Recently I had the delight of listening to a CEO who was experimenting with fun ideas for creating an engaged workplace.  One of them was a ground-rule which says, “In this company, you can criticise anyone’s idea.  But, first you have to come up with two good things and then (referring to the problem you see) say ‘How can I help with…’ “  Has anyone come across similarly simply but potentially practical workplace ideas?

The July-August issue of the Harvard Business Review has published the results of a fascinating four year study undertaken by Christian Stadler and his colleagues. They have produced the European equivalent of what have now become commonplace studies into what makes great American companies great. The main findings (which they call the four principles of enduring success) of Stadler and his colleagues’ research took them by surprise.

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“Institutional Hack” is a delicious, contradictory new phrase for me. Paul Miller (of the School of Everything and from time to time the think tank Demos) used it earlier today in this post on his personal blog. At first you might think an Institutional Hack is one of those cynical folk, the type whose skill, energy and expertise is focused on working the politics of their organisation principally for personal gain. Not so.

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I was impressed by Jane a Chief Executive with whom I spoke recently. She expressed clear concern that none of the top managers (Directors) in her company could identify a single person who would be able to replace them.

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Its official – in 2007 Jacques Chirac will not stand for President. He said so during a television interview this evening. And, indeed, the media is asking questions such as, Who will succeed Jacques Chirac as French President?.

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It has been said that “…prediction is really difficult, especially when it has to do with the future”. I was reminded of this by a recent conversation with a really effective senior manager in a fast growing business. She said to me, “…the Directors in my organisation are surprised by too many things!” In other words, some of their surprises could have been predicted.

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Today BT delivered customer service that truly surprised me. You see, my phone at home has not been working for the past four days and I thought it was due to faulty hand sets. Last night, I phoned BT to establish whether the fault might have anything to do with BT equipment.

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As some of you are already aware, the notion of competences (not organisational core competences) is hugely problematic. You may want to challenge yourself to come up with say 4 to 5 businesses that have made life difficult for the competition because of adopting a competency framework. Indeed, as one Chief Executive put it, ‘Competences will give you a competent workforce. If you want excellence you have to try something else’.

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Last week I experienced a Big Hairy Audacious Goal.  I have ’seen’ them before, a couple that spring to mind are wikipedia and one laptop per child, but this was the first I have ‘experienced’…

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I do have wonderful Board Members. True, they are a bit of a captive audience but they are great. No, I am not referring to Caret’s Board members with whom I meet every month and to whom I am accountable. They too are truly fantastic and a delight to work with: they are sharp, witty, intelligent, demanding, and great fun. The Board members to whom I refer are different however.

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