The Ultimate Question
What SEEMS impossible, but if it WERE possible, would transform your job, your team, your company, heck . . . YOUR LIFE . . . for the better? That is the paradigm-shifting question that I learned many years ago from Joel Barker, a Futurist who made a movie called “The Business of Paradigms” a way back in the last century. The movie has been updated, and now it is cleverly called “The New Business of Paradigms – 21st Century Edition”. No matter, it’s timeless. (It had BETTER be, it is only 18 minutes long and it costs almost a thousand bucks! But the preview is free. Check it out here if you haven’t seen it. Tell them I sent you and you might even get a discount.) This question has the power to unlock possibilities that otherwise would peek out from behind the cloak of consciousness, and I have have frequently used it to achieve what seems impossible, but is merely difficult. Human beings are animals, and we spend a lot of our time on autopilot. We live many of the minutes, hours and days of our lives in some kind of trance state, highly functioning, no doubt, but not exactly highly consciously aware. I mean, really, haven’t we all found ourselves at the end of a busy day wanting to shout out “Has anyone seen where the day went?” And I have personally been on long drives in the car when I suddenly wondered who had been driving the last 100 miles. Most of my brain was off scampering around somewhere, but fortunately some part of it was driving the damn car! Continue reading
Breakthrough Leadership
In 2008 Kenichi Ohmae’s “Business Breakthrough, Inc.” filmed 14 episodes of me ranting and raving about “Breakthrough Leadership”. (Ohmae-san is famous for having directed McKinsey’s Japan and Asia Pacific operations, and writing many popular business books, like The Borderless World” and “The Mind of the Strategist”.) It was a thoroughly terrifying experience, which I described in gory detail in a previous blog. Someday soon they’ll be shown on Japanese business TV. Here are the Power Points for the first episode. It’s just not the same without the video (as with all PPT, you might be tempted to say “I don’t FEEL the power and I certainly don’t SEE the point!”), but for now it will have to do. Let me know if you want a copy of this first set for your very own and I’ll send you a pdf. The who series of PPT can be viewed on slideshare by clicking on the link above the PPT in this blog.
In the videos that accompany the PPT, I speak quite slowly so that non-native English speakers will be able to easily understand what I’m saying, even when I’m ranting. (They’ll be sold through BBI.) Let me know if you want to hear when they are released (kimberly@wiefling.com) and I’ll drop you a line and a link. You can always play them with the sound off to amuse your cat! – Kimberly
No Oxygen at the Top – Project Management Challenges at the Everest of Organizations
If you’ve ever been inside of a tin of sardines you will have a pretty good idea of what it’s like to ride the subways of Tokyo during rush hour – only in the subway the sardines are still alive. Even though we are packed together with greater intimacy than most sexual encounters, my inscrutable Japanese companions manage to wear a mask of serenity and composure. Most of my fellow riders have their eyes fixed on their mobile phones, looking up train schedules, checking email, texting their pals, or doing a little shopping on-line. These 21st century urban dwellers use their phones for everything! (I’m told that the average mobile phone purchase in Japan is over $50!) My phone works there, but it costs a bundle per minute, something approaching the cost of a college education, so I tend not to use it much. Instead, I’m looking around to see if anyone else notices that those of us fortunate enough to have a seat have our faces at crotch-level with the people standing.Continue reading
Kimberly's Areas of Expertise
Contact Kimberly at:
Wiefling Consulting
Phone +1 650 867 0847
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