It is the end of January already. One twelfth (or 8.33%) of the year gone. Yet an opportunity to turn a new leaf.
Blogs are beginning to bore me, and to drink my own medicine, why should you care? Because dear reader everyone keeps telling you you should blog and/or care about blogs. And making this blog meaningful is my responsibility otherwise you, and I, should switch off. How can we keep blogs meaningful?
So far in this blog over three years I haven’t actually told you much about my personal whims except as the astute reader knows all my thoughts are between the lines, in the topic chosen and in the language used. So I can’t hide. But I promise never to do this to you. http://thecatsite.com/blog/ (Unless of course one of my sheep has to go to the vet then you will hear the whole story in up to the minute reports and blurry photos).
And then there’s Twitter. I have no problem with Twitter per se, it is just the concept of building ‘Followers’ that has me running scared though. It is getting into the heads of some Tweeters out there who are becoming ego-maniacal about how many followers they have and why some leave them. They are actually starting to believe their own bullshit. But funnily the use of the term Followers always gets me thinking of Jonestown every time I hear it. Imagine if Jim Jones had Twitter!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonestown
But I digress. What got me started was my Follower (note the ego-free use of the singular. Just keep the contributions coming) wanted to know more about the processes I use or go through to develop original ideas for using technology in business, experience design and learning. My Follower wanted my blog to be more personal (I am already getting self conscious using the personal pronoun which has been beaten out of me by many years of academic writing).
My follower suggested that sometimes my ideas are a bit of a leap (of faith?). A little creative let’s say. And I couldn’t agree more. Yet it depends where you are standing. Many of the institutions and businesses, large and small, I work with are quite conservative. They like to use conservative practices like strategy and planning as a means for change. So yes they might find my methods ‘creative’.
I have always tended to consider most strategic planning sessions as a diversion to facing up to issues and embracing real change. A form of action to do nothing. The more conservative of our institutions, large corporations, universities and schools love this stuff. It feeds a lot of consultants so they don’t complain. But invariably after the two year strategic plan has completed you often get the feeling that everything is different but nothing has really changed.
And it appears I am not alone. In a recent article of the Australian Financial Review (AFR 24/12/2008) titled “The Strategy Fad is Dead, Long Live Thinking” it is argued that the rational approach of strategy has not served us well. The ‘fad’ started in the 80s with Michael Porter and was quickly embraced by consulting firms around the world who turned it into a ’science’. Unfortunately as we have just found out there is no recipe for success yet selling recipe books has been big business for thirty years.
No the good firms don’t follow formulas. Yes they have strategies, yet they are loose and adaptable. We are discovering more about the influence of creativity in success and how it can be encouraged and relied upon. As the article states “a real strategy is neither a document nor a forecast but rather an overall approach”. Ah now we’re talking. While the rational conservatives want plans, metrics and control I tend to get a lot more excited about developing and supporting the appropriate culture or the corporate ethos and ‘ways of doing things’ than being prescriptive about specific strategies to follow. A ‘good’ company and its employees will always know the right thing to do in most situations. Smart companies just know before everybody else!
Anyway the point is that this year I am going to tell you, dear follower, more about the way I think. It might get a bit irreverent. For example I will tell you how a background in creative arts like, music, film and painting, help me solve problems and form new solutions. How electronics engineering taught me to develop practical outcomes. And I will share why I think going to an art gallery, and reading philosophy and great novels will possibly get you further than reading anything by Jim Collins.
And I won’t bore you with my cat stories. (pssst wanna see a picture of my sheep? go on you know you want to. Click Here )
