“People believe 80% of what they read on the Internet to be true”

- Albert Einstein

It’s a very American Centered image, but many of the brands listed in the infographic below are global brands, and when one considers that all these are owned by just 10 companies, it’s got to get some questions forming in your mind…..

I found the original in a Huffington Post article.

Contrast these with another article (posted in June 2011) suggesting 10 Global and US brands that will no longer exist by the end of 2012.

• Sony Pictures
• A&W
• SAAB
• American Apparel
• Sears
• Sony Ericson
• Kellogg’s Corn Pops
• My Space
• Soap Opera Digest
• Nokia

I imagine the only reason BlackBerry isn’t there is because nobody will buy it?

If you’d like to see the full size image, simply click on this smaller one embedded below.

In the book ‘A Million Miles in a Thousand Years‘, Donald Miller left me with a haunting paragraph that played out in his imagination at a wedding. He imagines Victor Frankl leaning over and whispering the following into his ear,

“You are a tree in a story about a forest, and it was arrogant to believe any differently. The story of the forest is always better than the story of the tree.”

In a society in which the individual is continually encouraged to look after their own happiness and well-being before anyone else, it’s a sobering paragraph that reminds me that there’s a tension between the individual need and the larger groups of which I am a part. He goes further to suggest that the groups of which I am a part are always more important than my own story.

Skip to Harvard’s Pellegrino University Professor Emeritus, E.O. Wilson, a biologist who:

Focusses on an extreme form of social behavior termed “eusocial” by scientists. Eusocial species are those in which some individuals act altruistically to benefit the group instead of selfishly to benefit themselves. Eusocial species have evolved just a handful of times — all of them relatively recently.

Eusocial species include ants and bees plus naked mole rats in Africa, some crustaceans, and humans. Though these species represent a tiny fraction of all species on Earth, their success has been breathtaking.

Humans have multiplied and risen to dominate the planet while ants are so successful that their biomass is greater than that of all nonhuman land vertebrates.

He’s not without his critics:

For decades, eusocial behavior has been explained by the theory of kin selection, under which individuals act to benefit themselves and those they’re related to, with their willingness to sacrifice for the benefit of others declining for those more distantly related.

I, however, am interested in the idea that it’s been altruism and not selfishness that has made us dominant. Playing that through an organisation in a business context, I become intrigued at how the organisation could be designed differently, and how our interactions might change if the goal of the leader was to draw out altruism instead of incentivise behaviour by appealing to our selfishness? This is game-changing stuff!

“As William James said, ‘History was a bloodbath.’ We know this was true in history and prehistory,” Wilson said. “Groups consisting of altruistic individuals beat groups consisting of selfish individuals.”

You can read the full article I worked from here.

I’m no chef. To be honest when it comes to cooking and me, you can’t ever be too sure what you’re going to get? I’m either pretty good, or pretty not so good. I’ve not yet been outstanding, and I haven’t poisoned anyone. I’m a learner in the kitchen, with a big red ‘L’ on my back. I’ve recently learned that baking and cooking are approached in two very different ways:

Backing is a science. If there’s a recipe, you don’t deviate from it. If it says 200g of flour, you put in 200g of flour. If it says in an oven at 180 celsius for 28 minutes, that’s exactly what you do. Deviation from the formula will result in certain failure.

Cooking is different. It’s less science and more gut feel. There are some general signposts worth following, but add a little too much salt and it’s not going to end up in disaster. In fact you can counter the extra salt by adding something else (I find that chutney covers a multitude of sin : ).

My favourite chef to read, when I’m looking for signposts, is Jamie Oliver. I’ve tried others, and the reason I like Jammie is that he’s more gut than science than most. He uses terms like ‘knobb’ and ‘glugg’ when explaining quantity. I’ve not ever tried to find out the formal measurement of either, and have rather left it to my gut at the moment of cooking to work out what  I think it’ll be? So far it’s worked for me. And I’ve passed it onto my daughter who often looks for science in the kitchen.

“A glugg”, I tell her.

“How much is a glugg?”, she responds.

“What does a glugg feel like right now”, I shoot back.

I think it’s great to cook with feeling. Passion for cooking doesn’t come from science or from a formula, it come from deep within your soul, in the moment.

I think we need more ‘gluggs’ and ‘knobbs’ when it comes to leadership and less ’7 irrefutables’ and ’9 definites’. Less science and more gut. Look in leadership libraries or search Amazon and you’ll find far more suggesting that leadership can be boiled down to a neat list of things to do. Authors searching for the Grand Unifying Theory of Leadership. Suggesting that leadership is a neat formula that can be followed.

I say it’s not. It’s so not. Speak to those who lead. Whether they’ve done so for a long time, or are just getting started. Leadership is about people, and when it comes to people there are no neat formulas. Ever! The 4 teaspoons that worked yesterday require 3 or 7 today. Leadership happens in the moment (and sometimes it doesn’t happen at all), it’s not a neatly planned recipe. Stock standard recipes and leadership end in disaster.

Leadership requires more gut than science. We need to let go of our search for certainty in leadership and adopt words like knobb and glugg. We need to forget what worked yesterday and the day before, and become more interested on what’s going on in the moment. Leaders need to practice using their gut, and you can’t do that if you’re constantly relying on a neat formula to help you make it through.

Business Schools are big business. There’s a lot of money involved. It’s not just a lot, it’s ridiculous.

From a business perspective they’re an expense. A very large expense, especially when you compare what you’re paying for an executive to go through a Business School programme versus what’s being spent on ‘lower level’ employees on training.

I began wondering, during the long weekend, about how good business school education really is? It’s difficult to find an answer online, as most business schools are measured on what delegates think about them, and how much graduates earn once they leave them. I couldn’t find any contribution from a company perspective. It was all centered around the learner.

But I reckon a good measure on how good a Business School really is, should be based around how effective graduates are at solving problems once they’ve graduated. And the particular problem I chose makes it clear that current Business School education isn’t very good at all.

Problem – Reduce the learning and development expense we incur each year, without sacrificing quality.

I understand this particular problem isn’t a core issue to most companies, but surely someone should be solving it? Surely someone should have solved it already? Education is the next big industry to be revolutionised by technology and what the internet can do, and yet education costs continue to increase each and every year, across the board.

I’ve just finished reading two articles, by two impressively large and well respected consulting firms. The articles had to do with getting the most out of people in the work place. Both articles suggested that by creating better connections and healthy relationships, people would enjoy improved energy and commitment, and ultimately there’d be more money in the company’s bank account.

The thinking makes sense. I’m prepared to buy into the idea that when people, in any environment, feel better connected they’re likely to enjoy being there, and could quite possibly work a little harder and smarter.

The part I struggled with was that they then, like all good business articles (and books), kicked into ‘formula’ mode. They described 8 things, and threw in a couple of letters (that stood for very important things), and suggested that if you mixed it all in, you could start the chain reaction necessary to make more money. As you might pick up in my tone, I’m a little skeptical about anyone who claims they’ve found a formula regarding human relationships, that can be replicated on mass, with predictable outcomes.

I think I must be largely alone in my skepticism. I think this because people keep writing up these formulas, and other people keep buying them.

Relationships in a human context are always difficult. They’re unique. They’re diverse. They’re hard work. They cannot be described or contained in a formula or framework. Take a look at the exert from the Velveteen Rabbit below, or watch the YouTube clip embedded below. It may be the most comprehensive and accurate description of what it takes to really connect with someone.

Find a Consulting Firm that will offer you that in a neat package. I dare you……..

“What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”

“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.

“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”

“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”

“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

“I suppose you are real?” said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive. But the Skin Horse only smiled.

From the University of Pennsylvania

Astrophysicist Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson was asked by a reader of TIME magazine, “What is the most astounding fact you can share with us about the Universe?”

This is his answer.

Every now and then I go looking for brands on Twitter and Facebook. I do this because there’s no list of South African companies in these spaces (that I can find), so I’m building my own. It’s not a priority project, and one day when it’s fuller than it is now, I’ll publish it somewhere and save someone like me some time and energy.

Last week I came across one of Coca-Cola’s Twitter accounts. A ‘parody account’ is what some call it. Others suggest it’s ‘perhaps one of the most unique and most genius I have ever come across in my three years of using Twitter.‘ The account is ‘owned’ by Doc Permberton, Coca-Cola’s founder. And here’s the story….

It all started with a campaign called ‘Secret Formula’. Described on ARGNet as:

According to the campaign’s The Secret Is Out There video (embedded below), someone is trying to steal Coca Cola’s secret formula: and based on past experience, Pepsi can be ruled out as the culprit. In order to figure out who is after the formula, players will have to learn more about the two people who know the formula as well as the drink’s inventor, Doctor Pemberton, who has recently discovered twitter, although it seems as though the good doctor had some trouble adjusting to the application at first.

The campaign is over now, but the Doc keeps tweeting (almost 76 000 followers), as if he’s been in a time-warp using old-style-english.

He is the embodiment of humility (despite first impressions), a trait that too many brands are afraid to embrace. By poking fun at Coke and turning the inventor of Coca-Cola into a fun, well-spoken ladies-man, Coke inspires followers, promotes its’ brand, and gives a hilarious back story to the product.

It’s a fun twitter feed that’s definitely worth following.

If you’ve not ever spent any time with Aiden Choles then you’ve probably never really explored Narrative (or Story as I prefer) as a means to transform your business. Aiden is a founder of the Narrative Lab, and from time to time I get invited to weigh in on some of their projects. They’re always interesting and I always leave amazed at the power of stories in an organisation. In my very humble opinion it’s always the story that makes or breaks any organisation.

With that as a back-drop I noticed that Aiden was co-facilitating an accreditation course with the Cognitive Edge in Cape Town and then Jozi, in the next few weeks. What does that mean? Straight from their website:

If you want to discover practical and pragmatic ways to manage under conditions of uncertainty, understand the power of business narrative and discover new ways to use human networks, then this course will provide you with the introductory theory and associated open source Cognitive Edge methods.

I’m out of touch with what courses cost these days, but it’s over 3 days and if it leaves you with a richer understanding of story, and the skills with which to better engage with story, it’s worth the time and the money.

If you’re not doing anything on 28 March 2012, and would like to check out Chris Mapane, Barrie Bramley (that’s me) and the Midrand Conference Centre then check out the details on the embeded brochure (below). Jenny from Speakers of Note is the person you can let know you’re coming (jenny@speakersofnote.co.za) Did I mention it wont cost you a thing : )