Dr Elisabeth Kübler-Ross pioneered the idea of the five stages of grief (not always death but any major loss): denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Today many people are facing serious emotional trauma from job loss, enforced relocation, financial issues and bankruptcy to name just a few. However this 'grief cycle' can actually be a 'change model' for helping us to understand and deal with change and grief. Interestingly Kübler-Ross also identifies that one person's despair (a job-change, or loss) is to another person’s delight.

To me this explains how and why 'time heals' all and when we know more about what is happening, then dealing with it is made a little easier. For more check out: http://www.ekrfoundation.org/

I’ve been reading, when I can, articles about risk lately. Most are written with regard to large institutional risk management, systemic risk management and all sorts sleep inducing ideas. But that’s not what I wanted to learn more about, however noble the thoughts of the writers were in most cases I think they are missing a point.

For me, working with entrepreneurs and new start-ups, is all about embracing risk and encouraging it. Because amplifying risk is a way to increase the amount of information one receives. Just like racing a car around a track. Driving within the limits is good but gives you little feedback about the car. Driving on the limit pushing hard gives you all the feedback you need about the car and its driver. High risk, high feedback. In business the feedback is vital, it's our market research and all those customer interactions (or lack of them!).

Obviously there is a balance that needs to be struck because there is a limit to the availability of funding and or time. Let’s imagine a ‘risk lever’ with the entrepreneur pulling one way towards more risk (for more reward) and on the other side we have funders (banks et al) on the other side trying to reduce the risk in order to protect their investment and secure their return. Who's going to win? The winner is normally the one who proves his results. 

A good entrepreneur like a good engineer will seek out where the failure points are so that the risk of operational failure is reduced. My mantra for the last while has been to research the idea in order to seek out the risk and reward balance. Put in the hours push the envelope and ask the hard questions.  

Then and only then, go forth and take that risk!

Not one to read a paper most days I reluctantly picked up the the Irish Times while waiting for my next meeting. You'll be glad to hear I skimmed the wall to wall Cowen coverage and stumbled upon coverage by the Irish Times of the recent visit to Ireland by Thomas Donohue, president and chief executive of the US Chamber of Commerce. Amidst the relentless beating of our breasts and scorning of anybody remotely to do with politics I found the article a beacon of hope and sanity. You should check it out: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2011/0124/1224288162493.html

The nugget I took from it was: “American business people and financiers are worried about a cascading problem from Greece to Portugal to Spain and wherever. They were not worried about Ireland because it had the fundamentals of a strong economy. It had an improved infrastructure, a trained and educated workforce, a good location and good management." There you are now. Someone is optimistic. 

Self-Serving Bias: The tendency to attribute one’s own success to internal factors while blaming failures on external factors. Anyone recognise this trait, Kildare street area? 

As a nation we have been battered and embarrassed lately. For me it started with the government's failure to cut enough in the 2008 budget in order to balance our books, something that came back to haunt us when the IMF lads arrived to Merrion Street recently. But the final insult was Harrington being disqualified. It made me think that there is a conspiracy. Are there people out there who are looking to punish the so called celtic tigers? 

However humbled we have all been lately I know one thing for certain. It will be great to have a clear slate come March 11. Make sure you and all your family vote and lets hope that the new government takes a little more care in their work - underpinned with a dose of humility. 

 

RTE The Business sets up a Pop Up Bank

If you need credit/capital/finance for your business, then RTE’s pop up bank could be for you. On Tue Feb 8th the RTE TV show The Business will establish a one day only pop up bank at the Croke Park Conference Centre in Dublin. They’re inviting anyone who offers credit/capital/finance/grants in Ireland to come together in the one location for one day only. From banks to credit unions, state agencies, venture capitalists to non profit organisations, The Business Pop Up Bank will pull it all together to try and help you find the best credit agency for your business.

Amongst those attending include Enterprise Boards, Enterprise Ireland, Bank of Ireland, Ulster Bank, AIB, The Irish League of Credit Unions, First Steps, InterTradeIreland, Dublin Business Innovation Centre/Halo Business Angel Partnership, LEADER, Clann Credo, Grow Corp Group LTD, Quintas, Ryan Academy Propeller Seed Fund, Kernel Capital, Delta Partners, Endeavour Programme and the Irish Local Development Network plus many more.

So come along and state your case and who knows, you might start to access the funding you need.
Doors open at 11am and close at 3pm.
If you have any questions or wish to attend this event please contact:
Louise Hynes - email louise.hynes@rte.ie

Taoiseach sets 11 March as election day. Interestingly today, in most democracies, the right to vote is granted without discrimination with regard to race, ethnicity, class or gender. However many countries have disenfranchisement of sentenced prisoners, for example in the USA voting privileges are denied to prisoners by some states, however several others (most nations of the European Union) allow prisoners to vote, regardless of time served, nature of the crime, etc. 

Given all that we have been through as a Nation, perhaps it's time for 'compulsory vote' in order that we have an elected Dail that knows and clearly hears from her people. 

 

Mismanagement of a crisis - in the extreme. 
http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0120/dail_tracker.html

According to RTE:
11.48 David McCullagh: Is this the first time TDs have turned off their phones in case they get a call from the Taoiseach offering them a job?

A recent article in the Sunday Business Post shed some light on where services companies might see some sales leads. The article clearly identifies recruitment trends in Ireland and as any self respecting sales person knows, where there is recruitment activity there are sales. 

Full story here: http://www.thepost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=RECRUITMENT-qqqs=themarket-qqqid=53551-qqqx=1.aspweeblylink_new_window

If you want your team to be engaged, committed and good followers say 'thank you'! You expect team members to be cohesive and achieve great things; when they do, thank them. As General Colin Powell (US Army retired) once said “Organization doesn't really accomplish anything. Plans don't accomplish anything, either. Theories of management don't much matter. Endeavors succeed or fail because of the people involved. Only by attracting the best people will you accomplish great deeds.” 

That's all very well when your competitors are underpricing you and your trying to cut costs to the bone. Can you really engage at the level required. Can 'thank you' suffice?

Well according to O.C. Tanner appreciation of staff creates the right conditions, for engagement and productivity to reach maximum levels. Employers can increase staff engagement by 20%-30% by simply saying "thank you" to staff according to the results of their survey of 10,000 employees across 13 countries. In addition, Chester Elton, one of the authors of The Carrot Principle, said: "We have always known appreciation positively affects employee engagement. What we wanted to determine with this study is whether of not this holds true on an international scale - and the answer is yes."

But Adrian Gostic, the other author of The Carrot Principle, added: "While employees in China and Russia value team recognition more highly than individual acclaim, the more modest British (ahem) prefer recognition from their boss. It is clear every country places a high value on the power of recognition."

The study also shows engagement leads employees to feelings of pride, trust, opportunity and wellbeing and reports simple appreciation of staff took the engagement levles of low-performing companies up to 63%. For more on this go to:http://www.towersperrin.com/tp/getwebcachedoc?country=usa&webc=GBR/2009/200909/TurbochargingPt1.pdf