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Taking your most important relationships seriously

The current focus on ‘social networking’ might make you think you should spend most of your efforts warming up distant relationships and creating new ones. This focus on new relationships is good and healthly – however it would be a major mistake if it meant you neglected to nurture the strong relationships you already have.

One of the first books to use the, now fashionable, term “Business Ecosystem” was “The Death of Competition” written by James Moore and published in 1996.

One of a number of 'gems' within this book is the idea of a “Personal Ecosystem” (p268-271) or an "egosystem".

Moore describes the way Jim Henson, the inventor of the Muppets, has developed a highly effective personal ecosystem made up of three distinct groups:

1. Kitchen Cabinet
   These are the guys who help generate new ideas.
2. Advisors
   These are the folks who critically analyse these new ideas to see which ones are worth developing further.
3. Agents
   These are the guys who can take an idea which has survived the critical assessment of the advisors and can bring it to life through effective implementation and action.

James also suggests a fourth group within a personal ecosystem – Decision-Makers .

In Jim Henson’s case this is a group of one - himself.

So what shape is your personal ecosystem or "egosystem" in, do you have one, how much effort are you investing in it and are there any critical gaps?

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Bioteams Books Reviews

The coming shape of organizations and teams

August 23, 2005 | article by Ken Thompson in Book Reviews (37)

Belbin sees Bioteams as the next step. Dr R Meredith Belbin, regarded as the father of "team-role" theory and one of the worlds foremost experts on teams predicts that we will evolve into bioteam forms. In his book "The Coming Shape of Organisation" Belbin picks out five observations human teams need to learn from "a diminutive masterclass" of social insects such as bees, ants and termites.

Buy it now from:
Amazon.Com
Amazon.Co.UK

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