Today’s second companion is a former CIO who now does various bits of consulting
We talked about the scourge that is Performance Management, and I once again unloaded some of the scars that were left on me in my time at Microsoft at the peak of their forced curve obsession.
We talked about biodiversity as a leading indicator of the planet’s health, and how carbon emissions are a trailing indicator. We then explored the challenges of managing in wicked problem territory and the twin laws of Goodhart and Campbell.
We talked about how traditionally people get more conservative as they get older but that Gen Y appears to be bucking that trend (and how that might relate to the madness of the housing system in the UK).
We then chatted about how difficult it can be to get approval to spend relatively small amounts of money in organisations and I was introduced to the Worthington Ratio which is the relationship between the amount of time a sponsor of an initiative is likely to spend actively involved in their pet project and the numbers of layers of management between them and the people who will actually do the work. This is important when understanding the paradox that at the beginning of a financial year there are always more demands for money than is available but by the end of the year there is always money left to spend.
There was another book recommendation: Thank you for being late by Thomas Friedman. This exercise is going to further add to my To Read backlog, isn’t it?
Finally, there was a delightful idea for a new sort of consulting firm that consists of people under the age of 30, and those over the age of 55. Reverse mentoring and mentoring aplenty, and a kind of Logan’s Run intermission.
You can find out more about #100Coffees, and even sign up yourself, here.
And here is the update for Stats Fans…
mmitII 