Planes have been in the news recently with the exhibition at Tate Britain (which is even more impressive in reality).

In this photo (with a great headline from The Sun), we see one member of a team of two with total focus, flying low through a valley. Meanwhile, the other is (for that moment) able to relax.

Managing the pace of work is a key element of what it means to be part of a team that is on the front foot.

See this on getting the balance right here.

On the train.

I see an old contact.

Maybe he could become a new client.

I think of approaching him.

Then he puts his feet on the seats, and starts moving in ways that disturb those around him.

And begins eating an unbelievably smelly item of food. 

I decide to leave it.

We all choose who we work with?  Do we choose well?  Are these valid reasons?

Are you good at spotting trends?

Being perceptive in seeing new things take shape - shifts in behaviour, changes in consumption, altering of attitudes – is a useful skill. And might make you more interesting at dinner parties. So it’s worth practicing.

Here’s a trend to get started on. Have you noticed that, for about a year, men in high-end fashion shoots have frequently had a hair parting and semi-slicked down hair?  More widely, however, male fashion still includes the long-standing slightly scruffed up look and, recently, use of a beard. 

Watch to see when (and if) the parting goes mainstream outside of the fashion shoot. You’ll see (in London) a few more younger men with the parted look.  Try counting… 

And see this for a bit on the theory of fashion.

On the train.

A loud voice.

“You haven’t got enough on him.

He is crap.

Double his targets.

Make him get another job.

Gradually get him out.

You have been too nice for too long.

I will phone her to try and sort this out.

I won’t charge you.

I want something else.

I want your HR work.

I WANT YOUR HR WORK”

Laughter of disbelief throughout carriage.

In 1513, Niccolò Machiavelli wrote his best-known work, Il Principe (The Prince), as advice to any in the ruling classes who wanted to gain or maintain power and also attain glory.

He describes what he has seen in his political life as the necessary things a prince must do – in essence combining the guile of the fox with the force of the lion.

Subsequently, the use of his name has had very negative connotations. Most people would not relish being called “Machiavellian”. But his thinking has been very influential in shaping our history – and in many good ways. It helped stimulate liberal political philosophy to advocate positive change for the citizen, promoted the supremacy of civil rather than religious or monarchical power and stressed the ideals of honesty, hard work and people’s responsibility to their communities. Like Kafka and Freud, the adjective derived from his name paints just a narrow idea of what he had to say. So his reputation is rather ill-deserved.

While The Prince is not meant to be a moral guide for the day-to-day living of the average Joe Bloggs, it nonetheless has ideas in it which we can all learn from. So, for example, he tells us that Fortune is the force that can always crush you. “Extremima malignita” or pure misfortune can be just around the corner. The results of the current economic conditions might feel like that to some. What seemed certain is no longer so.

How can you defend yourself against what might happen? Machiavelli says that you should try to “master Fortune”. To paraphrase, as they might say in the US, you should try to “get lucky”. How do you do that? You have to take action: “It is better to have acted and regretted than not to have acted and regretted”. In doing so, “Fortes fortuna adiuvat” – fortune favours the brave (here he borrows from Levy the Roman historian).

Maybe now is the time to act. What steps can you take?

Recognise the brands?

Which ones?

Nike and….?

And….?

Yup, Speedo.

What are the emblems for your organisation that capture what you do – and declare your promise?

We like the quote from Pascal, paraphrased as: ”I have written you a long letter as I didn’t have time to write you a short one.”

We like these headlines too – showing the power of simplicity and playfulness in The Sun.

All of which takes time (and effort and skill).

Consultants are much in the news at the moment – and it’s not a good press they are receiving.

We define a consultant as someone who provides guidance and advice, often at a strategic level – in contrast to trainers, researchers, lawyers, facilitators, accountants.

A few have mentioned this early article of ours from 2006.  In it, we share some lessons for a DIY approach to consulting. 

Enjoy!

Creativity is wanted. Actually, we are told it is essential. The changes needed in the British economy need fresh thinking. 

Broadly, there are two sorts of creative people. 

You have the ‘Deep Creatives’: the artists, the ideas people, the inspirers. Often brilliant and counter-intuitive, these thinkers are helpful in reframing an issue or imagining a totally new product. They write, they talk. 

On the other hand, the ‘Process Creatives’ are those that help individuals and groups think more widely, clearly and imaginatively, drawing on methods such as the lateral thinking tools of Edward De Bono or techniques for facilitated meetings. 

Comparing the two, there is a critical insight: one’s own ideas are ‘owned ideas’. Without that ownership, you can’t overcome the subsequent challenge of putting innovation into practice, of getting from inspiration to implementation. 

Advice from the outside has its place. But the aim of this should be to involve all – and not just the few - in creative thinking that routinely and regularly makes a difference to what gets done.

David Byrne of Talking Heads has become an unlikely advocate of PowerPoint as a creative tool for getting your ideas across.

Now established beyond the popular music world into writing, theatre and film, he also produces art with a .PPT file extension!

Having thought it a limited and ‘corporate’ tool to start with, experimentation has enabled him to create rich and interactive images.

So maybe it’s time to take a stand against the backlash on PowerPoint slideware (or Keynote or whatever) which has been going on for a couple of years at least.

Why do so many people rush to join the condemnation of an efficient tool for conveying complex ideas? Why not also have a backlash against the novel in book form? After all, that’s another highly formulaic medium where information is carried in a fundamentally limited way – using only the power of narrative – and it has many drawbacks.

There are rubbish novelists as well as great ones (try comparing Charles Dickens, Jackie Collins, Leo Tolstoy, Jody Picoult, Alasdair Gray, Tomas Hardy and Honore de Balzac).

As well as those who regularly bore or beffudle us with endless dreadful slides there are those who influence and inspire with pace and passion. TED.com and Pecha Kucha have plenty of examples and we all know people who are good (or even great) exponents of the medium.

Having the potential to use software (as with a pen or a paint brush) should be seen as a help not a hindrance. Like David Byrne, we should want to make the most of our chance to communicate with others and take the effort to produce great work.