Blog Archive
May 2009
Unless you’ve been living on planet Zog, you can’t have failed to notice the huge publicity Susan Boyle, contestant on the TV show Britain’s Got Talent, has attracted. Famed for her bushy eyebrows and the voice of an angel, the singer is tipped to win the competition. But what if she had been an investment banker, or a politician? Would Britain be behind her in quite the same way? What has touched the hearts of the nation? Is it her looks? Is it her voice? Or is it her personal story which has propelled her into stardom?
I’ve just finished reading a great book called ‘Ghost’ by Robert Harris. It’s an engrossing thriller about a Ghost Writer employed to write the memoirs of a former British Prime Minister responsible for waging a highly controversial war in the Middle East. (The book is fiction but you would be entirely forgiven for assuming the PM is based on Tony Blair).
I was fascinated by an article describing Oprah Winfrey’s interview with author Daniel Pink . He describes a shift in emphasis from left-brain logical thinking to right-brain creativity. He argues that business is outsourcing more left-brain activities to Asia as well as by using software to do much of the other logical work. Our world therefore has an enhanced need for creativity to drive progress. Design shapes our experience of everything we touch and everywhere we go, whether it’s a computer mouse, a car or an airport. So needing to focus less on the logical aspects will power that shift to creativity
The media spotlight is well and truly focused on MP’s and their expense claims this week, highlighting the jaw-dropping chasm between what is technically legal and what is moral and ethical. Watching some of these MP’s squirm as, one by one, they attempt to explain away their claims (sorry, ‘mistakes’) as the public mood darkens by the day merely serves to demonstrate the fragility of trust. Interesting to see David Cameron’s entreaty to his MP’s to lead by example and ‘pay back or get out’. After all, good leadership and trust is all about leading by example. Clever.
Never knock a consultancy that has turned the economic downturn into a business opportunity. I have just read the findings of Stromberg Consultants’ ‘Workplace Fear Index’ Assessment (yes, an actual survey which you can undertake to measure the fear that exists in the workplace), which finds that one in three USA and UK employees are not only afraid to take risks, but a quarter of US employees are delaying decision-making through fear of losing their job. Worrying.