I sometimes wonder if we as parents and our schools have gone too far in over-protecting our children, pandering to their whims, and being hell-bent on saving them from accidents or disappointment in their young lives. Remember that old saying from the fairground… “Every Player Wins a Prize!” But should they? We all know that’s not the reality in the real world and we may be risking future emotional harm by trying too hard to smooth out the bumps in the road for our children during their formative years.

Political correctness gone mad and ‘safety first’ may be responsible for breeding a generation lacking in resilience who throw in the towel at the very first falter or knockback. I remember days of falling on the hard ground and skinning my knee; cutting my arm on a nail sticking out of the billycart I and my brother had built; breaking a collar bone in a football tackle; and discovering that what I thought was a ‘best in class’ composition only gaining me a B-.  Yet eventually the knee and the arm healed; the collarbone knitted together and I knuckled down and tried harder on my next classroom assignment.

And yes there was the occasional schoolyard falling out between friends when lunchtime games went awry, but ultimately we sorted things out and made up again the next day without the need for adults to come in and impose their ‘play fair’ rules upon us.

So if you like me, feel that protection pendulum has swung too far in the opposite direction here is a wonderful story about a radical new move to back away from over protection in the schoolyard. It originates from my old home town in Auckland, New Zealand.

I read this story on Australia Day and it is sourced from ONE News in NZ. The headline reads “School Ditches Rules and Loses Bullies.” Now that piqued my interest. Here’s the gist of it…
(Source: Television New Zealand Limited. www.Tvnz.co.nz )

…. “Ripping up the playground rulebook is having incredible effects on children at an Auckland school. Chaos may reign at Swanson Primary School with children climbing trees, riding skateboards and playing bullrush during playtime, but surprisingly the students don’t cause bedlam, the principal says.

The school is actually seeing a drop in bullying, serious injuries and vandalism, while concentration levels in class are increasing. Principal Bruce McLachlan rid the school of playtime rules as part of a successful university experiment.

‘We want kids to be safe and to look after them, but we end up wrapping them in cotton wool when in fact they should be able to fall over. When you look at our playground it looks chaotic. From an adult’s perspective, it looks like kids might get hurt, but they don’t.’

Swanson School signed up to the study by AUT and Otago University just over two years ago, with the aim of encouraging active play. However, the school took the experiment a step further by abandoning the rules completely, much to the horror of some teachers at the time, he said.

When the university study wrapped up at the end of last year the school and researchers were amazed by the results. Mudslides, skateboarding, bullrush and tree climbing kept the children so occupied the school no longer needed a timeout area or as many teachers on patrol.

Instead of a playground, children used their imagination to play in a ‘loose parts pit’ which contained junk such as wood, tyres and an old fire hose. ‘The kids were motivated, busy and engaged. In my experience, the time children get into trouble is when they are not busy, motivated and engaged. It’s during that time they bully other kids, graffiti or wreck things around the school. Parents were happy too because their children were happy,’ Principal McLachlan said.

But this wasn’t a playtime revolution, it was just a return to the days before health and safety policies came to rule.

AUT professor of public health Grant Schofield, who worked on the research project, said there are too many rules in modern playgrounds. ‘The great paradox of cotton-wooling children is it’s more dangerous in the long-run. Society’s obsession with protecting children ignores the benefits of risk-taking,’ he said.

Children develop the frontal lobe of their brain when taking risks, meaning they work out consequences. ‘You can’t teach them that. They have to learn risk on their own terms. It doesn’t develop by watching TV, they have to get out there.’

The research project developed into something bigger when plans to upgrade playgrounds were stopped due to over-zealous safety regulations and costly play equipment. ‘There was so many ridiculous health and safety regulations and the kids thought the static structures of playgrounds were boring.’

When researchers – inspired by their own risk-taking childhoods – decided to give children the freedom to create their own play, principals shook their heads but eventually four Dunedin schools and four West Auckland schools agreed to take on the challenge, including Swanson Primary School.

It was expected the children would be more active, but researchers were amazed by all the behavioural pay-offs. The final results of the study will be collated this year.

In the meantime Professor Schofield is urging other schools to embrace risk-taking….’

Isn’t it about time we took stock of what we are creating in our homes and schoolyards? I am interested in your comments.

Until next time… Let’s seek to understand more and judge less. Have a wonderful week and a prosperous New Year. – Brian

Precision Profiling – What Makes You Tick? Through ‘Motivational Fingerprinting’ we uncover what you do, how you do it and why you do it, and most importantly, the hidden patterns that lead to your success, and that of your staff.

I must admit I got caught out recently when I thought I was doing the right thing by this young tradesman. I needed some landscaping to be completed at the front of my property and it just so happened that at the same time I was considering my options, a young man (around 25 years) happened to drop by with a business card offering to quote me on the job. He had been doing some work in the area and noticed that I had been preparing my front yard for a major facelift. He seemed knowledgeable about his craft (landscaping and concreting) and was personable enough in a rough ‘tradie’ kind of way. Once I had seen his handiwork on some previous jobs, I felt comfortable he could complete the work to an acceptable level, so I decided to give him the opportunity. So far so good…

Given I did not know him personally, I wanted to make sure that I would receive fair value for money so we came to an arrangement that I would pay directly for any of the material needed (machinery hire; sand and soil supply; concrete delivery etc.), and he would charge me at a daily ‘labour-only’ rate for him and his mate which would allow me to keep within the budget I had set aside for the project. He told me in advance what the daily rate for the two of them would be and it seemed reasonable enough so the project commenced with me confident that I had covered all the bases and that we were both on the same page with our mutual expectations.

The first couple of days I needed to be off site in meetings so I didn’t get much opportunity to observe what my contractor and his mate were doing. Each day there was evidence of progress in the right direction albeit slower than I expected, so I assumed that things were on track and I paid him as I had agreed to do at the end of the first two days of work. By day four I was beginning to get concerned that the project did not seem to be progressing as fast as I had hoped but I put that concern down to me not being knowledgeable in the ways of landscaping. Whenever I raised my concerns with my young friend, he assured me that things were progressing well and his super confidence seemed to allay my fears enough for me to question myself and my expectations rather than him and his abilities. By now I felt we were two days behind where we needed to be if I was to keep within my budget, so I decided to remain around for the next day to observe first-hand the work that was being done for me by our landscaper and his helper.

At the end of day five, the penny had dropped for me.

Here’s what I witnessed. The general theme of ‘a days work’ by my young landscaper….

Arrive around 8.30-8.45 am. Take the next half hour preparing site works (i.e. unpack the ‘ute’ while chatting about the night before with his mate). Set tasks for the mate to complete while answering mobile phone calls for another half an hour. Do some work for about an hour before taking a break. Complete the morning break and work for another hour before leaving the site together at around 11.30 am to have lunch. Come back an hour later, and work until around 2.30 pm when it was time to clean up. Leave at around 3.00 pm (sometimes earlier I later discovered) to go and quote on other jobs.

As you (and I) will discover from this scenario, a day of work for two tradesmen consisted of probably only five to five and a half hours of actual work. The rest was made up of late arrival, long meal breaks and early finishes interrupted constantly by mobile phone calls and a lot of watching by the tradie’s mate while the tradie did the skilled work.

That evening I quizzed my young contractor what a ‘fair days work for a fair days pay’ meant to him, and much to my surprise he answered that if he is on site for four hours or less it is charged out at a half day rate, but anything over four hours was a full day regardless of how much time was spent on site working. When I mentioned that it seemed like I was actually paying for a full day for two of them for only 1.5 hours more that his half day rate he shrugged his shoulders and said ‘this was what we agreed on.’

And he was right!

In my eagerness to engage him and cover what I assumed was all the bases, I left out one very important aspect of our communication. At a daily ‘labour-only’ rate – what constituted a days work? I wonder if you have you ever been caught out like this as I was.

And here is the valuable lesson I learned from this recent episode. When giving freedom to people without framework built around that freedom, what you are actually doing is giving them licence not freedom. This is because freedom and autonomy without proper framework takes away accountability, and without accountability freedom for the individual is a fairly hollow experience for all concerned.

This recent experience of mine translates directly across to the workplace, especially with our fast changing workforce where we are attempting to create cultures filled with the young Gen Y whizz-kids of the future whom we want to attract and retain. In our rush to engage with them and their self belief that anything is possible for them (instilled into them via parents; schools and the media), we need to be very careful that we do not give them licence without framework in the name of self determination and autonomy. It is a fine line between the two but it can be a slippery slope if we are not more careful as their employers.

I guess you may be wondering what was the final outcome for my landscaping project? Instead of it being an enjoyable win-win experience for both of us, once my trust had been broken I believe it developed into a lose-lose experience instead. My project took double the expected amount of time to be completed and henceforth my budget blew out significantly, and the extra work that I had agreed my eager landscaper could do once the main project was completed was given to someone else to complete under tighter and more specific guidelines as a result. So my young landscaping friend got less work in the end and I paid more than expected.

Here is an excellent link to a blog written by a young and eager Gen Y achiever Kejia Zhu, an employee of Facebook. He’s a 29 year old guy who was born in China, grew up in the UK and now lives in America. Kejia wrote a blog this week which received a lot of attention worldwide because it speaks to the heart of the overblown expectations of the Gen Y generation and their search for instant success before they reach thirty. In his blog Kejia talks with a fair degree of insight about the value of patience and the wisdom that comes with age and years of experience in a world bludgeoned by stories of overnight fame and success.

When I read what Keija says about his 92 yo grandfather’s achievements and his own new-found insight into the meaning of success, it gives me heart that there is a place in this world for every generation if we are prepared to step back and honour the unique perspective that people of each each decade of learning and discovery brings to the table.

http://kzhu.net/does-life-end-at-35.html

Drop me an email to brian@precisionprofiling.com.au if you would like to discuss further how to create the environment that attracts and retains the young leaders of the future for your organisation.

Until then… Let’s seek to understand more and judge less. Have a great week – Brian

Precision Profiling – What Makes You Tick? Through ‘Motivational Fingerprinting’ we uncover what you do, how you do it and why you do it, and most importantly, the hidden patterns that lead to your success, and that of your team.

Photo Credit – ‘Grandpa stealing wifi for his beloved iPad’  – Keija (@Kzhu)

And where there is an Information Resource Centre where books are borrowed and returned on an ‘honour’ system; where there are no bells or buzzers because the students are responsible for their own time keeping; and where appreciative enquiry, team teaching and collaborative study in an open learning environment is the order of the day. If you remember those old school days between 15 and 18 years of age when you sat in dreary classrooms while the teacher stood at the front and filled you full of information that you had to commit to memory and regurgitate at appropriate times, then it’s time to consider a new form of student utopia.

Because here in Melbourne, Victoria, we have a new style of teaching which goes to the core of what ‘education’ should be all about. If you consider that the word education originates from the Latin root ‘educare’ which means ‘to lead or draw out,’ not ‘to push in’ as most of our educational models of earlier times seem to reflect, you may begin to gain an inkling of what our newest secondary educative model for students from Years 9-12 is aspiring to achieve.

This is no experimental laboratory of learning. It happens to be one of our newest and most ground-breaking educational institutions, in the form of Nossal High School, built and opened as recently as 2010 by our Victorian Government as one of only four unique Selective Entry Schools in the state. Student competition to gain entry to this open learning environment is fierce (likewise the teaching staff), and the high achieving, socially aware and community minded alumni that Nossal is producing is testament to an environment where discussion and debate across a wide range of subjects with a wide range of peers is the norm. Nossal’s truly unique environment gives students the freedom to utilise ‘break out spaces’ around the school during class times, to independently study or meet with teachers for advice and support.

When you walk through the school, you will marvel at the open plan teaching spaces; the light, bright and airy feel to the whole physical environment; the internet cafe style study areas; the whiteboard tabletops for group project brainstorming; the many informal lounge areas for ‘chilling out;’ the casual teachers’ offices furnished with comfortable lounges for students wishing to have ‘one-on-ones’ with their selected teacher; the adaptable physical spaces that convert in a few minutes from auditorium to smaller, more intimate ensemble areas; the breakfast, tea and coffee facilities conveniently located around the common areas for students to avail themselves; and the extremely well equipped specialist teaching facilities.

Whether it be physical education, music, english, the sciences, maths, cooking, drama, languages, humanities or other elective subjects, the student-centric, learning-rich physical facilities are state of the art. The school even has a wonderfully equipped IT resource department that is solely there for students and teachers to leave their computers or other IT paraphernalia for hardware repair or software de-bugging or system set-up as the case may be.

But what is most striking when you explore the community is the quiet confidence of the students actively engaged with teachers and each other in an open learning environment or walking purposefully to their next study elective, ubiquitous iPad in hand, in a respectful atmosphere of collegial enquiry and discovery. When you stop and ask any student at random, what they do for fun outside of ‘classroom’ time, you will invariably hear the answer that ‘the whole experience of learning is fun here’, so the lines are very blurred between what constitutes schoolwork vs free time at Nossal High School.

In the pursuit of individual excellence via an environment that allows students to grow step by step to reach their full potential, not only do students learn from their teachers but also the teachers learn from their students. In the words of Nossal High School’s organisational ethos, “We believe that teachers and students are forces that exist for each other and therefore promote and encourage an environment where both staff and students are treated equally with respect and understanding.”

The school’s curriculum is based on Harvard University psychologist Howard Gardner’s principles of the ‘Five Minds for the Future,’ (Gardner, 2008) and it achieves this through exceptional learning, outstanding teachers, gifted and talented students and an innovative and dynamic adult learning environment. This is a philosophy that future leaders will need to develop certain cognitive abilities, which Gardner defines as the ‘five minds:-’ the disciplined mind; the synthesizing mind; the creative mind; the respectful mind; and the ethical mind. As Nossal High School’s website states, each domain is explored under this framework, so that students gain a high level of analytical thinking in a way that doesn’t limit their learning.

The Disciplined Mind – Individuals will need to be an expert in one area – they will need to develop depth and breadth in specific disciplines.
The Synthesising Mind – Individuals will need to be able to gather together information from disparate sources, find links, transfer and communicate this knowledge.
The Creative Mind - Individuals will be rewarded for being creative – that is the ability to construct a box and think outside of it, and approach problems in unique ways.
The Respectful Mind – The world of today and tomorrow is becoming increasingly diverse. Accordingly it is imperative to respect differences and similarities and promote tolerance and understanding, hence the significance of Physical, Personal and Social learning.
The Ethical Mind - Individuals need to be able to act ethically – that is to think beyond their own self interest and to do what is right under the circumstances.

Even the naming of the school was chosen with much thought invested into the process.

Sir Gustav Nossal is an internationally renowned scientist and a significant figure in Australia’s medical and scientific community. He was Director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (1965-1996), Professor of Medical Biology at the University of Melbourne and President of the Australian Academy of Science.

Gus Nossal has received numerous awards and recognitions throughout his career. He was knighted in 1977 for his ground-breaking work in immunology and made a companion of the Order of Australia in 1989. He was awarded the Albert Einstein World Award of Science in 1990 and in 1996 he won the highly prized Koch Gold Medal for major advances in biomedical science. He has been identified as one of Australia’s national living treasures.

He has been listed in annual Australia Day Honours four times, including as Companion of the Order of Australia in 1989, ‘For services to medicine, to science and to the community,’ and a Centenary Medal Winner, ‘For distinguished service to the study of antibody formation and immunological tolerance’ in 2000, when he was also named Australian of the Year.

It is fitting therefore, that the school is named after Sir Gustav Nossal, such a prominent and inspirational figure who believes in state education and has brought true benefit to the world. He continues to be an active champion of the school and its work, and at the beginning of each year he is an enthusiastic attendee at the opening assembly to present badges to the newest intake of Year 9 students.

The school’s Information Resource Centre, as the educational hub of the school, holds an extensive range of print as well as digital resources to complement the curriculum being delivered at Nossal. The IRC also holds an extensive fiction collection, general non-fiction books as well as audio visual resources and equipment.  The programmes being delivered by the IRC are wide and varied. Complementing the guest speakers and performers who visit the school throughout the year, the Information Resource Centre also runs a range of interesting and exciting programs and competitions for the all-round development of the students.

Given that we live in a cyber-connected world, Nossal High School aims to empower students to become ethical ‘cybercitizens,’ who approach the use of IT and e-learning in a systematic, disciplined and respectful manner. They are encouraged to challenge data and synthesize their findings. As the schools says, ‘A Nossal Cybercitizen knowingly adopts cyber ethical approaches when digitally interacting at local, national, regional and global levels. The overall philosophy is to use e-Learning and ICT to develop responsible, ethical student learning pathways in Virtual Learning Environments, the intranet and the World Wide Web. The digital pathways are to be used to develop logical thinking, problem solving, collaborative techniques, ability to synthesise and creativity in our students.’

Through the use of IT, underpinned by Cyber ethics, the school is challenging the students to become knowledgeable about the nature of information, comfortable with new technology and, able to recognise its relevance and potential. Cyber ethics is defined as the values, beliefs and behaviours needed to ensure safe, responsible and respectful use of digital technology.

This is the future of education that I envisage for our children if we are to create a world that is going to be sustainable for generations to come and where the focus is not purely on growth for growth sake and the insatiable consumption and global inequity that comes from such a single-minded approach to the modern economic reality.

It is fortunate that pockets of our world are now inhabited by educational institutions like Nossal High School. It is my fervent wish that this and others like it will be the model of educational best practice that public and private schools alike will aspire to become, because students that graduate from these secondary schools and on to tertiary study are the leaders we will be looking to in the future. Maybe one day, instead of a handful of secondary schools like Nossal, we will see centres of learning of this ilk spread throughout our communities. I hope so.

What are your thoughts on the future of education? I’d love to read them.

Drop me an email to brian@precisionprofiling.com.au if you would like to discuss further how to select the right people for your roles and how to leverage that knowledge for the benefit of them and your organisation.

Until then… Let’s seek to understand more and judge less. Have a great week – Brian

Precision Profiling – What Makes You Tick? Through ‘Motivational Fingerprinting’ we uncover what you do, how you do it and why you do it, and most importantly, the hidden patterns that lead to your success, and that of your team.

So at last the election is over and we can get on with our lives. We have a new conservative government  and a new Prime Minister, Mr Tony Abbott. Once again I would like to draw your attention to the language used by our outgoing Prime Minister, Mr Kevin Rudd, as he delivered his 30 minute concession speech. From what the pundits are saying, it seems I may not be the only one who wondered whether he had achieved a marvellous victory, rather than a resounding defeat. It seems to me that Mr Rudd was attempting to “reframe” the loss as a victory of sorts, but in my opinion it falls short for a number of reasons.

To begin with I would like to explain what is meant by a ‘reframe’ in the context of communication. It is often used by counsellors, trainers or personal coaches to assist their clients to see their current situation in a different light, so that what they might perceive to be a limiting belief becomes a more positive or empowering belief if viewed in a different context or if  ‘framed differently.’ An apt description might be… “To look at, present, or think of (beliefs, ideas, relationships, etc.) in a new or different way. To change the perspective for the person or people listening.”

So how, in my opinion, did our outgoing Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd get it wrong in his concession speech?

1.    He was speaking in his official capacity as the outgoing Prime Minister to the Australian population at large, not as the Parliamentary Labour Party Leader. But all we heard was the wonderful success that he and his party had achieved in saving some of their Members of Parliament from defeat. Not once during his speech did we hear about the honour it had been for him to serve as his country’s ‘first amongst equals.’ (He even commented that “in a couple more days we might have got there.” Hardly likely given the significant number of seats lost by his outgoing government.)

2.    Once again his language gave away his self-focus. I counted twice the number of personal pronouns used by Mr Rudd (“I, me, and my”) than those used by the incoming Prime Minister, Mr Abbott in his victory speech. Mr Abbott’s speech was focused on the people of Australia and what they deserved from their government in response to the trust they had placed in it through the decisive election result. His was a speech of grace, dignity and humility with a strong reminder of the awesome responsibility that his party had been handed to live up to its promises of good government. By contrast, Mr Rudd’s speech was filled with pride for the campaign accomplishments he had achieved in defeat. (I counted his direct use of the words “I’m proud” on at least five occasions plus numerous other times when his pride was implied due to him proving the pundits wrong, in his opinion. It is interesting to note that when Kevin Rudd was replaced as PM by his own parliamentary party the first time around some three years ago, his resignation speech on the steps of parliament house back then was also filled with all of the achievements he was personally proud of, as if he was keen to remind people of the legacy of his leadership, lest they forget.)

3.    Mr Rudd’s undisguised excitement in being personally re-elected to his own seat, sounded more like the enthusiastic declarations of a first time candidate, than the sober assessment of an outgoing Prime Minister, who had just seen a major clean-out of many valued members of his own parliamentary party. To compound  the self indulgent nature of his ‘personal victory’ Mr Rudd went on to say of his Liberal opponent in his own electorate… “Bill Glasson, eat your heart out.” Hardly what one would call being gracious in victory, and certainly not Prime Ministerial.

4.    Mr Rudd’s list of personal “thank you’s” almost became an extended version of a self indulgent Oscar winning speech (26 and counting). I was beginning to wonder if his local butcher, baker  and candlestick maker were also going to get a mention in the course of his delivery, such was the length of the list of names he had lined up for us to hear about. There is a point beyond which personal acknowledgement of others when in the spotlight  becomes the self indulgent meanderings of someone wishing to milk the moment for all it is worth.

If you think that in writing this post my political bias might be showing, I would like to point out that the Prime Minister who Kevin Rudd replaced from within his own party just a few weeks prior to the election campaign, Ms Julia Gillard, has kept a respectful silence in my opinion, and has shown much dignity in the two comments she has made to her defeated parliamentary colleagues and their successful opponent Mr Abbott and his team (via Twitter) since the election result was handed down. My comments here are based purely on my observations of Mr Rudd’s and Mr Abbott’s respective election night speeches and the indications that show the make-up of each individual from the style and content of their respective communications.

If you would like to form your own judgments on the respective speeches and what they tell us, I recommend that you Google “Mr Kevin Rudd’s concession speech” and “Mr Tony Abbott’s victory speech” for your own perception of the merits and personal focus of each.

And now back to the point of my blog today – the ‘do’s and don’ts’ of a well-formed “reframe.”

I think the above points give a fairly accurate picture of what not to do if you are attempting to ‘reframe’ your audience’s perception of a significant event. Get it wrong, and they not only won’t accept the premise that you are asserting but worse still you may create the opposite effect to what you intend. You certainly won’t be able to effectively re-write history in the eyes of others through the poor use of reframing in your concession speech once the election result has been handed down.

So what are some of the keys to effective ‘reframing?’

1.    Always remember the context in which you find yourself, when you attempt to reframe the significant event, situation or strongly held belief. If you are speaking in the context of a resounding election defeat, it is important to use that context as the foundation for your reframe. To deny it or to refer to it in no more than passing terms, runs the risk of creating a disconnect between what is so, and what you wish others to perceive it to be. Do that and the credibility of your argument is lost on those for whom it is meant.

2.    Always remain acutely aware of the audience for whom your reframed message is meant. It is important to pace the experience of the audience from their point of view in order to gain rapport and therefore their willingness to accept the new ‘frame’ or point of view that you are leading them to consider and accept. For example, if you are speaking to the Australian public at large, then only appealing to the perceptions of a small proportion of that constituency puts you at risk of seriously alienating the rest.

I would love to read your thoughts and comments here now that our election race has been run and the dust is settling.

Drop me an email to brian@precisionprofiling.com.au if you would like to discuss further how to understand the people who work for you and how to leverage that knowledge for the benefit of them and your organisation.

Until then… Let’s seek to understand more and judge less. Have a great week – Brian

Precision Profiling – What Makes You Tick? Through ‘Motivational Fingerprinting’ we uncover what you do, how you do it and why you do it, and most importantly, the hidden patterns that lead to your success, and that of your team.

When it comes to ‘values violators’ you have to draw a line in the sand, regardless of their performance. Jack Welch, ex CEO of General Electric, said it best. To précis him…

… We have four types of executives in our company. Type 1 deliver the results and believe in our values. We hold them up as role models. Type 2 do not meet their commitments nor do they share our values. That’s a no brainer. They need to leave. Type 3 believe in our values but sometimes fall short in their performance commitments. They need to be supported, mentored and coached, and if that fails we need to find the right fit for them. Type 4 deliver short term, measurable results, but without regard to our company values. They are the most difficult to deal with because they ‘bring home the bacon’ while people get hurt in the process. Our decision to remove Type 4 executives was a watershed for our company. Once we took those tough decisions, our message to our people was clear and our culture flourished.

Tip #5

“DRH” or “HRD”?  Which is your focus?

Language is such a powerful tool for understanding and influence, especially in the business of business. For example, imagine you are the manager of “HRD.”  i.e. Human Resource Development. That label says a lot.  Immediately you get the feeling that these people for whom you are responsible are merely ‘resources’ or ‘things’ to be moved around and developed like a master puppeteer. Just like other resources such as raw materials; working capital; or facilities. Just numbers on a page. But they are not. They are your human capital not ‘head-count’ – the most amazing and potentially powerful resource you have. So what if you were to re-title yourself as manager of “DRH”.  i.e. Development of Resourceful Humans. Now where does your focus go? And how might your goals and plans change as a result of being the manager of DRH? That’s food for thought.

Precision Profiling — What Makes You Tick? Revealing the hidden secrets about yourself and your staff that even you didn’t know, and how to leverage what you discover for the benefit of you and your company.