Events
Futurist calls 2011: International Year of Solutions
Monday 20 December 2010
Reckon it's time we had a focus on getting things done and so I am declaring 2011 to be the 'International Year of Solutions'. Seems to me that a lot of talk fests have been gobbling up the neuronal space for a few years now with insufficient ACTION being generated - just lot of promises to consider a possibility for a meeting to be considered to discuss a problem! Additionally there's been lots of grumbling by many people that 'nothing is being done about...(insert own issues here)'. BUT (and it is a mighty large one) too often almost NO solutions are offered. The talk fests and the grumbling then is nothing more than complaining. No actions, just moaning and whingeing. So time has come for action in this the International Year of Solutions. You can still complain - in fact in 2011 you are encouraged to complain more than you ever have before, and there are some simple guidelines to connect your complaints to action...
1. Complaints are still valid ONLY if connected to at LEAST one potential solution
2. Complaints are encouraged - you should not put up with poor services, products or unacceptable situations. Take the personal responsibility to raise your complaint following guideline one above and preferably, guideline three below
3. Ideally there should be at least 3 alternative solutions offered. Asking for more of the same thing or a faster or bigger delivery of the same thing is still asking for the same thing. This shall not be regarded as a legitimate alternative solution
4. Suggesting a solution does not mean that solution should be automatically accepted by another party. However, in absence of a better alternative YOUR solution should be enacted to solve the issue. That puts the onus on the recipient of your suggestion (preferably the person in charge of the 'problem' you have) to come up with an alternative or explain what is preventing your solution from being enacted in order to resolve your complaint or problem.
A tip for journalists during the 2011 International Year of Solutions - make the complainer accountable for suggesting solutions to their complaint. When listening to a politician, consumer, business owner or some other party make some statement of complaint or claim of an intolerable situation you should ask the following three questions a) 'and what is your first suggested solution to this issue?'; b) and what is your first alternative to your own solution?; and c) 'if neither of those things can be done, what other suggestion(s) do you have?' That should get people on coming up with answers to problems rather than mere complaints about problems.
I'm going to start the year off by fulfilling my promise to the road toll operator ConnectEast regarding their interesting approach to 'customer service'. I'll highlight the problem and then offer some solutions - stay tuned
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Events
Tuesday 8 May 2012
Have just spent a few hours discussing the Future of Money, hosted by James Bibby at Microsoft in Sydney and facilitated by Peter Vander Auwera from SWIFT/Innotribe. I'd like to flag that everyone understood that the session was way too short for such a big topic and everyone would agree that we just scratched the surface (not that the scratch would leave too much of a mark just yet). The session was a kick start for a group from a wide variety of interests: banks, payment providers' IT specialists and some specialty consultancies.
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Wednesday 2 May 2012
Ernst & Young and GreenBiz have completed a survey of business executives looking at the development of Corporate Sustainability around the world. The report shows that there has been a clear rise in awareness; that employees are a core source driving sustainability actions; that reduction of costs is a core appeal and that return on investment in sustainability actions is required to be judged in the same way as other corporate investments. For me this poses a dichotomy of thinking - the environment was built up over millennia and our use of it has taken just a couple of centuries yet we judge sustainability actions at the same 'speed of delivery' criteria. That poses a challenge and is perhaps an unrealistic set of expectations.
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Tuesday 24 April 2012
On the eve of ANZAC day here in Australia ABC Radio Darwin's Vicki Kerrigan chats with futurist Marcus Barber on the future of war - what the future triggers of war might be and how war will be fought
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