A Climate for Change

Over the last 60 years or so carbon dioxide (CO²) levels have risen more sharply and consistently than at any time over the previous 650,000 years.  Whilst there are many reasons for the rise and fall of CO² levels, there is only one factor that can account for the current and unprecedented rise in CO² in the atmosphere – human activity.

250 years from its inception, the industrial revolution continues to spread across the globe and when you see the abject poverty that millions of people live in, who can deny them the opportunities that industrialisation creates?  But is an 18^th century business mode, one that we should be still using today?

Energy drives industry and we are still a carbon based society.  Everything we do takes resources out, increasing CO² levels.  Whilst politicians and scientists argue there is no doubt that without action, the whole world faces a man-made, natural catastrophe.

The more advanced industrial nations have got better and taking less out but what is being put back?

I am reminded of the book “The Man Who Planted Trees” by Jean Giono.  The story is about a shepherd named Elzéard Bouffier who commits his entire life to cultivating a forest to restore the natural beauty of a ruined landscape.  Over a 40-year period Elzéard achieves his goal through planting by hand thousand of acorns, beech and other nuts one by one.  He receives no reward or recognition other than the personal satisfaction of seeing the forest grow.

Organisational Leaders are constantly looking for greater outputs.  They want more engagement, raised productivity. They want more out, but what are they putting back? 

At a recent networking event, the symbiotic relationship between trees and people was highlighted to me.  Trees absorb CO² and give out oxygen – the air that we breathe.  As we breathe, we give back CO² to the trees.  

The same is true for effective leadership.  It’s vital to give as well as to receive.  So what can you do today to give something back? Seeking out a balance between giving and receiving brings harmony, increases your value and the worth of those people with whom you have a brief or a long-term relationship.

Radio Gaga

Have you ever listened to one of those radio talk shows where the host raises the  important topic of the day? They have a couple of 'experts' with polar opposite opinions debate the issue and then  invite listeners to phone in with their views.   Of course, to make good radio, any comment has to increase the chance of disagreement and conflict.  It drives me mad!!!

I was recently moved to call into one of these radio stations, to put my view across.  My text and email was ignored and after phoning in and being put on hold for 10 minutes I gave up.  I now make a point of avoiding that particular show altogether.  

The following month I was talking to a team leader about the nature of communication in their organisation.  Their description reminded me of that talk show.  They are talked at and there is little opportunity of feeding back, or holding a constructive conversation about how to improve effectiveness or efficiency.  The effect?  The team leaders tune out, keep their ideas to themselves and, as Ken Blanchard said, quit and stay.

How do you manage and facilitate communication within and across your teams?  Is everyone tuned in or is it radio gaga?

What's in Your Loft?

Last winter’s cold weather prompted me to get the loft re-insulated.  In preparation, we had to empty the loft and wow, what a job that was.  As well as cherished memories – photo’s, keepsakes and the like, there was also a lot of junk that we didn’t know what to do with at the time.  Putting it in the loft was an easy answer – out of sight out of mind.  Now, with sweat pouring down my face and fibre glass strands making me itch like I had measles, the decision to put it out of sight was coming back to haunt me.

Recently a man was trapped in his bedroom when 70 boxes of old yachting magazines fell on him after his ceiling gave way under the weight.  It took 45 minutes for the fire service to rescue him and he could easily have been injured or worse. But that wasn’t on my mind.  What I was thinking about was how much we store out of sight in our minds, hanging on to stuff that isn’t really useful.

All those small and insignificant incidents that build up one by one and box by box.  Un-accomplished goals, the if only’s, the impossible wishes. A pattern of thinking develops and leads to a pattern of behaviour.  The behaviour leads to a path you would not have chosen, but find yourself walking.  

So what’s in your loft?  Is there a large magazine collection building up in there?  Are you storing away thoughts and feelings that over time will limit your growth and development? 

If left unattended, the weight of all that unhelpful thinking and building resentment will eventually come crashing down, trap you and lead to unwanted and unintended consequences.  Is it time for a spring clean?

Brain Power

Our brains are amazing things.  Even the worlds most advanced supercomputer, with the processing power of 1,000,000 desktop computers, wouldn't come close.  IBM predict hat in 10 years time they could build a computer with the power to rival our human brain.  Even if that were true it would still need the output of a nuclear power station to run it, substantially more than 3 shredded wheat!

That's because our brains have a few neat tricks up its sleeve.  Keen photographers will be familiar with the RAW format, which contains far more data than the more commonly used JPG format.  The brain does a similar thing.  It takes the raw visual image and compresses it to reduce the amount of data, while preserving the key details.

And the image the brain receives is also subject to some power saving trickery.  The common understanding is that the whole 'picture' is captured on our retina and then streamed to the brain.  Some say that the brain progressively scans an image much like an up-scaling DVD player. Now it seems the brain uses something called predictive coding to speed up recognition.  It works like predictive text on a mobile phone. The brain guesses what it thinks it's seeing and then then processes the detail to check and update the guess.

The brain is pretty clever then, but there's more.  Our brain not only controls our thinking and perceptions, it also controls our behaviour and our emotions.  The cerebral cortex  takes care of all the logical rational thinking. However, beneath our rational brain sits the limbic system.  This controls emotions and drives behaviour.  It is the more instinctive and intuitive part of our brain and operates at a deeper level.  Have you found yourself thinking that something doesn’t feel right, can’t put your finger on it, or put it into words? That’s your limbic brain at work.

It's easy to see why communication can be so problematic. With the billions of bits of data being processed, compressed and compared, it can be easy for it to be interpreted differently depending who is doing the processing.  While everyone has a brain they are all wired up slightly differently.

The Hermann Whole Brain Dominance Index (HBDI) is a great tool for understanding individuals communication preferences.  These preferences drive behaviour and impact on all kinds of things from career choices to decision making and problem solving styles. 

I use a simple but powerful card game in leadership and team development programmes to show people how their own thinking style impacts on communication and behaviour.  It’s also a good introduction to the psychometric profile you can complete. If you like to know more about how HBDI can be used, drop me a line.

Building Sand Castles

Did you catch the BBC series Wonders of the Universe presented by Brian Cox? In the first episode Brian explained The Second Law of Thermodynamics and it struck me that it applies to business as much as it does to nature.

The world continuously slides towards disorder and chaos. You only have to go into one of the leading retail multiples on a Saturday lunchtime to see chaos at work – clothing previously neatly stacked, litters the floor like a mosaic rug. Staff come round to refold and rehang the garments, only for the items to be scattered once again. A constant stream of energy and enthusiasm is required to keep the displays looking neat and tidy, otherwise things become increasingly chaotic

Brian cox used sand castles as a way of explaining this. Grains of sand on a beach exist in a completely random order. The effect of wind, rain sun and tides may move them around, add, move, remove or replace individual grains, but its still random and requires relatively little effort or energy.

Take those same grains and put them into something highly structured, like a sand castle. Now there are far fewer variations in the way the grains can be ordered and the effect of the weather is far greater. Maintaining the sand castle requires greater and constant energy. Any lapse in attention results in the sandcastle disintegrating as chaos once again takes over

The 2nd law of thermodynamics has some interesting implications for work and our personal lives. Take your desk for example. An untidy desk requires little effort to maintain, but tidying mine up and keeping that way can be exhausting.

Tidy desk = lots of energy input = high entropy
Untidy desk = little energy input = low entropy 

However, I have to able ato find things when I want them, so like many people, I have a simple system. Simple is good - I like simple.  The more structured and complex your systems and processes, the more energy required to maintain them.


So, what can you do to simplify your business and at the same time focus on what's most important?  There is only so much energy to go round, use it wisely.

ciao Marco

like many, I was up early last Sunday to watch the MotoGP.  I was full of excitement and anticipation, but what happened just 2 laps into the race, left me numb for the rest of the day.  Low side crashes are a regular event in motorcycle racing.  Riders normally walk away unharmed and are often seen running after their bike to jump bank on it to finish the race.  Sadly, on this occasion a combination of unlikely circumstances turned a common rider error into a horrific and fatal accident.


Marco Simoncelli was a controversial rider.  He was super talented, completely committed but also took risks that some other riders felt were not acceptable in their eyes.  And that's what made him a contender to be a future world champion. Top level sport is one of extremes - that extra 1% that separates the best from the very best.  Steve Jobs was quoted as saying "stay young, stay foolish"  Today, I think I know what he meant.

Has Apple Bitten Off More Than It Can Chew?

Two years ago I jumped the Microsoft ship and moved over to apple.  My main reason was the famous "it just works functionality.  No more crashing, freezing and wasted hours tracking down conflicts. I wanted simplicity and Apple provided it with style.

Today however, I lost a little faith.  Apple's release of IOS 5 and iCloud have turned my iPad into a very expensive Kindle.  My iPhone is now just a phone.  Despite spending the best part of 3 hours talking to the very friendly and apologetic Apple Support staff I still have the best part of £1,000 worth of equipment that just doesn't work.

Are Apple a victim of their own success, or have they forgotten what made them successful in the first place?