When Nurture Beats Nature

An excellent analysis based on a reliable research work proved that the food mothers buy for their babies outside their homes is less useful by at least 58% than the food they prepare themselves at home.

Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Bright examples of Customer Service
http://mentalfloss.com/article/30198/11-best-customer-service-stories-ever

عن المتحدثين الرسميين أتحدث

فى زخم الأحداث التى تمر بها مصر الآن، تزايدت ظاهرة تعيين متحدثين رسميين عن الجهات المختلفة مهمتهم أن يحيطوا الرأى العام بما يجرى من مصدر موثوق به، ويتيحوا لكل أجهزة الإعلام جالفرصة لكى يسألوا ويستوضحوا الأمور التى يتحدث عنها الشارع وتشغل اهتمامه .. وهى ظاهرة جديرة بالإحترام والتشجيع وسياسة تنتهجها الدول المتقدمة لنشر المعلومات ومواجهة الإشاعات والوقوف على مايهم الناس .. ولذلك يضعون الضوابط لعمل من يقوم بتلك المهمة ويمدونه بالمعلومات اللازمة التى يمكن الإفصاح عنها ويدربونه على طريقة تفادى الأسئلة الصعبة إذا لم يكن لديه معلومات وضرورة الإعتراف أحيانا بأنه أو أنها لاتعرف أو ليس لديه أو لديها معلومات والوعد بأن يوافى السائل بالإجابة فى أسرع وقت ممكن .. يشمل التدريب أيضا إتقان لغة الحوار وانتقاء الألفاظ الدقيقة والجمل القصيرة فى الإجابات منعا للبس وسوء الفهم، وفوق كل هذا وذاك الحفاظ على هدوء الأعصاب وعدم الوقوع فى فخ الإنفعال ردا على أى استفزاز متعمد من قبل السائلين فى المؤتمرات الصحفية.

وبحكم التخصص والإهتمام الشخصى فإنى أرقب هؤلاء المتحدثين وأقارن بينهم واستكشف فى كل مرة يظهرون فيها مواطن القوة في أدائهم ومواطن الضعف التى تحتاج إلى مزيد من التدريب والتقييم الإيجابى البناء الذى يوضح لهم كيف يؤدوا بصورة أفضل ويمدهم بالأدوات التى تمكنهم من ذلك .. ألاحظ  أن للموضوع شقان يتصارعان أحيانا لدى بعض المتحدثين الرسميين: شق فنى يتعلق بالمهارات التى تحدثت عنها ومستوى امتلاكهم لتلك الأدوات وإجادتهم لها، وشق آخر أهم وهو شخصياتهم ومزاجهم العام وهو الجانب الذى يتحكم أكثر فى ردود أفعالهم وتفاعلهم مع الآخرين بشكل طبيعى جاذب وليس طارد للتقارب والحوار .. الشق الثانى هو الذى يقرر مستوى القبول لشخص المتحدث ويطلق عليه أحيانا "الكاريزما" والتى تمهد لتقبل الناس لما يقول وتسهل عملية بناء الثقة بينه وبين مستمعيه ومن ثم مصداقيته لديهم.

ألاحظ أن البعض لايتحرى الدقة في صياغته لبعض التعبيرات البلاغية التى يعتقد أنها تقرب الصورة التى يريد أن تنطبع فى الأذهان فتخرج تلك التعبيرات بلا معنى تقريبا وقد تثير موجه من التعليقات الساخرة مثلما حدث مع تعبير "الخطف الذهنى" التى لاتزال مواقع التواصل الإجتماعى تتداولها بكثير من التعليقات الفكاهية الضاحكة .. ولعل المتحدث قصد "غسيل المخ" بحيث يصبح من حدث له ذلك أداة طيعة فى يد من يريد استغلاله فى عمل ما أو إقناعه بفكرة أو سلوك ما .. وألاحظ أن بعض المتحدثين لايجيدون اللغة التى يتحدثون بها بما فى ذلك اللغة العربية مع أن فى مقدورهم أن يكتبوا البيان الذى يريدون إلقائه بعد تشكيله مسبقا .. والبعض الآخر ينسى أن الغرض من أى مؤتمر صحفى هو بيان قصير يلقيه المتحدث الرسمى عن أهم حدث ينتظره المجتمعون ثم يترك لهم مساحة لكى يسألوه عما يهمهم هم وليس مايهمه هو .. أما النوع الآخر من المتحدثين فعصبى المزاج لايتحمل المقاطعة أو الإعتراض أو الأسئلة الصعبة ويفترض فيمن حضر ممثلا لمحطة تليفزيونية أو جريدة أو وكالة أنباء أن يصدقه ويقنع بما قيل.

المشكلة الأكبر تحدث دائما حين يتم اختيار متحدث رسمى أو استشارى مشهور يمثل جهات سيادية وسياسية هامة تمثل سياساتها عصب الحياة اليومية للناس .. هنا لابد للمتحدث أن ينسى شهرته وآرائه الشخصية وأن يكون موضوعيا محايدا فيما يطرح ويحصر تعليقاته فى أضيق نطاق ويمنع نفسه قسرا من أن يعبر عن وجهة نظره الشخصية فيما يطرح من موضوعات لأنها بالقطع سوف تؤخذ على أنها تعبر عن الجهة التى يمثلها وقد تورط تلك الجهة وتلزمها بما لاتريد أو تضطر إلى تكذيب المتحدث الرسمى فتنسف مصداقيته.

Facebook Addiction

http://mashable.com/2012/11/03/facebook-addiction/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

الحارة السد التى وصلنا إليها

الحارة السد التى وصلنا إليها فى مصر الآن تضع كل المصريين بلا استثناء ووجوههم للحائط لايرون ماخلفه ولايستطيعون تسلقه، وهو وضع لايمكن أن يستمر طويلا لو أردنا أعادة بناء مصر فى سباق مع الزمن لكى تعود إلى مصاف الدول التى تمتلك مقومات الدولة دون أن يعنى ذلك بالضرورة استعادتها لمكانتها وتأثيرها السابق كلاعب رئيسى على المسرح الدولى .. الفصائل المتناحرة على حكم مصر للأسف تفتقد لرؤية مستقبلية شجاعة تجعلهم يحسنون تقييم الموقف والإعتراف بالأخطاء ثم البحث عن الوسائل العملية التى تعترف بما يدور على أرض الواقع فى إيجاد حل يوافق عليه غالبية الشعب وبدائل يمكن اللجوء إليها لو لم يفلح هذا الحل.

والذين يتحدثون عن حرب أهلية فى مصر لايدركون أبعاد مايخافون منه، وأن مثل تلك الحرب لو حدثت لاقدر الله فلابد وأنها سوف تستمر لعدة سنوات من المؤكد أن يتحقق فيها كامل خراب مصر وتركها نهبا لكل طامع وحاقد ومستعمر إذا لزم الأمر .. فى انجلترا استمرت أول حرب أهلية بها فى القرن السابع عشر تسع سنوات "1642 – 1651" وفى روسيا أكثر من خمس سنوات أطول "1917-1922" حتى وإن اختلفت الظروف والأهداف واختلف اللاعبون على المسرح، وعقب كل حرب من تلك الحروب تستنفذ الدول جزءا كبيرا من مواردها وطاقاتها لكى تصلح ماتم إتلافه وتعيد بناء ماتهدم..مصر لاتحتمل شيئ من هذا القبيل، وتجاهل إمكانية حدوثة نوع من الغفلة والمبالغة فى التفاؤل سوف يضر بنا مالم نتدارك الأمر بسرعة بحل لايعتمد على القوة أو القهر أوالإصرار على تحقيق المطالب كاملة وإستسلام أى طرف آخر يختلف معنا فى مطالبه وعقيدته وأهدافه .. ذلك يحدث فقط فى الحروب بين الدول، وليس فى حروب بين جيش مصر والمصريين أيا كانت توجهاتهم وعقائدهم ومطالبهم.

ماالذى يمكن عمله إذن؟ نجلس مستندين إلى الحائط لكى نجد حلا توافقيا لايغتال قانونا ولايؤسس لهيمنة ولا يلوح بعقاب .. نجلس وقد اقتنع كل منا أننا ارتكبنا أخطاء فادحة فى حق أنفسنا وفى حق الوطن، وأننا بحاجة ماسة وسريعة للخروج من النفق المظلم الذى حشرنا أنفسنا فيه دون مزيد من الضحايا ومزيد من روح الثأر التى تسيطر على الشارع المصرى الآن .. مسميات رومانسية مثل "الوفاق الوطنى" لن تصلح لكى تخفف من وقع ماجرى ويجرى، وإنما تسمية الأمور بأسمائها وإيجاد مخرج دستورى لايفصل على مقاس فصيل أو فصائل من المصريين ولكن يتعامل معهم جميعا كشركاء فى وطن واحد يضمهم يكافة أطيافهم .. الحل الذى نبحث عنه هو حل يضمن خروج الجيش من المعادلة وابتعاده عن السياسة وتفرغه لمهمته النبيلة لحماية حدود مصر وأمنها القومى، ويضمن لمصر تجربة ديموقراطية حقيقية تأتى بمن يختاره الناس دون أن يعطى أى طرف لنفسه الحق فى أن يقصيه مادام لايرضى عنه .. بدون مثل هذا الحل سوف يظل الحال على ماهو عليه، ولن يرضى المجتمع الدولى بالتعامل معنا على أننا دولة مستقرة حتى وأن فعلت بعض الدول إلى حين حفاظا على مصالحها، وسوف نظل نعانى ونقاسى من الإنقسام والتشرذم لأجيال كثيرة قادمة.

دم مصر فى رقابنا جميعا بلا استثناء، وأكثرنا قوة ومقدرة يتحمل قدرا أكبر من المسئولية عما يحدث وهو بذلك مطالب بأن يتصدى بشجاعة الرجال للكارثة التى أحلت بنا ويجمع حوله عقلاء الأمة من المتخصصين تخصصا رفيعا والممارسين الذين يعايشون الواقع ويحسون مرارته ويعطيهم مهلة معقولة للإتفاق على حل وحلول بديلة تطرح على الناس ربما فى استفتاء عام لكى يحدث عليها توافق من معظم المصريين وتشكل بداية لطريق الحل الذى يحفظ للوطن وحدته وتماسكه. ماأدعو إليه هنا هو حل جذرى وليس مسكنا يهدئ الأمور إلى حين ويجعل النار تختفى تحت الرماد الذى سرعان ماتبدده رياح التغيير فتحرق نيران التربص كل ماحولها بما يستحيل معه أن نتمكن من إطفائها أو حتى محاصرتها .. الأطماع الشخصية كالمعاصى لذيذة ومغرية ولكنها فى النهاية تثقل كواهلنا بالذنوب وتأنيب الضمير وقد نفلت من العقاب فى الدنيا ولكن عين الله الساهرة لاتنام وحسابه يوم العرض عليه عسير وملائكته سبحانه الذين يسجلون علينا أنفاسنا لايتركون شاردة ولا واردة إلا أحصوها. 

إدارة التخلف

دراسات عديدة قرأتها تتناول بالتحليل ظاهرة الدكتاتورية وكيف يتفنن الحاكم الديكتاتور فى تشكيل فرق العمل التى سوف يعتمد عليها أركان حكمه واهتمامات كل فئة لكى يظل مسيطرا عليها، والإستراتيجيات التى سوف يتبعها فى إخضاع شعبه وترويضه وسلب إرادة التغيير لديه حتى يظل مسيطرا على مقاليد الحكم مخلدا فى منصبه  .. الدكتاتور يعى جيدا أن هناك علاقة بين الجهل وملء البطن، وبين العلم وملء العقول، وأن إدارة التخلف أسهل بكثير جدا من إدارة التقدم والتطوير.. تنحصر الإدارة فى الأولى فى توفير احتياجات نشترك فيها مع باقى مخلوقات الله وأهمها توفير الطعام ، أما الثانية فتحتاج لمؤسسات ورؤى تستشرف المستقبل ومواردها العلم بكافة فروعه والمشاركة فى تقرير المصير.

نجح عميد الدكتاتورية فى العالم العربى حسنى مبارك وأسرته وخدام حكمه وعهده خلال 30 عاما فى أن يجرف موارد الوطن كله يملأ بخيراته خزائنه داخل البلاد وخارجها ومعها التعليم والعقل والفكر والثقافة حتى صار المصريون كائنات تسير بالفطرة تحركها العواطف تنأى بنفسها عن المشاركة وتنعم بالكسل والسلبية وتغيب فى دهاليز الأحلام يخدرها التمنى بعد أن فوضوا أمرهم إلى الله يأتيهم كمنحة إلهية لاتكلفهم أى مجهود .. ولعل غالبيتنا لايزالون يفضلون التفسير القدرى لثورة 25 يناير التى أطاحت بمبارك فى ثمانية عشر يوما ويتوقفون عند ذلك دون أن يرهقوا تفكيرهم بما ينبغى عمله لكى تكتمل الثورة وتتحقق أهدافها باعتبار أن الثورة كانت الخطوة الأولى فقط للتغيير.

وحتى لايكون الكلام مرسلا فإنى أسجل كل حين من واقع التعامل اليومى مايؤيد ذلك ويدعمه، ولذلك تجيئ الأمثلة التى استشهد بها صادمة بل وأحيانا تستعصى على التصديق .. أمثلة كاشفة لمستوى جودة الإنسان المصرى وحياته وتفكيره وسلوكه وقدر الإستكانة والتسليم بالأمر الواقع الذى وصل إليه .. الإستكانة والضعف انقلب بعد الثورة إلى اندفاع غير منظم وفوضى ممنهجة وعنف لايعرف حدودا وأصبحت حياتنا كلها عشوائية فى أهدافها وعشوائية فى وسائل طلب وتحقيق تلك الأهداف وانقسم المصريون إلى فصائل وشيع وتحالفات يتربصون ويترقبون ولايتفقون على شيئ ويختلفون فى كل شيئ.. وحين نرى ماصار إليه حال النخبة من المتعلمين والمثقفين يصبح قياس حال من دون ذلك من الطبقات والفئات أمرا سهلا لايحتاج إلى كثير من الجهد.

أحد طلابى سجل لنيل رسالة الدكتوراه بكلية الإقتصاد والعلوم السياسية واجتاز كل متطلبات الحصول على الدرجة العلمية التى استحقها بعد عمل متواصل لعدة سنين .. تأخر منحه الشهادة الدالة على ذلك لتقديمها إلى جهة عمله الحالى بإحدى الوزارات، ولما سأل عن السبب أخبره موظف شئون الطلاب بالكلية أنه لم يسدد تأمين مكتبة الجامعة فسارع بتسديده ليكتشف أن المطلوب خمسة جنيهات فقط لاغير.. اعتقد أن الموضوع انتهى عند هذا الحد ولكن هيهات لبيروقراطية التخلف أن تقنع بذلك .. طلب منه نفس الموظف أن يسدد تأمين مكتبة الكلية وقدره جنيهان ونصف، أى أن سبعة جنيهات ونصف فقط كانت سببا فى تأخر حصول طالب لشهادة تثبت حصوله على درجة علمية رفيعة مثل الدكتوراه من جامعة القاهرة ومن كلية من كليات القمة بها يتخرج فيها من يطمحون للعمل بالسلك الدبلوماسى أو تقلد المناصب السياسية بالدولة .. الأدهى والأمر أن أحدا من الموظفين لم يكلف خاطره بالإتصال بالطالب الذى أصبح دكتورا لكى يطلب منه الحضور لاستلام شهادته وسداد الرسوم القليلة المطلوبة أو حتى يبادر بدفعها عنه – وهى تافهة القيمة - حتى ولو لم يطالبه بها.

فى حالة كهذه – ولدى غيرها كثير – هناك سؤال لسؤال يفرض نفسه: لماذا لم يبادر أحد باقتراح إصدار القانون أو القرار اللازم لإسقاط تحصيل تلك المبالغ التافهة التى يتكلف تحصيلها بالقطع أضعاف قيمتها، أو تحصيل مبالغ واقعية يمكن أن تسهم فى تحسين حال الخدمات التى تقدم لطلاب الجامعات ومنها المكتبات؟ هو العجز واللأمبالاة وفقدان الإرادة للتغيير والكسل وتآكل الرغبة فى العمل وانتظار أن تمطر السماء ذهبا وفضة من جهات مانحة ومستثمرين سوف يشفقون علينا فيساعدوننا إكراما لعيون مصر وتاريخها التليد.

حكاية إمرأة غيرت ثقافة أمة

 قد يجهل الكثيرون أن مشوار التحضر الأمريكى لم يبدأ سوى من ثمانية وستين عاما فقط وأن امرأة زنجية بسيطة تعمل خياطة تدعى "روزا باركس" هى التى أشعلت شرارة العصيان المدنى للزنوج فى أمريكا وبداية حركة الحقوق المدنية والمساواة وتوقف العنصرية البغيضة التى كانت سائدة فى المجتمع فى ذلك الوقت ليس على مستوى الثقافة فقط وإنما بقوانين تدعمها وتهدد من يخرج عليها بالسجن أو الغرامة .. أطلق عليها الكونجرس على تلك المرأة بعد ذلك ألقابا مثل " السيدة الأولى للحقوق المدنية" و " الأم الروحية للحرية" .. تبدأ القصة حين صعدت روزا الأتوبيس الساعة السادسة مساء يوم الخميس الأول من ديسمبر عام 1955 فى مدينة مونتجمرى بولاية ألاباما الأمريكية عائدة إلى منزلها وجلست على أحد المقاعد فى أول صف مخصص للزنوج وسط الأوتوبيس.

امتلأ الأتوبيس تدريجيا بالركاب وطبيعى أن يقف بعض الركاب البيض .. لم يعجب ذلك سائق الأتوبيس فتوجه إلى روزا وثلاثة آخرين من الزنوج كانوا يجلسون بجوارها طالبا منهم أن يتركوا مقاعدهم للركاب البيض .. انصاع الثلاثة الآخرون للأمر ولكن روزا رفضت بأدب وتمسكت بحقها فى الجلوس فى المقعد الذى كان خاليا وقت صعودها إلى الأتوبيس .. استدعى السائق الشرطة التى قبضت على روزا وكبلت يديها واقتادتها إلى مركز البوليس حيث ذهبت أمها مع محاميها وسددا الكفالة المطلوبة لإطلاق سراحها بعد قضائها يوم فى الحبس وحتى يحين موعد محاكمتها .. اتصل محاميها بقس شاب إسمه "مارتن لوثر كنج" يطلب منه السماح بعقد اجتماع بكنيسته الصغيرة لعدد من أصدقاء روزا يريدون أن يعبروا عن رفضهم لهذا التمييز العنصرى والظلم الواقع على الزنوج .. تردد القس فى البداية لجسامة الحدث فى ظل القوانين السارية حينذاك، ولكنه عاد ووافق بعد أن توسط عدد من أصدقائه لكى يسمح بفتح إبراشيته أمام أول ثورة سلمية جماعية للزنوج فى تاريخ أمريكا.

 قرر المجتمعون أن يقاطعوا ركوب الأتوبيس فى يوم معلوم وتناقلت الصحف المحلية أنباء تلك المقاطعة وانتخبوا القس الذى اصبح فيما بعد رمزا لحركة المقاومة ضد التمييز العنصرى رئيسا للحركة حتى تم اغتياله على يد متطرف متعصب أبيض .. حين قرأ المواطنين الزنوج الصحف وسمعوا مادار فى الإجتماع أعلنوا عن تضامنهم مع روزا، وبالفعل قاطعوا ركوب الأتوبيسات فى ذلك اليوم لاسيما وأن سائقى التاكسى من الزنوج أعلنوا أنهم سوف يقومون بنقل ذويهم من وإلى العمل فى ذلك اليوم بأجرة موحدة مساوية لأجرة تذكرة الأتوبيس وهى عشرة سنتات، ووزعت المنشورات على كل البيوت وفى صناديق البريد تؤكد الإضراب.

مثلت روزا أمام القاضى بينما تجمع حوالى خمسمائة من اصدقائها بطرقات المحكمة انتظارا للحكم، ووجدها القاضى مذنبة بمخالفتها لقانون التفرقة فى المعاملة والفصل بين الزنوج وغيرهم واصدر حكمه عليها بالغرامة 14 دولارا بالإضافة إلى يوم الحبس الذى قضته فى قسم البوليس، ولكن الحادث أشعل فتيل ثورة الزنوج للمطالبة بحقهم فى الحياة والمساواة فى مجتمع ظالم وتحملوا التضحيات الجسام لأكثر من ربع قرن بعد أن حكمت المحكمة العليا بعدم دستورية القانون فى يونيه 1956 أى بعد أقل من عام من القبض على روزا باركس، وأصبحت أمريكا يضرب بها المثل فى الديموقراطية والمساواة دون تفرقة أو تعصب أو محاباة بسبب اللون أو الجنس أو الديانة وتوجت حركة التحرر تلك بتولى باراك أوباما رئاسة أمريكا كأول رئيس اسود وهو بذلك مدين لروزا بمنصبه كأول زعيمة فعلية بدأت رحلة الألف ميل التى أكملها مارتن لوثر كنج وأتباعه من بعده حتى تغير وجه المجتمع األأمريكى كما قلنا.

الدروس التى نتعلمها من ذلك كثيرة .. أولها أن التغيير المجتمعى – حتى لو كان ثورة على ثوابت قديمة وعادات متوارثة – ممكن ولكنه يحتاج لقضية تهم قطاعا كبيرا من الناس يجمعون عليها ويتعاطفون معها ويقفوا وراءها ويسمعون صوتهم لباقى قطاعات المجتمع لكسب التأييد وتوسيع دائرة الدعوة لقضيتهم وشرح دوافعهم والتأكيد على العائد الإيجابى للمجتمع ككل إذا ناصر تلك القضية وأن المطالبة بالحقوق لاينتقص من حقوق أى طرف مجتمعى آخر .. كل ذلك يحتاج لقيادة واعية تخاطب وعى الناس وعقولهم وقلوبهم تناقش وتشرح بإصرار حتى لاتموت القضية، وإعلام واع لايُهوِّل ولايُهوِّن، وأن يكون التغبير عن المطالبة بالحق سلميا لايضر بمصالح باقى قطاعات المجتمع ولايهدد أمنهم ولا سلامتهم ولا يعتدى على المنشئات العامة ومرافق الدولة التى يشترك كل الناس فى ملكيتها واستخدامها .. فهل نتعلم جميعا الدرس؟

توابع تغييب العقل

حين يضيق بى الحال فى تفسير مايدور حولى خاصة إذا كان يخرج عن حيز المألوف، أجدنى أبحث عن حالة اقتراضية يتناولها عقلى بالرصد والتحليل ويضع لها السيناريوهات المختلفة المحتملة .. أصبحت افعل ذلك حين أريد أن أمرن عضلات المخ فلا تخمل ولاتترهل فتضيف إلى أعباء جسدى الذى يشيخ بحكم الزمن ويشككنى أحيانا فى قدرتى على العطاء بنفس القدر الذى اعتدت عليه.

حين استعيد عجائب المخ ومعجزات مقدرته فى التدليل على عظمة خلق الله، يسلينى جدا أن أرقب وأسمع من يتجنبون بشتى الطرق أن يرهقوا تفكيرهم بالتعمق فى المشكلات أو المشاركة فى حركة الحياة وينادون بمبادئ هدامة ينشرونها بين أصدقائهم ومعارفهم وهم مؤمنون بأنهم يحسنون صنعا .. هؤلاء يرددون كثيرا نصائح من نوع "كبر مخك" و "كبر دماغك" أو "إشترى دماغك" يقصدون بها ألا نفكر كثيرا أو لانتعمق فى التفكير بعمق فى أى مشكلة حتى لو كانت تمس حياتنا وتهدد استقرارها .. السر فى ضحكى هو أن المعنى الظاهر للنصيحة أن ينمو المخ ويكبر ويصبح أكثر قدرة على التفكير دون إرهاق بينما المقصود عكس ذلك تماما ودعوة إلى إلغائه إن أمكن حتى لانتعذب بالتفكير الدائم والمستمر .. أما السبب الثانى الذى يثير كوامن السخرية عندى فهو أن طبيعة المخ الذى هو مكمن العقل وتكوينه تجعله أكبر بكثير مما يظنون مما يستعصى معه وضع تصور واقعى أو حتى علمى لطريقة عمله وإمكاناته.

وزن المخ يمثل 2% فقط من وزن الجسم ويقع فى تجويف الجمجمة تحميه عظامها الصلبة من التعرض للأذى أو الحوادث العارضة التى قد تؤثر فيه .. هذا العضو الغريب الصغير الحجم جدا بالنسبة للجسم هو الذى يتحكم فى حركة الجسم كله وينسق بين باقى الأعضاء، وهو مكمن الفكر والأحاسيس بكل أنواعها ولذلك يستهلك وحده 30% من الطاقة التى يحرقها الجسم فى للقيام بوظائفه وممارسة الأنشطة المختلفة للحياة اليومية.. وقد لايعرف الكثيرون أن مخ الإنسان العادى يتكون من مليارات الخلايا التى نحرق منها يوميا مالايقل عن 100 ألف خلية وأن كل تلك الخلايا التى يتكون منها المخ تتصل ببعضها البعض وأننا نعيش ونموت وقد لانستخدم أكثر من 1.5% من طاقة المخ ويذهب بعض العلماء إلى أن تلك مبالغة وأن الحقيقة هى أننا نستهلك أقل قليلا من 1% .. إذن لايوجد لا الآن ولا مستقبلا كمبيوتر يمكن أن يحاكى المخ فى وظائفه أو حتى يقترب مما يمكن أن يفعله المخ لو استغلت طاقته كاملة.

ويجرفنى شلال التفكير عند هذه النقطة إلى الإستطراد فى التحليل بسرعة يصبح معها محاولة التوقف لالتقاط الأنفاس مخاطرة غير محمودة العواقب .. ماالذى جعل غالبية الناس فى مصر يتحيزون للتقليل من قيمة العقل وإرهاقه وتدريبه على التفكير والتحليل واستخلاص النتائج، وماالذى يجعلهم يتنازلون بتلك السهولة عن الإستفادة بخدماته المجانية ويميلون إلى الحلول السهلة التلقائية أو التى تعتمد على التخمين والحدس والرضى بما يحدث بعد ذلك على أنه أمر واقع؟ لماذا تضاءلت مساحة التخطيط فى حياتنا حتى بين الباحثين والدارسين ممن لايمكن أن ينجزوا أعمالهم أو يؤدونها بكفاءة دون تخطيط محكم وأهداف يسعون لتحقيقها ومتابعة تمكنهم من تفادى الأخطاء ثم تحقيق الأهداف والإحتفال بذلك لتحفيز أنفسهم على مزيد من التخطيط؟ ولماذا ننتظر دائما المجهول على أنه قدرمكتوب وأنه لابد واقع دون أن نأخذ بالأسباب ثم نترك المقدر يحدث بإرادة الله؟ لماذا أصبحنا "مخدرين" ولماذا استرخت إرادتنا إلى الحد الذى لانريد حتى أن نفكر فى تغيير الواقع الذى لانرضى عنه ونملك تغييره بقليل من الإخلاص فى العمل؟

ويجنح بى الخيال أكثر فأتخيل أنه تم حقننا جميعا بفاكسين يجعلنا منساقين دون أن ندرى لكى نحقق أكبر عملية انتحار قومية لشعب بأكمله فى التاريخ، وأننا قررنا أن نتفوق بإرادتنا الحرة على كل من يخطط لكى ينهك عافية مصر وشعبها وأن يعاد رسم خريطة العالم بدون مصر أو أن يشار إليها بمساحة منزوية على استحياء بلون رمادى عديم الشخصية .. ترى هل اقتربت من الواقع ، أم أنى قد جنح بى الخيال ليطغى على كل واقع وعلى قدرتى فى توظيف العقل لكى أفهم؟ إن غدا لناظره قريب.

مصر تحتاج لعملية زرع عقل

عملية زرع عقل؟!

طبيعة الأشياء وحتى يعتدل ميزان الحياة أن يكون هناك حقوق للناس يسعون للحصول عليها والدفاع عنها وتأمينها، وواجبات تجاه أنفسهم وتجاه الغير عليهم أن يؤدونها فى مقابل الحصول على تلك الحقوق.. وطبيعى أن يختل ميزان المعاملات وترتبك حركة الحياة لو اختلت العلاقة بين الإثنين وعلى وجه الخصوص حين تطغى الرغبة فى الحصول على الحقوق على الإلتزام بأداء الواجبات، أو فى أيهما يسبق الآخر: أن نحصل على حقوقنا أولا ثم نؤدى ماعلينا من واجبات أو العكس حين نلتزم بأداء الواجبات ثم نطالب بحقوقنا ونصر على نيلها .. ومابين الموقفين درجات عديدة من الشجاعة والنبل أرفعها شأنا أن نؤدى ماعلينا من واجبات فى كل الأحوال بغض النظر عن تعرضنا للظلم أو الإنتقاص من الحقوق أو التعرض لبعض المظالم..الفرق بين الموقفين فى رأيى يكمن فى درجة الوعى بالمسئولية الإجتماعية والإلتزام بنمط سلوكى وأخلاقى يتشكل فى وجداننا منذ الصغر ويكبر معنا حتى يصير جزءا من تكويننا .. المشاكل تكبر تتعقد حين يتسع نطاق الخلل فيتجاوز الأفراد إلى الجماعات ويتحول إلى هم قومى يتحور بالتدريج ليصبح حزءا أصيلا من ثقافتنا يؤثر على قراراتنا وموقفنا من الحياة ، ويحول كل قضية خلافية إلى صراع دام يحتاج إلى ساحات قتال تستخدم فيها كل وسائل العنف للقضاء على الرأى المخالف وفرض الإرادة بالقوة الجبرية والتخويف والإرهاب.

 حين تتحول الكلمات إلى حراب وسهام تدمى وتصيب فى مقتل، ويتصاعد العنف فنستعين بأسلحة حقيقية تدمر وتحرق وتقتل لأنه لم يعد لدينا قدرة على تقبل الخلاف فى الرأى والدين والمذهب والإنتماء السياسى فإننا نكون قد خلقنا بأيدينا بيئة مناسبة لإشعال نيران الفتن، وإنهاك القوى، وضعف الإنتماء، واليأس والإحباط، والشك والتخوين، وكلها مشاعر سلبية مدمرة تؤدى إلى تدمير ذاتى لكل قدراتنا وتوفر على كل أجهزة المخابرات التى تلعب فى مصر الآن مليارات كانوا سيخصصونها لتحقيق 10% مما نفعله بأنفسنا من خراب وتدمير للنفوس قبل الممتلكات .. تصبح مصر بعد ذلك لقمة سائغة لقوى تحارب معاركها على أرضنا، وقوى محلية تتناحر وتتقاتل للوصول إلى الحكم بكل الوسائل المتاحة لتصفية الخصوم بغض النظر عما إذا كانوا بعد ذلك سوف يحكمون بإرادة حرة أم تحركهم قوى أخرى ترى فى مصر لقمة سائغة تضمن لهم موضع قدم فى توجيه سياسة المنطقة بأسرها.

أخطر مايحدث فى مصر الآن أننا نلغى عقولنا ونصير نهبا للعواطف والإنفعالات، وتصبح قراراتنا عشوائية يمليها القلب لا العقل، وتتحكم فيها الأحاسيس وليس الإدراك الواعى لحقيقة مايدور حولنا وبالمشاكل وأسبابها وطرق مواجهتها وعلاجها .. تختفى منطقية العقل بالتدريج ويحل محلها سيكلوجية ردود الفعل ، وتحولنا الإنفعالات بالتدريج إلى قنابل موقوتة قاتلة مدمرة حين تزداد ضربات القلب وإفراز العرق وتوتر العضلات ونترجم ذلك إلى عنف أعمى وتسونامى يكتسح فى طريقه كل مايعترضه دون أن يفرق بين العام والخاص أو العدو والحليف .. يصبح الخلاف تهديدا ويحولنا إلى كائنات أنانية لاترى سوى نفسها ولاتشعر بما حولها، ندافع عن كياننا ضد أخطار قد لاتكون حقيقية أو مبالغ فيها، ونتعامل مع الآخرين على أنهم خطر داهم ينبغى التخلص منه بأسرع وقت وأسرع وسيلة تنهيه وتقضى عليه.

كل ماقلته يمثل "صوبة" وبيئة صناعية غير طبيعية نزرع فيها العنف لينمو بسرعة، ولابد للصوبات من بلطجية يحمونها ويدافعون عنها باستماته باعتبارها مصدرا مضمونا للإرتزاق، يجنون المحصول ويسوقونه لحسابهم وحساب أسيادهم أصحاب الصوبات ويتصدون لكل من يقترب منها أو يحاول تغيير شكلها ووظيفتها أو يستبدل "محصول العنف" بورد أو قمح أو شعير .. عصابات من المرتزقة اغتصبت الأرض وتخطط الآن لكى تغتصب الوطن كله من خلال الإختلاط بالثوار وتشويه الثورة والإنحراف بها عن مسارها ومطالبها المشروعة .. من مصلحتهم أن يندسوا لكى يروجوا لبضاعتهم ويزيدوا النيران اشتعالا بأنواع مستوردة من المواد سريعة الإشتعال والإنتشار، طويلة المفعول، تزكى نيران النعرات الطائفية والحزبية والقبلية والفئوية وتبقيها مشتعلة لاتطفئها أى جهود مهما عظمت.

مصر بحاجة إلى عملية "زراعة عقل" جمعى يعيد إليها صوابها وتوازنها، وينظم حركتها، ويعطل قدر المستطاع قوة الدفع الرهيبة فى اتجاه تدمير القوة الذاتية والموارد ويحولها فى اتجاه التعمير والبناء والعمل .. ومالم يحدث ذلك قد يظل المريض حيا بمخ يعمل تلقائيا ولكن ينقصه شريحة العقل التى ترشد الحركة وتضبط بوصلة الإتجاه.

د/ فتحى النادى

Developing Good Interpersonal Habits

Change is hard. You've probably noticed that.

We all want to become better people -- stronger and healthier, more creative and more skilled, a better friend or family member.

But even if we get really inspired and start doing things better, it's tough to actually stick to new behaviors. It's more likely that this time next year you'll be doing the same thing than performing a new habit with ease.

Why is that? And is there anything you can do to make change easier?

How to Be Good at Remembering People’s Names

My girlfriend is great at remembering people’s names.

Recently, she told me a story that happened when she was in high school. She went to a large high school and it was the first day of class. Many of the students had never met before that day. The teacher went around the room and asked each person to introduce themselves. At the end, the teacher asked if anyone could remember everyone’s name.

My girlfriend raised her hand and proceeded to go around the room and accurately name all 30 or so people. The rest of the room was stunned. The guy next to her looked over and said, “I couldn’t even remember your name.”

She said that moment was an affirming experience for her. After that she felt like, “I’m the type of person who is good at remembering people’s names.”

Even today, she's great at remembering the names of anyone we come across.

Here's what I learned from that story: In order to believe in a new identity, we have to prove it to ourselves.

Identity-Based Habits

The key to building lasting habits is focusing on creating a new identity first. Your current behaviors are simply a reflection of your current identity. What you do now is a mirror image of the type of person you believe that you are (either consciously or subconsciously).

To change your behavior for good, you need to start believing new things about yourself.

Imagine how we typically set goals. We might start by saying "I want to lose weight" or "I want to get stronger." If you're lucky, someone might say, "That's great, but you should be more specific."

So then you say, "I want to lose 20 pounds" or "I want to squat 300 pounds."

These goals are centered around our performance or our appearance.

Performance and appearance goals are great, but they aren't the same as habits. If you're already doing a behavior, then these types of goals can help drive you forward. But if you're trying to start a new behavior, then I think it would be far better to start with an identity-based goal.

The image below shows the difference between identity-based goals and performance and appearance-based goals.

The interior of behavior change and building better habits is your identity. Each action you perform is driven by the fundamental belief that it is possible. So if you change your identity (the type of person that you believe that you are), then it's easier to change your actions.

The reason why it's so hard to stick to new habits is that we often try to achieve a performance or appearance-based goal without changing our identity. Most of the time we try to achieve results before proving to ourselves that we have the identity of the type of person we want to become. It should be the other way around.

The Recipe for Sustained Success

Changing your beliefs isn’t nearly as hard as you might think. There are two steps.

1. Decide the type of person you want to be.

2. Prove it to yourself with small wins.

Here are five examples of how you can make this work in real life.

Note: I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to start with incredibly small steps. The goal is not to achieve results at first, the goal is to become the type of person who can achieve those things.

For example, a person who works out consistently is the type of person who can become strong. Develop the identity of someone who works out first, and then move on to performance and appearance later.

Start small and trust that the results will come as you develop a new identity.

Want to lose weight?

Identity: Become the type of person who moves more every day.

Small win: Buy a pedometer. Walk 50 steps when you get home from work. Tomorrow, walk 100 steps. The day after that, 150 steps. If you do this 5 days per week and add 50 steps each day, then by the end of the year, you’ll be walking over 10,000 steps per day.

Want to become a better writer?

Identity: Become the type of person who writes 1,000 words every day.

Small win: Write one paragraph each day this week.

Want to become strong?

Identity: Become the type of person who never misses a workout.

Small win: Do pushups every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Want to be a better friend?

Identity: Become the type of person who always stays in touch.

Small win: Call one friend every Saturday. If you repeat the same people every 3 months, you’ll stay close with 12 old friends throughout the year.

Want to be taken seriously at work?

Identity: become the type of person who is always on time.

Small win: Schedule meetings with an additional 15-minute gap between them so that you can go from meeting to meeting and always show up early.

What is your identity?

In my experience, when you want to become better at something, proving your identity to yourself is far more important than getting amazing results. This is especially true at first.

If you want to get motivated and inspired, then feel free to watch a YouTube video, listen to your favorite song, and do P90X. But don't be surprised if you burn out after a week. You can't rely on being motivated. You have to become the type of person you want to be, and that starts with proving your new identity to yourself.

Most people (myself included) will want to become better this year. Many of us, however, will set performance and appearance-based goals in hopes that they will drive us to do things differently.

If you're looking to make a change, then I say stop worrying about results and start worrying about your identity. Become the type of person who can achieve the things you want to achieve. Build the habit now. The results can come later.

The Top 10 Things We Should Know About Life

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1. Realize that nobody cares, and if they do, you shouldn't care that they care. Got a new car? Nobody cares. You'll get some gawkers for a couple of weeks—they don't care. They're curious. Three weeks in it'll be just another shiny blob among all the thousands of others crawling down the freeway and sitting in garages and driveways up and down your street. People will care about your car just as much as you care about all of those. Got a new gewgaw? New wardrobe? Went to a swanky restaurant? Exotic vacation? Nobody cares. Don't base your happiness on people caring, because they won't. And if they do, they either want your stuff or hate you for it.
   
2. Some rulebreakers will break rule number one. Occasionally, people in your life will defy the odds and actually care about you. Still not your stuff, sorry. But if they value you, they'll value that you value it, and they'll listen. When you talk about all of those things that nobody else cares about, they will look into your eyes and consume your words, and in that moment you will know that every part of them is there with you.
   
3. Spend your life with rulebreakers. Marry them. Befriend them. Work with them. Spend weekends with them. No matter how much power you become possessed of, you'll never be able to make someone care—so gather close the caring.
   
4. Money is cheap. I mean, there's a lot of it—trillions upon trillions of dollars floating around the world, largely made up of cash whose value is made up and ascribed to it, anyway. Don't engineer your life around getting a slightly less tiny portion of this pile, and make your spirit of generosity reflect this principle. I knew a man who became driven by the desire to amass six figures in savings, so he worked and scrimped and sacrificed to get there. And he did... right before he died of cancer. I'm sure his wife's new husband appreciated his diligence.
   
5. Money is expensive. I mean, it's difficult to get your hands on sometimes—and you never know when someone's going to pull the floorboards out from under you—so don't be stupid with it. Avoid debt on depreciating assets, and never incur debt in order to assuage your vanity (see rule number one). Debt has become normative, but don't blithely accept it as a rite of passage into adulthood—debt represents imbalance and, in some sense, often a resignation of control. Student loan debt isn't always avoidable, but it isn't a given—my wife and I completed a combined ten years of college with zero debt between us. If you can't avoid it, though, make sure that your degree is an investment rather than a liability—I mourn a bit for all of the people going tens of thousands of dollars in debt in pursuit of vague liberal arts degrees with no idea of what they want out of life. If you're just dropping tuition dollars for lack of a better idea at the moment, just withdraw and go wander around Europe for a few weeks—I guarantee you'll spend less and learn more in the process.
   
6. Learn the ancient art of rhetoric. The elements of rhetoric, in all of their forms, are what make the world go around—because they are what prompt the decisions people make. If you develop an understanding of how they work, while everyone else is frightened by flames and booming voices, you will be able to see behind veils of communication and see what levers little men are pulling. Not only will you develop immunity from all manner of commercials, marketing, hucksters and salesmen, to the beautiful speeches of liars and thieves, you'll also find yourself able to craft your speech in ways that influence people. When you know how to speak in order to change someone's mind, to instill confidence in someone, to quiet the fears of a child, then you will know this power firsthand. However, bear in mind as you use it that your opponent in any debate is not the other person, but ignorance.
   
7. You are responsible to everyone, but you're responsible for yourself. I believe we're responsible to everyone for something, even if it's something as basic as an affirmation of their humanity. However, it should most often go far beyond that and manifest itself in service to others, to being a voice for the voiceless. If you're reading this, there are those around you who toil under burdens larger than yours, who stand in need of touch and respect and chances. Conversely, though, you're responsible for yourself. Nobody else is going to find success for you, and nobody else is going to instill happiness into you from the outside. That's on you.
   
8. Learn to see reality in terms of systems. When you understand the world around you as a massive web of interconnected, largely interdependent systems, things get much less mystifying—and the less we either ascribe to magic or allow to exist behind a fog, the less susceptible we'll be to all manner of being taken advantage of. However:
   
9. Account for the threat of black swan events. Sometimes chaos consumes the most meticulous of plans, and if you live life with no margins in a financial, emotional, or any other sense, you will be subject to its whims. Take risks, but backstop them with something—I strongly suspect these people who say having a Plan B is a sign of weak commitment aren't living hand to mouth. Do what you need to in order to keep your footing.
   
10. You both need and don't need other people. You need others in a sense that you need to be part of a community—there's a reason we reflexively pity hermits. Regardless of your theory of anthropogenesis, it's hard to deny that we are built for community, and that 'we' is always more than 'me.' However, you don't need another person in order for your life to have meaning—this idea that Disney has shoved through our eyeballs, that there's someone out there for all of us if we'll just believe hard enough and never stop searching, is hokum... because of arithmetic, if nothing else. Establish your own life—then, if there's a particular person that you can't help but integrate, believe me, you'll know.

Business Benchmarking

Way back in 1998, Sik Fong, Eddie Cheng and Danny Ho wrote a great article citing Camp (1989) referring to benchmarking as “the search for industry best practices that will lead to superior performance”.  Where they state that “this definition is broad enough to accommodate all levels or types of practices to benchmark;” going on to say that “benchmarking can work in all possible areas of products, services, and related processes across different national or business boundaries. It involves changing the current work practices or business methods to achieve predetermined goals. For example, Motorola’s general systems division learned from the delivery systems of Domino’s Pizza and Federal Express, aiming at shortening the cycle time between order receipt and delivery of its cellular telephones,”(p. 408).

 

But in 2013 with most organisations operating in a double or triple dip recession, or the aftermath thereof,  is it smart to benchmark yourself against other organisations when whole industries are operating in uncharted territory and ‘comparisons’ could easily give a false picture, as you might not be comparing like with like in terms of the business environment.

 

Benchmarking against competitors makes sense in a reasonably stable business environment where you’re looking to ensure you’re either setting the standards for others to follow or at least being competitive; and making strategic and operational changes to improve specific key performance areas in line with current ‘best practice’ in your industry sector.

 

But what if the market is so volatile that benchmarking yourself against your competition could just lead you to follow them to obscurity, highlighting that maybe there are times when the business environment is so uncertain that it requires ‘great leaders’ to go with their experience, knowledge and instincts (not necessarily in that order) to lead their organisation through the ‘hard times’, where they prefer to ‘watch’ and manage their internal key indicators; have a very dynamic strategic process, where the organisation is ‘primed and able’ to change direction at a moment’s notice; and actively listen to their customers. 

 

Maybe there are times in the business cycle where ‘optimal future success’ is more dependent on leadership than comparing yourself with your competition through benchmarking in its classic form; and where you, as the leader, have the confidence in your people and your products and/or services to make it through to better times.

 

Where at the same time those unfortunate leaders promoted to a level beyond their real capabilities find themselves standing out like a sore thumb, following traditional business practices hoping (and praying) this will see them through and simply survive until normality returns to their market and business environment.

 

There are times in business and the industry life-cycle when history can tell us a lot and help us define our future strategies and actively allow us to monitor and improve performance; but we must be alert to the fact that there also times when history in itself can detract from performance improvements, and if used as a benchmark can lead to unrealistic performance target and expectations; leading to misdirection, demotivation and suboptimal outputs that could, if not checked in time, lead to corporate failure.

 

Sik Fong, Eddie Cheng and Danny Ho highlight four essential themes for performance benchmarking offered by the Design Committee of the International Benchmarking Clearing House in the USA, (p. 408);

 

1. The value of learning from contexts outside an organization’s usual frame of reference (Cox et al., 1997);

2. The importance of undertaking this learning using a structured, formal approach (Cox et al., 1997);

3. The comparisons of practices between oneself and the best-in-class on a continuous basis; and

4. The usefulness of information to drive actions for performance improvement.

 

Critically though even these definitions neglect to highlight the possibility of benchmarking based on internal comparisons when the external environment is too uncertain to be trusted to guide you to ‘best practice’ performance.

 

When the business environment is uncertain, you cannot simply assume that your competitors, who were successful ‘yesterday,’ are actually on the right strategic path for sustainable growth; and if you’re a truly effective leader you must trust your instincts to guide your organisation through these uncertain times to arrive safely ‘on the other side’. Check on what the competition are doing by all means, but don’t blindly follow them, as they could be more lost than you. 

People As A Strategic Advantage

Most managers today understand the strategic implications of the information-based, knowledge-driven, service-intensive economy. They know what the new game requires: speed, flexibility and continuous self-renewal. They even are recognizing that skilled and motivated people are central to the operations of any company that wishes to flourish in the new age.

And yet, a decade of organizational delayering, destaffing, restructuring and reengineering has produced employees who are more exhausted than empowered, more cynical than self-renewing. Worse still, in many companies only marginal managerial attention — if that— is focused on the problems of employee capability and motivation. Somewhere between theory and practice, precious human capital is being misused, wasted or lost.

Having studied more than 20 companies in the process of trying to transform themselves, we have concluded that although structure is undoubtedly an impediment to the process, an even bigger barrier is managers’ outdated understanding of strategy.(See “The Evolving Focus of Strategy.”) At the heart of the problem is a failure to recognize that although the past three decades have brought dramatic changes in both external strategic imperatives and internal strategic resources, many companies continue to have outmoded strategic perspectives.

THE EVOLVING FOCUS OF STRATEGY

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In the competitive-strategy model in which many of today’s leaders were trained, sophisticated strategic-planning systems were supposed to help senior managers decide which businesses to grow and which to harvest.1 Unfortunately, all the planning and investment were unable to stop the competition from imitating or leapfrogging their carefully developed product-market positions.

In the late 1980s, the search for more dynamic, adaptive and sustainable advantage led many to supplement their analysis of external competition with an internal-competency assessment. They recognized that development of resources and capabilities would be more difficult to imitate: The core-competency perspective focused attention on the importance of knowledge creation and building learning processes for competitive advantage.2 But this approach, too, faced limits as companies recognized that their people were not equal to the new knowledge-intensive tasks. By definition, competency-based strategies are dependent on people: Scarce knowledge and expertise drive new-product development, and personal relationships with key clients are at the core of flexible market responsiveness. In short, people are the key strategic resource, and strategy must be built on a human-resource foundation. As more and more companies come to that conclusion, competition for scarce human resources heats up.

The Role of the Executive in the “War for Talent” Era

Senior managers at most traditional companies have been left gasping for air at the breadth and rapidity of change during the past two decades. Hierarchy has to be replaced by networks, bureaucratic systems transformed into flexible processes, and control-based management roles must evolve into relationships featuring empowerment and coaching. In observing companies going through such change, we have come to the conclusion that as difficult as the strategic challenges may be, they are acted on faster than the organizational transformation needed to sustain them. And however hard it is to change the organization, it is even harder to change the orientation and mind-set of its senior managers. Hence today’s managers are trying to implement third-generation strategies through second-generation organizations with first-generation management.

In an earlier study we analyzed the evolution of CEO Jack Welch’s thinking at General Electric Co. and the simultaneous adjustment of his leadership role during the company’s two-decade transformation.3 In many ways, however, Welch is an exception: Very few top executives have been able to transform themselves from being analytically driven strategy directors to people-oriented strategy framers. Yet for a traditional company to make the transition into the New Economy, that transformation is vital. In our ongoing research, we have identified three important changes the CEO must make.

A Changing View of Strategic Resources

The hardest mind-set to alter is the longstanding, deeply embedded belief that capital is the critical strategic resource to be managed and that senior managers’ key responsibilities should center around its acquisition, allocation and effective use.

For the vast majority of companies, that assumption simply is no longer true. Without denying the need for prudent use of financial resources, we believe that, for most companies today, capital is not the resource that constrains growth. Global capital markets have opened up the supply side, while widespread excess industry capacity has reduced the demand side. The recent reversals in some sectors notwithstanding, most companies are awash in capital. Of them, many cannot even generate sufficient high- quality capital-budget projects to use the available resources —and therefore go on merger-and-acquisition expeditions.

The stock market is telling managers what the scarce strategic resource is. When it values a mature, capital-intensive company like GE at 10 times its book value, it is seeing something of greater worth than the physical assets recorded in financial accounts. Though the dot-com bubble burst, the exuberant and often irrational funding of technology-savvy entrepreneurs pointed to the same lesson: There is a surplus of capital chasing a scarcity of talented people and the knowledge they possess. In today’s economy, that is the constraining — and therefore strategic — resource.

The implications for top management are profound. First, human-resources issues must move up near the top of the agenda in discussions of the company’s strategic priorities. That means that a first-class human-resources executive must be at the CEO’s right hand. Eventually, traditional strategic-planning processes will need to be overhauled and the financially calibrated measurement and reward systems will have to be redesigned to recognize the strategic importance of human as well as financial resources.

A Changing View of Value

Recognizing that the company’s scarce resource is knowledgeable people means a shift in the whole concept of value management within the corporation.

In the early 1980s, competitive strategy was seen as a zero-sum game. Michael E. Porter, for example, saw the company surrounded by its suppliers, customers, competitors and substitutes, engaged in a battle with them to capture the maximum economic value possible.

The subsequent interest in building and leveraging unique internal capabilities caused a gradual shift in emphasis from value appropriation to value creation. As information and knowledge came to provide competitive advantage, the game shifted. Unlike capital, knowledge actually increases when shared, thus eliminating the zero-sum game. Clearly, the focus on value creation demands a different approach than a focus on value appropriation.4

One of the most basic issues is how the value that the company creates should be distributed. Most companies operate under the assumption that shareholders, as contributors of capital, have the primary claim. But recruiting difficulties that large traditional companies face, employees’ eroding sense of loyalty and cynicism over the growing gap between the compensation of those at the top and those on the front lines all indicate that value distribution must change. The rapid spread of stock options as a form of compensation shows that companies have begun to recognize that the owners of the scarce resources are no longer only the shareholders but also the employees.

The implications are profound. Top management must begin renegotiating both implicit and explicit contracts with key stakeholders, particularly with employees. Unless those who contribute their human and intellectual capital are given the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of the value creation they are driving, they will go where they have that opportunity — typically to newer, less tradition-bound companies.

A Changing View of Senior Managers’ Roles

Unlike capital, scarce knowledge and expertise cannot be accumulated at the top of the company and distributed to those projects or programs in which it will yield the greatest strategic advantage. It resides in the heads of individuals at all levels and is embedded in the relationships of work groups — those closest to the customers, the competitors and the technology. Therefore, rather than allocate capital to competing projects (the zero-sum game), senior managers must nurture individual expertise and initiative, then leverage it through cross-unit sharing (the positive-sum game).

Already we have seen downsizing of corporate planning departments, simplification of strategic-planning and capital-budgeting processes, and massive overhauls of corporate structures and processes — all in an effort both to shift initiative to those deep in the organization who possess valued expertise and to break down the barriers to effective sharing of that expertise.

But senior managers also must rethink their role in shaping strategic direction. Their main contribution has shifted from deciding the strategic content to framing the organizational context. That means creating a sense of purpose that not only provides an integrating framework for bottom-up strategic initiatives, but also injects meaning into individual effort. It means articulating company values that not only align organizational effort with the overall enterprise objectives, but also define a community to which individuals want to belong. And it means developing organizational processes that not only get work done effectively, but also ensure the empowerment, development and commitment of all members of the organization. The philosophical shift requires executives to expand beyond strategy, structure and systems to a simultaneous focus on the company’s purpose, process and people.

Implications for HR Professionals

In many companies the transition process is becoming an important proving ground for the human-resources function, with many old-school HR executives finding that neither their training nor their experience has prepared them for a leading strategic role. In the 1980s era of competitive-strategy analysis, their function was typically supportive and administrative. Once line managers had translated top management’s strategic objectives into specific operational priorities, the role of HR staff was to ensure that recruitment, training, benefits administration and the like supported the well-defined strategic and operational agenda.

When strategic priorities became more organizationally focused in the 1990s, human-resources managers increasingly were included in the strategic conversation, often to help define and develop the company’s core competencies — and almost always to align the organizational design and management skills to support those strategic assets.

Now, as companies move into the war for talent and as individuals with specialized knowledge, skills and expertise are recognized as the scarce strategic resource, HR professionals must become key players in the design, development and delivery of a company’s strategy. (See “The Evolving Role of Human Resources.”)

THE EVOLVING ROLE OF HUMAN RESOURCES

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Unfortunately, many top-level human-resources managers view the new task through old lenses. They continue to treat employees as raw materials to be acquired and then made useful through training and development, or at best they acknowledge employees to be valuable assets on whom expenditures in the form of development and generous compensation are worthwhile investments. In response to the demands resulting from the growing importance of human capital, they develop more-aggressive approaches to recruitment, create more-innovative training programs, and experiment with more-sophisticated compensation packages. The problem is twofold: They are tackling a strategic task with old, functional tools, and they are trying to bring about major systemic change with incremental, programmatic solutions. Human-resources managers must see employees as “talent investors,” to be treated as partners and rewarded the way other investors are.

We have identified three core tasks that align the human-resources function with the strategic challenge of developing the company’s human capital for sustainable competitive advantage: building, linking and bonding.

The Building Challenge

Many companies claim that their people are their most important asset, but few have built the human-resources systems, processes or cultures that can even offset, let alone challenge, the deeply embedded bias toward financial assets. For example, in almost any company, decisions relating to capital expenditures are subjected to well-documented capital-budgeting procedures. Typically, guidelines define approval levels (for example, division presidents may approve expenditures up to $1 million, the CEO up to $5 million, and the board above that level), require clear evaluation processes (for example, positive discounted-cash-flow returns above the weighted cost of capital) and set specific benchmarks (for example, payback on new equipment in three years).

When it comes to hiring a district sales manager or a shift foreman, however, decisions are routinely made by front-line managers who choose the best available among three or four marginal applicants to address a short-term difficulty. Yet that is at least a $2 million decision if one calculates recruiting costs, training costs and a discounted cash flow of the expected future stream of salary and benefits payments over the average tenure of such employees. But by recruiting a merely average individual, the company loses the opportunity to gain competitive advantage through a hiring decision. If the company were to make the decision strategic, it would have to set standards, monitor activities and measure recruiting outcomes in a way that made the decision as precise and rigorous as those guiding capital allocation.

Converting recruitment into a strategic task means making an ongoing commitment to locating and attracting the best of the best at every level and from every source. Microsoft Corp. is unusually thorough in its recruitment process, annually scanning the entire pool of 25,000 U.S. computer-science graduates in order to identify the 8,000 in whom it has an interest. After further screening, it targets 2,600 for on-campus interviews and invites just 800 of those to visit the company’s Redmond, Washington, headquarters. Of them, 500 receive offers, and 400 — the top 2% of that year’s graduates — typically accept. Yet that massive college-recruiting effort provides less than 20% of the company’s new-people needs. To locate the rest, the company maintains a team of more than 300 recruiting experts whose full-time job is to locate the best and brightest in the industry. That strike force builds a relationship with literally thousands of the most capable systems designers, software engineers and program managers, often courting them for years. In the late 1990s, the effort resulted in more than 2,000 of the most talented people in the industry joining Microsoft annually.

After a company has acquired top talent, the building challenge also requires the human-resources function to lead company efforts in constantly developing those talented individuals. That requires more than traditional training programs provide. Today development must be embedded in the company’s bloodstream, with all managers responsible for giving their team members ongoing feedback and coaching. That is something McKinsey does unusually well, which helps to explain why M.B.A.s worldwide are more likely to seek employment there than at any other employer. (See “One Company’s Way of Valuing People.”)

One Company’s Way of Valuing People

The global management-consulting firm McKinsey & Co. is an example of a company that truly values its employees, as it demonstrates through its commitment to their development. Although formal training plays an important role, by far the most critical development tools are intensive individual feedback and coaching.

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There is one other aspect of building human capital that is grossly undermanaged at most companies. As any good gardener knows, to promote healthy growth, in addition to fertilizing and watering you also must prune and weed. That is a metaphor Jack Welch used often in describing the performance-ranking process he introduced to cull chronic underperformers at GE. Yet in most companies, the human-resources department focuses considerable effort on planting, staking, watering and fertilizing — and practically none on cutting out deadwood or growth-inhibiting underbrush.

Culling is no longer confined to hard-driving U.S. industrial companies. South Korea’s LG, traditionally a cradle-to-grave employer, uses a “vitality index” as a critical performance measure. All managers have to rank their direct reports on a 1-to-5 scale (with 1 equal to the bottom 10% and 5 representing the top 10%). The vitality index is the ratio of new recruits who are ranked at 4 or 5 to employees of rank 1 or 2, who are counseled to move on.

The Linking Task

Just as there is value in attracting and developing individuals who hold specialized knowledge, there is value in the social networks that enable sharing of that knowledge. Indeed, unless a company actively links, leverages and embeds the pockets of individual-based knowledge and expertise, it risks underutilizing it or, worse, losing it. As companies seek the best ways to convert individual expertise into embedded intellectual capital, the classic response is to give the task to the chief information officer — along with the faddish title of chief knowledge officer.

Not surprisingly, people with information-systems background immediately focus on the task of mapping, modeling and codifying knowledge. Under their leadership, companies have developed databases, expert systems and intranets to help capture and make accessible the company’s most valuable information. Yet in many companies, managers do not take full advantage of those elegant new knowledge-management systems.

At the heart of the problem is a widespread failure to recognize that although knowledge management can be supported by an efficient technical infrastructure, it is operated through a social network. Information technologists may help in organizing data and making it accessible, but they must be teamed up with — and operate in support of — those who understand human motivation and social interaction. Only then can individual roles and organizational processes be designed to ensure the delicate conversion from available information to embedded knowledge.

Thus, the second core strategic role of the top HR executive is to take the lead in developing the social networks that are vital to the capture and transfer of knowledge. Because that requires an understanding of organization design, process management, interpersonal relationships and trust-based culture, it calls for leadership from sophisticated human-resources professionals who also have a strong understanding of the business.

The most obvious challenge is to build on the process reengineering that most companies implemented during the 1990s to break down bureaucracy and unlock core competencies. The reengineered processes (whether at a micro level, as in order entry, or a macro level, as in new-product development) had two major objectives: breaking down hierarchical barriers to rapid decision making, and opening up new horizontal channels and forums for cross-unit communication and collaboration. Those activities are precisely what will link isolated individuals and organizational units into dynamic social networks.

In the early 1990s, British Petroleum built such networks under the leadership of John Browne, who at the time was overseeing the development of BP’s prototype knowledge-management and organizational-learning program as head of BP Exploration. Transferring the approach to the whole company when he became CEO in 1995, Browne avoided installing a new set of information systems, focusing instead on a practice he described as “peer assists.” The assist was a small-scale project that encouraged those on the front line in one business unit (operators on a drilling platform in the North Sea, for example) to contact other BP operations (offshore drillers in the Gulf of Mexico, for instance) that had the expertise to help solve particular problems. Cutting through formal layers and complex procedures, the process became an accepted way of doing business, and managers soon recognized that it was not acceptable to refuse a request for help.

The process was supplemented by “peer groups” of business units engaged in similar activities at similar stages of their life cycle (for example, all start-up oil fields, all mature oil fields or all declining-yield oil fields) and facing similar strategic and technical challenges. The idea was to create a way that managers of BP’s newly decentralized operations could compare experiences and share ideas. In recent years “peer assist” has been expanded into “peer challenge,” in which peers not only review one another’s goals and business plans, but the best performers are formally made responsible for improving the performance of the worst performers.

In a third major element of the program, technology was introduced — but only as the transmission pipeline and storage system for ideas that were already flowing. Rejecting the notion of trying to capture and encode the company’s knowledge, the virtual teams built networks to give those with problems access to those with expertise.

Although the initiative involved a major investment in hardware and software, including multimedia e-mail, document scanners, videoclip encoders, desktop videoconferencing and chat rooms with chalkboards, the IT function took responsibility only for installing the equipment. The project was driven by the Virtual Teamwork group and its subteams. About one-third of the Virtual Teamwork budget was allocated for coaches to help managers use the new tools to achieve their business objectives. In the end, it was the ability to change individual behavior and to shape group interaction using the powerful IT tools that allowed BP’s process change to succeed.

BP has created processes and a supportive culture to link and leverage the expertise of individual employees, embedding knowledge within the organization. Its social networking is strategic because it drives innovation, responsiveness and flexibility yet is extremely difficult for competitors to imitate.

The Bonding Process

The third major strategic task HR must undertake is to help management develop the engaging, motivating and bonding culture necessary to attract and keep talented employees. In such a culture, the potential in competent individuals and fully functioning networks can be converted into engaged, committed action. Companies must reject the notion that loyalty among today’s employees is dead and accept the challenge of creating an environment that will attract and energize people so that they commit to the organization. Such advice flies in the face of conventional wisdom, which maintains loyalty has been replaced by a free-agent talent market that requires companies to convert their long-term trust-based relationships with employees to short-term contracts. Higher employee turnover, the use of temporary help and the expansion of outsourcing are all part of the envisioned future.

But if a company can outsource services or hire temporary expertise, so can its competitors. Such actions, therefore, are unlikely to lead to any competitive advantage. And if recruitment and retention are based primarily on the compensation package, the person lured by a big offer will almost certainly leave for a bigger one.

Consider SAS Institute, a billion-dollar software company based in Cary, North Carolina, which rejects the use of contract programmers and other outsourcing yet still attracts people to work without stock options and maintains turnover below 5%. How is that possible? CEO Jim Goodnight explains that what has consistently given his company a prominent place in Fortune’s survey of the best U.S. companies to work for is not stock-option programs, which he calls Ponzi schemes, but rather, competitive salaries and generous bonuses based on the company’s performance and the individual’s contribution.

In an industry featuring high pressure and burnout as the norm, SAS Institute has created an island of common sense. Actions and decisions are based on four simple principles: to treat everyone equally and fairly, to trust people to do a good job, to think long term and to practice bottom-up decision making. Then there are the hours. The software-industry joke may be generally apt (flex time means the company doesn’t care which 15 hours you work each day), but company policy at SAS Institute is to work 35 hours per week. Exceptional benefits also reflect the value SAS puts on its people: There is a free, on-site medical facility for employees and family members, a subsidized on-site day-care facility, a gymnasium free to employees and their families, subsidized restaurants and cafés, and so on. That environment makes employees feel like valued members of a community, not replaceable gunslingers for hire. And for these self-selected individuals, that is reason enough to want to spend their career at SAS.

But the bonding process involves more than creating a sense of identity and belonging. It also must lead to an engaging and energizing feeling of commitment to the organization and its goals. But the visioning exercises and values cards many companies have developed in response to that need often fall short. The role of the HR professional is to get senior managers to move beyond hollow, slogan-driven communications, which are more likely to lead to detached cynicism than to engaged motivation, and to help them develop a clear personal commitment to an organizational purpose. Commitment implies a strongly held set of beliefs that not only are articulated in clear human terms, but also are reflected in managers’ daily actions and decisions.

Henri Termeer, CEO of Genzyme, a biotechnology firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, regularly meets with people suffering from the diseases on which his researchers are working. He wants to feel angry about the pain and loss the disease is causing and passionate about the need to help. And he wants to transmit that passion to those working at Genzyme. Equally important, Termeer backs his words with actions. Because the company focuses on therapies for rare diseases, the cost of treatment is high. But the company refuses to let economics get in the way of its commitment to treat the afflicted and literally searches them out in Third World countries to provide free treatment. By acting on the company’s beliefs, Termeer stirs the passion and engages the energy of Genzyme’s employees.

The bonding process can succeed only when senior management realizes that the company is more than a mere economic entity; it is also a social institution through which people acting together can achieve meaningful purpose. In the war for talent, organizations are engaged in what one senior executive describes as “a competition for dreams.”

The Heart of Strategy

The arrival of the information-based, knowledge-intensive, service-driven economy has forced massive change on companies worldwide, most dramatically in the way they must redefine their relationship with their employees. The shift in strategic imperatives over the past 25 years has necessitated new battle plans. The competition remains intense for strategic market positions and for scarce organizational resources and capabilities, but the war for talent has shifted the locus of the battle front. Today managers must compete not just for product markets or technical expertise, but for the hearts and minds of talented and capable people. And after persuading them to join the enterprise, management also must ensure that those valuable individuals become engaged in the organization’s ongoing learning processes and stay committed to the company’s aspirations.

It was this recognition that led McKinsey’s partners to reexamine their long-established mission “to serve clients superbly well.” After much debate, the partners decided that the changes occurring in the world of business were significant enough for them to reconsider the core purpose of their firm. Now McKinsey has a dual mission: “to help our clients make distinctive, substantial and lasting improvements in their performance and to attract, develop, excite and retain exceptional people.” McKinsey and other organizations making the change have found new meaning in the term competitive strategy as they compete for the hearts, minds and dreams of exceptional people.