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
Futurist Marcus Barber will be joining ABC’s Vicki Kerrigan in Darwin for the first of an ongoing discussion about the future this Wednesday. Each week on Wednesday afternoon’s, Vicki and Marcus will discuss the future of something, how we prepare for the future, what the future looks like for some industries and other related futures…
Read More >The panel session at the National Manufacturing Week 2011 went well though with four of us on the panel, time was quite compressed. Some really good thoughts from Phillip Chindamo from AIG, Damon Cantwell from Deloitte and Erol Harvey from Minifab, delightfully chaired by Sandra George from SEBN at the City of Greater Dandenong. Rather…
Read More >On Thursday I’ll be part of the panel that wraps up the National Manufacturing Week 2011 in Melbourne at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre under the theme of Meeting the challenges of the next generation of manufacturing with a focus on Innovation and Sustainability. It should be an interesting chat as we consider what…
Read More >There’s lots to like about borrowing ideas from other areas especially where those ideas can lead to a significant positive shift. In the link below, Zaid Ali Alsagoff an educational blogging specialist highlights why the Finnish Education system stands as a potential model to embrace. And whilst there are examples of this type of thinking…
Read More >Environmental Scanning (ES) is the process of paying attention to the world in which you operate in order to identify and gain a sense of potential signals of change in how your world is developing. When discussing the idea of ‘change’ we need to be clear – a potential signal of change is likely to…
Read More >When it comes to water management, there’s something of potential value that Victoria could learn from Western Australia’s weather given discussions about new dams If you have almost 60 days straight of above 30 degree days with pretty much no rain, how do you fill the dam? Well you don’t but you’ve put all of…
Read More >The natural disasters we’ve seen recently around the world have shown us much about the communities in which they’ve occurred. The images emerging from Japan, New Zealand and Australia as they’ve faced earthquakes, tsumanis, floods and fires stands on stark contrast to the mainstream media stories that suggests people of the world are not willing…
Read More >Hi everyone – a quick note to let you know that our phones lines have been down for a while now and we are working on getting them fixed. Our apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused you. In the meantime, try using either our 1800 number where you can leave a message only…
Read More >ABC journalist Adam Stephen interviews Marcus Barber on the subject of GM foods and whether they might be more widely embraced as part of the global food requirements The interview (about 3& 1/2 mins) is available in MP3 format here and a link to the shorter web article is here. Some key points –…
Read More >South East Business Networks, the City of Greater Dandenong’s longest running business development program, is an exceptional avenue for learning about issues to do with Manufacturing. This week they provided one ‘out of the box’ with an excellent presentation by Professor Goran Roos, a worldclass expert on Manufacturing and currently South Australia’s Thinker in Residence.…
Read More >