Do you know WHO I AM?

Flying home from Ottawa on Friday evening gave me time to consider my experience while in our nation's capital. The visit was remarkable:

Do you know who I am?

• The RCMP launched a criminal investigation of 'ExpenseGate' (Mike Duffey and the PMO);
• Senator Pamela Wallin faced the media in a CBC interview with Peter Mansbridge;
• Thomas Mulcair, leader of the opposition (NDP), drove through all the stop signs and security gates on the way to his assigned parking stall on parliament hill; and,
• The new CSIS building boogled my fiscal imagination - an amazing show of 'intelligence'.

Being a farm boy, I couldn't help thinking about entitlement. Two questions need to be addressed:

1. Do you know who I am? (Thomas Mulcair to RCMP)
2. Who is entitled?

On the first, if you ask this question of someone, the answer is clear. 

"You my friend, are a self serving, equivocating and perhaps even arrogant person, who believes the rules don't apply because of your station or role."

One can imagine this kind of thinking, would take a person in short order from a place of humility, reason and example, to a place where:

• public funds can be misappropriated;
• covering up and spinning what really happened is okay;
• an expectation that the rules were not meant for you; and,
• fiscal responsibility is for those governed not those governing.

At this point the 'servant leader' dies and an entitled, arrogant, equivocator is born.

On the second question, only one answer makes sense 'those served' are the ones who are entitled. Full stop! 

Citizens, tax payers, clients, employees, members, shareholders and others served, are those who are entitled. They are entitled to truth, transparency, respect, fairness, loyalty and good service. But, we see this is not often the case in government, in business, in education, in security, in religion and in community. 

Why do these elements seem hard to grasp for those who serve? Maybe it's because at one time or another, we all imagined ourselves as a ruler (lessor god), able to command and place those around us under the 'thumb' of authority we envisioned. 

Do we all wish to be king? It seems so. And while some of us give up this fairy tale, others are driven by it. And that is why, in our day and age, we must teach people to be servant leaders.

On Father's day 2013, I pause to reflect on two important questions:

• WHO AM I? 
• WHO DO I WISH TO BE?

Dad - a servant leader

Michael Dubin's New Video - Thinking Naked about #2

At the 'Think Naked' event last week in Calgary, Woodruff Sweitzer showed Dollar Shave Club's video from last year. It's a good example of a small budget production that has gone viral and essentially elevated a new company and concept onto a success track. And it happened in an environment that has been dominated by big budget productions from the likes of Gillette and Axe.

Yesterday Michael Dubin launched Dollar Club's #2 video.

The New York Times asks if a Shaving Company can duplicate the success of the first video. It provides an interesting read and the answer to 'why #2'.

I'm just a farm boy, but I wouldn't bet against this one. I see the elements of another run-away! And if I was the marketing director of a big budget brand company this would give me pause and send me off to review my brand investment strategy.


Branducation:

1. What are the essential elements of a video that will go viral?
2. What is the relationship between budget and a successful production?
3. Will viewership translate into sales for DollarShaveClub?
4. Get 'Naked' and support your answer to question three with no more than 200 compelling words!

Thunder Ridge Run-Aways

Predicting the Future - Understanding Risk and Uncertainty

In his book 'Leaders make the Future', Bob Johansen talks about a VUCA world. A world that is Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous. I thought so much of this book that I made it the 'Summit 2102 Leaders Library' selection. The Summit provided a copy to every delegate. Upon reflection, it seems to me that we need to understand the difference between risk and uncertainty to develop a good strategy for the future.

Nate Silver

Nate Silver in his book The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail - but Some Don't (Penguin, 2012), shows that for the most part, the agencies we trust are either “unable or uninterested in appreciating the distinction between risk and uncertainty.” Silver suggests risk is something that can be calculated. You can put a price on risk. For instance, we often 'price in the risk' we face on a purchase or investment. Some even calculate the 'risk' of winning or losing while they gamble. 

By contrast, Silver shows that uncertainty has become a risk "that is hard" if not impossible to measure with  strict attention to mathematical models and predictive equations. According to Silver, “Risk greases the wheels of a free-market economy; uncertainty grinds them to a halt." In a day and age when marketers are asking us to trust their 'predictive models' and explore 'Big Data' can we be sure this is the path to a sustainable future? 

I think not. Perhaps we've arrived at a time and place where intuition, experience, common sense and the intellectual gifts humans possess may be the tools that prevail. If you have $20 to invest in your future, I suggest reading Silver's book. 

I'm a farm boy and uncertainty has always been part of agriculture. We till the ground and plant the seed but rely on a higher power for the sun and rain. Dealing with uncertainty involves understanding, expectation and faith. It seems to me these elements are states of mind or mindfulness which allow you to separate signals from noise and that is useful as you consider the future.

Thunder Ridge Farming