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	March 5, 2003

PATENT, TRADEMARK REGISTERED ON In a surprising development, following acceptance by intellectual property authorities that ideas can be patented and everyday terms can be trademarked, a consortium of Fortune 500 companies has successfully registered and obtained a blanket patent on "common sense", and a trademark on the expression. The consortium's patent attorneys argued successfully that their clients do, in fact, have a monopoly on common sense, and that it is only fair that they be allowed to protect this intellectual capital using all available legal means. Effective immediately, anyone attempting to use common sense TM in any undertaking must first obtain written consent from the Outrageous Fortune Consortium, LLC, and pay the requisite royalties on any benefits accruing from its application. The Bush administration declined comment on the landmark development, indicating that they did not expect to be affected by it. 10:45:16 AM  trackback []  comment []

WHY YOU NEVER GET ANYTHING IMPORTANT DONE A few years ago Stephen Covey developed the time management matrix shown at right. One of its original purposes was to show managers why nothing important ever gets done in business. But it might also be used to explain why the critical issues facing our world get back-burnered as soon as some demagogue or despot does something attention-getting. Here is how you read it: A business with its priorities straight should deal with issues in Quadrants I, II and III in that order. However, human nature and office politics often dictate that issues in Quadrants I and III often get the lion's share of attention and resources, and issues in Quadrant II never get addressed at all. Here's a typical example: Quadrant I: Collapse in Sales Quadrant II: Poor Staff Morale Quadrant III: Latest Computer Virus Quadrant IV: Office Furniture Repair Often in business there are no Quadrant I issues at all. Real business crises are not that common, and when they do arise it's often the result of having neglected Quadrant II issues in favour of Quadrant III issues. And many Quadrant III issues are actually Quadrant IV issues that have been artificially portrayed as urgent by someone with a personal agenda. The process is known as "creating a sense of urgency" and is a legitimate way of competing for scarce business resources like people, money and attention. But the result is completely dysfunctional. It's the same in the real world. The issues on the front page of our newspapers are Quadrant I (if there are any) and Quadrant III issues. To detract from their failure on Quadrant II issues, political leaders, often abetted by lazy and pandering media, "create a sense of urgency" around some Quadrant IV issues to escalate them to Quadrant III. By doing so they effectively distract public and media attention indefinitely (or at least until after the next election) from the Quadrant II issues. An even better and scarier strategy is to create mechanisms like "Code Orange" to automatically escalate Quadrant IV items to Quadrant III at will. Here are some current examples "ripped from the headlines" (or in the case of Quadrant II issues, lack thereof): Quadrant I: None Quadrant II: Korea, Israel/Palestine Peace, World Poverty, Global Warming, Huge Deficits, the next Enron, Judicial Appointments Quadrant III: Iraq Quadrant IV: Almost anything discussed on FoxNews In business and in real life, if you neglect Quadrant II issues long enough they become Quadrant I items. Often it's then too late. In business you call in the receivers. In real life, the result is holocaust, massive famine, genocide, nuclear brinksmanship, oppressive debts for future generations, abuse of power, perversion of democracy, and desertification of whole nations. There are some great blogs about Quadrant II issues. If we only had the time, after reading and posting about the Quadrant III issues, to learn more about the Quadrant II issues and start to proffer solutions to them!  Unfortunately, as the opportunists know too well, we can't ignore the Quadrant III issues: We need to have the courage and energy to defuse them, put them in perspective, and take back the agenda of our companies and our countries, to focus on what's really important. 1:23:48 AM  trackback []  comment []

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