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Reinventing the wheel
It's easy to think that something is so simple that you couldn't improve it or so low-tech your intellect would be wasted even thinking about it. But you'd be wrong. Because anything that is invented can - and often should - be reinvented. The importance of being stylish
It was Oscar Wilde who noted that "in all important matters style, not sincerity is the essential". For Trevor Phillips, beleaguered chairman of the UK's Equality & Human Rights Commission, Wilde's words are proving all too accurate. Any fool can do either. Smart people learn to do both
Innovation promises benefits without all of the costs. The aim is to have your cake and eat it – to deliver two benefits that contradict each other. But to come up with things that do this, you need to learn to think better. Quick fixes can lead to great innovations
Most innovation is quick-and-dirty. And that's particularly true in a recession when people try to do more with less, to invent rather than buy and experiment rather than live with the status-quo. So rather than dismiss them, pay attention to quick fixes. You can't control the waves, so learn to surf
As recent events have demonstrated, waves are bigger than any individual, company, or nation. To survive them, you need to learn to read the signs and then ride the surf all the way to shore. Recession survival strategies
Right now, you need to be thinking about how you will emerge and thrive from the recession ahead of your competition. But how? To point you in the right direction, here's Max McKeown's advice on dealing with the financial crisis. A crisis is a terrible thing to waste
Every now and then there will be a crisis. Look around and you might even conclude that there is always a crisis. Crises force a choice between inertia and innovation. So when faced with one, ask: How can we use this crisis to make thing better? A bad beginning
Carla has just started a senior government job to find herself with a deputy who was passed over for the same job. He is hurt, angry and causing trouble. Is there anything she can do salvage the situation? Max McKeown thinks there is. Innovate your way out of recession
The best way to deal with a recession is not to hide until the storm has passed, it's to innovate your way out of it. If you sit still, you'll get left behind. While your competitors are full of uncertainty and doubt, you can introduce innovations that others cannot easily imitate. Understand change to make changes
To make improvements you will have to make changes. But to make successful changes you need to understanding why change happens, how it starts, continues, and stops. Meeting of minds not mindless meetings
Many meetings are not dialogues. They do not invite contributions. Their style discourages openness. Their structure does little to capture collective and individual opinions. Here are some practical ways to get out of the meeting rut and have meetings them matter. Bet small to win big
Big companies want big products. They want big ideas. They place big bets on a big future. But what they're doing is putting all their eggs in one big basket. Or worse – putting all their faith in just one egg. Measuring innovation
Some people argue that innovation is impossible to measure. But if innovation is not measured it can't be managed and you end up relying on luck. The secret to measuring innovation is to keep it simple. Idea fishing: put dinner on the table
It just isn't possible for one organisation to realise the benefits of all its ideas. Which means that there any numbers of good ideas out there just waiting to be exploited. All it takes is someone to see their potential. Just ask Steve Jobs. Power is originality's best friend
Very few ideas succeed without powerful support. Because powerful people need ideas - and ideas need powerful people to facilitate, legitimise, popularise and even legislate for their adoption. All new ideas are made of old ideas
Everything new is made from something old. Nature has mixed and remixed matter to arrive at our current universe. Mankind has mixed and remixed ideas to arrive at our current global society. So if we want to make the future better, we need to look for new combinations of old ideas. Chindōgu: when useless is useful
Chindōgu – the Japanese art of the unusual – describes inventions that solve a problem but cause so many new problems that for most people, they are effectively useless. But far from being a joke, we could all benefit from the Chindōgu philosophy. Every little difference can be magic
If you're looking for that ground breaking, market changing new idea, you need to think big, right? Well, not necessarily. The biggest advances often come from focusing on the smallest things. Wetback wealth
Instead of our irrational distrust of immigrants, we ought to be thanking them for coming. All the DNA in North America originated on some other continent and almost all of it has arrived over the past 200 years. So it can hardly be concluded that immigrants have hurt the American economy. Is pressure a good thing?
Whether we like it or not, life is about pressure. So we might as well get used to dealing with it and lay some ground-work so that we can learn to make the right decisions when things get tough. Mario and Maginot
The console war between Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft demonstrates that winning doesn't have to mean being the biggest, baddest or most burnt-out. The Mario Generals have out-strategized their competitors. Not outworked, outgunned, or outfought, but outflanked and outthought. Psychopaths & sycophants
Far too many organisations are stuffed with sycophants prepared to overlook anything shady, illegal, or unethical as long as they are getting to hang around and share some power. Even if that means pandering to a corporate psychopath. 60-second Max
Max explains why cultures can be mashed-up: call centre can be mixed with nightlife, accountancy with football team, or government with Hollywood, so that old opposites becomes new best blends. The cosmic egg of change
Change management models don't tend to worry about what happened before. They start as though everything just "was". But with all the evidence suggesting that change is inextricably linked to the past, it's no wonder it so often goes wrong. A is for Apathy
A quick search on Amazon reveals not one single business book or pamphlet about overcoming apathy. And yet anyone who been a manager for more than a week must surely recognise that proving that effort is worthwhile is the real essence of leadership. One day you will die
Sickies are a big deal. Employers complain about lazy, dishonest employees but is one day per person per year such a big deal? And aren't there more important questions to ask, like: why don't they want to come to work?
Tattoo town
What's more important? The contribution somebody makes at work or the way they look? Because diversity isn't just making sure we have a balanced portfolio of races and religions, but that we benefit from the talents of the entire human race. Like a virgin
The same secret that has made Madonna such a pop music success over the past two decades while others around her have faded away can also be put to work in both our organisations and our individual careers. So how the hell did that happen?
While it is often easy to identify the triggers for change with the benefit of hindsight, most of us have a pretty fuzzy grasp of what needs to be done now to accomplish change later. Do I make you a little bit horny?
As long as those who abuse positions of authority are able to pull the wool over our eyes and keep their behaviour under the radar, they often get away with it. But step beyond the zone of indifference and the flack will start to fly. Engage me or enrage me
More managers and leaders ask me "how to engage" and, "how to innovate" than any other question. As well they might, given that so many of us have to disengage just to survive their endless ill-conceived meetings, badly-laid plans, and the waste, day by day, minute by minute, of our lives. Clowns, jugglers and the ringmaster
As good jugglers know, keeping all your balls in the air isn't so much a matter of extraordinary skill as a triumph of observation and forward planning that lets them understand the patterns within complexity. What is your organisation like?
In my last column, I made the comparison between certain kind of organisation and the autistic brain, because I consider metaphor to be a useful technique for revealing hidden insights and a way of using knowledge gained in one field to shed light on another. Is your organisation autistic?
In some beautifully crafted way, there are numerous parallels between brain science and a certain organic or social view of organisational shape and function. Wanted: more bad (as in good) leaders
Sometimes, bad behaviour is inspirational. That's why great leaders need to be unreasonable. That's what leaders do. It's why the cool kids were the cool kids. It's what progress depends on. Obsess it like Beckham
Apart from its potential link with the extreme reaches of perfectionism, another intriguing aspect of obsessive compulsive disorder is its connection with that bane of our lives, namely micromanagement. The joy of applause
Home team advantage is a well-known phenomenon in the sporting arena. But given that the workplace is also a social system made up of interdependent parts, it can be equally as important. Snow business like snowboard business
The ethos of snowboarding provides a wonderful illustration of the difference between traditional text book business strategy and more unorthodox – and often effective – ways of operating. Getting away with murder
Truth-tellers and whistle-blowers need an alternative universe to which they can flee – one in which they are rewarded, encouraged, and given power to improve the world. Alcoholic (no longer) anonymous
Does it make any difference to your ability to be a leader if you are alcoholic? If your performance is still within acceptable limits is it any business of the business, or indeed, the electorate? |
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