2011

Who are you?

Personal productivity, Reflect No Comments

Before ‘who am I’,

lets consider ‘what are we’?

The sum total of our roles?    Father?  Sister? Colleague?

Or is there more?

Actually, what is your ‘guiding purpose’ ?

OR

What really motivates you?  What makes you tick?  What are your values?

It took Jayne a while to realise that it wasn’t feeling important at work that made her feel good, but having a chance to encourage people wherever she went – to get into conversations with them and help out.

On reflection she discovered she hadn’t been brought up (or made) to put herself first all the time, but to live as if reciprocity, rapport and commitment were the norm.

Tags: ,

Helping your customers choose.

Do No Comments

This website from a hospital was pointed out to us by a client this week. It gives patients as much information as possible to guide their decision about whether, where and when to go to emergency health services in Lincolnshire.

We like this.

What can you do to help your customers make the most informed choices about your products and services?

Tags: , ,

Quiet carriages – surprise!

Reflect No Comments

A bit of a surprise this morning – the loud ringing of a mobile phone and a long conversation on an early train journey.

The arrival of quieter journeys (and restaurants) has crept up on us – despite our increased connectivity with dongles, BB, iPhones

Texting and social media are now the order of the day – even for many oldies

Tags: , ,

The original festivals

Think No Comments

Cycling though central Cambridge on the way to the station – just having received 3 mailings advertising summer music festivals – I thought…

Just how many fine old churches there were directly on about 100 metres of my route – St Johns, Trinity, St Michaels, Great St Marys, Kings…

And how majestic they would have looked, especially when surrounded by flimsy, low level housing and a variety of street entertainment and commerce.

A bit like the sight of the festival stages in a sea of tents and fast food stalls, shops and bars.

Maybe the Churches were the Renaissance festival – buildings full of noise and light, where people turned up from their hovels and mansions for moments of awe and wonder…

Like stages at Glastonbury and Latitude?

Tags: ,

Tell them how you’re doing (before they ask)

Personal productivity, Reflect No Comments

I was getting a car tyre valve looked at.

I noticed a load of review cards in date order on the wall – listing satisfaction out of 5 (and why) for a random set of customers.

The surprise? 

They had put up the low scores too – the ones at 2/5 complaining of glitches and the ones at 4/5 complaining of cost.  Interestingly, none were complaining of the technical quality of the engineering.

The lesson? 

In an era of web based reviewing and polling, maybe it is worth getting there first and being open – it impressed me.

Tags: , ,

Meditation as an organisational intervention?

Do, Personal productivity, photos No Comments

Being still is getting to be quite popular (in literature and magazine articles) it seems.

Meditation

Recently, a client group chose to pick up an offer from a funky venue in London for a 30 minute meditation session.  It was very popular with this rational and scientific bunch – so much so, they have experimented with a minute of silence at the start of their team meeting.

Tags: ,

The CSR buckets – using your head, heart and hands

Do No Comments

Broadly, there are 3 corporate social responsibilty ‘buckets’ that companies tend to invest their social concern into:

1. Climate

2. Bio-diversity

3. Human health and well-being (that includes the position of women, education/literacy, food security, infrastructure and fair trade as well as health, housing and education).

These buckets can be summarised as addressing carbon, flora/fauna or people.

And overall there are three sorts of ways companies can contribute to these areas:

1. Gifts to particular charities and projects, often close to the personal interest of certain company leaders

2. Founding social enterprises, often in partnership with others

3. Integrating their concerns into all decisions – trying to influence the DNA of the organisation. 

So, we have a sort of 3×3 grid.

Where is your heart (which of the 3 buckets motivates you the most)? 

What do you want your practical actions (hands) to be?

The challenge is to use your head to make that ‘what and where’ a success!

Tags: , ,

Assumptions about HR

Think No Comments

There are a couple of assumptions that underpin a lot of thinking about the future role of HR (which is a topic we have been covering in scenario planning, simulation and action planning).

One (largely from within HR) is that it is all about becoming better strategic business partners.  The other, mostly from outside, is that it is about getting basic transactional services offshored and online to increase efficiencies in supporting individual members of staff and line managers.  So those who own or comment on companies should be interested in this recent FT piece.

 FT HR article

Both these views can be seen as causes AND responses to the ‘I hate hr’ movement.

Tags: , ,

Still the 2 global cities?

Do No Comments

Two pictures on sale at a provincial John Lewis store.

Both London and New York get the funky mood board treatment.

Since posting this on World Class Cities a year ago, most people seem to agree that only these two places have lots of things in them that many (most) people in the world would know about – from red buses and yellow taxis to tall towers and distinctive bridges.

And with two billion viewers tuning in to the Royal wedding on 29th April, there are now many more who will know 10 sights within a couple of hundred metres of St James’ Park!

Tags: ,

You don’t know everything Horatio!

Do No Comments

As a caution whenever we are tempted to get overcertain (a key risk in strategy work – hence the benefits of scenario planning), this line from Shakespeare’s Hamlet is worth remembering:

“There are more things in heaven and earth…than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

Tags: , , ,

Phil's Blog

Sign up for Phil’s regular blog.

Email: phil.hadridge@idenk.com