Wednesday, August 20, 2008

: politics aside ... a word on trust :

... some days, one's mental filters see lessons everywhere. I'm still mulling over Mandela's 8 leadership lessons, and maybe here is #9. Stephen Covey's son has built a whole industry around a book he wrote ... "The Speed of Trust" and Patrick Lencioni has 'building trust' as the base of his 5-level pyramid model for 'Overcoming the 5 Dysfunctions of a Team' ... hmmmm.

When you have trust, relationally, organizationally, politically? terribly difficult and challenging things can be tackled and accomplished reasonably. But when trust is missing even simple, supposedly straightforward things can go south, sideways, screwy. Marc Ambinder, a political columnist-blogger, commented last week on Obama's trust-dependent VP-choice decision making process. Funny though, the people he trusts the most aren't angling for the VP job, while the ones who are angling, he doesn't trust.

Maybe the answer is right there?

dlc

***


"Early in the spring, Barack Obama asked John Kerry for his advice on the vice presidential selection process. Kerry was too happy to oblige. Choose someone, he told Obama, that you trust completely. Don't expect the process to build trust. Don't choose someone with the expectation that you'll develop a trust.

This was, of course, the lesson that Kerry learned from 2004; he thought he could trust John Edwards; Edwards had promised Kerry that he deserved Kerry's trust; Edwards promised Kerry that he would be his full and complete partner.

It didn't work. And the recent revelations about Edwards personal life make Kerry's advice all the more acute.

In truth, there aren't too many potential VP picks who could be fairly said to have earned Barack Obama's trust. Not Hillary Clinton. Probably not Joe Biden. Not Evan Bayh. How could they? They've spent so little time with Obama, and none on neutral territory, when they have nothing to gain and thus no incentive to modify their behavior.

Michelle Obama, too, has counseled her husband about the imperative to trust the person he picks.

Assuming Obama agrees, it stands to reason that he won't choose someone he does not trust ALREADY.

He trusts Gov. Sebelius. He trusts Gov. Kaine. He trusts Sen. Jack Reed."

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

: on alignment : seeing the forest AND the trees :

... I came across this great quote ( context would be too long a story ) this morning over at Gaping Void, so ... I guess you could take the time to get the context yourself?

"I was at an open mic in one of hippest downtown coffee shops last week. [ There was ] a guy, angry as hell about the war, capitalism, all the while reading his piece from his new 3g iPhone. It doesn't add up to me."

I've been thinking about alignment, and 'models' and lots of stuff recently, wondering if we've lost the ability to discern means from ends, values from pragmatism, etc. This quote, if you can picture it ... some guy ranting away at an open mic reading the rant from his brand new iPhone ... making no connections at all between his assumed right to have and use technology and the global economic system that created and perpetuates it.

But are most of us any different? for example ... am I using energy ANY differently in my house and lifestyle than I was 2-3 years ago? or will I now that 2 of 3 kids will be away at school in 2 weeks? how comfortably ( numb ) have I gotten to the fact that I can easily make 3-4-5 "quick trips" a day ... just doing some errands you know, when a little forethought could reduce that to 1-2? I don't want some huge, lumbering SUV but I still mock the Smart car as ridiculous looking and probably unsafe. Why?

Anyhow, this is just an off-the-top-of-my-head post having read the above quote. A lot of things just don't add up to me either. I'd bet I could come up with 100 ... easily. Why is alignment so difficult? Specifically values alignment .. I mean, I want to be one of those people who say what they mean and mean what they say ...

Later,

dlc

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

: mandela on leadership = troublemaker : )

... came across this article in Time via Len.

Nelson Madela on eight lessons of leadership. Worth a read. Pragmatic, gutsy, savvy and motivating all at once.

Mandela celebrated his 90th birthday recently, and this article was put together as a sort of retrospective on his life and leadership, which were intimately intertwined. An interesting note ... Rolihlahla, Mandela's real first name, in Xhosa translates as "pulling down the branch of a tree" but its real meaning is "troublemaker." Here's his last lesson ... No. 8 ... Quitting is leading too

"Knowing how to abandon an idea, task or relationship is often the most difficult kind of decision a leader has to make. In many ways, Mandela's greatest legacy as President of South Africa is the way he chose to leave it. When he was elected in 1994, Mandela probably could have pressed to be President for life — and there were many who felt that in return for his years in prison, that was the least South Africa could do.

In the history of Africa, there have been only a handful of democratically elected leaders who willingly stood down from office. Mandela was determined to set a precedent for all who followed him — not only in South Africa but across the rest of the continent. He would be the anti-Mugabe, the man who gave birth to his country and refused to hold it hostage. "His job was to set the course," says Ramaphosa, "not to steer the ship." He knows that leaders lead as much by what they choose not to do as what they do.


Gotta love it. The article wraps up with ... "Ultimately, the key to understanding Mandela is those 27 years in prison. The man who walked onto Robben Island in 1964 was emotional, headstrong, easily stung. The man who emerged was balanced and disciplined. He is not and never has been introspective. I often asked him how the man who emerged from prison differed from the willful young man who had entered it. He hated this question. Finally, in exasperation one day, he said, "I came out mature." There is nothing so rare — or so valuable — as a mature man".

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

: when you've already (over)done efficiency :

... another little gem from Hugh at Gaping Void. Could apply many places. I added the graphic, since efficiency can be parsed out so simply, eh?

dlc

"... you've already done 'efficient'. We're living in a post-efficiency world now. We already know how to make things better, cheaper and faster than the previous generation. We already know how to squeeze our suppliers till they squeak. We already know how to build systems that maximize profits at every stage of the production and selling process. We're already outsourcing our stuff to China, and so is everyone else. Been there. Done that. So where does the growth need to come from? What needs to happen, in order to save your job?

THESIS:

... the growth will come, I believe, not by yet more increased efficiencies, but by humanification. For example, take two well-known airlines. They both perform a useful service. They both deliver value. They both cost about the same to fly to New York or Hong Kong. Both have nice Boeings and Airbuses. Both serve peanuts and drinks. Both serve "airline food". Both use the same airports. But one airline has friendly people working for them, the other airline has surly people working for them. One airline has a sense of fun and adventure about it, one has a tired, jaded business-commuter vibe about it. Guess which one takes the human dimension of their business more seriously than the other? Guess which one still will be around in twenty years? Guess which one will lose billions of dollars worth of shareholder value over the next twenty years? What parallels do you see in your own industry? In your own company?It's all about the "Humanification", Folks.

How does a big company [like Dell, like Microsoft etc etc] "humanify" themselves? How do they "de-commodify" themselves? It's a subject that never fails to fascinate me. That's why I do what I do. Rock on.

: twitter : blog : facebook: overlap :


... okay, inspired by Gaping Void's cartoon, with the new FaceBook's changes, and their encouragement towards a more Twitter-like status update question ... "what are you doing right now?" ... I have been wondering?

... what if ( and I am pretty sure I saw this a few weeks ago ... Twitter asking me if I wanted it to update my FBook status? ) I am coming at this awkwardly? What if Twitter was the main thing, which updated my FBook status, FBook being a little more detailed, and the 'blog was more of a dump of reading, thinking, pondering, sharing ideas and thoughts?

... I've kind been flopping back and forth on this, wondering which makes the most sense? I may stick with the new FaceBook for a bit, use the Twitter update feature, if I can find it again, and 'blog occasionally when inspiration strikes, no pressure.

dlc