Futurist calls 2011: International Year of Solutions
Reckon it’s time we had a focus on getting things done and so I am declaring 2011 to be the ‘International Year of Solutions’. Seems to me that a lot of talk fests have been gobbling up the neuronal space for a few years now with insufficient ACTION being generated – just lot of promises to consider a possibility for a meeting to be considered to discuss a problem! Additionally there’s been lots of grumbling by many people that ‘nothing is being done about…(insert own issues here)’. BUT (and it is a mighty large one) too often almost NO solutions are offered. The talk fests and the grumbling then is nothing more than complaining. No actions, just moaning and whingeing. So time has come for action in this the International Year of Solutions. You can still complain – in fact in 2011 you are encouraged to complain more than you ever have before, and there are some simple guidelines to connect your complaints to action…
1. Complaints are still valid ONLY if connected to at LEAST one potential solution
2. Complaints are encouraged – you should not put up with poor services, products or unacceptable situations. Take the personal responsibility to raise your complaint following guideline one above and preferably, guideline three below
3. Ideally there should be at least 3 alternative solutions offered. Asking for more of the same thing or a faster or bigger delivery of the same thing is still asking for the same thing. This shall not be regarded as a legitimate alternative solution
4. Suggesting a solution does not mean that solution should be automatically accepted by another party. However, in absence of a better alternative YOUR solution should be enacted to solve the issue. That puts the onus on the recipient of your suggestion (preferably the person in charge of the ‘problem’ you have) to come up with an alternative or explain what is preventing your solution from being enacted in order to resolve your complaint or problem.
A tip for journalists during the 2011 International Year of Solutions – make the complainer accountable for suggesting solutions to their complaint. When listening to a politician, consumer, business owner or some other party make some statement of complaint or claim of an intolerable situation you should ask the following three questions a) ‘and what is your first suggested solution to this issue?’; b) and what is your first alternative to your own solution?; and c) ‘if neither of those things can be done, what other suggestion(s) do you have?’ That should get people on coming up with answers to problems rather than mere complaints about problems.
I’m going to start the year off by fulfilling my promise to the road toll operator ConnectEast regarding their interesting approach to ‘customer service’. I’ll highlight the problem and then offer some solutions – stay tuned
Or so it may seem. This quarter has seen me interstate facilitating some strategic planning workshops; overseas working with an established Government client, working with CGD, SELLEN, and Hilton Manufacturing among others here in Oz, a couple of weeks holiday down in Tasmania, and also the occasional radio interview looking at the ‘Future of…’. And…
Read More >Some thoughts flowing from my session discussing challenges in Futures Consulting posted by James Balzer: I’d explained to the group that what I do is engage employees in thinking about their own and their organisation’s future potential. My strong view over twenty years of work in this space is that employee engagement is DIRECTLY driven…
Read More >Tomorrow morning (Friday the 12th) I’ll be joining Elizabeth Kulas on Disrupt Radio discussing the Future Of Workplaces. There’ll be a particular focus on why most organisations choose to struggle because they rely on outdated models of employee management. A 7.15am kick-off where, in about 7 minutes or so, I’ll try to distill 20 years…
Read More >It’s extremely rare that I post to a specific article and say ‘go read this’, which is what I’m doing today. This article on goal directed intelligence at a micro level is a challenge to read. And I do recommend you read it because it pushes forward our understanding of how our biology and arguably…
Read More >If you followed my numerous posts over the years you know I like jumping in early on new products or services – not all have been successful, especially on Kickstarter and Indiegogo, but you roll the dice sometimes and see what happens. Over the years Looking Up Feeling Good was an early community investor in…
Read More >In the 1760s Josiah Wedgwood changed forever the nature of workplaces. He expanded his pottery business and constructed a new large scale factory that required two critical elements: a) Systemisation of processes to ensure consistent high-quality outcomes b) Skilled workers on site The systemisation required experimentation, observation, trials, failures and recording of data – what…
Read More >We’re delighted to announce that Neuro-Psychologist Dr. Kim Hazendonk of Positive Brain has accepted our offer to join our elite speaker’s group. We’re looking forward to bringing her to more groups across Australasia as she discusses effective workplaces, positive mind management, and managing busy lives. If you have a need for an engaging and passionate…
Read More >I flag my bias towards the need for a vastly improved approach to managing staff in the work environments. V A S T L Y improved. I’m still surprised at how clunky, disorganised or naive some senior managers are when it comes to that part of the business that considers ‘people’. And rather than cover…
Read More >An interesting public workshop in Perth in the first week of October introducing a varied group to the Organisational Evolution model. The Org-Ev is the model I developed for the start up of The Australian Strategic Planning Institute in conjunction with Steven Bowman. Given the diversity of the group, there were a number of surprises…
Read More >A note for those of you in Perth that there are just 4 spaces left for the Introduction to the Organisational Evolution Model workshop at Adina Apartments in Perth. The Org Ev model has been designed to enhance Strategic Planning and decision making and this introductory workshop is aimed at those looking to attend the…
Read More >