List

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November 11th, 2020

Leadership is an amoral praxis. How about this to start a conversation?

Any label that could be equally applied to Mother Theresa, Hitler, your CEO, Kim Jong-un, Mandela, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and […]
November 10th, 2020

The healing smell of a corporate bonfire. (The Hernan Cortés Exit strategy).

The British retailer Marks and Spencer (M&S) has ‘Plan A’ as the title of their vast corporate and social responsibility […]
November 9th, 2020

Tribes in the organization: Managing by Segmenting Around (part 3 of 3)

If you followed the two previous Daily Thoughts, you would have got into the idea of ‘Managing by Segmenting Around’. […]
November 7th, 2020

Tribes in the organization: seeing the world in segments, one character at a time . The Big 40 (2 of 3)

Exercise: take a piece of paper and put names next to each category. Use your organization or an organization you […]
November 6th, 2020

Tribes in the organization: seeing the world in segments, one character at a time (part 1 of 3)

These 8, self-explanatory categories of people are the natural focus of traditional HR and management systems . They are needed […]
November 5th, 2020

Trespassers will be recruited: a four-word strategy in the Battle of Ideas

Societal issues, clash of ideologies, fundamentalism, political engagement (or lack of it), organizational innovation, Leadership 2020, no matter what direction […]
November 4th, 2020

Have you seen that slide? The transformation thing, old power, new power and all those shifts

I have seen the same slide yet again. It keeps following me on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. OK, not on […]
November 3rd, 2020

Reinventing management is reinventing the skill set. It’s urgent, and the answers are elsewhere, not in traditional management practices.

Reinventing management to deal with the complexities of the world and, therefore, the complexities of business challenges is something that, […]
November 2nd, 2020

Many cultural change efforts fail out of a mathematical mistake

Many cultural change efforts fail out of a mathematical mistake. They focus on ‘people in the room’ (conference, off site, […]
October 31st, 2020

The influencers have arrived! What can we do?

Many years ago companies started to say ‘we are organized into project teams’. Professional projectisation was the thing. Until it […]
October 30th, 2020

Change management models, on sale

Give me a sequence, some boxes, a template on steps, lots of arrows and a PowerPoint, and I will create […]
October 29th, 2020

There are off-the-shelf accounting packages to buy and use. There can’t be such a thing as an off-the-shelf Leadership Development Programme

Avoid off-the-shelf leadership programmes. Pret-a-porter leadership development is attractive but unlikely to be a good solution. There are no universal […]
October 28th, 2020

God’s answer to somebody who complained to him that they did not win the lottery: “Buy that damned ticket!” (Passionate people, take notice)

As Woody Allen said, showing up is 80% of  life. The bookshelves, digital or otherwise, are full of ‘How-To-Succeed-In’ stuff. […]
October 27th, 2020

We buy an elephant and then we train the elephant to behave like a gazelle

What would be wrong with buying gazelles in the first place? The answer I hear sometimes is, ‘Well, the market […]
October 24th, 2020

6 types of employees I want (2 of 2): synthesizers, designers and reinventors of wheels

I shared yesterday three types of employees I want for the modern organization. Different characters on the payroll. If there […]
October 23rd, 2020

6 types of employees I want (1 of 2): craftsmen, entrepreneurs and activists

My ideal modern organization has different characters on the payroll. If there is a payroll. These are three of them: […]
October 22nd, 2020

My 20 Rules of Leadership

I review my 20 rules of Leadership every few months. I have published this list regularly in my Daily Thoughts. […]
October 21st, 2020

‘Paths, not works’. A philosopher’s metaphor that explains well our leadership challenges.

Philosopher Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) requested before his death that the collection of his writings be called ‘paths, not works’. He […]
October 20th, 2020

Plateau is the enemy. Hard work the remedy. Out of plateau the priority.

The secret of success revealed: it’s hard work! There you are. Now mix it with healthy ambition. And now make […]
October 19th, 2020

I wouldn’t hire anybody who is likely to follow the job description

The job description is dead. It is replaced by a Lego box, no instruction manual or a map. Welcome to […]