The Liability of Complex Communication

Yesterday I found a study published by the University of St. Gallen “Complex to Clear – Managing Clarity in Corporate Communication“.

The authors Martin J Eppler and Nicole Bischof argue convincingly a business case for clarity in all types of corporate communications. They address reports, emails, and even Twitter. That fascinating study can be downloaded from the University’s website and there’s also a presentation on Slideshare.

I was so fascinated by the clarity of the report – it follows to a great extent the recommended principles very closely – that I decided to blog about it straight away. It took me just half an hour to read through the 67 pages.

Doing just enough …

I just read a blog post by Seth D. Cohen “The cost of doing just enough“.

When I saw the title I mental picture in mind of a certain person. I struggle to get that person stepping up. And here comes a promise that may help.

Disappointment

I really am disappointed by that post it states the obvious and doesn’t address how to create the change of mind. A few days earlier John Stepper wrote about “the Influencer’s checklist“. Now that was much more practical. Thanks John.

Doing just enough is an attitude statement. It tells a story. It says something about not being engaged, not being in tune with the organisation, the team, the project, or the task. As a leader I have an obligation to understand “why”. This is my team and my project. Success doesn’t come by sitting on my hands. High performance teams don’t emerge if I don’t plant the seed, nurture it and get the environment right.

Doing just enough is a statement that something is wrong. It could be a personal thing, it could be a cultural things, it could be a change that doesn’t sit well, and it could be a change in the person itself. People grow and change. A job that is perfectly fine today may not be tomorrow. I, as a leader, need to understand. That’s the only way to decide what to do about.

Thank you 2012 !

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for my blog. And this is the perfect time to say Thank You!

It was a very enjoyable time for me writing those musing most of the time. I got into a habit early in 2012 writing a post every week. This went fine until we went onto a holiday break in late August. Some stop start happened from there. Surprisingly that initiated my most successful month: November 2012.

My average monthly readership tripled from 300 to 913! Thank you so much 🙂

From there I kept a bit of a watch and even more exciting I met a few people who were reading and enjoying it. That was simply great!

a sharp turn left

Those who have read my LinkedIn profile know that for a period of time I acted as the CIO for a company in the communication business. I missed out on getting the job fulltime.

As I’m curious I wanted to know why and what was necessary to be successful in the future. A number of frank discussions followed, notably one with the hiring manager and one with the successful applicant (my new boss). That brought some significant details to light:

Gartner ITxpo Gold Coast

During the past 4 days I attended the annual biggest Gartner conference ITxpo.

I haven’t been here for a number of years and was really looking forward to it. My program was not aligned to any of the pre-defined streams and had a good selection of mobile, big data, business intelligence, cloud and enterprise architecture with a sprinkle of leadership and management aspects.

Gartner always has multiple sessions in parallel and I find it difficult to choose at times. Nonetheless I was happy with my schedule that looked ram-packed with exciting stuff.