29/05/2009 by Simon Tomey.

by Peter M. Senge See this book on Amazon »“Metanoia” - a shift of mind. Some great ideas in this book and the one I love the most is systematic thinking.

• Senge explains that while we are in the habit of understanding life as separate events which happen to us, the reality is that systems in life are interconnected, often in a (delayed) feedback loop.
  • Good results come only come from persevering with responsibility and foresight in the context of delayed feedback
    (”what goes around comes around”, and the short term results might be misleading).
  • Perhaps a warning against chosing the cost advantages of outsourcing business processes and ignoring the crippling cost to the business of dis-integration.
• In “Personal Mastery” Senge introduces
  • how we should develop more comprehensive view of issues by being aware of our fixation with our own perspective and
  • how we can harness the power of the emotional and rational intelligence to benefit from the understanding of others.
  • a great outline of many of the ideas now classed as “NLP” or emotional intelligence.”
• I love the fact that this book was written 19 years ago, but many of the ideas are currently touted as a novelty.

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20/05/2009 by Simon Tomey.

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Sometime ago someone told me they only have real answers to real questions. A modification of this has become my motto – “real solutions to real problems”. Khalsa’s picks up on this theme. Here’s some excerpts with the concepts I find helpful:

• Check [leave] your ego at the door “…if you find yourself defending or seeking approval, or demonstrating your brilliance, you are probably serving your needs rather than your client’s. Checking your ego at the door allows you to be fearless, flexible and to have fun…you are not attached to one approach, and are on the client’s agenda…you can enjoy the situation rather than feel pressured to dictate the outcome”.
• There’s a mutual conspiracy between client and consultant to talk about a solution…if we are going to get real, we have to find the …the problem [the solution] is supposed to solve, the results it is meant to achieve and with which issues…if we cannot uncover significant pain or gain…[then we must] say “I have a concern!”, or “I’m confused!” or “I think we may have a problem!”.
• No guessing. “If our intent is to help clients succeed, we have both the right and the obligation not to guess about …success…Getting real is partly defined by our ability to stop guessing and find out what is really going on. [We must know} what the solution is supposed to solve, how we will measure success, what constraints would impede success, what resources are available …,what steps will be involved in the decision process, who will be involved, what criteria they will apply.
• “Assumptions are another form of guessing. They are particularly insidious because they often happen unconsciously”
• “not buying from us is not the worst that can happen, Worse is if they buy our solution and then figure out it doesn’t meet their needs.”

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20/05/2009 by Simon Tomey.

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I’ve recently been reading “true professionalism” (David Maister 1997). This book is a refreshing look at how to succeed as a professional services firm (subtitled “the courage to care about your people your clients, and your career). While the book is a good manual it also has some pithy statements which resonate deeply with my thinking and encourages me to build relationships in the provision of a great service (rather than trying to bank the cash in short term gain). Here’s some of the phrases I enjoyed thinking about:

• Believe passionately in what you do, and never knowingly compromise your standards and values. Act like a true professional, aiming for true excellence and the money will follow.
• One of the essential ingredients in executing the fast skill-building strategy is an active pursuit of frontier, asset-building work.
• The more you act selflessly and give clients honest advice, even when it may be counter to your own interests, the more trust you earn, and the more future business you get.

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