dispatches from the new world of work

100 Ways to Succeed #112:

Ombudsman for Common Sense

As suggested above, a lot of the giant financial-economic mess we're in is courtesy a failure of common sense—sometimes, often actually, by the so-called bestest of the best and brightest. We are all "insiders" in our own worlds—and we all lose touch with reality to a lesser or greater extent.

There are a host of things one can do to deal with this, but in this instance I want only to suggest routinely running proposals or budgets, or whatever, minor as well as major, by a "common sense ombudsman." Said ombudsman, singular or plural, formal or informal, could be a spouse or a neighbor who owns a restaurant or the guy who runs the distribution center in South Podunk who you ran into at the management meeting in Orlando last year.

Napoleon captured the spirit of this idea, ever so long ago:

"The art of war does not require complicated maneuvers; the simplest are the best, and common sense is fundamental. From which one might wonder how it is generals make blunders; it is because they try to be clever." (from Napoleon on Project Management by Jerry Manas)

Tom Peters posted this on 04/07/08.

Comments

.....'the simplest are the best, and common sense is fundamental.'

I'll drink to that - Amen Mr Napoleon ... maybe you were not such a bad bloke - all is forgiven from my little corner of England in Shakespeare's County:-)

Posted by Trevor Gay at April 7, 2008 10:53 AM

Yes, everyone needs a "Dutch Uncle" to tell them the honest truth ....

Posted by Mike L. at April 7, 2008 7:05 PM

Better take Napoleon with a grain of salt. Napoleon lost at Waterloo because he insisted on doing things in the way in which he had previously enjoyed the most success, and strongly belittled Wellington - the same Wellington who beat Napoleon's armies in Spain at virtually every opportunity. And, by the way, Napoleon lost an incredible number of campaigns, battles and hundreds of thousands of men for no good cause, only to escape to tell the power brokers at home it was someone else's fault - send more men. Sounds like mega-business rock stars today, doesn't it?

Posted by Randy at April 8, 2008 4:35 PM

All warfare is based on deception - Chp 1, Para 18 - The Art of War by Sun Tzu

Posted by K.Sriram at April 9, 2008 1:20 AM

Ran this idea by my boss this morning. He said, predictably, "Get the hell out of my office and get back to work!"

Posted by D. Bumstead at April 11, 2008 10:01 AM

I am and have been professionally engaged with SYSTEMS for some 16 years. Truly tough systems. In fact, I used to disliking them. Now, I like them. Theyâ€™re so treacherous, so superposed, so intersected. In sum,
they appeal to me in a great deal.

Researching on Systems Methodology, I bumped into a book on Napoleon. From A to Z, he was a grandmaster on applied systems methodology. It is as if he were living in century 21. He stresses a great deal of topics that are ignored by many managers, entrepreneurs, and consultants. He faced every CHALLENGE knowing that a cascade of chaos was ahead, but he thought it over long in advance. He never underestimated his work of reference. Take a look at what he believed pertaining education/formation.

(Literally. Brackets are placed by Andres Agostini.

Content researched by Andres Agostini)

â€œâ€¦.Education, strictly speaking, has several objectives: one needs to learn how to speak and write correctly, which is generally called grammar and belles lettres [fines literature of that time]. Each lyceum [high school] has provided for this obÂject, and there is no well-educated man who has not learned his rhetoric.

After the need to speak and write correctly [accurately and unambiguously] comes the ability to count and measure [skillful at mathematics, physics, quantum mechanics, etc.]. The lyceums have provided this with classes in mathematics embracing arithmetical and mechanical knowledge [classic physics plus quantum mechanics] in their different branches.

The elements of several other fields come next: chronology [timing, tempo, in-flux epochs], geÂography [geopolitics plus geology plus atmospheric weather], and the rudiments of history are also a part of the educaÂtion [sine qua non catalyzer to surf the Intensively-driven Knowledge Economy] of the lyceum. . . .

A young man [a starting, independent entrepreneur] who leaves the lyceum at sixteen years of age therefore knows not only the mechanics of his language and the classical authors [captain of the classic, great wars plus those into philosophy and theology], the divisions of discourse [the structure of documented oral presentations], the different figures of eloquence, the means of employing them either to calm or to arouse passions, in short, everything that one learns in a course on belles lettres.

He also would know the principal epochs of history, the basic geographical divisions, and how to compute and measure [dexterity with information technology, informatics, and telematics]. He has some general idea of the most striking natural phenomena [ambiguity, ambivalence, paradoxes, contradictions, paradigm shits, predicaments, perpetual innovation, so forth] and the principles of equilibrium and movement both [corporate strategy and risk-managing of kinetic energy transformation pertaining to the physical world] with regard to solids and fluids.

Whether he desires to follow the career of the barrister, that of the sword [actual, scientific war waging in the frame of reference of work competition], OR ENGLISH [CENTURY-21 LINGUA FRANCA, MORE-THAN-VITAL TOOL TO ACCESS BASIC THROUGH COMPLEX SCIENCE], or letters; if he is destined to enter into the body of scholars [truest womb-to-tomb managers, pundits, experts, specialists, generalists], to be a geographer, engineer, or land surveyorâ€”in all these cases he has received a general education [strongly dexterous of two to three established disciplines plus a background of a multitude of diverse disciplines from the exact sciences, social sciences, etc.] necessary to become equipped [talented] to receive the remainder of instruction [duly, on-going-ly indoctrinated to meet the thinkable and unthinkable challenges/responsibilities beyond his boldest imagination, indeed] that his [forever-changing, increasingly so] circumstances require, and it is at this moment [of extreme criticality for humankind survival], when he must make his choice of a profession, that the special studies [omnimode, applied with the real-time perspective of the totality of knowledge] science present themselves.

If he wishes to devote himself to the military art, engineering, or artillery, he enters a special school of mathematics [quantum information sciences], the polytechnique. What he learns there is only the corollary of what he has learned in elementary mathematics, but the knowledge acquired in these studies must be developed and applied before he enters the difÂferent branches of abstract mathematics. No longer is it a question simply of education [and mindâ€™s duly formation/shaping], as in the lyceum: NOW IT BECOMES A MATTER OF ACQUIRING A SCIENCE....â€

END OF TRANSCRIPTION.

Posted by Andres Agostini at April 17, 2008 1:04 AM

Wow, Andres! This analysis is quite in depth, but sensible indeed. Thank you.

Posted by Judith Ellis at April 17, 2008 11:20 PM

Thank you Judith for your comments and for being a great activist to Tom's blog-dom (a Cathedral). Actually, because of genetics and professional obligations, I must get in true depth. I highly appreciate all my colleagues' contribution to Tom's.

Andres (Andy)

www.AndyBelieves.blogspot.com

www.AgosBlogs.blogspot.com

www.AndresAgostini.blogspot.com

Posted by Andres Agostini at April 18, 2008 2:57 PM