I am delighted to be joined in this second episode by my friend and colleague Jim Scholes. Jim is well known as an academic and a highly successful consultant, who has worked for some of the best-known companies in the world. Based on his academic work with Peter Checkland, Jim has spent much of his career helping some of the biggest names in the world achieve growth strategies.

Jim talks about how important the initial diagnostic activity is as part of a consulting assignment. From this the nature, and extend of senior level engagement will be determined. The diagnostic will also identify how much resource will be dedicated to this work from within the client organisation. The design of an intervention is based on the diagnostic and leads to a conversation with the senior management about what needs to be done, including the key outcomes. Outcomes will be things like increasing revenue, but also may include enhanced skills and the ability, within the client organisation, to do things differently. The motivations for a client can be tested during this early diagnostic work and Jim talks about the reasons why it is occasionally important to say no to a new consulting assignment.

Today I am delighted to be joined by my friend and colleague Jim Scholes. Jim is well known as an academic and a highly successful consultant, who has worked for some of the best-known companies in the world. Based on his academic work with Peter Checkland, Jim has spent much of his career helping some of the biggest names in the world achieve growth strategies. Jim talks about how he set up his consultancy company and the way he structured a fee system to incentivise the consultant and the client to achieve growth for the client. 

Jim talks about some of the key challenges in consultancy – neither the client nor the consultant know in advance what the answer will be. Jim talks about the importance of helping clients at different levels of a company to go on a “learning journey”, one of the most critical factors in delivering consulting assignments well. Jim talks about his work with Nokia in the early 1990s, helping them to move beyond their financial problems and establishing a strategy for their enormous global growth; reaching, by the late 1990s, a position as the globally dominant mobile phone supplier. Jim talks about working with the CEO of Nokia, Jorma Ollila and how this, initially tricky working relationship, became a partnership for growth. Jim also talks about a European division of a US business that he worked with, another huge global corporation. The European business was initially seen as the ‘problem child’ and were instructed to change. After Jim’s work, the board accepted that the European business was the one that had a stronger business model. Directly resulting from the consulting assignment a different approach was taken to the whole global business, including the US, and the client created a new $2bn worldwide business  – an immensely successful example of growth and transformation using systems approaches.

This week I'm going to talk about Matthew Perry and a couple of things that have come to light following his sad and untimely death. Soap operas were a pretty crowded market back in 1994 when Matthew Perry and friends first hit American TV screens. Friends brought together comedy and a soap opera and the concept of bringing together two things which are quite different to form something better than the two is known as integrative thinking. Another thing that has come to light from Matthew Perry’s life is that although he was wealthy and successful, he based his whole idea of what was good on one simple thing, “do I get the laugh?” And when he didn’t get a laugh from the audience Matthew took this personally. Comedy is a tough business and there are other ways to evaluate what was happening, this leads us to think about ways in which other comedians evaluated and moved on. Ken Dodd was one of the most analytical comedians in the UK, testing and refining different jokes on different audiences. And we can learn a lot about how analytics can move us from a pass/fail test to something more useful and enlightening – in Ken’s case a Giggle Map – an analytical tool to help Ken to place the right joke in the right place. According to Ken, northern audiences needed a lot of “one liners” whereas in the south of the UK some more subtle jokes were called for. 

In today’s world people have to work very hard. I don’t mean just the long hours and relentless drive for results, but I mean the commuting, endlessly juggling caring responsibilities for younger or older members of the family, the 24 hour “always on” culture. But when you look at the outcome of all this pressure, I don’t really see most people benefitting from it. Certainly not in the UK. 

I would very much like to see us go back to a society where people have more time. People have more opportunities to grow and to develop and to do well. I would like to see us go to a time where, everybody works very hard towards a vision. But we don't have to work long hours to work very hard towards a vision. We simply make the most of every single second that we have. 

Systems thinking can enable this. If we can get this right, we as a society will become more efficient, we'll become more productive and we'll become happier.

In today’s episode Professor Martin talks to Isabel Gennaro a Global Impact Strategist about the power of emotions and how to channel them effectively. In this episode, we explore what to do when you're boiling with rage over mundane tasks. An insightful conversation on managing your emotions and transforming them into positive action.

In today’s episode Professor Martin talks to Isabel Gennaro a Global Impact Strategist about the feeling world.

In consultancy we consider three worlds – the material world, the political world and the feeling (emotional) world. Each is important to being able to deliver transformation.

The feeling world can often be considered “lower priority” in busy corporate life. Yet this has the key to enable the most dramatic transformations. Martin and Isabel talk about how to gain new perspectives and how to move towards a new system.  Isabel talks about her experiences of living in different countries in the global north and global south, and how this has shaped her views about what people need. Isabel talks about how important people skills are to enabling change especially listening. Learning to follow your heart is vital so that you are in alignment with your values and purpose. Isabel talks about her indigenous mentor and how the feeling world is so important in our lives. Our ancestors had much closer contact with people and it was easier for them to have a clearer perspective on the emotional world. 

Welcome to The Evolving Enterprises Podcast!

In today’s episode Professor Martin & Prichelle will discuss governance:

·         The key elements of governance: Setting a vision, measuring progress, holding an organisation to account for delivering this.

·         How governance is working within the UK at the moment and where there are opportunities for improving them.

·         Some flawed assumptions such as the project is a “fixed target” which they very rarely are.

·         How to develop a governance system that is appropriate for the organisation.

Welcome to The Evolving Enterprises Podcast!

In today’s episode Prof Martin & Prichelle will discuss the following topics:

• How to deliver transformation
• How to get the best out of a transformation activity
• Sprint Starts
• Indicators of success

We are pleased to take you on a journey, guiding you to be an effective leader and enabling you to transform your business, charity, or project. We will share stories of growth and transformation and will share insights into the complexities of decision making and business management. We are so excited for you to grow as a leader and for your business to transform alongside you!

Welcome to The Evolving Enterprises Podcast!

In today’s episode Prof Martin & Prichelle will discuss the following topics:

• Reward mechanisms
• Innovation

We are pleased to take you on a journey, guiding you to be an effective leader and enabling you to transform your business, charity, or project. We will share stories of growth and transformation and will share insights into the complexities of decision making and business management. We are so excited for you to grow as a leader and for your business to transform alongside you!

Welcome to The Evolving Enterprises Podcast!

In today’s episode Prof Martin & Prichelle will discuss the following topics:

• What is transformation?
• How to achieve transformation?
• What are the barriers inhibiting transformation?
• How to encourage an organisation to transform & move forward
• Kubler Ross stages of change in transformation in the workplace

We are pleased to take you on a journey, guiding you to be an effective leader and enabling you to transform your business, charity, or project. We will share stories of growth and transformation and will share insights into the complexities of decision making and business management. We are so excited for you to grow as a leader and for your business to transform alongside you!