Measuring Up

Education or brainpower?

I read a quote by Mary Pettibone Poole on the wall in the offices of The Telegraph Media Group. It was written in her book 'A glass eye at a keyhole' in 1938.

It reads: "To repeat what others have said, requires education; to challenge it, requires brains."

Of course, there are obvious references to education in our schools - teach children to regurgitate great globs of disconnected text and there is no way we're helping to develop a new generation of thinking, problem-solving, creative contributors. Even worse, are the situations where children are being spoon-fed information that is speculative or in some cases, blatantly incorrect. Thankfully, that seems to be the exception. But given the challenges facing the planet in the next 50 years - shouldn't we be working to create challenging thinkers rather than educated 'sheep'

Although at the time, I probably thought it was rather a silly way of putting it, I now repeat my Mother's mantra to my children.  "Be a goat, not a sheep", she would say. By which she meant, 'Have the courage to think independently, and when necessary, go against accepted doctrine if you think its wrong". I would add - Challenge statements you think are incorrect or at least need to be explored further.

I think this goes beyond schools (although that's where it should start). We should be fostering this sort of thinking in our businesses and our communities. Only with the brainpower of challenging thinkers can our organisations grow. Without it, we stagnate.

Energy banks

Energy is a company asset. I don't mean utilities. Electricity and Gas are essential to operations as anyone in South Africa will know all too well at the moment. But what I am talking about is people. The energy that is applied to thought, to problem solving, to customer relations. Its critical to any business, but I wonder how many count it as an asset?

Over the past few weeks I've been working on the concept of Entrepreneurship with Graham Singleton of Make Yourself. We've been discussing a model for a presentation. As we explored what could be done to enhance entrepreneurship within companies, we discovered the links with energy. Its been a great experience working with Graham. His enthusiasm is infectious.

Energy is the life blood of an organisation. Its the fuel that drives both the pace and the quality of growth. But the challenge lies in the intangibles. Some people have it in spades, and others don't have quite the same amount of 'go'. Those that have it can infect others with enthusiasm, but they can also overwhelm. And although its not finite, it does need to be nurtured and sometimes conserved.

Its value is hard to measure - it never appears on the company's balance sheet. But without it nothing happens. Although we can't always control it, we should perhaps look after it - think of it as deposits and withdrawals from a bank. If we keep drawing on it without top ups, we'll start running low. But shared with others effectively, it multiplies rather like compound interest.

Investing in your energy bank could well pay great dividends.

Recruitment pitfalls

A couple of days ago I had a conversation with a friend who has just had a really bad experience with a senior member of staff. The incident has been expensive in two respects - the member of staff has taken that which was not his to take in some significant measure, and there is now the cost of recruiting and training a replacement. The cost of getting a new staff member up to speed is not insignificant. And its almost impossible to quantify the loss of knowledge that goes hand-in-hand with a key person leaving, in any circumstances. His faith in the recruitment process is somewhat shaken at the moment, to say the least.

You'll understand then, why I was particularly impressed when I met Katherine Wiid from Recrion. Aside from the fact that its always nice to meet another South African in the UK, their approach to helping companies get the right people just make real sense.

Recrion doesn't replace recruitment agencies. Instead, the service they provide is a really solid bridge between company and recruitment agencies. Recrion has all the expertise in writing job specifications and interviewing applicants. They're the experts at filtering candidates so clients only see the best of the bunch. How great to be able to save time and money two different ways simultaneously. I was struck that using specific expertise like this not only saves the time spent screening and interviewing the candidates who are less than the best. But it also provides an independent standard for the recruitment process in the business.

Not only that, they've got a seriously cool giraffe on their site!

The Dip is back

Seth Godin's book, The Dip is back on my bookshelf. I'm very happy to lend it out again. Mail me if you want to read it and I'll pop it in the post to you.

Creating Entrepreneurs talk - part 1

I've been asked to speak at the Institute of Directors Annual Conference in Suffolk. The topic is Entrepreneurship and I guess my opinion is considered relevant as East of England Business Woman of the Year Enterprise Award recipient. Public speaking isn't an area where I have much experience. Those of you who know me may well raise an eyebrow at that statement and think ironically about the fact that I talk up a storm - all the time. But speaking in public is quite different to just having a big mouth!

I decided for a number of reasons that if I was going to accept this request I would need to make an investment in getting the final product to the state where it was absolutely the best I could do. Firstly, I know how valuable time is to people who run businesses. I owe it to the audience to make it worth their while to sit and listen to me for half an hour. I also owe it to myself to use this opportunity to develop a killer presentation and the skills to deliver it really well - because then I can do it again in June when I have a second speaking engagement.

Over the past 6 months, I've been working with two great people to get my output to a professional enough level. More about them in a later blog.

For the current presentation I've been researching companies that behave in exceptional ways. And I found it fascinating. I just had to share one of the best stories I've come across:
Southwest Airlines took part in an event which became called 'Malice in Dallas' in 1992. At 61, with a smoking and drinking training regime, Herb Kelleher took on 37 year-old weight lifting head of rival company, Stevens Aviation in an arm wrestling match. And all because they didn't want to involve the lawyers in a dispute over the use of a slogan. If only all corporate disputes could be settled so brilliantly - its worth reading the story.

Its easy to see why Southwest Airlines is one of the USA's top companies to work for when you understand just how far they go to make work fun.