A while ago a friend of mine trying to immigrate to her husband’s country had to go through the process proving that her marriage was real, that they indeed had a loving a caring relationship. In other words proving that she and her husband loved each other.

So how do you do that? You can get friends to say that you love each other and you can do all sorts of incredible tricks with photography that puts you with anyone, in any place and in the most romantic poses. But how do you actually prove that you love someone?

This in fact reminds me of a great movie with Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey, “Contact”, in which she played a scientist who had entered science having been inspired by her father with whom she had an exceptionally close relationship and who had died when she was very young. McConaughey played a religious minister. The love affair was problematic because she couldn’t understand his faith as there was no empirical proof to confirm the existence of God. In a great scene there was the following exchange:

Jodie Foster: I just can’t believe anything that you can’t prove exists.

McConaughey: Did you love your father?

Foster: Of course I did!

McConaughey: Prove it!

Leap of Faith

I come up against the same type of thinking in my work when it comes to defending the need to invest in the development of the people who lead the company. The bean counters always want you to give hard data that proves that a better quality of leadership has a positive impact on the bottom line. Well, you know what? I can’t. Some consultancy companies invest time and money in creating models that prove the ROI (Return on Investment) for training. But with so many variables that could have a positive impact on improved business results how could you actually prove that it was the training? In reality, you can’t and it is better to accept it.

On the other hand, how many of the greatest business decisions that led to a quantum leap in the bottom line could have taken place if the people who took them had to provide empirical evidence that they were going to work? Not many, I would say.

Sometimes, many times, you just need to take a leap of faith, based on good sense, but a leap of faith all the same. And that’s good business!

With the financial crisis and in a globalized world, managing is becoming exponentially more complicated. In my experience the great majority of managers feel more comfortable making a decision when they have a lot of solid data to back them up. But today, getting that data is becoming harder and harder.

Intuition is a valid management tool

On the CNN web page today there is a great article about the success of the Apple stores in which the author points out that ten years ago when Apple announced that it was going to launch a major retail project, all the “experts” said that they were crazy. For an Apple groupie from way back nothing makes me happier than seeing Steve Jobs kick another goal, but the interesting thing about this story is that if they had based their decision on hard data they would never have opened their first shop.

And what a success it has been. Ten years after launching the project they have 317 stores worldwide that boast annual earnings of some $3.2 billion, a figure that represents 13% of Apple’s total sales. Not bad for a crazy idea.

But not only that, Apple get to have more control of the customer’s experience, a real attraction for someone like Steve Jobs, but also good business, and their slick store design has done a lot to further enhance the strength of the brand.

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This last week I was away from home, delivering a programme up in Stockholm. Over the last two years my wife and I have managed to reduce the distance through Skype that allows us to see each other while we talk. But with my baby girls they weren’t able to recognize their daddy even though I was right in front of them.

The importance of Interaction

All that changed last week when for the first time in their 15 month life they could see me and realize who it was on the scene in from of them. Their waving and blowing kisses made the miles that separate us just melt away and warmed their old Dad’s heart. There was now real interaction.
Many of my clients have to lead in really quite difficult circumstances having to manage teams whose members are scattered right across the globe, different time zones, different languages and different cultures. Getting them all together for physical contact is both complicated and expensive, although this should happen at least once a year. Telephone calls and emails are efficient and fast and yet somehow cold and a potential minefield for misunderstanding. [Read more →]

Following the operations carried out this last week in Libya by the coalition and the avalanche of criticism they are receiving I started to think about just how easy it is to criticise. With respect to the coalition what we have heard are things like:

• They shouldn’t have intervened.
• They should have intervened sooner.
• They should be clearer about their objectives.
• They shouldn’t reveal their objectives.
• They should be bombing Gadafi’s troupes eliminating their tanks and artillery.
• They should only be applying the “No fly Zone” attacking the Libyan air force only when necessary.
• They shouldn’t be bombing at all.
• They should be negotiating with Gadafi directly.
• With a madman like Gadafi they shouldn’t even think about direct conversations.

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It is impossible not to feel moved by the images coming out of Japan this last week. How can any country possibly return to normal life after such violent destruction? Who could believe in it’s future?

And yet, watching the Japanese people reacting to this tragedy I feel nothing but optimism for the country’s future. Firstly, the government, at least in the first stages of the crisis, has been efficient and transparent with its communication, even with such delicate information about the nuclear reactor. Secondly, nobody is sitting on their hands, the entire nation has launched into action pitching in to help. I also admire the stoicism of these people who with a gritty determination and a Zen like calmness deal with a desperate situation. And finally their generosity: something like a million people are working as volunteers to help the needy, even the local version of the Mafia, the “Yakuza” have lent a helping hand distributing food.

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The other day I took an important decision, a life changing decision if the truth be known. It was in the back of my mind for a long time and there had been lots of opportunities to take it of the back burner but I think I was afraid of starting the process of really putting it on the table in order to analyse it. Once I did, as with any decision there were advantages and disadvantages to both of the available options, but in reality nothing that I couldn’t really explore as a viable possibility, and so once I started it was hard to understand why I had taken so long to really look at it. Having said that, the chosen option is very risky.

I don’t know if it was the risk itself or a combination of the risk and the disadvantages that made me avoid considering this decision for so long, my guess is that it was probably the latter. Even so, the risk is frightening. The question is, is the risk manageable or will the fear that comes from it paralyse me? Over these last few days I have thought a lot about this and I have come to realise that not only does this risk and the fear that it creates not paralyse me it is actually making me more creative. In fact over the last few days I have more energy than I have had for a long time. How can this be?

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