List

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October 12th, 2021

Purpose is always in the basement

One’s true purpose is never finally decided. Like history, purpose is always found backwards and then edited. A little journey […]

October 11th, 2021

If the business is the mission, culture is the strategy

If one thing has become clear after all these decades of management soul-searching for more or less universal truths, this […]

October 7th, 2021

What is the ‘model of the world’ in this organization?

Paraphrasing (better, stealing from) American anthropologist Clifford Geertz (1926-2006) a corporate culture, or, I would say, a subculture that you […]

October 6th, 2021

Some company cultures are works of fiction. Some leadership teams ‘harrypotter’ a narrative that nobody else recognizes.

The description of some company cultures by their leaders may sound like a work of fiction by people inside. I […]

October 5th, 2021

10 principles behind culture, behind ‘Employer Branding’, and behind anything that has to do with the DNA of an organization

I have on several occasions presented my views on Employer Branding. The trouble with this area, is that it overlaps […]

October 4th, 2021

Most ‘I’m just doing my job’ people, are not doing their jobs

Every morning in my neighbourhood there is a small window of time when traffic becomes chaotic, slow, painful and frustrating. […]

October 1st, 2021

Childhood ‘monsters under the bed’ never go away. They seem to reappear in corporations. Without the beds.

If I had a say in new roles for large organizations, I think I would establish this new Division: VP […]

September 30th, 2021

There is no cost to being, and the ROI is pretty good.

The cost of authenticity, of being yourself, is zero. In theory, the cost of pretending you are somebody else is […]

September 29th, 2021

A heroic culture is a sick culture. If the company can only be run on heroic mode, call the doctor. But heroes, individually, are welcome.

We all know, and have, some heroes in our organizations. People who jump in, solve problems, make themselves available, walk […]

September 28th, 2021

Culture is in the A list, the one where ‘work’ sits. Not in the B list (‘when I have time, after A’)

Culture is not a project, something to do on top of normal work, an extra, something to get your hands […]

September 27th, 2021

‘We are building’ vs. ‘We are solving’. One shapes your future, the other fixes the past.

Facts: abysmal sales in the supermarket chain, strong competitor activity, decreased customer loyalty. Guess what, new CEO. Analysis: old fashion […]

September 24th, 2021

Uncertainty, vulnerability and control are the three sisters dominating our lives.

There are hundreds of pieces of evidence including serious research that show that human beings (and animals for that matter) […]

September 23rd, 2021

Since anything can be translated into numbers, the possibilities of being fooled are immense

The late Stanislav Andreski (1919-2007) British Professor of Social Sciences, in one of his vintage passages in ‘Social Sciences as […]

September 22nd, 2021

In friends (colleagues, pals, mates, buddies) I trust. Trust in organizations is horizontal. Our management systems are vertical. ‘Houston, we have a problem!’

Get yourself a copy of the Edelman Trust Barometer. The Edelman company produces an excellent annual report on trust (organizations, […]

September 21st, 2021

8 ways to sabotage the organization

Lessons from the Pre-CIA Simple Sabotage Field Manual (declassified, in case you wonder). This is how it goes: General Interference with […]

September 20th, 2021

Certainty! Or reduced uncertainty! We all can practise it. Not rocket science, just zero cost behavioural science.

Managing uncertainty is something our brain loves to do. And it loves even more  to be helped. At macro-macro-level, Theories-Of-Everything […]

September 17th, 2021

10 reasons why you should scrap annual performance appraisals. Pick one.

1: The ‘annual’ measurement is artificial. It works for budgets and accountants but not for much more. If a project […]

September 16th, 2021

The Negative Inventory Manager is a toxic manager, an organizational health hazard.

There is a type of manager/leader who masters the art of listing what you don’t have.  We don’t have the […]

September 14th, 2021

4 types of company cultures and their journeys under internal or external pressures. Stealing from Network Theory.

The Robust Culture: the culture handles well internal faults and external stress. There may be internal gaps (skills, unfilled positions, […]

September 13th, 2021

Listen, people. I’ve got good news! The company is now fully prepared for the past

This is my rephrasing of ‘The army is now fully prepared for the previous war’, inspired by John Gall, in his […]