In the final rehearsal for a concert last Saturday, the choir sang the most challenging and beautiful piece. We all knew that we did not give a good account: voices were nowhere near together; crucial entries were missed. At the end, the conductor talked about a couple of specific points of tempo and dynamics. He said nothing about the ensemble or the errors.
The performance later that evening was superb. The conductor had understood that he did not need to say anything: his choir would recognise the major shortcomings, and sort it out for themselves. A lesson in conducting, and in situational leadership.
In all the conversations about Manchester United’s manager and their disenchanted player Wayne Rooney (Rooney wants to leave, manager Ferguson feels betrayed) there’s a little snippet that hasn’t got much attention. Apparently as the story started to get very public, Rooney was injured on the training field – had to be carried off on a stretcher – after a ‘tackle’ by fellow player Paul Scholes. I’m sure the fact that Scholes is a revered and passionate player at the heart of the team who has played for Man Utd for most of his career, was just one of those amazing coincidences, and tells us nothing about the strength of feeling in the rest of the team …
picture: Dan Zen
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is full of outstanding musicians. Watching them play, I realise that a distinctive common feature of the players is that their beautiful sound, virtuoso dexterity and sheer musicianship, are executed in almost complete stillness. Watch the first horn play a difficult line, and the only detectable movement is from the three fingers that touch the keys. Excellence does not need showmanship. Sometimes excellence demands stillness.
picture: digitalART2
I’m following a particular development in direct mail which could be very important to its future. I’m talking to people about it, and trying to stay in touch with what’s happening. That means I’m talking to other stakeholders too, and some of them might be people I would work with, or recommend to others. One of those stakeholders has emailed me a few times in the last couple of months. The last email was from a ‘business development manager’, who asks me “by return”, to indicate “whether I would be interested in a quotation…or would like to be removed from the mailing list”.
It must be nice in your job sir, where the world breaks so clearly into ‘those who would like to buy from me now’ and ‘everyone else that I can wave goodbye to forever’.
Picture: Binary Birds on Wires by Third This
Met an ex-colleague yesterday. An unexpected pleasure, and a quick catch-up. She has been working for the same company for the last twelve years. It would be fair to say the company has been successful in this time. The company has decided to shut its UK operation, and she is being made redundant along with all other staff.
The redundancy package is exactly the legal minimum, which is a fixed, and relatively small, amount of money for each year of employment, and in her case is equivalent to little more than one month’s salary.
Then, just before the notice period was due to begin, head office asked her to take on a new project, as there was noone else available with the appropriate skills or experience.
Aside from the rights and wrongs, there will be a lot of people – like me – whose picture of this well-known and hitherto well-respected company, will be completely altered by the story we hear from people we know and trust. The company’s reputation in this country is toast, and it really would _not_ have cost a lot of money to have prevented that happening.
picture: net_efekt
Watching – and sharing – the anger at the abuse of privilege shown by the UK’s MPs, it’s remarkable how much time it’s taken for any of the main party leaders to take a credible position. Today, as the second set of details of his members’ expenses are made public, the leader of the opposition has declared that he will consider imposing penalties on his party. Meanwhile the Prime Minister has finally managed to say sorry, but has made no public statement about restitution or punishment.
At the moment, the leadership opportunity is to mitigate and minimise damage. Whilst Gordon Brown lurks, not just his party’s, but parliament’s reputation continues to freefall.
picture: OakleyOriginals
Fascinating to watch the director Danny Boyle on television coverage of the BAFTAs last night. He was gloriously happy when his colleagues won awards. He was anxious and eager for them to speak well and say the right thing in their acceptance speeches. There was not a single moment where you could see him thinking about himself or about his own chances of an award. Then listen to the humility and humanity of his own accpetance speech.
One of his colleagues, the production designer I think, said of him that ‘he pushes me forward, and he trusts’.
Sounds like a great leader.
photo: marioladeira
Attended a briefing session yesterday from the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Not only was the content fascinating, it was also interesting to listen to the language being used.
One initiative in development, Utopia, is actually an exercise in the management of the complete customer lifecycle (the Chief Exec calls it the ‘patient experience’, and acknowledge that they are at the ‘foothills’ of this approach).
They are developing a programme of ‘Evidence Based Design’ which will involve patients in the re-design of the way care is provided.
There is acute awareness of the challenges of the marketplace which has been created by the changes in funding and oversight of the health service.
It’s a hugely complex organisation, with 700,000 patients / customers a year. And it’s starting to talk about the patients’ perspective, and how to incorporate that into service delivery. For an organisation whose processes were mostly built in the 1940s, it’s impressive stuff. What are you doing at your company?
photo: Frank C Muller
Attended a presentation last Thursday evening by key players in the campaign for Thomson Holidays that won the Business Performance Awards from the Institute of Direct Marketing.
Brilliant work. A great example of the kind of creativity, precision and skill that I want to deliver too. Hats off to the client and to their agencies WDMP and Creatormail.
Also learned something acutely depressing. It appears that the same agency is behind the excellent work for Carphone Warehouse that created highly personalised – and effective – welcome books and upgrade packs.
So three examples in the UK where data, creativity and technology have brought fantastic direct marketing results (the third is the TUI travel ticket book, now copied by Thomas Cook too) – are all from the same agency. I asked the guys what they thought was stopping anyone else doing this kind of work.
Their answer was that clients were afraid.
If that’s true, then we’re all falling down on the job. Or, maybe, from the ‘glass-half-full’ view of the world, there’s a huge opportunity out there.
Photo by Terry Goss
John McCain has impressed even more in defeat than in the contest. I thought the manner of his choice of a vice-president was a sign of good leadership (and even though he turns out to have been wrong, that was not the reason he lost). Now his heartfelt endorsement of his former adversary, and his honest wish that everyone works together with the new president, show true leadership.
In the final rehearsal for a concert last Saturday, the choir sang the most challenging and beautiful piece. We all knew that we did not give a good account: voices were nowhere near together; crucial entries were missed. At the end, the conductor talked about a couple of specific points of tempo and dynamics. He said nothing about the ensemble or the errors.
