Hey funky folks,
I have just come back from Asia and was reminded of some important matters when I was there. The first one is that there is tremendous power in perspective. For example, the bible is an inherently deeper, more complex and more kaleidoscopic piece because it is told from 4 different perspectives, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were an effective crime-fighting gang because of their varied perspectives and skills, and being able to shift perspectives situationally is one of the most critical skills in the 21st century. The quality of your thinking determines the quality of your results in the topsy-turvy landscape where Maslow's needs hierarchy has been flipped upside down, where we see the resurgence of the right brain, and where LinkedIn has more members than Sweden has citizens. Credit Suisse's new positioning statement is 'Think New Perspectives'. I recently completed a project for a major Aussie financial institution where we uncovered perspective and a permissiveness to value each other's differences as critical components to a well functioning team unit, and I believe that if your organisation wants to stay truly competitive it needs to embrace the inherent power in perspectives.
The other thing that struck me was when I was having a conversation with a Merchant Bank friend of mine in Thailand. Roger mentioned to me that there was an official warning sent from Hong Kong to the Thai government in 2004 just after the earth quake hit, and that Phuket was likely to be hit by the expected tsunami. Hong Kong asked how the Thai government was going to respond, and the response was that 'we better not scare the tourists by telling them of the earthquake'. In my dealings with different organisations I sometimes notice similar defunct thinking patterns. Change is inevitable and needs to be embraced. I never understood why people were afraid of new ideas - it was always the old ideas that scared the bejesus out of me. We are living in a fast-paced world, where things as we used to know them have been upended by a tsunami of global change. Sticking your head in the sand is not the way to approach change in the 21st Century. Instead it is important to change your perspective on change - change is the only constant, and unless we evolve with it we are likely to be left stranded on the shores of history without a lifeline.
What are your ideas on the nature of change, and have you seen similar examples of defunct thinking? How do you think they impact organisations, individuals, or nations?
Before my blogging session is over for this time, I'd like to make you aware that this blog is the official piece of virtual paper and venue for editing, commenting, strengthening and critiqueing of my book which is due for release internationally in the first quarter of 2008 - 'Think Funky or be defunked: future-proofing your business brains'. So please contribute your ideas, insights, feel free to flame, add, subtract, constructively diss, or simply praise the progress.
Ciao
Anders
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