I loved using Ishikawa or “Fishbone” diagrams (named after Kaoru Ishikawa who became one of the guru’s of modern management in the 1960s after he pioneered the use of them in quality management processes in the Kawasaki shipyards). It was like peeling an onion, carefully taking each layer of a problem and figuring out what had caused the problems we were seeing at the time so that we understood the cause. Once we understood the cause we could decide what our next course of action was; was it something we could fix and move on, or had something changed meaning that our landscape had altered and our course of action needed to change?

Beautifully simple.

Has this thinking gone out of fashion?

Take Eastman Kodak, so sad to see a company with such heritage file for bankruptcy. A company with the innovative intelligence to invent the first digital camera but lacking the business intelligence to understand the effect of that innovation in the market and how to use it to change its own destiny. Too scared to embrace the fact that this new technology would cannibalise its already successful business, it went for the alternative… made ill thought through decisions, didn’t look at the ongoing effect in the market, didn’t change, just died.

Do we like to react and respond more than we like to understand the real problems and what we can do to solve them?

IGNORANCE IS NOT BLISS!

So, draw one cartoon like fishbone with a big head (see picture at the end of the post).

Take one problem and put the word WHY in front of it e.g. Why are sales of film declining?

Make this question the head of the fish. This is the effect or the consequence of an action.

Brainstorm all the reasons why that problem is happening e.g. all the reasons why the sales of film could be declining and attach them to the bones (branches) coming off the head of the fish. You can group reasons together if you have lots are that relating to the same thing e.g. new technology…

For each branch of the fishbone, dig deeper into what is happening and ask WHY again, creating spurs off each branch until you feel you understand what is happening.

Take time to take this in and decide on your course of action.

Let me know how it goes.

This is what the politicians wanted us to do isn’t it, be brave, be ballsy, put the country back on its feet.

This is of course a lesson in do what I say not what I do.

Take the debate over the benefits cap, a proposal that affects a reported 67,000 people out of the 60′ish million that live in the UK and would save £290m out of a £192b work and pensions budget (figures reported in BBC News). The debate itself has rattled on for days (that on its own costing a fair bit) and now the prospect that it might go regional, the cost of administration to support that will erode even more of that saving.

This wouldn’t get past the Project Board in big business today, it would get sent back with a REJECTED, reason? No game changing ambition and poor ROI. The debate on the matter would either end or the team proposing would work on it to show that a real difference could be made…

They might take the total £192b work and pensions budget and say “there will be no benefits system going forward”. The concept behind this would be that all people on benefits today become employees of the Company for Work and Pensions tomorrow. Suddenly everyone has a job. The admin that today is put behind assessing, giving and taking away benefits would be moved to assessing and giving people work. There would be no sick pay but a bonus for those who turn into work everyday. If you don’t show, or don’t work, there is no money. These jobs would not be classed as public sector jobs, they will be part of a growing number of entrepreneurial companies funded by us the taxpayer. The opportunities would be as diverse as the community of employees within it.

The ROI here is uncapped and the future proofing benefits that support ongoing positive outcomes of a country with zero unemployment…priceless.

OK, I might be dreaming now but I wish I wasn’t.

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What does 2012 hold for The Monkey?

Innovative in spirit, Monkeys get a helping hand in 2012 from the Year of the Dragon. Opportunities for growth are many and doing things for the general good of those around is recommended. Research/study and taking on activities to push their own personal growth will be on the anvil and prove exciting. With a taste for adventure and their love of partying, Monkeys will be wearing their social hats, throwing many a swanky do or taking trips around the world.

That is so accurate there might be something in this after all…

My view, believing in the good stuff only makes life better, gives you something to smile about, even have a daydream about what could be. The year of The Dragon is a very auspicious one, symbolises power, strength and good luck – we all need to believe that right now, wouldn’t it be amazing if we all did?

I’m not suggesting that thinking about it alone will make the difference as the Psychologists would say this is “external locus of control.” A kind of fatalism, where people believe that they can do little or nothing personally to change their lives. Because of this, they either merely hope for the best, focus on trying to change their luck by various kinds of superstition, or submit passively to whatever comes—while complaining that it doesn’t match their hopes.

To improve your fortune, first decide that what happens is nearly always down to you; then try focusing on what works and what turns out well, not the bad stuff. Your “fate” really does depend on the choices that you make. When random events happen, as they always will, do you choose to try to turn them to your advantage . . . or just complain about them? Thomas Jefferson is said to have used these words: “I’m a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.” Your luck, in the end, is pretty much what you choose it to be.

I’m thinking the opposite “internal locus of control.” People that believe that what happens in their life is nearly all down to them; and that even when chance events occur, what is important is not the event itself, but how you respond to it. This makes them pro-active, engaged, ready to try new things, and keen to find the means to change whatever in their lives they don’t like. They aren’t fatalistic and they don’t blame bad luck for what isn’t right in their world. They look for a way to make things better.

I’m born in the year of The Rooster 2012 brings new adventure, the Year of the Dragon will support every encounter and provide new avenues of change. On the professional front, starting up businesses or finding their expertise in demand will be some of the highlights for Roosters as they march to the beat of their own drum. It’s all about colour, variety and personal freedom. For all of you that know me, you know that’s pretty spot on too, not because I read it but it’s because I will make that happen.

What about you?

“It’s not just the Conservatives. I use a very old-fashioned term – it’s the ruling class … Politics has become hollow and bland. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Labour or Conservative, Lib Dem, whatever.” - Rod Dixon, Artistic Director of ‘Big Society!’

No matter how much I try to engage with it, I find it difficult to be enthusiastic about modern politics. Just reading political headlines or watching Question Time irritates me as I am faced with ‘career politicians’ who seem more interested in sniping at their opponents than anything else.

Worse than that is the ‘smoke and mirror’ tactics that they employ; as if any definitive answer that they give is instantly held up as policy.

I don’t think that I am alone in my disillusionment.

Wouldn’t it be refreshing if somebody gave a direct response that addressed the question? Or, even better, wouldn’t it be nice to get some evidence that backed it up? Surely, it’s not beyond the realms of imagination to whip out a laptop and say, “Well, I’d love to employ more nurses but this is how much that would cost, and this is how much we actually have coming in and we still have to pay for education and policing and the rest.”

Isn’t it time for a change?

We work with businesses on projects that centralise information to help people make better decisions about their products and services based on facts, rather than on headlines and assumptions. One of the key outcomes of this process is that everybody can be engaged and passionate about the final outcomes.

What if the politicians did the same thing and gave us the facts rather than the headlines so that we could make informed decisions. Doesn’t that sound like a ‘Big Society’ that we could believe in?

“We don’t believe our problem is too much capitalism – we think it’s that too few people have capital” – Nick Clegg

He said, “We don’t believe our problem is too much capitalism – we think it’s that too few people have capital.”

Capital is earned it’s not a right. It involves blood, sweat and fear – I speak from experience. Surely the message to send out is around supporting the British Entrepreneurial Spirit and introducing mechanisms for starting your own business. In a World where all you need is a good product and the social media consumer does the rest for you through free digital channels there has never been a better time to be brave and strive to make a difference to our economy and to yourself.

The business news is depressing – I have been on my usual news websites today to update on the World and what is happening and I’ve been met with:

• Dixons festive sales fall by 5%
• Premier Foods to cut 600 staff
• 11,000 jobs at risk as 2 more British businesses fall into administration

Time for positive press – wouldn’t it be great if these headlines changed to Britain shows the highest increase in new start-up businesses during 2012 or economy strengthened by fearless British entrepreneurs – Don’t fear what is happening to other Companies see it as an opportunity to create your own niche.

Research done by the Insurer Hiscox showed that 17% of all small businesses were formed after the founders had been made redundant and over 50% of new entrepreneurs had simply taken an existing business idea and used it as a template of their own.

Insurantz found that nearly half of all businesses were started with less than £5k of their own capital and for sole traders 40% had only used £1k to set up on their own

It’s time we started taking control and changing the headlines – everyone is in charge of their own destiny, what’s yours?

We are looking to change the headlines by offering limited edition workshop places with Nina on how you can take your idea to market and become tomorrows success story – if you are interested get in touch

I am drawn to how she became the most powerful female leader since the age of Queen Elizabeth, a person who tore apart the rule book with regards to gender and class and why that didn’t open the floodgates of women who believed they could do the same…what happened why don’t we have at least a handful of women who followed the trailblazing path she made and are rule making now?

So I thought about my own position…did MT make me think about going into politics…yes, in fact tried it at a local level and I hated everything about it. Did she inspire me to do anything else…yes, I always saw her smashing that glass ceiling as a moment that signified women could do anything, between her and the Queen, women were holding the most powerful positions in our country, the world was mine for the taking. So I looked to see if these role models have contributed to the shrinking of the entrepreneurship gender gap, what I found sent me into a depressive state.

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2010 Womens Report makes miserable reading for an optimist like me. Although these are global statistics the UK is not a beacon of hope and the bit that made my heart sink the most was “compared to men, women are equally likely to see entrepreneurship as attractive, yet they lack positive attitudes about their own personal capacities or inclinations for starting businesses, and they have less personal contact with entrepreneurs.” WHY?

“in only one of these 59 economies (Ghana) did more women participate in entrepreneurship than men. While most policymakers and academics agree that entrepreneurship is a catalyst for economic growth and national competitiveness, they must also acknowledge that not all groups in their societies have equal access to this endeavor. When a major part of a population does not engage in entrepreneurship,these economies lose the benefits that would otherwise be provided by new products and services, additional revenues, and new jobs. More specifically, when women do not participate equally in entrepreneurship, society loses out on the value that can be created by half its populace.”(Gem Consortium)

At the same time I came across some female statistics that are on the increase. 1 in 4 assaults now committed is by a women under the age of 25, horrifying tales about the rise of Girl Gangs. So on one hand, women are still insecure about their own capacity to be an entrepreneur on the other hand they are fighting back on the streets. I don’t want to generalise or trivialise very complex issues but its hard not to join some dots and look at cause and effect…

MT did ignite our capitalist culture, she followed her fathers view that not everyone was equal and never would be, but it didn’t mean we couldn’t aspire to and have the same things. Her policies made that possible and did start the “what’s in it for me” boom that so many benefited from (privatisation, home ownership, etc.). Past her reign because the going was good those policies spanned political parties and we have seen a deterioration of the social structure that had been in place, families have become broken, estranged and extended, respect for others has become tribal and some people don’t feel guilty about robbing – they just see it as getting something they want.

Is this the legacy of the first and only female PM? No, it’s the legacy of many decisions made by many people but we can only ever look back and learn and I for one think that that’s something worth doing as we find ourselves at another turning point for our country. MT was elected at a point in time where strong leadership was critical and she provided that, I’m not so confident our current coalition are doing the same. So do we wait or do we do something?

I don’t believe in positive discrimination and I’m not a member of any women’s groups but I don’t like what I’m hearing and I am more about the do something than waiting for something to happen. So anyone women reading this who wants some help setting up their business or wanting to know where to start, call me 07837 536979 or email ninadar@cheeky-monkey.co and I will give my help for free. For me MT’s legacy was “do something rather than try and be somebody” our culture could definitely benefit from that right now.

I didn’t want to write something negative about a cause I believe in and think that others should too. This led to a wider conversation with the lovely Katy Cory who agreed and added “this is the problem with movements that we want and need to believe because the headlines of what they are they for and what they do are so important but generally they don’t deliver, for example the United Nations (UN)”. We wouldn’t want to ‘out’ the UN as not having the muscle to deliver what it needs to because we know the world is better because of the concept of the UN but is this right? Do we expect less or are our expectations too high, after all it was Mandela who said “After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb”.

That conversation has haunted me all afternoon. My disappointment with the ANC is firmly with its political transition where its leaders are failing the people who really need them while they indulge in the power struggles and greed that plights politics all over the world. The movement that that freed people from the Apartheid regime was amazing and resulted in a change that should always be believed in, they seem to have lost their way and I hope this anniversary puts a spotlight on that.

We were so quick to judge an organisation like the UN for its lack of tangible delivery but the truth is some things need to happen and they don’t always have a hard output that can be measured, does that mean they have failed, disappointed us or worse don’t give us a reason to believe?

When I though about this in the workplace I realised it had been 3 years since we had worked on an enabling project, a project that will help get a tangible result, but not directly, it provides the infrastructure or the glue that brings a number of people, concepts and processes together to get the result. Enabling Projects need a reason to believe that goes beyond a hard deliverable, something that you know should happen because so many things will be better because of it, the greater good…sadly this kind of thinking doesn’t resonate in these economic times but it should.

So, when you are reviewing what projects you are supporting in 2012, think about what you need to deliver in terms of output and how many of these deliverables could be brought home if you linked them together through an enabling project – the glue, infrastructure, sanctions that could provide the greater good that makes it all happen. Spare a thought for those organisations like the UN without which the world would be a worse place (Major Achievements of the UN).

The holy grail of carbon-neutral energy production – fusing, as opposed to splitting, atoms – has already been chased for decades by scientists who see its potential. The current project in France is already one of the biggest building sites in Europe and the latest incarnation of a deal signed by Presidents Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in the Cold War days of 1985. What ITER aims to do is demonstrate that nuclear fusion can eventually be commercially viable.

The key problem, however, is in the title. ITER is an experiment, a gamble. And at the cost of 15bn euros (£13bn), it’s a very expensive one. Eyebrows were therefore raised in Brussels this month, when the go-ahead was given to use EU money to cover ITER’s latest overspend of £1.3bn euros. As with many projects, backing can falter when someone has to pay. The cost will cut the European science budget drastically at the worst time, so it’s no surprise that the loyalty of even the staunchest supporters of the project is beginning to waver.

For me, this story brings up two questions: Firstly, what’s in a name? Does the simple consideration of giving the project an inspiring and relevant title deserve more time? Secondly, are the people who are meant to be behind the project truly behind it? When times get tough, it will be those people that will provide the momentum needed to move forward.

Nick Clegg today announced that 8 cities outside London are to be given new financial powers to borrow and spend. They will be given a single pot of money to spend at their own discretion rather than having to apply for capital against individual schemes as they do today.

This was a welcome announcement as Work Foundation think thank released a report on Wednesday which stated that Cities outside of London and the South East risk being “left behind” by the government’s pre-existing growth strategy, while enterprise development zones are “outdated” The feeling was that the previous government acted as parents deciding what local agendas should be without really understanding the impact of their decisions.

I think Nick Clegg’s announcement would be a welcome change in the way many businesses operate. We deal with a number of Global businesses who face the same issue, the people authorising the budgets don’t understand the impact of their decisions.

Lizzie Crowley, the report’s author and a researcher at the Work Foundation, said. “Many cities outside London have a huge amount of economic potential, but they need the freedom to build on their own strengths, and to develop a unique appeal to businesses.”

We support many organisations in building their change agendas and often build business cases for programmes of work to help form their budgets for the new Financial year. The challenge is often that the amount of money that is allocated to new initiatives is already fixed and mirrors last years budget. If this is the case surely rather than spending resource and money on building an investment appraisal that will be irrelevant for decision making purposes it would make sense to allocate one pot of money and ensure there are processes in place to sense check the spend with the business as and when it becomes relevant? This way the people who understand and will be impacted by the change get to decide what the right projects are to do at the right time rather than it being a decision made from an ivory tower?

Maybe businesses need to loosen the reigns and move away from justification dictated by a budgeting model and give the freedom to their employees to make the right investment decisions which will ultimately support delivery of the business strategy?

The difficulties with the Euro have of course now spread into the European Union, it’s a messy project without the involvement of politics and I for one, would find it easier to follow if I didn’t have to listen to the politicians jockeying for position, if I hear one more time that Labour would have done…

Europe is the world’s largest borderless market and we benefit from being part of that. When I studied Business at University I was always amazed at how much the UK drove and underpinned the European agenda, without the UK it wouldn’t be what it is today and still we are key players in that forum but are we really committed?

When France and Germany decided to support the Euro as a common currency and we didn’t – our relationship changed then didn’t it? Now the Euro is in trouble and although our financial institutions are exposed to this, we aren’t committed in the same way those that did are…it’s that eggs and bacon thing we aren’t as committed as the pig?

It feels a little bit like we want a bit of everything in a time when there isn’t much to go around. The concept of Europe as a single market with a single currency is like the idea of Communism, it works on paper but in practice human nature takes hold and it never works as planned. Maybe the Euro should be given up as a bad job and energy back into the strength of a single market that can compete against Asia & Latin America…my thoughts aren’t clear on this and my enthusiasm for clarity is waning the more that the press yabbers on about power playing and tribal rifts

The role we play in Europe is critical to us all, we need to understand the decisions that are being made and the consequences of those actions and we need to make those decisions openly, while exercising leadership in this international forum.

I would like to see Cameron and Clegg get together and have a televised debate on the pro’s and con’s on the decisions being made like the leader’s they are meant to be and showing the benefits of having a partnership in charge of this country – that two people with differing opinions surely means we cover all bases.

Ultimately Cameron has to make a decision and history will tell if it’s the right one. For once my day doesn’t seem too bad, what about yours?