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Today Change This: the fight club of the business world, launched it’s first set of manifestos. I’ve only had a chance to read the first one, “The Art of the Start” by Guy Kawasaki. I liked what it had to say. I’m still soaking in everything, but it comes at a good time for me. With me planning on diving into the world headlong by my own, this information comes to me at a very good time. Originally I had a bit of me being skeptical. I’m still looking to read the others, but so far so good. So, I’m doing my bit, to spread the word. Read On, my friends, read on.

A very quick yet poignant post by Anita Sharpe
on Worthwhile entitled Let’s Hear it for the Overworked Brain surgeon.

It’s a great point about the necessity for down time. The necessity for a break.
When is too much? I’ve taken a look at the people around and it’s not just the
nine-to-fivers ( or should I call the seven-to-whatever-ers) that do it. I’ve been
noticing the worst culprits are the entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs naturally are
doing things that inspire them, that get their juices going. It’s easy to forget
about time and to be working when it’s something that lights a fire under you.
But I ask all of you self employed people out there…When was the last time you
had a weekend? When was the last time you took a day off?. I know that all of you
would easily come back to me full of excuses as to why. Full of reasoning that
you can’t afford not to. I say blah blah blah! If you keep it up…you’ll burn
out, and then nothing will get done. Which is worse?

No, unlike the title, this has nothing to do with those things that the gymnasts are using, although the connection is a good coincidence ( Go Canada! Well that my little shout of patronage). What I refer to is the women and men behind the music streaming. These streamers in my opinion are another crew at the forefront. They aren’t spouting off words like bloggers. They aren’t pushing boundaries with ideas that are verbal. Their word is not a word at all. I took a small hiatus from listening, but I’m back and I’m back 10 fold. My entire day is listening to sweet beats from SomaFM or dublab. It’s going to places like ShoutCast and finding all the wonderful and obscure sounds from around the world.

They help me. Their music inspires me, which inspires my work, which hopefully gets me closer to innovation. I’m not their yet, but I’m hoping to be. I can go from thick phat beats, micro-beats, ambient, to indy rock, and foreign sounds; to the sitar and tabla. It’s about finding your sound. I find I’ve got the right stream for the right mood, and they now that I’ve found a few, they always hit the feeling on the button. Even if I don’t feel it, just listening to the right one will change me.

I came across another blog with the same question I’m about to ask. (sorry if I could find the reference I would put it down). What streams do you listen to?

Came across this in the eCustomerServiceWorld.com weekly newsletter.
The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed down from generation to generation, says that when you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. In many organizations, however, a whole range of far more advanced strategies are often employed, such as:

1. Change riders
2. Buy a stronger whip
3. Do nothing: “This is the way we have always ridden dead horses”
4. Visit other companies or countries to see how they ride dead horses
5. Perform a productivity study to see if lighter riders improve the dead horse’s performance
6. Outsource: Hire a contractor to ride the dead horse
7. Harness several dead horses together in an attempt to increase the speed
8. Provide additional funding and/or training to increase the dead horse’s performance
9. Appoint a committee to study the horse and assess how dead it actually is
10. Re-classify the dead horse as “living-impaired”
11. Develop a Strategic Plan for the management of dead horses
12. Rewrite the expected performance requirements for all horses
13. Modify existing standards to include dead horses
14. Declare that, as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overheads, and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line than many other horses
15. Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position.

I just love analogies like this!

I came across this interesting article by Trevor Cook: Blogging, why do we do it?. It brings up some interesting questions about the potential evolution and possible downfall of blogging. What is the next evolution? – my opinion, lookup wiki.

It hasn’t been long since I’ve started trying this new approach to my blog. Trying to look at things with business eyes; creative eyes; just down right thinking eyes. But it’s funny how the day job can easily stomp that out. My day job is o.k.. It keeps me on my toes and always busy. But, like many other sufferers of this affliction called slow death I need a cure. I’ve gotten to the point I can hear it in my own voice as I say , “it’s o.k.”. It’s not great, it’s not mind blowing, it’s not the coolest thing in the whole wide world!, it’s o.k. That alone makes my stomach turn. I’m not alone. So many others have I life long “job”. I’ve even heard the term “lifer” at my work. Almost like it was a prison. As I am preparing to cure myself and leap out their into the abyss, I’m looking around and I see so many others who have the same disease. They know they have it, but don’t have a doctor. I try and remind them that they can cure themselves. They are the doctor. Rock the boat, stoke the fire, walk away. Those are really the only prescriptions you have at your finger tips.

As I mentioned in my first post, I put in my resignation at work. It’s an extremely liberating experience. But unlike others, I put in 3 months notice. At work I do a billion and 3 things. I’ve created that niche position just for me and I’ve become “irreplaceable”. Which really means, there is no way in hell I’m ever going to be able to get a new position at least at the company I work for now. So when the window of opportunity open I said “why not”. Now the interesting things about it all is the reactions. There are people who are thrilled for me leaving, some aren’t but happy, there are the people who honestly don’t care, and then there are the people who don’t talk to me anymore. It’s funny to here the reaction or when people start the conversation as “I heard a little rumour…” or “Say it ain’t so”. I haven’t told anyone who hasn’t come to me with it first. It’s actually becoming my little interest to see where the rumour mill is going next.

I always considered myself open and receptive enough to look at the whole picture. To really see how people see me, but as this process goes I start to wonder. What else goes with the rumour? It’s the first time really that I’ve ever wondered. I’m not going to go down the path, because I personally don’t agree with the gossip gravy train, and I slap my own hands when I do it. But it’s still a wonder. How many times have people talked about you?

Welcome to the Fight Club of the business world: ChangeThis

Rule One: Everyone Talks about ChangeThis
Rule Two: Everyone Talks about ChangeThis!

It’s all about spreading the word in the underground. I can picture all of us in dingy, dank, club basements. It’s all It’s all about the Fight. But instead of exchanging fists and blows to the gut it’s about the exchange of the manifestos?.

Half of me is kind of skeptical. Will these “Manifestos” really be the statements they claim to cause the stir? Will they really cause the blood to boil or will they simply become glorified over-worded haiku’s

A tiger can smile
A Snake will say it loves you
Lies make us evil

• Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club

The other half of me is very supportive. I think something like this to spread around the office is good. If people like Tom Peters and Seth Godin are involved it could turn into something interesting. I’m going to do my part so take a read
at the first Manifesto. Sign Up to read more. My full judgment is still holding out until I see my own blood boil.

Reading through my blogs this morning I came across a post from Johnnie Moore about Culture vs Strategy. The point about people interaction is a very important one, but what caught my eye was his example:
A while back I heard how the boss of a US hotel chain wanted his IT people to create a system to identify returning guests at check-in. The idea being that the receptionist could say “Welcome back Mr Bloggs” and win points for recognising him. The IT people tut-tutted and came back saying “Yeah, we can do this and it will cost x million dollars”. The boss was unimpressed and frustrated by the cost.

A few days later, he was in the lobby of one of his hotels and overheard the receptionist at work. Several times she said “Welcome back” to people. Our hero bowled up to her and demanded to know how she managed this feat of recognition.

“Well, see that bellboy who carries guests bags from the entrance. I have a deal with him. He asks “is this is their first visit?” and if it is, when they all get to the reception, he puts their bags down parallel to the desk. If it’s a return visit, he puts them at right angles. Then I know.”

This little example rang a few other bells in my ear about what I like to call Corporate Elephantiasis.

Elephantiasis of the system

So easily with technology do I see everyone looking more and more to the IT department for solutions. I agree that automating anything you can can have a great impact on business and open up doors and avenues which previously didn’t seem possible. But reading something like this reminds me of the simplicity of human thought. It was an easy solution. When reading this I felt a little shaken, because being a bit of a computer geek I fall into this pit all the time. “Let the computer do it”, “Automation is the future”, but this solution is easy and elegant.

It’s easy for companies now a days to make systems. They use the IT departments to find technologically “simple” (I say simple but with tech it never really is) ways to communicate information. But we find this kind of change takes time. As systems get bigger the get clunkier they become slower to change and less innovative. I’ve seen example after example of systems that if you want to change anything, it takes a committee 3 months to even decide if it’s something to investigate. Sure, at first it’s a cutting edge cheetah that speeds the process and holds back the demon. It helps and makes things better. But over time it’s like the human body and it solidifies. The skeleton after times starts to look more and more brittle. Rather then the ugly duckling it becomes the ugly duck. It didn’t take a million years or a million dollars to come up with this solution. And it took 2 people.

“People like me need to remember about the people like them.”

Elephantiasis of Head Office

The other thing that rang in me when reading this example was this: During coming up with solutions for this dilemma/idea, why didn’t this solution get sent back to the head office? Something like this should be communicated through and through. But then I was reminded of something from Tom Peters: Tom Peters’s True Confessions.

“Don’t always bet on the little guy, but do always bet against headquarters. Because headquarters politics will invariably and inevitably “bland up” and then kill any worthwhile project.”

Head Offices are nasty things. It’s a place where change becomes a monster. Like the system, the original cheetah becomes an elephant. Ever try to stop a charging elephant? Head Offices make “Committees”. And for me, who’s working on trying to build my own company, if I ever hear the word “Committee” in my office…shoot me. They are these mysterious entities with cultural memory. Every mistake that has ever happened is remembered in the head office. I slapped my own hand because I remember being part of this mob. Every new person who comes into the organization is a fresh set of eyes, but for some reason the old ones tell horror story after horror story until the new eyes have been beaten down, in a relatively quick amount of time I must say. Plus, so many “big wigs” should not be there. For those who aren’t in a management position and in a head office, take a look around people. Take a look at the amount of hidden fear that is around you. Take a look for the number of “yes”-people. Take a look at the percentage of suck-ups. It’s a war zone of politics and favouritism.

As you can tell, I don’t like “Head Office”

Interesting…I’m not a full scientist and even the dumbed down version is a little complex to understand but essentially people could be addicted to decisions. Take a look at this post on Corante.

“Contrary to the intuitive sense that we passively receive signals from the outside world and that our experience reflects this input, evidence is growing that sensations are usually preceded by a decision process.”

The article goes on to say that our systems will actually inject us with endogenous opioid peptides (??) which actually can act as pain suppressors, after a decision is made. And like the real thing, pain killers are addictive. This could definitely explain the term power hungry, it’s not that they are hungry for the power, they are merely addicted to the decisions, and the large rewards, that people of power make.

“Hi, I’m Nick and I’m addicted to decisions.”