Ken Robinson – The Element

Sir Ken Robinson returns to the RSA to share new thinking on ‘The Element’ – the point at which natural talent meets personal passion.

The Revolution!

It’s a curious thing, for anyone with a sense of the historic, to be living midway through a genuine revolution. Few people would now dispute that our often painful transition to a digital era is likely to be as significant as the industrial revolution or the Reformation. But from our mid-point, what’s fascinating is the sense of powerlessness in the face of this rapid change. It’s as if we’re waving stop signs at a tsunami.

Antonia Senior Guardian 13/5/12

 

We couldn’t have put it any better ourselves….

The Nelson Touch

“Traditionally a sea battle would be fought with the two opposing fleets drawing themselves up to form two lines of battle. This tactic did not favour what was perceived to be the faster, more accurate gunnery of the Royal Navy and would often bring about indecisive results, usually with the enemy escaping. Nelson’s idea was to quickly bring about a melee in which, due to superior gunnery, the British would have a distinct advantage.”

” Creating trust amongst his officers was crucial to Nelson. It allowed him to rely on simple strategies rather than complicated battle plans, certain in the knowledge that his subordinates would support one another in achieving the overall objective and be confident enough to use their own initiative when required.”
Wikipedia

‘Do you remember that in classical times when Cicero had finished speaking, the people said, “How well he spoke” but when Demosthenes had finished speaking, they said, “Let us march.”?’
Adlai Stevenson and The World: The Life of Adlai E. Stevenson (1977) by John Bartlow Martin, p. 549:

“Bloodless bean-counters rule over us – Where are the leaders?” Charles Moore The Daily Telegraph 12/5/12.

‘Managerialists..are a group who consider themselves separate from the organisations they join’.They are not interested in the content of the work their organisation performs. They are a caste of people who think they know how to manage. They have studied the “24 hour MBA”. There is a clear benefit from their management, for them: they arrange their own very high salaries and bonuses. Then they can leave quickly with something that looks good on the CV. The benefit to the company is less clear’

‘But it struck me that the qualities of a tribal chief are now shockingly rare in big modern organisations. The point about a tribe is that it unites its members by ties that are very hard to break. Tribalism, for sure, can be a bad thing, but a tribe understands matters of life and death ….the chief of the tribe is not a manager: he is a leader’

Understanding the above combines ancient beliefs tried and tested but adding up to date ‘headware updates’ equips you for leadership in the Internet age – the Knowledge Revolution.

Shareholders are Revolting! The worms that turned…….

The recent rash of shareholder revolts in companies such as Barclays, easyJet, Trinity Mirror, Credit Suisse, and Citigroup is just the start, ‘but more looks like the start of a trend’.

‘So while the bosses made millions, the people they are supposedly working for made nothing’
”Eventually shareholders are going to become fed up with a stock market that rewards the people who manage companies but not the people who own them.’
Matthew Lynn www.moneyweek.com 4th May 2012.

Oh, the revolution again….Pensioners who have saved all their lives are seeing minimal returns, when they expected comfortable twilight years. Then they discover what charges were taken from their returns. Governments seeking to clear their deficits by allowing inflation rates of 3%+ while deposit holders receive a pitiful 1% are seeing anger and frustration in recent polls. As for Greek, Spanish and other European countries – well, they are revolting. The US elections will be upon us soon, and the tax hikes will become Obama’s nightmare.

The talk around the board table will be all about ‘doing something’. The rise of the revolt led by Internet ‘noise’, will see a growing number of corporate charm offensives using a means new and unknown to many – the Internet. They dip their toe into ‘web water’ with misgivings at best and a naive innocence at worst that spells danger. If you, as a director, can put your hand on your heart and say, we know where we are, why we are doing it, where we are going to, and – most important, – that all of us are committed together to our shareholders (and our staff who are also in many case shareholders) then a properly portrayed web presence and message can be vital, virile and effective. If there is the slightest doubt or lack of integrity, you will not just be found wanting, but double the risk of being found out with consequences posted for all to see. Who’s for the ‘muppet award’?

Frightening, but full of potential to get it right. If you know how, great, – you will be a world leader, if not its risky. Talk to the experts – talk to us!

Why Boris won?

First I should admit bias, the Johnson’s are also an Exmoor family. As I write, about  Savannah man to Zettabyte man, I elude to ancient British sites on Exmoor, as opposed to the hi- tech Knowledge Revolutionaries in the Capital.

There’s an echo of ‘the rumble in the jungle’ about Boris. The Knowledge Cloud is focussed on constantly asking ‘what is RELEVANT – to you, your job and your family and vice versa; why? Because to the rest of the world it is irrelevant, ‘Twas ever thus, from Exmoor to City Hall. Voters vote at polling stations today,they gave up the bludgeons of their forebears long ago (no lifts in those days!), to settle their differences!

Our long developed instincts do shed a view on the contest. In a tribe, we all circle around the potential leaders. Ken is associated with his newts – perhaps newts if they talked, would sound like him. He’s keen on protecting his bit of the river bank and his supply of worms, he’s quite happy to share your worms, but not his own! Whereas, Boris could only be a ‘big beast’! Do we instinctively like the leonine mane, the roars, the disdain for the others in the jungle – with a kind heart not unlike the lion in The Wizard of Oz?

London is the pre-eminent financial centre of the world and produces £1 in every £5 of UK tax revenue. The big beasts meet around the City watering hole. Alpha males and predatory instincts abound.

The other ‘Big Beasts’ instinctively ‘felt he understood the drivers of commerce and the need for wealth creation …  others for more prosaic reasons…changing mayors would be unsettling’. James Ashton, City Editor, Evening Standard. Timeless judgements, but with no disrespect to the other candidates, the others were like hyenas at the heels of the Lion and the Newt.

Boris also exhibits other ‘real’ or ‘perceived’ characteristics:  most people would find it hard to be the character he is – Boris doesn’t know he is…..it’s instinctive! In the genes, sorry, Stanley! He appears somewhat bemused by the observations of the media jackals. However, since none of us can tell our Peloponnesos from our Peloponnesus, he does not feel the need to explain!

Just ‘keep on runnin’ Boris! Let’s ensure London is the finest city in the world – and learn to be proud of it, even if you come from Exmoor!

A Tale of Two Screams

The iconic picture of the Scream by Edvard Munch was sold for a record £73m yesterday. Most of us would never envisage paying that amount of money for a picture. Why is this relevant? It probably isn’t - so we’ll put it in the ‘interesting’ box.
The second scream is that of parents who are watching their child’s life ebb away for lack of a suitable organ doner.
Mark Zuckerbergs enlightened addition to Facebook yesterday is a remarkable illustration of the Knowledge Revolution in action. By clicking on your account you can elect to donate your organs if you should die – have you done it yet? It is not the concept that is so remarkable –  it is the consequence……US donors rose a staggering 700-% in a matter of hours and we will see what happens in the UK.

Bill Gates has philanthropically won Gold medals for his various health campaigns in Africa. Mark may achieve the same result in days in north America and Europe by the click of a button.
In the UK we have had campaigns to carry donor cards costing millions. Where’s yours? In the bottom of your handbag or briefcase? Or has it ‘got lost’ ? It’s difficult to say to the doctors that you had one somewhere when you are unconscious. Your family would be placed in a horrific situation whilst unbeknown to you the parents of that child are down the corridor in a similar state.
What a scream!   Make it a scream for joy and remember this every time you see ‘the Scream’.

A Facebook miracle

The following article was published today in The Drum (www.thedrum.co.uk) – it just shows the power of Social Media.

2 May 2012 – 12:04am Updated | by Noel Young | 0 comments

Facebook miracle! Organ transplant donors up 700% in a few hours

Zuckerberg: inspired by Steve Jobs

Facebook demonstrated the immense power of its marketing muscle yesterday after boss Mark Zuckerberg announced on morning TV that the social network was allowing its 900 million users to begin registering online as organ donors.

Within hours , an organisation in California reported a 700 per cent leap in people registering as donors. Facebook said last night that were “on track” to have 100,000 pople declare they were registered donors on Timeline as their profile page is now known.

The scheme , initially available in Britain and America, looks set to spark a huge jump in transplant donors , with the the ability to bring in young people a key element.

Zuckerberg said his friendship with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs , who got a liver transplant before he died last year, helped spur the idea. Mark had also talked talks with his,girlfriend medical student Priscilla Chan.

The organisation that reported a 700 per cent spike within hours of Zuckerberg’s announcement was Donate Life California, which is partnering with Facebook. By 5pm the figure was up to 1400%.

CEO Charlene Zitte said that the group got about 75 online sign-ups most days. By 11:20 a.m. yesterday , it had already received 416.

On “Good Morning America” Zuckerberg said they were allowing people to mark the date they became a registered donor on their Facebook Timeline in both America and Britain via links to official registries . The links should make it easier for people who want to donate their organs to sign up.

There was no word yet of sign-up totals in Britain and other parts of the US.

Charlene said,”We are seeing an immediate spike. It’s a great day. The reality is we’re saving lives today and I am so grateful to Mark Zuckerberg for his leadership, for being such a wonderful citizen.”

More than 112,000 Americans are waiting for organs and 18 people die every day .

Transplant surgeon Dr. Marc Melcher , of California”s Stanford Hospital said Facebook had brought “a bolt of hope… It was really amazing they took a big step like that,” , He changed his own Facebook profile to indicate he was a donor by 6:30 a.m. yesterday

Robert Redford’s son James , a liver transplant surrvivor, endured the wait for a matching donor. He said the Facebook initiative should make things easier. “It’s not saying you have to do it. I don’t believe you should ever say that. It’s allowing you to make a choice — if you want, you can.”

Facebook users who are already organ donors can add that information to their profile page, now known as their Timeline.

“We never could have anticipated that what started as a small network would evolve into such a powerful tool for communication and problem solving,” Zuckerberg and Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said in a blog post.

“We hope to build tools that help people transform the way we all solve worldwide social problems.”

Facebook is preparing an initial public stock offering expected later this month that could value the the company’ at $100 billion.

The Knowledge Revolution

The French Revolution – Bastille Day July 14^th 1749

How do you know that you are in a Revolution?
All around you,you can hear shouts, explosions, emotions are running high. Fear, confusion, anger, frustration has boiled over.
People are risking their lives.
How do you behave rationally?
How do you know which side you should be on?
Get it wrong and you might get hurt or die.
Get it right and you might be on the senate……and have your head chopped off six months later!

We are in the first stages of the Knowledge Revolution. For the first time in the history -48,000 years in the UK- of homo sapiens everyone has access to knowledge.

‘Knowledge ‘ = “ resources,treasure,means,wealth,power, substance and might”, OED

The wireless Internet world has reduced us to a global village. That cliché holds a hidden strength – your have thousands of years of hard-wired DNA based experience: fear, greed, fight, flight- that’s why we are here and Neanderthals aren’t. But sometimes we behave like them. Everyone is getting used to instant information. President Mubarak woke one morning to coffee served in his bedroom, yet days later he was in a prison cell.

In this year of the Olympics we see the highest degree of physical fitness. But, more than ever, coaches focus as much on the mental fitness of the athlete. It used to be enough to lecture on ‘grit and determination’ – it still is! But modern technology has also given us more knowledge of that most mysterious of organs – our brains. More importantly, the instructions we give our brains – see my review of Dr Steve Peters -the Chimp Paradox.  Peters coaches Sir Chris Hoy whose recent sprint from fourth to first was described as ‘miraculous’. Was it?

Following the success of the human genome project, scientists are now attempting to reproduce the ‘ I’m only human’ brain. The disturbing facts that are arising are both challenging and puzzling. The brain cell – a neuron- is ‘as powerful as your lap top’. Fine, but you and everyone you pay to run your business has 10 billion of them. Each would ‘cost £700,000 of electricity’ to run annually. What’s your real IT spend?

Twitter, Facebook, and websites are exploding at a rate that is ‘unreal’. The global village is communicating with itself just as a medieval or more ancient village did. But, by how much and what does it mean to you? Advertising spend on Google is now larger than on all traditional news in the US! Apple downloaded 24 billion apps to March 2012.

So what? A single YouTube clip of your company, your product can go viral and be seen by millions in a matter of hours. See examples on YouTube : ‘the cat and the printer’ has had 7.5m viewers to date!

So, know very clearly, where you are, where you are going and how each of your team can be a ‘Chris Hoy’ and make ‘miraculous’ an every day event – before some one else does. Life’s changing as you watch……Now where’s my Blackberry! Your fax machine and your……????…. sorry too busy! Too busy, we are all too busy, until we have a crisis. Back to the Bastille!

We don’t have to make this up, read, listen, – it’s all around you.

What’s being tweeted by the people in your business, and outside your business?

Careless talk costs lives. It can also save lives. This can damage your health and wealth or do the opposite. Can you take a chance?

The Knowledge Cloud is a focus for how to empower you and your team to keep ahead of the game! No time like the present….When shall we meet?

Tuesday 17th IOD seminar

Looking forward to seeing you all for a very interesting day: please read this before you attend

Take Advantage of Your FutureSeminar.
There are three core elements to this seminar: the ‘Knowledge Revolution’, the Evolution of Homo sapiens and the Current Thought patterns in your head, your personal ‘software programme’. For the first time in the history of the human race, we (humans) have the ability to access knowledge to a far greater extent than ever before. This has caused an explosion in knowledge; driven and confused by the concurrent growth of technology and the Internet. ‘I’m only human’ is an oft repeated reaction to all this. Being only human has its advantages! You are born with 48,000 years of developed Homo sapiens thinking which is ‘hardwired’ into your DNA – Fight, Flight, or Freeze. The rapid development of technology and the Internet has swamped us ‘only humans’. Geeks may thrive on it; others say ‘I don’t understand all this’ and retreat from the pressure saying ‘they are too busy’. After all, if you’re not seen to be ‘busy’, you’re not thought to be doing your job properly! Most of us are somewhere in between. We will look at all three aspects, focusing on you and where you’re heading. What you will get is a review of simple truths and common sense. Be assured, that on this seminar, your thoughts and beliefs are yours alone. (Your personal world is private). You will gain an insight into the world of neuroscience and the growing understanding of the function of that most mysterious of our organs – our brain. The whole idea is to work smarter not harder. Prior to the seminar, you will be asked to record recurrent thoughts you have about yourself, your family, and your work. During the day you will be able to evaluate these against your ‘new knowledge’, gaining a greater understanding of how you and the technology that surrounds us can be more effective and efficiently used to achieve your goals.

Research shows ‘we have 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day, 80% of these were found to be negative’. During the next few days, note down your most frequent thoughts. Focus on those to do with you, your family, and your job. Set yourself the goal of collating your predominant thoughts; they are private and personal, but RELEVANT. You will not be asked to reveal any of them, so be honest with yourself! You will then be prepared to analyse these thoughts in the light of newly acquired techniques, as you fine tune your ‘software programme’. Enjoy listening to yourself! The seminar is a three step programme, the thinking before,during and after -the more you put into each the more you get out of it.

Note for the IOD:
“IoD premises are a place for business, and in consideration for others, members and their guests are expected to dress accordingly – at least ‘smart casual’.

With the exception of 123 Pall Mall, T-shirts and trainers are not permitted in any IoD premises. For the Restaurant at 116 Pall Mall, gentlemen are required to wear a Jacket and jeans will not be permitted.”

Have fun thinking on ‘your thinking’ and see you at 0930 at the IOD. Go in the main entrance and you will see a sign post to the Trafalgar Room.
Best Wishes – and call me if you have any questions!
Rollo Clifford

Congratulatio…

 

Congratulations Sir Chris and Dr Steve Peters! That WAS the computer brain at 20x ‘human brain’ indeed!