Comments for Mutterings of a consultant

Comment on Demise of the knowledge worker by MJE

MJE — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 03:17:54 +0000

I don’t believe the history and mankind’s developed has been predicated on left brain thinking. The things that have been invented e.g. ways for making fire, agriculture, wheel, written language, mathematics. machines, manufacturing etc. have been created, imagined, conceived of etc. When Einstein said
“Imagination is more important than knowledge”.

Comment on Consulting – a whole of brain profession by MJE

MJE — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 03:10:30 +0000

The answer to the 1st question poses lots of questions – what do you mean by “design” and “consultant”. Some consultants are trained in design theory and process (I was) i.e. it probably depends what your have been trained in. Maybe there are some things you may not be able to train people in e.g. empathy (or creativity) – I suspect these things are more innate like (height, intelligence, etc.) – perhaps you can affect them marginally.

It is interesting you mention history. I think a lot of consulants (and others, including me) could benefit from studying it more carefully i.e. to learn from the mistakes of others.

There are good methods and bad methods – some methods are very powerful in help design (others are not).

I think actually design includes analysis (i.e. imagination, conception etc.) – so the distinction is not between design and analysis – but between design (which encompasses analysis) and imagining, conceiving

Comment on Demise of the knowledge worker by S

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 02:14:08 +0000

Thomas Friedman’s (Discovery Channel Journalist)book “The World is Flat” mentions much the same points as you have described above. Although quite US-centric it does mention steps the west needs to take to maintain their competitiveness and ensure jobs. Talks about all the process-oriented and automated jobs being done in cheaper locations and thought based work done in the traditional high income economies.

I, however, am not so sure that in itself will be sufficient, because I think in the not too distant future there will be significant RnD (thought based) type work coming out of India and the like. So far it was a question of lack of money, facilities, infrastructure and resources, but that seems to be changing rapidly. India and China also have a huge advantage so far only enjoyed by the US i.e. a vast domestic market to test their products. However, there is a very long road ahead for this to happen, starting from a paradigm shift in the way tertiary education sector is organised (teaching intensive instead of research intensive) to the way big corporations function (implementing ideas generated elsewhere as opposed to creating new ideas).

The potential for these countries to take on the world in terms of “right brain activities” exist, whether or not it will be realised remains to be seen. Interesting times ahead!

Comment on Demise of the knowledge worker by Knowledge work: reports of its death are an exaggeration « Bill Bennett - knowledgeworking

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 22:19:06 +0000

[...] on August 8th, 2008 At the Mutterings of a consultant blog Grant Frear writes about the demise of the knowledge worker. He refers to a book written by Daniel Pink called A Whole New Mind that argues people in the [...]

Comment on Demise of the knowledge worker by billbennettnz

billbennettnz — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 06:21:18 +0000

An interesting and thoughtful post. However, while today’s archetypal knowledge worker may operate in predominately left-brain areas, right-brain (i.e. creative) thinking is also knowledge work.

Rather than this being the era of the demise of the knowledge worker, I see it more as a shift from boring knowledge work to more interesting knowledge work.

Comment on Does power really go to the people? by Gareth Glover

Gareth Glover — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 06:04:50 +0000

The half life of knowledge, skills and anything worthy of notable contribution to our Enterprises is rapidly shortening. No longer are skills handed through generations from father to son, master to apprentice. Increasingly more often our masters are learning from their apprentices (is it even possible to achieve a permananent state of ‘mastery’ in anything anymore?). We need to listen and learn from our staff, our apprentices (and indeed our children) to make sense and keep pace with our rapidly changing world. Arguably only through positively encouraging the participation of our teams can management hope to have sufficient information to make informed decisions. The decision rights are no transferred – ultimately the maturity of the management team still leads to the most balanced perspective and best judgement – however only by listening to the whole of Enterprise perspective, being open to new ideas and embracing change will management manage anything meaningful.

Comment on Consulting 2.0 by D

Thu, 15 May 2008 03:24:08 +0000

I was suitably entertained by Dick Hardt at the Identity Management conference recently as he gave an enthralled presentation on Identity 2.0 – 1300 slides in 40 minutes. When I read your two entries on death by powerpoint and 2.0 Dick Hardt immediately came to mind – ultimately it comes down to the effectiveness of the delivery – something Dick has perfected. If you are interested one of his presentations is on line at http://identity20.com/media/OSCON2005/

Comment on Visual Thinking by Matt

Matt — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 04:45:54 +0000

If you like describing things in detail – you need to look at http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_vdqi

A bizarre but fascinating book, expensive but definitely worth reading.