CAPE COD — Yes, it’s not fair to spend a week or two here every few years and make some big assumptions.  So let’s just call these some observations.  Asides. 

As always, you can be quickly impressed with the core ‘brand’ of America.  It’s a patriotism that is remarkable for a country that is so young [...]]]>  

CAPE COD — Yes, it’s not fair to spend a week or two here every few years and make some big assumptions.  So let’s just call these some observations.  Asides. 

As always, you can be quickly impressed with the core ‘brand’ of America.  It’s a patriotism that is remarkable for a country that is so young and so disparate.  We’ve seen school teachers singing God Bless America at baseball games, flags draped from every surface and people who are so secure in where and who they are that all other worried seem to drop away.

But America is changing.  The core is constantly moving.  And the country and the people in it seem to also have an in-built ability to accept and quickly adapt to change.

Here are a few examples:

1. The end of the newspaper

It really makes me sad to say, but they’re dying.  Even the New York Times, which I have long looked forward to like a healthy, meaty salad of good things that I often didn’t know I enjoyed.  It’s got nothing much in it anymore.  And in a world where I want everyone to know more about current events, the NYT is writing about topics that even I can’t get excited about.

My own hometown paper went from 7 days a week to 6 last week.  It’s basically an advertising circular.

2. Politics is boring

I hate to say that too.  But it is.  The issues that America is grappling with are not that exciting.  Healthcare.  A foreign war.  The radicalisation of the media and the political parties.  There’s only so much you can read about it.

So it seems to be changing.  Local, quiet activism — where many national and state politicians are coming from — is the order of the day.  There’s less name-calling and more action.  And it’s working.

3. Subsidised lifestyles

It’s impossible for any foreigner (except one from the Middle East) to pass a petrol station here and not be amazed at the cost of gas.  It’s less than half that of London.  And even UK prices are subsidised.

Quality schools, public transport, and social services are all better than most Americans recognise.  You can hear seemingly normal people here talk about the ‘creeping socialism’ in America.  Like a monster under the bed.  But in many ways America invented a new, commercial socialism years and years ago, and has been refining the model ever since.

4. Common ground on the environment

Americans don’t like their heroes to be pious in any way.  So Al Gore will never be sainted in this lifetime.  But America has taken environmentalism to it’s heart.  It’s not something that you paint as extreme anymore.  No one is saying the Gulf of Mexico is okay.  People are buying cleaner cars.

You can get a $15,000 fine for littering on the local roads.  By my calculation you could get the same fine if you were caught driving at roughly 1,510 miles per hours.

Hmm.

5. Integration and adaptation

It’s easy to be dismissive say that America is a melting pot and therefore no cultures survive.  But that’s rubbish.  It is clear that there is a functional common ground of language and culture.  But it’s not legislation that drives that.  It’s size and force of will.

There is every kind of person in America.  Every culture.  Every language… even every kind of pasta.  So you can’t get a decent Tikka Masala or french baguette… but you can get amazing films, wines, sports equipment, books and anything else that the world might produce… including proper tortillas.

We can learn from America, just as America learns from those who come here.

When it comes to change management America knows what the goal is.  They know the change path.  they recognise a burning platform and they mobilise themselves to get there.

It works.

/df

SW6 — It’s been a really great World Cup.  I am watching it with some South Africans.  They were the ones saying it might be a train-crash of a tournament.  And now they’re proud.

And they’re suddenly feeling quite Dutch too.

Here are 5 things I have learned that also translate into the workplace:

1. The [...]]]>

SW6 — It’s been a really great World Cup.  I am watching it with some South Africans.  They were the ones saying it might be a train-crash of a tournament.  And now they’re proud.

And they’re suddenly feeling quite Dutch too.

Here are 5 things I have learned that also translate into the workplace:

1. The noisiest manager aren’t necessarily the best. (Stand up England, Argentina, France…)

2. Pretending to be sick, creating dramatics and appealing to higher authorities regularly doesn’t advance you career.

3. Sometimes things are unfair.  Suck it up and carry on.

4. Sometimes you can prepare for years, practice like crazy, travel a great distance… and get stretchered off after 5 minutes.

5. Even when you get a result, you will be penalised if you take off your shirt and run around screaming.

/df

PICCADILLY — My dad used to say that sometimes you had to wait for a few parishioners to die before you could make changes to the church.

It was typical of his kind of wry sense of the ridiculous.  But that doesn’t make it any less true.  It is a great truism that people have to [...]]]>

PICCADILLY — My dad used to say that sometimes you had to wait for a few parishioners to die before you could make changes to the church.

It was typical of his kind of wry sense of the ridiculous.  But that doesn’t make it any less true.  It is a great truism that people have to be able to adapt, or no progress can be made.

Looking today at the speculated new list of England players for World Cup 2014 (did you think we wouldn’t start talking about it yet?!), they’re almost all new.  As they should be.

I remember the shock when The Dreaded Sven brought in a whole new generation and shipped out the old.  But, bless him, it worked.

And then you have work situations:

• The newly merged company boss who wants to know why they can’t just use his old company’s ways

• The head of department who wants to turn her team upside down, but doesn’t want to upset anyone

• The process of replacing the unhappy employee that looks for the same kind of person for the same kind of job

• The business that can’t serve it’s clients and wants a contractor to do it at no loss of revenue

• The organisation that cannot change so they have brought in consultants, and won’t let them change anything

It’s perhaps symptomatic of the way people are.  We know the medicine, we just regularly ‘forget’ to take it.

/df

PICCADILLY CIRCUS — There’s a nicely dressed lady sitting in front of me on the bus – hair done, Dolce glasses.  And she keeps falling asleep.  It’s 7:50 am.  And she’s on her way to work like the rest of us.

I am nervous for her neck, which keeps snapping.  We don’t have the natural dexterity [...]]]>

PICCADILLY CIRCUS — There’s a nicely dressed lady sitting in front of me on the bus – hair done, Dolce glasses.  And she keeps falling asleep.  It’s 7:50 am.  And she’s on her way to work like the rest of us.

I am nervous for her neck, which keeps snapping.  We don’t have the natural dexterity of a Pez dispenser.

I have the bad luck of often getting mini-cab drivers who fall asleep while driving.  I once shared a car across France with a business friend, and his driver fell asleep at the wheel on the autoroute. (We were stopped in traffic.)

But what is it about this modern world that causes people to constantly be exhausted.  Even my 7-year-old wakes up looking like he’s spent a night on the tiles.

There’s got to be a better way to live.

/df

OXFORD STREET — At my local Starbucks everyone this morning was ending their sentences with “…for you.”  I think if I worked there I’d start doing it too.  It’s a cross over from a number of European languages that add the possessive to sentences for emphasis.

We don’t really do it English so much.

Except we do [...]]]>

OXFORD STREET — At my local Starbucks everyone this morning was ending their sentences with “…for you.”  I think if I worked there I’d start doing it too.  It’s a cross over from a number of European languages that add the possessive to sentences for emphasis.

We don’t really do it English so much.

Except we do now.

And why not?

We were cheering for Mexico in my house last night.  My kids are 1/4 Mexican.  And word from the other side of the ocean is that my mother-in-law was shouting at the TV and my macho brother-in-law was crying.

But we’ve actually spent far more time in France.  Cheering for the winners is maybe the fun bit.

There’s a story in the paper today about how the UK is suffering the creeping influence of Latin America.  Apparently there’s an Brazilian ice cream shop in Newcastle.

My British business partner has just gone on holiday in his native Italy.  With his Indian wife.

What have we become!

Pluralistic.  Open-minded.  And a damn sight more interesting.  Is the answer.

In my native Canada we’re still pretending that arguments about French and English matter.  In the UK we’re pretending that Class is an issue.  It’s not.  Ask the England football team.

Let’s more on. 

Is that okay, for you?

/df

BROMPTON ROAD — The story won’t go away.  Although coverage might have lightened today.  The 13 different Chinese 18-24 year-olds who have tried to kill themselves this year are not going unnoticed.  Most of them died.  But the world outside Shenzhen in southern China has paid attention.

Shortly after the media had packed up and left [...]]]>

BROMPTON ROAD — The story won’t go away.  Although coverage might have lightened today.  The 13 different Chinese 18-24 year-olds who have tried to kill themselves this year are not going unnoticed.  Most of them died.  But the world outside Shenzhen in southern China has paid attention.

Shortly after the media had packed up and left the Foxconn manufacturing site yesterday, two more employees attempted suicide.  One succeeded.  The CEO had to turn his plane around and go back.

There are 400,000 people in and around this Foxconn site.  Which makes it a city in itself.  With all kinds of people and a diversity of backgrounds.  So whether the actions of these employees be very private pain or a larger, global cry for help, the timing with today’s mad scenes on Regent Street and around the world with the launching of Apple’s latest must-have toy cannot be denied.

And yet Foxconn – like any other industrial enterprise — need not be in this situation.  There are a few simple things that can be done to relieve this kind of pressure.  Here are a few:

1. Create a better sense of community
As learned in the dehumanizing “council estates” of Britain, simply locating people close to each other doesn’t create community. Community organisations with shared responsibility and choice do.

2. Give people a sense of choice (decision participation)
Helplessness comes with a lack of involvement in the decisions that guide your life.  Those decisions don’t need to be big ones, but they do need to be freely made.  Where I live, who I live with, could be two.

3. Watching the most vulnerable
Every successful society looks out for it’s most vulnerable members.  It is a test of humanity.  And it is made harder when those people are hard to identify.  But no one intentionally makes bad decisions when alternatives and other views are freely available.

4. Think about how you run the business
We call it organisational culture, but call it whatever you want.  Businesses are not naturally benign or benevolent forces in people’s lives.  In fact, capitalism (yes, you can even say that in China these days) is just the opposite.  Businesses are not built for people, they are built for profit and for shareholders.  It takes strength of character and management to change that.

5. Show courage to act in the longer term
Foxconn has announced today that salaries will be increased.  A short-term and maybe initially successful reaction.  (I can hear my friends in PR high-fiving each other.) But the real solution to this issue and the others cropping up in rapidly industrialising areas is more complicated.  It will take longer.  It will involve more change and internal communication.  And more attention.

You can do it.

I know you can.

/df

CHELSEA — Foxconn is a Taiwanese company you have probably never heard of.  And yet they have 800,000 employees.  They employ 2,000 singers, dancers and gym trainers to entertain them. They put 6,000 pigs to the knife every day to feed their 400,000 employees on one site.  That site covers 1.2 square miles.

Because so many [...]]]>

CHELSEA — Foxconn is a Taiwanese company you have probably never heard of.  And yet they have 800,000 employees.  They employ 2,000 singers, dancers and gym trainers to entertain them. They put 6,000 pigs to the knife every day to feed their 400,000 employees on one site.  That site covers 1.2 square miles.

Because so many people — between 9 and 11 this year — have taken their own lives at this Shenzhen site in southern China, the company has installed new 3-meter fences around the dormitories where employees sleep.  The fences are meant to stop people climbing onto buildings to kill themselves.

They’re not having the desired effect.  The alleged 10 to 12 hour shifts and military-style discipline probably don’t help either.

Young people in China are undoubtedly attracted to the work.  And what is 800,000 people in a country where estimates are more 90 urban areas have populations of more that 1 million people?

However there are important lessons to be learned from industrial research in other countries.  There are also some basic ideas of how to manage people, that companies like this, in the new industrial heartland can take action on.

The Hawthorne Lighting Factory experiments in Chicago almost 100 years ago might give Foxcomm some ideas.  Research by MIT at what was then the biggest factory in the world pointed to how productivity increased with a little autonomy.

As I have been writing this the story has taken on a greater significance.  The company has been touring journalists around its plants.  The Chief Executive explains the 1.5 million square meters of netting that is being put around dormitories to catch falling people this way: “Although this is a stupid measure, at least in the future if another tragedy happens it may save a life.

Some of my former colleagues might say this is all a bad PR story.  Considering the shear numbers of people involved, the suicide rates at Foxcomm are not far off the Chinese national average.  (That average is roughly the same as Canada, the USA, Germany and Australia, before you get too sniffy.)  But companies, like militaries in combat zones, cannot claim the the people under their influence are simply reflecting the average of the population.  There is a duty of care that runs in both directions at work.

Foxcomm and it’s concerned partners need to start to review that and find a way out.

It can be done.

/df

TCR — What did you make of the football banner photo above?  I took it last night at the Europa Cup Final in Hamburg.

I found it quite amusing when I saw it. Because I think it plays on all our worries about social inclusion and the language that we use.

What do you think it means?

Here’s [...]]]>

TCR — What did you make of the football banner photo above?  I took it last night at the Europa Cup Final in Hamburg.

I found it quite amusing when I saw it. Because I think it plays on all our worries about social inclusion and the language that we use.

What do you think it means?

Here’s the story: One of the teams that was playing in the European football event was my modest local Fulham Football Club (FFC, for short). In the fairly basic approach to nicknames that football teams often use, Fulham refer to themselves as the Whites.  This is simply because their most common jersey is a white one.  (Down the street my other local, Chelsea is called… the Blues.)

One of yesterday’s unsung stars is a midfielder called Dickson Etuhu.  You can see him in many of the sad looking wire photos today.  He’s a Nigerian.   John Pantsil is from neighbouring Ghana.  So there is a strong West African contingent in the Fulham team.

Do you get the banner now?

What does it say to those who don’t know the story?  Something quite different, no doubt.

Context is what we call this.  Explaining the back story.  Examining what you know that others might not — and telling them.

In business we don’t do this enough.  In health and safety it often costs lives. In broader business it can ruin reputations and cost lots of money.

Putting decisions, policies, news and results into context allows everyone a fair chance to understand how they came about.

Sometimes it’s hard to do.  But that’s no excuse for not doing it.

/df

REGENT ST — My dad used to tell us that in Canada there was no obligatory military service, so everyone should work for the government for at least two years.

All of my siblings did.  My brother and I in federal politics and my sister in universities, for local government and running architecture associations in western [...]]]>

REGENT ST — My dad used to tell us that in Canada there was no obligatory military service, so everyone should work for the government for at least two years.

All of my siblings did.  My brother and I in federal politics and my sister in universities, for local government and running architecture associations in western Canada.  My brother was chief of staff to a Prime Minister.  I was less successful, but had an office in the Canadian Parliament Buildings that had been the entire Ministry of Finance at the time of Confederation.

If nothing else it gives you a better understanding of what public service is all about.  Why people do it and what difficulties there are in making it work.

I came to the conclusion that politicians need a rare and equal balance of:

1. optimistic desire that the world can be changed, and
2. egotism to believe that they can do it.

However, there are a myriad of ways that people can work in the public sector these days. And I am not sure we are taking advantage of that enough.  There are not enough people who really know what it is about.  And there are fewer still who think they will find pride and power in the public sector.

That’s wrong. 

There ought to be more people fighting for the fewer public sector jobs in our countries.

We need more, better bureaucrats.

Think about how well ‘less regulation’ has worked?  And the clear fact that governments will have to be smaller in the future, but better regulation is required.

Clearly good brains are needed.

/df

OLD BOND STREET — It still doesn’t feel like business is in any great position to be lecturing politicians.  There’s never been much patience for it.  And I think if more bankers has made it to civics class we wouldn’t be in this mess.

But business certainly knows more about M&A (mergers and acquisitions) than the [...]]]>

OLD BOND STREET — It still doesn’t feel like business is in any great position to be lecturing politicians.  There’s never been much patience for it.  And I think if more bankers has made it to civics class we wouldn’t be in this mess.

But business certainly knows more about M&A (mergers and acquisitions) than the political classes do.

We’ve been communicating M&A over two centuries now (did you see what I did there?) and businesses do not dare say things that our politicians seem happy to say.

Like:

• Our approach is sound the other guy’s is not
• There’s nothing we can learn from our future colleagues
• No need to explain anything, people will understand when it happens
• If this doesn’t work out we can just try something else
• Etc.

There is a lot of work that goes into making partnerships succeed.  Regardless of how many people may want them to fail, or be resistant to them, sometimes partnerships are the only way to move forward and grow.  Sometimes we don’t get to choose.  Sometimes we have to just get on with it.

/df