First off, I have recently found some improved clarity into our business model as in what we can offer to our clients and preferably professional fiends. So I will be providing some clarification and refinement of ideas and product offerings. In addition to this I would like to share some case studies of some of the work that I have done in the meantime so as to help further refine who we are and what we are here to do. Simple put, we are here to help you with you business problems.

In addition to this I have read a bunch of books since my last post, which was in fact a book. So I hope to share some of the thoughts and ideas that came from the books I have read recently and some that have relevancy to what we are all about.

And a final update that I hope to share is to try some new technologies that I would like to learn and share with others. I am endlessly learning new things through many sources and I hope to be able to share just a bit with you.

Beyond the obvious storyline of the financial markets, sub-prime mortgage default swaps, and the underbelly of Wall Street, I found the underlying theme of organizational group think to be the most intriguing. We see it all the time and yet we subconsciously allow it to exist and flourish.

One of my favorite parts of the book is how Lewis describes the largest trading loss in history of $9.2 billion (give or take a few billion) made by Howie Hubler of Morgan Stanley. He goes on to describe the investors conference call on December 19, 2007 where Morgan Stanley CEO, John Mack, goes on to say “to be absolutely clear [that] as head of this firm, I take full responsibility for performance.” This goes to show that John Mack, the CEO, in fact did not understand what had happened and why. And yet he appeared to all of his CEO pears to be well informed since he had previously been a bond trader. But when it came down to it, he had no idea what his traders were doing.

This seems to be the modus operandi modern business today. To me it sounds very similar to the events that occurred at  Toyota earlier this year, as well as the Sago Mine, and now what we are seeing from BP. Continuing on faith that things will continue as they have thus far and the profits will keep coming, only to be be left wondering “what happened? It wasn’t supposed to happen like that.”

This typical organizational culture seems to become so tainted with success and profits that no one within the organization is able to speak up before things are too late. We all have seen this before. We probably have even participated in these types of group think activities.

How do we fix this, you might ask? At this point I do not have the answer, although my research has led me to Ricardo Semler’s book the Seven Day Weekend, A Better Way to Work in the 21st Century where he describes his organization Semco in Brazil. He describes an effective decision making tool that he utilizes called “why…why….why”. It is used just as it sounds. For every decision being made, every member of the team is encouraged to ask why a minimum of three times. He describes this practice as a toll he uses that improves the decision making process. It is able to help in determining if indeed the decision to act should or should not be made. I see that this process could add much more time to the decision making process but in the end the team can find greater comfort in the decision and reasoning.I see this as being a potential tool that if used effectively, could help to minimize this group think. Organizations must provide a culture that encourages discussion and dissenting viewpoints to be expressed to the group without the fear of being ridiculed or even worse fired.

Think back on all of your previous work experiences. Have you ever been pulled into a “group think”? Have you ever took a stand to speak up? How do you think we might be able to solve this problem?

I saw this short video yesterday which shows how Ricardo Semler runs his company in Brazil. I found the video  interesting because it shows that their are innovative ways that organizations can succeed through managing without managers. I think what is more interesting is how Semco is proving that by improving upon the social capital of an organization they can and do see results in increased financial capital. I have been thinking about this concept for some time and I feel this video shows an example of how it can work. Too often I hear about how organizations are trying to motivate their staff and the challenges that stem from this. I disagree that  its the organizations role to motivate their staff to do the work. Rather, I think it is the role of the organizations to provide for the means for the individual to be motivated to do the work. What about an organization providing the tools needed and allowing the individual to perform the work that motivates them whatever that may be. I think that the results would be immeasurable in many ways. Let’s see who can give it a try…

We have all witnessed the tragic events of the Chilean and Haitian earthquakes, Hurricane Katrina and countless other natural disasters. We have seen that in the days and months following these events there is typically a call out for massive amounts of relief and aid, typically due to poor planning as well as a lack of a centralized distribution network. Often the communities are left waiting days and in some cases longer for the help to arrive, if ever. I feel that this is due to the fact that many of us do not want to think about those “what if” scenarios. We want to go with what we know. “What I see today is how it is going to be” and I do not what to think about the possibility of change let alone natural or manmade disaster. These events have a low probability of occurring but a high impact when they do occur. Author Nassim Nicholas Taleb describes these events as “Black Swans” in his book by the same title. These “Black Swans” are entirely unpredictable but also have a strong potential of occurring.

The opportunity that comes from “Black Swans” for local communities is the opportunity to develop a level of greater preparedness for when these events occur. Localization allows for the community to come together as a whole and develop an assessment plan to map out the processes and procedures for these potential events. These processes will have a huge impact on their community by providing a greater level of preparedness for these events. Ideally the communities will want to be looking for events that have a low probability of occurring with a high impact on the community. Once those events are uncovered, then the planning can begin to help mitigate those situations and build greater resilience as a community.

While emergency preparedness is an important piece to localization, there are many other opportunities to have communities come together to exist and thrive. However, if a community were to be prepared for “Black Swans” they will have an improved chance of overcoming whatever crosses their path purely because they were able to depend on each other rather than outside forces. In this time of rapid change within social, political, economic and environmental spheres, I feel that it is important to strategize on many of the “what if” scenarios so that we have a better handle on them if and when they do occur. There is nothing worse than learning how to face the challenge when you are confronted with it head on.

I’ve heard it all and yet, I have found such difficulty in getting started.  I’ve heard one or twice that starting is the toughest part. So here, I’ve done it. And yet it doesn’t feel any easier.  Oh well I guess I just need to get some practice and keep going.

So now that I have started, what do I have to say? I have been thinking about the Sea World incident from this week. I find it really sad that the trainer was lost in the accident but I am also struck by why a whale needs a trainer anyway? Can’t whales train themselves? Whales are not supposed to be in a swimming pool, they are meant to be swimming in the Earth’s pool, the ocean. I think more often then not humans feel that they can rule and control their surroundings when in actuality we have very little if any control at all. I guess it is our human nature to feel as if we are “in charge”  or in control of our reality. The more I think about it the more I think that this control is only a matter of our own perception. And right now my perception is telling me I can only try to project myself into a direction I want to go in and other than that I will just have to hold on for the ride.

So this being my first blog ever it may be a bit confusing and scattered but I can now say I’ve done it and practice makes perfect.  Till next time….