Friday 24 September 2021

Othello - Shakespeare (1996)


„Iago: 

Whip me such honest knaves. Others there are

Who, trimm’d in forms and visages of duty,

Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves;

And throwing but shows of service on their lords,

Do well thrive by them, and when they have lined their coats,

Do themselves homage: these fellows have some soul;

And such a one do I profess myself.

For, sir, 

It is as sure as you are Rederigo,

Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago:

In following him, I follow but myself;

Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,

But seeming so, for my peculiar end:

For when my outward action doth demonstrate

The native act and figure of my heart

In compliment extern, ‘tis not long after

But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve

For daws to peck at: I am what I am.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.818).





„Brabantio:

Fathers, from hence trust not your daughters‘ minds

By what you see them act” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.820).


“Othello: 

She loved me for the dangers I had past;

And I loved her that she did pity them.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.823).


“Duke: 

To mourn a mischief that is past and gone

Is the next way to draw new mischief on.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.823).


“Duke:

… th’affair cries hast

And speed must answer it.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.824).


“Brabantio: 

Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see: 

She has deceived her father, and may thee.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.824).


“Iago: 

The Moor is of a free and open nature,

That thinks me honest that but seem to be so;

And will as tenderly be led by th’ nose

As asses are. 

I have’t; - it is engernder’d: - hell and night

Must bring this monstrous birth to the world’s light.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.825).


“Iago: 

Now I do love her too;

Not our of absolute lust; - though peradventure

I stand accountant for as great a sin,- 

But partly led to diet my revenge,

For that I do suspect the lusty Moor

Hath leapt into my seat: the thought whereof

Doth, like a poisonous mineral, gnaw my inwards;

And nothing can or shall content my soul

Till I am even’d with him, wife for wife; 

Or failing so, yet that I put the Moor

As least into a jealousy so strong

That judgement cannot cure.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.829).


“Iago:

He is a soldier fit to stand by Caesar

And give direction: and do but see his vice:

‘Tis to his virtue a just equinox,

The one as long as th’other: ‘tis pity of him.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.830).


“Iago:

-ay, that’s the way;

Dull not device by coldness and delay.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.833).


“Othello:

Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul,

But I do love thee” and when I love thee not,

Chaos is come again.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.835).


“Othello: 

By heaven, he echoes me,

As if there were some monster in his thought

Too hideous to be shown. – Thou dost mean something:” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.835).


“Iago:

O, beware, my lord of jealousy;

It is a green eyed monster, which doth mock

The meat it feeds on: that cuckold lives in bliss

Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger;

But, O, what damned minutes tell he o’er

Who dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet strongly loves!” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.836).


“Iago: 

Trifles light as air

Are to the jealous confirmation strong 

As proofs of holy writ. (…)

Not poppy nor mandragora,

Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world,

Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep

Which thou owedst yesterday.” 


“Othello:

Even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace,

Shall ne’er look back, ne’er ebb to humble love, 

Till that a capable wide revenge

Swallo them up.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.839).


“Desdemona:

Alas the say, I never gave him cause!

Emilia: 

But jealous souls will not be answer’d so;

They are not ever jealous for the cause,

But jealous for they’re jealous: it is a monster

Begot upon itself, born on itself.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.841).


“Emilia:

I durst, my lord, to wager she is honest,

Lay down my soul at stake: if you think other,

Remove your thought, - it doth abuse your bosom.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.846).



Sunday 29 August 2021

Shakespeare 1996 Measure for measure

 A strange play. To my mind mostly about ambition and our moral standards and what we actually do. The mystery that there are logical and moral standards. There are plenty of big speeches about wiling to die, chastity, moral standards. Yet there is life. 

Not base life, but life bigger than all these concepts and without life all these concepts would be nought. 
So why impose these concepts upon life while they do not enable to life but only failure. 
Yet still we do. 




“Escalus: (…)
Whether you had not sometime in your life 
Err’d in this point which now you censure him,
And pull’d the law upon you.
Angelo:
‘Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus,
Another thing to fall.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.791).

“Angelo:
But rather tell me,
When I, that censure him, do so offend,
Let mine own judgement pattern out my death,
And nothing come in partial.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.791).

“Escalus:
Pardon is still the nurse of second woe.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.794).

“Isabella:
O, it is excellent 
To have a giant’s strength; but it is tyrannous 
To use it like a giant.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.795).

“Angelo: 
When I would pray and think, I think and pray.
To several subjects. Heaven hath my empty words;
Whilst my invention, hearing not my tongue,
Anchors on Isabel: Heaven in my mouth,
As if I did but only chew his name.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.797).

“Claudio:
The miserable have no other medicine but only hope.
I have hope to live, and am prepared to die. 
Duke:
(…) merely, thou art death’s fool;
For him thou labour’st by thy flight to shun,
And yet runn’st toward him still. Thou art not noble;
For all the accommodations that thou bear’st 
Are nursed by baseness. Thou’rt by no means valiant;
For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork
Of a poor worm. Thy best of rest is sleep
And that thou oft provokes; yet grossly fear’st 
Thy death, which is no more. Thou art not thyself:
(…) If thou art rich, thou’rt poor;
For like an ass whose back with ingots bows,
Thou bear’st thy heavy riches but a journey,
And death unloads thee. (…)
What’s yet in this
That bears the name of life? Yet in this life 
Lie hid more thousand deaths; yet death we fear,
That makes these odds all even.

Claudio: I humbly thank you.
To sue to live, I find I seek to die;
And seeking death, find life: let it come on.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.799).

“Claudio: 
Death is a fearful thin.
Isabella:
And shamed life a hateful. 
Claudio:
Ay, but to die, and go we know not where;
To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot;
This sensible warm motion to become 
A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit 
To bathe in fiery floods,” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.800).

Sunday 13 June 2021

On Leadership HBR’s 10 Must Reads

 


“Why does self-regulation matter so much for leaders? First of all, people who are in control of their feelings and impulses – that is people who are reasonable – are able to create an environment of trust and fairness.” (Goleman, 2011, p.12).



 

“They (leaders) ranged from extroverted to nearly reclusive, from easygoing to controlling, from generous to parsimonious. 
What made them all effective is that they followed the same eight practices: 
- They asked, “What needs to be done?”
- They askes, “What is right for the enterprise?”
- They developed action plans.
- They took responsibility for decisions.
- They took responsibility for communicating.
- They were focused on opportunities rather than problems. 
- They ran productive meetings.
- They thought and said “we” rather than “I”.
The first two practices gave them the knowledge they needed. The next four helped them convert this knowledge into effective action. The last two ensured that the whole organization felt responsible and accountable.” (Drucker, 2011, p.24).

“But effective executives do not splinter themselves. They concentrate on one task if at all possible. If they are among those people – a sizable minority – who work best with a change of pace in their working day, they pick two tasks. I have never encountered an executive who remains effective while tackling more than two tasks at a time. Hence, after asking what needs to be done, the effective executive sets priorities and sticks to them” (Drucker, 2011, p.24).
“Asking “What is right for the enterprise?” does not guarantee the right decisions will be made. Even the most brilliant executive is human and thus prone to mistakes and prejudices. But failure to ask the question virtually guarantees the wrong decision.” (Drucker, 2011, p.28).
“Executives are doers; they execute. Knowledge is useless to executives until it has been translated into deeds. But before springing into action, the executive needs to plan his course.” (Drucker, 2011, p.28).
“The action plan is a statement of intentions rather than a commitment. It must not become a straitjacket. It should be revised often, because every success creates new opportunities.” (Drucker, 2011, p.28).
“Napoleon allegedly said that no successful battle ever followed its plan. Yet Napoleon also planned every one of his battles far more meticulously than any other general had done.” (Drucker, 2011, p.29).
People decisions: “If they find that a decision has not the desired results, they don’t conclude that the person has not performed. They conclude, instead, that they themselves made a mistake. In. well-managed enterprise, it is understood that people who fail in a new job,especially after a promotion, may not be the ones to blame. 
Executives also owe it to the organization and to their fellow workers not to tolerate nonperforming individuals in important jobs. It may not be the employees’ fault that they are underperforming, but even so, they have to be removed.” (Drucker, 2011, p.230).

“Effective executives make sure that both their action plans and their information needs are understood.” (Drucker, 2011, p.31). “The best way around this problem is for each executives to identify the information he needs, ask for it, and keep pushing until he gets it.” (Drucker, 2011, p.32).

“But problem solving, however necessary, does not produce results. It prevents damage. Exploiting opportunities produces results.” (Drucker, 2011, p.32).“Effective executives put their best people on opportunities rather than problems.” (Drucker, 2011, p.32).

“It’s also necessary to terminate the meeting as soon as its specific purpose has been accomplished. Good executives don’t raise another matter for discussion. They sum up and adjourn.” (Drucker, 2011, p.32).

“Effective executive know that they have ultimate responsibility, which can neither be shared nor delegated. But they have authority only because they have the trust of the organization. This means that they think of the needs and the opportunities of the organization before they think of their own needs and opportunities.” (Drucker, 2011, p.35).

“Most U.S. corporations today are over-managed and under-led.” (Kotter, 2011, p.37). “Management is coping with complexity. (…) Leadership, by contrast, is about coping with change.” (Kotter, 2011, p.38). “Management involves planning and budgeting. Leadership involves setting direction. Management involves organizing and staffing. Leadership involves aligning people. Management provides control and solves problems. Leadership provides motivation.” (Kotter, 2011, p.39).

“Just as we need more people to provide leadership in the complex organizations that dominate our world today, we also need more people to develop the cultures that will create that leadership. Institutionalizing leadership-centred culture is the ultimate act of leadership.” (Kotter, 2011, p.55).

“Second, adaptive change is distressing for the people going through it. (…) Rather than fulfilling the expectations that they will provide answers. Leaders have to ask tough questions. Rather than protecting people from outside threats, leaders should allow them to feel the pinch of reality in order to stimulate them to adapt. Instead of orienting people to their current roles, leaders must disorient them so that new relationships can develop.” (Heifetz and Laurie, 2011, p.58). “The work of the leader is to get conflict out into the open and use it as a source of creativity.” (Heifetz and Laurie, 2011, p.67).

“If executives try to communicate that they’re perfect at everything, there will be no need for anyone to help them with anything. They won’t need followers.” Goffee and Jones, 2011, p.81).

“Instead, they are seeking to engage in mutual mentoring with peers who are already part of their networks (such as board members, top managers, or leaders within a scientific discipline). The objective of this senior-peer mentoring is not, in conventional terms, to increase the chances of success but to create a sustainable community of people who can challenge the emergent leader’s assumptions.” (Rooke and Torbert, 2011, p.157).

“Discovering your authentic leadership requires a commitment to developing yourself. Like musicians and athletes, you must devote yourself to a lifetime of realizing your potential.” (George et al., 2011, p.165). “Integrating their lives is one of the greatest challenges leaders face. To lead a balanced life, you need to bring together all of its constitutent elements – work, family, community, and friends – so that you can be the same person in each environment.” (George et al., 2011, p.175).

“No individual achievement can equal the pleasure of leading a group of people to achieve a worthy goal.” (George et al., 2011, p.177). “It is replaced by a deep inner satisfaction that you have empowered others and thus made the world a better place.” (George et al., 2011, p.177).


Saturday 1 May 2021

All’s well that ends well – Shakepseare 1996


“Helena: (…) withal, full oft we see
Cold wisdom waiting on superfluous folly.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.754).




“Lafeu: 
They say miracles are past; and we have our
philosophical persons, to make modern and
familiar, things supernatural and causeless. Hence
is it that we make trifles of terrors; ensconcing our-
selves into seeming knowledge, when we should
submit ourselves to an unknown fear. Why, ‘tis
the rarest argument of wonder that hath shot out
in our latter times.

Troilus and Cressida – Shakespeare 1996

 

“Troilus: (…)
Thou lay’st in every gash that love hath given me
The knife that made it.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.715).

“Agamemnon:
The ample proposition that hope makes
In all designs begun on earth below
Fails in the promised largeness; checks and disasters
Grow in the veins of actions highest rear’d;
As knots, by the conflux of meeting sap,
Infect the sound pine, and divert his grain
Tortive and errant from his course of growth.
Nor, princes, is it matter new to us,
That we come short of our suppose so far,
That, after seven years’ siege, yet Troy walls stand;
Sith every action that hath gone before,
Whereof we have record, trial did draw
Bias and twart, not answering the aim,
And that unbodied figure of the thought 
That gave’t surmised shape. Why, then, you princes, 
Do you with cheeks abasht behold our works,
And call them shames, which are, indeed, naught else,
But the protractive trials of great Jove
To find persistive constancy in men?
The fineness of which metal is not found
In fortune’s love; for then the bold and coward,
The wise and fool, the artist and unread,
The hard and soft, seem all affined and kin:
But, in the wind and tempest of her frown,
Distinction with a broad and powerful fan,
Puffing at all, winnows the light away;
And what hath mass or matter, by itself
Lies rich in virtue and unmingled.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.719).




“Nestor: (…) In the reproof of chance
Lies the true proof of men.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.719).


“Ulysses: (…) To end a tale of length,
Troy in our weakness stands, not in her strength.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.720).

“Hector: (…) O, theft most base,
That we have stoln what we do fear to keep!” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.725).

“Ulysses: 
We saw him at the opening of his tent.
He is not sick.”
Ajax:
Yes, lion-sick, sick of a proud heart.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.727).

“Agamemnon: (…) He that is proud eats up himself; pride
is his own glass, his own trumpet, his own 
chronicle; and whatever praises itself but in the
Deed, devours the deed in the praise.” 

“Troilus: (…) This is the monstrosity in love,
lady, - that the will is infinite, and the execution
confined; that the desire is boundless, and the act 
a slave to limit.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.732).


“Ulysses: (…) O, let virtue seek
Remuneration for the thing it was;
For beauty, wit,
High birth, vigour of bone, desert in service,
Love, friendship, charity, are subjects all
To envious and calumniating time.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.735).

“Ulysses: (…) 
Then marvel not, thou great and complete man,
That all the Greeks begin to worship Ajax;
Since things in motion sooner catch the eye
Than what not stirs. The cry went once on thee
And still it might, and yet it may again,
If thou wouldst not entomb thyself alive,
And case thy reputation in thy tent.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.735).

“Ulysses: (…)
Farewell, my lord: I as your lower speak;
The fools slides o’er the ice that you should break.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.735).

“Troilus: 
While others fish with craft for great opinion,
I with great truth catch mere simplicity;
Whilst some with cunning gild their copper crowns,
With truth and plainness I do wear mine bare.
Fear not my truth;” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.740).

“Hector: (…)
Mine honour keeps the weather of my fate.
Life every man holds dear; but the brave man 
Holds honour more precious-dear than life.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.748).

Sunday 25 April 2021

Strategy Montgomery and Porter (1979)

“Andrews and Christensen identified a pressing need for a holistic way of thinking about an enterprise. They articulated the concept of strategy as a tool to for doing so.” (Montgomery and Porter, 1979, p.xii).


“The central concept in this early work was the notion of fit between the unique capabilities of a company and the competitive requirements of an industry that distinguished it from others. The challenge for management was to choose or create an environmental context where the company’s distinctive competence and resources could produce a relative competitive advantage.” (Montgomery and Porter, 1979, p.xii). “Present research continues to affirm the important role industry conditions play in the performance of individual firms. (…) average industry profitability is, by far, the most significant predictor of firm performance. It is far more important than market share  and much more important than the extent of a firm’s diversification.” (Montgomery and Porter, 1979, p.xiv).


 


Functional strategy: “internal consistency – the extent to which a firm’s plan and policies reinforce each other and can be mutually achieved.” (Montgomery and Porter, 1979, p.xvi ).


“Business strategists can use their imagination and ability to reason logically to accelerate the effects of competition and the rate of change.” (Henderson, 1979, p.4). “Can evolution be planned for business? That is what strategy is for.” (Henderson, 1979, p.5).


“Chasing market share is almost as productive as chasing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. You can never get there. Even if you could, you would find nothing. If you are in business you already have 100% of your market. So do your competitors. Your real goal is to expand the size of your market. But you will always have 100% of your market, whether it grows or shrinks.” (Henderson, 1979, p.5). “Market share is a meaningless number unless a company defines the market in terms of the boundaries separating it from its rivals. These boundaries are the points at which the company and are equivalent in a potential customer’s eyes. (…) The competitor that truly has an advantage can give the potential customers more of their money and still have a larger margin between its cost and its selling price.” (Henderson, 1979, p.6).


“Strategic competition compresses time.” (Henderson, 1979, p.6).“Natural competition works by a process of low-risk, incremental trial and error. Small changes are tried and tested. (…) But unmanaged change takes thousands of generations. (…) By committing resources, strategy seeks to make sweeping changes in competitive relationships.” (Henderson, 1979, p.6).


“Cutting-edge Japanese companies today are capitalizing on time as a critical source of competitive advantage: managing time the way most  companies manage cost, quality or inventory.” (Stalk, 1979, p.39). “For these leading companies time has become the overarching measurement of performance. By reducing the consumption of time in every aspect of the business, these companies also reduce cost, improve quality, and stay close to their customers.” (Stalk, 1979, p.49).


“Because when the focus of attention is on ways to beat the competition, it is inevitable that strategy gets defined primarily in terms of the competition.” (Ohmae, 1979, p.62). “Competitive realities are what you test possible strategies against; you define them in terms of customers. Tit-for-tat responses to what competitors do may be appropriate, but they are largely reactive.(…) It also takes shape in the determination to avoid competition whenever and wherever possible” (Ohmae, 1979, p.62). “Getting back to strategy means getting back to a deep understanding of what a product is about.” (Ohmae, 1979, p.70).


“If you ask people whether they want their coffee in ten minutes or seven, they will say seven of course. But it’s still the wrong question. And you end up back where you started, trying to beat the competition at its own game.” (Ohmae, 1979, p.71).


“Ultimately, the only way to sustain a competitive advantage is to upgrade it.” (Porter, 1979, p.138).“either they (these companies) would make their advantage obsolete, or a competitor would do it for them.” (Porter, 1979, p.138).“But change is an unnatural act, particularly in successful companies; powerful forces are at work to avoid and defeat it. Past approaches become institutionalized in standard operating procedures and management controls.” (Porter, 1979, p.138). “the existing strategy takes on an aura of invincibility and becomes rooted in the company culture. (…) Change is tempered by the fear that there is much to lose.” (Porter, 1979, p.139).


“the uncomfortable truth that innovation grows out of pressure and challenge.” (Porter, 1979, p.160). “A company should seek out pressure and challenge, not avoid them.” (Porter, 1979, p.161).“Early-warning signals translate into early-mover advantage.” (Porter, 1979, p.161).


“The whole project got off the wrong foot. It asked people what features they wanted in a washing machine rather than what they wanted out of life.” (Levitt, 1979, p.198).


“The purpose of business is to get an keep a customer. Or, to use Peter Drucker’s more refined construction, to create and keep a customer. A company must be wedded to the idea of innovation.” (Levitt, 1979, p.203).


“a portfolio of competencies versus a portfolio of businesses.” (Prahalad and Hamel, 1979, p.280). “Core competencies are the collective learning in the organization.” (Prahalad and Hamel, 1979, p.281). “core competence does not diminish with use. Unlike physical assets which do deteriorate over time competencies are enhanced as they are applied and shared.” (Prahalad and Hamel, 1979, p.292).“How strange that SBU managers, who are perfectly willing to compete for cash in the capital budgeting process, are unwilling to compete for people.” (Prahalad and Hamel, 1979, p.294).


“Strategies can form as well as be formulated. A realized strategy can emerge in response to an evolving situation, or it can be brought about deliberately.” (Mintzberg, 1979, p.407). “Actions simply converge into patterns. They may become deliberate, of course, if the pattern is recognized and then legitimated by senior management.” (Mintzberg, 1979, p.408).


“It embodies disciplined unity of purpose, a purpose which – to be powerful – must be clear and worthy of the commitment of energetic and intelligent people.” (Andrews, 1979, p.451). “Such strategy summons up imagination, innovation and a zest for risk.” (Andrews, 1979, p.451). “Nonetheless, imagination exists in all questing organizations and people.” (Andrews, 1979, p.459). “”What’s new?” is a question that should havean unending series of answers in the execution as well as formulation of strategy?” (Andrews, 1979, p.459).



Friday 5 February 2021

The trusted Advisor – Maister et al. 2000


“You don’t get the chance to employ advisory skills untol you can get someone to trust you enough to share their problems with you.” (Maister et al., 2000, p.ix).

“the way to be a great advisor is to care about your client.” (Maister et al., 2000, p.13). 

“The key point is that trust must be earned and deserved. You must do something to give to other people the evidence on which they can base their decision on whether to trust you. You must be willing to give in order to get.” (Maister et al., 2000, p.18). “building trust. First, it has to do with keeping one’s self interest in check.” (Maister et al., 2000, p.22).

“The potential of trust violation is always there in a trusting relationship. The choice on the par of the advisor not to violate trust is what makes the relationship special.” (Maister et al., 2000, p.24).“I will trust you if I believe that you’re in this for the long haul, that you are not just trying to maximize the short-term benefit to you in each of our interactions.” (Maister et al., 2000, p.26). “I will trust you if you exhibit some form of caring. If you provide some evidence that my interests are as important to you as your own interests are.” (Maister et al., 2000, p.26).







“It is not enough for a professional to be right: An advisor’s job is to be helpful.” (Maister et al., 2000, p.27).

“Suggestions on how to improve always carry the implied critique that all is not being done well at the moment. Yet it is the person hiring you who is often responsible for the current state of affairs.” (Maister et al., 2000, p.28).

“the client is untrained in the professional’s specialty, while the professional may have seen the client’s problem (or variant’s of it) many times before. There is thus an almost constant threat of coming across to the client as patronizing, pompous, and arrogant.” (Maister et al., 2000, p.30).

“In many ways, advisory skills are similar to those of great teaching. A teacher’s task is to help a student get from point A (what they know, understand, and believe now) to point B (an advanced state of deeper undersanding and knowledge). It is poor teaching for the professor to stand at the front of the class and say, “B is the right answer.” (Maister et al., 2000, p.33). 

“To get what you want from someone, you must first focus on giving them what they want.” (Maister et al., 2000, p.51). “As Dale Carnegie said, “The only way to influence someone is to find out what they want, and show them how to get it.” (Maister et al., 2000, p.51).

“Then comes the crucial career transition, from technician to full professional, from content expert to advisor. (…) In contrast, our task as advisors is an “in-person,” “in contact” challenge to help the client see things anew or to make a decision.” (Maister et al., 2000, p.53). “The key to prior career success (technical excellence) can actually become an impediment at this level.” (Maister et al., 2000, p.53). “The kinds of people who typically in professional service firms are often driven, rational, and meritocratic, with a great need to achieve. It is the natural thing for such people (…) to look for confirmation that what they are doing is all right.” (Maister et al., 2000, p.54).

“The trick of earning trust is to avoid all tricks.” (Maister et al., 2000, p.61).

“Humility is not weakness. Serving others does not require us to be servile. Ego strength means not having to have our egos stroked continuously. Recognizing and respecting the strength in others does not diminish our respect or strength.” (Maister et al., 2000, p.139).

“To be professional, we must point out possibilities. Some call that selling. We call it contributing ideas.” (Maister et al., 2000, p.169).

“Following our initial courtship with a client, we begin to enter a very short honeymoon period, where the client feels relieved that someone competent is now at work solving his or her problem. There is a natural evolution to the relationship where those feelings of comfort will quickly transform into feelings of wondering whether their advisros is devoting the time necessary and whether the approach is really going to work. 
Trust is built upon respect, and since respect comes from seeing some performance, it becomes imperative that we find the means to deliver small, fast result to evidence our efforts.” (Maister et al., 2000, p.175). “even compiling a status report can ensure our credibility.” (Maister et al., 2000, p.175).

“We need to be eternally alert for what comes next for the client. What should our client be doing as a result of our work?” (Maister et al., 2000, p.176).

“The relationship manager’s task is to make the team members want to participate actively in serving and nurturing the relationship (not the “account”). This can be done by providing what they often do not find in their regular work, such as challenge and meaning.” (Maister et al., 2000, p.183).


Sunday 31 January 2021

Hamlet Prince of Denmark – Shakespeare 1996

 





“King:
But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son –
Hamlet (aside):
A little more than kin, and less than kind.
King: How is it that the clouds still hang on you?
Hamlet:
Not so, my Lord; I am too much I’th’sun.
Queen: 
Good Hamlet, cast thy knighted colour off,
And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark,
Do not for ever with thy vailed lids
Seek for thy noble father in the dust.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.673).

“Polonius: 
This above all, - to thine own self be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell; my blessing season this in thee!” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.676).

“Ghost:
But, howsoever thou pursuest this act,
Taint no thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive
Against thy mother aught; leave her to heaven.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.678).


“Hamlet:
… to me it is a prison.
Rosencrantz: 
Why, then, your ambition makes it one; ‘tis too 
Narrow for your mind.
Hamlet:
O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and
Count myself a king of infinite space, where it not
That I have bad dreams.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.684).


“Hamlet: 
Is it not monstrous, that this player here,
But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
Could force his soul so to his own conceit,
That, from her working, all his visage wann’d
Tears in his eyes, distraction in’s aspect,
A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
With forms to his conceit? And all for nothing!
For Hecuba!
What’s Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,
That he should weep for her? What would he do,
Had he the motive and the cue for passion
That I have? He would drown the stage with tears,
And cleave the general ear with horrid speech;
Make mad the guilty, and appal the free,
Confound the ignorant; and amaze, indeed, 
The very faculties of eyes and ears. 
Yet I,
A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,
Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,
And can say nothing; no, not for a king,
Upon whose property and most dear life
A damn’d defeat was made. Am I a coward?” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.687).


“Hamlet: 
To be, or not to be,- that is the question:-
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? – To die, - to sleep, - 
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, ‘tis consummation
Devoutly to be wisht. To die, - to sleep; -
To sleep! Perchance to dream; ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause; there’s the respect 
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns 
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death, - 
The undiscover’d country, from whose bourn
No travellers returns, - puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution 
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought;
And enterprises of great pith and moment,
With this regard, their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.688).

“King: 
Madness in great ones must not unwatcht go.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.689).

“Player King:
I do believe you think what now you speak
But what we do determine oft we break.
Purpose is but the slave of memory;
Of violent birth, but poor validity:
Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree;
But fall, unshaken, when they mellow be.
Most necessary ‘tis that we forget
To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt:
What to ourselves in passion we propose,
The passion ending doth the purpose lose.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.692).

“Hamlet: 
I will speak daggers to her, but use none.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.694).

“King: 
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent;
And like a man to double business bound, 
I stand in pause where I shall first begin
And both neglect.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.694).

“Queen:
O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.
Hamlet: 
O, throw away the worser part of it
And live the purer with the other half.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.697).

“Hamlet: 
I must be cruel, only to be kind,
Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.697).


“Hamlet:
Sure, he that made us with such large discourse,
Looking before and after, gave us not
That capability and godlike reason
To fust in us unused.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.699).

“Queen:
So full of artless joy is guilt,
It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.700).

“Hamlet: 
… there’s a special
Providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now,
‘tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be
Now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readi-
ness is all: since no man knows aught of what he 
leaves, what is’t to leave betimes? Let be. 


Saturday 30 January 2021

Twelfth night; Or, what you will – Shakespeare 1996

 

“Viola: 
O Time, thou must untangle this, not I;
It is too hard a knot for me t’untie,” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.648).




“Viola: 
We men may say more, swear more: but, indeed,
Our shows are more than will; for still we prove
Much in our vows, but little in our love.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.652).

“Malvolio:
Some are born great,
Some achieve greatness, and some have greatness
Thrust upon ‘em.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.654).

“Sir Toby Belch:
Why, thou hast put him in such a dream, that,
When the image of it leaves him, he must run mad.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.654).

“Clown: 
Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the
Sun, it shines every where.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.655).

“Sebastian: 
What relish is in this? How runs the stream?
Or I am mad, or else this is a dream;” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.663).

Sunday 24 January 2021

As you like it – William Shakespeare

 


“Duke Senior: 

… Are not these woods

More free from peril than the envious court?

Here feel we but the penalty of Adam,

The seasons’ difference; as the icy fang

And churlish chiding of the winter’s wind, 

Which, when it bites and blows upon my body,

Even till I shrink with cold, I smile, and say

‘This is not flattery; these are counsellors

That feelingly persuade me what I am.’

Sweet are the uses of adversity;” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.617).



“Duke Senior: 

Thou seest we are not all alone unhappy.

This wide and universal theatre

Presents more woeful pageants than the scene

Wherein we play in. 


Jaques: 

All the world’s a stage;

And all the men and women merely players:

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven age. As, first, the infant,

Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.

And then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel

And shining morning face, creeping like a snail

Unwilling to school. And then the lover,

Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad

Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then the soldier,

Full of strange oaths, and bearded like a pard,

Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,

Seeking the bubble reputation

Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,

In fair round belly with good capon lined,

With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws and modern instances;

And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts

Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;

His youthful hose, well saved, a world oo wide

For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,

Turning again into a childish treble, pipes

And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,

That ends this strange eventful history,

Is second childishness and mere oblivion,

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every thing.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.622).


“Celia: 

O, that’s a brave man! He writes brave verses,

Speaks brave words, swears brave oaths, and 

Breaks them bravely, quite traverse.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.629).


“Phebe:

For I must tell you friendly in your ear, - 

Sell when you can; you are not for all markets.” (Shakespeare, 1996, p.630).



Servant Leadership - Robert K. Greenleaf 1977


“1) The essence of moral authority or conscience is sacrifice – the subordinating of one’s selfe or one’s ego to a higher purpose, cause or principle.” (Covey in Greenleaf, 1977, p.6). “In this sense, both leaders and followers are followers. Why? They follow truth. They follow natural law. They follow principles.” (Covey in Greenleaf, 1977, p.6). 




“The deepest part of human nature is that which urges people – each one of us – to rise above our present circumstances and to transcend our common nature.” (Covey in Greenleaf, 1977, p.1).



The servant as leader. 

“they will freely respond only to individuals who are chosen as leaders because they are proven and trusted as servants.” (Covey in Greenleaf, 1977, p.11 ). “Why would anybody accept the leadership of another except that the other sees more clearly where it is best to go?” (Greenleaf, 1977, p.29). 


“I am reminded of Greenleaf’s acid test of servant leadership. How do you tell a servant-leader is at work? – “Do the people around the person grow?”” (Senge in Greenleaf, 1977, p.357). “Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely to themselves become servants?” (Greenleaf, 1977, p.27).



Institutions as servants

“This is my thesis: caring for persons, the more able and the less able serving each other, is the rock upon which a good society is built. Whereas, until recently, caring was largely person to person, now most of it is mediated through institutions.” (Greenleaf, 1977, p.62). 


“The first order of business is to build a group of people who, under the influence of the institution, grow taller and become healthier, stronger, more autonomous.” (Greenleaf, 1977, p.53). “Some institutions achieve distinction for a short time by the intelligent use of people. (…) But these are not the means whereby an institution moves from people-using to people-building.” (Greenleaf, 1977, p.55). 


“What we have learned about caring for individual persons we must now learn to give to institutions. Have you ever noted how much less qualm of conscience some people have about cheating an institution than they have for cheating an individual person? We must change that.” (Greenleaf, 1977, p.255).


Business as a serving institution

“The work exists for the person as much as the person exist for the work.” (Greenleaf, 1977, p.155). “The business then becomes a serving institution – serving those who produce and those who use.” (Greenleaf, 1977, p.155). “”What are you in business for?” the answer may be: “I am in business for growing people – people who are stronger, healthier, more autonomous, more self-reliant , more competent. Incidentally, we also make and sell at a profit things that people want to buy, so we can pay for all of this.” (Greenleaf, 1977, p.159).



Leading

“Leadership – going out ahead to show the way – is available to everyone in the institution who has the competence, values, and temperament for it, from the chair to the least skilled individual.” (Greenleaf, 1977, p.109). “Prexy, as I saw him, was a problem-centered man. Either problems came to him in the normal course of events or he created them by setting goals and making commitments.” (Greenleaf, 1977, p.297).



Loss as the basis for growth

“to acknowledge that we do not want for pain to keep us awake, but to make a virtue of it – learn from it – and to see the darkest of it still ahead (as it is for most of us) and cut away the gloom.” (Greenleaf, 1977, p.316). “Loss, every loss one’s mind can conceive of, creates a vacuum into which will come (if allowed) something new and fresh and beautiful, something unforeseen – and the greatest of these is love. The source of this attitude toward loss and being lost is faith.” (Greenleaf, 1977, p.340). “each loss grants them the opportunity to be greater than before. Loss, by itself, is not tragic. What is tragic is the failure to grasp the opportunity which loss presents.” (Greenleaf, 1977, p.340).


“”In Here, Not Out There.” The real territory of change is always “in here.” Now, the consequences must be “out there” if we’re really interested in institutional change. But we can’t get there from just focusing “out there.” That is the paradox. That’s what it means to take a capacity-building approach.” (Senge in Greenleaf, 1977, p.348). “Every process of transformation begins with yourself. It has to start with personal change. The abstraction of corporate transformation – that’s a result, that’s not a metod.” (Senge in Greenleaf, 1977, p.356).



Growth through aspiration.

“There’s an old saw, that there are only two fundamental sources of change in human affairs: aspiration and desperation. (…) As far as I can see, the number one leadership strategy is quite simple to describe: Create a crisis. Or, if you’re really clever, create the fear that a crisis is abut to hit. That shows the extent to which we have allowed the diminishment of our capacity for aspiration.” (Senge in Greenleaf, 1977, p.348).

“Aspiration drives virtually all fundamental learning. (…) Or did we learn to walk because we wanted to? That’s aspiraton. Just imagine: What if nine out of ten change initiatives, in our organizations or in our societies were driven by excitement, by the idea that this would serve somebody in a different way, that this would give us a better way of living?” (Senge in Greenleaf, 1977, p.348).