Forsyth Consulting Group - Reflections in Excellence Articles Series

find out more			Many of us are striving for success, in our work, our recreation and our relationships. But what does ‘success’ mean? Providing meaning in success may be more important than merely finding a definition. Many organisations have a Vision or Mission Statement (and possibly both). But are they useful? Where our 'vision statements' merely provide a description of our business and how we'd like things to be done, the cynics may have their point. In identifying the reasons why many of our greatest goals are not achieved, it is sometimes said that our fear of failure holds us back. By putting to one side and ignoring those fears we should then be able to move forward, fully committed to the actions required. Or so it seems. However, what if it is not the fear of failure, but the fear of success, that holds us back? Where what we say subconsciously influences how we act, one particular cliché may be a clear indicator of whether your organisation is doing excellent work or just more good stuff. Maintaining standards of excellence involves consistency and stasis, but innovation and growth in organizations necessarily involves change and disequilibrium. The difficulty of managing the flux between these two forces, especially at critical turning points, suggests the need for the conscious development of a composite alternative: a ‘dynamic equilibrium’

	•	Sustainable Business Excellence: Dynamic Equilibrium (PDF file) (2 May 2003)
	•	Do Anything You Like: 'It's all Good' (22 November 2002)
	•	Fear of Success: Hidden Barriers in the Fast Lane (3 May 2002)
	•	Is Your Vision Getting Blurry (28 March 2002)
	•	The Meaning Of Success (17 December 2001)


find out more				There is an old maxim that says 'if you do not know which port you are heading for any sail set will do'. Navigating a future in uncharted territory can leave some skippers all at sea. So what do experienced captains do when they lose sight of the shore? What happens when we are faced with a long awaited strategic opportunity? Do we recognise it and choose our time to act? Or do we reach a state of analysis so profound that it leads to paralysis of thought and action. Our history of decision making says a lot about our future. Why is it that there are so many problem solving methodologies but the number of problems never decrease? Perhaps if we had a way of creating solutions instead of problems we would be a whole lot more productive. We all look for certainty. While we live in uncertain times with uncertain futures we wish it were not so. However, living with risk and uncertainty is something that has always been a fact of life. What excites us is the ability to determine and predict our future, and perhaps even have a role in its co-creation. Researchers have often wondered about how the human mind works so as to better understand how we can think more effectively. Recognizing the way our mind works in the practical and physical world, allows us to make greater sense of both our thinking and our conceptual world. By doing this we can transcend any existing mental models which see only parts of the conceptual landscape.

	•	Visualizing Conceptual Landscapes (29 October 2004)
	•	If In Doubt: Do Something (Consciously) (16 August 2003)
	•	Solutions Looking For Problems (24 September 2002)
	•	The Winds of Change: Navigating the Future (17 July 2002)
	•	Strategic Paralysis: The Princely Dilemma (17 January 2002)


find out more			In our Leaders we place our trust, sometimes deservedly and sometimes not so deservedly. But what is it that permits some to lead and others to instead assume the role of followership? Knowledge of the familiar is becoming not as relevant as the ability to lead into the unknown.. Time management can be learned. With the use of simple tools we have become increasingly skilled at managing the urgent. But for those managing strategically for the future a more sophisticated approach is required. If you are responsible for the success of new leaders , this article will provide you with some strategies to ensure their success. What type of leader does it take to ensure the contribution of all of the people under their authority to survive being stranded in below freezing temperatures for 18 months on the polar ice flow without outside assistance. What cold, hard lessons on leadership do we find in Shackleton's heroic Antarctic expedition? When we approach a competitive situation it is usually desirable to know how to win. By knowing the game play and being practiced in the skills required - winning then becomes easy. However, some games are not about win-lose scenarios. When the best outcome is unknown and must be discovered, a different approach may be required.

	•	Game, Set, Mis-Match: Unproductive Winning (14 March 2003)
	•	Ensuring New Leader Success (15 October 2002)
	•	Lessons in Leadership: Shackleton's Way (7 June 2002)
	•	Time Management: The Next Generation (20 January 2002)
	•	The Entrusted Leader: In Whom do we Trust? (1 November 2001)


find out more			Our defense to the potential for embarrassment in learning something new is often to justify to ourselves that what we already know - is all that we need. The less we find out, the more we are justified in our belief that there is nothing knew to learn – and the less we find out. When this syndrome becomes part of an organisation’s culture, innovation and learning comes to a standstill. But how do we break this learning paradox? Is your organisation a hyperactive child, the lanky teenager, having a mid-life crisis or just a grumpy old man. In a recently published book, Robert Jones identifies seven phases in the life of an organisation and its ideals. Organisational growth and decline may not be pre-destined, but how do you know when your organisation has reached its potential? We often wonder why no-one sees our point of view. What is obvious to one person seems impossible to see for another. We know that to find holistic solutions to complex problems we need to see the problem from many angles. But how do we do this? How do we find some meaning in all the complexity? The answer may lie in Dialogue. The rise and fall of the fortunes of corporations suggests that they have natural life-cycles. It seems there are pre-determined limits to the level of an organisation's sustainable growth. If so, how do organizations move beyond these limitations to ensure ongoing success? Concepts such as sustainable communities, corporate citizenship, environmental responsibility and sustainable development all involve difficult issues, new terms and unfamiliar or changing business practices. If the buzz words are confusing this is because, for the moment, many of the emerging concepts are still being confused. So how do leading companies get from 'buzzword' to 'business practice'?

	•	Sustainability: From Buzzword to Business Practice (20 June 2003)
	•	Unlimited Growth: How to Sustain Success (18 February 2003)
	•	On Dialogue: When Discussion is Not Enough (15 November 2002)
	•	The Seventh Age: Growing the Big Idea (10 August 2002)
	•	Are You Trapped In the Learning Paradox? (10 October 2001)