Keeping onside

Much talk at the moment about Gordon Brown's leadership, and about the members of his cabinet who are openly supporting him, and those who are unavailable for comment. In commentary, Alan Sugar has said that everyone has to be onside for you to run a company (see here for the BBC story).

I don't think you necessarily need everyone onside. You stand a better chance of long-term success if you have a way of tolerating, moderating and incorporating alternative views. What makes it difficult is when people are broadcasting their views to the outside world, and not discussing them internally. It's more important to have everyone inside than onside.

Winning

1. Last weekend Valentino Rossi came second in the Moto GP at the Sachsenring, and as a result took the lead in the championship. Rossi is an experienced rider and a superb tactician, and there seems little doubt that he settled for second place on the day. One insight from his pit crew, was that their choice of tyres was made by copying the majority of their competitors.

Maybe it's simply a low-risk strategy. Or maybe it's a recognition that the only thing the team has to do is match - not necessarily beat - everyone else's engineering. Because what Valentino does, is ride the bike better than everyone else. It's an interesting lesson in how to win by focussing on the unique difference that you alone can make.

2. At a nursery somewhere in Gloucestershire earlier today, half a dozen three-year-olds lined up for an egg-and-spoon race on their sports day. As the whistle blew, five careered happily across the grass towards the finish line. The last carefully put one arm behind his back, and then purposefully walked forward. He took quite a long time to reach the tape because he was being very careful not to drop the egg, and not to cheat. He may not have won the race that everyone else was in, but he did win his own.

Status

In a serviced office, the support staff are briefed on the imminent arrival of the executive board of a government department, including the Permanent Secretary. There is tension and nervousness.

The board arrives, and its members deport themselves with dismissive disdain for the minions deployed about them.

The minister arrives, and is courteous, friendly, and talks to all as an equal.

As the team heads off to their meeting room, the receptionist says 'well at least one of them treated me as a human being'.

This board is responsible for one of the government's highest profile departments, and spends huge amounts of taxpayers' money to deal with some of our most intractable problems. What sort of culture might we expect in their team, do you think, given their exemplary behaviour?

At the same time, look how easy it is to make a good impression. And see how long the memories linger for those who witness it.

Good technology (the perfect digital camera)

Bought a perfect digital camera the other day. There is a button to turn it on, a button to take pictures, a button to turn on the flash, a little screen, and an up/down arrow to view what you've already taken. To make it even easier to point it in the right direction, there is a viewer for each eye.

You might quibble with the design, because it's aimed at small children. Yet it's does absolutely everything most of us need from a camera.

You might quibble that nobody would buy such a cut-down version of technology. Then look at the success of the Flip, which takes a similar approach to digital video.

This camera is a piece of technology that's been designed very carefully for its customers, and it works. It would be interesting to see an adult version. It would be even more interesting to see a few more people take this approach to the application and sale of technology.

Smaller than you think

On a train the other day, a man is talking on his mobile phone about a business partner. It's hard not to overhear the conversation, because the man is talking in that strange way that people have on a mobile phone, as if there is nobody else in the same county. He's discussing a business opportunity, and in particular one of the key individuals involved, by name.

My partner Lesley is one of the others on the train. She is sitting with a friend, and both are working on their laptops. As the overheard conversation continues, and starts to reveal some things that perhaps ought to be confidential, the friend twists his laptop screen around so that Lesley can see it. On screen is her friend's Outlook contact information for the person being discussed. Lesley has her 3G card, so is able to look up the person on LinkedIn at the same time.

The world isn't just small any more, you can actually fit quite a lot of it into a railway carriage.

Horizons

The annual Bollywood film awards in Thailand recently were visited by many more stars than previous ceremonies. It seems that they were keen to attract as much attention to Bollywood as possible, because audience numbers are down. Numbers are down, because of a new form of cricket that launched in India a month or so ago. The games are not just popular, they are actually affecting the size of film audiences.

Somewhere in the Bollywood marketing departments, people are asking 'how did that happen'? How did a new form of entertainment, apparently with no link at all to films and film audiences, come to affect them?

It's not enough to scan your horizons, you have to keep checking whether they are still the right ones to scan.

Personal development is not an option

Why is training and personal development so often neglected at work? Everyone agrees it's a 'good thing', yet it's very often the last thing that gets done.

Computer programmers expect training and education to be part of their employment package. In all probability, you will not be able to hire a good programmer unless they can see that you have sound plans for their continued professional development.

I have often been asked to justify this 'extra' expenditure on training. It's not hard:

- they won't join without it
- they will stay longer and be more useful with it
- their world keeps changing, and they need to keep up to date
- they will tell a good story about you to their peers
- they are going to leave you anyway at some point, and there's a very good chance you will come across them again, maybe even as a client or prospect.

So which bit of this doesn't apply to your entire organisation?

Well, maybe the first bit's different. Good people may readily join you without a commitment to their continuing personal or professional development.

All the rest is the same though. And one day soon, you're going to find that the very best candidates will have learned from the programmers, that personal development is not an option, it's a requirement.