Tackle Three Personal Peaks in 2010
We’ve crossed the proverbial line between 2009 and 2010 and it’s usually a time when many people come up with ‘New Year’s Resolutions.’ Whether it is to quit smoking, loose weight, take up exercise, work on a relationship or whatever, the dawn of a new year has a kind of “new beginnings” effect on most of us. Usually the intention is to correct something amiss in one’s life… A desire for more balance, to be healthier, to be wealthier, to look good, feel good… just be plain happy.
In essence I regard a New Year’s resolutions as nothing more that a statement of intent, whether written or verbalized. Unfortunately it remains just that – a statement of intent – without the act of making it happen. Think for a moment how many things in your life remained an idea, though or “resolution,” and till this day have not realized. Why? Forget the excuses and be blatantly honest with yourself. In all probability it was because you did not put the idea, though or resolution into action.
May I suggest a bit of a different approach to your “New Year’s Resolutions?” As a matter of fact, don’t call them New Year’s Resolutions at all but rather “My 2010 Mountain Peaks” Let me explain: Metaphorically speaking, any change, i.e. moving from a present state to a desired future state, is akin to ascending a mountain; starting at the base (where you are now) of the mountain and journeying to the summit (where you want to be). Why three? Well, it’s much easier to attempt a smaller number of goals than something like ten from the word go, hence my arbitrary number of three.
Now, with that in mind, what are the three things in your life you would change right now if you could wave a magic wand and, presto!, it is as you’ve always wanted it to be? Think about it for a while… Obviously, in the real world magic wands don’t work. A more practical approach is required. Here’s what you could do:
- Write down the 3 top things you want to change – call them the 3 “mountain summits” you want to reach.
- On 3 separate blank sheets of paper draw a triangle on each, representing the 3 mountains you intend conquering.
- At top of each page write the “name of the mountain” e.g. “Getting into shape.”
- Reflect a while on each and the desired future state of each – ‘what’ and ‘where’ you want to be – in terms of the 3 things and write a short description of each at the respective “summits.”
- Next, ponder on the present state – ‘what’ and ‘where’ you are now in terms of the 3 things – and write a short description of each at the “base camp” of the respective “mountains.”
- Notice the gap between the desired future state (summit) and the present state (base camp). Here’s the thing: Forget about reaching the summit so long as you’re passive at base camp. You have to get going; moving forward; ascending upward towards the summit to have any hope of reaching the summit.
- Now, with a vivid picture of the desired future state (summit) and the present state (base camp), start with the end in mind and “plot the journey” piece-by-piece. Draw horizontal lines across each triangle (mountain) to represent specific goals (checkpoints) on your way to the top. Use dates and be very specific, e.g. Feb 1st: Run my first 5km road race; weigh 80kg’s; manage 3 sets of 3 pull-ups, 3 sets of 10 push-ups and 3 sets of 15 sit-ups; swim uninterrupted for 15 minutes.
- Reaching each checkpoint inevitably requires a series of activities. Below the checkpoint, write a bulleted list of actions/activities you need to accomplish in order to reach that checkpoint. In the example above it could include things such as, get up an hour earlier; jog 2km’s on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays; do 2 sets of 2 pull-ups, 2 sets of 8 push-ups and 2 sets of 10 sit-ups on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Swim for 10 minutes on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
- Review all your checkpoints and accompanying actions/activities. Ensure yourself that although you’ll have to significantly stretch yourself, they are attainable. They are very important because you’ll have to evaluate your progress when reaching them on your way to the summit.
- Stick up your 3 mountains to conquer where you’ll be able to see them daily – somewhere really “in your face.”
- Now get moving!
As easy as that? No way. Modifying those forces that’s keeping your behaviour stable will require relentless action. A part of your being will resist the change and attempt to retain the status quo – the “comfort zone.” You’ll have to push your boundaries and move out of your comfort zone into your “stretch zone” in order to make progress toward the “summit” of your mountain. It will require commitment, discipline, determination and a “never quit” attitude. Remember, all success lies well beyond the comfort zone.
All the best with your 2010 journey of adventure – of conquering personal mountains and achieving your goals. Commit to leaving base camp in the next day or two, or before you know it your resolutions for 2010 will be forgotten. If it is to be, is up to you…
IBM Roadrunner dethroaned as worlds most powerful computer
In 2008, the IBM Roadrunner was featured on this blog as the then world’s fastest computer. Now, according to the latest semiannual TOP500 list of the world’s most powerful supercomputers, the “Jaguar” takes first place. With a staggering peak speed of 2.33 petaflops (over two thousand trillion calculations per second), “Jaguar,” located at Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) in the US, is now the world’s fastest supercomputer. Jaguar is devoted to scientific research to the benefit of the planet, such as climate change, renewable energy, new medicines and the like.
The U.S. Department of Energy owns both Jaguar and Roadrunner, but uses them for different purposes. Jaguar is an “open science” tool for peer-reviewed research on a wide range of subjects, wheras Roadrunner is devoted to the complex and classified evaluation of U.S. nuclear weapons.
Below is a picture of Jaguar. Visit the US National Center for Computational Sciences for Jaguar’s technical specifications and more pictures.
First-to-Market – Good or bad idea?
Is it a good idea to be the first and only player in a market? Intuitively one’s first reaction would be, “absolutely.” However, Steve Blank, serial entrepreneur, argues differently. Blank, also a Stanford Instructor, in a recent lecture at Stanford’s Entrepreneurial Thought Leader Lecture Series outlines a various reasons, including limited market opportunity, the expense of defining a new market, and the positioning risk involved in setting the market standard. He cautions that it may not be wise to be breaking new ground, and that safer terrain can be found in the footholds of the “first-fast-follower.” He draws on historical examples of this advantage such as Amazon, EBay, and Google. See his recorded lecture at Stanford University’s Entrepreneurship Corner where he also covers a checklist of questions and analysis helpful to any new enterprise leader, and offers insight and case studies from industry giants and new technology alike.
How Augmented Reality (AR) is changing our world.
Although AR has been around for some time, new developments and applications of the technology keeps pushing the boundaries of merging the physical real-world environment with virtual computer generated imagery. Many of us have heard about AR but are still somewhat uncertain as to what it exactly entails and what it actually does.
I found an excellent article on the subject on the “howstuffworks” website. Kevin Bonsor, the author of “How Augmented Reality Works” takes the reader though a journey of discovery, starting off with an introduction to the technology, then on to augmenting our world, AR on mobile phones, in video games and the military, and closes with the limitations and future of AR.
Total Immersions, also featured in the article, shows off some of their AR technology. The clip is a bit dated (2004), but still gives a good idea. Visit their website for more recent videos.
Will 2010 be the year of the tablet PC?
Many technology companies are rumored to be working on tablet computers; companies such as Asustek, Dell, Microsoft, Apple and the like. Well, that’s according to PCWorld who takes a closer look at the rumors. My take is that if there is any truth in the rumors, our trend-following nature will suck is into yet another push strategy by the tech companies, making us believe we can’t do without the new gadget. O, aren’t we gullible… Nevertheless, it’ll be each individual’s call… If indeed 2010 will be the year of the tablet computer, many of us will probably be sporting a tabled in our gadget collections by 2011.
Is it possible to hide in the digital age?
Gone! He told no one his plans; not his girlfriend, or his parents, or his friends. No one knew where he was going, or his new name. He left no hints. If anyone found him, it would be because of his own mistakes…Evan Ratliff went on the run with Wired readers trying to track him down… Is it possible to shed your identity in the digital age? Writer Evan Ratliff tried to vanish: Read the fascinating story on what happened…
Are you ready for the Wave?
Google is about to change the face of the email inbox with their new product, Wave.
Google Wave is a new model for communication and collaboration on the web, coming later this year.
Wave is a web-based application that merges multiple forms of communication and collaboration, including chat, mail and wikis, into a unified interface. Everything inside Wave happens in real time, and you can even see a comment being made as the person is typing it, character-by-character.
You’ll be able communicate and work with others with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when. With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.
MBA Graduation… So what? Then what?
To those individuals who have already attained their MBA degrees I’d like to give a few points to reflect on… To those still journeying towards its attainment, or those contemplating undertaking the journey, the points might also give you something to think about…
An arduous journey has culminated to that point in time… that momentous day when you where rewarded for your hard work and endurance… the day on which you were bestowed with the sought after Master in Business Administration degree and entered the ranks of those that so many aspire to do.
So what? Then what? What happens after that? In somewhat paradoxical fashion I’d like to shift the focus from the certificate you’ve received, to you, the recipient of the certificate.
The certificate in itself is a lifeless piece of paper, the result of trees sacrificing their lives, transformed to pulp, processed into paper and embellished with ink impressions… It can do nothing: It cannot lead; it cannot manage; it cannot create change. Only you, the bearer of the certificate can do that.
Hence, the true value of your hard-earned MBA is not in the certificate, but in the growth and development that have taken place in you – in its empowering and equipping attributes – and the enablement to create positive change in your sphere of influence. Essentially, whether you’d acknowledge it or not, a metamorphosis has occurred in your being.
The MBA has transformed your thinking, reasoning and acting. In essence, your MBA programme did not bid you enter the house of wisdom, but rather led you to the threshold of your own mind.
From an organisational perspective, you are now more aware of the external environment. You now have a more strategic orientation; you now think systemically and have the ability to integrate all the parts of the whole – understanding that any organisational issue is embedded in an array or interrelated elements in the system;
You have the ability to transcend the mere management of what already exists, to create something fundamentally new. You can address human emotions and values – the “soft issues” as well as the traditionally “hard” issues of market share and financial performance.
And… you can lead, i.e. influence people to voluntarily go where they wouldn’t go by themselves. You can build the bridges between today and tomorrow in order to create a better future and add value to all stakeholders.
These are all attributes so desperately needed in our local context of skills shortage and the brain-drain. You have been empowered and equipped by the MBA programme to meet those needs and address the gaps. And ultimately the knock-on effect comes into play when you apply your knowledge and skills gained for the programme… and society benefits.
My message to you is simply this: It is your finest hour… awaken the giant within that have been moulded and enhanced by the MBA programme… and… go out there and make meaning – change the world. Our country and world desperately needs change makers… I believe you have what it takes. You have proven that by successfully completing a rigorous MBA programme
Strategy: Asking the right questions
Take some time to consider the major changes that occurred in your industry over the past five years. Could you have foreseen them? Perhaps yes… perhaps no… perhaps some. More important, have you even taken the time five years ago to consider what the major changes over the next five years would be? If you had, would your business be in a better position now?
Strategy is about shaping the future. This involves addressing a number of questions:
- Where are we now and how did we get here?
- What did we do well, or badly, to arrive at our current position?
- What business are we in?
- Will this remain the same, or will we need to change our business?
- If so, to what?
- What factors internal and external to the business will, or can, have an impact on what we do in the future?
- Where do we want to be in the future?
Only when we have addressed these questions, can we start addressing the next issue: how are we going to get there? Implementing a strategy is primarily about managing change. You might think that strategic planning is a waste of time because the future is too uncertain to predict. You might argue that locking a business into a plan causes problems when things change. It is true that the pace of change is such that you can no longer plan 15 or 10 years ahead, but continually.
Your strategic process should include flexibility and continuity to anticipate and embrace change, instead of fearing it and responding to it reactively. The old-fashioned way of conducting strategic planning, involving only a few of the senior elite who hide themselves away at some Game Lodge for a weekend, no longer applies in today’s age of radical change. Strategy is very much about getting your people involved and making time for them to make a contribution. If you think that developing a strategy in this way is costly, weigh up the cost of being unprepared for changes in the marketplace. Asking the right questions also means getting the imagination to work on the key strategic drivers that affect the way the marketplace works. It can often mean leading customers rather than following them. Focusing on the future does not mean forecasting, predicting, or working out a plan – usually, such attempts end in disappointment. It does, however, mean accepting that change will probably take us all into a new playing field.
Strategy today means tackling the questions that will shape the future:
- Who will be our customers in the future?
- What will their concerns and priorities be?
- What kind of lifestyle will they have?
- How can we get close to them?
- What will their preferences be for accessing products and services?
- What will the major channels be for reaching them?
What have you done today to shape your organisation’s future?
The Difference Between Management and Leadership
I found this video clip of Carly Fiorina, former CEO of HP at Stanford University’ Entrepreneurship Corner. Fiorina provides an insightful distinction between leadership and management. She describes leadership as changing the order of things and management as the production of acceptable results within known constraints and conditions.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBZtM63i5xo&feature=related]
Insightful… “changing the order of things”… works for me…