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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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).

Homelessness is more than just a housing issue; family problems , mental health issues, losing your job and so confidence, not feeling like you can be part of society for a variety of reasons – every person has their own story, you need to get beyond the drink and drugs issues, of course sometimes that is why they are there but it’s also a way of surviving where they are.

When I lived in Bristol I could walk to work everyday (the only time I have been able to do that), when you walk through a city early in the morning and late at night you can’t ignore how many people are living in subways, under bridges, doorways and park benches – I just couldn’t walk past them day in day out as if they weren’t part of my life, I saw some of them more than my family at that time! So I didn’t, I made them part of my life and it was an experience so rewarding I remember them dearly…BUT generally people thought I had finally lost it and I found the preconceived ideas of why people are homeless and the way they were judged very sad.

So this year we have donated the money we would have spent on Christmas cards to The Wellspring in Stockport, they have done a fantastic job for years and this year you will add to their Christmas cheer.

From everyone here at Cheeky Monkey we would like to thanks you for your support this year and hope you have a brilliant Christmas and New Year. Spare a thought for those not as lucky as we are and as you walk past the homeless as you rush getting your last minute bits, stop for a chat make them feel part of your life – it’s the warmest feeling you’ll get all season.

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?

Also really interesting that the fastest shrinking country is Moldova, why? emigration. Whereas the the fastest growing country is Qatar, why? immigrant workforce. Bring in the statistics on urbanisation and a good bottle of wine and we could be hear for some time.

The numbers are not accurate but we know that the message is correct the world population is growing at speed and we need to be aware of the challenges that creates.

Impact on the environment depends on population size, consumption and how technology effects the environmental impact. Of course we need to look at ways we can reduce consumption and improve technology – we need more innovation in these areas.

Is a diverse group of people more innovative and creative than a homogeneous one? Is migration going to be the worlds self healing programme? I have no factual data on this but I do know what I see. The worlds greatest cities are already inhabited by large and diverse foreign populations and there are lots of migrant entrepreneurs. The transnational companies we work with have diverse working teams that create innovative behaviour just because of the differences in the group.

The world is getting bigger and its changing.

Mobility of highly skilled workers has been increasing due to globalisation and the growing importance of the knowledge economy, many companies already benefit from this and countries too benefit from the transfer of new ideas and work practices; there is an increasing amount of new knowledge and ideas that we should be harnessing and using to solve the problems we face.

The younger migrants seem to have a great skill base, are more entrepreneurial, less risk averse and believe that they will move several times in their life and commute between countries. This is just what the world needs surely? Is the biggest challenge how we bring that together and make it work? The heart in the picture represents what we need to achieve, as we tell our clients most weeks; talking about and planning change is easy its the execution of sustainable change that is difficult and of course makes the difference.

As the 3,641,850,266th person alive on earth I want to make a difference, what about you?

She said:

“There’s no doubt the recession is forcing companies to think differently. The playing field has changed and the entrepreneurs amongst us are considering new markets, new processes, new ways of working and new terms. Everything is up for grabs again. Positive or negative, it’s an adrenalin rush and people are thinking about basic business practice again.”

Read the rest of what Nina had to say on the GM Chamber Blog .

It’s been a year since the collapse of Lehman Brothers rocked the world’s financial system. A global recession followed, brought about by poor risk management, power, greed and an unprecedented lack of accountability. The required balance between risk and reward somehow went under the radar.

I am a customer, you are a customer, your favourite shops and local businesses are customers, and together we are paying the price for this imbalance between power and accountability. As we tread the murky waters of this recession trying to keep our heads above the water, ‘change is coming’ feels like a cheap tag line, of course it is, you have no choice.

What I want to know is…

What Will Change?

On Saturday finance ministers from around the world met in Scotland for the G20 meeting, the focus, economic growth.

Speaking of the financial sector, Gordon Brown said:

“It cannot be acceptable that the benefits of success in this sector are reaped by the few but the costs of its failure are borne by all of us”.

He went on to call for a new ‘social contract’ with the world’s banks, a route to preventing future bailouts and making them more responsible to society. It sounded sensible to me, a way to move forward when they pull the plug on the money printing press, but by all accounts it was met with a lukewarm response. Despite our vulnerability many governments are looking for a way to bail out of the bail out, but as national debt is rising by £6,000 per second, for now they have pledged to continue the emergency support.

In fairness, there has been change. Last week the Bank of England’s wish to break up some of the world’s biggest financial firms was granted as the government announced their plans to break up Northern Rock, RBS and Lloyds in an effort to increase competition and limit our risk from failure. If the plan is to eliminate monopolies and limit risk, why just these banks? Surely HSBC has the same problems, as do many other banks around the globe whose governments are reluctant to follow suit.

What Needs to Change?

As everyday consumers you and I are a small link in the financial chain, previously unaware of the impact that that financial sector could have on our daily lives. We were detached from the hustle and bustle of the London stock exchange and Wall Street, unaware that our homes, pensions, savings and investments were being used as a stake in a game of roulette.

We have spent a year reading about what went wrong, and thankfully we are starting to read about what needs to change. From everything that I have read there are four main areas that need focus:

• An clear understanding of the role of the financial sector in society and our economy
• The failures of previous regulation
• The management of risk

And, most importantly…

• A global commitment to work together

“The Government’s commitment to regulatory reform is real and no one should be in doubt that change is coming. But nor should anyone in the sector think that government alone will be able to drive the change needed – the time for owners, governors, and managers of firms to show leadership has well and truly arrived.” – Paul Myners, Financial Services Secretary