Genuine Curiosity

Author Dwayne Melancon is always on the lookout for new things to learn. An ecclectic collection of postings on personal productivity, travel, good books, gadgets, leadership & management, and many other things.

 

Review: Six Disciplines for Excellence

I recently had the opportunity to review the book "Six Disciplines For Excellence: Building Small Business That Learn, Lead and Last," by Gary Harpst. As the subtitle implies, this book is geared toward small business that want to increase their effectiveness and results. I found the book full of practical tools, process outlines, and examples to help small business crystallize many aspects of their strategic and operating plans.

I was impressed with the breadth of tools provided, as well as the practical examples shown for many of the tools. The book takes you through various aspects of plan definition, tied to six focus areas:

  1. Decide what's important
  2. Set goals that lead
  3. Align systems
  4. Work the plan
  5. Innovate Purposefully
  6. Step Back

Within each area (or "Discipline"), there are guides to help you flesh out risks, dependencies, expense plans, and a lot of great information on establishing meaningful metrics and providing dashboards to the teams to keep them engaged and focused on the right things. There is also good benchmark data as backup to the techniques.

One thing that was different about this book: in the reviewer's kit I received, there was some additional collateral that talked about "Six Disciplines Leadership Centers," coaching, and other resources provided by the Six Disciplines Corporation. This didn't feel like your typical management book, so I decided to find out more. I contacted Skip Reardon, the Director of Marketing for Six Disciplines Corporation, and began a dialog to feed my curiosity about them.

If you are seeking help with developing your small business's strategy (whether you've read the book yet or not), I would like to share what I've learned so you can make a more informed choice about whether this book and/or Six Discipline's services are a fit for you. Here is a summary of our conversation:

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The dark side of wikis

A couple of articles have come my way this week, which highlight one of the challenges of open information sharing: people sometimes lie. The articles I've read are about a false bit of "history" created on Wikipedia, defaming a gentleman that used to work for Bobby Kennedy.

If you know your source is subject to subversion, you can look for third party verification - but people want to trust things like Wikipedia because they very good, and they make research much easier. Encouragingly, my 12-year-old's school is educating their students on the cautions of using Wikipedia as a reference source. In fact, the first I heard about this Wikipedia false history incident was from them via email. This, from the school librarian:

Wikipedia, an online "encyclopedia," is being used heavily by students. They need to be aware that it is not always accurate. Here is an example: http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-11-29-wikipedia-edit_x.htm 

My solution: use it if you must but verify the information in at least two other sources that have established reputations for providing reliable information. That might mean looking in a book!

My daily CNet News.com alert contained a perspective piece on "Wikipedia and the nature of truth," which offers additional perspective on the article above.

Lying is nothing new, of course. But access to lies gets easier with the internet.

When people lie in a credible venue, how long can the venue remain credible? It depends on whether you take action to rectify the lie, and implement controls to reduce the possibility that future lies will be tolerated.

One solution is to use some kind of verification process to assure you of the credibility of the source. Professional research organizations and commercial encyclopedias ostensibly have fact checkers to vet this out.

I'm not sure if Wikipedia's structure allows a fact checking process, or if it simply relies on peer review and "let us know if you see something wrong" vigilance. That's fine, but it seems there should be some sort of authentication for content providers, at minimum, so we could avoid the "we don't really know who made this false claim" situation outlined in the USA Today piece. I think that's reasonable for a resource like Wikipedia, which is emerging as an authoritative reference source.

What do you think?

Related Posts:

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Knowing vs. doing - Where is the value?

I just read the second installment of a 3-part series on EM Sky's Win-Win Web. She is talking about the house her father (and a couple of guys named Herman and Louie) built. She grew up there, but the world has moved on since then and now someone else owns it and is remodeling it. Go read it - she has some powerful thoughts on what this change means to her.

Handscrew_1 In today's post (part 2) she talks about how easy it has become to discard the blood and sweat that goes into creating things of value. She says, "We measure the value of the things we buy through the price we pay for them. And we forget to be grateful for the labor of others because we already paid them in cash. Money becomes the extent of every exchange, and relationship is forgotten."

I think there is another aspect of today's society that contributes to our disposable view of the world. We're getting very good at efficiency over individuality these days. Cram a bunch of kids through a one-size-fits-all educational system (and no, I'm not blaming the teachers) and program them in a cost-effective way.

Once upon a time, people learned by doing. There were apprenticeships, hands-on training, and lots of *creating* things to learn how to create them better.

Today, people (yes, I'm one of them) learn about things they'll never see or do, and become "experts" on places and people they'll never see. We buy things we could never make on our own, made by people we'll never meet or get to know. It makes our lives a lot easier, but it also makes the lives of the anonymous "thing makers" - and the things they make - less valuable. How much of the furniture in your house will last for 200 years? Unfortunately, not much of mine. Heck, I don't think my house itself will last that long.

What's the answer? I don't know. But I'm encouraged that the internet doesn't just make it easier for us to buy the cheapest commodities at the lowest prices. It also makes it easier for us to reach the unique offerings of today's artisans that live beyond the bounds of our villages. Yes, there are still people out there who make things by hand and put a bit of themselves in each thing they make.

Here are but a few examples:

And I could go on... All of this is just a Google (or Yahoo! or MSN...) search away. Sure, you might pay a bit more, but I think the unique value is worth it for some things. The nature of our world is changing; we need to make sure that value and relationships don't become things of the past.

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Kind words and a warm place to sleep

During a recent hotel stay, I found a laminated card on my pillow at an Embassy Suites outside Kansas City. I made a copy of it and carry it with me now, since I love the sentiment. It made me feel better about my stay at the hotel, and I'd like to share it with you.

To Our Guests
In ancient times there was a prayer for
"The Stranger Within Our Gates"

Because this hotel is a human institution to serve people, and not solely a money making organization, we hope that God will grant you peace and rest while you are under our roof.

May this suite and hotel be your "second" home. May those you love be near you in thoughts and dreams. Even though we may not get to know you, we hope that you will be conformable and happy as if you were in your own house.

May the business that brought you our way prosper. May every call you make and every message you receive add to your joy. When you leave, may your journey be safe.

We are all travelers. From "birth 'til death" we travel between eternities. May these days be pleasant for you, profitable for society, helpful for those you meet, and a joy to those who know and love you best.

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