Monthly Archives: December 2017

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Appetite for Risk

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There are two main activities associated with risk.  First risk analysis, what are the risks, liklihood of occurrence and impact if the risk event does occur?

Following on the heels of analysis is the practice of risk management.  Some consider risk analysis just a sub process of risk management but I view them as separate practices.

Risk Tolerance

People often talk about thier tolerance for risk.  The implication being some accept more risk than others.  For me, it is not a questions of whether the initial risk is high or low, or accepting it at all, it’s how how you mitigate it so it becomes or remains low.

Any activity I undertake, whether, skiing, motor car racing, investing in equities or just walking down the street has a risk associated with it.

If the activity has a high probability of occurence and the impact will be quite detrimental, my approach is not necessarily to avoid the activity, particularly if it is some thing I want to do.

Instead of avoidance I practice mitigation.  By planning my actions in a way to reduce the likelihood of occurence coupled with an understanding of how to reduce the impact if the risk occurs, I can engage with confidence.

Consider for example bringing a Christmas tree into your house.  There is a risk it can be a catalyst for a house fire.  By watering and careful placement and use of heat sources when decorating, you mitigate or reduce the likelihood of occurance.

By having a fire extinguisher on hand you can mitigate the impact if the risk occurs.  A home insurance fire policy helps with this too.  Using these mitigation techniques enables you to bring a dead fire hazzard into your home without fear.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

I am busy

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Not many things push my button like the phrase “I am too busy”.  Get ready for a rant.  In essence statement means you have a great deal to do or you are occupied  or concentrating on a particular activity and so cannot do something else

For me, this is simply both an excuse and a self justification.  It can also be a defence or reason not to do something.  I can’t do that because I am doing this.

You are never too busy to satisfy your desires

My observation busy people never seem to busy to do things that give them pleasure.  That is, a state of busyness  seldom seems to arise relative to desirable activities.  If you want to do it, you are not too busy.

Self Control/Accountability

Consider two similarly capable individuals tasked with five items.  Each has the same deadline.  In this illustration one person completes all five and one completes only two.

The person that failed advises, “I was just too busy to get every task done”.  The person who succeeded was committed to achieve the goal, they took accountability and planned out the activities, and measured their progress ongoing with full and strong intent to succeed.

The differentiator has nothing to do with the lame excuse of being too busy.

Accepting ownership, accountability coupled with a high level of integrity and desire to be the best will almost always overcome being too busy.

For high performers, being too busy does not exist.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Giving Advice/Sharing Information Part 2

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Yesterday I posted about the importance of crafting your message for receptivity.  When passing information to someone else shaping it as advice or even coaching might be simple and direct but ineffective.

My recommended technique is the two way approach (so called sharing or sometimes collaborating), that is a partnership  where both sides have content that is important, even if not aligned.  It is gaining the alignment that is your goal, i.e, the intent of your message is more likely to be received.

Whats the point

When you want to tell someone something the goal is always mutual understanding.  Both you and the recipient are successful when both   have a common understanding.

This not necessarily agreement or committment to act, but common understanding is foundational to resolving differences.  Without agreement to the facts the interpretation of outcomes is unlikely to match.

Bad Signs

Feedback from the person you are sharing with, which includes comments like; “Thats not my problem” or “I don’t have any issues” , probably is a good indicator you have failed the receptivity test.

Don’t give up at this point, also don’t get hooked emotionally.  The other parties disinterest may engender upset on your part, this won’t help.  Remain calm and soldier on.

Take Accountability

When you commence your information share, take personal accountabilty.  If you are not able to obtain receptivity consider it your accountability to overcome the challenge.

It is not the other parties lack of interest at fault but rather your issue that you were unable to get their interest.  You can fix it but to do this you must believe you are accountable to do so.

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Giving Advice/Sharing Information

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How you share information with others is the most important factor governing how it is received.  The targets receptivity can be adjusted by the way the message is delivered.

As the information is passed, the recipients emotional reaction kicks in immediately.  This reaction sets the tone for the entire information exchange.

Sharing information with someone, that is about them is certain to get a reaction.  Many classify these as difficult conversations.  This is because most people are upset when others tell them what they think about them.

Surprisingly this negative reaction can apply for both compliments and criticisms.  As a rule people do not like to be given guidance or recommendations about themselves.

Partly the reason for this is the implied knowledgable or authoritative posture associated with the information provider.  This can even lead to situations where we just want to “shoot the messenger”.  We feel attacked a d want to strike back.

Ways to Share

There are two common terms we use for the practice of sharing suggestions for action, improvement or just awareness,  with others. Although the activity is basically the same, the way it is positioned can really affect the information shares effectiveness.

  • Advice – although not everyone owns up to it, people hate getting advice.  One of the quickest ways to shut down receptivity when you have an idea, recommedations or action request of someone , is to call it advice.  Most people immediately steel themselves to thinking they are about to get something they don’t really want.
  • Sharing – this implies a two way exchange is a much more palatible classification.  The positioning here is more about an open exchange and less about an authoritative or knowledgeable person telling another what to do.

 

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Politics

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Politics is the process of making decisions that will apply to a group.  The associated human behaviours can range from those exhibiting high honesty and integrity to those that do not (to say the least)

Niccolo Machivelli was a renowned 14th century author (The Prince) and political hack.  His most famous novel depicts the practice of politics quite realistically.

For the Greater Good

In Machiavelli’s view, as expressed in his epic novel The Prince, the practice of politics is by its very nature, focused on the decsion makers needs versus those the decisions are in aid of.

Machiavelli certainly had extensive experience working with the governing parties of fourteenth century Italy and much of this knowedge is shared in the book, probably quite accurately.

Interestingly though, these political practices are most likely not shaped in malice but rather practicality.  One of my favourite Machiaveli quotes is “It is a double pleasure to deceive the deceiver”

Nicely said.  Deceit, intrigue, gossip, manipulation are all prevelant and natural human behaviours.  The opposite behaviours like integrity, honesty and openness are the less natural ones requiring concious effort to practice.

Not Bad, Neccessary

People often talk about political or so called Machiavelian practices as less honourable and to be distained.  The unfortunate reality is these are both natural and effective behaviours.

I do not counsel their use indiscriminately but rather realistically as needed.  Forsaking them can impact your ability to achieve your goals and perhaps even your desires.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Critical Thinking

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Agatha Christies iconic murder mystery detective, Hercule Poirot, often explains that solving a murder is about using the little grey cells with method.

Focusing on both the answer and the question can lead to false conclusions.  Critical thinking is process based, that is focusing on the how, not the why or wherefore.

Unbiased Analysis

The key to critical thinking is drawing conclusions based on facts that can be defined objectively.

The classic murder mystery drama, of which Mrs. Christie is the grand dame, presents obvious circumstances that taken with a purely subjective perspective, lead to an incorrect conclusion.

These novels are of course entertainment but they are based on an invaluable phliosophy, follow a process rather than jump to conclusions.

The Greek Route

The term critical thinking is derived from the greek word kritikos (critic).  The foundation of critical thinking is the act of developing a critique.

That is, carefully examining the facts and  laying out the rationale for the conclusion that satisfies all the facts.  Filling in the gaps with assumptions or logical conclusions is not appropriate.

There is no Correct Answer

Philosophy is basically the practice of critical thinking.  The underlying principle of philosophy  is not to arrive at the conclusion but rather to define and explain the path you followed to reach a conclusion.

A friend of mine who studies many philosophical concepts noted that great philosophers can debate opposite conclusions equally well.

The talent is not so much as to arrive at the conclusion as it is to persuade others that it is the correct conclusion by describing the method by which it was obtained.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Education for all

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With the growing expanding scope of Massively Open On line courses you can study almost anything for no cost.  This education is of value to you personally as a way to enhance your knowledge and skills.

So far, the impact on your employment/ carreer is relatively negligible.  Organizations still look at the documented degree or certificate as the value piece.

If an institution with a recognized brand (e.g. Harvard) issues you a degree or certification it can be leveraged to raise your professional standing.

If you take a free series of on line courses, which were created by the same recognized institution (and are the same as those taken by the paying students) , you obtain the knowledge and skills, but not the certificate.

Sadly without the documentation, the free learning won’t earn you more status or money, but the knowledge is what counts, right.

Business Model

Post secondary education is a big business in most countries we classify as developed and just a important in all the other areas of the world but generates less revenue in the less developed regions as there is less funding available.

Free education, in regions with less money to allocate to education works in providing skill and knowledge that get put to use by the populous whether that can prove it with a piece of paper.

The action is the proof.  If you have the skill and put it to use, how you got it and being certified as having it are not critical factors.

Education for the public good

Over time we can only hope that education will migrate from a profit model to focus on improving the human condition, worldwide.  It’s a dream.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Fending for Ourselves

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Taxes are a compulsory contribution to the revenue of your governing body or bodies as the case may be (country, province, city, municipality and so on)

The government, regardless of type, i.e., democratic, autocratic or even royalty , enforces the compulsory part through consequences.  These can range from fines to incarceration.

I wonder if the contributions would continue without the consequences.  If your taxes purchase something of value to you, the consequences should be irrelevant.

Spending Money

To a greater degree (more than half but not by much) most of us choose what to spend our money on.  There is a direct correlation between the expenditure and our perception of value.

Whether you are paying for a road or to build a jail to house people you fear, or whom don’t behave according to expectations,  if you perceive these expenditures of value, consequences are not required. You will contribute.

Accountability

The troubling aspect of taxation centres around who controls what the revenues are used for.  Consequences are needed as an incentive to pay because their is no direct correlation between what you put in and what is received in return.

It would be an interesting but highly difficult exercise to calculate what your tax contribution was actually used for in any given year.

Compiling the contribution of the populations provides scale theoretically improving the efficiency and effectiveness of each individuals contribution.

That is, in theory, if you paid directly for all the services you receive from governments directly instead of cooperatively you would pay more to get less.

In practical fact,  if you were accountable for the spending and so only paid for what you wanted, you might get less things and pay more but overall considering all the things you pay for now but don’t actually need or want, you would probably be better off.

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Incremental Strategy

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Projects can be executed in a variety of defined approaches.  Waterfall being an sequential approach and agile being iterative, or variations of each of these are the most common practices.

Similar approaches can be applied to both creation and execution of an organizations strategy.   Strategies are just plans to achieve defined objectives.

Defining Objectives

The first step in any strategy is to define the goals and objectives.  Simply put what is the strategy intended to achieve.  These can be can cover one or many topics for example; financial, repetitional, risk aversion, resource focused and so on.

In a waterfall approach to strategy the objectives are determined first and then the plans to achieve them.  An iterative approach could be better defined as an incremental strategy.

We will figure it out

Incremental approaches to strategy appear at first to be contradictory to the definition.  Strategies are plans and incremental plans seem almost not to be plans but rather just acting in the moment.

It’s a Framework!

While strategies clearly identify what success is, that is when you reach the strategic objective you are successful.  If success is identified in an iterative way, are you not just making it up as you go along.

Of course yes that is the intent of both a project executed iteratively and and strategy approached this way.  The benefit is the ability to mold the ongoing goals according to what make sense at the time.

Rather than committing to a 3 to 5 year strategic plan the committment is to a framework which is reviewed, balanced and corrected iteratively as it makes sense to do so.

Don’t just laugh out loud at iterative strategies, there is some method to the madness.

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

What makes a company great

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  1. I participated in an interesting discussion today about one of the most strongly held perceptions about businesses, that is big companies are “too big too fail”.

Does size of revenue, as an indicator of overall company size, provide an indication of stability, maturity and capability?  That is, large cap companies have more mature operations.

The theory is large companies have developed mature processes and practices that enabled them to grow large and maintain their size.

These so called blue chip companies are unlikely to suffer severve drops in value or even collapse.  And if they did someone would be around to pick up the pieces and keep them going.

Intuitively Speaking

A small or medium enterprise might fail more often than a large cap company.  Common sense would dicatate the large company  is less likey to make mistakes or engage in unnecessary or risky practices.

The reality is making silly mistakes, having unmanageble bureaucracies or disregarding stakeholder needs are actually more likely behaviours within a large company environment.

With size, control practices and leadership practices  should be more mature enough to deal with the challenges that come with size (more employees, more regulations, and reputational constraints).

Just because it should be, does not necessarily mean it is.  Due diligence of large company management, infrastructure and financial framework is just as needed for a large entity as it is for a small to determine the risk and benefits offered by the corporations environment.