LASZLO BOCK = GEORGE S. PATTON

"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity" - General Patton

"If you give people freedom, they will amaze you... all you need do is give them a little infrastructure and a lot of room to change the world" - Laszlo Bock, Google Inc.

"BUT WE'VE ALWAYS DONE IT THIS WAY"

I actually heard a client utter this phrase a couple of weeks ago. She didn't even justify it by adding "and it's always worked...". That's because it clearly wasn't working.

So now you and I can occupy the rational high ground and bask in our superiority.

Why not? We've always done it this way.

MINDFULNESS

There's been a lot of interest in Mindfulness recently - particularly in a work context. In our over-active, western business culture, the focus is on how to do it and what benefits it will bring.

Well the benefits are potentially huge, depending on what benefit you are seeking. And practising Mindfulness is simplicity itself, but not necessarily easy.

The biggest hurdle to Mindfulness, and thereby what makes it so powerful, is that its real focus is not doing what we habitually do, rather than doing something new.

Being rather than doing...

MECHANICS, DYNAMICS & GAFFES

I popped into EIE14 this week to check out the latest offerings form Scotland's Start Up community. I had to endure a couple of after-dinner speeches before 10am which was unwelcome, even though something that Sir Brian Souter (founder of Stagecoach) said, struck a chord.

Having made a slight gaffe with a non PC and non funny joke about mental health, causing a sensitive soul to storm out, he went on to talk about the Mechanics and Dynamics of a business.

The Mechanics being the infrastructure, nuts and bolts, operations and processes of the business; Dynamics being the intangible thrust, ambition, direction and strategy of the business. He made the point that the interaction between the two is critical - it's a balancing act. It reminded me of many fundamental polarities: Yin-Yang, Light-Dark, Good-Bad, Hot-Cold, Male-Female etc. And that neither can exist without the other...