Blog

Three shorties

Just to drop it; two and a half links to interesting articles. According to me, as I determine what goes here… and in a positive mood.

First, a picture for your viewing delight:
DSCN3401
[Njagra folls, yes]

OK, one on invention, innovation, in a very useful way: This, on blood testing.

And one that links quite nicely to some other post of mine.

And the other, lighter fare which is about you the baboon goes under the title of Mehhhh …

Because reasons:
Masterpiece

Shortie: We’re all doomed now

[Plugged in now, as it was already on radio news yesterday – some time after I scheduled this tweet. Hm. Want to be First…]

Oh my G; we’re all doomed now. Due to this …
Or can we hang in there only just, till this blows over ..? It should already have, shouldn’t it, when these sort of excesses (like this, too) turn up …!? Please …!!!

And a picture of course:
20140226_113554
[For no Binckhorst reason but the pretty industrial sight]

Covey. Books by Quote (Dutch)

DSCN5094
[From chaos onto calmth]

There you have it; Stephen Covey’s Seven Hobbits. Hobbies – I mean, Habits of Effective Leadership. In Dutch. You may figure out for yourself why I copied the quotes; either because I find them valuable or because the error is of import for its ominousness (is that a word?).
Be aware that the quotes as such, aren’t a real unbiased ‘objective’ summary; most often I heartily advise to read the book yourself..!

Stephen R. Covey, De Zeven Eigenschappen van Effectief Leiderschap, FranklinCovey / Business Contact, juli 2006, ISBN 9789025414894.

Wat je de Principiële Levenshouding zou kunnen noemen wordt daarentegen in vrijwel alle literatuur van de eerste honderdvijftig jaar beschouwd als basis voor succes: integriteit, nederigheid, trouw, gematigdheid, moed, rechtvaardigheid, geduld, ijver, eenvoud, bescheidenheid en de gulden regel. Karakteristiek voor die literatuur is de autobiografie van Benjamin Franklin. (p.16)

Principes zijn geen waarden. Een criminele organisatie kan bepaalde waarden delen, maar ze zijn in strijd met de principes die ik hier bedoel. Principes zijn het land, waarden de landkaart. Als we de juiste principes als kaart hanteren kennen we de waarheid. Principes zijn richtlijnen voor menselijk gedrag, die hun waarden op lange termijn hebben bewezen. Hoe fundamenteel ze zijn wordt direct duidelijk, als je bedenkt hoe absurd het is om te leven volgens regels die er tegenin druisen. Ik betwijfel of er iemand bestaat die er werkelijk van overtuigd is dat onredelijkheid, bedrog, lafheid, nutteloosheid, middelmatigheid of verval een solide basis voor succes kunnen vormen. (p.27)
Continue reading “Covey. Books by Quote (Dutch)”

Battles; aren’t we over them?

DSCN2229
[Yes that actually is a watch – well, sundial but still]

Hmmm, just when I thought that manufacturer battles had gone out of style (would’ve been something for these lists), here we go again: Wired’s take on the next one.

Mehhh Practice

Mehhhdrid
[Mehhhdrid?]

This appeared:

Nicely summing up a widespread complaint. E.g., against ISO 2700x. One should be forbidden to call those ‘Best’, as they are average, at best.
Because they’re adopted by the ones with no imagination of their own so implementations will fall short of average, thus in mass lowering the average even further.

And Best has never been Best in the first place. ‘tWas a compromise, as it had to cover so much, over so many contributors at its inception already. Remember, BS7799 ..!? And on and on in review rounds, committees decided over changes. A camel is a horse designed by a committee. And it all had to be applicable to as many industries as you can dream up. Another flattener par excellence. Standards work, where there is little variation required. Here, much variation, tailoring to each and every implementation over and over again, is a prerequisite for any success. I might continue.

Luckily for you, the new ISO27001:2013 of last October, is a huge improvement…. To the panic of the knights of busywork, one cannot anymore rely on following the herd as described, prescribed, because, at last, the prescription tends to Use Your Own Brain. Principle-based at last ..! For some elements. Tuning required, not by the (C)ISO (office) (only), but by the Business itself. Oh dear! The implementation efforts… Consultants’ dreams.

Well, get the lowdown of this, from experts [disclaimer: don’t own anything of them]. Just wanted to post the tweet and my take on it.

The librarian wave

000013 (17)
[Had this as my cubicle, a long time ago]

There seems to be a silent undercurrent wave of librarians entering our (not) field of information processing. If you think their thinking might be stale, think again. This here piece, for example, is clear and bright in its contributions towards better …, well, calling it flatly what it is, ‘data’ management. Flatly, as that’s what one gets by approaching it from the IT side only. ‘Processes’ add only so much. I.e., so little.

Just one pic from that blog post to demonstrate the clarity of thought:
1_yFGlNKuOFQ8_X_14pODgwQ

How’zat for clarity ..?

I’ll pick this one up in full, later, when extending the stuff on ‘information’ in light of the one overarching Book on it all that I still have as a plan, if only I had the time to work on it full-time …!

Stumbling over yourself, in the retreat

DSCN5600
[Utreg]

Remember the good ol’ Boston Consulting matrix ..?

Among the puerilely [that is a word] shallow startup business, apparently not many do. They’re only chasing the next, even more questionable question marks, ‘knowing for sure’ (not) to turn those into stars without fail. Current stars exist only to set the example and to be beaten.
Dogs, of course, are what they are. And cash cows are also dogs. As they aren’t fast enough. Sure. But where startup managers believe to have found the ultimate question mark will turn into star certainty, and VCs just spending off their (or Other Peoples’ Money ..!) lifetime earnings as lottery tickets, the cash cows prod along quite happily, getting only half of the world’s attention for delivering … 95% of the world’s goods and services (mostly, from the bottom up Maslow’s pyramid).

Thus, two economies result; the one being much more dependent on the other than usually considered, with the other not being old and decrepid, to be done away with, but a core, a solid basis for long-term alignment or else one keeps on floating in the sky until one evaporates. The other way around is not quite as necessary as believed..!
Which also leads to those of the stable kind, trying to get into the action of the fluid kind, to stumble while they try to retreat into some fluid future. They lose the stability, and cannot catch up with the road runner(s) for sheer secondness and ballast of the old. Cash cows are big, required and necessary, and should be left alone to innovate not to disrupt. Disruptors, may be loosely tied to cash cows, but certainly not with the intention to later integrate the latter back into the former. That will lead to failure throughout; the horse already left the barn and you wouldn’t have wanted to close the gate but now have had a kick in the teeth; i.e., the slow just missing the grasp and ending up on the rails, grappling their teeth together, while the train ever speeding up will have left the station. This form of retreat (that’s what it is, retreat as leader, T Rex trying to regain initiative by outpacing and outsmarting the Velociraptors in their teamwork) will lead to pathetic stumbling.

Conclusion: Don’t do it. Not in the me-too way. Dare to decide what you are, be proud of that ..! Just innovate, not disrupt yourself internally only, and be strong … survival of the fattest and fittest. Don’t be a lightweight, you’ll fall like Icarus – after you have learned not to fly too low …!

Maverisk / Étoiles du Nord