Twenty years ago, Tom Peters wrote this classic which now acts a beacon in these changing times. Here is my take on his advice.
A General Electric executive has pointed out 9 out of 10 acquisitions are a waste of time and a destruction of shareholder’s value
McKinsey study in 1986 of acquisitions made between 1972-83 a […]
The immediacy of technology has led to a distorted sense of urgency for many and has led to a loss of focus, productivity and lack of leadership. To make matters worse management and leadership training, once compulsory, is now a rarity. Talented staff are entering their thirties, as highly paid specialists, without exposure to management responsibilities.
Where does […]
I once was a contractor for a CEO, let’s call him Chris, who had to be the worse CEO I have ever witnessed. Chris was a trained lawyer, you know the type, one who only thought their way of writing was the best. That is why there are so many rewrites when you get two lawyers […]
I have blogged about Scrum and action meetings. Other alternative ways to Save Time in Meetings are:
Abandon as many meetings as you can. Only participate in meetings where action occurs. Monitor the action after a meeting and if progress is not being made, make it clear that the next meeting will be deferred until progress has […]
For the KPI projects that did deliver I noticed the following common characteristics.
They committed a complete and thorough exercise to ascertain their organizations’ critical success factors (CSFs) and then ensured that all measures used by the organization relate back to the CSFs. It is the CSFs, and the performance measures within them, that link […]
As my first wife and I approached our thirties it became clear that we were carrying a lot of baggage. It was affecting our work and home life. Pauline, who had studied psychology at university, suggested we enrol in a course called “Turning Point.”
We assembled in a large room with around 60 others. We were […]
We can never make the right decision all the time. In fact, in some cases making the wrong decision is better than being paralysed with the options and not making any decision. If you realise it was wrong you can abandon and proceed on a different route.
The ability to make decisions and take calculated risks […]
Far too many of us are caught firefighting all the time. Never getting enough time to plan to make the future a better place.
During an overseas speaking tour, I was with a good friend one Sunday afternoon, visiting a church fair. We had run out of things to do. Among the stalls was a person […]
Besides learning to focus on the rocks each day here are some other suggestions.
Create some space, each week, where you can think about your future. No phone calls, no texts, no face book, just carrying out those important but not yet urgent tasks. Getting ahead of the game. On a Friday morning I work […]
Ten tips to recapture time. Covey’s “First things first”
Stephen Covey in his book “First things first” he observed that great leaders appear less stressed and seemed to have more time on their hands. He drew a four quadrant time management diagram pointing out that far too often we are firefighting in “urgent and not important” quadrant, […]