Nicholas Bate

Mmmm

Mmmm

On Certainty

We are sold certainty from the earliest age. The reason for anything and everything is to increase certainty. Qualifications will increase the certainty of a 'good job'. A daily multi-vit will increase the certainty of good health. A logo in colour red increase the certainty of success, a nice smile the certainty of winning the girl, a ...and so it goes on. But the wiser we get, we realise that certainty is just an occasional fortunate blip in a vast ocean of uncertainty. Uncertainty of weather patterns, of how customers will react, of the economy, of how our kids will respond to endless exams...And that long conditioning of expecting certainty causes us to feel unsettled, disappointed even. Craving a 'tick in the box', a reliable metric, a definite wedding day without rain.

Forget it. Read and stay super mentally fit. Find, support and be loyal to great friends and colleagues. Remind yourself you live on a rock spinning through space populated with humans not an air-conditioned management model with perfect emotional intelligence robots.  Celebrate certainty when you get it, sure. Strive for it, definitley: the quest is (literally) enlightening. But get comfortable, really comfortable with living with uncertainty. And then Life becomes so much easier, more relaxing and ..er.. certain.

Instant Business Speak 26

People in organisations talk a lot about building their network. Once a rubber band around a stack of business cards, now a complex inter-connected web of social media software, 'contacts' and 'who do you know?'. Networking is the new escape plan, having by-passed the lotto win as an ever-present hope. Hope? Hope of escape. Surely someone, somewhere must recognise my talent? And be able to help me out of this career cul-de-sac?

Possible. Unfortunately the power of the network has increasingly been diluted by becoming grid-locked as everyone hopes someone else will help them.

Who Are

the reliables?

Instant MBA 100: 7

Rapid Review Of Instant MBA 1-5 here.

Instant MBA 6 (here). Forget time, focus on decisions. And these are typically investment ones; ones in which you are working ON your business. Improving skills, reflecting on strategy and building future business pipelines.

Instant MBA 7: Differentiation. Get big, get niche or get out. Your business must be different otherwise it will resort to the only 'difference' it has: lower and lower prices which is clearly a slippery slope to disaster. Organise a classic SWOT (strengths/weaknesses/opportunities and threats) analysis. Discover, re-discover and create difference.

Resources

Instant MBA, the book

Today Is A Great Day

especially thanks to Cultural Offering.

ReFresh 7

1. New page in notebook;
2. Freshly sharpened pencil;
3. Three tough questions needing answers;
4. What do I want?
5. How do I get there?
6. What's the next step?
7. That was easier than he had thought...

Mmmm

Don't Add. Subtract. 7

1. Subtract meetings from your schedule to allow you to actually get some work done.
2. Subtract miles/kilometres from your travelling to allow you to stay sane.
3. Subtract things from your 'to do' list to allow focus and execution.
4. Subtract cans of soda from your fluid intake to avoid corn syrup overload impacting your creativity.
5. Subtract slides from the slide-deck to avoid presenter-induced trance.
6. Subtract 15 minutes from 1h meetings to avoid discussion paralysis.
7. Subtract complaints from your conversation for a more resourceful day.