July 7th, 2009
Talking of fences, this email story has been doing the rounds recently.
While stitching up the hand of a 75 year old Devon farmer, who cut it on a gate while working cattle, the rural doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to Gordon Brown and his appointment as Prime Minister.
“Well, you know,” drawled the old farmer, “this Brown fellow is what they call a fencepost tortoise.”
Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a fencepost tortoise was.
The old farmer said, “When you’re driving along a country road and you come across a fence post with a tortoise balanced on top, that’s called a fencepost tortoise.”
The old farmer saw a puzzled look on the doctor’s face, so he continued to explain, “You know he didn’t get up there by himself, he definitely doesn’t belong up there, he doesn’t know what to do while he is up there, and you just have to wonder what kind of idiot put him up there in the first place.”
May 20th, 2009
The recent turmoil in parliament brings to the fore once more what happens when leadership is out of balance.
Why is leadership crumbling? What can be done to get us out of this mess? In our work with organisations we often analyse what is happening around the triangle of Purpose, Talent and Organisation.
A good leadership team and a good leader in particular, will focus on all three points of the triangle. If they fail to do that, then the triangle collapses and we get into the mess we are in now.
Gordon Brown has failed to pay sufficient attention to all three points on the triangle. What is behind each of them?
Purpose: aims and objectives, values, strategic intent, philosophy, ethics
Talent: the talent that is available in pursuit of purpose; need to measure the quality and develop it
Organisation: the policies, practices, procedures, structures and roles; they are the glue that holds together purpose and the talent
When the triangle is out of balance we have a problem. If you don’t pay attention to all three points, the whole thing will collapse. And confidence in parliament – and its leadership – has collapsed.
