(2 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)
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When something goes wrong, it is better to understand the reason why – rather than hear an excuse. Is there a difference?
Picture credit: whizchickenonabun
Of course there is. But how do you tell the difference between an excuse and a reason?
Well an excuse is generally our way of trying to excuse our behaviour: to justify ourselves in a bad situation – before, during or after the event.
Whereas a reason is more straightforward: it’s the cause (direct or indirect) of the event.
A measure of our integrity is the balance we strike between giving excuses and reasons.
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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Here are some important lessons for those of us who use services like YouTube to deliver business content. A friend recently had his YouTube account suspended and can no longer access his “archive” of 900+ clips, many of which are unique business-related videos, created over the past couple of years.
Picture credit: castaway in Scotland Now
It’s a very difficult situation for him, because he was using YouTube as the sole repository of his video output. So without his account, he has lost access to a back-catalogue of valuable stuff.
I am sure that Google and Youtube are within their rights and I can’t really comment on the details of the case.
But setting aside the nature of the disputed copyright violation content for a moment, there are a couple of observations that might be drawn as lessons for others:
Firstly, the YouTube “Three Strikes” policy seems to have been invoked without a prior warning.
Secondly, committing clearly valuable content (unique business video creations) to a non-contractual provider in the cloud, without backup provision, is a clear risk – albeit a risk that many of us routinely ignore, either wittingly or unwittingly.
Mark has my commiserations for his predicament and I do hope he can reach a settlement with Google/ YouTube, even if they only re-instate his account on a “final warning” basis.
Of course the real lesson is: what Google giveth, Google may taketh away.
(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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Transformation is one of the most over-used and under-justified terms in the business vocabulary. Hands up anyone out there who hasn’t worked in an organization during a business transformation programme?
Picture credit: alicepopkorn
Hmm, not many of you waving. Perhaps because transformational change programmes are as widely-strewn as litter at a confetti-manufacturers’ convention.
And yet genuine business transformation is rarely achieved by such initiatives.
So why do we persist in using the T word?
Do we really believe that our fortunes will be transformed, or is the T word just a higher tog-rated comfort blanket for those of us who would like things to be better?
The over-use of the word Transformation devalues its own currency because the eventual outcomes are only rarely truly transformational.
For sure Transformation becomes even more attractive during difficult times. But, maybe, for the sake of integrity, we should hold a moratorium on the use of the T word and have the honesty to dub our initiatives properly: as Business Improvement.
