Training Industry Blog

A colleague expressed surprise when I lamented that managers often ignore the long-term consequences of their decisions. Her response was that most decisions are made in the face of immediate and pressing issues, and these are exactly what people should pay most attention to. Clearly, on one level she is right—ignoring immediacy is dangerous. However, focusing only on the pressing problem is an invitation to unintended and unforeseen consequences in the future. Ensuring an effective response to the immediate concern while weighing long-term consequences is not a trivial task. Today’s business environment is complex. No one can predict long-term consequences with accuracy, and few managerial positions come with a crystal ball.

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Do you know if the words you choose inspire people or cause their momentum to lose steam quickly? Whether you are trying to make a change in an organization or in your daily habits, you probably have been told to make your goals SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time Bound (or some variation of words to fit the acronym).

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Those of us who have children know that saying it doesn’t do diddly and saying it twice doesn’t do a heck of a lot more. People need simple rules and a few good examples.

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Unfortunately, most Leaders & Managers in business (private or publicly-held) and government are not Winning Leaders & Managers! On the surface this may sound like a brash overgeneralization. However,

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School is out and many of us are seeing a lot more of our children. Hopefully, we will take this opportunity to notice how they have grown in magical ways.

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In his bestselling book “Business at the Speed of Thought,” Bill Gates introduced the concept of the Digital Nervous System (DNS). He described this phenomena as a “process that links every aspect of a company’s thoughts and actions.” The Microsoft founder suggested that this linkage was key to making the basic operational data of an organization (including environmental information and feedback from customers) accessible in an electronic format so that it could be easily analyzed. Gates theorized that access to this type of data would allow employees to quickly adapt and respond to said input. He went on to assert that “successful organizations” would be the ones who developed a world class digital nervous system that allowed information to easily flow through the company. Gates further suggested that this flow of information would facilitate maximum and constant learning, and as a result “shift” strategic thinking from a separate stand-alone occurrence into an ongoing process that would be integrated with all business activities.

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