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August 6th, 2021

12 simple rules of social change, organizational (culture) or societal (2/2)

Continuing my revised 12 laws of social change at a scale. Very simple laws apply to any large scale change including the […]

August 5th, 2021

12 simple rules of social change, organizational (culture) or societal (1/2)

My revised 12 rules of social change at a scale.  These very simple laws apply to any large scale change […]

August 4th, 2021

This company will reboot itself from Friday to Saturday. Apologies, services will be limited during this period.

I like the concept of reinvention, renewal, or transformation. But I like most the concept of rebooting! Organizations, teams, groups, […]

August 3rd, 2021

The most dangerous character in the organization’s plot: The Self-Proclaimed Saviour.

The Self-Proclaimed Saviours will never save you since their only intent is their personal success. It happens in society and […]

August 2nd, 2021

Too busy getting ready, no time to go

A  client, senior manager, mentioned to me recently that his company spent a disproportionate amount of time ‘getting ready’. He […]

July 30th, 2021

‘Sustainable but not too much’ is the best state of the healthy organization

Sustainability of change, of cultural initiatives, of well intentioned corporate improvements is the key challenge. We are all quite energetic […]

July 29th, 2021

My last Employee Engagement model (7/7): Activists on the payroll.

In this model, the employee (1) is an activist, (2) largely working peer-to-peer, and (3) progressing towards (if not arriving […]

July 28th, 2021

Employee Engagement as morally imperative. (6/7) A forgotten model?

Here is a ‘very novel’ concept. Employee Engagement is needed because… it’s good in and of itself. Because work enhances […]

July 27th, 2021

Employee Engagement Models continue (5/7): ‘The Investors metaphor’.

This is model 4 of the series.  The concept is simple. Imagine that you, as an employee, are in reality an […]

July 26th, 2021

More on Employee Engagement (4/7): ‘The Cause’. Engagement with the company or within the company?

This is model 3 (but the 4th post, confusing!)  ‘The Cause’. Employees join forces to work on a Cause: green agenda, corporate […]

July 23rd, 2021

Employee Engagement (and debunking) continues. (3/7): The Happy Cows model

This is model 2 in the pack of 6 that I have described. There is a book, or two, and its […]

July 22nd, 2021

Debunking the Myths of Employee Engagement (2/7): Giving employees a voice. So, now we have a choir. And then what?

Model 1 of my 6 is what I call, ‘Air time’. It translates into: ‘we recognise that employees’ views are not properly […]

July 21st, 2021

The ‘initiative’ often lets personal commitment off the hook

‘For every problem, the Victorians have a building’. For every idea that we need to carry forward, we invent an […]

July 20th, 2021

For every problem, the Victorians had a building

A few years ago, the BBC broadcast a series called ‘How we built Britain’, presented by the veteran David Dimbleby. […]

July 19th, 2021

The Returning Bomber Paradox: a case of reframing the problem. More on Critical Thinking.

In WWII there was a curious episode of an injection of critical thinking, not entirely well publicised. Big bomber airplanes […]

July 16th, 2021

Critical thinking in the organization is fitness, health and fresh air, all in one

The difference between the critical thinker and the un-critical one is not a difference in IQ, or mental strength, or […]

July 15th, 2021

‘Invert, always invert’: a fundamental, zero-cost, unstuck management technique

Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi, a 19th century Swiss mathematician is remembered by many things in his scientific turf, but by one […]

July 14th, 2021

The painting is a beautiful, delicate masterpiece. The artist’s workshop is a mess.

The process of creativity can be very messy. In fact, it is perhaps necessarily messy. Like the artist’s workshop. The […]

July 13th, 2021

Company vs. Community. Digging the roots of words for a possible reunion.

Company: Where companions are. Companion = com + panis in Latin, that is with bread, sharing bread of food. ‘Travelling […]

July 12th, 2021

But what do they think? What do they want us to do? Why don’t they just tell us?

In my consulting work, it is incredibly frequent to see people stuck with a question: ‘but what do they want us […]