This post has been brewing in my head for a while and is very close to the core of who I am. Simply I believe that a couple of bright people thrashing out an idea is the best way to get to a great solution. This is pretty old hat but not for all, corporate culture really dictates whether this happens or not.
The past two jobs I have had I have had two very different environments, one where debate was EXPECTED and another where it is not. Here are my findings:
1) Debate does create better solutions
2) It helps train junior people faster as they ask more questions
3) It helps avoid mistakes, if the CEO is making a bad call many people will challenge the call
4) Good people are attracted to companies where bright people interact and debate business issues
5) It makes works interesting
6) Employees feel like they are in control of the companies future
This all sounds really good, but many senior people react very negatively to debate and whenever their ideas are challenged, so how would you react if a guy two days on the job said he thought you were making a mistake? Will you listen or will human nature kick in?
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Sunday, May 23, 2010
The MBTI
Came across the following book in today's Washington Post's weekly best-seller list:
TYPE TALK: THE 16 PERSONALITY TYPES THAT DETERMINE HOW WE LIVE, LOVE, AND WORK
(Dell, $17). By Otto Kroeger and Janet M. Thuesen
It reminded me of a fairly detailed conversation that I had gotten into with a friend (This friend, Eric, has the coolest title short of the President of the US - he is a Futurist. He does for a living, what we all do over coffee breaks. Anyway, I digress...) a couple of weeks ago about the whole MBTI personality types. I have never been very sure about how much faith to put into this. Do people change over time? Are they different personalities in different circumstances, etc.
The conversation with Eric was quite enlightening. He is clearly quite bought into this and talking to him got me convinced of the value of the framework. My questions were not necessarily answered, but I did feel that for the here and now, they were irrelevant. It was, more than anything else, a way to think about how people were behaving and what their preferences were. It gave me a framework to evaluate what was bothering me about my current environment, and come up with suggestions that might help address them.
So, apparently I am an ENTJ, doing a job that is probably best suited for an ESTJ, working for an ENTJ boss. My action point - hire an ESTJ to do the sensing for me...
TYPE TALK: THE 16 PERSONALITY TYPES THAT DETERMINE HOW WE LIVE, LOVE, AND WORK
(Dell, $17). By Otto Kroeger and Janet M. Thuesen
It reminded me of a fairly detailed conversation that I had gotten into with a friend (This friend, Eric, has the coolest title short of the President of the US - he is a Futurist. He does for a living, what we all do over coffee breaks. Anyway, I digress...) a couple of weeks ago about the whole MBTI personality types. I have never been very sure about how much faith to put into this. Do people change over time? Are they different personalities in different circumstances, etc.
The conversation with Eric was quite enlightening. He is clearly quite bought into this and talking to him got me convinced of the value of the framework. My questions were not necessarily answered, but I did feel that for the here and now, they were irrelevant. It was, more than anything else, a way to think about how people were behaving and what their preferences were. It gave me a framework to evaluate what was bothering me about my current environment, and come up with suggestions that might help address them.
So, apparently I am an ENTJ, doing a job that is probably best suited for an ESTJ, working for an ENTJ boss. My action point - hire an ESTJ to do the sensing for me...
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Friday, April 16, 2010
A network of trust 2.0
As some of you may know I don't really get the valuations of these Web 2.0 business, nor do I fully understand the way they will or are making money today. I put it down to my age....I'm 31.0 which is bigger than 2.0. Recently I have found some users of Facebook that are really using it properly and by properly I mean not simply as a glorified contacts manager( Like I do) and one of these super users gave me an example which sparked a thought.
His wife had recently started making jewellery and had posted some pictures on her Facebook page for her friends to see, the next morning she had 3 orders.....WOW
Apart from being able to market to your friends has Facebook created a network of potential customers that trust you because you are a part of their network. No one asked her "Is this stuff for real?", they knew her and trusted her and they went straight to check out. That sparked another question, could Facebook be used to ignite the one man business, a business based on implied trust?
Will Facebook be the next place you sell your car?
Who knows, but I can tell you its a great place to count how many friends you have ;)
His wife had recently started making jewellery and had posted some pictures on her Facebook page for her friends to see, the next morning she had 3 orders.....WOW
Apart from being able to market to your friends has Facebook created a network of potential customers that trust you because you are a part of their network. No one asked her "Is this stuff for real?", they knew her and trusted her and they went straight to check out. That sparked another question, could Facebook be used to ignite the one man business, a business based on implied trust?
Will Facebook be the next place you sell your car?
Who knows, but I can tell you its a great place to count how many friends you have ;)
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Negative people, the idea's killer
What a great title for my first post, but hey its the first conversation I feel like talking about.
Today in a meeting I came accross a very very negative person. It was like someone had passed him crib sheets of all the ideas I was going to come up in the meeting so he could counter them. Tom Peters says you should try and avoid these people like the plauge or read them the riot act, I agree with him as you just have to stay positive and want to win. One thing I can be certain about is that every company has these people so we all have to deal with it some way or another. Whats more is that in these tough times they seem to convert the good times fence sitters to the dark side, so dealing with them is more important in testing times.
My question is how do these people affect the organisation? Its obviously negativly but how bad can it get, could a group of dark siders sink an organisation? Furthermore who is likely to leave for greener pastures the negative or the positive? And lastly how does senior management ensure an idea / growth orientated environment when negative employees are on the rise?
Anyway don't join the dark side and stay positive, remember business is suppose to be challenging and fun.....ok its more of a goal but something we should all be working towards.
Today in a meeting I came accross a very very negative person. It was like someone had passed him crib sheets of all the ideas I was going to come up in the meeting so he could counter them. Tom Peters says you should try and avoid these people like the plauge or read them the riot act, I agree with him as you just have to stay positive and want to win. One thing I can be certain about is that every company has these people so we all have to deal with it some way or another. Whats more is that in these tough times they seem to convert the good times fence sitters to the dark side, so dealing with them is more important in testing times.
My question is how do these people affect the organisation? Its obviously negativly but how bad can it get, could a group of dark siders sink an organisation? Furthermore who is likely to leave for greener pastures the negative or the positive? And lastly how does senior management ensure an idea / growth orientated environment when negative employees are on the rise?
Anyway don't join the dark side and stay positive, remember business is suppose to be challenging and fun.....ok its more of a goal but something we should all be working towards.
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