offering wifi service, creating and selling its own music. More recently, Starbucks attempted to put the focus back on coffee, revitalizing the quality of its standard beverages. But none of these moves addressed the fundamental problem: Starbucks is a mass brand attempting to command a premium price for an experience that is no longer special. Either you have to cut price (and that implies a commensurate cut in the cost structure) or you have to cut distribution to restore the exclusivity of the brand. Expect the 600 store closings to be the first of a series of downsizing announcements. Sometimes, in the world of marketing, less is more.
Schultz sought, admirably, to bring good coffee and the Italian coffee house experience to the American mass market. Wall Street bought into the vision of Starbucks as the third place after home and work. New store openings and new product launches fueled the stock price. But sooner or later chasing quarterly earnings growth targets undermined the Starbucks brand in three ways.
Thinking through Problem Solving
Valarie A. Washington for ChangeThis.com
Problems lurk everywhere: under that stack of papers on your desk, in the unreturned phone call, within the carelessly worded email zipped off before its writer begins a long afternoon commute. Valarie Washington will teach you to diffuse potential problem bombs by thinking differently about problem solving… read on
The Freak Factor; Discovering Uniqueness by Flaunting Weaknesses
David Rendall for ChangeThis.com
My experience as an individual, consultant, parent and leader indicates that efforts to fix weaknesses are ineffective. Furthermore, I believe that the goal of being well-rounded is both undesirable and impossible to attain. The purpose of this manifesto is to explain why I believe this and to offer a better alternative.
These examples from my life illustrate the three primary lessons of this manifesto.
1.There is nothing wrong with you. Weaknesses are important clues to your strengths.
2.You find success when you find the right fit. You need to match your unique characteristics to situations that reward those qualities.
3.Your weaknesses make you different. They make you a freak and it’s good to be a freak…read on
I whole heartedly agree with David’s manifesto, good job.
The L3 Leadership “State of Being”; a Holistic Approach
Marc Michaelson & John Anderson for ChangeThis.com
With all the talk about Leadership these days, many managers and executives are frustrated by the myriads of approaches to Leadership Development. The L3 Leadership model assumes a different position than traditional, or even more progressive leadership models. L3 Leadership is more about who you are than it is about what position you hold, what training you have had, or what personality traits you bring to work and other life situations. L3 is based on the fact that personal leadership is a “state of being.” It is who you are, what you believe, and how you behave.
The L3 model of Leadership explores three critical attributes of effective leaders. These three attributes are:
o L1—Leading Self: Total Life Leadership. Achieving personal mastery and work/life integration.
o L2—Leading With Others: Creating and sustaining Collaborative Advantage.
o L3—Cultivating The Best Place To Work: A culture of high engagement, retention, performance and productivity…read on
Try to make your passion a business
THIS is a significant week for a reason that no one else will appreciate. It is exactly 20 years since Bernard Salt was first quoted in the national media on the subject of demographics. The story of how he got his start is an odd combination of luck and, looking back, naive determination.
In November 1989 he was 32 and had been working with the management consulting unit of a major accounting firm for six months. In the previous September he had walked into the managing partner’s office and said he had an idea for a research report that might generate advisory work with the property industry. His idea was to draw on ABS data to produce a ranking of the fastest-growing municipalities in Australia…the rest, as they say, is history! read on
Top of the Festive Season to you and yours…
Are you feeling a little black and white?
not sure what GLOW 2010 will bring?
ponder no more,
your Christmas wish is about to come true…
remember what you promised yourself in 2000?
it’s been 10 long years now… have you done it? if not,
are you ready to take on your 2010 challenge, with help this time…
I know I am…
You know the feeling; a sense of starting a new year synchronicity in the air, with both your heart and your intuition wanting to work in unison to bring the right clues, at the right time.
It’s where they are both on the same page, instead of your heart telling you one thing and your instincts another, that you know you need to trust and go with the flow.
Then someone like the entrepreneurial mother™ comes into your frame;
providing the focus and light initially, slowly developing the picture
preparing you to snap into the next shot…
My gift (and New Year pledge) to you is that together;
we work out what makes you GLOW
we work on how to make it GROW
and when ready, we work out how to GOJanuary 2010; we commence this conversation…
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Be part of the entrepreneurial mother™ship…
Could you use a desk for a hour/day/week, away from the hustle and bustle of home? Especially over the holidays? What about when you’re coming to Melbourne, and need somewhere to base for the day? And at the same time, have access to like-minded business people to energise what you’re doing? Then look no further, you are invited to join the entrepreneurial mother ™ hub, based in Camberwell VIC.
Interested? email mother@theentrepreneurialmother.com.au for further details.
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Let’s create a future that is our own….starting now
ho ho ho
Sole Trader Christmas Party!…
For a bit of fun….by Paul Hassing
here’s how your own Sole Trader Christmas Party might turn out!
I work alone from my home office. Running your own business is great, but it can make you a bit paranoid.
Last year was tough and, as my only employee, I really carried the can.
When December came, I felt a party was needed to reward effort and boost morale….read on
Self-Promotion for Introverts: Get Heard More. Even If You Talk less.
by Nancy Ancowitz for ChangeThis
Introverts. The world needs us, can’t live without us, and often doesn’t quite get us. However, we persist, mostly behind the scenes, quietly contributing to society — writing, creating, designing, researching, solving problems, and digging for treasures ancient and new. Are you one of us?
