by Jim Lawless on December 19, 2008
There is only one topic that periodical editors are asking me to write on for them at present:
“How do we get the best from our people/motivate our people when we really need them on fire like never before?”
Various articles are being penned at present and you’ll see them go up as clippings on the press page at www.jimlawless.com. I thought I should give you Blog followers an advance version of some of the main points though. I hope you find them interesting, certainly, but I have to confess to an ulterior motive – I’d like to create a debate and to hear your thoughts also. Let’s get a conversation going here. We can carry it over to Taming Tigers Facebook page if we need a forum environment – but let’s kick it off on here and see what happens.
My starting point on this is clarity. Clarity on five points:
Clarity about what it is that the organisation is trying to achieve -”A clear and vivid Picture of success”
Clarity about what the strategy is to get there – “A clear Roadmap to success”
Clarity about what the individual can do and is expected to do to contribute – “My clear Role in achieving success”
Clarity about the rewards for success and the consequences of failure – “My clear Responsibility for delivering success”
Clarity within the leadership about the task of creating and maintaining clarity. Visibly. Daily. The Day Job! – “The leader must learn to conduct, not play – and then conduct the same tune – every day, with everyone – to achieve clarity about… (start song again from “Picture of success” and repeat for the foreseeable future… ).
And for my money, and not everybody is agreeing with me on this out there, there is a sixth. Clarity about the reality of the organisation’s position. They may as well know that it is now or never if it truly is now or never.
It’s only my starting point, as I say. I’ll share more detail if there’s an appetite and you’ll see it in the articles. But come on people – what’s missing here? What are YOU doing right now?
I’ll send a copy of Taming Tigers to the best addition or alternative approach.
Rule 5 – the tools for taming Tigers are all around you. Let’s work together.
by Jim Lawless on December 9, 2008
Rule 2 of the ten rules for Taming Tigers is this:
Re-write your Rulebook – challenge it hourly.
This is not a cry to anarchy or to leaving behind a moral conscience. It is a cry to challenge the assumptions, not to accept “the way things are done around here”, to challenge patterns of thinking, like the ones that say “I’m no good at talking to people so I don’t!” and so on…
So give yourself an early Christmas present today. Take a few minutes away from whatever is occupying you and go for a walk. Put your mind to really good use on a problem that you are wrestling with at home or at work and ask yourself – what are the assumptions that I am making here? What are the Rules that I – or the world – are applying here that are stopping me reaching a great solution? What do I have to let go of here in order to get more?
It must have been tough to challenge the Rulebook that said that the Lycos/Yahoo banner-ad search engine model was “the way that search engines are done around here”. But I bet Larry and Sergey are glad they gave it some thought.
Set yourself free – let go of something.
Over to you.
Go on. Take a hike!
by Jim Lawless on December 1, 2008
It has been a momentous two days here since we invited the world to download my book for free. In just two working days we have had many hundreds of downloads. We also know that many of these downloads have been forwarded many times.
Thanks to all of the people have got in contact to thank us for their copy – and to the many who have mailed to tell me that I am crazy to give it to you for free! So I wanted to explain why I decided to give you a copy.
I believe in ideas. I believe that they can make a difference to people. I believe that some people will take an idea and fuse it with their own energy and their own ideas, make it a better idea and then make something special happen. And having seen over 70,000 people enjoy a Taming Tigers speech and heard back from many of them about what that fusing of ideas can do – and mean for people – that belief is well founded.
The key to my deciding to give you a free copy of the book was the ideas of Seth Godin. I subscribe to his blog and enjoy his books. If you like ideas, marketing or business – you may enjoy Seth’s work also. He persuaded me to let go of the “pay me for my ideas” idea that I used to have in order to play for a more interesting prize.
Today he is offering a chance to share and fuse ideas on an even more intimate platform than a blog, however. So click here if you are up for taming a really juicy Tiger with Seth.
Oh, and was it mad to give away my book, commercially? Watch this space and I will tell you as we begin to sell the book next year. What I can tell you is that many folk have written to say that they have mailed it on to entire departments. We have people from all continents now hitting our sites. It comes out on 1 January – you can pre-order now at www.tamingtigers.com.
On a purely commercial level (and nobody said ideas could not be commercial, now!) we have already achieved an global increase in brand recognition beyond our wildest dreams.
Thanks for the idea, Seth.
by Jim Lawless on November 27, 2008
You will very, very rarely see any “advertorial” on this blog. That is not it’s purpose.
But today we are emailing many thousands of people with an invitation to download a copy of Taming Tigers for free. If you received my email today – thanks for dropping by the blog!
We are giving the book away (until Dec 14th only – available in all good bookshops from the 1st Jan!) to attempt to kick start the creation of a community. A community of energy and adventure, a community of Tiger tamers and change makers. And a community needs people – like you – to get it started!
So if you want to be a part of the Taming Tigers Global Community and both give and receive support to make things happen out there, please sign up to this blog through the subscribe button on this page. Get involved in discussions here, post comments and suggest topics that you think should be covered.
Be heard!
Join our community on Facebook also and invite your friends to do the same. There on our Wall you can make a bold Rule 1 Pledge to get something done, ask the community for help or share a Victory that you have achieved to give some energy out there. Just click here to get involved.
And finally, please pass on the email that you received today to as many people as you wish. Please don’t forward the link to download the book, or your pdf copy. Please forward the whole email so that they can download the book themselves and get involved.
Rule 1 – Act Boldly Today – Who knows where it could lead us?!
Spread the word…
Jim.
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