Take them with a pinch of salt, if you like. But we like lists, don't we? 10 Best films of the 2000s? 100 Things to do before you die? The Big Read. The top 100?
What makes for success? What would be your top 10 factors of success for organisations? Do you agree with Hamish MacRae's list in today's Independent: The Science of Success: what works and why
Here's his list:
1. Optimism – balanced by
realism: Pessimism paralyses
2. Excellence – tempered by
decency: If you neglect your wider responsibilities, you're liable to end up in
trouble when you meet headwinds
3. Community works – If it is
allowed to: Look at things from the ground level up and mobilise community
4. Government works too: Compare
like with like
5. Become a true magnet for
talent: Put out the welcome mat
6. Be honest about failure: Keep
learning, keep making mistakes
7. The need for humility: Be as
sensitive to success as you are to failure
8. Be nimble: Make sure you are
quick to adapt
9. Listen to the market:
Remember, it's about more than money
10. Have a sense of mission:
Keep the long game in view and do right by those who share your objectives
Near the top of my own list would be Persistence - the sheer bloody-minded ability to keep going, even sometimes when all sense and reason says stop, but mostly KBO (Ruth Ive - Listening in on Churchill)
What would top your list? How does your conductive education organisation score against MacRae's list?
Some excerpts from an entertaining article (from a soon-to-be-published book):
"Several years ago, I embarked on a project to pinpoint the secrets of human success; those groups and organisations that were capable of succeeding in good times and bad."
"examples of collective human endeavour that I have found both humbling and inspiring and which I believe have powerful common messages for all of us.
"for organisations to work really well, they needed to combine two features.
* They had to have a deep-seated sense of mission – a vision, drive and commitment to do something that is worth doing even better.
* They had to be acutely sensitive to the market. They worked because they went with the grain of the market, listening to its signals and being guided by them, and applying its disciplines and adapting to whatever these required.
"We are moving from a period when most of the ideas that have driven the world economy have come from the West, to one where many will come from the East – and the rest of the emerging world. [NB this in the year of the 7th World Congress in Hong Kong]
"What interests me most .... is partly the extent to which the baton of success can be passed on from one generation to another, ....
MacRae focuses his article on three examples, 'stories' from which he draws 'lessons': the Edinburgh Festival; Copenhagen city centre; and the Hong Kong Jockey Club.
If Nudge, Outliers, Blink, The Black Swan or the Tipping Point (all on Amazon) amused you, then you will find the MacRae article an entertaining read - with maybe a lesson or two for ensuring the success of conductive education and its organisations.
