Value

"What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing."

Oscar Wilde Quotes

"I conceive that the great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by false estimates they have made of the value of things."

Benjamin Franklin Quotes

"Only the man who crosses the river at night knows the value of the light of day"

Chinese Proverbs Quotes

"Price is what you pay. Value is what you get."

Warren Buffett Quotes

"What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value."

Thomas Paine Quotes

"Nothing can have value without being an object of utility."

Karl Marx Quotes
I am on a two week "break" on jury service, and what a fascinating insight into society one gets by witnessing the legal process in full swing and getting to participate in it.  
My return to my blog is partly inspired by a new paradigm in content creation by the man who kicked off the e-book industry many years ago - Mark Joyner.  The Simpleology Project Marketplace will transform the way people consume instructional content by presenting it in actionable projects (with tasks) rather than lengthy books to read.  In essence, the value of the content is being surfaced up directly for consumers to act upon. 
The topic of unlocking or unleashing value is something I am very passionate about and have been working on for a number of years with regard to corporate information systems and specifically SAP.  I will use SAP as my example throughout this post, though the same principles can be applied to all corporate systems. 
SAP is used by 86% of the global Fortune 500 companies and 98% of the 100 most valued brands.  Why do companies buy and implement SAP?  Well, usually because someone makes a strong business case for doing so on the basis of improved efficiency of transaction processing and sharper business insight.  Other factors that may be cited for choosing SAP are its scalability and flexibility (it can be customized to meet evolving business requirements), its strong architecture with a  process-centric focus, which represents best practice gleaned from top performing companies over the last 30 years, real-time integration,  as well as the simple allure of a robust German platform for running your business.
In effect, the business case says "our business will run better on SAP" and promises recurring benefits to the business.  The deal is done, the software is bought and a transformation programme launched to implement the software alongside business process re-engineering initiatives and a change programme. Assuming the implementation goes well (which is not always the case, as many a customer will testify and present as evidence against the value proposition of SAP), the transition into "Business-As-Usual" happens, and the first few months are usually spent fixing bugs and making improvements.  For a few customers, the benefits will be tracked or "declared" following some analysis; for many the focus will be fully on stabilization and operation.
Some time after the implementation of SAP, the company comes to a fork in the road.  This fork in the road represents two paradigms or ways of seeing the SAP system(s).  
The first fork, which is taken by most companies, is to see SAP as an expensive but necessary cost of running the business.  The focus then is surely to minimize this cost as much as possible.  So a variety of cost cutting instruments are applied e.g. outsourcing/off-shoring resources, a separation between IT and business, avoiding further investment, reducing the patching/enhancement cycle, and looking to reduce headcount in the SAP support organisation wherever possible. In essence, the SAP system(s) is seen as a commodity which delivers a fixed outcome and therefore the aim is to reduce the cost to getting that fixed outcome for the business.
The second fork, which is the road less-travelled (though more companies are awaking to this), is to view the SAP system(s) as an asset, a source of recurring benefits for the business.  And by nurturing this asset, its value to the business can be protected, increased and unleashed.  This paradigm usually leads to a focus on competency centres, on close collaboration between IT and business, on continuous improvement initiatives, ready investment and innovation adoption, regular patching /enhancement cycle and on investing in people and capability to leverage SAP more. The essence of this approach is that there is a belief that the business can run even better if the SAP asset is nurtured.
So what are the typical effects of these two approaches?   Well, you only have to look at the symptoms reported by many SAP customers to see the cost road in action – system difficult to use and “clunky”, dis-engaged users who need lots of training (repeatedly), dissatisfaction with support, costly projects that frequently fail to deliver the full promised value, perception of SAP as being slow and expensive, data quality issues, poor reporting, inability to exploit innovation due to system version etc. Customers on the value road tend to avoid/address most of these issues, as they unlock and protect the value of their SAP asset. How do they do this?  By applying the CURE.  

More on this in the next post…

CSD - The Problem and The Solution

“Every problem contains within itself the seeds of its own solution.” - Stanley Arnold

"How you do anything is how you do everything" - T. Harv Eker

We have had a long break from our explorations of themes and one of the persistent challenges - perhaps the most devastating - is what I call the CSD virus. We shall examine this in the next few posts.

CSD stands for Could Should Don't, a description of the symptoms of the resistance virus that stops most people from realising their potential and living their dreams.

For an introduction to CSD, please read the blog post below:

http://bobowest.blogspot.com/2007/04/neglect.html

We can use the same acronym to describe the root causes of CSD - Conflict, Stories, Distractions. And ultimately, the solution can also be framed as CSD - Clarity, Structure, Discipline.

More on this soon...

Habits

" First we make our habits and then our habits make us" - John Dryden

“The secret of every man who has ever been successful lies in the fact that he has formed the habit of doing the things that failures do not like to do.” - Albert E N Gray

"If you really want to get something done, give it to a busy person" - anonymous


One of the most powerful human forces is the unconscious mind - the part that runs your body, the millions of processes that happen every second to keep you alive and your body functioning, while you go about your business. This all happens without your conscious control, no decisions, no choices - it just happens. So, thankfully, you don't have to think about pumping the blood around your body, or dilating your pupils, or mobilising antibodies etc You can instead focus on the important decisions you have to make - like what to eat for lunch :-).

The key principle here is that of automation or outsourcing, as I prefer to view it. Outsourcing is when you hand over activities to another to run on your behalf in order to free yourself up to focus on your core priorities. We have a phenomenally powerful outsourcing company inside us that performs more tasks than we could possible comprehend - these tasks are performed efficiently, effectively and consistently. The old adage above, " if you really want to get something done, give it to a busy person", really applies here.

So what does this have to do with habits? Well, a habit is basically an outsourced activity. It is something you do repeatedly without thinking about it - no conscious decisions or choices. Brushing your teeth in the morning could be a habit. So could be going for a brisk walk or carrying out some other exercise. Your conscious mind does not worry about it, your unconscious mind just gets it done and it adds value to your life. Is this not an exciting possibility? What stops us defining what it is we want to achieve, and hence what it is we need to do repeatedly; and then outsourcing it?

Well, nothing really, except our procrastination and possible laziness. When the activity is passed over, it runs like clockwork. So the resistance point is actually before the activity is transitioned. But will that make us dull? Like robots? This is a common objection to the concept of habits. In essence, it is quite similar to the resistance that employees put up in companies that want to outsource certain business functions or processes. They cite all manner of problems with the outsourcing proposals but there is an underlying fear of redundancy. Do we feel a need to consciously control all the minutiae of our lives? Does our conscious mind fear redundancy if all these tasks are taken over by a far greater force? Or is the fear rather of greatness? Is our conscious mind shrinking away from the gravity of responsibility that would exert its pull once the trivia had been removed? Is this the root of procrastination? An occupation with the minor things to avoid dealing with the major - "getting into the thick of thin things"?

The powerful truth here, and one that most successful outsourcing arrangements elicit, is that letting go of the context tasks allows us to focus on the core, allows us to harness far more energy than we previously had, and develop far more momentum than we thought we could. Creating powerful habits frees us up to live our lives powerfully, while supporting this living consistently. The key is to discover what our core is, by discovering the neighbourhood of our gifts and passions. This is one of the most important quests in life, to discover and embody the best of you. And habits are the tools to help you on that journey.

Humour

Humour is the only test of gravity, and gravity of humor; for a subject which will not bear raillery is suspicious, and a jest which will not bear serious examination is false wit.
Aristotle, Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC)

Humour is our way of defending ourselves from life's absurdities by thinking absurdly about them.
Lewis Mumford, US architect & sociologist (1895 - 1990)

Humour is a rubber sword - it allows you to make a point without drawing blood.
Mary Hirsch

Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.
Peter UstinovEnglish actor & author (1921 - 2004)

Wit makes its own welcome, and levels all distinctions. No dignity, no learning, no force of character, can make any stand against good wit.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Letters and Social Aims: The Comic, 1876US essayist & poet (1803 - 1882)

The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself.
James Thurber, in Edward R. Murrow television interviewUS author, cartoonist, humorist, & satirist (1894 - 1961)


It feels great to be back on the writing trail after months of abstinence, or rather , months of frenetic work activity. There are times when one says " I'm laughing because it's beyond crying about" or "it's so bad, it's funny" . Another one is "I don't know whether to laugh or to cry". All of these relate to how we handle emotional challenges in our lives and what role humour can play in this.

Humour is a powerful healing, soothing, re-energising force that can help one navigate through difficult situations. One aspect of humour is the ability to laugh at oneself. At the heart of most grievances or disputes is a tendency to take oneself very seriously. We take things personally, we allege wrongdoings towards us by others, we are vigilant for evidence to support our allegations, and we react with outrage when we perceive them. We behave ... well ... like spoilt children do, only with less innocence. Where we, as adults, have the edge over children, is our more advanced capacity for humour.

I remember a period about 13 years ago when my girlfriend (now my wife) was regularly complaining about some of my habits - I was a student at the time (do you get the picture?).
We had had a few rows about the issue and so it now carried more charge than perhaps it merited. Luckily I had a flash of humour injection one day and made my arrangements. The next time she raised the issue, I was prepared. She was very irritated - "How many times do I have to ask you to ....? I'm really getting fed up of....?!! etc"

Before she could build up momentum, I raised my hand, palm facing her and said "Hang on, one second - you need this". I reached into my desk drawer and pulled out one of the forms I had created. It was an official Customer Complaint form, with sections for describing the issue, the impact and what remedial action or compensation was required etc. I said, "Here you go - fill that in and put it on the desk".

She stared at the form incredulously for a few minutes and then burst into laughter. I did get a punch for my troubles, but the situation was transformed - she was more understanding of my approach and I was also more willing to change my habits. It was almost as though, in a flash of light, our minds, or perhaps our hearts, had stopped being at war long enough for us to see that we actually wanted to help each other.

That may be the key to our troubled world in these troubled times. Good humour and lots of laughter (light-heartedness => flashes of humour lighten our hearts). We might even live longer, if that's not too troubling a thought...

Humility

"The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions. "
Confucius, The Confucian Analects, Chinese philosopher & reformer (551 BC - 479 BC)


"Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more. "
Mark Twain, US humorist, novelist, short story author, & wit (1835 - 1910)

"If I only had a little humility, I'd be perfect. "
Ted Turner

Back after a long break (again) and with new perspectives. The key issue I have been wrestling with is the extent to which I am over-worked and under-resourced. I would look at my achievements and all the wonderful benefits I had delivered and feel under-appreciated - "Cant they see that this is an excellent investment of resource?!!" However, and it does take some humility to even open up to this, I began to challenge my paradigm. Yes, I felt overwhelmed but did that really make me a victim of lack of vision by others? Was I truly the innocent hero brilliantly pulling out the stops to deliver value to the customer in the face of short-sightedness and ignorance above me? Or was I simply "in the box"?

I have learned a great lesson in humility from a book called "Leadership and Self-Deception" by the Arbinger Institute:

http://www.arbinger.com/en/bookstore.html#leadershipandselfdeception

And the first quote above, which touches on the need to take action is at the heart of this for me. There is usually an action we sense we should take in certain situations (e.g. write the report now" or "prepare resourcing plan for leadership team review" etc). And we may not take that action. This may have been an action that came into our minds from a deep place within us and would probably have had quite an impact. But we didn't do it. In effect we betrayed ourselves (that part of us that prompts us, our conscience if you will). We then invest substantial energy defending that decision and justifying it, finding faults in others as necessary. It all seems very real and very convincing. There is much emotional investment. Wwe become victims. We get "into the box".

So, armed with this element of Awareness, I have engaged the other of the four elements (see previous posts on the Four Elements), Flow, to address the action piece. One terrific exponent of flow for me is David Allen, with his Getting Things Done methodology:

http://www.davidco.com/

I won't dive into that now, but this has been transformative and quite humbling....

Hope

“Hope doesn't come from calculating whether the good news is winning out over the bad. It's simply a choice to take action.”
Anna Lappe, O Magazine, June 2003


In these troubled times, it is inevitable that some of us will turn to hope. That is what may keep our spirits up long enough to take the right actions to steer the course. Hope is often referred to as a four-letter word, implying something vulgar and untrustworthy. In the realm of investment, this is probably true, as making financial decisions based on hope could be disastrous. These decisions must be based on accurate evaluation of risk and reward, on facts and figures rather than opinions and desires. A banker may transact based on hope - the hope that the debtor might be able to pay eventually even though all the credit history suggests otherwise, the hope that the market might surge to offset the risks, hope that the transaction will make a massive profit... The danger of hope is that it clouds judgement by letting desire and expectation gatecrash the party of analysis and evaluation.

So is it fair to say that hope is what got us into this financial mess in the first place? Perhaps (some might be more specific and call it greed). But might it be, as preposterous as it sounds, that it is hope that may get us out of this mess too? The proliferation of government rescue packages offer hope even though the stark reality is that a global recession looms. What could mitigate, if not avoid, a major economic slump? The word "confidence" is used a lot in news bulletins that discuss the credit crunch. The lack of confidence is what leads investors to sell off their shares, banks to avoid lending money to each other and to customers, and businesses shrinking their operations. Is this not hope (or the lack of it) in disguise?

Is there now a place of hope, in the absence of concrete facts and certainty about the future, to trigger a self-fulfilling prophecy? Can hope not drive confidence and then the actions that might begin to create the concrete facts and certainty about the future? That may be the key. And hope always starts with hope for ourselves. That we can be better, that we can weather whatever storm befalls us, that ultimately, we have within us the seed of greatness that we need to discover and bring powerfully into the world. Sometimes a crisis is a catalyst for the existential chemical reaction that can transform our lives. And hope is what keeps us in the laboratory to see the process through...


“Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: You don't give up. “
Anne Lamott

“He that lives upon hope will die fasting. “
Benjamin Franklin, US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 - 1790)

“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul.
And sings the tune
Without the words,and never stops at all. “
Emily Dickinson, US poet (1830 - 1886)

“Hope, like the gleaming taper's light,Adorns and cheers our way; And still, as darker grows the night,Emits a brighter ray. “
Oliver Goldsmith, British-Irish author (1730 - 1774)

“The past is a source of knowledge, and the future is a source of hope. Love of the past implies faith in the future. “
Stephen Ambrose, in Fast CompanyAmerican historian and author (1936 - 2002)

“True hope is swift, and flies with swallow's wings; Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings. “
William Shakespeare, "King Richard III", Act 5 scene 2Greatest English dramatist & poet (1564 - 1616)

Honour

"Reputation is what other people know about you. Honour is what you know about yourself. "
Lois McMaster Bujold, "A Civil Campaign", 1999, US science fiction author



Back after a long break. It was quite an eventful weekend with one of the main events being my reintroducing myself to the Japanese martial art of Tai Jitsu (the unarmed combat style of the Ninja). I had not trained for 5 months so the effect on my body was devastating, but I lasted the full two and a half hours without injury - that was a result! I also reflected on the ancient Japanese warriors and their codes of honour. The Samurai had a code of honour but so did the Ninja...

Honour is one of those elusive concepts that we feel but find difficult to express precisely. Pride is a clumsy attempt at it and somewhat misses the point. It probably boils down to some form of self-validation, in the absence of any external judgement, not quite a form of conscience but yet providing a compass by which we may navigate our lives.

However, the very nature of self-validation suggests that honour can be flawed as it is derived from the values that the individual holds. These values may be universal or they may be cultural - they might even be individual. And so, much has been done in the name of honour, noble and brutal, so that the concept itself now has a mixed connotation unlike hundreds of years ago.

I suspect that we need to redicover the concept of honour, base our honour on sound universal principles and show the integrity to live by it. The world has numerous challenges and one step in the right direction for us all would be to become more honourable.


"Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not. "
Oprah Winfrey, in Good Housekeeping, US actress & television talk show host (1954 - )

"Honour does not have to be defended. "
Robert J. Sawyer, "Calculating God", 2000, Canadian science fiction writer (1960 - )