The Great Training Robbery
Much as I would like to take credit for (what I think is) a catchy headline, it is actually inspired by an October 2016 Harvard … Read more
Lean Organisations
Addressing and Mastering “The Issue of Our Time”
“It's happening. In the last three weeks alone, Foxconn announced it will replace 60,000 factory workers with robots, a former CEO of McDonald’s said given rising wages, … Read more
Tension vs. Stress and How to Eliminate One to Avoid the Other
I am reading Brian J Robertson's book "Holacracy". As I do it has dawned on me that the reason why command and control management has not … Read more
How You Overcome That Great Fear
Most “disruptive” ideas – like the examples rejected by IBM – were first mooted internally. Their originators, however, had the conviction, determination and drive to pursue them and see them through to success, with the ultimate financial rewards that followed. We call that entrepreneurial spirit, but there is no reason why it has to occur outside the organisation. Supporting their development and offering the originator a royalty in return, creates the best of both worlds. It taps into the creative capabilities of your most important assets whilst simultaneously ensuring that results remain “in-house.” That, surely, is the ultimate win-win.
How the Learning Cycle Fits into Organisational Development
This is key: while you intuitively understand that your organisation is the aggregate of the people who work in it, you must consciously recognise that every person is an individual. Maximising your organisational learning means maximising individual employee learning. Thus creating a learning organisation, with an effective continuous improvement programme that secures your organisational development, necessitates ensuring you introduce mechanisms that will identify and circumvent the limiting effects of these filters. Your business demands nothing less.
A misguided idea of leadership: could this be the ultimate leadership mistake?
If you want to fulfil your leadership potential and be more effective as a leader, you don’t need to be more politically savvy – you need to be more “strategically savvy.” You need to be more inclusive. Only then will you build the trust and common purpose that delivers strategic alignment, and ensures sustainability and success, through strategically savvy people.
Why Every Individual Matters
My wife and I love this picture. So much so that, when our son gave it to us after we acquired our ginger cat, we … Read more
Do You Really Want Contract Workers?
It started before the “Great Recession” but that period of economic history has seen it proliferate even more. Certainly reports suggest the trend of hiring … Read more
What’s Accountability Got To Do With it?
Like most people I have been appalled by the recent report on child sex abuse in Rotherham where, for those that may not be aware … Read more
Redundancy: When will they ever learn?
As long as you continue to manage people as costs, rather than as assets, redundancy will always remain an attractive option. Even if redundancy is not a “knee-jerk” reaction to bad performance it certainly can seem like it. At best it reflects badly on management and calls into question their ability – and therefore their right – to oversee a large organisation. Why?