Monday, September 11th, 2006

As the first entry to Melete's Musings, I thought it worthwile to do so on the anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks.  Good historians remind us that we in developed nations are living in an unprecedented time of prosperity, safety, and consumer choice.  The problems we are facing are no longer national, or international, but global.  I recently saw visionary organizational theorist Peter Senge give a talk in Vancouver, British Columbia as part of a week long summit on peace (hosted by the new Dalai Lama Centre for Peace Studies).  He reminded the collective group of business men and women that we human beings are awful at recognizing the problems that they create for themselves.  As a true systems thinker, Senge emphasized that only rarely do people (especially adults) see the forest from the trees.  We are too caught up in our day to day efforts to clear our desks or our work schedules of a set of tasks to really look at any serious issues -- our own personal ones, our family's, our organizations, etc.  Senge had many wonderful messages in his talk; but among the most relevant to the Melete vision was that of learning.  We must be better learners.  We must learn to learn ... or, at least, unlearn all our typical ways of seeing, hearing, and talking with each other.

--Mark

Friday, September 15th, 2006

Melete gave an after-dinner talk for the Certified Management Accountants Society of BC Executive Program launch.  The subject of the talk was Accountability -- hopefully a fitting and appropro subject.  The core message for the evening was that of taking responsibility and accountability for one's actions.  Drawing on material from Peter Drucker, I suggested that the first maxim of being a manager is very similar to the Hippocratic Oath -- in Latin, Primum Non Nocere -- First Do Not Harm.  If one cannot conduct one's business without doing harm ... to one's colleagues, subordinates, customers ... the community, the environment; one should not be in business.  A good lesson from an old source.  The after dinner talk went quite well and included a short, fun exercise.

-- Mark

Tuesday, February 6th, 2007

Melete has officially finished its first year of operations with a very successful opening 12 months.  We want to thank our clients -- SFU, Radical Entertainment, Volunteer Services Organization (Canada), and the Art Institute -- for being first-movers.

Saturday, January 26th, 2008

Melete has officially finished its second year of operations.  This past year saw Melete going into a "holding pattern" as Mark made a personal job shift into the position of Consulting Practice Leader at The Refinery.  Given that Mark is consumed with helping The Refinery build a growing consulting practice, he has little time (or current interest) in extensively building Melete's book of business.  However, Mark continues to take on speaking engagements and special small projects as Melete.