Communicating Technology Risk To " The Board"

Last week I was invited to speak at a meeting of the Technology stream of Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment ( CISI ). Well actually it was to lead a table discussion rather than straight up speaking, but followed my membership of a Panel tackling the same topic towards the back end of last year.

The contention was  technology risk is increasingly important (and potentially damaging) to a company, yet "Boards" do not understandand the subject. The initial brief was to explore why with this follow-on session looking at what attendees could do to improve matters.

While other tables looked at demographics, strategy and regulation, my table looked at the practical human elements of how we communicate.

In chairing the table I needed to seed the discussion so I (pr)offered the "4 P's". They are

• Parlance(*)
• Persective
• Precipice
• Partnership?

* I actually used Presentation on the day, but Parlance is better.

I wanted the first to be "Jaragon", but without a silent "P" it didn't fit with the plan so Parlance works. Essentially it was the point that technology professionals talk in some much jargon and "tech" speak that most business people glaze over and stop listening. A colleague made the point that if, in making an IT point, one has to use the system name or a TLA (work it out! :) ) then you have failed to communicate clearly. It is much better to describe the purpose or function of the technology than give it some brand name. For example, "the data base holding our client information has an increasing number of inaccuracies and errors" is better than "the integrity of the XYZbase is intermittently compromised". OK I exaggereate for effect but you get the idea.

Check: This point received unanimous nods of recognition from the attendees.

The second point was that the Perspective of technology is often different to the business, and the Board is heavily weighted to the business. For the business the loss of a website of a client facing system for 5 minutes could be more concerning than the fact that a backup data centre is doubling its prices. Again exaggeration, but illustrative.

Check: This again was recognised by everyone

The third term Precipice was about the number of times that IT items are presented as if the business is standing on a precipice, ie unless it does what is asked disaster awaits. The sub-text being that they have no choice. I know if I try and communicate this way with my teenage daughter it is more than likely that she will dig her heels in and do nothing. Every time I end up in that position makes the next subject even harder to tackle. Now far be it from me to suggest that Boards could act like petulant teenagers, but I do think there are some useful parallels.

Check: The table members acknowledged the issue too.

The last item intentionally has a question mark. The way I presented it was that one often hears about there being a partnership between business and IT, but in my opinion this is not the case. While IT want a partnership, the business generally doesn't it wants a service. This leads to each party having different expecations.

Check: Again more nods.

Subsequent discussion supported these points and brought out a few more. Notably a number of members talked about the gap between IT and business and that greater integration is needed One observation was that it is rare for IT middle management to attend internal business meetings; meetings that would help their understanding of the business perspective and aid the building of relationships that will make communication easier.

It was also observed that the term "partner" has two parties built into it, not one integrated body. In a related observation some attendees reported how much better things were when IT was co-located with the business and not in a separate building or even continent.

A slightly tangential comment made at the table was a sceptical observation on the value of CPD of "continuing professional development" as a worthless box-ticking exercise.

The group acknowledged that the onus was on changing oneself rather than demanding changes in others so when we came to thoughts in what could be done to improve matters the following points were raised:-

• Endeavour to co-locate IT and the business where possible.
• Encourage IT leaders to attend and mingle with the business at different levels
• Develop some of the softer, relationship skills of those representing IT
• Have a non-IT person read any important paper/presentation BEFORE it is given out
• Can we include business knowledge and softer skills in the CPD framework for IT professionals, a double whammy if you like?

A common excuse of for makingchanges such as these is that they need permission/agreement from the business, but is that really true? Can we not all make sensible, if small, steps in the right direction.

Do you recognise the issue(s)? Do you have any other suggestions that we should share?

What an interesting year for Rugby!!!

They do say that unexpected results are what makes sport so interesting; when the underdog comes good or someone comes good at the right time.

Well as a rugby fan that is certainly the case. Yesterday a team, Scotland, that enjoyed (if that is the right expression) less than 30% of the possession, played in their own half of the field for over  3/4 of the time and were required to make almost three times as many tackles.........won the game.

Their defence was ferocious, manic and sometimes "just there", but it held aganist an Irish team that was profligate in the way it wasted opportunities. 12-8 is what goes into the records....and that is what counts.

A better French side turned up on Saturday and gave England a match until their management decided to take all the best players off..well almost all. In contrast I think England brought some of their best on....I think Youngs and Vunipola were better than Hartley and Marler, but it is just relative.

So in a few short months, New Zealand were stuffed by an emerging Engand side (no-one expected that), Italy beat France (again!), Ireland not just snatched, but fully embraced defeat when even a child would have expected victory. In a few weeks time this could be capped with the possibility of France playing Ireland for the wooden spoon (though I still think Italy are in with a shout) and Scotland contending for third place in the Six Nations.

I bet the bookies are struggling to know which way to turn. I suspect that more than a few loyal Scottish supporters would have partied well on their winnings.

With the Lions coming up and little more than two years until a home Rugby World Cup, I am really looking forward to more interesting results and hope (maybe I should say believe) that we have yet to see the best of Lancaster's England and that they should be a force in 2015.

Maybe I will go look at the odds on them now and place a bet.

"Right timing" & "Co-operative Compliance"

When I started in my current role I proposed two terms or concepts to my Programme Steering Committee. I now seem to use them with increasing frequency across a wider range of change so I thought it worth capturing and sharing them here.

I will caveat this piece at the start that these have been applied to the tsunami (or is a morass?) of regulatory change hitting the world of financial services, but probably apply as well to any situation where the drivers (and rules) relating to the change emerge as a slow reveal over an extended period.

The terms were:-

• Right Timing; and
• Cooperative Compliance

Right Timing relates to judging the right time to move into action. This is often a fine line, between not starting too late and having enough confidence in what is needed. Start too early and you could easily waste scarce resource doing work that is not needed or has to be redone, start too late and you miss the market.

This is currently very relevant to the world of regulation where there is a huge amount going on without the commensurate clarity or certainty. While high level intent is (relatively) easy to set, the devil is often in the proverbial detail, especially if there are many agencies involved in drafting the final (local?) rules. This usually leads to distraction and delay.

A prime example is FATCA, where the US is rather strong-arming a global change around reporting on the assets of US taxpayers. Initially the IRS set out a draconian vision that would require lots of non-US banks to start collecting taxes on behalf of the US. A number of organisations recognised the scale of what was being asked and started substantial pieces of work and system builds to be ready. Since then new agreements are emerging that can remove that obligation and dates have slipped. I know of companies have written off substantial investments, arguably because they moved too early.

This is not what could be seen as analysis paralysis, but rather informed judgement. Of course hindsight is a perfect judge and sometimes you will get it wrong, but I think the example illustrates the point.

We are now facing similar timing challenges in EMIR and AIFMD. As a result managing stakeholder expectations and having open governance an effective decision making is more critical than ever.

Co-operative Compliance is the attitude of constructively and intelligently working with the changes in the world/regulation and in doing so give your stakeholders confidence that you are safe to do business with. This is not about blind adherence or insane haste to respond to any requirement. Also it does not mean that you can never challenge or interpret. What it does mean is that you don't allow anyone to perceive you like the bolshy toddler who has planted his feet, pouted his lips, crossed his arms and then attempts to stare you out. That is helpful to no-one.

I guess a bit like finding the right time, cooperative compliance is about finding the right response.



These two terms have been very useful as a way of breaking certain deadlocks and are almost always greeted with a nodding of heads and a few wry smiles. So far no one has kncked them back.

To make use of them in your work,

• make this part of your change culture, ensure that you use and explain the phrases often so that people remember them,
• find people with a mental agility and who are equipped to judge what is right for the business, but are brave enough to not follow the herd when that is appropriate
• don't be afraid to change course and bring others along with you if the world around you moves
• find the personal strength to hold on to what you believe is right and proper and let time be your judge, 

Good luck!

Strike 2!

Towards the end of last year I blogged about two "digs" - one I hoped would be successful and the other I hoped would not.

The latter dig was looking for the body of missing toddler Ben Needham in Greece. There were suggestions that he might have strayed and been trapped and buried under building rubble. While I am sure his parents would like closure on this story, I feared that confirmation that the child died after being buried alive might be too much for the family.

Thankfully(?) that dig did not locate a body so the mystery of what happened to Ben remains.

The second "dig" was the planned search for a large number of Spitfire aircraft that were rumoured to buried around airfields in Burma at the end of WWII. To find a number of these planes that were thought likely to be in good condition after being greased and buried would have been fantatstic to anyone who enjoys the throb of thir engine and the silhouette of their wings.

This dig got under way in early January. By late January the news did not seem good and now the serach has been abandoned empty handed. There is now doubt that ANY Spitfires were ever delivered, let alone buried.

I confess that this is something of a let down, but there is a candle still glimmering at the end of the proverbial tunnel. All the publicity around the search in Burma flushed out stories that there are in fact aircraft buried near the factory where the were built in Castle Bromwich.

After the success of finding the body of Richard III, I will keep my fingers crossed that there are planes that can be located and unearthed in this country. So I guess this is "Strike 2" with one play to go.

Some great job titles.

The other day on Linkedin I came across someone with the job title "Joint Venture Partner at Data Centre Services Bhutan". Now I don't know why but I struggled to see what demand there would be for Data Centre Services in Bhutan, a small relatively undeveloped Himalayan kingdom. That said, it is a great title.

I realise that I shouldn't think that way as the world is incredibly deverse and richer for it. What this discovery triggered was a short search for other great job titles that I thought I would share. The list below are all "real", well they are used by members of Linkedin.

• AMBASSADOR- South Florida of USA Pickleball Association
• The Office Furniture Guru 
• Barista Maestro
• Freelance Elephant Spotter
• Digital Jedi
• Squirrel Imaginary

I have no idea what a "squirrel imaginary" is or indeed why we would need a "freelance Elephant spotter", but it is good to know that they are there if you need one.

I liked the "Barista Maestro", but then found it was pretty mainstream and seemed to be a common term, just not one I, as a tea drinker, had heard of. Still, I thought it warranted inclusion.

I have a sense of what a "digitial Jedi" might be and "The Office Furnitire Guru" sounds like one of those great titles given out in a reorganisation, as a way of telling you that your time is up. I think I might be concerned if I were assigned a title like that.

The Ambassador's role caught my imagination and a little Googling showed it to be a serious undertaking. The sport(?) has been going since the 1960's and supports a professional player. I could only see reference to a single professional so I guess tournaments are not that exciting?

Anyway this was a bit of Friday frivolity, but please add any other good(?) job titles you have come across in order that we can all enjoy them.

The words that may not be spoken!

As a husband one learns that sometimes it is better to hold one's tongue. What may be seen as selective hearing by some is often wise judgement. It is harder though when it is your child!

My daughter deeply, madly, passionately wants to be an actress. So far her attempts at getting a place at acting school have been unsuccessful. The odds are pretty extreme with cases of over 1,000 applicants for every place! She has had a call back, but even that place evaporated.

So it was that last night I found myself with watering eyes as my pride in her became emotional. It was the last night of her school production in which she had the lead female role of Sarah. It was an ambitious staging of "Our House", the musical written by Madness that has graced the West End. At the end of the first half I thought I felt a little emotional, but at the end of the finale I definitely did. Not streaming tears or anything like that, but a lump in my throat, an ache in my heart and a moistness in my eyes.

In the run up to the show she had told us virtually nothing about what she was doing or how it was going. We knew she had to sing solo a couple of times (we didn't know she had a voice!) and that she had some costume changes including a wedding dress, but that was all. We had just been the taxi service and hotel for her during the rehearsal period - she had been at school for 24 straight days before last night.

Yes, there were some technical faults and the odd bum note, but overall they all performed brilliantly. She sang NW5, a more recent Madness song rendered more like a ballad and was part of a clever duet of Labi Siffre's "It must be love". Recording anything of the show was difficult with copyright issues, but I did manage to snatch some of her singing using my mobile phone. What Dad wouldn't?

She was mortified to think that I had a recording and is adamant that I must destroy all trace, but you know how hard it is to delete very electronic record these days :) !

We are not allowed to tell her how well she did. In the hall the "diva" came out and we were all allowed to kiss her cheek - even me, but once outside any attempt to express pride or appreciation is met with a grumpy response and admonishment to "shut up". This is the usual state of affairs that I deeply hope is just "those difficult teenage years".

She glowed while on stage and I think her voice could be very good with some training. It is easy to see why she wishes to pursue it as a career which is what makes it hard when you are only allowed to whsiper about it when she is out of hearing. I guess as a parent one should always feel proud about your kids and maybe I just have to be satisfied holding that feeling inside, but I will confess that it is hard not to be allowed to shout it from the rooftops even if only metaphorically.

So now she has the run into A-Levels and then.......the rest of her life!

"A proud parent"

My Top Five Regrets..........

I saw today a link to an article in the Guardian (not my usual read!) entitled Top five regrets of the dying which I found an interesting read.

I won't repeat the article here, but the five identified by a nurse who had cared for dying patients were

1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I hadn't worked so hard.
3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

Without wanting to give too much away, while I think I have addressed/embraced a couple of these, there are still a couple I can empathise with.

What made me think though were what might be the top five regrets of a project manager.

I have wracked my fading memory of 30 years of change and feel lucky that I don't feel many regrets. Yes I have made some mistakes, but I have learnt something from every one.

At times I have opened my mouth and expressed heartfelt opinions that may have cost me opportunities, but I don't regret doing so. In each case, time has shown that my thoughts were valid and the each experience has given me the opportunity to improve my communication skills. Similarly for each door that closed another, better one opened.

If I have a regret it is that I did not network better in my early and mid career. It is something I have come to late in life, through necessity and I wonder if I might have found an even brighter path had I worked harder at it earlier. But then I was in permanent employment and networking did not seem as necessary.

Also I think I might have sought out a personal sponsor earlier. Someone who could have helped me transition between roles and navigate the world of corporate politics better than maybe I did.

I have made decisions that put my family considerations over my professional ones, and in doing so probably missed some opportunities. In no way do those count as regrets - family comes first - full stop.

Lastly at times I stayed longer in roles that maybe hindsight would suggest was best, but again I look back and feel I made the best decisions I could at the time, and believe I would make the same ones again if I were in the same position - so how can one regret these?

I have never been a clone or easily pigeonholed. I am just good at what I do and the more I do what I enjoy the better I get....funny that. This may all sound very smug. I certainly don't intend it to be. I would be interested in hearing the experience of others though I recognise that it is easier to do so anonymously.

Something to stimulate the (active) mind

It is not often that I just cut and paste, but I came across this slide show and really like it.

It is worth a look just for the images, but if in viewing it you do find your mind fizzing and sparking then please let me know by leaving a comment.

I am not sure which is my favourite....I like so many.....but to start the ball rolling I like slides 7, 29 and 54.

100 images for visual brainstorming from Marc Heleven

Winning Ugly - Sometimes you just have to do it.

I watched the England vs Ireland rugby yesterday. After the delights of scintillating wins over New Zealand and Scotland expectations were high. Unfortunately the weather had other ideas. It was cold and wet, wet, wet. The error rate of dropped passes and missed catches was testament to how difficult conditions were.

An interesting statistic is that the Irish bench (their reserves) had more caps that the entire England starting XV. Another interesting statistic is that on average a team will lose seven points while one of their number is in the sin bin (ten minutes off the field for a serious playing offence). When that happened to England yesterday they gained a net three points (ie England 6 vs Ireland 3), so a net 10 point better performance that might have been expected.

In the end the score was 12 - 6 to England, all penalty goals. While Ireland fought back at the start of the second half they were never in front for the whole game, in anything but some of the match statistics that indicate that Ireland should have won, had England not played as ferociously and effectively as they did. The young guys did what they needed to. The quiet guys worked tirelessly doing the heavy lifting. Nothing fancy, just the right things at the right time.

One thing I did not think about until I read a comment in the paper this morning was that at no time did the England team make me nervous. They seemed to be calmness and hard work personified. My wife will tell you what a ball of nervous energy I usually am watching England especially when in the past you felt they could implode at any time and grab defeat from the jaws of victory.

This was not the case yesterday and is probably the sign of some great foundations in the team. The coaches, Stuart Lancaster and Andy Farrell were quite effusive in how "big" a game it had been; this coming from men who are usually quite restrained and had just watched a soggy slog, that was won with goal kicking.

Maybe this vintage of England players has what it takes and can grow to the next World  Cup - to be played in Britain!! Maybe we can dream of victory on home soil this time.

First we have this year's Six Nations to complete and possibly two more good tests ahead with France and Wales to come. We will then see the Lions in Australia with, I expect, a good complement of Englishman building their experience and reputations.

As a spectator I hope that I will see more of the attacking English play, but I am comforted that England appear to have a great heart and that my viewing may not be the nervous roller coaster it has been so often in the past.

They still have plenty to work on and I am sure we have not seen the best yet, but well one so far!!!

It's the way you you tell them!!!!

Last night I attended a lecture given by Lord Adair Turner, Chairman of the FSA, at the CASS Business School in London. His topic was "Debt, Money and Mephistopheles - How do we get out of this mess?" and in essence he was advocating that regulators include "Overt Monetary Finance" or OMF in their tool kit of economic stimuli - something that has been considered taboo by many.

Now Lord Turner summarised a 2 1/2 hour paper into an hour's talk and I am endeavouring to capture some of the essence and insights in this (short) blog post so please forgive me if anything gets lost in translation. Added to this I am not an economist at heart, but a physicist so I may have heard things differently.

In essence OMF seems to be the creation of permanent new money, something that is associated by many with inflation and other undesirable consequences. The acceptable version is Quantative Easing or QE where money is again injected into the system, but temporarily and this the the thing about the way you tell it.

When questioned at the end Lord Turner admitted that there was little difference between OMF and QE other than with OMF created the expectation that the change was permanent and would not need paying back in the future while QE is billed as temporary and is expected to be paid back in future. Neither set of expectations actually guarantees future policy and the QE could effectively become permanent the same way OMF could be reversed. Instead it is all about the message you send to the markets.

There is however another difference and that is where the money is injected into the system. In QE the injection is into bank liquidity with the expectation that this will have possitive impacts on teh economy from increased lending etc. This of course relies on the Banks actually passing this on and on people wanting to borrow - two behaviours that are not guaranteed in a perido of deleveraging such as we are in.

In contrast OMF goes into the income stream through things such as tax cuts, public works creating employment and putting wages into pockets, etc. In short this goes directly to the consumers.

A key argument from Lord Adair was that OMF need not be taboo if one accepts that the economic lever you use is decoupled from the specific outcomes/targets of price levels and supply. In this case any tool could be used.

That said he warned that OMF could be politically dangerous if politicians became addicted and, having realised it was possible and acceptable, used it too often to buy votes before elections etc.

All in all, Lord Adair is an impressive speaker and the contention was interesting ahead of statements from the new Governor of the Bank of England, but I was left with the (layman's) thought that it was more about how you present the injection of money to interested parties ie how you tell it!

The AIFMD Feeding Frenzy

It is interesting when you see a market's supply and demand mechanisms at work. The case in point is the almost obscene scramble for AIFMD resources that is evident in London.

In the post financial crisis analysis unregulated risk taking by hedge funds was seen as one of the primary causes. The Alternative Investment Fund Management Directive (AIFMD) is Europe's attempt to address this. In doing so its net is catching every fund that is not already subject to UCITS rules and regulations.

While the political processes have moved forward and created immovable dates, these same processes have held up the crafting of detailed rules. AIFMD must transpose into local law on the 23 July 2013, yet the detailed rules (aka Level 2) were only published just before Christmas 2012. Even then the rules are not complete and their interpretation is taxing some very smart minds. Some key aspects are still unclear and subject to ongoing consultation; consultations that will not complete until March or April, very close to the transposition date!

There is the opportunity for existing firms to claim transitional relief giving them another 12 months to comply. The issue is that the exercising of this option to grant transitional period falls to individual regulators/jurisdictions and the full implications are not known.

From this you may see that it is hard for anyone to claim to have (much?) experience in AIFMD. There are many who can read and offer opinions on the rules, but there are some aspects that no-one knows definitively, at least not yet.

Since the beginning of the year and after the publication of Level 2, the large number of UK based-fund managers affected by AIFMD have started to realise that this is real and that they need to do something - even if they don't know what they need to do. Personally I have been fielding around ten calls a week from recruiters asking me if I am interested or know people who are? I am under contract until early July so not looking for work, but I have passed on the names of friends and contacts that I think could do this. I have now run out of those too.

It seems that if you know what AIFMD stands for and can spell "regulation" you are in demand; I simplify slightly but you get the idea. This was brought home earlier to day by a fellow contractor who had previously told me that he was approached for an AIFMD Business Analysis role that was paying £600pd - a good rate for a BA. Today the same recruiter has come back to him and said that the rate has now been lifted to £750pd - a clear indication of the shortage of supply in the market and of economics in action.

In a similar vein I have seen the rates for Project and Programme management in this area rise by up to 50% over the sort of rates paid last year. After a long period of rate squeezing in the contract market this is both encouraging and alarming with the prospect that some buyers will end up paying premiums for poorer resources.

Everyone is looking for experience in AIFMD, yet what little there is has been consumed already. What is left is for more creative recruiting that looks for resources with related experience and having the capability to make a contribution in AIFMD. Alternatively a flight of last resort(?) to the premium consultancy market on the basis that they could not have done any better.

I suspect the next few weeks will be even more interesting.

The Seat Hog - my pet hate!

I guess we all have our pet hates. I think I am more tolerant than many, but this morning I was reminded of one of mine - the seat hog!

I have been commuting for over 30 years, most of that using trains (under and over ground). Most travellers are civil and considerate even when carriages get crowded and uncomfortable. At the busiest times there are never enough seats so we all make the best of the situation. Well most of us do.

This morning I alighted onto a roughly half full carriage. I prefer to sit in an aisle seat as my wider than average frame is not then pinned in both sides. There was a four seat set, occupied by two unrelated people. The window seat on one side was occupied by a young girl and the aisle seat opposite her by a man with his head buried in some game her was playing on his mobile phone. He had his bag placed on the window seat beside him and his feet resting on the aisle seat opposite.

My polite "excuse me" was met by a begrudging glare and a reluctant movement of his feet. It was as if I was a piece of **** and how dare I interrupt his game and ask for access to one of the three seats he was in command of.

Well he did move and I sat down ensuring that I took all, but no more than the 25% of the space in that set that was related to my seat. His head seemed to go further into his phone. I don't think it was Angry Birds but rather some bubble bursting challenge that he was playing.

As similar scene played out at the next stop when a girl dared to ask to get by and use the window seat beside him - remember the one his bag was occupying. With a huff and a glare he picked his bag up and shuffled across to the window seat, before pricking balloons some more.

When we reached our terminus and all got off he still appeared unhappy that the world ie another commuter and I had dared to intrude on the three seats his single ticket had paid for!!!

Ho hum. This post has been rather cathartic and it is out of my system - until the next time!

Finding the preverbial needle in a haystack!

Last night on British TV there was a documentary about the archaelogical search for the body of Richard III - apparently a victim of progogand after his death that made him out to be a tyrant and generally bad person; something perpetuated by Shakespeare's characterization.

In this instance those with an interest had the clues that his body had been interred at the Freyfriars in Leicester and not thrown in a river as legend had it. They crowdsourced the funds to undertake the excavation in a the tarmac carpark of a local government office.

At the start the professionals were commenting that they rarely go looking for something specific as they rarely find it. Instead they have more general searches and with luck chance up on what they hope to find.

The scarey thing in this instance is that it appears that in this instance they had the specific objective of finding the body of Richard III and the first find in the first trench turned out to be him...at least "beyond academic doubt".

The digger chanced upon a leg bone that was not initially given any significance, but covered up. As it was subsequently excavated the excitement grew as a curved spine and damaged skull was uncovered.

With a degree of caution the investigation then looked at dating the bones and the cause of death until finally they did a DNA comparison with a (the only?) known descendant. This clinched the deal.

What they do with the body now I do not know, but I found the documentary interesting and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in history or archaeology.

It also proves that sometimes it pays to go looking for the specific even it the common wisdom is that there is little or no chance of finding it. Sometimes life just works.

6 Nations Weekend #1 - What an opener!!!

As an England supporter of over 40 years, I have seen highs and lows, green shoots and false dawns, supreme skills and downright drudgery, so this weekend was very interesting.

On the England front it was a pleasure to see the side running hard, relentlessly and cutting some interesting lines. The pack worked at pace, delivering ball to backs that appeared to have purpose - something you cannot always say about and England team!

I think it would be an injustice to say anything bad about the Scottish ( I am half-Scots after all). I just think they were blown away by the English. They were outpaced, out muscled and out-thought, yet they were still dangerous on the counter attack.

The newspaper critics are asking if England could do "that" to another better (or more cynical?) team, but remember that it was only a couple of months ago they did a similar job on New Zealand!

I truly hope we see more in Dublin next week! I say that not just as an England supporter, but as a rugby fan. It would be good to contend well and create some fear in the Southern Hemisphere.

I confess I skimmed through the Wales/Ireland match, but was taken by the skills of Brian O'Driscoll - such great hands - and of Zebo who showed both pace and great footballing feet capturing a ball that was behind him with a flick off his heel and a quick juggle before retaining possession and keeping the move alive.

Lastly what can you say about the Italians beating the French - again! For the second time in a couple of years the Italians at home have proved too much for the French. While Martin Catrogiovani is quoted saying that they did not attack much, they scored a couple of tries and showed some great running.

With the Lions coming up this summer there are a few people putting their marks down already and the combinations could be very exciting.

Bring on Weekend #2

The Change Trap - Part 2

In my last post I looked at the impact of making too frequent changes, particularly in relation to an organisation or a team. The model I used resonates with personal experience that rather than improving performance, continual change has a detrimental impact and in extremis it can lead to a real degradation in performance.

The challenge I left at the end of the post was how to deliver the increasing performance that the modern world demands.

This post looks to address that using the same sort of model.

We used a simple model that follows performance following a change, showing an initial loss of performance while new people learn the new processes etc. followed by a period of improvement before apathy or loss of alignment starts impacting.

While useful for illustrating the point a real world graph would look more like this with a flatter slope ie longer life time. There is a point (X) at which the rate of improvement in perfomance starts slowing. Broadly speaking this is when something new is required if the rate of growth is to be maintained going forward.

Chaining these as we showed in the previous post gives an average improvement rate shown by the red line.

Assuming we manage switch lanes at or around the optimum point of X what else can we do to bring about an improvement in the slope of the red line? We used this diagram to illustrate the aspiration.

Well the model suggests that there are three parameters worth looking at.

• (A) is the loss of performance experienced after the change has been implemented;
• (B) is the period during which there is a loss of performance; and
• (C) is the rate of performance improvement the new set up can deliver.

It is apparent that decreasing A and B and improving C are the key.

A and B are can be influenced by good change management, the preparation of players in the change and support for them through the change. Realistic expectations and feedback are key components here.

C is essentially down to good design and continual refinement ie you don't just do something and then forget about it.

The lessons the models suggest are that in the long run one will get better performance if you keep with and build the existing system (including people) as long as you recognise when you have reached point X and it is time to switch lanes. Any movement before that may sound attractive in the here and now, but will br sub-optimal long term. The other things that this suggesst is that good change management is not just nice to have but essential in an accelerating world as is good design and maintenance of that deesign. We have to get better at these each time we do them if we are to curve the redline upwards.

Any thoughts? Still want to keep changing things? Don't get me wrong, I love being an agent of change, but not change just for change's sake.