Ignite: Real Leadership, Real Talk, Real Results

INTRODUCTION

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.

— Socrates, Greek philosopher

I entered the workforce in 1985, smack-bang in the middle of the eighties. The eighties were good times. They were fun times. For many reasons, but maybe especially because of the music. I mean, it's pretty hard not to enjoy yourself when your soundtrack includes ‘Walking on Sunshine’ and ‘We Built this City’.

Business was also a good place to be during the eighties because leaders were more real. Long lunches were the norm. Being in the office on Friday afternoon was for ‘try-hards’. Life was good. Then something happened in the late eighties … we had a recession. Demand for jobs far outweighed the supply. All of a sudden, the fun stopped. Everyone was so scared of losing their job they started to work harder and longer. They tried to blend in so they would not get noticed.

As leaders, we enrolled in MBAs, hoping this extra qualification would help us find our next job or secure our current job. In our MBAs, we were taught about SWOT analysis and TOWS analysis, balance sheets and Porter's Five Forces model. We were shown how to measure and capture data, and use data to make business decisions. And we came out the other end a little bit … well, quite frankly — a little bit boring and full of crap.

‘If you can't measure it, you can't manage it,’ became the mantra in businesses, and a strong focus on data, stats and analysis emerged. ...