Project X Discussions

Tom Peters on Excellence

Great quote from Tom Peters of In Search of Excellence fame

"In Search of Excellence basics in 127 characters including quotation marks and spaces:"Cherish your people, cuddle your customers, wander around, 'try it' beats 'talk about it,' pursue excellence, tell the truth."Q.E.D."

I always thought Peters work was not very scientific because in his book he only talk about the good traits of companies but I think his wisdom is worth a little poetic licence.  

I remember a great quote from his book.  Passengers judge how an airline maintains their engines by the coffee stains on the flip down trays.  Another one was he was telling a retailer how poorly they were looking after their customers and their response was "we are not worse than the rest."

I think his great contribution was promoting strategic thinking and strategic management.  In recent talk he said that the first line supervisor is the key for execution.  One should take the most care in selecting these people not the executives.  See his talk at Norwich University http://www.nsnsports.net/members/video/archive/?v=ToddLECT061511.flv

In the talk he talks about learning more from our mistakes than our successes.  I think Graham and Stephen both really work on that.  They have core values but ready to question approaches.  

Leadership What Do You Stand For

I look for examples of great leadership and learn from them.  Lolly Daskal has written a great blog abour that Lolly Daskal on leadership.  

As Project X matures the committment to deliver value rapidly to the client drives all our actions.  Our understanding and demonstration of our vision continues to evolve but our core values remain.  

Stephen and Graham's continuing support of these blogs demonstrates their desire to look beyond the immediate challenges.  Although many of the blogs do not relate to the business, we hope it adds value to our community.

We just had a great discussion about culture in our Senge Circle and Edgar Schien gave examples of how important leadership in creating the culture of an organization.   We look to leadership to set a tone and style.  The openness and authenticity of our leaders set a great example. 

Accepting Myself Deeply and Completely

One of the challenges we all face is accepting our imperfections.

I have just spent two weeks trying to help out with a friend who is facing some real life challenges.  However I know that I made some mistakes in the process and I keep second guessing myself.  I have to be careful to "love and accept myself deeply and completely."  

I find that very difficult but I know intellectually my wanting to do better is very natural.  However knowing this intellectually and emotionally are two different things.  

I have been trying various things.  I have talking about my concerns with others and using a technique called Emotional Freedom Technique or EFT.  EFT is a western adaptation of a Eastern energy centres idea.  See Wikipedia EFT

However I find it amazing how difficult I find accepting my imperfections.  

 

telecommute

&$#%ing commuting!

we all hate it and yet we all do it. we are in the habit of getting in our car and driving to work. bumper to bumper. stop and go. traffic. oh, how we hate it.

I suspect a good number of us don't have to do it. we could work from home or a local library or Starbucks or even a satellite office closer to our home.

anyone whose job entails computers, forms and meetings doesn't have to commute every day! with more and more use of the cloud, collaborative software and conferencing facilities, like gotomeeting and livemeeting , commuting becomes an unnecessary waste of time.

I'm not advocating becoming a recluse. traveling to an important face to face meeting is vital. some people will have to do this. but do we have to do it every day out of sheer habit?

try it. telecommute one day a week, then 2, then three. you'll be more productive, happier, less fatigued. you'll gain time at both ends of your work day, save money on fuel, and be greener too by reducing you personal carbon footprint!

Setting Positive Goals

"I am going to lose weight," "I am going to quit smoking,"    Why don't these resolutions work?  

I think our unconcsious does not recognize negatives because it sees things as images.  The only images these thought evoke are images of weight and smoking.

A simple example is to asked yourself not to think of blue.  Everything that comes to mind is about blue.

A similar idea is that we cannot "not do" something.  We can do many things but what do we do to "not do" something.   I learnt this very graphically when I was disturbing my wife's sleep by snoring. She would tell me to stop snoring and I would breifly stop and then start again.  I was asked whose problem it was.  Clearly it was her problem so I tried to think what she wanted me to do.  Finally I concluded she wanted me to sleep quietly.  So when she is disturbed by my snoring she says, "Jim, you are snoring, sleep quietly."  It has work amazing well as I now know what to do.  

Instead of being frustrated by what you do, think of what you would like to do and set a postive goal.  You will be amazed at the success if you perist and really want to change.