Your tribe is simply, and when we think about it in the context of our lives, couldn’t be anything more or less than, the people you spend your time with.
Ubuntu = I am who I am because of [my interaction with] you
The people you interact the most with are the closest members of your tribe.
Communication is much less than 50% spoken language
You are all-ways communicating
Words change lives
All the other communications change lives
There is more of the other communication going on
The other communication creates greater and more profound change because the conscious mind is unaware of it and accepts it without resistance, editing or judgement.
Ubuntu = I am who I am because of the irresistible communication I have with you
Your team at work is in your tribe,
Your clients are in your tribe,
The person you go home to is in your tribe,
I am in your tribe even as you are in mine.
I spend more time with you I bring you closer into my Tribe
I am who I am because of your irresistible communication…
I will become who I will become because of the irresistible communication of my tribe
Are you responsible for your communication?
We cannot not communicate, once you know this, and I just told you, so now you know!
You are responsible!
Are you your tribes keeper?
YES!
The law of unintended consequences, Karma, what you reap you sow, be careful what you ask for, treat others how you wish to be treated, etc, etc, etc.
The language is rich with evidence of tribal responsibilities
Who do you want me to be?
Communicate it and I have no choice!!!
The Secret Thoughts of Chairman Don
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Giving Massive Value
Often I am admonished 'you give too much away for free'. This in no small part to my commitment to Mindstyle being associated with MAD, SICK, Head No Good value for money [My trip to Lambeth council in 2007 is open for argument [by them] I believe they got Exceptional Value]
Would you agree that giving massive value is a good business practice or should we always try and get maximum return on our investments of business resources?
My case is clearly that it is...
"David Ogilvy in the 1960's gave away all the secrets of creating good advertising in an advertising campaign for his agency Ogilvy and Mather, Madison avenue was aghast that he would do such a thing. It paid off for him big time. People absolutely knew that O&M knew what they were talking about ... and beat a path to their door. As far as they knew, the competitors were all out to rip them off. O&M PROVED that they knew what they were talking about, and proof, above all, is what sells." - citation needed
He gave away massive information knowing that few would be able to apply the massive effort required to exploit that information. At the same time he gained massive leverage by letting the world, competitors, clients and potential clients know that he had the knowledge and the capacity for effort required to provide the best service in the world
Knowledge is important
Knowledge is not that important
Knowledge is what to do
Action is essential
Action is proportional to effort
Action is doing it
Effort is the Energy
Effort is the Force
Effort is the cost
Effort is the pain
Leverage is the Magic
Leverage is the Key
Leverage is the Recipe/Formula/Process
"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world." Archimedes [after his travels in Egypt], he taught that by applying a lever, one could lift the heaviest of weights by applying even the weakest of forces.
There is a difference between knowledge, information and leveraging information. Someone once said to me that to know is the key, that’s not quite right, even to use what you know is not quite right… to leverage what you know, that IS the key.
Knowledge is the direction of the force
Action is the application of the force
Effort required is proportional to the length of the lever [the value/ratio of the leverage]
Leverage is proportional to the position of the Fulcrum or balance point of the lever [value of the leverage information]
More Leverage less effort.
One way of increasing leverage is through Branding
Notice the biggest brands spend the most on advertising
Giving Massive value is the best advertising, brand building strategy there is, emphasis on GIVING massive value. a la Michael Jordan who always gave more than was asked of him and reaped the rewards.
Jordan battles flu, to make Jazz sick 'MJ could barely make it off the court after his 38-points.'
Would you agree that giving massive value is a good business practice or should we always try and get maximum return on our investments of business resources?
My case is clearly that it is...
"David Ogilvy in the 1960's gave away all the secrets of creating good advertising in an advertising campaign for his agency Ogilvy and Mather, Madison avenue was aghast that he would do such a thing. It paid off for him big time. People absolutely knew that O&M knew what they were talking about ... and beat a path to their door. As far as they knew, the competitors were all out to rip them off. O&M PROVED that they knew what they were talking about, and proof, above all, is what sells." - citation needed
He gave away massive information knowing that few would be able to apply the massive effort required to exploit that information. At the same time he gained massive leverage by letting the world, competitors, clients and potential clients know that he had the knowledge and the capacity for effort required to provide the best service in the world
Knowledge is important
Knowledge is not that important
Knowledge is what to do
Action is essential
Action is proportional to effort
Action is doing it
Effort is the Energy
Effort is the Force
Effort is the cost
Effort is the pain
Leverage is the Magic
Leverage is the Key
Leverage is the Recipe/Formula/Process
"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world." Archimedes [after his travels in Egypt], he taught that by applying a lever, one could lift the heaviest of weights by applying even the weakest of forces.
There is a difference between knowledge, information and leveraging information. Someone once said to me that to know is the key, that’s not quite right, even to use what you know is not quite right… to leverage what you know, that IS the key.
Knowledge is the direction of the force
Action is the application of the force
Effort required is proportional to the length of the lever [the value/ratio of the leverage]
Leverage is proportional to the position of the Fulcrum or balance point of the lever [value of the leverage information]
More Leverage less effort.
One way of increasing leverage is through Branding
Notice the biggest brands spend the most on advertising
Giving Massive value is the best advertising, brand building strategy there is, emphasis on GIVING massive value. a la Michael Jordan who always gave more than was asked of him and reaped the rewards.
Jordan battles flu, to make Jazz sick 'MJ could barely make it off the court after his 38-points.'
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Women in Leadership
I am learning so much about this Gender thing, it's actually very subtle.
When I talk to women about women in leadership, as well as men...
Very few start from a different position than 'great leaders, lead both men and women'
However things get a little wobbly, for men and women, when we look at the statement
'great women leaders, lead both women and men'
How can you have a really powerful and effective leadership programme for Women,
run by women for women and not informed by any men and vice versa, that then produces great leaders
who are leaders of men and women?
and heaven forbid leaders of men and women working together as complementary equals.
www.athena1.co.uk
The Descent of Woman
When I talk to women about women in leadership, as well as men...
Very few start from a different position than 'great leaders, lead both men and women'
However things get a little wobbly, for men and women, when we look at the statement
'great women leaders, lead both women and men'
How can you have a really powerful and effective leadership programme for Women,
run by women for women and not informed by any men and vice versa, that then produces great leaders
who are leaders of men and women?
and heaven forbid leaders of men and women working together as complementary equals.
www.athena1.co.uk
The Descent of Woman
Friday, July 11, 2008
Zimbabwe? Let it Fall!
One of the GREATEST writers of all time was Frederick Douglas
Who wrote in his book, "What the Black Man Wants". 'Everybody has asked the question. . ."What shall we do with the Negro?" I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with us! If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own strength, if they are worm-eaten at the core, if they are early ripe and disposed to fall, let them fall! I am not for tying or fastening them on the tree in any way, except by nature's plan, and if they will not stay there, let them fall. And if the Negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also. All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! Let him alone!'
So when the West and the United Nations of self interest ask the question "What shall we do with Robert Mugabe" I would say "Let him alone".
Leave Zimbabwe alone and separate:Seperated from Chinese and Russsion Weapons
Seperated from US Oil and Mineral Multinationals
Seperated from foreign aid [I know! what foreign aid?]
Seperated from the paradox of being the wealthiest African Nation in terms of resources and one of the poorest nations in the world in terms of fulfilling it's potential.
Often we must say yes to the tears of the moment so that we may say yes to the laughter of a lifetime.
When you are always having to help someone it is very important to understand how your actions are keeping them helpless.
TOD
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Concentrate Now!
The young take strength from what they imagine in their future. The old take strength from what they remember of their past. The wise understand imagination and memory are illusion and give their strength to the present. - Thoughts of Chairman Don
Sunday, April 27, 2008
John Henrik Clarke - A Great and Mighty Walk
We do not need role models so much as we need identity models... roles are what we do, identity is who we are. Roles are masks, identity is our face. Roles determine our place in society... Identity determines our society. - ToCD
John Henrik Clarke was born January 1, 1915 in Union Springs, Alabama and died July 16, 1998 in New York City. His mother, Willie Ella Mays Clark, was a washerwoman who did laundry for $3 a week. His father was a sharecropper.
Clarke was inspired by his third grade teacher, Ms. Harris, who "convinced me that one day I would be a writer." But before he became a writer he became a voracious reader.
Clarke noticed that although many bible stories "unfolded in Africa...I saw no African people in the printed and illustrated Sunday school lessons," he wrote in 1985. "I began to suspect at this early age that someone had distorted the image of my people. My long search for the true history of African people the world over began."
Clarke committed himself to a lifelong pursuit of factual knowledge about the history of his people and creative application of that knowledge.
Biographical Information and Selected Writings
"What you are calling African history and Negro history is nothing but the missing pages of world history. You will have to know general history to understand these specific aspects of history." - Arthur Schomburg
"History is not everything, but it is a starting point. History is a clock that people use to tell their political and cultural time of day. It is a compass they use to find themselves on the map of human geography. It tells them where they are, but more importantly, what they must be." - JHC
"The main focus of an education for a new reality in the African world must have as its mission the restoration of what slavery and colonialism took away. Slavery and colonialism took from African people their basic culture, their language, their concept of nationhood, their manhood and their womanhood. They mutilated and tried to destroy their traditional culture and reduced Africans to beggars at the cultural and political door of other people while neglecting the job of restoring their own culture, the main thing that could have sustained them." - JHC
"Throughout the whole of the African world most Africans who call themselves civilized, and here I have to question their definition of the term, worship a concept and image of a god assigned to them by a foreigner." - JHC
"Most people in the civilizations of the world generally look at a spiritual deity that resembles themselves, mainly the father in their home, be this right or wrong. Why are we an exception?" - JHC
"It is better to be right and march into Hell, than to follow a bunch of fools into Heaven." - JHC
"There is no way to move any people from a lower to a higher position unless they are willing to accept some form of collective discipline. You can not move an unruly mob into anything but chaos." - JHC
"The past illuminates the present and the present will give us some indication of what the future can be. Education for a new reality in the African world has to be three dimensional in its approach." - JHC
"We must be bold enough to reject such terms as "Black Africa" which presupposes that there is a legitimate, "White Africa." We must reject the term "Negro Africa" and the word "Negro" and all that it implies. This word, like the concept of race and racism, grew out of the European slave trade and the colonial system that followed. It is not an African word and it has no legitimate application to African people." - JHC
"In essence, Pan-Africanism is about the restoration of African people to their proper place in world history." - JHC
"The objective of Pan-Africanism is not only the restoration of land and nationhood: it has as one of its aims the restoration of respect." - JHC
"The present search for the place of African people in world history and the Black Power Revolution that produced the Black and Beautiful concept out of which the Black Studies Revolution emerged, is part of a chain reaction to the absence of African people from the accepted commentaries of world history." - JHC
"In the early development of man, the family was the most important unit in existence. Through the years the importance of this unit has not changed. The first human societies were developed for reasons relating to the needs and survival of the family." - JHC
"When you address a people by their right name that name must relate to land, history and culture." - JHC
"Our culture is in our DNA..Where ever there is African blood, there is a basis for greater unity." His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I
There is no BLACK land ergo BLACK people have no land
There is no BLACK history ergo BLACK people have no history
There is no BLACK culture ergo BLACK people have no culture
BLACK is a colour AFRICA is a Continent
There is AFRICAN land ergo AFRIKAN people have land
There is AFRICAN history ergo AFRIKAN people have history
There is AFRICAN culture ergo AFRIKAN peole have culture
BLACK is a label, AFRIKAN is a name, should you choose to use AFRIKAN as your name you will connect yourself to a land, a history and a culture that is the very wellspring of humanity. -ToCD
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois
Arthur Schomberg
The Arab Slave Trade
Cheikh Anta Diop
"Go study the history of your masters, go study the history of the people who enslaved you. Find out why they found it a necessity to remove an entire people from the respectful commentary of the history of the world." - JHC
"Let us therefore stay the course together as comrades in the common struggle so that we can, together, celebrate the common victory and together, rebuild our continent from the Cape to Cairo, form the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, so that in the end our people can together stride the globe as signified human beings, proud of their antecedents, their colour, their culture, their achievements and their humanity." Nelson Mandela
John Henrik Clarke was born January 1, 1915 in Union Springs, Alabama and died July 16, 1998 in New York City. His mother, Willie Ella Mays Clark, was a washerwoman who did laundry for $3 a week. His father was a sharecropper.
Clarke was inspired by his third grade teacher, Ms. Harris, who "convinced me that one day I would be a writer." But before he became a writer he became a voracious reader.
Clarke noticed that although many bible stories "unfolded in Africa...I saw no African people in the printed and illustrated Sunday school lessons," he wrote in 1985. "I began to suspect at this early age that someone had distorted the image of my people. My long search for the true history of African people the world over began."
Clarke committed himself to a lifelong pursuit of factual knowledge about the history of his people and creative application of that knowledge.
Biographical Information and Selected Writings
"What you are calling African history and Negro history is nothing but the missing pages of world history. You will have to know general history to understand these specific aspects of history." - Arthur Schomburg
"History is not everything, but it is a starting point. History is a clock that people use to tell their political and cultural time of day. It is a compass they use to find themselves on the map of human geography. It tells them where they are, but more importantly, what they must be." - JHC
"The main focus of an education for a new reality in the African world must have as its mission the restoration of what slavery and colonialism took away. Slavery and colonialism took from African people their basic culture, their language, their concept of nationhood, their manhood and their womanhood. They mutilated and tried to destroy their traditional culture and reduced Africans to beggars at the cultural and political door of other people while neglecting the job of restoring their own culture, the main thing that could have sustained them." - JHC
"Throughout the whole of the African world most Africans who call themselves civilized, and here I have to question their definition of the term, worship a concept and image of a god assigned to them by a foreigner." - JHC
"Most people in the civilizations of the world generally look at a spiritual deity that resembles themselves, mainly the father in their home, be this right or wrong. Why are we an exception?" - JHC
"It is better to be right and march into Hell, than to follow a bunch of fools into Heaven." - JHC
"There is no way to move any people from a lower to a higher position unless they are willing to accept some form of collective discipline. You can not move an unruly mob into anything but chaos." - JHC
"The past illuminates the present and the present will give us some indication of what the future can be. Education for a new reality in the African world has to be three dimensional in its approach." - JHC
"We must be bold enough to reject such terms as "Black Africa" which presupposes that there is a legitimate, "White Africa." We must reject the term "Negro Africa" and the word "Negro" and all that it implies. This word, like the concept of race and racism, grew out of the European slave trade and the colonial system that followed. It is not an African word and it has no legitimate application to African people." - JHC
"In essence, Pan-Africanism is about the restoration of African people to their proper place in world history." - JHC
"The objective of Pan-Africanism is not only the restoration of land and nationhood: it has as one of its aims the restoration of respect." - JHC
"The present search for the place of African people in world history and the Black Power Revolution that produced the Black and Beautiful concept out of which the Black Studies Revolution emerged, is part of a chain reaction to the absence of African people from the accepted commentaries of world history." - JHC
"In the early development of man, the family was the most important unit in existence. Through the years the importance of this unit has not changed. The first human societies were developed for reasons relating to the needs and survival of the family." - JHC
"When you address a people by their right name that name must relate to land, history and culture." - JHC
"Our culture is in our DNA..Where ever there is African blood, there is a basis for greater unity." His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I
There is no BLACK land ergo BLACK people have no land
There is no BLACK history ergo BLACK people have no history
There is no BLACK culture ergo BLACK people have no culture
BLACK is a colour AFRICA is a Continent
There is AFRICAN land ergo AFRIKAN people have land
There is AFRICAN history ergo AFRIKAN people have history
There is AFRICAN culture ergo AFRIKAN peole have culture
BLACK is a label, AFRIKAN is a name, should you choose to use AFRIKAN as your name you will connect yourself to a land, a history and a culture that is the very wellspring of humanity. -ToCD
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois
Arthur Schomberg
The Arab Slave Trade
Cheikh Anta Diop
"Go study the history of your masters, go study the history of the people who enslaved you. Find out why they found it a necessity to remove an entire people from the respectful commentary of the history of the world." - JHC
"Let us therefore stay the course together as comrades in the common struggle so that we can, together, celebrate the common victory and together, rebuild our continent from the Cape to Cairo, form the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, so that in the end our people can together stride the globe as signified human beings, proud of their antecedents, their colour, their culture, their achievements and their humanity." Nelson Mandela
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