WHY THE BBC MUST NOT XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Has the BBC taken leave of its senses in their redactions of the Pollard Report?

I was at Balliol with Lord Patten. Chris (as we knew him) was seen many times ccc vvvv xxxx nnnn cccccc nn bb yet we never thought this ,,,,mmmmmmmm despite his obvious propensity for  bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb discreetly.

It was David Cameron in his relationship with ccccccc nnnnnnn who raised more xxxxxxxxxx. He was discovered one vvvv,,, with his finger bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb laughing in mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm and in discomfort.

Ed Balls or Balls up as his friends described him was well known for vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv            vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv with evident relish.

And he thought this picture said it all:

SssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssSssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssSssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss disgusting.d d disgusting.

As all the above shows the practice of redaction makes innocents subject to unjustified speculation because redaction feeds the wit of Merton and Hislop on “Have I Got News For You?” and the fertile imaginations of the rest of us. No wonder Jeremy Paxman’s so frustrated.

It’s hard enough running anything.  People just make it worse. The tensions between indulging creative talent, human ambitions and the tendency that human beings have to cut off their noses to spite their faces makes being a leader one of the most complex tasks that exists.

How does one reconcile the frailties of leaders like Steve Jobs, Ron Dennis, Frank Lowe with the fact that each in their respective fields have been leaders of utterly brilliant business enterprises?

I watched “Moneyball” on Friday – Brad Pitt playing Billy Beane General Manager of the Oakland “A”s a financially strapped Baseball Team who uniquely used data to help recruit a hugely cost effective team in 2002. He broke all the rules of intuition old timers relied on in judging potential. It’s a riveting story of new business models.

As John Henry owner of the Boston Red Socks says to Billy:

“You won the exact same number of games that the Yankees won, but the Yankees spent one point four million per win and you paid two hundred and sixty thousand. I know you've taken it in the teeth out there, but for the first guy through the wall it always gets bloody, always. It's the threat of not just the way of doing business, but in their minds it's threatening the game. But really what it's threatening is their livelihoods, it's threatening their jobs, it's threatening the way that they do things.”

Redaction feels old fashioned too. Some believe it’s saving their jobs but it isn’t.  They should start opening up, telling the truth and changing the way they do things.

www.colourfulthinkers.com

LITTLE BY LITTLE BY LITTLE BY LITTLE

This started by seeing goggled eyed Ed Balls demanding a change of plan as part of  the conversations about a “catastrophic” 0.3% decline in national output in the last quarter of 2012 which he rather overdramatizes below.

Blimey! If you are earning the national average of £26,500 this equates to around £80 reduction. Now I don’t know about you but I doubt if that’s a catastrophe for most people although of course they’d prefer to have the money.

So (as one does) I got thinking about Dusty Springfield’s song of 1966 which in truth was a little depressing lyrically but I loved the tune and then Oasis in 2002 – both entitled “Little, by little, by little…” –  Oasis, a different song. And I started thinking about how we respond to and feel about trends.

You see I’ve become incredibly hacked off by constant talk about transformation and strategic breakthrough. As hacked off as hearing someone saying they’ve found an unbeatable way to make money – no risk – 15% guaranteed.

I don’t think growth can be plucked out of the air like that.

I don’t think transformations usually come off. Usually they turn out to be expensive mistakes.

I think it comes…little, by little, by little.

By fixing all the elements in the process.

By doing a lot of small things.

If we all improved our productivity by 0.3% - that catastrophic number - we’d have an extra 6 minutes free time in our day or, looked at differently, that 6 minutes multiplied across the adult population of the UK would amount to an extra 98 years of human resource.

Little, by little, by little becomes a lot … eventually.

AG Laffley who used to run P&G and tripled the share price whilst CEO has just written a book called “Playing to Win”.

In it he advocates refining what you are trying to do very clearly – you cannot talk to everyone, you can’t say much, it has to be something true to your delivery capability and it has to be worth paying attention to. If you’ve got that, place your chips on that and “play to win.”

It’s a story of little by little planning.

The most successful team in the Olympics (the UK cyclists) had a little idea that made a big impact.

Electronically heated hot pants.

Here’s what Victoria Pendleton said:-

 “They heat up almost instantaneously, you feel the temperature on your quads and hamstrings, and it really makes the difference.”

Go through everything you do and see what little things  to reduce, eliminate, increase and improve.

It’ll make a lot of little differences.

All of which add up.

www.colourfulthinkers.com