Chris Dalton's Personal Development Blog

Dear all,

It’s a cold, wet, miserable November morning at Henley and the place looks somewhat deserted, as if retreated to an inner world to contemplate. Feeling introspective, I got to thinking about an item on Radio 4 this morning marking the 350th anniversary of the founding of the Royal Society, the world’s oldest grouping of what were then called natural philosophers and what we now call scientists. There’s little doubt that this marked the beginning of the modern era, leading to many breakthroughs (and some set-backs) in science. In 1660 the Society published the first peer-reviewed journal, heralding the birth of the idea, prevalent in universities still today, that it is by careful measurement and observation, combined with a detached (Descartes had mind separated from matter) reasoning, that we reveal the laws that govern our universe.

The empirical way of seeing the world has been extremely effective in ways that seem to have benefited us, although there are now nearly 7 billion of us that need these benefits, compared to only around 10% of that in 1660. If I may be provocative, I’ll suggest two other things it has done. The first has been to tie us to a philosophical microscope through which we have convinced ourselves that anything may be understood by breaking it down into parts. In the world of forces and impacts this, until fairly recently, looked to many like it explained things pretty nicely. In the world of living systems, however, things have been less clear because of the impossibility to separate the observer from the observed, and because while the effects of climate change (for example) are linear, the causes are circular. The second thing has been an obsession with giving everything a price and calling that its value.

With regard to the impact of the chain of human activity on our environment, 1660 may yet prove to have been the beginning of a Royal road that brings so many worried people to the summit in Copenhagen. The question for us at Henley is whether we should be talking more about this. Or do we not yet have the language to do so? As Einstein is quoted as saying, “you cannot solve a problem with the same thinking that caused the problem.”

Henley on Linkedin (featuring Research Corner)

We’re still growing the group, and there are three sub-groups, with two more (Third Sector and Coaching) in the offing. Membership now stands at 4,745. Please do get involved with some of the discussions, and there are also several opportunities to help out other members with their research projects.

Jane McKenzie has asked me to mention the KM Forum, which may be of interest to anyone looking for activities connected with Knowledge Management:

” Celebrating Connections: evocations and provocations for the future. 24th and 25th February 2010

The Henley KM Forum annual conference is always a great event. The 2010 conference looks all set to be outstanding. It’s the 10th Anniversary of the Forum and for two days, Henley will be hosting some of the most recognised names in the field. Key Note speakers include:

Leif Edvinsson, Janine Nahapiet, Dave Snowden, Hubert St Onge, Karl Erik Sveiby
They will be joined by an international cast of experts including

Verna Allee, Daan Andriessen, Chris Collison, Niall Cook, Ron Donaldson, Sami Kazi, Rongbin W.B Lee, Richard McDermott, Victor Newman, Geoff Parcell, Goran Roos and Euan Semple
In addition you will gain access to the latest research produced by the Henley team in cooperation with the members. You can download the full conference brochure and speaker biographies from here. Your relationship with Henley entitles you to a discount of 10% on the one day or two day rate.

We are also looking for up to 4 helpers for the conference, who can attend at no cost, in exchange for two days effort helping to keep things running smoothly. To qualify you need to have submitted a proposal for a Management Challenge or Dissertation that has knowledge management at the heart of it already. If you have then here is your chance to do an in depth dive into some of the thinking in the field. Conversations with the delegates in the networking breaks, all of whom have considerable KM experiences, are a great opportunity to get further insights. If you can spare a couple of days in February next year, this is a real opportunity to inspire your thinking. For more information please contact Professor Jane McKenzie – Director of the KM forum – here at Henley. Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis. ”

Attainment report

You know that from time to time I like to give you all a quick run-down of the Programme Examiner’s Meetings to let you know what the average grades achieved in assignment and exams have been in the last quarter. It’s only a general picture, but it should reassure many of you that you’re doing just fine.

[sorry, for the blog, this info has been removed].

International Business Environment elective – book now!

There is still time for any of you looking to take part in the exciting, week-long elective trip to Hungary in March next year. Expressions of interest, though, need to reach Susan Parr by December 18th 2009 and places are limited. More details of the elective (March 7th – 12th) can be found in the electives area on HenleyConnect.

News from the Greenlands Site (or, “Tales from the Riverbank”)

From January, work will begin here on the creation of a new suite of teaching and learning facilities. We will be creating a new and state-of-the-art Academic Resource Centre (ARC) by moving the PowerGen library to another side of the inner quad (phase one) and then the creation of a new, Hambleden-size, classroom and six new syndicate rooms in the vacated area (phase 2). All of this should be completed by July and we will try to ensure that disruption and noise are kept to a minimum – though there will be some impact. By the way, our excellent library team has asked me to mention that our subscription to Business Source Complete (EBSCO) now includes a business video collection, with 55 videos from the Harvard Business School Faculty Seminar Series.

Work on the new boilers for Paddock House is continuing and the refurbishment of Thames Court is finished. The Bar Common room will now be a space for both clients and staff, so expect more mingling! One other quick point, the IT system at Henley will be down for essential work for 2 hours on Saturday December 12th from 10 until mid-day, so no access to our web-site or HenleyConnect.

That’s it for this month, and because of the December holiday season, it’s the last newsletter of 2009. Good luck to all of you sitting an exam later this week, and I hope that you all take several minutes away from your MBAs for letting your hair down (collectively) in December. Consider it my gift. In the meantime, if you have any interesting news about you or your businesses, let me know. You live interesting lives and it would be good to tell some of the stories where they relate to the Henley MBA “effect”. For example, Dave Cox (HB31) was kind enough to let me know that in November he was selected to be a plenary panellist on industry ethics at a major World Petroleum Council event held in Paris.

Chris Dalton