Use lead measures to realise your strategy For a start you need a rudder large enough. And then you need to be able to move the rudder from one side to the other. I am not a marine engineer but I am told that there are no hydraulic or mechanical devices powerful [...]
Your values govern the face your organisation presents to the world when you are not there Conversaction Newsletter - Week 3 March 2015 In his book, ‘Leading Teams’, J Richard Hackman tells a delightful story about highly engineered customer service. After three aborted take-offs, a flight he was on was finally cancelled. As the aircraft [...]
I have a client who sells cars. He is a master at this. He told me about the process. I watched him go through all of the intricate detail of the sales process with his team. He knows the process inside-out. He often illustrates the dynamics of closing a sale. Buying a car is [...]
Intangible assets: manage the hidden 80% of your value through Strategy Map. If you grew up in the ‘70s you will probably remember Bruce Lee. He burned brightly for a few short years as an icon in the American film industry. His films triggered a wave of interest in martial arts and changed the way [...]
If you enjoy the off-the-wall humour of memes, this may come as a bit of a wet blanket: Not the most memorable meme to be sure. But I promise I will not leave you here. In searching for a lede for this newsletter I remembered a story from my past. I did time in this [...]
William Cobbett once used a smoked (therefore reddish brown) herring to distract a pack of hounds from the scent of a hare. Then on 14 February 1807 he used the incident to criticise the English Press who had mistakenly reported the defeat of Napoleon calling it a ‘political red herring’. And so the term ‘Red [...]
How is this for an impressive termite mound? (Image is from the posting by S.C. Lougheed.) “Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest” Proverbs 6:6 Not strictly 'ants' but OK [...]
I appreciate the work of Charles Reid and Alvaro Castagnet, two contemporary artists who could not be more different. Charles Reid creates careful drawings and uses clean soft colours expertly and deftly laid down to produce gentle, powerful paintings. Anything but a slave to convention, he says, “Composition was invented by people who had nothing [...]
This is a painting of a friend, Vera. She kindly allowed me to use one of her photos from Facebook.as material for portrait practice. I did more than 15 drawings and 11 watercolour portraits from that photo. And they are all completely different. In terms of likeness, some are better than others but even [...]
A mason was asked “what are you doing?” He said “can’t you see I am chipping stone” and carried on hammering in a lacklustre way. When asked the same question, another mason replied “I am building a cathedral” and continued hammering joyfully away. I have always been a little sceptical of this story. It sounds [...]
