Extrapolating the Scrambled Words Experiment

“The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid - aoccdrnig to a rsecearh at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy - is taht it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it and urnetdansd it. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.”

If you can read and understand the above paragraph you just proved the point that our brain develops understanding of notions not based on details or sequence of events but based on the big picture. In understanding a written word what it counts is that the first and last letters are correct and that the number of letters – the length of the word - is accurate. The order in which the letters are written seems to have a much lesser importance than initially thought. The humans are capable of figuring out the rest.

The same seems to be true in relation to management practices. When leaders provide an objective assessment of the current stage (the frame of reference) a clear articulation of the final objective (vision or goal) and a strategic direction that links the two in a credible manner, the employees are able to carry on the action without the need for step by step instructions. Next time when you need to formulate a plan of action make sure that the initial and final stages are clear and the generic strategy is explained, and you may not need to spend too much time in documenting all the details. People will be able to fill up the gaps and connect the dots by themselves.

A Business Environment Conundrum

Opportunities are created by a disturbance in the business environment (break-through technology, misalignment of capabilities and costs, disproportion of supply and demand etc.). Therefore, entrepreneurial initiatives tend to migrate toward in-balanced environments (Dubai’s no-tax territory, China’s cheap labour and artificially weak currency).

For a while, I thought that stable and predictable conditions should attract business; it is still true for companies enjoying monopolistic positions. However, stability and order in the business environment will eventually even-up the plain field, thus favouring perfect competition, a climate where the opportunity to make money is substantially diminished.

A community which intends to attract businesses must come-up with a disruption in its settings. The challenge for local governments is to abdicate their traditional role of creating and maintaining order and balance, and adjust to the less rational mission of enabling abnormalities.

Seven Samples of Behavioural Wisdom

· Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.
· Think how to make the pie bigger before thinking how to get a bigger slice.
· Put ideas in writing; writing needs clarity which - in turn- requires understanding first.
· Strive for more if you want to do enough.
· You get the behaviour that you reward and the attitude that you accept.
· Smart people learn from somebody else’s mistakes; average people learn from their own; some people don’t learn – they are, simply, different!
· Do your job with passion and pride. That makes you a good player. Great players make the coach look great.

About Organizational Growth

Organizations are like organisms. They are born, they evolve and they die. The evolution could be achieved in terms of either size (i.e. vertical integration, horizontal expansion) or wisdom. While the vertical and horizontal dimensions may have practical limits, the depth of knowledge and the degree of sophistication associated with complexity are boundless and should perpetually increase. Slowing or stopping the organizational growing process is a predictor of the approaching end.

Introduction

I was fascinated early in my adult life with the goal of achieving superior results through creating systems, developing processes and organizing resources in ways that allow improved functionality and optimized organizational performance.

The idea that organizations – as pool of people and talent - could be nurtured into successful enterprises through inspired leadership and inspiring management became the backbone of my professional life; throughout my career, I tried to understand it better and apply it in constructive ways, by enabling willing participants to reach their best potential to the benefit of the individuals, community they belonged to, and society at large.