Empowerment is a great word but can be meaningless unless we give it an operational definition. Operationally, empowerment means that there is alignment between a person’s authority and the responsibility they are given. Continuing from our previous post on Empowerment, what can we do operationally when people don’t seem able to do their work on […]
Archives for May 2018
Why you Need Theory, Not Tips, for Your Organization Today
The world is full of tips on how to do things better. The problem is that without some solid theory behind you, those tips are just patches. Theory, you say? But we need something practical, don’t we? Well, here’s the thing. There is no such thing as good practice without solid theory to back it […]
Empowerment: Making it Real in Your Organization
The word “empowerment “ has been applied so broadly that it is now meaningless. It has become “a catch-all and therefore empty word” as pointed out in reference to women by Hadley Freeman in her article (‘From shopping to naked selfies, how ‘empowerment’ lost its meaning’.) Sadly, with the overuse of certain words, many terms […]
Education for the Future of Work? Think Projects and Networks
Work is becoming increasingly project-based; the ability to navigate networks and work within a team towards the completion of simple and complex projects will be required of the future workforce. Unfortunately, we are still basing our education system today on models and content that were appropriate 50-100 years ago but that are no longer so […]
New Essential Skills for Leaders in the Digital and Decentralized Age
There are new essential skills that leaders and managers need to acquire and that Business Schools are not offering. In the 21st century, organizations need to shift away from the artificial limitations of traditional hierarchies and silos and this change does require a cognitive shift. As we pointed out in our post Bulldoze business Schools? A New […]
Structuring Collaboration for Results
We are becoming increasingly aware of the need for collaboration and cooperation. This is not yet the mainstream for management and organizations, but the more complexity becomes the backdrop and context of what we do and experience, the more we need to find up-to-date ways to exist within that complexity. Is it just about being […]
Beyond Logic: Tools for Intelligent Emotions (not just Emotional Intelligence)
We know that intelligence and emotions are not the same. Certainly, people may be capable of great intellectual prowess but be cold and unfeeling. Other people may be kind and generous without having any particular academic inclination. While there may be extreme cases, most of us, and especially leaders and managers, live with the delicate […]
Continuous Innovation: Why Leaders Must Upgrade Their Thinking Skills
There is a lot of noise in our world today about innovation, particularly technological innovation. Undoubtedly, technology is a powerful aid to sustain transformation, but we need to understood what innovation really means. For managers and leaders, the question of innovation and technology has to be a fundamental part of their education process. Innovation Can (and Must) Be […]
