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Business effectiveness ironies

Lot of good speakers are available on the management talk circuit.  They perhaps outnumber Hollywood glitterati - in fact some of them provide counsel to said glitterati.  Recently I attended one such event hosted by a well known American company that specializes in lecturing on Business Performance Enhancement.

They have speakers on hand that were former business leaders and have a wealth of real life experiences to share with the eager crowd.

Some of the topics covered today included TRUST or the effect of having this virtue in an organization and how it enhances collaboration and profitability while reducing cost and waste.

What I did find ironic is that this was being delivered to an audience made of American management resources half of who must be divorced as a matter of statistical certainty.

The word pre-nup (contract used as a way of avoiding either party in a divorce to get taken to the cleaners)  was coined in this same culture but yet we were talking about the virtues of Trust  - a key ingredient of a successful union.

There was also the notion of building teams and working toward enhancing trust amidst the broader organization when each employee (at best a small team) within a modern organization is essentially fighting for the largest share of Bonus Pool.  This creates conflict and inherent levels of distrust compounded by the level of intellectual disparities amidst the staff.

So while the utopian messages are good as sound bites the reality on the ground leaves much to be desired.

One good anecdote from today was in a slide about having your (personal or organizational) value statement's being concise - six words or less was the prescription.  More than that and people lose interest or something like that.

One lady wrote - Yearned for him. Got him. Shit!

Hopefully the readership has lasted to the end of this blog...
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