As it happened, my grandpa only played one match for them before injury put paid to his rugby career. That was in 1921, but he wore this affiliation like a badge of honor right up until his death at the age of 99.  

The All Blacks were revered a hundred years ago, and they still are. This makes them a perfect case study for Professor Alex Hill, co-founder and director of the Centre for High Performance, a collaboration between Kingston University London, Duke University, London Business School, and the University of Oxford. 

Building Centennial Organizations

For more than a decade, he’s researched organizations that have outperformed their peers for over 100 years. In addition to the New Zealand All Blacks, he’s studied NASA, Eton College and the Royal Shakespeare Company, among other household names. 

Hill has identified 12 habits they share, looking at how they analyze success and failure, recruit great talent, and create new products and ideas. He lays these out in his new book, “Centennials,” and offers advice for others who aspire to such longevity today. 

In this clip from our Expert Interview, Hill reflects on how corporate behavior can embed itself from generation to generation. (You can stream the audio clip below or read a transcript here.)

The How and Why of Centennial Organizations

Hill acknowledges that not all organizations are in it for the long haul. Some don’t want to last 100 years, so for them, a focus on short-term returns is appropriate. 

“A lot of management thinking comes from business, and actually those principles and ideas are great if you want to burn bright, but then disappear,” he says. “But if you don’t want to do that and you want to build something that’s going to last, then you have to think in a very different way.” 

And this is a worthy goal, he believes, as “centennial” organizations deliver benefits for communities and society as a whole, as well as for themselves. 

“They help us solve bigger, more complex questions, things like climate change or poverty or health or education, where actually you’re building a collective knowledge in an institution that is growing over time. And you’re solving a problem which can’t just be solved quickly, where actually it might take many decades or many generations to actually work out how to fix it,” he explains. 

The 12 habits in Hill’s book provide a framework for organizations with such ambitions. The first six help to build a stable core, identifying a strong purpose for the work, developing stewardship, and fostering an open attitude toward the world. The last six focus on what he calls the “disruptive edge.” These habits encourage new ideas that propel organizations forward. 

The Power of Performing in Public

I was particularly struck by habit five, “perform in public,” about harnessing the power of strangers. Within an organization, it’s hard to see what you’re doing well – or not so well. Whereas, if you perform to a trusted stranger, you can learn a lot from their feedback, which may include fresh ideas from the outside, too. And of course, when we’re being watched, we almost always raise our game. 

“They’ve done lots of different studies around this, [and] they found that if you have a stranger present in a group, the group feels that they need to perform better,” says Hill. “So they will often be more rigorous in their discussion or their debates, they will explain things more clearly, they make [fewer] mistakes, and they often perform at a higher level because of that.”  

As a freelance producer, I’ve seen this firsthand. Often, I’m the stranger, going into organizations to record a podcast or interview employees. In these situations, I’ve noticed that people do tend to make an effort to act as professionally as they can. 

A few years ago, I produced a series of educational podcasts for a U.K.-based university. Each episode consisted of a roundtable discussion between academics teaching on a particular degree course. As soon as the microphones were set up, all the participants switched into “performance” mode. 

They listened attentively to one another, articulated their views with clarity and verve, and sometimes asked to redo something if they felt it could have been expressed better. If I hadn’t been there, the discussion may have been a bit more relaxed. But it might not have been as useful for the audience of students. 

Outside Observation Brings Centennial Results

Hill says he’s seen performance work in all sorts of situations. 

“You start to realize that every high-performing organization has a performance, and sometimes it happens very naturally, like an Olympic Games or a World Cup or a moon landing – this moment where they have to really perform,” he says.  

“But other organizations where it doesn’t happen naturally will artificially create it. So, like the Royal College of Art has open studios, where strangers can walk through, or they’ll get students to do shows where people can come.” 

It’s an effective way for organizations to practice the mindset they need to last for 100 years. 

The post The Centennial Mindset: My Expert Interview With Alex Hill appeared first on Mind Tools.

A person’s name, an address, a year? Every time you try to recall it, your brain grinds to a shuddering halt and then goes blank.

My particular problem wasn't so much not being able to remember a specific item or person. It was more that I couldn't remember the difference between two (fairly common) English words: affect and effect.

Improving the Memory

This was a bit of an issue for me, because I’ve tried to make a living as a sub-editor for the last two decades (studiously checking other people’s written words for mistakes and misunderstandings just like this).

So, how did I overcome this problem and keep the cash rolling in? With the help of a mnemonic device. I needed to embed in my mind that "affect" is almost always a verb, while "effect" is almost always a noun.

I mentally linked the words "effect" and "noun" using a story: David, an office manager, was always running late for work. Actually running (and occasionally diving) into the office.

He was "genuinely sorry for the effect his lateness" was having on his team’s performance, or so he said every day.

Even so, his colleagues were becoming increasingly frustrated. So, they decided to block the office entrance at 9am every morning with a large, thick slab of black granite!

It had the word “NOUN” carved into it in large letters. If you saw it, it meant you were late, you couldn’t get into the office, and you'd have to explain your absence to the boss.

The Weirder the Better

Yeah, I know, not a particularly plausible story. Where did the granite come from, and how could you even move it without huge machines?

But, the weirdness is really the point. The story is more than a little odd, but it contains striking images, has a clear narrative, and (in my experience anyway) certainly aids recall.

Your Experiences

Memory is an important work skill, even in the age of Google. It can help you to conduct negotiations, make decisions quickly, and impress clients with your knowledge.

Do you have any suggestions or advice on useful memory techniques? Are there any that you find particularly useful? What were the results? Have your say by adding your comments in the box below.

And, check out our latest infographic on the memory techniques of The Link and Story Methods here.

The post What’s the Effect (or is it Affect) of Poor Memory? appeared first on Mind Tools.

You may need to brush up on your win-win negotiation skills if you feel someone is repeatedly taking advantage of you. Or, perhaps you’re constantly having to fight hard to get the deal you want.

Playing "Hardball"

The style and conduct of a negotiation can depend heavily on its circumstances. If you're not expecting to deal with the other people again (say, when you're buying a house), it may be appropriate to "play hardball" and try to get a "win" at their expense.

Or during a large-scale negotiation (a corporate merger, for example), it may be appropriate to use "gamesmanship," ploys, and pre-arranged tactics to gain an advantage.

Conducting a Win-Win Negotiation

However, these approaches aren't particularly useful for resolving disputes with people who you have an ongoing relationship with. They can both undermine trust and create bad feeling. Honesty and openness are almost certainly better ways to conduct talks when you wish to maintain a good working relationship with your colleagues.

So, how do you conduct a negotiation and ensure that the conclusion is a win-win? And what motivates you to do so?

We decided to throw these questions out to you, our friends, followers and contacts on social media. We wanted to hear your top tips for a win-win negotiation process. As usual, we were delighted by the quantity and quality of your responses. Here's a selection of them.

Listening and Understanding

Facebook friend Tina Renay Weiss says that you should start "by really listening to understand the perspective and ideas of the other parties."

Paula Chatfield suggests "understanding that both parties have things that their deal needs to achieve, and working together to get them. That mutual respect translates not only into a win-win negotiation of terms, but also a healthier approach to contract negotiation and implementation, making everything simpler, happier and quicker/less costly for everyone. It's relationship- and reputation-building."

Another Facebook friend, Hugh J. Keenan, suggested that, if possible, it's "good to get to know the people you are negotiating with… it doesn't mean you have to be friends, but if you reach a 'roadblock' then human qualities make the difference."

Have an Open Mind

On LinkedIn, Deborah Taiwo suggests that you should take the other person's point of view into consideration and "listen with an open mind."

Matthew Wolfe argues you should seek to "understand your peers needs and allow yourself to present an open perspective. Reciprocate the key points that are discussed and listen actively."

Staying with LinkedIn, Amy Wischmann advocated believing in the power of active listening, having an open mind, but "be prepared to state your desired outcomes in a thoughtful and reasoned manner."

Finally, Marcus Burton suggests you'll need to "always have a clear objective, know your negotiables, and acknowledge the other person's points."

Not Too Late to Comment

Thank you to everyone who took the time to send in their top tips, and our apologies to those people whose replies did not get a mention this time.

If you have any other suggestions or advice that you'd like to share, it's not too late – you can still have your say by adding your comments in the box below. And for more ideas, check out our article on Win-Win Negotiation, or our associated video, here.

The post Your Top Tips for Negotiating a Win-Win Outcome appeared first on Mind Tools.

In our Expert Interview with Rich Horwath, he defines "a strategy" as a plan to allocate your limited resources, time, talent and budget to achieve your goals and objectives; and "strategic thinking" as the ability to generate new insights or ideas that achieve some kind of advantage.

For Horwath, this advantage can be gained by focusing on three disciplines:

• Coalesce (or bring together).
• Compete.
• Champion.

In his new book, "Elevate", he explains how you can use these disciplines to your advantage, and he discusses the importance of ‘tradeoffs’ – choosing what not to do.

Listen to the full interview ¦ Install Flash Player.

Check out the rest of our Expert Interview (premium members only) for more of Rich's tips on strategic thinking.

Question: What’s your definition of strategic thinking – and how can we get better at it? And what do you prioritize when developing strategy? Join the discussion below!

The post Change Your Perspective and Think Strategically appeared first on Mind Tools.