PowerPoint Is Evil:

PowerPoint Is Evil:

'Power Corrupts. PowerPoint Corrupts Absolutely' says Edward R. Tufte, professor emeritus of political science, computer science and statistics, and graphic design at Yale.
Imagine a widely used and expensive prescription drug that promised to make us beautiful but didn't. Instead the drug had frequent, serious side effects: It induced stupidity, turned everyone into bores, wasted time, and degraded the quality and credibility of communication. These side effects would rightly lead to a worldwide product recall.
Yet slideware -computer programs for presentations - is everywhere: Several hundred million copies of Microsoft PowerPoint are churning out trillions of slides each year. Slideware may help speakers outline their talks, but convenience for the speaker can be punishing to both content and audience. The standard PowerPoint presentation elevates format over content, betraying an attitude of commercialism that turns everything into a sales pitch. Read the full story: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html

Dr. Martin Seligman on Happiness:

Dr. Martin Seligman on Happiness:

Psychologist Martin Seligman has identified three components of happiness: the hedonic life, the engaged life, and the meaningful life.

- Hedonic is the most fleeting – it is the pleasure we get from buying a new television or from eating chocolate.

- Engaged is what you are when you are absorbed by what you’re doing, usually to the extent that time flies.

- The meaningful life is a life that serves something beyond yourself, whether religious faith or helping others.
Seligman believes that happiness can be improved. Most people concentrate too much on hedonic happiness – which feels good at the time but offers little lasting impact – and too little on engaged and meaningful happiness.

By discovering your strengths – those activities that engage you the most – and concentrating on developing those areas that offer lasting happiness, overall mental wellbeing can be increased.

In general, Seligman recommends that people be thankful for what they have rather than focus on negatives, help others, savour the smallest pleasures, formally express gratitude to people who help them, learn to forgive, and spend time with family and friends. Essentially, people will be happiest when living a good life rather than trying to acquire pleasure.
See www.authentichappiness.org for tests and other exercises.

The Earth Charter - Social Change Agents in Action

The Earth Charter - Social Change Agents in Action

The development of the Earth Charter is a great example of how a small group of change agents can have a major global impact. The Earth Charter is a declaration of fundamental principles for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society for the 21st century

Spearheaded by change agent Mikhail Gorbachev, The Earth Charter was created by the largest global consultation process ever associated with an international declaration with inputs from more than 5000 people. The Earth Charter has been endorsed by thousands of organizations representing millions of individuals. Many thousands of individuals have also endorsed the Earth Charter

The 4 principles of the Earth Charter:

1. Respect and Care for the Community of Life

2. 2.Ecological Integrity

3. 3.Social and Economic Justice

4. 4.Democracy, Non-Violence and Peace

Learn more about the Earth Charter http://www.earthcharter.org/

Death by Meeting

"Meetings," the economist John Kenneth Galbraith once opined, "are indispensable when you don't want to do anything." Most meetings are a waste of time, or worse. Patrick Lencioni in his book Death by Meeting (Jossey-Bass, 2004) says it need not be so. "I never accepted the premise that meetings themselves were bad," he says--just that most meetings are done badly.

Some basic principles according to Lenconi:

• Start on time: When meetings start late, you've already lost people's attention.
• Encourage conflict: Great meetings start with an issue worth getting stirred up about. While consensus may be rare, more participation yields informed decisions.
• Involve the wallflowers: One of the biggest problems is having meaty discussions. By encouraging involvement from those normally reticent, more thoughts surface.
• Don't overdo it: It's impossible to see the forest and the trees at once. By focusing on one set of issues at a time, you’ll deal better with both day-to-day issues and future strategy.
• Stick to it:Most groups try to shake off the discipline of a regular meeting. Make a plan and stick to it.

http://www.tablegroup.com/our_books/death_by_meeting.php

The 10 Business Excellence Principles

The 10 Business Excellence Principles - Geoff Bell

Geoff Bell has written a classic based on Australian and overseas business excellence frameworks.

Geoff explains that the real difference that makes some organisations more successful than others is the 10 Business Excellence Principles:

1. The senior executives’ constant role-modelling of the 10 Business Excellence Principles and creation of a supportive environment are necessary to achieve the company’s potential.

2. Clear direction allows company alignment and a focus on achievement of goals.

3. Providing what your customers value – now and in the future – must be an essential influence in your company’s direction, strategy and action.

4. In order to improve the outcome, improve the system and it’s associated processes.

5. Effective use of facts, data and knowledge leads to improved decisions.

6. All systems and processes exhibit variability, which affects predictability and performance.

7. The potential of a company is realised through it’s people’s enthusiasm, resourcefulness and participation.

8. Continual improvement and innovation depends on continual learning.

9. The company’s action to ensure a clean, safe, fair and prosperous society enhances the perception of its value to the community.

10. Sustainability is determined by a company’s ability to create and deliver value for all stakeholders.

Geoffrey Bell. "The Competitive Enterprise" 10 principles of business excellence for increased market share, McGraw Hill. 2002.

Change Management or Change Facilitation?

Change Management or Change Facilitation? by Greg Jenkins

What term is most appropriate? Are we managing or facilitating change?

It’s time to get the definitions right. Change Management is ubiquitous and is used to describe all sorts of change situations. There are numerous definitions of change management whereas change facilitation is a relatively new term encompassing a diverse set of tools’ that have emerged in the past decade. Many of these tools may have already been used from time to time within a change management context.

Whilst change management has been the dominant paradigm ample evidence points towards resultant high levels of corporate pain. Everyone in corporate life has stories about failures in change management. It is widely believed that a majority of change management processes either fail or fail or significantly blow out in cost and time.

Change Facilitation on the other hand works on a ‘low pain’ formula through building trust and engaging at all levels. Change facilitation involves giving up ‘corporate ego’, which probably explains why it is not yet mainstream.

It is now time to separate change management and change facilitation and highlight the differences.

Change Management is a top down approach to driving strategy with an expectation of clear measurable results within tight manageable boundaries in a clear timeframe. 13 definitions of Change Management

Change Facilitation enables sustainable change where boundaries are blurred or open, the timeframe is imprecise, there are broad qualitative measures, and outcomes are unconscious and all stakeholders both inside and outside the organisation are involved.

Change facilitation enables all stakeholders to be engaged regardless of position, education or experience where the person least likely may contribute the idea that will save or make millions.

Leaders and change practitioners need to work out whether Change Management or Change Facilitation tools are the most appropriate in their circumstances.

To request an information sheet ‘The Six Pillars of Change Facilitation’ email info@tincanlearning.com.

What is a Community of Practice?

What is a Community of Practice?

“Communities of Practice (CoP) are groups of people who share concerns, a set of problems or a passion about a topic and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis”. (Wenger 2002)

In a CoP, Members typically:

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Share information, insight and advice
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Help each other solve problems
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Discuss situations, aspirations and needs
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Ponder common issues, explore ideas and act as sounding boards
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May create tools, standards, generic design, manuals and other documents
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Develop an understanding of what they share

In a nutshell, in a community of practice people accumulate knowledge and become informally bound by the value in being together. Communities of Practice are everywhere – most are invisible.

Etienne Wenger et al. 2002. Cultivating Communities of Practice. Harvard Business School Press. Etienne Wenger web site http://www.ewenger.com/