SteveJ-restore-test

This is a pitch for something new: the " Researchers' Workbench ". Australia has the wealth and inventiveness to do it, but most probably, not the political will. Chalk that up to "the Cultural Cringe". Pitch . I.T./Computers are "Cognitive Amplifiers". They aren't just a 'good' fit to Research, but a Perfect 'fit': Researchers are the definitive "Knowledge Workers". This idea isn't new or exclusive, here's what's gone before. Theme 1: Augmenting Human Intellect. In 1968, Doug Englebart of Stanford/SRI and his Augmenting Human Intellect Research Centre did a demo (available on-line) of their work in the area. 40 years on, this initial work has languished. Could the ANU or CSIRO repeat the demo, even given some time? I doubt it... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_of_All_Demos http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Engelbart http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmentation_Research_Center Theme 2: Bush's Meme...

There is another, much more frequent "Death by Success" cause, first introduced to me by Jerry Weinberg and Wayne Strider and Elaine Cline ( Strider and Cline ). It's the same process that some herbicides use: unconstrained growth. Monsanto's flagship herbicide Round Up is exactly this sort of agent. If you are very good at what you do and much sought after, this can lead directly to massive Failure - personally and in business. Growth is Good, but too much, too fast is a Killer. The only protection is awareness . As  Virginia Satir pointed out, "We can't see inside other people's heads, nor can we see ourselves as others see us" (courtesy again of Jerry and "Strider and Cline".) Typically you need objective, external help is recognising this condition. Once you have restored Situational Awareness , you can choose your response. Which may be "I'm outa here", Denial or something in between. There is an alternative form of ...

The things you do in the beginning, when you're the minnow-against-the-giants, to start and build a business may not work well when you're successful, when you've become The Giant. Exactly what leads to Success can eventually lead to your downfall. You become very good at the things that have gained and seemingly maintained Success.  Every problem and challenge you've met have been solved with your brilliance and individual style. Why would you ever want or need to vary that approach? Until something new comes along and it all goes wrong:   Inevitably in Business and Life, things change ( perturbations arise in Control Systems terms).   Responding with "More of the Same", as in the past, will, at some point, not work.   If you've grown large, it will take time to fail, you'll have notice "things aren't great".   Many companies only ever do "More of the Same",  often amping-it-up as results don't appear.   The results are ...