Here the latest Culture Shock-inspired links, plucked carefully from my LET’S CHANGE THE WORLD radar:
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This is a LOVELY lil’ piece on failure, mainly in the context of education but of huge relevance to business.
Here’s a tasty outtake, but definitely find a few minutes to read the whole post:
But perhaps the over-riding lesson was in the event itself. Jim Wynn put his finger on it first. After the event he said “I think the reason for the success of the Fail Fest is around trust. Sharing success often precipitates feelings of jealousy, fear and worry, rather than the expected admiration. Sharing failure relaxes people, increases empathy and builds trust. This is something special. We should build on it”.
I’m including this because I, like these guys and many others, am convinced that a greater acceptance of failure is key to unlocking greater innovation and creativity in life and at work, which is why there’s a little bit on NixonMcInnes’ Church of Fail in Culture Shock.
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Reality versus belief about corporate success
A short piece by the notable British economist Diane Coyle on a book called Spark. What I enjoyed most about this was discovering another brilliant company that does things the right way, and thrives in tough times: Lincoln Electric.
As Diane says:
Frank’s book is about businesses with no-layoff employment policies, and particularly about a company called Lincoln Electric – I’d never heard of it but it’s the global number one in arc welding. Lincoln has a formal guaranteed employment programme as well as rewarding employees with bonuses and incentives. The company history sets out its longstanding (since 1895) commitment to employees and customers as well as shareholders. According to its latest results, published last week, employees got an average bonus of $33,915, the 79th annual bonus in a row, a bonus pool of $99.3m (the pool normally represents 32% of pre-tax profits).
I love these long-standing businesses who 1) seem to be performing brilliantly in recent times against any and all competition (see also: John Lewis record sales) and 2) yet have put their employees first for decades (and in this case, over a century!), and yet are still seen as somehow ‘radical’ or ‘progressive’.
How idiotic is traditional business? Pah!
Thanks to Aden Davies for the link.
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Culture Shock further reading list
Talking of books, I’ve put a further reading list for people who enjoyed Culture Shock.
These are the books that inspired or taught me: Culture Shock reading list – and there are some crackers in there.
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Do you have a passion to start something?
The best event I’ve been to was the Do Lectures – if you want to, you can read more about why in my ‘Notes from the Do Lectures 2011’ (though in them I forget to mention my favourite moment, Tom Fishburne’s talk, because I was so emotional I didn’t bring home any notes).
This year, the Do is different: it’s about getting a start up off the ground:
DO ‘START-UP’, APRIL 25–28, 2013
Is your idea going to change the world? How do you fund it? How do you protect it? How do you build it? How do you market it? How do you brand it? How do you tell the world about it? How do you scale it? How do you hire the right people? How do you do all this and more? 20 amazing entrepreneurs are going to give you the answers, because they have been there and done it. Oh, and in the workshops after the talks, we are all going start a business in the 3 days of the event. Because the best way to learn is by doing. And then at night, we can just eat super fresh local food and listen to great music. Sleep will have to wait.
And they sent me an invite which I need to give to someone that’s gonna make something happen.
So please do get in touch if you’ve had a look at what Do Lectures is about and are committed to starting something that matters – will dot mcinnes at nixonmcinnes dot co dot uk eh.
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Challenge a friend or colleague
The New Year is approaching and our friends and colleagues will be thinking about resolutions, goals, the future. If it feels rights, send or loan them a copy of Culture Shock – a handbook for 21st Century business.
It might be the spark or push that they need… And if it is, they’ll never forget it or you!
Onwards! Will.
Will McInnes 