An interest in German watchmaking

I have an interest in Swiss watchmaking, French watchmaking, British Watchmaking, United States watchmaking and German watchmaking. Whilst my greatest interest has traditionally been in Swiss watchmaking, I respect the innovations of the British and I love the reemergence of German watchmaking skill and design excellence.

I was lucky enough to be able to visit the town of Glashütte, the centre of German watchmaking prowess in Saxony. After the disaster of the second world war in regards to the division of Germany, this region fell under the control of the Soviet Union. Whilst West Germany prospered, the authoritarian control of the Soviet regime waned.

German watchmaking wasn't totally dead, the factories were rebuilt and knowledge was retained, the watch manufacturers produced timepieces for the Soviet military. When the communist regime collapsed, East Germany was liberated and the free market once again reigned supreme.

German timepiece manufacturers such as A. Lange & Söhne, Glashütte Original, Union Glashütte, Nomos Glashütte and Muhle Glashütte are up and running again. Whilst I would love to be a proud owner of a A. Lange & Söhne, I need to be realistic, this is so far out of my price range and whilst I can appreciate their engineering excellence - it's not going to happen.

The TSA - now there is inefficiency

My observations of the TSA began at New York's JFK airport, then later at La Guardia and then back at JFK again. They only seem to appear at check-in, swarming around the entrance to the gates for departure, mostly standing around doing what appears to the naked eye as nothing.

What I viewed was inefficiency, disorganisation, arrogance and rudeness - they do not answer to the public, it is if they are dealing with the sworn enemy.

Even fellow TSA officers don't trust each other's propriety, let me explain. I was taking my wallet out of my pocket, my watch off my wrist and belt to walk through the metal detector, I had placed the items in the tray but not yet in my bag.

A TSA officer came up behind me and told me to put my watch back on my wrist and wallet in my bag, he looked at me and said "don't leave this in full view" before looking at other TSA staff screening bags.

The way they spoke to the people they were screening was incredible, these are members of the public, they created the pandemonium, it was their lack of organisation that had people confused. There was enough officers standing around, they could have set up with officers directing people, instead, there was 9 officers standing around doing nothing and 1 working the scanner.

What is lacking is leadership, someone needs to take control to get a steady flow of people moving through the scanner having been briefed on what to do and how to prepare. I get the feeling America's best and brightest aren't being recruited into the TSA, they are probably paying minimum wages, providing minimal training and fueling a culture of them versus us.

When I arrived at the baggage collection at LAX airport, I saw the shape of my bag knowing full well it had been tampered with, the shape was all wrong and straps hanging off. The locks had been cut with a TSA note inside, they had rummaged through my bag and messed everything up.

I had purchased a bottle of vintage port in Porto for my nephew's 21st birthday, he is from a Portuguese background and the year matched his date of birth. I had packed the bottle in such a manner to ensure it does not get broken, I view baggage handlers with the same disdain as TSA officers, that is, dumb and dumber.

So the bottle of port was unwrapped from its protective layer of clothing, its position in the middle of the bag was shifted to the edge, it is like these fools wanted my fragile goods to be broken. I lock my bags because I have had items previously stolen straight out of my bag.

They are actually making air travel less secure as minimum wage baggage handlers now have access to previously secure baggage. Most people are aware of the levels of commitment, levels of training and screening of potential hires, this is particularly disturbing.

Every other airport in the world screens baggage and allows travelers to secure their baggage, after all, x-ray of baggage, is more valid as a search strategy as hidden items are discovered more readily.

This is taking us back to the 70s, the physical search is the last option as it is the most inefficient option, the TSA really needs to get its act together, the TSA is just an expensive joke - that's all it is.

Growth on a shaky foundation

I have a fair amount of experience watching empire building in the workplace, if you view personal empires as a shaky foundation, then it is kind of fun to hang around to view the implosion first hand.

What I enjoy most is the empire builder must firstly surround themselves with yes men, secondly they must ensure they remain hands-on leading to micro-management of the yes men cartel.

They refuse to take breaks or holidays as they fear their personal empire will disintegrate before their very eyes. Unless you own the company, then you are not immune, even owners have been moved sideways or out of the very company they built.

They place spies around the workplace to create a culture of fear, trust is lacking and workplace productivity is low. Well, why would you work hard when you know who will take all the credit?

Do you want to join the inner circle and lose all scruples? I think not, instead it is better to gain superior workplace skills to move to the next job for better conditions and pay.

You would guess right that promotions are not based on competence, they are based on alliances and the ability to undermine your fellow workers. But such structures build no real loyalty as real leadership is lacking and the first sign of trouble sees the minions run away as soon as they can.

Corporate learning and development

The development of corporate learning and development is moving from an content centric approach where learning materials were published online in the early 2001 through a blended approach to a social collaboration between team members.

The learning management system was simply a repository for content with limited interaction between facilitator and learner. I can recall downloading such materials, then printing them out to a paper based format and working through the exercises.

You had limited opportunity to embed the knowledge or skills and just waited for the paper versions of your assessments to be mailed back after you posted in your work to the marker.

Moving to the talent management approach in the mid 2000s, the software program addressed the four pillars of talent management involving recruitment, performance management, learning and development and compensation management.

Experimental learning started getting interesting with the 70:20:10 approach with 70% of learning performed on-the-the-job through action learning projects, job rotation and delegation.

Likewise, 20% of learning is still conducted on-the-job through active processes such as mentoring and coaching and the final 10% of learning is conducted off-the-job through formal courses.

Continuous embedding of learning ensures a continuous learning program that is further expanding skill-sets in response to a changing environment.

New developments are considered less static and more fluid incorporating internal learning and development departments within the human resource structure and the rise of the corporate university.

The Anti-Murdoch brigade - the QAnon of the left

When I read comments sections on social media posts from news outlets, the comments leave me shaking my head. Still, I read these comments to gain a perspective for my blog, but this isn’t always indicative of what the electorate is actually thinking, this is a small cross-section of the community.

The comments sections are filled with left leaning commentators who are loud and willing to shout down any opinion that doesn’t align to theirs. As I subscribe to The Australian Newspaper online, I can easily find links to articles published on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

I also read The Sydney Morning Herald, now owned by Nine Entertainment and The Guardian owned by the Guardian Media Group in the United Kingdom. Both the SMH and The Guardian are left leaning media groups.

I also read the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) online and whilst it is considered left leaning, they are reasonably unbiased in their reporting. This could actually be said about The Australian Newspaper as well as journalists are employed from both a right and left leaning perspective.

So when I read the dropkicks loudly commenting online about Murdoch, he doesn’t actually write for The Australian Newspaper blaming all their election losses on Rupert, one might actually ask why his media group employs so many left leaning journalists?

Might it be The Australian Greens and the Australian Labor Party have lousy policies that keep them almost in perpetual opposition? There are a lot of loud commentators on social media and despite their best attempts at bullshit conspiracy theories not grounded in reality, they don’t actually change public opinion.

So the ALP are normally consigned to another three years of sitting on the opposition benches and wondering why they seem to be perpetual losers at a federal level. The ALP ability to lose an unlosable election might not only be based on their lack of coherent policy, it might also be the higher than thou chattering social media commentators doing damage.

The trouble with the old boy's club

The trouble with the old boy’s club, is well, the old boy practices of exclusion, the blatant favoritism, nepotism and cronyism.

This is so much more than a lack of process, this is the basic denial of opportunity to talented individuals who refuse to engage the outdated and unethical practices of the old boys. What this produces is a sub-standard product, inhibits team performance that hinders business growth - a favorite strategy of government organisations.

This is a government dilemma, service isn't an issue in the old boy’s club, governments need to offer a customer centric service but this doesn't fit their narrative. This starts with recruiting, selecting and employing the best candidate for the job.

Talent management is a major organisational development requirement, the acquisition of high-level talent is the defining requirement for organisations. That's what makes me laugh, government organisations that deny economic gravity, the taxpayer funds roll in and the cycle continues.

Classes on leadership

Leadership is such an overused term, sure you can take a leadership class but does that truly instill leadership qualities in an individual? I'm not so sure.

With so many articles, research and academic papers dedicated to the art of leadership, I ask myself, can you really train people in leadership? There is individual leadership and organisational leadership, authoritarian and democratic, situational and contingency theories, task or relationship oriented, trait and charismatic and then there is laissiz faire.

I view leadership as a social influence, the ability to motivate others to achieve goals, these may be organisational or team goals and are exhibited at all levels of the organisation. Can leadership be learnt in classes? Absolutely leadership can be, with modern delivery methods one doesn't even need to sit in a traditional classroom but learnt online.

Much has been written about transformational and transactional leadership theories. Then there is charismatic leadership, whilst trait leadership has pretty much been outdated and disproved, the cult of the CEO is currently the order of the day. What we do know is leadership is power and the personal values displayed has a positive effect on the team.