WMD and Aidan's Chinese Revolution

A recent leader in the Economist caught my eye (http://www.economist.com/node/21543537). I enjoyed reading about the late Deng Xiaoping’s “southern tour” in 1992 which set the country on the path to reform that underpinned the success they have seen over the last 20 years. The article went on to say that China’s future success relies not taking more control, but actually on releasing their steely grip on power; “China’s bloody past has taught the Communist Party to fear chaos above all. But history’s other lesson is that those who cling to power end up with none….for China to succeed it must move away from the formula that has served it so well”.

I think I am at the start of my own little Chinese revolution. After the EMC Big Data day, the Fantastic Tavern event in London last month, and the realization of the last 2 to 3 years of the benefit of slowing down to achieve more; my eyes are being re-opened to the need to spend time thinking, thinking, and to open myself up to the real world and the new ideas and trends around me. I think I need to unpick at least part of the last decade of conditioning by Accenture methodology, process and ruthless execution. Maybe I’ve been too successful in reducing complexity to small tasks which are then executed by a team of highly conditioned analysts, consultants and managers eager for professional success. Maybe I need to start realizing that we live in a VUCA world (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volatility,_uncertainty,_complexity_and_ambiguity) which is also a consumerist world populated with weapons of mass distraction (WPD) – just check out https://www.lsnglobal.com/.

Maybe all of this means that I need to think differently about how best to achieve a positive and lasting impact on real people and real companies rather than delivering just another large scale, contractually successfully project that doesn’t really fundamentally change the way a client’s business is done for the better…