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  Daily Thoughts

February 14th, 2015

Choosing between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility

‘Early in life I had to chose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose the former and have not […]
February 13th, 2015

Introducing behaviours by the back door. The ‘culture of feed back’ example

There are many ways to introduce, trigger and spread behaviours in organizations, but not many of them are effective and […]
February 12th, 2015

Don’t read this post, it’s not really interesting

Did you hear me? Yes you did, but you are reading it. It’s an old trick. We have said this […]
February 11th, 2015

Five inconvenient truths (AKA what doesn’t matter) about creating an organizational culture (Create a social movement). Cheat Sheet, part 2.

In yesterday’s Daily Thoughts, I shared a Cheat Sheet with 10 points on how to create a social movement. I […]
February 10th, 2015

A Cheat Sheet to create a social movement (Tip = to shape organizational culture, since both are the same)

Mobilizing people. This is another of the Holy Grails (how many have I said we have?) in management. Whether you […]
February 9th, 2015

Pope Francis description of the 15 diseases of the Catholic Church administration apparatus (Curia) says a lot about the universal traps of human organizations.

Pope Francis, spiritual leader to 1.2 billion people, likes to call a cat a cat. He has gained a world […]
February 8th, 2015

One Disruptive Culture Shift, five Outcomes. At least. The 30/30 to 3/3 ‘unreasonable shift’.

Imagine this goal. Let’s shift from 30 people making a decision in 30 days, to 3 people making the same […]
February 7th, 2015

Research is a Google search repeated. ‘Hominem unius Google timeo’ (you may need to Re-Google this)

If my IT people did not have Google handy, and the ability to ‘ask the forum’, I would not have […]
February 6th, 2015

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 […]
February 5th, 2015

Culture change is not long and difficult. This myth is self-perpetuated. This emperor has no clothes. The emperor is freezing.

Alternative title: A plan longer than six months to see initial success , is not worth the money. I suppose […]
February 4th, 2015

Time to bring in a 77th Brigade to Corporate, Internal and External communications.

Whilst the British Army creates its 77th Brigade of digital warriors, many corporations still think of social media as a […]
February 3rd, 2015

Out of the box, in the box, what box? ‘We-need-to-talk-about-boxes’ and other useful personality profiles

To think out of the box, one has to recognise first that there is a box. Therefore one has to […]
February 2nd, 2015

If skimming is the new reading, critical thinking in organizations will become even harder. Start your own ‘Read-it-all-Movement’.

There are plenty of studies trying to figure out the differences between digital reading and reading a (physical ) book, […]
February 1st, 2015

Backstage Leadership™ ‘ is key to collective leadership, a cornerstone of the modern organization

I believe that one of the fundamental types of leadership in this Century is Backstage Leadership ™  . This is […]
January 31st, 2015

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 an organization. People who jump in, solve problems, make themselves available, walk […]
January 30th, 2015

Richard Branson says ‘Complexity is our enemy’. He is wrong. The only enemy of complexity is in our minds’ inability to manage it.

I am following up on the themes of the last days and, in particular, yesterday’s Thought The organization? It may […]
January 29th, 2015

The organization? It may be complex but it does not have to be complicated. Some simple critical thinking questions may go a long way.

In any evolution of an organization from small to big, the list of challenges is never short.  I have written […]
January 28th, 2015

The 3.45 pm syndrome: diagnosis and treatment, free of charge.

The 3.45 pm syndrome goes as follows. You have a long day meeting. All is going well. It started early, […]
January 27th, 2015

A small company is not a big company in small. In the growth from small to big, the trouble is in the middle.

Small, sometimes entrepreneurial companies (small and entrepreneurial are not the same) enjoy ways of working that are fit for their […]
January 26th, 2015

Organizing, mobilizing, engaging: Harvard Business School or 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? My choice is clear

The recent State of the Union address by US president Obama had, to distant and detached eyes such as mine, […]