So after over twenty years in our house we are on the move.  It took ages to find a buyer but a few weeks ago we struck a deal and we're on our way in August (fingers crossed).

"It's fine, we'll go into rented for a bit whilst we find somewhere, it'll be straightforward enough".  She said. Yeah right. We had a real family day yesterday packing up the kitchen, not all of it as we'll need some stuff until we go ...... six full - big packing cases later! The family were frazzled and tired (well I was OK as I'd been in meetings all day away) and there was a car load for the charity shop and a 'layer of stuff' in the bottom of the skip. What's it going to be like when we get to the loft!?

It got me thinking, what it would be like if businesses did this on a regular basis and maybe countries?

When I worked at ASDA, Archie Norman arranged a 'clear out day' and everyone had to clear their office cupboards, files, desks and what not.  All 2000 people in the dream factory had to get involved. We had a line of skips right across the car park and got rid of tons and tons (literally) of 'crap'. It was hard work but amazing and created a real buzz with all the teams around HQ.  It also made us a lot more efficient. For a while at least.

So, what about UK plc?  We have this confounded coalition, which sounded cool but hasn't been that good overall.  They've reneged on various promises and spent too much time dealing with the inevitable squabbles.  There's an election next year, so why don't we encourage the politicians to throw out their crap, become more efficient (for a while at least) and maybe then they'll be worth voting for?

Everyone get involved. Chuck out your crap ................... it's great!

I heard a little lad say to his Dad the other day, "when will it get warm again Dad" - we've had a few days of cold-ish weather and the poor little fella has already had enough.  You can't blame him, he's not been around that long and has eternal summer on his mind.  It reminded me of a conversation I had with some really bright business people at the Yorkshire Board Dinner at Rudding Park (it's how I roll) a while ago.  Their general view was that economic activity wont get back to pre-recession levels until 2018.  So, that's five years, on top of the two or three years we've already served then...... Happy days people, happy days.  For what its worth I agree, its going to take a fair while to 'grind' through the Euro-zone crisis, not to mention our own joyful relationship with British based banks as Joe Public is the proud owner of a number of blue chip banks or the American economy (aaaargh!).  When you add in domestic consumer debt then you have a winning hand in the game of 'slow down the economy' whilst we 'pay off our bar bill'.  Depressing isn't it?  Well no, not really its just the reality we all have to deal with (check out 'we are where we are').  We can't wish it away, so we have to deal with it.  I get around talking to all sorts of people - some money types, some on the ground types and I'm always impressed with our general ability to adapt....... Humans are quite cool gadgets really and they can handle an amazing amount of pressure and change whilst still coming up smiling. The public sector strikes wont help, even if gold plated pensions are under threat - we'd be better focusing on doing our jobs, getting our heads down - pulling together (yes, I said pulling together, how about that for a concept) and grinding our way through this.  Come on Yorkshire, lets lead the way!

So, over thirty years ago, on 10th October 1980, Lady Thatcher, as she's now known uttered those immortal words; "to those waiting with bated breath for that favourite media catchphrase the U-turn, I have only one thing to say: You turn if you want to. The Lady's not for turning".  She was referring to some discontent in the ranks about inflation policy, during some very tough times.  That one statement seems to have galvanised generations of politicians and leaders to 'stick to their guns' regardless of the pressure they get from the opposition.  Great! I say, because one of the things I really like is clear, strong leadership.  I said in my blog on 17th July last year "John Major, the grey man – couldn’t do anything and didn’t – what’s the point of a do nothing Government?".  But ......... is a U turn all bad?  I listened with interest as politicians recently took a battering from all comers for creating a 'pause for reflection' on NHS reforms and in the last few days a change of position on the defence budget.  The pundits and politicians have been chewing David Cameron's legs over these and other issues and, yes it can be seen as indecision, but it can also be seen as a more inclusive way of governing.  Why is it immediately seen a weakness when extra consultation is added in, as a consequence of significant new information or a wave of 'feedback'?  Amongst other things I currently chair a board of senior level and quite diverse directors and I'm sure if you were to ask them, they would tell you that I get very annoyed if there is an attempt to pick over the bones of a recent decision reached by the board after due consideration etc.  However, we live in a dynamic world and if things have really changed or we have learned something new, whether that's from Colleague feedback or whatever, I am always happy to encourage a review of that decision with a view to doing a  spot of 'continuous improvement'.  If that's OK for business, why isn't it OK for politics?  I don't think that everybody doing U-turns all the time, everywhere, is at all healthy (no one would have a clue what they, or anyone else was doing for a start!) but I am a bit more sympathetic to U-turns these days, it's kind of ......... adult.​

Recently I’ve been thinking about how people and organisations take decisions (I have my reasons……. oh yes indeedy).  As I ‘row my little boat around the big pond of business’, trying to keep it afloat whilst battling to get to the other shore (I know, I know – metaphor fatigue alert) these things called decisions ‘come up’ and I find it really interesting to see how people handle them.  Howard Raiffa’s views (he’s a Harvard dude) on this are summarised, quite neatly by Sean Silverthorne in his Blog post ‘Avoid Four Deadly Traps in Decision Making’.  Howard talks about ‘Anchoring’ (relying on your first thoughts), ‘Status-Quo’ (carry on carrying on), ‘Confirming Evidence’ (see what you want to see) and ‘Framing’ (coming at it from the wrong angle – either by accident, which is dumb, or by design which is plain old manipulative).  I see these approaches in use quite often; you know who you are, put that business case down!   Also, somebody once told me that humans are ‘hard wired’ to use the ‘Ready, Fire, Aim’ decision making process.  People are actually pretty clever machines building up a knowledge bank of experiences, insights, ideas and beliefs as they grow up and when it is called on to make a decision the human mind is very quick at matching that situation with its data bank of other stuff.  This is because people were originally ‘hunter-gatherers’ and occasionally became the hunted giving us that useful ‘fight or flight’ thing and so when something stressful happens our reactions are often automatic.  That way, you can save yourself from being eaten up by a nasty old sabre toothed tiger, but the trouble is, there aren’t that many sabre-toothed tigers around the typical office (there are a fair few sharks, some ostriches and even a few kangaroos though); so people are making decisions about hiring, firing, wiring and aspiring (see what I did there?) before they have got all the facts, you see? – ‘Ready, Fire, aim’, get it?
 
Go to: 'Avoid Four Deadly Traps in Decision Making'