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  Daily Thoughts

November 28th, 2018

A team is not a meeting. The best team is the one that does not need to meet. Almost.

Reposting a favourite from back in April 2017. Enjoy! One of the most toxic practices in organizational life is equating […]
November 22nd, 2018

The collaboration of rivals is always the strongest. Try it!

The author Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote a most interesting book  about the Lincoln presidency: ‘Team of Rivals’. It says it […]
November 21st, 2018

In search for the common traits of good leaders

If you want to learn from biographies of leaders, from their inspirations, about their traits, maybe tricks, read about Lincoln, […]
November 20th, 2018

Children don’t hate (other than broccoli, or the nanny). Then, we all grow up and…

I owe this phrase to John Kerry whom I had the privilege of seeing on his London tour promoting his […]
November 19th, 2018

20 reasons why I trust you

I trust you because I can say ‘I haven’t got a clue’ and you don’t think I am an idiot […]
November 16th, 2018

Shifting the narrative: one of the finest roles of leadership

One of the fundamental roles of leadership is to frame the narrative of the organization. This is easy to say […]
November 13th, 2018

Would you like a 3 hour appendectomy or a 1 hr one?

I am back to one of my favourites: measuring value. One of my oldest Daily Thoughts told this story. A […]
November 12th, 2018

‘Every day is election day’ (also in the office)

It’s a typical saying in US politics and I suspect in many other places. It’s a powerful thought. Every day […]
November 9th, 2018

Reinvent some wheels

Allow yourself to be a bit inefficient Reinvent some wheels from time to time Don’t always reuse the same presentation […]
November 8th, 2018

Proposed new management competency: deprogramming

Deprogramming is a form of management detox. We navigate and work in organizations with a great deal of automatic pilot […]
November 6th, 2018

The curious (anthropology) case of once a year Employee Satisfaction Survey Tsunamis. (Don’t be put off, I could not find a better title)

The cult of Employee Satisfaction surveys is fading.  Companies are doing less or less frequent. Perhaps there is some tiredness. […]
November 5th, 2018

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 […]
November 2nd, 2018

“The best model of a cat is another cat. Preferably the same cat.”

Says Barbara Webb, professor of Biorobotics, who tries to simulate living organisms behaviours and extrapolate form here. It sounds like […]
October 31st, 2018

A label does not give you a why. The art of remaining in the dark but happy with no explanation

Your son’s teacher says: your son John does not hand in the homework on time, quality is poor, we don’t […]
October 29th, 2018

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 […]
October 26th, 2018

The orphan trolley problem

At a recent conference, one of the speakers explained his recent experience in a building materials, large shop where he […]
October 25th, 2018

“Sometimes a majority simply means that all the fools are on the same side.”

As with many modern clever quotes, there is more than one author claiming this. Symptoms of potentially ‘all fools in […]
October 23rd, 2018

Corporate responsibility starts in the office

Multinational companies are values and behaviours schools. It may not be in their mission and vision, in the job descriptions […]
October 19th, 2018

The internal-external mismatch says a lot about companies

Some organizations that are very good at (external) marketing, are terrible at internal. Grand market(ing) plans, but can’t sell a […]
October 18th, 2018

There is really only one measure of the attractiveness of the organization you lead

If you love KPIs, here is one. The attractiveness of your (corporate) function is defined by the number of people […]