Robbie was kind enough to point out an error I made previously regarding Britain’s first Black Footballer. It was in fact Andrew Watson who actually played for Scotland on three occasions.
I stand corrected…
Monthly Archive for October, 2003
Fast Company Now
Heath Row in Fasty Company’s Blog Now:
an article in the current issue of Executive Update about self-promotion strategies that avoid being a blowhard or braggart. The author, Nancy Graham, offers these 12 “tooting tips” for bragging:
- Be your best, authentic self
- Think about to whom you are tooting
- Say it with meaningful and entertaining stories
- Keep it short and simple
- Talk with me, not at me
- Be able to back up what you say
- Know when to toot
- Turn small talk into big talk
- Keep bragalogues and brag bites current and fresh
- Be ready at a moment’s notice
- Have a sense of humor
- Use it all: your eyes, ears, head, and heart
FC Now readers might also find Peggy Klaus’ book Brag! The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn Without Blowing It useful.
I mention this purely for myself to read and take notice. Apparently, according to a number of people who have managed me, I don’t do enough of this. I suspect its because sometimes I am too authentic (cycnical and negative) for my own good. A tart response woold be to suggest I should wear a airline stewardess painted smile and repeat a positive mantra everyday. It wouldn’t be me, but then maybe that’s what is expected?
No scrub that. What is expected is that you hide the negative identity and only show the positive; put the punch bag in the garage and hit til your fists bleed when you get home, but in work, everything is fine!
I’ve been thinking a lot about these issues this week - identity, authenticity and perception. I feel I am on the cusp of a great argument but its just beyond my finger tips… I think the last point in the above list is what I need - ‘use it all…’
The Work Foundation - iSociety, Fat Pipes, Connected People
James and Simon have been doing some work (at least so they claim 
) .
Another note to self to read when I have more time… I expect it to be an interesting read too. Last report was.
Note to self = read this article:
http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/sj/423/keser.pdf
Experimental games for the design of reputation management systems, a PDF from IBM SYSTEMS JOURNAL, VOL 42, NO 3, 2003, combines two of the key themes from Smart Mobs: the experimental economics derived from game theory that points to broad and little-understood dynamics of cooperation; and the possibility of designing reputation management systems that could lubricate collective action among media-linked strangers.
Via EEK Speaks which highlights the Sustainable World Coalition web site.
The following is on the front page:
The issue is not environment versus development, or ecology versus economy. Contrary to popular belief, we can integrate the two. Nor is the issue one of rich versus poor. Both have a clear interest in protecting the environment and promoting sustainable development…
The most creative agents of change may well be partnerships — among governments, private businesses, non-profit organizations, scholars and concerned citizens such as you.Together, we will need to find our way towards a greater sense of mutual responsibility. Together, we will need to build a new ethic of global stewardship. Together, we can and must write a new and more hopeful chapter in natural – and human – history.”
— Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General
While I have held values of this nature for a considerable period they have tended to be fairly soft and like most things more rhetoric than action. As my best action seems to be in the form of words (with the exception of my family) it seems clear to me that I must explore this set of values, and its associated passion, in that form.
If I follow on from Tim’s thinking here, the suggestion would be that Kofi Annan’s view is a starting point for development of sustainability but not one that would lead to it in the long run. The reason being that it depends upon partnerships rather than an embedded set of values and behaviours or mutualism.
I’m intrigued as to where Tim and John can take some of these arguments and whether the process of embedding can truly lead to sustainability for the set of values and the planet.
Last week I was told I still have a job (Hooray?) and that although the structure has changed and the job role has changed (narrowed), ntl are still going to be paying me.
I guess I should be happy but generally feel a bit numb, especially when I consider others around me and look at how the new structure is meant to ‘improve’ things.
On a more positive note, I am on holiday this week which gives me time to reflect, time to intellectually challenge myself (here and here) and most importantly have fun with the children.
As I completely failed in my challenge last week, expect much of the same this week.
Thanks once again BTW to those who have sent in supporting comments, and good luck to anyone else who is in difficult positions job/career wise - I empathise and sympathise.
Keep our promises, own our problems, and fix them right first time
Slightly delayed from yesterday (all my troubles seemed so far away). I always felt that this particular ‘value’ was really aimed at Operational, particularly call centre staff. I also found it difficult trying to think of good, positive examples, again plenty of negative, never seen senior management live up to this type stuff. So until something occurs I’ll leave it here and point you to nthellworld where the majority of examples are in the negative.
Excellent posting and subsequent discussion on the work of Charles Handy by Dave Pollard, as always giving food for thought. I won’t do it justice here so go read it yourselves.
As promised yesterday a short review of Tim Kitchin’s chapter in Beyond Branding, which is called, “Brand Sustainability: Its about Life… or Death” (click on the link and you can read a taster).
Tim’s essential premise is that brands hold an important role in delivering sustainability, within its broadest sense, to the world. As he points out however they aren’t the complete solution:
If achieving humand harmony and common purpose is a precondition for survival, then brands are going to have a very big part to play.
He goes on to note:
Brands frame our understanding of the world. They carry information and context and purpose from one person to the next. Within organisations, as in nations, brand-affinities condition the way humans relate to one another.
So brands are symbols which convey complex meaning within and amongst societies, organisations and people. And an even more important observation or should I say ‘paradigm-shift’ is:
‘Stakeholders manage brands, not companies’
And that any organisation will need to manage multiple relationships in order to ensure that their brand will survive. Tim begins here to draw parallels with a myriad other thinkers by using the analogy of an organism to show how companies can survive and sustain their brand:
Deep sustainability seems to rely upon five core principles: adaptability, sensitivity, fit relevance and systemic collaboration.
It is these principles that form the main thrust of Tim’s arguments and really started to get you as the reader fully engaged in the ideas he sets forth (that and the gratuitous Hitch-hikers’ Guide to the Galaxy reference).
The remainder of the chapter centres around how these principles and further development into drivers, enablers and protectors, can be utilised by orgnisations to manage their ‘intangible assets’:
By understanding all stakeholder’s perceptions of the attributesin the list… an organisation would achieve a firm understandingof the strategic risks and opportunities it faces in sustaining its brand over time.
Lastly Tim’s sparing use of quotes helps put the whole piece into context. My favourite being the last words:
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, things are never going to get better, they’re not. (Dr Seuss, The Lorax)
Now the question remains, How do we get people, organisations caring enough to engage their stakeholders and start building sustainability in its truest sense.
Beyond Branding is published by Kogan-Page:
UK readers can order it here from the publisher at the discounted price of £20.
I was going to blog about something else but Tim’s striking post distracted me.
Brand Activism: A Mutualist Manifesto is a new blog which will apparently be John and Tim writing a new collaboration, in public. My interest has certainly been piqued.
The initial posting, a repeat of an earlier post on Steal this Brand, features an extract from The Communist Manifesto, and a comparison of the ideas contained within to our current situation today. Tim’s take on this is almost desparate in its tone to convince of the need for action. Granted I agree with the position, however how will a Mutualist Manifesto help to convert those of a different disposition to engage in the debate?
I await the future postings, discussion and the book with interest. Espoecially as I have particularly enjoyed Tim’s chapter in Beyond Branding. More on that tomorrow.
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