Podcasts about however i've

Unfortunately Morgan was faced with a week from hell and due to extenuating circumstances we were not able to record. However I've re-edited this wonderful episode, our first foray into Bigfoot. Enjoy!

Summary Values can be a powerful driver of business culture, both for good and bad. This week we look at when values go bad and what to do about it. Transcript Hello and welcome to episode 61 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we tackle one of today’s biggest leadership challenges. This week we’re looking at when values go bad and what to do about it. I met with a Head of Human Resources a number of years ago shortly before the public listing of their business. He was particularly excited about a new set of values that had been developed by the executive team and were about to be rolled out to employees in the coming weeks. He was then kind enough to give me a preview of the five new values, all nicely printed on cards. They were numbered one to five and went something like this: Deliver for Shareholders - as a business about to be publicly listed, the executive team were keen to focus people around the importance of delivering on the promises made to those about to invest in the business. Delight Customers - this seemed pretty sensible and was focused around providing a great experience for customers every time and responding to customer feedback. Operational Efficiency - streamlining processes to improve efficiency and provide greater consistency across their various locations. I honestly don't remember what the fourth value was, which is probably because of the fifth value. People First.  At that point of the conversation I had the same reaction you're probably having now. Before I could fully think it through, I found myself saying "Do you think you should change that last one to 'people fifth'?". At that point he understood the irony of their fifth value. In this instance the executive team had actually constructed what they saw as the most important values for the business in order of importance, and for them the reality was that people came fifth. However, being accustomed as we all are to saying "people are our most important asset", the "people first" tag line seemed like the right name at the time. You may not be surprised to learn that following the public listing of the business, they closed their doors for the last time within a few years. Perhaps putting "people fifth" was part of the problem.  It’s easy to be cynical about values - we’ve all seen examples of them done poorly. Enron famously had Integrity as one of its four values. However I've seen some great examples of organisational values. When done well, a set of values can provide an invaluable framework for employees throughout the organisation to make decisions in the 'grey space' between black and white rules and procedures. One senior leadership team I was a member of would often refer back to the organisation's values when making tough decisions while navigating the global financial crisis. In the absence of precedents and guidelines, the values allowed us to choose between options based on their alignment with the values of the organisation. The values also helped us to explain these decisions to those affected in the context of the organisation's strategy. Furthermore, it provided a consistent framework for doing business across diverse cultures around the world. When I met with my equivalents from overseas, I was always pleasantly surprised at how consistently they modelled the organisation’s values. However values can sometimes be poorly developed and inauthentic. 'People fifth' is one example. In some organisations values are developed from the ground up - a sort of democratic discernment of what's important through seemingly endless focus groups, interviews and surveys. This approach almost always produces a bland set of values that are more about avoiding offending anyone than they are about guiding decision making. The best values are developed at 'the top' and then refined through conversation across the business. In our earlier example, some refinement of the proposed values with employees would have highlighted the 'people fifth' dilemma, and possibly enabled a better end result. However too often executive teams are presented a set of values emerging from an overly consultative process and, as a result, they don't match the strategy of the organisation. The executive team haven't bought into the values before they are printed on a fancy sign that starts off behind the reception desk, and is gradually relegated into a store room to gather dust.  An organisation's values need to be authentic and matched with the strategic direction of the business. As a leader you need to hold yourself and others accountable to these values. If you're going to do this, you will want to make sure you're 100% comfortable with the values yourself. Patrick Lencioni helpfully breaks values into four categories: Core values - these are the two or three unique aspects that differentiate the organisation. Lencioni calls them “cultural cornerstones”. Aspirational values - these reflect what the organisation aspires to be like to succeed in the future. Perhaps the organisation aspires to be efficient, but isn’t there yet. Identifying efficiency as an aspirational value helps people to understand that we’re not there yet, but that this is important for us to focus on. Permission-to-play values - these are the minimum standard required to operate in your industry. For example, being ethical if you’re a law firm is a permission-to-play value. Every law firm should be ethical - it’s a legal, business and community expectation. It’s unlikely that your firm is markedly more ethical than the next firm. Accidental values - these are the spontaneous values people see and experience that haven’t consciously been chosen. An organisation I worked with that had innovation as a stated value, but the accidental value was to never make a mistake. This fear of making mistakes held them back from being innovative - it stopped people from taking action or trying new things. In summary, authentic values can be a valuable tool to aid decision making in uncertain times. They can be used to hold leaders and employees to account, not just around what results they achieve, but also how they achieve results. A process that starts with the senior team considering the values they believe are required to achieve their strategy is a great start, and needs to be coupled with a refinement or 'testing' process that involves groups of employees. Clearly defined values can provide that all important compass that people need when navigating uncharted waters.  What has been your experiences of values? How have they helped and hindered? Reference Patrick Lencioni - Make Your Values Mean Something. Harvard Business Review, July 2002. https://hbr.org/2002/07/make-your-values-mean-something

What a crazy and amazing few months it has been since my summer Ibiza trip. My son was born in October and I've been hanging out with the little guy so I have not had time for much music. However I've had a few days spare before I travel to join him in South Africa for Christmas and i have managed to knock together a 3 hr 15min eclectic house mix for your music pleasure. I handpicked 39 of my favourite tunes from the last 5 months that span a variety of sub genres of house music including deep, soulful, indie dance, garagy, nu disco, french, electronica, old skool and progressive. They are interlaced in a way that should take you on a musical journey. Personally this is what i would like to listen to at Salinas in Ibiza towards the end of a day on the beach. For those in Dubai, SA or anyway sunny this is an ideal mix to play while outdoors with a few cold ones and imagine you are Salinas, if you in colder climes, wrap up warm and pretend it is warm and you are on the beach! Either way, turn it the fook up and have a happy Christmas everyone! RIP Madeba Drop me an email or facebook shout to let me know if you've been listening and if you like it Rubber Funk X Tracklisting: 1 - Turn Around - Satin Jackets RTemix - Gero, Kullai Timi2 - Always - Classixx Remix - Panana - Future Classic3 - Loneliniess - Nora En Pure - Nero Blanco4 - U Gona Want Me - Dayne S Remix - Saccao, Biatone, Vintage Culture - Spirit Soul Records5 - Don't You Know - Frankware - Cream Couture Records6 - Sweet - Sin Tek - Deepalma7 - Don't You Know It - Kellerkind - Stil Vor Talent8 - Looking for Dub - Kolombo, Dave Davis - Suara9 - Boy Boy Boy - Andhim - Terminal M10 - Planes & Trains - Hot Since 82 - Moda Black11 - Shadows feat Alex Mills - Alex Mills, Hot Since 82 - Moda Black12 - Dawn feat S.Y.F. - Jaymo and Andy George Remix - Pete Tong - Defected13 - Let Us Pray - Jaymo and Andy George - Stefano Ritteri - Pets Recordings14 - Galaxy - Luke Milton - Nurvous Records15 - Tell Me - Mark Lower, Red F - Spirit Soul Records16 - Twins - Veerus, Maxie Devine - Suara17 - Nonstop! - sharam Jey, Kolombo - Bunny Tiger18 - Your Only Best Friend - Kolombo Remix - Mono Negro - DJ Series19 - Make You Do - Kolombo Remix - Sion - MTA Records20 - Careless - Dusky - Defected21 - Good for the City - Moullinex Dub - Kraak & Smaak, Sam Duckworth - Jalapeno Records22 - Sun Comes Up - Mind Against 909 Remix - Art Department - No.19 Music23 - Take It to the Hoop - Huaswerks, Jaymo & Andy George - Moda Black24 - Everybody Loves - Monte Remix - Phil & Dan - Blacksoul Music25 - Feel the Same - Ian Pooley, Spencer Parker - Tsuba26 - Remember - Jaymo & Andy George - Moda Black27 - Don't Lose it - Tommy Rawson - Local Talk28 - Henry's Treat - Jaymo & Andy George - Moda Black29 - Words Later On - Dusky - Aus Music30 - This Moment - Wild Culture - Kittball31 - Love Inc - Booka's Deep Inc Mix - Booka Shade - Blaufield32 - Gold - Real Nice - Cream Coutur Records33 - Strandbar - Samba Version - Todd Terje - Olsen Records34 - Knee Deep in Louise - shadow Child Remix - Hot Since 8235 - Automagic - Televisor - Monstercat36 - Gimme - Sebastian Welkum - Intricate Records37 - Eyesdown - Bonobo - Sasha Remix38 - July - Me and My Toothbrush - Nero Blanco39 - Kuza - Alfred Taylor - Anjunadeep

Thanks to the vagaries of jet-lag, I'm penning this little missive from Okinawa where it's hotter than July and I'm spending time with my daughter which fills me with glee. It's been a very hectic few days/weeks and I'm glad to be having a break from music for at least a wee while, but of course I'm coming back to London via Tokyo and I'm relishing the opportunity to be playing at my favourite club once again. I'm a fan of Shibuya's The Room not just because the proprietor, Shuya Okino, is a great friend, but because it really is the best little club in the world, with little being the operative word! So before bailing out for a break I managed to gather my resources for a tribute to George Duke, who sadly passed away on August 5th. I contemplated for a while whether this selection should take up the whole two hours, or just be a section of the show. However on reflection George Duke has touched me so deeply with some of his music over the years that really it was a no-brainer; yet a tribute to George could easily have been two hours of fusion and synth solos with little to distinguish between one track and the next. So hopefully I've avoided that trap whilst still dishing up plenty of Duke flying free on his ARP Odyssey! George Duke was perhaps a reluctant fusioneer, and if it wasn't for the influence of the likes of Frank Zappa and Flora Purim he might never have embraced electronic keyboards with such gusto. In fact he once recounted how he was horrified on one occasion in his early career when he turned up for a gig with Jean Luc Ponty to find there was no real piano just a Fender Rhodes. It was an important gig, with many influential peers in attendance, suffice to say that his performance on electric piano on that occasion set him off on that "electric jazz" road, and he barely paused to look back until the latter days of his recording career when his prowess on the piano once again came to the fore. However as a fully fledged member of a coterie of musicians who really defined the sound of fusion in the early seventies, Duke was a vital force in those experimental, pioneering days and it could easily be argued,(indeed I might even insist!) that his work with Flora Purim and AIrto during this period produced some of the most definitive and enduring music of the era. The fluidity of the Brazilian rhythmic feel and the participation of the likes of Joe Henderson in those recordings stopped the music from keeling over into the kind of hollow bombast that is sometimes the trademark of the kind of fusion which might also be described as Jazz-Rock. To anyone who really listens to Duke's playing they'll know that it is something of a misnomer to apply a term like Jazz-Rock to his work, as his roots are definitely deep within the blues and gospel traditions that informed most jazzers growing up in the sixties, and overall his music is just too soulful to fit such an epithet. However I've heard it said of Duke and really it's just lazy journalism and ignorance that informs such opinions. George Duke met Airto and Flora Purim whilst with Cannonbal Adderley's band, and was inspired by a trip to Brazil with that ensemble. The resulting album "The Happy People",produced by David Axelrod, is a major disappointment , awful sonically and pretty incoherent musically it's an important record only in that it marks the inception of their relationship that would go on to bloom on albums like Flora's "Stories To Tell", "Moon Dreams" and "That's What She Said", and in turn Flora and Airto would guest on Duke's early solo recordings and be a vital part of his homage "A Brazilian Love Affair", when Duke eventually returned to Brazil to make his own record there and record with the artist whose music had so affected him on his first visit, Milton Nascimento. However that Brazilian influence kept bubbling through Duke's music over the years and though he admitted to also being influenced by Earth Wind and Fire in the late seventies, they themselves had also taken on that same influence. So in some ways it's better to picture their trajectories in parallel as they both found great ways to translate the harmonic and rhythmic wellspring of Brazil into their music. Perhaps there's some poetic justice in the fact that eventually George Duke would produce tunes written by Earth Wind And Fire's keyboard maestro Larry Dunn, (Dee Dee Bridgewater's version of "Tequila Mockingbird" and Dianne Reeves "Sky Islands") such are the similarities between them. Ironically Duke's biggest hit with Afro American audiences, "Dukey Stick" was the kind of funk workout his consummate band were more than capable of with the mighty Ndugu behind the kit, but it had none of the harmonic sophistication or soulful splendour that is the essence of his music. So here's two hours of George Duke that delves deeply into his lyrical piano playing and his distinctive voice on solo synthesiser as well as his role as producer, arranger and collaborator, a composer of rare power and a musician of infinite grace. 1. George Duke - My Soul 2. The Third Wave - Maiden Voyage 3. George Duke - Jeanine 4. Flora Purim - Casa Forte 5. George Duke - Diamonds 6. Miles Davis - Backyard Ritual 7. George Duke - Let Your Love Shine 8. George Duke - Say That You Will 9. George Duke - Malibu 10. George Duke - Brazilian Sugar 11. George Duke - The Way I Feel 12. George Duke - Dream Weaver 13. George Duke - Feels So Good 14 George Duke - Stones Of Orion 15. George Duke - Feel 16. George Duke - Someday 17. George Duke - Omi (Fresh Water) 18. Dianne Reeves - Sky Islands 19. George Duke - Brazilian Love Affair 20. George Duke - I Want You For Myself

Volatility Views 72: Closing the Book on Black Swans Volatility Review: It was a very slow week in volatility, with the VIX sticking close to 16. Near-term VIX futures were trading at 0.50 below the cash contract at one point this week.   Listener Mail: Mark, Andrew, and Don answer listener questions. Comment from Teddy: This is a great article. I really hope you guys discuss this on the next episode of Volatility Views. I'm curious about this new low vol VIX. What is the point of it? Comment from Oscar (about Woodard's article): This is a good article, and given the last episode of Vol Views, this is very timely. When are you going to have Condors Options on the show? It seems like they would fit nicely with Mark, Don and Mark. Comment from Asymmetric Risk: I've never read any of Nassim's books, much less his research. However I've probably traded more options with him than any of his counterparties, going back to the 80's when we were the two most active currency options traders globally. I would describe him as a buyer of back spreads, and very well positioned for gaps or jumps. Many of which were not black swans per se, for example, the sudden 10% currency move we had when the Swiss National Bank put a floor on the Euro recently. Your critique of his strategy was unduly harsh, because while he is set up for black swans, he isn't dependent on them to be profitable, as you guys characterize him. Email from Mark S: Should I even pay attention to the vega numbers when trading weekly options? It seems like vol is mostly irrelevant in such a short-dated option and that any measurement of that vol would be highly prone to error. Weeklies seem to be gamma/theta beasts, so that's where I expend the bulk of my effort and analysis. The Crystal Ball: We're still waiting for a settlement in Washington on "the fiscal cliff." The Crystal Ball: We're still waiting for a settlement in Washington on "the fiscal cliff."