Most organizations are hierarchical. This way of managing means that responsibility gets divided up into functions and the ‘head’ of each function is responsible for the results of that function and the budget allocated. Isn’t this rational? After all, the notion of hierarchy is as old as the bible. Literally. Moses was introduced to it […]
You Say You Want a Revolution: Where Digital Transformation is Taking You
Change is happening fast and everywhere. The familiar is shifting from a physical, tangible world to a reality that is online and digital. Even some of our oldest, even ancient industries like printing and clothes manufacturing are becoming increasingly digitalized. What do these changes mean for the business world and where are they taking us? […]
Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood: 5 Steps To Give Clear Instructions
You need people to do things and to do them in a certain way, but so often they just don’t get it. To paraphrase Nina Simone, the Animals, Elvis Costello and many others, you’re intentions may be good and you don’t want to be misunderstood. So how do you get people to do things? By telling […]
Operations Lessons from a Martian, or How to Give Clear Instructions
One of the major causes of unsatisfactory results in operations and dissatisfied employees in organizations is that we are unable to give clear instructions. We don’t know how to adequately communicate the knowledge required to carry out the task given. (This is answer number two to the question from our previous posts on Empowerment: “Why can’t people […]
Empowerment: 5 Questions to Find Out Why People Can’t Do Their Work On Their Own
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 […]
Empowerment: How To Make It Happen 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 excellent recent article (‘From shopping to naked selfies, how ‘empowerment’ lost its meaning’.) Sadly, with the overuse of certain words, […]
In Management? Why You Need Theory of Constraints 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 […]
Educating for the Future: It’s All About Networks and Projects
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 progressively be what is 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 […]
Making Your Intentions Work in An Organization
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 […]
Tools for Meaningful Meetings with Purpose and Results
People spend an inordinate amount of their lives in meetings. More often than not, these meetings do not achieve satisfactory results, despite best intentions. Our time on this planet is finite and none of us can afford to waste time that could be dedicated to achieving something meaningful. There is something about getting a group […]
