Looking For A Meaningful Life

I found my Mitch Albom in Paris. His book 'Have A Little Faith' caught my eye at the airport on our way home from Lyon. It is one of those books you can't let go until you've read it. So I wanted to pick up more Alboms in my Christmas reading cart at Amazon.

Yesterday I finished 'Tuesdays With Morrie'. The story was wonderful. It seemed to have all the answers I was thinking about in my last blog.

We have two main challenges in our western worker's lives. The first is how to be a good human: a parent, child, spouse, friend, citizen. The second is how to be a good worker.

Problems arise when our priorities get mixed. It seems that we are rushing around looking for shortcuts to Fame and Fortune. In that race we pause at the altar of Mammon to sacrifice everything that really carries a meaning in our lives.

One aspect of that rat race was covered by columnist Jaakko Lyytinen who wrote (Helsingin Sanomat Dec 24, 2010, page D4) about his week without media. On his third day he pondered about slow movement, downshifting and degrowth. On the outcome of the information society he quoted Dr. Jussi T. Koski:

Complicating every day life makes us simple minded.

Dr. Koski explains this further: It happens, because our time is consumed in surviving by dealing with different types of messes and putting out fires in our ordinary lives instead of true learning or gaining sustainable growth as human beings (as we should, eh?).

Hence, our obsessive consumption of media (as in hunt for more knowledge to grow wiser?) seems to turn against our better judgement.

Another media coverage in Taloussanomat, (F) hit really hard with its title: "30-year-olds need dementia pills in order to work". The article talked about doping in work and the new standard of workers. Stock brokers with no fear, no need to sleep, knowledge workers boosting their brain with dementia pills, the new office cocaine.

..they're chasing the wrong things..

What is interesting, is that excessive media consumption can actually be explained with chemical reactions in our brains. According to researchers Irving Biederman and Edward A Vessel, every time we learn something new, this realization releases chemicals that make us feel a bliss. Isn't that what different drugs do, thus causing addiction?

Would that be the all-covering explanation to all the discontent we struggle with and neglect we cause one another? That we've changed everything enduring (that can only be built with time, slowly and gradually) in our lives to something drug-like, something that can and will take us high and fast (until we need a bigger dose).

A culture with a cry "I want everything and I want it right now! Move out of my way!"

..people walk aroung with a meaningless life..

And in that altar of Mammon we abandon our kids - and our soul. Taloussanomat (F) analyzed in another article that parents who take work at home actually steal precious time and attention from their children. Trying to attend to kids with only half of your heart never works.

The crime in it is that we're all they've got. Their self-esteem is built on our attention and interest in them. The mere thought rises a silent sob deep within me.

This is where I want to bring in my Albom.

In 'The Five People You Meet in Heaven' Albom haunts his reader by saying "All parents damage their children. Youth, like pristine glass, absorbs the prints of its handlers". Fortunately, he also relieves the reader with his message of forgiveness.

Inspite all our past damages, we are blessed with possessing the key to our freedom. We just need to use it. We need to open the door that is stopping us. It is called letting go.

Mitch asks Morrie about getting used to his illness. "It's like going back to being a child again", Morrie says.

This theme of letting go and forgiving, others and - what is sometimes even harder - oneself, is strongly present in Albom's themes. If you were being deprived in your childhood, don't lose the rest of your life by letting your past hold you a captive. Dare to confront your fears and losses. Step outside your anger. Go after anything you've missed.

Be this wonderful person you now are, with your scars and deprivations and all.

Morrie's entire being becomes somehow victorious in front of death. In order to be able to go on to the very end, he finds the small pleasures of life anew.

"In the beginning of life we need others to survive. And at the end of life, you need others to survive. But here's the secret: in the between, we need others, as well", he reveals to Mitch. He dares to rely on Life, totally, like once before, as a child. He says,

The truth is, once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.

"So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things."

After all, you are in charge of the rest of your life, whether you're going to be happy or miserable. Once the one who hurt you is gone, there is nothing he or she can do about your feelings. It's up to you now. Only you can let go. The choice is yours.

"The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devoting yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning."


Previously on related topics:
Who is Man 2.0?
Empower every man

Looking Back

It's time to close the books for the working year 2010. And it's good to take a look back, at the projects you've been busy with. Actually, you really should make a list of your accomplishments, because day in, day out in your every day routines seem to bury them.

And the only thing you seem to recollect is the aching feeling of being only halfway there, too many things unaccomplished..

How grand it is to be able to be satisfied with what you've done.

Just before Christmas I visited my friend in the middle of her mourning. What a different Christmas she got. It was only the night before that I got education on how to prepare a traditional Christmas course à la Häme. There was also a knitting at hand.

The very next morning my friend found her mother in eternal peace. Who on earth will finish the knitting for her now, my friend pondered in the middle of her sorrow.

I left with the knitting.
It is time to enjoy the company of our loved ones.
Tomorrow, God willing..

Creativity or productivity?

Whenever companies strive for higher productivity, they should look into value. Our traditional thinking focuses on opposites which is a kiss of death to all creativity, said Dr. Edward De Bono.

Last week's seminar (Media Trivium, 25th anniversary of commercial radio in Finland) was set at the Senate Square. As creative people crowded around in this beautiful atmosphere, a sudden thrill struck me. What is a civil servant doing here? What would I answer if some one, hunting for top productivity, should come to me in the afternoon, asking "Prove me what you achieved today".

The so called quarterly capitalism means no time for creativity. At its worst it means that a project of, say, 800 days can't afford one single day for developing its own work. Reasonable??

Dr. De Bono wore red socks, and I loved him the moment I saw him. He sat down, had a lovely set of pens to write and draw on old-fashioned slides. His words gave life to lines he drew, the words he wrote gave rhythm to the stories he told us. New horizons spread our consciousness.

Traditional western thinking squeezes us to look for only one solution, the ultimate right answer, the Truth. Every problem we seek solution for, tends to take us in opposite corners, just as enemies. Take heed, said Dr. De Bono!

In less than an hour this Nobel nominee (2005) pictured dozens of situations where abandoning the traditional thinking freed the solution seekers to see in new ways instead of the obvious. Certain mobile giant had spent millions of dollars in search of a solution where Dr De Bono and his lateral thinking elevated them in just one afternoon. But, the few thrills he threw us, showed that new thinking needs exercise.

All higher productivity seeking government offices would do well in practising their own thinking. We need desperately new tools for knowledge work. In addition we should be taught creative thinking. We need six thinking hats! Today's HBR article The Three Threats to Creativity focused on exactly the same topic.

Trend researcher Herman Konings reminded us about how short the time was for mobile phones to spread around the globe. Augmented reality is already here. What else awaits us just around the corner? - Makes me wonder, how taxes fit in in the future.

Mark Selby from Nokia led us, the new content designers, to our common topic. Radio connects audiences with advertisers; CRM in a studio has already revolutionized the means of engagement.

And, let us not forget the power of the radio! Sound without pictures means that we all illustrate a story of our own. Such a content is highly emotional and, thus, engaging.

Productivity in knowledge work?

Productivity in public sector is, in principle, justified. Everything financed with tax refunds must constantly be under critical viewing: can things be done more effectively, with less resources - perhaps even outsourced?

But. A big BUT. Time to stop to think!

The mechanistic models of measuring financial efficiency were based on scarcity in industrial production processes. The quicker you can get the product out of the line, the better. Do these laws apply in society, to people or knowledge workers?

Helsingin Sanomat (26 Aug 2010, page D1) featured an article about mental hospitals and their hard measures in treatment. However, an Imatra model came up: their statistics always looked better than elsewhere, their patients kept coming in but were also let out easier than elsewhere. Others were stunned: why do you what you do?

The answer is beautiful in its austerity.

Imatra looked at its health care system as a financial entity, like a zero-sum-game. If mental care closed their doors, ie. ceased treating patients with early symptoms, their life gets worse. Later those same patients are bound to need help, this time only more drastic and definitely more expensive measures.

The problem in sectoral management is, that all departments optimize their "sub-costs". Imatra, a blow away from bankruptcy at that time, resorted to the good old common sense. They reviewed total costs. When help is needed later in another section, child welfare, schools or social services, their costs exceed dramatically those of early stage intervention's. True leadership!

Researcher Ilkka Tuomi continues on same lines (HS 26 Sept 2010, page C14). Productivity laws that apply in mass production, can severely twist decision making in information society. Value is born in social networks from innovation and production of new meanings.

How do we speed up these processes? Think faster? I don't think so.

Leadership faces enormous challenges when organization's entities entail both physical products (tax returns), process developing (services, education, communications) and ICT (customer applications and office tools). Money is the scarce resource that they all are competing for. Without true leadership and solid vision sub-optimization is a real threat.

Organizations and decision making must be built on interaction. Sharing knowledge is essential. Collaborative tools and a new mindset enable Enterprise 2.0 and Society 2.0, accordingly.

Becoming a knowledge worker does call for a small revolution.

What then happens is nothing but magic, as Oscar Berg, a net friend of mine, beautifully put it: It's actually pretty simple.

Previously on new ways to work:
Work 2.0 comes with a revolution
Work 2.0 is collaborative
On the way to Information Society

Too big to fail?

Recent Fiscal Times introduced me with Pres. Reagan's former budget director David Stockman. This "enfant terrible" shocked in his time by admitting: “None of us really understands what’s going on with all these numbers’’.

Our public sector is now in the phase of building bigger and bigger entities of services. In doing so, I've come up with a similar thought.

Economy of scales may also carry a side effect. As things grow bigger, the number of those who can really understand what is going on grows smaller. Failures and misbehaviors do slip through, giving room to delusions of being too big to fail, so victorious nothing can harm us anymore.

In service chains covering the whole of society also their financies tend to complicate.

Open economy and eternal growth

In the times of regulation the economical ecosystem was (somewhat more) controllable. Now the whole world is an open economy, and a rapid growth or shift in consumption in one corner is bound to carry an effect somewhere else. Whoever tries to foresee the future developments judging by the numbers in recent history, truely needs to be quite a genious.

Stockman, like our ministry of finance a few years ago, Mr. Niinistö, calls for debt deflation, downsizing and a rise in national savings.

The principle is chrystal clear, let's just recall our studying years! If you gain 200 and have no assets to liquidate, 200 is what you can spend. After that, you are in the loan market. If you can prove a future revenue, you may discount that promise for a loan at the present. - I believe the whole world now knows, there is an end on that road of getting into debt..

Streamlining processes lowers expenditure

The Finnish way of cutting back public expenditure is to streamline processes. Up until now we've done that because of scarce human resources, a problem common to the aging western world, sometimes even for the benefit of our customer.

However, the next step must be unifying the common pools of data, gathering data only once at the source and sharing those data pools between government agencies. Some of that thinking you may read in my recent post.

The principle of open data (F) adds to transparency of government and optimizes the use of common data. Nowadays there are many government agencies whose funding is arranged solely on the revenues from distributing data. On government budgeting this means blurring image of the entity and complicated finances.

In practice, government agency A has budget means to buy data from B, also a government agency. B, however, is granted government funding for only part of its functions, so it needs to budget on revenue basis. This all results in a financial cobweb, sometimes impossible to audit trail.

In order to make things more reasonable and transparent, the core function of supplying the original data will be funded by the government. Distribution of that data between government agencies would become free of charge, or be done at cost pricing at the most.

We Finns do handle many areas already quite effectively. But I wonder how many brilliant solutions there are in many other areas, just waiting for us to find.

Disclaimer
These thoughts are mine and do not represent views of my employer, Finnish Tax Administration or the Finnish public sector, either.

Productivity: quantity or entity?

In some public sector strategies the aim is to improve the productivity but there is also anticipation of a new leadership.

In public sector offices instructions used to be signed by one man and then all the public and personnel obeyed. Budgeting was supposed to take these offices to a more business-like supervision.

Certain problems still prevailed. There seemed to be little or no connection between the annual actions and their budgeting; change management and project-like financing arose a problem time and time again. One thing is common in both private and public sector: sub-optimization.

Productivity is haute couture in the Aging Europe

Anja Alasilta blogged about result-based rewarding in emergency call centers (F). Quantities and rewarding seem to be an equation with few solutions in all public sector.

Productivity states that its measure should be, say, phone calls per call center worker. That rate will thus get improved only if "You just talk faster to the customer"?!

Tax Administration took the customer in the focus by early 2000's. Niche experts needed to broaden their horizons, and all of a sudden there was no point in counting bits and pieces. The real issue was to track the whole customer process. What happens to the quality of a tax return if our guidance is A, B or C?

We began to talk about the impact of our actions. Instead of viewing our own doings alone, we now search impressiveness in customer's process.

We talk about the new leadership as something that is insightful and participative for our personnel. We are looking for ways to support innovations and their dissemination. How do you do that?

What kind of organization would best support innovation?

Co-Creation: Marketing and R&D

I had the opportunity to hear how Nokia has been doing their co-creation. Jussi Mäkinen (@luovanto) gave a speech at a seminar on social media in marketing. Jussi is the marketing manager in charge of co-creation and launching of N900.

I especially liked a few points he brought up in his presentation.

I've talked (pardon, written) a lot about passion. So do Like Minds. The way I see it, these new social media "market squares" can be seen as tribes; communities that take form around one (or few) topics. They can be values, philosophies or ways to act. Most often, however, there is a core doing, something tangible that unites the people coming together.

But whatever that core is, most oftenly the brightest common nominator is passion.

Jussi brought up passion, too. In their search of the new, they came across high professionality, passion and freedom to create. On the other side, there are rigid hierarhcical structures of the official organization who has to cope with all kinds of regulations, even laws, restricting their R&D funcion.

Agility, to my understanding, is the main explanation to why unofficial structures are capable to come up with results and create faster than "the old school". How then does agility live inside our organizations? There's evidence that it doesn't.

There's talk about Facebook generation and High-Performance Teams and Radical Management. We need new kinds of structures to nurture these workers - creators - in their new ways of doing things. The same applies in the public sector!

Gone are the good old days of industrial management, eh?

Processes are universal

Developers in the 21st century are very privileged. With seats in the front row, we are equipped with apps and tech and knowledge our ancestors only dreamt of.

But what counts the most in our ability to create new, is our ability to apply and enrich what has already been done.

In ICT "that old" often seems to be an impediment. But the deep fulfillment in life comes from beating the difficulties, solving the problems and climbing over the mountains of obstacles.

Enough with the chitchat, what I wanted to share with you today, is a notion I'd call the fourth step in developing eServices.

Developing ICT-based services is like..

Me and my colleague developers and visionaries have often envied the "new" Eastern European countries. They had a fresh start, building everything from the scratch, being able to align everything at once, at least, so it seems. More mature ICT-countries suffer from the burden of the past. Our systems are partly old technique, and combining that old with something new and very different can be tough, costly - sometimes even impossible.

..building with blocks?

What I've learned, in my networks of different branches of the society, is to look at things like blocks or Legos, if you like, and then share the same blocks whenever possible. It seems to me that building something new can only start at the ground level - obviously! For the most efficient outcome, it also needs to be modular, done with blocks.

In public sector, my fear is that we're always trying to build something else.. something that "can't be built with these old blocks, so let's build a brand new something else" - only to find out that we can't get rid of that old one, either, because this new one needs bits and pieces of that old one. Or, that old one still carries a bit of the old process and the new one takes care of only part of the entity.

For higher productivity we would need solutions that truly make it possible to let go of something old. Otherwise our empire keeps eternally expanding.

Data as the smallest joint particle

When you can isolate data into the smallest mutual factor, you can look at any process as a flow of data. The real productivity can only be achieved with wisdom: sharing information, combining processes whenever possible and starting with the customer / citizen. A few great examples on this road to Real-Time Economy



are eInvoicing, Fully Integrated Accounting (F) and Unified Reporting Code.

eInvoicing takes all the information electronically, from system A to system B. It is the green way, the productive way and the most efficient way to work. And, thanks to development alongside SEPA, eInvoicing with its ISO20022 standard will also enable carrying that data of the financial transaction directly to accounting.

Fully Integrated Accounting can thus entail data from the eInvoicing, via an electronic accounting reference. Further on, data on actual payments and the different particles, split payments, of the total amount can also be verified by the bank.

Overlapping use of data needs..

Accounting, however, is only the halfway. Closing the books starts the marathon of a multitude of reporting. Businesses need to file in their tax returns, report to statistics, file their financial statement in the trade register, to name but a few. All those "sub-processes" demand skills and further calculations.

Now, with our previous thought of joint data as building blocks, Unified Reporting Code (F) has now split certain items of information into smaller fragments in a way that enables more automatic reporting in Finland.

..harmonization of concepts

Essential blocks are the steps toward more Real-Time Economy and higher productivity. What public sector needs to do and has now started to do, is unifying its core concepts. Definitions and meanings must be unified, in order to ICT to co-work, mingle and be integrated.

With meta data, relations and data models taken care of, a real ontology will one day enable semantic web and enormous savings in overlapping workload, vain searches and loss of information.

In the meanwhile - let's work together.

Designing services?!

Helsinki will soon be the World Design Capital - and the media is waking up.

Last spring our Director General asked me to write a summary on our eServices: "It's for Helsinki WDC application". I have to admit, it took a while before I, a civil servant, was able to connect the dots.

But I loved the idea: Designing services! (F)

I was able to find the similar thinking as did Pete Kercher, the ambassador of Design for All Europe in last Sunday's HS Editorial (F)

I mean strategic design, using design to change the direction of the entire economy. What's happened in Finland past two decades is not a miracle. It is successful design.

Strategic marketing (F) focuses on the customer and his experience, instead of the product or a service. Designing services means the same: excellent user experience is the result of a service that has been designed (successfully). If the user experience is not pleasant, the whole investment of marketing communications is a waste.

Kercher summarized the concept of "Design for All": It is design that acknowledges that people are different, it promotes social equality and connect people into the community.

Another pro, service designer Satu Miettinen wrote in HS editorial (F) about service design in the public sector:

Service design challenges designers to work with people, hence new methods are needed. -- In the public sector it means change both in service culture and administrative procedures.

Taxation of individuals is a Design Service at its best!

We have designed the whole process of gathering data for taxation: money and information flowing from customers to businesses and Tax Administration. Have you ever given it a thought? Me neither, at least not before our Director General got the request to support the WDC applicant.

You take your Tax card to your employer for your taxes to be withheld from your salary and payed on your behalf. The data is also reported for your Tax return. This applies to all other monetary transactions, as well: the bank reports your interests for your housing deductions, while listed companies are liable to report your dividends and taxes withheld from them and so on.

There's a lot of collaboration behind the scene, and it all results as your pre-filled Tax return. All you need to do is to check it and fill in the blanks (if there are any) - do it in the web, if you like!

Good gets noticed!

Tax Return Online got us to the eGovernment Awards -finals. But that's not all: from the small country of Finland we had two posts: City of Helsinki was presenting her design beauty.

Helsinki Service Map is a great collection of services, search and maps, now including Espoo and Vantaa, as well. It is also communication: the user interface allows feedback. What a wonderful way to connect people with their community!

Next step is bound to cross the borderline between municipalities and the state. This was alredy planned in SADe (F).

This all is good news to the Brand committee appointed by the Foreign Minister. There's no reason to hold back the smile, even if the Financial Times does concentrate on the more traditional design..

BTW, Helsinki proudly presents Lahti, Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen alongside her as the WDC2012.

You can follow Helsinki and her WDC preparations in
web: World Design Capital Helsinki 2012
Twitter: @wdchelsinki2012
Facebook: WDC-fan page

Are you a brand?

I was lucky on my first working day. We were three innovators, inspiring each other.

It's like a ball game, all aiming to keep the ball up in the air.

But more than that: each and everyone has his shot with the ball! After a day like that, everybody leaves home fulfilled.

We discussed personal branding, the personality of an expert and competence and its relationship to the organization.

On the subject:
Löydy - brändää itsesi verkossa (F) Tuija Aalto ja Marylka Yoe Uusisaari
Personal Branding Done Right Mike Myatt
Johtaja, perusta blogi (F) Harto Pönkä

What is it that entitles someone to speak up in the social media? How do you earn the credit? Who is it that should present the organization, who is allowed to? Judging by what I've been reading, we Finns are only getting there, where the rest of the world largely already is. My experiences and thoughts come from the public sector.

But hey, the same applies to face to face, my colleague pointed out:

You need to earn the trust in each and every communication

And I say, we've witnessed it a thousand times that the mandate is handed out to a pet person who then does nothing. In order to success that person needs the competence, too. Too often power and competence do not prevail in same roles.

That's when the organization faces the moment of truth: how do you settle the conflict like that? You either change the mandate-- or you go on. It has been seen, that the actual work is taken to the person with the competence but the credit goes stubbornly to the one originally appointed to the job. I know no bigger dismotivation than a situation like that!

We are drafting a report on our preliminary trials (F) in social media. Finnish Tax Administration took the risk and went out to the most popular social media community, Suomi24.fi (F) with the promise to answer all the questions regarding filing of personal tax return. Another trial was attending a popular blogging community of a major paper, Aamulehti.fi (F)

Another topic in our discussions was the notion of communities: social media is definitely not another tool in the endless row of niceties for the top communication officers, not for others. The passport is validated with the right attitude and a suitable role.

It's like a market square! Our blog (F) was one stand; Suomi24 Q&A site(F) another. Thus the corporate site Vero.fi is the third, campaign site (F) fourth. - Together they all give Tax Administration its face.

We gave a disclosing party / feed back occasion to the participants. They were ordinary tax officers trying out something new. It was a joy to hear their comments: this was a new way to face the customer, it enriches the ordinary work plus they had the opportunity to develop new skills.

They want more!

I'd rather publish the advice to thousands in the web than repeat it over and over in the phone, one by one.

Most of all, Work 2.0 is collaborative it calls for a revolution in the minds of people. Along the way comes something new, Man 2.0

He is a brand, a living person with values. Those values guide his life, let him represent proudly his employer and yet meet with his customers in a humble manner. He can and wants to share his competence because there's a need for it out there. He's not like the ancient civil servant, saying, This is mine, hands off! He doesn't hide his knowledge.

Public sector is undergoing a revolution. Great many people cry out: let's stay out! We already have our website, that'll do!

What do you think, is it enough?
Is the expert also a brand? Are you?

Empower every man

Robin Hood's sales pitch seems to be the one of social media's, too.

But it also entails elements of one of the greatest truths: do unto others as you yourself would like to be treated. One missionary truth is, that one shouldn't help people to helplessness but to help themselves.

A few weeks ago I read an HBR article by Clayton M. Christensen.

“Look, I’ve got your model. Just tell us what it means for Intel.” -- But instead of telling him what to think, I taught him how to think—and then he reached what I felt was the correct decision on his own.

The great change we are experiencing has two sides. It can suck you into an endless hunt of more and more to yourself. On that road you're bound to be seducted to choosing wrong, against your better judgment. Or you can get a sort of glimpse what it's all about, and choose to want to help others.

Mr. Christensen writes that according to Frederick Herzberg the powerful motivator in our lives isn’t money; it’s the opportunity to learn, grow in responsibilities, contribute to others, and be recognized for achievements.

Two of the 32 people in my Rhodes scholar class spent time in jail. Jeff Skilling of Enron fame was a classmate of mine at HBS. These were good guys—but something in their lives sent them off in the wrong direction.

That's why this great teacher takes his students to some very basic questions. They don't seem to handle managing at all, or so it seems at the first glance. But come to think of it, a Man is an entity that cannot separate his private Self from his working Self.

Or at least, the behavior is a co-creation of motives and values: that's why these questions are, in fact, the only right ones!

First, how can I be sure that I’ll be happy in my career?

Second, how can I be sure that my relationships with my spouse and my family become an enduring source of happiness?

Third, how can I be sure I’ll stay out of jail? Though the last question sounds lighthearted, it’s not.

I've loved this social media community that co-creates, shares and helps one another. Then there would seem to be the other kind, like in all life: those to whom everything is a great sales pitch on Me (Myself and I).

Someone once asked, Can humans truly act with altruistic motives? Or should even the rewarding feelings from an unselfish act be counted among selfishness. What do you think?

Who is Man 2.0?

A few months ago I was struggling with "evil minds", the scene and plotting on a level that reminded me of the French court.

Is this where Man has "risen" in 2010, I remember thinking. Then I bumped into the latest Robin Hood with Russell Crowe.

Rise and rise again..until lambs become lions

I opened the trailer (sorry, can't seem to find the one anymore) and completely fell in love with the words. They promised change. I wrote them down so that I would remember.

Empower every man and you'll gain strength.
Are you ready to be who you are?

There's a familiar echo in here. Is Robin Hood getting social in 2010?

Yesterday I had a nice *talk* with Scott Gould. We pondered what was keeping people from sharing and collaboration. Scott is about to blog about that.

We've lived an era of enormous wealth and greed. Wealth rips off man's humanity, claim the humanists, it's every man for himself. Even in this era of social media, they say, the majority of people is just screaming their name. It's all about me, myself and I.

My recent experiences give hope for humanity.

My friend started a fight for her Down sister, as her weaponry she has a blog (F), Twitter and Facebook. It's only her first week, but she's already raised a significant amount of support from her own network. Social media can make a difference.

Her question is, why don't the civil servants care. I have been worrying something quite alike: the civil servants seem to lack courage to be themselves, or think by themselves. In trying to make the Gov 2.0, the good old obedient attitude "Don't do anything unless you're told to" turns out to be the loser's garment.

Fortunately, people want to dive in when they become passionate about something.

Last night I watched Griff Rhys Jones in Sydney. There he heard an astonishing witness to the Sydneysidean concept of mateness. The ladies he met told him that they are ready to give up on materia in order to be able to spend time with their friends.

Then a young woman told what the level of that friendship really is. After her husband had got a cancer, their friends collected a half a million dollars so that he could travel to the States to get treated there. He got cured.

That is Man 2.0.
Caring. Putting others before oneself. Prioritizing the real thing. Life.

Work 2.0 comes with a revolution

Our minister of communications Suvi Lindén blogged (in Finnish) Arjen tietoyhteiskunta on building the information society, responsibilities of her ministry and accountability.

The National Audit Office (NAO) wrote in its surveillance report 9.6.2010 (F) about the missing results in information society.

For some reason we're good at planning, strategies and all that other stuff on paper - but we don't seem to be able to move on to concrete results. What's stopping us?

The missing communications

NAO pointed out the missing communications: " The site Arjentietoyhteiskunta.fi (F, some content also in English) has been updated quite passively and there is no information on the work of different working groups." (translation mine)

I'd point out missing target groups, too. My experience is that a new site only comes to my knowledge in three ways:

a friend recommends it to you

it pops up in Google results (no matter what you search)

the link has appeared on one of the sites you visit regularly

These three need to be taken care of in communications. Of course, things are already quite a lot more "findable" and open than just a few years back.

I can still recall the day Ota kantaa (F) was introduced in our office. What a thrill: this is the beginning of an new, open era! But then, the discussions grew thinner and thinner. The topics stayed somewhat distant (even for a fellow civil servant). So what can you do; if it's not your thing, there is nothing that would draw you back.

Today the site looks good and the topics are interesting. Moderated discussions are off, at the moment.. Anyway, let's take a look (at the links that unfortunately are solely in Finnish).

"Discussion is closed" -page has a link to .. project site.. at the site of the Prime Minister's Office. There's a loooongish text.. And there! On the right you have Read more -link to.. a third page, with a pdf, press release and - this is good - a video release.. And on the menu bar on your left there's the Web discussions -link.. Nope. Nothing new there: it takes us back to the press releases..

Although I pretend to be pointing out things with my finger, my wish is that together we are able to improve the user experience on these sites. It's no good to seminate links and web pages unless the entity is meaningful and takes the surfer to the goal that has been promised.

Do I have all the Right Answers? Of course not. But I do want us to begin the search for the better together. The main thing is to talk about all this, so that more and more citizens find in to our mutual search.

Missing openness in communications

Communications in public sector is missing timeliness and openness. It often feels like the only signals of life are official releases (missing the concreteness) or registered requests for official statement on this or that. The subsidiaries then come to attention and start churning out the official mumbo jumbo with high respect.. Is this level of interaction acceptable in 2010's?

On the other hand, openness and activity are on the rise in the Facebook. A few hundred fans support Vertti, virtual master of the Ubiquitous Information Society Facebook page (F).

The person / function / ministry behind this Vertti creature is quite bashful: he or she doesn't want to come out. (THE topic at the moment: should public sector officers give out their names in the social media or not).

On this page you can discuss anything about the information society. Do share your suggestions, ideas; give a prop, challenge us, make a comment or an argument. The forum is yours. -Facebook - Data (F, translation mine)

Quite an encouraging message! Yes please, I'd be happy to participate. Here are a few top links I've found eg. on Gov2. Are you guys with me; or what do you think? No answer. Silence. For some reason Vertti really is shy.. Perhaps we haven't been introduced properly?

I can't help it: I would so love it if the Official Oracle of the site would, in the spirit of the social media, make even a small nod stating: "I heard you". Because, that is the only way to have a dialogue. I talk - then you - then I respond - your turn.. connecting, communicating!

We must remember, though, that IRL (in real life), all the representative meetings between different ministries or boards are still far from spontaneous communication. It is perhaps the tradition (not noblesse) that obliges civil servants to behave like a bunch of mummies at a cocktail party. Or, even worse, like in a play where loyal servants race to praise the prevailing circumstances as if there is nothing to improve anywhere in life..

Just like in that fairytale of the Emperor's New Clothes! Only.. if it's not proper to point out the failures, there will be no change.

For a revolution you need..

It's not that we don't have networks: we do know each other, we do business together. Email is floating with stuff to and fro. The point is that it is oddly missing the hottest topics, the ones that are in the middle of the change and demand crowdsourcing in order to improve further.

Is it possible that the civil servants still don't dare to communicate in a less official way? "I have no authority to be the one to talk about it, yet", is that it? There are just the home page to be updated in a somewhat passive way and the official press release to be published.

Why? Is it unclear responsibilities? Undefined content? Lack of courage? I say, Work 2.0 needs a revolution for

Civil servants to have courage for unofficial communication

Platforms to entail sharing (Like this, Share this)

Networks to work together intentionally

Communications to become continuous: no pain, no gain!

Without the new approach, communications is like a relay where no one told the runners whether they're running 4x100 or 4x400 tracks. Bound to drop the baton, eh?

Disclaimer
This writing is an intentional wake up call. Even though I've *gathered this evidence* as a representative of my employer, the opinions and poking questions are mine and mine alone. Thus this post does not represent the positions, strategies or opinions of my employer.

Work 2.0 is collaborative

On my last post I used mobile, camera and publishing as "new media user experience". With Web 2.0 the ways we do things are in a constant change.

As the matter of fact, the only constant in our lives seems to be change.

Tonight I took part in HBR chat, under the topic From Corporate Ladder to Lattice. The main idea is that, not only our life, hobbies, targets of interest and how we carry them change - but also and even more so, our work is under a radical change.

The workplace isn't what it used to be--and neither is the workforce. Today's companies have fewer hierarchical layers. The nature of work is also more virtual, collaborative, and transparent than at any previous time. -HBR

In my mind those two have a strong connection. It doesn't matter what you do for a living, in order to proceed in your career, you need the constant change.

Bus driver 2.0

If you're a bus driver, instead of gasoline, your new vehicle might use natural gas or even electronic batteries. And as you drive along, traffic lights favor you: thanks to the new technology allowing the integration of the satellite - GPS - traffic light system(F). Sustainable development in mind: the less you need to wait with your motor running, the less you cause exhaustive fumes and pollute the nature.

If you started your career some 20 years ago, there's been a huge change, at least in your mind!

Knowledge worker 2.0

Even bigger is the distance between the old office worker in comparison with today's knowledge worker. Back in 1997 when I started with the Tax Administration, the departments received their instructions on paper. Bulletins were pinned on a board for every one. - Today everything comes in email, 2-10 times a day, and the highlights for customers are also published on our website.

My boss explained to me at my first week: "Our PC's are all new: last year (or so) we had just one PC in a team of 8-12 workers." -Today I have a laptop and a Nokia E90, and emails reach me through both those devices.

Outsourcing the reason?

But these are not the only changes around. In the name of productivity organizations are cutting back fixed costs. Good bye secretaries, good bye bookkeepers and ladies who used to calculate our salaries or arrange our business trips and so on. All the assisting work is being outsourced. The question is, do we really gain or lose on this track?

Today I need to operate on three separate applications in order to report my working hours, prepare for the development discussions and approve the invoices. (There is no OpenID, no common logic or user experience. People, even bosses make the coffee, since there are no more secretaries..)

On the other hand, I love to update the campaign site myself, instead of giving the text to someone to copy-paste and then do it all over again because I'm not happy with the layout. - Not all agree with my point of view. How do you feel about it?

Social media is Collaboration!

For us knowledge workers this is a golden era. Social media tools enable us to group with like minded people. In "tribes" we can learn more efficiently on the subjects we're all interested in and also share our expertise with other Like Minds.

In essence, it is this bigger picture that tonight's HBRchat was about:

Q1: What are the major trends at play that are changing the traditional career model?

Q2: How can companies transition from this traditional model to flexible, more strategic one?

Q3: How can we as individuals shape our own “career lattices?”

Conversationalists brought up open dialogue, collaboration and transparency. As things become more transparent, strategy and sharing values are an essential part of the new leadership. Finally, stepping stones to the new career are constant learning, pushing the edges and a somewhat entrepreneurial mindset that flourishes with trust.

The motto for the new worker could be, as @bennydu put it:

Always be humble, open-minded, never stop learning! Coach Wooden said: "It's what you learn after you know it all that counts"

If you're interested what else was said, you'll find the hashtagged Tweets in Topsy

On the way to Information Society

A bit over a year ago I blogged about how to plan services (F) For user experience to be pleasant, the service needs to have all bits and pieces in balance.

A good example of nice experience is how you plan your Google front page. Some might say "nonsense", but I love it for showing me news headlines at a glance. I also love beauty; so this is how my iGoogle looks like.

This year's foot ball finals (F) was my first game ever (en spite of the fact that I loved Goal! a lot). Fanny, our cat, got so excited, too, that we took some snapshots to share with our friends.

I'm a Picasa user (over Flickr) for the simple reason of user accounts: I already had an account with Google. Oh, how I'd love OpenID: the less accounts (and passwords), the better!

To my regret, I have a Nokia E90 instead of an iPhone, so sharing photos has been a pain in the neck. Google's Picasa offered a good option to do the trick via email. Fast and easy, and the results you can see here.

Social media opens new horizons also to government officers, those wanting to share experiences, learn from one another and create new innovation. I believe we need to speed up the development: all too few of us use tools enabling bigger productivity or crowd-sourcing type of innovation.

Public sector in Finland (perhaps the whole country, too) is still in the phase of slow adaption with Twitter - and I wouldn't have the time to wait =) LinkedIn is more used but, all too often, poorly so. Facebook is all the more famous but mostly used for private purposes. (Dear reader, a word of warning: the previous estimation is based on my professional public sector networks and may not represent the whole truth)

I am part of a big team SADe (F) that is building information society and eGovernment in Finland. I'm not saying that government offices' first priorities lie with tweets or sharing photos, but my few examples above are definitely worth learning from. Information society should be innovative and easy to use.

What needs to be gained, in my experience of a year as a blogger, is networking, sharing and enriching the experiences. Only thus can we benefit and speed up the learning curve.

That's how innovation is spread. First there was Gutenberg's printing press. Today we blog to spread our thoughts.

My blog at Arjen tietoyhteiskunta (F - unfortunately not translated).

What do you do when you're feeling blue?

Has it been a while since you felt the power of words within you? Is it as if you've lost the once so joyful certainty that you do have ideas worth sharing?

Let me ask you: what do you do when (or if?) that happens?

Reading great things still makes you tick! Oh yeah, you get carried away with plans, just like the good old times: "Wow, this is the answer to the project..

Until then, out of the blue, there is yet another new message stating that everything you built your days on will be twisted just the opposite, you're no longer the one in charge or who is expected to act in matters like this. - Is that how the earthquake hits you??!

Looking back it often seems there's more to it.

Perhaps your workload has exceeded reasonable boundaries. Or maybe the support you once used to have, has now been removed, more or less totally. Or have your responsibilities and empowerment been whirling around, growing the amount of mixed signals big enough to carry a train away?

If that's the case, is it really any wonder if you no longer feel like it?

Bad news is, though, that the biggest loser is not the individual who has lost the passion. It's his employer. Think about it. If you lose the one who effects the spirit the most, or the one who always used to get also the slow adapters to buy the new ideas, let alone the team that gets everybody together to bring out their best, especially at the hard times.. I mean, without them, what do you have left?

The big question is, how do you find the way out? Let's hear it!

Why am I blogging?

It's been a year since I started my new career as a blogger. I did it in Finnish, with a purpose of trying out something new. I wanted to promote the awareness of my employee's top products in my professional networks.

Semi-private, semi-professional..

I started with a question on what is the "reason to market in the public sector"? (F)

Earlier this year a network friend of mine, Nathan Hangen, encouraged me to do it in English. So did a Greek entrepreneur-friend of mine. Yes, they were right: I do have a lot of colleagues all around Europe, business acquaintances all around the world. We share a lot of thoughts but it's impossible for them to read me in Finnish. The final push came from another network acquaintance. Morten Juul asked in his blog: "What will you commit to today?" .. Sure, why not?

The biggest minus at the moment, is that I severely suffer from lack of time. Our recent projects, the big change we're in middle of.. all too much! But I look forward to a time of better balance, though.

Benefits of blogging

Anyway, this last year has been incredible in so many ways! To find something interesting has become of bigger value: I want to stash it in a more organized manner in order to be able to return to it when I need it. After all, everything is connected, and this piece of information is connected to that sector of A and B and now is the time to blog about it.. You know, how it goes. Thinking according themes is something I've grown more into, and more systematic search of information is my constant aim.

Writing is an excellent way to organize one's thoughts, too! Professional (even semi-professional so) networks are pure gold in exchange of information and other support. The biggest reward, however, in my everyday work, would be the collaboration that has emerged in this new media between different government agencies.

How to find the courage?

So thanks Hanne(F), for your share! You came up with the back door: if it's not nice, you can always stop, saying it was a project that lasted while the main product was on for the audience. No shooting ahead, should I fail. Loved it!

Thank you Anja(F): you offered me a concrete here's-what-you-need-to-do-plan for setting up a blog in your book Blogi tulee töihin(F). Thanks to your book, it only took me a weekend or so to get things going.

Thanks Merja! You were the impartial outsider who could point out the outstanding example I was able to set for many alikes in the public sector. Thank you for your warm support. Our network is brilliant.

"Why on earth should a public sector agancy market anything? Tax customership?! Fiddle-dee-dee! You don't have a choice! So what is there to market for?" Let's see..

The answer for the need of marketing is, with a year behind me, is that marketing really is about networking, relationships, creating value to others. Not looking for leads but seeing people. You can't do it in your chamber! And more than that, you just can't own all the wisdom needed in your (lonely) head. It's time to get out: open the door and step out to the market to grow wise.

Spread your wings and start networking!

Blogging is one way to get out in the market. There you can reach and embrace the wisdom of crowds. Let your passion catch fire with others like you! I chose my knowledge and experience as my currency. The big question was How do you network? How big is the net I already have? But most importantly, how do I bring along the whole organisation?

It was a bit like pioneering in the wild wild west. It's good to have someone out there first, and then let's see how things will work out for her. After that we learn from her mistakes and can start the business with smaller costs. There are a few sparks already in the air: top management chose blogging as a way of sharing the new strategy. It was too early to launch a novelty with blogging. Instead, customer service caught fire!

Customer service is spreading its wings!

A couple of tax offices, or rather, their communications, marketing and service managers chose new media. Since there simply is not enough people to answer all the phone calls one at a time, they chose to get out there where their customers already are gathered. The means are an Ask us -column (F) in the biggest network society in Finland and a blog (F) in one of the biggest web journal communities

Trust is the main thing. You must have passion for your cause. But, in addition, the most solid currency in this new media market is the ancient nobility of helping thy neighbors. Those who can, have open ears and they are willingly helping those in need. Trust is being born. You want to recommend someone that you trust. Word of mouth creates the most powerful marketing. I rest my case.

So spread your wings and start networking. Your expertise is needed!

Earlier posts on new malls, R & D and experts and brands, unfortunately in Finnish:

Markkinointi muodostaa asiakkuuksia (16 Jou 2009)
Jokainen on brändinkantaja (4 Kes 2009)
Asiakas on laumaeläin (26 Tou 2009)
Ajatuksia asiakaskeskeisestä tuotekehityksestä (Haku)

Great thinking on trust and sharing:

Protect your ideas or launch them by Nathan Hangen
Future of Search Is More than Social by Baekdal

Social media drives green values to business (Vol.4)

Turning environment..

Let's move on from environmental challenges to new business ideas evolving from the need of sustainability.

I believe the only way to weave environment into business is by looking at the entire environment of the business through value chain thinking.

Environmental value chain analysis offers a way to manage the business processes as an entity that takes environment into consideration.

..into new business ideas

Passion drives change. BSAG was born of the relentless passion of Ilkka Herlin. Same passion drives environmental investments in Canada.

Private passions that have driven the environmental movement for decades are now spilling over into mainstream business ventures.

Material efficiency is often the key factor in cutting variable costs. But that efficiency should be looked at as a bigger picture: one must optimize the entity. It is possible to streamline the use of a certain ingredient in the production process and, at the same time, increase the cost of its final waste disposal. There, too, the answer lies in life cycle analysis.

Material efficiency should thus be connected into the management system, as is often done with the energy efficiency. Efficiency thinking should be based on value chain analysis, says professor Juha Kaila, Helsinki University of Technology (InnoSuomi 2009). R&D is facing the challenge of how to get the most out of the raw material in its total life time. The scope is about to change as the life cycle cost must include also the cost of recycling.

A change toward non-tangibles?

How about Slow movement? It offers yet another view in consumption. Slow life allows room for services that do not exploit the environment. Non-tangible services are bound to burden less than producing tangible goods. An excellent example on that are different charity projects: Buy a cow - donate a well - buy a vaccine - or plant a tree are all examples of a non-tangible gift (F) to someone who already has everything.

As you can see, sustainabity makes sense. It also opens new horizons for innovation.

Social media drives green values to business (Vol.3)

If you care about you reputation, you'll know, both intuitively and explicitly, what and how to do - and how not to. This should apply to business, as well.

Brand is definitely one of the most valuable assets to any business. Brand management must bring along risk management covering customer experience. Customers nowadays live more and more constantly in their social networks.

Firms may "own" their brands, but brands really live in the heads of their consumers. Companies must constantly nurture and actively manage their brands at the speed customers form opinions about them. -Real-time Brand Management, Harvard Business Review

Therefore quality of service, the core product itself, must be supported with an excellent array of customer service use.

Managing environmental risks

But the core processes need to be acceptable, too. The business is not allowed to bring harm to people, never to its customers, nor to its employers; but not to the environment. Not any more. Today business processes need to be sustainable.

I believe Nestle was one of the first 'naughty ones' I remember hearing of when I was a kid. Back then there were no computers in every day life, and the most 'social media' there was, was shopping at the same time with your neighbors =) Well, 30 years later, Nestle is in trouble again. This time in Facebook. The topic has changed: this time it is palm oil.

They will not accept unethical behavior. Their opinion might matter to your customers. (Vol.2*link corrected*)

Even the most cautious preparations get caught by surprise. Preserving the environment, let alone the ultimately vulnerable rain forest, must have been a top priority in an multi-million investment of Botnia in Uruguay.

Environmental challenges bring sustainability and new business ideas. To be continued..

Social media drives green values to business (Vol.2)

It is time to dive into the bigger picture. You might have been asking, what on earth connects the dots from green values to hardcore moneymaking.

The answer is customer, the citizen, the Conscious Consumer. He or she is more and more often willing to enlighten also others in his or her no-cost social media networks.

Not hurting the nature means most of all responsibility in all business processes. And this is where we bump into ethics. If the right choice costs more, your bottom line is bound to suffer. Mission impossible? My previous post at Vol.1

China and Finland, cases mentioned in Vol.1, were crimes covered by the traditional press. South-Korean girl not taking care of her dog waste or a blogging mother at the mercy of a multi-national conglomerate are examples of the power of this new media. It offers those long-needed channels through which to participate and do our share for the mutual cause.

That's why nature is also your business!

Social media is a means to build social (environmental) awareness. That's why sustainability is a value that is - and must be - on the rise. As Esko Kilpi put it: There is a shift of paradigm going on.

That paradigm is something big; so big that not one business can afford to neglect it.

As people are testifying odd weathers, reading scary reports and watching terrifying pictures from natural catastrophes they are also searching for information. Web offers them loads of details, also and more and more often misbehavior and neglect of companies, among other things.

Be aware: those who care just won't turn away. They will not accept unethical behavior. Their opinion might matter to your customers.

Gradually this "Mission impossible" type of equation is becoming reality. Winning fast profits at the expense of someone else - and the nature - is turning social media audience against anyone trying it. Dare you try?

To be continued..

Social media drives green values to business (Vol.1)

A breakfast seminar a few weeks ago. The stage is set for two extremely radiant thought leaders: Esko Kilpi and Ilkka Herlin(F).

The main theme for the day was to approach a triangle that didn't use to (or did it?) have anything in common: the Business, green values and social media. Now this all has changed: social media has brought the essential elements together: around the customer - citizen.

The discussions were elevating. The brief history of Baltic Sea Action Group was a great thing to hear. It is a story of one man. But in my mind, it's also a story of building a brand - something that can be bigger than just us as individuals.

Timing is important in order to be heard

At our best we are a rich combination of our values, experiences and contacts. Bring in a pinch of passion, mix it with inspiration and other talented, passionate people - and there are no limits what can happen!

This is what Ilkka has built. His interests, career, family backgrounds.. it all has taken him to where he - this cause - is now. His passion and actions for the nature and the Baltic Sea had to wait for about ten years for others to wake up and join the cause.

During those years came another man, who after not becoming the president of the US of A concentrated his energies working against the climate change. His work has been spreading the word, waking up those others. Yet another influential man, Bill Clinton, has used his influence and networks to gather resources for the benefit of the things he believes in.

Wake up! Do nothing and we're gonna be in deep *you know*.



Looking for a change

Let's think about the traditional business drivers for a minute. Financial laws demand that business create profits to the owners. Everything evolves around the quarterly reporting for the P/E.

This responsibility to spend wisely applies, of course, to the public sector, too. What I am saying, is that short term planning simply isn't enough. It is extremely difficult to build financial models, scenarios if you will, that could actually bind together income from the further future with the expenditure invested today. In other words, how do we justify the cost of doing something slightly outside the scope of the next quarter, or two years in the public sector? How do we build the scenario in monetary terms?

Eternal growth is an impossibility

Esko put it this way: We all have been taught that full employment can only be achieved it the annual growth of GDP exceeds 3%. Thus what we need to do is to make sure that our expenditure grows; that's how we best help our neighbor in need of a job. What about the Third world? It's our turn, they claim! And all the statistics show that the poor planet just can't cope the exploitation of the natural resources. On the other hand, the amount of waste goes beyond reason.

It is our turn to give way to other people's needs.

But that doesn't have to mean the destruction of the western businesses! It just calls in for new business ideas, like recycling the raw materials. You just need to come up with the idea that turns recycled materials into desirable products thus generating lucrative business. Take a look at Globe Hope.

Not hurting the nature means most of all responsibility in all business processes. And this is where we bump into ethics. If the right choice costs more, your bottom line is bound to suffer. Mission impossible?

NO! In China you could, for a while, add plastics into milk to make it more nutritious - only as far as you got caught (and might lose your head). In Finland the waste company was able to dump the waste into storm drain - until it got caught and lost its reputation and hence business deals.

But it must be impossible to justify a bigger expenditure in favor of something general, say nature? There the cost is bound to generate no money, only something, not measurable, that will benefit somebody else, right?

WRONG! Nature is everybody's business. Businesses', too.

To be continued..

Leader is like a Captain

Driving an organisation to its goal is a bit like being a captain.

You set the goal, choose the way and steps to get there, set the tasks for your team - and lift their spirits.

A recent HBR article reflects on making good decisions.

Center versus business unit

Business units do their job on the front line, close to the customer whereas the center is the one who can see the big picture. It can set the broader goals, and it keeps the organization focused on winning.

The way I've come across this phenomenon, I would now strongly go for the centralized option. For it seems to be that only with the bigger picture can one tell between different choices, which of them will benefit the organisation most. The sub units tend to sub-optimize and their aim is easily focused on the short term revenue/goal.

Dreaming about brilliant leadership

On the other hand, I still dream about tools that would steer the whole organisation to one commonly set direction without the parts wanting something of their own. - Have you found that toolkit yet?

Nick Morgan wrote a nice article in Forbes. In Leadership Is All About Emotional Persuasion he points out a few things defining successful leadership:

Persuasion means changing someone's mind. If the mind isn't changed, the person hasn't been persuaded. -- So a leader's job is to change minds, to push followers to make new decisions.

Something alike can be found in Pentti Sydänmaanlakka's thinking. In his book on intelligent leadership (Älykäs johtajuus Talentum 2004), he, too, defines leadership as a process: "Leadership is a process where the leader effects an individual or a group in order to reach the common goal" (translation mine).

A heart-warming example in Sydänmaanlakka's book names a few principles regarding leadership:

Emphasize the meaning of the customer

Give room to people who make things happen

Acknowledge competence

Inspire yourself and everyone to top results

Function versus function

Who actually does the balancing act between product development and marketing during the design of a new product? Let's assume marketing is the function to tell what the customers want, and the R&D project has some slightly different goal - who will bring the common goal to decision-making?

Cross-functional decisions seem too often to elude in compromise solutions, not to mention the frequent need to be revisited because the right people were not involved from the start!? On the other hand, if we would really act customer-centric (not just talk about it), shouldn't this problem vaporize away, this instant?

Inside versus outside partners

Good decision makers recognize which decisions really matter to performance. Knowing that together with the commonly shared goal are, in my experience, the main elements to make any organization prosper.

Good decision makers, a.k.a good leaders think through who should recommend a particular path, who needs to agree, who should have input, who has the ultimate responsibility for making the decision, and who is accountable for follow-through.

Good leaders thus make the process routine. And, as the result, they gain better coordination and quicker response times.

In times like these, we need good leaders.