WILY – great name for a twitter account, I think!  (Yes, I do tweet too…)

Carrying on the theme from my tangential thoughts after Kevin Pietersen story broke – it just shows how much you can take as lessons for organisational life from daily news.  Just think a bit…

1. “Pietersen calls shots as lucrative offers come in”. (PR department?  Handling bad news well?  Social Media power?
2. “Railway to nowhere – storms destroy key route” (Long-term planning, short-term fixing…management versus strategic leadership?)
3. “Laws: Give Ofsted power to inspect Tory flagship academies” (What gets measured gets done?  Do we have the right performance indicators?  Are we just checking what is easy to measure?)
4. “NHS faces unprecedented squeeze, warns IFS” (Budgeting in constrained times?  Living within an imposed environment – not worth worrying about what we can’t do – let’s be creative about what we can influence?)
5. “Obesity leads to trebling of insulin use in last 20 years” (Can we do anything to help increase the healthiness of our whole staff?  Stress management workshops?
6. “Tube Strike chaos” (When two tribes go to war – do we have factions like Boris and Bob?  Are they being destructive?  Communication issues? Dispute resolution skills needed?)
7. Winter Olympics begins…(Discrimination?  Homophobia?  Group-think? Security?)

(from my friends at Glasstap / Trainers Library)

Look – I’m only on page 10 of my newspaper (The i, since you ask), and I have been very extensively thought provoked!

Wednesday’s blog caused one reader (Nick – thanks!) to send me this story – again, very instructive:

“Your insightful article reminded me of an experience from which I can draw comparison. A couple of years ago, I had working for me, probably the most talented engineer I have ever come across. Absolutely brilliant with a super quick and efficient methodology in a variety of disciplines. Tragically his talents did not incorporate any ability whatsoever to work and get along with his, technically lesser but collaboratively superior, fellow employees. In hindsight I tried too hard and for too long to keep this guy but eventually for the good of the ‘team’ the brilliant maverick had to go…….”

My thoughts?  Learn from those sorts of thing – and grasp the nettle earlier!

Have a great weekend.