Face Reality
Exploit the new realities.
Today’s new realities fit neither the assumption of the Left not those of the Right. They don’t mesh at all with “what everybody know.” They differ even more from what everybody, regardless of political persuasion, still believes reality to be. “What is” differs totally from what both the Right and the Left believe “ought to be.” The greatest and most dangerous turbulence today results from the collision between the delusions of the decision makers – whether in governments, in the top managements of businesses, or in union leadership – and the realities.
But a time of turbulence is also one of great opportunity for those who can understand, accept, and exploit the new realities. One constant theme is, therefore, the need for the decision maker in the individual enterprise to face up to reality and resist the temptation of what “everybody knows,” the temptations of the certainties of yesterday, which are about to become the deleterious superstitions of tomorrow. To manage in turbulent times, therefore, means to face up to the new realities. It means starting with the question: “What is the world really like?” rather than with the assertions and assumptions that made sense only a few years ago.
ACTION POINT: List three new opportunities created by demographic shifts – changes in the composition of the population and workforce – and the shift from national to regional to transnational economies. Pursue them.
The Management Revolution
What matters is the productivity of non manual worker.
In 1881, an American, Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856 – 1915), first applied knowledge to the study of work, the analysis of work, and the engineering of work. This led to the productivity revolution. The Productivity Revolution has become a victim of its own success. From now on, what matters is the productivity of non manual workers. And that requires applying knowledge to knowledge.
But knowledge is now also being applies systematically and purposefully to define what new knowledge is needed whether it is feasible, and what has to be done to make knowledge effective. It is being applied, in other words, to systematic innovation. This third change in the dynamics of knowledge can be called the Management Revolution. Supplying knowledge to find out how existing knowledge can best be applied to produce results is, in effect, what we mean by management.
ACTION POINT: What results are you being paid to achieve? List three tasks that you should eliminate to be productive.
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The problem of how we finance the welfare state should not obscure a separate issue:
if each person thinks he has an inalienable right to welfare,
no matter what happens to the world,
that’s not equity,
it’s just creating a society where you can’t ask anything of people.
Jacques Delors
When the question arose whether I, as a member of the royal family,
should take part in active combat in the Falklands,
there was no question in her mind, and it only took her two days to sort the issue.
Prince Andrew
I just think people should find the music that helps them through the day and enjoy that.
I’ve never felt like, if somebody does or doesn’t like what I’m doing, it’s a morality issue.
Amy Grant
Regardless of the moral issue, dishonesty in advertising has proved very unprofitable.
Leo Burnett
My issue in the past with nudity was that these scenes had been written solely for box office draw.
Neve Campbell
What do I care about Jupiter? Justice is a human issue, and I do not need a god to teach it to me.
Jean-Paul Sartre
I believe that the issue of mental health services for our troops deploying or returning from combat is one that demands the attention of this body,
if only for a few minutes today.
Rosa DeLauro
Happiness, contentment, the health and growth of the soul,
depend, as men have proved over and over again,
upon some simple issue, some single turning of the soul.
George A. Smith
Clearly, border security has been the top domestic issue of the year, and rightly so.
Securing our borders is an essential aspect of our national security.
Randy Neugebauer
TIA was being used by real users, working on real data – foreign data.
Data where privacy is not an issue.
John Poindexter
Gun crime is a major cause of fear and distress throughout the UK.
The problem is deeply entrenched in a wide range of social and cultural factors and therefore not an isolated issue.
Diane Abbott
Gayness is a non-issue.
Sandra Bernhard
See, to me, rock’n’roll doesn’t have any point.
It’s just fun.
It has a million different angles and they’re all valid.
But I think rock might be a world issue.
Evan Dando
I extend that to the abortion issue,
I extend that to the so-called gay rights issue,
I think this is a freedom principle and consistent with the analysis in the economic area as well.
William Weld
Address these environmental issues and you will address every issue known to man.
And we keep dabbling in things that aren’t really that important in the long term.
Ted Danson
Everything in our foreign and domestic policy is a question of issue for the American people to vote on.
John Dingell