It's just business, never personal
Chevy Woods ... just one of millions
But that is wrong. It is always personal.
Business IS Personal. We just talked about it on one of our podcasts.
What Are We Going To Do About The Rich?
I came across the Pet Shop Boys track 'What Are We Going To Do About The Rich? It seemed to be very People Firsty in nature.
Apart from the recurring refrain "What are we gonna do about the rich?" we do have other words;
They say democracy is simply very bad for business
While deploring student protests in the middle of Hong Kong
They insist that people have to work on zero contracts everywhere
So profit margins grow and shares are very strong
But one group that they never take to task
And one question that they never seem to ask
Is...They're buyin' football clubs today with absolute impunity
And so much of the media to give themselves the power
To destroy the very notion and the feeling of community
While poisoning the public discourse hour by hour
But although it never seems to make it into Hansard
The question at some point must still be answered
Oh...They're avoiding paying taxes
Pet Shop Boys
While the welfare state collapses
Their extravagance and arrogance
Their lack of tact to balance this
Their lawyers and their attitude
The scale of their ingratitude
They only give to charity
For maximum publicity
Having a beer with a friend over the weekend. Beside the two of us, there were a couple of guys who were joined by 4 others as we were leaving.
“All yours” I said as we moved up and towards the door.
“Thanks mate” said one of the new arrivals.
“No problem”, I replied ... “and as we leave know that this quick exchange had 100 times more meaning than a like on your facebook page.
Right on brother …
All smiling and nodding in agreement as we walked out.
I wonder if they will remember?
A New Model For Business
Wouldn't you know that one of the first real blog posts to go live on the newly revamped People First Blog is really not my work at all - but rather that of 'People First Friend and Member' ... Jeff Mowatt.
So what does business that puts people first actually mean in practice?
People-Centered Economic Development derives from a paper for the steering group for the Committee to (Re)Elect the President, describing a business model which operates for social benefit rather than maximising shareholder returns.
In the core argument which critiqued the fractional reserve banking system the paper asserted:
"Economics, and indeed human civilization, can only be measured and calibrated in terms of human beings. Everything in economics has to be adjusted for people, first, and abandoning the illusory numerical analyses that inevitably put numbers ahead of people, capitalism ahead of democracy, and degradation ahead of compassion."
"Each of us who have a choice can choose what we want to do to help or not. It is free-will, our choice, as human beings."
Jeff Mowatt
Read the whole article here ....
More about Jeff Mowatt, Director, People-Centered Economic Development UK.
Business Thinking
After a few decades stumbling around the topic, two things became clear.
John Caswell - over on linkedIN
- You have to change the way business thinks if you want to change how it works.
- If businesses change how they work they can change how their audiences think.
I had to reply - of course, and I did, but it felt substantial enough to include here - flip though the first sentence was.
You might imagine that I won’t argue too much - except to say that businesses not only won’t think - they can’t. It’s the people in those businesses that do the thinking.
We then have to ask - if what needs to happen is so clear to so many people, (judging by everything that you read), then why doesn’t it change?
My friend (Daniel Szuc) in Hong Kong has observed that when at work people are essentially in the mode of sleepwalking … and related to that, see their roles defined in the organizational boxes - and rarely look outside that box … ‘not my job’.
One question …. “if not you … if not now … if not ….” you know how it goes.
Seperately Venkatesh Rao developed a simple model a while back where he mapped the 4 forces of nature to his own 4 forces of humanity, drawing comparison between the relative strengths and reach of each force. He mapped business to gravity.
I take it a step further - unlike the 4 natural forces - the 4 forces of humanity are not givens. It is in our power to change any of them.
Gravity is a given. Business is not.
US election: ‘All Republicans should marry Democrats’
… but what if the Democrats say ‘no’?
Texas Republicans ask federal judge to throw out ballots in Harris County.
I wonder why the founding fathers didn’t think of drive through voting.
Seems to be very short sighted.
Boris Johnson announces four-week national Covid lockdown in England
“Unlike the first national lockdown introduced in March, schools, colleges and universities will remain open, as will childcare and early years care.”
So clearly it isn’t as bad as March then.
And then it’s a national lockdown in England. I wonder if he announced a lock down in Scotland, N. Ireland or Wales what their parliaments / assemblies would have to say … and yet in England … nothing.
Oh right - of course, England doesn’t have it’s own government like the 3 other countries that make up the country.
Everything makes as much sense as that last sentence!
Later:
Someone commented that it all seemed
”a tad unreal”
A tad !!! Dali in his wildest dreams couldn’t have pictured this!
#FTW
Corporate Hierarchy
It's arguably too true to be funny, but not why I am sharing. Rather because in the accompanying post (here), reference is made to a post by Ribbon Farm's Venkatesh Rao. (This post specifically.)
The Gervais Principle (I wonder where he got that name from) also introduces us to The MacLeod Life Cycle, which seems to be very closely modelled on Sakar's life cycle.
You see - it is all connected.
Thinking Allowed
This is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.- More about People First
- Other People First Posts
(not just from the ‘other domain’ … all of them.)
🚧 I have moved my blog from an old domain to this new space. At the same time introduced some design changes which on occasions causes the old posts to look odd. As I see them, I fix them - but specifically not going back into the archives to fix proactively - life is just too short.
The Harder We Work
Chess is a metaphor. It is a complex game of strategy and execution. The game provides a useful mental model for the complex world of organizations. Are you a Knight, Rook, or Queen? Do you need to move straight in or tack to achieve the successful delivery of your project? We know that the most effective people are able to be pawns to kings, depending upon the context.
Gaping Void - Chess Pieces For Business
🔗 Three Scenarios for Rolling Back Surveillance Capitalism, Johannes Ernst
Thinking Allowed
This is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.- More about People First
- Other People First Posts
(not just from the ‘other domain’ … all of them.)
Germany drafting law to give people the legal right to work from home.
Germany leading the way. Sad we need to have laws around this. Business so locked into BAU that they need to be told what to do?
Codepen stopped supporting calls to their servers for a sites CSS like … months ago.
I FINALLY put the CSS code into MicroBlog directly.
A 5 minute job with 10 weeks of procrastination.
5 minutes later - both blot sites also brought into line!
How Many Different Ways Is This Wrong?
A friend of mine sent this link to me. I was incensed. (I think he knew I would be). In turn, I sent this link into an Internet Identity community I belong to and asked : "How many different ways is this wrong?"
Amazon To Pay Consumers For Their Shopping Data
People First Podcast Guest Tim Walters was quick to reply (the link takes you to the podcast - the show has not yet gone live).
The great and sadly late European Data Protection Supervisor, Giovanni Buttarelli, said it all in 2014:
"There might well be a market for personal data, just like there is, tragically, a market for live human organs, but that does not mean that we can or should give that market the blessing of legislation. One cannot monetise and subject a fundamental right to a simple commercial transaction, even if it is the individual concerned by the data who is a party to the transaction."If I thought it was worth $10 a month, I'd go to a shopping district and gather discarded receipts to scan for Amazon. After all, "That data will be used anonymously, the company says." But . . . if it is genuinely used anonymously, why doesn't Amazon just collect and study discarded receipts themselves? They could certainly find a way to do it at far more scale -- not to mention, actually anonymously -- than a cumbersome mailed-pictures-of-paper-receipts-for-Amazon-credit scheme. (S&H Green Stamps, anyone?)
The company says it deletes any sensitive information such as prescriptions from drug store receipts and allows panellists to delete their own information whenever they want." Oh, not so anonymous after all.
Tim Walters / Giovanni Buttarelli
What do you think?
Thinking Allowed
This is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. It’s a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.- More about People First
- Other People First Posts
(not just from the ‘other domain’ … all of them.)