In the QUBE no one can hear you weep...

For decades we have been promised that technology would imminently conquer distance and time and enable us to work together at a distance as if we were side-by-side.

Video conferencing missed the mark and quickly became known for its cost, unreliability and the need to go to a ‘special room’ to peer into the faces of distant colleagues, email has evolved into he electronic version of those birthday candles which once blown out immediately relight themselves. Audio conferences and webinars are simply one person talking and 18 doing their emails in on mute – occasionally replying yes or no to a poll!

On the 12th of July two things happened. The first was the launch at Cape Canaveral signalling the final end of the space race and the second was that Professor Eddie Obeng led the first conference in the Pentacle QUBE entitled Innovation Without Boundaries.

QUBE is our attempt to create a natural working environment for collaboration at a distance. We designed it as a way to enable our business education applications so that we could seamlessly intertwine education with real work for our global clients. But we got more than we bargained for. Instead what we have created is perhaps the most natural collaborative environment available when people around the world need to work together. Because everything stays where it’s left, even across time zones, we can create the equivalent of ‘sticking a post-it on your monitor’. The secret is not just in the technology it is also in our understanding of creating environments where people wish to share and also in our skills in driving and influencing the behaviour change needed.

Key speakers were David Williams CEO Amari Plastics, David Kester of the Design Council, Sebatian Conran, Dr David Lonmas and Professor Eddie Obeng.

Perhaps the best comment we received on the day was one very animated participant who at the end said in a tight voice, “When I think of all the time in my life I have spent, wasted, miserably watching Powerpoints and been bored rigid listening to audio conference monologues and not progressing the work itself, I could weep.”

You can find out more about QUBE at http://QUBE.cc

Dancing to the B.E.A.T of Rapid Change

Ghana is thumping!  For a country known for it’s talking drums and foot tapping ‘hi-life’ music, the intertwined rhythms of change, innovation and execution have stepped-up their volume.  In the last few years GDP growth has shot up and is predicted to hit 15% soon.  Everyone wants to join in, from international and regional players to local start-ups, everyone is clamouring to do business in Ghana, and Accra is in the lead.

But the party spirit is dampened by anxieties about change projects that nobody believes in, complaints about lack of the right talent. ‘Resistance to change’ is often the refrain.

Kwame Akuffo and Michael Anaman  of Pentacle Africa were joined by delegates from Bharti Airtel; Buck Press; BVM Advisory; Databank; Ghana Commercial Bank, First Atlantic Bank; HFC Bank; JLD & MB Legal Consultancy; MMRS –Ogilvy; Ogilvy Africa Media; SSNIT and UT Bank and other companies well known in Ghana for two days.  The theme was Managing Today, Inventing Tomorrow - Welcome to the New World!

Over the two days the delegates were challenged, amazed and delighted by the range of Pentacle frameworks and concepts.  They were really energised by the Pentacle guests: Prince Kofi Amoabeng, CEO and founder of UT Bank and UT Holdings and Mr. Reginald France of Boulders Advisors and valued the fact that they had many chances to put their learning into action, guided by the tutors.

The most popular ‘tracks’ of the conference were on: “How to cope with the pace and speed of change”, How to avoid the “Dead Body Syndrome” of dissatisfied stakeholders and most to all the crucial importance of sticking to the Leadership B.E.A.T.  (which stands for our own Behaviours and the paradigms that underpin them; the Emotional engagement of followers; the prioritisation of the key Actions and the new world Thinking which de-risks all of it).

There will be another chance to dance to the BEAT with the Pentacle duo in September 2011.  If you want to find out some more visit us at http://www.Pentacle-Africa.com/

Note to: Harvard Business Review Editor - Please correct your spelling...

It seems that time travel is possible and that Pentacle has managed it.  This month ion an article entitled Who moved my cube? Creating workspace that actually foster collaboration.  HBR is exploring touchspace.  We think that they got it absolutely right but in the wrong stardate.  For the 21st century should probably be exploring cyberspace with the Pentacle QUBE - or maybe it was just a spelling mistook!

    
Old World

 New World         

In the QUBE no one can hear you weep

For decades we have been promised that technology would imminently conquer distance and time and enable us to work together at a distance as if we were side-by-side.

Video conferencing missed the mark and quickly became known for its cost, unreliability and the need to go to a ‘special room’ to peer into the faces of distant colleagues, email has evolved into he electronic version of those birthday candles which once blown out immediately relight themselves. Audio conferences and webinars are simply one person talking and 18 doing their emails in on mute – occasionally replying yes or no to a poll!

On the 12th of July two things happened. The first was the launch at Cape Canaveral signalling the final end of the space race and the second was that Professor Eddie Obeng led the  first conference in the Pentacle QUBE entitled   Innovation Without Boundaries.

QUBE is our attempt to create a natural working environment for collaboration at a distance. We designed it as a way to enable our business education applications so that we could seamlessly intertwine education with real work for our global clients. But we got more than we bargained for. Instead what we have created is perhaps the most natural collaborative environment available when people around the world need to work together. Because everything stays where it’s left, even across time zones, we can create the equivalent of ‘sticking a post-it on your monitor’. The secret is not just in the technology it is also in our understanding of creating environments where people wish to share and also in our skills in driving and influencing the behaviour change needed.

Perhaps the best comment we received on the day was one very animated participant who at the end said in a tight voice, “When I think of all the time in my life I have spent, wasted, miserably watching Powerpoints and been bored rigid listening to audio conference monologues and not progressing the work itself, I could weep.”

You can find out more about QUBE at http://QUBE.cc

When Information Is No Longer Enough...

Have you noticed colleagues literally disappearing around you? No, not by magic, but because they leave the company (well, that is what they pretend, but in reality, it is more likely they are leaving their boss – possibly even YOU?).

In the most extreme cases, people have been known to “absent themselves” by committing suicide.

This particular tragedy happened recently to a manager I know.  Can you imagine yourself in such a situation? Would you still sleep at night?  Although it sounds extreme, in the complex, fast changing, ambiguous world in which we live, this sort of situation is less and less a “low-occurrence possibility” and more and more a well identified risk.

How would you tackle this risk?

Well … by recognizing that there is a big difference between communicating to engage and communicating to inform. 


“We do not communicate enough! I don’t know what is going on!” is the usual refrain from frustrated managers.


Sounds familiar? But think about it. If your team really wanted to get ‘information’, they would all trawl through the annual report and browse your corporate intranet in order to access the tons of data there. Do they do that?  No.


People say “I want more information” but in reality, they mean “I want to be engaged, to feel part of a system”.


The challenge is that dealing with information is not that difficult, but engaging people emotionally is somewhat new for most leaders.


In some of the companies we are working with at Pentacle,  “proximity communication” and “corporate connections” have become key phrases. They have two important dimensions:

- transforming all leaders (ie: anyone who has people reporting to him/her) into better communicators. This is often based on quick, on-the-spot, training on engagement techniques …

- supplying regular “engaging” information to them, as the “fuel” for monthly connection meetings they are asked to lead themselves, with two objectives in mind: developing the sense of being part of a whole, and creating an open dialogue.

I know, this sounds absurd to ask team leaders in factories for example to stop a production process for 30 minutes for a ‘connection meeting’, to recognise that all need to be good communicators, to realise that open dialogue is a must.  But, do you know what? Companies we are working with are experiencing tangible results … and we, at Pentacle, are ready to explain how…

It’s time to talk!

Moving into the New World

Walk around Bratislava in Slovakia and you notice something remarkable; there is almost perfect wifi coverage across the centre of the city.

"Give me a two cans and I can turn
this string into into a virtual network"

It is the kind of thing that authorities in the older parts of Europe merely dream about and the impact is astounding. There is a fluency of communication and speed to doing business that makes the normal round of meetings and agendas seem very Old World.

Robert Hewins of Pentacle Benelux, and Toby Scott of Pentacle Ireland have just finished two days with some of the brightest project managers in Slovakia teaching them the principles of the NewWorldTM. This is a country that carries a legacy of Soviet occupation in the form of outdated practice and conservative attitudes, but, in terms of their ability to do business in cyberspace, they have truly gone virtual.

Because Pentacle’s worth it ...

L’Oreal recently ‘adopted’ Christophe Gillet in their “Global leadership for growth” programme, designed and delivered by Cedep, in order to help project managing & facilitating one of their most sophisticated and  successful learning event. 

When HSBC France thinks about innovation ...

Paris. The world’s local bank is definitely a leader in NewWorldTM thinking. In an industry that is supposed to be extremely regulated, most banks give up trying to really innovate. Leaders like HSBC, on the contrary, consider this situation as a real opportunity to differentiate. Senior leaders from France gathered in Paris for a one day workshop led by Christophe Gillet. Keywords: Thinking differently, opening minds, grabbing opportunities, changing perspective, designing for change, and indeed innovating for value. When leaders get serious about innovation and change, it seems that they naturally find their way to Pentacle. Long life to innovation at HSBC France!

Janssen Cilag, top pharmaceutical leader, go for change with Pentacle & Gillet ...

Dusseldorf. When it comes to real change, people must come first. No way to change processes, organisations, methods, if people are not engaged and willing to support. At Janssen, this is well understood ... and put in practice, with Pentacle. The leading team was invited to a one day workshop that was organised around the idea of ‘stop rushing / start thinking differently’, in other words: creating a privileged moment of new thinking, new perspective building. Go slow in order to go fast was a key motto. Needless to rush more and more. There’s always a limit. Rather think differently about problems, use of time, delegation, and work/life balance. The “rat race” is over, the NewWorldTM has come ... with Pentacle

TOTALy Senior, with Pentacle

Paris. What do a worldbank VP, a worldclass pianist, a world famous philosopher/ethnologist and the expert coach of a french minister have in common? The largest French petrol company chooses Pentacle to design and deliver their senior execs development programme, twice a year, both in French and English languages. A unique team of international speakers and tutors joined Christophe to deliver a ‘serious but non-orthodoxical’ programme designed to surprise and develop even the most experienced senior leaders ... Energy and new thinking in action! A Pentacle programme.

When HSBC Asia think “Strategic Agility”, Pentacle is not too far away ...

HongKong. The world’s local bank is definitely a leader in NewWorldTM thinking. In an industry that is supposed to be extremely regulated, most banks give up trying to really innovate. Leaders like HSBC, on the contrary, consider this situation as a real opportunity to differentiate. 40 senior leaders from Asia-Pacific gathered in HongKong for a 3 day workshop led by Christophe Gillet and Graham Wilson, articulated around the concept of ‘strategic agility’. Keywords: Thinking differently, opening minds, grabbing opportunities, changing perspective, designing for change, and indeed innovating for value. When leaders get serious about innovation and change, it seems that they naturally find their way to Pentacle. Long life to innovation at HSBC!

New models, new relationships and a new era....

The Guardian Public Sector Summit comes at exactly the time that the phony war on cuts has ended and now something must be done.  Entitled New models, new relationships and a new era and sponsored by PWC, BT, CSC & HaCRIC it was likely to be a rough and tumble of argument, emotion, heated discussion and exploration expertly chaired by David Brindle of the Guardian. 

The Conference was kicked off with a keynote by the UK's Deputy Prime M The Right Honourable Nick Clegg MP  who asked the delegates "not to criticise the boss but to become the boss."  There were a wide range of views from 'The Virtual Council' by Suffolk County Council to the use of technology to deliver better health services..  The Social Enterprise movement also spearheaded the third sector debate. 

The other keynote Over two days the speakers used case examples to argue and explore the possible futures for the Public Sector. 

Pentacle's Eddie Obeng  delivered the closing keynote.  He began by declaring that "I live in the future so that you don't have to...yet with a backdrop of Pentacle's face to face learning approaches and and a video of the Pentacle QUBE - the 3D immersive learning environment.  more...

He introduced the audience to The New World model and used this to get past the 'old world ' either or thinking to help the participants consider wider options.  He then helped delegates to understand how new challenges needed new models and new models needed new words.   Eddie explained how having been grounded as a pilot because his weight was too much for his height he had decided on a programme of cuts himself and had decided to sacrifice his left arm before re framing the challenge as 'delivering differently a better outcome'.  He got the delegates to agree to banish the word 'cuts' from their vocabulary.  He told them how R.A.B.B.I.T.sTM  could enable innovation illustrating his stories with Case studies from the Design Council's work where as a rule in the Public Services by design programme every pound spent returns 26!

Eddie's keynote was described by the Guardian as '...stirring and inspiring...'

Exploring the BuyerSphere

If you’re involved in selling anything remotely complicated - anything that involves thoughtful consideration over an extended period by multiple stakeholders before a decision is made - you’ve probably noticed something.

The Old World “always be closing” approach to selling is increasingly irrelevant, and diminishingly effective. The harder we get sold to, the less we like it - unless we’ve acquired a taste for toying with dumb sales people.  And our prospects feel the same.

It’s clear that the balance of information power has shifted from the seller to the buyer. Prospects no longer look to sales people for information, for the same reasons that they no longer attend trade shows, unless they work for local government.

They have found far better sources of insight. The internet - when combined with their formal and informal social and business networks - enables them to thoroughly research possible solutions and identify potential suppliers without the discomfort of having to speak to a sales person.

Buyers tell an old joke told about sales people. It goes “How do you know when a sales person is lying?” The inevitable answer? “When their lips are moving”. Funnily (or not) enough, sales people tell the same joke (with one obvious variation) about buyers.

So, in a world where buyers avoid the need to observe sales people’s lips moving until the last possible moment, what’s a New World vendor to do? I’d like to suggest a possible answer.

Today's prospects are influenced by a wide variety of sources, far beyond the traditional analyst and press community.  

They look for recommendations from a community of trusted advisors, who can include formal and informal networks, business connections, existing vendors and many other sources - collectively referred to as their BuyerSphere.

Your prospects are building these connections, following these pathways of influence and forming opinions long before they decide to take action on an issue or reach out to a salesperson, with significant consequences for your sales process. 

So how should a New World vendor respond? You can make a start by carefully exploring the BuyerSphere that surrounds your most valuable prospects and customers. Find out who they are influenced by. Learn who they trust. Find out where they naturally turn when their status quo is disturbed and they start searching for solutions.

And once you start to understand this web of influence, don’t hack through it like an Old World explorer in a pith helmet tramping their way through the undergrowth, and frightening everything within a five mile radius.

Don’t pitch, educate. Help your prospective customers learn from your experience. Encourage your existing customers and fans to help you get found in the places their peer group go looking for advice. Share your insights without expectation.

When (as it inevitably will) your generosity with your insights strikes a chord, make it easy for them to find out more. And coach your sales people to stop closing and start looking for ways to support your new prospect’s decision-making process.

Necessity is about to become a Mother Again*

Professor Eddie Obeng's guest blogger week at HM Government's Department of Business Innovation and Skills

Public Sector Innovation Blog 3

Creating the Opportunity – How to systematically find chances to innovate

Professor Eddie Obeng's guest blogger week at HM Government's Department for Business Innovation and Skills

Public Sector Innovation Blog 2