Reining in the State

There was a wonderful letter to the editor in this week’s Economist magazine that used a powerful metaphor of an orchestra to highlight the untenable future of state social spending as currently provided.  The letter was in response to Taming Leviathon - a special report on the future of the state.

“Sir, you twice mentioned - and then went on to ignore - The Baumol cost effect: the same number of musicians are needed now to play a Beethoven symphony as in the 19th century, even though real wages for musicians have since risen.


But William Baumol was an optimist. A better analogy would be an orchestra whose musical instruments steadily increase in size, so that they are soon too large to manipulate without motors and computers. Eventually a larger concert hall is required to accommodate them. The new hall is, of course, equipped with “dynamic acoustics”, which can be tailored in real time to the music being played. This in turn, requires teams of engineers and computer technicians, as well as mechanical hoists and their operators, to move the instruments.


This works until the instruments reach a size that their (aging) players can no longer maneuver them single-handedly and more musicians must be employed. And another hall built. Such is the nature of the pressure on health care and pension costs imposed by accelerating developments in medicine. It is a structural problem, which cannot be solved by pretending it doesn’t exist, or that it’s just a matter of “catching up” with private sector productivity.” Monty MacLean, Stockholm.

The western world has a big problem.  We have mortgaged our future requiring large debt repayment costs to be added into the costs of doing business...  but we are now competing on a global scale with economies which do not have that additional cost, or high costs of living and therefore high wage bills.

I do not think the answer is widespread cuts and reduction of all social provision to nothing.  I do know that sitting back and waiting to see is not the answer.  Any good ideas?

Standard of Living is Directly Proportional to Labour Productivity
I think a few areas are key: ensuring world class digital infrastructures, ensuring world class education for all, developing leadership and communication skills that allow for unparalleled collaboration and creation of new products, services, ways of living.  In the long run, the standard of living of a country is directly proportional to the productivity of labour - which is a factor of quality of infrastructures, quality of leadership and systems of work, and efficiency of labour.  My brother has some great thoughts on conquering procrastination.

13 ideas if you are thinking about blogging

I think you should be blogging.  I know you have something to say.

13 "get-your-blog-going" thoughts from a conversation with Benedict on the road between Lausanne and Vevey this morning:

1. Write about what you are learning about, not what you are an expert in. If you are an expert, then publish your expertise in magazines, “big” blogs and other professional locations. Your blog is to open your thinking and wondering and learning up to the world and allow a conversation to form. Expertise ends conversation.
2. Write comments on other’s blogs.  (I love comments on my blog. I shouldn't, but I do. Ego thing I guess.  Somehow adds a sense of meaning to this.)  It motivates them and might just pull a good idea for a full blog post into your mind.
3. Force yourself to hit publish after 20 minutes. Do not leave blog posts unpublished. Start conversations.  Do not try for perfection (you can always, always edit or delete a post if you really hate it).
4. Write “list” posts every-so-often. People like lists. My top 5 favourite free online tools. My top 10 books of all time. 6 ways to get your emails ignored. 17 habits of a fulfilling life. 6 reasons you should be blogging. If you can think of 3 ways… write 5 ways in the title and then push yourself to come up with 2 more. This brings out your creativity.
5. Write interview posts - ask some experts in your area of interest a few questions and post the transcript - or the video - or the audio.  This gets the expert pointing people you your blog.  If you pick other bloggers, they might send a reader or two over your way.
6. Write controversial posts sometimes.  If you don't agree with something say so.  If you don't think entrepreneurship is for everyone, say so.
7. Use your own “voice”. Don’t try to be an expert or copy another person’s style. Write how you speak. Be you. If you have a strong opinion, say so. Don’t pussyfoot around and give watered down, two-sided argument versions of your opinion (like I was taught to do when writing my psychology essays in university). If you think education is broke, say it is broke. If you think Tim Ferriss is an ass, say he is an ass. If you love Seth Godin, say you love his stuff.
8. Publish a poor post every so often. It makes the next post easier. A blog is not perfection. It is not peer-reviewed academic journal. It is not edited magazine. It is a fun, simple, easy communications medium to share ideas. Don’t ever let it become a chore. Don’t make it hard work.
9. Use Twitter to connect to other bloggers and retweet them if you like their stuff. Use a tool like Hootsuite or Tweetdesk to read your twitter feed. I use Hootsuite. Create searches and lists of favourites. Don’t read everything.
10. Facebook and Linkedin allow you to integrate your blog into your wall (here is mine in facebook via the notes tab). These are great tools to widen your audience.
11. Use Blogger or Wordpress. I use blogger. Many recommend you use wordpress.
12. Don’t try to “monetise”. Maybe when you get really big, but not when you are just starting. You can recommend books on Amazon and earn affiliate commision, or maybe recommend a product you use and like. Blogging builds your credibility, not your income (not directly, not for a while).
13. Just do it.
14. (bonus) There are 5 and a half benefits of blogging.

Chris Brogan has an excellent post on beginning blogging: If I started today.

Happy Dia de San Jordi

Today is La Diada de San Jordi in Catalunya; also known as The day of the Rose or The day of the Book.

This is as big a day as Valentine's day for folks in Barcelona.  Girls give books and boys give roses to the important people in their lives.

My favourite novels of the moment:

• The Razor's Edge, Somerset Maughan
• Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro

Any other good books I should be reading?

4 approaches to learning a new discipline

The US Aikido master George Leonard in his book "Mastery" speaks of 4 approaches that we take to learning new disciplines.  It scares me that I might be a regular Hacker...  how to shift my approach and push through "good" and reach "better" and one day "expert"?:

1. The Dabbler - The Dabbler's learning curve rises very quickly, meets an obstacle and then drops to zero, since the dabbler gives up the activity and goes on to another; repeating the same curve on different activities.
2. The Obsessive - The Obsessive's learning curve rises quickly, meets obstacles, which The Obsessive tackles by redoubling his effort, getting more books and tools and trying to figure out ways to get better results faster and cheaper, and then burns out in a short while when he finds that the curve is not a straight line upwards.
3. The Hacker - The Hacker's learning curve rises quickly, meets an obstacle or two and then plateaus out on a straight line. The Hacker doesn't consider the need for more instruction or rising above that level. He is content with level reached and plans to stay at that level.
4. The Master - The Master's learning curve rises quickly, plateaus for a while, and with consistent practice, rises again with some regression and plateaus again for a while and so on. The Master knows that Mastery is a lifetime path. The Master enjoys living on the plateau. The Master knows that while he is on the plateau, learning is happening and practice will inevitably raise him to a higher level.

How do we make the journey of learning a journey towards mastery?  George outlines five keys to mastery:

1. Instruction - get an instructor.
2. Practice - learn to love the plateau and practice for the sake of practice.
3. Surrender - surrender to the learning process and the learning curve.
4. Intentionality - bring all of your willpower and the mental game to the learning.
5. The Edge - focus on the fundamentals and the leading-edge.

Have a great weekend.  Looks like spring is here.

You can’t be free if you pretend to be something you are not

All the way from Ireland, Caroline Casey tells the story of her life, starting with a revelation.  "Chains are not just made of iron, they can be made from insecurities and fear. And in fact those latter bonds are stronger than any forged by fire."

1. You can’t be free if you pretend to be something you are not.
2. You can’t be free till you believe in yourself.
3. When you believe in yourself you can do anything you truly want.
4. Being absolutely true to yourself is freedom.

Have a great day.

Don't just wait for the Future. Create it.

"Building the future is not about fortune smiling upon you, but asking how hard are you willing to work for your dreams?" Entrepreneurs' Organisation



EO Alchemy. 20-22 October 2011. Los Angeles, CA.

Entrepreneurship is not a Panacea. It requires its own Education.

Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal, says that Higher Education is the new over-inflated bubble.

I agree with his premise.   A nice, costly certificate from a well branded Center of Learning is no guarantee of a safe, secure life.  In the end it will depend on you making use on a daily basis of the knowledge and the network of contacts you get in the course of your studies.  It will mean taking better decisions because you have better tools and practice in examining complex problems, and you are able to pick apart problems to find root causes.

Entrepreneurship is not a panacea. 
However, I would challenge his assertion that jumping into entrepreneurship is a solution for many.  The attitude of "I will make my own luck" is great, but, in the immortal words of Colin Powell "Hope is not a Strategy".

It is easy to point to Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and say "phew...  glad these guys dropped out of school...  look at what they achieved".  These are the lottery winners.  They had a lot going for them - Bill Gate's mum was on the board of United Way with the Chairman of IBM...  possibly giving young Bill an advantage when he sold his DOS operating system to IBM's personal computer division?

Entrepreneurship requires many skills
Entrepreneurship requires learning.  The best place to learn is next to experienced entrepreneurs who are building businesses.  You need an apprenticeship.  You need to try, fail, learn, try again, succeed, try again, fail, learn...  Tenacity combined with reflection...  Read Paul Graham on The Most Important Determinator of Entrepreneurial Success.

Entrepreneurship requires network.  Only people who know and trust you will give you resources.  You need to get to know people with resources that you may need.

Entrepreneurship requires tough ego-free decision making.  The ability to take a step back from the situation and examine the problem.  Don't be an entrepreneur if you can't handle the brutal choice between horrible and cataclysmic.

Entrepreneurship is lonely.  Only other entrepreneurs can really understand how lonely.  The Entrepreneurs' Organisation is a great place to connect, and their Accelerator programs help early stage entrepreneurs get a good start.

Entrepreneurship is an attitude towards life.  Scott Adams talks about how he used his time at university to really learn about running businesses.

Successful entrepreneurship is a different game.  Malcolm Gladwell wrote a piece ("The Sure Thing") a couple of years ago in the New Yorker looking at what "Rich Entrepreneurs" (1-2% of total) do differently than "Poor Entrepreneurs" (98-99% of total).  The first was start thinking about the 3-5 year exit strategy rather than the current great idea...  There are plenty of other things that the rich entrepreneurs do to reduce risks and control their outcomes.

A better education system?
So maybe we need to define the path for learning entrepreneurship?  And perhaps work better at creating an education system that fosters to the strengths of each of us - not just those that are good at maths & science, at sitting still for hours, at paying attention for hours...

Your children get only one childhood. Make it memorable.

photo: amioascension

"Your children get only one childhood. Make it memorable."

I came across this quote a couple of weeks ago and wrote it down in my notebook.

What makes a day memorable?
I have been asking friends "what is your most memorable day of school?" over the last few weeks. In general, nobody remembers a "normal" school day. It is a day off, a school trip, sports.

What was your most memorable day of school?

How to Handle Questions during your Presentation

I had a question from one of the participants, Thomas, last week in the IESE Persuasive Communications Seminar in Barcelona.

He asked "If you are caught off guard with a question - how do you react, or how do you turn around a question without answering?"

Don't do the Rabbit

credit: UK Parliament

If people are seeing you for the first time, then how you react is fairly critical to their judgement of you.

The "Rabbit-in-the-Headlights" look, wide-eyed surprise caught in the glare of audience attention, is never a good look.  The look of surprise is read by others as that you must be hiding something, or you are not entirely sure of what you are speaking about.

You don't have to answer every single question, your own agenda is important too.  You can set expectations early on about whether you will take questions during the presentation, or whether you will set aside specific times to handle questions (after each section, at the end).

5 steps to handle Questions:

1. Listen.  Demonstrate that you are listening with eye contact, nodding your head. Treat each person with respect.
2. Thank the person for the question.  It is a risk to raise your hand and ask a question.
3. Repeat in your own words what you believe you have been asked.  Sometimes not everybody in the audience has heard the speaker. It also gives 2 advantages
1. Clarifies that you have understood.
2. Gives some time to reflect before answering.
4. Pause.  Do not rush in.  
5. Answer. Decide how you want to handle the question:
1. Send it back to the audience "Great question.  What good ideas do you have?"
2. Defer it to later "Important point.  I have some material that I can show you later that will help clarify that area."
3. Answer it. 

Remain the owner of your presentation
On finishing up the Question and Answer session - always return to your own agenda and repeat the key messages and close of your speech.  Do not let the last question from the audience define the last words that the audience hears you speak.

How to respond depends on the context - journalists with TV cameras, your own team, group of friends, in a courtroom with a judge and jury, presenting to your board, presenting to large group of employees, speaking to your boss, your wife after you arrive home later than planned, speaking to a group of senior people who haven't met you before and are seeing you for the first time...

How to respond depends on who is asking the question - a competitor for a promotion, a good friend who you know wishes the best for you, a boss who asks lots of reflective questions, a boss who is very critical of those who don't measure up to "perfect".

Further Reading
Some useful question-handling resources from great public speaking bloggers:

• John Zimmer on 9 ideas on how to handle questions
• Olivia Mitchell on 8 steps to encourage questions from the audience
• Andrew Dlugan on Leading the perfect Question & Answer session
• Olivia Mitchell on How to handle a heckler
• James Feudo on 3 types of people who ask problematic questions

What do you think?  Have you ever really messed up when dealing with a question?  Have you seen a teacher with a really good style for handling questions?  

Have a great weekend.